Treat Yourself! FMS285

I am back from Florida just in time to sneak this card into the FMS gallery!  I'll be putting a gift card in it for an upcoming birthday in May.  In the meantime it is time to get back into the routine. My suitcase is still sitting in the upstairs hall - not unpacked yet!  Think I am still in beach mode......not a bad mode to be in.....soooo relaxing.......

My talented friend Amy has a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!

Stamp Set: City Streets by Sunny Studio

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Black, Smoky Slate, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight

Fusion - Musical Butterfly

Took a bit of a break so I could enjoy this view in Cocoa Beach.  It was great to get away from a damp cold spring up north.  Going south the week after spring break is the best - no crowds and lots of sunshine!

So I was inspired to go all out summer on my card for Fusion....lots of bright distress oxide ink colors and a diecut proclaiming Summer!  Hope you join us!

Stamp Set: Blissful Butterflies (Pretty Pink Posh)

Paper:  Whisper White, Sweet Sugarplum

Ink:  Distress Oxide, Lemon Lime Twist, Sweet Sugarplum, Versamark

Diecut: Painted Summer (SSS)

Technique: Heat Embossing, Emboss Resist

Sending Prayers....FMS284

I am thinking about sunshine today so my flowers had to be yellow!  We are headed south for a few days to enjoy the Florida sun!  I am hoping by the time we get back next week things will be turning green.  We had Easter dinner at our favorite restaurant on the lake and this was our view after a sudden downpour.  Beautiful rainbow but no leaves in sight!

My inkmaster friend Karren has a great sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Hope you play along!


                                         

Stamp Sets:  Amazing You - Altenew, Jumbo Stripes - SSS
Paper - Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Floral Boutique DSP
Ink - Wild Wasabi, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy

Stamp Review Crew: Cool Treats

The Stamp Review Crew is featuring Cool Treats this week.  It has been a beautiful Easter Sunday today - perfect for ice cream treats with sprinkles.  I am a total chocolate sprinkles kind of gal!  My dad was from Holland and Dutch people love their chocolate sprinkles....it's what's for breakfast!  Yep - chocolate sprinkles on toast or on bread and butter - yum!  I would gladly stop in at my grandmother's for breakfast but never for lunch.  She often made snert for lunch which is a thick green pea soup.....shudder.....that's a whole 'nother post......

So enjoy our Cool Treats Hop.....if you are on track you just enjoyed some treats on Yapha's blog.

If you are ready to move on head over to my friend Dawn's blog.  She always has something wonderful in store!

Stamp Set:  Cool Treats

Paper:  Tasty Treats DSP, Whisper White

Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Watermelon Wonder, Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party

Fusion - Truck Bouquet

I live in a rural area of upstate New York so I see plenty of pick up trucks every day.....but I have never seen one with a beautiful cascade of flowers spilling out of the window!  I used both the inspiration photo and the sketch for my Fusion card this week.  I tinted some embossing paste to provide a backdrop to my simple flowers done in pink and red.

My son and his girlfriend just returned from visiting her family in the Philippines.  She is from a very small village way up north.....also a very rural area but oh so different from our countryside.  Some nearby islands are so remote that a season of Survivor was filmed on one of them!  I love this picture of their lunch on one of those islands.  It is rice, pork chunks and mini lobsters arranged on fan leaves with bananas for dessert.  But note the drink - Coca Cola~!  

Pick the sketch or use the picture - or fuse them together!

Stamp Sets:  Dragonfly Dreams, Grateful Bunch

Ink:  Soft Sky, Smoky Slate, Real Red, Melone Mambo, Flirty Flamingo

Card Stock: Smoky Slate, Pear Pizzazz

Playing Around - FMS283

I had fun playing around with die cuts on this card yesterday. At the same time Mother Nature was definitely not playing around up at the lake. The lake started to thaw this week and there was some open water at the beach.  But as the ice broke apart in the center huge ice floes were set free.  One came sailing into our bay and skidded right up onto the beach smashing all the docks in its path.  The power of that ice was amazing!

That is not open water in the picture - it is part of the massive ice field.  Open water is waaaaay in the distance.

Our lake has a dam on one end and the water level is high in the spring and falls throughout the summer so maintaining a dock is difficult as the water level changes. We keep our boat at a nearby marina but every year we beg the Big Guy to put in our own dock and he says "No - the water level changes too much and it could get crushed by ice in the spring!"  So as we looked at our neighbors' docks yesterday I could definitely hear "I told you so" in the breeze......

My talented friend Jen Brum designed a sweet sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  Hope you play along!

Stamp Sets:  Happy by Hero Arts

Stylish Stems Framelits by SU

Falling in Love DSP by SU

Say What? FMS282

Ever have one of those days?  Mine started yesterday with a phone call from my mother's assisted living.  I was told my mother was in a bad way and was headed in an ambulance to the ER.  As I am throwing on clothes the health aide is telling me in more detail about her condition and I finally said, 

"But I am there every day......I can't believe she deteriorated so fast."  

And the aide said, "You are here every day??  Oh wait is this Linda?"  

To which I replied "Yes it is."

And she said "Oh I've called the wrong person.....your mother is fine!" and hung up.......

That's one way to jump start your day!

After that call I decided I definitely needed to create something fun!  Cecile designed such a delightful sketch for us this week at Freshly Made Sketches that I just had to make an Easter card for Emma with it.  She's been busy working on a few Easter projects of her own with her pal Corduroy.

And my friends at the Paper Players have an Easter Bunny theme this week!

Stamp Sets:  Hoppiness (Gertrude Steiner), Little Cuties (SU)

Stamp Review Crew - Weather Together

The Stamp Review Crew is featuring Weather Together this week.  I did a Soft Sky wash with an aquapainter to add a subtle background behind the umbrella. Daffodil Delight and Watermelon Wonder markers were used for the flowers.......and true confession......I broke out the Wild Wasabi Blendabilities to fill in the umbrella.  I still love how they color!

And just a quick shot of someone who brightens my day.......Grover got to go along to the grocery store this afternoon!

If you missed Holly's wonderful work head on back.........

Otherwise your next stop is with my oh-so-talented friend Ann Schach!

  My layout is based on the sketch this week from CAS(e) this Sketch!