Purples & White

I saw a color challenge on The Play Date Cafe, and I couldn't wait to sit down with these colors!

This picture reminded me of my lilac shrubs.  It will be about a month when they are in bloom, and I spend a great deal of time out on that side of the lawn taking in all the fragrance.  I have all of these colors of lilacs the white being a Japanese lilac tree in the middle of the front yard.  When those big beautiful white flowers bloom, I smell them all over the house.  I'll be sure to share pictures this year!  Anyway, the card I came up with is a sketch from Just Add Ink and the idea of bows from Our Creative Corner.

Except for the white ribbon, all the product on this card is CTMH.  I random stamped the big flowers on white daisy cardstock.  I stamped them in petal ink and rolled them in pansy purple.  It gave a very nice color!  then I just used a paper towel and sponged petal ink between all of the flowers.

Graduation Cards with Lucky Me from LYB

Little Yellow Bicycle had a great line called Lucky Me, and I thought it would be perfect for some graduation cards I'm finishing up for OWH.  I used sketches for all of these cards - there are some really good ones again this week!  I'm going to list the "ingredients" at the end so that my post is not broken up so much.  As you'll see, I used a lot of the same elements throughout all the cards.

CPS:

Card Patterns:

Get Sketchy:

Clean & Simple:

Inspirational Card Sketches:

OCC Sketch Blog:

Items used:  Little Yellow Bicycle Lucky Me patterned paper, borders, buttons, and gems; CTMH brads, stamps, bitty sparkles, and ink; Hero Arts stamps; Bulk Ribbon from Michael's and Archiver's; Nestabilities circles and scalloped circles; Prima and Bazzill flowers

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful weekend!  I have been busy at work teaching a Melody Ross chip art mini album class.  It has been so much fun to introduce new product!  Should you use this new and wonderful product, let me know so I can see your work.  I would be excited to see it!!  I did get out on Saturday afternoon with Shane.  We did a little shopping and then had pedicures.  I have never had one before and it was really delightful!!  Boy, did it feel good to have a sea salt scrub and then have my calves massaged!  We came back home in time for Jerry's BBQ.  Again, I felt very pampered by my two men!!  I trust that everyone is well - can't wait to catch up on blogs tonight and see what you all are doing!

Little Bird

Stretch N' Bubbles had a great blog hop on Wednesday (it's still going on so you can visit!), and they are starting sketches now.  SNB is also so generous - giving a freebie digital image every Wednesday.  How fun is that?  This is the sketch:

Here is what I came up with using the freebie digital image:

The brown polka dot paper is Jillibean, and the crystal blue cardstock is CTMH.  I used my Copics to color the little bird (this is still very new to me, so I am happy this was a little bird!).  The brad and sunflower are CTMH, and the large white flower is from Color Me Crazy.  The ribbon is random.  This card also fits the challenge over at OWH Stars and Stamps which is using blue and brown.  If you see some what seems like some far-off holidays shown in my cards, I am getting ready to send cards off to Operation Write Home.  They are in need of graduation cards by April 19th and Father's Day cards by May 15th.  Check out their website here if you are interested in helping!

Here are a couple of random cards that will be sent to OWH:

Paper is CTMH Veranda, the ribbon is random, and the stamp is a Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous.  I added Glossy Accents to the sticker rounds and "big."

This is also JilliBean paper along with CTMH Colonial White cardstock.  The flower stickease are CTMH Boom-Di-Ada, and the stamp is Hero Arts.

Blessed Nest

I liked this sketch from Page Maps.  It leaves room for a lot of imagination, and that's such a nice thing in a sketch!

For this layout, I used CTMH Grace paper and stickease.  This is one of my favorite lines from CTMH - such beautiful, warm colors. CTMH stamp sets used are Picture Perfect and Notice the Details.  The title word "blessed" was cut with the Spring Slice card.  Embellishments are Bazzill flowers, CTMH barn red bigger brads, and beautiful two-tone organdy ribbon.

Apple Darlings

I have been pulling pictures from this year and that year lately, so you never know what year you might get when you are coming to my blog.  Jumping around keeps me motivated to keep going. I have SO MANY pictures to put to paper!!

Here's a layout I finished this morning:

The flowers you see are actually white.  I brayered them with CTMH autumn terracotta ink.  The buttons on the flowers are clear, but I made them match the layout with a little glossy accents and paper.  The leaves are a CTMH stamp, I stamped them first with autumn terracotta (rolling the edges in new england ivy before stamping).  I used CTMH barn red for the veins and then covered the veins with glossy accents.  The chipboard buttons and brads are CTMH.  The letters are Thickers.  They were also white so I sponged them with autumn terracotta as well.

I used a sketch from Scrapbook Challenges for this layout:

Happy Monday Afternoon!

I already posted a few cards this morning that I did over the weekend, now I'm going to share some that I did today.  Scroll on down if you want to see that first post!

My first sketch is from Basic Grey:

For this card I used Kioshi papers.  You might now recognize it as that because it is the gorgeous backside of the floral papers. The sentiment is Hero Arts, the stamped flower and paper flower are CTMH, the gems are random, and the stamped butterflies are CTMH.  LOVE this butterfly stamped on vellum! That's a clear button in the middle of the stamped flower.  I used a little glossy accents to adhere it to the houndstooth paper to make it match the card.   This card is also suitable for the Just Add Ink wild card challenge.

The next card I'll show is for the American Crafts challenge which is to add 2+ flairs to your project.  I really like the AC flairs.  They are a ton of fun!  The paper is from the AC Dear Lizzy collection, and the oval in the middle is the AC self-adhesive paper.  Butterfly stamp is CTMH, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

The last sketch in this post is from OWH Stars and Stamps:

I used Tim Coffey paper along with a couple of CTMH stamps - TLC and Treasure Life.  I embossed the sentiment with Zing! vanilla.  The ribon and gems are random.  This will also fit the Just Add Ink challenge.

I spoke with my mother this a little while ago. She has COPD, and that makes the pneumonia much more difficult to deal with.  She is on continual oxygen to bring her level up, and they are working on getting her cough stopped.  Thank you to all of you who have posted or e-mailed to let me know you will keep her in your prayers!

Happy Monday Morning!

I hope that all of you were blessed with a fabulous Easter Sunday.  It was such a beautiful day here - perfect for remembering our Risen Lord.

I have a few cards in this first post for the day.  The first is a sketch from the Sweet Stop:

This sketch is wonderful, and I absolutely loved working with it.  I grabbed some Tim Coffey papers, Martha Stewart ribbon, and a CTMH sentiment to create this card.  This card will also fit into the Stampin' for the Weekend challenge which is ribbons and bows.

The next card is a sketch from Card Patterns:

I am not much of a circle user like this, so this was a great challenge for me.  Again, I used Tim Coffey paper.  Along with that you'll see a Bazzill flower and CTMH ribbon and sentiment stamp.  In order to make the circles pop, I used Ranger Glossy Accents.

The last card of this post is a sketch for Your Scrapbook Stash:

I used Cosmo Cricket Material Girl paper for this card.  The flowers are CTMH and Prima, the button is from my stash, and the ribbon and sentiment are CTMH.  I love the brightness of this paper - so cheery!!

Yesterday we received some news about my mother.  Two of my sisters took her to the ER, and it turns out that she has double pneumonia and will be staying in the hospital. I am quite worried about her so if you happen to remember, would you keep her in your prayers? 

Fish

These are some pictures from almost 20 years ago!  I am having a hard time believing that time goes this fast.  My little boy grew up to be a man, and I am still trying to figure out where the time went.  I think after looking at these pictures again, Jerry will also wonder where all his hair went - LOL!!

This is a sketch from Scrapbook Challenges:

I used The Great Outdoors paper from Three Bugs in a Rug.  Cute!  Slice cards used were Just Chillin, Travel, and Think Pink.  I added a few CTMH buttons and waxy flax, and this layout was complete.

It's a Blog Hop at Stretch N' Bubbles!

Stretch N' Bubbles is having their first ever blog hop on Wednesday, April 7th.  If you like digi images, I'll bet you will love their images! 

What a Perfect Day!

I have had an absolutely incredible and perfect birthday!!  Shane called me early to wish me a happy birthday, and Jerry took the day off.  Jerry and I went to I-Hop for breakfast and then off to the Mall of America for the afternoon.  I turned to look at something and when I looked back at Jerry, Shane was there with him!!  I was so surprised and happy to see that I would be spending the afternoon with both of my guys!!  Shane presented me with a gift bag filled with Brighton gifts (my CTMH friends know how much this means!!).  What a genreous and fabulous young man!!  I was gifted with a Brighton desk clock, birthstone charm, and a beautiful earring tree from one of my favorite stores!  From there, we got some coffees, did a little shopping, and took Shane out to eat before he had to go to work.  I think I said at least three times that I was having a perfect day!

Oh, I feel very blessed and loved today to have had so many people send cards and gifts.  My mother sent me a beautiful silver cross necklace, Jerry bought me the external hard drive I've been longing for, and one of my sisters had a Starbuck's gift box delivered to me. I received numerous cards and e-mails - it has been amazing!!

Thank you to everyone.  You just don't evne know how richly you've blessed me!! I promise loads of good artwork coming up to share with you!!

I am so Surprised!!

I was just over at Bo Bunny linking up my card for the challenge, and I just saw that I won March's Card Challenge Tuesday!  YIPPEE for me!!  Click here to look at the card that was chosen.  So surprised!!