Birthday Flowers

I apologize for the photo, too late in the evening I guess.  Anyway, I made this card for the challenge at Less Is More this week.  Here is the sketch we were given for inspiration:

Thanks for stopping by today, it's a hot one here!!

Bright Butterfly

This pretty butterfly is from a Hero Arts stamp and die set I purchased some time ago and the flowers are from a Hero Arts background stamp I recently won in a blog hop.

I put this happy card together for this week's challenge at the Fusion challenge blog. I chose to combine the photo and the sketch for my card, here's the Fusion inspiration:

Glad you're here, have a happy day!!

Ahoy Matey!

Summertime - flowers, sunshine, pools, hikes, water gun attacks, BBQ's and the list goes on.  A big Summertime thought in my head is the OCEAN!!  I grew up by the ocean and although I live in the mountains now, the ocean is always a thought that's not too far away.

This week's challenge at the Casology blog is Nautical.  Ships and ocean come to mind don't they?  I recently added this "unnamed" anchor to my stamp collection ($1.00 bin at Michael s) and came up with this card for the challenge.  Isn't this anchor somethin', I like it so much.  Added some twine, some stars and a hand-written sentiment and viola another card is born :)

Glad you're visiting today, hope you're enjoying your Summer so far :)

Stencils

When Stencils made a come back I wasn't all that into using them.  Not sure why really, I like to stamp and color my images with watercolor pencils and stenciling just didn't seem to fit my creativity world.  Well, then on 2 different occasions people sent me stencils and then I actually bought a stencil and now I'm diving in.

As it turns out there are 2 challenges this week where we are inspired to use stencils:

Less is More - week 229 - Theme - Stenciling

AAA Cards - game 42 - Paste and/or Stencils

I used the "ghosting" technique described by Anita on the Less is More blog.  You ink your paper (I used 3 different inks on each card), you then lay your stencil over the inked paper and spritz with water.  You wait 30 seconds and dab the paper with a paper towel.

I love the effect this gave to my 2 cards and am so happy Anita's pretty card inspired me to try this technique.

Happy you stopped by today, stencils are now on my radar :)

Happy Father's Day

My father was a wonderful man. He always put his family first and loved us so much.  Every Saturday in the summer we would spend the whole day at the beach, my Mom would prepare a big lunch and pack it in the cooler.  Dad would put up the beach umbrella for a little shade and we would run in and out of the ocean, build sand castles and have so much fun just being together.  I miss him, I love you Dad xoxo

Bellarific Friday 6/19/15

I recently added a few new Stamping Bella stamps to my ever growing collection and this cute, little Hoppy Poppy stamp is one of them.  I made this card not only for a friend's birthday, but also for the Bellarific Friday challenge this week.  Here is the sketch we were given for inspiration this week:

So glad your visiting today.  It's summer here in the Rockies, 90 degrees, whew!!