Blue Poppies and The Sea

WhooHoo. I got 2 1/2 cards made this past week.  My neighbor grows blue poppies, they're almost 3 feet tall!  They were my inspiration to color a couple of  my digi poppy images from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps  and I used this week's sketch from The Sweet Stop SSS225  for one of them.  (The other blue poppy card is not finished yet.) 

I love how it turned out with this color combo!  (You can click on the image to make it bigger.)

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Poppies (digi), Our Daily Bread Designs-Crochet Border    

Ink: TH Distress Ink-Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Antique Linen     Paper: K&Company, DCWV     

Other:  Prisma Colored Pencils, Sponge daubers, Seam Binding, water spritzer. Spellbinders-Ovals, 

Floral Oval dies, ODBD-Crochet Border die, Bow Easy

I used TH Distress Ink pads in Salty Ocean & Faded Jeans to dye the seam binding the shade I wanted it.  It was fun to do & I had blue fingers for almost 2 days. :)  Yes, I could have, and probably should have, used a baggie or a plastic glove on my hand but I was too lazy (?) to go down to the kitchen to get one. Well, more like impatient to get on with the fun!  The next day I received a few comments about my 3 dark blue finger tips from co-workers (You didn't get that from gardening...no that would be a green thumb, this here's a blue one, from inking! haha Huh?!), from an auto parts store clerk (like he hasn't seen filthy hands, well, just not blue ones) & from my hubby (They look dirtier than mine after working on my truck, use a scrubber like I do! Really?).

I had worked on this card over several days, and was finishing it up Thursday morning.  My hubby was packing up to go off to work for a few weeks and I had a few hours until we needed to head into the airport.  He called up to me, "are you working on a card for me?!"  Umm, hmm, "Nooo, I'm finishing up another card", I replied as tinges of guilt creep in, helped by his "ohhh" response. Thoughts running through my head: I didn't make him an anniversary card last week, and now he's taking off for a few weeks; he says he likes it when I leave him a note in his bag, which I haven't done in months (?)...oh boy... So I grabbed some stamps, think quick but don't overthink, or nothing will get made!  My inspiration - he's going to be on a ship at sea in the far north (tho not a sail boat like the image I used).  This is what I came up with, and handed to him as I chased him out the door to the waiting vehicle.  Wheewww!  Love ya dear!

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-The Sea      Ink: Versamark, TH Distress ink-Stormy Sea, Antique Linen     

Other:  Judi kins Embossing Powder-Lapis Lazuli (image), Ranger Super Fine Detail EP Black (sentiment) , sponge daubers

The JudiKins EP "Lapis Lazuli" is a mix of a dark blue & a bronze colored powder.  I hadn't used that EP in years and I wasn't sure what look to expect using it with this silhouette image. I just jumped in & tried it, no hours of hesitation....and, well, it gives it an interesting look!  I added a little sponging (maybe not enough) and called it good.  More like hubby called it time to go, so done it was!  

Cards

Here's a few cards I made back in July.

Using the above Sweet Stop sketch from July 6 I made the butterfly card below.  It was an experiment stamping the line image on the bold floral print.  As it is with experiments, sometimes when I look at it I like it, other times not so much. :)

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy-Butterfly Flourish, Inkadinkado-Creative Words set    Ink: VersaFine Black   

Paper: ki memories, DCWV    Other:  Spellbinders-Wonky Rectangles die,   Cuttlebug EF-Cane Back Chair, 

Black EP,   Flowers-JoAnn's & Bazzillbasics, flower brad

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Next, is the card I made for this Flourishes July Release Challenge - It's Sketchy  with this sketch and a window of any shape.  Most people made a window card (image stamped inside) so I went for something a little different, (more literal ?) using my new window dies from Memory Box!

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy-Be Encouraged      Paper:  DCWV,  Vellum 

Ink: TH Distress Ink- Tea Dye (brick EF), Versafine-Vintage Sepia (sentiment)       

Other: Sizzix EF Brick Wall; Memory Box Dies-Small Madison Window, Small Flower Box, 

Fairytale Flower Border; MS Branch punch; Clear plastic- repurposed packaging; Stickles 

I inked the brick ef to help it show up on the patterned paper. You almost can't really tell what the original paper looked like now (it would be the embossed color tho it doesn't look quite the same) but I like the effect! Behind the window frame is pale yellow cardstock, then vellum, topped with clear plastic. Yes, cutting through all those layers to place it in the corner of the card was a pain!  The MB Fairytale Flower Border die was used with green, yellow & red cardstock.  The colored flowers were snipped & glued onto the green die cut, then the green cut apart and arranged in the flower box. I thought it would save me work to do it this way rather than use separate punches or other small dies, but I'm not so sure anymore! 

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This next one is a wedding card for a gal at work.  Her favorite color is pink, followed by anything camo.  I really wanted to do something in pink camo but it didn't seem to work for me. Her girls wore pink dresses and her wedding bands have beautiful silver sparkle so for her card I went with pink & silver, simple style with alittle sparkle.

Stamps: Stampin'Up-Soft Swirls, Penny Black sentiment    Ink: Ranger Acrylic Paint dauber-Silver, Versafine-black, Versamark     Paper: echo park-Love Story pink    Other: Tim Holtz ideology Grunge Paper, Spellbinders Hearts die, eksucess corner rounder punch, Recollections Sparkle EP-Clear Silver, KaiserCraft-large pearl brad, 

pink flowers, Stickles, Offray ribbon

The heart was die cut from the grunge paper, (like light weight cardboard with a soft, velvety texture on one side) then coated with silver acrylic paint. I think coating that soft texture gives it some depth vs. using smooth cardboard. I added Stickles to the flowers & around the brad to add more sparkle.

Off to finish up another card!

The Garden grows!

Whoo hoo!  Scott got the fence up around the garden before he went away to work his last hitch back in July!  In a month's time the garden has recovered from a moose mauling quite nicely!  It really can grow if the moose aren't trimming everything or yanking things out every few days!!

We've had a record number of days at 70 degrees & over here this past summer.  Now we're into our rainy August and temps have cooled.  The plants are loving it!!  By golly, we are too!  The moose aren't so happy tho, poor moose...No more dessert for you! : ) 

Sugar Snap Peas

Green Bean Flowers

 

Kale

Cabbage

Celery

Aww, guess who else the fence keeps out!

Unknown flowers, planted by birds?

Marigolds to brighten our green garden!

It's been years since we've been able to pick more than a handful of one or two types of veggies in our garden!  These pictures are actually from a few weeks ago. The green beans are developing nicely & the cabbage are quite big now! Time to drag out the preserving information, research recipes and make room in the fridge & freezer!

Sweet n Sassy Stamps Sketch 224 play time

Yikes! Has it really been a year since I posted anything on here?!?!  I've gotten spoiled using SCS to upload cards made for challenges to quickly link up minutes before their deadline, the rare moments I do play these days.  Well, I'll try to do a quick post & hopefully get back in the groove of writing here!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps posts weekly sketches on their The Sweet Stop blog.  I always hope to play along but the week seems to fly by. Next thing I know they're posting another one!  This time I had started a card for one of their monthly stamp release challenges and didn't finish it in time (due last Fri night).  Saturday morning they had a new sketch posted so I used it as my inspiration to finish the card.  Otherwise it would end up being added to the growing pile of bits & pieces of unfinished stuff...  This sketch also had a spin to use sunflowers, so to fulfill that part of the challenge I had to make another card! And finish & post them before the next challenge, whew!

Here's the sketch I used:

It's been dark, cloudy & rainy here these past few days, so the pictures are not great at showing the true colors. Here's my first card:

Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps-Landscape Silhouettes, Be Encouraged           Paper: DCWV

The paper was cut from a big scrapbook sheet that had a big swirl of sparkle, so no particular shape but I thought it added something here. :) 

Here's my second card using the sketch & Sunflowers:

Stamp: Penny Black             Paper: DCWV              Ink: Tombo Markers, TH Distress Ink

Other: Cuttlebug EF Leafy Branch, hole punch, Sakura Stardust pen, Glossy Accents

I colored - thumping & mixing colors, directly on the rubber stamp with markers, stamping & repeat until I got the image I liked.  (only took 3 tries, whew!)  Since I didn't have brads or other embellishments I liked for this I made my own brad-looking ones.  I used the green paper (yes, it's really green, looks better in real life) of the banner, hole punched circles, colored with the Stardust pen to add sparkle, then covered with Glossy Accents (the not so fun part - fighting with small circles & sticky glue, grrrr).  Once the glaze was dry  I was able to stick them on the card.  The smart thing to do would have been to stick the hole punched circles to the card before coloring & adding the glaze...but I didn't know for sure I would use them until I saw them finished....not to mention I didn't think of this till just now, while typing this (roll eyes, sigh)...

Thanks for looking!  Off to do the many things that keep me from posting here. Like sleep, for now :)