i’d like to thank the academy….

 and my wonderful, inspirational friends in Blogland and SCS… Jan Hunnicutt ala http://jans-gonestampin.blogspot.com/, was kind enough to nominate me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!  Little Ol’ Me!  To quote Sally Field… “You like me! You really like me!”  haha!!

Well, this is a surprise and very nice! As is the custom, I’m to list at least 5 other Rockin’ Girl Bloggers and I’d like to shout back out to Jan- it’s nice to have someone to visit me and me visit them regularly via blogging.  I’d like to also shout out to Maria, CreativeMoonBeam- www.creativemoonbeam.blogspot.com… now- she hasn’t posted since June 30th- but she got me into this! Darnit- she’s gonna HAVE to post to earn the title!!!  And then, even tho she already knows she’s rockin’, http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/index.html is my hero.  Another Rockin’ Girl i stop by and visit: Peggy ala http://smallpigpig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com.   Last, but not least, Jen at http://iheart2stamp.com. All of these ladies are fun to read, have such great talent and interesting personalities.  There are a lot more blogs out there that i enjoy too, but seriously- who can list them all?  If you don’t believe me,  check out my Stampin’ Blogroll.. they’re all there!

Now… I’ve been gone for a few days, and have had exactly 5 full days off with my husband.  We managed to not kill each other!  If you’ve been reading my previous posts (instead of just LOOKING at the pictures!), you will know i recently had a birthday.  It’s offically my 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday!  So we went to Sea Ranch, which is on the Sonoma County/Mendocino County border of Northern CA… near a cute little town called GUALALA.  Gwah-la-la.  I have included 2 pics i like as well as one of the thank you card for the folks whose house we stayed in.   

   My thank you card- I had fun doing this!  I used glossy white cardstock.  I masked the bottom with torn paper to create the hills.  Using Blue Bayou, Cool Carribean, Bordering Blue, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Cameo Coral, I sponged and blended the colors to create the ocean, horizon, sky and setting sun.  I removed the masked hills and sponged on Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel and Sahara Sand for the ground.  Then it was time for TREES. I stamped the trees from the center up with stamping off technique, leading up to a darker image as I moved out to the sides.  The last few trees were stamped with Bro Stazon. 

I cut a 2.75″x3.75″ window in the card base (textured blue bayou), mounted the ”photo” inside and covered it with more cardstock behind the glossy (inside the card).  Used regular twine, Hodgepodge Hardware and the sentiment is from Vogue Vases.  Oh, the tree set is Lovely as a aTree.  So… how did i do in re-creating the real life landscape- as in the pic below?  I love this card… i hope Dave & Jeanne do too.  They have a great house!

    Real life Northern CA coast

   Real life husband, Keith

And today-  i got to play again!  This is for Tuesday’s Splitcoast Color Combo Challenge (CC124) Olive Pink!  Had to use Old Olive, Regal Rose and Pretty In Pink.  This is my card with Pick a Petal and Friendship Flowers.

  I used Dazzling Diamonds in the center, after first stamping the center with Regal Rose.  Then outlined the petals by hand with OO marker. Stamped the sentiment in Close to Cocoa.  Used OO Textured cardstock, PIP, RR and Very Vanilla cardstock… and tied a pink gingham bow on it!

I think that’s enough sharing today. (ya jeez, gabby)(hey- respect your elders!) – so i’m signing off.  Thanks again for nominating me Jan (if you continued to read this far! LOL!).  Thanks for stopping by!