August Duel (Overdue!)

I lost my crafting brain this month...not sure where it went, but I'm working on getting it back.

My patient friends, the Dueling Darlings have a monthly challenge, due on the 15th.  Well I decided my funk had gone on too long and I needed to get back in gear!

Terry was the hostess for this month's round with the Dazzlers & she sent us an adorable House Mouse image to work with, and loaded her kit with great papers, ribbon and fun candi dots.  Here's what I came up with:

Terry's generous kit included this adorable apple paper.  I cut one out and put it on the tag, which was made with some other paper she sent.  Remember penmanship paper?  Yep!  That's what she sent!  Too clever.

Here's a look at the inside:

A strip of her school bus paper and more of the fun penmanship paper on the inside.  I've left it blank for a personal message for a friend.






Here's the back panel.  Just couldn't resist adding another school bus, they're so cute!

Thank you Terry for sending the perfect kit to inspire me to break out of my slump!  Now that I finally have my card posted I can go find more inspiration on the blogs of the Darlings.  Links are in my sidebar-go and check them out!

Unity's "Enjoy, Explore, Believe" is Image for Round 9 of Unidentified Image Swap

Here we are, the 10th of August and we who participate in the Unidentified Image Swap get to reveal this round's image and what we created with it!

This round is hosted by April and she gave us something a little different to work with: Unity's "Enjoy, Explore, Believe".  I really must thank you April, because this made me stretch and, if I may admit it, I'm a little pleased with the result!!

The idea was to make a bookmark with the sentiment, and include it on the front of the card with a pocket.  

I took a Very Vanilla SU envelope, sealed it and cut off one of the narrow ends.

Then it was stamped with a collage stamp by Hero Arts called "Musical Collage".  SU's Crushed Curry, Creamy Caramel, Tempting Turquoise and Cameo Coral inks were sponged onto the image.  Then the envelope was spritzed with Stardust Finishing Spray by A Muse Studios.  

When fully dried the envelope was then crimped and trimmed with brown crochet ribbon and flowers from my stash.

Here's a closer view of the envelope attached to the front of the card.

This is the sentiment as the bookmark.  SU's Tempting Turquoise and Chocolate Chip CS create the base layers, with a portion of the collage stamp watermarked on the TT layer.






The sentiment by Unity is sponged and edged, then the entire bookmark was also spritzed to give it the soft shimmer from the finishing spray.  When dried, an eyelet and satin ribbon was added.























Here's a view of the card front with the bookmark removed.



The upper edge of the card front is stamped with a French script stamp (not SU) that I've had in my stash for years, not sure of the origin, though!






























A great big "THANK YOU" to April for providing us with such a unique and different image this round!


Hopefully everyone who receives one of my creations won't be disappointed.  As for me...I can hardly wait to see what beauties my return will hold!


Thank you for taking the time to stop by and thank you for leaving comments.  They sure do brighten up my day!

Blessings to all of you.

"Each New Wave..." by D. Morgan

Over at the Crafters of Faith group, we host a monthly card challenge.  Our July challenge comes from Kelly:

"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." ~ John 7:38

Hi Faith sisters!  This month’s Crafter’s of Faith challenge theme is inspired this verse and your theme is: Water!  

 It’s summer and many of us are enjoying the splendors of the outdoors – boating, swimming, walking along the lakes and rivers.   Summer rains, as heavy and burdening as they can sometimes be, bring us new growth all around ~ trees, green grass and gorgeous flowers blooming.   Even spiritually, many people accept Jesus into their hearts and become baptized in water and have beach baptisms.  Water is a beautiful, healing, essential!  This month, I want you to use WATER as your theme on your cards:  Be as creative as you like -  think boats, oceans, the beach, tilted watering cans, bird baths, falling rain, etc!   Let water be the focus of your card and extra brownie points for using the color BLUE!!   Blessings! 

As many of you know, I am a fan of stamps with the art work by D. Morgan and am lucky enough to have quite a collection.  Lots of them involve lighthouses and ocean scenes, so I knew right away that I would use a D. Morgan stamp for this challenge.  In the end, what may be my favorite won out:

It's stamped with Marvy Matchables ink in Dark Brown onto Wausau's Stardust CS.  The Stardust has little flecks of color in it and a slightly rustic texture, both of which I really like for scenic/nature cards.  The card is colored with Prisma and Derwent pencils, blended with Gamsol.

Here are two closer views of the sentiment:

The inside includes another blank panel of the Stardust card stock, and a panel of vellum that contains pieces of pressed grasses.  The sentiment is an old SU, stamped in Old Olive ink.

   

The card's front panel is matted onto a rust colored vellum that compliments the color of the row boat.

The only part of this great challenge that I forgot about was including blue!  It would have been easy to change the color scheme to blues, but I just didn't remember that part in time.  Sorry Kelly!!



Songs that accompanied me while making this card included Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" and a good many Jimmy Buffet tunes, sprinkled in with some Bobby Darin.  All in all, a happy escape from the daily grind.

Wishing you all a wonderful day and thank you for stopping by!

A Summer Afternoon's Exploration

Bijou, Blog Editor here.  About time that I had a post.  My Female is not very good at sharing.

Here's my pet bird, Lou, being unusually quiet and taking a nap in the afternoon (she's an energetic one, constantly curious, drives me nuts).  Budgies just don't have the same decorum that parrots possess.  Guess she finally wore herself out!

So I decided it was time to roam.  Hmmm...no one around...what's that I spy on The Female's recliner?

It's this thing she calls "A Purse".  Some sort of device she carries around so that treasures found while out scavenging can be brought back to the nest.  

She's quite protective of "The Purse" so I am certain that there are good things inside.  Now's my chance!

First, just a taste to see if it's fun to bite.

Yep!  It gives that satisfying little punch when my beak pierces the leather.  This "Zipper" looks like a fun chew toy also.

All right, time to take a look at what she's stashed in here...wonder if there is anything good to eat?  Maybe some sweet potatoes or berries.  Maybe spinach?

HEY!!!!   Is that one of those shiny things that they use to write on paper?   Oh, I love those things, always good to wrestle with...

Drats.  It seems to be stuck in here.  Maybe I can just pull on it hard enough.  Nope, dang thing weighs more than I do.

Maybe I'll just rest here a while.  That pesky Lou won't find me when she wakes up.  A guy can finally have some peace!

Wishing everyone a good weekend.  Me? I'm hoping that The Female won't notice me and I'll get to go on an outting with her.  Looks like she could use some help bringing back useful items to our nest!

Mystery Swap Reveals Good Books!

Love a good mystery?  So do I!  Time to reveal the latest card for the Mystery Image Swap.   The hostess sends the images and we all have to create 4 cards and  send them back.  She swaps out and we receive 3 back along with the new mystery image for the next round.

Our mystery hostess this round is the lovely Barb, and she chose "Books A Flutter" by Unity Stamps for our image.   The image is colored with Spectrum Noir markers and a bit of shimmer was added to the butterfly with a clear Spica pen.  Unfortunately the pictures do not capture the shimmer :(

White card base, a layer of dark brown (DCWV) and then Tempting Turquoise by SU has been embossed for the front panel.  The DP is also by SU.

The banner is hand cut, so it's just shy of perfect, as you can see.  A dragonfly brad by Creative Impressions adds a touch of whimsy.

I can hardly wait to see what the others have created and to get my swap returns!  Plus, it's such fun to receive the next mystery image and start the process all over again.

This image and sentiment reminds me of my father.  I was a bookworm.  

Once I told my dad that I wished that some books would never end, just go on forever.  He looked at me and replied, "There is a book that never ends.  It's the Bible."  45+ years later and I still remember his reply!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by here today.  May God bless you and yours!

July Duel: Summer Time Treats & Cool Creations!

As you know, the 15th finds a great group of friends "Dueling it Up" - The Dueling Darlings challenge each other with some fun elements, we create & post on the 15th.

This month's hostess is our Darling Debbie and I must say she sent a colorful set of papers and embellishments to go along with a cute and playful image!

Here's what she told us:

Theme:  Cool Creations

Kit contains:

DP & Ribbon:  Ice Cream Parlor by Stampin' Up!

Image:  Good Ol' Summertime by Stampin' Up!

Paper Straw: A Muse

Buttons & Flowers: SU! and Michael's or Joanns

Craftworkcards Candi – pink dots

In your blog post, please let us know what your favorite summertime cool treat is.  Is it watermelon, ice cream, lemonade?  

Here's my card:

Isn't that such a cute image?!  

And just look at the wonderful papers that Debbie included:

Favorite summer time treats...hmmmmm...let me see.

There's watermelon, peaches, cantaloupes, nectarines...

And there's all of the wonderfully fresh seafood like haddock, flounder, lobster and salmon...

And there's fresh ice cream and yogurts...

What can I say?  I think I like it all.

Give yourself a summer time treat and visit the rest of the Divas & Dazzlers to see what their "Cool Creations" are!  Grab yourself a little treat and have some fun.

Some Little Things For Our Daughter's 30th Birthday

Can it really be 30 years ago on July 3rd that our daughter came into this world?  (How did 30 years go by so quickly?!)

This week's "Weekly Inkling" - the E-Newsletter from Split Coast Stampers - had a tutorial that caught my eye: "Lotion Nail File Gift Box".  It looked so cute so I thought I'd give it a try as a little something for our daughter's birthday.

Here's the result:

Another view:

Know what's funny?  She LOVES pink!!!  LOL, so of course I used deep pink colors.  The white CS for the box is 110 pound so it is very strong.  You should give the tutorial a try, it's not hard at all (trust me, I'm not very good at building things).  I think that these would make great little gifts for the holidays!

Also on this week's newsletter, under the section of "Tutorials You May Have Missed" (or some such title) was a tutorial for a "Crimped Diamond Card".  So I gave that a whirl for her birthday card and came up with this (using pink of course):

It was fun and easy to do.  The green panel is spritzed with "Star Dust Finishing Spray" by A Muse Studios, giving it a soft sparkle.

If you click on the image it enlarges in your browser so you may be able to see the shimmer better.


The SU image is one you like know: "Upsy Daisy", clear emb
ossed with "Bubblegum" ink by A Muse Studios.  Blue ink was sponged onto the background after the embossing.

Here's another view showing the crimped background panel and the shimmery finish.

The tutorial shows this technique used for a Christmas card, which is a great idea!  Who knew that our daughter's birthday would furnish two different ideas for the holidays?

That's it for me today!  Check out these tutorials, they're fun!