Hand Stamped Sentiments #111 - Easter BUNNY Fluff and Stuff

We're gearing up for that fluffy little bunny that seems to bring LOADS of sugar and crazy children with him every year, at least around our house and over at Hand Stamped Sentiments...with our Easter challenge.

Grab your glue guns, some cotton balls and maybe a jelly bean or two and let's get hopping! Enter the challenge HERE and check out what fun fluffy designs the HSS design team has cracked open this week!

After last weeks watercolor challenge, it was an itch I just had to scratch again...so I pulled out my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Auqa pen and colored this sweet little bunny, or rather a reverse watercolor, since I wanted him to be white 

...after he was dry, I decided he was the perfect size for a bookmark and what better way to send a handmade card than one with a gift attached?! I used my 1-3/8" Square Punch to create my little window for him to peek through, roughed up the inside edges with my paper snips and then ran my piece of Bashful Blue through the Big Shot with an EF. The EF had a bird on it, which I didn't want, just the grass, so I placed it so the bird would be in my 'window'. The EF also didn't cover my entire piece of cardstock, so I just improvised with a very large piece of ribbon. 

I added a bit of peek a boo fun once the bookmark is removed, two little cheerful paper-pieced Easter eggs. Then popped up my Bashful Blue cardstock with strategically place dimensionals to create a pocket for the bunny book mark.

And a fun candy treat, just for kicks...

I scored a piece of 11X3-3.8 inch cardstock at 4-1/2, 6 and 10-1/2 inches, punched out a 'window' with my 2-1/2" Circle Punch and added a sweet little bag of treats. My sentiment was heat embossed with Tempting Turquoise EP and the flowers were colored using the same method as the card.

SU! products used:

Stamps - Well Scripted, SAB Sweet Summer retired

Ink - Black StazOn, Versa Mark, Classic Basic Black

Paper - Bashful Blue, Watercolor, Pretty in Pink

Punches - 2-1/2" Circle, 1-3/8" Square

Other - retired 1-1/4" Pink Ribbon, retired Pink Seam Binding

Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Cello Bags, Tempting Turquoise embossing powder

This Little Caterpillar sure is HUNGRY

I've recently been asked to make a few Hungry Caterpillar inspired cupcake toppers and well, you know me, I can't stop there!! I took the challenge one step more and created a whole Birthday party pack of inchworm fun!

Starting with my pennant banner...the Happy Birthday words are separated with a little finger stamped caterpillar perched on a leaf he's already taken a few bites out of!

 here are the toppers, they'll come in red and green

and you can't have a party without invites AND of course a little something to thank all the party guests, matching thank you note cards!

I'm entering my banner over at The Shabby Tea Room, they are looking for a bit of pennant fun!

HSS #110 - Water Coloring Technique

This week over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, we are having a Water Coloring Technique Challenge. We'd love to see your new or old water color tricks and treats this week, head on over to check out the fun projects the design team has water logged this week and link up your wet n' wild creations too! 

I'm not going to lie, it's been awhile since I've pulled out my watercolor paper, the color media of choice and my auqa pens but once I started coloring using my Watercolor Crayons 

(I really didn't know what all the fuss was about the crayons before I watched

THIS fab tutorial on youtube) I couldn't STOP! 

I started off stamping my Calla Lily Stamp onto a piece of watercolor paper using Staz On Ink and then started highlighting the inside of the flower with yellow, waited until it dried and then added more to create a darker shade. I fiddled, dabbled, painted, squeezed, added and pushed the colors around until I liked what I saw. 

After letting the paper dry completely, I added a bit of shimmer to the very center of my flower with Pearlized Smooch

Some bakers twine tied along the bottom, which I finished off with a yellow button. The Paper Players are having a BUTTON challenge this week, so I'm entering my card over there too.

I checked in my stash for something fun and found these sweet metal letters hiding in one of my drawers, I ran two pieces of twine through them and just pulled up the ends of the twine to opposite corners on my card to keep the letters from sliding around

So, back to the youtube tutorial, I never realized I could just dab directly onto my watercolor crayons with my auqa painter...oooh the things you learn on youtube! :) and have NEVER used the retired Sale A Bration set, that the lady in the video used...but after watching the video, I had to try this set out and pretty much cased her sweet little treat bags to a T!

A bit of shimmer paint was added to tiny bits on the flower and the little bee wings, although you can't tell from the photos

 filled one with "chocolate malt eggs"

and the other with jellybeans

Now I need to whip up a bunch of these for teachers and friends!

SU! products used:

Stamps - retired SAB Sweet Summer, Well Scripted

Ink - Black Staz On

Paper - Lucky Limeade DSP, Watercolor, Lucky Limeade, Bashful Blue

Punche - Fancy Label

Other - yellow button, Pool Party Seam Binding, Auqa Painter, 

Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Lucky Limeade Twine

I couldn't help but post the next two pics...I had two little helpers today on the sunny front porch...

 Satine decided to watch for birds while I was taking pics

 and then Kowe pushed Satine off the chair and sat down to 'pose' for the camera, silly girls!

Hello Spring

This week at The Shabby Tea Room, they posted the inspiration photo below, along with the theme 'Spring is Near' to drum up some creative inspiration. The rules are to use at least three colors from the picture and use dry embossing...and this is what I came up with.

STR#105

I used the inside stamp from the center of the frame (normally would be thrown away) to create the checkerboard background pattern. Dry embossing over top of that with the Elegant Lines EF. 

I found this tutorial on Pinterest to make the paper flowers, but after rolling them, I cut 1/2 of the bottoms off, so they would sit lower on my card. I also didn't draw the spiral first, just cut freehand. and then added a bunch of mini glue dots to the bottom of each flower. Hot glue would've worked as well. Hand cut leaves were easy to create with my paper snips and I didn't want them too perfect, which is why I didn't use a punch or die cut to make them.

 SU! products used:

Stamps - Elementary Elegance SAB

Ink - Versa Mark, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party

Paper - Whisper White, Lucky Limeade DSP, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party DSP, Island Indigo

Punch - Scallop Border

Other - Gold Embossing Powder, mini glue dots

You make my whole face SMILE

This week over at Freshly Made Sketches, I decided to join in the fun and whipped up this card using their sketch. I used one of the sets I got for FREE during Sale A Bration this year, the end of March is drawing near soon...click HERE to place your order during Sale A Bration before all of THESE fun items are no longer available!

FMS#26

I edged the white cardstock with a bit of Pink Pirouette to make my card a bit more dreamy. A bit of sticky strip along the top, made for a perfect place to add a ruffled paper ribbon. And the Melon Mambo Embossing powder added the perfect pop of hot pink!

SU! products used:

Stamps - SAB Sprinkled Expressions

Paper - Lucky Limeade DSP, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette

Ink - Versa Mark

Other - Melon Mambo EP, Framelits Labels, Sticky Strip, Dimensionals

HSS#109 - Taste the RAINBOW

Okay, so I MAY have gone a little overboard on the whole RAINBOW theme this week but seriously, once I started designing rainbow colored projects in my head, I couldn't stop! I swear I was on a rainbow-crack high, haha! This week over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, we're pulling out all the colors and not holding back on a rainbow of fun! 

 A rainbow Happy Birthday banner

Rainbow colored Happy Birthday cupcake toppers

 A rainbow colored 'mock' party invitation

 and a second set of cupcake toppers using kraft and White Embossing powder to match the Birthday banner

We'd love to see your fun rainbow colored creations, head on over to the Hand Stamped Sentiments blog, link up and check out the colorful projects the design team has made up for you this week!

All products are SU!

except the lollipop sticks, hemp twine, corner rounder & white sticker foam letters

Hand Stamped Sentiments #108 - Color Challenge

Waaahooo, it's time for a color challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments! Totally up my alley... I pulled this manly gem together in just a few short minutes this afternoon before I lost my sunshine for picture taking! 

A simple card but really, what guy wants to see all sorts of 'stuff' on his card, they go in a shop, buy a pair of pants and walk out. No browsing among the shoes, socks or bow ties...simple makes a happy man, at least in my family! Of course now that I'm looking at these color again, I just wish I had a fireman stamp, these colors just scream for a shiny bright red engine.

I embossed my airplane, diamond pattern and sentiment in black, cut out a banner and tied it to the back of the plane with some red and white bakers twine. I used an EF on the Soft Suede, though it's not SU!, I like that it gives the Suede a leather look and feel.

Have a special man in your life that could use a bright fun card? Hop on over to the Hand Stamped Sentiments Blog, enter our challenge and see what inspiring creations the lovely Design Team has whipped up this week!

SU! products used:

Stamps : Plane and Simple, Happy Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Ink : Craft Basic Black

Cardstock : Read Red, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight

Other : Red/White Bakers Twine, 2-1/2" Circle Punch