*It's a Beautiful Day*

The sun is shining, there is a light breeze blowing... and it's almost 20* outside (that's 68*F). It's not quite the daytime high they forecast, but it's close... and I'll take it!

Bruce had to drop Alex and his girlfriend Mary as well as Mary's Dad and brother off at Otafest at the UofC this morning (it's an Anime Convention). I will have to post a photo later of Alex in the costumer that Mary and her Grandma made for Alex of Ike. After Bruce got home, we packed the other kid and the dog into the car and we went off to the off-leash dog park for a walk. This is a great park with a trail that takes about 40 minutes to walk. Lots of dogs and a relaxing location. We came home around noon and made some lunch, and then I found my book and my sunglasses and sat on my chaise in the sun for a few hours reading.

Bruce has left to pick up Alex (unfortunately, he has to miss a good chunk of today's events) and we will all be scrambling in a bit to get all prettied up for a 25th Anniversary Party we are going to this later this afternoon and this evening. It's been a good day so far and we are looking forward to some fun tonight as well!

As I mentioned in my post a few days ago, Tracy came up with the idea of the CalGals challenging each other each month... and this month it was my turn. I promised them it would be easy, and when I chose the sketch, I really thought it would be... instead we all struggled with the damn thing! Even me... sigh!

I found the sketch on Kerin's Blog... it's her week #8 challenge

I think everyone else who played along last weekend put together a better card than I did... but that's OK... it's not like mine is terrible... just not quite what I had envisioned. I think I should have cut my strips a little smaller and layered black underneath them for contrast...

I used patterned paper from Stampin' Up (from a few years ago), Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. I added in my Nesties (used with my fabulous Big Shot!), the bridal flowers from Michaels and an image from Stampin' Up.

I love how these shimmer flowers from Michael's take the colour from my Copics so nicely! Not only do they colour up well, but you can still see the shimmer from the paper under the colour. Beautiful!

I decided the flowers needed "something" so I used my 1/8" hole punch and punched out some little circles in black and added them to the flower centres. Yup, just what they needed!