Tiled Hues

This is my second card for today's Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.  Take me away from my "Happy Place" for a week and I won't leave for a day.  The new set Beautiful You from Stampin' Up keeps calling to me, in this case though it called for me to get out my old "Summer by the Sea" set.   I did use a new sentiment from the "Beautiful You" set.  The border stamp on the bottom I thought mimicked waves.  I wish I could say who made this stamp but I am at a loss.  The color palette I used is Indigo Island, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, Pool Party, Blush Blossom and Smoky Slate.  I  heat embossed the sentiment with white EP.  Not sure if you can see it but the water is sparkling thanks to  Wink of Stella. the focal image was cut out using Cottage Cutz stitched rectangle dies.  My cousin is retiring this month so this card is earmarked for her.

Happily Stamping

Heather

Watercolor Feather

Finally getting to spend some time in my happy place after a whirl wind trip to upstate NY for the holidays.  Amazing what driving back and forth from Florida to New York will do to your energy level.  Today's challenge over at Splitcoaststampers is to take inspiration from the Design Seeds website.  I picked Flamingo Hues the image gave me an idea to use the Stampin' Up retired set Four Feathers and it's matching die, Feathers Framelits.  As with many of us our first attempt is never works the way we expect it to, this is what I finally came up with after watercoloring quite a few feathers.

So, what I did was pulled out my Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Watermelon Wonder, Cherry Cobbler and Chocolate Chip markers.  I graduated the colors down from light to dark and then spritzed my watercolor paper with  water.  Then I stamped the feather on it.  I wasn't happy, either there was too much water or not enough, or the blending wasn't satisfactory.   They all sat on my desk while I played with other projects.  Then it clicked, use the framelits and cut them out.  I glued them on to Whisper White heavy weight cardstock and added a Hero Arts sentiment in Chocolate Chip.  Yay, the feathers didn't end up in the trash like I thought they would.

Happy Stamping

Heather

Brighter Tomorrow

Had to make another card today with this set.  Just love it.  Stampin' Up has a winner here I think, the images are so pretty and with so many sentiments to go with them and the font....gorgeous.

The image was stamped in archival black and colored with smoky slate and night of navy with a light touch with a blender pen.  Matted on night of navy and smoky slate.   Hope it inspires you.

Happy Stamping,
Heather

IC575 Beautiful You Inspiration

The inspiration challenge over at Splitcoaststampers today was to pick a somethings from the Anthropologie catalogue for your inspiration.  Tons of idea's came to me but when I saw this one I right away thought of my brand new set  from the yet to be released Stampin' Up set called Beautiful You.  I used Archival Black on Whisper White thick cardstock and layered it on Gold Foil cardstock.  I cut the card into a square 4.5 size.

Hope you have a happy stampin' day.
Heather

FMS266 Let it snow!

Always look forward to seeing the challenge every week over at Freshly Made Sketches This week the sketch showed two different punch or die cut shapes.  I chose to use my Dave's Dies from last year’s SU set Winter Wishes.  The sleigh was colored with Real Red and a blender pen.  The runners and the skate blades were colored in with a silver uni- ball pen.  Both the sleigh and the skates were stamped with Sahara sand.  Let it snow sentiment is from SU's retired Cold Play, a set that I seem to be gravitating to this year, maybe because I'm now living in South Florida.  The square piece is a watercolor piece I had from experimenting with Ranger Distress Salty Ocean ink.  I had spritzed it with shimmer mist so it sparkles.  I mounted it on Tempting Turquoise and Whisper white base.  The embellishments are squints and white string.  Skates and sleigh are popped up with dimensionals.

Happy stamping

Heather

A Frosty Birthday

First, please excuse the horrible picture.  I try to take my pictures during the day here in South Florida, but this one was finished late and I wanted to post it for today's Splitcoaststampers color challenge.  This one is CC612 if you want to search there are some fabulous cards made with Meadow Moss, Pool Party and Cherry Cobbler.  Who would have thought that these colors could work so well together,  certainly not me!

For this card, I chose to use my old favorite, Frosty from SU.  I altered him by cutting off his arms and adding my own die cut branches from Memory Box.  I also cut off the holly on his hat.  I colored his scarf, buttons, and band on the hat with the crayola pencil crayons close to colors.  I added Deco-
Art snow tex to the card for texture and then added a bird from an old Sale-A-Bration set Bliss.  The sentiment is from Butterfly Basics, also SU.

Crazy busy getting ready for Christmas but trying to get a few challenges in.

Happy Stamping,
Heather

Christmas Sparkle CC611

I made this card for Splitcoaststampers Color challenge Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi and Real Red.  Dessert for this challenge was sparkle.  I added glitter embossing powder to the layer under the red layer and used glitter paper word work merry from SU Christmas Greetings thinlits.  The wreath is made of pine boughs from a Martha Stewart punch and it has gold sequin stars, gold glitter glue and gold thread on it.  The bow is from Michaels ribbon.  For the sentiment I played with a sentiment from SU's retired Wishing You set.

Happy Stamping

Heather

FMS264 Cold Play Wreath

My goal this year is to use more of what I have and not go out and try to buy every new fun stamp or die.  My card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge uses the body of the snowman from the retired Cold Play set from Stampin' UP.  I stamped it in Tip Top Taupe a few times in the same area to get the look of the die from the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits from SU.  The background is the woodgrain paper from  Adventure Bound paper stack.  The greeting is from the retired  SU set Christmas Greetings.  I finished it off with the Lawn Fawn faux stitching die and few sequences, pearls and some burlap twine.

Challenging you to use what you have.

Heather

Running around the Christmas Tree

The challenge over at Splitcoaststampers today Splitcoaststampers today is to use Christmas Critters and you got extra points for humor.  Well here is mine.  Bought this Penny Black stamp a couple of years ago, it kinda looks like our boys, Gunnar and Rolo.  I colored in the image with pencil crayons and gamsol then added silver and gold pen with Wink of Stella on the balls.  I used the Lawn Fawn stitched border die and then added a strip of retired Stampin' Up designer paper.  No for the sentiment.  My printer is acting up so the sentiment was stamped with the retired rotary stamp.  Not very happy with it but it took me ages to get it like this so that's the way it staying.

Hope your fur family doesn't play like this.

Heather

Christmas Kitty

Love this face, so I needed to dress him up for Christmas.  Although we are dog people, I have many friends who are crazy cat people.  What do you think, will they like it?

 Stamps:Cat is PSX and it looks like it was made in 1991
              Hat and scarf, from Stampin' Up's retired Cold Play
              Sentiment is Stampin Up's retired Cozy Christmas
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red and Garden Green
Cardstock: Garden Green, Whisper White, Real Red
Other stuff: Greenery EK, bow and pompom my stash!

Hope you have an inky day.

Heather

Colour Challenge 610

Today's colour challenge over at Splitcoastsampers is Gold, Cherry and White.  I felt the need to add a bit of greenery from my  Newton's Nook Pines and Holly die.  The ribbon is a mystery but I had it in my stash and I thought it was perfect.  The rest is all Stampin Up.  Cherry Cobbler. Whisper White, Garden Green and Gold foil cardstock.  The Ornament is from Delicate Ornaments Thinlits die, I used rhinestones for the berries and coloured them with my still in use Blendabilities Cherry Cobbler marker.

Thanks for checking out my new blog.

Heather

Freshly Made Sketches 263

This is my card for this weeks Freshly Made Sketches Challenge.  I know that the bells should be different sizes but I couldn't seem to get this design out of my head.  The bells gave me a bit of a heart attack when I couldn't find the die.  If you've read my earlier posts you know I moved this summer.  I had visions of my die being lost.  Anyway, lucky for me I found it.  The bells were from Dylusions I think but aren't available anymore. They were cut from brush gold metallic paper and then aged with vintage photo distress ink by Ranger.  The music paper is from SU and the sentiment is from  Michael's Artc stamps.  I embossed the sentiment in gold but didn't like it so I did it again in black trimmed it and popped it up with dimensionals.

Hope you like.
Heather

Welcome Christmas

Making Christmas cards, for me at least is really fun.  There are just so many possibilities.  A few years back I fell in love with the Memory Box window die and flower box.  On this card I used it to frame the Stampin Up Welcome Christmas image.  I added a piece of thin vellum over the image and then filled the box with greenery and a bow from the Pines and Holly die from Newtons Nook.  The brick embossing folder is from Tim Holtz.

Have a great day!
Heather

Dear Friend

This is my card for Freshly Made Sketches #262.  I choose the deer image from Stampin' Ups, In the Meadow, and the sentiment from the Birthday Blooms set.  I colored it with Crayola colored pencils and Gamsol.  Although the Crayola pencils work fine, Prisma's are on my Christmas wish list.  Haven't used them in years but I also pulled out chalk pastels for the background.  The sentiment was stamped heat embossed.  I used a piece of scrap ribbon behind the deer.  

Settling In

Fast forward a few months and I am just about settled into my new happy place.  Just a shelf to go up over the desk and a bit more artwork.  Eventually I want another shelf above the cardstock in the closet.  We can never have to much storage!  Hope you enjoy the pictures, as much as I have enjoyed looking at other craft spaces.  If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them.

The biggest change for me as far as stamping goes, is that I used to stand when I stamped, now I have switched to sitting down.  The L shaped desk always me to move from the computer to my work surface with ease and I have pretty much everything I use at my finger tips.

Heather

New Home, New Look

We recently moved from Sand Lake, NY to Coral Springs, Fl.  Quite the change, not only the weather, but we now live on all one level.  That means, I don't have a stamp cave anymore but a wonderful 10 x 12 room to play in.

Really, moving my craft space was probably the most exciting part of the move for me. Right from planning it out to shopping for it.  I'm going to share a picture of my room back up north and then my new space.  

My stamp cave wasn't all that bad, it had two windows so it was bright, we had put laminate flooring down and had a ton of storage, probably more than I have now.  But it was in the basement so out of sight out of mind, and my computer was upstairs so I made a lot up trips up and down the stairs.  My portion of the basement was about the only part that could be finished in any usable way.  

Fast forward to the new place.  I set up temporary desks etc to hold everything as I unpacked.  I had picked up a couple of bookshelves from Wal-mart for my stamps.  My first idea was to put a bookshelf on either side of the desk.  This didn't work in the end.  Also, the bookcases didn't have enough shelves  and when I went hunting for white shelving, I found out it wasn't in the size I needed.  So, to solve that problem, I ordered another set and used the shelf from that.