Western Chalkboard Birthday Wish

I made this card for today's CAS challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.  I haven't played in one of their challenges for so long, I thought I'd jump back in today using the chalkboard technique.  I didn't emboss mine though, or create the shadows.

I used two Waltzingmouse Stamps sets:  Back in the Saddle and Way Out West.

Super easy and great for a guy.  

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Stamping!

________________________________________________________________

Stamps:  Back in the Saddle and Way Out West (Waltzingmouse)

Paper:  Vintage Cream, Smokey Shadow and Black (PTI), Cardboard

Ink:  Fresh Snow (a muse)

Accessories:  Ivory/White Sonnet Cotton Ribbon (Paper Mart), Metal Clip (Tim Holtz)

Frosty Fingerprints

I don't have any cards to share today, but I saw something I found fun and interesting.  Living in the Central Valley of California, we get to experience temperatures our Western and Southern cities don't have the privilege of.  We can have a 25 degree morning with a 52 degree afternoon.  I love the changes.  Well, one morning while taking my dog out, I noticed the morning sun was burning off the frost, but because of the palm tree's shadow, it left an interesting pattern.  It reminds me a bit of a lego shape.

I thought this frosty leaf was pretty laying in the grass also.  Not many colors, but I LOVE the texture.

Thanks for letting me share with you.  It's not stamp talk, but something else I enjoy.  Nature.

Waltzingmouse Blog Party

For my Our Daily Bread Designs post, click HERE.

 

I made today's card for this month's Waltzingmouse Blog Party.  The theme is Love/Hearts.  I used red, and the sentiment "You are Wonderful" to convey love.  I hope that's okay.  ;)  I can't believe it's the 17th of January already.  Doesn't it just seem like this year started yesterday?  I know...the older I get, the faster time seems to fly by.  I just have to remember to enjoy each moment as it comes.  One thing I enjoy thoroughly, is working with Waltzingmouse stamps.  I love this beautiful Camellia, and enjoyed coloring it with my Tombows on watercolor paper.

The sparkly leaf panel is actually a Spellbinders die that I adhered to the back of the window opening with dimensional tape.  Thus it's backless.  It's hard to show with a camera, but irl the dimension and sparkle is quite striking.

The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

I do want to mention something you should check out.  Waltzingmouse Stamps has Cath's "Stamp of Approval" over at the Moxie Fab Blog today.  How fun is that?!?!?!  Cath is showcasing some super fun sets that you won't want to miss!!  You just have to leave a comment in order to win super awesome stamps!!

Thanks so much for visiting!!

Happy Stamping!

_______________________________________________________________

Stamps:  Camellia (Waltzingmouse)

Paper:  Secret Crush (Pinkpaislee), Red (Bazzill), White (PTI)

Ink:  Smokey Gray (Versafine), Brick Red (VersaMagic), Versamark

Accessories:  Rectangle, Scalloped Rectangle, Botanical Swirl, and Nested Pennant dies (Spellbinders), Tombow Markers, Black Embossing Powder (Judikins), Crystal Glitter, Pearl Pen (Viva Decor), Tag Punch (Martha Stewart), Distrezz-it-All (Zutter)

For the Love of Love, Lace and Friendship

For my Waltzingmouse Stamps post, click HERE.

Welcome to Our Daily Bread Design's Alumni Team's bi-monthly For the Love Blog Hop. This week the Alumni team, along with some of the ODBD designers, are featuring a hop For the Love of Love, Lace and Friendship! Check out each link and leave a comment. If you get lost along the way, check the ODBD blog for full list of links. One of the posts is a hop hot spot and a name will be drawn from that list of comments to win a $15 ODBD store gift certificate. So, all you have to do is hop along and see all the creations and leave a little love! You have until Tuesday, January 29th, at 8 pm. Enjoy all the beautiful designs featuring For the Love of Love, Lace and Friendship!


If you've arrived here from Silke's inspiring blog, you're on the right track.  If not, you might want to start at the ODBD Blog.

You've probably noticed a lot of "chalkboards" popping up on papercrafting blogs.  I've wanted to give it a go for awhile, and thought this sentiment, from the Faithful Friend set, was perfectly fonted for it.

I stamped the image onto Smokey Shadow (PTI) cardstock with Fresh Snow (a amuse) pigmented ink. I then colored 3 feature words with some chalk ink markers that I have.  I gave it a little outlined frame using a white sharpie, added some white distressing around the edges and woila.  A Chalkboard.

That's it for me today.  Next up on the hop is the talented Betty.

_______________________________________________________________________

Stamps:  Faithful Friend (Our Daily Bread Designs)

Paper:  Love Me (MME), Smokey Shadow and Vintage Cream (PTI)

Ink:  Fresh Snow (a muse)

Accessories:  Primitive Heart die (Tim Holtz), Chalk Ink Markers, Border Punch (EK Success), Buttons (PTI and vintage), Washi Tape (MME), Lace, Wavy Crimper, Distrezz-it-All (Zutter), Natural String

Verve's No Matter What Blog Hop

Welcome to our No Matter What Hop!  Today we're releasing a lovely little set that you might have spied during Verve's Thanksgiving weekend sale. It's officially available for sale now, along with three brand new color collections of seam binding! There's a lot of eye candy today, so hop along with us for a chance to win some brand new Verve!

As we're saying hello to a few new products today,  I'm stepping down from the Verve Design Team. I've truly enjoyed designing for Julee for the past 3 1/2 years.  Her stamps are always top quality, and she and Mark are true genuine people.  I'm very grateful to them for allowing me to be a part of such a fabulously warm, generous and talented team!!  I have been, and truly am blessed!!

So... want to know about the prizes? We're picking THREE mystery blogs from today's hop to select a random commenter to win No Matter What plus one of our three new collections of ribbon! So be sure to give a litle shout out in the comment section as you hop around to each blog on the list. Winners will be drawn from all of the comments on the mystery blogs. Check out the Verve Blog for all the prize details and deadlines.

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch along with the No Matter What set.  The hearts were stamped with Fresh Snow (PTI), and were embossed with white embossing powder.

I stamped the sentiment with Smokey Gray Versafine.

That's it for my project today.  Be sure to check out what the other divas have to share.  Next up on the hop is the super sweet and talented Amber.

1. Julee 7. Amy 2. Laurie 8. Andrea 3. Maureen 9. Betty 4. Teresa 10. Charmaine 5. Tosh 11. Janelle 6. Amber 12. Jen d.

Verve has a lot of darling sets and dies on sale too.  Click HERE to see everything that's 20% off!!

_________________________________________________________________________

Stamps:  No Matter What (Verve)

Paper:  Lucky in Love (MME), Vintage Cream (PTI)

Ink:  Fresh Snow (PTI), Smokey Gray (Versafine)

Accessories:  Lacey Square, Circle and Petite Scallop Circle dies (Spellbinders), Quickie Glue Pen, Crystal Glitter, Rhinestones (Pizzazz Aplenty), Sewing Machine, Seam Binding ribbon, Distrezz-it-All (Zutter)

Love is all we need!

I'm really excited to share today's card with you!  Have you ever had a concept in your head that took a completely different turn once you started working on your project?  Of course you have.  Maybe even often.  Well, I started off planning on making a multi-layered shabby chic card and ended up with a shabby CAS card instead.  It shocked me, but I'm happy with the result.

First of all, I LOVE, truly LOVE working with Waltzingmouse stamps.  Each set has such a cohesive variety of images that it's super fun to put them all together; even combining sets is so easy.

I used two sets today:  Woodgrain and My Heart

I started off by stamping the Woodgrain background image with Vintage Cream (PTI) ink onto white cardstock.  I then added the dots from the Woodgrain set using Niagra Mist and Gingerbread (VersaMagic) Chalk ink.  I then added the sentiment from the My Heart set with Onyx Black Versafine, and lastly the heart and banners in the corners.

The leaf branch was stamped over the Woodgrain banner (Stamped with Wheat VersaMagic Chalk ink) from the Woodgrain set, and the chevrons were stamped over the Woodgrain background image.  (I stamped the chevrons off first to make them a bit lighter.

Lastly, I added the woodgrain heart, a rhinestone, and a bit of sewing to finish it off.

That's if for my card today.  Thanks for letting me share it with you!

Happy Stamping!

_________________________________________________________________________

Stamps:  Woodgrain and My Heart  (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper:  White (PTI)

Ink:  Gingerbread, Niagra Mist, Wheat (VersaMagic), Vintage Cream (PTI), Onyx Black (Versafine)

Accessories:  Rhinestone (Pizzazz Aplenty), Sewing Machine

Season's Giving Blog Hop Winner

I promised I'd announce the Blog Candy winner from the post HERE, and it's

 Donna Ellis said...

Tosh, I almost didn't leave a comment today! LOL I've been browsing your tutorials again - always love doing that on your blog because you share such inspiring things!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

440

Timestamp: 2013-01-08 23:10:28 UTC

Congratulations Donna!!  Email me with your address so I can get this out to you ASAP.

Tournament of Roses Parade Pictures

For the Season's Giving Blog Hop, click HERE.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned we were at the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, and that my Father-in-law (Frank Leyendekker) and Brother-in-law (Gerben Leyendekker) were pulling the Grand Marshall (Jane Goodall), and the Valley Hunt Club President using Leyendekker Friesians and my Father-in-Law's carriages.  For a little background on how my Father-in-law brought registered Friesians to America, click HERE.

 Here are a few pictures I took while getting ready for the parade.

Keeping the horses warm while getting them ready for the parade.  We brought 9.

My Father-in-law's carriage all decorated for the Grand Marshall (Jane Goodall).  Notice the monkey topiaries?

My Father-in-law, Frank Leyendekker, and Jane Goodall

Jane was so gracious.  She took the time to introduce herself to my Father-in-law, the footmen and helpers, and even the horses.

Here she is meeting one of the horses along with the footman Jose.

This is my daughter's horse Abe (pronounced Aba).  I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the rider.

The Valley Hunt Club President and his family.  The driver is my Brother-in-law Gerben, and my nephew Frank is the footman holding one of the horses.

Here are a few of the floats up close.  

Being farmers, of course I had to include a tractor.  :)

Notice the amazing seed work.

See the mushrooms on the shell?

LOVE the spines on the puffer fish.

These military men were lowered to fit under certain areas of the parade.  They appear to be trudging forward here.  A wonderful representation of our nations heros.

I love the creative use of flowers on this float!

These are some close up shots of the flowers on my FIL's carriage.  

They even decorated the back of the carriage.

The large orange and white flower looks and feels like q-tips.  This arrangement actually made its way to my house.  :)

You can see the tufted velvet carriage seat here.

That's it for the photos.  There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes getting things ready for the parade.  It takes a lot of hands and patience.  But the result is worth it.  Hope you enjoyed some of the highlights.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope your New Year is off to a fabulous start!!

For the Love of ODBD New Beginnings

For the Season's Giving Blog Hop, click HERE.

Welcome to Our Daily Bread Design's Alumni Team's bi-monthly For the Love Blog Hop.  This week the Alumni team, along with some of the ODBD designers, are featuring a hop For the Love of New Beginnings! Check out each link and leave a comment. If you get lost along the way, check the ODBD blog for full list of links.  One of the post is a hop hot spot and a name will be drawn from that list of comments to win a $15 ODBD store gift certificate.  So, all you have to do is hop along and see all the creations and leave a little love!  You have until Wednesday, January 16th, at 6 pm.   Enjoy all the beautiful designs featuring For the Love of New Beginnings!

If you've arrived here from Silke's beautiful blog, you're on the right track.

I used two Our Daily Bread Designs sets: Don't Worry and Scripture Series 2.  I stamped the sentiment and flowers with Smokey Gray Versafine and colored them with Tombow markers.  The flowers are layered for dimension with a touch of glitter for elegance.

That's it for me today.

Next stop on the hop is the wonderfully talented and super sweet Grace.

______________________________________________________________________

Stamps:  Don't Worry and Scripture Series 2 (ODBD)

Paper:  London Market (PinkPaislee), Vintage Cream (PTI)

Ink:  Smokey Gray (Versafine)

Accessories:  Decorative Labels Eight and Les Papillions dies (Spellbinders), Anja's Square dies (Marianne Designs), Wrinkled Ribbon, Adhesive Rhinestone (Recollections ~ Michaels), Quickie Glue Pen, Crystal Glitter, Tombows