Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Saturday.

It's the fabulous Shana's turn to host our Addicted to CAS challenge this week and she has a great code word for us.

Now, there are so many ways you can go with this code word, and I decided to go with birds! 

I have this Hero Arts stamp set that was designed for Operation Write Home.  Now, my regular blog readers know that this is a cause dear to my heart, as it is for many of them!  When I saw this darling little set, I had to have it.

I die cut a couple of clouds and placed them onto a Soft Sky base.  I then stamped my owls onto a piece of card stock and colored them with Copic Markers.  Once they were ready, I fussy cut around them and mounted them onto the card base with dimensionals. 

I know you can't see it, but I did add a little shading around the clouds to make them pop from the base a little.  Then I added some Wink of Stella glitter to the eyes, beaks and feet of the owls.  All that was left to do was to add the "Happy Birdday" sentiment and the card was complete.  Aren't they adorable?

Don't forget to pop along to Addicted to CAS and check out the fabulous design team cards.  The team really knocked it out of the park and created some great inspiration for you.

Once again our lucky winner will win 5 digi stamps from our generous sponsor:

It's also time to say a fond farewell to Karen - our guest designer for June and say hello to the very talented Cathy from Cathy's Card Spot

On a personal note:

We have had a fabulous few days with P&J and R&R.  Even though it has rained, we managed to miss it on our travels.  It either rained just before we arrived, or was raining just as we were leaving!  We drove down to Decorah, IA and spent the night there.  It's such a pretty town and in a beautiful setting.  We stopped at the only covered bridge in Minnesota and various other stops on the way down.  On the way back, we traveled up through the Bluff Counties and saw the mighty Mississippi.  The water is so high that it had crested in multiple spots and flooded towns along the way.   In the 20 years that we have lived in Minnesota, I have never seen the river like that.  

At home, our wetland is starting to drain, but there is still enough water to make it look really pretty!  The wild flowers are really coming into their own and the black eyed Susan's have started to make an appearance.  We have made a lot of use of our underdeck area and couldn't think of 4 more fabulous people to spend long evenings with sitting at the table! :-)

Several of you have asked for some more interior house shots.  So, here's a view of our family room.  It has changed a lot since P&J and R&R were last with us and, like us, they love the new color.

I love the blues with the green curtains.  It's a nice, light color combo for summer.  Very different to the deep, rich reds of winter.  The cushions were found at Pottery Barn and fit the color scheme beautifully.  I know we said we didn't want a 9 foot couch in that room, but it has certainly come in handy with 6 of us using it!  Charlie isn't impressed though, as he normally has the whole thing to himself and has found himself sharing it with three people :-)

I thought I would also share a photo of P&J's sitting room with you.  We converted one of the bedrooms into a sitting room for them and, to make them feel right at home, bought two cushions featuring the Union Jack :-)

Of course, every room in our house comes with a cat!  This chair is where Sam spends most of his day.  the room is bright and sunny - and warm.  Just right for a cat :-)

I'll be back tomorrow with my Paper Players card.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Card stock:  120# Gina K white.   SU Soft Sky
• Stamps:  Hero Arts Lil Hoot
• Inks:  Copic Markers
• Dies:  Simon Says Stamp