Stars

Hello Friends

I dug out my beloved Phyllis Harris stamps this weekend and made some cards.  I really love her images and I don't use them nearly enough. This wee girl and her cat is just adorable. I made a card base from some glittery card stock. Then I got out my watercolour paints to colour this one. I have not used them in a while they are so relaxing to work with. My painting skills still have a long way to to go but I was happy with the result. I love this sentiment and thought it would fit my card perfectly.  I typed the words, cut them out and pasted them on. To finish the card off I added some star gemstones. I just love it! I think this has to be one of my favourites :)

Have a good week thanks for stopping by

Mandi xox

Stamps - Unity Stamp Company - Reach for the Stars
American Crafts Designer Card 
VersaFine Ink
Sakura Koi Watercolor Set
Star Rhinestones
Sentiment Printed 

Challenges
Word Art Wednesday 

Perfect Timing

 Happy Friday Friends

I hope you have all had a good week. I made this card for a friend of mine who has been having a rough few month's. We don't always have answers to what life throws at us. In those times our  faith can carry us. I love this sentiment and it worked perfectly for my card.  All I did was heat emboss some teal card with white embossing powder and added some ribbon and gems. I love how clean and simple it looks.

Thanks so much for visiting 

Mandi xox

Stamps - Unity Stamp Co Untamed Beauty & God's Timing
Aqua Card
VersaMark Ink
White Embossing Powder
Gems/Ribbon 


Challenges 
Friends With Flair
Simon Says Stamp Wed 
Word Art Wednesday 
Wow Embossing Powder Challenge 

Lil White Pumpkins

Happy Autumn Friends :)

It's finally here! My favourite time of the year :) I seem to be a little obsessed with pumpkins this year. I have always liked them but this year I LOVE them. I am especially drawn to those cute lil white ones. I just had to buy this wee guy last night he was only 69c at Trader Joe's.  I also saw some lovely artificial pumpkins at the craft store that were all different colours. I will talk about those in another post though.

So I made this tag this morning  my inspiration was from this wee pumpkin of course! I wanted to keep the tag quite neutral so I used only one ink colour to create the entire tag. I ran the top of the tag through a leaf embossing folder then lightly sponged over it with Walnut Stain distress ink.  I stamped my lil pumpkins at the bottom and paper pieced them with some cream coloured patterned paper. Next I stamped my leafy branch right above the pumpkins. Using the same ink I went around and  distressed the edges of the tag. Some ribbon and lace was tied around the middle. Finally I stamped a little sentiment and made into a tiny tag. Then attached it at the top through the kraft tag hole with ribbon and lace. I hope you like my lil white pumpkin tag :)

Thanks so much for stopping by

Mandi xox

Supplies 
Stamps - Unity Stamp Company - When I am with you KOM 9/10, Imagine It & The Simple Things
Ink - Distress Ink Walnut Stain
Embossing Folder - Darice Leaves
Lace & Ribbon
Paper - Colorbok Paper Pad Natural Expressions
Ranger Kraft Tags

Challenges
 Simon Says Stamp Wed
Delicious Doodles 
Simply Create Too 
 Crafting At The Weekend
Friends With Flair

New Beginning

Hello Friends

I just got back from a wonderful week in Maine aghhh :) We stayed right on the beach in York. I wish I could live there it reminds me so much of Scotland. The rocky coast lines and all the greenery. I woke up this morning and it was a cool and crisp day. So it called for an autumnal card. It was in the 90's when we left only a week ago. Today so far it is only 62 but I LOVE this kind of weather it is my favourite time of year. If you know me I am not a hot weather girl at all. I love cool crisp mornings, hot chocolate, hoodies and cozy nights with candles. I have my cinnamon donut candle burning as I type. I love all things fall :)

So now on to my card, I used the colours from the Be Inspired Challenge over at Unity.  I made this tag card something a wee bit different from me. I love making tags so I thought I would incorporate it on to card. I used my distress inks and I just love the way they all bled together but they still kept their own individual colours. I heat embossed my tree with white embossing powder first then swiped all of the colours on to my mat and spritzed a little water. I just picked up the colours from the mat a couple of times. Drying in between each time with my heat tool. I made the ribbon the same way then mounted it on to my card. I stamped the sentiment using several colours of ink underneath my card and finally attached some gemstones to match.

Stamps Unity  Imagine It & The Simple Things.
Distress Inks - Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Walnut Stain, Fired Brick & Crushed olive
White Embossing Powder
VersaMark Ink

Thanks so much for stopping by

Mandi xox

Challenges
Artistic Inspirations 
Crafting By Designs
 Sister Act
Simon Says Stamp Wed
Freinds With Flair
Crafting At The Weekend
Wow Embossing Powder Challenge

Hope - Teal & Gold

Happy Friday Friends

I hope you all had a good week :) I made this card inspired by the colours of a new journal that I bought. I was out shopping for a birthday present for my husband and came across an array of colourful journals at TK Maxx. I did not need a new journal but I just loved the colours on this so I just had to have it.  I love the colour teal it is one of my favourite colours along with Turquoise. I always seem to grab those colours first when I am crafting.  I am not usually a fan of gold I am more of a silver girl but these two colours go really well together. I would never have put them together if I had not seen how good it looked on this journal. It is so amazing the things you find that inspire you to create! Here is a picture of my journal.

I love this Hope stamp from Unity you can find it here. I embossed it with gold embossing powder on to white card. Then layered it on to a teal chevron background then some gold tone card that was made using my Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine. The glitter card base was cut from card stock that I found at Tuesday Morning it was such a bargain 12 sheets for $2.99. if you live near a Tuesday Morning they have some great craft bargains. My local store has some great card and paper stacks amongst other things you should go and have a wee look around. I bought way too much stuff I just could not resist ;)

Anyway thanks so much for stopping by I hope you have a great weekend. I sure will we are leaving for vacation to Maine for a few days then hopefully on to Prince Edward Island. I am so excited!!

Mandi xox

Challenges
Friends With Flair
Simon Says Stamp Monday - Bold
Simon Says Stamp Wed

Olaf

Hello Friends

Do you want to build a snowman?? Ha I could not resist sorry :) Unless you have been on another planet you have probably seen or at least heard of the movie Frozen.  I made this Olaf card today for a friend of mine. How cute is he?  I must admit I have a soft spot for Olaf he is super adorable and he was my favourite part of the movie :)

To make this card you will need a template or you can make your own. I found this free template on Pinterest.  It was too big for what I needed so I sized it down a little and changed some things around. I left out the hair and arms and used real twigs instead. The eyes and buttons were created using my hole punch. I stamped and wet embossed the snowflakes on to some blue card to make the background. Then dry embossed it with a swirl embossing folder. I typed up the sentiment on my computer and cut it out and glued it to the card.

I hope you enjoy my card -  have fun making your own Olaf :)

Mandi xox

Challenges
613 Avenue Create
Crafting At The Weekend

Dreaming of Fall

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a good week :) I have been LOVING this cool weather we have been having in upstate NY this past week. I am not and I repeat not a warm weather kinda girl. This is my kind of weather dewy mornings and cool breezy nights. I just LOVE it! Autumn/Fall whatever you call it is my favourite season ever.  So I wanted to get some of my autumnal stamps out and have a wee play around. I don't know if you have been out shopping, the stores are filled with all kinds of pumpkin decor at the moment. I love seeing all the different ways you can decorate with pumpkins. I have even seen some blue and green ones this year and they are so pretty.

So I dug out some stamps and made a clean and simple card. I used my beloved distress inks and blended them straight on to the stamp then added a few rhinestones it was super easy!

Thanks so much for visiting today have a great weekend.

Mandi xox

Stamps - Unity Stamp Company, Thinking of You, Imagine It & When I Am With You
Distress Inks - Spiced Marmalade & Walnut Stain
Rhinestones

Challenges
 Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wed
Freinds With Flair
 

Brave Wings

Happy Friday Friends!!

I hope you all had a good week this week. I made this dragonfly tag and it comes with a wee story behind it. My inspiration came from a real life dragonfly.  I have been feeling kinda blah this week. No real reason I have just been feeling a bit run down and not myself. I have not been feeling too crafty at all either which is really unlike me.

So this all started when I decided to take a dip in the pool. It was not even that warm and the water was cold but I wanted to go in anyway. I was enjoying the water and looking up at the sky daydreaming. Then I looked down saw a little dragonfly in the pool. I thought it was dead at first. Then I looked again and saw it struggling in the water. It was drowning! So I scooped it up in my hand and got it out of the water. I tried to get it on to the side of the pool to dry off, but it would not leave my hand. Just when I got it on the concrete it climbed back on to my hand.

 Now I have never really paid much attention to dragonflies. You know I am a butterfly girl. But they are seriously the cutest little creatures with huge big eyes. I have never seen one up this close before.  Those iridescent wings are just amazing. I watched it swipe water off itself and dry off in the breeze. I noticed that it had a broken wing. The wing was clipped pretty low so I was not even sure it would be able to fly, but it did have three other wings. I kept trying to get this wee insect off my hand it would not leave me so I let it just sit there. It must have stayed on my hand for about 20 minutes.  My arm was getting sore hanging outside the pool so I shouted for my husband to come and take it from me. He grabbed leaf to to let it walk on to. Before he got the chance to put the leaf down to my hand it opened it's wings and flew away. Amazing!!

 I was kind of in awe of that little dragonfly. It was practically drowning and had a broken wing but still it survived. I was reminded that when we feel like we are drowning God steps in and scoops us up and we are taken to a place of safety. He lets us stay a while, as long as we need to dry off. Then when we are ready we can fly away. Even when we feel insignificant and incomplete. We can still fly and we can still make it despite what has happened to us. We don't need to be prefect to fly we just have to be brave enough to do it. Wow that was deep!  I will never see dragonflies in he same light again. I learned so many lessons just by rescuing that little dragonfly.

So the next day I dug out my one and only dragonfly stamp and made this tag. All inspired by my little wounded insect.  The colours were totally inspired by the wings on my  dragonfly they had little turquoise and purple flecks through the wings. I can do them no justice but this is my version.  I used the embossing resist technique on the tag with distress inks then stamped some broken script on top. On the dragonfly I used copper embossing powder on the body and distressed the wings with inks. I typed my sentiment  then cut and pasted the words. Finally I dyed some ribbon to match the tag and added some rhinestones.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog have a great weekend.
 
Mandi xox

Supplies Stamps - Dragonfly of Beauty, Imagine It & Key To My Heart, Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers & Concord Grape.Embossing Powder Copper & White. VersaMark Ink. Crinkle Ribbon. Rhinestones

Challenges
Friends With Flair 
Word Art Wednesday 
Simon Says Stamp Monday
Craft Stamper Take it Make it  Embossing Resist By Anna- Karin Evaldsson. August Issue.
Artistic Inspirations
613 Avenue Create
Eureka Stamps
Sparkle & Sprinkle 
Love to Scrap - Anything Goes

Free Heart - Scottish Thistle

Hello Friends

I hope you are all having  good Monday! I was playing about with some of my older wood mounted stamps today and created this card. Can you tell I am a wee bit homesick? I was also doing a lot of reading regarding the independence vote that is happening soon in Scotland soon. This is where all of my inspiration came from.  I love this thistle stamp I don't use it nearly enough.

Thanks so much for stopping by today

Mandi xox

Supplies
Funstamps - Thistle
Distress Inks - Concord Grape, Mowed Lawn & Salty Ocean
Tartan Ribbon

Challenges
Simon Says Stamp Monday - Anything Goes

Memories

Hello Friends

I hope you have all had a great week. I have been super busy this week and not had much time to blog. I have been working on this girl for a few days and just got around to finishing her today. I love this stamp designed by Angie Blom. It is called Beautiful Soul. I wanted to pair her together with a quote that I love.

"Sometimes memories sneak out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks."

 It is so true!!  So many times I have found myself thinking of someone, and before I know it I have tears streaming down my face. It is so amazing that one little memory can stir up so many emotions. We all have our own little treasure chest of memories.

I used my watercolours and alcohol markers on this project. Then stenciled the hearts and heat embossed them with silver glitter embossing power. I printed the sentiment and glued it in place. I used a little gray gem for her tear I was going for that running mascara tear drop look. I am a crier it does not take much for me to shed a tear. So I know this look only too well ha :)

 Thanks so much for stopping by have a great weekend

Mandi xox

Challenges
Friends With Flair

Winners

Hello  Friends

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far!  I am here to announce the winners from my blog this week.

The winner of the Itty Bitty's is Janis!! Please email Keli at kelli@unitystampco.com with your choice of 2 Itty bitty stamps tell her you won them on my blog.

The winner of my little prize bundle is Karen Ladd please email me your mailing address at mandimance@hotmail.com

Thanks so much for visiting with me last week.

Mandi xox