You're sweet

It has been a while since I've been able to get my fingers inky. My husband and I had a really nice "vacation." While we didn't go anywhere away from home, we did get a lot of renovation work started on the upstairs of our little house. We took some motorcycle rides, went to a movie matinee, celebrated our 6th anniversary at a fancy/schmancy Italian Restaurant (it was yummy! Thanks Stephanie and Andrew!!) and I bought a few new stamps.

These popcicles look very sweet and refreshing so I decided to use Julee's Mojo Monday 46 sketch that she posted this week on her blog, POETIC ARTISTRY, for the layout. I painted the popcicles with twinkling H2O's and double mounted them with pop dots for dimension.

Oooohhh...it feels good to be stamping and card making again. Vacations are nice but I really missed stamping and making cards. Now...off to ink up some more of my new stamps.

Until next time....

"Betsy" and I take our first roadtrip

All of this week my husband Paul is taking a week off. Supposedly this week is our summer vacation. Like so many others, due to the high price of fuel, we decided to stay close to home and take in some of the local sights and scenery. Also, we are in the midst of a major house renovation project so we've kept very busy.

One of the major things Paul has insisted on is that I get a motorcycle ride in daily. Today he announced that it was time for me to leave the neighborhood streets and, as the song says, "Get your motor runnin'. Head out on the highway. Lookin' for adventure. And whatever rubber stamps may come your way!" (NOTE: like the way I embellished the lyrics? Not bad, eh? LOL )

We headed up highway 17 to Alfred, Ontario where I knew there was a scrapbooking store that I'd never been to before. YOWZA! Highway riding is a lot of physical work when there are strong headwinds. I don't have a windscreen for my bike yet and at speeds of 90 - 100 kilometers/hour I found it physically demanding keeping my girl, BETSY, standing up straight and moving ahead.

But, I did it and we safely arrived at the very nice little shop called "Scrap en masse".









Of course I didn't come out empty handed either. Look at the GREAT clear stamps I purchased. I don't know how well you can see this photo, but I think the Christmas set with Santa playing checkers with the polarbear is darling! I can hardly wait to ink each of these sets up! Take a look at my loot!:



As I said, the headwinds were very wicked and I admit that I had a hard time but did manage to stay in control. Control, that is, until Paul had to make a sudden stop in front of me. I couldn't stop in time behind him and as I swirved around him on the left, my brake lever smashed into his clutch lever and the tip of MY little finger SMASHED AND SHATTERED his left side mirror. I managed to keep control of Betsy and stop her safely. Fortunately my gloves protected my hand from the shattered glass. I think I may have fractured the tip of my pinky but there were no cuts and I'll be fine...fine, that is, except this took a bit of toll on my lack of confidence issue that I've been dealing with.

With great fear and trepidation, I managed to ride the whole trip home. Paul and I hadn't spoken about the whole incident yet. I felt awful for damaging his bike. You know what he said when I pulled in the driveway behind him? He said, "You did GREAT today. I'm so proud of you and how you maintained control and stopping even after hitting me." (He was stopped at the time of the incident.) He was so supportive! What a guy!!

So here is the damage to his bike (I type this while hangin' my head in shame...)



I'm going to keep on riding, though. But for now, I think I'll take some Tylenol for my pinkie and then ink up my new stamps.

Until next time....

and "BETSY" too!

Harley Princess

Much to the horror of my daughter and I think to the amusement of my sons, I bought a Harley Davidson Sportster 1200L. I got my bike, which I've decided to name "BETSY", back in April. I've taken two sets of riding courses through the Ottawa Motorcycle Safety Council. My progress has been slow, sometimes frustrating, but overall quite a thrill and a lot of fun.

I took my third spill (or in motorcycle lingo, I dropped my bike for the third time) about a month ago. I haven't been on her since.

This morning my husband said, "Get your gear on! We are going for a ride." We were only gone about an hour. The first half hour was scarey for me but the second half hour was a blast!

I'm still learning. I'm not a speed demon. I do thoroughly enjoy being out riding. I'll continue to learn and build confidence. The confidence is what I've lacked and is my biggest drawback right now.

I have to thank my husband for his patience and teaching skills. Paul has a blog and needs to update it but you can find his motorcycle stories and rants about just about any topic on his blog IF WERE KING OF THE WORLD.

Also to Jovi for her support, tips and inspiration that a woman CAN ride a Harley and have a great time as well as create beautiful cards and art. Check out Jovi's blog called INKY IMPRESSIONS.

Oh...and the title of this post goes to my good friend as well as an inspiring woman, Lesa. When Lesa learned I bought a motorcycle she dubbed me a "Harley Princess" or H.P. for short. Lesa, it cracks me up everytime you say that! Check out Lesa's blog HERE.

Here are a couple of snaps Paul took after we returned this morning of his Harley Princess. Dang...my motorcycle DOES make my butt look big!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

We've had a beautiful Canada day today. It is warm, sunny and everywhere you go you see the Canadian flags.

Since we live just outside of Ottawa, the National Capital of Canada, you can't get much more celebratory and festive than here in the capital. Paul and I went downtown this afternoon. Thousands upon thousands of tourists and residents filled the streets, shops, cafes and outdoor markets. The Parliment buildings were filled with people on the lawns and taking tours. We saw fighter jet fly overs, heard live jazz musicians as well as some really wonderful string quartet music. It was just a very fun and festive afternoon.

After we came home we decided to deck our two Newfoundland dogs, 'Bella and Gabriel, out in their Canada bandanas. I had a hard time getting them to pose. They were too interested in the camera....or they are such hams that they are always sticking their nose up close to me.




Even one of my cats wanted to dress in his Canada Day bandana...a mini version of 'Bella and Gabe's. This is Tango. He loves getting dressed up!


Hope you had a wonderful day and good celebration today if you are here in Canada. For our neighbors to the south, we wish you a happy Independence Day later this week.

Cheers!

"I pledge allegiance..."

This was a fun card to make using a variety of stamps and punches. The checked border stamp and the primitive star in the center are from Cornish Heritage Farms. A few posts ago I posted a primitive card using other stamps in this set. If you like primitive art and would like to incorporate it into your stamping, I encourage you to check out Cornish Heritage Farms. This set of stamps is from their collection called The Rummage Bin.

The Pledge of Allegiance stamp is from Stampabilities.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sweet Biscuits for Strawberry Shortcake

My mother makes the BEST strawberry shortcake. She doesn't serve it on angel food cake or those little spongey cup things they sell at the grocery store. No way! My mom makes sweet biscuits and it is the best strawberry shortcake I've ever eaten. My husband feels the same way. He had never had sweet biscuits for strawberry shortcake before and, in fact, never cared for strawberry shortcake because he didn't care for the spongey cakes he usually had it on.


The strawberries are ripe now and I bought a basketfull yesterday and wanted to surprise Paul with some strawberry shortcake for supper. I couldn't find mom's recipe so I searched the internet for sweet biscuit recipes and I found this one that is very, very tasty! I think these biscuits would be good for breakfast or as a snack with jam or jelly.


The recipe is very simple and as they say, "nuthin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven." In case you'd like to try it, here it is:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour for patting out the dough
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)
1/4 lb ice cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup of half and half cream

(1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
(2) Combine dry ingreients
(3) Cut in butter
(4) Stir in liquid until it just begins to pull from the sides - it WILL be pretty moist.
(5) Spread 1/4 cup flour on a pastry board and dump the dough onto the flour
(6) Gently turn the dough until all sides are covered with flour
(7) Kneed by gently rubbing the dough into the flour a scant 8 to 10 turns
(8) Pat dough into a 1 inch slab
(9) Cut into rounds with a sharp round biscuit cutter. You can push the scraps together to make a few more but just try not to knead your dough too much
10) Place on insulated cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart
11) Put in HOT oven and bake for 12 - 15 minutes


VOILA! Sweet biscuits. They actually look like very large, puffy sugar cookies and not as much like a biscuit. But yuuuuuummmmmy...when you break or slice it in a bowl, add fresh strawberries and top with whippy toppy...mmmmmmm.




Bon Appetit!

America

It is almost time to celebrate Independence Day in the U.S. and I decided that this year I'd make and send a variety of Independence Day cards using various patriot stamps, papers and embellishments on hand.



This sentiment stamp is from Inkadinkadoo rubber stamps. I rarely just stamp sentiments without some type of image but I don't think this one needs anything else. Lately I've been admiring so many talented paper artist's work who incorporate stamping on the inside of their cards as well as the envelopes. It is such a wonderful finished and professional look so I'm experimenting with small inside embellishing as well as the envelope. I'm not sure if you can see from this side view photo but I've used one of Michael's $1 bin sets (July) and used the CELEBRATE stamp from it. Also I got out a tiny star punch and punched the corners.



More patriotic cards to follow. Since I'm mailing to the U.S. from Canada I need to get them in the mail.

We may not have it altogether...

"We may not have it altogether... but together we have it all! Shhhh...don't tell my husband but this is the card I've made him for our 6th anniversary which is coming very soon. The inside of the card shows the rest of the sentiment.



I knew I wanted to use this stamp and sentiment for my card for him but it wasn't until I saw to challenge blogs that my layout and design came to mind. This week's OUR CREATIVE CORNER challenge is to make a card using buttons and brads. This worked out perfectly for this stamp and sentiment!

And then on Julee's blog, POETIC ARTISTRY this week's Mojo Monday 43 layout sketch challenge seemed to fit this image to a "T".

I just love this stamp image and the sentiment too. Both the stamp image and sentiment stamp are from HEATHER's STAMPING HAVEN in Ottawa, Ontario. I watercolored the image with Tombow markers. I added just a touch of stickles glitter glue here and there for a tad of sparkle.

Whew...I managed to work two challenges as well as finishing my husband's anniversary card all in one card. Hope he likes it.

Another Happy Mail Day

What a treat I had today when I went to my mailbox. This beautiful card from Leanne was waiting for me in my box! Isn't it beautiful?! You can see more of Leanne's fabulous work on her blog, WEE INKLINGS. Leanne also enclosed lots of beautiful images for me to color and use on card.

Thank you so much, Leanne. I just love Happy Mail Days!

Follow your Dreams

I've been wanting to make more long and tall cards and I just don't know why it take challenges to spur me on to do them. Oh well, I finally got off my duff and made this one for the World Stamping Week challenge on 2 Peas in a Bucket. The challenge called for a long and skinny card measuring about 4" by 9" that will fit in a business size envelope.

Also, on CPS this week, guess what the layout sketch was? Yep! It too was for a long and tall card. So I used the CPS sketch and made my "follow your dreams" baseball card for both challenges following this sketch:

I used a baseball collage stamp made by Paper Inspirations. I tried many different colors of ink and background colors for this card. Finally I decided to stamp in black and emboss it and not do any coloring on the image with the exception of the stiching on the baseballs. I like how it looks. The red dot background paper is from Stampin' UP! and I used my cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder for the blue background. The neat Baseball brad is made by a company called Hot off the Press. I've had the printed grossgrain ribbon which says follow your dreams forever and have never used it so this just seemed perfect. The red grossgrain ribbon was a little piece in my sewing machine drawer that matched well so I grabbed it for this card.

VOILA! My tall and skinny card for WSW: Long and Tall Challenge as well as this week's CPS challenge # 69.

Thanks for looking.

Wheelbarrow Ride

Another one of my new Gruffies stamps. This is called "Wheelbarrow Ride." The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils. I used a bit of Gunmetal Stickles glitter inside the flower pot. You can't see it in the photo but I've found that if you have a garden themed card and want some fun "dirt" that the gunmetal color makes sparkle-y and gritty dirt.

The background paper is Anna Griffin and the flower slider charm is from Maya Road.

Thanks for stopping by on this very rainy Thursday.

A happy mail day!

LOOK at the wonderful mail I received today from Jacqueline! I had admired the postcard Jacqueline made on her blog, My Scrap Basket and Jacqueline sent it to me! I'm truly thrilled to find such happy mail all the way from France from such a talented artist. And not only did Jacqueline send me the postcard but also this beautiful card. It just so happens that when I received my latest issue of The Stamper's Sampler I saw one of Jacqueline's cards like this in that issue.

Jacqueline, thank you so much! They are even more beautiful in real life and I'm honored to have them.

Don't you just love Happy Mail Days?!!

Home is where the heart lives.

I love Primitive Art. On the walls of my home hang prints of Jane Wooster Scott, Charles Wysocki as well as Warren Kimble. When I discovered that Cornish Heritage Farms had made and produced these primitive art stamps I didn't have to think twice about ordering them. When they arrived, I was not disappointed.

As I've mentioned before, I'm not real good at creating stamped scenes but I have to admit that this was a lot of fun. It required a lot of masking and various colors of ink on the same stamp while trying to maintain a muted and primitive look.

I'm pleased with my first card using this set. I have a couple more drying on my work table to post in a day or so. I thought this card would be nice for someone who's just moved.

Until next time...

Celebrate

This week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge (presented on Julee's blog, POETIC ARTISTRY) is a fun one. At first I over complicated the layout and couldn't figure out how to make it work. Then, as chance would have it, I was picking up some scrap designer paper and suddenly I knew what stamp would be perfect with the paper and Julee's layout would work perfectly.

Here is this week's Mojo Monday #42 sketch:

I used an old Stampin' Up stamp set entitled "Send a Celebration." I think the firecrackers don't need a lot of coloring work on them so I just used gel pens and stickles for the festive coloring. It was perfect luck that I had just three red star eyelets for the side design element. Inside the card I stamped a little star swirl. I've seen more an more cards lately that have stamped small embellishment inside the card and I really think that gives a greeting card a polished look.


So, here is my Mojo #42 card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dick, Jane and Sally

Do you remember reading Dick, Jane and Sally primers in the first grade of elementary school? I sure do! I was not a very good reader as a child. I liked to read, but it was a slow and painful process. The little Dick, Jane and Sally books gave me my first start to the love of literature despite my difficulties.

I was looking at fabric online and was so excited when I found this print. I also bought some Dick Jane and Sally panels that I'd like to use for a tote. And another piece of fabric from the same line is the Dick, Jane and Sally text in the very same font as the reader books were. I'm looking forward to using those too.

But on to this apron. I made this in about 2 hours this afternoon. It wouldn't have taken that long had I not gone overboard on rick-rack, buttons and trim. I wanted to make this smock apron for grooming the dogs. My dogs are "blowing coat" right now and I'm covered in dog hair. I also wanted something to have the combs, brushes, clippers, rake close at hand and these pockets are great.

So while this is an extremely simple (shall I call it "elementary") apron, it is most definitely functional and fun.