Monday, August 31, 2026

SHIMMERING SCALLOPED BLOOMS

This week I am featuring the beautiful Scalloped Blooms Bundle.  If you love layering dies in unique shapes, and greeting stamp sets, you will love this bundle.


Do you ever purchase crafting products that you totally forget you have?  The 26-27 In-Color Pearlized Specialty Paper was one of the first things I purchased when the new In-Colors were introduced.  I put the beautiful paper in the container with the rest of my current designer series paper, and then TOTALLY forget I had it--even though I go into that "box" almost every day!  I guess it was hiding!  So, on today's card I am making up for lost time and using four of the five colors.


The Barely Blush Pearlized Paper was embossed with the Fern & Flora embossing folder and then added to the card front.  I wish you could see the full beauty of this paper when it is embossed.  It is amazing!  Unfortunately, photographing it to fully capture that beauty is not one of my skills, but I hope you can see enough of the shimmer to appreciate how pretty it really is.


I used the two smallest scallop dies from Scalloped Blooms to create the flowers.  They were die cut from Basic White cardstock and then lightly tinted with a Blending Brush and Barely Blush ink.

The flower centers and the leaves were die cut from Golden Glow Pearlized Specialty Paper adding even more shimmer.  Flower Centers are from the Pretty Poinsettia Dies and the leaves are from Butterfly Flight dies.

The Peaceful Pine background behind the flowers is also from the Pearlized Specialty paper.


To make sure the inside of the card also had a little shimmer, I added a strip of embossed Crisp Cantaloupe Pearlized Paper.  I love how the In-Color collections always coordinate with each other.  I wasn't so sure about Barely Blush and Crisp Cantaloupe, but once I put the card together, it grew on me!


A list of the products I used is shown below.  Click on any image to learn more or to make a purchase of your favorites.  Hint, Hint!  Try the Pearlized Paper!  You will not be disappointed!  Just don't forget you have it.

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Location: Commerce Township, MI, USA

Thursday, August 27, 2026

WATERSIDE RETREAT

Today's card was created using one of my favorite techniques -- water coloring.

I created this beach scene with watercolor paper, Water Painters and ink.  If you can "scribble", you can watercolor this scene, also.

Watch the video to see how I did it.  Yours will look different than mine, but it will still be beautiful.   I've never had two "paintings" look exactly the same.  That's part of the fun.  You'll see in the video that my 2nd card has its own vibe.

For today's card I used the two-piece chair.  I've gotten in the habit of using the Adirondack Chair from the Relaxing Waterside bundle so for today's card I wanted to get out of my rut and try this other chair.  I like it, but I think it looks a little more formal than the Adirondack.

In the video I used the Adirondack.  Which do you prefer?

My Seagulls were stamped with Smokey Slate ink.  You may need to stamp a couple of "test" birds -- I did.  My ink pad was pretty juicy, so the birds were darker than I wanted.  I tried stamping-off, but then they were too light.  So I ended up using a plastic spoon to push some ink on my ink pad away from one area so I could ink my stamp in that area.  Watch the video to see how I did that.  It's a good trick to use when you have a very juicy ink pad, or when you want a lighter image, but stamping-off makes it too light.

As I mention in the video leaving white space when you are "painting" a scene is also a tip.  It helps to provide depth to your "painting".  Remember, you can always add more ink, but it is not as easy to lighten the color and even more difficult to get back to white space.  Watch the video for more tips.

Don't forget to add a light color wash with Gray Granite below the seagull to "ground" it.  Unless your bird is flying, you don't want it to look like it is floating in space.

The inside sentiment is from the Banner Sayings Stamp Set.  

Use this link to download a FREE TUTORIAL with all the dimensional information and step-by-step directions.  But be sure to watch the video if you want to learn how I did the water coloring.

A list of the products used is shown below.

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Location: Commerce Township, MI, USA

Monday, August 24, 2026

LET'S GO FISHING AT THE WATERSIDE RETREAT

This week I am going to share cards made with the Waterside Retreat Suite Collection.

Before summer ends, I wanted to use this beautiful Product Suite at least one more time!


Today's birthday card is perfect for a fisherman in your life.  The Waterside Retreat Designer Series Paper (DSP) has several fun designs.  Today, I used the fish, water, and the seagull designs.


Dies and sentiments from the Scalloped Blooms Bundle were also used for the card.  Three layers of scalloped die cuts create a perfect place for our fish to swim around.  The seagulls are hovering above watching for anything that looks edible.  That's kind of what Seagulls do.

Since I live on a lake where seagulls love to sit on boat hoist canopies and make a huge stinky mess, I'm not a huge fan of seagulls.  But the paper kind on this card are pretty and since they won't make a mess, I'm "tolerating" them. 😁😁


The little anchor trinket from the Waterside Retreat Suite adds the perfect embellishment to provide the bit of "bling" to complete the card.



After trimming the first two layers of scalloped circle die cuts even with the left edge of the card, I saved the extra pieces and used them to carry the card-front them to the inside.  Another fussy cut fish from the DSP continues the theme.  The Misty Moonlight stamped sentiment is from the Scalloped Blooms stamp set.


A list of the products used is shown below.  Click on any image to learn more about a specific product or make a purchase.

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Location: Commerce Township, MI, USA
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