Our Anchor...Dad!

Father's Day is just a few days away and I decided to put together a simple card for my Dad.  As a lot of you are aware my Dad is suffering from Dementia and each day brings new challenges to his daily living.  Things that we all take for granted are very difficult for him to perform.  Most of all his memory is slipping away day by day.

Dad was in the Navy during his earlier years and I try each year to make his cards along the nautical themes.  This year is no different.

Even with Dad's state of mind his is still the anchor that holds our family together.

The use of the ink splatters from French Foliage appear as what could be bubbles under water.

Challenges that I have entered this card in:

Bitten by the Bug - Father's Day Challenge

Moving Along with the Times

Mod Squad Challenge - Nautical

I know that Dad will love this card just as much as I loved making it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you like what I have put together.

Nancy

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

HOC Blog Hop "Mothers Garden"

Hi, all!  It's time for an end of term blog hop over at House of Cards and we have a super fun challenge AND tons of great prize opportunities for those of you who join in the fun!!!:) You should have arrived here from Corneilia's Blog.  If you haven't please start all the way back at the House of Cards hop post and follow the list found in the blog of the hop post!

Photo Inspiration

I decided to play again with some watercolours, but was unable to print the digital image onto the watercolour paper so the image is printed onto regular card stock.  My image is taken from Stitchy Bear Stamps called Mothers Garden with Floral.  I also managed to make two different cards using the same digital image and highlighted the flowers in different ways.

Card number one is simply a single layer card using watercolours on the image.

 Card number two is the same image, however I printed the image twice and fussy cut our the leaves and the flowers after I had painted them.

 The overlay was placed onto the base of the same image but not before I had painted the vines and given the background a punch of colour to accent the flowers a little more.

The centres of the daisies are filled with seed beads.

Remember those Great Sponsors I mentioned, well here they are.  Please check them out and good luck with winning a gift voucher from one of them.

Eclectic Anthology
Prize: $50 gift voucher to the shop.

Inspired By Stamping
Prize: $15 gift voucher to the shop.

Paper Sweeties
Prize: $20 gift voucher to the shop.

Boutique link:

www.papersweeties.com

Blog link: 

http://papersweeties.com/category/blog/

STAMPlorations
Prize: 5 stamps sets--your choice--from the shop.

Stitchy Bear
Prize: $10 gift voucher to the shop.

Now get to hopping'!  Your next stop is Robbie's Blog!  If you get lost along the way, you can always head back to the original blog hop post -- and don't forget to link up a project at the House of Cards blog after completing the hop for an extra chance to win a mystery prize from one of our fabulous sponsors, too!

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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

HOC Inspiration Photo "Kindness"

Spring has finally arrived and with it the sweet sound of the birds chirping in the morning.  I am finally able to sleep with my windows open and just love hearing the sound in the mornings.  Then I take my coffee and spend a relaxing "ME" time in my hot tub outside for 20-30 minutes before my day becomes too hectic.  Between you and me the hot tub also manages to get those old bones moving as well.  So when I saw the "Inspiration Photo" for our House of Cards I could hear the little bird just calling to me while I was having my morning coffee.

There has been a lot of watercolour put forth lately and I thought that I would give it a try with this sketch.  

I started by fussy cutting out two feathers, at least I hope they look like feathers, onto watercolour paper.  Then using various shades of the purple (although it came out pink) I washed the side of the feather and then did the same with the yellow on the opposite side.  In order to give the feather a little more character I used the finest brush I had and gave it a vein down the centre with black.

I used the ink splotches from French Foliage and again my black ink and lightly accented the background.  

I wanted to keep the background light and airy so that the feathers would be the centre of attention.

Although this card may appear a little girly I plan on giving it to my husband "just because" he has been killing me with "kindness" these past few weeks with everything that we have been trying to accomplish between looking after my Dad, both of our kids moving within a few weeks of each other and the multitude of other things we have been trying to accomplish.  His words are always so encouraging and kind and I cherish each and every word.  

I hope you like what I have come up with.  What do you see, hear, think of this great inspiration photo.  Show us your stuff and don't forget to join in on the fun over at House of Cards.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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

TST #166 Pinterest Special

So todays card for Try Stampin on Tuesday has a Mother's Day Theme to it. Unfortunately I lost my Mother 21 years ago to Alzheimer's and am now going through the early stages of this disease with my my Father.  Thankfully I have learned that this disease although has a lot of downs to it it also has a lot of ups and we celebrate the ups whenever we can get them.

Mothers Day Theme

I have also tried something a little different with this card.  I am addicted to Pinterest and have chosen several "printable images" from the files and used them for this card. 

If you look closely you will also see the little heart which I took from one of the Easter Bunnies and adapted it to my card.  This little heart will bring to light the verse that I have chosen for the inside of the card.

The images used for this card are as follows:

the postcard - the loveliest little details

feathers - lia griffith

I do miss my Mom and remember her always.  Her creativity and talent I would like to say spilled over to me and I am forever grateful for that.  

Love you Always Mom.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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

TSOT # 164

Can you believe that we are now at Easter and there is still snow and winter just will not give up!  I am truly beginning to think that we are not going to have a summer this year and we dearly need to make some cheerful cards to get us through it.

With that being said this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday we have a Sweet Tooth challenge for you.  Seems only appropriate with the Easter Bunny just finishing off his/her yearly visit.

Unfortunately I don't really have any stamp sets that would work for the Sweet Tooth images so I have a happy colour and a little song bird. 

I wanted this to be a clean simple look so I started with my DSP and then added a piece of CS on top of it.  Once I had my three holes punched out and positioned I stamped the little insets and then elevated the punched out area with Dimensionals.

 

If you look closely you can see my little song bird in the one inset.

Now that you have seen what I have come up with it's your turn.  Show us your Sweet Tooth - if you have one - if not we would still love to see what you can come up with for our sketch this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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

HOC C&S April Sketch Challenge

Another sketch challenge for you over at House of Cards.  This is another one of those sketches that can be used over and over.

With this sketch I decided to try a watercolour technique that is hitting the blogs these days.  I had seen somewhere that someone had used soap, water and colour and blew bubbles to make their own paper, but for the life of me I just couldn't find it when I wanted to.  So I reverted to the old parchment paper and blotted the ink onto the paper and then spritzed it with water.

Also rather than making my card a single layer, which is the true definition of Clean and Simple, I decided to layer it a little, but keeping the overall look simple.

Using the Tim Holtz Branch Die I die cut the branch and lightly sponged it and placed it behind and around the watercolour paper.  Hoping that this would look like coral!

Then using By the Seashore I stamped out the star fish, then cut and shaped it to give it a little bit of definition.

I love how the watercolour paper turned out and when I looked at it I could remember the great colours of the Gulf when we were in Florida this year.  

Hope you like what I have come up with.  Now it's your turn.  Lets see what you have up your sleeve for this great sketch and don't forget to post it so we can all have a look see!

Thanks for stoping by.

Nancy

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

HOC C&S Photo Inspiration

With March having five weeks we are adding a bonus card for the last week of the month over at House of Cards.  So I am going a little off the inspiration today other than using the colours that are in the picture.

Usually I like to follow the inspiration picture along with the colours, but this time I am going just with the colours.  The colours worked perfectly with my Daughters college colours and she recently graduated from Dental Hygiene as mentioned earlier post.  Today's card was my inspiration from the picture.

I found this cute little tooth grad on the internet and used it on the inside of the card.  Very fitting.

So very proud of her we are.  Even better now we will be able to have our teeth cleaned for FREE!  We hope!

So what do you see in the challenge?  Colour or the actual picture?  Show us your stuff and don't forget to link it back to House of Cards.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

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