Happiness

Hi there!  Did you know that Penny Black has a new and improved blog?  Yep, you can find it here.  They are having and inspiration challenge on the blog and I decided to play along.  You can find all of the details and the inspiration card in this post on the Penny Black blog.  I was inspired to use the basic layout of the inspiration card, I just turned it on its side to change it up a bit.  I stamped the Garden Poems image with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored it with Copic markers. (BV00, BV02, BV04, Y13, Y19,G40, G82 and G85) I added itty bitty droplets of pale yellow liquid pearls to the stamens on the flowers and some Stardust glitter glue to the blossoms and butterflies.  Lime Green Stickles was added to the leaves. The Happiness sentiment was also stamped in black and cut out with Petite Oval/Scallop Nesties.  I should have taken this photo a little earlier in the day when the sun was shining nice and bright so you could see the colors better.  The cardstocks used were white, lt blue and dark purple.  You still have a few days left to play......give it a shot.

CSS September Inspiration Hop

Hi there!  Tonight I am hopping along with some of my fellow Stamp TV Center Stage Alumni for a yummy inspiration blog hop.  See those gorgeous cupcakes?  That is the inspiration for tonight's hop.  I took my card idea from the pretty pink and brown cupcake.  The swirls on top reminded me of a snowflake, so I ran with that idea.  You should have arrived at my blog from the Kay's  amazing blog, if not you can go back to StampTV and start at the beginning.  You wouldn't want to miss a thing!

 There are no fancy techniques to this card, just lots of luscious layers and some pretty ribbon.  The stamps I used were from the Gina K Designs Blessed is the Season set. The card recipe is listed below.  The next stop on the hop is Melissa's awesome blog.

Recipe:
All images/cardstock are from Gina K. Designs
Layer a piece of Passionate Pink cardstock to an embossed piece of Innocent Pink cardstock.  Tie ribbon around the right side of the pink pieces and layer to a Chocolate Kiss card.
Stamp snowflake in Rosebud Clearsnap ink randomly onto a PL White panel.
Layer snowflake panel to a Chocolate Kiss panel and layer to the left side of the embossed panel.
Stamp snowflake in  Clearsnap Chiffon White (really light pink) ink on a scrap of white cardstock and overstamp sentiment with Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  
Add sentiment panel to a Chocolate Kiss panel that has been punched with an edge punch.  Layer to image panel.
Add rhinestones to image and sentiment panels.

White Space CAS

Hi there, I hope this finds you having a great day.  The weather here in Central CA is perfect today.  I wish we had this kind of weather year round.  So my pal Tosh shared several cards last week where she used mostly white.  Although leaving white space is hard for me, I was inspired to give it a go.  I stamped the Hero Arts Delphinium stamp with Versamark ink on a piece of Penny Black Foil Script paper and embossed it with clear EP.  The flowers were colored in with the following Ranger Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Chipped Sapphire.  I layered the image panel to a piece of medium blue cardstock and then to a piece of gold glossy cardstock.  To finish it off, I tied a little gold cording around it.  Easy peasy!  Jennifer McGuire has a great tutorial for this technique, you can see it here.

Betsy Wetsy

Ha, ha Betsy Wetsy, isn't that the perfect title for this card?  Ya get it, she is Betsy and she is givin' the flowers a little wetsy?  Sometimes I even crack myself up! Maybe it is called sleep deprivation?  This card was the last of the three Penny Black Betsy Bluebell cards from a class a few weeks ago. I watercolored this card with Tombow markers on 140# watercolor paper.  The layout is simple and basic, so no need to go into all of the details for you. I will tell you that the fun print paper is from an older My Mind's Eye collection called Out and About.  I had been hoarding this paper for quite some time and I have to tell you, it felt really good to finally use it.
Have a super day!

Lean On Me Blog Hop

Tonight I have joined in with some very talented designers to bring you some cards created with the Lean On Me set from Gina K. Designs.  I chose to use the large flower image/stem/leaf and the "Thank you for being there" sentiment from the set.  This set is so versatile and could be used in so many different ways.

It is hard to see in the picture, but I added Glossy Accents and glitter to the flower.  It is really shimmery in person.  I am not going to keep you long as there are many more beautiful creations for you to see.

For even more inspiration with the Lean on Me stamp set, please visit these links below:

• Jessica Fick
• Colleen Schaan
• Suzanne Dean
• Lee Murphy
• Miesje  Flach
• Sharri Seffens
• Melissa Shultz
• Melissa Cash  {you are here}
• Karen Knegten
• Donna Baker

hugs,

We're Hoppin'

It's time for another challenge for the Gina K. Designs Center Stage Alumni Design Team.  The challenge for today was to use some of the fall colors that inspire us all at this time of the year.  The colors that were chosen are: 

• Orange (Sweet Mango or Pumpkin Spice)
• Red (Cranberry Tart, Rocket Red, or Red Hot)
• Brown (Chocolate, Tan Leather, Kraft, Soft Sand
• ONE Neutral Color from the following: White or Ivory

You should have arrived at my blog from my talented friend Kay Simmons blog, if not you can head back to StampTV and start from the beginning.

My card is pretty simple for this go around.  Here is the skinny on how to created my card:

1.  Fold 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Ivory cardstock in half and orientate with the fold at the top.

2.  Use the largest of the large rectangle nesties to create the embossed frame in the center of the Ivory card. 

3.  Cut a chocolate scalloped rectangle with the largest of the small rectangle nesties and affix inside of the embossed frame.

4.  Cut a red rectangle panel with nesties just smaller than the chocolate panel and affix to chocolate panel.  

5.  Cut and emboss ivory panel, just a bit smaller than the red panel and stamp images from the Botanicals set in brown and orange inks.

6.  Add some brown pearls, red butterflies and an orange bow to finish off.

I also stamped the inside lower right corner of the card with the same flowers and added the sentiment "So very sorry, thoughts and prayers are with you" to the inside.

It is always difficult to create a sympathy card when the need arises, I find by having a few on hand really helps. By using these beautiful fall colors, this card could easily be used for either a man or woman.

Now it is time to send you hopping along your way to Melissa Shultz's amazing blog for some more eye candy.

Happy hopping,

One day at a time.....

Hello and happy Wednesday to you all, I hope you have the best of days today!

I am working today, but who can complain when they work in a stamp store?  Not me!  Yesterday the UPS man brought some boxes of goodies  (late in the afternoon) and I managed to get them open and take a peek, but that was about it.  So I will be busy today unpacking, pricing and finding a home for all of the luscious papers, embossing folders and other various embellies and toys that were ordered.

The card I am sharing today was from my Ribbons/Flowers class a few weeks ago.  I love the simplicity of this layout with a bit of complexity in the embellishments.  I knew when I started seeing all of these beautiful Prima flowers out in blogland that I had to have some.

The sentiment that I used on this card is from the Lincoln Quotes Wordsworth set from Rubber Soul.  The crochet ribbon is from May Arts and the punched border and leaves are from Martha Stewart. The beautiful papers used are from SEI.  You can get everything here if you need to fill a void in your stash-a-rooney.  :)

Hugs,

Thanks a bunch!

Happy Sunday!  I hope everyone is enjoying their long holiday weekend. I always love it when I get to spend some extra time with my sweetie. 

Speaking of sweeties, today I am sharing another adorable Betsy Bluebell image from Penny Black.  I colored this Betsy with Prismacolor pencils.  This was one of three cards from a recent class I taught.  Each of the cards was colored with a different medium.  You can see Copic Betsy here.  In a few days, I will share Watercolor Betsy with you.  The overall design of the card was pretty simple, I added a bit of glossy accents to the center of Betsy's flowers.  I lucked out and found that adorable yellow button with the flower center to accent my card with.  The button is tied with a little twine. Ya know I love finished button holes.  My mantra is:  No nekkid buttons!

Stay safe and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!

Hugs,

Best Day Ever

Hi there!  I found myself with a little extra time and some new Verve stamps, so I thought the best way to break them in was by doing this week's Mojo Monday sketch.  I had made this little paper flower a couple of weeks ago using my friend Giovana's tutorial.  You can check it out here. I wasn't sure what I was going to use it on, but thought it was the perfect accent to this weeks sketch.  I cheated a bit and left off the corner accent that you see in the sketch but the frame stamp was so pretty, I couldn't cover it up.  See those cute little tendrils coming off of the flower?  I took teeny little strips of paper, spritzed them with water and wrapped them around a pencil and set them aside to dry.  When removed from the pencil, you can pull on them to stretch them out a bit if you need to.

On a scale of 1-10 this card has a scrap factor of 8. Almost everything used was scraps leftover from a previous class I taught. 

See you soon,