Take Good Care Camellia

TGIF everyone!  This week has been a super LONG one and one I’ll be happy to see to an end.  And thankfully I get to end it off with little vintage salute.

My card today features the amazing clear stamp set from Power Poppy called “Simply Camellias” . Not only is this beautiful bouquet delicate and detailed but it worked perfectly for a vintage feel to today’s card.

The little tag with my simple sentiment is also included in this stamp set.

Here’s a little close up of all of my fussy cutting… perfect for this month’s Power & Spark Challenge… “Cut it Out!”. 

To find out more about our challenge, click here.  You could WIN a Power Poppy stamp set of your very own plus you don’t even have to use a Power Poppy stamp to participate.

Thanks for stopping in today but before you go, take a moment and take a gander and leave a comment on my fellow Bloom Brigaders joining me today on our hop…

Allison Cope - you are here!
Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan


Have a great weekend and Happy Memorial Day to my American friends!

~  Ally ~

Sponsored by:  Power Poppy

Supplies:
stamps: Power Poppy (Simply Camellias)
cardstock:  Recollections White Cardstock, X-Press It White Cardstock
pattern papers: Carta Bella (Sew Lovely)
ink:  Copic Markers, Memento (Tuxedo Black), Ranger Distress Ink (Tea Dye)
die cuts: Spellbinders (Elegant Ovals), MFT (Stitched Ovals), Avery Elle (Gift Tag Die)
other:  ribbon, safety pin.

This or That, Either Or!

This week at StampNation the Dream Team has challenged the members again!  This time, your creations must use only the specific list as a starting point.  There are eight choices and you can use 4 of them!  Yup… it was tougher than it looks!

Here’s a little sneak peek of my card featuring some fun stamp sets from Waffle Flower this week…

Now check out the sneak peeks of the Dream Team creations…

Some cool stuff in there for sure!!!

I hope you’ll take the chance to investigate StampNation.  For more details, click the image below.

Thanks for stopping in!

~ Ally ~

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

My sister is expecting and even though she lives 4 provinces away, I was sent an invite to her baby shower in June.  Since I can’t make it, I am sending a huge box of baby boy things in a ABC clothesline theme.  I just know she’s going to love it!

The baby shower hostess has asked for books instead of cards but I decided that I still need to send one along with my gift anyway so I thought I’d share what I made with you today.

It features the adorable set “Twinkle, Twinkle” from SugarPea Designs of which I love!  This company has the cutest images and corresponding stamp sets.

If you look closely, you’ll see lots of cool shimmer in my sky back ground and the window is actually cut out of the image to have the sky back ground appear behind it.  So cute!

I’m playing along with SugarPea Designs’ “SPD15 - Anything Goes” Challenge this month!

Thanks for stopping in today. I hope you have a great week!

~ Ally ~

Supplies:
stamps: SugarPea Designs (Twinkle, Twinkle)
cardstock:  Recollections White Cardstock, X-Press It White Cardstock
ink:  Copic Markers, Memento (Tuxedo Black), Ranger Distress Inks (Pine Needles, Faded Jeans, Broken China, Salty Ocean), Wink of Stella (White), Gellyroll White Gel Pen, Sakura Glaze Pen
die cuts: Simon Says Stamp! (Stitched Squares)
embossing paste:  Dreamweaver (Pearlescent)
mist:  Imagine Craft (Sheer Shimmer Spritz – Sparkle).

Power Poppy: Introducing… Bees in Foxglove!

It’s the 15th of the month and normally only the Power Poppy Instant Gardners (the digital Design Team) would be sharing their stunning new digi creations today but since today falls on a Friday, both the Instant Gardners and the Bloom Brigade are teaming up to showcase the newest digital beauty!

Introducing… Bees in Foxglove!

Our newest addition to the Instant Garden Collection just happens to be one that's a tall beauty that's not only colourful but a dramatic beauty. Our newest set, Bees in Foxglove, features three lush stalks of Foxglove (Digitalis) with three plump bumble bees buzzing around doing their bumblebee thing! Add in a cheery all occasion sentiment and you have one stunning set that is ready to download, print, color and create with!

Here’s what I created to share with you today…

I chose to keep my card super simple and concentrate your attention on the gorgeous detailing of this amazing botanical.  Don’t you just love those fuzzy bees?  I added a cute little sentiment to my tag from the Simply Camellias stamp set.

Here’s a close up of some of the details on the inside of the large flowers.  I first coloured my blooms with Copics and then added some white detail around the dark spots of colour on the inside to make the dots pop.

I took inspiration from this gorgeous variety of Foxgloves I found on line.  Aren't they stunning?!?!

Click for Photo Source

To check out more wonderful digital stamp sets that Power Poppy offers, click here.

So join the Instant Gardeners and the Bloom Brigade today for a foxy hop…

Jennifer Dove
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Danielle Kennedy
Debbie Olson
Allison Cope - you are here!
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker
 
 
Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy all of our creations today!!  Happy hopping!

~ Ally ~

Sponsored by:  Power Poppy

Supplies:
stamps: Power Poppy (Bees in Foxglove, Simply Camellias)
cardstock:  Recollections Black Cardstock, X-Press It White Cardstock
pattern papers: Echo Park (Fine & Dandy)
ink:  Copic Markers, Memento (Tuxedo Black), Clear Wink of Stella, Gellyroll White Gel Pen
die cuts:  Lawn Fawn (Stitched Rectangles), Avery Elle (Gift Tag Die)
twine:  Bead Landing.

Waffle Flower!

This week over at StampNation we are being sponsored by Waffle Flower for this week’s challenge.  Heather North, one of my fellow Dream Team members found this cute little photo for this week’s challenge that was TOTALLY appropriate for our challenge this week.  Here’s a peek…

And here’s a peek at all of the DT creations for this week’s challenge…

Can you guess which one is mine?  Probably not, so here’s a small peek at my card…

So to go along with our sponsorship at StampNation, I thought I would use my Waffle Flower stamps for my Splitcoaststampers Card Sketch example this week.  Here’s this week’s card sketch designed by moi…

And here is the card I created using my Waffle Flower stamps…

I used the “Doily” and “Gemstone” stamp sets for my card today.  I used my MISTI tool to create a heart gem back ground for my circle.

There's actually some sparkle on this card too...

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll come and play along with us at both StampNation and Splitcoast today!

Happy creating everyone!


~ Ally ~



Supplies:
stamps:  Waffle Flower (Doily, Gemstone)
cardstock:  Reflections
patterned papers:  Carta Bella (Yesterday)
dies: MFT (Stitched Circle), Avery Elle (Gift Tag Dies)
sequins:  Craft Medley
ink:  Memento (Black Tuxedo), Versamark, Wink of Stella (Clear), Sakura Glaze Pen
embossing powder:  Stampendous!
tools:  MISTI 
other: silver string

I’m a Book Nerd!

Come on over to the Power Poppy Blog today and check out my tutorial on how to make a simple and fun bookmark.  Click HERE for a direct link to my tutorial.

It’s a great gift for your kids to make for their teachers as a gift.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Ally ~

Power Poppy: Celebrate the Season? Say What?

TGIF everyone!  I’m so happy to be back creating again. With 2 weeks off I really got my creative jive back and it feels good!

Ushering in a new month means that we have a brand new Power Poppy “Power & Spark” challenge.  This month it’s all about “fussy cutting”!

For details on this month’s challenge, click here!  REMEMBER, you don’t need Power Poppy stamps to participate in the challenge so get creating and share with us over on the Power Poppy Blog.

For my card this week, I was just itching to use a holiday stamp.  I know… what was I thinking!!! We're trying to encourage warm weather to arrive not snow!!! Well sometimes you just have to go with the creative flow so that’s what I did.

On my card today, I’m featuring the gorgeous Christmas stamp set, “Poinsettia”.  I used 8, yup eight, different Ranger Distress Inks (listed below!) to water colour in my image and then fussy cut it out.  This poinsettia totally lends itself to big, bold, beautiful colour!  So that’s what I did!

As a finishing touch, I added some clear Wink of Stella pen to the poinsettia leaves, just like the ones you might find around Christmas time and a really simple sentiment from the “Bough Wow Wow” stamp set…

Now… off you go on a little adventure through the remainder of the lovely and talented Bloom Brigade designer blogs...

Power Poppy Blog
Allison Cope – you are here!
Christine Okken
Kathy Jones
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan


Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy all of our creations today!!  Happy hopping!

~ Ally ~

Sponsored by:  Power Poppy

Supplies:
stamps: Power Poppy (Poinsettia, Bough Wow Wow)
cardstock:  Recollections Cream Cardstock, Strathmore Water Color Paper
pattern papers: Carta Bella (Yesterday), My Mind’s Eye (Sleigh Bells Ring)
ink:  Ranger Distress (Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dye, Abandoned Coral, Dusty Concord, Pine Needles, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive), Versafine (Black Onyx), Clear Wink of Stella, Sakura Gold Pen
die cuts:  My Favorite Things (Stitched Circle, Stitched Oval), Spellbinders (Labels 17, Decorative Labels 28)
twine:  Darice
other:  ribbon.

Just Around the Corner

Wow… I feel like it’s been weeks since I created and even longer since I last shared here.

It’s been a really rough last few weeks for me.  Almost 2 weeks again, I had what I thought was an allergy attack one evening.  I took some medication and went to bed.   When I woke up the next morning, I felt worse.  My husband had already left for the city for work and I had no other drivable vehicle.  I texted my neighbour and she quickly took me into the hospital as soon as my son was on the school bus.  After being at the hospital for 2.5 hours and after lots of blood work and a chest x-ray, they diagnosed me with a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung).  They immediately gave me a big dose of blood thinners and sent me by ambulance to Calgary for a CT Scan.  The first hospital we arrived at, all of their CT Scanners were down so the EMTs took me across town and to another hospital.  I was in the machine within 4 minutes of arrival and the scan took less then 10 minutes! It only took the physician about 10 minutes to read the scan and so they sent me back to my hometown hospital.  The scan revealed that the blood thinners had done their job and the clot was gone. Whew!  They discharged me to go home (only 7.5 hours total from admission to discharge!) with a puffer and some other steroids for my lungs. I’m not totally feeling back to normal quite yet… my breathing is fine, I just feel run-down and tired.  

Now that you’ve heard my sob story, this week’s challenge over at StampNation is all about corners…

The full card is revealed at StampNation! 

Don’t forget you have until May 15th to come and play along with our Virtual Retreat 2015 challenges too!  You could win a MISTI tool prize package from My Sweet Petunia or a gift certificate from Pretty Pink Posh out two amazing sponsors!!!

Thanks for stopping in!

~ Ally ~