It's Been Awhile!

 

 How is everyone? Haven't posted in awhile because hubby and I finally got to the beach - Cape May, NJ for about a week😁 We stayed at our usual place and this was our view from the third floor. The weather was gorgeous- sunny and warm throughout our stay. We enjoyed daily walks on the beach and I'd sit and relax while hubby would go for a run. We also spent time poolside but only my feet dangled a few minutes in both the pool and ocean water because both were very cold yet!

 Hubby and I took time to drive across town to Cape May Point to see the lighthouse and walk through the lovely state park there:

 

 There were many "birders" along with families enjoying the beautiful grounds. I was happy to see an abundance of white swans in the lakes.

 Back on the beach near our motel we saw two birders with their expensive cameras quite fascinated by something near the water's edge so we went over to have a look ourselves once they moved on and this is what we saw:

We had never seen anything like it! There were two of them- both had their legs tagged, and we found out they are American Oystercatchers. Very cool!

 And for the peeps at T Stands For Tuesday I'll share the dinner we had our first evening in Cape May. We went to a favorite place - Hemingway's:

   We split a Caesar salad (truly one of THE best!) which came with fresh warm bread. Our drink choices were both water and J Lohr cabernet sauvignon. And we both also chose the same entrees:

 

 Perfectly prepared crab cakes (no fillers) with a red pepper sauce, green beans and risotto. Delicious.

Cheers to the T gang-I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone again!

 In my last post I shared pics of the growing nest of eggs in my geranium hanging plant. Before we left for vacation:

 I was half afraid to look when we got back, but there was nothing to worry about:

 Five baby finches! I don't know whatever happened to the sixth (cowbird egg). And then just the other day this was the last pic I got as they all had flown from the nest just hours later:

 What a joy to see.

Now for the art part! This is the card I made for my Mom for Mother's day and I will share it with the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (use dies and/or punches);

 White notecard, envie and cardstock (Recollections); Versafine Onyx Black ink; assorted alcohol markers; sentiment (Papertrey Ink); Mandy's Flowers stamp and die sets, enamel heart stickers (Simon Says Stamp shop); Stickles glitter glue (Ranger).

 While away I took a break from social media, my phone, and even art making but I did manage a few journal pages before I went and since I've returned. I will share these pages with Art Journal Journey (language), and Paint Party Friday:

 Aah, the language of flowers... Pages done in the Dina Wakley kraft journal. I used her paints, stencils, Gloss sprays, Collage Collective, chipboard flower, and stamps. Doodling and spatters done with Posca pens. Asemic writing done with a black Fude Ball pen.

And one more spread in the same journal:

 The language of friendship 😂

 Dina Wakley paints, collage words tissue paper; Tim Holtz Paper Dolls, Snarky Small Talk stickers, Chit Chat stickers; Fude Ball pen; Stabilo All pencil, white Posca pen.

Thanks for popping in. Happy to be visiting you all again!

"Stay Alert, and doors will open. You can never know when and where a magic door will open for you,
so pay attention, stay watchful, and never give up hope."    Jonathan Lockwood Huie

T Stands For Lehigh Valley TRASH Pact

 

 

 I'm going to begin today's post with a few photos from the other Saturday when we not only cleaned up trash from a local park but we helped our daughter in love Kyra celebrate the first year since the inception of Lehigh Valley Trash Pact, a volunteer organization formed and created by Kyra. I have a bit about it along with links here in this post.

 These photos are courtesy of our friend Lynn. Her photography business website: Lynn Ashley Photo LLC 

                                       Bill and I doing our part

                              Kyra's sister Paige with her dog Doug helping out

                                Kyra made sure there were plenty of gloves, trash bags and more available to anyone that came to help:

 I took this shot of Kyra with Todd on the left and her grandmother on the right. Kyra provided snacks as well as water and coffee (on the right side of the table - my ticket for T Stands For Tuesday 😁!) Our friend Lynn designed the logo for the organization and  merchandise being sold. Oh, and besides everything else, Kyra supplied every volunteer with a printed T shirt! She truly has her heart and soul in this 💚 There were a large number of volunteers of all ages that came to support the organization and park clean up. It was a great time had by all! One more photo (courtesy of Todd):

 And now on to the art!

First up is a junk journal page for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (theme is "Feminine"):

 The postage stamps are recycled from an envelope. Botanical collage tissue and sentiment sticker are Tim Holtz. The bee is from a napkin.

 For Art Journal Journey (theme this month is "Language" with guest host Elle) and for Try It On Tuesday (theme is "Inspired By a Song"):

aaah, the language of love!  The song 'Love Hurts' by Nazareth was the inspiration for my page. You can have a listen here:

 For the page I used a Dina Wakley Faces Collage Paper, Scribble Sticks, and her  Block Alphas stamp set. I added some extra scribbles with a black Fude Ball pen, and for the dimensional teardrop I used Paper Glaze.

 This page was done on one of the dark denim pages in the Dina Wakley Blue Edition Media Journal:

Dina Wakley stencils, stamps, and Collage paper - Words. Joining Paint Party Friday!

Have a wonderful week- and a beautiful and happy Mother's Day Sunday here in the US 💐

•  “By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.”                  Edwin Elliot

Delight in Nature and Color

 

 Hi peeps! How have things been in your parts? Our weather continues to fluctuate- cold and windy, then a warmer day, then cold again...but this week we will finally have truly warm (up to 80 F-YES!) days to look forward to. And my hummingbird feeders are going out 😀

 We also have a finch nest that made its home in one of my hanging baskets not a week after I brought baskets home for hanging! That was fast work. I only caught it when I brought it down to water it:

Each day thereafter a new egg was deposited:

  As of today- 6 eggs! Notice that larger brown speckled one? Well, that is a Cowbird egg. I just learned that a female cowbird never makes her own nest but will look for another bird's nest (most often a finch's nest) to deposit one egg in. The finch will incubate that egg along with hers. From there we can only hope the larger cowbird baby doesn't kill the finch hatchlings. I was very tempted to remove the cowbird egg but then decided to just let nature take its course.

 For T Stands For Tuesday I will share with you the dinner I made on Saturday:

 Salmon Bruschetta on the grill with a side of stewed green beans and garlic and olive oil couscous. We chose a Bordeaux wine  to accompany it. Absolutely delicious all together. Hubby even deemed it restaurant worthy😉!  Cheers!

 The theme at Tag Tuesday is "Anything Goes" so here is the tag I made for it:

 and a close up of the flower to which I added glitter glue:

  I had received the beautiful painted tag from Valerie  and that pretty flower (which I LOVE) from Erika. I tinted the Tim Holtz Paper Doll with some of the new Distress Kitsch Flamingo ink. I also used a Tim Holtz Chit Chat Word Sticker. The silver star is a sticker. I scribbled lines around the edges of the tag with a Pitt Pen.

 In this post I shared the package of Iridescent Gelatos and painted papers I was gifted. I wanted to have a play with them so I made this "rainbow" page with Try It On Tuesday in mind - unless I'm too late. It started like this:

 The page was gessoed first. I then scribbled blocks of colors using a bunch of colors then activated them by going over them with a wet sea sponge being careful to rinse and squeeze excess water from the sponge after going over some areas so as not to create mud. While the page was still damp I used Dina Wakley's Mantras stencil and a baby wipe to remove color through the stencil. The finished page:

 I love this quote I found. The leaf is from the Curly Fronds Dina Wakley stencil. I painted through it then fussy cut it to glue on the page. It's really a shame the shimmer of these iridescent gelatos doesn't show in the photos. I will also link to Art Journal Journey one last time this month for the theme of "Inspired By" ( I was inspired to use the gelatos) which was to be hosted by Eileen who sadly is no longer with us. Erika and Chris graciously kept her theme and stepped in as co-hosts.

 One final journal page meant for Paint Party Friday and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with the theme "Add A Quote":

 I started with a mop up page from a stencil (Paper Artsy) used with Dina Wakley Gloss sprays. The leaves were outlined with a black Posca pen. I then painted a white circle, added the Dina Wakley Collage Collective image, then stamped the Circle Collage stamp (Stampers Anonymous) over it using Jet Black Archival ink. I scribbled more circles around it with a fine tipped black Posca Pen and added a bit of Dina Wakley Fuschia Scribble Stick to blend out the sides of the image and add a bit of color to the circle. I finished the page with a quote stamp from Inky Antics Muse News clear stamp set by cutting it apart after stamping it and outlining each line with  the black Posca pen.

  And that's this week's post. My next post will be in May! See you soon. Be well everyone.

 "There is no right path. Only the one that allows you to sleep soundly and wake up excited."     Jennifer Louden

This and That and Earth Day

 

 How is everyone?  We had a pretty nice weekend although the nights and early mornings are still quite chilly. It'll be about two weeks until I can plant the more tender annuals even though I want to NOW 😛

 I did spend time making  cards as I need to resupply birthday and anniversary cards. And here is the full pic of the above card. I will join the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Bright, Cheerful Colors) and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (Clean and Simple):

 I have been decorating my envelopes quite simply using the (too?) many washi tapes I have. These are Recollections. For the card I used: Mandy's Flowers stamp and die set, Stitched banners dies, Doodlebug Tiny Hearts Shapes Sprinkles, Bo Bunny Early Bird papers, Stickles glitter glue, Versafine Onyx Black ink- all from the Simon Says Stamp Shop. Other- alcohol markers, white, light blue card stock, white card and envelope set- Recollections.

For T Stands For Tuesday :

 Love this recipe from Ina Garten for chicken parmesan with salad greens and a lemon vinaigrette. The lemon flavors are so fresh tasting and go so well with the chicken. Cheers! And please do stop by to wish our host Elizabeth a very happy b"Earth"day which she will be celebrating on Thursday. Happy birthday to you !!🎂🎉🥳🎜🎝🎜🥰

Two journal pages:

 The background was a mop up of Dina Wakley Marine paint that was leftover from another project, and the same goes for the stencil that had leftover Fuschia Gloss Spray on it. The inky flowers was  something I did on a scrap piece of copy paper for practice using India ink and Amsterdam Reflex Rose paint. I recently found it in my scrap paper pile and decided it wasn't so bad so I tore it out and glued it to the page. The quote is from  Dina Wakley Collage tissue.

And for Art Journal Journey with the theme of "Inspired by"- chosen by Eileen who sadly is no longer with us. The inspiration for this page comes from the beautiful handmade paper Elizabeth had sent me, along with the floral postage Erika sent me:

 I'm also happy to Join Paint Party Friday with my journal pages!

 And, in honor of Earth Day I want to share the local organization our darling daughter-in-love Kyra has founded. We couldn't be more proud of her for all the volunteer time and hard work she whole heartedly puts into this cause which means so much to her! 

Here are two links about Lehigh Valley Trash Pact: 

 https://sauconsource.com/2020/05/17/new-lehighvalleytrashpact-project-dedicated-to-cleaning-up-local-parks/

https://www.cleanyx.com/XX/Unknown/103565241348295/Lehighvalleytrashpact

And a photo and note Kyra had posted on Instagram:

 

 Please, let's every one of us do our part to keep our parks AND planet clean! We will be celebrating the Lehigh Valley Trash Pact one year birthday celebration and park clean up with Kyra at Sand Island Park this coming Saturday- April 24th from 11 AM - 5PM. Everyone is welcome!!

    " Love the Earth as you would love yourself".        John Denver

Up For The Challenges

 

 Hi everyone! This post is truly all about the art and I've created projects for a bunch of challenges this week so off we go...

 First up I will share this card with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-happy 12th birthday to you!!!

 I made this card using the Mandy's Flowers stamp and die set, Neenah Solar White 110# card stock, Bo Bunny "Early Bird" 6" x 6" paper set, and Moonshine Sequins-all from the Simon Says Stamp Shop. The image was colored in with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado. Images stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

 This tag is for two challenges- Tag Tuesday (Bees), and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Not a Card):

 I started with a K and Co. printed tag. I then added the bees from a napkin, stenciled through sequin waste using Tim Holtz Distress Oxide in Fossilized Amber, added a Tim Holtz Paper doll and Clippings Sticker to finish it.

 My next tag is for T Stands For Tuesday:

  I happened upon an old patterned paper that had this waiter image on it and just had to use it so I fussy cut him to put on a tag with one of Tim Holtz Wallpaper papers. The washi tape is Recollections, and the sentiment was computer generated. I love how it looks as though the flowers are coming out of the cup (no, I did not plan that 😁)

 Last week I received a package that was part of a giveaway from an artist I follow on Instagram. She was giving away two different sets of Gelatos and a set of Dina Wakley Scribble sticks. I had the Scribble sticks so I put my name in for the Gelatos - and this is what she sent me:

 All these lovely papers and a full pkg. of  Iridescent gelatos!! I am in love with that painted paper on the top 💓!  She offered the slightly used gelatos because she said she just wasn't using them enough to warrant keeping them. They were barely used! I thought it was a really great gesture and so if I find myself not using them much after playing around with them I too will pass them on to someone in the US. I swiped and labeled each color across a large gessoed tag. The sheen and colors are gorgeous- I hope this video will work because a photo alone did them no justice:

And for Art Journal Journey (Inspired by) and Paint Party Friday I have this journal page:

 I am so inspired by Dina Wakley - her loose art style and her products! DW Ocean paint was watered down a bit and sponged on the page. I then glued down scraps of her Collage Tissue before stenciling with Lapis paint. Asemic writing was done using a black Fude Ball Pen. A scrap of paper was finger painted with DW Fuschia, Cheddar, and Lemon paint for some color contrast. My new DW Block Alphas stamp set was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink and fussy cut to form the words, and I used a new Tim Holtz Paper Doll.

 Looking forward to seeing what you all have been up to! Thanks for stopping by 🤗

" Love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort and keep learning."   Carol Dweck