I finally played with the new canvas background stamp from hero arts. I love all the beautiful cards I have seen other making but have not know what to do with it. I decided a simple background would dress this flower image up. I stamped the flower with hero arts chalk ink  and PTI Spring moss. Then I used the same chalk ink to ink the canvas stamp, their ink provides awesome coverage. All stamps are hero arts. TFL

I am excited it is Friday, but this week sure did fly by. DH has been working long hours so hopefully he will get to relax a little for Father's Day weekend. My in-laws are coming by for a quick visit on their way to San Francisco via the motorcycle. Then my Mom is visiting for a week, Owen is so excited to have Nannie come! So next week is going to be a busy one. Hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend!

Floral thank you

While working on my card design I kept trying to find a coordinating color to use as my background. After many different choices, I finally decided to try white. I realized I hardly use white, but it creates such a nice dramatic effect. I will have to try to incorporate it more in my projects. I stamped the floral stamp in versamark and embossed in detail white powder on a piece of Memory Box PP. I then die cut it in the deckled oval shape, love the deckle shapes! The white background was embossed and the butterfly was stamped on the same PP and cut out. The sentiment was then attached to the card.

Chris got an old antique school desk from a friend for the boys Monday. It is so nice, solid, and has adjustable heights. During the summer we do Summer School for Owen, to keep him on track and to see if one day I may be able to homeschool him. We are on day three and so far he is doing wonderfully, we set goal and rewards to make it fun and this year we are trying to include Wyatt in some of the learning. Hope everyone has a good Wednesday

It sure is hot here!

 While Wyatt napped today I worked in my office, this card is all Hero Arts stamps. I stamped the cling notepad in light grey ink and overstamped the flower on that. I colored with copics BV01, BV02, BV04, YG93,YG95 & YG97. It is die cut with a spellbinder die and attached to embossed lavendar cardstock.

Yesterday and today have been HOT here in Eastern NC. My poor DH and our crew have been trying to beat the heat by starting work at 5:30, and staying hydrated. By the end of the workday everyone is wore out and ready to go home! This time of year is always tough here especially for our line of work.

Back home again

I made this card for neighbors of our  family farm in Galax, VA, we tried to have the boys fish in our pond but the brush had grown up so high we couldn't get to the bank. Chris decided he would ask the neighbor if we could fish at their pond and they were so wonderful. They let us borrow their polaris ranger, fishing tack, and bait. As we had only corn and bread for the carp in our pond. He stocks his pond full of bluegill, carp and bass. It was full of fish and Owen caught 4 nice fish! Chris had only met them once before, they were the sweetest couple. I find it very refreshing to meet wonderful, nice people in todays world.  I used the new house stamp and stamped it on various patterns and cut out to assemble the house. I used copic markers for the tree and the window sills. The background is a script stamp, stamped in black ink on kraft.All stamps are hero arts.

We arrived home yesterday, and had a wonderful time on vacation! The boys were so much fun and so good.  I had a little time to finally make a card while Wyatt took a nap. We had a hectic morning our oldest dog had a Chiropractor appt. Then our youngest dog went missing, which is very unlike him. He found us almost two years ago and doesn't ever go anywhere. I looked everywhere, finally made up signs started laminating them and thought I would look around the property again. I went back behind my office and he had squeezed under the stairs in the shade. It is brutally hot here and he did not want to be put up in the kennel where he goes every day. The only reason he has to be in there is he still chases my chickens and guineas. Owen and I were very happy to know he was okay! I am posting a few more pictures of our trip also.

Wyatt at Foscoe Mining Company, the boys got so dirt and had a blast panning for gems.

Owen's first fish he caught and our accommodations for the night the old milking parlor. It was really not bad at all, especially when the big storm hit later that night and we all stayed nice in dry!

Tweetsie RR

Today is a totally non-craft post for we are finally taking our first ever family vacation of four! Both the boys love trains so when I saw Thomas was going to be at Tweetsie RR in Boone,   I planned our trip. I knew it was going to be a bad time to have Chris leave work, but Thomas only comes for a week. I told my DH we were going with or without him, and thankfully he was able to come. The boys would have been very disappointed with just me as I was unable to ride most of the rides since I am pregnant (bummer). Chris was on the phone for a good bit of the day putting out fires as we call it, but we are here and that is what is important.  The boys were so excited to ride on Thomas, and to see Sir Topham Hat too! They both were so good, Wyatt was awesome on the 5 hour trip here, not one complaint from him.  Wyatt rode everything even the crazy spinning rides, he loved it. Owen of course was his usual outgoing self, with no fear and had a blast on all the rides. I love his spirit, and it seem Wyatt is like him in that way so far. Tomorrow we are going to try gem mining and then downtown Boone and on Sat. we are heading up to Galax to visit the family farm. I have agreed to try to rough it and we are camping up there. Not sure how that will go, should be interesting!

Summertime butterflies

I made this card for the Hero arts June Challenge: Theme Summertime. I love seeing the butterflies during the summer, there are so many different colors and species. This is a new stamp from Hero arts, and it is so fun to paper piece. I used some scraps from the baby announcement card, I love these papers from Memory Box. I think I need to order some more!  I stamped it on various pieces of pattern paper and cut and pieced the butterfly together. I stamped a die cut with a  background design with Spring Moss over the white paper and attached the butterfly to it. Then I embossed the purple die cut and attached to the pattern paper. The sentiment was stamped then the same background design was stamped with the second impression using spring moss to give it a softer color.Finally I used a spica gel pen in clear to accent the butterfly, it is hard to see on the photo.  I love how this turned out!

My little one is not feeling well, seems to be similar to the virus Owen had last month. A fever, swollen glands and feeling tired. Of course we have a trip I have been planning for months scheduled for later this week. For now we are just resting and getting lots of fluids in him. I am hoping by then he will feel better!

Sketch Challenge

One of the blogs I follow had posted a link for a challenge by  ABC Toys and Crafts. This is my version of the sketch. I love this stamp by Memory Box, it was stamped with Memento Ink, and colored with copics B00, B02 & B04 and then Y000. I used an embossing folder for the texture and the rick-rack die from PTI.

Looking forward to hopefully a fun day at the beach with the boys tomorrow. It's been hot here so it will be nice to play in the water!