Keep It Cool

Hello!  I have a sweet little card to show you using my new Doodle Gardens stamp from MFT.  This image has actually just been retired, but she is new to me!  

I kept it simply by just stamping the image on the side panel and adding a strip of designer paper with a piece of felt ric rak for embellishment.  I made my sun with a flower die from Spellbinders and added a button in the center.  A few dew drops were added to the white panel to mimic water drops.

Have a great day, and Keep It Cool!  Amy

Fashion Over Fifty: Neons

 Hello.  For this week's Fashion Over Fifty post I have a bright outfit to show you.  Do you like to wear neon's or bright colors, or are they too loud for your taste?  I always fear wearing bright colors because they scream 'look at me' and someone inevitably says 'Wow! That's bright! No one could miss you in a crowd.'   But because I like color, I just face my fears, and wear them anyway.  I always balance my brights with a neutral color to try and tame the outfit down a bit;  but I love it when other braver,  fashionistas where bright colors from head to toe too!

My tunic is from Old Navy and is a sheer, lightweight gauze.  When I bought it in the store, I thought it was red because I've been looking for a red shirt to go with some olive green cargo pants I recently purchased.  However, when I got it home, I realized it was more of a coral color and the bagginess of the shirt wouldn't go with my baggy pants.  Two baggy items worn together always makes one look frumpy, so I paired the shirt with some white skinny jeans instead.  And I guess my quest for the perfect red shirt to go with my cargo pants will continue!

Because the shirt is so sheer, you really must wear a tank top underneath.  I really love this shirt for summer because the older I get, the more I want to cover up, yet, I still want to stay cool in hot weather.  This type of shirt is just perfect for that:  it covers me, yet is still cool and comfortable.

 I wore a multi strand seed bead necklace that had two of the colors in my ensemble and also a lovely teal contrast color.

 I bought these bright yellow sandals at the end of the last year on clearance and finally got around to wearing them.  I have another pair in green I haven't worn yet also.  That's the problem with buying things on clearance:  you tend to buy things that you don't really need just because they are a great deal.  I usually try to avoid that trap, but I guess it got me this time.  I did think the yellow went perfectly with the coral and I liked the idea of bringing another color into the ensemble that coordinated, but wasn't so matchy-matchy.  I can't even begin to tell you how much effort it took to put these sandals on:  it was almost comical.  They have a tiny little buckle strap in the back and my inflexible body could not, no matter how much I tried, get the silver prong inside the itty bitty hole.  So then I asked my husband to do it for me, and even he struggled with it!  I guess I won't ever be able to wear these sandals if no one else is home to buckle them for me!  LOL!

 I carried a cobalt blue cross body bag and wore a white seed bead bracelet.

 And here is what I wore under my top:  a pretty, pale yellow lace camisole.

And here are some other bright colored outfits from Pinterest for your inspiration.  Which one is your favorite?

Have a great day!  Amy

Get this look for $135+ on Lookastic

Spring Vacation: Day Five, Part Four - Downtown Nashville

 Hello!  For this week's travel post,  I am continuing on with Day Five of our Spring Vacation.  On day five, we visited Nashville, Tennessee.   We spent the morning at The Hermitage, then we went to  Centennial Park,  and the Entertainment District:  yes, we crammed a lot in to one day!  After walking down Broadway in the Entertainment District,  we then ventured out into the rest of the downtown area.

Our first stop was the beautiful river walk.   Nashville lies on the Cumberland River, and the city really takes advantage of the beautiful river views offering lovely paths and benches for strolling and viewing.

 I have been to many cities in my lifetime, and I would have to put Nashville on the top of my list for having one of the prettiest and cleanest downtown's.  It is quite obvious that they really work hard to keep the city clean, well-maintained and preserved.  They do an excellent job of incorporating modern buildings and architecture with the older more historic buildings.  Pictured below is a beautiful old building with some modern updates.

 A row of historic buildings now used as restaurants, shopping, and entertainment.

 There was an old fort on the river walk but it was closed for some renovation so we couldn't go inside.

 A lovely urban garden and terrace.

 This is another view of the river walk taken from the opposite side.

 There is a famous alley in Nashville called Printers Alley.  Two large newspapers,  ten print shops, and thirteen publishers called this alley home at the beginning of the twentieth century, thus giving it this name.   In the forties the alley became a nightclub and entertainment district.  Today,  it consists of four bars and an adult entertainment bar;  not the most wholesome place to visit, but it's nice just to walk through it and see all the historic buildings and signs.

 I loved this enclosed shopping/dining area called The Arcade in downtown Nashville.

 Nashville is filled with beautiful, old churches like the one pictured below.

 A modern office building, which is obviously new, yet the style blends in with all the old historic buildings quite well.

 My favorite part of Downtown Nashville was their capitol building.  It is a very impressive building that sits high on top of a hill overlooking the city.

 You have to walk up A LOT of steps to get anywhere near the building, and you see many impressive sculptures along the way.

 The hike up the stairs is well worth it for the view of the city below is breathtaking.  There is a beautiful walk that goes all around the capitol building so you can get a 360 degree view of the entire city.  I was surprised to see this grave site on the capitol grounds too:

 To give you an idea of the scale of this masterpiece, this picture of the capitol was taken down below in Legislative Plaza.  The plaza is so lovely.  There are many benches, and water fountains to enjoy.

 And finally, a couple more pics of some amazing churches:

 And if walking the entire downtown sounds too exhausting:  you can take a horse drawn carriage ride too!

Have a great day!  Amy

June Christmas Cards

Hello!  I took a Staycation this week because all my 'kids' were home at once to visit, so I actually have my Christmas Cards done on time this month.  Normally I'm struggling to finish them on the last day of every month to meet the deadline, but because of my week Staycation at home, I was able to play in my craft room and got a lot accomplished.  As most of you already know, I play the Splitcoaststampers Christmas Card Challenge where we make Christmas Cards all year long so that were not stressed out during the busy holiday season.  I make five Christmas Cards a month so that I'll have about sixty cards at the end of the year.  I make a long style card so that I can fit a photo collage and Christmas letter inside the card.  I also usually try to keep them to one or two layers so that they are more mailable, but every now and then, I break the rule and make them lumpy.  This month I definitely broke the rule because I used 3D dimensional stickers by The Paper House.  

All the stickers are from one package, and I still have a few sentiment stickers left over.  I really got my money's worth on this set!

My first card uses just one of the sentiment stickers.  All the paper is very old DCWV Holiday Stacks or My Mind's Eye, and most of it is pre-glittered in some way.  I love sheer ribbon because you can still see the designer paper underneath.  I inked the edges of two of the panels with Chocolate Chip ink, and added two small pearls for embellishment.

 My second card uses the shepherd scene in the sticker package and one of the sentiments.  I kept the layout the same, except I changed the Nesties I uses and put the ribbon horizontally instead of vertically.

 I played off the blue color in the manger on this scene and used a variety of blue designer paper on this card.  A die by Papertrey Ink and a corner rounder were used to make all the background papers, and more sheer ribbon and adhesive crystals were added for embellishment.

 I had a lot of fun creating this scenic card.  I hand cut the sand dunes myself, inked the edges and sponged the Sahara Sand paper.  I used three different inks on the sky:  Brilliant Blue, Not Quite Navy, and Night of Navy.  I simply took a piece of Soft Sky paper and sponged the ink on starting with the lightest blue and working my way up to the darkest blue.  Once I had my desert scene adhered to the card base, I added Flower Soft 'Sand' to the sand dunes, and I put dots of Stickles on the sky.  Then I stamped a retired SU! sentiment in the sky and added a star sticker from the set and my wise men.

 For my final card, I used two strips of sparkly designer paper and just stuck the sticker on.  Easy peasy, yet filled with sparkles, dimension, and interest.

Because they are bulky cards, these will be the cards I hand deliver to our church family mailboxes.  

Have a great day!  Amy