Willow & Paisley

Loonie Stampers Challenge 139

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter everyone!  Who else is happy that the work week is over and we get to enjoy a long weekend?!  Me, me, me!

 

Todays challenge is to "use wood".  I kinda sorta TOTALLY enjoyed making this card.  This is why I LOVE doing these challenges with these BFF's of mine.  They come up with stuff that I never would have thought to do on my own.  I've had these thin wooden sheets from Stampin Up for ages and have barely touched them.  What better way to use them then to make an adorable little bird house.  The wood sheets emboss wonderfully.  I just ran it through my Cuttlebug in a polka dot folder.  The sheets have a white paper backing which I traced out a bird house shape onto and cut it out with scissors.  Yes, these little sheets of wood are fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

But I didn't stop there.....I used more wood.  I had bought some "Easter" twigs at the dollar store because they had the cutest bird nests attached to them (I'll show those below in a minute).  I tied a few pieces of that twig together with some bakers twine and adhered it below the birdhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

I heat embossed the music notes (Glee stamp set from TT) and put a punched red border strip below.  The hand trimmed sentiment completes the card.  The sentiment is Ali Edwards handwriting which I have always loved and most likely why I love trimming the sentiments out like I do.  The set is called So Sorry from TT. 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's check the BFF's, shall we?

Dee    Regan    Wendy    Maria 

 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned in my last post that I don't really decorate for Easter but I wanted to share what I did do.  The dollar store "nests" I mentioned above were attached to a big bunch of twigs.  I cut them off and placed them under these glass cloches.  While they aren't a big splash of pastel colour I love that they are so simple and pretty.  I have 4 total so there are 2 others randomly placed in the house.  Have a wonderful Easter weekend friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random Stuff To Share

 

 

 

On Friday I blogged the card in this post for the Embellish Magazine challenge  (thanks for all the love it received on SCS's Facebook page and here on my blog.....love that!) but I must confess it was actually card number 2.  The card above is the first one I made for the challenge but I realized it wasn't cutting it when it came to the required colors....light blue, bright blue, light yellow, dark yellow.  I used patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket to make those rolled flowers and you can sorta kinda see (ok not at all) how I was hoping it worked for the colors.  Yeah, not so much. 

But I still love it so I wanted to share.  The rolled flowers are so much fun to make and what a great way to use up some smaller pieces of patterned paper you've been keeping.  I highly recommend the die which is the rolled rose from My Favorite Things stamp company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up.  A couple of weeks ago I went to Kimberley BC with a couple of friends to enjoy a mountain getaway at a rented condo.  Good food, cocktails and great friends.  You'd think it couldn't get any better than that but it did.....there was a private hot tub on the deck which I loved. 

One of my friends is super crafty and one is not but I thought it would be fun to have a little project for all of us to do.  I put together a kit to make these cute little button tags one night.  I die cut a bunch of tags, took a huge container of buttons, embroidery threads, fabric, inks, stamps and adhesives.  {{Glue Dots really are your best friend when it comes to making these}}.  I think the girls really enjoyed it and here are the ones I made.   Aren't they fun? 

 

 

 

This one was my favorite.  I truly love this stamp set and dies.  I feel like Papertrey made it just for me.

 

 

 

This past weekend it was Mike's birthday and I made him a 2 layer white cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  I'm not a big fan of cake mixes (unless it's Angel food cake or brownie mix .....which BTW I swear the Walmart no name Good Value brand brownie mix is the best)and this white cake recipe was super easy.  The recipe called for Almond Extract and that was SO GOOD!  I will make this again for sure.  Yumm-o!

 

 

 

 

Last but not least I wanted to share a couple of Easter cards from a shoe box swap I did with some other girlfriends about a month ago.  {Does anyone else do shoebox swaps too?}  Anywho....my super duper creative and genius friend Brenda designed these cards for us to make.  OMG the cuteness is killing me so I just had to share.  I don't think I'll ever part with these and I'm pretty sure they will be used for Easter decor each year.  Not that I really decorate for Easter but I might now!

 

This weekend my nieces were visiting and I got out the oval punches and we made each one of them a bunny.  My 3 yr old niece actually hugged hers when it was done.  So cute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well there you have it....just a few things I wanted to share with you all.

 

 

 

 

Do You Feel Like a Spring Chick??

       

Hey everyone....it's time for the Elzybells fortnightly dt challenge (I LOVE how those of you in England speak!).  Anywho....todays challenge "recipe", set by the fabulous Steph, was to use a circle, 1 piece of ribbon and an embellishment.   Fun schutff! 

So how many of you have bought tons of these little journalling books with the intentions of altering them?  I have SO many and never get around to using them ~~~until now!  I painted the cover of this notebook with light green acrylic paint and adhered my image to it. I just figured it would be easier than trying to cut a perfect circle to cover the pattern that was on it.  I am IN LOVE with this stamp.  It's called Daisy Canopy and it's couldn't be any more adorable.   I paper pieced the flower, the little chick and the egg using Papertreys bitty dot paper. The rest is colored in with Copics.

    

Please be sure to check out the other DT members projects.  Here's a link that will take you right to them on Elizabeths blog.  Now it's your turn!!  Create a card/project using the recipe above and post your link on Elizabeths blog for us all to see!!

    

And here's a close up of the layered crocheted flowers made by my fabulous friend Jewels.  Those colors just scream Spring, don'tcha think???

  

Got Polka Dots?

           

Hey Everyone!  I have an Elzybells DT challenge card for you today!  I just loved this challenge which was to use Polka Dots.  I made a little Easter basket using ric rac and stamped the egg stamp from Eggstravaganza Sentiments on to different colors of Papertreys Bitty Dot paper.  The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.  The polka dot card is from Michaels.  I love how this little cutie turned out.   I hope you do too.  Please be sure to visit Elizabeth's blog to see the other DT's cards.  I didn't get my pic to her in time but I know you will see some seriously cute cards there. 

    

See you tomorrow for the next Loonie card.  I hope to actually be on time with it this week.  LOL.  This is my second post of the day....please scroll down to see my first post.

Elzybells ~~~Day 2!

       

 

These images are from the new clear set called Spring Cubes being released by Elzybells on Monday~~~and they are adorable! I love the long narrow shape of the stamp which made me think of Scraplings.  Have you heard of Scraplings?  I found them on the Hero Arts blog a while back.  They basically are scrap pieces made in to long narrow cards.  As in 1 1/4" wide narrow.  You can see them here. 

Anywho....I thought these images would be great on a narrow card.  I love making 5.5 x 5.5 cards which leaves me a strip of 3" x 8.5" cardstock so I used those.  Very fun size....you should try some of these and use up those "big" scraps.

    Have a great day everyone.  See you tomorrow.

                        

Chocolate vs. Veggies?

If anyone answers Veggies to that question then I am sorry but I cannot be your friend!   

       

Yay, it's Monday!!  Lucky for you that means Elzybells new stamps are available today.  There are a couple full sets and many individual stamps being released that I didn't showcase for you so you will want to be sure to visit the on-line store to check those out.  In case you are not familiar with Elzybells UK stamps I just wanted to let you know the images are HUGE.  I LOVE the size.  They are just the best for coloring and paper piecing.  This one was especially great to color because with all those sweets Sky's the limit for color!

        

Iwas playing with some leftovers from my Easter egg card and made these little notebooks and treat bags.  Now if I don't end up eating all the chocolates before Easter arrives I will be able to give these to my neighbors little girls.  Easter is a long way away...it's not looking good for my neighbors little girls!

 

       

  

Elzybells Sneak Peek Day 3

         

Oh I have been having so much fun with my new Elzybells stamps!!!  This card has got me in the mood for Spring I tell ya.  Now that I have an Easter stamp set I will actually do Easter cards~~~I said "do them" not send them.  As my friends and family know all too well I am a card maker, not a card sender.  LOL!        

     

This fantastic clear set is called Eggstravaganza.  It has a bunch of different egg designs so you can really play around and have alot of fun with it.  The bed of flowers was stamped 3 times across the bottom of the image and makes the cutest border.  The set goes on sale Monday which means you can have it in plenty of time for Easter.   Be sure to check out Elizabeth's blog as well as my fellow DT members.  You are sure to see some fabulous goodness!!  Have a peaceful Sunday.