A Watered Garden

It's Wednesday and I'm posting late so I'll keep it short. I managed a bit of crafty time today and made something just because I felt like combining things that I love.Bits and pieces happened to be sitting on my work table! 

Today's card is a simple layout featuring the Halfsies die from The Greetery  and some images I stamped last week when I was on a little vacay. I haven't used ribbon in ages, but this card just needed some softness. 
I love the Scripture about the watered garden. Since it's still kind of rainy, it's a perfect stamp for today.
Thanks so much for coming by! 

Be yourself.

     Find delight in your craft.

             Make something beautiful! 

Supplies used: 

Stamps: PTI - Seasonal Borders: Spring; Garden of Faith

What I Love: Spattering!

Hi, it's Wednesday!

 I LOVE a day to putter - putting things away, doing a chore here and there to get my house in order, but nothing too daunting or pressured by time constraints. My time in the stamp room today involved puttering, and lots of spattering too! 

Sponging a blended background with Distress Oxide inks is one of my favorite techniques but the best part comes when I spatter it with water, then flick on a darker shade of ink, white Acrylic paint, and Gold watercolor. 

I enjoyed pulling out N-B-U-S (never before used stuff) from Neat & Tangled, the Oak Leaf set. I've always loved the mosaic look of this image. I embossed the leaf in gold, then colored it in with Zig markers and fussy cut it out. For shine I whisked the leaf with a clear glitter pen, and placed a nest of gold thread behind it. 

As always, I am grateful that you come to visit my blog. I hope to be back tomorrow! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Neat & Tangled - Oak Leaf

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Tim Holz Distress Watercolor Paper, SU - Chocolate Chip

INK: Versamark, Distress Oxide - Candied Apple, Mustard Seed, Abandoned Coral, Fired Brick

Accessories: White and gold embossing powder, gold thread, Zig markers, White paint, Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors 

What I love: Butterflies and Something NEW!

Good morning, hope you are doing very well this Wednesday morning. Today is the day I share something I created just because I love it! Today's card features butterflies, a new technique and a new stamp set, all things that make me smile. Here we go! 

I knew that the butterflies in the Beautiful Day set were needed in my stamp stash as soon as I saw them. Also love the sentiments in this set as they have large and small fonts and expressions that work well together in many different combinations.  I colored them in with Copics, added a bit of shimmer and paired them with pretty patterned paper for my card front. 

Now for the fun! The new technique is a window pop-up card, as shared HERE by creative artist Jennifer McGuire. Her cards are gorgeous and her videos are amazing. I will want to try this technique again and again, as Jennifer shared several designs. 

Here's the pop up when you open the card.  I sponged ink to create the clouds and added another die cut butterfly. There is a space to the right to add your signature horizontally. 

And here is the whole card opened. I couldn't resist decorating ALL the parts, ha! 

Hope you've enjoyed my post. I've loved reading your sweet comments. Know what else I love?  The wonderful stamping community where we share, learn and encourage one another. Keep smiling, you are simply the BEST! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp - Beautiful Day

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Penny Black - Painted Blooms

INK:Simon Says Stamp - Intense Black, Hero Arts - Soft Pool

Accessories: Wink of Stella, dies, Copic markers

I'm playing with the Wednesday Challenge Simon Says: Make your own background

What I love: Sweet Honey and Bears

Hello stamping friends, how goes it for you?

We've had a couple of rainy days and I've found some cozy time in the stamp studio. 

Hope you don't mind if I share my Wednesday What I LOVE feature a day early. 

I'm happy to share these darling itchy-pawed bears and their helpers from the Curious Friends stamps from W Plus 9 Designs. They are up to some antics today! 

On Bristol Smooth card stock I blended a background using Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Cracked Pistachio. For coloring, I chose my Zig markers, stamping the images and sentiments with black ink and heat embossing. I rounded out the scene with the tree boughs, scalloped circles and a few ink spatters. 

I love the inside of this thank you card the best. It tells a story and has a happy ending. What's not to like about that? 

Hee, hee, sweet and sappy. Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

Thanks for visiting my blog today, I hope you know how much it means to me!

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Playing along with the challenge at Simon Says to use dies or punches.

What I love Wednesday: Watercolor

Hello! Happy Wednesday to you. 

Welcome to my Wednesday blog feature where I get to use something I love, do something I love or share something elegant with you. 

I've been happy as a clam getting to do what I love - watercoloring! Today I'm happy to share the Bouquet: Ranunculus stamp set 

from W PLUS 9. I love butterflies and gold too. 

The wonderful thing about this stamp set is that the flowers have already been arranged for you. They're not too large so they can be stamped more than once on your card front, allowing for different arrangements.

I embossed them in white and colored them with Distress Inks on Ranger Distress Watercolor Paper. I added some shading and a bit of ink spatters to complete the design. I've had this set for way too long and what I love about the blog itinerary is that I set aside time to color it for today's post. And watercoloring to me, is the most restful thing to do! This was my third take on it--Just so you know. 

My only embellishment was a butterfly embossed onto vellum, and the sentiment die cut out of Gold Foil card stock.

In case you didn't notice - NO SEQUINS!  Although I did pull them out and decided to let the florals shine. Alone.  

The Hand-Lettered Hello set has smaller sentiments that I can add on a thin banner under the Hello when I decide who will be receiving this card. 

Thanks as aways, for stopping by. Your kind comments make my day! 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!

Supplies used:

Stamps: Wplus9 - Bouquet Ranunculus, Flora and Fauna, Hand-Letterd Hello

Paper: Neenah Solar White, Ranger Distress Watercolor, vellum, gold foil card stock

INK: Versamark, Distress Inks

Accessories: White Embossing powder, Die: Hello di from WPlus9

What I love Wednesday; He is Risen from W Plus 9

Hello friends, I hope your week has been going well. We are finally getting WARM temps here and I can't wait to get outside for some sunshine! 

Just a brief note of explanation about my blog. It seems on a recent post that I had gotten a bit bogged down. In thinking about it I've realized that I need to focus on the JOY that stamping brings me, and reflect that more often here on my blog. I got this great idea from Leslie Miller, to plan out my stamping itinerary to help keep my focus and to help keep it fun. ( In case you haven't yet discovered Leslie's blog I will invite you to check it out HERE where you will be inspired to learn, laugh, and love her amazing work and happy outlook.) 

Back to the blog planning. I've come up with posting three times weekly with the following themes. 
  
Paperytrey Tuesday - where I share work done for Papertrey challenges

What I LOVE Wednesday - where I share a favorite set or technique, new or old, in my favorite elegant style, using flowers, butterflies or other things I love as elements.

Playday is Thursday or Friday. You can expect simpler cards and my intent is to keep it light, easy, and fun! Fun for me = fun for you. 

For today's card, I fell in love with the He is Risen stamp set from W Plus9 after seeing this 

card by Dawn and decided I must make my Easter cards using it. 

What I absolutely love about this set are the large floral background that covers the whole card front and can be stamped tone on tone, and the fabulous sentiments that speak of my Lord and the real meaning of Easter. Of course there are beautiful lilies to love too!
Here's my card. 

I used PTI card stock in Harvest Gold, stamping the background floral in W Plus 9 Queen Bee ink. Dawn's photo shows this beautiful color much more accurately. The individual flowers were inked onto white card stock and embossed in white. I sponged Distress inks to fill them in with color. 

The pretty banner is called Bold Banner from W Plus 9, and there's a sweet coordinating set of sentiments. I used the MISTI to stamp my sentiment, and curved it a bit to fit the banner. 

How often do I mention that I love SEQUINS? I just felt this card needed some sparkle. I couldn't stop at 3. 

I'd love to hear from you and will take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Easter. Will be back tomorrow or Friday for Play Day. 

For now, I'm off to play outside while the sun is still shining. 

Be yourself

     Delight in your craft 

        Make something beautiful!