Runs with Scissors

Looks like we have used up all the Saturdays in June! Why can’t we borrow some January and February Saturdays and make June a month of at least twelve Saturdays. Why hasn’t anyone worked on that? If someone knows a committee working on similar issues, I would love to participate. I have more good ideas, such as finding a way to enjoy retirement when you are young and use your senior years for working. How about a two day work week with five day weekends. And why do we have to bake cookies at Christmas? And why do I have to get weighed every time I see the doctor? And why are there calories in food? Who discovered them? Years ago nobody knew about calories and we did just fine. Are calories on the Periodic Table of Elements? And what is their symbol? I could suggest a few ideas for their symbol but someone else will probably be in charge of that. I’m sure some of you have even better ideas and we could form our own committee.

But I digress.

Today I am playing with some of my favorite stamps and dies from previous releases, Celebrate and Bliss as well as from the new Poetic release. Why limit your stamping pleasure I say- especially on a beautiful June Saturday.

Why not pink owls? The circular background is a blending of two shades of blue Memento Luxe ink and the pink Mama and Me Owls are colored with pink Memento Luxe ink. I love all the feathery details. This owly pair looks like they belong on a page in a children’s story book.

This card began with only the Fragrant Flowers used as a background stamp and the two butterflies.  I was happy with it, but didn’t care for the flat one layer look.  I had just finished coloring two of the Fairy Flutter images with plans to use them both on one card.  Instead, I tried centering the sweet fairy in the midst of the purple flowers and there she stayed.  She looks delighted to be among the flowers and butterflies.

And here is where the second Fairy Flutter sweetie landed. The Pop Up Floral Corner reminds me of water splashing and goes well with the Poetic leaf. Looks like the little fairy is floating in a pond, enjoying her dreams, dreams, dreams. I colored the leaf by applying Distress ink directly from the pad onto the stamp.

 

How I Spent my Summer Vacation

 Well, a weekend trip to Atlanta probably doesn’t qualify as a summer vacation, but since it was all about reuniting with family and doing fun stuff, I am filing this visit among other vacation memories.

When my Atlanta son travels to visit us, he makes the trip in three and one half hours. Mr. RWS and I are talented in that we make the trip last a minimum of four hours and often five hours. One trip that would best be forgotten, took us six hours and involved some serious lack of navigational skills along with some too-late-to-be-of-any-use map reading.

This trip was a record breaker, with a five hour trip to and five and a half hours from, partly caused by a 23 mile detour and partly the fault of our failure to use the app my son downloaded for us called WAZE which would have steered us clear of the detour.

No need to tell us about that amazing invention, GPS. We have it as a feature in our car which I have not learned how to operate. I plug in our elderly Gamin portable GPS and then calculate for changes that don’t show up in our old software. I have the Atlas open in my lap just for good measure, too. Sadly, because of my previous navigation mistakes, Mr. RWS does not always immediately comply with my directions to “turn here” or “take this exit”. It is very frustrating to watch the necessary exit fly by while Mr. RWS is asking me “Are you sure?” It’s a good thing Cooper can’t repeat some of the conversations he hears in the car.

In our defense, one of the reasons for the slow travels this trip was Cooper. He does not travel easily! He is frightened and trembles most of the way. We stopped frequently to let him stretch his legs and get his bearings. We also are the rare car doing the speed limit on the highways and Interstate. We take a meandering route, through small towns and some beautiful countryside. Our method would drive our techy family crazy, but we try not to tell them all the details. As they install one more app and provide more complicated information, we just nod and smile and then make our own plans as soon as we leave their driveway.

Enough of the excuses!

This trip’s reward was grandkids running to greet us with their great big hugs. Those were the little ones, Evelyn and Jack who had traveled by plane from Milwaukee.

The other grandkid hugs involved looking up to 15 year old Andrew who is adding inches to his height as we watch and our beautiful 16 year old granddaughter Lauren who qualifies as a young lady, complete with driver’s license and car.

We watched Ev and Jack enjoy the swimming pool at the community where son John and family live.

We attended two baseball games to watch Andrew participate in a tournament.

But the highlight, and the reason for the trip, was Evelyn’s fourth birthday. What a joy and privilege to mark this occasion with her and other family members. She patiently waited all day for the adults to get their obligations out of the way, for Auntie Kathy to arrive from Minneapolis, and for nap time to be over so we could have party time.

The two days flew by and before we knew it, we were back in the car heading home with an exhausted Cooper in the back seat. Cooper is never anxious when we head home. He knows the trip will have a happy ending.

For an all occasion image with a huge impact, the Dragonfly Frame die is the way to go. I created that blue green background by blending Distress Oxide inks. I die cut the sentiment from the scrap of inked background paper. Easy peasy and just right for male or female birthday card.

And here she is: Isabelle. I have now watercolored all four of the lovely faces in the Poetic release.   For this project, I knew I wanted to use the Pop Out Rose die. I didn’t use it much when it was first released and wanted to experiment with it’s pop out feature. I used my Koi watercolors to cover a sheet of water color paper with the various blues, purples and violet colors. After I dried that sheet, I cut the flowers and had fun popping them open a bit. They are very flexible and kind of twistable when cut. I water colored some paper with shades of green from which I cut the leaves. I colored Isabelle’s hair using my Inktense pencils. I added some light lines and shading to her hair with my Faber Castelle colored pencils. The faces are fun to bring to life with your choice of hair color and face makeup. The large background behind Isabelle’s head is a sheet of very old designer paper which seemed just right. With her big purple flowers, there is no doubt that Isabelle can do bold very well!

I had planned on taking a photo of Cooper at the Doggy Daycare place he stayed while we were in Atlanta. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity. From the looks of the website and the conversations I had with the people there, I envisioned walking Cooper into the place on his leash, letting him check out his surroundings a bit before leaving him happily enjoying playing with the other dogs.

The reality was we left a carsick dog within five minutes of ending our trip and our last sight was of him trying to get over the gate that held him there as he watched us leave.

I think had we handled the leaving better, the experience for Cooper would have been better. We realized even more how much we miss Vicki and Dave who used to keep him for us when we traveled. And we realized how important it is to find another situation like that for him.

Ooops, as usual, I have chatted way too long and monopolized the conversation by talking about grandkids and the family dog. Thank you for indulging this grandmother. My heart and head are full of wonderful memories of being with the people I miss so much every day. Son John and his wife Sue are amazing host and hostess, providing awesome accommodations in their lovely home. The food is beyond delicious and Sue makes it look almost effortless to feed so many people so many times. John has a high tech grill of some sort that uses wood chips and he can control from his Smart Phone. I love the people my children have become and the grandkids they blessed us with.

See you later at the Penny Circle Flickr Gallery. Oh, and has anyone seen my scissors?

Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies

Card No. 1: 30-283 Snippets, 51-346 Mommy and Me Owls

Card No. 2: 30-408 Fairy Flutters, 30-420 Fragrant Flowers

Card No. 3: 30-358 Happy Snippets, 30-408 Fairy Flutters, 40-544 Poetic

Card No. 4: 51-301 Dragonfly Frame, 51-028 Celebration

Card No. 5: 30-433 Be, 40-549 Isabelle, 51-304 Pop Out Rose