Homemade by...

Welcome!

Did you check out Julies Gift Tag post yesterday?  Are they adorable or what? 

I have another tag for you today - I just came at it from the opposite direction... I am so completely far behind I don't even have time to sit down and make a whole card so I went the gift tag route to attach to some of my home baked treats that I hand out at Christmas :)  At least I'm ahead on something!

I started by stamping our Woven Plaid using red, green and yellow inks. I stamped our Handmade Santa on a scrap of white, colored it  and trimmed it to fit my plaid with just a bit of green layer behind it.  Everything was layered on handmade green tag with 2 holes at the top for my ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!!
Sue

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Santa Line-up

Welcome!

One of the fun things about moving my stamping stuff to a new location was cleaning it all out and finding things I hadn't seen in years.  I found quite a large stash of odds and ends that didn't work for whatever reason and now I'm doing my best to clean them all out and put them to good use.

My Santa Line-up came from the pile.  It's not 5 separate Santa's, it one long line of masked Santa Face images that I had previously fussy cut along the bottom.  Last night I finished fussy cutting along the top and colored the hats in red.  I layered it on green and then red before attaching it to a white layer and then on a folded green card.  I stamped our Especially to You greeting as shown using green ink.  My last step last night was to apply some liquid applique on the hat band and pom pom and let it dry over night so I could puff it up today.  Sadly, it's not as white as I would have liked so I'm off now to shop for a new tube :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Thanksgiving Pumpkins

Welcome!

It is so good to be back to stamping - especially at my favorite stamping time of year!  One of the things I noticed about my fall stamping is that I tend to be a bit repetitive when it comes to backgrounds.  I either do plaid (my all time favorite :) or leaves.  So I challenged myself to not use either for my card this week.

So I ended up deciding on pumpkins!

I started my card by stamping our Pumpkin Pile in the bottom left corner and then 3 more times on scrap so I could create some masks.  Once the cutting was finished it was pretty easy to create this large pile of pumpkins.  Just stamp and move the masks.  One I finished coloring them with my alcohol markers and watercolor pencil combo I put the masks back on so I could sponge in the blue sky.  The Hayrides Greeting was stamped on white, sponged with yellow and layered on blue and everything was adhered to a folded black card.

I was having so much fun with the Pumpkin Pile I decided to try a "no color" version.  I switched to orange ink and filled the entire card and then sponged the edges with orange ink.  My Thanksgiving Greeting was again stamped on white using brown ink and layered on orange.  For the focal pumpkins I went back to the Pumpkin Pile and stamped it on scrap and fussy cut the 2 smallest pumpkins on it.  After coloring I coated the first one with some glitter glue and when dry I assembled it as shown.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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Filigree Pumpkin

Welcome!

Can you believe I'm back?  It's been so long since I have been able to stamp, but I just couldn't let fall go by without making a Thanksgiving card! 

Here's the funny part.... I've had so many stamping ideas running through my head but when I sat down to actually stamp, my mind was a total blank.  It was like I'd never stamped before!  Once I decided on the stamps I wanted to use things got a bit better :)

I started by inking our Filigree Pumpkin using orange ink and using the corner of my green pad for the stem and leaf and stamping it on white card stock, trimming and sponging the edged with yellow ink.  I also tapped the edges on my orange ink pad for a very fine line border.  I was a bit lost until I found a scrap of plaid paper I made last year using our Woven Plaid and yellow and butterscotch inks.  All that was left was to add the Happy Thanksgiving in orange ink and layer it all on a folded orange card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!  Fingers crossed I'll be back next week :)
Sue

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On the road with Camo

Greetings from West Springfield!!  We’re here at the Rubber Stamps and Paper Arts Festival showing off our new Camo Background!

Here’s some of the wonderful combos we came up with!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Soldier Thank You

Welcome!


I couldn't think of a better card to post on Memorial Day weekend than one thanking part of our military, so that's what I focused on and this is what I came up with.

I started by stamping our new Camouflage Background  randomly on some white card stock using a vintage green ink.  My next step was to repeat the process using the same ink pad but stamping off once before stamping my card.  Once I had a pattern I liked I sponged on the same green ink to fill in the white spaces.  Once that was finished I stamped our Army Seal on white and colored and fussy cut it.  The last element was stamping our Deco Thank You on green card stock and layering it with black and attaching all to a folded black card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Lightning Strikes at DRS!

Wow.  Have you seen all the cool cards made with this new Lightning Bolt stamp?  Everyone has used it is different ways, and this one stamp has made an awesome embellishment!

Julie used it to make an awesome card a few days ago.

Sue used it to create this great nature//rain scene.

Robin did a western themed card - I can hear those horses now.

Shelia's scene makes me want to dance in the rain (maybe a little further from that lightening).

Robin created an sweet rainbow card full of fun colors.

I created a streaky rain scene and did my lightning in glitter.

Karin used a super fun sketch and doubled up her lightning bolt!

This stamp is super fun and reasonably priced (especially if you buy it unmounted).

Hugz and enjoy your Sunday!

Nancy

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Grad Frame

Welcome!


I actually had a lot of fun finding just the right stamps to fit inside our new Wooden Frame and in the end it's the hand holding the diploma that I like best :)

I started my card by stamping our new Wooden Frame on white card stock and then on a piece of scrap so I could make a reverse mask. I covered the 3 bottom openings first and stamped the Congratulations from our Grad Saying.  Next I covered that opening with scrap and removed the covering from the center left section and stamped our Teacher Tools and then did the same with the last 2 sections stamping both our Grad Tassel and then just the hand from our Male Graduate but you could use our Female Graduate as well.  Once I removed all the masks I colored everything using watercolor pencils and a blender pen.  The most time consuming part of the whole card was finding just the right background :)  I tried several stamped backgrounds that just seemed too busy and a couple of plain ones that were too plain.  I finally decided on my favorite swiss dots embossing folder.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Leonard Graduates!!

Welcome!

Here's a quick graduation card for you today!

I started off by stamping our new Grad Hat Hooray using black ink on white card stock.  I stamped our new Hats Off to the Grad on a separate scrap and trimmed it and layered it on red.  I also stamped our favorite graduate - Leonard the Pig on scrap and colored and fussy cut him.  I assembled it all together on a red folded card adding a black strip of card stock across the bottom of the background.

Thanks for stopping by,
Sue

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Dancing in the Rain

Welcome!

First off, let me say that I'm not a dancing in the rain kinda gal :)  I much prefer to curl up with a good book and enjoy the coziness!

I started my card by stamping our Double Tall Pine trees, masking them and stamping them again slightly higher.  I stamped our new Lightening Bolt in the top right corner and then started my coloring.  It was all done with watercolor pencils and a blending marker using several blues/purples and 3 different greens for the trees.  It wasn't quite gloomy enough so I added some black sponging to the edges.  Since the lightening got a bit smudged I added some extra whiteness with a gel pen and then stamped our Raindrop Background across the entire card using grey ink.  To finish it off I stamped our Dancing in the Rain greeting in the bottom right corner using black ink and layered it on a black folded card.

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Graduation Inspiration

Welcome!

I have several graduations to attend this year so I'm happy to be getting a jump on the cards I'll need!  I've done several already and this one ended up being a favorite!

I started by die cutting the ovals out of blue and white card stock.  I stamped the smallest blue oval with our new Inspired Dreams graduation stamp using black ink and stamped it a second time on white card stock for the center scroll.  On the larger blue oval I stamped our new Grad Hat Hooray as a background and layered all four on a piece of grey card stock with sponged black edges.  Since it still need something I stamped just the grad cap from our Congratulations on your Graduation stamp on white and colored, fussy cut and attached it to my card and layered everything on a folded black card.

Thanks for stopping by!
Sue

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Swan Lake...The Card

Welcome!

I'm happy to announce that we have new images coming out soon!

 My card today uses 2 of our new wedding images ~

I started my card by stamping our Village Rocks along the bottom of my card.  I started on the right side and made sure to cut off the curved part and then created a mask so I could continue just stamping the 7 rocks of the straight part.

Next I stamped my first Swan and after masking him I added the 2nd Swan in back of him and masked him as well.

For my trees in the background I used our Pine Tree Snowdrift stamp and simply cut off the snow drifts (I crossed my fingers that I'll be able to put it all back together when needed :) and stamped the trees multiple times, staggering them.

My last stamping was adding our new Life Together greeting next to my swans.  I recommend using a misti if possible so you can stamp over it a second time after you color the lake if necessary.

The coloring is mostly done with watercolor pencils and a blending marker.  I used several shades of blue for the water, 4 different greens for the trees, and grasses and yellow, apricot, orange and red for the sky.  After all the blending I used a yellow marker to highlight the sun and a grey marker for the rocks and layered it on black and then a folded blue card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Rainbow Trees Get Well

Welcome!

I decided to make a get well card for my stash and wanted it to be bright and happy - how'd I do??

I started my card by stamping our new Open Branch stamp across the bottom of my card, varying the heights.  After sponging the edges with some yellow ink I used my watercolor pencils to color each a different color.  The Get Well greeting was stamped, trimmed and layered with blue and everything was attached to a folded blue card.

Thanks for stopping by!
Sue

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Classic Sympathy

Welcome!

I needed a quick sympathy card this week and I was able to create this one in about 20 minutes.

I started by cutting my white background paper to 4" square.  I used our new Silhouette Leaf Branch and a well inked black pad to stamp the four corners and the center of the 4 sides.  I stamped our Praying for Friends greeting on a separate piece of white and layered it on black and attached everything to a folded black card.

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Sue

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Bee Happy

Welcome!

Have you ever stamped a card that had you smiling the whole time?  Our happy little bee just kinda does that for me - and our new "trees" just added to it :)

I started my card by stamping our Open Tree on my white card stock using black ink and then adding the Silhouette Trees around it using spring green and lavender inks.  A little turquoise sponging around the edges and my background was all set.  I stamped our Happy Bee in the top right corner and after coloring added some sparkle to his wings.  For the greeting I stamped our Bee Happy Birthday greeting on scrap and layered it on some bright green card stock.  At some point in the process I managed to get a couple of blue smudges on my background so I added a free hand bee trail to cover them up and attached my greeting.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Spring

Welcome!

Who couldn't use a little spring at this time of year?

I started my card by stamping our new Silhouette Leaf Tree and Puff Circle on yellow card stock using orange ink.  For the center image I stamped our Spring is Coming Greeting on white card stock and die cutting it into the oval.  Before removing the metal die I used a green pen to trace the inside of the die and once I removed the die I used a yellow marker to color outside the green pen and then layered it on a larger green oval.  To add my little flower I stamped our Flower Scroll, colored and fussy cut one of the flowers and attached it to my greeting.

Thanks for stopping by!
Sue

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Extra Tweet Watercolor

Welcome!


Seems to me like I've been seeing a lot of awesome cards that have been made using watercolors lately and I wanted to give it a try.  Here's my first attempt...

After purchasing my watercolor paper I checked out a few videos online on how to  create a watercolor sky.  All 4 were helpful but they all had different techniques and advice, and my sky here is a combo of all of them.  To start with you have to wet the entire surface you'll be painting on, then add your color (leaving some empty spaces for clouds) and then you can remove some paint with paper towels if necessary.  The hard part was that the paint will continue to blend as it dries so you have to stop and (in my case) hope that it dries the way you want (which it did :)  One of the tips that they all agreed on was that the bottom of the sky needs to be lighter than the top.  My original idea was to just have the sky with the 2 branches, but as they added some sort of ground (mountains or lake) there was a big difference so I added my tree tops.

So, once my sky was dry I stamped our Birdhouse Tree Branch on the left and our Lovebird Branch on the right.  I also stamped them both on scrap so I could color the birds and birdhouse and layer them on top.  The trees were stamped with our Silhouette Background Trees using 2 different color green inks and our new Extra Tweet saying was stamped in black.

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Sue

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Sitting here Tweetie

Welcome!

My card today features our new Silly Bird image that's now available on our website along with a few other fun new images.

To create my card I started by sponging some turquoise ink onto my card stock using a torn paper towel to create the clouds.   I stamped our Silly Bird in the center (and on a piece of scrap) and found that my roll of tape (any 5" circle will do) made the perfect template to draw in the wire he's sitting on.  I colored and fussy cut the second bird image and attached him on top.  To make my telephone poles I stamped our Wood Grain image on scrap and after coloring, I cut it into 2 fat pieces and 2 skinny pieces and adhered them to my card.  I used 2 separate images for the greeting.  I stamped just the "Sitting here" from our Sitting Thinking greeting and our new Thinking of you, Tweetie using black ink and attached it all to a folded green card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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Happy Day Ladybug

Welcome!

I'm happy to say we've have a brief warm spell this week - and sunshine too!  What more could I ask for?  It was so nice it really got me in a spring mood and my card today reflects it :)

I started my card by stamping a folded kraft card with our Easy Dot Background and red ink and set it aside.  My tiny little mushroom scene was so fun to make!  I can't remember ever having made a tiny little scene like this and it was so easy!  I cut my paper first into a 1 3/8" square then stamped our new Ladybug Toadstool using black ink and colored it using my alcohol markers.  I stamped our Happy Days greeting on white and after trimming and layering with red paper I assembled everything together.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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It's the Easter Piggy!

Welcome!

I know it's probably a bit early for Easter cards, but I'm sure you know how it is when you get a new stamp - you just want to get it inky!

I started my card by stamping just the grass and flowers from Leonard Pig Blowing Bubbles several times on the bottom 1/3 of my card.  I made 2 masks of the grass and several cloud masks so I could cover the bottom and sponge my sky using turquoise ink.  I colored the grass using watercolor pencils and the flowers using markers.  I stamped our new Easter Leonard and some Jelly Beans on scrap and colored, fussy cut and attached them to the grass.  Since my Happy Easter Everybunny was already in pieces it was easy to stamp each section in the clouds.  I finished up by adding a black edge with a stamp pad and attaching it to a folded blue card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sue

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