Monstera Birthday

 

Today's card is for the Just Add Ink photo inspiration challenge and for Darnell's NBUS challenge (since it's the first time I've inked up this Altenew potted plant).  I love the inspiration photo as it could have been taken here where all our houses are built of stone and painted bright and cheerful colours with white roofs.  Over the years our house has gone through a number of colour changes.  Here's a photo of the transition from turquoise to dark blue.  Today the house is sage green.

  

Supplies Used:

Cardstock:  (White) Papertrey Ink, (Terracotta)

Patterned Papers:  (Kioshi 12x12) Basic Grey

Stamps:  (Plant from Potted Plants) Altenew, (Sentiment from Sentimental: Birthday) Winnie & Walter 

Inks:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Eucalyptus) Catherine Pooler

Dies:  (Hemstitch Rectangles) Spellbinders

Gems:  Recollections

Creepy Photo Ahead...

Good morning!  A quick post before I jet off to work. Neat and Tangled is hosting a new challenge called Little Tangles.  The first challenge is to create a Hello card which is perfect because my favourite N & T set is Just Hello.  I stamped the envelopes on a selection of Amy Tangerine paper and popped them up on the card.  The sentiment is two put together. Colourful and cute no?  Check out the challenge if you haven't already.  You don't have to use N&T stamps but they have free digi stamps if you want to try some out!

And now for the creepy part.  I'm not generally squeamish about bugs - remember our housemate from here?  However, centipedes, especially the giant variety, make me scream like a girl.  I've always been terrified of getting chomped by one - they give a nasty bite - and unfortunately they are plentiful at our end of the island.  Just a couple of week ago my mom was battling one on her porch.  She tried to smoosh it with a wine bottle, broke the bottle and ended up impaling it on the jagged edge of the bottle!  LOL!  Go mom!  Yesterday I found one in our kitchen and was pretty sure it was dead as it was all curled up so I tried to stretch it out to show you how big they are.

This one - at about 5" fully stretched out -  is actually on the small side.  Anyway after being prodded around and stretched out it decided it wasn't dead any more and it went berserk - started spinning around and going crazy!  Cue Jen screaming and running from the room and Luis rolling his eyes as he went to deal with the beast.  The perils of living in paradise!

It's Not Easy Being Queen

Popping in super quick before I jet off to work for the afternoon.  I'm playing along with Unity's Friends With Flair blog hop and the Runway Inspired Challenge.  These dress forms from Unity's latest KOM made me think of fashion and models which made me think of Runway Inspired.  So I pulled a few colours from the RIC dress and came up with this simple one layer card.  It'll be added to the stack for the big special order I'm working on.  :)


I'm excited to report that the octopus has returned!  I'd really given up hope of seeing him again but there his was yesterday in his little cave under the steps by the dock.  Now if I can just keep Luis from eating him... 


Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill

Stamps:  (Images & sentiment from May '12 KOM - Love In An Instant) Unity

Ink:  (Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point, Lucky Limeade) Stampin' Up

Gems:  (Tangerine, Limeade & Blue Jean assortments) Doodlebug

Miss You Meadows

I finally got my head around the sketch at the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.  I broke out my new Metropolis stamps and (drum roll please!) some patterned paper!  Whoop whoop!  I may just put a dent in the ol' stash yet!  LOL!  I'm also going to enter this over at the Simon Says Stamp CAS challenge.

It's another grey, humid day here but the drizzling has stopped so we took the hounds down to the dock for a swim.  The water is super clear and our neighbourhood turtle came by to say hello as well as our friend the pufferfish.  It's been busy down there this week as we've also seen a ray, a huge rockfish and some gorgeous parrotfish.  Now if our octopus would just come back it would be perfect!

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) The Stampin' Place

Patterned Paper:  Echo Park

Stamps:  (Balloon and sentiment from Metropolis) Paper Smooches

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Silhouettes and Masking

My PTI goodies arrived just in time for me to take part in A Passion For Papertrey's Sensational Silhouettes challenge.  I used a mixture of new and old stamps including stamps from Star of Wonder, Nativity Silhouettes and Mat Stack 2 Collection.  I also attempted some masking (which is something I very rarely try) although I kept it pretty simple - just masking the light beams behind the medallion.  The Mega Mat Stack die is new too and I really like the shape.  I'm also going to enter this over at Simon Says Stamp's Anything goes challenge.    

This picture is for you, Kim S!  You mentioned once that I always only show beautiful pictures of my view so I thought I'd share one from this grey and gloomy day today.  As you can see, the dock was underwater again.  We went across the harbour to our favourite pub for lunch and their outdoor eating area was close to being swamped!  Apparently these tides are due to the moon, earth and sun being in a very particular alignment at the moment.  Pretty fascinating how the world works huh?  

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (Cream) Stampin' Place, (More Mustard, Not Quite Navy) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Bethlehem & sentiment - Star of Wonder, Beams of light - Nativity Silhouettes,  Medallion - Mat Stack 2 Collection) PTI
Ink:  (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Early Espresso, More Mustard) Stampin' Up

Embossing Powder:  (Clear) Ranger

Dies:  (Banner, Mega Mat Stack 3) PTI

Literary Card

I had to play along with CAS-ual Fridays this week as the challenge was to create a card using black, white and red that is inspired by a book.  Brilliant! The only thing that makes my craft stash look paltry is my book collection!  :)  I have been a lifelong book lover and never go anywhere without one in my bag - just in case!  Anyway the inspiration for my card come from the fabulous kid's book "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls.  My inspiration is pretty literal as you can see using both stamped and punched ferns and one of the gorgeous sentiments from PTI's Botanical Silhouettes collection.  (I love the mixed fonts).


Hurricane Katia is moving past us today.  Thankfully she's about 330 miles away from us so while it's windy and grey and the south shore beaches are closed, that seems to be the worst we're going to get from her.  Now we just have to keep an eye on Tropical Storm Maria who seems to be on a similar track to Katia.  The last two times we got clobbered really badly (by Emily in 1987 and  by Fabian in 2003) were both in September so it's a tense month for us.  We got really lucky last year when Igor came through.  It was up to a Category 5 at one point but by the time he got to us he'd miraculously downgraded to a Category 1.  Whew!  Let's hope the luck holds out this year...

Supplies Used:
Cardstock:  (White) Bazzill Basics, (Basic Black & Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up
Stamps:  (Ferns from Turning a New Leaf & sentiment from Botanical Silhouettes) PTI

Ink:   (Cherry Cobbler) Stampin' Up, (Onyx Black) VersaFine

Impression Plate:  (Linen & Canvas) PTI

Ribbon:  Stampin' Up

Punches: Woodware Craft Collection

I Believe In You

I love ColourQ's bold colour palette this week and decided it would be perfect to use with these stamps from Unity's August 2011 Kit of the Month - What I Know.  I think the flower/text stamp is going to get a lot of love - it's awesome!  Since I'm workin' the Unity stamps I'm also going to enter this in this week's All Things Unity challenge - Anything Goes.  

Thanks to those who have expressed concern about me getting battered by Hurricane Irene. However, Bermuda is in the Atlantic about 600 miles off Cape Hatteras so unless Irene does a major right turn we should be just fine.  Hope all of you on the East Coast are battened down and ready!  Be safe.


Supplies Used:
Cardstock: (White) Bazzill Basics, (Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Old Olive, Island Indigo)  Stampin' Up 
Stamps: (Image & sentiment from What I Know - Aug 2011 KOM) Unity Stamp Co
Ink: (VersaMark) Tsukineko, (Island Indigo) Stampin' Up
Gems:  Doodlebug

Crafty Chick Birthday

Some cute little birdies came along this week with a sweet colour combination at 4 Crafty Chicks!  I used some Hero Arts stamps and a PTI sentiment to make a birthday card which I'm also going to enter over at this week's Create challenge.  Lots of fussy cutting here and more background stamping.  I love the subtle effect of stamping with Versamark.  I'm also loving my Doodlebug gems lately.  Each colour comes in 4 different sizes which is so handy. Gonna have to place an order for some more soon.  *Sigh*  A crafter's shopping is never complete!  :)   

Supplies: CS: Bazzill, SU; Stamps: Hero Arts, PTI; Inks: VersaMark, VersaFine; Gems: Doodlebug

The cleaning frenzy is still ongoing.  We worked on the kitchen yesterday.  Pulled everything out of every cupboard - cleaned all the cupboards, weeded out stuff we don't need.  It's scary how fast things accumulate and how quickly you forget it's even there. We've got a ton of stuff put aside to take to The Barn (our local charity shop) and a few things for the dump and I'm feeling good about streamlining.  Luis keeps asking when I'm going to have a clear out in the Craft Cave!  Ha!  Silly boy...  

A Smile is a Laugh That Bursts

Good morning, Crafters!  I have a card for two challenges today - Jay Gee's challenge and Picture Perfect Creations.  Lots of purple going on in both and for some reason purple makes me think of laughter so I though this little quote would go nicely with the colours.  I stamped the background with a few other stamps from the set and used embroidery floss to attach the tag.  I wanted to use a ribbon but it turns out I have no cream coloured ribbon.  Pretty scary considering how much ribbon I do have. Might need to rectify that situation...

Supplies:  CS: SU; Stamps: Fiskars; Inks: SU & VersaMark; Embossing Powder: Ranger; Gems: Doodlebug;  Dies: Nesties; Embroidery Floss: DMC

Got a bit of carding in yesterday afternoon during which time we had a fantastic thunderstorm and lots of wonderful rain!  After all those months of nothing we've had quite a bit of the watery stuff these last few weeks and our once charred lawn is now growing faster than Luis can mow it!  :)  It's a beautiful sight! 

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!

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!    

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...

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!

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!

Plaid Thank You

I'm officially ready for fall.  The heat and humidity have really kicked in - we broke down and left the air conditioner on in the bedroom last night.  It's nice to sleep in but walking out of the room in the morning is like a slap in the face!  Blerg!


For this week's ColourQ challenge I tried to not only incorporate the colours but also the picture so I worked a little plaid into the card.  I thought this Hero Arts flower would be perfect and I tried to make the stripes plaid-esque.  I'm also going to enter this in the Moxie Fab stamping challenge.  

CS: Bazzill & SU; Stamps:  Hero Arts & PTI; Inks: VersaFine & SU;  Gem:  Doodlebug; Other: Glossy Accents

Tomorrow we'll be installing a new sink in our laundry room and then heading down to the dock to cool off.  I think we'll be spending a lot of time floating around the bay this summer!  Hope everyone in the US and Canada are enjoying their long holiday weekends!  

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! 

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