Masculine Monday & I Spy Sketch

Good morning.  Hope you all enjoyed your weekends.  I know I did because I booked it off (first one off in over two months) to celebrate my dear Husband's birthday.  Great weekend just being able to spend time with him.  Our scheduled don't allow us a lot of time during the week to sit and just talk.  So Happy Birthday Dear Hubby!

Well on to our Masculine Monday Card.  I am combining this card today with a sketch challenge over at I Spy.  When I saw all the circles and what others had done all I could think about were cogs and gears, so that's what I went with.

My version of this sketch uses a variety of gears from Tim Holtz' Gadget Gears die along with SU Cog Punch. 

I hope you like what I have come up with.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please don't forget to leave one.

Celebrate Summer Countdown...

Well summer is well under way and before you know it the kids will be getting ready to go back to school (some Mom's may be wishing it even now).  Before you have to start running around making sure you have everything for them, take some time for yourself and join us over at Stampin Fun and Friends to "Celebrate Summer".  It starts August 15th.

You will get exclusive instructions and tutorials for 20 different projects that will include special fold cards and card sets, along with challenges and chats that you can join in on.  It's a time for you to meet new friends and maybe even catch up with some old friends.

Click on the link to the right of my blog and sign up today.  Don't delay.

See you there to "Celebrate Summer".

Nancy

TST #74

It's Tuesday, and time again for Try Stampin on Tuesday.  Once again Jen is taking a little time off and CherylAnn has come up with a terrific sketch for us.

I love the sunflower stamp but certainly have my issues with using it.  I think I stamped this image 5 times before I got one that looked OK.  I honestly believe that I shouldn't have mounted the stamp on the wooden block, because then it would have been a lot easier to use.

I first ran the card base through my Cuttlebug using the Demask embossing folder. Then I cut out the Chocolate Chip CS with one of the Framelits and ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Perfect Polkadots folder.  White CS was used for the stamped image and cut out of another of the Framelits.  The centre of the flower was originally going to be two layers of the flower centre, but it didn't show quite right so I accented it with a button and twine.

I hope you like what I have come up with.  Now hop on over to Try Stampin and check out what the other great designers have for you.  It's amazing just how different we all see one sketch.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave me one.

Canada Eh! Crazy4Challenges - C4C144

Last week while scanning through the internet for challenges I came across one that I was able to use alongside another of my challenge sites.  Appropriately the sight is called Crazy 4 Challenges.

This week their challenge is to use the colours of your countries flag to make a card. So being a Canadian Eh!! I of course am using red and white.  I cut out a simple maple leaf and ran it through my Cuttlebug using the spider web embossing folder.  As Canadian's we are known for all kinds of things, but our Maple Leaf is our #1 logo along with out ability to consistently say Please and Thank You.

I hope you like what I have come up with.  Thanks for checking me out.

Nancy

I love hearing your comments, so please don't forget to leave one.

Remembering Mom

With all that has gone on over the past couple of weeks I have really been thinking about my Mom.  She passed away 20 years ago of Alzheimer's and as most of you are aware you lose the person mentally long before they pass. Mentally I lost my Mom 10 years earlier.  I was blessed with a very tallented and special Mom.  She taught be at a very early age (2 years old) how to sew and although her tallents far surpass mine, her creativity has rubbed off on me.

This week at Cardabilities the sketch caught my eye and my creation was inspired by my Mom.  There was also another Challenge over at Crazy 4 Challenges that was tag related as well.

My Mom had taken an old watch, she never threw anything away and always repurposed items, and make a pin that I still wear today.  I get so many wonderful comments on the pin and I used this pin as my inspiration.

I hope you like what I have come up with and Mom Thanks for watching over me!

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please don't forget to leave one.

TST #73

It's Tuesday!  So time to play along at Try Stampin on Tuesday.  Jen is off this week and CherylAnn has come up with a sketch that for some reason just did not want to talk to me.  I tried several different attempts at this sketch and finally came up with my card.  I know it's a bit of a stretch from the sketch, but it worked for me.

There is just something about French Foliage that I just can't get enough of so once again I have used it to make my card this week.

So now hop on over the Try Stampin on Tuesday and see what the other designers have for you.  Don't forget to give the sketch a try for yourself and post it so I can see what you have done.

Thanks for dropping by and and I hope you enjoy.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so don't forget to leave one.

Masculine Monday & Another Friend Says Goodbye

First I would like to start off by saying Goodbye to another friend of the family.  Last week I told you about my daughters friend "Nana" that passed away.  Yesterday we found out that Nana's best friend was rushed to the hospital and passed of exactly the same thing as Nana, just one week apart of each other.  Betty managed to make it to Nana's funeral, but like some people in life when their best friend or partner passes, they don't have the will to go on.  I think this is what happened to Betty. Betty and Nana were so close and she helped Nana in so many ways, she just knew that she still had to be there for her.  We will miss you Betty, but we also know that Nana will be happy to see you once again.

Now onto a lighter and happier note, today is Masculine Monday.  I have been putting in some long hours once again at work and totally forgot about it being Monday with our Canada Day Holiday and all.  I quickly put together this card and combined it with a colour challenge over at The Dynamic Duos.  I finally had the correct colours to work with.

I started with a plain piece of CS.  My CS had a little bit of dimension to it that almost appeared to be like a watercolour paper.  That is the subtle lines that you see running through it.  I then took my French Foliage words and stamped lightly with Crumb Cake all over the paper.  The words were very light and  didn't show well so I went on to plan B.  With the cascading leaves from the Inkadinkado stamp set Fall Season I once again stamped them randomly all over the CS base stamping once and then stamping off twice.  This gave the gradual effect I was looking for.  Yesterday as I mentioned was Canada Day so I then chose Cherry Cobbler and stamped using the same technique only in the one corner of the card.  On a scrap piece of CS I stamped the individual leaf and then cut it out.  The leaf was adhered to the card front using dimensionals.  I only sponged around the Cherry Cobbler side of the card front.  Then I added my simple greeting at the bottom.  

The picture really doesn't do the card justice because when you look at the card it actually looks like the leaves are falling.

I hope you like what I have come up with today.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so don't forget to leave one.