Red Sunflowers

Today's red sunflowers are a result of the sweet comment that Carol Reed left on my blog yesterday.

She encouraged me to experiment with non-traditional colors. You can see Carol's cool sunflowers on her blog: Stampin With Carol Reed.

Materials used:

Stamps-Stampin' Up, Fiskars

Inks-distress worn lipstick, festive berries, Stampin' Up wild wasabi, Versafine onyx black

Red grosgrain ribbon

Stamps: Stampin' Up, Hero Arts

Stamp: Hero Arts

Thanks for visiting! Hope you are having a fun and relaxing weekend!

Blue Sunflower Mini Stampfest with Lynette

Lynette and I found a little time to stamp together on Wednesday, September 26. This is Lynette's card. Our inspiration came from Carol Read's blue sunflower card: Stampin With Carol Read. We used the smaller sunflower from the 2000 Stampin' Up Summer Sunflower Definitely Decorative set. The circles were made from Lynette's Stampin' Up's circle dies-I think they are called Stitched Shapes Framelits.

My card is lacking some blue! Wish I had added more sunflowers!  I really like how Lynette's card pops with all the blue! Lynette found the perfect ink colors for the two step stamping of the sunflowers: ballet blue and limeade from Stampin' Up and ultramarine from Vivid.

I made this card front at Lynette's and finished it at home.
The birthday wishes stamp is from Hero Arts.

Made this card today, trying to fit in more flowers like Lynette's card.
I had to make do with my inks: Stampin' Up's brilliant blue and old olive instead of Lynette's Vivid ultramarine and SU limeade.
I added a grosgrain ribbon and a paper "banner".
Sentiment from Fiskars.

Here is  look inside my card. Sentiment stamp by PSX.

Wanted to remember the evening at Lynette's so took a photo of the charcuterie we enjoyed with our husbands while watching some travel shows on TV.

Thank you for visiting! Hoping you have a fun week end!

Scraps into a Birthday Card

My stamping desk is a big mess with scraps and stamps. I couldn't part with this distress background piece. When I found this green cardstock to match, it was very fun to make this card. I'm still on a roll with Stampin' Up's What I Love set, which is also sitting with the mess on my desk.

Used Distress Oxides peacock feathers and broken china. The distress oxides are so much darker and thicker than the regular distress inks. I stamped off on some of the fill-in, more solid flower stamps. Sometimes the ink coverage was uneven, so then I didn't stamp off.  I wanted to let some of the paper show through. 

The Happy Birthday was from an old Stampin' Up sentiment set called God's Blessings.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you are having a GREAT week end!

Guy Birthday Cards

Sometimes I find it difficult to come up with ideas for guy birthday cards. However after seeing this PIN of a train/map card by Kim Smith of Crafting Buddy, I was inspired.

Stamps: Stampin Up 1997 Happy Birthday, 1998 Old World Map, Raindrops on Roses boat stamp

Inks: distress scattered straw, shabby shutters, spiced marmalade

Stampin Up certainly celery

Versafine onyx black

This card is the same layout at above, except for ink colors: distress salty ocean, dried marigold, barn door, early espresso

Here I've switched from a boat to Mr. Umbrella Man from Tim Holtz-a Visual Artistry Collection called Life's Possibilities CSS25870 clear stamps.

Happy Birthday stamp from StampCraft.

Inks: distress walnut stain, salty ocean, scattered straw

Here are color variations: distress broken china, dried marigold, spiced marmalade.

Thanks so much for visiting! 

Wishing you a day filled with happy thoughts and special JOY!

Flower Cards

If you know me, you know that there isn't a flower stamp that I don't like! I love them all! This mini flower is an old Michael Strong stamp of mine. It's just the right size and very fun to play with!

The card base for both of my cards is a "flecked off white" cardstock. The green layer was dry embossed with Sizzix Retro Circles embossing folder. I dislike the way this folder embosses-it always tears the paper in some places. I tried Frenchie's tip about putting a piece of vellum in the folder with the cardstock, but I still had some cracking of the cardstock.

Used distress dried marigold ink for the flowers and Stampin' Up certainly celery ink for the tiny leaves--leaf stamp from an old favorite SU set called Hand-Painted Petites.

Inside of card. You can always click my images for a larger view.

Same design, just changed the colors...distress worn lipstick ink for the flowers and Stampin' Up wild wasabi ink for the leaves--leaf stamp from a new favorite SU set called Lots of Lavender.

Both cards have Hero Arts plastic sequins attached with acrylic medium.

Inside of card

Stamps-outside Happy Birthday from Stampabilities
inside sentiment from PSX

Stamping is so relaxing for me. I hope you do something that relaxes you and bring peace into your life.

Drawing and Painting

I took some time out yesterday to draw and paint these two pieces. This lady was inspired by Jane Davenport's Fabulous Figures book, page 65. When I draw, the expressions on the faces just seem to pop up. Maybe one day I will be able to create a specific expression and be able to duplicate it.  I am an "artist wanna-be" not a real artist. I find it so relaxing attempting to draw and paint.

I could not resist attempting this scene from page 29 of Jane's Fabulous Figures book. When I saw that Eiffel Tower in the background I just had to play with this scene.

For both pieces, I used watercolor paper cut to about 4.75 x 6 inches. I started by drawing with a black Faber-Castell PITT pen. Then I used Jane's Mermaid Markers which are brush pens with a reservoir filled with vivid dye-based ink. Since the ink is quite intense, a lot of the time I brush some ink on my craft sheet then use a paintbrush and water to apply to paper. After the work was dry, I went back with Jane's white paint over pen for highlighting.

I attached my work to cardstock and created two greeting cards. The first one is going to become a birthday card for an artist friend.

I hope you find something in your day that is soothing for your soul!

Flower Cards

Made these flower cards with two Stampin' Up! sets:

Lots of Lavender and What I Love.

This card and the next were inspired by Lee Ann Greff's card here (pinterest link)

Here is the inside of the card.

Used white Georgia Pacific cardstock. The green layer may be a Stampin' Up paper, but I don't know for sure.
Inks: Stampin' Up!-going grey, almost amethyst, wild wasabi, certainly celery

Ranger-jet black
Stamps:  Lots of Lavender by Stampin' Up!

and sentiment stamp by Savvy stamps
Hero Arts plastic sequins applied with acrylic medium.

Variation using orchid opulence ink (SU).

Sentiment from an old SU set called Simple Sketches.

Here is the inside of card.

This card was inspired by Marie-Josée Trudel's card (pinterest link).  I used google translate and learned from the comments that Maria-Josée white embossed some flowers before stamping. She used watercolor paper. I used white matte coated cardstock from Ranger. It held up well and didn't warp with the embossing and applications of water/aqua brush to blend the inks. To get my splatters I applied the pine needles ink pad directly to my craft sheet, added water from my aqua brush, then flicked that ink across the layer.

Inks: Distress-pine needles, broken china, tumbled glass, shabby shutters
Ranger-jet black  for sentiment stamp from Stampendous
Sponged the paper banner with broken china ink

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!