dragonfly dreams water color

This card made itself. Well, after the black embossing was on there. If you've never worked with water color paper, you need to try it! I just sprayed it down really good and dropped reinker on it where I wanted the color. It bloomed out EXACTLY how it should! I did dab a bit of the excess moisture off and tipped and tilted the card so it would all act like I wanted it too.

If you're unsure how to do this, let me know. I'll personally show you if we live close enough so I can!

some more die cutting!

flourishing phrases again!

Stampin' Up comes up with the best product! There are always a few that almost LEAP out of the catalogue and Flourishing Phrases is one of those items. I like the Petal Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder as well. The interesting thing about this type of embossing on a background is that you don't notice it right away, but if you were to create a card without it, it would look flat. Pun intended! It's all about texture! And steppin' it up!

for you flourish (effortless)

I'm simply addicted to the diecuts from the Flourishing Phrases bundle from Stampin' Up. This is a simple card, easily put together in a few minutes.

just a note

kraft, brown, pink birthday

more sunshine and caring

These two cards utilize the Sunshine Sayings bundle (at a 10% savings). I'm just really really loving what all you can create using these dies and stamps together.

love 'n sunshine

The Sunshine Sayings bundle, at 10% off, will get you these two cards!! 

"Thank-you, Teacher!"

Yes I know it's late!! Very!! But summer happened over here and I never got to uploading it onto here.
The apple was made using a heart punch and punching out a variety of papers into a heart shape. I just scissored the bottom of the stacked hearts into a rounded "apple bottom"!! This card has been given to the teacher long ago so I don't remember if I sewed down the center or if I just stapled it and then folded it. Either way works.

all about roses

These cards are all very different from each other, but they have one common element. They were created with the Rose Garden and Rose Wonder stamps and dies bundle. The card above was water colored after the image was embossed in clear on watercolor paper.

 

Above, is another die-cut and water colored rose card. I love how these images lend themselves to simple elegance. Below is a partial die-cut rose. Again, simply elegant.

pedal pushers saleabration

These two cards showcase two new stamp sets. Actually three! Timeless Textures, Pedal Pushers, and Balloon Celebrations. I soooo hope SU keeps Timeless Textures as it's a MUST HAVE set! I used it to give the illusion of ground and sky on both of these cards. It's a little hard to see, but on the floral card, look closely beneath those flowers and you will see another image from those gorgeous textures. And don't even get me STARTED on Pedal Pushers! WOWWWW!!! And you only have till the end of March to get it ABSOLUTELY FREE with the purchase of $60 worth of SU product (before shipping and taxes). Please do grab it! It's soooo fun especially with spring around the corner.

wedding rose

In between my other card designs I find myself often reverting back to my favorite Rose Garden Thinlits dies. Here's a quick and clean and simple card created by layering pink and white roses and adding vellum leaves. So easy. So effortless. So VERY elegant!!!

ice cream anyone?

Sprinkles of Life is a fun fun fun stamp set with coordinating punch that I don't use nearly often enough. Here's a really simple and quick card made from Sprinkles. You could dress it up with string or ribbon or buttons or candy dots or ANYTHING!! I left it clean and simple today.

Balloon Celebration

Happy Birthday to you!!! My 5-year-old friend and I sat down with the balloon punch and stamp bundle and made ourselves a cute little birthday card for some lucky person! This card isn't really designed for any particular age or male or female. It's actually quite versatile.

I love the fact that this bundle can be kept simple or you can get elaborate with your designs. It's quite very extremely child friendly!

celebration window

I recently got my Circle Thinlets Dies and I can't figure out how I existed before them. This card showcases a hostess set, Best Thoughts. I also tried some hand-drawn circles as well, using die cut circles as my guide. This one came together simply and quickly once the water color part was done.

rose garden (my latest crush!)

Okay! I know I fall in love with every new catalogue that comes out, but surely this one is the best yet! Just LOOK will you? Aren't those rose garden dies THE BEST???!!!  I haven't even used the coordinating Rose Wonder stamp set---yet. But I can't wait. It has such lovely caring sentiments to go along with the images. But about these two cards here: I am so glad I kept my Manhattan Flowers TEF from long ago. It coordinates with these dies as though they were made to go together. Forever....sighhhhh......

I water colored the background by misting the water color paper and then just dabbing on a few drops of reinker with my aqua pen and letting them blend naturally. With the circle dies I cut a large-ish circle into the face paper and embossed it. Then assembled the whole thing. Simple really.

This one's my favorite! I just like the colors better for whatever reason!

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!

feathers, really REAL feathers {effortless}

We have oodles of birds here at our place. (Even the cats have noticed :( Grrrr! ) Anyway, we love to collect these gorgeous feathers as they fall. Jays, magpies, pheasants, ducks and even from our pet guinea fowl! LOL! Our Rhody hens donated to the stash as well. And while I love using SU's four feathers stamps and dies, I do so love the simplicity of collecting and using the real deal. Below you will see what a 4-year-old comes up with. He had a smidgen of help, but not so much. All ideas were his own!

tgifc throwdown (a challenging challenge!)

 

Ok!! I understand if you're a little confused here! I was too, until I studies the details which you can find on #tgifctd01 and then I was hooked!! It's a real challenging challenge!! Go check it out!

I was mostly ok with the pantry items, but hmmm, was I ever limited on my basket-ful of items! I HAVE EXACTLY 4 of them!! Both thinlits, and both ink pads/reinkers. SOOOO...you see how challenging it was?!!! If you ever need something to get your mind going check these people out! And believe me, you'll have fun meanwhile!! 

(Oh, and in the pantry items it says we could use clear blocks so I used them as my stamps! What else could I do?!)