A Little CHF Sneak Peek

Cornish Heritage Farms is releasing a new sentiment set from the Mona Lisa Moments line called Thomas Kinkade Expressions on Friday, May 14 (see the peek at the entire set on CHF's intro page?).  This set of expressions goes perfectly, of course, with their series of Thomas Kinkade images, but they are versatile enough to be used with pretty much anyone's stamp collection.  Here I've paired one of my favorite sentiments, "Live simply......", with the lovely pear image from the Can It set (ATC collection).  (Eeeee, just reread that line... so punny!)  I used some of my yummy new Queen Bee 6x6 paper pad from Pink Paislee.... even the image is stamped on a pale yellow distressed patterned paper.  The best part was I found it at our local A.C. Moore (which is a "big box" craft store that did not previously carry the smaller lines.... they even have Tim's Alterations dies!  You can use your 40% off coupon!  But I digress....).  I colored the image with Copics (very easy, only a few colors), and distressed the sentiment panel a bit... but the papers, image, and sentiment stamp did most of the work for me.

Hope you're all having a great week!  The kids are taking their end-of-grade tests that are mandated by the system this week, so there's a bit of stress in the air.  I'm trying to keep them calm, feed them well, and maintain strict bedtimes.  Hopefully all will go well. :)

P.S. Almost forgot... Mountain Cabin releases today.  You can see the DT's artwork HERE in the gallery.

Gingersnap Creations Art Flower Exchange

For something a little diff- erent..... These are the flowers I created using the template provided at Gingersnap Creations for our second art swap.  I gotta say, these little guys were the most difficult project I've tried to photograph since I've been blogging, LOL!  Anyway, I started with a base of patterned papers (atop some grunge paper for stability), then added embossing, distress inks, stamping, and a little bling on each one.  For the centers, I used images of ladies from Waterhouse paintings from Dover, mounted underneath a crystal pebble (hence the photo difficulties).  Each little lady is surrounded by some blooms that have been cut using the new Tim Holtz Alterations dies.  I sprayed coffee filters with Glimmer mists, cut out the flowers, then stamped them.  I gave them a little curl by wrapping the petals around a piercing tool (hopefully that will hold up in shipping!).  Here's a close-up of one of them.... I *do* apologize for the rotten pics!

Hope all you moms out there had a lovely Mother's Day.  The weather here was absolutely divine, so we spent much of the day outside.  Now it's back to the (not-quite-as) busy routine.  Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Mountain Cabin

A quick little post today to show you a new release from Cornish Heritage Farms, coming out on May 11.  This peaceful image is "Mountain Cabin" from the Saturday Evening Post collection.  I've colored it with Prismacolor pencils, and set in on a background of mini Webster's Pages patterned paper.  The sentiment is from the Friendly Kritters Scripture set.

For those of you who don't get the Cornish Heritage Farms newsletter, I'll pass on a little enabling.... For all orders over $25 (after Club CHF discounts & before shipping) you will get the Freesia Cling Mounted Rubber Stamp for free!  No need to add it to your cart (you'll end up paying for it if you do!) - it will be automatically put in your package. Here's a link to the GALLERY with samples of this image (there are actually more scattered around the gallery, but this is the feature gallery.  Here and here are links to cards I had on my blog a while back).  This offer is for online orders only and ends Thursday May 13th, 2010. (BTW, If you've already ordered today & your order qualifies, you will receive the stamp.)  A nice little Mother's Day bonus, I think ;).

I wanted to thank everyone who's been visiting and leaving comments.... we've had so much to do every night after school, I haven't been visiting your lovely blogs as much as I'd like.  And, I haven't been able to participate in all my favorite challenges much these days either.  A few more weeks and things will settle down here.... I'll catch up with ya soon, 'kay?  :-)

Time to Read - At Gingersnap Creations

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for a new challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.  Today, the theme is "Read".... make a card with vintage text; use an image featuring readers, books, libraries; alter a book; perhaps feature a familiar story... interpret it any way you wish!  It's teacher appreciation week here, so for my project I made a card and bookmark set to go with a gift for our school librarian.  Both stamps are from the beautiful Soul of the Rose set from Oxford Impressions.

For the card, I used some vintage book pages to surround the image, which I colored with Copics (after finding the real deal - J.-H. Fragonard's Young Girl Reading - to use as a coloring guide).  The bookmark I kept rather flat - so as not to damage the book :) - embellishing with a rhinestone frame and some posies, again with a background of vintage text.

You'll want to check out all of the samples from my fabulously talented design team buddies.... and hopefully it will inspire you to play along!  Or maybe to read a book.... either way, a pretty fun way to spend the day. :)
Have a great one!

Vintage Geese - Stamp of the Month at CHF

Vintage Geese is the lovely new Stamp of the Month for May at Cornish Heritage Farms.  This image reminded me of a vintage children's storybook illustration, so I paired it with the Vintage Text Scrapblock, a little satin ribbon (as a "bookmark") with a Prima flower, and a shabbied-up dark red card base.  I sanded the corners so that it would look more like an old book.  That little "caption" is from the School Primer set from the ATC collection.

You can see lots of great samples from the design team HERE in the gallery.  Now here's the best part.... now through May 6, you can get a *FREE* Cling Mounted Vintage Geese May SOTM on all orders over $20! (Before shipping & after Club CHF discounts). No need to add it to your order, they'll just put one in all qualifying orders. (Offer is for online orders only & ends Thursday May 6th, 2010).  Pretty cool, huh?  And you'll get instructions to create a beautiful card designed by Kristine Reynolds, as well.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!