French Foliage Faux Tile

Here's another Artisan Award entry. I tried to show a lot of variety in the work I sent in. This one uses a fun technique and is very masculine.

After I stamped this I embossed it in Clear embossing powder so it really did look like tile. Check out this close up view.

Here's what I used:

Stamps: French Foliage, Happiest Birthday Wishes

Card stock: Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla & Well Worn DSP

Ink: Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake & Versa Mark

Tools & Accessories: Simply Scored with Diagonal Plate, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Early Espresso Marker, Regals Buttons, Linen Thread, Large Oval Punch, Decorative Label Punch & Sponge Daubers

Thanks for all the encouraging comments many have been leaving me regarding my entries. I really appreciate your kind words.

Vintage Friendship

Bold & bright, cheery colors always perk me up on a cold wintry day, so I picked out a few of my favorite colors (Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Summer Sun) and paired them with a couple of my favorite stamp sets to create this card.
I used the sketch featured as this weeks challenge at Stamp Something. I also gave myself a little challenge of my own as I reached for my patterned papers...use only my stamps and ink to create my own patterned paper. The pretty stamps included in the new Vintage Vogue set from the Occasions mini made that challenge pretty simple. The bird image is from the Level 2 Hostess Set Wings of Friendship. I used a Summer Sun Corduroy Button and a bit of Crystal Effects over punched 1/4" circles of card stock for the centers of the flowers.

Working with these colors and stamps this afternoon helped warm up my cold, wintry day. Enjoy your day!

Come Sail Away on the Catty Cruise - Peace Within

Thanks for dropping anchor to visit my blog today! I hope you are enjoying your tour on the Catty Cruise! In case you washed ashore here unexpectedly, the Catty Cruise is a blog tour featuring 12 talented bloggers sharing projects highlighting their favorite Stampin' Up! products from the newly released Idea Book & Catalog... or Catty for short. If you are taking the full tour, then you sailed in from Linda McClain's blog LMac's Catered Crop. Don't you love the beautiful projects she created with the Cottage Wall papers and the new Butterfly punch?

If you popped in here without knowing about the cruise, I hope you'll join us. Just sail along to the next port with the link provided at the bottom of my post and continue on until you wind up back here...that way you will have visited everyone. If you get lost at sea, then just go on back to our Home Port . Just don't go anywhere until you've see my creations...

I am sharing a few projects I created using one of my favorite new stamp sets called Peace Within. I love to watercolor and I love cats and nature, so I was delighted to see this set in the new catalog. My first project shows how to transform a plain little frame from the Target Dollar Spot into a cute little piece of art, just by using some pretty paper and a few accessories. Kinda like MacGyver...only with stamps and embellishments. hehehe
I love all the patterns in the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer paper pack, but I managed to narrow it down to my favorite two and that's what I used here. I stamped my image onto watercolor paper using Black Stazon and used my aqua painter and classic inks to watercolor. See the pillow that the kitty is napping on? That was stamped onto patterned paper, cut out and then adhered into place. I think the paper piecing technique adds such nice detail to any project.

The finishing touch is the silk daisy from the Pretties Kit. I used my Rich Razzleberry re-inker and my aqua painter to add color to the petals. The center is a White Jumbo Grommet with Razzleberry Lemonade center. Rich Razzleberry Polka-dot grosgrain ribbon was attached to the hangers and it is ready to hang. Here's a closer look...
Here's another way to use this same image and papers but achieve an entirely different look with the spotlighting technique.
I stamped my image onto Whisper White card stock and using the 1-3/4 inch circle punch, I punched out the part of the image I wanted to spotlight. Then I stamped the image a second time onto a piece of Razzleberry Lemonade DP. After water coloring the image on the punched out circle, I carefully adhered it over the top of my full image.

Ink: Black Stazon & various Classic Inks for water coloring
Card stock: Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Razzleberry Lemonade DP
Accessories: Mat Pack, White Gel pen, Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain ribbon & Dew Drops

My last project uses the other beautiful image from the Peace Within set along with paper from the Thoroughly Modern Designer paper pack.
I stamped my image and water colored the same as described for my first project. I added a sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set inked in Soft Suede. I matted the image onto Soft Suede card stock and then layered it onto a Top Note cut from the DP. My card base is Kraft card stock which I ran though the Big Shot using the new Perfect Details Texturz Plate. I used the Eyelet Border Punch along the bottom and added some Soft Suede Polka-dot Grosgrain ribbon to finish my card.

I hope you enjoyed your visit...now it's time to sail on to our next port...iSTAMP to see the super talented Nancy Riley's amazing creations using the Level 3 Hostess Set The More the Merrier along with Sunny Days Simply Scrappin' Kit.

More Cheep Talk...

Here's another card I made the other night with the Cheep Talk set. I just love that little bird! I also love how the verses curve around the tree branch. As you can see, this one uses bright, cheery colors.

I also used the new wheel that matches the Always stamp set...Always in Bloom. I LOVE this wheel, and cannot stop using it!

Stamps: Cheep Talk, Always in Bloom wheel
Card stock: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point & Whisper White
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip & Summer Sun marker
Accessories: Scalloped Edge punch, Kiwi Kiss double sided satin ribbon, White grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen & mat pack
My Mom & Aunt are coming over this afternoon to do some stamping. Looking forward to that! I hope you all have a nice day...and a great weekend!

Bright Flight of the Butterfly

Last night was my last hostess club meeting for a while. I'm sure going to miss seeing these ladies every month! We had fun stamping, eating the delicious nacho bar our January hostess Teresa set up for us, and looking through the new catalog. It was fun looking and commenting about the new goodies with others who care...for some reason the hubby and sons just don't seem interested. Imagine that? One of the cards we did last night was this one using the Flight of the Butterfly.

The women were sooo incredibly thrilled to use the stamp-a-ma-jig so many times on this card! (in case you missed it...I'm being sarcastic, hehehe) I've found that most don't really like using the stamp-a-ma-jig, but once you get used to it it's hard to live without it. I suppose you could eyeball the layers to the butterfly, but that never works out well for me. OK, I admit it...it's because I'm a perfectionist, and if it doesn't line up it just bugs me.

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Cute & Curly
Card stock: Pacific Point, Certainly Celery, Rose Red & whisper White
Ink: Pacific Point, Certainly Celery, Rose Red & White Craft
Accessories: Scallop edge & Curly Label punches, White Taffeta ribbon, mat pack, white gel pen, adhesive backed rhinestones and of course...the Stamp-a-ma-jig!

We did another card and an acrylic calendar, but I didn't get a chance to photograph those...so I'll post those next time. Have a great weekend!

Hoppy Birthday!

It's snowing like crazy and it's looking the the plans we had for later on tonight will have to be put on hold. Bummer, because today is my hubby's birthday and we had planned to go to dinner and a comedy club...but it's an hour drive (in good weather) and there are all kinds of winter weather advisories. I didn't even realize it was snowing again until I came up for a lunch break! I was too busy having fun stamping to even look outside!
Isn't this little guy sweet? I just fell in love with this little froggy from Whimsy Stamps. I watercolored him and then cut him out. He's popped up and covered with Crystal Effects to make him look all wet and shiny...that doesn't show up too good in the photo though. I added some balloons using the image from the Crazy for Cupcakes set and stamped those onto Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery prints paper and cut them out.

The Certainly Celery background is embossed using one of the Sizzix Texture Plates and the Big Shot. I've heard that Stampin' Up! is offering texture plates in the new catalog! Some of the designs will be exclusive to SU!, so I'm sure they'll match some of the stamp sets. I'm really excited about that!

Crazy for Cupcakes

I want to start today's post by saying thank you so very much for all the heartfelt messages you have left for me here and in the emails and cards I have received since I posted last. It is comforting to know that so many people care.

We are hanging in there and keeping busy. We have started the sad & daunting task of going through my MIL's things. Both my husband and SIL took this week off work and we've been working hard, but she was a collector of many things...so no end in sight at this point. I did get a chance to do a little stamping the other night and played with my new Crazy for Cupcakes set, which is on special this month...here's what I came up with.
I can tell that this set is going to be a lot of fun! I have seen a lot of cute cards done with this set using the paper piecing technique, so that's what I was excited to try first. I used the Haiku Designer papers and paired it up with Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie & Celery card stock. With the use of my handy, dandy Stamp-a-ma-jig I was able to use the "Happy Birthday" arch stamp and create a circle. Then I punched out one of the cute cupcakes from the Cupcakes wheel for the center. The background was created using the Canvas background and the Cupcakes wheel both inked in Pumpkin Pie.

With these cute images and happy colors you can't help but make a fun & festive birthday card. And let me tell ya...I'm in desperate need of some fun & festivity about now! I'm glad I have my stamp club coming over tomorrow night...I'm sure they'll cheer me up! I'll be back over the weekend to share this months stamp club projects. Thanks again for your kind words during this hard time...it means a lot.

Happy Birthday Stampin' Up!

October of 1988 is when Stampin' Up was born, so that means they are celebrating their 20th anniversary! 1988 was a good year...it was also the year I became a mom for the first time. It's hard to believe my son is also 20! Time sure flies! Anyways...with October being SU!'s 20th anniversary they are having a special on 20% off select birthday stamps! Big Bold Birthday is included on that list, so I used it to make this cute (if I do say so myself!) birthday card.

I got my inspiration in several different places for this card. First, Beate had an awesome sketch challenge on her blog last weekend. I didn't get a chance to play along over the weekend, but wanted to give it a try using the Haiku papers anyways.
While visiting one of my favorite blogs, I saw that my friend Wendy used Beate's sketch along with Crazy for Cupcakes to create this adorable card. That's when I thought of using the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday along with Beate's sketch.

So, I knew which set, papers and sketch I was going to use, but I also wanted a fun & festive color combo to use with the Haiku papers so I flipped through the catalog for further inspiration. On page 61 there were some projects showcasing the Pun Fun set that used Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, So Saffron & Kiwi Kiss...perfect! Funny how these things evolve sometime, isn't it?

Fresh Cuts Sympathy

This is the first card I created with my new Fresh Cuts goodies. I thought the "thinking of you" script in the background of this collage stamp made it perfect for the sympathy card I needed to make for a friend. I started by embossing the image in black on white card stock. Then I sponged the background using Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy & Eggplant inks.


The 5 Petal flower punch works great with this set as it is such a good companion to the little flower stamp, and of course the die cut notes.



For the background I used Sanded and the little border stamp that comes with this set along the bottom. I really like this set a lot! It looks so pretty embossed! Plus I have always really liked collage style stamps. I read somewhere that there are at least 5 different SU! sets that are used in this collage. Can you spot them? Up until then the only one I had noticed was Riot of Petals. If you look closely you can also see images from Wonderful You, Kind Thoughts, Baroque Motifs & So Much.

Check this out....isn't it the cutest?!!

My good friend made this for my birthday. I love the papers she used and the little bag is just adorable! She had a rub-on tool from Basic Grey in the bag. Thanks for thinking about me Rach...you rock!!!


Now that I finally have my computer running with all my software re-installed (thanks Danny!)I'll be posting on a regular basis again. Thanks for stopping by...hope your day is a good one!

Pink Bundle of Joy

I made this card for a stampin' friend who recently had an adorable baby girl. I just love the Bundle of Joy set so it was fun to get that out to play. With two sons and a whole lot of nephews, I never get much of a chance to make totally girly things. So of course I had to go with all pink for this one.

The Houndstooth background inked in pink on the white card stock reminds me of a soft baby blanket, so I used that for my background along with the polka dot print from the Hostess Prints Pack.


To go along with the card I made some Scrap Candy using the Baby's First set. I figured these super cute images would be perfect to embellish a few pages in her baby's scrapbook.

Thanks for stopping by today...have a GREAT weekend!

Faux Sketch Challenge

I've been wanting to participate in some of the challenges I've been seeing on a couple different blogs for some time now, but I always seem to forget or put it off until the last minute, and then figure it's too late. Well, I'm still a bit late with this but still wanted to play anyways. I think this one card qualifies for two challenges. The first one was Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #49. Here is the sketch:

Her blog, Fresh & Fun is always so inspiring! I'm glad I was finally able to do one of her sketch challenges. I used one of my favorite sets, Spring Song, along with papers from the Hostess Prints Pack and Afternoon Tea.

The faux stitching I added around the circle and on the guava strip qualifies for a second challenge from Stamp Something whose challenge was to Faux Something!

I spent my morning playing with my stamps, but now I need to get outside and do some planting...quick...in case the weatherman was right in his prediction of rain. Have a wonderful day!

It's All Good!

Last night was stamp club night, and like always we had fun visiting, eating & stampin'! Hostess of the month - Kim, brought a super yummy dessert called Lemon Berry Trifle Thanks Kim!

I prepared a scrapbook page and a pocket card for everyone to make. The scrapbook page used a combination of different sets to create a fun and happy page. I have been wanting to use It's All Good along with Pick A Petal for a scrapbook page so that was my inspiration. Normally I have photos I want to use and that's where I decide my color scheme, but since I wasn't sure which photos I was going to use I took my color cue from the designer paper I chose - the Flowers For You assortment. I figured these papers would work well with the bold images from the Pick A Petal set and the other assorted flower stamps I planned to use. See the striped "ribbon" down the side? This was created by scoring and folding over the double-sided paper.

Since Live Your Dreams is one of my favorite new stamps sets, of course I had to use the cute line stamp in that set to create a journaling block! First I stamped the Live, Laugh & Love stamp in the bottom corner, masked it with a post-it note and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to add the lines so they didn't end up crooked. Then I used my markers to ink up the cute little line of flowers at the top - also from the Live Your Dream set.

I gave everyone a choice of which piece of patterned paper they would like to use for their page and what color they would like for the background. Each one picked a different patterned piece so the finished pages all looked unique. It was fun for me to see how each page turned out looking so different just with those little changes. They all did a great job, don't you think?!

This is Kim and her Sister-in-law Jill.

Here's Rachel & Miriam

Rachel, please note how nice I am...I used the good photo and not the one I threatened you with! (Don't worry, I didn't delete it...it may come in handy for future use! ;^) Both Cheri and Tami were absent - we missed you guys! and somehow Michelle managed to avoid the camera...watch out next time you three!


Stamps: Pick a Petal, It's All Good, Live Your Dream, Make It Count (hostess set), Always (I used just one flower...see if you can spot it) & the Spunky Spots jumbo wheel
Ink: Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise (stamped off once) Lavender Lace & White Craft
Card stock: Flowers For You DP, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Lavender Lace & Whisper White
Accessories: Mat Pack, White gel pen, various Circle punches, Photo Corner punch, Stamp-a-Ma-Jig

The pocket card was created using the Wild Wasabi pre-scored card stock from the Wild For Wasabi promotion. I had to trim it down a bit so that the finished card would fit in a standard envelope. I thought this would be a cute little card to give someone next time they ask for a recipe. Or maybe give as a little thank you card to someone who hosted a potluck type party...you could include the recipe for the dish you brought to pass.

Can you tell I'm just loving the Live Your Dream stamp set and the matching Afternoon Tea papers? I can't stop reaching for them every time I stamp lately. The pullout is a recipe card using From the Kitchen Of stamp set and the same color scheme I used for the cards in my recipe box set.


I had fun last night...I hope you all did as well.

So Many Scallop Flowers

I made this happy card using the So Many Scallops set and the Print Pack of Designer Papers offered as a Level 1 hostess gift. The 6x6 pad includes the colors shown here: Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi & Apricot Appeal along with Real Red - which obviously I couldn't work into this card. There are 60 sheets total, so it's a really nice pad of papers to add to your stash!

I used my 1" circle punch to punch out centers of my flowers from the designer print pack and then embossed the small flower from the Always set in white for the very center. (click on photo for better detail)

Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon was used for the stems and leaves. I finished this off by doing some faux stitching around the edges.

Enjoy your day!

Bold Bright Whimsical Balloons

I can't believe that I forgot to tell you some very exciting news regarding the new SAB sets when I made my post on Saturday! The SAB stamp sets are all die cut!!! It was a nice surprise to me when I opened my package. I had recently read an announcement that all future mini catalog sets will continue to be die cut like they were in the Holiday Mini, but it didn't occur to me that the SAB sets were included in that. I just loved how bright and cheery the first two cards I made with this set turned out so I decided to make a few more using the same color scheme. I also added a punched design from the new So Many Scallops set. I know I'll be using that set a lot! I cut out each balloon, but before I adhered them into place I lightly penciled in the curved lines of the string. Then I paper pierced along the lines, erased my pencil lines and connected the dots with my white gel pen. This mimicked the swirled motif of the stamp and turned out pretty darn cute...if I do say so myself!

Since it's always so much easier for me to make girly cards than manly cards, I challenged myself to also make a more masculine version of each of the birthday cards I make using this set.

For this one I used the It's Your Birthday set for the main image and framed it with the balloons. Since guys like hardware I added the brads in each corner for a manly touch. The orange balloon it mounted with pop dots. I also tied a bit of thread onto the balloons to finish it off. Both cards use card stock and inks from the Bold Brights color family, plus the Canvas background stamp inked with White Craft ink.

Bold Bright Birthday Whimsy

I pre-ordered two of the new Sale-A-Bration sets so I could make some samples. They showed up here yesterday! I must say I totally love both sets! I whipped up four really cute cards in no time at all...and only stopped stamping because we had a movie to watch last night, which turned out to be disappointing and my hubby just ended up snoring next to me while I watched. I should have stayed downstairs and stamped my night away because it was a good session. You know the kind...where things are flowing and the ideas in your head actually turn out as planned when inked.These are the first two cards I made with this set. I wanted to keep them simple and show the same design in two different color schemes...one for girls and one for guys. I couldn't help but sneak in a bit of ribbon on the girly card. I used the paper piercing template on both cards, but connected the dots with my white gel pen on the girly card to create some faux stitching.

I stamped each color gift twice. Then I cut them out and mounted them with pop dots for some extra dimension. These cards show my favorite thing about using SU! products...color coordination! It's so nice to have the ink, paper and embellishments all match without having to think about it.

Hopefully I'll have some more time to play with my new stamps today! I have even been cleaning up after myself when I'm done to keep my space organized. ;-) Have a great weekend!

Time Well Spent is a Good Thing

I got a really cool gift in the mail this past week from Stampin' Up! It's a Level 3 Hostess set from the upcoming Spring ~ Summer Collection called Time Well Spent. Free stamps are always nice...plus it's a really cute set! I sure was happy to get it, but I didn't get a chance to play with it until today. I thought I'd share both the cards I've made so far.


For the first card, I went right for the big flower stamp first! I thought it would be a fun image to emboss in white and then watercolor with some bright, pretty colors. So that's just what I did! After that was done I chose colors for the rest of the card based on the colors I had used when watercoloring my big flower image. On the Apricot base I created a background using one of the smaller flower images from this set stamped randomly in White Craft. (it doesn't show up too good in my photo)


The sentiment is embossed in white also. After doing that I was wishing I would have done it on white so I could water color the word friend and the two flowers. That's when I decided to bleach that portion with my Aqua Painter filled with bleach. That worked out good, because the Rose card stock looked Apricot after it was beached...perfect! So I just quickly highlighted it with a bit of color, added some faux stitching at the top and a cute scallop border at the bottom made with my slit punch.


I just got a pack of the Soft Sky Designer Prints and I just LOVE them...so of course I had to add some of that to my card also...because like the other sentiment stamp in this set says..."Too much of a good thing is a GOOD THING!" I like the way this turned out, and can already visualize some fun scrap book pages using this set!


My second card was stamped in Basic Gray and also watercolored. When I was done, I used my Gelly Roll star dust glitter pen to add some highlights to the flowers and the butterfly. The Groovy Guava base was stamped with a couple small flower images from this set inked in white. I love sets that come with some smaller images that can be used for backgrounds too.


The butterfly was cut out and the wing area was slightly bent. I just glued down just the body portion, so it looks 3-D. This card also uses the Soft Sky prints. This polka-dot pattern is the flip side of the pattern used on the first card. Hope you like these cards...I'm sure they won't be the last I share here using this cute set!

New catalog excitement!

I got my demo copy of the Fall-Winter Preview brochure a few days ago and I must say that I'm getting really excited about the new catalog! I decided to make a card with stuff that I already had, but will also be brand new to the catalog on July 1st. How could I already have new merchandise in my hands you may ask? Well, let me explain...I purchased the Palette O' Prints pad of designer papers, which is this months special and the stamp set I used was a set that was given to me at the regional seminar I went to last October.


The Almost Amethyst double-sided designer paper will be available in the new catalog, but sized at 12x12 along with other prints in the same color. There will be 16 color packs to choose from. Won't that be cool!? It is fun to have a sample of four of the colors to play with right now. There is still a few more days to get your Palette O' Prints if you would like. The 6x6 pad comes with Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Rose Red & So Saffron prints, and I know from the preview brochure that these prints will also be available in Soft Sky which is one of the great new In Colors offered in the new catalog. I wonder what other colors it will be available in?


The stamp set I used is called Double Line Doodles. It is a really cute set! I love the paisley-flower stamp I used for the background on the Bashful Blue card stock, don't you? The bottom half of the card shows the Palette O' Prints paper. Since it is double sided, the strip in the middle is the other side of the floral design. I simply folded it over to create the band. Because I'm excited about the new rhinestone brads that will soon be available, I used 3 rhinestones glued to the middle of the flowers to add some bling. It will be so much quicker & easier to use the rhinestone brads...plus they come in SU! colors!

I used my mat pack and white gel pen to create the faux stitching and then attached the matted image to the card using stampin' dimensionals. I left the bottom of card blank to add my sentiment later when needed.


If you are on my mailing list, you too will be receiving a copy of the Fall-Winter preview brochure in June.

Looks Like Spring...but Feels Like Summer!

I've been really bad about posting to my blog lately. This past week I've been busy working in my flower garden. Up until now it had been very neglected! A friend of mine gave me all sorts of perennials from her garden, so that got me motivated to get out there and do some digging, planting and weeding. Except for the weeding it has been fun! With the extremely warm weather we've been having everything is really starting to fill in. I love to go out and look at the changes each day. I noticed this morning that I have the first bloom on one of my iris plants.

Well...onto the card! I made this thank you card for my friend that gave me the plants. I took the photo out in my garden with the Bleeding Hearts she gave me in the background. I used the Palette O' Prints paper for the bottom and middle piece and then used the argyle stamps from the Looks Like Spring set to create the background for the top part. It looks like a mini version of the Palette O' Print paper, doesn't it?

Stamps: Looks Like Spring & wonderful Words
Card stock: Rose Red, Basic Black, So Saffron & Whisper White
Ink: Rose Red, Regal Rose, So Saffron & Whisper White craft
Accessories: Mat Pack & Signo white gel pen (for the faux stitching) Spring Bouquet punch, Vintage Brad

Have a fun Memorial Day weekend!

Luck of the Irish

This is a quick and easy card that can be made even if you are like me and do not have any St. Patrick's Day stamps.

I used the heart stamp from All Through the Year to form this lucky four leaf clover. Any heart stamp can be used to do this, and I'm willing to bet most everyone has a heart stamp in their collection...if not give me a call! For the stem, I used the the flower stamp from Polka Dots and Paisley, but if you have the coordinating marker to the ink used, it would be just as easy to draw a stem. The polka dot background was also from that set.

To finish off the card I added some faux stitching and a golden brad which I dug outta me pot 'o gold...sorry I HAD to put a least one bad Irish impression in my description! The Good Luck sentiment, which comes from Sincere Salutations, is perfect for St. Patrick's Day or any time you would like to give a card wishing good luck. Colors used: Gable Green & Green Galore.

Have a great day...but don't drink too much green beer!

Fishy Friends Shaker Card

Earlier this week, my Aunt Roberta came over and we spent the afternoon stamping. We had a great time! She brought her Fishy Friends set because I had an idea I thought we could try.

First we stamped the fish images in black Stazon ink on Whisper White card stock, then colored them using water color pencils and our aqua painters. After we got our fish colored the way we wanted, we covered them with Crystal Effects so that they looked wet and shiny.

The coluzzle template was used to cut the circle from the teal mat, which was the final layer of our shaker card. We used foam mounting tape to create the space and adhere our window sheet and mat, but before we attached these we put some clear beads and glitter inside. This card looks so much cuter in real life because you can see how shiny the fish are and also just how sparkly the inside is from the glitter!

This is a fun card, but it would also make a really cool element on a scrapbook page too, wouldn't it? I love using the Spot On wheel inked in white to create bubbles, and I think it makes the perfect background for this card. Have a great weekend!