Splashes of Watercolor

My grandson Will just graduated from preschool. You know, it seems to me that he was just born yesterday! He is his mom’s youngest, so she’s mourning the passing of his “babyhood”.   And she started to talk about having another baby.  I definitely had to talk her out of that one rather quickly!!  But not to worry; it didn’t take much convincing!

As I was trying to decide on the paper to use to make his card, I came across some scraps that I thought would work well for a little boy. You know, the super-star theme. As I was making it, I realized it was the same paper I had used for one of my December 2007 Dirty Dozen designs. Here’s a link to that post (if you’re an SCS fan club member): Trinket Boxes

So I pulled the box out of storage and put some money in it to go along with the card. The bag is just a plain white lunch bag with Cuttlebug Concentric stars glued to it.

And here’s a picture of Will receiving his diploma from his teacher, Miss Anna ~

Thanks for visiting and letting me share this with you!

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Stamps: Graduate - Inkadinkado, Foursquare and Lined Paper backgrounder - Cornish Heritage Farms, You Rock! - A Muse

Paper: white, DCWV Rock Star mat stack, Basic Grey Mellow 6×6 pad

Inks: Palette Hybrid Noir, black StazOn, ruby red

Accessories: silver sheeting, spiral punch, Copic markers, Cuttlebug, Concentric Stars die

Good Sunday to everyone! I wanted to play along with today’s featured stamper challenge FS62 because I just love Jodi’s gallery! It was so hard to choose from among all her beautiful creations, but in the end I was drawn to the serene beauty of this card: IC113 Kind Thoughts

I love the soft colors, the fresh spring garden feel and Jodi’s use of dry embossing. I kept the basic colors and lightness, went with a garden theme also, and used my ribbon where she has her butterfly. I also added a little bling in the bottom right corner. Obviously, I used a different stamp set and dry embossing pattern.

I’m off to enjoy this sunshiny spring day! I hope you are able to do the same! Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Stamps: Adirondack Chair - Lockhart Stamps, A Muse sentiment

Paper: white, soft sky

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: Copic markers, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Traffic Jam folder, ribbon, cropadile, Dew Drops, mounting tape

I’ve had a blast coloring these images of Riley enjoying different phases of his summer day.  Earlier he was in his garden watering some new plants, but we’ll save that for another post!

I’ve always thought the way Michelle Wooderson and Lisa Zappa create groups of cards, using one image (or a series of similar ones) and the same DP was a great way to save time and increase the size of your stash.  That’s what I’ve done here, and in the process realized that these cards as a series could indeed depict a day in the “Life of Riley”.

Here’s the series:

To start his day, Riley decided he’d go surfing.  Lookin’ good there, Riley!  I don’t guess he can “hang ten”, can he?? (hehe)

So after lunch and at least a 15 minute rest (…yes, Mom!) he decided to splash around in the pool a little and possibly just float awhile, while soaking up some sun. 

Finally, a nice little siesta with a cool drink is just the way to end his day!

Looking back over the series, can you see how Riley is progressing with his tan?  I didn’t realize I was making him a different shade on each card, but it sure adds to the theme, huh?

I used my new Basic Grey cupcake 6×6 pad (from Jacksonbelle Embellishments) for the patterned paper layers.  All the papers sure are yummy!  The card bases are textured cardstock - one is Wild Wasabi and the others an unknown blue (not SU).  The Surfer Riley card started with Beate’s weekend sketch challenge from last Friday - WSC42.  Then I used the same layers but moved them around for the other 2 cards.  I used the same ribbon for each card and the same Dew Drops but placed them differently.  All of Riley’s faces are raised on pieces of mounting tape.  I also raised the tops of palm trees as well on the last card.  All the sentiments are from A Muse and are perfect to describe Riley’s day!

I hope you enjoyed this little look into Riley’s world!  Making these cards certainly did add a little sunshine to my day!Please come back to visit soon!

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Stamps: Surfer Riley, Swimmer Riley, Tropical Riley - Hanna Stamps, A Muse sentiments

Paper: white, red, textured wild wasabi, textured blue, Basic Grey Cupcake 6×6 pad

Ink: Ranger Distress ink - Black Soot 

Accessories: Copic markers, EK Curvy Cutter, giga Scallop circle punch, white gel pen, slot punch, ribbon, Dew Drops (flame), Tombo mono aqua glue, mounting tape

This is my really late entry for the color challenge CC160 on SCS. The colors are creamy caramel, mellow moss, apricot appeal, and cameo coral. Never would have put them together on my own!

This is going to be a short post because I’ve got to get some sleep to be at work very early in the morning. Here’s my card:

And here’s a close up so you can see the dimension of it. (click to see it larger) Riley’s head, cupcake and coffee cup are popped up above the main image.

Thanks for stopping by tonight! I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow!

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Stamps: Coffee Riley - Hanna Stamps, Grid Paper Backgrounder - Cornish Heritage Farms, Relax… - A Muse

Paper: mellow moss, cameo coral, apricot appeal, Basic Grey Mellow 6×6 pad

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, mellow moss

Accessories: SU markers: caramel, cocoa, apricot, mustard, moss, artichoke, coral, ruby red; white gel pen, Cuttlebug, rectangle Nestabilities, ribbon, glue dots, Ranger Glossy Accents, mounting tape

How cute is this image??

I have a friend who has just signed up to do volunteer work for the Animal Adoption League. Could there be a more perfect image than this to use for a card for her?? I think not!! I love the little elephant and his princess!!

This is another of the new images I just got from Stamping Bella! I’ll always love the Bellas, but these new stamps are just adorable! Such a great variety!

The image is colored with Copic markers and cut and embossed with my petite oval Nestabilities. I added 2 different polka dot papers, some A Muse ribbon, flowers and rhinestones. KISS!

I love the sentiment, also from Stamping Bella, that I used on the inside too. It says “Friends come in all shapes and sizes”.

Thanks for visiting today!

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Stamps: Ella and LooLoo, Friends Come in all Sizes - Stamping Bella

Paper: white, green galore, Nana’s Kids - DCWV

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: Copic markers, petite plain & scallop Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, horizontal slot punch, A Muse ribbon, yellow metallic gelly roll pen, flowers, rhinestones

I always have such good intentions when it comes to participating in the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  But somehow everything else seems to get in the way and demand that my time be spent elsewhere.  Well, this week I decided to make some time to join in the fun. 

This card is for the color challenge CC154 to use orchid opulence, certainly celery, and pumpkin pie.  Now my first thought when I read what the colors were, was “Yuck!”  I’ll need sunglasses to be able to work with those colors!  I’m still not saying this is going to be one of my new favorite combinations, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  The card also was made to fit the sketch challenge SC164.  Roxie chose a card of Leslie Miller’s this week.  Since Leslie is one of my all-time favorite stamping heroes, I just couldn’t not participate! 

I just got this great Inkadinkado stamp set and couldn’t wait to use it.  The birds are a real “hoot” (pun intended!) and the sayings are just as great!  I was going to use the stamp from the Foursquare set of the Kim Hughes collection from Cornish Heritage Farms to have the bird sit in, then I got the idea to make a bird cage out of it.  So I scalloped the bottom edge and doodled it, then drew a half circle at the top and cut that out.  Doesn’t it look like a bird cage?   Maybe just a little?

The branches on the orchid layer were stamped in Versamark.  You probably can’t see it in the larger photo, but the patterned paper is glittery and I added some sparkle to the bird using a metallic gelly roll pen.  Here’s a close up: (click to make it larger)

Thanks for visiting!  Please come back soon!

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Stamps: Bird Assortment from Inkadinkado, Foursquare - the Kim Hughes collection from Cornish Heritage Farms

Paper:  white, orchid opulence, certainly celery, pumpkin pie, DCWV Pocket Full of Posies matstack

Ink: Versamark, Versafine Onyx black

Accessories: Copic markers, Pigma Micron pen, flower, 1-1/4″ circle punch, ticket corner punch, A Muse ribbon, Dew Drop (from Ellen Hutson’s store), rhinestones, metallic gelly roll pen, mounting tape

These are valentine gifts for the boys.  My grandsons, that is!  It’s really hard to do sweet and pretty for a 7 and 5 year old.  Luckily, they don’t mind as long as there’s some sparkle and some candy with it!

I made each of them a “Why I Love You” coaster book (inspired by Sharon’s book here) and a little peek-a-boo candy box, using a river rock and purely pomegranate color theme.  Not too frilly, but with enough bling.  Just enough sparkle!  The third candy box is for their mom. (She also got some candy flowers!)

The first page in the book is made with acetate.

The star and small lined stamps are from the Foursquare set of the Kim Hughes collection at Cornish Heritage Farms and the “You Make My Heart Smile” is from the Rubbernecker Stamp Oasis sentiments section.  The “You Rock” and “You’re Cool” stamps in the following photos are from A Muse.  All the other stamps used are from the $1 bin at Michael’s.  The blue lined image was stamped in SU Cool Caribbean and the “I Love You” and the hearts on the acetate were stamped with red StazOn.  All the other stamping was done with Palette Hybrid Burnt Umber ink.  

The small acrylic frames with the boys’ photos in them are from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby.  I painted them with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in the Peeled Paint color and then stamped on them with the Burnt Umber ink.  The crackle paint didn’t want to stick to the acrylic very well so I ended up spraying it with 2 coats of Krylon matte sealant spray.  That seemed to work just fine to keep the paint from peeling, although I do like the semi-peeled look!  And look how well the Peeled Paint color matches the SU river rock.  Cool!

This is Hunter:

And this is Will:

The boxes were filled with Valentine colored M&M’s.  Yum!  They were a big hit!

I’m not going to list all the ingredients and the recipe for these projects.  This post is already extra long!  If you have any questions, please email me.

Thanks for visiting  and have a Happy Valentine’s day!

I needed a card to send to my sister and I’ve also been just itching to try out this new Berry Bliss paper.   It’s scrumptious!  And woo hoo!  It fits today’s SCS Ways to Use It challenge - WT152 -to be “dotty”!   The chocolate browns remind me of hot chocolate, but since coffee is my preference when it comes to a hot drink, I decided to use this coffee cup from the What’s Brewing set from Impression Obsession.  I paired it with my favorite sentiment from the A Muse Coffee Break Set.

I colored the cup with Copic markers and cut out the image with my rectangle Nestabilities.  Then I matted it on a cocoa scalloped rectangle.

The sentiment was stamped on pretty in pink, punched out with the large oval SU punch then matted on rose red, which was trimmed free-handed.

The brown dotted accents on the sentiment oval and the corners of the scallop rectangle were made with brown Tulip Slick dimensional paint.

Thanks for stopping by!   Have a great day and come back soon!

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Stamps: What’s Brewing - Impression Obsession, sentiment - Coffee Break clear stamp set - A Muse

Paper: white, close to cocoa, rose red, rose red DSP, Berry Bliss DSP

Ink: Ranger Distress walnut stain, Adirondack: watermelon, latte, espresso, Copic markers

Accessories: Nestabilities rectangle dies, large oval punch, ribbon, mounting tape, brown Tulip Slick dimensional paint