BC210 and I'm so tired

Happy Friday & Congratulations to William and Catherine!
Did you watch the wedding. Call me Crazy (I know I'm calling myself the same) but I actually stayed up ALL NIGHT to watch every detail live as it unfolded. I went to bed at 6:00am PST and got back up at 7:15 to walk Coleen to school and then headed back to bed for a few hours before getting up again. Needless to say I'm a bit "rummy" this afternoon but it was a lovely wedding and it was history unfolding right before your eyes so I'm not sorry I stayed up to catch the Nuptials.

So today's BC Challenge is a Color Challenge:

Now you will see from my card I used different shades of Green and Blue (more subdued tones)but I kept the Rose color as close to the photo as possible.

My card was done using the current AnnaBelle Sketch:

The card details:
Stamps: Sentimental Bluebells and Backgrounds By Design 3 - AnnaBelle Stamps
Card Stock: Pear Pizzaz, Bashful Blue, Rose Red and Whisper White (also Papertrey Select for the floral panel as it works better for Copic coloring).
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Rose Red and Bashful Blue-SU
Copic Markers: G82, RV32, RV34
Other: Circle Nestabilitie Dies, Moroccan Screen Embossing folder, Rose Red Grosgrain ribbon, Blossom 6mm Sprinkles (AnnaBelle)

You can join in on the fun by linking below:


Have a great evening, I'm going to bed early!!!

Once Upon a "Monthly"? Challenge

Hi and Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spent happy times with your loved ones.

It's time once again for Elena (The Redhaired Girl)and I to post our cards for the,
Once Upon a Monthly Challenge we started last year. Of course I've been a bit of a procrastinator and so it's become more of a bi-monthly challenge but one that I truly enjoy. You will not want to miss the darling card that I received from Elena for the challenge. Here's a bit of a peek:

So PLEASE stop by her blog, check out her fabulous and oh so cute card with some wonderful little ribbon flowers that you will just fall in love with. I know I did. Then don't forget to leave some comment love because we all like to hear that our work is appreciated.

For the "theme" this time around Elena picked (Ribbon) and not just tie a plain old bow but something different. Well I must say I found this to be a challenge because I'm more of a tie a plain old bow type of stamper (I'm still trying to figure out how to use the Bow Easy). But I persevered and after some searching I found this tutorial on Becca Feeken's blog (Amazing Grace) and decided that I could handle this one. Thanks Becca and Elena for getting me out of my bow tieing "rut" and coming up with something that I really liked how it turned out.

So here is my card:

Not a great deal of stamping on this card since the only thing stamped is the sentiment.

Card Details:
Card Stock: Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay,Whisper White.-SU
Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye-Bloom and Grow line
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Apricot Appeal-SU (sponged on).
Sentiment Stamp - AnnaBelle Stamps (Easter Hope)
Other: Butterfly Die - A.Muse Studio
Nestabilitie Circle Dies
Pearls - A.Muse Studio - Dyed with Copic Markers
Border Punch - EK Success
Orange Satin Ribbon - A.Muse Studio
Needle and Orange Thread.

That's it...the tutorial is easy to follow and the result looks fabulous(IMO).

Have a wonderful week and try not to eat to much Easter Candy (come on you know you'll eat some)!

BC209 Ribbon and Lace

Hello and Happy Friday! It's been a challenging week. Cricket got sick from chewing pieces of Coleen's Super ball on Sunday but I'm happy to report after a trip to the Vet and some Medication she is doing much better. There is an update and video on my personal blog if you want to watch her in action with one of our cats. Link on my sidebar.

Today the BC Challenge is: Ribbon or Lace. I actually have 2 cards to share today.

My first card features a CAS design. I struggle with this type of design as I always think it needs "just a little more" so when I don't add extra's I tend to think of the design as plain. What do you think?

On this card I tried the crumpled ribbon look that I've seen on other people's cards. I used Sticky Strip tape and ruffled as I went along. Needless to say my ruffles aren't very evenly space (I need more practice). Then I added a punched flower and a simple sentiment to complete my design.
Card Stock: Pear Pizzaz, Textured Crushed Curry, Designer Paper from Cosmo Cricket-DeLovely
Ribbon, Ellen Hutson,
Sentiment-A.Muse Studio
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Punch - MFT
Brad, Pink Hedgehog Crafts

For my 2nd card I went a bit fancier with the design.
I started out picking out my stamps: There She Goes - Buckets of Love. Don't those Daisies just make you smile.
I colored them with various Copic Markers and added some sparkle to the pink hearts with a Spica Glitter Pen.
The DP is from SU and that sweet Daisy Ribbon is from A.Muse Studio. I used a punch (Martha Stewart) to create the look of lace and added 3 tiny punched hearts for a bit of whimsy in the upper right hand corner.
Card Stock: Old Olive, So Saffron, Cool Caribbean, Pretty in Pink,Whisper White and PTI Select White.

So now it's your turn to show off some Ribbon and Lace.


Before you go I want to wish you all a Blessed and
Happy Easter!

On This Day

I married my best friend! - Today is our 19th Anniversary.
No really big plans but we'll head out to dinner.

I usually "buy" him a card as it's hard to create guy type Anniversary cards and he doesn't seem to mind if I make it or buy it. Today however I whipped this one up for him.
He recently begin playing Guitar again so I thought this would make a good Anniversary card for him.

There are a couple of other pics of us on my personal blog. Link is on my sidebar if you care to take a peek at how young we were way back then.

Stamps are from A.Muse Studio
Card Stock - SU (Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink - SU Pacific Point
DP - Bella Blvd.
Brads: Pink Hedgehog
Chain Punch - EK Success.

BC208 Spring is in the Air

Hey it's FRIDAY! - Life is here is slowly returning to normal.
Greta and Coleen are moved in now and we are working out the "kinks" of having two extra people living in our home but so far it's going fairly well.

So for today's BC Challenge we have this wonderful sketch as the basis for our cards.

Here's what I did with the sketch:

Isn't that bunny cute! - I just got the set (Bunny Business-A.Muse Studio) and had to ink him up.
He's colored with Copic Markers: (YR04, YR07, YR09,YG05, YG21,YG23, YG25,R37, W4, W5,and W8)
I cut a template and sponged on the dirt road using, French Roast pigment ink (A.Muse Studio)- Here after to be referred to as AMS.
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Tangerine Tango-SU
White cs - Papertrey Ink
Designer Paper: Polka Dot pattern is My Mind's Eye
Other patterns: Source Unknown as they are from a packet I won.
Orange Brads: Queen and Company
Ric-Rac- Source Unknown

So now it's your turn to play along. You can link up below using the Mr. Linky tool.


Have a wonderful weekend. - Coleen is being Baptised this Sunday and we are excited about that. I'll share pictures soon.

BC207 Inspirational Butterflies

Hip Hip Hooray it's Friday!!!
So are you ready for some "Inspiration" - That's the theme of this weeks BC Challenge. Our list mom, Lisa gave us this photo to work with.

Now I must admit that I was indeed "challenged" by this one.
I looked and looked at the photo and thought, ("What was she thinking?") After awhile I just decided that I wanted to go with the colors of the photo. To me they were: Blue, Green,White and Black (although Lisa saw Brown).

Then I wanted to add some sort of element that might resemble the way the photo's were grouped. I settled on adding an embossed background that had some of the patterns I saw from the photo. - You see them too, right?

I'm not sure if there were any Butterflies in the Inspiration photo's but with the lovely flower photo I imagined a butterfly landing on the bloom and voila' they landed smack on my card too!

Details: Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White (SU) Sky and Sage from A.Muse - Designer Paper, DCWV.
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and White Pigment (SU)
Embossing Folder-SU
Butterfly Die, A.Muse
Punch-SU
Pearls-Zva

Don't forget you can get in on the FUN by linking your card below:


Also if you take a close look you will now see that I have included an Emblem at the top of my Blog with a direct link to my A.Muse Studio On-line store.

Cricket gets her stitches removed today and she is doing amazingly well since her surgery two week ago. Will update with another photo soon.

Have a wonderful weekend.

BC206 - It's all about birds and a Cricket Update

Happy Friday! - Gosh I was going to use the title: It's For the Birds until I did a Google Search on the phrase and found this information: - I decided perhaps that wasn't such a good title after all.

Anyway today's Blogger Challenge is all about our feathered friends (unless of course you are traumatized by birds after seeing the Alfred Hitchcook movie, The Birds). Let's hope that's not the case.

For my card today I tried something different. I was visiting my BF Allison's blog today
and she had posted a card using the SCS Technique (Bargello). It looked pretty interesting so I thought I would give it a try. Not sure I got it right but I think it turned out okay. The patterned paper I used (Rustic Chic - Wingit Collection) Hey, I just noticed the reference to birds with my paper...I digress
Anyway the patterns had different patterns within the pattern if that makes sense so once I cut the strips, mounted them and then cut new strips it sort of took on a different look then what I thought it would.
I decided to use the Peacok Image again from my Hero Arts-Sketched Birds stamp set. Then I picked my ink: A.Muse Studio's Ocean and Grass. I inked up the Peacock with the Ocean ink and then dabbed on the Grass ink with a Q-Tip before stamping it on the white card stock. I added some small Green pearls (Zva) and then mounted it on Pear Pizzaz card stock.
I also used some Twisted Paper which I've had for years. Mine came from Making Memories which apparently doesn't carry the stuff any longer. I did find the same type of stuff carried at this store - Personally I think it's a "cool" product even though untwisting it is a bit tricky and hard on my hands.
My sentiment is also from Hero Arts and was stamped with A.Muse French Roast ink. I also added some tiny little green pearls (again from Zva).
Other card stock used: Chocolate Chip and Taken With Teal (SU)

Don't forget that you can participate in the BC Blog Hop by leaving a link to your card. You can find this at the bottom of my post.

Thank you all who sent well wishes, prayers and kind words about our puppy, Cricket. She's doing remarkably well since she had her leg amputated last Wednesday. You can view a video of her on my personal blog:
or view directly on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpWoZ6tVL5U
It's just amazing how quickly she's adjusted to life on 3 legs. I'll leave you with a picture of her and Coleen taken yesterday.

Have a great weekend.