Birthday Bash!

So I am posting today after over a year away. Lots of changes have taken place in my life and I am beginning to find my way. Things have started to settle down and I have once again started crafting and making cards. I can lose track of time when working on one of my creations. I decided to join the Freshly Made Sketches #237 challenge this week with this Birthday card.

I love to use my Aqua painters to add color to my cards. They are so easy to use and so forgiving especially when I use them to splash the color on the cards. If you look close you can see the shimmer I added with the Clear Wink of Stella Glitter brush on the cake. I have enjoyed the versatility of the Its My Party DSP as well. I added some enamel dots and Bakers Twine to finish off this card.

Thanks so much for stopping by and look forward to hearing from you!

 

Aimee :-)

Creative Blog Hop

WOW! It has been a while since I have posted again! Life has been crazy, but I have been crafting a bit...just not posting. :( So, when Shana Gaff asked me to participate in the Creative Blog Hop I thought that would give me the incentive to do some blogging. Thanks so much Shana for your encouragement! I love your Clean and Simple style with your very own flavor! I hope you enjoy!

I have been practicing with the Blendabilities from Stampin' Up! and I have a couple cards to share.

I used the Blended Bloom stamp set for this card as well as Banner Blessings. The Blendabilites I used were the Cherry Cobbler on the inner petals and the Calypso Coral on the outer petals. I also used the color remover on the curled portions of the petals to add a bit more dimension. I have been coloring several of these flowers while I watch TV with my family in the evening. It is a good way to sneak some crafting time in. With the coloring all done, the cards come together pretty quick.

I have also been coloring this Two by Two stamp set. There are many more colors to consider and much smaller area to color. I loved the bight and cheery look to the coloring. It really pops on this white on white card.

As part of the Creative Blog Hop I was asked to answer a few questions.

 

What are you working on?

 

As I said before I have been coloring a lot with my Blendabilities. I also had a class this weekend so I have been busy making Make and Takes for that. Next, my daughter is going to invite some girls over to stamp for her birthday and she wants to design the card and guide them through making it. (Like I do with my classes.) We will be working on that together.

I am also gearing up to make some Valentines for my kids to share with their friends at school. I have some ideas bouncing around so I hope to share those with you later.

 



How does your work differ from others in your genre?

This is a bit difficult. I am not sure mine does differ. I do like to make Clean and simple cards but also LOVE to add subtle little details to finish them off. As much as I like it when a card comes together very quickly, I also don't mind spending a couple of hours to get the card just right.

Why do you create what you do?

I usually create for a specific person or reason. I love to use the challenges to spark my creativity but usually forget to post or just run out of time to post. I have a stash of cards I like to give away as gifts, but if I am making a card to give to someone specia,l I create it for the specific person I am sending it to. This week my grandma showed me all the cards I have made for her over the years. She had kept them all. She didn't know it but that was a gift to me for her to share. That is why I make each card special for that special someone.

How does your creative process work?

I usually used the challenge blogs to spark some creativity. I also love to go on Pinterest and see what other great crafters come up with and maybe merge a couple ideas together. Color is usually difficult for me to decide on so I try to see what colors other people have put together.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Merry and Bright!

I had some fun this afternoon playing with some stamps. I decided to join the challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch #99. This was a great sketch with so many possibilities, but I guess I was feeling in the Christmas mood.

I thought Stars would work great for the cluster of images. I love to mix textures on my cards and this was a perfect design to add some little details too. The Sentiment is from the Good Greeting Hostess Set and the DSP is from a paper stack last season. I think I will be duplicating this to send to some special people this Holiday season.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy birthday Maya!!

November 1997

Today is a very special day!! My niece, Maya, is turning 13!! She is such a bright, outgoing, wonderful girl!! She is such a kind hearted girl who is very compassionate. I remember the day she way born and how she stole our hearts! This little girl gave me the name "Aunt Aimee" and I couldn't imagine that I could love her so much!! I am so proud of the young lady she has became and can't wait to see what her future holds! I love you Maya Rose!

October 2014

I decided to make her a card and enter a challenge at Stampin' Celebration. This is a new challenge for me. I loved the sketch and thought I would give it a go! here is my card...

 I loved all the layers of this sketch! It was so much fun to play around with the DSP to find just what I was looking for. I thought this stampset was perfect for a teenage girl too!!

Thanks for stopping by and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYA!!!!

BOOO to you!

I have been away for a while...busy with life. I had been wanting to join some challenges but the longer I stayed away the more difficult it has been to spark the creativity again. I saw some fun challenges I thought I would try. At the Friday Mashup they were featuring a new technique, Ink Blowing, I had not tried yet. (Missed the cutoff!) Also the Create with Connie and Mary challenge is using some great fall colors. (I missed the cutoff..BOO!)  Boy am I rusty!! I also loved the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch #94. When I put them all together, I came up with this....

This is a retired set from Stampin' Up from last season, Googly Ghouls. I just loved this little set. I made the mummy in the middle look like he was popping out a bit with double dimensionals. The Ink Blowing Technique was so much fun. I believe this will be something that I will use often. This was a very simple card to make with lots of fun little details.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully I will be back soon!

 

Aimee

Brooke's Vivid Vases

I have been playing with my new Blendabilities from SU! and Having lots of fun! My daughter, Brooke, saw me coloring and asked me to make her a card with this Vivid Vases stamp. So this is for her! I also thought I would join the SUO challenge this week that is Birds, Bees, and Butterflies.

 



This was such a simple but fun card to make! I used all my new Blendabilites on this card. I decided to try to use the Rich Razzleberry and Coastal Cabana together for the vases. I also used the color lifter to form more of a hightlight on each vase as well. The butterfly was colored with Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight Blendabilities.

My daughter was thrilled when I gave her this card. She was also excited to color with me on her own project! Thanks for stopping by!

Blendabilities Fun!

I was so excited to break out my new Stampin' Up Blendabilities Alcohol Based Markers when they came in! Actually, I didn't wait for mine because my friend Shana Let me play with them on a field trip we took with our girls 4th grade class. I quickly realized riding on a bus was not the most ideal place to try them but I just couldn't help myself! I decided to make a very simple card for my Grandma for Mother's Day and knew she would just love the flowers! I also decided to join the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More CAS challenge. Here is my card....

Here is a close up...

Even though this is a CAS card I loved how the Blendabilities added a lot of dimension to the card. I have found the more I use the markers the comfortable I am with trying new things. I have learned to stay away from the edge while coloring so it does not bleed outside the lines. I also used the Color Lifter marker to add a highlight spot to each of the vases. Thanks so much for stopping!



Chevron Mothers Day

I have a card to share with you that I had designed for the Retro Sketches Challenge and Just Add Ink Challenge. I have worked on this here and there over 3 days and the same with this blog post. Because of that I missed the cutoff for Just Add Ink but made it for Retro Sketches..Whew!

I had a lot of fun with this card combining some newer items with some retired items. The sentiment is from April's Paper Pumpkin which I loved! I would normally not buy a Mothers Day stamp by itself so I was thrilled to receive it in the kit!

 I decided to emboss the Chevron background and loved the classy look. I have been seeing many cards being made with sentiments stamped on vellum and then layed over a background stamp. I thought that would work well with this card. I loved the Floral Fusion die cut which I will not be retiring from my stash of goodies.

Thanks so much for stopping!

 

Retro Fresh and Timeless Talk

I have to admit that I absolutely LOVE the Retro Fresh DSP from Stampin' Up! I have found that I have a hard time deciding on which sides of the paper to use. I used the sketch this week from Freshly Made Sketches #133 and added some Retro Fresh DSP... this is what I came up with.

 

To give this card a "clean" look I decided to feature this great DSP and just a little stamping. It was very hard for me not to dry emboss the half circle but I thought the DSP was more than enough pattern for this card. This was the first time I had used the stamp set, Timeless Talk. I am not sure why it has taken me so long to use but I am sure I will be using it often now that it has seen some ink! :) I also covered a button using some washi tape. Cindy Beach had a wonderful tutorial on her site with some great ideas for washi tape. Check it out HERE!

As I stated earlier I loved this DSP but I also loved this sketch so I decided to make another card! This was the first time I had used the Perfect Blend stamp set too!

Both of these cards came together very quick. I was fun to show how different card can appear even though you are using much of the same products. Thanks for stopping by!!

 

Stampin' Up Display Stamper Submissions

 I decided to submit some of my favorite projects for the SU!  Display Board Event contest for Convention. These are some of my favorite creations.

 

 Photo Album for a Friend's wedding

Front with Band

Front without Band

First opened

Opened all the way. Left side

Opened all the way. Right side

Back with band

laying down

 

12x12 Scrapbook page...My Life...

 

 

 Cards

 I love to add the little details to my cards.

 

Thank you for stopping by!!

MOJO Birthday

This weekend my brothers are celebrating their 40th birthday! They are twins and younger than me. I have so many wonderful memories of growing up with them and could not ask for better brothers. They are wonderful dads, terrific husband and great friends! I love them both very much!
Here is one of the card I created using the Mojo Monday sketch...

 

I love Tangerine Tango and Bermuda Blue Together. I wanted to make this card as clean as possible with a few little details so I added the candy dots as well as the paper piercing to set this apart. I also added a little splash to the sentiment to make it a bit more bold...different from the rest of the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

 



Fun with Markers

At the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge we are to use Markers! I love the SU! markers because you can do so much more than color images. Actually on the care I made for this challenge I did everything BUT color an image. Take a look...

 I used some doodling to create a fun festive border for this card. It reminds me a bit like streamers. I also used my Color Spritzer tool that uses a SU! Marker to give a little splatter to the background. Eventhough this is retired I still use the Color Spritzer tool ALOT! I used a Uniball white pen to create faux stitching on the Coastal Caribbean Banner. I also used the SU! Markers to color directly on the stamps for the sentiment and candles. I love the versatility of these markers!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

The first is a card I made today isfor the CAS(E) this Sketch, Color Throwdown and Technique Time Tuesday Challenges. I had a lot of fun combining all of these challenges and they were a great inspiration for this card I made for a wonderful friend of mine, Patty. She is always giving me encouragement in many different areas of my life and is a great cheerleader for me! ....Just the kind of friend everyone should have!

 

At Technique Time Tuesday the challenge is to use the Shaving Cream Technique on your projects. I decided to use it for my focal point image. The "U" is from my stash and is not SU! but I thought this was a perfect place for it. The little banners are Washi Tape and I added a few candy dots to continue the Valentine theme. This card was very simple and lots of fun to create!

On a side note... I have used this technique before on cards but last Easter we also used this technique to color Easter Eggs with my kids. Yes it was messy but they LOVED it!! We dipped the eggs in vinegar prior to placing them in shaving cream and they made the perfect Tie Dyed look.

Here are some pictures of the process.

Thanks for stopping by!!