Spring Anyone?

Seems like everyone I talk to, at least those in the Northern hemisphere,
has the winter blues and they're longing for spring.  

What do card makers do?  We create some spring on a card and it wasn't hard to do with the beautiful card that Muse Danielle Flanders provided for inspiration for CASE Study #180.

 This is my first time participating in a CASE Study challenge and
I really enjoyed it. I was inspired by the colours, though I went for deeper
shades and also that cute little frame - I had some cardboard
packaging lying around and used Lifestyle Crafts Inverted
Squares Nesting Dies to create a little chipboard frame.

The base is stencilled with SU's Lucky Limeade and then splattered
with matching watercolor paint.

The roses are created with My Favorite Things Rolled Rose
Die-namics.  Other dies include Elizabeth Craft Leaf
Dies and Memory Box Perched Reed Bird Die.

I've also entered this card into the Ways To Use It Challenge
at Splitcoaststampers - to use anything that appears on a
calender - the "2" in this little sentiment from
Flourishes Sentimental Favorites means my card
qualifies for that! Thanks for stopping by today!

Kind Words

A very simple card today with a profound sentiment. 

I truly believe that our words have power, and
that God can use them for eternal good!

I layered up Stampin Up's Pool Party cardstock, popping up each layer.

The sentiment is from Verve's Kind Words and it's
 stamped in Color Box Black Licorice. 

The flowers are stamped in Stampin Up's Pool Party.
The flower image is
simply two flowers so I covered one of the flowers with
tape after inking it up to be able to stamp a random extra flower in there.  

A few black pearls for flower centres and a frame added with a 

black fine liner are the finishing touches!

Happy Monday everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Sunshine Yellow and Cloudy Gray

I had fun with this colour combo - the contrast reminds me of gray skies with sunshine bursting through the clouds!  

We saw just a tiny bit of sun today here in Belfast, now it's back to the gray clouds, so I've had to make my sunshine on a card.

This is for the Featured Stamper Challenge at Splitcoaststampers - today we're CASEing Dawn, aka stampinscotsgirl - HERE is the card which inspired me.

I splattered the bg with watercolour paint and a paintbrush.
The butterfly is a favouritefrom Hero Arts Antique Engraved
Butterflies and it's coloured with copics.
The dp is from my Stampin Up scraps.
The twine is from American Crafts and thesentiment is from
Verve's Kind Words - it's stamped in Stampin Up's Basic Gray.

Thanks for stopping by today and whatever your
Sunday holds, I hope it's a good one!

Watercolor Meadow

Sharing a card today that I made for the LOVEFEST challenges over at Splitcoaststampers this week.  Taylor at Taylored Expressions gave us the challenge of including doodling on our cards.  I used a sentiment from the lovely set Lean on Me, then added watercolors to a wet piece of watercolour paper.  I have an inexpensive Winsor & Newton set of pan watercolors and have replaced certain colours with new pans numerous times - I find I don't need many colours, as I mix them to make up the shades required. I dried that layer with my heat gun, then added another layer of watercolors in a similar manner.  I then splattered some paint - the point of splatters is that they land randomly, of course, but in order that they didn't stray too far from the intended area I tore the edges of a post it note and used it to mask the sky,
for example, from taking on too many splatters.
I then "doodled" in lines and dots with a black fine line pen.  I love doing
this and find it's hard to make a mistake, so I'll probably make a few more!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sweet Kiss

A card for the Featured Stamper Challenge at Splitcoaststampers - today we're honouring Lols, aka yorkshire lass!  HERE is the cute House Mouse card I chose to CASE from Lols gallery.

I used an SNSS cloud die to sponge the sky 
and copics to color the image.  

The sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs Sentiment Collection seemed perfect - this image never fails to warm my heart!  Those little eyes are closed in the sweet bliss of acceptance and affection!  This will go to someone in my church, there are SO many, many people I could send it to however, I'd need a whole stack of them!

The House Mouse stamp is the 
same as my post title - Sweet Kiss!

Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful weekend!

SNSS February Release Hop Day 5

Hello and welcome to Day 5 of the blog hops celebrating the February Releases at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  

Today we're highlighting the fab set Shape Up which coordinates with the previously released Shape Dies. 

I used two of the shapes to create petals and leaves, 
adding a little stem from cardstock.  The giant flower 
seemed to perfectly illustrate this sentiment from the 
newly released Inspirational Word Art 1!

The word "BIG" is stamped in magenta and popped up 
for extra definition.  Inks used include Color Box 
Black Licorice and Color Box Pigment Brush 
Pads in Magenta and Pistachio.

Now take a look at the full set with all the details below:

This new 4" x 4" set coordinates with the Shape Dies but can be used alone as well to create backgrounds and patterns of all kinds.

The tear drop image measures approximately 1.13" x 1.5"
It's designed by Korin Sutherland and sells for $11.

The DT has shared their beautiful  samples in the thumbnails below.  Stop by each of their blogs and comment for a chance to WIN one of (2) $20 gift codes to our store!

Don't miss these other opportunities to win:

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments 
on Friday's release blog post 

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments on 
full reveals in our SCS forum 
(1) $20 gift code drawn from all participants in our release challenge hosted on blog

The deadline to comment for a chance to win is midnight EST Friday, February 14th.  The list of winners will be announced on our blog by Monday, February 17th.

Thanks so much for joining us!  Enjoy the hop!

SNSS February Release Hop Day 4

Hello and welcome to Day 4 of the blog hops celebrating the February Releases at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  

Today we're highlighting From Cocoa's Kitchen.

This set has some perfect sentiments to make a card or a tag to accompany a special treat from your kitchen.  
Our church provides meals for those who are unable to cook due to illness, operations, etc. - now when it's my turn, I can include a card with a kitchen theme.

I sponged all edges of the dp with Ranger Distress Antique Linen and added some lace.  I knew there were some tiny wooden rolling pins that my mother had sent me long ago and to my own amazement I actually found them! 

The sweet little image is coloured with copics - it's stamped three times so that the chef's hat and Cocoa's head could be popped up for dimension.

Now have a look at the full set with all the details below:

The set is 4" x 4" and contains 2 images and 6 coordinating sentiments.

The chef's hat image measures approximately 2.25" x 1.75 ".

It's illustrated by Korin Sutherland and sells for $11.

The DT has shared their beautiful  samples in the thumbnails below.  Stop by each of their blogs and comment for a chance to WIN one of (2) $20 gift codes to our store!

Don't miss these other opportunities to win:

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments 
on Friday's release blog post 

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments on 
full reveals in our SCS forum 
(1) $20 gift code drawn from all participants in our release challenge hosted on blog

The deadline to comment for a chance to win is midnight EST Friday, February 14th.  The list of winners will be announced on our blog by Monday, February 17th.

Thanks so much for joining us!  Enjoy the hop!

SNSS February Release Hop Day 3

Hello and welcome to Day 3 of the blog hops celebrating the February Releases at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  

Today we're highlighting 

Inspirational Word Art 1

This set is the first in a series including some very 

encouraging sentiments which can be used with so 

many of the sets you already own!

I created a clean and simple card using black 

and white because the striking contrast 

seemed to symbolize the contrast between fear 

and faith - one leads to the feeling of 

walking in darkness through daily life and the 

other to the freedom of walking in light.

To help the tiny silver key charm stand out, 

I adhered it to a tiny black tag cut using 

the very useful Mini Tags Dies.

I used Color Box Black Licorice ink with a little 

bit of sponging in Tsukneko Archival Black Starlite.

The background is created using the newly released 

Delightfully Delicate  Background - this beautiful 

stamp means you can create your own dp 

in any combination of colours!

Take a look at the full set and all the details below:

Key sentiment measures approximately 1.75" x 2"

 Designed by Korin Sutherland

Stamp set is $15

The DT has shared their beautiful  samples in the thumbnails below.  Stop by each of their blogs and comment for a chance to WIN one of (2) $20 gift codes to our store!

Don't miss these other opportunities to win:

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments 
on Friday's release blog post 

(1) $20 gift code drawn from all comments on 
full reveals in our SCS forum 
(1) $20 gift code drawn from all participants in our release challenge hosted on blog

The deadline to comment for a chance to win is midnight EST Friday, February 14th.  The list of winners will be announced on our blog by Monday, February 17th.

Thanks so much for joining us!  Enjoy the hop!

Rainbow Butterfly

The challenge is RAINBOW for the 3rd birthday celebrations 

at the Less is More Challenge!

I knew right away that I wanted to go with watercolours since

I've been experimenting and practicing again.

I dropped the colors on wet watercolour paper before stamping the 

sentiment from Verve's Words of Wisdom.  I added some Ranger Enamel 

Accents and a black butterfly using Spellbinders Nestabilities Butterflies. 

 It was a quick clean and simple card but there's nothing 

like rainbow colours to cheer me up -

thanks for the challenge, Chrissie and Jen!

Button Blessed

A card for this week's CASual Friday's challenge which is Over the Edge 

and Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge!

I used a stencil and Stampin Up's Lucky Limeade ink for the background.

The word "blessed" has been cut with a Papertrey Ink die three times using dp and green cardstock, then layered up for extra dimension.  It gives a sort of chipboard appearance.  

My son, who's doing a graphic design degree at university, bought some spray mounting adhesive and has a lot left over - I've found it works great for spraying the back of intricate die-cuts for adhering instead of going to the trouble of adding a bunch of little dots of glue!

The sentiment, which is "off the edge" is from Our Daily Bread Designs. 

I love this sweet way of saying thankyou!

And on that note - thank you for stopping by today, your visit to my

 blog really does bless me!  And blessings to you today!