A little Nature scene

Hello! I haven't been too inspired lately... too much going on in the family and at home and other things I have had to prepare for. It definitely has an effect on the creativity even though I feel drawn to my room just to create and relax! But I know these waves just come and go. Our son, Rodney is coming home from hospital today, finally a good medicine has been found; so it is a step forward. Thank you for those who pray, such an encouragement!

So I got some inpsiration from Pinterest today as I wanted to create a little Nature scene. The stamps are Stampin'Up and the sentiment Hero Arts.

Portugal and the Paper Players

Nice to  be back! Thanks for all your good wishes for our Wedding Anniversary. From Wednesday until Sunday I have been in Portugal with DH. We escaped all the stress of the painting work that had to be done in our house too! We were in the North west of the Country in Porto, next to the Atlantic Ocean. Porto is a beautiful big City. I wasn't used to all the noise and the busyness but just to have a break and a change of scene did wonders for us. And above that, we had gorgeous weather every day reaching up to 31°C. Now we are home the weather is blustery and rainy and I even looked and saw that it is the same kind of weather now in Portugal too - so we just must have picked out the right time.

Here are some photos, which were the best I could do as I only had a little pocket camera with me.

This is a beautiful flowering fat-plant which we found near the coastal areas. It was to be seen in yellow as well.

My DH standing near a very old Church. We were sight seeing in the old City. We also saw a lot of poverty which broke our heart. Seeing the beggars and the homeless made a big impression on us.

I have seen pictures of Italy and I think that this looked very much like it.

So this is what I took with me because I wanted to try out some watercolor  sketches as I had seen this just before I left.
This was the best I could do but I am aware that it does need quite a bit of practice! I had to do the vase freehand.

I am going to enter this into this challenge. This is the sketch requirement:

That was it for today - hope you are all well!

Busy times

Hello lovely people!
Going through a really busy time at the moment, which hasn't left me with much inspiration for crafting. We have had some renovation work done on the house which has been going on since March. I have a brand new Craft room and I am so happy with it - I have large windows so that I can see the Mountains and enjoy watching the birds and the seeing the trees and flowers while I craft.
I am still waiting for our first grandchild to arrive - if she comes tomorrow she will be a wonderful Birthday present for her dad. Joël was born on the 14th of May. Our Son, Rodney is home again after two weeks in the hospital with an active Ulcerative colitis in his intestines. It affects his whole life and his future and we are all praying for a positive turn around for him.
I am going to have a little break for four days with DH - we really need to get away and refresh our thoughts and hearts. It's our Wedding Anniversary on the 15th of May so its a little celebration too.
 

I am sharing a card I made a couple of weeks ago. After I had stamped the dogwood after inking with distress inks, I saturated it with water and waited to see what it gave. Afterwards I embellished the flowers. I have never seen a Dogwood in real life but am certainly enjoying them on Pinterest.

Color Q Challenge #240 and Simon Says Spring Flowers

This card is for two challenges. The first one is here and this is the inspiration photo.

Love these colors. I hope my beige neutral will be accepted.

This is my card. My flowers are from Hero Arts, AC028 Remember Set, which were colored with distress markers as were the leaves from Clearly besotted and the sentiment is Penny Black, which I embossed in white. .

This also goes for the Simon Says Stamp challenge calling for Spring Flowers, which can be found here.

Have a wonderful week - we are celebrating our daughter-in-law's birthday today. The baby will be due in a months time!

Virginia's View Challenge #3 - Stitching

Happy Sunday!
This month's challenge on Virginia's View Challenge blog is Stitching. I am not good with a sewing machine and mine goes so fast (cannot slow it down :) that it's a waste of time even to think about it... A while ago I made some Tea Bag pockets with stitching, don't know why my sewing machine has seemed to age since then.
But, faux stitching is allowed and when I thought of my Hero Arts Stamp called 'Square Stitched Edge background that's when I saw a possibility to enter the challenge.

This is the inspiration photo - so many different ways to use stitching on a card!

This is my card. Once again I assorted six squares from my scrap box and stamped with the above mentioned stamp to get a faux-stitched look.

The Paper Players Sketch #193

Great to be back on the Blog. I have been busy with several things and just gone with the flow.
Hope you are all well and enjoying the Spring time. Just the other day my DH told me that he had seen swallows which is a sure sign that the season is well under way... but I hadn't seen one yet. So I prayed that I would see a swallow and what happened - one flew just in front of my window! Ah - how God can answer the simplest of prayers, which means He can handle the big problems too! Our son is currently in and out of Hospital with a disease in his intestines, called Ulcerative colitis which can be active or inactive. It is very active at the moment and very painful. He is in a Hospital in Montpellier because our local hospital was not specialized enough to diagnose the exact medication. We are praying for his healing. He does love the Lord which helps him have a good focus.

So this is the sketch I have followed:

It can be found on The Paper Players blog here. It reflects my little swallow that flew in front of my window and the beautiful Spring season I am enjoying so much. Nature is just beautiful because God created it!

Here is my card, which is made with patterned papers and three little sequins in the left hand corner which Betty, my blog friend sent me. The swallow is a free download from the Graphics Fairy.