peace at Christmas

I am SOOOO excited about these new Sleigh Ride edgelits dies. While this isn't the most gorgeous card I've seen with this set, I just quickly put it together to show you how lovely it is and what gorgeous stuff you have to look forward to from the Holiday catty. I've got big BIG dreams for ways to use these dies!

I'm thinking thoughts of vellum, glitter, negative space and on and on and on.........................

happy birthday butterfly

There! I got to use my Butterfly die again! Love love love him!!! And my brick wall TEF. Another favorite!

brick wall textured impressions embossing folder

We have a friend who is a concrete worker/mason. So for his birthday, I made him a brick wall card. I used a Ranger brand cement embossing powder I found at a local craft store and heat embossed the grout between the bricks with that stuff. Actually it worked perfectly to just lightly tap my Versamark pad on the embossing folder before running my paper through the Bigshot. Also the little metal hook-deal comes from some random craft store years ago.

vintage leaves (stamps and dies)

Okay people, I don't like to be high pressured and obnoxious when it comes to selling and promoting Stampin' Up and our awesome products, but will you just LOOK at these gorgeous leaves? Check out the Woodlands Textured embossing folder I've used on these two cards. You will find it in the new Holiday Catalogue which you are able to order from tomorrow, September 1st. Let me know if you need a catty and I'll get one to you asap! The leaves are from the annual catty and if you order the Vintage Leaves as well as the Leaflets dies you get 15% off.

Here's my opinion on the new Holiday Catalogue: Stampin' Up beat their own wonderful record this year by producing the best collection for fall and winter that they ever have come up with. (Now, was that sentence grammatically correct? Did you get what I meant?!)

NOTE: the yellow paper on the lower card is handmade in India. If you are interested in purchasing this and other colors and textures, just contact me by clicking here.

best thoughts {effortless}

This rhododendron card (some call this flower image a hydrangea, but hmmm, I don't think it looks very much like the hydrangeas I grow! And hardly like the rhodo's I've seen either...hmmm again!) is a simple enough design to use if you have embossing powder and a heat gun. Emboss the image with clear embossing powder on white cardstock and then color in the image. Wipe off any ink that gets onto the embossed part and you've got a gorgeous flower to send someone. If you look close, you'll see I colored a soft gray shadow beneath the flower to give it a 3-D effect.

by the tide

I'm simply LOVING my "by the tide" stamp set! AND "You've got this" as well.
And funny thing, but I've always considered scallops a fem thing until I had this brainwave to make faux waves with this scalloped edgelit thingy.  I doubled checked just now and it's a discontinued SU item, but other edges would work as well. 
For those who know I have a DSP handicap, DID YOU NOTICE I USED DSP ON THIS CARD???!!! LOL!

painted lupins

I have no idea what inspired me to pull out an old old OLD paintbrush and dab on a few lupines NOT using a stamp for them! Just that paintbrush and my aqua painters and some blackberry and green inks. Not even paint. The butterfly is from SU's hostess set, Best Thoughts and the grassy weedy things are from By the Tide. I used crystal effects on the butterfly to make it pop. Oh how I love interchangeable media and stamp sets!

tender sympathy

Recently we received a sympathy card with feathers on it, and similar gentle wording to this. I re-created it in my own version, little knowing I'd probably use it all too soon. My sis lost her young Mother-in-law this morning. So soon it is, after Dad's passing. We just can't control these things, can we? But we can love and sympathize and BE THERE!

This card is the same, using smaller feathers from the guinea fowl. The top card uses guinea and pheasant feathers. Below is what I scribed with my alphabet rotary stamp. What DID I do before that stamp was created??!!

good things are going to happen

Did you hear that? If you need encouragement, let me know and I'll send this card to you!!! If your life has led you into a valley, somewhere there's a flower blooming in the shadows...just for YOU! And maybe it's this gold embossed, coral-shaded poppy!!! (This is a poppy right? Or what type of flower does this look like to you?)
It's from "You've Got This"!

by the tide/from land to sea

I probably should explain all the recent cards and that square stamp I've been using for a background. I used a few different turquoise and green reinkers and dropped some ink on my clear block. Then I wrapped it with a baby wipe and used it for a background stamp! Lovely, eh? So since I didn't want to waste any of that precious color, I just went ahead and stamped a few backgrounds with it. THAT'S why you're seeing a lotta blue blocky backgrounds!

About these two stamp sets, By The Tide and From Land to Sea, I've been eying them for a great long while already and decided I MUST finally get them. They go so well with my favorite oceany beachy colors and I dunno---I just love them, I guess! 

Can you spy where I used my rotary alphabet AGAIN???!!!!

waiting...rotary alphabet art

Another card I'd have loved to have when I was younger! Ah well! Someone else will benefit from it! Ha!
I used a mixture of stamp sets (Awesomely Artistic, Sheltering Tree) and the Hello You thinlits for this card.
And of course, my new fave, Alphabet Rotary Stamp.

You can contact me when you decide you can't live without any of these items and I'll gladly order them for you!

love....rotary alphabet art

The cards on this post kinda' tug at my heart. When I was young(er) and newly in love I eagerly paced Hallmark aisles in search of cards like these. They were DIFFICULT to find! Short concise quotes that said it all in a few brief words. NOW though, with my SU rotary stamp, I can create them as freely as I want! OOOOHHHH, to be young again and be able to give him these cards!! But seriously, this stamp is my best discovery since---since, well, since I fell in love with the most WONDERFUL guy in the universe!

One of our wedding cards had this quote on it and I've always liked it. So, now I can make this card over and over again!