Make a Wish

I'm so glad to have you back here at The Open Window.

It's time for another fabby color challenge over at

Today is a very special day . . .
It's my daughter's 29th birthday.

I can't believe so many years have passed.
She is so beautiful, both inside & out.

Choosing the sentiment for this card was a simple choice!

Because I've been personally busy for the past few weeks, I didn't
devote nearly the time to getting my card done this week as I
would have liked.  I tried photos both indoors & out, but still struggled
to find the right lighting.

Very clean & simple, I used the 'Dandelion Wishes' stamps
and dies from My Favorite Things.
It's very special to know that my long time blogging friend
Mona Pendleton is the illustrator of these beautiful images.

I love the intricate detail of these stamps.

Many thanks to Mona for providing not only the stamps/dies
for this week, but also the most generous prize for our challenge !

You'll find all the details over in The Cafe.

I hope you will play along with us this week!

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Ledger from DCWV

Stamps: Dandelion Wishes by My Favorite Things

Ink: Slate & Latte from A Muse Studio

Tools: Die-Namics Steps & Toppers for Dandelion Wishes
from My Favorite Things

Fancy Flourishes with The Craft's Meow

Hello and welcome to the final day of

New Release Previews for

Today we have a great set called

'Fancy Flourishes'

illustrated by NinaB Designs

 This set is TCM's

FREE GIFT w/$50 purchase set

I am taking my inspiration from the new color combo

over at

Now... you may not see the Chartreuse or Jade in this photo,

but I assure you,the daisies on this card

are the perfect color in real life.

I've had this DCWV pad forever & found the design on the paper

was perfect color-wise.  So all I had to do is add the Orange Zest.

I stamped the 'Fancy Flourishes' as an over-lay on the paper...

Easy-Peasy!

The beautiful flower centers are from Zva Creative.

As always, YOU have a chance to win this set !

All you have to do is stop by the TCM blog and leave a note

to say you stopped by for a visit.

Each day of the previews will bring another set up for grabs.

You have until 8pm PST, tonight to comment to be eligible.

Tomorrow all sets go on sale & our fabulous design team

will bring you their creations during the

New Release Blog Hop...please make plans to join us.

 

So glad you could stop by today !

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Ledger by DCWV
Stamps: Fancy Flourishes by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: Crystal gems {CRW-06CA-148}

from Zva Creative

Blue Skies Smiling at Me

H.E.L.L.O !!!

I know I've been a little absent this week.

It's been a busy time at Casa de Murray, but it's great

to be here to share the brand new color challenge over at
 

This is one gorgeous color palette, isn't it ?!!

I just love it and it was the perfect setting for the stamps

I used for this card.
 

This week's sponsor in The Cafe is Great Impressions & these stamps

are simply sweet.  I pulled out my favorite Cloud & Rainbow dies

from Lil' Inker Designs and used DCWV paper for the colors.
 

I sure hope you will join us this week!

It's sure to be colorful and someone is going to win a

wonderful prize from ...
 

Thanks again for stopping by and please say

hello before you leave.

Project Recipe:

 Cardstock: Collage Art by DCWV
Stamps: Birdies on a Swing & For Friends by Great Impressions
Tools: Rainbow & Clouds die from Lil' Inker Designs, Big Shot

Sending All my Love

Welcome to Day #3 of New Release Previews for

It's been so much fun to share projects as 'sneak peek's

during our 

1st Birthday Bash

I hope you are enjoying them!

Each day, we are also bringing you a challenge you can participate in.

All the details are over on the TCM Blog.

Today's challenge is a Color Challenge....

and here is my take on the challenge using two new sets by

Jenny Suchin for TCM

'Spring is Here' & 'Get Well Soon' are the newest designs that will be

released soon at TCM.  In keeping with the color challenge, I paper-pieced

the balloons using paper from Little Yellow Bicycle & DCWV.

I tied the them together with baker's twine from The Twinery in Honeydew & Denim.

A little 'stardust' Stickles on the coneflower for good measure.

How would you like a chance to win this stamp set before it

goes on sale next week?  All you need to do is visit our designer's blogs and

make sure to leave a comment over on The Craft's Meow blog.

You'll have until 9pm PDT each day to leave your comment and the winners

will be announced the following day along with the next preview & challenge.

We would love for you to play along with each challenge during our

1st Birthday Bash...all the details are on the TCM Blog.

I'd love to hear from you....please leave a note & make sure you leave

a contact address so I can say hello back.

Enjoy the bash!!!

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper:  Saturdays by Little Yellow Bicycle, 
Flower Shower by Die Cuts with a View
Stamps:  Spring is Here & Get Well Soon from The Craft's Meow
Ink: Black Tuxedo Memento by Tsukineko
Embellishments:  Honeydew & Denim baker's twine by The Twinery
Stardust Stickles by Ranger

Feelin' the Fringe with Lil' Inker Designs

If you would like to donate,

be a prize sponsor or participate

in the blog hop for

Operation Julie's Smile

click here for info

It's an exciting week!

It's Day Two of a fabulous blog hop

for Lil' Inker Designs

If you came here from

my friend and fabulously talented

Emily Leiphart's blog

you are in just the right spot!

If not, make sure you pop back

to the Lil' Inker Designs Blog

because there are some fab

shopping credits up for grabs.

More on that in just a sec!

It's new release week and you

are gonna *flip* for the new

'Fringe Flower' Die

Each of my teammates has put

their own unique design work in

with the fun die and I decided to

use mine with designer paper from DCWV.

The possibilities with this die are pretty cool!

I think this card is pretty self-explanatory.

Just layers of fun papers, a beautiful sentiment from

SRM Designs and pretty little

'fringe flowers' as the feature.

There are three shopping credits that are

being given away and here is how you can win...

Just visit each blog on each day's hop and

leave a comment.  That's it!

Here is a list of today's designers...

Lil Inker Designs Blog

Emily Leiphart

                               Julie Ranae  <--- you are here

Debby Hughes

Teresa Kline

Ariana Grant

LID Store

I am so happy you stopped by.

You are really going to enjoy the projects

featured by our designers.

Project Recipe: 

Designer Paper:  from DCWV
Tools:  'Fringe Flowers' Die by Lil' Inker Designs

Scalloped Heart die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Fiskars Corner Rounder punch

Embellishments:  Sentiment from SRM Designs

Pearls by Recollections

{In No Particular Order} The Play Date Cafe

I had so much fun putting the card together for this week's...

I absolutely LoVe the color story that our 

Senior Designer Ruby 2 Shoes chose.

I also had a ball playing with the image provided by

this week's sponsor....

I stamped the image of 'Ian' and paper-pieced

his wardrobe using DP from Nikki Sivils and DCWV.

I am not a 'colorer' at heart, but I do love to pull out

my chalks and this was the perfect opportunity

to give 'Ian' a complexion and a lovely head of hair!

I can't wait to see the entries for this week's challenge!

Each week, the gallery at The Play Date Cafe

is filled with so many inspiring designs from our players.

We also love the design-work of our design team

and this week, we welcome our special guest, 

Jessica Diedrich!

Here's a quick-click list of who else you will find

designing on the team with me:

Ruby McGuire

 Savannah O'Gwynn 

Andrea Ewen

Colleen Dietrich  

Fiona Shultz

Jaclyn Miller 

Jinny Newlin

Libby Hickson

Michele Gross

Tracey Kuzniak

and our special guest designer

Jessica Diedrich

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I'd love to hear from you...please leave a

comment because I'd love to stop by your blog too!

Today's Project Recipe:

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye 'Life Stories',
Nikki Sivils 'Victoria Street', DCWV 'Linen Closet', Bo-bunny
Stamps: The Greeting Farm, Hero Arts (banners)
Ink: Memories in black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in  Frayed Burlap

Embellishments: baker's twine in 'Cappuccino' by The Twinery
Alpha die cut by The Paper Studio
Tools:  Corner rounder punch by Fiskars

Welcome to The March of the Snowmen Blog Hop!

It's so great to have you visit The Open Window today!

I am an official stop on the....

....and I am very happy to share my little

creation with you

and

give you the opportunity to win some

fabby blog candy along the way!

Did you get here from Joan's blog?

Hope so!  If not, why not pop back to the very

 beginning of the hop here

to start fresh...it's the best way to

not miss a thing!

I really enjoyed making this card because I find once

the holidays are over, I rarely use my snowmen stamps.

The winter season is looooong

and snowmen deserve a little shout out once in awhile!

I used Ippity stamps from 'Kissmas & Mistletoe'.

I am proud to say that this wonderful Ippity set is available

to order on my Ippity page here.

I inked up my little guy using Tim Holtz Distress Inks

variegating between two colors.

I did a tight zig-zag stitch on the machine, but quite

a bit of it is covered with the rest of the elements.

I recently purchased 100 yards

of plain white seam binding to do a little

custom-dying, so I had plenty of white to lend here.

I offered this card on display for the
Stamp With Fun Challenge too!

Now....want to win 

a little blog candy from me?

All you need to do is leave a comment here on my

blog and you just might win!

Of course, I would love for you to become a 

follower here at The Open Window too.

You'll have until 11:59pm EST
Friday, Jan 28th to leave a comment to win.
The random draw will be held during the weekend
and the winner announced on Monday, Jan 31st.

Once you leave here, make sure you hop over

to Kim's blog here......

and if I were you, I'd make sure you stop by

each blog because there's a whole bunch

of blog candy up for grabs.

Here's a list of all the participants in

The March of the Snowmen Blog Hop:

Angella Crockett

Barb Foster

Deb Felts

Holly Brown

Jen Carter

JenMarie Taylor

Joan Ervin

Julie Ranae

(you are here!)

Kim Sears

Laurie Willison

Linda Lucas

Lynn Stevens

Pam Imholz

Patti Gilliam

Sue Pelletier

Stacy Rogers

Melisa Waldorf

Have fun!

Today's Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Designer Paper: DCWV 'The Four Seasons' Stack

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks in 'Faded Denim' & 'Vintage Photo'

Stamps:  Ippity 'Kissmas & Mistletoe'

Embellishments: Recollections pearls & flowers
Prima Crochet Flowers
Seam Binding in Winter White

Tools:  Fiskar's Corner Rounder

A 'Virtual' Community Project

I finally had a couple of minutes to upload this

gigantic greeting card that I made for my

mom's 70th birthday.

She loves greens and peaches and

garden-themed things, so I thought this

DCWV 'Mariposa Collection' was

just right for her special greeting.

Along with the Prima 'bling' I added

extra sparkle with 'diamond' Stickles.

Then I sewed a 'binding' to 

hold it all together.

There were so many of you who had a

hand in this card and I want to thank you

for sharing your thoughts and

well-wishes with her.

 There were 5 very full pages!
To accommodate all the messages,
I formatted it in 8.5 x 11.

I used Papertrey Ink's 'Dot Spots'

 and butterflies from Sandylion

to add color to the inside pages.

Suffice to say, she was stunned and thrilled to read

all of your sweet greetings and.....

I think she liked the card a little too.  : )

A Visit to Dublin, Ireland by Way of The Play Date Cafe

It's my turn to host the 'color story' again this week at
The Play Date Cafe Challenge

and this is one that I am really excited about!

This is one of my favorite places on Earth!
No...not just Ireland.
No...not just Dublin.

The photos you see are of the lovely
Russell Court Hotel
on Harcourt Street in the
Heart of Downtown Dublin.

Paul and I stayed there just over 20 years ago
and it is probably the place we talk most often
and most fondly about.
Ireland is fond to my husband's heart as well
because both his mother and father are from
Northern Ireland...it confuses people quite often
when my husband Paul, who is British tries to explain
that he has Irish parents : )

Back to Dublin.....

Not much has changed over the years...
It's still as beautiful as ever.
The card I chose to make was not intentional,
but in the end, it certainly speaks to how I feel
about this wonderful place...

The stamps that I used for sentiment and for the designs
around the clock are from Ippity Stamps 'Now and Always' set.
Again, how apropos is that??!!

The clock was cut from the DCWV 'At Home' Stack.
The papers that make up the 'wallpaper' are from
the same DCWV and The Paper Company.
I used Spellbinder's 'Labels 9' for my die.

Here is a close-up of the clock so you can see the subtle
stamping I did using these wonderful Ippity stamps.

I used Ranger Adirondack Ink in Mushroom.

If there was ever a week to play...
This one is it!

Ippity's parent company, Unity Stamps is
our sponsor this week and there is
$75 worth of stamps sets up for grabs to
the most creative entry this week!

Unity Design Team Member and one of

Paper Crafts Magazine's 'Go-To Gals'

Maren Benedict

is our Celebrity Guest Designer.

So what are you waiting for?

Oh...well I know it's to leave me a comment...
but get going...and git er done!
See you soon and enjoy your trip!

A Bug-Eyed Hooty Owl...Yeah, That's What I Said!

I have had so much fun the past few days

creating in my little art space.

I am this week's color host over at

The Play Date Cafe.

I rarely have ANY idea what I am going

to make when I choose my color inspiration photos.

This week was no exception, but I can tell you that

I had something much more elegant in mind

than what I came up with....here's why....

Look at this fabulously elegant inspiration

from marthastewartweddings.com

Now look at the whimsy that followed...

Now granted, the senior designers typically

choose the 'color stories' up to 3 months in

advance, but I can assure you I had no idea that

I would go in THIS direction.

Isn't that the great thing about challenges, though?

I used a wonderful new punch from EK Success.

This 'starburst' is punched directly into the

lime green cardstock.  The stamp is from 

Studio G's 'I Cling' series.  The DP is from

DCWV's 'Latte' matstack.

I paper-pieced the polka dot DP to the

'Bug-Eyed Hooty Owl'.

Now it's time for you to skeedaddle over

to The Play Date Cafe.  You are not going

to believe this week's DIVERSE collection

of projects using these fantabulous colors!

A Little French Inspiration

It is SO good to be back in my little

art space.  I confess that

I haven't had much time to create

this week, and it just so happens that

I chose to participate in a couple of

challenges, which is a great way

to get you focused.

.....One challenge is simple in it's sketch

and one that's inspires layers......

If you have read my blog for any length of time,

you probably know that I am in love with the

Provence region of France.

So when I saw City Crafters' theme this week

was 'I Love Paris', I knew I wanted

in on the fun!

The sketch over at Card Patterns was just

right because it was simple enough to allow

for lots of creativity on the page.

I went major BOO on this card.

The DP is actually stationary from

The Paper Company which

I purchased many years ago along with

a little DCWV accenting.

The 'Paris postmark' stamp is Stampabilities.

The fab die-cut in the center is from

Tattered Angels 'Creme Collection'.

I'm sure you not only recognize the 

Martha Loop Punch, but also the bird die cut,

which is from Tim Holtz and the Spellbinders 

Nestibilities scallop.

The bling and flowers are from Prima.

Glad to be able to share this with you.

I hope when you stop by, you will take a

moment to say hello...