Home-made Rubber Stamps #3 - More Chevron

Welcome back.  Showcasing 2 more of the Chrevron stamps I created.

 First up is my "Solid Chevron"

The Aqua Mist (PTI) and white chevron stripe at the bottom was made with my very own stamp!!  The main image is a new to me image from Purple Onion Designs - love it!  The inside says "have a happy birthday".

The next Chevron stamp is the one I call my "Arrow Chevron"

And check out what happens if you stamp it around in a circle ... it makes a little flower!  and see the green striped leaves in the tip right corner of the flower ... another chevron stamp that I call "Leaf Chevron".  Hard to see but I'll be using it on another card soon!

The background of this card was created using the Arrow Chevron as well ... makes an awesome background!

Okay, another card tomorrow!

Donelda

CAS-ual Fridays #33 - Kraft, Twine, and Nautical

 What a great challenge going on at CAS-ual Fridays - Create a clearn and simple project using kraft and twine.  I decided to combine it with another more difficult challenge posed by a new friend of mine ... use a lighthouse image or something nautical on a christmas card. 

I adore making little embellishments like this one to cover bow knots.  The simple sentiment was all that was needed.  I didn't have any green vellum, so I used ink and sponge to make plain vellum the colour I needed. 

Off to see what other creations were made using kraft and twine at CAS-ual Fridays.

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Christmas cards - Post 7

Today is finally Christmas Eve!  This is actually my favourite day of the year!  I love this day even more than Christmas.... because it's the anticipation that I love so much!! I love to watch my wonderful son getting excited, delivering gifts to his friends, having trouble falling asleep ... all of it is so special!  Tomorrow all the gifts get opened and then, all of a sudden, it's a whole year until we get to experience the anticipation of this day again. 

This card was made almost entirely from items sent to me from my most recent Secret Sister, Imke.  She was so sweet and die cut some of these wonderful PTI trees for me from felt.  She also sent me this increadible Martha Stewart punch!  And the paper was in a package from her as well!  It all came together to create such a lovely card.  Thanks again Imke!!

Here is a close up of the cardinal.  I sponged around the edges with some Fired Brick distress ink to give it added definition and allow the wing to stand out.

I hope you all have a very peaceful Christmas Eve spent with friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who has visited me here on my blog over this last year.  I appreciate your kind words about my work and your inspiration!  I will be taking a bit of a break over the next few days but will be back to share new creations soon!

Merry Christmas,

Donelda

Christmas cards - Post 6

I adore this little snowman with his sweet birdie friends.  I received the image from a friend.

He is coloured with pencil crayons.  What a great layout ... placing the 3 blocks of colours behind an image is a wonderful way to add colour but keep the focus on the main image.

It is Christmas eve eve ... LOL!  We have really slowed down and are now really just enjoying our time together as a family! 

Just 2 more sleeps......

Donelda

Christmas cards - Post 2

So most of you will know that I tend to be a traditional Chrismas card maker ... I just naturally lean to using bright reds and greens and lots of holly and snowflakes!!  This Father Christmas was sitting in my Christmas scrap pile just waiting to be used.  I loved the soft blue polkadot of his robe so I decided to try my hand at a non-traditional coloured Christmas card. 

And I think I like it!  LOL!!

Hope you are getting ready for Christmas and that it isn't too stressful for you!

Donelda

Christmas cards - Post 1

It feels like I've been making Christmas cards forever!  LOL  I am going to post some over the course of this week leading up to Christmas. 

I love recycling parts of store bought cards.  Some times I just can't part with them!  Here is one example of recycling the main image from the front of the card.

This sticker I got years and years ago from one of my blogging friends, Jessica!  I bet she won't even remember sending it it's been so long!  I was so excited to find the ribbon that, in real life, matches the green on the elf perfectly!!

I hope you have a great weekend!!

Donelda

Clean and Simple Christmas

A few years ago my wonderful son bought me these Christmas stamps (from Stampin' Up!).  I really wanted to pull them out and use them.  Because the image is so busy itself, I decided to keep the overall card pretty Clean and Simple (CAS).

Images were coloured in with my Stampin' Up markers.  The top sentiment comes with the SU! set but hte bottom sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

Linking this post up for the Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World.

Thanks for dropping in for a visit!

Donelda

Dilly Beans 1st Challenge/Giveaway - Holiday Snow Family

Have you seen that there is a new Challenge Blog in town?!  It is Dilly Bean Designers & Friday Challenges.

I have already entered their Stripes Challenge ... you can check my card HERE.  To start off their new blog, they offered a great free digi of this sweet snow family and asked us to use it in a new creation! 

Here is what I did with it.  If you look at the original image, there is a location between the groups of snowmen where I cut them apart and added a holiday greeting between.

Here is a close up of the glitter I added to the hats and the glossy accents on the buttons and heart.

This is such a cute image.  I know I'll be using it more!!

Off to see what other creations were made with it.

Donelda

PaperCrafts Magazine CASE - My choice

Hopefully you are joining me today after seeing our CASE card yesterday.  My blogging buddy Lindsey and I are having fun again casing cards from the Dec./Nov. issue of PaperCrafts magazing.  Yesterday was Lindsey's choice.  Today it is my turn and I picked this great card by Beth Opel on page 48.  I loved the ribbon treatment!!

I chose to focus on the layout and other than adjusting the size, kept pretty close to this original.  Obviously I decided to go with a different colour combo.

The ribbon and cardstock are both Ocean Tides ... one of my favourite colours from Papertrey Ink. See that pretty punched border ... it is from one of my previous Secret Sisters! 

Now I have to go see how Lindsey interpreted this card.  Did she choose to go with the colors, layout, or did it inspire her in a whole different way???  Off to see.....

If you want to see what we did last few times, check out these posts HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. So much fun!!

Donelda

PaperCrafts Magazine CASE - Lindsey's choice

My blogging buddy, Lindsey, and I are at it again!  This time we each picked cards in the Nov./Dec. issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  Today is Lindsey's pick and tomorrow will be mine.

Lindsey picked this stunner by Kelly Eubanks seen on page 67 of the magazine.

I focused on the color combo (vanilla, black, and red - so classy) and the music sheet designer paper..... and here is my card:

You might not be able to see it very well in the main photo but I've added a strip of black glitter along the bottom.  It looks pretty snazzy in real life.  Here is a close up ...

Now I can hardly wait to see what Lindsey did with her interpretation of this card.  Don't forget to drop back in tomorrow to see the card I picked out of the magazine and then what we both did with it!!

Donelda

Crafty Creations Challenge #147 - Warmed by Friends

Welcome to  Crafty Creations Challenge #147.  This week the challenge is to make a Christmas project and include a sentiment.  This week's sponser is Lily of the Valley so join in the fun to win some great stamps.

I enjoyed coloring this wonderful Lily of the Valley digital stamp using Copic markers (click on the image to see a larger image for details).  The sentiment is one from Made of Snow (Papertrey Ink).

I hand cut some holly leaves from Distressed Dots designer paper (Papertrey Ink) and punched the berries.  The Terricotta Tile twill is also from Papertrey Ink.  And I added lots of shimmery white glitter to the girls' dress and hat.  (Thanks again Imke for all the goodies!).

Be sure to admire some the rest of the Crafty Creations Design Team's Christmas projects:

Peggy

Jaime
Jenni

Donna

Lindsey

Kathleen

Then link up your creations HERE to join in the fun and you might win a prize from our sponsor, Lily of the Valley.

 

Donelda

Jay Gee's Nook #14 -

Hey everyone!  Today I want to share with you my creation for Jay Gee's Nook #14 challenge.  Look at all the amazing inspiration in this ... I could create a hundred cards based on this one inspiration collage!!  But I finally decided to focus in on that package about mid photo .. the one with the pine cones and branches .. see it.....

And here is the card that I ended up with (sorry the color is not good, I continue to struggle with lighting issues in my craft room/whole house!!):

I used an old classic Fantastic Foliage from Stampin' Up! ... long since retired but I will never part with it!! 

I curved the pine cones and added some dimensional adhesive underneath to pop them out.  You can tell a bit better here in this photo. 

Okay, I know there are going to be lots of great creations based on this challenge ... off to check them out.

Drop back in tomorrow for my first Design Team card for the Crafty Creative Challenge blog. 

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Pointsettia Flower - Take 1

Hello!  It is always nice to see you!  Today is the first day of my Take 3 Challenge.  Here is my Take 1 card. 

I don't own many Christmas stamps so I have to be creative at this time of year.  See this lovely pointsettia, it is actually the large flower from the Beautiful Blooms set (Papertrey Ink). 

Stamped it with Ruby Red ink and then added some gold micro beads to the center.

A true Clean and Simple card!!  Susan R. would be proud!! 

Drop back in tomorrow to see what I did with this flower on tomorrow's Take 2 card.

Donelda

Inspiration from Paper Crafts Magazine - Day 2 - Christmas

Welcome back!

Today it is Lindsey's turn to pick a card for inspriation from the Sept/Oct issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  Her choice was the very versatile card by Ellie Augustin on page 46 called Brew Some Fun Card.  Wow, what a great layout to work with!! 

I was so inspired I made 2 cards - one that followed the sketch very closely and another that followed it very loosly.  For both, I focused on the general layout.

I adore this Anna Griffin designer paper. And this little sprig of holly is probaby my most used Christmas stamp (if you can believe that or not!!)

This card is a much looser take on the layout.  The designer paper and die cuts are from the Holly Jolly paper pack from My Minds Eye (out last year). 

Okay, now off to Lindsey's blog to see what her card turned out looking like.  Do you think she also made a christmas card????  Let's go see....

Thanks for dropping by!

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Snowflake - Take 3

Hello and welcome back to my final card this week from my Take 3 Challenge. 

Here is my Take 3 card:

Here is a close up of that embellishment ... it is the snowflake stamp that I am using this week.  To make it, I stamped the flake with white craft ink onto a transparency, then heat embossed with a mix of white and kelidascope embossing powder.  It turned out great in the end. I think I will make a bunch of these to help with my Christmas card creating.

Well, I am sad to say that this week's Take 3 Challenge is done!  But not to worry, there will

always be another one around the corner!!

Donelda

Line of Trees

(Note - this is my 3rd post for the day becuase today was the deadline for this card.  Scroll down to see more Play Date Cafe cards and scroll further to see my Take 2 for this week's Take 3 Challenge)

Over at Crafty Creations Challenges this week's challenge was to use Green, Purple, Silver and snow.  What a hard challenge this was for me.  I wracked my brain for days and finally ended up with this as my final card.  I think it was the snow that was giving me the hardest time! 

Thanks for dropping by.

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Snowflake - Take 2

Hello and welcome back to my latest Take 3 Challenge. 

This week it is actually a double challenge - I am using that snowflake image from an old Stampin' Up! set called All Through the Year and papers from Holly Jolly pack by My Minds Eye.  Here is my Take 2 card:

The snowflakes are embossed this time.  See that red polka dot border ... it is actually from the

die cut page from the My Minds Eye package ... and I've been dying to use it.  Not sure

why, but I am totally in LOVE with it!!! 

So there is my Take 2 card.  Just one more card to go ... which you can only see if

you come back tomorrow!!   Of course, you will be dying with anticipation

so you will need to come back!!

Donelda

Take 3 Challenge - Snowflake - Take 1

This week's Take 3 Challenge is a double Take 3 Challenge.  It centers around the snowflake from an old Stampin' Up! set called All Through the Year.  It was one of those sets I just HAD to have ... but have rarely used.  A Take 3 Challenge is a good way to get it out and use it!  Incidently, all 3 cards in this Take 3 Challenge also use paper from the Holly Jolly paper pack from My Minds Eye (last year's paper).  It is a stunning collection of papers!!

And here is Take 1.  A fairly Clean and Simple card, showing off those prancing reindeer.  I love when I see crafters doing this tied off the edge ribbon technique but I rarely think to do it myself. 

The frame is from Borders & Corners: Squares (Papertrey Ink) and the sentiment is from Take a Bough (also Papertrey Ink).

Another variation using this snowflake stamp tomorrow which means a few more Christmas cards have been made.

See you tomorrow.
Donelda

One Layer Wednesday (OLW) #71 - Christmas Tags

Jennifer has issued the latest One Layer Wednesday challenge #71 - Tags  I started out with good One Layer intentions ... but it all went seriously wrong .. and I added a layer on them all!! 

These tags were actually a case from the Nov./Dec. Paper Crafts magazine ... if you turn to page ?? ... see those 3 halloween ... they are beautiful and I knew they would make great christmas tags too.  And I'd better clarify, these tags started out white .. they were embossed with clear embossing powder and then distress inks applied. Love that technique!!

Hope you are having a great Sunday.

Donelda

November Image Swap - Squirrely Christmas

This is the latest image we recieved for our image swap on SCS.  This time Tracie sent us this cute squirrel!  

We always send at least 3 copies of the image (just in case) so I colored all 3 and used them for dimensional by popping them up.  Here is a side view:

I coloured it in with Copics.  The star on top and all of the other yellow ornaments have gold sparkle gel pen added for a bit of sparkle.  Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  This is a new layout for me! 

If you want to see all the other cards from our swap, check out our gallery HERE.

Thanks for visiting.

Donelda