July 31, 2010

Singing Birds

The challenge this week over at The Play Date Cafe is PDCC 40; it's a color challenge, you are to use black, white and a touch of green. Here's what I've put together, hope you like this card :) Items used: Studio G bird and sentiment stamps, Nestabilities, 2 DP's, pearls, rick rack ribbon.

Singing bird

Over at 2 Sketches 4 You Laura's sketch 57 is up for the challenge this week. The little Hero Arts singing bird on this card has always been one of my favorite stamps and when I saw this week's sketch this card popped into my head. Hope you like it :)
Items used: Hero Arts sweet bird stamp, Studio G Sentiment stamp, Cosmo Cricket Ever After paper, Ribbon, Netabilities dies, watercolor pencils, Hero Arts heart gem.

Vintage card


I had originally made this card for a challenge over at the Play Date cafe, however I missed the entry date so did not enter the challenge. I loved the colors for this challenge: 2 shades of brown, black and white. A while back I purchased a Making Memories spiral bound journal book, I used a page from this book as the background for this card.
Items used: Memory Box vintage notes stamp, SU simple friendship scroll stamp, flowers, gems, lace, watercolor pencils.

July 20, 2010

A few new cards....

I have recently made some new cards; some are sketches from challenge sites and some are ideas I had, here they are:
Items used: Stampendous posey picker and Hero Arts mix and match elements stamps, watercolor pencils, Cosmo cricket paper.
Items used: Penny black birthday stamps, Cosmo cricket paper, Hero Arts flower, button, thread.
Items used: Hero Arts Cupcake stamp, typed sentiment, SU paper, gingham ribbon, button, scallop punch.
Items used: Hero Arts Big and small flowers and Thoughtful messages stamps, SU paper, pearls, 2 border punches.

Items used: Hero Arts thoughtful messages stamps, rick rack ribbon, 2 border punches, pearls, Bo Bunny DP.

July 13, 2010

Pictures from our cruise to Alaska, 6/10

On our cruise to Alaska last month we stopped at ports in Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria BC. We took to sea out of Seattle on the Zaandam, a ship on the Holland America cruise line. It was our first cruise and we had a wonderful time. Fabulous food, fabulous scenery, an all around fabulous adventure to Alaska.
Zaandam docked in Juneau:
We took a helicopter to the Norris glacier to do some Dog sledding, the Norris glacier is outside of Juneau. The blue ice on the glacier in the picture below was magnificent, crystal clear, sparking blue ice. We have so many fabulous pix of the ride to the glacier, I can upload some if you'd like to see them, just let me know:


Here we are in Glacier Bay. The ship was anchored in Glacier bay for many hours,and we had plenty of time to take in the beautiful scenery. We saw many eagles, otters and a bear on the shore line just before getting into the bay. A glorious day of sunshine. Wow, Alaska is wonderful.




SITKA - Sitka is a nice, small town in Alaska. There are some beautiful homes in Sitka and the flowers were in full bloom; so many colorful and pretty flowers.

I went on a snorkeling excursion out of Sitka, unfortunately I don't have any photos from the excursion. I can tell you we wore dry suits and I felt like I was choking in that darn tight, water-proof suit. The water was 52 degrees, not too cold. The star fish were brilliant day-glo colors (yellow, pink, blue, lime green) and the anemonies and fish were plentiful. I enjoyed the snorkeling adventure very much.

Mike went on a deep sea fishing excursion and caught a few types of different salmon. He had some of the salmon packaged and shipped home, delicious is all I can say and we have a freezer full. Mike said the sea was somewhat rough that day with 12 foot swells (waves), the boat was really rocking. Here are some pix from Mike's excursion:

Here's a picture of Mike, Capt. Jack and the fishing boat owner's son on the fishing boat, the Chilkat


KETCHIKAN - Our next stop was Ketchikan, the first city in Alaska. Kethcikan was much larger than Sitka, our first day of a little rain (we were so fortunate, we had perfect weather almost the entire trip).

We took a float plane excursion out of Ketchikan to Misty Fjord National Park. This area was so impressive I don't believe photos can do it justice. The float plane was a gas, on the plane were 3 people with Mike & I and of course the pilot. I am attaching a number of pictures from Misty Fjord, if you'd like to see a larger picture, just click on the pix you want to view:






After Ketchikan we cruised to Victoria Island, BC. We only had a few hours in Victoria and Mike and I took a leasurely stroll through the town. Victoria is a beautiful island, Mike and I visited 3 years earlier and had a great day there.

That's all for now. Thanks for looking and enjoying our pictures with us :)

Alaska Trip Magnetic Frame

I am finally ready to post some pix from our cruise to Alaska. Here is a magnetic frame I put together w/ a few of the pix. The larger photo in the center of the frame is of Mike and I standing on the float plane while floating in a lake at Misty Fjord. More pix to come :)
The magnets of the whale tale and the grizzlies are from the internet; only saw one bear from a distance on the shore when headed to Glacier Bay. Did see quite a few whales, but was not lucky enough to get a fabulous picture like the one on the magnet. Here's a close up of the magnets:

July 11, 2010

Meet our new puppy, Angus

Next week Mike and I will make the trek to Oregon to pick up our new family member, Angus. Angus is a Large Munsterlander, one great hunting breed of doggie. Just received this picture of Angus today and wanted to share it, isn't he a sweetie!
And here's another picture of our sweet boy:

July 8, 2010

Library Window....

This Holly Berry House window stamp has been on my craft desk for months. I loved this stamp the moment I saw it and knew some day I would be inspired to use it. Well, I've been inspired by challenge #37 over at The Play Date Cafe this week.

I searched the internet for window quotes and found the sentiment I have put on this card, isn't it perfect, libraries are the windows to life.
Items used: Holly Berry House window stamp, All Night Media flower vase stamp, pop dots, ink daubers, Watercolor pencils, Cosmo Cricket and Imaginesce DP.

July 7, 2010

Did someone say cherries....

The challenge this week over at 2 Sketches 4 You is Kazan's sketch 56. I have had my eye on a this Cosmo Cricket cherry paper and when I saw this sketch the chocolate, cherry cupcake idea came into my head, so here it is:

Items used: Hero Arts cupcake stamp, Cosmo Cricket paper, buttons and metallic gems.

July 5, 2010

Those darn lemons....

Card positioning systems' challenge this week is a simple sketch that cried out "Lemons" to me (crazy, I know - but that's what I thought of). Here's my card (front and inside of card):



And, heres the CPS sketch 174, part 1:

Items used: Purple onion stamps, Cosmo cricket paper, ribbon, stickles and pop dots.

July 4, 2010

PDCC 36 - Red, Pink and White

The challenge this week over at The Play Date Cafe is to use the colors in this photo:
I had this pretty little dress in my stash of items I stamped to use at a later date and was inspired to use it for this challenge. The sentiment is one of my favorites
Items used: Hero Arts dress stamp, computer generated sentiment, ribbon, pearls, DP, lace punch.