Summer in the land I love challenge

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. This was another beautiful, late summer day here in Pittsburgh.

A day with plenty of sunshine and warm weather that's meant to be spent outdoors enjoying it. Which is exactly what I did.

My sister-in-law was celebrating a milestone birthday and her kids threw a party for her. Most of the family was in attendance and we just enjoyed celebrating the day with Sally.

The food and appetizers were in abundance and so delicious. Not a good day to be counting calories that's for sure.

Before I left to go to the party I decided to take part in a couple of challenges.

1.  Splitcoaststampers had a Friday and Saturday virtual stamping event going on. There are different hosts and they give you a challenge to complete. The theme was "summertime in the land I love". For me that would be America.

I chose the challenge hosted by jovailjudi (aka judi). We were to create a card with a food item that reminded you of summer. I immediately thought of a family cookout with  hamburgers on a grill.
I decided to make a hamburger with punches and use it for an upcoming masculine birthday. Those cards are always a little more difficult. The masculine ones that is.

The punch art idea came from Dawn's Stamping Thoughts blog. She has such great tutorials so drop by her blog and check them out.

I wanted it to look like it was on a tablecloth so I used some Karen Foster design paper from her "tablecloth" collection. How perfect was that!!

2.  The 2nd challenge came from the crazy for challenges blog. This week we were to use lattice in some form on our card. I used my Martha Stewart trellis punch on my designer paper. I really like the look that it gave my "tablecloth".

My hamburger is made from all punches. The bun & hamburger are a wide oval , the cheese is a square, the lettuce is a scallop, the tomato is a circle. The bun is stamped with a background stamp from Stampin-Up. I had it already in my stash so that worked out well.

I used a circle die for the plate. My sentiment is from the "just celebrate" collection from Stampin-Up and was cut out and layered with more oval punches. And, that ladies & gents is my card for today.

It's time to dim the lights once again in charmed life land. I will be back after church tomorrow with another card. Good night and God Bless!!

card recipe:
stamps: just celebrate

paper: su basic black, ww, karen foster tablecloth dp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: su punches ova, scallop, circle,square, nesties circle die, ms garden trellis border punch
technique: punch art

let it snow

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It was such a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh. Plenty of sunshine and very moderate temps.

This morning I finished Kendra & Aaron's wedding invitations. I was pleased with how they turned out. I did take photos to post the invite, but I have to wait until Kendra mails them out.
She is doing that today. So in the next few days I can show it here.
I was pleased with how they turned out. I hope the photos will show off the gorgeous colors she chose.

After Kendra picked up her 100 invites, I had time to make a card. My stamping time has been so limited this summer.

I checked out the Friday free-for-all challenge on splitcoaststampers and they had an easy enough one for today. Our hostess called it think snow...man.

We were to create a card using snow and for the man part-we were to distress our paper. My distressing was to use a cuttlebug folder and emboss my cardstock.  It's a stretch I know but I didn't think any other distressing would fit my paper or image.

My layout came from the Tuesday sketch on Mercy Kerin's blog. Thanks Mercy for another great sketch. It's been awhile since I have been able to take part in this challenge.

My sweet little penguin image is an embossed sticker that I picked up last year at Michael's. It's from a Mary Engelbreit collection.  I carried over the candy cane stripes to the background paper. This paper is from Stampin-Up's merry moments collection.

I used 2 cuttlebug embossing folders on this card, stamped my sentiment and that's the card.

It's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for today. I have been burning the candle at both ends to complete the wedding invites and now I am pretty worn out. A good nights rest will put me back on track for the week-end.

God bless my blogger friends.

card recipe: 
stamps: season of joy

paper: su real red,vv, brillant blue, merry moments dsp
ink: real red
accessories: me embossed sticker, cb ef seasons greetings, snowflakes, su oval punch

I Do

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
I am busy working on completing the wedding invitations for Kendra & Aaron.
Time is ticking away and she wants to get them in the mail in the next week.
I ran into a few snags when I tried to stamp on copper metallic paper with brown ink. I found out that brown ink on copper metallic paper doesn't always turn out the color you think it will. And, depending on the ink it doesn't always stamp evenly.


But, with the help of my Paper Doll friends I was able to figure out what to do to move on. I have to emboss on this part.
It's an extra step but when I did it, I was really pleased with the look. I am stamping the couple's name on the front of the invitation. Kendra had a stamp made with their names on it.
 
I will post the invite on my blog when it's finished, I promise. I also have to get her shower invite posted as well. I just haven't had the time to get a picture of it. But that is coming as well. Along with an account of the beautiful afternoon tea that was held for her.
 
My card for today is one I made awhile ago , but never posted on my blog. It's a wedding card and I made it to be a clean and simple design. I gave it to a young couple from church who recently married.
 
The white background is embossed with the fleur de lis cuttlebug folder. I also used a  EK Success fleur de lis border punch. As a side note, I used this punch 3 times and then it stopped working. I tried aluminum foil, wax paper and even put it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Nothing worked so I contacted EK Success and they were very gracious to offer to replace it. That is definitely customer service.
 
My sentiment is from Studio G. I found it in Michael's $1 bin. I used Stampin-Up oval punches to frame the sentiment. Added some white ribbon and that completed my card.
 
Time to go- it's back to work on the wedding invitations.
 
God Bless!!
 
card recipe:
stamps: studio g
paper: gina k pure luxury, su black
ink: versafine onyx black
accessories: cb ef, ek success border punch, ribbon, su oval punches

The ODBD Sparrow

Happy Thursday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
Today is such an exciting day for me because I am hostessing the "stamping in time challenge" at Our Daily Bread Designs blog.

My paper doll friend, Betty Wright, asked me if I would be interested. And, after I picked myself up off the floor because I was so astonished, I said YES.

I had the freedom to put together the challenge so after some thought I decided on a "birds of the seasons" challenge.
You are to create a card using a bird with a spring, summer, winter, or fall theme.
You can go with any occasion that is associated with the season (i.e. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Patriotic, etc) you choose.
Or, you can create a card for birthdays, weddings, or events you need that occurs during the season you choose.

Each card must have at least one bird. While ODBD stamps are required, an ODBD bird image is not required even though ODBD has a lot of bird images.
If you have an ODBD bird image then by all means use it. We would love to see what you create with the this seasonal challenge!

My card uses the sparrow from the set "He Watches Me". I created my card with a summer bird theme in mind.

I didn't add a sentiment yet because I have 2 occasions to send this and I am not sure which of my friends will get it.

My designer paper  is from the Stampin-Up "greenhouse gala" collection. I think it has such a summer look to it.

I colored this great ODBD sparrow image with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.

I added a chocolate rosette and a layer of lace and then some white scallop trim to complete my card.

I hope you will join me in my first ever hostess gig. It would be an honor to have you all participate. And, there is a chance to win a gift certificate to the ODBD store. Even more of a reason to play along!!

God Bless!!

the pleasant pheasant

Happy Thursday and welcome to the charmed life blog. I am posting early today before my grandsons are up and about.

Not sure what activities besides football practice they have going on today.
It's been so hot & humid here all week so they come back from these practices pretty well drained.

But, hey they are little boys and it's a good way for them to burn up all that energy.

Last night I met some of the women that I worked with for 30+ years for dinner. We try and get together every other month.

We went to a really neat tapas restaurant in the city. I had never been there before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Their menu is made up mainly of tapas-small plates of appetizer size portions divided into hot & cold. The flavors were Mediterranean & South American. Everything was absolutely delicious. We ordered about 7 of them to share. It was a perfect light dinner, and we chatted and caught up on everything for a couple of hours.

Now onto my card for today. I made this one for 3 challenges:

1.  The Wednesday sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers had such a great layout this week. I know I will definitely use it again.

2.  The color throwdown challenge provided my card colors. This week we were to use Eggplant, Artichoke and Soft Suede. Dark colors for sure but they were great for a masculine card.

3.  I found a new challenge thanks to my blogger friend Joan Ervin. It's called ooh la la creations. they are already on challenge #60 so they have been around for awhile. This week we were to use spots and dots. Perfect since my card has dotted designer paper.

My card base is the eggplant color and I used some older Stampin-Up artichoke designer paper. I incorporated stripes and dots in the card. The sketch called for some type of border punch so I used one from Martha Stewart with a more masculine look to it.

The image is a new set I bought from Stampin-Up called "Autumn Days". The pheasant is perfect for a masculine card. I stamped it in soft suede to complete the colors for the challenge.

Well, that's my card. I haven't asked for awhile, but if any of you would like me to pray for you- just drop me an email.  Our God can handle big & small requests!!

card recipe:
stamps: autumn days
paper: su elegant eggplant,always artichoke, soft suede, vv
ink: soft suede
accessories: ms punch, leaf punch, su harvest rub-ons

thankful

thankful

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. I think I am still in vacation mode. I feel so relaxed and no sense of urgency to get anything done.

Although, I am slightly behind schedule with the wedding invitations I am working on. I had planned to take them on vacation with me, but I didn't do it.

I will be in hibernation for the next 10-12 days to get them completed. Enough of that talk for now I don't want to start stressing over it. Vacation mode, remember (lol)!!

Today, was my hubby's first day back to work so I had the day to myself. I decided to check out the challenges in cyber space.



My card today covers 4 challenges:

1.  The mojomonday blog has a great sketch for this week. Well, let me re-phrase that-they always have good sketches. This  provided my card layout.

2.  The colors on my card came from the color challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess, Betty Wright, challenged us to use some new colors from Stanmpin-Up. Poppy parade (tomato red), baja breeze (soft blue), and crumb cake (kraft). I also used some old designer paper from stampin-up. It was the ski slope collection. I really liked this color combo.

3.  Our creative corner blog had a challenge to use embossing on your card. That was an easy one for me. I love to use my cuttlebug folders and dry emboss. I did that on the white middle piece. I used the cuttlebug winter borders.

4.  I found a new challenge today also. It's on the Dutch Dare card challenge blog. This week the theme is "anything goes". That's how I feel after my week at the beach (lol)!!

My image is from the new Stampin-Up set "aviary". The sentiment came from a hero arts words set. I finished the card off by adding a corduroy button in baja breeze.

This also finishes my post. It's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day.

card recipe:
stamps: su aviary, hero arts words

paper: su poppy parade, baja breeze, crumb cake, ww, ski slope dsp
ink: bordering blue, poppy parade
accessories: baja breeze corduroy button, cb ef, su border punch

vicki's birds

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. we just returned from a wonderful family vacation in the Outer Banks.

We rented a beach house in Kitty Hawk. My sons and daughters-in-law and grandsons were all with us for a week. We soaked in the sun and waves and enjoyed family dinners together in some great local restaurants.

Brett & Ghilly live in California so having everyone them with us was great. She is 5 months pregnant now. It's a girl in case I didn't post that before. My first granddaughter, and I am so excited.

There was a problem with red jelly fish and sea lice this year. The lice sting you and you get really itchy from them. The sea lice are the larvae of jellyfish we discovered after doing some online investigation.  The stings are often concentrated in areas covered by swimwear. So it's best to leave the water and wash out the suit.

The water temperatures were really cold for 2 days. The lifeguard stand had a temp of 57 posted. These 2 days the jelly fish weren't around, but it was too cold to stay in the water for any length of time. So we just hung around the pool at the house. Our beach time for these 2 days was taking long walks which I love doing. as well.

The guys had their long awaited beach wiffle ball game. They get so serious talking about the rules and making their foul lines etc. Even my grandsons get in on this part. The girls just watch and laugh. The winner gets bragging rights until the next vacation.

Brett had Austin and Aidin on his team and they were the winners this year. They re-hashed the game as guys do and talked about the plays and hits. Men get serious about their sports, you know!!
But, vacations all have to end and now I am back home with loads of great photos and lots of memories.

It's been a week since I have made a card for my blog. I didn't take anything with me on vacation. So needless to say I was anxious today to create.

I discovered today that my paper doll friend Vicki Dutcher is the featured stamper on splitcoaststampers. Congrats, Vicki you are so deserving of the recognition. Of course I had to make a card in her honor. She is such a fabulous stamper. I just love the work she does. Here is a link to her blog
I chose her botanicals card to recreate ala Mary Marsh style.

In this challenge we have to change at least 2 things on the original card. I kept her layout which I really liked.

My changes: I used different colors-soft suede, so saffron and very vanilla.  The designer paper is from the greenhouse gala collection.
My ribbon treatment is so saffron. I put a strip of tacky tape and layed the ribbon on top and shaped it into ribbon candy. I added some pearls to the ribbon as well as the images.

My images are a new set from stampin-up "aviary". The sentiment is from the "whimsical words" set.

Well, my friends that's my card for today. Hope you are all having a great summer. It's going way too fast for me. God Bless!!

card recipe:
stamps: su aviary, whimsical words
paper: su soft suede, so saffron, vv, greenhouse gala dsp
ink: memento rich cocoa
accessories: so saffron ribbon, reflections pearls