Time is Running Out!

    Winners for the Christmas in July blog hop will be chosen from the comments left on the blogs by Aug. 1st.  Hurry, if you haven't, and leave a comment or two and good luck in winning!  I will announce my blog's winners here on August 4th.  Stop by to see if you have won.
     Every Inchie Monday's word / country was Brazil this week.  When I asked for suggestions from my brother, "futbol" was the first out of his mouth.  So I chose to use the flag, of course, a soccer ball, and the famous statue, Christ the Redeemer.  This statue stands 98 feet tall and is quite impressive.  The photos I found online are so beautiful.

      I did a couple of other challenges this past week.  I decided to get involved (again) with Adele Bruno's string challenge.  I used to do this one all the time but school took over.  Now that I don't have any school hassles, I can pick back up with this challenge.  The week we used "moon" type tangles to celebrate the eclipse.  Fun!

      I am loving the two challenges that come from Cindy Angiel's Rainbow Elephant site.  See the sidebar for the link if you would like to join the fun.  This weekend challenge was to do something with gemstones.  I decided to do a mandala (yes I am addicted to those round lovelies) and then "spill" some gems on it. 

     I also have been working in my Color It book, Blissful Scenes.  The pictures are so detailed and fun! I also am having fun playing with the waterbrush pens I got.  This one is done in polychromos pencils and waterbrush pens. 

     Did I mention that I won a  gift card for $100 dollars from Color It??  Was I ever excited?!  Now to decide how to spend the money on the card!  Part of my problem is I have nearly everything they put out. 
      Teachers in my old school start back to work today.  The children return on Thursday.  Just think I could be sitting in the obligatory all day staff meeting right now.  No, don't think about it.  I am not.  I did dream last night about setting my class room up!  Oh good grief!  Pretty bad that when I do finally sleep I get dreams of that!
      Thanks for dropping by and saying hello!  I hope you are having a very blessed day.  Hugs!

Have you "blog hopped" yet???

      First things first - have you "blog hopped" yet?  Please do take the time and drop over to the blogs featured in this hop and leave a comment.  You could win one (or more) of some wonderful prizes!  Seriously. To get started go back to my link and work from there - Penstrokes.  I am excited about being a part of this!
     This week's inchie was Norway.  For some reason I am in love with that country.  If I could visit one country overseas, it would probably be Norway.  I am not sure why.  Just would.  My high school mascot was a Viking, so maybe that is it. 

      I am really enjoying the challenges over at Rainbow Elephant.  This one is called Fragment Overlays.  I am not sure I fully got the jest of it, but I really like it. It was really fun to do.  I put the fragment I used on the page also.

      One of my FB groups is challenging us to use color this week.  I already do a lot of that.  Just depends on my mood.  The warm colors are red, yellow and orange. I chose to do a mandala in warm colors.  Got to play some more with my water color brush pens.   They are seriously fun.

      Next I had to play with cool colors - purple, green and blue.  This group is really my favorite group.  Are you a warm color or cool color person?  Probably there is something somewhere that would tell us what that means about our personality. 

      One more - here is a mandala I did this week.  I wanted to color it, but decided I might not get the eye of the dragon like I wanted it so I stayed with black and white. I almost got the look I was after.  Almost.

      Guess I am off to . . . well, I really don't know what I plan on doing!  Check and see if the MOJO challenge is up.  Or sit here and vegetate!  That is a strong consideration, being that I am still fighting sleep.  I am however due to poor sleep getting a lot of reading in, lol! Thanks for dropping by and please do go back and comment on the blog hop's post.  Drop by mine even if you don't have the time to visit all 17 of them.  But remember the prizes are really worth it.  And it goes until Aug. 3rd, so there is time!  Bye now!  Hugs and blessings!

Christmas in July!!

  It is here!  The moment you have been waiting for - our Christmas in July blog hop for Send A Smile 4 Kids.  First of all thank you for coming by and participating.  I hope you will take a moment to look around and perhaps follow my blog.  I would love to have you as a regular visitor.  Shall we talk about rules?  And how to win some of the awesome prizes being offered at EACH stop?  I wish you the best of luck!
        I started with SAS4Kids a few months ago and I have really enjoyed being a volunteer.  I collect (and make) cards for "my" hospital in Tennessee to use.  They give cards to the children to use to send to their loved ones or staff.  The staff can also use the cards to give to the children.   This is SAS4Kids' 175th challenge!  There are 17 stops in the blog hop each sponsored by volunteers and members of SAS4Kids.  This hop begins on July 21st and runs through August 3rd at noon.
       

Here are the rules for this blog hop:

**You do not need to comment on every stop of the blog hop to have a chance to win a prize. One comment on any of the blogs or on the main SAS4Kids blogpost qualifies you to win one of the prizes on that blog. If you leave a comment on each stop, you will have earned 17 chances to win a prize, and if you enter a card in the Christmas in July 4 Kids challenge, you will also earn a chance to win one of 8 random prizes there.

**You MUST have an USA mailing address to qualify to win any of the prizes. We apologize to any of our readers outside of the USA, but this is a requirement to win any of the prizes in this blog hop and in the Christmas in July challenge.

**The blog hop will start July 21st at 8:00 a.m. CST and continue until July 31st at midnight CST. When the blog hop is done, all the winners will be drawn randomly from the commenters on each blog and on the main blog, and announced on the SAS4Kids blog on August 4th and on each individual blog. If your name is listed as a winner, you must contact Karen at khasheck@gmail.com BEFORE August 18th at midnight CST with your NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS AND MAILING ADDRESS. If you do not contact Karen before August 18th at midnight CST, your prize will be forfeited.

**The Christmas in July 4 Kids challenge at SAS4Kids will run from July 21st until August 3rd at Noon CST (as is typical of our two week challenges.) You can qualify for one of 8 prizes by entering a Christmas or holiday card appropriate for a child following the rules of all of our challenges found in the page above. The prizes will be awarded by random drawing and announced with the rest of the winners on August 4th on our blog.

    Make sure you comment on this blog to possibly win a package of Doodles Paper Playground - Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends.  Then hop to the other blogs and comment to win gift certificates, more paper, rubber stamps, digital images and more!

      I spent a few days playing with some of my Christmas goodies and making cards.  I went over to CARDZ TV and looked at some of the sketches for ideas use in planning my cards.  I chose a couple of favorites and from there it was off to the Cricut.  What would I do without my Cricut?!  I cut the backgrounds and assembled the cards - six cards in around an hour or two.  Then I used Paper Wishes dazzles and some Christmas stickers I had in my stash to finish them off.  I listed the packs of paper underneath each card set.

My Mind's Eye - Vintage Christmas paper pack

       

Say Freeze by Recollections

     For my next card set, I used some plain cardstock I had, a Cuttlebug embossing die, and a wonderful cutting template for the Cricut by Dreaming Tree.  Each card in this set has a matching envelope.  They were very easy to assemble and fun to do.

  Curious as to what great goodies you can get?  The list is huge and you get a chance to win at every stop - sometimes even more than one prize will be given at a stop!!  It truly is Christmas in July!

Here is a list of all our wonderful sponsors and the prizes that you could win:

Kitchen Sink Stamps $25 gift certificate
Sparkle N Sprinkle  $5 gift code
Fred She Said $10 gift certificate
Motion Crafts by Uchi's Designs 3 prize packages each with 1 die set and 1 stamp set $35 value each
Bugaboo $12 gift code
Tonic Studios USA Six Tonic Studios Paper Trimmers (159e)
Stampendous Five prizes: CRS5101/DCS5010 Rose Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, CRS5067/DCS5067 Hydrangea Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, DCP1009 Spring Borders Cutting Dies Set, DCP1007 Build a Wreath Cutting Dies Set, DCP1008 Pop Up Stages Cutting Dies Set
Paper Nest Dolls Two prizes of 3 digis each of the winner's choice plus one free digi for a commenter on each blog that uses a Paper Nest Dolls image
Doodles Paper Playground Four prizes of one package of Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends sequin mixes
White Rose Crafts  Gorjuss Tweed Craft Card Compendium (makes 24 cards - retails at $16.99)
Dies R Us $15 gift code
Cheapo Dies (owned by an American I know) $15 gift code
All Dressed Up Stamps - two digital stamps
Janet Bailey - three Stampin' up Stamp Sets

Thanks for coming by - your NEXT STOP is Jill Blasche!  If you would like to make sure you get all of your opportunities to win, head back to the very beginning and start at SAS4Kids.   Good luck on winning!

Perhaps with all the inspiration you are getting on this blog journey, you might like to join us at SAS4Kids and send some handmade cards to give to the children.  You can go over to the SAS4Kids blog and find the volunteer closest to you and send them some cards.  Our kids love it! 

  

  


 

A couple of challenging challenges

    Well, one challenging challenge.  The zen button was loads of fun.  I went on a search for tangle fragments and chose to do my button with those and not "real" tangles.  Or at least tangles with names.  I do wish I could get the shading on my zen buttons as gorgeous as others I have seen.  I need to do another one and see if I can make it "glow" like the ones I like so much.  Practice makes perfect (or at least pretty good).  So here is button attempt #1.

      Took a few minutes to do attempt #2.   Still not happy with the shading.  Aarghh!  I do like the green and I am happy with the tangles I used, I just can't make it look glossy on top.  Okay, lay it aside for now and then try later this week.  I need to find my white charcoal pencil around here somewhere!  You haven't seen it, have you? I have looked everywhere.

      This second challenge from Rainbow Elephant was challenging.  The tangle pozi gave me royal fit!  But I tried.  My flowers, flormoeba, weren't too terrible.

      One more that I just finished but not connected to a challenge.  I just got my set of Color It water brush pens and am trying to "conquer" blending.  This was my best turn out, at least I think so.  Maybe it was the paper . . .  either way it inspired me to grab an Amazon lightning deal on Arrteza water brush pens.  I had been eyeing them for some time but could not decide.  It has 96 colors - oh goodie. 

      Alas I am finished.  Thanks for dropping by and checking out these attempts.  Hugs! 

Hola!

      Hola!  Or hello to everyone.  Our inchie this week was Mexico!  Ah, a place I have actually been.  I was only there for a few hours with my family, but even so really enjoyed it.  It was a fascinating place and I wish we could have lingered, but mom wasn't feeling well and our journey had to be cut short.  I love the colors and the flavors of this place though.  I really could not decide what to use on my inchie.  I did decide very quick NOT to use a tortilla chip from the kitchen on it.  Something my brother said about encouraging ants in my art supplies . . . Since I am trying to use the flag on all my inchies, I put one on the cactus pot.

     It's mandala week over at one of my facebook sites.  Oh I love to draw those things.  They are so much fun.  They take me a bit because I have to do a little math - not my strong suit.  My geometry teacher would be proud of me, or either say "you really should have listened".  If she had let us do mandalas I might have listened.  Might.  Here are two of my latest creations.

      I got some new markers this week.  Color It put out some water color brush markers.  The are very fun.  However I really do not feel comfortable with blending them.  I am sure there is a way.  I just don't know how.  But I am going to keep at it.  Here are my two attempts.

      On July 21st (mark your calendars) there is going to be a blog hop for SAS4Kids.  Remember the organization I am collecting handmade cards for?  It is going to be totally awesome.  Seriously.  There is a total of 17 prizes being given!  Quite a haul.  you can start here and go through all the sites or begin at (the beginning) SAS4Kids.  Either way all you have to do is visit one or better yet all of the sites and leave a comment.  Then a winner or in some cases more than one winner will be chosen at random from the sites for a prize.  Here is a list of prizes just to get you excited -
Kitchen Sink Stamps $25 gift certificate
Sparkle N Sprinkle  $5 gift code
Fred She Said $10 gift certificate
Motion Crafts by Uchi's Designs 3 prize packages each with 1 die set and 1 stamp set $35 value each
Bugaboo $12 gift code
Tonic Studios USA Six Tonic Studios Paper Trimmers (159e)
Stampendous Five prizes: CRS5101/DCS5010 Rose Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, CRS5067/DCS5067 Hydrangea Garden Cling Stamps and Dies, DCP1009 Spring Borders Cutting Dies Set, DCP1007 Build a Wreath Cutting Dies Set, DCP1008 Pop Up Stages Cutting Dies Set
Paper Nest Dolls Two prizes of 3 digis each of the winner's choice plus one free digi for a commenter on each blog that uses a Paper Nest Dolls image
Doodles Paper Playground Four prizes of one package of Fairy Dust Sparkle Blends sequin mixes
White Rose Crafts  Gorjuss Tweed Craft Card Compendium (makes 24 cards - retails at $16.99)
Dies R Us $15 gift code
Cheapo Dies (owned by an American I know) $15 gift code
All Dressed Up Stamps - two digital stamps
Janet Bailey - three Stampin' up Stamp Sets

      Now doesn't that look like fun??  Please drop by and tell your friends about this too.  Thanks for coming by today and saying hello!  Hugs!

Better late than . . .

     I had everything ready to go and post and my brother decides it's a good day to upgrade the computer.  So it sort of spilled its insides all over the table!  Delayed my post a bit everything is running so nicely!  How handy it is to have someone in the house that works on computers.  He keeps ours and my laptop going that's for sure.
     Finland is the country for the inchie this week.  The lily of the valley is the national flower and I am sure I will see some really gorgeous flowers on some of the inchies.  Mine is a bit blah, but not too bad.

   Having lost two of my favorite challenges (Diva and Joey), it was an absolute delight to discover that Cindy Angiel's Rainbow Elephant site has two awesome challenges up each week!  Yahoo!   I used to love her challenges and so it is perfect timing she is back and making us think!
     For the MOJO challenge, we had to use the tangles almond and bell plant.  I have to admit neither really hit me and putting them together was . . .  well, a challenge.  But once I got it worked out in my head, I really began to like the results.  She had suggested (or did I dream it?) to try the mojo challenge in a mandala. So I did.

      The other challenge was to use her tutorial and do an "orbital spiral".  I had some fun with this one.    I used the tangles - anooka, cadent, one two three, and verve. I love the depth this spiral has.

     Thanks, Cindy for some super challenges!  Can't wait to see what next week brings.
      Get your calendars out and your red pen - or maybe fluorescent pink, whatever will make you notice it.  Mark July 21 in big bold letters!  Why?  Because starting that day you have the opportunity to win tons of cool prizes.  I am going to be part of a blog hop beginning that day to support Send A Smile 4 Kids.  There will be packs of paper, stamps, a paper trimmer, and loads more.  Please join us for some fun! 
      Guess I will go and get some work done on my post for the blog hop.   I have never been a part of this type thing before so it is going to be fun.  Thanks for dropping by and visiting.  Hugs!

Yawn. . . yawn.

        If I ever find a magic lamp and get to rub it for a genie and 3 wishes, I know what I want.  Okay there are lots of things I want and need, but right now I would burn all 3 wishes on 3 good night's sleep.  Sleep all through the night.  Wow.  What a dream world.  I have been having some trouble with my legs really hurting.  I am nearly certain it is not the bike as I have had this happen before just not as severe.  I can't sleep comfortably.  I wake up and sit up for a bit. Then I get really sleepy, like I could fall over sitting up.  I lay down and nope.  I am wired.  This is driving me crazy.
      My challenge for Every Inchie Monday looks rather lonely.  I miss the others.  Now I did find one on line that I may join in and if I do, I will include it in this post before closing it.  I have got to figure out how to post it.  Or maybe just post here and not worry about it.  Anyway, the inchie is Mongolia.  I chose a yurt to go with the flag. 

      Lakota loves the sunshine but we limit his time outside due to the fact that his black hair nearly cooks him.  We also wish we could limit his rolling in the yard but we haven't figured out how to do that.  We think he has a grass allergy and so rolling isn't his best idea!

        I am still playing around with the Circle Helix.  This gadget is so much fun!  Here are a few more mandalas.

 

        Ah ha!  I found two more wonderful challenges!  Over at The Rainbow Elephant, Cindy Angiel runs two challenges that proved to be some fun this week.  I really loved doing the Orbital Break challenge.  We had to draw an orb then have something breaking out (or in) of the orb.  Fun!  Here is my work for those two challenges.  I strongly suggest you use the link for her blog and check it out.  There is a ton of info and fun stuff.  I have purchased several of her downloads in the past and they are fun.

Orbital Break

         Guess I shall go now.  If you are stateside, please have a happy 4th of July - stay safe.  I promise I won't get on my rant about how dangerous fireworks can be.  While I love them, I do not like them in the hands of novices.  Thanks for dropping by and have a blessed day - no matter where in our world you are!!  Hugs!

Mojo challenge