One Layer Flowers...

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.

Thanks for stopping by!

I love a Challenge!

I love a challenge....and this week is Splitcoaststampers' (SCS) Dare To Get Dirty (DTGD) week of Challenges!! The "Dirty Girls" of SCS are the best of the best papercrafters....so it's fun to play along as a fan club member! My friend Lydia gave us a challenge to make an all white card...sentiment optional...I opted for no sentiment:

Paper: SU Whisper White cardstock; Accessories: Big Shot, SU Butterfly Punch, SU Dots and Fancy Fans embossing folders, SU Embosslit Beautiful Wings

I'm having a stamp class on August 11th (with option to attend Monday night 8/13!) Details for the class and for upcoming STAMP CLUB (squeeeeee!!!) is on my Stampin' Up site www.darthsunshine.stampinup.net so take a look and then RSVP!
Hope to see you soon! Thanks for stopping by here!

Convention Day One!!!

Soooo excited for Day One of Stampin' Up's Convention--today is bag pickup and Make & Takes!!
Here's my swap....I'm making 96 of these...watercoloring cupcakes and yes I'm still working on them here in SLC!

My friend Lydia has live coverage of Convention over on her blog www.understandblue.blogspot.com so go check it out!

Convention Swaps!!

I leave next week for Stampin' Up's convention and decided that this year I wouldn't wait until 24 hours prior to departure to work on my Convention Swaps. I spent my first full day in my studio (in a VERY LONG TIME) just playing around and it felt soooo good!!

I started watercoloring this lion from Zoo Review and while I LOVE how this card turned out....I don't think I'm up to making 100+ of these....I'll probably save this for another, smaller swap I'm participating in.

The lion, "puzzle" piece on left and edges of sentiment paper were watercolored with More Mustard & Old Olive and some Chocolate Chip with an Aquapainter on watercolor paper.

And I broke out my Hello Kitty sewing machine and stitched around the edge of that awesome Soft Suede zig zag embossed (new impressions folder) cardstock.

Hope you like....thanks for stopping by!!

Open House and Open Stamping!! SQUEEE

I'm getting ready for Stampin' Up's Convention next week and starting my swaps....and am opening up my home for Open Stamping if anyone wants to come by and stamp with me!

This is also an opportunity to pick up your FREE copy of Stampin' Up's annual catalog (if you haven't already received it in the mail) and to peruse what retired stamp sets I still have available for sale!!

Dates and times are on my Stampin' Up Calendar www.darthsunshine.stampinup.net

Hope you can come! :D

Happy 4th!!

This also happens to be my oldest daughter's 18th birthday!! Squeeee!!!