Stamp Talk with Tosh: Waltzingmouse

Showing posts with label Waltzingmouse. Show all posts

Friday, June 16, 2017

Natural Beauties and a Bloom Brigade trip to St. Louis ~ Power Poppy

Happy Friday my dear creative friends!! This is a special post for me today. I traditionally post a Power Poppy card on Fridays, and today is no exception. But I have something extra special ~ to me ~ to share too.

Last week, 7 out of the 8 Bloom Brigaders (being that Kathy lives in Australia, St. Louis was a bit too far for her to come for a long weekend unfortunately.) met in St. Louis to spend time with Marcella and her family, as well as see some of the places that give her inspiration. But I'll get to that in a bit. My card for today, was inspired by the leaves below.

We had the opportunity to walk through St. Louis' Botanical Gardens, and it was an absolute delight. There were so many different, colors and textures, as well as incredible architecture. I never really thought so much about leaves (over flowers) before, but there was a plethora of varieties with different shapes and patterns.

I wanted to make a card for our special young hosts, and the sweet little mushroom and leaf image from Natural Beauties was perfect to color the leaves the way I wanted. My leaves look very little like these for one main reason I believe...I have the hardest time leaving white space. It's a big struggle.

Anyway, I colored them with Copics and burnished and layered them for some depth and texture. I added the sentiment by using my Misti. (Love that tool!!) Below is a close up so you can see the layers.

Have you seen Power Poppy's Hues to Use for this week? I think my colors are pretty close, so I'm including my card.

If you'd like, continue on to see some of the St. Louis highlights that we were blessed to see while visiting.

First up is Steve and Susan's home (Marcella's step-dad and mom). They designed the most tranquil yard I've ever had the pleasure of spending time in. I have two photos to share: my favorite spot in the garden, and my favorite spot of their home

Their front porch below, reminded me of the home I grew up in.

We would sit on our porch swing in the summer and hull strawberries, snap beans, husk corn, and often visit with people who just happened to be walking or biking by.

Treasured memories, as I'm sure Steve and Marcy have of this very spot.

Next up are photos of a rare treat I'm sure. Marcella used to work for Mary Engelbreit, and arranged for us to meet her in her studio while we were all in town. She is such a warm, unassuming, creative woman who openly shared her space, memories and mementos. I will never forget the treasured time there.

The following photos are just a few that I took at Missouri's Botanical Gardens. It was so hard to pick and choose.

The Japanese Garden

Ox-Eyed Daisies

They had a Glass Sculpture display around the rose garden that I thought was incredibly creative and striking!

We spent a delightful afternoon at Forest Park which has quite a number of things to do. We ate lunch at the Boat House and went Paddle Boating. Below is a picture of our lovely hosts: Marcella, Finn, Sylvia and Lulu...the most charming and delightful family!!!

Just a velvety leaf outside the Boat House Restaurant in Forest Park. I have never seen anything like it.

The Nathan Frank Bandstand in Forest Park. Beautiful!

Cindy and I had time to kill before catching our plane the last day, so we visited the Art Museum in Forest Park.

We also visited a charming Nursery/Gift Shop, called Bowood, with a beautiful Restaurant inside. A must stop if you're in the area.

Hydrangeas are quite prominent all around St. Louis. The most common variety I saw was Oak leaf, but I was partial to this soft colored variety. They had a lovely Victorian feel to me.

I just had to include this Hibiscus because of its ruffly petals and rich coral color.

More leaf patterns and shapes. Don't they look hand-painted?

We also had an opportunity to see a Cardinals game. This photo was taken at the very top. What an incredible view with the Arch in the background!

Lastly is a photo taken of a few of the Bloomies in Marcella's backyard. I didn't include group photos of us in other places because the others had so many photos that I figured they would share those. The one below is a good representation of how serene Marcy's backyard is. It also is a lovely reminder of what a wonderful time I had spending time with these incredible ladies.

If you've made it this far, I applaud you!! St. Louis is quite the city. I really had no idea. We sure packed a lot in a couple of days and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each other on a more personal level. And Marcy was just the sweetest, most kind host!!

For some more inspiration, check out the following Bloom Brigade Blogs:

Thanks for dropping by today.

Happy Stamping!!

________________________________________________________

Stamps: Natural Beauties (Power Poppy)

Paper: Take Me Away (Pink Paislee), X-Press It

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Dies: Stitched Rectangles (Waltzingmouse),

Accessories: Copics, Border Punch (Martha Stewart), Enamel Dots (Prima and Teresa Colins)

Friday, March 18, 2016

Blessings!

Hello my friends! It's Friday, and I usually have a Power Poppy card to share with you, but I wanted to share something different today. I'm not normally a "put-it-all-out-there" kind of person. I don't know why. I just tend to be more private. Plus my blog is titled "STAMP TALK with Tosh". So I have pretty much kept my posts all about my projects. Well, today's project has a story behind it, and I just felt inspired to share. I hope you don't mind.

I am an introvert/extrovert and don't do well with change, so when my husband and I changed churches a couple of years ago, stepping out and getting involved was quite the challenge. I was very involved in the church we'd been members for since we got married; I'd even say to the point of being too involved. But after we left that church due to situations that we felt we couldn't support, it was hard to step out again.

But, God being God...he pushed me out of my comfortable little box and I felt ~~nudged~~ encouraged to join a women's Bible Study that met Wed. mornings at our church. And what a blessing that has been. Many women from that Bible Study are blessed with gifts of encouragement, and for the past two years they have been sharing that with me, allowing me to gradually get involved and blessing me greatly in the process. I thought it was time to let them know what a blessing they have been to me, so I decided to invite them to my home for coffee/tea.

Now, being a paper crafter, of course I had to make some invitations. Which brings me to another issue. A sad one. I have been on the Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team since April of 2011, and it's been an absolute delight. Claire (the owner and designer) is a gem! She has a heart of gold and a style of design like no one else. Unfortunately, she is closing Waltzingmouse Stamps. My heart is beyond sad. I adore her vintage style and her eye for detail! She and her designs will be greatly missed in this stamping community!!

She has designed the most beautiful coffee/tea sets, and I wanted to use one of them for my coffee/tea invitations. So I combined a couple of them: Afternoon Tea (out of stock) and Coffee Set Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the invitations which included images from the Coffee Set (Which still happens to be in stock).

Here are a few of the invitations. They all have the same layout, just different decorative papers.

Here's a close up of one of the invites so you can see the details.

You might be wondering where my title from this post came from. Well, the whole point of the invitations, was to thank these wonderful Godly women for blessing me so abundantly. And also, I wanted to thank Claire for allowing me to be on her Design Team for almost 5 years. That too has been such a blessing!!

I also wanted to give a shout out to the companies I used for my little get-together. I can't arrange flowers, and baking...well, this was too important to me to risk messing it up. So I hired a local baking artist (she really is quite the artist) who bakes the most delicious and beautiful cookies around, to make cookies in the shapes of birds, bird cages, and nests!! And they are beautiful and delicious! She only advertises via Instagram, and believe me, this girl is in high demand. You can find her on instagram here: thebakersboxcafe

For my flowers, I called my favorite local florist: Shelley DeJonge~ owner of Sweet Memories in Visalia, CA.

I told her I would like a vintage style arrangement, and this is what she came up with!! It couldn't have been any more perfect! You can find her on Facebook here too: Sweet Memories

These were not the only flowers I received either. One of the dear ladies made a beautiful and charming arrangement of flowers she picked from her garden. And Gerberas happen to be one of my all-time favorites!

And another brought me this summery fresh smelling candle!

How totally sweet!!

And, not only was I blessed with the delightful company of my dear Bible Study friends, I was even blessed with a first time phone call from a dear stamping friend that I've never had the pleasure of meeting irl, but have shared emails for the past couple of years, as well as being a fellow Design Team member for Power Poppy: Katie Sims...and let me tell you...she is one of my stamping idols, and has one of the sweetest "Georgia Peach" accents you have ever heard!! What a delight!!!

And to end the day, I got to talk with my dear daughter who lives 2000 miles away. So, as you can see, I had a full day of Blessings!! GOD IS GOOD!! To Him be the glory!!

If you've made it this far into my post, thanks for sticking with me and allowing me to share a treasured day with you! I had a glorious time planning my little Coffee/Tea party, and getting to know the ladies from my group even better. And I'm going to miss designing for Waltzingmouse Stamps, but I wish Claire and her family all the best for their future!!

I also wish you a wonderful weekend filled with blessings of your own!!

Happy Stamping my dear, dear friends!!

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Season's Giving Blog Hop

Welcome!! I'm so honored to be a part of this year's Season's Giving Blog Hop! 2015 was filled with many challenges as well as many blessings. I would like to start this next year by focusing on my blessings.

First of all, I get to paper craft and design for two wonderful companies. That's huge to me. And, I'm so grateful to those who follow my blog. Your comments and encouragement are always uplifting. I am constantly inspired by so many paper crafters, mixed media artists, and designers, and I hope I've brought a bit of inspiration to you this past year.

So, to say thank you, I'd like to offer a Giveaway (will ship anywhere): A set of Chameleon Color Tones Pens and Tonal Ranges, Decorative Curved Square dies by Spellbinders, Flower Layer die by Cuttlebug, and French collection - Corner, Border and Tag die by Creative Expressions

All you have to do is leave a comment mentioning one blessing or something you were thankful for in 2015. I have many, but spending time with my kids is right at the top. Especially the fact that they were able to be home for Christmas. They live out of state, so to be able to juggle their schedules and make it all work was a treasure!

The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on Thursday, January 7.

Now, I'd like to share my favorite cards of 2015 if you don't mind bearing with me. The links to the other hoppers will follow.

Short Stacks ~ Power Poppy