Yasutomo Niji- An ode to oriental art

A sneek peek of my very first post as designer for Yasutomo Niji!
..a chinese brush painting! interested?
 .......stop by their blog for a tutorial on how to create this oriental beauty!

See you there!

Yasutomo Niji- An ode to oriental art

Holiday Memories

Today I am showcasing our annual holiday card. I have taken parts of different rooms of our home and put it all together in a single scene!

We have deep reddish brown accent walls in the library and guest room and those two are my very favorite parts of our home. The rest of the home is painted in muted creamish yellows with chocolate accents . Usually holiday cards are sent with family photos, I thought it would be nice instead, to have a view of our house on the front panel!

 stamps-PTI-In the meadow, On my couch,stylish sentiments -Holiday

The entire scene has been stamped and colored with watercolors. All the stamps are by PTI
 
A closer look at the  dappled sunlight filtering through the  half drawn blinds ..

 Sharing with Simon Says Stamp-Anything goes
and Word Art Wednesday #99-anything goes

 I quite like how it turned out, what do you think?

 Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Holiday Memories

Papertey Ink September Blog Hop- The Wreath

For my earlier PTI blog hop post click here..

A watercolored wreath as my focal point!

Sharing with PTI Sept blog hop..

 I drew a wreath and colored in wet in wet to give it that soft foggy winter feel.
The sentiment is from PTI-Stylish Sentiments -holiday set.

 a closer look at the wreath.....

Also sharing with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Anything goes
and Moxie Fab Challenge-All that glitters is gold
and Word art Wednesday#99-anything goes

Thanks for stopping by !

Papertey Ink September Blog Hop- The Wreath

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

It's blog hop time over at Papertrey Ink and we have some wonderful wreath inspiration....perfect for holiday cards!

 I used my very favorite PTI stamp set -Door to Door, this set has such potential that I have used it over and over and over....
and of course my next favorite set is the stylish sentiments -holiday stamps...love it!
...combine both and this card was born!

Also sharing with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge-Anything goes
and Moxie Fab World-all that glitters is gold challenge
and word art Wednesday #99-anything goes

 A touch of gold on the wreath for some holiday sparkle!

might be back with another card today, stay tuned......off to hop now!

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

Butterflies and Blooms

 A new week ..a new card!
The weekend was over before we knew it! We took up a huge cleaning project which refused to get over! Anyway am glad it's Monday which means I can get back to my crafty life!

I had been meaning to come up with something to share over at Clearly Besotted  challenge blog, but  I have just one stamp set ..not wanting to repeat myself I hesitated to share this card. I had used the same stamp set last challenge too. This morning my hubs saw it on my desk and said..' It's really nice, I have not seen this one on the blog yet...is it new?
.....that finally pushed me to share it here today!

 Winsor and Newton watercolors, Watercolor paper-90#

 I stamped and colored the butterflies to create the background. Then I stamped the blooms and colored it in. Both are stamps from Clearly Besotted-Happy Everything. The sentiment is by PTI


 A closer look at the bloom ....

 Sharing with Clearly Besotted- Stamp your own background
and Word art Wednesday-challenge # 98-Anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Butterflies and Blooms

You and Me....

 Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner and filling the evening with laughter and squeals was this litlle girl, daughter of my friend, She came into the house wearing a green dress and holding a red teddy and I thought instantly about the color combination and how striking that would be!

 So this morning I decided to put it on paper lest I forget!

 stamps- Unity Stamps-You are my main squeeze, beauty around you.

 As I sat to paint, I thought of using this lovely stamp by Unity stamps, another beautiful Phyllis Harris illustration. I added the purple drapes as  the background to the green dress. As I  was nearing completion, I checked the colors over at The Unity Be Inspired Sept challenge and turns out they have a similar color inspiration photo!
 ..creative minds think alike I guess!

Also sharing with Word art Wednesday-challenge#98-anything goes 

A closer look....

isn't she adorable!

Thanks for stopping by today and a huge welcome to all my new followers!

You and Me....

CAS-ual Fridays # 115-Fall

Welcome back to another CAS-ual Fridays post..hope you'll enjoyed the back to school challenge!
With the cooler temps hitting us already and the change of colors around us, we are talking Fall!

I have a colorful Autumn card for you today.

 stamps- Martha Stewart -maple leaf, Sentiment -Wplus 9

Every year we drive up to Door county, Wisconsin  just to see the Fall colors. we love it there ! In fact Fall is my absolute favorite season ever!. I love wearing sweaters and scarves and bundling up!

For this card, I started by dampening the paper and laying in colors randomly. While still damp, I stamped the leaves in different colors for the blurry look and  once dry, I stamped again for a crisper image.

I used Inkadinkado watercolor markers and used the direct to stamp technique.

...... did you spot the two birds sitting among the leaves?

Simon Says Stamps is sponsoring this challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by, do check out the lovely inspiration by the rest of the DT over at the CFC blog....... don't forget to play along !

Sharing with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge-use a product from the stamp store.
I have used the Wplus9 Sweet nothings stamp set for the sentiment available at Simon Says Stamp.

and Word Art Wednesday-challenge#98-anything goes.

CAS-ual Fridays # 115-Fall

Peace on Earth

A holiday card for you today!

I went with a layout, I had not tried before, with the focal point way up, I love the way it turned out, something new and different ...what do you all think?

stamps-Crafter's companion, Inkadinkado

 sharing with Festive Friday FFC17- Color challenge

Added a hint of silver stickles under the roof line and some flocking on the roof.

Also  sharing with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.
The flock by Doodlebug available at Simon Says Stamp store.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

sharing with word art wednesday#98-anything goes

Peace on Earth

Scatter seeds of kindness..

 Today's card is a thank you note to the birds who frequent our bird feeder and a memory of the beautiful gift they gave us this year!

Every summer we buy a new bird feeder to add to the existing ones and my husband loves to keep it full at all times. The minute it goes down by half which sometimes could be within an hour of filling, I have strict instructions to refill it if I am home!( not that I follow that always, birds should not be pampered this way, what will they do over winter, is my reasoning!)

This year I got some sunflower seeds instead of the usual Songbird seeds that my hubs normally gets, and it seemed to attract quite a few beautiful, not seen before  kind of birds. One rainy morning we found the entire feeder opening chewed up, perhaps by a squirrel or just the birds pecking at it, and all the seeds on the ground and in 2 weeks time, we had some lovely sunflower saplings sprouting and growing tall and before we knew it we were enjoying some pretty huge sunflowers ! They were a treat and I would cut some to bring indoors. They gave us summer long happiness!

This morning, I saw that it had withered due the cold frosty night yesterday and decided to do a watercolor  to frame and enjoy over the long winter!

 sunflower stamp is by Stampendous and the sentiment by PTI- Year of flowers

Sharing with Curtain Call inspiration challenge-Sunflower surprise

Hope you liked it  and thanks for stopping by today!

Scatter seeds of kindness..

A christmas wish!

 I am half way through my holiday card making and am I glad I started early! I received a couple of requests for cards, so am trying to work on those simultaneously.

 stamps=Crafter's Companion, embossing folder-  Crafter's companion- Darice- leafy tree

Today am sharing yet another Christmas card, using Crafter's companion stamps and embossing folder.I love this  cute companions set - and the lovely illustrations by Jayne Nestorenko, a pleasure to color!

sharing with Crafter's Companion=September challenge- embossing

a closer look at the hint of glitter on the dress and bough...

 I have taken pictures at different angles just to show the lovely embossing!

Also sharing with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge- Emboss it

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

A christmas wish!

Someone New...someone Little.

A quick post today to share a new baby card!

 

stamps- Inkadinkado.

I  decided to use the colors over at 10 min craft dash..  This card took me 9 mins 22 secs. Quick coloring  and a simple sentiment .

 a closer look.....

............ love that cute little elephant!

Thanks for stopping by!

Someone New...someone Little.

Striped embossing

Sharing a card I made using a technique shared by Betsy over at PTI. The latest MIM #130 is about striped embossing...a fun and easy technique!

stamps- Papertrey Ink- Stylish Holiday sentiments, year of flowers

This card is my 5th attempt, my earlier 4 cards are in the recycle bin! I tried Betsy's technique of using post-it's for masking, but every single time the sticky residue from the post-it's attracted stray embossing pdr!. Finally I stamped using versamark and poured the three different colors of pdr..silver, bronze and gold without masking..and ..prayed!


I stamped the poinsettia and colored in loosely.

here is a closer look.......

Also sharing with Simon Says Stamp- Emboss it

and Moxie Fab World-all that glitters is gold challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Striped embossing

CAS-ual Fridays # 114- back to school

Happy Friday everyone!
..and welcome back to another Cas-ual fridays post! This week it's all about back to school projects ..teacher cards, inspiration projects ...you get the idea!

 stamp- Pencil-Studio112, Sentiment-PTI- all booked up

No school can start without a pencil!

I created a simple card with the pencil as my focal image...added a favorite line by Longfellow and called it done. ..nothing too fancy or elaborate.

This weeks challenge is being sponsored by Ellen Hutson, so don't forget to play along!

a closer look at the lovely pencil, how a simple image like a pencil can be the star of a project!

Also sharing with Curtain Call Challenge-back to school

Thanks for stopping by......see you'll at the CFC gallery!

CAS-ual Fridays # 114- back to school