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!

Henry Says Happy New Year!

I just couldn't pass up this whimsical elephant stamp set, Henry Says, available in the upcoming Spring Catalog. I love all the accessories included...like the banner which can hang from his outstretched trunk.

I stamped Henry on new Sycamore Street DSP, which is available as a FREE selection during Sale-A-Bration 2013! I love the bright colors and fun patterns in this paper pack. After stamping Henry on the DSP and cutting him out, I added a little shading using my Aqua Painter and some Island Indigo Ink. His little eye got lost in all that pattern of the paper so I colored a small Basic Pearl black using a sharpie marker and gave him a new eye.

Isn't the Pool Party Satin Ribbon pretty? It's part of the Sycamore Street Ribbon & Button Pack, also  available as a FREE selection during Sale-A-Bration! You can get these items starting January 22nd...so contact me to host a party or to attend one of my events! While SAB items aren't available for a few weeks yet, Henry is available starting January 3rd from the Spring Catalog.

Like Henry, I would also like to wish you a very happy, healthy & creative New Year!!! If you are going out tonight to celebrate...be safe!

Snow Flurry Candle Wrap

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Today I want to share a sparkling table decoration I made for the holidays. I love the battery operated candles that you can get now. Especially the ones with timers that come on every evening...they even smell good, and I don't have to worry about my kitty burning his whiskers off or knocking them over when he gets curious. However, they are kind of plain...so I made a pretty wrap to dress them up.

I used: Snow Flurry Bigz Die, Silver & Champagne Glimmer Paper, Always Artichoke card stock embossed with Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder and spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz, Adorning Accents Edgelit, Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons and lots of Basic Rhinestones. Here's how they look on my table.

Isn't the quilted table runner gorgeous? It was a Christmas gift made by my talented Mom. She also made me a quilted wall hanging that holds Christmas cards...you can see part of it hanging on the wall behind the table. I'll have to get another photo so you can see the entire quilt. (she takes orders!)

The red vase/candle holder in the center was a happy find that really coordinates well...the snowflake even has rhinestones on it. I used velcro to secure the wrap to the candle, this way they are easy to remove and I can make different ones for each season. Here is one I made this past fall.

We got snow on Christmas Eve, so we were blessed with a white Christmas again this year. I'll leave you with a pretty shot of our Christmas sunrise view out our front window.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Shimmering Christmas Deer

Here is another one of the Christmas cards I sent out to our family and friends this year.

I used Winter Wonderland embossing powder on the Christmas Deer image...which is white, and loaded with silver & iridescent sparkle. The Whisper White layer was embossed using the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder and then spritzed with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. I wish you could see just how these cards sparkle & shimmer but I just didn't get a good photo capturing the sparkle. Here's a closer look where you can kind of see the sparkle & shimmer...

I used Snow Festival DSP along with some retired Deck the Halls DSP to coordinate with the Cherry Cobbler & Always Artichoke card stock. Along with the Christmas Deer stamp set I also used Bells & Boughs (sentiment) and the swirl from Creative Elements.

This will probably be my last post before Christmas, so I want to wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas!

Stevie says Merry Christmas too!

Bells & Boughs With Ornament Keepsakes

This is one of the Christmas cards we made at my Christmas Card Class earlier this month. It is also one of 4 cards that I designed to send out to our family & friends this year.

The Raspberry Ripple layer was stamped with the pretty pine & poinsettia image from Bells & Boughs. The ornaments were all stamped in Wild Wasabi and cut out using the Holiday Ornament Framelits. The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from the Mixed Medley Hostess Set available from the Holiday Catalog. This card was one of the favorites at the class...I hope my family & friends I sent it to liked it as well.

Here are some cute & quick tags I made for bags of cookies I took to my cookie exchange party. I used sparkly white embossing powder on those. They really dressed up my cookie bags.

I still have baking & wrapping to get done...so I better run!

Snow Much Fun Luminary Easel Card

While browsing the SCS gallery one day I came across this beautiful card and thought it was such a fantastic idea to create a luminary from an easel card...so of course I had to try one!

I love the sparkly snowflake cut from Silver Glimmer Paper using the Snow Flurry Bigz Die! I colored a Basic Rhinestone with a sharpie marker to coordinate with the Gumball Green Stitched Satin Ribbon. I got my color combo of Baja Breeze, Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler & Primrose Petals from the cute Snow Festival DSP. I used those color markers to color the cute snowman image which is embossed using Silver EP on Cardstock Vellum. The snowflakes from Snow Swirled were stamped using White Craft Ink. The "Warm Winter Wishes" sentiment is from my retired Snowflakes set. Here's a look at what they look like lit with a flameless candle.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Mixed Bunch Medley

I really love the bright, cheery color combo of this card we made at my recent All Occasions Card Class...especially on a dark dreary morning like we are having today.

The base is Pool Party, the embossed Perfect Polka Dot layer is Island Indigo, the Mixed Bunch flower is Primrose Petals, as is the Stitched Satin Ribbon. The strip at left is Raspberry Ripple and the leaves were punched from Certainly Celery using the Bird Builder Punch.

The sentiment, from the Blooming With Kindness set was stamped in Raspberry Ripple ink. The small, scalloped flower is from the Hostess set Mixed Medley and was punched using the 1-1/4" Scallop Circle Punch which is new in the Holiday Catalog. The Basic Rhinestone center was colored with a sharpie.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Cherry Stippled Blossoms

I had been eyeing the Stippled Blossoms set since it first came out in the new catalog in June...I really, really tried to resist since I have so many floral stamps in my collection already...BUT, as you can see my resistance was futile! I'm sooo weak! Anyways... here is my first creation using this beautiful set.

Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Blooming With Kindness & En Francais
Card stock: Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake & Very Vanilla
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Old Olive & Always Artichoke
Accessories: Window Frames Framelits, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Basic Pearls, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding Ribbon & Victoria Crochet Trim

I got all my holiday decorating done over the weekend and the house feels so festive...it really put me in the Christmas spirit! Today I will be working on Christmas cards. Have a great day!