An Up-Lifting Day ~ PIP Challenge 1726

Hello! Hope you are having a lovely day!!

I am so happy to be sharing this water color card with you!!  The images are from Unity Stamp Co. and is named "Sending Up Something Beautiful" 

The sentiment is part of a kit from Paper Trey Ink called Stylish Birthday Sentiments

I like to pile shapes, layers and colors before I commit to a card's design. I loved these colors together but it still seemed to fall flat.  Solution: customizing the papers!!

What a rewarding task!  I love the whole process of choosing color and pattern!  I hope you are feeling inspired as well! Then head over to the PIP Challenge (ANYTHING GOES) this week sponsored by Di's Digis.  You can earn a great prize from Di's Digis and I know you'll have fun playing along!!

Thanks for stopping by :)


Please leave order requests at "HI!" notes on Facebook! I will be in touch right away!!

HAPPY NATIONAL CARD MAKING DAY!!!

Happy National card making day!!  I hope you find time to express your creativity through card making today.  What a beautiful and special way to keep in touch.  God Bless You & Keep You <3

I thought I would share some images, if you have any questions please post and I'll answer as soon as I can :)

Thanks for stopping by

A Cherry on Top

Just building some "Happy Cards" for Birthdays and other occasions.  I like using sentiments like "You're so Sweet!" or "Wish Big!"  It was a lot of fun Doing these :)

Start with pattern papers. I used ones that looked sunny and happy to me.  I've also done this with more sophisticated paper and they turned out great too!  Then using Unity Stamp Co. set "Sweet Life"https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/sweet-life-sw-kit/  I stamped with Versa Fine Black ink & heat embossed every ice cream scoop twice on each paper.  I found some solid and some patterned Chocolate and Carmel colored paper and later decided that Berry color was good too & stamped & embossed the dripping sauce stamp several times on each. Closely Fussy cut around each image.

To add a little extra dimension choose a color close to the main color of each image and rub the sides of every image, leaving no shading on the center of each image.  I enjoy the extra work it takes but they look great without the shading too.

For more texture dry emboss all of the ice cream elements!  I used small dots. I also use Glossy Accents on the fountain glasses for a little extra shine.

Dry embossed card backgrounds on white card stock with various embossing folders. Saturate each with inks that match the pattern papers using a sponge or other rubbing tool (I use pieces of hard foam packaging that were in the embossing folder packages).  This gets most of the paper full of ink and makes the raised parts stand out even more darkly.  The less you rub & saturate the softer the background will be. Experiment!!

I know you can take it from here!  Color & cut out the cones or glasses you want your ice cream creation to be in and start layering onto the embossed card fronts.  Make labels with stamps & die cuts to finish it off with a sentiment or leave it plain.  Add ribbon, sequins or "dots". 

This is so fun and merry!!  You can't go wrong!  I leave the sentiments off until I want to use the card and then I can easily choose the right one for the occasion and just stick it on (I like to have dimensional tape already on the back of every sentiment). 

Oh, I almost forgot the Cherry on top!!

Sending Happy Wishes

Wow!  What a busy last couple of weeks!  Traveling to my big brother's wedding, 4H conference in Corvallis, headlong into Spring Fair, replanting my garden, as we had several days below freezing & now on to Summer Camp (luckily I'm only driving there and back!!) Which means that as long as it is raining (Yes, I forgot to mention the arrival of rain! Beautiful, cool WET rain) I may have time for some crafting and blogging!!

First I would again like to thank Unity Stamp Company for my prize package which came somewhere in the midst of all of the above! $50 worth of beautiful stamps <3  I highly recommend visiting their store and Face Book sites and JOINING IN THE FUN !!

Which Brings me to my next subject:  Weekly Challenges!  Always inspirational, this week on the Unity show & tell FB page the challenge is: any item made with one of the "Unity Girls" 

This is the one I chose. She is from the Kit Of the Month MAY 2014.  I used a sentiment from a newer kit Sending Up Something Beautiful.

I needed to make a few birthday cards and the request was for bright colors.  I first water colored the image with my "Zig's" and then decided that this shade of pink (Pixie Pink from Stampin' Up!) went best with the colors I'd used.  I wanted the background to "pop" a little so I inked  my multi-striped embossing folder from The Paper Studio with Rose Red from Stampin' Up then embossing the pink cardstock which also transferred the color simultaneously.  I thought it was beautiful just like that!  Adding Black to the card made it a little more sophisticated and punching a lacey edge for the white card base gave it the vibe I was looking for. 

 I added the tag on the inside just to finish it off as a birthday card, but I could've left it as a note card otherwise.

Simple, beautiful and so full of celebration!