Mini-Journal featuring Little Blossom

I'm so happy to share this adorable digi from Conie Fong on my Mini-Journal!  The next two months I will be sharing a variety of projects featuring the beautiful images from Conie as part of her Guest Design Team.  You can learn more about Conie and her art on her Etsy Site or Facebook.

So, let's talk about this mini-journal....better yet, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and check out the video below!  

Material List: Cover Digi: Little Blossom by Conie Fong Copic Markers Adhesives, thread, eyelets, lined paper, ribbon, various embellishments including my fav ~ charms and jewelry baubles CTMH Inks COLORBOK Sunset Glow Paper (retired I think) Thread Cricut Standard Mat Cricut Blade Cricut Access for fans and lantern
Gold embossing powder and ink Cricut Maker

I'm sending my journal off to the following challenges:

Outlawz~
Unicorn Challenge: Flower Power
Bitten by the Bug 2: AG...except at card! Cut is fan on cover. Other cuts inside the book.
Dream Valley: For Girls Only
Make My Monday: In the Pink
Use Your Stuff: Fav Embellishment ~ I love using baubles and charms
Classic Design: AG
Craft-Dee BowZ: AG
Creatalicious: AG
Creations in Pink: AG w/Mostly Pink
Creative Sketchy Girls: Girls only
Pearly Sparkles: For the Ladies/Girls
Sweet Stampers: Hearts and/or Flowers
Splashy Mix:  Mood Board (Colors, cherry blossoms, girl)
Dragonfly Dreams:  Make it Feminine

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Forget Me Not!

Wow, it is March already and our optional theme over at Path of Positivity is Beauty of Botanicals.  I love blue flowers and the Forget Me Knot digi from SheepSki makes for the perfect page in my journal.  

I ran across this story/fable/parable and fell in love with it.  I will leave it for your to ponder as I have during this time of Lent.  

*   *   * 

Material List: 

This digi:  Forget Me Knot  from SheepSki
Sentiment:  Computer generated  
Copic markers
White Uni-ball gel pen
CTMH Inks and retired Stamp Sets
Button and fiber from stash

 Sharing with these challenges: 

Colour Crazy Challenge:  AG hand colored
As you Like It:  Fav Flower and why ~ I like any blue flower!
World Wide Open DT:  AG
Outlawz/Festive Friday:  AG

Be sure to come on 

over to 

Path of Positivity 

and see 

what the team 

thinks about Botanicals!  

You can also find 

more information 

about entering 

the challenge!  

Thanks to our 

wonderful sponsors this month:

and

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Hoodie-Hey!

It's time for a new challenge over at 

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday and the optional twist is:  Hoodie Hoo!  Now, what is Hoodie Hoo?  

It is a day to chase away winter blahs, and bring in spring. After all, everyone in the northern hemisphere is sick and tired of winter at this point and a little crazy being cooped up inside all winter and not seeing the sun.

On this winter day usually celebrated on the 20th, people go out at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant "Hoodie-Hoo".

Now, where I live, no creature is more tired of winter than our horses!  They have been cooped up inside or in mud!  This digi, Make it Snappy-Hey There from Bugaboo Stamps, is exactly what my horses look like hanging their heads out the dutch doors looking for Spring!

This card was inspired by the comic strip Non Sequitur.  I love the witty sarcasm of Wiley Miller. You can read about it HERE and HERE.  

Material List

Click on the link to go directly to the product. When available, I use compensated affiliate links.  This means if you make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

Image:  from Bugaboo Stamps
Copic Markers
Paper from Polkadoodles
Cereal box for dimension under horse parts
Adhesives 
CTMH Inks Retired
Cricut Access for verbiage
Cricut Standard Mat

Cricut Blade
Cricut Maker to cut horse parts

Cricut Access


This page is off to the following challenges:  

TTCRD:  AG
Always Fun Challenges:  Inspired by Cartoon (my fav horse cartoon~ Non Sequitur!)
Make My Monday:  Critters
Crazy 4 Challenges:  Dog or any pet
Creative Moments:  AG

Be sure to visit

 The Outlawz Twisted Thursday for all the details about the challenge and to check out all fun inspiration from the DT and participants!

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Prosit!

New challenge over at Cut It Up and the challenge is to use a die cut and your favorite color!  I love Vintage browns and blues together and this wine tag was the perfect place to use them with this wonderful die cut/stamp from Stamplorations.   Prosit Word Stamp and Die has such a lovely script and the die cuts beautifully!  It is the perfect size for this 3 inch wide wine bottle hanger tag! 

I started with paper from Polkadoodles and cut a banner.  The wine glasses are from the Cricut Design Space.  I stamped the "prosit" with embossing ink and then sprinkled with clear powder and heat embossed!  I cut the word with the die and adhered it to the tag.  To give the wine a bit of sparkle, I used a shimmer pen and colored over the glasses.  

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Adoration...

We are mid-February  and our optional theme over at Path of Positivity is Adoration.  

I'm thinking today about the adoration/admiration I have for my family, my grandfather in particular.

I'm going with the definition of admiration and esteem.  There were several different images over at Beccy's Place I could have used to describe my grandpa.  He was a farmer and loved his animals, but I chose this digi image set, Garden Silhouette, because I also admire anyone who can grow something and the sentiment is perfect to describe Grandpa!  

My grandpa loved simplicity and had great faith.  It has been the past few years I have really come to admire his quiet strength.  He was a man of few words and never angered easily.  When I was young, I thought of my grandma as the stronger of the two since she was quicker to anger and had words for all occasions; but now I understand how difficult and how much inner strength it really takes to keep quiet and let some things pass!  

I wish I had spent more of my life trying to be like him, and to this day when I'm out in the barn working around horses I try to emulate his quiet demeanor. 

 While teaching therapeutic horsemanship, I had a motto: Strength through Balance.  I tried to teach this was true of physical, mental, and emotional balance.  My grandpa seemed to be just that, a very balanced individual loving the simplest pleasures that many overlook.  

*   *   * 
To see how to create an effect like this, I invite you to view the video below.  It is an older one, but describes how to turn a digital silhouette (or die) into one you can color! The tag in that video also uses the Garden Silhouette stamp and can be found on an earlier blog post HERE.  *Note the demo below uses free images from Cricut DS because I didn't want to watermark all the images.

Constructing this journal page:

The die cut I used on this page is a silhouette stamp from the Garden Silhouette!  I simply imported it into Cricut DS and set it to cut instead of print!  How fun is that!!  

The image was watercolored using watercolor pencils and Tombow markers.  I colored with the pencils over some of the darker portions.  I continued coloring by scribbling Tombow marker on a ceramic tile and picking up the color with a  paintbrush and a little bit of water.  Then I painted over the image.    

I assembled everything using a stamped and inked background for the base page, a die cut from the set, some scrap paper I embossed, and stash items listed below!  The "string" through the button is actually what I pulled from the denim strip when fraying it!


Material List: 

This digi:  Garden Silhouette from Beccy's Place 
Sentiment:  Garden Silhouette from Beccy's Place  
Colored with Watercolor Pencils and Tombow Markers
Adhesives 
CTMH Inks and retired Stamp Sets
Ribbon, Denim strip, Burlap, Lace and Button from stash
Gold paint w/water for splatters
Cricut Standard Mat

Cricut Blade
Cricut Maker

 Sharing with these challenges: 

Country View:  Splatters, Splashes, & Drips
Cheerful Sketches: Sketch to right
Not Just Cards:  AG
Sweet Stampers:  Hearts and /or Flowers

Beccy's Place:  AG with Beccy's Place Image
All Sorts:  Dies or Punches
Outlawz ~ Festive Fridays:  AG

Be sure to come on 

over to 

Path of Positivity 

and see 

what the team 

thinks about Adoration!  

You can also find 

more information 

about entering 

the challenge!  

Thanks to our 

wonderful sponsors this month:

and

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Cowboy Up, Valentine!

It's time for a new challenge over at 

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday and the optional twist is:  Be My Valentine:  Pick ANY Outlawz DT card from ANY team and case her/his card.  

There are so many talented designers over at The Outlawz; it was a difficult choice.  The Twisted Thursday team is a very talented team with incredibly creative designers....I just couldn't just choose one!  

So, I went outside our team and chose to CASE a card from Andrea Norris who is on the Wednesday Sketch Team.  She made an incredible card and you can view it HERE.  I have used a digital stamp from our sponsor called Bugaboo Cowboy Fence from Bugaboo Stamps.  I personally love this image and have used it many times!   

I hope you can see how I was inspired by Andrea's card.  I copied the 3 horizontal strips of paper across the card by using barbed wire.  The off set rough edged oval imitates her oval.  I used the blues, greens, greys, orange, and metallics.  Lastly, the composition is really close.  Thanks, Andrea, for a fun inspiration for my card!

Material List

Click on the link to go directly to the product. When available, I use compensated affiliate links.  This means if you make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!

Image: Bugaboo Cowboy Fence from Bugaboo Stamps
Inspired by:  Andrea Norris Mr Spaceman
Copic Markers
Paper from Whimsy
Adhesives 
CTMH Inks Retired
Cricut Access for verbiage, barb wire cuts, horse shoes, and image background cut
Cricut Standard Mat

Cricut Blade
Cricut Maker

Cricut Access


This page is off to the following challenges:  

Catch the Bug:  Childs Play (exchanging Valentine's or dressing up as a cowboy and playing!)
Crafty Calendar:  Use Die Cuts
Bitten by the Bug:  Valentine's Day
A Place to Start:  Masculine
Always Fun Challenges:  Love/Valentine's Day
My Time to Craft:  Love Me Do!

Be sure to visit

 The Outlawz Twisted Thursday for all the details about the challenge and to check out all fun inspiration from the DT and participants!

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Such a Cute Couple!

Valentine's Day is coming up pretty quickly!  Time to get some cards ready to go!  I think this a delightful Digi from Conie Fong and makes for a lovely Valentine or any card to celebrate love/couples!  I colored First Kiss with Copics and have backed it with the retired paper kit from Kaisercraft.  The heart ribbon is  retired from CTMH.  I topped it off with a red gem. 

More Valentine's and love are coming this week!  So, stay tuned!

This page is off to the following challenges:  
Conie Fong FB Feb:  AG with option of Hearts/Love
Crafty Cardmakers:  Love is All You Need
Dream Valley:  Love
Get Creative:  Use Hearts
Crafty Friends:  Love/Romance
CCC:  Wedding/Engagement/Love

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

You are Loved!

The new theme at Cut It Up is "Love is in the Air - Valentine's Day."  I chose to go a little different direction with my card since CAS-ual Fridays is our sponsor!  I wanted to use one of their wonderful stamp/die combos for my card.

When you visit the Cut It Up blog, have fun viewing the DT projects and check out the rules and prize info.  Then be sure to share your project with us ~ don't forget the die cut to have a chance to win a prize from our amazing sponsors. 

Material List: Hope Ribbon Stamp Set:  Floral ribbon, inside sentiment

Ruffled Ribbon Fri-Dies:  Floral Ribbon

Copic Markers

Adhesives 

Cricut Standard Mat

Cricut Blade
Cricut Access for fonts, verbiage on outside of card, colored ribbons
Cricut Maker

This notecard is off to the following challenges:  

Crafty Creations:  AG

Corrosive Challenge:  AG
Crafts Galore Encore:  AG
Love to Craft:  AG

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Valentine

Yes, it's another new Pony Digi from Hetty Clare!  This one is Winning Kiss!  I think this would make a great Valentine for any horse crazy girl!  Hey, it's her first love no matter how old she is!  ;)  I colored this with Copics and have backed it with a retired CTMH Paper.  The gold heart is also retired from CTMH and the blue gems are from Bo Bunny.  

 This page is off to the following challenges:  

Paper Minutes:  Valentine's Day
TTCRD:  AG
Try it on Tuesday:  Share the Love

Unicorn Challenge:  AG
Crafting Happiness:  AG twist hearts
Dream Valley:  Love
Double Trouble:  Thing 1: Repeat (gems) Thing 2:  include a critter 
Use Your Stuff:  Stash item~ retired paper and heart from CTMH and use a critter

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Adore Him!

It's February already and our new optional theme over at Path of Positivity is Adoration.  For this word, I again went over to the thesaurus.  So many times I think I know the definition of a word and then find it can mean several different ideas, so it's always fun for me to go see what I can find.  

The definition seems to be deep love and some of the synonyms were:  admiration, devotion, esteem, reverence and veneration.  So, as I was perusing the different images over at Beccy's Place I came across this beautiful digital stamp set called Lamb of God.  I looked at the expressions on the faces of those lambs, and thought what better example of adoration than this.  The sentiment simply reiterated the focal image.

*   *   * 
To see how this card was designed/created, grab a cup of your favorite beverage and join me for the video below!  Might want a snack, too!  ;)

Material List: 

This digi: Lamb of God digital stamp set from Beccy's Place 
Sentiment: Lamb of God digital stamp set from Beccy's Place  
Copic Markers
Adhesives 
CTMH Inks
Polkadoodles digital wood paper (retired I think)
Cricut Standard Mat

Cricut Blade
Cricut Access for barn, star
Cricut Maker

 Sharing with these challenges:  
International Art & Soul:  Fav Song~ Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him

12 Months of Christmas:  Opt Twist Winter Blues (Not sure I have enough blue for the twist!)
Holly and Ivy:  AG Christmas
Winter Wonderland:  Little Friends
Jingle Belles:  We 3 Kings...3 layers to look at! 
Christmas at Sweet Stampin':  Add some Sparkle (star)  
Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round:  Love/hearts
Classic Design:  AG
Crafty Animals:  AG with animal
CRAFT:  Christmas
Fab'n'Funky:  Christmas
Watercooler Wednesday:  All About Occasions

The Outlawz Festive Friday
Beccy's Place:  Use Beccy's Place Image; Opt:  animals

Be sure to come on 

over to 

Path of Positivity 

and see 

what the team 

thinks about Adoration!  

You can also find 

more information 

about entering 

the challenge!  

Thanks to our 

wonderful sponsors this month:

and

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Pony Bubbles

Here's another new Pony Digi from Hetty Clare!  This one is Pony Bubbles!  I colored with Copics and have backed it with retired CTMH Papers.  The green ribbon is also retired from CTMH.  

This image reminds me of all the shows I went to with my son and celebrating with.... snow cones!  Yep, Keith would go find the snow cones and he and Harry would share one!  Harry loved them!  Our horse, Thunder, would prefer Iced Tea.  Now, Charlie will only drink water and he prefers water from home! 

There's nothing like sharing a treat with your buddy! 

This page is off to the following challenges:  

2 Crafty Critter Crazies:  AG with a critter
Stamping Sensations:  Feminine
Always Fun:  AG
Use your Stuff:  Critters (These papers, ribbon and stash have been around for quite a while!)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends:  AG
Craft-Dee BowZ:  AG

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.

Pony Plait...a new digi!!

Sometimes you get a new digi/stamp and you just can't wait to color it; for me this is it!  I saw this pony image from Hetty Clare and fell in love!   If you adore horse/pony images I invite you to check out her new pony images on her site HERE.  You are going to LOVE them!  This particular image is Pony Plait.

Let me say upfront, I'm not on a team for Hetty Clare and I purchased this image.  So I'm not biased in any way; I just love this image.  Why?  Probably because I have spent some late night hours in a barn listening to music and banding manes for horse shows!  I've also spent fun filled afternoons with little ones playing 'day spa' with the minis!  ...and the image is soooo cute!

The digi starts out with a touch of grey scale.  I experimented with some different Copic colors here for sort of an antiqued look.  I started with some E7's for the horse and added E9's.  That little sweetie's dress was colored up in B9's and the grass was done in YG6's.  

The sky was done in Sky colored (retired) CTMH alcohol ink dabbed on with cheese cloth/cotton gauze.  

This page is off to the following challenges:  

2 Crafty Critter Crazies:  AG with a critter
The Crafter's Cafe:  AG
Creative Craft Cottage:  AG
World Wide Open DT:  AG
Colour Crazy:  AG hand colored
Sisterhood of Crafters:  Newly Acquired Stash (New Digi!)
Perfect Time to Craft:  AG
Crafty Animals:  AG with animal

Thanks for stopping by!  Make yourself at home and feel free to peruse other posts/pages, leave a comment, and/or check out my Pinterest and YouTube Channel.