Rain Puddles Design

I've been working the last two weeks in my children's classrooms teaching art lessons about a master artist. I went through some of the most famous paintings of all time! Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Did you know that he didn't even prefer painting? He rather preferred pencil and paper over the laborious years it took him to paint a single piece of art. Yes, three years each for those two masterpieces. My husband believes it. He says I take just as much time only my canvas is a much smaller scale. So, so, true. If only I could create my projects quickly. I think today's card was pretty quick for me. I don't know how long it took to complete, but I do know that when you have a great challenge your creativity gets a jolt of energy. So the jolt to this card is the new Mix-Ability challenge on Splitcoaststampers hosted by Birgit. The challenge is to create GLUE ART. Use glue and let it show off! (Those are my own words.) Go to MIX70: Glu...

If today's project looks familiar it's because I just loved the background paper I made for this card last week so much that I wanted to create more with it. Read on to find out more about all the new Verve goodies on this card. The pattern paper layer was made with my Creative Palette and acrylic paints in Purple Red, Yellow Green and Warm Grey. That was all done for a Viva La Verve card back in April and I still had some leftover after I stamped the flower from Button Best  in black ink all over it last week for the release. I added some pink to the petals for highlight with a water-soluble oil pastel (I know that sounds odd and it is, but these little crayons are the bomb for intense color and are inexpensive as well). For extreme color I left the color alone, but to create a more transparent color I simply added water to it with an aqua pen. I added the Mix-Ability challenge MIX69: Faux Tile  to the paper using repositional scotch tape for a mask before adding ...

I thought when I was making this card last week for the Neon Blog Hop ( winners announced! ), that I would have time to create a short tutorial to share in the same post. It didn't happen, time just ran out for me. So I'm here with a quick tutorial today. The key to creating popped color on color cardstock is starting out with a white base for your image. It's super easy to do with the newest Stampendous Jumbo Sets. Each set comes with a plastic template for some or all of the stamps included in the set. Template included in Lovely Garden Jumbo Set The nicest thing about it is that you will end up with pre-made masks once you punch out the positives of the template. Think about it. no stamping on sticky notes and meticulously cutting around them. When shopping for these sets just look for the orange corner on the packaging that says "Free Template" (see below). Lovely Garden Jumbo Stamp Set There are a lot of tutorials out there on stamping wi...

It's Verve Release Day! Verve friends you can now shop til you drop! I'm so glad that you've decided to hop with us today because a lucky commenter today has a chance to win the ENTIRE release! If you have been hopping with us from the start you came from Marisa's blog and if you just found us, welcome! You can always start at the beginning by scrolling down to the master hop list. So let's get to my spotlight today, shall we? Diva Sarah has a wonderful sketch today over on the Viva La Verve blog. The background paper was a stash of monoprinted paper I had on hand from Julee's April sketch and color challenge. I stamped it with the two flowers from Button Best  and added a little more pink with water soluble oil pastels and an aqua pen. The banner is die cut from Banner Bundle Die Set in chartreuse cardstock and painted up with acrylics.  The sentiment is from the Marvelous Wonderful set, stamped on a cream cardstock and sponged with pink a...

If you are here for the Verve Spotlight Hop, scroll down to the next blog post .   I'm back again to the Stampendous and Imagine Crafts ®  Blog Hop with a neon botanical for your inspiration. If there could be more inspiration to hop with us this week (check out the days so far this week on Monday , Tuesday , and Wednesday ) it might just be getting some Neon Ink pads and HOT Fran•táge Color Fragments just for commenting on each hop along the way. Check out the details on the Stampendous blog . I've been wanting to create something with reverse masking since the Mixed Media challenge last week and this card idea was the perfect time to do it. Here's the card... The Lovely Garden Jumbo Stamp Set comes with a free Templates and Mask that is perfect for creating this card. The flower and leaves base is made with the combination of templates and masks and a white ink pad. Once that was dry the flower was masked and the leaves were stamped in black ink and t...

Hi Verve friends! Today is another spotlight day with Verve's NEW May release happening at the end of the week. We are just so excited to share all these new fabulous goodies with you that it's hard to share just a few a day, but it gives you a chance to see all the fun items in each set. Everything previewed this week will be available in the  Verve  online store on Friday, 5/23. And for today we are spotlighting  Wonderful Marvelous Stamp Set and Jeremiah 17:7 Plain Jane. You probably hopped here from Marisa's blog and when you are done just take the hop over to Teresa's blog . I've got one of the coolest sentiments on this CAS card and the great little background paper is a SCS tutorial that is part of the Try A New Technique Challenge 482  (use an embossing folder to stamp). All I really wanted to add to the card was some of Verve's Pastel Polka Dot Ribbon Collection. Today's Prize:   Wonderful Marvelous, Jeremiah 17:7 Plain Jane 1....

Welcome to our May 2014 Spotlight Hops!   We're so excited to share some new Verve with you! The Divas will be spotlighting 3 new sets, 3 plain janes and a couple dies each day through Friday, so keep your eyes peeled for some fresh Verve inspiraiton! Everything previewed this week will be available in the  Verve  online store on Friday, 5/23. Marisa was your last stop before stopping here and when you are done you will be heading to Teresa . If you are just finding the Spotlights, you can get to the Master Hop List near the bottom of the post. Today the Divas have our spotlight on  Button Best, Proverbs 31:25, Pointed Petals Die Set. I chose Button Best to share and it's such a sweet set. I love the buttons! I've used the Mojo Monday sketch for this week to highlight the some of the buttons and a sentiment. There's more to love from this set that I can't show you, of course, because it's just a spotlight day. The sketch is such a fresh style tha...

Today is the beginning of a focus for Stampendous and some amazing inks from Imagine Crafts. I mean if it weren't for the ink we would never sea Stampendous, right? So we are get-ink together with Imagine Crafts and showing off the fantastic creations that can be made. Today my project is seabound! To shower my card with vibrant color I stamped the PenPattern Shell in Versamark Watermark Inkpad on white cardstock and embossed with Detail White Embossing Powder . Once cool it was time to add some vibrant Electric Blue and Purple Neon ink with InkBlushers  and then buffed over the white embossing to make the shells pop. Here's the cool water background up close. Now it's time for that PenPattern Fish . The PenPattern Fish is applied in Electric Coral, Green and Yellow Neon Ink with Fantastix and then a shadow across the bottom in Electric Purple . It really makes that fish look shapely. He's popped up with foam dots and given some ...

Stampendous has some great (and cute) graduation images and sentiments. This particular cutie is of House-Mouse Design® called Graduate . I was a little nostalgic with this image as it was colored with all Prismacolor markers and colored pencils. I haven't done that in forever! It really colored up quickly and I was able to add some fun depth using both coloring mediums. You can find a few more wonderful images from Stampendous by searching on their website under Congratulations . Details: Stamps:  Graduate and Dreams Come True (Stampendous) Paper: White (Neenah), Charcoal and Pewter (Wausau) Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tsukineko), Prismacolor markers and colored pencils Accessories: Yellow Mica Fragments (Stampendous)

Today I'm sharing this card over on the Verve Stamps blog for this month's Diva Dare. I created mine almost literally! Can you guess the dare? Find the answer by clicking on over to the Verve blog . I was in the mood for a little collage style CAS card and I knew I needed to have the dare covered, but I also chose the Color Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. Verve's May Special The birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming here in Idaho, so we're having a 25% of sale on pretty little sets with flowers and butterflies and birds and all things spring.  Check it out on our  Deals   page. And last but not least, we'll be releasing some brand new Verve later this month!  Woohoo! Details: Stamps:   Petals and Wings (Verve Stamps) Paper:  Loolah ( Creative  Imagination), Picadilly (Basic Grey), kraft (Wausau) Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Gelatos Guava, Bubblegum, Lemon, Cotton Candy, Lime and Pistachio (Faber-Castell ...