Happy Valentines Day

It's been a great 4 days off including my birthday & Valentines Day.  I wasn't happy with this PTI challenge card, but it didn't take much to make it better.  The sentiment is embossed, matted & popped up and Liquid Applique is added to the berries.  I changed it to a Thank You card for my cousin & his wife.  She always buys my birthday
present & this year she went overboard at Archivers, so I have lots of new goodies to play with.  Decided to enter Retro Sketches challenge for the first time.

Took awhile for me to figure out what to do for Merry Monday this week.  Finally last night I decided to use this cute Hero Arts Reindeer that was in a variety set I won in a drawing last Fall & hadn't opened.  The star & sentiment were included.

I missed this challenge at Freshly Made Sketches, but the drawing was on my table. I used my favorite MME holiday pad for the sweater & all my layers.  Finally used a jingle bell on a card--yah! Every year I want to & it never worked until now.  

Stickles add some sparkle to his antlers & sweater. I used snippets, so will also enter this at Pixies Snippets Playground.
We had a great Valentines Day as we saw the puppies again & boy have they grown in 2 weeks! We won't pick our boy until we go to take him home.  They're soft & cuddly & have started wagging their tails. Momma was a little concerned at first, but guess she decided we were OK & she even laid her head down for a nap. Oh how I love a Schnauzer face!
Snow is gone so I won't have hubby to chauffeur me to work this weekend.  Hope you're safe & warm.  I'll be visiting your blogs soon. 

PTI Building Blocks Challenge

PTI had an interesting challenge today.  I used a dice to determine my "building blocks" which are Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Soft Stone, Birthday, Inlaid Die Cuts, Buttons, Ribbon & Sketch #6.  I'm not positive if anything else is allowed, but hopefully also using white & black cardstock is OK along with floss to thread the button.  I would not have chosen to use gray with the other colors, so it's not my favorite card. PTI Linen & Canvas Impression Plate gives some texture to the black & a Cuttlebug embossing folder is used on the bottom of the card front.  My PTI stamps are The Sweet Life & Boutique Borders Birthday. I used some snippets, so I'm also entering this over at Pixie's Snippets Playground. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Our snow has melted & now it's warmed up with rain.  Quite the winter, but we haven't had nearly the problems many of you continue to deal with.  Stay safe & warm.

Birthday Card

Here's my card for today's PTI stripes challenge & one of the color & sketch inspirations.  I used PTI Harvest Berries & Heart to Heart 2.  The stripes are made with an old 8 1/2 x 11 stencil using these inks: Gathered Twigs, Toffee Crunch, Classic Kraft, Love Letter & Rhubarb Stalk.  The panel was embossed with PTI Linen & Canvas Impression Plate to give some texture. I'd like to use this for a guy's card if I can improve it a bit.  
I think the sentiment needs to be embossed or maybe add some twine. More storms coming for a lot of us--stay safe & warm. Your visit is always appreciated. Also entering SSS Monday.

Hugs

Lots of us playing along in the PTI challenges with such great prizes!  Wasn't sure I was going to make it today. Had to watch the Westminster Dog Show & finish yesterday's Olympics tapes.  Just sat at my table playing for a bit & finally came up with this card.  I used one of the sketch & color inspirations as well as today's challenge to make a large word the focal point.  

I used Summer Sunrise, Rhubarb Stalk, Turqoise Gem & Picked Raspberry inks with PTI stamps from Lovely Layers & Snowflake Flurries.  I have very few word dies so I used stickers.  The doily has been in my stash forever, the twine is DeNami & the button was part of the prize I won from my 
good friend Lisa.  
I would never have put these colors together, but they did make a cheery, fun card that will work for my goal of sending cards "just because" this year.  I'll catch up on blogs tomorrow.  I so appreciate your comments.
Edited to add: Entering SSS Monday.

Hexagons for a Birthday

My second card ever made with PTI Hexagon Cover Plate & Happy Hexagons stamp set.  The sentiment is from Trendy Tree Tops.  I'm entering 2 of the PTI 7th Anniversary contests: Today's Birthday Card challenge & one of the sketch & color recipe options.

My inks are PTI Simply Chartreuse, Summer Sunrise, Distress spiced marmalade, Memento Love Letter & Versafine Smokey Gray.  I left the twine lying over the card last night, not thinking it was going to work. However, this morning I decided I liked the look so attached it & tied the little bow.  
I don't know what took me so long to start using this set.  It is way fun to work with! Thanks so much for taking time to visit my blog.

Blessing from God

Click here for my DeNami Blog Hop card.

Down to the wire for the ODBD L-O-V-E recipe challenge.  I checked Dynamic Duos & found one of my favorite color combos: light green & soft pink.  Now I had the needed inspiration to create a card I really love.  It will be perfect for my college roommate who lives in the Midwest.  We've only seen each other a few times over the past 40 years, but I was overjoyed to get a lovely letter from her this past Christmas.  All the papers are snippets, so I'm also entering Pixies Snippets Playground.  

The stamps are ODBD Each Minute & Sweet William small.  The leaves are cut with a Penny Black die. I'm down to a small piece of this beautiful pink shimmer paper which was a great match for the flowers embossed on vellum using VersaMagic Pink Petunia. The vellum was attached over white cardstock & Liquid Pearls are added to the centers. Barely able to use the Cuttlebug embossing folder at the angle I wanted, but was able to stop just before it would have ruined the edge of the paper.  Gotta find more of this beautiful ribbon--only had a yard & it's almost gone now.  
L--layers, leaves O--ovals V--vellum E--embossing

Temps are above freezing, but socked in with no sun.  It's a good thing since we don't want 13 inches of snow to melt too quickly.  Had a wonderful treat this morning when I spotted a pair of Varied Thrush at the feeder.  Last time I had noted one was in 2008! The female flew away, but I managed to snap a picture of the male while he was in our apple tree (that's ice on the branches).  Hope you've had something nice happen today & thanks so much for stopping by.
Edited to Add: also entering Die Cut Divas, thanks to Dawn's reminder.

DeNami Blog Hop

I look forward to the monthly DeNami Blog Hops & really had fun making my polka dot card for this month. If you just enjoyed seeing Teenia's fabulous work, you're on track. All the hop details & line-up can be found on the DeNami Design Blog.  I stamped the butterfly from Fancy Flutters twice on each of 3 different Bo-Bunny Double Dot papers.  The wings & bodies were popped up & glittered & I used a matching Copic for the antennae & head.  The kraft circle is stamped in VersaMark Dazzle using Retro Borders 1. The rest of the circles are cut from the solid side of each paper.  

Hope you like my "touch of Spring" card.  Better keep going--next up is Tina who has the biggest DeNami collection outside DeNami!