Leap Day

We're all aware that today is Leap Day. And that's all I have to say about that. Moving right along, I've got to take DH to have a minor surgical procedure in a bit, and I'm waiting to hear from my son about his appointment. So I thought I'd blog a bit and share a couple more from that pile of cards I'd made over the weekend. Polar opposite cards, too. And I'm waaaay distracted, can you tell? Will try to get and stay on track.

So here's where I'd like to play today: A new-to-me challenge called CropStop, where there's an Anything Goes theme. AAA Cards, with embossing as their Game. SSS Work It Wednesday, where florals are up. And last but not least, my second entry for SSS Wednesday Challenge.

                             CropStop Linky Party #13

First up is my card for CS & AAA

Have you ever made a card and fallen in love with it yourself? This is one of those cards for me. Don't know what it is about this one, but I really like it! I printed some paper which I created all my own self with my Silhouette (slight bursting of buttons here...), and took a LF wood veneer heart that I heat embossed in gold on the lower end. A bit of vellum with those sweet gold triangles cut with a MB leaf die, and if you look really closely, you'll see a faint 'thanks' stamp below the heart. It's from NN, and I used some ME Smoke ink.

The double SSS entry is this one:

Open & Closed!

Little bit o' watercoloring with those FREAKING AMAZING Zig Clean Color brushes. I LOVE THEM (can you tell???). The stamps are from a Studio Calico set, and the die was an oval from MFT. Pretty easy, considering I totally stink at watercoloring. It was fun, though! : ) And since I have to go put on some clothes (other than my PJs), I'd better get moving. Happy dances everyone!

Thank You

Before I get to any cards, I want to say thanks to you. You left so many nice comments and offered many prayers for my son. Both are sincerely appreciated. My darling son is holding his own at this point, with pain that never goes below a "6," and is often higher, on a 1 -10 scale. He sees an Orthopedic Surgeon tomorrow morning, and I am praying that he'll say.... "Why didn't you come here first!?! We can fix your problem just like that!!" But no matter what happens, we all trust that God will care for him in the best possible way. I'll let you know what happens....

Once the chores are done, I've been crafting, trying to keep busy and my mind occupied. I've made about 10 cards in the last two days, but will only show you two here today.  Jenni's yellow beauty at Muse really captured my imagination. So I just had to play again. This time with some yellow and white polkie dots, that way I can play over at the City Crafter Challenge, where, guess what the theme is...yep, polka dots! Perfect! And N@Ali has a wonderful CAS sketch for us over at CAS(E) This Sketch. Had fun with that one!

Ready for some yellow?

Ta Daaaa! Now those are polkie dots!! I kept to the general premise of the sketch, but changed things up a bit as I'm sure you can tell. All the papers are from my scrap files, and I can't tell you where I got those little daisies (which, btw, have polka dotted centers!). The sentiment is from MFT with some Versafine black ink. And believe it or not, those yellows are matchy-matchy...but naturally, it doesn't look like they are no matter how much editing I did....

A very QAEZPZ card for CTS...

Some strawberry cardstock from the Stamps of Life, white and black scraps, an AE frame die, a WPlus9 'thanks' die, and the sentiment and sweet little airplane are from LF. So easy! So fun! So long! Happy dances everyone!!

Distress

CASology's Cue Card for this week is "Distress." Perfect description for my week starting on Sunday... My sweet, darling middle son, who lives 6-7 hours away ended up being hospitalized from Sunday to Wednesday. And I couldn't leave DH to go over and help him and his family. While I won't go into detail, I will say that he's back at work, feeling as decent as he can be, and is hopefully on the road to a full, complete recovery. Even though he has incredibly wonderful helpful amazing wife, and three darling children, I'm still his mommy. It was hard to be so far away; total helpless feeling. This whole family has a very strong faith, and that has made all the difference in his healing process and attitude. I wanted to send him a card that would reenforce that sense of faith, and might help to mitigate any feelings of distress that he might occasionally have as he recovers. Freshly Made Sketches provided inspiration, as (obviously) did CASology.

 

I'd made my card, and as I was putting on the finishing touches, I had a ping moment. I put that card away, and made this one:

Very, very QAEZPZ. One stamp from Verve, and one bitty butterfly from AE. And one .3mm black Copic marker. I fussy cut the butterfly after coloring with a couple of Copics. I like it. Hope you do too. 

Wanted to play along at Muse, too. Have you seen Jenni Murray's card? It has such a Springtime vibe, and the yellow really inspired me. I practically CASEd the whole thing. 

I added a green band to mine:

The yellow gingham is from my scrap file, as is that green band and yellow cardstock. The stamps are WPlus9, stamped in Versafine black ink and watercolored with some Ziggies. That's all I have for today, but I hope to be back soon. Happy dances everyone.

Try, try again...

For some reason, Blogger wouldn't let me finish a post yesterday. Every time I tried to add a photo then more text, it kicked me off. So here I am today, keeping it short and trying very hard to get this in! I've got a couple of cards for a few challenges. First for Muse, and then for SSS Wednesday Challenge, and The Challenge. If this works, then I'll post again tomorrow if the day allows. Check out Tracey's inspiration for Muse... LOVE this!

Here's my take:

My gold wouldn't cooperate, so I went with black. There are some gold Stickles in the centers though. EH stamps, PTI rainstones, WPlus9 sentiment, AE die. A few Copics, and if you could see this in person, you'd see the petals have a bit of WoS on them.

And the inspiration photo from TC:

I made a little shaker card for Lily's birthday, which she loved. It happened to be in these colors. Who knew??!!

Where's the gray you might ask? Some is under the 'happy' and some is on the inside...

It's a see-through shaker!

LF star dies (large), AE star dies (small), MFT sentiment and a variety of sequins. Oh, and a MB "8." A large scrap of pink, a small scrap of gray, and some lovely strawberry red scraps. And since Blogger seems to be working, I'm not going to test it too far. I'll close with wishes for happy dances for you all!

Happy Birthday Anita!!!!

Today we're celebrating one of the most lovely people I know. Anita Raffo! You know her, you love her, and we all love to visit her sweet blog: mypapercraftworld. So take a minute or two out of your day, party along here, then pop over and wish her a happy birthday!

While she lives in a place where winters are not terribly snow packed, by this time of year I'm sure Anita would like to be someplace warm and relaxing. So that's where we're going to party...

Now I'm pretty sure we could all fit in a resort that looks like this

We'd sit at pretty tables on the beach...

A few drinky-poohs to toast the birthday girl

Naturally, we'll need some party food too

And LOBSTER for EVERYONE!!!!!

And what's a party without treats and cake??

And what's a birthday party without presents? Let's see what we can find...
I think she needs an arm full of bracelets for our beach party

And a sea glass filled locket

A conversation piece....

One of each of these just for fun!

Some special sandals for our birthday girl

And something to hang on the wall where she'll see it and smile, even in the deepest darkest part of winter

While my card for her has some summery colors, it isn't exactly beachy. But it is something I think she'll like. CAS with pops of color.

My dear friend. May your day be all about the things you love. Celebrate today and know that from far-away places, we're celebrating you too. May God richly bless your birthday and the upcoming year. You are a treasured friend. Bisous, bisous....

Fast Post

After I cleared the cobwebs from the migraine meds this morning, I decided to craft a bit. Since I can feel something stirring up there again, I'm going to post this fast, get the kitchen cleaned up, do the last two loads of laundry, then if I can still see by then, comment on your blogs. So here we go...

Hero Arts Challenge, as you can see is flowers. Decided to play with some watercolors and let the card design itself.

Love pinks and greens. Zig Real Brush watercolors, ME edge die, SC flower and butterfly stamp, HA sentiment, scraps of pink, and green polka dots.

I'm not really good at Valentines this year for some reason. But I gave it the ol' college try.... This one will go to CASology and CAS on Sunday.

EZPZ lemon squeezy. A chunk of vellum with those amazing gold triangles, a small focal panel cut with an AE die, a Concord & 9th gold embossed sentiment, and some pink punched out hearts 1/2 gold embossed. Happy Valentine's Day everyone.