Whirlpool of Imagination

Simple Pink Owl

I got distracted by the rain this past week - I don't think I accomlished much at all during those long dreary days.

Here's my second owl creation. It's a simple A1 card.

With those big buggy eyes, I feel I can ink this guy up in fun, bright colors which is why I went with pink.

The owl is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is from Verve.

So after making it through a horrible season of pollen without falling victim to my alelrgies, I jinked it when the rains came. I was so sure I would make it through spring without getting the allergy bug. What good did that bragging do? I jinxed myself and am now struggling with my allergies. So now I'll quietly slink off to get more kleenex and never brag again how I didn't get sick when everyone else did.

Dragonflies for Dad

The monthly challenge for our ArtFire card makers guild is things with wings. As soon as I saw these new stamps from Gina K, I knew I wanted to use the dragonflies for this layout.

The sentiment is from Verve Visual, another one of my go-to stamp companies, especially for sentiments.

I've used this layout before and am happy with the dragonflies. I have more planned for the dragonflies and my wings challenge ~ just need to get more stamping time!

Have a great night!

Magical Birthday

It's time for Conor's birthday and I've finally got his birthday invitations made and sent out. He likes magic (probably due to his sister's obsession with Harry Potter these last few years) so I drew heavily on that for his invites.

This fun image is a digi stamp from Bugaboo. My wizard is colored with copic and prismacolor markers and sponged with a little distress ink.

The sentiment is from Verve and the little stars behind the sentiment are from Papertrey. The dies for the sentiment layer are also from Papertrey.

Can you believe it's May already? I've got another couple of crazy weeks and then I might be able to breathe again. I think most of my crafting projects are done because I HAVE to make it rather than just getting around to puttering around in my studio. Ah well, what I should be doing is cleaning my studio. After several weeks of last minute projects, it looks like a hurricane blew through (and you all know how much I "love" to re-organize my stuff!)

Have a great night!

Blue Flowers for Mom

Now that Easter has ended, my focus has been Mother's Day (with a smattering of First Communion cards). Today and tomorrow, it's all about mom.

Sweet and simple ~ the flowers are from Verve and the sentiment is from Papertrey.

Working on Conor's birthday party invitations ~ every year I make some that are time intensive and every year, I say I won't do that again. Do I learn? Nope. I've been busy coloring the last couple of days....I may have them ready by next week!

Hope you all are having a great week so far!

Wishing You Flowers

In getting a gift together for a wedding shower, one of the fun things for me is to make the card. I usually take the shower invite and try to match the colors to whatever design I decide upon. Today's card comes from a shower I went to a couple of weeks ago.

As soon as I saw the blues and greens in the invite, I knew exactly what shades of card stock I would pull out. This was classic garden green and night of navy.

I love making blue flowers so that was an easy call on image design. And I always like the generation stamping look for flowers.....I guess I'm getting predictable!

The flower stamps are from Stampin' Up and the sentiment I think is from Verve.

I have to say that the blue and green are a nice color combination ~ and would work with lots of images besides flowers.

My stamping time took a hit as I had an unfortunate paper cutter incident. No matter what they say about the guillotines not cutting you. If your knuckle is in the way and you really slam down the arm, you will get a really nice gash. Who knew our fingers are bent for pretty much everything we attempt to do??????? Hopefully, I'll heal fast!

Have a great weeekend!

 

Silhouette Flower Inspiration

Today I'm playing around with a flower die cut silhuoette. This sentiment is wonderful for Mother's Day but the more I look at it, it can work just as a thank you for your inspiration type of sentiment as well.

This is the first time I've tried the embedded embossing (okay, I made that term up but it works for me!) technique.

The card is very simple and I think most people would add a ribbon along the top. I like that idea except I do not like having the ribbon (or anything embellishment wise) showing on the inside of the card. But I know it needs something and I suspect that would be what it needs.

The die cut if from My Favorite Things and the sentiment is from Verve Visual.

It's project time for Conor so I have to make a trip to Michael's. Yes, really I must. If something of a crafty nature just happens to jump in the cart for me, well, how can you blame me?

Have a great day!

Sending An Irish Blessing

Nope, I'm not done with Valentine's Day yet but taking a break for a quick Irish blessing. I recently got this set from Verve Visual and wanted to ink it up.

I could not get a good picture, lighting wise ~ took a bunch of pictures with no success. I did just get a light box - should try it again.

Not much to say about the design on this one - pretty simple.

Brrr - the cold has settled in here but good. I think I'll be spending the next several days shivering. Hope you are staying warm!

Scripture in Purple

You know I can't go too long without using my all time favorite color....purple. I decided to pull out this pretty stamp and get it a little inky.

And when the image and sentiment fit perfectly in a die cut shape, I'm really a happy camper! The image is from Stampin' Up and the sentiment is from Verve Visual. I stamped them first and then cut out the nestie shape. The lighter purple layer is embossed with a cuttlebug folder since I really do need to use them once in a while after buying them!

The sun is finally shining today and it makes all the difference! I can't believe how much happier the world seems when the sun is shining. I think I may get out and get a walk in with the dog - have a great day!

Simple Balloon Birthday Set

I have been a a CAS kick lately so when I got this set from Verve Visual, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

Usually if I make one layer cards, I like to stamp the images with various colors of ink rather than stamping in black and coloring in. I'm always worried if I color in the images, the color will show through the inside of the card.

I wanted to use the basic colors but not in their primary state.

It was tough to photograph but I also stamped the balloons in the upper left corner (second generation) on the inside layer of the card.

These are A1 cards. A little smaller than my typical A2 but for quick notes, this size is plenty big.

I adore this layout design and the clean simplicity of it. I've already got other image ideas whirling in my head for this same design.

Can you believe that it's Sunday night again? Weekend here was crazy because Mo was sick so I was "on" all weekend. I think tomorrow I'm giving myself some extra studio time as a treat. Have a great night!

Just Because You're You

I was hoping to have a snowman card for you today given all the snow we got but for having the day off, I really got hardly anything accomplished. I think it was because everyone had the day off too!

But this little girl is winter-ish, so I'm going with her.

This stamp is a digi from Pink Cat Studio. No, I haven't been printed out digi's like crazy, this little girl was colored LAST year but apparently a card design never made the cut because she was still sitting in my "to create with" drawer. She's colored with copic markers although for the life of me, I have no clue which ones!

The sentiment is from Verve Visual and stamped with grape jelly ink from Memento. I love this patterned paper and am so sad that, at the time I bought it, there was only one sheet. You know how I feel about purple.

Instead of stamping, I spent much of the day cooking so I'm off to go sample my delicious smelling beef stew. Have a great night!