Back in the Saddle Again

Howdy, Pahdners!  I hope everyone is having a whoopin' good time this fine Tuesday.   Speaking of Tuesday, it's time for the weekly Teapot Tuesday and Color challenges over at Splitcoaststampers (SCS)!  If you've never participated in the weekly challenges on SCS, it's a wonderful way to get the creative juices flowing.  And, it's so much fun seeing what everyone comes up with!

The Color challenge this week is to use Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and Vanilla.  The dessert option is to have one rounded corner in your design.  The Teapot Tuesday challenge is to use a horse in your design and include a flower somewhere. 

I chose to use this beautiful horse image designed by Theresa Momber from her Out West set (available at Gina K Designs).  I colored my horse with Copic markers (E19, E29, E35, E37, E49, E50, and E57).  I cut out the image and popped it up on a Very Vanilla oval panel.  For the flowers, I used my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch in Old Olive and Stampin' Up's double circle punch for the Ruby Red centers and glued those around the oval panel.  I cut out a larger Scalloped Oval (Nestability) panel in Very Vanilla and attached my image panel to that with pop-up dots for dimension.

The chocolate background was embossed with a paisley embossing folder.  The polkadotted Old Olive designer paper is from Stampin' up and was cut using the Topnote die.

Here's somewhat of a close up so you can see the horse and the dimension a little better.

For those of you who may not be aware, Cindy (aka Mothermark also known lovingly as da Mudder)always has a destination for the Teapot Tuesday cards.  (participating is stricly voluntary).  Our cards this week will be going to the daughter of a fellow Teapotter (Cathy, aka Mutnik).  Her daughter, Jessica, was thrown from her horse when he lost his footing on the trail they were on.  Jessica's fall fractured her skull in the back of her head, fractured her right temple and has two fractures on each side of her spine by her pelvis.  She has a long road to recovery, and her mother knows it would bring a smile to her daughter's face if she were to receive some happy mail that included horse images.

Cool Beans

I made this card in honor of Coffeestamper, aka Sue, on Splitcoaststampers as she was chosen the featured stamper this week.  I cased her cute Bugaboo Perk Up card.  I made the required two or three changes and used the sketch design from this week's Stamp TV sketch challenge.

Stamps: Cuppa Joe (Gina K)

Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, dp
Ink: Memento Black
Accessories: Copic markers, Bravo Burgundy marker, large polkadot embossing folder, oval Nestabilities, circle punches, zig zag border punch, dimensionals
Techniques: paper piecing

Honoring Another Queen for the Day

Clownmom (Lois) is Queen for the Day this week on Splitcoaststampers!!   Lois joined SCS about eight months after I did-----way back in 2005-----and she has always been there providing support and encouragement to other stampers in her posted comments.  She also happens to be a very talented stamper!

As I perused Lois' gallery to settle on a project of hers I wanted to case, I actually came across two designs.  One is a set of lovely gift cards called Gerbers in Purse and the other is a pretty stationery box called Southwest Stationery Box.  I actually had started making my stationery box several months ago, but never finished off decorating the inside nor did I ever create my cards and tags for it.  Lois' two beautiful projects really gave me the inspiration and motivation to complete mine.  I have several photos in order to show you the different views and items.  There's a great tutorial on how to make these stationery boxes under the Resources section on Splitcoaststampers.  Just click on my tutorial link to take you there!

The pretty pink and white designer paper I used is Letterbox by American Crafts.   The opposite side of this designer paper is the brown I used for my punched floral band around the box top.  I glued this band onto my box top except for the front.  In front I used Sticky Strip because I wanted to adhere some pretty white gold glitter to the inside flowers on this band.

Here's a top view to show you the layered flower I made with my Sizzix Flowers, Daisies #2 die using the same designer paper.  I separated each layer with dimensionals.

Here's an open view of the box.  I designed four 4 1/4" square cards, 3 1/4" square cards, four 3 1/2" envelopes I made for the 3 1/4" cards, and four tags.  I also included postage stamps and a pen.  The chipboard "W" and little flower on the postage stamp cover were originally purple, so I colored them brown with my Copic markers.

Here's a view of the cards with the box.  On the 4 1/4" square cards, I used my favorite tulip flower image, called a Year of Flowers, designed by Melanie Muenchinger and distributed by Gina K. Stamps.  I watercolored the tulips with Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, and Mellow Moss.  I first stamped the image and then cut out the flower and stem leaves for dimension.  The tulip bulb was stamped onto Cryogen Sparkle White cardstock which has a natural shimmer to it.   I used Vintage Vogue and Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the 3 1/4" square cards.  I used Pocket Silhouettes on the tags.

Here's a photo of just the cards, tags, and envelopes.  I made the 4 1/4" square cards with my Lacey Squares Nestabilities.  Since I couldn't get a clean cut of the double-layered Pretty in Pink cardstock with these Nestabilities in my Big Shot (not sure why since I've used my other Nestabilities for card shapes), I adhered them together with my Word Window punch and pink brads.  Since this technique makes it a little difficult to open the card, I scored across the top of the card about 3/4" down to make it easier to open without ruining the design.  The 3 1/4" cards were made with Square Nestabilities.  I added a little half circle tab with pink brad on the side using my 1" circle punch.




Here are photos of the individual projects.  Sorry for the fuzziness on the Friends one.  The focus feature on my camera has been acting up for some time now when I try to zoom in on projects.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and view my project!  I spent a LOT of hours putting this together.  I'm gifting it to my baby sister who I know will appreciate all the work I put into this.  She makes beautiful jewelry for me, so I wanted to give something back to her that I made.

Congratulations, Lois, on being chosen as Queen for the Day!  You so deserve this honor!

CSS Alumni Blog Hop

Welcome to another StampTV Center Stage Alumni blog hop!  If you've arrived from Carolina's blog, you are in the right place!  You can also start at the beginning by going directly to Stamp TV and hopping from there.

Carolina challenged us to create a card that contains only the following items and no others:

* one neutral color for the card base:  white, ivory, black, brown, or kraft
* two different colors of card stock
* one patterned paper
* three buttons
* one color of ribbon
* as little or as many Gina K images as we'd like

Since I really need to add to my Christmas card stash, I chose to go with that theme for my design.  I love this beautiful reindeer from Gina's The Magic of Christmas stamp set.  He has a regal bearing about him, don't you think?

I chose white as my neutral cardstock; burgundy and metallic green as my two different colors of card stock; my one patterned paper is obvious; my three buttons are actually a button die cut out several times and stacked for depth of a real button; I used gold for my ribbon; and, like I wrote above, I chose Gina K's The Magic of Christmas stamp set.   I colored this sweet reindeer with Copic markers, masked him off, and stamped the trees in the background.  The trees were colored with Stampin' Up's old forest green reinker, as well as creamy caramel and chocolate chip reinkers, and blender pen.  I used a gold paint pen to color the stars on top of the trees.  I added silver glitter on the garland of my trees.  For my clouds, I punched a scallop punch out of a post-it note and sponged my color around that.  It's hard to tell in my photo, but for the snowy ground, I dipped a paint brush in white craft ink and painted it carefully around my trees all the way to the bottom of the card.  I then used detailed white embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Last, I used a glue pen to adhere dazzling diamonds on top of the snow.

Now, to continue the hop, head on over to Cheri's blog and check out the marvelous creation she has designed!  Have fun!

Christmas in July and still daring....

Actually, I love making Christmas cards any time of the year.  They are some of my favorite projects to do.  Joanne Grzelak, aka JoJot, challenged the CCEE gals to make a Christmas in July card using this fabulous sketch design.  Do you recognize the designer paper?  Yep, some of the retired SU True Thyme and Cranberry Crisp dp.  I had a few scraps of it left, so used it in my design.  We'd love it if you played along with us.  You can get all the deets right HERE as well as view the beautiful cards my team mates, Tosha, Joanne, Cindy, Shirley, and Frances have made.

And, yes, I'm still daring to get dirty with the Dirty Girls on Splitcoaststampers (SCS) by trying to participate in as many of the fabulous challenges they've come up with for the SCS Fan Club members. As a full-time working-outside-of-the-home gal, it's hard to keep up with all of them, and I so wish I could just stay home this week and play in EVERY challenge!!! The DD gals have really outdone themselves with some terrific challenges.

An Electic Mixture

Here are a few cards I've made this week and finally getting posted to my blog.

1.  This is for our weekly CCEE challenge hosted by JoJot to create a summer-themed project using this sketch design.  I love getting together with family and friends on a beautiful, summer day and having a cookout or picnic.  Please be sure to check out the designs my friends made on our CCEE blog; we'd love it if you played along with us, too!

2.  I made my next card for one of the "funnest" challenges ever on Splitcoaststampers (SCS) called Teapot Tuesday.  Mothermark is the challenge hostess, and man, is she funny!  She always has these terrific teapots for our inspiration and associates some pretty goofy stories to go along with them.  It's been great to see the number of challenge participants growing and how everyone gets into the goofy groove, as I call it.  We have so much fun!  You can get the details on this week's challenge here.

This week, we were going "dotty."  I stamped directly onto black and white polkadotted designer paper.  I hand drew the hills and outlined with slashes and x's, which is not my original idea.  I got the idea from Cathy (aka Mutnik) when she was featured stamper on SCS a while back..  I colored the entire scene (except for the sun) with a mixture of watercolor wonder crayons, followed by reinkers and blender pen.  The sun was made with my 3/4" circle and boho blossoms punches.

3.  My last card was for yesterday's sketch challenge on SCS, as well as using the distressed linen technique that Gina K demonstrated on Stamp TV.  Basically, you do an emboss resist technique on designer paper and then color with distress inks.  It was fun to do!  I started with a piece of Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry; I have a small piece of it laying at the base of my card so you can see how my background paper started out. I clear embossed this Rubbernecker shasta flower onto the designer paper, let it cool, then I sponged my distress inks (tattered rose and weathered wood) over that. I really like the effect of how you can still see the original designer paper pattern after you've embossed and sponged it with ink.

I stamped an extra shasta flower onto bordering blue, cut it out, rubbed wax paper over it to give it a little shimmer, sponged the outer edges with the weathered wood distress ink, bent back the edges of the flower with my bone folder, added hematite glitter to the center, and popped up on a dimensional.

I black embossed my sentiment (also by Rubbernecker) on vellum and adhered that to the back of my die cut oval panel. 

I always appreciate your visits and comments; thanks!  Have a great day!

Majestic

Shirley from my CCEE group gave us a terrific sketch challenge this week.  If you'd like to play along with us, please visit our CCEE blog to get all the details.  You can also see the fab projects my team mates Cindy, Joanne, Shirley, and Frances designed.


For my card, I silver embossed and watercolored with Basic Gray reinker this terrific horse image from Out West by Gina K. on Gina's Pure Luxury White cardstock.  I then cut him out and adhered him with dimensionals.  I think he looks majestic; therefore, his name!



I'm thinking about using this for a swap I'm going to be participating in.  We have to create half masculine and half feminine cards.  Obviously, this is a masculine theme.

Stamps:  Out West (Gina K)
Cardstock:  Basic Gray, Gina K Pure Luxury White, Pebbles Inc dp
Ink:  Soft Sky
Accessories:  Versamark, silver embossing powder, silver brad and lasso, star punch, paper piercer, dauber, dimensionals, oval Nestabilities, circle Nestability

Blue Tulips for Mother's Day

Frances, aka Stamp Owl, is our May CCEE challenge hostess with the mostest.  Frances is pretty fired up this month because she is going to be a first-time grandma...this month!  How exciting, huh?   The May CCEE challenges, therefore, are going to be centered around mothers and babies. We hope you'll join us each Thursday!

To kick off the first week in May, Frances challenged us to make a Mother's Day card.  My mama loves to garden and she loves butterflies, so I chose my favorite tulip stamp from Gina K's A Year of Flowers.  I heat embossed the tulip image with PearlLustre Sapphire Opaque embossing powder on vellum cardstock.  I then used my blender pen to paint in Broken China Distress Ink.  I let that dry and then used my Stampin' Up Metallic pencils to add a touch of purple to the base of the tulips and to color the stems.  The leaves were stamped in Broken China and colored and blended with a metallic pencil as well.  I added Crystal Effects for the dew drops on my tulips.  Here's a close up of the tulips to show you the dew drops.

See the butterfly?  After I punched it out on black cardstock, I got the idea to color it with the same Stampin' Up metallic pencils, and I love how it looks! 

I used my octagon Nestabilities to cut out the vellum cardstock and then a piece of white cardstock.  I embossed the white cardstock with my dotted swiss embossing folder and then adhered the vellum tulip panel onto that.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Well Scripted set.

Please stop by our CCEE blog to see the beautiful projects my friends made and get the details for how you can play along with us! 

It's All in the Family

Oooooo! Patsmethers you reign supreme as Queen for the Day! I have been cruising your SCS gallery all weekend trying to settle on a card to case. I must admit to being intimidated casing you, my dear. You've got more talent wrapped up in the tip of your pinky than I do in my entire body, and I keep expecting to find your pretty smiling face in the Dirty Dozen gallery soon! Your cards are always a work of the "heart," even if you do try to act like you're all naughty or sumpin'. But we know what a big heart you have. Sooooo, I just had to case one of your sweet HM cards, and I especially love this darling Fly Away card you made.

I just had to pull out my adorable li'l teddy bear and pair him up with these big balloons. After all, he needs some big balloons to help him lift off! I paper pieced my balloons and colored teddy with Copic markers. I sponged Soft Sky, Barely Banana, and Mellow Moss on the background.  I used my notched corner punch and threaded pink embroidery thread around that.

I keep praying that Stampin' Up will bring back permanently some of the In Colors they've introduced these past few years. I especially love the softness of Pink Pirouette and Soft Sky.

In any event, CONGRATULATIONS, Pat on being Queen for the Day! You're one of the bestest!!
 
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I made my next card for the Twisted Sisters challenge to case a card of JamiePTS who happens to be Pat's daughter-in-law!  How cool that they both were honored by being featured in challenges this weekend!  I cased Jamie's darling truck load of love card as I needed to make a birthday card for my grandson. 

I used SU reinkers to watercolor my scene, except for the sky, which I sponged Soft Sky using a post-it note punched with the scallop punch as my template.

Happy Birthday, Brody!  We love you!

Grapes of Laugh

Well dagnabit! It looks like Bertie led me astray for the tea party this week! She told me we were bringing grapes to today’s party.

When I came to upload my card, I read da Muddermark’s story for Teapot Tuesday that we’re actually going to the Galapogos Islands in South America where we'll be riding giant tortoises and that we’re to bring shoes for Flat Footed Booby Ruby (where does da Mudder come up with these names???). I was so upset with Bertie that I just wanted to throw my grapes away!! However, Bertie was very contrite and apologetic. She’s really gone out of her way to try to calm me down. She told me that it’s actually a good thing that Booby Ruby is flat footed because her feet won’t fit in all those shoes the other tea partiers are bringing anyway and, furthermore, Booby Ruby’s flat feet will be perfect for smooshing grapes for wine! Bertie wanted to make it even more fun for us, so we took grape smooshing lessons with Lucy in Italy. You can see Bertie here in the vat with Lucy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0D-Rv_vro

We had so much fun making that video with Lucy!

Now, we’re off to the Galapogos Islands to join the other tea partiers, riding giant tortoises and flingin’ grapes (and shoes) today! We hope you’ll come join us!



See that button covered in fine yarn in the upper left corner? It is a button I discovered in an old sewing basket that had belonged to my mother-in-law. I found the basket in my closet. This part of my card is for an Inspiration challenge on Stamp TV. I added a purple rhinestone to the center of it.

After I colored and cut out my grapes, I stamped the image in Versamark and heat embossed with Glassy Glaze for a richer, shinier color.

Squeak! The Road to a Friend's House

Speaking of friends, my sweet and funny friend, Peggy (aka marilynprestonn on SCS) is hostessing the Teapot Tuesday challenge this week, and, boy, has Peggy come up with a really darling teapot and story. That girl has a wonderful sense of humor! We're having the tea party at the Rodent's House! My friend Sabrina (cook22) is a little skeered of mice (aren't most of us?), but Peg-a-roo has reassured her that these mice are all friendly. However, I'm a little concerned that Marilyn's (apandi) elephant might not share those sentiments. Check out the details here, and I hope you'll consider playing along with us.

Oh, just a word of caution: Peggy says Mama Teeny is serving up a special eggnog concoction in the punch bowl. After I read the ingredients, I definitely made a mental note to abstain. Even Bertie (my alter ego) has said she will not be partaking of this libation! However, if YOU do decide to partake, I noticed that Judi (aka jovial judi) has brought some candy canes to the party to mask the smell.

I think you can pretty much figure out that I drew upon the door and the mice from the inspiration teapot for my card. I masked my little mousie holding his ornament and stamped the door scene (The Journey designed by Asela Hopkins and distributed by Gina K. Designs) over him. I colored everything with my Copic markers.

Carla (cmsuto) and Joanne (sleepyinseattle) brought their darling houses if you need a place to hide from all the mice or a place to crash if you do drink that eggnog. I'm thinking Marilyn's (apandi) elephant might have a tough time fitting into one of these teeny tiny homes, but I'm sure he's gonna be freakin' out over all da mice runnin' around.

Well, I'm off to go join my other friend, Cathy (aka Mutnik) and her teacup of mouse-a-partiers. They look like they are having a blast!

It's All About Time

Have you ever debated with yourself about whether or not to keep blogging? I love doing it, but lately, between work and home life, I have been so busy that I've hardly visited my own blog let alone all of yours. I feel so terrible that I haven't had the time to do so because I do enjoy being inspired by your creativity, as well as giving comments that I know we all cherish. I keep telling myself to hang in there; that this, too, shall pass and things will slow down.

In any event, I have a couple items to share today. One is from a card I uploaded to SCS yesterday for the sketch challenge (and, again, didn't have time to get uploaded to my blog). My friend Cindy (YLM) had sent me a few of these Penny Black snowman images about a year ago, and I've been hoarding this last image. I just love him with his cozy scarf and hat. I drew the lines to create the pattern in his scarf and added dots to the rim of his hat. Isn't he a cutie that you'd just love to snuggle? Hee!

and the other card I made is this 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" square thank-you note I made for a co-worker. Gina K has a tutorial on Stamp TV on how to make matching envelopes for these square cards. I used my Ridinghood Red striped dp for the envelope. It was so easy peasy to make, too!



I used my Twinkling H20s to color the coffee bag and cup. I love this rich red in the Twinkling H20s called Jasper Red. It looks magnificent with Ridinghood Red! This card was also for the CAS challenge that Jen hosts on SCS, which fit my stamping needs perfectly as this is a masculine thank-you card. Well, at least I think it'll pass for masculine.

If you've stopped by today, thank you! I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to see what I've been up to. Tomorrow I hope to share some photos of some gift sets I've been making for a customer (another thing that has kept me busy and away from my blog....but is a little more lucrative...snort!) I wonder what time it is.....

Warm Winter Wishes!

Hello! Tonight the Gina K Design team (and special guest designers, of which moi is one) are showing some creations with Carolyn King's new Warm Winter Wishes stamp set. This is such a cute snowman set; I absolutely love it and think you will, too!

I chose to make an acetate treat box and coordinating 3 1/4 x 3 1/4" card. There's a great tutorial in the Resources section on Splitcoaststampers.com on how to make these. I'd put in a direct link if I could, but SCS seems to be having server issues and I could not get in when I wrote this post. I filled my treat box with York Peppermint Patties.



I love the fact that you can stamp a couple of the sentiments directly onto the heart of this adorable snowman! The little card is very simple because I wanted the focus to be on the snowman. I colored him with Copic markers; tore the white paper for the snow and edged it with dazzling diamonds; and embossed the background with my snowflake embossing folder.

I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo, but I did stamp the snowflake from this set in Stazon White onto the acetate. Here's a bit of a close up:



And here's a little bit closer view of the coordinating card:



Isn't he adorable??

For even more inspiration visit Carolyn King - the Illustrator of Warm Winter Wishes and the Idea Center gallery HERE.

Then, check in with Carolyn's other special guest designers:

Tina Gilliland

Deb Anton

And, finally stop by these GinaK Designer's blog participating in the hop tonight:

Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber

and our CenterStage Spotlight Team:

Joy Hadden
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne
Lori McAree

GinaK will be giving away a copy of Warm Winter Wishes on her blog tonight - so pop over there to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win the set for free! (If you've already purchased the stamp set, we can swap it out for another GinaK stamp set valued at $19.95 or less.)

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Frances is our challenge hostess from the CCEE team for the month of September, and today she has started us off with a fabulous sketch challenge! I had a lot of fun working with this design, and we hope you'll join us. Check out our CCEE blog for the details and see the cards my friends made.

My dad's birthday is this week, so I thought Frances' sketch design was perfect for this cool truck image by Gina K. Designs. I watercolored the truck with Stampin' Up reinkers and a watercolor brush.

For my USA friends, I hope you've been enjoying your Labor Day weekend. Be safe if you're traveling today!

Stamps: The Journey (Gina K Designs); Think Happy Thoughts (Stampin' Up); JustRite Stamps
Cardstock: Gina K. Pure Luxury White, Buckaroo Blue, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, SU designer paper
Ink: Tuxedo Memento Black, Chocolate Chip, Buckaroo Blue , Going Gray, Basic Gray, Close to Cocoa
Acccessories: Circle Nestabilities, various circle punches, star punches, ribbon, silver, brads, paper piercer, sponge dauber

A Story Behind Every Card

My friend and fellow August Center Stage Spotlight guest design team member for Gina K. Designs on StampTV, Tina, was scheduled to hostess the sketch challenge this week. Unfortunately, Tina's father-in-law passed away earlier this week. My condolences go out to Tina during this difficult time.

However, Tina's cool sketch design is still being used for this week's sketch challenge on StampTV. Jessica was kind enough to get it posted on Tina's behalf. Come on over to StampTV and play in the challenges! You don't have to, but, if you use Gina K. stamps, your entry goes into the drawing bin twice to win a free Gina K. stamp set!

I chose to use one of the new Gina K. stamp set releases for this month as designed by Asela Hopkins called Fruitful Harvest. These images are GORGEOUS and so much fun to color with whatever coloring medium you choose to use. I used my Copic markers this time around.

As you can see, I chose the apple image from this set, which has a little story behind it. Joanne, from my Doubledog Dare Challenge group, dared us to make a card using apples. I happily set about coloring my image and was thinking about Tina's sketch design when I got the lightbulb idea to make this an ornament for a Christmas card! After I was all done with my card, I re-checked Joanne's challenge requirements and saw that I totally forgot the part about the card having to have an autumn theme. Oi vay!!! Too many things on the brain, I guess, so I'll have to design something else for Joanne's challenge. Yeah, like that's really gonna be a burden----NOT!!

The weather is beautiful here today. My sister and her husband are here all the way from Washington State visiting us for a couple weeks (yaaaay!), so we're going to have the family over tonight for a campfire, hot dog roast, and s'mores! My parents use to take us camping a lot when we were kids, and we always enjoyed those family times sitting around the campfire talking, laughing, playing, and eating!

I hope you're having a happy Saturday, too!

Stamps: Fruitful Harvest (Gina K), All Holidays (SU)
Cardstock: Real Red, Black, Gina K Pure Luxury white, striped dp
Ink: Tuxedo Memento Black
Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, Copic markers, MS picket fence border punch, red gingham ribbon, Bow Easy, ornament hook, 1/16" hole punch, white gel pen, round tab punch

Stamping hugs,

Gina K Release Party Begins!

Hop on over to Splitcoaststampers (SCS) for Gina K's August release party and check out all the new stamp sets, join the contests, challenges, and chatter going on right now (7:00-10:00 p.m. CST)!

This is a card I made for my great uncle who turned 90 years old today!! He still golfs and keeps very active. Woo-hoo! Way to go Uncle Russ!

I used the mailbox image from Theresa Momber's newest release called Autumn Beauty. You are going to love and want this stamp set! I stamped the mailbox in Tuxedo Memento Black Ink and colored it with Copic markers. The flourished image is also a part of this set and is stamped on the Moonlit Fog cardstock, which is a new Pure Luxury cardstock color Gina is also releasing this month! The Moonlit Fog cardstock is a grayish color with what I see as a bit of a greenish hue and others see a bluish hue. However, if you pair it with navy blue, as I did, it picks up the blue color. Very cool, if you ask me!


I used a photo corner punch in the Moonlit Fog and layered the smaller version of this punch with the navy over it and then paper pierced around the photocorners. I like the dimension it gives.

This next card is the third one I promised in my earlier blog post today. I wanted to show you how good the turquoise looks with Gina's new Pure Luxury cardstock she is also releasing this month called Pumpkin Spice. I stamped one of the other flourishy images from the Tropical Blooms set onto the Pumpkin Spice. It looks so rich with the chocolate and turquoise. Tropical Blooms is Gina's free with the purchase of three set.


I stamped the Tropical Bloom images in white craft ink onto chocolate cardstock and let the white craft ink dry before I colored the blooms with colored pencils. This is called a pencil over technique. I used various shades of yellow, pumpkin, and rust to blend the blooms and three shades of greens for the stems and leaves. I left a little of the white craft ink outline for dimension and then I added some extra white highlighting with a white gel pen. I then cut out the oval slightly smaller than my images so I could do the out-of-the-box technique with this floral array. I love how the turquoise brads in the center of the flowers just make it all pop!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll join us at the release party! As my friend and I always teasingly say to each other "Be there or be square!"