Rudolph Day!

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this Sunday finds everyone doing well and happy. I am happy to say that my new tires are on, oil is changed and fluids are checked and ready to go  for this winter! A load off my mind for sure. 

The 25th of August (yesterday) was the start of Rudolph Days. If you don't know about Rudolph Days, it runs from the 25th of each month (except Dec.) through the end of each month. Christmas cards only and only one entry per person. Maureen is a wonderful host and always has plenty of inspiration from herself and her DT. It's fun to go over and play, although it has been a while since I've played. No, not keeping up with getting my Christmas cards done! But I am playing along this month!! Yay! So here is my card, a simple and CAS one, but I am loving it. I will be making more of these I think. I cut out the die cut and colored the letters with a black Zig marker. It is different from the one like it I made, this "home" is a die that cuts out the whole thing, house included where as I cut out the letters last time and stamped a house in place of the "O". As always my supplies will be listed in the recipe section at the bottom of this post. I also used snippets for this card, everything but the card base is a snippet, but the Snippets Playground has closed today. So will have to play along another day.  But I did get an honorable mention for playing along with my hexi card!

I just had to share some photo's of the babies in my life. Kahlua had a vet appointment for some more shots and to start her rabies shot. Poor little girl was all stressed out and we are finding out she is a shy one too when we take her out. We were waiting for her daddy human to pay the bill when I snapped this photo of her. She didn't feel good the rest of the evening and into the next day. How sweet is this face?!! You'd never know it, but she can get pretty sassy!

This photo I'm about to show you just cracks me up! Kahlua always gets in Savannah's huge bed, so I guess Savannah thought if Kahlua can get in her bed, then she will get into Kahlua's bed! I'm not sure how she got her huge body in that tiny bed, but she got most of it! What cracks me up is that she is giving me that look of...."What??? She's in my bed!". lol 

My last photo share is my granddaughter with the pup's. Just a sweet photo of them all being quite for a change! lol

Thank for stopping by and visiting with me a spell. Your visits always leave me rays of sunshine and happiness and I thank you for that! I will be by to visit you as well soon. Right now I am keeping pretty busy with these pup's and working to help out an elderly lady that is a sweetie. So it might take me a while to get around, but hopefully I will eventually!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
AliExpress "home" die
My Creative Time-for sentiment and holly/berries
My Favorite Things Die-namics-Cross Stitched Dies
Paper Studio's plaid paper pack
Black Zig Marker

Sunflower Thanks

Hello all my crafty friends, I hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday! Heavy rain in the forecast for us again today-but nothing new there, an impact day for us is what they are calling it now. I think by the end of the week we are supposed to get 2 or 3 days of dry weather with sunshine. Won't that be nice?!!!

I wanted to play along with the sunflower challenge over at CAS Watercolour Card Challenge. I was sent this beautiful NBUS sunflower die by a very special, sweet and generous lady for my birthday a while back so I wanted to use it finally. I had fun with this die. I water colored it after cutting it on watercolor paper. Created a background using Distress Oxides and the splash technique that Loll has a video on. I'm not very good with it, I think I needed more water to dilute my color. Oh well, I am still pleased with how it turned out. I need two thank you cards for some special people. So I made this one and one on a kraft colored mat which I didn't take a photo of.

I need new tires on my car, so my neighbor works part time for a friend of his, who owns our local tire place. He told me there was a sale on tires, but that it ends on Saturday, this past Saturday. So on Saturday he gets my tire size and gets me prices on the tires. Then arranged for his friend to pick up my car on Monday (everything was put through on Saturday to get the sale price) and put the tires on and I wanted an oil change and all my fluids checked. Not used to this since Dwayne always did all this stuff. But with the help of these two men, it is getting done. Now the other guy, well he is the son of my late husband's boss, so Dwayne and this guy grew up together and worked together. He left me his own vehicle so I wouldn't be without a vehicle since they would have my car until sometime today! So not only did he come and get my car right at my home, he also left me a nice vehicle in case I had to go somewhere. So I wanted to send thank you notes to both families. It takes a village to raise me! lol That's what it feels like-but in all seriousness I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life that help me navigate life after Dwayne. Sometimes it is hard to see your blessings when you lose someone so important to you, but I have been blessed and know I'm very blessed! So thank you to all of you out there as you are a huge blessing in my life as well!!!!

As always I will list the items I used down in the recipe section at the end of this post. I thank you for stopping by and sticking with me this far and I thank you for your sweet comments. They always bring rays of sunshine to my life! I will be by to visit you all soon as well. Keeping busy with these dogs, but Kahlua is doing well and getting taller. Pictures of the girls next time around. We are slowly getting the hang of potty training. lol The girls are getting along so well and I am thankful for that. Have a lovely week my friends!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
unbranded sunflower die
Oxides Distress inks: Broken China, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers
watercolor paper: Canson XL
Maymay Made It stamps: Positive Vibes
My Creative Time: More Stitched Rectangular Dies (I extended the length)
Zigs/Arteza watercolor pens

Twofer Challenge

Hello my crafty friends! I hope this Tuesday finds you all well and having a great week. It's the same ole, same ole here. 

The 10th of August started a new challenge over at the Twofer Challenge and I really wanted to play along this month. So while the "girls" were napping, I got started. Took me a while between naps, but I got two done! Yay!!! Now I hope I can join in a couple other challenges. Will see how it goes. The challenge word prompt is geometric shapes. That should be easy right?! Well, we will see. I went perusing Pinterest for some ideas and I found two that I was inspired by. Here and here are the cards that inspired me. Both of my cards use snippets, so I am going to enter them also at the Snippet's Playground across the pond. It will be good to see Di and Parsnips!  My shaker card isn't the greatest as I always have problems with them but it isn't to bad either. It shakes some. lol Other than that, I'm pretty pleased with how these two cards came out. As always the supplies I used will be in the card recipe at the bottom of this post. 

Let have a close up look at each one separately shall we?

And there you have it! My twofer cards for this geometric challenge. Hope you like them, I am liking them pretty good. Always room for improvement on my part, but pretty satisfied with them. As always, thank you for stopping by and visiting me even though it is soggy. Still raining if you can believe that! Your comments always leave a ray of sunshine which I adore! Have a beautiful week my crafty friends!

Edited: Joining in over at the Snippet's playground since I used snippets on both of my cards.

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
DCWV Linen Closet for the papers on card 1
My Creative Time-Stitched Hexy Dies, Stitched Honey Comb Dies, It's All About You, Stitched Bees and Beehive Dies, Bee Happy stamps
Zigs and Arteza's to color with on the bees

Let's Bake a Birthday!

Hello my crafty friends, I hope your Saturday evening is going well. I know I've been MIA in keeping up with my comments and with posting. I have a good reason.....at least I hope it's a good reason. I've been keeping very busy with a new puppy. What?!!! Yes, Bret decided he wanted a puppy and of course who do you think needs to care for it while Bret is at work? Yep, me. So between babysitting my granddaughter here and there and training a new puppy, I am running ragged. Here is the new little girl, her name is Kahlua. Savannah is great with her so that is a good thing!

This new little girl chews on Savannah's tail, pulls out Savannah's undercoat all over the floor and takes Savannah's bones away from her and Savannah just lets her. Then when Savannah has had enough, Savannah will get up on the couch as little Kahlua can't get up there....yet. They are so funny together and I laugh so hard sometimes. But they are also exhausting. Especially this little girl-she is fast, she is a puppy and she finds all kinds of trouble when you aren't looking! lol So I have to keep my eye on her at all times. I will be glad when she is potty trained as well!!!!  Anyway, she is cuteness overload isn't she?!

I do have some old cards that I never posted about. They all have been mailed out long ago, so thought I would share them tonight. I do have some more to share and will share the others at a later date. These cards are all baking birthday cards. I thought they turned out pretty cute, but want to make some in CAS style at a later date. As always the recipe will be at the bottom of the post. 

Card 1

 Inside of Card 1

 Card 2

 Inside of Card 2

 Card 3

 Inside of Card 3

 Card 4

 Inside of Card 4

If you stuck with me this far, thank you! Your comments always bring sunshine into my rainy days and yes it is still raining here. Everyday just about it. Never saw this much rain during the summer before. Anyway, I will be around to your blogs soon if I haven't been yet. I'm trying to keep up here and there, but it is hard sometimes with the new pup. Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Gina Marie for the circle grid
My Creative Time for the baking items and most sentiments and the cherries from another set
Maymay Made It Stamps for the inside sentiment of cards 1 and 4
Colored with my Zig's and Arteza's

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.

Rudolph Day for June and Snippet's Playground Challenges

Hello my crafty friends, it was a nice sunny day today here. We have a heat wave coming for this weekend. We go from rainy, cool days to heat waves. Crazy weather for sure. lol 

Anyway I am scooting under the wire once again and joining in on Rudolph Days for June. Once again I tried the encrusted jewel technique and this time I got a better look....I think. It's pretty thick as I stacked about 5 die cuts together and then all of the embossing and stuff. Anyway, I made a Christmas card with it. As always all my products will be listed down before in the recipe section. I think I will go over to the Snippet Playground and play along since my plaid is a snippet. I haven't been over to see Parsnip in a long while! Edited to add: Sweet Bonnie told me I could enter this card in Merry Monday Christmas, so I am going to do just that. They want to see rustic Christmas cards. Although this is the last challenge for Merry Monday as they are shutting the doors. So might as well have a play! Here we go:

 This shows a close up of the encrusted jewel technique. It's shiny so hard to get a good picture and I used glitter so that doesn't help either. But I think it is cool the way it turned out. The snowy area is a mix of white embossing powder and ultra thick embossing powder. The white bleed up into the trees, but gives them a cool look I think. Like the wind blew it on the bottoms of the trees. lol At least that is the way it happens around here! I also water colored my trees and deer's with my Zig's/Arteza's lightly first. 

 Showing the thickness between the stacking of die cuts and the embossing stuff. 

As always, I thank you for stopping by and visiting with me a spell. I always enjoy when you stop by, it makes my day! You bring such sunshine to my life and for that I am very thankful. Have a wonderful weekend my friends! 

Crafty Hugs,

Card Recipe:
AliExpress for my deer/tree die cut NBUS
Plaid Tidings from Paper Studio/Hobby Lobby
UTE powder
SU white embossing powder
Martha Steward fine glitter in Smoky Quartz for the deer and Aquamarine for the trees
Glass glitter in Gold
Dusties Glitter Dust in Moon Beam sprinkled in the glitter areas
Gold Gel Pen
White paper sent to me
Paper Studio paper from Hobby Lobby for the black base