~Cupcake Birthday~

 

Hello Blogger friends! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. Well, it's back to school time. My grandsons started back today. No issues with the school bus- so that starts the day off right. They both came home with homework and they weren't real happy but not to much complaining.

 

I picked Ethan (our youngest grandson) up after school. He was a little tired and a little cranky but, I was still excited to see him. I stayed with them until 10:00 this evening. Usually I am not there that long but my son and daughter-in-law had a dinner out planned with some friends.

 

Now I am back home and even the drive home was a little quicker than usual. I made it in just under 40 minutes. I wanted to get my blog post done and head off to bed. I have plans to go to the outlets tomorrow to look for a dress for an upcoming wedding.

 

So onto my card for today. I needed a card for a 70th birthday party we were invited to and this is what I came up with. I wanted some fun and trendy.

 

My card started with my layout and I used the MojoMonday #358 sketch. 

My card colors are from the Splitcoaststampers CC491. Peggy was our hostess and she chose the fabulous color trio of blackberry bliss, so saffron and bermuda bay. Our   option was to "put a sentiment on it". 

 

The card background panel is Stampin-Up designer paper from the  "moonlit" collection. I used the Stampin-Up set "cupcake party" and stamped in bermuda bay.

To complete my card I die cut the birthday word in bermuda bay. The die is from PaperTrey Ink.

 

Well, that's it for me for today. Time to dim the lights in Charmed Life land for another day. So until next time......God bless.

~Coral Thanks~

 

Hello Blogger Friends!! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. I made it back safely from San Francisco. I was gone between vacation and then off to take care of my granddaughter for almost the month of August. It is good to be back home and sleeping in my own bed.

 

The flight home got a bit crazy. My first flight was delayed and that would have me missing my connection so I was rescheduled for another flight. The 2nd flight was all boarded and then the captain announced the aircraft was being taken out of service. There was a problem with the vacuum system in the lav. 

 

Since I had to connect to get back to Pittsburgh, I was re-scheduled for the next morning to fly out. Phoenix Daisy was glad to have me back. We played until her bedtime.

 

I am still adjusting to the time change but I will be fine in a few days. Now it's time to catch up on harvesting our garden crop and other house stuff.

 

But for now, I am going to catch up on my blog posts. So onto my card for today. This one I made for the color challenge #493 on Splitcoaststampers. Becky is our hostess this week and she chose the trio of old olive, calypso coral and lost lagoon. The option this week is to use something recycled.

 
I  used the Stampin-Up stamp set 'language of friendship". My flowers are stamped in lost lagoon and fussy cut. I layered each flower several times for added dimension.

The leaves are die cut with a Verve die. This is where I used the shampoo box. I also used the recycled box to cut my "thanks" word with a Taylored Expressions die.

My background paper is from the Stampin-Up collections -"I am me" and Epic day this and that". The coral ribbon is also from Stampin-Up.

My butterfly is cut with a die from Elizabeth Crafts.  I picked it up earlier this summer at a local rubber stamp show.  The center circles are cut with a Spellbinders scallop circle and an MFT die.

Well that's my card for today. Time to dim the lights in Charmed Life land for another day. So until next time......God bless.

Card Concept Inspiration Challenge

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since our last Card Concept Challenge. 

Our challenge that starts today is an inspiration challenge. As part of the wild card team, I am to create a card in the clean and graphic style. I based my card on the colors in the photo. I created my card using rectangles, circles, lines to form my graphic design.

I started my card by stamping my background image using the PaperTrey Ink stamp "ombre builders" in old olive ink. The rounded rectangle layer was cut from kiwi kiss designer paper and a PaperTrey Ink die "phrase play #5".  I cut the happy word 2 additional times and layered it to give it some dimension.

 

I used part of a stamp from Mark's Finest Papers for my sentiment. To complete my card, I die cut some sequins from an MFT die. 

That completes my card for this challenge. Hope you can play along. Drop over on the Card Concept blog to get all the details and to check out the other amazing cards the designers have created. 

This is the inspiration photo and read here for an explanation of the card styles the designers will be using.

Inspiration Photo

Paradise

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. I am still out in San Francisco with my precious granddaughter Phoenix Daisy. My son and daughter-in-law returned home today from their get away in Cabo, MEX. 

Phoenix Daisy was happy to see them. Tomorrow my daughter-in-law starts school again. She is a teacher and this is a week of in-service days for her before the kids return. 

I will leave on Tuesday to return home to Pittsburgh and my hubby. It was another awesome time with Phoenix Daisy and more memories made. I am hoping for one more visit this year before they return for Christmas.

Onto my card for today. This is another one that I made before I left Pittsburgh but didn't post here on my blog. I bought these beach stamps at the rubber stamp show held here recently and decided to use them to create this beach scene. The scene was created with 4 different stamps. 

I used the colors from the Splitcoaststampers CC489. Vicki was our hostess and she chose bermuda bay, pool party and calypso coral for her color trio. Option is water coloring.

The water and sun is a stamp from Just For Fun. I colored the water with pool party re-inker and an aqua brush.
The sand and sandpipers are a stamp from Seaside Stampin' Ink. Colored with a creamy caramel water color crayon and basic gray ink.

My couple in the canoe is another stamp from Just For Fun. The paradise sentiment is another stamp from Seaside Stampin' Ink. I stamped that in coastal cabana ink.I framed the scene in coastal cabana and then layered in calypso coral and whisper white. That's my card for today. Time to dim the lights here in San Francisco for another day. So until next time.......God bless.

This is a photo of Phoenix and I having a treat at the ice cream parlor.

sweet treat time

I am also entering:

1.  613 Avenue Create has an anything goes challenge. 

2.  Pile It On has a Beach/Sea challenge. 

3.  That Craft Place has a nautical challenge.  

~gingham thanks~

Hello Blogger friends. Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. Well, we returned from a great beach vacation in Ocean City, MD. It was a wonderful family time and some new memories were created. 

I had a 2 day turn around time and hopped on a plane to San Francisco. My youngest son Brett and daughter-in-law Ghilly wanted to do a little get away, and I am here taking care of Phoenix Daisy. They weren't able to join us for the family vacation this year. 

They left this morning and so this is my first day alone with my precious  3 1/2 year old granddaughter. She goes to pre-school and I just dropped her off and will pick her up at 12:30. Already she asked to go to the ice cream parlor because that's what we did on my last visit in March. I agreed because that's just what Grandma's do (lol)!!

So onto my card for today. This one I created, back in Pittsburgh of course, for the Splitcoaststampers SC498. Janette was our hostess and she provided a great layout to work into a card. Just the kind I like with lots of layers.

My designer paper is from the Stampin-Up "gingham garden" collection. I have wanted to use the gingham paper for some time. I think it worked well with this layoutand shows it off nicely. 

My stamped image is from the Stampin-Up set "serene silhouettes". I used markers to color the image then spritzed with water. I have never done this before and I like the look of it.My thank you is from the Stampin-Up set "greetings galore". I stamped in melon mambo ink and added 2 additional circle layers. Punched some butterflies to complete my card. 

Well, that's it for me for this post. So until next time.........God bless. 

card details:

Stamps: greetings galore, serene silhouettes (Stampin-Up)                                                                        Paper: melon mambo, pear pizzazz, ww, gingham garden dsp                                                                          Ink: melon mambo, pear pizzazz                                                                                                     Accessories: Spellbinders Mattings Basics A & circle dies, MS butterfly punch

I am also entering:
1.  Simon Says Stamp has a "summertime fun" challenge. Flowers represent a big part of summer. 

2.  Crafting From The Heart has an anything goes challenge. 

3.  Stamp and Create has an anything goes challenge.

4.  613 Avenue Create-anything goes with a twist of sights, sounds, tastes of summer. My Flowers are one of the sights of summer.

5.  Crafting When We Can has a bright colors challenge.

6.  Robyn's Fetish has an anything goes challenge.  

Card Concept Wedding Challenge

 

Hello Blogger Friends! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog.

 

 I have been sitting on some news and today is the day I can make my announcement. I was invited by Lesley Croghan to join the Card Concept Design team. I was so excited to be chosen for the team. It will be a 3 month stint that starts today August 6 and continues though October.

 

The Card Concept is a bi-weekly challenge blog.The participants are encouraged to create a card, based on the challenge and they have to choose one of the "styles" of our designers to design in.

 

The styles are divided into 6 style themes:

• Clean & Simple (CAS)
• Clean & Layered
• Clean & Graphic
• Freestyle Collage
• Shabby Chic
• Classy & Elegant

Our challenge for this 2 week period is a theme challenge and we are to create a wedding card.

My assigned theme for this challenge is a clean and layered card. My inspiration from this photo was the blue color of the hydrangeas and the white roses.

 

To create my card, I used several different Spellbinders dies. I used the Spellbinders dies - resplendent rectangles, floral ovals and standard ovals to set off the beautiful sentiment.

 

The sentiment is a stamp from Great Impressions - "wishing you joy". I added a bow with a white rose ribbon center and rhinestones to complete my card.

 

This is such a fun challenge so I hope you can play along with us. Drop over to the Card Concept blog to "meet" the other new designers. Then pull out your wedding stamps and create a card for the challenge.

 

Until next time.......God bless.

 

Card Details:

stamps: wishing you joy F18 (Great Impressions Stamps)

ink: marina mist (Stampin-Up)

paper: marina mist, whisper white (Stampin-Up), Gina K White

accessories: Spellbinders resplendent rectangles, floral, large and small ovals, marina mist ribbon, hero arts rhinestones

~Yorkshire Birthday~

 

Hello Blogger friends! Thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life Blog. I can't believe we are into August already. The summer is flying.

 

This week we are on vacation at the beach in Ocean City, MD with our son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandsons. We arrived on Saturday and will stay until Saturday, August 9.

 

We have guests staying at our home. That was a bit tricky getting ready for the guests as well as vacation. But, its our very good friends from Virginia and they were coming to Pittsburgh for a family event. So they will take care of the house while we are gone. A win-win for both of us.

 

It has been overcast for 3 days although the sun did peek out a bit yesterday afternoon. The overcast conditions have kept the crowds at bay on the beach. Yesterday, we took our corn hole game down and had a little family competition.  It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

 

Last night our dinner out was at a place called "liquid assets".   The food was really good and they carried a variety of different wines and craft beers for purchase. It was a good choice for our first dinner out.

 

We usually eat breakfast and lunch in and then have dinner out. Right now we have a pork shoulder in the crockpot to have pulled pork sandwiches for lunch.  It's one of the boys favorite meals.

 

Now onto my card for today. This one I made for the inspiration challenge #450 on Splitcoaststampers. Audrie was our hostess and she took us to the Country Curtains site for our inspiration.

 

I chose the Yorkshire lined rod pocket curtains as my inspiration piece. The pattern reminded me of some Stampin-U designer paper that I had from the "modern medley" collection.

I used the layout from the Wednesday sketch #497 challenge for my card.

The inspiration photo had some touches of red with flowers and wall hangings so I picked up on that in my layout.

The flowers are from the Stampin-Up "simple stems" set. On the bottom corner I fussy cut one and popped it up for a bit of dimension.

 

The birthday die is from PTI. Added some butterflies with pearl centers to complete my card.

 

That's my card for today. Time to get my day rolling, so until next time.......God bless.

card details:

Stamps: simple stems (Stampin-Up), sending happy thoughts (MFP) 

Paper: VV, basic black, modern medley dsp (stampin-up) 

Ink: real red 

Accessories: PTI birthday die, MS butterfly punch, Spellbinders Matting Basics A, SU pearls   

 

I am also entering:

1.  Come and Get it Challenges has an all about dies challenge.

2.  Crafting At The Weekend has an anything goes challenge.

3.  Natalie's and Amy's challenge has a die cuts and flowers.