Mary Did You Know?

Hi everyone!

I was wanting to make a card for some special friends and looking for a starting point... over at Creative Carte Blanche, song lyrics are the theme for the monthly challenge.

This got me thinking about my favorite Christmas carol which is "Mary Did You Know?"... and that led me to design this card with the nativity as the focal point.

I'm still using Close to My Heart's paper "Oh Deer" but I've abandoned the sea glass colour I've  used on past cards, and focused on the golds and browns instead, with a hit of red glitter.  The musical notes on the paper continue the theme of the challenge.

All three Nativity dies that I used are from Penny Black:  Manger, Winter Garland, and Rejoice, and the interior label die is Merry Labels from Catherine Pooler's Candy Cane Lane collection this year.

If you haven't heard Pentatonix sing "Mary Did You Know?" you really must relax back in your chair and enjoy this YouTube video.

Wishing you peace and blessings this Christmas season!

Linda

Magnolias in the Springtime!

Hi everyone!

I'm here today to share a new found love ... Magnolia stamps!  I just adore these little girls - they are so much fun to colour and add to projects.

It's Spring and this little mini Tilda holding her goose, seemed to want to jump into my box of tulips... so I let her!

The Tulip Box Card is an SVG file I purchased from SVG Cuts.  I love their files, they are well done, with fabulous instructions and a video on how to put everything together as well.

I inked and added Diamond Stickles to all the petal edges and molded the flowers for some dimension.  I also added some glass bead gel to the leaves for texture.

I have a lot to learn about colouring the Magnolia's but I find it very relaxing and enjoyable!

I'm going to enter this card in a couple of challenges.  The first is one at Creative Carte Blanche.... the rules there were to add corrugated paper, lace and metal to a piece of art.  I decided to score my fence, as you can see below, to add texture to it and cover the "corrugated" requirement.... added some metal bling to my flower cluster and lace "grass" at the bottom of my fence.

The other challenge I'm entering is over at the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog where the theme is "Anything Goes With Pearls."

This photo shows the card laying flat and ready to be boxed up for a pretty Easter gift!

Paper used for this project was a mixture of CTMH Penelope and Kaleidoscope, with a tiny bit of Doodlebug Springtime.

The bow die is from Spellbinders "Tiered Multiloop Bows"

And the star of the show is "Goosebump Tilda"!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you all a Joyous Spring!

Linda

Watercolour Background

Hi everyone!

I'm playing on the Round Robin team at Swirlydoos again this month and decided to go out of my comfort zone, and create my own background for my layout.  It ended up being great fun!

I was inspired by both my team-mate that I was following, who had done a lot of splatter painting on her layout, as well as a new challenge blog that started this month called Creative Carte Blanche.  Their challenge this month was "to try something you've never done before."

Soooo, taking a big breath.... I began with a piece of chipboard, some molding paste, and a 12x12 Prima stencil.

I added a few areas of crackle paste, then painted all over with gesso.

I picked my papers, "Secret Letters" by 13 Arts and used coordinating watercolours to paint my background.  It looked very grungy and cool.

To finish the layout, I followed the "sketch" of my previous teammates.  We also had challenge requirements of doing things in "twos", using the colour red, and having a heart on the layout... so that determined how I added my flowers and embellishments. 

This bow is a die from Tattered Lace that I painted here and there with 13 Arts Pink Glitter Ayeeda Ink.

The heart is the Spellbinders "Lovin' Diamonds" die.

The pretty doily die is the "Eastern Star" by Cherry Lynn.

The butterfly was cut from the 13 Arts paper and embellished with bling from my stash.

Thank you to the group over at Creative Carte Blanche for their inspiration to try something new!  

I would encourage you to check them out!!

Thank you also to my team mates Hanne, Jan, and Cheryl at Swirlydoos... I was so lucky to get to follow them all and be inspired by their creations!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Linda