Nine Lives

If you are a cat lover like I am, then you will love the new Nine Lives stamp set!

Here I have stamped one of the cat images and watercolored it using my Aqua Painter. I then masked the kitty and stamped some foliage and flowers using images from the Jar of Love set to create a little scene.

The cool thing about this set is that it coordinates with the Cat Punch! Even though I didn't use it here, it will be nice to have a set to go with the punch.

I also used a couple other products from the new Occasions Catalog...the Stitched Rectangle Framelits and the Lace Embossing Folder.

Thanks for visiting today!

Bella & Friend Shaker Card

It's hard to believe, but my sweet granddaughter has already turned two! She's at that age where everything she says, her adorable expressions, etc...are all just so darn CUTE! She just loves animals... and puppies are one of her favorites, so of course I had to use Bella & Friends to create her birthday card.

I thought a fun shaker card would be perfect, so I used the new Stitched Rectangle Framelits to easily create a frame. One balloon just wasn't enough, so I masked off the single balloon from the image and stamped a couple more. I watercolored the image using my Aqua Painter and various colored inks. Pool Party cardstock was used for the main, embossed panel and Berry Burst for the die cut frame.

Here's a look at the various confetti sequins and microbeads as they shake around inside the card. Madelyn liked the card because of the movement and the sound created by the shaker element. She wanted to inspect it closer and almost tore off the frame...but luckily her mommy was quicker than she was!

Very Vintage Friend

Better hope my friend who I made this birthday card for doesn't see this blog title! LOL Seriously though, at our age vintage does better than "old", right? Not sure "very" vintage sounds good, but hey, it works with what I have used here...

The new Lace Embossing Folder sure pairs up nicely with the beautiful host set Very Vintage, don't you think? I used Fresh Fig and Tranquil Tide card stock as well as the ink to watercolor the image using my Aqua Painter. 

One of the things I was most excited to see in the new Occasions Catalog were Stitched Rectangle Framelits! I used a couple of them here. The cool thing about these framelits is that it cuts out both a stitched frame and a layering piece at the same time. 

Have a GREAT weekend!

So Hoppy Together

Taking a little break finishing up Christmas cards to play with a few new goodies that arrived here this week. It's that time of year when demonstrators can pre-order items from the upcoming Occasions and Sale-A-Bration catalogs. I grabbed a few of my favorite items offered along with some catalogs.

The So Hoppy Together stamp set is adorable and you can get it FREE with a $50 order during Sale-A-Bration! I was excited to play with this stamp set, but the item I was most excited to see offered are the Stitched Rectangle Framelits! I know these are going to get lots of use! Both the positive and negative pieces have the stitched look around the edges, which is really cool for both creating frames and layering.

Some Stampin' Up! news in the New Year...there will no longer be wood mounted stamps offered. The red rubber cling stamps will all have a new stickier cling mount that actually stick AWESOMELY to the blocks with the labels on! I was one to never use labels on my stamps because I hated them falling off when cleaning. These new labels were easy to apply and I am happy to report that the stamps stayed put on my blocks even when cleaning them on the Stampin' Scrub!

I used the Buffalo Check background stamp inked in Granny Apple Green for the base and my Aqua Painter to color the image. I've read of some having difficulties getting a good image with this stamp, so I hesitated to purchase it even though I loved it. I'm glad I went ahead and got it because I got a perfect image the very first time I inked it up. I have stamped many more backgrounds using it  since, all with good results, so I thought I would share how I like to stamp using the big background stamps.

First, lay the stamp face up on your work surface and ink as shown in the photo above. Lay your card stock piece on top of the image as shown below.

I then cover it with a piece of scrap paper that's bigger than the stamp and rub over the entire top surface with my bone folder. This method has always worked great for me. Hopefully this helps if you have been having a difficult time getting good images with your background stamps.

Have a GREAT weekend!