Vibrant Peaceful Petals for Mom

I hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day! The weather here was absolutely beautiful and I was happy to spend it with my Mom & my sons...perfect day!

Have you seen the NEW batch of In Colors for 2014-16 yet? I think they are just gorgeous, rich & vibrant colors! Here is my first creation using them...along with the Blendabilities.

I stamped the flowers from the Peaceful Petals set in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink while masking the largest flower with an image cut from a post it note. Then I had lots of fun coloring in the flowers with my new Blendies! I really like working with them! It's nice to even be able to color pearls & rhinestones to match! As you can see here, I've colored Basic Pearl Jewels in Razzleberry & Daffodil. Here's a closer look...

The rich colors achieved using the Blendies work really well with the new In Color card stock...I used Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist and threw in some Cherry Cobbler for good measure. So, basically fruit with a bit of honey...and who doesn't like that!?

Isn't the new 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon luscious? It will be available in the five new In Colors...I used Blackberry Bliss.

I used each of the Blendability Color Sets shown above:

• Rich Razzleberry
• Pumpkin Pie
• Cherry Cobbler
• Daffodil Delight
• Old Olive

The label was created using the Creative Elements set along with the Apothecary Accents Framelits. I cut just the edge off...I shared how to do this on this post. 

Enjoy your day! We have a thunderstorm going on here right now...it's pouring down rain. Guess I'll be "forced" to stay indoors and stamp instead of working outside cleaning up the flower bed today. 

Peaceful Blendabilities

Guess what showed up at my house on Wednesday??? Here's a hint...

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I've been to try the new Blendabilities!!! and to see the NEW IN COLORS and the NEW CATALOG in real life!!! I can happily say I sure wasn't disappointed in any of the above! Actually...they all exceeded my expectations! The new catalog is one of the best since I've become a demo (has it really been over 9 years now!?) and the new In Colors are just luscious...but the new Blendies were the first thing I had to try!

Let me start by saying that I have never used Copic markers, but I love to watercolor.  So that being said, I cannot compare one to the other.

When coloring, I usually use the aqua painter and our inks and had nice results. However, if I wanted a deep, vibrant look to my watercoloring, this method would sometimes take a while to build up the color to be as deep as I wanted. With the Blendabilities it was so much quicker & easier to get beautiful, vibrant color. Here is a look at my first attempt at trying out these markers...

They are laid out in the order of how I tried them...I think, with each flower I colored, I improved a little bit on the blending. I could still go back and blend a little more if I wanted to.  I stamped each image on Whisper White card stock using the Black Memento Ink pad. On the top right you can see a color swatch of each of the 3 markers. Here's a closer look at each one...

Now I need to get busy and make some cards using these colored images...but I just couldn't wait to share my first experience using the new Blendies with you.

Flippin' Friday: Purple Peaceful Petals

Happy Friday! It's been a while since I did a Flippin' Friday post...so here's one for you that's pretty & purple!

This ruffley looking dahlia is fun to watercolor! First, I stamped the image in Black Stazon onto Whisper White card stock. As usual, I used my Aqua Painter and inks pooled in the lids of my ink pads. These are the colors I used:

• Wisteria Wonder
• Rich Razzleberry
• Elegant Eggplant
• Crushed Curry

Then I punched out the flower using a 2-1/2" Circle Punch which fits perfectly onto the Thinlet Flip Card base.

I used the Needlepoint Border Embossing Folder to decorate the edges and the Beautifully Baroque EF to give a nice pattern to the base of the card.

Many times when I'm watercoloring, I will stamp numerous images and color all at the same time. That's exactly what I did this time...one of each flower in the Peaceful Petals set. I've already shared the other two cards in the past week. Here is a look at the Peaceful Petals Trio.

This would make a nice set of cards to give as a gift...make a pretty box that coordinates and include matching envelopes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Peaceful Petals Sympathy

We all hate having to make sympathy cards, but unfortunately sometimes we need to. Here is one that I had to make this week.

I always try to keep them fairly simple, yet elegant. If you saw my last posting, you can see that I made this card at the same time, using the same products. I watercolored the pretty floral image from Peaceful Petals using my Aqua Painter and inks pooled in the lids of my ink pads. These are the colors I used:

• Wisteria Wonder
• Elegant Eggplant
• Rich Razzleberry 
• Wild Wasabi
• Crushed Curry

To add a little detail I punched the bottom edge using the Scallop Trim Border Punch and added some Basic Rhinestone Jewels. The Elegant Eggplant panel is embossed with the Beautifully Baroque EF. I used the Loving Thoughts stamp set for the sentiment and the little butterfly was made using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit. 

I hope this card brings the recipients some comfort. 

Thanks for visiting today...have a wonderful weekend!

Purple Peaceful Petals

I just love the beautiful images in the Peaceful Petals set...especially this one!

Doesn't it look pretty in purple? I watercolored it using my Aqua Painter and inks pooled in the lids of my ink pads. These are the colors I used:

• Wisteria Wonder
• Elegant Eggplant
• Rich Razzleberry 
• Wild Wasabi
• Crushed Curry

I think the Tea Lace Paper Doily accented with Basic Rhinestone Jewels makes a pretty background against the Elegant Eggplant panel embossed with the Beautifully Baroque EF. 

Thanks for visiting today!

Flippin' Friday - Sweet Sorbet Petals

Here it is Friday and I almost forgot to post my flip card. So, here you go...todays card is using all new goodies from the Occasions Catalog and upcoming Sale-a-Bration.

The Sweet Sorbet DSP is so much prettier than it shows in the Sale-a-Bration brochure. I love the soft colors with the pop of black.

I created an extended panel for this flip card so I would have more of an area inside to write a note.

The pretty dahlia image is from Peaceful Petals. I just stamped in Black Stazon and then water colored using my Aqua Painter and ink.

Thanks for stopping by...ENJOY your weekend!

Peaceful Petals Thank You

While browsing on Pinterest today I saw this fun sketch that came from a blog called Around the World Stampin' Up! Challenges. This is a new site for me and I think it's pretty cool because the design team is made up of SU! demos from all parts of the world. Usually I find these fun challenges after they are over, but this one still has time left, so I'm playing along.

I used the new Peaceful Petal set and stamped it on a background created using the water colored background technique that I described in this post. To add a little more subtle detail, I used a couple other stamps as well...Gorgeous Grunge and the Very Vintage Jumbo Wheel. The other layers are stamped with my new favorite background stamp...Hardword,  inked in White Craft.
Supply List:

• Peaceful Petals [clear]
• Gorgeous Grunge Clear-mount Stamp Set
• Hardwood [clear]
• Very Vintage
• Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Basic Black 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Coastal Cabana 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Strawberry Slush 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad
• Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad
• Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad
• Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
• Jet Black StazOn Pad

Peaceful Petals in a Chaotic Workspace

Towards the end of my last post I stated, "With our power back on, our houseguests back in North Carolina, and my hubby back at work after a week long vacation I finally have time to get into my stamp room and play with some new stuff!!! " Boy, was I dreaming! I walked into my room planning to stamp and unfortunately this is what I was met with...

I think the last time I was in here must have been to dump stuff on my desk to get it "out of the way". There was scraps of paper, partially made cards, stamped images & die cuts that didn't end up making it onto a card, and even Christmas wrapping supplies thrown onto every flat surface available. Forget about having a friend able to sit at my desk to stamp with me...there wasn't even room for me to stamp!

I have a hard time keeping all my scraps in check on a regular basis, but with the added busyness of the holidays, our power outage (yes...I'll keep blaming the power outage for all of my shortcomings! ;-) and houseguests I really let my room go unorganized. Normally, I like to keep the area behind where I sit (shown above) fairly clear so I can put my laptop there or pages that I'm working on...but as you can see all sorts of junk had taken over this prime space.

This is the view of my storage closet and cutting station from my seat. Luckily the closet was kept neat, but my cutting station was another story. Needless to say, I had to clean up before I could even think about stamping. I did reward myself after "finding" my desk top and I took a time out to create something with my favorite new goodies from the new Occasions Catalog. Check it out...

I used the pretty new set Peaceful Petals along with new DSP...Watercolor Wonder. I love the soft watercolor feel of this paper and used two patterns on my card and for the background in my photo. Here's a closer look at the watercolored flower.

Cosmos are one of my most loved annuals, so this image is probably my favorite in the set. The leaf image is separate, and not the proper foliage for Cosmos, but I took creative licence and added it anyways. 

Now that I've had my stampin' fix...it's back to my not so fun task...finishing my organization  project. Although it's not much fun, I have to admit, it's worth the effort because it's so much easier to work in a space that is clean and well organized...and what better time to get more organized in the New Year!

Check back on Wednesday for my Workspace Wednesday posting showing the after photos of my re-organized rubber room. If the rest of you have problems keeping all your unused stamped images, die cut & punched pieces & card parts in order like I do, you may find it helpful.