Splashes of Watercolor

I just love the color combination of this Stampin’ Up! Urban Oasis designer paper, so I chose to play off of that for an anniversary card for my DD and her husband.

I also decided to try the ribbon rose that I had seen and was totally wowed by on Christine’s blog.  She has a great tutorial HERE.

The paper rose is done in 3 layers (of course!), and shaded a little with a Copic marker.  I also thought there should be 3 ribbon roses as well.

A simple card really, but I just love the visual impact of the kiwi on the basic gray!

Hey!  I just realized this is an SU only card!  I don’t know when the last time I did that was!  So simple and coordinated!

Thanks for another visit!  I really appreciate your visits and comments, and I sure hope you’ll keep coming back!

• Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Congrats - Stampin’ Up!
• Paper: kiwi kiss, Urban Oasis DSP
  
• Ink: Versafine - onyx black
  
• Other: ribbon, N1 Copic marker, corner rounder, wonder tape, foam tape

My darling granddaughter has finally been born!

Molly Corinne weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz on Thursday, April 23rd, at 3:15 pm.  She’s a little peanut and such a doll!

Here she is with big brother Miles:

Everyone is fine and happy!

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This is a card that I made for Miles, her 2-1/2 year old brother, to give to her.  Inside it reads: Welcome to the world.

Thank you for allowing me to share my happy news!

Any day now, my younger daughter is expecting her first daughter, my first granddaughter!  They’ve chosen a name, but won’t tell me, or anybody for that matter.  How rude!  LOL!

When it came to deciding what gift to present to the new little one, I started a search of all my favorite blogs and art sites.  Of course the gift would be hand made!  I had noticed several different examples and styles of paper butterflies on canvas and I loved the “free” look of them.  The one that comes to mind first is one I saw on Amy’s blog Prairie Paper & Ink HERE.  Ali Edwards also showed one on her blog HERE.  So I decided that I wanted to do one for “Baby Girl”.

When the nursery color theme and bedding was chosen (Sumersault Lauren  from Babies ‘R Us)…..

I set out to find the perfect papers to use for the butterflies.  I could NOT find any patterned paper that suited me, so I decided to use 4 different shades of my beautiful Prism textured cardstock.  When the butterflies were cut or punched out, I stamped some of my new background stamps from Rubbernecker on them using Adirondack inks and Versamark, then heat embossed them.  Here’s the result:

The canvas was covered with Gesso first.  Then I mixed a small amount of acrylic paint with more Gesso and randomly brushed it on to provide some visual relief from the stark white canvas.  It’s as close as I could get to an exact match for the nursery’s wall color.

All of the butterflies were spritzed with a mix of Perfect Pearls and water using a Mini Mister before being attached to the canvas using Ranger Crystal Effects.  Here’s a close up:

• Stamps: Grid (451), French Script (448), Abstract Floral (450)
• Paper: Prism: Frosted Cobalt, Vibrant Cobalt, Herbal Garden Light, Herbal Garden Medium
• Ink: Adirondack inks: Cool Peri, Juniper; Versamark
  
• Other: 16 x 20 canvas, Gesso, paint brush, Plaid Folk Art acrylic paint: French Blue, Night Sky; SU Bigz Beautiful Butterflies die, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, clear EP, Ranger Mini-Mister, Perfect Pearls, Ranger Glossy Accents
  

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WAIT…..THERE’S MORE:

Of course I had to make a card to accompany the gift, but I decided not to use more butterflies for it.

I’ve had this Baby Buttercup stamp from Stamping Bella for a while and it’s just been waiting for the right moment to jump into my hand!  This must have been it!

I used the same Prism textured cardstock as for the butterflies canvas and added a piece of patterned paper from the Nana’s Nursery - Baby Boy pad from DCWV.

The image was stamped on white cardstock, colored with Copics, and cut out.  I stamped it on the cobalt layer as well.  The flower, leaves and baby are all popped up on foam tape.  The tiny flower and sentiment are from the Fiskars Baby stamps set, and are stamped and colored directly on the frosted cobalt layer.  The ribbon is May Arts, available currently by the roll from Rubbernecker, but also available by the yard starting on April 21st.

That’s it for now!  If you’ve stayed with me through this entire post, I truly appreciate it!  And I’ll definitely be posting to let you know when that sweet little pink bundle arrives!

• Stamps: Baby Buttercup - Stamping Bella, Fiskars Baby Stamp Set
  
• Paper: Prism: white, Frosted Cobalt, Vibrant Cobalt, Herbal Garden Medium, Nana’s Nursery Baby Boy - DCWV
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black
  
• Other: Labels One Nestabilities die, Wizard, SU scallop punch, May Arts ribbon, button, linen thread, CB Swiss Dots folder, foam tape, wonder tape, Copic markers:

Items on both projects available from Rubbernecker Stamp Co.

My good friend Sherry decided to tag me a couple of days ago and it looked like it would be fun, so I’m playing along!  The tag is to open the My Pictures folder on your computer, open the 6th folder and then post the 6th photo.

This is my 6th in the 6th:

This was taken from the balcony of a beach house in Edisto, SC, looking out to the bay.  There were dolphins everywhere that week.  We had so much fun watching them play and I just couldn’t get enough pictures of them.

Just for fun, here are a few more from that peaceful, relaxing week:

And here’s another one from that week that is probably one of my most favorites from all the pictures I’ve ever taken:

Thanks for allowing me to share some favorite memories!!

The rules for this tag are as follows:

•Open your photo folder on your computer
•Open the 6th folder of photos
•Select the 6th picture
•Post the picture on your blog with a description
•Invite six friends to join the challenge
•Link your six friends to your blog post

Here are my 6 friends that I’m tagging and asking to play along:

Barbara, Cathy, Danielle, LeAnne, Tammy and Christine

After looking at all these pictures from the beach, I’m really ready for summer!

Thanks for visiting! Have a great day!

We had a great time at IKEA!  We were mostly looking for furniture for GS Miles.  Here’s a bed we found that he just loved:

Here’s Miles and Gretchen trying out some mattresses while his Mom was shopping:

And here’s a little something I picked up (the bedding):

All in all, we had a pretty productive day, considering almost every person in 5 counties was there!!  Talk about feeling like cattle!  But I still can’t wait to go back!

As promised in an earlier post, here’s my first card using the new Kim Hughes set Mocha Chica and the fabulous Mocha Chica paper line. Scrumptious! I love the fresh colors!

This card is for my daughter’s birthday which is this weekend. I won’t be in town to help her celebrate, so I’ll get this in the mail to her and then we’ll celebrate a little later. Her husband is taking her for a special overnight excursion and my other daughter will be babysitting with little Miles. I believe everyone will have a fine time!

I tried to keep the card simple, but I wanted it to be a little different also. It ended up being an 8 x 4 card because I simply took one of the 8 x 8 Mocha Chica papers and folded it in half for the card base. Perfect!

The birds and branches were stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa on small pieces of the Mocha Chica papers and shaded/highlighted with Copic markers and a white gel pen. All the ovals are mounted on foam tape. I ran my W1 Copic marker around the edges of the ovals to make them stand out a little better against the background. And can you see the tiny pink rhinestone sticker in the center of the ‘a’ in celebrate?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you soon!

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Celebrate Chica card details:

Stamps: Mocha Chica, URA Hoot - Cornish Heritage Farms

Paper: Mocha Chica

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Petite oval Nestabilties, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Copic markers: W1, W3, YR65, Inkssentials opaque white gel pen, corner rounder punch, large oval punch, rhinestone sticker, foam mounting tape

I whipped up a couple of these cards for my 2 older grandsons who have now started back to school. They were really excited on their first day. But now the younger one, who just started kindergarten, is doing everything he can in the mornings to get his mom to let him stay home. He found out what homework is like! And that he has to sit still to do it!

All the stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms. I had been eying this Making the Grade set since last year, and finally broke down and bought it when I ordered the new Mocha Chica set and paper. (A card with that set to come shortly!) I’m slowing whittling away at my wish list!

Isn’t it cute? I used a river rock base for the card, although I’m kind of hesitant to use a lot of that color since I forgot to stock up before it was retired. I used the river rock grosgrain ribbon also.

I stamped the Lined Paper backgrounder at an angle to add some interest and sort of mimic the diagonal stripes in the patterned paper. The schoolhouse is popped up on foam tape and the button is tied with linen thread (knotted in the back).

The boys loved the cards. My next project for them will be bookmarks, I think. Anything to encourage them to read and enjoy it!

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Don’t forget that Rubbernecker has Spellbinders Nestabilities (individual and sets) at unbeatable prices this week! The Mini Scor-It is also on sale!

ALSO….there’s a super challenge and contest going on at Jacksonbelle Embellishments for the whole month of September. You can find all the details here. You can win some awesome prizes, but you have to enter first!!

And did anybody happen to notice that I was a winner of 3 Shimmerz paints at the Shimmerz blog??!! How exciting! I’ll just have to get the new limited edition fall colors. I love that stuff! It’s really addicting!

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Thank you for stopping by to visit today. See you next time!

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My Kids with Class card details:

Stamps: Making the Grade, Lined Paper backgrounder - Cornish Heritage Farms

Paper: river rock, white, My Mind’s Eye 12×12 stack

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Sage Shadow

Accessories: river rock ribbon, mounting tape, button, linen thread, 1/4″ square punch

So I gave the blog a new look. What do you think? I wanted to do it earlier in the summer, but wouldn’t you know it, here it is almost August and I’m finally getting around to a summer theme!

It’s Wednesday again and that means it’s time for another Color Throwdown challenge! This week the very talented Cathy Indelicato is our hostess and she chose the coolest color combo:

I thought this would be a great baby color combo and since I need a birthday card for my grandson, Miles, who is turning 2 this week, I decided to go with that theme. No frilly cards, or butterflies and flowers for that little guy! (Ok, maybe a couple!) Here’s his birthday card and my challenge card:

I just fell in love with this Mindy’s Zoo clear stamp set when I saw it on sale - 50% off! - at Hobby Lobby last week. I definitely bought it with Miles’ birthday in mind. What a cute little monkey and I love the palm tree too! I stamped it on watercolor paper and used my Stampin’ Up! reinkers and a waterbrush to paint the scene.

The With Love sentiment is stamped in stazon onto acetate. The grunge 2 and U were coated with Distress black soot ink and heat embossed with black detail EP. These were mounted onto the acetate with tiny glue dots.

The acetate layer is wrapped behind the largest black layer on both sides and taped down on the back.

Be sure to check out the other designers’ cards here:

• Cathy Indelicato
• Kisa Peters
• LeAnne Pugliese
• Tammy Hershberger
• Tracy Durcan

And please play along with us! Upload your card to your blog or to Splitcoast using keyword CTD4, then leave us a link to the card itself in today’s post on the Color Throwdown blog. I can’t wait to see what designs you come up with using this color combo!

Happy Birthday, Miles!!!

Thanks for visiting today! See you next time!

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Stamps: Mindy’s Zoo - Autumn Leaves, Chelsea Sentiments - Inkadinkado from Jacksonbelle Embellishments

Paper: watercolor paper, certainly celery, almost amethyst, black

Ink: black stazon, Ranger Distress black soot, SU reinkers: certainly celery, kiwi kiss, so saffron, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, almost amethyst

Accessories: waterbrush, acetate, Idea-ology Grunge - mini set, black detail EP, twill from Taylored Expressions, glue dots, craft knife

Hi everyone! I’m back from the beach! It was a wonderful relaxing time, but not without some craziness mixed in! I went with my daughter and 2 grandsons, so you know we didn’t just sit on the beach soaking up the rays and relaxing the whole time! We built drip sand castles, rode the waves on boogie boards, and watched the lifeguard pull in several people who weren’t paying attention and got carried out too far by the riptides. The riptides were unusually strong because of the low pressure system off the coast which has now become a tropical storm.

We also played MagiQuest! Have you heard of it? You purchase a “magic” wand and are given several different quests to complete within a certain time span. Your wand unlocks secrets and allows you to gather treasures to aid you along the way. There were people of all ages playing. It was really cool! There were castles, gargoyles, fairies, unicorns, musical trees and even wizards! Here’s Hunter with his wand, waiting to enter the chamber to play.

And here are some more random images of the week. Check out Hunter’s back flip on the bungee cord jump and my “Shark’s Bite” beverage!

Thanks for visiting today and allowing me to share my vacation with you! I’ll be back on Wednesday for the Color Throwdown challenge. It’s my week to host it!

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