flower soft friends!

we had a baby shower of one of the ladies in Pezzy's playgroup (more are pregnant than not right now in that group) and so of course i made a bag for our gift! and Julee's Mojo sketch was perfect for some thing big - lots of fun layers and things going on!!

i decided to experiment a bit with an idea i had for the flower soft and i am quite pleased! FUZZY ADORABLE LITTLE BABY ANIMALS!!!

the paper is from DCWV - nana's nursery baby boy stack and SU Rainbow Sherbet and solids are SU. i punched the border design with one of my new EK success slimline punches - OH what a dream! not onle are they cute and not only do they store flat they punch SUPER easy too.

The baby buggy is one of my first stamp sets and is from doodlebug and the buttons are SEI.

i cut these little cuties out using the new arrival cricut cart that i just HAD to have and have not used. the first thing i learned is that it works ALOT better to do the pearl accents first - i used liquid pearls and dimensional pearls - and let them dry. next i just covered them in flower soft glue (not over the pearls of course) and then dumped on the flower soft and tapped it gently into the glue.

LOVE them!!

i used colors from the pastel flower soft kit for these.

what do y'all think????

OCCC and SFYTT and still NO COLORING...

ok raise your hand if you are tired of seeing this flower stamp and purple and green *raises hand* - i was on a role this weekend and i love all the things i made but by the time i was through i was tired of seeing the same stamp and color combo (even tho it is my favorite color combo) BUT when your on a roll you go with it right? so here are my next two fun things~~

the challenge on Our Creative Corner was to use tags so both of these cards have grungeboard tags on them. Jen's SFYTT is the second one...

This first one is actually tag 2 from tim holtz's 12 tags of christmas 2008:

This card was quick and easy and uses a couple of the NEWEST colors in the alcohol ink line - purple twilight and cool peri - i cannot WAIT to get my hands on the rest of the colors - which should be here within the next week!! these open up SO many new possibilities and just in time for spring and summer (the original earthtone colors tend to make me think of fall and winter.) for the card above i used eggplant, purple twilight, cool peri and silver mixative on ranger's glossy cardstock to make the background piece. next i stamped my image using versamark and then embossed with black embossing powder. next i stamped the swirly image using black archival ink (which is cool because it fades out a bit where it is over silver.) next i added a few swirley white basic grey rub ons and the silver bird charm (from my friend Susana's Store). i inked the grungeboard tag with milled lavender, stamped my studio g image and used two glittery bead pops (thanks cat) as decorative pieces instead of brads. the black dots are just drops of espresso dimensional pearls (if you find you get *peeks* when using dimensional or liquid pearls just tap the underside gently a few times and they will disappear.)

i cannot stress enough how fabulous these tutorials of tim's are. if you have ever wanted to learn how to use all the cool products Ranger Ink has to offer his tutorials will show you ALL you need to know and are so clear and easy to follow!!!

next up i have more tim stuff. for this one i used Jen's Sketch For You To Try this week ->

and came up with this:
i stamped the image with versamark and then carefully sprinkled distress embossing powders on the different parts of the image to *color* it without coloring :) is that cheating??? for this one i used 5 embossing powders - mustard seed, milled lavender, dusty concord, shabby shutters and peeled paint. i just shake the jars well and take a little pinch at a time, hold it over the area i want colored and slowly move my thumb and finger just a tiny bit so i can control the powders. once they are all down i tap the underside a bit so the powders dance around and cover their areas well. dump off the excess and heat. these powders are different than your regular slick and glossy embossing powders. these have a flat sort of sandpaper distress look which is so cool. the edges are done with an ink blending foam tool and distress inks - first dusty concord and peeled paint and then barely edged with walnut stain. the grungeboard tag frame is painted with dusty concord crackle paint.

All of these items (including the new alcohol ink colors) are on sale right now but hurry! the sale will be ending very soon!!!!!! and then it is back to regular price.

i hope you are all having fun exploring some non-coloring options with me!

Vase full of flowers - tutorial

hi all! i finally have another flower soft tutorial for you!!! this gorgeous vase full of flowers AND it fits into my no coloring week pledge too!

some close ups:




These are SUPER easy to do - several kits come with everything you need - the Starter Box and the Lavender & Lace Box OR you can buy various vase sheets, wires and glue to go with the other kits.

make your flower stems first so they have time to dry. place some flower soft in the jar lids so you can fluff it up. cover about 2/3 of the wire with the PVA glue. sprinkle flower soft all over the wire and then prop it up to dry. some kits come with sponges or you can use a piece of styrofoam.

cut out your vase - i left a little tab on each side to make it easy to glue down. cut your wire into pieces sized for the vase or pot you are using.

roll your vase around a pen to round it out a bit.

add a dab of glue to each tab and glue the vase to your base piece of cardstock being careful to slightly round it so you can place your flower wires inside.

Once the flower stems are dry group them together in a bunch arranging them how you want and add glue to the bare ends.

here is the vase with the newly added stem. press down a bit on the vase to be sure the glue and wires are touching paper. let dry.

once it is dry you can bend and twist the wires anyway you want. the flower soft glue holds the sprinkles on really well. i bent these with my fingers but you could also use a pair of needle nose pliers to really curl them into a fuller bunch. if you have any noticeable bare spots on your wires just add a bit more glue and flower soft.

i had seen these for the last year on the flower soft website but thought they were much more complicated until i sat in the booth at CHA and made some myself - SO easy!!!!!

we have lots of fun flower soft items in stock - what can you create? watch for another tutorial next week!

NO COLORING day 2 - faux watercolor

this is one of my favorite techniques and i have recently been collecting stamps that would be good for this. i am afraid you will see alot of this stamp as i used the heck out of it this weekend!

~~if anyone can tell me why i have a pic come up sideways occasionally i would be eternally grateful - it is rightside up in my file~~

for this technique you need a stamp that is fairly solid - an outline stamp will not be as effective. i have just experimented with different ones and some look good and some don't.

ink up your stamp with various colors of dye ink - memento dew drops are perfect for this due to their shape - PLUS they have lots of yummy colors (and i have them ON SALE). once your stamp is inked as you want mist it very lightly with water and then stamp on watercolor paper. it is that simple!

those delish little square purple embellies will be here soon in lots of fun colors and finishes which i can't wait to get my hands on!

assignment time......*evil laugh*

so i gave my girls some assignments - hee hee! i know most of the time i have images on my projects that i color in - usually with my copics. however i also know there are a lot of stampers out there who don't necessarily want to color or feel comfortable coloring. so the girls will be doing two projects this week that do not involve coloring :)
i began working on my own and had so many ideas i decided to focus on *not coloring* all week! so here is my first one:
i had not done spotlighting in quite awhile and then Danni posted a tutorial about it on Follow my Heart. i LOVE this stamp from inkadinkado but had not inked it yet sooooooo. this is such a quick and easy technique.

i stamped first with black (or you can do brown, gray...) and then i stamped a second time with a kaleidacolor pad (15% off). i punched a circle of the area i wanted to spotlight, glued it to a slightly larger circle to mat it and then matched it up to my black stamped image. i used my wonderful foam ink blending tool around the edges with scattered straw and aged mahogany distress inks. the keyhole is a tim holtz goodie.

all of the products used this week to show you some fun non-coloring techniques are on sale RIGHT now so this is a fantastic time to stock up!

look ma NO GLITTER! OR hey i did it again....!!

another male card! no glitter, no ribbons, no bling......
i stamped the cupcake from Polkadot Pie Chocolate Treats 1 with black memento ink twice, once on white and once on green patterned paper (from the DCWV sweet stack). i colored the top of the white one with copics and cut out the paper cup from the patterned one and glued it to the white one. i made the border with the coordinating images included in the Treats 1 set. the blocks are all one border and i stamped that in Memento Pear Tart (15% off right now). next i took the matching mini cupcake and stamped it in memento rich cocoa in the spaces between each block. i love that i can turn this block border into lots of different matching borders with these sets.

i edged everything with the same two memento inks using the foam ink blening tool - i LOVE this thing. i love how smooth it puts the ink on - it makes the papers almost glow!

ahhh twinkling goodness!

twinkling H2Os that is. i know i know - these have been around forever and i am like the last stamper on the planet to get them. i had been holding out and ignoring them and i was reading a post on SCS wondering about the difference between all of our *shimmer* options. so i broke down and bought a couple. before they even got here i read that they are going out of business and all of their stuff is 40% off. well when my first few arrived they were so gorgeous i immediately went back to luminarte and ordered a bunch more! i thought they would be perfect for the tail on this stinkin aDORable image from the greeting farm:
as always, near impossible to capture the shimmer - especially since we have had no sunshine but i tried:

tho i have not done a side by side comparison i would say these shimmer about the same as everything else we use BUT there are more color selections in H2Os than anything else i have seen. and i hear they make a great shimmer mist when a chunk is left to melt in some water in a mister!

so on her tail i used a blue and a purple and blended them together. on her shell top i colored with a light pink and then went over it with a clearish white color called icicle. i used a green on her fins and then matching lettuce dimensional pearls for the pearls in her hair and around her tummy. i decided to do an acetate card and i embossed the bottom with swirls and then went over them lightly with some blue staz on and a foam blending pad. i wanted a strip of *sand* across the middle so i snuck into hubby's sacred garage (i am not even allowed to keep the snow shovels in there) and poked about looking for sandpaper but no luck. then it occured to me i could just use some distress embossing powder! so i covered a strip with versamark and sprinkled on three powders: antique linen, frayed burlap and a touch of holographic and melted. i am quite pleased :) i put a piece of blue across the back to hide the adhesive.

so how does she look?