Barberry Chickadee

Well, Christmas may be viewed as so long ago...and everyone has moved on to the New Year and most of us are already hankering for Spring...but I've just got to say...we had a blizzard yesterday and
spring is not anytime near...but there's lots of beautiful sparkly snow on the branches here in Colorado!  And our backyard Chickadees seem to be enjoying it and flocking to the bird feeder.

This darling Chickadee is actually a digital from Power Poppy. I fell in love with it and even though I only got around to making one card...was pretty happy with how it turned out. I used some sweet digital papers from Stampavie and a died seam binding ribbon. The snow has added glitter for sparkle and the entire image is colored in copic markers. My friend loved her card this Christmas and that always makes me smile.
Thanks so much for your visit!

Power Poppy "Grab a Map!" Challenge

Well, hello there...echo...echo...echo. I know it's been awhile, but I am back in the stamping mode after a bit of a busy Christmas/post Christmas and then my big 60th birthday celebration last weekend. It's been so nice to get back to a quieter pace and as always, it takes me much mind shifting to begin stamping again after such a long while.
But, thankfully, I have so much inspiration from Power Poppy this month to "grab a map!" I can definitely use all the help I can get! The challenge is to use one of the sketches from Page Maps in the month of January.
Now my card looks nothing at all like the cute drawings in this sketch...but if you look closely, you can see I followed the layout pretty closely.

I wanted to use Power Poppy's Azalea's stamp set, so I did. And it went very soft and vintage on me...so fun to color and very relaxing!

The hardest part of making this card was choosing the designer paper...I have quite a bit to sift through. But I was so glad I did, as the  paper contributed to the overall look of the image...and it was fairly easy to color in these tones of soft pinks and creams and gray copic markers.
The sentiment is from a retired Flourishes stamp.
Here is a little close up of the flowers:

I love the sentiment on this, "Where beauty blooms hope flourishes." It reminds me of a book I chose for my very first book club selection "Own Your Life," by Sally Clarkson. In her book, she encourages us as women to create beauty in our homes, through natural elements, flowers, candles, beautiful music, books that elevate our minds to think and thrive on that which is beautiful and brings God's glory into our hearts. I think so many of us in the midst of winter, can become a little low and despondent, especially on days where there is very little sun or natural light. It is then that we need to especially cultivate habits of beauty. I am speaking to myself. I am trying to do this in our home by at least some evenings, lighting candles at dinner and playing classical music while we eat. It is nice, and our dog, Beulah even seems to thrive on the relaxing music.

Thank you so much for dropping in. Your comments brighten my day! Blessings on your day!