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.  :)