A Bit O' the Green.....

Yesterday I went to Chicago and had a truly wonderful day...when I came home, after taking a seriously wrong turn out of Chi-Town, during rush hour traffic and returned home quite late this (instead of my children!) was what met me at the front door.

How absolutely charming and perfect to be greeted by a lovely green frog at the end of a really wonderful (driving direction skills aside) day.  It is super hot here in Wisconsin - we actually are in the middle of a heat wave and I think that this little guy hopped way up to my front door window to press himself against the cool glass.  Well, at least that is my theory...conceivable he could have climbed up there to peer through the glass and taunt my two dachsies who were barking furiously at him from inside and below!  Anyways, I thought that his color was so beautiful...it is hard to see the shades of green as well as the glisten and shine that his skin had.  So, this wonderfully unexpected guest became my inspiration for my next card.   

                                                                

I wanted to enter the Play Date Cafe's latest Challenge here of creating a card with a Color Splash.  I liked this challenge as it allowed me to use whatever color I wanted as the accent.
        

...and if this is Jello then I seriously want it with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Yum.  I also am entering this card into the Moxie Fab World Challenge of Fanatical Botanicals.  I have never entered anything there before but am loving the theme so....I might just have to enter a few....maybe.  Finally, I used favorite Hero Arts stamp as well as HA bling and a really lovely sentiment from Penny Black that I hold very dear to my heart after my husbands sudden illness and subsequent recovery.  Life should be celebrated!  Sometimes we expend all our energy into the "living" aspect of life and very little into the reveling, the utter celebration that each moment contains.  I am trying to be more cognizant of the small celebrations in my life....like being greeted at the door by a very green, diminutive, wannabe handsome prince.

Be well,

Sheila

                                        

Just a quick shout out....

To Nancy who is doing a great job today guest blogging on Jill's Inspired by....blog.  If you follow her requirements she presents a GREAT chance to win some wonderful blog candy.....seen here!

Take a moment and stop by Nancy's Happy Heart Studio and check out both cards....they're great!

Be well,

Sheila

                                                                          

Sun! Sun! Mr. Golden Sun, Please Shine Down on Me.....

Ok....I'm into suns at the moment.....we are having a record heat spell this week.   I totally loved the challenge at City Crafter Challenge Blog and then I remembered that  I had this old-old-old sun stamp of mine along with an old sentiment in my hardly ever used bin.  Love it.  It's funky.  So, another card for that particular challenge!    

                                                                   

                    

I like this card and the overall design but think that if I were to do it again I would try to space the sentiments a little farther away from the stamped image....otherwise, to make this look "hot and sunny" I first colored with Distress Inks than accented those colors with similar but a shade darker markers. Then I added glitter pen or stickles to make it "sizzle"!  Finally, all sections of the card where cut out and layered on top of each other using pop dots. Thanks for stopping by again...I always appreciate it!  Really!

Be well, 

Sheila                                                                

A Quiet Saturday....

Today was a quiet day all to myself.  That hardly ever happens!  My 17 year old went to spend the weekend with my 21 year old in Minn, my son was invited to a friend's cottage for the weekend and my husband went down to spend the day with his father.  And I stayed home and it was glorious!  I puttered, cleaned, crafted, read and went on my daily 2+ hour walk.  I loved every minute of today.  I hope you all loved the day that you had!  I crafted a card for a new challenge.....I have seen alot of people coming across my feed who are doing the challenge on the City Crafter Challenge Blog.    I had never heard of this blog/challenge before so I thought I would check it out.  And when I saw that the current challenge was to make a project that used the word "sun" or used an image of a sun a card, completely formed, popped into my head - really, that never happens.  I had made a flower a week ago for a HA scramble and while I was making it I thought to myself that the flower looked so sunny so today I decided to make another one in hot sun - type colors and use that as my sun image.
  

I also was able to use the word "sun" in my sentiment so it all worked out perfectly....and I really like this card alot!  The stamped flower and leaves are Hero Art and the sentiment is Magenta.  Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you're also having a wonderful weekend!

Be well,

Sheila

Summer Card Camp....(trying hard to be a good camper)

Hokey....trying very hard to be a good camper and work with the colors that are assigned to us this week.  Which, I actually like.  But, I just have all these other card ideas in my head at the moment and so it is always difficult to sit down and do my "assigned" work....ha!  So here are this week's colors....

And here is my card....I am actually going to put it in here twice so you can see the dimension that the "inchie'twinchie" squares give it. I also followed Card Patterns Sketch 123

                                               

                                                         

I really debated about adding a sentiment...the card  above the ribbon looks somewhat bare.  But, ultimately I decided against adding anything else as I just really like (love?) the way the the distressed card stock looks.....all mottled and shade-y-ish.  Thanks for stopping by and I sure appreciate the time you spend visiting!

Be well,

Sheila

                                                                

Shaped Card...

I am trying to use my Spellbinders Dies more often.  I had them packed in such a way that it was really difficult to go through them and find the one that I wanted.  Now that I have done some major reorganizing of my craft room I find that I am able to readily  get my hands on more of my supplies...I like that because I feel that I was getting into somewhat of a rut with my cards....to me they all began looking alike.  Don't get me wrong now...I still like what I created and I still got tremendous enjoyment out of the whole creative process but did feel that maybe stuff was getting a little bit stale.  So, I went "shopping" through my own stuff and found  supplies that were either little used or, horrors, never used!  Lots of times this tends to be the fate of my dies.  They always look so cool when everyone else in blogworld uses them but for me the use of dies tended to be somewhat of a pain.  They would have to be located, a space would have to be cleared away for me to haul out the machine and etc....now, that I have reaorganized mah' stuff I can reach everything more easily, have numerous work spaces to use and can then put my stuff away again easy peasy!  This is a card using the same Heartfelt Creations stamp that I blogged about here but this time I stamped it on some watercolor paper that Lisa from I{love}Mementos was so kind to put in my last order.  Wow!  What a difference between the two stamped images.....I like it though...the sentiment is one of my all time favs from Hero Arts. 

                                                              


Thank you so much for stopping by......I always appreciate your visits ;-D

Be well,
Sheila

LOVING THIS SKETCH!

Hi All!  For whatever reason, today seems to be a super good day.....maybe it's because the weather is beautiful, my husband and I went out last night with another couple or simply because my son picked me up a diet coke on his way home from work it and was super, icey cold.  Whatever the reason....(also, could it be because  I have some scrapping time to myself??) I am enjoying the day.  Now I'm going to declare straight out....I LOVE THIS CARD.  The colors, the sketch layout from Mojo Monday 199 and the stamps...one a new one from Heartfelt Creations (which I bought online at I {Love} Mementos) and an oldoldold one that I got a long time ago from Cornish Farms... which are out of biz I think.  Anyways, I did follow some of Jill Foster's tutorials for the coloring of the flowers....I used the Faber Castell Big Brush markers as well as their pastel pencils and I really like the effect.  I almost always turn to my Prismacolor pencils to color images so using markers was really a big change for me.  These went on really nice and smooth and blended so easily.....just like the tutorial said they would!  I am entering this card in Mojo Monday 199 as well as linking it up for my Summer Card Camp this week.  Seriously, I have been beyond delinquent for card camp..... just don't "play well with others" I guess! Heehee.  And finally, I believe I will add this to the Lily Pad July Card Chain.  I haven't participated in that since before my husband took ill and I'm glad to have a card to link up.....I always liked that  card chain.

                                                        

So I hope you are also having a good day....and thank you so much for stopping by today!

Be well,

Sheila