A Banner Birthday with Freshly Made Sketches

This card is based loosely on sketch challenge #117 by Amy at Freshly Made Sketches. It's a very simple card really, but I like the fact that the banners are not adhered to the card and appear to "float". This will be given to one of our church members on their birthday. Our stamping group that gets together on the first Saturday of each month makes one birthday card for the church and any others for themselves. Here's a picture from our last meeting. All are very busy working on their Christmas cards.

We'll be giving out our Christmas candy treats this coming Saturday. Watch for photos!

Betty

Summer Lovin' Challenge

Flourishes is having a Summer Lovin' Challenge. If you'd like to play along, make a card inspired by the photo above or inspired simply by SUMMER. You have until Friday, April 12 at 5 pm EST to enter your card, and please make a card only for this challenge. You'll have an opportunity to win the entire Flourishes April Release! If you use Flourishes stamps, your card counts as two entries -- this is what I have done (stamp set is Flourishes Sweet Days of Summer) and here's my card that is inspired by summer.......

Does this stamp ever make me think of summers of my childhood! I don't remember a sprinkler but we definitely had a water hose and that provided hours of fun during hot Mississippi summers! Thank goodness I had a sister -- we'd take turns squirting each other!! And how much fun was it to hold that hose straight up and have the water fall back down on you. (we also had lots of fun playing out in the rain too when it was hot outside!)

Since my card has a red color scheme going on, I thought I'd share a picture of a little red visitor to our yard. This is a Vermilion Flycatcher and is the most beautiful red and black -- it's hard to miss them when they are perched outside on the fence or utility line because their color is so brilliant!

Adios for now,
Betty

Single Layer Card

I normally don't have lots of luck with single layer cards -- it always seems to me like there is a little something missing! But I made this card yesterday and was very pleased with how it turned out. It's difficult to see in the photo but I first embossed a scalloped circle onto the white layer. Next I stamped the flowers from Gina K. Designs Elegant Flowers inside the circle and used colored pencils and baby oil to color and blend. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, Gracious Vases; two corners were rounded off from the white panel and the card base and after adhering the white panel to the base, the card was done! Very simple and sweet!!

Wanted to share another photo with you today. We had a wonderful Easter service with inspiring music and sermon. To close out this fabulous Easter service we had some lively picking and singing of the old gospel song I'll Fly Away. Loved it!!

Hope your week is going well!
Betty

It's Been a 7 Card Day!

I have been a lazy, Lazy, LAZY stamper this week -- up until today, and since I had to get these made before Sunday, as the title of my post says, today was a 7 card day! There are 4 Mother's Day cards, one feminine birthday and two masculine birthdays. I told you that we had a very slow day at the Monday Market this week but then a friend asked me to make 9 cards for her; 5 of these are her cards and I need to make 4 more for Father's Day. This is sure helping out the fund for the Hope House boys!

I haven't posted since Tuesday and I know it's been at least two days (and maybe more like three) since I've been able to get around and check out all of your blogs. Tomorrow morning is our card making class and hopefully I'll get to visit your blogs tomorrow afternoon!

So long for now,

Betty

Recent Pictures

No card to post today so I thought I'd share some recent pictures. We spent the afternoon and evening of Friday 13th with friends and had the most wonderful time. Lots of good food, good fun, laughter, and games!

My first picture shows just how "cool" we are -- even thought everyone was inside at this point, we all had on our sunshades!!

lst row - my husband, Larry, Sharon & Ed (they're leaving soon, going back to Florida but we know they'll be back!!)
2nd row - Sue and her sister Jo (Jo came for a visit recently and decided after 2 days that she wanted to stay!)
3rd row - Bob (married to Sue; this is their home)

We shared a rousing game of Washers (if you really want to pronounce it correctly, it should be Warshers -- some of you will understand that joke!) and I was the Washer Queen (someone has to be the best!! -- I laughed and said that maybe I was the Washer Woman!!) I haven't played washers in many a year and I have to admit that most of our group had never heard of the game, so I may have had a bit of an advantage!!

Next came the eats! Bob grilled chicken and then covered it with the most delicious adobo sauce. He explained that it was a special sauce from Cancun (NOT!) -- it came right off the shelf at Wal-Mart!!

It was difficult not to dive right in and start eating, but everyone patiently waited for the pictures. I took one and then Ed took one with me at the table!

After we all had plenty to eat we continued to enjoy the company and played three rounds of our favorite game, Catch Phrase (unfortunately, have to admit that the guys won two out of three rounds there) but the ladies came back and beat the socks off of the guys in Hand and Foot (a card game similar to Canasta). It was a wonderful, fun-filled day!

On Saturday morning we met our friends Pastor Jose and his wife Martha for breakfast.

The food was delicious, the company enjoyable and the view just couldn't be beat.....

After breakfast, we went to a nearby church that Jose's friend pastors. They were having a Bible class for neighborhood children and we sang with them (well, actually, we just clapped since we didn't know the Spanish words to the songs!) and watched a video about Samuel and Eli.

Hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into our life.
Betty

Merry Monday #10

Here's my card for the Merry Monday #10 sketch challenge. My card base is Stampin' Up Night of Navy, paired with Basic Gray and Going Gray. The trees are from Stubby Stampers and are stamped with Color Box Frost White pigment ink. I added a little clear rhinestone at the top of the trees for a bit of shine. The sentiment stamp was stamped in the same white ink and allowed to dry. Then it was outlined with a Versamarker, using the VersaShadow Technique found here. I added a couple of more rhinestones, a piece of ribbon and a little bow to finish it off and I have one more Christmas card done!

I have a couple of other pictures to share with you. Our dog sitting job came to an end this past Friday when we took Peppe back to his mom. It was really a tough job, but somebody had to do it!!!!

Now, I don't want to sign off with a photo of me being terribly lazy, so I'll share another sunrise. Can you see the "fat flame" surrounding the sun?

Later,

Betty

Shaving Cream and ReInkers

Our card making group met this morning and we had a blast playing with shaving cream and reinkers to make pretty patterned papers! Here are a couple of pictures of some of our group.....

And here are just a few of the papers that we made.....

One of these days I'm going to talk some of you into coming down for a visit -- if you are here on the first Saturday of the month, we can all stamp together at the church!

Betty 

Mexican Folk Dancers

As promised, I'm back to share some photos with you from a performance we were at yesterday. It was held at a nearby restaurant, The Thirsty Turtle, which has the best hamburger and fries in town!!

These are the Mexican folk dancers. Isn't that dress she is wearing just gorgeous? And she has the most beautiful smile!  They dance on a platform and their boots make a lot of noise -- their feet move so fast! I don't know how they manage to keep from falling off the platform.......

This is something you should definitely NOT try at home........she is dancing with a candle on her head. She made her entrance holding the candle and then placed it on her head so it was definitely not attached in any way. Her headdress obviously had a "nest" of some sort to help keep the candle steady but it was still very impressive! I wouldn't be able to dance around a room with a book on my head, much less a lit candle!!

Here's another shot showing the dress -- can you see all the beautiful white lace and satin?

 

This little guy completely stole the show!! His papa was the soloist and at one point this little fellow grabbed the restaurant menu, came up to the front where his dad was singing and started to strum his pretend guitar! His older brother came to pull him away but we all said, no, no, no and everyone was taking pictures of him! Then his dad plopped his cowboy hat on the little one's head and that was even cuter!

Here's dad ... how about them pointed toe boots!

They'll be performing at The Thirsty Turtle on Sunday afternoons and Tuesday evenings. Come on down for a visit and we'll take you to see them!!

Betty

Thank You Card

Today my card is made with a sketch from Papertrey Ink. This is Day 6 of their 5th Anniversary and Nichole has given us a choice of five sketches to choose from. I chose Sketch #5 and my sentiment from from PTI's set Think Big Favorites #6 -- (too bad it wasn't Think Big Favorites #5!!) The beautiful turquoise paper with white dots is from a Stampin' Up Designer Paper pack, Island Oasis. Satin ribbon came from The Dollar Tree; I found the buttons in my collection and tied them with my homemade baker's twine. The shiny turquoise stickers are from a Martha Stewart pack and I also used MS Branch punch.

On a more personal note, it's a coldish, rainy, windy day in Chapala. This kind of weather is so infrequent it surprised all of us this morning. So, we'll think about how nice it was yesterday. I've been wanting to show you both a sunrise and sunset from the same day and we managed to capture it yesterday. So, now, for your viewing pleasure........

Sunrise on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012 from our front porch

Sunset from the back, viewed from the mirador (roof) of our house



If you can stand a little more trivia, I've been listening to record albumns today -- yes, vinyl -- 33 1/3 rpm -- LPs -- nostalgia, right????  The Best of Sam Cooke (1962, RCA), Neil Diamond's "Greatest Hits" (1968), Gary Puckett & The Union Gap's Greatest Hits (1970), Simon & Garfunkel Bookends (1968) -- includes Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate. We only brought about half of our record albums with us to Mexico -- but I'm glad we brought the ones we did!

Staying inside, taking a trip down Memory Lane,

Betty

Vintage Tag

Yesterday when I printed the Graphics Fairy Victorian Lady image for my card I printed it in two sizes. The smaller image was perfect for the challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow to make a vintage Christmas tag. While this doesn't have any particular Christmas image, there are so many blue Christmas wrapping papers these days that I thought this would work on a Christmas present.

I used my new Martha Stewart punch around the page punch and nestabilities to cut out and mat the image. The little corner stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and the "To and From" stamp on the back of the tag is by Layers of Color, from their Glad Tidings set.

And here's my tag (front and back).........

On another note, we had a wonderful lunch this past week at a local restaurant called Panino's. Here is my plate and I have to admit that I totally ate everything on it!! Chicken Kabobs with an Asian sauce, potato salad and green salad -- it was delicious with a capital D! The next pictures shows the restaurant, which is open air dining and it was a delightfully mild day when we were there.

Happy Stamping to All,
Betty

Peaceful Christmas Card

This is my first time to enter a challenge at Joan's Gardens. I was checking out my online friend Theresa Pollack's blog today and saw that she had made a card for this challenge so I decided to join in with her.
The challenge is to make a Christmas card with a background that has been embossed with an inked embossing folder. It also has to have striped designer paper and a sentiment heat embossed with gold powder.
I think this one fits the bill and I do hope that I will be able to join in more often with their challenges.

On another note, our bookcase was delivered yesterday and I started unpacking our remaining boxes and filling in the shelves. There are still a few boxes left but they are filled with photo albums and framed art pieces. Haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet.

We were out running errands most of the day. Had lunch at a neat little place called Lake Taco and had their special of the day, Shrimp Louie Salad. We thought we were in heaven -- YUM!!!!!!!

Hope it's been a good day for everyone!
Betty

Make It Monday and Monday Market

Dawn McVey over at Papertry Ink has done a Make It Monday video to show us how to make a background design with stamps that are not normally used for backgrounds. Check it out and see how easy it can be!  I was blog hopping this morning with Annabelle Stamps and Marion had a beautiful card posted. I had been thinking about what to do for the Make It Monday challenge and her card just screamed at me -- CASE ME, CASE ME!! So I did -- you never want to argue with a beautiful card! The stamp that I used comes from Papertrey Ink's set, Everyday Button Bits.

Changing subjects..........

We went to the street market yesterday morning and bought lots of good stuff --
a watermelon
a bagful of roma tomatoes
leaf lettuce
a papaya
a bif ole mess of green beans
4 zucchini
5 small onions
bell pepper
4 avocados
7 plums
2.2 pounds of large shrimp
2 guitar instrumental cds
spray bottle
and we only spent a little over $20 US! We're going to be eating very good for a while and entertained with soothing music! This is a photo of the street market that my sister took when she was here in July. It is several blocks long with stands on each side of the road.

Until next time,

Happy Stamping to All,

Betty

Out and About in Chapala

Well, I didn't manage to get a picture of the local buses, but here's my bus stop! The one in the foreground is where I wait when I want to go to Chapala and the one in the background will get me to Ajijic! I went to Chapala this morning for a session with my acupuncturist and since I allowed plenty of time I was able to walk to the Malecon (a parklike area along the shore of Lake Chapala). Tomorrow (Saturday) it will be busy, busy with lots of vendors selling most anything you could want and people everywhere, enjoying the market, the beautiful weather and time with their families. But this morning, it was very quiet as the following pictures will show.


Just have two more photos to share -- these were taken from the malecon and show the mountain in the distance. Can you see the chapel(?) with the cross on top of the mountain? To keep you from squinting and having wrinkles set in, I got a closeup shot too -- cause we don't want any more wrinkles, now do we????

Catch you all later,
Betty