What's on My Kitchen Counter

Fun day. Got to spend time with my Mom, go shopping, take a nap and play cards - so it was a great day! All three of these cards were made for the Inspiration Challenge on SCS. I can't close without giving the link to making these spellbinder flowers - you have to visit Jerri Kay's blog called A Touch of Grace . I haven't visited her gallery in awhile so my technique is old - I visited todayand she has all new tutorials which I can't wait to look at - her stuff is amazing! Hope you are having a wonderful day!

This current MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge has some super interesting inspiration pictures: Here is my card based mainly on the first picture and using MFP's Huge Bloom set: I am getting pretty lazy with my coloring so on this one I just took my TH Faded Jeans ink pad and drug it across the image. The color was a bit darker than I wanted so I thought I would try stamp etching which involves taking a fine marker and drawing in a bit more lines and shading in your image. Fun stuff! Also entering this in the Deconstructed Sketch Challenge - DS164 since my sketch is from that lovely challenge. Hope you will join us!

Still wishing for Fall - got a little taste of it this morning when it was 66 as I was driving to work here in steamy Central Alabama! Made this card for the Less is More challenge which is a sketch challenge and the Twisted Sisters Challenge on SCS which is to make a card with Fall colors. Hugz!

Happy Monday my friends, I went to the most lovely wedding this weekend - my niece, Carrie Jo, tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony at Apple Valley Farms. She was beautiful and smiled the biggest smile (seriously - I have only ever seen Julia Roberts smile bigger) the whole evening even though I know she was melting in the 100 degree heat (one of the pitfalls of outdoor weddings). When I look at her, I still see her as a little girl helping me paint the nursery walls at church and jabbering away. It was our first really long talk and I was amazed at how insightful and smart she was - no surprise she is now a hot shot attorney. The wedding was out of town and we stayed the night, but I still got to stamp a bit Saturday morning and last night. All the cards above were made for the Inspiration Challenge at SCS. The next card was made for the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS and I cased THIS card. Hugz, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge is all about salt and pepper shakers - you can check out the fun ones that Shirley picked out by clicking HERE . I was inspired by the fact that there are two items when you have a salt and pepper set, and I used the Pretty Pears set by MFP. The outside of this card fools you because inside the panel has 26 staples in a row and says "Counting two is so much easier than counting 26!" My BIL had a hip replacement recently and had 26 staples put in. He counted them all because he said he wanted to make sure that the doctor got everyone of them out when it was time to remove them. I mailed it off yesterday and I know he will get a kick out of it. Hope you will join in the challenge. The prize set is fabulously fun and you don't even have to use an MFP image (although we would really love it if you did). Hugz!

The sketch with a twist at MFP is super fun this week and I combined it with the MMTPT#316 challenge at SCS which is to add flower and maybe a butterfly which I did. I used the MFP Lots of Words stamp set and paper from The Paper Studio and my stash. Hugz!

This week's Squigglefly challenge is to make a card with brown, red, orange and yellow. I had this super fun new Sandra Caldwell image called Pretty Big Girl and I thought she would be perfect with these colors. This image totally makes me smile so I paired up with a computer generated sentiment that seemed to fit and be funny too. I water-colored the image (except for her skin I used a Copic marker) and punched my flowers with the Martha Stewart small Hydrangea Punch. Hope you will join us in the challenge (remember you can get a free image from the Squigglefly store if you don't have one - or there are some absolutely wonderful images in the store that are very reasonably priced). Hugz!

Quick card I did for the Inspiration Challenge on SCS yesterday. This is one of the new images ( Pussywillow Fairy ) in the Squigglefly store this month. Norma Burnell's fairy images are hauntingly beautiful and I had so much fun coloring her up with chalks and one single little Copic marker (I was staying within THIS color pallet). Can you tell I am ready for Fall yet? Hope your weekend is going well - I have had a blast! Went shopping Friday with hubby (unusual treat), to breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my parents and some family and friends yesterday morning, then to the Buckmaster's Convention yesterday morning (it was fun - lots of great shopping for cooking spices and Christmas presents for hunters and fishermen plus some super fish tacos for lunch), a long nap (was awesome), and then a quick 3 hour round trip to Birmingham to watch my daughter and her sorority sisters practice their rush dance routines (wow - I have never seen such energy - even at a Cheerleader co

I am so ready for cooler weather and the Blog Hop sets for today are perfect for cooler weather! Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company August Blog Hop!  This month's New Stamp Set Releases are   Featured  Aug. 12 Crows and Scarecrow  Featured  Aug. 13 Hydrangea   Featured  Aug. 14 Keys Featured   Aug. 15 Dear Santa and Brrrr Please  hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp  sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each  day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the  blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be  announced on  Aug. 16, 2014 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go  back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the  more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count  twice!)  The deadline for  commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Aug. 15, 2014 Here are my cards: Here's the Design Team: Lois Kelli Jo

I am so ready for cooler weather! Moved Allie into her apartment in Birmingham yesterday and it was hot! This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to make a Winter Card and at least pretend it was cooler! Here are Shirley's wonderful inspiration pictures: I picked the middle blue floor and my Winter wishes for inspiration on my card: I used the snowflake stamp from the MFP Calendar set and a sentiment from the brand new Brrrr set. Hope you will join us! Hugz!

It is Day 3 of the MFP August Blog Hop my friends. Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company August Blog Hop!  This month's New Stamp Set Releases are   Featured  Aug. 12 Crows and Scarecrow  Featured  Aug. 13 Hydrangea   Featured  Aug. 14 Keys Featured   Aug. 15 Dear Santa and Brrrr Please  hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp  sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each  day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the  blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be  announced on  Aug. 16, 2014 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go  back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the  more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count  twice!)  The deadline for  commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Aug. 15, 2014 Here is my card: Here's the Design Team: Lois Kelli Jo Karen    Kathy Toni Janine Shirley Q Vickie Sa