New Stamp Set

Thanks to my daughter who forwarded it to me, I now have my new stamp set from Flourishes, Naturally Merry. The set includes this beautiful pine cone, a spray of ivy, and several Christmas sentiments. I love pine cones -- have a basket of them on my front porch. a glass jar full inside the front door, and some above my kitchen cabinets. So I knew I was going to have to add this set to my collection. It will be another good stamp to use for masculine birthday cards.

Hope you all had a good weekend and are ready to have a wonderful Thanksgiving week -- thanks be to God for His great and wonderful gifts, especially His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Betty

Flourishes' New Release Challenge

Flourishes is changing up their challenge for the November release. They are having a progressive challenge and there are four steps to the challenge. You can read all about the changes here.

Step 1  Starts with a sketch. I believe I've got the sketch covered!

Step 2 Involves color. You must use a monochromatic color theme. My colors are shades of Green.

Step 3 Decorative Paper -- you must add a splash of decorative paper somewhere on your card. I have both light and dark green decorative paper.

Step 4 Sparkle -- add sparkle of your choice. Rhinestones are my sparkle of choice -- green ones for the butterfly and the sentiment; clear ones to indicate the butterfly's flight path! The ribbon also has a bit of sparkle in it.

Now, you can make a card with all of the requirements included or you can make four cards with each single ingredient -- it's your choice. Be sure to follow the link above to read all about this challenge and then join in the fun!

Betty

A Manly Birthday

Here's a birthday card I was asked to make. I started out with sketch #60 from Freshly Made Sketches but then I went off on a tangent, as you can see from the sketch below. Oh well, I got inspiration from it though!

I was supposed to have gotten a crown this morning (for my tooth that had the root canal earlier this week) but when I arrived at the dental office I found that they had no electricity. So, I guess you can say that I got a reprieve until next week!

We'll be playing Mexican Train with our group later this afternoon and am looking forward to that. I'll probably have a much better time without having had dental work done this morning!!

It's getting on toward noon -- we found a Red Baron pepperoni pizza in the frozen food case at Wal-Mart today so that's our treat for lunch. Doesn't sound like much but it's a little bit hard to find a good pizza here in Chapala and Wal-Mart doesn't always have the Red Barons. We add onion, bell pepper and mushrooms to make it extra special!!

Later,
Betty

Timeless Tuesday at Flourishes

This is my card for Makiko Jones' challenge at Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #194 which is to use a Flourishes silhouette. Happily I had one of their silhouette stamps -- Sweet Dreams of Summer. This set has such sweet images; there's also one of kids playing in a water sprinkler and a little girl reading a book under a tree.

I stamped with Not Quite Navy and this little girl tending the flowers makes me think of my friend Martha tending the plant that she gave me this week. Planting it as a cutting, watering it, watching it grow, and then loading it up in the truck and bringing it to me once it was "big enough to travel"!!

I'd like to share the link again for the Hope House Boys since it didn't work properly last time. You'll enjoy "meeting" some of the boys who call Hope House their home! Click here.

This and That

Root canal this morning -- I'm not in pain now, just really "achy"! Thought I'd share some miscellaneous things with you today.

Yesterday our friends, Jose and Martha, came over bearing gifts. We now have a beautiful potted plant sitting on our front porch -- it is called "Christ's Crown" and Martha started it from a small cutting about a year ago. Be careful, though, there are some wicked looking thorns hiding behind the leaves!

Martha also presented me with a couple of bracelets and earrings that she had made herself. She is such a sweet, giving person. She and Jose have both brought many blessings to our lives since we have met them. By the way, my sister Barbara met Martha when she was here visiting last month -- Barbara, Martha wants to know your favorite colors because she is going to make some for you too!

One more picture to share. We were so excited to find some beginning papayas on the tree that we planted. Sure hope that the birds don't get them before we do!

The bloom has fallen off the one on the right while the one on the left is still surrounded by the flower. There's also another one on the other side that you cannot see. We love papaya (especially with a little lime juice added) and it would be so thrilling to be able to pick one from our own tree!


I'd also like to share a link with you so that you can read about some of the boys who live at Hope House. They are giving a little biography of some of the boys who call Hope House their home.  Click here.

Later,
Betty

Watercolor Inchies

Got my card made today for Freshly Made Sketches #59. I watercolored the small panels and then stamped an Inkadinkado Flourishes  stamp with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I didn't get the best picture -- the embossed black sentiment didn't like the flash but it's a very overcast day here (quite unusual for our area) and I had to use the flash.

Remember to set your clocks back tonight. We changed our clocks last Saturday here in Mexico.

Betty

Another Emboss Resist

This is another sample card that I've made to take to card making tomorrow. This one shows what the color Tattered Rose looks like with white embossed words. I used a colored butterfly that I first printed and then embossed with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel to pop up on the Tattered Rose panel.

Have a blessed day,
Betty

A Winter Card

I will be demonstrating the emboss resist technique at our card making class this month. I have used shiny card stock and stamped the snowflakes from a couple of different stamp sets in Versamark and embossed with white powder. Then sponged on Faded Jeans Distress ink and wiped with a paper towel. I just love the icy effect the Faded Jeans ink brings to the shiny card stock! The background sheet is regular patterned paper -- the smaller panel is the emboss resist. Added some darker blue as a mat, blue pearls, and a bit of sparkly ribbon.

The challenge at Joan's Gardens is to make a winter card -- that's the only requirement. You can pretty much do as you please this time!! Come on and join in!

Betty