Happy Fourth of July!

"Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance."  Psalm 33:12 

Wishing You The Best

Happy Friday!  It's a wet, rainy start to our holiday weekend!  Hopefully it will clear up by the 4th!  I have a fun card today for two challenges:  the TGIF color challenge and the Fab Friday sketch challenge:

I pulled out some DSPs, my new Basic Border dies and went to work:

I heat-embossed a sentiment from Friends are Like Seashells and a matching Pierced Bloom flower, and mounted everything on a Basic White card base that was embossed with the Dots embossing folder!

And just for fun, I added one of the leftover strips to the inside of the card and stamped a sentiment from Best Year:

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your Friday!

We haven't had much luck making our own slime, so we bought some premade and added some goodies to it:

Sparkly and gross!!!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Friends are Like Seashells, Best Year
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Granny Apple Green DSP, Fresh Freesia DSP, Polished Pink DSP
Ink	White Craft, Polished Pink
Accessories	Dimensionals, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Big Shot, Pierced Blooms Dies, Basic Border Dies, Heat Tool, Checks & Dots Embossing Folders

TTTC120 Embossed Friend

Hello there, stampers!  It's time for a new Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for Team X!  Ashwini is our hostess with this awesome grid:

I chose the middle row down of die cut, flowers and heart for my card today; I was inspired by this napkin from the latest Martha Stewart magazine:

Rather than use a leafy design, I chose a floral design from Shaded Summer, embossing it in white on Blushing Bride:

I wanted to kick it up a little bit, so after diecutting the embossed image, I added a scalloped mat in Misty Moonlight and mounted it on some Blushing Bride DSP. I added the word "friend" by taping off part of a sentiment from the same set and stamping it in Misty Moonlight as well, then diecutting it and adding a couple little hearts coated with Shimmery Crystal Effects:

It's hard to see, but I did do some clear embossing behind my circle image as well. I wish that my white embossing powder was a truer white...does anyone have the same issue with their SU white embossing powder?  Maybe mine is just OLD!  I would love to find one that is a brighter white! I'm open to suggestions!  Anyway, I hope you'll play with our grid this week and pop over to the Tic-Tac-Toe blog to see what the others created!  Thanks for stopping in today!  

We were playing velcro ball a couple days ago and Cassidy threw the ball on the shed roof!  Uh oh!  But she had no fear about climbing up on the ladder to retrieve it!

Thank goodness for young legs and good balance!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shaded Summer
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Blushing Bride, Misty Moonlight, Blushing Bride DSP
Ink	Craft White, Misty Moonlight, Versamark
Accessories	Dimensionals, White & Clear Embossing Powder, Shimmery Crystal Effects
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Layering Circles Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Heat Tool, Triple Heart Punch (ret)

Farmhouse Christmas

Hi peeps!  I am squeezing in this Christmas card just before the TGIF deadline!  Here's their challenge:

And I am using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

And here we go:

My Cherry Cobbler card base is 4 1/4" square.  I added panels from the Winterberry line by My Mind's Eye, along with some snowflakes from Avery Elle (Holiday Skatches), mounted on a Cherry Cobbler glimmer paper circle:

The sentiment is from The Stamp Market's Candy Cane Christmas, diecut with the Stitched Rectangle dies:

I am also entering this in the Merry Little Christmas Challenge, which is "Anything Goes"!

Now we're off to take a bike ride and feed the horses down the road!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy your day and be blessed!  And be sure to stop back later for a new Tic-Tac-Toe challenge!

CASC&S426 Smile

Hey there, peeps!  Wow, it's the last day of June!  That month whizzed by for sure!  My friend and I are hitting the pool this afternoon to try to stay cool, so this will be quick!  The CAS Colours and Sketches challenge has a color palette AND a sketch to use this week:

I am not sure just how clean my card is, but I did have fun creating it since these peachy hues are some of my favorites!!  Since all the colors are retired, I did use a little creative license and substituted a couple of them....I'll show you where:

My image is one of the florals from Jar of Flowers; I was going to add the jar below the image but in the end, just left it alone.  I stamped it in Sahara Sand, then colored it with Blends of Pink Pirouette, Pale Papaya, Ivory and Cajun Craze:

I added a little interest to the background by masking my image and stamping the word collage from Quiet Moments in Pink Pirouette ink, then added the "smile" from Lovely You.  I couldn't find any Tangerine Tango in my stash, so I substituted with Tangelo Twist.  I put it on a Pale Papaya card base (instead of Peach Parfait) which was embossed with Tasteful Textile embossing folder, and the banner was embossed with the Checks mini embossing folder.  I think this could be used for any number of occasions, so I left the inside blank!  Thanks for popping in today!

And since I was working with peachy hues, I thought I would share a shot of a rose that I saw at Longwood last week.  It was almost past its prime, but it was still beautiful!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Jar of Flowers, Lovely You, Quiet Meadow
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Pale Papaya, Tangelo Twist (ret)
Ink	Sahara Sand, Tangelo Twist (ret), Pink Pirouette (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Checks & Dots Embossing Folder, Tasteful Textile Embossing Folder, Blends

Woodsy Deer Christmas

 Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Hot enough for you?  It's sweltering here in PA, I am trying to stay cool by stamping Christmas cards and hitting my brother's pool!  Here's my card; it features the sketch from Sunday Stamps as well as the "Neutral Noel" challenge at Jingle Belles!

I pulled out a Unity stamp I have only used once that I can remember, along with some neutral papers:

I stamped the deer twice in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla cardstock, cutting one panel with a Stitched Rectangle die, then fussy-cutting the deer from the other one.  I added a background stamp of Joy to the World on the rectangle panel in Sahara Sand to fill it in a bit.  I colored the deer in with some Blends, and added sponging to it with Cinnamon Cider.  The larger DSP was also sponged with Cinnamon Cider ink, and I diecut some "greenery" (or should I say "brownery") from Cinnamon Cider cardstock and stamped some music on them too!  It still looked a little plain, so I added a coppery bow, which made me think of adding a coppery mat!!!  I diecut a panel from some retired Brushed Copper, using the Stitched So Sweetly dies, cut it apart, and tucked it behind my deer.  

Before adhering everything together, I ran the Crumb Cake card base through the Big Shot using the new Wintery embossing folder and sponged a little ink on that too!  I was pretty happy with the results, although I wish my sponging had been a little more subtle on the background paper...oh well!  And  it looks very "white" here in the picture, but it's really more tan....just couldn't get my camera to capture the true color!  Thanks for visiting today and popping in!

A couple last pictures from Longwood; the children's area has lots of fun fountains, including these little birds spouting water:

And of course, Cassidy had to stick her fingers in it!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	All is Calm All is Bright (Unity), Joy to the World Hymn (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider, Brushed Copper (ret), Home for Christmas DSP (Kaisercraft)
Ink	Cinnamon Cider, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand
Accessories	Metallic Ribbon (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Wintery EF, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Holiday Greens Dies (Tim Holtz), Blends

Fun with Scraps

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a great weekend!  I spent a lot of time in my craft room yesterday as it was sweltering hot outside and I needed to make a bunch of cards!  No challenges, but I was able to use up some scraps that had been collecting on my desk!  Here we go:

Both these cards use pieces of Sweet Symmetry...such pretty papers!  I trimmed pieces to 1 1/8" x 3 1/4" and they fit perfectly on this Scalloped Contour diecut.  I added a sentiment from Sunny Sentiments and a few "Ritz cracker" flowers from Pierced Blooms:

I had a few more smaller pieces of the same cardstock, so I trimmed them down and added a Scalloped Contour "frame":

I diecut three "friend" pieces from Night of Navy using the Well-Written die, adhered them together and added some Shimmery Crystal Effects and a rhinestone for pizzazz:

You also might be able to see embossed polka dots on the base of the card; I used the Dots embossing folder from Checks & Dots; it's a smaller EF so it only embosses a partial section of the card, but I was able to re-position it to emboss the rest of the card, and it worked perfectly!  Thanks for popping in today!

My bird feeders are in my flower bed, so they're rather messy, LOL!  But there is an upside:

This particular plant has about 35 buds on it....I can't wait to see them all in the bloom!  Plus the finches love the seeds once they mature!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands."  Psalm 64:3-4

 

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sunny Sentiments
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Night of Navy, Bumblebee, Sweet Symmetry DSP
Ink	Night of Navy
Accessories	Dimensionals, Shimmery Crystal Effects, Noble Peacock Rhinestones (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Pierced Blooms Dies, Scalloped Contours Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Stitched So Sweetly Dies,  Checks & Dots Embossing Folder, Well-Written Dies (ret)