LIM74 & SSC

 

Wow, two posts on a Saturday!  If you’re looking for Linda’s Grandmom-to-be Blog Hop, you can click HERE!  I had an absolutely marvelous Saturday---it’s after 3pm and I just got out of my jammies…..which is UNHEARD of for me!  I had a chance to use a new set that I just won (thanks, Justin!) called Papaya Collage…SO pretty!  The Less is More challenge had a challenge to use their header as an inspiration, and the Simply Stamping challenge, which is a new one to me, was CAS.   I did a lot of masking and used several other sets beside the Papaya Collage:

It is almost one-layer----I popped up the butterfly and added a single markered pearl, but other than that, it is just stamping, stamping, stamping!  The frame was stamped in Soft Suede and I added a little Crumb Cake shadow, then stamped the other images in Stazon Black or Basic Gray. 

I used Nature Walk, Creative Elements, You’re A Gem and Bring on the Cake for the birthday sentiment inside:

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for the Paper Players challenge!  I have run out of Cassidy pictures, but here are a couple of nature shots for you---we came home from church last week to find that a branch on a large pine tree had split off….in a very interesting way:

  

Doesn’t it look like a pencil point?  DH was wondering if it was at a knot….any ideas?

Blog Hop for Linda

Happy Hot Saturday!  Another scorcher today---hope you can find some cool activities to do!  Today, Lesley is honoring a sweet team member, Linda Callahan with her very own grandmother-to-be Blog Hop:

Linda will be a grandmom real soon to a sweet little baby girl!  I keep telling her that her world is going to be turned topsy-turvy and she will be IN LOVE!  The theme for the hop is a sweet saying:  “A garden of love grows in a grandmother’s heart”!  Here’s what Lesley says about the inspiration:

• Use anything that reminds us of our grandmother…a lesson she taught us, her favourite colours, a memory…to inspire a creation by you. You can use any colours or themes that connect to the quote above and also incorporate a congratulations theme too…really…the sky is the limit!

First, let me show you my card.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch 247 and a retired favorite SU set, Feathered Friends:

 

I did some watercoloring (sorry, I am stuck on that this week!) and some new SU papers from Storytime and Patio Party.  Linda always likes my random stamping on my backgrounds (she calls it stamping stamping stamping) so I added some of that to my Baja Breeze card, and finished it with a sweet little red bow and some hearts.

Lesley also asked us to share a little about our own grandmothers.  I have to admit, I got a bit choked up when I sat down to write my memories.  Both my grandmothers have been gone for over 30 years, so my memories are very old and faded!  My paternal grandmother (Gramma) lived on the farm with us, in a separate house, but I saw her every day of my childhood.  She was frugal, funny and wise.  She would scare us on Halloween by dressing up as an old lady and taking out her false teeth!  She LOVED to garden and I cannot see a peony or poppy to this day without thinking of her.  I used to follow her around with a jar of gasoline as she tended her rose bushes and drop Japanese beetles into it!  And she prayed for us to become Christians and grow up to be helpful, caring people.  My maternal grandmother (Nan) was a bit more stern, so I was a tad bit intimidated by her until I got older.  She was an excellent cook and extremely crafty!  Although I always say I got whatever artistic genes I have from my dad, my maternal grandmother instilled a love of crafts in me.  We were just getting to a point where we could do some projects together, and sadly, she passed away.  Looking back, I can see where both grandmothers influenced me in my areas of giftedness, and I am SO blessed to be able to have had both of them close by.  It makes me appreciate being a grandmother to Cassidy even more….I hope I can nurture her gifts and talents like my grandmothers did to me!  And I know that Linda will be a fantastic grandmother…..we are all anxiously awaiting the moment when that will happen!  I created this card because the flowers remind me of Gramma and her garden, and the watercoloring and “crafting” part of making the card itself reminded me of Nan.

Okay, if you’ve made it through my long post, you can hop over to the others on the blog hop!  You can start if you like, at Freshly Made Sketches, and here are the others, be sure to stop by and give them some love as well! 

Lesley Croghan

Mary Fish

Cindy Hall

Anne Marie Hile

Jaydee

Nance Leedy

Jen Mitchell

Tui Nathan

LeAnne Pugliese – you are HERE!

Ann Schach

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

And congrats to Rita, also, who just became a mom on Wednesday!!!  Lots of snuggles & hugs going out to your little one!

Happy Scraps

Happy HOT Friday to everyone!  I hope you are staying cool, and we are praying for all the people in Colorado whose homes were lost.  What power Mother Nature has!  I managed to get some stamping in today---I thought I would be able to do a lot more this week, but I did some relaxing by the pool yesterday with my girlfriend (and got a little burnt!!) so it was worth giving up some stamping time to spend with her!

The SCS challenge today is to use scraps----don’t we all have TONS of them?  I went to my little bin of scraps and just pulled some out that sort of followed a color trend and came up with this:

 

I used the Deconstructed Sketch sketch #58:

and this is also for the Raise the Bar challenge 107, which is summer!

 

I just love this Graphic 45 paper with its retro bathing suits!!  That sure says summer to me!  Thanks for visiting today, and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me!

Here’s a little shot of Cassidy & her daddy at the water park!  Now I am off to Curves to release some frustration due to my incredibly slow computer!  The heat must be getting it down!

Two Summery Cards

 

I had some fun watercoloring and stamping time the last couple of days!  The first card was for the SCS CAS challenge, which was a sketch.  Here’s my take on it:

 

I stamped the image in Stazon on watercolor paper and colored away, then added some glitter to the “sand”!!!  You’ll notice a couple of “bleeding” images…..that’s what happens when you forget to heat set your coloring before you proceed to the next color!!! 

The next one is for the Catered Crop challenge, Songs of the Rainbow, and the Just Add Ink sketch challenge 123 (oops, missed the deadline):

I flipped the sketch on its side in order to use this cute ice cream cone image, again stamped on watercolor paper and colored with inks:

 

Although these aren’t the exact colors of the rainbow, I think it’s got enough to qualify!  They look pretty yummy to me, anyway!  Of course, I had to add some glittery sprinkles to the dips, as well as a glimmery cherry:

  

Gee, I think I need to go check the freezer---I’m getting hungry!  If you have any questions about anything shown here, just shoot me an email!  Meanwhile, here’s a little mermaid enjoying Ocean City, MD:

I have no idea how they got her to stand still long enough to take this shot!  Quite a serious mermaid, I’d say!  Enjoy your day!

ColourQ 143, HSS124 and Cardabilities 57

 

Top o’the morning to you this Tuesday!  It’s ColourQ day—yippee!  Here’s a sweet little color combo to tempt you:

I had to laugh at myself when I posted this card, as I used a very similar square theme for last week’s card!  No, I’m not in a rut, am I? 

Truth be told, I was using sketch #57 from Cardabilities, since my friend Lesley is now on their DT:

So you can see why I used squares again!  For my CAS card, I pulled out some fun Basic Grey papers from Marrakesh and Nook & Pantry because they had the sort of gypsy feel to them inspired by the shirt in the photo. I used the small heart punch to pop up a heart in three of the squares:

and honestly, I had no idea what sentiment I was going to use…..birthday?  get well?  Then I remembered the Quilters Sampler Sentiment set from PTI, and it seemed to work pretty well, so I stamped it in Basic Gray:

I added a heart from a PTI Valentine set and a needle from a retired CHF set, then hand-drew some thread. This just makes me smile.  I hope you’ll play along with us this week and create something that makes YOU smile!  Share it with us on the CQC blog where you can see all the divine creations the others have come up with as well!  Edited to add:  This also qualifies for the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge #124, quilting!

My DD sent us a few pictures from vacation; here’s one from their hotel; note the stuffed animals looking out the window as well:

Thanks for visiting today!

Merry Monday 26

Happy Monday, peeps!  Wow, what a whirlwind weekend, spent mostly away from home, and my house looks a wreck!  So this will be quick so I can get things back to somewhat normal!  Today’s Merry Monday sketch looks like this:

And here’s my happy little card:

I honestly can’t remember using this side of this retired SU paper, but it was so cute and happy, I had to pull it out for this card!  I used a retired Christmas set called Perfect Presentation, and used Baja Breeze, Sage Shadow (miss that color!) and Pretty in Pink for my stamped images.  My tag punches made quick work of this little one:

 

and I just freehand-cut my “joy” letters:

This sketch lends itself to some fun interpretation with some layering and your choice of shape!  Hope you find some time to make one more Christmas card for your stash!!!  Can’t wait to see what you create!  Don’t forget to share it with us at Always Playing with Paper and check out what beauties the other designers made as well!

I don’t have Cassidy this week, but I did find a couple pictures I hadn’t shared yet…..the middle one is blurry, but she has her shades on upside down!  That girl!

   

Paper Players 101

Happy Sunday, peeps!  We had so much fun last week with the 100th celebration!  It was a blast seeing which challenges you chose in which to participate, and it was especially thrilling when you used one of my challenges!  Thanks so much!  This week Lesley, our queen of sketches, has a wonderful one to get your creativity going:

 Dear friends of ours celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary yesterday, so I used Lesley’s sketch as a starting point for their card:

This card was a challenge to photograph, as the silver embossing, which is so beautiful IRL, always made a reflection, so you will just have to imagine how pretty it is!  The background was embossing with a cuttlebug EF and the floral image from Creative Elements was stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed with silver embossing powder.  The vertical panel was stamped with the swirly image from the same set; the horizontal panel was wheeled with the jumbo wheel Cornelli Lace (ret), and both, along with the sentiment from Delightful Dozen, were all heat embossed.  The Brushed Silver cardstock is a beautiful foil for that silver embossing!  A few rhinestones add just the right bling for that silver anniversary!  And here is the inside:

I hope you can find real inspiration with this sketch, and use it to create a special card or project and share it with us over at the Paper Players blog!  And be sure to check out what the other creative designers did with the sketch as well!

I am on babysitting vacation this week, so no Cassidy pictures, sorry!  I did snap these last week; she is beginning to draw with a pencil and color with crayons.  After she finished her masterpieces, she informed me, “Mail!”  So we went outside:

 

Got the stroller out, and she climbed in with her “mail”:

  

And we put them in the mailbox:

Of course, I did retrieve them while she wasn’t looking!  I think she’s going to be a stamper, what do you think?

Rainy Day Creations June Sketch Challenge

 

I actually had some free time this afternoon to blurf and I came across a new sketch challenge from Susan at Rainy Day Creations:

I used to visit her blog a lot---I don’t know why I haven’t been there for a while!  I played with some MME Fiddlesticks paper to make this card for a friend:

 

and then used the other sides of the papers to make this one:

My computer is extremely slow today, so I’m not going to give you details….if you have any questions about stamps, ink or accessories, just shoot me an email---my address is at the top right sidebar!  I think the heat & humidity affects those wires or waves or whatever it is that makes the internet work!!!  Stay cool and enjoy your weekend!  I’ll be back on Sunday with my Paper Players creation!

Some summertime fun!