Cool Treats anyone?

I don't know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but it's been steamy and very hot here in Wisconsin and we are sooooo not used to the incredible humidity at all........ick!

We have been staying in the cool AC or swimming in the pool- and my son has been devouring lots of popsicles!! I just had to restock on my trip to the grocery store this morning as there was only one left in the box and he acted like he was going to die if there were no popsicles on hand!

Anyways.....on to the card. A week or 2 ago as I was out cruising along in blogland I saw a cute "popsicle card" and it really stuck in my head. Of course I forgot to tag/ favorite it to give the person credit (shoot!) .....but I thought I would give my hand a try at making one today. I just picked out some fun and bright colored cardstock, taped them together, measured a bit, trimmed a bit, rounded the corners, then scored it down the middle, then scored the other 2 side the opposite way. I used my Spellbinders Nesties labels die for ther sticks. Pulled out my Hero Arts Halloween set for the fun sentiment. Added a bit of sheer ribbon and a blue gem to jazz it ip a bit, and finally used my newest embossing folder from Sizzix.

My son said "Gee mom- that looks really good-now I want a popsicle!" Glad I got more in the freezer.......and here he is enjoying another one of his favorite summer treats! Thanks for the inspiration Joe!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are keeping cool !!



Anne

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Hi ya everyone! I just wanted to wish you all a safe and fun holiday weekend.

I hope you all enjoy a lovely fireworks show, grilling out, watching a parade, swimming at the lake, whatever it is your plans are for the 4th of July- I hope you have a wonderful time!

We typically go up north to my father in laws on the lake but this year we are staying home and my brother and sister in law are coming down here with their boat to take us out on the lovely St. Croix river!

I'm kind of excited as I just LOVE being on the water - I'm soooo ready to go tubing and get a good sunburn and maybe have a few cocktails!

My hubby will be putting on our own fireworks show here. He has already gotten all of his stuff out and is wiring up a board so that multiple things will go off at once and in some sort of order ( he loves that kind of stuff and gets all jazzed up over it).

If I find any time over the weekend to get any crafting done I'll be sure to post my creations.

See you soon and thanks for dropping in!

Anne

Play Date Cafe Challenge #35

Hi there! I thought I would try my hand at another color combo this week for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #35 ! I love the summery colors to work with for this challenge, brown, turquoise, red, and orange. I don't use these colors often.....well ok ........I really love orange and brown but not generally paired with red and blue.

I pulled out a stamp set that I have a real love~hate relationship with. It's "Greenhouse Garden" by Stampin Up.

I love the 2 step stamping as it brings such detail to the flowers, but the part I struggle with it actually getting the stamps lined up just right- so it actually comes out looking good. I have played with this set soooo many times (many practice samples in the trash)  and finally just umnounted these stamps from the wood.

If only they were clear stamps it would be so much easier!

I really need to get myself one of those stampa-ma-jig things one of these days!

So I stamped the flowers using almost all distress inks- spiced marmalade and barn door for the orange ones, tumbled glass and broken china for the blue ones. The small red flowers were done using worn lipstick and the centers of those I used my favoriote dark red ink by Marvy- English red. I came back and added some white gel pen for the centers of the flowers. I stamped just the center of the daisy flower all over the card base so it looked like layers of flowers. I used Bazzill Tropical Breeze for my card base, a sheet of dark brown cardstock behind the image (unsure of the color name), and found some pretty brown ribbon to match. The sentiment is by Stampendous and is stamped using vintage photo distress ink.

I will give this card to my mother for her birthday (which was this past Friday- but I'll be seeing her today at a graduation party for my nephew).

Thanks for stopping by and hope the sun is shining on you and yours! It's incredibly muggy and looking like some more rain here today- praying the rain holds off until late tonight- don't want the grad party to be spolied by rain.

Hugs, Anne

Play Date Cafe Challenge 34

I saw this weeks challenge at the Play Date Cafe using the colors of white, black, and a little pop of blue and thought I would give it a try. I haven't had much time to craft lately or a heck of alot of mojo either so I needed something to get me going again.

Since I don't really have any wonderful black & white paper on hand I thought I would try using a black and white image as the focal point. I thought I would color one of the flowers an aqua blue and then add a favorite sentiment of mine (computer generated). I colored the flower head separately and then popped it up on some thin dimensionals. I colored a plain white brad to match using the same Prismacolor marker that I colored the flower with (true blue). I also use a Sizzix embossing folder for the added texture on the card base and the image is one of my favorite Hero Arts stamps- long stem flowers. Click on the picture if you want to see it larger.....and I apologize for the terrible lighting- but it's raining and dark here today so I have no real good natural light.

What do you think?

I really like the simplicity of it- it makes that flower really stand out.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the nice comments!

Inky Hugs, Anne

Red- white- and blue cards!

First off Happy Father's Day to all those wonderful dad's out there- I hope you are enjoying your day!

I somehow found the time and energy to play and make a few 4th of July cards today. This past week has been super hectic for me and I have had no time to stamp. I had my hubby's aunt & uncle here from CA all week, worked a few days, then my brother decided to pop in for a visit unannounced and let me  tell ya- he will wear you out just from talking nonstop!  Then to top it all of I ended getting a rotten head cold on Friday (summer time colds are just miserable).  I must say I'm beat- ughhhh-  and today am not doing much other than keeping  my trusty box of kleenex by my side and a tall glass of lemonade near.

The first card is made using my Hero Arts "Galaxy of stars" stamps on some light blue patterned paper, and a fun freebie donwload I found at the Martha Stewart website (the dark blue band with the eagle on it). I believe the sentiment is a Studio G 1$ stamp, and I added the little red dots around the border of that with a marker. Distressed the edges a bit and added some clear star gems- quick and simple!

The next one is more of a vintage style (which I don't do often) 4th of July card. I found the image on Google (sorry- don't remember where) and printed it out, found some nice dark blue paper to go with it, stamped some stars using vintage photo dye ink on some craft paper, also added some antique linen around the edges to darken it up a bit as well. Another super quick and easy card.

This last card is another super quick and easy one to make. I just stamped random stars (Hero Arts)  in different colors on white carstock, trimmed it up and layered with red cardstock, added a ribbon and a light blue button, and I had these glittery star brads in my drawer and really wanted to use them somehow so I made a very simple center panel using those. The sentiment is from Stampendous- went around the edge with my white souffle pen. My mojo is barely working here.......these are not my greatest creations, I'm not too thrilled with these, but at least I found some time to create.

I am looking forward to celebrating 4th of July- we usually go up north to my father in laws lake place and blow up tons of fireworks and go fishing and 4 wheeling- but  this year we are just staying home as my FIL has other plans. We have quite the stash of fireworks (my hubby is way into blowing stuff up and makes his own homemade smokebombs and other loud things......) and will probably have some friends over to help celebrate.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to have a quieter week here! Maybe I can even get some more cards made?

Inky hugs, Anne