Rainbow Night in the Offudio

It started with a simple enough plan: punch some hearts to create a border and then put colored paper behind them. 

I love rainbows. I have this thing where I NEED colors to be in Roy G Biv order. When folks say, "It's a rainbow!" and are talking about multi-colored and NOT Roy G Biv order, I'm bothered. Greatly. 

Things should be in order: Roy G Biv and ombre! It makes my heart pitty pat with delight! 

I've been known to reorder displays in stores in order to fix it for them. ;oP

In this case, I'd made the rainbow teacups a couple weeks back but didn't feel I'd worked all the rainbow out of my system. 

I pulled the card stock and cut it into 3/4" strips and got to work. 

I punched more hearts--this time a bit lower--and repeated the process. 

But then, I had rainbow scraps left behind...

I didn't want to just toss them and saw my heart punch lying there, and well, this happened:

Be still my heart!!

And then, well, there was that punch Nana had just given me, just lying there as well, and, there those scraps were so this happened:

Doncha just love it when things come together??? :oD 

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Stamp Sets: Friendly Phrases, Express Yourself

Paper: Whisper White (heavy and regular), Poppy Parade, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, Lemon Lime Twist, Coastal Cabana

Ink: Gorgeous Grape

Miscellaneous: Dimensionals

Tips:

*I cut the bases at 5"x3.75" so I could mark the mid-point at 2.5". 

Then, I marked the card like this. I LOVE working with the grid paper behind me, it makes it incredibly easy to draw straight lines using a ruler!

You can see I marked an additional line 1/2" up for the second card. (The first, I just popped the punch all the way up.)

By marking that 1/2" line, I was about to line up the heart punch like so, making my border relatively even. 

And, as those who know me well know, I believe in keeping it real. Look at this mess!!

Whew!

I lose stamp blocks, stamp pads, Tombow, etc. in this mess!

Oy!

It's amazing I can get anything done, lol!

But, this is mess is what led to the creation of those cards. When you have stuff ust lying around, you can pick things up and put them together. ;o) 

Back to Those Sillohuettes

I just love this stamp set!  I can't seem to get enough of it. I can't help but wonder if I'm going to glut myself on it and then never want to see it again, or if it's more like eating way too much cookie dough and getting a stomachache and vowing to NEVER eat it again and then somehow managing to do so again anyhow. 

At any rate, I've continued to play around with fewer layers and using acrylic blocks to create a focal point. 

I played around with this idea, trying to get the layout just right, and wound up using up an entire card base doing so.  This one was particularly lovely so I just cut down the card and mounted it on another card.  Most of the time, you can save a mistake--it just takes a bit of thinking outside the box. :oP

--Rach

This card uses:

*Stamp Sets: "Summer Silhouettes", "Express Yourself"
*Inks: Strawberry Slush, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky
*Paper: PTI white card stock

Outside My Comfort Zone

Sometimes I just like to think and stamp outside the box so to speak, as was the case with both of these cards.

I had been using my acrylic blocks inked up as a background/focal image for a number of cards when I decided to use a couple of them to create an abstract card. 

I began by inking up my blocks and stamping off once on a scrap piece of paper before stamping once on this card...

...and then again on this card, thereby creating softer images.  

I wanted to move the eye across and down to the lower right corner where I had thought to add the sentiment, so I stamped the blocks accordingly. 

I finished the cards by mounting the images on a piece of Coastal Cabana, stamped the sentiment and added a pearl as an accent.

They're not my usual style, but I thought they were fun and a nice break from my "norm".

--Rach

These cards use:

*Stamp Set: "Express Yourself"
*Inks: Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush
*Paper: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana
*Accessories: pearls

Butterflies and Silhouettes

A month or two back, the Paper Players had a sketch challenge that I was really inspired by.  I created a couple of cards and left a couple of sponged pieces of card stock lying around. 

As I was sitting at my desk in the offudio, I happened to spy it and decided to create a card.  I inked up the Queen Ann's Lace looking flower from "Summer Silhouettes" and stamped it, and decided it needed a little something more.  I found a butterfly I had previously stamped and fussy cut from "Strength and Hope" and thought it would be perfect.  I stamped it on the page as well, and then adhered the butterfly using a strip of Tombo and then dimensionals under its wings.  I finished it off with some pearls for it's body. 

I stamped the sentiment from "Express Yourself" and added the pearls in the upper left corner and I was done. :)

--Rach

This card uses:

*Stamp Sets: "Summer Silhouettes", "Strength and Hope", "Express Yourself"
*Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky
*Inks: Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Strawberry Slush
*Accessories: pearls, dimensionals

Mosaic Madness Anniversary Card

Because I love this stamp set so much, and because Brien's favorite color is green, I used the same layout for Lissie's birthday card to make my anniversary card for my honey.  I swapped out the papers and the stamp I used for the "medallions". 

This card uses:
*Inks: Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding
*Papers: Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, and PTI's white card stock
*Stamp Sets: Mosaic Madness, Express Yourself (2013-2014 hostess set)
*Accessories: Dimensionals

--Rach

Gingham Garden for Ella

First off, an apology for the quality of the photos.  While the golden light of dawn makes for beautiful landscape photography, it causes some problems when trying to snap photos of cards.  However, we're off to visit Jess and crew in a few minutes, and I wanted to get this loaded before we were.

Why are we off to visit?  Well, for Ella's First Communion, of course!  And, I needed a card for our sweet girl.  I'm so happy for her and can't wait until tomorrow to see her make that sacrament for the first time. :o)

I found a fun sketch over at Paper Players and thought it would work well for Miss Ella Bella's card.

Since my new goodies arrived yesterday, I couldn't wait to play with them (may I just say how in love I am with the new In Colors?  They're so fresh and crisp and clean and just wonderful!).  I picked up the Gingham Garden DSP and washi tape (I'm a bit of a washi hound so getting that was a no brainer ;oP) and knew they were it.  Ella's favorite color is pink, and in fact, has a wall that is either Melon Mambo or Strawberry Slush in her room.  Yes, it's very intense. ;o)

However, what is intense for a wall in a little girl's bedroom makes for a lovely card base.  :o)

I inked up "Summer Silhouettes" with Pear Pizzazz and Melon Mambo, used my "Beautiful Wings" embosslit, and some pearls as a finishing touch.  Since washi tape is rather transparent, I didn't want to lie it down directly on that gorgeous Melon Mambo gingham so I put it down on Whisper White first and then cut it out.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  Oh how I adore washi tape...but, that's a post for another time...;o)

I'm not one to let an inside go unfinished if I have the time, and well, I had the time. ;o)  The sentiment comes from the new SU! hostess set, "Express Yourself".  I'm a sucker for sentiments in a lovely font, so these were right up my alley.

I added another pearl to dot the "I".

And, here's a close up of the focal images.  I popped the stamped image up on dimensionals, and only adhered one side of the butterfly's wing to give her some movement and depth as well. :o) 

All in all, a happy (if terribly photographed--ugh!) card for a beautiful girl. :o)

This card uses:

*Stamp Sets: Summer Silhouettes, Express Yourself
*Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo
*Paper: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Gingham Garden DSP
*Accessories: Beautiful Wings embosslit, pearls, Gingham Garden washi tape, dimensionals, scallop border punch

--Rach