A Silly Goose Told Me

 I have eight birthday cards to make and send out as soon as possible so I decided I may as well jump in and begin.

I really like the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week and it's a wonderful springboard for making a few cards.

And I am thrilled that another favorite challenge site of mine - Addicted to Stamps and More! has a challenge of "Any Occasion" for this go around.  

So happy to be able to create some cards today.  Hope you are able to get inky, too!  Thanks for stopping by.

Badges for the Paper Players and Sketch Saturday

 So exciting!  

I found out today that I was a Cut Above with The Paper Players challenge this week!  Woohoo! 

I was a Cut Above with this card and challenge - I'm doing a serious happy dance over here!!

I also found out that I have made it to a Sketch Saturday Top 3 and got a badge for that!

Wow - oh, wow!  Happy dance times two now!!!  I'm so incredibly happy that this card and challenge was selected as a Top 3.  Such an honor.

What a great week of challenges / sketches / inspiration.  Here's to another wonderful week to come.

Hope you take the time to get inky today.

Life Is Better With You

 Sometimes simple is better.  When it comes to our wonderful doggie, he seems to agree.  He simply wants to eat, get cuddles, play, and sleep.

I really liked the theme of "Four Legged Friends" in the Paper Players challenge this week.  I think that life is so much better when we have four legged friends around.  How about you?

Well, I had these two little characters who are walking across the card laying around on my crafting desk since I had gotten some new alcohol markers a couple of weeks ago.  I was playing around with coloring and then had nowhere to put this little boy with his cute doggie until today.  I'm so glad I could use them in a fun way and enter a wonderful challenge at the same time!

Thanks for stopping by and keeping me company for a few minutes.  And I hope you have a chance to get inky today.

You've Got a Friend In Me

 Today's card is such a charmer - and I love it for all the things you cannot see as well as the things you can see.

The first step with this card was using a giant post-it note and cutting a large circle in it.  Using the cut-out circle, I adhered it to the cardstock and used blending brushes for soft water and sunny sky colors.  The sweet "floatie" was paper pieced.  So adorable. And I used alcohol markers for all the fun coloring.  

Two challenges are being entered today - the Inkspirational word prompt of Clothing/Closet because of the adorable hat on this Silly Goose.

And also Sketch Saturday with the gorgeous sketch they put up this week.  Love, love, love this sketch.  

Somehow, I managed to make a mess out of the sentiment, and then had to cover it up and redo it - so glad I did, though, because then I thought, "Hey, I can enter this into the Sketch Saturday challenge!"  Before that inky mistake, I had thought the card would be taking a different direction design-wise.

And then I also managed to drag my finger through the black ink and make a smudge - so that meant the other circle went onto the card - but that was perfect to go with the sketch also - so - you can see why I am loving this card for what is not visible as well as what is easy to see.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope you get inky!

Labor Day Goosebumps with Freshly Made Sketches

 Happy Labor Day weekend here in the United States.  

When I did a Google search so I could define Labor Day, I found:  "Observed the first Monday in September, Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being."

When I was growing up, my dad used Labor Day as a day to get us children to do more work around the house and yard.  He would say something to the effect of, "After all, it's Labor Day - so you may as well do some labor around here."

I'm sure he was being silly because he always strongly encouraged us to help around the house.  However, it's one of the things that always comes to mind first for me when Labor Day comes around.

Today's card is such a fun treat created with a new favorite stamp set, Silly Goose.  I received this stamp set in the mail on Friday and could hardly wait to put it to use.  When I discovered the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with both the sketch and the stamp set.

I love it when that happens - and I think the card turned out perfectly!  I felt like the lighter color was sand and the blue was water behind the geese.  I'm so excited to get this card out to my friend who is doing an incredible mom job with her two sons.  She deserves a fist bump (or a goose bump), for sure!

I'm really pumped that you stopped by today.  Hopefully, you will be able to labor on making a card or two or at least some fun project to get your fingers inky!