You’ve Got This

A simple floral card really speaks to me.  Like so often happens, I had started in a different direction with this project, but it took its own way.  I love how it turned out, but I don’t know if I can make it happen like this again.

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The background stamp came from the same set as the flower and sentiment, You’ve Got This. It is supposed to look a little more water colored, or even just painted.  Well, I believe my water color paper acted a bit more like a resist than intended.  I thought about spritzing it to have the color spread more, but decided to leave it until it was time to color the flower.

The flower and sentiment were both stamped with versamark ink and embossed with copper embossing powder.  With the flower I forgot to use a static resist tool and it was very obvious.  I cleaned it up as well as I could without destroying the image, but it still showed my mess.  The sentiment, I remembered and it is super clean.  I did water color the background of the sentiment, but very lightly.

I painted the flower with sweet sugarplum, blushing bride and old olive.  It turned out really lovely.  The odd messy dots of extra embossing really add to it.  That is what I meant by trying to re-create it somehow.  Accidents aren’t always easy to control a second time.

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Either way, it turned out quite lovely.  A sweet inspirational card is wonderful to make, but even better to give away.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Suite Sentiments

Mornings don’t always go as planned, and that is okay.  This set of cards was ready to go, but I had to choose to be on time for my carpool, or blog.  Blogging in the afternoon can be good too, just not my favorite.

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I wanted to use the cupcakes and carousel dsp stack for the focus on these cards.  The colors are so great.  They make me feel like having sherbet or frozen yogurt.  Yummy.  So I used two pieces of paper, trimmed them to size and used the extra pieces to accent the other.  Great way to use up the paper and get two cards done at once.

Suite Sentiments is an awesome stamp set.  So many great sentiments ready to be used, and all occasions covered too.  I went with a little more groovy ones to go with these odd colors and liked it.  I simply stamped with black stazon on velum cardstock and layered everything together.  All good and pretty darn easy.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Rainy Sky or Under Water, Yes

This lovely water color started as a fun project with my daughter-in-love.  We sat down together with a bunch of blue ink and totally different ideas.  I can’t wait to see what her card ends up looking like.  I wanted to create dimension in a single layer water color.  I love how it turned out.

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I started with a wet brush and paper.  I put different colors in all four corners and the lightest blue in the center.  The wet ink blooms did a lot of blending, but I moved the paper around to control the rest.  My patience runs thin often, which ends up in me drying my projects along the way to speed them up.  This time was different.  I only dried the paper enough to apply some stamped images here and there.  Then, I spritzed the entire piece to soften the images and allow more blending to happen.

After a few hours I came back to see how it ended up.  Just like this.  I even controlled myself and didn’t add anything else.  No more color, or blending or water droplets.  It was accented with copper foil paper and copper metallic thread.  What a great all occasion card to have on hand.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Enjoy…

Yummy, yummy and yummy.  That is what this card is.  It could be the paper, the delicate tag or the precious bit of copper metallic thread.  More likely, the combination of the three. Some simple cards are way more than simple.  I am going to have to get more of this paper for sure.

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I looked through my stamp stash for a tiny phrase or saying that would be noticed but not distract.  One tiny word from the Endless Birthday Wishes set was just right.  It also helped to make the card truly an all occasion theme.  This project is likely to be reproduced a few times over.  Such a great layout and color scheme.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Happy Birthday

When you have beautiful paper you really don’t need to worry about much else.  This particular specialty designer series paper is exceptionally beautiful.  Truly beautiful.

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What does that mean for this card?  You don’t really need much else.  I kept the copper theme going along and embossed the outline and happy birthday sentiment.  Then, the coordinating die cut from the rose garden thinlits set made it very easy.  A few loops of copper metallic thread off to the side and this project was done.  So elegant with all of the foil and copper.  It will be enjoyed I am sure.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Weather Together with Love

This is what I had in mind this morning, thinking of my recently married son and my soon to be married daughter.  Love is definitely in the air.  Then I read the news.  Seems like love is needed elsewhere today, and so much of it.

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It doesn’t take a lot to show someone you care about them and sometimes it is the little things that mean the most.  Little treat boxes, little hearts, and a little love.  This kind of thing really brings me joy.  Something wonderful from something a simple as a piece of paper.  Yup, just one piece of paper.

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The card was made with a half sheet, the front with one quarter and the box with the last quarter.  Hearts were stamped like crazy using the stamp from the weather together set. The word ‘Love’ also came from the same set.  I know I could have written it myself, but I don’t trust my writing all of the time and I wanted it embossed to really stand out.  After all, isn’t love the most important thing of all?

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Enjoy the Little Things

Yesterday was a very thoughtful day.  I was able to enjoy a day all to myself, which is quite rare in itself.  I had grand plans, a bit too grand, but decided to change them all around and enjoy it differently. This was one of my moments spent, a very indulgent chunk of time working ink all over this lovely card.

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I was given some new paper and brushes for my birthday, so of course I had to get to work using them.  I took this beautiful paper to the brink of maximum absorption.  Sometimes it just takes more time to get the colors just the way you want them.  If you were to smooth your hand over the top of this card you would feel the difference in texture.  The edges of course kept their very smooth surface, but the inked area is actually raised up.  Cool, right?

I did start with the embossed phrase first.  Then I worked around the edges and started in with all of the color mixing.  This copper embossing powder is so fantastic, I absolutely love the color.  It gives a much more masculine feel and goes better with my kind of color pallet ideas for sure.  So, I basically just embossed my sentiment and then went to town on the ink til I was happy.  And I am so happy, so very happy with this one.  I tend to do my best work when I am creating for someone in particular, especially when that someone is my husband.  What more can I say?

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Country Livin’ Rocks!

Living in the country has its perks, and wouldn’t this be just one of them?  I unfortunately do not have an adorable old truck like this, but it sure would be wonderful!  I will have to settle for the stamp and my imagination.

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This image was stamped with black stazon ink on water color paper and then adorned with a whole bunch of ink colors.  I started with a pallet of six colors, but it didn’t stay there.  I ended up with ten, but it called for it.  That doesn’t include the colors that emerged from simple blending and colors flowing together.  This kind of work is my favorite.  No real rules, just lots of distressing.

The perfect companion to the card is the new copper metallic thread.  It almost reminded me of barbed wire or old fence wire.  I like a little of embellishment, but don’t want any distractions when I water color.  The thread works for me.  There was a touch of stamping on the inside panel.  The splat image from the perpetual calendar set with cherry cobbler stamped off once.  Yummy!   I do think it would be interesting to try and paint this stamp with flames and metallic chrome.  I will have to see on that.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

A Special Congratulations

When your daughter gets engaged it is a whole different feeling.  I don’t know how else to explain it, but it just is.  However, planning takes on a whole new level of excitement that is more than difficult to control.  Having two wedding receptions within seven months does slow you down though.  Creativity, don’t fail me now!

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I finally broke out this bundle to see just what all the chatter is about.  Well, it is really that amazing.  I am going to have a ton of fun working this set.  So many bloggers have really done some amazing work so far, I am going to need to get to work to catch up.  I bet when my daughter sees this she might just get some shifty ideas about wedding invitations. Some things just aren’t fun when you have to make them by the hundreds though.  Perhaps the wedding invite and not the general reception invitation though, definitely manageable.

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I went with metallic thread as to not distract from the detail of the die cut, but that won’t last long.  I see lots of different types and sizes of ribbon being wonderful here.  It makes me want to change this out right away, but I will leave it.  It matches the copper metallic embossing powder I used on the congratulations sentiment.  Simple and elegant.  Yummy.

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Have a creative day!

Moana