Watercolor background/Cyber Monday

Hello! Today I have a card with a water colored background. There is a new challenge on the a2z Scrapbooking blog and this month is all about Watercolor.

Have you ever had a card you loved. I mean really, really loved and then botched the Title? Yep, that is this card. I love how the background came out on this one. Mind you, I made at least 4 and not one came out nearly as pretty as this one. Most were a total disaster with blue and dark green every where...I just couldn't get the purple to show.

See, I started out by putting my Distress inks on a large acrylic block. The Tumbled Glass and The shaded Lilac were so over powered by the Evergreen Bough, but I love the combination. So I resorted to using my re-inkers for the Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac. The colors were most definitely bolder!  Too bold in fact. I had to use less re-inker and more water for the softness I was going for.

Enter the FOURTH try and it finally gave me what I wanted. YAY!!!

I used the ink pads directly onto the Peacock Feather.  Then I went to do the title. Never and I mean NEVER watch an interesting show on the computer when you are in the midst of making a card that you have re-done 4 times!  Yes, I was distracted and I thought I grabbed the Silver Embossing Powder and I accidentally grabbed the Liquid Platinum (which by the way I love). I just don't love it on this card.  It's BLAH! It looks so muddy in the photo but I am telling you....I couldn't recreate that background again so I am going with it.  The good news is that is looks 100% better in real life than in this picture that was shot at 2:00 a.m. ;)

Let's just forget about the title and oooh and ahhhhh over that background and peacock feather shall we?

A little bit of Stardust Stickles on the feather and some sequins and I have forgotten all bout the sentiment.

Please stop by a2z Scrapbooking to see what the other design team members have done. You won't be disappointed.

It's CYBER MONDAY too and I have a coupon code for you for Today...Use CYBER20 for 20% off your order of $25.  Click HERE to go to the store.

If you don't get to shop today you can use the code MICHELLE15 at anytime and get 15% off your order of $25 or more.

Have a great day!

Michelle

Supplies used:

InLinkz.com

Christmas Cheer--New SSS Stamptember Release

HI! I am really, really excited to be back today with this post. I am sorry it was delayed. The start of school threw me. I have literally been living in my car driving the kids EVERYWHERE. I never even made it to the stamp room until Saturday night to clean it.

Anyhow, I received a SWEET TREAT in the mail a little over a week ago. It was THIS FAB stamp set from Simon Says Stamp!!! I was so excited to play with it. I started playing with the trees immediately and had a few sneaks on Twitter and Instagram:

These are the trees when they were still wet.

An Instagram Sneak that shows all the yummy glittery goodness.  Perfect pearls on the background, Distress Stickles and Wink of Stella. The options for glittery goodness are everywhere these days.

Today I am revealing the entire card:

I started by stamping the trees in Hero Arts black ink, then I took my colored pencils and just kept drawing lines in different colors of green until I got that natural pine look.  It is such an easy way to get dimension and texture while coloring.  After they were colored I covered the entire tree in Rock Candy Stickles. While the Rock Candy was still wet I added Star Dust Stickles (Thank you Kelly Latevola) to the edges to make it look like ice and snow.  The look of these trees are so AMAZING in person.

I also fussy cut the sled....no easy task but with the help of a really sharp xacto knife it made it easier.

The presents were cut from scraps of paper.

The background is Distress Chipped Sapphire and Distress Faded Jeans, with a heavy dose of Perfect Pearls on them.

There are so many wonderful stamps, dies and stencils in the Stamptember release. Make sure you check them all out. :)

Have a great day.
Michelle

Supplies used:

InLinkz.com

Birthday Cards

Hi, I am here with a quick share today. I made these two cards for our daughter for her 13th Birthday last week. I wanted something bright and bold and this Hero Arts Stencil was the perfect tool to get that look.

 I used my Silhouette to cut the balloon and the 13. I used the Hero Arts Rain Dance Stencil on it using an array of Distress inks. Very simple.  I layered it on some woodgrain paper from Simon Says Stamp (all supplies listed below).

I used the same stencil for this card. I also used some Hero Arts letters and inked each letter in a different Hero Hue.  I left the cupcake and the balloon b&w because I loved the contrast. The speech bubble is a file I created in my Silhouette.

That's all for today.  I am working on some fun 4th of July home decor. I can't wait to share! :)

Michelle

Supplies used: (At time of posting inklinz was not allowing me to grab products--I will try later. If you have questions on products just ask! ;) )

InLinkz.com

Simon Says Stamp May Card Kit Creations

I have been a blog slacker....big time! I do have a good reason though. We recently moved. Our new house is a lot bigger than our old one. It needs a lot of decorating...which I will be doing when my new Cameo arrives. It took me forever to get my stamp room complete. It's still needs organization but it's good enough to work in now. I also have another BIG reason.....


Meet Boomer:

He is our new Golden Retriever puppy. Isn't he just adorable? I am in love to say the least. He is now 11 weeks (he's only 7 weeks in the photo). He is the 3rd fur baby in our home. So on top of 5 kids, 3 fur babes and a new home I have had very little time to blog. I have created a TON. Just haven't had a chance to post. My little orange ball of fur loves to attack anything...including the wires to the laptop. He is getting better now and napping on the dog bed next to my desk as I type.

With that said, I have a couple of cards to share that I created with the May Card Kit from Simon Says Stamp. I loved this kit. I had a ton of fun with it. Here is the first card I made for my son who was leaving to go away to a SKILLS competition in his machine shop:

I used the Star Stencil and inked it in Distress inks (Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers and Broken China) I also used similar colors with my Prismacolors to color the title.  I topped it off with some Wink of Stella.

I love that shimmer.

For the second card I decided to create a girl version of the boy card. I used more Distress inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Dried Marigold and Picked Raspberry). I stamped the sneakers on DCWV glitter paper and then cut them out. I added some shading with a Prismacolor pencil and put them on pop dots. The sticker letters came in the kit.

 I love how the glitter paper looks with these sneakers. I them in a few different colors for another card or even a layout. 

That's all from me today. Have a fabulous day! :)

Be Happy!

HI! I am taking the Online Card Class "Watercolor for Cardmakers" with Jen McGuire and Kristina Werner. I love these classes. So informative...so fun! Today's card is from Day 1's homework. While I had it done I haven't had the chance to photograph it. We just got a 7 week old Golden Retriever and he is a handful to say the least! LOL My other 2 dogs aren't so happy about him right now so I am lacking in "free" time. I hope this stops soon. I want to participate in every aspect of this class.

Anyhow, today's homework shows how to create your own watercolor background. The awesome Laura Bassen showed this technique and I LOVED her card. I did mine a tad differently but I was thrilled with the effects.

The colors used are all Distress inks. Both stamps are Hero Arts. Gotta run, pup is trying to eat my laptop cord.

Until next time...Have a great day!

You Color My World

Hello everyone! Today I have a card up on A Blog Named Hero. We are celebrating our 1st birthday over there and we have been collaborating with some wonderful and most generous companies. This week is the company that started it all HERO ARTS!!!

I cannot say enough good things about this company. They are generous beyond measure, they are GREEN, they have one of the most talented design teams in the industry and if were not for Hero Arts I would not have met so many of my truly wonderful friends. They are more than a company...they are a community. I adore them to pieces.

When it came to making a card for them it was a no brainer....

They TRULY "Color My World"

I started by taking a piece of water color paper, stamping it with Versamark and then heat embossing it with Hero Arts White embossing powder, it is truly the whitest white out there for embossing powders. I then used my foam tools to apply the Distress inks in a rainbow spray from corner to corner. When I was done I spritzed it HEAVILY with Perfect Pearls. I let the colors bleed into one another then air dried it. 

Here is a close up of all that shimmery goodness. It's so bold and vibrant in real life. Just makes me smile.




Here is a close up of that delicious flower. I followed the same steps above on water color paper. The only difference on this one is a used some metallic watercolor paints for the center to make it shimmer more.

I also would like to give a HUGE shout out to Simon Says Stamp! If it were not for the generosity of Heidi we would not be able to offer you the chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate every challenge. She too is amazingly generous and I am so grateful that I can help promote her and her business. She does so much to encourage stampers in this industry.  She also carries the ENTIRE LINE of Hero Arts Stamps!!!  A big huge THANK YOU to HEIDI.  We love:

Please stop by A Blog Named Hero to see what the other girls created. I know you won't be disappointed.

Until Monday.....

InLinkz.com