Joyous Easter

Today I am feeling a little Spring in my step. It snowed last night but the air is warming and the temps should be around 70 by the end of the week. Trees are blooming, crocus and daffodils and hyacinths  are up... Yay.  I made this Easter card for my sweet nephew Thomas. He is such a sweetie - 6 months old and the happiest guy I know. Images are Paper Smooches (carrot, bunny, bird and sentiment) and MFT (grass). Background inside circle is polka dot vellum from PTI with a little tint of Tumbled Glass distress ink. 

I am linking my card to the following challenges:

The Paper Players #287 - CAS Celebrate Spring

SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge - Cute and Cuddly

The Male Room #31 - Easter

Thank so much for stopping in today!

Easter Wishes

Time for a new game over at AAA Cards! Come play with us and crete an Easter Themed Project!! The winner will receive a $20 Gift Certificate to Happy Little Stampers!

I tried something new, and I think I need some more practice. The idea is to use an embossing folder on a piece of watercolor paper. Gently rub a VersaMark ink pad over the raised image and heat emboss with white or clear embossing powder. Then apply watercolor to the depressed areas. I was going for lots of springy, Easter eggy colors, and something out of the ordinary. I used my Kuretake water colors and a water brush to apply the color. The jury in my mind is still out on this one, but it was an interesting project. Is it too playful for such an elegant embossed design? What do you think??

In any case, please head on over to the AAA Cards blog, see what my talented DT members have come up with and leave them some love.  Then get your Easter/Spring juices flowing and play with us. 

Thanks for coming by today. Your comments make my day!

Congratulations, Tim!

I made this card for a very special young man - the son of a dear friend who graduated from the  University of Scranton in 2014. This is a (very) belated graduation/congrats on your new job card. LOL. At the time, my boys also had a graduation and I never got around to making a card for Tim. He is the rare young adult male who appreciates my cards, so I love to make them for his special occasions.  He has been searching for a job in his field for 2 years, and he finally just landed a great job in his field, at a great company. I finally set to work on a congratulations card for him.  Better late than never! I LOVE the way it turned out.

I sprinkled Brushos on some heavy watercolor paper, then I sprayed it with Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. I then embossed fireworks from The Ton's Pyrotechnics set in silver with gold detail. The Paper Smooches sentiment is die cut and inlaid. The entire top panel is popped up on white fun foam. 

I am linking this card to the following challenges:

Challenge # 109 Create Your Own Background

TAKE A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN

Touchy Feely 

Add some texture to your creations!

Thanks for coming by. Have a great day!

Student Drivers

I have 16 year old twin boys. They are wonderful people, great company, smart, funny, kind and many other great things. They just got their driving permits. I picked the permits up on Thursday evening, and left them at the breakfast table for them to see on Friday morning. I put this card together for each of them. The color of the VW Bug on this card, is the same color of the car that they just got as a GIFT from their grandmother who has recently stopped driving.  Now they can go for a SPIN whenever my husband or I can take them out for practice.

My how time does fly. We just taught them how to ride a bike, it seems...  The current ATCAS and the CASology Cue are perfect fits for my card.

ATCAS Challenge #83 - GIFT

CASology Week 187 - SPIN

Thank you so much for coming by today. Birds are chirping despite the cold... Spring is on the way!

Let Hope Anchor Your Soul

AAA Cards new game #59 is up. This time, the challenge is EMBOSSING. The winner will receive a $20.00 gift certificate from our wonderful sponsor:

I find that I often look at things with an eye for how I can transform what I see onto a card. Last summer I saw this beach bag behind someone's chair and snapped a pic. (My kids are horrified when I do this, but they are used to it).

It's been on my mind, and I decided to use it for my inspiration for this challenge.  I tried something new (to me) and used a stencil to emboss the red stripes. I masked a square on top of the stencil, on top of the Kraft card base and embossed with red EP.

The stitched square border is popped up to frame the embossed square. I embossed the ocean symbol in aqua EP and placed it on the banner die with the sentiment which is also popped up.  I needed something else in aqua color for balance, so I added the twine to the anchor.

I am linking to the following challenges:

As You See It #125. Highlight a sentiment that speaks to you. This one is so appropriate for so many situations. A message of hope and encouragement. I use it often.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Materials used:
Paper: PTI Kraft, SU Not Quite Navy, SU Brushed Silver, Neenah Solar White.
Stamps: SSS Sail Away
Accessories: SSS Sail Away Dies, SSS Diagonal Stripe Stencil, WOW Cable Car Red EP, Zing Aqua EP, PTI Square Shaker Shapes, Paper Smooches Anchor Die, Twinery twine, 3M Foam Tape.
Ink: VersaMark, VersaFine Onyx Black.

Please head on over to the AAA Cards Challenge Blog and check out what my teammates have created to inspire you. Leave them a little love, then join us for our Embossing challenge.

Thank you for stopping by today. As always, your comments are truly appreciated.

A Birthday Hello

When I saw the February Pinterest Inspired Challenge, my new SSS Lattice Grid Background stamp came right to mind. I also added some Brushos to my stash recently, so I decided to combine them for my creation, and this is what happened:

Brushos are really fun! It's awesome to see what happens when they hit wet watercolor paper. It's like a kaleidoscope!!  I can't wait to use them some more and learn more about what you can do with them. I really love the way the watercolored panel came out.

I am also linking my card and playing the following challenges:

Seize The Birthday

The Friday Mashup 

The Mashup Challenge this week is:

Create a project with a birthday theme. 

Create a project using stencils. 

or Mash it Up!! and create a birthday themed project that uses stencils. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I so appreciate your comments.

Prayers Coming Your Way

Hello dear readers! I wanted to pass along a learning opportunity to you. Justine Hovey,  very talented paper crafter and administrator of AAA Cards Challenge Blog for which I am a DT Member, recently offered a FREE Stenciling for Card Making class on  her blog. The class is "over", but will remain accessible on her blog. Justine's videos, tutorials and projects are wonderful, and though I am somewhat of an experienced crafter, I learned many things from them. Do yourself a favor and go over to her blog and check out this free class. She is also currently running another free class: Water Color For The Non-Artistic Card Maker. Head over to Justine's blog and check them out!

The project below is one in which I used the ombre technique in the STENCILLING FOR CARDMAKING: THE BASICS session.

It's hard to see the shade changes in the picture, but I started from right to left with Ranger Mowed Lawn distress ink, then Crushed Olive and Bundled Sage. My stencil is Maidenhair Fern from Designs by Ryn. I die cut the top panel with Simon Says Stamp's Prayers die from SSS Prayers Stamps and Dies, and built it up with several black layers of the die cut. The stamped part of the sentiment is from the same set. To finish it off, I added a few red sequins for interest.

Thanks for coming by today, and as always, I appreciate your comments very much!