Friendship

This week I'm celebrating friendship with a whole bunch of new coordinating stamps and dies that came in a pretty little box marked Stamp of Approval.  It's a whole box of goodies that Catherine Pooler put together over at Stamp Nation and her website CatherinePooler.com.

Just look at all of this fun!!

I actually received this box over a week ago and just got the opportunity to really dig in and play with it on Sunday.  I whipped up a few different cards and boy do I mean different!  Take a look.

I did a masking technique for this card using a die cut tag image.  I then used Eva's Favorite Flowers to stamp the masked off area.  To accentuate the tag shape I blended a  light blue haze around the edge.

I blended some pretty blue distress inks together on this tag and used Casual Fridays Love Ya die for the sentiment.  Isn't that Curtis background stamp so cool, adding a little touch of bubblegum pink?

I used the Friend stamp set to make the floral background for this card.  Using the stitched diagonal die from Lil' Inker Designs I was able to create a focal point with some of the same flowers in bright blues.

Another use for that awesome tag die set is to make it into a shaker card.

And I saved this sweet little Love Ya  Sistah for last.  I am really loving those flower dies.  There are so many great ways you can layer them.

  I think Catherine did an awesome job putting this box together.  Everything coordinates so beautifully.  The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for stopping by!

This Week in Cards - August 2nd week

With so much of my energy focused on my tropical card set I didn't have much time for extra cards this week.  I did complete a few Clean And Simple ones though that I thought turned out pretty cute.

I really love the simplicity of this card but still showcasing some fun stamping.  I love the way the black "ink spots" pop off the clean background and I really think these colors look great together.  I used stamps and dies from WPlus9 and My Favorite Things.

I made this pretty princess card using a stencil and stamp that I've had for a long time but have never used.  Mainly because they both stumped me.  I fell in love with the sentiment on this stamp and honestly it has been displayed in my craftroom  more as a decor piece than a working stamp.   Once I came up with the idea to cut around the shoe and pop it up off the card as an embellishment the plan came together fast.  I thought it would be the perfect card for a bridal shower or engagement.  And check out that fantastic silver sparkly paper from My Favorite Things!  LOVE IT!

This last card kind of steps away from the styles that I'm most comfortable with.  Lots of patterns, stamping and coloring on this card.  I went with a checked background stamp from My Favorite Things and a cute little cherry stamp from Sizzix.  Then I found this adorable little Art Impressions bunnny stamp last week that I just had to have.  I admit, it's quite a bit smaller than I had anticipated which meant I had to break out my glasses when it came time for coloring with my Kuretake real brush markers.  I can't wait to use that bunny for a few Easter cards in the spring.

And this right here is why I loved that bunny stamp.  Isn't this adorable?!!

Thanks so much for hopping by.......I mean stopping by!  We'll see you next week!

Flip Flop Gift Card Set

Geesh, I can't believe how fast summer is passing. It's already mid August and I'm finding myself behind on some of my summer projects.  I started on this gift card set last month and just finished it up over the weekend.  I wanted to send a little tropical set of cards to my in-laws who just moved to Florida last year.  Now, here in IL this would be a little late in the season to be giving a summery set like this to someone.  But they have that awesome flip flop season almost year around down there so I thought they'd really get some use out of these.  Nothing like rubbing some sunshine into the noses of  your northern friends in the middle of January, right?  LOL!

For this card set the main dies and stamps I used are from Lil' Inker Designs.  I just couldn't resist those darling flip flops and cute little sayings.  The palm tree is from My Favorite Things.

First off, I made this coordinating envelope box for them to store their cards and envelopes in until they get around to using them all.

I started with these two cards a few weeks ago and set the tone for what I wanted the whole set to look like.  For card sets like these,  I like to keep them kind of unified in color and theme but I like each card to have a different design.  I wanted these to be kind of a neutral note card collection so that they could have a little flexibility on when to use them and for what occasions to send them on.  I also wanted to keep them kind of laid back.  They left a lot of friends behind in their travels and sometimes just a little note card is all that's needed to let them know they are thinking of them and that they miss them.

I finished the collection up with these four cards.  One of the things I tried to do was to keep the cards as flat as I could so that mailing wouldn't be an issue.  A little dimension is great but I didn't want to make it difficult or expensive for them to send these handmade cards.  Plus, if the cards have too much bulk they will not slide in and out of the gift box easily and the cards could end up damaged.

I did throw one "thank you" card into the mix but you can see that any of these cards could probably be used as a thank you card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Rylee makes a card for Lily.

My 8 year old niece Rylee really wanted to add another card into the Simon Says Stamp Summer Vacation Challenge so she decided on this very first shaker card she made over the weekend.  We don't have a fuse tool yet so I showed her how to use my food saver sealer to make her little shaker pocket.  She was so excited to make this cute sparkly card for her little cousin Lily's birthday.

And little Lily was so excited to get this card in the mail.  Her mommy said she squeeled when she opened it.

Another big Happy Birthday to Lily!!

A special Happy Birthday card for Lily.

My sweet little niece Lily is celebrating her 5th birthday today.  I've never see a child quite like her, especially when it comes to animals.  This little farm girl is such a natural when it comes to loving and communicating with all of them.  She's been known to cuddle with goats, sheep, dogs, chickens and most of all her kitties.  When Lily steps out her front door she usually has a trail of animals behind her.  She definitely has a unique gift and a beautiful heart.

Since she lives so far away and I couldn't make her a special cake to celebrate, I decided to make her a very special card instead.  Using another one of those adorable stamps by WPlus9 (whom I think must have used Lily as their model) I tried to make a pretty outdoor, summery scene.  This is just Lily to me.  Little blonde ringlets, pretty little dress, boots to play in the mud and a cuddly little kittie in her arms.

I used a diecut border to stencil the clouds and little hill in the background with distress inks.  I used Kuretake waterbrush markers to color the images and stamped a sweet sentiment from a My Favorite Things stamp set.

Then for the inside I used some ghost diecut numbers cascading from the top, representing years past. I wanted the inside to be fun and cheerful like the outside so I used coordinating colors and a cute banner across the top.

Happy Birthday Silly Lily!  You're one of a kind and Aunt Lisa loves you!!  XXXOOO!

Rylee's First Watercolor Creation

One of the things I love about my 8 year old niece Rylee is that she loves cardmaking and scrapbooking as much as I do. She's my little creative kindred spirit.  I absolutely love that she is always wanting to learn new techniques.  On this day it was watercoloring with distress inks.

One of the first things we always do before we hit the craft room is jump on the internet for her to find some inspiration pieces.  She browses through Pinterest and watches some tutorial videos by some of our favorite artists.   This time I was really honored that her inspiration came from a card I made.

We broke out the stamps, inks, brushes and watercolor paper and had our first lesson in watercolors.  This kid is a natural.  Once she got started it was like I wasn't even in the room.   She instantly got in "the zone" and focused on her masterpiece.

When she finished she had a beautifully watercolored card front.  And boy was she proud of herself!

The next steps she took in designing her card kind of surprised me.  She came up with the idea of cutting her painted front into strips and then putting them back together kind of like a puzzle. Such a brave move she made after all of that hard work coloring.

So, out came the strip dies and she used the Cuttlebug to cut it into strips.  After glueing the strips to a pink background she decided that she loved my cards with the black and white stripes and wanted to add that to the edge.  She finished it off with a diecut Thanks and a few sparkly sequins.

I am always so proud of Rylee's creations, I brag her up every chance I can get.  I don't think some people realize how much time, effort and love go into making a card.  She has so much love to give and I can see it in everything she creates.  She has a great eye for color and a wonderful sense of what's aesthetically pleasing.  And above all of that, she is one great kid!!

Thanks for stopping by!

This Week in Cards - Welcome August!

August is roaring in like a lion!  It's heating up outside and the only place I really want to be is inside.   Inside my craft room with the air cranked up and an ice cold wine cooler near by.  I have a big birthday coming up this week so of course I've been celebrating for oh....about a month.  ;)   So This Week in Cards I had lots of new stuff to play with.

First up I used a Lil" Inker Border Builders die to create this cloud stencil.  Awesome fun technique and a great background for this adorable Art Impressions airplane stamp.  Any of my friends know that this "happy mail"  fits my husband and I to a T!

Another Art Impressions stamp that I absolutely love are these giggly friends. So cute!   I find that I can't stamp these images without altering them in some way.  This little blonde received a long pony tail.  For the animal print background I actually used an old wall stencil that I had laying around. I stenciled in black and then sprayed a light spray of black over it to add texture.

Using a watercolored background and some large dies and stamped letters for this playful little birthday card.  I'm always looking for a chance to use those adorable, Unforgettable elephants by WPlus9.

This card was one of a few different challenges I did for Stamp Nation.  This challenge was to make a card depicting your favorite drink.  Mine is Diet Coke.  Can you see it?? 

I CASE'd an awesome card by Catherine Pooler this week and came up with this one.  I loved the striking contrast between the black and white image and the bright colored title strip.  I also added some bright ink splotches to mine.

Another Stamp Nation challenge was to make a glamorous Hollywood style card. What's more glam that sparkly chandeliers?  I was excited to use this chandelier stamp that I haven't used in ages.  See, it pays to hoard every one of those stamps.  You never know when you might need them.  ;) 

And finally, another beauty using my Altenew layered rose stamp set.  This time using a Hero Arts wreath stamp as a foundation of leafy greens.   The sentiment is another oldie I dug out of my Stampin Up' drawer.  And an honorable mention to those fabulous black and white stripes that I'm still so enamored with and can't get enough of. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a great week my friends!

Butterfly Infatuation

I hereby dub this month of July as Butterfy month.  I have been seriously infatuated with butterflies lately.  Butterflies have always held a special meaning to me.  They remind me of that beautiful song by Dolly Parton titled "Love is Like a Butterfly".  It's an older song that I listened to quite often as a young girl.  The lyrics are beautiful and she sings it in such  a soft, angelic voice.

"Love is like a butterfly, as soft and gentle as a sigh"

 "The multicolored moods of love are like it's satin wings"

"Love makes your heart feel strange inside, it flutters like soft wings in flight"

"Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing."

 The butterflies I used for these cards are:

Simon Says Stamp: 

Devonshire Butterfly

Paulina Butterfly

Paper Smooches:

Graceful Beauties 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Everything's Coming up Roses

Oh Altenew Vintage Roses, how I do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

1.  As a beautiful frame around a traditional oval die.  Once I practiced and finally figured out some color combinations that worked well together I decided to make my first card with my new Vintage Roses stamp set by Altenew.      

2.  As a beautiful bouquet accent piece with lots of added greens.

This is a very popular and well sought after stamp set in the card world right now and when you see how beautiful these roses are you'll know why.  Amazing shading and depth!  Some of them have three layers of color and some even have four layers. 

3.  As a dimensional accent piece to compliment any greeting.

The coordinating dies are a must have.  I am so in love with this stamp set  and it's huge!  You really get a big bang for your buck with his one.

I just can't get enough of these gorgeous roses.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Tickled Pink!

I really didn't notice my obsession with pink this month until I sat down to make this posting of my latest cards.  Wow!  I think Simon Says Stamp's Doll Pink cardstock started it all.  What a fabulous color!

This gorgeous butterfly die from SSS really packs a punch!

Look how large and gorgeous these Paper Smooches Rose dies are!  I offset a top layer of doll pink to add some more dimension. You can't see it too well in this photo but those fabulous pink sequins match the little butterfly perfectly.

How fun is this shaker card using this beautiful Heidi Swapp paper??  It's framed in some Doll Pink  using a  crossed stitch oval dye from My Favorite Things.  The fuse tool is still on my wish list so until then I use my Food Saver sealer to make this little clear pocket full of sequins and glitter.  It worked great! 

I am totally in love with this Anemones layered stamp and die set from WPlus9.  I have been able to use them in so many different ways.  I reached for them to make this beautiful sympathy card and they added just the perfect amount of color.

Then I just got crazy and stamped a whole background.  I diecut the flowers and inlayed them into the background.  That was such an easy way to add color and depth to this card. 

And just a little pop of pink to this bright blue water color resist background really set this card off. A little pink can sure go a long way!

Thanks for stopping by!  Think Pink!!  ;) 

Weekend fun cards

 I was lucky enough to get a few hours to make some cards this weekend and boy did I have fun!  

I've been wanting to make a shaker card out of this MFT champagne glass for a long time.  I just love the combination clear sequins mixed with large gold glitter.  The sequins remind me of bubbles.

While I was waiting for my new Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers I whipped out my Tim Holtz distress markers to make this  awesome background and flowered piece.  I just scribbled on the background in a few different vibrant colors and then sprayed with water and added some big water droplets.  I love Distress ink!

My first time trying out Lil' Inker Designs Ombre' striped paper and absolutely love it!  It really makes a great background.  I also used  LID's new Coffee Talk stamps for the first time.  I really loved what Sarah Jay did with this stamp set, especially with the chocolate "drizzle" over the top.  I thought it looked so realistic and fun!   I totally snagged that idea for my card.  Thanks Sarah!

And being the thrifty little cardmaker that I am I used the cutout piece from the last card to make a focal point for this card.  That sweet little Unforgettable elephant with a birthday balloon and hat.  And this is my first attempt at coloring with my new Zig markers.  It was so easy and fun!  So glad I gave the Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers a try.

Thank you so much for stopping by!