Southern Breezes

Saturday Night Challenge

Let's get right to this week's challenge, which was to make a Christmas card!! Check out the following blogs for some ideas which are sure to inspire you to get started with your own cards...

Corina 

Shelia

Robyn,CJ and Shawn

Pam

All the cards are great!! Thanks to Shawn and CJ for playing along this week, too! 

Let's try a little "freestyle" cardmaking this week - the only requirement is that you use glitter on a card or layout- now how easy is that??

With A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA going full blast at One Little Spark, I have been uber busy this week so I will be working along with you on this one.  Once I get my card completed I will post a picture of it on this blog.

Once you have completed your project, please link to it in the comment section of this blog!  As always,anyone, anywhere can play along!  Have fun!!!

Happy Birthday EmmyLou!

GONE TOO SOON*

Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

I still miss you FZ!

*lyrics by Michael Jackson

 

Saturday Night Challenge

I certainly hope everyone has had a fantastic Fourth of July!  We've just been relaxing this afternoon and getting ready to go to the local dock to watch the fireworks over Barnegat Bay this evening.

The Challenge for this Saturday was to "show your colors"!  Here's what our talented ladies did for this challenge...

Corina

Shelia

Robyn    and here (scroll down to see the red, white and blue gift she made)

Pam

Great creations, ladies!! Thansk for playing along!

For the next challenge we are going to take a big leap from July to December and do Christmas in July!!!  Did I hear groans?? Come on, it'll be fun!  Drag out that old Christmas stamp you never got around to using, or a brand new one, or maybe even that picture you meant to scrap last year, and create either a card or a layout with a Christmas theme!

 

I used one of the new Robin Pickens' designs from Amercian Art Stamp.  It has a retro look to it that I liked the minute I saw it!! The image is colored with Copic markers with lots of highlight and sparkle added to it with the Spica glitter pens.

Once you have your project completed, link to it in the comment section of this blog. 

Anyone, anywhere can play along! Have fun!!

Supplies for card include: American Art Stamp "Trees"; Bazzill red, green and blue cardstock; Neenah Crest White paper; A Muse red ribbon; Spica Gold, Blue and Silver glitter pens; Sakura Gelly Roll clear glitter pen; Copics R29;YG17,YG67,YG25,BG10,E59,B45 AND B37.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

The weather here in south Jersey could not be any better today!! Perfect for all the picnics, barbecues, parades and fireworks that are going on throughout the day and evening. 

The local parade inTuckerton lined up in the parking lot of The Village Shoppes - we arrived here right before it began moving toward town so I was able to get a couple of shots as it moved on to Main Street.  It was a typical small town parade with homemade floats, fire trucks, antique cars and lots of flags flying in the breeze.  There's something about small parades like this that I love.

 

No parade is complete without an appearance by "Elvis"...

 

If you get a chance today, please thank a soldier for our freedom.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!!

A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA Challenge #3 - Twilight

I don't know for sure who thought up this challenge, but my money is on Heather .*lol* 

At the risk of incurring unimaginable wrath from all the Edwardites out there, I am not a fan of the Twilight series. I have nothing against vampires per se - this series just didn't hold my interest.  I have been told it's because I'm a "woman of a certain age"  that I don't "get it." (thank you, Heather) Well, maybe so, but I've met other ladies who are not "of a certain age" and they also do not understand the fascination. Oh well, it really makes no difference to me - if you enjoy the Twilight books, great! In all fairness, I did read the first book, but that's as far as I got.  The second book is still sitting on the bedside table, which is an upgrade from the top of the microwave.  Maybe one night when I can't sleep I'll pick it up and give it another try.

Whew! Enough rambling, here's my Twilight card...

I even remembered the apple!!!!

Don't forget, A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA is only a week away!!! Whoo Hoo!! One more week before the unveiling of all the brand new super secret stamps, papers and other goodies from AMuse!!! There'll be lots of fun give aways  and free make-n-takes the entire week of July 10th -  18th. Be sure to stop by One Little Spark, or visit the blog to check out the class schedule and all the other fun things happening during A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA!!

Supplies: Bazzill basic red and black card stock; Neenah Crest White; Copic markers 110 and R29; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Martha Stewart apple punch; miscellaneous ribbon and AMuse Vampire stamp.

Blueberry Pickin'

Anyone who knows me, knows I love, love, love fall and winter!! Anything above 70 degrees is too hot for me! LOL!!  Weelllll....it was 93 degrees today and Lee decided he wanted to go blueberry pickin'. That's right...still having a few problems from surgery and he decides it would be fun to go pick blueberries.  In 93 degree weather <sigh>   You can bet your sweet hiney I tried to talk him out of it, but he was determined to pick some berries. So, off we went to Emery's Blueberry Farm off Rt.539 on Long Swamp Road.

First, let me say, I love Emery's! We've been going there for years...in the fall we go there to get pumpkins. The rest of the year we go there for apple butter. It's absolutely the best apple butter in the state!  And their pies (gotta try the apple caramel walnut) are some of the best I've ever eaten, and the people there are so nice!  But, back to the blueberry venture.

We arrived at the farm, got out of the air conditioned car and went directly to the air conditioned shop.  So far, so good. From the air conditioned shop we went back outside to get our "bucket".  There was a great breeze blowing so being outside still didn't seem too bad.

The bucket is actually a Folger's plastic coffee container that you tie around your waist and gather the berries in. I naturally chose a red one - Tre' chic!!! If you can't laugh at yourself you really should not strap on one of those buckets, cause you do look slightly ridiculous. Really wish I hadn't left my camera in the car! 

About 20 feet down the path all memories of an air conditioned car or building had disappeared! And the nice breeze!! It had turned to an evil hot wind!  Not a good omen. But we gamely trekked on to the pickin field.

As often as we have been to Emery's, this is the first time I have ever been in the blueberry field or seen a blueberry in it's natural habitat! To see the rows and rows of berry filled bushes was fascinating! It made me temporarily forget how hot it was in that field. The key word in that statement is "temporarily". 

I stopped at one section and Lee went to another section to pick.  About five minutes into the picking, Lee calls out "How you doing?" The conversation goes like this  - (me) "I'm ok, how are you?." (Lee)"ok. Is your bucket full?"  (me) "No, is yours?"  (Lee) "No"  (me) "Do you need to stop?"  (Lee) "Not yet."

About five minutes later (Lee) "How you doing?" (me) "Ok, how are you doing?" (Lee) ok.  Is your bucket full?" (me) "No, is yours?"  (Lee) "No" (me) "do you need to stop?" (Lee) "No."

Five minutes later (Lee) "Is your bucket full?" (me) "No, is yours" ....you get the picture.  I just realized we are not great conversationlists in the middle of a blueberry field! LOL!! After a few more rounds of our witty repartee, we decided to call it quits and make our way back to the air conditioned comfort of the car! One of the smartest decision of the afternoon!

Between the two of us we had one full bucket...aren't they pretty?

 

When we got home I went to work baking, what else but blueberry muffins!  Five dozen muffins!

Would you believe I have yet to eat one of those pretty little berries?

Saturday Night Challenge

We finally had sunshine today!! Only after very severe thunderstorms all night.  The thunder and lightning were so bad it honestly scared Spike, our youngest orange tabby cat! I've never seen him scared during a storm!  But when it got really bad he was outside our bedroom door whimpering and crying so I let him.  He made a run for the bed and stayed snuggled up against me until it stopped. Poor baby.

Now for the challenge...last weekt he challenge was to make a gift box.  Let's see what our ladies came up with this time!

Shelia

Pam

Two great creations!! Thansk for playing.

Since next weekend is the Fourth of July I think we should do something patriotic  - the choice is yours.  It can be a card, a layout, whatever you choose to do to show our "colors"! 

First I stamped the fireworks on the white paper using blue and yellow ink and then went over them with Spica glitter pens to make them shine! After that I layered the  white, gold and red border onto the blue cardstock. 

The Slice machine and "Thinking of You" design card were used to cut the Fourth of July and the stars were cut with the FaLaLa design card.  I ran all of these through the Xyron to add adhesive on one side - the sentiment was then positioned on the card.  The sticky sides of the stars were coated with Doodlebug super fine white glitter to make them sparkle!! Glue dots were used to adhere them on to the bottom of the card, over the red ribbon, and one was placed in the upper right corner of the card.

It's sort of difficult to see the glittery white stars in this picture, but in real life they do stand out.

The completed card layer was adhered to a white base card.

As always, anyone, anywhere can play along! Once you have your project completed then link to it in the comment section of this blog.  Have fun!!

This card is also this weekend's featured Make-n-Take at One Little Spark rubber stamp shop.  Stop in between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday to make one! 

                                                                                                                                                                      Supplies include: Gold, royal blue, red and white Bazzill cardstock; Making Memories "Thinking of You" Design Card; Doodlebug superfine white glitter; red ribbon;StampingBella Ketto Sparkle stamp;Memento Danube Blue and Dandelion ink; Spica Blue and Gold glitter pens; Fiskars Threading Water border punch.

Phoebe Ketto

 

Meet Phoebe Ketto!! One of the adorably cute stamps from Stamping Bella.  I love these stamps! They are so much fun to work with.

Phoebe was stamped on white card stock and colored with Copic markers.  The white paper with the image, and the red background, were cut in a very unique shape using the Spellbinder Peony Nestability die. A pretty little blue button with red plaid ribbon tops it off.  All of this is on a base card made from A Muse blue Juliette paper.

Supplies include: AMuse blue Juliette paper; Bazzill Basic red card stock: Neenah Crest White paper; Nestabilities Peony die; Copic markers; Basic Grey button from the Lime Ricky collection; miscellaneous ribbon.

A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA Challenge #2: Ribbon

Ok, this time I got it right!!

 

Ribbon AND one A Muse image!! Scuba Boy is my most favorite of the new AMuse summer stamps!!

Supplies: AMuse blue gingham and orange kitchen paper; Neenah Crest White card stock; AMuse scuba boy and sentiment stamp: AMuse blue and peach sheer ribbon; Marvy large oval punch and Giga scalloped punch; AMuse clear twinkles; numerous Copic markers

A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA Challenge #2: Ribbon

Finally, I made time to play along with the fun challenges going on over at the A Muse blog!! If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should hop on over and join in the fun as the count down to A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA 2009 continues!! And, when you're finished reading their blog, then hop on over to One Little Spark's blog to read all about the fun classes and events we have planned for A*MUSE*A*PALOOZA!!

The challenge for this week is to create a card using  RIBBON as your inspiration. The card must feature at least one A Muse stamp image.

Here's mine...

 I used Fiskar's large and medium circle punches to make the face, bangs and "buns" on either side of her face.

Once the face and hair was assembled, I used a Staedtler black fine line pen to draw the eyes and red for the lips. 

To add a little blush to her cheeks, I pressed the tip of one finger onto a  Memento Angel Pink ink pad and then tapped it on each cheek for a faint blush.

A Muse pink twinkles were placed along the base of the "buns".

The sentiment is A Muse's "Luck and Fortune". 

And, last of all is the A Muse green sheer ribbon across the bottom of the card, which is also A Muse's new pink gingham paper.  Such a pink girlie card!!! But I had a blast  making it!                            

OH NO!! I just realized I used only a sentiment stamp and not an image stamp!!! Waaaaaa!!!

Supplies: Bazzill Basic cream and white card stock; Memory Box Chocolate Truffle card stock; A Muse Pink Gingham paper, sheer green ribbon, pink twinkles and sentiment stamp; Memento Tuxedo Black and Angel Pink ink; Staedtler black and red fine line pens.