Leafy Friendship Card

I based this card on this week’s Tuesday Morning Sketches #371

I wish you could FEEL this “playday” designer paper by  s.e.i. becuase it has felt on all the brown bits and the base cardstock is striped in ridges.  I used a stamp by Flourishes  I layered everything up and added a few fussy cut leaves to the sentiment rectangle.  The final touch was the thin ribbon tied through a chipboard button which I covered to match.

I believe that fall has really arrived today by the feel of it.  There’s a brisk wind blowing off the lake here in Osoyoos and tugging all the leaves from the fruit trees in the orchard.  The water becomes a deep blue when it turns cool.  I think I’ll go for a walk to clear my head after a marathon morning of tasks and creating – my only decision will be weather to walk into or against the wind when I go.  What would YOU do? 

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Brown and Pinks Thank You Card

I created this using the sketch for this week’s Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #179

Sweet and simple yet somehow I ended up taking much longer and putting far too much effort in here haha!  I am happy with this in the end though. 

I used “Sultry” pattern paper by Basic Grey, “thanks” sentiment from Your Next Stamp Die Cut by Art-C, Tombow Markers and random gems.

I am so excited – I was chosen as one of the TOP 3 for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge for sketch #177 – link HERE – and my badge is now proudly displayed under my “Badges” tab of this blog!

Hope you’re having a creative week!

An Autumn Card

I created this card for this week’s CASe this Sketch #191 challenge:

I was inspired right away by this sketch and quickly “set to” – and I finally achieved exaclty what I was looking for.  Then I thought I’d add one thing, then another and it all went haywire from there (slapping my hands)  I confess that I hate doing things over and often will just put it away from me… away in the trash often (blushing!)  However today I made myself salvage most of it and re-do it to the way it should be.  The first attempt had been at adding more color, but in the end, though it seemed a bit barren to me, I now love it with just the simple neutral background.

Supplies: Cardstock stamped with a Stampin’ Up stamp, then embossed using a Darice embossing folder.  The sentiment “autumn” is a Studio G and the leaves pattern paper is s.e.i.

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Autumn Feeling Card

I like the autumn feel to the colors in my card – which I am putting in to the

ColourQ #360 Challenge.  I used a Basic Grey patterned paper for the backdrop while the image in the center of interest is actually a snippet from one of those “old timey” calendars!  I love to reuse stuff.  The colors were perfect for this project.  The frill is a ribbon from Michaels.  The sentiment is a die cut by DieNamics

So glad you stopped by today.

Technorati Tags: Barb Derksen,Mrs Miles,Barbara Derksen,ColourQ,Michaels,Die-Namics,Basic Grey

An all Purpley and Butterfly card

This is my take on this week’s Freshly Made Sketches #255

I made this card with a special someone in mind.  I was mailing off several letters on Monday and I began a lovely conversation with the Post Lady.  She and I talked about how much a real written by hand, paper letter means these days and how in particular some of the seniors in our lives, well, its their Love Language – hey?  The Post Lady said she writes to her 92 year old Mother back east regularly.  So, I asked her what color and theme her Mother might like and she said Purple and Buttterfly, so here you have it! I find it most stimulating and exciting to work with a theme. 

I used a Basic Grey paper for my backdrop and then layered a swatch of gingham satin (swatch sample from a fabric sampler book) then next a floral paper I bought at a dollar store (so fun and pretty and bright)  I die cut a white butterfly using a Memory Box die set. This sentiment is not the one that I used for the Post Lady’s card, but from the same set as I made a multiple of four cards and forgot to take a photo before I gave it away…sheesh!  The stamps are from “Your Next Stamp”

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A card for CASology week 216

Ok not the greatest pic in the universe for my card but hopefully you get a sense of my card.  This is my expression of this weeks CASology week 216 challenge -

I really managed to keep it simple this time.  I simply used two dies to create a “frame” around the sentiment.  The “frame” consists of a die cut piece of a beverage can.  I figured this will have appeal not only for being something recycled, but also may be more appropriate as a masculine card.   Since I came up with such a simple recipe, I’m going to be repeating it for a few more cards I owe out at the moment. 

Supplies:  WeR embossing folder, Art C stamp “Hello” set, Versafine ink and Studio G ink.

Technorati Tags: Mrs Miles,Barb Derksen,Barbara Derksen,CASology,Versafine,Versafine inks

Pineapples and Posies

My card is inspired by the Always Playing with Paper #78 challenge using this photo theme:

I struggled, I admit because I wanted to definately use a pineapple but had no stamps and didn’t feel like hand painting one.  My poor Silhouette Cameo has been neglected and so I decided to whip up a quick cut.  I love how fast it is to make a custom cut in the designer edition software.  It has saved my life a few times over. 

The designer paper scrap is from Colorbok. The stamps are all from Honey Bee Stamps I used Tombow Makers for coloring and shading on everything and added some sparkle with Gellyroll Clear Star. 

We had a most incredible rainbow here in Osoyoos yesterday!

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Camping Weekend at Steamboat Rock

My butt is scooched nicely into my chair, cup of green chai tea by my side, laundry doing its thing in the machines so I’m taking a moment to share some pics of my birthday weekend getaway.  First I must tell you that we totally had planned to venturing off in Sebastian, our happy VW camper van, however he bucked and tooted in our drive, sent out some ‘smoke’ and blasted out some liquid underneath and that was that.  My Mr totally gave me choices at this point, but I was adamant we would now ‘tent it’. 

Our site at beautiful Steamboat Rock State Park

We lucked into a sweet site and booked for two nights.  We were greeted by wild turkeys gobbling (pun intended) up stuff in the grass.

Our first night was so warm and magical that we opted to sleep under the stars – meaning we did not put the fly on our tent.  It was blissful – until the middle of the night when it began to rain.  We would have been comical had you been able to see us scurry and try to assemble that durn thing in the dark.  But after that we slept like logs. 

Saturday morning brought just a light constant spatter and though it would have been tempting to just lay and snuggle all day we chose to to hike up to the top of Steamboat Rock and all around.

 

The Rabbitbrush is in bloom, with this and the sage the landscape is like a pastel painting.  The trail is easy to navigate up to the base of the rock, then its a bit of hiking and scramble to get up to the top.  Once at the top though, the going is easy and the views spectacular.

Mr trekkin’

Some places you can look wayyyy over the basalt bluffs to see the water surrounding on every side.

Across the plains…

Taking time for some fun on some random huge boulders.

Enjoying the cool holey lava rocks and rocks painted with lichen and the pretty buckthorn.

And almost around the top, following this trail and thrilling ourselves with the looks “waaayyy down” over the edge once in a while. 

Our hike took us till lunch then we headed off to Soap Lake and Euphrata where we had a bite of lunch.  A lazy afternoon and a BRILLIANT sunny sunset.  A perfect weekend.

I’m so glad we decided to tent camp.  It really simplified things and reminded us how much we enjoyed this way back when we were first married.  Do YOU ever tent camp?  Do you ever miss it? 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed my pics.

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Challenge Card – CASology “Bark” Theme

This is my take on the CASology 215 challenge!

I chose to go with some designer paper by Kaisercraft – Tiny Woods collection.  I layered it up with brown cardstock and added a Die-namics Die Cut for the thanks and then stamped the sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps I punched out some tiny hards, bumping some up with foam tape dots, added some twine and dashed here and there all over with gold Wink of Stella.

I had the idea to use a ponderosa tree as a backdrop too as it too is “Bark” themed…

Technorati Tags: CASology,KaiserCraft,wink of Stella,Barb Derksen,Barbara Derksen,Die-Namics,Honey Bee Stamps

Blessed to be able to Create!

I’m feeling so blessed to be home on a lovely sunny Monday and to be able to create a card (with my Sister in Law Judy too,online)  I was casting around for a new (to me) and simple challenge and so I happened upon this week’s Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #177 and decided to give this a try!

I took a little liberty to turn it on its side.  I used stamped the “blessings” sentiment with Versafine black, then again with versamark which I embossed with a detail white powder.  I layered on some Tim Holtz distress ink (Barn Door) to make the sentiment stand out.  Next I used a sharpie in black to create a shadow.  I stamped the smaller words – these words are all from Honey Bee Stamps – aren’t they lovely? 

I added the corner stamps on, a floral stamp from Art-C  I stamped and glitter embossed the blossom again and bumped it up with foam tape.  I painted extra leaves on using my Tombow markers.  I could not resist adding a sequin in the middle of each and then spattering some red watercolor paint drops across the card to finish it all off!

Technorati Tags: Honey Bee Stamps,Barb Derksen,Barbara Derksen,Tim Holtz,distress ink,Atlantic Hearts Stamp Challenge,Tombow

Yay, back in my craft room!

Its so very good to be home – again. Life had me hopping all over the place this summer to Calgary, Houston TX and then down to Abbotsford. Its hard to take it all in.  I had a beautiful time visiting family and friends and loving on (one of my two) grandbabies!  I finally arrived home early on Wednesday morning, really early because Greyhound has changed its bus hours and routes effectively excluding any daytime trip from Abbotsford to Osoyoos so I had to travel from 1:30 a.m. to 5:30 when my gallant prince picked me up in Keremeos (a 40 minute drive from home but saved me from the extra stops the bus would make which would make it much later)  Arriving home I had barely an hour and a half to sleep (um hmm, had a middle seat on the bus, was not going to nod off on a stranger’s shoulder) and then I had to go to work for the day.  I was very sleepy and when I got home I basically hugged my honey, ate dinner and then flaked out for a good 14 hours.  Wow.  But I’ve shooken it off after a repeat work sleep day and now I spent today getting my own house back in order and used a bit of crafting time as my “carrot”

I’m based my card today’s CASe This Sketch #189 Challenge:

I was so excited to use this beautiful “Thanks” set of acrylic stamps from Honey Bee Stamps which I purchased using a gift certificate I recieved forever ago…  I’m feeling like the sets I bought are going to be favorites, the images and words are so interchangable.

I stamped the “thank you” onto a strip of thick plastic – a slice of a plastic cutting board, actually.  The idea just came to me as I was searching in my supplies.  I used StayzOn ink so it stick and not smudge, while I used versafine for the “so much” which I placed on the circle.  I couldn’t help but sneak a teeny butterfly into one of the circles in too, can you spot it?   The designer paper is “on a whimsy” by Jacky Eckles for Fancy Pants Design, which I layerd up onto a black cardstock base. 

I used foam tape with double sided tape and foam tape and a bit of of the cardbase cardstock to add a little height to the plastic sentiment layer.  Voila, a successful first card today. 

Technorati Tags: Honey Bee Stamps,Versafine inks,Mrs Miles,Barbara Derksen,Case This Sketch

Can't Imagine

How could anyone sleep like this?

Sikh Parade Abbotsford

I was fortunate today to stumble across a Sikh parade today here in Abbotsford BC and it was such a beautiful thing - a rainbow of colour, smorgasbord of free foods and stimulating music that I thought I'd like to share my photos.  I was so impressed with how close this community is, with entire families from seemingly ancient (but quite agile) seniors right down to the cutest babies and everyone in between.  I was astonished to see how seemingly every third household gave their driveways and front yards over for the preparation and serving of the most delicious vegetarian cultural food, and also it seemed that each station was sponsored by different businesses.  

I admit pakoras are on my favourites list and to see these mountains of them being prepared and served fresh made me weak at the knees...

Truly - a mountain.  Spicy but not too and filled with potato chunks and vegetables.  

Chai tea, pop, juice, water and coffee - all served with a smile.

Lovely traditional dress - every colour of the rainbow, so feminine. 

The temple.

A sea of happy revellers.  Thank you for such a wonderful day!