Friday, June 30, 2017

Sunflower Hues



How’s life in your corner of the world this Friday?  Our boys are now officially done exams, completing grade 8 and grade 12, and we’re on vacation for a few weeks, and man, I’ve been waiting for a break!  

In that summery theme I pulled out the beautiful In Praise of Sunflowers set to celebrate the sunshine.  I’m not usually a shabby-style cardmaker, but this just sort of went that direction, though it gave me lots of trouble.  I was just having a day where nothing was going quite the way I thought it would, so my stitching is a little wonky, my paper tilted while I was sewing, and you just can’t rescue that.  So I had to embrace the slightly uneven way it went.  


Isn’t this a fun trio of summery colours for our Hues to Use Challenge?  I’ll admit I went with more of the yellow tones with coral undertones for the sunflower, but it makes a warm pairing, contrasted with the cool of the sage green.   Did you know that this month you could win a guest spot designing with our Hues to Use Challenge in upcoming weeks?  What a great time to try out a new challenge.  



Here’s a closer peek at the colouring, I added some pretty lace and a button to accent all of that stitching.  



Here’s the Bloom Brigade playing along today...


Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan



Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Owl You Need




We’re going from baby the other day, to wedding today!  I’ve pulled out the very sweet Owl You Need is Love from The Cat’s Pajamas set for a cute lovey-themed design.  

I started with some embossing paste and a tiny heart stencil on the peach textured cardstock, then it’s just simple pieces like the designer paper pennant banner, an open circle made from TCP’s Framed Up 2 die, which I ran through a woodgrain embossing folder.  It gives it the look of a knothole in a tree that they’re peeking out from. 



I used a lot of flicking strokes to give their feathers texture and movement and then added a bit of twine on a button and the sentiment.  They’re a pretty cute pair aren’t they?

Have you heard about The Cat’s Pajamas Summer Sale?  It’s on now, and it’s a great time to stock up!  



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Sunday, June 25, 2017

A Pink Bundle of Joy




Happy Monday people!  It’s all sweetness today, as I’m popping in with a cute little baby design for you.  I put My Favourite Things Adorable Elephants set to work with some Copic colouring and this sweet designer paper (Echo Park - Bundle of Joy).  It matches the elephant theme perfectly.  I popped up the balloon with a foam dot to give it a bit of extra dimension, and paired it with a cute sketch.  



A few buttons and some twine finish it all off and it’s ready for a new baby girl!  

Hope your day is a bundle of joy too!  





Friday, June 23, 2017

Indian Spring Hollyhocks



Ah Friday!  I’m so happy you’re here!  How about we kick it off with some pretty flowers to celebrate?  I wanted to do some colouring with these brand new Old Time Hollyhocks from Marcy’s Instant Garden at Power Poppy.  Aren’t they beauts?  To get some fresh inspiration I looked for some pictures of pretty hollyhock colour combinations and found this one at a seed site called SwallowTail Garden Seeds.  



When I saw this striking display I was sold!  It’s called Indian Spring mix, and that trio of colours is sure eye catching don’t you think?  



Coloured up with Copics, added to some pretty shades of designer paper with some sanding on the shape (ala my friend Julie Koerber who does it so well) and a wee bit of ribbon complete the design.  The sentiment is from another of our Power Poppy sets, Geraniums Take Two.  




Here’s the inside of the design stamped with the birthday sentiment from Go Wild.  




Here’s the Copics I used above.  

You have just a few days left to enter our June Bug Challenge at Power Poppy to win a $50 Shopping Spree at the Power Poppy store.  



Don’t forget to stop by the Power Poppy blog today to see Marcy’s Good Vibe 5 for the week.  There is always great inspiration, sale info, and general happy stuff happening each week.  

For now, I’ll leave you with my Bloomies playing along today for more inspiration...


Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Crossword Dahlias




Happy Tuesday friends.  Have you seen the new weekly challenge over at Power Poppy?  It’s called Hues to Use and each week Julie throws us a colour combination based on an inspiration picture.  This week it’s based on this fun picture below that honours Marcy’s mom and her love of the NY Times Crossword puzzle.    


Here’s my design ....



I pulled out the sweet little digi called Well Hello Dahlia.  It has a cute little single bloom in a vase and I knew it would work perfectly with these colours.  To go with the rest of the inspiration photo and the crossword theme, I combined two other Power Poppy sets, Big Scripts and Nice Things to Say, in the background stamping vertically and horizontally, on text designer paper, to give the feeling of the crossword.  



A couple of enamel dots, twine and flags finish it off.  



Now....for fun we’re adding a new element to our Hues to Use Challenge beginning today....play along and you could be chosen for a guest spot to design with our next month of Hues to Use!  More details today on the Power Poppy blog.

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Friday, June 16, 2017

Luminous Bouquet




How’s your Friday going this week?  As some of you probably saw via Marcy’s instragram or facebook page, The Bloom Brigade (minus 1 - our sweet down-under girl Kathy), gathered last weekend in St. Louis for a Bloomie Blow Out!  It was a trip all for fun and relationship.  After 9 years of working with or for Marcy, I finally got to meet her in person and hug her sweet little self.  She is as charming, bubbly, warm, creative and vibrant as you have imagined and we had a fantastic girl weekend bonding and seeing the sights of St. Louis.   So much joy rolled into a few short days.  This week it’s been back home to try and gather myself back to work and family.  I’ve had a whirlwind month with family visiting, lots of milestone family events, a busy ministry role and a trip thrown in.  I could use a little down time!  

I spent a few hours colouring up this brand new digi image from the Instant Garden at Power Poppy called Luminous Bouquet.  It’s a stunning image filled to the brim with Japanese Peony, Hydrangea, Clematis, and Oxalis.  I chose to go with the no-line version of the image, because now Marcy gives us options!  A cool palette of colours pulls it all together.  

In the background I used a stencil and some embosssing paste to bring texture and after it was dry I sponged in more of that amethyst colour to to take on those purple tones.  




A windowed design in layers, a bit of piercing, delicate rhinestones and some baker’s twine finish it off.  The sentiment is from another of our polymer sets, So Grateful, and I curved it a bit to match the curve of the oval window.  



Here are the Copics I used and there are a lot of them.  You can see in the colouring how I try to pull in the colours to make a multi-flower design cohesive, so there is purple in the shading of the pink peony, green in the blue hydrangeas, pink in the purple centers of the clematis, purple in the oxalis...just these little details tie the over all colouring together.  


I’ll leave you with a couple of my favourite pictures from the Bloomie weekend....you could not find a group of lovelier, warm, fun, supportive and creative women around!  Blessed to know each of them, and maybe next time we can have our Kathy join us from down-under too!  


At the St. Louis Cardinals MLB game!  


My sweet friend Stacy.


Marcy’s girls made us the Welcome Bloomies sign :)  Her beloved Doug and her kids are awesome, what a treat to meet them all and see the love they have for each other!  



Of course we had to have some flower time, after all we are the Bloomies!


Lots of sun and wamth paddleboating at Forest Park, I was leaning on Cindy for support for the paddling!  



Meeting Mary Engelbreit at her studio.  That was an awesome experience!  

Thanks for sharing a bit of it with me.  I’ll leave you with a little reminder about our Power & Spark Challenge for the month of June....it’s called the June Bug Challenge and all you need is to include a little bug on your creation somewhere.  Enter in the challenge and you could win a $50 Shopping Spree at Power Poppy!  




Here’s the Bloomies in action today....


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Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Friday, June 9, 2017

June Bug



I’m popping in to celebrate our June Power & Spark Challenge over at Power Poppy!  This month Julie called it the “June Bug” challenge, and somewhere in your design you need to use a bug!  Cute as can be!  



I had already started colouring these gorgeous Ranuculus from Power Poppy’s set, Dynamic Duos:  Foxglove & Ranunculus.  This set is also available as a single image in digital form too if you’re interested.  I stamped it in a soft grey ink to keep the lines lighter, and then coloured it up with Copics and finished off some of the definition with Prismacolor Pencils.  

Then to get my little bugs in there, I used the bees from the Foxglove partner in the polymer set, stamping them separately and trimming them out.  I have no idea if bees like ranunculus....but they do on my card! :)



A bit of framing with a stitched die, some gingham paper and some buttons complete the design, and the sentiment is from Power Poppy’s set, Go Wild.  



Here’s a peek at the inside with another buzzing bee included.   Below are the Copics I used, but I didn’t include the Prismacolor Pencils used.  



Don’t forget to drop by the Power Poppy Blog for another edition of Good Vibe 5, where Marcy showcases 5 fabulous bits of inspiration, and stop by my Bloom Brigade sisters playing along today....


Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker



Monday, June 5, 2017

Sand, Sea and Sky


Greetings everyone!  I’ve had so little time to stamp in the past month.  We’ve had family visiting, a lot of family celebrations, and a lot of things I’ve needed to take care of at work.  All really great things, but they sure add up to a lot of time otherwise invested.  I appreciate your patience as I get back into my stamping groove :) Today I took a few minutes to put together a cute, clean and simple design with some new The Cat’s Pajamas dies.  

It’s all for our new TCP Challenge, Sand, Sea and Sky!  Perfect timing for those warm summer days ahead.  



Here's a dreamy little ocean scene that looks very inviting right about now, doesn’t it?  I combined several new TCP dies including:  Beaches CutUps die, which includes the pretty stitched waves and the awesome sailboat.  Next I added the Clouds and Balloons die,  in the background, and highlighted the little sail boat with a Framed Up 2 CutUps circle.  




Some twine finishes off the bottom, and the sentiment comes from TCP’s set, Simply Stacked Sentiments.  

So come on in and join in the Sand, Sea and Sky Challenge this month!  Alma’s UPPED the ante and has made this month long challenge worth a $50 Cat’s Cash Voucher!  


Here are the deets about the challenge....
  1. Every Release Tuesday a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog and our Facebook page.
  2. If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button by, 11:55 EDT the day before the next challenge.
  3. You are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas stamp or die but if you have them we would love to see them.
  4. On the day after the challenge ends, the winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $50.