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.