Watercolor Happy Birthday

Another pinterest card that inspired me... This time it didn't work out the way I was hoping - I tried making an embossable image.   I cut out several images from a sheet, wanting the negative space.  When I glued them together, they were off slightly so it didn't work to emboss the paper like the pinterest card was.

Not to worry, I improvised!  I used the balloons that were cut out of the sheet and glued them onto the base card, thus giving the impression of an embossed paper.  Now that I went back to reference the card, it wasn't embossed.  She did it the same method I did!






I cut the saying out of watercolor paper to... water color it!  The saying is from our Artistry Cricut Collection (retired).

The stars are colored with #3 and #4.
"Happy is colored with #28 and #29.
"Birthday" is colored with #19, and "Day" is colored with #16 and #17.

The saying was then mounted with Thin 3D Foam.

Too fun!

Flower Market Wedding Card

I had just made my samples for my watercolor workshop. I had extra watercolor PML cards to explore with.  My friend was getting married.  And I wanted to play with the Flower Market Cricut Collection.  Time to make a wedding card!

A little background on the wedding... It was a rustic wedding.  The bride had made the center pieces from succulents, as was her bouquet.  There was a dash of sparkle, because that's the kind of gal Bren is.  And we wore cowboy boots to the wedding - she had them on.  These were the things in my mind when I set out to make a wedding card.  I hope you like what I came up with:

Let me talk you through the card...

The base goes with the theme - woodgrain from our Rustic paper packet, and bling from the white glitter paper.  The next layer is the watercolor PML card.  I painted this 4" x 6" card with colors #33, #34, #32, then back to #34, and #33.  "Mr." and "Mrs." were cut from Juniper paper and sponged with Smokey Plum (retired) ink.  Those words were mounted with Thin 3D foam.

The flowers are next.  Three different flowers are shown in the below table with the color cardstock from the largest cut to the smallest cut.  The flowers are inserted as a group.  The number after the name of the flower corresponds to the group width (No, I didn't pay attention to the size.  I went with what I thought would look good which is why the widths are odd sized.).

Ranunculus - 4.18"	Succulent (star) - 2.15"	Succulent (tri petal) - 3.47"
Eggplant	Fern	New England Ivy
Smokey Plum	Juniper	Fern
Pansy	Sweet Leaf	Juniper
Pansy	Glacier	Glacier
Thistle	Sea Glass	Sea Glass
Juniper
Sea Glass

All the flowers were glued together in the center and then the edges were curled.  The Gold Sequins finish the card off with a little more bling (that matches the "&") and adds interest to the card.









The star succulent is the top flower.  The tri petal is the lower flower.

This is the Ranunculus flower.  It's a accidentally a little off centered.









This card was definitely outside of my comfort zone.  That being said, I think I did a good job with the colors of the wedding.  I hope Bren and Tim liked it.  The wedding was a blast, basically a jam session of families and friends.  And you couldn't have asked for a better day.  It was a bit warm out, but under the trees of the ceremony and reception, it was the perfect temperature.  May they live happily ever after!

Thoughtful Thursday November 24, 2016

May we say thank you to all and remember that we are all working toward the same goal - happiness.  I appreciate you letting me lay out my work and thoughts here week after week.  I hope I inspire you sometimes.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Heather!!  Today is the day, my friends.  May you have no candles on your turkey this year.

Let's Celebrate Balloon

I really liked these Pinterest inspired cards.  Lindsey's birthday is right before school gets out, and with Amber playing softball, we have tended not to have a birthday party in June.  Because we didn't have a party this year, we decided to have a half birthday party instead, making this the perfect opportunity to make the card.

Most of the products used has been retired, but I think they fill the purpose too well.  It's one reason why you can never have too many/much stamping stuff.  : )

The paper is the Fundamental paper - Enchantment colors: Thistle, Olive, Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, Hollyhock, and Indian Corn Blue.  The ink color corresponds to the balloon color with the saying from the A Little of Everything set.  The balloon strings are from the Metallic Twine - neutrals, Autumn Terracotta Twine, and Olive Twine.  They are attached to the card with Liquid Glass, once the twine was knotted around the stem of the balloons.

Okay, so the meat of the card is the balloon.  I chose to use the balloon from the Artistry Cricut Collection and is 4.5" wide.  While I held the balloon down where I wanted it on the card, I cut the overhanging parts of the image.  Then I tied the string onto the balloon, and mounted it with Thin 3D Foam.  I changed up the bend of the string, and tada!

This card doesn't only have to be a birthday card.  It can be used for any celebration.  : )

Updated Poinsettia Wreath

On November 13th, I showed you how I made last year's poinsettia wreath.  I made poinsettias from a non-poinsettia flower.  I'm excited to share that the Flower Market Cricut Collection has 2 poinsettia flowers! So I'm re-visiting my wreath.  First, let me show you the 2 dimensional poinsettia.

In Design Space, chose the poinsettia.  All 4 pieces come into the work surface grouped, so you just need to resize the group instead of each piece separately.  These images also come stacked.  I sized the group to be 2.11" wide (height was locked to width).  Why the extra 0.11"?  I wanted to create the same size as last year's Artiste wreath and I thought this was the correct size.  As it turns out, this wreath is larger than last year's.  That's okay though, because I like it!

I sponged around the Cranberry petals with White Daisy Pigment ink.  I put those aside to dry.  You can always speed dry them with the Craft Heater.  While they were drying, I glued the center Lemon on top of the Canary background for the centers.  I also went and curled the New England Ivy leaves downward.  I did this with a large balled stylus.  When the petals were dried, I glued them onto each leaf and the center was added on top of each petal.

A 4" circle was cut from White Daisy cardstock.  The poinsettia flowers were added to the edge with Thin Foam Tape.  I realized afterward that I should have cut a ring of New England Ivy to adhere the flowers to so the white behind them wouldn't show.  Too bad.  The saying was stamped in New England Ivy and is from the October Stamp of the Month, but any nice saying would work.

Finally, the hanging ribbon and bow were from the White and Gold ribbon.  I cut a second 4" circle and sandwiched the hanging ribbon between the two for a finished look.

That's it for this one!!  I've been enjoying the Flower Market Collection.  I'll be posting more samples from it (my Holiday Workshop has several items that used cuts from there) soon.

Thoughtful Thursday November 17, 2016

It's one of those days to be happy and silly!

I saw a house decorated for Christmas on my morning walk.  A little too early for my taste.  I'm still thankful for the wonderful life and opportunities.  : )

Artiste Cartridge Poinsettia Wreath

For our November 2015 gathering, my Cardaholics group exchanged ornaments.  Here is the ornament I made and exchanged:

I created the wreath using Design Space and one flower from the Artiste cartridge (retired).  Okay, the circle was a second image from the cartridge.

The flower is from page 80 and is on <Accent1> of the leaf.  There are three layers:
Small flower is 1.43" wide
Medium flower is 1.69" wide
Leaf flower is 2" wide

The easy way to create was to take one flower - the leaf.  I added a hole in each flower (it doesn't exist on the image).  Either ATTACH or WELD the two images together once you place the circle in the middle of the flower.  Copy the image.  Reduce the copied flower a little - that becomes the medium flower.  Paste the image again and reduce the size more to make the small flower layer.  I layered them and sized them until I liked the proportions (which is why I have odd sizes for the medium and small layers).  Then I GROUPed the three flowers together, copied and pasted the group 8 times (for a total of 9 poinsettias).  You can apply  9 on the cutting page, but I prefer to put the number of images within one wreath.  Then I adjust the number of wreaths I was making on the cutting page (hopefully that makes sense), that way I can cut my ring (see below), and white circle, at the same time.  I need 9 poinsettias but only 1 ring and 1 circle per wreath.

Once everything was cut out, I sponged the edges of the Cranberry cardstock (flowers) with White Daisy pigment ink.  Set these aside for some time to allow the pigment ink to dry.

After the ink dried, I used a large balled stylist to curve each petal.  I curved the New England Ivy leaf the opposite direction of the Cranberry flowers.

Assembly of Poinsettias:  I took a yellow chenille and curved the very tip just a little with some needle nosed pliers.  Then I put the flowers on from the smallest to the largest.  I bent the chenille a little underneath to keep the flower in place and clipped the chenille with wire cutters.  Repeat that 8 more times.

Creating the Wreath: I wanted the poinsettias to sit on a New England Ivy ring.  To make a ring, I made a 3.9" circle and a 2.9" circle.  I overlaid the small circle in the middle of the large circle and GROUPED  and then ATTACHED the two circles.  The inner 2.9" circle would be recycled.

The saying was stamped in New England Ivy on a 3.9" White Daisy circle.  Red Striped Twine creating a loop was taped onto the back of the New England Ivy ring so that when the stamped circle was glued to the New England Ivy ring the ends of the twine wouldn't show.

Each poinsettia got a 3D foam piece on the back and placed onto the New England Ivy ring.  And finally, the red striped twine was made into a bow and Liquid Glass adhered under the saying.

Pretty cool, huh?!

Thoughtful Thursday November 10, 2016

I am so appreciative to those individuals who sacrificed for me and my children.  I'd also like to thank the families of all who served.  I can't imagine my life without having my husband come home every night.  To go it alone for months at a time - incredible!  Thank you for sharing your loved one with the country so we can remain free.

And to those who served, THANK YOU!!  I can't even imagine the horrors you saw and went through.

Happy Veterans Day tomorrow!! Virtual hugs!!!!  OOOOOOOO

Swan Lake Hooked on You Card

Yesterday Mr. Fox was the star.  Today it's Mr. Fish.  I'm not sold that this is a masculine card.   Mind you, it's not frilly like a feminine card could be characterized - but I digress.   It's just that I think women like to fish too.  I like this stamp set - Hooked on You (B1535) - because it can be used for multiple things.  The banner "it's your day" is outlined, meaning there is a Cricut cut that corresponds with it.  In this case, it's the Flower Market Cricut Collection (Z3285 or digitally Z3290 for Design Space abled machines).

Mr. Fish is about to get hooked on this pattern #29 from Make it From Your Heart Volume 2.  Let's talk paper.  The background is White Daisy cardstock that has been embossed with the Wood Slats Embossing Folder (Z3248).  It's hard (if not impossible) to see in the picture, but the wood grain was sponged with Champagne ink (Z2874) to highlight the wood grain.  On top of the White Daisy is a strip of Poppy cardstock (X5779), then Swan Lake B&T (7212B), followed by Glacier cardstock (X5770) all following the pattern's dimensions.

The next layer is a Dotted Whisper B&T from Swan Lake that was stamped in Black (Z2105) with "happy birthday" (I'll add that any of the sayings would be good here).  Black cardstock (1386) mats the White Daisy focal point.  Before the focal point was mounted with Thin 3D foam, it was stamped in Archival Black ink (Z3271), colored with Watercolor Pencils (3505) and blended with the Blending Pen (3174).  I used archival ink because of the blending.  Water based ink would have bled.



Here is a closeup look at my coloring.  There aren't really distinct lines because of the blending.  That's why I like to use that method.  I also like the blending pen over water because of the control, as well as the convenience of pulling the pen out and putting it away without any clean up.  Now, if the area that needed to be blended was larger, then I'd use water.

Originals Swan Lake Thanks

How about Swan Lake paper?  What do you think of it?  Fall, masculine, and versatile comes to my mind.  Today and tomorrow I'm going to share two cards I made recently.

I wanted to make a card with Woodland Critters (C1657).  I really like the samples on page 23 in the Holiday Expressions 2016 supplement, with another critter.  Here is what came out:

Mr. Fox, stamped in Poppy (Z2652), cut out, and mounted with  Thin 3D foam, sits on top of a 4.75" x 3" card from Originals  - Diamond Duo.  The paper on the left is from Swan Lake (X7212B) Packet.  "Thanks" comes from the stamp set and was stamped first in Black (Z2105) for placement, and then in Whisper (Z2172) for fill in.  The edge of the White Daisy center diamond and the card edge was sponged in Whisper ink.  The center mat is Glacier cardstock (X5770).

If you're curious, here is the stamp set. It's available until Decembr 31, 2016.  See the outlined stamps?  Those correspond to the Artistry cartridge (retired).

What will you create?

Flower Market Sunflower Birthday Card

My Cardaholics group card challenge was birthday cards.  Since I got my new cartridge, I thought I'd make my card using it.  And I thought I'd make one a little more masculine.  This is what came out:

Colors of this card:

Sapphire - background.  Sanded.

Saffron - flower base

Goldrush - flower outline

New England Ivy - stems

Crystal Blue - background to banner

Chocolate - banner outline and flower center backgrounds

Saddle - center of flower

White Daisy - card base

The center flower's stem is two stems glued together.  If I were to have elongated the stem, it would have been out of proportion.  

The banner is mounted with Thin 3D Foam.  And the flower centers have been "painted" with the Shimmer Glitter pen.  I have to say that the pen barfed a little too much for my taste.  This was the first card I made using the pen.  Subsequent cards didn't have quite so much.  : )

So, where did the sunflowers come from?  Take a look at page 7.  These were cut in three different sizes (although the two smaller ones are close to the same size).

And the title comes from page 39.

The nice thing about using Design Space is that the images come grouped so that when you size the image, everything associated with it stays in proportion.  :)  That and saving the file for later use.

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Thoughtful Thursday November 3, 2016

I thought this quote appropriate moving toward election day on Tuesday November 8th.  It's telling of our presidental choices.  Whomever you think has good character, and will do right for the American people - rather than himself/herself - is who you should vote for.  This person needs to LEAD us and allow us to be better off when we vote for a new president in four years.

Our choices aren't the best, but we need to choose one.  If you don't vote, remember not to complain afterwards.  You might be thinking, "my vote wouldn't have mattered." Perhaps if everyone who thought that had voted, it would have mattered.

Vote Tuesday November 8th!