Life's Lemons

Hi everyone!

Isn't this the perfect mid-week sentiment?

A, I love lemons, and b, if I'm going to have a drink, I really do like vodka.

And, I've had my fair share of lemons thrown at me in my life, so a reminder to make the best of it all is a great thing to keep in mind.

When I saw the current Mix It Up Challenge at Ellen Hutson, which incorporates Avery Elle with Essentials by Ellen, these great lemons came to mind.

For the background I used one of my very favourite stamp sets for creating beautiful backgrounds.  The Bohkeh Dots set is full of possibilities!

I decided to heat emboss the sentiment in black, and set one lemon on dimensionals to bring it to the forefront.  I felt the bright green and yellow were perfect companions for the sunshine lemons.

I gave this lemon a bit of twine to bring in a bit of an organic feel and I love how it looks!

For the inside, I stamped the lemon again in a light grey ink, and repeated the bright yellow circles.

This is just such a happy and bright card, it brought a smile to my face.  My 25 year old son, Mike, complimented me on it as well, and that was a happily accepted reward.  He doesn't compliment often!

Have a great week, everyone!

Beth

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Welcome Baby Using Pointillism and Copics

Hi everyone and happy Mother's Day!

I thought it fitting to post this seeing as it's Mother's Day.  A friends of mine just had her second baby, Norah, so I'll be popping this in the mail tonight.

As well, this one is going in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, so head over there to see some amazing cards.

My wonderful husband took me out for a great dinner last night.  We never go anywhere on Mother's Day because everyone else is going there!  This way, it's much more relaxed. 

I "borrowed" this idea from the talented Jennifer McGuire.  When I saw this I thought it would be perfect for this stamp set, so I decided to give it a try.  I think the results are great, and it's a technique I'll definitely use again.

The technical term for this is pointillism because you use dots or "les points" to create shading in your image.  It works amazingly well with Copics, and by using the same concept as regular colouring with Copics, you get great shading results.

I also used fun foam as a way to give my card dimension instead of foam tape.  I cut both the fun foam and the frames for the card stock using stitched rectangle dies.  Cutting the foam is just as easy as cutting paper!

For the inside of the card, I cut a matching rectangle and stamped three more of the balloons, used the same three pinks, and the same colouring technique.

I'm really thrilled with the way this card turned out.

It's just adorable!

Take a minute to watch the video below to see how everything was done and how it all came together.

Have a great day!

Beth

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It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

Hey everyone!

Well, it's hump day and I'm popping in to post this card I painted for the watercolour challenge at livelovecards.com, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I was especially excited because, as I mentioned awhile ago, my husband got me this for my birthday back in March!

I've been playing around with them, and this is the first card I've made with these watercolours.

Let me tell you - if you're into watercolours, these are CRAZY nice!

I'm so happy with them!

So.  For this card I used Madison has a Margarita.  I have a definite soft spot for the Uptown Girls from Stampingbella!

One of the things I really enjoyed about using watercolours was mixing colours to create the skin tones I was looking for.  There isn't a "skin tone" per se, but my husband got me the big set, so there's definitely enough colour options to mix it up and create whatever colour you're looking for.

The sentiment that comes with this stamp is probably my favourite too!  I mean, really...  Who hasn't said this at one point in time??

I used Tim Holtz watercolour paper.  One of my favourite substrates, it's really white and has a nice smooth side that's perfect for stamping and painting.  I also stamped the image in Versamark and heat embossed it in black.  I really wanted her to stand out.

I used Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock for the base, and I really like this weight of paper for card bases.

I also added some little rhinestone jewels from Stampin' Up!, and coloured them with a Copic marker to match Madison's drink.

Hopefully in the next photo you'll be able to see the sparkle from them in the light.

For the inside, I spent some time trying to decide what to do.  I wanted it to be feminine, since Madison is definitely a girly-girl.  I didn't want to go crazy, because I wanted to leave lots of white space so I could write a good long note to a friend.  I took one of the flowers from A Bunch from Waffle Flower and created a bit of a border in Basic Grey dye ink from Stampin' Up!.

For most of the flowers I stamped off once, but left three of them at full strength to add a little variety.  Come to think of it, it would have been cute to stamp those three in pink!

Oh well.  Next time!

Have a great day!

Beth

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Happy Vibes

AHHHH!  Fun, fun, FUN!!

Does it get any cuter than this?

This is my first card with front/back images, and I love it.

As usual, I have another idea for this particular image.  This is one of those times when you make the card and then come up with a bigger, better version of it (so stay tuned!).

I just adore this particular set from MFT.  It's got a ton of different images and possibilities, and that makes your dollar go a lot further.

For the outside of this one, I used my Cuttlebug and a Stitched Rectangle die to cut the window and did some very simple colouring with Copics on the pooch.  

I stamped the Happy using Happy Everything from Mama Elephant, and placed it right in the centre of the window.

The pooch got his head put on straight on the inside, so he's looking in at the treats.  And seriously, what a makes cute little pup happier than a bunch of bones to eat?

I cut out a handful of his bones using the dies, as well as a bowl to hold one.  I wanted to keep the colour palate fairly simple, so coloured his bowl red to match and gave it some oomph with a good layer of Glossy Accents.

I so wish it was Saturday instead of Sunday so I could get busy with ramped up version of this one, but I guess it's going to have to wait.

Back to work tomorrow...

See you later!

Beth

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Thank You Card with "A Bunch" of Heat Embossed Flowers

Hello!

I've got another card for the Waffle Flower Challenge, using the A Bunch stamp set.  

I LOVE the technique I used for this.  

The flowers were stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and then coloured in using pigment inks.  Because pigment inks stay wet longer, I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder which gives them a delicious shine and texture.  

Voila!

(You can see the shine in the photo below.)

I fussy cut the flowers and leaves, and adhered them to the card stock, popping one up on dimensionals.

I absolutely love the colours for this challenge.  They're soft and so, so pretty!

And of course, it's the perfect card to use one of my favourite embellishments on - linen twine.

Oh, how I adore linen twine!

Hope you enjoyed!

Beth

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Love You a Bunch with Copics, Creating a Background, and Masking

Hi everyone!

The nice weather is here and I've got flowers to celebrate!

The stamp set I used is called A Bunch from Waffle Flower, and I used a bunch of the stamps to create this card for Waffle Flower's challenge which you can find here!

I loved the inspiration photo for this challenge, and if I can find time, I've got another idea for another card.

Time seems to be an issue these days for me these days!

To make this card, I used a few different techniques: Copic colouring, stamping to create a background, and masking to reshape the desired image.  These are all great techniques to get a good handle on.  The open up many more possibilities for you in card making.

Check out the video below to see how it's done!

See you next time!

Beth

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