TTTC52 CAS Celebrate You

Happy Thursday, peeps!  It's time for another Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge!  Here's the grid we have to choose from today:

The row I chose (which seemed to be quite popular with the DT this week, LOL!) was the top one across:  Die cut, Clean and Simple, and Purple!  Dana's favorite color is purple, and her birthday was Sunday, so I created this one for her:

I gave a lot of different sets and products some love with this card!  I used a Purple Posy card base and some matching DSP from Best Dressed, diecut with a Stitched Rectangle die.  I added an Adirondack chair from the Seasonal Layers die set, in Highland Heather, along with a little "drink" from the Colorful Seasons set, and a little glimmer paper heart from the Trio of Tags dies:

I used the other part of the heart, along with a Highland Heather heart, to complement the sentiment from Bloom and Grow:

and a sentiment from Bonanza Buddies on the inside:

She really liked it, and she liked the gift card I put inside even more, LOL!  I hope you'll play along with our Tic Tac Toe board this week as well!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Speaking of Sunday, John, Dana and Wayne and I all went to Sandy Cove, which is a Christian retreat center in Northeast, Maryland, for a couples conference over the weekend. We had a lot of fun, a lot of food, and a relaxing time!  Here we are in front of the fireplace:

And here's a shot of the sunset over the cove, the night we arrived.  It was taken through a window, so it's not the best, but it was beautiful!  The picture doesn't really do it justice!

Thank you so much for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Bloom and Grow, Colorful Seasons, Bonanza Buddies
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Highland Heather, Purple Posy, Best Dressed DSP, Sparkle Glimmer Paper
Ink	Purple Posy, Highland Heather
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Seasonal Layers Dies, Trio of Tags Dies

Colour Inkspiration #65 Evening Blossoms

Hi peeps!  I had the honor of winning a spot as a Guest Designer for Colour Inkspiration with this card!    So excited!  

 And today we're Blog Hopping along with a new "inkspiration":

I know the graphic is a bit hard to read; the colors are Merry Merlot, Blackberry Bliss, Gray Granite and Basic Black....very striking colors for sure!!  The blossoms in the photo reminded me of the ones in Colorful Seasons, which is really an awesome set, one I don't use enough!  So here we go:

I started with a panel of watercolor paper and diecut a partial circle, then did some light watercoloring with Gray Granite.  I positioned it back in the panel and stamped the branches in Basic Black and Gray Granite, and the florals in Merry Merlot and Blackberry Bliss:

I stamped and diecut a few of the larger flowers and added them to the edges, then at the bottom, stamped a few more simple images and a sentiment from Itty Bitty Greetings.  My final addition was a Merry Merlot ribbon accent.  It all went on a Basic Black mat and a Blackberry Bliss card.  I added a Very Vanilla panel on the inside but I'll stamp a sentiment or write a note the next time I need a sympathy card.  

Next on our hop is  Vicki Boucher!

The Colour Inkspiration challenge can be found on Facebook here.  I hope you'll play along!!  Thanks for popping in today!

There's always something funny on Wayne's cell!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Colorful Seasons, Itty Bitty Greetings
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Blackberry Bliss, Watercolor
Ink	Memento Black, Gray Granite, Blackberry Bliss, Merry Merlot
Accessories	Dimensionals, Sequins, Merry Merlot Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Layering Circles Dies, Seasonal Layers Dies, Aquapainter

PP432 Colors of the Rainbow

Hi everyone!  Happy Sunday! Did you remember to set your clocks ahead?  We do ours on Saturday afternoon so that we don't feel it so much the next morning, LOL!   

Claire is our Paper Players hostess this week with a theme I don't think we've ever had!  Check it out:

Oh, I had so many ideas and so little time....so I pulled out my (retired) small butterfly punch and some scraps and went to work:

This was such a fun, easy card to put together...quick as can be!  The colors I used (and I promise that is not a black butterfly up there, LOL!) were Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Pacific Point, Blackberry Bliss and Highland Heather. I mounted them all on a Whisper White panel that was embossed with the Falling Petals EF, then added a sentiment from Colorful Seasons:

  

Just to add a little definition, I put a panel of Balmy Blue behind my embossed panel!  And here is a closer picture of that Blackberry Bliss butterfly:

A few pearls finished it off!  I left the inside blank, because it's nice to have a generic card to send on the spur of the moment!

Be sure to check out what the DT created this week, and welcome Windy Ellard to the lineup...her creations are always amazing!  Can't wait to see what you create!

No photos of Cassidy this week, but I wanted to share a couple crafty things I did last weekend; I saw this little totebag on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it out:

It's made from a Pioneer Woman placemat (Walmart) and the directions can be found HERE.  She has several different styles all made from placemats!  I will say that the basic premise is simple, but getting that zipper in was a bit of a challenge.  It's hard to see, but once I finally finished it, I added a Princess phone keychain I found several years ago while cleaning out my cousin's estate:

Now I just need to use it!  My second craft was a stencilled disk from Chalk Couture.  My sweet friend Joan sent me a sample to play with....I might be hooked!  I just need to figure out what I want to create next!!  It's really cool and fun to do!  You can look at her blog HERE.  

That's it for today...enjoy it and be blessed!

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CASual Thinking of You

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I have a fun, clean and simple card today for a friend who's a bit under the weather!  It uses the CAS-ual Fridays sketch:

This card is for a guy, and in trying to come up with some SU images for a masculine card made me realize I need more GUY stamps!  I finally decided on the star from Wood Words, and did a monochromatic color scheme using Blueberry Bushel:

I also have no "get-well" stamps...how can that be?  I will need to remedy that for sure!  I stamped and die-cut the star six times and layered them on my card after stamping the sentiment and using the Subtle embossing folder on a Whisper White panel:

I think the rustic look of the stars works well with that embossing folder...although it's hard to see, I am sure you can imagine it!

That's it for today...still sniffling with allergies, so I am laying low this week!!  Enjoy your day, be blessed and thanks for popping in!

Diva:

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Wood Words, Colorful Seasons
Card stock & Papers	Blueberry Bushel, Whisper White, In Color DSP
Ink	Blueberry Bushel
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Wood Crate Framelits, Subtle EF

IB30 Pool Time

Hey everyone!  The Inspired By challenge today is called Pool Time...I will have to enjoy my pool time vicariously through my card because there certainly is no pool time here in PA!  MAYBE on Saturday the sun will return!  Anyway, here's my fun little card:

And here is Laurel's prompt for this week:

I don't have any pineapple or flamingo stamps, but I do have an Adirondack chair, a sunshine, and some summery sentiments!  I started out with some fun papers from Crate Paper, and a sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches:

I layered some diecuts:

added a couple fun sentiments and embellishments:

and some stamping on the inside as well:

I need a few more birthday cards, so this will definitely come in handy!  Hope you'll play along with our summery challenge at Inspired By!

Cassidy got a new belt in karate last night!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Colorful Seasons, Sentiments O'Simple (Unity Stamps)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Cute Girl DSP (Crate Paper)
Ink	Regal Rose (ret), Pool Party, Melon Mambo, Pool Party, Pineapple Punch
Accessories	Glimmer Dots, Paper Pumpkin Dots, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Seasonal Layers Thinlets, Smile & Sunshine Dies (Simon Says Stamp)

CAS Colour and Sketches 277 Serene Dove

Hi again, everyone!  It's my third week as a guest designer at the Clean and Simple Colours & Sketches challenge!  It's time for another color challenge, and here is your palette:

I had a few different ideas for these colors, and I actually made two cards, I'll share this one first!  I used some of the new Graceful Glass vellum to create a "stained glass window" using a Basic Black frame and Blend markers in the challenge colors:

I normally color just the back of the vellum, but to intensify the colors, I colored both the front and the back!  It was easy to do as the alcohol inks dry very quickly!  I stamped the dove from Serene Garden and diecut it out:

then stamped a sentiment from Rooted in Nature below the panel:

I felt this would be a lovely sympathy card; although they're never fun to make, it's always good to have some on hand.  And here's another card I created using these colors; this one is very clean and simple, almost a little too clean for me!  I felt like these colors were beachy, so I created an ocean by watercoloring a line of Pool Party ink and filling in below it; I stamped the sentiment from Sitting Here in Bermuda Bay, then stamped the deck chair from Colorful Seasons in Calypso Coral and fussy-cut it out:

I also hand-painted a couple of seagulls to make the sky look a little less bleak!  My dilemma, besides the fact that it is so bare, is that when using SU's watercolor paper, I never know which neutral to use....Whisper White is too white and Very Vanilla is not white enough!  At any rate, I chose Very Vanilla for my card base and called it a day!

I hope you'll play with our pretty challenge colors this week...be sure to check out the CAS Colours & Sketches blog to see what the other designers created, and add your creation too!

My niece came over one afternoon last week with her daughters who are two and three years old; they were enamored with John and didn't really care that our swing set and sand box are rather old and rickety!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

IB24 In the Garden

Hello, peeps!  It's Thursday, and you know what that means....another Inspired By challenge!  Laurel comes up with the prettiest inspiration photos!  This week challenged me a bit more than normal!  I pulled out a really "vintage" stamp set from waaaay back when I first started to stamp to create my card today:

And here is Laurel's prompt:

So.....there are lilies of the valley, a snail, and a ladybug!!  I don't really have any of these images, but I did find a little ladybug in the "spring" lineup of Nature's Seasonal Borders, circa 1998, so that's what I chose!  I stamped it in Stazon ink on some watercolor paper and used inks and an aquapainter to color in all the images:

I filled in the backgrounds with Crumb Cake to go with my Crumb Cake card, and I found some Tim Holtz Christmas paper in a deep green that mimicked the background of the inspiration photo.  I diecut it and another scrap of watercolor paper with a scalloped stitched die for a little interest.  When I went to assemble it, I noticed it sort of matched the lilies of the valley--a happy coincidence!  Finally, I added some grunge stamping and a sentiment from Colorful Seasons, stamped in white craft ink and heat-embossed, as well as a little linen thread bow:

Laurel's design team has come up with some FUN and interesting creations using this image prompt...(you need to check out Michele's especially!!!), so I hope you'll stop by the Inspired By blog and share your own snail, ladybug, or whatever you're inspired by, with us!  

No Cassidy pictures today, but since her last day of school is tomorrow, I thought I would take a quick trip to Longwood Gardens since we will be busy with her activities and Tuesday was such a gorgeous day!

A panoramic view of the conservatory and fountains:

Roses and topiaries:

Clematis:

And the Italian garden fountain:

It was a quick trip, mostly for exercise and fresh air, so I didn't get a lot of pictures!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!