Cool Colors

I have not had a lot of time to play this week, but I really wanted to play in the challenge at Paper Players- using the colors Wisteria, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, and Pear Pizzaz.  I do not have Pear Pizzaz so I used Certainly Celery and  Wild Wasabi as Pear Pizzaz seems to be a cross of these two colors.

I thought my new Stampin' Up set, Array of Sunshine, would be perfect for these colors.  I fussy cut the flowers and leaves stamped in Pool Party, Wisteria, Certainly Celery, and Wild Wasabi and then popped up layers on each flower and one of the leaves.  The card base is Crumb Cake embossed with the polka dot embossing folder.  The card front is framed with a Wisteria frame that is popped up on dimensionals. Pearls add the finishing touch.  The sentiment is from the set Curly Cute.

Thanks so much for stopping by and, as always, thanks so much for your feedback! 

Blue and White Challenges

The challenge at ODBD this week is to use aqua or topaz with our favorite scripture to celebrate their 4th birthday.  The Clean and Simple challenge at SCS this week is to make a card that is white with shades of blue.  Well, I can't exactly call this card simple, but it is white and blue! 

I am not usually one for blue cards, but I really like how this one turned out.  I was going for the layered look. 
Ingredients for this card include:
Stamps- Scripture set from ODBD, Ironworks frame
Paper- Bashful Blue and Whisper White CS (SU)
dp-Authentique
ink-black (SU)
Other- embossing folder (SU), Spellbinders, adhesive jewels, embossing powder dimensionals, ribbon

Watercolor Water Lily

I haven't touched much ink this week- I have a big project coming to fruition at work on Friday.  So glad I got to relax and ink up this ODBD stamp for their Shining the Light Challenge this week. The layout of this card is SCS's Sketch Challenge this week. 

I didn't realize until I uploaded this photo that I forgot to highlight one part of the leaves- Oops!  This was the first time I watercolored this image so was a little unsure of where I was going with it. 

Ingredients for this card include:

ODBD Mother Theresa set-water lily

Calypso Coral, Not Quite Navy, Sky Blue and Naturals White Stampin' Up CS

Basic Grey dp
Cameo Coral, Baby Blue, Not Quite Navy, So Saffron, and Old Olive Stampin' Up reinkers

Aqua painter, Spellbinders Cheery Lynn Flourish, edge punch, embossing folder, pearls

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your comments!

Sunny Stork

I just love this stork stamp, Bringing Baby, from Stampin' Up.  I think it is just the cutest baby stamp going!  Today's featured stamper over at Splitcoast has an amazing gallery and I chose an adorable card to CASE.  This is the result:

Have I mentioned that I think this is just an adorable stamp??  To make this card, I used Lucky Limeade CS for the base and used Twitterpated dsp for my mat.  I brayered So Saffron and Barely Banana onto my Whisper White circle.  I cut 2 blossoms with my blossom punch and then cut the blossom petals apart, laid them out around the circle and then gently lifted the circle, added adhesive around the edges and laid it back down on the petals.  I water colored stork and baby and fussy cut them out.  They are on dimensionals.  The tags are made with the jewelry tag punch and stamped with words from Tiny Tags. 
Thanks so much for stopping by and, as always, comments are very much appreciated!
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Well, after having lost my MOJO for most of this weekend, I seem to have found at least some of it this evening.  The sketch challenge this week over at OWH is a fun one.  It is not something I would have normally done, but I really like the results.

 I also discovered a wonderful site that gives you color palette suggestions.  It is where I found this palette.  I would never have even thought to put these colors together, but here they are!  I really like them.  The site is caller Design Seeds.  Check it out if you have lost your color mojo.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog and thank you for your comments.
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 I was totally inspired by the color combo above, so decided to make another card.  I was disappointed in the card I made for the Stampin' Queen's Sketch Challenge this week (it looked better in my head) so I decided to give this difficult sketch another try. 

This is what I ended up with- 
not perfect, but far better than the first attempt.  I used Stampin' Up's Fresh Vintage set and handcut the floral components.  I used a 1 inch square punch on the stamps. The Pink Passion panel is scored with the Simply Scored tool from Stampin' Up.  Paper used is River Rock, Pink Passion, Whisper White,  and Patterns dsp. Ink used is Pink Passion, River Rock, Concord Grape and Tempting Turquoise.  The tag is stamped with a stamp from Tiny Tags and punched with the jewelry tag punch.
Thanks so much for looking!  I hope the sketch challenge is not quite so tough next week!

Thinking Outside the Box with Circles

This week's sketch at The Stampin' Queen's Sketch Challenge is all about circles.  This one  kind of threw me off and I am really not sure whether I like what I came up with or not.

Here is the sketch-

and here is the card.

Ingredients for this card include:

Stamps- Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Inspired by Nature

Paper- So Saffron, Only Orange, Naturals White, Twitterpated dp

Ink- Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie, True Thyme, Basic Grey, Regal Rose, Cranberry Crisp, Stazon Black

The aqua painter was used to color the bee and the butterfly.  The circles were popped up on dimensionals.

Thank you for stopping by and, as always, your comments are greatly appreciated!

Extended Punch Tutorial

The question has been asked, how do you make the jewelry punch tag longer than the punch is, as in the following card-

You will need to start with your paper being no wider than the width of your punch. 
                                                                     

Then you will feed the paper from the front of the punch up into the body of the punch and out through the punch opening.  

 Pull your paper back as close to the edge of the punch as you want it and punch.  

If you want both ends punched, repeat the process, starting with feeding the already punched end of the paper into the front of the punch.  You can customize the length of your punched paper to whatever length you want.  

 And the finished punches-

Thanks for stopping by-I hope this tutorial helped you in getting the maximum use out of your punches!

Easter

Yeah!  Can you believe it?? It is March!  Not that we had a bad winter or anything here in Missouri, but the thought of warmer days and longer days ahead (not to mention summers off) is so exciting!  I am doing my second (but really first official) Stampin' Up party this month for a friend and she requested an Easter card.  The Nature Walk eggs jumped out at me and after sifting though card galleries, this is what I settled on (for now)-

Everything used is Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.  The card base and 2 stamped panels are Naturals Ivory.  The larger panel is stamped with Inspired by Nature in Lucky Limeade and the edges are sponged with my favorite distressing ink.  This panel is mounted on the wonderful Calypso Coral CS.  The smaller panel is stamped twice with the adorable row of eggs from Nature Walk and is colored in with the Aqua Painter and Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Luck Limeade and Apricot Appeal ink.  The edges are also sponged and the panel is mounted on Lucky Limeade CS.  The right end of the Lucky Limeade is punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch by pulling the strip of paper up through the circle punch opening and punching the partial circle.  A Baker's twine bow (Sweet n Sassy Stamps) is tied and finished off with a So Saffron button.  The Happy Easter sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched with the jewelry tag punch using the same technique as was used with the circle punch, above.  The other end of the sentiment panel was also punched this way.  the sentiment was tied to the button with embroidery floss. 
Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Spring!