Red Carpet Finale !!

We have come to another Finale of the SAF 2015!

This is something we look forward to every year. 

THANK YOU PTI!

After Saturday at Linda's house and losing power for a couple of hours, we drove down to my house in West Linn, Oregon to finish up our projects.

Here we are together displaying our cards!

Thanks for always checking in with us through these days.

So glad PTI gives us a couple extra days to complete everything!

We look forward to SAF 2016!! 

So until next year!

Runway Challenge #2 ~ Laurie Willison

I used the inspiration photo from Laurie Willison, lots of pretty flowers, colors and even some black!  I used Ruby Rose and the leaves from Vintage Linen.

Well, I think the SAF 2015 is winding down for Linda and me...we do have other projects we want to work on.

 

Thanks once again for stopping by!

Runway Challenge with Betsy!

I used Betsy's color palette and I was intrigued by the picture too:

 

this was my third attempt, you name it, it went wrong.

I started with the lightest color sponging on the background and also tried to use the bigger leaves so more white would be on the bottom.

Well, thanks for stopping by!!

SAF ~ Stamped & Stitched with Heather

Autumn Adornments has an almost stitched flourish in the set, so I chose that and then added the other little embellishments and stamped a second time with the fine linen ink.

I don't think I am even half way through the SAF day, so since this is Monday, I better get rolling!!

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look!

SAF ~ Matching color with Dawn McVey

Not too sure about this...I chose purple because I very seldom use it, then I tried to pair it up with coordinating colors...must say I used the color wheel because once again I am not good with color.  The yellow was more of a summer sunrise color, new leaf, pure poppy and then the royal velvet.

I used the zig brush pens to watercolor my background.

I think Lin and I still have a lot to do tomorrow to finish up more cards for this SAF!

thanks for stopping by!

SAF Mixing Patterns with Betsy Veldman

I am so NOT good with mixing patterns!!  Do you know how long it took me to pick out my paper?

I must have worked over an hour, cutting, scrapping, recutting...OMG.  I finally decided on this !  Pretty much a copy of Betsy, but Hey, why not copy from the BEST!

 

Pattern paper from Shakers and Sprinkles and Vintage Linens.

 

Okay, off to try Dawns Mixing colors!! 

SAF ~ Threads with Danielle Flanders

I loved Danielle's buttons, but ha ha, I think I laid it down wrong on this card... oh well, too late now!

I did some "smoothing" of yellow, oranges and a touch of red, then I die cut the flowers and branch from Embellished Elegance and the sentiment from Autumn Abundance.

We had trouble finding a four holed button, but I decided to go with this green one.

 

Still trying to catch up a bit.  I think we will be scrambling tomorrow at my home in West Linn, Oregon!!

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting, I am sorry I have not been visiting many blogs today, I will try to remedy that Monday or Tuesday!!

SAF ~ Threads with Laura Bassen

Laura Bassen is going to be missed as a PTI designer.

I love her creativity and her innovative ideas!

I used my friends' stamp set:  Sketched Shapes and did an hombre stamping with

Sweet blush, hibiscus burst, raspberry fizz, and pure poppy.

I loved the way she layered her threads on the paper... so much better than what I have been doing with it!!  The  sentiment is from Wonderful Words:  Hello.

 

OMG we lost power for at least two hours and we started three hours late to begin with, so that really put a major kink in our creating today!

Today was Linda's Father's 95th birthday and even though we celebrated last night with the family, we stopped over and brought him dinner, then we went to church.

We plan to drive down to my house tomorrow, so we have a three hour drive ahead of us.

 

We are trying to do a few more videos and cards before we call it a night!

Thanks for stopping by!

SAF ~ Patterns Challenge

I used the sketch that Amy used and decided to use the Guiding Lights stamp set.

I used aqua mist, Hawaiian shores and tropical teal for my sponge background.

 

 

 

I made my cared a one-layer card instead of having a mat.

 

Lin and I did NOT get up at 4 AM to play along, so now we are feeling like we need to hurry, and on top of that we just had the lights "blink"... heavy winds are expected here today in Maple Valley Washington. Of course I checked the weather at home in Oregon and they too are expecting an unusual August storm with heavy winds!!

 

Okay off to do another challenge!!

SAF ~ BRIDAL CHALLENGE

Design a card almost all in white... can use gray, black brown..

Just finishing the first challenge of the day from HERE.

 

I used a CB folder, die cut three butterflies, one from Butterfly Dreams with PTI dotty vellum and layered with another smaller butterfly.

The sentiment is from PTI The Best is Yet to Be.

It is hard to see in the photo, but I added 6 small flowers that were white embossed.

I think this is a very elegant and pretty card.

The Mr. & Mrs. was embossed with liquid platinum.

 

The designers had WONDERFUL card inspiration for this challenge!

PTI Stamp A-Faire 2015

Yeah, Linda and I are always so excited to participate in the annual Stamp -A - Faire! 

For a change this year, I am up in Seattle at Linda's house.

We went to Cincinnati for the very first one and have been hooked ever since!

Linda and I ran into some Iron on Glitter paper, looked at each other and said, "this is it!. This is what we need for our T-shirts!"

 

I used an assortment of Butterfly dies and two colors of blue and one silver glitter paper. 

I also added the word "Joy" from the PTI One Liners, just cut off the line!

I love this shirt and will for sure be wearing it a LOT!!

 

You can go HERE to check out the other RUNWAY MODELS!!

 

Seize the Birthday ~ Weather Elements ~

 

The toppings for this Seize the Birthday Challenge is to use Weather Elements, such as clouds, rain, sun...

 I pulled out WPlus9 stamp:  Unforgettable and then used mama Elephants Landscape trio die to sponge on some clouds.

Copics was used to color in the elephant and the balloon...I used a versamark pen over the balloon and then I used clear embossing powder to give it a shine!

Thanks for taking  look and I hope you will be inspired by the design team to make a card and use the topping!

If not, you know we like any BIRTHDAY card you make!

MIM Die Cut Kissing

Where does Betsy come up with these awesome ideas?

You must check out the latest MIM HERE she is amazing!

Sadly I had to pretty much copy hers because number one it was terrific, and number two I couldn't find anything in my stash to work very good.

I used the Garden Gild just like Betsy, just changed up the colors

On the next two I used leaves from Turning a New Leaf.

I thought they would make very nice soft sympathy cards and I was needing some so decided to do the three as sympathy.

Thanks for taking a look, hope your week has started out to be a good one!

CAS(E) this Sketch and Colour Q 304

A fun sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and also playing along with Colour Q.

 

Stamps and dies:  WPlus9: Going Places

cuttlebug EF:  clouds

PTI soft stone paper

copics for the colors 

Spent the day doing some organizing with my dies and magnetic sheets.  

My BFF is coming down next Sunday and will be here for a week or longer!

I am taking the train to her on Wednesday to celebrate her dad's 95th birthday! 

She lives in Washington close to Seattle.

Have a great week!

Heart Hugs

Merry Monday # 169

The Merry Monday challenge 

 this week is a color challenge!

We are to use light green, dark green and red!

I used ripe avocado and spring moss, but also did some generational stamping.

The images are from PTI Tinsel & Tags

 

Thanks for stopping by!!

200th Sketch!!

Freshly Made Sketches

celebrating their 200th sketch!!

The sketch may be simple, but I really like it, I reversed it top to bottom, added a piece of pattern paper from MFT dots & stripes neutral pattern pack.

The flower is from Altenew:  Layered Lily that I fussy cut.

The sentiment is from PTI: Keep it Simple:  Praying for you 

 

Lots of fabulous sponsors and give-aways with this celebration sketch!

 Had a wonderful day with two fabulous friends touring the Gorge and Hood River, specifically finding those country stores that sell fresh fruit, jams, sauces etc.  

And the highlight was going to an Alpaca Farm and feeding them.  Even saw two baby Alpaca's...they are sooo cute!!

And couldn't resist buying some Baby Alpaca Grande Yarn!!

The softest yarn, so excited about knitting a baby hat for a nephews new son and some arm/wrist warmers!!

Thanks for stopping by!

MIM # 221 ~ Masking Sentiments

Ashley has a video up on Capture the Moment.  

It is all about masking off your sentiment and stamping around it, then pulling the masking paper off and stamping your sentiment.

I thought it would be fun to sponge some balloons around the sentiment and let them overlap each other because balloons can be transparent!  

Here is her card:

 

I used a die from Simon Says Stamps for the balloons, Inkadinkado masking paper, and the sentiment is from Graceful Greetings.Ink is PTI, a silver Gelly Roll pen for the strings!

Tomorrow I am taking a field trip with three friends, we are driving into Hood River ( about 1 1/2 hour from my house), having lunch, stopping at a Peach Orchard to bring home some yummy juicy peaches and then to an Alpaca Farm to see the baby's and maybe browse through their yarn store!  Should be a fun day with the ladies...although it is supposed to be 100 degrees tomorrow..so that is NOT so good! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Coloring with Granddaughter

I knew Lily, my 12 year old granddaughter,  would love to color with this new set from Altenew, Garden Grow, and when I showed it to her, she had to start creating right then!  The first card on the right is mine...I am going to give this to my  BFF's Father who will be turning 95 the end of this month.  I thought it would be okay for a masculine card, yes some flowers in pots, but I think that is okay.  There is a little tag in the pot on the bottom second to the left, I wrote in 8/29 because that is his birthday.

I love showing Lily new techniques and she was really excited about the whole masking idea.  So she went to town.  She happened to get a smidge of black ink on the card, so she used the trick of scraping it away, but she got carried away and scraped a lot more than she should have!  So we came up with the idea to put the sentiment on a banner to cover up the boo boo!  And then it was her idea to draw a black line all around the banner, but leaving a little space so she could color in the edge with a coordinating color that she had already used, we had to decide between the teal from the boots, or the purple from the butterfly...decided the teal would be best.

Lily's card

Didn't she do a great job?  She has another project going now using some stamps from MFT called Polynesian Paradise,  a little more involved, so it will take awhile to complete that card!

I used the Zig clear brush pens, Lily used copics to color.

Thanks for taking a look, have a wonderful weekend!  Tomorrow I am heading down south about 90 minutes drive to spend the day with friends from high school...we do this once a year, there are 7 of us this year.  One of the girls lives on the McKenzie River and she really puts on a feast for all of us.  the other six of us live in the greater Portland area, so we carpool and drive together.   Of course you know we talk non stop the whole drive, we are told to NOT talk at all until we get to her house...yeah, like that is going to happen.  Then she tells us to record everything we say!!  We just repeat it all again later, we are like that, we love to talk and eat and go for walks...A great day to reconnect with these awesome ladies!

Seize the Birthday "Anything that Flies! Aug 13

Hi Friends!  

Are you ready to "take off" for another 

Seize the Birthday Challenge?

The "Topping" is ANYTHING THAT FLIES!

 

I made this special birthday card for my younger daughter who is 36!

We had quite a journey with her through high school and her early 20's.

I was brought to my knees by her and did hours of praying to have her saved...you see she was a heroin addict...amazing I know.

We buried her best friend from an overdose and her mother came up to me and said, "you are so lucky".  It still sends chills up me to think how this could have ended so differently.

It was NOT luck, it was a lot of prayers.

I knew I had help building a foundation with her and I just continued to pray that the cornerstones would not crumble and break.

He answered my prayers!

She is now 13 years clean and sober with three children.

I am so incredibly proud of her and delight in her presence every single day!

She is an amazing Mommy and wife and one of the best (I have two!) daughters a mother could ask for.

Once again I was reminded that I must always Trust in the Lord and always, always give thanks to Him for blessing me with faith and answering my prayers.

Every day is a day of celebration with her.

So on that HAPPY note, friends, I hope you will join us in this challenge and create something that flies!  I chose the butterfly because it changes in an amazing way and so did my daughter.  

THE TOPPING IS "ANYTHING THAT FLIES"

PTI Create Along with Us

In place of MIM, we have Create Along With Us from PTI.

When the design team and Nichole are showcasing the cards for the new release, you can be inspired by one and make your own and link it to the PTI blog, follow the link above.

 I really liked Danielle's card 

and can hardly wait to get Brush off!!

I used Watercolor Wonder and Feather Finery!! 

My sentiment is from Lovely Laurels.

Happy Birthday Nancy!!

We at Seize the Birthday Design Team have an AWESOME

manager, Nancy Leppak and today she is celebrating a milestone birthday and we want to surprise her with a special blog hop just for her!

 Nancy is amazing!

She has helped me so much, and been there to answer questions and take care of any issues I have!

Thank you Nancy for all you do for me and I am sure I even speak for all the design team.

I wish we lived closer so we could actually meet and spend time together face to face!

I wish you the very best birthday EVER!

 Please  join us with the blog hop celebrating her birthday today!:

 Hannalie

Glenda 

Shirley 

Marzena 

Jodene 

Sharyn 
Jo Ann 

And here is the link to the birthday Girl, please stop by and give her your best wishes!

Nancy 

stamps:  Altnew:  Layered Lily, PTI Swoosh for "wishes"

die:  PTI:  Swoosh

PPP clear sequins

One Layer Simplicity Challenge ~ strip down

My card for the One Layer Simplicity Challenge 

We were asked to mask down the sides of the card and make a "strip down" the card!

 

I sponged on some distress inks and then stamped the images from MFT Wildflower Garden.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

thanks for taking a look! 

 

Addicted to CAS banners!!

I haven't played with Addicted to CAS 

 in quite awhile, but I saw a friends card, Darnell  

and thought, how fun!  

I think I need to make a banner card!

And I even made it a shaker banner card!  WOO HOO!!

 

stamps & die:  PTI Heart 2 Heart # 5

die:  PTI Shakers and Sprinkles, Good Times

Off to make a peach cobbler...or a peach crisp!!

 

Merry Monday # 168 Pastels

This is a NBUS stamp from Penny Black, when I saw the challenge over at Merry Monday was pastels, I thought this would be perfect to color in softer pastel colors.

 

stamps:  Penny Black:  Mimi's Christmas

CB snowflake embossing folder

copics and twinery twine

Lil' Inkers stitched oval 

Sparkle & Shine Challenge Eleven

A pretty inspiration photo for the

 Sparkle and Shine Challenge Eleven

 sponsored by Pretty Pink Posh

I took inspiration from the colors of the flowers and used my Zig Real Brush markers to color my die pieces from PTI Garden Gild.

A few PPP sequins in the pretty lime sorbet color and then some random Recollections sequins in the orange colors.

stamps:  PTI Keep it Simple:  Praying for you, Garden gild

dies:  Lil' Inkers stitched circle, Garden gild

Zig Real brush markers

  

Color Throw Down meets Freshly Made Sketches!

I am playing with Color Throwdown and 

 Freshly Made Sketches.

I used some watercolor paper and Zig Real Brush markers for my flip flops and for the Palm Tree and sun on the banner after it was white embossed.

 

 

The flip flop straps really are a purple, I couldn't get a very good picture.

CAS(E) this Sketch and AAA Cards Challenge

I am playing with CAS(E) this Sketch

today.  And with AAA Game # 45 It's So Hot!   I have a couple of friends who have birthdays coming up and I thought it would be fun to use PTI Flipping Out stamp set. Because for me, nothing says summer like flip flops wish I could wear them year round!!

here is the sketch:

And here is the inspiration photo:

It's so Hot! They want to see our summer cards - think summer activities, food, weather, beaches - whatever!

A high overcast day today here in the Portland, Oregon area.

Still 76 but high humidity!  Good day to play inside!!