Summer Lantern

Hello peeps,

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We used ours to catch up on outdoor projects and the weather was beautiful, so we could not have picked a better weekend.

Well, I have been hard at work creating another project for the challenge over at Stamp with Fun for my second week as guest designer.  I have had a lot of fun as GDT, and want to extend a huge thank you to Andrea and the gals over there for inviting me to play along with them.  On to the challenge - this week we would love to see your creations following this recipe - 3 papers, lace and flowers.  Here is my inspiration piece:

It is not very often that I am completely happy with how a project turned out, but this one I absolutely love to bits!  I used one of my new Tildas from the Summer Memories collection (best one yet!), and paired with these sea foam green papers - it just takes me away to a warm evening overlooking a beach with a cool ocean breeze.

To make the walls, I cut chip board into strips 1/4, 1/2 and 1 inch (yes I am Canadian, but my ruler is not :o)) wide.  I then glued the pieces together for each wall, painted them white, inked the edges with antique linen DI and covered them with the papers.  I then glued the walls together - except for the back one which is attached with hinges and closes with a little latch.

The hinges were painted white with snow cap mixative - just throw them in a small baggy with a few drops and shake it up.  The roof was made with 260g (see, I am Canadian) bristol board which was much easier to cut than the chip board :) and then covered with paper.  Thin wooden crafting sticks hold the two tiers together and lace was wrapped around them.

Here are a couple more angles:

And one with the lights out:

Other supplies:
Papers - roof and base are from MME (one of the lost and founds from last summer) and walls are Fancy Pants Designs from the Lilac House collection
Stamp - Magnolia stamped with black Stazon on 300g hot pressed water colour paper and coloured with DI (pine needles, rusty hinge, antique linen, peacock feathers (my favourite!) tumbled glass, tattered rose, frayed burlap) and watercolour pencil for skin tone
Other - feather from my mother's stash, green lace from my stash, cream lace is from Kaiser, all flowers are white flowers from Pretty Petals and were coloured with DI, decorative base made with Spellbinders Parisian Accents dies and I think that is all!

I would also like to enter this project in these challenges:

Tilda's Town - water fun
Midweek Magnolias - romantic and chic (and they are having a DT call for anyone interested)
Top Tip Tuesday - dig out the old (I've had the papers for a year, the plain chip board for at least two and the Kaiser lace is about a year old too.)  My tip is for quickly colouring metal bits and pieces - my hinges and clasp were originally gold, but I wanted them white to go with a more shabby look.  So, I took a tiny baggy (with a sealing top) and placed them in along with a few drop of Adirondack snow cap mixative and mixed it all up.  Carefully remove from bag and allow to dry.
I'm also linking up to the Make it Monday linky party where it is always anything goes!

Thanks for stopping by!  Please do stop by Stamp with Fun to see the beautiful creations the DT and other GDT have made and we hope you will have time to join in with us!  Thanks for any comments you have time to leave, I love reading them and will be catching up shortly on visiting everyone back.  I love to see what my visitors are up to.

Have a great week!

Hugs,

Dawn

Stamp With Fun!

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  My wee little blog has some new followers since I last posted, so I'd like to extend a warm welcome!

I have some exciting news to share today!  I was invited to be a guest designer at Stamp With Fun - and of course I said yes!  How could I resist?  If you have never encountered their challenge, be sure to pop by for a visit.  The design team does beautiful work and you get to use your favourite cute stamps to take part!

This week's challenge is a gorgeous sketch.

I used the sketch to make a card for my MIL.

My MIL loves warm fall colours, so this is my summery take on that colour palette.  When I started, I intended to make a mostly orange card, but it kind of ended up being  mostly white.  Oops!  So I added some lace and crackle paint to shabby it up and this is how it turned out.  Looking at it now, I think the orange paper looks a little out of place, even though it is all from the same pad.   Well, I am my own worse critic.

My MIL also loves glitter, so I added clear Atyou Spica to the little butterflies on Tilda's dress.  I love how this looks - very subtle and just gorgeous when the light catches it.  I also thought it might be neat to give the fence a weathered look, so I painted bits of it with crackle paint.  I carried the effect on by adding paint around the edges of the card too.  Here is a close up trying to show both on the image.  Hopefully if you click on the picture it will show it big enough to see a little of the sparkle.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazzill card, My Mind's Eye On the Bright Side 2, 300g hot pressed watercolour paper
Stamps: Magnolia (Tilda with Butterfly Dress and Shabby Chic Fence) stamped with black Stazon and coloured with Distress inks (pumice stone, weathered wood, tumbled glass, rusty hinge, wild honey, vintage photo, walnut stain, black soot, peeled paint, bundled sage, frayed burlap, antique linen, scattered straw, pine needles, tattered rose) and watercolour pencil for skin tone.
Tools:  Cheery Lynn small exotic butterfly dies, all edges were distressed with distressing tool and inked with pumice stone DI
Other - lace from my stash, TH sheer ribbon, Picket Fence stain, Picket Fence crackle paint, Little Yellow Bicycle paper doily, pearls, flowers are all white Pretty Petals and inked with DI using a makeup sponge, and I think that is all.

Hope you are able to stop by Stamp With Fun and see the beautiful creations the DT have made and join in the fun!

I would also like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Magnolia-licious Highlights - Summer theme with twist of colour (use orange, blue and yellow if you can)
Lovely hAnglar and Sweet Magnolia - Shabby Chic or vintage
Cute Card Thursday - A touch of sparkle (add a little or a lot)
Papertake Weekly - in the garden

Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment!  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to pop on by your blog too!

Have a great week!  Hugs,

Dawn

May Flowers

Hello again!

I'm back as promised with a calendar page.  I have unfortunately fallen behind with these, but after the trouble I had with February's I thought it might be time to track down some new ink.  I finally ended up trying Momento's rich cocoa, which would work delightfully well with glossy accents (which I didn't even end up using) but it is not perfect for water colour as a good soaking will cause it to bleed a little, so I had to be really careful not to use too much water while colouring it in.  Does a perfect-for-everything ink exist??

For those of us who like to do things in chronological order, I know I have skipped over March and April for the time being (it is getting to me a little, but I will either get over it or it will serve as extra motivation to get them done sooner ;)  ).  Besides, this fit perfectly with the challenge over at Scrapbooker's Paradise - where I am a guest designer this week!  This was initially going to be my inspiration piece, but the little mouse took a lot longer to colour in than I thought it would, so it was not complete in time.  For details on the challenge, check out my GDT post here or visit the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog.

So, here is May:

Some details:

Base - Want 2 Scrap chipboard album

Image - House Mouse stamped with Momento on 300g hot pressed watercolour paper and coloured with Distress Ink (pads or reinkers) - scattered straw, victorian velvet, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, black soot, frayed burlap, rusty hinge, vintage photo, tattered rose, antique linen, forest moss, bundled sage

Paper - Stampin Up (from sale-a-bration, so unfortunately I think they are no longer available)

Other - calendar was computer generated and slides into a hand made pocket for reuse each year, feathers from Michael's, flowers from Pretty Petals, edge punch from Martha Stewart and I think that is all.

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:

Scrapbooker's Paradise - photo inspiration (just for fun/extra inspiration, as I am the guest this week)

House Mouse and Friends - anything goes with optional tea theme

Crafty Catz - April showers bring forth May flowers (use an image with a flower in it)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes



Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I love reading them and it gives me the chance to catch up with you too.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,
Dawn

Playing in Paradise

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all well and basking in some glorious sunshine!  We've had some cloudy skies and rain ;( , but it is finally starting to look like spring with tiny little leaf buds on the trees.  Hopefully the sun will shine this weekend.

Before I get to today's post, I want to welcome my blog's newest followers.  I'm thrilled to have you along!

I have been very lucky to have been invited to be a guest designer over at Scrapbooker's Paradise Playing in Paradise Challenge!  This week's challenge is a beautiful inspirational photo:

You can make whatever you fancy - card, lo, altered item, etc. using this photo as your inspiration. 

I ended up making a rather simple card for this one which was not my intent.  I had started making a calendar page, but I feared I would not be able to finish in time, so opted to make something a little quicker.  I will be back later today with the calendar page, so if you fancy another idea or more inspiration, check back in later.  Onto my card - it is not my usual style, but it was fun to make something different.

I had a play with some Tim Holtz stamps from the Wood and Wallpaper and Urban Chic sets, my Spellbinders Wonderful Wings dies, and Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays in dark chocolate truffle (yum!) and cotton candy pink.  I love these sprays - full of shimmery goodness and two-toned colour.  I tried to catch some (but not all) of the sparkly delight to give you an idea of how gorgeous it is without blinding you:



The transformation from rich brown to gold is magical! 

Other supplies:  champagne pearls, 'burlap ribbon,' Walnut Stain Distress Ink and black archival ink. 

Pop on by the Scrapbooker's Paradise blog to check out the design team's creations - they are sure to be gorgeous - and then join in the fun!  I hope you can play along!

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn