Very Thankful Again!

Here's the second card from the Very Thankful swap I'm participating in! It's a 3" x 6" card, which I don't make very often. But With the smaller focal images of this set, it seemed like a good idea for at least one of the cards. The colors used are Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum and Old Olive. I liked how the Pale Plum coordinates with the Rich Razzleberry!

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie

Very Thankful Card

This is the first of four cards I'm making for a swap I'm participating in. Sometimes the first card is the easiest because you have something already in your mind - unfortunately that WASN'T the case in starting this card!! Seriously, it was just one of those days where nothing looked right! I was tempted - many times! - to just set it all aside until another day, but I finally put htis together and I'm pretty happy with it. I think what helped was finding the background papers, Nouveau Chic, that helped me coordinate it. It may be a little hard to see, but the Sage Shadow piece has little bits of Apricot Appeal in it - so that helped in creating the background "watercolor wash" on the focal piece. It was done on Shimmery White, which in person gives it a nice subtle sparkly look.

Anyway, the set I used is the Very Thankful set, the Ronald McDonald charity set for this catalog year! It is quite a varied set!! You'll find it on the back inside cover of the catalog - and hopefully I'll be posting some more samples with it very soon!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Julie

Mom's Birthday Card

Friday was my mom's birthday, and although her gift is still on it's way back from Italy, I did make her this card. I did cheat and use my Retired Kiwi Kiss background paper and cardstock for the little leaves. This was my first try at the "Re-inker" watercolor technique, which I hope to have us do at an upcoming Technique Class! I liked how it turned out in the end, but it was really a process! I first white-embossed the Fifth Avenue flower onto Shimmery White Cardstock. Then I used my Aquapainter to spread water all over the flower - creating puddles in all of the sections of the flower. Then I picked up color with the Aquapainter (you can use direct re-inkers for deeper color, but I used color from the lid of each Stamp pad). I used Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Summer Sun. Then the "process" part comes in! My colors started to blend together A LOT, so I finally stopped messing with it and just let it dry. But that's where it became cool. As it dried, the colors all pooled into different areas amd then they kind of "mellowed out." The colors looked clearer and eventually it took about 20 minutes to completely dry. Then I cut it out and layered it with LOTS of dimensionals onto the rest of the card.

Hope you're having a good weekend - staying cool!!

Julie

Simple Gift Bag Cover

I'm working on some little gift bag ideas right now, and I'm trying to keep it simple, but of course a little bit cute! Anyway, not sure if I'm quite there yet, but I have a ton of white lunch bags so I came up with this idea (not a new idea!). You can use any size lunch bag - they do vary - and just measure your cardstock the same width as the bag. Then you cut down the bag to however tall you want it (mine here is 6" wide by 6" high - perfect for 12" x 12" cardstock). So, you cut a piece of cardstock 6" x 6" to cover the fron of the bag. Then you cut a piece a little longer, 6" x 8 1/4" and score it at 6". This longer piece creates a back cover. Then you can cover with Designer Series Paper (Cottage Wall here - LOVE it!!), and whatever else you like!

Hope you're having a good week!

Julie

My Nephew's Birthday!

Yesterday was my nephew's birthday, and this was the card I sent him. I kept it pretty simple with little fru-fru - he's 20! With only three stamped images, I ended up using three different stamp sets! Kinda crazy, but glad I had them all! The star is from Wanted; Nephew is from Wonderful Favorites; and the Happy Birthday is from Think Happy Thoughts. I also used the new In Colors, Soft Suede and Bermuda Bay. Even though it's a pretty simple card, I kinda like how the colors go together, especially for a masculine card.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Julie

A Busy Little Box

Today was not a very productive day, but I found this cute little box template on Chicnscratch's blog. She has some cute stuff! So I decided to try and make one - I always love little stuff!! I used lots of scraps from leftover class pieces!

The top of the box has a scallop circle out of Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo, and then I used the Thinking Happy Thoughts and the Razzle Dazzle Sets to layer some coordinating circles. I used Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Papers to keep all the colors workin'!

Then on the inside is the best part - the little dark chocolate and espresso pieces candy square from Trader Joe's! They're awesome - they come in a little box and all individually wrapped... yum!! So I wrapped that in a coordinating piece of DSP and added a couple circles and a coordinating pumpkin pie corduroy button to cutsie it up! I probably could have squeezed two into the wrap, but one did the job.

Hope you're having a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by,

Julie

Sneak Peek for Friday's Class

Not the best photo here (one of these days I'll actually switch over to my new camera - hard to break old habits sometimes!!), but I wanted to show you a quick peek at one of the cards we'll make at Friday's class. We'll use the Movers and Shakers Big Shot die, and the new Modern Label punch that coordinates perfectly (of course!) with the pieces in the die! Also, we'll use the new Melon Mambo And Soft Suede In Colors (in combination with Old Olive And So Saffron - a little new with a little old!). The sets are new too - Circle Circus and Teen Tiny Wishes.

Gotta run, but hope to see you Friday!

Happy Stampin'

Julie