Whiff of Joy Challenge #57 --- Christmas

Happy December, everyone! First of all, I hope all of you in the U.S. had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that everyone else had a terrific weekend. I just returned from six days of traveling and spending lots of quality time making treasured memories with family from age 16 months to 89 years old. Oh, the fun we had telling stories and watching the babies grow!

I did have some posts drafted and nearly ready to post, but just didn't get my computer out much. So, I'll be doing some quick catching up over the next few days.

Here is my Whiff of Joy Challenge entry, right under the wire. I have two cards here, both easel cards. The first card, given to my aunt and uncle, features Uru by illustrator Norma Fickel. Fun to color, sweet and cheerful. The paper is from the Signature Christmas collection by My Mind's Eye. The image is colored with Copics. Keeping this card simple (quite a trick for me!) reminds me of the simple joys of Christmas.

The second card features Henry Mouse by illustrator Alison Acton. I gave this card to my brother and sister-in-law. The plaid dp is from my scrapbook stash and the poinsettias from Prima. I colored the image with Copics. I just think this card is so warm and cozy. More marshmallows, please!

The holiday season is in full swing and I hope it is a joyous one for you all. I am excited to have my son home very soon. We are planning a "Back to Basics" Christmas, remembering that this is a celebration of Christ's birth and God's love for us. There's no greater gift!

Thank you for stopping by! Your visits are blessings that I treasure everyday.

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties Sneak Peek

Woo hoo! Busy Beauties will be releasing new digistamps very soon and we are releasing sneak peeks this week. One of my favorites is the Victorian Beauty. This is also the first image I did for the "chalk" challenge (see previous post). Isn't this just the classiest?

Stayed tuned for more in a few days!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Barb

In God We Trust

Busy Beauties --- Coloring With Chalk

The Busy Beauties are very busy these days! To give you a hint, there are some terrific new releases coming out soon! In fact, there is a sneak peek at the top of my side bar.

Our creative Beauty Grace gave us a challenge for November: to color with C-H-A-L-K. Eek! That's one medium that I have not used since drawing hopscotch on the sidewalks (Am I dating myself here?) Well, like I told Carolyn, I will try anything once. Actually, I ended up doing two Busy Beauties images in chalk. After I completed the first one I realized it is one of the sneak peek images. So, I did one more and placed her on this easel card (my new fave!)

The dp is Sera Fina collection by K&Company. Something about the bright colors and the embedded image of the 20's flapper girl just struck me as the perfect back drop. Then I found the sticker that says "The Perfect Day" and it all came together. Add to that a little sticker vase with some simple flowers for the final touch.

I don't know how often I will be using chalk, but it is part of my creative arsenal now. Here is a close-up of the image. I did add very fine accents with Copics for definition. Not too bad!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Keep an eye out for the Busy Beauties new images! They are amazing!

Barb

In God We Trust

Sunday Sketch and Stamp #16 - Sem's Sketch

All of us at Sunday Sketch and Stamp are so excited about the response to our biweekly sketches! Thank you for participating and I hope you join us for Sketch #16 created by our lovely Sem. We are happy to once again feature digistamps from the fabulous Crafts 4 Eternity (C4E). We have four nifty Christmas Cupcakes to play with.

First, here is Sem's very fun and very versatile sketch. You can use any image you wish, as long as it is a stamp/digistamp, of course.

Now for my card. When I saw the adorable cupcakes I couldn't decide which one to feature. So I featured all four!! You can never have too many cupcakes, especially yummy Christmas goodies.

On the front I made a little booklet starting with the Santa Cupcake.

Then we have the Snowman Cupcake.

Next is Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer Cupcake.

And who can resist a Strawberry with Cream Cheese Frosting Cupcake? (of course it could be chocolate, or coconut, or cherry)

All the images are colored with Copics and the papers I used are from my stash of Christmas fun stuff!

I'm very glad you stopped by and I hope you play along with us this fortnight at Sunday Sketch and Stamp. Hop on over to check out all the great designs by the talented ladies that make up the design team and the guest designers. You will definitely be inspired!!

Barb

In God We Trust

Believe It Or Not, A Non-holiday Card..........

I've taken a little break from the holiday cards. This adorable Sarah Kay "Picnic Time" image was just begging to be colored and placed on a sweet vintage card.

She is colored with Copics. By the way, I don't mention this often enough, but I use Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Papertrey cardstock whenever I use my Copics. No bleeding, no blurring, and no ink on the marker tips.

The papers are from my scrapbooking stash and the flowers are Primas. I used the Martha Stewart punch for the left side border and my treasured Nesties die cuts for the image background

Thanks for stopping by! Now, back to the beautiful holiday cards. Lots more to make!!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whimsical Wednesday Challenge --- Easel Card

As I was visiting favorite blogs this morning I stopped in at Sandra's at Paper Funtastics. She is a multi-talented artist; be sure to stop by and see her latest creations. One of her posts was an easel card for the Whimsical Wednesday Challenge. I like challenges and I love the easel cards, so, since I have a couple to post today, I thought I would join in this challenge and share it with you as well.

Both of these cards are made with the gorgeous dp Signature Christmas by My Mind's Eye. Pieces left over from one went into the other. No point in wasting such beautiful paper! The flower embellishments are all from a Prima collection. For the bases of the cards I used Bazzill 12x12 card stock, nice and sturdy and wonderfully textured.

The image on this card is the wonderful Sarah Kay Christmas Magic. I love the Old English look of this charming couple. They are colored with Copics and mounted on Nestabilities oval die cuts. And that exquisite ribbon along the bottom is from a box full of ribbons my mom gave me. (Isn't she sweet!) For the "door stop" I cut out the "2425" from scraps and 3D attached it.

The image on the second card is the adorable Henry Mouse with a Large Tea Cup from Whiff of Joy. I actually put hot chocolate in this mug and Henry is generous with the marshmallows! Copics was again my coloring of choice. The ribbon is a wonderful plaid woven that just happened to be a perfect match for the papers and Prima flower. Don't ya just love it when pieces just come together?

I am just crazy about the easel cards and folks I have shown them to love them as well. I think I will be making more in various sizes and shapes. I don't know who the original designer is, but I am eternally grateful!

Thank you for stopping by today! Please be sure to check out the Whimsical Wednesday Challenge and the fantastic designers there.

Barb

In God We Trust

Two Color Challenges --- Two Cards

With all the Christmas and Holiday cards I am making right now, there is no shortage of gorgeous papers, fantastic images, and creative sketches! Not to mention the visions of embellies and ribbons that dance in my dreams!

Today I have two cards, each one in answer to color challenges. The first card is for the Copic Creation Challenge to use golds. This was a challenge as in my stash of Copics I have only one that actually says "gold" on it, that is Y28. But I added Y21, Y11, and YG95 to color this adorable image of "Wee and Christmastree", the charming creation of Norma Fickel who is the newest illustrator for Whiff of Joy.

For the card I used gold metallic card stock, gorgeous winter tree ribbon from my stash, and gold cord wrapped around a piece of metallic holly dp. The sentiment is heat embossed on the gold metallic cs. The ornaments on the tree are small gold rhinestones. Lots of gold and lots of texture! It turned out pretty good, I think!

The second challenge is the Colour Create Challenge to work with blue, white and silver. This was much easier for me since I love to work with these colors at Christmastime. I had already colored the wonderful Santa with Gifts from Whiff of Joy and it needed just the right sketch. The sketch is my own which was created as I worked. (You should see the pile of materials after I finally decide what to use!)

The papers are mostly from my stash, and primarily scraps. The ribbon again from my stash. The snowflake flowers are glittery stick-on foam snow flakes attached to Prima flowers with glittery white brads for the centers. I love the swirl of rhinestones. It's like blowing snow. The charm didn't photograph well, but it says "Believe". I believe! How about you?

Other tools used for both cards are my cherished Nestabilities and Cuttlebug.

Thank you for stopping by! I sure hope your week is going well!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whiff of Joy Challenge #55 - Orange, Brown, and Ivory

The Whiff of Joy Challenge this week is a color combo: orange, brown, and ivory. Orange, huh? Hmmm. Orange is probably my least favorite color on the color wheel. Oh, what I won't do for WOJ! Here is my card, with plenty of orange!!

In my last post I mentioned how hooked I am on the easel card. So, yep, here is another one. And, as promised, it has a WOJ image on it. This beautiful image of Willow with a Basket was masked and stamped with the wooden fence background. It really does lend itself well to warm, fall colors and I've done several cards with this image already.

The composition of the card contains many pieces of scrapbook paper from my stash and a couple of blooms from a bunch of silk flowers. The sentiment is heat embossed and serves as the "door stop".

I do like how this turned out, and I hope you do, too! Thanks for stopping by and leave a line or two in the comments so I know you were here. Have a wonderful week!

Barb

In God We Trust

My First Easel Card --- And I Am Hooked!!

The ingenious easel cards are all the rage right now, and with good reason: they are a fabulous way to display our treasured projects, cards that are "Made For Keeps"! So, I set everything else aside today to make one. The multi-talented Jacqui put together a terrific tutorial at the new Whiff of Joy Inspirations and Tutorial Blog. If you don't have this site on your favorites, now is the time to grab it. Go ahead.... I'll wait. Just be sure to come back here!!

After I took advantage of the WOJ tutorial, I realized I didn't use a WOJ image, which would have been the PC thing to do. But, everyone knows that my WOJ stamps will find their way on an easel card very soon! Promise!

So, here I have this adorable Noel Charity image from Sarah Kay, colored in Copics and mounted on two die cuts using Nestabilities Labels 4. The dp is from the Christmas Cheer collection by K&Company, which seems to be the first stack I turn to for a vintage-style holiday card. It worked really well for the easel card. The plain colors card stocks used for the base and layers are from my stash. I kept the embellishments to a minimum so this gorgeous dp wouldn't get covered up. Three simple Prima flowers with pearl centers, and a strip of satin ribbon -- that's it!

Of course the easel card would be a flat card if there wasn't something to hold up the face card. Something like a door stop, for lack of a better term. Once again I turned to the K&Company collection of goodies and found this very vintage (and sparkly) 3D sticker. Voila! Easy-peasy!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your weekend is giving you lots of time for family, fun and creativity!

Barb

In God We Trust

Sparkling and Bright --- and Sexy!

After a couple of days without internet (aarrggghhh!) and then playing catch-up, I am back on-line with a couple of cards I made while out of touch with the blogosphere. I found out that there really is life without internet, but it's no fun when I can't "see" my friends and share new creations!

I did get lots of images colored, including these glitzy glamorous Sophisticated Ladies from Rubbernecker.

The first card is very sparkly with Miss Crystal colored with Copics B00, B000 and B0000. Then I added lots of Stickles Silver and Diamond. The dp is some I've had for a couple of years and just love the ornaments and colors. It is from Paper Heart. The gorgeous glittery aqua ribbon is from Michael's. This is one of my favorite colors.

I used two Nestabilities dies to showcase this lovely lady. Label 1 is turned at an angle with Label 2, embossed with Cuttlebug ornaments folder, on top.










Miss Holly is colored with Copics R59, R39 and R100. The presents are colored with the same reds as well as Lionet Gold Y28. Stickles Silver adds the sparkle to her dress. I used the Nestabilities Mega Curved Rectangle die to frame this lovely. Then cut red and gold papers with the new Poinsettia Nestie, held together with a sparkly brad. The ribbon is also from Michael's. The lovely gold holly dp in the background is from the Christmas Cheer Stack by K&Company.



























Inside the card is a gold poinsettia using the Nesties. I am so glad I bought this set of Nesties! What would Christmas be without poinsettias?

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back soon! I have all those freshly colored images --- including some new ones! --- to put on cards!

Now, back to my blog hopping! There is so much creativity out there to drool over! Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

Sunday Sketch & Stamp #15 - Maggie's Sketch

It's a good thing I looked at the calendar! I can't believe 2 weeks have passed already! It's time for Sunday Sketch and Stamp #15 --- Wow, 15! Every challenge we see more and more beautiful projects! Thank you for playing along with us!

Well, this fortnight our fearless leader Maggie has a fabulous sketch for us. I had fun with it and I'm sure you will, too. Here is my card:

I have to tell you about the designer paper! I just got it this week at Michael's. It is DCWV Farmers' Market. The stack has the most creative papers I've seen in a long time and is perfect for the adorable characters I like to use, like the wonderful Willow with a Basket on this card. Also, the paper is 70% recycled and has a wonderful buff color on the back side.

I used two Whiff of Joy images for the front of this card. Willow and the sheaf of corn and grapes for the corner embellishment. Both are colored with Copics.

With the details of the dp I kept the embellishments pretty simple. Just a simple flower in the upper right corner and twine wrapped around the lower part of the card. I like the country harvest feel of this project and I can't wait to use more of the papers!

The inside of the card is quite simple, but I wanted to show the lovely buff color. The tag was cut out from one of the papers in the collection.

Here is Maggie's sketch. Try it --- you'll love it! I hope to see you all in our list of participants. Please be sure to hop on over to the Sunday Sketch and Stamp challenge blog and see the rest of the designers' and guest designers' inspiring projects.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be hopping around looking at your projects, too!

Barb

In God We Trust

Whiff of Joy Challenge #54 - Jane's Sketch

Whiff of Joy Challenge #54 is a versatile sketch by designer Jane. It has a bit of a surprise attached! Here is my card:

Here is Jane's sketch:Here is the surprise..... the tag pulls out!

I took Jane's lead and cut out the upper right corner of the sketch to reveal the inside of the card. The sentiment on the tag is heat embossed.

I put a corner pocket inside the card to hold the tag. But you just HAVE to look at Jane's card!! It is a masterpiece, inside and out!

Here is the close-up of the lovely Willow with Muff. She is colored with Copics. I love this image and never tire of coloring her.

Materials:

Image: WOJ Willow with Muff stamped on Papertrey white with Memento Tuxedo Black; colored with Copics.

DP: Signature Christmas from My Mind's Eye

Card Stock: First Blush Collection from Prima

Snowflakes: Hobby Lobby

All in all, the card is free of a lot of embellishments. It was better to let this gorgeous paper take the stage. The sketch, with the cut out, has so much depth.

Jane, thank you for such a fun sketch and the inspiration! I hope I did it justice and I know I will use it again!

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to hop over to the WOJ challenge blog and see all the wonderful projects from the DT. Don't stop there! WOJ has fabulous new winter and holiday stamps. Take a look here!

It's a beautiful sunny 70s day here in the Missouri Ozarks. I hope you are having a beautiful weekend, too!

Barb

In God We Trust