Among the roses

It has been a wonderful week, my friends.  The trees have almost reached their peak of beauty - gorgeous in their shades of Autumn color.  The weather today is sunny and warm.  With the windows and doors thrown wide open, I can hear the squirrels and chipmunks outside in the garden gathering their stores for the winter months ... rustling thru the fallen leaves.  Soon the birds will come and clean the bright red berries from the viburnum bushes as they prepare for their journey south.  I'm so happy to help them along the way.

I've enjoyed some quiet time lately ...creating crocheted bits of this and that to share.  My friend Lisa directed me to a beautiful photo of crocheted roses posted on tinywhitedaises.  Much larger than I need ... I had to try them in a smaller size.  I'm so pleased with this sweet rose that it was the featured embellishment at a gathering of crafty friends yesterday.  The ladies were thrilled to each get a rose complete with a single pink bead center.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these in the future.

My papers are from the Beau Chateau collection.  Shades of pink and brown are so wonderfully romantic.  Two ribbons combine to create a beautiful mixed bow.  The satin is Pretty in Pink, the stripe is retired.  Decorative pins with pearls and matching pink beads add another layer of shabby goodness.

You can see why I fell in love ... 

Love this too ...

Thank you for stopping by to spend some time here.  I hope you've been inspired to create something beautiful too .  Before I go ... remember to hop along and vote over at Polkadot Door Designs!

Pink and Peachy

 

Good Saturday morning to you.  It's a glorious day and I may just have the chance to finish my book on the porch later!  So a quick post for you today, OK?

Two new challenges really tested me to put together a color combination that I would NEVER have dreamed of in a million years...Baby Pink, Peach, and Black.  WHAT?  That's exactly what I thought until I scrolled down and looked at this yummy photograph.  Gorgeous, don't you think?

I've been itching to dig into our new In Color package and here was my chance.  Everyone ... meet Peach Parfait.  It served as my card base so you don't see much from the front.  I've included an image of just the cardstock. 

On to my project for today. 

The printed papers are old but they look wonderful for this project.  The flower was created using different punches ... Fancy Flower Extra Large, 5-Petal Flower Extra Large, and an old retired punch very much like Boho Blossoms Extra Large (that gives you THREE small flowers).  The paper I used was Pretty in Pink to keep with the "Baby Pink" requirement in this challenge.  The pearl in the center is self sticking and available with our Basic Pearls Jewels.  I'm so excited that we offer these embellishments now ... I go through them like crazy!  After the flower was dry, I misted it with our Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to add a shimmer.  Click on the photo to enlarge the image - you'll see the subtle glitter.  Isn't it wonderful?  Here's a link  to a fantastic tutorial on creating this little bundle of goodness.  It's so fun ... I hope you try it!

The black was brought into the project with our rich 5/8" Satin Ribbon.  It comes in 13 colors and ties beautifully ... I don't have them all (yet).  I keep a little stash of black and white checked ribbon just for detailing such as this.  The buttons and pearl are on a pin with my message included.  It's the first time I've used my new Jewelry Tag Medium punch.  Perfect size for this project and I can see many more little tags in the future!

I'm so pleased you were able to stop by today.  Thanks so much for coming.  I encourage you to visit the ladies at Colour Create Challenge to see other gorgeous examples of Baby Pink, Peach, and Black.  Thanks ladies for the challenge!  Over at Cute Card Thursday they are celebrating summer with bright cheery colors.  I thought this card with it's handmade flower fit the bill!  I hope they agree.

119794 - Peach Parfait cardstock

118073 - Fancy Flower Extra Large

119880 - 5-Petal Flower Extra Large

119858 - Boho Blossoms Extra Large

100459 - Pretty in Pink cardstock

119247 - Basic Pearls Jewels

118772 - Vanilla Smooch Spritz

117285 - 5/8" Satin Ribbon in Basic Black

117190 - Jewelry Tag Medium Punch

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Pink and Purple goodness ...

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Hello friends.  I have a busy schedule packed with lots of fun so I hope you don't mind a quick post today!  The skies are overcast so my project photo's are a bit darker than normal.

If you haven't seen our new catalog you are missing out on a treat!  You can email me or visit my website to get a copy for yourself (see my links on the left sidebar).  We can start shopping these yummy products beginning July 1st and I am so excited!  Today's card features a couple products I was able to pre-order.

The ladies at The City Crafter came up with the lovely color combination of pink and purple for their challenge this week.  Isn't this photo gorgeous?  And to put a cherry on top they added the need for pearls too!  I couldn't resist.

Printed or patterned ribbon was the theme at Your Next Stamp.  Isn't the the BEST name for a blog?  I used my hand dyed pink seam binding.  It's so easy to make and you can custom color it to any shade.  I love it!  My sketch came from Friday Sketchers.  I haven't made a square card in weeks and was looking forward to the challenge..thanks for inspiring me!  Here's my project ...

I used Elegant Eggplant and Pretty in Pink as my color combination.  The pattern papers are from the Razzleberry Lemonade collection.  Delicious!  Don't miss this paper - it's retiring on June 30th!  I used it for my vertical stripes and to cover my chipboard bird ... you can tell that's a bird, can't you?  The wonderful newspaper print is from our upcoming catalog - only a couple more days!  The greeting and hydrangea flower is too.  JOY!  The courdroy button is Pretty in Pink and tied on with white string.  I sewed stacked crepe paper together for the top.  It holds they layers together and makes punching an edge with my Scallop Punch easier.  See the sweet little pearls?  They are from our Pretties Kit and I used Glue Dots to adhere them.

My thanks to all the challenge blogs that inspired me to create!  I hope you enjoyed your visit today.


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Welcome Baby Girl!

I did it!  I finished the Baby Girl gift box tower!

The kids delivered the gifts to the deserving Grandma's at school.  They were very pleased and my children felt good too.  I'm so glad I made these.  I'm already thinking of other "towers" I would like to create.  Try it for yourself ... they are really simple and super fun!  I used a box template from Papertreyink.  They have lots of box templates there.  Of course there are numerous other sources for templates.  If you find a box you like, take it apart and trace it!  You can use just about any shape/size box, just so long as you can stack them!

This is also a great idea for background paper scraps!  Who cares if they all match?  As long as they are from the same general color family and coordinate well with each other, then by all means use them!  These strips are only 1 3/4" wide and 7 1/2" long.  I had to use two on each box to make it all the way.  My seams are hidden on the sides under the ribbon.  Shhhh!  No one even knows they are there!

I hope you enjoy your evening.  I got a HUGE box of goodies from Stampin' UP on my porch today.  (Happy dance!!)  Unfortunately it's not all mine but I like digging thru it anyway!  I pull things out and say "ooohhh, I wish I had this!"  It's dangerous, I admit.  But the good news is that SOME of the contents ARE MINE!  So you'll be seeing new things in the next couple days - be sure to visit again soon!