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!