New Watercolor Whimsy Collaboration with StampGrl (Dalis)

 Good day my friends!  I am excited to start this new collaboration with Dalis (StamprGrl).  We were supposed to start in January, but...I ended up catching every virus known to man in January and was sick for pretty much the whole month.  I am now on the mend though and we decided to roll January's project into February, so you get 2 projects this month :)

A little background:  Dalis and I decided to do a collaboration with watercolors as our medium.  We randomly chose 12 stamp companies from our combined stash and assigned one company to each month.  Dalis and I won't have the same stamps, but that's part of the fun of it...you get two different inspiration pieces from the same company every month!

January's company is Stampendous, House Mouse collection specifically!  And for February we have Avery Elle.

You can see Dalis' beautiful creations here!

Here is my January creation using Stampendous/House Mouse Designs' Happy Hoppers Bouncing Bunnies!

They look like they're having loads of fun don't they!  My projects are watercolored using Prima Marketing watercolors.  

For my February project, I worked with Avery Elle's Peonies stamp set.

Such a fun month for this new collaboration.  Dalis and I will be back on March 10 with some more watercolor fun using stamps from Stampendous!

Friday Feature-Watercolor Card #3

This weeks Friday Feature is another fun watercolor card using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I just love these watercolors, they are so smooth and the range of colors is great!

I created this card by first stamping and embossing the sentiment using the Avery Elle Brushed stamp set.  Such a great sentiment set for these types of cards.  Then I proceeded to have fun with my watercolors and created the background.  I found the sentiment didn't stand out as much as I wanted it to so I went back over with a darker color to create the focal point behind the sentiment.

I hope you are enjoying the Friday Features!  I have many more coming up for you to enjoy :)  Thanks for stopping by, next week will be watercolor card #4!

Tic Tac Toe Challenge at Fire Fly Crafts!

It's time for a new theme challenge at Firefly Crafts!  This month's challenge is a Tic Tac Toe, and here is the chart :)

I chose to create a card using the elements from the diagonal line: flowers, orange and shape!

To create this card, I first made the card base by measuring one inch up from the middle and cutting the banner shape.  I did the same to the patterned paper ( Echo Park "Simple Life").  Then I used a die to cut the smaller banner from watercolor paper and painted the background using Distress Ink in "Carved Pumpkin" with the 'smooshing' technique.  Then I stamped the flowers from the Avery Elle "Petals and Stems" stamp set using Distress Ink in "Black Soot".  The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.  I added the Wild Orchid Crafts 10mm roses in Orange and Ivory, and also added some bling from my stash .

You can find all of the linked products in the Firefly Crafts online shop.  We will be having two challenges per month from now on...the first Wednesday of the month will be our new "Anything Goes" challenge and the third Wednesday of every month will be our themed challenge :)  Lots of chances to join in and win a prize!  See you soon my friends and fireflies!

Thinking of You Firefly Crafts Inspiration :)

OK, so you all know how much I love watercolor cards right?  And you know that I'm still learning right? lol...but I do enjoy it so much!  So, I have another watercolor card for you today!

I created this card using a watercolor background that I had previously painted using my Kuretake Gansaii Tambi watercolors.  Then I used the "Cherish" stamp set from Honey Bee Stamps to stamp the first layer of the flowers and leaves with Twisted Citron (leaves) and Mermaid Lagoon (Flowers) Distress Inks, then I shaded the leaves with Peeled Paint.  I heat embossed the second layers of both the flowers and the leaves with some Champagne embossing powder and used a sentiment from the Avery Elle "Petals and Stems" stamp set.

You can find all of the linked products in the Firefly Crafts online store, and make sure you stop in there and say hi to Debbie, owner!  You will love her :)

Bold Flowers for Firefly Crafts

Hello everyone, I have some bold flowers on a Thinking of You card today. This inspiration is for a brand new store that has opened up on the net called Firefly Crafts.  Debbie Arvaneh is the owner, and she is as sweet as can be!  You should definitely go and check it out!

I created this watercolor card using Tim Holtz Distress Inks in the following colors:

Ripe Persimmon
Rusty Hinge
Hickory Smoke
Fossilized Amber
Vintage Photo
Tumbled Glass
Mermaid Lagoon
Twisted Citron
Peeled Paint

The stamp set is Petals and Stems from Avery Elle, and I stamped it onto cold pressed watercolor paper with Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black.

You can find all of the linked products in Debbie's online shop at Firefly Crafts.  Hope you enjoyed stopping by today, come back soon for more inspiration and challenge projects for Firefly Crafts!

12 Weeks of Christmas Challenge with Crafty Ribbons

Another week closer to Christmas!  And you know what that means?  That means it's time for another 12 weeks of Christmas challenge over at Crafty Ribbons :)  This week's challenge is Christmas to die for.  Which means you need to use dies and ribbon on your project :)

So this week, I used a stamp and die set from Avery Elle called Noel (I have also seen it called Fa La La La) and some Happy Christmas Saddle Stitched ribbon from the Crafty Ribbons shop.

I had lots of watercolor fun with this card, and I popped the little holly stamps up to make them three dimensional.  This cute ribbon can be found on the Crafty Ribbons website, along with many other awesome ribbon.  The new Christmas ribbon is now listed in the shop as well, and come back soon to see some of it in action!

And don't forget to come and join the 12 weeks of Christmas challenges!  One every week until Christmas over on the challenge blog!  See you over there :)