Happy Baby Boy

Happy Sunday everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit the Charmed Life blog. We had a great week-end of activities. Saturday was our annual block picnic. It was a nice day of catching up on people's lives.

Everyone brings a dish to share and we cook hamburgers and hot dogs. My next door neighbor is the host house. We ended up our evening with a fire in the fire pit. We laughed because 2 days earlier it was so hot and humid we couldn't have even consider it. But Saturday was rain early in the day and then much cooler temps.

Sunday afternoon we went to Ethan's (middle grandson) football game. It was a somewhat cooler day but sunny -just perfect football weather. They won so that's always good.

Tonite we went to see the Jersey Boys at the Benedum Center in downtown Pittsburgh. My brother-in-law gave us tickets and we had great seats. About 10 rows back from the stage, and we really enjoyed the music. I will be singing the songs for a few days.

Now onto my card for today. This one I made for a couple from church that are our worship leaders. They just had a baby boy.

The Friday challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to make a baby card. But we were not to use the typical baby images.

There is also the Queen For A Day challenge as well. This week the honors went to Peggy McCurry. She is on the design team with me at Splitcoaststampers and I wanted to make a card to honor her.

I chose this card of Peggy's to recreate ala Mary Marsh style.

For my pinwheel, I used Stampin-Up's pacific point designer paper. It was cut with a die from Lil Inkers Design. My background layer is also Stampin-Up designer paper from the "attic boutique collection" in daffodil delight. I added some corduroy buttons in the center.

I used a Martha Stewart zig zag punch for my border and also used white rick rack. Stamped my sentiment also from Lil' Inkers pinwheel sentiments set.  That's my card for today.

It's time to dim the lights in Charmed Life land for another day so until next time.......God bless.

Some other challenges:
1.  Come and get it challenges has a tic-tac-toe. I used die-cut-buttons-ribbon (rick-rack).
2.  Pile It On has a patterned paper challenge.
3.  Stampin Sisters In Christ has a bright colors only challenge.

Chili Peppers

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It is such a beautiful day here in Pittsburgh- sunny and warm and low humidity. I love it.

One of those days you could sit out and enjoy dinner on the deck. But, my hubby isn't home so I am inside watching the Olympics and posting to my blog. Oh well!!

My card today is one that I made for 2 challenges over on Splitcoaststampers. The first one is the Queen For A day challenge. This week the honors went to Bev Gerard aka texasgrammy. She has a beautiful gallery filled with gorgeous cards.

I chose her garden hop card to recreate ala Mary Marsh style. I kept the same layout & Spellbinder dies as Bev used but changed the card colors and designer paper.

Instead of a floral image I used hot peppers. Being a Texas girl, Bev knows all about these hot & spicy peppers (lol)!!

My image is from a new set by Marks Finest Papers - hot & spicy. The sentiment on the inside of my card reads " you make a hot & spicy couple".

I thought I would send this as an anniversary card to my sister who lives in Houston. She will love it!!

I am also entering this into the the July Fan Club word play challenge.

H - hot peppers
E - early espresso cs and embossed die-cuts
A - art pencils
T - trim -ribbon

Well that's my card for today. So until next time ........... God bless.

Some other challenges:
1.  Secret Crafter has a bright and cheerful challenge.
2.  Dutch Dare Card Challenges has a color challenge. I used brown, red, green and white.
3.  Inky Impressions has a dies/punches challenge. I used dies.
4.  Simon Says Stamp has an anything goes challenge.

Congrats

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We have really had some hot, humid weather the past few days. I am lovin' it- I tell ya!!

My grandsons were here the last few days, and we spent hours in my neighbors pool. Just the stuff you should do in the summer time.

Now onto my card for today. This one I made for 2 challenges on Splitcoaststampers. The Friday Queen For A Day  and the Free For all challenge.

Jeanne was our hostess for F4A123  and she wanted us to take some of those paper scraps from other projects and create an interesting background for our card by arranging the bits and pieces. This was perfect for the QFTD119 challenge.

Mary Brown aka stampercamper was chosen as Queen this week. The idea behind this challenge is to select one of her creations and recreate it. She is a great clean and simple stamper. I chose her little leaves card.

I kept the same colors and layout. Instead of a die-cut, I embossed the single poppy image from the Marks Finest Papers set - "welcome poppies".

I change the ribbon color to peach parfait.

My sentiment is from another Marks Finest Papers set -"fabulous dogs".

I used a My Favorite Things die - fishtail flags stax for my pennant. Well that's it for this post. I have another one coming today as well. So until next time..................God bless.

Some other challenges:
1.  Crafty Calendar Challenge has a flowers in bloom challenge this month.
2.  Chocolate, Coffee and Cards has an anything goes challenge.
3.  Fun with Shapes and more wants us to use a die-cut or punch. I used a pennant die on my card.
4. Paper Play Challenges wants us to use flgs/pennants/banners. I use a flag for my sentiment.

peace & joy

Happy Friday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
We had a terrible storm on Wednesday which left thousands of homes without power in the southern suburbs where I live.
We were unable to get into our home so we spent the night at my mother-in-laws.

It's a crazy story but when the power went out it left us unable to get into the garage.This is how we come into our home most often.

I had a key to the front door but the storm door was locked so that was a no access as well. I didnt have a key to the storm door with me.
I didn't have the key to the french doors on our deck so another no access point.

I was with my grandsons in the early afternoon. They live North and their power went out for only a few hours. The rain stopped quickly so their football practices were not canceled. I dropped them off and then headed off to the Community College near their home for my Photoshop Elements class.

When the class was over at 9:30 I called my hubby, who was at work, and he told me our power was off. He didn't finish up until 11:00. I realized there was no point in making the 40 minute drive home when I couldn't get in the house. So I called my Mother-in-law, and we both went there for the night. That was the closest for my husband to drive from the airport where he works.

The power was not supposed to be restored until 11:30 pm on Thursday night. We went home anyway on Thursday morning with some ideas about how to gain access.
But, thank the Lord, when we arrived home at 10:30 the power was just restored. we were very happy when we found no damage to our home.

The community right next to ours was really hit hard. There were so many downed trees and power lines that still are not repaired.

I tried driving through there on Thursday evening to get to my cooking class and even I got lost because there were too many streets closed. Traffic lights were not working and some people do not realize that if traffic lights are out you treat it like a 4-way stop sign. It was quite a free-for-all, believe me.

Lesson learned here: I put the key for my french doors on my key chain with my car keys. I found the key for my storm door and put that on the key chain as well. So if I lock it I am no longer kept from getting in the front door. If the garage doors lose power, I can't get in from the outside so keys are vital for the other doors.

Anyway, that is why I haven't posted for a few days.

My card for today covers 3 challenges on splitcoaststampers. And a 4th challenge on the ooh la la creations blog , and a 5th challenge and new challenge for me from the StampInsanity blog.

1.  The Thursday "ways to use it challenge" was titled "holiday headstart". Our hostess, Julia, challenged us to make a holiday card and the one we chose was up to us. I chose Christmas.

2.  For the Friday "free for all challenge" , our hostess, Jeanne, challenged us to use scallops on our card. I made my card shape a scallop.

3.  The "queen for a day" challenge" this week was giving honor to Carla Suto. The idea on this one is to visit the "queens" gallery and select a card and re-create it in your own style. I chose a card that she made with a scallop nestabilities die.

4.  The ooh la la blog had a challenge to use the sentiment as your main feature on your design. My card does just that.

5.  I found another challenge blog at StampInsanity. This is an embossing challenge and my card fits right in for this one as well.

I have wanted to make a card in this shape but just never tried it. So thank you Carla for challenging me to get out of my comfort zone and make something different.

I used Stampin-Up cherry cobbler cardstock and the matching jolly holiday designer paper. This is one of their new colors and is really a pretty shade of red.

I took the cuttlebug embossing folder, "season greetings" and used just the words "peace and joy" for the center of my card. I added some poinsettias and that completed this card.

I liked how this turned out, and it would be really an easy one for mass producing. I don't usually do that for my Christmas cards but I might make a few more of these ones this year.

That's it for today my friends-take care and God bless!!

card recipe:
paper: su cherry cobbler, vv, jolly holiday dsp
accessories: cb ef, hero arts poinsettias, nesties scallop die

tribute to cathleen

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It's been a busy couple of days here at our house.
Painter is done-furniture is scheduled to be delivered-need to pick out some new window treatments and get the house back in order.

I feel like I am on a roll now so while I have the momentum I am going to get closets organized and continue with organizing my craft supplies.

Well, my card for today is for a new game on splitcoaststampers: It's called the "queen for a day".
It's been going on for about 6 weeks. This week the talented Cathleen Torina was given the honor. She is a super talented stamper.
Congrats Cathleen I hope you enjoyed your reign!!

The idea is to look in the chosen stampers gallery, select one of her cards and do a re-make on the card. I wanted to take part in this to honor Cathleen since she is one of my paper doll friends.
 
I saw this card and decided to make that one mary marsh style. I kept Cathleen's layout and used the same nesties fleur de lis die to cut my shape and the same cuttlebug folder. I changed the colors and used a different stamp set. Since her theme was shoes, I went that route but used ballet shoes.
I used my bow easy to tie this bow. I think its works better with silk ribbon though.

Well, it's late here and I am tired so time to turn off the lights in charmed life land for another day.

card recipe:
stamps: dance (simon says stamp)
paper: su melon mambo, ww
ink: memento black
accessories: nesties fleur de lis, cb ef, pearls, ribbon