*Hot Diggity Dog Dueling* ~~~July 2012~~~

Hello my dear friendly peeps....
I am finally able to post my Dueling Darlings' card -one day late-
Life has been full of bumps and curbs lately and then there is summer too -
with lots different activities ie: camping in the works as well....♥
Plus I am also partecipating in a wellness program four hours a day -everyday-
to help with my back problems. It is slow and sometimes painful even to do
stretching but it does help! I just need to grin and bear it and, hopefully,
 it will get easier too.

And now, on to this month's dueling! ♥
Darlene was our awesome dueling hostess for us Dazzlers ,while Tami is the Diva's hostess. Together they came up with a FABULOUS theme involving a backyard BBQ.

Here is a listing of the contents of the AMAZING kit Darlene sent to us:
Image is from Art Impression's "Golden Oldies series, entitled BBQ
Couple (isn't it fun?!)
DP: Karen Foster Designs: Food & Family Collage; Ants on Parade;
Barbecue Bash
DP: Reminisce: Picnic Parade; Grill Master
Stickers: Reminisce: Backyard Bash
Other misc. embellishments are from her stash , no particular vendor.

♥ THANK YOU DARLENE!! YOU ROCK GIRL! ♥

I absolutly LOVED working with Darlene's VERY generous kit! ♥
I added some of her designer papers on two of the wooden oval tags she provided and hd them placed on topof each others with a cut out sentiment from some of the stickers she provided as well.The ketch up bottle from another piece of d/p was cut out and   popped up w/dimentionals on the card front while the cut out ant image was added ,flatly, on the inside of the card.
The twine included in the kit was added on the side of the card and the fun couple was
cut out and popped up on dimentionals too. Crystal effect was used on part of the image also. I wanted to showcase the large words from one of the b/ground d/p ,hence I used it boldly and sideways in here.
For the inside of the card I used two d/p combo and some of the many fabby stickers provided as well. I wanted the twine to show on the inside too, therefore I chose not
to cover it up...
The ONLY things I provided for this card was my SU real red card stock as my base and dimentionals.

Both Darlene and Tami also asked us to post a favorite barbecue recipe, or a salad or side dish recipe that is a hit with our family when getting together for summer's cookouts.  

Well, I am usually asked to bring an appetizers or my pasta salad...
(which varies each time...lol)
One of my best and quickest appetizer involves smoked salmon and is as follow:
*one piece of smoked salmon fillet
*spreadable Philadelphia cheese
*chopped fresh parsley
*capers
*Triscuit crackers (or any crackers of choice)
Spread each cracker w/ cheese, add a chunk of smoked salmon, add a few capers and chopped parsley to decorate.
***If you like sweet pickled onions, add those as well, halved.***
Easy peasy yet pleasing to both the eyes and palate ♥
(picture below is from one of last year camping trip)

Hope you like my interpreation for this paper duel and, if you get to try my easy appy
please do let me know how you liked it (or not!) :o)

♥ Blessings to you and a happy summer too....
thanks for visiting! ♥

         Paola

Ladybugs and Butterflies

Hello everyone,

I am finally uploading some of the cards made recently.

My stamping friend Taryn (SCS: littledadybug3)

was recently hosting a ladubug/btterfly/dragonfly swap (s).

I took two spots in ladybugs and butterflies cards and here are the results:

For my butterfly cards I used a new (to me) tecnique- thanks to the link

my friend Kathy sent me via e-mail....(she does ENABLES me a LOT with the many

beautiful cards she pins....and now she's got ME hooked on pinning too!!

Kathy is ALL your fault...lol) I DO love this tecnique but I did tweeked it

a wee bit: instead of using sponges I dusted off my brayer and it worked just fine :o)

See the original 'Double Sponging Tecnique' tutorial here:

                 http://cardz.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/double-sponging-tutorial/

I absolutly LOVE the results obtained with this fun to do tecnique...

thanks so much for sharing that link Kathy ♥

For this card I used:Stamping Up Night of Navy c/s ,and organdy ribbon,
glitter dust, 'jewels' , MS border punch, clear embossing powder,brayer,lime green c/s (from Michaels).
Inks: Night of Navy,So Saffron,Bashful Blue, Gren Galore,Old Olive.
Stamps: Florentine Scroll Background (from Hero Arts)
Large butterfly is from clear set from Inkadinkado
Sentiment ( embossed inside) says:
 'Thank you for touching my life with your caring"
Tecnique: wet embossing, brayering

And here's my other cards...

more simplistic yet fun and colorful on its own merit...

The added cut out white die on the red c/s really makes it pop ♥

                                                          

  For my ladybug cards I used a SU wheel, MS border punch, a bit of glitter ,

SU markers , real red c/s and yo yo yellow c/s ,

Memory box die (Fauntleroy Crest) and sentiment from Tailored Tins Paper Salon

Here you go folks...I hope Taryn's and her peeps like them....

Hubby is calling...dinner is ready....I am famished....lol

*CIAO FOR NOW and GOD'S BLESS!*

Cookie Monster and Elmo

Surprisee!! Today I am featuring my oldest grandson.

Erik is 10 years old, and last night when he visited he saw

some of my latest cards made for swaps and wanted to case one set of mine

as he loves the fun look of it and immediatly got in a casing mode.

/.

What a busy boy, he knew the background colors he wanted to  use for hit two cards project (he wanted to make them for his teachers) Erik is sooo totally focused and enjoying every moment, and his face totally lit up when he checked his end results. Of course he had to sign the back of his paper creations too, just like his proud nonna.He decided on his initials only (ET 2012) I like that. ♥

Look how happy and proud he is!!

I am sure his two teachers would totally enjoy Erik's

hand made punch art cards! ♥ Who wouldn't? ♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is my take. I recently made these cards for a kid's swap

hosted by Libby. {{I totally cased the idea from Debbie (lil dj)

when I received her own swap cards for a 'Male Mail' swap I hosted quite a while back. FINALLY I seized the perfect occasion for casing her cards ♥}}

Here they are folks...simple cards, but ohhh so much fun to make

for kids and kids at heart! ♥

Hope you enjoyed this post....I didn't tell Erik I was going to

dedicate this post to him, I want to surprise him with your

comments....sooo pleeeaazzz leave him some!! LOL ehhe

Have a GREAT and BLESSED day everyoneeee!!!

Thanks for visiting!! ♥

Father's Day Duel

Hello my Darlin Peeps...it is Dueling time again!! ♥
Each month,on the 15th to be exact, we Dueling Dazzlers 'battle' with the Dueling Divas to compare ideas, learn new tecniques and creating DAZZLING cards together.

This month our darling hostesses are April (for the Dazzlers) and Jamie (for the Divas)

April sent us an awesome masculine kit from which to create a Father's Day card .

I {{{ ♥ }}} everything from the kit, especially the burlap!

With my kit, I decided to make an easel card ..I actually started making a sideways easel first, but truly preferred the more 'regular' kind and stuck with it.

Incredibly, I made my card ten days ago...way ahead of time for once...lol...

woott meee...love it when I can receive kits a bit early! ;o)

♥ < Thanks April ! > ♥

April's kit contained the following items:

 Krafty Dots by Recollections, Out of Print/Storyteller by Basic Grey and Go Fish/Mini Fish by Carolyn Holt Designs
Burlap and Pearls by Recollections
Ribbon and Bakers Twine from my stash
Clothespin from SU!
Stamps: Favorite Occasions by JustRite and Totally Tool set from SU!

As I was creating this card my mind went to all the happy times I spent with my amazing father....
my memories of him are in sharp contrast with the man he is today....unfortunatly Alzhaimer is NEVER kind to anyone afflicted by it or their families. I am mourning my father's brilliant mind...
but when I hug him and I still receive his warm hugs back (most of the times...) I thank God he is still in my life...       
***I love you Dad, for ever and always...♥ ***




Hope you like this month's contribution   to our  friendly  monthly duel... ♥                                                  I'd love it if you could leave a sign  of  your sweet visit, I so appreciate reading all comments ...               *THANK  YOU*                           BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!!  

 

 

 

 

Unidentified Image # 2

Hello blogging friends...
here's the second reveal of the fairly new Unidentified Image (closed) swap started by Barb on SCS as a spin off from the original 'mystery' image swap originally created by Jeanette (Forest Ranger on SCS)

For this second round of the swap, Kelly (SCS: MiamyKell4) was the hostess with the mostest and sent all of us partecipants the cutest images of this adorable beach beauty  'Florence' from Karftin Kimmie .
Kelly also had a fabulous idea how to implement our paper creations for this swap, with her crusade to save  some specific area close to where she lives, in dangers of being destroyed in name of 'progress'...mmm :/
Please check her wonderful blog here for more explicit informations and details:

http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.ca/

For my card, I truly wanted to capture some wonderful tropical colors and, lucky me, found what I considered a perfect background of color combos to show off  the  sky at sunset or in the middle of the afternoon ,thus, in my own mind I saw a myriad of tropical goodness possibilites...:o) Added some hand cut waves for the water ,and hand torn sand paper to depict part of the beach where this suntanning beauty is laid upon...Florence was colored with Copic (it was my very first attempt using them last week end at a friends' house...need much more pactice I'm afraid...) I also gave her some glam by using stickles around her sunglasses rim and on her belt buckle. Crystal effect was used on her 'lenses'...A couple of added button shells completed my visual of  a day spent on  a beautiful sunny Miami beach surrounded by nature's beauty...

Speaking of sunny...
this is how I made the sun...
I wanted it 3-D and wanted to use felts...
however, my very limited supply of felt
material does not include either yellow or orange...mmm what to do??Well.. some felt flowers from my stash came to my rescue...yes I was soooo determined to make the sun MY way....lol
I used part of the yellow felt flower as the sun rays and with the smallest plain circle nestie I cut out the center of the orange flower....et voila'!
I had the sun (almost) as I had envisioned creating it in my head....LOL

Oh yeahh..and for the wee sun-umbrella...wellllll...I really wanted to add one to my scene...thus I added a lil tropical looking umbrellas from the dollar store... sure came useful too...NOT only for a beverage embellish eh?!!LOL *wink*

 This is the inside part of my cards.
I like that both sentiments (front and inside) compliment each other so well...
This card could easily be read as:

    "Life is a matter of moments.....because nice matters!"

There you have it...I had fun creating these beach~scene cards for such

wonderful challenge with a cause to boot....hopefully their recipients will enjoy

receiving such labour of paper love...♥

Have a GREAT, blessed  Day you all...thanks for visiting!!

xoxox

Con~GRAD~ulations Chickee!

Hello my dear friends in blogland!

Today I'm submitting a graduation card I created last night for one of my students'

sister who just graduated from high school -in fact she had her Commencement last night as I was creating....lol... talk about perfect timing...:o)

For this cute chick card I used a Whipper Snapper stamp I had for  a while and

finally got it inked. It is aptly called 'Chick with Brain' -MY822-

I totally love this adorable image and so easy to color as well....

I chose to use  layers of yellow card stock for this card as I saw Emma's gorgeous dress on her Mom's FB page and she had striking yellow accessories too ie: yellow purse, flower wristlet etc...      I think this color goes very well with the gray and black combo too.       (I forgot my camera at work yesterday, so I had to take these pictures at school this morning, just before handing over this card to Emma's Mom when she dropped  off her younger daughter ....thus my writing was already on the inside part of the card...*sigh*....)

also whipped up a quick envelope for it, use some sizzlits for the newly graduate's name and shaped up an oval with my beloved spellbinders...et voila'...a quick personalized envie to go w/a cutie patootie feathery chick... :o)

 

♥ I hope Emma liked receiving this one of  a kind chick!! ♥

Wishing you all a great weekend full of wonderful surprises!

Thnaks for visiting, I sure appreciate your valuable comments too! ♥

Card Deets:
Stamp : Whipper Snapper / Spring Pictogram (SU)
Ink: Archival Onix Black ; SU markers
Card Stock : Ging Gray, Summer Sun
Designer Paper: Class Act Phrases, TPC Studio -Class of 2012
Accessories: Spellbinders-Labels Three; Swiss Dots E/F , Alphabet Sizzlets ,
MS border punch, dimentionals, Crystal effect, yellow gingham ribbon
Tecnique: distressing 

SOTC Challenge~~May 2012

Hello Friends,

it is time to show you another card made for the 'Sisterhood of the Travelling Cards' . Such group is the brainchild of Kadie (kmensley on SCS).

Here are all deets about this dedicated group of stampers: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/cards-f107/closed-sisterhood-traveling-cards-t7-t550294.html

The wonderful hostess for the month of May, was April (Aprilo on SCS)

and she challenged us with the following request:

"...This month's theme is Monochromatic May! Your card can be for any occasion, but it should be all one color family! I tend to have a problem making cards like this, so I would love some inspiration from my Sistahs!..."

Well, I totally {{{{{heart}}}}this challenge!! woot woott...

I knew exactly what stamp set I was going to finally ink...I knew the tecnique

I wanted to apply too....yet I was undecide on the color family...and then it hit me...

I wanted the card to have a 'soft feeling' to it therefore I decided to stick to neutral tones and hues and did not add any sentiments on purpose, to allow the recipients to include one of their choices depending on the occasion...

I really like the soft result obtained by combining a few tecniques together.

 

Card Deets:

C/S: Crumb Cake (SU) , Naturals Ivory (SU)

D/P: from My Minds Eye

Ink: River Rock,Soft Suede, brown sugar marker (American Crafts),Gelly Roll pen.

Stamp: Bliss (SU)

Accessories: white satin pearl embossing powder, double stitched grosgrain ribbon (SU),

self adhesive pearls (Kaisercraft), Boho flowers punch (SU), Textile Texture embossing folder.

Tecniques: * sponging * distressing * dry embossing * wet embossing *

 

There you

 have it folks...

Thanks for such fun challenge April!

♥ Blessings to all! ♥

Calendar Girls~ Memorial Day...

Hello Friends,
First of all I'd like to wish HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY to my American friends,
secondly it is the 28th and, as such, it is CALENDAR GIRLS time!
I think I made it just in the nick of time...;o)

Who are the Calendar Girls? From the words of our 'founder' (Jeanette aka Forest Rangeron SCS) We are a group of bloggers who want to have a place where friendships blossom, creativity abounds, and encouragement prevails! In keeping with that dream, this blog group has been created so we will have a place to interact and enjoy being fellow bloggers.

This month Calendar Girl hostess is none other than Barb ♥ (swap hostess with the mostest - aka barbaralynn on SCS) She challenged our group of galZ with the following  May Challenge:" Memorial Day--a day of honor, remembrance, family picnics, parades, flags placed at cemeteries, concerts and the unofficial start to summer! So the challenge this month for the Calendar Girls is to ink up a patriotic stamp, get out the red/white/blue paper and DSP to post a card that shouts respect to your country and those who have served in the past. I would also like you to note in your post on the 28th what is in your plans this year or what typically has been part of your celebration in the past years on Memorial Day.
Paola--my challenge to you is to also show us your Canadian Patriotism with a card that reflects the colors and images that you are proud of. Barb (Miss May) "

Memorial

A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something,

usually a person (who has died) or an event.

 The most common type of memorial is the gravestone or the memorial plaque.

Also common are war memorials commemorating those who have died in wars.

[From Wikipedia]

Today, is an extremely important date for me as each 28th of May we pay respect and commemorate some beloved members of our family who departed toward a better

and most peaceful world....
May 28th----is the day when I lost my paternal Grandfather ...I was only 8 yrs old...
yet I remember well all the wonderful walks through daisies and poppy fields and the awesome stories he used to tell me as  he shaved, using a special shaving mirror encased in wood, complete with a lil drawer for his shaving kit. That mirror has been sitting in my living room for years now...took it back with me during one of my trips back 'home' many years ago...

May 28th----is the day when I lost my favorite maternal uncle, a man whose gentleness and kindness and love for kids and everything that was nature made quite an impact in my life. Again, during another of my trips back 'home' we decided to surprise my Mom...and he came back with me to Canada and it was a most joyful eventful surprise for all...I didn't say ANYTHING to anyone, not even to my dear hubby! :o)

May 28th----is the day when I lost my first handsome precious,adorable grandchild.

He turned 21 yrs old in Heaven, two days ago. I think often of my Alexander and love to talk about him...but as this time of the year approaches I also became very melancholic....it's like a misty cloud takes over me.....no matter how much I try not to feel overcame by emotions....I miss my first grandchild soooo much still, but know that God had special plans for him and know he is most happy being my sweet angel watching over us from above the wonders of the heavens...

May 28th......is when memories come most alive....when I pay tribute to several members of my family at once...May 28th...an unforgettable day.

I had Barb's approval to interpret 'Memorial' my own way....therefore my card , for this month's challenge is ment to reflect my thoughts for my loved ones, embracing both the colors of the Country where I was born in, and the colors of the Country who adopted me when I was a teenager. The two star - mostly in green , white and red - Italy's colors , are a tribute to my nonno and zio while the biggest star in  Canada's colors, is in honour of my beloved grandchild.

Three bright stars shining inside my heart forever....   ♥ ♥ ♥

Did you noticed what I used to create my background and part of the stars??

I ♥ recycling...

~~~* Sending blessings to all! *~~~

Paola

May's Mystery Image Challenge

Hello Friends,

Here we are once again, continuing on the fun that our fearless leader
Jeanette- aka Forest Ranger (as she's best known on SCS) started way back !!

This is the tenth round and the fabulous hostess for this round is Linda. ♥

The images received each round are a complete mystery to everyone , and we are not allowed to post our finished cards until the 18th of every other month to keep the surprise from being spilled....*wink*

Linda gifted us with wonderful full card front style images....Very springy looking and serene - it is going to be interesting to see everyone interpretation of such mystical images.

*click on any images to enlarge*
I must confess that I was swamped at first and no ideas came to mind, then I decided to keep it simple and use the Spotlighting Technique with the immies received.

For that reason I sacrificed using a full image and punched out five different circles from it to use for spotting my cards (4 to send away and one for me to keep)
The inside of each card sports a cute li sentiment from SU and a glittery butterfly
sticker.
I am still not too pleased with the end result of this card, but there is no use  crying now over spilled milk....sort of....LOL

Have a wonderful blessed day to YOU, who just took the time to stop by and brighten my day :o)

xox

Card Deets:
Image : Outlines Nature Fairies image; Rubbernecker Wildflowers

Ink : Memento Tuxedo Black ; Rich Razzleberries
Stamp/sentiments : SU- Sweet Little Sentiments
Cardstock : SU- Rich Razzleberry & SU- YoYo Yellow
Accessories : SU Punches,SU Markers, SU-Wine Organdy Ribbon ,
                         Embossing folder 'Stripe' by Darice , gems, glitter, green butterfly stickers.
Tecnique: Spotlighting Technique