Little Lady Bee

I just love the Little Lady set from Papertrey Ink! I've been having so much fun with all of their acrylic sets--I guess I've taken a bit of a break from my stash of SU! stamp sets so I can gear up for the new catty!

For this card, I turned the ladybug into a bumblebee using the Faux Ribbon set (also by Papertrey Ink) and the 'kissing' technique. I did have to use my marker to darken the stripes a bit, bit it was easy. The body of the bee is Barely Banana ink, and the main card is the same color. I edged the white panel with black ink to set it off just slightly (you can see this IRL, but not so much in the photo). To finish, I added this fun prima with a large silver brad in the center and the fun dotted May Arts ribbon. And the 'celebrate' sentiment makes this a good card for many occasions!

Faux Ribbon Background

I was in the mood for some fun springy/summer colors, and I love how easy the Faux Ribbon set from Papertrey Ink is to use when making backgrounds! For this card, I used SU!'s Cool Caribbean, Certainly Celery, and Pretty in Pink to create the background. The sentiment is in pink as well, and is mounted on black that I cut out with decorative scissors (no mega scalloped circle here). I mounted that on a Cool Caribbean giga scalloped circle that I punched around the edge. To finish, I added some matching May Arts ribbon I found locally and a small gem to the sentiment.

This was my first attempt at using dye inks with the acrylic stamps. Usually, I use either the SU! pigment inks or, more often, I use the VersaMagic chalk inks. I have to say that I really do prefer the pigment or chalk inks for coverage, but with practice, i think I'll like the dye inks as well.

One Sheet of Designer Paper

These are three more cards I made with this EK success paper. Emily posted a challenge to use up an entire sheet of decorative paper, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Let me just say, it's not as easy as it seems. Perhaps it's because there aren't many colors in this particular sheet, but I've made 4 cards and I'm stumped! I still have almost half a sheet left, too!

The first 2 cards are standard 5.5 x 4.25 cards, and the third is a simple 4.25" square. Martha Stewart ribbon. All stamped images are from www.papertreyink.com.

First Card Upload

Here is my first card upload for my new blog! My hubby wanted a card for his mom for Mother's Day, and this is what I whipped up. I used the Green Thumb set from www.papertreyink.com, stamped using the yummy Versamagic chalk inks. The card was inspired by the EK success paper I found the other day, and I also used some of the new Martha Stewart ribbon from Michael's. Cardstock is SU! Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip, and the hardware is from SU! as well.

jumpin' off a cliff. . .

is what this feels like. I've toyed with the idea of actually creating my own blog, instead of simply spending hours surfing and lurking in the lives of others via their blogs. But what if I don't have anything interesting to say? What if noone ever sees my blog? What if those who stumble on it think I'm a total idiot? Well, I've decided to take the plunge, and if I come off looking silly, I guess it was just meant to be.

So, what do I hope to accomplish here? Nothing really. I'll probably post photos of my stamping creations from time to time, wax poetic on occasion, and generally use this forum as an outlet for the chaotic ramblings I'm prone to.

I've jumped off the proverbial cliff. . .let's hope I have a soft landing!