Mothers Day Card

May is right around the corner and it seems like a good idea to get going on Mothers Day cards.  This make was a little sad for me; my mom passed away unexpectedly a little over a year ago.  However, I do have a mother-in-law who is very sweet and I think she'll really like this card.

Enjoy the rest of April...May is right around the corner!

Stampotique Word Up Weekend: Wildflower ATC

It's very quiet still in my abode as the kiddos are snoozing.  I love this time of morning.  Nobody is up yet and the birds are happily chirping away.  Hooray Spring!

For Word Up Weekend this week, I created a Wildflower ATC.  I've been reaching for Twisted Citron Distress ink a lot lately (must be that spring thing!) and did it again for the background on this (plus a smidge of Mowed Lawn).  The flower, Kassa's Bloom, is colored with Lindy's Raspberry Lemonade Flat Fabio spray.  "Wildflower" was snipped off the end of the Wildflower Verse stamp.

I have yet to master the photography trick of catching sparkles and blinginess, but the circles in the middle of the flower were embossed with Lindy's Dandelion Yellow Green embossing powder.  It gives the most beautiful shimmer.  Here's a closer look.  Humor me and pretend you can see it.  😉

Looks like it's going to be a good day to dig around in my garden.  Time to plant some flowers!

Geeky Chic

I think the Laina Lamb Designs over at My Favorite Things are so fun.  I'm always up for a good pun and a lot of this collection has sets featuring puns.  I finally caved and bought another set last week and sat down to ink them up last night.

My mother-in-law could use a litle happy mail.  I think I'll pop this in the mail to her today.  :)

I hope you're having a great week.  Thanks for stopping by!

SDC 271: Bling It On!

Are you ready to par-TAY?!?  The challenge over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog right now is to bling up your creations.  How to do that?  Glitter, sequins, rhinestones, microbeads, shimmery spray mist, metallic paint, etc...all are good for making things sparkly and glam.  On the ATC below, I used some rhinestones, sprays and embossing powder to add a little something special.  Now, isn't she just a little ray of sunshine?  My little party girl is Cupcake Girl, one of the new stamps from Stampotique's April release.  Love her!

See the bling-y delights in the pic below?  Don't gasp in shock, but until I played with these products I had never tried Lindy's Stamp Gang mists and magical powders.  I know (slapping myself upside the head).  I didn't know what I was missing!  You can really see how cool and shimmery they are.  The splats on the background are Starburst and Flat Fabio sprays - super cool.

On my girl's tutu, I used Lindy's Sidewalk Chalk Magical powder over Copics to give a tulle-like appearance.  The cupcake that she's holding is heat embossed with Lindy's glimmery embossing powder.  SO pretty (and I kinda want to take a bite)!

Now it's your turn.  Add your bling-y creation to our linkup at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to the Stampotique store.  While you're at it, check out Stampotique's April release and hop on over to the Lindy's Art Gang shop to see their fabulous products.  You won't be disappointed.  Promise.

Stampotique WordUp Weekend: Cupcake

Just for your viewing pleasure, here's another go at Stampotique's Word Up Weekend, celebrating their amazing collection of words, phrases, and sentiments.

This ATC features Cupcake Text and Cupcake stamps.  And look!  Sparkly star sequins make this cupcake extra special.  😍

Check out all of Stampotique's stamps HERE.

Oregon and Washington ATCs

There are some great artists over at the ATCsForAll site.  I was lucky enough to find one who wanted to trade some state ATCs with me; I've been collecting them for a while.

I made Washington and Oregon for her.

Being me, I had to add something quirky to each.  For Washington I added the Fremont Troll.  I used to take the kids here just for fun when they were little.  They loved climbing all over this guy.  He's big...big enough that in his right hand there's a VW bug (can't really see it here).

On the Oregon card I added Voodoo Donuts.  It's an iconic Portland landmark and the line to get in almost always wraps around the building.  My personal favorite donut is the Grape Nehi (a vivid Barbie purple color.  I know. Kinda freaky, but it tastes delish.)

I hope she likes them!

Black and White + One Color

What a great theme for a challenge!  I love the contrast of the starkness of black and white with a pop of color.  I have been wanting to do a spotlighting technique for a while and this challenge provided the perfect incentive.  Here's my ATC for Rubber Dance's bi-monthly challenge.

I tried to get a pic of the blue because it's so pretty in real life.  I used Lindy's Art Gang Starburst spray to paint the blue on and it has such a pretty shine to it.

Can you see it?  Well, trust me...it's there.  ;)  I LOVE these feathers from Rubber Dance.  So pretty.

In my part of the world we're celebrating Easter today.  If this is your holiday too, I wish you a very happy Easter!

*** Magical *** Interactive ATC

Get outta' Dodge, this was SO fun to make!  I joined an ATC swap where we had to incorporate an interactive element.  I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do so I googled 'interactive ATC' to get some ideas.  Thank you, Kristina Werner, for the awesome YouTube video.  She made a card but it was easy to adjust this for an ATC.  Check it!

Let's see if I can figure out how to transfer a video from my phone to my blog...

Cool - it worked (and you can hear my daughter laughing at me in the background - LOL)!  The person receiving this has a couple of pups on her profile page and they inspired this.  I hope she likes it.  :)

A Little Easter Fun

I just couldn't resist joining this swap over on SwapBot - "_______ with Bunny Ears".  I knew immediately that bringing out the Crazy Birds was the thing to do.

It's hard to tell probably, but there is a bit of texture on the background.  After painting the background, I added layers by diecutting and then lifting the cut bits off the background.  The letters are lifted off the base as well.  There's a bit of shimmer and shine on the harlequin bits and outside edges where I used Inka Gold.

I have to admit...I was kind of sad to send this off in the mail.  Maybe I'll have to make another one for myself.  ;)

Happy April!

Steampunk Tags

I geared up to created some steampunk themed tags for a swap group I'm in.  (I know.  Terrible pun.  Sorry about that.)

I'm really happy with the way they turned out and they came together fairly quickly.  I love using metal tape (from the hardware store) over cardstock and then embossing it.  I whipped out my dust-covered Distress metallic paints to antique it a bit.  The gear dies are covered with Inka Gold (gold and graphite) with a few dabs of bronze paint.  A little gold embossing powder finished off the feathers as well as some distressed phrase stickers.  Done!

What do you think?

Sounds of Spring Tag

Maybe it's because spring is definitely in the air here in the US, because I just couldn't resist reaching for these feather stamps when creating a tag for the Rubber Dance April color challenge.

My little feathery friends serenade me every morning right outside my studio window.  What a wonderful time of year!

Stampotique's Word Up Weekend: Greetings from the Twilight Zone

Ha ha!  I used to love watching The Twilight Zone.  I couldn't help but think of it when I saw the TV stamp and Cooee from Stampotique's newest release.

Check out the TV background up close and personal.

I created it using Lindy Art Gang's Black Forest Black Magical Shaker.  TRULY magical!  All of those luscious colors came from that one little shaker.  I also splattered liquified Magical Sidewalk Chalk over that and some of the sprays on the background.  Check out more of their amazing products HERE.

I'm looking forward to getting this card in the mail; I know exactly who I want to send it to.  :)

Thanks for taking a peek today!

Stampotique April Release & DT Collaboration with Lindy's Art Gang

Oh, yes!  April is shaping up to be a fine month indeed.  The crew over at Stampotique is teaming up with the design team at Lindy's Art Gang this month to showcase both companies' amazing products.  Here's what I created:

This was a fun play for sure. Check out Stampotique's new Patterned Circles. I heat embossed it with Lindy's Dandelion Yellow Green embossing powder; this powder has a gorgeous glimmery finish.  After that I colored the circles with Lindy's Starburst Sprays (Rusty Lantern Lime and Blue Hawaiian Blue) and Flat Fabio (Raspberry Lemonade).

Another new release image, Cooee, was colored with Distress inks and Rusty Lantern Lime Starburst Spray.

The background (isn't that cool and spacey?) was created using Lindy's Magical Shaker (Black Forest Black).  Once it was dry I splattered Lindy's Magical (Sidewalk Chalk) with paintbrush.

Now, off to go enjoy a good, ol' paperback and my new bookmark.  :)