Splish Splash!

Well it's about that time of year again!!  Time for April showers!! AND time for another inspiration card for PIP Challenges!!

This week's challenge is #1812 and sponsored by DIGITAL DELIGHTS. Not only have they generously supplied our PIP Challenge team with digis, but they are offering a prize of $5 of in store shopping to our lucky winner!!

                    I am ... well, delighted!!  with my stamp choice, Splish Splash Susie   I have to admit ~ I've already used her 4 times!!!  She is so seasonally perfect and so perfectly delightful!!  Right now Splish Splash Susie is only $1.50, so you can see how the prize money can go a long way ;)

The 2 cards I have featured today are both printed on Watercolor paper.  I heat set the printer ink with marginal success. 


My first step was to spritz the whole thing with water and then watched in horror at the printer
ink began to spiderweb!!(Orange umbrella one!!) I let it dry and then was VERY CAREFUL as I colored, trying not to saturate the lines and also avoid the black bleeding into the colors. You can see in the close ups that I was maybe a little too careful to stay away from the lines!!


  The image with the blue umbrella, I printed about 1/3 smaller and did not spritz!!  I had a lot less trouble coloring it without the bleed.

To make a short story long, I used a splotchy technique to color the background and more carefully colored in the subject!  A few layers, jewels, some great sentiments (a nod to UNITY STAMP CO) and I suddenly have a couple of bright, cheerful cards perfect for this time of year!! I should note that the white streaks and smeared highlights are made with a white Uni-ball Signo pen and the texture on the blue umbrella is a result of Prima Oil Pastel in combo with Zig watercolor marker.





Good luck!  I am excited to see what you come up with :)  Have a great week & get those pinkies inky!!!!

Rain on Sunday

Good Morning everyone!!  I have to admit that the tulip photo was taken a couple of day ago in the sunshine, but I love the bright hope that it gives :) 

Currently it is more like this!!!  If you look closely you will see the line in the yard indicating that I Did Not succeed in finishing the lawn mowing!! My crazy teens decided that a thunder storm was the perfect opportunity to enjoy sitting on the deck!!!  I couldn't even get close to the screen door with the camera because there was so much rain coming in! 

As for Sampson, don't be fooled ~ he loves the water, & it was plenty warm outside!  He worked the sympathy card pretty hard, I couldn't stop laughing.  The final humiliation, I snapped this picture!! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Pentecost Sunday, celebrating the day that Christ rose into the heavens in Ever Lasting Glory.  We had a wonderful day of popcorn, movies, conversation and reading.  That's one of my favorite things about rainy days, no good for farming!






You can always click photos to view enlarged

You Are My Sunshine

Even the cloudy days here are beautiful.  Last night I went to bed after a long HOT day of work (I even got a little sunburn!) and this morning it looks like rain.  Still, the birds are making their beautiful racket and everything is a brighter shade of green.  Have you ever noticed overcast days are like that? It's like color enhancement, with a bright gray sky!

Here is a fun card to tell someone you're thinking about them on a rainy day. Again, the stamps all come from Unity Stamp Co!! (I swear they are my favorite!  They have new stamps coming out every week!! For links & more info. see below.)

I had fun with different cloud configurations, & wound up with 2 1/2 cards! I actually cut the stamp in half so that I can easily use it with the rain or without.  Cling stamps make it easy to do stuff like that because you can put more than one cling onto your block so it's all lined up before you stamp! I really lucked out finding the cute clouds washi tape at the dollar store ~ and the perfect color too!!  (click photos to enlarge)


I hope this post brings a little sunshine into your day.  Now I've got to go finish mowing the lawn before it rains!!

having fun with the card back and inside !!

Unity Stamps are all cling mounted and I have found they have the most reliable clingy-ness!  They are also made of deeply etched red rubber which I prefer for a really nice image every time!!


To make the sun peeking out from behind I used part of a set called Blossom Stackers:   https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/blossomhttps://www.unitystampco.com/shop/blossom-stackers/-stackers/. It's a huge set of various flower, doily, and plain circles great for building embellishments ~ and as it turns out, sunshines!! 
The sentiment stamp comes from their Itty Bitty line:   https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/you-are-my-sunshine-ep-itty-bitty/  
I also used one of their brand new sets:   https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/little-sunshine/   for the detailed clouds ;)
The faint lighter clouds were stamped from:  https://www.unitystampco.com/shop/sending-up-something-beautiful/