Perfect Vines - Watercolored With Distress Ink

What?  July is almost over??  How did that happen? 

Hi everyone!  It has been a busy summer for me and unfortunately I haven't had much time to spend in my craft room lately.   In case you haven't heard, I'm taking a little break from my DT duties over at StampNation to catch up on some things here on the homefront.   But rest assured, my heart is always with my StampNation Sistahs and I'm still popping in to get my daily dose of awesome inspiration.

Last weekend, with my husband (slave driver) out of town,  I finally had some time to play!   I got a little messy with some distress inks and watercolor paper!   I cut a whole bunch of Perfect Vines out of 140 lb watercolor paper and swirled them around on my craft mat with some of my favorite colors.  Letting them dry between layers I was able to build up color on top of color for a really cool affect.  I flicked a few gold drops over them using Ranger's Tarnished Brass Spray Stain.

I layered the Catherine Pooler Design's Perfect Vine die cuts over the Lattice Frame Die from the Stamp of Approval Naturally Inspired Collection.  Then I tucked in a thank you sentiment from the Enchanted Garden stamp set using the Circles die set.

I topped this card off with an Enchanted Butterfly painted with some more Tarnished Brass Spray Stain and a few gold sequins.  This was a super easy and fun card to make.  I love the look of layering die cuts like this.  It gives the card so much texture and depth without even having to use any dimensional adhesive.

Stamps:  Enchanted Garden (Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection/Catherine Pooler Designs).

Inks:  Abandoned Coral, Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon (Ranger Distress), Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs), Tarnished Brass Spray Stain (Ranger).

Paper:  Premium White cardstock (Catherine Pooler Designs), watercolor 140 lb (Canson).

Accessories:  Perfect Vine Dies, Lattice Frame Dies, Enchanted Butterfly Die, Circles Dies (Catherine Pooler Designs), clear superfine embossing powder (WOW!), gold sequins.

Well that's my card for today!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

The Ton's July Challenge - Mood Board

Hi everyone.  Today we're welcoming the month of July with a Mood Board Challenge over at
 The Ton's Challenge Blog: The Season.
You have the whole month of July to enter this challenge for a chance to WIN a $50 gift certificate for  
The Ton online store.  You can click on the link to head on over and check it out any time.  But first I'd like to show you a card I made using this beautiful mood board for inspiration.

The soft colors are beautiful in these inspiration photos!  The one that caught my eye was the top center picture of the ocean.  I loved the pink/purple sky and the dark turquoise color of the ocean.  I thought it would make a beautiful card and any chance I can get to play with The Ton's awesome Wave stamp I jump on it!  It's my favorite stamp in The Ton's Summer Release.

For my card today I stamped the Wave using three inks from The Ton:  Bright Emerald, Caribbean Turquoise and Hot Tourmaline.  I cut out a cloud shape from some thin cardstock to make my own stencil for the clouds.  Moving the stencil around I blended Soft Amethyst along the stencil then used a soft pink Ballet Slippers to blend it out away from the stencil for a soft, dreamy look.  I blended a touch of a darker shade, Miami Cool along the water line to add more depth.

Stamps:  Wave, Large Peony 2, Haute Stripes (The Ton).

Ink:  Soft Amethyst, Ballet Slippers, Miami Cool, Bright Emerald, Caribbean Turquoise, Hot Tourmaline, Hampton White Pigment, Noir (The Ton).

Paper:  white 110 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories:  Glass Slippers Couture Mix (The Ton),   white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, fun foam.

Adding some embossed white splashes to the Wave gives it a shiny texture.  I kept the sentiment simple by clear embossing over Noir black, a beautifully scripted "Thinking of You" from the Large Peony 2 stamp set.  Using the Haute Stripes Cling Background stamp I stamped the card base in Bright Emerald then added the Wave  panel using a pop of fun foam for a little dimension.  I topped it off with some different sized sequins from my favorite couture mix; Glass Slippers.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I hope you'll make some time this month to join in this fun challenge with us over at The Ton Blog.  We love seeing all of your creations and it's so fun to see everyone's interpretation of each challenge.

Have a great day and Happy Stamping!!