No Time to Craft...Just Flowers

Happy weekend! Just a post today of some flowers I bought from Pahl's Market the other day. If you love places like this and did not see my post of the tour, scroll down to Wednesday's post and enjoy! Here are a few photos of my flowers. I bought mostly pinks and purples with a splash of yellow and white.


I found this fabulous double Petunia! Love it!


And two of these beautiful hanging baskets filled with Verbena.


This one's called Torenia. A sweet little, pink and white flower with what looks like a small, painted yellow dash of color. So fun!


I had to have this beauty. A pretty, white, double begonia.


I love New Guinea Impatiens! Their shiny, deep, richly colored leaves are fabulous and this two toned, gorgeous color was calling out to me!


This is called Fiber Optic Grass! I don't know yet where I'll plant this, but I thought it was so cool looking!


This little cutie is Creeping Zinnea and the color is called Sunbini! Fun!

I have one more picture for you today. Every year when my Peonies bloom, I cut a bunch of them and bring them into work for all the ladies to take home and enjoy. This year I put them in a big bowl to help in the ease of driving them 25 minutes to work. Aren't they lovely? And the smell? Heavenly!


Thanks so much for visiting! Have a wonderful, safe, fun-filled, Memorial Day weekend! Today and tomorrow will be busy for me, so I'll see you back here on Monday or Tuesday with a card to share! :)

Kath Inspires Me!

Hi there!

Okay, so as you can imagine, I am getting very excited for my 9-day vacation. Tomorrow is my last day of work, then it's here!! As I've said before, I am not going anywhere. Just relaxing at home with my family.

I made a card, late last night, after quite some time sitting and staring at my craft desk! I finally decided to look into my faves that I keep on the Flickr web sight. I picked one from Kath and came up with a similar card to hers. Kath is an amazing artist, with a really fun blog! (I giggle each time I visit!) Her cards are all perfectly done, and beautiful! You really should check it out! And a thank you to Lin! You may not know this, Lin but you are the reason I found Kath's blog in the first place, so thank you! And a big thank you to Kath who continuously inspires me! Here's my card.



All stamps are Hero Arts except the script behind the flower. That is from Inkadinkado. I used the Box Plaid, Silhouette Spray, Watercolor Petals and Happy Birthday sentiment. I used four different Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint. I also added a Hero Arts gem to the flower.

I know I said I would have photos today of the flowers I bought at Pahl's Market, (see the post below this one, for a tour) but I have not had enough time. I promise I will have them soon. The only excuse I have is that the weather has been absolutely gorgeous the past couple of days and I've been spending time outside after work, more and more! Today is another beauty! The sky seems even more blue than usual! So tough to go to work on these summer-like days! I will definitely be taking my break outside today! Hope the weather is nice where you are too! :)

Inspired by Joy and my trip to Pahl's Market!

Happy Wednesday! (This is a long post, but mostly pictures and worth a look!)

I'm starting off today with a card I made for a friend. She needs a bit of cheering up right now. I loved Joy's card here and the technique she used! If you've never visited Joys blog, make sure you do! It's full of wonderful inspiration and beautiful cards! You can find it here. I thought it would be fun to try this technique with the Dogwood Stamp from Hero Arts.



The background panel is where I used this fun technique. You stamp the ink directly onto your craft sheet, spritz it with water, then press your stamp down into the ink and stamp it onto the cardstock. Do this over and over until you get the results you want. So fun, and a neat effect. I also stamped the Dogwood onto yellow cardstock and embossed in white, then colored the flowers a bit with Copics, cut them out and pop dotted them for some dimension. I added the black pearls to the centers for some contrast.

Now for a little tour! I buy all my flowers every year at a wonderful place called Pahl's Market, located in Apple Valley, Minnesota. It's an absolutely fabulous market, chalked full of color, fun and inspiration! Each time I stop here, I make sure I have plenty of time to look, smell and just take it all in! I asked for permission to take some pictures of this favorite spot of mine! Here is the entrance.





This place is HUGE! Most of the following pictures are self explanatory so I just posted one after the other. I did want to describe a few though. Enjoy!












Not only do they have flowers and plants, they also have tons and tons of fun, colorful pots and gorgeous pottery in all colors, shapes and sizes. Here are just a few.











There are also plenty of cute and artistic items for your yard and garden. Love these butterflies and dragonflies!



And is this cool or what!? Made of metal.









I giggled when I saw these!



One of my favorite things to do while browsing at Pahl's is to have a bag of this!



It's always freshly popped and free! I love to walk around, looking at all the colorful inspiration while eating a bag of popcorn! (In the winter, they also provide hot apple cider!)

So that's my little tour of Pahl's Market. Hope you enjoyed it! Tomorrow I will post the actual flowers I bought for my garden and pots. Have a great day! :)

Card for Agata

Hi there!
This month, for Deborah's Card Chain Challenge, I made a card for Agata, in Switzerland. She finally received it this past weekend, so I thought I'd share it today. I decided to use Deborah's sketch, and chose the Dogwood and La Letter stamps, along with the Cling Dots. I embossed the dots in white and spritzed the La Letter and Dogwood with water after inking, and before stamping. I love that effect. I also used an EK Success, edge punch around the La Letter image. Here is the card.




And another view to see the bit of dimension.



I will soon be sharing more photos of some of the flowers I bought for my garden and pots, so stay tuned for that in the coming days! I was planning on getting them all planted yesterday, but it ended up being 95 degrees and VERY humid. Mowing the lawn was enough! Not complaining, though.....much better than shoveling!

Thanks for stopping by and all the lovely comments! Have a good Tuesday! :)

Discovering Origami Paper

Happy Monday!

I went to Micheal's on Saturday and while browsing around, I happened to see this gorgeous little pack of Origami Paper. I fell in love right away and knew I had to bring them home! Now, I realize that this is old stuff for some of you, and I've seen projects with these papers too, but have never actually seen them close up, or had the chance to feel the texture. They are so soft and beautiful! Here's the pack:



And another photo of some of these gorgeous papers:



I had a difficult time making this card! I had the idea of the design I wanted, but had such a hard time cutting into the paper! I also do not have any swirly leaf stamps, so I had to hand draw the stem. (Not done very well.) I added the leaves and small flowers from the Hero Arts Real Flowers Clear Set and couldn't resist adding some Diamond Stickles to the leaves. The sentiment is also Hero Arts.



I work tonight, then 4 more days of working until my time off! Not going anywhere, just staying home. My favorite kind of vacation! I hope everyone has a good start to the week!

Give someone an unexpected compliment today and see the smile it puts on their face! :)

Father's Day Card

Hello! Yesterday I said I was going to post some photos of the flowers I went and bought, but I haven't had time to upload them yet. I also wanted to make some cards because I work most of the day today. I'm hoping to post some pictures of my day at Pahl's Market. It's a fantastic place where I buy my plants for my gardens! So stay tuned, it will happen eventually!

I finally made a Father's Day card for my hubby. I used Hero Arts Cling Dots with Peeled Paint and a spritz of water before stamping. The Silhouette Grass was stamped with Bundled Sage. For the distressed background, I used Tumbled Glass and Broken China. The Silhouette Spray is embossed in white. I added a Martha Stewart, punched butterfly and some Hero Arts pearls. I'm hoping he doesn't think it's too feminine. Sorry this photo isn't the best.



I have another card I made that I'll post tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday! :)