Bronc Buster

Working on some masculine cards, I never seem to have enough of those. Bronc Buster is from 2007, paired up with some retired designer papers.

Flamingo

Flamingoes seem to be all the thing lately. This one is from Hero Arts and it has a matching die cut frame. I mixed it with Stampin' Up!'s Tropical Party in Pink Passion, Curry, Olive, and Tangerine.

Butterfly Dress

I was inspired by a pretty card that I saw at the Papyrus store in the mall of a dress made of butterflies, had to try that idea for myself. This is prettier in person, the top is made of black glitter paper cut with the dress framelits die, I had such a hard time getting the glitter to show up with my camera. Cut and colored 5 butterflies from the retired God's Beauty set and attached for the skirt. I can never part with this one since I love this particular stamp so very much. The sentiment is from Flower Patch (Stampin' Up! also).

Canning Jar Tags

Assembly line tag production of homemade tags for canning jars using an old PSX stamp colored in markers with baker's twine to attach to jars.

Christmas Tea

For the Merry Monday Christmas Inspirations challenge I used all retired Stampin' Up! supplies. Real Red, Early Espresso and Whisper White cardstocks with an older Christmas designer paper, Bells and Boughs, Pines and Poinsettias (sentiment), and Tea Cup and Pansies which is so old it is one of the foam type stamps. Used current brad dots and textured embossing folder. I just purchased a new pair of detail scissors and they worked well for this, quite a lot of cutting with that floral spray. Coloring and cutting is kind of therapeutic so I'm all zen happy right now :)

Night of Navy

I love the color spotlight on Night of Navy in the new Stampin' Up! catalog, it's a beautiful color that I haven't given much thought to in years. I had this random unmarked block stamp sitting on my desk and I used it to make a background, then stamped a flower from the Birthday Blossoms set colored in markers and secured with a vintage brad. Navy and white cardstocks.

Just Keep Swimming

The layout for this card is from the Just Add Ink sketch challenge this week and gave me the opportunity I was looking for to try out the Stampin' Up! Perfectly Artistic designer paper and the new Hero Arts fish set. Saving this card for when someone needs a little encouragement.

Wood Words

I was at Michael's yesterday having some artwork framed and came across these pretty cut wood embellishments in the scrapping department. I couldn't resist picking up a few packs since they were so inexpensive. The birthday ones were $1.49 for four, the owls $2.99 for eight. I already had the yellow background ready from the other day so the rest was easy!

Fluttering Watercolor Wings

All supplies are Stampin' Up for today's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. Fluttering and Woodgrain texture embossing folders, Watercolor Wings stamp set, and Blushing Bride, Soft Suede, and Whisper White cardstocks.

Birthday Blossoms

I was in the mood to color so I stamped Stampin' Up's Birthday Blossoms flowers and leaves on Whisper White and colored with alcohol ink markers.

Stencilled Backgrounds

Playing around with an Impressabilities stencil (you could use any type) for different effects for use on card backgrounds. The top two are dabbed with craft inks, the second row was done with gesso and watercolor distress crayons for left one, and sprayed glimmer spray on bottom right. This one looks really pretty in real life.

Watercolor

So, last week I accidentally dropped my husband's digital camera in the (clean) toilet. I quickly retrieved it and removed the battery and film card and dried it as thoroughly as I could. All day long I worried about what Jim's reaction would be when he got home, I would never dream of telling him while he was still working so as not to ruin his day. Well, when he heard he was calm as can be and said things happen, don't get too upset. He immediately began looking for the latest and greatest model and it turns out he was looking for an excuse to buy a new one for a long while. A blessing in disguise, too funny :)
Any way, should you ever have the misfortune to drop a camera, cell phone, whatever, in the water, proceed as above and then bury it in a bowl of rice (uncooked, of course) for a day or so to dry it out. It worked for this camera and this picture was taken with the cleaned and dried camera.  

So about the card. I bought some Tim Holtz distress crayons yesterday and experimented with them on some watercolor paper. (I'm sure this would work with the Stampin' Up crayons as well). I went over the inside of the butterfly with coordinating color markers to bring out the image a bit more. Fun to play around with for a washed background effect and the watercolor paper gives it some texture.

So Sweet and Tags

I finally figured out that the reason I have been unable to create much lately is the chaos and disorder that is otherwise known as my stamp room. I've been working very hard on really organizing and clearing the decks to make room for some of the new Stampin' Up! products. I know, more stuff when I am being avalanched with what I already have? But it's the new catalog!!
My favorite new thing is the big pineapple. I fell in love with this warm symbol of hospitality and welcome from my visits to the beautiful South. Must. Have.

Today I made a card using some unknown unmounted flower stamp that I came across. Colored it up in Copics and added a die cut Spellbinders sentiment. Embossed card base is Whisper White (SU).

My yearly ongoing project is assembly line tag production for Christmas gifts. I found this Sizzix snowman set with coordinating dies at Tuesday Morning and couldn't resist.