Cherry Blossoms from PTI

I think because we have a cherry tree in our backyard, I have such an affinity for all things cherry.  Those blossoms are always just gorgeous in the spring.  So, this new die set from PaperTrey Ink really spoke to me.  It’s called Into the Blooms:  Cherry Blossoms.  It’s so elegant and classy, and you can colour it up, cut it from cardstock, or add variation in colour using ink blending.  

For this design I paired it with the Psalm Reflections:  March Mini stamp set, stamping this beautiful verse from Psalms in Seedless Preserves Distress Oxide Ink, and the coordinating Joy die.  

Each of the blossoms is given colour with ink blending, and layered for a gorgeous multi-dimensional look.  The background is run through a quilted die, and I added a ombre background with Distress Inks as well.  

Spring is SO SLOW in coming to our part of the world.  I can’t wait to see these blossoms in real life!  Thanks for joining me today.  

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Cherry Blossoms from PTI

Bird Wreath Blessings with The Greetery

 

As I’m writing this, I’m looking out at frost covered branches from days of fog we’ve had.  It’s spectacular and sparkly, and one of the reasons I love Winter.  But, if I had to choose, I think Spring is my favourite!  This design using The Greetery goodies and Stamp Simply feels just like spring to me!  

There’s some lovely components that went into this design, that I originally created for some missionaries that were returning home after many decades of service, but I chose a different card, and just got around to finishing this one up.  To create the beautiful wreath I used The Greetery’s beautiful Floral Arches Stamp and Stencil, and the coordinating die.  Using Disress Oxide inks for the colour for the flowers and leaves.  The sweet goldfinch was created with The Greetery’s Robin and Wren Stamp set and Coordinating Die.  And he looks perfect perched in the flowers!

The sentiment is from a Stamp Simply set called Pastor and Ministry Appreciation Scripture. And I’ve added some background using a basketweave stencil for extra texture and pop of colour.  

It makes a lovely encouragement for someone who is making a difference!  

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Bird Wreath Blessings with The Greetery

Panda Pedal Parade

September has rolled in on the calendar and at least in our area the weather has taken a decided turn to Autumn.  Though I’m hoping Summer temps will swing back in, I know it’s not going to stay for long.  All our kids are “back at school”, in the unique ways it looks for them.  Our daughter is a Grade 5 teacher in a Spanish as a Second Language classroom doing in-person school - for as long as that lasts, our middle son transferred to a new program in University online this semester, and our youngest son is (for now) doing in person Grade 12.  If there’s one thing that’s constant for all of us its change.  

Today I’m popping in with a new September Challenge at The Cat’s Pajamas.  This month it’s all about Animals.  Any animal is welcome!  So I’m using the adorable pandas in the I’m Not Fat set.  Our fluffy little dude is pedalling to a Birthday Party with gifts and balloons.  He’s coloured up with Copic markers.  

To create the little scene for him I used Distress Oxide Inks and the Great Outdoors Stencil, that I can’t get enough of to bring fluffy clouds and hills.  Then he’s cut out with the  Scalloped Duo Die, and I’ve added the Grass Die to ground the image.  A couple of balloons from the Birthday Set Die accent the image, tied with some black twine.  

For the sentiment I’ve used TCP’s One Liners Stamp Set, and a couple of Enamel dots to add some more black and draw your eye to the sentiment.  

So, pop on over to the rest of the Kitties in The Cat Pack playing along today for more Animal Inspiration and then play along with us!  You could win a $50 Gift Voucher to the TCP Store!  

TCP Blog

Nancy

Wendy

Julee

Cristena

Brenda 

Deborah

Christine (you are here)

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Panda Pedal Parade

Power Poppy’s New Aloe and Oranges

We are so excited to begin the introductions to the NEW Release from Power Poppy with a collection called Fresh Squeezed Scents!  Today we’re beginning with the beautifully unique set Aloe and Oranges!  Isn’t it just dreamy!?  Marcy illustrated such a beauty here!  When she first showed it to us she designed it to run in a vertical fashion, but as I played with it I found it also worked perfectly in this horizontal direction as well.  I printed the image onto Copic XPress it paper in a light grey so it’s about halfway between no-line colouring and a typical printed image.  That’s the transparency of line I like to work with best, and one of the great things about digital images, you can adjust them!

I’ve given it lots of deep rich colouring with Copic Markers and then added detailing in with Prismacolour Pencils.  To give the orange realism and texture I’ve coloured it with a blend of pointillism, and added juicy highlights to the cut orange.  I love the colour contrast between the blue greens of the aloe and the vibrant oranges of the fruit.  Can’t you just smell the citrus fragrance now?  

I’ve added a sentiment stamped with Power Poppy’s Tea in the Garden Stamp Set, and surrounded it with a scalloped edge die and a deep purple layer to really highlight the background and make the images pop.  

Truly a stunning image don’t you think?  

There’s lots more inspiration with the new Bloom Brigade in store....just click on these links to be amazed, and I’ll see you tomorrow with more inspiration!  

Stacy
Julie 
Leslie
Kathy
Ally
Broni
Barbara C

Barbara W

Gloria

Nancy

Lisa

Christine (you are here)

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Power Poppy’s New Aloe and Oranges

WCMD with Power Poppy!

It’s the best kind of day!  World Cardmaking Day!  And today, the Power Poppy gang is celebrating by creating our favourite kind of card, and you’re invited to play too!  

There are a couple of favourite kinds of cards I like to make.  Though I probably use more birthday cards than anything, my favourite to make is a card that will encourage someone.  Something to spur them on, or brighten their day because they know they’re loved.  So, this design is created with Power Poppy’s Fortunes of Fall set and these adorable vases of zinnias.  I love to work with flowers and with stamps that have a lot of colouring potential.  All the base colouring is done with Copics, and then I finished off the details with Prismacolor Pencils.  

I made a bit of a easel fold for this design, anchoring the fold with a pretty ribbon tag die from The Cat’s Pajamas.  

Zinnias are just the most cheerful flower with their wide variety of colours, and I just love the unique little vases Marcy illustrated too!  

We have FUN news for today....

Are you planning on making a Power Poppy WCMD creations?  Join us in making your favourite type of card.

Also, you can comment on any of the Bloomie’s posts today and you are in the running for a WCMD goody bag full of fun Power Poppy goodness!  

And third....Power Poppy is having a one day ONLY, 24-hour flash sale.  It’s 20% off anything in the store if you use the code WORLD!   

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan
and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog

Copics:  Y15, Y17, YR15, YR18, R12, R14, R27, G0000, G00, G02, BG000, BG10, BG11, Bg18, BG53, BG57, YG00, YG01, YG21, Y23, RV14, RV17, RV19, RV69

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WCMD with Power Poppy!

You are Fab-oo-lous with TCP

We hope you’ve enjoyed the Sneak Peeks this week from The Cat’s Pajamas!  Today all the new sets and dies for September are available in the store, and we’re celebrating with one more round of inspiration on our Blog Hop!  You should have come from some lovely inspiration on Michelle’s blog, but if you get lost along the way pop back to the TCP Blog for the full list.  

I have a couple of designs to show you.  For starters I’ve combined the new set Faboolous and embossed this fun sentiment in copper, with a watercoloured background (I even used a straw to push around the colours).  I also added the “you are” sentiment from another TCP set, Simply Stacked Sentiments to make it a fun encouragement theme.  

You can see I’ve dabbled in some metallic paint, and accented with shimmery copper stars using TCP’s Liners CutUps Die and Holiday Toppers Cut Ups for the different sized stars.  

Next, I have a Christmas gift package! 

New this month at TCP are these fun Kraft Pop Up Tubes.  They come 4 to a package and are flat initially, so you can cover them with stamping or designer paper before assembling into the tube.  I chose to cover this one with some pretty Christmassy designer paper and then accent with some TCP dies (Icing CutUps and the new FREEBIE die this month, Portrait of Mew in metallic gold paper for the sentiment and frame).  I stamped the new set, Christmas Seals in the center and finished it off with gold metallic ribbon and the pretty wide grossgrain ribbon.  

So fun and classy!  There’s so many possible ways you can use these fun tubes!  Great for fall or Christmas gift giving!  Here’s a peek at the new items I’ve used today....

So now you can pop on over to see what lovely creations Nancy has cooked up for you on the Hop!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you’ve been inspired.    

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You are Fab-oo-lous with TCP

Transforming Watercolour Bloom to Lavender Fields

In my watercolour class, one of the early exercises we did was work on our watercolour washes, blending from one colour to another with a flat brush.  Despite being told that you can’t add more water into a wash than is already present, especially once it’s stopped being shiny,  I thought I could just rework my purple a “WEE" little bit more without dabbing my brush off of too much water....what happens is called a watercolour “bloom”, where the colouring seeps away and forms a line that should not be there :(  bummer.  Lesson learned.  But as I looked at it after it dried a few days later, I thought maybe it could look like a lavender field and I could rescue it.  So, I added in some more hills,mountains and soft flower definition and viola!  A very clean and simple watercolor card that I really like.  

You can see my “bloom” at the edge of the lavendar fields where it has a fuzzy line and then fades to the white of the first hill.  I tried to make the most of it!  Stamped with a lovely sentiment that seemed to fit, from Power Poppy’s Soothing Sympathy set.  The background is stencilled/sponged with a Tim Holtz Bubble Stencil, and some Soft Sky ink.  That smile bit of washi tape anchors the image.  

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Transforming Watercolour Bloom to Lavender Fields

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

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Sunflower Hues

Scripture Series V

Wowee...it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post cards from my Scripture Series! I’ve found this to be a hectic Winter and Spring.  I think it was getting behind having pneumonia for a month, and then renos at our house, and I feel like I’ve never been able to catch up!  Maybe today some of you are feeling like that too.  

But I’m finally back today with another pair of cards showcasing Scripture that means so much to me.  

Yesterday we put on a celebration for all our Administrative Staff at Church.  Once a year we Pastors make a special lunch for all our staff that faithfully fill so many significant support roles.  

And, because I like to, and they let me, (smile), one of my jobs is to make the cards for each of them that go with a gift.  

This first design is for one of our friends who served as a ministry assistant to one of our Pastors, in just a few weeks he’s graduating from Seminary and will be looking for a new role as a full-time pastor.  We’ll miss him greatly, but also really believe in him.  So for his card I wanted to also have an encouraging theme for his next phase of life.  I love lighthouses.  This pretty set from ODBD is called Light of the World. 

I stamped the lighthouse on XPress It Blending cardstock and coloured it up with Copics.  I really wanted to get that pop of red in there so I created stripes on the lighthouse design.  I added a frame with some MFT pierced oval dies to give it a porthole feel, even though I’m pretty sure portholes are circles.  

I wrapped some baker’s twine around the frame, added some brads and kept it in that masculine feel.  

I just barely fit the sentiment on the centre fishtale section (which is also almost not a fishtale as I had to keep the cut quite shallow.  I left off the reference for space, but it’s from Matthew 5:14 - 16.  

Next up is another masculine design.  It's not one I used for our Adminstrative staff, but one I created to send to my Sister-In-Law.  

The one drawback to this card that I regret is that the polka-dots do camouflage the sentiment a little, but I do love how the overall design worked out.  Its stamped with Verves set Scripture Medley 2.   I framed the sentiment with a scalloped die, added a bracket symbol cut with my Silhouette Cameo, and accented with some brads, black velvet ribbon and a ribbon slide.  

On the close-up you can see the verse a little better.  With such a powerful verse, you really want to see the message!

Thanks for stopping by friends.  Catch up with you soon!  

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Scripture Series V

Always Elly

 Hello Friends!

A full week has meant that I didn’t get as much creative time in to show you, but I spent a few minutes after work putting together this card with an image I had coloured up and sitting on my desk.    I seem to be stuck on these little MFT elephants lately :)  I love their little sweet faces.

I’m also playing along in this week’s MFT Sketch challenge too.  I always like off centered sketches, must be my off-centered personality :). This sweet little guy is coloured up with Copics, and I went quite dark on his shadows.  

I used MFT’s pierced ovals for the main image and then TCP’s Dotted background CutUps to make a peek through for the fun plaid paper.  Everythings more cheerful with plaid!  

Such an encouraging sentiment too.  

Hope this day finds you well!  Thanks for stopping by.  

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Always Elly

This is Dave

The other week when I was colouring at Camp, a friend was sitting with us and I asked him, “ok, what colours should this little seahorse be? ” He threw out some colour suggestions, so I took them, coloured him up, and then named this little guy after him for fun - so this is Dave :)  Stamped with The Cat’s Pajamas Seas the Birthday set for the seahorse, and I Are Fun for the sentiment.  

I played with the Mojo Sketch this week creating inset bubbles (with a circle die) where the circles are in the sketch.  Next, I made a stencil from acetate out of the Dots CutUps Die, sponged the turquoise layer with some ink and then inset that acetate into the larger bubbles.  Double duty!  I like how it gives that under the sea bubbly look.   

I did some sparkly scribbling around the edges of the design, embossed the sentiment, added a button and baker’s twine and then used a sparkly pen to add in some more bubbly fun.  

Come play along with our TCP Tuesday Anything Goes Challenge!  It’s your last week to play along and you could win Cat’s Cash to spend in The Cat’s Pajamas store!  

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This is Dave

Magnolia Sunshine

Hello Friends!  Today we’ve got a brand new challenge at Power Poppy that’s going to be another good stretch for you.  Ally’s our hostess and here’s what she had to say about the challenge:

This month I want you pull out a coloring medium that you don't use that often.  So if you tend to use Copic Markers for instance, pull out your water color paints or your colored pencils instead!  Let's see you use up some of those not-so-used mediums this month.

That’s a great challenge for me as I tend to grab my Copics most.  Today I pulled out my prismacolor pencils and this BRAND NEW beauty, Magnolia Sunshine!  

Marcy has a brand new digi today that honours her mom’s favourite flowers - Magnolias and Daffodils.  As some of you may know, Marcy’s mom is going through some health challenges so we want to give her all the love, encouragement, prayers and sunshine we can, so I made this especially sunshiney.  

Did you see the fun tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers the other day on how to make a Pleated Skirt Fold?  I thought it was an ingenious way of folding paper in a simple way that creates a neat focal point.   So, I found some sunshiney paper in my stash (SU) and pleated the lower section.  

The image is just so pretty!  Here’s what this pretty digi looks like below:  

Here is a closer look at the colouring.  Finishing details include sparkly ribbon, enamel dots and baker’s twine.  

Here’s also a closer look a the pleated fold too.  Its nice because you can show off both sides of a double sided paper.  

And we’re also jumping in with the 30 Day Coloring Challenge at the Daily Marker with this one too!  It’s a good encouragement to color a few minutes every day!  

So, now we’d like to invite YOU to jump in with us at Power Poppy and pull out some of your unused colouring mediums to colour with us this month.  Enter at the Power Poppy Blog and you could win a Power Poppy set of your choice!  

Here’s the Bloomies and Instant Gardeners playing along today....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
Cheryl Scrivens
Barbara Walker

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Magnolia Sunshine

Hey Girl

Well, we’ve got all three kids off to school now.  Our youngest started Junior High, and as I imagined  because of his personality, it’s been a great start, which is really fun.  Our middle son is in High School and our daughter is in second year University.  

I actually made this card for our daughter, and I hope you don’t mind my proud mama moment.   A few weeks ago she received notice that she was awarded a scholarship for second year, she found out she’s in the top 2% of her degree program.  With at least 4000 students in her degree at the University she’s at, it’s a huge accomplishment and she worked very hard last year for it.  She studies hard and also holds down a part-time job at the same time.  I just wanted to let her know again, as she’s finishing out week two of year two, that we’re really proud of her, not just for earning the scholarship, but also to see her pursue her calling.  She’s going to be a great teacher.  I’ll pop it in her backpack to surprise her.  

This great set from Power Poppy is called Well Played, Marcy designed it with her daughter in mind, and it’s a perfect set with lots of fun images and love and encouragement in the sentiments.  Inside the card reads “You totally rock!"

I gave it some fun colouring to match the paper by Carta Bella (Hello Again), and mimicked the heart and star on the backpack in the sentiment/embellishments. 

To make the wood veneer heart match the card, I gave it a little touch of R21.  

Now don’t forget...we’re only half way through our Power and Spark Challenge this month to create Gifts from the Heart!  Jump on in for your chance to win!

Here’s the rest of the Bloom Brigade in action....

Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan

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Hey Girl