Stampin Up, Sailing Away. Festive-Friday#0039

It's all about Lighthouses, that was my choice on the Festive friday challenge. Check out the teams cards and come join in.

 A simple card using the new Sailing Home stamp set.  The water is from the High Tide stamp set, otherwise it's all from the Sailing Home set.

My colors are Night of Navy, Balmy Blue and Whisper White.I sponged on some blue to help with the water and the sky,  otherwise it is all stamped in Night of Navy. 
I hope you got some inspiration from it.

Stampin Up, Freshly Made Sketches # 398-2

So, I really wasn't happy with my FMS card for this week.  I've left it below, but I did a new one here.  Much more to my liking.  Isn't Flirty Flamingo the perfect color for my bird?  Well, guess that might be the reason it's called Flirty Flamingo!  And I used the new incolor Seaside Spray, I just love this color.  I thought when I first saw it, that it would be awful close to Balmy blue, but it has a touch of gray that you can't notice unless you put them together. 

Once again, here is the link to the site so you can see all the other pretties.
And here is the sketch.

I used the colors: Whisper White, Seaside Spray, Mossy Meadow, Flirty Flamingo and Basic gray.   
I also used, Lilly Pad Lake and the matching framelits, Lakeside Framlits and my Aqua Painter, one of my favorite tools. 
Thanks for stopping by.

Stampin up. Freshly made sketches #398, Garden Shed

This graphic is one of 2 small ones in the Garden Shed stamp set.  The main graphic is a large Garden shed.   I look for that as it means the set will be more useful.
So, I am wondering, what sentiment would you put on a card with that large shed image on it?  I'd really like to know, I am dying to color it up and make a card.

So, today my inspiration is a sketch from Freshly made sketches. Find it here:

I have found myself needing more Thinking of you and get well type of cards lately. Lots of friends having surgeries, or getting through stuff.   So, I choose that as my sentiment, and it's from the set Itty Bitty Greetings.
I used my Blends alcohol markers to fill in the pots and flowers.  Those tiny flowers could be difficult, but were really easy with the Blends.
So my colors today are Whisper white, Terracotta Tile, Daffodil Delight  Granny Apple Green and Flirty Flamingo.

Thanks for stopping by.

Garden Shed Cling Stamp Set

$23.00

Corrugated Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

$10.00

Stitched Labels Dies

$33.00

Itty Bitty Greetings Clear-Mount Stamp Set

$36.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Christmas in July, #tgifc221

I haven't played with TGIF for a long time, but it struck my fancy this week.  While waiting around for the Holiday catalog to come out, I found myself making Christmas cards, and they are doing Christmas in July this week.  Here is a link to the challenge.

I actually managed to use mostly current stuff.  The gold doily is not I'm afraid. Maybe in the Holiday catty they will bring it back?  I love them.
The Merry is in a set of Dies that is still current, I love word and phrase dies.  And the image is from Timeless Tidings, which was carried over, it's mostly a sentiment set with 3 smaller images, but really cute ones. 

I also used the new dies from the Free as a bird bundle.   I used Gorgeous Grape, and the new incolor purple posy.  And the leaves are Pear Pizzazz.  I stamped and embossed in gold then just lightly colored in the leaves and made my berries Purple.

I cut 2 sizes of the die and after stamping and coloring the small one, I put them together and added them to the top after embossing the posy with the subtle EF, and adding the doily.  A few rhinestones blinged up the little image.
Then I cut and added the Merry, and that's it.

I hope you enjoyed and got some inspiration from it.

Christmas in July

My upline has been giving us color challenges lately.  I choose to do this one.  Balmy blue, Rich Razzleberry and Pineapple.  

For some reason I was in the mood for Christmas. Maybe it's because the pre order for the Holiday catalog is just around the corner, or because I am seeing so many Christmas in July cards. 

On top of these colors I've added in Silver embossing.  I do love embossing.  I used watercolor paper and stamped and embossed my tree, the using my aqua painter, I picked up some color from my Balmy blue ink pad and squeezed out some water to put down my color.  
I used my scallop die to create the edges, don't ask me how I got just the right size piece to go under the watercolor, I don't know. I had a piece of scrap, die cut on both edges and was going to cut them with enough room to tuck under. However, when done, it fit perfect without cutting. 

So, I stamped some tiny snowflakes on, then die cut some snowflakes and attached them. Then stamped and die cut the piece for the sentiment. 

That was fun, now to wait a couple weeks and I can order some of this years new Holiday goodies. 
Thanks for stopping by. 

Stampin up Friendship card, Festive Friday challenge #0038

I love watercolor, I'm not great at it, but I am learning.  And this embossing folder was a must have.  It did a great job!  I used watercolor paper, spritzed it on both sides, then used my ink pads to pick up color from the pad and laid it down using my Aqua Painter.  I think the Mosaic pattern lends itself so well to this.
So, before I go any further, here is the link to the challenge, and the beautiful cards done by the team.  

I hope you will come on over and give this one a try yourself.

I used some of my very favorite colors, purples and aquas.  In this case, Gorgeous Grape, and Highland Heather along with Coastal Cabana and a bit of Shaded Spruce for my leaves.
The stamp set is Beautiful Friendship. If you haven't noticed this one in the Stampin Up catalog, you might want to give it a look see, it's gorgeous.

I also used the Rectangle stitched dies, and the Stitched nested dies.
I hope this gave you some inspiration today.

Mosaic 3D Embossing Folder

$10.00

Beautiful Friendship Photopolymer Stamp Set

$22.00

Stitched Rectangle Dies

$35.00

Stitched Nested Labels Dies

$35.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Sailing Home Birthday card, Freshly Made Sketches #396

My hubby has a birthday coming up, and he is an ocean lover and a lover of all things patriotic, so this is his card.  I hope he likes it.
I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week for inspiration. Stop by and check out all the fabulous cards from the team. 

I did end up using a lot of colors, Poppy Parade, Seaside Spray, Blueberry Bushel, Pool Party, So Saffron, Flirty Flamingo and White.
I started with a white card base, added a Poppy layer then the Come Sail away DSP.

For the top layer, I started with a piece of watercolor paper.   For my ocean, I used the water die from High Tide.  Once with Seaside Spray, and then again with Pool party, then used my Aqua Painter to blend the colors just a bit.

I then used a very large round brush to pick up some color from my So Saffron ink and brush on, then did the same with the Flirty flamingo, and then the sky lightly with Seaside Spray.  I punched out a piece using the Pretty Label punch, and used one side of that to add more color to the sky for light clouds.  Just brush or sponge lightly along one edge of the punched piece.   I cut and added my rope edges, then stamped and cut my boats and the compass. I used a 1 3/8" round punch to cut out the compass, it fits perfect.

Stamped my sentiment on vellum, TIP: use a 2 way glue pen to glue down vellum, you won't see it and it stays great.
 Thanks for looking.

Sailing Home Cling Stamp Set

$24.00

Smooth Sailing Dies

$32.00

Come Sail Away Designer Series Paper

$11.50

High Tide Photopolymer Stamp Set

$26.00

Pretty Label Punch

$18.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Birthday Card, Cake is the answer, Just add ink #464

I must say, Granny Apple Green is not a color I am fond of. I know many, many people who love it, but at one time I would have told you I didn't really like green at all.   But I have come a long way.  I just love the other green on here, Soft Seafoam, and a couple others, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow to name a couple.
So, before we go any further, here is the link to the challenge and the challenge picture for this week.

Besides the challenge colors, I used this challenge to CASE the catty. Page 64 in the new annual catty, you will see this using the Piece of Cake stamp set.  I have made a few small changes, but the idea is there. I decided to use the Tin Tile embossing folder, and it think it worked very well for me.   Flirty Flamingo is such a pretty color, I went for that option  for my background. An instead of the Rectangle stitched dies, I used one of the new Stitched Nested dies, I think it added a little more fun to the card.
BTW, this card is going out to my daughter for her birthday this month.

I stamped and punched the cakes out using the punch, but then did have a bit of fussy cutting to put them together.  I colored using my Water color pencils, they seem to work very well on smaller spaces.  I used my stamp positioner for the cake topper and it worked great, the topper of flowers sits right on top with no gap.

I also used a retired Galvanized metal paper for the plate.   I just got out whatever greenery I have close by to pop under the die cut piece.  The tiny flowers is a tiny punch, retired, but I have a while bunch of these tiny punches.   You just never know when you will need a tiny flower, or heart or candle ect. I finished off with the little punched flowers, putting silver pearls in the centers.  I think the folded ribbon gave it a nice elegant look.

Piece Of Cake Photopolymer Stamp Set

$17.00

Cake Builder Punch

$18.00

Stitched Rectangle Dies

$35.00

Stitched Nested Labels Dies

$35.00

In The Woods Dies

$33.00

Tin Tile 3D Embossing Folder

$10.00

Watercolor Pencils

$16.00

Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2

$12.50

Metallic Pearls

$7.00

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Healing Vibes, Paper Players challenge #448.

I'm a little late to the party, but I really wanted to join in the Paper Players challenge this week.  I had ideas for the tic tac toe board. 
I thought it would be fun to try out a DSP frame using the Rectangle Stitched Dies.
I used the Subtle embossing folder on my Seaside Spray layer, then added the frames I made. I guess I could have added a whole bunch of flowers, but I tend to like simpler design decisions.
Here is the link to the Paper Players so you can see the challenge and what everyone else did, there are so many beautiful  cards.

  I went for the left side straight down but had across the top as well.

So, I found the 2 sizes of rectangle dies I needed to make the size I wanted, put them on my magnetic platform as even, one inside the other as I could get. The result is a frame with 2 sets of stitching.  I put my ribbon down then layered the frames on top. 
Next I silver embossed the Floral Essence stamped images and punched them out with the punch.
Here is a closer look at the embossing.

You can really see it shine in the photo.   Then I used my Aqua Painter to pick up a bit of color off my ink pad, ( I started with the blue) and mixed with water from the brush in the lid then lightly brushed onto my watercolor paper, silver embossed flowers.  I did the same thing with the Terracotta Tile ink.   I used glue dots to hold the 3 layers together and a dimentional  to attach to the card. 
The butterfly was cut from the retired Botanical Butterfly DSP, sure makes it easy when it's all colored for you.   You can use one of the butterfly stamp sets to stamp and punch out if you don't have the DSP.

Next was the sentiment. I used one from Healing Hugs and used one of the dies from the Stitched Label die set. 
The frames are cut from the new Woven Threads DSP, it's just gorgeous paper!

Thanks for stopping, I hope you enjoyed, if you have questions, please ask in comments and I'll post the answer there as well.