Waiting to Grow

It's time for a new challenge over at the A.R.T. blog and the theme is "SCHOOL". Since my kids are all grown up and out of the house, and no grandchildren as yet, I wasn't sure I was going to join in on this challenge. HOWEVER.... while browsing the internet, I came across this adorable image of a little boy wanting to grow big muscles. Now, this may not be close enough to a school theme but my take is that he is learning about hopes and dreams and learning to be patient in the process.

This reminded me so much of my own son, who is in his last year of college with a major in exercise science. He too, has been learning about diet, nutrition and to count calories, while building the toned body that he would like to have (to be the image of someone who is successful in nutrition) so he can help others. He is in excellent health and very muscular, however he is not as BIG as he'd like to be. Sometimes I have to remind him that he looks great and is in very good physical health. He doesn't need to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, that being said, here's my card for the A.R.T. challenge.

You must click on the image to see it larger to appreciate the adorable little boy in the image! And here is the inside.

I mentioned that I found the image online and it was on Pinterest. I don't know where it was originally pinned from because I don't know how to find the source but it is in my "Printables" on Pinterest if you're interested. Thanks so much for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

Roosters Gone Postal

This lovely farmyard style Rooster card meets two challenges today! Woohoo! The folks at Really Reasonable Ribbon are having a challenge to make a card using things with wings and ribbon. Also, A.R.T. is hosting their color challenge this week.
I found this great rooster image at Ephemera's Vintage Garden and loved how it had all the colors for the color challenge.
Here's the color challenge:

Here's my card:

For the colors, I used Dark Chocolate, Limeade Ice, Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy and Spring Rain, from Papertrey Ink. The stamps I used were Postmarks from PTI and Vintage Postcard from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I also used the polka dot stencil from Heidi Swapp on the background.
Here's some close ups of the ribbons and fibers I used.

TWINE

A strip of old measuring tape

and some brown checked ribbon. Thanks for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

A Special Birthday Card

My great aunt is celebrating her 94th birthday and so in honor of her, I chose to use a printed copy of a photo of her when she was a little girl. I just love the big bow in her hair!

I made the card large (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) so she could see the picture well. The date at the top of the card in the banner is roughly the date the photo was taken. I was estimating that she was around 4 years old at the tme. If you look closely, you can see her darling little socks, shoes and necklace, and that she's wearing a handbag over her far shoulder. I look at these pictures I have of her and still see her little girl face in her face today. Thanks for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit

Challenge Card and Christmas

Good morning fellow crafters. This card I made today meets two challenges. The weekly sketch challenge from My Favorite Things and the Make it Monday challenge from Nichole's blog for Papertrey Ink. Here's my card.

The double stamped background was done using PTI's Background Basics "Text Style" and a diamond background image from Fiskars. Those are both stamped using Smoky Shadow ink. I used MFT Pretty Poppies to stamp the image using Scarlet Jewel and Spring Moss, which I stamped off once before stamping my image. The sentiment is from PTI's Beautiful Blessings and the inside sentiment is from Simon Says.


This next card is an advance on making my Christmas cards for this year. I just got an order in from My Favorite Things and couldn't wait to try my new Christmas Ornaments. Using some papers I had in my stash, I found that Papertrey Inks colors Scarlet Jewel and Spring Moss matched the papers perfectly. Here's my first Christmas card for this season.

Here's a picture with a little detail of the popped ornaments.

It's a little hard to see the sentiment in the picture but it's embossed in silver. Thanks for visiting! Blessings~ Birgit