My first 'C' card for this year

Making a start on my Christmas cards, this cute snowman digi is coloured with Sakura glaze pens, and watercolours. He is layered on to spotty paper, then striped and then plain green. The stripes and spots are printed on my computer. I am entering the following challenges:-

Southerngirls challenge - anything goes
Totally Papercrafts - lets go dotty
Stamp Challenges - spots and stripes
Friday Sketchers - sketch
Crafty Sentiments 'digi'  (The snowman is one of their digi's) Thanks

Brown Purple and Cream Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This time I did follow the theme, Penny Black Saturday Challenge this week is Brown, Purple and Cream, Not colours I would of experimented with but hey, it works well I think. Another Christmas card done and dusted, way ahead of last year, hope I don't go down the slippery road and end up like last year!



Linen Cream cardHero Arts Flourish Pine DotsPenny Black Star DanceTH Dusty ConcordOpaque

Anything Goes INT

Afternoon folks. glorious September day here today, 20degrees the forecasters say, well I hope they're right. Have made this envelope holiday journal photo keepsake for my friends daughters 12th birthday. Way ahead of myself for a change woo hoo! She is going on holiday in October for her holidays so I thought this would be a lovely keepsake for her!
Am entering this in the New challenge blog

Autumn Leaves

This is something that I haven't done for a while - using peel-offs!!!
However it fitted in with the following challenges

Crafty Cardmakers - clean and simple
The Secret Crafter - clean and simple

A sweet little girl

This is the lovely image I chose as my prize in a challenge recently. I have layered her on 3 different papers and glittered her wings, as well as the butterfly wings. I also added some sparkly gems across the middle. I am entering in the following challenges
Crafty Cardmakers - glitter and sparkle
Incey Wincey designs - Celebrations
FabnFunky - whateva

A Touch of the Blues!!

Hi folks, made this card a couple of days ago and as usual never fits the challenges on the go at the time. Never seem to set out with a theme or follow one, seems to of been the story of my life, take it as it comes except when something exciting is happening (not much of that nowadays) then, I want it happening right now.
Having a browse on the net and suddenly remembered about Sir Stampalots

Beaver Lake

To celebrate the holiday, we spent the afternoon and evening out at the nearby lake called, Beaver Lake.  Beaver Lake is really beautiful and pristine.  There are a number of sandy park beach-like settings.  We got out at a place called Rocky Branch, and James and the boys enjoyed taking a dip in the crisp water. 

After frolicking, we packed up and boarded a bulky boat called the "Beaver Lake Cruise" and spent about 2 hours with a park service guide and got the low-down about the lake and it's history.

The boys loved jetting across the big lake in the boat.

Some little know facts (well little know to us): Believe it or not- the lake is man-made!  It is a reservoir formed from the White River.  The lake was completed in 1966 and sits high in the Ozark mountains.  The lake has become a huge recreational park with over 2000+ ACRES of campgrounds!  There are 12 different parks around the lake, and the lake itself has almost 30,000 acres of surface area, so it is quite large!  One in 8 Arkansans drink water that comes from the lake, and the lake is also useful for its hydro power and flood control.

To be on the "cruise" we all had to wear life jackets- including Alice.  She didn't quite know what to make of it.  She is already quite "fluffy" and the extra padding made us feel like we were holding a balloon.  But she was a good, calm little girl, and even fell asleep in my lap 1/2 through the tour.  She was a bit cumbersome to hold though all buoyed up and so she was passed around a bit between James and I.

One cool thing was that we got to watch the sunset 3 different times that evening since our positioning on the lake kept on changing and therefore our horizons/views kept changing.

 It was beautiful and nothing I can re-create very well on the camera unfortunately.

The boys' favorite part was getting to see and touch the real Beaver claws/feet/tails they passed around.  And at the end, James and the boys sat at the front of the boat and enjoyed the "wind in the hair" feeling as well as made a couple silly faces with each other, while taking pictures.

I loved looking out at the vast lake and thinking about how much I am falling in love with Arkansas.

We'll definitely be back to play again Beaver lake!