Magnolia Summer Memories

The great folks at 7 Kids Kollege Fund have emailed a super peak at the new Magnolia collection called "Summer Memories". Be still my heart!! Oh my, do they know I love all things beachy, especially mermaids?? Heavens to Betsy! I'm all a gaga :o) I can't wait to get my hands on that baby.

Maggie Card Swap

I belong to a sweet little group on Yahoo Groups that likes to exchange kits to make cards and pre-made cards. This month's card swap theme is "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", a Valentine theme I suppose. Here's a photo of the card I made my partner, Beth...

This was a lot of fun! Little did I know when I was using my yummy bag of printed kraft pieces that these were actually scraps from a new line of card stock by Canvas Corp. I'm seeing it around now and at sneak peeks from CHA this week! Also used a number of Cricut cartridges for the hearts and my ever-growing supply of Copics for coloring, then tossed in some red Stickles and slathered things with Ranger Glossy Accents. There was also a generous amount of antiquing going on with various Colorbox stamp pads. Oh, and the most fun item is the little paper piecing I used on Edwin's overalls...that's more from the scrap pack by Canvas Corp I purchased at A.C. Moore. The ivory rose was snipped from trim purchased on eBay long ago. The trinket pin is by Maya Road with a little addition of a red glass crystal I glued in place with a small dab of Glossy Accents (that stuff is amazing and love it's "multipurpose-ness"!) I used Spellbinder's lacy square for the interior. The awesome black & ivory check ribbon is from a spool I won at May Arts...lucky me! Here are a few more close-ups for you to see:

Guess what? It's an easel card!

Tilda Valentine Challenge

Magnolia-licious is having a Valentine challenge. Be sure to check it out. Here's a look at my entry...

Notice I split the easel card base so the top of my heart shows! Be sure to check out the details below about my Tilda and Edwin image.

I used distressing & antiquing on the card and pop dots to lift the large heart off the base for some fun dimension.

I came across a tiny heart print cardstock in one of those scrap packs at my local craft store and knew I had to do a paperpiecing on my Edwin overalls. I also used the same print on Tilda's pocket. Edwins patches and pockets were colored with a Copic marker. I love the result...those hearts are the perfect size for this technique. By the way, all I did was stamp the image on the red heart cardstock and fussy cut and glued over my image used here. Easy peasy!

I made all the heart embellies on the card with my Cricut using hearts from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. The red heart window was a double cut of the same hearts, created using Cricut's Design Studio and my laptop. I pop-dotted the red frame over a black and kraft heart base, which I cut using the larger outer heart so they would match up perfectly. "I & U" were cut using "All Mixed Up". To give them more zing I highlighted the heart edges with Colorbox Frosted White stamp pad, added a layer of red Stickles, and slathered with Ranger's Glossy Accents. A heart-shaped faux crystal was added from my stash.

Here are the ingredients for my little recipe. (Oops - am showing the negative of the letters I used.)

I also plan to enter this card in the following challenges:
Just Magnolia and Hanglar Stanglar "Window" challenge. Hurry...this one ends Jan. 25th!

Edwin's Halloween Treat Challenges

Hi fellow crafters and Tilda fans! Today, I'm posting a treat bag/box made of painted and distressed wood. I hope you enjoy.

You can barely see the moon-colored cardstock, black & corrugated layers under all that goodness!

Glossy Accents were added to button & eyes.

Bats on curled wire are on chipboard base with a coat of black Stickles and Glossy Accents.

I used the masking technique on the jack-o-lantern!

Check out that weathered wood treatment!

I began with a wood handled shopping bag purchased from the craft store for $1 (I love bargains) which I painted with 2 coats pumpkiny caramel brown (sand lightly between coats), a fairly thick coat of Decoarts Weathered Wood crackling compound, then finally black acrylic paint and a spray coat of clear matte. I love the affect and almost didn't want to cover over it!

I used a handpunched round of glittery cardstock for the moon backdrop to my little Edwin vampire. I only have 2 Edwins and they are both Halloween stamps...my personal favs! The sentiment is a Stampendous cling stamp.

I used lots of Copic markers coloring Edwin in spite of his fairly simple coloration. The clothes, shoes, and hair used: C1, C3, C5, N7. For his deadly pallor I used: E000, E50, V000, RV000, RV02, V02. The jack-o-lantern used: Y04, Y07, YR21, G20, Y17, G82 and that's about it!
I'd like to enter my box in the following challenges:

Magnolia Down Under #117 Halloween, ends 10/14
ABC DT - Pumpkin Challenge (10/22)
(10/22)
Magnolia Stamp Lovers Fall Challenge (10/22)
Hooked on Crafts Anything But A Card (10/15)

7 Kids Kollege Fund Halloween (10/25)

Simon Says Halloween Challenge (10/18)

All That Scraps Top 5 - Woohoo!!!

Wow if making Top 5 at All That Scraps isn't enough to light my fire and get me crafting, I don't know what will! Look out OWH...I feel a card-making marathon coming on.

I hope my swap partner at Magnolia Card Kits and Swaps Yahoo Group, Frances, sees her card made top honors. Frances received this card I crafted, with her in mind, through a recent swap on the group. Come check out our little group!

Magnolia Stamps of Sweden - Edwin's Fish

It has been years since I first saw this stamp and failed to buy it!! I have thought about and wanted to use it so many times since and am always annoyed that I let another summer go by without getting one so today I have decided to contact Diana at Magnolia-licious and order it! Just wait to see the next teepee card I make :-) Here's a photo from the official Magnolia website in Sweden.

The only bad thing I have noticed about this stamp is the fish all face the same direction. Otherwise, I think they are just the cutest...this coming from someone who HATES fish in either a tank or on my plate but I do love the sea and live fish swimming in their natural habitat.

If you have this stamp and would like to part with it...get in touch asap and maybe I'll buy yours instead of ordering new. Thanks for looking in today!

Holiday Hiatus of Sorts & Challenges Galore...

Hello papercrafting friends! I am so sorry for the long hiatus. The holidays came upon me and somehow I kept going in spite of one of the worst cases of pneumonia/bronchitis I've ever had. The doc called it acute respiratory illness and wouldn't let me out of the office before I had a breathing treatment for the weezing in my chest but I'm happy to report the holidays and dinners & parties came off without a hitch...it is amazing what you can do when you just put your head down and charge on! Please remember to follow my blog if you like what you see!

It felt good to get busy again with crafting and there were several challenges I was longing to join so I came up with the idea for a New Year tiara. My granddog is visiting while her dad (and my son) is in Disney World so she was elected to model and did a fine job. Yahoo Daisy!! LOL!


Magnolia's Baby Tilda is standing in as Baby New Year...I just covered her sweet bunny slippers with a sparkly butterfly crystal for the occasion. Tilda has been blinged out for New Years with a sparkly blonde bubble hairdo and ruffled diaper. She is a fun stamp to color because the coloring goes quickly with so little clothing on!


Using my Cricut Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and the Design Studio software I welded the word "happy" and cut & glued layers of chipboard, gold & white cardstock, then blinged the heck out of them with Stickles. I cut separate smaller numerals for the year and painted them with pewter Lumiere paint which was coated with Glossy Accents. It has been snowy here on the East Coast so I decided to add a few MS snowflake punches which I Stickled and layered with different colors of white cardstock. Pearls & crystals were added for another layer of fun. You'll see the little embossed clock faces which I made by running Tim Holtz watch faces through my Cuttlebug...what a thrill to see the idea worked! I antiqued them with a white stamp pad to make the numbers pop. I made my embossing sandwich with: A plate, B plate, clock face right side up, cardstock (right side up), Wizard embossing mat, and lastly another B plate. Be sure to give it a try!

I purchased an inexpensive white plastic headband at the dollar store which I covered with 1/4" white satin ribbon. The deco for the top of the headband was added with two 2 1/2" lengths of ribbon which were first Tacky glued to the back of the cardstock "happy" then looped around the headband and glued again to the back. I added some Tacky glue to the inside length of the ribbon loops too. I hope you enjoy my little New Year project and will give one a try!

I'm entering this in a number of challenges:
Magnolia Hi-Lites "Word" challenge (ends December 30th)
Copic Creations - Sparkle (ends 1/14/2011)
All That Scraps - Magnolia Winter Near Us (ending 1/14/2011)
Magnolia-Licious Challenge Blog where the challenge is to make a mostly white card with this photo as inspiration. Hurry over, this one runs through 1/10/2011.
7 Kids has a Anything Goes Challenge running until 1/6/2011...this sure is an
"anything"!
All That Scraps - Weds. Challenge Blog "New Year" ends 1/4/2011
Simon Says New Year Challenge 1/5/2011
Odds are...I'll win a challenge someday!! Did you see my recent honor on the sidebar to the left?? Yahoo x 2!! Can you stand one more photo???
BTW friends...........H-A-P-P-Y N-E-W Y-E-A-R!!!!!!!!!

Triple Play!!!

Today, I'm entering three challenges with my new and improved Christmas stocking card.
The challenges are:
Magnolia Lovers - Lace theme, ends 10/9
Just Magnolia - 2x2 (pairs of things), ends 10/14. Can you find the 5 pairs I used on the card??
All That Scraps #2 Magnolia Challenge, Christmas Scene

For the card I used a vintage Magnolia Santa stamp which was colored with Copic markers and a $1 vintage "Do Not Open Til Christmas" stamp from one of the big 3 craft stores. Everything was from my stash of DP and vintage trims...nothing new went into the making of this card! The base card is a 5x7 ivory invitation from early Martha Stewart that I cut into my desired shape and recycled. It can be glued shut to make a sweet stocking for giftcards and moola or a greeting can be added to the interior to make it a regular Christmas card. The green base Santa rests on is also a perfect sized pocket for giftcards. Look for more of this shape card from me as the holidays approach. I LOVE it!

Edwin Challenge

"Fangtastic" has a clear iridescent coating that doesn't photograph so well!
I don't have many boys in my family so this vintage Dracula Edwin is my only stamp unless we count Edwin's Snowman! The card was created for the Magnolia Stamp Lovers Challenge. He made a great little Halloween card and I can't wait to make more with my old iron fence stamp. The sentiment is by Stampendous.

My watch word is "conserve" so I'm trying to use up my stash of paper & embellishments. I didn't purchase anything new for this card...my DH would be so proud!

I enjoyed adding subtle distressed touches to the card along with a cute little bat button! The jack-o-lantern rests on a bed of black branches with a green wire vine. The 2 shades of orange brads fill an empty corner and balances out the card. They are from the same set of old Halloween brads by Queen & Co. This little Edwin was a mixed media man...his cape was paper pieced, along with an assortment of gray & flesh Copics and, since my collection isn't big just yet, I did his hair with gray Copics and watercolor pencils. I've learned through trial and error that purchasing a black Copic was a waste, I don't like the look of solid black and it doesn't shade well. The sentiment, pumpkin & Edwin were all pop-dotted to add some fun dimension to the 5.5" square black card.

This is a 5.5" x 5.5" card I made for two Magnolia challenges using a template provided by the Just Magnolia Challenge blog. This is Tilda in her swimsuit sitting on a dock stamp I disassembled and reglued by Art Impressions, a sentiment stamp from C.C. Designs, and my own hand drawn and original fish. I colored the images with Copics, and pop-dotted Tilda, the fish, & sentiment. Her little wings have a touch of Diamond Stickles for some shimmer. I used all Bo Bunny papers, ribbons, & brads and Prima flowers.

Theme at the 2nd challenge blog is "travel". Check it out at the Magnolia Stamp Lovers blog. Wish me luck!

Tilda Beach Babies!!

My daughter, sister and I spent all day Sunday lazing on the beach in Rehoboth Beach, DE...a wonderful, quaint, little beach town. Rehoboth Beach has been a family destination since my sister and I moved to Delaware with our family in 1960. In the 1970s my father spent Monday thru Friday in Rehoboth working at a seafood processing facility in town. The plant is long gone and it's hard to imagine there was ever any other industry besides tourism.

Growing up in Delaware has given me an appreciation for the ocean and I often draw and make items like this Tilda card to celebrate that love.