Dramatic Lovely As A Tree

Today's card are dramatically different from the Lovely As A Tree card posted earlier this week.  Whereas that card was soft and pretty, today's cards are deep and rich.  I achieved this not only by using darker colors, but also by embossing the trees.  The trees on the Midnight Blue card were stamped with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder.  The trees on both the Not Quite Navy and Island Indigo cards were embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder.  I used a mask to add little snow drifts and the moon and then highlighted the snow and some of the tree branches using Stampin' Up's beautiful Dazzling Diamonds glitter.  This is just about the only glitter you will see on my cards as I am not fond of  "glitter mess".  But honestly, there is something about Dazzling Diamonds that makes "glitter mess" on my island okay!  And now I am going to go clean up the beautiful Dazzling Diamonds "glitter mess"--lol! Have a wonderful weekend and find yourself a little stampin' time.

Blooming With Kindness

Today's cards were stamped using the Blooming With Kindness stamp set which is in  the annual catalog.  I have been on the fence about adding this set to my collection but when SU dangled that 15% off Spooktacular, I caved--lol!  Using Elegant Eggplant, Cajun Craze and Always Artichoke created cards with a real Autumn feel.  I am sure that Daffodil Delight or Melon Mambo flowers would lend a great Spring/Summer feel to cards.   If you have a large inventory of sentiment stamps but lack image stamps, now is a good time to purchase this stamp.  Not only is this flower "multi-purpose", but it is now available for purchase as a single stamp until January 2nd for $6.95.  I could probably do a technique class using this one image:  watercolor, rock 'n roll, emboss, emboss resist, direct to rubber and a more!  Hmmmm,  I will have to think about this: Preorder the stamp and block, bring your favorite sentiments and "technique" the afternoon away. Could be fun and a good refresher class, too!  Off to stamp the flower using some of the techniques I just mentioned.  Have a great day and find yourself a little stampin' time!

FAMILY Frame

I mentioned in Monday's post that I had been working on a couple of projects over the weekend and here they are! I had so much fun designing and creating the JOY Frame, that I created a 12 x 12 FAMILY frame.  The pattern paper is my all time favorite CTMH paper, Silhouettes--now retired.   But back then I stocked up on it and use it only for special projects.  The pink version was my practice project and then I changed it up a little so that it would fit perfectly in my friend, Regina's home.  She loves her family and stars and shades of red.  She has been going through serious health issues with grace and determination and I wanted to give her something special.   I know that nothing means more to her than her family and that was my inspiration.  I traded some of the butterflies for stars, pearls for sparkly rhinestones and a Very Vanilla  for a background page for Cherry Cobbler.  Both very pretty; both very different.  Have a wonderful day and send a few prayers and positive thoughts Regina's way!

Go out and . . .

VOTE

and have a great day!