April Christmas Cards

Hello!  I finally finished all my April Christmas Cards.  As most of you already know, I participate in the Christmas Card Challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  We make Christmas Cards all year long, so were not stressed out in November/December trying to make them all at once.  I've committed to making four Christmas Cards a month (one per week), and it's quite the challenge to keep that commitment, especially in the spring/summer months!  But I did!  I've already shown you two of them in previous posts this month, so here are my final two:

The first one uses a very old retired set from Stampin Up! called 'O Tannenbaum'.  I stamped the image is Always Artichoke ink and cut it out and adhered it to the card stock.  I put Stickles on the star and candles, and Crystal Effects on the ornaments.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye '12 Days of Christmas'.  The sketch was inspired by Silke Ledlow.

 

My second card uses a digital image by Heather Ellis.  The sketch is by Card Patterns (Sketch 112).  The paper is My Mind's Eye '12 Days of Christmas' and Cosmo Cricket 'Dr. Mr. Claus'.  I put Liquid Applique on the hat.

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Winter Blues'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Winter Blues'.  I know, it's an odd challenge to have in the Spring, but we do still get some pretty chilly days in the Spring and I certainly do get the 'blues' because of it.  To participate in this week's challenge, simply make a card or project that's either 'wintery' or 'blue'.  Our sponsor this week is Pink Gem and they are giving away four digis to one lucky randomly chosen winner.

Well, nothing takes the Winter Blues away from me than thoughts of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so I chose to use this adorable Pink Gem image "Baby Jesus".  I also used Blue-themed paper from the DCWV Holiday Collection 'The Winter Matstack'.  My sketch is from "I Love Sketches". The main image panel is up on dimensionals, and I put gold Stickles on the halo and all the stars. 

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day!  Amy

Biltmore Village

Hello, today is Part Two of my husbands and my Romantic Getaway to North Carolina.  In my first post  I talked about our visit to the Biltmore Estate.  Today I'll show you pictures of Biltmore Village.  Believe it or not, George Vanderbuilt created a picturesque village just about a mile from his home for some of his estate workers to live in.  He wanted it to be a nice community for them, so he built a church, a train station, and a town square too.  Today, these homes are now gift shops and restaurants.  The houses were so adorable and the entire village reminded me of an Thomas Kinkade painting.  All the streets were lined with bricks and every corner had an old fashioned lantern.  At night the lanterns are lit up, and there are white lights strung on the eaves of every house and business.  In the picture below you can see one of the lanterns, the brick path, and a street trolley in the distance that gives tours.

Here is one of the homes.  I couldn't believe these beautiful homes were built for his estate workers.  I would love to live in one these today.

 A side view of the neighborhood.

 Another house.

 One of the houses was a Christmas Shoppe that sold Christmas decorations all year long.
 That's me in the distance standing on this beautiful tree lined street.

 This is a restaurant.  We found out later that President Obama and Michelle dined here when visiting Asheville.

Love the Azaleas in front of this house.

 That's my husband, standing in front of my favorite shoppe.  It contained mostly decorative pieces for the home and garden.

 And here I am standing in front of the sign of that same shoppe.

 And finally, if it were in my budget, I would have loved to have brought one of these beauties home with me.  They are glass blown ornaments that cost about $800.00  I love the color they bring to a garden.  We stopped and asked the shoppe owner if she was worried that they would get broken by the strong wind, and she "no, they are heavy and the wind goes around the round sphere".  You have to have a very strong cable to hold them up though!

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Distressed'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Distressing'.  Simply make a card or project which you 'distress' a bit (rip, tear, sponge, just make it look old and worn) and be sure to include at least one digital element.  Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps.

To make my card, I used the Bugaboo Stamp image "Christmas Words - Jesus".  I printed the image twice, and then cut out and popped up on dimensionals just the 'J'.  My sketch is from 'The Deconstructed Sketch #45'.  The paper is DCWV 'The Christmas MatStack'. 

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy

A Visit to the Biltmore Estate

Hello!  I know I've been absent from Blogland for awhile.  I have good reasons, I assure you.  First of all, my husband and I took a much needed vacation, just the two of us, to Asheville, North Carolina.  I had such a wonderful time, it was such a romantic adventure.  And, because my blog is about 'anything of creative interest to me', I'm going to share it with you. 

Our trip to Asheville was mostly to see the Biltmore Estate.  It's advertised on HGTV and Splitcoaststampers all the time, so I'm sure most of my readers are aware of it.  Although I was surprised at how many of my husbands and mine friends and co-workers never heard of it.  It is 'America's Largest Home'.  It sits on 8000 acres in the beautiful Smokey Mountains and has beautiful grounds and gardens.  There are 225 room, 40 some bathrooms, 63 fireplaces, and indoor pool, conservatory, sun room, library, bowling alley......the lists is endless! I won't bore you with the history of the home and all the details of the house, because I know you can google it and find all this information yourself.  

 Because we weren't allowed to photograph the inside of the home, I can only show you pictures of the outside grounds and gardens.

First up is me sitting in the beautiful Carriage Courtyard having a delicious Cafe Latte in the sun.  This would have been the place where the horses and carriages came through to enter the Carriage house.  It now contains quaint gift shops and great places to eat.  We had pizza for lunch, it was so good and reminded me of the pizza I ate in Italy:  Thin crust, covered with feta cheese and spinach.  Yum! My favorite!

This is the carriage house.  Can you believe this beautiful structure actually just held horses?  The stable boys lived above and there were also different rooms belows for work related to horses (like tack rooms for example)

This is me anxiously waiting to go in to the house!

My husband and I in front of the house.

 We spent the entire day at the Estate.  We got there before it opened, and stayed past the time all the buildings closed.  They allow you to stroll the grounds after everything closes, so we took a romantic walk through the gardens.  It was a lot of miles, it's a pretty big garden, so I had to take off my high heels because my feet were hurting!

 There is a man made bass pond on the property with a boat house, this rustic bridge, and a small waterfall.  We enjoyed sitting on a park bench overlooking the pond and watching the geese come in for a landing.

 This is my favorite picture of the estate.  I love the view of the Smokey Mountains behind it.  I will have separate posts on later dates describing our adventures on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I have no idea why my pictures turned themselves sideways after I put them upright.  Sorry.  I'm not a computer geek!  Anyway, I wanted to show you this photograph because it was one of the wonderful unexpected surprises of our trip.  I was expecting to see beautifully decorated rooms, but I was not expecting every single room in the house to be filled with gorgeous fresh floral arrangements.  There were fresh spring flower garlands hanging from every fireplace mantel and post.  There were flower arrangements on all the tables too.  And they were GORGEOUS! Probably the best flower arrangements I've ever seen anywhere.  The only one I could photograph was this one since it was located outside the house just as you enter through the doors.

 Here I am in front of the house.  We were mostly looking up at all the sculptures and gargoyles on the exterior of the house.

 This is my husband standing at the base of a Wisteria vine that was growing on a patio next to the house.  It was such a joy for me to see plants like Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Wisteria in bloom because we can't grow those in Wisconsin!  Some people can grow Azaleas and Rhododendrons, but they never liked me, and they certainly don't get that big here!

 This is a side view of the house.

 Me in front of an Azalea bush.

 Here I am under a Wisteria Vine.  I love the Blue pot behind me.  The building behind me is a Conservatory.

 Some pretty flowers growing inside the conservatory.

 I loved all the ancient stone work all over the grounds.

 More Azaleas!

 This is the barn.  It was so unique and beautiful.

 There is also a winery on the property.

In addition to seeing Biltmore, my husband and I spent a lot of time in historic downtown Asheville, hiking the Smoking Mountains, and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway.  More to come soon!

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Birthdays!'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Birthdays!'  Simply make a card or project that has a birthday theme and be sure to include at least one digital element.  Our sponsor this week is 'Fred, she Said' and they are giving away a $20.00 Gift Certificate to one lucky randomly chosen winner.

To make my card, I used the 'Fred, she Said' image 'Birthday Emma'.  Isn't she sweet?  This image is available in both outline and pre-colored.  I chose the outline image and colored it myself.  I printed the image twice and cut the cake out and popped it up on dimensionals.  I put Stickles on the candle flame.  The sketch is by My Favorite Things (MFTWSC65).  The paper is DCWV 'The Celebration Stack'.



 Here is a close up so you can see the dimension and coloring better.



If you'd like to play along with us this week simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions. 

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge "Easter"

  Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is "Easter".  Simply make a Easter Themed card or project and be sure to include at least one digital element.  Our sponsor this week is MyGrafico and they are giving away one digital stamp set and 20% off an in-store purchase to one lucky randomly chosen winner.

To make my card, I first used purchased bunny shape card that I found in the dollar bins at JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts.  I sponged the edges of the bunny with a darker pink ink, then I sprayed an adhesive on it and covered it with pink glitter.  I stamped the sentiment on before I put the glitter on.  The Easter Basket is a digital by Zenware Designs from their "Easter Stamps" set.  I just printed it, colored it with Copic Markers, cute it out, and added a few Stickles to the eggs.

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy