The theme for with the Make the Cards Challenge #62 group is School or Teacher. OMG our grandson is heading to 6th grade and middle school on Monday. OMG!!! How quickly time as flown by for this to happen. So proud of Chase and all his accomplishments. It is getting more difficult to make cards for pre-teens so I opted to go with his school mascot and his school initials. Stinger the Hornet was printed from the school’s website on both copy paper and vellum and glued together for more depth of color. I then die cut Stinger using Spellbinders circle nestabilities die and die cut a green circle using GKD’s circle dies. These two sets work nicely together. The speech bubble and sentiment is als Gina K Designs Let’s Talk stamp set. The school colors are green and gold and the letters were die cut from Concord & 9th’s Double Cut Alphabet dies. The background was embossed with Tim Holtz “The Journey” embossing folder which is a combination embossing folder, stamps and dies.

Very timely challenge and a fun card to make. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and YES, I’m still staying STAY COOL.

P.S. I think my letters even look straight!!! LOL

Wheels! Is the interesting challenge with the Double D Challenges group. Since I’m hoping that the hot weather will begin to lessen, I’ll try to help it along by creating a Fall themed card. My wheels are on my wheelbarrow and pumpkin load. I stamped, colored and fussy cut the Prickley Pear image and popped it up on my ink blended focal panel after stamping some wheat from Gina K Designs Autumn Splendor Showtime StampTV kit. Sentiment is Taylored Expressions Wheatfield Dreams.

Another great mood board for inspiration from Double D.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool.

Embossing folder anything goes with a twist of Pets/Dogs/Cats is the challenge with Can You Handle the Pressure group. After ink blending some colors on my heavy weight cardstock, sprayed lightly with water and using the SimonSaysStamp Circle Rings embossing folder through my Big Shot. I cannot get enough of C.C. Designs Grouchy Pets stamp and die set. For this card, I decided on the regal and a littly snooty poodle who just came from the beauty salon.

It’s always a fun challenge with this group. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool.

It was an exciting and very long Friday waiting for the arrival of our newest grandson. As well as being emotional about his arrival and after knowing everyone is well, this was a struggle to find just the right card design to celebrate this little one’s arrival. Patterned paper is from my stash and sentiment is GKD’s It’s The Little Things and the main image is an older Inkadkinadoo mounted red rubber stamp.

And of course Big Sister Alexandra who is all of 4 years old needed a special card too. Two giraffes, some butterflies, star layering stencil, Spellbinder’s star dies and Concord & 9th Double Cut Alphabet dies completed this card.

We are in love and are anxiously waiting for the ok to visit from Mommy & Daddy (our son).

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and Stay Cool.

My card today will be entered into the Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge #21. Using the inspiration mood board, I focused on JOY image and used my favorite Memory Box Snowflake Joy die for my focal point. Instead of the snowflake, I opted to stamp and white heat emboss an ornament from Gina K Designs Season’s Greetings stamp/die set. The background cascade is a Gina K Designs/SimonSaysStamp STAMPtember set and the snowflake background design was heat embossed in silver and the top section was clear heat embossed.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay COOL.

My card today will be entered into the August Anything Goes Summer for the final summer season challenge with The Four Seasons Challenge. I was inspired by the colorful mood board for this challenge and decided it must be Happy Hour somewhere with my very colorful martinis. Although I do realize that martinis are not “umbrella” drinks, I could not resist adding some more color to this card. Sentiments are from Gina K Designs Lazy Days of Summer, The images are from a stamp set named DMD Happy Hour which was probably in clearance from one of the local big box stores. Patterned paper was from my stash and just added more of summertime fun. So I added a little bow because the martini glasses looked like they needed something more…so the bow is the more!!

Inside sentiment is: 1 Martini, 2 Martini, 3 Martini, Floor….lol!

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay Cool.

Tranquil Turquoise is the August Colorful Options challenge this month. Love turquoise, teal, blues/green colors. I even like the soft gray with the turquoise which along with white are my neutral colors for this project.

Since it’s so stinking hot, I had more time to play with layering stamps and was really happy with the way they turned out. The stamp set I used was Gina K Designs Layered Carnations from the her Watercolor Spring kit. This kit sold out so quickly that Gina actually restocked for those who wanted it. My flowers were stamped in GKD’s Turquoise Sea, blue Lagoon and Tranquil Teal and my leaves in Soft Stone and Turquoise Sea. I lightly sponged soft stone over portions of the Bodacious Blooms stencil from the same kit and did direct to paper for the layering panel. Taylored Expressions sentiment and die was stamped in the Turquoise Sea ink. Gosh I was very matchy-matchy on this card.

Awesome inspiration mood board….I definitely do not remember a turquoise can of coke but look at those gorgeous colors.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool.

I really love to try new techniques suggested by our Buddies and to be inspired by their makes. Today, Lisa K posted a Faux Wood Burning Technique that looked very interesting. Lisa’s card was gorgeous. After watching the YouTube video Lisa linked to in her blog post, I got to work and this card was my third attempt. The first time I used SSS dark chocolate and after multiple stamping did not get much movement of the ink after brushing liberally with water. Second attempt I used GKD dark chocolate ink and maybe I added too much water because it turned more pinkish than brown and the image lines were very blurred and sentiment was a mess. On to the third and final attempt, which was Tim Holtz Distress ink in Walnut Stain. I figured the water brush would definitely move this ink. I did use watercolor paper on all three attempts but maybe I should have used the smooth side. To add to the wood grain look, I embossed my Hero Arts woodgrain fancy die then added a little more ink and waterbrushing over top of it.

Thanks so much for sharing this technique, Lisa, maybe I’ll try your alcohol markers on vellum techinque. I too enjoy Lisa Curcio.

Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay cool!

Today’s card will be entered in the the Lighthouse challenge with the Double D Challenges group. My striped background was inked using Sugar Pea’s Skinny Stripes Stencil and masking off and alternating Gina K Designs Powder Blue and Kraft ink. After stamping and fussy cutting my Gina K Designs By the Sea lighthouse, a Spellbinder’s classic oval was die cut and I sponged some “water” and “light” from my lighthouse and of course the gulls that are required for all nautical scenes. I found some leather like ribbon from my stash but without a sentiment I needed something else so I went on a search of my stamps and located GKD’s Ship to Shore stamp set for my wheel. Better, I believe. I’m hoping our other Buddies join in this challenge. I do know that Johanna already made a fabulous nautical card for this challenge.

Thanks for another fun challenge and inspiring mood board. Oooh that bottom right red lighthouse with the blue cloudy sky is fabulous. I wonder why I didn’t choose that one. LOL. Who knows.

Maybe two more days of hazy, hot and humid in Pennsylvania before temperatures give us a break. Thanks for stopping in for a peek. I appreciate you and your time. Take care, be safe and stay COOL.