Pink Wishes

Last one before we hit the airport!  This card (which is for this week's Colour Throwdown challenge) didn't come out anything like I planned.  Once I stamped that Hero Arts background stamp it all changed.  I won the stamp earlier this year and thought it was a bit fussy for my taste but once I saw it on paper today I fell in love with it and I wanted it to take centre stage.

Wishing You Well

***Third Post of the Day!***

Just checked the weather forecast for Toronto.  Looks like it's going to be in the high 80s but the humidity is supposed to be 55 - 65% which is way better than here where the humidity is usually 75 - 85%!  I think I may be able to handle it.  :)
Squeezing in a few challenges before I go starting with this week's ColourQ challenge.  I don't have any of the new In Colours so I had to wing it and there's that dreaded coral again!!  I think I got a bit closer to an actual coral colour than the last time I struggled with it.  I made the pinwheel flowers using a Woodware Craft Collection punch and mounted them on a flourish vine.  (I have no idea what company the vine stamp is from so if anyone recognises it please let me know!)  

Supplies:  CS: SU, Bazzill; Stamps: PTI (sentiment), unknown (flourish); Inks: VersaMark, SU; Embossing Powder: Ranger; Punches: Woodware, McGill; Gems: Doodlebug; Other: Glossy Accents

Sticker Birds Part 2

Forgot I need separate posts for each entry for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge.

The second card also uses Crate Paper stickers (border, letters) and rub-ons (bird, flower) but this time from the Bliss collection.   

Just got back from a walk with the hounds and I don't think they'll be moving any time soon!  They're both laid out under the fan puffing away.  Poor puppies.  It's been really hot and humid for them today.  Tomorrow morning we'll give them a good long swim before we hop on the plane and hopefully they won't drive my mom too insane while we're gone!

Sticker Birds

I have 2 cards for the CAS-ual Fridays Rub-on/Sticker challenge and I can't decide which one I like best.  I keep dithering so I may enter them both.   
The first one actually has 2 rub-ons, 1 flat sticker and 3 chipboard stickers so I think I got that part of the challenge covered!  :)  All the stickers are from Crate Paper's Season collection (and the cardstock is Bazzill).  I added some Glossy Accents to the hearts for a little shine.

**Edited - 2nd card moved to it's own post!**

And They Lived Happily Ever After

The Play Date Cafe is having another Colour Splash challenge this week.  I love the inspiration picture! I haven't eaten Jello in years but that cup of rainbow Jello actually looks kind of yummy.  :)  
I chose red for my splash of colour and since a friend needed a card for a wedding I went with the love theme.  I've had this stamp for years and surprise, surprise - this is the first time it's seen ink! I haven't done many wedding cards for two reasons.  First of all, I'm really not into weddings. Luis and I did the registry office thing.  The thought of spending all day in a dress at an event where I am the centre of attention is pretty horrifying to me.  My other problem with wedding cards is that I always felt like they had to be lacy or ruffly or flowery (which are really not my style) so I'm pleased to have come up with a card that feels more CAS like me!   

Supplies: CS: Bazzill, Gina K; Stamps: Stampendous (image), PTI (sentiment); Ink: Memento;  Gems: Doodlebug; Copic: R29

Okay, gotta go dig out a suitcase and let it get some air as we are off to Toronto on Thursday.  We're going to Luis' cousin's wedding and I'm hoping to meet up with Emily Leiphart while I'm there which I'm really super excited about!  Hopefully it will cool off a bit before we get there though.  It would suck to go from Bermuda to Canada and be hotter there than here!

Rainbow Buttons

***2nd Post For The Day***

I really thought I'd posted this first thing this morning!  Whoopsie!

Another rainbow goodness challenge - this time from Colour Throwdown.  You really can't go wrong with a rainbow on a card can you?  I found these white Prima flowers when I was tidying up the other day and briefly considered inking them but then I stumbled across some buttons and thought I'd let them share the spotlight with the flowers.

Supplies: CS: Bazzill; Stamp: Paper Smooches; Ink: VersaMark: Embossing Powder: Ranger: Flowers: Prima; Buttons: Craft Supply

**ETA:  Ack!  I'm not doing well today!  I also wanted to enter this in this week's Less Is More recipe challenge to use buttons or ribbon.  Hope it's okay to add it in now!

Bold Buttons

I haven't played along with a Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger in ages and after looking at this picture for the last two weeks I finally decided to dive in today and tackle it.  I like the pink and green of the flowered wallpaper but the buttons are what stood out the most for me.  I found some pink and green My Mind's Eye paper to use for the background and punched some flowers from Bazzill cardstock.  I didn't have enough of the right sized black buttons so I coloured some white ones with a Copic.  I love how shiny they came out!  To finish it off I put some green gems around the sentiment to help it pop out a bit.  Later, gators!  

Supplies:  CB: Handy Hippo; CS: Bazzill; PP: My Mind's Eye: Stamp: Woodware USA; Ink: VersaFine;  Punch: Woodware; Gems: Doodlebug

ColourQ Ribbon Circles

Another multi-challenge card today - I'm on a roll with these lately!  I started out working on a card for this week's ColourQ challenge and then realised that my use of Unity stamps and ribbon meant I could enter it in two Unity challenges:  All Things Unity's Twine Ribbon challenge and Unity's Circles, Circles, Circles challenge.

Supplies:  CS: SU & Craft Supply; Stamps: Unity; Inks: Memento & SU; Ribbon: Making Memories; Punches: Marvy Uchida (2 1/2" circle punch), McGill (5/16" hole punch); Die: Nesties Lacey Circles; IP: PTI; Copics: Y08, YR07, G14

As always, I love the bold colours from ColourQ and I wanted to make the most of them. The dotted circle with the flower is from "Think Happy Thoughts" (KOM May 2011).  Not sure what set the sentiment is from as it came as a freebie.  I don't use ribbon all that often which is sad considering how much of it I own (but it looks pretty hanging on my wall!). Glad I finally managed to work some into a card.  Only about a million yards to go! 


Hope everyone is keeping well hydrated in this crazy heat.  We're off to Canada next weekend and I'll not be happy if it's hotter there than it is here!  Have a wonderful evening!

You Turn Me On

I always struggle with the colour coral.  I never seem to get it quite right.  It's always a bit too orange or a bit too pink and never quite... well, coral!  It's even worse when I go to photograph it!  I work on a project and think that maybe I've got a handle on this whole coral thing and then I look at the photo of it and want to bang my head on my desk.  Today my coral looks exceptionally pink but I'm still going to enter my card in this week's Just Us Girls colour challenge.  I had yet to ink up any of my Paper Smooches Boob Tube stamps so I thought I'd give them some love.  I used a PTI impression plate on the grey cardstock although it's hard to see in the pic.  I used the Nesties peony die because I wanted a funky shape to mount the TV on.  Must dash off to work now.  Have a lovely one!  

Supplies: CS: SU & Bazzill; Stamps: Paper Smooches; Inks:  VersaFine & SU; Die:  Nestie Peony; Impression Plate: PTI; Gems: Doodlebug & Basic Grey

Birthday Wishes

After all that fabulous rain the last two days the water trucker turned up today to deliver the water we ordered 2 weeks ago!  Ah well, the tank is now almost full and if we're careful it should last us the rest of the summer.  It's still cloudy outside and I hear some thunder rumbling (Jem is sitting at the door barking at it).  Maybe more rain to come!

Supplies:  CS: SU & PTI; Stamps: Unity & PTI; Ink: VersaMark & SU; Embossing Powder: Ranger: Threat: DMC; Buttons: Craft stash

A simple colour blocked card for the Inkspirations colour challenge this week.  I used another uninked Unity stamp (from KOM Aug 2009) and a sentiment from PTI.  Off to try and get one more card done before Luis gets home!    

Merci

This seems to be the week of colour challenges which is fine with me - they're my favourite. This card is for this week's 4 Crafty Chicks challenge.

Supplies:  CS: SU; Stamps Unity: Ink: VerdaFine; Gem: Doodlebug; Dies:  Nesties Labels One

This is my first attempt at making a shaped card and I think it's kinda cute.  The flower is from Unity's Bella Fiori set and the sentiment is from their Sept 2010 KOM.  Love that fun font!  

Sweet Rain

It's not very often that I create a multi-challenge card but today the stars aligned and I came up with a card for the following:
CAS-ual Fridays Sweet & Treats Challenge
The Play Date Cafe Challenge #90
Less Is More Circles Challenge
Unity Circles, Circles, Circles Challenge

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill, SU; Stamps: Unity; Ink: VersaFine; Die: Nesties Circles; IP: PTI

I love the PDC colours this week especially that yummy creamsicle!  I didn't have any Bazzill cardstock that worked for the eggplant colour so I used SU Elegant Eggplant.  It looked a bit plain next to the other textured colours so I used a PTI impression plate to give it some pizzazz.  The ice cream stamps are from Unity's March 2011 Kit of the Month and the sentiment is from their August 2009 KOM.  The paper piecing on the ice creams was a bit fiddly but I like how it came out.  The thin stripes were inspired by Cristina's Round 1 Gallery Idol entry.


Guess what?  All that dancing finally paid off!  Here's what I woke up to this morning:

Look at that rain!  Whoo hoo!  It lasted about 20 minutes and I could hear the water pouring into the tank - music to my ears!  :)  Then there was another shower a few hours later.  It's still looking pretty grey out there so maybe there will be some more.  The only ones who are not impressed are Jem and Atti as it has cut into their ball playing time.  I promised them an extra long walk later and gave them a treat at lunch time but they're still looking a bit hard done by!  Oooh!  It's raining again!  Whoo hoo!

Picture Perfect Hearts

Red and pink always makes me think of hearts and Valentine's Day so it was inevitable that when I saw this week's Picture Perfect Creations colour combo that hearts would be involved.  I chose one of my new Purple Onion Designs hearts for the occasion.  I stamped it 3 times, cut out the middles and layered polka dot stamped coloured paper behind them.  

Supplies:  CS: Gina K & SU; Stamps: Purple Onion Designs & PTI; Inks: VersaMark, VersaFine, Brilliance Moonlight White

The BBQ went well last night and we have enough food left to last us for a week!  Sweet!  No cooking!!  :)  The dogs were so good last night and charmed the pants off everyone.  I was so proud of my boys.  :)  And the best part is they are knackered.  When we got up this morning they barely said hello before they raced into our room and hopped into our bed where they are still snoozing peacefully!  They really lead tough lives...

Bright Birthday Wishes

Happy Saturday, everyone!  Just popping in quickly with some bright colours from this week's Colour Throwdown challenge.  I don't have any Taken With Teal paper and the paper I used looks a lot closer to the right colour in real life than in this picture.  Ah well... C'est la vie!  One day I'll get around to figuring out how to fix colours in Photoshop.  :)

Supplies:  CS: SU & mystery paper; Stamps: Hero Arts; Ink: VersaFine; Glitter: Stickles Cotton Candy

I pulled out some Cotton Candy Stickles to add a little touch of sparkle to the centre of the flower and the brackets around the sentiment.  I never seem to have enough birthday cards so I'm always happy to add one to the stash.  

Must dash as we're having friends over for a BBQ tonight and I need to play some ball with the dogs.  We took them for a long swim in hopes of tiring them out before everyone arrives but they know something's up and are getting themselves hyped!  Maybe some ball time will help...  Have a lovely evening!  

Butterfly Rainbow

Whoo hoo!  Look at me!  Posting a card for a challenge 4 days ahead of the closing date!  I'm trying to stop with the last minute stuff and get a bit more organised.  We'll see how long that lasts!

More bright, fun colours from this week's ColourQ challenge.  I pulled out a stamp from Unity's June Kit of the Month and stamped it a few times on different colour cardstock using VersaFine Vintage Sepia.  Then I stamped it again and fussy cut a butterfly from each colour.  I mounted them with Pop Dots and gave them each a bit of Doodlebug bling to make them stand out a bit more.  Ahhh, butterfly rainbow goodness!  (I'm also entering this in the Moxie Fab Stamp It! Cards Week Challenge.)

So has everyone voted for their Gallery Idol yet?  I'm still dithering.  After my first look through the entries I picked out my faves and had a list of 7.  I've since narrowed it down to 4 but am still not sure.  Might have to put them in a hat and pull one out at this rate!  

Also, I only recently figured out the whole "Save photo for web" thing.  So I've tried it out with the last few pictures I've posted.  Just wondered if it has made any difference when looking at my posts.  Does my blog open up faster for you?  Is the picture quality okay?  It all looks the same from here so I was just curious...  

What's the Scoop?

Supplies:  CS: (White) Bazzill, (Melon Mambo) SU, (black) Pacon; Stamps:  Purple Onion Designs; Ink: Memento; IP: PTI; Punches: (border) Martha Stewart, (1 3/8" square) EK Success; Gems: Doodlebug; Copics: RV06, RV34, E33, E35; Twine: Found  

I accidentally entered a card for the Moxie Fab Beautiful Borders Challenge the other day. It was meant for the stamping challenge but I hit some weird button combo on my keyboard and got transported to the border challenge instead.  Very weird.  So I figured I'd actually enter a card for real in the Border Challenge.


I started out with one idea for using the Martha Stewart ribbon threader border punch but ended up doing something completely different with it - and I think this came out far better than my original idea would have!  I'm loving bright colours these days and have just replenished my Stampin' Up cardstock supply.  At the end of last year I ordered their sampler packs and now that I know what colours I'm using most I ordered packs of individual colours.  There's a big stack of rainbow goodness on my desk at the moment! Just need to find it a home... 

Dotty Thanks

Another last minute entry for a challenge.  This time for Picture Perfect Creations.  I ended up with two cards for this one and have been dithering over them but I think I like the first one best.  If I did it again I would use darker cardstock for the band the letter are popped up on.  What do you think?

CS: Stampin' Up!; Stamps: Purple Onion Designs, Hero Arts; Inks:  VersaMark, VersaFine; Punch: EK Success

Carefree Summer

How is it Sunday evening already??  A minute ago I was going to sleep on Friday night and now the weekend is almost over.  Crazy.  Managed to squeeze a few cards in around running errands, working in the yard, a birthday party and a few swims with the hounds.  This one is for two challenges.  I used the colours from this week's Colour Throwdown and the theme from this month's Unity challenge - Sun and Fun.

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill & Stampin' Up; Stamps: Unity; Inks:  VersaFine & Memento; Gems: Basic Grey; Die: PTI; Copics: YG63 & R46

The clouds have been building all day and finally at 6:15pm the heaven's opened... and then closed 3 minutes later.  *Sigh*  What a tease!  It's still looking pretty dark out there so maybe we'll get a bit more rain later.  Apparently rain dances don't work here.  Or it could be that my horrific dancing is confusing the weather gods and they are not quite sure what I'm asking for!  Maybe I need to find a professional rain dancer...

Little Things Make Me Happy

Last month I missed the challenge deadline at Jay Gee's Nook by a few hours.  I was so annoyed at myself but was determined not to miss the next one and am getting my card in nice and early.  I was inspired by the picture in the lower right corner of the photo collage - love that white octopus on the turquoise background.  I also wanted to join in with the challenge at All Things Unity which involves using butterflies.  It seems like almost every Unity set I have has a butterfly but I hadn't inked up this one yet so I thought I'd dust it off and try it out.

Supplies:  CS: PTI; Stamps: Unity & PTI; Inks: VersaMark & VersaMagic Cloud White; Embossing Powder: Ranger Seafoam White; Nestie: Lacey Circles

I was so excited earlier today to see a manta ray swimming around down by our dock!  I haven't seen one in our bay in years and he spent quite a while tootling around down there.  They really are gorgeous creatures and I am so blessed to have an aquarium in my back yard!

Funky Flower Thanks

***This is my 2nd post of the day!  Scroll down for my Embellish post!***

Before I get to my card I have super exciting news - my first publications!!!!!  CARDS has accepted 2 of my cards for the December 2011 issue and I am so excited!!!!  (Can you tell??) Talk about a great way to start my day!  :)

**Edited to Add:  And I just got a card accepted for the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Paper Crafts!!!!  Wowee what a day!!!  ***

Now on to today's card...  For the first time when playing along with a Colour Cue challenge I actually have WPlus9 stamps to use.  I love the Funky Flowers set and all the different things you can do with it.  I die cut a few small Nesties and used them as the flower bases and then stamped over them.  I don't use my Nesties nearly enough so I felt good about giving them some love.  Have a great evening!    

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill, Paperbilities; Stamps: WPlus9; Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black, SU Concord Crush; Dies:  Nesties Labels 11, 15 & 16; Gems:  Doodlebug, Basic Grey

Rainbow Hearts

I've never played along with an Embellish challenge before but I look at them every time they're posted and I swear every time that this will be the challenge that I take part in.  And here I am.  Finally.  Took a rainbow to get me here but hey, whatever works! 

Supplies: CS: Bazzill & PTI; Stamps: Purple Onion Designs & Paper Smooches; Ink:  SU Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry

And with this card I christen my Purple Onion Designs stamps!  I have been eying up these stamps for ages and finally made a purchase which arrived last Thursday.  I got ragged on pretty hard at work as I spent my lunch break cooing over my new goodies.  LOL!  They can rib me all they want though because they buy plenty of cards!  :)  

It's Krafts-men, Dude!

Squeaking in at the last minute here with an entry for CAS-ual Fridays Krafts-men challenge.  I'm getting a little better at planning my cards out in advance.  Before I would often sit at my desk, pick a challenge and then draw a blank.  Now I'm finding I have ideas simmering in the back of my mind and I'm managing to hang on to them instead of forgetting them altogether.  (Making notes now and then helps too - when I can find the notes that is!)  So here it is, pretty much as I envisioned it, and I'm quite pleased with it!

CS: PTI; Stamps: PTI; Inks: SU Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake; Punches: EK Success, Marvy Uchida

We continue to be desperate for rain.  We put in an order for 4 more loads of water which we'll get in 7 days if we're lucky.  Today was really frustrating because it was thundering all morning and I could see all these dark clouds and knew that it was pouring with rain out over the water but not on the island.  It's like we have an anti-rain force field around us or something!     

My issue of Stamp It arrived today (along with a few other back issues I've missed) so I'm off to peruse them.  Have a lovely evening!

Inkspirations & Terrapins & Cats!

The challenge at Inkspirations this week is a colour challenge.  I've had extra work shifts this week so haven't had much time in the Craft Cave but managed to whip this up this afternoon.  I've had this Hero Arts stamp for a while but this is the first time I've inked it up.  I love those birdies and I have a few other ideas for them that I'll hopefully get to sooner rather than later!

A few interesting moments at work today.  We have a specialist from Boston who comes down a few times a year to do big orthopaedic surgeries.  (His name is Dr. Nick Trout and if you like animals and you like books then you should check out his book "Tell Me Where It Hurts").  Anyway a lady happened to turn up with a terrapin that had been run over by a car and the bottom half of his shell was split in half.  Since Dr. Trout was here he agreed to repair it.  The vet from the local aquarium and zoo came by to help get the little guy under anaethetic and then Dr. Trout, using pliers, heavy gage wire and Krazy Glue, patched him up!  Apparently it was his first terrapin surgery and despite taking ages to wake up the little guy came through just fine.

I also met a cat named Morris and thought I'd share a picture of him - all 22lbs of him!  There's a lot of Morris to love.  Amanda, the nurse in the picture with him, is barely a hundred pounds and she looks lost behind him!  LOL!  Never a dull moment at Endsmeet Animal Hospital!