Did you know that Paper Pumpkin has a great special next month? They are offering a FREE $17 stamp set to anyone that is a current subscriber or who joins during Sale A Bration.  

3-Month Prepaid Subscription (137859) $59.85 $55    

Save on a 3-month prepaid subscription and instantly qualify for a FREE Sale-A-Bration item!

12-Month Prepaid Subscription (137861) $215.40 
Take it to the next level with a 12-month prepaid subscription. Save $24 a year with the everyday awesome price, earn Stampin' Rewards, and instantly qualify for 4 FREE Sale-A-Bration items! 

This offer will end on March 31, 2016 at 11:50 PM (MT). 

And as a bonus from me, I will give you a PDF tutorial for every month you belong to Paper Pumpkin with alternate ways that you can use Paper Pumpkin. So join by March 31st to take advantage of these great deals.

An Open Heart

This is such a beautiful stamp set and I never used it before I made this card. I heat embossed in white the branches and then sponged the background in Soft Suede ink on Soft Suede cardstock. This set has the most beautiful sayings with it. I can't believe I haven't used it before.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. This is how I have spent the last few days.

Craft time with 2 of my granddaughters, Lanee and Lindee. They had so much fun and let me tell you we had glitter all over !! What fun memories we were making.

Granddaughter Sierra licking the beaters after I made cheesecake

Sierra dyeing the Easter eggs

Granddaughters Lindee,  Sierra and Lanee after Mass and at the egg hunt. Yes, it was cold out....only 39 degrees.  Somehow I missed pictures with my other two grandchildren, Logan and Augusta.

Your're Sublime

Perfect card to send to someone special. I watercolored the background in Soft Sky and used Smoky Slate and Basic Gray on the submarine along with some Wink of Stella clear. The little fishes were watercolord with Tangerine Tango. Does anyone else love the Wink of Stella brushes as much as I do? I'll be ordering another set of those before long.

Have a Snappy Day

Isn't this little red crab so stinking cute?? This would make anyone's day!!  I watercolored this little guy in Real Red and used Wink of Stella clear on top. I watercolored his eyes in Daffodil Delight. For the background I chose Soft Sky. 

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The Journey Begins

I love this little Volkswagon Bug. I stamped it with Black Archival on watercolor paper. I put water just inside the lines of the little "Bug" and mixed some Wink of Stella gold with some Calypso Coral and water and used my Aqua Painter to color it in. I was careful and tried not to go out of the lines. When that was dry, I outlined the sky with Soft Sky and used Smoky Slate under the car.

Bear Hugs Wish

I haven't had much of a chance to use my Bear Hugs stamp set so decided I had better get them dusted off and put them to good use.
You can use your Brick Wall embossing folder but I had one that I had for ages and wanted to give it a try. For the bear, I used watercolor paper and colored him in Delightful Dijon and then used Soft Suede and Early Espresso for shading. The balloons were watercolored on shimmery white paper in different colors, stamped in Archival black and then punched out. I took the Bakers Twine and separated the colors to make it look more like streamers.

Watercolor Words Stamp Set

Has this ever been a misused stamp set on my part!!!! And I love this stamp set!! So many cute sayings in this set. I watercolored this scene using the circle thinlits and used different shades of pink and even threw in an orange color. It's a lengthy project as you have to make sure each circle is completely dry before you go to the next color. I used the paper called Irresistible Specialty DSP. Beings it isn't watercolor paper, it does hump up a little but when it is completely dry, I just take my iron to it......yes, my regular iron....and just press it good. Viola.......it lays flat as a pancake!! Give it a try...lots of fun!!

Watercolor Thanks with no Stamping

Can you believe there is NO stamping on this card? This was a fun project we did in one of our watercolor classes. I used the circle thinlits and traced them with pencil very lightly in different sizes on the Color Me Irresistable paper and then used different shades of blue, being careful to dry each color before I started on the next. Then I took my Wink of Stella clear pen and went over the whole card. At first I didn't care for it at all but when the card dried it really is strikingly pretty. Then I added the Thanks and the Itty Bitty Accent Epoxy Stickers.

Follow Your Heart

Isn't this just the cutest little travel trailer ever? And shiny? I used watercolor paper and mixed Daffodil Delight and my gold Wink of Stella glitter pen to come up with this. This would make a cute graduation card, new home of new job card.

We are having our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner/auction/dance this Saturday night for our church so I am donating a few items for it. This is one of them that I hope someone will bid on. I made a card box and then put 6 of my handmade watercolored cards in. Don't you think this would also make an adorable gift for someone? It seems like we always need greeting cards. The box was super easy to make. I used white cardstock for the bottom. The top was from the DSP called Perfectly Artistic. You can receive a free package of the Perfectly Artistic Designer Series Paper with every $50 you order from Stampin Up through March 31st during Sale-A-Bration.

I saw this adorable Berry basket and cute card on Brian King's website and couldn't wait to make it. I even found some matching strawberry candy at Wal*Mart. This will make such a cute gift for someone special. I used the Berry Basket Bigz L and the papers I used were Sweet Lil Things and Shine On. Isn't the new Watermelon Wonder 1" Stitched Satin Ribbon so gorgeous to tie bows with?  I celebrated my birthday today. What a busy day. I didn't even get a minute to do any stamping. EEKKK! I watched my 2 little granddaughters this morning, dentist appointment this afternoon and then celebrated with an awesome birthday supper cooked by my daughter in law. But I'll be busy again in my studio tomorrow. 

Apple of My Eye

Isn't it refreshing to see a nice, shiny apple? And they taste so good!!  I used the Apple of My Eye stamp set on this card. I watercolored the apple. Seems like I'm getting a lot of good out of that stamp set. (Another one I almost didn't buy). There are so many possibilities with this stamp set. I always need a ton of Thank You cards so decided to make it with that saying. The "Thank You" is from the Rose Wonder stamp set. I used basic black card stock for my base and then stamped a smaller whisper white card stock with basic gray with the Hardwood background stamp.      

For the New Two

For this watercolor card, I took a heart template and traced it onto the watercolor paper and then watercolored the hearts in Real Red. Super easy and fun at the same time.

Apple of My Eye

This card uses the Apple of  My Eye stamp set. I used the pear shape stamp for this card. I stamped it in Daffodil Delight and then used my Aqua painter and softly blended the color in. I added some Old Olive and shaded it towards the outside. For the shadow under the pears, I used Smoky Slate. 

Simple but Elegant Butterfly

These butterflies just go fluttering by, anyway so it seems, as I was watercoloring them. This was another lesson from my watercolor class I took. I so enjoyed making these.

This one I used Pacific Point and Rich Razzleberry.

Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight were used on this one.

           And then I chose Pacific Point and Daffodil Delight.

 I finished them off with some silver wire, a hint of Wink of Stella clear on their wings. The stamp set is from Birthday Blooms stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  I hope you enjoyed my butterflies.

Birthday Blooms Stamp Set

Happy Saturday everyone!! We finally got a little sunshine here today in Iowa. And boy did it feel great to get outside for a while and go for a walk and do a little yard work....but then I had to come inside and play for a while with these cards. I'm taking an online watercolor class and sure am enjoying it. These two cards are basically the same, I just finished them in different card stock. I watercolored them on watercolor paper and then used Versamark to stamp the image. I used white embossing powder and then began the fun part....coloring. I used Daffodil Delight, Hello Honey, Garden Green and Pool Party. Such a fun combination. I topped it off with a Thank You instead of birthday. I'll feature more cards in the next week as I finish up this class.

Congrats and Thank You!!

I'm taking an online watercolor class and really enjoying it. I heat embossed in black these 2 sayings and then did my watercoloring. I used Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cucumber Crush and Pacific Point. 

Watercoloring with your Aqua Painters

I used my Aqua Painters to watercolor the elk from the The Wilderness Awaits stamp set. The colors I used were Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Grey Archival, Black Archival, White craft ink and Early Espresso. When it was all dry, I went over the whole scene with my Wink of Stella brush.