Pinwheel Bouquet & Card

I made this bouquet and matching card using double sided papers I had on hand. The bouquet used 6x6 papers and the card used 3x3. I filled the bucket with a filler I had in the house, dry lima beans, LOL. But it's cute, I promise! And finished it off with a matching ribbon around the bucket. What a fun spring project.

And The Winner Is.....

Terri A! Terri wins this new package of crocheted flowers from SU. Thanks to all who entered! Stay tuned for next month's give-away. :)

Mother's Day Treat

On Mother's Day, I set out these little goody bags for my Club Girls to pick up if they could get by. As a mom, I thought this little crafting treat might make someone's day. I'm glad so many of you could stop by. Hope everyone had a great day!

May Give Away: Last Chance to Enter

Don't forget to go here and enter to win a package of crocheted flowers from SU. Winner will be drawn tonight!

Free Photo Prints!

May is National Scrapbooking Month. Time for me to kick it in gear and start working on the boys' albums for this year. So I headed over to Artscow to print some pictures. I love that I can choose matte finish. I love that they are as good of quality as Snapfish. I love that I have some free credits. I love that shipping is decent. And I love that I can pay quickly with my Paypal account.

Have you tried Artscow? You SHOULD! They LOVE giving out free stuff! Right now new registrants get 1200 free print credits, 3 8x8 photo book credits, and more! All you pay is shipping on those.

Want an idea on shipping rates for 4x6 photos?

1-10	$1.99
11-20	$2.49
21-30	$2.99
31-50	$3.99
51-75	$4.49
76-100	$5.99
101-150	$7.49
151-200	$9.99

Oh, and if you actually use up all free print credits they give you, 4x6 prints are just 6 cents each!

If you would like to give Artscow a try, I would be grateful if you would go through my referral link. Just click here to get started! :)

Marker Technique #3

For this technique, I stepped up the simple idea of just coloring in a lined image with your markers. I used different shades of the pink and orange to give the image more dimension. If you have heard of fancy art markers like alcohol based Copics, this is a copycat technique using SU's water-based markers. For your image, choose the color you want and find a light and dark shade in your SU markers. SU offers many combos of lights and darks for you to use. If you have SU's color wheel, they even have a monochromatic chart on there which is how I came up with these color combos.

Pretty in Pink with Rose Red
Blush Blossom with Pumpkin Pie

And for the small tag, try using your writing tip instead of the brush tip. It works great for detailed areas like this.

Cowboy Billy

This is my little Billy stamp dressed as a cowboy. Ain't he so dern cute?! Used a little silver brad for the belt buckle and let the designer paper do most of the talkin'. I just didn't see the need for much else on this card. I'm lovin' the muted "brights" as well. Ride em', Cowboy! Yeeeee hawwww!

Friday Sketchers Challenge

I made this for a challenge over at Friday Sketchers. The winner will get Elzybells so I had to give it a whirl! It was a sketch challenge, and I used an Elzy in the spirit of the PRIZE!

Caardvarks Challenge

I did this for a challenge over at Caardvarks. The challenge was to use a verse or a quote. Used Garden Riley with my ever favorite Sweet Always paper. Free paper from SU this month!

Marker Technique #2

This is a watercolor technique. It gives more subtle shades of color and looks painted more than when you just color straight onto the image. To watercolor with your markers, you need a watercoloring tool such as a paint brush, blender pen, or aquapainter. I used an aquapainter on this card. To get your pallet, you will choose your marker colors and color with the brush tip onto a CD or plastic stamp case (it will wipe off with a wet paper towel when you are done). Once you've created your pallet of colors with your markers, dip your watercoloring tool into you pallet of colors to "paint" your image! :)

Pretty in Pink
Rose Red
Always Artichoke

Marker Technique #1

For this technique, choose a bold image stamp like this tree (not an outline image). Take your markers and color directly onto the stamp using multiple colors. When done coloring, huff onto the stamp to re-moisten all the ink. Then stamp the image. The markers are a great way to get multiple colors on one stamp. I use the side of my brush tip, not the point, so the tip does not break down. I multicolored this tree by using two shades of green on the leaves.

Close to Cocoa
Certainly Celery
Old Olive

Scrap Club: April

This was the second layout for Scrap Club in April. Flower embellishment is the Cherry Blossom embosslit and large brad from SU.

Mom's Card

I made this card for Mother's Day for my mom, the quilter. My square nesties fit the quilt blocks perfectly!

Garden Flopsy

This was the card I made for my MIL for Mother's Day. Flopsy from My Favorite Things. My new fence punch from Martha Stewart. Basic Grey DSP, Prima Flowers, Keisercraft Pearls. Fun!

Gumballs

Tree Swing

Look, I layered AMuse! I am a sucker for tree stamps...especially one with a tire swing! Brings back memories. My other spring stamp addiction? Umbrellas. I just love any character with an umbrella. :) Have a beautiful day!

You Rock!

I just couldn't resist this little i-pod and sentiment from AMuse. I have no idea how to work one myself but Jeff, Miles, and Graham get plenty of use out of one. It reminds me of them. And they do rock. :) Pretty wild, huh?!

Mower

How about a one layer card? All these stamps are AMuse: grass, mower, sentiment. I masked the grass on the right to make it look "cut".

Coffee for Two

I gave up the AMuse white background for a little designer paper. I have SO MUCH DSP to use up! Eeeeek! I think my next round of cards are going to entail LOTS of DSP backgrounds just to use some of my stash.

You will either think this is a GREAT idea or a DUMB idea but....I cut up all my 12x12 designer papers into 4x6" pieces for quick use on cards. I don't THINK I'm going to regret it. I'll let you know in a few weeks, LOL.

This is an AMuse stamp that I got on trade. I love ANY coffee stamps but these are SUPER cute! The paper is actually some Basic Grey that I picked up at Archiver's in St. Louis. I just bought a few 12x12 sheets to play with...and of course cut them all down.

Mushrooms: What's So Funny?

Most everyone who has seen this card already has laughed. I don't get what's so funny about mushrooms. I eat them. I think they make cute stamps. What's the problem? Pink, blue, and purple mushrooms...is there any harm in that?! LOL

These are part of my AMuse segment. The embossed frame was done with my latest nesties. Don't ask how many I've collected in the past couple months. My lips are sealed!

Soy Ice Cream for Miles

Yay blogger, you didn't rotate my picture! Thank you VERY much!

Anyways, here's a little more AMuse for ya. I love this little ice-cream cone. Is ice-cream the new "cupcake" in stamping? I think it MIGHT be!

In our family, this would be SOY ice cream. Miles and Graham just recently had their first ice-cream as I finally bought some Tofutti. It actually tastes really good, and I often turn my nose at soy stuff. The chocolate tastes like fudge bars. Here's to my two little guys who will be skin tested today for their allergies. I love them to death.

Seattle Girl

There's just something about the simplicity of AMuse that lends itself to plain white cards. I love it!

Simple Trike

This is a new stamp by AMuse, and I just had to have it! Miles's trike is just like this one. Grandma wanted him to have a classic trike for Christmas a couple years ago, and he TEARS IT UP on this thing! Actually, it was a trike just like this one on which I flipped over the handle bars and got two stitches in my forehead. I just remembered that. LOL.

Anyways, we took a one night get-away to St. Louis recently, and I hit Natalie's Ink Spot in Kirkwood. She had this stamp and I snagged it. I also snagged about a total of $80 in AMuse images. Those little boogers add up!

The Amuse style is very simple. So I will be posting some cards made with my new AMuse stamps, in the SIMPLE spirit of AMuse. Stay tuned!

May Give Away!

April showers bring May FLOWERS! The winner of this month's give away will receive a full package of SU's crocheted flowers! All you have to do is leave a comment by Monday, May 18th. If I get 25 entries, I will have a second give away in May. So tell your friends to enter!

As always, thanks for all your support!

Limelight Sketch Challenge

I did this card for Limelight's Sketch Challenge. Too bad the point in the challenge was to use pearls...and I used dew drops. DING DONG! And they are STUCK so I can't change them out. I can't even give the excuse that I don't have pearls because I would be lying. Oh well, I love this card so I'll just show it anyways. I'm sure I'm disqualified from the challenge, dang it.

This stamp is from Whipper Snapper. So cute!

Golf

This is from Gina K. too. Paper pieced the golf bag. Dry embossed and used SU ribbon and brads. I love those neutral jumbo brads. I put in my April SU order and can't wait to get my goodies from the new Occasions Mini! Stay tuned. :)