Color Therapy

Hi Everyone! As I have said before, I love to color! There are so many ways I love to color! I find it so therapeutic. I love to stamp many images on Stampin' Up thick white cardstock with the momento ink and then color away. It is also nice because then I can take it with me to appointments or even just to sit and watch tv.  The only problem is then I have so many images that I have to make into cards. The problem would be I might color 10 of one thing and then I make lots of the same cards. So just to beware I may have lots of baby cards on my blog. I just think the babies are so cute and really fun to color! 

For this card, I wanted to use many of the other images from the stamp set. I also had an oval shaped watercolor paper that I had created a yellow watercolor wash on from another project that I did not use. I thought it would be a good background for the baby in the jumper.

Here is a close up of the coloring on the baby. One thing that I would recommend is to wait to cut the images out after you have colored them. It makes it so much easy than having lots of little pieces around, especially the little bottle that you see in the above photo. I also like that this bundle has framelits that cut the majority of the images out. Makes life so nice!  I hope you can find some time to color this week!  I know that I will and stay tuned to more baby cards!

Simply sweet

Who loves to color? I really enjoy so many ways to color my stamped images. It is so relaxing and easy to do while waiting at the doctors, while watching tv or just when I have a few minutes of free time.  I really try to color something most days. Even if it is just one image.  For the baby card above I had stamped many of the onesies from the sweet baby stamp set in momento ink. I knew that I wanted to color them but still had no idea what I was going to do with them. I like these colors together and decided to create a simple card by mounting them on small stitched squares. I stamped the greeting on whisper white cardstock and ran it through my big shot with the subtle embossing folder. I thought my card was finished however, I saw this sweet little heart from a project that I did not use.  It went perfect.  Don't you love when that happens!

Take time today to color something. I believe it will spark joy in your day!

Tea Time

 Time for a beautiful cup of tea!  I love all things coffee and tea. I think it is because they are so warm and soothing to drink. So when I saw the tea together stamp set in the occasions catalog I knew that I would want to order it.

I used my stampin' blends to color the tea pot and cup in shades of blue, I used both the balmy blue and the night of navy colors. I really like the way that it came out. I do struggle with shadows and so I kept it very simple with a highlight in the center. I also stamped a few of the flowers from the stamp set to add to this beautiful place setting.

The flowers I colored with highland purple and blackberry bliss blends and I made the flowers have more dimension using a flicking motion with the pens.  I find this technique so pretty and easy to do. I used a little daffodil for the center of the flowers. I did not want the tea pot and other images to be floating and so I lightly sponged a background as well as added a pearlized doily.

I struggled with where and what greeting to use on the card. I did not want to cover up any of the coloring that I had spent time on and so I decided to stamp the greeting on the cup.  I think that it works and is not to distracting.  I hope you enjoy this card and give me your thought in the comment area below.  Have a beautiful day and enjoy a lovely cup of warm tea!

Birthday watercolor

 Today I have been practicing my watercoloring.  From everything that I have seen or watched online, I have learned that to be a better watercolorer I have to practice.  It is very difficult to figure out the amount of water that is needed to get the effect that I would like to achieve. I have been having so much fun with this medium.  For the card above I used watercolor paper and stamped my flower images with Staz on ink because it will not run when water is applied. I randomly stamped the flowers from the tea together stamp set. I layered the colors that I used, letting them dry in between each of the layers.  This is very important so that you get a layer, if you apply more color when the image is wet the colors will bleed into each other.

 I went in with a wash of balmy blue for the background.  I wanted to keep the background pretty neutral so that the flowers would stand out. I love to color my flowers bright and bold as I am sure you can tell from this painting.  Since the background is so busy and I decided to go with a simple greeting for the card. I hope you try watercoloring with the aquabrush and some of the dye inks. It really is fun and relaxing.  Let me know if you have any other questions.  Have a beautiful day!

Storage!

I am so excited to share something new from Stampin' Up! Storage pieces to fit all your creative needs.  These pieces are so nicely streamlined and functional. I am really happy that they have come out with this line of storage. The pieces are sold separately and very affordable.  Check out my online store for the prices and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments.  Have a great day!

One more dog

Happy Tails to you!  Is it just me or does this make you sing the song "happy trails to you"? Every time that I say the name of this set in my head I start to sing the song. It is the cutest little bundle! The set comes with a photopolymer stamp set, which makes stamping the dog and the house so easy. They both have extras that you can stamp on top for a 2 step stamp look. You can give the dog spots, dark areas, a collar and a few other things. The dog house has the outline of the house as well as the individual lines to show the wood texture. We made this card at my stamp club last month, and when I was coming up with designs I was trying to decide which dog house color I liked best. I decided to use the cherry cobbler one that is in the front.  What do you think? I used my versamark ink pad on this card for many things, for the dog paw on the strip in the back, for the markings on the dog and for the paw and heart behind the saying. I love how this ink pad adds just enough of an accent to the images. I went with a pretty easy layout for this card. I hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Dog pile

Do you ever stamp a bunch of one of your favorite images and then just color? I do this all the time and I am sure that I have asked you this before. I love the adorable little dogs in the Bella and friends stamp set. The images are so cute and so fun to color. They make great cards for any occasion and for both males and females. Just recently I finished coloring  a few of the images and decided that I should make them into cards. I also had a bunch of scraps on my desk and so I decided to make dog cards with my scraps.  The first card is pretty simple. I used the stitched shape framelits to frame the dog, mounting it on a scrap of neutral designer paper, and mounted it all on early espresso cardstock. I had just the birthday part from the thinlit and so I used the happy from the sunshine wishes stamp set to complete the greeting.

For this card I had another scrap from the neutral designer paper with a circle punch out and then I realized after I cut the dog with the stitched shapes framelits that it fit perfect!  Don't you love when that happens!  I used the saying from the happy tails stamp set from the occasions catalog. If you do not have this set you need it!  The dog is adorable and the greetings are so cute. They also offer a punch that if you purchase the bundle you can receive 10% off. I white heat embossed the greeting on the basic gray card stock and cut apart to adhere seperatly. This card came together so quickly and I think is came out really cute!

Don't forget that there is less than 3 weeks to take advantage of the Free saleabration items. If you would like to order or have any questions please feel free to contact me.  Have a great day!

Rainbow Stampin' Blends

I love all the ideas that I have seen recently of rainbow colors on a card, so I decided what could be cuter than a rainbow of baby onesies. The most difficult part was trying to decide which color of my stampin' blends to use. I put them all in a big row and then picked some of my favorite. (they looked so pretty all together!) I stamped a row of onesies in my momento black ink pad (ink you want to use with blends) and started to color. I wanted them to stand out a little more and so I outlined them with my smoky slate blends. Try this to really make your image pop against the white card stock. I die cut 3 of the congrats from the sunshine wishes thinlits for my greeting. I glued them all together to give them a little bit more dimension. After I assembled the entire card I was a little bummed that I did not stamp the first and last onesies a little closer to the next ones, kind of felt a little off to me. Let me know what you think. I am inspired to make another card with rainbow colors. It is so bright and cheery.  Enjoy!

Mondrian Style

Today I used Mondrian as my inspiration. When I saw this grid pattern in the graceful glass designer series paper I immediately thought of art work done by the artist Mondrian. I decided to color the back side of the vellum with my stampin' blends and then added adhesive behind the color so that it would not show. When looking for a greeting I saw this one in the Part of my Story stamp set and it was perfect!  This stamp set is free and has the best sayings for making inspirational cards. I wanted to keep the card truly plain and simple and so I white embossed it on black card stock and used my pretty label punch. I really like how this card came out. While I was putting the card together I realized all the artist who inspire me with there blogs and other forms of social media. There are so many artist out there who I do not personally know but I feel like I do by seeing the works that they create. Thank you to all who share with me and others your creative process and your final works of art.  I hope that I too am inspiring some of you to be yourself and create what you love. Make it your own and enjoy the process.

20 years!

Yeah!  Can you believe it I have been a demonstrator for 20 years!  Wow I did not think 20 years would go so fast. I have loved so much being a demonstrator!  I want to thank all my customers for being so loyal to me for these years.  Especially the ones that have been with me since the beginning!  This is such a huge milestone and I am so happy that I have had such support from all of you! I appreciate all the love, support and orders from everyone. I could not have done this without all of you!  The best part of the past 20 years has been the amazing friends that I have made!  Stampers have the biggest hearts and make every event such a joy.  So many of you have shared your homes and families with me and for that I feel so privileged! God has truly blessed me with a craft that has led me to lasting friendships!  I look forward to another 20 years or more of friendship with all of you!  Thank you so much! God Bless you all!

Glad we are friends!

Hello everyone! I am trying a new size for my photos.  What do you think? Is it too big?  I know when I look at other peoples blogs I like a big picture so that I can see the card up close and so I thought maybe I needed mine a little bigger.  

I ordered the incredible like you stamp set and kit. I loved the colors for this kit and they were even better in person.  This kit was really fun to put together, it is a little more challenging than some of the kits that Stampin' Up offers but the results are beautiful cards.  The stamp set is sold separately and so if you like the greetings that they used in the samples you will want to order that as well.  After making the cards in the kit I decided to play with the stamp set.  I love all the images and especially that it is a two step stamp set.  The large flower has beautiful texture and so soft looking.  I used soft colors for this card, blushing bride and soft sea foam because I wanted to give the appearance of watercolor.

This set also has many wonderful little filler stamps which are perfect for creating a meadow of flowers. I used the stripes to make my own background paper. When I stamped the stripe it did not stamp solid, but I loved the way it looked like it was distressed.  The greetings in this set are so wonderful. I love the font that they used as well as the sentiments. I know that I will use this set for so many more cards in the future.  If you would like to order this set and the kit that goes with it just go to my store and don't forget for just a few more weeks it is saleabration. For every $50 spent you can pick a saleabration item for FREE!  You will not want to miss out on that great deal!  Have a great week!

Need a baby card?

Today I have made a cute and adorable little baby card. It can be given as a boy or girl card. This card I added the cute greeting "mama's boy" and so if you wanted to make it for a girl you could use another greeting from the stamp set. It was so easy to make and I love the way it turned out. Sometimes I feel like simple cards are just right.

How sweet is that little onesie? I just love how cute it came out, colored with the Stampin' blends and then I added the cute little heart from the stitched label framelits. I wanted the onesie to be the focus on this card and so I layered it with the stitched shapes framelits, and the scallop punch. For the background I used a piece of whisper white and randomly stamped the little accessories from the set with the pool party ink and then used the eyelet framelit to finish off the bottom edge. I mounted it all on the pool party cardstock that I had embossed with the sparkle embossing folder. Finished it all off mounted on a piece of thick whisper white cardstock.

I would love to know what stamp sets you like to use for baby cards? Enjoy!

Hey Love

It is that time of year to start making a few Valentines.  If you are like me you like to share your love with those important people in your life. And since I am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life I have made some quick and easy Valentines with Stampin' Up note cards. It is so easy to make a card with them because they have taken all the work of making the card and finding an envelope for you. Stampin' Up note cards come prescored and with matching envelopes. I just combined them with the Hey Love little critters, a few scraps of my neutral designer series paper and a few punches and cute little card are done.

I tried to get a picture of all the cards together, however I was not very successful.  I have included a close up of each of the cards for you.

This set makes a nice set of cards. I used all the images from the set and they all coordinate so well. I colored them with the Stampin' blends.This set is great for males, females, young and old. Hopefully this will give you some quick and easy ideas for Valentines for you to create.  Let me know what kind of Valentines you like to make.

Lilypad Lake

 Can you believe that January is half over already.  Before we know it, it will be summer. This stamp set and matching framelits make me think of summer. Growing up in Minnesota there was always a lake to walk around and enjoy. The true sign of summer were lilypads on the lakes along with the beautiful duck, geese and other birds that would be in the water.  It really reminded me of my younger days in Minnesota. It brought back so many wonderful memories.

The stamp set is lilypad lake and lakeside are the name of the framelits. If you order them together you receive 10% off, what a great opportunity to save. And if you order them now during saleabration you just need to order $6 more to receive a FREE item from the saleabration catalog. 

I had a watercolor panel that I had made a while ago and it was really dark and solid. Not the colors that I wanted for the project I was working on at the time. It was perfect for this card. I used the framelit to cut wavy lines for the water and then I put pool party card stock behind it for the look of water. (I kept the wavy lines to make another card, I will share that another day)  I used the memento black in so that I could color the bird and boat images with my stampin' blends. Using the matching dies to cut these images out made it so easy.

The greetings in this set so beautiful.  Any of them would be great for an uplifting card to send to a friend or relative who is having a hard time. I think it is really important to share our cards to encourage the people in our lives. It could make their day just a little bit special. If you know of someone who needs a little happiness in their day make them a card. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a little note so they know someone cares and thought of them today. Enjoy!

Sweet Baby Boy

This little set just melts my heart. The sweet baby stamp set along with the coordinating framelits (bouncing baby framelits)  you can make this cute little blanket to swaddle your baby.  If you order the set and framelits together you receive 10% off.  The dies not only cut the shape of the blanket they also make the score lines for you. I used the neutrals (night of navy) designer series paper to make the blanket. I also like that it is double sided and so you can see both designs when folded. The rest of the card is pretty easy to follow. I used night of navy for the layer on the white base and stamped the "its a boy" in night of navy in the background. For the greeting I stamped night of navy on white and used another cute die that comes in the set as well. It makes the cute ruffle on the bottom. I just couldn't resist even though it is a boy card. The heart that I used to close the blanket is from the stitched label framelits. I have found that this framelit set goes well with the sweet baby set as well.

Here is a close up of the baby and the blanket. I water colored the little baby and the cute little bear hat.

This is a close up of the cute eyelet ruffle. I think it adds so much to the greeting and the bottle to help balance out the card.  Enjoy!

Country Home

Do you find that there are some stamp sets that when you get them you realize just how much you enjoy them?  The country home stamp set was that way for me. I thought it was adorable in the catalog and so I ordered it, come to my surprise I now can't stop using it. I love the greetings, the fonts and the images.  They are great watercolored, colored with pencils as well as stampin blends and just stamped with no color at all.  My favorite card that I made with set is the one below.

I just can't get enough of this cute milk jug! I looked online for the colors for milk jugs and I saw so many different colors that I thought why not watercolor them all different. I love the rustic feel that this portrays. The greeting fits so well on the top and my card was finished in no time.  I have been working on my watercoloring. It is not as easy as it looks.  There are so many amazing watercoloring artists online, I could watch them all day.

I have also included a close up of the milk jug.  My watercoloring is a work in progress, but I do like the way that this turned out. I used the ink refills with the aquapainter for this. Using the neutral colors and then added some splatter to add to the rustic look. I am so glad that this stamp set was carried over from the holiday catalog. I really hope you enjoy this card!

You are so fabulous

Don't you just love the new stitched all around bundle! I had so much fun playing with this set and this is just the beginning. I created a gift for my stamp club hostess using this set. It was the first time that I had inked the set up and used the dies.  And now I can't wait to use it again! The greetings in the set are so beautiful. I love the fonts and they go so well with the framelits. I used one of our pizza boxes for the small 3 x 3 cards that I placed inside. I used Mossy meadow cardstock as well as the designer series paper for the outside of the box, heat embossed the sentiment and sponged a piece of the white polka dot ribbon with mossy meadow ink.

 I kept the cards very simple. After stamping I used the framelit to cut out and then punched a small coordinating color of cardstock to mat behind. I decorated the envelopes with another stamp from the set.

This really is a quick and easy project to put together. Hopefully my hostess liked the gift! I always like to spoil my hostesses because I really do appreciate them opening their homes up to have our stamp club. I also do appreciate all of my club members! I hope that they know that it is because of them that they make my job as a demonstrator so fun!

10 FREE INK PADS!

What a great time to sign up to be a demonstrator!  A set of ink pads for FREE with your kit. You can pick any family color that you would like. That is a $67.50 savings!  Wow!! Contact me if you have any questions or would like to join my team!

Tickled Pink

Hi Everyone! "Tickled pink for you" is such a sweet greeting to put on a card for a baby girl card. I was so excited when I saw the greeting in my fabulous flamingo stamp set! I had made a fancy, glittery baby girl card for a friend of my son and his wife and I knew this went perfect with it. Who doesn't love everything pink with a beautiful baby girl! For the first card I used the apron builder framelits to create a little bib.

 For my next card I used the new Sweet Baby stamp set and had fun with my watercolor pencils and blender pen to give this little girl a pink outfit and finish her with a cute pink bow.  I am having so much fun with this set. And then when I saw the white polka dot ribbon, I just couldn't not add that as well.

 Have you noticed in the new catalog some of the fun ideas that they have included?  I found on page 48 their suggestion is to soften the color of the cardstock to brush your whisper white ink across to create muted, subtle look. I knew I wanted to try that and so I thought this was a great time. I love the look that it gave to the melon mambo color. Softened the cardstock to create a nice background to my little baby card.

Check out the other suggestions in the new catalog, find one you would like to try and let me know how it goes.  I would love to hear about the new creations that you have found in the new Stampin' Up catalog. Have a wonderful  and safe 4th of July!

Sweet Baby

Finally, I have had some free time to create with my new goodies from the Stampin' Up new catalog! Sometimes I find that it is overwhelming when I get all kinds of new things and don't know where to begin. However, I fell in love with the new Sweet Baby set right away. The images as well as the font used for the greetings are so adorable and I always love an excuse to do some coloring. I started by stamping the images with my staz on black ink pad on shimmer paper so that I could do use my watercolor pencils and then I stamped the images on white cardstock with my memento pad so that I could do some coloring with my stampin blends. (I am so excited for the new colors to be released soon- I will let you know as soon as I find out) I find it so relaxing to color and so I took my images and sat outside enjoying the beautiful California weather and began to color. I like to cut out all my images at once and then create my card.

Aren't these images so adorable! I CASE(d) the card in the catalog for my first card, page 89. When I first saw this bundle I did not notice the cute lace trim in the framelits. I will be using that for many cards in the future!  It is so pretty! The new 6 x 6 designer series paper is also a must have!  Who can resist polka dots and stripes!  I used the neutral pack for this card because I wanted it to match the jumper for the baby. Since I have not used my watercolor pencils in a while, I decided to pull them out with my blender pen for a soft baby look.

I hope you enjoy this card! If you or anyone you know is having a baby soon let me know. I would love to send them a card. Just leave me a message and I will get back to you. If you would like to order the sweet baby bundle to receive your 10% discount let me know.  Have a beautiful day and I will share more sweet babies soon!