Power and Spark Challenge~Add some sparkle!

I'm submitting this month's Power Poppy Challenge for February while it is still February. Barely. I used a retired Flourishes stamp for this one...no coloring except for the oh so tiny hummingbird!

My sparkle is all the sequins and the hummingbird has a layer of wink of stella so a slight shimmer there! 

I rarely stamp in blue...but I sure do love this color...Stampin' Up Marina Mist with these flowers!! Kind of made my heart sing. As I often do...I began by making a little set of these and then decided to just make the one...but now I have the idea anyway and can use this as a template and change up the sentiments!

Thanks so much for stopping in to say "hello." Blessings on your day!!

Papertrey ink Blog Hop~February 2018

Good morning and welcome to my blog! I am participating in this month's Papertrey Ink's blog hop and so glad as this was our inspiration this month:

It was so fun to challenge myself to break out my Spring Cloche fillers stamps and dies to make my card! I used the vine and flowers in my card to mimic what appears to be a pretty pastel scrunched up table runner and the pretty foil eggs in the grasses...were my flowers. I basically just used the entire picture as inspiration.

That vine was so sweet I decided to drape it in the corners as they seemed a little bare to me. I used the negative die cut to stamp out several pots and flowers and made bunches of bouquets to have on hand!! The cake plate was fussy cut and I added Ranger glossy accents for some shine.
Blessings on your day!
Now off to hop like a bunny! (That's the one thing I did not have...no bunnies in my stamp room! Must remedy that soon.)

Make it Monday Challenge~Framing Sentiments and Images

Hi friends!
I am joining in with this week's PaperTrey Ink Monday!
Laurie did a wonderful video tutorial on the Papertrey Ink blog on how to frame images or sentiments. Her cards are beautiful!
I made a birthday card and followed another tip seen recently on backing your frame with vellum to soften the floral...so the floral peeking through on the underside of the vellum frame is much softer. I also die cut my image from the Fun Frame Dies (PTI) from gold mirror card stock.
The floral frame was made from a mix of PTI stamps and quite a few colors. The card was matted with the PTI Ocean Tides and Gold Mirror as well as PTI white.

Thanks for looking!

My card measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2

I look forward to seeing what everyone else is submitting for this challenge

-always such great inspiration out there!

Steamboat Spring's 104th Winter Carnival

Erin and I (she's beautiful, isn't she?)
As I was driving to our mountain condo over this past weekend...I couldn't help notice there was hardly any snow and the Winter Carnival was set to take place the following morning. We were there for our daughter's birthday weekend and for my husband, an avid skier, to catch a few runs. The winding road leading up to the condo was bare in many spots, revealing lots of bleak gray foliage and mud where there should be sparkling snow. Such is winter at times.
But overnight, the snow came...and by morning and all through the entire day, it came down in downy wet crystals...sticking to everything.
It was magical...and I am glad for all the kiddos that participated in the festivities. The Main Street is closed off and the events begin...kids of all ages being pulled by horses with real life cowboys who grew up riding horses on local ranches. So fun to watch!

Kids getting ready for the three legged race!

Locals and visitors line both sides of the street to watch the events which lasted until noon. In the background you can barely make out a dark strip halfway up...that is Howelson Hill ski jump where some past Olympian Gold medalists have practiced.

Cowboys and horses...oh my! What else can I say?

Walter -our daughter's dog

He's such a sweet natured and gentle creature. Everyone stopped, especially tiny toddlers...to reach out and stroke his fur. They must instinctively know what a sweet dog he is. And he loved all the attention!

Thanks for stopping in...I hope you're enjoying the winter weather wherever you are!

Papertrey Ink's Anniversary Color Challenge

Hi friends! Happy Valentine's Day! I actually did make a few Valentine cards...but they are already in the mail and on their way to the recipient. We just returned from a weekend in our mountain condo...celebrating our daughter's birthday with her. I will post a few photos in my next post.
But time's awaste-ing and I need to get moving with this card challenge. I got back from our weekend late Monday afternoon, after driving through not so great weather, (icy roads...really hate them!)... so missed a couple of the deadlines for the challenges...but here's one I did get to make this afternoon.
Today's entry is for Papertrey Ink's Color Challenge here in celebration of the company's 11th year anniversary!
I used this color pallet as my inspiration for today's card!

For my card, I used the "Year of Psalms" July set. I just could not capture the sweetness of all the tiny stamps in the pretty colors in the challenge. It is so pretty in real life and I hope that it brings some comfort to the person I have in mind to send it to.

Here is a close up:

This was a lot of fun to make using all the different colors! Thanks to Papertrey Ink for the challenge. There is a $100.00 store credit if you win so play along if you can.
I am also entering my card into this week's WordArt Wednesday's Challenge.

PTI~Make it Monday!

Just a quick card post today! I am always inspired by Make it Mondays on Papertrey Ink blog~and this week I am actually entering! I know...that never happens...I usually am lagging behind by a couple of weeks.
This week Stephanie challenged us to use different papers on our cards. Well, let me just say...I started with a notebook page with a floral spray...and tried for a bit too long to make it work. Then I just scrapped the idea and began over with my new set, "Life is what you Bake It." Oh my word, is it cute!!

I used some pretty blue tissue paper and a couple of doilies as my "added papers." The doily was actually die cut with a heart die as was the blue tissue paper (layered 3 of them on top of each other)...and then I made a fun pleated streamer to go along the border.The heart has an added floral rhinestone and a few white and clear sequins were sprinkled on top.  This is a 4 1/2 inch square card which fits this image pretty well. It looks like a party to me!
Thanks to the inspiration from Stephanie...I got a little outside my normal creative process on this one.
It's been fun visiting...see you next time!