dragonflies

Stampin' Up has done it again! Designed the most wonderfully perfectly eye-poppingly delicious stamp and die Dragonfly Dreams bundle. I can't get enough of it and so I keep on and on using these dragonflies On EVERYTHING!! The card (above) has a water color background and if you look closely you can see I used Wink of Stella on the dragonfly as well as the Congrats. (Below) Is an example on a single layer direct-to-paper design with an embossed dragonfly and then masking and sponging.

jar of lilacs for you

I tried to get a picture that showed the Wink of Stella glitter paint and this is the closest I got. It adds a subtle glimmer to the lilacs.

square thankyou and compliments

my shoulder is yours

I absolutely love that sentiment. This card was a combination of embossing, stamping, sponging, masking, coloring, and anything you can think of! I love using Timeless Textures for the edges and subtle hints of background design.

best fishes

These two cards were made using SU's bundle which includes the stamp set Jar of Love and the framelits dies Everyday Jars. The top card is 3-d with a clear center and gems inside the fishbowl while the 2nd card has the gems adhered on the bottom of the jar.

i'm here for you

I just love this sentiment. It's so caring. So this whole post is full of cards that tell you "I'm here for you!"

Besides challenging myself to use DSP, the following card has the added interest of holes punched in it and butterflies on the INSIDE of the card!

happy birthday leaf in water color

By now you've figured out I LOVE WATER COLOR! Those aqua painters of mine are starting to show a lot of wear! I wish I could give you the EXACT instructions how to mimic my leaf here, but truly, I hardly know myself how I did it. Trial and error and lot of layers of water and ink markers and drying in between. Or not! I used the leaf image from Botanical Gardens, that much I do know and can tell you!

Sleigh ride dies...lakeside scene

Perchance you snagged that Sleigh Ride Die during the holiday season and wish you could use it for other seasons, well, here's a nice little accident that happened to me that shows you that yes indeed! You CAN use it for any and every season. I had always planned on doing an oceany beachy scene with these cute li'l houses, but instead it turned into a lake. A quite northern looking lake in fact. And it had smears and ink dots in all the wrong place so out came the creative instincts along with a few dies from SU and a different Christmas set that had evergreen trees and lo and behold! I covered those messes with more trees and a hello! WOW! I didn't know it would be something I'd actually like!

happy birthday dogwoods

Using that beehive die from SU (what's it called? Maybe honeycomb?) I created a card front that has holes in it. While you and I both ask "Where and how do you write anything inside and not have it show through?" I leave that hurdle to both of our creative abilities to get over! Ha! Did that sentence make sense?!
Below you see a close-up of my blossoms, which, by the way, are from an old die from a different company. (Again I don't have the name handy.) But what I DO have handy is the fact that you can easily use dies and punches from SU for the very exact same effect!

Now isn't that a fun springy card?

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!

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??!!

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!

favorite masculine stamp sets (old and new!)

It was time for another scene. And my "The Wilderness Awaits" stamp set just arrived at the UPS office. So...what could I do but create???
Here are my four favorite stamp sets for masculine cards.

"The Wilderness Awaits"

 

"Lovely as a Tree" 

 

"Moon Lake" 

 

"Wetlands"

 

I used a combination of all four of these on my card (top). In my humble opinion these sets are all interchangeable as they are all related to nature, the forest, the lake...you get the picture.

Challenge Spark (wings)

Recently our family camped out for three nights and it amazed me how many birds and butterflies (bugs too, yes!) there were around our campsite. So I decided this week we would celebrate "wings"! Wings of any sort. Tara from Country Girl Creates and Jane from White Orchid are also a part of this Challenge Spark. Go on over to their wonderful blogs to see what marvelous flying creature they've come up with this week!

This is the card I made for "wings". My mind instantly flew to my beloved Butterfly Basics and then I also remembered a card I'd seen long ago on Pinterest that I was SURE I'd pinned, but do you think I can find it now??? If someone knows which one I mean, by all means let me know so I can give the artist credit! There are several different styles of cards designed similarly to this on Pinterest, but only one that is really close to this, that I've seen. Anyway, the artist who created the original card used this same Swallowtail background stamp and folded and cut her card similar to the one I did here. In fact I think her colors were blues as well. However, I'm certain it was a single layer card but I just couldn't resist adding the die-cut butterflies in vellum to add a  little ethereal quality to it.

May flowers (CYCI#70)

I've been so inspired with this week's challenge over on CanYouCaseIt? that I just HAD to make another floral card! I kept thinking of how I used to design arrangements in my flower shop years ago and the first thing that came to mind was ferns. Back then we started with a base of leather leaf fern. How wonderful that SU has the Butterfly Basics stamp set which includes this lovely fern image. I used a lot of emboss resist on the background and then what else did I use but FLOWERS!!! Flower Shop and Petite Petals with their coordinating punches made this so easy!

Designed especially with canyoucaseit #70 in mind!

The Challenge Spark (something tropical)

This week, since I am so loving anything springy and colorful, I challenged Jane and Tara to "think tropical" with me, using coral, yellow and green. My inspiration was triggered by this card by Ann Fitzgerald via Pinterest and I followed her directions, except for adding Butterfly Basics fern image on watercolor paper and then misting it, before adhering the heliconia blossom. I also added the rhinestones as water droplets. See? I was aiming for a rain foresty jungly look! All we need is a parrot and a monkey.

Next week Jane says we will make a card using something currently retired. Make sense? Not really? Newly retired. Is that better??!! The new catalogue is on the brink of bursting into our lives so now's the time to order those retiring products that you still have on your wish list.

The Challenge Spark (CASE from SU catty)

So this week, Jane challenged Tara and me to CASE (copy and share everything) a card from the Stampin' Up catalogue. There are so many neat cards in there that it was a tough call. So! I got a certain precious 4-yr-old boy to tell me which one he liked best! He chose many of the stamps I used as well! So really, he gets the credit this time! (Thanks, Boy!)

I used the Moon Lake goose for this one, along with SU watercolor paper and inks. Gotta love that watercolor paper!! I stitched the watercolor paper on with white, just like the original card (bottom) but it lacked PUNCH, so I quick added a hot pink accent with my faithful sewing machine.

And for this card (above) I used the World of Dreams nest silhouette. I loved how the bright pink stitching just popped it and gave it life.

And this is the original card (below) from page 108 in the Annual Catalogue. It looks to me maybe they used canvas for their focal point, but since I don't have any on hand I substituted with watercolor paper.

   

And for next week, Tara says we're making you a pop-up card! Now THAT'S gonna be a real challenge as I've never EVER made one of those before! Check back...

The Challenge Spark (card for younger teenage boys)

This is quite possible my most difficult challenge ever. And I'm the one who chose it! You'd think I'd find it easy since boys are my LIFE! But, it's not. 

Jane from White Orchid and Tara from Country Girl {Creates} join me in this thought that it's simply NOT easy to come up with something boyish, especially for the young teenager. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to inspire us with.

I came up with an idea that if I was the boy, what would I have to say about it? Probably "No girls allowed!" (sometimes, anyway!) So the front of my card was SUPPOSED to look like a hidden campsite with the inside depicting the site itself, somewhat camouflaged among the ferns from Butterfly Basics. Of course, only one person who's seen it yet, figured that out! 

So, what would you change? Honestly asking now!!!

Challenge Spark (punch art---tulips) (tutorial)

 

Tara from Country Girl {Creates} challenged Jane from The White Orchid and me to our weekly Challenge Spark. She chose "Punch Art" as the topic of choice. Sometimes I study my punches to see what all they can do for me. Of course, they have their patented use, but like these tulips which were created using the Owl Builder Punch, they often have other very amazing abilities. 

I'm giving you a picture tutorial on these tulips since I can't find the original one anymore. 

I make these every spring. And I'm sooooo longing for spring that these beautiful blooms help un-drab-ify winter for me for a moment!

 

It takes two "owls" for each tulip flower. So punch two out of whatever color you like. I used Pink Pirouette for some of mine and for some I used So Saffron and Wisteria Wonder.

 Cut off the owl's feet! (Poor guy, but he won't mind; he's turning into a flower after all!) You can see that I drew the lines where I cut the second owl. I don't bother to draw those in usually and it's not an exact art; you can't make a mistake! Just fly with whatever way your scissors cuts!

Using a darker ink, sponge the edges of your flower and the extra petals.

Ugh, that's fuzzy! But you can see how I adhered the two petals together. They overlap on the bottom...

...until you snip off those extra points. 

Adhere the petals to the main flower body. And now your tulip is ready to bloom on a beautiful card! 

See how you can make use of them, below, or come up with your own gorgeous creations!

I'm convinced every tulip needs a rhinestone dew-drop. Once when I was teaching school we cut snips from different parts of the tulip, the stem, leaves, and whatever we could use. We placed the pieces under a microscope and WHAT A GORGEOUS whole 'nother world appeared before our eyes. So now when my spring gardens are alive with these flowers, I know that hidden inside them are rainbows and raindrops like you've never seen in your life before. Try it! They're hidden in there! And so, that's why I can't make these without a hint of the water droplets they hide inside their hearts! Hence, the rhinestones!

Love that cloud embossing folder. So sad it's not around anymore!

This is morning! In late April! It rained at night, so the tulip on the right is pouring her blessings out over the fence, which incidentally was made with the Bouquet Bigz L Die. It's the cutting-section designed to make Mum-type flowers, but I always see a picket fence when I look at it! My trusty ol' fringe scissors made those grasses in front of the fence. All stems and leaves were just freehand scissored.

And below is a small bouquet for you, my friend!