Gnome Birthday + announcement

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. I have been quiet on the blog for a few days because my son, daughter-in-law and sweet little Phoenix Daisy were here visiting for 5 days.

We had an extended family reunion on Saturday. That was fine and even more special that Brett, Ghilly and Phoenix Daisy were able to come. The other days we just spent enjoying each other.

Their flight this morning left at 6:00 am. When my daughter-in-law brought Phoenix down at 4:15, I kissed her goodbye. She looked at me and said "come". She has limited vocabulary at 19 months but this came across loud and clear. Of course, I was emotional.

I hope to be able to visit with her in September. I will be counting the days until I can go.

So to keep my mind occupied today, I decided to do some crafting. I checked the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers to get my starting point. The layout was such a cute one and I knew you could add some embellishments to take it up a notch. 

I used some red background designer paper from Stampin-Up for the layout-a retired print patterns pack and some new polka dot parade paper.


My image & sentiment are from the newly released stamp set from Marks Finest Papers - garden art.

I paper pieced the gnome's hat & boots in the Stampin-Up colors of island indigo, his suit in real red and the flower in wisteria wonder. I also used prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color his skin, beard and the leaf.



challenge colors

I used these colors  for the Splitcoaststampers color challenge #385.  The challenge was hosted by Julia and she chose real red, island indigo and wisteria wonder as our colors.




To complete my card, I stamped my sentiment, used a border punch from Martha Stewart and also added a punched dragonfly. i thought this would be a cute kid's birthday card. I have a few nephews with upcoming birthdays.
 
I do have some other wonderful news. I submitted this card to the Great Impressions stamp company because they were looking for another designer. Well they liked it and have invited me to be a part of their fabulous team starting August 1. Whoo-hoo!! I am so excited.

So look for me on their blog as of August 3. That will be my first post for them using their stamps.

This card also was named to the top 3 at Card Crafters Circle.







Some other challenges:
1.  Crafts and Me has an anything goes challenge.
2.  Divas By Design has a happy birthday challenge #45.
3.  Simon Says Stamp has an anything goes challenge.
4.  Top Tip Tuesday challenge #81 is all about circles.
5.  Love To Create has a spots and dots challenge.