An Arranged Birthday with a Supply Challenge

Our CCEE challenge today was to use the supplies that Charlene sent us.

• designer paper by g.c.d. studios-rose colored glasses collection-light wallpaper
  
• 2 chocolate brads


• 1 pink gemstone brad


• 1 chocolate oval and 2 white ovals


• 1 pink curly label punched piece


• 2 ribbons, pink & chocolate
  

Requirements:

• Must use all or a portion of the designer paper


• Must use either the pink gemstone, the chocolate brads or both


• Must use a portion of or all of the ribbon, or both


• Must use the oval punched shapes together or with the curly label

Now....before anyone gets buzzer happy on me, I did use the lovely designer paper but got a little.... ok... a lot! "sponge happy" and sponged on so much distress ink that it's hard to see the design! LOL

Seee, if you look reeeeally hard, you can see a little of the pattern behind the cut out flowers!

I love this new set, Arranged with Love, by Melanie Muenchinger from Gina K! It's colored with Copics and a few hightlights with a gel pen, then I took my craft knife and cut around each leaf, stem and flower! Then popped it up on the "heavily" distressed, scalloped paper and added the chocolate ribbon.

The sentiment (also from the set) is sponged and popped up also.

To see what the lovely paper actually looks like and to see how the other girls used their supplies, check out our CCEE blog.

Now, I'm off to start my week...more raspberries...more shearing...and maybe more yardwork!

Enjoy your day!

Thanks for stopping!

Raspberries, Jam…and Roses!

First, the Roses!

Click on the picture to see how to make this Rose frame!

I love how the picture turned out! I had to send the frame to Crafts n’Things because it was Winter when they needed photos…somehow snow and smelling roses just didn’t work!! LOL

And…the fruits of my labor

Four and a quarter pounds of red raspberries! YUM!

Eight pints of jam!
I wish I could say that was freshly baked bread!
haha, but, nope it’s store bought.

I started my day picking berries, went for a walk, vacuumed… THEN was planning to make the jam. Well…Amber’s neighbor had other plans for me.

She decided today was a good day to thin her Iris and Hostas… and send her hubby to deliver a TRUCKLOAD to me!! I’m not kidding!! Although it’s not a full size truck, but still, it was FULL!! I was to split it all with Dianna…and it had to be planted ASAP as it was all bare root!

Do you know what the temps are today? UGH!! Right now it’s 93, thankfully it was just under 90 when we were digging holes! And she’s got MORE!!! Hope she waits to send them up till it cools off!

Hmmmm, think I need some more toast! *wink*

Stay cool and thanks for stopping!

Dawn

Arranged With Love for a Blog Hop

When Melanie asked me if I’d like to play with her new set coming out and showed me a picture, I *gasped* and jumped at the offer! Anyone that knows my stamping style knows I LOVE flowers and floral scenes!
This set takes the guesswork and fussing with sticky notes to mask away… it’s all done for you! Just stamp it!

“Arranged with Love” is a floral beauty! It’s available for purchase at 10CST on Thursday the 25th at Gina K Designs.

This is one entire image with 10 lovely sentiments you can put on the “card”.

I stamped the image twice on Gina’s Pure Luxury #80 with Versamark and Black Soot distress ink. (although distress ink stays wet long enough to apply embossing powder, with this being such a large area I didn’t want it to dry before I got all my ep sprinkled on, so I added the Versamark)

It’s a combo of Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils, starting with Copics to lay down my base colors then doing most of the shading with the pencils blended with baby oil. I went back and added some highlights with Copics again… cool thing about the combo is the Copics slide around on the waxy Prismacolors and barely soak in, making it easy to blend and hightlight! *wink*

And this is why I stamped and embossed it twice! All the flowers are layered and some of the leaves. This meant double coloring too! I think it was well worth the effort though don’t you?! Some of the petals are double dimensionals to raise them a little higher.

Towards the bottom of the flowers I took my green dauber (just the distress ink left from previous usage) and sponged. (all the sponging was done before layering the petals!) Then I took Faded Jeans distress ink and sponged around the top area.

The “card” is outlined with a Zig Painty gold pen.
*Here’s a tip* The area to be filled in is narrow and when I started my pen (you know…shake~shake… press the tip…) it left a puddle on my scratch paper and the tip was TOO wet to fill in the narrow part! So I got rid of the excess on my scratch paper and used the “puddle” to dip the pen tip in and color the border.

I wasn’t sure what sentiment I wanted until the very end, and since I need an anniversary card for some friends, I chose this one to stamp and emboss.

Popped up on foam mounting tape on Prism Candle Glow med then layered on Blush Red med.

Now, be sure to hop around to all the others so you can see their awesome creations!

Gina, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Theresa , and Melanie Muenchinger, and, be sure to check out Gina K’s CenterStage Spotlight girls joining us in Previews today: Carla Suto and Melissa Waldorf and Melanie’s Guest Designer this month: Selma Stevenson! plus Denise

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Thanks for Stopping!

Dawn

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Create and Decorate Magazine

Check it out!

The August issue of Create and Decorate , I made the stamped/Flower Soft frame with sheep and trees!

And I just found out today that my project will be featured as one of the "make & takes" at CHA in Orlando in July!! (a card based on the frame) How cool is that!!

This magazine is jam-packed full of goodies! It goes on sale tomorrow.

Did I Leave The "Do Not Disturb" Sign Out? and a FREE Class!

Well, we're home! Got home last evening...ahhhh

Back to the REAL world! No eating out...No Housekeeping to make my bed (it's 4:20pm and it's still not made! *shocker* for me!), No Housekeeping to bring fresh towels!! What's up with that!! Thanks Dawn (dlm) for the thought that just maybe I left that little door hanger out that says...

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"DO NOT DISTURB"

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I've been busy doing wash and hanging it out. Weeded a flowerbed. Thought of what to cook for dinner....and picked some red and black raspberries! Yes, raspberries! Look what I came home to...guess I'm going to be making jam this week!

And my Hollyhocks are blooming...I love HH's, they're just an "old" fashioned flower!

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Also...check this out! It's FREE!!!
Click ---->here then scroll down,
on the left you'll see where you need to register
to login.
How cool is that!!

And.... Stay tuned for something special this week! I get to do a sneak peek for Gina K!! Excited about this set? You Betcha!!!

Thanks for stopping!

Dawn

Finally…the Trip Home…Lighthouses & Moose, oh my!

We made it to Portland ME on Thursday evening, went to eat on the waterfront…and while there Lloyd started feeling chilled. Ended up he couldn’t even eat his dinner and we left to the hotel where he spiked a fever of 103.5! Friday was a dreary, pouring rain day spent inside our room…thankful I had the laptop while he slept it off!

Today he felt well enough to travel although very weak till late afternoon! So…off to the Portland Head Light. There was a Geo Cache here, but it was more like a scavenger hunt walking the trail, over a mile, and Lloyd just wasn’t up to it=(

More of these beautiful wild roses! Just beautiful along the way and oh~so~fragrant!! 

 

And my summer house…one of many I drooled over on this trip!

    

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Now on to York and the Nubble Lighthouse
I’d visited this lighthouse on a similar work trip about 16 or so years ago, in October!
It was soooo cold I could barely stand outside the car let alone get pictures!
This one had a cache that didn’t take a lot of effort to find, so while I was snapping away, Lloyd was hunting.

   See the cable and basket on the left, just above the rocks?
That’s how the keeper would get back and forth across the water!
Can’t even imagine!!
(by the way, the stop point on this side was where the cache was)

Can you imagine staying in this place?!!
What a view!

Ahhhh, I could have sat all day and just listened to the surf and watched the waves…
but we have to make our way home!!!

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This is a pull off point on Hogback Mountain, VT where you can see 100 miles!

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And this town of Bennington, VT was full of moose!!

And that was just a handful, they were scattered all through downtown!

And with that, I say, good-night! It’s going on midnight and I’m pooped.

Thanks for stopping and following our trip. We should be home tomorrow!

Dawn           

Prince Edward Island and Beyond, Day 2, real long!

We left Charlottetown this morning and headed to Cavendish…home of L.M.Montgomery and Green Gables.
We went to “Green Gables”, a special built home and barn furnished with things from that time period of the book, Anne of Green Gables, first published in 1906. I wish I had their gardener!! The grounds were just gorgeous!

Ok, this wood stove is a Waterloo II, 1876. This particular stove was mentioned in one of the Anne books.

See the open door at the top? That’s the oven, there was a special insert for baking so your bread, cakes, etc wouldn’t be smokey!

Ahh, this would have been the room where I spent my time.Two different “Swifts”

This room had a little more “class” than a room down the hall…
the “chamber pot” is in the washstand not under the bed

another neat stove

A wooden downspout!

Lover’s Lane

Oh my! These roses smelled sooooo good!!

Good-bye Green Gables

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Stopping at the beach, Gulf of St Lawrence Yes, I had to stick my foot in Atlantic waters…kinda chilly!!

We didn’t realize PEI was so much farmland!
Farmers were cutting hay and the potato fields were planted and sprouting.

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Leaving PEI…remember we came over on the ferry…but we left by bridge.
Eight miles long…UGH…just knock me out and tell me when we’re on the other side!!

The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick,
making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient.
The curved, 12.9 kilometer (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and a decade after its construction.

Geo Cache? Yup, one here in the rocks at the end of the bridge!

And another one over by this lighthouse.

Now, in order to get to the lighthouse…

we had to take a path…
yes, there is a path through this!
And…it was full of mosquitos!LOL…we walked reeeeally fast!

Light, at the end of the path…

literally!

Just under the walkway, the lighthouse was loaded with these swallows!

On the road…through New Brunswick

more potatoes, see how deep the furrows are

and more Lupins

Well, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont…here we come.

Thanks for stopping!

Dawn