Coming Up Roses

Well, here it is - Friday night and I'm sitting home writing on my blog. Something's wrong with this picture. Or maybe not. My hubby is home, out in the garage doing some sorting, throwing out, and/or putting away. And I've been stamping in my dungeon. Hmmm... I guess all is right in my little world. Hey, I never said we had an exciting life, just a good one!

Recently I've been seeing so many people playing with this watercolor technique. It is so very beautiful in person, and very addicting when you start making the roses. Yes, I made a whole bouquet of roses then it came time to put them on cards. Oh my! What fun! I'm only posting 4 of the cards, and each one is a little different. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I kept tweaking as I went along.

They all use the same basic style of card with the Eyelet Border Punch along the right edge. And the card bases were either Pretty in Pink or Pink Pirouette. I liked the pink shades with all the colors of roses I did. One has a layer of vellum. Three different ribbons were used ( Grosgrain, Striped Organza, and Satin). Some used sentiments on them, some didn't.

The leaves were stamped on either Mellow Moss or Sage Shadow cardstock with a little watercolor to give them depth. One has the lovely white striped paper from Taste of Textiles Designer Paper. There were rhinestone brads used and some paper piercing also. Like I said, no two were alike. It was just a fantabulous garden of roses. Ahhhh, I can almost smell them!

Stamps and materials all by Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral

Cardstock: Shimmery White with possibly Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Sage Shadow, Mellow Moss, Vellum Paper, or Taste of Textiles DSP

Ink: White Craft with possibly Cameo Coral, Regal Rose, or Basic Black pads, with Sage Shadow, Mellow Moss, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Cameo Coral, and Summer Sun re-inkers

Accessories: Heat tool, Clear Embossing Powder, AquaPainter, Eyelet Border Punch, with possibly Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Rhinestone Brads, Crafters Tool Kit, Scallop Border Punch, 5/8" White Satin Ribbon, White Organza Ribbon, White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Snips, and Dimensionals.

Whew! Can you imagine the mess I had on my worktable by the time I finished with all of these gorgeous flowers? Well, let's just say it took a good long while to get everything back where it belonged. Oh, but it was so worth it and so much fun. If you'd like to learn this technique, I'd love to show you. How about booking a workshop for you and your friends and you can make your own rose garden! Just contact me and we'll have a blast with these.

Hugs,

Sharon

Ice Cream Social Time

It's almost that time of year when our church always has it's Ice Cream Social to say thank you to all the neighborhood folks that deal with all the traffic and parking all year long. And you certainly can't have an Ice Cream Social without quarts and quarts of strawberries to put on the ice cream! So I seem to have strawberries on the brain lately. That's what led to making this card in celebration the the sweet, luscious and juicy strawberry. Yummmmm!

Since we have the darling little Tart and Tangy stamp set, this seemed the perfect time to use it. I thought about just stamping and cutting out a whole pile of strawberries, but wasn't in the mood for all that cutting. Instead, I got out all the punches and punched my way to strawberry oblivion! LOL

All stamps and materials used are Stampin' Up!
Stamps: Tart and Tangy, Full of Life, and Really Retro
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, and Riding Hood Red
Ink: Basic Black pad and Ruby Red, Certainly Celery Markers
Accessories: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Designer Label Punch, Flower Fusion Too, Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Styled Vanilla Hodgpodge Hardware, and Dimensionals


It was fun adding the strawberry accent inside the card too. I thought that really added to the overall fun look of the card.
Now after working with all these strawberries, I've really got a taste for some and wish I had them in the house. They'd be great for a little snack or a side with dinner. Hmmm, guess I need to go back to the fruit and veggie market! (I was just there 2 hours ago, but forgot to buy any of these little juicy treasures!) Boo Hoo!
Oh well, I'll dream on and try to quit drooling all over my card!
Have a pleasant stampin' day,
Sharon

Balloons, and More Balloons

Last week Thursday was my scheduled downline meeting. Our swap was to be a pop-up or pop-out type of card. After trying several ideas and not having much luck with them, I finally tried an idea using the Window Sheets that are featured in the Occasions Mini Catalog. I wasn't sure how they would stand up to embossing, but they worked beautifully! The idea was to have lots of balloons floating when the card was opened. Here's what I did...

This is the closed card, almost on the plain side. Very circumspect, understated, and proper. The cardstock is Brocade Blue with a layer of Walk In The Park DSP. I only added one balloon to the cardfront to give a hint of what's to come. Then I added a half sheet of white cardstock to the inside. It has an extra fold in the crease so I could attach the window sheet balloons.

Can you see the difference between the stamped and colored ballons on the white cardstock, and the window sheet balloons that I colored, embossed, and cut out?? It's really fun when the card opens and these extra balloons are just floating there!

I ended up using just blues and greens for the card so it could be a little more on the masculine side, but could really be given to anyone. It was interesting playing around with this to get the look I wanted. Now I'll have to try this idea again with other stamps. Maybe butterflies or snowflakes!

All stamps and materials by SU!

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes, On Your Birthday, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, and Celebrate Everything

Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Whisper White and Walk In The Park Designer Series Paper

Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, and Always Artichoke pads, and Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, and Always Artichoke Markers

Accessories: AquaPainter, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Window Sheets, Always Artichoke Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon, Paper Snips, Dimensionals, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch

Well, that's about it for today. For those of you downline that didn't make it to the meeting, you missed out on some wonderful swaps...

Have a great week,

Sharon

Mojo Monday # 88

Hey, I'm trying something new! I've never used one of the Mojo Monday sketches to plan a card before. This is the first, maybe of many. We'll see. I was surprised how easily the card came together when I had a sketch to plan the layout. I wanted to use the Walk In The Park Designer Series Paper because I love the prints in this kit. So, TA DA! Here it is...


What do you think? You can see the sketch here.
It was really fun to plan a card around someone's sketch with no restrictions on stamp set or colors, or anything.
All stamps and materials by SU!
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes and Absolutely Fabulous
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Basic Gray, Whisper White, and Walk In The Park DSP
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Baja Breeze, Sage Shadow, So Saffron, and Regal Rose
Accessories: Vintage Mini Brads, AquaPainter, Big Shot, Pennant Die, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, and Baja Breeze Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

Isn't it great having Designer Papers that all coordinate together? Just mix and match the prints to get the look you want! Sometimes it's hard to choose which ones I want to use! Such a difficult problem to have. I wish all my problems could be so difficult! LOL

The scalloped circle behind the little bird used the Pennant Die. None of the other scalloped circle dies or punches I had were the right size but this one is perfect. Love having all these tools so I can find just the right one to use.

So why don't you give this Mojo Monday sketch a try and have fun with your stamping today.

Hugs,

Sharon

Birthday Card deux

Happy Memorial Day to you! I trust as you are celebrating this day with familly and friends, you take time out to honor our Veterans and thank God for our many freedoms. We've been so blessed in this country. But we need to remember that freedom isn't free, and we need to stand up and be counted on to do what is right for our families and our country.

Ok, you came by to see what I've been working on lately. Well, since I still needed a card for my brother's birthday, it was back to the drawing board for me. I stuck with the same set and still used some hemp twine, but that's about where the similarities end. I went lighter and brighter for this 2nd go-round. What do you think? Better???

I have no idea if he golfs or not, but I thougtht this looked more like my brother. He's pretty happy-go-lucky and has a sunny disposition, so this seemed to fit him so much better. Hope he likes it!

All stamps and materials by SU!

Stamps: And Many Mower

Cardstock: Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Garden Green, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper, and Rainbow Sherbet DSP

Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Garden Green, Blush Blossom, Going Gray Pads, and Tempting Turquoise , Garden Green, Basic Black, and So Saffron Markers

Accessories: AquaPainter, Scallop Circle Punch, Slit Punch, Lg. Star Punch, Large Oval Punch, Cutter Kit, Crop-a-dile, Sponge quarter, Dimensionals, and Bold Brights Eyelet (retired), and Green Hemp Twine(retired)

And, no, I don't get rid of too many things that are retired. As you can see, you never know when they might be needed!
Did you notice where I used the scallop circle punch? You might have to really look hard now - it's a template for the clouds I sponged in with Tempting Turquoise ink. Can you see it now? Unfortunately, one of the retired things I did pass on to others was the cloud template. What was I thinking? Duh! There are times you just have to have clouds to make it look right. And this was one of them.

Anyway, after all the effort on the card front, it needed something fun inside the card too. So what goes with golfing? The 18th hole of course. I was going to make it the 19th hole, but that wouldn't fit him either! The flag is one leg of the star punch in turquoise cardstock and a skinny strip of black cardstock all grounded on a large oval of Garden Green. Whew, this card sure used lots of punches and accessories. And my hubby wants to know if I really need everything that's down here in my stamping dungeon. Of course! Like a scout, you should always be prepared! (and boy, am I prepared! LOL)

Have a wonderful day today!

Sharon

Super Saturday

Yes, it's Saturday already. Boy the week sure went fast. I just blinked and missed a few days! How did that happen? Thursday was my downline meeting. I'm kind of upset, so I'm not goingto talk about that at all.

A good thing that's coming up is my baby brother's birthday. I worked on a card for him this week, but I'm not sure I'll be sending it. Looking at it, I feel it just doesn't fit him. He does love working in his yard, but this just isn't right for him. I'm going to have to work on another one so I can get it in the mail on Tuesday.

I love this new set "And Many Mower" for men. The images are fun and the sentiments included in the set work great. This card just doesn't work for my brother - Butchie boy. (Oh he'd kill me if he read my blog - nobody has called him Butch for 30 years!) Anyway, on with the info for you...

All stamps and materials by SU!

Stamps: Any Many Mower

Cardstock: Old Olive, Baroque Burgundy, More Mustard, and Very Vanilla

Ink: Basic Brown

Accessories: 1/2" Circle Punch, Crafters Tool Kit, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, AquaPainter, Earth Elements Mini Brads, Natural Hemp Twine, Sponge quarter, and Dimensionals.

I really enjoyed making this card, and I know someone will be getting it for a birthday. Just not this month, and not my brother! Oh well, back to the drawing board. I've got to get something made for him and in the mail soon.

Hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed making it!

Have a terrific Memorial weekend. And take time out to remember our fallen veterans and pray for our many veterans at home and abroad. They put their lives on the line so we could enjoy our freedoms. Let's not forget their sacrifices! Let Freedom Ring!

Blessings,

Sharon

Wacky Wrinkled Wednesday

What's that you ask? Weeelllll, the day has been wacky, and I'm feeling kinda old and wrinkled.

No, that's not really what I meant. Well, the wacky part is true, but I had something else in mind when I mentioned wrinkled. I was talking about the technique called faux silk. I haven't made anything with the technique in a long time. Today is the day to bring this technique off the bench and put it in the limelight. Ta Da!

What's that? Oh, you don't know what faux silk is? It's a quick and easy technique that's fun and anybody can do. Even kids!

All you need is some tissue paper for stamping on instead of cardstock and your regular stamping supplies. After you stamp the tissue paper, you crumple it all up into a ball. Then carefully open it up and slightly smooth it out. Next you cover a piece of light colored cardstock with glue stick and gently smooth the tissue paper onto the cardstock without losing all the wrinkles. Then you trim around the cardstock to get rid of any excess tissue paper hanging off the edges. Easy, right?

All stamps and materials by SU!

Stamps: Embrace Life and Matchbox Messages (new)

Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Ink: Basic Brown, Baja Breeze pads, and Certainly Celery marker

Accessories: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Glue Stick, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Crafters Tool Kit, Dimensionals, and Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware Kit (retired)

I just love the look of this technique. Whenever you want to give a card the look of oriental elegance, just get out your wrinkled tissue paper and start stamping. Give it a try. This might just become your new favorite technique.

Enjoy your wrinkled Wednesday!

Hugs,

Sharon

What's Going On??

All right, I'm pulling my hair out here! (and I don't have enough as it is!!) What's with my camera? I figured out that my lemon-lime looking YoYo Yellow Sunday was the result of my camera, not the computer. And it's doing it again today! Yikes!! Put the hands down, Sharon, and don't touch the hair. Calm down, maybe somebody knows what I can do to make this right. HELP! Here, see what I mean? These colors are Kiwi Kiss - that's OK. And Lovely Lilac. What,

you say it doesn't look like that to you? Hmmm, it doesn't look even close to that here either. Looks like it could be Brocade Blue maybe. What's going on??? I obviously need some help here. Rick is out of town and I'm on my own. What should I do? Quit posting?? Nah, that's not a good idea. Any help out there?????

All stamps and materials used by SU!

Stamps: Just Buzzin' By and Happy Everything

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Lovely Lilac, Very Vanilla, and Walk in the Park DSP (don't cha luv it?)

Ink: Basic Brown pad and So Saffron Marker

Accessories: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Scallop Circle Punch, Designer Label Punch, Vanilla and Kiwi Satin Ribbon, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Flower Fusion, PearlEx (retired), AquaPainter, and Dimensionals

Whew, what a lot of punches and pretties! I'm so glad we have these punches so putting this together was easy. Can you imagine cutting out all those pieces? Not a chance!

I don't think you can see the PearlEx on the bees' wings. I first colored very lightly with ink the shading for the wings, then added the PearlEx over that. If the light hits them just right you can see them shimmer. How cute! They are so adorable anyway, it's just fun to color them.

I hope you enjoy today's offering and find some time to create and enjoy life. And if you have any idea what my problem is with colors, please let me know what I'm doing wrong. Thanks!

Bee Happy!

Sharon

It's A Blue Monday

Actually, I'm not blue, the card for today is! Hope you're having a great week so far. It's another glorious day here, and I'll be out running errands soon. I just know me too well, and if I don't post now while it's on my mind, who knows when I'll get around to it. LOL

So here it the latest creation - I won't say the greatest too. It's too simple for that adjective. This card is pretty straight-forward in the layout and execution. I just want to mention a couple items of interest for you. If you notice on the flowers, the center one was done with the "rock'n'roll" technique, but not the outer two. Those were stamped with just the Bashful Blue, then I added a little tone-on-tone watercoloring to give them more depth. Otherwise, they look so flat and boring. All of the flowers were poppped up with Dimensionals, the center one with two layered on top of each other to bring it even higher.

All stamps and materials by SU!

Stamps: Dream A Little (Hostess set) and On Your Birthday

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Whisper White, and Maine Blueberry (retired)

Ink: Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue

Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals, 2-Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Aqua Painter, Paper Snips, Bashful Blue 1/2" Striped Grosgrain, and 1/4" Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon.

As you can see, this card was very easy to make with the right tools. The Stamp-a-ma-jig made quick work of lining up the outline stamp onto the solid-image. I like the white edges around the flower as it almost gives it the look of another layer without the weight of it.

The most time-consuming part of the card was cutting out the 3 flowers. And that really wasn't hard at all, because the flowers aren't very intricate. All in all, I like the effect of it all together and hope my sister will too.

Have a happy week and come back soon.

Sharon

Lovely Sunday

Oh, what a beautiful day this turned out to be! Yes, there's sunshine and breezes, and it just makes me feel good all over. I spent some time downstairs stamping today. It really was hard to tear myself away from the sunshine and go to my dungeon, but there was a card I needed to do today. After finishing and taking pictures of it twice and downloading to the computer, I debated about even posting this one. I hope it looks better on your screen than it does on mine. How does YoYo Yellow turn into a weird lime green? Yech! IRL it really is a bright sunshiney yellow. Hope it brightens your day no matter what color it is on my computer screen!

All stamps and materials by SU! of course!

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes

CS: YoYo Yellow, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, and Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper

Ink: Basic Gray

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Cutter Kit, Crafters Tool Kit, and a retired Neutral Button

When the card was done except for the button, it just needed something else. So that's why a retired button was used. None of the brads, eyelets, or whatever other goodies I tried seemed to work just right.

And did you notice the 'ribbon' in the button? It's a teeny piece of white cardstock tied through the holes just like a ribbon. I thought it was the perfect accent for the card.

Again, let me wish you a wonderful, restful Sunday. And may your week be blessed with much fun and many creative moments.

Hugs,

Sharon

Slow Going...

Yep, that's me right now. I'm so impatient to get thoroughly back to normal that this recovery process is frustrating. I thought I'd bounce back so much quicker, but it is taking awhile. I actually have been spending time down in the dungeon, but most of the work I've been doing is like Laundry (ewww), deleting junk emails and getting caught up on the real ones, and a little housecleaning around my stamps. I know, if you looked around here, you'd never believe that last little bit, but it really is true. I'd been on a stamping frenzy getting ready for class this week(which never actually happened!), so things were rather scattered about the table. And that last was an understatement by far! :) Anyway, I needed a card and it seems I never have just the right card sitting around finished. Now I wonder, why is that? So I put on my thinking cap and made a new card yesterday. Oh, it's great to be stamping again!!! The feel of wood and rubber, the thump of stamp on paper, the ribbons and other pretties. Ahhh..... Maybe that's what's been wrong this week - stamping withdrawals! Ha! I knew there was a reason for this weakness I've been experiencing lately! Better bring on the stamps!!!

Oh my... After all that, this is the card I made yesterday. It's fairly simple, but sweet just like the person it's meant for. There couldn't be a sweeter person out there.
All stamps and materials by SU!
Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Old Olive Markers
Accessories: Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbons, Large Oval Punch, and Sponge quarters.
Looking at this card before it went out in the mail today, I think I should make a few more of these to have on hand. It really is pretty, even if I have to say so myself. Maybe I'll get a couple more made while it's still fresh on my mind.
Have a super Saturday!
Sharon

Oh, what a scare!

Yes, there really is a good reason I haven't been posting here lately. Seems I had some minor medical excitement last week. I'd been going along just fine, minding my own business, when my BP medicine ganged up on me and lowered my pulse rate to about 1/2 of what it should have been. Woooo-weeee! That just got my doctors' attentions and was promptly sent to the ER. There after some xrays and much blood-taking on their part, it was decided I might have had a small heart attack.
OK now, that really set everybody in motion around me! My family was called in and the staff liked me so much they decided to keep me around for awhile. They didn't tell me what they had in mind though. After about 1 hour of sleep that night (don't go to a hospital for any rest, I tell ya!), I was informed that I was scheduled for a Echo-Cardiogram and a Heart Catheterization for noon. Well, that just made my day. It's always fun to try out new procedures that I've never had before. Anyway, because of my lack of sleep the night before, I slept right through the whole thing! So much for gaining any new knowledge! I was really curious about what it'd be like. Oh well, missed that one!
Anyway, after everything was said and done, it looks like it wasn't as nasty a situation as they thought, thank God! They changed my meds all around and we're doing a trial run on this next batch. Hope they work, 'cuz I really could do without a repeat of the past week.
And that means I haven't been doing any stamping at all. But.... I did stamp the two days before all the excitement, so I'll show you some of what I finished, OK?


I had been using different products to watercolor lately to see how they handle differently and how they look. This little girl was colored with the Watercolor Wonder Crayons on Watercolor Paper. I gotta tell ya, this combo is just fabulous to work with!! The colors are so moveable on the WC paper that I thought I was in heaven!
All materials by SU! unless noted otherwise.
Stamps: A Kind Word
Paper: Mellow Moss, Pale Plum, Very Vanilla, Perfect Plum, and Watercolor Paper
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch, Watercolor Wonder Crayons (at least from every set), Aqua Painter, Mellow Moss 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Clip Assortment, Flower Brad, Ice Rhinestone Brad, and my new Classic Scalloped Nestabilities that my friend Madeline gave me for my birthday last month.

Isn't she just the cutest little girl? She's coming your way today with my apologies for laying around for so long and not keeping up with my posting duties. I hope you enjoy her. She reminds me alot of my daughter when she was a little girl - so sweet and generous.
Now that I'm getting my energy back, I'm hoping to spend time again with my poor neglected stamps. I never knew I'd miss my stamping dungeon so much! But I've just about depleted my energy for now. On to rest and the recovery!
Sharon