Less Is More challenge...Watercolor

Evening Stampers.

I can't believe the mojo I've had all day and no, let's not talk about the fact that the bed never got made, only one load of laundry did get done and lots of playing with our new puppy in betwixt making the cards.

So, what do you want to see first, puppy or cards...let's see...here they are. Which is cuter?

Let's just say the card is prettier and the puppy is cuter, shall we?

I stamped a flower from an SU set called Blooming With Kindness. I used Tim Holtz distress ink pads brick red and pine needles for the stem. First loading the with ink, then spritzing it 3X and stamping on water color paper I've had for a while. I held he stamp in place for several seconds to let the paper absorb the ink. I think I was supposed to do that. I decided I'd better make the card base from the same paper. I'm glad I did. If you can over-look the shadow cast on the left, you can see the texture of the paper. The sentiment is from the SU set Bring On the Cake and is stamped in black watercolor ink. This is a 5x7 card. I went ahead and tried this popular technique with some other inks and found that the one I started with worked best for me. Memento inks are supposed to be good to work with, but I'll need to see a video. Watercolor paper isn't cheap.

Oh, and that rather large puppy is a 10 wk. old Great Dane. We're in love and you will need to humor me as I post a photo now and then. 

Whew! I'm down for the count now and will be up soon enough to continue house-breaking chores shared with family. I have the 5 AM call, i.e., a plaintive cry asking to be let out of his crate.

Blessings,

Erica

Let's Give it Another Go!

Good Day Stampers,

If you're looking for my first submission/DT challenge for Simply Crate Too, scroll down.

Since big and bold sentiments seem to be trendy, I seem to have collected quite a few, so thought I'd enter a second card featuring Stampendous clear stamps again. The die for the sun is from "iostamps." I've embossed with the very first SU embossing folder to add a bit of umph, and the clouds are W-9 dies that are sponged with Memento London fog. I clipped corners with an old SU punch and stamped on black cs with SU craft white and then used detailed white embossing powder. I'm not sure if this is the method for the chalk-board technique, but it works for me. The base is my 'go-to' Recollections heavy weight card stock. A few yellow dots finish the card.

Have a blessed weekend and get some stamping done. I'm on a roll today...so much more fun making cards than house-cleaning, laundry, exercising, etc. :D

Erica

Simply Create Too Challenge #64, The Sentiment is Your Highlight

Good Morning Friends,

Here is my design team card for our challenge at Simply Create Too. I almost always lean toward putting a sentiment on the front of my cards. Usually this is the Happy Birthday sentiment, but if I find some beautiful wording or a quotation that is appropriate, I will use it. In this case, I couldn't resist this inexpensive Stampabilities clear stamp. I think it was meant to be stamped using the chalk technique, but I'm not a fan of that style, so I'll use it the usual way.

I have been un-intentionally hoarding scrapes of paper and I'm trying to use them up, so I don't know the source of the dsp. The card stock is Michaels Recollections heavy weight cream. I used a beautiful corner die from Our Daily Bread Designs and used more scraps. The sentiment is stamped on a Nestabilities die-cut mat in Memento rich cocoa. The ribbon is a lucky $1 find and is a soft vintage print green. Flowers are Recollections and leaves an MS punch. I distressed all the papers with Tim Holtz frayed burlap...I do love the distressed look, but I'm not very good at knowing when to use it. I noticed some stampers distress everything, but I don't think it always works and some use very dark colors consistently which again, not sure if I like that look.

So join us in our challenge. We all have beautiful sentiments in our collections and if you don't, you can always find a digital one. The challenge will be fun.

Blessings,
Erica

Father's Day Card for a Grandpa who Piddles

Hi Everyone,

Quite a while since I've been here. My mojo deserted me a week before I left for my trip to NY with one of my daughters and grand-daughters. Then after I got back last week, it didn't return and my email box was daunting to say the least. Realizing how close Father's Day is, I had to get to work fast. So here's my card for my daughter and her husband's father. He is a car piddler living in North Carolina on acres of land. Some 5 to 10 cars reside in the back yard at any given time. I suppose piddling' with them can be called his hobby. He also sells trees from his land now and then, so this card was perfect.

I used some textured CTMH brown cs with a white core and sanded it to reveal the core for the base. The next layer is DCWV's neutral' corrugated paper. This paper is currently a trend. A cream layer mat, followed with a Darice folder called forest background that is on the CTMH paper and has been sanded. I love how this turned out. I made a banner and added a Hero Art's sentiment. And can you believe I am still finding ways to use the retired SU Loads of Love stamp set!? I colored with Copics and fussy cut the truck and hearts out and mounted them. I'm very pleased with how the card turned out since my mojo is not peaking. Too bad I can't use this theme for the other two cards I need to make.  I guess I'll be dreaming about cards tonight.

Hug the father figure in your life if you can this weekend.

Blessings,

Erica

Teacher's Day Card

Good Morning. I believe school's close to summer break in almost every state of the Union. In my day they didn't make a big deal for teachers. There were no presents given and definitely no Teacher's Appreciation Day. Perhaps these professionals were better compensated than now. So, I joined the band-wagon and made this card for my grandchild's 1st grade teacher. I know from Melea that she works another part-time job. I suspect  it's to pay off the student aid she had to get as she has no children yet.

So here's my card to which I've added a gift card for her.

The little apple, books and arrows are long-gone dies by Cuttlebug. I added twine, a button and some faux white stitching to an SU card base. Other papers were bits from my stash.  Coloring was done with Copics. The tiny sentiment was a freebie from Lawn Fawn.

We wrote a note inside as we truly did appreciate her teacher's dedication to Melea who was a challenge having been diagnosed ADHD this year. The poor teacher had a class of 19 boys and 6 girls. And, we all know how boys can be.

Have a great rest of the week.
Blessings,
Erica

Post Mother's Day Card

Hi Mother's everywhere...and that includes animal moms, plant mommas, aunts who pick-up the slack and, of course, grandmothers. All women who  nurture in any way are mothers. Perhaps having lost my own mother at a very young age, I am more sensitive to this and God blessed me with three wonderful children and three wonderful grandchildren. Lots of animals, flora and fauna in between too.

So, I made this card for the child whom I live with. That's Greeting Farm stamp, Beauty. I don't think she's been released yet, as I belong to a club who gives us a head-start on their releases.

Coloring her was fun, though I realize colics are quite challenging for me. Recollections flowers are on a Martha Stewart punched "trellis" with MS punched leaves. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and layers are Nestibilities. Some pretty pink ribbon with pearls attached are on the side of the trellis. The background behind Beauty was sponged with Rangers Distress Inks. She has sparkles on all the flowers and her hair barrette. Beauty is a keeper.

Blessings,
Erica

Squeezing in...just under the wire

Hi Stampers. I had every intention of posting to the Less Is More sketch challenge early this week. Yup, even told the divas, I'd be right back. Well, you know the saying, the best laid plans, etc. Or, what I like to say, make a plan and watch God laugh.

So here's my card. It's on white Recollections cs, with a circle aperture. I taped two flowers at the bottom of the circle and flanked them per the sketch, with a ladybug and bee. Everything stamped is from Sizzix/Hero Arts collaboration and the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. Coloring was done with Copics.

Gotta run and get this linked up. Get ready for a new challenge at LIM soon. I'm also entering this onto Simply Create Too, where I am a design team member. Challenge no. 60, Stack 'Em Up. Oh, and  one more, Delightful Challenges, where dimension is the challenge.

Blessings,
Erica