Here's my take on the new challenge over at the Beyond The Blue blog—to use what we've got—using a background I had in my stash of gel press prints. I have so many from all the techniques I've learned from Lydia Fiedler. If anything, I realized how few bold sentiment stamps I have.
The background is on watercolor paper. The image is Mama Elephant's Botanic Thanks.
I used Karin Markers to enhance the image to help it stand out a bit. This was so fun!
I'm not going to blather on about how long it's been since my last post. To be honest, I hate feeling like I MUST do all the things. Life is just dang busy, and blogging was not a priority for me #sorrynotsorry. I saw each of my girls graduate high school, and college x 2 and my youngest joined the Navy 2 years ago (HOOYAH! Just like her PopPop, my dad). My hubby and I moved into our dream home, and both my parents have passed away. I'm grateful my parents are not alive during this Covid-19 pandemic--because I would be yelling at them on the daily because I know they would HATE the order to stay at home. STUBBORN. I miss them terribly, but glad they are in Heaven and not dealing with the craziness of dumb people and washing our hands/don't touch your face and trying to just get. some. dang. toilet. paper. #freakinghoarders I work in a level one trauma center in a city of 2 million. We've reduced our surgery case-load by half. We haven't seen a lot of Covid-19 patients--but we're all bracing for impact. We're anticipating seeing a surge within two weeks. I have friends who have volunteered to work in NYC for a few weeks. I miss eating out--bottomless chips and salsa lol. I'm tired of doing dishes. I am grateful my kids are grown and I am not home-schooling because I'd have fired myself on day 3. I miss my Chibi Pooh, our Bichon Frise who passed away last year. We'd get another one, but my husband, who gets to work from home 100% now would be the one potty training the dog while I'm at work most days. We'll wait until all this is over....maybe next year? I'm grateful for online communities and groups via Facebook and Instagram, and my bestie Lydia (UnderstandBlue) who has this incredible service to provide the best watercolors--for a fraction of the price of full tubes--by panning and selling them through her blog and facebook page. AHHHmazing. Take all my money lol. Stay safe, stay inside, wash your hands, don't touch your face. XOXO
As an RN I've had the privilege of working with many great doctors....and some not so great...but when I meet a doctor that exceeds my own expectations (rare), I'm quite impressed!
My husband had a recent scare--a mole that appeared very "melanoma-ish" was removed. (I need to write another post just as a PSA for skin cancer.) Long story short--we were referred to an amazing dermatologist who was able to fit us in the same week to excise a larger margin on Dean's shoulder.
I was so impressed with this doctor I of course HAD to stamp him a thank you card!! :)
I used Stampin' Up's new stencils with the new In-Colors Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon & Tangelo Twist. I inked up the stencil (with paper towels underneath), spritzed it with water then placed my watercolor paper down on top. I stamped the greeting in Blackberry Bliss, layered it on another color-washed piece of watercolor paper and a Lost Lagoon card base, accented with a Moonlight paper stack paper under that. Thanks for stopping by!!
I love card challenges that are clean and simple. Too often challenges involve many layers etc and I find myself trying to outdo ANY previous card I've seen....and then it looks all too busy in the end! HA! This Dare To Get Dirty Challenge was to make a one layer card with flowers. I embossed the roses from Fifth Avenue Floral with black embossing powder, then used my aquapainter with SU Rose Red and Melon Mambo ink to watercolor. Sentiment is from retired Warm Words. I dislike that SU retired this amazing stamp set. That rose is so gorgeous AND matches one of our current embossing folders! GAH!
Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Flower, Warm Words; Ink: SU Rose Red and Melon Mambo reinkers; Paper: SU Glossy White; Accessories: SU Black embossing powder, Heat Tool, Aquapainter
I love the effect of watercoloring on glossy paper...but man, is it hard to take a decent picture! My little orange light on the camera causes a little bit of orange to appear at the top of the card, and of course you can see the flash. The orange was more pronounced without a flash...so I endeded up taking several pictures before I finally settled on the one above. But I do like that the embossing came out pretty well.
There's a fun website www.wimp.com full of family friendly videos...really the best videos available online...and my hubby always saves the cute little animals that make me SQUEEE :D Red Pandas make me SQUEEE quite a bit. Here is a video I LOVE....
Major cuteness! Did you squeee?
So I played this weekend in the Virtual Stamp Night over at Splitcoaststampers (SCS)! So excited that I was able to participate--for each challenge you have 45 minutes to complete your card. I swear I work better under these conditions....I come out with more original cards SUPERFAST instead of pouring over the SCS site for hours looking for ideas! The first challenge was from my friend Lydia (Understandblue)--we had to make a card with something that gives us a warm fuzzy feeling. So I stamped this little red panda and started watercoloring him and then realized he's a FOX! He's still cute though! I had to color his little present blue in honor of Lydia's challenge. I loved watercoloring him so much I decided to make my background paper by watercoloring Cherry Cobbler red and Garden Green. So fun!
Stamp set: Forest Festivites; Paper: Watercolor paper, Garden Green; Accessories: Very Vanilla ribbon, Modern Label Punch, LG Scallop punch, 2 3/8" Circle punch
Thanks for stopping by...hope you SQUEEE some today!
