DAYS LIKE THIS....

This is my submission this week for the Artful Legacy Design Team. Its a little silly, a little goofy, and oh so cute. I started off with an A-2 sized kraft cardbase. I stamped the 5th Ave Floral flower (from SU) across the bottom in versamark, and then embossed it in white. The WALNUT WITH EYES stamp from AL was stamped 3 times in Memento Brown ink, then colored with Copics, and given a sheen with SU's Crystal Effects.
It was then chalked with bright green, and matted on a dark brown cardstock and popped up on the the card base. The sentiment on the bottom is also from Artful Legacy and also stamped in the same brown ink. Cut with oval Nesties and then also popped up.

Bright green ribbon wrapped around the card and tied with a bow finishes off this fun card. I have left the inside blank. I think we all sometimes have days where we would like to hide in a walnut shell~

Check out the rest of the DT's cards on http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/ .

Many thanks for stopping by...

SOME SAD NEWS

Today I have to tell you some sad news. My cousin has passed from Pancreatic Cancer this afternoon. She leaves behind a husband and 5 children. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS TRACK AND FIELD EVENT

Yesterday was Theresa Lauren's Special Olympics. We had a wonderful time, as always, and this year her Aunt Mimi got the chance to see Theresa compete for the first time. Although it started out a bit drizzly, it turned out to be a good weather day. It stayed cloudy for much of the day, but that field can get so hot in the sun that the clouds were welcome. Here she is with 2 of her friends showing off their ribbons. Theresa doesnt like to wear hers, she puts them in her bag. Here I am with her right after she won one of her ribbons. I am always so proud of this girl!!

Here is Eyeore. He is from The Coastal Theraputic Riding Program, where many of these kids go to learn about and ride horses.

He was their representative for the day, even getting into the spirit by wearing an Olympic Athlete shirt~

Theresa is about to compete in the softball throw. All the people in the blue shirts are volunteers who give so much to make sure these exceptional children have a great experience.

Her last event of the day was a 50 yard Speed Walk. Again, not usually one of her strong points, but she was determined to give it her all!!!

And low and behold~ she did, tying for first place with her freind Kelly!!!! This was awesome!!!

Way To Go girls!!!!!

There was time for food and fun too. Even Eyeore was doing a line dance with the kids.

Many thanks for stopping by.....

Tomorrow is a new day

Hi all~ This is my submission for the Artful Legacy Design Team this week. I had seen a tutorial on how to do this background on another blog, and thought I would try it on this card. The original even had a tree, but not this tree. This is "WHIMSICAL TREE" from Artful Legacy. I love its flowing branches and heart shaped leaves. I almost never make a card with a few layers, never mind not even one!! Its harder than it seems. Us locals live by the adage "Every mistake is a chance for embellishment" . Well in this case, there is no room for either.
Stamping on one layer leaves no possibility of covering something up. Thats why this card is #4!!! I forgot to take the mask off the first one before stamping the tree, the second card came out great, but my stamp then fell on it before I could clean it. black ink everywhere~
Third card was crooked, and here is #4. The colors are also a bit off in the photos. In real life, its actually a very pretty violet.
This second photo shows how I used my Scor Pal to add some lines for interest on the bottom portion of the card.

Many thanks for stopping by and br sure to check out the http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/ to see what the others are up to this week.

A SPRING WEEKEND AT OUR HOUSE

I absolutely love this time of year!! The days are so warm, yet the nites are still a bit cool. I also love how everything in nature seems to "wake up". We had a great weekend relaxing at home and enjoying this wonderful season, so I took out my camera and thought it was worthy of a few photos~
And then I thought that I must share them with all of you.
Here are my Azaleas starting to bloom in front of my house. They are our state flower and I wished they could bloom all summer. Since I live so close to both an ocean and a river, we have terrible soil here. Its so sandy, and I have had such a hard time getting anything to grow. But the azaleas do very well here. Here is my husband working near the garage. He never sits still, even on his day off.

A closeup of one of the Azaleas. Isnt it a pretty pink?

This bumble Bee liked them as much as I did. I followed him around for a while. See the pollen on his fur?

Talk about fur, here is Kody, our resident furball snoozing on the deck.

That was, until he saw what was on the other side of the fence~

He wanted out of there bad...

So he could play with this girl!

She enjoyed her swings and he watched her the whole time.

p.s. we did let him out after awhile~

Lastly, I found this butterfly in the yard. He was fascinated with this patch of dirt, and hovered around it for a good part of the afternoon.

I loved how his outside had lots of orange, but when he spread his wings- there was the most beautiful robins egg blue inside.

Nature is amazing to me.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Enjoy your day~

PAPER MAKEUP FOR THE WEEKEND CHALLENGE #24

I enjoy playing with the PMS challenges when I can, and this week I was able to do so. The challenge is to use 5 embellishments on your card- no more, no less~
Here is a sneak of 2 of mine~ the butterflies I have been using so much lately. My full card~
I have used "Melody" from PMS because she is a vision of Spring to me. I also had that in mind when I colored her. Only bright, springy type colors used here.

My 5 embellishments are the 3 butterflies , the bow, and the seperate ribbon. This was my last piece of this purple ribbon. But I can punch as many butterflies as possible!!! LOL.

Dont worry- I wont use them on EVERY card!

The paper is Rasberry Tart- a discontinued one from the last SU catalog.

Here are the colors I used to make Melody so pretty.

Be sure to check out what everyone else has done with this challenge. Perhaps you would also like to play.

http://papermakeupstamps.blogspot.com/.

Many thanks for stopping by...

PAMPER ME PLEASE!!!!!!

Its Design Team showoff day here at Artful Whimsies! This weeks card features some great stamps form Artful Legacy. You can see some more of this card and other DT cards at http://artfullegacy.blogspot.com/.
I chose the stamps "Bubble Bath", "AHHHHH", and "Day At The Spa".
I think these stamps could work for birthdays, gift cards ideas, made into a tag and attached to bath and spa products, and of course on a great layout of some pampering. My card is a 6 by 6 inch gatefold. You can actually head on over to the Artful Legacy blog on Saturday to see a mini tutorial I did on how to make this type of gatefold card. See ya there!

I used DCWV cardstock, assort. patterned paper, and PTI Select White to stamp on. The border punch is the new Scallop punch that was in the recent Salebration catalog, but I hear it will be for sale in the new big catalog this summer. Yipee!!!, I want to also get the corner punch that matches it. SU oval and scallop ovals are used here, as well as Labels Two from Spellbinders.

The card closes with a sheer purple ribbon, and when opened, reveals these adorable sentiments inside. Border punch was used here also.

This stamp works well with the paper piecing technique. Look how great the tub looks in a pattern!

It would have also looked great with just the SU Crystal Effects over a white tub for shine. Glitter was used on the bubbles, and Spica Gold pen colored in the tub legs.

Would'nt we all like to relax like this lucky girl is doing?

Many thanks for stopping by......

WHERE EVERYONE IS A KID AGAIN~

This past Sunday, my sister, her 2 kids, Theresa Lauren and myself went to the Cole Bros Circus. It comes to my town every spring when we have our annual Azaela Festival to celebrate the arrival of Spring and NC's favorite flower.
Growing up in NYC, I had gone every year to the Ringling Bros Circus in Madison Square Garden. That is quite the production, so glitzy and glamorous~ and sooo many people. If you didnt buy your seats way ahead of time, you had to sit so far away that it could become hard to see for kids.
Thats where living in a small town becomes so awesome. These small town fairs and festivals lack some of the glitz and sparkle of the big city, but make up for it in their personal, friendly , family type atmosphere.
There is no bad seat in the house. You, and the small kids with you, can see everything right up close. Its awesome and exciting.

These are taken from my seat, which as you see, are only 5 rows back. We have gone to this circus every year for the 6 years that we live here. Its now our spring tradition!

Since my sister and her family moved down here last year, they too have joined our circus trip.

Her husband was out of town, and Bob was not able to come this year, as he had work to do.

Here are the kids right after the show. We all had a great time~

Bye~ see you again next year!

Look at the parking spot we got! Right outside the door!! How excellent is that?

Many thanks for stopping by....

May all your days be circus days~

This is what happens when you are not paying attention to what you're doing~
I was outside on my front steps trying to photgraph 2 different projects yesterday afternoon. Things were not working exactly as I wanted them to, so I kept shifting them around for better color, etc. At one point, I looked down and saw that this little butterfly had flown right off of my card!
Now, time was not on my side, as I was losing light fast, so I had to persuade him to alight on my card in his selcted spot for just a moment so I could photograph him.... He agreed, as long as I would also agree to be in the picture (hence my hand on the left).
Things worked out ok with us, but I am still not thrilled how the colors appear. Although muted, they are much prettier in real life, but here we go.
The stamp is one I got from the dollar bin at A.C.Moore a while back. I thought it was cute. The card is a 4 inch square, made with a 4 by 12" piece of cardstock. After scoring it into thirds, you score each end piece at an angle, and then they will fold in to meet each other in the middle.

This photo may give you a better idea. The front image is attached to the right (upper) fold of the card.

Here is how it looks open. All paper is from my scrap bin. I do know that the base is Bazzils Brocade.

The little butterfly is from the SU set "Hello Again" which I got free during Saleabration last month. Its one of the sets that are in the regular catty though. I used SU ticket corner punch for the edges.

I stamped everything in Memento Brown Ink. Butterfly is in Warm Green Chalk Ink.

Many thanks for stopping by.....

I have to go and catch that pesky butterfly....

BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

I have always been fascinated by butterflies. The way they seem to float on air, are so extremely elegant and live a seemingly full life in a very little amount of time. So this week, for my Design Team card for Artful Legacy, I chose this sentiment stamp~ ALS 1057 Theres Nothing~ and featured it on the card. To me it holds alot of meaning for so many different situations. I take it to mean there is so much good and beauty that can come out of any situation. And to always hold out hope, for it is there. And also that God is good and will watch over and protect you in all forms.

The base of the card is cut with a spellbinders die, Labels 8, then layered with patterned paper from my stash. Ribbon is Michaels. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark, then embosses with Colbalt Blue embossing powder for a bit of added dimension. The butterfly is also a Spellbinders die which I cut with some DCWV cardstock. I then glittered it and made some polka dots with a Sigmo White Gel pen. I also used this pen to make some faux stitching all around the cards perimeter.

Some chalk ink here and there and a Recollections Pearl for the butterflys belly finish off the outside.

I used the same diecut in a smaller size for the white inside of the card, and stamped a small navy butterfly from PSX in the inner left corner.

Please visit http://artfullegacyrubberstamps.blogspot.com/
Many thanks for stopping by...

FAMILY EASTER PHOTOS

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter Holiday, or at least enjoyed the beautiful spring weather that much of the country is having. I though I would share a few photos of our Easter weekend.
We always dye the eggs the nite before Easter. So here is TT starting her tradition this year, with a new kit. It was great~ it came with little collapsible plastic cups to put the eggs in, instead of getting out all the coffee mugs. Her Dad gave her lots of help to make sure they were just as she liked them.

Theresa stands outside our home before church to show off her Easter basket.

Yes, that IS a big can of Doritos peeking out of her basket. She loves them.

She took a good pic of me and her Dad. Although the camera usually looks like its pointed to the ground- or up to the sky, she always gets a good shot, and dead centered too!!!

After church we took the ferry to meet my sister and her children for dinner at a restaurant. Her husband had to stay home as he was not feeling well.

Here we are outside the restaurant after we enjoyed a fun dinner!! You can see Bob in the glass reflection taking the photo.

In this photo~ Theresa Lauren, Me, Jacqueline, Matthew, and MaryBeth.

Many thanks for stopping by...

Easter Cards 2010

Hope everyone is having as nice weather as we are here in the south!!! It could'nt be more perfect weather for Easter Weekend.
My town has a Spring Fair each Easter weekend with crafts, kids booths, food, music and just a great time in a beautiful park nearby. I was there yesterday with my friend Sharon (Oak Island Stampqueen) to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time looking around and laughing. Then we went to lunch. Hope she enjoyed it~
Today I am taking TT there to stroll the park. Perhaps I will bring my camera and take some photos.
In the meantime, here are my Easter cards that I sent to friends and family this year. This is a new stamp by SU and I love how he is a perfect little chocolate bunny! I stamped him in Chocolate Chip ink on Close to Coccoa paper (SU) and then trimmed him up. Ran a white cardstock oval thru the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots EF, and mounted this onto Celery Green CS, also SU. The plaid paper is from my never ending stash, and the whole card is mounted on Martha Stewart peach notecards that I purchased at Michaels last year and never used. The envelopes match and have that pretty scallop along the edge.

Butterfy punch is Martha Stewart, then glued on and wings bent outward. I made the bunny look like he was sitting in the grass by stamping the grass with the SU set Inspired By Nature. Make sure to do this before embossing.

Gave him a little yellow bow~ and that was it!!!

Many thanks for stopping by...