Never fails for me to keep coming across my older SU Demo and/or swap cards, lol.  I was going through envelopes and large ziplock bags of swap returns and I found this card that looked very familiar.  Yep, this was my 2nd or 3rd ever SU card that I created for home demo parties.  Sadly, I no longer have this stamp set.  I don't regret selling it off as my tastes have changed, but looking at these lovely daisies sure brings back TONS of really great memories.

Tee hee, looking at this card in trying to figure out the ink colors I used, I realized that I used this card to teach the 2nd generation inking and stamping technique with the Glorious Green in addition to the inherent two step stampin' design of the set.


Here's to Stampin' Up 2000!



"Perfect Friends" Card
Paper: SU Kraft CS; SU Real Red
Stamps: SU (Two Step Stampin' ) Daisy; SU Simple Sayings ("Perfect Friends")
Ink: SU Real Red; SU Yo Yo Yellow; SU Glorious Green
Embellishments: Red Raffia
Tools:  Horizontal Slot Handheld Hole Punch
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular 

I've noticed the watercolor flower trend since my return from my crafting hiatus and have been dying to give it try, except I didn't want to rush out and buy lots of new supplies like I would have back in the day.

I wasn't too thrilled with my background watercoloring attempts last weekend with my Canson watercolor paints because the colors weren't as bright as the current watercolor paint dujour Gansai's appear to be in the many samples & videos I've come across.

Thus my motivation to dig out my Radiant Pearl pots, an old favorite of mine from over a decade ago.  And the RP's do not disappoint in color vividness!

When funds become available, I'm sure I'll grab some Gansai's at some point, but until then, nothing wrong with using what I've got to learn/perfect a technique which apparently I've done lots of in the past once I got going with my Radiant Pearl's!

Seriously so sad I can't buy anymore as I recently discovered that these were discontinued and no longer on the market after being acquired by Luminart, so I'm torn between going to town and yet being mindful to use my paints sparingly.



Unfortunately, the gorgeous shimmering effects didn't photograph well in the above picture, so here's a another shot at it from the side which hopefully shows it off a bit better.  Sorry, my lighting is off on this shot.



I applied paint sparingly directly onto the red rubber stamp since a little goes a long way and it stays wet for some time. Then once all the colors were applied, I then took a hold of the stamp and impressed it onto my Neena Solar White 110 lb weight cardstock.

It was like running into an old beloved friend...hello Radiant Pearls!

CHALLENGES SUBMITTED:

• SCS' CAS362 to use Wildflowers for 5/25/15.  Hmm, I'm not sure what kind of flowers these are, but the dandelion like leaves of these tall stems scream poppies to me, so a type of wildflower? (I'm guessing this is a Hero Arts stamp because I only have the unmounted rubber stamp due to my very early attempts to ditch all my wood mounted stamps.)

• Muse Challenge #119 based on this card inspiration.  I'm a sucker for gold foil dotty designs.  I went with gold dotty washi tape for mine. 

• The Pink Elephant TPE#300 Anything Goes Challenge.

• Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge for 5/27/15.

Thanks for visiting!



  


"Hello" Shimmering Poppies Card
Paper: Neena Solar White 110# CS
Stamps: Hero Arts Poppies (?)
Ink: Radiant Pearls
Embellishments: Reverse Confetti "hello" die; SU 2013-2015 In Color Sequins; SU Watercolor Wonder Designer (gold dotted) washi tape
Tools:  Paint Brushes
Size: 4.25" x 6.5" rectangular 

It's been over 5 years since I've packed for a crop, so while I did pretty good packing for my 4 day extended weekend, my crafty brain is obviously a little rusty in not thinking of EVERYTHING I would have needed when drafting up my packing list.

These are cards I eyeballed stamping the text.  The Garden Green Lattice Window cards are pretty obvious as the text should have been a bit lower. The Lavendar Lace tag flower cards are blurry because I overstamped each twice using the Stamp-a-ma-jig twice.  Talk about shaky hands! I should have practiced a few more times.

Ah well.   The Garden Green Lattice Window cards were my first projects when unpacking because I had JUST relocated my Big Shot plates and wanted to christen my new to me SU Bigz Lattice and SU Window Frames Framelit Dies. These were always on my wishlist, so glad there were ladies on SCS who were willing to sell to me without charging ebay prices!

The pale yellow vellum was from my scraps pile - whoohoo! A sheet at a time, I WILL whittle the pile down!



The next two cards were salvaged using a set of identical hand drawn lilac flower tags using Zig brush pens waaaaay back when Zig brush techniques were the rage at the turn of the century.  Yup, these two tags were swap returns. Goes to show you how accurate the claims of acid free paper and ink are, eh, that they still look fresh and crisp nearly 15 years later?

I just added the Verve "knock your socks off" sentiment once I got home.  They turned out fuzzy because I should have practiced a few times with my Stamp-a-ma-jig once I finally admitted to myself that I did indeed needed the help. Else my alignment without this tool was a hot mess all weekend!

I obviously need more practice with my watercoloring techniques.  Lol, I was pretty happy to finally crack up my brand new set of Cansan watercolors that I purchased, probably 10 years ago, from my local stamp store.





These four cards will be going in my monthly donation to the ongoing Ronald McDonald House Cards for Cause effort that I'm both participating in and hostessing over at SCS.  I'd love it if you'd like to donate some of your cards to this cause.  


RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE MISSION: To provide a community where children and their families embrace life and healing (from cancer) with a sense of hope, enthusiasm, courage and joy. 

Finally got to use some new goodies I picked up! But this one was a toughie because I could NOT for the life of me find my packet of 12x12 Anna Griffin printed papers I know I have.  I had envisioned fussy cutting some fabulous AG style floral bouquets to add as a center piece for my hand woven golden background.  I think I will die if I never find my AG packet of paper. I will persevere and find it hopefully.

Speaking of the hand woven golden background, I recently picked up this Matelasse embossing folder at Joann's recently when it was marked down on clearance and I was able to use a 40% off coupon on top of that! I haven't bought anything scrappy in years...at this steal of a price, how could I resist? Plus, all I could see was weaving this embossed design in so many kinds of paper finishes, so you may see this EF pop up frequently because I'm madly in love.

I would have preferred to kept this card strictly Anna Griffin, but this turned out to be a bit of a mod podge because I could only draw on the supplies I threw into my Cropper Hopper Navigator rolling luggage for a 4 day weekend trip in Central California to visit my other half's family.

I have to admit, couldn't figure out where to place a sentiment title, so I'm going to just leave this as a blank all occasions card.





Definitely a quick and easy card that came together in my hotel room this past weekend thanks to the inspiration over at the Muse for their Challenge #118.


How I was inspired??

• I went warm and shiny, whereas their's was cool. 
• I went woven whereas their's was chevron/herringbone-y. 
• I went butterfly-y whereas their's was doggone cutesy. 
• I went layered elegant whereas their's is clean and simple elegant.

So glad I could play along with the ladies at the Muse this time. Thanks for looking!


  

"Golden Monarch Butterfly" Card
Paper: Bazzil CS; Michael's Metallic CS; SEI Windsor Collection Foil PP
Stamps: SU Swallowtail
Ink: SU More Mustard
Embellishments: Anna Griffin Matelasse EF; Martha Stewart Elegant Nature Metallic Butterfly Stickers; Spellbinders Mega Label 8; Foam Tape
Size: 4.25" x 5.25" rectangular