Whale of a Birthday

No challenges today but thought I'd post this card I made for one of the bosses at work.  
He's in his fifties but has more energy and zest for life than anyone I know.  He's a fantastic vet and an avid deep sea fisherman.  He skin dives and spear fishes.  He's made his own shark cage and is involved in a local tiger shark tagging program.  He swims with the tiger sharks and with whale sharks.  And he plays the saxophone.  He's currently off from work as he's on the Isle of Wight representing Bermuda in windsurfing at the Island Games.  Dr. Neil Burnie is an inspiration.  Have a look at this little clip about him.


When I saw this Unity stamp I thought it was a whale's tail.  I've since realised it's a bracket but the whale's tale made me think of Neil so I made this card for the staff to sign for him.  Happy birthday, Neil!

Starry Congrats

Supplies:  CS: Stampin' Up; Stamp: Paper Smooches; Ink: VersaMark; Embossing Powder: Ranger; Impression Plate: PTI; Gems: Doodlebug

I wanted to get in on the ColourQ challenge this week with it's bright, fun colours.  I'm loving my PTI star dies and have been using them a lot.  They make life much easier in the star department.  Remember this card when I was complaining about trying to cut stars to size by hand?  They were pretty rough looking now that I check them out again!  LOL!  I'm going to add this to the Gallery Idol line-up as well.   

The photo inspiration for ColourQ prodded me to finally have my first swim of the year.  I think I'm getting old though.  As kids, my brother and I would race down to the dock and leap right off the end of it into the water.  We'd then tease my mom mercilessly as she eased her way down the steps into the water, stopping on each step for a moment to "acclimate". Why not just jump in and get the initial shock over with quickly?  Well, I am now officially an "Acclimator".  I caught myself going in one step at a time today.  I was horrified although not horrified enough to just leap in - maybe when it's a bit warmer.  Once we were all in (Luis, dogs and I ) we paddled around for a good hour or so.  Luis and the dogs are now crashed out on the sofa and I think I may go join them...  Have a great evening! 

My Favourite Boys

Since Colin Farrell has yet to take me up on my invitation to come visit I only have pics of 3 of my 4 favourite guys to share.  :)  

Oh, okay, I can't leave My Colin out altogether!  :)

Smile

Squeaking in at the last minute with an entry for the Inkspirations Colour Challenge.  

Supplies:  CS: SU, Bazzill; Stamps: Hero Arts, Paper Smooches;  IP: PTI; Other: Copics, Glossy Accents

Unfortunately my flower looks a lot more red than it does Melon Mambo.  I was trying to match it up with my Copics and it was pretty close but then I put Glossy Accents on it and it went really red!  I'm seriously considering getting some Stampin' Up markers so I can colour match a bit better.  Does anyone else have any?  Any opinions on them?  

Representin'

This is another one of my "How Many Stamp Companies Can I Represent On One Card?" cards.  We have Hero Arts, Unity, Paper Smooches, Lawn Fawn and D.O.T.S. (no idea what that one is - it's an old stamp someone gave me).  I like it when all my favourite stamps can play nicely together.  :)


Since this is a Congrats card I'm also going to add it to the Gallery Idol gallery.  Hopefully it will play nicely with the other cards.  

Bright and Bold Birthday

We had a public holiday today for National Heroes Day.  Unfortunately it was a yucky day. The sky has been dark and threatening all day but instead of rain it's just been disgustingly humid.  We took the hounds for a long walk this morning and all four of us came back looking decidedly wilted.  After that we broke down and turned on the air con and watched a movie ("Easy A" - pretty good I thought).  Later on we ventured back out.  Luis puttered around and did a few odds and ends while I escaped to the Craft Cave to put together a card for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge.

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill Basics; Stamps: Hero Arts & PTI; Inks: SU, VersaFine, VersaMark; Punches: McGill Creativity & Marvy Uchida

Love the bold and bright colours this week!  I pulled out a Hero Arts flower stamp that I hadn't used yet.  It's calling out to be coloured in but for this challenge I just wanted to use the outline of it in the challenge colours.  Some PTI polka dots in VersaMark to jazz up the colour panels, a bit of bling and voila!  A cheery birthday card.  :)
Hope you all have a lovely evening.  Tomorrow I have to work in the morning and then have the joy of going to the dentist.  Blerg!  How did I get so lucky!  :S  

Goodnight, Sunshine

Moxie CAS-ualness

I love this week's Trigger Tuesday pic at the Moxie Fab World - it's gorgeous rainbow cheeriness!  The rainbow theme worked perfectly with the colour block idea that I had for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge so I combined the two.    

I put some more Paper Smooches stamps to use for the sentiment and the rest is just strips of coloured card stock with punched corners.  Simple, bright and cheery!   

Make A Wish

This week's colour combo for The Colour Dare is Elegant Eggplant, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Sahara Sand.  I decided to carry on with my efforts to let my uninked stamps see the light of day and pulled out these Hero Arts flowers and a PTI sentiment.

I paper pieced the flowers and leaves and popped the centre flower up on Pop Dots (I love those things!).  I used the linen impression plate from PTI on the card base and I ran the leaves through my Cuttlebug in the Swiss Dots folder (mimicking the dots on the flowers). I haven't used my Stickles in ages either so I put some purple Stickles in the centre of the flowers for a little shine.  Simple and pretty - a handy card for the stash!  

We have a long weekend this weekend.  Monday is National Heroes Day.  Unfortunately Monday is usually my day off so it's a normal few days for me but it will be nice to have hubby around for an extra day.  :)  Have a great weekend!  

Celebrate

The Colour Throwdown has a bright and summery colour combo this week.  I don't have any SU Kiwi Kiss paper and now that I'm looking at the card I really didn't get that green right at all!  Oh well.  Such is life.  I still like the card and given how much effort it took to find a green ink that was close to the green paper I had, I'm gonna give the card it's moment in the sun!  

The flower and sentiment are from Paper Smooches and the chevron stripe is from - you guessed it! - PTI's Background Basics: Chevron Stripes!  First time for all of them seeing ink which I was pleased with.  Trying to give every stamp it's turn!  :)  Have a great evening!

The Plague Lives

Seems like I'm not the only one who has suffered from the summer plague lately!  Aside from that floating around there have been a few odd illnesses and accidents occurring so I was playing around with some Get Well cards today.  They're not for any challenges - just for the sickies in my life!  :)

First up is that adorable Paper Smooches Chubby Chick!  Poor guy has come down with chicken pox (tee hee) and he's got a little thermometer in his mouth to check his temperature.  I had originally envisaged him in a little bedroom scene tucked up against a fluffy white pillow.  Sadly, my artistic flair just was not flairing and my attempts were quite sad.  So instead he's sitting on a scalloped strip of Cosmo Cricket paper.  (If anyone else can conjure up the original picture in my head then go for it - I'd love to see it!) 

Next we have a little dinosaur from Unity's Bella Blvd. Mr. Boy set.  I think he looks kind of sad and decided it was maybe because he isn't feeling well.  Poor little guy!


And poor me!  Luis and I made a yummy dinner tonight - Fiesta Chicken - and there was just enough left over to take to work for lunch tomorrow.  Someone had other ideas though. I left it on the counter to cool before putting it in the fridge but I  just went into the kitchen and found a bowl with a few stray bits of rice, Atticus licking his chops and Jem looking mighty pissed off!  Poor Jem can't reach the counter like Atti can and I'm sure Atti made no attempt to share his delicious find.  *Sigh*  PB&J for lunch it is then!

Three for the Price of One

CAS-ual Fridays sure knows how to mix it up with their challenges!  This week we were given a tick tack toe board and had to chose one row to inspire a card.  I went with the bottom row - buttons, flowers and twine.  

I came up with my idea pretty quickly.  I have a ton of these confetti card blanks and a lot of the confetti is red and turquoise so I thought they would work with my colour scheme.  I used a large Hero Arts cling stamp and a big button from my stash.  The twine is from a kite that crash landed in our yard on Good Friday.  The owner retrieved their kite but left the string and I've been making use of it ever since!  :)  Anyway, I liked the bare flower on the card but I wondered what it would look like if I added some colour to it.  I thought I'd try adding the twine colour to the flower first.

Meh.  Interesting but I didn't love it so I made another one and tried adding red to the flower.  

I definitely like it better than the twine coloured flower even though it looks a bit candy cane-ish.  I'm actually kind of torn now between the first and third cards.  What do you think?

Hope Your Day Is Sweet

I figured I wouldn't be able to play along with this month's Unity challenge - Tooty Fruity - as I didn't think I had any fruit images in my small (but growing!) Unity collection. However, I received All You Need  (KOM Aug 2010) in the mail just in time to play along!  

The KOM included this cute cherry image which I paper pieced and paired with a sentiment from Just You (KOM March 2011).  I considered adding other things - a frame, some sparkle - but in the end I liked the simplicity of it and left it as is.  Sweet and simple!


We finally got rain today!  Whoo hoo!  It was so exciting to wake up to the sound of rain trickling into the tank.  I don't think it actually added a ton to our water supply (it was mostly a steady drizzle) but if nothing else it will hopefully help to revive our poor garden. We're forecast to get a bit more rain in the next few days so let's hope they're right for once!

Gallery Idol Congrats

Since I just discovered this blogging world and Paper Crafts back in the fall, this is the first time I've heard about Gallery Idol.  I've had a blast looking through the cards already posted and am loving the huge variety of designs and styles so I decided to toss my hat in the ring and play along.
Today I went to visit some friends and see their new house.  It's their first home so I wanted to give them a little "congrats on your new home" card (which would fit perfectly with the Gallery Idol theme of congratulations).  I recently ditched my old Monopoly board as It was falling apart but being the pack rat that I am I keep all the other bits and pieces from the game.  I've been wanting to use these bits and pieces on a card and finally had this idea.

Supplies: CS:PTI, Stamps:Unity & PTI; Ink: VersaFine & SU

I love that little Unity house and the idea of recycling (or upcycling - must figure out the difference between the two) the old game pieces that I loved so much as a kid and giving them another life.  A simple design and I'll be set for a while in terms of new house cards given how many of these game pieces are in the set.  :)
Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.  The sky is looking pretty black this evening so cross your fingers for us that we get some rain!

Dream It, Believe It

 

After losing the entire week to suffering from the plague (ie summer cold) I finally got back into the Craft Cave today.  I got the housecleaning done yesterday and the grocery shopping done first thing this morning so it was a guilt free crafting session!  I decide to start by playing along with this week's ColourQ colours.  I struggled a bit with having 5 colours and almost missed the vanilla out altogether but managed to pop it in there on the butterfly.  The stamp is from Unity's April KOTM.  Still waiting for my May kit to arrive... the downside to living in paradise!  :)    

Supplies: CS: SU; Stamp: Unity; Ink: SU; Dies: Nesties, PTI, Martha Stewart; EF: Cuttlebug; Gems: Basic Grey; Copic: R46

Off to scrounge up some dinner for myself.  Luis has a hankering for octopus tonight so we're cooking separately.  Can't get into the octopus thing - I'd much rather see one hanging around my dock than laid out on my plate.  Blerg!

You Brighten My Day

As soon as I saw the picture for this week's ColourQ challenge I thought of the owl from Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums set.  I've barely touched my PS stamps even though I've had them for a few weeks now so I thought I'd better hop to it.  The card is going to go to my friend Louise in NY.  We were roomies in college for two years and she has remained one of my dearest friends who I can always count on for a good laugh.  We haven't talked in ages so I thought I'd send her a little note to let her know I'm thinking of her.  She's a 5th grade teacher so will be winding down the school year and getting ready for a well deserved break - although she somehow always seems busier than ever during the summer!  :)  

Now that it's really getting warmer the dogs are turning totally nocturnal on me.  During the day they're in a heat induced daze and don't want to do anything.  Between midnight and 9am, when it's coolest, they're bouncing off the walls.  Trying to get them well exercised without inducing heat stroke is proving to be a challenge!  I'm now resorting to trying to keep them awake all day so they'll be tired at night although they're not thrilled with being constantly prodded out of their snoozes.  :)