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Hi Everyone! You might have noticed that I've been missing in action this past week! Well we were here:

Enjoyed some great sun and fun in Florida. Today here at home there is a winter storm advisory ... sheesh!!!

I hope to be visiting everyone's blogs soon! I've really missed my creative space :-)

Donelda

Pink, Blue, and Green Hero Arts Stamps

I am loving my Hero Arts stamps!! This circle stamp from the set called Asian Frames is so much fun to color, especially with Copic markers like I did here! I didn't have the right color of paper so I created ones that matched by coloring white paper with the same Copic markers. Supplies: Asian Frames (Hero Arts), 1st year anniversary set (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Whisper White, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink); Ink - black; Other - markers (Copics), border punch (Fiskers), corner rounder (We R Memory Keepers), dimensionals. Have a great day! Donelda

Masculine Time

Here is another Masculine Card. I am continueing to try to keep my New Year's resolutions - to make masculine cards, use what I have, and actually make some challenges. SEe that awesome paper on there...it is all BasicGrey - from the Granola collection!! This image is from smARTworks. They are 2 different stamps so I masked the smaller one and then stamped the larger watch. Supplies: Stamps - Watch Trio (smARTworks), some set from Papertrey that I just can't think of right now!!!; Paper - 3 different pieces from the Granola collection (BasicGrey); Ink - Walnut Stamin (Ranger); Other - corner rounder (We R Memory Keepers), dimensionals. Hope you have a great day! Donelda

Umbrella Mouse

This is such a cute little mouse!! I knew that a paper pieced umbrella would be a lot of fun!! I also wanted to create one of these types of cards with the left adhered together and then scored. I colored him in with my Copic markers and then added the Bitty Dots paper for the unbrella. Supplies: Stamps - Fun Stuff (smARTworks); Paper - Summer Sunrise, White, Bitty Dots (Papertrey Ink), designer papers from my scrap bin; Ink -Black, Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Other - white eyelets (Stampin' Up!), brown himp, markers (Copics), dimensionals. Hope you enjoyed!! Donelda

Elegant Birthday Butterfly

This butterfly is one of my favorites! It is an individual stamp from All Night Media. I stamped it onto some vellum with Versamark ink and then heat embossed it with silver and cut it out. I continued the theme by stamping this amazing flower and sentiment on to the card base and used silver embossing powder. I don't have any silver paper so I used my silver marker and colored in a strip then cut it to the size I needed. I added this strip of Soft Sky paper that has some small scallops along the bottom. A white organza ribbon is the right added touch! I think I might save this one for my mom's birthday! Supplies: Stamps - Butterfly (All night Media), In Bloom , Damask Design (both Papertrey Ink); Ink - Versamark; Paper - Soft Sky, Whisper White, vellum (Stampin' Up!); Other - scallop scissors (Provo Craft), silver embossing powder, silver marker, white organza ribbon. Thanks for dropping in today!! Donelda

Sisterly Love

I created this card for a friend to give to her sister!! She had seen THIS card and liked it so I recreated a similar card for her to give.

I don't create collage type cards very often, mostly because I am not very good at it!! But I try :-)

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Blue Bunny Joy

Happy Easter. I adore gingham papers!! Supplies: Stamps - Bunny Joy (smARTworks); the word birthday comes from Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink); Ink - black; Paper - Whisper White, Brilliant Blue (Stampin' Up!); blue gingham designer paper (Making Memories); Other - sponge, marker (Copics), corner rounder (We R Memory Keepers), scallop scissors (Provo Craft), white crochet thread, dimensionals. Donelda

Happy Easter

Inchie INKlings - Sketch #1 - Chickadee Thanks

I have re-discovered the Inchie INKlings site! When I lost my hard drive a number of months ago, I had to remember and locate all of my favorite blogs. I continue to find some like the Inchie site! Yesterday Ellen announced that they were going to have sketch challenges and posted the very first one. Well, you all know how much I love my inchies so I just had to play along!!!

See the brown and straw colored papers ... they were freebies that I got from our Communications Officer at work. You see, she had a whole box of paper samples from different companies. She didn't want to move the box any more and thought I might be able to use some of the paper. I was so excited!!! You should see all the yummy papers!! So I created this little card to give to her to say thanks using some of the papers she gave me!!!

Supplies: Wildlife Reserve (Stampin' Up!), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Ink - jet black, Chocolate Chip (SU!); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Coastal White, Straw (Domatar), Clove (Fraser); Other - Copic marker, pencil crayons (Prismacolor).

I am off to check out all the inchie projects I've missed out on over the last year!!!

Donelda

Loonie Stamper's Challenge # 86

These colors were so bright and shiny that I had to play (plus it is a day off so I had lots of play time!!). I created this layout based on a larger regular sized layout I saw somewhere (the 3 different shaped squares/rectangles were the full size of the card). All paper is scrap (except the white card base). The stamp set is one I bought at a neighbor's garage sale but I have never used it! I wish I'd noticed that these leaves/flowers look like shamrocks .... I could have used it for St. Patty's day!! Next year!! Supplies: stamps - Fresh Cuts (Stampin' Up!), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Ink - versamark; Paper - White, Kraft, and scraps; Other - white embossing powder, white gel pen, dimensionals. Now I'm going to see what the Loonie gals did this week: Char, Wendy, Dee, Jewels, Regan, Maria Hope you have had a great Good Friday! Donelda

Inspiration from other Bloggers 3

Look at all this wonderful inspiration - No Joking!! I found them from comments that were left here .... Donna - Umbrella Man (I love this t!m stamp and I'm crazy about Deb's use of it here) Regan - Shiny Robot (I am always looking for great 'guy' cards) Kelly - Red, White, and Black (doilies are so 'in' right now) Niki - Vintage Daffodils (one of my favorite flowers done so beautifully!!) Wendy - Pure Innocence (love all those polka dots and gingham!) Enjoy, Donelda

Cards Blog Challenge - 8 Colors

So, if you know me at all you will know that I tend to stick to 2 or maybe 3 colors at a time on my cards. So you can imagine my surprise when Paige from Cards Blog wanted us to work with 8 colors .... on one card ... that's right ... 8 different colors!!! My first response was "are you kidding me?" but then I had to take on the challenge.

And this is what I ended up with! I used the skinny stripe in the Faux Ribbon set (Papertrey Ink) and created a 'rainbow' of stripes across the bottom of my white panel. Then I added the tree from Beyond Basic Backgrounds (Papertrey Ink). I wanted to add multi-colored leaves to my tree but I only had purple and blue square rhinstones. But I also had plain rhinstones and Copic markers!!!! I colored a bunch in the other colors to match my stripes!! Love that!!!

A sentiment and some matting and voila, a very colorful card!!! And, to make my week, Paige added my card to her picks on her blog which you can see HERE!! Yeah!!

So, how many colors can you use on one card??!!

Donelda

Daring Cardmakers - Eggs

Well, what else would you expect a challenge to be at this time of year??!! Daring Cardmakers wanted us to make cards using eggs!!! Lots of fun.

Sorry for this horrible picture!! Sheesh, you can't even appreciate how cute these little eggs are. Maybe I'll try another photo tomorrow.

These are 3x3 cards and will be shared with my family.

Supplies: Stamps - Demask Designs, Guide Lines, Wedding Day, Limitless Labels (all Papertrey Ink); Ink - Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey Ink), Craft White (Stampin' Up!), black; Paper - all scraps!!!; Other - chalks (Stampin' Up!), oval nestabilities (Spellbinders), black marker.

Thanks for dropping in again!! Make sure you check out the 4 newest posts... all challenge cards! Did I ever have fun using up some of my scraps!!!!

Donelda

Embellish Magazine - Aqua, Pink, Kraft, and stitching

The colors on the latest Embellish Magazine challenge were just too tempting to pass up!!

I had to make baby cards with those yummy colors!!

I had drew the onsie and cut it out of kraft cardstock. I added the little duckie that is in the Limitless Labels stamp set (Papertrey Ink).

Supplies: Stamps - Limitless Labels, Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink), Kraft White (Stampin' Up!); Paper - Whisper White, Kraft (Stampin' Up!), Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink); Other - sewing machine, white thread, white gel pen (Signo), dimensionals.

Thanks for another great color challenge!!

Donelda

Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge # 60 - Sketch

I really liked the most recent Clean and Simple challenge - it was a layout! Everything here is created with scraps!!!! and I enjoyed making my first card so much I went ahead and create 2!!!

Butterfly Trio

Supplies: Stamps - Background Basics: Text, Around and About (Papertrey Ink); Paper - White, Kraft (Stampin' Up!) other colors (scraps); Ink - Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Other - crimper (Fiskers), border punch (Fiskers), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), sponge.

Best Wishes

Supplies: Stamps - Turning a New Leaf, Rustic Branch (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Versamark, black; Paper - White (SU!), kraft file folder, all other paper are scraps from my bin; Other - 1" square punch, dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in! Keep scrolling up and down, I've got a bunch of challenge cards created and posted!!

Donelda

Saturday Spotlight - Coffee Time

The most recent challenge over on Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential is to use 'coffee' in our projects! Perfect for me since I haven't used my Warm Happiness set nearly enough!!!

I had this great distress ink background sitting around just waiting for the perfect card. When my son critiqued my card he laughed and said that it looked like I had spilled coffee all over it!!

Off to see what other coffee cards were created!!

Check back, there will be plenty of posts today ... I made a swack of challenge cards yesterday!! !

Donelda

Sympathy Tree

This entire card is made from scraps!!! I had stamped and colored the tree a long time ago and it sat, unused in my scrap bin. Same with the rest of the paper and even the hemp was a piece I had cut but not used in the past.

I love that particular sympathy sentiment .. it is from Birds Of a Feather (Papertrey Ink). And there is just something about tearing on a sympathy card.

Thanks for dropping in!!

Donelda

Spring Bunnies

I love using my Prismacolor pencil crayons on Kraft paper. I stamped these cute little bunnies (smARTworks) onto some scrap Kraft paper and colored it in with my pencil crayons. Then, I cut them out with the 'Joy' sentiment. I stamped some swirly-gigs from the smARTworks set of the same name using Versamark ink. I popped the small images up using dimensionals!! I love that layout!!! I hope you have an enjoyable day!! Donelda

Blue Elephant

I really liked the colors from this challenge on the Stamp Away With Me blog so I decided to play!!

I decided to go with a baby theme because I had to create one of these cute little elephants!! I saw one like it on Julie Cameron's blog HERE (third little card down!). I think she created her's with a punch but of course I don' t have that punch, so I created a hand drawn template and went for it!!

I also decided to create some home-made buttons! They were a lot of fun! I stamped some lines onto a few punched circles and then covered the circles with epoxy circles. Then, I punched holes with my Crop-O-Dile and threaded them with some crochet thread. I'll definately be making more ... so easy to make buttons match your creation perfectly!!!

Supplies: Stamps - Polka Dot Basics II, Borders & Corners {square} {both Papertrey Ink); Paper - Raspberry Fizz, Lemon Tart, Ocean Tides, White (all Papertrey Ink); Ink - Ocean Tides, Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey Ink); Other - white grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!), teal marker (Copic), white gel pen (Signo),black marker, clear epoxy circle stickers (Making Memories), Colluzle, hole punch (Crop O Dile), corner rounder (We R Memory Keeper), white crochet thread, dimensionals.

Well, thanks for droping by!! Hope you like my little elephant friend!!

Donelda

Inspiration from other Bloggers 2

I continually get inspiration when I link to commenters blogs!! Check out what I have found recently! Jacilynn - Baby Thank You's (plus an adorable baby picture)

Juanita - Vellum Medallion (Juanita is rocking out with this stamp!)

Susan - Tree (Susan has the corner on clean and simple stamping!)

Donna - Inspired Easter Egg (wowzers!)

Darlene - Mice and Strawberries (yummy!)

Stephanie - Vintage Valentine (so elegant)

Jessica - House Mouse distress (Jess is such a HM enabler!! LOL)

Vicki - Butterfly Circle (another wowzers!)

I hope you too got as inspired as I did!! Donelda

Retro Sunflower

Last weekend I had so much fun using up scraps from my Papertrey Ink scrap pile. With the exception of the card base, the papers on this card are all scraps! And see there, I've used that stamp set Text Boxed (Papertrey Ink) again! This time, I inked up this sunflower with Orange Zest ink (Papertrey Ink) and stamped it onto some Lemon Tart paper (Papertrey Ink). I added a Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)dotted center and sentiment and used a large brad (Dollar Store) in the center of the flower for some dimension. My favorite part of the card is the three strips of cardstock - all scraps that I've kept from other projects (I never throw anything away! because I always can use them, even the smallest strips!). The colors are from top to bottom - Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, and Orange Zest (all Papertrey Ink). A little sponging around the main Kraft panel (also a piece of scrap - there was some printing on the other side) and dimensionals for the focal image and voila a Clean and Simple card!! I love that it looks so retro!! Donelda

Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge 59 - Central Park in the Snow

This past Monday (actually Sunday night) the most recent Clean and Simple challenge #59 was posted. It was to use the inspiration of New York as your guide. I've never been to New York so I've never seen the beauty of Central Park in real life. However, a friend of mine has gone many times and shares her photos with me regularly!!

I chose this photo of Central park in winter from one of the sites Jen left as links. As soon as I saw the photo I knew I could use the new to me Papertrey Ink set called Through the Trees.

I inked them up with Chocolate Chip ink (SU!) and stamped them multiple times. I then took some markers and tapped on some colors like leaves. I did some tearing of strips of white cardstock and adhered them along the bottom of the trees. A simple sentiment was stamped across the bottom (from Made of Snow, Papertrey Ink) also in Chocolate Chip ink. I matted this on some dark brown textured cardstock (Bazzill) and popped this up onto a Kraft card base (SU!). (the mat looks crooked but that is just shadow from my light box. I recognize that my photos are not well lit ... I clearly need better or more lamps!!!)

While you can't really see it in the photo, I also added a bit of white gel pen to the trunks of the tree to suggest snow had landed on some of the branches, just like the photo!

Thanks for dropping in! Enjoy your evening!!

Donelda

Wooden Heart in Blue

Here I am trying out another color combination with the Papertrey Ink color Ocean Tides. This time I combined it with Berry Sorbet, Black, Kraft, and white. I like it too!! Okay, maybe I just had to use it!! This is another card made using some of my PTI paper scraps (I hate to throw any of that paper away!!) See the heart! That was so much fun to make! I got the inspiration from Kristina Werner's blog when I saw her making THIS card. The heart stamp is a current one from Stampin' Up! but I decided to create my own. I cut a negative mask (I cut the heart out and used the rest of the post it note), stuck it to some white scrap paper, then stamped my Designer Woodgrain stamp (Hero Arts) on top. Then, after removing the mask, I simple cut the heart out leaving a bit of a white border. I love the results and created a bunch more as embellishments to use later. One final interesting note, I don't own a ton of Papertrey Ink buttons (only brown, black and cream). But I took my BG18 Copic marker (which is very close to Ocean Tides) and colored in a plain white button! I love that option with the Copic markers!! Supplies: Stamps - Designer Woodgrain (Hero Arts), Birds of a Feather (Papertrey Ink); Ppaer - Kraft, white (SU!), Berry Sorbet, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink), black small dots (Making Memories); Ink - Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink), Jet Black (Ranger); Other - large scallop scissors (Provo Craft), post it note, button, marker BG18 (Copic), hemp, white crochet thread, dimensionals. Thanks for dropping in again!! I hope you are enjoying your week! Donelda

White Dragonflies

I created this focal image as per Donna on Three Umbrella's. You can see her spectacular version HERE (second card down). I don't have the same stamps so I improvised. She makes the most spectacular backgrounds using distress inks so I had to try it too! You know I'll be doing this some more!! To make this focal image, stamp the dragonflies onto white cardstock with Versamark and emboss with clear embossing powder. Then, sponge on the blue (Broken China) and green (Peeled Paint). Drip water over the ink. Since this particular ink reacts to water, it will create great water spots!! You end up with a spectacular focal point. I also quite like the clear embossed dots on the black card base! Wow, what a great effect!! Supplies: Stamps - Wishing You, Polka Dot Basics II (Papertrey Ink); Paper - White, Black (SU!); Ink - Versamark, Broken China, Peeled Paint (both Ranger), Jet Black (Ranger); Other - clear embossing powder, sponge, designer scissors (Provo Craft), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), water. Have a great day!!! Donelda