Whirlpool of Imagination

Easter Bunnies

For those that celebrate, wishing you a wonderful Easter.

I made up some cards for the kids to go with the presents we gave them for Easter ~ here's a quick peek.

This cute little bunny is from Taylored Expressions  and he's colored with copic markers.

Since I wanted to make them just slightly different for the two, I changed out the embossing folder. These are A1 ~ I didn't really need anything bigger than that for the kids.

Back to reality tomorrow. Holidays and April vacation are over ~ I have some stamping plans though so here's hoping for some new stuff!

Have a great night!

Flowered Cross

Happy Friday! Since today is Good Friday, I decided it would be a good day for a card with a cross.

I just found a new digital stamp company (well, at least new to me) and my ordering finger had to try out a few. The image is a digi stamp from Just Inklined.

The image was colored with various copic markers.

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions ~ I thought it went nicely with the image.

Quiet day here after a crazy busy April vacation. I think the kids needed a day of nothing ~ I know I did.

Have a great day!

Have A Wonderful Day

Snow?? Seriously? Everything was melted. I refuse to think there's anymore like to Mr. Winter so today I'm showing a card with flowers. Spring flowers.

You know me and purple ~ we're buds so I made a purple card. The flower started the whole thing. I stamped that first and everything else flowed from there. The flower and sentiment are from Papertrey Ink. I had the card designed but that top left corner looked blah and needed something. After a few stops and starts, I found this butterfly from Taylored Expressions. After stamping it, I cut it out and that filled my corner nicely.

A flower and a butterfly ~ says spring. Now if only Mother Nature would say spring to me too!

Have a wonderful night!

Anniversary Flower

I took a bit of a blogger's break this week but I'm back with a week's worth of creations! This card was compeltely built around this doily die from My Favorite Things.

This die is a good size so I decided to create an A6 card rather then the regular A2. I'm pleased with these proportions much more than the smaller card.

The rose is from Taylored Expressions and the sentiment is from.....guess..........yep, Papertrey.

Of all the new Stampin' Up new colors, I am completely enamored of the cherry cobbler and espresso colors. They are rapidly becoming two of my go to colors.

Family is coming for a visit so I'm off to cook. Have a great Sunday!

Mini Flat Valentine Cards

I've been on a Valentine roll lately. Since I want to stock up the store with more kid's Valentine's, that's what has been keeping me inky lately. Most of my previous mini cards are foldover 3 x 3 cards. The thing is, they are great for giving with a gift or one or two children but they would get costly trying to buy for a class. So I decided to try to come up with some economical solutions. Thus the flat mini's were born.

 

These are a mixture of Papertrey, Taylored Expressions and Amuse Art Stamps. The front is stamped and I left the backs empty for writing. I'm having fun with these stamps! I just got a new one from Taylored Expressions and am loving it! Such cute stuff!

Hunter Green Tree

I am most definitely stuck on hunter green for Christmas card making this year. Although it should come as no surprise that I love hunter green - that was the color my bridesmaids wore when I got married. It's a VERY close second to purple as my all time favorite color.

I blame Papertrey Ink for reigniting my love of hinter green. Have you seen their Pinefeather card stock? It's gorgeous and I can't stop reaching for it. The stamps are from Taylored Expressions and stamped with either SU's hunter green ink or CTMH's ponderosa pine ink. I keep reaching between the two of them so I can't remember which one won out. The thing is I have a refill for the ponderosa and not for the hunter so I'm afraid to use the hunter because it will run out of ink!

I topped the tree off which a Swarovski rhinestone because every treetop needs a little sparkle.

I'm swamped with my own Christmas card making - I chose a cute design but it's labor intensive. I never learn.......

Sweet Day Notecards

It's another month, so that means new notecards for teacher's notes.

  Since I've been using those cute cupcake stamps from Taylored Expressions, I figured I'd pull them out for this project too.

I first inked up the cupcake with palette noir ink. Since I didn't want the lipstick on the cheek to be black, I gently wiped the black off and used a red Dee Gruenig marker to color the lips. Then stamp the cupcake and color in (I used copics). The cherry on top has a bit of CTMH liquid glass. I love that stuff - lately, can't get enough of it.

I knew what I wanted for the sentiment but went through all 10,000 stamps (slight exageration) that I own and didn't have that saying. I wanted to say "Have a sweet day". So then I thought I would build the saying from existing stamps. Still wasn't working. I finally lit upon these stamps from TAC. I stamped them in palette noir and the "sweet" is from Taylored Expressions and stamped in SU red.

I've already had to send in notes this month and these notecards just make me smile. I'm really enjoying making the special notes. Makes it that more fun to talk to the teachers.

We endured a bitter cold day here today but there is hope. The weekend may reach mid-40's. Woohoo - can't wait! I'm finished shopping (the craft part at least, not the food) for Meg's party on Sunday. Tomorrow I need to spray paint. Now won't that be a sight! Have a great night!

 

Oops, forgot to show the full set. This picture is a little brighter so I think it shows them off better.

Okay, now I'm really going.

Kissing Cupcakes

Happy Groundhog Day!! So, he saw his shadow......I don't think I ever thought that spring was right around the corner, not with the winter we've been having so far!

Now that it is February, I am starting to get myself into the Valentine's groove. With my last order of ribbon at Taylored Expressions, I had to pick up the Love is Sweet stamp set. I haven't gotten any of Taylor's cupcakes yet, but I decided that it was time.

I adore these stamps! They are nicely etched red rubber and are a joy to stamp. You may be saying, Laura, you've been saying that a lot about your stamps lately. How can we trust you are not gushing about every stamp company you use? All I can say is trust me. I have no affiliation with any of these companies, nobody is giving me free product (darn!) and I believe in calling it like it is. If I am using a stamp that does not work as easily or as well, you will be the first to hear it from me.

This layout is not mine AT ALL. This is actually Taylor's sketch from last week (TECC53). It was such a great sketch that I jumped on it right away. The cupcakes and sentiment are stamped with palette noir ink. They are then colored with copic markers. The tops of the cupcakes have a layer of CTMH liquid glass on them for some shine and the top heart between the two of them is a brad.

The paper is from Reminisce and I used one of my Cuttlebug border embossers to add that little with love sentiment on the pink layer. There was more to the border that I didn't want and it's conviently covered with the lower block. I finished the card off with some Doodlebug rhinestones and am really pleased with the final result. Yes, I am still stuck in the red, pink and brown rut. I will emerge from it eventually.

I'm thinking I will use this for Mo's valentine card. He never reads my blog so there's no danger of him seeing it ahead of time. He asked me today what I wanted for Valentines.  I told him I have that all covered. The 15th is Papertrey's second anniversary and the next monthly release. I will be happy to buy my own present and have officially let him off the hook. How about you? Are you getting anything good for Valentine's?