Jane's Doodle Owl Watercolored ala Jennifer McGuire :)

Hi there!

On the 4th of July my local scrapbook/stamp store had a one day sale. Since we were in town I took some time to check it out. As I wandered the aisles I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked down toward the bottom of the section for owl stamps and goodies and saw the very same Jane's Doodle stamp set Jennifer McGuire used in her video on watercoloring and stamping here. That was last August and I've never quite been able to get that card out of my mind. I never expected to see it in this store! Lucky day for me!

Of course, when I got home I wanted to play with it, but had to wait. It was a holiday after all. :)

So, I got to work on it Sunday. Yes, this is a shameless CASE of Jennifer's card. I even used some Peerless watercolors. Not the ones she did as I don't have the same set, but who I liked the colors I had. I even added Perfect Pearls to get the shimmer. I took my time and let it dry over night. Then with bated breath, I cut through one wing. Ohhhh that hurt just a bit. In the end though, I did it because I just adored the card Jennifer had made. 

Here's how mine came out:

Tried to angle so you can see the shimmer.

He's a cutie!

(Feel free to click on any photo to enlarge it).

I even added Perfect Pearls to the background color. It's quite shimmery and I like it! 

Big smiles at how this one came out. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I hope you are having a happy day. 

Hugs,

Jeanne

Thoughtful Flowers Card

I came across this pretty card on Pinterest this morning and immediately wanted to see if I could make a version of it. I had the Hero Arts cling Garden Bouquet stamp, but I didn't have the Distress Inks. That's okay, I had some new to me Close To My Heart ink pads that I felt would work instead. Here's my version of the card:

The colors from top to bottom are: Creme Brulee, Sunset, Smoothie, and Pear. I just sponged the colors onto the one inch strips I cut after I heat embossed the image with white. Then I adhered the strips to a scrap piece of paper and foam dotted that piece to the card base. The sentiment is from a Hero Art clear stamp set about friendship. It doesn't have a name on the packaging. Looking at it now, though, I might have to change it because it doesn't really make sense now that I see it this way!

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Jeanne

*Ü*

Embossed Snowflakes Cards

I've been enjoying using heat embossing in my stamping recently. It's fun to revisit techniques you learned and kind of moved away from. When I saw this beauty of a card on Wizard's Hangout, I knew I wanted to play, too! I liked it in blue and decided it was so much fun, I wanted to try in pinks, too.

Oh, Wow!

I think these are about my most favorite cards so far this season. 

I'm so glad I saw the idea and was able to play.

Please follow the link above for great steps on how to create this look for yourself.

Stamps Used:

Merry and Bright

Frosted set from the workshop in the CTMH 2013 Fall/Winter Idea Book

Inks:

Outdoor Denim, Sky, Twilight,

Vineyard Berry, Hollyhock, Blush

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Jeanne

Season's Greetings Snowflakes

I was completely smitten with this card I saw on Pinterest and was excited to try my hand at recreating it using my own stamps and inks. I'm thrilled with the end result. I liked revisiting a neat stamping technique.

 The two larger snowflakes are from a new stamp set from CTMH. The set comes with a cardmaking kit shown on page 69 of the idea book. The smallest one comes from an old CTMH set. I punched circles out of cardstock and after embossing the snowflakes, rubbed ink over the snowflake using a sponge. Very fun.

The ink colors are retired from CTMH, Bubblegum, Clover Meadow, Holiday Red, Orange, Sunny Yellow. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches Christmas Sampler sentiment set.  This would be fun to try again.

Edited to add: I didn't explain the procedure on how to create the snowflakes very well as I didn't want to repeat what the poster said in the blog I linked. But to clarify, I punched circles out of a separate sheet of cardstock. I laid an open circle over a snowflake, inked a sponge and rubbed it over the opening/snowflake to get the circle of color. You can easily overlap the colors as well. Hope that helps in understanding the technique.

Thanks ever so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a terrific day!

Hello Embossed Butterfly Card

I don't recommend this as a regular solution to losing one's mojo, but in this case, it worked for me! I went to Joann's last night to have a look around and hopefully get inspired. Well, they have put out new Inkadinkado clear stamp sets and I fell in love! It helped that the sets were 40% off!

I picked up a set called Gem Stone Insects (98846). In this set are some gorgeous butterflies and I think I've made clear my love of butterflies. I have found a new butterfly stamp that I love, love, love!

The design of the card was inspired by this monochromatic white card by Denise of The Paper Landscaper blog. I hope you like this one as much as I do!

I am so tickled at how the butterfly came out! I stamped it with Versamark onto vellum. Then I carefully heat embossed white embossing powder and cut it out. I kept seeing blue and white in my head, so I used a blue Bic Mark-it marker and colored in some of the open areas. Then I wondered what Prisma glitter added to it might look like. So I added liquid glue with my Quickie glue pen and sprinkled Prisma glitter over the glue. I bent the wings up just a bit and adhered it to the blue oval. Did I mention that I LOVE how this turned out? LOL Thanks for the card design inspiration, Denise (like she's gonna read my blog...)!

Cardstock: White, Heavenly Blue (CTMH)
Stamps: Gem Stone Insects (Inkadinkado)
Tools/Accessories: vellum, Versamark ink, white embossing powder, heat gun, Prisma Glitter (CTMH) Oval and Scallop Oval Nestabilities, Cuttlebug w/Swiss Dots embossing folder, Martha Stewart border punch, Ribbon (Wal-Mart), Blue (Bic Mark-it pen)

 

And that does it for me today! Thanks SO much for stopping by! I am hoping to get to make something tomorrow, so check back and see if the mojo stays with me...

Jeanne

Vellum Butterfly...

When I saw this card by Laurie Schmidlin of Just Give Me Stamps, I actually said out loud, "Oh my heavens, this is a gorgeous card!" My girls quickly ran over to see what I was talking about. They loved it too, and asked, are you gonna make it, Mom? They know me SO well!

Here's my take on that gorgeous card...

At first I couldn't remember if I had that Basic Grey stamp set, but I quickly found it. Whew! When I saw the inspiration card with the lace she added, I knew I wanted to crochet my own lace/edge, so I did! And I really like how it turned out. I need to figure out a way to tuck the edges around the back, though. I ended up not sewing on the card because I was afraid I'd screw it up, so I used white brads to hold the vellum down. You may not be able to see it well, but I pierced the right side, using an Ornare template I got from Ellen Hutson's online store. That pin (yea, I finally used one) is from Making Memories Love Notes line. Found it at Archiver's. The "hello" is from Mixed Messages by Papertrey Ink.

But, I have to tell you about that vellum butterfly! Laurie used Copics to color hers in after heat embossing with clear ep. I decided to use pencils to color on the back side of the vellum. It looked okay, good enough, I guess. Then I wondered if using odorless mineral spirits to blend the color would work on vellum. I tested it on a scrap piece and grinned that it seemed to work well. So after coloring with the Kohinoor pencils, I used the spirits and blending stumps to soften the look. I've never seen that done before (that I know of). I love how it turned out!

The dp is some Doodlebug paper I've had in my stash for quite some time. It's a bit bright, but I think using the colors I did on the butterfly makes it work okay. That pink organdy ribbon is from my stash as well.

This was the card I was antsy to work on before. I'm glad I was able to get it out of my brain, too!

That's it from me this weekend. I am working on a new critter and can't wait to show you. It shouldn't take too much longer to finish it, so I'm sure I'll be able to share it tomorrow. Then I might have to start some Barbie clothes...LOL

Til next time, thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great start to your week!

Jeanne