It's a Boy Thing...

Are all of you Lili of the Valley fans ready for new stamps? How about images that seem to be sorely lacking in the stamping world? I mean masculine images for men or boys of course. If you've got them in your life you know how hard it is to make cards for them. Well, LOTV has filled that hole quite nicely with their new line of stamps, all about the boys/teens/men in our lives. I love these stamps!

How about this cute guy concentrating intently on his guitar lessons? And of course his faithful pup singing along to encourage him, haha! Love it.

The papers are from a We R Memory Keepers winter collection called Merry January, lots of awesome masculine papers in that set. The embellishments were kept to a minimum, just a simple twill ribbon under the sentiment circle. I love the interchangeable sentiments in the new clear set Mixed Circular Sentiments. LOTV is nailin' it with each new release!

You'll be able to purchase the boy stamps starting May 11.

Thanks for dropping by!

Lili of the Valley Thursday Challenge Love is in the Air

Good morning! 

This week Love is in the Air for the LOTV challenge, and I decided to showcase the love of a sister, or best friend with my card. This adorable stamp 'Story Time' seemed perfect for the job. 

The wing chair the cuties are snuggled up in  was paper pieced with a pretty plaid paper from a Prima pad. I did some shading with a dry chisel brush and Distress inks to make the pattern less 'flat'. The rest of the image was water colored separately with Distress inks as well.

I lovelovelove the clear sentiment stamps (Verses) LOTV recently released! You can never have too many sentiments, and this one is particularly sweet.
Notice the little stitched flower embellishments? Also from the new clear stamps called 'Cute as a Button'.   I stamped them onto Core'dinations Whitewash paper, cut them out by hand (ummm....future dies anyone? hint..hint, lol). I sanded them lightly to reveal some of the color and attached buttons to their centers. Sort of shabby chic, no? The Prima papers have that sort of flavor I think.
We'd love to have you join in on the challenge, check out the Lili of the Valley blog for all the details.
Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Memento, Distress, CTMH
Paper: Heavenly White card base, Memory Box, water color paper, Prima, Core'dinations
Tools & Accessories: pink taffeta ribbon, sewing machine, Aqua brush, PTI buttons

The Little Things

Good morning everyone, I'm glad to be back home even though it's a disaster area, lol. While I was away in NC visiting my brothers, my darling Jimmy decided it was time to re-tile our one bathroom. Wonderful! The shiny new white tiles are beautiful. The rest of the house....NOT! sigh.... I'm going to have blinders on for a few days, just pretend everything's normal.

Just as I suspected, we were staying with my brother who happens to NOT have internet at home. He lives alone and only needs his HTC smart phone for all his internet needs, so I was out of luck. I did manage to 'borrow' from the neighbor's Wi Fi if I was sitting out in the yard, haha, but the signal was pretty weak. 

Anyway, here's a card I made using one of Wee Stamps new images last week. 

Darling, no?
I hope I don't have trouble getting back into the 'groove' after my vacation, sometimes my mojo takes a while to come back to me, lol.

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley's new clear sentiments collection, some really beautiful sayings for all types of cards. 

Thanks for still being here, I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming in no time!

Stamps: Digital image from Wee Stamps, sentiment from Lili of the Valley

Ink: Memento, Versamark

Paper: Prima, Stardream shimmer, Core'dinations, PTI, Heavenly white card base

Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Fancy Labels 2, PTI leaf dies, clear EP, sheer ribbon, Prima flower, colored pencils, OMS, Copics, Stickles

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Hello everyone! It's time for another Impression Obsession challenge. We're using spots, dots and circles in the Polka dot challenge this week. My polka dots are pretty subtle in this card, but the background paper does have them. Oh, and the ribbon does too. 

I watercolored the lighthouse image with a combination of Distress Inks and Peerless water colors. I haven't used them in a looooong time, so I decided it was time to brush the dust off of them.
I created a wood frame around the image with some of that real wood paper, then aged and distressed it with inks and sandpaper. I looped a length of cotton rope around the frame for a nautical feel.

Want to play along in our polka challenge? Head on over to the IO blog for all the details and join in on contest for a chance to win IO bucks.
Check out all the other DT ladies creations for more dotty inspiration:

• Daniela Dobson
• Deborah March
• Dina Kowal
• Jeanne Streiff
• Jenny Gropp
• Julie Koerber
• Laura Fulcher

Stamps: Impression Obsession 'Ocracoke Lighthouse'
Ink: Palette, Distress
Paper: 'Something Nautical' Digital papers from Scrapbook-Elements, Cherry real wood paper, Heavenly White, Gina K, SU
Tools & Accessories: Martha Stewart edge punch, polka dot ribbon, cotton rope, Peerless water colors, aquabrush

Flower Girl

Good morning everyone! If you all check out the Papertrey Ink design team's blogs, you might recognize these pretty flowers from Debbie Olson's blog a while back. I just fell in love with them and had to CASE them for this card. Pretty flowers for a pretty little girl. This stamp is from the Pergamano clear stamp set I found here. 

There are no patterned papers at all on this card, instead I stamped directly on the card base with PTI's Twinkle background set. I love making my own patterned papers, the possibilities are endless, especially when I need something 'just right'. In this case I wanted very soft, light colors so the flowers wouldn't be over powered.

I colored the little sweetie with my trusty colored pencils, her skin with Copics.

I'll be going away to visit my brothers in North Carolina on Thursday, so I won't be posting for the Lili of the Valley challenge. I hope my brother still has Wi Fi because I won't be happy without internet till Monday, lol! If not, I hope you all have a very Happy Easter!

Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps: Pergamano Flower Girls clear stamp set, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Perfect Match
Paper: PTI
Tools & Accessories: PTI Bloom Builders, Turning a New Leaf and Mat Stack dies, PTI ribbon/buttons, Nestabilities, Colored pencils, OMS, Copic sketch/Spica markers

Feeling Blue?

Paint yourself a different color! That is soooo cute, I love these sweet/funny sentiments by children from Inkadinkado. I can just hear my own kids saying similar things when they were little, lol!

Anyway, I thought it was appropriate for this sweet raincoat clad cutie. After all, she's all in yellow, and you can't feel blue in yellow! This darling image is another beautiful digi stamp from Mo Manning. I'm telling you, she's got stamps for every occasion, from common to completely uncommon, but so appropriate. Her style is just so different, and I love so many of them.

I colored her with my colored pencils, and added Liquid Glass all over her rain gear. Looks more like shiny vinyl that way.

Hope this cheers up your day a little, I know she just makes me smile! Thanks for visiting!

P.S.- I've added a bunch of cards to my Etsy shop, take a look if you have a minute.

Stamps: Digital image from Mo's Digital Pencil, Inkadinkado sentiment
Ink: Perfect Match
Paper: Heavenly White card base, Cosmo Cricket Salt Air, Papertrey Ink and Core'dinations
Tools & Accessories: EK Success bubble edge punch, PTI ribbon/button, assorted colored pencils, OMS, Liquid Glass, Copics (for flesh tones), Spica glitter pens

Spring's bursting into life...

Happy Friday! Although not so happy for me because I have to work tomorrow.... grrrr! But anyway, I have this cheery Easter card to share using these new clear Forever Friends stamps. If you've been following my blog for a while, you've seen me go through this bear stage a couple of Christmases ago. They are just adorable! I saw Funky Kits carrying these new clear sets and pounced on a couple. I must say I love the clear stamps better than the wood mounted ones, especially because these sets come with all sorts of 'accessory' images.

I colored this trio of pudgy bears with my colored pencils as usual, simple and quick!

I love the little Spring poem that came with the set, you can click on the pictures to make it bigger and easier to read.

Thanks for checking in, I'll be back soon!

Stamps: Forever Friends, PTI Twinkle background
Ink: Memento, Paper Salon
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders labels, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Copic Spica pen, PTI ribbon, EK Success flower punches, Viva Decor Pearl pen, Cuttlebug embossing border folder, SU edge punch