Calmness In Life

Inside View

Hello people!  My Wisconsin relatives aka the Italian Yankees have been visiting with us.  We had such a wonderful visit, but the have now returned to the cold north and we are quite lonely.  Anyone who knows my house won't believe I am saying this because my front door is a swinging door.  It is seldom lonely and never quiet.  My Mom who is now living with us says it is the crazy house.  I have to admit she is totally right.  LOL.  When we bought the house, my husband named it "Open Arms".  I asked him why that name and he said because he wanted everyone to feel welcome in it at all times.  Well my goodness, little did he know he put a curse on the house.  It is truly "Open Arms"!!

Anyway, or as Mina would say, "enough waffling for now" and onto my card.  I have to say that I learned this brick technique from Judy over at JayDeKay.  She is one of Sassy Cheryl's ever talented Design Team Members and I always love and covet her work.  When I saw her card I knew I had to try the technique.    Mine can't compare to Judy's, but it was fun.  I now "have to have" the same color inks she used so I can try it again.

Sassy Cheryl's challenge this week is an inspiration photo and I chose to use Sassy Sally The Autumn Bench Sitter  for my card.  The weather has been so beautiful the last few weeks, that I am back to taking my morning and evening coffee outside on the patio.  We have lots of trees and birds in our yard and I sit for hours watching them.  I chose this sentiment from SU Country Morning stamp set.  It reflects my current mood.  The dried herbs are another stamp from SU Garden From The Heart.  The pumpkins are drawn by me and hi-lighted with Prisma pencils.  The fence is a MS punch. The paper, flowers, ribbon, and frog are from my stash.  I didn't have a grass punch (now on my "must have" list) so I just cut a strip of green CS to resemble grass and hi-lighted with Prismas.  The leaves on the sentiment are cut from the Sassy Sally digi and colored with Copics.  I cut a square on the outside of the card and glued the digi on the inside flap to give it a window appearance.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                   

Hope to get around to everyone's blogs later this week.  I have been peeking at them some, but didn't have much time to comment.  Thanks for stopping in and looking at my card.  Will be by to see you soon.

Happy Crafting, 

Linda

I have also entered this card in the following challenges:

Make It Monday #109 - Anything Goes

OPC Popcorn Cards

                                                                           Witches Welcome
                                                                      from Oak Pond Creations

                                                                          Pumpkins
                                                                 from Oak Pond Creations

Rae Ann at Scrapbooks By The Sea asked me to make a couple of popcorn cards with some Bo Bunny Paper she had.  She is going to display them as samples in her store.

 My good friend Kim Hecker drew these two awesome digis for her shop Oak Pond Creations.  Kim is so talented and I love working with her drawings.  Do yourself a favor and take a peek at her blog and store.  She is so talented, I am sure you will be glad you did.  She offers freebies on a regular basis and I know you don't want to miss them.

In case you missed my previous post on the popcorn card, I'll give you a quick description.  The card is glued on three sides with red line tape.  I covered a bag of microwave popcorn with DP and decorated it with some tulle and a circular sentiment.  You just slide the popcorn right into the card top.  They are nice and flat so they fit right in a mailing envelope and make nice treats for those special people you want to remember at Halloween.

Happy Crafting, ya'll!

Linda

Pack It In

Sorry for the blurry photo.  I didn't realize how blurry it was until I went to upload.  I had already given the card to Caroline and could not take another photo.

I went searching for an image for my Granddaughter's 14th Birthday.  I checked out Saturated Canary because Caroline loves all that beautiful hair that Krista likes to draw.  Caroline has always wanted to be a "Barber" and now her goal is to work at the "Mac" counter at our local department store while in High School, go to cosmetology school and then go to college to become a counselor.  Well if that seems like a crazy career path, remember the movie Steel Magnolias.

I found this sketch over at Splitcoast Stampers and teamed it up with some unusual color combinations. The sentiment was created in MS Word.  Coloring medium used was Copic Markers. Simple easy and so much fun to color.

Thanks for taking time to peek at my blog  Have fun and Happy Crafting ya'll.

Challenges to enter:

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Flying Hi To Say Hi!

 

Sassy Cheryl wants to see some Blue in your creations this week.  I think this one fills the requirement just fine.  The image is darling "Noah and Patches" for the Sassy Cheryl Store.  Can't you just feel the love here.  I love this image so much that I have used in twice this summer.  He is just too stinkin' cute to lay unused in my mahoosive Sassy Cheryl file.

I combined Noah and Patches with an airplane I made using a Paper Piecing Template from Frances Meyer Inc.  I have had this template for several years so I don't know if it is available any more.  It was fun tracing and cutting out this little airplane.  It is popped up with foam tape for dimension.  Clouds were punched with a Friskars punch and then accented with a Prisma pencil.  Border Sentiment was a clear stamp from my stash.  DP is from DCWV Nana's Kids collection.  Card stock was all from my stash but I believe all is Stampin' Up.

Thanks for popping in to see my card.  Have a fabulous week and be sure to schedule some fun time in your own  Crafting Place.

Challenges:

Sassy Cheryl's Are You Blue
Dude Time Doodles - Use Two Shades of Blue
A Gem of A Challenge - A Boy Thing

Feeling Under The Weather?

                                         
I found this beautiful paper over at Aww Shucks Scrapbook store.   It is from the Caroline Collection by My Minds Eye. It followed me home so I had no choice but  to find something to make with it.  I decided that Tilda would be the perfect compliment .  I wanted to show off the beauty of the paper, so I used it on each layer of the card.  The sketch is from Sketch Saturday.  I wanted to use a doily on the card and played with several positions.  I finally folded the doily in half and fan-folded it.  I thought it carried the parasol/umbrella one step further.  The sentiment is a clear stamp from my stash.  I curved it around and stamped on the circle with Old Olive SU ink.  I love the bend-ability of using clear stamps.

I love flowers, but don't tend to use bouquets of them on my cards.  I have seen so many cards with lots of flowers and I admire them, but I simply never get that flowery with my cards.  The floral paper and the weather sentiment reminded me of the old saying, "April Showers Brings May Flowers" so  it called for a floral bouquet.  I am glad I pulled out my stash of lovely flowers.  They give this Get Well card a cheerful, happy look to it.

Whether it is rain or shine where you live, I wish you all a week filled with fun and peace.  Oh yeah, a bit of uninterrupted crafting time would be nice too!  TTFN, Linda

Challenges

Sketch Saturday
Digi Doodle Shop - Vintage
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Show Me Thursday at Sassy Cheryl's

Lots to show you this week.  First picture is the Autographed Illustration from Cheryl Alger.  I won it and I am still so stoked.  I found this cute little pumpkin frame.  I keep it right on my desk so I can stare at it for inspiration!  

This is my youngest grandson, Jonathan, aka Fin, Finny.  He has a knee cap that keeps sliding out of place and it is quite painful.  He has had several trips to the hospital and many braces in the last 2 years.  The doctors wanted to wait until he had stopped growing before doing surgery, but he has injured it too many times.  Their only option was to do the surgery now.  In the first picture he is showing off his stylish surgery cap before he is wheeled into the operating room.   Isn't he the cutest thing?

This picture is of his brace.  It is very high-tech.  It even has a plastic pack that fits around the brace.  He has a cooler of ice water with a hose that pumps cold water around his knee to keep the swelling down and ease his pain.  Isn't that remarkable.  

I am happy to report that his surgery went fine and he is doing great.  The surgery was done on an outpatient basis and he is at home recuperating.  He can even return to school on Tuesday but his recuperation will take 6 months but then he should be able to resume his sports!  

That is a little of what is going on in my world this week.  I would love it if you would share a bit of your world with us over at Sassy Cheryls SMT.  Just take a picture and write it up and post it here.  Cheryl gives one of her fabulous digis away to one lucky entrant too!  Hey and that was how I won that fabulous signed illustration of my Grey Witch!  I am SOOOO glad I played along that week!

Hope to see you there!  Have a fabulous week!  Hugs, Linda