This is where we are this morning

We're out at the local reservoir this morning with our neighbors and
their boat. If it warms up, the guys may even go tubing. If it
doesn't, they've got their fishing gear, and I've got a book. :)

April (snow) showers bring flowers ... at least in the stamp room

This card was a quickie for stamp club this month.  I used 2 layers of white and 1 of vanilla cardstock for the petals and ran them through the Big Shot with the "Flower, Daisies #2" die.  I alternated the colors and topped them with a 3/4" circle in summer sun and micro beads.

The stems/leaves are both Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and they're both "pinned" in place with mini glue dots.  The glue dots allow for the bend of the stem.  The Thank You is from the set A Note of Thanks.  Finally, I put streaks of Crystal Effects on the petals for a little visual interest.

Stamping on the high seas

This is the club card that we're making this month as a focus on watercoloring.  It's also got some embossing in both black and silver.  I used Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aqua Painter for the coloring.  The paper that the image is on is Confetti Cream.  The designer paper is Manchester.

Psst.  If you're interested, this is the card before the update to a Father's Day card.  Also known as the card BEFORE Ky's input.  I love these cordouroy buttons, but I think it was actually a little babyish for this card.  He also suggested the smoke clouds to add some weight in that upper corner.

Papers used are Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Manchester DSP, Confetti Cream.  Embossed outline in black EP and watercolored using an AquaPainter and Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  All supplies are from Stampin' Up!

Barbequed Birthday

This weekend was ALSO my father-in-law's birthday.  Ky asked for a card using this grill stamp, and then he wanted a cake on the grill.  And, he wanted the cake to be on fire ... I couldn't bring myself to make the cake on fire, so he just got a sparkly candle instead.  :)

The grill was embossed and Crystal Effects'd (sure, that's a word) to the hilt.  It was a real pleasure to give the card to my FIL on Sunday and see his smile about it.

Stamps: BBQ (Creative Mode) and Cake (Stampin' Up's Voila set).  Paper: Stampin' Up's Washington Apple.

It's for Ewe

Yesterday I showed you my mom's Mother's Day card.  Today I'm showing the card I gave my sister.  Again, I tried to focus on her hobby.  My sister is a knitter / yarn-fanatic.  I couldn't exactly knit her a card (I'd need to know how to knit for that!!), so I gave her a little sheep to bear the message of the day.

The sheep is from the set Pun Fun.  I colored it in, cut it out and covered it in fun flock (so she'd be wooly).  I stamped it again on Baja Breeze cardstockand cut out the heart so it would pop out. The sheep's ears, hooves and nose and the heart are covered in Crystal Effects.

I made the sentiment on the computer and guessed at the color for the ink.  I punched it out with a punch and then freehanded the brown oval under it.

With a tiny focal point like this, I felt like I had to up the layers for interest and I think it worked ... The designer paper is Manchester.

(Mostly) Quickie Quilt Card

This is my mom's Mother's Day card.  She's a super quilter, so I knew (hoped) she'd appreciate my nod to her craft.  She also stamps with me, but I know her heart is truly with the quilting.   :)

This is not a new idea, but I sure like how these littler squares look over top of the Big Shot Top Note diecut.  I took a piece of celery cardstock, sized 5.5" x 4.25" and a bunch of 3/4" punched squares from Bella Rose designer series paper. I ran the celery cardstock through my Xyron machine (making the entire front of the piece sticky) and then started laying out the squares starting in the middle edge going toward the opposite side of the cardstock.  I left a little space between each square like to define the squares a little bit.

I wanted the quilt to look a little more aged, so I sponged it with Creamy Caramel ink all over.  It dirtied it up just enough.  As a final touch, I did faux stitching with my Chocolate Chip marker on each square.

TIP: That little space between each square left some exposed sticky.  When you don't want something sticky to be, well, sticky anymore, you can take your embossing buddy and rub it/pat it over the surface.  That will deposit its powder on the adhesive and voila!

Finally, I used circle and scallop punches to round out (ha ha) the sentiment "button" element.  I covered the top in Crystal Effects for a little more dimension and it was allowed to dry nice and shiny.   (I was glad I put it into a plastic envelope for delivery because for some reason it stuck to the inside of the envelope - but we were able to very carefully pry it out.)

Quick Ivy Ketto post

I know that I'm almost always a Stampin' Up girl (and most of this card is, too), but I got these new stamps and I've just been enjoying coloring them in.  This stamp is Stamping Bella's Ivy from the Ketto line.

These papers are from the first card in the post immediately below.  I had them as leftovers that didn't get made from the last stamp camp.

Crystal Effects on her hair (a girl likes to have shiny, healthy hair) and a little Sakura glitter pen on the leaves.  White gel pen around the edges.  Topped off with the flower brad (FROM Stampin' Up!).

Thanks for stopping by!