Friendship

Let me just say, I love My Favorite Things stamps! This set, called By the Seashore, is a set I've had for a while but with our long cold winter, I just couldn't get in the mood to imagine dog walking along a shore. Now that summer has arrived, and with the MFTSC34 challenge this week, I just had to ink these stamps up.


I colored the image with prismacolor pencils. Her straw brimmed hat is pop dotted to give some dimension. I used my cuttlebug swirls embossing template on the blue background and the sand colored panel at the bottom. My oval nestabilities dies really came in handy for this layout too. The oval image is also foam dotted so as to give the image of walking along the sandy beach and water's edge. And, whenever I can, I like to use some of my dog embellishments so I added the twill paw print ribbon and pawprint brads.




This week's MFTSC34 challenge sketch was designed by Cindy Haffner, whose blog, Cindy Haffner's Corner is one of my favorite blog sites to visit. Here is the sketch:







I'm really enjoying using layout challenges. There are some very creative bloggers who come up with fun and challenging layout designs.




Thanks for stopping by! CHEERS!

Sweet! Mojo41

I have had this ice cream cone stamp for years. It is a wood mounted one from the Michael's $1.50 bin ($1 in the U.S.) from years ago and is made by Katie & co. I have an ice cream sundae stamp very similar to it. With the high temperatures and humidity we've been experiencing I decided it was time to make some cool and sweet cards.

This card uses Julee's Mojo Monday layout challenge for this week on her blog, Poetic Artistry. I look forward each Monday to see what the new Mojo layout challenge will entail. This is this week's sketch for Mojo Monday 41 :

The "Sweet" sentiment is from Close to my Heart.

I hope you have a cool and SWEET day!

Have your cupcake and eat it too!

Cupcakes seem to be the rage this year. Cupcake everything from the kind you eat, to rubber stamps, to cupcake stands, to personalized cupcakes, to cupcakes replacing traditional birthday and wedding cakes. Yes! You can have your cupcake and eat it too.

The cupcake row stamp is one of my favorite justjohanna rubber stamps. I watercolored the image with Prismacolor watercolor pencils and then added lots and lots of stickles glitter glue on the frosting and a dab of bright red liquid pearls for the cherry. The sentiment stamp is from Inkspirations.

I think this will make a very bright and festive birthday card for someone special. What do you think?

A note for you

This House Mouse stamp, made by Stampendous, is called "Birdie Choir." I think if I were to rename the stamp I'd call it "Let Heaven and Nature Sing." I love the thought of harmony in nature.

I colored the image with prismacolor pencils. The white background paper is embossed with my Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder. The little musical notes are punched using both the positive and negative punched area.

The weatherman says we are going to have a very, very hot and humid weekend. I hope to get some more gardening done. What are your plans for the weekend? I hope you have a good one!

RAK from Denise and Lisa

I had the nicest surprise and I had to share it on my blog. My cyber-friends, Denise and LESA, sent me this Happy Mail and I just had to share their cards on my blog.

Lesa sent me this sweet card of cheer to send smiles and hugs my way when she learned that my son has returned home safely from his second tour of duty in Iraq.



And Denise sent me this personally monogrammed card with the Harley on it. I LOVE this. Not only is it very pretty and has my initial, but it also is the color of my Harley!



Lesa and Denise, your sweet cards brought a smile to my face and I thank you so much for thinking of me and sending these RAKs. They made my day!

And, as I always say, YIPPEE SKIPPY!!

Pitaya, also known as Dragon Fruit

Have you ever tasted Dragon Fruit? Prior to last night, I had not. Isn't it an interesting looking fruit?
Here is the story of my introduction to this fruit. I was at the bank yesterday and two of the tellers were talking about this interesting looking fruit. One said that it was white and black inside. Sort of hard to describe the flavor but really nice on a fruit tray. One of the bankers came out of his office and asked her to cut it so we could all see it and try it. She said, "No way! This is my supper!" We laughed and I asked her where she got it. There is a special fresh fruits and meats shop within walking distance to the bank and she'd just purchased it there. She said they aren't available very often and a bit pricey for one: $5.00!

I'm game to try new things and especially fruits and vegetables so we got back to our banking and I walked over to the market and bought one for our supper.

Once home and after my husband said, "we are EATING THAT??!!" and he recovered from the shock when I said "ABSOLUTELY!" I had to figure out how to serve it.

I cut in half and true to the teller's word, it is white with tiny black seeds. I would compare it's texture inside as a cross between a kiwi fruit and a pear. The same color and a bit "gritty" in texture like a pear but the seeds are like you have in kiwi.

My next thought was, how does one peel this?



The skin just peeled easily from the side.

Perhaps you've eaten Dragon Fruit before. This was something new for me and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I've since read about it and have learned that it is a product of Vietnam. It is called Pitaya - Vietnam Dragon Fruit and is a spectacular night flowering cactus.

Roosting

It has been quite a while since I've created a card using JULEE's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. Each Monday on Julee's blog called, POETIC ARTISTRY, Julee posts a challenging design sketch and this week's was very creative and VERY challenging.



One of my favorite Stampin' Up! retired sets is called "Roosting" and this is the set I chose to use for this week's Mojo Monday 40 layout. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils.







I cut the circles (both round and scalloped) with Nestabilities dies. The flowered designer paper is from Daisy D's. The "Merci" stamp is from Justjohanna. Then I "blinged" it all up in a farmyard kind of way with feathers and rick-rack.

Thanks Julee for another challenging sketch and the opportunity to stretch the imagination for creative layouts.





Thanks for stopping by!

Calories don't count if...

Here is another of my new Gruffies stamps. Isn't he cute? I colored him with prismacolor pencils and I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but I added just a touch of dimensional glaze to each of the Chocolate Truffles. In real life they look like you could pick on right off the page from the bear's box. Yummy!




Enjoy!

Aromatherapy

Yes, I'm still enjoying lilacs, both indoors with my rubber stamps as well as the aromatherapy the ones outside provide.

This is one of the first House Mouse stamps I ever purchased many years ago. It is called "Aromatherapy." I colored the image with prisma color pencils. The designer paper is from a Martha Stewart collection package that I found on sale at Michaels.

And...just because I love showing off my pups, here is a photo of my 'Bella enjoying the lilacs in the backyard.



Hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring Monday morning.

The sweet scent of LILACS!

I love lilacs! I love their sweet scent, their color, the way they hang like grape clusters from the bushes and their bright green leaves too. I love lilacs!

My lilacs are in bloom right now and this Gruffies stamp looks a lot like what I probably look like when I scoop up an armful of these fragrant beauties. I colored this Gruffies image with prisma color pencils. The background paper was a little scrap from my scrap box that was such a perfect match. The ribbon was a find in the sale bin at Michaels. Isn't it fun when all of the colors from various embellishments just fit together?

These are my lilacs. And here is my pup, Gabriel, enjoying the lilacs too.



I sure wish you could smell the sweet scent of my lilacs today. :)

Card Positioning Systems challenge #66

I have never done a CPS (Card Positioning Systems) challenge before. WHY? I have no idea because CPS is a great site and the challenges for layouts are extremely creative and fun.

I was blurfing this afternoon and came upon DEBBIE's blog called THINKING INKING post in which she gave the tutorial for making the CPS #66 card. I love her work anyway and the tutorial seemed so straight forward and fun. So I decided to give it a try.

The Mary Engelbreit stamp is made by All Night Media. I colored the image with Prisma color pencils. The background paper is from Stampin' Up!

Please forgive my photography. We are in the midst of a thunderstorm right now and I can't photograph outside. Since I do not have natural light, my lighting is casting a dark and gloomy shadow over my photo.

Summer themed Sassy Apron Swap

The Sassy Apron Swap is just so much fun. Every three months swappers are paired with another apron partner and given a new theme. This is the apron I made for my swap partner using a summer theme. I chose a cotton fabric that was bright and just begs for a margarita or some type of summer beverage that includes an umbrella in it.

Along with the apron each participant sends their favorite summer beverage recipe as well as a coordinating tea towel.



I hope my partner will enjoy her brightly colored and festive summer apron I made for her.

Bareback

I finished up this card late last night using another image from the retired Stampin' Up! set called Bareback. See my post below for another horse image from the set. There is also one more horse stamp that I haven't used from this set yet.

The image is stamped on watercolor paper with Versafine Black Onyx ink, embossed with clear embossing powder and watercolored with Tombow markers. This time I used a lot of water and gave it a more watercolor effect rather than precise coloring. Since the horses hind quarters fade out of the picture I thought perhaps more of a muted, watery coloring would work for this.

The designer paper is from My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my cards.

The wind of heaven...

The sentiment reads, "The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears." I think that is such a lovely thought.

This is a Stampin' Up! set, called Bareback, that I bought in an online garage sale a couple of years ago. It has three different images of horses and this sentiment. I was attracted to this set because the horses are realistic looking images.

The designer paper I used for this card is Daisy D's. The ribbon is...??? ... not sure but I love it and it matches this paper perfectly. I used "weathered", a background stamp by Stampin' Up! for the weathered background behind the horses.

I have another horse card in the works using this Bareback set that I'll post soon.

Thanks for looking!

Puppy Love

PUPPY LOVE! Yes, you can almost smell that sweet puppy breath! This card will be sent to a special someone who just got a new puppy.

The puppy image is from Stampin' Up from the spring mini catalog and is called "For Father." I stamped on watercolor paper with Versafine and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Next the image was watercolored with Tombow markers. I punched the photo corners with my EK Success paper shaper punch and then stamped a small paw print on each photo corner before adhering the the card stock.

The card stock is Wild Asparagus scraps that were in my scrap box. I don't know who makes the paw print twill tape. I'm almost out of it so I need to find some more. I love using the paw print twill.

Thanks for dropping by. I'm getting my mojo back for card making and it feels good to have inky fingers again!

Summer Fun

I just love Eat Cake Graphics stamps and these that I've used for this "summer fun" card are not exception. I've never been one to stamp scenes but Eat Cake Graphics has several summer themed, swimming, pools, sentiments and people too that made it time to do a little masking and have some fun.

This was a lot of fun to "build." I watercolored with Tombow markers, added a lot of stickles glitter as well as dimensional glaze on the pool and pup in the pool to create a wet look. I used up some tiny scraps of rick-rack that I'd kept just in case.

A cool breeze is blowing today so no swimming for my pups. I don't think it will be long, though, before they'll be in the pool having some fun.