Still Thankful!

I am truly thankful for you today! I appreciate you taking time out of your shopping day and food coma to visit! I made a quick card with the inspiring iris stamp set. I had fun coloring this with my stampin blends! I really was not sure what I wanted to do with the design of this card so I kept it pretty simple.  Maybe I ate to much yesterday that my creative juices were all run out.

I did add shimmery crystal effects to the iris's and don't you just love the shine that it gives? I love everything sparkly and shiny!  I think the rest of the card is pretty self explanatory and so if you do have any questions I would love to hear them in the comments below.  Have a great day and go gets some deals and steals! Speaking of deals spoil yourself for all your hard work from Thanksgiving with the fabulous paper pumpkin for next month! Let me know if you have any questions!

Blackberry Bliss!

I am a little late in posting this card. I made it a few weeks ago for one of the card challenges that I had been following and life just got in the way. I never did end up submitting it but I thought I would share the card with you anyways.

As many of you who have visited my blog before know that I aspire to be a watercolorist.  Not sure if that is a word, but I want to be one anyway. I love to watch videos of many amazing artist!  They all make it look soooo easy. But the one thing they all stress is practice!  So that is what I like to do when I get the chance.

I love the line images from the inspiring iris stamp set. I kept this style a little loose and I like the way it came out. If you have any tips on how I can improve I would love to hear them in the comments below.  

Thank you for visiting my blog and have a wonderful day! Enjoy!

Make sure to order the first of the two sets by Oct.10th. With the craziness of the holidays it is fun to have a project that all the work is done for you.  You get the fun of just sitting down and creating.

Do you like to color?

So I am wondering do you like to color? I love to color and I have even since I was a little girl. I would always be drawing, doodling or coloring while watching tv or even in class at school. I have always loved all forms of art and especially learning new techniques. I could spend hours in any art store (much to the dismay of the people who are with me). 

For this card I used Stampin' blends. I tried to make the iris look as realistic as I could. They are such a beautiful flower.

When I started to color I looked on google to see the color of an iris. Wow there are a lot of different colors. But I decided to go with the most traditional colors.

Enjoy the coloring process, that is what I always like to tell people. Make it your own creation. The beauty of art is you can make it whatever color you would like.  I will never forget someone told a child at school they couldn't paint a tree blue because trees aren't blue. Well I say be bold and make the tree blue! Or you can make it the color you see on google or in real life. Just enjoy!

Have a great week and make some fun art!

Just a short time left to order!

So Blessed and Grateful

What a beautiful sentiment this is and something so many times a day I take for granted! I am so blessed and grateful for all the time I get to spend creating and especially all the wonderful people I have met during my 20 plus years as a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! I began when I my 4 children were young and I wanted "adult" time. I have learned so much about myself and enjoyed the evolution of stamping.

I love a soft and sweet card. I think that this is one of my favorite cards that I have made in a long time. Starting with a watercolor panel using rococo rose and seaside spray the rest of the card developed.

As some of you who follow me on instagram, pinterest and my blog you know that I have really been trying to improve my watercolor skills. With this card I used a lot of techniques. One thing that I did was for the sentiment I used my aquapainter and dipped it into some of the rococo rose ink refill. I then brushed it over the sentiment and immediately stamped it. I really like the effect that it produced especially on the smaller font. It has a watery feel and compliments the rest of the card.

I used a panel of vellum to dull the watercolor panel down and it made a frame for the main image of the card.

I really had a lot of fun with this card and didn't think to hard when I was watercoloring. I sometimes over think the process and so this time I was able to just let go. Let me know what you think of the watercolor sentiment. Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Have a beautiful and blessed day! Enjoy!

Last day to take advantage of the bonus days.  Order $50 today and get a coupon to use next month for $10.  A great time to order paper and adhesive! Let me know if you have any questions!

Try something new!

I love the flower and leaf dies that are in the wild rose die set so I decided to make them the star for this card. I wanted the color to  pop through the dies and so I watercolored with my ink refills and aquapainter the background. I started by placing the dies where I wanted them to go and then added the color.

The first layer of color was so pretty and I was really excited to see what the card would look like when done. I placed my dies on top and decided that I wanted to add another layer of color and make some areas a little bigger. I also added some of the seaside spray to the background to add even more dimension.

Look how pretty is this.  I thought of just keeping this without the dies but decided to make the card the way that I had planned.

The sentiment is from the inspiring iris stamp set.  I really love this sentiment and I am sure you have noticed because I use it all the time!

I wonder if I had made the die pieces with colored card stock how that would look.  Something to try in the future. I love to try new things. How about you? Sometimes you can come up with something that works and sometimes it just doesn't work.  I keep trying to tell myself that it is all just paper and ink. Try something new today and let me know what it is and if you like it. Enjoy!

Love Rococo Rose

I am in love with the new in color rococo rose!  So I couldn't resist using it for the flowers in this background. After I made this card I realized that I made a card very similar a while back. I stamped the flower image from the inspiring iris stamp set. I taped the paper down because I knew that I would be using a lot of water and wanted it to be flat. It really does make a difference when you go to make the card when the watercolor paper is flat.  Since it is so thick it has a tendency to warp the whole card!

I wet the entire paper and then dropped in ink color with my aquapainter, using rococo rose, mambo melon, daffodil delight and grapefruit grove for the flowers. For the leaves I used granny apple green and old olive. I waited for this to dry completely and then did another layer of color. Then I added the small flower with seaside spray and daffodil. I didn't want that to bright and so I blotted it to make it very light. Then a few splatters of color and I was done.

The greeting was white heat embossed and punched out with the pretty label. I am also super obsessed with the new woven threads sequins assortment.  The colors are beautiful! Enjoy!

Purple Power

This card is a whole lot of purple!  I had colored the iris image and wanted to use the purple in the background. To make the background I took a piece of water color paper and after taping it down completely covered it with water. I then added highland heather and gorgeous grape alternating the rows of color. I also tilted the paper a little to try and get the colors to run into each other. 

The color was a little strong for me and I wanted to add some extra texture and so I decided to use the pinewood planks embossing folder. 

The stamps I used are from the inspiring iris stamp set. I decided to color the outline stamps with stampin blends. I hope you get some new ideas from this card and create a purple masterpiece of your own. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that you are having a great 4th of July! Today's card is not red, white or blue. Sorry I did not have time to make a card for the holiday.  But I did make this card and wanted to share it with you. It is a very simple card and like I have said before, sometimes I think simple looks best. Since I have been coloring in many different forms for the daily 30 day coloring challenge I have had lots of images to make into cards.

This image is from the inspiring iris stamp set. I colored it with stampin blends and it was so quick and easy. I used the new rococo rose color. I love this color! I love the color pink and this one is really nice, not too bright, not too light it is just right! 

The other thing that I say is a must buy in the new catalog is the new designer series paper. This card was made with the neutral pack but I think you can't go wrong with any of the color combos. I just used one side and the other to make this card. The designs are so pretty and simple that they do not over power your card but enhance it in just the right way!  So order a pack today! Have a beautiful and safe 4th of July! Enjoy!

Inspiring Iris

Wow is this set beautiful!  The possibilities are endless with it and I am so excited to share this card with you today. This card I CASED from the new Stampin' Up catalog page 124. It is an amazing resource for ideas and creative inspiration! I just changed the stamp set and colors and made it my own.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and white heat embossed the outline of the iris's. I thought that rather than using the stamp to color them in I would watercolor them. (This set comes with stamps that fill in the colors for the stem, leaves and flowers) I did a quick watercolor on the entire panel with a messy look (not staying in the lines). I like the way that this came out. I am still trying to become better at my watercoloring and I know that it takes lots of practice!

                                         

I also looked up iris colors online to see what colors I wanted to use.  This is also a great resource for when coloring. It is fun to see all the color combinations and variety.  For this panel I decided to keep with the traditional iris colors. I stamped the solid stamp with versamark ink on the pear pizzazz card front. The new stitched nested label dies were calling my name. I have been wanting to give them a try and so I decided to use just the top half to frame my iris painting.

The card that I was looking at in the catalog had the sentiment in a straight line and so I stamped this greeting each line separate and carefully lining up using my grid paper. The piece of gingham paper is from the neutral designer series paper. I love the new designs! I also added a few of the new woven thread sequins for a little sparkle and some wink of stella on the iris flowers (however it is hard to see in the photos). Give this set a try and if you need a demonstrator (and don't have one) I would love to order this set for you! I think you will have lots of fun with it!

You are somebody!

Hello! I hope you are having a great day!  Summer is here and I could not help making a card with some nice bright colors. The colors I used were granny apple green,rich razzleberry and balmy blue. I really like this stamp from the inspiring iris stamp set, I thought that I could use it as a background and so I white heat embossed it several times. 

When I was making this card I realized it looked like Easter. 

To the sentiment I used the stitched shapes and I highlighted certain words with blender and ink,  I did not want the paper to get very wet since I had put it on regular white card stock and not watercolor paper. Try using one of the stamps from a set repeatedly and have fun!  I really had fun making this card and I hope you like it.  Enjoy! 

Not typical Iris colors

I love the new iris stamp set in the annual Stampin' Up catalog that was just released.  It has so many cute sentiments and the images are so pretty, so I couldn't wait to play with it! But I wanted to make the iris's not your typical colors. So I switched it up a little. I went with one calypso coral and the other daffodil delight. What do you think? 

I thought that the flowers needed a frame around them and so I had a scrap from another project that I didn't use that would work perfect. I embossed it with the wood plank embossing folder and kept it all white. I stamped off the flower images and lightly stamped them so that it would look like there was a field of flowers behind them. I am not sure that it really comes across that way so I will have to work on that in future cards.

The "thanks" stamp has the perfect arch to frame the top of the oval, so I stamped that before I embossed the frame. Check out the Inspiring Iris stamp set in the catalog!  You will love all the images and sentiments. A great set for all occasions! Enjoy!