Peony - CDS

This beautiful stamp was designed by one of my friends, Kim Teasdale. You can purchase this wonderful peony set from Clear Dollar Stamps.
I stamped the flower on 140 lb watercolor paper and popped it from a stardream circle. The edges of the stardream were inked and then lightly coated with holographic embossing powder for a slight shimmer.
This card was originally designed for the CDS sketch challenge but I was a little late finishing it up! Seems to be the trend for me lately.

Coming soon....Digital Delights from Louby Loo! I have a card for her sketch challenge. Take a look at her shop while waiting. It will not disappoint.

Masculine Cards

With Fathers Day coming right up, I had the challenge of making a masculine card. For me, with all of my cutesy Penny Black stamps, this was a difficult task. The question I asked myself was "What makes a card masculine?". My answer was to strip down most of the embellishments and just focus on a nice image. I had this ship in my stamp box and had never used it.
I started out using paper from the "Old World" mat stack by DCWV. I dry embossed a strip of black paper with my cuttlebug and used minimal stitching to frame the image. The image itself was stamped using a versafine ink pad and then heat embossed with a mixture of clear and holographic powders for shine and a hint of sparkle. I finished off the card with silver pearls.
The inside consists of a stamp that matches the ship. It simply states "We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust our sails."
I formated the inside to match the front.
This card is also for my Saturday Market so I tried to keep it simple and affordable. Let me know what you think!

Friendship Blog Award From Wendy!

I received this beautiful Friendship Blog Award from my friend Wendy. This is what the award is about:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose at least five more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I would like to share this award with the following:

Sue - McMahon Five Designs

Lorelie - My Paper Adventures

Denise - Paper Gems Studio

Carolyn - Creative Card corner

True - True's Gifts from the heart

For all of you who received this, just copy the award logo and use it in your own blog. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs that you feel show great attitude and gratitude. Link to your nominees within your blog post and comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

Thanks sooooooo much Wendy for your cherished friendship

Saturday Market

Sorry for the long absence! I have been working diligently on my Saturday Market inventory. I wanted to share some cards I made with a wonderful Fred She Said digital stamp. The dahlia collection offers both the pointy dahlias and the rounded dahlias. These were so much fun to work with. I used Copic markers on some, Prismas and OMS on others and even printed them out on DP for a quick easy 3-D flower.
The farmers market presented a new dilemma for me. I am so used to adding tons of detail extras on my cards to sell on Ebay. I had to tone my cards way down to make an affordable market type card. While still sturdy, my cards use fewer layers and only one area of stitching.
Let me know what you think!

Die Cuts

I have become a huge fan of anything Spellbinders. I love the nestabilities, the piercabilities...pretty much everything. I do all of my cutting with my Cuttlebug. I love how versatile and easy to use it is. I am wondering, however, if the wizard would give me clearer embossed edges. I know the last thing I need is another die cutter, I just got rid of my Cricut! If anyone has any thoughts on this issue, post em here!!

Blog Candy!

One of my favorite card artists is featuring some fantastic blog candy! Come on over here and take a look! You will have a chance to enter and see some amazing artistry.

Creating a cracked glass effect

In this card I used a cracked glass technique on the "friends" tag. This technique adds a vintage look to your cards. The cracked glass look is easy to achieve and I have added step by step instructions below.
1. Stamp your cardstock and ink the edges if desired
2. Once the ink has dried coat the entire piece with an embossing ink pad like Versamark.
3. Using a thick enamel embossing powder, cover the entire piece and pick up using long tweezers.
4. Heat with heat tool and let cool.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 twice.
6. Once your third coat of embossing powder has cooled, gently bend in areas that you want to crack.
You can go over your cracks with an ink pad to make the look more dramatic as seen in the bottom image.

Feels Like Spring.

I finally had a little taste of sunshine and it just happened to be on the day when Addicted to Rubber Stamps had their biggest sale ever! Of course I couldn't pass it up and decided to buy stamps that reminded me of sunnier, warmer days! Keep your eyes open for some new items featured soon! Until then I am posting a card that I made last spring. The colors remind me of spring flowers and of course the butterfly does too! I used a Fiskars border punch on vellum to create the lace border. Tiny primas with mini brads accent the bottom and the side. I also used a wonderful handmade banana paper to add texture to the center of the card.

Penny Black Obsessions

I am completely obsessed with the cute line from Penny Black Inc. This elephant is one of my favorites. I used the cuttlebug to emboss some of the papers and put them together to make a "quilt" look. The flowers are 3-D. I used watercolor pencils and a Dove blender to color the image. The card is stitched and of course glittered! This is a great card for any occasion.

Materials used: DCWV DP, Bazzil Cardstock, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Dove blender, Faber Castell watercolor pencils, Guterman thread. stickles

Winter Craze

Here it is, halfway through January and I realize that I have been away for months. First we have the holidays, then a new job and school, and my kids. I used to think I was good at multitasking and now...not so much. While I still love making cards, I have had to slow down the production lines for now. I did end up making a fun card for New Years and ended up winning a prize for it, talk about excited!
I hope the new year has treated everyone well so far. If anyone has any advice on time management, I am all ears!