Swallowtail Duo

I love this large, beautiful butterfly image and I couldn't wait to try it with a purple color combo. I love purple! So today I have two cards to show you...they are pretty much the same, yet with a few slight changes, you'll see that they look quite different.

The first card is monochromatic using light & dark shades of purple...Elegant Eggplant & Wisteria Wonder ink & card stock were used. I love the rich, deep texture created by applying ink directly to the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder before running it through the Big Shot.  Here is the same card with a few small changes.

I had the Pool Party Ribbon & buttons sitting on my desk (part of the Sycamore Street Button & Ribbon Pack - FREE during SAB) and thought it would add a nice pop of color to the design. I also spritzed the image with some shimmer spray as well. (Sorry that it photographed more speckley than shimmery, but I didn't feel like going back down to try and get a better photo.) So you'll have to trust me when I say that in real life it has a pretty, subtle shimmer to it. Here are the two cards for a side by side comparison.

Which one do you like?

Workspace Wednesday - Cutting Station

It's been a while since I did a Workspace Wednesday post and I realized I never shared one of the favorite areas of my stampin' studio makeover...my cutting station. Before: I had space for my paper cutter but I had to run into the other room every time I wanted to use my Big Shot. So, one of my main goals when I created  my newly organized space was to have a cutting area for both my paper cutter & my Big Shot.

This antique buffet is the perfect height to comfortably use my Big Shot & my paper cutter more efficiently and offers storage space inside as well. This piece had belonged to my dear Mother-in-Law, who is the one that first got me into stamping, so I know she would love that it was being used in my studio. Since I don't have overhead lighting, the Ott lamp provides plenty of lighting while I work.

I hung a decorative curtain rod (previously used to hold my punches) over my work station to use as a way to display some of the recent scrapbook pages I've made. It will be fun to change them out. I got that idea from Pinterest when I was looking for organizing ideas for my room.

Here's a peek inside the cabinet. The drawer with dividers, meant for serving utensils, is perfect to hold all the cutting pads & platforms for my Big Shot. Underneath the drawers are 3 sections with shelves perfect for storing my larger dies, Sizzlet alphabets, my Bigz alphabets & more. I store my Framelits in the pink bin on top since I use them so often. My embossing folders and the rest of my Bigz dies are stored in the 4 drawer cube steps away from my cutting station as shown in the "after" photo below.

BEFORE

AFTER

I hope you enjoyed the peek inside my studio...I'm heading back down there now to get creative...hope you find some time today to get creative as well!

Distressed Field Flowers

Yesterday my Mom hit a milestone birthday...70 years! We celebrated on Saturday with a big family party here at our house. We had such a good time! She was so happy having all her loved ones together to celebrate her special day. Today would have been my Grandmother's 100th birthday! So, I thought it only appropriate to share a birthday card here today.

I had fun experimenting with inks to create the background on the main panel. I swiped several different colors of ink pads over the textured side of a stamp-a-ma-jig image sheet, and then layed my Whisper White card stock on top of the inked up sheet and rolled over it with the brayer. Then I spritzed it with some water so the colors bled together, dried it with my heat tool, and it was ready to stamp. I like the color & textured look it created.

For the embossed background I inked up the Lacy Brocade embossing folder with Early Espresso ink and ran Elegant Eggplant & Cherry Cobbler sheets through the Big Shot. I used several different stamp sets: Field Flowers, Creative Elements and Tiny Tags, which are all current sets, and then a few retired sets as well...Fancy Flexible Phrases, Lots of Thoughts & Cute & Curly.

Thanks for stopping by today...one more day til Sal-a-Bration time!!!

Veggies Getting Stewed

Here's a birthday card I made for my hubby using the retired set Stew Pot Pals. I bought the set just to make cards for him since he's a produce manager AND he likes bad puns...win/win!

I created this party scene by masking the "punny" sentiments when inking the stamp with my Black Stazon pad, but each veggie has classic lines like, "a friend like you can't be beet!" or "How've you bean?" Corny I know...no pun intended ;-)... but it's a fun set. I watercolored the veggies using my Aquapainter and Classic Ink. The "cheers" & birthday sentiment are both from the Happy Hour set.

The fun paper is the new Sycamore Street DSP and the Pool Party, Tangerine Tango & Island Indigo ribbon (& button) used to create the banner are part of the Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button pack available for FREE when Sale-a-Bration starts on the 22nd. If you want more info on that, please contact me.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Dazzling Swallowtail

Isn't this huge butterfly image gorgeous?! I love butterflies, so this Swallowtail image from the Spring Catalog caught my eye right away...and I just couldn't wait to get it! I originally planned to use it at an angle on my card, cutting off parts of the wings to have it fit my panel. But...it is so much fun to color and looked so pretty when I was done that I didn't have the heart to cut any off! So for my first card using this image, I made an over-sized square card that frames the entire image.

I used my Aquapainter along with Classic Inks to color the butterfly and then I went back and applied Dazzling Details over the entire image...again using my Aquapainter. Applying it in this manner helps to thin it out and gives more control. Here's a closer look to kinda see the sparkle on the wings. Unfortunately, it's so hard to capture how much it shimmers with just a photo.

I used the Very Vintage wheel to create the Rich Razzleberry background paper and the SAB set Vintage Verses for the sentiment. (Vintage Verses will be available for FREE with a $50 order after January 22nd.)

Other colors used: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit & Tangerine Tango

I have lots of other plans for this pretty image and look forward to sharing them with you. Enjoy your weekend!