CDS Sneak Peek - Welcome to Parenthood

Welcome back to day 3 of the CDS sneak peeks and to parenthood! Confused about the last part? No problem! Let me fill you in ;) One of the sets used in this card is the one that I am previewing today and it's called Welcome to Parenthood :) It's one of the newest in my Dreamtime Design line and I hope that you will like this sentiment set as much as I do! To see the entire set, please click here and scroll down.




How true is this comment? In fact my kiddo's were testing this theory earlier today with my hubby *snicker*

I paired my new set up with another set from Clear Dollar Stamps called Deer Season. I took the tree and coloured on with with my tombow markers and then misted it with a spray bottle full of water to create this "faux watercolour" kind of look. I then added some really soft sponging around the edges of my nestie to soften the look and then contiued on with the blues and greens with the rest of the card :o)




Hope you liked this card and don't forget to pop by the blogs below to see all of the fabulous creations that were made with the new sets that will be released on November 1st! Wanna know what else is coming on November 1st? The Great Candy Caper - that's what!!!!!

What is the Great Candy Caper? Keep checking back to the Clearly iStamp blog....we will be telling you a little more each day! I can tell you that the Candy part of the caper is does mean blog candy....and lots of it!

Laurie Wilson
Nancy Grant
Katie Renz
Candy Fosta
Sarah Taylor
Angela Thomas
Tricia Traxler
Cassie Trask
Linda Anderson
Trudy Sjolander
Wendy Hall
Tori Wild
Stacy Morgan

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps - Welcome to Parenthood, Deer Season
Paper: Gina K, Watercolour, Green, Basic Grey DP, K&Co DP
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Blue, Green, Basic Grey DP, K&Co DP
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Embossing Folders, Sponges, Pop Dots, Aqua Painter, Clear Embossing Powder, Ribbon, Button, Linen Thread, Corner Rounder, Martha Stewart Fence Punch, Water Mister, Tombow Markers

CDS Sneak Peek - Dog Days Celebrations

Whoo Hoo! It's here again and this adorable card is just in time for the party :) It's sneak peek time at Clear Dollar Stamps and the card I have to show you today is using one of my new sets called Dog Day Celebrations with one of last month's releases - Dog Days.




This fun little accessory set has stuff to make both of your sweet pups into holiday bearing pooches. It has a Santa hat, angel wings and halo, party hat and balloon, ghost costume and pumpkin bucket, a handful of sweet sentiments to match and an already opened preset courtesy of our naughty little dogs *giggle* To see a picture of the entire set, hop on over to the Clearly iStamp blog and scroll down until you discover it in all it's adorable goodness ;)



While you're out and about while perusing the net, don't forget to pop by the blogs below to see all of the fabulous creations that were made with the new sets that will be released on November 1st!

Laurie Wilson
Nancy Grant
Katie Renz
Candy Fosta
Sarah Taylor
Angela Thomas
Tricia Traxler
Cassie Trask
Linda Anderson
Trudy Sjolander
Wendy Hall
Tori Wild
Stacy Morgan

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps -Dog Days, Dog Days Celebrations
Paper: Gina K, Watercolour, Black, Basic Grey DP, Scenic Route DP
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Blue, Orange, Green
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Embossing Folders, Sponges, Pop Dots, Aqua Painter, Clear Embossing Powder, Brads, Ribbon, Decorative Label Punch, Stickles, Scallop Edge Punch, Craft Knife, Dew Drops, Tombow Markers and Aqua Painter

A card from the archives and a wedding anniversary!

I have been dreaming of visiting this little hut in paradise ever since I got this set last year! It looks like the perfect place to get away from it all! Beautiful sandy beach, gorgeous tropical flowers, water as far as the eye can see...what's not to love? ;) It is the perfect scene to be dreaming about while looking at the cloudy weather that we have been having! It also reminds me of Maui...where I went this time last year for my brother's wedding and my anniversary celebration :)

This card was created for one of my past Dirty Dozen sketch challenges. I just flipped it and adjusted the side that the flowers are one. The hut and flowers have been watercoloured with Tombow Markers and the background was sponged on with various inks and a cloud stencil. I then secured some raffia to on of the background layers and stitched around it in coordinating thread to really hold it in place.



Yeppers! You heard right...today, Bill and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary :) We have survived this long and haven't managed to kill each other yet so I'm thinking that we can last at least another 50 years, dontcha think *grin* I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he has an airline ticket in his pocket to wisk me away to this little hut on the beach...am I holding my breath? Um, no...but it's nice to have dreams :)

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!

**Just a little reminder to any of you who are interested in learning how to make sponged ink backgrounds, the online class that I am teaching over at My Creative Classroom starts on Wednesday, October 21st**


Card Recipe:

Stamps: Artful Inkables - Paradise Island
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Watercolour, My Mind's Eye DP, Cosmo Cricket DP
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Soft Sky, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder's Nestabilities, Raffia, Sponges, Dimensionals, Clear Embossing Powder, Tombow Markers, Aqua Painter, Ribbon, Cloud Stencil

Butterfly Explosion Box

Oooh...Ahhhh...Isn't this beautiful? I won't have to tell you twice how impressed I was when I was able to create something that might come close to some of the amazing creations on the Magic Boxes website! I did this project way back in April for the Dirty Dozen Gallery - Going Green. The box was created for our inspiration piece because of the bright green grass and blue skies :) I found the tutorial for this box with different measurements here.




When I made the box from the tutorial it was a little small for what I needed it to be, so I ended up altering the measurements. This particular box stands finished at 3 3/4" x2 1/2".

Here are the measurements that I used to make this fun box:
Start with a 10" square for the base and score at 3 3/4" all the way around the out side. For the lid, I adjusted the measurements to a 4 5/8" Square scored at 1" all the way around.

The largest decorated panels are 3 1/2"x 1 1/4"
The base decorated square on the inside of the box is 2 1/4" square
The decorated panel on the top of the box is 2 3/8" square.
The rectangular panels of the edge of the lid are 3/4"x 2 1/8"

To decorate the panels I used a combination of stamps, sponges and inks. I love the bold statement that the Sponged Background adds to the box :) It truly adds a serene feel with colours that pop and draw attention to the 3D butterfly perched on top kind of like a bow *grin*
This kind of card is really a present in it's own but you could add a little treasure inside the box as well.

Speaking of treasures...guess who I finally got to meet the other day? If you read my blog last week, you would know that I was patiently waiting to me this sweet little girl :)




This beautiful baby made me an aunt for the second time on October 10th after being 11 days over due. She wasn't even an hour old when this picture was taken and I was the one snuggling her at the time :) Miss Makena Alexis was named for the beach that her parents got married at just a little under a year ago on Maui and for her own mama's middle name :) I'm so excited to be an auntie again so I wanted to share with you all too *wink*

**Just a little reminder to any of you who are interested in learning how to make sponged ink backgrounds, the online class that I am teaching over at My Creative Classroom starts on Wednesday, October 21st**

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps - Designer Garden, Antique Scrolls, Beautiful Butterflies
Paper: Black, Kiwi, Watercolour
Ink: Black, Versa Mark, Kiwi, Artichoke, Light Blue, Navy, Dark Navy
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Sponges, Pop Dots, Tombow Markers, Waterbrush, Clear Embossing Powder

A Peony for You...

Yes, I admit...I have been neglectful! I have been crazy busy once again and this poor blog got pushed by the wayside in the process! So to apologize for being a bad blogger, I have a short post and a pretty peony to show you ;0)

I have been a busy lady getting all my ducks in a row for teaching over at My Creative Classroom! It's been fabulous so far, but an incredible learning experience for this somewhat easily dumbfounded individual! lol

Over the past few weeks I have been learning to use all kinds of funky software that I hadn't dared to use before, because let's face it people...who actually likes to sit down and be baffled by new programs unless they have too? *wink* Needless to say that I have now figured out the software and may even have a video tutorial or two up my sleeve for next month! I know that you are all waiting with bated breathe! hehehehe

Did I also mention that I'm going to be an auntie again? No? Hmmm ...I must have forgotten to mention that somewhere along the lines while I wasn't posting and being a bad blogger! My sister in law is now 7 days over due and we are waiting for my sweet little niece to make her grand appearance, but not nearly as much as her over due mommy! lol I personally think that she's holding out so that she can enjoy a turkey dinner :o) I will let you all know when she's here and may even have a picture or two by then...I will keep you posted!

Ahem, now that I've bored you with what's going on with me...let's get back to that pretty peony that I don't have any more pictures of! lol

This card was made for the June Dirty Dozen gallery and was made with one of my very first Illustrations called Peony. The peony was stamped with Versa Mark onto watercolour paper and heat embossed with a half and half mixture of Ranger Gold Tinsel and Gold Embossing Powders (a tip that I learned from Jerri Kay). I watercoloured it using a waterbrush and Tombow Markers and then cut "out of the box" style and paper toled so that it looks more realistic. The image is so sparkly in real life due to the embossing powder mixture! I then just played with some shapes of designer paper to come up with this layout. I used up some scraps of ribbon that I was lucky enough to have matched it up to some designer paper and added the pearls to balance out the card.

Thanks for being such understanding readers that know how sometimes life gets in the way crafts!...I try not to let it happen but sometimes I lose and life just budges in and takes over! ;0)

Just a reminder for anyone who is interested in taking the Watercolouring with Tombow Markers Class with moi ...the final day for registration is October 9th, so don't miss out!



Card Recipe:

Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps - Peony
Paper: Gina K, Caramel, Watercolour, K&Co DP, Basic Grey DP, Karen Foster DP
Ink: Versa Mark, Caramel
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Sponges, Dimensionals, Ribbon, Half Pearls, Aqua Painter, Tombow Markers, Ranger Gold Tinsel and Gold Embossing Powder