Showers Of Blessings

Happy Valentine's Day!  I couldn't find a single card with an appropriate theme for today.  I did however, see some sunshine yesterday (can I take credit for bringing it back from Florida with me? LOL)  Actually the weather wasn't too great for most of the time I was there, but I did have one day of fun and have added some pics at the bottom of the post for you to see.  Back to the card though.  I still have some cards to show you from past shows and I don't want them to get overlooked with all the hoopla this week.  This was a lovely baby card from the Dec. Justrite shows featuring the Bundle Of Joy stamp set.  I started by embossing a white background with the Tied Together folder and extending it for a larger background size.  Next I used some decorative dotty paper from my stash and cut a wide strip and cut a "V" in the bottom.  I matted it with white card and attached it to my background.  I stamped the beautiful vintage pram in black and used markers to colour it and dot around the outside of the image for an interesting effect.  I will usually use a soft blue pencil and add a highlight around images that I stamp and colour, and this dotting technique provides the same sort of shadow type of finish.  It is rather fun to do once in a while.  I picked a couple of shades of blue to do it with on this card.  I cut out the image with Vintage Labels Five and highlighted the image with Victorian Velvet while it was still in the die.  I stamped a sentiment and cut it out with a small oval shape and mounted it in the lower corner.  I tied a messy bow in white and added some pink and white Bakers Twine before adding a fancy pearl button to the centre.  I matted the card with a thin pink mat before finishing with a double white pierced mat layer.  The embossed background was finished with small flatback pearls at all the dissecting areas on the embossing.  Finished dimensions are 7" x 8 1\2" in size. 

I haven't quite finished the drawings for the dies.  I will get it completed sometime today and post it later on in the day so please check back to see if your name has been drawn.  Remember, there will be 31 winners, so chances are good!   Scroll down to see more pics!

 The weather had been pretty cold and wet for about the last ten days of my stay, but on the Sunday before I left, the sun came out and it was blue skies all the way.  My brother, who lives there, called me that morning and asked if we wanted to go kayaking with him.  I was a bit hesitant but let me tell  you, it was an absolute blast.    We crossed the bay to a place called Three Sisters Springs.  It is a manatee reserve and in Jan. and Feb. this is where they stay.  We probably saw 50 to 70 of them that day (I will only bore you with a small portion of the pics of them I took!)

 This is just a baby manatee, he is maybe 3 to 4 feet long.  The springs were full of manatees, kayaks and snorklers.  You cannot get into the springs by boat, only if you kayak or swim.  One weekend a year in January, they open it up during the Manatee festival in Crystal River and you can walk around the springs as they have built a nice railed in walkway.  The last pic shows more of the springs (taken from the kayak as I was in the back of the double kayak, chicken that I am!)  I have, however, crossed one more thing off my bucket list and stepped a tiny bit further out of my comfort zone!  All for now, Sue x