4th of July

This card started out as a way to play with the vibrant colored scraps that my friend Sharon gave me.  These are retired card stocks from Stampin Up and we can't just let them go in the trash can we???  No!

Here's the inside ---- I gave this one to my landlords with the rent check.  They are such a sweet couple and I adore Jennifer to pieces - so it's fun to make them a little something every now and then.

We spent the fourth enjoying the beach and fireworks.  It can get pretty crowded - but this year the crowd didn't fill the sand until right about dark.  So, evening at the beach was pretty nice.

 Morgan waited anxiously for the sun to set.  For a moment - we had a beautiful orange sky.

Bob had a hard time capturing the show because there were kids setting off their own fountain fireworks right in front of us.  He did get some really good shots though.   I just love how the fireworks reflect on the wet sand! 

How'd you spend your day?

Bowl of Blooms - Use your Scraps

The flowers on the card are paper pieced embellishments from the box my friend gave me. There were five of these little flower sets, so I made that many of these cards. Do you think they are too girly to give the Junior Scouts as a welcome back? Maybe they could give them to their Mom's instead. Hmmm...

The card bases are Rich Razzleberry from my own stash but the rest came from the boxes. I used Circle Circus on white scraps with Rich Razzleberry ink for the light colored background. The DSP is double sided so it could be Stampin Up but I don't know for sure.

I love how sponging the edges adds depth and drama -- this was the first card made from the scraps btw. I just had to play with the little bowl of flowers.

Team Challenge

UPDATE: This card got selected for the Stamper's Showcase! Thank you so much!

At our Stampin Up Team Meetings - we have challenges for our monthly swaps. For the August Meeting, the challenge was to use the sketch for the current Stamping 411 Challenge.


Everyone puts their cards on a table and we vote on the favorite card for the swap. I don't know if I've ever even gotten a vote... but this time... my card won! I was shocked and excited and so thankful that others liked it enough to vote for it! Thanks guys!

Ok, so... without making you wait any longer..... Here's my card:


I started with Bermuda Bay, Dusty Durango and Basic Black card stock. After adding texture and tearing the strips, I inked the Dusty Durango with the same ink color and that's ok, but I wanted even more umph on the textured Bermuda Bay piece. Notice how the paper seems to change color as it nears the edge? That's the effect of the Certainly Celery I used to ink the edges.

The star is from the Fun and Fast Notes stamp set. It was one of the sets I selected with my demo kit. What? Oh yes, you can customize your kit. Isn't that cool? Anyway... It's stamped onto Whisper White in Dusty Durango and then cut out and inked. The colored stars are stamped in black and colored in with markers. Finally, the star in front has Crystal Effect over the yellow and white. It's got texture and shine and really enhances the colors.

Last but not least, I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to position the phrase from the Wings of Friendship stamp set... oh yeah then a little piercing.

Use Your Scraps - Groovy Gnome

A friend of mine sent out a call for help this weekend. She was cleaning out her stamping room and needed someone to come and take away the things she decided to let go of. I was the first on the scene and she filled my car with goodies. I worried that there wouldn't be any for the others and if you were called upon to help and were left empty handed, please call me!

I spent the weekend going through things, sorting and organizing. There were two full boxes of paper scraps. There was more than just scraps though, it also had a few stamped images that someone had started and tossed in the scrap bin when something else seemed to work better. This is always the way with me, so I fully understand why these images were in there. You too?

This little gnome was one of three, fully colored images in the boxes and... well... I just couldn't NOT do something with them. They are so cute!

The entire card is made with scraps! I don't know the names of the DSP, stamp image or ribbon. I think the card base is Groovy Guava. The buttons came from my button jars and the colors just seemed to work with the DSP. Behind the image is a paper that looked like balsa wood. It's not double sided, so I know it was not Stampin Up.

Yum on a Stick!

Don't you just love this vibrant color? I'm so excited about these new In-Colors from Stampin Up. This one is called Melon Mambo and so far, I think it's my favorite. The stamp is from the Circle Circus set. I cut it out with the circle scissor plus at 1.5 inches and then a 1.75 inch black mat.

The Stampin Up card stock is colored through and through. This means, you are never going to get those white edges when you cut it. This is a good thing, but it also means that sanding it isn't going to do anything. So, I embossed the Melon Mambo card stock with an embossing folder and my pasta machine. (need a big shot one of these days -- Santa, you taking requests?) But I still wanted the look of sanding on DSP. So I got out my Whisper White craft ink. A little dry sponging and voila~ Faux sanding.

A left over matted DSP and a little Sigmo Gel Pen later and Morgan declared it "Yum on a Stick!"

Digital Thanks

*insert robot sounds here*

No no no! LOL I'm not talking about Optimus Prime thanking the humans of Earth, I'm talking about digital designing for scrapbooking and card making.










A lady in one of my groups asked for help designing a thank you card for a baby shower. She needed a turtle and didn't have one. On top of that, she has recently suffered a tragedy and just couldn't access her usually very creative side. So I put this together for her as inspiration.

She'll be making these cards using Chocolate Chip and Baha Breeze cards stocks - along with designer series papers and things.

Using your photo software is a great way to plan your layout. Especially when you are stumped for what you should create. You can easily switch out designs or colors when you get to your paper stash.

Works for greeting cards, ATCs, LTCs and layouts as well!

Daisy Blue

I have been playing with watercoloring to develop a tutorial for an upcoming event. It’s a super fast way to create dimension and texture on a stamped image. This image is not a stamp. I don’t have an outline stamp like this so I did a fast sketch on scrap Whisper White card stock.

Water coloring is one of my favorite things to do. It's very versatile and can give you different looks depending on the paper that you use and the watercolor medium. Wait. Isn't all watercolor the same? I'm glad you asked that. It's not really. There are various ways to achieve a watercolor effect. Watercolor pencils and crayons are applied directly to the paper then the color is moved with water and a brush. The look achieved is different than when you apply wet pigments to paper.

Today I am showing you wet on dry. (wet pigment on dry paper). Stamp or sketch your image onto white card stock with permanent ink. Then set up a palette. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can use the Classic Stampin Up ink pads and squeeze the closed pad to put some ink on the lids. I use an acrylic block or recycle a plastic lid from a food container. (when we are finished it can go back to it’s original purpose with no waste) and drop some ink from the re-inkers. This gives me deep rich color.

Aqua brushes make this easy and fast because they are self cleaning. Get the bristles wet, but don’t add water to the palate. Pick up the color you are using and sweep it across the image. I used Bashful Blue, Summer Sun and Certainly Celery.

I tilted my image so the color would run to the bottom of the petals and settle there - making it darker. Then I did a second sweep on each petal to deepen the color more. The leaves and the center of the flower were done the same way. After I brushed on the Summer Sun (yellow), I swept the brush over the inside edges of the petals. I love it when colors blend and run together. The results are always a surprise.


I honestly intended to throw this away when I finished, but the colors called to me and I couldn't do it. So I cut it out and popped it up on a card. The base and second mat are Bashful Blue card stock. Don't you just love how the colors match so well? The tab is a punch (yummo) and is inked with Summer Sun on the edges. Ribbon and other papers used are scraps from the bin.

Tee's Tip
Everybody is always blending blending blending. Color in life is not always blended so well. We have harsh edges and softer ones. So try including some harsh edges in your watercolor pieces.