Black and White - Monthly Challenge

Hi friends.  I hope you've had a wonderful 4th of July holiday.  Mine has been a quiet one which is good after the week I had.

I had a harrowing experience on Thursday going to pick up my car at the dealer after leaving it there on Tuesday to have the A/C fixed. I had a rental car and needed to have it back there by 6 on Thursday to pick up my car.  I left my office about 4:15 and as I drove, I headed into a storm that was brewing and I followed it or it followed me all the way out to the dealer.  The rain was coming down in buckets and it was hard to see the road except following another car's lights in front of me.  We inched along the highway and I finally made it.  The rain was still pouring down.  I don't know if all dealerships are like this one, but it has about 4 different areas all separate.  The showroom, the service area, the parts department, and the body shop.  Since the last time I rented a car there, they moved the car rental office from the service area over to the body shop area which is quite a hike if you have to walk it.  When I first got there, I drove up to where I thought the body shop was and found a place to park outside.  Even though it was still coming down, the rain had slacked up a little bit, so I got out of the car into 6" of water in the lot and ran inside, only to find out I was in the Parts Dept.!!!!!!!  Darn. I was also soaked, so I turned around and went back to the car and saw where I was supposed to be so turned around and drove over to the Body Shop.  Yikes, over there the water in the parking lot was over a foot deep!  Lucky that the car I was driving was not a little compact.  So even though I was parked right out front, when I stepped out of the car, I stepped into water that was about mid calf or higher.  It got the bottom of my capris wet at least 2 or 3 inches high.  I was already wet so what the heck.  Of course the rental person wasn't there and they had to call them to come and I had to wait there shivering in the AC so I went out on the little porch to wait.  Took awhile for him to get there.  I had called the service guy to let him know that I was there but couldn't get over to the service area.  He said he would send someone in a car to pick me up.  Even though the rain had stopped, the water in the parking lot was not going down.  He was finally able to go around to the back door where the water was only about 6" high and I was able to get in his car without too much problem.  Finally got over to service and was able to retrieve my car.  Lucky the front parking lot was not as flooded as the one at the body shop, so I was able to drive out of there without too much difficulty and be on my way home.  Got here about 6:45.  What an experience!  I hate driving in rain and in fact, when I first learned to drive which was here in Texas and not in PA, I wouldn't drive if it were raining.  At the time I wasn't working so it didn't matter.  If I was going somewhere and it started to rain, I'd turn around and go back home and wait until it stopped.  I've gotten better about that over the years since I haven't had much choice after getting a job, but I'm still not thrilled with having to drive in the rain.

So, with a quiet weekend, I've been about to play in my craft room.  I belong to a Monthly Challenge group.  Each month one of the players sends out a kit to the rest of us with stamped images, papers, embellishments and such and we all make at least one card or more from whatever was sent.  We're allowed to use our own supplies in addition to what we received.  It's a lot of fun, but I'm usually way behind in getting my cards done.

Today I am posting one card from Sue's (stampinspooky on SCS) envelope which she sent for March.  Yikes, sorry Sue that it took me so long to get this posted.

 We were to make a black/white card with a hint of red.  The image is from Stampin Up Vintage Vogue.   I used Stampin Up Real Red for the mat and the photo corner.  I'm not sure where the pattern paper is from.

My next card is from Suzy (our great leader who keeps us all on track)(Suzy1104 on SCS) for the May challenge. Suzy directed us to make one card using only black and white.  It was a challenge to figure out which image to use.

I'm not sure where the image comes from.  The pattern paper on the base is from Graphic 45 - Patterns & Solids collection.  The Polka dot paper is from The Paper Studio.  The white trim is a Martha Stewart border punch.  The ribbon Suzy sent is from Celebrate it 360* and the flower is from The Paper Studio. The cardstock base and mats are Stampin Up Basic Black.

Guess I better get busy on the rest of the envelopes that are sitting on my desk.