Birthday Balloons

I really love this card.  It's super simple, but so colorful and fun!  This card just makes me happy!  You could also make this card with the balloons doing an ombre type of color going light to dark or dark to light in one color, that would be really pretty as well!  I stamped each balloon, starting with the red and blue to mark the start and ending then filling in the center balloons.  IF I would have measured and calculated everything exactly I probably would have gotten more even placement, but you know, they're balloons, balloons wiggle and float around they don't stay perfectly symmetrical or exactly where you place them so I ended up being ok with my balloons. 

I used a white gel pen to write each letter onto the balloon, then I painted each balloon with Wink of Stella to give a little extra shine!  The strings were hand drawn as well.  I added clouds to the background using the Sprinkles of Life set.  I love this card!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!

Time For Tea

 I went with a little different look for this card, but I'm pretty happy with it.  I wanted to try some big watercolor splotches in the background.  I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it.  The few times that I've tried to do it with a paintbrush just haven't worked out.  But I saw a technique that used a block to do it.  I grabbed my largest block and put a little reinkers in Blushing Bride, So Saffron and Mint Macron on there.  Then I sprayed it with some water then I just dipped my cardstock into the mess.  I really like this look.  It looks very organic and natural.  Some of the colors were starting to mix into an unpleasant muddy color so I used my heat tool to quickly dry the paper and stop all the bleeding.  

Once it was completely dry I grabbed my stamp from A Nice Cuppa set and embossed it with Black Glitter Embossing Powder.  This is my own mix but it's easy to make, 2 parts embossing powder to one part Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (or you can use Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder).  There's lots of sparkle in this image. 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Happy Heart Day

Yesterday I showed you the sweetest, no tweetest little bird card.  I had a glimmer paper heart cut out of it so I wanted to share where that heart came from.  This card is super sparkly and oh so pretty!  We don't have the heart framelits anymore....I don't know why and had I kept mine this card would have been leaps and bounds easier to make than it was.  I wanted a fairly big heart and none of my punches or dies would work so I drew a heart on some scrap paper and cut it out.  I then used that as a template and carefully with an xacto knife cut it out of my glimmer paper.  The heart's not perfect, fortunetly with the glimmer paper it's hard to tell.

The hearts stamped on the inside start with Real Red and gradually get lighter for a cool ombre look.  I used Real Red, Melon Mambo and Blushing Bride.  That little heart stamp is from the A Nice Cuppa set.  Check your stamp sets lots of time there's tiny images that are like hidden gems in a stamp set.  The greeting is on vellum and wrapped around the glimmer paper piece.

To get the hearts all perfectly placed I used a scrap piece of paper as a mask and cut out exactly where my heart would be on my card base.  Then I was able to just stamp in that space, making sure my hearts went from dark to light, or light to dark whichever way you want to look at it :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Tweetheart

You guys when I made this card I nearly lost it because the cuteness went a little overboard with this one!  Hands down my favorite card that I've made with this yet!  It all started with that greeting.  I saw it online while searching for Valentine puns for my kids.  We'll this one was too cute to overlook.  I printed it on some vellum cardstock on my computer and got to work.  The glimmer paper heart was left over from another project (check back tomorrow to see that project).  I wasn't about to get rid of a perfect glimmer paper heart so I decided it would be used on this card.  

Of course I had to add a bird to go along with the greeting.  The only bird stamp I had within reach was this Sale a Bration set, Honeycomb Happiness.  I colored him with my markers (Tempting Turquoise and Pumpkin Pie) and stamped him on watercolor cardstock and colored him.  Coloring him with the markers instead of stamping with Staz-On or the Archival Black left him with a softer feel instead of a harsh outline.  After I had him colored and cut out he looked a little strange hovering over the heart so I added a branch for him to stand on.  So stinkin' cute!!!!!  Check back tomorrow for the card I made using the rest of that glimmer paper!

Thanks for looking, see you soon! 

Love You Sew

This hostess set from the Occasions catalog was too cut to pass up!!!  I love all the crafty little greetings in it!  Plus it has super cute crafty stamps too!  I was sold!  I needed to have it!  I was looking at the set and this little cross stitched heart just kept calling my name.  I wanted a softer more pastel card so I pulled out some Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron and Soft Sky.  I had a vision (don't I always), I knew I needed exact placement of the hearts so I pulled out my Stamp a ma jig.  With the help of that tool, I was able to get perfect placement for all my hearts.  I couldn't be more pleased with it!  

I stamped the greeting on a tag. On some scrap paper I stamped a spool and added some gold thread to it after I fussy cut it out.  The top and bottom of the spool are painted with some Gold Wink of Stella.  Finally to finish the card I added just a little gold glitter ribbon (retired from the Holiday Catalog).  Super cute!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Gold Rose Wonder

 I may have an addiction problem with this set :)  I seriously cannot stop using it!  And every card is just stunning!  I made a few of these cards in the gold polka dot and gold stripe for a card swap I did last week.  I love both and can't decide which one I like better!  I used the Gold Designer Vellum for both and love them both!   

One of the things that really makes this card pop is that rose!  The rose I stamped and embossed with Gold Embossing Powder then fussy cut.  There was a white border around the rose which didn't look horrible but instead of that white border I used my Gold Wink Of Stella to outline the rose.  This made all the difference in the card.  The gold glitter border just makes for a beautiful finish! 

The rose is watercolored on watercolor paper.  It's was simply done with just an aqua painter and some Bermuda Bay reinker.  I colored them before I cut them out.  It made it much easier and gave me little corners to hold onto while coloring. I'm going to try to put my Rose Wonder stamp set aside for a while and work with some other stamp sets for a while :)

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Bunny Balloon Builders

 I LOVE this set!  I know I've said it before but I LOVE THIS SET!!!!!  I'm really excited for craft weekend in just over a month, where I'll have the time to just sit and play with this set for hours!  But I saw this card on pintrest and LOVED It!  So I decided to build my bunny like Darlene did.   

I love that this little bunny is holding a birthday balloon.  I sent this card off to my niece for her birthday this month.  If you have any ideas for animals or anything else you want to see made with this set let me know, comment, email me, etc.  I'm making a list in my craft weekend notebook (yes I have one of those-keeps all my project ideas sorted out).  Let me know any fun ideas you have, who knows it may end up on my blog sometime!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!! 

Watercolored Flowering Fields

This card was the first one I made with the Sale a Bration set Flowering Fields.  I couldn't be happier with the result.  I wasn't really sure what it was going to look like, I really didn't have a plan of where I was going either, it was really more of an experiment, a good one!  I started with some Shimmer White Cardstock.  I love this cardstock so much, it's pretty thick and durable you can actually add a fair amount of water too it and it will be ok. It's NOT watercolor paper so you can't go crazy with the water but for this technique it works great, you can also use watercolor paper too :) 

I used my markers to color the stamps.  I stamped some full strength, I stamped some off, there's a nice variety of stamped images going on here.  Get your heat tool handy, you'll need it in a second.  Then I simply took my spritzer with water.  Immediately those colors are going to start moving.  You don't want them to 'move' too much and looks your stamped images all together.  Once it starts moving grab your heat tool and start heating it up, the heat tool will dry the water and stop the 'bleeding'  After it's dry if you feel it needs to look more watercolored in a few spot, repeat the process with the spritzer.  After all that was done and the watercoloring looking great I decided I wanted some gold splatter with my gold wink of stella pen.  My wink of stella pen decided to have a small break down and freaked out and I ended up with giant blotches of gold.  Most of it was toward the top of the cardstock, I almost lost it, I thought my card would be unsaveable at that point.........I let it dry......decided that the top was really bad and unusable, I cut that off, the bottom looked ok.  I modified my card, added some extra layers and all was fixed.  Honestly, I think the card ended up prettier for it.  I tell my customers all the time at classes, "there's no mistakes in stamping, just creative opportunities" (PS I did not come up with that tidbit of wisdom, I don't remember who said it, I heard it at a Stampin' Up! event years ago, but it stuck with me).  In the case of this card, I just cut off what wasn't working and used what did work.  I could have also ran it through my big shot or a punch and cut out a pretty label or tag or some kind of accent piece.  All was not lost :)  This is a really fun technique and really easy!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

Barnyard Babies Birthday

After a few days of some pretty elegant rose cards I thought I'd switch gears and share a silly, cute card.  I made a whole stack of cards with this years Sale-a-Bration selections and finally narrowed my cards down to the 6 we'll make at my Stamp Camp in a couple weeks. This card didn't make the cut.  It's adorable and so cute, but I wanted to use a little more Sale-a-Bration products in my cards.  This card actually uses 2 Sale-a-Bration sets, the Perfect Pairings set for the greeting and the Hello set for the hats and grass. 

I've also brought in the cow and duck from the Barnyard Babies set in the Annual Catalog.  It's pretty cute and makes me smile!  I simple stamped the animals and colored them with the markers.  Add the hats and a little Dazzling Details on top of each hat for some sparkle!  (Note...I didn't wait until the Dazzling Details was dry before taking this picture and well some of it got on my fingers then on the card {facepalm} next time I'll wait until it's dry).  Take a look at your stamps, don't be afraid to mix them up.  Who knows what fun creations you'll come up with!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Picture Perfect

Over the Christmas break I was fortunate to get together with a couple stamping buddies, Michelle and Kim, for a fun afternoon of crafting.  I asked Kim to bring this set.  It wasn't originally on my radar from the new catalog but I wanted to play with it.  This rose is sooooooo beautiful!  It left me wondering WHY it wasn't on my radar, ummmm this is probably a set I should own.......probably.....

I only used one color of ink for the rose, Blackberry Bliss.  The most solid image I stamped off on scratch paper twice, then the middle image I stamped off once and final the detail image I stamped full strength.  I think sometimes people think you need 100 ink pads to achieve a look like this, it was all done with 1!!!  I stamped a bunch of leaves too and fussy cut everything!  To add even more depth I used my Gold Wink of Stella pen to brush the edges of all the flowers and leaves in gold!  It adds so much!!!!!  I then splattered some gold all over the background.  I've been a fan of the Wink Of Stella pens for a really long time (don't tell Stampin' Up! but I bought some before they were in the catalog).  I'm soooooo glad that we finally carry them.  Like dimensionals, these pens will probably be in every card I make!  Just look for the sparkle!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Watercolored Rose Wonder

When I started this card I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I had a plan...don't I always... but sometimes my plans work better in my head then on paper.  However this was not one of those times.  It worked beautifully and I couldn't be happier with the results!  I sent this off to my friend in California, I had a really hard time letting it go, and if I didn't think it was going to a good home I probably wouldn't have sent it.  But I know it's treasured at it's new home.  But I think I'll make more of these cards.  They're so beautiful!  So how did I get this look????

This card was full of experiments lol!  I started with Shimmery White paper.  You definitely don't want to use our Whisper White for this card, you really need a thicker cardstock that can handle water.  Like I said I used Shimmery White, the thick white would also probably work, really though watercolor paper is ideal for this.  I started by embossing the rose image with white embossing powder.  Make sure you emboss, the embossing powder makes little 'wells' to watercolor in.  Though I did go out of the lines in some spots.  I grabbed my aqua painter and a few markers for the leaves I worked with Old Olive and Garden Green for the rose I used Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo and Rose Red.  Working with one section at a time, I started with my lightest color and colored the entire section, then used the darker colors and colored where I thought highlights should be.  Then I immediately used my aqua painter and added lots of water and let the color kind of blend on their own.  Some of the Rose Red areas, because it was a lot darker I needed to 'help' it blend.  But most of the areas if you just add water and let it dry on it's own the colors will blend naturally together.  Once one section was working on blending I moved to another section that wasn't touching the last section.  This did take a while, but I think it's worth it.  The hardest part is just letting it do it's thing on it's own.  Though you're tempted don't mess with it too much.  I think the look of it drying and blending naturally is so pretty!  I didn't use a heat tool to dry anything I didn't want to move the water, like I said, let it's do it's thing on it's own.  You'll love the results!  Once the card was all colored and dry I just added a quick greeting with some glimmer paper and vellum and finished the card with some rhinestones.  I really want to make a whole rainbow or colors using this technique! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!!   

40th Anniversary

One of my absolute favorite bundles in the new catalog is the Rose Wonder Bundle.  The stamp set is so pretty and I just love all the fonts and greetings in it.  But the rose die!  This should be on EVERYONE'S wishlist!  I've used this entire bundle soooo much...just wait!  Every card I make is prettier than the last.  Of course throwing some glitter into the mix always helps too ;)  Over the Christmas break my parents celebrated their 40th anniversary.  I came up with this simple yet elegant card.   

The congratulations greeting is actually from the Balloon Celebration set.  There's some really fun greetings in that set as well!  I used the Little Numbers Framelits and cut out 40th from black cardstock.  To make it shine a little more I used my Fine Tip Glue Pen ON TOP of the letters and numbers.  Here's another good thing about the Fine Tip Glue Pen, It dries nice and glossy and smooth. Now don't get me wrong I love Crystal Effects but these numbers were pretty small and there's just more control with the fine tip glue pen.  PLUS another bonus, this dries so much quicker than Crystal Effects.  A nice layer of Crystal Effects I would leave drying for a couple hours if not overnight.  This glue, maybe an hour it was completely dry.  Huge bonus!  I love products that work in multiple ways!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!

A Nice Cuppa

I love tea! I don't drink coffee, but I do drink tea, especially in the morning.  When I saw this stamp set I fell in love.  But it's not just the stamp set, there's matching framelits, there's tea charms there's DSP.  This whole suite of products is perfect for the tea lover in your life!  

The DSP I used on this card is actually the Love Blossoms DSP because I liked these patterns better for a fancy tea cup :)  The charms are so cute!!  This little tea pot is my favorite but there's also a spoon and lemon wedge.  So cute!!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

Apple Thanks

These simple note cards are easy to mass produce!  Logan and I made a huge stack of them for his teachers for Christmas.  He wanted to make them a gift so we came up with this sample card and he did the rest.  Of course there was some black glimmer paper added to add extra sparkle.  Plus I love all the glimmer paper!!! 

Don't forget this stamp set, Apple Of My Eye is this months stamp set of the month. You can read more about that here.

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!! 

Live Catalogs Plus Balloon Builders

 Today is the day, the Occasions Catalog and Sale a Bration go live!!  Whooohoooo!!!!  You can see the Occasions Catalog here and the Sale a Bration Catalog here.  You can also see and shop for all the new products here.  Don't forget that for every $50 (USA) you get to choose a FREE Sale a Bration item!  Who doesn't LOVE FREE!!!!!  In honor of the release today I want to share with you a really super cute set of cards I made for a friend with my favorite set from the Occasions Catalog. Balloon Builders.  I'm pretty sure this set was made for me, I've had sooooooooooo much fun with it!!!!  It's like punch art with stamps!!!  The cute animals featured on the cards today were copied right from the catalog!  Don't forget those hundreds of samples are there for you to copy and share!  The animals were so cute and this set of cards was giving to an animal lover that I knew they would be a big hit.  They're stinkin' cute, so brace yourself :)   

The giraffe, SOOOOOO CUTE!!!  (I'll be saying that about all of them so be prepared!).  The cards are all pretty similar and have the same 'hello' greeting from the Watercolor Card Kit in the annual catalog.  I wanted them to be all occasion cards that she could give and use for anyone, the 'hello' greeting was perfect.  I did add some horns to my giraffe and I added eyes to all my creatures.  Don't you just love him!?!?!?!

Next is the flamingo, I'm not gonna lie, he's a cutie!  Instead of using the string from the stamp set I used my Project Life pen to add legs.  I really wanted my flamingo standing on one leg :)

The turtle.  So cute!!!!  He's going places!  In the set of cards she got 2 of each card.  When I finished I realized I should have made 3 of each card because these cards were hard to part with :)  But I know they have a good home and will be loved. 

This one is probably my favorite, LOVE LOVE LOVE him!!!!!  How stinkin' cute is he, I just can't get over it.  And if you know me, you can probably hear me giggling with joy like I do when I create something that's too cute to handle, like this elephant.  Seriously, how can you not love him!!!!?! 

This one is probably the one I modified the most from the catalog.  First I wanted the front of the bear, second I did his head differently then the catalog.  I also added a little muzzle and nose to him too.  He's so cuddly!!!  I'm so excited about the opportunities of this set!!! 

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!!

More of Rose Wonder

We are only 1 day away from the release of the Occasions Catalog and the beginning of Sale A Bration!!!!   I can't wait!!!  Tomorrow everything goes live, also can we talk for a minute about how it's another new year already!?!?!  Let's move on, I just love this card!!!!!  I mentioned in this post that this Rose Wonder set has lots of amazing greetings, this is one of them and it's a good one!  I simply stamped and embossed it on vellum.  Easy and so so pretty!!!

I cut out a rose from some Garden Green and Elegant Eggplant cardstock and adhered it right on the base of one of our White notecards.  I didn't want to add a lot of embellishments to distract from the rose and the greeting, so I simply added a little strip of gold foil cardstock to the top and it also hides the adhesive on the vellum.  So pretty!!!

Thanks for looking, see you soon!!!