Lily Pad Cards Inspiration Challenge

This morning I watched Vicky's Sunday video on the Lily Pad Cards blog  as she used Penny Black stamps and Distress Stains by Tim Holtz. I don't own any of the stains (yet!) so I made my version of her card using Distress Inks and Penny Black's "Mixed Media" stamp. I also stamped the PB background stamp "Decorative Pattern" on the mocha cardstock. I am entering this card in Lily Pad Cards Inspiration Challenge Number 4, as it was most certainly inspired by Vicky!  Here's her card:

Today has been a perfect day to stay indoors out of the heat! I am grateful for the blessing of air conditioning. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Wisconsin Lake Home

This is a photo of the Lake Home so generously lent to our family so that we could spend a weekend together!


I'm sharing this photo of the bathroom so you can see a bit of the work Tim did when adding a master suite to the home. My favorite part was the fun faucets! We felt like we were in a 5 star hotel!

This lovely home was previously a very modest cottage. It has been lovingly and skillfully redone and added onto by a high school friend of my oldest son.

The home is located on Lake Wisconsin, a few miles from the town of Prairie du Sac where I raised my family. The owner of the home, Tim was my son Todd's best friend. As a junior in high school he was well over 6 feet tall. He hung out at our house a LOT! Loved him like one of my own, but just like one of my own, he was a hungry teenager. The scariest part was that he loved milk and drank a lot of it at my house! At the time, I was a single mom with five kids and milk was precious! I never said a word at the time, but over the years have reminded him about the milk!!

Well, when he heard that we were coming to Wisconsin to visit and were making hotel reservations, he offered his lovely lake home! I think he used the word "cottage". While the home is lovely, the real beauty of it is the work Tim did to turn it into such a beautiful place. The home is filled with details that catch your eye and delight your spirit!

His lovely wife Marie had prepared food for our breakfasts and they both hosted a Saturday evening cookout with more high school friends invited. We sat around the fire pit (in 90 degree weather!) and talked about the kids' high school days. It was a feast for my spirit!!

We have been invited to return annually for our family's get togethers! What a kind and generous couple Tim and Marie are. They were genuinely delighted to share their beautiful vacation home! Tim said he owed me because of all the milk he drank at our house!

I hope your life is blessed with the love of friends of family!  Our trip to Wisconsin reminded me how blessed I am!  Thanks for stopping by.

How I Almost Didn't Buy Any New Stamps!

One of the first stops after arriving in Wisconsin was the Archiver's store in Middleton, Wisconsin (adjacent to Madison, Wisconsin).  I promised myself I would not buy any stamps; just paper pads, Hero Hues, and maybe a few embellishments.  Oh, yes, and white pens!

I enjoyed browsing and gathering, mostly paper pads, Hero Hues paper, a few supplies, white pens and a few specialty papers.  I kept within my $100 budget and was rather pleased.

As I approached the check out with my stampless basket, a saleslady asked me if I had seen the new Inky Antics HoneyPop sets.  Well, it was love at first sight!

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The set includes a stamp that is the pattern to cut the honeycomb paper (not included, costs extra!).  Since my granddaughter's favorite decorating idea is monkeys, I could not say no!  I also purchased the Turtle set!  I love the surprise inside the card!  Inky Antics also has an elephant and lion set (which I did not buy, thank you very much!)  Needless to say, I was no longer within my budget!

Thankfully, I had checked out before my DH finished his 9 holes of golf!  Ahhh, it is a good thing I have a part time job!! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Tiffany Doodles Clown Fish

This nifty clown fish doodle by Tiffany went on sale in her shop on the 15th of July, while I was out of town. The set also includes a "Happy Birthday" sentiment.

I printed this image out on super smooth Copic paper, but colored it with PrismaColor pencils and Gamsol. Honestly, the colors almost slid off the paper! Fun!!

Be sure to check out Tiffany's shop! There are so many cool images!!  This month's challenge is "All creatures great and small" and this image would make a great challenge card.

We returned from Wisconsin today. We were on the road at 4:00 a.m. My husband loves driving in those early morning hours. And since he does the driving, I go when he wants to go! Had an incredible visit with friends and family! Will post photos over the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tiffany Doodles New Pickle Image!

This adorable digi Pickle Set goes on sale at Tiffany Doodles store tomorrow, June 15th! The set includes these two images and a sentiment. Hint: it's lots of fun to dream up a sentiment using the pickles! "Has your day been a dilly?" "Sorry to hear you've got yourself in a pickle!" See what I mean?

I am posting this from a Drury Inn in Champaigne, Ilinois. Enjoyed their Happy Hour and hot tub so far! Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin. My sweet DH stopped at the very large JoAnne's in Nashville this morning and I stocked up on consumable supplies at 40% off! I was given 15 minutes, but stretched that to 30!! (We are travelling, after all!)

Be sure to check out Tiffany's shop. I would love to see more pickle cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Card Camp with Penny Black

This is my new Penny Black stamp "Cheerful". I really am pleased with it as the focal point of the card using this week's color combo at Summer Card Camp! As much as I didn't want to re-thread my sewing machine or wind a bobbin, I really wanted the red stitching! I know I will be using this flower a lot!

Tomorrow we are off to Wisconsin for a week . It will be nutrition for my spirit to see the kids, siblings, grandkids and old friends and co-workers. We will eat at our favorite little hang-outs, shop at Archivers, and maybe another store or two. The goal is to fill our heads with memories to last until the next trip "home".

Thanks for stopping by!

Betsy Bluebell by Penny Black

Now that I think of it, if the stamp set is called "Betsy Bluebell" there probably should have been some blue coloring going on! But I love these sunny bright colors for summer. I made this card to thank the Penny Black blog people for spotlighting one of my cards on the PB blog today! And they are sending me a "Slapstick" stamp of my choice! They made my day!

It's a rainy Sunday in Huntsville! I have begun the task of packing for a week's vacation in Wisconsin. I will unpack and repack at least twice before we leave! My husband will spend 20 minutes putting things in a suitcase!

So, until next time, thanks for stopping by!!

Tiffany Doodles Sweet Butterfly

Aren't these beautiful butterflies? This is a Tiffany Doodles set called "Sweet Butterfly" and it is available for the first time today in her shop. The set includes the two butterflyl images and a sentiment!

These images were a joy to color! I used Copics and while it appears to be only two colors on the butterflies, I was amazed at the pile of Copics on my desk when I was done!

Have a great weekend! Hope these gorgeous butterflies will prompt you to go digi!
Thanks for stopping by!

Tiffany Doodles July Challenge

It's the 7th of the month and the Tiffany Doodles' July challenge starts today!  The theme is "All Creatures Great and Small".  The challenge runs for two weeks.

My entry features Tiffany's digi image "Ducky".

The ducky image was fun and simple to color.  I created a sea of blue gingham for the duckies swimming pleasure! 

Check out the Tiffany Doodles blog for the details.  If you are not familiar with how to use digital images, the blog has a tab to click on that takes you to a tutorial.  Easy Peasy!!

Hope your day is ducky!  Thanks for stopping by.

Garden Friends by Jane's Doodles

I've used the colors for the second week at Stamp Camp and my new favorite stamp set Garden Friends by Jane's Doodles. The die cuts are my new Reverse Wonky Rectangles by Nestabilities, so I would say (or sing) "These are a few of my favorite things"...


I am saddened to report I have already misplaced the tiny little bee stamp that is part of this set! Where could it "bee" gone? Some day I am going to happily discover all the missing clear stamps and socks that have mysteriously disappeared!


A thunderstorm just rolled in! A very good excuse to be indoors, playing with new toys!


Thanks for stopping by!

Week 2: Summer Stamp Camp

These are the colors we are challenged to work with this week.  Many of us expressed appreciation that the color green was included!  Love these cheerful summer colors!





The flower is Penny Black's "Sparkle".  I stamped the image using Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and over-colored it with Copic markers, using shades of pink.  Kathy Racoosin used this image on her blog and demo'd outlining the image with a Copic multi-liner.  I like that look, so I outlined my flower, too.  This stamp includes "built-in" shading, which makes using black ink to stamp difficult!  It worked much better using distress ink.  I am entering this card in the challenge at Penny Black this week which is "circles". 

I am up late tonight because my neighbors are ignoring city ordinances, safety rules and common sense and are shooting off fireworks in their driveway!  It is scary because little children are involved!  My windows are literally rattling! 

We had a quiet holiday.  Took in a movie:  Paris at Midnight.  Enjoyed it!  I went to the mall today and it was deserted!  I must have been the only person who had no holiday plans!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp Camp Color Combo #5

When my new stamp set from Jane's Doodles arrived today (Garden Pals), I knew I had to use one of the extra color combos included in Friday's Stamp Camp lesson.  I chose combo #5 to make this card.


I first saw this set on Jane's blog "Plain Jane" and I was in love!  Then I saw the set being used by Kelly Booth and could resist no more!!  I copied the color pattern Jane used to color the turtle. I cut the notecard in half so that the turtle could be the focus of the card. I tried to incorporate Stamp Camp's lesson on balance and I believe this is "symmetrical balance".


I am going to love playing with the rest of this set! Thanks, Kelly, for the enabling!!  And thanks, Jane for the darling images!


And thank you for stopping by on this holiday weekend.

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge "Krafts-Men"

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to make a masculine card, using kraft paper.  I used this golf cart image from Tiffany Doodles printed on kraft paper.  Colored with Prismacolr pencils and added buttons for the wheels.  The golf cart is over-stamped with Hero Arts' Envelope Pattern and the base card is subtly stamped with the Hero Arts Cloud background stamp.  I like the background stamping for texture.  The sentiment is computer generated and the diecut is a Nesties.

CAS-ual Fridays is all about clean and simple.  You can join in the fun here

This is the weekend of the 4th of July.  This year, especially, let's remember all those who have given so much in order that our country can be "the land of the free".  I appreciate your stopping by!