Babushka Dolls

Happy Saturday, and welcome to another Diva Sketch Challenge, DSC159. If you are interested in seeing who is participating in the challenge this week, you can find the list of names over at the Utah Diva Blog. This is the last week of sketches by Elizabeth, and I have really enjoyed her sketches! Here is sketch number 159. If you stopped by last Saturday, you know I jumped the gun and did DSC160 last week. Yikes! So I hope you are not totally confused. This week's sketch is DSC160, but because I did that a week early, I am using the sketch from last Saturday.




Earlier this week I was blog surfing and I came across the most adorable Babushka dolls, created by Deb Fearns. I fell in love with them, and I couldn't wait to make one. Here is a sneak peak at the inside of my card

Deb had the punches listed on her blog. The dolls required the Owl Builder punch, the extra large oval punch, and the 1" circle punch. Isn't this just the cutest?! On my card I stamped "friend to friend,"so I thought it was quite appropriate to have one little friend on the front of the card as well as one on the inside. What do you think? There isn't any stamping on the card other than the greeting. The doll's eyes and cheeks are both from the owl punch, as well as the bow at her neck, which is two hearts. For her lips I used the tiny heart from the pinking hearts border.


Recipe follows
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Cheerful Treat DSP, Concord Crush, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Concord Crush
Punches: Owl builder, Extra-Large Oval, 1" circle

I can hardly believe we are at the end of October, and we are expecting some snow later today. We didn't have a great fall this year. There was not much color, and we still have lots of trees loaded with leaves. This could potentially be a very bad storm. Maybe we'll be lucky and we won't get much.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a delightful weekend!

Blessings,
Barbara

It was a dark and dreary night...

I often say, "If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done." So here it is, the last minute, and my card for the Utah Diva Saturday Sketch Challenge, DSC160, is done. And I just realized that I used the sketch for next week, October 29! My apologies to the rest of the team. You can see the correct sketch here, as well as the list of those who are participating this week. I'm too tired to start another card now, so what you see is what you get! I will try to get back to this and do the correct sketch.

So here is next week's sketch:



And here is my card:



Recipe:

Stamps: House of Haunts, Spooky Bingo Bits
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Cajun Craze, Frightful Sight DSP
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Stampin' sponge, Lucky Limeade designer printed brads

Well, it's getting late and I'm going to call it a night. I hope to be back later today with another card. We'll see!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Barbara

Beautiful Season

Happy Saturday, and welcome to another Diva Sketch Challenge, DSC158. If you are interested in seeing who is participating in the challenge this week, you can find the list of names over at the Utah Diva Blog. This is the third week of sketches by Elizabeth, and I really am enjoying her sketches! Here is sketch number 158.



I thought I would rotate the sketch, but I ran into a problem when I finished the main image. I couldn't fit it on the card if I had it horizontal, so I tipped it back to a vertical image, so it did alter things slightly. Also, I substituted ribbon for the scalloped edge that Elizabeth showed in her sketch. Even though I changed it, I think I have captured the main idea.


I was determined to use products that I bought but had not yet used, and I succeeded! I inked Beautiful Season and my letterpress plate for the first time and also opened the spool of quilted satin ribbon. (Too often I order things but fail to use them, falling back on my favorites!) Here are the supplies.

Stamps: Beautiful Season
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, watercolor paper
Ink: Always Artichoke, Riding Hood Red, Soft Suede, Versamark, Black Staz-On
Accessories: Watercolor wonder pen, Fancy Fan Letterpress Plate, Early Espresso 3/8" quilted satin ribbon

I inked the Letterpress Plate with Versamark ink before I put it through the Big Shot. I think it made such an elegant background. The main image was stamped with Black Staz-On and then water colored with my ink pads and a watercolor wonder pen.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,
Barbara

P.S. I had a wonderful visit with my family in Michigan, and we had a great time at Mabel's birthday party! And we found out this week that Mabel will be welcoming a little brother in late February. That will be grandchild number seven. We are all very excited!

Language of Friendship

Happy Saturday, and welcome to another Diva Sketch Challenge, DSC157. If you are interested in seeing who is participating in the challenge this week, you can find the list of names over at the Utah Diva Blog. This is the second week of sketches by Elizabeth, and I had fun with this one. Here is the sketch we had to work with.



Sometimes it is amazing to realize where we can find inspiration. Earlier this week, I cased a card from the catalog. I had so much fun with it and it served as the inspiration for my sketch. Here is the card I cased, and you can read about it here.




I changed the color scheme from Old Olive and Baja Breeze to Old Olive and Marina Mist and obviously changed things up to accommodate the sketch. What do you think? Considering I had a great sketch and inspiration card to work with, I think it came out pretty stinkin' cute!



Here's the recipe:
Stamp: Language of Friendship
Paper: Old Olive, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla
Ink: Early Espresso ink and marker, Marina Mist Marker
Accessories: Boho Blossoms Punch, Bird Builder Punch, linen thread, Marina Mist 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Stripes embossing folder

To get the stripes on the Old Olive, I inked the embossing folder with Old Olive ink and then ran it through the Big Shot. I was going to put a piece of Marina Mist paper in the long rectangular area of the sketch and was inspired to put the striped ribbon there instead.

I'm so happy you could stop by today! I'm actually in Michigan for the weekend. I flew out on Wednesday to attend a Calvin College Alumni Board Meeting, and while I'm here I have a chance to celebrate our granddaughter's birthday. Here is sweet Mabel, and she turned one on October 3.



Mabel's birthday party is this afternoon, and I get to see all of my grandchildren as well. I know we'll have a ball! It is always so much fun to be together.

Boy, this has been a long post. Thanks for sticking with me to the end! As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.

Blessings,
Barbara

Casing the Catalog

Today I had a little time to play, and I decided to CASE (Copy And Share Everything!) a card from the catalog. A couple of years ago I was in a swap where we did just that. We selected a card from the catalog that we were willing to copy and sent them off to the swap hostess. As beautiful as the catalog is, the photos just cannot capture how beautiful the cards are in real life. I used "Language of Friendship," which had not been inked up until today. I love all of the little details of this card.


What do you think? Isn't it sweet? You can see the card I cased on page 101 of the 2011-2012 IB&C.

This card also serves as inspiration for my Saturday DIVA sketch challenge card. I hope you can stop back to see that. I think it will WOW you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Barbara

A Grateful Heart

Today is October 1, and I, for one, find that hard to believe! The days and months just seem to fly by! It's also Saturday, and time for another DIVA sketch challenge. This month's sketches were prepared by Elizabeth, and I really love the simplicity of this first sketch. If you are interested in seeing what the other team members have come up with, just follow this link to see who is participating this week.



A good friend (who is also a member of my down line) came to do some stamping today. We stamped, talked, cut paper, cranked a lot of things through the big shot, enjoyed lunch out on the deck, and generally enjoyed each other's company! I was working on cards for a class, and I was using the beautiful set Gently Falling as well as the Spice Cake DSP. Since all of those supplies were already out, you shouldn't be too surprised with my take on the sketch.





Stamps: Gently Falling, Pursuit of Happiness, Faith In Nature
Inks: Soft Suede, Pool Party, More Mustard
Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, More Mustard, Spice Cake DSP
Accessories: Stamping Sponge, Jewelry Tag Punch, Vintage Trinkets, Linen Thread, Paper Piercer

It's hard to see because I stood the card on a shelf to take the photo, but there is an even mat all the way around the card. The More Mustard CS is cut 5 1/2" x 8 1/2," Soft Suede is 5 3/8" x 4 1/8" and the Spice Cake layer is 5 1/4" by 4".

I am ready for this cooler fall weather! I just love the crisp air, the beautiful colors of fall, and all of the pumpkin goodies available this time of year! I need to stay away from the Pumpkin Spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie... I think you get the picture!

Have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by, and if you have time to leave a comment, I read them all, and I really do appreciate the feedback!

Blessings,
Barbara