Birthday Memories, Joys, and Dreams

ColourQ is having their 100th challenge this week. To celebrate they are doing things a bit differently.

 Clean & Simple Stamping allowed ColourQ to "hijack" their fall-to layout #155 this week! We are to make our cards as per the sketch and use any color combination from the ColourQ's past challenges. I have chosen to use Challenge #20. The colors are Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow and White.

 Here is my card. The patterned flowery paper is from K& Company, Lemon Drop 12x12 Designer Paper Pad. I really like the bright colors in this pack. Card stock is from Stampin' Up. The blue has and white have been stamped with a stamp from Gina K. Designs, Nana's Needlework, designed by Nina Brackett. The setiment is also a Gina K. Designs stamp, from the set Inside and Out. A little flower and turquoise rhinestones complete my design.

Hope everyone is having a super day!

Betty

I'm Helping An Elementary Class in North Miami Beach, Florida

This is a repost of a blog from Ginger's House, where you can find free word art that can be downloaded from her blog. It is an appeal to help her elementary class in North Miami Beach, Florida that is pictured above. I'm sending a card from my hometown of Chapala, Mexico! Here is the link to her blog:  http://gingershouse.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-annual-begging-post.html

If you've read my blog for awhile you already know about the post card project I do every year and what a big hit it is with the kids, parents and other adults too.

I teach at a school that isn't in the best of neighborhoods and the kids have limited life experiences. They don't often travel outside of the neighborhood they live in. There is a whole world out there and it's beautiful and exciting and I am afraid that many of these children will never see much of it.

You can make a huge difference and help with our learning experience by sending us postcards from your hometown/state/vacation spot. We use the postcards to learn about areas outside of Miami. We locate the places on a map and discuss the best ways to travel there. We compare the similarities and differences. We check the weather. We talk about the fun things people do in the different places and the jobs they have. 

The kids love it when a new postcard arrives and the lady working in the office has fun reading them too. LOL! 

We'll be collecting postcards all year so there's no rush anytime you can send one would be great. Here's our address...

Ms. Brown's Class
Greynolds Park Elementary
1536 N.E. 179th Street
North Miami Beach, FL 33162

Want a chance to win a $5 gift certificate to Stuff to Scrap? Just make a post about our postcard project on your blog. You can put the address or just send your readers here. I'll also be linking to this post on twitter so you can retweet that for me too.

If you make a blog post or retweet, please come back here and leave a comment letting me know. Next Monday (September 5) I'll pick one person to get the Stuff to Scrap gift certificate.

Thanks for helping! You guys are the best!

Roses August Challenge

Olga asked us Roses to do something with handmade flowers this month. I used my Nestabilities Scalloped Circles and cut toward the middle on every other scallop. Then held them all together with a decorative brad. Stamped leaves from A Year of Flowers and sentiment from Say It With Flowers by Gina K. Designs (since we all "met" at stampTV!). I really like this sentiment and think it describes our "circle of roses" quite well!

We post our challenges the last Sunday of the month and since it's already Sunday in Australia where Sue and Kez live, I decided to go ahead and post too!!

Had a very productive day today; our construction projects (adding closets and outside storage room) to our new home are complete and we unpacked more boxes today and began filling up the new spaces. It's all going to come together -- now all we need is to have our bookcases built and installed so we can unpack the rest of the boxes!! No stressing allowed though -- they'll get done when they get done!

Betty

Beautiful Sky

Hello all! This is a picture that I just had to take a couple of days ago as I was sitting at my craft table/computer desk. The weather here at Lake Chapala is close to perfect. We are in the rainy season where the landscape gets so lush and green. It normally rains during the later evening or night and the days are bright and beautiful. Daytime temperatures have been in the 70's F. -- the most pleasant July and August that I have spent in many a year.

We have decided that we are going to have solar panels installed on the roof of our house so that we can take advantage of all the wonderful sunshine we have here to generate most of the electricity that we will need to run our household. They are going to begin the installation tomorrow.

We enjoyed an evening with Larry's mom and a friend that I met when I was here by myself last year. My friend Chris brought her little poodle, Peppe, with her and we enjoyed watching him run around the yard while we ate grilled hamburgers out on the front porch.

Better head off to bed now!
Betty

Christmas With A Flourish

Flourishes is having a birthday -- it's number 4! If you want a chance to win lots of wonderful stamps from this terrific company, check out the link for all the info. There are three ways to win (you'll have to check them out!) but I'm going to tell you about one of those ways -- you can play in their Flourishes Favorites Card Challenge. Just make a card with your favorite Flourishes stamp set.

The first set I purchased from Flourishes is called "All That Glitters". I bought it because my eye was drawn to the bird ornament in the set -- we had some of these ornaments when I was a kid. There were four in our set but only one is left and I get all kinds of pleasure each year when I clip it onto my Christmas tree! I'm not going to use that particular stamp on my card today, but four stamps in the set are getting inky -- hey, that's kinda perfect for a 4th birthday!

My photo doesn't capture the shimmer of the papers. Each ornament was stamped on shimmery paper from The Paper Studio and heat embossed with different kinds of powder. Then I cut them out and added a silver cord to each one. The sentiment is not a Flourishes stamp but was one I had left over from this past Christmas.

Be sure to check out all the details at the Flourishes blog.

Betty

Visitors

Well, I haven't seen any hummingbirds yet but we had a lot of visitors yesterday. Enjoyed watching these little guys hop around the yard; they also liked gathering in our oleander bushes. I don't have any idea what type of bird they are -- maybe I need to get a Central America bird book so I can identify them.

Hope your yards are filled with pretty birds today,
Betty

Christmas Glitters

Flourishes and Basic Grey are sponsoring a sketch challenge at Page Maps and there is an awesome prize! I would encourage you to follow the link and check it out! I have combined this challenge with the one at Speedy the Cat's Friends to use dry or heat embossing.

At first I thought that I would pass on the challenge at Page Maps because the sketch was a little "busy" for me. But am so glad I decided to give it a try. I used a paper pack by Docrafts Papermania Classic Christmas, a stamp from the Flourishes set, All That Glitters, and a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Holly Ribbons.  The ornament is colored with Stampin' Up's Sage Shadow and Ruby Red, with glitter added, and then cut with Spellbinders Nestability dies. I was thrilled with the outcome; hope you like it too!

Also have a couple of more photos to share if you're interested -- another variety of hibiscus we just had planted in our yard and one more gorgeous sunset!

Adios, from Lake Chapala, Mexico!
Betty

New Colors for The Hotspot Challenge

The Hotspot Challenge has a range of beautiful new colors for Fall and Winter 2011 for us to use on our projects this month. The only problem is, all of my colors are all "old". Oh well, this is my attempt to use the colors Amberglow, Cedar, Coffee Liquour and Nougat.

This is an "any occasion" card since I didn't put a sentiment on front. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and a paper pack from The Paper Studio, Poteeka Souffle. Also used a Stampin' Up scallop border punch and the two thin strips that were left over from punching both sides of the brown strip on the inside of the card (you can only see one punched side in the photo). My butterflies are glued only in the middle so their wings can be turned up.

Our gardener has planted some hibiscus plants for us, and we are hoping they will attract hummingbirds to our yard. They are small plants right now but have numerous buds that should soon be flowers. Here's one --

Sunflower Wishes

At stampTV today Theresa Momber has issued a challenge to CASE design team member, Cathy Tidwell. I decided to case her card called heartlovelyday3. We are to change at least two things on our card. I used a different corner and border punch, changed the image, used ribbon instead of twine and a flower instead of a button. My image was too large to add inside the card so I went with the border punch to add interest inside.
I would also like to enter this card in the challenge at Annabelle Stamps, Say It With Distressing. I have distressed the edges of the flower image and the mats surrounding it.
Hope you can join me in one or both of these challenges!
Betty

Stamp sets used: A Year of Flowers, Pressed Flowers, and Fanciful Tags all by Gina K. Designs
Punches: Martha Stewart Double Loops Border and Corner Punches
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Summer Sun
Inks: SU Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Summer Sun and More Mustard

Annabelle Stamps' Color Challenge

The current challenge at Annabelle Stamps is to Say It In ..... Raspberry, Olive and Orange. I've been impressed with a lot of the clean and simple card designs that I've been seeing and wanted to give it a try. I used Stampin' Up's Island Oasis Designer Series Paper and cut out flowers and leaves in the colors that I needed. Then I chose a piece of striped paper in that pack and used only the colors that I needed for the challenge. The sentiment is from Annabelle's set "Ballerina Rose". A bit more of the stripes on the inside to add a little flavor to the white base and my card was finished. I was quite pleased with the look; didn't know if I could pull it off or not!!

Annabelle Stamps will be turning two years old next month and they will be having some special challenges to celebrate. If you grab their blinkie and post to your blog you will be in the running for some free stamps. Check out my previous post for more info!

Betty

Don't Miss the Celebration!

Did you notice the blinkie at the top left? Annabelle Stamps' is going to have a celebration. It's time to party because they are turning two!  They have a week of celebrations planned and you won't want to miss a day! Add the blinkie to your blog and get a chance to win free stamp sets! Click on the link to their blog to find instructions:  Here is some info on the upcoming festivities ......

8th September - Challenge hosted by Sue w & Kylie

Join Sue and Kylie on their blogs for a fun challenge!

10th September - Challenge hosted by Sue K & Stephanie

Join Sue and Stephanie on their blogs for another fun challenge!

12th September - Challenge hosted by Patti & Marion

Join Patti & Marion on their blogs for the last fun challenge!

All challenges will finish on the 14th September at 12.00pm AEST, so if you miss the first one you can still catch up!

Enter any of the challenges for a chance to win 1 6 x 4 set of your choice and 3 packs 6mm Sprinkles! Winners will be announced on the 14th September on each of the DT blogs.

A Penguin on a Christmas Card

Jennifer Scull brings the challenge this week at There's Magic in the Air; she wants us to use any type of animal image and go wild on your creativity. Also, the challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long is to use a bird image on a Christmas project  so I'll be entering my card in their challenge too!

I used the Paper Cupcakes image "Skating By" for my card. I suppose the "wild" element is the color combination -- it's completely different for me -- not my normal Christmas colors. However, I bought a paper pack after Christmas last year when they went on sale; it is called Magic of the Season (appropriate for the challenge, I thought!) and the colors are black, red, and white/ivory. This is my first time to use it and I think the color combo is quite interesting. It certainly works for the image!!

Bye for now,
Betty

Bright and Sunny

Hello everyone! It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood -- the sun is shining, the roses are blooming and the birds are singing!  Tami Mayberry at stampTV  has challenged everyone to use the inspiration photo above to design their card. Here is mine:

My patterned paper is from K&Company and I used two Martha Stewart punches, Half Daisy and Daisy Corner for the flower accents. The elements that I used from the inspiration photo are the colors and the flowers. I will be donating this card to Operation Write Home.

Betty

For Someone's Beloved

Layers of Color is sponsoring the challenge at If The Shoe Fits -- Scrap It! The challenge is to use green or a green jewel in your project and ends at 9 pm EST on August 18th. My card is made with a base of Certainly Celery from Stampin' Up and a sheet of patterned paper (origin unknown). I stamped The Warbler by Layers of Color in So Saffron ink by SU onto white cardstock. There are so many types of warblers -- this is my attempt to color a yellow warbler using colored pencils and baby oil to blend. I cut out another leaf from the patterned paper to put in the upper left corner and also cut out the warbler. Then I stamped "Beloved" from the set, The Love Chapter by Layers of Color, on the leaf. Oh, by the way, I used Martha Stewart's border punch, Birds on A Wire, on the patterned paper, to add a bit of interest to the inside of the card -- totally cute! I will be going to to the States in mid November to visit family and plan to take a batch of cards to send to Operation Write Home. This will be one of them; I'm hoping that some soldiers' Beloved will be a fan of birds!!
Betty

What a Sunset!

We were watching House tonight on television when we looked out at the sky. Even though it was a pretty good episode we had to quit watching and run up to the mirador with the camera. What a fantastic sunset -- it was so darn glorious! Hope you all can enjoy it a little bit too!

Betty

Roses

We have been so blessed to have roses bushes at our new home. Thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the roses I cut this morning and brought into the house

Aren't they gorgeous?????
Betty
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Paper and Such Sketch Challenge

I found a really terrific sketch challenge this week thanks to my blogging friend, Patti P. and knew I had to make a card with their sketch. Here is the link: Paper and Such. You have until midnight, August 6 to play.
and here is my card...The flower is from Stampin' Up's set True Friends; card base and frame for the image is Gina K. Designs PL Ocean Mist; the ribbon is a former "In Color" from Stampin' Up. I made two cards yesterday -- I posted the first one yesterday which was made with upbeat, bright, happy colors; then this one which is soothing and tranquil; and I love them both!

We took a trip to Guadalajara on Monday to the Costco store; a friend showed us a different route and we truly enjoyed the trip because it was such a scenic drive. Passed through several interesting villages but unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. Will be sure to take it next time because there were numerous photo ops that I'd love to share with you. We passed by a candy factory that had the neatest mural painted on the outside wall showing the candy making process -- so sorry I didn't get a picture of that one!

Wishes for a terrific day,
Betty

Magical Painted Pony

Audrey has a challenge this week at There's Magic in the Air to do a card/project with some type of mystical creature such as fairies, angels, unicorns, mermaids, etc. If you need an image to complete the challenge, Nina is offering one of unicorns for only $1.

I have always thought that Nina's image Painted Pony is very magical so this is the one I used on my card. She has also a similar image titled Painted Cat that is also one of my favorites. I felt like bright, happy colors today, having been inspired by Stephanie at Annabelle Stamp's blog hop last night. Her card was so bright and beautiful!

Hope my card brightens your day,
Betty

Speedy the Cat's Friends No Ribbon Challenge

The latest challenge issued by Speedy the Cat's Friends is to use twine, bakers twine, jute, yarn, anything other than ribbon on your card. My card uses paper and a punchout from a scrapbook kit called Great Outdoors. I wanted to convey the impression of Speedy the Cat looking out of the window from inside his house at a bunch of birds on a wire.

The inside of the card says "May your future in your new home be filled with much joy and laughter". We have some friends here who are going to be closing on their new home on Friday. It is such a wonderful story. They were having dinner with a friend who is in the real estate business. They mentioned to her that they were in the market to buy a washer and dryer and that talk led to them buying a house!! And it was all accomplished within a few days! The way things happen around here is just incredible sometimes and this time it couldn't have happened to a nicer couple -- congrats to Bob & Sue on their new home!

Betty