I'm here in VA vacationing with my hubby for the next several days.  Today we are having beautiful weather, plenty of warmth and sunshine. It looks like the next 3 or 4 days there will be more of the same. YEAH!!!

Just before I left I received my Gina K order. A sad, sad moment for me. I wanted to stay home and play, but it will be the first thing I'll be playing with when I return home. See me doing the Happy Dance...

I bought this as a bundle. All I'll have to do is cut my paper and make a card. It such an easy system to use to make perfect wreaths. There are some beautiful examples on line if your interested in looking.

That's  it for today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and are able to do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

Happy Birthday Suprise Card and another Surprise Today!

The past several days I have been working on a birthday card for one of my GD's. She will be 11 on the 18th. of this month, but I needed to finish the card before I go away for a few days. I needed something a little whimsical, but also a little "grown up". I think I managed it. I'm linking it over to Seize the Birthday today. This blog pushes me to make the Birthday cards I need for my family.


She loves "stuffies" (stuffed animals) , but the only images I had that I felt she would love were on my Cricut Explore. So to the rescue it came.  I'm not all that keen on piecing the image pieces together or that adept at doing it, but I gave it a try.  I'm pretty pleased the way it came out and hope she will like it. The hardest part was choosing a color combination. I tried several and decided on the bright colors from SU.

Here is the outside. Pretty generic:

BUT open the inside and this is the "surprise" she will get:

I was originally going to put the image on a white card base, but opted to put it on the Lemon Lime Twist. Of course I had it all glued together, so unfortunately, the hat doesn't stand out like it should.

It is a pop - up card!  I just found out how to make these, I know they've been around awhile, over at Jennifer McGuire's blog.  This is a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" top fold card base with the pop-up leaving enough room on the bottom to sign. Jennifer made the examples she gave with windows in the front which I will try the next go around. She is so talented , a great communicator and artist. I love her videos.


Some products I used:
SU: Lemon Lime Twist, Granite, Lovely Lipstick
SU: Retired Polka Dot Paper
SU: Clear Paper Pumpkin Stamp, Retired Hello You Thinlits Die
Cricut: Teddy Bear Parade

2nd. SURPRISE!
The card that I linked to Seize the Birthday for the July 19th. challenge with toppings was chosen as a Challenge Winner! I was so surprised and honored to be chosen. Thank you Seize the Birthday.

That's it for today. I'm off to make cookies for one of my neighbors who just had surgery. Have a wonderful day and go do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

With Sympathy

Today I needed to make a sympathy card for a family member. I'm sure like most of us, they are difficult to create. I saw over at Just Add Ink  challenge blog that the challenge was with a twist.  By using the SU Waterfront stamp set hopefully it fills the challenge requirement.

I layered SU's Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Mossy Meadow that was embossed and Pear Pizzazz stamping with similar colors for the scene. The sentiment is from a retired Hostess set, Bloom with Hope and stamped with Soft Suede. I added SU Linen Thread and some Cooper Pearls to finish it off.

Sorry for this being a little washed out. I took it just about dusk this evening.

Have a wonderful , restful evening. Enjoy your Tuesday and go do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

Sending Sunshine

I completed this card on Thursday hoping to post it to the Freshly Made Sketch blog challenge. Unfortunately the Friday I was visiting friends and forgot all about it! That's okay though. I made it for a friend who is recuperating from back surgery and needs a little sunshine. Here in central NC we have had a lot of rain and not much sun, so hopefully this will cheer her up some.

I cut the sun on the patterned paper with my Cricut Expression machine using the the Sun Envelope from Wild Card 2. The paper is an older retired SU paper, the Sunshine die cut is Taylored Expressions and so is the Sunshine sentiment. (Sending Sunshine stamp set, Sending Script die)
I layered a piece of Daffodil Delight behind the negative space and used SU dimensionals on the front of the card base of SU Bermuda Bay. I also added Wink of Stella the sentiment to give it some sparkle.

That's it for today as far as posting. I'm going to dive into some paper and stamps to create a card. I hope you have a wonderful day and can go do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

Don't Worry Be Happy

I started working on this card yesterday and finished it up this evening. I love this little Hula Girl. I used it in a previous card and knew I would use it again. It is from Taylored Expressions "Do the Hula" which included this die cut with the grass skirt and 6 images. So cute! The background is SU's Tropical Thinlits Dies using the 2 3/4 square die cut and backed with SU Blushing Bride card stock.

I broke out my Prismacolored Premier Pencils to color the image and Gamsol to blend the colors. Although I've been working at my coloring skills with some success,  I'm not nearly as good as I would like to be. It will be practice, practice, practice for a while longer.  I have looked at videos by different Prismacolor artists that have given great advice and tips, but it looks like there will be more months of practice ahead at this point.

I'll be linking this card over to the Freshly Made Sketches Blog for this weeks challenge.

That's about it for this evening. Have a wonderful one and I hope you have some to time tonight or tomorrow to do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

They Say it's Your Birthday

I had some free time yesterday to create a card using the Birds of a Feather dies from MFT's June Kit. I really like this kit with the different sized birds, flowers, and leaves, and of course, this sweet birdhouse. I did use SU card stock (Bermuda Bay, Real, Red, Black) with exception of the Dill Pickle card stock which came with the kit for the leaves. The black and white paper is a retired SU paper which I have had in my stash for a long time. :}. The sentiment is from SU's Suite Sayings (retired).

I'll be linking this to the Seize the Birthday challenge today.  I'm really trying to get back into a more consistent routine, but honestly it's been difficult with all our travel these past months. Hopefully, I can get back on track soon.

Have a wonderful day and I hope you can go do something you LOVE!

Live Simply, Bernadette

Birds of a Feather

This past weekend I had a chance to break out my new June Card Kit by MFT. What a cute set of dies! I was a little overwhelmed at first, but thanks for the card examples on the MFT blog and Pinterest, I was able to breeze through 2 cards. I did CASe, but changed them up slightly with some of my own touches and stamps.

Inspiration from Donna Mikasa

Inspiration from Torico

As you can see, they are both Get Well cards. I had no trouble with making them cheerful. The papers that came with the kit made that easy to obtain. I used my sentiments and die cut on the top card from Taylored Expressions Sending Sunshine stamp set  and the separate die "Sending" .

The bird house,the flowers, leaves and bird where all part of the June kit, The scallop edge is an older retired product and so is the striped embossing folder and the wood grain embossing folder.

That's it for this evening. I hope you had time to craft and and do something you LOVED today. I hope to see you in a few days with a few more cards...

Live Simply,
Bernadette