Vacation pics....

We spent 2 weeks on our boat in South Puget Sound (Washington state) in July this year....
There are lots of pics, and no crafts on this one. ETA-there's a crafty post from today below! My friend Natalie would've had these all on scrapbook layouts by now, but alas- I'm lucky to have even downloaded them!
It was great right from the start- this is our first day in Penrose- we spent several there!

Even though there's no proof, even I jumped in that cold (COLD) water- it was pretty hot & I hadn't seen any jellyfish for awhile...

on the beach...

the one below has Cory holding a moon snail- we must've seen nearly a dozen!

we towed the little boat grandma & grandpa gave Hadley...

This isn't the best pic of the boat, but that's Mt. Rainier in the background. I don't think I could ever tire of seeing that peak- and I see it everyday I drive home, much closer than this!

yep, that close to the eagles- something else I'll never tire of!

We moved on to Jerrol's cove on Harstene Island-

We drank the bottle of wine we'd brought back from New Zealand- we'd been saving it for our 10 year anniversary. It was great to reminisce about that winery....

Those are the Olympic mountains. Did I mention how beautiful I find our area to be?

On to Olympia...

dancing at the farmer's market

enjoying lakefair rides...

winning 'shiny-tongue'

that's the state capitol in the background

heading to Poulsbo, we always end up having to watch out for the ferries!

Hadley loves playing at the little park right next to the marina...

looks like a Hawaii sunset, I'm told! :D

to prove I was there....

Soldered pendant with May Arts...

I have a soldered pendant I put together to show you! I've used graphic 45 for one side, and the girls' paperie for the other.

That little 'fancy' sticker is girls' paperie too!

I strung it on some gorgeous May Arts silk ribbon. I started with black, but look how much the look is changed when I switched to the pink, and then the white silk ribbon!

I'd love to hear your thoughts...! And if you have a minute (hahaha- do any of us have a spare?) head over to the May Arts blog & leave a little note about my post over there- I would REALLY appreciate it!!!! (did that sound like begging? well, if it didn't it should have!!)

Thanks for stopping by! :D

Fun little notebook....

The sunshine has been soooooooo welcome here, finally! (sorry to my southern hemi friends!) It's been tough to spend time indoors, even for fun endeavors!
Regardless, I needed to make a little thank you gift for my neighbor who had a sleep-over with Hadley's beta fish(Colorful Sparky is her name- the fish, not the neighbor) while we were gone.
She's a big-time sewing gal and also just got her real estate license- thought a fun notebook may be of use for her (her name is Susan, hence the 'S')

PTI vintage cream cardstock, October Afternoon pp, the Girls' Paperie stamps. The 'S' is cut with the storybook cart on my cricut- and the inks... PTI smokey shadow, versafine black, and I'm too tired to look at what the blue is- but it's a versamagic chalk....

What do you think of the closure? Another fine use for eyelets! I inked the edges of the 1/2" punched circle with that same blue I'm too lazy to check for you.

I left the messy strings on purpose. I'm growing, what can I say?

I was trying to show you the UTEE I used on this bird- kind of tough to get a good pic of it....

Hope you're having a wonderful day, wherever you are! Thanks SO MUCH for stopping by- I'd love to know what you think!!! :D

July PTI blog hop with May Arts ribbon!

This months PTI blog hop challenge was to use office supplies! I grabbed a tag & got busy!

SU! creamy caramel on PTI polka dots 2, PTI tea inks for the background on the card base (PTI giga guidelines, guidelines 2 & scroll from vintage labels), PTI pure poppy for the red. Tea inks distress all edges. Red embroidery floss... and that crocheted ribbon from May Arts... can you say YUMMO!?!

The crocheted ribbon comes white...

but it is easily transformed with some glimmer mist!

Here's a close-up of that goodness!

And one more to show the dimension/textures....

And here's another quickie tag to hang on a gift bag, or tie on....

Same stamps/ink, but check out that DELICIOUS red scallop trim! Talk about a lot of interest!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'd love to hear what you think...! Have fun hopping, and stop by the May Arts blog too- one more spot for great inspiration!

EBTKS Challenge #18

Well the gals over at EBTKS have another fun 'around the house' challenge going on- FOIL! I had a friend come play & she brought the vintage wallpaper embossing folder from SU! Isn't it pretty?

I know you're all shocked that I rubbed pink ink & tied a pink crinkly-seam binding bow on... :)

I also used some tattered angels glimmer mist to spray my 'dream' ticket pink- and then added some pink distress paint to the edges. And after I did all this pink-y goodness, I see that CARDS is having a monochromatic challenge going on. Think I've got enough pink on here for that?

I'm literally exhausted, as we're getting ready for our holiday and we'll be away from the house (and more importantly- the computer & all my crafty supplies) for about 2 weeks! I'm pretty sure I'll be in withdrawals loooong before we get home!

Thanks so much for stopping by- I'd love to hear what you think! Head over to EBTKS to see the A.MAZ.ING things the gals have done for this challenge!

Hope you're all enjoying your summer (or winter depending on your local!)!

Jolly June

ETA: Natalie liked it!! :) She chose my card as one of the 3 winners!!!!! WOOHOO!!! Go here to check out the other winners, and while you are there you should stay & check out her blog- it is so yummy! AND she's having another fun comment-to-win contest- Hurry over & tell her I sentcha! :D
Natalie (aka the scrap doctor) has a challenge going on for June- since she's in the southern hemisphere, she's heading into winter... seems we're still pretty close to it here in the Pacific Northwest too! Ha!
Anyway, she wanted us to do a project of our liking that incorporated yellow. I can do that. I also happen to know she's as in love with the banner craze as I am- so I added that too. :)

There's a bit of everything here! American Crafts 'dear lizzy' stamps, October afternoon stamps (doily), inkadinkadoo (typewriter font), prima yellow flower, crocheted flower (me), truly vintage yellow button (grandma's). Ink is pti aqua mist & smokey shadow, versamark yellow, pti chamomile tea ink around the edges.

So, I didn't take into consideration the time difference. I was thinking I had another day to get this posted, but alas there are only a few more hours before this challenge is over!! So I apologize for the pics, but it is veeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyy late and dark here!!! :)

And because I thought butterflies would make Natalie think of summer... here's a couple of pics from our butterfly release last Saturday! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Head over to the Scrap Doctor's blog & check out her talent- it's quite amazing!!! :)

EBTKS sketch challenge #17

Today is the last day to enter the challenge over at EBTKS.... Even though I've had this card done for almost a week, I hadn't taken a pic! :)
Pretty much all PTI here....

Head over to EBTKS to see what everyone has done with this sketch! A Lawn Fawn gift certificate is up for grabs!!! ;)

June PTI Blog Hop

"This month we thought it would be fun to focus on COLOR! We want to see your favorite Papertrey color schemes put to work."

A favorite color combo of mine, particularly for masculine cards, is:
Ocean Tides
Spring Moss
Smokey Shadow

And here's what I did with that combo this time around!


I used the woodgrain embossing plate on the ocean tides cardstock. Versamark on the spring moss for the dots- focal image & dots from the wonderful anniversary set Round & Round. Sentiment from Men of Life.

A little edge distressing on the green strip & a Happy Father's Day on the inside! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by- enjoy the hopping!! Go here to see the list of participants!

They don't all work out...

The way you picture them in your head. I can't be alone on this.
This one was to be a congratulations card to my in-laws for purchasing another boat. (My husband has been a boater since he was about 3 years old- our daughter has him beat at 4 months.) So I really wanted to use that sentiment. You're going to need to squint. Yep, it's tiny. But still, I stuck with it.
Then I wanted colors that would be appropriate. Check.
Thought text on brown wrapping paper would be cool. Probably would be if I'd used a darker ink....

I probably should have kept this one to myself- but I gave it to them & they liked it. So putting it here isn't any worse, right? (that's rhetorical!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Father's Day!

Hello all! Hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful Father's day!!! :)
The weather here has been unseasonably cold & wet- really seems like October, but the trees are all green!
This is the card I made for my Dad- he is so great & I am grateful every day that he and my Mom are a part of our lives. He's a wonderful Papa to Hadley too- she adores him!

Mostly PTI here. Ripe avacado & vintage cream cardstock. Throught the trees & Men of life stamps. Woodgrain embossing plate. The ink is versafine vintage sepia, SU! garden green & PTI spring moss. Twine is May Arts & die cut with nestabilities.

And a huge Thank you to the gals at EBTKS for choosing my card as a Domestic Diva! :) They've got a new sketch challenge going right now- plenty of time for everyone to play!
Thank you so much for stopping by- I'd love to know what you think!
Go over to EBTKS and play along with the current sketch challenge! :)

Better late than never....

Every year we (Hadley & I) take some pics around her birthday- our own little photo shoot, if you will. Now, this isn't the final shoot, because we also ALWAYS incorporate balloons (ie 5 balloons for her 5th birthday). You'll see- there are no balloons in these pics. So we are not done, but I thought this year we'd have 2 mini sessions- so I don't burn her out!!! :)
I love how her little foot is a bit out of her shoe on this one:

This next one is one of my faves....

I am:

I think I may have mentioned how much I love this little person?! :)