Calendar Girls ~ You are my Sunshine

It is the 28^th, so I am here to welcome you to another round with the Calendar Girls! 

Who are the Calendar Girls? We are a group of bloggers who want to have a place where friendships blossom, creativity abounds, and encouragement prevails! In keeping with that dream, this blog group has been created so we will have a place to interact and enjoy being fellow bloggers. 

Michele, our substitute Ms. June as she switched months with Carol who has just move, gave us with this challenge: 
June Challenge...

For most of us, June is the month that starts summer...many events are happening...school ending, graduation, weddings, flowers blooming and family vacations.

My challenge is...using this sketch

with any color combination create a card that best suits your beginning to summer, or summer plans. It could be a trip you are planning, a flower that is blooming, a wedding you are attending, or a graduation gathering. Whatever it could be...have fun creating a card to go with it.

This was a great sketch and I was sure I wanted to use a Gina K Designs stamp set that I have not used for a couple of years.  However, the size of the image was not just right, so I turned the sketch on its side and I think it worked.  I also added some texture to the card by adding “sand”—it is a product like Flower Soft that comes in different colors and textures.

Thanks for a great challenge Michelle—I Loved it!


Image/Sentiment—Gina K Designs-You are my Sunshine

Cardstock—Gina K. White; Stampin’ Up Daffodil Delight, Baja Breeze; Echo Park Paper Paradise Beach-Flip Flops DSP

Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Baja Breeze

Accessories--Copics; Daffodil Brads; Blue Ribbon; Elements Earth Textures; Label Punch

Please check out the blogs of all of the Calendar Girls—there are 10 of us, so it might take you a bit.   I am sure you will enjoy all of the summer creations with the same sketch that Michelle gave us. All of the blogs are listed on my left sidebar. Thanks for joining us!!!!!!!

I have also entered this card in the following challenges:
My Craft Spot-Hot Summer Colors
Sassy Cheryl's Challenge-Summer
Cardz TV-Summer Fun
Twisted Tuesday-Summer and Red!
Whimsy Inspires-Anything But Square

Life is Too Short

Here I am—back with another set of swap cards.  This is one of the two cards that I made for Samantha’s 2 of Something Swap.   I thought it was an interesting theme, so I hunted for some stamps that had two items.  I think this image and sentiment are so darn cute and the retired Stampin’ Up argyle DSP is perfect for a sock card!  Note that I also only added two brads, where I normally have 3.

Image/Sentiment—Unity Itty Bitty Matching Socks

Cardstock—Gina K White; Stampin’ Up Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard and East Coast Prep Designer Series Paper

Ink—SU Tempting Turquoise, Memento Black

Accessories—Green and Turquoise Brads;  Copic Markers

Best Wishes

This is the second of the two cards that I made for a recent swap on SCS.  Taryn is hosting a Ladybugs, Butterflies & Dragonflies Swap.   I love the theme and have a bit of patterned paper with butterflies on them, so that was the start of my cards.

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Cute and Curly

Cardstock—Gina K Vanilla; SU So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso; Graphi 45 Botanicabella Collection Ode to a Butterfly Designer Paper

Ink—SU Tangerine Tango

Accessories—Tangerine Brads; Saffron Grosgrain ribbon; Punches;

Love is Like A Butterfly........

This is one of the two cards that I made for a recent swap on SCS.  Taryn is hosting a Ladybugs, Butterflies & Dragonflies Swap.   I love the theme and have a bit of patterned paper with butterflies on them, so that was the start of my cards.

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Butterfly Wishes

Cardstock—Gina K White; SU Cherry Cobbler, Peach Parfait and Daffodil Delight; Echo Park Paper Co-A Walk in the Park Flutter and Playful Stripes Designer Papers

Ink—SU Cherry Cobbler

Accessories—Butterfly Brad; Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin ribbon; Yellow Button with Bakers Twine; Punches;

Eat Chocolate!

This is the second of the two cards that I made for a recent swap on SCS.  Patty is hosting a Going, Going, Gone Retired Stampin’ Up Swap that uses any of the stamp sets that just retired.  I love all of my Stampin’ Up stamp sets and I do get sad when they retire.  So, this is a fun theme to be able to ink them up one more time!  And, I also LOVE chocolate!

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Eat Chocolate

Cardstock— SU Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla and Designer Paper

Ink—SU Chocolate Chip

Accessories— Chocolate Chip Brads; Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon; Brown Button with Jute

Dueling Darlings Open Sea Card

It is the 15^th of the month and that means another Dueling Darlings challenge.  Our hostess this month for the Divas is Jamie and she sent us a wonderful kit.  The theme that April, the hostess for the Dazzlers and Jamie came up with is to create a masculine card since Father’s Day is this weekend.

Jamie also asked us to give a shout-out to the special guy in our life.  That would be my brother, who is 18 years older.  He is definitely a father figure in my life and his two sons are like brothers to me—Love Ya Tony!

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Open Sea/My Sentiments Exactly

Ink—SU Night of Navy

Paper—SU Night of Navy, Bordering Blue and White; Bo Bunny patterned paper

Accessories—SU Denim Ribbon; Quickutz Diamonds and Dots Embossing Folder;  Blue Button with Navy Bakers Twine; Nesties Deckled Rectangles; Silver Brads  

Please be sure to stop in to see what all of the Divas as well the Dazzlers have created this month.  All of the blogs are on the left sidebar of my blog.  I am sure you will enjoy all of the creations for the guys in our lives.

I hope you enjoy looking at our creations!  Thanks for joining us!!!!!!


I have also entered this card in the following challenges:
trimmie scraft challenge
charisma cardz
crafting for all seasons
fab 'n funky challenges
Art Impressions Stamps

Happiest Wishes on Your Birthday

This is one of the two cards that I made for a recent swap on SCS.  Patty is hosting a Going, Going, Gone Retired Stampin’ Up Swap that uses any of the stamp sets that just retired.  I love all of my Stampin’ Up stamp sets and I do get sad when they retire.  So, this is a fun theme to be able to ink them up one more time!

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Happiest Birthday Wishes

Cardstock—Gina K White; SU Riding Hood Red, River Rock, Baja Breeze and Designer Paper

Ink—SU Riding Hood Red

Accessories—Red Brads; 5/8 Striped Riding Hood Red Grosgrain ribbon; Punches

Unidentified Image Swap ~ Round 2

This is the card for our new Unidentified Image swap on SCS.  It is a group of ladies who are a part of a bi-monthly swap where we all use the same mystery image, sent to us by the hostess.  The images for this round, our second, were provided Kelly.  She will swap the cards and include the next image that Janet, our next hostess, provides in our return envie. And then we get to do it all again!!!!

Kelly (she is MiamiKel4 on SCS) sent us this Kraftin’ Kimmie image, Florence and she chose her for two reasons—she wanted to see how we all come up with a beach/ocean/Florida (etc.) using her (remember Kelly’s SCS name!) Also, Kelly noted that locally one of the missions is to stop the destruction of Biscayne Bay’s National Park where animals have natural habitats, protected sea areas and coral rocks—home to thousands of plant and animal species that will be uprooted and displaced.  Kelly told us to do our best work as our cards might be displayed this summer at a local exhibit as part of a collage.

For the coloring of the images, I used some materials I have not used in ages—my Stampin’ Up Markers as well as my SU Stamping Pastels, which I used a dauber to add color around the image and inside the nestie that I used.  I colored Florence’s face with a colored pencil.  I like how the Labels 8 matches the SU Top Note shape.


Image/Sentiment—Kraftin’ Kimmie Florence/SU Warm Words

Cardstock— Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze; Kaisercraft Spirograph Harmonic and Spiro Patterned Papers

Ink—SU Baja Breeze

Accessories—SU Markers and Stamping Pastels; Colored Pencil; Nestie Labels 8; SU Oval Punches; Blue Button with Bakers Twine

Best Wishes

This is my card for our stamp club swap next week.  Lynn is our hostess and the theme is Free Choice as this is the last club for the year.  I sure hope Nancy decides to continue in the fall as I sure will miss getting together with this group of wonderful ladies!  If this card design looks familiar, it is similar to the one I made for our Calendar Girls Challenge the end of last month. 

Image/Sentiment—Stampin’ Up Thanks for Caring, Short and Sweet

Cardstock—Gina K White; SU Peach Parfait, Pool; Party poppy Parade and Everyday Enchantment DSP

Ink—SU Peach Parfait & Poppy Parade

Accessories—SU Labels Dies, Punches, Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon; Poppy Brads; Peach Button with Baker’s Twine

Crafty Gals Vacation Challenge!

It is the 5^th of the month, so I am back with the next Challenge of the Crafty Gals!  We are a group of bloggers who have monthly challenges, caring comments & fun chit chat on SCS—our favorite stamping site to visit.

This month, the challenge was posed by me! Here is the challenge I put out--Vacation!

Many of us will be taking a summer trip someplace, if even just for a weekend. So, your challenge is to create a card that shouts summer fun! Maybe a camping trip in the forest--or a trip to the ocean for a lighthouse tour or time on the beach--or a flight to another country to see the sights--or road trip to see local attractions--or biking along the rails to trails--or ....................... you get the idea. Shows us image that highlights a summer experience you have had or are planning to do in the future. Please include some patterned paper on your card--along with an additional embellishment or two........ If you want to share on your blog post a fun experience you have had on a vacation that would be great! We all love to hear about trips--just not all of the hundreds of slides or photos.

I hope you enjoy this challenge and have a wonderful summer trip in the works--on card stock and in real life!

We have already went on one vacation, the week before Memorial Day.  We rented a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin and the owners let us use their pontoon boat too.  We did some fishing, from the boat as well as from the dock.  We actually had better luck off of the dock.  We caught a couple of bass, but it is not the season to be able to keep them yet—so back they went.

I thought of this Whipper Snapper image right away—and I think it is just a hoot.  However, I am not sure why a chicken is fishing and has a note to the fish to “Eat more Chicken”?  Seems a bit backwards…………

Image/Sentiment—Whipper Snapper Designs Eat More Chicken

Cardstock—Gina K White; Stampin’ Up Not Quite Navy, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake; The Paper Loft Hooked On Fishing-Trolling & Tackle Box patterned paper

Ink—Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories—Copic Markers; SU Round Tab Punch; Kraft Brads; Trout Brad

Please check out the blogs of all of the Crafty Gals.   All of the blogs are listed on my left sidebar and I hope you will enjoy all of our Vacations creations and stories. Thanks for joining us!!!!!!!