PCCCS196 Thanks

Happy Tuesday, all!  Back to the normal routine today after a marvelous holiday weekend!  I can't remember a long weekend where we had such great weather and were so relaxed!  I was so relaxed I almost couldn't get motivated to stamp!  But I had seen this fun sketch so I decided to play around with some elements I already had laying on my desk!  This sketch is from the Paper Craft Crew:

You might remember this card; I was playing around with the same floral image from the All About Everything Paper Pumpkin set, but using different colors (these are from the ColourQ 343) and had these left over on my work area, so I combined them with a vellum flower diecut and some gold twine:

I embossed the vellum with the Perfect Polka Dots EF on the "lightest" setting so it wouldn't cut through the vellum.  The sentiment is from Watercolor Wishes, and banner's ends were cut with deckle-edged scissors and colored with a gold Zig Painty Pen. I also added some Gold Encore speckles with Itty Bitty Backgrounds:

The DSP is a little scrap of Pretty Petals and the heart and circular mat are gold foil!  Thanks for popping in today!

I love this shot of Cassidy coming through the flower bed on Sunday morning before church.  She was retrieving one of her dolls who slept overnight outside, LOL!  What you might not notice is that she is wearing my sneakers!

The grass was wet and she didn't feel like going inside for her boots, and Grammy's shoes conveniently happened to be on the porch!

Enjoy your day!

Memorial Day

Image courtesy of Graphics Fairy

Happy Memorial Day to all my US friends.  I hope you will spend some quiet time today, thinking of our fallen servicemen.  Here is a little except from today's Trivia of the Day, by Michael Gallagher (which is interesting reading, BTW):  

"To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

Where will you be and what will you be doing at 3:00 p.m. today?"

I plan to set my phone alarm to 3pm for some quiet time, so I don't forget!

We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

Moina Michael

Have a blessed day, whatever you do!

Paper Players 297 Tic-Tac-Toe with FMS238 and JAI313

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Another Paper Players challenge is upon us with Laurie as our hostess, and she's got a tic-tac-toe challenge!  Check it out:

I don't know why, but my brain just defaulted to "vintage" again!   I was aiming for the top horizontal row because I had saved some pretty twine my daughter had gotten wrapped around a gift.  Although you can barely see it here, that was the impetus for the whole project, LOL!

So let's start with my sketch...it was from the FMS gals:

I turned it on its side and started gathering my elements!  Diecut sunflowers from Simon Says Stamp (Radiant Sunflowers) in Hello Honey, Crushed Curry and scraps of DSP; a scrap of paper from a botanical book, diecut with a Nestie flower die and watercolored with a paintbrush and Crushed Curry ink; a honeycomb heart from Cornish Heritage Farms (retired); and the yellow and white twine atop a So Saffron tag:

The tag is from PoppyStamps (Greeting Tags) and the sentiments are from Papertrey (Paper Tray) and the bee is from the same CHF set; it was stamped on vellum with Stazon ink and markered on the back.  You can't see it, but its wings are coated with Wink of Stella...so pretty!

I also stamped a little greenery (CHF) in Sahara Sand directly onto the background paper, which is from My Mind's Eye Sunshine line and added a few little cross-stitch embossing lines (Lawn Fawn Stitched Borders):

Finally, the inside, stamped with a sentiment from SU's Watercolor Wishes:

This also qualifies for the Just Add Ink challenge this week, which is to have a "B" on your card...I have bees and "best", and it's a birthday card, so that should do!  And I just noticed this would qualify for the center column down for the tic-tac-toe as well!  Sweet!

What will you do with this challenge?  Tic-tac-toes are always fun, so many possibilities!  Check out what all the team did:

• Claire
• Jaydee
• Joanne
• Laurie
• Nance 
• Sandy
• Linda
• Hannelie
• Colleen

A few pix from yesterday's Memorial Day parade:

Getting ready to leave:

Our awesome marching band:

One of my favorites...a soap box derby car:

 

And finally, John.....no, not the older gentleman, the GUY BEHIND THE FLAG!!!  Yep, I was standing right next to him and the flag bearer just couldn't get out of the way, LOL!!!!  

I did manage to get a shot of the Honor Guard....John is right on the end!

It was hot, sunny, beautiful and emotional....so many people thanked the servicemen for their service to our country, it really choked me up!  God bless them all, especially those who gave their lives.

PPA302 Graduation Day

Happy Saturday, everyone!  This is going to be quick, as we are going to our town's annual Memorial Day parade, in which DH will be marching as well as being a part of the Honor Guard which performs the three-volley salute!  So exciting!  My card today is a graduation card for my nephew, whose school colors are green and black!  The new In Color Emerald Envy was perfect:

This is a really large card, almost 5x7"; I wanted to use the Pals Paper Arts sketch shown here:

and it was still a tight squeeze to get all those numbers in!  My background paper is from Canvas Corp, and I used these papers last year on some grad cards and my customer gave me the leftovers!  The chevron looked great with the bold green numbers!  The "class of" is from last year's Occasions Catalog, and I just cut off the "2015".   The sentiment at the top is from Paper Pumpkin and I added a little mortarboard which was also from last year's set!

And on the inside, more Paper Pumpkin sentiments and images, and the stars from Holly Jolly Greetings!

Thanks for popping in!

Cassidy got some bath crayons and was practicing writing names on the tub wall!

This one was my favorite:

Enjoy your day!

MTS126 You're So Sweet

Happy Friday, peeps!  Yay, it's a holiday weekend here in the states as well!  I sat down last night and whipped up this sweet little card so quickly, it made my head spin!  I love it when things come together quickly!  I used the Match The Sketch sketch:

and some of the last few pieces of Sweet Li'l Things DSP I had in my stash:

Easy peasy!  I used a sentiment from the soon-to-be-retired All Boxed Up, stamped in Watermelon Wonder, and cut out a few strawberries to add as embellishments.  My horizontal banner is embossed with Softly Falling:

And on the inside, a sentiment from Cottage Greetings:

So happy you stopped by to visit today!

A pair of Carolina wrens decided to make a nest in a bird house that Cassidy's daddy made for her:

I got a chuckle as some of the nesting material didn't quite fit through the hole!  But they persevered, and have established a surprisingly large nest inside.  It is in our flower garden right outside our door, so I am sure we'll see activity when and if they lay eggs...it seems they may make two or three nests before deciding on exactly where to settle down!  Cassidy took a peek inside while they were off scouting the neighborhood!

We'll keep you posted!

AYSI135 and CQC343 Smile

Hi, peeps!  My card today is for two challenges:  the sketch from As You See It:

and the gorgeous color challenge from ColourQ:

After seeing the CQC photo, I had an idea in my head but it took me a day or so to figure out how to make it work....so here we go:

   

I stamped a floral image from Tim Holtz's Flower Garden in Versamark and Basic Black inks on Calypso Coral cardstock, then heat embossed it with black embossing powder.  I filled in the design loosely with a white gel pen and added some white speckles and sequins in black and gold:

I used a Simon Says Stamp diecut to cut my "smile" from Gold cardstock and mounted it on a piece of white cardstock, then added a butterfly (Butterfly Basics) and a little punched heart.  My banner is covered with some retired washi tape:

I didn't put a sentiment on the inside; I'll add it when I decide to send this card out!

Cassidy has been practicing riding her two-wheeler...it still has training wheels, but she's about ready to take them off.  We thought maybe her practicing would help her with her scooter as well (and yes, I know she should be wearing a helmet and sneakers!!) so she dusted it off and got it out:

 

I thought this photo said it all!

Mojo Monday 449 Thanks

Hey, peeps!  Happy Wednesday....finally looking like the weather is cooperating and not raining on our parade today!!!  I am trying to use up some of that hoarded DSP we all have...this time using the current Mojo Monday sketch:

And some Pretty Petals...again, I just love this color combo of Mint & Black!  

I used the All About Everything Paper Pumpkin set that was gifted to all PP subscribers, along with a sentiment from Suite Sayings:

I masked off a part of the sentiment and inked it up with Basic Black ink, then removed the mask (scotch tape works great) and stamped it directly onto the designer paper....I love this look!  I also used the speckles from an old set, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, and the center of the flower was from an older Paper Pumpkin set as well.  I guess I should mark the dates on them...I can't ever remember what set came when!!  Finally, the vertical border was stamped with the retiring Bordering Blooms...I like how it mimics the DSP!

I know I have harped on and on about the rain we've had, but here's an example of what I mean....so much rain that on Saturday, a mallard duck pair waddled up our driveway in the pouring rain!  My neighbors have a pond right across the road, and they normally hang out over there, so I am not sure what the attraction was at our house!!!

They looked around a bit and then waddled back down the hill:

The day before was gorgeous, though, and I was thrilled to see this scarlet tanager in my back yard!  Fuzzy photo, but I did just order a telephoto lens for my old camera, so hopefully I'll have clearer shots!  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Enjoy your day!

TSOT272 Sympathy

Happy Tuesday, all!  I missed posting yesterday; hope you had a fabulous weekend!  It's time for another Try Stampin' On Tuesday sketch!  Today the optional theme is Summer Fun, but I went in a different direction!  Here's the sketch:

Since I had been hoarding these beautiful Timeless Elegance papers (and now they're gone, sadly!), I thought it would be nice to highlight the gorgeous florals and make these roses the centerpiece of my card:

Once I decided what to do with the papers, the rest was easy!  I stamped some images from Butterfly Basics and Itty Bitty Backgrounds in Smoky Slate on the corners of my 4 1/4" square Very Vanilla card:  

In the opposite corner, I added some organdy flowers that I lightly dabbed with glue & Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Finally I added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes....never like needing sympathy cards, but they're a fact of life!  I hope you'll play along with this pretty sketch and be sure to check out what the TSOT team did on their blog!  Or you can stop over at our Facebook page too!  Have fun!

Cassidy earned some tickets to a Wilmington (DE) Blue Rocks baseball game through a reading program!  Although the day was cloudy, she still had fun!  Here she is getting her photo taken with Rocky:

Goofing around with her cousin Trent:

And she crashed on the way home!  

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!