Freshly Made Sketches #636

Cecile has a really fun Sketch #636 for us at Freshly Made Sketches!  I've had this idea in my brain for ages - it might work with her Sketch!  We'll soon find out!  I took Cecile's arrows and Kim's use of fish to bring it together!  I can almost hear my non-fish-loving friend Linda groaning!

Inside: Dad, you always had a fun way of keeping us IN LINE!

Yes, ANOTHER bit of fishing folly for Father's Day!  I wish my dad were still around - he might get a kick out of this one.

That 'reel' is actually one of the Hands of Time die set from PTI.  The arrows are AGES old from a Dynamics/MFT die set called Lead the Way!  Now.  If you look REALLY closely, you'll find a fly on the end of my line - cut from that sweet SU paper that my friend sent me - the square of 'ticking', too!  The trickiest part was actually loading the 'line' on my fly-reel!  

There, I can put that design to rest!  Thanks, Cecile!  and thanks to all of you, too - have a crafty weekend!

=] Michele

Oh, for the love of neutrals!

There has been a fair amount of color around this blog lately - it's time I got back to my love of neutrals ... hope you like them, too!

I find my inspiration in some of the darnedest places - this one comes from a grainy camera shot of a commercial for I-don't-know what!! 

Those are my favorite colors of all ... and here is how I brought them to my cards today using those wonderful Fresh Picked Anemones from Spellbinders!

A much-loved debossing plate, a simple frame, and love - what more could it need?

OH!  That gorgeous sage-y paper is an older 12x12" pad from Craft Smith at Michael's.

Color blocking anyone?  After debossing two A2 panels of cardstock with 

Altenew's Dotted Starburst die, I split them in two and put them back together

in a two-tone color blocked way.  

You MAY have noticed that I managed to insert a little grey into my card, too?  I'm sneaky that way!  Don't you love how those stems are intertwine-able?

I had a lovely day with Marcia yesterday!  We'll share soon, promise!

=] Michele

The Flower Challenge #91 - Reminder

Time for a reminder to play cards with us at The Flower Challenge - tell me you haven't colored flowers at least once this week!

I had a blast water coloring that tulip from The Ton for my first card this month - it was just as fun to Copic color it!  This time in deep moody oranges...

I repeated the process of embossing the negative after die-cutting my bloom - this Woodgrain from Sunny Studios adds such a wonderful texture behind my simple tulip, don't you think?  The sentiment - by now you probably recognize it's one of those Betterpress-ed that I keep on hand at all times.

Thanks so much for stopping over - I hope you'll have time to color one or two more flowers to share with us at The Flower Challenge!

=] Michele

Charming Delight

I know I should be gathering my supplies for my visit to Marcia's tomorrow, but I couldn't resist putting ink to paper with my newest stencil set: Charming Delight!  I watched Altenew's Lydia Evans put them to paper in a very clever way so that you end up with TWO panels - I do love time-saving tips.  You can find her wonderful video HERE.  My friend Therese used hers beautifully, too - you'll find her video HERE where she has lots of tips and a video for us as well!

I gathered some Altenew inks and my brushes and went to town!  Take a look at the two panels I ended up with:

 I added a spritz of Wplus9's Pure Color Shimmer spray!

There was also a newly acquired embossing folder in my order - Organic Linen... I've been on the list for Altenew's restock for months!  It was worth the wait... anyone else seeing seersucker here?

I kept the other quite simple - both have an Apothecary Label stamped

sentiment from Altenew's Fresh Freesia stamp set.

These shades are pretty close to Nathalie's May Inspiration Challenge!  I 

think I'll send one over to her!

Gee, I wonder if Marcia will be adding this one to her playlist? lol

Thanks, for stopping by!

=] Michele

Meadow Reflections

Have any of you admired a set but for some unknown reason just resisted buying it?  I don't have any reason at all for resisting this Meadow Reflections set from Altenew - it's wonderful!

Tom joined his fellow astrophotographers at our observatory Saturday evening, so I quickly turned my attention to the package that arrived in the mail that morning! 

Here are my first stampings - on Altenew Reflections patterned paper that was given some texture with dry embossing after stamping ...

A beautiful sky and the idea of a pond where this little butterfly 

might rest for a few on this lovely bamboo!  I've stamped right on the

dsp with Concord & 9th's Parsley ink, then shadows of The Stamp Market's Greenery.

We planted Siberian blue iris around our pond at our last home - I wonder if it's still there.

This gorgeous blue is Catherine Pooler's Queen for a Day and next in

CP Black Jack ink...

What is still present in our lives is our love for butterflies, and each other!

Happy anniversary, babe!  29 years have sure fluttered by!

All of the sentiments today are from a great little set from Waffle Flower Crafts - Label Maker Sentiments.  

Okay, I guess I don't get a day off from laundry - off I go... have a great day!

=] Michele

A day to remember Mom

To all the moms: young ones, old ones, and bless those moms who are no longer with us, and those of you who are lucky enough to still have a mom, or to be a mom-like presence in somebody's life ...

 

... happy Mother's Day!

Who wouldn't love to have these lovely roses growing in their garden?

I'm sending them to Just us Girls - Garden!

=] Michele

Altenew: Penned Roses

Spellbinders: Scrolled Punch and Pierce Plate and Betterpress sentiment

Drumroll please.........

 Thanks so very much for celebrating with me, my friends!  I had 19 comments that qualified for the prize.  I had fun reading your comments and found a few of them very clever...

Lisa E. knew I made the first in my last home, and 

TK even noticed I had used the 'tail end' of the fish platter for my photo!!

But NOBODY noticed that the 'h' had been clipped off of those three die-cut hellos!

Without further ado...

Jeanne H. come on down!

You are the winner of this lovely Beautiful Lady:

Congratulations!  

Here's to the next 10 years [yikes!]

=] Michele