Tilda & the Blustery Spring Day

I haven't done a Magnolia card in ages, I was swept up in all the Papertrey Ink rage for a while. I wanted to do something different, so I pulled out my Magnolia stamps. I thought the tiny little swirling flowers would go well with the new Memory Box paper I got last week. I watercolored Tilda with my Tombow and SU! markers.

When I watercolor with markers, I scribble a little of the color I want to use on a clean acrylic block, then pick up some color with a wet paintbrush. I used to color directly with the marker onto the image, then use the paintbrush to move the color around, but some colors leave a 'hard edge' no matter how much water you use. So I like this way better.

I used my clear Copic Spica pen to color a little shimmer on the flowers, it's hard to see in the pic.

I have a couple more cards to post later, when I get back from work. Until then, have a beautiful day!

Stamps: Magnolia, PTI

Ink: Palette, CTMH

Paper: Bazzill, Arches watercolor paper, Memory Box

Accessories: Nestabilities, Flower Punches from EK Success and Marvy, Ranger Liquid Pearls, Copic Spica Pen, MM Slot Punch, Periwinkle sheer ribbon

Sweet Pea Card

I forgot to post this card when I made it, and found it as I was sorting through my massive collection of cards. It's such a simple card, I stamped the circle element from PTI's Green Thumb set along one half of a piece of Sweet Blush cardstock to create a background for the Sweet Pea image. I layered it onto scalloped Spring Moss die cut and adhered using dimensional foam tape. The flower in the lower left corner was punched using flower punches from Marvy and EK Success, which I embossed a little to give it some shape. I saw this technique on this blog and loved how flower punches (and die cuts, too!) looked so much better with realistic dimension. Thanks to that lovely little tutorial, I had to go and spend some more money on some of those Punch Bunches, so I can make more flowers! Maybe I won't need to buy so many Primas anymore.....yah--right!

Anyway, the adorable Sweet Pea image was just crying out for some Dew Drops, they fit perfectly over the little peas, then some Spring Moss twill and it's done! Hope you like it!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Perfect Match

Paper: PTI

Accessories: PTI twill, nestabilities, Dew Drops, EK Success Flower Punch, Marvy flower Punch, Stylus

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, I had a very busy weekend, but I managed to stamp this one on Friday, before our guests came. We barbecued and ate ourselves sick, went fishing, watched movies and had an all around great time! I sure missed stamping for a couple of days, though. I had to clean off the DR table which is where my 'creative area' is all the time. Soon, hopefully by the end of the summer, we will be building an addition to our house. There will be two more rooms, a new bedroom for myself and my sweetheart and more importantly, a studio for the both of us to share. He has tons of airbrushing art supplies with no home for them, no where to paint when the mood hits him. I, on the other hand, need to free up the DR table so it can be used what it's supposed to be used for! I can't wait!
The flowers on this card were punched out using various flower punches, then I flipped each one over and using the rounded end of a big round brush and a tiny stylus, embossed them to give them some dimension and form. Papertrey's card stock lends itself really well to this technique, because it is very thick and strong, but also very malleable.

Anyway, I hope you all had fun this Memorial Day!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Palette, Perfect Match
Paper: Papertrey Ink Perfect Match
Accessories: Flower Punches from EK Success and Marvy, Liquid Pearls, Nestabilities, Papertrey Ink Swiss Dot Ribbon

Scalloped Window Card

I've been wanting to do a window card for a while, but was kind of afraid to try it. Nicole Heady has a tutorial on her blog (see link on right) on how to cut out a window using Nestabilities on a card front, so I followed her instructions. It was easier than I thought, and I am very impressed with the results! I will definitely be using this technique again.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Paper: Papertrey Ink

Ink: Perfect Match, Vivid, Palette

Accessories: PTI ribbon, Copic Spica pen

And one more card with, no surprise here, Papertrey's paper and stamps! I love, love, love almost all of their stuff! This time I used Lemon Tart and Summer Sunrise with Spring Moss. I didn't think these colors would work together, but the whole collection of Perfect Match does just that--it all coordinates!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Paper: Bazzill, Perfect Match from PTI

Ink: Perfect Match

Accessories: Spellbinders bookplate die, brads, PTI ribbon

What I do when I'm not stamping....

I recently finished an 8 month long project painting murals in a soon to be steakhouse restaurant in Ridgewood, NJ. It was a joint effort with my sweetie, Jimmy, who is an airbrush artist and myself using traditional brush. We make a great team, since he specializes in wildlife and animals, and I have more experience with landscape and floral painting. We had three big walls and two smaller walls to paint. The theme of the restaurant was decided early on that it would resemble the interior of a stable, with plenty of window and large doors overlooking beautiful pastures and scenery. As you can see from the pictures it is not complete yet. We are done painting, except for a sky on one half of the ceiling, but the owner is putting in lots of wood and other details in addition to the painting. It's already looking pretty amazing! This was the first time I have painted a project of this size, only having done small decorative painting before, and let me tell you, it was definitely a learning experience. One of the reasons it took so long is we live nearly two hours away, and the only time we could paint was on weekends. It was a tough job.

I have an online photo album with more pics if you want to check them out here.

Sweet Strawberries Birthday Card

Doesn't this card look good enough to eat?! I love fruits, and love making cards with images of them! I've been wanting this set from Papertrey Ink for a while, and finally got it with my last order. I stamped the bottom halves of the strawberries with Sweet Blush, then a touch of Berry Sorbet around the edges. The stems are Spring Moss. Again, I stamped the background ones first, then stamped a couple on scrap paper, cut out and adhered with foam tape for dimension.


Stamps: Papertrey Ink


Paper: Papertrey Ink


Ink: Perfect Match


Accessories: Nestabilities
Since I'm on the roll with fruits...here's a pear card I made using a hand carved stamp. The background was stamped with two colors of ink, Lemon Tart and Spring Moss. The pear image was done the same way. It looks very cool and refreshing doesn't it?
Stamps: Handcarved Pear from Mastercarve rubber block, PTI
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Perfect Match, Palette
Accesories: Nestabilites, PTI ribbon, Micro Stitch tagger

Don't Worry...Bee Happy

I love the way this card turned out. I used the new stamps from Papertrey Ink's Honey Bees set. I first stamped the grass in Spring Moss on the oval die cut, then stamped some flowers in Sweet Blush and Lavender Moon. I also stamped some of the flowers on scrap paper to cut out and add dimension with foam tape. The bee was inked with Lemon Tart, then just touched some Raw Sienna to the edges to add shading.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Ink: Perfect Match, Palette
Accessories: Nestabilities, PTI ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder

Lily-Kate Butterfly Card

This card uses my favorite shade of blue. At least, it's close to my favorite. It's not quite periwinkle, not quite lavender. If I could paint my whole house this color, I would! I've had the butterfly stamps forever, and finally pulled them out recently to use for this card.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Unknown Butterfly stamps
Ink: Papertrey Ink, Printworks, Vivid
Paper: Bazzill, Basic Grey
Accessories: Nestabilities, Stickles, Papertrey Grosgrain Ribbon

My Mother's Day Gifts.

Well, since I'm up late waiting for Papertrey Ink's new May release, I figured I'd post some pics of my new flowers I got for Mother's Day! My baby went all out and let me pick anything I wanted to plant in our deck boxes. These are just three of the beauties I got, all Begonias, one of my most favorite flowers. Since the back deck is pretty shady, these are the perfect plants back there, they do really well with little sun. I also ordered some beautiful Fuschias from an online source out of Washington, and I can't wait to get them! Fuschias are another plant that does well in shade, and are fairly easy to care for. I love hanging baskets, and the trailing type Begonias, and Fuschias make stunning hanging baskets. Usually by early summer our back deck is gorgeous with tons of color, I'll post more pics then.

I also did some stamping, and made some cards.

This card was actually pretty simple. It's hard to see but the scalloped rectangle in the center of the card is cut from the same sheet of DP, and simply 'popped' up with dimensional tape. I colored in the birds with Copic Spica clear pen, and it really shimmers beautifully in person.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Ink: SU!

Paper: Memory Box

Accessories: PTI ribbon, Dew Drops, Prima flowers, Liquid Pearls, Nestabilities, Copic Spica Pens

Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Inkadinkado

Ink: Palette, Tsukineko Walnut Stain, Embossing Ink

Paper: PTI, SU!

Accessories: Nestabilities, Clear EP, PTI ribbon

This card was inspired by Michelle Zindorf's tutorial here. She makes gorgeous stuff, and a lot of tutorials! I don't know how she does it! She must have a good camera, because I have to edit every single pic I take, and it takes forever! Anyway, I really like the way the card came out, I might try another one with different colors. I always liked the look of emboss resist.

Well, I'm off to join the Papertrey release party! Then at midnight I can order a bunch of new stuff!

My Mother's Day Card

I made a bunch of potential cards for my mother, but ended up picking this one to give her. I used all my favorite colors and papers. There isn't any stamping on this one, only flower die cuts from Cuttlebug. The card base is Bazzill, the decorative background paper and the scalloped circle are Memory Box from the Aerial collection. Love, love this paper! I had to order more since I am almost out of my favorites from the collection. I wish they sold the paper individually and maybe in larger sizes, too. I think I could paper my walls with the stuff! I glued little buttons to the center of the flower die cuts, and glittered some petals too. The ribbon is Papertrey Ink twill.
I hope my mother likes it as much as I do!

My favorite paper

Stamps: Garden Words by Brenda Walton
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Solar White, Memory Box
Ink: Perfect Match
Accessories: Nestabilities, Dew Drops, Papertrey Ink Swiss Dot Ribbon

I made this card using my all time favorite paper by Memory Box.
It's from the Sprout collection and is ten times more beautiful in person! It's a very simple card layout I saw on the http://www.starlitstudio.com/ blog. The flowers are from Brenda Walton's Garden Words set.

Summer Sunrise Birdie

Stamps: Inkadinkado, Printworks, Studio G

Ink: Palette, Printworks Designer Ink, Tombow markers

Paper: Bazzill, Papertrey, Fabriano w/c paper

Accessories: Grosgrain ribbon, Dew Drops, Copic Spica pens, Nestabilities

I saw this paper in Michael's a while back and loved the beautiful oranges, deep pinks and blues. Unfortunately, I cut it up without looking at who made it! The little birdie stamp is one of my favorites, I saw another blogger use it and had to have it. I stamped everything with Palette ink and colored with my markers. I used Copic Spica pens to add subtle shimmer here and there. It doesn't have a sentiment because I like to leave some of the cards I make blank so I can add it later, when I need a certain card at the last minute.

Fussy cut flowers

I got a cute little Forget-me-Not flower stamp from the Printworks collection free last week with my order! So I made this sweet card with it. I love pastel colors, I use them ALOT, and I've used them here. I stamped the flower on a circle cut from watercolor paper, then stamped a bunch more to cut out each individual one. Takes some time, but the 3D effect is worth it, IMO. The predominant color is the light blue taken from the Lily Kate DP from Basic Grey. Each flower center has yellow Liquid Pearls. They are watercolored with an assortment of markers and Designer Ink also from Printworks. I have quite the collection of Tombows, SU! markers, CTMH, and some LePlumes too.

Stamps: Printworks, Papertrey Ink

Nestabilities Classic /Scalloped Circles

Paper: Bazzill, Arches w/c paper, Papertrey Ink, Basic Grey

Ink: Designer Ink, Perfect Match, Pallette

Accessories: Brads, PTI ribbon, Grosgrain ribbon, Liquid Pearls

Lily & Milo Doodle Book

One more post! I forgot about this cute sketch book I made the other day. I wanted a small sketch book to take with me to work, or anywhere. I always seem to have inspiration for little doodles, or sketches when I'm NOT at home! So I colored a sweet little Lily & Milo image by Rachelle Ann Miller that I got from 7KidsCollegeFund.com with my markers. I used some rectangular coasters for the covers, covered them with Basic Grey Twinkle paper and bound the whole thing with my Bind-it-All. Oh, for the inside pages I just cut some sketch paper down to size with my guillotine paper trimmer. I wanted something a little more durable than regular copy paper, in case I wanted to color the doodles with markers, or colored pencils. It's hard to see in the pic, but I attached some beautiful Swarovski crystals and beads to the ribbon. It's also hard to see the subtle glittery effects I added with a Spica pen. I LOVE the Spica pens, they add just the slightest hint of of very, very fine glitter. IMO, no other glitter pen comes even close.
Well, that's it! I'm off to start some more projects!

Handcarved Watermelon Stamps

I've been wanting a watermelon stamp for the longest time, and just couldn't find one that I liked, so as I have been known to do, I decided to carve one myself. I used Mastercarve rubber block, and a lino cutter to carve a very basic watermelon image. I didn't think I would actually like the image, but I actually liked it a lot!



Here are a couple of cards I made with the stamps. The one above is stamped on a white cardstock oval (nestabilities) using Papertrey Ink's Perfect Match inks in Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet and Spring Moss. I just dabbed the stamp directly with the ink pad, then stamped twice on the oval and two more that I cut out and adhered with dimensional foam tape. Easy! The ribbon and the patterned paper are all from Papertrey as well.

This card was actually made first, and it was kind of a 'test run' with the stamps. I don't like it as much as the other one. I inked the stamps with SU! markers, added little watermelon seeds with a black Copic Spica pen. I stamped the white twill with a Papertrey flower stamp, added fruit punch stickles to the centers. The background paper is SU! stamped with Adirondack ink. I'm not sure what the clear flower stamp set is.

So, if you're ever searching for that perfect stamp and can't find it, try carving your own! It's pretty easy with bold, basic images.