Birthday Flowers

Good morning. Back to share a card that has been received. Quiet day yesterday, but somehow I managed to stay busy (and I didn't sit down and read either!!!) That can usually be one of my excuses for not getting anything done. Didn't have to leave the house today either. Oh, one thing that took up my time: Cleaning an old turntable my Yankee friend found for me at an estate sale. I'd seen a youtube where this lady was doing dirty pours using a sink strainer, and she had it on what looked to be a surface that turned. Mr. said "I bet an old record player would do that", so I asked my friend to keep an eye out. Yesterday morning when I went out to water the porch plants, there's this big box sitting by the door. He sends us New England apples fresh from an orchard about this time, so I just thought "what a heavy box of apples". Mr. came in, said he'd had a phone call  -- that our friend had sent my record player. It was old, very grubby and had to be cleaned (and I'll need to clean it again) so that took some time. Then I had some phone calls to make, blah, blah.

EDIT: Forgot to give a welcome shout out to a lovely new follower: Doreen of Doreen's Dream. Thanks for becoming a follower Doreen, and I hope all my old friends will hop over to visit my new friend, and enjoy her beautiful work. She has some recent pan pastel cards that are stunning! 

Here's the card:

- Penny Black First Blush (colored with copics and some white gel pen)

- Altenew Pinstripe (clear)

Stamped the floral image on Xpress c/s, colored. Then used Avery Self-Adhesive Labels to restamp the image and use the just the flowers as a mask (saw this trick on a Jennifer McGuire video). Cut inside the inked lines of the flowers so that I didn't get a halo, but in some places I still did. After placing the mask, stamped in one direction with the pinstripe image...(since it's clear, it makes it easier to see placement). Re-inked the stamp and turned the opposite way to create a crosshatch pattern. Added some white highlights with a gel pin. Die cut with a stitched die. Used a linen look DP for another stitched mat, punched a label from that same paper to do the sentiment. Added some red pearls! That's it!

Today is exercise day for us, so we'll be out of the house today, and it's hot. Got some other errands to run as well. So ya'll stay cool, if it's still hot where you are, and have a super great day. Thanks for visiting, come back when you can! Hugs 

Rudolph Day August 2018

Good morning, and Welcome! It's Rudy Day for August 2018, and gosh, not that many more challenges left in this year...So best get a move on, and start making some Christmas Cards. For any who may not know about Rudolph Day, it's an Anything Goes Christmas Challenge, opens on the 25th of each month, closes on the end of that month. Only rule is the theme must have something to do with Christmas. Lots of inspiration and some good prizes too, with our hostess, Maureen (aka Scrappymoi)

Penny Johnson Stampavie Jolly Holly (thanks Bonnie)- colored with copics, Sakura clear star, Nuvo Rhubarb (holly berries)

- P. Black Snowflake Stitch Frames

- P.Black Curved Stitch border

-  Gina K 6x6 Cold Snap pack

- Sookwang tape with Ritz Glitter for the green border

- clear stamp inked with Gina K Red Velvet for the sentiment

Now ya'll c'mon and join me in playing in this month's Rudolph Day Challenge. And thanks for visiting. Have a super great day. Hugs

August Twofer Challenge - Geometrics

Good evening, and welcome. I'm skating into the August Twofer Challenge by the skin of my teeth!
This month I tried very hard to play as the theme is Geometrics. I have circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, you name it. So it ought to have been super easy, right? Here goes, and see what you think.

Here's the 2 cards done using a skinny Double Stitched Rectangle, Set B, Sue Wilson. (hope this link to Walmart works. Mine came from Oozak when there was a 50% off, and it's no longer showing at the site).

Also used the S/Binders Wonky Rectangle as a mat.

 

 

-SnS sunflower image was inked with DI markers onto 140# c/s. Then used a water brush to pull the color out.  The skinny stitched rectangle cut the focal image. Then used larger sized rectangles from that set to cut the frame. Adhered a previously made Brusho background onto cream cardstock. Adhered the frame rectangle piece, then inlaid the watercolored piece.  Added a stamped sentiment, 3 wooden look sequins, and decided to do a few score lines.

- Northwoods Halloween image was colored with copics. Used the same skinny stitched rectangle to die cut the scene into thirds. Wasn't sure how this would look with the separation in the scene, but I think it turned out ok. A background of DOX was created using Dusty Concord, Mermaid blue and Carved Pumpkin. Sprayed this lightly with some Tattered Angels silver-y spray (which of course doesn't show. It made spatters I was proud of though!) Tried to use an unmounted plain rubber spiderweb stamp to black emboss - I've learned that unmounted stamps do NOT stamp well for me, so will be hunting up that mounting stuff I have somewhere. Decided to dry emboss a SU spiderweb, which worked ok, although not much of that shows either. Purple glitter paper was die cut with the Wonky rectangle (which needed a little artistic license. The large die in the set didn't quit fit for the trio of rectangles, so drew around the outer edge to lengthen it enough that the images would fit better. Then fussy cut ). Last bit was to use another snippet of the green brusho piece to heat emboss the Halloween sentiment, add some purple rhinestones. One Halloween card down!

I'm having blogger issues with comments again. I have deleted the email address, saved, waited a bit, then re-added the address, saved. But still not getting the comments. This started yesterday. So bear with me.

Off to link up with the August Twofer Challenge. Thanks for joining me this evening. Hugs.

Watercolored Sunflower (CAS August 2018 Challenge)

Good evening. Tomorrow is Friday..YAY. Even though I've been retired quite a few years, I still get happy when Friday is the next day. I guess it was ingrained in my consciousness for too many years :-)

I've been trying hard to get into this month's CAS Watercolor challenge, since it's sunflowers. Have a lot of those images (but when I went hunting in the flower stamp drawers, I wasn't finding as many as I thought I remembered having!!!)  I was looking for something that would be easy to watercolor, since that's a bit of a challenge to me. Finally settled on a clear stamp that probably was from the Michael's Dollar bin. I knew I was going to stamp on w/color paper, and  with that texture - it needs to be restamped multiple times, so I wanted a clear image I could keep reinking. Now please don't ya'll laugh at this card-----

used Distress markers in shades of yellow to ink up this stamp, and can't even remember how many times I kept reinking, restamping. The outline part shows up as though I'd outlined it, but that was the Rusty Hinge marker that showed up nicely here. I also had some of the Mustard Seed and Lemonade inked on the edges of this outline stamp. Then used a waterbrush to try to pull out the colors...that worked fairly well. Wanted a bit more shading, so scribbled the Mustard Seed on the kraft mat, and used the brush to add some more layers around on the petals. Center was done with adding a little Spiced Marmalade first, then using Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy, and just going to darker browns until I got something that looked like the brown center of a sunflower to me.

Now here's where I said Don't Laugh! This was just a single flower...so I free handed the stem and leaves with the water brush. That little blossom just looked too lonely all by itself.

Mat was colored with brusho greens and yellows, also on watercolor weight paper. For some reason, it didn't want to spread well so that's why so many of the specks still show in the colors. The c/s was quite wet, but the crystals just didn't want to spread around even though I kept spritzing with water, finally with a gold spray. Decided I liked it anyway behind the sunflower and cut it with a S/B Wonky die.  The sunflower looks like it's on white paper, but it was cream colored..the card base is also cream color, and IRL these 'creams' look the same color.

OK, off to link up with the CAS August Watercolor (AW, heck, go ahead and laugh if you want! I'm still trying to get the hang of watercolor). Skating in by the skin of my teeth----

Ya'll have a nice evening. Thanks for joining me & maybe see ya again tomorrow if I can finish a card tonight. Trying to sneak in the 2fer also! Big hugs.

Class Cards and a Happy Birthday

Good morning, and welcome. As promised, back to share the cards made last week during Bonnie's class.

I liked ALL of the cards (of course I struggled with the water color one!) but one was my very favorite. Liked it so much, that when we returned to our hotel that evening, I went online to order the Serendipity Stamp. I needed a fast birthday card, so I've cased Bonnie's class card, but changed up the colors a bit, and left off the texture stamping. Bonnie had the supplies ready for the students, but we did some die cutting, stamping, etc. We had samples at each table, and as each card was completed, you moved to the next station to create a different card. It was such fun and the time passed quickly.

Bonnie's version of the Thistle stamp was done with markers, has some texture stamping & sequin embellies.

Sea horse is cut from copper paper

Inked stamps, then used water to move the ink around. 

This cutie had some 'sticker type' foil trees behind the aperture and the cutest polar bear

Thanks Bonnie for such a fun class!

Now here is my take on Bonnie's Thistle card. 

Used Tim Holtz markers (a lot of mine seem very dry, but the these colors worked ok. I changed up the colors just a bit from what we used during Class. Also did a 'thumping' technique with the darker marker after inking the stamp with the lighter color. In class,  used the darker marker on the butterfly first, so thus the lighter color did not show well). Added a little purple marker to thump in the picked raspberry color and was pleased to see it show up well in the stamped result.

Used a new Sue Wilson double stitched Rectangle B that I just got. Not sure what brand was used to cut the class card, but it achieved the same look. I really love this stamp, and Bonnie designed such a classic look. I hope she won't mind that I cased it for my brother's 88th birthday. I thought the yellow was a sunny & cheery look and emphasized the butterfly colors. He's not really a 'pink' type of fella!!!

Thanks for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed the class cards. I surely did enjoy the class, the group and it felt good to be back in a class!!!

Big hugs sent out to any who may need one today! Come again when you have time.

Thinking of you Birds

Good afternoon and welcome. Been a busy day as I had a breathing rehab visit scheduled for today. Put through some paces, and I did better than I expected. Found out that Medicare only allows a lifetime of 36 visits that will be covered (and if Medicare doesn't cover, neither will our supplemental policy). Some years back, I was sent for some respiratory rehab...and showed improvement for the first period of visits. The drs authorized another set of sessions (which had I known about the lifetime restriction I could have done as self-directed, and saved those visits!) And it did help with my breathing problems. With one thing and another, we stopped going to this rehab/fitness center, but we had joined as lifetime members. So after a couple discussions with the therapist, I'm going to just go as a fitness member (it's $31 a month for as many times as I can go...but it's also a 18 mile drive one way!) rather than call it 'rehab therapy' and have to pay over $50 per visit, going twice weekly. The therapist showed me what to do this morning, and it's not that different from what I did years ago, so I think I can manage doing it this way.

One other blogger aggravation (Uh-gin). I'm getting email notices when someone comments (think I'm getting all of them)...but when I publish, I don't get the reminder email as previously. If I'm busy, I let those reminders stay in my mailbox, so that when I get a few minutes, I can return some visits. Now I'm going out to the blog, opening up comments and trying to be sure I don't miss returning a visit to all of you. Is anyone else having this experience? I'm wondering if I should unscribe and rescribe again (per Darnell's instructions?). I'm sort of afraid to rock the boat...as this is still workable.

Now, here's a card done earlier. Perhaps later this week,  I can share the cards made in Bonnie's class last Saturday.

PBlack Layered Scene Die - cut from w/color weight paper. Did the first layer with zigs..not happy with the effort. Layered another atop this one, and tried again. I think I finished by shading with copics. (got my die at Simon Says Stamps, but can't find it in stock now, so added the Amazon link). 

- Sizzix 3D wood grain EF. Inked the EF and then embossed, so there's a slight hint of blue in the background. 

Don't remember which company did the Hello. It was one that has the skinny inside words & 'balloon' outside part; used the 'balloon part'  as it made more of an impact IMHO. I had placed the 'inner part' die on the card, and it didn't look right, so I used this part instead to cut 2 layers.

Hope your week is off to a great start. It was a little cooler here this morning, but warmed up fast enough :-)

Thanks for joining me, and sending big Hugs. Come again when you have time.

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 17 - Nativity

Welcome to another Christmas Card Club post....today our group has the challenge theme Nativity - which was chosen by Margaret.

 

 

A piece of previously created brusho background came in handy. This piece was done by placing cling film over a wet brusho background, leaving it to dry.

 

- Penny Black manger die (51-254), die cut with sookwang tape over white c/s, then Ritz Silver microfine glitter applied. Cut the brusho piece to fit behind the circle ornament.

 

- SU Watercolor Winter for branches & pinecones, using 2 shades of green, with some brown for the pinecones and brown on the branches.

 

- SU Bells & Boughs for the sentiment

 

- Crafter's Companion Spirit of Christmas EF

 

Please take time to visit my fellow Club members whose blogs are listed in the right side bar.

And have an absolutely wonderful Sunday! Hugs & Blessings, and thanks for visiting.

 



Sympathy Thinking of You

Welcome, and sorry to have been away for a bit. Been busy; also took a little road trip...more on that later. First the card:

Some friends up north lost their 28 yr old daughter very unexpectedly due to a brain aneurisym. She had gone to the beach with some of her cousins, and just suddenly died. A beautiful lady, who had survived many surgeries during her young life, so bravely, without complaint. She was born with one leg bone too short. As she reached certain periods of growth, the doctors would operate, do some complex reconstructive surgery to lengthen that bone. Sounded horrendous when it was described to us. When she got to be about 16, she decided "no more" and had an amputation. Went ahead with her life, to an Ivy League school, where she excelled with her grades, and at sports. So what a tragic loss. Anyway, I wanted to send a card letting them know we care.

Now, for the road trip: Bonnie K and I had talked for a while about our making a drive up to take a class with her. She lives about 4-5 hours north of our area. Things finally gelled so that she was having a class, and it worked out that we'd be able to get away. I held my breath that something would come up, and made our hotel reservations at the very last minute.

What a splendid time we had. Wonderful folks in Bonnie's class, who all made me feel welcome. Bonnie & her husband were so gracious and welcomed us to their lovely home. I had hoped to get some much-needed water color training (we ran out of time!) but we did manage to do some faux enamel and encrusted technique. W/Color was next, but since we had some traffic slowdown on the way north, Mr. wanted to leave earlier than what I'd planned as a departure time. So hopefully, sometime in the future, we can do this again. Her DH is just the nicest guy, and took my DH to a flea market on Sat, so he was not just sitting 'waiting' for me to get finished :-). And Bonnie has The Most Organized Studio!

The class! I didn't ask permission to post this, so hope I'm not offending anyone. The lady in the checked shirt is another blog friend, Candee, and we didn't know until just beforehand - that either of us would be in this class. I'll share the cards we made - Bonnie had kits made up, and it was such fun! 

Some of our North Carolina cousins are planning to come to South Carolina for a day visit tomorrow. Looking forward to that, as last visit was for a funeral. Much better to have the visit at a happy time. 

Thanks for joining me, and big hugs to any who may need a hug today. God Bless. 

Christmas Trees

Good morning, and welcome - I nearly missed Rudolph Day for August, and then there is a CAS Christmas Challenge going on...with trees as the theme. Now I have a lot of tree stamps and dies, so thought "Surely this time I can join in with the CAS Challenge". But as frequently happens to me, time just got away. So I hope this CAS card will do double duty here!!!

 

 

Way back in June I shared some Brusho Play on this post (scroll down past the card to see the backgrounds created by using brusho-s with an embossing folder). Decided to cut the MBox tree die from one of those backgrounds. The marbled colors show up in the photo, but the embossing texture doesn't show all that well. It does IRL however, and I was pleased. Also had some thin metal where DH & I had used Loll's Heated Copper technique (who knows when we did that!) - after placing the trees on the embossed card front, thought it needed a 'little something' - yet still keep it CAS. Took a cheapie tiny star die (probably a $1 find at Michaels) and to my surprise - the tiny die* cut that metal. I wasn't certain it would. It bent the star shape just a bit, and I had planned to straighten the 'legs' once I had the star down. Decided I liked it with the little curls. The center star looked lonely, and since the first cut had gone well, I added 2 companions! Die cut the tree shape from white, embossed that piece. Used 2 colored tree die cuts, with the white cut from the embossed piece to inlay into the front, and it has nice dimension.

 *meant to write punch!

Since today is the ending of Rudy Day I'm also going to jump over the pond to join in that challenge.

 

Linking to: August CAS Christmas Card, and July 2018 Rudolph Day Challenges. Looking forward to seeing your cards there too!

 

Thanks for joining me this morning, and ya'll have a nice day (that's what we say here in the South!)

Hugs.

 

Supplies: CuttleBug Snowflakes EF, Memory Box Pine Trio Background, Hero Arts CL343 clear sentiment set

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 16

Hello and welcome to a new Christmas Card Club post. Challenge 16's theme was selected by our Scrappymoi (Maureen, she of the Rudolph Day fame). Maureen wanted to see  winter activity themes such as sledding, skiing, or sleighs. As always, we members have the choice of 'anything goes' if we don't have suitable images for that challenge's theme, which is helpful. Anyway, when I saw the challenge theme, I immediately remembered an old Penny Black Snowie, which I've always loved to color. In looking for him, discovered another old wooden stamp, no manufacturer name on it, so made 2 cards this time. I needed a bit of copic coloring therapy.

 

 

 

The 'icy snow' on the hillside looked a bit pink when I spread it out with my fingers for 'snow'. It's Stickles Stardust. All of my stickles are pretty old stash, so I don't know if this product discolors with age...It doesn't look pink in the bottle, and didn't at first when I was smooshing it around. As it dried, it has a pinkish look.

 

Some Impression Obsession and Sue Wilson die trees cut out of snippets, colored with various copic greens. The die is a Memory Box one, cuts 3 pieces. Adhered the larger rectangle to Snowie, then inlaid the outer rectangle, finished with the oval center. The DP is from an older 6x6 winter pack. Since I knew I'd be using the additional trees for dimension, thought it would work.

 



 

 

No idea who made this cute little sled of mice, but it was fun to color. Did some cloud practice on the sky and added white flocking for the snow. Again, some stardust stickles right around the sled, and this didn't look pink (same Stardust bottle though). MFT stitched frame with red & white dots. Hmmm...then tried to find something besides plain white to use as DP. Thought the blue snowflakes DP would work, then added the MB Christmas die in the leftover red from cutting the frame. After I looked at this one for a while, sort of wished I had stayed with just plain white, maybe embossed with a snowflake EF. Oh well....Sometimes what is in my creative thinking doesn't turn out as I hoped it would!!!

 

Hope you have time to check out the other team members interpretation of this challenge. Their links are in the right side bar. Wishing all of you a happy Sunday and our heat is back. I will be doing some blog visiting this afternoon to see what lots of you have been sharing. Thanks for joining me, and big hugs coming your way

 

 

 

 

Caring Thoughts

Good evening, and here we are in a new month, ready for a weekend. We've had some nice rain over the past few days, and cooler temps. Thankfully in the community where we live, there's been no flooding issues but there are in some areas. We're grateful to have the rain, as for the most part, it's been the kind that soaks into the ground.

One of our neighbors is having some serious health issues, and has been hospitalized at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. I have been working on a card for her, trying to watercolor again, after seeing a video at Jennifer McGuire's blog, with a guest Lisa Tilson. Inspired me to try my hand....Uh-GIN! I tried to use a simple stamp, and here's the result. After I finished it, I wasn't brave enough to try the spatters!

 

 

Heat embossed with a white EP (Sorry, don't remember the brand, but it was not a pearl powder. It sort of looks like it though). Then used the  zigs with a water brush as Lisa did in her video, to blend the zig ink. There's a couple layers in the green leaves.  Then decided to try to do the 'shadow' effect as she did, using a gray blue with a very pale pink. Decided I didn't like the pink, so went back over it, so that the entire area would be in the gray blue, and liked it better.

 

The water color cardstock was cut some time back, and since it was already squared, just used a stitched die to add a little detail. Then tried to use some mats that would complement the colors of the main image. It's amazing what the camera shows --these mats looked perfectly straight when I was putting each one down, and the card looked pretty good until I saw the photo!!! But I don't think my neighbor will nitpick it.

 

Hope you're ready for a pleasant weekend where you might be. We should be pretty relaxed; hope to have a new recliner delivered for my tv room tomorrow.  I probably should have just had the old chair reupholstered, but I didn't. You only go around once. There's a pretty new card on the Cards by Friends page, which I hope you'll take time to enjoy.

 

Thanks for visiting this evening. I have a few more cards I've been working on, just can't seem to get in a 'finishing' mode. Hugs & Blessings.