CAS Christmas Card Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, hope all is well in your neck of the world and you are enjoying lots of sunshine and not so humid temps. We are having lots of rain. Yes, we were dry and now we are flooding. Feast or famine-never fails. More rain and storms to come this week. In my area we just have minor flooding, but in the Hershey area they had some heavier flooding. Flooding, boat sinking, shootings, it is just all over the place around the world. My heart and prayers go out to all who are living with loss, whether from flooding, buildings falling or shootings. It's just so sad and makes my heart sad. 

On to my card. I'm slipping in sideways as the challenge over at CAS Christmas Card is closing tomorrow. But I wanted to play as I doubt I will get anything made in time for the Twofer Challenge as it closes tomorrow tomorrow too-which I did really want to play along with but it has just been to busy around here. This card I had started but didn't finish, so thought I'd get it finish to play along. So here is my little CAS Christmas card, I didn't put a sentiment on the outside as I didn't think it needed one. Supplies used will be down in the recipe section of this post. 

We've had some wild looking sky's around here, so thought I would share a photo of one storm that went all the way around us. No rain from this one, but other towns really got it hit with a good storm.

Bret has been after me about getting rid of a huge pine tree at our driveway. Dwayne was going have it taken down, but that didn't happen before he passed. Well now Bret has his new "professional" vehicle and he was getting mad every time sap dripped on it and on his hair. So got it taken down. The guy took it down by himself so I helped to drag limbs over to the chipper to save him some steps. Boy some of them were very heavy and some I couldn't hardly move! Hope I was a little help to him. I told him if I was more of a hindrance to just let me know and I'd get out of his way. He assured me I wasn't and I was doing well, so I kept helping. This is my huge pine, I will miss it, but won't miss all the pine cones in the driveway to clean up nor the sap. lol  You can't even see how tall it is in this picture, but just look at the guy cutting the limbs off and you get the jist of how big it is. He estimated about 40 ft and he said it was still growing. We've had it for about 30 years, Dwayne got it from a wedding he went to. Before "our" time so it was already planted here when I met him but was very tiny. 

Then I found a little monkey in my Mimosa tree. My granddaughter. lol She loves to try and climb this tree, but this is all the farther she can get.

Well that's it for me my friends. As always I thank you for stopping by and visiting with me a spell. We've had some pool issues but Bret got it all taken care of now, now we need the rain to stop so we can vacuum the pool. It is filled to the brim with all the rain water and cold! When it is that cool I have to have lots of hot and very bright sunshine to get in. lol So  hopefully it will warm back up and you can have a dip while you visit. Your comments always bring sunshine into my life and I thank you for that!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Sunny Studio's Poinsettia stamp and die set
Gina Marie for the wreath
Martha Steward branch punch
My Creative Time Christmas stamp and die set for the bow
Stampin Up for the embossing folder
Altnew ink cubes for the ink to stamp the poinsettia
Some holograph paper in my snippets stash for the bow
SU Glitter enamel dot for my poinsettia center

CAS Mix Up Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you all have been able to stay pretty cool. It's been a hot one here. Sometimes we have hot summers, sometimes not. Sometimes it swings back and forth. This year it seems to be swinging back and forth. So we've had about two weeks of extreme heat, but a cold front is coming in tomorrow afternoon or evening and we will be back to beautiful low humidity and temp days. For a few days anyway. lol So stay cool everyone!! Cause I know some live where it is hot and humid all the time.

Well I have a sad attempt at playing along with CAS Mix Up Card Challenge in which Bonnie (who chose the challenge theme) has asked for those playing to color their die cuts. You have to add stamping and one other mix media element. There are so many to chose from on the side of the blog. I die cut my dies out of water color paper, a gift from a sweet and very talented blogger. Used my Zig's and one Arteza to color by putting down color on something slick and picking up the color with my water brush. Didn't care for this water color paper, but could be user error too! But the colors just didn't want to blend well and forget putting down the color directly to the paper and then blending, cause it wouldn't blend. But like I said, could be user error. Cause I'm not the best water colorer! I stamped my little sentiment and also used the Tim Holtz blender brushes to blend some ink on the sky and some sun glow. Of course I didn't plan well on that and decided to do it after I had my flowers glued down. Duh to me! But I looks ok anyway. Or as good as it can anyway. Much more vivid in person, but still soft. Added grass by flicking up with my two colors of green Zig's/Arteza's full strength.  Anyway I think I met the challenge rules. I hope I did anyway!  I have to say my card is going to look sad compared to everyone else's and the design team's cards. lol I will keep trying though, one day maybe.....or maybe I just need to rub elbows with some of these talented ladies!  Ok enough chatter, all my supplies will be listed below in the recipe section.

This is how I'm staying cool! Especially after mowing.

 Or playing Frisbee with Savannah! We can't play to long in this heat though. She gets very hot and won't stop playing unless you make her or she collapses. We do this anywhere from 3 to 5 times a day weather permitting. 

As always I thank you for stopping by for a spell. I know it's hot, but the pool is open and very refreshing! Hope you will stop by again soon. As always, your comments bring such sunshine into my life!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Kah-I-Noor Bristol Vellum - anyone use this??? I like the whiteness of it, but not the way it works.
AliExpress - Daisies Die
Maymay Made It "From All of Us" - sentiment
Verafine Black Onyx ink-sentiment and the dots on the daisies with a stylus
Fossilized amber and broken china Distress Oxide inks
Zigs: #50 Yellow, #64 Oatmeal, #45 Pale Green, #41 Light Green
Arteza: They don't have color numbers or  names, it was an orange color.