tea pot is on

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

It's such a beautiful, sunny day here in Pittsburgh. One of those that you want to be outside enjoying the sun's rays. Well, maybe later.

Right now I want to share with you a card I made for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps day #6 "sweet peeks".

I used the new set "tea time" that will be released tomorrow. I really like this set and I can see many possibilities for it.

The technique I used today is paper piecing. It works so beautifully with this image. Don't you think??

Korin has 6 new sets that will be revealed tomorrow in full. So make sure you drop by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps to view them all.

My card layout is from the mojomonday #188 sketch. You could make a round or square card with this one. I made this one a square.
I used the  round sketch 2 days ago with this sweet peek.

My paper is Stampin-Up's springtime vintage collection. I cut 3 flowers from the paper and added 3 pearls to complete my card.

Some other challenges for my card:
1.  The paper cutz challenge #89 is anything goes.
2.  The just add ink blog wants us to use a flower.
3,  The crafts for eternity blog has an anything goes challenge.

That's it for today so until next time.......

card recipe:
stamps: tea time (snss)
paper: su soft suede, rose red, vv, springtime vintage dsp
ink: soft suede
accessories: round spellbinders die, su border & oval punches, pearls

cocoa loves baseball

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

So today was the royal wedding of Will & Kate. I didn't watch it live at 3:00 a.m., but I did catch stuff on TV throughout the day.

I heard the Brits are quite amused that we Americans are so enthralled with royalty. Oh well, I for one liked watching it all.

The card I am posting today is one that I made for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers.

This week Julia was our hostess and she chose the color combo of celery, baja breeze & bashful blue.

I liked the soft color combo and had a number of ideas. But, in the end I decided to use this cute mouse digital image from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps and make a baseball card.

It's called "cocoa loves baseball". I colored him with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Korin has a whole line of these sweet mouse images. So drop by her store and check them out.

I used a Stampin-Up embossing folder and made a diamond pattern as my background.

The baseball field is referred to as a diamond-just to explain my thought process.
I also used baseball patterned paper and some other paper that had a diamond pattern in it.
I found the baseball glove in my stash from K & Co.

The layout was from the sweet stop sketch blog and that completed my card.

.
Some other challenges:
1.  The art impressions stamps blog has a challenge to use an animal on your card.
2.  The wags 'n whiskers blog has a die or punch challenge.
3.  The creative card crew has a child's play challenge.

card recipe:
stamps: cocoa loves baseball (sweet 'n sassy stamps)

paper: su ww, certainly celery, bashful blue, baja breeze, recollections dp
ink: prismacolor pencils & gamsol
accessories: spellbinder lacy circle & circle dies, k & co baseball glove,

sweet 'n sassy card sample

Happy Thursday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

This is an exciting day for me because it's my first blog post as a design team member for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

The team has been showing cards all week made with the new sets that Korin will be releasing on May 1.

Make sure you visit the Sweet 'n Sassy blog to see all the beautiful creations. There will be peeks every day through Saturday.

With that being said, I am giving you a "sweet peek" of the "Let Go, Let God set to be released from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps on May 1.

This set has 5 diffferent sentiments in it. They are all so perfect for a card of encouragement. All you need to do is add is your layout. And, with so many sketch  & color challenges out there in blogland that shoulnd't be a problem.

In fact my layout today is from the Mojomonday #188 challenge. I decided to go with a round card and I used the spellbinders lacy circles to cut the base. 

The designer paper is from the new Stampin-Up collection "paisley petals". My ribbon treatment is baja breeze seam binding with a button center.  I wet  the seam binding and wrinkled it for a more shabby chic look.

My sentiment from this set fit perfectly in a round spellbinders die or a 1 3/8" circle punch will work as well.  I also punched little flowers to line the circle sentiment and added pearl centers. The faux brads are the centers from the card base with pearl centers.


Some other challenges I am entering:
1.  The stampin' sisters in Christ blog has a round card challenge.
2.  The stampavie and more blog wants us to use pearls.
3.  The craft your passion blog wants us to show layers.

Well, that's it for this post so until next time................

card recipe:
stamps: let go, let God (sweet 'n sassy stamps)
paper: su baja breeze, ww, paisly petal dsp
ink: memento tuxedo black
acccessories: spellbinders lacy circles & round dies, circle punch, flower punch seam binding, buttons, pearls

the royal wedding

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It's time again for the bi-weekly Creative Belli Challenge.

It's challenge #116 and we are calling it our "royal" challenge".

With all the excitement of the upcoming royal wedding, we thought it would be fun to fashion a challenge around that theme.

We would like to see fleur de lis, diamonds, princess, crowns, tiaras, the color purple, etc!


You can create any project you like as long as it follows the theme.

Everyone is welcome to play along! Challenge a stamping friend!! If you upload to a gallery use keyword CBC116.

Drop by the blog and check out all the samples that the design team has done. You will be inspired.

Now onto the details of my card. I went with the wedding theme and stamped a bride & groom image. My background is a fleur de lis embossing folder from cuttlebug. I also used some ribbon from my stash that has the fleur de lis symbol on it.

I cut my image with the spellbinders labels 4 die and then added a rhinestone flourish. To finish off my card I found some white offray ribbon flowers and put it on top of a bazzill black paper flower.

Well, my card is all ready, but I don't have an invitation to the royal affair. Security is tight so there wont be any party crashing by me (lol)!! But I will have a good seat in front of my tv to watch the event.

Some other challenges I am entering:
1.  A spoonful of sugar blog also has a royal challenge #149.
2.  The die cut dreams blog has a wedding challenge,

3.  Crafty cardmakers blog also has a royal wedding challenge.
4.  The Kaboodle Doodles challenge blog also has a "here comes the bride" challenge #64.

So until next time......
card recipe:
stamps: wedding silhouettes (artful inkables)
paper: su black, ww
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: flourish (recollections), offray ribbon flower, bazzill paper flower, ribbon

some exciting news

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Hope all of you had a blessed Easter celebration.

We had such a wonderful service at church and our Pastor delivered a stellar message. The children had  a couple of presentations that were really sweet.

We went to my mother-in-law's home for dinner with the family. I just love holidays and family time.

Well, my big announcement today is that I have been invited to become part of the design team for the next 3 months at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  The owner is Korin Sutherland and she has such a sweet line of clear stamps as well as digi images.

I really am humbled to join  such a talented group of stampers. The newest members of the design team are Julia Aston, Harriet Skelly, and Shelby Goolsby, She is calling us "design divas". How awesome is that.

I will have some sweet peeks of stamp sets that will be released next month later on this week. So please be sure to drop by on Thursday.

So until next time........

sweet little duck

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It was a rainy, damp day here in Pittsburgh. A good day to stay indoors and that's what I did for most of the day.
Well, I stayed in to cook and prepare for a Seder dinner that we were having at church tonight.

The speaker that was brought in did a great presentation. It was such a wonderful experience for us as  Christians. We had a Passover meal and learned of how it holds both old and new testament significance.

He presented scriptures from the old and new testament. He explained why Passover was celebrated and the new testament completion with Jesus.

An interesting side note: He told us that Passover was celebrated in the Christian church until 325 a.d. and then the Roman emperor Constantine forbid the Jewish feasts to be celebrated. If a Jew was a believer in Jesus they were no longer permitted to celebrate the feasts. Very interesting to say the least. Anyway it was a definitely a night of learning for me.

Now onto my card I made for today. This was a second one that I made for the Wednesday sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers. This time I followed the sketch that was provided.



I again used the colors from the Tuesday color challenge which were concord crush, crumb cake and very vanilla.

The patterned paper was from the Stampin-Up "parisian breeze" collection. My duck is a stamp that my Stampin-Up demo gave me so I don't know what set its from. I stamped the image and then paper pieced the umbrella and boots.

To complete the card I added concord crush ribbon and some faux brads.

It's late and time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time....

Some other challenges for this card:

1.  4 crafty chicks blog has an Easter challenge.
2.  The fairy knoll blog has an Easter challenge as well.
3.  The polka doodles blog wants us to use 3 patterned papers. I used my 3rd one to paper piece the umbrella.

my tiger lily

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. This is a short post today.

It was a long but a very fulfilling day. Ever have one of those?

My card for today is one I made for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess was Betty Wright and she chose a very elegant color combo. We used concord crush, crumb cake and ivory.

I used a tiger lily image from the rubber cafe. I bought this image for some wedding invitations that I am making. I decided to ink it up with the challenge colors. I like the rich color of concord crush.

I used some crumb cake designer paper from Stampin-Up's "deck the halls" collection.  My ribbon is concord crush as well as the butterfly I punched with the Martha Stewart punch.

The layout on this card is from the Wednesday sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers. Although, I did take some liberty with the layout. That's the reason I added the butterfly in a circle and the 2 faux brads in the corner.

That's it for today my friends. So until next time.................


Here are a few other challenges I am entering:
1.  The top tip Tuesday blog has an open challenge.
2.  Stamp Insanity blog has a flower power challenge.
3.  Incy Wincy designs has a bold & bright challenge

card recipe:
stamps: tiger lily (rubber cafe)

paper: su concord crush, crumb cake, deck the halls dsp
ink: concord crush
accessories: soncord crush ribbon, circle punches, ms butterfly punch

a razzleberry teacup

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Wow we really had some crazy wind speeds today. It was whipping around at about 50 mph pretty much all day. It has just quieted down in the past hour. No damage to anything here but I guess other areas were not as fortunate. There were tornadoes in the southern parts of the U.S.

Well today is Palm Sunday. It commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  We had palms at church and the children marched down the aisle with them and waved the palms in worship. It was so  wonderful just watching them. Scripture speaks of letting the little children come to Jesus and not to hinder them. (Matthew 19:14).

Our Pastor had a great Palm Sunday sermon for us as well. Just an interesting sidelight. The old testament prophet Zechariah predicted this very triumphal entry of Jesus approximately 480 years before it happened.

My hubby and I went out for lunch after church. We hadn't done that in awhile. We just had a great afternoon and evening together.

I decide to check out the featured stamper challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week the honoree was Sue aka coffeestamper. I wasn't familiar with her work but when I visited her gallery I discovered an amazingly talented stamper.
So the idea here is to pick a card and then recreate it in your own style. I chose her coffee themed card as my starting point. We have to change at least 2 things on the card.

I decided to go with a tea cup image, cut it out and popped up for dimension.  I changed the card colors, used different designer paper, added ribbon and pearls to the bottom of the card.

That's my card for today. Time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. Good night and God bless!!



Some other challenges I am entering:


cupcake inspiration blog

1.  The cupcake inspiration blog has this photo to use as inspiration. So many of the cupcake colors are on my card.



2.  2 sisters challenge blog has a bingo challenge. You have to pick 3 items from their bingo board. I chose ribbon, pearls, flowers. The flowers are on my designer paper.

3.  A gem of a challenge blog wants us to use pearls and swirls.


card recipe:
stamps: a spot of tea (mtme)
paper: su crushed curry, melon mambo, ww, razzleberry lemonade
ink: melon mambo
accessories: white & crushed curry ribbon, pearls, circle punches, nesties labels 16
techniques: paper piecing

saturday inspiration challenge

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Today was a lazy kind of day. We had a fish fry at our church yesterday and my hubby and  I worked there the entire day.

Ten hours is a long time but somehow you don't realize it until the next day.
It was a successful day all in all. We had a lot of people come in who don't attend our church. Plus we gave away about 20 free meals.

We only do this once a year but the effort is so worth the final outcome.

So mid-afternoon I got around to checking out the inspiration challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess Stef took us to the "Ace of Cakes" site. They really make some different but creative cakes.



my inspiration

I chose their chocolate harlequin cake as my inspiration. When I saw the harlequin pattern I decide to try and re-create it. I really stepped out of my comfort zone on this one. Usually, I have patterned paper that will help me create my card. Not so today.

The pattern I figured could be re-created with a square punch. I layed it out in a circle and it formed the star  pattern like on the cake. I punched white circles to resemble the cake.

I added ribbon roses to the center. On my card background I used an embossing folder that had this diamond shape.  I added white circles to the background as well.

The card looked a little plain so I decided to add some ruched ribbon. I am still not sure if I like this card but I did post it on splitcoaststampers and now my blog.

Well, it's time to bring another post to a close. Church in the morning so maybe I will see you back here tomorrow. God bless my blogger friends!!!!

tea time

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Well, it's April 15 and tax day in the U.S. My federal and state taxes were filed a couple of weeks ago but I procrastinated on the local. And for just reasons in my mind.

Do you believe my township has 2 different local tax collectors? One collects for our school district and one for our township. Of course the tax was not broken down that way on the W-2 so it took a bit of figuring to get this done.

We have an accountant that works our taxes but he didn't complete my local form because of the 2 tax collectors and not enough info on the W-2.

I have been wanting to call our township office and voice my complaint about this nonsense. Why do we need 2 different agencies collecting tax? Oh well thanks for listening. I feel better now.

So onto my card for today. This one I made for 3 challenges.

1.  The Wednesday sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers had a great layout this week. It worked perfectly for my tea cup card.  Roxie is our hostess and she always provides such great layouts.

2. Our creative corner blog is having a tea party this week. I knew I had the perfect image to use for my card.

3.  The stampin sisters in Christ blog wanted us to use shades of purple on our card. Their scripture reference this week is from Mark 15:17. Our hostess Kris Breach has a great interpretation of this scripture. Drop by their blog and read what she wrote. It's very inspirational.

The image I used is from "a spot of tea" from my time made easy. I used various shades of purple cardstock and the designer paper is from my mind's eye-wild asparagus collection. A cuttelbug embossing folder and Martha Stewart border punch completed this card.

It's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time......

card recipe:
stamps: a spot of tea (mtme)
paper: su lovely lilac,ww mme-wild asparagus-floral purple,lasting impressions dp
ink: su certainly celery, pretty petunia
accessories: celery ribbon, pearls, cb ef, ms border punch

Creative Belli Challenge Card

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

It's time again for another creative belli bi-weekly challenge.
This is challenge #115 and the theme is Easter, You can use eggs, bunnies, chicks or something else that is Easter themed.

Remember the spirit of the Belli challenges is to encourage you to use your OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments!
So look around in your stash and see what you have for Easter.

You can create any project you like as long as it follows the theme.


Everyone is welcome to play along! Challenge a stamping friend!! If you upload to an online gallery (ie splitcoaststampers or paper craft planet) use keyword CBC115.

The Creative Belli DT has given us some wonderful inspiration so click on the link to see what we all have created. Or you can click on all the names on my sidebar. It will take you right to their blogs.

Now some details on my card: I actually cased myself on this one. I made this original card  last week for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers. It was nominated for the faves of the week ending April 10 on splitcoaststampers.

So I decided to use the layout but with different colors for the Belli challenge. I used Stampin-Up pretty in pink and chocolate chip cardstock and designer paper for my card. My image and sentiment are from the "good egg" set.

I added some felt rick rack and used a Martha Stewart lacy doily punch to complete my card.

Some other challenges for this card:
1.  Raise the bar blog has a "hey chick" challenge. Use chicks on your card.
2.  A spoonful of sugar blog has an "all creatures great and small challenge.
3.  The top tip Tuesday blog has a "spring has sprung" challenge.
4.  The die cut dreams blog has an Easter challenge.
5.  The ooh la la blog has an Easter challenge.
6.  The stamps r us blog has has an Easter challenge.

card recipe:
stamps; a good egg (su)
paper: su pretty in pink, choc chip, ww, dsp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: felt rick rack, ms lace doily punch, prismacolor pencils & gamsol




my snuggle bunny

Here is another picture of my precious Phoenix Daisy in her bunny hat. She is 4 months old already.

Hi it's me

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We have had 2 days of sunshine and warm weather. Now could this be the start of a real spring fling!! I hope so (lol)!!

Today now we are back to rain and slighter cooler temps. But it's supposed to warm up again starting tomorrow. The tulips, daffodils and hyacinths are all growing nicely. I can't wait to see them in full bloom.

Anyway, enough of my longing for springtime weather & flowers. Let's move onto my card for today.

I made this one for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess is Peggy and she chose the spring time colors of so saffron, pear pizzazz and pretty in pink.

I used designer paper from Stampin-Up in so saffron & pear pizzazz and some so saffron ribbon.

My image is from MFT their "pure innocence" line. I just love these stamps. In fact this company has a sketch challenge every Wednesday and I am entering into that as well. If you win, you get to pick a stamp set.


I did some paper piecing on the dress, tee and socks in pretty in pink and pear pizzazz. I added a crocheted flower that I sponged with pear pizzazz ink and a pink ribbon flower.  And that ladies & gentlemen completed my card.

Some other challenges I am entering:
1.  The stamp-n-doodle blog has a girly challenge.
2.  Woodware USA has an anything goes challenge.
3.  The Stamptacular Sunday challenge is girls and swirls.
4.  Craft your days away blog has a spots & stripes challenge.

inspiration challenge enjoy

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. This was such a fun day.

This lamp card that I made was selected as one of the top 3 at the creative inspirations blog. I get to be a guest designer for one of their challenges.

Then my stamp club had a meeting at my house and we created 4 cards. We each bring an idea with all the elements required to put it together.

There were only 4 of us today but it was a great time of creating, talking and eating. Since I was the hostess, I was responsible for the lunch.
I made egg salad, chicken salad, a fruit salad, rye bread, chocolate cannoli's and jelly tea cookies. I also had ice tea and an assortment of sodas.

I found some new recipes for the egg & chicken salad and they both were delicious. I will take some photos of the cards we made and post them later.

After the girls left, I checked out the Saturday inspiration challenge on splitcoaststampers.

This week our hostess, Stef, took us to the Cox & Cox site. They are a UK based company with lots of cute stuff. I didn't have any trouble finding something to inspired me to make a card.

I saw this "enjoy sign" and it made me think about an old Stampin-Up set "enjoy every moment". How perfect was that?? When I stamped the sentiment, I added a pink button in the center of the "O".

I used the layout from this weeks Taylored Expressions sketch challenge. I have never played along with her challenge before. The layout was a great one for the large stamp I was going to use.

My patterned paper is also from Stampin-Up-"raspberry tart" collection. Again something old from my stash.

The bird cage and bird are a die from Tim Holtz. That completed this card. It's late now and I am tired so time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. Church in the morning, then maybe some card making in the afternoon.

Some other challenges for my card:
1.  The Secret Crafter Saturday challenge blog has a feathered friends challenge #129 this week.
2.  Card creations & more blog has an anything spring related theme.
3.  If the shoe fits scrap it blog has a "spring is in the air" challenge.

card recipe:
stamps: enjoy every moment, great friend (verve)

paper: su kiwi kiss, pretty in pink, ww
ink: old olive
accessories: tim holtz die, su button,

customer card of the day

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

Well imagine my surprise and delight when I received a message from Angie Crockett at Our Daily Bread Designs stamp company.

 She chose this card as the customer card of the day.

She had such complimentary things to say about my work as well. I am so honored to be recognized by her. I get to post this badge on my blog as well. So how cool is that.

So thank you ODBD & Angie Crockett for the recognition. You made my day.

The card I am posting today is one that I made for my son's birthday. He is my sweet Phoenix Daisy's daddy.

I had seen this card on the stampin' pretty blog about a year ago.  I saved it to my faves with the intent of making it for Brett sometime. I finally did it and he really liked it. So thank you Mary Fish for the great idea.

This card was so easy to create. Just used some circle punches and Stampin-Up patterned paper. I stamped the happy birthday sentiment and used an oval punch to punch it out.

Well time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. God Bless, my blogger friends.

my stylin' chicks

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit he charmed life blog. It was snowing here today. But, I did notice that some of our daffodils are in bloom. I guess they don't care that it is still cold. They know when to start growing and when to bloom. Spring is here. We just don't have the warm weather yet.

I met my grandsons school bus today. I just love Tuesdays because I get to spend a few hours with them. We do homework together, spend time talking and then if they have any after school activities I take them .  It's a busy and sometimes hectic few hours but  I wouldn't trade the time with time. It's so precious.

Today they were all excited about buying a new video game. Aidin & Ethan were pooling their money in . They ask so innocently so how could I refuse them.
I took  Austin went to his basketball workout and then Ethan & I went to the video store to buy the baseball game they wanted.

Now the day is quickly drawing to a close. I wanted to post the card I made earlier today for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers.

Karen is our hostess this week and she chose some great colors for us to work with. I would never have thought that pear pizzazz, poppy parade and baja breeze would work well together. But, I was proved wrong.

I wanted to start making some Easter cards and I thought of the "good egg" stamp set from Stampin-Up. I decided to use patterned paper in today's colors and piece it on the shells. I love the look.

I took my layout from the sketch challenge on Saturday's crazy for challenges blog.

I added more patterned paper from Stampin-Up's "greenhouse gala" collection and some poppy parade ribbon to complete my card.

This is also for a few other challenges:

1.  The jac-inks papercraft challenge blog wants us to use any combo of the new S.stampin-up in-colors. Well, I used pear pizzazz and poppy parade on this card.
2.  The Tuesday Throwdown  blog wanted us to make a card with a spring theme.
3.  Craft your passion has an anything goes challenge.

Time to dim the lights in chamed life land for another day. So until next time.......

card recipe:
stamps: a good egg

paper: su pear pizzazz, ww, su in-color dsp, greenhouse gala dsp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: poppy parade ribbon, orismacolor pencils & gamsol
techniques: paper piecing

featured stamper card

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We had a great service at church today. Our pastor was away and a guest speaker  filled in for him.

Pastor Brent did a great job and I so enjoyed his message. He covered a lot but one thing he did say that stuck with me was how he reads his bible daily. He has a 90 day version and by reading 12 pages a day he completes the entire bible in 90 days.

He said that it energizes him much the same as a runner gets an endorphin rush when exercising. I was so impressed by this. Imagine reading 12 pages of the bible daily and being exhilarated  for an extended period.!!

This afternoon I attended a baby shower. The twin girls are born and were in attendance at the shower. They received such sweet outfits. The food was delicious and the camaraderie was great.

So that was my day. Hope yours was a good one as well.

My card for today was created for the featured stamper challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week the honors went to a great stamper, Irene aka Dandi93. I am familiar with her work and she is a talented stamper.

So the idea is to look through her gallery and pick a card that you want to recreate in your own style. You have to change at least 2 things on the card. I chose her cute "turtle card" as my inspiration.

I decided to keep my card on the simple side. I used a turtle die-cut turtle from we r memory keepers for my main image. The faux button is made from a Sizzix die. I used the Stampin-Up top-note die and that completed my card.

Time to close this post. I want to watch the 8 part mini-series that is showing on the Reelz channel. It's on the Kennedy family. So until next time.......

Some other challenges I am entering:
1. I did it creations challenge blog has an anything goes this week. Challenge #49.
2. The Stampin Sisters In Christ challenge #83 wants us to make a card for a child. I will sent this one to one of my nephews. It will be a good birthday card.

card recipe:
stamps: cheep talk
paper: su wild wasabi, ww
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: su top note die, sizzix button die, spellbinders impressabilities, twine

my obx lighthouse

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It's almost 10:00 pm and I am not sure where the day went.

We are having a problem with the ice-maker in our refrigerator and we had someone over here looking at it. It's not fixed but I think they figured out the problem. Never think about ice until I don't have any.

Had to run to Sam's club and pick up snacks for our church Sunday School. It's for the kids I should add.

My laptop battery had a red x on it tonight. HP says there is a problem and it needs replaced. Oh really-this laptop is only a little over a year old. Nothing is built to last for any length of time it seems. But a year is a little ridiculous. Don't you agree??

We are watching the NCAA basketball games on tv right now. Well my hubby is watching and I am visiting blogs and now writing up this post for my own blog.

My card for today took me longer than I wanted it to. I am practicing using my prismacolor pencils and I thought this lighthouse image was a good one to practice on.

I made this card for the inspiration challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess, Anne, took us to the OuterBanks Trading Group website to find our card inspiration.

First let me say that the Outer Banks (obx) is my favorite vacation spot. We were in Kitty Hawk last year and Corolla the year before. I have such wonderful family memories from both vacations.

So when I went to the site it stirred up a lot of beach memories. I knew I would have no problem finding inspiration to create a card on this site. I finally decided on the Bloody Point lighthouse as my inspiration. Interesting enough I discovered this lighthouse is in South Carolina.

I have had this lighthouse image from ODBD stamps for awhile and it has not seen ink. Maybe because it required coloring. But one of my goals this year is to get better with my coloring skills. I used prismacolor pencils and gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) as the medium.

I decided to go with a nautical theme so I wanted to use a striped patterned paper and score my white paper to resemble bead board. That's what I have seen in the beach houses we have rented.

I may give this card to a male friend of ours who also loves the OuterBanks and goes there every year for vacation. His birthday is in May and they are going to Nags Head for vacation right about that time.

Some details about my card: The patterned paper is from creative imaginations. I made the score lines with my score=pal. I used my spellbinders "Fleur de lis" dies to create my nautical looking image on the corner of the lighthouse. At least I thought it was nautical looking. What do you think??

A few other challenges that I am entering my card:

1.  The catch the bug challenge blog has an anything goes challenge.
2.  Crafty Ann's challenge blog wanted us to make a card inspired by an Elvis song. He recorded a song titled the "lighthouse".
3.  Totally papercrafts challenge blog has a "one for the boys" challenge. I made my card with a definite masculine theme.

well that's it for tonight my blogger friends. Church in the morning and then a baby shower in the afternoon and maybe another card tomorrow. So until next time......



Phoenix Daisy 3 months old

Here is the newest picture of my sweet granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy. I get to visit with her over Easter. I cant wait to hold her and give her lots of kisses.

pure innocence thank you

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to drop by and visit me at the charmed life blog. Well, it's official-our income taxes are done for another year.
Yeah-and we are getting some money back. I like those words much better than hearing "you owe" $$$.

It's April 1 and we had snow, sleet and rain today. Temps were cold and below normal. I am so over winter and ready for the warm, sunny spring days. How about you??

Now onto my card for today. I just love these sweet "pure innocence" images. They are from My Favorite Things stamps and designed by Heather Ellis.

I received this one from a stamper on splitcoaststampers. We each stamped some images that the other one didn't have and mailed them to each other. It was a fun way to get some images that I didn't have.

MFT has a Wednesday stamp club on splitcoaststampers. They provide a sketch for you to use and a chance to win some product from their store. If you use their product to create your card and win you get more from their store. 

I decided to play along this week. You cant win if you don't play!!

I chose my card colors based on the challenge at the color throwdown blog. We were to use red, black, yellow and cream.  I colored my image with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I wanted her dress to match the patterned paper I used so I colored it the same way.

The dotted  patterned paper is from BoBunny and the striped paper is from Graphic 45.  I stamped the "love you" sentiment directly on my twill ribbon. Never tried that before and I like how it turned out.

A heart brad was the finishing touch to my card. Here are a few other challenges I am entering:

1.  The stamping vacation blog wanted us to pick 3 of the elements they listed. I used: dry embossing, a sentiment and a circle (my brad).
2.  The creative card crew wanted us to make a card for a child. My precious "pi image" will go to one of my nieces.
3.  By the cute & girly challenge blog-they wanted us to make something cute & girly.

It's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time.......

card recipe:
stamps: pi #4 (heather ellis), heart stripes (mft)

paper: su black, gina k white, bazzill maraschino, bobunny dp, graphic 45 dp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: prismacolor pencils, gamsol, su heart brad, cb ef, su twill tape