Feathery Friends Congrats

A dear friend won a well deserved teaching award last week so I made this card for her using the Feathery Friends and Hardwood stamp sets along with a few sentiment stamps from some retired sets.

I inked Hardwood in White Craft ink and stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock to create the frame for the chalkboard. I cut it into strips and inked the edges with Soft Suede ink. The little banner was punched from Picture Perfect Party DSP.

The sweet little bird was stamped in Basic Black and watercolored using my Aqua Painter and colors of ink that are featured in the Picture Perfect Party DSP.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Life is Beautiful With (Feathery) Friends

Hello! It's been a while since I posted, and I can totally relate to the sentiment above! Summertime is always so busy...trying to cram in trips to the beach, BBQ's with family and other warm weather activities while we still have the chance. Anyways... I had to share this adorable (if I do say so myself!) card I created using the Feathery Friends stamp set.

The images in this set just make me smile! I just love the acute birds! They are super fun to watercolor too! I used my Aqua Painter and went to town using a variety of inks pooled in the lids of my ink pad. If you've never done this, it's easy...just give yr inkpad a squeeze and you have an instant pallet right in the lid. The Feathery Friends stamp set can be ordered with hostess rewards, as it is a host set. The sentiment is from the Colorful Seasons stamp set...don't you  just love the font they used? It's an awesome saying too...because life truly is a beautiful thing!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Stepped Up Feathery Friends

Today I have two versions of the same card to share with you. The first version, shown below is a card we made at my recent All Occasions Card Class. It is very cute, but more basic because the attendees were making 8 cards within a short time, so I kept the design more simple.

The background pieces were stamped with images in the Feathery Friends stamp set. The adorable little bird and fussy cut flower were watercolored using an Aqua Painter. A piece of Berry Burst Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon separate the Tranquil Tide layer from the Lemon Lime Twist layer. The adorable little bird just looks like she's singing, "oh, happy day!" So I chose that sentiment from the Thoughtful Banners set.

It's a cute card, right? I know the ladies at my class love it, but I wanted to show you how adding a couple small touches can make a basic card even more special.

I added a couple embellishments die cut using the Flourish Thinlits to pull the Tranquil Tide color down onto the Lemon Lime Twist layer. The center of the fussy cut flower also received a little Glitter Enamel Dot.

I hope you liked seeing the comparison of these two cards. Have a happy day!

Colorful Seasons Double Z Fold

Here's a fun Double Z Fold Card using some of my new favorite stamp sets and dies.

Those adorable birds in the Feathery Friends host stamp set make me smile...they are so darn cute! I knew when I first saw them that I wanted to use them with the branch in the Colorful Seasons stamp set. I watercolored the birds using my Aqua Painter and cut them out. The wings are cut out and popped up as well for extra dimension. The new Mini Stampin' Dimensionals are perfect for adhering tiny die cuts such as the wings.

I used several of the new In Colors for this creation...Lemon Lime Twist, Berry Burst & Fresh Fig along with Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party & Old Olive. The flowers on the tree branches are from the Colorful Seasons stamp set. They are stamped using the Rock n Roll Technique along with a sponge dauber to soften/blend the edges where the two colors meet. The branches are die cut using the coordinating Seasonal Layers Thinlits. This bundle really is a must have in my opinion!

The picket fence was created by stamping the Hardwood stamp inked in White Craft Ink onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then cutting apart along the planks. I trimmed the top of each picket and then sponged the edges. The flowers and stems were stamped using the Jar of Love stamp set and die cut with the Everyday Jars Framelits.

I started with a base of Pool Party cardstock measuring 4- 1/4 x 11" scored at 2- 3/4" and again at 5- 1/2" The Whisper White background layer was cut at 10- 3/4 x 4 and sponged with Pool Party ink and masks cut from post-it notes using the cloud dies included in the Up & Away Thinlets.  After sponging my cloudy background I cut 3 panels to fit just inside the scored folds of my card. The photo above shows the card opened flat.

The card folds up, as shown above to fit inside a standard envelope. This card was time consuming, but fun to make. It went to my dear Aunt on her birthday today. She is also a stamper, so I know she will love this card...otherwise I doubt I could part with it! LOL

Hope your day is a happy one!

Feathery Friends Thanks

I must say, there are some really great stamp sets Just For Hosts in the new catalog! I just LOVE the adorable images in the Feathery Friends set...especially the sweet bird I used on this thank you card.

I had fun watercoloring these images and I tried a couple of my favorite new In Colors...Lemon Lime Twist & Berry Burst along with a couple of lasts years In Colors...Peekaboo Peach & Flirty Flamingo.

The textured background was created by inking up the new Pinewood Planks Dynamic Embossing Folder with Crumb Cake ink before rolling it through my Big Shot.

Don't you just love this ribbon? It's the new Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon in Berry Burst. Another new embellishment used on this card is the Glitter Enamel Dots. They are really super cute and even much prettier in person because they really do sparkle,

Have you checked out the great Just For Hosts section at the back of the new catalog? Now is the perfect time to earn these wonderful new sets with the WE ♥ HOSTS promo going on through June.

Contact me today to schedule your workshop or place your order. Read all the details here.