Christmas

Time for a Christmas/Holiday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Lots of die cuts were used for this card :-) inside and out....

Wink of Stella was used on the pink cs pieces.

Sending this "Christmas Blessing" to all.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Thanks

Having fun playing with inlaid die cuts for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Paper Therapy Part 2

Continuing with my Paper Therapy from the previous blog posting. Here is another "We're Seeing Stars" card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I used the positive "happy" die cut from the previous card. Great to get two cards from one die cut :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Paper Therapy

If you search "Wikipedia" for types of 'therapies" about 100+ are listed. I am adding one today it is called "PAPER THERAPY". I find working with paper, creating cards and other paper crafted items, to be very therapeutic. Of course some background 'music therapy' always enhances the process.

This card is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is "We're Seeing Stars".

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

p.s. "music therapy" is listed on Wikipedia :-)

Treasuring Trevor

Sorry I have been AWOL since May.  This year has been awful and I hope next year is better. In May my husband had TWO back to back life threatening medical issues. We were finally almost back to normal (if you can ever call our lives normal) and then our precious, smiley, kind-hearted, lovable six year old grandson, Trevor, passed away. He was a perfectly healthy young boy when he went to bed on Wednesday evening but was found unresponsive on Thursday morning. To say our family is "heart broken" is a massive understatement. As of today we have no answers as to why he passed away. This is a "Little Helpers" event which is taking place here in Rochester, word is spreading across the USA and other states have decided to join in for this worthy cause.

For more information, please visit these sites. Please spread the word and help this worthy cause in remembrance or our beloved Trevor Damian George.


https://www.facebook.com/Treasuringtrevor

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/memorial-fund-for-trevor-george-and-his-family

https://www.facebook.com/events/312984942191108/?ref=5

Die Cut Garden Sketch

One card for three challenges. The challenge at Less Is More is to create a card using die cuts, I followed the great sketch at Seize The Sketch for my LO and used the Garden Party challenge at Catered Crop to complete this card.

This is the great sketch that I used for my LO:

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

CAS Flowers

The fun challenge this week at Less is More is to create a card with 'flowers'. The design should have lots of white space, few layers and minimal embellishments. The cue card for CASology this week is 'FLOWER' and Ann from The Paper Players is challenging everyone to create a CAS floral card.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Home Sweet Home

Catered Crop is sponsoring a "house and home" challenge this week.

Since Spring has officially arrived, the birds are singing every morning so my 'home is for the birds' Ha Ha Ha

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Masculine Sketch

This Card was chosen as the A+ Winner at "Seize the Sketch"

Lesley has designed a great sketch for the Seize the Sketch challenge this week. Welcome to the new members of the DT, all the newbies have well known names and faces in the blogosphere. Looking forward to seeing their wonderful and inspirational cards.  This card uses the lovely color palette from the ColourQ  challenge.

The stamps are from Flourishes, the stencil from MFT and the embossing folder is Stampin Up. The compass was fussy cut from the map stamp. I rotated the sketch to accommodate this masculine themed card.

The color combo:

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Sew Nice of You to Visit

This week the Virginia's View Challenge is to create something with stitching. When you have some clothing that needs to be stitched it is hard to justify stitching on paper when there are clothes to sew. But....sewing on paper is definitely more creative. lol

Real and faux stitching were used on this card. Wish I could 'faux' stitch the clothes that are in need of repair! lol

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Thank You Flowers

I am really enjoying these one layer cards. There was a time when I would cringe at the thoughts of making a card with only one layer.....but not now!! I think this type of card is a REALLY difficult challenge bit if it was easy it wouldn't be called a challenge! The Less is More challenge is to create a one layer 'Thank You' card and the One Layer Simplicity challenge for May is all about 'Flowers'. I combined the two.

I really love tulips but I wish they would last longer.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Daisy Sketch

 I am loving all the great colorful spring flowers so I decided to use some for this weeks challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch.

This is the sketch;

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Shades of Purple

The challenge at Less is More this week is to create a card using 'three shades' of one color or three colors.

A fun CAS card to create. The three tiny purple heart shaped rhinestones are from a 'fingernail set' that I purchased at the Dollar Store. It contained many tiny different colored rhinestones and a tiny bottle of clear nail polish.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Hello Spring

Well according to the calendar it is 'Spring' and has been here for about 3 weeks....someone forgot to tell Mother Nature....it is overcast, rainy and a mere 40 degrees!  In order to bring a little 'spring' to my Butterfly Garden, I decided to make a card using both the Colour Q Challenge and the Retro Sketch Challenge for inspiration.

The Colour Q Challenge:

The Retro Sketch Challenge:

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Happiness is....

What makes you smile?     Warm tropical breezes, blue skies, sandy beaches, and the sounds of the surf rolling onto the shore....now that makes me smile! The challenge at Less is More this week is to create a card that makes you 'smile'  :-).

After this brutal winter, not only does this card make me smile but it also makes me feel relaxed and WARM :-)

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Me and My Shadow #2

Well this is my second card for the shadow stamping challenge at Less is More. Never mind reading the fine print....I apparently can't read the large print!!!! lol     My card was disqualified because it was two layers. So here is my ONE LAYER CARD.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Stencil #2

This week I decided to try another stencil technique for Virginia's View Challenge.

Colors were applied using dye inks on pieces of cut 'n dry. Patience and practice are the key words when trying to use multiple colors on a stencil. lol

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Me and My Shadow

The great challenge this week at Less is More is to create a card using shadow stamping.

Floral and butterfly stamps from 'Rubber Stampede', verse is from 'Flourishes'.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

LIM Touch of Turquoise

The colorful challenge this week at Less is More is to make a clean and simple (CAS) card using a touch of Turquoise. What a delightful, forgotten, seldom used (by me) color. I think I love it!! Guess I will try to use it more!

This is actually my 'revised' version of this card. The original is below....which do you prefer?

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Round 'n Round Stencil

The challenge this week at Less is More is titled 'Round and Round' and Virginia's View Challenge is requesting the use of stencils.

I used an MFT die to make a stencil for the corner background of my card and the doily is a PTI die. I am sure that the Virginia's View Challenge expects more stenciling than I did, but I felt that anymore of those Polka Dots would make the card too busy. Sometimes "Less IS More"!!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

p.s....Sorry Dr. John no cars or trains.......lol 

Dynamic Duos #96

Time for another great color combo at Dynamic Duos. This week the color 'gumball green' has me longing for a glimpse of 'green' grass. After the 'surprise' storm on Saturday night, we were left with about 9" of very heavy wet snow.YUCK While doing our driveway (and many of the neighbors driveways) our snow blower developed what my husband called a 'clunking noise'...thank goodness the snow removal process is over till the end of the year...I HOPE!!!

Whenever I use the color 'green', it seems as though any shade of 'purple'  is my 'go to' color. Next time perhaps I should try something outside my comfort zone.... or maybe not. lol

The inside of my card is ready for an any occasion sentiment or blank for writing a quick note.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Tea Time for Three

While straightening out my stamping area (a never ending process) I found this tea cup stamp with 3 tea cups on it. This reminded me of the "three" challenge at Less Is More. I loved the color combo at Dynamic Duos and for the layout I used the sketch from The Paper Players.

The Dynamic Duos Colors:

The Paper Players sketch:

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Sentiment as the Focal Point

Thanks to the great gals at CAS(E) this Sketch for their creative ideas. I struggled to find an original idea for the sketch this week. The DT had taken all my ideas.....ha......like I could possibly compete with them! lol

Here is the sketch for the challenge.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

LIM Three's

The challenge this week at Less Is More is to create a CAS card using THREE of something. In addition to using THREE on our card, there is a request that we comment on THREE other participants.YEA!!! I'm all for that...a lot of work goes into these cards, not to mention the amount of time necessary to stage, edit, crop, upload the photos, write the post, copy paste, copy paste, link etc. Based on the number of visitors, the percentage that leave a comment is low. Thanks to the gals at LIM for requesting comments. Now on to my card:

I am longing to see that bright yellow mass in the sky...I think it is called the "SUN", but it has been hidden for so long that I almost forgot what it looks like. So I decided to use 'yellow' on my card (a color I never use) to mimic the sun.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

The Art of Stenciling

It has been years since I used stencils, in fact it has been so long that I didn't even know I had stencils! When I saw the challenge at Less Is More I figured that I would have to sit this one out! I pondered my different options, even tried to make my own stencils (as they suggested) but I was not very successful. When I opened the 'stencil' drawer, pulled out the box of brushes "VOILA"....I found real NBUS stencils! Now if I only remembered what I learned in that stenciling class. lol  After about 5 different times, I finally got a 'smudge-free' piece of paper! Consider this a labor of love. ha ha ha

A touch of 'stickles' was added to the flower centers, various dye inks were used for the coloring.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Black Tie

It is 'Black Tie' week at the Dynamic Duos challenge. The colors this week are 'black and more mustard' with the dessert option of 'dry embossing'. Who doesn't like dessert? So of course I added some dry embossing to my card.

The piece of fabric I bought while in Hawaii (along with several other pieces that I planned to use on cards). The fabric was in the NBUS pile (never been used stuff).  So glad it was just the right colors for this challenge :-).

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Spring Flowers

Okay so I am officially 'done with this crazy' winter! The lion-lamb thing with March is way too crazy. Tuesday is was 56 degrees...a beautiful lamb day....then Wednesday it was 19 degrees, the worst blizzard in 15 years and an accumulation of 20" of snow...now that's what I call a LION!Today is Thursday and it is 17 degrees! YUCK!!  No one ever told me that coming in like a lamb and going out like a lion could happen in a 48 hour span!

Today I was longing for "spring" so I sat down to play with some lovely spring-like flowers. My distress inks were still out so I decided to use them again for Virginia's View Challenge. The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was just perfect for my floral image. All flowers have roots so....the cue card "roots" challenge at CASology was so appropriate. The challenge at Craft-Mojo was 'Spring Flowers'. Now that my friends is a win-win situation!

All stamps are from Flourishes. I particularly like the .. Love is patient, love is kind verse that is lightly stamped behind the 'Love' sentiment.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Spring Watercolors

It is "one layer week" at Less Is More. I found a brand new challenge at Virginia's View. This challenge is the first of many, I am sure! Cant wait to see what other challenge Virginia has in store for us. Virginia is challenging everyone to create a card using a 'water coloring' technique. I am also using this card to play along with the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #3---Just Add Water!

I love the challenge of creating a "one layer card" and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed water coloring.
This card was made with water color paper and colored using mostly Distress Inks and of course 'water'!

With just a few colors you can get a lot of shading using the water color technique!

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.

Carnival

Since it is Mardi Gras time, the challenge at CASology seemed very appropriate. The cue card word is "carnival". I used one of those 'gotta have it' stamps that has never met an ink pad! the layout that I followed was from the CASe This Sketch challenge.

Back to creating cards in my Butterfly Garden.