Annabelle Stamps Say It With ..... Frames

The challenge at Annabelle Stamps' blog this week is to Say It With Frames. I have used two of Annabelle's stamp sets for my card, Sentimental Bluebells for the main image and sentiment and All Things Grow for the beautiful butterfly. I made my frame with a Spellbinders die and Mellow Moss cardstock from Stampin' Up. The border at the bottom of my card is from a Martha Stewart punch and the "little swirlies" are made with a Cuttlebug corner die and SU Ballet Blue. I colored the image with Koh-I-Noor pencils and added some blue "pearls" and ribbon for a decorative accent.
Hope you'll check out the inspiration cards from the design team and play along with the challenge this week!

Betty

Roses June Challenge

Our Kerrie-Rose set the challenge this month as "Something Other Than a Card". Well, all my gadget holders that I made a while back are in our shipment that hasn't arrived yet so I decided to make another one for my Koh-I-Noor pencils. After we finished the can of turkey chili (no beans) that we brought down here with us I covered it with papers from My Mind's Eye (after cleaning it out good, of course!), and a bit of Night of Navy from Stampin' Up. Used Martha Stewart's Arched Lattice border punch for the lower border and a strip of navy with small pearls for the upper border. Then a bit of navy ribbon and a bow were added, along with the Marvy punched butterfly with some of the little pearls for his body. Now I have a place to store my colored pencils and they are easily accessible!
We have moved into our new home and just love it! It has lots of windows and some gorgeous oleanders growing outside that we get to look at all the time. We will be getting our shipment in a couple of weeks or so; then I'll have to try to figure out what to do with all the stuff that I thought I couldn't live without. (I think that I could have actually left about half or three-quarters of it back in the States!)

Betty

ABSC039

It's time for the new Annabelle Bling Sketch Challenge, although I think I'm a trifle late. Here's the sketch and it's a great one!



My card is made with the set All Things Grow which happens to be one of my all time favorite sets and Backgrounds by Design 2.


I used one of the tiny stamps from BBD2 to stamp around the borders of my card base of Stampin' Up Certainly Celery, stamping once and then again without reinking. My next layer is SU Garden Green, which I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, Scrollwork. Matting layers from My Mind's Eye and the focal image is stamped on white, sponged in light green. A Ribbon Tag Trio die was used to cut out the sentiment and a few green pearls and ribbon completes the design.
I appreciate the opportunity to be a guest designer for Annabelle Stamps. Andrea has such a creative team; please check out each of their designs and then join us -- we'd love to see how you are inspired by this sketch challenge!
Betty

Long Time, No Post!

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since my last post! Larry went back to Texas and brought his mother down here to beautiful Mexico and we've been busy getting her settled in at her assisted living home here. She is very pleased with the food that they serve (that was one of her major complaints about the assisted living places in Texas) and even though the attendents don't speak much English (although they can understand more than they speak) she feels that they are more attentive to the residents than the place where she was living. Even though there have been a few "hic-ups", we are very pleased with the way she is settling in -- after all, it's not easy for an 88 year old to make changes!!

Here is a card that I made a couple of weeks ago but never posted. I made it for the Hot Spot's challenge this month which is to be inspired by "laser cut" details in clothing and assessories. I was thinking that my "frame" die would cut out the areas that I have sponged but it didn't! So I went to Plan B and used a Martha Stewart border punch for the "cut work".

I am also going to enter this in a stampTv challenge to use all white embellishments. They are, of course, the ribbon and bow, the white pearls at the corners of the frame and the white embossed butterfly. I also used a bubble embossing folder for the background paper.

Hope you enjoyed the card -- we'll be closing on our new home Tuesday of next week and hope to move over on Thursday. Shouldn't take too long since we don't have much more than what we brought down with us in the car.

Betty

Olga says…..My Blog Has Style!

I want to thank Olga from Craftie Odamae for this award!!!

I am supposed to tell you 5 things about myself, the first one being craft related:

1. The first time I went to a card making class, I did not enjoy it and said I didn’t want to get involved – and look at me now!

2. My hubby recently retired and we moved to Chapala, Mexico – and we’re loving it!

3. I love taking pictures of the beautiful flowers here in Mexico and all the other interesting things I see along the way!

4. I wish some of my online stamping buddies would come visit me in Mexico – could we possibly have a stamping summit?????

5. I moved away from Mississippi in 1985 but I’ve still got my accent!

Now I am to give this award to 5 wonderful people. Only five???? Not fair!

Melisa at Paperlicious Designs (you never know what medium she’ll be working with next!)
Myrna at What Was Old Is New Again (a fellow cat-person whose black cat, Shadow, likes to help her make cards!)
Becky at A Diamond In The Rough (her beautiful cards inspire me but most of all, her testimony for the Lord inspires me!)
Linda at Payne Holler Cards (love the name of her blog and her work is just as creative!)
Colleen at Creative Paper Room (Colleen scrapbooks and I love that she shares sweet memories of her precious daughter with us.)

By the way, ALL the blogs that I follow have style and are deserving of this award!!
Betty

Yellow Rose (of Texas? maybe Mexico!)

This is a card that I made following a tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers this week. It is called a Center Step Card. I thought I would have trouble with it but the directions on the video are very easy to follow. The dp is from Basic Grey, June Bug paper pad. Sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, Everyday Button Bits and is cut out with a Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio die. The rose is a digi image from McMahon 5 Designs. I added clear sticky "raindrops" to accent the drops of dew on the rose. Rose was colored with Kohinoor pencils and blended with baby oil. If you haven't made one of these cards before, give it a try -- just click on the link to Splitcoast Stampers.

Betty

Restaurant Paintings

Hello, friends! Larry and I had lunch at a restaurant in Ajijic called Tango last week. The company was excellent (our friends Sharon & Ed joined us) and the food was absolutely delicious! Having been here before, I knew that there were some paintings in the ladies room that I wanted to share with you, so after our meal I headed to the back with my camera at my side.

The first painting is a real riot! When you "take a seat", this is what you see painted on the inside of the stall door................. oh yes, I am not kidding -- isn't this a hoot!???? Olga, I can just hear you laughing like crazy!!

This is the second painting I wanted to share -- you see such beautiful children here -- the big brown soulful eyes; you just have to stop yourself from hugging every sweet little one you pass by!

The last painting is one of a cat -- again, very soulful eyes. You see signs of such marvelous talent here -- from paintings, murals on walls of houses, decorative art pieces, beaded necklaces and earrings, beautifully painted and glazed vases, flower pots, etc. And that is just the tip of the iceberg! Thanks for letting me share another tidbit of my life here in Mexico! Hope you enjoyed it!

Betty

A Neat Color Combo & Sketch

My card today uses a sketch from Paper and Such; the challenge ends at midnight, June 4, so if you want to join in, you need to hurry! Here is the sketch:

I have also used the challenge from Annabelle Stamps, to Say it In Olive, Lemon & Chocolate. Here are the colors:






The stamps on my card are from the sets "Thoughtful Stems" and "All Things Grow" by Annabelle Stamps. Papers are from Basic Grey Origins and Stampin' Up. (As I'm looking at my computer screen, the Barely Banana cardstock looks a little "Krafty colored" -- hope it's just the glare of the sun on my screen and that the color shows up as yellow -- I promise you, it is!) Also used a couple of different Cuttlebug embossing folders and Spellbinders dies. Did a little sponging and added a big of sparkly ribbon to finish it off!

Hope you can join in on one or both of these challenges -- I think you'll have fun with both the sketch and the color combo!

Betty

A Sketch Challenge and Green Tomatoes

This is a card that I made from the What If? Wednesday sketch at the Repeat Impressions Challenge Blog. The deadline is not until June 14 at 5 pm EST so there's plenty of time for you to join in the challenge -- just follow the link. My image is from MelJen's -- love her digi images -- they are so much fun to color!
We were blessed to find three tomato plants in the garden of our rental home when we moved in. We have tried growing tomatoes in the past but never had a single bit of luck doing it. So, to find three grown plants with green tomatoes on them made us quite giddy! One of the plants is a regular red tomato but two are Green Zebra Stripe Tomatoes. They have a tangy taste and are really delicious. Even though they are green all the way through, they are completely ripe and we'll be having these for supper tonight!
Betty