Here's Hoping...

I have good intentions. My intent for this post is to schedule it for Friday morning, (I'm pretty sure that's no problem) and before I have to leave in the wee hours of the morning, to link up to Muse. Not sure if I'll have time, or more probably, if I'll be awake enough to get that done. I guess we'll see what happens...

Cornelia has some wildness and funkiness happening on her card; how fun is this???!! 

As soon as I saw the inspiration photo, I knew what I wanted to do. It only took three tries, from me smearing the sentiment...But I finally got it to where I wanted it.

This went together quickly (once I stopped smearing the darn thing). I'm still a bit timid with watercolors, and I knew I had this CASual Fridays set, so that's what I used. A variety of inks, Studio G, Colorbox, and Versa color. Used my very NBUS sentiment stamp from AE. Oh am loving these!!! A bunch of Michaels sequins and one SC star sequin. That's all... Happy dances everyone.

Happy Birthday Ardyth!!!

Ardyth. You all know her. You all know her wonderfully and beautifully CAS cards. And actually having met her IN PERSON, I can tell you she is a genuine sweetheart. Well, today is Ardyth's birthday! So in her honor, I'm throwing a little party. You're all welcome to join in the fun, have a few treats, and join with me in wishing her the happiest birthday ever! She just rocks, doesn't she?!!! Oh yeah....

Well, lets get this party started!

A Venue. It has to be super cool, and not too fussy. Lots of white space....This looks just about right!

Or maybe some tables decorated like this; but we'll need an auditorium to hold us all!

Oh and drinks and treats! Don't these just look yummy?!! 

Mmmmmmm.....Don't worry, you don't have to pick just one! These are all calorie, carb, gluten, and whatever-you-can't-eat, free!

And time would stand still while we're all together celebrating Ardyth's birthday. That way, we can spend days if we need to wishing her happy birthday, and visiting with each other! So pop on over to Ardyth's blog, and wish her a happy birthday. Oh! I almost forgot (silly me...). It wouldn't be a birthday celebration in our world without a card. I CASED one of her cards in tribute to my dear friend.

And so here's to you my dear friend!

My dear, sweet friend. Hope your birthday is everything you want it to be. It's wonderful to know you. I've been blessed with your friendship, for which I am delighted! Your beautiful style has been such a positive influence on me, and for that matter, to all of us out here in the cardmaking blogworld. So, Miss Ardyth, birthday blessings, and may your entire year be filled with wonders. 

Go Forth and Party!!!

On the run...

Three bazillion things to get done, so no novella today. Will get right to it then. "Bee" is the Cue Card at CASology's challenge this week. The first thing I did was to cut 1/8" strips of black and yellow and attach them on a base. Die cut the stripes with some MB letters. Cute...but not what I wanted. That mess got shoved aside. Slept on it. Thought about it. Then remembered I had some Theresa Collins Every Day Moments dp, and knew it had at least one bee on it. Voila! Definitely CAS, definitely not black and yellow...

Unconventional, yes. But it worked for me! 

One bee. He and the sentiment look purple, but they are actually a light navy. This one goes out to our grandson in AZ - he's turning 24...where did that time go???!!! I've used a Neenah white base, and Bazzill navy for the mats. PTI sentiment with Memento ink. I die cut the bee with my WPlus9 circle die. And that's about all for this card. Happy dances everyone.

Life is Good

What a good day, and it's not even over yet! Got up, worked out, read the newspaper, checked the old bloggeroo, took a shower, fixed the tub drain, and all before 9:00. Then, a quick haircut from Nicki at the Vine; took less than an hour! Off to the car dealer for a quick Bluetooth fix, a stop at Menards, and finally Walmart (hate that store, but they're the only ones who carry my kind of slippers). Home before noon. Awesome. Plenty of craft time today. Yippee!

I have a card that fits nicely into two challenges. There's a Texture code word over at Addicted to CAS, where Darnell is Guest Designer, and a cool and very versatile sketch by Lori Turner at Seize the Sketch.
You really should check out both of these and play along!

Here's how I put them together:

Just a little something that went together seemingly all by itself! Here's the bit that trips my trigger. All the papers, except the Neenah white base are SCRAPS!!! Even the Gina K. woodgrain is a scrap! I used the aqua panel in an earlier card to die cut some chevrons and just threw the chunk in the scrapbox. After trimming off the "flag" part, I had a 3.5" panel left! Couldn't resist using the "flags!" Punched out circles, threw on some sequins, and used a WPlus9 sentiment with some HA Shadow ink. It looks so happy irl! And speaking of happy, happy dances everyone.

I need a good talking-to

I was bad in church this morning. Now I could claim that it wasn't my fault. But that would be lying, and I've been trying really hard not to lie. Rather than sitting toward the front of church, I sat past the middle toward the back. Like a "good" Lutheran, so the joke goes. And there I was, surrounded by young couples with their little ones. LOTS of little ones. I get myself in trouble when I am near them. Winking, waving, laughing at their antics and their parents struggles...Sometimes it's hard to concentrate on the sermon because I let myself get distracted by the little brown curls on Ellie, or the sight of a sleeping baby, all snuggled up in mommy's arms. One of these days, Pastor is going to stop right in the middle of the sermon, walk down the aisle to where I'm sitting, then point to the empty front pew. He won't say a word, won't grab me by the ear, he'll just point, and I'll know exactly what to do next. Can you picture it? Head hung in shame, I get up and walk, face flaming out in a million shades of red to that front pew... So I'm thinking that maybe next week, I'd better move back toward the front...to a place where I can control myself a little more...unless Emily is playing the keyboard that Sunday...because Cory might need help with their little girls.....and Ellie likes me....Oh, I need a good talking to!!!! (I belong to a great church btw...it's like one big family sharing God's Word.)


Enough of that for today, I was on a roll late yesterday and actually have three cards to share. I finished up the last one after (ahem) church.  First up is a very CAS card for the City Crafter Challenge Blog. For this week, it's "What's Cooking," where we are to create a project with everything related to the kitchen.

Pretty sure this one qualifies...

Pulled out my Newton's Nook stamps, and btw, they are some of the nicest stamping stamps ever. All but the speech bubble are from NN, and the bubble is from LF. SU black ink, Copics in reds and yellows, and a strip of gray just to give it some grounding. The grater is stamped on some TH vellum, and the base and bubble are Neenah.

My next card and challenge is for Fusion. Stuck with the photo part for this one. Cool photo.

I saw so much going on in this photo and had so many ideas, that when I sat down with my supplies, I found I didn't need as many as I pulled out. The card wanted to be made this way, not the way I wanted it. But I like it. It's for my bud here in town, Jen. She's going to be too busy to read this post for a while, so I'm not worried about her seeing it. 

The base is from Pebbles Basic. Came like that and all I had to do was fold it! I used my LF tag die with a piece of birthday music paper from Geri (Thanks!). A bit of Gina K. kraft for the doily die behind the tag, and also for the flag. I printed out the sentiment (the inside sentiment got REALLY wordy...imagine that?!!) Three SC woodgrain sequins, a Doodlebug bird, some Michaels burlapy ribbon and a bit of random red twine. Whew!

Still with me? Hope so. And I promise it's the last card of the bunch.  This one's going over to Freshly Made Sketches. Went together really quickly.  Jen's sketch is so CAS and so incredible; thanks Jen!

And here's my take:

Neenah white base and panel. PTI's Wet Paint sentiment, with SU black ink. Random sequins in gold and black. A panel of TH gold vellum and one of striped from Simple Stories Snap. Way EZPZ! With that, I'll shut up now. Happy dances everyone!

Why I do this

I make cards. You make cards. Beyond the addiction to it, and the satisfaction in the creation process, there's a real reason I make cards. You all get this. You all know why you make cards. Yes, it's fun. Yes, it's cheaper than buying ready-made cards. Yes, winning challenges, peer recognition, and even being published are all meritorious reasons to make cards. My reason? The real one underneath all the other reasons? Hard to put into a description, but let me tell you what happened this morning.

I was making a card for the Inskpirational Challenge, where dear friend Carol has just joined the design team, when I got a text message. My nearly 21-year old granddaughter, Jessica, asked if I had a baby card in my stash. A friend of hers just delivered a baby boy, and she wanted to give the family a nice card. Now, she could have gone to the Walgreens or CVS and picked up a nice card, but she chose to text me and ask if I had one. I had a couple actually, so I texted her back and included photos of both. A bit later she came and got the card she liked best. It didn't have a sentiment on the inside yet, so while we were talking, I quick made up an appropriate sentiment all decorated to match, and even added a matching sequin. She said to me, and I quote, "I love your cards." That's the simplest way I can tell you why I do this; why I make cards. Because they delight the people I love. I give bunches to all the grown up kids at Christmas, and I always hear things from them like, "Oh good, I was almost out of cards," or "Whenever I give one of your cards to someone, they are thrilled to get it." Ego stroked, yeah, but my kids actually LIKE getting a stash, and that means so much more to me. Jessica has asked to be put on that "grown up card stash list" this year for Christmas. Sometimes I'd much rather she were still a teeny-tiny little girl who would come and sit on grandma's lap and cuddle, but I'll admit she's grown into quite the wonderful young lady. She's got Berkeley in mind for Law School, where she can get a J.D. and a Ph.D in Social Justice. Smart girl. All grown up now. And she likes grandma's cards.

Moving right along.... I finished the card after Jess left, and like the way it turned out. The Word Prompt is:

I went all literal with my card. Found some Echo Park cut files for flowers in my Cameo's library, and found the perfectly colored scraps for them. And while digging in my sticker stash, hoping to find something appropriate, I found perfection. Take a look:

Thought about adding stems and leaves, but decided I liked the floaty look of them. Can you see the little sticker on the bottom? Yep, it says "bloom!!" I added a Michaels blue bling to the center of the little flower to pull a bit more blue into the whole scheme. The base is Neenah white, but all the rest of the papers are scraps. I put some Wink of Stella in the flower centers, but it's hard to tell in this photo.  Now I'm off to get a card sent to Belgium, then who knows, since I don't feel like fighting the crowds at the garden centers, I just might skip gardening today and work in my craft room! Happy dances everyone!

Hello Friday!

There are signs of summer approaching. Here in the USA, this is Memorial Weekend, when we honor those who have served our country. My dad is a USAF veteran who served for 20 years, and did two tours in Korea, and one in Viet Nam. And although he won't see this, I want to tell him thanks and just how proud I am of his service. I'm pretty lucky to have him for a dad. He's nearly 85, and as spry as ever. Next month he is fortunate enough to head off to Washington D.C. on an Honors Flight. Pretty cool! My older sister is going as his "chaperone." Dad said he picked her because, "she's put up with me the longest of you kids." Had to laugh at that!

No novella in this post today, I promise. It's been a busy week for me, interrupted by migraines and housework! Hate it when things get in the way of crafting, don't you?! The cue card at CASology this week is flower. Wasn't sure if I could play along. Then, a very loud PING went off. It's a little out of the box, as you'll soon see.

And here's my out-of-the-box, in-the-box flower:

I used a Bazzill gray for the base, then scraps of dark gray and green. The sentiment is from PTI and I used MME ink. Now....as to the flower....and here's where the ping came into play. I took some Karen Foster Honeydew twine and let it curl around naturally and pressed it onto a 1/2" glue dot. Funky! Then, as is my custom, I ripped off the legs of a Crate Paper brad, added another glue dot, and voila!, done! The photo doesn't do it justice. The twine is nearly as green as the mat, and the brad is actually very close in color to the gray base. Go figure...Ah, well. Have a wonderful weekend, and happy dances everyone.

Sanctioning Evictions and Murders...

Yesterday was a no-craft day. I had to sanction a couple of evictions and a triple murder. It was awful!!!! It's a really long story, but the gist goes like this.... My dear neighbor just to the west of us had a towering maple tree that sat right next to our house. For years it dropped leaves and 'helicopters' into our gutters, which fell to me to clean out several times a year. Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance, we had gutter guards installed! No more cleaning out stinky, mucky gutters!!! One less crappy job to tackle. DH was no help with that either. He's a (now retired) college professor...enough said, right?! Lol! (Stay with me here....) So. About three years ago, we had a freak wind shear swoop through our neighborhood, with gusts over 70 miles per hour. It took out that towering maple like it was a twig. Fortunately, it fell away from both our house and his house. But it's roots pulled up our air conditioning unit, and tore out our gas line. Both got fixed, and all is just fine. Now. Here comes the eviction part... Last summer, a pair of grackles tried to build a nest in our gutter right over my kitchen windows. I just used the hose to discourage them, and that's all it took! No harm no fowl (ohhhhhhh, that was bad, wasn't it?!!!). This spring, however, nothing, and I mean nothing could be done to discourage the pair of sparrows. It would be a manual job, and finding a method of blocking them from returning. I asked my dear neighbor to 'spot' me on the ladder, but he said he'd rather go up and clean them out rather than risk having me fall. Once he got up there, there was a three foot long nest. And man did that stink!!! Muck and yuck!!! Mr. & Mrs. Sparrow perched nearby watching us proceed with their eviction. I felt bad. I felt even worse when three dead babies washed down the downspout...We thought that maybe they'd have eggs, but not chicks. Wanted to cry. Then it was time to move the ladder exactly opposite, and clean the grackle's nest out of the gutter over the dining room windows. No babies there! Thank goodness! And I'd engineered some screening to block re-entry to those spots, so no more nests. Mr. & Mrs. S. have come back to see if they can get back in, but the way is blocked, and I'm sure they'll find new quarters soon. And maybe lay a new clutch of eggs; it's still early enough in the Spring. After cleaning up the rotten, stinky mess in the driveway, I went to put stuff back in the garage. But I couldn't. The floor was covered with road salt that had dripped from my car this past winter, plus a few leaves and some boxes that need to be broken down for recycling. I swear I could hear my mother telling me to do things the right way, so I cleaned out half the garage. Couldn't get to the other half, as there's a boat sitting on that side. Then it was time for a two mile walk with Mary. After dinner, I watched a bit of the Cubs/Yankees game...in between naps...lol! So. No craft time yesterday. Will make up for it today!


If you've made it this far, then I applaud your patience! Now. I have two cards for three challenges. Let's deal with the double-duty card, shall we?! I'm playing over at the CAS(E) this Sketch, and at the Card Concept Challenge. Great sketch from CTS, and a coffee theme over at CCC. Mine's pretty much Clean and Layered...I think....

Here's my card:

Started with a Gina K. kraft base, and a Neenah white panel. PS coffee cup, a circle burst & chevron pattern from AE, and an MFT sentiment. Ancient green ink from Marvy Matchables, and a few enamel dots. I cut the burst with my (favorite!) WPlus9 circle dies. EZPZ! The cup is popped up a bit. 

Next up I'm playing along with AAA Cards, a CAS and nearly CAS challenge. Brand newish too. This is their third challenge (how did I miss 1 & 2???) Good friend and fellow blogger Hannelie was just made part of the DT there too!!! Big congrats to Hannelie, you so rock!!! I know you know her, so head on over and play!!!! Here is their inspiration photo:

This is my nearly CAS take:

Absolutely all the papers are scraps, even the yellow base. LOVE that!!!! Sorry, can't tell  you where they're from... Even the bit of ribbon is a scrap. I guess it does pay to save some of this stuff.... I used an ancient heart punch, and my Top Note die from SU. TT sentiment stamps and SU black ink. EZPZ. I'll stop now, I've held you up long enough! Happy dances everyone.

Happy Sunday

Well, the weekend is winding down, and it's been a beautiful one here, weather-wise. The sun is still shining, and with all the rain we've had here (last week...), the grass has greened up nicely. Did a few things outdoors today, but then while I was weeding the roses, I had a PING! Since the Cue Card went up at CASology, I've wanted to play. I think my recycle bin is half full of poor attempts. Until this one. This one worked. It's for our granddaughter Melissa, who has just completed her first year at UW, and is about to embark upon a summer long tour with a Drum & Bugle corps. She's on the drum line. And she's good...really good. We will miss her, of course, but know she'll make new friends and impress them thoroughly with her talents. So this one will go to her. I know she'll make a huge splash!

After fretting over this all week, my "showable" card was pretty easy to make...

I used 'Dream Orphans' computer generated font. I found a free clip art file that looked like water splashes and printed it on a transparency sheet, trimmed it, and cut a frame with my Cameo. It's popped up to give the water some depth. Then I added three white sequins next to the 'H'. And that's all it took. It looks sooo cool irl. I think it might be one of my top 20 favorites. Sure hope your upcoming week is full of happy dances!

So much to do...

...so little time.... I don't know how I ever worked. It seems I'm busier now than when I was working and raising kids! Anyway...(lots of dots today...) (Sorry). Half the day is gone, and I'm still in my pj's. Have been trying to get things ready for tomorrow's Scrap & Stamp up at church, among other things. I've got errands to run, and then I've got to really get busy! But I had to get a post up. This is my second post, the first went live about 5 A.M. this morning. If you want to see my first one, celebrating Sandie's birthday, click here.

I'd like to offer a quick thank you to the DT, and especially Ardyth for choosing this card as one of the winners at the Card Concept. I was tickled beyond measure to see my name among all those other fantastic card makers. So thank you so much for this!

And I have a bit of exciting news to share too...

Sure hope you'll pop over to Noor Nahdi's blog, Paperie Design Studio. As you know, she features different artists on Friday, and can you guess who this week's featured artist is?????!!!! Give up??!! Okay, I won't hold you in suspense any longer, Noor asked ME!!!!  I was so honored (still am!), and do hope you'll pop over there to check it out! Just click on the above link and away you'll go! Thanks Noor, I'm so thrilled to have been chosen.

I actually do have a card to post as well... (there are more of those dots....). Have you seen Therese Calvird's card over at Muse? Well, Sa-Woon! It was love at first sight for me. Totally wonderful!!

I love everything about it, and CASED so much of it! The colors, the inlaid die, the enamel dots... There's just so much to love about this card, don't you think?! Make sure you pop over and give her a little love.

My card looks like this:

Neenah white base and panel. A smidge of AC's Dear Lizzy's 5th & Frolic for the inlaid "happy." MME gray ink, Memento orange ink, Studio G blue ink, SU black ink. AE, PTI, SSS stamps. MME enamel dots. And with that, I'm off.... Have a great weekend and go forth and happy dance!

Happy Birthday Sandie!!!

Surprise! Happy Birthday Sandie! Nonni is throwing you a little birthday party over on her blog, where we're all linking up in celebration of you!! I've made a little card to help celebrate, and it's a half CASE of one of your gorgeous cards, seen below, and a half CASE of one of my cards. Just wanted to let you know that you are much appreciated, and here's wishing you the best birthday ever!


Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Sandie, you need to stop reading right now and head over to her blog, London Days. I hope you come back and finish reading this post, but I totally understand how you'll be mesmerized by what you find there! I know that I like visiting; I always find wonderful creations there. She's also a real sweetie, leaving comments, answering questions, and always upbeat. Sandie is the epitome of this card making blog world; creative, kind, and downright fun! Don't forget to leave her a little birthday message, I know she'll love it!

The above card is one that Sandie made. Isn't it just the sweetest?! Had to give it a little CASE, along with this one:




The hybrid of these two will be mailed to Sandie for her birthday:

I will also submit this to Addicted to CAS, where dear friend Darnell of djkardkreations is Guest Designer this week. The theme for this challenge is "Off the Edge."

There is a white base under all the scraps of hoarded paper I've used here. AE flower stamp and die, colored with copics. WPlus9 sentiment with SU ink. And a smidgen of Michaels ribbon. And that's it for me. You should pop over to Sandies, and then do a little happy dance just because you can.

Going to Give it a Shot...

You all must know by now that it's time for Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine's 2014 Gallery Idol. Last year, I submitted three cards, but none of them were what I would now call 'good enough.' This one passes my latest 'muster' test. Not quite clean and simple, but still enough white space. It started out as a completely different design, but as I got going on it, the whole card changed. Won't get into it here, because I still have hopes that the idea will come to fruition. Ya just never know....

 

The first round is an 'open round,' and is open for entries until May 19th. They're calling for us to use Washi tape, or fabric tape. Pretty easy, as I'm certain that we all have more than enough in our stashes! I'm hoping that you all will want to join in the fun too! Went with a 4.5 x 4.5" square card. In my mind, any larger and the white space would have been a smidgen overwhelming.  

I pulled out my stash of Washi, and after sticking up a boatload of scraps, I went with these three colors. Yep, all of the images have been done in Washi tape using all LF stamps and dies. Soooo EZPZ! I laid down the tan polka dotted Bella Blvd. on a long skinny scrap, and ran it through my Sizzix with the branch die from the Season's Tweetings set. Then I used the green Washi, also from Bella Blvd., and the same set to die cut the leaves. Some red polka dot Somitape for the birds, which were stamped first with SU ink on the white panel, then I stamped them with StazOn black onto the Somitape. The birds are from the A Birdie Told Me set.A little fussy cutting, a little gluing, and a stamped sentiment from the Flying By set, and done! The card base is Gina K. kraft, and the white panel is from Neenah. 

A couple of other things while I'm waiting for my super-duper sil to come over and shut off the water supply for our BURST water heater. Yes, water is pouring into the floor drain, and I couldn't manipulate the valve...What else today?????

First, new grandson was born yesterday! Sean Patrick @ 7.13 lbs, and 21" long. Healthy, and sweet, and everyone is delighted!!

Second, this card, made in March for Maria's birthday was an influence for the card I submitted to PC&S Magazine. The only thing Maria's birthday card and the 'accepted' card have in common is the gold color. I can't show you the card that I actually made until after it's published in November. I made it all sound so confusing, so I apologize for that. Guess I was too excited to think and type straight. Gotta run, I hear Jerry at the door....

One in Purple

I know I've mentioned this before, but I don't work with too many purples. That's our daughter, Cathy's color. Her front door is purple. She has more than one purple purse. She painted her dining room the most delicious purple...well, you get the idea. Not that I don't like the color, I just don't work with it too much; unless I'm making something for Cathy!

So why am I talking about purple? Because monochromatic purple is the theme over at The Card Concept this time. When I first saw the theme, I figured that, oh well, I'll just miss this one. But I really wanted to play!!!! It has taken me this long to come up with something I actually liked but I kept at it. Idea after idea. Rip after rip. Toss after toss. My recycle bin is chock full of purple bits, lol! I stuck with it, however and came up with a little something that I would classify as 'Clean & Graphic.'

And here's my study in purple:

Had to dig for purple scraps. But found three pieces just the right size and shades. Trimmed and glued to a Neenah white base, added a HA sentiment with some Elegant Eggplant ink by SU and one brad whose poor little leggies were ripped off, bwahahahahaha! IRL, it looks cooler. And that's it for me today. Happy dances everyone.

A "Thanks," Some News, and of course, A Card

Just wanted to say thanks to all those who voted this card as one of the Top 3 Featured Members over at the Muse Card Club Challenge. It still humbles and surprises me to achieve this honor. So, thank you. And I sincerely mean that. A special thanks goes out to Gillian for her gorgeous inspiration card; it's just stunning.

I have a little news....and I'm allowed to share a bit of it. Let's go back to the birthday party for Maria, whose blog is reislingmama. Like many of you, I linked up a card in celebration, and then mailed it to her in Germany. I received a lovely thank you email from Maria, and because my card for her contained some gold paper, she suggested I submit to Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine who had a call for cards with gold in them. I only had time to get one card made and sent, and really didn't think too much about it. Then last week, I got an email from Susan Opel. My one and only (and first-time) submission was accepted for publication! Unbelievable. I need someone to volunteer to come over and pinch me. You'll have to wait for the November issue to come out to see it, but as soon as it's published I can show you the card here too. So that's the news....

And I actually do have a card. We're overcast today, with the likelihood of some pretty big thunderstorms, so my photo, no matter how I lit or then edited it, is dark. The rich deep pink cardstock looks red in the photo, but irl, it's only a shade darker than the pink middles of the flowers! I'm playing along with Curtain Call Challenge, and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

   

I think this card fits nicely into both challenges. 

All stamps and dies are from WPlus9. Neenah white base, a deliciously pink scrap, a piece of  Simple Stories Snap dp, and Michael's sequins. The inks are from Ranger, Versa Color, Color Box, and SU.  I threw some gold thread under the bitty bouquets just for some interest. That's about it. I'm going to go make cupcakes for DH (chocolate fudge), and then it's back to the craft room for me! Happy dances everyone.

Three Cards for Friday

Sorry. I actually meant to post at least one of these cards yesterday, but after waking up with a migraine (hate to say/write that word out loud), pretty much the whole day was shot. What that means is you're getting three cards today. So grab your beverage of choice, sit back, and peruse at your leisure. I have to go on a bit of a tangent here... (how unusual, lol). About 15 years ago, DH was giving a paper at a history conference in the Twin Cities. We'd gone up the day before and stayed over night. In the morning before his conference began we went down to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast. The hostess seated us and as we were looking over the menu, the waitress arrived and asked us if we'd "...been beveraged yet." WHAT???? Since when did beverage (a noun) become a VERB??? We've obviously never forgotten that small incident, and have been joking about it between ourselves ever since. Okay...no more tangent and onto today's cards.

First up will be a little card for the Muse challenge. The incredible Gillian Ross is up as Guest Designer this week and has created a CAS masterpiece. As soon as I saw this, I knew I had to create something. 

It's the kind of card, that when you see it, you smack your forehead and wonder "why didn't I think of that???!!!" This is my take on this gorgeous card:

I used a cooler pink simply because the cardstock scrap box is getting out of control again, and it happened to be available. Didn't want to cut a warmer piece and add to the box. But I like this pink trending on lavender color. I cut four 'thank you's' out with my Cameo, glued them together, then popped them onto a stitched die cut from MME, (love that set, btw). The rest of the sentiment was inked up in Smoke ink from MME using a NBUS set from PTI; Wet Paint. All the white cardstock is Neenah. Thanks, Gillian for the awesome inspiration!

Next up, is a one layer card for CASology. But how to use this week's Cue Card?...Hmmmm... A little ping pinged, and in about 10 minutes, the card practically put itself together! EZPZ.

I love the simplicity of this card. It's not the world's greatest, but there's just something about it that trips my trigger...or should I say, trips my switch?!

See what I mean about EZPZ? One stamp from Neat & Tangled, the bulb, and one from MME, the sentiment. A little SU black ink, and some Color Box Canary yellow and that almost does it. I used a dinner plate to help trace the line that the lights are strung onto. The base is Neenah white. Done and done. 

And before I lose your interest (and I promise to be done in a minute), just one more card. This one's for the bright and colorful challenge over at Fusion. I did a pretty decent job of fusing the both the photo and the sketch. Check out their photo:

Doesn't that just make you smile?! And here's my take:

Since we've got overcast skies again, with MORE rain predicted, the colors in the chevrons just didn't photograph well. No matter what other lights I brought in, this is the best I could do. Sorry. Once again, I delved into my cardstock scrap box, and found bits and bobs to use up. A Neenah white base and frame and some brads whose legs I brutally ripped off (did you hear the screaming?). The "4 U" are both from Crate Paper, and the little heart was discovered on an archaeological dig through my stash; yes, it is very ancient! And as promised, done. Happy dances everyone!