Bear Hugs And Lake Fish

I have a few family members who are keen fishers, so I am always happy to see a fishing related stamp set.

We have a lake nearby, so this sentiment was also very fitting for the recipient of this card. I created a bit of a lake scene, and got what I thought was a brilliant idea for waves on the lake made using a die from the Cups & Kettles framelits die set. Both the bear & the fish were stamped on watercolour paper and watercoloured using the aquapainter and ink from the inkpads. The fish was done with very diluted Night Of Navy ink, and the light areas on the bear are Tip Top Taupe, with Early Espresso for the darker areas.

Bear Hugs clear-mount stamp set & Bear Hugs framelits dies bundle 140823, Night Of Navy A4 cardstock 106577, Very Vanilla A4 cardstock 106550, Island Indigo A4 cardstock 124390, Tip Top Taupe A4 cardstock 138343, watercolour paper 122959, Basic Black archival stamp pad, Night Of Navy stamp pad 126970, Tip Top Taupe stamp pad 138325, Early Espresso stamp pad 126974, Cups & Kettles framelits dies 140624, Large Numbers framelits dies 140622, Aquapainter 103954, dimensionals 104430

Rose Wonder Birthday

I hope you haven't been getting sick of all the Rose Wonder/Rose Garden cards, but I've had so much fun playing with them. I do promise though that this will be the last for a while. I thought it only fitting that I used Watermelon Wonder for a Rose Wonder card.

I really am loving Tip Top Taupe as another neutral colour to use. I find it so fascinating how seemingly small differences in colour can affect the overall look of a colour combination - as well as how much of each colour you use!

Once again I cut the rose twice and trimmed one of the pieces down so it was just the flower part, and mounted that right on top of the full piece. The fine tip glue pen is fantastic for jobs like this.

And of course I couldn't call this card complete without some Wink Of Stella.

Rose Wonder stamp set & Rose Garden thinlits dies bundle 140804, Pear Pizzazz A4 cardstock 131290, Tip Top Taupe A4 cardstock 138343, Pool Party A4 cardstock 124391, Watermelon Wonder A4 cardstock 138341, Watermelon Wonder stamp pad 138323, Tip Top Taupe Dotted Lace trim 138422, clear Wink Of Stella glitter brush 141897, Fine-tip glue pen 138309, dimensionals 104430

English Garden Birthday

I've done a string of cards using the small rose die from the Rose Garden thinlits, so I felt it was high time I set the large rose and leaves die to work.

I liked the effect of the inside parts of the rose being card cut from the large flowers of patterned paper that I did on my last card, so thought I would replicate that with this larger rose. It was a little harder to find a flower on the paper large enough when I wasn't working with full sheets, but happy with how this came out. This time I decided to do the same method for the leaves as well, though the patterned paper I used for them was just an all over pattern and not leaves themselves. The rose and leaves are all part of one large die, so I cut it out in Blushing Bride cardstock and trimmed that down to just the flower part and layered that over a full die cut that I did in Lost Lagoon. I created the sentiment piece using the same method as on my last card, layered over a full string of Blushing Bride sequin trim.

You've probably already guessed that I once again went over the rose with the Wink Of Stella glitter brush. Love that shimmer!

I loved the colour combination I used on the Valentine's card that I had to give it another whirl

Lost Lagoon is among the 2014-2016 In Colors that will soon be retiring in lead up to the launch of the new catalogue and a new group of In Colors, and I'm going to be so sad to see it go! If you have some favourite 2014-2016 In Colors and you haven't already thought to stock up on cardstock and get a reinker to extend the life of your stamp pad now is the time to do it and beat the rush. Once those colours are listed as retiring they are then only available while stocks last and tend to get snapped up pretty quick.

Rose Wonder stamp set & Rose Garden thinlits dies bundle 140804, Lost Lagoon A4 cardstock 133686, Soft Sky A4 cardstock 131292, Blushing Bride A4 cardstock 131287, Tip Top Taupe A4 cardstock 138343, Whisper White A4 cardstock 106549, English Garden designer series paper 138440, Lost Lagoon stamp pad 133644, clear Wink Of Stella glitter brush 141897, Blushing Bride sequin trim 138400, Fine-tip glue pen 138309, dimensionals 104430

Balloon Valentines

It's coming up to that time of year again... when I think "what kind of card can I make that is obviously Valentine's but not over the top". Yep, I've got one of those people in my life. There have been times he's been dubbed "Mr Brown Paper Bag". Anyway I did go with some pink and some lace, let's see if it gets any comment from him!

I went with a very simple design, because... well, "Mr Brown Paper Bag" and all! Even though I was thinking "Love Is In The Air" with the heart balloon, I thought adding that sentiment from the stamp set would busy the layout a bit too much. With all the product coordination that Stampin' Up! have it was almost odd to hand-cut the balloon out.

Now I certanly think this is quite a pretty colour combination, but I think I played down the pretty factor enough for this, hehehehe.

Balloon Builders stamp set 140645,  Lost Lagoon A4 cardstock 133686, Soft Sky A4 cardstock 131292, thick Whisper White A4 cardstock 140490, Blushing Bride stamp pad 131172, Tip Top Taupe dotted lace trim 138422, Whisper White Bakers Twine 124262, dimensionals 104430

Lighthearted Christmas

We still have a month left of the Holiday catalogue, but the items on the Holiday catalogue retiring list are only available while stocks last. Today I am sharing a card using two of the retiring sets, Santa's Gifts and Lighthearted Leaves.

If it hasn't been said enough before, I'm adding another voice to the chorus: Lighthearted Leaves is such a versatile set! While the set comes with sentiments, the leaf images can easily be used for a wider variety of occasions. For this card I have used one of the images as mistletoe. For something different, I wanted the outline to be Smoky Slate. So the colour wouldn't run, I stamped the image in  Smoky Slate first, then stamped over the top with VersaMark and then embossed the image with clear embossing powder. One of the great things about photo-polymer stamps, as this set is, is being able to see through and see exactly where you are stamping. This is a little complicated when you are stamping with VersaMark as you can't see the clear ink! So to make it all easier, the Smoky Slate image was stamped with the assistance of the Stamp-a-ma-jig, which I left in place while cleaning the stamp and reinking with VersaMark. By keeping the Stamp-a-ma-jig in position when stamping both images it makes it even easier to have things line up exactly.

Todays colours are...

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Mojo Monday 401

It's been a very long time since I played along with a sketch challenge, this week I finally got back into that swing of things with the Mojo Monday sketch.

When my order from the new catalogue arrived last week I immediately noticed that one of the stamps from the Watercolor Wings could fit on some of the butterflies of the Fluttering embossing folder. I thought this sketch would suit highlighting that, so the rest of the card fell into place around that focal point. To really emphasise the butterfly I sponged some Pink Pirouette ink over the raised butterfly.

Here are the colours I played with for this card:

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Taupe Is Tops

One of the new In Colours I haven't shared yet is Tip Top Taupe. Browns often get a bad rap, but Taupe really is a lovely grey-brown shade. This card is pretty straight forward, with the pattern stamped on cardstock in the matching colour then punched out with the 1 3/4" scallop circle, and the sentiment stamped on Whisper White with Taupe and cut out with a cricle die. To dress it up a little each "flower" has a rhinestone.

And here are today's colours:

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