Missing U

I made this card before I left for DC, but I wasn't really sure about it because it didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned.  But, it's grown on me.   I made it using the dies from Lawn Fawn's Quinn's Capitals dies.  I die cut the white panel then backed it with some cute paper form the Park Bench 6x6 set from Fancy Pants.  I used another sheet from that pad to cover the entire front of the card base.

But what I really love about this card is the inside:

My First Attempt with Art Impressions

This last weekend I attended CKC in Portland for the sixth year in a row.  It's changed a bit since I first started, but one thing that never changes is the inspiration I find there.  I happened upon a booth in the vendor fair for Art Impressions.  I remembered that I had watched Kristina Werner make the cutest cat card using their stamps, so I just had to check them out.  They had some of the cutest whimsical stamps, but then I saw the most amazing demonstration of their watercolor stamps.  I stood there for the longest time with another group of crafters watching the owner, Bonnie Krebs, create such beautiful scenes with just a handful of stamps, markers, a little water, a brush and some watercolor paper.  I knew immediately I was going to have to try it myself.

I picked out a few stamps that I thought would be basic enough to get started but also versatile enough to let me be creative.  As I was purchasing my new stamps, I struck up a conversation with the owner's husband and learned that they live not to far from me and my favorite local art store, Runaway Arts and Crafts carries their products - no wonder the name was so familiar.  I'm sure I've walked by their stamps in that store a ton of times and never gave them a thought because I simply didn't know how to use them. 

So tonight, I pulled them out because I thought they may do well for the sympathy card I need to make for a co-worker.  I was so surprised how fun, easy and FAST it was to make the potted plant on this card.  I watched their You Tube video and then just followed the easy steps to make my own version.  Then it was just add a background with Fancy Pants paper from the 6x6 pad called Park Bench and a little ribbon. 

Yet Another Newton's Nook Card

I have one more set of Newton's Nook cards to share with you from my initial time playing with them.  I used the cute balloon image again, but this time I cut it out after inking it up and coloring it.  I made the one on the right using some cute paper from the Amy Tangerine 6x6 pad called Yes Please.  I cut it down to fit the front of a top folding A2 card with the sun and clouds in the corner.  I stamped Newton on the front and colored it all black to shadow under my colored image adhered with pop dots.  I made the banner sentiments the same way as a previous card in this series by water coloring some paper with a Mustard Seed Distress Ink marker then stamping my sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Sophie's Sentiments set and, finally, cutting it into a banner shape before adhering it to my card.  I though the card still need something, so I inked a cut a few clouds from the Lawn Fawn Blue Skies set.  The clouds seemed too white, so I added a little Distress Ink that doesn't really show in the picture.  For the card on the left, unfortunately my paper pad only had one page with the cloud and sun in it.  So I pulled a plain blue page from the Fancy Pants Park Bench 6x6 pad.  I used the extra colored watercolor paper to stamp and cut out the sun from the Sunny Skies set from Lawn Fawn.  Using that, I built the card a second time in style similar to the first.   

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by the Artistic Avenger

Last week was a week filled with birthdays and I had tons of fun making cards.  For this card for my cousin's husband, I was completely inspired by the Artistic Avenger.  I simply loved this card.  I loved the colors and style.  For my version, I wanted to a little more masculine so I went right to the Swagger collection from Fancy Pants.  I really love this paper pad for masculine cards.  The brown background and the candles are all from the Swagger paper.  I used some of the Snap line from Simple Stories for the centers of the flame and the yellow paper from the Park Bench pad from Fancy Pants that was on my desk from the last card for the base of the flame.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and I stamped it with Momento Espresso Truffle on some twill ribbon in my stash.  I just love how this card turned out.  Nice and masculine.

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by Rocky Mountain Papercrafts

My sister-in-law's birthday was last week so, of course, I needed to make her a cute card.  I was flipping through a Pinterest board when this oh so cute card by Allisa at Rocky Mountain Papercrafts caught my eye.  I knew it was the perfect one.  So I flipped through my 6x6 paper pads and decided that Jillibean Soup's Apple Cheddar Soup was the right one for this card.  I choose the wood grained paper and the little flowers.  I then teamed them up with some plain brown card stock as a mat, some plain cream card stock for the sentiment and cream card base.  I couldn't find the right color to mat the flower, but then I found the perfect paper for that in my Fancy Pants Park Bench 6x6 pad.  I cut a flower with my Cameo and made a shadow for it.  Once I had it all assembled, I stamped my sentiment in Momento Espresso Truffle in using Technique Tuesday's Swanky Sentiments and stamped a flourish in Momento Toffee Crunch ink using a flourish from the Teresa Collins Spring Fling stamps.  It still needed a little something, so I dug a blingy brad from my stash and added a few Darice gems.  That finished it off nicely.