July's CCC...

It's that time of the month again.... I've received some wonderful cards from Betty ... and the cards I sent to Barb have arrived....

These were what Betty sent to me....  aren't they just lovely.  In the package she sent them in were also included a pile of lovely old book pages, some of the die cut leaves ( like on her birthday card), some lovely old sewing pattern tissue, a sheet of the film for masking... such a lot of lovely goodies... most appreciated Betty.

Now I had to send a card to Barb - ( who by the way sent me a card in June's challenge)
I really didn't know what to do.... the sketch stumped me so I went with the theme... but couldn't choose which one.... so yes I did two ....

The first one is the Friendship theme.... I made the background purple in Alcohol inks and then embossed the Poppies in white over the top.
For the beach theme, I used Joy's technique with the distress inks, water and stamping with it.  I used Tea Dye and Wild Honey inks to make the strip and then did some masking to put all the shells together.

All in all, I really enjoy these monthly challenges... head over to Deborah's blog around the last Friday of the month and join in.... so much fun.

Off to do some blog surfing..... and to get some inspiration!!!

Take care and thanks for stopping by...

Farewell dear friend......

It was with great sadness that we learn yesterday morning that my hubby's best mate passed away....  I am so glad that hubby got to spend some time this past week with him.  He was in intensive care in Auckland but on Saturday was transferred back to his local hospital in Levin.  At least he was home ( sort of anyway)  We will travel down on Wednesday for his funeral on Thursday and then back home on Friday.  It is an 6-7 hour trip down to Levin by car.

I quickly managed to get a sympathy card made for his partner and his brother and sister and the families.

I saw a card by Terry on Flickr   and it was my inspiration for this.  I stamped the Silhouette Grass onto wheat coloured card and embossed it in clear EP.  I then used a number of distress inks and sponged them over, finishing with Aged Mahogany.  I edged the top and bottom of with a gold marker.  I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of the wheat card in the Aged Mahogany and added brads to secure it.  Finished with a little dragonfly stamped in Aged Mahogany onto gold vellum and secured with a glue dot.
( a big thanks to Hero Arts who tweeted the card on Flickr- much appreciated)

Today we had our friends Michael and Yvonne round for lunch to finalise some of the plans for England.  Michael heads over in about 2 weeks - and as he is the chief organiser of the canal boat trip we needed to get everything organised.    After they left I managed to put together the card I started yesterday.  I've done a pile of watercolour backgrounds using Joy's technique... this one used one of the shell stamps from Hero Arts 

Used two colours of the distress inks on my craft sheet and stamped the shells all over the background.  Then stamped the shells onto white card and cut out and matted with black.  Sentiment is embossed - it's from a set by Sullivan's - made in Australia. The base card is a lovely olive green.  I had to take the photo in my window ledge as we have had rain and more rain all weekend... I waited for a break to get the photo taken but it was too wet to go outside.  Tonight poor hubby had to go out into the torrential rain as a drain has block - water from the two downpipes out the back were overflowing as it is blocked somewhere under the house.... calling a plumber tomorrow!!!!

Well thanks all for stopping by... take care and hope you all have a great week.