The Bridal Season Has Begun

Can you believe we are already in the middle of March? Which means the beginning of the "Bridal Season" here in our county. The bridal shows began this coming weekend and will go through the end of April. So I thought why not make a wedding card or two? I have always loved weddings and had such joy in making the preparations for both of our daughters when they were getting married. I recall one card my daughter had received that had been hand painted by one of her co-workers for their wedding and to this day it hangs in a frame in their home. With my DH taking so many pictures around our yard of the flowers, bugs, and trees I can't help but put these beautiful pictures on a card. As you can tell from the last few posts, I used a mixture of pictures and stamps. This is another one with the white rose that is in our yard and is just breathtaking on the bush. He captured the early evening lighting on it as the sun was going down. What a perfect card for a couple who is getting married to say "How Do I Love Thee" and with the white representing the purity of their love for each other. This was a three step card: Used Watercolor paper 140 lb weight as the backing, picture, then cut the acetate the width and length plus 1/2 " to fold over and attach to the back of it and then stamp the Flourishes Lace Heart Sentiment with SU White Craft Ink. Added pearls to the opposite corner ends and finish off with a light organdy and satin ribbon. This card has turned out so well, that as I was posting this, the neighbor stopped by with fresh blueberries from her garden and insisted she have this card for her nephew's wedding this weekend. I just looked at her and said uhmm okay. Let me take a picture of this first. I was going not going to charge her for it, but before I could say that she handed me a $5.00 bill and said here, and I won't take no for an answer. LOL!!!

Oh! Look I'm A Beautiful Butterfly!

For any of you that have children or grandchildren, you should be able to recall the above title saying. It is from Heimlich the Caterpillar in the Disney Movie "Bug's Life! Remember he was always eating and after they defended the evil grasshoppers, he managed to get his butterfly wings? I couldn't resist using it. This beautiful Monarch who was making its way to the south of the border must of needed a taste of sweet nectar before leaving for its next refuel of nectar destination. The Agapantha's flowers that are in our yard have become a regular stopping place each year that we have lived here (4) to feed themselves for strength. On this "LUCKY" day DH was able to be in the right place at the right time to capture this beautiful creature fluttering about and then all of sudden sitting ever so lightly upon the petals to drink. He was on the flower for almost 15 minutes before he joined the rest of the flight that were also feeding on the trees across the street. Isn't is amazing that the smallest of God's creatures are so beautiful to the eye and makes us appreciate all the wondrous life he has surrounded us with? Hope you enjoy.

Ahhh! The Beauty Of A Rose!

The roses in our yard seem to be blooming left and right as the weather has become sunny and the plants are feeling the warmth of the rays as to say "Come out and blossom for all the world to see". This rose is one that we brought with us when we moved 4 years ago. I just couldn't bear to leave it as it had been a Mother's Day gift to me from my sweet kids. This poor rose went through a frost this past winter and I really thought we had lost it, but DH had called me at work to say there was a new sprout forming on the one side. I anxiously awaited for it to make it's final appearance and it is so beautiful. This was taken yesterday morning which has several water droplets on it due from the rain we received the night before. I am sure all the plants were enjoying the fresh rain that will water their roots to keep them strong and sturdy in the spring and summer months to come. This rose is called "Pink Patience" believe it or not even though the petals are some what more white with a yellow center. I am anxious for May to come as that is when they have the annual Rose Festival up north and we will be able to purchase rose bushes from Jackson and Perkins. I am really hoping to find the Candy Cane Rose and the Intuition Rose plants. Hope you are having a wonderful day and may God bless you the rest of the week.

The California Wildflowers....

It is the time in California for our hillsides to be covered in the rich hues of colors from the wildflowers. And are they ever Gorgeous!!!!!!!!! DH and I took a day trip up to Tejon Ranch where the Wind Wolves Conservancy is located. As you take the drive to lookout point to park and walk the path, you can see for miles all the colors of purples, oranges, yellows and some pinks if you are lucky enough. We or I should say DH was able to photograph the rolling hills of the "Wildflower Lupines" in their vibrant purple colors. These flowers went on forever and being against the backdrop of the beautiful green mountains made them even stand out more. The honey bees were just buzzing all around, and seem to not mind having the human species in their way of collecting the pollen that is needed so desperately to pollinate our San Joaquin Valley agriculture fields. The path was about 2 miles long and made a complete circle back to where we had parked the car. The day was warm and sunny and you could just feel the presence of the Lord looking down on his beautiful palette of color he has given to us to enjoy and make us thankful for even the smallest of things. There are so many other pictures DH took of other kinds of wildflowers while we there that day and I promise I will get them printed, carded and placed on here for those of you who have never been able to experience the beautiful California Wildflowers.

From A Husband's View

I have been very fortunate to have a husband who not only supports my desire of making cards, scrapbooking and buying of supplies, but really blessed as he is an avid photographer who not only shoots weddings, portraits and so forth but has a true love for nature. As he and I were going back and looking at all the pictures he has taken of the beautiful animals God has so graciously given to us to enjoy, he made a suggestion of "How come you never make cards with photographs?" Hmmm...good question I thought. My response was I never had really thought about it, but it would be easy to do I think as the wheels in my head started to turn and use the sentiments from different stamp companies to accompany the picture. He who has a very artistic eye stated that the picture should be the main focal point with minimal or no embellishments. Of course you know us gals, we have to have the bling, the ribbon, flowers or whatever else we feel that needs to make the WOW factor happen for that particular card. But I agreed to use minimal embellishments and it is true, that the photo should be the focal point. So here are a couple I have done and have printed many more pictures to make into cards as I now have this vast array of ideas constantly running through my mind. LOL!!!! This particular picture of the peacock won my husband an prestigous award from WPPI because of the way he had captured this natural photograph of the male bird as he was getting ready to dance for the females attention. And by the way he was laying on the ground shooting this at a very close range which normally the birds would run when a human comes upon them to close. ( but secretly I think he is Dr.Dolittle as he talks to the animals.) LOL!!!!

Do You Remember When?

The first time you got hooked on stamping? As I sit here and look back on my first "Cards" I have to laugh at myself because I have this "What was I thinking when I made this card" look on my face as I look at the first few I have made and how my style and taste has changed since then. How I am much more intuned to every detail that goes into making a card that I am proud to share and give and making sure that I have better lighting, accents and softness when photographing my cards to post on my blog. I am sure I am not the only one who has asked herself this question, but tonight it just struck me funny thinking I was "all that" in designing cards. LOL!!!! Hope you enjoy and even if you chuckle at some of my first creations I am posting tonight that's okay as we all know Practice Makes Perfect! LOL!!!!

Top Of The Morning..

This weekend was another busy one and I hardly had time to get a card made, but manage to get one assembled to give to a friend who is definitely Irish and loves the corn beef and cabbage and of course the all time favorite Green Beer! (Yuck!) LOL!!!!. I do not have many St. Patricks day stamps, but believe it or not I found this stamp at the dollar store when hubby and I were looking for vegetable markers to put in the ground in our garden! There was no name of the company printed on this stamp other than "Made in China". You know the dollar store has quite an array of crafty items, and I will definitely have to go back (without DH) and slowly walk the aisle in case I missed any "must haves to add to my stash"! I used my prismacolor markers and the solid green paper is made by WorldWin-Doublemates. I used the technique of diluting some of the ink and placing a toothbrush in it to give the lighter green paper a mixture of spots caused by me running my fingernail over the bristles and it landing on the paper. Very simple card, but I believe she will like it. The sun is finally shining in California and my DH and I took the time to give our yard some TLC. We weeded and raked and then went to the nursery to plan out what we anted to put in the vegetable garden. With the way prices are and everything seems to be continually going up in price, we planted some yummy vegetables.... tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, corn, peas, and squash and of course watermelon! I am fortunate enough that my husband literally has a green thumb and ask anyone who knows him and they will certainly verify it LOL! We also purchased three rose plants in yellow, white and magenta to be planted along the one side of our driveway with others already there. Hopefully Spring is just around the corner and we can enjoy the warmth of the sun for days to come. Have a great day!

Tile Magnets

Feeling a bit under the weather today and really wasn't wanting to get into making a card but remembered I had these blank tiles which were left over from the Relay For Life Bazaar back in November and just recently rediscovered them in my closet of "Items To Make" bin LOL!!! I had forgotten how complicated these could be. You have to use a solvent ink like Stazon to first stamp the image and then making sure when you place the stamp on the tile it didn't slide and become blurry. Took me a few tries to get them right. Thankfully as soon as you remove the stamp and it is blurry you can quickly wipe the tile with a dab of stamp cleaner, dry it and try your luck at it again. LOL!!! My Granddaughter is crazy about anything that has to do with Princesses and in all honestly I had forgotten I had these stamps which I was able to get from Target last year through a dear friend. The Princess stamps are made by EK Success and the
other two with the group are Verve Visual and
Inkadinkado. I used Sharpie and Bic Markers to color them in as the Copics and Prismacolors will not adhere to the slick white tiles, but will adhere to the lightly tanish tiles as they have a bit of texture to them. If you haven't tried them, give it a shot. Have a great Sunday.