TO132 Wedding Card

Hello everyone!  Happy Monday!  A young couple from our church got married over the weekend and I made them a wedding card using the Time Out Challenge for my inspiration:

I still had some of this DSP from last year (can't remember the name--Floral Boutique, thanks Karen!), and I thought it would look lovely with some Blushing Bride accents:

I used some old and new dies for my butterfly and the trim, and a sentiment from Best Birds:

and again, some old and new stamps for the inside:

They are off honeymooning in England, I can't wait to hear about that trip!!!  

Saturday was church clean-up day; it started out a little cloudy but the sun came out and warmed everything up!  Cassidy was on wheelbarrow duty:

She probably took more breaks than wheeled the wheelbarrow, if I know her, LOL!

The pastor's kids got in on the action too!  Look at one-year-old Joshua with his little rake!

The team did an AMAZING job....there were lots and lots of leaves to be cleaned up...now we're ready for spring!

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Better Together, Graceful Words (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Floral Boutique DSP (ret)
Ink	Night of Navy
Accessories	Candy Dots (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Be Mine Thinlets, Butterflies Thinlets (ret), Bold Butterfly Framelits (ret), Banner Die (Nestabilities)

Paper Players 433 One Layer Bluebird

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Hope you're having a great weekend!  I had a fun workshop yesterday as well as an "Everybody Birthday Party" last night at church!  Busy weekend!  It's a good thing that Jaydee's Paper Players challenge was a One-Layer Clean and Simple one!

One-layer cards can be a challenge for sure...we all love to put layers, embellishments and froufrou things on our cards, don't we?  For my one-layer card, I chose to use some Shimmery White cardstock; it's sturdier than regular white, has a lovely little sheen to it, and accepts watercoloring better than regular white.  So here we go:

I stamped my little bluebird from Best Birds in Stazon black ink, then watercolored him with an aquapainter and some Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Grapefruit Grove, Calypso Coral and Daffodil Delight inks:

I added a little ground with Soft Suede and some very, very pale speckles (Itty Bitty Backgrounds-retired, unfortunately) in Sahara Sand.  For the sentiment, I used a cool heat-embossing technique!  Using the Stamparatus, ink and stamp your sentiment in your color of choice; for this one, I used a birthday sentiment from Perennial Birthday and Early Espresso ink.  Leave your stamp on the Stamparatus plate and very carefully clean off all the ink, then re-ink and stamp again with Versamark.  I always like to ink and stamp a couple of times to make sure I get good coverage!  Then simply sprinkle it with Clear Embossing Powder and heat set, and you have a lovely embossed image in any color!!

Once I had done the embossing, I added some "sky" watercoloring with Balmy Blue, along with a few more speckles!  Simple and easy!

I hope you'll step up to the challenge and create a one-layer wonder card this week and share it with us at the Players!  Check out what the others did at the Paper Players blog!  

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Perennial Birthday, Itty Bitty Backgrounds (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Shimmery White
Ink	Versamark, Stazon Black, Early Espresso, Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel, Calypso Coral, Grapefruit Grove, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake
Accessories
Tools	Aquapainter, Heat Tool, Clear Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy, Stamparatus

PCC325 Hello Little Bird

Happy Friday, peeps!  To offset our gray, dreary weather, I have a fresh springy card for you today using the Papercraft Crew sketch along with some pastel colors:

I have not used Best Birds in a long time, so I inked up this little guy with some Stazon black ink and watercolored him with some Soft Seafom and Pool Party inks to kind of match the flowers on the Share What You Love Specialty DSP:

 

I put a little stitched rectangle of Soft Seafoam behind him, stamped with the little hatch stamp that is in the same set, and added a sentiment from Beautiful Bouquet:

Some burlap ribbon, a few faceted gems and some embossing on the white panel finished it off!  Sweet as a spring morning!  Thanks for popping in today!!

This evening is Cassidy's father/daughter banquet and she had her dress here with me so I could do a few alterations on it.  After she tried it on, for some reason, she laid it out on her bedroom floor!!!  So here's a peek at it:

It's beautiful!  We have other plans this weekend so hopefully Dana will share some pictures with me and I'll share them with you next week!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Beautiful Bouquet
Card stock & Papers	Petal Pink, Soft Seafoam, Whisper White, Thick Whisper White, Share What You Love Specialty DSP
Ink	Stazon Black, Old Olive, Soft Seafoam, Pool Party
Accessories	Faceted Gems, Dimensionals, Burlap Ribbon
Tools	Big Shot, Woodland Embossing Folder, Rectangle Stitched Thinlets, Birds and Blooms Framelits, Circles Framelits (ret), Aquapainter

CTS302 Birdie Birthday

Happy Friday, peeps!  Are you close to having all your Christmas prep done?!  I am getting there--got a lot done yesterday, have company coming today, so this will be short and sweet!  My cousin's wife is celebrating her 60th birthday a few days after Christmas, and since my craft room is a hot mess and I honestly feel a bit "rusty" in my stamping, I went clean and simple with CAS(E) this Sketch's current sketch:

and some new Flora and Fauna stamps I got recently:

I stamped this little bird in Stazon and watercolored it with Blueberry Bushel and Balmy Blue inks, fussy-cut it out and popped it up; the sentiment is from Best Birds, and the numbers are from a little SU set called Simple Serif:

My gingham paper is from Lawn Fawn and I added some linen thread as a tiny little accent!  Thanks for popping in today!

Dana, Wayne and Cass went to Longwood Gardens a couple nights ago...it was perfect weather (it's pouring here right now!) and the only complaint was that there wasn't enough time to see everything!

The ride home was way past bedtime:

Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Simple Serif Alphabet (ret), Winter Aviary, Mini Aviary (Flora and Fauna)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Blueberry Bushel, Homespun Gingham DSP (Lawn Fawn)
Ink	Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Stazon Black
Accessories	Linen Thread, Mini Dimensionals
Tools	Aquapainter, 1/2"Circle Punch

SIP107 Tic Tac Toe!

Hi peeps!  It's Tuesday and time for another Stamp Ink Paper challenge!  This week, it's a tic-tac-toe! That's always a fun one!  Here we go:

I had this little blue panel sitting on my desk from a previous embossing paste experiment, so I paired it up with a wee little blue bird from Best Birds:

I stamped it in Basic Gray and colored it in with an aquapainter and Marina Mist ink; then I stamped the branch and leaves and colored them with Old Olive and Chocolate Chip.  I diecut them with the Birds & Blooms die, then added some speckles from Touches of Texture, a torn strip of Old Olive and some Old Olive-hued twine:

This will get added to my "Thinking of You" card stash!  I hope you'll play along too, and share you creation at the Stamp Ink Paper blog...check out what the others have created as well!

We set up the kiddie pool yesterday (although after three years, it has sprung a couple of leaks!) and that first filling of water is COLD!  Not sure how long it will hold up, but at least on these next few hot days, we can cool off a little bit!  We have VBS in the morning, so not much time to hit the big pool!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Birds, Touches of Texture
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Old Olive
Ink	Basic Gray, Marina Mist, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories	Green Cord (DMC)
Tools	Big Shot, Birds & Blooms Thinlets, Embossing Paste, Pattern Party Decorative Masks, Palette Knife

FMS280and SR365 Birthday Bluebird

Happy Friday, peeps!  It's the end of the week and hopefully, the beginning of some warmer weather! My birthday card stash is very low, so I worked on a couple of cards to fill in, but I still need more!  This one uses the FMS sketch:

and the Stampin' Royalty challenge of "spring":

You really can't get much more springy than a bluebird!  I stamped him on thick white cardstock and watercolored him, then did the same with the branch and added a simple sentiment.  Before I adhered Mr Bluebird with dimensionals, I stamped the background stamp from Touches of Textures with Soft Sky ink to give the impression of sky:

I really like the effect it gives!  And it's quite clean and simple!

Happy to be coloring....not happy to be photographed!  Enjoy your day!

Project Details--All Products SU Unless Otherwise Noted
Stamps	Best Birds, Touches of Texture
Card stock & Papers	Thick White
Ink	Basic Black, Marina Mist, Flirty Flamingo, Tip Top Taupe, Old Olive, Soft Sky
Accessories
Tools	Dimensionals, Big Shot, Birds & Blooms Dies

Stamp Ink Paper 79

Happy Tuesday again, peeps!  If you're looking for my TSOT post, it's here.  Today is my last challenge for the Stamp Ink Paper team, and Justin has a great one for us....forced me out of my Christmas card-making endless loop:

I just got some SAB goodies...yes, it's coming up to that time of the year!  In fact, I have a whole box of goodies that I haven't even delved into yet...too much Christmas going on!  But I did pull out Delicate Details and So Very Much, because I needed a thank-you card for a new customer.  Here we go:

Sweet Sugarplum is such a pretty shade, so I decided to create my card using it as my card base. I stamped the sentiment in white craft ink and embossed it with white embossing powder, then added some details from Awesomely Artistic, stamping right over top of the embossing:

and Delicate Details (LOVE this new set!):

And finally, I stamped a bird from Best Birds on thick white cardstock, diecut it out and added some very loose, light watercoloring with Sweet Sugarplum and Smoky Slate inks and an aquapainter:

I just love this little guy!  I hope you'll play with our challenge this week...I know it's a crazy time of the year but maybe you can squeeze in one more challenge!  Hope to see you at SIP!

We FINALLY got our tree up, although if this tree lasts until December 25, it will be a Christmas miracle.  It drops its needles if you just LOOK at it.  The dustbuster is a permanent fixture, plugged in and ready to use each & every day!  I am almost convinced to go artificial next year!

Of course, I had a helper!

Always clownin' around!

Enjoy your day!

SPDMIU21 and HSS250

Hi peeps!  It's Thursday, and on the downhill slide to the weekend!  I saw a very pretty color combo at Hand Stamped Sentiments, so I combined it with the sketch only from Sugar Pea Designs:

I have barely touched Best Birds OR Dapper Denim since I got them, so I was determined to give them a workout!  So here we go:

I stamped the background circle with the floral image from Awesomely Artistic, then stamped my bird on heavyweight white cardstock in Dapper Denim and diecut it with the Birds and Blooms die.  I usually use a blender pen when coloring images that are not stamped with Stazon, but I used an aquapainter this time and was pleasantly surprised that there was very little bleeding of the ink; just a wee bit, but I love the effect:

I stamped the ferns from both Awesomely Artistic and Butterfly Basics on the card behind the circle in Emerald Envy and Mint Macaron, then added the sentiment banner, also from Butterfly Basics.  A couple of flowers and sequins finished it off.  And here's the inside:

Now, to get this in the mail to a special someone!

Halloween night our church had a Trunk or Treat, where we decorated the trunks of our cars and had families walk around the parking lot and go trick-or-treating.  It was the first time we'd ever done one, and it was a lot of fun!  One young man works for a farm where they host events; these straw critters were part of the decor for one event and were left behind, so he snagged them for his "trunk"!

Cassidy had already done her trick-or-treating over the weekend, so she had a "modified" zombie prom queen costume (it was COLD) and was over-the-top excited to be the one GIVING candy out! She made sure every trick-or-treater had plenty for their bags! She has such a generous heart!

Enjoy your day and thanks for popping in today!