Strawberry Curry

When I was doing my projects for the recent SA New Colors Blog Hop, I got a bit carried away! I was having so much fun playing with Crushed Curry, I just couldn't stop :) This started out as a tag, then I stuck it on a cardfront. I better remake the tag, because I think it is just gorgeous!

I haven't quite decided if this will be a birthday or a hello card. I will stamp the greeting where my watermark is later, in Early Espresso. Unless it is too big, then I will make a little banner in white for the sentiment. The flowers are on watercolor paper and the only yellow I used is the Crushed Curry. I love this little Strawberry Slush centers! And can you see the shimmery flowers in the background? They really add something in real life :)

• Stamps: Secret Garden
• Ink: Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Illuminate
• Paper: Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Strawberry Slush, Watercolor
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Secret Garden framelits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Signo white gel pen, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, Embossing Buddy, White embossing powder, Heat Gun, Doily, Aqua-painter, dimensionals, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Gingham Garden Washi Tape

Mom's Flowers

Does this look a little familiar? Sorry, I just had to make another card with this color combo and pattern. Some things bear repeating.

 

 A few die cuts, layers, and some ribbon and this card is all dressed up with somewhere to go! My mother's favorite color used to be yellow. I don't know what it is anymore, and if she is anything like me, it changes fairly frequently! 

• Stamps: Secret Garden, Wonderful Mother
• Ink: Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso, Illuminate, Craft Whisper White
• Paper: Naturals White, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Secret Garden and Apothecary Accents framelits, 1¼" Circle punch, Early Espresso ¼" Stitched Grosgrain ribbon, Embossing Buddy, Heat GUn, White embossing powder, Aquapainter, dimensionals

I hope I have inspired you all to create your own Mother's Day cards. Handmade is the best :)

Jar of Love

Here is another Mother's Day card! It would work for anyone really, but my intention was Mother's Day. Sadly, all of the stamps I used are retiring! Retiring stamp sets are available through June 3, 2013 though so you can still get these sets for a little while longer.

I stamped the jar, then uses a blender pen and Pool party ink to add some blue shading. The jar was cut out with the coordinating die. The hydrangea-like flower was punched out with the small oval punch and the blue flower has a coordinating die also. Don't ask me why I chose Pumpkin Pie ribbon..... I still don't know!

• Stamps: Perfectly Preserved, Friendly Phrases
• Ink: Basic Gray, Pool Party, Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Gumball Green
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Cannery framelits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, 1/8" Pumpkin Pie Taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, Small Oval, Corner Rounder, and 1¼" Square punches

I have at least 1 more Mother's Day card to show you, and some more Main Catalog Preview stuff in the days to come!

Wishful Thinking

Here in the frozen tundra (that would be Northern Minnesota right now) we are wishing spring had sprung! I know that it will eventually. But I swear, if there is still snow on the ground in June, I am going to cry. I need some sunshine, and to play in the dirt. So in the meantime, instead of planting flowers, I will have to stamp them. I just finally broke down and ordered the Secret Garden bundle. I really like it. I hadn't seen too many cards I liked with it, but I knew I could do stuff with it that I would like.

This was the first thing I made with this set, and I love it, even though it is a nearly one-layer card. It has enough complexity to make me happy :) I used the Aquapainter and some Whisper White reinker to paint the line art flowers after embossing them in white.

• Stamps: Hey There, Friend and Secret Garden
• Ink: Illuminate, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso, Whisper White Craft
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Summer Starfruit
• Other: Embossing Buddy, Heat Gun, White embossing powder, Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon, Signo white gel pen, sticky strip

Sahara Wisteria Plum

It is the season to make a pile of Mother's Day cards! At my house at least :) I need to take a bunch to sell at work. I needed a little inspiration, so I hopped over to MojoMonday and Friday Mashup! for a little help.

 I started with the color challenge from Friday Mashup, which was Sahara Sand, Wisteria Wonder, and Perfect Plum. A bit of a challenge, I must admit.

Then I looked at a couple sketch challenges and finally settled on this one. And away I went!

There are a lot of layers on this puppy! I like how it turned out though. I used a technique I learned from a swapping friend of mine, Debra Burgin. She called it Faux Bleach, and what you do is take an Aquapainter and pick up some Whisper White Craft reinker and paint it onto your images on colored paper. I don't think it looks like bleach on this card, but I really like the effect anyway :)

• Stamps: Secret Garden, Wonderful Mother
• Ink: Whisper White Craft, Illuminate (for embossing), Basic Gray, Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum
• Paper: Sahara Sand, Naturals White, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, In-Color DSP pack
• Other: Big Shot with Secret Garden framelit and Honeycomb embossing folder, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, Wisteria Wonder Baker's Twine, Embossing Buddy, Heat Gun, White embossing powder, Aquapainter, dimensionals, 1¾" Circle punch, Signo white gel pen, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, sewing machine and thread

More Mother's Day cards to come, so stay tuned!

Roses for Mom

I fell in love with the Stippled Roses set this fall, bought it, then let it sit on the shelf for months thinking "why did I buy that set?" Then, I started playing with it last month while I was dreaming of summer, and gardening, and the flowers I might plant come spring. I found that I really do love this set! You can create beautiful roses and little posies effortlessly with it!

This is actually a card I made for a swap, so I made ten of them, but only kept one. And did you notice that I used more of the Print Poetry DSP pack? I have 24 out of 48 sheets left with 2 months to go before it retires! Do you think I will get it all used up?
The Core'dinations got a little action here too, and well as several other accessories from the Occasions Mini. I didn't realize how much stuff was from the mini until I had finished them all!

• Stamps: Stippled Roses, Wonderful Mother
• Ink: Summer Starfruit, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso
• Paper: Primrose Petals Core'dinations, Sahara Sand, Naturals White, Print Poetry DSP pack
• Other: Big Shot with Lacey Brocade embossing folder and Ovals framelits, Occasions Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer and Mat, Natural Trim ribbon, Pearls Basic Jewels, White Tea Lace Doily, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals

I think this could be used for any occasion to your mother, depending on what you write on the inside. 

Zippers for Mom-USWDAF

 Lookie what I made! Zipper Cards! I have seen just a few of these and decided to figure out how to make them using tools I already have. It was actually pretty simple, and the result is so fun! I wrote a tutorial for them and you can find it by clicking on the link at the end of this post and purchasing a pass to the Cards with Cool Moves 2012 event. My tutorial was posted on March 29th and is available NOW :)

Here is the suite of cards I made, 2 of them have zippers.

Here is a zipper "unzipped". Don't you love it?! Click on the link below to buy your pass to this awesome event. There will be over 30 Cool Moves with full tutorials, and at least 3 cards per tutorial! All for 24.99

Petal Pizzazz for Mother's Day

As I mentioned a few days ago, I am a Guest designer for another UStampwithDawnandFriends.com event. This one is called Big Shot Brilliance and features LOTS of ways to use your Big Shot!

Here is the card I made to go with my project.

And the gift bag.....

And a cute little gift tag!

And the centerpiece of my project group, a small quilt made with lots of different Big Shot dies, all of the SU fabrics, and lots of SU embellishments!

If you would like the details on how to make this, check out the Big Shot Brilliance event, there are lots of amazing ideas posted already and we are only on day 8 out of 20 with 16 projects posted already!!