My Life - Pictures of the week

I am starting something new this week called, My Life - Pictures of the week. I hope to post every Sunday/Monday with photo's of my life.

First up today is a picture of Coleen that I took wearing a new outfit that Grandma just had to buy for her.

Next is a photo of our cat, Harley in one of his silly poses.

I'm following that with a trio of flower photo's from my flower garden.

After that is a picture of my niece Megan, her little boy Timothy and my mom. My niece is the one who had Type 2 Lymphoma while she was pregnant and underwent Chemo treatments. Her little boy is 19 months old now and at present my niece is over a year Cancer Free. They were up for a visit this past week and it was so fun to see how he's grown and how well my niece looks.

Lastly is another picture of Coleen this time she is trying to make Harley smile.

I hope you enjoy this little journey into my life and the things that I love.

MMSC3 - Sweet Coffee For You

Well here I am again today with another post (shocking huh?) - Sometime last week I received a very nice comment from Priscilla and an invitation to join in on the fun at her blog http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/ Midnight Madness Tuesday Sketch challenge. So I thought why not give it a try and here is the result. I hope you like it.

Lately I've discovered that having a "Sketch" as a starting point has been a real help to me in designing cards. It really has sparked more creativity then I use to have when I had to figure out a layout on my own.

I recently purchased a stamp set from Inkadinkado (Best Friends) that had this wonderful Coffee Image in it and I hadn't yet inked it up so away I went.

I colored my image with Prismacolor Pencils blended with Gamsol. Then I added Crystal Effects to the Coffee and White Liquid Applique for the whipped cream (Yum!) I layered these with Labels2 Nestabilities Dies. I added 3 small green brads (Queen and Co.) The Designer Paper is from Die Cuts With A View and I added 3 Dew Drops (Grapes and Leaves). I found some Lavendar yarn/cording that someone sent me in one of my cans of assorted ribbons and found it fit my paper perfectly. Then I added a Prima Flower and a Purple Brad. My focal image was raised using foam mounting tape.

Card Stock: Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

BC101 - Bonzo Goes To College...

and Apparently Graduates! Sorry I couldn't help myself, I've never actually seen the movie (It was made in 1952) but I've heard of it and since our Blogger's Challenge theme this week was, "Graduation" I couldn't resist the title.

At first I hadn't planned to participate since I have (or thought) I had zero graduation type stamps. I just don't normally have any use for them so they aren't stamps that I typically purchase. I did however remember that I had the SU Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey accessories stamp sets which included a Graduation Cap. Voila...I now had something to use for the theme.

Then I remembered that somewhere in my file folders I had some printed paper with a Graduation theme and I dug one out and found this Turquoise patterned paper that was perfect for my card. It's so old that I have no clue where I got it from.

Next up I picked out a sketch and chose this one from Mojo Monday

week 84. I don't always play along every Monday but I save the sketches and refer back to them when I need some inspiration.

I actually watercolored Sock Monkey with SU Watercolor Crayons on some water color paper that I found stashed at the bottom of a draw.I then cut the image out with a Nestabilities die and added 3 Turquoise brads and rolled up some printer paper and tied it with Turquoise thread that I cut off the side of some Grosgrain ribbon. I glued the "Diploma" down with Crystal Effects. I mounted this onto a square of Chocolate Chip card stock and used another pattern piece of DP (DCWV) and layered that onto Whisper White and tied some Chocolate Chip Twill ribbon around it before mounting onto my card base. The sentiment was computer generated and then layered onto a Tempting Turquoise scallop and pierced. I mounted this with foam mounting tpe and added the bow with a glue dot to complete my card.

Be sure to check out the other challenge members blogs (click on the Icon on my sidebar) and leave them some comment lovin!

3CT - Ship Shape Challenge #15

Hello and Welcome to the latest addition of Three Clover Thursday Design Challenge. This week our theme was,
"Ship Shape! - Shaped Cards, No Squares or Rectangles.
Now I must admit that making shaped cards is not my specialty and in fact I have a hard time thinking outside the box when it comes to shaped cards.

As luck would have it I was browsing through the latest addition of Paper Crafts magazine - and happened upon a cute package card that was made by Wendy Johnson (See Page 45) July/August 09 and thought, "Hey there's something that I can actually handle. Okay I know it's not rocket science to make a shaped card but some days my creative Mojo just isn't up to tackling something more daring then your standard card size. Now I will admit this is sort of "cheating" in that the card is square to a point but with the addition of the package top it now becomes something other then just a square card.

I pretty much cased the entire idea except for changing papers, ribbons and stamps. Anyway I like how it turned out and hope you do as well.

Details: Card Base - Whisper White layered with DP (Imaginisce - Dotted pattern) and (Paper Salon - Floral pattern, Certainly Celery for scallop and sentiment.
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Prisma Colored Pencils for the Flower blended with Gamsol
Stamps: Flower (Source Unknown)ETA - Flower Stamp from Impression Obsession and Papertrey Ink-Sentiment
Ribbon: Chocolate Chip Grosgrain SU
Brad SU

Please check out the other Design Team members blogs and let them know how much you enjoyed their creations by leaving them some comment love.

BC100 - Bursting With Pride

WOW 100 Blogger's Challenges already. Now that is exciting. - I am so happy to be part of this great group and I hope my readers enjoy seeing everyone's challenges each Friday. - This week our theme was,
"Patriotic." - I think with Memorial Day weekend here that we all should be Grateful and Thankful to those who have and do serve our country in the Military to protect our Freedom.

For my card I chose to use a 4th of July theme and went with pretty traditional images and color scheme.
I used the MojoMonday sketch for this card.

I found this cute little stamp set (Studio G) for $1 at JoAnn Fabric and just had to have it. Every since I was a kid and went to watch the Fireworks I can remember hearing and saying, (Ooo, Aah) when ever a pretty fireworks would explode and light up the sky. Of course I've always worn earplugs (yes it's true) when I watch the fireworks display as I absolutely hate those really loud bangs but I love the fireworks.

I've used some old retired SU products here as well on this card. My card base is Brilliant Blue layered with Whisper White embossed with the Distressed Stripes embossing folder. I added a piece of DP (My Minds Eye - Parade "Celebrate" stripes) which I just love and added a piece of Real Red that I cut with my Wavy Punch (EK Success). Then I added 3 Blue Star Eyelets (really old SU Stuff that I still have). I stamped the bursting Fireworks (Hero Arts) with Versamark ink and used some old SU Embossing powder called, Ritzy Red) on Whisper White and layered that to Brilliant Blue. The sentiment and rocket stamps are from (Studio G) and I stamped the sentiment with BB ink and then embossed the smaller fireworks with some old embossing powder that has red/blue glitter in it. I'm not even sure where that came from now as I've had it forever. The Rocket was stamped with Night of Navy ink and I colored the red portions with Prismacolor pencils. I high-lighted the tail with a blue spica glitter pen. This was mounted to Nested Circles of Whisper White and Brocade blue with foam mounting tape.

Be sure to stop by all the other challenge members blogs and leave them some "comment lovin." - You can do so by clicking on the Blogger Challenge icon on my sidebar.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend.

3CT Country Chicken

Welcome to Three Clover Thursday Challenge day. - This week our challenge was (Black, White and one other color). I must admit that I struggled with this a great deal. Oh don't get me wrong I love Black/White together but when I started working on my card ideas my "Mojo" just wasn't there. I wanted to try and use something other then (Red) as my extra color

since that is quite often a combo that you see together. I started out with something totally different but didn't like it and then I decided to just go with the Black, White and Red color combo anyway. Then I wanted to use the Cupcake Friday sketch from Taylor' blog but nothing I was putting together was working. I worked until midnight on Monday and finally gave up. Then Tuesday morning I decided to go with this idea and it suddenly came together. I'm not sure where my Designer Paper is from but I like the "Country" feel it has so I decided to use the Rooster Image from the retired SU set, (Provencal) and I like how it all turned out. My flower was originally white but I dyed it black. (Note to self....Wear Gloves next time!!!) - I added Prima Flowers, a large Red Gingham brad, and black brads to complete my card.

Okay so you see TWO cards here. My second card is one that I say in the magazine that SU Demo's receive and I just changed the color scheme to fit the challenge and added a couple of touches that weren't on the sample show. If you have any questions on how either of these cards were made feel free to email me and ask. Don't forget to visit the other Design Team members blogs and check out there cards as well.

BC99 - Case Yourself

Welcome to week #99 of the Blogger's Challenge Group. This week we were given the task of "Caseing" ourselves. We had to pick an old card and change at least 2 things about it. I had a hard time picking out which card I wanted to case but settled on this one. It's an old card that we did for one of my stamp club meetings about 2-3 years ago. I liked the layout and decided it would be fun to change it around a bit.

The card on the right is the new version. Yes, I changed more then 2 things. First I flipped the sketch on it's side. The most obvious change is that I used way different colors and a totally different stamp set. I also left off the ribbon on the new card as it just didn't fit the card.

I really like how this turned out. It also meets another requirement for another group I belong to where the challenge was to use Designer Paper. There are 4 different patterns on this card. The left panel, the strip down the middle, the large circle under the bird and the flowers on the branch are all done using different patterns from the Good Morning Sunshine series of DP from SU. I hope the partner that I am assigned will enjoy this card.

Don't forget to check out the other members blogs by clicking on the Bloggers Challenge Icon on my sidebar. Have a fantastic weekend.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Okay where I live right now it's probably more like May Showers bring June flowers as it's been a rather "Wet" month here. However for the Three Clover Design Team challenge this week our theme was, MAY FLOWERS so that's what I'm sticking with.

I went with the basic layout of a card done by Lisa Johnson that is found in the current issue of Stamp It Cards (Page50) but changed the colors, stamp set, and some of the layout.

I started with a base of Pacific Point Blue cs layered with Certainly Celery that I embossed the side with a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and then added designer paper (Die Cuts With A View) and some ric-rac (JoAnn Fabric). I added circles of PPB cs and punched flowers of Bashful Blue cs with tiny green brad centers.

The focal flowers are from Papertrey Ink (Green Thumb) stamp set. I added stickles to the center of the small flowers and glitter to the center of the large flower

If you have any questions about how or what was used in any of my cards feel free to email me. - Be sure to stop by the other Challenge Team members blogs to check out their May Flower projects. I'm sure you'll be delighted.

Blog Candy at Story About a Girl

Hey, Christi over at Story About a Girl just celebrated her birthday and has some great Blog Candy to give away so head on over and check it out here:

BC98 - Celebrating Mothers

Happy Friday. - Time once again for the Blogger's Challenge Group to post their projects. In honor of Mother's this weeks challenge was of course to do something related to Mother's Day. I decided to go with a card.

I already had part of a card started from another challenge (http://faithartistry.blogspot.com/2009/04/bc95-color-combo-challenge-floral.html that I didn't finish up in time to post I decided to use the pieces I had finished and work them into a card for this challenge instead.

I'm still having some problems with my wrist hurting when I stamp a lot so it saved me some effort since most of this card was already completed.

My card base is Chocolate Chip layered with Sage Shadow. Then I stamped the Paisley Print BG (retired) with Always Artichoke ink on Sahara Sand cs. I added a punched piece of Always Artichoke and some Sage Shadow ribbon. I stamped the flower from Eastern Blooms with Sage Shadow ink on Whisper White cs and used Crystal Effects and Autumn Glitter (Art Institute) for the flower center. I cut the flower out and added the punched fronds (Martha Stewart) and then mounted this onto a circle of Chocolate Chip cs that was sprayed with a mixture of hairspray and Aztec Gold PearlX powder for some added shimmer. The sentiment was stamped with Chocolate Chip ink and highlighted with a strip of the CC cs that I pierced. - Okay I'll be honest my row of piercing was originally on the Sahara Sand card stock but it was crooked so I covered it up with the strip of cs and hey, it gave it a whole new look. I punched out 3 circles 3/4" of the CC cs also sprayed with my shimmer spray and punched out 3 Sage Shadow flowers and added centers with the Crystal Effects and the Autumn Glitter to complete the card.

I wish all you Mother's out the a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. - Be sure to stop by the fellow challenge members blogs and see their creations. Have a fantastic weekend.

3CT-Mother's Day

Welcome to another addition of Three Clover Thursday challenge. This week we were given the challenge of creating a card for:

Mothers/Women and to use lace or ribbon. I started out by finding a sketch to use and chose the newest Cupcake Sketch over on Taylor's blog to use. I find it so much easier to work on a card if I have an idea of how I want it to go together before I start.

Next up I chose my DP (My Minds Eye - Bloom and Grow collection). These colors are so bright and cheerful.

It's hard to see in the scan but I added Crystal Effects to the little circles around the flowers to look like dew drops falling on them. There is also shimmer to the lighter flowers and some glitter in the center of the largest flower.

Since Blogger wasn't cooperating with me last night while I was trying to upload I am not going to leave a lot of detail here this morning as I want to get this posted. If you need more information about this card feel free to email me.

Don't forget to check out the other Blog Challenge Design Teams blogs and check out their creations.

Have a great day. Ida

May Day Flowers for Mom - BC 97 Sketch Challenge

HAPPY MAY DAY! - I've been celebrating this holiday every since I was a kid in 1st Grade.  The very first bouquet I gave my mom for May Day I picked from a lady's garden on my way home from school.  She saw me picking her flowers but didn't say a word because she thought it was so sweet that I was picking a bouquet to take home on May Day.  I still take flower over to my moms and knock on her door then run and hide.  She knows the flowers are from me but we both still enjoy this fun tradition. 

The Blogger's Challenge this week was a Sketch - I always love these challenges as it helps to have a starting point for your card.  

  I've had this paper in my stash for a long time now and decided it was just to pretty not to use for this challenge.  The image I chose had similiar flower patterns so I decided to pair them up and I quite like the results.  I hope you do as well. Be sure to stop by the other Bloggers Challenge members blogs by clicking on the Icon on my sidebar and see their takes on this wonderful sketch.

Card Stock: Taken with Teal, Garden Green, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, DCWV Designer Paper

Ink: Palette Noir Black, Tangerine Chalk ink (Color Box).

Stamps: Inkadinkado - Sentiment was computer generated

Other:  Prisma Color Pencils, Brads (Queen and Co.), Nestabilitie Dies, Word Window Punch, Martha Stewart Embossing Petal Punch,  Foam Mounting Tape