Birthday Fishes

   I had such a great time figuring out this birthday card for my nephew!  What to do for a boy turning 16 and a beach/surfing themed room?  Why...just whip up some birthday fishes!  I am a huge fan of all things pun-y and this older Hero Arts clear set helped me create to my heart's content!  I am only just now getting to play with my new stash from the latest Hero Arts/Basic Grey releases, and I love this graphic pattern background cling called Zig Zag and More!  
   I wanted to use my Kaleidacolor pad to ink this up, but the little lever that slides the different colors together sticks up and does not make for easy inking of large stamps...so out came my trusty rubber brayer!  I rolled up some color and then ran it over the background stamp to transfer it and I felt like an old fashioned print maker!  I've got some more ideas to play with that technique another day!
   Next I found some scraps of plain and patterned paper to emboss the different fishes...see the googly eye one on the left?  If you look closely you'll notice it is 'upside down' as I wanted it to face to other direction.  The design is forgiving with the fins, so I just masked the eye when I inked it up and embossed it, then used the googly one in it's place.  Easy peasy and it adds a little wiggle!
   May is the biggest month for birthdays in our small family, and this year we have a graduation celebration or two with friends to celebrate as well...no rest for the weary and there's more fun to be made!  Make it a great day!

Patriots: Old and New

   I made these for our piano teacher who recently became a United States Citizen and we welcome him heartily to our homeland!  Being a patriot in the Boston area has an added dimension that has nothing to do with New England's football team.  
   Each April we celebrate Patriot's Day--the commemoration of the opening battle of the American Revolution.  This year we took our family to reenactments at the Minuteman National Park.  It was really an awe-inspiring sight on a beautiful spring day to witness and remember the uniqueness of our America.  It is in our time period for homeschool this year, and studying our founding documents could not have culminated in a more poignant display of the risk and reward of pursuing freedom.  Standing and witnessing for a few hours took us all back in time and made us feel proud to be part of a tradition of military history and service.  Here's a few shots from our day:

on patrol

Patriots muster

The British are coming!

Fife and drum

Poison Ivy!

   Ah...less than 24 hours after the first dose of meds and I can actually complete a thought.  Have been undergoing a week of empathy/counting my blessings that I don't have any serious health problems except a very sporty reaction to contacting poison ivy.  Thought I'd celebrate with a classic hit from the Coasters!  Still itchy, blistered, and miserable...but it's stopped in its tracks now!  Funny how a 2-lb bag of frozen peas can be an instant best friend! Hoping to get back to a little stamping today, and wishing I hadn't waited a week to see the doctor--note to self:  remember how this felt and go get meds straight away!  


Hope you are feeling well today!

Vintage Vogue Fun!

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

   Cath has inspired us once again, and I wanted to use my new stamps and supplies to make something Vogue-worthy!  We love vintage clothes and styles, and my daughter is becoming quite the seamstress sewing her own dresses, blouses, and skirts--many of them Vogue.  She's sequestered in her room today taking a practice SAT exam so I wanted to make her something lovely for when she emerges.  She has such a terrific style, and this is to celebrate her talent!

   It's a bit dreary today so the Egyptian Gold embossing powder doesn't have it's usual spahkle...but I love how this turned out!  Tried out my new Die-namics doily dies, and my new Hero Arts Floral Dot Background--it was perfect to capture the fabric of the Trigger!  I wanted different cardstock textures to mimic fabrics so there's metallic gold, kraft, textured white, vanilla ultrasmooth [for the card base] and coffee filters [I know!!] for the pieced white flowers...they are so filmy and fun and much easier to work with than I thought they would be for fussy cutting!  I layered each of the panels with dimensional foam and will make a few more cards with all the pieces I made this afternoon!  Won't you try the Trigger too!?

Hero Arts Rocks!

   I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new Hero Arts/Basic Grey stamps and I received them last night!  Can't wait to play today...so many ideas for these fantastic images!  It has inspired me to come up with a fun way to showcase people putting their own "Stamp on Life!' too.  Stay tuned for more information coming soon to the blog!

  I want to thank the Hero Arts folks for running an outstanding business and giving so much back to their customers in the way of inspiration, great products, fostering artistic fellowship, and the many ways they recognize their participating customers!  It just goes to show you that a good idea for business run well creates much success!  Thank you for this give-away stash based on my catalog comment to the blog!  I'm really looking forward to showcasing it! Hero Arts and their partnering companies ROCK!  [it's really hard to type when you are "happy dancing!"]  I'm off to stamp now....