Have An Ice Day

Well, I finally made it home, but not after a bit more excitement.  I was able to get things settled on my car, though final repairs are still pending.  In the meantime the air conditioning went out where we were staying.  It was very hard to be creative when it is almost 90 degrees in the house.  I decided to stay a few more days so I would be available to let the repair man in, since Trisha had to return to work.  Finally had air on Saturday night so on Sunday we ate a wonderful brunch and did a little more scrapbooking/cardmaking.  Monday I planned to eat an early lunch at the restaurant Trisha works at and head home.  I had the whole car loaded, went to start the car, and it wouldn’t start.  Grrrrr!!  Called AAA but ended up having to unpack the whole car and have it towed to a local Buick dealer to get it fixed.  Luckily it was something minor (cost more to diagnose than to fix)so Tuesday morning I tried to leave again.  After a lovely breakfast with Trisha and her boyfriend, I headed home and actually made it!!  Now that I am settled back in I can do some posting.

Today’s card is for the House Mouse and Friend’s Challenge of Liquid Refreshments for Hot Summer Days.  I used the image, Splish, Splash...A Citrus Bath, colored with my new alcohol markers.  I cut it out with a Spellbinders’ Circle Nestie and layered it on a cute pink background created with a 4” circle and a Martha Stewart corner punch.  My friend, April, shared this with me and has a great tutorial here. 

The lacy white rectangle is die cut using Marianne Design’s Craftables Die, Lacey Rectangle.  I ran a strip of yellow paper lace down the center. This is all layered on some lovely cardstock from Basic Grey’s Olivia collection called McKinley.  It is a great combination of some of my favorite colors – pink, green and teal.  The sentiment is Ice Day from Inky Antics and was perfect for this card.  I also add 4 little square jewels that looked like mini icecubes.

With temperatures well over 100 degrees in many places, hope you find this cute little critter refreshing.  Try to stay cool!! 

E. Marie 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

HM&F Challenge #122 (HMFMC122) - Liquid Refreshments for Hot Summer Days

Basic Grey Challenge #71 – Favorite Color Combo

Marianne’s Design Divas Challenge #11 - Animal Antics

Stamp and Create June Challenge – Bold and Bright

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #151 – Anything Goes

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #137 – Something Yellow

Charisma Cardz Challenge #25 – Anything Goes   

The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge – Lace it

Sunday Sketch & Stamp Challenge 112 - Francesca's Sketch

Musical Inspiration

At the beginning of the month, I shared a musically themed card for Sparkle N Sprinkle's June Sketch Challenge. Today I want to share the scrapbook page that it was designed to coordinate with. This is inspired by my daughter, Trisha, who I have been visiting.

I started with some decorative music themed cardstock, then added some sparkle by adding a swirled die cut to the left side and a musical score across the top, created with 1/8" Double Sided "Tear-ific" Tape, covered with Black Ice Glitter.  The musical themed embellishments are made using Super Thick Gold Embossing Powder and Sixteenth Note, Music Treble Clef, Treble Clef Symbol, Violin, and Treble Swirl. 

The sentiment is Music Expresses embossed with Black Detail Embossing Powder in the middle of the Music Label, embossed with Gold Detail Embossing Powder and cut out with the coordinating Spellbinders’ Labels Thirteen die. 

For the flowers, some were silk and the others were handmade using cardstock and tissue paper.  For final touches I add pearl swirls and stamped Solid Monarch in the background.  You can find a more detailed post on the Sparkle N Sprinkle blog or go here for complete instructions. 

We have a lot of exciting things happening here at Sparkle N Sprinkle.  We currently have a Design Team Call going on through July 27th.  Tuesday April will be back with a new Technique Tuesday that you won’t want to miss.  Don’t forget about the June Sketch Challenge, plus watch for an awesome new set being released soon.

This scrapbook page is entered in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 25 – Girls    

Simon Says Stamps Challenge - Anything But A Card

Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - A Bit of Brown

Stampin For The Weekend Challenge #12 – Show Us Your Style (My style varies with my mood but I do love a Shabby Chic/Vintage look)

AllSorts Challenge #160 – Any Die Will Do

Corrosive Challenge #151 – Feeling Punchy

Delightful Sketches Weekly Challenge – Anything Goes

DUSU #77 – Inspired By A Movie (Amadeus)

Paper Play Challenge Week 25 – Use a Die

Crafts 4 Eternity Challenge R#77 – Coffee Cupcake/Color Inspiration

God's Blessings

I thought I would share a picture of my car windshield to give you an idea of the damage.  Today they came and fixed it and tomorrow they are suppose to send an adjustor to see the rest of the damage.  Hopefully I will be able to head home in a few days.  In the meantime, Trisha and I are really enjoying our time together.  Last night she was working on her scrapbook pages when she looked at me and said, ”We need to make another trip to Archiver’s” so we made a quick trip there this afternoon.  They have a really nice store here and since this store has an over abundance of paper , they are having a special and all paper, along with stickers and embellishments, are 50% off.  Today I loaded up with some Basic Grey papers (yes, April, I picked up some for you, too).  I couldn’t resist using it for the Our Daily Bread Challenge of Summer.

To me Summer is flowers and butterflies and watching for the hummingbirds.  I used an image from the Bird and Butterfly Labels from ODBD and stamped it in black on light blue cardstock.  I fussy cut it and added tan and black layers using the coordinating Spellbinders’ Label Eighteen.  Behind the image is a rectangle of Swanky Grand cardstock from Basic Grey’s Little Black Dress collection.  It is so lacy and vintage looking.  I created the background design on the tan card base by stamping this lovely butterfly image from ODBD’s Faith Collection.  The sentiment is from their Mini Tags 3 set.  I don’t have a lot of ribbon with me so I used my black stamp pad to color some cream seam binding ribbon that I added to the card, along with some flowers and pearls.  

E. Marie 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light ODBDSLC112 – Summer

Basic Grey Challenge 70 – Clean and Simple

Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 112 - "Vintage"

Stampendous Blog June Challenge – Summer

Charisma Cardz Challenge #24 – Summer     

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge 138 – Pastel Color (Light Blue)

The Creative Card Crew Challenge #!3 – 1-2-3 (One blue flower, two black bows, three blue pearls)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 222 – Here Comes Summer

Delightful Sketches Weekly Challenge – Anything Goes

LadybugsCrafts Ink Challenge #63 – Double Trouble

Friend Make Life Wonderful!!

This has been a crazy week.  I decided to go visit my daughter since she was having some minor surgery.  She loves to scrapbook so I filled my trunk with goodies and headed her way.  I arrived Friday night and we decided to do all of our running around before the surgery and then we would have time to play together after.  We visited a few craft stores, had an awesome meal at Red Lobster, and even fit in a pedicure (her birthday present to me).  We had so much fun together.  Her surgery was Monday and went very well, and I spent five hours in the waiting room coloring stamped images for my cards.  It sure helped the time go by.  I had planned to head home today, but it seems like every time I make this trip, something very exciting but not very fun happens.  This trip was no exception.  I am crafting in the back room while Trisha is resting when the neighbor comes to the door.  Apparently two quite large teenagers were walking past and her large black dog went after them and bit one of them.  In an attempt to get away from the dog, they both jumped onto my car, causing major scratches and dents on the hood and roof and totally wiping out the windshield.  What a mess. 

Well, enough personal info.  I have a fun card I created in the midst of all of this chaos.  Actually, it might be the chaos that inspired it.  Sparkle N Sprinkle recently released two new sets, Zendoodle Rainbow and Zendoodle Flowers, with some wonderful Zentangle designs.  I have always loved the look of Zentangles but have never tried it.  With so much time on my hands at the hospital, I decided now was a good time.  I stamped some of the images from the Zendoodle Flowers set to get started and then just went from there.   

I stamped Zendoodle Butterfly, Zendoodle Daisy, and Zendoodle Leaf with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on the background.  I decided to leave it black and white and only bring a little color in my layers to enhance the main center image, Zendoodle Friends.  This image was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with BlackDetail embossing powder.  I colored it, cut it out, and added it to a black layer that I cut out using Spellbinders’ Label Eighteen.  I added Sunny Daze, Cyclamen, and Waterscape glitters with a glue pen and popped this sparkling image in the center of the card with foam tape.

Here is the second background I did.  Some of the patterns are the same but I started to try some different designs and also shade in more black areas.  I think this really makes the designs stand out more.  When I finished this one I ended up going back and adding a few more details to my first one. 

This was a really fun technique to try.  Make sure you check the SNS blog for an upcoming Technique Tuesday where April will share the details of this technique.  Also, go here to see all the great Zentangle books available at SparkleN Sprinkle.

Hopefully my windshield will be fixed later today so I can head home for the weekend.  In the mean time I am enjoying my time with my daughter.  Hope you enjoyed your time here.

E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Stamping For The Weekend Challenge #11 – Bugs and Butterflies
Stamping Scrapping June Challenge – Bugs (used Spellbinders’ Label Eighteen)
Stamping Sisters In Christ Challenge #144 – Create Something That Reflects You (My card reflects my somewhat chaotic life, my creative side, and my sparkling personality, along with my love of the beauty around us created by God for our enjoyment.)
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #137 – Embossing
Creative Card Crew Challenge #13 – 1-2-3 (One Die Cut, two Zendoodle Butterflies, and three Zendoodle Leaves)
Crafts and Me Challenge #89 – Anything Goes
Delightful Sketches Weekly Challenge – Anything Goes

Life is Good!!

Last year one of my students gave me a lovely orchid with the most gorgeous blossoms.  I love plants but usually end up killing them.  Knowing that orchids can be a bit tricky, I didn’t give it much hope.  To be honest, I kind of forgot about it.  I was supposed to trim the stem after it finished blooming and totally forgot, though I did throw an ice cube in the pot every now and then to water it.  Needless to say, I was astounded when I saw it getting ready to bloom.

I just had to share this gorgeous picture with you becuase these lovely blossoms have a real message.  Today is my birthday and my dear friends, April and Bev, took me out for lunch, a little shopping, and a fun afternoon stamping.  Last weekend I was blessed to spend a day at the scrapbook store with friends, compliments of another dear friend, Kim.  The lesson is that in the busyness of life, we sometimes get forgetful of the precious people in our lives.  We make a call now and then, or go shopping one day, but time goes by and you don’t really spend quality time with them.  Then one day they do something really special and you are reminded just how lucky you are and how beautiful life is.  

I just want to say thank you to all my wonderful friends for always being there for me.  I also want to thank those of you that stop by to visit my blog and share the fun of stamping.  You are the blossoms in my life!!

By The Sea

I wanted to share this card using a stamped image from Impression Obsession called Beach House (H1868).  It is another one of those lovely ocean scenes they carry that I love and it makes a beautiful card front.  I stamped it in black and colored it with markers.  I fussy cut around it and layered it on craft paper with the corners rounded and the edges inked.  I added this to a blue layer and a striped layer on a craft card base.  

I started this card on Saturday when I was with my friends at the scrapbook store, but didn’t quite finish it.  I wanted to add something special to the front to cover up a mistake and I thought I had a metal ring that would work.  I was wrong.  That wasn’t going to stop me from still getting what I had pictured.  I tore the cardboard top off of a spool of ribbon and cut the center out with a Spellbinders’ Circle Nestability.  I rubbed VersaMark ink on it and added Super Thick White embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  After heat setting, I added another layer, giving it a thick, dimensional look.  I added strips of 1/4" Double Sided"Tear-ific" Tape and Collegiate Garnet glitter, also from SNS.  I tied it on with some craft hemp string. 

Thanks for visiting!! 

E. Marie 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Impression Obsession Challenge – By The Sea

Charisma Cardz Challenge #22 – Travel      

Creative Card Crew Challenge #12 – Song Inspired (Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Cute Card Thursday Challenge #220 – Water Everywhere

Paper Play Challenge Week 23 – Back to Kraft Basics

Simon  Says Stamp and Show - Anything Goes!

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #136 – Summer Time

CCW May Mini Challenge - Travel/Holiday theme

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger:  Man-tastic!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday # 173 (FTTC 173) - Father’s Day
Craft Your Passion Challenge #114 - Anything Goes

Graduation Day!!

Well, after a very fun day stamping with my buddies, I came home to a disaster.  Friday we had to call Roto-Rooter because our septic was backing up (just water) into our basement.  We had water running through our storage area and into my daughter’s bedroom.  The guy started to do his thing and the machine broke.  Early this morning they came back and worked downstairs and said all was fixed.  Just as I was heading home tonight my hubby decided to run the dishwasher.  Apparently there is still a problem and water came pouring out all over our wooden kitchen floor.  Then it leaked down into the finished area of the basement, flooding our futon, the carpet, and all my daughter’s electronics.  The ceiling tiles are pretty bad, too.  Needless to say I was getting calls on the cell, but by the time I got home the worst was over.  Guess Roto-Rooter is coming back early tomorrow. 

Well, I did promise to show you something I had been working on.  I am a card maker and have only made simple scrapbook pages for a non-profit organization run by some friends.  The Sparkle N Sprinkle designers were challenged this month to created scrapbook pages so I told myself this is simply a larger card and I can do this.  Since my oldest daughter just graduated from college, I decided to start with a graduation theme.

I started with a piece of grey designer cardstock with stars and layered it on yellow and blue with an edge of "Tear-ific" Tape covered with Navy Glitter.  The border across the top and the hat are SVG’s that I cut with Make The Cut.  I layered each of the pictures on more "Tear-ific" Tape covered with Navy Glitter and yellow cardstock.  These are my daughters – aren’t they adorable?  On the main picture I extended the yellow layer so I could emboss the BeginIt sentiment with Black Detail EP. 

Then I added Graduation Day, also embossed in Black, on the Achieve Box which I embossed with Cerulean EP.  The Diplomas are embossed in black and fussy cut. 

Check out my post at the Sparkle N Sprinkle Blog to see more pictures, including what is hiding behind the hat!! 

Have a great week.

E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 24 – Anything Goes

Stampin Sisters In Christ Challenge #142 – Elements of Heaven (Stars and Glitter)

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 78 – Sparkles Galore

Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - Anything Goes (MTC and Button over 6 months old)

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge PWC209 – Favorite Color Combo

Paper Pretties Monday Challenge PPMC42 - Use Bling

Live, Love, Laugh with House Mouse

The weather this week has been so beautiful and I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week of summer break.  I have slept in, sipped coffee in front of the TV, and played in my craft room.  It is a disaster but shows I have been creative.  Today I am at Scrapbook Creations with several of my friends and having a blast.  My birthday is next week and my so sweet friend, Kim, payed for my day and invited others to join us.  We have shopped, ate lunch, ate ice cream, and I even made a card for the House Mouse and Friends Challenge  “Here Come The Sun”. 

Last week I bought a Hydrangea and almost killed it because I left it sitting out in full sun.  Luckily it survived and inspired this card.  You can’t have flowers without sunshine (just not too much!!)  I recently purchased this is a new stamp, Spring Blossoms, and it is sooo cute – like all the rest of my House Mouse stamps.  I colored it with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, cut it out, and layered it on a light purple background.  The decorative paper popped up around it is Green at Heart/Oscar from Basic Grey.  The sentiment is from Sparkle N Sprinkle’s Blossoms to Go StampetteSet.  The die cut for the window and the sentiment is Spellbinders’ Labels Twenty-Three. 

Check back tomorrow to see something new I have been working on. 

E. Marie 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Basic Grey Challenge #70 – Clean and Simple

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge  #24 – Anything Goes

House Mouse and Friends Challenge #121 (HMFMC121) – Here Come The Sun

The Creative Card Crew Challenge #12 – Song Inspired (Sunshine on My Shoulders by John Denver)

Penny Black And More at Allsorts June Challenge – All My Favorite Things (House Mouse, Flowers, and Spellbinders Dies)

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #136 – Summer Time

The Pink Elephant Challenge TPE151– Vibrant Colors

New Sparkle N Sprinkle Stamp Set!

SparkleN Sprinkle has just released a new stamp set called Wild Cats and it is fantastic for making masculine cards.  With Father’s Day around the corner, along with my husband’s birthday, I could hardly wait to get my hands on this set.

I stamped the Snow Leopard in black and colored with alcohol markers.  I cut it out with a Spellbinders’ label die and layered it on a Spellbinders’ Circle die cut covered with Log Cabin embossing powder.  I added this, along with embossed rectangles, to two distressed layers on a cream card base.  For embellishment I used parts of a Victorian Romance Flourish die, cut out of sticker paper and covered with Meadow Spark Glitter.  Then I fussy cut three Dark Fern images, heat embossed with Moss embossing powder.  I combined these in the upper corner surrounding the sentiment, which is part of the Courage Set.  It can be purchased separately or as part of this Wild Cats set.  

I was really excited to use some new jewels I just purchased at a local craft store.  It was hard to photograph how neat these look.  They have a leopard print design in them so they go great with this card.

 E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge 24 – Anything Goes
Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 31 - Make It Manly
Creative Card Crew Challenge 12 – Song Inspired (Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sing)
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Texture
Top Tip Tuesday Challenge #78 – Sparkle Galore
Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #69 – Distress It                 
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge #122 – All Many  Men
Lexis Creations Challenge #66 – For The Man/Boy In Our Lives
Little Claire Monthly Challenge # 21 'Male Theme
Oldie But Goodie Challenge – Anything Goes (Embossing Folder and Dies are over 6 Months Old)
Paper Pretties Monday Challenge PPMC42 - Use Bling
Phindy's Place Challenge #108 - Pile It On!

Sparkle and Sprinkle June Sketch Challenge

It is June 1^st and today is my last day with the little one’s at school.  I will miss them but I am definitely ready for summer!!  Today is also the start of a new sketch challenge at the Sparkle N Sprinkle blog.  Here is the June sketch.

This is your chance to win a stamp set of your choice.  Enter your creation, using this sketch and Sparkle N Sprinkle stamps, during the month of June at the SNS blog.  Here is my interpretation.

My oldest daughter is a viola performance major so I love anything musically themed.  SNS has some wonderful musical stamps.  I used Music Background and Solid Monarch images to create the background .  I created the gold strips with 1/8" Double Sided "Tear-ific" Tape and Gold Detail Embossing Powder. 

The Treble Clef Symbol , Sixteenth Note, and Violin are stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with two layers of Super Thick Gold Embossing Powder.  While the EP was molten, I stamped them with Treble Swirl (see Stamping in Embossing Powder in the Tips and Techniques section).  When cooled, I rubbed them with dark brown ink.  This is a newer technique for me and I was unsure how it would work, but loved it.  The sentiment is Music Speaks, cut out with a tag dye and added with some sheer ribbon I have had in my stack for awhile.  Full details of this card can be found here. 

Head on over to the SNS blog to get all the challenge details and see more inspiration.  I am looking forward to see your projects!!

E. Marie 

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Challenge #27 – Anything Goes

Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge 109 - Heat emboss your main image

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Anything Goes
Stampin Sisters In Christ Challenge #141 - Technique Your Scared Of (It was scary - I burned myself)

Crafts and Me Challenge #86 – Add a Ribbon
Top Tip Challenge #77 - Dig Out The Old (Ribbon)

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #69 – Distress It

Creative Card Crew Challenge #11 – Dimension

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge #121 – Anything Goes

Oldie But A Goodie Challenge – Anything Goes (Ribbon over 6 months old)
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #133 - Something New (All Stamps are new)