Rain Puddles Design

It's time to start sending out those beloved cards for Mother's Day. I'm actually created a few extras this year for a donation at my church. Every year I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a few dozen made up and sitting at the greeter's desk on Mother's Day morning. You know, just for those sons and daughters that might have forgotten? :) Each card is using Verve sentiments from Joyful Blooms , and  Love Deepens . This little lovely uses the frame from Verve Stamps, Love Story  back dropped by die-cut and embossed vellum. I used the flowers from Joyful Blooms and embossed them with Stampendous Detail White embossing powder (boy that stuff is shiny!) I added some adhesive backed pearls and some of Verve's luscious Seam Binding ribbon from Spring Fling Collection  and added some stitches. Oh, see I even added an embossed doily in the background (see the next card for details).  I added some lace doily stamps from My Mind's ...

Miss Lydia on Splitcoast Stampers has a challenge for us in mixed media today. Use your doodling skills and two or more media on your creation. It's easy-peasy this week. Mix-Ability Challenge: MIX13 Here's my check off list Media 1 - ink from a stamp pad Media 2 - water soluble oil pastels (yes there really us such a thing) Doodling + Media 3 - BONUS, right? Black India brush pen I stamped flowers on white cardstock that was die cut with a Spellbinders Label die. Coloring them up with some water soluble oil pastels. Now it's time to water down the color with an aqua pen, but first I sketched in some two-tone green leaves (I forgot to snap a shot until I had already done the waterbrushing so the only leaves still sketched are to the left of the sentiment. It's a lot of fun coloring with these pastels) Now it's time to doodle! Since the pen is a brush I was able to pressure adjust the doodling and got some crazy squiggles. Here is the f...

Have you gone to get your e-book this month? It's a great one, All About Embossing! It's affordable and fun to learn new ways to use the supplies you already have *in stock*! Go to my Club Cr8 Page  for the list of all available e-books.

Oh Happy DAY! It's Stampendous Catalog Release time!  We are going to OZ with so many awesome stamps! Here's one that I created using the new Overlooking Oz stamp with the Classifieds Background Stamp to texture the card base. See what's new from the Stampendous April Catalog! Stampendous Art Director, Lisa Hindsley,  is joing the designing team with new OZ theme stamps. Here's a catalog introduction to these amazing new stamps. AND Stampendous has a full line of Digital Downloads to go along with the traditional stamps in the catalog. For more inspiration, stay connected to the Stampendous Blog or Facebook Page for more Catalog showcases! Details: Stamps:   Overlooking Oz (Stampendous), Classifieds (Stampendous) Paper:  Bazzill Basics cardstock in kraft and coral, white (Neenah), cork sheet Ink:   Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tsukineko),  Versamark Watermark (Tsukineko),  Prismacolor Color Pencils Accessories: A...

It's time for me to share how I took the Diva Dare over on Verve Stamps blog. See you over there! Diva Dare ~ Day 8 If you think you don't want to take the link to the Dare, then here's a bit of incentive. There are two ways to win some shiny new Verve! Yeah, k. I used the Mojo Monday sketch #290 and was inspired to let my flowers and butterfly grow wild. :) They didn't want to stay in place, I tell ya. Details: Stamps:   So Fluttery  and  Surely Goodness (Verve Stamps) Paper:  Miss Caroline Dolled Up (My Mind's Eye), Night of Navy (Stampin' Up) Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic) Accessories:   Scalloped Trim Trio Die Set , Banner Bundle Set ,   Loopy Blooms Die Set , Essentials Paper Piercing Pack (Stampin' Up), twine (The Twinery)

Before I announce the Club Cr8 winner from my post last week I want to invite over to see a free Monday Tutorial on Paper Craft Planet that I hosted. It's on a few fun sewing techniques. Have a look-see! We've been selling a lot of Club Cr8 e-books, they really are packed with techniques, details and loads of step photos.  If you aren't the lucky winner from my blog giveaway, you can always go to my new page tab at the top of my blog for Club Cr8 ! The links there will take you straight to the Buy Now page so there's no waiting in line. :) Here's the winner...  Virginia Montagna  montagnava AT aol.com    Congratulations!!!!!! Please contact me and verify I have your correct email address. Here are the details of the card I created for the Embossing e-book. Details: Stamps: Surely Goodness (Verve Stamps) Paper: Anthologie (weRMemoryKeeper), Smooth White (Neenah), lilac (Craft Warehouse pack), ginko (Wausau),  I...

It's blog hop day with Project Life and Stampendous Impressions! The Design Team is putting on some flair with our Stampendous supplies and Becky Higgins Project Life Page Protectors. But before we get to my project there is the important matter of PRIZES! Oh yeah, if you have been with us all this week you know that Laura at Stampendous has oodles of prizes in store. It's easy to have a chance to win, just comment away! Details are all on the Stampendous Blog Back to my project. Oh my pages came together like a storybook! I know that's how they are suppose to be with divided page protectors, but I started with a picture of my son maneuvering around with a clunky toy.  On the first half of my two-page Project Life spread I captured my son. He's got an elephant rocker my dad made for me when I was his age. My dad was crafty with wood and so was his dad. They had lots of tools to get the job done and I suppose as I thought through this layout I realized...

It's another mixed media challenge and Dina's got a great one for us with the Mix-Ability Challenge. I pulled up my sleeves, only to get more messy with my paints, and created a card. I started out with some scraps of cool colored pattern paper and glued them to an index card I printed lines on for a rolodex project (see the day number faintly in the top right corner?). I watered down my warm color acrylic paints with water and brushed them on scraping and smudging it around with an old credit card. A layer of gelatos blue set around the edges before gluing it on to a purple mat. It was time for a splash of warm. I stenciled on a slight mix of Medium Red and Naphtol Light Red acrylic using a Deco Art stencil in the bottom right corner. My old toothbrush was loaded with watered down warm grey paint and splattered all over. I used a fine line Sharpie to outline everything once I added a cut out sentiment from another piece of scrap paper. I added some leaves from a...

See that up above? I made that all by mah'selfs. I created some graphics to do for a map making activity in my kids Caravan's class at church last night. They were still on my computer screen when I got home since I made them right before we left and so when I sat down I got an idea to use one of them again. I was smitten with the city street/scape that I made and so I colored it and decided to use it as my cover photo in Facebook. I might like to stop in sometime there and get a latte. Or maybe I'll add another building with a latte sign... if I have enough time. What's coming up?????? Late Thursday night  I'll be posting a journal page with the next Mix-Ability challenge! Have you jumped in on the mixed media challenge this week? I hosted MIX11 and Friday the new one is hosted by talented Miss Dini. I'll be back on Friday with another Project Life layout and a Stampendous Blog Hop with prizes. Did you know that you can get a prize for commenti...

  The April Club Cr8 e-book for this month is now available! This month is all about embossing… Wet and dry embossing tips and tricks. How to make your own embossing folders and impression plates Wet embossing with stamps and stencils and much, much more! Now if you MUST get one right now (really you must) then  head over to Paper Craft Planet's blog  and straight to the Add to Cart button. You're gonna love all the lessons in it! Here's the card I made using the DIY Embossing Folder lesson. Now here's the fun part! I'm giving away a FREE Club Cr8: All About Embossing e-book! Just leave one comment on this post including your email and I'll draw a random winner on Monday, April 22, 2013 5:00pm MT . If you can't wait, go HERE and buy the April: All about Embossing e-book today! Did you miss the March Club Cr8: Die-Cutting e-book? It's still available, get details and buy it here.

Today is the start of a fun collaboration with  Project Life by Becky Higgins and Stampendous . We are having some fun creating and recording the two companies products together. Any day is a good day to start! Today I'm sharing a layout from the week before last on the coming of spring. Nature is starting to blossom and at the same time so it the need for baby blankets. Hee-hee, it just so happens it's time to replenish the baby dedication blankets for our church, too.  The focus of my post though is going to be making your own unique kit cards. It's really fun to do and since they aren't the focal part of your PL pages you can have a little more freedom to play. Here's my layout. Don't mind the lack of journaling, it's my perfectionist mind that wants to make sure I don't mess up on the handwriting and not that I want to share what's on my mind. :) (UPDATE: I added my thoughts finally.... digitally at least.) (Click i...