July 20th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope it's been a good week for you.

I've had a rough week with inflammation again, so my doctor suggested that I try to flip my sleep-wake schedule, as he thinks the heat is exacerbating things. I've done it before with good results, but for some reason I am having a problem easing into it this time. Bottom line is, I don't know if I'm coming or going, lol. But I shall trudge on!

😕😁

I had every intention of participating in SPA this week, but I think I'll need to take a bit more time off from that. I've been working on several cards to make for birthdays, as well as finishing my July door-themed Christmas cards. I literally almost forgot to post today, my regular day. With my health right now, that's enough on my plate.

Since I still have a few more cards that I haven't shared, here are a couple:

A birthday card for the nephew out in West Texas.

He's an outdoorsman, so I try to work off that.

I struggled this year, but this is what I came up with.

I'll show you the sketch I used first, because the idea for the card began with it.

I wanted to do the line divisions with colors and for some reason I thought of sunrays in a rotating array of colors that were in those blocks on the sketch. I grabbed my 7x7 Sheena Douglass Burst stencil because the blank "sun" area on it was off center just like element 3 on the sketch.

That's when I thought of the Paper Roses windmill die and using black card scraps for it and everything else, like in silhouette. The grass is a Sweet n Sassy die and the birds stamp is a Creative Stamping Magazine Issue 123 freebie. I stamped it and the Creative Vision sentiment with Nocturne VF Clair ink. Black SU card base.

I hope you can see at least a little of the sketch in my card. I like the different interpretation and that it's a masculine look too. Win-win as far as I'm concerned.

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And here's another birthday card with that same Creative Visions sentiment stamp, this time using Versamark and heat-embossing it with lemon yellow ep. It cut with a stitched round die enhanced with a gold gel pen run over the stitches. The card stock base is a brown SU and the two paper mat layers were cut with 2 nested Stamplorations stitched rectangle dies, also enhanced with the gel pen. That top mat was in my bits and bobs box. I'd previously stamped it with a Cornish Heritage Farms tree background stamp and I thought to use it here. I did add a lot of green using Distress Ink and a few Promarkers before adhering. The balloon was cut using paper scraps and a Catherine Pooler die set.

And the sketch used.

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And I'll leave you with a photo of Honey with his one sunflower that sprouted.

This was taken the first part of the week when it wasn't raining.

Honey is 6 feet tall, so it was a big one!

Thanks for the visit and have a good week-stay cool and dry!

XOX