IB195 Christmas Tree Farm

Hi there, everyone!  Thursday brings another Inspired By challenge and I am constantly amazed at the gorgeous photos that Danni comes up with!  Check these beauties out:

And check out the optional sketch, which I had every intention of using, but in the end went in a different direction!  

So here we go:

I confess that since it's been a bit of a stressful week, I did some digital "stamping"! I saw a card from my friend Esther (you can see it here) and through that, found a wonderful Etsy shop!  This image jumped into my cart...isn't it pretty!?  To be fair, I did add some stamping to the image itself'; I stamped the retired Linen background stamp over top to give it more of a vintage fabric look.  The background is also digital; the snowflake is from SU's Stitched Snowflakes, and the deer is from SU's retired Card Front Builder dies:

I pulled out my favorite Christmas sentiment stamp from last year, Wrapped in Christmas, for the inside:

I am also entering this at the Peace on Earth challenge with their pretty mood board:

I hope you'll play along with us at Inspired By, can't wait to see what you create!  Thanks so much for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Linen (ret), Wrapped in Christmas (ret),  Christmas Tree Digital (CreatifBelle, Etsy), Plaid Digital (Gracellie Designs Rustic Winter)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Basic White, Basic Black, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (ret), Computer Paper
Ink	Sahara Sand, Memento Black
Accessories	Rhinestone, Mini Glue Dot
Tools	Big Shot, Card Front Builder Dies (ret), Stitched Snowflake Dies

AYSI250 Lilies of the Valley

Happy Friday, peeps!  I am glad it's the end of the week, aren't you?  Today, our As You See It Challenge is a fill-in-the-blank!  Here we go:

I love ALL the flowers of spring, but I remember my grandmother having lilies of the valley growing along the shady side of her house, and I would always pick some in the spring.  I also remember having some Muguet de Bois perfume in high school...that's French for "lilies of the valley".... and I loved it so much, I wanted to have lilies of the valley as the flowers on my ushers' lapels when I got married!  Unfortunately, my wedding date was in June and all the lilies were gone by then...and this was the pre-silk flowers era!!  I still love them and have managed to grow a few in my flower bed, but first, my card:

I had no lilies of the valley stamps at all, but was fortunate to find a digital image from Marcia Hawley that was simple and easy to color!  I printed it on some computer paper, colored it with Blends and then mounted it on some digital gingham paper as well.  I mounted it on some Garden Green cardstock and added a sentiment and a polka dot bow, and I can't seem to create anything without a few sequins!  The image was fairly large, so my card is larger than a standard A2.  

I just happened to need a sympathy card for a family at church, so I stamped some sympathy sentiments on the inside and it's in the mail! I am also entering this in the Double D flower of the month challenge, as May is lilies of the valley!

 And here is one wee little lily of the valley in my flower bed; they are multiplying each year, so it is a joy to see them pop up (sorry this is a little blurry):

I picked a few and had them on my craft desk...what a lovely scent! I hope you'll play along with our spring flower challenge and you will share your creation with us at As You See It!   Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Spring Border Two Digital (Power Poppy)
Card stock & Papers	Garden Green, Smoky Slate, Digital Gingham, Computer Paper
Ink
Accessories	Blends, Sequins from my Stash, Dimensionals, Polka Dot Organdy Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies

Mushroom Digi Thanks

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  My friend Michele, who always creates the most edgy, fun, eclectic cards in blogland, recently had a card on her blog featuring a pretty mushroom (and a snail!).  You can see it HERE.  Now I really liked that little image and guess what---it was a FREE digital image, so I went over to Rachelle's blog and snagged it for myself!  THEN I had a conversation with Michele about printing with my printer using cardstock or watercolor paper (it doesn't do well with either), and she gave me a couple of hints, so I decided to try it....just on some cheapo Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart.  And I was just going to experiment...you know how that goes...and it actually turned out pretty good..it warped a wee little bit but not badly enough to toss it!  So here we go:

I was concerned about the black ink bleeding, but I used a damp aquapainter with my ink and a very light touch, and I love how it came out!  I used some retired nature-themed Painted Seasons DSP on my Crumb Cake card, and added a panel of Poppy Parade and an Altenew sentiment.  Of course, every white gel pen I have ever tried malfunctions after about a month, so my white spots on the mushroom cap did not turn out very well:

Thanks, Rachelle!  I love this pretty little image.  I do know it's called a Fly Agaric, only because I saw someone recently used a similar image on a card!  And you may not know that my neighboring town called Kennett Square is considered the "Mushroom Capital of the World"....they produce lots and lots of mushrooms, sent all over the country!  And here in our little yard, the mushrooms are quite prolific due to all the rain we've had!  Now I am not an expert on mycology, so I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are!  This one was huge....probably 8-9" across, and it was in my yard:

These are in my flower bed under my butterfly bush...curly-edged:

And these are also in my flower bed, but they teeny tiny....only about 1/4" across and they even have little mushrooms INSIDE of the mushrooms!!  They're barely noticeable in the mulch:

So that's the nature walk for today!  Thanks for popping by...enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Label Love (Altenew), Digital Image by Rachelle
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Painted Seasons DSP (ret), White (Georgia Pacific)
Ink	Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider, Sahara Sand, Soft Seafoam, Memento Black
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Greenery EF, Computer