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!

Fear Not!

Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a great day!  For the card I made today I picked the Rose Wonder Stamp Set. I am so sad that this set will no longer be available for order after May 31st. I love this large rose image.  It is really fun to color as well as because it is so large you do not have to do much else to make it into a card. The coloring options are endless. For the first card I started with a piece of the shimmery white cardstock and stamped the rose image in grey archival ink. I used my aquapainter with Stampin Up dye based ink pads to color.  For the rose I started with a light wash of daffodil delight and then when that dried I added calypso coral and a little pumpkin pie in the center where I thought the flower would be the darkest. For the leaves I used the same technique and used old olive and artichoke for the darker color. After the entire piece was completely dry I added speckles by putting some smoky slate ink on the corner of my acrylic block and then using the aquapainter to flick color from the block.  I kept the block a fairly far distance from the paper because I wanted the specks to be small. I decided I wanted to keep the card flat so that it would be easy to mail and so I made a quick watercolor wash with marina mist in the corner. I knew that I would put the sentiment there.  I stamped the sentiment on when it had dried with staz on black ink. The sentiments in this stamp set are so beautiful for when you need a card with an encouraging message. I will continue to use them for a very long time. To finish the card off I used a few of the glittery clear drops from the occasions catalog. I was really hoping they would continue to offer these in the new catalog because they really come in handy when you need a little something. But since they will be retired you will want to get them before they are gone. The entire piece is just a little smaller than standard card and I mounted it on to a piece of artichoke card stock.

For the next card I watercolored the card in a similar way however, I used watercolor paper as the base and white heat embossed the image.  Using heat embossed images makes watercoloring a little easier.  It doesn't bleed into the other areas. The background I did a very light color wash of marina mist. For the flower I used pale plum and with each layer I used a more concentrated amount of color (less water) for the leaves I used old olive, and a little bit of daffodil delight. The sentiment I stamped in staz on black ink and a few speckles of pale plum. I mounted the entire card on pale plum card stock.

I hope you enjoy these cards. Remember the retired list will only have items available until the end of May.  Many things have already sold out, so if there is something you would like make sure to get it while it is available.  If you do not have a demonstrator I would love to help you in anyway that I can.  Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!