A Peek Into My Stamping Room

A Great Start To Our Summer....

*WARNING! - this post is all about my personal life.  No crafts today!!  Hello friends!  Well we started out our summer with some real excitement.  On May 12, my daughter, Caitlyn, graduated from Quincy University & Blessing Rieman College of Nursing with her BSN.  We are so very proud of her and very excited because she will be working in labor/delivery at a large hospital not far from our house!

Here are my girls.......

From left to right, Colleen, Caitlyn and Cassie.  I can't believe how lucky I am to be their mother.

The day after graduation, Caitlyn and her boyfriend Michael and 9 others from Quincy University left for Italy.  They had 10 days to enjoy all the sights in Italy.  About the third day they were gone, I got this photo with the message.....She said Yes!

We are so happy for them!  What a romantic way to propose, don't you think!  I think EVERYONE knew Michael was going to propose except Caitlyn.  I am very excited for them and kinda excited to get started with the wedding crafts again!

Now it's time for us to kick the graduation party plans into gear and get on with the rest of the summer.  I am going to ignore the fact that I am now the mother to a Senior in high school.  

I should have a ton of crafty to share over the summer.  I am designing for Crafter's Companion still and in July they will be having another crafty day on HSN.  Plus I am expecting a big box of goodies from Tonic Studios soon.  I am not really designing for any other companies, so expect some posts using stuff I really love.  I really enjoy sharing my creations with you but with the change in the industry (as far as designers go), I am not sure how long I can maintain this blog and continue to share my creations.  That is one of the reasons why I started using affiliate links to try and cover some of the costs of keeping my blog, etc.  I sure do appreciate it anytime you click on something I link too and make a purchase.  Every little bit helps!

So now that you are caught up with me and my family, let's get the crafty show on the road!

Silver Stars and Congratulations!

Hello friends!  Today I have a graduation congratulations card to share with you.  This particular card is for a guy and you know I have issues making masculine cards.  This one turned out great!  See what I mean??

I used some new stuff from Tonic Studios.....those star sequins are very pretty!  They are called Mirrorball Stars and they are from the Nuvo Pure Sheen Confetti line.  I highly recommend that Marvy Jewel Picker for sequins and rhinestones.  It's cheap and it works great!

I think I will create this card in alot of different colors of glitter paper and sequins.  That way no two cards look alike even though they are!  If you need a graduation card like this, I have a few to sell.  Just shot me an email!

Thanks for stopping by today!! 

Here is a list of supplies I used for the cards...(I have used Affiliate links.  These links are to different stores, where if you purchase something using that link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support!) 

 

Two Butterfly Cards

Hello friends!  This week is a busy one here at our house.  Our daughter is graduating from college this weekend and we are so excited!  I took some time to create a few cards for this occasion and just for fun, too!  I have been getting the Simon Says Stamp monthly kit for awhile now and sometimes I am really bad about actually using them.  Well I decided to make the cards that I needed from the April Kit.  I really love the butterfly stencil that was in this kit.  In past months the kits have included some Distress Oxide pads and I thought I would use those and have some fun.

Here is my first card.......

For this card, I just placed the stencil onto my white cardstock panel and used some sponges to add and blend the Cracked Pistachio & Broken China Distress Oxide inks.  I really love how easy and smoothly these inks blend together!  I put this panel onto a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" white cardstock base.  I added some patterned paper along the edge.  Plus I fussy cut out one of the butterflies to pop up for some dimension.  I also used the Stamp Platform to add my sentiment in black ink.  I love using the platform because I don't have to worry about not getting a good image the first time....I can just stamp it again!

Here is another card I created using the same stencil and the same ink pads.  Instead of using a sponge, I pressed the ink pads onto my craft mat and then spritzed water.  I pressed a piece of Bristol paper onto this ink and few times and allowed it to dry.

Once the panel was dry, I put the stencil into place and applied some Nuvo Aquamarine Embellishment Mousse using a palette knife.  I also did the same on some white cardstock so I could fussy cut out the butterflies to add interest to my card.  I really love these colors, don't you?

I think this is my favorite card of all the ones I made the last couple of days!  I really don't have anyone to give it to either!  LOL  

Here is a list of supplies I used for the cards...(I have used Affiliate links.  These links are to different stores, where if you purchase something using that link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support!)

 

Springtime Wisteria Cards!

Hello friends.   On May 2, Crafter's Companion is having another crafty day.  I received some of the products in my design team shipment and I am excited to share a couple of the projects I created using the new stuff!  You can see all the new stuff coming HERE on the Crafter's Companion website.

This card was created using the Sheena Douglass 3d embossing folder and Spectrum Noir Aqua Tint and Sparkle Markers.

To begin, I ran the Kraft cardstock panel thru the Gemini using the Wisteria Wall 3d embossing folder.  Using a sponge and brown ink pad, I highlighted the embossed portions that weren't the flowers, just to give it some depth.  Using the Spectrum Noir Sparkle Marker, I picked up some color (from the Amethyst Aqua Tint Marker colored on my craft mat) and colored the embossed flowers.  I did the same for the leaves.  The sparkle marker gives a very nice and subtle glitter that is so pretty.  The sentiment is from the matching stamp set and I stamped it onto a scrap of white cardstock using black ink pad.  This was a very fun card to create!  I love the detail you get using these embossing folders with the Gemini.

Here is another version of this card but I used the Wisteria stamp set and watercolor paper.

After the watercolor dried, I fussy cut the flowers and adhered them into place using 3d foam squares.  I placed them onto the embossed panel where the flowers were embossed.  The sentiment is from the stamp set, too.

I absolutely love these cards.  I think it's just because the images and embossing folders are so detailed!  Plus purple has always been a favorite color of mine!

Thanks for stopping by today!