Happy Birthday Hubby!

Yesterday was my hubby's 35th birthday. I decided to pull out the set Memorable Moments, yet again.  I just love the numbers and sentiments.  This set is perfect for personalizing a birthday or anniversary card.   

On our trip through Europe I found myself completely overwhelmed and surprised by all the patterns that I saw.  So I decided to take lots of pictures of them and use them to create a series of cards.

Here's the first card in that series.

The card above was inspired by the marble patterns that I saw in Florence and Pisa, Italy.

  

 

I used this photo taken of the cathedral in Pisa. 

Everyone knows all about the famous bell tower which stands beside it.

Here's a quick photo if you don't know which one I mean.

I used Whisper White, Cajun Craze, and Always Artichoke. 

I brushed on a bit of Sahara Sand to add texture.

Then I decided to use the sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday. 

I turned it sideways.

I made the zig zags with the Tasteful Trims die. 

I used a few punches and some fussy cutting to cut out the sentiments and frames.

And then popped everything up on dimensionals.

I ran it through the Big Shot with my new Fancy Fan Embossing Folder.

I sponged on some Sahara Sand.

 And voila - the finished card.  What's so perfect about this card is that not only my hubby knew exactly which picture I used for inspiration, but he also loves the colours.

  

Freshly Made Sketches #44

  Wow - 2 cards in 2 days.  It's been a while for that. 

 But my parents are home.  I didn't want to carry their anniversary and birthday cards all the way to Europe and back so I decided to make the cards when I got home.  Life was a bit crazy there at the end of June.  So, for my Dad's 80th birthday card, I decided to use this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

So I pulled out more of my new stamps and decided to play along.

The stamp sets I used were Daydream Medallions, Blue Ribbon, and Memorable Moments.

I stamped and paper pieced together the award medallion

I popped up the centre on dimensionals.

My colour palette was Island Indigo, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.

Here's a few more views.

I'm Baaaaccckkkk

Yes, we're back in Canada, on familiar soil.  We had a wonderful trip to the Mediterannean, and I will share more photos as I scrap them over the next few months.  We're happy, we're tired, we're jetlagged, and we really enjoyed our trip.

Anyway, I digress...

I actually got to sit down yesterday and stamp!!!!!!!  It feels so good to have my hands on paper and rubber and ink again.  For this card I used a few of my newest stamp sets.

Papaya Collage, Papillon Potpourri and Memorable Moments.

I made this card for my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary which we celebrated on the Cruise Ship.

I stamped the sentiment from Memorable Moments and cut little flags around them.

Next I stamped and cut out the numbers 5 and 0 and the 'TH' letters.

I am entering this card in two challenges. 

I used the sketch from Pals Paper Arts this week. 

And the colours and dry embossing from Embellish Magazine's challenge.

I like the fact that the dry embossing allows me to have all the layers from the sketch, but also still create a clean look with minimal colours.

Colours I chose to match the Embellish Magazine colours were:

Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Rose Red, and Wild Wasabi.

I added brown as a neutral colour for the frame and the sentiments.

I stamped off the Wild Wasabi to make it a bit softer for the leaves.

I used Perfect Plum for the butterfly and then stamped off Perfect Plum

 for the frame behind the number "50".

The buttons bring in the Elegant Eggplant and the stronger Wild Wasabi colour.

Where I've Been...,

It's been a crazy couple of weeks.  My poor blogs are both getting very neglected.

  But I'll be home in another week... 

Guess who refused to sleep on the plane over.

Connor called it the Night Flier.

Two cuties on a bridge.

Where the roads are made of water...

After climbing ALL those steps in 38degrees (which is up around 100 degreed F)

It's beautiful - can't believe I walked up that hill.

Ancient history makes him so happy - what a cutie eh?

Amazing - someone carved this over 2000 years ago...

The Grand Bazar in Istanbul,  They claim to be the largest

indoor shopping center in the world.  4,000 stores or something crazy like that

Christian images uncoverd in the Haiga Sophia Mosque.

Amazing.

Brad has been soooooooooo excited to visit this building.

This building (the Haiga Sophia) was built over 1500 years ago, and has been

standing ever since.  No other building has been standing this long.

And today - Mykonos Greece. 

I look at this photo and just want to start singing Mama-mia. (the ABBA version)

Stampin' Royalty Challenge #132

It's wednesday and that means another challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.

This week we have a fabulous

PHOTO INSPIRATION

CHALLENGE

I used the new Finishing Touches edgelits from the new catty to create some layered lace. 

I used some of the new Patio Party DSP.  I really liked this paper with the Midnight Muse background and the spattering of mini butterflies.

   

I added a trinket key and trinket heart which have retired.  But I really wish I had pulled them out sooner.  I will be using more of these for sure.

I tied the bow together with baker's twine and some of

the new Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons.

I stamped the flowers from the new Papya Collage set in Raspbery Ripple.

Then I sponged on some Primrose Petals to give the flowers some depth.

 

 If you look above, you can see some of a Designer Frame which I embossed with an Embossing Folder.  I was trying to mirror the frame on the wall in the photo, but I covered it up with too much foilage so it's really hard to see.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Here it is, my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.

Can you image 50 years together?  Brad and I have known each other for 10 years, and been married for 7.    Originally I made this page for this week's Colour Q challenge, but then I forgot to post it up on our private DT blog, so it didn't get up on Colour Q this week.  We are travelling in the Mediterannean at the moment, so I forgot what day of the week it was.  I do remember the date, though; July 6.

Stampin Royalty Challenge #131

This week we have an awesome colour challenge for you.

I stamped the sentiment right on the DSP

using Basic Grey Ink.

I found most of the colours in the Floral District DSP.

Then I used the Blossom punch and punched out a few flowers.

I used a few rhinestones to cover up the Rich Razzleberry as it's not part of the challenge colours.

 

I added a few buttons to the centre of each flowers.

And here it is.