Soooo Tired!

I had high hopes of stamping tonight, but it was not to be!  I'm exhausted after my first day back at school and the yucky weather has me feeling gloomy.  I've finished my school work and am ready for bed....here are a couple of cards that I did earlier.  Enjoy!

I used the stamp set "Inspired by Nature" and the "poppin' pastels" technique.  To do the technique you stamp the image in versamark and then pop on the pastels with sponge daubers.  It gives the image a watercolor look.

This an even smaller "box in a bag" like the one I made earlier.  Looks are deceiving, but the base of this bag is only about 2 x 3.  I just had a scrap rectangle sitting on my table and wondered if I could make a tiny bag just using scraps and the answer is....Yes!  Yes I can!  Here's hoping I can get some stamping done early tomorrow morning or later tomorrow evening.  Goodnight!

Bye Bye Vacation!

It's back to work tomorrow....I know that our school year will go quickly from now on and the rest of the year will fly by!  Here are a couple of the last cards I got made during vacation--I found this cute ribbon tutorial.  You tie knots in the ribbon--it makes for a very interesting look!

I've been seeing these butterfly easel cards all over stamping blogland--I gave one a try, but it was soooo tiny I don't think you'd be able to do more than sign your name on the inside....but it would make a cute gift card!

Well it's off to bed--I have an early start tomorrow morning!

Can't stop the sliding!

I'm taken with the slider card--here's another one that I did that I like even better than the first (and I liked that one a lot).  I got the idea for the front and slider of the card from a card in the spring mini catalog.  It uses the adorable  Eat Chocolate set from the mini catalog. (The card sample I used was on the same page--page 30).

Front of the card----pull up on the candy bar and here's what you see:

It's so fun to make it slide.....all I want to do is play with it!

Here's a beautiful card that I cased from Teneale Williams--she does gorgeous work "down under."

I was limited to the supplies that I had, but I love the sweet simplicity of the Sweet Summer Sale-a-Bration set.  You have just a few more days (ends March 31) to get this set free with a $50 order!  I'm sending an order in soon so let me know if you are interested!  

Here Comes Peter Cottontail....

It's time to think about Easter....I'm forever not getting cards made until it's too late to send them and get them there in time.  So I've been taking advantage of my spring vacation to create.  Here are a couple of things I've been working on:

Baskets and Blooms Easter Card

I saw this idea on Inking Idaho and here's my take.  I purchased Becky's tutorial (one of many I've bought from her) and I can highly recommend them all.  She does a great job giving you pictures and step by step directions....and they are very reasonably priced.  

I used:

• Stamp Set:  A Good Egg
• Ink:  Chocolate Chip
• Ribbon: Baja Breeze Seam Binding
• Punches:  Scallop Circle, Wide Oval, Scallop Edge, 1/2 circle, tiny flower from Boho Blossoms for beak
• Accessories:  Square Lattice Embossing Folder
• Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, and Nursery Suite dsp

Petal Cone Die Carrot and Easter Bunny

You just have to love the Big Shot and how easy it makes it for creating cute things!  I got this idea here, but had to change the bunny to something a bit easier.  =-)  I cut the front flap off and embossed the carrot part with the polka dot embossing folder.  Make sure you use sticky tape to seal it shut so it doesn't come undone!  The bunny was created with the scallop punch, heart to heart punch, small and medium oval punches (for face) and the boho blossom punch for the paws.  The details were added with my basic black marker.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  Oops--I forgot the carrot top--the garden green topper was made with the scallop circle and larger scallop from the #2 Scallop Circle die.  (Yep,  I got it.)

Slip Sliding Away

Last night I had so much fun making this tiny bag in a box--directions were found here at Crescent Stamping.  I tried it with retired dsp in case it didn't work out!  But as you can see.....adorable!  I can see it holding a few 3 x 3 cards or a small gift.

I also saw this tutorial on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts for a slider candy bar card.  I've never made a slider card before.  With Dawn's help it was quite easy and soooooo cute!

Here it is closed--just pull on the candy bar and......

Love it!  Here's what I used:
Colors--ink/paper:  melon mambo, garden green, so saffrom, marina mist, whisper white
Stamp sets:  A Good Egg, Easter Blossoms (spring mini catalog)

Bubble Gum Fun!

I found the cutest tutorial on YouTube from Creations by Mercedes--it uses the cupcake punch to make a gumball machine!  Adorable!  It's a bit difficult or maybe tedious is a better word to get all the gumballs glued in the machine, but isn't it cute?  If you click on the connection it will take you to the video.  I love the bright colors--rainbow has always been my favorite color!  =-)

Stamp sets used:  Fabulous Phrases

Cardstock Colors:  Daffodil Delight, Glorious Green (retired), Pacific Point, Only Orange (retired), Basic Black and Real Red

Accessories:  White embossing powder, cupcake punch, silver brad, small oval punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, and some heavy weight window sheet.

On Vacation!!

I'm on vacation this week!  Yay!  That means that I get to make cards in between painting our family room and cleaning a few carpets....and watching basketball of course!  Here's a sympathy card I made using Nature Walk.  You can see more clearly the background made with the clear block on this card.

I used Certainly Celery and Elegant Eggplant for my main colors.  I don't have any eggplant ribbon unfortunately, so the ribbon's not quite like I'd like it.  So I tried something else with the bow--still don't like it!  Back to the drawing board!

Speaking of back to the drawing board.....I took another look at the Engraved Greetings card that I posted earlier this week and was unhappy with--I added a black scallop circle behind the greeting that I restamped using my black Staz-On ink and just attached them on top of my "icky greeting."  Bam!  Now I like it!  It's amazing how just a couple of little tweaks can make or break a card!