Dare to Get Dirty - A Plethora of Challenges - Take 1

I love to visit Splitcoaststampers for ideas and to learn new techniques.  They are such a wonderful community of cardmakers, but also show their creativity in many other ways.  I belong to the Fan Club which, for a small yearly fee, allows me certain privileges.  One of them is to participate in the Dare To Get Dirty Challenges that they post in August.  

I partially participated last year, and wanted to give it a go again this year. Notice, I did not say I'd be doing all of them.  I realized after I initially wasn't able to start taking part until two days after it started that I wouldn't be able to accomplish that feat.  Still, I plan to make a dent in what I do do. (Yes, Rachel, if you're reading this, I said do do!)

There's one caveat to posting these cards - I can tell you who the challenge hostess was, but I cannot tell you what the challenge was.  That information is only privileged to Fan Club Members. (Cardmakers out there, if you don't belong, you're missing out on some wondrous card sharing.)

This was done for Lydia's challenge - DTGD15UnderstandblueA - (I know this may be gibberish to you, but anyone visiting here from Splitcoaststampers will know what those codes mean.

Those are Mike's seahorses fussy cut, and SU's Sea Street, By the Tide, and Cheesecloth.  The starfish are Memory Box dies and I've embellished with a few green and Bermuda Bay sequins.  

And this one is Dina's challenge - DTGD15DiniA

Stamps are Faith in Nature and Sheltering Tree.  I used the Pretty Print EF and my oval dies.  I know it's odd to see a black ribbon, but I wanted a neutral to coordinate with all the colors and liked this the best.  The base is Pear Pizzazz, with a layer of Strawberry Slush.  The pear is watercolored with Barely Banana, Strawberry Slush, and Pear Pizzazz inks.

Here's a close-up of Jan's - DTGD15JanTink 

The quilt squares are from an old SU set called Quilt Quips and the sentiment comes from Holiday Home.  The Celtic Square Die was a gift from Sabrina.  I also used the Handpicked framelets and my X-Cut Quilting EF.  The images were colored with SU markers.

And the whole card

So let me run off and try to get a couple more done!  Thanks for looking.

Happy New Home - Finally!

My son and daughter-in-law finally got into their new home!  Yeah!  They've been married about 2 1/2 years and had put their townhouse up for sale around the time of their first anniversary because they wanted to move.  They were lucky enough to sell their townhouse quickly and also found a new development near to where they were living with new construction going up.  They chose a lot and the builder promised them they'd be in by spring of that year.   Fortunately our condo can accommodate year-round living so they "temporarily" moved in there.  Most of their bigger stuff was put into storage and they brought what they thought they would need for about 6 months which stretched into 10, 12, 14 months.  They were there through two winters and of course the summer in between.  And actually, that was fine with us because they were able to keep the pipes from freezing during the coldest months and well, last summer was a wash for us with my back injury and surgery.

They held out hope that the original builder would get them in by this spring, but in January they hit a wall and started looking elsewhere.  As luck would have it, they found another builder with new construction not too far again from where they originally started out.  And, with just a few minor setbacks, their house was finished and they were able to move in the last week in May.

After "planting" the new mailbox at the end of the driveway, the old boots went into the trash.  New house needs new boots!  (Trust me, these needed to go.  The soles were coming apart.)

We're all so happy for them to finally be in their own place and able to get on with their life.

(A little explanation about the card - their house is a beautiful shade of blue amongst mostly neutral shaded houses in the neighborhood and there is a protected area behind them that won't have any buildings on it.  Behind the houses across the street from them is a boat canal that goes to the bay down the block.)

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.