Love is in Bloom

To see my post for My Time Made Easy please scroll down or click here.

Today's challenge at CropStop is to include a bird in your project.  I love this paper from Graphic 45 which has a bird in the lower corner.  I added another bird to my project and then added a birdcage and a ton of hand-made flowers & greenery!  (the dies are listed at the bottom of my post)

Here are some close-ups of my card and all the lovely details!

I used foam squares to pop up the birdcage and some of the ivy.  I used my Scissors to cut the foam squares down to size when needed.  You can see a few of them in the image below - underneath the bars of the birdcage.  

I used a craft molding mat and a flower making kit to give dimension and shape to my flowers and leaves.  

I used Stickles and/or liquid pearls in the centers of the flowers.

Some 3-D goodness:

Thank you for coming by today!  I appreciate each and every visit and I especially love receiving comments!  I hope you will join us this week at CropStop and show us your projects using birds.

Other challenges:

Waltzingmouse Sketch challenge

Joan's Garden: hand-made flowers

The Shabby Tea Room: inspiration photo

What's in it:,

Carousel Bird Cage, Fancy Blossoms, Primula Blooms, Fruit Punch Stickles, Buttercup Liquid Pearls, Ribbon - yellow with white sheer dots, Scotch Foam Tape, Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape , Tool kit for flowers, Paper Blossoms molding mat, Ivy Vine, Bird & House, Love is in Bloom - MTME's Tending the Garden digi stamp, Waltzingmouse acrylic stamp Very Vintage Label 4,

Wow, I received "Top Mouse" award!

I was so excited to find out that I won one of three "Top Mouse" awards by WaltzingMouse Sketch contest for my Easter card below.  

Here's my blinkie: 

This is the 2nd time I've won this award.  The last time was probably a couple of years ago.  I haven't had much of an opportunity to play along with this challenge but I hope to participate more often.  I love WaltzingMouse Stamps and the owner, Claire Brennan is so sweet and kind.  She is a wonderful friend who has been so compassionate towards me and the loss of my daughter... not to mention how amazing her stamp sets are!  

I'm so glad that everyone liked my card so much!  Thank you for the honor!  :)

I truly appreciate each and every visit.  I hope that my little projects bring you even just a small portion of joy that they bring to me when I create them.  My mom did a lot of arts and crafts with me and my siblings when we were young which instilled in me a love of creating beautiful things with my own two hands.  Thank you for coming with me on my journey of learning new skills and using my creativity in fun ways.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!  Sending love and virtual {{hugs}} to all my fellow crafters!  

WMS 2nd Birthday - Tea Party!

Waltzingmouse Stamps turns 2 and in celebration they are having a tea party!  We are to make a tea bag, tea pot or pastry themed projects - anything that you would find at a tea party!  Claire provided a FREE tea bag template which I printed and put together for this fun contest!

I used several Waltzingmouse stamps.  The flower is the smaller of two in Roses in Bloom.  I also used Very Vintage Labels No 5.  For the background I used Musical Backgrounds.  Enjoy the rest of the photos!  Lots of details in this project.

I even stamped the back of the tea bag.  I punched a hole in the top and tied it together with string so that I can later open it and fill it with goodies.  (I'm not a tea drinker so I don't keep it on hand... but I know quite a few ladies who would love a few chocolates in a fun container!)

oooooh, shiny!  I used a glitter pen in the center of the flower.  I also used copics to color and shade the rose which was stamped onto designer paper.  I stamped it again and layered the rose.

Hand-dyed seambinding tied in a bow with a light pink pears half attached.  It's the same color as the pearl flourishes around the rose.

 

I used chocolate chip ink for the decorative stamp on the top and the bottom of the tea bag.

 I'm also entering this project in Papertake Weekly:  Bloom and Growand the Shabby Tea Room:  monochromatic

Easter Blessings

Happy Belated Easter Blessings.  I apologize for not posting this before Easter... instead of posting the Easter card that I made for my in-laws, I went with my husband and sons to their house and spent some quality time with them.  I took a long weekend off from blogging and blog-hopping in order to spend time with family, go to church and express my gratitude to the Lord for his sacrifices for me.  I'm so very thankful for the opportunity I will have of seeing my daughter and living with her again someday.  We went to the cemetery to honor her.  We sure miss her sweet smiles and laughter.

For my card I used Joan's recipe challenge #15:

• Color challenge : White and Gold
• Use some Embossing
• Keep it simple with out any or very few embellishments
• Easter Card

And here is what I came up with:

I used the Textile cuttlebug embossing folder for the bottom part of the card.  I scored two lines on the back of the card just above the folder embossing and just below the top of the card.  I hope you can see it in the close-up.  I used "super fine detail" gold embossing powder for both the sentiment and the frame.  Around the edge of the oval I used a Gold Leafing pen... I tried to get it as even as I could but it has been a long time since I used it and the tip had dried paint in it... I'm not sure if I could safely rinse it out?  I don't have much experience using it.  I was surprised to find that the tip is more like a brush than a marker like I was expecting. 

 

See how shiny the gold is in the light?  ooohhh, shiny!  (That sure doesn't help those of us with ADOS syndrome = Attention Deficit OOOOHHHH, SHINY!!!)  And trust me - I have it BAD!

 

I made the bow out of white seam binding... it was a little wrinkled but not like the antique stuff I've been using.  I felt that this card needed a more crisp look.  The plastic flower center is a button!  I love buttons!  I will usually stock up on them when I see them on sale so I'll have them on hand when I'm crafting in the middle of the night.  

 I also used WaltzingMouse Stamps' Sketch Challenge:

 

The Waltzing Mouse Stamp sets I used are:

Holiday Labels #14

Spring Baskets

Other great challenges:

 Paper Play Challenges:  Easter/Spring

Craft Your Days Away:  Easter

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you had a Blessed Easter!

I Won a Waltzingmouse's Top Mouse Award!

I won a Top Mouse Award for the Sketch Challenge #24 on the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge blog  I won that award back in November but with everything going on I either forgot or was too busy to post this award.  I'm so happy that I won it!  Here's the card that I used for that sketch challenge:

Here's the cute award that I get to display on my sidebar.  Cool, huh? 

Thank you for stopping by!  I truly appreciate your time.

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge

For my second card today I used a sketch from Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge. I LOVE this company's stamp sets. Many of the stamps are designed to work with the Spellbinder's die cuts. The decorative border that is on the cream colored designer paper (with the small pink flowers) is a Waltzingmouse stamp found here. I also used fancy phrases stamps on the fancy tag in the front.


This is my first time to play along with Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge. I hope to play more often, especially after I receive my order I just placed. I could take a little while to get here considering they are coming from Ireland! :)

Thank you for visiting!