Feathers and Butterflies

Posted on March 16, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Well, Spring Break just flew by. Too bad we didn’t have Spring weather to go with it, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I did make a Spring-like card last week, so I’ll share that.

I die cut this beautiful butterfly out of vellum card stock with one of the Butterflies Thinlits dies. I just love the detail on this die. I use a layer of wax paper and a dryer sheet when cutting it out, and it come out cleanly and easily.

The layer behind the butterfly is a piece of the Irresistibly Yours dsp, which I sponged with a little bit of Pink Pirouette ink behind the butterfly. I also sprayed some Crisp Cantaloupe ink with my retired spritzer tool.

I added a couple of feathers from the Four Feathers stamp set and cut them out with the Feathers Framelits dies. They are stamped with Crisp Cantaloupe and Soft Sky ink.

This was definitely an “add a little bit of this and a little bit of that” kind of card. Sometimes it’s fun to just mix and match away to one’s heart’s content.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate Real Nice

Posted on March 13, 2015 by amyoneillblog

I needed another birthday card, so I pulled out my Balloon Bash stamp set and Birthday Bash dsp. Both are perfect for a birthday card.

The little swirls on the stamp set reminded me of an embossing folder I hadn’t used in a while. I don’t think it’s available anymore as I think it was offered in the last holiday catalog, and I can’t remember what it was called. Oh well, it’s fun to bring out an old favorite once in a while.

Enjoy your Friday! Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor Rainbow — FMS177

Posted on March 11, 2015 by amyoneillblog

We have another great sketch for you over at Freshly Made Sketches this week. Our super talented friend from New Zealand, Karren Johnson, is our hostess this week. Look at what she has for us:

I’ve been itching to do a little watercoloring lately, so I thought I’d try something different for me. I made a watercolor resist background. I embossed some watercolor paper with white Stampin’ Emboss Powder using a cool stamp from the Boutique Borders stamp set. I love how easy it is to line up this stamp set and add row upon row with the photopolymer stamps — no Stamp-a-ma-jig needed.

I used a paintbrush and a set of watercolor paints to color the background. Even though I chose most of the brightest colors in the set, this card turned out so soft and muted once it dried. This is a different look for me, but I kinda like it.

The sentiment is from a Sale-a-Bration set called Simply Wonderful.

We’d love to have you join us in this challenge. You can check out what the design team made over at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Painted Petals in Circles — Monday Montage #39

Posted on March 8, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Welcome to another Monday Montage Blog Hop. We are a group of ten stampers who love to share our creations with you every other week. All you have to do to follow the hop is to click on the links at the bottom of each post.

After having snow and ice and freezing cold temperatures over the past two weeks (yes, even in Texas occasionally), I am ready for Spring. My kids are off on Spring Break this week and it looks like the weather will actually be Spring-like. How exciting!

To help me get in the Spring frame of mind, I pulled out some Spring colors and a floral stamp set, Painted Petals.

I used a color combination of Calypso Coral, Old Olive and Crumb Cake. I sponged around the edges of the base layer with Whisper White Craft Ink.

I love the floral images in this set, and the sentiments are pretty fabulous too.

You’re ready to hop on over to the crazy talented Breelin Renwick’s blog. If you prefer to work your way backwards, you can venture over to the amazing Wendy Weixler’s blog.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Long Happy Birthday — FMS 176

Posted on March 4, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Happy Wednesday! And with another Wednesday comes another sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. This week the super talented Cindy Hall is our hostess. She has such a knack for adding such beautiful details to her cards. I always look forward to studying everything she makes.

She has given us such a great sketch with which to work. I love that it’s a different size than a normal A2 card, and there’s lots of room to be original and creative.

I still have some old envelopes that Stampin Up! sold a while back, for long and skinny cards. I cut my card base to a 6-1/2″ by 6-1/2″ square, and then folded it in half to fit in the envelope. It was fun to play with a different sized card.

I ended up using three different stamp sets for this card — Dotty Angles, Balloon Bash and Crazy About You. I also pulled out lots of ink pads — Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Hello Honey and Memento Black.

I love the word dies in the Hello You Thinlits collection. Some of them are a little long, so I thought they’d be perfect for this sketch.

I used one of the Birthday Bash Designer Washi Sheets for the striped bit at the bottom of this card. I love this stuff!

We hope you’ll join us and play along with the challenge this week! We love seeing what you create and post to the gallery. You should jump over to the Freshly Made Sketches site to see what the rest of the design team made for a little inspiration.

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

You Brighten My Day

Posted on March 2, 2015 by amyoneillblog

I’m ready for a bright day — a bright, Spring day! How about you? Well, since I can’t have that quite yet, I’ll have to settle for some bright, happy colors on a card.

I’ve used a fun Sale-a-Bration set, You Brighten My Day, for this card. I made a little tag with Crushed Curry card stock and stamped some Gorgeous Grunge splatters.

I used a fun stamp set that I got not too long ago but hadn’t used yet, Borderettes, to stamp the little line of semi-circles at the bottom of the card. I’m looking forward to using this set more — I love all of the different patterns. The dsp is from Birthday Bash and All Abloom.

I hope you have a bright day! Thanks for stopping by!

Purple Birthday Flowers

Posted on February 28, 2015 by amyoneillblog

Purple is the one color I fear when it comes to card making. I don’t know why because I like purple when other people use it. It is rare for me to use it, but when I do it is usually in moderation and I have to make a conscious effort to use it. When I saw this pretty stamp and decided to color it with my Blendabilities, I decided it was time to use Rich Razzleberry, which is my favorite Stampin’ Up purple by far.

I like how this turned out. I need to use purple more I think as it wasn’t really that hard this time!

Enjoy your Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!

You Made My Day — FMS175

Posted on February 25, 2015 by amyoneillblog

It’s Wednesday. At least, I think it is. We’ve had snow days the past two days and with everybody at home these extra days after the weekend, I’ve lost track of what day it is.

Even though we’ve had snow days, we haven’t had any snow — just lots of sleet and ice. But the forecast for today is snow. We haven’t really had winter weather all winter, but in one week — bam! Hopefully this will be it and we can go back to normal next week.

We have a great sketch for you this week at Freshly Made Sketches! Our lovely and talented Canadian friend, Jen Brum, is our hostess this week. And she has a versatile, fabulous sketch.

I’ve been making an effort to ink up any unused stamp sets on my shelf lately. One that hadn’t yet seen ink was the Best Day Ever stamp set, which is one of the Sale-a-Bration offerings.

I love how easy it is to build your own images with this set. These winter days we’ve been having inspired me to use some pretty Spring colors — Blushing Bride, Strawberry Slush, Pumpkin Pie, Pool Party, and Daffodil Delight.

We hope you’ll join us and play along with the sketch this week! We love to see what you create. You can check out what the rest of the design team made over at the Freshly Made Sketches site for some inspiration. They always inspire me!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!

Just Because It’s a Garden Party — Monday Montage #38

Posted on February 22, 2015 by amyoneillblog

It’s time for another Monday Montage Blog Hop! We have ten stampers who have made beautiful projects to share with you, and all you have to do is click on the links at the bottom of each post.

I made some bright flowers since we’re having an icky gray day here. I wanted to make the card look clean and bright.

I used the Garden Party stamp set and fussy cut the flowers with my paper snips. The embossed frame is one of the Fun Frames embossing folders, which I also cut out with my paper snips. The card base uses some of the Irresistibly Yours Specialty DSP from the Sale-a-Bration offerings. I love how this looks plain just as much as when it’s colored.

You are ready to hop on over to the amazing Breelin Renwick’s blog. If you prefer to work your way backwards, you can go over to the fabulous Wendy Weixler’s blog. Either way, make sure you make your way through the other nine blogs — you won’t want to miss any of them.

Enjoy your Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

A Cute Herd

Posted on February 21, 2015 by amyoneillblog

I needed to make a belated birthday card for my cousin. She and her husband are farmers in Kansas, and I knew right away what stamp set I wanted to use.

This stamp just makes me laugh every time I see it. I stamped the image on watercolor paper and colored with an aquapainter and ink pads. The next time I use this set I want to use my Blendabilities, but I felt like watercoloring last night.

I placed the watercolored panel on a Crumb Cake base, which I stamped with the Hardwood background stamp. I think it was almost worth being a little late with this card just so I could use this sentiment. It makes me giggle too.

Enjoy your Saturday! Thanks for stopping by!