Country Cowboy Christmas

     If you know me at all you will find it no surprise to see this stamp inked up and colored.  Why it took me so long to get it is beyond me.....guess that thing called life got in my way for a few weeks.  However, from the moment I first saw it on on the blog of some of the Flourishes Design Team members I knew it would find a home with me.
    YES, I love it because it has a cowboy on it, but I also love it because it evokes a warm fuzzy feeling when you view it, whether it is colored or kept color free.  Can't you just imagine the anticipation of this country family waiting for the 'perfect newly cut tree' to be pulled to the front door.  The ornaments are out, popcorn has been strung......little hands are ready to decorate the tree.  I bet there is a warm fire glowing in the hearth as well. A warm homey Christmas scene.
     I want to just take a moment to thank the illustrator Lauren Pope for creating this lovely design and Flourishes for making it into a stamp.
     After stamping this lovely image I used my Prisma color pencils - I heard that gasp just now, shock over my not using my oh so favorite Copic markers.  I just felt the pencils would work better....I want to ink this up again and use my water colors.  Using my Silhouette Cameo I cut an oval the size I needed in some designer paper and placed it over my image.  To give it a little more pop I cut another oval out of some green card stock that I stamped over with a wood grain stamp - hard to see in this photo but it helped keep the green card stock from having that plain jane look, wood also seemed the right effect.

      The inside was kept fairly simple with one of the many sentiments included in the set.  Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.........Thanks for stopping by.

Materials:  Flourishes Country Time Christmas, Silhouette Cameo, Card stock, Versafine Ink, Prisma color pecils

Challenges:  

Keep it Simple

As I was perusing Splitcoaststampers I came across a challenge that I couldn't resist.  I have posted it below:

Just like technology grows by leaps and bounds every year, so does the art/craft we share. It's hard to believe that just a little over six years ago, there was no Cuttlebug. Then the nestabilities and subsequent dies exploded on the scene. I remember when I started stamping... eyelets were the rage and brads were hardly heard of. And designer paper!! When I first started, they were limited as well.

~ Stamping Nostalgia ~

So our challenge today is going to be to make a card as if we were back in the early days of stamping. NO EMBOSSING, NO DIE CUTS, NO PEARLS, NO SEWING, Nothing that was not available way back when. 


     This challenge really got me thinking back to those first stamp parties I went to and the stamps, stamp pads, and paper I purchased then left them sit on the counter.  I remember some of those first cards I made, given what I owned and what I knew, I think I did a mighty fine job!!  Then I heard of a place called Splitcoaststampers and 'oh my' I could spend hours looking at cards and get ideas...I just knew I could never stamp as well as so many of the ladies whose galleries I visited.  SCS was a place I visited for about 2 years before I joined in 2007 AND I just knew I would never post a card there, I was way too intimidated. 
     During those early years a friend, who had been stamping for many years, challenged me to get together with her every few weeks and as I watched what she did I began to grow and learn and WANT to step out of my little box.  When she moved back to Illinois she invited me to be a part of the 'Stamp Club' she belonged to (and her sister stampers welcomed me with open arms).  What fun to get a challenge each month to create something of a certain color, or layers or whatever the theme was that was chosen.  How I looked forward to receiving their cards in the mail to see what they had done with the challenge - I couldn't wait for the mailman to come.  
    I'll never know what possessed me to play at the computer and become a blogger a few years ago.  What an adventure it has been!!!  The talent and ideas I have come across amaze me.  The kindness of people who I have sometimes contacted to find out 'just how they did what they did'.....has overwhelmed me.  Friendships have been made with people I have never met (but sure would like to).  Its been great.
     SO today I took the "Back to the Early Days" challenge and created this wonderful simple little card.  In those early days I had few supplies and would have stamped my image and layered it onto some colored paper....to make a real statement I would have probably put a few colors of paper under it.  The only way I could even think of adding texture would have been with my Fiskar cutter and stylus....to color my image I would have to raid my kids colored pencil box.  So what you see below is pretty much what an early card from me would have looked like...simple, clean, straight and pretty much one size fits all.  I don't regret those days and am glad to have had this challenge to keep me grounded about what it is I love so much about stamping.  

Thanks for visiting:

Challenges:  Splitcoaststampers TLC374

Materials:  Cardstock, colored pencils, Wordsworth Rubber Soul Stamp

Majestic Beauty

     "My treasures do not clink together or glitter, They gleam in the sun and neigh in the night" a gypsy verse that fits this image.

     This is my newest horse image, a stamp from Serendipity Stamps, and its just beautiful. As I colored this image I was thinking of my next trip to the desert to ride with my daughter in a few months.  Hence the lovely Saguaro cactus in the background.  I toyed with several sentiments to place on the front but none of them did justice to this lovely image.
     The image was stamped on Gina K Luxury CS and colored with my Prismacolor pencils.  The background was stamped on some more Gina K Luxury CS, and I used my Copics to color it.  I then tore a piece of paper and laid it in various positions on the background, and with a dauber, gently tapped the color Bliss Blue by Stampin Up to create some clouds.  Then I edged the two rectangular pieces, as well as the image, with my Gold Leafing Pen.
     Stampin Sisters In Christ challenged us to make a card this week that depicts our style.  I don't know about anyone else but my style changes every time I sit down to create a card.  This does however show my love of horses and gives you a feel for who I am.

Thanks for stopping by,

Materials:  Copic Markers, Prismacolor Pencils, Odorless Paint Thinner, Gold Leaf Pen, Spellbinders Die, Gina K Luxury CS,  Bliss Blue SU CS, Serendipity Stamp, Local King Rubber Stamp

Challenges:  Stampin Sisters in Christ  Challenge 124, Dream Valley  #24Animals Challenge

My Refuge

    This is an older stamp from Stampin Up that I have had for quite some time.  I wanted to create a masculine looking card to use and thought that these deer would be perfect.  I used my Prismacolors to shade in the background and the animals.  I used a lovely scripture sentiment from Proverbs that I have from Our Daily Bread Designs and some paper from The Paper Studio.  You can't tell but I sprayed the layer with the stamp on it with some shimmer mist for a very nice effect.  This is a card that will be going to the Church bookstore and I will be entering it in the challenge over at Our Daily Bread Designs.    

Thanks for stopping by - Have a Blessed Day,

Materials: Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture 7, Stampin Up, The Paper Studio paper, CS, Gold CS, Shimmer Mist, Prismacolor Pencils. 

Challenges:  Our Daily Bread Designs SLC 90, Simon Says Anything Goes,  Word Art Wednesday