birthday easel card

Happy Friday and a big welcome to the charmed life blog. I hope you all have had a good week and are enjoying the summer thus far.

I cant believe that July is almost over and we start a new month on Monday. As for me I am enjoying my time with my sweet granddaughter Phoenix Daisy. We are going for walks along the beach 2x a day and just lovin' on each other.

She came down with a cold and I have it now as well. It just seems so weird having a cold in the summer time. Well, especially since I haven't had a cold for 2 years.
This morning I said to her, "Phoenix Daisy" we need to share cookies and lots of other fun stuff but not colds. She just smiles at me.

Now onto my card for today. I made this one before I left for my bff Elaine. She celebrated her birthday yesterday, July 28.

I love easel cards. I think they make such an elegant looking card. This card I took as my sample to our stamp club meeting a couple of weeks ago. The girls loved making this style card.

My patterned paper is from a retired Stampin-Up collection- "Bella Blue". I really like the victorian look of this paper.
I used the Spellbinder's fleur de lis die to dress it up. My image is from the Stampin-Up set "punch pals".
I added some pearls, a few buttons and some vanilla satin ribbon to complete the card. I am also showing the inside of this one. The inside sentiment is from the Stampin-Up - "sincere salutations" set.

I added a few punched butterflies to the inside by using a Martha Stewart punch. Well that completes my card for today and this post. So God bless my blogger friends and until next time.............................

Some challenges:

1.  Dutch Dare Card Challenge is birthday fun.

2.  Stampin' B's wants us to use ribbon

3.  Ambers crafts and stuff wants us  to use patterned paper 

Just wanted to show another photo of my sweet little granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy.

phoenix daisy

another christmas in july

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

There is such a heat wave hitting all of the East Coast. Hazy, hot and humid are the order of most days for the last 2 weeks.

 But, I am avoiding the heat by making a trip to San Francisco to visit Brett, Ghilly and Phoenix Daisy. The temps are are 30 degrees cooler. Can you believe that?? 

Today the high temp was around 60. Brett lives right at the beach and you need a jacket when you go out for a walk. I have been taking Phoenix Daisy out 2x a day for walks. It's refreshing after the incredible heat on the East Coast.

My hubby is home holding down the fort or melting in the heat. I miss him but through technology we can talk on the I-pad with video and audio. This way he gets to visit with Phoenix Daisy as well.

I wanted to post a card that I made at our monthly stamp club. we each bring an idea with us to club. My friend Linda brought this idea as her idea this month.

I loved the frame we made for the penguin. We used a 4" square of patterned paper and did an origami type fold. It is layered on a Spellbinders labels 16 die.

The white background is embossed with a cuttlebug snowflakes folder.  We stamped a Christmas sentiment and used oval punches to cut it out. A little scrunched ribbon completed our card.

Well, my blogger friends that's it for today so until next time..........

Oh yes in closing I wanted to post this picture of my sweet little granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy. She is 7 months old now.

Some other challenges:

1.  Craft Your Passion blog has a Christmas in July.

2.  Paper Creations Ink has a Christmas in July.

3.  Pollycraft Monday challenge is also Christmas in July 

Creative Belli Challenge #122

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. I cant believe that it's the 20th of July already. this month is just flying by.

It's time for another Creative Belli Challenge.

This challenge is a Christmas inspiration challenge. Our inspiration piece is this beautiful Christmas china that belongs to our design team member, Karen Wallace.

Thank you Karen for providing us with such lovely inspiration to create our cards and projects. 


The spirit of the Belli challenges is to encourage you to use your OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments! 

Everyone is welcome to play along! Challenge a stamping friend!! Just follow the theme-simple right??

Click here to check out the samples from the Creative Belli design team. 

For my card the inspiration was the cardinal & the bow on the china pattern. My cardinal is a old stamp from Rubber Stampede. I colored him with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Used an oval spellbinder die to cut it out and then sponged crumb cake in the frame to match the patterned paper.

My background paper is last years Christmas paper from Stampin-Up - "deck the halls" collection. My ribbon treatment is Stampin-Up cherry cobbler seam binding. I used a bow easy to make a triple bow and a button for the center.

That completes my card for this challenge. Hope to see you play along with us. So until next time......

Some other challenges:

1.  The ABC Christmas challenge wants us to use a stamp that is older than a year. I bought this cardinal at Christmas 2008.
2.  The crazy challenge blog has a Christmas in July challenge.
3.   Paper creations ink also has a Christmas in July challenge.

card recipe:
stamps: cardinal (rubber stampede)
paper: su cherry cobbler, neenah white, deck the halls dsp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: cherry cobbler seam binding, button, spellbinders oval dies

rhubarb's birthday wishes

Happy Modnay and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
Well, I am officially done with the wedding invitations, programs and table place cards that I have been working on for several months.

This was a big undertaking but I was glad that I could bless the bride and groom. I will post some photos of what I did later.

This is a short post because its' late and I have to be out the door by 7:00 am to get over for the day with my grandsons. Aidin has a basketball shooting camp and Austin has basketball practice. Nothing for Ethan at least I dont think. It may be a shorter day for me because Aidin has a baksetball game on my side of town.

So anyway onto my card for today. I made this birthday card for my niece which I forgot to mail and Tuesday is her birthday. Oh well it is going to be a day late.

I used this sweet digital image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Korin is releasing these cute bear images and she named him rhubarb. I love it!! There is a 20% off sale on the digi iamges running through July 21. So if your interested don't delay and miss the sale.

The patterend paper is from Echo Park's "summer days" collection This paper is also available at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Love all the bright colors.

I found these sunglass & starfish buttons in my stash. I thought they looked cute on my card. The pink sorbet & honeydew twine completes my card.

My challenge list:

1.  Wednesday sketch challenge at splitcoaststampers. I love this layout.
2.  Friday's free for all challenge #73 at splitcoaststampers is to use twine.
3.  The Sweet 'n Sassy Connection has a dig challenge to bring on the bling. That would be my sunglasses and starfish.
4.  Craft your passion blog wants us to use text somewhere on our card.
5.  The really reasonable ribbon blog has a "cool it" challenge.

card recipe:
stamps: round and round (pti)

paper: su ww, bazzill green, echo park dsp
ink: su melon mambo
accessories: twinery bakers twine, su button, sunglass & starfish buttons

fullness of joy

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Whew this was such a full week-end and a fun one as well.

Saturday morning was our stamp club meeting. We had 5 girls there and each one brought a really beautiful sample to share with the group. We bring all the supplies to make the card that we are sampling. I will show the cards in a later post.

Saturday evening we went to a 30th birthday party for my hubby's nephew. It was a surprise -love those kind of parties. It was a great family time.

Today we started our day of with church. Our worship team was really on top of their music today. I just loved the worship songs they played.

This afternoon we went to a graduation party. Let me tell you it was really hot and humid here in Pittsburgh. But, the party was in a park with a lot of trees and a gentle breeze so we stayed cool. I thought we might only stay for a couple of hours but we were there until the end. Thank the Lord for shade trees in summer.

Well, onto my card for today. This card I made for the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog post. Click here to see the post.

My scripture verse is from the "joyful heart" set. It was just released by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps this month. I stamped i and then framed it with the spellbinders label 16. My patterned paper is from Bo Bunny-I really liked this bold and bright pattern.

I added some daffodil satin ribbon and a bow. I used a clear button in the center and put some riding hood red card stock underneath and a yellow pearl on top. Put some pearls in the corner and that completed this card.

card recipe:
stamps: joyful heart (sweet 'n sassy stamps)
paper: stampin-up riding hood red, daffodil delight, ww, bo-bunny dsp
ink: riding hood red
accessories: spellbinders lables 16, clear button, pearls, satin ribbon

Some other challenges:
1.  Lollipop Crafts blog has an anything goes challenge.
2.  The Stampalot blog has an anything goes challenge.
3.  The crafts for eternity blog has a 3-2-1 recipe challenge-I used 6 pearls-that's 2 sets of 3,  2 ribbons and a single flower on my ribbon.
4.  The frosted designs blog has a fabulous Friday challenge of "quote that".

Christmas in July

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Hope you are all enjoying the lazy, hazy crazy days of summer. I sure am.

We are having a fun week with our youngest grandson, Ethan. He has a basketball camp on our end of town and has been staying over with us all week. He loves it because his brothers aren't here, and he gets all the attention.

It's a big change in my routine and at the end of the day I am tired and so ready to go to bed (lol)!! Guess that's why you have kids when you are young.

Well, lets move onto my card because I have to leave in a bit to go and pick him up from the camp.

I made this one for the color challenge on splitcoaststameprs. Karen barber was our hostess and she picked a great trio of colors. She is calling it "not quite breezy cobbler". A catchy name wouldn't you agree?

It's not quite navy, baja breeze and cherry cobbler.

My flower pot & poinsettia image is something new I bought at the stamp show this week-end. Its from Darcie Stamps company..


They sell these images they call "u-cuts". Sort of like die-cuts but you cut them out. They are already pre-colored so it makes for a quicker card.

I bought some Christmas themed ones and decided to use the poinsettia and pot for this challenge. The pot would cover the baja breeze color requirement.

My patterned paper is from Stampin-Up's  "jolly holiday" collection.

On the not quite navy panel I used a cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder. To the very vanilla border punched scallop layer, I added some cherry cobbler seam binding and bakers twine.

I popped on a button to complete the card.

Some other challenges:
1.  I used the layout from the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge #125.
2.  Simon Says Stamp has an anything goes challenge.
3.  The word play weekend challenge is Christmas /Winter.

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

another summer hummer

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
Wow - it was so humid today. A perfect day to relax in a pool and that's we did.

Ethan my youngest grandson spent the night because he was at a basketball camp at a school near our home.

It was easier to have him stay here and drive 15 minutes from my home rather than 50 minutes from his home.

I thought the camp was over at 3:00 and the real end time was over at 12:00. He called me at 1:00 to ask me where I was.
He waited outside in the heat and didn't have a way to call me. Someone came out of the gym and asked him if everything was ok and then gave him a cell phone to call me.

My stomach was in a knot. I felt terrible and left immediately to go and pick him up. He was just a little tired and hungry but after a nice lunch and a cool drink all was well.  I apologized to him for the mistake and he is so quick to forgive.

We went over my neighbors to swim and cool down. Then while we were in the pool a raccoon came walking up her driveway. He was walking & acting really weird. So we called the police. He was walking up on people's front porches and then finally went to a backyard and into someones shed. They had the door open.

Turns out he was rabid so the police had to shoot him. Sad but better than having him bite one of the kids in the neighborhood. Or even my hubby who is always out working in the yard.

Then a big storm blew in and Ethan's little league game was rained out. He was playing a championship game and was disappointed but he gets to stay over with us again. His basketball camp is all week. So we have him for at least 3 nights. He loves staying and we love having him.

We are playing scrabble on the I-Pad right now. My hubby takes so long to make a word that I am typing this blog post up as we play. Ethan is very good at this game for a 10 year old.

Whew quite a day for sure!! But, let's move on to the card I made and the reason you are visiting.

My hummer is from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps- "joyful hearts set". It has this hummingbird image and 5 sentiments.
I paper pieced it with patterned paper and then added some shading with daffodil delight ink on his chest. The flowers are paper pieced with a tangerine patterned paper, and I colored the flower tips in daffodil ink.
My sentiment is from another Sweet 'n Sassy set -"your friendship".


I added a button and some honeydew bakers twine that is also available at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.
My background paper is from Stampin-Up's "greenhouse gala" collection.

The layout for my card is the sketch challenge #340 on Splitcoaststampers.

Here are the challenges I am entering:
1.  Craft your passion blog has a "just for you" challenge.
2.  The crazy challenge blog has a "summertime" challenge. Hummingbirds are only here in the summer time.
3.  Creative Stamp Friends has a "summer challenge.
4.  The Make it Monday blog is always anything goes.

Well, it's that time again-to close the post and dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time.......

You are such a blessing

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We are in the middle of some hot, humid weather right now.
But, it's summer time and that's what we get here in Pittsburgh. I longed for these days during the cold, snowy winter months. So did most of your-remember!!

We had a great week-end. On Saturday I attended a rubber stamp show here in Pittsburgh. Eek-lots of new products, dies stamps. There were make and takes and lots of ideas at each booth. I had a lot of fun even though I had to attend myself.

Then we went to my brothers home for a family get together Saturday afternoon and evening. That was fun as well. He just bought a new home and it was sort of a house warming as well as a cook-out.

Today after church we went to a friend's daughters graduation party. Lots of good food and conversation and now we are back home.

I am waiting for a call from my son. Ethan is coming to spend the night and we will meet at the half way point and make the kid exchange. He has a basketball camp this week at a school near my home. So he will spend at least Monday & Tuesday here with us. We haven't got a game plan for the other days yet.

All that said let's get onto my card for today. I made this one for several challenges as always. The card colors are chocolate chip and crushed curry. I also used crushed curry patterned paper.
I added a white lace doily and cut some spellbinders circles and layered them to the center of the doily. The sentiment is from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp set - "your friendship".

The flower images are from the same "your friendship" set. I colored them with prismacolor pencils and gamsol.  These flowers are so great to work with. You can either color them or paper piece them. Either way I think they look great.

When I was playing around with this set, I stamped them on red cardstock and layered them to create a poinsettia. So that's something to keep in mind with this set as well.

I punched some fronds with a Martha Stewart punch and added ribbon to complete this card.

Now onto the challenges:
1.  Splitcoaststampers had a challenge to use doilies on your card. It is the ways to use it challenge #330.
2.  Scrappy Frogs Blog has a summer flower challenge.
3.  Stampin' Sisters in Christ wants us to use our favorite item for stamping. I love use different spellbinders shapes on my cards and ribbon. This one uses the round spellbinders die.
4.  Basic Grey has a doilies and ribbons challenge #48.

Well that's it for today my blogger friends. So until next time.............Good night and God bless.

color challenge 330

Happy Thursday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It was a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh.

We had our grandsons on an overnight so it made for a fun day as well. We went swimming in my neighbors pool. The boys had a lot of fun.

Sue is so sweet and she lets us use it whenever the boys come to visit. 

We also used the facetime feature on IPAD and had a visit with Phoenix Daisy and Ghilly. This was my first time using this app and I was so impressed with the quality of the connection and the audio.
I will be using this a lot now to spend more time with my sweet granddaughter.

The day ended so quickly and we headed back to the North Hills around 5:00. Ethan had baseball practice at 6:00 and Austin had an appointment with his trainer. Love the time I have with them.

My card for today is one that I made for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers.

Julia was our hostess this week and she chose a great trio of colors. We were to use Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry and Tangerine Tango. I really liked working with all these colors. 

I used an image from Stampendous -changito. I think this one is so cute. I colored it with prismacolor pencils and gamsol (odorless mineral spirits).

My patterned paper is from Stampin –Up and American Crafts. I used some rick rack –punched an anchor in tangerine tango and added some starfish buttons.

The sentiment is from the paper trey ink set “round and round”.

My layout is from the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #124. Loved working with this sketch for this card.

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

Some other challenges:
1. The oldie but a goodie blog has an anything goes challenge. I have had this changito image for over a year.

creative belli challenge #121

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

It's time for another Creative Belli Challenge. and this time we want you to make your own embellishments.

Challenge #121 - Custom Made Bellies

Make your own embellishments, custom dye ribbon, crochet your own flowers, make your own paper flowers or buttons, etc, etc!


The spirit of the Belli challenges is to encourage you to use your OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments!
Everyone is welcome to play along! Challenge a stamping friend!! Just follow the theme.

Make sure you check out the great ideas the Belli Girls have come up with for this challenge.

On my card I used the Sizzix die Daisies #2 to create my handmade flower. In the flower center, I used a fabric button from Stampin-Up to make it a little more dramatic. The flower is cut from pear pizzazz paper.

I made this into an easel card. It's really easy to do. Here is a link to the tutorial. I found it on splitcoaststampers.

My background paper is from Stampin-Up's greenhouse gala collection. Across this panel I added some chocolate chip satin ribbon.

On the bottom panel I used a border punch also from Stampin-Up and some pearls. This acts as a stop when your card is open and being displayed.

The best wishes sentiment is from the Stampin-Up set "sincere salutations". This one is going off to a friend who is celebrating a wedding anniversary.

Well, it's time to close this post so until next time................. God Bless.

Some other challenges:
1.  Splitcoaststampers featured stamper challenge #230. I chose this card to re-create ala Mary Marsh style.
2.  Paper Take Weekly has an anything goes challenge.
3.  The Top Tip Tuesday blog has a wedding/anniversary challenge. This one is an anniversary card for my friend.

Happy July 4th

Happy July 4th to all my American readers as we celebrate American Independence Day . Our cherished freedoms all came with a great sacrifice by our forefathers and our present day military as well.

The words of this song by Lee Greenwood say it all:

And I'm proud to be an American,  where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me." - Lee Greenwood

Hope your celebrations are going well.  We were at a cook-out yesterday so today is a laid back kind of day for us. Our son wanted us to come over there today. But, he is an hour from us and we would be heading into traffic going into the city of Pittsburgh. There are various festivities including a big fireworks display this evening. So we decided to stay at home.

I will be with the boys tomorrow all day. And, Ethan has a game at 8:00 pm on our side of the city so we will be at that as well.

I wanted to post a card that I made for a color challenge on the Sweet 'n Sassy Connection. I was the challenge hostess on the night that Korin released the new stamp sets. It was exciting for me.

The colors were Kraft, Brown and Red. I decided to use 2 of the new stamp sets released July 1 from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps on my card. The scripture sentiment is from the "joyful heart" set and the layered flower is from the "your friendship" set.

I stamped my flower onto patterned paper, cut it out and then popped it up for dimension. On the center panel I added a piece of chocolate chip satin ribbon and 3 red butterflies.

Well, it's time to close this post and get to my dinner preparations. So until next time......... God bless my blogger friends.

Some other challenges:
1.  The Bows and Berrie blog wants us to use kraft paper.
2.  Craft Your Passion challenge has an anything goes this week
3.  Catch the Bug blog also has an anything goes challenge.

my hummingbird

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

We had such a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh. For us that means lots of sunshine, low humidity and warm temps.

I had my windows open to let the breeze in. I thank God we are fortunate enough to have air-conditioning but I really like it when we can use the fresh breeze to stay cool.



soft suede

melon mambo

crumb cake

Anyway, I do have a card to show you all today. It's one that I made for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers.

Joanne Travis was our hostess this week and she chose a great color trio of soft suede, crumb cake and melon mambo. She always chooses the best colors to work into a card.

My card used the new stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps-"joyful heart". I love the hummingbird image and all the sentiments in this set. This set was just released today, July 1.

I decided to paper piece the hummingbird and the flowers. I used crumbcake patterned paper for the hummer and melon mambo paper for the flowers. I like how it turned out.

My background paper is some from Heidi Grace-the monotone flowers collection. I added a button in the crumbcake color and used some pink sorbet bakers twine to give it a finished look. The pink sorbet bakers twine is available now in the Sweet 'n Sassy online store.

My layout for this card is from this weeks MojoMonday sketch #193. It's a square card measuring 4.25 inches. That way it will still fit in an A2 envelope. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch to finish the card.

Well it's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time God bless..........

Some other challenges:
1.  Stampavie and more blog wants us to use more than 3 layers.

2.  The DYSU challenge blog has a square challenge.
3.  The Really Reasonable Ribbon blog has a picnic/summer fun theme. One of the fun things we love for summer is watching the hummingbirds at our feeder.