Saturday, 28 September 2013

Get Inspired - Sunset

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


My card this week uses inspiration provided by MariLynn last week, a lovely photo of a sunset over the Mississippi:


I love the silhouette of the greenery against the lovely colours of the sky.  Here is what I came up with:


I started by blending three colours onto a white panel and matting it with black and attaching it to the card.  The image was then stamped and embossed on vellum, which was adhered to the panel. Some ribbon and some rhinestones finished the card off.   


I love how quickly the card came together.  Once I saw the sky I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I thought about using a stamp that more closely resembled the vegetation from the photo, but I really love the image from September's mini set called "Nature's Brushstrokes" and think it works well on this card.  I paired it with the sentiment from a set called "Glad Glads". 


Are you inspired to create? If so please link your creation below, we would love to see what you come up with!

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 card making with MFP stamps.  In addition 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!

Thats it for me this week! Next week I will have some new inspiration for you, see you then! :)

Friday, 13 September 2013

September MFP Blog Hop Day #4 - Tailgate Party

Mark's Finest Papers September Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10 - Koi Fish
Featured Sept 11 - Primitive Farm 
Featured Sept 12 - What a Scream
Featured Sept 13 - Tailgate Party (That's Today!)

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 four winners will be announced on Sept. 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 Sept. 13, 2013.



The special stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Holiday Tag"




The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Nature's Brushstrokes"


Today's set is great for sports fans and is called "Tailgate Party":


I only came up with one card today but I'm really happy with how it turned out:




I hope you enjoyed my card!  If you like this set and the other sets coming out this month be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers store.  They have a lot more lovely sets and card making products that you will enjoy!

And don't forget about the other Design Team members!  This is a blog hop after all and if you've been following along the lovely Toni is next.  If you haven't been following along here is the list of members so you can start at the beginning.  You won't regret it!! :)

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Sepember MFP Blog Hop Day #3 - What a Scream

Mark's Finest Papers September Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10 - Koi Fish
Featured Sept 11 - Primitive Farm 
Featured Sept 12 - What a Scream  (That's Today!)
Featured Sept 13 - Tailgate Party

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 four winners will be announced on Sept. 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 Sept. 13, 2013.



The special stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Holiday Tag"




The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Nature's Brushstrokes"


Today's set is called "What a Scream" and as you might guess by the title its a fun Halloween set:


With Halloween cards I love making things a little more shabby-chic, but for my first card I tried to do a cute CAS card that might be fun to include with a Halloween gift:




I used water-based markers to colour the candy corn image, and I added the glossy accents as an afterthought so the ink bled.  I was a bit annoyed when I saw it the next morning but I decided to just go with it.  I still think the card is bright and fun.  :)

With my next card I decided to just use a sentiment along with my favourite Halloween die:





Those little bats are my favourite at this time of year!  I especially love the gemstones as eyes, they make the bats look just a little more creepy.  I also like how the black pins turned out, I coloured the pearls with black Stazon on reinker.

I also had fun with my last card:




I love how this one turned out.  I started with the cat and originally I had stamped it in black with the intention of colouring it.  I found, though that when trying to colour a black line image with black marker that the image was lost.  To remedy this I decided to emboss the image in white on black cardstock.  

For the background I trimmed the panel from a Halloween themed paper pad and crumpled it up tightly before flattening it out and inking edges and some of the wrinkles with creamy brown ink on a blending tool, and then swiping most of the same spots with a juicy black ink pad.  One of the funnest backgrounds I've done in a while!  :)

I hope you enjoyed my cards!  If you like this set and the other sets coming out this month be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers store.  They have a lot more lovely sets and card making products that you will enjoy!

And don't forget about the other Design Team members!  This is a blog hop after all and if you've been following along the lovely Toni is next.  If you haven't been following along here is the list of members so you can start at the beginning.  You won't regret it!! :)

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

September MFP Blog Hop Day #2 - Primitive Farm

Mark's Finest Papers September Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10 - Koi Fish
Featured Sept 11 - Primitive Farm  (That's today!)
Featured Sept 12 - What a Scream
Featured Sept 13 - Tailgate Party

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 four winners will be announced on Sept. 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 Sept. 13, 2013.



The special stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Holiday Tag"




The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Nature's Brushstrokes"



I can't tell you how much I love today's set called "Primitive Farm".  


I particularly love the little house and tree as I seem to remember my grandmother had a needlework sampler with similar images on her wall.  For this reason I focused on these images and decided to keep things very simple:









I hope you enjoyed my cards!  If you like this set and the other sets coming out this month be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers store.  They have a lot more lovely sets and card making products that you will enjoy!

And don't forget about the other Design Team members!  This is a blog hop after all and if you've been following along the lovely Toni is next.  If you haven't been following along here is the list of members so you can start at the beginning.  You won't regret it!! :)


Cathy C (You are here!)

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

September MFP Blog Hop Day #1 - Koi Fish

Mark's Finest Papers September Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10 - Koi Fish (that's today!)
Featured Sept 11 - Primitive Farm 
Featured Sept 12 - What a Scream
Featured Sept 13 - Tailgate Party

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 four winners will be announced on Sept. 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 Sept. 13, 2013.



The special stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Holiday Tag"




The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
"Nature's Brushstrokes"




Today's set, called "Koi Fish", is lovely:


So pretty!   I decided to play with watercolouring with these images:




When I showed this one to my three-year-old I asked him if he liked the fish.  He said "I love it when you paint the gold fish with gold Mom!".  So cute.  :)


 


I haven't played with patterned papers in a while so I had fun combining some My Mind's Eye papers.  I left the inside blank so I can use them as a note card or stamp a sentiment later.

I hope you enjoyed my cards!  If you like this set and the other sets coming out this month be sure to visit the Mark's Finest Papers store.  They have a lot more lovely sets and card making products that you will enjoy!

And don't forget about the other Design Team members!  This is a blog hop after all and if you've been following along the lovely Toni is next.  If you haven't been following along here is the list of members so you can start at the beginning.  You won't regret it!! :)