Fish Eyes ~ CCC #49; CTS #33; NBUS #8; PP #150

And we're back around to Friday ~ whoosh!  Around these parts, it is also the first day of summer, so Happy Summer!!

I've still been getting dirty with the gardening.  I didn't realize just how many little things needed attention.  It felt good, like spring cleaning the house. 

 

But after wards I couldn't settle easily into card making, so I ended up making two cards.  I actually thought about switching gears, but I find I don't do that well at all.  I made the dog throw up in the back seat when I learned how to drive a stick shift.  Do they even make those any more? 

 

Some of you just went down memory lane thinking about your learning-to-drive experiences with shifting, some of you just skipped these paragraphs.

 

So, where was I?  What I mean is, I get a germ of an idea and even on heavy meds, I can't shake it until I make it.  My germ this time came from CASology where this week's cue card word is "fish." 

It sounds simple enough and I've got a pretty fair collection of fish stamps, some NBUS, some not.  The ones I used for my cards are not, but the sediment is.  BTW, for some reason sometimes I read NBUS as "knee-bus."  Is anyone else doing that?  I'm so weird.

 

I decided my fish should be swimming in a layout taken from the always sensationally clean-and-simple sketches from CAS(E) This Sketch.  This week's sketch is another incredible Jackie Rockwell design:

And, finally, if there was ever anything that could carry off a lot of bling, it would be fishes with their bubbles, am I right?  Have you ever actually held a bubble in the palm tree of your hand and been mesmerized by the colorful sparkly bling display?  So I'm also playing with Ann Marie's fun CAS challenge to "bring on the bling" at The Paper Players.

Congratulations, ladies, on 150 challenges!!

~~~ 

 

Here is the second card I made, which is the one I am entering in the challenges:

 

I like it better than the first one (below).  And it gotsa lotsa bling bubbles!  The sediment is NBUS from my new PTI "Whale Wishes" stamp set.  I can't wait to use the whale and the matching die, but for today my ancient little "A Gold Fishy" stamp from Embossing Arts Co. was used.

 

Since it is hard to make a photo graph of the gold embossing and the shiny gold (brass?) charm, here is a close-up: 

 

 

 

The charm says "friends" in case you can't make it out and I'm sorry I have no idea who manufactured it.  The giant pastel "bubbles" in the background on the card base were made with a big dauber and SU! marina mist and barely banana.

 

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Just for card talk, coz that's what we do, here's my first card:

My googly-eyed fish was heat embossed in purple.  The waves are from an unmarked border stamp.  The conversation bubble and the "MWAH" were hand-drawn and that bubble was outlined with a "clear star" Sakura gelly roll pen.  The other bubbles (Mostly Animals) were heat embossed with a NBUS embossing powder that has glitter in it!  Now that was impossible to catch in the long shot, so here is a close-up.

It's a whole lot cuter IRL, but it wasn't rocking my boat for the challenges.  Looking at it now, I think it doesn't work because the dude's lips aren't mwahing.  He just looks like he swam into the wrong photo shoot.

 

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While I was in the garden, we had a new friend join the party!  I'm delighted to introduce you to Claire Grantham of Ham 'n Mule Designs.  Isn't that a fun blog name?!  Claire is a very multi-talented crafter you'll want to visit!  Welcome, Claire, and thank you!!

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I saw on the news yesterday that the moon last night was going to be a "super moon," so  I took a very bad picture of it for you with my little point-and-shoot camera:

Honestly, it just looked like a cool full moon.  I Googled "super moon" and it turns out the weatherman jumped the gun a bit.  The actual "super moon" won't be until June 23rd, when the moon is closest to the earth and appears the brightest (Astroblog). 

 

A super moon is at perigee as opposed to apogee.  I'm thinking those terms came about because when people look up at the moon, they most commonly say, "Gee!"  Sometimes they say, "Gee, Willikers!" 

 

Next week's lesson will be about the Willikers.

 

I do hope you have clear skies in the next few days and can see it for yourself!

 

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We are being blessed with a twin sleepover on Saturday!  We're so becited to hear all about their vacation!

 

Enjoy your day and your weekend!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*!  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower!

 

*Life Is Too Short!   

 

 

P.S.  I'll be tallying the results from my printer survey (end of that post) the first part of next week, so if you haven't joined in, please leave me a comment this weekend!  Thank you!  Mwah!