Make your own happiness

I just love this sentiment (from Hero Arts) - and I literally did just that when creating this card. I had fallen in love with the colors in Pink Paislee's Queen Bee line and had ordered the 6x6 pad several months ago; I dusted off my circle punches and just started playing. I cut some random curves to use on the card front, then just glued everything down and trimmed edges as necessary. Quick and rather cute, if I do say so myself ;)

Feeling Fresh

I know I haven't been around much - life has been hectic, and unfortunately I haven't much time to stamp (waaaaaahh!). I did want to share this card I made for this month's smART-word challenge - fresh!

I love all the "blocky silhouette" images that I've been seeing lately, but the last thing I need is to buy more stamps... I have plenty already, so I can improvise, right?! Anyway, I pulled out these gorgeous flowers (from the Botanicals sheet), masked off a rectangle with sticky notes, stamped & embossed the image, then sponged the color on (a long-neglected SU ink)before removing the sticky notes. I love the final result, and it definitely feels fresh to me. The phrase is from the "Blessings" set (which can be found on the first sheet here, along with a lot of other great sentiments).

I also want to share my first run at this design, which didn't work out quite as I had envisioned. I sponged on Palette ink... and well, the resist didn't exactly work. I love using the hybrid ink, and had overlooked the fact that it can be used on non-porous surfaces! Oops! It's still a nice result, just much softer. I went ahead and finished the card out with a sentiment (from the same Botanicals sheet), but didn't like the way the phrase fell (which is also why I shifted the image portion to the right on the final card).

Well, I'm off and running again - hopefully you're now feeling reFRESHed and wanting to make a card of your own! You have until April 27 to post a link for a chance to win some lovely mother-themed images.

It's all about the paper...

A couple quick cards to share - basically I just took some beautiful paper, stamped a sentiment, and added minor embellishment. There are so many gorgeous papers on the market... problem is that I often buy them and then hoard them because they're so pretty - or I try to use them but can't decide how to handle the bold designs.

For the first card, I paired the Memory Box Paper with the fabulous sentiment from Wordsworth. I layered on a scrap of coordinating paper and a couple flowers. All done!

On the second one, I pulled out my BasicGrey 12x12 Periphery pack, and created the card base from one of the patterns (and love that the inside is still white!), and layered on one of the coordinating tags. I stamped the sentiment (Unity Birdie Inspiration), added a bit of bling to the "o" and glued on some dark lace (yet another thing I've been hoarding :)

Two cards done in less than twenty minutes. Love that!

Quick Encouragement

I had to get something mailed out, and of course I couldn't just toss it in a plain old envelope... My pre-made card stash is still boxed up, but I had unearthed this pack of simple panel cards (complete with envelopes; I think it's an old SU product) and pulled this together in less than 10 minutes. The flower image and sentiment are both from the Botanicals "Cookie" Plate, which you can earn using smARTbucks.

Anytime I'm inking up an image where I want to use multiple colors, I pull out my dew drop pads. That little pointy top is so easy to use - and I love that Brilliance pads are so juicy. I used Rocket Red Gold & Pearlescent Olive here, so there's some gorgeous shimmer going on, too.

Well, I'm off again... Have a wonderful weekend!

Two more baby cards

I really hope these are the last "baby girl" cards I need to make for awhile - I'm getting sick of pink! :)

Both these cards were made with the same pad of BasicGrey Euphoria paper that I've been using for the past couple weeks. I love the colors - soft yet bright, and lots of blues and greens to break up the pinks & purples.

This one on the left also uses a felt heart frame (Fancy Pants) along with some acrylic pieces (Michael's). The sentiment was computer generated. For the card on the right, I just grabbed some ribbon from my stash, prima flowers (the bottom one was spritzed with pink taffy glimmer mist to pull the colors together), then stamped the word (SU Noteworthy) onto a scrap, then tied it in with the flowers. The bottom was done with a Martha Stewart border punch.

Very little stamping involved, but it still felt great to play with paper and glue!