Going to Bloglovin

Moving to bloglovin



Not happy that Google Reader is going away, but I will try to find all my favorite bloggers in your new reader.


Joan

With Sympathy

Oh my, sorry I have posted in a while. I had all of the best intentions of submitting my card to the Flourishes, LLC " Timeless Tuesday challenge #216, but, the week just got away from me. So, better late than never, to share my card. 

The theme was " frame it", so I took the challenge to make a frame around my daffodil image. This was actually a first for me to do this with my dies. I had been meaning to try this for some time, and well, thanks to Flourishes for the challenge, it got me motivated. I love the look and I am sure you will see in on more of my cards.

I used the Daffodil stamp from the Calendar Set 1 from Flourishes,llc for my image. My sentiment is from the Stampendous set Orchid Greetings. The frame die is from Spellbinders and the banner/pendant is from Hero Arts. 

The paper that I used for the card is from We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring 6x6 paper pad. I just love this paper.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a fantastic day. 


Joan

Easter Blessings

Just popping in to post the Easter card that I sent to my daughter and son-in-law. Very simple, but fun.
 ( I made a card using the same paper and washi for the Great Impressions blog site and didn't want to post this until their post was up.)
 I am trying to use all those "forgotten" stamps and paper that takes up space in my craft area. This image stamp is one of those dollar wood stamps from Michael's craft store. The sentiment is an old retired stamp from Close to My Heart. I used a bit of washi tape, some sewing and a few buttons and paper from Close to My Heart.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful day. 

Joan

Just a piece of whatever

I've been doodling and playing with stamps and came up with this fun piece of whatever.

I  had some left over pieces of cardstock that had shapes cut out, so I used them as a stencil for my circle and ovals.
 Then I used a few stamps sets from MME that I got for Christmas that couldn't wait to ink. 
 I did some white embossing, regular stamping and a lot of doodling. I thought the circles looked like Ladybugs, hehe.

I think this is just my fun piece and I will use it on my kitchen photo board for a splash of color in the summer. Then, I may just pop it into my scrapbook for safe keeping. 

I thought that I should have done this in my mixed media journal, but then I couldn't use it for a summer decoration. 

Have you ever just created a "FUN" piece of art work? 
Thanks for stopping by.

Joan

Just me, thinking of you

Okay, I know, you are saying " another card with that paper!" Sorry, but I just love these colors and while I have the stack in front of me, I just had to make a few cards. For those of you that just popped in, I have two other posts with this Kathy Davis Happiness paper by GCD Studio. I found it at JoAnn's.
My card today, is another simple card, using a digital image by Jehanne 2011. Not sure how to find to find this image again, but I am sure it came from some digital blog site that has free digi's. 

 Like I said,  a very simple card with a simple sentiment. The clouds are from My Favorite Things die and the white border is a EK punch. Thanks for stopping by today. 
Have a great day. 

Joan

BunnyDuck

Good morning friends.

Well, yesterday I told you that I would share another one of my cards using the Kathy Davis Happiness paper. This card is boasting the purple and aqua palette. Don't you just love thes darling images from Great Impressions Stamps called Bunnyduck  and You Quack Me Up? Reminds me of when my kids were little and wearing their jammies. I used my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils to color the jammies and Copic markers for the yellow and shadow on the ground.

 Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day.

Joan

Simple Life

Wow, where has the week gone? Here it is Wednesday already and the last of my posts as the March Guest Designer for Great Impressions Stamps. I have enjoyed my time with this talented group of ladies.

I have a card to share with you today that uses two stamps that I have been waiting to get inked.
I got my inspiration from the current issue of PaperCrafts magazine. They had a section in there called  Country Fresh. Did you know that Great Impressions has some FABULOUS stamps that fit into this category.

I used the Great Impressions Stamps Vintage Milk Box F530  found under the Miscellaneous category on the shopping list and Simple Life A140 found under the Sentiment category. I paired this image up with the paper from My Mind's Eye- Dilly Dally. I used the circle Spellbinders die, a little Distressed Ink, some simple stitching and then popped them up, to give it a little dimension. Four little gems are in the center of the flowers.

Hmmmm.... I think we all could use a little dose of the simple life, once in a while.

You still have a few days to enter the Great Impressions Stamps Monthly Challenge. The theme is "Going Green". 

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a great day.

Joan

Daisy Field

Good morning friends. Just a quick card to share.

 Did you ever find a pack of papers that is totally not you, but you want a change in your color palette? Well, I found a pretty paper pad at JoAnn's from the from GCD Studio by designer Kathy Davis called Happiness. The palate is  hues of plum and grape, with splashes of  aqua and green. Okay, I like green and aqua, but I am not a real fan of purple, until now. My card today only has tiny dots of purple, in the designer paper background flowers.  I'll post a card tomorrow with more purple. 

I used a retired stamp image from Close to My Heart called Daisy Field N198. Simply colored with Copics, cut and embossed with Spellbinders die and adorned with ribbon and a scalloped edged (Stampin'Up die) coordinating paper. 

I wanted something clean and simple and I think this will be okay.
Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day. 

Joan

Spring Boots with tulips

Good morning and happy Wednesday to you all.
Well, SPRING IS HERE. Yeah, finally, well for some of us. Unfortunately, winter is still lingering on for some of my readers. Some will still be wearing snow boots and others will be donning the rain boots.  BUT, the tulips will be blooming soon.
And with that thought, I want to share this special card with you.

Spring Boots Easel Card

Close up of the sentiment

I have used the Great Impressions Stamps- Spring Boots F545 image and the Delight  D442 sentiment.



I used my Copic and Spectrum Noir marker to color the image. I fussy cut the boots and popped them up on circles cut with the Spellbinders dies. I also stamped extra butterflies from the boots to use as embellishments.





 Easel cards are great to use as seasonal decoration and for those that just love to display greeting cards. 
Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day and happy 1st day of spring.

Joan

Great Impressions/ Lizzy

Hi friends. Joan, here today, with the Wednesday Great Impressions blog. I am half way though my March Guest Designer monthly spot and I had such a hard time narrowing down which image I would use for today's card.  Have you checked out the Great Impressions online store? 
Well, it was there, that I found Lizzy.
When I first saw this stamp, I thought of all the occasions that I could use her.  Valentines, Birthday, Get Well, Mother's Day, well, you get the idea. 

My image is Great Impressions Lizzy J109.
The sentiment is preprinted from a My Mind's Eye older calendar kit.
My card  measures 5 x 6 1/2.  I used My Minds Eye Lavender 6x6 paper pad for this project.
I started by choosing a patterned piece for Lizzy's dress. The yellow was girly and delicate.
I stamped her image  on white cardstock twice (one for the whole image and one for the arm and flower) and once on the yellow to paper pieced the dress. Lizzy is fussy cut out and popped up. I colored her with my Copic and Spectrum Noir markers.
The clouds are a die from My Favorite Things.
I did some stitching around the panels. Use a Stampin Up die to cut the eyelet trim and topped it off with a dark red ribbon.
Hope you have enjoyed seeing Lizzy in yellow today. I know that this stamp will see a lot of ink in the future. Who knows,  next time I may just color her dress with markers.

Have you have had time to make a card or project for the Monthly Challenge "Going Green/ Recycle"?  There is still plenty of time to submit your card.

Thanks for stopping by.
Joan

Great Impressions Bunny

Good morning friends.
My name is Joan ( athomewithjoan.blogspot. com) and I am the Great Impressions Guest Designer for the month of March. Each Wednesday I will be bringing a little something from my craft room to share with you.

Wow, did you see all those fantastic projects in our Spring Bunny Hop that was posted yesterday?  I am amazed at the creativity and the fantastic images and sentiments that were used. I know I came away with a shopping list. If you missed the hop, you can still go and visit the design teams posts and then head over to the Great Impressions Stamps online store to shop.

I am still in the spring mode, so I have a fun card to show you today. I made this card with Easter in mind, but I realized that this image could be used for a baby card, too. My inspiration for this card came from the most recent issue (Mar/Apr) of Paper Crafts magazine. I made a few changes, but I was so inspired to use the hexagons and the darling bunny.

I stamped Great Impressions Stamps - Bunny Front ( E783) onto a printed paper. Then I shaded with my brown copic marker and a touch of pink in the ears. I then fussy cut the bunny and popped him up on the die cut circles. I cut my hexagons with retired Creative Memories hexagon punch. The paper came from the new 6x6 paper pad collection from We R Memory Keepers called Simply Spring. 
I popped up the one green hexagon and then added my bow. Now, wouldn't this be darling in a blue, pink or yellow theme for a new born? Or maybe some Easter egg paper to make an Easter card for a child?
Thanks for stopping by today.

Joan

Great Impressions Stamps Bunny Hop

Hi friends and welcome to the Great Impressions Stamps Bunny Hop!  We are excited to be celebrating all things Spring!  

If you came here from Jenny's blog you are in the right place.  If not, start at the beginning with Angi . There are ten stops on the hop which ends at the Great Impressions Stamp Blog. Be sure and leave a comment at every stop so that you are in the running for some fabulous stamping prizes!

For my card, I used the Great Impressions stamp Spring Boots F545. I just love these boots with the bouquet of tulips. I used Spectrum Noir markers to color my image and my pearls. Then I fussy cut the image and popped it up on the white background.  I used pink and white twine from American Crafts and some green leaf ribbon. The background is embossed with Window Panes from Cuttlebug.

Up next is the very creative Mary.

If you get lost along the way, here is the line up for the Bunny Hop.
Angi

Cheryl

Erin

Jenny

Joan (you are here)

Mary

Patti 

Shanna

Sue

Great Impressions Stamps Blog

 Thanks for hopping by and leaving some bunny love.

Great Impressions March Challenge

 

 It's time for the Great Impressions Stamps Monthly Challenge. The theme for March is to have something "Green or Recycled" on your card or project.


I am so excited to be a part of the Great Impressions Stamps design team as a guest designer for March. So, here is what I made for the challenge to get you inspired to join us this month.

I am using Great Impressions Farm Buddies E726 and Gratitude D451 on my card today. I stamped them on white Bristol Board paper using Memento Black ink. I find that the Bristol board is great for using the alcohol markers. I used a combination of Copic and Spectrum Noir alcohol markers for my grass and pig. I made my own cloud stencil for the sky background and used a nice blue ink. The paper is from We Are Memory Keepers 6x6 simply spring packet.

Hope that you will join in on the March challenge with your something green or recycled card or project.
Thanks for stopping by

Joan

Does the groundhog really know?

Well, it's snowing again, here in the midwest. Does anyone know if the groundhog is really correct about 6 more weeks of winter? Brr.....Well, I guess it's a good day to blog and craft. Here is a little card I made in honor of Ground Hog Day.

This is a free digital image that I got somewhere on blog land. Thanks for stopping by today. Keep warm.

Joan

Out of Africa

Here is a card I sent to my daughter for the fun of it.

 My daughter and son-in-law spent 5 months in Africa last year doing research and working with the school district and villages in  Lilongwi, Malawi. I know they went on a safari while they were there and saw many elephants.  So, I used stamps from Close to My Heart, to try to recreate the scene. These stamps from several CTMH sets, but it is fun to put bits and pieces together to see what I can create. I fussy cut the elephants out and popped up the front one.
Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great day.

Joan

Forget About the Cake

Just a quick post today for some little cards I made after watching two videos on using watercolor pencils and one layer cards. Not sure I am a one layer person, so the washi tape appeared to add a little touch of color. I have a stamp set from the Cat's Pajamas called Forget About the Cake. I tried a new technique and layout of inserting the words within a black lined box. I guess you can make the box whatever color, but I chose black.

                                     So here are the two cards I made. One feminine

                                                     and one a little masculine.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

Joan

Buford is back

Hi, thanks for dropping in to peek at my blog. I don't know if the flu bug hit in your area, but I needed masculine "get well" card, so Buford came to the rescue. I love playing with Buford Feels Poorly from Great Impressions.  He is so easy to do paper piecing and it looks great in so many colors. I also used the sentiment " Need some TLC?" from Great Impressions.

The Monthy Challenge at Great Impressions is to have a heart somewhere on your card.  Well, I used this darling paper from MME, Love Me, with the tiny hearts for Buford's blanket and on the soles of his feet.  I wanted to make this card more masculine, so I went with the blue and brown theme.

Well, that is my Buford card for today. Have a great day and stay healthy.

Joan

A View of Winter

I thought I would post this page from my journal. It's not quite where I want it to be, but I am practicing some new techniques. Over at Lindsay Ostrom's blog, she has a challenge of something in our home that is special and inspires us.

Well, mine isn't inside my home, but what I see when I look out my patio door. It's winter, so I wanted to capture what is outside during this time of year.

I found this quote and thought I would incorporate this into my art. I enjoy all the seasons, but winter is the precursor of spring and new life. I hope to add a few details to this journal page, but for now, I need to let it rest. Thanks for stopping by.
Joan

Winter Songbirds

Oh, winter is still here. Hmm... so I am still making winter cards and trying to get ahead of my Christmas cards.  I have this great stamp from Great Impressions that I used for my cards. I started out with papers from Basic Grey- Fact and American Crafts- Hip Hip Hooray paper pads.

The songbird image is Great Impressions #G443S and the sentiment Season's Greetings is #C427S. I found this sketch online and think that it was a recent challenge. I did some stitching, glitter on the tree branches and sentiment.

This next card is the same bird image. I also did stitching and glitter on this card. I left off the sentiment on this card so that I can use it for any winter occasion. I always seem to need winter theme "thank you's" after Christmas. This would also make a great winter birthday card.

Thanks for stopping by. I will also post these on my pinterest board.
Have a great day.

Joan

New Blogger template test

Well, January is the month for reorganization, so I decided that my blog needed to be cleaned up. I reverted back to a simple layout to keep all the distractions away from my cards. So, this is just a test to see how long it takes to load the side tools and gadgets. Hope you find this more pleasing to the eye. I hope to get a few cards posted tomorrow. Have a great evening. 
Joan

Great Impressions Jan 2013 Challenge

It's a wonderful day to get creative. It's cold here (12 degrees brrrr..) so I took myself and a cup of tea to my Girl Cave. Hahaha.
 Great Impressions has a great sketch by Erin Taylor for the monthly challenge.

So, I turned on my portable heater ( my craft area is in the basement) and pulled out a few stamps and got to work.

I chose Great Impression stamps Buford Feeling Poorly G183 and TLC B226 . I paired this up with Basic Grey's " Out of Print" 6x6 paper. I did some sewing on the base part of the card and the stamped image cardstock. Then I paper pieced the blanket on Buford. 
 I used Olive cardstock from Close To My Heart and the scalloped border punch to finish off the edge of the olive. I found some cute washi tape from Recollections (Micheal's) to use on my banner. I tried to stamp with Memento Ink on the washi, but it just rubbed right off. So, I used my Staz'On Jet Black ink and let it dry for 5 minutes  before I continued playing with the banner.  
 I then punched out 3 of the little circles from the printed Basic Grey paper to make my little embellishments on the banner. Once I glued those on, I put liquid glass on them to give it a little bit of glossy texture.  I thought that if I were to send this to a guy, I couldn't put bling on it, so the dots work just fine.

I finished off the inside with a little strip of the printed paper. 
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you all stay well during this flu season. 
Have a great day.

Joan V.
http://greatimpressionsstamps.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-challenge-will-you-be-our-next.html

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #202

I have a card that I made for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge #202. Denise is hosting the challenge for this week. She says "This week’s challenge is to make something “New.”  You can use some new stamps, make a card with a Happy New Year sentiment, or take a card you’ve made in the past and make it new by recreating it with some changes/improvements. You can interpret the “New” theme however you wish!"
Well, I just received a bundle in the mail and since it is all NEW to me, I decided to take the plunge. 

I chose Summer Blossoms as my main image. I just love the Blossom series that has been created. These are fun to color and can be used for so many occasions. My paper is Lavender from My Mind's Eye. This collection has so many pretty papers, floral, dots, chevron, etc. I used Bazzill "Lagoon" for my card base and accent paper. My yummy ribbon came from a package I got from Flourishes, llc. I did some stitching, used my Spellbinders die and added the few pearls. I must say, that Flourishes stamps are so easy to use when you need to adjust your image. I used the sentiment Birthday Wishes from the Winter Blossoms set and curved them on my acrylic block to fit the die shape. Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day. 

Joan V.

Just Because FLLCJAN13

I am not one for Valentine's Day cards, but I decided to challenge myself with the Flourishes Love Letters challenge. So, do you all remember being young and buying those BIG greeting cards? Well, I decided to make my husband a BIG card so that I could practice my mixed media art. LOL. So, this is nothing fancy, I just wanted to have fun with my stamps, inks, paints and dies.

I drew the heart free handed. I used actual water colors from a pallet then I masked around it so that I could stamp with the bouquet of flowers from one of the new release sets Winter Blossoms. I used another stamp from the set in the corners.
Then I used the "Just Because" set for the sentiments.
I did some doodling around the heart, too. 

The butterflies are from Stamp"Up and the other greenery is from a cricut cartridge.
I love trying new things and I have been participating the Creative JumpStart 2013. So, this is the result of learning new things. LOL. Hey, it's art.  This card is BIG enough for me to frame for my hubby after Valentin's Day. This will be a constant reminder to him that I DO play with my stamps and art stash.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. 

Winter Blossom Flourishes Timeless Tuesday

Just a quick post so that I don't miss the deadline for the challenge at Flourishes. The theme for this weeks Timeless Tuesday challenge was to find a card or theme from past challenges to inspire my new creation. I found #192 from Oct 23, 2012 with a birthday theme. Well, I just received the new release stamp set "Winter Blossom" and thought that this would be the perfect time to ink these new images.Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.