Moved Nicole

I was in water color mode again today and this time I used Incredible Like You for my card. Aren't these colors so serene?!  My color palette consists of Grapefruit Grove , Pool Party , and Pear Pizzaz .  The softness of all the colors just makes this card so perfect for a watercolor! First step was to heat emboss the stripes in white on the watercolor paper .  From there I added color with an aqua painter and Pool Party ink pad .  Some areas came out darker which I really like. The flowers are watercolor as well and fussy cut.  Each was stamped with Grapefruit Grove then softened with the aqua painter .  They are layered under and over the sentiment that is heat embossed on watercolor paper as well. Final touches are always important.  Pear Pizzaz leaves came from the Eclectic Layers Thinlits in the main catalog .  I trimmed them down so they would neatly tuck under the flowers.  A couple of cute little wooden element butterflies add extra dimension and were FREE!  They ...

It's the time of year when we start looking forward to spring, especially those of us in the frigid cold areas of the country.  In Ohio we are experiencing the polar freeze and have wild chill temps around -25!  So to get away from the cold I stamped a beautiful butterfly card with the gorgeous new Butterfly Gala stamp set. For color inspiration, I looked to the Sale-a-bration catalog .  The Designer Series Paper Botanical Butterfly is full of beautiful colors.  The blues and purple stood out so Highland Heather and Balmy Blue became my color palette. The stamp used for this card has a small butterfly over a larger butterfly.  I created a pattern by stamping the butterflies in rows.  All of the small butterflies are colored with Highland Heather Stampin' Blends and the larger are done with Balmy Blue .  The lighter of each color is in the center with darker shading around the edges. With all that was going on in the background, I needed something to make my sentiment st...

If  you look at my recent posts, you may notice that I am really into the new Flowering Desert stamp set.  Today's idea is a little different.  I went with water color using an aqua painter and ink pads. I love the water color effect.  It's soft and has beautiful color variations.  I achieved this look very easily with just a few steps. I stamped the cactus with Lemon Lime Twist on water color paper.  Using the aqua painter, I went over the original image to get the initial water color look.  Then with Granny Apple Green I added in more color gradually shading from the left to right.  In areas that I wanted a darker bit of color, I waited until the area was dry then layered on more. Once I had the color the way I wanted it, I used my Light Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blend marker and added detail. I added in a pop of color with Lovely Lipstick flowers on the cactus and a smaller plant in Shaded Spruce .  Last detail of the watercolor is a bit of sand using Soft Suede .  I...

May is here and so is GRADUATION.  I have some great ideas for you to say congratulations to friends and family in a very sparkly way! I told you these cards sparkled!  There's lots of bling going on here to celebrate the big day! The first card is the one I shared the other day that I made for my Dad's birthday.   I patterned the others after this one, just changed up the sentiments. On this one I used a retired set from last year, Hooray it's Your Day.  This particular sentiment really fit the bill for what I needed. The final card has another retired sentiment.  I used Perfect Pairings, it has a great bold "Congrats" in the set that says it all! All three cards have the same design, just different sayings.  This is an easy template for any type of event you need.  Just change up the greeting and add as much bling as you like! Speaking of bling, I've been working on my card set for the May Mini Session from Create with Connie and Mary. I am using NEW produc...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, we had a very busy but good one!  I am back today with another clean and simple card.  This has really become my favorite style of card lately, especially with lots of crisp white! I used the Create with Connie and Mary color challenge that is still going on for my inspiration. I love these three colors together, a perfect recipe for a CAS card! I did a little stamping and a little die cutting to create this clean look.  The stamp from the new Sale-a-bration set HELLO was a perfect match to the GREETINGS THINLITS .  I also added a little bit of the WINTER WONDERLAND VELLUM STACK , love the stripes under the sentiment! And as you already know, sequins are always a great compliment on a crisp card so there are two gold ones added to this one.  I even added a couple to the envelope, couldn't help myself! As we wind down 2015 we have lots of new products to look forward to in 2016!  The Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-bration will begin on Januar...

I'm taking a quick break from Christmas cards to share a Sale-a-bration sneak peek with you! It's so fun to get new stamps!  My pre-order (a perk of being a demo!) came yesterday so there was no way I could make a Christmas card with these beauties on my desk.  I went with a clean and simple card using the sketch challenge from Create with Connie and Mary . I thought of the airplane and cloud from SKY IS THE LIMIT right away when I saw the layout of the flowers.  It ended up working out quite nicely! I tried out a design from one of the new designer papers as well, but it blended with the Tempting Turquoise base.  So I looked at the left over pile on my desk and a strip of WINTER WONDERLAND VELLUM jumped out at me.  It made the perfect edition and kept the card clean with just the three colors. Now that I have new goodies, I will start bringing you more sneak peeks along with Christmas ideas this month. Tomorrow stop back to see the second set of wine bottle tags that I made w...

Happy Monday!  I have a sweet card to share with you today featuring A Happy Thing from Sale-a-bration.  I am sooooo sad that Sale-a-bration is ending tomorrow, all of these products are just so fun to work with!  I really loved my Lotus Blossom card from a few weeks ago so I decided to use the design with the happy bird since I've not done a card with it yet. I think these colors are just gorgeous together and the bird looks amazing!  Here's a look at the card that I took this design from. I kept the same basic layout the, just changed up the sentiment and embellishments. I used the sentiment from Lotus Blossom.  It's stamped directly on the designer paper with Coastal Cabana ink.  The card needed a little extra something, so I added a couple of small Crisp Cantaloupe flowers with the flower punch in the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.  Each flower has a small pearl in the center. Now that I've done this card, I am so sad that I didn't use this set mo...

I have another card to share today, this one is for sketch challenge #179 from Freshly Made Sketches .  I thought this was a great clean and simple design to work with. I just got the Something for Baby Bundle and thought it would be perfect for this sketch.  The Best Year Ever Designer Paper from Sale-a-bration was the inspiration for my colors.  The card base is Coastal Cabana embossed with the Large Polka Dot embossing folder.  I added in a piece of the bokeh inspired paper with two of the corners rounded. A baby onsie was stamped with Coastal Cabana on Whisper White and die cut with the coordinating framelit.  A cute little duckie adds a splash of color.  It's stamped with Daffodil Delight on Whisper White.  I also stamped a duck with Tangerine Tango then cut the beak out to add to the Daffodil Delight duck.  Since Something for Baby doesn't have sentiments, I pulled the "Congratulations" from Guy Greetings.  I liked the size and the let...