Birthday surprise ....

.... Hello!  I've a birthday card to share with you today for a very special lady.  Many of you know Sandie of London Days, she always leaves such lovely comments on cards.  Today is Sandie's birthday and we are surprising her with a Birthday Linky Party which is being hosted by Nonni.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - So Very Grateful; Avery Elle - Handwritten Notes
Inks: Memento - London Fog; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU DP - Melon Mambo; Copics; Wink of Stella; Sequins; Silver Pen

Sandie always makes the most gorgeous clean and simple cards, so I thought I'd make a CAS birthday card for her.  I used a few challenges to make the card.  The colours are from this week's Colour Throwdown - CTD#292 and the layout is from CAS(E) this Sketch - CTS#76.  I didn't get chance to make a card for Addicted to Stamps and More! - ASM#95 earlier this week, but I realise that in making this card, I've taken inspiration from the flowers and colours.  I stamped the flower spray in grey, coloured it with Copics and added some sparkle to the flowers with my new Wink of Stella pen and then I fussy cut it out.  I cut a panel of white card and drew silver borders on three sides, then adhered it directly to the card.  I stamped the birthday sentiment in black and finished the front with a few sequins.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of pink design paper and on the white panel stamped some more flowers and coloured them with Copics. 

Not quite sure when Sandie will get this card, but it is on the way!!

I've been busy this week spending time with Mum, which is why I've not been around much.  It was such a lovely Mother's Day weekend for us both.  On Sunday the weather was fabulous and we went out to a local flower and flea market - such fun, this was followed by lunch out and then a lovely drive round the area.  Monday was another day of indulgence with us both having a massage - so relaxing.  We managed to get home before all the bad weather arrived.  Monday afternoon the tornado warning sirens went off - we sheltered in the basement, but fortunately nothing happened in our area. Sadly the weather has been awful for most of the week, but I think we've gotten off lightly compared to some.

Before I go, I must share some fab news about my wonderful husband.  Last night Jonathan attended a presentation event for Canvas Pontiac.  We had all submitted photographs to the competition. and we found out last week that Jonathan had had one of his photos selected to be made into a large canvas and hung on the walls in Pontiac.  As part of our trip on Sunday we drove up to Pontiac to see the large canvas print of Jonathan's photo.  Here's a photo of Jonathan's image on the wall.

I'm so proud of Jonathan.  It's a super photo, so full of life and has a great position on the wall by Lafayette Market!

I'll be back soon - taking a bit of a break while Mum is here on holiday!  See you soon.

Steampunk daughter ...

.... Hi, just a quick post to show the scrapbook page that I made yesterday, and finished off last night.  I attended a class run by Valerie Brincheck called Collaging with Die Cut Scrapbook Page.  An all day class and I got to play with lots of Valerie's dies, border punches and stencils!  Here's the page I made:

I don't have the details of all the supplies I used, but I did get to play with lots of Martha Stewart punches - made the pretty edge on the brown paper and the lovely circle paper.  Lots of different die sets and some fabulous papers too.  The photo is one that Jonathan took of Kathryn last year when we attended a steampunk themed photo shoot.  Kathryn loved Natalie's hat and wanted to take it home with her, but we compromised on a photo!  I'm really pleased with this page, it was lots of fun to make and way, way out of my comfort zone!

That's all for now - off to another photo shoot today with the very beautiful Holli!  Sadly, I don't think many of those photos will be safe for this blog!!  Enjoy your day.

Pumpkins and photos ....

....  Morning all - at last the sun is up!  I don't like the dark mornings but the clocks go back on Saturday, a week later than in the UK and Europe!

I don't have a card to share with you (yet), but earlier this week I mentioned that we'd been to a pumpkin carving party.  Kathryn and I both took a large pumpkin to carve, while Jonathan's job was to go round with the camera and get the candid images!  He did that in spades!!  Here are a few photos from the party along with a link to the full set on Jonathan's Flickr account - Pumpkin Carving.  There are lots more photos.

Before heading off to the pumpkin carving party, Jonathan and I attended a photography workshop run by David Birdsong in Pontiac.  Jonathan has been going to David's since we moved to Michigan, but this was only my second studio shoot.  Below are some photos from the session - they are the only ones Blog and Facebook safe.

Holli is a fantastic model and such fun to work with.  I'm going to give you a big warning now - it was a nude shoot, but if you want to see more, then you can follow the links to my Flickr account: Holli - Natural Light, Holli - Slides Lights, Holli - Studio Lights1 and Holli - Studio Lights2.

That's all for now - see you soon.

A glorious weekend ...

... wall to wall sunshine, brilliant blue skies, birds singing and quite warm too.  It seems that summer's going out with a bang!!  We had a great weekend visiting not one, but two Food & Drink Festivals - in Nantwich and Mold.  Both were very good and I now have lots of new chuntneys, jams and cheeses to try.  The stall holders were very generous, most of them had lots of little bowls with samples of what they were selling set out and Kathryn was very busy helping herself to most of them!  I tasted some very interesting cheeses - and some that weren't so great.  I tried a lovely pork pie, but didn't buy it immediately as we'd only just arrived.  Sadly when we got back to the lady's stall, she'd sold out.  Good for her, but not so good for me.  That'll teach me to buy when I see it. 

Jonathan and Kathryn found a stall selling chocolate.   They tried two flavours I would never have considered - Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt which Jonathan says tasted as it sounds, but really brought out the flavour of the chocolate - and White Chocolate with Lemon and Poppy Seeds which, according to my two tasters, was just lovely!!  And because I was being "good" - I missed them both.  But we did have some wondeful icecream cones - handmade icecream and sorbet.  We tried carmelised apple sorbet (wonderful), plum sorbet and banoffee sorbet (scrummy), along with vanilla and belgium chocolate icecream - both delicious.

With all the wonderful food and drink on display, and the lovely colours and smells of autumn about, it made me feel very thankful for all these gifts.  So I thought I'd try to make a card to reflect this time of plenty, and tie it in with the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge for this week. 

Sketch blank



My interpretation of the sketch is shown below.  Autumnal colours are not my usual choice, but I'm really pleased with how this has turned out.

  

WMSC16

Waltzingmouse Stamps: Blessed by You; Faux Fun; Peace & Plenty; Very Vintage Labels No 10.

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Antique Linen; Spiced Marmalade; Dusky Concord; Rusty Hinge; Shabby Shutters; Wild Honey

Spellbinders:  Nesties Labels 10

Pens: Promarkers

Jonathan was also busy getting ready for the first photograph competition of the year.  Earlier in the week he'd ordered some large prints - it's just great being able to select your images at home, email them to a printing specialist and then get them back, all in about 4 days.  Anyway, we got some large sheets of moutboard from Hobbycraft and I spent this afternoon cutting it to size and then mounting the photos.  I know I'm biased, but I think Jonathan takes really good pictures.  Anyway, he's taking them to the club tomorrow and we'll find out the result in two weeks.  If you want to see Jonathan's photos, check out his website.  

Tomorrow our Craft Club starts back after a break of two months.  I know that we are all looking forward to getting back to it, although we're likely to spend most of the first meeting just chatting.  

I've just done a bit of Stat checking and see that I've had visitors from Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and South Korea - welcome to you all - and thank you for dropping by. 

That's all for this evening, I managed to get back a bit earlier than I thought.  I trust you all had a great weekend.  Back again tomorrow.