Rhonda's Design Haven

It was a pretty nice day here today so we headed out to the Strawberry Ranch with my mother to pick a couple of baskets of strawberries.  Nathan found this very unusually shaped one.

Here are my three little monkeys:)

A Priceless Hello...

Here is a card that I made in May and forgot to post it:)  There was so much going on that month that I am amazed that I stamped anything at all, lol! 

Here are the details:

Stamps:  Priceless

Inks:  White craft, Groovy guava

Cardstock:  Groovy Guava designer paper, black, Textured Mellow Moss

Accessories:  Vintage brads, diamond Stickles, dimensionals, guava double stitched ribbon, "A Perfect Day" rub-ons, ticket corner punch

Okay, so both of my boys have birthdays the first week of July.  My oldest is eleven (July 3rd) and my youngest boy is seven (July 7th).  This has to be the worst week of the year to have birthdays (aside from Christmas time) when you are a kid.  Every year we have the boys birthday parties with their friends in mid-June before school gets out and everyone leaves for holidays.  Then, we celebrate my oldest son's birthday on his actual birthday.  After that, we have a combined party with relatives somewhere around the 5th and finally we celebrate my youngest son's actual birthday on the 7th.  Who celebrates their birthdays for 3 weeks!  It gets so crazy:)  I remember the one year that we planned Nathan's party for the actual week of his birthday and ALL of his friends were on holidays.  That didn't go over very well:(

Anyways, this was Tristan's card this year.  I used the snake stamp from High Hopes.  I put it on a double dimensional to make it stand out farther.  The image was watercolored with an aquapainter and reinkers on SU watercolor paper.  The greeting was embossed with white embossing powder.

Accessories:  Ticket corner punch,  wild wasabi double stitched ribbon, white gel pen, vintage brads

Paper:  Wild wasabi, Wild wasabi designer paper, black

Dare to Be Dirty Challenge - Embrace the white space

One of my favorite times of the year is here!  Splitcoaststampers is hosting the Dare to be Dirty Challenges for Fan Club Members:)  Each day this week, Dirty Dozen Members will challenge us with a new task.  One of today's challenges is:  Embrace the space!  I actually love these simple cards and make them all the time so maybe I thought I would start easy first, lol!  I saw one about using vellum...gonna have to think on that one for a while!

Anyways...this card is featuring the soon to be retired SU set, Give Thanks.  I LOVE this set so I am really sad to see it go.  The image was watercolored with aquapainters and real red, going gray, garden green and close to cocoa reinkers.  The sentiment was stamped in basic gray.  The ribbon on top is 5/8" real red grosgrain. 

There is quite a buzz about one new Stampin' Up product soon to be available in the new catalogue on August 11th...the Scallop Edge Punch!!!  I love how easy it was to jazz up this card with it:)

Birthday card for my son

My son, Nathan, turned 11 this month and for the first time I had to be careful that the card I made for him wasn't too "kiddie".  It's amazing how quickly they mature at this age:) 

 I decided to use the boy from High Hopes Stamps.  He was stamped in black stazon on SU watercolor paper and colored with an aquapainter and reinker.  Then, I cut him out and set him aside.  The background is the jungle stamp, also from High Hopes.  The image was matte to choc. chip cardstock and then to wild wasabi.  Vintage brads were attached to the top corners.  The boy was then attached to the front with a doubled up dimensional so that he really stood out from the background.  The saying is from SU's A Little Birdie Told Me.

Invitations and treat bags for my son's birthday

For my son's 7th birthday, I made this trifold invitation with the Ahoy, Matey stamp set and the Matey's Map Jumbo Wheel.  The main image is colored with Stampin' Up Earth Element Markers.  I have sponged around the edges with choc. chip ink and then matte it to black and chocolate chip cardstock.  The image behind was wheeled with the jumbo wheel and then watercolored with an aquapainter and reinkers.  The card is then closed up and tied with a piece of black hemp.  The information on the inside was printed on my computer.

The treat bags were also wheeled with the Matey's Map wheel and watercolored with an aquapainter.  The parrot on the embellishment on the left was colored with Stampin' Up markers and cut out with a 1/2" circle punch.  The greeting from the Think Happy Thoughts set was stamped in black on creamy caramel cardstock and then cut out with the 1 1/4" circle punch.  Another circle is cut with the 1 3/8" circle punch and attached to the black scalloped circle. 

Don't you just love daddy/daughter pictures?

My daughter, Mackenna, had her first ballet performance this week.  She performed in front of a couple of thousand people and I was SO nervous for her but it was no big deal to her.  The only thing that bothered her was that she couldn't find us and "her boys" (aka brothers)!  It was a very entertaining program with children from ages 4 -18 yrs.  The younger ones were SO cute to watch and the older ones were unbelievably talented. 

This is my favorite picture of her with my husband.  He gave her a rose when she was done dancing and she was just astounded that he would have bought her one.  It was so adorable:)

Father's day for my father

This is the father's day card that I gave my dad.  On the weekend we had a father's day, birthday (his was on Tuesday), retirement get-together for him. 

The card base is creamy caramel stamped with the Flannel Plaid background stamp.  The sentiment is from Wonderful Favorites and stamped in black.  The main image is stamped in black stazon on watercolor paper using the For Father stamp set.  The image is colored with Earth Elements reinkers and an aquapainter then mounted on ruby red cardstock.  Eyelets were punched with my crop-o-dile around the black piece and natural hemp twine was wrapped around it.  Then the piece was attached with dimensionals to the card base.

Happy Father's Day:)!

 Happy Father's Day, everyone!  Hope we are all busy spoiling those great men in our lives!  We are going to take my husband out a little later for a round of mini-golf if the weather co-operates:)  This is the card that I made for him with the stamp set that he told me to order (Wildlife Reserve).  Really, he saw the set in the catalogue and told me to order it...I think I will leave the catalogue sitting open more often, lol!  The bear was stamped in black on more mustard cardstock and punched out with a Marvy circle punch.  Then I sponged close to cocoa ink around the edges and matte it to close to cocoa cardstock.  Then I attached it to a black scalloped circle (Marvy).  The card base is 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.  On mustard cardstock, I stamped the trees from Lovely as a Tree in black ink.  I wrapped a piece of black twine around the top three times and then attached the bear piece with dimensionals. 

The inside of the card is stamped using the saying from For Father.

Birthday card for my nephew

My nephew turned two this week and I thought one of the new jungle stamps from High Hopes was perfect for him:)  This card measures 5" x 5".  I stamped Stretch in black stazon and then masked him.  I stamped the palm tree beside him and then removed the mask.  I colored the images with prismas and gamsol and sponged brocade blue for the sky and garden green for the grass.  I added diamond Stickles to the giraffes head and feet and a little on the palm tree.  The image was then matte to black, barely banana and black cardstock.  The panel behind it is close to cocoa designer paper matte to black.  I added two vintage brad to the top and bottom right side of the panel.  For the accent, I stamped happy birthday from SU's Think Happy Thoughts in close to cocoa on barely banana cs and cut it out with the 1 1/4" circle punch.  I attached it to a close to cocoa circle, cut with the 1 3/8" circle punch.  The circles were then added to a black scalloped circle (SU's scallop circle punch) and attached to the card with a dimensional

The envelope is the High Hopes Jungle Background stamped in close to cocoa.