See Ya Later! FMS125

I am terrible at good byes so I thought a few light-hearted farewell cards could help me out when needed. Those Zoo Babies were still hanging around so I put them to work flanking the sentiment from See Ya Later. The squiggles are stamped with the mountain top stamp from Map It Out.  And of course I have an alligator story for you..........

During Easter break we always took our kids to Florida to visit my parents and usually spent one day at Camp Holly. We would take the air boat ride up the St. John's River, through the grasses in search of alligators - scary and fun! One year our tour guide cruised to a stop and told us to be very quiet and we drifted a bit.  He was kneeling at the front of the boat and all of a sudden went forward into the water up to his waist. He popped back up grinning with a baby alligator in his hands.  Before I even had time to react he handed me that alligator.  I don't know who was more afraid.....me or that little critter.....his heart was beating so fast!  He was tiny but already had quite the set of teeth! And you know what we all said when that baby alligator was released and swam away from us........................

My mom isn't looking too thrilled about that little critter being so close to her!

Narelle has a wide open sketch for us to play with this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

                                        

There's Something About Mary.......

I am delighted to be the Guest Stamper on Mary Fish's blog today! Five years ago I "found" Mary on line and called her to order two packs of Certainly Celery - we had a great chat. Two weeks later she called me back to make sure my order arrived and we chatted some more.  Before I knew it I was a Demo and could order my own Certainly Celery!  Pretty soon there was another chat and I was hearing words like blog, feedburner and posts......and before long Stampin' Seasons came into being!  And then I learned about challenges during another chat......and wow I was on the PPA Design Team! And who knew I would end up at Convention or Leadership?  Mary did! She is a terrific mentor and friend and has really helped me grow creatively........looking forward to the next five years!

I used a circle framelit to make a stencil so I could sponge Pistachio Pudding ink in the background. The flower from Happy Watercolor is embossed in gold and popped up on dimensionals.  But my very favorite detail on this card is the gold cord!  I was delighted to find some included in in my free SAB card kit!  

My design was inspired by this great sketch at Seize the Sketch!

1,000,001 Thanks - PPA192

I am loving the look of embossed silver on vellum!  The back center panel was embossed using Gorgeous Grunge and then layered over the flowers.  The sentiment was also embossed on vellum but backed by a piece of Whisper White to make it stand out.  This card reminds me of my back yard.......it is all silvery, sparkly and white......but underneath it all somewhere are flowers just waiting to make their grand entrance in the spring!  

Hope you play along with our sketch this week at Pals Paper Arts!

Perfect Blend....FMS124

Coffee and friends......the perfect blend........couldn't agree more........well except that I am a tea drinker..........

The panels were given texture by using white embossing paste and a Tim Holtz spatter/drink ring stencil........more homework from my stencil class....  :)

Karren has a perfectly blended sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Laugh In With the Zoo Babies - FMS123

Quite often the card I end up with is not the card I envisioned when I started.  My plan was to dangle monkeys off the twine above the sentiment.  But as I was playing around with the circles visions of Laugh In came to mind. That show always made me laugh! I loved when those wacky characters popped out of wall panels making crazy comments!  I can still see Ruth Buzzi's hairnet and hear Goldie's giggle.  So the monkey stamp was put away. Instead you see "Goldie" popping out to pass the news of a baby boy up to "Buzzi!"  I bet Artie Johnson would find it all verrrrry interesting..........

Jen Brum has a clever design for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

My Favorite Things...Pals February Blog Hop

The Pals are sharing the love in this month's blog hop!  We are featuring products we love from Stampin' Up! If you hopped here from Marlene's blog you are right on track!  

Framelits so shiny and polymer stamps so witty,
Bright designer paper and vellum so pretty,
Great big brown boxes brought right to my door
These are a few Stampin' Up! things I adore!


Some of my favorite things used in today's card:

Framelits - Envelope Liners, On Film, Label Card Thinlit
Photopolymer Stamp Set - Countless Sayings 2
Designer Series Paper - Watercolor Wonder, Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum, Red Glimmer Paper, Silver Foil
Card Stock - Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight
Accessories - Cute Clip, Silver Ribbon, Banner Punch Arrows Embossing Folder

Now head on over to Just Fun Stamping and see what the amazingly talented Katy McGloin has in store for you!
                                     

                                             



The complete blog hop list:

1. Kerry Willard Bray at  Peonies and Paper Chains
2. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
3. Janice Warhank at  Janice's Papercraft Playground
4. Shannon Hokanson at Paper Works
5. Michelle Gleeson at  StampinMojo
6. Marlene Heringer at So Many Toys So Little Time
7. Linda Callahan at  Stampin' Seasons
8. Katy McGloin at  Just Fun Stamping 
9. Susan Itell at  Simple Stampin
10. Nicole Watt at  Pixel Maven's Retreat
11. Rae Harper-Burnet at  Wild West Paper Arts
12. Sherrie Gross at  Stampin Sunshine
13. Mary Fish at  Stampin' Pretty
14. Peggy Noe at  prettypapercards.com
15. Donna Kopenski at  craftycardmaker
16. Maggie Mata at  Maggie Made Cards
17. Natalie Bradley at Natalie Bradley Events
18. Diane Roberts at  Score at Four and a Quarter
19. Lisa Ann Bernard at  Queen B Creations
20. Jackie Diediker at Stampin Jackie
21. Alison Bilohlavek at ribbon and brad
22. Kelly DeTommaso at  Kelly's Creative Corner
23. Martie Pollard at The Crafty Bandit
24. Angie Blake at Angie's Musings
25. Dawn Tidd at  Tiddbits from Dawn
26. Shirley Sumption at  Look at my Cute Stuff
27. Debbie Mageed at Secret Stamper

Rose Red is Not Just for Flowers.....PPA190, HSS178

The hardwood background stamp made the perfect backdrop for my card today.  I decided to pin up a few flowers since from the looks of things outside it's going to be several weeks before I see a flower or two in the yard.  Miss E seems perfectly happy with that..........and seems to have joined in with the color challenge in her own way!

There's a sweet color challenge at Pals Paper Arts this week and a wonderful sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments!



                                         





                                              

Stencil Lesson #2 - FMS122

Day two of my stencil class featured embossing paste and ways to use it.  I had never even heard of embossing paste and I was intrigued!  I kept my card simple today to showcase the paste in the background.  It was so easy to use - just spread it over the stencil and let it dry!  It adds such great texture to the background.  Stay tuned for Lessons 3 and 4!

Cindy has blocked out a great sketch for this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Polka Dot Parade

Lots of inspiration for my traditional Valentine this today! Miss Emma attended a performance of Sesame Street Sings this week.  It was her very first time in a real theater watching a stage show - she was mesmerized!

And it was the perfect occasion to wear her polka dotted Grover dress!

I love the red and white polka dotted inspiration from Fusion this week!

Stencil Me In For the Next Class!

I am not very artsy but oh how I wish I were!  I have taken accordion lessons, piano lessons, organ lessons, tap dance lessons and sang in choirs - never solo!  I have taken several decorating classes and have yet to pick a room color that I like the first time.  My husband knows going in he will be painting the room twice before we are through.  Once he stayed up all night wallpapering our kitchen and I started pulling it off the walls the very next day - true story!  I am hopeless but I keep at it.  When I received a bundle of homemade SU cards as a gift I thought "wow wonder if I can do this?"  And so started my adventure in attending SU workshops and classes.   I am still behind the times on artsy stamping techniques but I am always up for a class.  One year at Convention Ann Schach was going to teach a few of us some basic brayering techniques and asked us all to bring ink and a brayer.  Everyone brought an ink pad and a brayer.......I brought an ink refill bottle and a brayer. Definitely hopeless......

But when my FMS pal Jen Mitchell said "Let's take an on line stencil class" I was game!  The class was terrific and I have been working on my homework.  Today's card was done following a basic technique from Lesson 1.  I simply shaded the stencil first in a lighter color (Soft Sky) then brought in the darker color (Island Indigo) and blended. The embossed vellum lets the colors come through in a muted tone.  Homework Lesson #2 coming soon........ 

This card was entered in Chupa's Case Study Challenge 176 and is a sample in my Creative Crew Gallery as well.