Summer Bloom

Happy Friday! I'm in the middle of painting a bathroom closet, but wanted to post a card while I'm resting. My sweet hubby is off work today and he's building some new shelves for me. When we had this house built over 14 years ago, we chose the ventilated shelving. You know, the wire kind? Well, it's good for some storage situations, but it's the pits for things like bottles and such. The shampoos and conditioners I have stored in there never want to stay totally upright, and if one falls over, the whole bunch fall over like Dominos. And things fall through the grates. I've lived with this annoyance long enough and it's time for real wood shelves! I can't wait! Next will be my pantry. Same issues! I want good old-fashioned wood shelving like my grandmothers had!

So in between applying coats of paint, I've been sneaking in some creative time. There hasn't been a lot of that this week, but I did manage to make one other card I will set up to post soon. (Yes, Doris, I knew about the pre-posting option on Blogger and have been taking full advantage of it! Praise God for such blessings, yes?) I still have lots of chores to do today, unfortunately. But tomorrow looks pretty free (for now). We'll be having company over.

Anywho, when I want to relax in a creative way, I watercolor. So this card and the next one are the results of that.

I used one of the papers from the Recess pad for this card, in fact. I also found out that Archiver's carries THE best black ink removing cleaner I have ever tried (and I've tried just about everything, including Simple Green):



It's the only cleaner I've tried that completely removes Stampin' Up's Basic Black ink from my stamps; it's the hardest ink I've ever tried to remove. Normally, I have to buy it online, so I was very happy to see it in the store! It's $5.99 for 2 oz., but there were no 8 oz. refills on their shelves just yet (I might just have to beg for them to carry it!).

NIFTY TIP ALERT! I found that if I spray a little quarter size amount of the Ultra Clean stamp cleaner on a rag and rub the stamp with it I use a lot less of the cleaner up. Since it's a bit pricey, I also only use it for black or very dark inks because the other cleaners all work fine with all other colors. It's just the black that is so stubborn. I've not tried it on StazOn Jet Black ink, so I can't report on that one, but I'm extremely happy with the results on every other black ink I've tried it on!

End of commercial! Now, back to the card.

Here's a close-up of the paper. Cool patterns so small, you almost don't see them (click to enlarge).



I'm running out of free time so I had better get to the recipe! Have a lovely day and a great Independence Day, for all my American readers! We Americans need to grow in appreciation for our freedoms before they are lost! We are so blessed and we need to work hard to protect those precious freedoms we so often take for granted! We need to care about what our politicians are doing. It affects us whether we like it or not. We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights! And we must remember that our Creator is the One Who has given us these freedoms! Pray for our nation!

Blessings!

Recipe

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Summer By the Sea, Purple Onion Design "4 Seasons"

CS: Black, Basic Grey Recess "Academy", glossy white

Inks: SU Basic Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Bashful Blue, Creamy Caramel

Markers: Sage Shadow, Brocade Blue, Old Olive, More Mustard, Summer Sun, Basic Black (to extend line on the ground on the left)

Other: Cuttlebug Floral Screen embossing folder, Nestabilities Labels Two dies, ticket corner punch, amber gems, black grosgrain ribbon, Sticky Doos, 3D Dots, Inkssentials opaque white gel pen (for white dress accents), sponge daubers (used for applying ink to sky and sand)