Hello Friday... You are finally here!

It's Friday again and I cannot be more happy.  I have planned a very busy day at work, but will do my best to leave a little earlier than usual for "Summer Hours" in honor to the long hard working week.

I also have plans to have dinner with friends tonight, and a wine night tomorrow with other friends...  and just be at home after being traveling for work this week.

I believe that the best way to say something is just saying it as simply as it can be, from the heart, with sincerity...  So, what's the better way to welcome my favorite day of the week?  Simply saying Hello, hello and hello!

This is a simple card to say Hello...

Patterned paper in the background, stamped banners with stamped circles and an imperfect, hand cut, festive, inked, washi-tape heart.... (sounds a lot like my own heart... LOL!)

As simple as that... just saying hello.

And wishing you a great weekend!

Tks for your comments.

Plano, Target and Golden Bridge!

Hello imperfect friends!

I've been so disconnected these days! I've been away from home in a work trip to Plano, Texas.  Today I'm at the airport waiting to get my flight back home.  So, this is something different for me since I always post from home...
Plano is a nice community.  I stayed at the Marriott Legacy Town Center and is great.  Here are some photos of the view in front of the hotel and the surroundings.

Let me also share with you that while in Plano, I remember I read in one blog, about these washi tapes from Target that are in the office supply section... and I took the advise and found them there...  4 x $4...  Gorgeous!  I didn't find the blog where I read it, but thank you friend.

Finally, I'm posting this layout to participate in the June Sketch SEM challenge.

We visited San Francisco last year and the Golden Bridge is really marvelous.   So I thought it was cool to follow the sketch inspiration to document these photos.

 

I used different sized photos, patterned paper and elements to cover the 12x12 page with squares and rectangles.  Left room for the journaling and also added some stars and embellishments.  I had bought a nice image with San Francisco name on it, and I used it as the title.

 

Hope you liked it... and again... hello from Texas...

Have a great day!

Bright Birthday!

It's Friday... I'm so happy!

I made this card for my beautiful 7-year old goddaughter.  At first I wanted to make a card with the number 7 on it, but then I remembered these Ippity stamps from Unity and thought it was a bright idea to use them!

I paper pieced the cake stamp with several bright colors and added some fiber and bling bling...  It shines just like the girl's personality!

When I showed this card to my husband, he said:  "It looks like her!"

I am linking this to FWF by Unity just for fun, and also to the Ippity Challenge using bright colors.  Hope you liked it.

Have a bright day!!!!!!

Neighbor Friends...

Hey... it's another day to enjoy life!  What's up?

I was thinking about friendship the other day... and how it evolves...  and also how you could have so many different best friends at different times in your life.  I remember we celebrated my husband's bday several years ago, and one of the things he always talked about is the feeling of having high school friends in the same room with current neighbors, and talking with the friends from work... all mixed up from different stages of your life... so weird and cool at the same time!  

Well, I have these wonderful neighbor friends.  We used to get together every other Friday and it was so fun.  But that activity also evolved you know! 

One of the couples divorced, another one moved...  some children got to an age when they are having a lot of sports activities, and so on...  different situations that set us a little bit apart from getting together.  We still see each one separately but there's been a while since we are together... all together.

This layout shows a photo of only the girls.  This day we went to the movies and the husbands stayed at home with children.  We had so much fun.  And I love this  photo.  Each one of these girls is very important to me.  Each one supports me in a different way and I learn different values from their different point of views.

And well... I want to remember how important they are for me... that's why I made this layout.

Hope you like it!

I put a cluster of buttons to create some balance and also get out from symmetry to support my imperfection... :)

The banners in the page and the title are stamped.  I also stamped some flowers in the background bottom. All are stamps from Unity.

I'm linking this layout to Scrapping Everyday Miracles and Ippity by Unity blogs' challenges.

Just saying Happy Father's Day and Cheers!

Hello friends!

This weekend we celebrate Father's Day in some parts of the world.  What a blessing to have a father, or being a father.  God gives us the opportunity to live such different emotions and feelings so we can understand the meaning of life and love...   but HE has to keep a balance.  So that's why not everybody has same experiences with fatherhood.

I lost my father when I was 10.  I could not think of one day that he doesn't come to my mind, even if it's just for a second... It could be a word, a scent, a view or just a tiny feeling... but something reminds me about him everyday.  I wish I could know more about him... his thoughts, how he saw life, his goals... the things that I probably got from him...etc. etc.  I've told you about it in an older post you can see clicking HERE if you like.

Also, my husband is not a father.  And he would've loved to become one, but again... there must be a balance, and only God knows what's best for each one.

But even if you lost your father, or could not become one, or don't have your father close... or if you have him but don't have a good relationship with him...  it's just because God knows what's best for each one of us.  I can just say... if you have one, value him... if you are one, be the best you can... and in the rest of the cases, honor all fathers in your family, or circle of friends somehow.  I might not tell the fathers in my life anything about fatherhood, but I do appreciate their dedication, and really admire some of them who really take it seriously.  My way to honor them is to respect them as fathers.

So, Happy Father's Day.

Let me take the opportunity to tell you about this wine we enjoyed recently.  It's a Special Reserve from 2004, Arzuaga from Arzuaga Navarro Winery, Ribera del Duero, Spain (I've told you in previous posts about La Planta, which is the "cosecha" of this wine).   It was a special gift from our friends, to my husband on his 40th bday last year.  As soon as my husband saw the wine, he knew it was to be kept for a special moment.  And he saved it for a recent dinner we have with our friends in a restaurant.

It's very aromatic (like ripe fruit), and once you taste, it's very rich in flavor and rapidly evolves and you feel its medium-strong tannins.    It's definitely a wine you can save for several more years.

Salud... and Happy Father's Day!

Fantastic, Fabulous Friends with Flair Friday!

Hey... It's Friday again... 

I won FWF last Friday!!!  You can see the announcement post HERE.  I can't wait to receive my stamps in the mail...  Thank you Unity!

In the meantime, this motivates me to participate this Friday too.  It seems I've become "addicted" to Friends with Flair...  I am so afraid I won't be able to participate every Friday... but let's enjoy it while we can...  It's as simple as that... Enjoy the moment.

Here's the card I made for today's FWF.

I combined coloring and paper piecing for the owl stamp, and then implemented paper piecing technique for the branch.

The background was already printed in the card base... very convenient.  Love it.

All three main elements are stamps from Unity (the owl, branch with flowers, and the sentiment).

Note I cut the owl in two pieces, so I could place the "tail" in the back of the branch, and the body in front.

Two more things to say:   (1) I hope you like it...  and (2) Thank you for your comments...

Happy Friday!!!!!

Clean, Fruity and Simple Sunday

Happy Sunday.  I'm happy...  I plan to have a relaxing afternoon with my husband, mom and dog.

But first wanted to share with you a Clean and Simple card I made for the Outlawz Sunday challenge.

I was thinking the other day, what happened with the instructions when you were a child, about that as long as you don't paint beyond the line, you are doing good?  And now we complicate ourselves with different kind of painting, techniques, effects, dimensions and so on.  And don't get me wrong, I love all that... but everything has its moment.

For a clean and simple painting just follow the rules ... those you were given when you were a child.

Actually, the childish look can be cool too, and looks so clean and fresh... like these cherries... for a fruity Sunday... mmmmm...

I simply stamped the image, had fun painting it with simple markers...

Cut and matted, and stamped a sentiment... Voila! 

And what markers I used? Those I would lend to any kids if they asked me... simple markers... don't even know the brand.

How simpler can it be?

I hope your Sunday is simply GREAT!

Thanks for your comments.

Let's talk Chalk!

HELLO friends.

I have this chalk set I confess I never use...  and I thought... "let's go use it"..

So I made this card using Unity Stamps, spellbinders, patterned paper, cardstock and tulle.

I stamped the image in white cardstock, then in patterned paper, then in another solid color paper and then in white again...  Crazy huh?

Well, from the patterned paper I cut the table mat in one color, then the plates and spoon with the solid color paper, then the content (seems like love soup to me) in white, is painted with chalks.... Yes, yellow and pink.

I also painted with pint chalk the edges of the shape, and added some in the other patterned paper I used as base, to give my imperfect touch...

Tulle is white but was sprayed with pink mist to give it some color.  I also added glossy accents to the hearts in the soup (the main ingredient!).

I had fun using the chalk and hope I can use it more in the future.

Did you like my card?  Hope yes....  Leave me your comment and thank you!

PS:  Tomorrow I will participate in the 4th edition of the PRSE (Puerto Rico Scrapbook Event)...  I'm so excited.  I will have 4 great classes with wonderful teachers.  I can't wait.

Inchies too!

Hello my friends.

In recent posts I have shared with you some ATC's and flowers that I am going to SWAP.  Now I made some inchies too!  

I love inchies... a tiny 1" square piece of art, message, sentiment, image or made-by-you embellishment to trade with others.  I think is cool.  You can use them in your projects by themselves, combined or simply collect them all.

I decided to make two different designs.

One is a stamped image painted with watercolor pencils.  I also painted the base surrounding the image in blue with distressing ink.  I wanted to give the impression of sea and/or sky, because the image is a seagull.  Each one of these inchies is unique since they are stamped and painted one by one.

Then I made another one with a cupcake image.  I painted it with watercolor pencils too.  For the frosting I painted with different colors for different flavors, topped with glossy accents and some glitter. It's so cool when you take a closer look.  The "frosting" has great dimension.

Inchies can be used for embellishment as I mentioned, so I made this quick clean and simple card.  Why is it so specially quick and simple?  I did not cut anything thinking of the card.  I strictly used scrap paper I had in my table from previous projects.  It was so quick!  I can't even believe myself.

And if you are thinking the inchie complicates the card, just use a button, or a flower, or a stamp sentiment... but see what you can do with scrap paper you thought it was trash.  Try it.

I hope you liked my inchies, my card, and that you have a great day!!!!

Artist Trading Card

I love ATC's...  It's like a little piece of inspiration, art, creativity, color... a little piece of the person who creates it...

I made some for a SWAP and I can't wait to see the other girls' creations.  So many different styles and techniques!  I learn a lot with ATC's.

Some people use them for journaling in LO's, others for cards, as tags, or just for collection.

For these ones I decided to use three different sizes of patterned paper and cardstock.  One, the base, is 2.5" x 3.5" which is the standard size of an ATC; and the other two in decreasing sizes.

I used a sentiment from Unity, stamped it in white cardstock pieces that were the smaller size and embellished with some washy tape.

Then I used other two sizes and some dollies and cut the quantity I needed.

Used another Stamp from Unity featuring a leaf, and cut.

All layers were distressed and inked in the edges.

And then I assembled as shown.

Applied some glossy accent in the leaf and it looks great!

I'm ready to SWAP!

Have a nice weekend and thank you for stopping by.  I'm linking this ATC to the Friday Friends with Flair from Unity...  Love your comments.  Keep leaving them.