Making it Work

 We are having a brief relief from the oppressive heat we’ve been under. There is a lovely breeze blowing and we had a bit of rain, not enough, but a bit, so today was a much more pleasant day.

A couple weeks ago I posted a card featuring a girl carrying an umbrella. Please scroll back if you missed it. Here is another card using the same stamp on a different background.

                                     
    This background is from the same paper pack as the other one but much more imagery on the one side. The image of the girl was stamped and lightly coloured with Distress Inks but she sort of blended in too much with the background. Mmmmhhh, what to do. Well the only thing I could come up with was to die cut a dark green frame (same cardstock as the card base) and glue it over the girl. I think that worked out just fine. She is now the central image. A silver sentiment peel-off was coloured with a green Bic alcohol marker and then it was glued on.

That’s all for a beautiful day on Friday, July 29, 2022.

Take care all and have a safe and creative weekend. Monday is a holiday in most of Canada called The Civic Weekend but it has never been made an official holiday, yet!

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

Using Old Stamps

      Wow, its Thursday, March 24, 2022 already and it just occurred to me that I have not posted a card all week. It was warm enough for a few nights that I was able to get some work done in the lower studio (aka as the basement) where I make cards, scrapbook and paint.

     While I was down at my crafting area the other night I pulled out my folder with stamped, uncoloured and/or partly coloured, images and decided it was time to turn some of them into cards. This card was one I finished. The stamp is a very old Stamping Bella stamp.  This card will be fine for a pre-teen, teen or young adult birthday card.

                             
     The image was coloured with pencils and blended with gamsol. Wink of Stella was added to the dress, boxes, etc. But it does not show up much in the photo. I need a new WofS pen. Then it was hand cut  - no dies for these old stamps. The background paper is from the stash and it happens to match the card base. I pulled out the dark blue cardstock that was close in colour to her dress and used that to mat the designer paper and to die cut the tags - actually two tags glued together for extra dimension. The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

The image was adhered by very thin dimensional strips which were a  pain to cut in half for the legs and arms. I need the really, really skinny strips but we don’t have an outlet here except Michael's which is not a card making/scrapbooking store at all anymore, so cutting the thinnest ones I have is the only option. It does make a difference when the image is popped up off the page though so I will continue to do so.

     That’s all for another cold and windy night.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

  

A Card on a Sad Monday

        My heart aches for the senseless mass killings in Nova Scotia. We seldom have mass killings in Canada and this one was bizarre. There’s just so much sadness in the world today.

        I wasn’t going to post anything today but like my grandmother used to tell us, “Life goes on” so I’m trying to carry on. I spent the entire weekend making more masks for those that need them to fight the Covid-19. I’ve lost track of how many dozen masks and scrub hats I’ve made. Hope they are going to the right people for the best use.

        Last Thursday and Friday we had snow falling off and on both days but luckily on Friday it was warm enough it all melted. On Saturday our neighbour cut our grass because it certainly needed it…… and he wanted to get it cut before it snowed again…which could be overnight or tomorrow. Such odd weather we are having.

        So today’s post was made from a very old Stamping Bella stamp.

        This is a fun image for a teen girl or early twenty young lady’s birthday card. This one was coloured with pencils and blended with gamsol and then I hand cut it….no matching dies were available back when I bought this one. The base card went from light pink to a dark pink so I decided to go along with that theme and cut some strips in various colours of pink and glued them to a light pink centre and then onto to the card base.  Then the image was attached with dimensional glue dots and strips.

        That’s all for sad Monday, April-20-20.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

The Chosen One

This has been a very sad weekend. It started with the horrific accident in Saskatchewan between a transport truck and a bus load of young hockey players….15 killed; three adults and 12 boys as far as we know. Somehow the transport truck driver wasn’t even hurt but they put him right into mental health counselling because his guilt must be dreadful to deal with. Then we found out our neighbour’s 39 year old son died of a sudden heart attack. He was the picture of health before he collapsed. So sad for them too.       

But, life must go on so I am posting the ‘chosen’ card. In case you have not read the last few posts, I showed my husband four birthday cards that I had made that were all suitable for our daughter whose birthday was last Friday. He picked the one he liked the best -  which happened to be my favourite as well - and we mailed it off to her. She liked too so that was good. So, I’ve already posted the three he rejected (scroll down to the other posts to view them) and this is the one he liked.

The quilters reading this blog will recognize the centre as the ‘9 patch’ which is a very common quilting block. I took the left over scraps of paper and cut them into 1” squares and then glued them to the light pink background – which is the same colour as the middle square. Then it was glued to the polka dot square and then to the hot pink card base. The butterfly was die cut and embossed with Cuttlebug die/embossing set and then three fancy gems were glued down the centre. Just the middle of the butterfly is glued down so the wings are free. The camera changed the colour of the butterfly a bit. The wing on the bottom is pinker in real life but that’s okay. You get the idea.

The bottom pink is the same pink as the piece behind the 9 patch. Then another piece was another left over bit. The sentiment started out as a silver peel-off but I ran a red alcohol marker over it to give it a pinkish tinge.

That’s all for a cold and snowy, yes, we are having a few snow flurries today, Monday April 9, 2018.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

A Beautiful You Card

The snow is back! On Monday it was so nice here with the sun shining and the temperatures in the high fifties (F). Yesterday – snow – wet snow – some freezing snow – high winds! All equal yuck to me. We didn’t get as much snow as they predicted we would but even a couple inches is a couple inches too much. Oh well, we stayed put today and I got some more quilt blocks completed.

        Next week is my one and only granddaughter’s 25^th birthday. She is studying to be a veterinarian and we are so proud of the young woman she has become. This is the card I made for her.

        The image was stamped with one of the Beautiful You stamps from the Stampin’ Up set….love this set! The sentiment came with the set as well. The image was coloured with pencils and blended with gamsol and then clear Wink of Stella was added to her dress and hat. The background around her is chalk which I sponged one while it was still in the stitched rectangle die – Elizabeth Crafts set. It was then mounted on a yellow stitched rectangle and then onto the orange card base – which is really not quite that bright in real life. The sentiment is on a die cut tag and is popped up with a dimensional strip. Once it was all assembled I added the sequins. I think she will like it….no, I know she will because this girl likes anything people do for her or give her. I do not believe, even as a child, that she ever asked for anything. If we asked her what she wanted for Christmas or her birthday she immediately said, “Anything you buy will be wonderful”. We had to pry ideas out of her….still do in fact!

        That’s all for a snowy Friday. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend all and I’ll be back on Monday with another post.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

A Wild but Fun Background

I almost forgot to post a card today. It’s been another busy day. We are having our three youngest grandsons next week and I had a very complicated jigsaw puzzle out on the table in the rec room where they all put our extra laptops so they can play video games (only while waiting for or just after supper) so I had to get it finished – which I did tonight. Which reminds me to tell you that next week will be hit and miss with postings – and likely more misses than hits. We are not going away but will be busy with the boys.

  

Last night I hung the clothes on the clothesline even though there was a chance of rain…we were hoping it would miss us.....they were well rinsed this morning and almost dry after lunch when they were rinsed again – they have now been rinsed five times and we are not finished yet. We have been under severe thunderstorm and tornado watch since this afternoon and have had a couple thunderstorm cells pass through – and a possible tornado caused a lot of trouble in one area south east of us. It’s that time of the year!

Today’s card is a bit busy but a young girl or teen girl will love it.

I started out with a piece of white cardstock and stamped the Stamping Bella stamp with Archival ink. It was coloured with pencils; blended with gamsol. Mustard Seed Distress ink was sponged around her and Broken Chine Distress ink sponged lightly out to the edges. Then I covered up the image; wet a brush; picked up some water colour paint and splattered. Then sequins were glued on. The sentiment is from another stamp set but I really thought it suited this card. I stamped it; cut it out and glued it on with dimensional strips. The panel was then glued to a blue card base. The background ended up a bit wild but that's okay. Its a fun card.

That’s all for a wet and thunderstormy Friday August 11^th 2017.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Cheers

Violet

Blown Away

We really are being blown away! The strong winds are causing so much damage with gusts up to 100 km/hr (60 mph)…..large signs are knocked over….trees down….some on top of hydro wires so some people are without power….garbage pails and recycling bins blown over…..shingles off roofs and on and on. So far we have only had some small branches come off our trees.

Tomorrow my one and only granddaughter turns 25….how can that be? It seemed like only a year ago she was seven! She is a wonderful young lady and we are very proud of her. She wants to be a veterinarian so she has a few more years of schooling yet.

Here is the card I made and mailed to her. Unfortunately she lives over a 9 hours drive from us so visits are rare and far in between.

 

 This is an old Stamping Bella image but it could still be available. It was once again coloured with pencils and blended with gamsol. The image was stamped again on masking paper and then cut out. The mask was placed over the coloured image and then I sponged and ink the sky, grasses and road. Wink of Stella was added to the lace on her skirt and the flowers. Yellow brads were placed in the top corners to attach it to the first solid yellow cardstock; then glued to a burnt red cardstock and then to the yellow print paper. The top left corner seemed blah so a yellow ribbon was wrapped around and taped to the back before the card was glued to the card base. The tag was die cut with a Spellbinder’s die and then glued to the burnt red cardstock and I carefully cut around it leaving a slight border. It was attached with a dimensional glue strip. I hope she likes it. I had fun making it.

That’s all for a mild but very windy Wednesday, 2017-03-08.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account.  

A Second Card from Same Stamp

This has been one hectic day. I haven’t had the chance to get down to the lower studio, quilt or even read today. It’s just been one errand after another and one thing after another that had to be looked after….nothing serious, but busy things.

So, this is a quick post tonight. This is the second card made with the same stamp as the card I posted yesterday….but in a different layout.

This time I stamped the image right on the cardstock. It was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. Then I added Wink of Stella over it. I put off buying that Wink of Stella pen for months but finally broke down and bought it and I LOVE IT! It just gives such a shimmer to things like her dress. The balloons were covered with Glossy Accents once again. I rubbed yellow chalk around the image this time and added a few gems. The pink paper on the left is from a 6” paper pack from Studio G - $1.00 per pack at Michaels….about the only thing not over priced there! The edge was die cut and embossed with a Spellbinder’s die and once it was glued down I added a few gems to it as well.

That’s all for a weary Friday, September-04-15

 

Cheers

Violet

 

 

A Thunderstorming Day and a Card

We are having a severe thunderstorm as I write this. They have been predicting them for a few days and other areas had them but they missed us – until now. I was down in the lower studio (aka the basement) and could hear the thunder down there. It was time for a coffee so good time to post a card.

Yesterday the weather prediction was hot, humid and chance of thunderstorm so we hustled in the morning and got to the park early to get a bike ride in before the storm hit. It was almost 90F when we loaded the bikes and I thought then that this may not be a good idea but we went anyway. There was a lovely breeze at the lake so riding wasn’t too bad – unless you were in the sun! Even though we stopped for several drinks of water I don’t think I drank enough and my body was tight as a drum last night….couldn’t seem to relax to get to sleep so it was a lot of tossing and turning instead of sleeping. We normally do at least 25km every time we go out but yesterday when we hit the 25km mark we decided to go a little further and did almost 31km. I think it was those extra 6km that did me in! Oh well, we survived and got some fresh air and exercise.

Today’s card is another one using a Stamping Bella stamp.

I stamped the image and coloured it with Prismacolor markers, blended with gamsol and then cut around it. The balloons were made more vibrant with alcohol markers and then Glossy Accents was added over top to make them look like real balloons. The pretty blue paper is from Paper Wishes (Hot Off the Press) and I wish I had bought more of it. The image was glued on with dimensional glue dots. The lattice was die cut with a Memory Box die and just glued down. A few sequins were added it and it was done. Cute image. I made another card with the same stamp but totally different design. Maybe I’ll post it tomorrow.

That’s all for a thunderstorming Thursday,

Cheers

Violet

 

A Bicycle Card and a Bird

We enjoyed more seasonal weather again today – almost 70F in town but a wee bit cooler at the lake. They were calling for rain this afternoon (and we got it) so we headed back to Rondeau Provincial Park for more birding this morning – another 9,596 steps today! We did a little more birding after the rain shower but didn’t see many more and called it a day. We saw more birds than other days but they were up so high in the trees it was impossible to get a good shot of them….except this one!

This was the only good photo of the day!

Today’s card is one that was quick to do but turned out quite nice.

The stamped image is from HOTP (Paper Wishes) and as you can see, very little colouring to do on it. The little flowers come with the stamp, as well as the handle bar streamers, and I had the flowers coming out of the basket and blowing away. The stamped image was mounted on a light green and then a darker green rectangle die cut with the Spellbinders Create-A-Card die set. The card base opens at the top and it is just a piece of the light green cardstock. I had that swirly paper in the stash and it was cut that size and it matched both greens. I didn’t have enough of the dark green to go underneath the swirly paper so I just cut two ¼” strips and taped them to each side and then glued the entire piece down. The lightest green bit was also in my stash so I just did a bit of a decorative edge on it, stamped the sentiment and heart and placed it under the rectangles. Quick and easy but I like it. This would be a good card for a teenage girl or pre-teen or even an adult.

That’s all for a Monday

Cheers

Violet

Four Cards

Now this is what a spring day is supposed to feel like! Beautiful weather today…but we were late getting out for a walk. My sister had to have cataract surgery today so she drove to our house and left her car here. I took her over, picked her up when it was over and had a cup of tea with her at our house to make sure she was okay before we drove her home. I drove her vehicle, Joe followed in ours. Once she was safely home we decided to go for a walk at Rondeau. Not many birds once again even though today is the official start of birding season. I guess the birds didn’t get the memo! Oh well, we had a nice walk through the bush.

I almost forgot about posting something tonight but here are four, yes four, cards. These were all made using another old Stamping Bella stamp. Not sure if it’s still available or not.

I stamped the image four times, die cut them using a Spellbinders die and then started colouring them. I actually picked out the paper first (from the stash) so I used Prismacolor pencils that were a close match.  Pretty easy to figure out the laying order so I won’t bore you with that. It does not cost more in Canada to send square cards so I don’t have to worry about extra postage.

That’s all for a warm Friday, May-01-15

Cheers

Violet

A Rainy Easter Blessing and a Card

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter! It is raining here and there is a possibility of snow showers today as well. This is the winter that doesn't want to end! Unfortunately the weather has once again set off my brain disorders and I’m grounded for the day – my speech is back to being so weird no one could understand me….and some would think I was high on drugs or alcohol. I don’t leave the house when I’m like this. But its okay, this too shall pass.

I had a question last week from one of my faithful followers wondering if I prefer Distress Paint or Distress Ink. I did answer her directly but here is what I said in case others want to know. I only have two Distress Paint bottles, one white and one brown that were on a clearance sale for, I think, $1.00 each. I don’t see any difference in that paint then the other paint I’ve used for years for tole painting….except for the sponge top. However, I find the sponge top gets hard if not used frequently and I normally end up taking off the top and just pouring it out. I suppose if I only had Distress paint and used it more often that would not happen but I really don’t know. I believe you can now buy the sponge tops that fit on the other brands of acrylic paint bottles but I like using a brush so I’ve never looked for them. I do LOVE my Distress Inks though. I love how they blend together and yet separate when you want it to look like droplets forming. If any others have an opinion on this, feel free to share on the comments.

I realized when I was going to bed Thursday that I forgot to post my card; forgot to post it on Friday and Saturday too. It wasn’t because I was that busy either, just simply forgot. So, while I was strolling through some of the blogs that I view I realized that I still had time to post the card I made for the challenge at: www.alwaysplayingwithpaper.blogspot.com which was an “anything goes” challenge.

I love blue and yellow together. Such happy colours! This is another Stamping Bella stamp that was coloured with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. These are quite quick to colour and I enjoy colouring them while watching hockey, and now baseball, on television. All the paper is from the stash. I hand cut the two simple banners and the other blue one on top was die cut twice and then taped together at the back to make it longer. The layers were die cut with my Spellbinders' create-a-card die set. The sentiment is from that word die set I bought that I thought was all one word and turned it cut each letter separately….groan! And yes, I noticed that the “a” in birthday was backwards and corrected it. Picking out each letter is more time consuming that I like to spend doing but if I buy something, I'm determined to use it!

That’s all for a rainy Easter Sunday, April-05-15

Cheers

Violet

Winter's Back....and a New Stamp!

We woke up to more snow this morning! AAAAGGHHHHH!!! Enough already! I swear this is going to be known as the winter that never ends! Okay, it was gone by noon but still……grrrrr…. The only good thing about it snowing today is that a lot of people stayed in this morning and we got all our errands done in no time. Today was the first day out of the house since the weekend – talk about home bodies! It was just too cold, wet and dreary to want to leave a nice warm house……..besides I have a quilt that needs to be finished.

Today’s card is one I made with one of the new stamps from Stamping Bella and I’m entering it into the challenge over at http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com.

I coloured this image with Prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol when I was down with that horrible virus I had but just got around to finishing it. I rubbed chalk with a cotton ball around her for the sky and brown for dirt. I like a soft subtle background and I find chalk works the best.

This looks like a complicated card but it was very easy to put together. I backed the image on yellow cardstock to pick up the colour of the scooter; and then backed that with the marbled hot pink cardstock which matches her skirt; and then glued the entire thing to the white card base. After that it as so easy to just add those peel-off flowers (thrift store find) to the lower left and one blossom to the top right to balance the card and added the peel-off sentiment. Love this card! Perfect for a teenage girl; collage student or young adult.

That’s all for a snowy; wet; dreary Thursday

Cheers

Violet