MFT Card Challenges Sketch 339

What?  Square??  Yep.  I don't make a lot of square cards due to mailing cost, but I loved the sketch at MFT Card Challenges this week so I thought I'd play along.  I wanted to make a quilt card for my mom anyway, so perfect timing!  I love the Diagonal Quilt die from MFT.  So pretty! I cut out some papers I thought would look pretty and assembled. It was fairly easy and I have lots of leftovers for future cards! Win, win!

I was so ready to go play in my garden when we got back from our recent trip.  I didn't realize how much I love being out there.  It's so hot and humid now, but I do a little on and off each day.  We currently have a lot of black swallowtail caterpillars to raise and our first Gulf Fritillary ones as well. 

 This was our first Easter Black Swallowtail that we released.  He traveled to Kentucky with us as a chrysalis and was released there. 

My passion vine has taken off and we get flowers daily now.  It's the host (food) plant for the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars, so it needs to grow so we can raise them. :)  Look at how funky the caterpillars are.  We aren't sure about touching them.  lol 

Alrighty.  Happy Independence Day!  I'm off to get dressed to visit with a friend.  

SSS FLICKR Ice Cream

Trying to keep up a bit of stamping.  I've been feeling a bit down again lately, so I wanted to add some creative time in with my gardening.  If you see me not posting much, send me a kick in the butt email. :)   I saw the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge was to use stencils, so I grabbed on and this was the end result.  Kinda fun for summer, huh?  I love this ice cream set. I also used a new for me Copic combo.  Fun!!

Laila loved her Pokemon birthday party.  She must be excited because she keeps telling EVERYONE that she's five.  lol  I just hope she's as excited about school since it starts in less than 2 months! Yikes!

Have a great week!
Rita

Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Talk about last minute!  We've been on vacation and after a 17 hour drive yesterday, we're finally home.  I was sad to miss the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop, so I took a bit this afternoon to make a card.  It's the summer edition, so I thought I'd make a fun, bright card.  Hopefully you can see the coffee cup.  My photography when tired is SO bad.  Goodness.

I'll share some pictures of our trip and Laila's birthday a bit later.  I have to run and check on the kitten and make sure she's not climbing the curtains.  :) 

Camp Create Day 1

Hey!  Nice to see you again.  There's been so much going on this month, but I finally took a break to play along with the MFT Camp Create.  It took me a lot of attempts since I'm feeling out of practice, but I was finally able to finish a card.  Yay!  The first day's challenge was to use watercolors.  I did try to do the cool rainbow galaxy background in the example, but after 4 or 5 disasters I gave up.  i did make a galaxy one, but it's not quite that cool.  I thought it would be a good background for my favorite super hero.

So what have I been up to?  Well, more butterflies, but we did hit a snag there.  Our neighbor decided to "rescue" a cat that climbed into his car motor.  To him this meant allowing her to live outside and roam.  Well, of course there are now kittens.  Four of them. They showed up on my porch one day and I noticed that something was wrong with one of them.  I trapped her and took her to my vet.  She had a bad hernia that needed repair very soon.  Being the suckers we are, we scheduled it and now we have a cat.  When I went to ask to take her, they just said they didn't even know where the kittens were and seemed uninterested, so I knew they weren't going to spend $300-400 helping her.  Thankfully my friends and family all pitched in and we were able to do it.  She's been inside for a week now and is just precious. Laila named her Little Lady.

 She loves to snuggle and purrs so loud!  It was not good timing and I sure didn't want a cat, but it looks like she's ours.

Because all the kittens and momma were just covered in fleas and full of worms, we treated all of them to help with that.  Unfortunately the flea meds and caterpillars are a bad mix.  :(  We lost quite a few and I've just left them in the garden for now and will try raising them inside once I feel like we've cleared that off our hands.  That was pretty devastating.  I thought having Jason administer them and washing my hands often would be enough, but now I know.  Those little things are super sensitive. I was able to use gloves and mail some Monarch eggs to a lady in south Texas, so I'll count that as helping to save some even when we can't.

SCS Swipe Your Credit Card

Getting in a last post for the month.  :)  I am finding the challenges on Splitcoast helpful to get back in the groove of stamping.  This card was made for their Monday technique challenge.  Karen has a fun technique this week and I loved her card.  I decided to make a version of hers just to get the hang of the technique.  I can't wait to try it again now!  I love the result! I love swiping my credit card without having to pay it back. Go give the technique a shot and see how you like it!

We had a Silver-Spotted Skipper visit today.  So cute!  We also had a Monarch visit and leave eggs.  More babies!  :) Yay! I'm off to collect the eggs and see how many she left us.

Papertrey Ink Make it Monday 286

Today's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge was to make a coordinating pair of cards.  Same supplies, different look.  I love this Mum's the Word set and thought it would be fun to use for the challenge.  I think they are different enough.  I love the colors.  I know we are about to start Summer, but man!  Fall is my season and I am ready for it already.  :)

I was going to add embellishments, but I actually liked the plain cards.

I'm off to make a Costco list and see what other errands I need to run.  I tried a trip out earlier and was able to do one out of three on my list.  It seems to be that way lately.  Either something I need is out of stock or in today's case, the overnight return at the library was broken.  Grr!

IC599: Stampin' Up! Butterfly Basics

I sat down to stamp today and yet again, felt lost on what to make.  I decided to go back to where I started, Splitcoast Stampers.  I haven't been over there for a while, but there are always great challenges.  Today's challenge is the Inspiration Challenge.  There's a link to a Pinterest board of gorgeous baskets to take inspiration from.  I chose this basket and wanted to use the Butterfly Basics stamp set.  I am in a mood to use butterflies and cats.  I actually NEED some cat stamps, so I'm on the lookout for some cute ones.  :) I have a lot of cat loving friends I like to make cards for but not that many choices to use.

The background is the Watercolor Wash background from Stampin' Up! I find it fun to play around with that one to see what looks you can get.  I inked it with Smoky Slate, stamped off, and then sprayed lightly with water before stamping on watercolor paper.  I liked the look. I used that same method on the fern stems.

I'm off to figure out dinner.  Jason finished up Laila's playset today, so he's tired.  I haven't felt the best, but I think I can handle cooking some hot dogs.  :)

Have a great weekend. zIC

Stampin' Up! Lacy & Lovely

One more playing around card.  I love this Lacy & Lovely set and I haven't inked it up in ages.  I found a pretty distress ink combination that I thought would be fun with it.  It didn't turn out that great, but it was more my design than the colors or stamps.  I just can't find my mojo.  :/  If you see it, send it home!

It's been a rough parenting day.  So much defiance.  Yesterday was amazing and awesome, but today has been something else.  We did have three Monarchs eclose and releasing them was at least one highlight for the day.  She starts play therapy on Thursday, so I'm hoping that will help.  I am so nervous about her starting kindergarten.  I just don't think it is going to go well.  She's already asking what happens if she doesn't listen to the teacher.  Sigh.  We are meeting with the principal on Friday to talk about her and her needs.  I hate to get in and sound negative about her, but I do want to be honest.  She is going to be a challenge.  She is also so smart and will be an amazing student if we can get her issues under control.  I hope they can see that.  She gets labeled "that kid" a lot already and I'm probably guilty of doing it myself on the exhausting days like today.  She's way more than that and I just want people to see that.  To see the amazing parts.