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! 

Fab Floral for Simon Wednesday Challenge!

This is my simple take on this week’s challenge over on Simon Says Stamp for this Wednesday’s challenge – Fabulous Florals.

All of this week’s design team’s inspiration made me just jump into a card even though I was tired after a day at work.  I was so glad too, as I find creating cards a most relaxing and enjoyable pasttime.  I would even count it as good therapy and good for the soul. 

I used:

Stamp – Simon Says Stamp – Texting

Brad – My Mind’s Eye 

Stamp – Floral – Stampin’ Up

Embossing Folder – We R Memory Keepers 

Tombow Marker (black)

Distress Inks – Tim Holtz 

Embossing Ink – Versamark (clear)

Embossing powder

Thanks for dropping by to check out my card!

Technorati Tags: Simon Says Stamp,My Mind's Eye,Stampin' Up,WeR Memory Keepers,TomBow,Tim Holtz,Distress Ink,Embossing Folder,Mrs Miles,Barb Derksen,Barbara Derksen

A Bit of “Repitition”– LESS IS MORE 285

I decided to try my hand at this “Less is More” Challenge #285 -

REPETITION

First I stamped these sweet florals into postion using a Tricia Santry Studio stamp (Fiskars) and Versafine ink then embossed the lot.  Next I decided to create a simple stencil for the circles using my Silhouette Cameo.  Now I used Tim Holtz (mini) distress inks in three pretty shades to color the circles in. My final touch was to add the ‘grateful’ stamp by Stampin’ Up.

And I’m not quite sure but I may add a few sequins in the middle of each if the temptation strikes me later on.

I hope you were inspired here today!

Technorati Tags: Less is More,Versafine inks,Versafine,Fiskars,Tim Holtz,Stampin' Up,Mrs Miles,Barb Derksen,Barbara Derksen

FREE Corny download for Silhoutte Cutting File

Ah I was just playing around with some reflective yellow vinyl the other day and thought it might make a sweet card  when the sentiment jumped right out at me too. I don’t have an actual stamp that says corn-grats, but I have several sets of individual letter stamps that I pieced together to make the wording the way I wanted it.

I decided it would be fun to whip up a cut file right there on the spot and so this I did.  In my original cut file, unfortunately, I crossed the twisted leaf lines over and it created that leaf in two peices so I’ve since gone in and corrected it.  I bumped the corn out using foam tape.  You can’t see in the bottom photo (took it using my ipad so the quality is just not there) but I used something small but blunt to “carve in” some kernels in a pattern.  You could easily use nice cardstock for your project! 

I hope you enjoy! 

DOWNLOAD

.studio file format

(zipped file)

Personal Use Please

Technorati Tags: Mrs Miles Freebie,Silhouette,Silhouette Cameo,Free Cutting File

My version of MFT Sketch Challenge 289

It’s a blowy day outside, and cool – the perfect kind of day to snuggle in and craft but not so good for taking pics of my cards out of doors for they tend to want to do the paper airplane thing.  Do YOU prefer to use natural light to take your photos or do you use a lightbox or window?  I’d love to know.

My card is based on this sketch from My Favorite Things Challenge #289

Love the clean-ness (you know when you spell a word one way and it just doesn’t look right?  I tend to make up my own spellings then) of this layout – great sketch MFT!

I let the paper do all the work on this one! 

I used two different neutral shades of textured cardstock from American Traditional designs and ran it through a We R Memory Keepers embossing folder for the wonderful crinkle effect.  Don’t you just  ♥ the height and texture this embossing folder creates? 

I sliced and diced and layered up and fixed it all to the cardbase.  I added some punched stars, placing teeny tiny gems in the centers.  The final touch is this sentiment from MFT – I tend to use this stamp set over and over and OVER!  (to the neglect of many other sets I’m afraid!)

I hope you’re creating up a storm today too – thanks for taking time to stop in.

My card for Freshly Made 245

On the last day of my sister’s visit we whipped up a froth of cards – they just kept coming on.  This was my second take on Freshly Made Sketches 245 challenge (the first I just was not happy with).  Based on this sketch:

B

I didn’t use much in the way of stamping for this card other than the sentiment from Your Next Stamp.  The paper is K & Company while the chipboard is Bo Bunny.  All I really had to add was a twist of twine and highlights with Wink of Stella.

Sometimes simple is best!

Technorati Tags: Freshly Made Sketches,Wink of Stella,K & Company,Bo Bunny

My take on Mojo Monday #456

Howdy and hope you’re enjoying summer!  I’ve got my sister Nina visiting and we are whipping up a couple of challenge cards while we get the chance and in between some serious snacking and just catching up.

This card is my take on Mojo Monday #456 Challenge – going off the following sketch:

I used a nice slice of Crate Paper for the base, layering it up with a few circle cuts. The top circle is a brown/green shade cardstock which I embossed in leaves using Close to my Heart Romantic Backgrounds with a copper embossing powder. I punched a few dots out fo paper and used the same embossing on them to coordinate.  Lastly I created a tag and stamped it with a My Favorite Things sentiment. 

Stay tuned as I’m hoping to post a few more cards in the coming days!

Technorati Tags: Mojo Monday,Close to my Heart,My Favorite Things