Just Magnolias - Bev's sketch!

Happy Friday - Just Magnolias Challenge day! This Week Bev created a wonderful sketch! I had so much fun with it, I know I will be using it more than once!

I started with one of the newest Tilda's from my Club kit. Loving this kit this time! I colored her with my copics, for some odd reason I thought she needed a light behind her... hmmm not so sure this worked like I saw it in my head... LOL I think my "light" is way to bright!  She is cut and matted with my Oval Nesties -

For the card - I used DCWV Linen Closet pattern papers, on a white card stock base.

For my band across the middle - I my I love how that came out! I used one of the new EK Success border punches - I can't find the name of this one, I'll keep looking for it. I punched it on one side, and the measured and cut to have just enough space to punch again on the other side... it really gives it a lace look! Everything is sewed down with a simple straight stitch. I put a small rose in her hand  - to mimic the rose in her hand. I used two rhinestone flourishes on the base of the oval, then placed three larger roses.

My sentiment is one I totally forgot I had! I purchased these wonderful oval silver sentiments from a UK company called craftwork cards. Love these and so happy I found them!

Hope you enjoyed my card and don't forget to visit the Just Magnolia Challenge and join us with a fun sketch!

HUGS and-

The MichJay Challenge is popping out!

Today is a personal challenge! The MichJay Challenge. Just to fill in what that challenge is....

Let me explain for you - My buddie Jay Jay and I were talking last year that we both had this "fear" of making 3-d items. We needed a push to help us get into the swing of doing things other than plain flat cards. So we started up the MichJay Challenge! 

Sorry if that was a re-run for some :0)   But it is an odd challenge with an odd name, so I just feel I have to explain each time so people understand. 

For this month's challenge we decided to go for a Shadow Box Card - I used the tutorial from Stempeleinmaleins was super easy and came together much quicker than I thought. 

For my card my main image I wanted to focus on the Stampavie's Gillian Roberts "Being Together". I love the sweet innocence of this image. It is just so... well ... sweet.  She and her Teddy bear are colored with my Copics and then cut out.

Then I followed the tutorial to create the front and back of the card. Cutting the hole in the middle with my Nesties, now I wasn't so good at cutting the pattern matted paper out to create a shadow... darn it I need just one size larger on this Nestie Label set! For the inside of my shadow card I found a stamp of some pretty flowering trees - by Northwoods Rubber Stamps. I believe I purchased this at a craft show and colored with my Copics again. 

Both pieces are put together, and the really cool thing about this card is not only the "shadow" effect, but that it squashes down and easily goes into an envelope for mailing, the pops back up and can stand on it own. For added embellishments, I punched out some EK Success mini Retro flowers, Martha leaves, and then pearls for the centers.

The sentiment is one of my favorites! I love the dictionary style of this stamp! It is from Rubber Stampede.

Now I can't wait to see what Jay Jay made! :0)  

Have a great day!

Spoon Full of Sugar - 3-D

It is Tuesday - Tuesday means Spoon Full of Sugar day! Yea! and it is a 3-D challenge! Anything 3-D and goes!

For me, it was a chance to try out one of my new BIG SHOT PRO dies... I got a scalloped bag die, and isn't it just too cute? And big enough to actually use for a real gift.. LOL

So I cut out the bag with a piece of light purple card stock, then I inked the edges so those gorgeous scallops would stand out! For the decoration of the bag I colored Stampavie's Sarah Kay "Olivia with her kittens Kiki and Sugar"

 ... but don't look for kiki and sugar.. I cut them out with my Nesties oval...  now here is my reasoning...

When I was a kid, my Mom and I went on a trip to visit her family. As a present to bribe me to be good on the road, I got this adorable little round purse. Dark purple... with an oval window in the center. In this little pocket window there was this adorable little doll. I was so in love with that little doll in that purse. One problem. The only way to get it out was to destroy the purse and I so didn't want to to that.. and was told that a big girl wouldn't ruin her purse. Well I did keep it all nice the entire trip - but not long after returning home, it somehow accidentally got a tear in the window and the dolly "fell" out.   Ok so the purse was ruined, but I sure loved that little doll :0)

Long stupid story ... to tell you how much I love this die and that little oval "window" the original image was just too large, it would have covered the entire center of the purse, and my little purse as a girl had flourishes and flowers... so this one still needed room for those too :0)

The front, has the oval image, with a scallop matting out of scrap. I then used a sizzix die for the flourishes from green card stock. Then found 6 white Prima flowers with added jewelry spacers and dark purple mini brads. The band across the middle... So loved making that. This is one of Martha Stewarts new border punches, called embroidered floral. (and it has a matching corner punch too) I punched out one side, then measured enough space for a satin ribbon, then punched the other side, there are little slits on this punch, perfect for running small ribbon through! So I found a dark purple ribbon and wove it through both sides.
I added a matching bow at the top of the bag as a closure to the top.

I hope you enjoyed my little 3-d scalloped bag... and my long winded story of favorite little purse as a child. :0)

Now visit the Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge and see the DT's amazing 3-d items!! WOW and there is a great prize again this week. 

Have a great Tuesday!
HUGS and-

A Horse Baby Gift :0)

I thought it would be cute to make a "Baby" gift for my neighbor and her new filly. I had taken a ton of new photos of the baby that first morning, and had a wood craft frame in my rubber made box of "things I want to alter one day". LOL... it is a really full box of goodies!

This is a 5x7 frame, I painted it with Making Memories craft acrylic paint, then sanded. It is then inked and rubbed down with Ranger's Vintage Photo Distressing Ink. Love the old antique look this gives.

Then the fun part came, I stamped out and colored with Copics the Magnolia Horse and Hay bale. Both are cut with a Fiskar's kraft knife.

The tag has been in my stash forever, I think it might be 7 gypsies... but really I have had it so long I can't remember for sure. I filled in the Mom's name and that it was her first baby... and the date.

 Then all three were glued down with Mod-Podge, and then a couple of light coats across the entire frame. I had to be really careful with it though as to much moving around with the glue and the ink would move with it. Hmmm might have to find a different ink next time. Have any suggestions?

The twine I dipped in the Mod-Podge and then wiped off and laid around the frame, then I got to play with a must have tool that I just giggle every time I get to use it. My Fiskars hand drill!! I drilled tiny little holes in the frame and glued in the brads for the corner of the tag, and the star, the brad in the center of the clock face, and the clip. Love it using that tool!!!

My neighbor loved it, and I was pretty happy it turned out to well. Oh and I was asked what the baby's name is... she is Barcelonès pretty name, for a very pretty filly.

Thanks for visiting, Hugs and-

Animal Crackers - Visiting the Neighbors!!

Today we went and visited our neighbor... now these are all her animals, but we like to claim them as well :0) We love them just as much as she does {insert heart here}  You have in the past Animal Cracker Days seen her gorgeous large horses out past our donkey pens.

This was the cause of all of our excitement yesterday morning. Our neighbor is a resident, and has long hours so we have been helping keep an eye on her animals, loving doing it, as she has sweet horses and dogs :0)  Anyway one of the mares has been EXTREMELY pregnant. Keeping all of us in stress waiting and watching for this baby to arrive. (her last pregnant mare lost the baby so that made this one an extra special delivery)   Well just after 5:30 am we got the call... the baby had arrived and was standing and gorgeous. Some in my Micky Mouse PJ's headed over with Hubby to see the baby with flash lights. Totally gorgeous, and to us... really hysterical! I mean this little filly is so much taller than our adult mini donkeys! And she is all LEGS!!!

See ... told you! She is walking on stilts! And might I say still a bit shaky on them, but really doing much better than I would be!

This is her Dog Sam... he is a totally sweetie - He doesn't really know he is huge, and he takes care of her property, and also from patrols our property... all though he does have to run from our Standards from time to time.

This is Oscar... he is a Corgi... We kid Oscar that when god forgot his legs... he forgot to give him brains as well.... You see his belly rubs the ground he is so short, but he thinks he is as tall as Sam.. and that he can go where Sam can go - but he can't run away from danger, we worry about him... But he is starting to get it that he needs to stick closer to home, and really needs to stay a long way from the donkeys. He was in our back yard one day this week as the neighbor was visiting, we let Libbie out... oops... forgot Oscar was in the back yard. Normally you would panic about Libbie as she only weighs 10lbs. and is so small compared to Oscar... nope Libbie attacked and was planning on taking him down for being in her yard. Scary.. but kind of funny - Libbie also doesn't know how small she is and where she needs to back off.

This is Brindle  - a stray that the neighbor adopted... and we are all so happy she did. Seriously Hubby kids that he is going to steal her all the time. Not that we need to she visits regularly with Sam. She is such a beautiful dog. I believe she is a Blue Healer, and just after taking Brindle in ... she had puppies. NINE OF THEM!! And she was an amazing Mom. Four of the puppies have found new homes... but Five of them are still awaiting new homes.

Common you know you want one!!! They are really adorable. Dad is a toy fox terrier... the second from the right is the one I just adore, she has personality times 10. But they are all adorable and funny to watch.

Well I hope you enjoyed our visit next door this week. Something a bit different to show some of our friends animals we love - back to our own herd next week :0)

HUGS and-

Just Magnolias - ANYTHING GOES!

How fun is anything goes!! Makes it pretty easy to join the challenge this week at Just Magnolias - only thing you have to do is use a Magnolia image... other than that whatever you want to make qualifies! YEA!

And this week you REALLY WANT TO TRY FOR THE PRIZE... if you love flowers that is!
This week our sponsor is Wild Orchid Crafts – who supply the most exquisite array of flowers and embellishments.

I was so excited that the day I had planned to make my card for today's challenge.. my Spring Stamp Club arrived! Whoo Hoo!!!  And this time I actually love all the stamps..  what a great theme this time too cute!

I used two of the stamps from the club. First I stamped the Cute sitting Tilda - then masked her and stamped the window over her. She is just perfect for the window.. duh think she was made to go with it... LOL They are colored with my Copics.

For my card, I wanted to see if I could make a climbing rose for the "wall" of the window. I found this perfect trellis looking paper from DCWV Rustic Stack. I sewed all the patterns down after inking the edges of everything with Distressing inks. I used two or three colors... I just could decide which I liked with the papers... so I used a bunch!

How about my climbing rose!! I was so happy with how it came out, and it was SO easy... LOL The branches and leaves are a Sizzix die. Branch and Birds I think it is called, it is one of the long sizzlets dies. I cut it out once in Bazzil Dotted Swiss brown card stock and then a second time out of dark olive green. I then cut the leaves off the green and attached them to the branches. I attached it to the card making sure it looked like it was winding around and behind the wall. Then for the gorgeous roses!! These are some of those totally yummy mulberry roses from   Wild Orchid Crafts –these are a new size for me, they are much smaller than I usually use.... and I now have more coming in LOTS of colors :0)

My sentiment is from Magnolia - It is actually I think from the Safari collection, I purchased it to go with that fabulous lion... but I think it is perfect for this Tilda as well!

Now RUN as fast as you can to see the other anything goes projects at the Just Magnolia's Challenge Blog... then join us! When you see the photo of the prize I promise you will want to!!
 REALLY!! :0)

HUGS and-

Wanna help me decide?

Whoo Hoo... I got an email from an internet site asking if I would like to review a product for them. I have read these reviews on blogs for years, but never thought I would be asked to do one!

This isn't just one store,'CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find tv stands furniture, toys, home decor, and so much more!' Now they told me to look through their sites and find something that fit me and they would send it to me to review. Sounds easy huh? UH no... I spent hours looking through all of these sites, their prices are actually pretty good... so here are a few things I have narrowed down too... what do you think I should do?

First... Libbie and Autie :0)   They would love to review a new bed - LOL

They have a million to choose from, this is one that I think they would both love and it matches my new craft room...   DOG BED

Then I thought hmmmm I really could use some new storage that was nice looking.  And while searching around I found this!

This is actually a magazine rack.. how cool is it! I was thinking it would be wonderful to store my 8.5 x 11 papers or even scraps! You can see it here Magazine Rack

But I thought this might be better for scraps... just don't know if I have the space but reall cool Rolling Drawers

But then again I would love to have some new baking pans for the kitchen ;0)

 This one is pretty... but again they have so many! LOL

So which do you think I should pick???? HELP   and if you need something, CSN Stores really is HUGE check them out :0)

Penny Johnson - Visiting Friends

Today I want to show you a card I made with Penny Johnson’s Visiting Friends -
I love the bears that Penny draws – they are just so adorable and sweet!

This cute little couple are colored with my Copics – Pattern papers are from Tilda – with a Martha Stewart border punch

everything was sewed down with a pink thread.  The bears were cut out with an oval Nesties – and then I used a pink Copic to add a sort of mat look to it, The sentiment is also cut out with a label from Spellbinders.

Then I just had to add lots of rhinestone bling… between each scallop of the border punch, the edges of the bears, and the sentiment… the more bling the better :0)
Hope you like my Visiting Friends…
Hugs-

A Spoon Full of Sugar - Happy Birthday!

Hello - it is Spoon Full of Sugar day! And today the challenge is a pretty simple one... Happy Birthday!  And a great time to tell Debbie one of our fearless leaders at Spoon... Happy Birthday Girl!!! :0)

This week sponsoring our challenge is the lovely Denise from Whimsy Stamps and she has very kindly offered our winner a $15 gift certificate to spend in the whimsy shop.

Some of the DT were lucky enough to get to play with some of the Whimsy Stamps! They are so cute and fun!

This is Gift Horse.... love those big eyes and eye lashes! Well that and that she is so talented to stand on her front "feet" and hold a present with her back! LOL She is colored with my copics, and then I used a Rubber Stamp Tapestry grass stump for the grass.

The day I sat down to work with Gift Horse, I had just gotten in these new papers from Creative Imaginations called Cowgirl... perfect timing wasn't it! I sewed down everything with pink thread, and then added Pink Mulberry roses in the corner. The base of the card and the mats are Bazzil Swiss Dots, and the sentiment is a Whimsy Stamp, made to work so wonderfully with Gift Horse.

I hope you like my Cowgirl Kicking Gift Horse - make sure to visit A Spoon Full of Sugar and see more of the new releases from Whimsy and some great Birthday Cards :0) And then join us and win some Whimsy for yourself!!

Have a wonderful Tuesday - HUGS and-

Stampavie Challenge - all in white!

Hi - today is the Stampavie DT Challenge! Every two weeks the Design team of Stampavie challenge each other, and then we ask you to join us for a GREAT Prize!

This week the challenge was all white.. with just a touch of one other color and your image. Now don't panic... I first thought all white! how can I color an image all white? But then read and figured out the card is all white... with one color and then your image as your would normally color it. So it is a pretty easy challenge once I got it straight in my head.

My card is pretty simple, I started off with Stampavie's Penny Johnson's Rosie Rabbit, colored with my copics, then cut with circle Nesties with the rose popping out of the circle. Matted with my "touch of color" a deep red card stock.  For my card - white card stock with the corners rounded, then I cut a 5x5 square and punched with a Martha Stewart border/corner set. I think this is called something like scallop dots.. maybe :0)  - I then placed the same deep red behind it for those wonderful dots and scallops to show off. A Cuttlebug circle embossing folder was used to make the center of the card have some texture. The ribbon band is a simple satin ribbon. Then for a sentiment I went really simple... "Hi" cut with a sizzix die.

Now... take a jump over to the Stampavie DT Blog and see the other DT white cards and then why not join us yourself... really Heidi's secret prizes are really wonderful!!!

Soggy Animal Crackers :0)

Hello from a very WET, very STORMY Animal Crackers Saturday :0)  Sorry I am so late today, man it has been coming down in buckets here! And when that happens here in the country... no satellite and that means no internet. We are between two storms, so I have about 20 minutes to get my post on and check my email :0) So here are some photos I got this week for you -

First I wanted to show you what I did to one of the photos from last week. I loved this photos last week... my two babies... I have been playing with photoshop... did some edge burning and vintage coloring. This is now framed and on my desk :0)

Darlene says HI... we had guest here this week, and to her that means carrots... oops forgot to get the carrots, she wasn't thrilled with us, but the head rubs were a close second to the carrots. Ok, not too close as she would have much more preferred the carrots... LOL

Here is her baby boy Frio... seems like just last week he was born. Hubby and I both were stunned when we counted up and found that he is just a few weeks from weaning!!! We probably will leave him a bit longer and move him with Pepita - we like to move them in pairs, that way they have at least one friend in the youth pen when they get torn from their Mommas - - I think we already have a buyer for Frio so he won't be in the youth pen for long -

Hubby's sister and her family are visiting from out of state. First time for us to meet his nieces new husband and their adorable new baby boy - They came to visit the donkeys yesterday. Was a fun visit until the rain came again. And that baby is just too cute for words. Huge blue eyes and lots of sweet curls :0) Oh and we like her new husband too ... LOL

My baby is grown up to fast... he is now just a tiny bit taller than Libbie - hope he stops growing soon!!  Look at that fur...LOL the wind was really blowing the other day when I took this photos... too funny!

and our little Libbie... always so serious. Especially since we have put the goats out back, she has put herself into the job of watching them very closely when she is outside - I don't know what she thinks they are going to do, but if they do it she will be ready!!

Have a wonderful weekend - - I hear thunder so I better get this posted :0)

HUGS and-