Cozy Cabin

Decisions, decisions:  black background or red background.  Which do you prefer? 

You may be "gnomed-out".  

But, when I saw all these challenges posted, they spoke to me and said, "Oh, just Gnome for it!" 

I loved how these challenges all combined, and the card was so easy to create.


The Card Concept: Cozy Cabin - This was my starting point.  I decided on the wood background.

The Male Room: It's Snowing - I don't know if you can see the clear snowflake accents on the card.  In retrospect, they probably should have been white. . . but I didn't have white ones that looked nice.

Color Throwdown - Colors: Amazing!!

Freshly Made Sketches - and this sketch is so simply nice.  I had to move the sentiment bar to fit.  

Products used:

• Gnome diecuts & cardstock from Simon Says Stamp
• sentiments from Hero Arts (Merry Xmas) and Gina K (Gnome Like You)
• Wood plank stamp from Unity by Brutus Monroe

Thanks so much for stopping by for a look.

Love Knows no Borders

So I got this awesome stamp set from Lil Inker Designs, which is, sadly, closing up.  And it just called out to me to do a Journal page using some of the sentiments. 

I knew I wanted to make a statement about Love using this stamp set.  So I tried painting the continents and oceans -- I am NOT an artist. Like I didn't know that already - LOL!   So  I added more water and white paint to blur and make the background.  I stenciled the bottom of both pages. The mountains by Ken Oliver, the city by . . . ?



Then the pages sat for a while, while I figured out what to do.

I embossed the heart-map using one of the Brutus Monroe Night Shift embossing powders.  You can see in the photo to the left that when held one way, you'll see black, but in another way, you'll see the pink.  I cut apart the world and layered it on a red heart. 

Sentiment strips, white hearts stencil (probably not needed), some journaling, and it was finally done.


I'm putting this onto the following challenge blogs.

1) Country View - January Challenge

2) Simon Says Monday Challenge - All Loved Up

3) Mix It Up Challenge - Anything Goes + optional Paper Piecing - does the heart count? I think not.

4) More Mixed Media - Anything Goes + optional blue (sorry no blue for this page)

5) Art Journal Journey - Hearts - some inspiration-

The stamp set still calls my name.  I know someday I'll make another layout using other sentiments.
As always, thanks for taking a look!

Thinking of You

My son and daughter in law recently suffered a pregnancy loss.  So this card is for them.

This beautiful stamp set by Pinkfresh Studio has this butterfly and sentiments just right for this occasion.  The sentiments are so supportive and unique.  It is a must for your stash.  I started crying again as I tried to figure out which sentiment to put inside. 

I ultimately did not use an inside sentiment from the stamp set.  I used a sentiment and butterfly from 2 different Stampin Up sets. 

I followed this Sketch by Freshly Made Sketches.  I used 2 different shades of gray card stocks (by PTI).  

The butterfly is embossed on watercolor paper and colored with Twinkling H2O's - remember those? 
I made a few butterflies - each watercolored slightly differently.  I couldn't decide which I like better.
My daugher-in-law loves peacock colors so these 2 color challenge are perfect. 

I'm putting this into CAS Watercolour Challenge - Cool Colors

Repeat Impressions - Inspiration Palette Challenge - which is also cool colors

I'm also putting this into Pinkfresh January Challenge - to pick one of their previous challenges - I'm picking May 2019: Anything Goes

Thanks for taking a look.  I'll leave you with a photo of today's sunset taken at a local dock, off the south shore of Long Island, NY. 

This brings me peace and joy.  Even when we are sad, we can find the beauty around us.  

Celebrate 70 in 2020

A friend is turning 70.  Another friend will also be turning 70 - not for a year or two . . . but while I was at it . . .
Creating the 2 cards at once was easy.  The balloons and "70th" are inlaid, so I used the numbers cut from one to fill in the other.

The white paper has a pearly finish to it.  The black and gold are foil cardstock, by Tim Holtz.

I used inspirations from the following three challenges:

The Card Concept - Time to Celebrate

Freshly Made Sketches #417

Happy Little Stampers

The balloon die is from Simon Says Stamp -- the sentiment strip die is from MFT. I'm not sure who makes the number dies.  

Thanks for taking a look.  Hope you are having a Happy New Year!!

New Year 2020

• I've been taking art journal classes at my local scrapbook stores for the last year or two.  I don't think I've really finished a page.  It's been really fun, and love what the instructor shares with us.  But the pages were never really "mine". 
• So I wanted to start a new art journal with my own designs.  This is my first of my own design.
• I love this butterfly stamp set by The Ton.  And I felt it put my feelings about this past year into an image.  
• In art,  this page shares my feeling of this past year and the new year.

2019 was a very mixed year.  Lots of happy things happened.  My husband and I retired.  We went on a "dream" trip to Alaska.  Our oldest son and his wife purchased their first home.
But we also had a few sad things happen.  Which overshadowed the happy.  Our younger son and his wife suffered a loss.  My mom, and my husband's dad both passed away.  All of these happened in the last quarter of the year. 

So this art journal layout is trying to represent my feelings about 2019 and moving into 2020.  I tried to do this by making the left side darker and moving to the lighter right side.

Both sides were created by blending distress inks.  Adding some texture with stencils.  Some splatters.  I also sprayed some shimmer spray on the right side to make 2020 "brighter".

The butterfly is from The Ton - a new stamp for me.  This was embossed with gold, and watercolored -- mostly with Altenew colors.  I added some shimmer to the flowers on the right side.

I'm putting this into the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey

More Mixed Media Challenge

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use something new

Always Fun Challenges - Use something new

As always, thanks for stopping by to take a look. 

And I hope you have a Happy and Healthy 2020!