It's the Fall Blog Hop at Magnolia-licious!

Hello Dearest Readers,

I am so happy that you've stopped by! Welcome to the

Magnolia-licious Fall Blog Hop!

Let me tell ya, you really. REALLY need to find the time to visit each and every DT gals' blog! You will find the most wonderful sources for inspiration!

I am your first stop in the Blog Hop order! If you did not get here from the

Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog,

then you need to click the link above, and start there, please. I have lots of photos, so please be prepared, LOL!

I chose to make a Halloween Boo Album showcasing darling mini Halloween themed Tilda and Edwin stamps. Shh, don't let Tilda know, but my favorite is Mummy Edwin! For some reason, when Halloween time comes, I pull the standard sized Mummy Edwin and work with him first! LOL OK, here we go:

Here are some close-ups:

I used the following images from the So Spooky, 2009, Collection found at the Magnolia-licious Store:

Halloween Edwin - HERE

Mummy Edwin - HERE

Tilda with Spider - HERE

Tilda with Spider Web - HERE

Tilda with Pumpkin - HERE

Bat Tilda - HERE

Other products used include:

Cheery Lynn bat dies, Spellbinder's dies, Magnolia Stamps - bat and "Good Luck on Halloween," Doohickey Scalloped Tag, Chipboard accents, button accents, ribbon and fibers

I hope you will leave a little love for me, please. I know that Diana will be selecting someone to win a sweet prize for leaving comments on the blogs of the DT members. The more comments you leave, the more your name goes into the drawing!

Now it is time for you to hop on down the Blog Hop Trail to the wonderful creation that was done by...

Becky Hetherington

Thank you so much for stopping by.

XO,

Chris

Lemon Tilda Frilly Card

Hello Dearest Readers,

Another month has come and gone! Honestly, time is flying by! Remember when we were kids how the days seemed to just last forever? LOL Now, my days are gone in a blink!

A new challenge begins today at the Magnolia-licous Challenge Blog! The theme for the next two weeks is Frilly, Lacey, and Feminine Fun! So many of you are already creating gorgeous cards that have lace and beautifully girly designs. So, this should be easy for you.

For my card, I chose to use the new Lemon Tilda from the Pink Lemonade Collection. Diana has a really great price on her, so check her out by clicking one of the links above.

I love this stamp. Tilda is just so adorable! I chose to use yellow (naturally), pale green, and white. I thought those colors were soft and feminine. Here it is:

Here is a list of products used:

Magnolia Doohickey Die - Vintage Box Lacing Coffee
Martha Stewart - Eyelet Lace Punch Around the Page die set
Memory Box - Tall Chloe Stem (available HERE)
Cheery Lynn - corner die
Joy Craft - Frame dies
Cardstock - Bazzill white and pale yellow
Ink - Color Box
Flowers - Magnolia Exquisite Flowers - Savannah Grass, others from my stash
Lace - from my stash
Ribbon - from my stash
Feather - from my stash

I hope you like how it turned out! I think the stamp makes the card, LOL!

Before I forget, make sure you check out the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog next Monday, Sept. 2, as we're having a Fall Blog Hop! You will see some gorgeous, gorgeous projects created by the Magnolia-licous DT! The Magnolia-licous Blog Hops are always so much fun and rich with inspiration! Don't miss it!

That's about it for today. I hope you will leave a little love for me below. Remember, Diana will select one lucky gal who left comments on the DT's blogs to win a special somethin,' somethin' from Magnolia-licious!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you like my card! Let me know what you think!

XO,

Chris

Magnolia-licious Hiking Edwin is a "Fun-gi!"

Hello Dearest Readers,

Well, the monsoon is back, and we're starting off with gray skies and showers! I just LOVE IT! I hope it thunders - a lot! I love when it thunders here because it bounces off the canyon walls and just rolls on for a long time! There is also such a wonderful scent in the air when it rains in the desert. It's a clean scent - sage. So, hopefully, it'll rain nicely enough that we won't have flooding.

I have been working with the Pink Lemonade Collection which is just so adorable it's hard to decide which stamp to use next! However, I did not use Pink Lemonade for the card I'm sharing today. Our son is having a birthday, and this is the card I made for him. I know he appreciates my hand made cards and the time I've taken to make it special for him. It is also my card for the new challenge at the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog - Anything Goes!

Here is the card I made for our boy ~

For this card, I chose to mask two stamps - Hiking Edwin and Mushroom with Snail. I was in a "shroomy" frame of mind, LOL! You can find Hiking Edwin at the Magnolia-licious Store - HERE. Diana is out of the standard size of Mushroom with Snail, but check with her to see if she can order it for you! It really is a darling stamp and with Halloween coming, it would be a nice one to use. I watercolored the painted images. I added a Heidi Swapp photo corner and machine stitching to the image. I also used the following:

Magnolia-licious's Mushroom Kit

Slender Firs Doohickey dies

Memory Box Puffy Cloud dies Doohickey Puffy Cloud Dies

Small Mushroom Dies by Cottage Cuts

Magnolia's Mushrooms in a Row stamp

Happy Birthday Flag is La La Land Crafts

The mushroom paper is from The Green Stack by DCWV.

The sentiment has been computer generated.

The inside panels have been finished in matching papers. Here are the inside panels:

Well, there it is! I hope our son likes it. I had fun creating it for him! I'd love to know what you think! Please leave a comment for me. Diana has something special for a lucky gal who has left a comment on the DT members' blogs. That lucky gal could be YOU!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you like my card! Let me know what you think!

XO,

Chris

Magnolia Gypsy Tilda and Her Wagon

Hello Dearest Readers,

Happy Sunday to each of you! We are working our way through August already! School starts tomorrow for the students in my county. Their summer has to have flown by in their minds! When I was teaching, I would go back, on my own, on Aug. 1. I'd get my room all ready for the first day. It would take a little more than a week to get that done. Then, I would stay home until the day we had to report back. I felt as if I was having an extra vacation. It was a way to get my head ready for a new year and its challenges. I so loved the first day of school. The children were always so excited (I didn't say happy, though!) LOL. I would always call them the night before to allay their anxiety. I knew that I could never sleep the night before school started. So, by calling each child, I was able to, hopefully, make them feel less anxious.

I have a card to share with you today. It took me a long time to make this card. I think it took four days, but it was my fault. I wasn't happy with the way I colored the wagon, so I did it over a couple of times before I got what I hope is just the right coloration on it. I used Gypsy Tilda from the Pink Lemonade Collection. You can find this stamp and other wonderful products at Magnolia-licious. I just love the Pink Lemonade Collection. The images are just adorable.

OK, back to my card! I fell in love with the Gypsy Tilda image. She won my heart right away. I had this little wagon stamp just waiting to be paired with a stamp and along came Gypsy Tilda! It was a match made in Heaven, don't you think?

I also needed something on which Tilda could sit. This presented a problem in that I didn't have a wooden stool! I thought I had one. Well, I do NOW! I did something sacrilegious! I cut a stamp apart to get the stool! **GASP** I had Santa's Wishful Bench which had the stool and the lectern paired up. The stool was just what I needed! So, out came my scissors and in one snip, I had my stool to be used whenever I wish! Tah Dah! LOL

I used gorgeous Pion papers. I knew, right away which paper I wanted to use for the front. The forest scene background was a perfect backdrop for my painted images. I couldn't cover up the beautiful artwork of the Pion paper. It is just too pretty to cover with embellies. I tried to minimize the extras so that the scene would stay intact with Tilda being the center of focus. The flowers look red in the photo, but they have more magenta in the little beads. It does match her shirt. My cameral liked red better! OK, here she is:

Tilda has glittered accents - the crystal ball, her scarf, her sandal buckles, her cuffs on the shirt and pants, her beaded waistband, the beads hanging from her scarf. She sparkles so sweetly! The sentiment is computer generated. I spent some time thinking of an appropriate sentiment and came up with this. After all, Gypsies are known to do fortune telling.

The interior panels are also finished in matching Pion papers, die cuts, lace, and gems.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you like my card! Let me know what you think!

XO,

Chris

To Those of The Netherlands

To my dear friends in The Netherlands,

As I watch the procession of cars bringing some of the victims of MH17 home on television, I am so touched and saddened at this senseless loss. Please know that those innocents are in my thoughts. I am so touched by the lovely tribute to those that were lost is being shown by the citizens of The Netherlands as they gather on overpasses and the highway to show their respect. God bless each of you.

Love to each of you,

Chris

Magnolia Violet Stamp So Cute, & So Underused!

Hello Dearest Readers,

Have you visited the Magnolia-licous Store lately? If you haven't been there, go and check out the new products Diana has listed. Diana is currently taking orders from the Doo-hickey Die Club, Vol. 2. I just received my Vol. 1 and love it! The dies are sweet, and you get a lot. Vol. 1 had 13 dies in it! Vol. 2 is Christmas themed and also has lots of dies! Once the supply is gone, they're gone for good. Also new to the store is the new Magnolia Pink Lemonade Collection. I'm tellin' ya, the stamps are getting cuter and cuter if that is at all possible!

It's that time again at the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog - time for a new challenge! This time, the challenge is to create a card or project using a Magnolia accessory stamp. No Tildas or Edwins on this one! I am sure there is a stamp in your collection that hasn't been used in a while. It could be an animal, scenery, or object stamp. How's that sound?

I have had this adorable stamp for a while and just let it sit there waiting its turn to get inked up! LOL The name of the stamp is called "Violet." It is from the Chasing Butterflies Collection. I love that it is wrapped in what looks like newspaper.

The image was colored with Inktense Watercolor Pencils I added some lemon yellow embossing powder to the center of the flower to give it some texture. I did have the petals colored, but when I added some pink Kindyglitz to the sentiment, I thought, "What the heck, do the flower petals, too!" Well, I was very pleasantly surprised at how much better the flower looked with the pink glitter on it! It just "perked up" the card front!

The sentiment stamp is a Wee Stamp from a delightful group of stamps called Flower Fairies. It is my very favorite Wee Stamp(set). You can find it HERE. The lace and flowers are all from my supplies while the dies are Noor Design and Marianne Design as well as a Magnolia Doo-hickey Die, Lace Coaster. It is tucked behind the polka dotted mat. I cut it in half since only a little peek was showing. The paper is from Wild Rose Studio.

I sure hope you will join the Accessory Stamp Challenge! Please visit my teamies blogs to see what lovelies they have created! They are sooooooo cute! Don't forget to leave a comment on the team members' blogs to be in the running to win a prize from Diana. Besides, we love to be loved, LOL!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! I so appreciate you taking time to do that! Also, thank you for the sweet comments here and on my Facebook page and Magnolia-licious page. It means so much! I hope my card will give just a little inspiration.

XO,

Chris

"W"ednesday Wee Flower Fairy

Hello Dearest Readers,

Happy "Hump Day!" Wednesday is a good day because the weekend is just around the corner! I hope this post finds you well. I'm so happy to see that you've stopped by! Thank you!

Today is "W"ednesday at the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog! Becky and I have cards to share. I hope you like them! Today, I have chosen to use a stamp from the Flower Fairies Wee Stamp Set by Sylvia Zet. I especially love this set as you get three greetings, two fairies, and a little flower cluster grouped together. It's a really great bargain, too! I was inspired by the gorgeous work of Elaine Livesey. Her coloring technique and card design is stellar! She is a such a dear and so very helpful! ((((hugs Elaine))))

Here is my card:

My image was colored using Distress Inks and Derwent Watercolor Pencils. I did not use the Derwent Inktense this time, just the regular pencils. I'm finding that using both mediums gives me the ability to get some depth of color. I used the most yummy Pion papers entitled Vintage Garden. These papers are so beautiful, I just cannot bring myself to cover them up! So, this card is missing a lot of embellies, LOL!

The beautiful ribbon was sent to me by my sweet friend, Rosie. Thank you hun! (((hugs to you))) The ribbon, color and flowers printed on the ribbon, are a perfect match with the Pion paper. The color of the ribbon in the photo is a little off. It matches the color of the printed images with perfection! My paper on which I stamped the image also is showing an off color. It is the same off white as the Pion papers. I wonder how to fix that? The sentiment is a mini from Magnolia-licious. Because it is a mini, it's one I use so much of the time. You can find it here. The card stock is Bazzill. I had one sheet of this deep rose color so I thought I'd use it up. It's probably discontinued now, LOL. The little flowers are from Impression Obsession. The scrollwork die behind the image mat is Joy Craft.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! I hope my card will give some inspiration.

XO,

Chris