CR84FN25 Color Challenge

There's another gorgeous color challenge over at the CR84FN blog - the CR84FN25 colors are red, aqua, and white.  What a fab combo to take us into spring!  Here's the yummy inspiration photo:  

For my little card, I started with a Unity bicycle stamped in black, then colored over the top of it with colored pencils to bring in the bold red and aqua.  For the background, I stamped PTI's text background in aqua, and distressed the edges of the panel with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  The sentiment is PTI as well.  I also made the background paper on the top of the card by stamping with another Unity stamp repeatedly, and blending in some more Distress Ink.  The red scalloped border is Crate Paper Restoration (I swear I will use every last scrap of that line!)  Finished off with a little lipstick red bling.  I kept this quite flat because I'm going to be mailing it soon. 

As always, there's tons of inspiration over at the CR84FN blog.  (And have you noticed the great quotes that are included in every color palette photo?)  Thanks, ladies! 

Happy Easter! and Tag Tuesday

Happy Easter!  I wanted to get my little Tag Tuesday entry in for the weekend - you can check out the latest tag challenge at Blog Challenge Garden.  I almost scrapped the base of this tag; the colors didn't come out at all as I expected.  But after I walked away from it and hunted down the right vintage image, I made peace with it.  The base is a resist chipboard (I think from Heidi Swapp) that I've been hoarding for ages.  I cut out the egg shape and colored it first with mists (which was too pale), then with some distress inks.  The bunny image is from Dover.  The little egg is from an image transfer to muslin that didn't come out quite right, but I couldn't bear to part with the bits that were okay. ;)  Stamped sentiment is Papertrey Ink.  Lots of other fun goodies... crinkly ribbon from Bluebird Lane Etsy shop, glittered hydrangea petals, vintage mother of pearl baby buttons, and a little pin that I made.

I want to thank everyone who has been voting for me over at The Handmade Gift Guide!!!  Voting will continue for the next few days, so if you haven't checked it out, you can follow the link.  My project is in my previous post *here*.  Also, a big welcome to my new followers!  I've actually hit 200 sweet followers, which makes me happier than words can express. :)  I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow! 

Poppy Picnic Hostess Gift - Please Vote! :)

I am so excited to share this little project with you!  Over at The Handmade Gift Guide, they are having a contest sponsored by 100 Proof Press.  Ten of us received this gorgeous poppy stamp and were asked to come up with a handmade gift idea using the stamp.  Their readers get to vote on their favorite project, and the designer with the most votes gets a gift certificate to 100 Proof Press.  I loooooove their stamps, and I would greatly, hugely, enormously appreciate your vote!   You can see all of the projects and vote by  following *THIS LINK*.  Pretty, pretty please with poppies on top???? ;)

So, what did I make, exactly?  I put together a little Poppy Picnic Hostess Gift.  I started out with a jar filled with organic poppy seeds (actually an old Prima flower bottle).  I stamped the image on adhesive-backed paper from PTI, then colored it with Copics and adhered it to the bottle.  I also bought two plain muslin flour sack dish towels, and stamped the image repeatedly in red or black inks.  I tested this out a bit with another towel I designated as my "trial towel", LOL!  I used waterproof dye ink, stamped the towel, and allowed it to set overnight.  I then heat set the images with a hot, dry iron.  Just to be absolutely certain it would set, I threw the towels into a hot dryer for about 20 minutes.  They came out pretty well in the wash - just be sure not to wash red ink (*any* red ink) with anything white the first time around!  To tie it all together and give it a special purpose, I included three poppy seed recipe cards, stamped with the image in red.  Here's another view of the project:

You can click on the images for a larger view.  In case you can't see the recipe card, below is a recipe for a really yummy salad with poppy seed dressing.  It may sound like an odd combination, but trust me, it's so good, so quick, and so easy!

Strawberry Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Dressing:

Mix together:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbs. raspberry vinegar

1/3 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup milk

2 Tbs. poppy seeds

Salad:

Toss together shredded crisp leafy lettuce (romaine or green leaf), sliced strawberries, and thinly sliced sweet onions.  Toss with dressing immediately before serving (if you put it on ahead of time, the lettuce will wilt).

If you like what you see, would sooo appreciate your vote. :)  Happy Easter weekend!

Gingersnap Creations Challenge: Fans

It's time for another Random Redhead challenge over at Gingersnap Creations, and this week's challenge is to use *Fans* in your creation.  You could make a fan, or make a card, canvas, hanging, or other piece that incorporates a fan.  Take it wherever you'd like!

My card uses an image generously provided by Lululiz in Lalaland on *this post*.  I saw it a while back and knew this challenge was coming up, so I immediately filed it away in my collage art file.  You can click on the image to see the sentiment better if you'd like.... it says "The Language of Fans - The fan a language sweet imparts, 'Tis read my many loving hearts."  Apparently in Victorian days the flick of a woman's fan could have special meaning?  Goodness, but love is complicated, LOL!  Anyway, I used some patterned papers from the Curio collection, scored and folded them accordion style, and used them as trims behind my ladies.  The sweet postcard got only a few rhinestone embellies on the fan part.  I also tied a little tassel behind the image to evoke the tassel on the fan image.

The design team and visiting artists have produced some stunning fan art over at the Gingersnap Creations blog - I've had such fun looking at the details on each piece.  We'd love for you to have a look and play along. :)

More Scrappy Stampy Gluebook Pages

Happy Palm Sunday!  As some of you know, I've been a bit neglectful of my blog, and it's because I really haven't had much time to craft just for fun (although I am working on some very fun projects for Craft Stamper.... they will be coming in late summer/early autumn).  Anyway, that means my only other craft time has been - in the carpool lines, of course.  So I bring along my traveling art case and use up my scraps.  The images above are leftovers/rejects from this ATC project.  This is turning out to be a fun way to experiment - for instance, I love the look of the blue paper torn away to reveal some text on the left-hand page.  I'll have to incorporate that in a card or scrapbook page (or even - gasp! - a canvas someday).

Her are a few more:

Some favorite birdies from CHF and Artistic Outpost.

Using up some of my purple scraps.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring weekend! I'd love to leave you with a stanza from a poem that always speaks so perfectly to this time of year.  We are having a beautiful spring here in North Carolina, but we just had some powerful tornadoes go through yesterday.  Thankfully our house and family are fine.  You just never know with springtime weather.  This is from Robert Frost's "Two Tramps in Mudtime":

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.