Out of the Cold

It is time for a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie and this time I am the hostess.  I am calling this one "Out of the Cold" and when I set the theme a few weeks ago, I didn't realize how much I would want this to be my reality today.  Here is how I describe this challenge:

"It is winter and that means snow and cold in so many places so let's head to the tropics. Create any vintage or shabby chic project that will make us feel warm - think lots of sunshine, bright colours, flora and fauna and even animals hiding in the rain forest."

As I sit here creating this blog post, my husband is outside shoveling snow for the third time in 24 hours. It is cold and miserable and I want to go somewhere warm and fuzzy but since that isn't happening, I am just going to lose myself in my card with warm colours and lots of wonderful products from Wendy Vecchi.  February is heart month so I just had to add at least one and as you can see it works perfectly with the sentiment.

I started by creating my background.  I took a piece of Specialty Stamping Paper and smooshed it through some of Wendy Vecchi's Archival Inks that I had put on my kraft sheet and added some rubbing alcohol to.  I used Tree Branch, Dandelion and Orange Blossom.

Next I marked off a part circle on one side using the circle mask from Wendy's set called Four Spotlight Frames & Masks and a Micron pen.

I left the mask in place and sponged some of Wendy's Tea Rose and Red Geranium Archival Inks on the rest of the background.

Next I did some stenciling with Wendy's Watering Can Archival Ink.  I used the circle frame with a Pointed Star stencil from Jenni Bowlin Studio to keep it inside the part circle.

Note:  After I had done this I remembered that I had one of Wendy's background stamps called Vintage Wallpaper that would have been perfect and wished I had used it instead so I will link it below.

Then I put the mask back on and used Wendy's Checkmate stencil.  I didn't like how bright this part was so I sponged a thin coat of Gesso over it.

Using Jet Black Archival Ink I stamped two copies of the little flower from Wendy's set called Mix and Match Art on each of three different scraps of paper from Graphic 45 and then fussy cut the bloom portion from each.  I shaped the petals of one of each colour bloom and mounted it on top of the flat bloom.  I used a gold gel pen to highlight the stamens.

Now it was time to assemble the card.  The sentiment is from Wendy's set called All Occasion Art and was stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink on a scrap of Graphic 45 paper and the edges were inked with Wild Honey Distress Ink.  I popped it up with some craft foam and added a little dollar store gem.

I cut some leaves with Tim Holtz's Garden Greens Die and inked the edges with Forest Moss DI.  The flowers were adhered to the card with leaves peeking out here and there.

Finally I used Martha Stewart punches to make the heart and the butterfly.  A couple gems were added to the body of the butterfly.

The following products used to create this card came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Thank You Phindy

Today is a sad and happy post all in one.  Sadly I have to tell you all that this is the last post I will be doing for Phindy's Friday challenge blog.  The challenge blog is closing as Phindy is dealing with family matters that need her time.

All of us on the Design Team have created Thank You cards for Phindy and this is the one I am going to send her.  This week there will not be a challenge but if you would like to make a Thank You card for Phindy, there will be a link for you to enter it.  This is Just For Fun and there are no prizes.  We would love it if you could also post a comment for her, even if you don't get a card made.

Now the happy part - I am happy to say that I have enjoyed my time on Phindy's Design Team because she is absolutely the most wonderful, generous and supportive person along with being an incredibly talented artist.  Over the past two years, I am happy to have gotten to know and been inspired by other lovely crafters who have also served on her Design Team.  I am also happy that I have had the pleasure of getting to know Anne Ray, who is our DT Leader and we have met in person and will be doing so again in September when I go to England on vacation.  I am also happy to have gotten to know a few ladies through Phindy's Papercraft Planet group, which was my very first group, and while I haven't had a lot of time lately to chat, I have cherished to forum that Phindy has provided.

So, as you can see there are many more happy thoughts in this post than sad ones because there are lots of wonderful memories associated with Phindy's Place.

Thankful

This week the challenge at Phindy's Place is called THANKFUL and we want you to do Thank You or Thanksgiving cards.

You don't have to use a Phindy image for this challenge but there are many in her store that are suitable for both types of cards so pop over and pick a couple up. If you do use a Phindy image this week just follow the instructions in the Challenge rules to enter it twice.

Because I live in Canada and we celebrated Thanksgiving a month ago, I decided to make a Thank You card. I also decided to make one that could be used for a man or woman and used this peaceful scene as my image.

I don't know what happened when I took my photo but I kept getting an orange glow around the edges so I had to revert to a black mat. A light box with proper lights and a little tripod are on the top of my ever-growing Christmas list.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges.

Aud Sentiments - Thank You or Thanksgiving
Creative Card Crew - Thankful
Digital Tuesday - Anything Goes (must include a digi)

Image: Birds Go By with Cat (Phindy's Place)
Sentiment: Create with TLC
Card Stock: Recollections
Paper: Provo Craft
Colouring Medium: Pencil Crayons (Prismacolors) with OMS (Gotrick)
Tools & Embellishments: Chalk (Craf-T Products & Mungyo), Brad (Making Memories), Forest Branches Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug), Circle Punch (EK Paper Shapers), Copper Ink (Martha Stewart), Skeleton Leaf (Papermania)

Treat Bag

The challenge this week at Delightful Challenges is to use flowers.  I probably should not admit this but I had this bag all done and then rechecked the challenge only to discover that I was to use flowers so their placement is not quite what I would have done if I had read the challenge properly to begin with.  Let's just chalk it up to a senior moment.  I also intended to fill the bag with cookies, which is why I chose the image but at the last moment, I decided I needed to have homemade cookies in the house like a hole in the head so I filled it with the mini Smarties boxes that my husband had stashed in the cupboard.  Fortunately, I can't eat chocolate so it is no hardship for me to give them up but he may have something to say about it.

Our sponsor this week is The Cutting Cafe and the bag I made is from a template you will find in her store.  It comes with a variety of cutting options and I just used the .pdf version and hand cut my bag.  The prize for the random winner is any 3 sets from their store.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion - Checks, Plaids or Gingham
Crazy Challenge - Anything Goes
Cupcake Craft Challenges - Gingham & Roses
Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet - Buttons & Bows
Stamp 'n' Doodle  - Thank You
Tuesday Throwdown  - Die Cuts
Papertake Weekly - Punches or Die Cuts

Images: Baking Bear Set, Ticket Sentiment Set (Digital Delights by Louby Loo)
Special Techniques: Bag Template (The Cutting Cafe)
Card Stock: Kraft & Blue (Recollections)
Papers: Gingham (Recollections)
Colouring Medium: Pencil Crayons (Prismacolors) with OMS (Taltine)
Tools & Embellishments: Ribbon (Michaels), Flowers (Wild Orchid Crafts), Petite Scalloped Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Tiny Buttons (Dress it Up), Other Button (Dollar Store)

Changes at Phindy's Friday Challenges

As we mentioned last week, we have some changes to tell you about at Phindy's Friday Challenges. We have decided to open up the challenge to all cards, not just those that use Phindy's Place images. However, we still love to see your cards that use Phindy's fabulous images and so those of you who use a Phindy image will get two entries into the random drawing for the prize - just follow the instructions to link your entry twice. The first open challenge will run for a two weeks, to give the hard-working DT some well-earned time off over the holidays and will close on  January 7, 2011.

As ever, there will be a great prize of $8 to spend at the Phindy's Place web store, chosen by Random.org and the DT's Pick of the Week wins a 20% off voucher for the Phindy's Place store. Don't forget that once a month we will choose an overall winner from the weekly winners and they will be offered a Guest position on the DT - and of course a free image from Phindy's Place to use for that week's challenge!

We are challenging you to make a Thank You card with scraps as an optional extra theme.  Since this challenge runs for two weeks, this is a perfect opportunity to make the cards you will need to acknowledge all the gifts you are going to receive for Christmas (craft supplies - maybe).  Don't forget that there are lots of wonderful images in Phindy's store that are perfect for any type of card, including a Thank You card.

After the drain on my finances with the postage for my Christmas cards I am still on an austerity kick so this is another clean and simple card.  The embellishments are really calling me though so I don't expect this will last long.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

The Crafty Pad - Anything Goes
CES Challenges - Anything Goes
Crafty Ann's - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
ABC Challenge  - K is for Keep it Simple

Image:  A Helping Hand (Phindy's Place)
Sentiment:  Computer Generated
Card Stock:  White (Staples)
Papers:  Stripe, Squares and Swirl (Provo Craft), Branch (Memories Forever), Gingham (Can't Remember)
Colouring Medium:  Pencil Crayons (Prismacolor) with OMS (Taltine)
Tools & Embellishments:  Chalk (Mungyo), Corner Rounder Punch (Marvy Uchida), Buttons (Dress it Up)

A Phindy Thank You Card

Today the challenge for you at Phindy's Place is to make a thank you card.  You certainly can't have too many of those on hand so this should be easy for you.

You must use one of Phindy's images but since there are so many that would be suitable for this type of card, that should not be a problem.

Image: Happy Mail (Phindy's Place)
Sentiment: Computer Generated
Card Stock: White (Staples), Purple & Yellow (Recollections)
Papers: Tulip (Sandylion Sticker Designs), Yellow Spotted (My Stash)
Colouring Medium: Pencil Crayons (Prismacolors and Koh-I-Noor) with OMS (Taltine)
Tools & Embellishments: Chalk (Mungyo), Buttons (My Stash), Flower Punches (EK Paper Shapers)

You're A Peach & DT Announcement

I am so excited to announce today that I have accepted an invitation to be on the design team for Isabella's Sketchbook and I want you to hop on over to see all the wonderful creations made by the members of the team and get ready to join in on the challenges.  The challenge this week is an open challenge so you can submit any project that you make featuring an image from Isabella's Sketchbook and you have a chance to win 6 digis of your choice from her shop.  Yes, you read it correctly, I did say 6 images.

I have made a little card with one of Isabella's wonderful images that I think would make a terrific thank you card so I put the following verse inside:

You're A Peach

Thanks A Bunch

The image from Isabella's Sketchbook is called Peach Basket Digi Stamp and has been coloured using a combination of prismacolor and Koh-I-Noor pencil crayons.  The papers are a freebie from the Flora Doodles collection at Making Handmade Cards (online) and from my stash.  The cardstock is Recollections (Michaels).  Other supplies used:  Pearl Stickers (Recollections from Michaels), Pearl Spray (Michaels), Border Punch and Branch Punch (Martha Stewart), Flowers (Bridal Supply Store), Ribbon (my stash), Chalk (Mungyo) and Vintage Photo Distressing Ink (Ranger).