My First "Our Creative Corner" Challenge

This is my card I made following the layout challenge for the newly formed "Our Creative Corner" team's weekly layout challenge.

This week's challenge sketch seemed like a perfect opportunity to ink up this Stampin' Up! stamp from the set called "Bloomin' Beautiful." I painted the flower with Twinkling H2O's.

This is the layout presented by the team.

It is getting ready to thunderstorm and has really gotten dark outside. Hence, my photograph is a bit dark. The color of the flower in real life is much more vibrant yellow than this photo appears.


I'm looking forward to the OCC weekly challenges to come.

Thanks for looking!

My Posies

Having such long harsh winters here in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario really makes one appreciate the flowers, birds and seeing colorful plant life in all varieties in the summer. I just thought I'd share a few photos of just a couple of pretty things:

How would you title your Memoir?

I'VE BEEN TAGGED by my friend, DEBORAH who lives in Nova Scotia. She asked me what would be the title to your own memoir, if you were to write one? Deborah said,
"Mine would be Carpe Diem...Latin for Seize the Day.

So now it is my turn to choose a title for my memoir. Hmmm...I've been thinking about this for a couple of days. I wouldn't even begin to give my children, siblings or husband the opportunity to title MY memoir. I'm sure they'd all come up with something creative! Hee hee hee!

OK...so after much thought, I'd call mine, Does my Harley Sportster make my derrière look big? Actually, that is my working title for an article I'm writing for a motorcycle column about older female riders of motorcycles. But this title has more to do with always trying new things and adventures. Frequently (almost always) when I try new things, there are and always have been some type of comical moment(s) in my adventures. And, this was actually the question I asked my husband the first time he rode behind me on my motorcycle. He just rolled his eyes, laughed and answered the appropriate response of, "Of course NOT, Skippy!" (He always calls me skippy, thus the origin of my cries of "yippee skippy!"

So now I tag a few of my blogging buddies JAN from Alaska (FAR NORTH DESIGNS), ETHEL (THE PAPER QUILTER) from Nebraska and TAMI (DAPPLE DESIGNS) from California and ask the same question of you, what would you title your life's memoir.

OH, and ladies, be sure to link back to this post after you post your response because I want to know what your titles will be.

"INCHIES" challenge

Each month, my good friend JAN, of FAR NORTH DESIGNS, and I alternate offering a technique challenge. Jan is, without a doubt, the most creative and talented paper artist when it comes using creative technique on paper artwork. Our challenges are far more for my benefit to step out of my little tiny box of papercrafting and to try new things.

This month it was Jan's turn to choose our technique and she chose INCHIES. Anyone who knows me (and Jan knows me!) knows I don't work well on little canvases. I do not do ATC's (yes, I have tried them) and I never got into the "Inchie" craze. This is why Jan is so good for me. We each made 2 sets of 6 inchies and then exchanged one set with each other. Then, the challenge was to display our inchies in a little album or mini book using spring and/or flowers as the theme. Without further ado, this is my inchie book using Jan's and my inchies.








I'm off to check out Jan's blog to see her inchie album using our collective INCHIES.

Happy Spring and happy gardening too!

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. :)