Inspiration around every corner . . .

Good Sunday Afternoon Friends!

As crafters, do you find you look at things with 'different eyes'?

Everywhere I look I find myself envisioning a card creation ... 

call me obsessed if you must!  LOL!

We send $$$ to various charities throughout the year and unfortunately, they feel the need to send us STUFF in return ... most of the time in the form of preprinted cards, notepads, and calendars.  Nice as this is, I of course have no need for cards since I make a zillion of them myself.  BUT ... I must admit I do find inspiration in some of the design layouts and put them to use for my own card creations ... as I have done here!

A simple design but I think appropriate for a sympathy card!

The images I have used are from Pinterest.  They were NOT watermarked so I thought was okay to use (at least I sure hope so ...).

Here's what I came up with ... what do you think?

 

For this first set, I used papers from the American Crafts Classic Calico Collection.
On all the cards, I have used various sentiment stamp from My Sentiments Exactly, PSX, Verses Rubber Stamps, Great Impressions, Verve and SU Close As A Memory.

This second set uses papers from Basic Grey 'Origins' paper pad and the American Crafts Classic Calico Collection.  Brown and Old Olive cardstock were used for matting and a white Gelly Roll pen was used for all faux stitching/doodling.

For this last set, I used various papers for the background ... Around the Block 'Ash Filigree', Creative Imaginations ' Fleur De Lis' and 'Secret Garden Solid'. 

Well that's pretty much it for me today!  

Hubby & I have been doing a little 'food preparation' to enjoy during today's NFL playoff game.  Today we're having Buffalo Chicken Dip w/tortilla chips during half time.  But I must tell you about the pizza he made for dinner last night!  YUMMO!!

We had some left over veggies in the fridge so he made his own tapenade to use in place of a sauce on top of his homemade wheat pizza crust.  I can't give you the exact measurements (???) but I can tell you what it consisted of:

Cherry Tomatoes
mini multi colored Red Peppers

Red Onion

Black Olives

couple cloves of Garlic

roasted Pine Nuts

freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

OMG this was SO GOOD ...

OH!  And a few pieces of pepperoni and fresh Mozzarella on top!

Now I know why I gained 50 lbs. after 'linking up' with this guy!  

God Love Him ... he should have been a chef!  LOL!

Happy Day my friends and as always ...

Penny's Challenges #10

WOW ... where is the time going??? Today's challenge over on Penny's Challenges is an INSPIRATIONAL challenge and we were to use this beautiful blouse as the inspiration for our creations. I don't do a lot of this type of challenge so this was great fun!!

Please be sure to pop on over to my co-team members blogs and check out their inspirational creations. You can find all the links on my sidebar! And of course be sure to add YOUR creation to Mr. Linky over on the challenge blog for your chance to be "Featured Project".

For my card today, I've used an image I purchased while on my little N.C. trip recently. It is by Impression Obsession and I just love the simplicity of it! The sentiment is by the Artist Stamper which was stamped using Garden Green ink and the image coloring was done with Prisma pencils. I wanted to pick up the dotted swiss & stitching in the blouse so I've used my Cuttebug Swiss Dot embossing folder for the Garden Green panel ... then using a Signo white pen, did my faux stitching. This lovely pristeen white flower is by the Paper Studio and my large garden green brad is by Making Memories.

What a fun challenge ... I do hope you find the time to play along! Thanks so much for stopping by today ... I hope your day is filled with joy & laughter.

The weekend is here ...

... and that means outside chores need tending to while the sun is shining! I did make a couple of cards late last evening and wanted to share them with you!

While checking out a few blogs recently I came across THIS card created by Deb Rymer and really liked the sweet simplicity of it. Please stop by Deb's blog and be inspired! My card is not nearly as refined on the scoring (need practice) as Deb's, but you get the idea. My designer paper is from a DCWV 12x12 pack called Garden Party I recently purchased at JoAnn's and the sentiment is by My Sentiment Exactly.

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This next card started out as an inspiration from yet another blogger but by the time I was done with it, the card was totally different from my original inspiration. Looks like I'll have to make another card and follow Denise's inspiration piece a little closer ... then I'll share all the deets with you about her blog & card.

But back to my creation ... the base card is of Whisper White and both designer papers are from DCWV. My 3d roses are from a website called ECSTASY CRAFTS and if you happen to live in the NE Ohio area, there is a wonderful stamp store in the town of Zoar called the 1870 Shoppe, and the owner June carries them. I've used two sizes of Nestabilities scallop rectangles to created my white frame and added the dots with a Creative Memories round tip black marker. The edge around the polka dot panel & red mat under my 3d roses was created using Fiskars decal scissors. I've also popped up the rose panel on dimensions to coincide with the 3d roses. Hope you like it!!

Well, I'd better get to those chores before the sun gets too hot. Looks like it's going to be a beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in the Good 'Ole U.S.A. Happy Holidays All!! Get out there and have a picnic!!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Inspired by Others!

I just had to share this card with you all!!!

I spotted this card on Joan Fricker's blog and commented to her how beautiful it was and I was thinking of casing it! Well a short time later I received this lovely email from Joan saying she'd be pleased to have me case her card and in her words "Isn’t that what this is all about?? hee hee" . I did change it up a bit to "Make It My Own" but the basis is from Joan.

You can click on either card for a closer view!

Keeping in mind that I made my card from MEMORY of her card, the changes I made are as follows. The main image is from Inkadinkado and the set is called "Winter Birds". I decided to use black instead of the Navy. I made my main image panel smaller and I popped up the owl image that is on top of the Nestabilities where Joan popped up both panels. I also used a thin matting of glossy black between the owl image and the Nesties cut panel. I really like how Joan did a little piercing in the corners (an element I totally forgot about when trying to remember her design) but I did do the little dots in each of the scallops. As you can see, we used different locations/shapes for our sentiments.

How much fun is it to be inspired by someone's work and try to mimic it! For me, it never turns out the same .... Close, but not the Same! Has someone inspired you today??? If so, why not share that experience. I just did and it felt really good!!! Thanks Joan!! I think I'll do this more often ... I'm inspired by SO many ... but when one really catching my attention I think I'll post here and share it with you all!! Thanks for stopping by ... please come back!!

Fly your Flag with PRIDE!

Tomorrow (9-11-08) commemorates 7 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in NY. In honor, the gals over on the Color Throwdown Challenge blog have chosen to use Red, White & Blue for today's challenge.

This is my card for both the Color Throwdown Challenge and the SCS Sketch Challenge #193. The image is from the Crafty Secrets (seasonal) booklet and I think it says it all!!!

Land That We Love! Don't forget to show your respect for those who lost their lives that horrible day and fly your flag tomorrow (9-11)!!!

Feels Like Fall

These past few days have really given us NE Ohio folks a feel of what's just around the corner ... with very pleasant days in the mid to upper 70s and cool (great sleeping weather) nights in the 50s & low 60s, you can tell that Fall isn't that far away. THAT was the inspiration for my "give thanks" fall card seen here.

The tree is from the Stampin' Up "lovely as a tree" set. I stamped it using Versamark then using "pinches" of different colored embossing powder and heat setting to give me that Fall look I was after. The sky was done using the Ala Art sky image stamp and SU soft sky ink. The grass was sponged with SU old olive ink and I swirled on a little SU close to cocoa for around the trunk. I then double matted my image using Copper Metallic and Hunter Green cs. The fall leaf brads I've picked up somewhere in my travels and I'm sorry but I don't know who the mfg. is.

Thanks so much for taking the time and stopping by! Hope you have a wonderful day ... whatever you may be doing!!

Inspiration is Everywhere!!

Today my husband, (who in case you don't already know, is going through Chemo Therapy for Hodgkins Lymphoma) has to go through several tests/scans this week to see how things are progressing. So, as you can imagine, I spent some time sitting and walking around the hospital today. While traveling down one hallway there was some artwork that really caught my eye and I instantly wished I had my camera so I wouldn't forget the layout. Being inspired by this artwork ... and having no camera with me (No, no camera phone either)... I immediately upon arriving back home, sat down and tried my hand at duplicating the inspirational piece.

The main image panel is what I was going for and of course, it's not even close to what I picture in my mind but it's close and I'll try again later to try and get the technique they used more closely. It still made for a nice card and I'm happy with it!! It's amazing where you'll find inspiration and I seem to find it everywhere these days ... yes, I would say I'm on the verge of addiction ... okay, maybe I'm already there ... but whose counting!!!! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!!