BBQ and Pony Party!!

Remember the BBQ invitations? I have been so busy this month. All last week, I was finishing my Clear Dollar Stamps cards and getting ready for the BBQ . Finally the day came this past Saturday. This was our third annual church potluck BBQ, each year I get braver and invite a few more people.  There are always quite a few who can’t come so I ended up with about 50 people there. The kids came first to play in the water and ride the ponies, the adults start arriving during the pony rides. In case you are wondering, we provide burgers, freshly made by yours truly!, hotdogs, punch and a few snacks to get the kids started before everyone arrives. Graciously, everyone else brings something so it only ends up costing about $150. (Not including the $150 for the pony!)

We couldn’t have ordered up better weather. Just warm enough for the kids to be able to play in the water and not so hot that the adults were melting (or the block of ice in my punch pitcher!) It turned out to be the best BBQ so far. I thought I’d show you all a few of the pictures we took during the event. I can’t believe with all of the time Jameson spent in the water, we do not have a single picture of him sliding and I can’t show the other kids without permission from their parents. We have a cross between a kiddie pool and a wet banana, remember those? It is a sheet of plastic with a plastic tube around the edge forming a ring, it gets filled up with water to hold it up. This allows the sheet of plastic to hold a couple inches of water. Then the kids slide either on their tummies or on a mini surf board. Best $40 bucks we ever spent! Hope you enjoy the pix.

Jameson and Spencer on the pony. Spencer is happier than he looks.

Jameson with slightly purple lips from playing in the water before the sun warmed it up!
Jameson on the pony. He says he went on 7 rides but I manage to have few pictures of him. Hmmm…

Spencer holding nana’s hand waiting for his turn.

 
My sister, Sarah, with Spencer on the pony. The first ride he kept saying, “No, no, no” but after a ride with his brother, he went over and over quite happily!

Sarah and Spencer again.

Spencer just smilin’. He is very serious so this was a great catch by a young friend of mine who manned the camera part of the day. Thanks Caleb!

Sarah chatting with the boys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you pony for all the rides!

Enjoy, Rebecca!

RECIPE
Great weather + 2 ponies + oldies music + 1 BBQ + great food + fabulous friends and family+ 1 camera = Lifelong Memories!!

Lavender Flower Soft Card

Finally, the last sympathy card. I made this over a week ago, but I am spacing out my posts! I love posting ahead and your work magically pops up! So cool! I love this stamp for adding Flower Soft. I think it can look like lupines but more closely resembles larkspur because larkspur is a looser shape like this image. I found that I much prefer using a NON two-way glue (dries to repositionable) with Flower Soft. Some people were recommending SU! Two-Way glue but I found it was still sticky after drying if even a tiny bit of adhesive missed getting a piece of Flower Soft on it. So I used regular old white Elmer’s Glue. I believe this particular one is acid-free so I hope it doesn’t yellow over time.

I thought that the gold embossing would show up OK on the script stamped background but not very well. So I sponged over the sentiment thus blending in the script and making it much easier to read! Save! Especially since I waited ‘til the last to stamp it! Typical me!

Wondering how I made the scallops match so perfectly? I always start by marking the center of my panel so the shapes match at each end. Then I cut a pale plum panel a bit larger than needed, just to be sure. I marked the center of it and punched the edge. Then I glued the focal panel to the pale plum panel. I used my Perfect Layers tool to trim the other three edges of the panel with perfect 1/8” edges.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: French Script and flower, unknown sentiment
Ink: mellow moss, Versamark
Paper: mellow moss, pale plum and confetti white CS Accessories: Hodge Podge Hardware-brass, moss gingham ribbon, MS cornice punch, perfect plum, celery markers, foam dots-Jody Morrow, Lavender Flower Soft, gold EP. All products by SU! unless otherwise noted.

Wisteria June Rose for Clear Dollar Stamps

This is my last Clear Dollar Stamps post as June Guest Designer. I’d like to thank both Lori and Laurie of CDS for their faith in me, the great stamps and warm welcome! Thanks to all of the Team Members too who came by to leave lovely comments on my cards. I had a great time despite how insane June turned out for me overall and I hope you think I gave your stamps a good workout!

I just love this rose image. It is so delicate and lovely! And you can kind of see where to shade with this stamp. For me, the more petals, the easier it is to shade. For someone new to stamping, each petal can be coloured darker away from the light and lighter towards the light source. After some practice, you can add shading within each petal, at least the ones large enough to do so. I’m afraid my colouring looks too washed out here. I used reinkers to watercolour with for the first time! It takes several layers and an almost dry brush to colour like this. You can click to get a larger photo. It is so much prettier IRL. I can’t wait to take my photography course. We tried resetting the white balance on my camera as all my previous  photos were slightly sepia toned and now it is a bit too blue-grey. I will get it right eventually!

Back to the card!! hee hee!! I embossed my image to make colouring even easier. It is much harder to accidentally slop colour on a neighbouring petal and sure looks pretty too! The shine actually showed up this time and so did the rhinestones in the corners of the card! The bow was made with the Bow Easy and I threaded another ribbon through the back so it appears to be tied from pieces of ribbon coming from each side of the card. The only drawback to doing it this way is that the bow skews slightly to one side. I promise, it is even! I used the text stamp in the set for the background.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: June Rose by Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: VersaMark, eggplant
Paper: Wisteria-Basic Grey, eggplant, white CS-SU!
Accessories: gold EP and ribbon-SU!, rhinestones-Zva, Bow Easy, pale plum, prefect plum, mellow moss reinkers
Technique: reinker watercolouring

Peaches Tag for Twinkling Tuesdays

THIS IS THE SECOND POST FOR TODAY, BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN.

This week, Madelynn gave us an inspiration challenge. What a beautiful and tasty photo!

I only have one citrus stamp and I didn’t feel like using it. I need to use Bold Brights ink for most citrus fruits and I just wasn’t in a BB mood. So I opted for another fruit. PEACHES. My favourite fruit, well maybe along with raspberries. The two together mixed with frozen yogurt is AWESOME! This tag came together quite quickly! AND I used all scraps! WOOHOO! The tag was cut with a Coluzzle template, it was a bit too tall for my scrap so I shimmied it up part way through the cutting to make it shorter. I stamped the image with Stazon brown on confetti vanilla and then again with apricot ink and again with olive ink. I cut out the peach and leaves and layered them on the main image. I added a bit of shading with pumpkin and regal rose markers.

As always, be sure to play along with us! Make a card or other project using the photo to inspire you and upload to SCS or PCP using MTTSC29 or post to your blog. Be sure to link up to Madelynn’s Twinkling Tuesdays so we can all see your creations. Visit all the team members blogs to see their work and we all love reading your sweet comments so be sure to leave some love!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: peach label image and canvas-SU!
Ink: olive, apricot-SU!, Staz on brown
Paper: confetti vanilla, apricot, celery
Accessories: button-stash, hemp twine-Hemptique, twill tape-stash, Coluzzle template, foam dots-Jody Morrow, ribbon-Masterstroke, celery, pumpkin, regal rose markers-SU!

Wisteria Pretty Perches for Clear Dollar Stamps

Really quick post this time. Love Wisteria paper by Basic Grey. This card reminds me of the song, “I’m just a bird in a gilded cage.” Yep, really old, no wonder you haven’t heard of it! This card used Pretty Perches by Clear Dollar Stamps.

I cut the patterned paper edge with scalloped scissors and edged it with my gold paint pen. The bird was stamped with eggplant ink and then I overstamped the cage with Versamark and embossed with gold EP. The patterned paper beneath the birdcage is cut with Labels 3 Nestabilities die and also edged with the gold paint pen. I thought the upper right corner looked a bit naked so I added a few halfback pearls. The ribbon was tied with my Bow Easy, the other ribbon isn’t attached, just glued in behind.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Pretty Perches by Clear Dollar Stamps
Ink: eggplant, VersaMark
Paper: wisteria-Basic Grey, vanilla, eggplant CS-SU!
Accessories: gold paint pen-Pilot, Labels 3 Nestabilities, foam dots-Jody Morrow, green ribbon-stash, champagne pearls-Kaisercraft