My grandfather always had roses in his garden. Red ones, and they smelled good too! He also planted climbing roses that grew up around the front porch. (My dad is the handsome teenager on the right!)

When I was little, I would sit on the porch and pop off the thorns on the stems and he would get so mad! He always threatened to “pop” me, but he only did that once…He said he kept a switch on top of the refrigerator. When my sister and I would argue or get in trouble, he would point up there and say, “I’ll pop you with that switch if you don’t behave!” There wasn’t really a switch up there, but we believed it! I don’t remember what I did to get “spanked”, but I remember the aftermath. It didn’t hurt anything but my feelings and I remember throwing myself on the bed in the guestroom and carrying on for a LONG time. Poor Papaw…he kept saying he was sorry and patted my back trying to get me to quit crying. I must have been such a little brat because I milked that for awhile AND I told Memaw when she got home! He would playfully “pinch” us after that, then pat us and say, “You know Papaw loves you!” Good grief we were spoiled!

These American Beauties remind my of Papaw’s roses…

UPS just delivered my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers Wednesday and I couldn’t wait to try them out. I watched a ton of tutorials on blending, tested them out on scratch paper and jumped right in with a no-line coloring technique. With a little more practice, this might become my new favorite medium!

I designed my sentiment in Photoshop Elements and printed on the Spectrum Noir card stock. I saved the .png file so that I can print and repeat as needed.

I was worried at first, but I didn’t get any smudging when I colored over the lettering with the markers. I love how the Rose Bud ink matches the markers!

Do more of what makes you happy!

Challenges entered:Spectrum Noir Anything Goes Challenge