Toucan party

Hi and so glad you stopped by today!  Thank you for taking time out to see what I have created today.  I have been playing with my new birthday bonanza bundle again. It has so many options and I keep coming up with new ideas. For today's card I had to use this cute little toucan. I punched out a starburst piece of the designer series paper from this suite to create a backdrop for my little guy.

I kept the rest of the card pretty simple by adding a birthday hat in same colors as his nose.  After stamping them in daffodil delight I colored over them with the calypso coral watercolor pencil. This set has some great sentiments that are perfect for any age birthday card you may need. Thank you again for checking out my blog and I hope you come back soon to see another stamped idea.

Don't forget with every $50 order you can pick something from the sale a bration catalog for FREE!

Host a party or get your friends orders over $300 and receive this adorable lady bug set for FREE!

Great time to join in the Stampin' Up fun!  $99 kit and you get to pick $125 worth of product plus you will receive FREE paper cutter, 6X6 asst of DSP and any stamp set of your choice all for FREE!  Contact me today if you have any questions!

Love this new catalog and if you have not received one yet let me know and I will get one in the mail!

Winter Woods

This is such a perfect Christmas tree. I love this image!  I decided to white heat emboss it and then watercolored using balmy blue for the background, winter scene. I did a few different layers and added a few drops of water for more texture.

The tree looked a little bit lost to me and so I decided to watercolor with mossy meadow and old olive to give the tree some color. I really liked the way that it made the tree pop!

I took a few strips of water color paper and just lightly water colored some balmy blue on the edges to create the look of snow and the after it dried added a little bit of the shimmery crystal effects.

Using one of the stitched label dies for my greeting. I hope that this give you a few ideas to try on your own Christmas tree cards.

Check out the sale that Stampin Up will have on Nov. 20-22! 15% off on select items!  Thank you for stopping by! Have a great day!

Water color birds

Its a good day when I get to watercolor! I really love watching what the way the color moves through the water. The hard part for me is trying to figure out what exactly it will do.  I guess that comes with experience. I find that an easy way to watercolor is when I heat emboss and drop in the color.  Ever since I purchased this stamp set I have wanted to watercolor these birds!

When I first started the colors were so light especially when they dried. (when watercolor drys it lights considerably!)I wanted a strong line of color on the edges of these birds and so I had to add a few layers of color. I also added a few layers of balmy blue to make the entire scene stand out. Let me know what you think I could do to make this painting even better.  I feel something is missing but I do not know what that is.  Thank you for checking out my card! Have beautiful, colorful day! Enjoy the blessings of the day!

Need a new trimmer?  This is the one to get! If you have any questions let me know.

I great suite to make wonderful Christmas cards and gifts! Let me know what questions you might have.

Finally back

Hi stampers! I am sorry for my lack of blogging lately, my mom has been in need of my help and so family duties have taken my time. But I am back! So excited for the daily marker 30 color challenge. My challenge to myself is to relax through my coloring! I love anything that has color, markers, pencils, paints,etc. My happy place is creating! I am really loving the fall color scheme right now.

Fall colors are so warm and inviting! The large leaf in the gather together stamp set is a great size for watercoloring.  I stamped in versamark ink on watercolor paper and embossed with gold embossing powder.  I added some dazzling diamonds to my gold embossing powder to add extra sparkle.

Unfortunately this picture does not show the amazing sparkle that is achieved with the glitter added. I did a quick wash of color into each leaf. I thought about adding a second layer of color after it had dried but I really liked the way the colors bleed into each other and so I decided to leave it.

I contemplated so many different ideas for the greeting and then just decided to keep it a plain and simple one layer card by stamping the greeting in old olive on the watercolor paper.  I suggest a stamp aligning tool for stamping a greeting on watercolor paper.  Since the paper is so textured you will need to stamp it a few times to get good coverage.  Thank you for visiting my blog and let me know what you think of my fall card.  Do you think that I should have added another layer of color? Enjoy and have a blessed weekend!

The last day of September?

Are you tired of looking at another card with the gather together stamp set? I promise I will get to more stamp sets. I have been getting so much inspiration from this set and I can think of a million ideas. Hopefully you are inspired as well.

Aren't the colors on this card so beautiful? I just love them! I was so excited when I saw the twine in the same color and so I had to fit a little piece in!

Do you recognize the greeting? Well part of the greeting? It is from the country home set, I just used my black marker to use part of the sentiment and it fit so nicely on the stitched label die.

The background was done on watercolor paper with razzleberry, pumpkin and grapefruit. I then stamped the large leaf a few times after it had dried. I love all the layers of color! Thank you for visiting my blog and I would love any comment you might have! Have a blessed day and enjoy!

If you are like most of us and so busy during the holidays you will want to get the paper pumpkin to make fun holiday cards and tags. Everything comes with the kit and so all you have to do is enjoy the crafting time with friends and family! No commitment is necessary. You can just sign up for one month if you would like. 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.

Another Wild Rose

 The summer is slowly coming to an end.  My youngest starts her last year of college tomorrow.  I don't know where the time has gone. Since she will be back at school I will be able to be more consistent with my blog.  It feels good to be back in my regular routine.
 I am so hooked on practicing my water coloring with the to a wild rose stamp set.  This set is great because it gives you the option of quick stamp layering or you can just use one of the layers like I did on this card.

I stamped the outline in StazOn ink so that I could water color it. I used a wet on wet technique with several colors. I love how the colors just blend with this technique. It does all the work for you.

After using my wild rose dies to cut out the flower, I kept the background simple and soft. I wanted the flower to be the star of the show on this one.

The card came together quickly after I was done with the water coloring. Have a great week and thank you for stopping by.  I would love any comments you have!

Only a few days left to take advantage of getting a great deal when signing up to be a demonstrator. If you have any questions let me know. I have been a demonstrator for over 20 years now and so hopefully I can answer all your questions. 

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!