What's on My Kitchen Counter

So happy to have an extra day off.  Thankful to all those who fought and died for freedom around the world.  War has so many costs, and we take the sacrifices for granted.  Here is my card to celebrate the day. I made it after watching  a video from THIS YouTube spray paint artist.  I watercolored the base, but then I did take some crumpled paper dipped in whte paint, blue paint and black ink and dabbed it over the watercolor.  Then I sponged on some black ink.  I added Stickle stars after stamping the Thank You for Your Service Stamp (new from DRS Designs).   Continuing the military theme, a friend asked me to make a congrats card for one of his friends who has recently been promoted in the U.S. Air Force.  I used the new Air Force Proud image. This card was inspired by THIS card by Caterina who is this week's Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers.com.  Since it is late Monday, I am also including my ticket to T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog .  I went to lunch with some frien

 Hello Friends! We had a super busy week last week - tons of time with the Grandsons which is our favorite time!  We did lots of baseball, legos, crafting and eating.  Two of our Grandsons made the All-Star teams for their age group.   Our High School Baseball, the Holtville Bulldogs, won the State Baseball Championship for the first time in 40 years.  So fun.  The town went crazy.  Parades, parties, and lots of autographs. The State Champs took time out of celebrating to visit the 8U Youth team one of my Grandsons is on last night.  The boys thought movie stars had landed.  Here is a picture of the visit - my Grandson is the third from the right on the bottom row (hoping he is on the top two rows in 9 years).  It is T-day over at Elizabeth's blog where we share a drink of some type along with other life events.  I have a fun drink to share.  It is a paper fun paper drink to get us ready for Summer. This card is for the Here Comes Summer theme over at House Mouse &Friends Monda

 Hello friends. Yesterday, I visited Erika's blog and was inspired by her very cool flowery journal page.  I haven't done any bible art journaling in awhile and haven't participated yet in Aimeslee's flower theme at *Art*Journal*Journey** , so I got out my DaySpring Illusrating Bible and did two pages.  I have been watching lots of  YouTube videos on sunflowers (my daugher's favorite flower) and quickly drew and painted the sunflower on this first page.  I was too lazy to get the gesso so I painted the flwoer with very little water to limit the bleed through.  I added distress ink and doodling around the border and splattered on some paint too.  The center is gold Stickles and black marker.  On this page I drew the path with  straight edge and then blobbled on watercolor with an old brush.  I added in details and doodling with a black journaling marker and added in lot of Stickles.  Ignore the stars, they are loose and not part of the page - I just forgot they were

 Hello friends! The current House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge is Anything goes with an option of Summer.  I like tea and cookies any time of the year and this fun coloring book image spoke to me.   I watercolored the base page with a light shade of Magenta, but I did the cookie in cookie colors.  I have two of the same HM Coloring books so I cut the cookie out of the other page, watercolored it, and popped it up.  I also added a computer generated cookie sentiment and made it look like it was on the tea bag.   Hugz, Nancy

Hello friends. I am so late with my T-day post that it is s W-day post! Starting with some art first and then my ticket.  This first card was for the Wednesday Watercolor challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com (SCS).  THIS is the tutorial we watched. My sentiment is from IO (Impression Obsession), and I used a stencil for the birds. Everything is watercolored with Daniel Smith watercolors.  This next card was for the teaparty challenge which was to celebrate Nick's 79th birthday.  He loves blue so I dressed up my CTMH party gnome in blue, did the cake stand in blue, and added a few blue candles.  I used THIS tutorial to do the cake.  My last two cards are using the new S'more Birthday Wishes stamp at DRS Designs.  I also stamped the Toasting Marshmallows stamp on this first one.  The card is colored up with my trusty Daniel Smith Watercolors and a bit of glitter. This one has a graham cracker made with an old embossing folder and a few score lines.  The marshmallow is some model

  The current House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge is Anything Goes - flowers . I stamped this darling House Mouse image and the leaves (from a SU! set), drew in the grasses, and then stamped the image 2 more times layering it up so the flower had dimension. Everything was colored with Daniel Smith Watercolors and a black and white gel pen.  A nap is such a lovely luxury - everyone should get one on their birthday. Thanks to the lovely HMFMC design team for another fabulous challenge and their many lovely cards to inspire us.  I inherited most of my HM images from my mother and every time I use them, I see her lovely smile in my mind (she loved these images more than any others). Sniff, Sniff, I need to get a tissue.   Hugz, Nancy

Hello friends and happy T-day! I usually start my Tuesday posts with a drink and finish with a bit of art, but today I am switching it up.  First up is some art done for a black/white and red challenge and a challenge involving a picture of poppies.  My black watercolor was running out so I ended up with a lot of gray in my painting, but I still think it came out well.  The sentiment and birds are from Close to My Heart We had two dinners at work last week.  We had some great appetizers at one.  The shrimp appetizer was so good that I ordered it for dinner too.  Here is a picture of two of my smiling co-workers and my after dinner coffee. These pictures are my ticket to Elizabeth's T-day party . She has a lovely post about Tea this week.  I went with coffee and water.  The other dinner was an awards dinner with a lovely buffet, but I forgot to take any pictures. I was part of a group of four managers that came up with an innovative way to motivate and evaluate our teammembers.  We