Finally, a Little Time to Play!

I have been so busy lately with important stuff like moving into our new house, celebrating my 40th birthday :), and having a HUGE retired SU garage sale, that I have had almost no time to "PLAY!" with all my new fabulous stampin' stuff! This morning, I decided, "The heck with all there is to do... I am going to spend some time in my craft world!"  So, here I am!

This is the new stamp set, "Fabulous Florets".  It is such a gorgeous set for watercoloring.  Just love these roses!  I also tried a new technique on this card -- inspired by a card I received from a friend in Seattle.  I inked my clear acrylic block, size D, with Crumb Cake ink, then spritzed it with water, and stamped it on Watercolor paper.  Let that dry, then stamped the rose stem with Olive craft ink over top.  I stamped the roses on scraps of water color paper in Basic Black ink, and colored them with my precious water color crayons and an aqua painter.  I then cut them out (oh, how I hate to cut!, but these weren't too bad!) and put them on dimensionals for that certain "pop".

Finally, I spritzed the whole card liberally with my shimmer mist -- made with rubbing alcohol and champagne shimmer paint.  It is so sparkly and shimmery in real life!  You can't see it too well, but I also used a new embossing folder -- houndstooth -- for the background Cajun Craze panel.  I also used the new polka dotted cherry cobbler scalloped ribbon!!!!! It is gorgeous!  I love that color, anyways, so ribbon to match made it a must-have.

Supplies:
Card Stock: Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, water color paper
Ink: Crumb Cake, Old Olive Craft, Basic Black
Accessories: Cherry Cobbler dotted scalloped ribbon, shimmer mist, aqua painter, water color crayons, Houndstooth embossing folder, basic pearls

Brand New Treasures!!!

I've finally had a little time to play with my new Stampin' Up! goodies from the new catalog.  I'm especially excited about the new In Colors this year.  Pool Party is a lovely robin egg color of blue -- just gorgeous!  And, Calypso Coral is a nice happy color of coral -- MUCH prettier (in my opinion) than the retired cousins from the past -- Cameo Coral or Groovy Guava.  It goes perfectly with Poppy Parade.  Wisteria Wonder is the much needed pale purple that we've been lacking in our color collection.  It looks so great with Concord Crush -- a vibrant purple from last year's In Color addition.  Lucky Limeade is a really rich lime color -- much less "split pea soup" looking than Kiwi Kiss was.  Again, my opinion! :)  Finally, Island Indigo is a brighter version of Not Quite Navy.  It goes nicely with the Pool Party.

Here are a few creations using a new stamp set -- Delicate Doilies.  The thing I love about this set is that it's so versatile.  I created some lovely summery cards as well as a simple, sparkly Christmas card.  There is also a new background stamp called Hello Doily that will be awesome paired with this stamp set.

So, without further ado, here you are!!!

The first two cards were inspired by a card I saw on Splitcoaststampers -- http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1994991?cat=fav.  I love how easy this was to create and show cases the new colors perfectly -- Calypso Coral with Poppy Parade, Wisteria Wonder with Concord Crush, and Island Indigo with Pool Party.
Hope this inspires you to create something lovely of your own!!! :)