Grow with Love Card - TMS #514

Hello and happy Tuesday! This weeks sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches by Melissa Craig is really open for your creativity. It's been awhile since I used watercolor, so I decided to watercolor an image by Unity Stamps called Angie's Tree for this Grow with Love Card. The design team has some wonderful inspiration and we all took a different approach to this sketch. I sure hope you will join us this week and link your creation. You have until 8 pm EST on Sunday to play along. There is always a great prize for one lucky winner and it could be you. Click HERE for all the challenge details and design team inspiration. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Sketch #514:

Watercolor Kitten Card

Happy Friday! I have a quick post to share my latest card. After reading yesterday was National Pet Day, I figured I should make a card to honor our feline companions. We have rescued several throughout the years and enjoy sharing our home with them. They each have their own personalities and help to make life interesting.  😊

This Watercolor Kitten Card features a new stamp by Unity Stamps called Kitten Encouragement and my card was definitely inspired by the example by Karen Maldonado. It's been awhile since I've used watercolors, so that's what I did. To watercolor the image I used my Aqua Painter and Stampin' Up! classic ink pads. The background paper was already cut and sitting on my desk. Everything was adhered flat for easy shipping and that's it. Enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for stopping by!

Challenges entered:

• As You Like It: Favourite Animal
• Creative Knockouts: Spring Is On the Way
• Double D: Watercolor 
• Moving Along With the Times: That Spring Feeling

Masculine Thanks Card

Hello! Tomorrow I have my follow-up appointment with my surgeon, so I made him this Masculine Thanks Card. Blue is the hospital colors and a nice manly color which works well in a monochrome color scheme. I used Night of Navy cardstock by Stampin' Up! and a bright blue from Core'dinations. The background was watercolored using Higgins blue watercolor ink and watercolor paper.  The top is a die called Glass Effects by Spellbinders and the thanks die is by Stampin' Up! Three glimmer stickers by Sticko were added for some extra interest and that's it!

I really like the Glass Effects die for masculine cards. The abstract look is fun and this card was pretty easy to make. It's sad that I've had this die for two years and this is only the second time I've used it. Click HERE to see the first card. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Masculine Thanks Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Watercolor Wednesday: Masculine Anything Goes
• Love to Create: Anything Creative/Mixed Media
• Let's Craft and Create: Hey Dude
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends: Anything Goes

Purple Watercolor Rose Card

This month is National Domestic Violence Awareness and purple is the color that signifies this cause. The color purple has been my favorite of mine for a very long time! Although I love the color purple, I don't love the statistics that come with Domestic Violence. I live in Oklahoma and our state ranks third in the nation for the number of women killed by men in domestic violence situations. A ten year study showed that 41% of all homicides in our state were linked to Domestic Violence. This not only affects women but children living in the home. In 70% of the cases where an abused child dies, there has been a pattern of abuse against the mother. The numbers tell a very sad story and I hope you will help spread the word this month by creating a card using purple and joining the Blog Hop at The Hop to Stop organized by Becca at The Damsel of Distressed.

 For this Purple Watercolor Rose Card I combined my favorite color, favorite rose stamp by Inkadinkado and one of my favorite layouts. The rose was watercolored using Watercolor Paints by Close to my Heart and then die cut using cross stitched ovals by My Favorite Things. Two pieces of patterned paper were used and matted to Elegant Eggplant cardstock. If you look closely you can see butterflies in the lavender paper by Signify Pink. The dark purple has a floral swirl pattern and it's from The Paper Studio. To finish off the card some Elegant Eggplant twine from Stampin' Up! was added along with a stamped/punched Bitty Butterfly and the sentiment from Crafter's Companion. That's it!

This Purple Watercolor Rose Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Sweet Stampin': Favourite Colour Combo
• Card in Envy: Purple and Green
• Let's Color Linky Party: Hand Colored Image

It's Launch Time!

Hooray!!! It's time for the launch of the new Brentwood Owl Trick or Treat Halloween stamp set by Jessica Lynn Original. Here is one of my cards featuring the adorable Brentwood with his jack-o-lanterns. Don't you just love this image? Are you feeling lucky? Then you definitely want to check out the Jessica Lynn Original blog for the giveaway details. To celebrate the stamp launch Jessica is giving away a stamp set to one lucky person, it could be you. 

The design team has created some spooky fun inspiration for you and here are links to their blogs:

·  Lisa Reynolds Bzibziak – http://bzscrapper66.blogspot.com/

·  Jeanette Cloyd – http://creativeplayischeaperthantherapy.blogspot.com/

·  Maria Russell – https://www.mariarusselldesigns.com/ 

·  Erica A – http://www.instagram.com/erica_cacacraft

·  Angeline Choo – http://scrappyscrappy.blogspot.com/

I know they would love for you stop by and check out their creations. If you missed the sneak peek on Thursday of my Trick or Treat Cats Card CLICK HERE. Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Best Birds Birthday Card

Happy Saturday! With nothing on the agenda for the weekend, the hubby and I are taking it easy today. My one goal was to make a card using primary colors for challenges at SU-Only and Color Throwdown. Last night I searched through the current Stampin' Up! catalog to find some inspiration and decided I would use the Best Birds for the challenge. The design is from a card I cased on page 52 of the Stampin' Up! catalog. All images and sentiment came from the Best Birds stamp set and I used the coordinating Birds & Blooms Thinlit Dies. Watercolor paper was used for the images and background. After heat embossing the background with clear embossing powder I used Aqua Painters and the Dapper Denim ink pad for color. The bird was watercolored with three shades of yellow: Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry and Delightful Dijon. Real Red was used for the flowers, Wild Wasabi for the leaves and Crumb Cake for the branch. To anchor the focal area a 1.25" of Dapper Denim cardstock was embossed with the Petal Burst embossing folder and Craft ink applied for highlights. That's pretty much it!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Best Birds Birthday Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Color Throwdown: Red, Yellow, Green & Blue (CTD408)
• SU-Only: Primary Colors
• Cut It Up!: Watercolor

Bold Birthday Card

Good day! Becca at The Damsel of Distressed is celebrating her 30th birthday with a photo inspiration and link-up on her blog. To wish her a happy birthday I made this Bold Birthday Card using the colors from her photo along with a circle element for the focal area. The background was made using watercolor paper, pink and turquoise glimmer mist, blue watercolor ink, sour apple sparkles dimensional paint by Tulip and Stickles. There is really a lot of sparkle on this card that doesn't show up in the photo. The center circle stamp is by Close to My Heart and the birthday sentiment is by Hero Arts. Bright yellow cardstock was used to mat the circle and yellow twine wrapped three times for detail. Three sequins were added for some extra sparkle and that's it! I had a lot of fun making this card and I hope Becca likes it.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This card is linked to the following blogs:

• The Damsel of Distressed: Birthday Celebration
• Seize the Birthday: Bold & Bright
• Craft Your Passion: Anything Goes

Inspiration Photo:

Father's Day Card with Bicycle

It's been a crazy humid day here in Oklahoma, which made for a good excuse to stay indoors My niece is visiting for a couple of days and she requested to use my supplies to make her dad a Father's Day Card. He likes to ride bicycles and rides in competitions, so it only made sense to make a card using a bike. However, this required a trip to the craft store because the only bike stamps in my stash are girly. We didn't have much luck at the store in the stamp department and luckily found some 3-D stickers that worked perfectly. She used watercolor paper and watercolored the background to look like a sky and road. The road was stamped using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set by Stampin' Up! and Staz On black ink. Two small die cut clouds were cut using an Impression Obsession die. The Father's Day sentiment is by Hero Arts and the stickers were added. It turned out great!

 My niece Hailey, who is twelve, would like to enter her card into the following challenges:

• The Male Room: Father's Day
• Through The Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
• Tuesday Throwdown: Watercolor
• Crafty Cardmakers: For a Special Man

Watercolor All Occasion Card

Good day! I hope you are doing well! This week has been a long one for me starting with an emergency room visit early Sunday morning with severe abdominal pain. I'm just now starting to feel somewhat "normal". If normal is possible?

This afternoon my goal was to make a cute all occasion card. I knew I wanted to do a little watercoloring and use a new to me stamp by Penny Black called So Kind. The image is large, so I finished the scene by adding a die cut tree branch which helped fill in the top portion of the card. After the main panel was complete it was adhered to a piece of Pool Party cardstock. That's it!

I'm entering this Watercolor All Occasion Card into the following challenges:

• Tuesday Throwdown: Furry Friends
• 4 Crafty Chicks: Scenic
• Make My Monday: Watercolor
• Crafting With An Attitude: Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Chevron Watercolor Card

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and this week the challenge is to Watercolor. Our sponsor is Freckled Fawn and they generously provided the darling silver puffy heart sticker used on my Chevron Watercolor Card.

To create the watercolored panel I used a chevron stencil by Clear Scraps along with my Aqua Painters. Using watercolor paper, I first die cut the stitched panel with Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles. Then I added ink colors by Stampin' Up! which include: Blushing Bride, Rose Red and Cherry Cobbler. You can't really see it in the photo but I added clear Wink of Stella to the larger rows of chevron to give it a little sparkle. The sentiment is from TPC Studios and was heat embossed with Blushing Bride emboss powder. To add a little more interest a strip of Rose Red cardstock was embossed using the Decorative Dots embossing folder and the watercolor panel was adhered using stampin' dimensionals. That's it!

We would love for you to join us this week! You have until mid-day on Monday 10/19/2015 to play along. Click here to check out the wonderful inspiration from the design team. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

This Chevron Watercolor Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp: Wonderful Watercolor
• Crafty Boots: Use Pink
• Ooh La La Creations: Pretty in Pink
• Where The HeART is: Anything Goes/Use Stencils

Moon Lake Watercolor Card

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see." ~Thoreau

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely day. Mine has been nice and quiet, just the way I like it. The hubby and I did a few errands this afternoon and when we came home he wanted to watch something on the television, so I played in my craft room.

This Moon Lake Watercolor Card was inspired by the color challenge at Create with Connie and Mary to use: Tip Top Taupe, Lost Lagoon and Perfect Plum. It seemed like a good day to do a little watercoloring and I really wanted to make a purple sky, I don't know why. The watercolored panel was adhered to Perfect Plum cardstock. I decided to use striped patterned paper from the Cherry on Top paper stack to play along at A Gem of A Challenge (Spots and/or Stripes). To add some texture and interest I used Tip Top Taupe lace along with some Lost Lagoon thick twine. That's it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweetbriar Rose Card

It's sad when you buy a stamp because you really love it and then it sits unused for over six months. That's the case with the Sweetbriar Rose stamp featured on this card. I really love it but always thought it was too large of an A2 sized card. This week The Paper Players is having a square card challenge and I thought it would be the perfect time to use this neglected Sweetbriar Rose stamp.

To create this Sweetbriar Rose Card I created a 5.25" square card from Whisper White cardstock. A slightly smaller piece of Soft Sky cardstock was cut and then the patterned papers from the Painted Blooms dsp. Then I stamped the image using Memento Black ink onto watercolor paper and then die cut it using a stitched rectangle die by Lil'Inkers. Then I watercolored the image using Aqua Painters and Classic Stampin' Pads in Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green and Soft Sky. The sentiment stamp is from the Wetlands stamp set and I added a Daffodil Delight bitty butterfly from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set accented with faux pearls by Recollections. It's rare that I use ribbon because I love twine, but I added some Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon for detail. That's pretty much it!

This card is entered into the following challenges:

• The Paper Players: It's Hip to be Square
• The Friday Mashup!: Square Shaped Card
• Penny Black and More: Summer Flowers

All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless noted. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back soon.

Blooming Birthday Card

Good day my crafty friends! I have a quick post to share this Blooming Birthday Card made for the Color Throwdown (CTD353) Challenge. It's amazing that they picked my favorite colors: Purple, Green and Yellow. I love these colors together! The design team did a fabulous job with their inspiration and I'm completely in love with Tammy Hershberger's Card, click here to visit her blog. You can definitely tell my design was inspired by her card.

To create this Blooming Birthday Card I started with watercolor paper and used Purple Twilight Adirondack Alcohol Ink by Tim Holtz. For the lighter purple I diluted several drops of ink into a small portion of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and used a paint brush over the top of a Happy Patterns Decorative Masks by Stampin' Up!. The mask is part of an assortment of four patterns. Then I used the ink full strength to brush on the darker shade. I wasn't going for perfection and I wanted a messy watercolored look, so the running was fine with me. Then the flower from the Flower Patch stamp set was stamped twice, once using Crushed Curry and once with Daffodil Delight. I fussy cut the center of the Daffodil Delight flower and adhered it to the center of the Crushed Curry flower to give it a little more interest. ( I may have to break down and get bifocal glasses this year. The fussy cutting and small details are getting harder to see! Ugh!!!) The leaves were die cut using Gumball Green cardstock and the sentiment was stamped using Gumball Green ink. The final touches were the silver brad in the middle of the flower and the three silver sequins for some sparkle. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

*All supplies by Stampin' Up! unless noted.

Masculine Thinking of You Card

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely day. It's been nice and calm around my house today and that gave me some time to make this Masculine Thinking of You Card. The card started by finding the current color challenge CCMC352 at Create with Connie & Mary. At first glance I wasn't sure about the colors, but the design team came up with some wonderful inspiration and I had to play along. The colors are: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky and Basic Gray. I decided masculine was the way to go and the Wetlands stamp set seemed to be the natural choice. I'm currently out of Soft Sky cardstock so I used a piece of paper from the Painted Blooms dsp. To add more color to the edges of the paper I sponged some Soft Sky ink. I stamped the goose onto watercolor paper with Memento black ink and used my aqua painters to add color. The sentiment was stamped directly onto the Soft Sky Paper using Memento black ink. I embossed a narrow strip of Wild Wasabi cardstock using the Arrows embossing folder and added some Basic Gray twine. That's it! There is still a couple of days to play along, click here to go directly to the challenge. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Watercolor Sympathy Card

Good afternoon crafty friends! Many of you may know that I'm from Oklahoma and today is the 20th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. On April 19, 1995 there were 168 lives lost including 19 young children in the building's day care center. An additional 650 individuals were injured in the attack and countless lives affected by the tragedy. There has been a lot of news coverage this week and interviews with survivors. Although, I was hundreds of miles away from the city that day, I can still remember what I was doing when it happened and the crushing feeling when I heard the news. My heart goes out to those still grieving from this disaster.

I would like to share this Watercolor Sympathy Card with my friends at The Paper Players for their Clean and Simple Watercolor Challenge. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

Sympathy Card Supplies are by Stampin' Up!:

• Paper: Mossy Meadow cardstock, Soft Sky patterned paper from Painted Blooms dsp and Watercolor paper.
• Inks: Classic stampin' pads in Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Mossy Meadow, Tangelo Twist and Cajun Craze. Stampin' write marker in Summer Starfruit and Memento ink in Black.
• Stamps: World of Dreams, Simply Sketched (sentiment) and Papillon Potpourri. 
• Other Stuff: Aqua painters, Elegant Butterfly punch, basic pearls and stampin' dimensional.

Noble Deer Thanks Card

Oh boy! Cardz 4 Guyz has a NO Patterned Paper challenge this week and for me, it was a challenge. We all have our favorite things to use and mine is patterned paper. So, when I sat down to create a card without it, I decided to do a little water-coloring. Searching through my stash I noticed there were zero masculine thanks cards. So I decided that's what I would make. Using the retired Noble Deer for the focal image it was stamped using StazOn Timber Brown ink and then I used my Aqua Painters and classic stampin' pads to add color. Ink colors used include: Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake and Baked Brown Sugar all by Stampin' Up!. The card base is made from kraft cardstock. Then I trimmed a piece of Pear Pizzazz cardstock the same size as the front of the card. To make it smaller and to give it a decorative edge, I used a pair of Fiskars Deckle scissors. To darken the edges I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink by Tim Holtz. The next step was adhering the focal image and twine and adhering the panel to the card. Instead of stamping a sentiment I decided to use my Cricut machine to create the layered Thanks and that completed this Noble Deer Thanks Card.  We would love for you to play along at Cardz 4 Guyz! For more inspiration click here to see what the design team is sharing. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day!

My Noble Deer Thanks Card is entered into the following challenges:

• Just Us Girls: Water-Coloring
• Cards in Envy: EnTWINEd
• Animal Friends: Use an Animal

Hello Fall Card for The Paper Players

Howdy! It's Sunday again and time for another wonderful challenge from The Paper Players. This week Ann is hostess and has selected fall as the theme! Happy Fall Y'all! is the title and I am certainly ready for fall to arrive. My card has a little bit of everything in it. I've used brand new, current and retired Stampin' Up! products to create this Hello Fall Card. The last couple of weeks I've loved the negative space designs from the design team and participants, so I decided to create my own. I searched for colorful sunsets and found a lovely photo (see below) that inspired the focal image. To create the focal design I used watercolor paper and the current Lovely As a Tree stamp set. Using StazOn ink in Timber Brown I stamped the trees and then used my Aqua Painters and classic stampin' pads to add color. I decided to use the retired Natural Composition woodgrain paper to frame the image. To create the whitewash look, I used Craft Stampin' ink and sponged it all over the paper. Then using a cloth to wipe the ink from the glossy areas. The leaves were stamped using the retired Gently Falling stamp set, this set is one of my all time favorites. I used the rock-n-roll technique to give the leaves a shaded look. To finish the card I added the sentiment from the new For All Things stamp set, an antique brad and some natural jute twine. I really enjoyed making this card and I hope it helps inspire you to play along at The Paper Players fall theme challenge. I'm submitting my card at this weeks Leaves challenge at Just Us Girls.

The design team really went all out this week and have created some marvelous inspiration. Click here to check out their designs. You have until NOON (PST) on Friday, Sept. 12th to participate in the challenge. I hope to see your card in the gallery! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your day.

Photo by: Marcia Breznay

By the Tide Watercolor Card

Welcome to my first post as a guest designer at the Paper Players! It was a lot of fun creating my card for this weeks theme challenge. This week Nance is the hostess and the theme is "Let's go to the Beach!"

To create my card I quickly decided to use the By the Tide stamp set and watercolor paper. It just made sense! To start, I used Pool Party ink and my aqua painters and covered the entire watercolor paper panel. I let the panel dry some but not completely and stamped the reef images with Soft Suede and Crumb Cake inks. The ink didn't bleed like I wanted, so I went back and dabbed my aqua painter on a few selected areas. Then I stamped the seahorses in Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist. Using my aqua painter and Pool Party ink I went back in between the seahorses to make it look more watery. When the panel was dry I adhered it to a panel of Pool Party cardstock. To add some texture I wrapped the bottom with a trimmed and frayed burlap ribbon and the metallic silver baker's twine. I then went digging for treasure in my bead collection and found the silver seashell charm by Blue Moon. Once everything was tied together I used dimensionals to adhere the panel to the base of Soft Suede layered with Natural cardstock. The edge detail on the Natural cardstock was made using Fiskars deckle scissors. The final touch was the Nantucket anchor circle detail and this card was complete. I hope you like it! Unless stated all supplies are by Stampin' Up! 

Please join us over at the Paper Players! (click here)  The challenge is open through Friday, July 11th, 2014 at Noon (PDT). Stop by and say hello to the rest of the new Guest Designers and the Design Team to see what they are sharing this week. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!   

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile
Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Nance Leedy

Sandy Mathis

Guest Designers

Andrea Whisman

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James
Laurie Schmidt

Mike Funke

Yapha Mason 

  

Hello, You Card

Wow! This weekend flew by and this week my schedule is packed. Knowing I won't have a lot of crafting time, I created this Hello, You Card this evening. I used this weeks sketch at the Paper Players. I love the colors in the card created by Sandy Mathis, click here for her card. I used patterned paper from the new All Abloom paper stack (133703) by Stampin' Up! The flower is from the retired Secret Garden stamp set. I stamped it on watercolor paper and used my Aqua Painters with Strawberry Slush, Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight and a little Crushed Curry inks to add color. The sentiment is from the Regarding Dahlias stamp set and was heat embossed with white embossing powder. I then added some heat embossed faux stitching on the banners. Well, that's about it. I hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by!

Dabbling with Watercolor

This week my neighbor and I got together and we did a little watercoloring. She wanted me to show her how to use the Stampin' Up! Aqua Painters. I used a retired stamp for my focal image from the Bordering on Romance stamp set by Stampin' Up!. I stamped the image on watercolor paper with StazOn Jet Black ink and then used the following Stampin' Up! colors: Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Island Indigo and Wild Wasabi to watercolor the image. The thanks sentiment is from the Another Thank You Photopolymer stamp set (136835). I dry embossed the wild wasabi cardstock and added calypso coral twine with a little butterfly charm. The details on this card are minimal but it keeps the focus on the watercoloring. Well, that's about it. If you haven't tried watercoloring yet, you should give it a try. The Aqua Painters make it super easy to do! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

• Just Add Ink: Just Add Watercolour
• Inkspirational: Bloom
• Addicted to Stamps: Make your Mark!