Splashes of Watercolor

Let Your Light Shine - Color Throwdown #194

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It's summer!!!  Well, at least you would think so if you go to the Color Throwdown blog today!  (Or step out into the 90+ temps we've been having in SC!)  This week Barbara is our host and she's chosen some of my favorite colors - beach colors!

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She even used a photo of the beach as an inspiration!  A lady after my own heart!

Since I obviously have the beach on my mind, I pulled out my Smooth Sailing stamp set from Our Craft Lounge to make an ocean inspired card.

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I love the lighthouse with the little heart and the font of this sentiment is fabulous!

Please plan to get into a summer state of mind and play along with us!  You can find all the details at the CTD blog.  And please check out all the great creations of the design team:

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Thanks so much for stopping by today!  See you soon!

 

Mama Kisses

 

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The newest release from Tammy Thompson at A Day For Daisies is called Mama's Darlings.  And darling they are!  I'm so in love with these beautiful drawings of Mamas and their babes!

The one I chose to color is called Mama Kisses and it's gorgeous! It's also on sale for 50% off this week only!

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I decided to use softer colors this week to reflect the soft sweetness of newborn babies. The layout is this week's MOJO Monday sketch - MOJO241:

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The patterned paper is C'est la Vie from Melissa Frances (currently on sale at eclectic Paperie), and that wonderful paper bow was made using the new small Bow die from Lil' Inker Designs.  Another winner from Laura!

And so ends another week, y'all! 

Please stop by to see what the other ADFD designers have colored up for your inspiration and check out all the new images at the ADFD blog, the ADFD Etsy shop, or the ADFD main site.

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Alice Wertz *** Arielle Gordon ***   Lori Boyd *** Shelly Mercado *** Tracy MacDonald

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Thanks for dropping by!  I hope you have lots of fun planned for your weekend! 

Me?  I'm headed to the All-Star Race in Charlotte tomorrow!  That includes a Blake Shelton concert too!

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Be still my heart!  I hope I survive to tell y'all about it!

 

 

You Go Girl! Who's the SFYTT Guest Designer?

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WHOOT!  WHOOT!!!  That would be ME!!

I was so honored and thrilled when my fellow DD alumni Jen del Muro, stamper extraordinaire, asked me to be the Guest Designer for her SFYTT November sketch challenge!  How cool is that?!

And to make it even better…..the sponsor this week is VERVE STAMPS!!  Be still my heart!  Julee is another designer that I SO admire!  And she designs some pretty awesome stamps too!

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Here is this month's fabulous SFYTT sketch~

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I love it, don't you?  I'm so thrilled to be presenting my card along with all the talented SFYTT Sisters; and the Verve Divas are playing too!!  Woo hoo!  Be sure to check on the i{heart}2stamp blog for the complete listing and for the rules.

Julee (Verve) will be offering a stamp set of choice to a participant who uses Verve  stamps on their creation!

For my card I chose to use the super-adorable To the Moon stamp set from Verve.  I am so in love with these adorable little animals and the endless possibilities of what can be created with so many great images and sentiments!

Today's card features a pretty little pink elephant surrounded by frills and bling!

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This little sweetheart was colored with Copic markers and popped up inside a blinged scallop oval window. 

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The solid cardstock panels were embossed with  the Tim Holtz Diamonds in the Rough Texture Fades folder, and I used Scor-Tape to create the scrunched ribbon.  The background patterned paper (in the oval window too) is from the Out of Print 6x6 Basic Grey paper pad.    I love how the Lil' Inker Designs sentiment flag looks all decked out in silver too!

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I think that's all the details on the card!

Please check out all the details of the challenge at the i{heart}2stamp blog and then play along with us!  We'd love to see what you create using this fantastic sketch!

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me share my exciting news with you!  And thank you again, Jen, for inviting me to play along!  Have a great weekend!

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It's Better with Color - Part 5: Distress Stains

So it's time for another E-Team blog hop!  Are you ready??

Daisy has challenged the team to show you how we use Ranger Distress Stains this time! 

Now, I have to confess I'd never used this product until I pulled out my 2 bottles to play around and decide what I would do for this challenge.  We'll talk more about that in a minute!  First let's take care of the blog hop business:

• Visit each blog and leave a comment for a chance to win 1 of 4 prizes.
• 3 winners will be randomly selected from the E-Team blogs to each win a $20 eclectic Paperie Gift Voucher.
• 1 winner will be selected from the eP blog to win a small assortment  of Distress Stains and some more surprises!
• Comments will be taken Friday, July 29, to Sunday, July 31. 1 comment per blog, please.  Winners will be posted Monday, August 1, on the eP blog.
• All Distress Stains at eclectic Paperie are 10% off!!

Ok, so let's see what I came up with.

First I followed the instructions to shake the bottle and then I swiped the color onto some white and some kraft cardstock scraps.  Wow!  I LOVE the smoothness of the application and the beautiful saturation of the color.

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At the bottom of the white cardstock, you can see where I swiped the Peeled Paint ink pad over the paper for comparison.  See the difference?

I immediately thought it would be great to swipe over some patterned paper or other inked applications and use as a base for a sentiment. 

Well, I had planned on making a framed layout for my friend Karen's birthday, so I decided it would be a great project to try out the Distressed Stains on.  I started with a 12 x 12 piece of pale aqua cardstock.  I spritzed it with Timberline and Bronze Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists.  I clear embossed some small butterflies, stenciled a larger butterfly with dimensional paint and spritzed it all with a couple of colors of Ranger Distress reinkers mixed with water.  I stamped a few other butterflies, words, and backgrounds too.  Then I decided that I wanted the larger effortless beauty sentiment to be highlighted and used to "anchor" the layout.  That's where I used the Peeled Paint Distress Stain to swipe a couple of times across the bottom left corner.

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I really love how the stain pops against all the softer glimmery colors, while still allowing some of the glimmer to show through.  (Click on the photo to see it larger.)  And it provides a smooth, even base over those colors for the sentiment.

Next I started my process of building the layers to create my cluster surrounding my photo, literally using several scraps from my stash.   Speaking of which, after I took the first photo below, I couldn't find my photo!!  I almost panicked until I turned the page over.  Ha!  There's my photo!  How did it get stuck there?

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Here's a closeup of my flower arrangement.

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And here's the finished page.  I used the Peeled Paint Distress Stain to color the grungeboard alpha letters too.

I did want to point out that I wanted to highlight that effortless beauty sentiment even more, so I stamped it again on a piece of the white cardstock swiped with Peeled Paint Distress Stain and popped it up over the original stamped sentiment.

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I did frame the layout and gave it to Karen last night.  She loved it!  Oh!  I found that if I used a 12 x 12 deep frame made to hold a t-shirt (from Michael's), it's a perfect fit and protects the dimension of the page as well.

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So then I wanted to give the Weathered Wood Distress Stain equal time!  I also wanted to see how well the stain worked over embossing.  I stamped and clear embossed this ferris wheel image on a piece of vintage looking text patterned paper, then swiped the Distress Stain over it.  After it dried, I swiped it a few more times to intensify the color.  Pretty cool!

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If I was going to make a vintage looking card I needed my seam binding to look vintage as well.  I laid the seam binding on my craft sheet and swiped the Distress Stain across it.  Great saturation and a beautiful complimentary shade of the blue!

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Here's my simple vintage inspired card using the Weathered Wood Distress Stain to highlight the image and to dye the seam binding.

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I have one more little tip. You may already be aware of this little trick but I thought I'd show you anyway!  When you have a sentiment that is too long to fit on a particular die cut like on the Sentiment Flag (from Lil' Inker Designs) above, you can mask off part of the sentiment using any kind of tape.  Cover the part you DON'T want to stamp with tape, ink your sentiment, REMOVE the piece of tape, and stamp!   That's what I did to make the one long sentiment fit on the flag above.  With tape, inked:

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I also played a little more with the embossing and Distress Stains.  I also stamped the ferris wheel after inking it with the Peeled Paint Distress Stain.  I see all kinds of projects using these Distress Stains in the future for me!!

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Now it's time for you to move along and see the beautiful and inspiring projects the rest of the E-Team have created for you!  Here's a list of those participating members:

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E-TEAM

Linda Ledbetter

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Daisy Sparks (eP blog)

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Don't forget to leave one comment on each blog!  And thank you all for taking the time to stop by today!  See you next time!

BUTTERFLY LAYOUT

• Stamps: Vintage Butterflies, Large Polka Dot Backgrounder (CHF) 
• Paper: 12 x 12 pale aqua, old olive, kraft, Mariposa Stack (DCWV), Fine & Dandy True Blue (My Mind's Eye) 
• Ink: Ranger Distress reinkers - Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint; Ranger Distress ink pads - Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen; Versamark; Versafine - onyx black; Timberline & Bronze Glimmer Mists (Tattered Angels)
  
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: Ranger mini-misters, ink blending tools, butterfly stencil, Texture Magic Dimensional Paint (Delta), Ranger clear embossing powder, Heat-It Craft Tool, leaf mask (Heidi Swapp), oval punch, Grand On The Vine border die (Spellbinders), Prima flowers, Damask Die (QuicKutz), ribbon, butterfly punch & iron gate border punch (Martha Stewart), label stickers (7 Gypsies), dry wall mesh tape, corner rounder punch, Zva Creative crystals, plain mixed minis grungeboard (Tim Holtz Idea-ology), ribbon for flower center, Scor-Tape, foam mounting tape, Glue Dots, Quickie Glue Pen, glitter  

FERRIS WHEEL CARD

• Stamps: ferris wheel (Michael's $1 bin), Pinwheels Stamp Set (Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs)
• Paper: kraft, black, Classic K Margo mat pad (K & Company) 
• Ink: Ranger Distress Stain - Weathered Wood; Versamark, Versafine - onyx black 
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: Ranger clear embossing powder, Heat-It Craft Tool, seam binding, vintage button, corner rounder punch, Sentiment Flag die (Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs), foam mounting tape 

Awesome Rainbows - Color Throwdown #151

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Yay!  It's time for another Color Throwdown challenge.  This week Kristin's our hostess and our challenge is to create a card with rainbow colors.  Pretty cool, huh?

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It was fun coming up with just the right shades of the rainbow colors.  I wanted mine to be a little more subdued than the basic primary shades.

I used our very own Laura's Rainbows & Clouds Dies & Sentiments stamp set (from Lil' Inker Designs) for the upside-down rainbow border.  The tiny flowers were ivory, but I spritzed them with a mixture of Ranger Distress Fired Brick reinker and water.

The paper I wanted to use was wider than my card, but I didn't want to cut either edge off, so I just pleated it in the middle.  Then I pleated the wired ribbon too.  You can hardly see it, but I stamped the PTI Mehndi Medallion image on the background paper, just behind the sentiment.

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The rainbows were die cut, then glued onto vanilla cardstock so I could overlap them and pop the middle one up on foam mounting tape.

I hope you'll play along with us this week!  This one should be really easy for everyone and anyone who wants to play!  Check out what the talented girls on our team have created for your inspiration:

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Barbara * Carole * Kristin * Laura 

LeAnne * Tammy * and special guest Keva

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Thanks so much for stopping by!!  Have a great week…or what's left of it!

• Stamps: Rainbows & Clouds Dies & Sentiments stamp set (Lil' Inker Designs with ag Designs), Mehndi Medallion (PTI)
• Paper: vanilla, blue bayou, scraps; Petite Papers (Webster's Pages)  
• Ink: Malted Milk (Jenni Bowlin), Versafine - onyx black, Ranger Distress - Fired Brick reinker
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: wired ribbon, flowers, mini-mister 

Sun-Filled Days

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There are a LOT of birthdays among my family, friends and coworkers in July.  Just today I have 3 friends with a birthday!  So guess what?!   I've been busy making cards!

Here's one I made for a friend/coworker using one of my favorite stamp sets from Our Craft Lounge, Sunshine Cheer, paired with the super, super cute Rainbow & Clouds dies from my friend, Laura Pryor, of  Lil' Inker Designs (with ag designs).  What a great match these are!!

And I've used the JUGS91 sketch from this past week.  It was perfect!

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How cheerful and fun!

Well, I'm off to visit my Mom this weekend.  She's doing better now.  Thanks to all of you for the concern and well wishes!  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Sunshine Cheer (Our Craft Lounge) 
• Paper: vanilla (PTI), shimmery vanilla, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey, DCWV, My Mind's Eye  
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, Copic markers - Y35, & Y38
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: Rainbow & Clouds dies (Lil' Inker Designs), inverted scalloped circles Nestabilities, scallop border punch, button, Lemondrop twine (Twinery), pinking shears, Scor-Tape, foam mounting tape  

Any Day Fishin'

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How's this for a summer birthday card for a male?  It's going to a guy I work with who is definitely an outdoorsman.  Hope he likes it!

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I've used the great Our Craft Lounge set, Bear-ly Fishin'.  Just how cute is that?!!  I love this bear and all the great accessories that come with him.  There's even a larger bear…Daddy Bear, maybe?!  Cute, cute, cute!

The patch of grass is an image from the set.  I just drew the bottom of it and the cliff edge so that he'd have somewhere to sit while he's fishin'!  The sentiment is a long single line, but I broke it up so that it would fit on my Sentiment Flag.

I hope you all have a great day!

• Stamps: Bear-ly Fishin' (Our Craft Lounge) 
• Paper: Neenah white; kraft, ocean tides (PTI); soft sky 
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, soft sky, Ranger Distress frayed burlap, Versafine onyx black, Copic makers 
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: Copic multiliner SP 0.2 pen, Large Deckled Rectangles (Spellbinders), ink blending tools, Sentiment Flag Die (Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs), piercing tool & mat, copper brad, twine, ocean tides ribbon (PTI), foam mounting tape, Scor-Tape
  

Let's Play! - Color Throwdown #143

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Hello, my friends!  It's time for a new Color Throwdown challenge!  Laura is our hostess today and she's chosen a plethora of soft sweet colors for us to play with!

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Fun, huh?  So I decided to go with a fun card, too!

Not only am I using the Color Throwdown colors, I'm also using the CPS219 sketch and I'm playing along in the Our Craft Lounge challenge to use twine!   And here's my card using the Our Craft Lounge stamp set Swingin' By!

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Can you spot the twine? I used it for the ropes on the swing! 

And since Laura is hosting, it's only fitting that I used her Sentiment Flag die for my cute sentiment!

I hope you'll play along with us!  You guys were awesome in your response to the challenge last week!  You can find all the details at the Color Throwdown blog.

Now check out the awesomeness that is the CTD design team:

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Barbara * Carole * Cathy * Danielle * Kristin

Laura * Tammy * Jen Mitchell  (May Guest Designer)

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Thank you so much for visiting with me today!  I hope you're having a great week!  I am!!

• Stamps: Swingin' By (Our Craft Lounge) 
• Paper: Neenah white, so saffron, pink pirouette, Sugared 6x6 paper pad (Basic Grey), Brenda Walton Madeline 8.5 x 8.5 paper pad (K & Company) 
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, Ranger Distress - tumbled glass, crushed olive, antique linen, Copic markers 
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other: Big Scalloped Ovals (Nestabilities), ribbon, ink blending tools, Quickie glue pen, beige twine, needle, lace, roses, Sentiment flag die (Lil' Inker designs with ag designs), foam mounting tape 

You Spin Me Right 'Round - Color Throwdown #138

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Welcome back!  It's time for another Color Throwdown challenge and this one is very special because the whole team is using our very own Laura's new Pinwheel Die and stamp set!!!  This is just too much fun, y'all!  If you haven't already been to her website, you're really missing out!  She's got a fabulous tutorial on how to use it HERE too. 

She also has the original Sentiment Flag die.  And she's generously offered to give one lucky person who participates their choice of either die as a prize!!  Woot!  Woot!!

Tammy is our hostess and she came up with a great challenge this week!

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I thought it was a wonderful idea to give us a choice of the 3rd color!  I chose to use Melon Mambo.  I thought it worked so well with the navy and white.

I didn't have a double-sided piece of patterned paper that would work with the colors so I just used my Xyron to adhere 2 pieces together.  The navy layer was a leftover piece I had used to die cut the Labels One shape out of.  I just slipped the embossed white layer behind it, to add more texture.

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I just love that sentiment!  In fact, Laura took me up on my suggestion to include it in her stamp set!  I was thrilled!

You really NEED to check out all the great pinwheels of the design team:

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Barbara * Cathy * Danielle * Kristin

Laura * Tammy * Carole Burrage  (April Guest Designer)

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And now it's time for you to get going on your entry so you have a chance to win a new die from Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs!

That's it for me.  Thanks for the visit!  In just a couple of hours, I'll be posting again for the latest E-Team blog hop.  Don't miss it!!

• Stamps: Pinwheel Sentiments (Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs) 
• Paper: white, night of navy, melon mambo textured, June bug & Lemonade 6x6 paper pads (Basic Grey) 
• Ink: Versafine - onyx black 
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other:  Pinwheel die (Lil' Inker Designs with ag designs), brad, buttons, Swiss dots CB folder, Rays embossing folder (Tim Holtz Alterations), cotton thread, Scor-Tape 

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Hi, y'all!  I just wanted to pop in and wish all of you, my friends, a very happy Valentine's Day!

You all mean the world to me!

I thought I'd share a few more Valentines cards that I made.

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I hope you have a beautiful day, full of love!

BE MY VALENTINE

• Stamps:   sentiment from Wanted (Our Craft Lounge)
• Paper:   white, tempting turquoise, Ooh La La "Between the Lines" (My Mind's Eye), Fresh Paint glitter pack (K & Company)
• Ink: Studio G pigment ink (Hampton Art)
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other:  sentiment flag die (Lil' Inker Designs), heart punch (Martha Stewart), Caribbean & Mandarin twine (Twinery), open scallop punch (Fiskars)

I LAVA YOU

•  Stamps:  Lava You (Our Craft Lounge)
• Paper:  white
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, Versafine - onyx black, Copic markers 
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other:  Copic airbrush system, horizontal slot punch, Pink Sorbet, Caribbean, & Lilac twine (Twinery)

SENDING LOVE

•  Stamps: Sending Love (Our Craft Lounge)
• Paper: white, old olive, Olivia 6x6 paper pad (Basic Grey)
• Ink: Memento - tuxedo black, Copic markers
• Tools used on every card: Fiskars 9" trimmer, Scor-Buddy, Tim Holtz scissors, Ranger non-stick craft sheet, Rock-a-blocks
• Other:  grass punch (Martha Stewart), Ocean Tides satin ribbon (PTI), foam mounting tape