Bloomin Beautiful - Sympathy

My friend, Pam, called me this morning. She asked if she could come over and make a sympathy card. As fate would have it, I was working on this card for Stacey's challenge at Stacey's Stamping Stage. Instead of using the sentiment I had planned, I decided to go with a sympathy card. When Pam comes over later she can either duplicate this card....or we'll make another. I could stand to have a few on hand myself.I do love this image from Bloomin' Beautiful. I love to color it, too. It is really easy, I promise. I used my Ballet Blue marker and added ink where the shading was already stamped. Then, it was a simple matter of using my Aqua Painter to spread the color out. I used Sahara Sand for the vase, since Stampin' Up! doesn't have a Kraft marker. I used the Sahara Sand again for the shading around the outside of the vase, just a little more concentrated. Of course I stamped my image with Black Stazon onto Watercolor Paper. That's a must!

Remember last week I used my Perfect Details Texturz Plate? Well, this week I used the other side....two for the price of one! A tip for you Big Shot users, if you spritz your paper with water before sending it through on a Texturz Plate, you will get a deeper emboss.

I also have a little tip for the sentiment tag. I used my 1/4" circle punch on each end of my tag so that my Ribbon Slide from the Silver Hodgepodge Kit nestled in nice and tight. A different kind of use for the Ribbon Slides.I like the layering of the White Organza Ribbon under the Night of Navy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. It needed that extra width, but I didn't want it totally saturated with color.

I hadn't done much paper piercing lately, so I couldn't resist a few pokes at the top!

Pam is on her way....so I'd better run!

Need Green, No More White!

Hey stampers! Can you believe January is almost over? One month closer to spring here in Iowa! I am ready to see some flowers! Plant some veggies! I bought my seeds over a month ago, does that tell you how badly I want to see some green? No more white!

So, today I decided to cheer myself up with a flower card. You know I managed to do a couple challenges in the process. The first being Inspirations Colour Challenge by Makeesha Byl.It must have been subliminal but I was trying things out I noticed it was looking very close to Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch. My proportions are a little skewed but I didn't want to cover up too much of my embossing. So, I went with it.

I'm also on a mission to use up some scraps. My scrap file won't even close! So something had to be done. The flower was a left over from my daughter's invention for the science fair. I wasn't about to throw it out!
After looking at this posted you can't see the embossing unless you click on the picture. Plus, for some reason the color is funny!

My only stamping was done with Bloomin' Beautiful. This card went together fast! Gotta love that! Have a great day!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #9

Hi there! I have another card for you today. I really like this card because I love buttons! I have jars of them. I love to collect them, but not necessarily use them. I admit it, I'm just a hoarder. Well in fact, I went to an auction today and I would have bid on a couple of jars of buttons but they were taking too long to get to them. There wasn't enough to bid on in the meantime to justify staying. So, I left, with a couple candy canisters and $8 less in my pocket.

Today's card from Kristina's 9th challenge (on May 9th of last year.) This stamp set, Season of Friendship wasn't even available yet. I am very attentive to detail, sometimes too much so, and let myself use this set despite the fact I didn't own it back then. The sentiment is from Bloomin' Beautiful. Let's face it, the buttons make this card. It is so cheerful and the buttons really catch your eye. I just love it.

I hope you've been enjoying my series of cards for Kristina's challenges. I still have lots of them to do and hope I can keep them coming on a daily basis.

3 Goodies Today!

Here are some more cards I was suppose to post a few days ago! Sorry about that! I got sidetracked by the Color Challenge and then I had a few busy days. Yesterday I went to the local community college and took several classes for their winter gardening fair. It was a fun day and I learned a couple new things, so it was a day well spent. These cards are also from Taylor's challenge last week. I just love challenges, I wish I could do more. They always stretch my creativity and that's a good thing! Sometimes I find myself doing similar layouts or color combinations but challenges make you think outside your box!
A couple notes about these cards. The top one I tried a little cheating technique. I stamped my flowers from Bloomin' Beautiful with Stazon on Soft Sky Paper. Then I watercolored the centers of the flowers with Baja Breeze. This cut down on my coloring. I had planned on cutting the flowers away from the pot and doing that separately but I got a little lazy! So, if you look close, you'll see lots of brushstrokes on the pot!

The second card is pretty self explanatory. The one thing I did is to stamp the Pocket Silhouettes image with Versamark on Soft Sky, the embossed with clear embossing powder. Then, sponged over with Pacific Point. The sentiment is a rub-on. It's a nice look, I think.

This last card didn't required too much stamping, obviously! I used some scrap designer papers and punches do the work for me! I used my Five Petal Punch, Scallop Punch and the 1 1/4" Square. The stamp is from the retired Sealed With A Kiss.

If you get a chance head over to Tori's blog....she's giving away some blog candy! Quite a bit of goodies! Yum!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #38

Hell0 again! Time for another Kristina's Color Inspiration. Aren't these colors so warm and sunny? Unlike the weather this week in Iowa. We've had bitter cold, fierce winds and multiply snows! So, I was very eager to barricade myself in my craft room and participate in this challenge. Well, I didn't find the time I had hoped. Hence, the late post! At the beginning of the process I tried to stay away from flowers. As much as I LOVE flowers I wanted to stretch myself a little more. In the end, I couldn't resist going that route. These flowers are so cheerful and I have been dreaming all week of starting my garden seeds. For now, these blooms will have to do. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween!

A version of this little gem came to my inbox the other day. It's from Connie Babbert's blog Inkspired Treasures. Her blog is also in my favorite sites, so head on over there and check it out. She does some great work!

Anyway, I did change a few things on mine. One because I miss cut and had to make my background much smaller. The other changes came because I don't have the set, Season of Friendship. I was going to buy it, why didn't I. UGH!

The hat came from the fun Halloween set, Eat, Drink and
Be Scary. For his arms I used the stem from the "poppy" flower in Bloomin' Beautiful. You won't believe how I made the lines on the pumpkin! I used half of the egg on A Good Egg. I tried doing it free hand but the ink in all my markers didn't have the saturation of the ink pad. It took a while to get it right! But I am happy with the end product.

Kristina's Color Inspiration #6

I love this this color combination. I really tried to keep it clean and simple. I know how much Kristina loves clean, simple lines. I tend to go overboard!!! I used silver ink and the Sanded background stamp on Sahara Sand, for my base. Then, layered the Bloomin' Beautiful poppy onto layers of So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie. I used the Speckled roller and silver ink behind the poppy. The sentiment comes from Warm Words. It was really hard not looking at everyone else's creations on Kristina's site. I wanted to wait until I was done with my card, so I wouldn't be influenced by the work of anyone else. Now it's my next stop!!! Gotta check 'em out!!!