What's on My Kitchen Counter

It's Birthday Card time at Pattie's Creations ! I made one with the Toaster with Toasts image and one with a Freebie card hand that was available on the Challenge Blog a few months ago (Pattie posts a free image every month - right now there is a cute Gecko image - see the tab at the top of the blog that says Freebies). Come join in the fun! Hugz!

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge is Niagara Falls - one of my favorite places! Here are the awesome inspiration pics: I chose the first picture and went with the fun fall colors. My Mom is giving this to a friend of hers battling cancer so I put a sentiment that I knew she would love. I used MFP's Fall Apples set. I also tried the fireworks picture too. This one is rather like a science fair experiment. I stenciled some water color on my watercolor paper and then dabbed on some distress ink. I sprayed that with goose bumps and heated it (to dry it faster). My paper started bubbling at this stage - super fun! Then I water colored the MFP Medallion stamp and stamped it on the paper. It didn't look as good as I wanted so I covered the wet paint with gold ep and heated it. Then my image started really bubbling. I then stamped a sentiment from the set. IRL this is so glittery. My Mom wanted this one too so it is on its way to one of her many friends

This weekend I did another page in Allie's Freshman Scrapbook. I decided to try some water colors and dug out my sewing machine I got for Christmas. For inspiration, I used the Scraplift Challenge on SCS and cased Val's page HERE plus the CSI#124 where I picked butterflies, glitter and watercolor plus the required colors and a bit of glitter on my journaling. In this picture, Allie and her "sisters" were getting ready to do some pumpkin carving - love the picture. I had Allie go through all the remaining pictures and tell me which ones she absolutely wanted me to include. I could see the end of the tunnel and was getting pretty excited. Then I realized I had not printed any of her Spring formal pictures. A few days later she announced she decided to start dating Jud (the guy I have always wanted her to date), took up paddle-boarding, went to the beach, went hiking.... so now it is looking like I have a lot more to go. LOL! Hugz!!!!

The Squigglefly challenge this week is soooo easy: Square Cards! It is so easy, I did two! I used two fun new images by James Horvath Cheer II and Soccer Kick : I gave the one above to my niece yesterday - her Mom said it looked just like her. Inside this one says, Hoping you Kick that Bug - Get Well Soon. Come join us - hugz!!!

I am still having fun with Water Colors! Splitcoast Stampers has a monthly challenge for Fan Club Members and this month the challenge is Prom. I have been intending to join in so when I saw the butterfly challenge on Aurora Wings I knew I could cover them both with the Venetian Mask image available at Aurora Wings. I also joined in the MIX challenge, the Technique Lovers Challenge and the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS today too. I cased THIS gorgeous card by Peggy (jasonw1). The MIX challenge was to make faux tiles and the Technique Lovers Challenge was to use your embossing folders as stamps. Fun ways to use water colors! Hugz!

The MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge this week is Bicycles and Bouquets: Here is my card inspired by those gorgeous purple flowers: My images are all MFP: the basket out of Fall Apples , the tag from the Holiday Tag set, and the flowers from the Lots of Words set.

This week my kitchen counter has been covered in watercolor supplies and paper. I saw so many wonderful cards done by students in the Watercolor for CardMakers classes that I decided to sign up myself. Here are my creations from classes 1-6 (I combined them into 3 cards). I had lots of attempts - but these are the only ones I am willing to share - LOL! I love, love, love the classes and encourage you to take them if you get a chance. Class 1&2 - Watercolor backgrounds: I used watercolor paints and a Prima stencil on this one. I learned that a smaller brush is not a good idea when doing color washes. Class 3&4 - Watercolor Stamping I learned not to keep stamping when everything is wet but I still like how it came out. Class 5&6 - Watercoloring Stamped Images I used SU! Fabulous Florets images and Tim Holtz Distress Inks - I really like how this came out. I watercolored my rolled roses too. Fun stuff - hope you are having a fab weekend! Hugz!

Time for the MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge and the wonderfully fun pictures that Shirley found to inspire us this week: Here is my card using the Huge Blooms MFP stamp set . I hand cut my feathers in case you couldn't tell (LOL). Come join in the fun! Hugz!

Squigglefly Challenge this week is all about cupcakes - one of my favorite things! I used a new image from the Squigglefly store called Joey's Got Spunk (a Cheryl Grant Alger image) and Cupcake with Sprinkles (a Fawn Palmer image). The Cupcake image was free on the Squigglefly Facebook page a few months ago and I love how happy it looks. Grab a cupcake and join the challenge this week. Hugz!

Happy Mother's Day! I had a wonderful day! Woke up early and did two more pages in Allie's Scrapbook (see them below), an early breakfast with my parents, my sister, and Kenny (I had steak and eggs - yum) plus church, then Allie and I made some pasta with sausage and wine and then made some fruit shortcakes (yes, I splurged - it is Mother's day after all). I ended the day finishing up a pretty flower card. The two scrapbook pages I made for Allie's book were done with CSI's Case #122 which is a sketch. For evidence I picked the following: crystal, flowers, tags, circles, cursive and for testimony I picked cursive journaling. The colors are mint, seafoam green, and peach/orange (my interpretation of the colors). The pictures on these pages are from a fundraiser Allie's Sorority did this past Fall. Pledges from the various Fraternities dressed up and competed for the title of AOII Queen. Allie did the make-up on several of the guys (the ones in the picture

Sitting on my kitchen counter this morning is a bamboo plant my husband moved out of my kitchen window (he is hanging a new glass sun catcher I purchased in Chattanooga), mail I haven't sorted through, and two fun cards made with Sassy Cheryl images now available at Squigglefly (and Sassy Cheryl's store). The first card is made with an image called Joey's Got Spunk . I am entering this one in the current Sassy Cheryl challenge which is Clean and Simple (there is still over a week to enter if you are interested). Joey has spunk and guts saying this to one of my sweet friends who is having a birthday soon - hope she takes this with a cheerful attitude - LOL! My second card was done for the current Squigglefly challenge which is Run for the Border (all about adding borders) and you can find the details HERE - but hurry is the challenge is up soon. I used Sassy Cheryl's Ladybug Tales image. I am also entering this in the Sassy Cheryl CAS challenge and the Splitcoas

Shhhhhh...Entering the Man Cave - what a fun theme for this week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration challenge . Here are the inspiration pictures: Love, love, love the wood and fun colors! I used MFP's Oh Beans and Plywood sets (the plywood sentiment is a sneak peak) for my card: And for my scrapbook page, I used the MFP set Paper Dolls Frances set. My nephew's prom pictures were so cute, I volunteered to do some of the pages for his girlfriend's scrapbook. Isn't she cute? I hope these pictures inspired you too. Hugz!

It's a Mother's Day Card Challenge at Pattie's Creations . I used Pattie's Morning Glory stamp. As I am still feeling really lazy when it comes to coloring, I colored this image by dragging it through some Tim Holtz ink misted with glimmer mist. I just love how you automatically get color variations and it takes no time! Then I added a bit of gel pen and Stickles. Quick and easy - that is how I have had to roll the last few weeks with my work schedule, helping my daughter study for finals, and my laptop problems (which are fixed yay). I am off this weekend on a little trip but I plan to be back to normal next week. Come join the challenge! Hugz!

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge is Butterflies. Once again, Shirley came up with some stunning pictures! I used the MFP Butterfly Essence and Medallion Stamp sets. In my picture it looks like my red stickles got all over my butterfly but IRL it looks more like it is in the lines - I promise! I love this split panel layout and I will try more of them in the future. Hope you will join us in the Butterfly challenge! Hugz!