Watercolor on Wednesday

Welcome back to my little crafty blog!

Yes, I have been MIA for a bit, and I have not one, but TWO very good reasons for that.  The first is the fact that I have been completely consumed with watching my CUBBIES win the World Series last week!!!! (photos courtesy of trolling Facebook)  ;)

In my lifetime, I have seen every Chicago team win a championship!!!

OH my word, do you even believe it!??  I am STILL pinching myself to be sure it really happened!

OK, so the second thing consuming my time is not nearly as fun...through NO fault of my own, my internet provider (AT&T, and I highly suggest dropping them after this experience) suspended my email account!!!!!!  I have had this account since approximately the year 2000, so just slightly less time since the Cubs won their last series, lol.  Long story shorter--I have since been spending all my evenings getting into ALL my online accounts and updating my email addresses.  You can imagine the headache--especially when I cannot for the life of me remember my passwords!  I am using only a gmail account now and I HIGHLY recommend you use one instead of any email address that you are essentially paying to use.  I do NOT want you to have to go through this experience.  Trust me!

Now, on to the crafts!

I recently used an amazing piece of watercoloring that my daughter painted with my CTMH Watercolor Paints with a dropper....and I used it as a scrapbook layout background in her baby book!

You should have seen her face when she saw the layout...she was SO proud.

I added some of the Baby Boy and Girl Complements for some easy-peasy interest...and also some Enamel and Glitter Duo buttons and Gypsy stamped letters from the Marker Alphabet My Acrylix.

I love that my girl loves it!

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New Thin Cuts!

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Beyond Awesome Watercolors

Ready to see more cards with the sentiments from Beyond Awesome?  AWESOME!!!  I you missed my post yesterday, be sure to check that one out too!

LOVE this sentiment still!  I used one of the FUN PML pocket cards from the Calypso Paper Packet to back the watercolored oval this time...

That cute stitched from is from one of my MCT dies...love that look!

I didn't stop there, though!  Last month Close to My Heart had a super fun paper pack called Happy Times with a pretty gold foil.  I used the woodgrain paper from the same pack to create this version of my cards...

I used my Versamark Ink to stamp the image and sprinkled it with Princess Gold Embossing Powder before hitting it with my craft heater to make it nice and shiny...

The watercolor on this one turned out SO yummy!

Just a little piece of advice when heat embossing.  I use this powder tool from EK to brush a fine powder all over the area I will stamp to prevent the embossing powder from sticking where I don't want it.  It works SO WELL, you simply MUST use one!

I had quite a bit of creating going on here!

You can see I made LOTS of watercolored backgrounds at one time, and I'm not done sharing them yet!  Come on back tomorrow to see more!

Don't miss the LAST Flash Sale for June!  This special sale on bundled products will continue until the end of the month so there are just two days left!

Without a Little Help, It Can Be a Long Way Home

Hi there!  Anyone ever have some car trouble?  Yeah, well you can totally understand where I am coming from with this particular post.  One of the worst feelings has to be when the check engine light comes on in your vehicle.  Even more stressful, is when it comes on at 70 MPH on the expressway in another state!

Well, thank goodness my dad and bro-in-law were totally ON it when I cautiously rolled into my Sister's driveway a few weeks ago!  It was SUCH a huge relief to not even have to deal with it, and hello, what a fab opportunity to make a fun card!

The Beyond Awesome My Acrylix stamp set from Close to My Heart is...let's just say...BEYOND AWESOME!

 I love all the fun AWESOME sentiments!  This is probably my fave...

How ridiculously awesome are these vellum arrow accents from the Calypso Complements?

I thought it would be a nice touch to (gently) remind the boys what exactly they were awesome for, so I used the Long Way Home Stamp of the Month to get my point across on the inside...

I used my Watercolor Paints and Beautiful You PML cards for the sentiment background on this one, and I happen to have a few more cards like this one to show you!  Make sure you come back tomorrow to see!  :)

Freshly Made for Dad

I was sitting in my craft cave having some VERY needed paper therapy this weekend when I remembered the Freshly Made Sketches design this week...

I also remembered this scrap of watercolor scenery I had created previously, but not used...so I guess it was time to use it!

The sketch is pretty wide open this week, but I stuck really close to the original...

I used a leftover Cricut Artistry shape that I had lying around for the sentiment.  I'm a keeper, what can I say?  ;)  This particular sentiment is from the new Close to My Heart Day for Dad My Acrylix, but it looks a bit different than the original thanks to my handy dandy Micro-Tip Scissors!  I did it again--I snipped my stamp to suit my needs.  It is one of the BEST things about clear, acrylic stamps.  :)

My dad is going to get a pretty good chuckle out of this one.  I was actually his firstborn AND born ON Father's Day!  PERFECT!!!

Here are the rest of the supplies I used for my card...

CTMH Watercolor Paper and Watercolors
CTMH Black, Canary, and Sunset Exclusive Ink
Pretty Pink Posh Sequins
Two retired stamp sets for the sunburst and sunshine  ;)

Check out the new June Stamp of the Month!

Happy Times Sunshine Layout

Here is the last of my Happy Times projects I can sneak in before the month is up!  I made a cover layout for my family Christmas Album from last year.  This was the first album I printed using the Project Life App on my phone, and I have to say it was quite an easy task!  I am now using some of my other embellishments to liven it up a bit with some dimension...which I will show you later!

For now, enjoy the cover layout...with some sneaky peaks of the new June Stamp of the Month, The Long Way Home, available now!

I cannot get enough of the watercolor trend...this is one of the new pocket cards in the Picture My Life Watercolor Cards--Gold Kit...

A strip of Zoe and Canary Fundamentals along with some Glitter and Enamel Dots complete the banner cluster.

Playing with my watercolors has definitely payed off...I adore the title for my album!  I accented it with gold foil stickers in the Fundamentals Basics Stickers...

The 1/2 inch Zip strips from the Happy Times Papers are amazing!

If you want to learn how to do some watercolor lettering of your own, check out this great video!

Smile! One More Day for Happy Times!

Oh my...there is only ONE more day left in May--but I have so much more to share with you from the Happy Times Paper Packet and My Acrylix stamp set.  I better get a moooooove on!

First, I made this sweet little watercolor card...

I used a small round waterbrush and my watercolor paints to practice some lettering and brushstrokes.  I added the Happy Times paper, Thistle CS, and Happy Times stamped images in Fern, Thistle and Gypsy as well as some Gold Foil Tape.

The little gold dots in the flower centers were easy to create with my hole punch...

Don't wait to get your hands on the Close to My Heart Happy Times Paper for FREE on my website!
Just add $60 in products to your cart and you will be prompted to add it!  Happy Shopping!  I will be right back tomorrow morning with a new layout using this gorgeous paper!

Freshly Made Sunshine

One of the reasons I LOVE being able to play along with the sketches over at Freshly Made Sketches is that I really have fun writing the blog post title!  ;)

The new sketch this week begged for some sunshine today, so I whipped out the Close to My Heart March Stamp of the Month, Sunshine Birdies.  Here's your sneak peek!

I used my watercolor paints, paper, and medium round brush to create the background. The sun was stamped first in Memento Ink, but I wasn't happy with the dullness after I painted, so I took a fine tip black marker over it again.

A sprinkle of Pretty Pink Posh sequins gives a little sparkle to the flat paint.  I colored the sentiment with my ShinHan markers and trimmed it out into a flat-bottomed cloud.  I wasn't done yet, though--I added some vellum cloud layers and white gelly roll accents.

I LOVE how it turned out!  Thanks for the great sketch, Jen!  :)

Freshly Made Sparkle and Shine!

Oh my goodness, where did the weekend go?  I had an amazing time with my friends at the Crafty Souls all day event...and then caught up with a tiny bit of housework before I stole away to play along with a couple of my favorite challenges.

I used sketch 206 from Freshly Made Sketches along with the inspiration photo from the Sparkle and Shine Challenge to create a wonderfully whimsical watercolor card!

I knew I was going to be giving my card a hefty sprinkling of my new sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, so I grabbed an equally sparkly sentiment from the Close to My Heart Diamonds Are Forever My Acrylix stamp set.

I ALSO experimented for the first time with a little bit of watercolor paint splatter on special watercolor paper...

This is my slogan!  I stamped it in Versamark Ink and heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Silver Powder BEFORE I painted...and then matted the watercolor paper on a piece of White Daisy CS trimmed with Silver Foil Tape after the paper was completely dry.  I used my heating tool to dry it a bit faster.  I adore how the two silver features complement each other!

I love how the yellow splatter ran the blob of color!

It was super fun to get my feet wet again (oh yes, I did!) and play with my new watercolors.  I have to work on my splatter technique and play some more!  Thank for stopping in!  :)

Grab the Twinkle Stamp of the Month while you can and get a free gift from me!

Fundamental Friday and Some NEWS!

Welcome back to my little crafty corner of the web!

Today is Friday, and I thought it was time to introduce you to the brand new patterns of the Close to My Heart Fundamentals!

I just LOVE our line of Fundamentals from the stickers to the paper.  We even have a little bit of bling now!

But, perhaps my very FAVORITE thing about the new Fundamentals is the fact that my daughter is featured in the Fundamentals artwork for the Idea Book!!!!

What a beautiful surprise!

I was absolutely smiling from ear to ear when I found out Close to My Heart chose to use her Senior pics for their artwork.  I might not stop smiling about it either!  ;)

Anyway, I used the NEW Sapphire colored Fundamentals Paper in the Enchantment pack for my latest watercolor card creation!

See the shiny embossed side?  LOVE!

I used the new Watercolor Paints, paper, and brushes to make this gorgeous background.

The shine goes just PERFECTLY with the glitter paper AND the sentiment I used from the NEW Diamonds are Forever My Acrylix...

I think I might save this one to send to MY crazy diamond.  ;)

Thanks for taking a peek today, and keep on shining!!!

Hello, Life

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