Berry Bees Birthday

Good Morning Blogland!
It has been way too long since I have posted on my blog and I do apologize for that. It has however been a busy and sometimes exciting, sometimes nerve-racking time lately. My grand-daughter had some minor surgery last week so I was staying with my daughter to help her through all of that. Between Kasey's 2 pre-operation check-ups/appointments, we did manage to take Kasey and Jace to the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition. It started the evening of Wednesday Aug. 8th and was over Sunday Aug. 12th which meant our trip there had to happen before Kasey's surgery. Kasey came through her surgery exceptionally well and is doing great. Mom and Gammy (thats me) survived it too.  Plus we had family arrive from Alberta and the Red Rock Folk Festival was on. My hubby was born and raised in Red Rock and that was our home town until 6 years ago. The Festival was the perfect time to go "home" for a couple of days and re-connect with many of our friends and family.

Now, on to the subject of this post, lol. A while back, I applied to the Design Team call over at One Stitch At A Time and guess what; I was PICKED.....Whoot Whoot!!! I heard from Choccy the same weekend I got an email from Mynnette Kitchen so I was walking on cloud 9 for days. I was so EXCITED and it has been very hard to keep all of this a secret. I didn't think I could do it but, I managed to pull it off......barely!
For the challenges at One Stitch At A Time, all of us on the DT use images each week from a variety of artists BUT you can find and buy those images all at the same store; Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps. I have a link to this fabulous digi stamp store on my sidebar PLUS Stitchy is offerring an awesome Collab right now and its FREE with any $7.00 purchase on the Store site. You better hurry though because this deal expires August 19th.
Today, I am posting my very first Design Team card for the One Stitch At A Time blog. I should have had this post set up to go live this past Sunday morning and I thought I had done that. Imagine my horror at finding out I didn't have it done! I want to apologize to Choccy and all of my fellow teamies at OSAAT for not getting this done properly. I am so sorry girls :( :(
The challenge this week at OSAAT blog is Challenge #126 Anything Goes, easy peasy :) The link disappears August 18 so be sure you link up your cards soon. This week's challenge is being sponsored by

With 3 x Promarkers

To win this you must use a SBDS (Stitchy store)product

and for those that enter with none SBDS creations

With a $3 coupon to spend in store

Here is the card I made for my first challenge as a DT member:

Front view

Close-up of rhinestones in flowers

Close-up of glitter on wings

Inside of card

Another view of front

Card Recipe:

Image - Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps "Baby Bees" by Priyanka
Cardstock - Bo Bunny Double Dot 'Kiwi Vintage'
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye 'Magnolia'
Flowers - Prima
Ribbon - Offray
Rhinestones - Dollarama
Sentiments - CTMH 'Say It In Style' & 'Special Friendship' stamp sets
Ink - CTMH 'Garden Green'
Glitter - DecoArt Glamour Dust
Image coloured with - Copics

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Spots & Stripes
The Crafty Pad - Summer Vacation
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - # 13 Add some Bling or Sparkle
One Stop Craft Challenge - #195 Summer Holiday (summer is when the strawberries are ready)
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge - Go Floral
Simon Says Stamp - Bingo (Ribbon, Free, Blooms)
Ribbon Carousel Challenge - RCC66 Celebrating Summer
Crafting Life's Pieces Challenge - CLP #50 (I turned the sketch upside down)

Thanks so much for popping by to visit today. I hope you have enjoyed your stay.
Hugs xo

Summer Flowers

I have always admired handmade flowers. Just think of it.....you would always have a flower to match whatever project you are working on, no matter what paper you were using, if you were able to make the flowers yourself! Well, I finally found some time (courage) to try this little project and I spent a couple of hours doing just that, making flowers. You know what? I don't know what I was so afraid of. These 10 flowers were easy peasy and I will definitely be making these again. In fact, it is the next workshop I will be teaching my Stamping 6 Group, and they are going to love them too.

Here are my very own handmade flowers:

All but 1 of these flowers is made with Close To My Heart patterned papers, cardstock and inks. Some of the flowers have stamped centers, also from Close To My Heart. The rhinestones in the centers of 2 flowers are bitty sparkles from CTMH and so are the brads I've used. I have used the 2 inch scalloped circle punch from CTMH for making 5 of the flowers and the buttons, embroidery floss, silver bow and pink butterfly are from my stash. The sticks the flowers are mounted on are from Michael's and the styrofoam inside the pouch is from Dollarama. I used the George and Basic Shapes Cricut Cartridge to cut out the petals I used to make the purple rose and tCricut Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH for the pouch. One of these flowers is even made from used dryer sheets!
I am entering this project in the following challenges:
The Ribbon Carousel Challenge -RCC54 - Fancy Flowers with Andrea Ewen 
The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop Blog - May Challenge # 10 - Blossoms and Butterflies
Fashioista Challenge Blog - Challenge # 3 Simply Summer

Addicted To Stamps - Challenge # 31  BINGO - I used the bottom row on the card: "flowers, distressing and no card"

            
 Well, thats it for me tonight. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.
Hugs xo