Teapot Tuesday 135

We've got a sports theme going this week.  To get the whole story, click here.  Our destination is a young man who is recovering from severe burns he sustained around Thanksgiving.   He loves sports - all sports, thus the sporty teapot.

Here is my contribution to the challenge.

I was going through some papers and found this sports motif in a pile of wallpaper border samples that I found a long time ago.  I think I was going to use them as bookmarks, but this one works well for the challenge this week. 

I added the words Sports Fan in ticket form using Rough Type.  The tickets were cut from More Mustard cs and I added the lines in the same color.  The letters were stamped on with Close to Cocoa ink and then I also daubered the edges in the same color.  I don't honestly know if I'd be playing along this week had I not found the motif. 

So let's take a look at the rest of the gallery.

Jingle Belles 09

This week the challenge is to use text in our creation.  I picked up this stamp at One Little Spark in Tuckerton well before Christmas last year and I never got around to using it so this was the perfect opportunity as it definitely has text in the background.

The image is stamped in Basic Black on Crumb Cake cardstock and I watercolored the image using Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive inkpads and a touch of Summer Sun in the flower center.  I sponged on some Close to Cocoa around the edges and I did take a black marker and colored the word believe. 

The card base is Crumb Cake with a layer of texted dsp and another layer of Brushed Gold cs that I used a MS border punch on. The last detail was adding the gold cord and bow. 

Have you been checking out the rest of the challengers?  Let's take a look.  

Old Pictures

Earlier this month we had a surprise luncheon for my Godmother and during that event one of my cousins passed around some pictures of us when we were children.  She recently sent them to me and I thought I'd share them. 

That's my sister Andrea, me, and my Godmother holding my cousin Patricia.

The next two were taken at Patricia's first birthday - she's in the playpen and there I am on the right with my cousin Beverly in the middle and Andrea on the left.  We must have been having fun from the looks of it.  (I think that's my mother in the lounge chair on the very right.)

More cousins and siblings - starting from the left - cousin Carol, my sisters Karen and Andrea, cousin Beverly and me holding my brother Robert, with cousin Patricia in the playpen.  Beverly reminds me of Shirley Temple in this picture, and I've decided by looking at these pictures that my mother couldn't make up her mind which way to part my hair which is probably why I ended up parting it down the middle.

We all wore those pretty full-skirted dresses which remind me so much of the Greeting Card Kids stamp set and all the nostalgic/vintage images that have been popping up recently.

Ahhh, those were the days.

Teapot Tuesday 134

Do you know what's happening this weekend?  Do you?  It's the Academy Awards and no, we're not having a teaparty there, but rather we're having our own A-Card-&-Me Awards.  Now here's the twist - we can be glamorous and the best or we can be unglamorous and the worst.  Here's our teapot inspiration....

Oh jeez, I just noticed the cat on the hat.  She's a riot, don't you think?  And so will be this week's party.

In the absence of anything elegant or glamorous I am opting to come in the back door.  This is Cherone.  She's a rebel can you tell?  She's picketing at the Awards ceremony to give those young starlets some advice so they don't end up like, shall we say, her cousin Cher who has gone under the knife numerous times.

She's wearing her hippest garb right down to the fishnet stockings.  Her top is silver lame and black leather.  Her scarf is the finest silk.  Her earrings and belt buckle are platinum. 

So do you think she'll be nominated for the Best of the Worst? 

I'm headed over to the gallery to take a look at what else the red carpet will have to offer.  Join me here.

A Holiday Weekend Cut Short

Originally we had a four-day weekend planned to spend at the condo doing some painting and relaxing.  Well, the five snow days that we have had already put our school system over the three allotted so we had to give back two now and should we have anymore snow days, they'll be added to the end of the school year. 

Still, HWNSNBP and I managed to get an early enough start out on Friday afternoon to make it to the lighthouse for our February visit.  Friday was a gorgeous day - near 70° and it's been staying lighter longer so we took advantage knowing that the temperature was going to drop significantly for the rest of the weekend. 

There weren't a lot of birds, but this black-headed duck was intent on picking at the rock in the picture....

The beach roses are long gone, but some of the hips still have added interest to the thorny branches.

Of course a lighthouse picture - from behind.

Friday night was also a full moon night and I did my best without my tripod to catch the moon and the reflection over the bay.  You can see the moonshine on the water if you look closely.

With the evening came the winds.  The condo units are on pile-ons and sway with the gentlest of winds, but we had steady gusts of near 40 mph which made the bed feel like a waterbed.  The grasses behind the unit were thrashing about all night and throughout the day on Saturday.

  

I caught this picture as the sun was beginning to set. I just loved the way the sun was illuminating the grass.  (Click on it to make it bigger.)

You see that the snow was all gone, but that will not last long.  More is on the way.  I think we'll be using those days in June too!

Jingle Belles 08

This week we've got a super sketch from Diana at Sketchy Thursdays to work with. 

Think of the possibilities.  Well I certainly gave it some thought and the half moon reminded me of the motifs from and old SU Hostess set The World Over.  I chose to use the snowmen stamp and snowflakes from the Northern Frost die. 

I got my inspiration for the background from Andrea Walford.  I love the way the snowflakes look embossed when they're really only glued to the same color paper.  I added sticky rhinestones to the centers to give it some sparkle. 

An extra snowflake was added in the center of the motif.  The snowmen were colored with my SU markers.  Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red along with Whisper White are the colors I chose.  I added a punched border in white and some Riding Hood Red satin ribbon across the front.

If you click here you can see what the others have created.  There's a lot of great creativity going on out there!

30th Birthday

Oh, I feel old!  I am now officially the mother of a 30-year-old!  Christopher turned 30 yesterday.  We were talking recently about the news report that said that our astrological signs are not necessarily what we thought they were with the addition of a 13th sign.  He informed me that that was only true if you were born after a certain date which was more recent than our respective birthdays.  During that conversation I remembered that at the time of his birth my mother had an acquaintance that did astrological readings and she did one for Chris.  I found it in his baby book. She references planets and percentages and I think that has to do with the stars on the day he was born.   Then it goes on to the actual horoscope:

"The young gentleman is a Pisces on the cusp.  Will have many challenges which will make him stronger for it.  A very determined young man, will be extremely meticulous as he grows also will be very particular with whom he picks as a partner.  Will definitely be a leader not a follower.  Will be very physical also and will teach sometime in his life.  Very deep and highly intelligent.

Lots of love and a very strong hand in a quiet and understanding way in his young years.  Everything will fall into place after that."

Challenges - yes, oh yes.  Meticulous - yes, but not overly so.  Particular - yes, and maybe has found her at last.  Leader - becoming more so.  Physical - yes, indeed.  Deep - yep.  Highly intelligent - I've always thought so although he hides it well.

Even though that piece of paper went into the baby book and we didn't pay much attention to it, I think the love and understanding got him through his early years and it's still all falling into place.

Happy birthday my son, my 6'4" two-legged mouse, my dear gentle giant.

Teapot Tuesday 133

Who loves you baby?  Don't you think that would be appropriate for a Valentine's week challenge?   Look at those owls - what a cute teapot and friends.  Cindy's woven another great story to go along with this group of hooters.  Bring owls she says!  Bring owls and we will send them to the sister of one of our teapotters who needs some cheering up and who loves owls! 

I was using this Ikea tray the other day and noticed that there was one owl on it and he or she was looking like quite a cheerful owl so I used that as my inspiration this week.

I used the paper, button, and ribbon from the SAB catty on the owl and the background.  The sentiment - HELLO - is from Pendant Park.

The white lines are drawn on with my white gel pen, and the dots come from various punches.  "Who loves you baby?"  Or is it "You had me at Hello."?

Okay, let's go check out the gallery and see all the hooters that came to the party this week. 

Jingle Belles 07

No Red She Said!

That's our prompt for the week brought to us by Lisa of Papergrace Designs.  Interesting, don't you think?  Given that we've just celebrated another "red" holiday, this was a breath of fresh air.

I remember a Christmas card that HWNSNBP and I had in our early years of marriage.  It was very non-traditional in color.  There were white trees against a lavendar and blue background - sounds strange but here is my attempt at recreating part of that......

It's kind of mystical, which is why I chose this sentiment from Lockhart Farms. 

The star was punched from an embossed aluminum tray (you'll see more of that soon).  I added the swirl from Baroque Motifs and clear embossed it on the Pacific Point base.  The sentiment is stamped in Pacific Point on vellum.  The trees are clear embossed and I sponged on the Lavendar Lace and Bashful Blue.  

I need to spend some time checking out the rest of the gals now - join me here.

Happy Valentine's Day

Just a couple of Valentine's Projects to share.  Greeting Card Kids Valentine - and used as a deco on a box of marshmallows.  Behind the little girl is a background from Valentine Defined and the sentiment is from Holidays and Wishes.

The fancy favor box stamped and decorated with Valentine Defined.  The box is filled with socks, a towel, some "red"-flavored tea bags, an emery board, a raspberry Ghirardelli chocolate, and a little surprise.

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Marshmallows and a Baby

The only thing connecting these two topics is the color pink.  Pink for a new baby girl - Annabelle Faith and pink for cinnamon marshmallows.

I had squares left over from a teapot card of a couple of weeks ago that was a baby card, so I decided to put together another dsp quilt for my cousin's new granddaughter Annabelle.

I actually have two of these, one for the new parents and one for the new grandparents.  Much happiness all around.

The other pink - I finally got around to making my cinnamon marshmallows last Sunday and I found these really pretty and just the right size boxes at a local $store.  I added a decorated belly band with a paper doily medallion on the outside of the box.

Now I'm off to finish up some Valentine's Day projects and get ready to meet with some friends tonight.  We'll be making pizza and shooting the breeze.

Teapot Tuesday 132

What, it's not Tuesday anymore?   Another party I'm late to!  So do you still want to see the teapot for the week?  Here it is......

There is a very clever story to go along with it and you can find it here or on Cindy's glob.   Our mission this week is to create a masculine card with something that flies and the destination is a young man who is battling testicular cancer at a very young age. 

I found this challenge to be very, um, challenging.  Usually a blank canvas - so to speak - doesn't give me problems, but this one was a reach.  Something that flies and is masculine.  Count out butterflies, dragonflies, and most birds.   I could've used an airplane stamp - don't have any.  Or a kite - nope.  But then the gears got going as I was looking around the room and my eyes lit upon my new Petal Punch.  Hmmm, if I take that large petal and cut some of the bottom off, would it, could it, become a hot air balloon?  Or maybe three?

Yep, there will be a Balloon Ascent at the tea party this week.  We'll fly above the clouds and try to boost Sean's spirits and let him know - the sky's the limit.  Think happy thoughts.

The card base is from Mark's Finest Papers and the DSP is SU's distressed with Not Quite Navy ink and   layered on a strip of Real Red cs.  The cloud is Whisper White with the sentiment from A Muse stamped in Not Quite Navy.   The Petal Punch balloons are Daffodil Delight cs, with baskets of Creamy Caramel cut from a small star punch.  The faces, lines, and people are all hand drawn. 

Come on, let's go see what's cooking in the gallery.

Jingle Belles 06

Well I blew, and I blew bad!  I thought I had more time to get this done and into the Jingle Belles gallery today, but no, I'm about 4 hours too late.  Oh well, at least I got my card done.

This week's challenge is called Baby, It's Cold Outside and we were to create a card or tag with scarves, mittens, hats, earmuffs, or some fuzzy warm felt - or any or all of the above.

So I have my little scarf-clad polar bear bordered by some more felty scarf fringe.

That's Fred P. Bear from Memory Box stamps.  I used the fancy label punch on the Not Quite Navy panel to give me a frame for Fred.  The NQN cs and the white were embossed and I added some MS punch snowflakes with glitter dots in the center.  The card base is Marina Mist. 

Isnt' he cute!  Well, I'll be checking out the rest of the contributions, just click on the link above if you care to join me and see how everyone else is keeping warm this week.

Home Sweet New Home

A teacher that I work with and her husband just closed on their first home.  Their moving in weekend proved to be very memorable that involved bad bruising, trips to the emergency room, and a broken ankle.  They're young - they'll get over it, and they'll also remember it! 

Here's a card I made for them to congratulate them and wish them no more trips to the emergency room.

Last year's SAB set Good Neighbor provided the little house that I used my markers on.  The background paper was from the SAB paper pack.   

I used my Just-Rite stamper for the lettering and Nestabilities for the ovals.  These colors - Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, and Old Olive will hopefully brighten this dreary winter we've been having.

I was going to make my Valentine Marshmallows today, but that will have to wait as it is raining and too damp.  At least it's not snow or ice!  Speaking of - these frosty flakes were on my car window frame yesterday.

The flakes were all over the black parts of the car - the window frames and side-view mirrors.

Ice Storm

Another snow day, but with ice this time.  Got lot's of projects started and one finished but I can't show it yet.  Instead I'll share some pictures of the day.

This is the rhododendron outside our living room window.  I thought at first that the wind must have been blowing while the rain was freezing on them only to realize that it was the weight of the ice that had bent the boughs making the little icicles go sideways.

Our neighbor's birch tree was at it's limit and made an arbor across the road.  This is actually after some of the ice had been knocked off by a truck.

This bush was outside the post office.  The bottom 2/3 of the bush was under snow from plowing and this is what was visible from the top.

The railroad trestle down the street.  It was a little foggy by the water.

One standing duck in the brook down the road.

And another one swimming.

The male cardinal keeping company with a junco under the bird feeder.

The female cardinal is barely visible in the autumn olive on the property line.  She stayed there for quite some time anxiously waiting to see if she would have a turn at the feeder.  I don't think she did.

The bird in the front below is a dark-eyed junco which are plentiful at the feeder during the winter months.  The one in the back is a song sparrow.  Don't you just love his coloration?

Teapot Tuesday 131

Have you heard that February is National Cherry Month?   Must have something to do with that story about George Washington cutting down the cherry tree.  I guess the National Cherry Picker's wanted to rebel.  Well, maybe not.  Who knows what the reasoning behind choosing February except to say that we are having a cheery cherry tea party this week.  Check this out.  And here is our inspiration teapot....

Very Mary Englebreitish, don't you think?  And with that thought I knew I had the right embellishment.  Some stick on cherries from Mike's $ bin. 

I had just bought these papers that were on clearance and I created my cherry blossoms using the modern label punch.   

I used the sentiment from the new SU set Thanks for Caring.   Our destination this week is Cindy's niece who was just diagnosed with breast cancer before the holidays and is currently going through chemo.   I wish her the very best.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the cherry creations in the gallery.