Rain Puddles Design

Today it is officially time for the Christmas season in our house.We really do wait to start buying gifts and putting up the Christmas tree until now so we can enjoy all the goodness of the Thanksgiving holiday. We'll be putting up our tree soon and then it's time to put some Christmas-themed books underneath to fill the space where gifts will be on Christmas Eve. So today's card is all about bringing home the season. I've colored this Stampendous Truck of Gifts image with my Copic markers and later in the post I'll have them listed out for you in case your curious to try it out on your stamped image. There are other fabulous projects today from the Stampendous Design Team to look at so please visit the Stampendous blog to get the full list. Here's a gallery of the image close up, just in case there's a part you want to try on your own Truck of Gifts . (Right-click on an image to open them in a new window and in a larger size.) Co...

The Verve Divas are having a little blog hop today to jump start the Verve Thanksgiving Sale this weekend. YAY for a sale! Christyne was before me in the hop so you are right on track if you just came from her blog. Then you'll move on from my puddle to Jen's blog . Hope you're having a great time and have a wonderful holiday week! Here's my little Verve bird sample. This Christmas Joy bird is paper pieced with paper from the Silver and Gold Collection paper pack by Bo Bunny. I added an Award Banner Trim for some extra fun design and repeated the red pattern paper for the sentiment frame. Really easy peasy and shows off that sweet little bird. Now if you have just found the hop her on my blog you can start from the beginning by checking out the hop list below. There are so many wonderful designers in this group you're sure to find some holiday inspiration for your shopping list. 1.  Julee 8.  Laurie W. 2.  Amber 9.  Marisa 3.  Andrea 10....

Today I'm hosting the Mix-Ability Challenge.  Come on over and take the MIX 43 Challenge to use two different types of mixed media for your feathers on your project.  I created two different feathers in a cut file for this project, just because I'm that crazy about my Inspiration Cutter. Once I had them cut out, I put some paint down on them and started adding the mixed media layers. With a white ink pad, I stamped the Dream Text background stamp from Stampendous onto the painted feathers. I also stamped with some bubble wrap with the last layer using a dry plastic bristle brush and white gesso to make the barbs of the feather. I stamped Wander Lost from Stampendous onto Kraft cardstock and surrounded it with a feather stamp I created with craft foam sheet. It is so easy to cut and glue to cardboard for your one-of-a-kind stamp. And I stamped it in the corner of the background paper, too. Here's the little guy I created. To do this you d...

I'm sharing my take on the Diva Dare Challenge this month, to "Shape Up" your project. Here's a photo gallery of my project and if you want the details of the challenge head on over to The Verve Stamps blog today for more information. Verve goodies are adding a sweet touch to this shaped gift card holder. Check out the end of this post for product details. For the shape of the card I used my Pazzles Inspiration Cutter. I've been using that for many, many projects this last month. I'm afraid it'll call in sick one of these days. Here's the technical steps for taking a single shape and magically changing it so you can create a shaped card base. Of course you can always just use two single shapes and glue them together on one edge for a shape card, too. Using the options in my Inspiration Cutter software here are the steps to go along with the image above. (1) Mirror and Duplicate the shape. (2) Rotate the shape. (3) Align both shape...

A quick post from this absent blogger today. There has been a lot of running around and a fabulous week of crafting in my studio and last week I missed getting a few cards out to you. I created a card class using some Verve oldies, but goodies for a local store and with the rush to get them to class I forgot to snap some singles of the cards. So here's one of the cards to talk about and then a photo-edited image of all the cards together. The card uses the Christmas Blessings Plain Jane sentiment and the Merry and Bright Stamp Set  with pattern paper from City Sidewalks paper pack by Pink Paislee , Colromates Deep Belgium Blue and Neenah Sundance Balsa papers. The tag is something I designed with my Pazzles as well and is tied with Cream Seam Binding ribbon, Natural Hemp Twine. The sentiment was stamped on a journaling card by We R Memory Keepers Grids. The bling is this great resin rhinestone that is easily cut with scissors or even your Crop-a-Dile. One of the nicest ...

Welcome to the Third Annual Handmade Holidays blog hop!! The best crafters, designers, and makers have come together to create and share  a series of thoughtful, handmade gifts for the holidays during this 3 day blog hop. Here is a classic handmade holiday gift. Make up a few special cards, tuck them into a gift bag with holiday flair by using a stamped image, like this Stampendous Jumbo Poinsettia stamp, in place of a traditional bow.  A set of handmade greeting cards is always appreciated, but creating them for many gifts can be a daunting task. Here are techniques using  some   favorite Stampendous products to speed up the card making process. Stampendous Jumbo Butterfly Trio Jumbo Cling Stamps from Stampendous make a quick card with great impact. On these butterflies from the Jumbo Butterfly Trio set I stamped in Versamark Watermark ink and spread Detail White Embossing Powder over it, tapping off the excess. Before heat setting the powde...

Have you been shopping for holiday gifts? Getting your Christmas cards started late? Well, new supplies always get me in the mood to create. :) So here's a mixed media card I made with some new AVAILABLE Verve Stamps. I started with Natural cardstock base and a snowflake pattern paper from Doodlebug Design's Home for the Holiday's pack. To paint around the edges, I used some new Claudine Hellmuth paints I received for my birthday. Oh my stars I love those little containers and the paint sets are just perfect! As with all mixed media it goes in layers so the quick of how I did this was green paint (brush and finger smudge), brown (brush), white (stencil on edges and brush in middle). Add Classy die cut stamped frame from Unto Us with green (dry brush) paint on top. Stamp Real Red snowflakes and Basic Black snowflakes. Splatter thinned red paint with brush around outside. Stamp sentiment three times. Apply red paint strait from bottle in thin sporadic lines and us...