My Prize!

My upline Linda is such a great resource! She holds monthly meetings for us, where she shows us techniques and keeps us all up to date with the latest Stampin' Up! news. She also holds a card swap and provides the prizes for the winners, as well as prizes for having top monthly sales. We loves prizes!

I unfortunately couldn't attend this month, but she has a policy...if you make your required swaps and a doorprize, it counts as if you were actually there. I ended up winning this for having 2nd place in sales...

It's a SU! Water Bottle with goodies inside....a Stamping Sponge, Tombow Adhesive, and a pack of Dimentionals! The ribbon tied around the bottle is from the Theater Ribbon Originals assortment. Thanks, Linda......and more importantly.....Thanks, Ladies!

Birthday Boat Card

I needed a card for our nephew the other day, so I made this using the Boatloads of Love set. Last week I had mentioned how this set coordinates well with the Loads of Love Accessories set. Well, those gifts in the small boat are from the Accessories set...


I drew the largest smoke cloud around the saying...to go with the smaller ones. I used Aqua Painters and Watercolor Wonder Crayons to color the ship, boat, and the presents. I then added Crystal Effects. Here is a close-up....


The Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain ribbon looks a little different, huh. Well, I used my Night of Navy marker to color one white stripe.

Stamp Sets: Boatloads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Card Stock: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Whiper White, Bashful Blue Prints DSP from Hostess Level 1 Prints Pack
Inks: Black Stazon, Night of Navy marker
Accessories: Aqua Painters, Crystal Effects, Dimentionals, Bashful blue Striped Grosgrain ribbon, Watercolor Wonder Crayons-Earth Elements, Bold Brights, Neutrals

Carousel Notes Purse Workshop

Yesterday I had my workshop for the Carousel Notes Purse. It's made using the Carousel Notes from the Occasions Mini catalog.

Here are the girls working away....

I think the table is even more messy than before...

Here are their finished products:

They did such a great job of making their projects. We all had a lot of fun, too.

Thanks, Ladies!

Lavender Glitter Bloomin' Watercolor Card

Here is another version of the Watercolored Bloomin' card. I used the same Watercoloring technique using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Aqua Painters...but this time I added some glitter....

The Watercolor crayon colors I used are:
Flowers: Lavender Lace, Orchid Opulence, Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue
Leaves: Certainly Celery, Garden Green
Flower Pot: Creamy Carmel, Close to Cocoa

I used Crystal Effects on the center of each flower like before....this time I covered it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter to make it sparkle.

The bee is colored using Basic Black and Barely Banana markers and then mounted with a dimentional. The bee's wings were accented with Crystal Effects after I used the glitter...I didn't want glitter on the wings.... Here is a close-up:

The "Bloom" sentimate was stamped with Versamark ink and then covered with Dazzling Diamonds. I then used the Corner Rounder Punch on each corner before mounting with Dimentionals.

Stamp Sets: Bloomin' Beautiful
Card Stock: Lavender Lace, Brocade Blue, Cartainly Celery, Whipser White
Inks: Black Stazon, Versamark, Basic Black marker, Barely Banana marker
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Soft Subtles, Bold Brights, Earth Elements; Aqua Painters; Crystal Effects; Dazzling Diamonds glitter; Corner Rounder Punch; Dimentionals

Happy Memorial Day!

Lavender Bloomin' Watercolor Card

This card is very similar to yesterday's....I was really having fun using my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, I thought I would change the colors. This technique is perfect for this set...it makes the image look very soft.

The Watercolor Wonder Crayon colors I used for the image are:
Flowers: Lavender Lace, Orchid Opulence, Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue
Leaves: Certainly Celery, Garden Green
Flower Pot: Creamy Carmel, Close to Cocoa

I then took my Whisper White 1/4" ribbon and colored it using my Brocade Blue marker for the edges and my Bordering Blue marker for the center. Can't tell it started out White, huh...

For the bottom of the card, I repeatedly stamped the Blossom definition stamp over and over using Versamark ink. Then on a scrap piece of Brocade Blue CS, I stamped the definition image in Night of Navy ink. I used the Corner Rounder Punch before mounting it with Dimentionals.

The Bee is colored using Basic Black and Barely Banana markers and mounted using a dimentional. I again used Crystal Effects on the center of each flower and the bee's wings. Here is close-up:

Stamp Sets: Bloomin' Beautiful
Card Stock: Lavender Lace, Brocade Blue, Whisper White
Inks: Black Stazon, Versamark, Night of Navy stamp pad, Basic Black marker, Barely Banana marker, Brocade Blue marker, Bordering Blue marker
Accessories: Whisper White 1/4" Grossgrain ribbon; Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Soft Subtles, Bold Brights, Earth Elements; Crystal Effects; Dimentionals; Corner Rounder Punch

I have one more example of this technique using the same set....

Pink Bloomin' Watercolor Card

Earlier this week I had Jury Duty .....but I took some stamping supplies to keep myself busy. I am glad to say my civic duty has been filled for the next year, and I didn't even have to see the inside of a court room! Yea!

While I was there, I stamped and colored a few images, but until today hadn't gotten the chance to mount them onto card stock. I made these cards using my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and my Aqua Painters. I have only gotten to use the crayons a couple times so I was excited to really get to experiment with them.

The Watercolor crayons come in sets by Stampin' Up!'s color families. I used colors from the Soft Subtles, Earth Elements, and Bold Brights families. Here are the specific colors I used:
Flowers: Pretty In Pink, Pixie Pink, Blush Blossom, Pumpkin Pie
Leaves: Certainly Celery, Garden Green
Flower Pot: Creamy Carmel, Close to Cocoa

The bumble bee was colored in using Basic Black and Barely Banana markers. I then used Crystal Effects to accent the bee's wings as well as the center of each flower. The "Warm Wishes" sentimate was stamped with Versamark ink and covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Here is a close-up:


Since I had made two images, I did the second one a little differently. The layout and colors are all the same execpt for the sentimate was covered with Fine Cosmo glitter in Celery.


Stamp Sets: Bloomin' Beautiful, Hugs & Wishes
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Apricot Appeal, Pretty In Pink, Whisper White
Inks: Black Stazon, Versamark, Basic Black marker, Barely Banana marker
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons: Soft Subtles, Bold Brights, Earth Elements; Crystal Effects; Aqua Painters; Dimentionals; Key Tag Punch; Stampin' Glitter: Dazzling Diamonds or Fine Cosmo in Celery

I have another version of this card to show you later on using different colors....

Summer Picnic Pocket

I made these cute pockets using DSP for my Demonstrator meeting a couple of weeks ago for my doorprize....


I made them using two different patterns from the Summer Picnic DSP pack. To make the fruit, I stamped each image using Old Olive and Real Red markers. Then using the Tombow glue, I attached Green and Red beads from the Bead Duos.

Here is a close-up of the beads:

I put some Strawberry Whoppers, to go with the strawberry embellishment, in a small cellophane bag and tied closed with Bashful Blue Stripped Grosgrain ribbon to finish it...

I actually kept the cherry pocket for myself...I just thought it was too cute to give away.

Stamp Sets: Tart & Tangy
Card Stock: Summer Picnic DSP, Whisper White, scrap Old Olive, Bashful Blue & Real Red
Inks: Old Olive marker, Real Red marker
Accessories: Tombow Glue, Green Bead Duo, Red Bead Duo, Dimentionals, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Punch
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Something Fishy Gel Card

I made this card for last month's Demostrator meeting. We had to make 21 swaps! Wow! I guess it's not as bad as the 30 for last month...

I had so much fun making this... I used the Something Fishy Jumbo Wheel inked with Versamark ink. TIP: You might be wondering how I got a Versamark Jumbo wheel cartridge....well, I took a uninked jumbo cartridge and used my Versamark re-inker to ink it up. You ink the uninked cartridges the same way you would re-ink your stamp pads. Also, I always wait an hour for the ink to soak-in....that way you won't end up with "pools" of ink.

To make the "water", I filled an empty 3" x 4" craft ziplock bag with blue hair gel. I used L.A. Looks because I liked the color, but any brand will work....and the bags are found in the jewerly section of any craft store. I put about 2-3 Tbsp of gel in each bag...you want to be able to see the color, but don't want the bag to be hard to zip closed.

The bag is attached to the mat using Sticky Strip and then I used dimentionals to adhere the front wheeled image to the card mat.

Here's a close-up of the water-effect showing the fish "swimming" behind it...

I used the fish and bubbles images from the coordinating stamp set, Life's a Breeze to stamp on the Whisper White card stock in Night of Navy ink.

The sun, also from Life's a Breeze, was stamped in Versamark ink and then dirrectly in YoYo Yellow ink. I then covered the sun image with clear embossing powder and used my heat tool to emboss. It made the sun really pop, although you can't tell so much in the picture...


Stamp Sets: Life's a Breeze, Something Fishy Jumbo Wheel
Card Stock: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Whisper White
Inks: Versamark, Night of Navy, YoYo Yellow
Accessories: Jumbo Wheel Handle, Jumbo Wheel cartridge inked with Versmark, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Sticky Strip, Dimentionals
Non-SU! Accessories: 3"x4" craft ziplock bag, Blue hair gel

Have a great day!

Lavendar Bloomin' Hydrangeas

Here is the final card given to our Moms. It is made using the Bloomin' Beautiful set in the Occasions Mini.



I stamped the image with Stazon ink and the outlined the image using the Metallic Art Pencils. If you have never tried the Metallic pencils, this is a fun technique perfect for them.

After I outlined the image using the Metallic pencils, I used a Q-tip dipped in a small amount Baby Oil to "color" the image in. The chemical properties of baby oil have a similar effect on the Metallic pencils as glamsol would...but no bad odor! (...and if you don't like baby powder smell....they now have baby oil that is lavendar scented!)

Here are some important tips for this technique:

• Don't use a lot of baby oil on the Q-tip....it will bleed through the paper. Watercolor paper can be used, but the image doesn't come out looking as detailed.
• Use a different Q-tip "end" for each color....if not, the colors will mix on the image.
• The more pencil used when outlining, the darker/bolder the finished product will be.
• Baby Oil will work the same way for the Pure Color pencils as well. However, it does not work for the watercolor pencils.

Also, I use an empty plastic tealight holder to put the baby oil in while I'm using it. It's perfect for a very small amount and easily washes out with soap.

I used the folowing Metallic pencil colors on the image:

1. Charteuse - Leaves and the "shadow"
2. Lilac - Petals
3. Pink - Petals
4. Champagne - Petals
5. Bronze - Flower Pot

Also, on the Whisper White ribbon, I used my Pale Plum marker to color the edges of the ribbon. You can do this with any of the ribbon colors. It is a great way to personalize your ribbon.

Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful, Holidays & Wishes
Card Stock: Pale Plum, Lavendar Lace, Whisper White
Inks: Black Stazon,Pale Plum marker
Accessories: Whisper White ribbon, Metallic art pencils
Non-SU! Accessories: Q-tips, Baby Oil

Once you try this technique, you will see how easy it is and how wonderful your projects come out.

Boat For You Card

This is the third card we gave to our Moms for Mother's Day. I used the set Boatloads of Love. Such a cute set...and it coordinates very well with the Loads of Love Accessories Set. Any of the "loads" that were intended for the pick-up truck, fit perfect in the small boat image.


The boat was colored in using Stampin' Write markers and a blender pen. TIP: "Color" some of the ink onto your stamp box, wax paper, or any other similar surface; then "pick-up" the ink with your blender pen. After, you can simply wipe-up the leftover ink with a damp cloth. This will eliminate that awful worn paper problem that occurs when trying to pull color straight from the paper.

Here you can see how I used dimentionals under the smoke clouds. To make the clouds, I stamped the "I'm pulling for you" image twice on Bashful Blue CS, then I stamped the cloud over "for" and over "you"....you have to use one cloud per each image since the clouds would overlap otherwise...


Since I was making two cards...one for each Mom, I used different patterns of the Hostess DSP Print Pack in Bashful Blue. The card with the slightly darker DSP needed something else, so I sponged Night of Navy ink all along the outside border. Here you can see the difference:

Stamp Sets: Boatloads of Love
Card Stock: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Hostess DSP Prints Pack-Bashful Blue Inks: Black Stazon, Real Red marker, Night of Navy marker, Bashful Blue marker, Going Grey marker, Basic Grey marker
Accessories: Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimentionals, Stamping Sponges

Have a great Day!