My Favorite "Mo" Make of 2014

First off, to be fair, I only made a handful of cards early this year.  I think maybe 6 of them were with Mo's images.  It doesn't feel like I should be entering this challenge but I LOVE Mo's images and I've decided its time to start making my cards again because I love it so much and have been missing it.  I scrolled back through my blog (it truly only took a couple minutes) and picked this cute guy as my favorite.  I need to see if I still have this card because I don't remember if I gave him away or not.

 I made this card in January.  It's like seeing an old friend :)  He is called Dream.  I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils.  Gosh, I miss those things.  I'm going to dig through my boxes and pull them out. 

 Here's the front of the card.  I will save you from the whole description again.  If you are interested you can visit the original post here.

I will be trying my hand at coloring again.  If all goes well I will post a card in a few days.  If not, it might be a while longer.  If you have stopped by after all this time I thank you.  I am slowly making my rounds to all your blogs as well.

I am entering my card in the challenge at Mo's Challenge Blog.

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

It Has Been So Long!

I'm not quite sure I remember how to post on my blog!  Time has been flying for me this year.  In May we sold our house and in August we bought my dream home.  It is a 2200 square foot, 200 year old Civil War looking house.  We have 9 foot ceilings, old wood floors, even floor and ceiling "locks"on the library doors (yes, we have a small library).  It is my dream to have a my studio in a separate structure on our property and right now I do not have a sewing/craft room in the house.  I work part time for a friend's quilt shop and I bring lots and lots of sewing home.  I sew at the kitchen table and my stuff is tucked on the enclosed porch when I finish for the day.  After having a sewing room for 20 years I am missing my space.  However, I am so in love with my home that I don't mind the inconvenience.

I sat down to look at some paper crafting blogs today and decided I need to dig out my pencils and buy some new images to play with.  I really miss making my cards and even though I am extremely busy working, sewing and still home schooling my two boys I am determined to make some cards.  I keep saying I need to figure out how to get by on less sleep :) 

If you have stopped by wondering what happened to me….now you know.  I fell in love with a house and I have made it my home :)

I will be making my rounds to visit all of you in the next few weeks.  I miss seeing what you have been up to and what lovely things you are creating.

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Shopping Our Stash #145

Happy April! Time for a new challenge at Shopping Our Stash!  This time we want you to break out your technique stash and make something "faux"….yeah, I was stumped too, but I found this great tutorial that saved my day!!

First off I used this adorable new image from Sylvia at Wee Stamps.  I printed her on kraft card stock and colored her with Prismacolor pencils.

I used papers from my stash from MME (probably my favorite company for paper).  My only embellishments are the pearls in the corners.

 Here's the inside with a generous writing panel.

And here is my faux technique.  I made faux patina on the "banner" behind the image.  Too bad my image was so big it covered up most of it because it really did turn out pretty good.  I followed the tutorial in the link above.  Her instructions were very good. (thankfully, cuz I am not a technique junkie and I was a bit stumped!)

So now its your turn to wow us with your faux abilities!

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Shopping Our Stash #144

Hello, friends!  Time for another fun challenge at Shopping Our Stash!  This week we want you to use your oldest tree stamp.  Easy right?  I have to admit when I found out what our challenge was I couldn't immediately think of a tree stamp in my collection but I thought to myself there must surely be one in there somewhere….or not!  I finally stumbled upon one in a tiny set from the dollar section at Joanns that I had purchased for my daughter a few years back and she put in my stamp collection.  If you are familiar with my cards you know I use mostly images of sweet little children….not trees.  Thank goodness for that small set of stamps!

The tree stamp is very small so I decided to make a gift tag.  I used a Spellbinders die to cut the tag shape from solid CS and a scrap of DP.  Then I cut the same shape from cream and stamped my tree on there.  I added some buttons from my stash and there ya go!  Not one of my usual creations but I had limited supplies!  And now I have two gift tags for Christmas!

There you have it.  My post is short and sweet because, after all, what more can I really say about these simple tags?  I hope you have better luck in your stash and won't you share with us what you make this week?

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Shopping Our Stash #143

Hello friends!  Happy Tuesday!  Time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  This week our theme is "Buttons and Bows".  Sounds girlie huh?  I've been cuddling a tiny baby girl at our church and I think girlie stuff is too fun these days!

 I used a great collage sheet called Stitched with Love by iralamija.  It's a great shop, check out her beautiful images!  The DP is from MME.  The lace, buttons and teal seam binding are all from my stash.  I sewed the edges as I almost always do, only this time I used my birthday present.

Isn't it beautiful?  I've wanted one for a long time and when this was posted at my local quilt shop I had to check it out!  Someday I hope to have a studio for all my art that's not attached to my house.  This will have a special place for sure!

One of my boys tinkered with it for several hours and got it to sew as well as wind a bobbin.  This thing is a tank!  I'm pretty sure it would sew easily through your finger….thankfully I don't have first hand proof of that.  I did have a hard time getting it going forward each time.  I also broke the thread many times and my stitching is crooked.  Also, on the panel in the picture above my DP is crooked.  Not terribly so, but it is and it bothers me a bit ;)

I skipped sewing the tags to the matting so they wouldn't be crooked.

 Here's the inside.  I used more of the images from the collection.  I simply couldn't make a decision of which to use so I decided to use them all!  The sentiment on the front and the inside are from Becca Feeken.

 See?  I used all the images!!

And here is my finished card in front of my prized machine!

Now it's your turn.  Find your buttons and bows and join us this week!

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Shopping Our Stash #141

Hello again and welcome!  Time for another great challenge at Shopping Our Stash.  Are you ready to play along?  This week our theme is 3-2-1.  We want to see you use 3 of something, 2 of something else and 1 of another.

 I used another image from Sylvia Zet.  Its called "Fluffy hanging in there".  And she sure is isn't she?  I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.

 All my paper is MME and it is all glittered.  My 3-2-1: 3 Design Papers, 2 different colored pearls, 1 charm.  The ribbon and lace have been in my stash for hundreds of years….true story!  The sentiment is from PTI.

 I used the same sketch inside for the writing panel.

So, put on your counting skills this week and play along, ok?

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle

Green and Purple Fairy

Hi friends!  Welcome to my little place on the world wide web.  Thanks for stopping by!  Today I have a card to play along with one of my favorite challenge blogs, Mo's Challenge Blog.  I am a huge fan of Mo's images and I have quite a collection of them!  This is one of my favorites:

 This is Winter Fairy Talva.  I have colored her with my Prismacolor pencils.  I added crackle medium to the frost on her wings, fine glitter to her snowball and tinsel glitter to her clothes.  I also sewed silver-lined beads to her skirt.

 My favorite color scheme would have to be purple and green so that is what I used.  I stamped small snowflakes around the image and on the edges of the white vellum which I sewed down because it is impossible to adhere that stuff without your adhesive being seen.  The green panels are embossed with a snowflake folder which I hope you can see in the photo below.  I also sewed some beads to the green panels but my very, very fluffy feathers are covering most of them.  I added the feathers to mimic the fluffy head-covering and leg warmers she is wearing.  I added the glittery berries to go along with her snowball.

 I use a Spellbinders die to make the snowflake.

 I also added some snowflakes to the back.

Here you can see the embossing a little bit on the green panels.  You can also see the beautiful pearl and rhinestone swirls I added.  I mounted the image on foam to sit above the elements in the background.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Mo's Challenge Blog - Favorite Color Combo

I think that's about it.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs,

Michelle