Butterfly Basic Wishes

Good news for those who have been waiting to order the Butterfly Bundle from SU!...

After a (very) long migration, the Butterflies Thinlits Dies have landed in the warehouse and are now available for purchase! Remember, you can take advantage of two special offers through April 30th:

Get the Butterflies Thinlits at a 15 percent discount--just $21.20! 

OR

Buy any of the Butterflies Thinlits Bundles at a 15 percent discount and choose one of three FREE Sale-A-Bration items (only available while supplies last)!

• Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper (item 138633)
• Best Year Ever Accessory Pack (item 138634)
• Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper (item 138635)

I absolutely LOVE this set! My card today uses the Irresistibly Yours DSP, which you can select for free when purchasing the bundle. I have colored it easily by sponging on Lost Lagoon ink. I watercolored the pretty flower image in BlackBerry Bliss and Mossy Meadow inks using my Aqua Painter.

If you love the watercolored look but struggle with the technique, you may want to check out my Butterfly Basics Watercolor Tutorial. I share step by step instructions and some helpful tips on how to watercolor using SU! Classic Inks and the Aqua Painter.

If you haven't added this beautiful bundle to your collection yet, please visit my SU! Store to purchase this today...with the added savings and extra FREE product, there's no better time to buy!

Cheerful Critters Happy Day

This set is so darn cute...especially the bear! He's fun to water color too!

I used the Balloon Framelits to cut out the cute little banner using scraps of Best Year Ever DSP. The festive little scene fits perfectly inside a frame cut using the On Film Framelits.

I used some of the soon to be retiring In Colors: Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding and Crisp Cantaloupe. The Cheerful Critter set is available in the Occasion Catalog.

Cheerful Critters Best Year Ever

I cannot believe that today is the last day of Sale-a-Bration already! I think if I had to chose just one item as a favorite it would be the Best Year Ever DSP. I love the cheerful colors and fun prints. Here is a set of cards we made at my All Occasions Card class yesterday using theses papers along with the adorable Cheerful Critters set.

I used the 2013-15 set of In Colors for the set. I will be sad to see these colors go in just two months. Here's a closer look at each card...

I used a different embossing folder for each card. The bunny card used the Spring Flowers EF, which is available in the Occasions Catalog.

Not sure why, but the color on this bear card changed after uploading here to my blog? To see true colors of Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana, look above at first photo to see the set of 3 cards. This one used the Lucky Stars Embossing Folder.

The little chicks sign was stamped onto DSP, cut out and popped up for some extra detail. The embossing folder used here is the Lovely Lace Embossing Folder. All cards were watercolored using the Aqua Painter and Classic Inks.

If you were planning to place an order during Sale-a-Bration...hurry, you have until the end of the day! If you love the soon to be retiring In Colors, now is a good time to stock up on ink refills and card stock before the retiring list is announced and they possibly run out.

If you need further enabling...how about a good sale? There are some great items listed in this weeks Weekly Deals and the Clearance Rack has been updated recently as well.

Best Year Butterfly

The patterns in the Best Year Ever DSP papers are so fun! I paired them up here with the Basic Butterfly stamp set for a cheery card that could be used for any occasion.

The Pool Party strip was stamnped using the polka dot desing from the Painted Petals set.

Irresistible Butterfly

My title about says it all...the Butterfly Basics stamp set and coordinating Butterfly Thinlets are pretty much irresistible to me! I have to restrain myself from using them so that my other stamps get a turn!

I sponged on some Pear Pizzazz & Coastal Cabana to reveal the pretty foliage design on the Irresistibly Yours DSP...which is available for FREE during SAB! The splattered Calypso Coral print is from the Best Year Ever DSP and that is FREE as well!

I hand cut a piece of Vellum Cardstock by tracing around the negative space left inside my card stock after die cutting the large butterfly. Then after adhering it to the back of my butterfly I colored the back of the vellum using my Blendabilities Markers for a stained glass effect.

The smaller butterfly was heat embossed using White Embossing Powder and then sponged the same as my background.

Have a nice weekend!

Springtime World of Dreams

During my last stamping session sponging the Irresistibly Yours DSP to reveal the lovely patterns made me think of one of my favorite techniques...emboss resist. So I pulled out one of my favorite stamp sets for this technique...World of Dreams.

The sponged on colors of Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding and Coastal Cabana along with the subject show that I am dreaming of spring.

I was inspired by the simple layout of a card on page 7 of the recent Stampin' Success magazine. They used a stamp set I don't have, so I swapped it out for another image that took about the same size.

Thanks for visiting.

Irresistible Painted Blossoms

The Irresistibly Yours DSP from the Sale-a-Bration catalog really is irresistible! I've been having so much fun sponging to reveal the beautiful patterns.

The pattern revealed on this piece works perfectly with the Painted Petals set I thought. I used Pear Pizzazz & Pool Party for the sponged on color and the flower is Calypso Coral.

Basic Wisteria Lotus Blossom III

Today I have the final card in the set of three cards to share with you.

Here's is a look at the entire set.

All three cards use the same color combo of inks: Wisteria Wonder , Elegant Eggplant & Blackberry Bliss for the lotus flower*, Wild Wasabi & Mossy Meadow for the ferns and stem and finally,  Sahara Sand for the Hardwood background.

*NOTE: I have found it much easier to stamp the flower image by doing it backwards from what is suggested on page 6 in the SAB catalog...I stamp the largest, solid background in the lightest color first and finish with the smallest textured piece in the darkest ink. For me, it's much easier to line up each layer. Also, if using the same color of ink (stamped off) to create the flower, I found that the detail wasn't as good for me starting with the smallest, detailed stamp first as suggested.

Now that you have seen the entire set, do you have a favorite?

Thanks for visiting...have a GREAT weekend!

Basic Wisteria Lotus Blossom II

I'm back today to share the second card in my three card set using the Butterfly Basics and Lotus Blossoms stamp sets.

This one is the most masculine of the set because I used more Mossy Meadow instead of Wisteria Wonder & Blackberry Bliss when it came to the card stock. I also eliminated the bow and just went with a strip of Mossy Meadow Stitched Ribbon instead.

Check back to see the full set of cards and more info on how I created them in my next post. Until then, scroll down to see the first card in this set.

Thanks for visiting today!

Irresistibly Yours Butterfly

One of my favorite techniques is emboss resist...heat emboss an image on light colored cardstock using a light embossing powder and then using a sponge or brayer add darker color inks over the top of  it to reveal the design. The Irresistibly Yours DSP that is FREE during Sale-a-Bration this year has a glossy design that is wonderful as is...OR you can use the same technique described above to make those fabulous designs pop like magic...I LOVE it!

Check out my quick 'n easy & bright 'n cheery card using the Irresistibly Yours DSP.

The multicolored strip that the butterfly is resting on is one of the 6 designs included in the Irresistibly Yours pack. I sponged it with Coastal Cabana, Pear Pizzazz and Calypso Coral inks. I stamped the word HELLO three times using Black Memento Ink and the Hello Life stamp set. I must say...I am really loving the photopolymer stamp sets for making it so quick & easy to line things up. Using wood mount or clear mount rubber I would for sure had to use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line the words up.

The butterfly was cut from Whisper White card stock using the Butterfly Thinlits and then sponged with Bermuda Bay and  Black Memento Ink.

Hope your day is bright & cheery! It is supposed to be a balmy 35 here in Michigan today. Here's hoping we see the sun!

Celebrate Best Year Ever

I have another card to share using one of my favorite new stamp sets...Celebrate Today. I love that this set has coordinating framelits! Actually there wasn't a whole lot of stamping done on this card...just the balloon basket and the sentiment and the rest was done easily using the Balloon Framelits Dies.

The DSP used is the Best Year Ever pack that is FREE during Sale-A-Bration! It's super cute, isn't it? I used three different patterns here.

We will be making this card at my All Occasion Card Class on Thursday. If you are thinking of coming, please let me know...today is the last day to register.

Happy Birthday From the Herd

Here's a fun birthday card using many new items from both the occasions and Sale-a-Bration Catalogs.

As you can see this card is much larger to incorporate all the elements I wanted to use. (It's one sheet of Coastal Cabana folded in half for the base.) I used die cut balloons from the Celebrate Today set (the cute little pennant and tassel are from that set as well) The coordinating Balloon Framelits make cutting all those elements super quick and easy!

The strips of DSP on the middle are from the Best Year Ever pack...which is FREE during SAB! I chose my color combo of Coastal Cabana & Crushed Curry from the DSP and threw in Real Red to make it more festive.

Another great FREE selection during SAB is the Big Day stamp set...which is where the "Happy Birthday" sentiment came from. Lots of fun new stuff, right!? Here's a closer look...

These adorable barnyard characters are in the new set From the Herd. They were fun to color using the Blendabilities.

Have a great weekend...I "herd" it is going to remain very cold with more snow on the way! Keep warm!

Lotus Blossom Card Set

This pretty new set will be available in just a few days. During Sale-A-Bration you can select the Lotus Blossom set for FREE with a $50 order!

I was playing around stamping the blossom in different colors, to see which I liked best. I couldn't decide, so I made a set using them all.

The flower is made up of 3 images that you stamp on top of each other to create the blossom. It's easy to line up because the stamps are photopolymer. I used just one color ink for each blossom, but stamped off on the largest background image to have more contrast.

The Whisper White background panel is embossed with the pretty new Spring Flowers Embossing Folder. I used these colors: Strawberry Slush, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral & Wild Wasabi.

You will be able to order from the Occasions Catalog starting on January 6th...which is also the start of Sale-a-Bration! I'll have more to share with you from both of these catalogs soon..so check back!