Whirlpool of Imagination

Midnight Muse Sympathy Card

I am loving the new Stampin' Up catalog (and just wait until you see the holiday mini - it's fantastic!). I was intrigued with this year's In Colors and have been trying them out. Today I used the Midnight Muse ink and card stock for my card.

The flowers are from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is from Verve, I think.

I am still practicing with the new type of ink pads. They remind me a lot of the chalk ink pads and the more I use them, the more I really like them. Although it doesn't look it from this card, the coverage is really nice with the more solid type stamps. I've liked them enough to start the changeover from the old stamp pad to the new ones.

Stamping has been light this past week as it's been the last week of school - today being the last day, woohoo. I think I'll be able to breathe and get more crafty time in now that the late spring/end of school/early summer rush is over.

Here's to more crafty time! Have a great night.

The Triangle Rule

In Day Two (woohoo, I'm on a roll here people) of my card making class, they talk about the idea of visual triangles on one layer cards.

As usual, I took the basic idea but then steered off the beaten path.

This card is not a one layer card and I'm not sure if one of the components of the triangle was supposed to be a sentiment but mine is not.

This is a little different for me and pretty plain in a non-CAS way but I went back and forth with placing more items on it and nixed that idea every time.

The beige-ish layer is a piece of ivory card stock that was tea stained. No big technique there - I brewed some black tea and "painted" the pieces with the brewed water. I liked the tea look better on an ivory base than a white base. On white, the contrast was too stark.

Side note: we have a lot of different herbal teas and such. You can play around with them and colors. Different tea types have much different distinct colors.

The stamps are from Stampin' Up and I just played around with these items in some sort of triangle.

A bit different for me but I'm liking the tea stained background. I really think I need to brew some pomegranate tea!

Have a great night.

Medallion Thank You

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers! I hope the day has been filled with lots of lovely memories.

I had planned on posting these cards yesterday but it helps to actually upload them from your camera! LOL

Today's thank you card is one of those all occasion thank you designs that I like to have on hand. No matter the reason for the thank you, a design like this works for most anything.

Here's my artsy up close set photo:

The doily medallion stamp is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is from Papertrey. I went with one of my favorites, marina mist for the image and a navy for the sentiment.

And I'm off for tonight - I plan on making it an early night so I can be up bright and early for my crazy day of Black Friday shopping! ~ first stop Michael's for some crafty deals ~ so I must get some sleep.

Have a wonderful night!

Thinking of Halloween

Happy October! I am officially thinking Halloween now. Today I have a quick card using my Stampin' Up set.

It's a quick A1 using a Papertrey sentiment and a SU image. I love adding the die cut shape with dimension to give the card a little something extra.

Now I think it's time to break out some pumpkins! Have a great night.

New Bookmarks

The kids are reading up a storm here so I thought there may be others reading too and why not make more bookmarks for the online store?

I've got three designs but only have pictures for two. For the life of me, I can't get a good picture (or adequately edit) the third.

First off, let's talk dragonflies.

I think this dragonfly is from Gina K.

For the next one, I have this fun anchor from Stampin' Up so even though I already sell anchor bookmarks, I needed to make some with this stamp.

So that's all I have for today - Meg and I are embarking on a journey of art journaling so I may have pages for you to come (remembering always that I'l a little too simple and 'neat' for truly inspired art journaling, mine is more along simple scrapbooking but that's okay, as long as it makes me happy. :)

Summer Color Invites

I recently finished up an order for a client who wanted invitations with a summery color vibe. So I turned to my newest favorite place for inspiration, Pinterest. The day after my client consult, this color scheme was pinned by someone and I immediately fell in love with the combination and knew I wanted those colors.

I took a bit of license with the shades of the colors and my client wanted a deep purple base so I added that in for the base color but here's the final result...

The abstract image is from Papertrey and I went with a peach and a bright pink for that. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and is a turquoise. My client wanted a bit of sparkle somewhere in the invite, so I added a small rhinestone in the green shade to complete the colors.

This is actually a flat A2 size and I printed off the party info and adhered it to the backside of the notecard.

Overall, I was really happy with the final result - totally different than what we created for her party last year and keeping with the fun, bright theme.

Have a great day!

Boat Birthday

My monthly guild challenge for the month of July is "paint".  Some guild members got nervous with the very word so I'm on a mission this month to show what that means even if you never actually "paint" a scene.

Today's card was inspired by a CAS sketch challenge over at Splitcoasters a couple of weeks ago. I did use acrylic paint but only as a background.

For the background layer, I embossed the background and then dry brushed it with acrylic paint to give the ocean like feel to go with my image. Once it was dry, I cut it up into equal sections (note to self, next time make the measurements more basic so I'm not forced to really do math to figure out the sections!)

The boat image is from Stampin Up and I think the sentiment is from Verve Visual. I attached the boat image with mounting tape because I'm really digging the small uses of dimension lately in my cards.

And I have laundry that is just about ready to be hung up so I'm wrapping this up. Hope you have a fabulous day!

Last of the Owls

Remember my challenge to myself a few weeks back to use that owl stamp in a bunch of different ways? I've finally finished the 4th and last variation of the owl. This time I wanted to go with flat note cards. I love using these types of cards when I need to send a quick note.

Here's the full set...

The owl is from Stampin' Up and I used a bit of patterned paper to ground him, so to speak.

I was on a roll today but now I have to take a bunch of pictures and get them uploaded. My most recent theme?????? My card makers guild June challenge.....red, white and blue. I'm going with the obvious theme as well as some less obvious themes. Here's hoping to getting them uploaded soon.

Have a great night!

Super Quick Card for Dad

This card reflects my need for quick and simple in the midst of a jam packed spring schedule.

The picket watch is from Frantic Stamper and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

Using one of the bottom corners is a go to layout design for me. I just adore all the clean white space.

It's up early tomorrow for more spring sports so I'm calling it a night. Have a great one!

Fly Away Father's Day

Wishing all of my American friends and readers a wonderful Memorial Day and if you are a military family, a HUGE THANK YOU!

I've been on a little run for Father's Day cards as I've realized that I need more inventory. I recently got this set from Stampin Up and it fits in perfectly with my ArtFire Things with Wings challenge.

We've been enjoying a lovely (although slightly warm) weekend here - hope you are having a great weekend too!