It's summertime....somewhere!

Just hasn't found it's way to Pennsylvania yet so I thought I would bring a bit of summer to you! 

 The Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #222 is  to create a card or project  that reminds you of Summer and incorporate the breezy feel of sheer ribbon (FTTC222). 

 I used Flourishes On the Porch stamps and Offray sheer ribbon for the challenge.

I have to say I am loving coloring like a kid this week!  So fun!  Pull up a chair and join me:)(

My second card for today is for the CAS(E) sketch #30 challenge as well as the SCS Flybabies monthly challenge.  The flybabies challenge was to make a card for a child.  

This card is really unusual for me.  I made it without stamping a thing.  I received this paper in a card kit swap and just thought it was to cute not to use as a focal point.  

Thanks for popping in, and have a great weekend!  

PTI MIM #118

This weeks PTI MIM challenge is to make a photo postcard.  Just so happened that I needed to print photos from our cruise in April so I printed a few extra to take along on our next cruise in October.  It was super easy to print and stamp on the photos.  I used a good heavy weight photo paper that is blank on the back so I don't think I need to add a heavier layer of card stock.   Going to try to mail this one and see how it works before our next vacation.

Don't you just love self portraits;) 

 That's all for today, short and sweet.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Flourishes Desinger Focus

Today's craft share is a card I made for the Flourishes Designer Focus challenge which was to CASE a card by Christine Okken. Christine does simple stunning work so I included elements from two of her cards.  I love the stamp set she used in the card you can see here, and I love all the layers in the card you can see here. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

Sewing Desk DIY

Happy Monday!  Happy Memorial Day!  I hope you are enjoying something fun today.  

Last weekend while at a yard sale I found a great deal on an old desk.  Only $10.  We brought it open and set to refinishing it.  We took it all apart, sanded then painted it.  Now my sewing machines have a new pretty home.  

I was able to find the pink knobs at 2 different Michael's.  I put them on all my cabinets as well as the desk. 

We also repainted the vintage apothecary stand to match the desk.  

My next plans are to change up the materials I have randomly around the room to coordinate with my shabby chic pink and white room.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

PTI May Blog hop

Hello friends!  Hope your Saturday is going well.  I spent some time just doing a little organizing in my scrap room and then took a little time to play along with this months Paper Trey Ink blog hop.

The challenge was to use your favorite flower stamp set and the photo inspiration.  I chose this photo 

and this is the beautiful card I came up with.  

I used the PTI lace cover plate for the card front, I stamped the image in versamark then colored with chalks.  I finished the project with a ribbon, button and twine.  I stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card as well as stamped a coordinating image.  

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to hop or play along stop by the PTI blog for the details and more inspiration.  Have a great weekend!

Hello Thursday!

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my garden tour yesterday.  It seem overnight a bug had decided to start munching on my lettuce before I can.  So now I'm looking for the  safest most effective way to deter these little critters.  I don't mind sharing, but I would appreciate a few pieces of lettuce for myself, you know not previously chewed on!  I consulted with my good friend google and decided to try a mixture of vegetable oil and regular dawn dish soap (with out anti-bacterial) first.  I sprayed them today, but it's raining so will try it a few days and see how it works.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

Today I am playing along with the Flourishes Free For all Friday.  This week the free for all is to use one of the featured artists cards as your muse.  This weeks featured artist is Julie Koerber.  Her work is stunning, and coloring is flawless.  For this first card I chose to use the design elements from this card....

 

and made this lovely piece of art. 

 

 

With less then a day remaining I hope to make a few more projects for this challenge. 

 

Have a great day and Thanks for stopping by:) 

Almost wordless Wednesday.

I took my camera for a walk this morning. 

letuce mix is ready to start being used

strawberries are blooming



Lilacs are blooming

The very last bulb blooming

Peas and antique tiller. 

Watermelon

Pumpking, with the shell husk still attached. 

Mushrooms, just because....

Square foot garden vegies.



Yellow Pansy, so pretty.  I hate that they are almost done blooming already. 

Watering can along sidewalk.

Peonie bud

violet

pansies are gorgeous

pansy, do these come up yearly? 

And that's what it's looking like around my homestead.  I saw my first humming bird yesterday.  It's so nice to finally have spring like weather. 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

 

PTI color play day.

Today I pulled out my very first PTI stamp set Vintage Picnic for the May color play challenge. I had to make 6 identical cards for a swap. Incidentally I made the first card from one of the stamped images from a card kit swap.  This picture just reminds me of a warm summer day, eating fresh fruits and vegies outside. Yum! I can't wait!

Aren't the colors stunning.  I can almost taste the peaches.  

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great week! 

TGIF!

Hope you have some exciting plans for the weekend.  I'm just hoping for much nicer weather.  I've been having to deal with the very cold nights.  We have had frost the last 2 nights so I've had  to cover the gardens and bring in plants.  I lost the pumpkins that were up, and one hanging basket I forgot to  bring in.  But other then that it looks like everything else has survived so far. 

My new Flourishes stamps arrived.  The images are just gorgeous!  I can't wait to share more projects using them.  My first stmap set out of the pack was Garden Gate.  It's just a stunning stamp set, both the Garden Gate I used here as well as the flowers.  The sentiments are just perfectly matched to the
 set. 


Timeless Tuesday 220

Today I colored the Sweet Pea image.  I googled Sweet Pea because I just wasn't sure what color they were naturally.  I came to find out hey come in all kinds of colors, they are stunning.  I think I many need to plant some:) 

Timeless Tuesday 220

 

Todays next crafty share is a card for a SCS MFT swap.  

I have been having a blast swapping at SCS and the PTI forums.  If your interested in swapping check out the PTI swap HERE.http://forum.papertreyink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=41308 If you like swapping, I hope you consider joining us. 

Have a great weekend! and Thanks for stopping by! 

It's a Moxie Fab Day!

Hope your day is going well.  Today's crafty share is for the Moxie Fab tag challenge. And perfect timing.  My husband needed gifts for the winners of a contest for his staff.  Of course I took the opportunity to wrap and tag the gifts.  I hope they enjoyed their gifts. 

I made these tags for the  Gift Tag Challenge in the Moxie Fab World! 

 

 

I used a manila tag and layered with PTI hexagon die cut background, a paper doily found at my favorite country store, and PTI stamped and die cut flowers.  I added their names cut with felt on a PTI die cut banner.  I tied the top with matching Verve seam binding. 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Wednesday!

Hope your having a great week so far.  I've been doing tons of domestic stuff.  The spring weather had me in a cleaning mood so I've been making some changes to my craft room.  The first thing I did was re purposed an antique wood box to use for my washi tape.  I have had it a while, but it just wasn't that useful.  There was no way to know what was in which drawers and I sure couldn't remember.  Now it houses my Washi tape. 

 

Now I can see which tape in in which drawer and I have room for plenty more.   

 

For today's crafty share I made a card for the MFT challenge at Splitcoast stampers.  Linda was so nice and sent me this stamp set so I could join a MFT swap.  It's my very first person stamp so I had fun coloring last night. 

 

 

Isn't she the cutest! 

 

And lastly for today I made some amazing sticky buns. 

 

I started with a sweet roll recipe from a friend. It was for a bread machine but as I don't have a bread machine I tweeked it for my kitchen aid mixer.  I also like sticky buns better, so I added a  bit more of the gooey stuff to the bottome of the pan:)

 

 

Sticky buns
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 package)
1 cup of warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 4 1/2 cups flour (I only use 4)

Put ingredients in your bread machine in order listed in your manual.
** do not put on timed delay due to the eggs** or use your kitchen aid with bread hook (this is how I do them) when dough comes together in a nice ball let rest, cover with plastic wrap and sit them in the oven turned off covered with a dish towel slightly wet with hot water.when the dough doubles in size...
Roll out to a rectangle then:

filling
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Cover dough with filling, roll up then slice into rolls. Make a second batch of filling (if you like the really sticky) and place it in the bottom of you baking pan. Then put in rolls about 2 inches apart, let raise slightly then bake until top is nicely browned. Flip out while still hot and gooey. Cool slightly and enjoy.

Note, if you have an electric oven then turn it on keep warm or the lowest temp, leave the door open and leave your dough rise.

 

My fun day continues...

My fun day continues....with Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge.  This week we want you to use “BLACK ACCENTS” (FTTC219) on your card or project. 

I love how this card turned out.  It's unusual for me to not use any patterned paper on my card.   It's not initially what I set out to do but once the background was stamped I had to use it that way.  The image is colored with a combination of copics and to meet the challenge I used black ribbon, button and a gem to accent. 


Did you copic today?

How about a fun day?

I think you deserve it!  Hope you had a fabulous weekend and took some tine to celebrate Mother's Day with the ones you love. 

I'm spending my fun day coloring.  Do you like to color?  I have found that I can't get enough of coloring. I love exploring new techniques and old techniques and just enjoying the process of seeing an image come to life. 

One of my favorite stamp sets is the Flourishes Gerber Daisies.  I was inspired by all the beautiful flowers at Home Depot yesterday.  I love that they come is so many bright and vivid colors.  Today I pulled out my copic chart and picked colors that I thought were close to some I saw yesterday.  I colored each flower by using just 2 markers.  I colored each petal fully, then went back in and dropped some darker color over where the image had already supplied the shadowed area.  Then blended the darker with the lighter marker.  Its so easy and really does yield stunning results. 

This is my card for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #219 challenge, black accents.  FTTC219 I used black ribbon and gems as my black accents. 

 

This weekend flew by.  We were busy all weekend, but really didn't do much.  We just spent the day around the house.  I had the urge to bake something so I came up with a recipe for mint chocolate chip cupcakes. Truly the cupcakes can be eaten along they are wonderful!  Or you can dress them up with your favorite topping. 

The cupcakes
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup warm water
Mix in mixer on medium speed until well blended.  Then add
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. 
Fill cupcake papers 3/4th full and bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until top bounces back.  Remember the chocolate chips will look melted. 

The icing
4 sticks (2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature.  Mix in mixer until creamy. 
1.5 pounds (28 ounces) confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
green food coloring
Mix until light and fluffy.  Divide in half. 
For the mint frosting add 1/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract, its very minty so be very careful, less is more in this case.
For the chocolate frosting add
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and enjoy!  I made some with just chocolate icing as my husband isn't a fan of mint, and some with just mint.  It's like eating a different dessert each time you try one. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!
 

Mother's Day Card

I finally took some time to work on my Mother's Day card.  I used the Flourishes Colorful Creations Challenge.

I used Flourishes From the Garden stamp set.  It's one of my favorites! It's one of those stamp sets that you can use as it is (I stamped with Momento chocolate ink) or its a beautiful image to color.  

Flourishes Colorful Creations Challenge

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous day!

First PTI card kit swap.

I decided to host a swap on the PTI message boards.  It turned out rather small, but was fun all the same.  I thought I would share with you the kits.   You can see what projects everyone makes using the kits in the swap thread HERE. 

Kit by Anne

Kit by Karen

Kit by Chris

I totally forgot to take a photo of my kit. But I did mine in a blue theme and in addition to the card kit I added a kit to make barrettes. 

I can't wait to create with these fabulous kits!  

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

Happy Monday!

It's a beautiful morning here. The birds are chirping, trees are blooming, my garden is growing and I'm enjoying the warmer weather. Hope you are as well.

My daughter and a group of her friends ran in the Dirty Girl 5 k this weekend. We had toile all over the house from making their tutus, but they turned out cute.  We also made t shirts to match. I used the cricut to cut a scull the used hearts for the eyes and nose. Makes them so much more girly, cute, and not scary. Lol

They has so much fun. Needless to say the costumes didn't survive the fun. 

They are trying to talk me into next years event. I'm thinking that's a big NO! Surely I would break something. And they are sore today, I'm sore just walking on my normal walks. 

I spent some time enjoying my scrap room and actually playing with paper. I made a total of 8 cards this weekend.  Here is one i made for the PTI swap at splitcoast stampers.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great day!