Blossoming Basket for GDP124

I'm sure you have noticed that I have been gone for 2 weeks.  Unfortunately all 4 of our children had the flu over the last 10 days and not much stamping happened.  I thought I'd come back blogging with something new!  This Blossoming Basket stamp and new Basket Weave Dynamic Textured Embossing Folder is a bundle you can earn free (starting Feb 16th) with an order of $100. 

For the main image, I embossed the basket in White Stampin' Emboss Powder on watercolor paper and colored the image with an Aqua Painter.

And check out this embossing folder - it's perfect for this stamp set!  The good news is that the embossing folder will carry over to the new annual catalog!  You have until March 31st to earn it months early.

I was inspired for these cards by this beautiful card made by my friend Louise at Global Design Project.

I think this bundle is going to be very popular! :)

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope now that our kids are better that I will be blogging more!

Blessings,

Holly

Twinkle Trees for GDP053

It seems like I haven't joined in for the challenges over at Global Design Project in awhile, so I thought I would play along in hopes to be a guest designer next month!  There is an insane amount of talent out there and I swear, every time I'm ready to sit down and make something, I see some of my friend's work and think - nah, they got this! There's no point trying :) haha!

But... I do want to play along this week because the color challenge is a tricky one, and I like a good challenge to get my mind going.  I've been trying to come up with some samples with the new Twinkle Trees set and thought this combo would work!

I love this striped washi tape from the Affectionately Yours collection.  A classy look I think. :)  I added Watermelon Wonder with the "bokeh" stamps on the Night of Navy tree.

I added gold embossing powder on top of the tree too.  I should've waited for my navy to dry though.  

(I was working way late - almost midnight... Just a tip for those in a hurry like me - dry your ink!)

I added a cute little star and bow to "top" it off!

The Metallic Enamel Dots were on the special deals last week and I couldn't pass them up.  Tomorrow there will be new deals online along with the HUGE clearance rack that was just updated Tuesday.  Some things are already gone so make sure you get what you want!

If you're ordering less than $150, would you please use hostess code SM4QQ3KS and I will send you a special thank you gift!

Have a great day!

Blessings,

Holly

Mother's Day - You Are Made of Wonderful for GDP035

What a beautiful Mother's Day!  It was warm, sunny and filled with so much joy and love.  And sick kids... 

At 5am this morning our middle son woke up crying.  He had thrown up in his bed.  By 9am he was on his second bath of the morning and our youngest wasn't feeling the greatest either.  Lots of clean up and cuddles before church.  But the kids are feeling much better and I wouldn't trade the yucky parts of the best job in the world for anything!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday too!  We spent the day with my husbands parents, grandparents and his aunt and uncle and cousin. Good food, cake (more on that later this week), fun at the park and a campfire.  God is good and I'm grateful for His many blessings.

I wanted to share with you the card I made for my sweet Mother-in-law.  I absolutely love this new technique I discovered last week.  You can stretch and smash the Honeycombs and make a very cool embellishment.

The calligraphy "mom" is not Stampin' Up! but I love it too much not to use it! :)

For the cards background and the heart around "mom", I used the Project Life stamp set called Memories in the Making.  I love the little cluster of swirls - it makes such a fun background!  You don't have to use the PLxSU sets just for your scrapbook pages...

I am entering this card in this week's "Project Life" theme challenge over at the Global Design Project.

Hopefully by mid-week I can start a page for the challenge too!  I took lots of cute pictures of the boys yesterday.  Sure is great being their momma! :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! 

Blessings to you!

-Holly 

Butterfly Basics for GDP31 (again)

I'm back with another "nature" themed card for the Global Design Project.  If you missed my post Monday, make sure you check that card out too!  

And be sure to click the image below to see all of the cards from talented design team members.

I wanted to make a card with leftover scraps.  3 weeks ago I had my first SU! party in over 6 months.  We made a card using the Butterfly Basics stamp set.  I had a leftover stamped piece that someone had smudge and I thought I'd save it and do something with it later.  

Sometimes we cover up ink smudges and sometimes we just cut everything out! :)

I cut the flowers out and layered them a little to give them some depth.  I also added Crystal Effects to really bring the flowers out.

I added a scrap piece of Newsprint DSP I had saved.  (I hope they carry that over again!)

I used my very last bit of Watermelon Wonder Lace Ribbon - love just letting a little peek through.

The background DSP is the Going Places DSP and the birthday sentiment is from Silhouettes & Script hostess set.   I added some Metallics Sequin Assortment and Gold 1/8" Ribbon.

I sent this to my dear friend Steph in Rhode Island.  This was my 8th birthday that I've sent so far in April.  If you missed Shannon West's Birthday Card Initiative - You can read about it here.  It's more fun to send and receive birthday cards and phone calls than it is to just write on someone's facebook wall. 

If you would like to receive a birthday card from me - leave a comment! :)

Blessings,

Holly 

You're a Great Catch! - GDP031 and Guest Designer Eli!

I have a special treat for you today!  I have my youngest (and first) guest designer!  If you follow me here on Instagram, you may have seen my little Eli watercoloring with me last week.  We were attempting to make bubble stationary with soap, water and food coloring.  It was an epic fail - certainly didn't work out like I remember as a child.  So we decided to get some reinkers out with watercolor paper and do something different!  Eli had fun and I was so amazed by the job he did!

So this weekend I sat down and made a card with the paper.  I received the From Land to Sea stamp set in the mail on Friday and wanted to try it out.  I was really pleased with the card and was planning to blog about it today when I saw the new challenge at Global Design Project was "nature"... PERFECT!  Btw, I'm so honored that I was chosen as GDP29's pick!  Thank you everyone! <3

(Click on the image below to go to the site and see all of the other nature inspired cards)

I love the marlin in the stamp set.  When we went on the KLove Cruise with my inlaws in January, we stopped at a Guy Harvey restaurant and store in the Cayman Islands.  I had never heard of the guy "Guy" but his artwork is amazing.  Marlins are one of the things he paints.  So I was inspired to use the blue and purple from the paper Eli made and used the Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss for the marlin too.

I used corrugated paper to make it look like the fish was mounted on wood.  I thought the texture would look better than stamping the hardwood stamp in brown.   I colored the fins using the clear Wink of Stella and found the perfect sentiment from Settin' Sail.  (It's a current photopolymer set with SU!)

Because I stamped the image on Coaster Board, when I colored it using an Aqua Painter, the paper curled.  I wasn't at all upset about it - made it look like a real fish that was mounted!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope that you are inspired to make your own background paper!  Be sure to head on over to Global Design Project's blog and see some more!

Blessings!

-Holly 

Sophisticated Script & Suite Sayings - Mixing It Up for FabFri83 & GDP029

I'm doubling everything up today!  TWO posts, TWO different stamp companies mixing TWO sentiment sets and TWO challenges in this post... I actually had time to stamp last night! Yay!

I first saw this sketch a few days ago and loved the simplicity.  Both of the cards are using this sketch.  I may have stretched it a little, but it's just how I interpreted the sketch :)

I had just received my Sophisticated Script stamp set from Concord & 9th on Monday and couldn't wait to try it out.  I'm a pretty loyal SU! girl - never blogged about any other stamp set, but I absolutely loved this calligraphy look.  Heck, maybe SU! will come out with something very similar in the new catalog!  

I also love the sentiment set called Suite Sayings in the Occasions catalog.  Here I took the "for being you" part and added the thanks from the Sophisticated Script set.  Those letters lined up so easily!

For the second card using the Fab Friday sketch, I paired the colors from the Global Design Project blog. I'll be honest and say that I got these colors out, glanced at the (already great) submissions and thought "nah... I'll skip this week".  But later on that night I decided to make one more card mixing the C&9th set and the Suite Sayings and thought I'd make this a card I could give to my hubby. 

I do love the orange and it reminded me of my husband's orange Jeep.  I decided to add the chevron embossed layer to look like tire tracks and the sentiment... well, it speaks for itself.

The colors are a great masculine combo, but I did add some Wink of Stella to the word "smiles" just for fun!

Here I stamped the "smiles" out in Bermuda Bay first.  Then I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the "my heart" and "just thinking of you".  

I'm happy with how they both turned out and hope they inspire you to mix things up!  

Make sure to head on over to Fab Friday and the Global Design Project blogs to check out all of the great inspiration!

See you back here Friday for another TGIF Challenge!

-Holly

Celebrate Balloons - GDP23

Hey everyone!  Happy Monday :)  I have had some time this weekend to stamp and even rearranged some things around in my craft room.  Diggin' these new canisters set that I purchased at a consignment shop in PA.  They're white porcelin and in great shape. $2!! They're the new homes to my buttons, sequins, paper clips and washi tape. 

 

But anyway, why should I even talk about it without a picture right?

Moving on...

 

I'm playing along this week with the Global Design Project.  I receive Brian King's daily emails and this theme seemed fun - but I also thought, everyone will be using the same set! But what the heck, why not?  Plus, February is packed full of birthdays for friends and family.  I can hardly keep up!

 

 

I wanted to share the original look that I had for this card.  I even took all the photos and was ready to upload them.  But something just didn't seem right to me.  The "celebrate" was just not doing it for me.  I was hoping it would've looked better...

 

 

So when my MIL stopped by today I asked her which one she liked better.  She said she didn't even notice the white "celebrate", so that was proof enough that the Melon Mambo pop was needed.

 

 This was my first attempt with the "watercolor smooshing" technique. I'm loving it! I wish I hadn't taken so long to try it. So thankful for youtube :)

I chose the colors Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry and Mint Macaron. I really like this combo and love that SU! is using it so much in the Occasions Catalog. 

 

I added some Gold Glitz Dazzling Details on the balloon.   

 

So there you have it!  Hope you like the card! I will be sending it to a fellow stamper :) 

 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Holly

A Birthday Card for Judy - GDP015

I made this card last week for my dear friend, customer & "temporary beach house neighbor", Judy.  Judy tagged along with a friend to my stamp class about 7 months ago.  She reminded me so much of my mom and we became friends right away.  Then one day I was outside with the boys and I noticed a new family moving in to the beach rental next door.  It was Judy's daughter!  Judy spent 4 days out of the week babysitting her grandkids and we would hang out in the driveway while the boys rode their bikes and drew with chalk.  Of course we talked stamps!  I'm happy to have her as a friend! 

 

So since I wanted to wait to post this until she actually got her birthday card (her birthday is today!) I was happy to see that the new challenge over at the Global Design Project site is "celebrate".  I haven't played along in awhile because of our move, but I couldn't resist this fun theme.  Heck, I might play twice.

 

I'm loving this new set called "Number Of Years.  It comes with matching framelits which makes cutting the numbers out a breeze. 

 

It's been rainy here lately and I haven't been getting good indoor pictures.  I wish you could see this card in person.  The sentiment says "The number of years the world has been a better place because you're in it." - Cute, right??

 

A little lace doily, a Watermelon Wonder flower, twine... and oh yeah, that pretty sparkly Pool Party ribbon you see? - that'll be available Jan 5th too!  So many awesome products coming out soon!

 

I sure hope you like this card Ms. Judy  -  we miss you so!

 

And for the rest of you... thanks for stopping by! Head on over to the GDP site and see all of the other fantastic celebration ideas!

 

-Holly

Oh Boy! - GDP003

Hey friends! Sorry it seems like there has been a gap in posts.  I've been a little busy lately but I'm happy to say I've been busy stamping too - lots of new cards to show you - starting with today's card! 

If you missed the post the other day, there is a new challenge site in town.  LOTS of talent on both the design team and challengers.  I was chosen among the entries for their first challenge, but I was quite surprised.  There was a ton of creativity and pure stampin' genius among the mix. 

Needless to say - I was honored to win their first challenge. 

I skipped last week's but I'm playing along again for this week's theme.  I have a friend that just found out they are having a boy so I wanted to send a card!

Make sure you click on the image below to check out the fun over at GDP!

I love this Sweet Li'l Things DSP from Stampin' Up! and all the cute little images on it.  I knew for sure that I wanted to incorporate the DSP in the card but I wasn't sure which set I wanted to use.  I wasn't feeling Zoo Babies and I was kind've stumped.  Then I remembered Dear Heart - and I double checked and it is still current!

Isn't that little guy adorable?

When I showed my husband, he said "dear heart??"... :) I think it's cute!  A little congrats for the parents and a "I already love you little baby boy that I haven't met yet" to the baby. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Check out the photopolymers that aren't listed in the catalog.  You'd be surprised to see which ones are still available to order (online only)!

See you later this week with some holiday catalog fun!

-Holly 

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