It's been a relaxing day.

I love sitting here at my desk looking out at the scenery. The land, the animals and the beautiful weather. Today was my day off. I pulled out a number pieces of backgrounds and set out to use them all on cards today.  This card is for the Simon Says Create a Card challenge at Paper Craft Star. The requirements are a to use a card base of 5 x 7, a 3 x 4 1/2 mat, Rhinestones, Flourishes and whatever else you want to add.

 

The background is a ink & smoosh on glossy card stock I sprayed with webbing. The strip with the butterflies is a left over scrap from a resist technique. I have been wanting to use this for some time now. I finally found a place for it. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart border punch.

Lots of white

Another challenge at Stamping Vacation I wanted to work on this week was the Lots of White Space. The extra challenge was that it could only be one layer. I just bought this frame embossing folder for my Cuttlebug that I wanted to try out. All I had to do was make my card base and run the front through the bug in the folder. Added some pearls and a Sentiment from Just Rite stamps. A very quick card that would be just right to send to a couple getting married.

Isn't this a lovely picture !

  

 These are the colors and picture to use for the challenge at The Play Date Cafe. That looks like such an inviting place to sit. Don't you think.

 The iris from I Brake for Stamps was still on my desk so I used it once again. There also is a CAS challenge at Stamping Vacation to use only 1 Cuttlebug folder and no other tool. I am entering this there too.

A Speedy the Cat Challenge

 Here's the Speedy the Cat challenge this week. Use dry embossing, Heat embossing and have one part of you image popped up.

The background I made a few weeks ago when I was trying out a few resist techniques. Wasn't sure I liked it but running it through the Cuttlebug in a folder worked wonders on it. So that's my dry embossing. I heat embossed my sentiment and the one lady bug has had his body popped up. Sentiment and lady bug from Marks Finest Papers. The sentiment is stamped on a fancy tag from Spellbinders.

Spring colors

Today I worked on 2 challenges. The first one is for Speedy the Cats Friends. Round, 3 pastel colors, 3 bling and 1 image. The pansy is from Marks Finest Papers and is colored with Copic Markers.

 

                      I used my round Nestabilities to cut all the circles. 

Next I made a card for the challenge #20 at The Brakefast Club. Use an I Brake for Stamps image and create a Birthday card.

 

Since I had the purples out I chose this great Iris for my card. A Nestabilities oval, Long Scalloped rectangle and a brand new die from the labels series were used.

5 Generations

My oldest child is visiting this week end from Ohio bringing with her my Grand Daughter and my Great Grand Daughter. We took a 5 Generation Picture today.

 

That's my Father holding Karlie.

In the back is my Mom, Grand Daughter Juli, Daughter Heather and me. We also did one with just the girls.

 

Afterwards we went to Homosassa Springs State Park for a lovely afternoon. 

They will be leaving tomorrow.

I got some great news this week. I will be designing for the Challenge Blog I have participated on a lot, Stamping Vacation. They have a different challenge each day and I will be doing 6 of them each month. I hope you will follow along and participate. Challenges are such fun and make you think. They also give you the start you need to create when you can't think of what to do.  My first card will appear on April 10th. Hope to see you there.

It's a Beautiful Day

Lovely Lovely Lovely weather here in Florida. It is such a gift. I wish everyone could have this weather.  The challenge at Speedy the Cats Friends was to use  Lime Green & Gray and no more than 1 layer. I used another of my new stamps from Marks Finest Papers. Both stamps are from the set In the Forest.

 

Isn't he cute!!

I also made another card with stamps from the same set. This one is not for a challenge. The fern is a brand new die from Spellbinders.

The Bleach technique revisited

My last attempt did not work at all. Someone posted to try SU card stock. Well that is what I used as well as some paper from Michaels. SO I went and inspected my little container of bleach. No smell of bleach. Not sure what happened. I guess bleach neutralizes itself after awhile. Got out my bottle of Clorox Klean Up and wha-laa I have the bleach technique. I purchased a couple stamp sets for my birthday from Marks finest papers. This Pansy is from one of my sets as well as the saying and the little trim piece. I added Pealed Paint Distressed ink to the leaves. I'm going to enter this as my second card at Speedy the Cats Friends challenge Use Bleach. This one actually uses bleach. So ladies if you are having trouble with this technique you may need new Bleach.

Pinwheels

This pinwheel was so easy to make and it looks so cute. Don't you think so? I'm using the sketch from The Stamping Vacation.

Mama chops had her babies outside this afternoon. They were running all over the yard and rooting in the dirt. Very funny to watch. All are doing well.

Use Bleach

That was the challenge at Speedy the Cats Friends. Well I tried and I tried but I couldn't find any card stock that would bleach. Then I tried a technique on glossy with Pigment ink and Dye ink but the Pigment ink smeared so after a wasted morning I gave up and chose to do a faux bleaching technique. The stamp is a Tim Holtz and I used Alcohol Ink around it.

The background was made years ago. If I remember correctly it's Elmers Glue and PearlX heated with the heat gun.
I also tried a technique I saw in a video on Stamp TV. You wrap your brayer with a rubber band, roll it in your Versa Mark and embossed with Gold EP. I really liked my background. Looked for a small image so I wouldn't cover it all up.

 

I tried to get a little artsy. I rolled up some tulle and sewed it together to make a little rose. There is a pearl in the center. Then I tried to make one of those hat pins that are becoming so popular. 

Make it white

I was able to sit down this evening and finish the last card on my list. The Stamping Vacation challenge was to have a white card and use gingham. Went through my ribbon stash and found a purple gingham so purple became my splash of color for The Play Date Cafe challenge white with a splash of color.

  

I used Memento Lulu Lavender and Grape Jelly.

My daughter came home this evening for the start of her Spring Break. She got some special loving from one of our new family members. Before it was over she had mud all over but never lost the smile.

My last challenge for the day

Boy! have I had some fun today. Accomplished quite a bit. This last card qualifies for The Stamping Vacation "clean and simple" - flowers. It also works for Pals Paper Arts color challenge.

 

I stamped 3 of the Queen Annes Lace with Versa Mark and embossed with Clear EP. Then stamped it with Burlap and Sage. Then I sponged the rest of the background with several colors close to the one for the challenge. My card base is Baja Breeze and my layer behind the image is Crumb Cake. This was a very quick card to make. Less than 10 minutes.

No sour grapes here

This challenge at The Stamping Vacation is to make a monochromatic card using purples. The grapes are from I Brake for Stamps. They are colored with Prisma pencils and Gamsol.

 

The background is stamped with Memento Lulu Lavender and Grape Jelly.

Use anything but a flower

Sounds easy enough. I searched through my colored images for something without a flower.  I had a cute little girl on the beach. Nope flowers on her flip flops. Had cute little swimming duck. Nope flowers on their inner tube. And so it continued until I came across this little guy. Now to add it to a card. The backgrounds I had made last week all had flowers on them. Every piece of paper I picked up had a flower on it somewhere. But finally SUCCESS!. This is for a Stamping Vacation  challenge.

 

I can't tell you where the image is from. I received it in an image swap. Used Prisma pencils and Gamsol to color it. 

spring is in the air

Over at the BrakeFast Club we are having a Spring swap. Only requirement is to use an I Brake for Stamps stamp.  I made this bird panel probably a year ago. I finally put it to use. Hope my partner likes her card.

For the Stamping Vacation I am doing the color challenge light yellow and dark blue. I used the sketch from the SSSD yahoo group sketch swap to make the card. The background was made with a border stamp first stamping in one direction with yellow and then in the other direction with blue forming a plaid. An Inchie stamp from Inkadinkado and a Martha Stewart Punch around the Page punch finished it off.