A Tiny Bit of Watercolor

So I saw a post this morning with lovely water colored flowers by Dawn of WPlus9 and was inspired to play a bit. Here's a link to the post at Stamp Away With Me. Dawn has some excellent watercolor video tutorials, she is very talented!

My sister has a tiny framed piece of art done by a friend in France and I've always wanted to replicate it somehow. The original is a landscape but what really caught my imagination was the diminutive size. I worked on a piece of watercolor paper that I trimmed to a 2" square.

I used Lawn Fawn Penelope's Blossoms and the little teacup is from My Cup of Tea. I stamped with Distress Inks and softened the images with water and a detail brush.

I'm off to finish making mom's day cards for my daughters-in-love. You can be sure this is a technique that I will return to and hopefully refine.

blessings,
nancy

I'm still here, I think! April 2014 Recap

So I managed to lose a whole month, April 2014 doesn't exist on my blog. Holey Moley!

It's been busy around here, just completed 225 sample cards for the Lawn Fawn Summer Release. I can't show you anything yet but you will LOVE the new stamps and dies, trust me on this one!

So here's some crafty stuff I can share:

Easter treat boxes made with the We R Memory Keepers Gift Box Punch Board and Lawn Fawn paper, stamps, dies and twine.

I joined Mike and Kelly for a Lawn Fawn event at Stamp Fever. I had fun with a Let's Roll make n take.

Mike and Daphne at the Stamp Fever event.

We are having some hot, super windy days in my neck of the suburban woods. And just like clockwork, I have a summer cold. Add some wicked seasonal allergies and some smokey skies from random fires due to the wind and you get a miserable excuse for a healthy human. 

I would love to promise that I will be better with posting this month but let's just see how it goes, shall we.

blessings,

nancy

Having Fun Taking Photos

I have been making cards lately but I can't share them....yet. There will be an awesome new Lawn Fawn release in a month or so and I've been designing some sample cards to send to stores. I can't wait to share them, you will totally love the new stamps and dies!!

In the meantime I've been participating in Ivy's photo project on Instagram this month. You can check it out at #ivyfotoaday. I'm taking pictures and editing them with PicMonkey.com. The prompt for yesterday was ring and it got me thinking I should tell the story of this ring. Stop me if you've heard it before.....

My wedding ring is the only jewelry I wear. I just like to keep things simple. This isn't my original wedding ring. I lost the diamond in my first ring just before our 11th anniversary and rather than replace the diamond my hubby decided to replace the ring and surprise me!
Al worked for a wonderful man, Gordon, who just happened to be friends with Joseph, of Jewels by Joseph an exclusive jeweler at South Coast Plaza. Al would get Gordon's 50% discount. He found the ring and it was added to Gordon's account. At that time Al was being rewarded for doing an awesome job on a custom kitchen he designed with a trip for 2 to Lake Tahoe. He was thinking he would ask to have the value of the trip credited to the cost of the ring which would cut the price in half again to which Gordon agreed. The day that Al brought the final payment to his boss, Gordon told him to keep the money and take me out for our anniversary! Final cost of this beautiful wedding ring $0.00.
It originally had just the one larger diamond. The 2 smallest diamonds were from my original wedding set. The other 2 diamonds were earrings that I no longer wore but they had been an anniversary gift from Al many years before. I cherish this ring, the story behind it and my sweet hubby.

I still love how it looks on my hand even after 25 years! 

Yep, if you do the math this May we will be married 36 years!

blessings,

nancy

Water Color Blocks Framed Art Piece

Just a little something different today! I wanted to spruce up the old craft room/office so I created a little framed art with simple water color blocks, a bit of doodling and stamping. A cheap frame from Michael's and I'm done!

Here's all the supplies I used:

InLinkz.com

It was fun, quick and easy with no rules! I'll be joining the fun at Virginia's View Challenge where the theme of the 1st challenge is Watercolor!

thanks for visiting!
blessings,
nancy

Playing with Dies- Birthday Card

I'm enjoying the new Online Card Class- Clean and Simple 3! I don't think I've missed one installment of this wonderful online resource for great techniques and inspiration from Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner and their uber talented friends!

I needed a quick birthday card so I tried the faux layered die cuts technique. I went really simple since I had no time to get really intricate with the design (hoping to do that soon!).

Lawn Fawn- Hello Sunshine 6x6 paper and mixed sequins, Year Two, Stitched Journaling Card and Large Stitched Journaling Card Lawn Cuts
Simon Says Stamp- Cotton Candy cardstock, Happy die, Audrey Blue dye ink
Neenah- Desert Storm cardstock, Solar White cardstock
Uniball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Thanks for stopping by!
blessings,
nancy

Oh Happy Day Wedding Card

It seems I have to clear out the cobwebs and remove all the dust bunnies every time I want to add a new post. I would love to post more often and with any luck I'll start doing that soon.

For today I have wedding card using Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine stamps. If you hadn't heard, my son and his fiance decided to skip the big wedding and all the planning hassles and headed to Las Vegas for an impromptu wedding last month. So we welcomed a new daughter-in-love and a new grandson to the family!! I'm just now getting the time to make a wedding a card for them. Luckily the reception is not until June, I may need that much time. I am working on a few more card designs and I'll let you all choose which one I should use.

Thanks for visiting, I appreciate your comments!
blessings,
nancy

Valentine's Day- A Card for My Hubby

Apparently I only do a blog post once a month these days, sigh.  I seriously need to remedy that. I am at the moment down with the flu that has plagued most everyone; so glad I got that flu shot in October. I'd been battling the Chronic Fatigue symptoms since CHA and was feeling so much better until my sweetie shared this nastiness with me. Anyhoo, that's my sob story now on to the fun!

I have been wanting Lawn Fawn to do a globe stamp forever (at least ever since I pinned THIS card by Courtney Kelly). I have an old Atlas that is not really up to date anymore, Europe has totally changed since this edition came out, so I use it whenever I need some map paper.

Here's what I came up with for the hubs:

Stamps and Supplies:
Lawn Fawn: Wish You Were Here stamps and coordinating Lawn Cuts dies*, Stitched Journaling Card Lawn Cuts dies, Peace Joy Love 6x6 paper, Large Stitched Journaling Card die* (sentiment banner)
Other: 1 1/4" circle punch, old atlas pages, Core'dinations Premium Cardstock, Hero Arts Black Dye ink

*Brand New Lawn Fawn will be available on February 20th at LawnFawn.com

I've been playing with the new release by Lawn Fawn a lot lately and hopefully I can share some of the fun soon!
Happy Valentine's Day and blessings to you,
nancy