I can be terrible about scraps but I happened to find this cat background hiding on my desk that I probably should have dusted off since I’ve had this piece forever. The cat background is material mounted on cardstock, kitty and the other stamped elements are a Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix Cat Chat stamp, die set and embossing folder. All other pieces were from scrap cuttings with the exception of the card base. This will be entered in to the Double D Challenges “Use Your Scraps” challenge.

Then I was struggling to play along with the As You See It Challenge #227 “A Reel Choice” to create a card with your favorite movie as the theme. My cat card movie is Disney’s “Inside Out” which is a computer animated movie about our emotions and how they are controlled. At the end of the movie, during the credits the emotions of dogs and cats are shown. The cats emotions are so funny and typical that I just laugh thinking about cats and especially my PennyLane. I’d like to turn his emotions off at 5 a.m. when he believes he needs to eat breakfast. I bat his paws out of my face and him walking on me and even the little “love” nips I receive. Breakfast is not one minute before 7 a.m. Most days I win but not always. Emotions!!!

Thanks for looking. It was a beautiful day is Pennsylvania. Stay Safe.

Although technically not a graduation card, it is a congratulations on completing 2nd grade in this crazy world of 2020. My card is for our granddaughter Brooke who was very excited for the end of the school year and to be moving onto third grade. The owl represents her school mascot and was perfect to use the GKD Friends Til the End stamps set and the sentiment is from Party On! which was a part of the Journey of the Heart StampTV Kit. The June challenge at Gina K Designs hosted by Donna Idlet is Graduation 2020. I may be stretching the graduation a bit but Brooke loved her card. Clouds stencil by Bonnie, hills are PoppyStamps Stitched Hills dies.

School for our grandson is officially over tomorrow! Such a strange world right now Chase has not been in his classroom since March but has been receiving lessons on line. He’s been getting used to a 4 day week since he finishes all his required work in that amount of time. My card for him was created using Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix “The Journey” which included the stamp set, dies and embossing folder. Using Bonnie’s advice, I inked the embossing folder and “stamped” my background. I decided on a shaker which is the two continents die cut. There’s not much shaking going on though. The sentiment is from GKD’s Oh Boy. So hard to believe that he will be 10 this year and entering 4th grade in the new school year. Fingers crossed that there will be a new school year!

Thanks for looking.

Nothing better than walking in the rain with a pretty umbrella especially when you realize that the end result could be a beautiful rainbow. I fell in love the the SSS Follow the Rainbows kit. The papers are gorgeous and the main image in the stamp set is the umbrella girl. So CASE-ing the SSS illustrations provided with this kit using a piece of this rainbow paper and a second piece of heart patterned paper fulfilled the Just Us Girls Challenge #538 — Wild Card Week Using 2 or more different patterned papers. I stamped and fussy cut the umbrella girl and then stamped and fussy cut the umbrella one more time popping it up and added a sentiment from the same stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Begins with “M” for the Double D Challenges would be my mermaid tail by Julie for Essentials by Ellen stamp set and dies. I stamped my “M” tail in versamark on GKD Ocean Mist cardstock and heat embossed using some Ranger Antiquities Cobalt embossing powder. After die cutting the tail and using the bubbles die to create my stencil, I sponged on some Distress Oxide Salty Ocean ink, added some gem stones and glitter paper bubbles, too. Cute sentiment is from the same stamp set and all was mounted on GKD’s Blue Lagoon cardstock.

Thanks for looking. Have a great day.

I received the bottom card from my girlfriend the other day and yesterday I just learned that her long time neighbor and friend passed away. Since dragonflies are my friend Joy’s soothing image, I decided to CASE the card I received from her as a sympathy card in the loss of her neighbor.

I found the dragonfly dies on Amazon which is a set of two –detailed and outline. After cutting the outline on the front single layer card, I then added the detailed die and embossed in to the inside of the card. Then die cut once more the detailed dragonfly and colored it. With my sticky fingers I glued each individual section to the embossed inside. Then backed the detailed outline with clear transparency sheet. Both dies are the same size and cut nicely. My clouds were made using a SSS cloud stencil and Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass ink. The sentiment is from GKD’s Showtime StampTV Kit Picture It! As I was adding the sentiment I kept on thinking “be straight, be straight”. Whew…it worked without the Misti and a red rubber stamp too.

Thanks for looking. Have a great day and weekend. Stay Safe.

Two totally cute free digis were made available by The Cat’s Pajamas PaperArts stamp company. Their Poochie and Kitty Kats are all too cute. I’m feeling satisfied with the finished cards and clearing one project off my desk. Note: I did clear a tiny section of my desk and blocked the back view….LOL….the mess went right back on top after photo. Thanks to our Stamp Buddy who advised of this freebie.

Thanks for looking. Stay Safe.

Round 2 with gesso. I think I’m focusing too much on the product and results which is way out of my comfort zone. Anyway business at hand, The AYSI challenge for 05.08.20 was a sketch challenge:

and the The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge is one of Birds, Bees, Butterflies which of course I immediately chose butterflies. I used some clear gesso on my text vellum, then stamped the Pretty Pink Posh Beautiful Butterflies stamp set in Versafine black onxy ink. I colored my butterflies with color burst in marsala and rogue with a water brush, adding some dots with the Ice White Pearl Pen. My clouds using my Bonnie cloud stencil were created using Distress Oxide ink in Milled Lavender and Broken China. I liked the light milled lavender and am thinking I should have stopped there, then for good measure tried to add some white gesso through a cloud stencil…..not happening and trimmed that down. My side panel was cut from my favorite DCWV patterned paper pack The Mariposa Stack and layered on some GKD cardstock after using a darice butterfly embossing folder which cannot be seen but I know it’s there. The sentiment is GKD’s Sweet Friend that I cut apart.

I really enjoy playing along with both of these challenges as they are always fun and creative.

The gloves are coming off with this gesso stuff and am definitely open to constructive critique. You won’t hurt my feelings because you are all such good friends. I promise to only cry a little bit…LOL. To my eye it’s messy.

Deal in place — ordered and finally received clear and white gesso and my reward is one fabulous butterfly stencil by our Bonnie. As you buddies know, Bonnie makes the most outstanding backgrounds and mixed media concept cards. I’m not sure if the mixed media will fit me but I do love butterflies. Thank you Bonnie. I’ll be searching your blog and other YouTube videos on what to do with this new to me product. So I taped off all but three butterflies from the stencil and spread on some white gesso. After drying and taping off the two thirds of the card, I used direct ink to paper to create the background. The inks used were GKD’s Key Lime, Ocean Mist and Memento’s Lady Bug. The color challenge PP490 at The Paper Players is to incorporate Melon Mambo, Granny Apple Green and Pool Party.

The AAA Cards clean and simple challenges CAS Game #165 is Up to One Third + optional twist A Repeating Image which is where my three butterflies comes in. Although it’s not the same butterfly there are three.

I used Bonnie’s suggestion of text vellum (not sure if I have the same weight) and then spread some clear gesso over that…..just for good measure!! Oops almost forgot the sentiment is from GKD’s The Giving Tree. Now h ave a great day. Stay Safe.