Daisy Bouquet Birthday Card

Hi everyone! Back today for another share. This time I made a more conservative birthday card for a good friend/co-worker of mine whom I consider like a very dear aunt. She's been there for me ever since I started with the company, and truth be told is kind of like a 2nd mom to me.

I used Taylored Expression's Daisy Bouquet, and colored them with Copics. Background paper is Lawn Fawn and scallop die cut background is from Sizzix.

I wanted the card to look clean and simple, conservative, yet a bit colorful.

Happy Birthday to you!!

Paper Garden Just Because

I've been coloring too much lately and thought I'd take a break and make a card out of Close to My Heart's stamp of the month set. I love this Paper Garden set. I think it has this vintage look to it, and you can stamp it with so much color or just go monotone or give it a bit of a muted tone. Either way it's such a pretty stamp.

I've recently bought more Faber Castell Gelatos and have been using it partly as watercolor in my coloring craze. I love how versatile these Gelatos are, and they are perfect for backgrounds. You get to mix and match as many color combos as you like, make it as vibrant or as subtle as you like. So the background is a mix of Lemon and Butterscotch gelatos.

I stamped the flower with Versamark ink, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. And then I used Jacquard Pearl Ex Pigment Powder to paint over the stems, leaves and flower. I love the way it turned out! You can't see the shimmer in the photo, but I swear it's there. I just love how it turned out! Lastly I embellished with a few gold sequins.

Hope you guys like it too! If you're interested in this stamp set, here's what it looks like. Remember it's only available for this month of September! Grab it while you still can! 

S1509 Paper Garden

Don't you just love it? I'm really a sucker for floral stamps...

Enjoy!

Do What Makes You Happy

I love the sentiment "Do What Makes You Happy". I think this card actually fits me and my current situation. I was having the time of my life coloring in the flowers, and then the message kinda hits home.

I've been so depressed at work for the last year and have thought about just quitting and doing what I love, or taking a break for awhile to find myself again before heading back to the work force. Anyway, before I even get more depressing, let's go back to how I made this card.

I used Close to My Heart's Wavy Blooms stamp set and colored it with Copic markers. I made the beautiful blooms and turned it into a background piece for this card. Don't you just love these blooms? I had an absolutely great time coloring them!

This is what the actual stamp set looks like.

D1651 Wavy Blooms

Coloring Backgrounds

I've been hooked on adult coloring books for some time now, and I try to color when I have time. I bring a pack of markers with me to work, hoping to catch some off time every now and then so I can de-stress and color. Unfortunately it's all a fantasy. I carry 5 packs of markers with me and a couple of coloring books, yet I take them home everyday untouched. There's just not enough break or time at work to even sneak in a couple minutes of coloring. Anyway, I digress. The adult coloring books I like are the Secret Garden and the Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. I love the intricacies of these books so when I saw this Botanical Backgrounds (D1645) stamp set from Close to My Heart, of course I have to have it! I love coloring the leaves, don't know if they're right or not, but just the time spent in peace coloring like a kid makes me feel good. The bottom border piece of this card is from that stamp set.

I used Pierced Rectangle STAX for the front piece from MFT, and stamped flowers from Shower Flowers (C1612). I love this Shower Flowers stamp set too. I get to mix and match the flowers and create my own. For this one I used Sorbet, Topiary and Buttercup (retired) colors. The background paper I believe is Flaxen.

Hope you guys like this piece!

A Little Note

I'm so glad CTMH now has more stamps that can be colored in. I love coloring stamps and I couldn't wait to do this. Unfortunately I picked the wrong watercolor medium. I thought I'd give my Prismacolor Watercolors but they didn't seem to blend well. I'm a bit disappointed with the color turnout. Maybe it didn't help that I didn't have a big range of colors to choose from, but I still like the overall turnout of the card.

I used CTMH stamp set A Little Note, Topiary Striped Washi Tape, Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon, and some Gold Sequins.

I still love the look of the card. I'll give it another try and color the stamp with either my Chameleon Pens or Alcohol Markers.

This is the stamp set I used.

A1171 A Little Note

Enjoy!

May Your Home Be Filled....With Love

This was one of my first cards while I was still playing with my newly bought Chameleon Pens. I think this might even be the first image I "broke" the pens for.

I used Taylored Expressions Display Window and Window Accessories dies. The flower  is from the stamp set A Glimpse Inside.

Enjoy!

Distress Markers - Watercolor

I've been trying my hand at the watercolor effect by using Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I signed up for Online Card Class Watercolor and have been experimenting a few of my stamps last weekend. Here's a couple I made.

The stamp set is from Crafter's Companion. It's from Angelica and Friends set, and she is Isobel. I used a mix of Tim Holtz Distress Markers - the dress is Picked Raspberry, the hair I think is Brushed Corduroy. The sky is Stormy Sky, and the accessories in Barn Door and Chipped Sapphire. The sun and sentiment are from a retired CTMH C1364 TLC stamp set. I used Mustard Seed on the sun. The grass is from Lawn Fawn and I used Crushed Olive. Instead of using a real brush, I used Pentel Water Brush, and I really can't tell you how awesome these brushes really are! You just have to try it for yourself! I love you easily in control you can be with the water, and it seems to just always be wet enough but not too wet. I just love it!

My apologies but I just don't remember the name of this stamp set. I've had this for awhile now and it's just sitting in a binder without its original packaging so I cannot remember what it's called. I'm pretty sure though that it's from Stampendous. It's a background cling floral stamp.

I used Mowed Lawn for the leaves, and for the flowers a mix of Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Ripe Persimmon. I used Scattered Straw for the yellow halo-ish background effect.

I still need a lot of work, but for a beginner this is what I've come up with. I've been very busy lately and hopefully soon can post the reason why, so I haven't been creating a lot lately. I have yet to try watercolor pencils and have yet to christen my Spectrum Noir colored pencils! Oh how I wish I have time!! For now, this is what I've done.

Just For You

Hi everyone! I've been so busy at work lately I haven't been crafting as much as I'd like. I made this card using paper from the Ivy Lane paper pack as my background paper. I stained the sides using Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink. I went a little overboard with it and probably should've toned down the edges. I had hoped to achieve a vintage looking card. The flourishes were cut using Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge and Cocoa cardstock.

The flowers are from Just For You stamp set and were stamped in Sunset and Sorbet inks. I adorned the card with Sparkles Brown and Tan Assortment and stamped the sentiment using Saddle ink.