SPRINGTIME = BUTTERFLIES AND FLOWERS

HEY BLOGGIES,

Today I have a beautiful butterfly card to share with you.  I actually made two, but was late sending one out and it went out in the mail before I realized I FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO FIRST!!  grrr

So, I only have one to share with you today.

 I inked up my Butterflies Embossing Folder randomly and then put it through my Big Shot with Pink Pirouette cardstock.

 I punched out a few butterflies from retired designer paper and used markers to make their bodies show up.  I glued them onto my card.  You can see I used the three corner punch on the top right corner of my card to add a bit more decoration to it.  I LOVE THIS PUNCH!!

One more look at my card (before I punched the top right corner and before I used the markers on their bodies.)  I love how it turned out. Soft but cheerful.  I will stamp the sentiment on the inside when I am ready to use it.  This card can be for any occasion, depending upon the sentiment you would choose.

Thanks for stopping by!!

BUTTERFLIES...TIME FOR LOTS OF BUTTERFLIES

HEY BLOGGIES,

Today just feels like a BUTTERFLY kind of day.  Here are some flashbacks of butterfly cards I did over several years.

 On this monochromatic card I stamped my butterfly with versamark onto a pale patterned paper, which reads like a solid.  I then used early espresso embossing powder. I also sponged with ink around the edges of the DSP.

 I LOVE this technique AND this card.  I stamped with versamark and used white embossing powder for the Monarch background stamp.  Then I sponged several shades of tan and brown inks just around the butterfly and inside it.  Then finally I used a clean cloth to rub the ink off the white E.  It is a striking card, isn't it?

I used my aqua painter and inks in the pink family to color this embossed butterfly.  Then I thought it needed one more thing so I used some dazzling details here and there to make it sparkle!!

All three of these cards were made with the Monarch background large stamp.  And they all used the heat embossed technique one way or another.

For your orders this month, if you use hostess code: SKHWXU2J you will be entered in the drawing for the hostess dollars to spend.

Hope you enjoyed my flashback to the butterflies post today.  Thank you for stopping by!!

BEAUTIFUL SPRING FLOWERS EVERYWHERE...

Oh how I LOVE spring!!  I love the weather, cool yet comfortable.  I love all the different greens of the new leaves and plants sending out shoots towards the sun.  And, I especially LOVE the flowers!!  We have wild flowers all along the sides of the roads here in southeast Texas.  First came the purple clovers, millions of little furry heads of purple bending in the breeze.  Next came some little dainty wisteria colored mini flowers all along tall stems.  Then some white medium sized flowers on even taller stems.  Now here we are at the bluebonnet season.  Texans LOVE bluebonnets.  Here and there the patches are so dense with  blue that it takes your breath away!!  Every weekend you can spot the best patches because there are so many cars parked along the roadway while they are snapping photos of their families in the flowers.  Wonderful memory making.

I have made a spring card to depict one more thing I LOVE about spring - the BUTTERFLIES.  They can be found in droves as they sip nectar from all these fantastic wild flowers.

 I stamped one of the butterflies from the "Papillion" stamp set in different colors, then I fussy cut around them with my paper snips.  I put them in different directions to have some action amongst them and to make a nice edge to trim around.

I then took lighter markers and colored in parts of the butterflies.  Aren't they beautiful?  I did a "boo boo" ( you NEVER do that, do you?) when I stamped my 'Celebrate Today' sentiment, so I had to stamp it again on a scrap and glue it on the card.  I guess i I had put a layer behind it, no one would have been the wiser, huh?  Hindsight is wonderful...   But let's just say I WANTED it to be on it's own layer of whisper white, that is how I planned it!! (wink wink).

I hope you have enjoyed my spring butterfly card stamped in tempting turquoise, gumball green,  lucky limeade and primrose petals.

Won't you leave a comment and tell me what your favorite thing is about spring?

Thanks for stopping by.  Stay creative, my friends...

Linking up to:

SUO Challenge

Use it Tuesday

Make My Monday Challenge

BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE TO FLY, FLY AWAY

Words from an Elton John Song I just heard coming home from Physical Therapy yesterday.  Which fits in perfectly with my card today, which is using the LARGE SWALLOWTAIL single background stamp.  I am LOVING this stamp!!

I started with a card stock base of very vanilla and stamped the Swallowtail with Versamark.

I applied white embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Here is a closeup so you can see the texture.

 I then used a sponge and soft suede ink and rubbed all over, darker on one side than the other for some shading and variation.  Next I rubbed more mustard ink where I desired.

With a clean cloth, I rubbed the white butterfly all over to get any stray ink that was on the embossed areas.  That's it!!  Now you can add a banner with your sentiment that you choose.  I do that once I know why I am sending the card, i.e. birthday, congrats, thinking of you, etc.

I saw this technique on Dawn Ochefski's blog, a fellow demonstrator.  Thanks Dawn!!

If you use this technique on your blog, won't you tell them you saw it here?  Thanks!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this beautiful and simple card.

Thanks for stopping by!!

SALE-A-BRATION BLOG HOP - DAY TWO

This has been so much fun seeing all the ideas from my team mates.  I hope you have found some ideas and also some products you want to add to your "stash".

I have what I think is a very  CUTE GIFT for a THANK YOU to teachers, or a THINKING OF YOU for a friend, etc.  It is a little decorated holder of a mini pen and some post-it notes.  Perfect for someone's desk or purse.

 Here are three of them I made, each a little different but the same design template.

 I used the following card stock colors:
   Summer Starfruit
   Midnight Muse
   Gumball Green

The designer paper pack is called PRINT POETRY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER STACK.  It is a pack of 48 double sided papers sized at 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" in a pad.  Easy to store and easy to flip through to choose what you want to use.  I LOVE this size of DSP.  It is in our new SPRING CATALOG.

 Here it is open so you can better understand the design.  These mini pens are being sold all over, and the best price I found in my area is in the discount aisle at Target.  They say Little Kitty on them, but hey, I don't think it matters, does it?

The PETITE BUTTERFLY PUNCH is from the Spring Catalog, and the curly label punch is from the large annual catalog.  The PETITE CURLY LABEL PUNCH is a FREE item from Sale-a-Bration.  The "hello" is from the stamp set called PRETTY PETITES and is also a FREE item from Sale-a-Bration.  I used pearls for the bodies of the butterflies.

Thanks so much for visiting each day of our blog hop.  If you do not have a demonstrator, please consider letting me be your demonstrator, won't you?

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win my BLOG CANDY.

Click the NEXT button below to hop to our next team member, De Williamson.  If you need to go back to Bridgett's blog, you can click on the PREVIOUS button.

I love Texas in the springtime...

I know the original song says "Paris" instead of TEXAS, but I have never been to Paris and I SURE DO LOVE BEING HERE IN TEXAS in the springtime.  We are experiencing drought conditions but we still have beautiful wildflowers, lush green trees and shrubs and the grass has greened up and come alive.  Our watering cycle has begun where we water once per week for deep roots watering to keep the trees and plants healthy and keeps their roots deeply looking for water.

My mulch bin was all turned into wonderful soil from last year's fall leaves and "stuff", so I put it all around my new veggie garden and flowers.  I have hot pink impatients all in my front yard gardens and they look so pretty.  And my little veggie garden is my salsa garden - tomatoes, chilis, cilantro, bell peppers and tomatilloes.

This is a redbud tree blooming just down the street from me.  No, it is not a cemetery stone beside it (that is what my hubby said it looks like), it is actually a phone company cable box or something like that.



Planted some fennel and passion flowers for the local butterflies.  We love to watch them lay their eggs and then watch the caterpillars hatch into butterflies each year.  Gulf Fritillary lay on the passion flower vines and monarchs lay on the fennel.

My grandson is showing his Yorkshire show pig at the county fair this afternoon so that is what my day is looking like.  We have so enjoyed learning from him all about his pig (or barrow as called in the show circuit).  We have our fingers crossed that he wins and gets a good price for his pig.

My daughter #2 is visiting us this weekend and leaves tonight.  She was on a business trip to Houston and then spent a few days with us before going back home.  She gets to watch the pig show as well with us.

Granddaughter #2's emergency surgery went well and she is feeling so much better.  Had to have her appendix and gall bladder removed.  Wish we lived closer so I could have been there to help.  Love you Kayleigh.

More cards and photos to come this week, I promise.  Did a lot of creating, just didn't get the photos up yet.  Have been sewing also and will post those as well.

Happy crafting and inking fingers to y'all.