hugs, prayers and love

 I used a combination of stamps and dies again on these cards, trading around the Pool Party and Black colors.
Sending Thoughts from the SU Occasions/Spring Catalogue as well as dies and stamps from the Sunshine Sayings sets.

good egg

Inside this card it says, "You are a good egg!" I can't beGIN to explain how wonderful it is to FINALLY have a chicken stamp set! And it's FREEEEEE in the Saleabration catalogue RIGHT NOW, with a purchase of $60CD. And the BEST thing about this set is this wonderful realistic Polish Rooster. That's right! He's a rooster, but there HAD to be an egg on this card....
(For those of you who know about these wonderful Polish guys, the designer of this stamp set obviously knew they cocked their heads to the side and she made this roo to do EXACTLY the right thing!)

some more die cutting!

watercolor peonies

Water coloring is so...so......so NEAT! SPECIAL! I don't know HOW to say it I guess! Water color has a mystique to it that other techniques don't. OK! I know that's just MY take on it, but since this is my spot to air my opinions, that's what you'll get! I used my aqua painter and re-inkers dropped onto a clear block as my palette. That's right! A clear block makes the perfect palette! It's washable and smooth enough to mix colors to perfection.

accordian card

This card is an example of emboss resist. I used many different products on it, mostly Stampin' Up, but also some other random pieces of equipment!

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.

sparkles

I found the glitter paper at my local craft store. But most of the other product, including these delicious die-cut designs are from Stampin' Up.

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.

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.

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.

thoughts and prayers

I'm still loving the spring catty's rose garden stamps and dies which are gonna be in the new annual! YAAAYYYY!

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!

and drink coffee!

I don't know what to say about these cards except I used a mixture of different brands of product on them. There's just something so comforting and earthy about a good cup of coffee and a good coffee card!

starfish emboss resist

Both of these cards use the starfish image from Picture Perfect from the Occasions Catty. My {generic brand} embossing gun chose to quit on me so I used the TOASTER to emboss these cool leeetle starfish! Fortunately my friend Linda had an extra SU gun she sold to me so I was able to emboss again right away! (Thank-you Linda!!)

One tip here: Did you know the new stamp pad inks work to emboss with? They dry a lot quicker than Versamark so you do have to move quickly, but yes, I used the regular Espresso and I-forget-which-tan as my embossing inks on my fishy.

These cards don't differ a lot from each other, just a few elements changed out.

Any of you who want to order now during Sale-a-bration, now's the time! Let me know what I can get for you!!

in which we celebrate basic gray and more new stuff!

I know grays are "in". But I've never gotten myself to love gray. It is so, um, GRAY!!! Sorry to all of you who adore "GRAY"!!! I can't wait till the fad is over. But meanwhile....MEANWHILE....here are a few samples of "GRAY" cards I am actually quite proud to show you! I've also managed to use the Bloomin' Hearts die in a way totally unrelated to love and Valentine's and love and hearts and love! (Can you tell I'm also not a fan of Valentines? And I agree that it makes NO SENSE, but that's how it is!)
This card (above and directly below) uses dies from the Circles, Bloomin' Hearts, and Rose Garden I believe. The circle cut-out peeks into the middle of the card. And I LOVE it!! Gray and all!!

I've seen quite a few different versions of the card (below) with the long stemmed flowers. I've only seen it on Kraft and browns so I figured I'd try GRAY!!! It turned out rather pretty, huh? Maybe I'm starting to see a bit of potential in GRAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

watercolor Remarkable You

I told you about Stephanie, my new friend, in my last post. These two cards (above and below) are her creations. She's good for me in this little thing that she confidently creates "simple" gorgeously. I loved watching her work at these. Aren't they lovely?!

At the same time, I made the card below and then on the bottom, you see a close up of Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. I cannot tell you HOW wonderful Stella is! The picture doesn't nearly portray her beauty but it might give a sort of idea of what she does. Oh and one more thing...we used the rotary stamp thing-a-ma-bob for our sentiment as it gave us that perfectly imperfect script.

rose garden (more sympathy and caring)

I have a difficult time keeping my cards SIMPLE, so lately that's been my on-going challenge: simplify, simplify, simplify. And this Rose Garden stamp set helps me so beautifully. It almost makes itself into a card and you need very little other embellishment. On both of these cards I embossed the rose image in clear and then sponged ink on top. (emboss resist technique, my favorite of all time!) 

Notice the seaweed image from By The Tide. Wow is that ever one versatile stamp. Here it looks like the airy asparagus fern used in bouquets. It also works well to put a crackle effect on, say, a teapot or something similar. An aged look...but that's not what this is about! Ha! Below you see the inside of this card. I just love love love the sentiments on Rose Wonder. So caring.... 

As you can see, I'm replenishing my sympathy card supply! Soon we'll be onto something else. Promise!

Ombre Rose

My friend Jane from the White Orchid sent me the most gorgeous Christmas card in teals and whites. She used this watercolor ombre background and it was so beautiful I decided to try it myself. (Hi Jane!) I'm not certain what method she used for her background, but I used a few drops of three different shades (from light to dark) of pinks and reds and then I used a very very wet aqua painter to paint from light to dark on water color paper. I love how the white rose die-cut pops out on the red background. Below I added some pearls to dress it up (and to cover a glue smudge, but you don't know that! LOL!)

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!

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.