Brayered Birthday Scene

Happy Tuesday everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Today, I took my bff out for her birthday and treated her & I to a spa pedicure.

It was such a great time together and I loved all the pampering with my feet. They exfoliated, applied a mask, massaged, took card of the cuticle-used hot towels-several layers of cream-our chair was a massaging chair. It was so wonderful and my feet look great.
I just wish I had a special place to go with hubby and wear some heels and a fancy dress.
We have a wedding next month so I plan on going back for more of the same treatment.

I wanted to take her to some place special for lunch. After talking we decided to go to a Chick-Fil-A restaurant and support them for their stand on marriage. Their was a nationwide call by many Christian leaders to go there today. So we felt that would be a good end to our day together.

When we arrived at Chick-Fil-A the line was out the door. The drive-thru was to the street and there were so many people waiting inside for orders. It was heartwarming to see so many people that believe in the same definition of marriage.

There are so many pictures on FaceBook of this scene being repeated across the country. Love it!!

Well onto my card today. This one is another I made for the Fan Club challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  It's a paid subscription, but I think its worth the $24.95 price. Check it out here.

For my card I pulled out my brayer to make a background scene. I used bashful blue, turquoise and not quite navy inks for the sky.

I used a torn post-it-not and sponged in my mountains. In front of the mountains, I sponged old olive and some basic black.

My tree images are from Stampin-Up's Plant Hope set and the birthday sentiment is from Marks Finest Papers -North American Woods set.

I used a deer die from PaperTrey Ink and a tag die from Sizzix to complete my card.



My layout is from this weeks sweet sunday sketch challenge.

Well, it's another late night so time to close this post. Until next time.......God bless

Some other challenges:
1.  Crazy Amigo has a dies/punches challenge.
2.  Die Cuttin' Divas has an anything goes challenge.
3.  Party Time Tuesdays has an anything goes.
4.  Alphabet Challenge Blog has a for men only challenge.

June Blog Hop Day 3

Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's 
                        June Blog Hop!

                 This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Welcome Poppies Featured June 19
I'm In Stitches Featured June 20
Island Life Featured June 21
Silly Shells Featured June 22

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on June 23, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday June 22, 2012.

Lois
Vicky
Anne
Pat G.
Karen H.
Patty P.
Mary (you are here)
Marilynn
Pam
Debbie
Nancy
Bonnie
Kathy
Brenda
Toni
Tangii
Thrifty Stamper
Sue
Kelli
Janine
Tammylee
Janis L.
Mark's Finest Papers

For my card today, I first embossed my image with a suede ink and clear embossing powder.
I brayered the background with a yellow, red and a berry ink to create my sky. I was trying to create a tropical looking scene.
I sponged the bottom of the card with a light blue ink to create my water.  At the horizon, I used another shade of blue.

I stamped my sentiment in a suede ink. I sponged in the sand on the image with a crumb cake ink and then used a toothbrush to flick in some suede ink to make it look like sand.

That's my card for today. See you back here tomorrow for the final day of the hop. I will send you over to Marilynn's blog for the next stop.

Some other challenges:
1.  4 Crafty Chicks has a by the sea challenge.
2.  Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge is "anythinggoes with transportation.

Marks Finest Papers Blog Hop Day 3

Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's 

                        May Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Oopsy Daisy Featured May 15
Get Reel Featured May 16
Scenic Selections Featured May 17
Flamingos on Vacation Featured May 18

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!)

All four winners will be announced on May 19, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday May 18, 2012.

Lois

Vicky

Anne

Pat G.

Karen H.

Patty P.

Mary (you are here)

Marilynn

Pam

Debbie

Nancy

Bonnie

Kathy

Brenda

Toni

Tangii

Anna S

Sue

Kelli

Janine

Mark's Finest Papers

For today's sample, I pulled out my brayer. I cut a circle first to make my sun and then used a couple of shades of blue for the sky. Sponged in some yellow ink for the sun and then sponged out to make the rays.

I took a post-it note and tore it in the shape of a mountain range. The mountains were sponged with dark brown ink.  Sponged some mustard ink around the bottom of the card.

I stamped my fences in brown and added some trees from this new set. for the trees, I used markers so get the brown & green. Added some birds in the sky and stamped my "Dad" sentiment. This sentiment is from the set we showed yesterday.

That's it for me today. See you back here tomorrow for the final day of the hop. Now it's off to MariLynn's blog.



The Birthday Train

Happy Tuesday everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We are having some crazy spring weather here in the Pittsburgh region. It is really cold -as in freezing temperatures cold. And there was snow in our area today.

The ski resort that is about 1 1/2 hrs from us had so much snow they are opening a few trails today. Spring extremes I tell ya!!

We had such a busy week-end. We had a garage sale with my son and daughter-in-law. Whew-what a lot of work getting ready for the sale. It was at their home because they had more stuff to sell than we did.
Of course Friday was a beautiful, warm  and sunny day, but not our sale day. Then Saturday the rain came and it lasted all day. We had their garage all set up on Friday. Le me tell you we utilized every bit of space in the garage. we had it packed to the hilt.

We didn't get all the people that we would have if there was no rain. But, it still went well. Glad its over though. I was so exhausted on Sunday that what I intended as  a brief 5:00 nap turned out to be an all night sleep (lol).

Onto my card for today. This one I made for the color challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

Karen was our hostess and she chose the color palette of more mustard, early espresso and pool party.

I decided to make a scene using a brayer technique. I  used a train image from the Marks Finest Papers set “train talk”.

Instead of using designer paper, I created a little scene by brayering the background with pool party and more mustard inks. I sponged in the mountains with early espresso ink.

My train track is a Martha Stewart fence punch and I cut the top off. I stamped my image and colored with Stampin-Up markers in the challenge colors.

I did some fussy cutting and placed it on the track. Stamped a couple of pine trees, added a birthday greeting and 3 punched circles to complete my card.

That's it for me today my blogger friends. So until next time......God bless.

Some other challenges:
1.  Outlawz greetings challenge is "inspired by a song". How about "long train running" by the Doobie Brothers.
2.  Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge has an "inspired by a movie" challenge. How about The Great Train Robbery-starring Sean Connery.
3.  Totally Gorjuss has a "boys toys" challenge.
4.  Crafty Ann's Challenge blog has a "it's a man thing" challenge.

Marks Finest Papers Blog Hop Day 4

 Welcome to Mark's Finest Papers a Heinrich Company's 
April Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Fabulous Dogs Featured April 17
Daffodil Greetings Featured April 18
Hey, Cowboy! Featured April 19
Train Talk Featured April 20

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!)

All four winners will be announced on April 21, 2012 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 11PM EST on Friday April 20, 2012.

Lois
Vicky
Anne
Pat G.
Karen H.
Patty P.
Mary
Marilynn
Pam
Debbie
Nancy
Bonnie
Kathy
Brenda
Toni
Tangii
Anna S
Sue
Kelli
Janine
Mark's Finest Papers

I love this train talk set. This image could be colored as well. But what I decided to do was to brayer a background and just stamp the image. I like how it turned out.

For the background I brayered 3 shades of blue ink. Then I tore a post it note and sponged around that for my mountains. At the base of the mountains, I sponged olive ink and a little black.

I stamped my train image and decided to make it a birthday card. So I used the sentiment from the daffodil greetings set. I layered the image panel over olive cardstock and then marina mist (medium blue).

No ribbon, lace, buttons or brads and that's different for me. But, I wanted to show all of you that with our images you don't always have to color.  Sometimes you can just stamp and go. And, that's exactly what I did (lol)!!

This is the last day of our hop. I hope you have enjoyed all the samples we have shown you with the new sets. Now click over to MariLynn's blog to see what she has to show you.