Flight reservations made, car and hotel reservations are made. Necessary addresses in the GPS and important phone numbers in my phone. I can now relax. Oh no, I can't relax yet, I still have to pack.

I'm heading to VA for my brother's 50th wedding celebration.I have had a lot of ups and downs with getting things set to go. Making reservations, cancelling reservations, making more reservations and cancelling. I'm pretty sure everything is set now. It better be, I leave the end of the week.

I'm quite nervous about this trip. I'm using an airline that I haven't used before and its a "red eye" flight. Landing in Washington DC at an obscenely early hour in the a.m.

With all my preparing and anticipation, I have had a lot of nervous energy. Wish it could have been directed at house cleaning, but it wasn't. Here is what I did with that nervous energy.

 I do hope this is an ok host/hostess gift. I  made it with the idea of giving it to the family that may be putting up with me, oops, putting me up. They have been a big help in getting my hotel lodgings for the first few nights while all the relatives are there. . I'm going to be there for nine days I think I will be shuffled around from couch to couch which is ok, it will give me more quality time with individual family members. I will be putting some thank you gifts together for others that may put me up.

As for a gift for the honored couple, I have absolutely no idea.

Welcome little one

I've never done a baby card of any kind. However, when I saw the Free Stamp of the Month from Delightful Inspiration, I had to make one.The image is Sea Turtle Beach and I think it is adorable.

 After downloading the image (thank you Faith) I opened it in Word. I then re-sized it, placed it where I wanted it on my page and printed it out. I then cut the page to make a card base 5.5 x 4.25. I printed several copies of the image in order to cut out mom's shell, the starfish and the seashell. After coloring with pencils, I pop dotted these items While it doesn't show, I used some sparkly markers on various parts of the image. The sentiment was computer generated.
Now that arrow stands out like a sore thumb,doesn't it? This was the card I made for the "mystery" swap I'm in. I had to use an arrow and didn't have any creative arrow moments, so there sits the arrow There were three arrows to use, so I slipped the other two into the card and sent it all to my partner.  I hope she likes my card and can use the arrows. The arrows were a real challenge for me.

June Color of the Month

Its June, one month closer to the winter holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah . Don't remind you? Okay, I won't, just pretend you didn't read  that first sentence. Now for the June Colors of the Month.

 So Saffron, Perfect Plum and Wild Wasabi.

Unlike May's colors, these go together. I cheated and used the Color Coach.
 

Besides the SU papers, I used D'Vine embossing folder, SU blossom punch, the flower is from SU Button Buddies stamp set and the center of the flower is Stickles. The sentiment is from Judith.

That's my June COTM card and I'm wondering if I will see any of these colors used when I visit your blogs.

Thanks for stopping by and Take Care

It'l tickle your funny bone

I bought the SU stamp set  Not so Seriously and I have used two stamps out of it once. Recently I saw a challenge that I could use this set again. Over at Perfect Sentiments, the challenge this week is "Make them Laugh". If you click on the aforementioned link, it will take you directly to that challenge.

Stamped inside is:

...IT'S A LOT BIGGER 

THAN MY HEART!

Now, isn't that cute?

I made this card for that challenge, but its also for the Build a Sketch swap I participate in each month. We were to use a card base, background layer, a 3 1/2" square, 2 1/2" circle and a rectangle that is 2 1/2 x 1 1/2. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm using this sketch for most of my swaps in June.
My color combination is Poppy Parade (retired) and Tangerine Tango, an SU dynamic duo. Now I must go over to the Perfect Sentiments challenge blog and enter my card.

Thanks for stopping by and Take Care

A little late

Actually I'm quite late since this is my Color of the Month for May. Tomorrow is the last day of May, so hopefully, its better late than never.

I don't know how I choose these particular colors, but I did. and it's  the proof that color coordination isn't one of my strong suits.

Colors for the Month of May were: Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade and I had the hardest time with these colors.
 

I hope the receiver of this likes it. I had such high hopes when I started it. I like the LL and WW together, but I had to use all three. PP just didn't seem to fit in on this card. My SU friends said it was great. Hmmmm. But I still don't like it.  I should have started over, but I didn't have any more of the LL. Lesson learned; "Don't cut until your sure it works."

 

This is the card I received from Barbara. I hope she doesn't mind that I have posted it. But it is quite pretty. When I first saw it, my response was: "Now why didn't I think of that?" Ever have one of those moments?

Even tho May is nearly in the past, give these colors a try.

Thanks for stopping by and Take Care

Faux Tiles

I'm not a big fan of this technique, but if you can do it right, it is really pretty. I did about eight of them before I got this one. I just couldn't seem to get the faux coloring right or the placement of my image. Isn't he the cutest? He is a digi from Delightful Inspiration that I got for free because I entered April's challenge. If you follow the link, you will see this little mouse and the rules for entering the May challenge.

Back to the Faux Tiles, which is the May technique swap over at SSSD.

This technique was to be done using a stamp for the image. However, I wanted to use this darling mouse which is a digi. To do this, after scoring my cardstock, ran it through the printer to place the mouse. I then proceeded to do my coloring.

I used SU chalk to do the faux tiling. I don't know what color it is except that its orange and my chalks are at least ten years old. I used SU pens to color this darling little mouse, added googly eyes and the sentiment.

So go check out the Delightful Inspiration challenge while I get this card into the mail and on its way to Nancy. Hope she likes it.
Take Care

Build a Sketch

One of my favorite swaps is the Build a Sketch. Its much like the Sketch challenges, except we make the sketch from the pieces given. Here are the pieces for May

  <  from this

                  to this  >

The paper is SU Pretty in Pink and Daffodil Delight. I'm not sure what the dark pink is. It may be from stash. But I thought it blended well, so I used it. I used the cupcake builder punch for the cakes. I also embossed lines on the bottom of the cakes to give them some depth.

Sentiment is from the Bring on the Cake stamp set, the gems are Reflections Iridescent rhinestones and the tiny star brads are from stash.

Thanks for stopping by. Take Care