the rose speaks

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It was a busy Friday & Saturday here at my home.

Ethan (our youngest grandson) came to stay overnight on Thursday. We had such fun with him on Friday.

My hubby took him to the batting cages in the early morning and then we went swimming in the afternoon. My neighbor, Sue, lets us use her pool almost anytime. The water was a bit cool so I didn't go in, but Ethan loved it.

He had a little league game on Friday night. It was one of those marathon games. It took 2 1/2 hours to complete. He did really well when he was up at bat. A single, double and a triple. Then his last at bat was a walk. We were so proud of him.

Today we had a cookout at our church worship leaders home. He had the youth and young adults group there and invited us to join them. It was a relaxing afternoon. I took a salad made with romaine lettuce, blue cheese, cranberries, olives and cucumber. The dressing was good seasons Italian. It was really yummy. I guess everyone else thought so as well since there was very little left.

Now onto my card for today. It was my turn to host at the Sweet 'n Sassy blog. I made a card that I titled "frame it".
I am using a sentiment from the rose blossom set that was released just this month. This set has a beautiful rose image as well as 5 sentiments.



My idea was to show how you can take a sentiment and frame it with dies, embossing folders and patterned paper to make a quick as well as beautiful card.

I cut one of the roses from the patterned paper (Stampin-Up "springtime vintage)) and used it on my sentiment frame (Spellbinders labels 18). I also used a Spellbinders "fancy tags" die.

I added some satin ribbon and a button center with bakers twine. The twine is now available in the Sweet 'n Sassy Shop. This one is pink sorbet.

That's my card and the post for today. Until next time..........

Some other challenges:
1.  The crazy for challenges blog wants us to use twine. I used bakers twine on my button and ribbon.
2.   Speedy the cat's friends challenge wants us to use buttons.
3.  The totally papercrafts challenge wants us to use die-cuts or punches.

home of the free

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Well today was my recovery day after spending Tuesday with my 3 grandsons(lol).

That's why you have kids when you're young. I was there from &:00 am to 8:00 pm and they just wore me out.
I went to bed at 9:15 and slept right though until 7:00 this morning. Oh well, I was completely rested and I get to go back tomorrow.

For my card for today I followed the Wednesday sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week, Korin from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps was our hostess.

She put together an awesome layout for us to work into a card. I decided I was going to make a patriotic card.

I had this great patterned paper in my stash and I decided to stamp some sentiments right on the paper. The sentiments are from "patriotic cocoa". This is a new stamp set just released by Sweet 'n Sassy stamps this month.

I used 3 of the sentiments on this card-2 in each of the corners and on the center panel. On that panel I also used a spellbinders lacey square die and added some bakers twine.

I punched 3 other stars to add to my striped panel to complete my card. I will send this on July 4th to one of our friends who are military vets. Haven't decided who just yet. Maybe i should make a few more so they all get one.  Our vets are certainly deserving of honor.

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

Some other challenges:
1.  The Paper Shelter blog wants us to use punches & dies.
2.  Make it Monday blog is anything goes. It's a weekly linky party.
3.  Stamps & fun = Creativity blog has a holiday challenge. My holiday is the USA July 4th celebration.

color challenge #327

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. This is the first day of my summer schedule. Yeah, you are not supposed to have schedules in retirement (lol)!!

My grandsons are out of school for the summer and I will be taking care of them 2 days a week.  So I am actually putting my blog post together on Monday night.

It will be a long day tomorrow because Aidin has a baseball game at 6:00. So I don't expect to be back home before 8:00 pm and that's leaving at 6:30 am. Oh well, the things I do for my grands!!
It will be a fun summer with them even with the long days.

Now onto my card for today. I made this one for the color challenge #327 on splitcoaststampers. Vicki is our hostess this week and she chose a great trio of colors with old olive, chocolate chip and very vanilla.                        

My card uses some Stampin-Up old olive patterned paper as my background layer. I also used the Stampin-Up top note die to cut the chocolate chip layer and then I did another in vanilla and embossed this panel with the cuttlebug embossing f older“kassie’s brocade”.


The vanilla top note die is cut 2x. It’s a trick I learned from Mary Fish at stampin pretty impressions blog.

For my tulip vase I used the spellbinders fancy tags and cut it in half. The tulips are from jolee’s and the rhinestones are hero arts. My birthday sentiment is from the Stampin-Up set "wow flowers" and I used the large oval punch to cut it out. And that completed my card for this challenge.

Some other challenges:
1.  There's magic in the air blog wants us to pick 2 elements: Flowers, Ribbons, Pearls/Gem and/or die cut
2.  Woodware USA wants us to make a birthday card.
3.  Top Tip Tuesday blog has an open challenge


Time to close this post. God bless ..............

card recipe:
stamps: wow flowers

paper: su choc chip, old olive, very vanilla, old olive dsp
ink: choc chip
accessories: su top note die, spellbinders fancy tags, su oval punch, jolee's stickers, hero arts rhinestones

craft your passion challenge

Happy Monday morning and thanks for visiting the charmed life blog. It's time for another craft your passion challenge. I am guest designing with this team for the month of June.

The challenge this week is "it's magical". For this challenge I was given a digi image from Lauretta to turn into a card.

I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I added some angel wings shimmerz to the rainbow and the dress. I found this in my stash. I didn't even remember buying it (lol). I also used Stampin-Up dazzling diamonds glitter on her wings.

I tried a new ribbon technique that  I found on splitcoaststampers. It's the ruffled ribbon border and I used pink satin ribbon for the oval border. I also used some white ribbon and lace and made a bow with a button & pearl center.

I went back to the stash and found some felt flowers -also from Stampin-Up to complete my card.

I hope you will play along with the challenge this week at craft your passion. There is always a prize up for grabs.

rose for a friend

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We had a great day here in Pittsburgh. The weather was beautiful and the humidity is on the move out for a few days.

We went over to my nieces for a family get together. A fun day with lots of good conversation and delicious food. There is another graduation party next week and then a picnic in July. Love family time.
Tomorrow we celebrate my mother-in-laws 82nd birthday. It will be another good time and she will so love all of us being together.

Before I went out today, I made a card for some challenges.
The Saturday inspiration challenge took us to a really great site. We visited the fabulous galleries of Dali's Decals. This site has some amazing decals for your walls. I may go shopping for some.

I loved looking through the site and found a couple of pieces that helped me make my card. The first is the Victorian flourishes. I used the cuttlebug embossing folder- kassies brocade- that looks just like these flourishes.

The 2nd piece I chose is the roses & vines decal. I wanted to use my Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps  rose image and do some water coloring. The rose image & sentiment are from the rose blossom set. It was just released this month.

My card layout is from this week's Sweet Stop Sketch #112. I added a button and some embroidery floss to complete my card.  

Some other challenges:
1.  The Totally Gorjuss blog has a flower power challenge.
2.  Wee memories has an anything goes challenge #59.
3.  Inspire Me fridays blog always has an anything goes challenge #10.

Time to close this post. So until next time, God bless......................


card recipe:
stamps: rose blossom (sweet 'n sassy stamps)

paper: su lovely lilac, ww, watercolor paper, lasting impressions dp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: cb ef kassies brocade, su button, watercolor crayons
techniques: watercoloring

Creative Belli Challenge #119

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It's time for another Creative Belli Challenge. I wasn't able to play in the last challenge because of a family emergency. So I was excited to take part in this latest challenge.

Challenge #119 - Branches


Pull out your stamps of branches and ink them up, paint your chipboard branches, cut a small branch off a tree in your yard, or cut out some branches from designer papers, whatever tickles your fancy.
Have fun adding "branches" to your project!

Remember the spirit of the Belli challenges is to encourage you to use your OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments! So don't go out and buy new stuff look through your stash and use what's there.


Everyone is welcome to play along! Challenge a stamping friend!! Just follow the theme and use a branch somewhere on your project.

Check out what the rest of the design team has created for some wonderful inspiration.

My card is a pretty simple one. I made it at our stamp club meeting recently.

I took a live branch from a flower arrangment that I received. Interesting story about this arrangment. We had a death in the family and this arrangment was one of many that came to the funeral home. It was so big and had so many beautiful flowers I brought it home and made 5 other arrangments out of it. The funeral home throws them out if you don't take them.

The florist put these branches in with the flowers as a decorative item. I didnt think they were alive. But the one that was in mine bloomed. It seemed like a sign from the Lord about new life. Our loved one received salvation on his death bed.

Well onto the details of my card. I used the Stampin-Up bird punch and placed it in a scalloped cirle, I used another circle punch to cut out the embossed blue layer. Some saffron ribbon and pearl embellies completed this card.

It's back to the wedding invites I am working on. I expect to finish them today. I will photo and display them on my blog after the bride gets delivery of them.

I had to show this picture of my sweet granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy. She is 6 months old now. I sent her this pinwheel card recently and as you can see she loves it. Here is the original post.

card recipe:
paper: stampin-up saffron, nqn, ww
accessories: sizzix ef, saffron ribbon, pearls from stash, 2 step bird punch, scallop circle punch,

star gazer lily

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Can you believe that it's June already. I feel like I blinked and May zipped on by.

We have had a great start to the spring & soon summer season. Beautiful warm days and lots of sunshine. Although today it is supposed to rain and it looks very ominous outside right now.

My grandsons will be finished with school in the next few days. I will be over there 2 days a week taking care of them and getting them to all their camps and practices etc.

It's always a good bonding time for us during the summer.  I am creating memories for them that will be carried to adulthood.

Today they have a half day so I have to get over there by 12:00. I wanted to get this card up that I made for the color challenge #326 on splitcoaststampers.



regal rose,  pink pirouette, melon mambo

 This week Peggy McCurry is our hostess and she chose a great trio of colors. All in pinks we are this week- melon mambo, regal rose and pink pirouette.  

I decided to use a start gazer lily image since the color of this flower is like melon mambo. A vibrant shade of pink.

The image is from the rubber cafe. It is actually a tiger lily. I bought this stamp because I am making wedding invites and this is the flower the bride is carrying in her bouquet.

I stamped it in melon mambo ink and colored it with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I did some fussy cutting and layered it on a melon mambo labels 18 die cut from spellbinders.

My designer paper is from Stampin-Up and its a pink pirouette shade.

The sentiment is from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps - the rose blossom set. Added some pink & white ribbon with a fabric button to complete this card.

Time to run for me. So until next time - God bless...........

Some other challenges:
1.  A spoonful of sugar blog has a here comes summer challenge. We are to use summer images & colors.
2.  The craft room has an anything goes challenge.
3.   Stampin' Sisters in Christ want us to use something new on our project. A new product or a new color combo etc. I used both of these. My image is new and I have never used this color combo before.

card recipe:
stamps: tiger lily (rubber cafe), rose blossom (sweet 'n sassy stamps)

paper: su regal rose, pink pirouette, melon mambo, ww, pink pirouette dsp
ink: melon mambo, memento tuxedo black
accessories: ribbon, su fabric button, white ribbon, spellbinders labels 18, corner rounder, bow easy

craft your passion

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. I am excited to announce that I was asked to be the guest designer on the Craft Your Passion blog.

I have played along in many of their challenges. Lisa, the guest designer coordinator, sent me an email and asked if I was interested in joining them for the month of June.

They sent me some digi images to work with and this is the first card I created. The image is from CocoDingo. I decided to make it into a sympathy card. I stamped the image and colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I punched a frame from spellbinder labels 18.

The background patterned paper is from Stampin-Up's "parisian breeze" collection. My ribbon treatment is baja breeze seam binding also from Stampin-Up and I added a ribbon flower to the center.

My sympathy is a stamped image from hero arts. That completes this card and my post for today. I am still working on wedding invites and it's down to crunch time now. I have to have them finished in the next couple of days.  So until next time...............

A few other challenges:
1.  Card cupids blog wants us to use more than 3 layers. I have done that.
2.  Catch the bug challenge has an anything goes this week.

you're my hero

Happy Thursday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We had a wonderful late spring day here in Pittsburgh. Sunny, low humidity a nice breeze was  blowing. One of those near perfect days.

I was working on the wedding invites. I really made a lot of progress today and that made me happy. I have another friend coming over tomorrow to lend me a hand. It should just be a few more days till completion. That makes me very happy.

I had a few pictures sent to me today from my daughter-in-law of Phoenix Daisy. She is being introduced to solid food now.

She had her first tastes of bananas which she loved. Tomorrow they are going to give her some rice cereal. She is just getting too big too fast-almost 6 months old.

Well onto my card for today. This one I made for the sketch challenge on splitcoaststampers. The sketch was a little tricky this week but once I figured out the panels I loved the look.  

This cute little mouse is a new stamp set just released from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps- patriotic cocoa. I stamped him on watercolor paper with memento ink and then used watercolor crayons and an aqua brush. I was happy how it turned out. 

I cut him out and used pop dots for some dimension. The patterned paper is from creative imaginations and also Stampin-Up.  My sentiment is also part of the patriotic cocoa set. This will be a father's day card for my hubby. Yes, he is my hero.

It's late and time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So good night and God bless.......

Some other challenges:

1. Hanna and friends challenge blog wants us to use blue & white.
2. Some odd girl blog has a manly challenge.
3. Stamp Insanity has an anything goes challenge.





phoenix  daisy & mommy 5-31-11

missing you

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. The humidity has dropped back for awhile.

I was able to turn the air conditioner off and let the breeze waft through my house. We are having such nice late afternoon and evening temperatures.

I am still working on the wedding invites for the young couple from church. We are down to crunch time now.
I have help coming Thursday and Friday from 2 of my good friends, Elaine & Aidee.
They are both nurses and come on their days off. What a blessing they are to me!!

So now onto my card. This one was made for the color challenge #325 on splitcoaststampers. I was the hostess this week. It was such fun. I was able to select the color choices for the challenge.

My selection were some bright summer colors. Rich razzleberry, daffodil delight and pacific point were my choices.

These came right from Stampin-Up's color coach. They called it their creative set. It gave some of the participants fits though.
Oh well, that is why it's called a challenge. It's supposed to take you out of your comfort zone.

Since my colors have such a summer feel, I decided to make a pinwheel. I purchased this die from "lil inker designs". It came with a stamp set with the perfect sentiments to match the pinwheel. The layout for my card is an idea that I saw here.

The pinwheel is made from patterned paper from Stampin-Up's "razzleberry lemonade" collection. To the center I added a button made from a sizzix die and then an ice cream button on top of that.
I used a martha stewart border punch on the pacific point layer.


The sentiment is stamped on spellbinders ribbon tag trio die and I added some rick rack to this. The background is a cuttlebug embossing folder and that completes my card.

Some other challenges:
1. The ABC Challenge is "v" for variety-use 3 different type of embellishments. I used an ice cream button, rick rack, and a border punch.
2.  The crafts & me challenge is to "punch it out". I used a border punch and several dies.

card recipe: Stamps: lil inker pinwheel sentiments

paper: su pacific point, daffodil delight, ww, razzleberry lemonade dsp
ink: memento tuxedo black
accessories: lil inker die,sizzix button die, ice cream button, rick rack, ms border punch, cb ef