Celebrate the Season

Good afternoon, usually when we say celebrate the season it's the holidays but I love Fall so I want to celebrate the season of pumpkins, harvest and the wonder of natures colors.

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps are also enjoying this time of year with our here comes Fall theme:

I stamped and colored the Small Sketchy Pumpkin and the Pumpkin corner with alcohol markers. I then stamped the Celebrate the Season sentiment in a lovely fall colored ink. My base card was matted with color coordinating cardstock and I added a fancy corner die cut just to balance the design

Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Nothing beats a good book with a cup of tea!

Good afternoon, The sun is shining and the temperatures have climbed again so sweaters put to the back of the closet again - probably not for long!

There is nothing better in Fall than to curl up on the couch, steaming hot mug of Yorkshire tea and a good book. Over at Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps our theme today is bookmarks and I have chosen to use the fab new  clear stamp set - Tea Set:

I stamped all the images and colored them with my alcohol markers. They were then fussy cut using my Scan N Cut. 

I used a shaped edge die to cut the base and mat for my bookmark and glued these together. I then added my images in random positions leaving the glue on these to dry so I could stamp and heat emboss the 'But First Tea' stamp from the same collection.

I used a hole punch on the tail of my bookmark and made a tassel from bakers twine to finish the design.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Mail Art for New Home

Good afternoon. Who loves to send snail mail? 

I love to send my cards out to people who I know get a warm glow from receiving them. I usually stamp the envelope with some mini sentiments I have specifically for that purpose.

Over at Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps today we are showcasing mail art so I went all out on an envelope:

Please excuse the hand written addresses! 

I started by masking off a circle for the address and then used distress oxides to color my envelope. Whilst this was drying I stamped up sections of a little house from The Prickley Pear Row House Clear Stamp Set, colored these and die cut using the coordinating dies. 

I then built my house in the corner of the envelope and added the weather vane from the same collect to the roof. I stamped the little home sweet home and Love Lives Here sentiments which also come with the set.

A cute little envelope for a new home card!

Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps and dies I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Circles

Good afternoon wow where is this month going, can you believe that we are half way through and summer break will be over in 2 weeks!

Summer is my second favorite month - sorry I have to give my favorite to fall - the temperatures are lower but still pleasant and I love the fall colors.

But summer brings all the flowers and critters that love the flowers. We have a pond across the street from us so get some huge dragonflies buzzing around, with their iridescent colors flashing in the sunshine.

For today's card I have colored a bunch of Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Dainty Dragonfly stamps and colored them in a rainbow of colors:

I then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. We have a theme of round about over on Prickley Pear blog so I used circle dies to cut my card and matting layers. On the pink layer I stamped one of my all time sentiments from Prickley Pear: Life doesn't have to be Perfect. This hits home with me every time I read it.

I shaped the dragonflies so that they look as though they are fluttering around the card. I added a few clear glitter dots just to balance my design and finish the card.

 Thank you for stopping by, you can find all the Prickley Pear stamps I have used over in their store here. If you are looking more inspiration from me and my teamies check the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Who doesn't love dogs

Good afternoon, my dogs are my babies and anything to do with dogs and I am there!

 I'm showcasing a gorgeous life like stamp for Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps today. Their stamps are etched from such good quality red rubber that the detail on them is amazing and today's stamp is no exception

I colored this gorgeous Golden Retriever Stamp using alcohol markers and then deepened the shaded areas of his coat with colorblend pencils. I matted him with dark brown card and used the same on the Love sentiment which is from the Love Banner set of stamps. My card base was matted with the brown card and some lined patterned paper. I added a die cut buckle and some paw print ribbon to balance out the design.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Bicycle congratulations

Good afternoon from a hot and humid Michigan - we had storms last night and the humidity is so unbearable that its nice to stay inside. So riding my bike is out of the question today!

I'm posting a congratulations card today and this goes out to all the kids at Mollie's school who achieved perfect attendance this year - they were all presented with bicycles!

Prickley Pear Rubber stamps have the perfect stamps for this occasion and their bicycle stamp is almost identical to my bike so have colored it in the same colors:

I used alcohol markers to color the bike, adding silver gel pen to the chrome components.

I then used a fancy edge die to cut the bottom of the image and a pink card to go under this. I stamped the Congratulations stamp, again a Prickley Pear one, and matted this on pink card. I chose to use a ready made scalloped edged card base and matted this with the same pink card and some dotty coordinating paper. a few silver nail head gems just balanced the image.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Home Sweet Home

Good afternoon, we have had a fun week dog sitting for 2 adorable Shih Zhu's - Grace and Willow. They are such lovable little girls and are so like my Gizzie. They have been perfect house guests and I will be sad to see them go today.

It's a brilliant background theme over on the Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps blog today and as I've been home with all the fur babies this weekend I thought I would do a home sweet home card. The house looks nothing like mine but is so adorable It's part of the adorable Row House Clear stamp set. It comes with so many different house parts and scene builders:

I stamped 3 house sections, the cat and the tree, die cut them using the matching dies and colored with alcohol markers. I then die cut some clouds and using a re-positional glue positioned them on a white piece of card. I them used blue distress ink and a blending tool to cover the card. I then placed my images and using alcohol markers added grass to the bottom of the image. I then stamped flowers from the same stamp set and colored these. I added a die cut of birds on a wire just to finish the scene.

I used a reverse corner rounder on each of my images corners and matted it with blue card. This was then added to a pre-made scalloped card base.

Don't forget there is a blog hop going on until Friday so head out to the Prickley Pear blog to find out more.

Thank you for stopping by I hope you like what you see and if you do please let me know in the comments. 

You can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

I'm hopping around with Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps and CardMaker Magazine

Good Morning!

It's an exciting day today, Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps are joining with CardMaker magazine for a blog hop!

Do you want the chance to win a $20 gift certificate to spend on the gorgeous stamps over at Prickley Pear? then find out how at the end of my post.

My card for the hop is using the new Danity Dragonflies stamps:

I stamped them onto acetate using archival ink. I then turned them over and colored then with alcohol markers. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out and they were then shaped so that their wings flutter on the card. 

I then stamped 'There is only one happiness' sentiment on to some rainbow design paper and matted this with green card onto a white card base.

The dragonflies were the added being careful to only stick the body down. I added some green gems just to balance the design.

To win the gift certificate all you have to do is hop over to my teamies blogs to see the gorgeous designs they have made. Don't forget to leave them some love along your way,  then head to the Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps blog and leave a comment. 

You should have arrived here from Kat's blog and now you need to hop over to see what Melissa has designed for us.

If you get lost along the way just head back to CardMaker's blog for the full list of participants.

Good luck and have fun checking out all the gorgeous makes!

Best Friend

Good afternoon. It's a gorgeous warm day here, doors are open and my fur babies are basking in the sun. I keep getting a smell of the lovely lilac bush at the end of our deck. 

Summer is definitely around the corner so I'm sharing on of the last of my Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Spring cards with you

Isn't that Bucket of Tulips just the sweetest. 

I have colored them with my alcohol markers I followed the color scheme of some that I have in the yard they are just about done for this year but I love the delicate cream and pale pink. I used a sentiment from the Spring Scalloped Circles clear stamp set that I felt fit the card.

I matted the image onto cream card and placed this on a pre-printed card base. I added some die cut butterflies just to balance the design.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Love birds

Good afternoon, I'm just back in from walking my fur babies, they are all flopped out in the sunshine. I have the doors open listening to the birds singing it's bliss

My post this afternoon is showcasing more of the gorgeous Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps new release

I've used A Mother's Love stamp but for an Anniversary card just to show that these stamps are versatile:

I stamped and colored the image using alcohol markers. Added the Happy Anniversary sentiment which is also part of the new release. I then die cut some hearts in various sizes and made up some pink and white blossoms to go on the branch. The image was then matted onto pink card. 

I used a pre- printed card base and added pink ribbon before arranging my topper. I then made a ribbon bow and embellished this with a pearl.

Don't forget if you order this week use the coupon FREESHIP and any orders over $15 will ship free!!!

Pop on over to the New Release section of the Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps website where you can see all the stamps being released this week.

Keep checking back this week for more new release showcases but for now thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

Farm yard notes!

Good morning and what a beautiful morning it is!!!

I'm a little late it has been such a hectic weekend - but Prickley Pear have a new release this week and wow have they got some fab new stamps some of which I will be showing you this week. If you order this week use the coupon FREESHIP and any orders over $15 will ship free!!!

Today I'm kicking my show casing off with some adorable note cards. part of the new release are some adorable farm yard critters and 6 sentiments which go with them so I have made a themed set of notelets using the same design, papers and embellishments throughout:

First of all is Bessie the cow:

How sweet is she! I have colored 2 of her with Alcohol markers and added the matching sentiments What's Moo and An Udder Year Older. They are die cut and added to the cards which are both matted with coordinating papers. A few gems just finish the design.

Next is Sammie the Sheep:

She has I miss Ewe and Ewe Ok? sentiments

Last but not least my favorite is Prissy the Pig

Hasn't she got the most adorable name!!! Her sentiments are I'm Sow Excited For You and Sow's Things.

Pop on over to the New Release section of the Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps website where you can see all the stamps being released this week.

I will be back later today with some more showcases but for now thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and our Facebook page.

The sun is shining - Happy Spring!

Following the snow storms last Thursday we have had a lovely few days of warm weather but they ended last night with thunder storms and its back to being seasonally cooler.

So my post today is showing summer flowers aren't far away. Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps have some great banner sets and I have used one set today for my flower "petals"

I used 6 different orange and yellow shades of ink to stamp out one of the banner stamps from the Spring Easter Banner set numerous times and then hand cut them all out - I do need to invest in the coordinating dies!!. I then Stenciled some yellow card and pale yellow design paper using one of the orange inks. The yellow card was die cut into a circle and stamped with Happy Spring sentiment from the same set of stamps. I glued the banners at various lengths around the circle making a sunflower.  

I matted an 8x8 inch card base with the same yellow card and the stenciled design paper before fixing my sunflower in place. 

The points of the banners were folded to raise them from the card giving dimension. A few coordinating enamel dots completed the card.

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and their Facebook page.

Little boxes.....

Happy Saturday? What has everyone got planned? I'm having a lazy morning then heading off to my best friend's for her eldest daughter's birthday party!

As you've seen from previous posts I have started planning Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day and Easter.

So the fun part of Easter - Eggs!!!! yes little chocolate ones that taste so yummy! Today I am showcasing some more of Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps new releases in the form of a cute little bag to put your chocolate goodies in:

Isn't it cute! I used a template to cut the bag from a muted yellow floral paper. I then stamped the Ducks in a Row Stamp twice, colored these with alcohol markers and matted with bright green card. Whilst the bag was still flat I used the Happy Easter Stamp from the Easter/Spring Banners Stamp Set to stamp the sentiment on both sides of the bag. I then made the bag up and added a punched border around the top edge. My Ducks in a Row were added to both side and it was filled with brightly colored Easter Eggs!

Thank you for stopping by, you can find more inspiration from me and my teamies on the Prickley Pear blog and their Facebook page.