paper possibilities

elzybells challenge day...

what am I thankful for this day...all the friends I have met this year online, due to my blog and the stamping community...Yes! that means you!!

This week has been a short work week and I am looking forward to getting some relaxing and stamping in. Only Sunday will tell how well that plan is going to end up. In the mean time, here is the Elzybell challenge for this week. It is a sketch challenge, and I decided to do two versions of the sketch because I was beating myself up, not 'loving' the first attempt. Here goes... I was having one heck of a time with the circle on this sketch, so I eneded night number one, putting a rectangle image on the card base. Oh, the shame, the colors don't seem to work as well as I would have liked...attempt number two... Hmmm,  I cheated here with faux horizontal stripes! lol But I did manage to work in those new pinking edge nestiblities!

I know that I can't always please myself 100% of the time, but I'm honest and still proud that I finished the challenge! Isn't that inspiring? haha  what's next?

Have a great day guys, I have a turkey to check on! peace out...paula

magnolia {part 4}

Good Morning!  Once again the weekend has flown by, but I did get a major task outta the way for this holiday season...I gave Niki his bath and haircut last night. Now he can get another bath before Christmas, if needed, and it will be a snap with his shorter hair. He's a yorkie, so into the sink he goes!

A couple nights this past week I got to hang out with my friend Linda and her co-worker Kathy, in town for some work training! We went to dinner, {Carabba's & Olive Garden} and shopped {Archiver's & Scrapbook Zone}. I was able to get some Christmas shopping off my list too, I didn't just shop for myself! All this fun did mean I didn't make anything new these past few days...ha ha that's what today is for! But I can show you my last Magnolia card... 

Isn't she a cutie? I colored her with my pencils and gamsol, and the beaded snowflakes came from Magnolia. I haven't seen anything like them in the stores around me. They sent me two and I cut one up to look like three... cleaver, huh! The patterned paper is from My Minds Eye.

This week is gonna be busy around my house because Thanksgiving dinner is here. Three day work week! yeah! and maybe some shopping on friday.

Before I leave you today I do have a question that just came to me when I wrote the bit about shopping on friday. Here, the day after Thanksgiving is called 'black friday', the official kick off to the Christmas shopping frenzy. What about in other countries, do you have a big sale day like we do?

I very recently made the mistake of asking someone if Canada celebrated 'Mother's Day'. Ok, I am not culturally worldly, I admit it, I am far from worldly on any subject really. How did I know it wasn't just a Hallmark holiday, not all countries are big into Halloween like in the States...

Just wondering in Michigan...  :)

house mouse trio...

Well, it's been a while since I colored up a House Mouse stamp, and I got this one from Pauline, my friend I got to visit in Canada a few weekends ago. Pauline has a huge assortment of these guys. I admit that they are kinda time consuming to color the little guys up, but they are so stinking cute!! 

This card is heading into a friends collection, {how do ya like it Mary?}

I spent a good amount of time trying different tags and other little embellishments on this baby, and I didn't like anything! The patterned paper is from Daisy D, it's a 6x6 pad from last Christmas, I  wanted something soft.  The lacy punch is from Martha and that paper is a shimmery gold, it just doesn't photograph that way.

Looking forward to the weekend in Michigan! See ya soon! love...paula

bc dzyns blog hop...

Hey, Hi! 

 Today is MFT's blog hop, revealing the new BC Dzyns 'and then I said...' set. Here is a new chica to fall in love with! Now, in case you didn't hop over from Michelle's blog, you can start the hop from the begining here, on Kim's blog.

Do ya like her? 

I knew I wanted to use this pink, kinda vibrant paper! {It's from Anna Griffin} I knew I wanted to use some curve, which I don't use a lot and I wanted it to be fun...

On the inside of the card I stamped 'whatever dude!'  because this card is going to my friend Dana who says 'dude' ALL the time! 

Now it's time to keep hopping... you're almost to the end of your journey grasshopper {sorry, I don't know where that came from} Get on over to Susan's blog and see what fab creation she has waiting for you!

Hope you have had as much fun as I did today!! Happy Hopping!

magnolia christmas {part 3}

When I first found out about Magnolia I only knew about the little girls and boys...they have more! In my package from Magnolia, I recieved a small round box...I knew what I was putting on it!  

I covered it with some Cosmo Cricket paper from last years Christmas line, and sanded off the edges. Part of the items I was sent is the green pine branch punches, under the package. {I added a little glitter to them, can ya tell?} I made a wreath of the pine brances and placed the package on top. I had a hard time getting a clear shot of the tiny label on the top of the package, but I wrote 'for you' on the label using my ultra fine pen. A few pieces of candy and what a cute gift for a special friend. In case you were wondering, I used a glue stick for applying the paper to the box.

The next stamp I fell in love with was a very pretty, scrolled snowflake.. 

Magnolia did provide me with this heart cardbase, and I wanted to make a different Christmas card.. I used a piece of My Minds Eye pp, and stamped the snowflake out in red Palette ink. I stamped the snowflake out on a lipstick pink cardstock and cut it out with a craft knife. I added glitter to all the snowflakes with my glue pen. On top of the pink cut out snowflake I added a two piece poinsettia flower {from Magnolia} and a button. The tag is from Spellbinders tag trio, and the sentiment is Paper Trey {again!} I also stamped the snowflake in the red, on the envelope. I did distress the heart edge, so it's a rustic, but modern take on a Christmas card.

So, in case you were like me and thought Magnolia was all about the little children, know you know they're a little more! enjoy!

magnolia christmas {part 2}

Well, my birthday went off without a hitch...I came home from work and fell asleep until 7pm!  Lucky for me, I didn't have to work in the morning and I got to stay up reading the second book in the Twilight saga. Friday I had to break down and shop for some jeans, and say goodbye to my capri's and shorts. I also met up with some friends for lunch and dinner and got a little more shopping in that evening.

I have been working on several projects at once this weekend and the Magnolia DT stuff is finished. I have to show you what turned out to be my fav of the cards next...it was a blurry pic the other day or you would have seen it then... 

I just love how she is sitting here with her cap on!

I was sent a small bag of embellishments from Magnolia and some patterned paper I wanted to use a little something on all the cards. How about another... 

Both of the card bases, and patterned paper came from Magnolia, and I also used some new pp from Cosmo Cricket on this little girl --->

Both cards have small sentiments from Paper Trey's Mixed Messages on them. I really need to find all my Christmas sentiments because I seem to use the same ones over and over! lol

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and see ya real soon with something a little different from Magnolia! bye..

elzybells challenge #6...

Happy Birthday to meeeee! Yes, it's that time of year when my thoughts turn to what made me happy as a young carefree blonde. These days it is no longer the beloved collection of Barbie Dolls, sad, but true. Today I am into more mature things like this...   

and this ------>

Yes, you are seeing right, that's Martha's name right there in that book! Wow, how did I get that when I had to work? Well the birthday elves were busy that day and they found a nice young girl to wait in line, curled up with her school books. That nice young girl also got a sneak peek of Martha as she tried to grab a cup of coffee and not get mobbed! So THANKS! to Mary and Alisha {aka, the young girl} for the huge surprise! Reading this book is like getting a personal lesson from Martha herself!

My husband also gave me an early gift last weekend, a Garmin GPS... I never thought I would own one of these until I was in the car using one, again, thanks to Mary! This is gonna make fining all the new Canadian stamp shops sooooo much easier if I go on my own!

Jordan asked what I wanted but George Clooney was not within her price range, sadly I then told her it was ok...

Birthday celebration aside, I wanna show you the latest Elzybell challenge. There is a tiny story that goes with this piece, because I am hoping it will hold a special memory. How many teenagers do you know who get a book published?  

There is a young girl in Albania {17 or18} who did just that, and wrote a fictional story of a girl who talked to a bot in outer space. The title of the book is what I stamped out at the bottom of the picture. One of my co-workers is the aunt of this girls and she wanted a very special 'congratulations' card that she could then frame. I told her I had the perfect stamp in mind, Stardust and Moonbeams, an acrylic set from Elzybells Art stamps.  Gina {my co-worker} speaks english, but she does have a hard time trying to get some points across. She kept giving me little things about the book, to possibly use, but I couldn't tie it all together...so, hey... 'you're a star' seemed to fit the situation! lol This challenge was for paper piecing, something I do like to do, but don't do very often... hey, I love to color!!

Elizabeth over at Elzybells, was running a Christmas card competition and there are some pretty amazing cards on display on her blog. Click here to view the winners, and the honorable mentions... Elizabeth was also very generous to move two of the honorable mentions to third place because they recieved such high scores. Congrats to all the entries!! Great job girls!!

 

magnolia christmas {part 1}...

Here is a card I finished last night...  I had the perfect piece of paper to go with the shimmery card base, it's from last years Cloud 9 Christmas line. I colored this little Christmas girl with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol, are you surprised! lol

Tonight I am finishing up another project before the New Top Chef season starts... both Jim, Jordan and I have been awaiting this day! yeah!!

Today is also my husbands birthday and we went to dinner and I am totally stuffed. So pardon me if I need to end this quickly but I need to get craftin'...

Thanks for stopping in!

 

an american christmas...

R U ready to pull out your sunglasses to view my latest Christmas card? It's pretty bright, you've been warned... 

I wasn't kidding was I? Seeing as my sister doesn't look at my blog, this one is going to her. This stamp is from American Art Stamps, and while I have really been drawn to them, it's the first one I bought. I picked it up this weekend at Stamp Art in London. I colored this leggy chick in bright pink, and then matched her up with Fancy Pants' new Christmas paper. All the little sparkly dots just screamed for this pom-pom ribbon I've had for a while. There is a couple more of these I will do up for my personal card giving, those kooky girls on my list who might enjoy her, like I do. I know it's not everyones taste! lol

I hope you are in the mood for some Magnolia's because tonight I got 4 cards done for them! Be on the lookout...

a delicate pine tree...

I hope you have missed me as much as I have missed being creative! My Saturday trip to London, Ont. was fun! We shopped at two places over there, the first being www.scrappingreatdeals.com, and Stamp Art. I left a little money at both and along the way picked up some new paper, Spellbinders snowflake dies, a cuttlebug embossing folder, some cool chunky glitter and a few stamps. Here is one of the stamps I bought at Stamp Art... 

It got called the Charlie Brown tree by all of us, and I had this vision in my head as soon as I saw it. The stamp is from Impression Obsession, and it's real name is Delicate Pine tree.

How do you like that chunky glitter from Stampendous? I saw it on a tag at Stamp Art and had to ask Nancy, the owner, if it was in stock. LOL, all five of us girls bought a bottle! Cool stuff... Just a little info on how I did this card. I used a sponge dauber to make that darker area behind the tree, using Aegean Blue chalk ink, in the Dew Drops. I stamped the tree on top of the blue and made the needles green, a little blue and a yellow green to add some highlights. I did use but a fine glitter and the chunky glitter to add texture to the snow. The papers are this year Christmas line from Cosmo Cricket. Martha's wonderful punch as a little accent to the edge of the card front and some of Martha's twill also. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from Paper Trey's Mixed Messages.

If you have the need to wander over to London, Ont. like we did, you gotta check out Stamp Art! I kept hearing that it was packed with stuff, and if you love stamps, it's the place to go! I was just stunned at how mauch there was to look at in one place. They have cards hanging everywhere, showing off the stamps, techniques, papers...and I bet Nancy doesn't get too much of a break, explaining how to use something or how to achieve a look you are trying to get. A fun place to spend hours looking and learning...and leaving behind some green! lol

I have to add that Saturday ended at Linda's house, and we stamped out all our new stamps, tried some new Spellbinder dies, and played with her dog Bessie. Linda ordered pizza, wings and a greek salad, then I had the honor of turning bright red, when they sang 'happy birthday' to me with an ice cream cake. I was shocked! and a little embarrased...Linda took a few pictures and let's hope they don't find their way to a blog anytime soon! Thanks girls!! 

:)