Tropical Dreams

Received this in my inbox today from Design Seeds. They titled it "Mental Vacation". Luckily for me, it will not have to be only in my mind. I should have some sort of similar view tomorrow when we get to our hotel in Puerto Vallarta.  Can't wait!! Hope I'll be able to post some pictures while I'm there.

Betty

Flourishes Gimme Ten!

This time next week, Flourishes will be wrapping up its sneak peek week with three new beautiful sets being unveiled! So, to get ready for the big reveal….the DT is ushering in a fun-filled challenge to give us a chance to win each and every one of them! Mark your calendar — the fun starts NEXT WEDNESDAY!!

All you need is ten minutes and a dash of creativity to play in the latest Release Week Challenge! It’s one that gives you a chance to WIN the entire release for June!

Here is the card that I created:

My game plan for a quick card involved patterned paper, ribbon and stick on pearls. I would not normally color an image for a "quick" card but this image only used three colors and I scribbled each marker on my acrylic block and applied the color with a blender pen -- quick and easy! This stamp is from Flourishes' set called Calla Lilies -- have you seen it????

Gorgeous!!

I usually always try to play in the challenges during Flourishes' Release Week but I will be out of town (AGAIN!) next week -- we will  be in Puerto Vallarta enjoying the beach, the pools, Lazy River tubing, and gorgeous scenery at the Grand Mayan. Hope you all have opportunity to play -- they always have extra fun challenges and fabulous stamp sets for some lucky winners!!

Betty

Great is Thy Faithfulness

I made this card with the 100th sketch from Waltzingmouse Makes Blog. I don't have any of their products so I'll not be entering the challenge, but I enjoyed the sketch very much!

I will be entering my card at Word Art Wednesday. They post a free piece of word art each week but you can enter any card with an inspirational or encouraging theme. My card was made with a scripture stamp from a set by Taylored Expressions called Rest and Renewal.  This set has wonderful stamps from scripture.

Card stock is from Stampin' Up, patterned papers from a scrapbook kit called Great Outdoors. The little glassy embellishment is from Prima and has musical notes on it; I've been singing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" all day!!

Hope you all had a wonderful day -- I did!

Betty

A Wedding Card for Flourishes

Thanks, Theresa, for letting me know that Timeless Tuesday at Flourishes is perfect for wedding cards. I posted one yesterday but was a day too soon for the challenge. Since I had been asked to make several weddings cards, it was no trouble at all to make another one for the Flourishes challenge -- a white card with lace and/or pearls.

Stamps are from the Inkadinkado "Wedding" set that I purchased when I was in the States. The sentiment is a Spanish set from Stampin' Up that I bought used from someone here who was moving back to the States.

The Cuttlebug embossing folder is called Swirls with Waves. I think that it gives the impression of movement, like our bridal couple is dancing! Hope you enjoyed it!

Betty

Wedding Cards

I had someone ask me today if I could make some wedding cards. I did one recently for a friend at church but because I didn't have any wedding stamps, I printed a piece of free clip art for my card. So, while I was in the States, I bought a wedding set from Inkadinkado and made this card with it. I really do like this bride and groom stamp!

The sketch I used is from Freshly Made Sketches. I missed the deadline for the challenge but was certainly thankful for the sketch to get me started on the card. Tools used were a Cuttlebug embossing folder (Paper Lace II - a set of 4), a Martha Stewart punch and Spellbinders dies.

Wish I could report wonderful sales of the Father's Day cards, but only sold one of them. Oh well, maybe I can change them into birthday cards......

Betty

Three Cards to Share

The first is a card we all made at our card making group that meets the first Saturday of each month. I try to have a project that introduces a new technique and this month it was sponging. Thanks to my daughter Amanda for the design of the card. I arrived back in Chapala on Thursday so it really helped me timewise not to have to come up with a design for my project that I needed on Saturday morning! Stamps are from Stampin' Up and Gina K. Designs.

We also used colored pencils on the flowers. I purchased a set of colored pencils by CraZArt at WalMart while I was stateside. A pack of 72 pencils was only $5.72! I had read about how good these pencils are on Splitcoast Stampers and figured at that price I could give them a try since I don't have a large set. My next card was made with a new set from Flourishes, Calla Lilies and the new pencils. I thought that they worked very well, and now I have a nice range of colors to use. This photo doesn't capture the colors as well as I would like, however.

My last card is one of nine that I made to take to the Monday Market today. Thanks to Patti P. for making a card with this image from The Graphics Fairy -- I headed right over there and snagged the image for myself. Made all nine of the cards today -- they worked up fairly quickly, assembly line style! Hope they sell as quickly! Stamp is from Gina K. Designs, cut with Spellbinders Banners die.

Adios,
Betty

Back in Chapala!

I finally made it back home to Chapala. I went to visit my daughter and grandkids in the Houston, Texas area and her car died after she picked me up at the airport. We were sitting on the side of the road waiting for a wrecker to come get the car and for a friend to come and get us and my luggage. Luckily, we were able to pick up my rental car a day early so I was able to get her to work the next day. Long story short, we had to buy her another car. I'll not even begin to describe all the stress involved in that process but we survived!

Made a couple of Father's Day cards for a church friend this morning. Need to get a project prepared for cardmaking class tomorrow so that will keep me busy today.

Here's a couple of pictures of my grandkids (Ashton 8 and Brianna 5) who got new bikes from BeeBee while I was there. They have just moved into a new house and have room to ride bicycles now -- they couldn't do that at the apartment.

Bye for now,
Betty