Romance is in the Air

Once the Valentine cards were completed for my daughter's class, it was time to move on to a card for my Sweetheart. I had some ideas in the back of my mine, just finished the card a few minutes ago. Billy won't get it until tomorrow, as both of us work tonight, we will have our little romantic evening tomorrow with a candlelight dinner.

Last year I gave Billy a card and homemade brownies for Valentine's day, he was more impressed with the Valentine card, hope that he likes this one as much.

It just so happens that this card will be representing a few challenges also. Gingersnap Creations wanted a card to be romantic, that brings to mind, music, roses, hearts and of course hugs and kisses. The background paper was from Graphics Fairy, the roses were embossed, or should I say de-embossed using my Big Shot and the Textured Impressions Manhatton Flower. A brayer was used to color the flowers with Classic Red Ink from Stampin Up.

The love sentiment is from a wedding set, that was purchased at Joann's on clearance, got to love that. The ovals are from the scalloped oval die cuts from Spellbinders. The heart punch from Creative Memories was used to make the three matted hearts. Heart studs were added to the center of each of those hearts. This made for a "Mushy Gushy Valentine" which is the challenge for Pink Elephant, and "Have A Heart or Hearts" is the challenge at Daring Cardmakers.

Time for me to head off to work, hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day and you get hugs and kisses from your loved ones.

WATERCOLOR ROSES

Embossing is one of my favorite things to do when stamping. Last year when I stared to stamp again and blogging, I wondered onto Patty's Stamping, she had some wonderful cards where she had done watercoloring and embossing. At the time I had none of the necessary supplies to try this technique, but knew that it was something that I wanted to try. In the coming months I purchased the Fifth Avenue Floral Set, Reinkers and Aquapainters all from Stampin Up, sounds like a commercial.


With everything going on once I had the supplies I just never got around to trying the technique, until now, almost a year later. The challenge at Gingersnap Creations is to using embossing, the rose is embossing with pearl white embossing powder. Patty suggested shimmer paper, but I used a heavy cardstock, which worked well. Patty has a wonderful tutorial on this technique and you can see it by going to her blog and clicking on April 2008, Watercolor Roses--Technique and Video Tutorial. This was my first attempt at watercoloring with ink, I am not an artist so this was definetly something that I would not have done with out all of Patty's excellent information, it is so easy and fun to do.



The basic card is paper from Lasting Impressions, the ink colors were red, orange and yellow. Happy Birthday stamp is from Hero Arts. Added a little satin ribbon and bow to finish off the card. Love how it turned, the card will be given to one of my co-workers along with some homemade brownies to celebrate her birthday.

When trying the technique I stamped a couple of other roses, and tried different colors. The rose was used as the focal point for the sketch from Mojo Monday, Week #124.

The background paper is from Creative Memories, and Lasting Impressions. The embossing powder is pearl white, and basic yellow and orange were used to get the watercolor effect. Instead of paper on the bottom paper where the rose is, ribbon was used.



Have a few other stamps in my stash that I want to try this technique with in the future.

It's my Monday, so it is time to get ready for work. Have a crafty day, and thanks for stopping by.

BLOOMING TULIPS

I must love presure, saw this sketch last week at Our Creative Corner and wanted to create a card, but as usual waited to the last minute. Picked out the paper last week, and had a stamp ready to go, only problem was that the stamped image was too large for the card, back to the drawing board.




Was determined to finish the card yesterday, and found this tulip stamp in my stash, it is from Hero Arts and have had it for more than a decade, always loved it. Didn't stamp for alot of years and all my stamps used to be in a shadow box on the wall, they became art and just looked pretty. Since moving back to Vegas they are now in a drawer and I can't see them all, forget what I have they aren't where I can enjoy them all the time, need to do something about that little issue.


This was such a fun card to do, stamped the design on patterned paper, think this is a first, always think you need to stamp on plain paper. I used colored pencils to add the coloring of the flowers and the leaves. Used the lace border punch from Martha Stewart, my cutting system for the circles, and a butterfly punch from Creative Memories. Double faced satin ribbon was used for extra texture to the paper lace border.

Time for me to take on a few household duties, and then I want to work on a Resolution challenge that Gingersnap Creations is offering, as usual know what I want to do, just need to get it done. Am off to have some fun. Have a crafty day.

An Untraditional Christmas

Decided that it was time to take on a couple of challenges on my days off. The new challenge at CCC is pale, interesting. Gingersnap Creations has had the challenge of stars and will be closing soon , so I really wanted to participate. Scrappy Frogs Challenge Blog (just happen on this one while checking out some work from the DT from GC) is to use a tree, any kind of tree.



The tree that was stamped is from Inkadinkado, which was purchased at Michaels, the set has ll clear stamps in the set. Garden Green ink from Stampin Up! was my choice of color. Had an idea for the layout, by changing the colors of the background and patterned paper two challenges would be acheived. Pale paper from "heidi grace designs" collection was used for the first card. This paper is available at Joann's, open stock. These are definitely not your standard Christmas colors, but then again neither is my Christmas tree decorations, it is all pink and crystals. This paper was a must just didn't know what project it would be used for or when.





That was the hard challenge, now onto challenge #2, stars for GC, that was easy, changed the background paper that had stars and add a rhinestone star on top of the tree. The ovals for the tree stamp were made with my cutting system from Creative Memories, and a bow completed the card. Base of the card is 5"x 5", the papers are from my stash, am sure that everyone that has been doing scrapbooking or making cards will recognize the paper from eons ago.

Enjoyed taking on these challenges and am very pleased with the outcome. Challenges have become my inspiration for cardmaking and love all the different avenues that are available to us.

I have been given a new challenges at work to put out a weekly newsletter. Am very excited about the opportunity, hope that I am upto this new "challenge."

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty day.

Plump Pumpkins

Love this time and year, so this is another good reason to do a card for the Crafty Creations Challenge, this week is leaves, or autumn theme.


Just got the Harvest Home stamp, from Stampin Up while in Utah last week must have had an ideas that this stamp would be perfect for this challenge. The card itself is very simple, used colored pencils to color in the stamp, did faux stitching with gold and copper gel pens. The leaves are from a punch that came from Creative Memories. The inside of the card also used the sentiment from the stamp set.

One of the reasons I love fall so much is that it is the beginning of the holiday season, I know that I will be seeing my family soon. Our plan for Christmas is to be in Utah at from daughter Kaylene's. Jamie, who lives in Reno maybe coming to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. Last year when Jamie was here we made bookmarks for her students, we will definetly be doing something special once again this year.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful and crafty day, thanks for stopping by.

Angel in Pink

What would I do without challenges, probably nothing! This card is for OCC challenge to use light pink, hot pink, white and chocolate chip. The other challenge is for CCC to have a window on the card. Silly me thought this would be a piece of cake, but trying to make a window with 2 mats was an all day ordeal, but the results were worth the time invested.



Light pink was the base of the card, the cutting system from Creative Memories was used to make the window in the card with the oval. It was necessary to cut the smaller oval in the front of the card first using hot pink. The next oval was white cut a little larger and then the final oval out of chocolate chip.



The first card the angel was stamped on the inside of the card on pink, but this just didn't show off the stamp. Wanted the stamp to be a little bighter so the angel was stamped on the oval that was left when cutting out the mat. Colored pencils were used to color in the stamp which is from Inkadinkado. Purchased this stamp at Michaels, they have expanded their selection of clear stamps.





Used chocolate chip ink from Stampin Up for the design. Felt that the card wasn't quite complete so the hot pink ribbon was added and also the punched flowers in hot pink. This punch is also from Creative Memories.



Time for me to head off to work, it is my Monday. Have a crafty day.

P. S. My sister had started to blog, check out some of her work here.

Tea Time

Crafty Creations Challenges this week was tea or coffee. Tea is an every day part of my life. My S.O. has at least 10 cups of tea a day he says it is good for him, that it has antioxidant, which does, it he didn't added sugar the tea would be much more beneifical, he won't give the sugar and cream. Oh well, he has given up smoking and that is great.

The stamp used is from Hero Arts and is one of my oldie but goodies. It was a set with teapots and also had a tea cup border. Had used the border before, so I really wanted to use a different stamp for this challenge. The papers used are from Lasting Impressions and were perfect for the layout.

The squares reminded me of a quilt, thus I added the faux stitching, love the outcome of this card. Found the perfect saying at Quote Garden to finish the inside of the card, this is where I go to find all types of poems or sayings.

A limited edition corner rounder was used for the sentiment. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a crafty day. Thanks for stopping by.

Fall is in the Air

My favorite season is fall, mainly because in Las Vegas, there is no fall. No wonderful trees changing colors, palm trees just aren't the same. Love to go to the canyons in Utah and see all the amazing colors for the season. This card is a representation of the season, and the sentiment "Thinking of You."

The motivation came from a couple of challenges, Rosie Dee's which was 2 squares and a rectangle. The other challenge came from OCC which is fall this was a no brainier.

Using a pattern paper for the background, the two squares are green and brown solid card stock in the corners of the squares I used a gold gel pen to get a faux look a very small brad. The leaves were created with a paper punch from Creative Memories. The tree from Stampin' Up, Thoughts and Prayers Set, with chocolate chip ink. The sentiment is from a K & Company set. It is hard to see but I also added stitching about the tree in brown.

This was such a fun card to do and everything came together with hardly any effort. I did pick out the stamp first, which I really need to do each time a card its made. It seems that I get too involved in the layout, and then don't have the right stamp to finish the card, have everything backwards.

Hope that this card inspires everyone to do something with these wonderful colors. Have a great day and take the time to do something creative.