Wish...

This darling stamp is by Paperbag Studios and the correct title is "Dress Up" but I think the little girl looks like she is deep in thought wishing for something.

I have been slowly cleaning up my sewing area and have been discovering old "treasures" like old pieces of lace and buttons so why not incorporate them on my cards? I really like to sew on my cards and this one has a lot of zig-zag.

I colored this image with chalk, added a couple of tiny prima flowers and itsy-bitsy brads in their centers. "Wish" stamp is by Stampin' Up! Background floral paper is by Wild Asparagus.

OK...now I'm off to stamp this image on some unbleached muslin and see how that works.

Tango rides the Harley

We just returned from our evening walk with Gabriel and Bella and as we walked up the driveway we discovered that Tango had decided to "ride" Paul's Harley. He seems quite content up there, don't you think?

Friends: the masterpiece of nature (R.W. Emerson)

I generally do not begin a card and base it around the background paper. I'm a stamper first. With this card, though, the opposite happened in the creation process. I went to my scrapbook store for some card stock that I'd run out of and of course just had to poke around the shop to see what was new. This Daisy D's paper jumped off the shelf into my hand. I love it.

Now...what to do with the beautiful Daisy D's paper? I'm not sure if this is what I intended when I started this card but the creation process and the outcome don't always walk hand in hand when I make a card.

Anyway, here is a little something I whipped up this afternoon.

Paper is by Daisy D.
Tag sentiment is a stamp from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Nellie the Nest Lady.
I used my cuttlebug on the punched photo corners and stitched them down. (I think when I stitched them the presser foot on my sewing machine flattened the embossing...oh well.)
A little prima flower on the tag and some ribbon and....there you go!

This is for a good friend who I've been thinking about a lot lately. I hope she'll like it.

To my "Mystery" blog comment sender....

What's a momma to do? I have three adult children (two sons: Jonathan age 28 and Matthew age 26) and one daughter (Stephanie age 24), each of whom has my blog address to view and comment. One of my offspring was adament that while he thinks the blog is cool and he'll read it, that no photos of my younguns be posted on the internet. Now I see that one of his siblings has posted a comment feeling that his(?) / her (?) ever lovin' momma has favored posting photos of the pups over them?

Be it known here and now to everyone reading, my children are the most important people to me! And yes! (hee hee hee) you are much cuter and smell MUCH better than the puppies! (your comment made me laugh because there were times in your youth that I couldn't quite agree with that statement all the time!)

Anyone interested in reading what my "mystery blogger" comment entry was please read the comments on my very first blog entry at the very bottom of the page. He/She let it be known that I'm in for some great comments. Bring 'em on, honey.

This photo should be considered safe by all of my young 'uns. This was taken on Easter Sunday in 1984. Awwwww...didn't I have just the cutest little ones and they smelled MUCH better than my animals do too?! :)

Have a beautiful Friday everyone!

Havin' a hootenanny with my sisters

This Terry Medaris stamp gave me a lot of fun and pleasure using my prismacolor pencils to color it. I love how Mr. Medaris' stamps give you the canvas to spread lots and lots of color.

I call this piece, Havin' a hootenany with my sisters! There are four sisters in my family and while I'm the only lover of animals and none of us live on a ranch, I just bet that each one of us could pick out which of these gals personify us. I'm not telling which one I think is me. I'll let you decide.

This really is a no techniques used kind of card. If you are looking for technique, you won't find it here. I made this for the pure fun of the image and plan to send it to one of my sisters for all of the hard work she's been doing for our family.

Not too much else to say about it other than the stamp is Terry Medaris and I colored it with prismacolor pencils.

Hope it makes you shout "YEEEE HAW!"

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to be more creative with techniques. Tonight it was pure joy of stamping and coloring.

Mary Engelbreit Thank you

Do you ever have a stamp that you just love the image but have a hard time finding in your "stash" just the right elements to put a card together? This was my problem with this darling Mary Engelbreit stamp.

I stamped a bunch of these Mary Engelbreit thank you images last weekend but didn't have the chance to color them and make cards until this morning. Then I realized that I didn't have the bright primary colored patterned paper in my supplies. I made a realization that I tend to stockpile muted colors and vintage papers. But Mary Engelbreit NEEDS bright primary colors. Whats a gal to do? I decided I'd use this Daisy D's paper and hope for the best and this is what I came up with.

The Mary Engelbreit stamp is made by All Night Media. I colored her with my prismacolor pencils and mounted the image on scraps from my stash of black and yellow cardstock. Next I layered Daisy D's Vintage Blossoms patterned paper on a black mat and mounted them on a bright yellow card base. Next I added the gingham bow and yellow prima flowers and mounted the Mary Engelbreit image on foam squares.

'Bella and Gabriel at 8 weeks old

My stepson and his girlfriend gave me this wonderful framed photo of Bella and Gabriel. They'd taken a picture of 'Bella last year the day we brought her home (she was about 8 weeks old) and then last week when we brought Gabriel home (he was 8 weeks then too) they took a photo of him.

So here is our gift...both our pups when they were 8 weeks old. How fun!

Thread, needle, ink and paper

Sewing was my first love. I still sew, but for the past few years since I have fallen completely crazy over rubber stamping I haven't sewn nearly as much, with the exception of sewing on cards.

This morning I had the "bug" to stamp but also to do a little counted cross stitch. I inked my stamps and stamped on Aida cloth and then backstitched the BEAUTY sentiment. Next I mounted it on some pretty MME card stock with a little zigzag stitching and batting and a touch of ribbon and seed beads. VOILA! My stamped card with a bit of cross stitch.

This is such a very basic, fast and easy card to create. I have a bazillion ideas for using stamps, bleach, floral, vintage and various accoutrement to cards.

Here is what I used:
Aida cloth 18 count
DMC 3362
Stampin' UP! stamp set called Easy Elegance
Whispers dye inks in Pine Green and Rich Plum
Mill Hill Glass Seed Beads

I enjoyed this so much that I think I'll keep experimenting and make a variety of holiday cards as well as some vintage themed.

Come back again and see more of my stamping on fabric projects.

Simple Thank you cards

Gabriel decided that 4:30 a.m. was the time I should wake up this morning. I can't complain too much though because the pup has slept all night since we got him. Since we were up and awake I decided to make some simple thank you cards. These are, by no means, works of art. They are just some simple thank you cards that I whipped up. I need to make a variety and I thought these would lend themselves to a variety of colors and easy mass production.

The first is a summery sunny yellow and orange. Thank you very much is by Anna Griffin (All Night Media) stamps. The floral background stamp is Stampin' UP!. The scalloped eyelet edge is a Martha Stewart punch.

The second Thanks is with Martha Stewart robin egg blue card stock on which I used my cuttlebug thanks in many languages embossing folder. The ribbon was on the Michaels sale table called Sweet & Sassy ribbon. The white hydrangia flower was a fun find at the grocery store. I found this HUGE stalk of flowers for $4.00! I removed the petals and stored them. I must have hundreds upon hundreds of these pretty white silk flowers.

The third card is made on a lovely linen weave paper. I love this card stock. Again I used my Martha Stewart eyelet scallop punch for the border. The rose is from an All Night Media brass stencil to which I applied embossing paste, colored with Tombow markers and added a litte pink crystal to the center for a little BLING! The Many Thanks sentiment stamp is also an Anna Griffin (All Night Media) stamp.

I'm working on a Mary Engelbreit thank you card right now. Maybe I'll finish it later. Time to play with the pups!

The chicken lays an egg

I was going to work with my new Thomas Kinkade stamps but got sidetracked and ended up making a birthday card with this ART IMPRESSIONS stamp and sentiment. This chicken and sentiment stamp are a couple that I resently purchased with my winnings from last month's Art Impressions contest. The chicken wire stamp is by Darcie's and I embossed the wire with Stampendous Stamp-n-stuff silver detail embossing powder. The image is colored with prisma color pencils. Then I added some raffia, a feather (see her sitting on it?) and a few silver brads for the coup hardware.

The inside sentiment and response to this birthday card joke is, "...they're both a pain in the rear! Happy Birthday anyway!"

This was fun. Probably a little too much in a small space though. I have a lot of layout ideas and sentiment ideas for this chicken so you'll probably see her again.

Saturday morning on our homestead

5 a.m. came a bit too soon, but the rain has stopped, the sun is shining and Paul was out early on the golf course. This gave me the chance to feed and play with the critters and then begin organizing some cards. I still need to work on learning to post slide shows but I've added one of random cards and projects.

I recently purchased two new Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kinkade stamps. I'm SO EXCITED about these two new stamps. One is the fly fishing "It doesn't get much better..." stamp. Soooo detailed but lovely. The second one I'm playing with is for some of my Christmas cards this year. It is a small oval titled "Village Christmas Vignette."

I've got my prismacolor pencils out and sharpened so off I go to work on one...or both.

Jennifer's cards and things

Photobucket Album

Rainy days and puppy training.

Hi! I'm Jennifer. Welcome to Thimbles, bobbins, paper and ink. Reading and viewing other people's blogs is so much fun and consequently I've been inspired to start my own to share my love of animals, rubberstamping and card making and also sewing. I hope you'll visit often and share your thoughts.

It is pouring down rain today and at my house that literally is "raining cats and dogs." I have three cats and two dogs. We just purchased our 2nd Newfoundland dog last week. GABRIEL, as we call him, is a Landseer Newfoundland and wears a white coat with black patches. Gabe is 9 weeks old. Our "older" Newfoundland dog is a black female who we call 'Bella (short for the Lady Isabella.)

OK...back to the rain. It is pouring down rain and we are deep in the midst of potty training for dear little Gabriel. He's doing great with the help of 'Bella showing him what is expected. I think today I'm going to be in a constant state of dampness, wet tennis shoes and draining umbrella as we make our hourly trips out in the storm. Ahhhhh....puppy love! :o)