Today I thought it would be fun to post photos of my little grandbird, Dexter. His little beak looks just like candy corn! The beak started out black and was turning this candy corn color as he matured. The picture on the left is one year ago. The picture on the right was taken yesterday. He is a beautiful Eclectus. I love the little guy and his pretty Candy Corn beak. Happy Halloween!
I have a whole lot of Designer Series Paper and I am making a real effort to use it. I know that the squares on this card are only a drop in the bucket compared to what I have, but I used retired rather than new! I used the new square framelits and then I used my score board to add decorative lines above and below the squares. The balloon was stamped with Bermuda Bay ink and punched. I adhered it to the middle square with dimensionals. An enamel star next to the sentiment adds a little contrasting color. Have a great day!
My friend, Nancy, brought her Sizzix Fall Fence with Leaves embossing folder to Cricut Sunday together with the pretty card she made using the folder. After embossing the cardstock, Nancy sponged the background and colored in the leaves, etc. While the ladies were here, I made a few embossed layers for future cards. I have every intention of creating a card similar to Nancy's, but for now I just created a very easy and pretty Fall card using one of the white embossed layers. I adhered the embossed layer on Rich Razzleberry cardstock and adhered that to a white card base. The sentiment, stamped in Rich Razzleberry, is from a My Paper Pumpkin kit stamp set that I saved from a while ago. Today's post includes two pretty Fall cards~~either of which would be nice to find in your mailbox! Have a great day!
This weekend, Sydney and I had a girls' weekend. We watched Property Brothers, played with
The idea for today's cards came from a card on Stampin' Up's demo site, posted by Peggy Noe. I recreated her card using Shimmery White cardstock (rather than watercolor paper), ink and an aqua painter. After creating the thank you card, using Soft Sky ink, I stamped the sentiment which is from Endless Thanks. The card is pretty and you can't really see it in the pictures, but the Shimmery White does sparkle a bit. So, I then created the Thinking of You card. I used Flirty Flamingo ink and the sentiment is from a Just Rite set, Large Fancy Sentiments. I used the little hearts from the In Colors enamel accents for both cards. For a birthday card, you could use a little star accent or even a little balloon. Don't have enamel accents? Use my favorite embellishment, sequins. There are numerous possibilities using a variety of sentiments and colors. I am going to make a few more and these cards with envelopes will be a nice hostess gift during the holidays. Have a great day!
When I had my Shimmery White cardstock out last week, I wanted to once again make a shimmery watercolor background. I tapped my craft mat with both blue and purple distress ink pads and spritzed that with water. I then laid the Shimmer White cardstock directly on the puddle of color. Once I lifted the Shimmery White cardstock I moved the puddle on the cardstock around. Once the entire piece of cardstock was covered, I let the excess drip off and then dried it with the heat gun. I should have used more purple, but the background is very pretty and shimmery. It created the perfect backdrop for the pretty white tropical flower and the word die cut "hugs". The stamped sentiments are from the Simon Says/Hero Arts stamp set, Prayers. Since SU's Shimmery White cardstock is a little thicker, it will take some water, but it cannot be drenched. Have a great day!
My nephew is getting married this weekend to a wonderful girl, Nicole. I took out my Blisssful Bride stamp set and Shimmery White cardstock and created today's card. I always liked this stamp set and it is one I will probably always keep. The sentiment is from another retired Stampin' Up set, Whimsical Words~~such a pretty font. Congrats and best wishes to Larry and Nicole. Have a great day!
Today's card was a fun card to create. I used WPlus9's stamp set, Happy Mail and coordinating dies. The card actually started because I had a leftover piece of water-colored paper and I wanted to make a little scene. I colored all the little pieces with Spectrum Noir markers. I was all set to layer the stitched squares until I received my new Stampin' Up squares. I then replaced the white stitched square with the scallop square. The Designer Series Paper is retired, but is a perfect background for the little squirrels. Using a variety of product, I created a cheerful, cute card for someone special. Have a great day!
I very recently watched a video on the My Sweet Petunia blog during which the presenter embossed leaves on watercolor paper, watercolored the leaves and then lightly watercolored a background surrounding the leaves. I stamped leaves in Versamark on watercolor paper and heat embossed the leaves using gold embossing powder. I then watercolored the leaves using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor paints. The leaves turned out really pretty. Watercoloring the background didn't turn out so well! The background looked splotchy, nothing like that which I saw on the video! I was not happy with the result so I decided to fussy cut the leaves from Stampin' Up's Vintage Leaves. Another thing the presenter on the video did was heat emboss a die cut word. I die cut the word "grateful" covered it with Versamark and sprinkled it with gold embossing powder. I repeated those steps and the gold die cut turned out very pretty. So even though the card is not exactly what it was supposed to be and not nearly as vibrant as the one on the My Sweet Petunia blog, it is elegant for this Autumn season. Have a great day!
A 4-1/2" x 6-1/2" piece of paper, a hole punch and adhesive is all that is needed to create today's little treat bags. Put a little ribbon through the holes and it is done. I embellished my bags using Stampin' Up's Labels and Tags dies. Inside the bag are Hershey's Halloween kisses that are so cute! I have always used Hershey Hugs and Kisses for the favors I create. But lately, their themed candies are just adorable. When I first purchased the red, white and blue mini Herhsey Bars and Kisses for patriotic holidays, I was thrilled to be able to fill little treat bags with those. Then a couple of weeks ago when I purchased the birthday Kisses, I just thought they were perfect for the little plastic boxes. And now they have these spooky little Halloween Kisses. They are so cute and with all the paper crafters around the country, we will definitely keep Hershey in business! Have a great day and weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time!
Our friends recently purchased a new home and that called for a card. Once again I used the Sunny Studio Stamps' Happy Home stamp set for their card. I colored the image using Spectrum Noir markers and fussy cut the house. With all the straight lines, it is a very easy image to fussy cut. Since this image does not have a chimney for little hearts, I added a little singing bird. The sponged area around the house matches the Pool Party Designer Series Paper used for the card layer. Another item I used on this card (which I am using more often) is a Stitched Rectangle die from Lawn Fawn. It adds a little texture to the white space. I wish the family much happiness in their new home. Have a great day!
I realize that watermelon season is over, but when I saw this watermelon box in a video on the Lawn Fawn blog, I just had to recreate it. Isn't it just the cutest? I cut the scallop treat box using Watermelon Wonder cardstock. The green striped wrap is Lawn Fawn cardstock. The watermelon seeds were created using raindrop dies I have. Since I did not have Lawn Fawn's Tiny Tag Sayings and dies, I used a SU sentiment and punches for the tag. Turned out just as cute! Now I need to find what type of watermelon candies are out there besides watermelon flavored Jolly Ranchers. Have a great day!
The other day one of my friends mentioned water coloring the images in the Basket of Wishes stamp set. I don't know why, but watercoloring the images did not even enter my mind. So, I had to try it. I stamped the images using black Stazon ink on watercolor paper. Using my SU ink pads and a brush and water made it quite easy to watercolor the images. Rather than using one of our aqua brushes filled with water, I left it empty and I dipped the brush into water. That way it was easier to control the amount of water when painting the little leaves. The watercolored basket looked so pretty when I was done that I used it to create a quick card. I added a die cut sentiment and wrapped linen thread around the stamped layer, adhering that to a piece of Cajun Craze Designer Series Paper. This is a pretty card and took a minimal amount of time to create. Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!
Yesterday was my son's birthday. I used the Balloon Celebration stamp set with Marina Mist ink for the balloons and little stars. In addition to the little clusters of stars, the single stars are the enamel shapes that Stampin' Up now sells. The balloon strings were stamped using Smoky Slate. I used retired stamp sets for the sentiment and retired Designer Series Paper for the one layer. The Balloon Celebration stamp set was a good purchase. It is getting a work out with all the birthday cards I have been making. Have a great day!
