CAS-ual Fridays Inspiration Squad

Yay!  I can finally spill the beans!  I'm so excited to announce I'm now part of
CAS-ual Fridays Inspiration Squad!
Woohoo!  I have always wanted to be a Girl Friday!!

Every other Friday for the next six months I'll be over at the CAS-ual Fridays blog, offering up some inspiration for this bi-weekly challenge.  This means I get to break out my CAS-ual Fridays goodies to play alongside some other wonderful designers to create cards and projects that will hopefully inspire you to play along and join in the fun!  It's all starting this Friday, May 6th over at the CAS-ual Fridays The Challenge blog. Come on over, check it out and have some fun!

Now I just want to share a couple of pretty cards I made using some of CAS-ual Fridays wonderful stamps and dies.  This first one is using their fabulous new Pretty Posies!

I colored these Pretty Posies with my Zig watercolor markers and did a little cutting and layering.  I just love the design of these leaves and the sentiments in this set have such a beautiful handwritten look to them.

And using the Whole Shebang stamp set along with the Curtis Background I made this festive birthday card.

I used the Tag Buddies Fri-Dies as a focal point for the center of this card.  The HB2U from the Whole Shebang set fit perfectly on the front of this card.

For more information on CAS-ual Fridays The Challenge <------go here!!

See you all Friday!!  Have a great day!!

Fabulous is a Frame of Mind.

Hello and welcome.  Today I want to share a pretty little card I made using a few different stamp sets from The Ton.   

I bought this beautiful Haute Wedding Dress stamp set a few weeks ago and have finally had a chance to play with it.  How fun!  It reminds me of when I was a little girl playing with paper dolls.  I stamped her image on the white card front and then stamped her again on top of some watercolor paper that I had watercolored using distress inks.  Then I cut out her dress and adhered it over the stamped image.   I paired her with one of the larger frames in the The Ton's Vintage Frames stamp set by embossing in a pretty gold.  The stamp that I used for the background pattern is actually a teeny little stamp from The Ton's Mini Wild Florals stamp set.  I did some second generation stamping inside the frame to give the illusion of a mirror, reflecting the pattern on the opposite wall.

I thought this sentiment from My Favorite Things Tickled Pink stamp set really went well on this card.  You'll be seeing this combination of stamp sets from me again because I think there are a few other sentiments on this stamp set that will work great with this Haute Wedding Dress.    

I even added some tiny details by stamping and embossing a little necklace using a stamp from The Ton's Holiday Flourish stamp set.  I used a gold glitter gel pen to fill in between the embossed dots and I also used the pen for her little earring.  I used Copic markers to color her skin and hair.

Before I go I'm excited to let you know  StampNation is gearing up for an awesome event called Inspiration Nation.  Each quarter we have a special online event for StampNation members.  This time it's a whole plethora of inspiration boards that have been put together by our Dream Team designers to inspire and challenge our members to a full week of card making fun!  If you're not a member yet there's still time to join in. Inspiration Nation kicks off on Monday, May2nd over at StampNation.  Just click on the photo below to stop over and sign up for your membership today!

I hope to see you there!!   Thanks so much for stopping by!   Have a great day!!

Beautiful World Blog Hop Winner in the house!

So, so excited!  One of the Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Blog Hop winners was chosen from my blog!  Thank  you all so much for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  I hope most of you are by now excitingly waiting the arrival of this new collection of goodies.Catherine announced the winner today on her blog.  Here they are!!

From my blog:

Terri Mansfield

From Kelly's blog:

Donna Phelan

Congratulations ladies!  Now you can head on over to Catherine's blog for further instructions on how to contact her to claim your prize!!

Now, here's a little more of my Beautiful World I'd like to share with you all.  Just a couple more cards using this awesome collection.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Happy stamping!

Stamp of Approval Beautiful World - Blog Hop!!

Welcome!  It's the day you've all been waiting for..... one more peek into the the 

Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection 

and a chance to win!!

On sale tomorrow!!  April 20th!!

Every item in this new Stamp of Approval Collection has been hand chosen by Catherine Pooler to coordinate perfectly.  Eleven designers (that's right, 11!!!) are coming together today to show you how wonderfully well the Beautiful World works together and how many amazing possibilities there are using this collection (well, we'll touch on a few of them anyway ;)  This means that if you leave a comment at every stop along the way, you will have 14 chances to win!  How exciting is that?

So let's get going, you have places to go and amazing projects to see!

For my card I stamped and embossed these gorgeous, large butterflies on watercolor paper with onyx black Versafine ink and clear embossing powder.  Then did some watercoloring with my Kuretake real brush markers.  I colored in the butterflies doing some light shading.   These butterflies are so large and so easy to color.  I'm totally impressed with the size of this stamp.  After coloring the butterflies I colored a blue hue on the background and then blended it using my waterbrush.  

All stamps and dies used are from the Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection.  

A little closer up you can see all of the great detail in these butterflies.  I added a little brushed pewter distress stain to add some sparkly magic to this card.

Just a few reminders for you:

To order this Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection, <---- be sure to follow this link and get your name on the email notification list.  These sell out pretty fast so if ya snooze ya lose, ya know?!  ;)  But seriously sign up and Catherine will email you the instant this collection goes on sale on tomorrow Wednesday, April 20th.  As per the perks of being a StampNation member, our sistahs and brothahs will get the notification one hour before the public notifications go out.  If you're interested in becoming a member of StampNation <------ head on over, I'd love to see you there!

One Lucky Box!

One random lucky person is going to have a HUGE surprise tucked inside their box!  A Mini MISTI for one lucky stamper, woohoooo!!    I hope it's YOU!!

Leave a Comment to WIN a box!

Before you head over to see Ingrid, be sure to leave me a comment below for another chance to WIN a 

FREE Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection.  You have until 9:00 am eastern time on Thursday, April 21st to get your comments posted.  Two lucky winners will be chosen soon after.   Don't hesitate to buy your box on Wednesday though.  Get that order in before they sell out.  Catherine will reimburse you if you're one of the lucky winners. Good luck!! 

Catherine Pooler
Maureen Merritt
Kristie Goulet
Heather North
Allison Cope
Laurel Beard
Lisa Harrolle <--you are here.
Ingrid Blackburn is NEXT!!
Kathy Racoosin
Kelly Tribout Latevola
Beth Silaika


Have a great day and happy hopping!!

Stamp of Approval: featuring a Beautiful World!

Well hello everyone!  It's an exciting day today.  We get a sneak peek into a whole new 

Beautiful World!

The Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection is coming soon (April 20th it goes on sale!!) and today I'm so excited to get to show a little bit of it to you.  This is a whole box of wonderfully detailed stamps and dies that have been perfectly curated by the awesome Catherine Pooler.  This is the fourth collection that she has designed and I'm here to tell you that once again, Catherine outdid herself!  I don't know how she does it but the ideas keep coming and she really knocks them out of the park.

Well here.....let me just show you!   You have to see this Beautiful World for yourself.  Here are a couple of cards I've whipped up just for you today.   I wanted to focus on my favorite part of this collection, those fabulous florals!

All of the stamps and dies that I've used on these cards are from this amazing Beautiful World Collection.

I had so much fun stamping and coloring with these stamp sets.  To me they are fun and whimsical, yet they have a classic element in the beautifully scripted sentiments.  Also included in this set are some wonderful coordinating dies to make your cardmaking so much easier. 

Fussy cutting really isn't my thing so to have dies that do the work for me is a fabulous bonus.  I colored all of these fun florals using my Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush markers.  That's a LOT of flowers......and I didn't have to break out my scissors even once!

For the next card I did some fun stamping on the background, being sure to leave a place for that gorgeous scripted sentiment.  Then I popped up some pretty pink, diecut flowers using dimensional tape.   

I really love the way these flowers look being stamped with distress inks and then using the Kuretake markers to color them in.  

I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek into my Beautiful World.

To order this Stamp of Approval Beautiful World Collection, <---- be sure to follow this link and get your name on the email notification list.  These sell out pretty fast so if ya snooze ya lose ya know?!  ;)  But seriously sign up and Catherine will email you the instant this collection goes on sale on Wednesday, April 20th.  As per the perks of being a StampNation member, as always,  our sistahs and brothahs will get the notification one hour before the public notifications go out.  If you're interested in becoming a member of StampNation <------ head on over, I'd love to see you there!

One Lucky Box!

Oh and by the way......I just found out that one random lucky person is going to have a HUGE suprise tucked inside their box!  A Mini Misti for one lucky stamper, woohoooo!!    I hope it's YOU!!! 

Blog Hop and a Chance to Win! 

Come on back here on Tuesday, April 19th and join us in our Stamp of Approval Beautiful World blog hop!  Catherine Pooler, the Dream Team and a whole host of awesome guest designers will be on hand with a whole new and Beautiful World of cards to show you!  We're also super excited that 2 lucky winners will be chosen from blog hop comments to recieve the Beautiful World collection for FREE!  Yay!!  So stop by Tuesday and do some hopping with us!!

What?.....you want more you say?  This is your lucky day!  The Dream Team and special guest designers are loading up their blogs with lots of sneak peeks this weekend just for you!  Here's some links, stop by and check them out today!

Catherine

Heather

Kelly

Susie

and Ingrid

Have a BEAUTIFUL Day my friends!!

  

Many Thanks to The Ton!

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to take a few minutes to thank Effie over at The Ton for inviting me to play along in the big blog hop last week.  I had a great time and I have to say I am still absolutely loving all of the new stamp sets.  I know a lot of you were really interested in the Sending Peonies stamp set and boy I can sure see why.  I absolutely love it!  One of the things that I'm really drawn to about this set is the single peony.  Kinda crazy because just look how stunning that large spray of peonies is.  But for some reason  that little lone peony in the corner just won my heart.

Today I made a card using that single flower as a background by stamping it with onyx black ink.  Then I embossed that little peony and a smaller one on the end of the large spray with silver embossing powder.  Using my Kuretake watercolor markers and some water, I colored them in a couple shades of pink and then cut them out.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Sending Peonies (The Ton).  Ink, onyx black (Versafine), clear watermark (Versamark), Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush Markers (ZIG).  Paper: silver sparkle, translucent vellum cardstock (My Favorite Things), white 140 lb cardstock  (Neenah).  Accessories:  silver embossing powder (Ranger), sequins (unknown).

After adding a layer of vellum cardstock I  heat embossed one of the small sentiments repeatedly on white cardstock, at an angle and adhered it to the vellum.  I think the silver really adds to the beauty and formality of this card.

   

Click on this stamp set to learn more about how to order the Sending Peonies stamp set today!

Be sure to stop back here on Saturday, April 16th because I'll  be giving a sneak peek at the new Stamp of Approval Collection that's scheduled for release next week.  You're gonna love it!  If you're not on the notification list yet just click on the photo below and it will take you over to the Stamp of Approval page to sign up for notification right now!!  They sell out fast so you're gonna want the heads up!

Have an awesome day!

The Ton - Spring 2016 Release Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome!  I'm so excited to be participating in The Ton's spring release blog hop today.  Are you ready for a TON of inspiration and an awesome giveaway?  Let's do it!

I've had spring fever the last couple of weeks and The Ton's new stamps are a HUGE reason why.  These stamps are gorgeous!

I have to start by telling you about my absolute favorite stamp set in this release.  When I saw this set for the first time I squeeled.  I am such a bird lover and this set was right up my alley!  If you love all of The Ton's layered florals you are going to go crazy over this layered hummingbird!

Hello Hummingbird

This little bird has multiple layers of gorgeous detail!  It's very easy to line up and can be as colorful as you want it to be.  Seriously, have you ever googled hummingbirds?  You will get so many amazing photos of these beautiful, colorful birds and you'll want to stamp every one of them!  The possibilities are endless!

For this first card I stamped and then cut out the hummingbird to place on top of this background that I heat embossed using the new Sending Peonies stamp set.  Aren't those peonies gorgeous?   After heat embossing them with clear powder, I went in with some color using my  Zig Kuretake real brush watercolor markers.  I sprayed over the color with water to get a nice blended watercolor affect.  I popped up the hummingbird with a dimensional tape so he looks like he's hoovering around the flowers.

For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps: Hello Hummingbird, Sending Peonies (The Ton).   Ink: natural (My Favorite Things), wet cement, cup o' joe, passion flower, grape juice, field greens (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), onyx black (Versafine), clear emboss (Versamark), kuretake real brush watercolor markers (Zig).  Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), watercolor paper 140 lb (Canson), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: clear embossing powder (WOW), clear wink of stella glitter pen (ZIG), dimensional tape, fun foam, clear sequins (unknown)

And to show you a few more color combinations using the Hello Hummingbird stamp set, I stamped three more color combinations for this card:

For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps: Hello Hummingbird, Haute Stripes (The Ton).  Ink:  tide pool, wet cement, cup o' joe, field greens, grape juice, passion flower, pool, soft sky (Hero Arts Shadow Inks), catkin (Simon Says Stamp), natural (My Favorite Things), tumbled glass (Ranger Distress Ink), clear watermark (Versamark).  Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), watercolor 140 lb (Canson), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: clear embossing powder (WOW), clear wink of stella glitter pen (ZIG), black 3-d paint (Ranger), dimensional tape, fun foam, clear sequins (unknown)

Next up, pulled out the platimum sparkle embossing powder to emboss the new Sending Peonies stamp set.  Keeping this card a little more on the traditional side, I did some simple coloring with my Kuretake waterbrush markers.
For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps:  Sending Peonies  (The Ton).  Ink: clear watermark (Versamark).  Paper: fog (Simon Says Stamp), watercolor 140 lb (Canson) white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: platinum sparkle embossing powder (WOW), kuretake real brush watercolor markers (Zig), gold pen (Gelly Roll), fun foam, clear sequins (unknown).

I love that the Sending Peonies stamp set has a large group of peonies, but it also has a single peony.  This makes it so easy to cut out to add as an accent to any card.  I coordinated it with the dots from the Bokeh Burst Round stamp set.

For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps:  Sending Peonies, Bokeh Burst Round (The Ton).  Ink: onyx black (Versafine), clear watermark (Versamark), kuretake real brush watercolor markers (Zig).  Paper: black (Simon Says Stamp), silver sparkle (My Favorite Things), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah), watercolor 140 lb (Canson).  Accessories:  clear embossing powder (WOW), silver embossing powder (Ranger), silver thread, dimensional tape, fun foam, silver sequins (unknown).

And I can't say enough about how fun the Bokeh Burst Round stamp set is.  I am totally loving that large "hugs" sentiment!

For this card I used the following supplies:
Stamps: Bokeh Burst Round (The Ton).  Ink: hollyhock, duckling, wisteria, spring rain, rosie cheeks (Simon Says Stamp), onyx black (Versafine).  Paper: white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: 1/2" circle punch (EK Success), dimensional tape (unknown).


Thank you so much for stopping by.   Now it's time for you to hop on over to see my good friend Jessica Frost-Ballas!
But WAIT!  Before you head over to Jessica's blog, make sure you leave a comment here for another chance to
WIN one of three $25 gift codes up for grabs from The Ton!   You have until Wednesday, April 13th  to hop in to all the blogs listed below and leave your comments.  Each comment is a chance to win!!  Good luck and happy stamping!!

The Ton

Ruby Naz

Lisa Harrolle <--You are here

Jessica Frost-Ballas <----next!

Virginia Lu

Keeway Tsao

Amy Tsuruta

Emily Midgett

Laura Sterckx

Vera Yates

Laurel Beard

Eunji Jung

Kymona Tracey

Mayline Jung

Have an awesome day!

Those stripes are Haute!

 Hello everyone!  Today I have a couple things to share with you.  Starting with a few cards I've made using my new background stamp from The Ton.  I just can get enough of these Haute Stripes!!  It stamps such a clean, crisp image.  I especially love it in gray!  Any color pops so nicely off  of a clean gray and white background.

Here I've added a little pop of color using stamped flowers from the Eva's Favorite Flowers stamp set that was in first Stamp of Approval Collection.  I thought I'd make it a little whimsical by using a colored pencil to scribble a center onto each of the flowers.

for this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Eva's Favorite Flowers (Stamp of Approval Friendship Collection/Winnie & Walter), Haute Stripes (The Ton), Expressions For You (Simon Says Stamp).   Ink:  rosie cheeks (Simon Says Stamp), soft granite, charcoal (Hero Arts Shadow Ink).   Paper:  silver sparkle cardstock (My Favorite Things),  white cardstock 140 lb (Neenah).   Accessories:  Stitched Jumbo Fishtail Banner dies, Blueprints #15 dies (My Favorite Things),  You die (Simon Says Stamp) magenta colored pencil (EK Success), fun foam, clear sequins (unknown).

Using Altenew's Lacy Scrolls stamp and dies I stamped green leaves and scrolls right over the top of the Haute Stripes.  Then I stamped these beautiful peonies, shaded them with a little colored pencil then popped them up with some dimensional tape.  Such a simple card with a lot of detail.

for this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps:  Haute Stripes (The Ton), Lacy Scrolls (Altenew), Written in Watercolor (My Favorite Things).  Ink: soft granite, field greens (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), rosie cheeks (Simon Says Stamp), clear watermark (Versamark).   Paper:  white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories:  Lacy Scrolls dies (Altenew), metallic platinum sparkle embossing powder (WOW), colored pencils (EK Success), fun foam, dimensional tape, clear sequins (unknown).

Keeping with the peonies and striped theme I made this card in a similar way except I stamped and diecut the leaves separately.  I'm planning to make a whole set in this style to give to a friend as a gift.

for this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Haute Stripes, Large Peony 2 (The Ton), Lacy Scrolls (Altenew).  Ink: soft sand, field greens (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), coral crush (My Favorite Things), clear watermark (Versamark).  Paper: white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: Lacy Scroll dies (Altenew), gold embossing powder (Ranger), champaign sequins (Lucy's Cards), dimensional tape.

Blogger Alert!

A couple more things before you go.  The wonderful Catherine Pooler of CatherinePooler.com has invited me to be a guest blogger over on her blog today. Stop on over and check out my post ----->HERE where I'm using  an exclusive sketch from StampNation to make a card!  Give me a shoutout and let me know what you think!

Oh and.....while you're over there  WIN! WIN!WIN!........Catherine is at it again!!  There's a new Stamp of Approval box coming out on April 20th and Catherine is giving one away!!  Check out the details -----> HERE and get your entry in by April 11th!!

There's another great challenge posted over at StampNation!  Check out these samples from the design team!  Can you believe it?  One photo inspired all these different looks.  Genius I tell you!!  StampNation sistahs let's see whatcha got!  I can't wait to see how you are inspired!  If you're not a member of StampNation yet go 

------->HERE to learn more today!

Have a great day!!

Good Friday - Florals

Hello and happy Good Friday!  I'm just popping by today to drop off a few pretty spring cards, just in time for Easter.  When I think of springtime I think of all the bright colored tulips and daffodils and beautiful blooming apple and cherry blossoms and those gorgeous bradford pear trees in my back yard.  I decided to make up a whole cheerful gift card set that I can give to a friend.

For this set of cards I used one beautiful stamp set by Penny Black for all of my flowers.  I also used the Thanks So Very Much sentiment stamp set from My Favorite Things.

.

I did some no line coloring with distress inks to make these beautiful blossoms.

I used a heart die to spotlight parts of my cards to add some interest.

A Wink of Stella clear pen added lots of sparkle to my blooms.

I also pulled out my Zig Kuretake watercolor markers on a few blooms to achieve some bright colors.  This Yellow for instance was much brighter than distress inks.

For these cards I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Thanks So Very Much (My Favorite Things), Blooming Garden (Penny Black).

Ink: onyx black (Versafine), festive berries, ripe persimmon, old paper, peeled paint (Ranger Distress Inks).

Paper: khaki, green leaf (Simon Says Stamp), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).

Accessories: Heart STAX dies, Blueprints #15 dies (My Favorite Things), Silly Stitched dies (Lil' Inker Designs), wink of stella glitter pen, Zig Kuretake real brush watercolor markers, clear sequins.

There's another new challenge up over at StampNation this week with some amazing inspiration from the design team, FREE for all members so go check it out!  Just click on the picture below and it will lead you over to the StampNation page to learn more on how to join in on the fun!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

First day of spring - bring on the flowers!

Happy first day of spring!   

You'd never know it by the cold weekend we just had here in Illlinois.  Brrr!  Since I can't plant outside I thought I'd do a little watercoloring inside and  whipped up this pretty little card using the Large Peony 2 stamps by The Ton and some distress inks.

This is my first time working with this beauty and it was so fun.  I was experimenting and while the shading isn't perfect it did have the watercolor look that I was going for.  I clear embossed it first so it was much easier to control the flow of water and ink.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps:  Large Peony 2 (The Ton).  Ink: peeled paint, crushed olive, broken china, tumbled glass, milled lavender (Ranger Distress Ink), onyx black (Versafine), clear watermark (Versamark).  Paper:  white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: Lattice Frame die (WPlus9), clear sequins, clear embossing powder (WOW).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Happy Birthday Stenciled Balloons

Well hello Friday!!  It's time to PAR-tay!!

And what's a "par-tay" with out balloons right?   This week I posted a tutorial over at StampNation with a lot of tips on how to use your balloon stamps and dies in unique and fun ways.  Check out these lovelies that I made with a custom stencil using the Party Balloons die set from My Favorite Things along with a little blended distress ink.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: Big Scripty Greetings (Simon Says Stamp).  Ink: ripe persimmon, spiced marmalade, crushed olive, cracked pistachio (Ranger Distress Ink), onyx black (Versafine), vintage photo (Ranger Distress Marker)  Paper:  white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah).  Accessories: Party Balloon dies, Pinking Edge Circle STAX dies, Split Diagonal Stencil (My Favorite Things), sequins, fun foam, blank plastic stencil sheet (unknown). 

I drew the strings on with a marker, using a t-square ruler.  I also did some spotlighting on the sentiment by just diecutting with the Pinking Edge Circle and popping it up with a layer of fun foam.

If you're looking for some more great ideas and tips on cardmaking, StampNation is loaded with videos and tutorials posted every day  from their talented design team and their awesome members.  It's like opening up a treasure box of crafty fun!   Stop on over, we love to see new faces join the mix.  Follow this link to learn more about how to join StampNation today!

There's a great challenge going on for all StampNation members this week too.  Here's a little peek!!  Can you guess what the theme is?

Have a great day!

Hi Everyone!  There's a great tutorial posted over at StampNation today by Dream Team member Allison Cope.  She gives some great pointers on how to use patterned paper on your cards.  It's so informative and inspirational that I decided to pull out the few paper pads I own...dust them off and take on this challenge of mixing  3 or more patterns onto a standard sized card.  Here's what I came up with:

Even though these three patterns came from three different pads of paper you can see they coordinate very well together.  The only color that really looked a little out of place to me was the bright yellow on the patterned arrow paper.  I decided to tie that in a little better by using yellow for my sentiment.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps: The Big, The Bold, The Happy (Winnie & Walter), Stained Textures (Bo Bunny).
Ink: onyx black (Versafine), coral crush (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Lucky Charm (American Crafts/Dear Lizzy), Ombre' Stripes (Lil' Inker Designs), Dreamy (Heidi Swapp), Sunshine cardstock (Simon Says Stamp) white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah Exact)
Accessories: Stitched Jumbo Fishtail Banners die, Blueprints #15 (My Favorite Things), Roses die (Paper Smooches), Painted Thanks die (Simon Says Stamp), clear sequins, fun foam (unknown)

If you'd like to get in on the fun and check out some of the great tutorials over at StampNation, come on over!!  Click on one of the photos above and they will take you directly to where you need to go to learn more about becoming a StampNation member.

Have a great day!!

Birthday Wishes with Layers of Vintage Roses

Hello everyone!  I'm back with a very feminine birthday card featuring the gorgeous Vintage Roses by Altenew.  As much as I love these flowers, layered stamps always seem to be a challenge for me and require much time and patience.  After searching for the exact color combination that suits my eye I also find that I have to practice lining up each layer a few times before I finally get a flower that passes enough to showcase on my card.  I admit, I'm very picky and I tend to be a perfectionist.  What I end up with is pages and pages of stamped flowers to chose from in different colors, some lined up....some not so much.  Practice makes perfect right?  The good thing is, I only used a few of them on this card and I have plenty of left over images that will hopefully make my next floral card much easier.  I also made sure to write down the color combinations for future use.  I'll list them below for you also.

Roses:

First I tried the recommendation of starting with the darkest layer, then adding the medium layers and saving the lighter color for last.  What I ended up with was a flower that looked like it was out of focus.  Very blurry.  I'm thinking it was probably the inks I was using;  Hero Arts Shadow inks. Adding the light layer of ink on top seemed to mute all of the darker layers.  So I switched them around and started with the light color first.  That made a huge difference!

Leaves:

With that problem fixed I moved on to the leaves.  For those I did some generation stamping using only one color ink.  I inked up my stamp, stamped off on a piece of scrap paper and then stamped my image. It gave a nice, light, textured impression.  The second layer I stamped directly over that image with the same color.

For the shaker element on this card I decided to use some vellum cardstock for the window instead of clear transparency film.  I love how soft it looks while still being able to see the sequins and beads shaking around inside.  I went with silver sparkle cardstock for the diecut birthday sentiment.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps:  Vintage Roses (Altenew)

Ink:  field greens, soft pink, bubblegum, ultra pink (Hero Arts Shadow Ink), pink lemonade (My Favorite Things).

Paper:  ombre' stripes (Lil' Inker Designs), silver sparkle cardstock, translucent vellum cardstock (My Favorite Things), white 140 lb cardstock (Neenah Exact).

Accessories:  Birthday Wishes die (Stamp of Approval Young at Heart Collection/CAS-ual Fridays), Anytime Tags die (Lil' Inker Designs),  dinensional tape (3M), sheer ribbon, assorted sequins and beads (unknown).


There's another awesome challenge going on this week over at StampNation. Check out this little peek into our wonderful world of cardmakers.  Can you guess which one is mine?

If you're not a member yet....what are you waiting for?  Come on over and join in the fun!!  Click on the above photo and it will take you right over to get all the information you need on becoming a StampNation Sistah!

Thank you so much for stopping by.  If you have any questions, I'd love to hear from you.  Just leave a comment below.   Have a great day!