Splashes of Watercolor

It's Your Day - Color Throwdown #231

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Hello, there!  It just so happens that this is my week to host at the Color Throwdown blog.  I chose an inspiration photo that makes me want to pack a picnic basket and head to the river!

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Yum, right?

Well, I didn't use apples on my card but I did use fruit to create an inviting libation for any type of celebration!

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How about joining us this week?  We'd love to see what you create using our inspiration photo!  You could be named our Featured Stamper and receive your very own bragging badge for your blog!!

Please be sure to check out all the wonderful creations from the challenge team:

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Thank you so much for stopping by today!!  Happy Hump Day!

 

FTTC209 - Glitter & Shine

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Hello and happy Timeless Tuesday to everyone!  It's my turn to host over at the Flourishes blog and I'm excited to present you with my challenge.

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How about some Glitter & Shine?  Or just some Glitter or just some Shine?  Whatever your little heart desires!  I decided to use both!

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I used the Moments in Time stamp set and stamped the clock face on both some kraft cardstock and a piece of clear cover cardstock.  I added some Want-2-Scrap black rhinestones around the clock face on the kraft panel, then used glue to add glitter to the back of the clear circle.  That was then glued on top of the rhinestone circle.  It may be hard to see but the Roman numerals and the sentiment are heat embossed in black, and the paper layer between the Flourishes Classic ivory cardstock card base and the black cardstock is silver and shimmery.

You can see more of the shine from a different angle:

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So now it's your turn!  We'd love to see your Glitter & Shine creations!  Please check out all the rules and details, and then link up at the Flourishes blog.

Be sure to stop and check out what the rest of the Timeless Tuesday ladies have created for your inspiration:

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• Allison Cope Israels
• Broni Holcombe - you are here!
• Cindy Haffner
• Deborah Anton
• Denise Marzec
• Makiko Jones
• Bridget Finlay - our February 2013 Guest Designer

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Do You Believe?

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Happy Friday, everyone!  Today we're re-releasing an incredibly beautiful set of images from A Day For Daisies called Childhood.  There are adorable children, mermaids and unicorns.  What more could you ask??

I'm using the "Magic" image and I absolutely love it!  Yes, I believe! (I believe in Magic Mike too, but that's another story for another day, huh?)

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We're also starting a new challenge today.  Use die cuts on your card.  Easy peasy!! 

I used the circle die cuts obviously, once to cut the plain circle and again (same die) to trace around the inside of the die, framing the unicorn, but leaving his horn intact.  I used scissors to cut this circle.

I used a new (to me) TCW template called Life Shapes Large to  create the polka dotted background, by spritzing on some Broken China reinker mixed with water.  Each of the circles is adhered with foam mounting tape and the great sentiment is from Unity.

This week's Sweet Sunday Sketch #178 was my inspiration for the layout.

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I hope you'll be inspired to play along in the challenge with us this week!  Please be sure to visit with the other A Day For Daisies designers to see their incredible creations!

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Alice Arielle Broni Danielle Kadie Sherry

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Thank you so much for stopping in to see me.  Have a fabulous weekend, y'all!

 

A Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop for a very special lady!

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Light the candles, cue the music and get ready for a little bit of birthday fun!  It will SOON be a very special lady's birthday and so we rallied the troops to send some birthday wishes her way a little early!  On Monday, February 25th, Jan Marie Caruso, the fearless and creative force behind Flourishes will be another year older -- what a wonderful thing to celebrate! So, we've asked Flourishes ' designers from all of our teams to join us to help make this day super special with a......

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Here's the scoop~  there's a way YOU can help Jan celebrate and win some Flourishes stamps as well!  HOW?  We just love creative challenges here at Flourishes and so, why not usher in another one!  One randomly drawn winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the Flourishes  store, just for playing along!

You can get all the details for this fun challenge and birthday blog hop at the Flourishes blog.

Here's my card for Jan, inspired by the great birthday inspiration photo above:

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I used the A Year In Flowers 2 and the Inside & Out Just Because stamp sets for the card.  The polka dotted layer was made by inking up the embossing folder with Versamark ink and then embossing with clear powder after it was dry embossed.  The Copic Collections used are listed at the bottom of the post in the supplies section.

I am oh-so-grateful to Jan Marie for inviting me to be a part of her super talented creative family! Jan, I hope you have the very "bestest" birthday ever!!

One extra note?  Jan may be the head of this company but one thing she doesn't get a ton of is happy mail from customers using her stamps.  Let's change that for her birthday and flood her with some creative "love" by sending her your Berry Sweet Birthday Blog Hop creations! Here's her address so you can pop them in the mail!

Jan Marie Caruso

4140 Lyric Lane

Pensacola, FL 32514

I know she would love to see "in real life" what beautiful work you all do and I know it would bring a huge smile to her face!  So, join us in singing her a special little birthday song!  Be sure to check out all the fun and festive wishes and grab some great ideas for birthday cards along the way!  

• Amanda Havon
• Christine Okken
• Cindy Lawrence
• Danielle Kennedy
• Heather Jensen
• Julie Koerber
• Silke Ledlow
• Stacy Morgan
• Allison Cope
• Broni Holcombe
• Cindy Haffner
• Maki Jones
• Aleksandra Mihelič
• Dina Kowal
• Iwona Palamountain
• Kathy Jones
• Meredith MacRitchie
• Sasha-Marie Holmes
• Deborah Anton

Thanks for stopping by and helping us with Jan Marie a wonderful and fabulous BIRTHDAY on Monday!

 

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Blueprint Birthday - Color Throwdown #230

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Is it Wednesday again ALREADY??  I can't believe how quickly time is flying by these days. 

I had quite a full weekend.  How about you?  I took my daughters to lunch on Saturday after taking the birthday girl to the Ortho Urgent Care.  She had badly sprained her ankle the night before.  After dropping her off at home that afternoon, I stopped at the grocery store.  Leaving there I noticed it had started to drizzle - again.  As I drove the 20 miles home, the rain turned to slush, covering the roads and freezing my windshield wipers.  By the time I was halfway home, I could barely see the road.  And then when I finally arrived home, we had 2 - 3 inches of snow, freezing the already wet roads.  Yes, I slid around the corners and drove very slowly, and got home without a scratch to myself or my car.  I don't remember the last time we actually had such a full-on blizzard here in this part of the country!  It was beautiful when it was over, but now I'm done with this cold weather, I tell ya!

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Ok, so let's get on to the Wednesday business!  It's Color Throwdown challenge time again!  Barbara is our fabulous host this week and she's chosen some beautiful earthy colors for us to play with.

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I decided to be a little different (AGAIN) this week.  I wanted to use my new Mini Blueprints #4 stamp set from eclectic Paperie.  I decided to use an ivory cardstock base and just use scraps of the colors from the combo.

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I love the look of the images without color, so I just added some blue shading with my Copic markers.  It IS a blueprint!!  I also scribbled some of the lime color onto the card base beneath where the image panel would go, just to make it stand out a little more. 

At this point, I didn't think there was enough blue and I was also using the layout from this week's retrosketches #51 which called for 3 circles along the left edge of the card, so I colored them with my Copics.  I used my Copic multiliner pen to outline the circles and to draw additional blueprint lines along the card edges.

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And that's it for me!  I hope you'll join us in this week's challenge!  You can check out all the rules and details at the Color Throwdown blog.  And please stop by to visit with each of the Color Throwdown gals as well:

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

FTTC208 - Let's Use Red

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Hello there!  Are you ready to begin this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge?  I know I am!

Denise is our hostess and her challenge is for us to USE RED.  Simple enough, huh?

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The first thing I did was pull out one of my newest Flourishes stamp sets, Old Fashioned Florals!  It's gorgeous!  It's designed to be used with the Perfectly Pierced Victorian Ovals dies, but I found it's also just perfect for use with the Perfectly Pierced Classic Frames!  I was so excited! 

As I started to color the beautiful floral oval image I stopped and was admiring just how truly beautiful the drawn image is.  I thought, why would I want to do anything but show off the image itself with no color at all?  So that's what I tried to do.

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My card base is made from Flourishes Classic Ivory cardstock and for my image I cut some of the same ivory cardstock with the smaller of the Classic Frames then stamped it with Memento tuxedo black ink .  I topped the card base with layers of Classic Kraft and red from the Poppy Collection.  The larger of the Classic Frames was used to die cut some Classic Black cardstock.

There is one large panel and one small banner flag cut from some My Mind's Eye Collectable "Unforgettable" patterned paper.  I wrapped the card front with some Basque Red seam binding and then tied a bow around the ribbon bow with some ivory jute.

While I didn't color the beautiful image, I did shade the background with a B70 Copic marker and a couple of markers from the Warm Neutrals Copic collection.

My sweet sentiment is stamped on the Classic Black cardstock with some ivory ink.

The layout I used was inspired by this week's Deconstructed Sketch #89.

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I hope you'll play along in this week's Timeless Tuesday challenge with us!  Please be sure to take a look at all the fabulous creations of our design team:

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• Allison Cope Israels
• Broni Holcombe - you are here!
• Cindy Haffner
• Deborah Anton
• Denise Marzec
• Makiko Jones
• Bridget Finlay - our February 2013 Guest Designer

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Thank you so much for dropping by today!  Enjoy your week!

 

Whooooo loves you?

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Happy Friday!

It's time for the latest release from A Day For Daisies and you are SO going to love it!  I don't know anyone who doesn't love owls, do you?  Tammy Thompson has created the most adorable family of these creatures and you'll have a very hard time deciding which one you like best!

I chose to color up the beautifully drawn Owl Auntie.

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Isn't she divine?  I just love the branch of hearts she's perched on too!

I've used the Freshly Made Sketches #73 for my layout:

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Now as if the owl family wasn't enough sweetness for one week, Tammy's sister Sami has  just release "Sami's Beautiful Things".  Oh my, how sweet these images are!

I wanted to work with Waiting.  I just love that this is a silhouette image.  It's almost like looking at an image through a window shade.

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I also used a challenge sketch for this card's layout - MOJO Monday #280:

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Are you as excited about these releases as I am?  I thought so!  You can get all the details about them at the A Day For Daisies blog today.  Also be sure to visit with all the design team members to see their lovely creations.

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Alice Arielle Broni Danielle Kadie Sherry

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Thank you so much for dropping in today.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

 

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Thinking of You - Color Throwdown #229

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Hey, y'all!  Happy Wednesday!!

It's time for the next Color Throwdown challenge to begin and this week Wanda has chosen the most scrumptious inspiration photo with equally yummy colors!

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I decided to do minimal stamping on my card today and instead started with a little Distress ink spritzing and blending.  I swiped Spun Sugar and Crushed Olive on my craft sheet, then spritzed it with some water using my mini-mister, and dragged my cardstock thru it.  When it dried I spritzed the cardstock directly to create more of a watercolor effect.  I distressed the edges and sponged on some of the same inks using my ink blending tool.

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I sponged some Frayed Burlap behind where I was going to place my Cattails D'Lites die cut and also along the edges using my Mini Chevron 6x6 template.

I stamped the "Thinking of" in Walnut Stain and added a die cut "you" as well. I wrapped the card front in twine, tied it through a button, then added the Cattails using some Scotch foam mounting tape.

That's it!  It was a fun card to make using all my eclectic Paperie supplies, and I just love this intricate die cut!

Please be sure to stop by and visit with all the Color Throwdown designers and see what they've created today! 

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I hope you'll play along as well.  These really are some delicious colors!!

Thanks so much for your visit today!  I hope I'll see you back here on Friday for some more creations using the wonderful A Day For Daisies images!

 

FTTC207 - You Are Loved!

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Hello, everyone!  It's Tuesday and time for the latest and greatest Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge! 

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Makiko is our hostess this week and she's asked us to use a heart element in our creation.

Well, I just happened to have oodles of book-print hearts left over from my altered book, so I thought one of those would be perfect to use today.

I kept my card simple because I really wanted the Inside & Out YOU sentiment to take center stage.  This has to be one of the most perfect sentiment stamps sets around!  I could use it on every single card I make and it would work!

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I stamped my sentiment on Flourishes Classic White cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink, and cut it out.  The card base is also made from the Classic White cardstock.  My pink heart is cut from some Poppy Paper Collection textured cardstock using my Silhouette. The patterned paper is from the PB&J collection from Basic Grey.

I used this week's retrosketches #50 sketch and the color combo from the Paper Players PP132 challenge.

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I hope you'll play along in the challenge with us this week.  I can't wait to see what you create!  Please be sure to visit with all of the FTTC team to see what they've created for your inspiration:

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• Allison Cope Israels
• Broni Holcombe - you are here!
• Cindy Haffner
• Deborah Anton
• Denise Marzec
• Makiko Jones
• Bridget Finlay - our February 2013 Guest Designer

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Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope you have a great week!

 

Kid Love - Sweet Dreams

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Hello and happy Friday, y'all!

I'm here today to show you a card using another of the February 2013 Club Kit images from A Day For Daisies. 

We're starting a new challenge today on the ADFD blog…..we're to use Pink Polka Dots! 

When I was coloring the image, Kid Love, I decided the pink polka dots would be on the Mom's clothing.  When I had added them, I immediately thought it looked like a nightgown, so I went over the entire gown with my 0 colorless blender to give it a softer, fuzzier look.

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I used my computer to print the sentiment in 'Everytime I Miss You' font (14 pt) and punched it out into a heart shape.

I've used the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #177 for my layout and the colors are from the Pals Paper Arts color challenge.

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Please take a moment to visit with my fellow DT members and please try to play along in the challenge with us too!

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Alice Arielle Broni Danielle Kadie Sherry

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Thank you so much for dropping in before starting your weekend!