Celebrate! We're entering a New Year!

 I fell in love with this wonderful stamp by Ellen Jareckie.  Her little House Mouse is waving a magic wand, creating all sorts of wonderful things.  Perfect, don't you agree, for celebrating the New Year?  I've combined the stamped image with a fun starburst stencil.  All I had to do was mask the little mouse to protect it from the colours of the starburst and go crazy with my blending brush and colours.  I love the results, don't you?

After removing the mask, I used my Derwent pencils and Gamblin Solvent-Free Fluid to colour my image.  I love how well the colours blend using that technique.  Finally, after mounting the finished image to a Basic Gray matte and a base  of Whisper White, I added some Art Glitter glue to the magical lines created by the wands and then added some crystal sparkles.  The finished effect is like a thousand tiny rainbows.  I wish the camera had caught it like my eyes are able to.

I'm linking this card up to the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #330 - Sparkle and Shine.

A Tangled Winter Tumble

I've used another of Ellen Jareckie's whimsical House-Mouse images for my new card.  This one is called A Tangled Tumble.  As you might expect, it features the adorable Amanda mouse, tumbling through the snow, tangled in some Christmas lights.  Lucky for her, the lights are not plugged in.

I used a Heavy Whisper White base with a matte of Cherry Cobbler cardstock.  Then I added a piece of the wonderful It's Snome Time patterned paper by the Craft Consortium.  I stamped the image on a piece of mixed media paper using my Early Espresso ink.  Since I intended to use my wax-based pencils, I needed a water-based ink.  I used a mixture of colours from both my Derwent my Koh-I-Noor collections. For blending, I used my paint brushes as well as the Gamblin Solvent-Free Fluid which I've used before.  I love that the colours become so smoothly blended with no change to their tone.  If you're wondering why the lights seem to be a sparkly 3-D, I added some clear Nuvo drops to each.  The plug for the lights is a lovely, shiny silver as well, and, especially in the close-up, you can see the sparkle on the snow.

Once finished, I cut out the image using my Big Shot and Stitched Nested Labels dies.  Then I cut an additional piece of Garden Green cardstock for my matte.  The sentiment is stamped using Cherry Cobbler ink and then cut out using a smaller of the same dies.  A Garden Green matte completed it nicely.

Finally I cut  two holly leaves from the same Garden Green and added three Cherry Cobbler "berries".

I love the way the little scene turned out, don't you?

I'm linking my card up to the current House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge since it completes the "option" with both some sparkle and shine.

HMFMC #330 - Anything Goes with an Option of Sparkle/Shine

Keeping Safe at Christmas

 2020 is definitely not what I would call a "normal" year.  Yes, normal is overused and means different things to different people.  But whatever your normal may be, you'll have to admit that this year has been many things other than normal.  

Christmas is coming.  I can't believe it's only 20 days away and counting.  Maybe I should get the gifts bought.  Wrapping isn't actually an emergency yet, but I will need some gifts, whether or not this is a normal year.  But with numbers of cases rising here in Alberta, the outlook for a Christmas where Nana and Grandpa can join the rest of the family for Christmas is bleak.

I love the House-Mouse images and this year Ellen Jareckie brought out a set of true to the moment images where her adorable images are wearing face masks and the sentiments reflect the care we should all be taking.  I've added a Christmas cap to one of those images and have created what seems like the perfect Christmas card for this year.  I hope you agree.

Little Maxwell is sending a hug but urges you to make it a virtual hug, six feet apart.  I've used Derwent watercolour pencils and my Aqua painter to colour him and then added some puffy snow to act as the fur trim to his cap.  

I'm linking my card up for the House-Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge.  

HMFMC#329 - Anything Goes With the Option of Christmas

Winter Wonderland End of the Year Challenge: Anything Christmas Goes

Sharing the Love

Oh my!  Can I have slipped into the new year and completely missed January?  Well it's time to share some love.  I can't stop playing with my wonderful House Mouse images.  Strangely enough, the one which I used for this card came from Michael's and was supposed to be a Christmas image.  Doesn't it look like a Valentine to you?

Of course I've added those little floating hearts myself, but for me, at least, this image simply shouts out Happy Valentine's Day.  I kept it clean and simple, anchoring the images with a "floor" of bright red.  That was coloured with my Stampin' Markers.  The images are coloured with love using my wax-based pencils and Gamsol.

For my matte I took a piece of Poppy Parade cardstock to echo the red  in the picture.  The sentiment came from another one of my House Mouse stamp sets and is perfect for the card.  I may be a day late for Valentine's and over a month late into this new year, but I'm happy to be back.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #284 - Anything goes/Love & Valentine's

CAS Colours & Sketches Challenge #308 - Sketch

HLS December ATC Challenge - Optional Twist "Pets"

When I think of pets, I immediately think of my adorable fuzz-balls, aka as cats.  Since I have quite an assortment of cat stamps (big surprise), it wasn't difficult to create my Artists' Trading Cards using one of those sets.

I love these little kittens and decided that neither would be coloured to look like my own.  I tried to give each a bit of its own personality.  The little grey one clearly likes to make his own rules.  I used Pool Party for the blue in the first ATC with a Real Red ball of yarn (thanks to Tim Holtz' crazy cat bundle).  For the second ATC I used the Pool Party for the water, Smoky Slate for the fur, Real Red for the ribbon and then the Mango Melody both  for the matte and the goldfish.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC December Challenge with its theme of "Pets".

HLS December Anything Goes With Dies Challenge - Silent Night

For December's challenge I was determined to create a card for Christmas.  Here in Canada, December will see a landscape covered with a sparkling blanket of snow.  If you drive out along the country roads, you'll surely see one or several deer and other wildlife.  And so I pulled together a handful of dies which could compliment each other and created a winter's snowy scene, featuring a deer.

I've kept to muted colours.  When snow falls in the country, all one seems to see, especially late in the day, is blues, greys, blacks and, of course, the white falling snow.  I took the liberty of using a white die-cut deer since I wanted him to stand out against both the blues and the blacks.  Luckily I had the perfect sentiment in my retired Wonderland stamp set.  "Silent Night" is what this scene calls for, don't you agree?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers December Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS December Christmas Challenge - Optional Twist "Snow"

When I saw that the optional twist for this challenge was snow, I was delighted.  I just bought several Gina Marie dies and one was for a snow background.  Well, what could be more appropriate?  Of course the fact that we've had snow off and on here since the beginning of September kept "snow" at the front of my mind.  And while I haven't seen any moose lately because it's been too cold out to visit the parks and rivers, the new moose die from Gina Marie was perfect to combine with the snow.

Doesn't that look like a perfect blizzard against the lovely Night of Navy background?  I cut the bottom snow from some Glitter paper and then, for the moose, I happily die-cut a piece of specialty cork "cardstock".  I love the texture and colour, don't you?  It is the perfect companion to the kraft paper onto which I heat embossed the white "Let it Snow".

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers December Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of SNOW.

HLS December Watercolour Challenge - With an Optional Twist of Stencil

I don't usually think of watercolouring and stencils together, but I know quite a few people do.  Time for me to try something different.  For this, I turned to a beautiful stencil by Tim Holtz called Holly Bough.

I have this wonderful die which has words creating a Christmas tree.  Under those words are a number of gift boxes.  Well, I didn't want to use those gift boxes and so, once I had made my die-cut out of Basic Black cardstock, I carefully snipped away all but those words.  Then I took a piece of Mixed Media paper and watercoloured six "stripes" all stacked on top of each other so that each would show under a separate word.  Once that was dry, I glued on the die-cut of black words over the colours.  For the star on top, I die-cut it once more from Gold Foil and glued the gold star inside the hollow star.

But the optional twist for this challenge is stencil, right?  Well for that I turned to the Tim Holtz stencil and added a holly twig to the top left and bottom right corners, using my Call Me Clover and Real Red inks and an Aqua Painter.  The woody part is Soft Suede ink and finishes it off nicely, doesn't it?

I tried several colours of cardstock as my base but to my eye the Basic Black suited it best.  I love the way it echoes the black word tree in the centre.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

I hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of stencil.

Fun With a Sketch - Season's Tweetings

I was "cruising" around the challenges and found a sketch that appealed to me.  It was perfect for the very first ever Lawn Fawn bundle that I've bought.

Those little birds look so happy that I can almost hear them tweeting their joyous little songs, can't you?  I kept it simple, stamping the sentiment towards the top using the gorgeous Blueberry Bushel ink and then stamped the branch towards the bottom using Early Espresso ink.  I stamped the birds onto the branch and then stamped them again on a scrap piece of Whisper White.  Then I stamped the little musical notes above the birds.

I coloured the little birds using my AquaPainter and Balmy Blue.  Once that was dry, I used my Stampin' Markers to colour the earmuffs, scarf and beaks.  After cutting the birds out with their respective dies, I mounted them on top of their stamped images using Dimensionals.  Finally I cut out several leaves from the pretty Granny Apple Green and glued them in place using Tombo.

I've entered this card into the Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch Challenge #315 since it inspired the card.

I've also entered it in:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #41 - Anything Christmas

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #41

HLS November ATC Challenge - Optional Twist "Sew"

I haven't done a lot of sewing lately because (surprise, surprise) my sewing room is overflowing.  It's on my list of "to be sorted and de-cluttered".  That will happen after my crafting room has been organized.  It doesn't look too good for either being completed for quite some time since I'm always allowing myself to be side-tracked with other projects and, well, you know, Life itself.

So the ATC (Artists' Trading Card) will not be including any real sewing.  But isn't that what the wonderful stitched dies are for?  I'm sure it is the reason behind the sheer variety of stitching on all these dies I've bought.  For this project the "wonky" stitched rectangle dies came to mind.  Perfect, I thought, and went forward happily with my card.

I chose all the colours after decided to use that lovely piece of "gingham" patterned paper in my background.  I love that floral calico pattern and pulled the Pool Party and Daffodil Delight colours for my two stitched rectangles.  The stitched circle with the sentiment was also pulled from the background and is Night of Navy.  I finished off by mounting everything on a base of Soft Suede cardstock and then stamped the antique dress form onto a scrap of cardstock using Soft Suede.  After cutting it out, I mounted it onto the ATC using Dimensionals.  And there you have it.  My ATC for this month is done.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC November Challenge with its theme of "Sew".

HLS November Anything Goes With Dies Challenge - Merry Christmas

It's fun getting new dies and, of course, it's hard not to use them immediately.  Well, for my November challenge I was able to use a set of brand new dies from Holland.  It's a simple set containing two evergreens laden with snow and a moose.  Well, I wanted that moose because, well, here in Canada moose are a big deal.  Along with the beaver, the moose is one of the animals with which we kind of identify ourselves.  But that's another story.  This is about the card.

As you can see from the die-cut trees, these dies also emboss and so there is a lot of wonderful texture on the trees.  I used a lovely piece of retired designer paper for my background and also used a stitched snowdrift die to anchor my trees and moose.  While the moose isn't embossed, I love the way the silhouette shows so well against the softer blues and whites.  I mounted my scene on a Matte of the retired Lost Lagoon cardstock and then onto a base of Whisper White.  The sentiment is simply stamped on the snow drift using Lost Lagoon ink.  I love the results, don't you?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers November Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS November Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of CAS

There are so many way in which one can make a CAS (clean and simple) card.  The one thing to keep in mind is that there should be a good deal of white (or empty) space on the card.  For this challenge I decided to turn to a lovely retired stamp which I love to colour, the Watercolor Winter set.

This is a beautiful set of images.  I stamped the Poinsettia first and then masked it to add the holly branch and the fir branch.  Colouring was easy using my Watercolour Pencils.  I really wasn't sure about adding some background colour but, in the end, I did.  And once I did, there was no going back.  I think it would have cleaner lines without, but that's second-guessing myself.  All in all, I'm happy with the simplicity, keeping it all one layer and then adding that layer to the base.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers November Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of CAS.

HLS November Watercolour Challenge - With a Twist of "Get Well"

A "get well" card can have almost any image.  That makes them very versatile.  All they should really have in common is that they should be "up beat".  You don't want to depress the very person for whom you're making a get well card, do you?

I fell in love with the Lilypad Lake stamp set when I first saw it.  The images lend themselves to all sorts of cards.  In this case I've used the heron and the lilypad for my get well card.  I stamped the image onto a piece of Shimmery White cardstock using pigment black ink for the heron and the Antique Linen Distress ink for the lilypad.  I knew I'd be watercolouring over them and didn't want my inks to run.  The heron was easy.  I used my clear Sakura Glaze pen to entirely cover the white of the heron.  Then I coloured the lilypad and flower using my Stampin' Up! Blends.  I also used the Sakura Glaze pen to create ripple lines where I intended to have water.

Once all that was totally dry, I want to work with my watercolour inks.  I used Pacific Point and Coastal Cabana for the water, applying it across the paper with a broad brush.  Then I used the same brush (cleaned) to apply the Flirty Flamingo and Crushed Curry across the sky.  I sprayed the card with my Ink Blending Solution to move some of the colours around and then added a bit more of the Coastal Cabana and Flirty Flamingo in places.  Again, I sprayed it with my Ink Blending Solution, moving the colours into each other more and, while the inks were still "mobile", moved some of the Crushed Curry and Flirty Flamingo into the water, like a reflection.

I've never tried this technique before but LOVE the results.  Of course the Shimmery White cardstock added a certain something to the whole as well.  It didn't take long for everything to dry and then I took a soft tissue and "cleaned" the heron and lilies.  Once I attached it to a base of Call Me Clover cardstock, I just stamped the sentiment from the Beautiful You set and the card was done.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers November Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of "get well".

HLS October ATC Challenge - Optional Twist Holidays

At the moment when I think of holidays, I think Christmas.  Of course that has a lot to do with the snow we've had off and on since the first week of September.  Early, yes.  Wanted, definitely not.  Under the circumstances, given my ambivalence, the So Santa stamp set was the perfect way for me to go with this challenge.  After all, how often do you see Santa with a surfboard and tropical drink in hand?

I simply love these images.  They were fun to colour and I did a bit of editing to the stamp, making spots, to get that look of Santa in shorts and an apron with those cookies in hand.  For both ATCs I've added a palm tree from a sun Inkadinkadoo set called Flamingo Fun.  All the colouring was done with my alcohol inks, the Stampin' Up! Blends.  I love the bright colours and "beachy" feel.  This is what Santa loves to do for his holidays.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC October Challenge with its theme of "Holiday".

HLS October Anything Goes With Dies - Hallowe'en

I had such fun using my Brushos for this incredible background when I was creating my Hallowe'en card.  The colours I used were the Moss Green for the bottom and the Gamboge for the top.  I love the way they turned out and worked together, don't you?  They make the perfect atmosphere for the wonderful Hallowe'en dies which I used.

My base is the new Mango Medley cardstock and that incredible Designer Paper is from the Toil & Trouble Suite.  Since my scene of die-cuts includes the headstones, the ghosts seemed somehow appropriate.  After using my Brushos and letting the paper dry, I mounted it on a piece of Old Olive cardstock.  The dies for this scene, including the wonderful witch flying overhead, are from a retired set called Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS October Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of "Ribbon"

I don't use a lot of ribbon.  Oh, I buy it because it looks so great in the catalogue or on the shelf, but when push comes to shove, I always love my cards with little or no additional embellishment.  Once in a while I use ribbon.  It's just not a regular "thing".  So you can imagine how I felt when I realized that the twist for this challenge would be "Ribbon".  I had a lot of ideas but the one which finally stuck was to really make the card "all about ribbon".  I kinda like it.  How about you?

This is an incredible ribbon.  It's retired now and I will admit that I didn't use it much on cards (it just seemed rather overwhelming) but it is flat out gorgeous.  You can see how pretty it looks but believe me, it feels sumptuous, too, with that silky, satin softness and all.  This ribbon is 3.2 cm wide (1 1/4") and it dominates the card.  I kept the background simple with that diagonal designer paper and also  kept the sentiment simple, adding it to a stitched tag stamped with Real Red ink and tied to the large ribbon with a skinny 3.2 mm wide (1/8") diagonal striped red and white ribbon.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of Ribbon.

HLS October Watercolour Challenge - With a Twist of Gold

When you think of gold I'm sure you think of jewellery, treasure, sentiments and all sorts of things.  Do you ever think of a bed frame?  Well, think about it.  Wouldn't a gold bed frame be absolutely awesome?

I just recently got this Art Impressions "Irresistible" stamp set and was itching to use it.  I knew I'd love watercolouring it but I also wanted to do the "twist" for this challenge.  I almost moved on to a different stamp when it came to me:  the bed frame could be gold.  And the card was "born".  I love the image.  It's drawn so well and who wouldn't love that cat?  I went to town with my watercolours, using nice bright shades because this "old broad" may be sick, but she is feisty.  To finish off, I added a few gold pearls.  I think I used the twist quite well, don't you?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of gold.

HLS September ATC (Artist's Trading Card) - Vintage

I love Vintage.  There are such a lot of possibilities. I love Vintage, and so creating my ATC this month just meant deciding which type of vintage I would spotlight in my card.  In the end I  decided to stick with the sepias which really lent themselves well to my theme.  What can I say?  Sepia reminds me of the old photos and that's my idea of vintage.

I love the images I stamped in this card.  They're from a retired set which I can't seem to let go called Artistic Etchings.  I combined some retired newsprint designer paper with Crumb Cake and Soft Suede.  The distressing and sponging look great sponged with the Distress Oxide ink, Frayed Burlap, don't they?  I stamped the key and crown using the Distress Oxide ink, Vintage Photo (appropriately named for this project).  The Eiffel Tower is stamped in Soft Suede and then matted with Copper Foil.  That old fashioned button looks perfect against the woven copper ribbon which I've pulled into odd shapes.  I chose to use the sentiment "Dream" because visiting Paris is a dream of mine.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC September Challenge with its theme of "Vintage".

HLS September Anything Goes With Dies - Love You

I bought a new die and was "itching" to use it.  It's a beautifully designed die with a boy and a girl kissing on a swing.  It's a perfect size for using the branch from the Best Birds set from which I could hang the swing using some black thick Baker's Twine.  I decided that I would use the die-cut of the couple as a silhouette and also keep the sentiment in a nice bold black.  The rest I coloured.  The grass, for example, is stamped using Mossy Meadow ink and the grass stamp from the Enjoy Life set.  In fact, the sentiment also comes from that set.

For the branch I used the Best Birds set and my Stampin' Markers.  The wood is a combination of Gray Granite and Soft Suede while the leaves are a combination of Mossy Meadow and Old Olive.  That setting sun background is a combination of the Distress Oxides.  I wanted to keep it on the warm side and so used the Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Fired Brick.

I had such fun creating this card.  Everything worked together even better than I had anticipated.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS September Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of Trees

Among the cards in my Christmas stash, I always like to include a few which are simple, elegant, and non-traditional.  That's what I decided to do with the card I created for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge.

Although the challenge is an "anything goes", I decided to play along with the "optional twist of tree".  I took my inspiration from a piece of Designer Paper which is simply white with black trees randomly spaced on it.  I used a base of Heavy Whisper White cardstock, added a layer of Basic Black and then added the piece of Designer Paper.  Then I heat embossed the evergreen from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set using black embossing powder on vellum.  When that had cooled, I cut out the embossed tree and mounted it on the die-cut white rectangle with its black matte.  To finish off, I die-cut the word "peace" as well as a star from some silver foil cardstock.

The card is simple, elegant, and worked out as beautifully as I had hoped it would.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

 

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of tree.

HLS September Watercolour Challenge - Optional Twist Butterflies

We've had a weird summer.  So much smoke has drifted over to our province from the nearly 600 wildfires burning in British Columbia that many of the birds and butterflies haven't been evident.  With September bringing colder nights (and days) in this part of the world, I think that I will be waiting for next year to see many of these delightful creatures visiting my flowers.  By now you'll realize I'm thinking of butterflies because that's our Optional Twist for September's challenge.

For my card I went "wild" with some of my Distress Oxide inks and also my Brushos (the lovely Gamboge in particular).  I think the colours are particularly appropriate for September as the greens will be turning yellow and orange this month.  But don't the colours make a wonderful background for that sparkling die-cut butterfly?  And because butterflies do make my heart sing, what could be a better sentiment than this one from the Happy Little Stampers Born to be Wild stamp set?  The black heat embossing really makes it pop against those background colours, doesn't it?

I had such fun creating this card.  Playing with watercolours brings me back to my childhood and brings back such great memories.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers September Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of butterflies.

HLS August ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) Challenge - Water

I love water.  Drinking water.  Lakes. Rivers. Streams.  Oceans.  Rain.  I love water, and so creating my ATC this month just meant deciding which type of water I would spotlight in my card.  In the end I made two cards, one with a pond in mind and the other with the ocean in mind.  It was a tie.  What can I say?

For those who don't really know much about Artists' Trading Cards, the absolutely unbreakable rule is that they must be 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size.  As for the rest, it's like the sports cards that boys and girls often trade.  In other words, the front reflects the theme while the back of the card has the artist's information.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC August Challenge with its theme of "Water".

HLS August Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

It's so much fun to work with dies.  Especially since I just received an order with some new dies that I'm dying to try out.  How serendipitous that I need to use dies for this challenge.  And you get to see it here, first.  Yay!

Isn't that die of the moon and bullrushes gorgeous?  I decided to keep it very simple and just coloured a background.  Then, after attaching the die cut to my background and adding the birds, I attached it all to a simple Basic Black base.  Anything more would have taken attention away from the striking silhouettes.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS August Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of Sequins

Little by little I'm adding to my stash of cards for Christmas.  It makes me feel good to have these put aside and not to be frantic to create them all later, when I should just be relaxing and writing to my friends and family.

For this card I decided to go with the "twist of sequins" offered as a choice with the challenge.  Since I made that decision, I went about looking through my stamps, deciding which one would look best with the addition of sequins.  No, I didn't make a shaker card.  I chose this reindeer stamp instead.

Since I was house-sitting at the time I made this card, I actually found this fantastic stamp among my daughter's things.  Do you think I remembered to write down what the name of the stamp might be?  Let's just enjoy it and if I get time, I'll see if I can find that out.

I used a lot of H2O paints to colour this creation.  I thought the shimmery colours were perfect, especially with the added tiny silver and gold sequins.  I used the lovely Gina Marie Pierced Chain die set to cut out my stamped piece and then added a Merry Merlot matte before attaching it to the base of Heavy Very Vanilla. 

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of sequins.

HLS August Watercolour Challenge - You Colour My World

Can it be August already?  It won't be long before school begins again and then, of course, Autumn.  But for now it's still summer and the flowers are glorious!  The lilies and roses (and countless others which will remain unnamed since I just know the basic ones) are blooming and leaving their wonderful perfumes in the air.  If you haven't guessed by now, the optional twist to our August Watercolour challenge is "flowers".

For my card I used a Tim Holtz set of stamps which also came complete  with a set of stencils.  Of course I used the stencil and for the flower, I chose the pretty rose which I stamped and masked so that they would look as if they were beside each other.  Flowers are such fun to watercolour, aren't they?

You can see the splatter stencilling behind the roses.   I had such fun creating this card.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers August Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of flowers.

HLS July ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) Challenge - Coffee

I love coffee!  What better optional twist for our awesome July ATC Challenge than "coffee"?  Since I have images, dies and even Designer Paper which all reflect my love for this brew, this was a challenge I could happily embrace.

For those who don't really know much about Artists' Trading Cards, the absolutely unbreakable rule is that they must be 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size.  As for the rest, it's like the sports cards that boys and girls often trade.  In other words, the front reflects the theme while the back of the card has the artist's information.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC July Challenge with an Optional Twist of Coffee.