Birthday, Bluebirds, and Rainbows

I must say that I really like the way this card came out.  It was for a dear friend whom we got to spend some time with this past weekend.

It gave me a chance to use some of the tools and toys that I had purchased lately and not yet used.  The lovely leafy frame die and a new embossing folder and yes, the daisy was hand created too.  

I found some shades of purple butterfly buttons cleaning the craft cave recently and they wanted to be part of the card too!

As we helped friends on LBI this weekend relocate dune grass back onto the dune and to plant their flower bed there were intermittent showers and in between we were treated to a rainbow over the ocean.

I find it hard to get a good picture of rainbows with my digital camera as the camera doesn't really know what to focus on.  So I just click away and hope for the best.  There must be a trick to it and if anyone knows one, please share.  

We had such a good time with our Table 7 group and I'm sure we were the source of entertainment for our hosts' other guests with the stories from our more youthful days that sometimes get more and more embellished as the years go on, but are always so much fun to rehash.  It never ceases to amaze me the amount of detail that HWNSNBP can remember about a camping trip with his buddies back in 1972, or a particular party back then but he can't tell me where we keep the crockpot!  

We've been monitoring the bluebird nest for several weeks now with the nest cam and when we got back from our visit I finally got HWNSNBP to get a picture of the actual occupants.  There are 4 babies who are being very well taken care of by both parents.  HWNSNBP has name them Hercules and Delilah.  I have no I idea why, but I'll indulge him.  I'm sure the birds won't mind.

They hatched on the 17th of May and we got to watch them hatch.  Surprisingly, we also saw the Mrs. eating the egg shells after the hatchings which was something new to us.  We always thought that they carried the shells away from the nest.  We know they do do that with the poop sacs.

Their eyes are open now and they are very demanding when they hear their parents come to the box.  And they're getting so big that mom and dad just step right on top of them when they go in to tidy things up.   None of them seem to mind.  

We might get one more opportunity to get a picture before they start hopping around.  We don't want any of them hopping out before they're ready.

Jingle Belles - Tis the Season to *Jingle*

We had a wonderful sketch to work with this time and one other requirement - to add some bling.  

I've had this glittered snowflake sitting on my work table since Christmas.  It, and the green ribbon on the card were part of a decoration on a gift I received from one of the students at my school.  His mom happens to also be a stamper and she decorated the package so beautifully I almost did not want to open it.  

There are times when something just looks so right you hate to spoil it.  I find that happens with certain times of the day and when the light is just right.  It might be outside or inside, but I know that I can take a look around and just feel so happy that it looks so wonderful at that moment.  I try to take a mental photograph to remember it.  It can be fleeting or last until let's say, a cloud passes overhead, or the sun sets, or even when the seasons change.  

Strange to say that would also refer to how a package is presented, but if you follow what I'm trying to say I think you can understand.  

Keeping the package intact would not have been possible in order to enjoy the contents (which I did by the way), so saving the pieces was the next best thing.  It's just a wooden snowflake generously glittered, but it was too pretty to toss away.  

I decided to use a snowflake embossing folder on Crumb Cake and then I swiped it with my Gold Encore ink pad.  the ribbon is layered onto a strip of gold foil paper.  I took this out of the package for the first time and thought that it really had nice weight to it, it almost felt like foil.  Then I cut it on the paper cutter and it was then that I realized that there were two sheets and I had just cut both of them (this is when I smacked myself in the head!).  

The snowflake was pretty blingy but I thought the card needed something else.  So I went through my stash of jewels and things and found this green swirly one that I believe came from the dollar bin at Mike's when it was still a dollar bin and not yet the $1.50 bin.  (That price increase still peeves me.)

The card base is Chocolate Chip and I'll add the sentiment inside.  

Thanks to the wonderful sketch this went together pretty quickly.  I missed the last Jingle Belles challenge because I was busy preparing for HWNSNBP's 60th birthday party.  Now that that's done, I hope to get back to more card making.  

You can check out the other cards for this challenge here.

Clean-Up Card and the 300th Tea Party

So as I was trying to straighten up the stamp cave I kept getting distracted by some of the scraps from other projects.  It was like they were talking to me saying "we belong together".  And maybe it looks like a pretty weird color combo, but I think it works.  The green wood background was too pale for the project that I originally made it for but here, with the shades of pink and burgundy I like the contrast.  

This next card was meant to be part of the 300th Teapot Tuesday celebration.  I even used some of the featured techniques of some other challenges that week - the pillow top background technique and the ribbon flower.  But I never got around to posting it.  You were to bring a piece of furniture or a room decoration to the party.  When I saw that, I immediately thought of this chair stamp.  It looks so pale here, but it's really pretty IRL.  

I stamped the image on watercolor paper in Basic Gray ink and then used a combo of inks and aquapainter and straight marker color.  I colored the doily portion with ink and a dauber in Blushing Bride and used Calypso Coral as the card base and the ribbon flower.  The pillow top background was created with Calypso Coral and Blushing Bride ink.  

I'm sorry I missed the party.  I'm sure it was lot's of fun!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, godmothers, aunts, sisters - all our female counterparts who make such a difference in our lives and who are there as role models and support systems.  Cheers to you!

Sending Sunshine and Peacocks

I sent another Bag of Sunshine.  Our USPS mail lady at work has been out for several weeks now under the weather so I thought I would send her some sunshine to cheer her up.  It was good to hear back from her that it worked.  My thoughts are with her as she recuperates!

And this card below went to a blogging friend who now lives in Florida.  I mentioned her a few weeks back when I shared the card she made for me.  I also sent her some solar powered flying pigs.  She's had some serious health issues and I just thought those pigs would be good for her.  I chose to put a peacock on her card because someone once told me, and I can't say if it's true or not, that peacocks roam wild in Florida, or at least in some places in Florida.  I sure hope that she has free roaming peacocks instead of free roaming alligators!  

It's been a busy time around here preparing for a small 60th birthday party for HWNSNBP so my creatives juices have been at a trickle.  Hope to be back in the swing soon.