Happy Herbs

Hello blog friends! If you haven't seen Lili of the Valley's latest stamp release, run over to their web site to check them out, they're up now! There are some different designs that I am very excited about, these potted Kitchen Herbs being one of them. Very Tuscany,  sì? These were quick and easy to color up, but instead of using them as one stamp, I cut them out separately. I glued each one to a kraft colored inchie square to pop them up and add a bit of contrast. 

These papers had a bit of that Tuscan flair as well, from Raspberry Road Designs' Honey Bee set. The warm yellows and cool greens go perfectly with the herb pots

I added a stripe using a Copic marker to the yellow grosgrain ribbon just to tie it in with the color scheme a little better. 
I love this cheery birthday card, hopefully it will brighten someone's day!


Thanks for stopping by!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley Kitchen Herbs, Words for Tags, Words for Tickets
Ink: SU
Paper: RRD 'Honey Bee' collection printed on Hammermill color copy digital cover, SU, PTI
Tools & Accessories: Copics, ribbon, twine, PTI Banner die, inchie squares

Easter Sweeties

Good morning everyone! Easter is quickly coming up next month, so I've made up a card using the new Easter Sweeties stamp. I love this adorable image, the sweet little ducks and colorful egg are scrumptious. 

I've used very light, bright Copic colors that I matched up to the papers from Raspberry Road Designs 'Baskets and Bunnies' collection. 

The pretty cherry blossom is a Memory Box die cut that I shaped with an embossing stylus to make it more realistic. I also added a pretty little tulip border along the bottom that I cut on my Silhouette Cameo. I then added pink Liquid Pearls to the flowers. I'm pretty sure the tulip border was a freebie I got from the Sure Cuts A Lot forum. If you haven't checked that forum out yet, you really should. Tons of free SVG files!


Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Adirondack, Distress
Paper: Hammermill (for printed digital papers and stamped image), Bazzill and Core'dinations
Tools & Accessories: Memory Box Cherry Blossom die, Cameo, Copics, Liquid Pearls, PTI ribbon, yellow pearl

Ride with Me

Good morning! Here's a peek at another new stamp Lili of the Valley is releasing on the 28th. This one is called 'Ride with Me'. I managed to use some purples again, maybe it will grow on me eventually lol. How could I resist when these new papers from Prima 'Meadowlark' are so beautiful? They're actually more of a lavender, which I don't have trouble using, just the darker purples.

Whenever I see these cute little scooters, I immediately think of many countries in Europe. We Americans don't see them too often, just big noisy motorcycles! So I tried to make it look like a French postcard, or something with some of the stamps from Papertrey Ink's 'Postmarks' set. The cancellation mark and sentiment are from LOTV's 'Greetings Postmarks' set. 

The gorgeous lace border is from the Silhouette Store, cut on my Cameo. So much gorgeousness in that place!


Don't mind the little heart charm, I didn't realize it was turned backwards until I was done editing the photo! Ooops.


So what do you all think of the new releases? Any favorites?


Thanks for dropping by!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Papertrey Ink
Ink: Memento, Perfect Match, Palette
Paper: Prima, Bazzill, Core'dinations
Tools & Accessories: PTI ribbon, Nestabilities, PTI postage stamp die, sewing machine, Crystal Lacquer, pewter heart charm, silver chain, Silhouette Cameo, unknown corner punch

Love Boat

Hello everyone! I've got a sneak peek of some new stamps coming out at Lili of the Valley on March 28th. This one is called 'Love Boat' and I just fell in love with this adorable image. I knew I wanted to do something dramatic with a night sky so I went on the hunt for the perfect patterned paper for the background. I found nothing in my stash (how is that possible?! I have tons of paper!) so I turned to the wonderful world of digital scrapbooking. Literally thousands and thousands of options available on the web, all the patterned paper you could possibly want yet I was having trouble finding just what I wanted. So after hours and hours of scouring the net, I turned to my favorite digital SB store Raspberry Road Designs. I don't know why I just didn't look there first, I could have saved myself half a day! I decided to use one of the papers from the paper pack, Mystical Sky. Absolutely perfect for what I had in mind. 

I had to use a trick from the Black Magic technique to make the willow branches show up on the  dark background so I took a tiny, tiny paintbrush and colored in the leaves and the moon with watered down white acrylic paint. Then after it dried I was able to color those elements in with colored pencils. 
The bears in the boat and the wine bottle were simply colored separately, cut out and glued to the background. 
Then I went to town with the embellishing. Sewed some seed beads around the perimeter of the label die cut as well as some 'stars' in the sky, then went back with a Souffle pen for more stars. 

The sentiment 'postmark' is from LOTV's Set 18 Greetings Postmarks embossed in white. 


Keep your eyes peeled for more sneak peeks on the Inspire Blog, there are some new designs that I am very excited about!


Thanks for visiting!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Versamark, Memento
Paper: Memory Box, SU, Hammermill color copy used for all digital patterned papers from Raspberry Road Designs
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, Martha Stewart edge punch, seed beads, Souffle pen, Copics, Stickles, Inkessentials white gel pen, colored pencils, OMS, satin ribbon, Americana acrylic paint, paint brush

New Beginnings

Good morning everyone! I feel spring coming our way, it was almost too warm today if you can believe it! I saw the first signs of spring driving to work today, the bright yellows of Forsythia, and Daffodils! Actually here in PA, we are a few weeks behind and everything is still gray and brown. But a mere 40 miles away (where I work) is where I am already seeing signs of life. So, to celebrate these early signs of spring, I have an appropriate card to share with you all today. One of my all time favorite colors is Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist and SU's Soft Sky (retired, poo!) and I decided to feature that color on this card.

I did a lot of masking to create this jar full of speckled eggs and colored them with my Copics BG000 and BG72. I embossed the jar lid with silver embossing powder and layered it over the cute ruffled 'skirt' around the mouth of the jar. 

Then I added some sprigs of wildflowers from the 'Life' stamp set tied with a bow. I matted the whole thing on a Spellbinders Label stamped with Gina K's stamp set. 
I'm not sure what occasion this card would be for, maybe a new baby, or a wedding maybe? The sentiment 'New Beginnings' could be appropriate for a few things, I guess. We'll see....


I hope spring is coming your way too and thanks for stopping by!


Stamps: Papertrey Ink, Gina K
Ink: Adirondack, Versamark, Perfect Match, A-Muse Studios
Paper: Papertrey Ink
Tools & Accessories: PTI Life dies, white & silver embossing powder, Spellbinders Labels, PTI twill ribbon, Copics, Martha Stewart corner punch, white pearl

Shamrocks

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Good morning everyone, I'm not sure exactly what St. Patrick's day is all about. Maybe nothing, maybe something wonderful, all I know is it's a fun holiday to make cards for! I'm not Irish, but I love their lovely countryside, their accents and their rubber stamps, ha! Good enough for me! Here's a card featuring those 'Lucky Kitties' from Lili of the Valley.

I love using Basic Grey Origins for St. Patrick's day, perfect combination of greens and earthy browns. The kitties were colored with Copics, and shaded with colored pencils. 

I found this gorgeous shamrock frame in the freebie section of the Silhouette Plus forum. I was so worried I would not be able to get it to cut right on my Cameo, especially because I was going to use very thick PTI cardstock, but I ratcheted the pressure up to 4, and it cut like a dream! So happy....

Thank you for visiting my blog, have a safe and happy St. Patrick's day, I'm off to start the corned beef!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Catslife Press sentiment seal
Ink: Memento, Palette
Papers: Basic Grey, Core'dinations, PTI
Tools & Accessories: Cameo, Copics, Prismacolor colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, Nesties, PTI satin ribbon, embroidery floss

Serenity

Good morning friends, are you excited that it's Friday? I sure am, I am looking forward to an entire weekend of uninterrupted crafting. I have some sick folk in the house though, my son and dear Jimmy, so hopefully I won't be running around nursing them both, lol! We all know how men get when they have a little cold, HA!

Onto my card.. no coloring on this one. One of the nice ladies Jimmy and I know from work was in need of a sympathy card, so I had to come up with one on the fly. 

I used PTI's anniversary set Pretty Peonies again, can I just say I LOVELOVE this set!? I stamped the peony image several times with two colors of inks, then did some fussy cutting so I could layer the petals. 

I finally caved in and got SU's Hello Doily stamp. I just couldn't resist it's beauty anymore. I'm not really too compulsive a stamp buyer, sometimes it takes me months to buy something I've been keeping my eye on. This is one of them. I went for the popular technique of embossing in white and sponging some color around it to really make those intricate details pop.


Hope you like it, thanks for visiting!

Stamps: PTI, SU
Ink: Versamark, Fresh Ink, Distress
Paper: PTI
Tools & Accessories: PTI dies, white EP, PTI ribbon, clear EP, Glaze pen