Beachy Thanks

Happy Saturday, peeps!  I have a thank you card today for one of my customers!  Here we go:

It uses images from Seaside Notions, stamped on Shimmery White cardstock and watercolored, and a wee little sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings!  The sketch is from CAS(E) this Sketch:

And my colors and theme are from Hand Stamped Sentiments and TGIF Challenges:

     

After fussy-cutting my shells out, I mounted them on a Stitched Shape square diecut, adding some speckles of "ocean" along with some sequins:

and the side panel is a diecut from Tasteful Labels, embellished with a Mint Macaron seaweed, diecut from the Smooth Sailing dies:

I added a little snippet of retired Bermuda Bay ribbon and mounted everything on a panel of Whisper White cardstock embossed with the Subtle EF.  This is all ready to pop in the mail!  Thanks for you popping in today, too!

No Cassidy pix today, but I took some photos last week on my morning walk; it was quite foggy and all the spider webs that normally are invisible were quite apparent:

This is my favorite; when I put it on my screensaver, it looked like a chandelier!  Beautiful!  I do not want spiders in my house, but outside, they're pretty amazing!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

CAS Christmas Poinsettia

Happy Friday, peeps!  Looking forward to the weekend? I am! Meanwhile, I have an uber-simple Christmas card to share!  It fulfills two challenges, the June Rudolph Days, which is Anything Goes, and the CAS Colours and Sketches sketch:

I must confess, this card went together in a flash because there's only a wee bit of stamping, the rest is all cardstock and some beautiful digital papers I recently purchased from Gracellie Designs:

Because of the orientation of the poinsettia, I flipped the sketch.  The image actually has the vertical and horizontal design as part of the image...how convenient!  I had a piece of retired Tranquil Tide cardstock laying on my desk, so I layered my digital printout on top, then layered them both on a Naturals White card.  The download also comes with some "weathered" plaid paper, so after printing that out, I stamped a sentiment from Merry Christmas to All in Real Red and diecut it with a banner die:

Isn't that a gorgeous image?  The only other thing I did was add some faceted gems; here's the inside, also from Merry Christmas to All in Real Red and Tranquil Tide inks:

Making Christmas cards is a great way to keep cool, right?!  At least that's what I tell myself!

We made some cookies early yesterday morning so the kitchen wouldn't be so hot with the oven on:

This look on her face means she snitched a couple of chocolate chips from the dough!  She needs to build up some more muscle before she can really mix it up, but she was giving it a college try!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Merry Christmas to All (ret), Digital Rustic Winter Wishes (Gracellie Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White, Tranquil Tide (both ret), computer paper
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Faceted Gems (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Banner Dies (Nestabilties)

TicTacToe #70 Summer Fun

Hello again, peeps!  It's time for the X team's Tic Tac Toe challenge!  Shannon is our hostess and here's her grid:

For my card, I chose the left column of polka dots, sequins and summer!  I pulled out the retired Day at the Beach to make some yummy popsicles:

I stamped them all in Memento Black ink, then colored them with Highland Heather, Granny Apple Green, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight Blends:

I colored them in with some Wink of Stella for sparkle, and added matching sequins around each one:

My yellow paper is from Honey Bee's The Bee's Knees, and I used Stitched So Sweetly and Wonky Stitched (My Favorite Things) dies along with a past Paper Pumpkin sentiment. Here's the inside:

I have just the recipient in mind for this card!  And hang on, there's more!  Felicita very kindly offered to let Cassidy be the Junior Guest Designer this week!  She chose the diagonal line of polka dots, coloring (of course) and sparkle for her "unique" card:

She stamped her ballerina from the retired Sweet Stuff and colored her outfit with a purple sparkly gel pen:

She wanted her to be dancing in the rain, so she stamped and punched out an umbrella from Under My Umbrella in Gorgeous Grape DSP, then curved it so it would be 3D, then used a couple layers of dimensionals to pop it up.  We gave her a raindrop background, but Cass also wanted to create a rainbow, so she hand-drew one and added a polka dotted sun, also from Day at the Beach.  Finally, she drew the "road" and coated it with Wink of Stella for some more sparkle (not sure what that was all about!).  I thought it was very creative and unique and apart from a little coaching from Grammy, she did most of it herself!  Thank you, Felicita, for asking her to participate!

I hope our Tic Tac Toe grid has some fun elements that inspire you to get creative!  Be sure to check out what all the designers did this week at the TTT blog!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

IB130 Happy Hello

Hi peeps!  Happy Thursday!  Are you ready for a new Inspired By challenge?  Here's our prompt and optional sketch for today:

Don't they look yummy?! Since I used popsicles on another card posted today, I decided to focus on all those summery COLORS in the inspiration photo as well as that fun sketch!  So here we go:

LOL, there's NO stamping on my card today!!  Just cardstock, dies and an embossing folder...oh, and a wee little gem!  I started with a Close to My Heart die called Multi Circle Windows...it actually has twelve openings, but I trimmed it down to nine and diecut flowers in Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Coastal Cabana and Blushing Bride to fit in each opening.  

I embossed a Whisper White layer with the Ornate Floral EF and layered it behind, then added a three-layer diecut sentiment in Poppy Parade, embellished with a little faceted gem:

I left the inside blank...I will stamp something when the occasion arises!  I hope you'll find some inspiration from our photo today and I hope you'll play along with us at Inspired By!  You'll find plenty of fun samples at the blog, so be sure to check it out!

Have you ever made ice cream in a bag?  Google it!  It's fun and easy...not quite the same as the real stuff, but it will do in a pinch!  There's a whole lot of shaking goin' on!

Thanks for popping by...enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, Poppy Parade, Blushing Bride
Ink
Accessories	Dimensionals, Faceted Gem (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Ornate Floral EF, Multi Circle Windows Die (Close To My Heart), Hip Hello Die (Poppystamps)

The Card Concept 138 You Are Special

Hello, crafty peeps!  The last Wednesday of the month brings a new Card Concept challenge:

I love all the nautical elements in this photo, but since I just did a nautical card for Wayne's Father's Day card, I decided to focus on the blues and the pretty white starfish!  So here we go with my Clean and Layered creation:

To start with, I used the Global Design Project sketch:

Those little circles really intrigued me!  I made some circle stencils with an acetate sheet and used some shades of blue to sponge them on the front of my card.  I also added a bubble stamp!  My starfish was heat-embossed in white on Very Vanilla, then watercolored with Soft Sky ink to bring out the detail of the embossing.  I added sentiments from Tasteful Touches and Ornate Thanks, layering them on some diecuts.  Before adhering the diecuts, I trimmed the front of my card and added some striped DSP on the inside edge and diecut a little scallop to adorn the front edge:

I added some sequins and rhinestones, then stamped a sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthdays on the inside:

Thanks for popping in today! I hope you'll play along with the Card Concept challenge...there is something there that will appeal to you, I am sure!  Just be sure to tell us what style you used to create it!  I am taking a summer break from The Card Concept, but it will continue on, I'll just be back in the fall!

I was thrilled that the pool we like to go to was taking walk-ins yesterday!  Originally, they said they would only have summer memberships, which didn't fit in with our plans, but we were at the point of desperation and thankfully they said to come on over!

We were happy campers!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Tasteful Touches, Ornate Thanks, Itty Bitty Birthdays, Beautiful Beach (ret), Water Droplets (Deep Red)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Soft Sky (ret), Dapper Denim (ret), By The Shore DSP (ret), Acetate Sheet
Ink	Craft White, Misty Moonlight, Soft Sky, Balmy Blue, Pacific Point, Pool Party
Accessories	White Sequins (from my stash), Rhinestones, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Tasteful Labels Dies, Stitched Be Mine Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Heat Tool, White Embossing Powder, Aquapainter, Sponge Dauber, Circle Punches in Various Sizes

TSOT462 Bee Sympathy

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  It is hot, hot, hot today! Hoping to cool off this afternoon in a pool somewhere!  My card today uses the sketch from Try Stampin On Tuesday:

and it is a sympathy card for the Amish friend who gives John (and sometimes me!) his bee sting therapy.  Have you ever heard of that?  You can read a little about it here.  John started doing it for numbness and pain in his hand after my brother told him about it. He is always trying alternative medical things, anything to not have surgery!  Anyway, our friend's MIL passed away, so I thought a bee-themed card was in order:

I used the stamps and dies from the recently-retired Honey Bee bundle; the sentiment is from a past Paper Pumpkin kit, and the flowers on the blue panel are from Bloom and Grow:

And the inside Bible verse is an old one from Our Daily Bread Designs:

Hopefully it will bring some comfort to the family!   And I had  Mr Lapp 's permission to take a couple pictures of him stinging my brother:

He holds the bees with a tweezer so he can get right at the area of pain; apparently he himself was in excruciating pain from back issues and sought relief from bee stings when he had exhausted all other avenues.  He was so excited about the results, he decided to learn to do it himself and now shares it with his "patients" all over the area.  John believes it is beginning to help him; my brother and I dislike the swelling and itching afterwards; the stings really aren't that bad, so we're not quite sure it's worth it!  So we'll see how it goes with John...I'll keep you posted! Thanks for popping in today, enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Honey Bee (ret), Bloom and Grow, Paper Pumpkin (ret), Scripture Collection 2 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Naturals White (ret), Oliver DSP (Lost and Found 3, My Mind's Eye)
Ink	Bumblebee, Misty Moonlight, Memento Black, Bordering Blue (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Detailed Bee Dies (ret)

CAS Snowflake

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a good weekend.  We spent some time with our family, which was really, really nice!  That meant I didn't get any time in my craft room, but I was up at 3:30 this morning, not able to sleep, so I started a couple of cards and finally finished one of them up.  Why is it that CAS cards are not so simple?!  Anyone else have that issue?  I just want to add more stuff! 

Anyway, the Addicted to CAS challenge this week is one layer; Christmas Card Throwdown wants snowflakes, and Krafty Chicks wants clean and simple!

 

          

  So here we go:

I began with a Thick Whisper White card base and stamped the large snowflake corner stamp in Misty Moonlight ink on both corners.  I added a few extra snowflakes in Balmy Blue, then stamped a sentiment from the retired Merry Christmas To All in Night of Navy.  I used my Stamparatus to get a good, dark image, then stamped over it with Versamark ink and heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder:

It really made the sentiment stand out!  I stamped another snowflake and sentiment from two past Paper Pumpkin kits on the inside, and it was finished!  I didn't add any sparkle, gems or ribbon!  CAS it is!

Cassidy and her cousins spent a LOT of time in the pool yesterday....they were moving so fast, I barely got a chance to take a picture:

I would venture to say she slept very well last night!  Thanks for popping in today---enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Merry Christmas to All (ret), Paper Pumpkin kits (ret), Frosted (Kaiser)
Card stock & Papers	Thick Whisper White
Ink	Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Versamark, Balmy Blue
Accessories	Clear Embossing Powder
Tools	Heat Gun