Father's Day, Etc.

I'll Start With This One

I'm in the mood for masculine cards . I should be making graduation cards, but I'm not feeling it today.

The main image on this first card is from a coloring book site, and the pelican is from Dustin Pike. They're colored using Copics. I think it's a comical image! 

The inside says, "Relax...go fishing. Happy Father's Day!"

Card stock: SU! Bordering Blue and Real Red

Patterned paper: Basic Grey

Border: Martha Stewart punch

Die cuts: Cuttlebug

Ribbon: Ribbons & Bows, Oh My!

Tee For Dad!

I've had the idea for this card for some time now, but just got around to making it yesterday. I think I got the t-shirt image from an online advertisement. The bull  is from Elizabeth O. Dulemba's coloring book site. Copics were used on both. The sentiment was computer-generated.

The inside says," And that's no bull shirt!"

I think it will give the recipient a good chuckle!

Card stock" SU! Going Gray and Always Artichoke

Patterned paper: Basic Grey

Border: Martha Stewart punch

Hardware: SU! 

Ribbon: Stash

And Then, Etc....

This is one for the little guys.

This last card uses a Lili of the Valley stamp. Yes! I used an actual stamp for a change!

I really like the stamps from this English company, but do wish they were available in a digital format. Ha ha!

Sentiment stamp: Hero Arts

Card stock: SU! Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, Ballet Blue, and More Mustard

Patterned paper: Basic Grey

Tools: Cuttlebug, Nesties, Paper crimper, Embossing folder

Embellishments: Basic Grey buttons, Embroidery floss

Antique Furniture

Vintage Doll Furniture

I just love this little antique doll bureau. I had to have it the minute I saw it years ago at a local antiques shop. It stands a little under 18 inches, which makes the scale about1/4 to 1/5. I actually use it as a jewelry box. As you can see below it's part of an old-fashioned doll bedroom vignette arranged on a bureau in my bedroom.

The 'room' is furnished with antique, vintage, and reproduction doll furniture and accessories. The pictures above the doll bed are actual photos of my maternal grandparents, taken on their wedding day in the late 1800's! The little kerosene lamp really works. Two of the little perfume bottles were a gift from a friend, who brought them back from a trip to Paris. There's a small, working brass clock on the shelf under the mirror. You can't see the beautiful little rosewood hand mirror on the bureau to the right of the pitcher and basin. It was a gift from my husband, and may have been made by the Shakers, as I've seen full sized versions at the Shaker Village in Canterbury N.H. Don't you just love the bed warmer that's hanging on the wall? I think I squealed out loud when I first saw it!  If you look closely, you'll even see a miniature shove-under hiding under the bed. I can actually remember using one when visiting one of my country relatives as a very young child. They didn't have running water, so it was the 'thunder jug' at night and an outhouse during the day!

This image is from Digi Doodle's Best Shop. They have a lot of wonderful vintage images: vehicles, furniture. people, etc.

This was colored with Copics, of course! I tried to achieve the look of oak on the washstand  and marble for the top. I really like the way it turned out. I used Basic Grey's Kioshi DP and SU!'s Purely Pomegranate CS along with some purple textured Bazzill for the card base.The border punch is one of Martha Stewart's, as is the branch punch. The flowers are almost all from Wild Orchid Crafts with the exception of the pale pink rose from Prima. I added a few purple pearl cabochons to balance the bouquet.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my tiny bedroom. Come back to visit soon! I'll have more of Digi Doodle Shop's images in future posts, and more doll furniture and miniatures!

Mo's Challenge # 33

All About Babies!

Denise's challenge this week was for us to make something with the theme of babies using one of Mo's wonderful images. Any babies will do...human or furry...it's up to you!

I used two of Mo's sweet images and merged them into one scene. Ben is pouring more water into his little brother's kiddie pool. I don't know the name of the image of the baby in the pool. It was a freebie from Mo's that I believe is now available for sale. I can't claim the idea of merging these two as my own...I saw it done somewhere months ago and thought it was really clever. 

I used Copics and Prismacolor pencils to color the image. My color inspiration came from the DP....Basic Grey's Kioshi collection. I think the papers in that collection are so pretty! I also used Only Orange, Barely Banana, and Mauve Mist, (all of which are now retired) and Certainly Celery from SU! The textured purple is from Bazzill.

I made the white daisies, leaves and ferns using Martha Stewart punches. I used Flower Soft for the daisy centers. The tiny roses are Prima. 

I used Crystal Effects to make the water shine. you can see it better in the picture below.

The little folding chair (Yes, it really does fold up!) and the watering can are from my miniature collection. 

Thanks for looking, and now let's see your babies in this week's Challenge!

A Start on Father's Day

Only God Can Make a Tree!

(But I can try!)

 This card uses Mo's "Bella and Bronte Camping". I think this is such a fun and unusual image! I had to have it when I first saw it because my husband loves camping, as do all my children and grandchildren. Me...not so much! I stay home and make cards while they go off and enjoy the great outdoors. 

As always, I colored the image with Copics and Prismacolor pencils. The DP is from Basic Grey, and the CS is Garden Green and Soft Suede from SU!. The border is a Martha Stewart punch. The striped grosgrain ribbon is a favorite from my stash. The sentiment is a stamp from My Sentiments Exactly.

I had a small, flat, painted wooden tree that I wanted to use as an embellishment, but couldn't find it anywhere, despite tearing through all my stuff! I was at a loss as to what to use instead. I finally settled on trying to make a leafy branch, and this is what I came up with.

I covered some wire in white florist tape, shaped it into a branch, and colored it brown with a Copic marker. (I would have used brown tape if I'd had any, but I had to improvise!) I punched out several small flowers with five pointy leaves in green CS, shaped them a bit with my fingers and a small awl, and glued two together. I glued the clusters onto the branch, and I was done!

It still needed something, so I found this cute owl on a coloring book site, printed him very small, colored and cut him out. He's mounted on the branch using a pop dot.

I thought I had some yellow star buttons, but I came up empty on those, too. I just used my trusty Copics to color some white ones and sewed them on with linen thread.

This may be my husband's Father's Day card. On the inside it will say, " To the man who always makes sure I'm a "happy camper"! That, in fact, is so true! All my friends say I'm terribly spoiled. I just laugh and say, "Yes, I am, aren't I!" 

Just tonight I came home from school with feet that were very swollen from the oppressive heat we're having in NH this week. I went into the living room and sat down in the reclining chair to put my feet up. A few minutes later, he came into the room with a fan and set it up to cool my poor feet (and me!) down. It's things like that that make me realize I made a pretty good choice 44 years ago!

All You Need is Love!

Guys and Games!

Our hostess for this month's challenges at Mo's, Denise, wanted us to make cards about "love". Any kind of love would do, so I made a card using Mo's "Game On", because there's not much a young guy loves more than games! I'm sure any mother, wife, or girlfriend can back me up on that!

I love the look of intense concentration on his face...he's so into his game that nothing could tear his eyes away from the action! 

The image is colored using Copics and Prismacolor pencils. The DP is from Basic Grey.....scraps left over from other cards. The Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood Red, and Soft Suede card stock is from SU! They were all "In Colors", but the Soft Suede is now included in their new color families.

The sentiment is computer-generated and is cut out and mounted using the Narrow Oval Nestibilities set. The metal accents are from my stash, as is the ribbon scrap.

I love the look of sewing on cards, so I got out my machine and did straight stitching on the small panels and a decorative zig-zag on the image panel. That's the only kind of sewing I do nowadays! I used embroidery floss to make the red cross-stitch design.

This is for our step-grandson who is turning 21 this month and still LOVES his games!

Now lets see what kind of 'love' you'll celebrate with your creation!

Have fun! Can't wait to see what you'll do.

Elaine

I Love Digital Images!

Broadening Selection

There  are so many digital images out there now that you can find just about anything you're looking for! I just found a site called Digi Doodles that has a wide selection of images. I was particularly drawn to their vintage images of antique furniture and appliances.(I purchased several, of course!) There are also many images of women from different eras. 

 Field of Dreams

This is the first of two cards using Digi Doodles images that I have for you today. 

This cat reminds me of my Elijah. I colored it using my Copics and tried to capture his tiger stripes and the wood grain on the chair. I love this Basic Grey DP from the Green at Heart collection with this image because I can imagine that he's dreaming of being out in a field of flowers, chasing bugs. The border punch is from Martha Stewart, the flowers are Prima daisies, and the leaves are a Sizzix die. The CS is from SU!.... More Mustard and Dusty Durango.

  

The chair pictured with the card is from my collection. It's a replica of a Shaker ladder back with a woven twill seat.

  You've Got Mail!

I love this mailbox image! We actually had a bird nesting in our newspaper box one year. The delivery man was always very careful not to disturb the nest when he put the paper in.

I printed two of the images, colored them with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, cut out the box on one, then popped it up with mounting tape on the full image. The border is the MS Fence punch, The DP is Basic Grey. The card stock is SU! and both colors are now discontinued. I bought the ribbon roses at a dollar store years ago and hadn't used them because purple is not a big favorite of mine.

The tiny envelopes were made using a McGill punch, and the miniature card is an 'inchie' that I made that actually has a sentiment liner inside. 

I've entered this card in their challenge this week....use ribbon.

The Granite State

This card uses an image from Tiddly Inks. It's a one of several free images available to members of her PCP group. I love the whimsical nature of this! It's colored with Copics and highlighted with a white gel pen.The sentiment was computer-generated. I ruched the brown dotted satin ribbon for a more tailored look and sewed it to the card front. A few coordinating buttons add a little interest. The DP is from K & Company. The card stock is Creamy Caramel and Green Galore, more discontinued colors from SU!.

I couldn't resist photographing it with a few real rocks! We have an abundant supply here in New Hampshire...we're not called the Granite State for nothing! My brother, who lived in Louisiana, would always bring large rocks back with him whenever he visited. He'd use them as decorations in his garden. 

Mo's Challenge #31

 Flower Child!

Denise, our Challenge hostess for the month, has asked the DT members to create something with the theme of flowers using one of Mo's wonderful images. This should be an easy one for everyone...who doesn't love flowers?!

I needed a card for my granddaughter's 7th birthday, which is at the end of this month. She loves to display the cards I make for her in her room, so I decided to do something a bit special.....an explosion box card.

This was quite an undertaking! The tutorial I followed had the wrong measurements for the box itself, but I made the corrections and forged ahead. The box and top were very easy to make, and went together quickly once I made some adjustments. Decorating it, however, was not an easy task!

I worked on it over the course of several days, an hour here and an hour there. I won't even speculate on the amount of time it took!

I used "I Love Ya Tomorrow", one of my favorite and (I think!) most versatile of Mo's images. I printed her out twice, flipping the second image, colored them both, cut them out and glued them together with a piece of acetate, that was a bit longer than the images, between them. I snipped the bottom of the acetate, bending one side one way and the other in the opposite direction. I slipped the ends through a slit I had made in a card stock and DP panel that would be adhered to the inside bottom of the box once I had finished decorating it with flowers. I created the curved greeting on the computer, again printing two, one for each side.

The daisies were made using a Spellbinders die and flower soft for the centers. The pink flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. (Have I said how much I love that site?!). The leaves were made using a Quickcutz  branch die and Martha Stewart's Leaf punch. Flowers and leaves were adhered to strips of acetate with mini glue dots and inserted into slits in the panel. 

 The box top was the last thing to make. I made a fluffy bow with some sheer, satin-striped ribbon, attached it with Scor-tape and decorated it with more flowers and two butterflies made with an MS punch and decorated with pale pink glitter and some small heart-shaped pink pearls. I used the MS Lattice Border  punch and grosgrain ribbon to give some interest to the sides of the box top. There are more daisies and leaves on the four side panels, too.

Now let's see the wonderful things you'll do this week! Remember, one lucky entrant will be chosen at random to win an image of their choice from Mo's store!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elaine

Mo's Challenge # 30

 Beach Dreams

Denise is our hostess for the month of May. Her first challenge to us is to use a water theme with one of Mo's great images. I've had this image, "So Hot", since last summer and this is the first time I've colored it!. 

Another first for me....an easel card. I've been admiring everyone's creations for some time now, but never got around to trying one until now.

I had to come up with different measurements for a 5" by 7" card. I cut one piece  of card stock 5" by 12", and scored at 7", and again at 3 1/2". I cut another 5" by 7" for the card front and adhered that to the 1 1/2" folded section.

I think I went a bit overboard with the design elements on this....just couldn't seem to get the look I was going for. The sun is a stamp from Eat Cake Graphics. The crab and fish are coloring book images. All the images were colored using Copics and Prismacolor pencils and adhered to the card with mounting tape. The blue swirl DP is from a Making Memories pad, and the green bubble DP is from SU!'s Kaleidoscope collection. The textured Gable Green CS is also SU! as is the sentiment stamp.

The tiny shells are from a seashell necklace from Hilo Hattie's store in Honolulu. Everyone gets one when you go through the door. The little starfish are lavender plastic charms that I colored with a Copic marker.

This card is for our grandson, Caleb, who will be turning ten in June. He's a real water bug, so this image is perfect for him!

Mo has plenty of images that could fit the water theme, so check out the store and enter this week's challenge. We can't wait to see what you do!

 Snappy!

  In keeping with the water theme, I'll share a picture of a recent visitor to our back yard.

 

Our land runs along the Suncook River, which lies at the bottom of a fairly steep cliff at the side of our yard. Because of our location, we share the acreage with a lot of different wild life. We've seen snapping turtles in the water before, but never in our yard. He had to have put forth a Herculean effort to get up here from the river. My young cat, Elijah, was very curious, and had to be chased away to keep from being bitten by this rather large fellow.

Too Many Birthdays!

Cards "R" Us!

April through June are the busiest months for special occasions at our house. Of course there's  Mother's Day and Father's Day, but also our anniversary, and at least seven family birthdays! Needless to say, I'm busy making cards!

I made this one for my "soon-to-be" DIL who is turning 39 and is not welcoming it! The inside says, "Just blow it off and enjoy the day!"

The image was a free digital from Sassy Cheryl for members of her PCP group. I colored it with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, taking  the bright colors from the Basic Grey DP. The card stock is SU!'s Melon Mambo and Green Galore. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I made the little curls by wrapping very thin strips of CS around a paintbrush handle and stuck them on with glue dots.

Strawberries!

This one uses a digital image from Isabella's Sketchbook. I love the look of strawberries, so I had to have this as soon as I saw it! The digital sentiment is free from Paper Garden Project. The  paper is from Cosmo Cricket. The 8" X 8" pad is mostly fruit and vegetable prints with a few coordinating designs. Very cute! The card stock is Kiwi Kiss and Garden Green from SU!, and the white is from PTI.  I made the blossoms using the Martha Stewart Hydrangea punches and mini brads. The leaves are the MS Leaf punch. The ribbon slots were made using a MS punch, too. 

The inside says, "Wishing you a special day that brings the nicest things your way!"

Mo's White Rabbit

Of course, with all those birthdays, I'm bound to forget at least one! This card will come in handy if I do! This is Mo's adorable White Rabbit, which may still be available for free to her PCP and SNR groups. He's colored with Copics and Prismacolor pencils. It's Cosmo Cricket DP again, and Only Orange and Gable Green CS from SU!. The carrots were made using SU!'s Scalloped Circle punch and Martha's Branch punch. The fence border is also MS, and the tags are from SU!. The sentiment was computer-generated.
The inside says,"...for a very important date!. I hope your birthday was wonderful!"

I'll be posting more birthday cards in the next couple of weeks....I still need many more!
Thanks for stopping by!
Elaine