Wide Eyed Fireworks Back to School Challenge

WIDE EYED FIREWORKS

Back to School Challenge

When I was a little girl, school always started the day after Labor Day.  The community that I lived in had a small lake in the center of town with a Gazebo and a little beach and grassy hill with a sidewalk all the way around it.  You could walk around the whole lake in about a half hour if you walked slow.  There were beautiful cherry trees all around the lake.  The lake was very deep, in fact they said that they had never found the bottom of it.  The night before the Labor Day holiday the city would put on a grand fireworks display.  My mother would dress us up in our pajamas, pack a picnic quilt and off we would go to sit on the grassy hill.  We would anxiously wait for darkness to arrive and the first ear piercing star of color would slowly rise to the highest heavens and then burst into a shower of colors.  We watched with wide-eyed excitement as the fireworks burst agains the night sky for the next 45 minutes.  The colors were spectacular. At the end they would show a ground display of fireworks on the other side of the lake.  It looked like civil war cannons were shooting at each other.
I can remember walking to the car afterwords and being sooo tired I just couldn't walk another step and my dad would pick me up in his strong arms and carry me the rest of the way.  The next day, school would start.  I was always ready for school to start, we had played all the board games and worn ourselves out playing kickball in the scorching sun.  The fall weather felt cool and good, I loved the colors of the leaves, seeing old friends and challenges for my brain that had grown lazy over the summer.

Todays card depicts those fond memories.   The stamps are Stampscapes, Rubber Stamp Tapestries, Stampabilities, Cloud 9 Fiskars clear stamps. Color is from Pan Pastels, ink is Memento.  I had a great time remembering those good old days. 

This blog was created for the Back to School Bloggers Challenge.  If you would like to post a link
Back to School Challenge Blog Hop  Follow the link.
Thanks for stopping by!

Follow the River and You Will Find the Sea

Today I have two similar cards.  Both of these cards are stamped with the same stamp (Gray Wolf Graphics, I think) and chalked with Pan Pastels with very different results.  Can you guess what the difference is?  I won't keep you in suspense, the first card is chalked on glossy card stock.  That was an amazing journey.  First I took some yellow and circled in the sun, that went well.  I like to start with yellow on my grass, so next I chalked up the yellow tall grass the little boy is sitting in.  Then I went to blend in the green over top, but the green just brushed right over the top and kept going right off the card.  I must have gotten some yellow across the bottom, although it was so light that I couldn't see it as it would not accept any chalk at all and looked perfectly white.  So, I just grabbed by Memento Dew Drop Dye and inked in some grass.  At that point I set it aside and planned to put it in the circular file.  The glossy cardstock does not have much "tooth" meaning it is a slick surface and not much sticks to it.  It seemed that if you put one layer of chalk on there, that was it, it was saturated and would not allow any blending of any more color.  I moved on to some plain card stock and created the scene with the puffy clouds.  Then I picked up the glossy card and decided to experiment some more.  I tore a paper towel's edge to create the cloud shapes and chalked across the edges creating the layered cloud look.  No problems with the blue going down on the cardstock, so I kept going and finished the card.  This was an interesting experiment with the Pan Pastels, in the end I actually liked the glossy card better.

Brushing Bunny!

Today's card is a birthday card for my son who asked for an electronic toothbrush for his birthday!  I couldn't believe that about a month ago I had purchased this Stampabilities House Mouse Card featuring Bumble and Hop-it in a stamp called "Bunny Lift".  It is perfect for the occasion!  I can't wait to give it to him.

Wobble Card !

My good friend Lisha gave me some Wobbles to try. Wobbles are little plastic springs that have adhesive to attach to your card and to an embellishment. When they are in place the embellishment wobbles sideways.

Here is my first wobbles card which is a Housemouse colored with Copic markers and Memento inks. I love this stamp as it is perfect for so many celebrations. I purchased it to make a theme card for "Celebrate Freedom!" Our camp theme this year, but I have already made that card and a Father's Day card and a graduation card. It is very versatile.