Birthday Balloon Adventures

Using the Balloon Adventures Bundle it is really easy to create a total WOW card in no time at all!

I die cut the 3 detailed balloon overlays using the balloon dies from the Balloon Pop-Up Thinlits. The Silver Glimmer Paper was punched out using the Balloon Bouquet Punch. These two tools work hand in hand to create some really fun projects! The DSP I used is from a retired stack called Cherry On Top. I think the ribbons and confetti coordinate wonderfully with these images, so I went with it. There is also a great new Designer Series Paper in the Occasions Catalog that coordinates with this suite of products called Party Animal...so the possibilities are limitless!

While the outside of my card is fun & festive, it's the inside of the card that really steals the show!

I just love this cool pop-up feature! Since the stamps in this set are photopolymer it is super easy to line up the stamps on the die cuts. I stamped the Cucumber Crush card base behind the balloons with the confetti image before adhering the die cut pop-up feature. Along with Cucumber Crush I also used Bermuda Bay & Crushed Curry to create this masculine birthday card.

Have a happy day!

Up & Away Pretty Kitty

I love being able to combine favorite stamp sets to make something unique...so when I found that the flower pot kitty image from Pretty Kitty would work with the Up & Away Thinlits Dies I was "on cloud nine!" (to quote one of the sentiment stamps from the coordinating Lift Me Up stamp set!)

I stamped the kitty onto Shimmery White Card stock and cut away the flowers. Then I stamped the flower pot onto Falling In Love DSP hoping to make it look more like a basket rather than a flower pot. The pieces were then water colored using my Aqua Painter and the pot was paper pieced onto the Shimmery White layer.  The little banner was cut using the Balloon Framelits Dies. I had hoped to stamp "HELLO" using my Labeler stamp set, but the letters were too big, so I wrote it myself using my Sweet Sugarplum Marker.

For Flashback Friday I used the retired Cloudy Day Embossing Folder for the background. Too bad it's retired because it goes perfectly with the Lift Me Up Bundle!

Have an uplifting weekend!

Butterfly Avant Grarden

Happy Monday! Hope you had a nice weekend. The weather has been really warm & drizzly here this past week. More like March/April weather than January. It could fool you into believing gardens and butterflies were not too far off...BUT this is Michigan, so the only butterflies I'll be seeing for quite a while are in my stamp room!

Butterfly Basics is one of my very favorite, much loved sets and I think it works quite well with two of the new Sale-A-Bration stamp sets...Avant Garden and Delicate Details. I stamped the images onto a piece of DSP from the Serene Scenery Designers Series Paper Stack. I water colored the line art images using my Aqua Painter.

The inks I used are: SU! Black Archival, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Wild Wasabi & Always Artichoke. I added some shimmer to the flowers using the Wink of Stella brush pen. Here's a closer look...

I embellished my stamped piece with Silver 1/8" Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones and a retired Something Borrowed Embellishment.

Thanks for visiting today!

Razzleberry You've Got This

When I get busy coloring I usually like to color several images using different color schemes, so the other day when playing with my new Watercolor Pencils and the You've Got This stamp set I also created this card.

I used my Aqua Painter to blend the colors together. It's fun and relaxing because you can basically just scribble on color and blend it out to look soft and pretty.

I used Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo & Pacific Point on the petals. Old Olive and Pacific Point on the leaves: and Daffodil Delight on the stammen. (I forgot to include that pencil in photo) I also sparingly used the Basic Black pencil for a little shading.

I masked the flower and stamped the crosshatch background inked in Pool Party and Tempting Turquoise. The birthday sentiment is from Avant Garden...one of the sets available as your free selection during Sale-A-Bration.

You've Got This Delicate Details

The other day I pulled out my You've Got This stamp set to use the great crosshatch background stamp, and I realized I hadn't used the set in a while. The beautiful peony image is perfect to use with my new watercolor pencils...so I got busy doing some coloring!

I stamped my image using SU! Basic Black Archival Ink onto Whisper White cardstock. I used the new Watercolor Pencils and my Aqua Painter to watercolor the flower.

I used these pencils: Calypso Coral for the petals. Old Olive for the leaves. Daffodil Delight for the stamen. For shading on both the petals and the leaves I used the Early Espresso pencil. The background was inked with So Saffron and Crumb Cake. I fussy cut the flower and popped it up with dimensionals.

I used the Sale-A-Brations stamp set, Delicate Details, to add the pretty lace border. It's stamped in VersaMark ink and embossed with White Embossing Powder.

Have you placed your Sale-A-Bration order yet? If not...what are you waiting for? You don't want to miss out on on the exclusive Sale-A-Bration merchandise such as this Delicate Details stamp set! Visit my SU! store to place your order today.

Avant Garden With Some Delicate Details

This card used two of the great sets you can earn for FREE during Sale-A-Bration! Avant Garden has both solid 2-step floral images shown here as well as detailed line art to watercolor. Another plus with this set is the sentiment stamps in a pretty font...I used the birthday wishes for my card.

The Delicate Details is the other awesome SAB set used here. This stamp set has five borders that really add pretty detail to any card or scrapbook page. I embossed it in white right on top of the Cupcakes & Carousels DSP. This DSP comes in a 6x6 stack. I just love the colors and patterns!

For an extra detail I added a little dragonfly which was die-cut using the Detailed Dragonfly Framelits. I cannot get enough of these dragonflies! I just cut one loose from the bunch of five and sponged some extra color on the wings and added some shimmer with Wink of Stella.

Colors of ink used are: So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, Pear Pizzazz, Emerald Envy & Pool Party.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lift Me Up Z Fold Birthday

Recently when showing my husband some of my creations using items from the new Occasions Catalog, he remarked on a card using the Lift me Up Bundle, saying he hoped I made him a card using the hot air balloons for his upcoming birthday. His birthday was on Monday, so I came up with an extra special card for him.

Above is how it looks coming out of the envelope...but when it unfolds it looks pretty special.

The base of the card is Pacific Point cut to 4-1/4 x 1" and scored at: 2-3/4" & 5-1/2" The Whisper White layer measures 4 x 10- 3/4" It is sponged to create the cloudy sky background. I used cloud shapes die cut from post-it notes using the Up & Away Framelits. These are used as masks before I started to sponge on various shades of blue ink. I also sponged some Old Olive along the bottom to create a hillside.

The die cut hillside was created using 10-3/4 x 2-1/4" Old Olive cardstock and a retired set of dies called Sleighride Edgelits. I then stamped it with the nice cross hatch background stamp included in the You've Got This stamp set. It is then scored at 5-1/4" & 8".

Here's another look at the card from another angle.

As you can see, I cut down the sponged background layer so that it just fit inside each scored section of the card so that it will fold open and closed easily.

We celebrated his birthday a day early, on Sunday, when our family could be here. Besides the birthday boy, we had another guest of honor who stole the spotlight the entire evening...

our 5 day old granddaughter! Isn't she adorable all dressed up in her party dress for her very first party? As you can see, Grandpa didn't mind a bit sharing the spotlight! Our little sweetheart made his special day all the sweeter.

Thanks for visiting today!

Awesomely Artistic Dragonfly Dreams

Here's a card which uses a few of my favorite stamp sets...Awesomely Artistic, Dragonfly Dreams and Hardwood. I think they all work really well together.

I used Whisper White (thick & regular) along with Pool Party Cardstock. Ink colors used are: Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Emerald Envy & Smokey Slate.

Check out this great video from Stampin' Up! that shows some other awesome projects you can creat using items from the new Occasions Catalog.

Please visit my online store if you would like to purchase SU! merchandise to recreate the card I've shared above or any of these great projects shown in the video.

Razzleberry Avant Garden

The Avant Garden stamp set was one of my top choices when I got to choose my Sale-A-Bration items. Yes, I know...I'm a sucker for flower sets, but I love how this one has both solid images and other detailed ones that are perfect for watercoloring plus sentiments using a beautiful font!

I used the new Watercolor Pencils and my Aqua Painter to color this. I love that they are truly SU! colors!

These are the colors I used: Rich Razzleberry with a touch of Melon Mambo on the flowers. Old Olive with a bit of Daffodil Delight for the leaves and then what started to be a very small amount of Pacific Point for the background. LOL

Let me tell you more about the background. Like I said, I started with just a very light touch of Pacific Point along the right edge of the image and blended outward. It looked nice...but I didn't leave well enough alone. I also decided to use the splatter/splotchy image included in the set while the background was still wet. Even though I had stamped off first,  I didn't care for the look of it. I quickly blended it into the background, and then had to repeat the process over the entire background hoping I wouldn't have to end up scrapping the whole piece. Once finished and dry, I rather like the way it turned out...but not sure I could ever duplicate it. So there ya go...one of a kind artwork!

Thanks for visiting! Have a warm & wonderful weekend! It's going to be a cold one here!

Lift Me Up Baby Girl

Today I have some very exciting news to share and my news was the inspiration for this card...

If you are thinking my exciting news is that today is the first day of Sale-a-Bration and the Occasions catalog...you would only be partially right. While that IS exciting news, my news is even better than that! (for me and my family anyways!) Yesterday, January 3rd, we welcomed our first grandchild...a GIRL and she is HEALTHY and BEAUTIFUL!

It was love at first sight! Yesterday was truly one of the most incredible, emotional & memorable days of my life! I was blessed to be in the delivery room to witness the birth of our precious grand-daughter. Seeing my sons pride as he looked upon the face of his beautiful baby girl for the first time is a moment I will never forget. Baby Madelyn Ann came into the world at 3:55 PM weighing a whopping 9 pounds! Being the mother of two sons, it's going to be so much fun having a little girl to love and spoil...and turn into my little stampin' buddy!

I used the Lift Me Up Bundle - Lift Me Up stamp set and Up & Away Thinlits, to create this card. I stamped the background balloons right onto a piece of Falling In Love DSP. I thought this DSP was perfect as it looks like its covered with tiny floating hearts. During Sale-A-Bration, if you purchase the Lift Me Up Bundle and one other small item...such as the DSP used here, you would qualify to choose one SAB item...such as the Any Occasion stamp set for FREE!

The Any Occasion stamp set works well with the large hot air balloon die cuts, to add banners to the balloon for, you guessed it...Any Occasion! Along with the sentiments in this set, there are many little stamps included to decorate the stamped banners in this 20 pc photopolymer set. I also used another great SAB set to decorate the balloon...the scallop and dot border stamped on the Calypso Coral portion of the balloon is from the Delicate Details stamp set. Other colors used are: Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride and Peekaboo Peach.

If you would like to purchase any of these products, please visit my online store. Thanks for visiting today and letting me share my exciting news. :-)

Avant Garden Dragonfly Dreams

In my last post I stated if I could only purchase one bundle from the upcoming Occasions Catalog it would be the Lift Me Up Bundle...running neck and neck for that top position is the Dragonfly Dreams Bundle! After playing with both, now I can't really say which I would choose if I could only pick one...they are both pretty awesome!

I had some fun using several new products to create this collage look card. The left side of the panel is stamped with one of the beautiful lacey images from the Delicate Details stamp set. This is a FREE set during Sale-a-Bration! It includes 5 border images. The flowers stamped at bottom right are from another Sale-a-Bration set called Avant Garden...so is the pretty leaf stem.

I also used several old collage style favorites to complete this card...Timeless Textures, Gorgeous Grunge and Butterfly Basics. The dragonfly's wings were painted with Wink of Stella for some pretty iridescent shimmer.

While I was at it,  I also stamped a version using Very Vanilla cardstock instead of Whisper White. There are a few other slight differences as well.

I added the birthday sentiment as well as the distressed grid element from Timeless Textures to the background in a few spots.  

Both cards have a Sahara Sand base and used  Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron, Always Artichoke & Sahara Sand inks.

Which version do you like best?

Thanks for visiting!