DeeDee's Pet Sympathy

Hello and welcome. Hope that so far your week has been good, but if not, then I hope it will improve as we draw closer to the weekend.

Some exciting things are going on over at Happy Little Stampers. Kylie is announcing the First Release of some very versatile new stamps. The sets are being premiered over at the HLS Blog.  When you leave here today, why not pop over, check out the very simple rules for the contest, and see these new stamps. They are the kind of images we can all use in our stash for occasions, and it would be so fun to participate and perhaps win these new stamps! (I have a couple of sets on the way to my door, just FYI). Kylie ships internationally. Keep in mind that the Australian currency is a bit different from other countries. I paid for my sets via Paypal, and was delightfully surprised (and pleased!) when I saw how much less than I expected...the final price would be.

Now putting on my DeeDee's Hat: Today's card is a Sympathy card - but made for the loss of a pet. DD had to have her oldest greyhound put down in late June, just before she came up for my birthday. It was very hard to let go, and I didn't want to send a card immediately. Hopefully, the loss has had a chance to ease just a bit, so a card seemed timely. Found this easy-to-use DeeDee's Digi- and knew it would work for what I wanted. For a change, I didn't use a precolored image from the set, but the line art.

 

 

- Heart & paws digi was colored with Copics, a gold pen on the heart, a warm gray in the center. WoS was added over the gold.The sentiment is from the DeeDee's Digi set, and was simply hand cut.

 

- Lil Inker Rainbow & Clouds to die cut the rainbow from white snippet, then colored with Copics. Two coats of WoS created some pretty glimmer.

 

- an old wooden Japanese scene was partially inked to stamp just the bridge; colored with copics. This little scene was diecut with a MBox Cross Stitched Framed Borders.

 

- Impression Obsession Dog Set (DIE 170-R) for the 2 dogs...neither of which looks like a greyhound unfortunately. Various Copics from the E family colored white snippets to resemble Ossie. The standing dog is 3 layers to create dimension. Debated on adding grounding to each dog, but decided against that just because of the theme of the Rainbow Bridge.

 

- Background was created with airbrushing copics in light blue violet, violet (from the red/pink RV family) Blues (B family). Then going back to streak this surface with light shades from the YR & Y families of Copic to add some light, sunshine in the sky.

 

On the inside will go a copy of the poem "Meet at the Rainbow Bridge".  I think any of us who have lost a beloved pet, understand the comfort of knowing that our friends are waiting for us at this Bridge.

 

In the meantime, ya'll have a wonderful Wednesday & thanks for taking time to visit. Big Hugs.

Christmas Card Club - Let It Snow

Hello - welcome and thanks for popping into my little corner of Blogland. And welcome to another sweet new follower, Rebecca B of The Rocky Crafty Corner. Met Rebecca on her recent stint as Guest Designer at Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge.  Gosh, I hope I can jump over there more often, as I not only got to see some luscious butterfly cards, but met some lovely new card bloggers. Thanks, ya'll, for joining as new followers. It makes me happy to meet new folks, and I hope you'll enjoy what I share on the post.

Today is our Christmas Card Club Challenge, selected this week by sweet Christine,  and today's theme is "Let It Snow". That sounds very pleasant here in our area since we've had so much hot weather of late. Somehow it just helps make one feel a bit cooler, thinking of snow. (Of course you know, once it's cold, I'll be longing for the sunshine, right?!)

 

 

 

- Darcie's Heart & Home image (JCS223) purchased last February at a stamp show (yep, a NBUS). Stamped with Memento London Fog, Copics & WoS coloring. Some Sakura silver star pen to glisten up the skate blade runners & the snowflakes. Added some white gel pen alongside the silver falling flakes. MFT pierced circle to cut it out, and Copic B0000 to shade along the edges.

 

- MBox Snowflake corner cut very nicely using the Sizzix Precision plate, but did roll it back 'n' forth several times, checking to see how it was cutting. Reversed the rolling order, and also turned the die horizontally for a couple of passes. Pleased to say I didn't have to snip anything out, just easily release the bits, handling with care, because it is quite an intricate die. A little bit of surgery on the edges of the die piece made it fit the card size nicely. Generous amount of  Versamark over the die cut, then sprinkled with Ranger Snowflake EP, which has bits of silvery glitter embedded when it heats up. 

 

- White background spritzed with BoBunny Frost, (a lovely light sky blue), then some Lindys Stamp Gang Starburst Frozen Jack Frost (white with a little glimmer). Mixed some Perfect Pearls Pewter powder with water into a spray bottle and spritzed. Once this was dried very well, inked up Kars Snowfall EF with a white pigment ink, then embossed.

 

- Impression Obsession transparent stamp inked with Memento Love Bug - stamped (onto a white snippet) & quickly dumped some Ranger Clear Detail EP, then used a SU punch to get the shape.

 

I do hope you'll take time to check out what my teammates are sharing in today's challenge. You can find their blog links on the right side bar. Have a grand day, and big hugs.



Golden Christmas Tree - Rudolph Day

Hi there, and  welcome. It's time for the month's Rudolph Day Challenge. Before we get to the card, however, I'd like to say a big welcome to KathyJo from I'm a Little Teapot . Isn't that the cutest blog name? Please take time to pop over and say Hello to KathyJo and enjoy some of her splendid projects. Am loving seeing some new friends' faces in the followers' list...it's been a while since I met some new folks. Love it!

Now, off to July's Rudy Day card:

This one has some snippets (from this card)...those snippety bits come in handy. The tree was the positive die cut, and the tiny corners as well. The EK Success punched border was a small snippet of the same gold swirl paper. Decorate with pearls, and already have a good start on a Rudy Day card.

- An MFT stitched curvy die cut pieces from a 6x6 Paper Studio Gifts of Gold foil pack purchased recently on sale. Are you like me, you already have tons of paper, but when you find a sale, your hand automatically reaches for 'just one more' pack?

- Impression Obsession die cut sentiment - same gold snippet paper. Call it done.

Hope you will join in with the July Rudolph Day, and play along. There is a wonderful Memory Box die as this month's prize.

Have a great day, and big hugs!

Herringbone Birthday Card

SURE HAPPY IT'S FRIDAY!

Hello and welcome. I'm not sure why my mood gets a boost on Friday, but guess it's a holdover from when I worked. And since I frequently worked Saturday and sometimes Sunday too, still not certain why Friday perked me up so much, but It Did!

Please help me give a warm welcome to Gail Ann of Lacey Lassy, who has become a new follower. We met recently over at Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge, and I'm looking forward to getting to know Gail better and enjoy her art.

Recently saw this beautiful card by my friend Carol.  Since I'm a former quilter (uh, make that a collector of fabric to be more honest), I really loved this card. Carol was kind enough to take photos, write explanations of each step on how to do this (maybe I'm the only one on the planet that didn't know how....!). When I asked Carol about posting her tutorial, she said she had found it on Splitcoast Stampers, so I'm not going to share Carol's excellent tutorial. I missed seeing the SCS tutorial*, but I surely appreciated Carol's efforts to help me! Carol also has some other fantastic cards on her blog using this herringbone technique. It was quite fun to do (although being me, I managed to mess up some things). This one was going to be my prototype, but I needed a birthday card, so I decided to CASE Carol's brilliant 4th of July card. Hope you like it, and do be sure to give Carol a visit - she does awesome cards!

- This is a great way to use up some snippets. Cut various design papers into 1/4" strips. Create a sticky back base, and start applying them in a pleasing pattern. Don't worry if you have tiny bits of open space, as you can cover up with embellishments (the sunflower hides a small one).

This piece should have been matted, but I simply trimmed the edges with an MFT Xstitch die, applied a MBox Penne Frame die (cut from a cream snippet) Used a sponge to apply DI Antique Linen around the edges of both the snippet formed base and the frame.

- Sentiment from a Gina K Flowers and Frames Stamp TV Kit. Used a new Hero Arts Red Ombre stamp pad to ink up the image.

 

 

Had seen this ink being used on a Jennifer McGuire Youtube recently, and needed to boost an order up a bit to take advantage of minimum free shipping. I think this ombre look is quite pretty, although it's not easy to see the gradations of colors in just simple sentiment stamping.

 

- Sunflower stamped with Memento Desert Sand on a small white snippet, colored with Copics. Tried to do the 'dot technique' of coloring on the center area,  using different colors of Y, YG and E. This dot stuff is much harder to do than it looks to be (much like Zentangle). At least for me it is. Added some Glossy Accents to the center. and it's ready for an insert and mailing.

 

Since there's LOTS of snippets on this card, I'm off to see Parsnip at the Snippets Playground Week 186. Some of my wonderful Blog Buddies have already started having fun & I don't wanna be left out. So c'mon along, and we'll just zip across the Pond and join 'em.

 

Come again when you can, and in the meantime, Many Blessings.  

 

*Edit: Carol kindly sent me the SCS tutorial link to share....http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/herringbone/ so you can see step-by-step instructions. Thanks Carol L.!

Butterflies

Hello & thanks for surfing in on another afternoon. I've been trying to participate in Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge for some time, but just don't get anything finished in time for a particular theme. Purchased some Rubbernecker images at the February stamp show, which have been in a bag on the floor, by the recliner in my stamp area. What with experimenting with watercolor markers, gelatos, versamark and heat embossing, I've been playing with a few of these stamps lately. This time Mrs A's challenge is Butterflies + Talisman (the challenge is based on a letter of the alphabet each time, so this tells you how far along the challenge has come!). Just happened to have a couple butterflies from experiments. Here's the image that was used with gelatos for this card today:

 

I'll be sharing one done with markers as soon as I can decide how to best use it. LOL.

 

Here's the gelato card:

 

 

Once the image was covered in gelato colors of peach, pink, yellow and a sort of reddish color, spritzed lightly with one of the very small misters..)I seem to have better control of my spritzes with that one) Then stamped onto w/color paper. Then I didn't really know what to do with it. As I hunted for another die - came across an Ellentina butterfly die set (these are pink and came as a set with the filigree and the solid shape...were purchased at the February show also). Since the paper was thicker w/c, the Sizzix Precision mat came in mighty handy, but still did quite a few passes to be sure all the tiny places cut. Pearlized copper paper was used for the underlayer.

 

- Saw a tutorial on SCS about inkless images, and got the idea to use multiple EF's and sizes, and thought this looked CAS with the colors of the butterfly. Snipped bits off a pearl swirl shape and added for the butterfly trail.

 

Now - where to put the requisite charm needed for the T=Talisman? Found a brown toned twine, wrapped the edge of the card, added the copper butterfly charm. Didn't think a bow would look right - too fussy for the CAS I was attempting. So I hope this will qualify for Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge.

 

Have a wonderful afternoon. We're joining some family & going to Olive Garden for dinner tonight. My usual meal there is the Zuppa de Tosca (potato soup) and their specialty salad. With garlic breadsticks. Yumm! Big Hugs.

 

 

PS: Don't forget about the HLS Christmas Challenge that is still open and also July's Rudolph Day!



Lavendar

Hi, thanks for popping in. Thanks for all the lovely comments on the Poppies (or tulips) cards - you all made me feel so special! I liked that stamp and it was easy to card up. I want to try one more - using an embossed black against a pretty background. I think that will look fab too.

Here's another flower card, no sentiment decided upon as yet. I love the smell of lavender (well some of the lotions or candles don't always have the fragrance that I'm expecting, but the flowers themselves do. I've tried to grow it but unsuccessfully).

- Stamp was purchased at a garage stamp sale last month, and I think it's a PSX*. (which is why I spied it). Stamped with a light gray, colored with copics, WoS, and a Sakura silver star gel pen.

- a snippet of textured and rather glossy Bazzill was cut with a S/B (don't remember which one, but had to do some creative trimming, as the snippet was just not 'quite' large enough, and cut off a tiny sliver on one side.

- largest open die from the same set cut the turquoise mat, and it's got a sort of mulberry texture - but is not mulberry paper. (Guess I'm trying to say it has purplish slubs in the pattern & is pretty IRL).

- you've guessed that the background is a brusho effort using purple and turquoise, which was intended to go behind the image. It didn't look right, so thus the other papers came into play.

- card base is a top fold textured green also from the snippet box, but it was a pretty good size snippet, so perhaps doesn't rightly qualify for the term.

A sentiment will be added when the occasion arises to need this card. I have lots of relatives who like flowers, so it could be a get well, thinking of you, happy birthday, whatever. A die sentiment or a small stamped tag would work just fine at the time.

Ya'll have a good evening. Come by when you can visit a while. And I'll do my best to return all visits. Sometimes I'm not always certain that my comments get published, but I do try to make sure to always return visits to those sweet people who leave wonderful comments. Big hugs.

*Double checked this stamp and it does not say PSX on it..in fact, I can't find any markings, but it sure does have the look of a PSX image I think. However, I'm pretty sure that PSX stamps were labeled with identifying marks, and this wooden stamp has none that I see! Just tryin' to be honest, folks!

Golden Poppies Thank You

Good afternoon. Here's another card done with that versatile Rubbernecker stamp used in earlier projects.

 

- Brusho background (yellows, orange and a little green with some gold spray), die cut with S/Binders Labels 40 Decorative Accents

 

- Image inked with Versamark, stamped onto the previously created brusho background, then embossed with Ranger's Queen's Gold. I like the look of the gold embossing, but as with the white embossing, the fine details of the stamp are lost. I also liked the way the orange-y colors seemed to create a bit of glow in the central portion of the arrangement. That was pure serendipity, which I noticed only in the photo. Sure didn't see it on the card itself!

 

- Elizabeth Craft sentiment die cut 3 layers of white snippets, which were then colored with the Pentel gold pen. A few tiny gold pearls, and this card was in the mail. Our sweet neighbor gifted me with a lovely circular monogram wooden hanger for the newly painted front door. It's awaiting a light sanding, then spray paint, and some summer flowers wired onto it. Then it will grace the bright red door.

 

Thanks for popping in for a little visit. Hope that your Sunday afternoon is going just super. Blessings & hugs. Come again when you can.   

Zentangle Bravery

Good afternoon, and welcome to my little corner of Blogland. I have some new followers, according to the list I see at the top of the blog where all the lovely little faces appear. Here is the latest lovey & very talented card blogger:

Theresa of Theresa's Studio

 

Thanks so much for joining as a new follower here, and I encourage my visitors to check out this beautiful blog. The numbers increased, but I can't determine if it's Blogger doing the Silly Buggers Thing (thank you to my Brit friends for this adorable terminology!) or if there really IS a new follower that I've not recognized as such. If it should be you, please leave me a comment saying you were a recent follower, whom I've not recognized here on the blog, & shared a link to your blog. Thank you!

 

Now I'm being very brave to show today's card. Bear in mind, I do NOT know how to Zentangle, despite purchasing several books. After hunting for these safely stored books, I did find one. But I had already doodled this focal image, that I will refer to as a Zentangle! Since Mr. MoJo has gone walk-about for a while, sometimes at night I will just 'doodle' on leftover die cuts..mainly to keep myself awake while watching television. If I just sit, I tend to get sleepy in the wee small hours. Have no idea if it will ever actually get mailed to anyone...{go ahead, - you can laff at this one if you wanna :-)}

 

 

 

- the doodles were colored with pencils, pens and some felt tip markers like Sharpies. I've done several of these, and now have no clue as to how to use them. The background, which was a snippet

from another circle die cut, and was headed for the trash bin, came to the rescue here. Embossed it with Elizabeth Craft EF, Tiny Mosaic, and put some Sookwang behind the opening. The doodled circle (or Zen!) fit into the opening very nicely. The circle Zen piece is actually a snippet too, as it was a leftover on the desk pile.

 

- Double stitched circle frame is Avery Elle, which was a last minute addition (no, it's not covering any spacing from the inlay either. It was just still in the 'to put away' pile on the floor).  I'd seen another framed card somewhere and decided to add the frame at the last minute. Actually it sort of helps with the Zen, don't you think?

 

As I said, this one may never be mailed, but if and when, I'll add a die or stamped sentiment at the time.

 

Ya'll have a great Saturday. We have our usual heat, skies look cloudy, so possibly some rain later. Or maybe not...you just never can tell. As always, thanks so much for stopping in. Hugs.

 

 



 

 

 

 

Snippets Thank You

Good afternoon, welcome, and I hope you're not getting too bored with all the Thank You cards! Today's card is made from a lot of snippets that have been floating around on the desk, and so Yay! I'll get to go see my little buddy Parsnip!

First, though, please welcome a new follower, Suzanne from Keep In Touch. Suzanne is from the New England area, but recently had the huge treat of getting to meet Our Darnell (doesn't Everybody know Darnell?!); got to take a tour of the Famous Playhouse. That's how I got to meet Suzanne (via Blogland of course), but looking forward to getting to know a new friend. You might want to give a pop-in and enjoy some inspiration just as I did. I love this Play It Forward thing, don't you?

We have some very skillful & generous gardeners in our subdivision. Fortunately for us, they have been very kind to share some luscious tasting tomatoes with us this summer. The card is for these neighbors.

- Roses were stamped with a very old PSX stamp recently purchased at a local stamp garage sale. Colored with copics, added some WoS (clear!). Recently discovered an old pot of Judikins MicroGlaze, from a long ago stamp show (NBUS). Decided to see what it looked like if a bit was rubbed over the image, as it is supposed to provide a protective coat. Made the piece quite shiny. Oh yes, the stamping was done on a snippet of Copic Xpress paper.

- White embossed border is a snippet left over from this card, and the xstitched oval mat came from this card prior to embossing branches onto the created green background.

- The S/B mat behind all of this other stuff was a boo-boo that looked as though it might come in handy. What happened was the white strip at the bottom of the dp didn't get removed before any diecutting was done. For some reason, I cut the piece from the white reverse side, and oops, when I turned it over, there is that white printed strip to the left side of the dang die cut! Fortunately this was a 12x12 piece, so I had enough paper to finish out THAT project...and didn't clean the desk, so the embossed border covered up the Ooopsy.

- Top fold white card base was sponged with DI Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron and Abandoned Coral. Used some pearl & gold sprays to blend these colors and assembled the card. The MS punched butterfly hides another little Uh-Oh. When spreading the MicroGlaze on the white embossing, got a little crinkle in the paper. Punched 2 MS butterfly layers from a brusho-background, put these together so that no white shows under the wings, added some black pearls, and Voila.

- Elizabeth Craft die cut sentiment from more white snippets (3 layers), and colored with a pink WoS.

Parsnip, may I come play at the Snippets Playground? (BTW, it's week 185, and the gates are still open for 3 more days..psst, there's also a lovely MBox Christmas tree die on offer too, along with some truly fab inspirational cards. You don't wanna miss out, now do you?)

Thanks for popping in this afternoon. Big Hugs and lots of Blessings. Stay cool if the weather is as hot in your area as 'tis here.

A lovely sunset enjoyed from the deck on Monday about 8:30. The camera never truly captures the glory of the colors we see, even though I tried several settings. But this is quite pretty I thought.

Thank you...More Poppies

Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you to everyone who left sweet anniversary wishes for us.Each one was so very much appreciated. Our day was quiet, but pleasantly relaxed. Another very hot day, so we stayed inside in the cool air conditioning all day. We had an invitation to go out to dinner, but neither of us really wanted to get 'fixed up' to go out, and we had plenty of leftovers that needed to be eaten. Not a very romantic way to spend an anniversary, but it suited us just fine! A wonderful part of being married for this long, is: we are very comfortable with each other, and enjoy doing 'nothing' together.. which I find is a very good place to be. It's also fun to do 'something' together, but never have to feel that we must - to be content & happy. (My wisdom, such as it is ...for the day - LOL!).

Please help me welcome a lovely new follower, Gail of Gail's Place.

 

Gail & I have met on the HLS Christmas Challenge DT and I'm looking forward to getting to know a wonderfully talented new friend. Thanks for becoming my newest follower.

Remember that I said I'd made several cards with the very nice Rubbernecker stamp and here is another one. These posts are not necessarily being done in the same order as the cards were made.

 

- another Brusho created background... don't really remember which specific blues & greens were used. But isn't it so pretty? The stamp was inked with versamark, stamped over the well dried Brusho background, then sprinkled with some Hero Arts white EP, and heat set. The embossing is quite nice, but it doesn't allow for the shading as done on this card. Still a pretty but different look with this stamp.

 

- a S/Binder label 20 die to cut out the card. Decided I liked the shape so this turned into a shaped card, hinged at the side. The outer edge of the front piece was sponged with a finger dauber and Delicata Gold.

 

- 3 layers of white snippets cut the Elizabeth Craft sentiment. Each layer was colored with Copic 110 and then the top layer was colored with a WoS clear marker. Very simply done, but I like this card very much, and it's for a VIP - whom I hope will like it too!

 

Thanks for your visit, and come again when you have time. Right now - alas - too hot to enjoy the porch swing.

Christmas Card Club - Trees

Hello and thanks for popping by today for the Christmas Club Challenge. This challenge consists of a group of ladies, who 'meet' every two weeks, and each time one of us has selected a particular theme for that week's challenge. Today's challenge of Trees, was chosen by Margaret of Granmargarets Cards-N-Stuff, and I hope Margaret will like my trees! (although there is only ONE! LOL)

Here goes:

- Die'Sire Die O-Christmas Tree used with some gold swirly lightweight paper. Also made sure to use the Sizzix Precision Plate  since this CAC Die'Sire die is so intricate. Had no wish to be sitting with scissors trying to cut places that did not cut well. Once I made sure the cuts were good, then replaced the Precision Plate with the regular bottom plate and used the embossing mat.  Green glitter paper under the gold c/s was just cut in a square. "Decorated" the tree and snowflakes with colored rhinestones and pearls.

- PBlack sentiment (Love & Joy) cut from some 6x6 American Crafts glitter paper, which is also the 'thin' variety, rather than like the green glitter, which has the thicker weight to it. Debated on leaving off a sentiment, as I think the die is so pretty, but the calligraphy Peace lettering doesn't really cover up.

While looking at the little cut-outs in each corner, perhaps those are meant to be trees too? And now there is a pretty gold positive tree that can be used on another card. Oh Yay!

Please do check the sidebar for my fellow cardmembers' blog links and take time to enjoy their take on today's challenge of trees!

BTW, today DH & I are married 52 years, and he did like the Tulips card. One other little comment:
Is anyone else getting this error when going to their blogs? bX-w7tr63 - reload page? I can X away and still get to the post page, and reloading doesn't clear the error either? Just askin'.

Ya'll have a grand day. Looks to be another HOT one around our place. Blessings & Hugs.

Poppies Thank You

Hip Hip Hooray! It's Saturday and another blistering hot one here in Upstate SC. Yesterday we went out for lunch, and a trip to Costco (help with the Smart Phones for 2 dummies). When we got back to the car about 4:15pm, it registered 102F! Now _THAT's_ HOT! When things were stored away,  headed for a cool shower and the recliner. Both of us were just poopered from the heat.

Anyway, been working on a couple of cards and will share one today. I've made 3 with the same image, (mainly because I love it - stamps out so nicely & think it will be quite versatile). Recently some very sweet blogger friends were so generous to me for the recent birthday. So the first card is for one those lovely ladies.

Bought this in Feb at the Heirloom Stamp show in Lawrenceville, Georgia

- Solid image was inked up with some forgotten Memento markers..and it turned out pretty cool (remember I'm rather rubbish with water colors!). It helps if one is fast with the process - which I'm not. Inked with Rhubarb, Morrocco (orange-y tone) and a bit of Love Letter, - then the foliage greens -  spritzed it lightly with water. Waited half a second and then Splat! Onto the c/stock. Was quite pleased with how it looked. Let it air dry, then took the reds & green markers, swiped a couple of strokes over an acrylic block. Dampened a regular small brush, and tried to add a bit more shading for definition. Lastly, used the fine tip on the individual markers to add some 'petal lines'. The fine tip of the black marker did the centers, and then just a bit of clear WoS (made sure it was the CLEAR one too!). 

- S/B labels 8 to diecut, and then shaded around edges with DI Antique Linen and Sage.

- S/B Labels 40 Decorative Accent cut the mat behind the focal image. This was a brusho background - created with Lime Green, Orange and Lemon - then spritzed with some gold sprays. The colors meshed together so pretty, and since the center portion (behind the image!) gets removed, that piece will be a snippet on a later project.

Bazzill pink c/s for the card base, (couldn't find the coral color that I wanted). Decided the pink was 'too pinky' with the flower colors, so used DI shades of Rusty Hinge, Barn Door to sponge some colors over the pink. Liked that better with the poppies. A tiny hint of the pink shows through the die cut frame, and looks nice (at least I think so!)

- Elizabeth Craft sentiment die - 3 layers of white snippets, glued together, then colored with Copic 110 (black) and used a WoS black marker to add a bit of sparkle. Thought about adding a butterfly (the recipient is partial to butterflies!), but decided to leave it alone!

Hope you like it too. And for my UK friends, hope this unseasonable heat & thunderstorms that some of you have been experiencingd, has passed. I expect you're not accustomed to the summer heat like us Yanks (well, truly, you don't ever get "used to it", but you endure it during summer in some of our states).

Will share a few more pictures of the pretty Easter Lily which has more blooms. Our magenta crape myrtles in the front flower bed have finally started to bloom. The center white one has been blooming for about 6 wks. Also note the sky color..it's not that lovely Carolina Blue that is so pretty to see.

Don't forget about the HLS Christmas Challenge that is currently underway. Do hope you'll find time to play along with us. Come again when you can, as always - thanks for taking time to visit me. Have a blessed & cool day.

Edit: Ooops, looked at the stamp package and see that it says "watercolor tulips". They don't look like TULIPS to me! So for this card, and the others...it's POPPIES! Which is what it looks like to my eyes! LOL

Sparkle N Sprinkle Anniversary

Happy afternoon and hope that all had a good weekend. Ours was quiet, but very pleasant. Had a few little rain storms. Today's card will be for Mr. and our anniversary which is coming up soon. (52 if you're interested! And they said it would NEVER last!) It's a lovely stamp purchased from Sparkle N Sprinkle while we were in South Florida at Christmas. I must say that every stamp purchased from SnS has always stamped out just splendidly for me - and I'm not the greatest stamper on the planet. The rubber is etched quite deeply and gives a sharp crisp image. (and no, I'm not paid to say this LOL)

But first let me give a warm welcome to 2 lovely new followers. I hope you'll take time to pop over for a little visit and let these ladies know I sent you over to say Hey.

Brenda of Stamping as Fast as I Can

Carol of Inky Fingers

Here goes for today's card:

 

- SnS Just a Note Tulips (also available in digi format). Recently received the Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers - thanks to some great enabling by Friend Lynn. Was waffling about whether to yet buy another product, when Lynn told me how pleased she was with these markers. Had them in a cart at Amazon, and yikes, the price had gone up slightly from when I was first considering. After hearing from Lynn how easy these were to use, placed the order. Took a few weeks to arrive as these shipped from Japan. Now I'm not very good with watercolors, but I keep trying. These markers were the easiest of any water color product I've tried to use so far.

 

Image was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black on Strathmore 140# watercolor paper, and then clear EP to heat emboss so the ink didn't smear. No fancy shading was done. Wet each tulip first, then put down a bit of marker color at the base of each bloom. Used a regular dampened brush (not the aqua brushes) - to draw the color upwards. Touched the marker again at the base to add some deeper shading, pulled upwards. My next effort will be better (!), but I'm pretty happy with this one.

 

- S/B Divine Eloquence cut the panel and a 2nd layer was cut for the card backing using a top hinge method. While the image was in the die, used Memento Danube Blue & a finger dauber to add some highlights around the edges. Tiny pearls were colored with a dark blue copic marker to complement the inking.

 

- SU sentiment stamped with Danube Blue, die cut with an MFT Xstitch rectangle, and that's it. I would enter this in the SnS Monthly challenge, but didn't add any glitter or sparkle so the card is not eligible {sigh}. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

Had shared earlier that we were doing some 'fixits' round the house. So here's a couple pictures of what Mr. did on the front of the house (the front door and shutters were previously a pretty deep forest green & now I'm wondering why I didn't pick the current colors in the beginning!). Also a few pictures of what it looked like around here last evening when we were sitting in the swing, enjoying some nice breezes.

 

Thanks for joining me this afternoon, and hope you enjoy the pictures. I always love to see those shared by all the other bloggers that I visit. Blessings & Hugs.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighted flag hanging on an old house mailbox that we found at a New England flea market

 



Lighted garden flag that is on the inside of the front window by the door. Has batteries in it, so we didn't want to hang it where it would get in the rain.

 

Easter Lily that survived being left on the back deck, over the winter. Was meant to be dumped, and in the spring, we noticed the sticks had buds. It has the most wonderful fragrance, but the yellow stamens can certainly stain clothing.

 

 



DeeDee's Digis to Celebrate July 4th

Good evening, and to all my American friends, HAPPY JULY 4th!  Apologies for not having this card up last evening, but the downstairs printer would not connect to the Wi-Fi and print. We had a thunderstorm yesterday, so don't know if that affected anything. This morning, I checked plugs, all the other stuff you troubleshoot, then later in the afternoon, booted up, tried again...Voila, I'm connected to the Wi-Fi. Began to wonder if there is a limit on how many electronics we can connect to the network, with the 2 new Smart phones in mind.

You need a fast card? You wanna think DeeDee's Digis? Well, I certainly did. This is the first year, since I've been involved in this stamping/card making hobby, that no 4th of July cards were made & sent. However, DeeDee's Digis to the rescue with this really patriotic set...American Teddies. Absolutely nothing was done aside from printing the image, finding a die to cut the elements, hunting up some papers, and Done! I wanted to at least get a post up to commemorate the day that is so special for the United States of America.  So here goes:

 

 

- MFT Xstitched rectangle die to cut Betsy Ross Bear and the sentiment. (Psst...there's another cute bear in the set, along with some nice patriotic sentiments)

 

- MFT Stitched Fishtail banners

 

- patriotic colors of sequins and some BoBunny from an old 6x6 pack (perhaps last year's?) and some really VOS from the Paper Studio.

 

It doesn't get any easier (or faster!) to make a card than this. If you're ever in a situation where you need a cute image, that basically makes the card all by itself, do check out DeeDee's Digis. The prices are so very reasonable, super fast downloads and there's a really cute set available for July Set of the Month. If you participated in last month's challenge, you should have already received this set in your email. (If you participated but didn't receive the set, please contact DeeDee at deedeesdigis@gmail.com -- sometimes things do go wrong with email). If you did not participate in last month's challenge, you can still purchase this set for just $1.25 this month at the shop. You can find it HERE.

 

Hope you'll have a few moments to check out the Cards by Friends tab, and see the lovely cards sent by some very sweet friends for my birthday. Also, I'd like to thank all those who were kind enough to take time to leave so many good wishes for my day. Of course, my very best loved present was our DD coming up for a few days. We had lovely visit, just enjoyed having some precious time together.

 

Also be sure to check out the new HLS Christmas Challenge  which has its very first appearance today and is open for the month of July. There's some DT cards to inspire you, and remember, the countdown to Christmas is closer than you may think.

 

Thanks for joining me this afternoon. I hope if you celebrate our country's Birthday, you have a happy, safe and most enjoyable day. Big hugs. 

Happy Little Stampers July Christmas Challenge

Hi, and welcome to my first post as a proud DT Member at Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge. Our assignment for the July Challenge was "Trees"...so without further blah-blah, here we go:

- green background was created with Brusho water crystals {or Dylusions! I have a bunch of these backgrounds, and never remember exactly what I used :-) }.Obsession Impression Fancy Tree die cut the base, and there is an overlay in the same set that cut the gold vellum paper. Added some clear crystals for some bling.

- Adhered to white mat die cut with an MFT cross stitch rectangle die.

- pearlized green card base was embossed with a Sue Wilson pierced die from the Noble Collection.

- Starform sticker for the sentiment, to keep this one rather CAS. What do you think?

Why not join in with the new HLS Christmas Challenge for this month? There will be lots of inspiration to get us all ready for the big day that is fast approaching. C'mon along, have some fun.

Thanks for joining me today. Come again when you can, and in the meantime, Big hugs from me to you.





Hedgie says Happy Birthday

Good morning, and it's a lovely sunshine day in my part of the world. Not so hot (but would be if you wuz outside working). DD has been here for a few days, and we're just back from the local airport, and I'm in my usual blue mood. Just do NOT  handle goodby well when it's someone I love. Bless her heart, I think she spent the 2 days teaching us how to use the new Smart phones that everyone has been telling us we MUST upgrade to. (and she was one of them). We waited until she was here, to help us pick out the best features for our use of it. On our old 'dumb' phones, I had texting turned off, due to an unhappy experience with some kids playing pranks, and we had to pay for the messages. Being ignorant I opened these, as I didn't really know WHO would be texting me, but I know the DD does lots of that. Anyway, after getting our provider to dismiss the charges, I asked them to turn it off, so neither of us made that mistake again (They had said they would only honor iggerance ONE time!) This new plan - and yes we had to sign a 2 yr contract  which will be expensive to break if we're unhappy with this - provides unlimited talk & text. We got 1G of data, as it would be nice to do email while traveling - although I'd use the laptop at night. But it has really re-inforced our knowledge of the fact that we are woefully lacking in the technology dept. I did manage to get our contacts added into both phones - which the girl at the Costco kiosk was supposed to have done. She only got a few of them. Now just trying to learn some of the things and one thing I must get someone to show me, is how to do the coupons from the various stores. (I don't want to get more stuff we have to pay for unless I am aware up front that I'm doing it! DD said she doesn't do that, and couldn't help with it). Anybody else out there, feeling so dumb with this kind of thing????

Today's card has been received, so here goes:



- PBlack wood mount Hedgie, some years old, but I love it! Tiny dragonfly was in a sweet gift pack from the person who received this card, so thought appropriate to use on this card. Of course, image was Copic colored, some WoS. One booboo...when picking the WoS, thought I had clear. It was white, which I didn't realize at first. After all the WoS touches were added, I noticed the brilliant colors of the orange tones looking somewhat foggy. Hmm...what is wrong? Then I looked at the WoS marker, and dang - it was white! I was able to go back over with another coat or 2 of the same copics, and don't think the nib was bothered. But if you have white WoS, just watch when you are selecting...cuz it DOES make a difference.

-Sue Wilson Noble Collection Ornate Pierced Design die and then same die for the faux mat.

- Brusho background - previously done...with orange, yellows and some gold spray. But doesn't it look nice with the orange tones of the flowers in the bouquet?

- SU punch and sentiment. Ta Da.

One comment I keep intending to share, and forget, is this: got the Sizzix Precision Plate with the  Big Shot Plus (yes I got a good buy on it and free shipping - and while I'm still using the old beat up B/Shot, the Plus is handy for the bigger dies). I've been using the precision plate with some of the more intricate dies (f'r instance, the Cheery Lynn doilies that I have so much trouble with sometimes.) It works very well I'm pleased to say. Recently I used w/c paper with a die and even though I did several passes, changed the position on the plates one time - the die cut beautifully. So if anyone is waffling on the precision plate...I can testify that it is helping my frustration a great deal!!! Just sayin'.

Ya'll have a grand day and come back when you can sit a spell in the porch swing. Today would be a lovely day to enjoy the swing, as the humidity is low, and there's a breeze too. We had a spot of rain earlier, and predicted to get some more later today. Big Hugs.