'The Sky Is The Limit' graduation - TGIFC265

Happy Sunday, and to my American friends, Happy Memorial Day weekend!  Our weather is gray today, and yesterday we got quite a bit of rain.  Hoping for some peeks of sunshine later. No matter the weather, there's always plenty to be done inside the house...including making cards. 😉

I'm playing in another challenge today:  TGIF Challenges - Theme Challenge: Travel.  #TGIFC265
I picked a hot air balloon as my mode of travel for this graduation card.  It's headed to a family friend who is graduating from high school soon.

Inspired By Stamping The Sky's The Limit hot air balloon and sentiment stamps; Impression Obsession Mortarboard and Scroll cap die; Papertrey Ink Clouds 1 and 2 die; pearls; Gina Marie Designs Flower Pleated Lace Nested Rectangles die

The pale blue damask patterned paper is old, from Stampin' Up!, and obviously stands in for my sky.  The mortarboard cap has a tiny pearl on the tassel, adding a bit of 'class' (get it, class?  I have corny puns!).

Thank you to the team at TGIF Challenges for hosting such a neat inspiration challenge this week!

Check out what my daughter, Kerry, and I did last night.  We did Bob Ross Painting!  We watched Bob on Netflix, paused the show at various points along the way, and tried to follow Bob's example.  His canvas was like 2 ft x 3 ft, and ours are tiny 5" x 7" canvases.

It was my first time doing a Bob Ross painting, and Kerry's second.  She has inherited the gift of painting from my dad, and from her paternal grandmother.  I love how her mountains, water (check out the tree reflections!) and sky turned out!  My one giant cloud is not ultimately what I was going for, but I thought the mountains and water came out pretty good.  What a fun and pleasant evening with my girl!  Can't wait to do it again.

Thank you so much for coming by today!  I've got to get ready for virtual church now, and a drive-by birthday 'party' this afternoon. 

Have a wonderful day, a relaxing holiday, and God bless you and keep you!

Sweet Life - Inspired By... 'Sweet On You' challenge

Hello there!  I'm playing in another Inspired By... challenge, and this one is titled, 'Sweet On You.'
The gorgeous inspiration photo is further down in this post.  I incorporated a lot of the elements I saw in the pic.

My Favorite Things LLD Tea Party spoon die; Stampin' Up! Hardwood background stamp, Mercury Glass Designer Acetate; Flourishes Cherries & Peaches cherry and sentiment stamps; pearls; doily

 

The spoon was die-cut twice:  once from white cardstock, and once from a piece of Mercury Glass Designer Acetate from Stampin' Up!  It's hard to capture it in the photo, but the top layer (the mercury glass) is a shiny silver with clear mottled specks on it, which let the white cardstock peek through a bit.

Also, see the sentiment?  It says, "Live the Sweet Life."  It's very faint - on purpose, and you'll know why when you see the inspiration picture.  This sentiment was pure serendipity.  It came in the Flourishes Cherries & Peaches stamp set, and I liked it, so I used it.  THEN it hit me that the name of this challenge is 'Sweet On You'.  💗

The inspiration pic shows horizontal wood grain in a pretty shade of aqua.  I didn't have one just like it so I got close by making it like this.  I used a pale grayish-blue piece of small herringbone patterned paper, then stamped the Hardwood background stamp on top in Going Gray ink.  Then I used Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and sponged it all over the piece.  It came close, I think.

Here is the inspiration photo:

A big thank you to the ladies at Inspired By... -- they picked my Hanging Flowers card as their winner from the last challenge!  I am grateful!

Thanks so much for your visit today.  I appreciate your visit!  God bless you!

A Parade of Valentine Cards

Hello everyone, how are you doing today?  Are any of you very tired sometimes during our quarantine?  I sure am.  I know I'm not alone in that.  It's just weird how exhausted I can be, even with a decent night's sleep.  I suppose it's because we're in a holding pattern of sorts, with the sense that we need to "get back to normal soon".  Except that our previous way of life will not return in full, at least not for the foreseeable future. 

I think I need to go outside and get some fresh air this evening, maybe take a walk and look at the spring flowers in bloom.  In our backyard, we've got white and magenta peonies, three different colors of irises, and azaleas blossoming at the moment.  Oh, and chives.  They have such pretty flowers.

Today I've got some Valentine cards to show you, just because. 💟  After lining up all of these cards, I noticed I used the same stamp sets and dies A LOT -- guess it was just easier when all of those supplies were already on my desk.  So, you'll see some things repeated. 😏

Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment stamp, Ornate Frames sentiment die, Itty Bitty Accents small heart punch; My Favorite Things Pierced Heart Stax heart die; doily; L'il Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles die

L'il Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles die; My Favorite Things Pierced Heart Stax and Heart Stax heart dies; Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment and envelope stamps; coffee sleeve

L'il Inker Designs Stitched Rectangles die; My Favorite Things Heart Stax heart dies; pearls; Stampin' Up! ivory rosette ribbon, Bloomin' Love sentiment stamp; vintage thread; Memory Box Classic Tags tag die

My Favorite Things Heart Stax heart dies; Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment stamp; black striped satin ribbon; rhinestones

It was hard to capture the shine of the polka dots on the white paper in the photo above, so I took another, which you see below.  However, I could not get rid of the yellow tones, even with my photo editor.  That bugs me, but it's a small thing; not a big deal. 😐

Papertrey Ink Ways To Say: I Love You sentiment stamp; Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Rectangles Large die; pink glitter heart stickers; pearls

Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment stamps; Papertrey Ink Tag-Its #11 key stamp; button; gold thread; Kat Scrappiness Stitched Postage Stamp Edge Rectangles die; My Favorite Things Pierced Heart Stax heart die

Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment stamp, A Happy Heart large heart stamp, Itty Bitty Accents small heart punch; Gina Marie Designs Frilly Lace Rectangles die; pink rhinestones

Stampin' Up! Heartfelt Love Notes (Paper Pumpkin) sentiment stamp; My Favorite Things Heart Stax heart dies;
gold glitter frame die cut

Before I go, let me show you pictures my daughter recently took of the Philadelphia skyline at dusk one evening.  She was at one of our nearby rivers (where she had rowed in competition during her high school years) as she watched the sun dip. 

 
Thanks so much for your visit today, and God bless you and keep you!

Christmas Wreath - CAS(E) This Sketch #371 challenge

Happy Mother's Day to you!  💜 I hope you are being treated with loving kindness today by those around you.  My family is giving me lots of quiet solitude this weekend, which I require in big doses as an introvert, and I've been crafting (of course!) and listening to worship songs.  My kind of happy. 😀  My husband just placed an order from The Cheesecake Factory, so we'll have that for dinner, and he's baking a blueberry cobbler for dessert.  Yum.  My man is so talented in his cooking and baking!  Am I blessed, or what? LOL

Yesterday I had played in my first challenge in a long time, and it was so fun!  I soooo appreciate the lovely comments some folks had left for me regarding that card.  Thank you!! 

Today, I've got a Christmas card to share as part of another challenge:  CAS(E) This Sketch #371.

Papertrey Ink Rustic Wreath die, Tiny Tags tag die, and sentiment (can't find the set name!); gold sequins; vintage thread; crochet lace; Pink Paislee puffy flourish sticker; flourish panel from the inside of a store-bought card 

I use Evernote as an app on my phone and computer, to keep track of my many stamp sets and dies, etc.  However, I could not find which stamp set this sentiment came from.  I think it's a Papertrey Ink set, but I could not locate it while putting this post together.  Sorry about that!

I adapted the challenge sketch a bit to get vertical stripes from my patterned paper into the action.

Thanks to all at CAS(E) This Sketch for having me this week.  😃

Before I go, I wanted to share what I found on my Bible app this morning (it's the YouVersion Bible app; I really like it):

Isn't that nice?  We work hard (I know it's not just moms; dads and grandparents get in on the act of raising our children, too) to raise our kids right.  A lot goes into the creating of a safe, secure, loving and nurturing home for our families, and sometimes it is downright exhausting, when juggling all the duties upon us.  The idea of honoring mothers touches me deeply, especially the older I get and the older my children get (two girls, one is almost 22 years old, and the other is 18 years old).  It gives me better appreciation for what my own mother has done all of my life.  I love her so much.  💗

Thanks so much for coming by today, and God bless you!

Hanging Flowers - Inspired By... Challenge

Hello friends!  How are you holding up in this quarantine?  Hard to believe we just got through our eighth week.  Wow.  😮  My family is healthy.  I've been keeping busy with my job, and trying to tackle household projects I haven't been able to do, all the while waiting for the day we are allowed to resume somewhat normal lives.  God has been good to us.  But then again, He's always good, amen? 

So, can you believe I am posting today about a card challenge??  I haven't participated in one in for-ev-er.  My friend is on the design team at the Inspired By... challenge, and I saw the photo prompt in her blog post, and I was like, "Yeah, I have totally got to give that a try!!"

Here is the result, after a few days of mulling over design options:

Stampin' Up! Grace's Garden hollyhock stamps & sentiment, wood patterned papers;
Papertrey Ink Tiny Tags tag die; pleated ribbon

I fussy-cut five bunches of flowers, colored them, and adhered them to the back of a white-washed patterned paper scrap.  The tag was added to hide a boo-boo I wasn't too keen on.  I tied linen twine through the top of the tag, and glued it to the fabric ribbon.  Also, I used a Warm Gray Copic marker in W1 to color the tiny heart on the tag, to match the color scheme.

Here is the challenge's inspiration photo.  Isn't it gorgeous??

Thank you to the hosts at Inspired By...  I had fun playing along, and hope to join you again sometime!  Thanks so much for your visit today, and God bless!