Whirlpool of Imagination

Blue Dandelions

I love the fact that when you can create, you can be whimsical instead of always true to life. I did that with this first notecard set. I'm not sure whether these are dandelions or not but I'm calling them that. And since I felt like playing with a sort of blue, I made blue dandelions.

The image is from The Angel Company and stamped with SU Bermuda Bay ink. Here's the set...

 

I turned to another stamp from this TAC set but kept this a more traditional color.

I pulled out my SU melon mambo ink for this one. And the set....

No stamping for me today ~ busy day ~ but hopefully you'll get some creative time in for yourself. Have a great day!

Simple Flowers

Who has more paper than they will ever use in this lifetime? Who keeps buying more pretty paper anyway? Me,me,me (raising my hand wildly here). I love all the new and pretty papers and I tell myself that eventually I will use it all. Most of the paper I buy tends to be dots and stripes because I can use those niely for backgrounds.

But while at the scrapbook store last week, I saw some pretty paper from American Crafts that I couldn't turn down. I have to think it wasn't meant as a background but was meant as border strips. Anyway, I cut down a border strip and made that the main element of today's card.

The flowers are completely part of the patterned paper. I layered that piece with cardstock, added a sentiment from Papertrey stamped with Memento cocoa ink and I was good to go.

Hot, hot hot here. I may need to pull out the summer stamps to get in the mood. Have a great day!

Purple Leaves

I had the sad task today of making a sympathy card. I've been having a bit of a mojo block recently but wanted to get this card sent out so I needed to just work through it. I added some quiet music to listen to and just went with the flow.

I decided that I was in a purple mood and I always like the monochromatic look so I stayed with shades of purple. The image and sentiment are both from Verve Visuals. The image is stamped with Memento sweet plum ink and the sentiment is stamped with Memento grape jelly ink. The patterned paper is from Papertrey Ink.

Besides stamping, I'm working on pirate party games for Conor's party this Friday. I'm hoping to get more stamping in but we will see - I need to concentrate on all things pirate! Have a great night.

Time for a Remake

Sometimes I like to take older card designs and freshen them up just a bit. Today I have one of my favorite techniques on a redo - split negative stamping.

This stamp is a great one from River City Rubber Works. I precut the cardstock layers, used versamark to ink up the stamp and stamped it onto the dual color layer. I then embossed the white cardstock with black embossing powder and the black cardstock with white embossing powder. The trick is to lay down the powder fairly quickly but after that you have a bit more time when it comes to heating the powder.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink, I think and is stamped with Memento tuxedo ink.

And to show you how much of a paper collector I am, this paper is EK Success blue jean wash paper dated 2002!

Gorgeous weather this weekend made this the perfect card to showcase. Hope you have a wonderful night!

Grad Congrats

Graduation season is looming so I thought I'd add to my stash of graduation cards. Today I used the same layout in three different color schemes. The layout is pretty versatile and could be used for any school colors.

First, let's try red on for size. The image is from Art Impressions and stamped with Stampin Up real red ink. The sentiment is from Papertrey and stamped with Memento tuxedo ink. That's a cuttlebug folder that was used for the white block.

For the blue I used Memento danube blue ink.

And for the green I used Stampin Up glorious green ink.

Happy that the weekend is upon us - have a busy weekend planned but it's manageable so it should be fun. Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Fruity Reads

I am obsessed with making altered paper clip bookmarks. I keep finding images that would work in the small space and just have to make some more. For the longest time, I've been wanting the Tart and Tangy set from Stampin' Up and finally got it this year. This is the first project I've used them for but they ink up beautifully!

Here's the first one. The apple is stamped with Memento ladybug ink.

The orange was stamped with Memento tangelo ink.

For the cherries, I decided to color them with markers rather than stamping with ink. I used Dee Greunig markers - they're my favorite choice when I want to color directly to the stamp.

Luckily, I have a place to put all these bookmarks - all my extra creations end up in my online store which is good because I only have about a million of these to use myself!

Have a great day!

Manhattan Flower Mom

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all you mom's had a wonderful day. We had the family over here for a nice dinner and then some fierce Mario Kart Wii action.

I finally ordered the Manhattan flower embossing folder from Stampin' Up and love how easy it is to create a card with it.

After embossing the cardstock, I added the sentiment from Verve Visual and the card was complete. That was so easy I had to try another one, this time for grandmother.

This time I just switched out the Mom for Grandma and another one done.

I think I need to play with this folder some more - love it when you need that quick five minute card.

Have a great night!

Thank You Leaf

Ever have a day when you create and you're not sure if you like the finished project? That's me today. I keep looking at this and I keep trying to decide whether or not I like it.

               
The leaf is from Stampin Up and the sentiment is from Verve Visual. I'm confusing my inks so I'm not sure which one I used for which stamp: SU artichoke and Memento bamboo leaves. Can you tell it's a Friday?

The brads are from Pink Hedgehog and the patterned paper is from Stampin' Up.

Still pretty simple in my usual style but I'm reserving judgment on this one for a little while.

I was up super early today (I think I'm beating even the early bird for getting up early) so I'm getting ready to call it a night. Have a great weekend!

Fun Flowers Birthday

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I don't have anything created specifically for the day but I do have bright and fun flowers for you.

The flowers are a fun digital stamp from Bugaboo that was printed and colored with copics.

G09, YR18, Y17

The sentiment is from Papertrey (who else!) and stamped with SU dusty durango ink. The extra sparkle was provided by the fire opal Swarovski crystals.

I went back and forth on the layout but I decided to break out the nesties and go with that style for a little bit of a change.

I have not been in the studio all week what with having a sick kid, a kid with a cavity that needed filling and just volunteering in the school. Tomorrow, I've promised myself a bit of "me time" just to have a bit of fun. Hope you get some me time too!

Have a great night!

Sunflower Birthday

I pulled out some old wood mounted stamps to play around with. I must say that I've been spoiled by unmounted and clear stamps. I was all over the place stamping with the wood mounteds!

The image is from Stampendous and stamped with Palette sunflower ink. The sentiment is from Papertrey and stamped with SU garden green ink. It's pretty basic but I like the clean and simple lines.

I have another flower stamp I want to try out so be on the lookout for more of this style.

Have a great night!