Awesomely Artistic Thank You

Today I am here with a colorful Awesomely Artistic thank you card.

To create the watercolor background I simply inked one of my acrylic blocks, gave it a spritz of water and stamped it on my Whisper White card stock. If you want more info on that, I have a tutorial that I shared a while back here.

The colors I used are: Pool Party, Mint Macaron, Crushed Curry & Watermelon Wonder. When choosing your colors, you will want to place colors that mix well next to each other. For example, a reddish tone mixed with a greenish tone makes a muddy brownish color.

You will want to let your background dry well or use your heat tool, before proceeding to stamp on top...unless you want the ink to bleed.

Thanks for visiting!

Wild About Flowers

Here's another great new photopolymer set called Wild About Flowers. It's really nice because it's a 2 step set so the foliage and flowers are separate images. Because it's photopolymer, its so easy to ink and stamp perfect flowers easily. Here are my first creations using it...

I just love the color combo of Blackberry Bliss and Tip Top Taupe! I used the new Lots of Labels Framelits and just extended the one end by slipping the paper on top of the framelit to make it longer. I used a pretty Antique Brad on this one, but I needed a flatter version to mail without going to post office, so I came up with this version.

I used the circle image from Awesomely Artistic with a small pearl to embellish this one. I also didn't make the tag quite as long as the first card. Here's a look at them together.

I think this set is going to see a lot of ink! Have a great weekend!

Bohemian Birthday

Here's a quick and easy masculine birthday card using the new Host Set, Happy Birthday Everyone.

This came together easily just by choosing my ink and card stock colors from the beautiful, rich colors used in the Bohemian Designers Series Paper. I used Island Indigo card stock for the base, Bermuda Bay for the focal panel along with Island Indigo and Blackberry Bliss inks.

My good friend and stampin' buddy is coming over to play today...looking forward to seeing her and spending some time visiting and getting creative with our new stampin' goodies! Hope you have a creative day as well!

Flippin' Friday - Sprinkles of Life Birthday Flip

Happy Friday! Here's a flip card using the new Sprinkles of Life stamp set along with the festive Cherry on Top DSP. What a great combo to create adorable birthday cards!

I extended the card by bypassing the end of the die to create an extra panel...

and an excuse to add more of this cute DSP! I used a Bermuda Bay base and let the stamp set, punches and DSP do the rest of the work.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Bohemian Peace Within

Today I have a card to share that combines the old with the new. The old is one of my favorite retired sets...Peace Within and the new is basically everything else...

I used a bit of Bohemian DSP to paper piece the pillow on the chair. The Boho Chic Embossing Folder for the Blackberry Bliss background and Tip Top Taupe card stock was used for the base and the ink was used to watercolor the chair. I also used Tip Top Taupe Dotted Lace Trim to finish the card. I really like the lace trim much more than I thought I would! It makes such a lovely finishing touch.

Have a peaceful day!

Awesomely Artistic IS Awesome!

I got a box of new goodies this week and one of the first things I had to play with was this great new set...Awesomely Artistic. There are so many really nice elements in this set that I know it's going to be a favorite!

Another new catalog favorite is the Brick Wall Embossing Folder. I love that it is 6x6 so that it will work perfectly for any card, no matter the orientation.

I love dragonflies, and it's been a while since I've had a new dragonfly stamp. I cut off his wings...that sounds mean!, but they got extra special treatment with some Dazzling Details to make them shimmer.

Have an awesome weekend!

Edited to add: If you love this original card I designed, then you are sure to love my latest tutorial which combines the beautiful new stamp sets Awesomely Artistic, used above, along with The Wilderness Awaits. I will take you step by step to create this embossed brick wall background above, plus a lot more.
Artistic Wilderness Card Tutorial 

Bohemian Peacock

When I first saw the gorgeous rich colors of the new Bohemian Designer Series Paper I couldn't wait to use it along with the Perfect Peacock stamp.

I took my color cues from the DSP...Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo,  Blackberry Bliss & Delightful Dijon...and added Cucumber Crush to watercolor. I used these inks pooled in my stamp pad lids along with my Aqua Painter and had fun blending these colors together. I originally planned to use a print from the DSP that reminded me of a feather and had several of these colors, but it took away from the pretty peacock and looked too busy so I went with this simpler print.

The Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim added the perfect finishing touch along the edge...it really sparkles and changes color when it captures the light.

I got a big box of new stuff delivered here yesterday! Can't wait to play!

Goodbye Blooming With Kindness

At the end of May I held a Hello/Goodbye Party here to say goodbye to retiring products and hello to some new ones. This is one of the make & takes I had for my guests using one of my favorite retiring stamp sets...Blooming With Kindness.

I used a monochromatic color combo here...Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe & Watermelon Wonder. The new In Color Watermelon Wonder card stock is pretty close to the Calypso Coral card stock. I first had created another card shown below.

This one has a Calypso Coral embossed background and a Watermelon Wonder mat for the stamped panel. The top card shown above also has Watermelon Wonder mat for the stamped panel but I used Crisp Cantaloupe for the embossed background layer. I decided I wanted a little more contrast so I went with the second card for the make & take.

Here's a look at the two cards together...

The pretty Blooming With Kindness stamp set, the color of Crisp Cantaloupe and the Spring Flowers Embossing Folder are all now retired and no longer available, but the pretty Dotted Lace Trim shown above in Tip Top Taupe is available in all the new In Colors...including Watermelon Wonder. 

Birthday Sprinkles

Sprinkles of Life is the perfect set to create fun birthday cards for just about anyone...especially when it's combined with the Cherry On Top DSP.

The candle and the cupcake bottom image were stamped onto a piece of DSP and cut out. The Bermuda Bay square was stamped tone on tone using the candle and sprinkle images to create a festive background. I used a strip of patterned paper in place of ribbon...so altogether I used 4 different patterns from the Cherry On Top paper stack to create this cheerful birthday card.

Colors used: Bermuda Bay, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush and Crushed Curry.

Have a great weekend!

Bohemian Moon Lake

One of my favorite stamp sets from the Occasions Catalog is the Moon Lake set. Quite a few of my other favorites from the Occasions Catalog have made it into the new Annual Catalog, but unfortunately Moon Lake isn't one of them. Don't worry however...there is still a few days left to grab this set if you haven't already.

Today I've combined a couple brand new items that will soon be available along with this great stamp set. The result is a striking (if I do say so myself!) masculine card.

The DSP I used is called Bohemian and I love it because it has some of my favorite rich colors...Blackberry Bliss, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay and the new Delightful Dijon. It has some really bold patterns along with a more subtle pattern on the flip side.

I used one of the larger, bold patterns like I would have used a piece of ribbon, had I been making a more feminine card. The "to a wonderful man" sentiment is from a great new host set called Happy Birthday Everyone. It has a large birthday stamp in a beautiful font and you can add other phrases such as the one above to personalize the birthday wish.  I also used Gorgeous Grunge on the Island Indigo & Bermuda Bay layers.

If you are looking for more ideas on how to use this stamp set, earlier this month I put out a tutorial using the Moon Lake stamp set along with some fun techniques to create a set of six masculine cards...just in time for Father's Day!  Check it out here.

Have a GREAT weekend!

A Quick Tip

Today I just wanted to share a quick tip that you may find helpful to avoid frustration when using your brand new ink pads. I was working on something for an upcoming class and was using a brand new Watermelon Wonder ink pad and a butterfly stamp from Butterfly Basics. I inked up the stamp and stamped it onto Whisper White card stock, but I did not get that nice crisp detail that should be showing with this image.The delicate hexagon texture was lost all together.

Check out my photo to see what I mean...the top butterfly was the first one I stamped.

What happens with the many of the new foam ink pads is that when they sit, unopened or unused, excess ink may raise to the surface of the pad. What you need to do is simply work that ink back into the pad. It only takes a minute...run your bone folder, a plastic spoon or other utensil back and forth over the surface of the pad gently working the ink into the pad. I did this up & down from top to bottom, then repeated side to side.

After working the ink down into the foam pad, I inked my stamp and again stamped it onto Whisper White... you can see the results. A perfect, crisp image, without the frustration! Hope this helps!

My Mom, My Friend

I saw the quote, "If I didn't have you as my Mom, I would choose you as my friend," on Pinterest one day and thought it was the perfect quote to use on a scrapbook page of my Mom & I that I was planning to scrap.

I made a couple paper roses using the Spiral Flower Die. The larger one uses both Perfect Plum and Blackberry Bliss. I sponged the Tea Lace Paper Doily lightly with Perfect Plum ink so it blended with the other embellishments. I used only two stamps for this project...both are background stamps. Of course the Hardwood stamp inked in White Craft over the Basic Gray background, then the more subtle Canvas background over the printed quote and again on the Blackberry Bliss mat. Here's a closer look at the embellishments...

I layered Blackberry Bliss Stitched Satin Ribbon over Silver Satin Ribbon. The pretty pearl embellishments are something I've had in my stash for quite some time...glad I was finally able to use them. Here is the page inside the 8x8 shadowbox frame.

I gave this framed page to my Mom on Mother's Day. She loved it! I'm lucky to have her as not only my Mom, but my friend as well. (Even though she likes to tell people we are sisters...and she is the younger sister!)