New Magnolia Challenge

There is a new challenge web-site for "Just Magnolia" click here to see the first challenge. The first week is a sketch so I printed it out and got to work. Yesterday I bought a new acrylic stamp set that I saw at JoAnn's by Fiskars no less. What I loved was the large background, it is lacy and elegant and slightly shabby looking, just a nice combo. The main baja breeze panel is stamped with it, the stamp is so big I had to use a B plate from my Cuttlebug as a block! It worked quite well I might add. I went from there with the soft sort of shabby theme. I first used an adorable Tilda with an ice cream cone and colored it with my Prismas but the color I had for the jeans clashed so bad with the colors on the card I had to do a new one (these are images from WishRAK, I don't have these stamps - wish I did!). So I used the watercolor wonder crayons and was able to match the baja, guava, teal and cocoa of the papers used here. The doggie is from a Penny Black set. I punched the butterflies with the MS punch and punched two layers, one in teal and one in baja to give them a shadow effect. I like that, just something I came up with trying to have the right colors in the right places! The bench is also a WishRAK image I colored and cut out. I sponged the edges of the background panel and the sentiment with baja breeze. I would so love to win the prize, wish me luck! I really want more Tilda's! No one ever has the ones I want in stock and I am getting frustrated, I might just have to order them from Sweden. I have a swap due around June 1st and need a new Tilda to stamp with :)

More Bella Rose Paper

While I had this paper collection out I wanted to make another card with it. I needed to make a birthday card for a SCS WishRAK'er. I wanted to use this cute little Penny Black stamp from the Critter Collection and hunted down a sketch from the challenges that would fit. So this is from SC221. I guess I should submit it there too! Anyway I used PrismaColor pencils to color it and my two new dies, the labels 4 die and the tag die which is actually a different brand but works exactly the same as the Nesties. The ribbon mess is from Basic Grey Blitzen, I only used the red and white from it. I used some dew drops on the corners and some Stickles on the flame.

I am a happy camper! The sun is out and will be all day and it is going to be in the mid 70's today! I am going outside and doing something just so I can enjoy the weather. Not sure what yet but I have been waiting for a glorious day and today is it! Hope y'all have a nice weekend :)

The third and last of Miss Anya Collection

This is the third Anya of the collection. Not to say I won't make more cards with them but that this is the last of the three I have made so far in the set :) She is just as adorable as the other two! I used the sketch from this week's challenge on Technostamper's Monday lunchtime sketch. I wanted to color her differently this time. Isn't this bright and cheery? I used a color similar to SU's riding hood red and then went hunting for paper and I found the Bella Rose collection from Stampin' Up! to work perfectly. I used the pink pirouette double stitched ribbon, the MS branch punch, a flower punch, Nestabilities dies for the circle and scalloped circle, the SU border punch, the MS butterfly punch, some pearls (adhesive), Fruit Punch Stickles, and PrismaColor pencils. Did I list it all?!!! Oh and the main image is on dimensionals. The card stock is riding hood red, of course :) I just love this card and all of these stamps in this set!

Our Daily Bread Set

This is one of the newest stamp sets from Our Daily Bread. My friend has the set and graciously brought it over for me to use one day but I was so busy with the other ODB stamp sets she brought I never got to it. So she RAK'd me this one :) The pots are so pretty and they come out different looking every time because you can color them so many ways! I brayered the main background with desert heat Kaleidecolor ink on glossy card stock. I also punched corners from the extra. The flourishes are from the $1 bin and are chipboard, I painted them with Making Memories scrapbooking paint. I colored the pots with yes, you guessed it - PrismaColor pencils. My poor water color crayons are getting lonely! I sponged the verse with the desert heat ink and cut a mat from a Nestabilities die. There is a green jewel in the center of one of the pots if you can tell. I really like the black background on this it makes it "pop". Have a great day!

Cutie Pie!

This is such a cutie pie! It is designed by Rachelle Anne Miller but it is not from Stampavie, it is from Ladybug and Friends. When I saw it I thought the little creature on the elephant's back looked like one of my Chihuahuas. So of course I got it LOL! It is difficult to color I have found, this is the second one I have colored and I guess I should either color the little areas first and then blend or color the big areas first and blend those because I keep getting bleeding. This time I used the PrismaColor pencils and for some reason I can't get them to erase even with the Prisma eraser. Perhaps there is a better paper to use with it. Well anyway I am learning slowly but surely! I went ahead and added the bright colored flowers just to go with the cute theme. The picture is taken at an odd angle trying to show the sparkling flowers and stars.

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter, we had a nice day at my in-laws. Lot's of food (which I was very good and didn't eat but a few bites!) and lots of fun hunting Easter eggs. Oh! Today is my youngest' 7th birthday. He is growing up so very fast, but he is still my "baby".

Tilda with Flowers

Hello! I have not had the time to make cards like I would like lately but today I made this lovely card. I received this new Tilda from a wonderful SCS WishRAKer :), it is from the current collection. I think I might have to order this one! I have made so many pink cards lately I decided to do her dress in blue with my new PrismaColor Pencils. I ended up buying a set of 36 of these from Michael's with a coupon instead of the Copic Markers. I am really liking them! This set has the right colors for hair and skin and flowers etc. plus the pencils are more creamy and blend so much more smoothly than the SU water color pencils. I think I made a good decision :) Anyway after I did the blue dress I hunted down some designer paper to match and this all just came together. I didn't CASE this! I sponged all the edges with more mustard and used Stickles on the flowers. Oh and since I have so much trouble getting the white gel pens to show up I bought some white out in a pen and it works very well, other than harder to control that is. TFL!

Card 2 of Miss Anya Collection

This is the second of three images from this collection. I just love how she is such a girly girl. I have all boys and once in a while I am in a girly mood LOL! I colored her with SU markers, too small of an area to get that color variation but I did what I could. The sketch is from the Sheetload of Cards for April and this month is sponsored by The Greeting Farm which is where Miss Anya comes from! So if you want to buy this or the other cute stamps they have- go to thegreetingfarm.com.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my card:

The sheetload this month makes 6 cards. Pretty cool for swaps!

Miss Anya Collection

This pretty gal is part of a trio from the Miss Anya Collection. I colored her first so I could send her to my BFF's daughter who, by the way, looks a lot like her! I love this set of stamps, notice I always say I love my stamps?! LOL! I tried to make it all matchy matchy and pretty in pink. I used my silver ink pen - the kind you shake A LOT to get the ink to come out, anyway it is on the boots, purse and I dotted her hair band and skirt with it and it does sparkle in person. I also used my water color wonder crayons to color it. The purple butterfly does actually match better than it looks in this photo! Anyway she is a cutie pie and I shall use the other two images soon!

Easter Card

I wanted to use my new stamps by Verve and make an Easter card. I love the Swiss dot Cuttlebug embossing folder on white card stock. It just looks good together. Then I needed a color that would work with the cross and I didn't want to make a black or brown card so olive/kiwi worked well. I used the Nestabilities dies for the ovals and the Stampin' Up dies for the flowers. The branches are the NS punch. The ribbon is SU also and the little pearls are just from Archiver's or somewhere like that. I think I will make a few more similar to send out this year :)

The Flower Fields

Welcome to the Flower Fields!



We went to the Flower Fields near Carlsbad, CA. What a beautiful place! 55 acres of flowers. It is a Ranunuculus farm (yes that is how it is spelled!), rows and rows of colors in the Spring. There is also a maze made of sweet peas, very pretty shades of pink and purple. It was a foggy morning on the coast, we could barely see the ocean, if at all. It wasn't too hot though so that was a plus!



They just keep going and going off into the distance.



Dew on the sweet peas.



Part of the garden.



A close up of these gorgeous flowers, just beautiful and so many colors! They are about 4-5 inches across.

Pictures From My Trip - Anacapa Island

We took a trip to Anacapa Island, part of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. We took a ferry over from Oxnard, it is about a one hour trip each way. When you get there you come into a little cove and climb straight up the cliff on 150 or so steps made of metal. It is part of the National Park system and there are park rangers and a ranger station there taking care of the island, however there are no homes or other structures. Pack in and pack out if you want to eat or drink. There are trails and paths so it is easy to hike around. I will blog the other places we went tomorrow but this deserves a whole blog post to itself.



View of the island from the boat as we left Oxnard.

 

This is the view on the end of Anacapa, the Southern most of the Channel Islands. It is called Inspiration Point. I believe the rest of these are all part of Anacapa and the other islands are further away.



The island is covered with these strange flowers, they are like a bush or tree. Some are a foot tall and others are as much as 5 feet tall. I looked them up and they are called the tree sunflower, or coreopsis, a plant found only on the Channel Islands and a few isolated areas on the coast. We were fortunate to see it bloom as it only blooms in the Spring.



This is how most of the island is, these flower trees with seagulls nesting on and in them.



The birds. No, not the movie but it sure felt like it! They were nesting and all they do is stare at you and squawk. It was quite funny after a while, they were everywhere. The paths wind through the plants.



This is the other flower abundant on the island, Iceplant.



The cliffs along the island are very steep and sheer.



If you do get close enough to the edge you can see the Sea Lions and Seals basking in the sun on the rocks.



We saw a huge pod of Risso's Dolphins as we left the island. It was a nice trip and very interesting. I really enjoyed it and I think my friends did too.

Simple Birthday

Still continuing in the Survivor card clean and simple theme! And the butterfly kick! This is certainly celery and so saffron. Doesn't look like it to me on my laptop but maybe you can tell. I used the lace border punch at the bottom - just love how that looks! The butterflies are punched from designer paper and the sun is the die set from SU made by Sizzlets. I hope you like it! I should be home later today and will tell you how my trip to SoCal (that is Southern California in case you are wondering) was tomorrow if things aren't totally insane around the house. I sure hope this auto posting worked! It has in the past so I expect it did :)

Seashells

So what do you think of this? Kind of different, on the clean and simple CASE you-know-what kick. I am kind of liking it, not sure. I think I needed to sponge the edges of the shell area or something. Maybe I should have made the white area narrower. Anyway it was fun distressing all those layers of card stock!