Today I have a set of notecards to share with you. I thought they were finished - but now that I'm seeing them on the monitor, I'm thinking I should have gone with my "gut" feeling and added either a length of ribbon with a bow in the bottom right corner, or a set of three matching pearls there. Take a peek and let me know which you think would be best. I can always add them.

Once again I used the FLOURISHES set: WATERLILIES. This image is so beautiful and it's beyond fun to color. It's extremely relaxing. I colored these on a t.v. tray in the living room watching t.v.

I started with the yellow flower. For those of you who know me well, you will be surprised at that because yellow is my least favorite color. Surprisingly though, the yellow card is the one that I like the best. Explain that one! As I usually do, I colored the image first then chose the cardstock/papers and embellishments to go with it. Once I finished the yellow card though, I came up with the idea of the notecard set and began creating the it by selecting 3 additional colors of cardstock from the SU! BOLD BRIGHTS then colored the waterlilies to match the cardstock.

When I color with COPICS, I start with the lightest color first. COPIC certified instructors have you begin with your darker shades and work dark to light but I find when I do that I get waaaaaaay to much shadow and not enough light. So I color the image with my lightest color first, leaving touches of white cardstock uncolored where the sun shine would actually reflect the greatest. Once the lightest shade is put down, THEN I add the darkest color where the sunlight wouldn't reach. Once that is in place, I add my medium shade and bump and blend it right into the darkest shade. After my three shades are in place, I either blend them all together with the lightest shade or I add additional colors - usually contrasting colors - then blend them all together with the lightest shade. For example, I used a very light shade of blue-green in some of the shadow areas on the yellow flower.

The image and the surrounding mat were cut-out using SPELLBINDERS NESTABILITIES CIRCLES. I used one from the large set and one from the small set to acheive an 1/8" mat. If you use 2 consecutive sizes from the same set the mat will be 1/4". The black background was embossed with one of my favorite CUTTLEBUG embossing folders: D'vine Swirls. It is so versatile - and I really think it looks good with water, sea, or windy themed projects.

Right now I have 4 cards for this set. I can't decided if I want to make 2 more in other colors or make 1 more of each of the original 4 and make it an 8-pc set. I also still have to make the box to keep them in. That may be a post for another day!

Thanks for stopping by and

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping.

Jill

LIFE IS A MATTER OF MOMENTS

Good morning everyone. I have a fairly simple card to share with you today - but there's nothing wrong with simplicity is there? This particular stamped image is so beautiful, I didn't want to detract from it with alot of other embellishments.

I used mostly STAMPIN'UP! product to create this card. The image is from a soon to be released set called Elements of Style. It reminds me alot of the designer paper I used to create THIS card. Also in this set is a stylized hummingbird, a floral flourish and the sentiment "Life is a Matter of Moments". Another soon to be released product from SU! is the Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon.

The main image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on white cardstock, colored with COPICS, then edge-sponged in Ballet Blue. This was matted on a piece of Pretty in Pink Designer Paper and applied to the Bashful Blue cardbase.

The little greeting is also a stamp from the ELEMENTS OF STYLE stamp set. I punched it out with a 1" SU! Circle Punch, colored it with COPICS then edged it in metallic gold ink. It is popped up with a DIMENSIONAL. The finishing touch are the spots of gold STICKLES for the flower centers and on the sides of the greeting.

TIP: Create your own "metal" edge tags by using a KRYLON metallic pen around the outer edge of the cut-out tag.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the posted and emailed comments. I truly appreciate the feedback.

Until Next Time -
Happy Stamping!

Jill

PARCHMENT CRAFTING - THE HARD WAY!

I love the lacy look of parchment craft (aka: Pergamano) and wanted to make a few projects with it but unfortunately I don't have the proper tools, the local stores don't carry them, and until recently the only place I could find to order them online was Europe. The only solution to my dilema then was to improvise and much to my delight, I found it IS possible to create a simple design with a couple of tools I already had on hand.

WARNING: there are several errors on this card. Please don't look TOO closely!

I'm sure if I'd had the proper tools this would have been a "cleaner" card. For eg., if I had the 4-point piercing tool instead of the single, the designs between the flowers would be evenly spaced. Or, if I'd had the Pergamano scissors I could have more easily trimmed away around the flowers. Or, if I'd had a piercing grid as large as my design, I would have not had to try and line up the pierced holes around the large flowers - which as you can see, I didn't accomplish very well with the SU! Grid.

All in all though I think it looks pretty good and I'm sure I'll be making more of these in the future. Hopefully though I'll be able to invest in the proper tools soon so that my parchment crafting will be a less "laborious" procedure.

RECIPE:

Vellum

Piercing Tool (with thin point)

Embossing Stylus (small ball end)

SU! Mat Pack

SU! Markers

SU! Paper Snips

Cardstock

Printable Design from the internet

Thanks for visiting with me today.

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

WEDDING INVITATION & PROGRAM

A friend of my son's called me the other day and asked if I could make a sample wedding invitation and program for a class project. I was honored that she thought enough of my work to think of me and immediately began envisioning a formal, all-white invitation. Probably a few layers of embossing with pearls & possibly using one of the SPELLBINDER medallion dies. How fun this would be!!!

Then came the bad news: her colors are red, black, silver & white. Hmmmm. Now to rethink the plan.

Okay - I could still start with an all white cardbase and just lightly accent it with red & black- but what about the silver. It would be too light for the print - BUT - it would be beautiful as an accent on black.

I started with the invitation. I cut my white card base, a piece of black cardstock 1/4" smaller, and another piece of white cardstock 1/4" smaller than the black. Then embossed the white piece using the SU! embossing folder: PETALS A PLENTY.

I stamped a sentiment from SU! HEAVEN SCENT in VERSAMARK onto a piece of black cardstock, heat embossed it in silver then cut it out using the BIGSHOT and a SPELLBINDERS NESTABILITIES. I matted the cutout with a larger cutout of the same shape in red and popped the piece up on the front of the card using DIMENSIONALS. I then finished the outside with a length of white organdy ribbon and bow.

The inside of the invitation was computer generated and printed onto a piece of white cardstock. This was then matted on a piece of black cardstock. I left an inch of black cardstock exposed on the right side of the matted piece. Here I stamped a scrolled image from SU! GENTLER TIMES in Versamark and heat embossed it in Silver.

The program was created to match the invitation. The only variations were the size and the placement of the embossed design on the inside. Because there was print on both sides of the inside of the invitation, I placed the scrolled design at the bottom of each panel instead of on the right side. It just seemed more balanced that way.

The "bride" was thrilled with the results. She is sure she will ace her project now and even told me I should make a career of this! LOL!

Thanks for visiting -

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

HEAVENLY PATTERNS

This is another card I created while playing along in one of the Splitcoaststampers daily challenges. This one is for the "WAYS TO USE IT" challenge which was to use 2 or more differently patterned papers on the same card. I didn't find this challenging at all because I love to use patterned papers on cards in monochromatic/harmonizing colors.


These papers are from K&Company's "CLASSIC K BAILEY" paper pack. The cardstock is Stampin'Up! GROOVY GUAVA and the sentiment is from on of their retired sets: HEAVEN SCENT. I sponged the edge of the sentiment in SU!CREAMY CARAMEL to make it blend in with the patterned papers. It may be difficult to see in the photo, but the papers are slightly aged with brown distressing.

In regard to retired product, I keep my retired SU! stamps and papers. I know some demonstrators sell theirs out when the product retires - but if I like it I keep it and use it. Believe it or not there are many people who don't like to stamp (I know, I find that hard to believe too, but it's true). When they receive a card from me made with retired product, they aren't going to ask where they can get that paper, embellishment or stamp. Besides which, now that SU! is bringing back some of the retired In-colors - I'm ahead of the game and won't have to re-purchase them! See -being a hoarder CAN payoff regardless of what some new t.v. shows might have you believe. LOL!!!

The glittered floral cut-out is a piece I've had in my "miscellaneous" drawer for a while. The miscellaneous drawer is where I throw all the bits and pieces I prepared for another project and for whatever reason decided it didn't work with the project but was to good to throw away. This glitzy little flower was perfect with these papers and design.

The other embellishments on the card are the lace ribbon, guava pearls and silk flowers. Both the pearls and the red-orange silk flowers were colored with COPIC markers to match the papers and cardstock. Gotta LOVE those markers!!!!

TIP: Don't spend tons of money on different colors of brads, jemstones, flowers, pearls, etc. Buy them in white, use COPICS, and color them to match your papers.

Hope you like the card today. It's a little different design than I normally do - but I really like the result. In fact, there is not one thing about it I don't like and THAT makes me happy indeed.

Have a great day today doing whatever you are doing.

Until next time -
Happy Stamping!

Jill

SAGE & APRICOT GARDEN

I created this card in response to 2 weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers. One was a sketch layout. The other was a color challenge using SU! APRICOT APPEAL, SAGE SHADOW, & BASIC GRAY. I love APRICOT APPEAL and SAGE SHADOW and was very sad to learn that they are being retired with the release of the new Stampin'Up! catalog in July. I also love how this designer paper from K&COMPANY is a perfect match for the SAGE SHADOW and that it has hints of APRICOT APPEAL in the lighter colored roses.

The image is from STAMPIN'UP! and is from the set "GARDEN FROM THE HEART". I liked the set the first time I saw it but really didn't know if I would use it much. I think I have answered that question. I really like how it worked with the "rose garden" background. I colored the hat ribbon with SU! Apricot Appeal marker so that the highlights matched the matting, then added shading with COPIC markers. The rest of the image was colored with COPICS. Once I added the shading to the ribbon, the orange jemstones were the right color to add to the card.

The lace is some I've had laying around in a drawer for a looooooong time so I was happy to finally get to use it on something. I even managed to use it on the card for tomorrow's post. Guess once I pulled it out of the drawer, I didn't want to put it back.

A few punched dots around one edge and the card is finished.

TIP: Leave the inside of your cards blank so that you can pull the card from your stash and use it for whatever 'themed' event you need it for: thank you, thinking of you, birthday, get well soon, even a sympathy card for just the right person.

Thanks for visiting.
Until next time -
Happy Stamping.

Jill

WATERLILIES & GOLDFISH

I have always loved the beautiful stamp sets from FLOURISHES and have purchased a few from their website. So imagine my delight to find out that one of our local scrapbooking stores, THE KEEPSKAE ELEMENT in Bloomington, IL, is now carrying some of their wonderful stamp sets. Like the one that I used for today's card: WATERLILIES. The artwork is amazing and so much fun to color!

Normally I choose my image, color it, then choose the papers, cardstock and embellishments that coordinate with it. For this card though I started with a scrap of designer paper that a friend gave to me. I loved the color - it matches SU!WILD WASABI perfectly - and the pattern is elegant but not overstated.

I decided I wanted a fairly monochromatic card with just a touch of accent color - never imagining that I would use SU!PUMPKIN PIE as the accent color - but once I colored the image, PUMPKIN PIE was the obvious choice. To color the waterlily, I chose COPIC colors in Y0000, YG00, YGO5, G000 and G29. The fish was colored with Y21, YR16 & YR18. The "water" surrounding the fish uses COPIC colors BG72, BG10, YG05, YG00, and Y0000.

The background cardstock is SU! HANDSOME HUNTER (soon to be pulled off the market) and the smaller piece was de-bossed with the CUTTLEBUG embossing folder D'VINE SWIRLS. The circles were cut using the BIGSHOT and SPELLBINDER NESTABILITIES.

NOW FOR THE REALLY FUN PART: I didn't have any orange embellishments so I created my own by coloring white half-backed pearls with COPIC marker YR16.

TIP: Create your own color coordinating embellishments by coloring white or silver brads, pearls etc. with your COPIC markers. Because they are alcohol based, the color does not come off.

Thanks for taking time to visit me today.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

MEN AT SEA

If you are at all like me, you simply DON'T have enough "man cards". Recently my DH asked me in the course of a 2 week period for a birthday card for his BFF and a thinking of you card for a male neighbor. I looked through my stash of more than 300 cards and couldn't find anything suitable! It was time to think like a man - which as we women know is not always an easy task!!!!

This card was created using a CUTTLEBUG embossing folder on SU! BAYOU BLUE cardsotck. This particular EF reminds me of wind and waves so I thought it was a perfect choice for a windy day at sea. The cardbase and matting are SU!CHOCOLATE CHIP cardstock. The blue DP is from a paperpack available at either MICHAELS OR HOBBY LOBBY and is titled: OLD WORLD. The image is one I picked up at a garage sale (the mfr. info is not marked) and is colored with - what else - COPIC MARKERS. The brads in the photo look black, but in reality are aged brass.

I tried to stay with a windy, salty, weathered feel for this card. I think I maintained the theme.

Thanks for popping in today.

Until Next Time -

Happy Stamping!

Jill

LIFE IS A SYMPHONY

Thanks for stopping by today. Lately my posts have been sporadic at best - so I'm feeling pretty good about having 2 within the same 7 day period. :)
























I made this card for one of my nieces' birthday. She is very musically talented and plays both violin and piano. And of all my nieces she has always been the most "frilly" - loves ruffles and lace.

The image is a free digital design from DOVER PUBLICATIONS and was lightly colored using COPIC markers. The background pieces were cut using NESTABIILITIES. All of the papers and cardstock are STAMPIN'UP! I picked up both the ribbon and the brad from HOBBY LOBBY and tied the bow using the BOW EASY (a great little tool!)

That's all for today -
Until Next Time -
Happy Stamping!

Jill

M.I.A.

Wow! What a month it's been around here. Between health issues and tax preparation, I haven't had time (or energy) for anything - not even the love of my life. No, not my hubby (I always make time for him) but the OTHER love of my life - stamping! Finally this past weekend I was able to get a start on it again and spent last Saturday making cards. Some people might mass produce and get alot of cards done in the 7.5 hours I had, but I managed 6 masculine cards in that amount of time so I was pretty happy about that.

This is one of the cards I made that day. It's a simple design, but I really like the contrast between the curves and right angles.

The cardbase was created using a stamp from SU! WITH GRATITUDE in CHOCOLATE CHIP INK on SU! KRAFT CARDSTOCK. Then I matted a rectangle of striped DP from SU! PARISIAN BREEZE onto a piece of BAYOU BLUE cardstock. I stamped the boot using MEMENTO TUXEDO BLACK ink onto SU! WHISPER WHITE cardstock then cut it out with a SPELLBINDER'S CIRCLE NESTABILITIES so that the boot was off-centered. The edge of the circle is sponged in SU! CHOCOLATE CHIP ink. I stamped a second boot image and colored both images using COPIC markers. I cut out the second boot image and attached it to the circle using SU!DIMENSIONALS, attached the circle to the matted DP, and then adhered the entire center piece to the cardbase. The last step was to add the brads around the edge of the circle.

TIP: To add the metal brads, I used wire cutters and snipped of the prongs off each brad, attached a SU! MINI GLUE DOT to the back of each one and set them in place around the circle. I find this much easier than punching holes evenly around the circle and it creates less bulk under the layers.

The OUTSIDE reads: Dearest Dad
The INSIDE reads: No one can fill your shoes. You're the Best. Happy Father's Day!

Thanks for visiting with me today. Sorry I've been away for so long but hopefully that situation is remedied now.

Until Next Time -
Happy Stamping!
Jill