Get Inspired - Pretty Rain Drops

Hi everyone!  Its Saturday which means its time for some cardmaking inspiration!

This week its my turn to share something I've found inspirational. Of course I turned to Pinterest, and we've had so much snow and wintry weather lately that I didn't want to do anything winter related.  I'm already looking toward spring, lol!  I found this pretty picture of raindrops in water, I love the pattern of circles and the shiney glints on the water.

This card inspired me to play with some masking and sparkly spray mists for a pretty background.  Here is what I came up with:

 Once I created my background I dug out  a Mark's Finest Papers  set called "Rain Clouds".  Its the perfect set for the image, and I thought this is the perfect time of year to have a 'get well' card on hand to cheer someone up during cold and flu season.  :)

Please don't forget to go to the Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV next week to see what MariLynn does with this image.  There are so many different things she could do! Feel free to share your own creations with us by linking them below.  :)

If you are not a member of MFP Speedy TV, its a free social networking site focused on stamping and cardmaking with MFP stamps.  In additon to our column you will find lots of inspiration, including other informative columns on a daily basis, so why not click over and see what you are missing!

Get Inspired - Snow Scene (Part 2)

Hi Everyone, Happy Saturday! Its my turn to contribute for our Get Inspired column over at MFP Speedy TV!

Last week MariLynn used the below picture of lovely winter branches.

We've had tons of snow over the last week here in Atlantic Canada so this was a very appropriate image!  I decided to use a recent Mark's Finest Paper's set called "Chill in the Air"  Here is what I came up with:

I kind of went crazy with the silver Stickles on this one.  Next time I may hold back a bit as a little goes a long way.  I love how the overlap of the tree and the verse turned out though so you'll probably see me try this again.  :)

As I mentioned before, this post is part of the  Get Inspired page at MFP Speedy TV .   If you are not a member of MFP Speedy TV, its a free social networking site focused on stamping and cardmaking with MFP stamps.  In additon to our column you will find lots of inspiration, including other informative columns on a daily basis, so why not click over and see what you are missing!

So thats it for me this week! Next week I will have some new inspiration for you, so I hope to see you then! In the meantime, I hope you and your family have a very merry Christmas and happy holiday! :)

MFP December Blog Hop Part #2 Day #3 - Family

Hi everyone!  As promised, today is the last day of the second part of Mark's Finest Papers December blog hop.

I'm not participating in the hop since I participated last week, but I did make some card samples for the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I thought I'd share them here also. :)

The set being featured today is called "Family".

Here is my last card made for this month's hop:

 I hope you liked it!

If you'd like to participate in part two of this month's blog hop be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I bet you'll be glad you did!

MFP December Blog Hop Part #2 Day #2 - Bow Hunting

Hi everyone!  As promised, today is day two of the second part of Mark's Finest Papers December blog hop.

I'm not participating in the hop since I participated last week, but I did make some card samples for the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I thought I'd share them here also. :)

The set being featured today is called "Bow Hunting".

Here is what I came up with:

I had fun using a non-Christmas set in a Christmasy way, and using the preprinted sentiments in the patterned paper pack I used.  I hope you liked my cards!

If you'd like to participate in part two of this month's blog hop be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I bet you'll be glad you did!

MFP December Blog Hop Part #2 Day #1 - Calm and Wisdom

Hi everyone!  As promised, today is the start of the second part of Mark's Finest Papers December blog hop.

I'm not participating in the hop since I participated last week, but I did make some card samples for the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I thought I'd share them here also. :)

The set being featured today is called "Calm and Wisdom".

Here is what I came up with:

I hope you liked them!

If you'd like to participate in part two of this month's blog hop be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers blog.  I bet you'll be glad you did!

MFP December Blog Hop Part #1, Day #3 - Butterfly Essense

Mark's Finest Papers December Preview, Week 1

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured December 3 Lots of Words

Featured December 4 Mini Swallowtail

Featured December 5 Butterfly Essence

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All three winners will be announced on Dec. 14, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Dec.. 13, 2013.

Welcome to the first part of the December Mark's Finest Papers blog hop!  I'll explain a little more what's happening later, but first lets get to the stamps and cards!

Today's stamp is the first of our main four, and is called "Butterfly Essence".

I have to admit that while I like the occasional butterfly, I'm not as big a fan as some people I know. So when I saw this set I at first had no idea what I was going to do.  As it turns out I came up with some of my favourite cards this month.

I started by stamping and embossing the large image, then adding a hint of colour by lightly shading with some pastel pencil crayons.  I then added some glitter gel pen to a few of the butteflies.  I trimmed three sides of the image to the size I wanted and fussy cut the top edge before assembing everything together.  I ended up with a fun note card where I can stamp the inside later if I want or just write a sentiment.  

I love white embossed on velum so I started with that and built the card around that.  I was able to pop up the velum by adding pop dots under the image, sometimes trimming them to size.  From the front you can't even tell!  

I also decorated the inside but you can unfortuantely see a bit of an error I made. I've been using a Tombow vellum adhesive tape runner which I find works really well, accept I don't usually use such dark card stock with it and didn't realize the adhesive would show.  Oh well, live and learn!  Its still pretty.  :)

Thats it for my cards today.  Just to explain a bit about what we are doing this month, instead of having one long blog hop, we've decided to break the team into two, and spread the hop over two weeks. This week the first half of the design team will focus on the first half of the stamps, and the second half of the team will focus on the second half of the stamps next week on December 10, 11, and 12.  Those of us not participating in the hop will be making cards to showcase on the main blog.  So in addition to hopping along, make sure you have a look at the Mark's Finest Papers blog to ensure you don't miss out on any inspiration opportunties!  :)

Here are the design team members hopping this week:

Guest Designer - Kelli Jo

Patty

 Jane C

 Thrfity Stamper

Marilynn 

Cathy C  (Thats me!)

Sue W

An'Jenic

  Amy

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

See you at the Mark's Finest Papers blog on December 10th for the start of part #2! :)