I love you MOOOOOoooooo!

Today's card uses images from Paper Smooches "Green Acres." I started humming that song from the 60s TV show in my head. I would like to enter this into the Paper Smooches April Sketch Challenge.

Card Recipe-

Paper Smooches "Green Acres" stamp set

Memento Inks & sponge daubers

Copic Markers

Fiskars small cloud punch

Pigma Micron Pen (border around the sentiment)

Ruffle ribbon by SU

Dotted ribbon by Bo Bunny

Cardstock Gina K. Designs

Wink of Stella Clear glitter brush

Adhesive Pop Dots & Scor Tape

Many many thanks for stopping by

and sharing some love

for my cards ♥ Aloha!

A Window to Aloha

Hello there friends,

A while ago I was practicing some watercoloring. After this one dried, I ran it through an embossing folder by (I think) Anna Griffin. I'm sorry - it's been so long, I forgot the name (eeek).  I wanted it to be less fussy so I didn't bother to add layers or ribbons or strings, just a few stray sequins.


Stamp Set: Flourishes  "Windows to the World"
Ink: Memento London Fog gray
Paints: Koi Watercolors
Embossing Folder by Anna Griffin (I think)
Strathmore Watercolor 140# paper
Sequins, Stickles Diamonds (on water and flowers)

Sorry it's blurry - I'm still trying to get used to the new camera.

And many mahalos for stopping by!!!

Hydrangea Pencil Sketch with Watercolors

Aloha dear friends,

I am trying to learn how to sketch. I watch Lindsay at The Frugal Crafter on YouTube. She is SO inspiring and easy to follow and instill confidence in her viewers that even WE can do what she does!! You can watch her video HERE. I hope you can find the time to watch her video and give this a try. I even copied her writing the word "Ball" across the jar :)

WHOOPS - my finalized photo has one more tiny blue dew drop in the lower right corner for the 'three' thing!!! Just pretend you see it.

Strathmore Cold Watercolor Paper 140#
Derwent Watercolor Pencils
Sentiment by Hero Arts "Friendship Messages" (I love it when I can use older stamp sets, don't you?)
Dew Drops, Rhinestones, SB tag die
White cardbase by GKD 120# Pure Luxury; blue layer was something in my stash

Thank you always for stopping by and cheering me onward!!!!

♥

Bargello Anyone?

When I first heard this technique, I didn't know if it was a food, a drink, or a game! The Bargello Technique is featured this week by Judy at this week's challenge at STAMPTV!

Stamp Set: "Enjoy the Sunshine" by Gina K. Designs
Designer Paper: "Hello Sunshine" by Gina K. Designs; Pure Luxury 120# white card base, Red Hot layering weight, Neenah Solar White cardstock
Inks: Versafine Black, Copic Markers
Paper Punches: Scallop and Round, 1-1/2" each; hand cut the fish tail sentiment
Embellishments: 3D Crystal Lacquer (over the red of the strawberries); red rhinestones; baker's twine
Multi Matte Medium (adhesive), Glue Stick, Scor Tape

Here is a technique that Beate Johns created for us at Splitcoast Stampers: Bargello Technique. 

Thank you for visiting, for commenting, for all 

your encouragement!!!

♥

You and My Sun and Moon Shine

Hi there dear friends! Doesn't this almost look like an eclipse with a major solar flare? It didn't start out that way.

Well, I'm at it again, second try for the AVERY ELLE I♥U Watercolor Challenge, cause if at first you don't succeed, well, you know. I want to throw my first one in the garbage but it took too long to make.

This one is a watercolor as I used distress inks, water and soaked the paper. Being absorbent water color paper, the colors didn't run like it would on regular cardstock (livin' and learnin,') The Sun portion of the round punch is covered with distress ink but I wanted to highlight the aqua in the design. Aqua Moon - sounds pretty anyway. Then I cut out the same size circle, but covered it with Perfect Pearls Gold and water, then painted the crescent. I used the Perfect Pearls watercolor mixture to add strips of gold to the card and vellum. Finally, I added Dew Drops and a lot of 3D Crystal Lacquer to the sun and the moon.

Avery Elle "Bright Days" stamp set
Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint
Water spritzer and paint brushes
Gold Perfect Pearls
Vellum
GKD 120# cardstock- white, wild dandelion, black onyx
Strathmore 140# watercolor paper
3D Crystal Lacquer
Dew Drops
Multi Matte Medium
Adhesive Foam, Scor Tape, Corner Rounder, Turquoise grossgrain ribbon

I love it when you stop by!!!

Thank you for your comments ♥

It's a Bright Day!

Aloha friends,

Time to branch out a little. This card is for the Avery Elle I♥U Challenge which you can see HERE.

It's a watercolor challenge. I only have two stamp sets by AE so this was VERY challenging. Can't say how many times I tore it up and started over, then tore parts off and kept trying. Watercolor is not an easy medium for me.

Stamp Set: Avery Elle "Bright Days"
Watercolor Paint: Koi
Perfect Pearl Spray
Adhesive Foam Dots, Multi Matte Medium, Scor Tape, Sequins & Rhinestones, glass striped arrow       heart, Cropadile Corner Rounder
VersaFine Black Ink (sentiment and arrow)
SU Regal Rose Ink (sun)
Pure Luxury 120# white cardstock by GKD
Strathmore 140# white cold pressed watercolor paper

Thank you so much for

stopping by and leaving your 

kind comments!!

Surf's Up !!!! Paper Pieced VW Van

Boy, have I been wanting to ink these stamps up. The card is for a friend's hubby who just loves to surf. I can't wait to surprise him when Bruce delivers it for me. His wife is so sweet, so hopefully I can make something special just for her soon. We have lots of anniversaries coming up that I would enjoy making cards for

I had to perform card "surgery" as I first used flower dp on the VW van. The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a lady's van. Bob is definitely a manly man so I dug deeper in the dp and found him a manly man plaid to paper piece his vehicle. He won't have a clue. It's popped up on adhesive foam dots for the added dimension. Sketched in the "v" gulls, coconuts for one tree, and the exclamation point :)

Stamp Set: Avery Elle "Surf's Up"
Inks all by Copic Markers, no sponging this time
Wink of Stella Clear, Signo White Gel Pen
Silver Chalk Marker, Galaxy? Not sure, but I love how opaque it covers!
Designer Paper for van by Gina K. Designs

Thank you for taking the time to look

and leave a sweet comment!

With aloha ♥

A Thank You for Gail

One of our dear friends showed us her Christian love.Gail brought us a big dinner casserole and her elderly mother made us mango with apple sauce bread. It's so good!

I will enter this card into this week's MIUM Red, White, and Black challenge hosted by Donna.
I'm not sure if this is considered a step card, but I wanted an extra step to display the black lace border along the bottom. The red bar across the lace was made by taking a Memento marker and a ruler and using the brush end to draw a line above the lace. I stamped the branch in VersaMark first, then right into Gina K. Designs Black Onyx. I covered it with clear embossing powder and heated until all shiny. All the leaves are shiny. I punched a heart out of the red panel scrap, covered with VersaMark, sprinkled clear embossing powder over it, then added 3D Crystal over the heart to form a bubble of glass like cabochon. But it turned out a deep maroon red. I popped it on adhesive pop dot.

Rhinestones sprinkled here and there finish the front. More lace is stamped across the inside bottom with the sentiment "And the Greatest of These is Love."

Thank you to Gail, and to all my friends

who show us so much love

during the good times

and not so good.

Aloha ♥

Zoo Crew Bookmarks for Paper Smooches Challenge

Hi friends,

I had to break out of the A2 card syndrome :) and made five bookmarks for little ones we know. The images are so CUTE!!!! I hope to play with them again soon - I love their eye balls!!

The coloring is simple, with just a touch of shading on and under the animals.. On the giraffe, I made it look like he just ate 1/2 of a bract of leaves - I'm having too much fun. I didn't want to draw rocks with the camel, so drew a pyramid with a ruler and Pigma Micron Pen behind the camel. The pyramids are made of rock, I think?  I made all their tails, ears or mouths look like they are shaking, chewing or twitching. To finish off the bookmarks, I made some red hearts float up from each character.

Entered into: Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge

Stamp Set: Paper Smooches "Zoo Crew"
Colored with Copic Markers
Signo White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella (clear), Sakura Red glitter pen
Memento Inks
Adhesive Foam Tape
Cropadile Punch, silver eyelets, Twine Memory Keepers

Aloha and thank you for commenting on

these little bookmarks!

Thank you to Vet

Aloha friends ♥

This may be the first time I play in the SimonSays Stamp Challenge. This week the challenge is to use Pastel Colors.

Late last night we had some emergency vet care for one of our kitties which has frightened both of us. (I just typed, then deleted a little description about our kitty because it was a bit too much information :/  ). We are hoping our kitty heals because it is bad, and she has a large wound, is running a fever but he gave her a big antibiotic injection and pretty dressing (which she tore off and made the wound waaay bigger).

Moving right along, (heavy sigh, worn out) I put together a cute SimonSays Stamp card for the vet as a mahalo (thanks) for caring for Ninja (sweet kitty) close to midnight. I hope the pale yellow and gray fits into the pastel challenge.

Stamp Set: Cats and Dogs Are Best Friends
Pattern Paper: Echo Park "SN@P, Simple Stores"
Copic Markers
Multi Matte Medium
SU small flower punch
SU small flower punch, candy dots, covered w/glitter and 3D Crystal Lacquer
SU small heart punch, topped heart with Wink of Stella clear, then Diamond Glaze
Sentiment Avery Elle, "Surf's Up"
Sakura Clear Glitter Pen

Thank you dear friends, for always cheering me up with

your sweet comments ♥

Perfect Pearl Dragonflies

Do you believe I have two cards to upload today? Well, me neither! But I did 

It was so very easy to do. Stamp flowers around the card in VersaMark. Leave a space for sentiment and dragonflies. Stamp your dragonflies and sentiment in VersaMark. Take your favorite two colors, possibly three, of Perfect Pearls and using a clean, dry paint brush, cover areas you want colored. When you are done, brush off excess. Spritz with a fine mist of water once or twice only. Let dry. The water 'sets' the Perfect Pearls (really)! Easy, huh? And very iridescent in real life! Took me about 5 minutes in total from start to finish!!!!

My boo boo? I used the bumpy side of the cardstock instead of the smooth (frowny face). But now you have a head's up if you decide to make one!

Hint: If you use any Perfect Pearls with the word "Interference" in the color, use a dark cardstock so that it shows up. On white card, interference colors fade out. Experiment first!

Stamp Set: The smaller Dragonfly stamp set in the Spring Parade Kit by Gina K. Designs.

Thank you everyone for your kind

and generous comments!

♥

Quilted Card

Aloha,

This card is made for Sharyn's Stitch It Up Challenge at StampTV. I would like to give credit to Dawn McVey at Papertrey Ink for the design which you can watch at YouTube:

Quilted Cards by PTI

Recipe:

Cut pattern papers (4-5 different papers) into 1-1/2 inch squares. Lay them out diagonally on your card if you wish, leaving a 'blank' square space here and there. Use dry adhesive (to prevent buckling) to adhere your squares to your card.

When you are done adhering your design to the card stock or onto a layering panel, turn it over and trim all the papers that stick out from the card with some scissors. Now run it through an embossing folder that has a pattern resembling quilting - it can be circles, squares, flowers, snowflakes - anything with a small, continuous pattern. It helps to give the quilted card dimension just like a real quilt.

Embellish as desired. I used a ruler and a Memento marker in Bamboo, the bullet side not brush side of the marker, and drew double stitch lines into the white spaces. I glued small, clear rhinestones into all the corners of the quilt pieces. What's a spring quilt without butterflies fluttering around the design? Wanting gold butterflies, I used direct to paper method and dragged the Delicata gold ink pad across white cardstock, both sides. Then I punched the butterflies out, bent them, and used rolled up sticky dots to adhere them to the quilted card.

Products:

Stamp Set: Gina K. Designs "Spring Blessings"
Pattern Paper: GKD "Shabby Spring"
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder from set of four, "Preserves"
Martha Stewart butterflies punch, precolored with Delicata Gold ink first
Clear Rhinestones
Spellbinders Ribbon Banner die
Memento Bamboo marker to add faux stitches
"Dries Clear" glue (behind rhinestones), Foam Adhesive Tape (behind quilted layer), Rolled glue dots (behind butterflies.

Thank you dear friends!

I really appreciate your comments ♥