MIM #109 Watercolor Stamping Plus Embossing

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post this morning to share my mom's Easter card.  I had been wanting to play in PTI's Make it Monday challenge this week, and just couldn't seem to find the time until yesterday morning when I realized I didn't have an Easter card for my mom.  I found time and had a great hour in my crafting room!  Take a look:

I know the lighting is terrible (where did my sunshine go?!!), but I also think this is a hard technique to photograph.  It really is very pretty IRL!  I used SU!'s Certainly Celery, Pool Party, So Saffron, & Pretty in Pink re-inkers to do the watercolor background (check out Betsy's great video on her site at: http://scrapbookgirl.typepad.com/paper_scissors_and_superh/).  After that dried, I used PTI's "Birds and Blooms" set to stamp the wreath in VersaMark and white embossing powder.  This is where IRL it's so pretty as the embossing shows all the delicacy of the leaves in this stamp.  I did add a few of the flowers in Pool Party, Pretty in Pink, and So Saffron to add a touch more color and then simply matted it with some So Saffron card stock and a white card base.  I finished by adding a sheer ribbon (Michael's) and a butterfly with pearls.  When I did the watercoloring part, I did 3 of them to see which one I'd like best, and I ended up using all of them:

  

Again, lighting not the greatest, but if you click on the photos to enlarge them, they look a little better.  I used SU!'s Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery for the other 2 cards and will probably use those for birthday cards down the road.  Glad I made the time to try this technique as it was a lot of fun and I will definitely be using it again!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful Easter with your families! :0)

CHRIST IS RISEN!

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5 NIV)  A very blessed Easter to all my family, friends, and fellow bloggers!

Bunny Basket

Good morning and Good Friday friends.  My project today is just fluff compared to what this holiday weekend is really all about...God loves each and everyone of us SO much He gave His only begotten son that we might live...for FOREVER!  PTL!!  So from the bottom of my heart, I wish each of you a most blessed Easter! :0)

Our 3 daughters have grown up so quickly and only our "baby" (who just turned 18 last week) lives at home now.  In past years, I have still given all the girls an Easter basket, but this year I decided just a treat for the older 2, and a smaller basket for my baby.  Decided I needed to be creative and make the basket to save some $$ (it's all going to the wedding!!!) though, and am actually quite pleased with what I came up with.  Take a look:

Very CAS, but I really do like the simplicity of it.  I started with PTI's Berry Basket die and a light tan dotted swiss card stock (from my local SS).  Next I just added the grass and bunnies (both from Impression Obsession) to all four sides, and then a handle made with the tan dotted swiss.  Almost too easy, but sometimes those turn out to be the best!

Again, I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend celebrating our risen Lord and Savior with your families and friends.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to be back next week with some more inspiration for you!

A Year of Flowers - Cone Flowers

Good morning friends.  Another quick post today to share a card I made for my mom's birthday next week (aren't you impressed I'm over a week early?!!)  This card is pretty much a CASE from the example shown in the Gina K idea book "A Year of Flowers".  I love this book as it showcases 3 different cards for each month and different techniques for each month too.  This month was direct to stamp technique which is something I have always loved doing.  The stamp used for this card starts with the whole daisy, but you use your markers to only color part of the stamp.  Take a look:

The whole daisy stamp would have been a complete circle, but by only coloring 6 of the petals (and the center) with my black SU! marker directly to the stamp, I was able to create a cone flower.  After stamping onto my card stock, I heat set the image for a few seconds with my heat gun.  I did this because I wanted to color the image with my Copics and didn't want the black outlining from the marker to run.  The Copic colors I used were: Y11, Y21, Y17, R29, YG03, & YG63.  

I finished with the sentiment from PTI's new "Birthday Style", a black & white checked ribbon, and a yellow button (SU!).  And don't you love the little ladybug at the bottom crawling toward the flower?  This was a fun and easy card to make and I think my mom will really like it! :0)

Thanks for stopping by today and have a terrific Thursday.  It's going to be sunny and in the 40's in my neck of the woods today...yea!!! :0)
   

Daisy Bug

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post today of a card I made for my daughter's friend who just got her drivers license.  Take a look:

I'd love to tell you who the manufacturer of the stamp is, but I borrowed it from my girlfriend and forgot to write it down while I had it...old age don't ya know!!  Anyway, I stamped it on Whisper White cs and then stamped the image again on a scrap of design paper and cut it out to paper piece over the image.  I used a silver metallic pen to make the bumpers, tail-lights, and mirror pop (a LOT shinier in real life!).  The pink background is embossed with a ProvoCraft  "Congratulations" embossing folder and sponged a bit to make the words stand out a little more.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look, and I hope to be back later this week with a card I made for my mom's birthday.  Have a wonderful and JOY filled Wednesday! :0)

Papertrey March Blog Hop Challenge

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a great weekend!  Another wedding shower and NO snow, so it was a great weekend for me! :0)  Today I'm sharing another birthday card (all 3 of our daughters birthdays are 6 weeks apart) and also using it for the monthly blog hop over at Papertrey Ink.  The challenge this month was to use sequins, and while you won't see many of them on my card (only 3 to be exact!), they do add a nice little "bling" to the card!  Take a look:

I know, I know.....there's NO stamping on this card!!  It was just one of those cards that came together using dies, and didn't need anything else.  And even though I'm not showing the inside of the card, I did stamp the sentiment, so technically, it is still a hand stamped card!  The "hello" and "birthday" are both PTI dies, and the letters for "girl", were cut using my Cricut.  The flower was die cut using PTI's Beautiful Blooms and the leaves are from PTI's Limitless Layers die (Melissa Phillips did stitching on felt leaves on one of her projects and I loved it!!).  The blue designer paper is BoBunny, and the rest is just scraps from my scrap pile.  The ribbon is SU!'s Melon Mambo and the 3 sequins are from one of the girls school projects from who knows when....  

I'm sure there will be many cards from this challenge that will have LOTS of sequins, and hopefully I'll get inspiration from them!  For now though, I like the way this card turned out with my 3 little sequins! :0)  Thanks for stopping by and taking a look, and I'll be back later this week with another birthday card and a "car" card.

FFC04 - Trigger Challenge

Good Friday morning friends.  The sun is shining today, but there is still snow on the ground (my husband says we're putting up the Christmas tree tonight!), so it is definitely a good day to play the Festive Friday Challenge!  This time round, it is a trigger challenge, and the trigger word is "merry".

Papertrey Ink put out a wonderful little $5 set at Christmas this past year called "Think Big Favorites #20", and I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate one of the sayings that used the word "merry" in it.  So anyway, that was my starting point.  Take a look:

I made the "merry" pop out a bit by making it red with the rest of the saying in black.  "Merry" makes me think bright, fun, festive, so I knew I wanted this card to be bright and full of color.  I happened to glance over at my tub of scrap paper, and the green and white polka dot was peeking out, and that's what got the rest of the card started.  Don't ya just love it when inspiration strikes quickly like that?!!  (trust me...that's not always the case!!)  Anyway, the card came together very easily after that.  I finally used the Spellbinders Pointsettia die (that I've had for over a year and hadn't used - oops!) and some bright red dotted swiss card stock to make the flower, and the green leaves are from some scraps left over from the party favors I've been making for my daughters wedding.  Before I glued anything down, I ran the white layer with my sentiment already stamped, through the Cuttlebug with the large dot embossing folder (Provocraft).  Then it was just a matter of assembling and finishing off with some bakers twine (SU!) at the top and some gold nailheads (Gina K) in the center of the flower.  This card definitely makes me think "merry", so mission accomplished! :0)

Well time to go start getting all the decorations out...oh wait...it's not Christmas...it's SPRING!  I think old man winter is just feeling a little too much jolly and doesn't want to leave!  But I am hearing the birds singing this morning (thank you Lord!), so spring must be coming and I just need to be patient! Have a wonderful weekend friends and thanks so much for stopping by...I love it when you do! :0)