Wednesday, July 24, 2013

It's a Summertime Picnic with the Hero Hostesses

This is your first stop on Day 3 of our Hero Hostess Summer Picnic Blog Hop. If you'd like to start at the very beginning click HERE to go to the Hero Arts blog.


The Hero Hostesses are sharing some summery cards and our favorite summer picnic recipes. I hope you will have fun, be inspired and find some new recipes to try this summer. And don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs because the wonderful folks at Hero Arts will be awarding a prize to three randomly chosen commenters.  The more comments you leave, the better your chance to win!

If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Hero Arts Club Blog HERE. Also, please report broken links to: blog@heroarts.com.

Now it's picnic time!
For me flying a kite is a requisite summer picnic activity! My father-in-law loves to fly kites. He enjoyed building his own kites. Watching his family flying them always made him happy. What could be better than to lay back in the soft green grass at the park or lean back in a beach chair and watch a kite lazily floating on the breeze?

To make this card I started by blending Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn Distress inks on a piece of white cardstock to look like a landscape. Next I spritzed some Perfect Pearls water on the Dots cling background and stamped just with the water. The Distress ink reacts to the water creating a sparkly dot pattern.

For the kites, I added Hero Arts Mid-Tone Shadow inks directly to my white cardstock. I made a section of Butter Bar and another of Pale Tomato. Once the ink dried I stamped the Kite image from Picnic in Versamark ink once on each color and white heat-embossed them. I cut them out and spritzed a bit more of the Perfect Pearls water over them.

To assemble the card I used cream colored crochet thread for the kite strings and Lawn Trimmings twine to tie to the kite tails.


close up of the shimmery effect of the Perfect Pearls in water.

To make the pearly spray: In a small mister bottle place about a 1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder, then fill 3/4 full with water. Replace the spray lid and tighten it before shaking the mixture well. Now you are ready to make sparkly magic! (See inlinkz list below for the products I used.)


A favorite family recipe for all summer gatherings is Fruit Pizza. For years my sister and I would make dueling fruit pizzas. She is an excellent cook, everything she makes is delicious. Me, not so much but my fruit pizza is always a winner! Our fruit pizzas are very different. Hers has a soft nutty cake-like crust and a filling based on pudding. Mine on the other hand has a sugar cookie crust with a cream cheese and whipped cream filling. She serves hers in a beautiful cut crystal round serving platter; I serve mine in the pizza pan I made it in. If you've been following along with my blog posts about my sister and I none of this will be any surprise to you. It will come as no surprise either that no matter which pizza graced the dessert table there was never even a crumb left behind!

So here's my recipe for a fun summer dessert!

(you can right-click on the recipe to save it if you'd like)



Now it's my pleasure to send you on to a dear friend of mine who is not only a talented and decorated card-maker, she's a fabulous cook as well! 
I know you will enjoy your visit with Virginia!

Here's the products and supplies I used to make "Life's a Picnic":





blessings,
nancy

Friday, July 19, 2013

Leaving for Las Vegas!

I'm packing and getting last minute things done before leaving in the morning to drive to Las Vegas for CHA. Life has been pretty busy around here, not much time for crafty play. Not that I haven't been crafting....be looking for a mid-week post here at the Happy Heart.

I got this postcard in the mail yesterday.....

My sister has been home from her African adventure for almost a week, she had a great time. I'm looking forward to getting together with her when I get home. Can't wait to see all her pictures and listen to her share the details of her trip.

blessings,
nancy

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Another Summer Card Camp 2 card

I'm such a slacker. I've taken all the Online Card Classes since the very beginning but I never do the homework. This time I'm determined to play along with everyone and get some cards done.

I used a sketch and the color combo to design my card. I just loved Jennifer's technique for making die-cuts look like chipboard and couldn't wait to use it.

My nephew is getting married on Saturday in Oregon. Even though I can't make it to the wedding I will be sending along this bright and cheerful wish for a lifetime of happiness.

Simon Says Stamp- Happy stamps/die set; Lawn Fawn- Hearts dies; Dylusions Ink Sprays

thanks for visiting!

blessings,
nancy

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I Learned Something New!

I'm so happy! I finally squeezed in some time to play with the homework for Summer Card Camp 2, the current offering from Online Card Classes! Yesterday, Jennifer showed a technique to stamp multiple colors with one stamp. I had the just the right stamp to try out this colorful technique.

All products are Hero Arts: stamp- Go Out and Play (K5635); Sunshine Designer Papers (P5630); Ink: Soft Pool Shadow ink, Butter Bar, Orange Soda and Bubble Gum Mid-Tone Shadow inks

Just a fun and very simple card! It's not too late to sign up for Summer Card Camp 2. This is just day 3 of 3 weeks of stamping and card-making tips, techniques and inspiration! Visit Online Card Classes.


blessings,
nancy

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A 5th Anniversary Card and Gift

My son Andy and his sweet wife Kellie just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary so of course I made a card! Since wood is the traditional gift for 5 years of wedded bliss it gave me the opportunity  to  use some of that wonderful wood paper! This card accompanied a wood framed digital scrapbook page of their wedding.
The poppy is die-cut from the wood and then I cut another one from white cs. After coloring with Copics the poppy is inlaid into the negative space in the wood panel. It's a simple technique that has a really great look.


Here's the digital page that I framed for their gift (it's a rework of a larger page I did shortly after their wedding).

Digital text image- Hero Arts; Paper- Webster's Pages; Font- Scriptina; Software- Microsoft Publisher





Thanks for visiting, I can't wait to show you all the fun projects I'm making with all the new Lawn Fawn I've been playing with!

blessings,
nancy

Friday, July 5, 2013

Just some fun Uriah photos....

I'm working on some fun new projects but they can't be revealed yet ;)

I also noticed that I lost a bunch of my photos from older posts. There was an incident with Photobucket a while back and I think in extricating my photos I may have also deleted them in Google/blogger. So now I'm searching through my card archives and Flickr to find and replace the missing photos. I actually had someone who followed a link from Pinterest alert me to the problem, thanks so much!

Here's some fabulous photos taken by my super talented BIL Greg. Uriah thoroughly enjoyed a July 4th swim party yesterday!








My grandson loves to swim! He will be 2 in September, my how time flies!

blessings,
nancy