Okay, I didn’t really go anywhere, but the schedule has been so insane, that I had to drop off the social internet world for a few days so that I could keep up with real life.

First off, my folks were in town for a week, which is amazing.  If you can believe it, it has been almost a full year since I have seen them last.  Now I talk to my mother a couple a times a day, and my father almost as often, but there is no comparison as a hug in person.  These two really are two of the greatest people ever, and my kids simply adore them.  So needless to say, a week visit with them was just what we all needed.  Next up in the revolving doors of guests will be my in-laws in a little over two months, which is almost as exciting as my own folks.  My husband and I really hit the parent jack-pot in life when it came to grown ups, and needless to say my kids are reaping the rewards.

The main reason for my parents visit (besides the lame fact that it simply had been too long) was to see their three grandkids preform in the end of the year choir show that I help manage (and do a little choreographing for).  We are blessed with one of the most talented (volunteer to bout) directors, and she puts on an exceptional show.  Needless to say the director (who is a dear friend too) and I have no concept of going over the top, so the show was completely larger than it should be.  The choir is really two groups that add up to over a hundred kids, and the younger group performed a broadway review of kid-ish songs sung traditionally by children (or something like that).  Needless to say the music was a little harder than it should have been, and yet the kids were amazing and pulled off the difficult feat.  The older choir put on a full 45 minute musical called Tweet, a show about baby birds thinking about leaving the nest.  I’m working on getting some pics, but until then enjoy this little bit of bird art I did for the auction held before the show to help raise money for next years choir.

School officially ended yesterday for the kids, so today is the first day of summer break.  Of course this is the first day I didn’t have to set an alarm and guess who was up at 6 am for no reason.  Yep.  The girls however slept in till almost 7 and my son, who can seriously sleep if we allow him, was up about thirty minutes later, but that was only because two little girls and a dog jumped on him.  Now everyone is sitting in a swimsuit watching cartoons.  I think they are hinting at something, I just can’t figure out what.

Not only did school end yesterday, but I slunk off to the fair to compete in a small art contest.  The image had to be smaller then seven inches in any direction.  I took a sweet little image of my middle child from a memory from about five years ago.  It is one of those moments you wished you had a digital picture of, but you don’t.  Luckily, I have almost captured the moment in acrylic, but still, my skills don’t match my memories.  Nothing came of the judging, but I had fun anyway, and the kids got to see mom put herself out there.  Best news from the day however was getting this image of this beautiful little girl (cow) who was just begging to be painted.  I have a thing for cows, and this one keep staring at me till I took her picture.  If only she understood that now she is going to be captured (or distorted) in paint.

I’m still taking my online copic coloring class with the talent colorist/instructor Sandy Allnock.  I am needless to say quite behind at the moment, but I’m working hard to catch up.  That is the really nice thing about this class is if you get behind, you have the time and resources to catch up without missing anything.  I am learning a lot and am really happy I took the gamble on this being my first art class.

That’s not all that’s been going on, but I will stop rambling about me and get on to the real reason you stopped by, to see the cards.

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Up first today we have a great little theme challenge from the gals over at The Paper Players.  This week, with father’s day looming on the calendar, the designers wanted us to create a card for the holiday.  Well since I have a lot of great men in my life that need a little father’s day love, I was really excited to tackle this one.

I pulled out this new (to me) little CC Designs of this baby super hero and started coloring him in with my copics.  I am btw, loving my new found knowledge of shading.  I pulled out a great orange-red card stock and distressed the edges with a knife.  Then pulling at a ‘distress’ image wafer die from CC Designs and die cut it with kraft underneath.  I distressed the kraft paper more with some Distress Ink tea dye.  Pulling out, tearing up, and distressing some book paper, I added the book print under my little super hero and added a few brads so it looked like it was held on by kraft paper.  Finally, pulling out my Hero Arts father’s day stamp set, I added the sentiment in some brown ink.

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Next up in my list of challenges for today is a color challenge from the sleuths of design over at Can You Case It.  With summer just about to bloom, the designing sleuths asked us to create with red, white and blue.

Now, I wasn’t quite in the mood to knock out a fourth of July

card, so I went in a completely different direction.  I pulled out a funny little stamp from Art Impressions and started coloring them in with my copics.  I probably should have, in hind sight, colored them all with matching outfits instead of rotating the colors, but I don’t like starting over once I begin.  Let’s be honest, makes happen, and to pretend otherwise if foolish.  I added some blue and red printed paper under the image and glued on a few red, white and blue sequins.  Finally, I added a bit of a sentiment from a Paper Smooches stamp pack.  These gals make me laugh, and frankly, like all the Art Impression ladies from this line, I want to be them when I grow up.

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Finally today, we have another theme challenge from the chefs of design over at Cupcake Inspirations.  This week they were baking up an under the sea challenge, and with all those little mermaid tales in the inspiration photo, I just knew I had to do a card with a little mermaid.

The problem was that I did not have a stamp with a mermaid,

or frankly one with fish or under the sea images.  I have a pirate stamp set, but that’s one the sea, not under it.  However, I do have this new (to me since I got it on clearance recently) from CC Designs.  This stamp however is of a wailing banshee.  However, if you add a couple of curved lines under the breast bone and above the navel, plus  fins to the end of her ghostly tail, you almost have a perfect little mermaid.  I turned up her lips to give her a smile and started coloring her in with my copics.  I do love changing up my stamps and getting more out of them, and I think this was a perfect example of doing that.  I grabbed a piece of watercolor paper and stamped with Versa Mark a Deep Red bubble stamp.  I added clear embossing powder and them watercolored the paper with my Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I grabbed a bit of scrape white card stock and stamped out the sentiment from Stampendous.  I love how the card came out, despite not having any stamps to meet the challenge.  I think it worked out.

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That’s all for today.  I’m back on my regularly scheduled program (well sort of, since the kids are home full time now), so keep in touch to see the art that is happening this summer.