Days 153 and 154 Challenge Cards, beautiful Yarrow Bouquet and … my SISTER arrives 2-day!

 

I’m so happy, summer is really and truly here.  All those rainy and dreary months we had for the first half of the year make it all the sweeter.  Enjoying a wonderful stay-cation and feeling fabulously creative these days.  We’ve fallen into a routine of waking, working out, creating, swimming, delicious dinners and romantic evenings.  Hope you are having a wonderful time wherever life finds you too.   I like the stableness of these days but I am looking forward to shaking it up with a visit – starting today no less – with my sister Nina who will be arriving in a few short hours.  So I thought I’d better get my blog post in now because there is going to be a lot of action around here soon. 

I’ve been working very hard to try and take up the torch with the 365 Cards blog challenges this past few weeks – in fact I even got a small mention on Day 155 {toot toot!}  I am actually all the way up to Day 158 after burning the midnight oil once or twice this week but I will just post two a day so that I don’t overwhelm everyone.  So here goes:

Day 153 – Super Sketchy Monday  – we were given this sketch

 

And here’s what I managed to create with it:

I had such fun with this.  I think when I do this one again I would make Mr Froggy much larger to balance the card a bit. 

 

I cut Mr Froggy from a svg cutting template I got from svgcuts.com  - they have some FABULOUS cutting files there.  A note, I had to convert the file to be able to use it with my Silhouette SD cutting machine.  This little froggy is going to be used a lot I can see.  I made his eyes glitter with silver gems. Isn’t he too cute? 

 

I made my own lily pad and lily. I inked up the edge of  the lily with deep pink ink and then I sprinkled clear glitter over glue to make it shimmer.  I am posting the .studio files here for the lily and lilypad for download for you here:

LilyPad Shape – Silhouette SD file

Lily Shape – Silhouette SD file

I’m sorry that I’m only giving these files in .studio files because I actually created them inside of the Silhouette SD software and I don’t know how to export as png for you. 

 

Day 154 – Card Recipe Challenge

For day 154 were shown this card – Annie’s take on the challenge, as an example:

 

Along with these instructions:

4.25x5.5 card

Scallops (anywhere on the card)

3 Buttons

1 Stamped image

A sentiment (done any way you want)

 

Here’s my take on this challenge

I am sorry that I cannot name neither paper nor stamp brands as they had no brand names present.  I chose a complementary color theme of purple and yellow.  I like it!  I stamped onto vellum and then backed it with some white cardstock so that the writing and flower would show up well.  I then coloured in the flower with a felt.  I added a purple gem to balance the card out.

The buttons were fun.  I cut out three deep purple blossoms from cardstock using a graphic cutout that comes standard with the Silhouette SD software.  Then I took a seed pearl and threaded a piece of thin jewelery wire (dollar store) through the center holse of the button  and then adhered each onto three rich yellow buttons with foam tape and then stuck them all onto the card.  Both scallops were created using Fiskars. 

♥

We have a bumper crop of yarrow (at least I believe that’s what this is) growing this year and I kept looking at it and thinking it would make a striking display so I vowed to do that and got up early one morning recently and accomplished just this.  I took photos of how I put it together, in case you might like to try this too:

After choosing nice tall blossoms, I stripped each {right in the field} from any leaves and then I laid 1/2 dozen at a time on the cement and then cut the stems to an equal length.

Once they were all trimmed I gathered them all together in a bundle.

The end result, once placed in a tall vase (vase about 18 inches tall) is a striking focal point of the room.  Both summery but will bring warmth into the room on cold winter days.  These blooms will dry right in the vase, they stay remarkably brilliant.

♥

Ice Cream Pie Love

Ever since I read the June issue of Sunset magazine my Mr and I have been making our own Ice Cream Pies.  It was so encouraging finding this idea/recipe because I went looking for a good dessert in town a few days ago and returned home empty handed.  We live in a small community and the fare selection available when I looked was pitifully limited and what there was cost $$$ – so when I saw the recipe we HAD to make it.  It was my husband’s turn so he created this one.  We put it in a 7 inch cheesecake pan which has parchment paper underneath.  A simple oreo crumb crust, unbaked.  mmm – to die for.  Making small ones means we get to try new recipes all of the time.  A hint from my Mr – make it in “layers” and freeze between each one.

What’s your favourite summer dessert?