SNSS May Blog hop event!

Good morning!

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps May release blog hop event!  Today, Korin has added seven new stamp sets to her online store.  We'd also like to invite you to the May Release Party that will be held at Splitcoast tonight.  There will be challenges and lots of fun chatter - we'd love to have you join us!

My first card uses the adorable Gone Fishing stamp set - I am in LOVE with this cute puppy!  My dad loves to fish, so I may need to save this card to give to him.  I decided to pull out my colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits, and blending stumps for my card today and I'm so glad I did!  I haven't used them in so long and forgot how easy they are to use and the fun looks you can get by blending colors together.  The puppy and his fishing hat ended up just like I wanted him too... love that!

Card Details
Stamps: Gone Fishing (SNSS)
Ink: Memento; Versafine
Card stock: SU
Other: PTI texture plate; Colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits, blending stumps; MFT border and label dies; SU ribbon

Next, is a card with the new Wedding Cake stamp set.  Since 'wedding' season is coming upon us, I'm very happy to have this set in my stash.  I really like this cake image - it was fun to color with Copics!  One of the teachers I work with is getting married this summer soon after school is done and her colors are grey and purple... thus the color choices on my card!  I believe I'll give this one to her on her big day!

Card Details
Stamps: Wedding Cake (SNSS)
Ink: Memento
Card stock: DCWV textured; SU
Other: Copic markers; doily; SU ribbon; Want 2 Scrap bling; MFT border die

Since I'm at the end of the hop, you may have already visited all the blogs on today's hop, if not please check out these links for even more inspiration using all the stamp sets being release today!  Be sure to leave comments along the way, as Korin will be drawing one name from all the commens to win the entire release!  All the details for the big giveaway will be on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog.

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog

Korin Sutherland

Dina Kowal

Giovana Smith

Bridget Finlay

Taylor Usry

Monika Davis

Holly McMillen

Kim Singdahlsen

DJ Rants

Cathy McCauley

Jennie Harper

Kim Schofield

Mary Faus

Jessica Fick

Have a wonderful rest of your day!
Happy hopping -
Jessica

Seeds of Kindness Potted Plants

Hi!

I'm having a blast a CHA and have taken lots of photos of friends and stamping 'celebrities'!  If you'd like to see them, here's the link to the photo album on Facebook.  You don't need to be a member of Facebook to see them, by the way.  It's been so fun and I'm looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow. 

I have a couple more cards to share tonight with the Seeds of Kindness stamp set.  The card kit that I've designed for this stamp set is free with the purchase of the stamp for just a bit longer - until next Thursday, August 5.  So, if you're thinking about purchasing the set don't wait too much longer so you can get the coordinating kit for free!

Once again, I pulled out my Distress inks and water brush and water colored the focal images for both of these cards...

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Distress; Memento black
Cardstock: GinaK
Other: embossing folder; square punch; piercer; waterbrush; sponge dauber; ribbon; button

And, here's the second one - with navy, spruced up, and wine colored cardstocks:

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Memento black; distress
Cardstock: GinaK
Other: embossing folders; waterbrush; ribbon; oval punch;

and the inside -

Have a wonderful rest of your night and if you're coming to CHA - I hope I see you tomorrow!
Jessica

More Watercolored Flowers

Good evening!

I'm headed to CHA tomorrow morning with some friends and am SO excited!  But before I finish packing, I wanted to share a couple of cards that I've made recently with the Seeds of Kindness stamp set.  Once again, I pulled out my waterbrush and tried my hand at watercoloring the images.

On this first card, I did a free form water colored background first and then stamped the image in versafine ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then, I water colored the image with some distress inks to help it pop...

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Black Versafine
Cardstock: GinaK
Other: Border punch; embossing folder; waterbrush; twine; nestability die; ArtQuest watercolors; rhinestones

The next one was watercolored once again with Koh-i-noor watercolors and then touched up with a couple of distress inks to help the colors pop a bit more.

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Black Versafine
Cardstock: GinaK
Other: waterbrush; corner rounder; embossing folder; nestability dies; white gel pen; buttons

Back to packing and finishing everything up!  I'm hoping to get photos while at CHA and will do my best to post them on my blog when/if I get internet connection while away from home. 

Have a great night and if you're going to be at CHA Wednesday - Friday, I hope I'll see you there!
Jessica

Love Hanging Around with You!

Good evening!

Were you as amazed by everyone's projects for the Seeds of Kindness stamp set a couple of days ago?!  I am so lucky to have such talented designers as my friends, aren't I?  I hope you were as inspired as I was with the hop!  My goal for the Card Kit blog hops is to give you lots of ideas on how to use the current card kit stamp set and to entice you to look into adding it to your cart if you haven't already!  lol!

I have another card to share tonight that I made with the Seeds of Kindness stamp set.  I really like the rich colors of this card and the layout is kind of fun too!  I water colored the focal image on GinaK's Pure Luxury heavy base white paper along with an aqua painter and my palette of Koh-i-noor watercolors.  If you are looking for some cheap, but very vibrant and easily blend-able watercolors, I would recommend them highly.  Here's photo and a link to check them out, so you can see what I'm referring to.  (seriously, they are around $6 on sale on this link!  Talk about cheap!!  I believe you may be able to find them at Michaels stores too.)

I really like the Koh-i-noor name brand for the economical prices and superior blend-able colors.  Do I sound like a commercial?  I don't mean to, but I really do like them and have had fun with their colored pencils and watercolors again lately.   To help my paintbrush stay in the lines, I stamped the image in Versafine ink and embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  This is my favorite ink and prep work to do for watercolors as I like not only the lines the embossing powder provides but also the shine of the embossing powder provides as well.

A few hints to water coloring this image ... first, be sure to work in sections. So, for example, I first painted the middle of the leaves with a yellow and then moved down to the pot and painted that with a red.  Then, once the yellow was looking dry, I went over the leaves with a light green, leaving some yellow for highlights, but not coloring the entire edges of the leaves too closely.  Then, while that was drying - I picked up some brown and shaded over the red on the pot.  Finally, I edged the leaves with a dark green, blending the colors as shown in the photo.

It may seem like a lot of steps, but really it took a very short amount of time.  The nice thing about water coloring is that if the colors get a bit too vibrant, you can 'erase' some of it with water!  And, if it's too subtle ... let it dry and then add more color with just a touch of water.  After it was all dry, I cut around the image, leaving a white border and then popped it up over the image stamped again on a white focal paper.

Card Details
Stamps: Seeds of Kindness
Ink: Memento; Versafine
Cardstock: GinaK: Navy, Soft Sand, White, All Spruced up, Wine with Everything; DCWV green patterned
Other: Aqua painter & Koh-i-noor watercolors; silver brads; button; EK Success scallop border punch; textile cuttlebug embossing folder; detail embossing powder

The inside is quick and simple as well.  I never take much time or effort for the insides of my cards.  I have a little container of pre-cut  quarter sheets of white and ivory on my desk.  While designing my card insides, I usually trim a piece of matching cardstock to 3 3/4" x 5"  and add a few strips that are still on my table from the front of my card.  It normally takes less than 5 minutes to finish the card's inside and I find that I enjoy giving my cards out so much more if they are decorated to match the outsides.

Have a great rest of your day and thanks for checking in on me! 
Jessica

Nestabilities Class Cards

Good evening!

I'm popping in quickly to share the cards we'll be making at tomorrow's nestabilities class at GinaK's store. The class is from 11:30 - 1:30 and we still have some open spots if you are looking for a way to spend your Friday morning!

I meant to share these cards with you earlier today, but time got away from me... you can relate, right?

Just a few details on the specifics of the cards...

* The wheelbarrow is colored with Koh-i-noor pencils, OMS, and blending stumps. I added a few 'shine' marks with the white pencil that comes with the set. Also, do you see those 'red' brads? They are actually pewter, but I colored the tops of the brads with my Copic R27 marker.

* The second card features Basic Grey's Offbeat Paper - which is sanded with the new Tim Holtz sanding block we just got in the store. It is so cool! The pumpkin is paper pieced of course, since I seem to be addicted to that technique lately! The shading around it is done with a variety of copic markers.

Have a great night! I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class - maybe I'll see you there?
Jessica

CHA Highlights

CHA was very educational and inspiring for me. Gina and Melanie were awesome roommates. I had the 'hard' job of helping Gina pick out all sorts of new products to carry in her store. It was tough, but someone had to do it and I was up for the task! LOL!

It was fun walking the CHA floor together getting inspired by all the products and samples that were displayed at every turn. We both came away with ideas for a variety of new classes in the upcoming months in Gina's McFarland store.

New Friends
I really enjoyed spending time getting to know Melanie - who is as sweet and adorable as all of those super cute animals she's drawn for Gina combined! Mel is an awesome illustrator and designer and it was a big highlight of my trip to spend time with her while I was in Chicago.

It was a real pleasure to meet some of Gina's other design team members: Cammie, Joanne, Kurtis, Michelle. I've admired all of their design team work - they are really talented and such nice people.

We were also able to spend time with My Favorite Things Owner Kim van der Saden and several of her design team members. They welcomed us into their group with open arms and it was really fun going out to supper with them the first two nights we were there. They are an amazing group of talented, lively ladies who are full of love for each other. Their friendship for each other was really cool to see and to be part of.

Vendors & Designers
One of my very favorite spots to hang out at was the Ranger booth. I spent a lot of time there learning some great tips and techniques specifically with their Distress Ink line. I was able to stand at the tables of two of their amazing designers - Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi and watch masters at work doing many different techniques with their amazing products. Watching them reminded me of why I love their products so much.

Another favorite booth of mine was the Copic one, where some of their top coloring experts demonstrated step by step their coloring processes along with blending and shading tips. Mish Wooderson, Marianne Walker, and Debbie Olsen all colored and even signed one of their demonstration samples before each one of them gave me one to keep! How amazing is that?

I met Kathy Sanders at our Milwaukee Copic Certification class so I was so excited to see that she was working the Copic booth as well. She gave several awesome shading tips as well. She told me that she has taught thousands of classes at her local stamping store in Milwaukee over the past 6 years and is just now beginning to pursue more teaching opportunities for other stores. She has written an awesome tutorial for Splitcoast Stampers on Alcohol Markers. Go check out the link to see it - you'll learn a lot, I'm sure! I'm just disappointed that I forgot to ask her for a sample with an autograph... bummer!

I also met another super talented lady whose work I have admired for some time. Her name is Cathy Matthews-Scanlon. She was working the EK Success booth and was so sweet to me showing me some tips to try out with their variety of pens and markers. I learned some great ideas from her - and was so tickled to keep on running into her during CHA... okay, maybe I was stalking her, but that's just between us, okay? heehee...

I hit the jackpot at the ScorPal booth. Diana is a genius and I was so thrilled to meet her and tell her in person how much I love all of her ScorPal products. I use them all the time at home and when I'm teaching at Gina's store. She was so sweet and gave me some products to encourage me to continue to use her products! I guess she knew that I can be bought! LOL!

Val Stangle worked the ScorPal booth and I was thrilled to meet her in person. She is one of my favorite Dirty Dozen Designer Girls from Splitcoast Stampers. Her style is so classy and I go to her blog and gallery often to be inspired. She is a Rock Star stamper in my book and I was so happy that I could personally tell her how much I've admired her work over the years. We ate lunch together on the last day of CHA and she even made me a box with the ScorPal. How lucky am I?

Overall, CHA was amazing. I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people from many different companies. I found a lot of great products while I was there and can't wait until the ones Gina decided to order arrive in her store.

Some of my favorite new products:

Ranger Metallic & White Crackle Paint

EK Success new jumbo sized punches

Marvy Velvet markers

Bind-it-All

Pentel Outline Markers; Brushables

Core dinations Cardstock

Tonic Paper Cutters

ApplePie Acrylic Books

Basic Grey new Paper Lines & Board Books

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

That's just what I can remember off the top of my head... wait until I get my hands on all the catalogs to help refresh my memory!

Sorry this was so long... I've been composing my thoughts about CHA for a few days now. I didn't want to forget any of the highlights. And, Brad was giving me a hard time about not posting for a few days! LOL!

I couldn't write such a long post without including a couple of cards. I finally had a chance last week to pull out some of Gina's adorable Kindred Kids that she released last month. They are so fun to watercolor!

Card Details: Kindred Kids - At the Beach, Little Girl at Play; SU paper; Watercolor paper; India Ink; Nestabilities; Hero Arts gems; ribbon colored with copic; liquid applique; Koh-i-noor watercolors; aqua painter; buttons; fiskars handheld heart punch



Thanks for taking the time to stop by and let me talk your ears - I mean eyes off!

Jessica

Fruit of the Spirit

Card Details: Fruit of the Spirit (Our Daily Bread); Bazzil Textured Cardstock, K&Co. Designer paper; Watercolor paper; Superior India Ink Black; USArtQuest Stargazers & Pastelles Watercolor Palettes; Aqua painter, Prima Flower; K&Co. Gems; Cuttlebug & Embossing Folder; Sandpaper; Inkssentials Handle & Sponges for shading; Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Antique Linen; SU Ticket Corner Punch

Good morning! My cards today were made with another stamp set from Our Daily Bread called the Fruits of the Spirit.


I used USArtQuest's watercolor palettes to color the fruit bowls on the first two cards. The fruit bowl is really shimmery in person, but I think it's hard for the camera to pick it up all the shimmer. These paints are similiar to Twinkling H2o's, except that they come in a palette rather than individual pots.


For the third card, I used Koh-i-noor's Watercolor Palette to color because I wanted to color a more vibrant fruit bowl. I bought the palette locally, but here's a link to see an online photo of what the palette looks like. Unfortunately there is no purple, so I mixed blue and red to make my own!

I don't know if you've noticed from my posts so far, but I love using my scraps when I'm making cards. Every card you've seen of mine so far has been made entirely from my scrap drawers. I hate to waste beautiful paper, so I'll usually make up a variety of cards when I sit and stamp. It's fun for me to see how similar papers can make entirely different looking cards using various stamps.

Card Details: Fruit of the Spirit (Our Daily Bread); Bazzil Textured Cardstock; K&Co. Designer Paper; Watercolor Paper; Superior India Ink; USArtQuest Stargazers & Pastelles Watercolor Palettes; Aqua Painter; Cuttlebug & Embossing Folder; Tim Holtz Distresser & Distress Inks: Antique Linen, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick; Inkssentials Handle & Sponges for shading; K&Co. Gems; Making Memories Word Button

Card Details: Fruits of the Spirit (Our Daily Bread); Palette Noir Ink; Koh-i-Noor's Watercolor Palette; SU paper: Confetti White; River Rock; River Rock DSP; SU corner rounder; aqua painter

Thanks for checking in with me this morning!

Jessica

Fishers of Men

Card Details: Fishers of Men (Our Daily Bread); Bazzil Textured Paper; SU Choc Chip; Watercolor Paper; Koh-i-Noor watercolors, Aqua Painter, Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Old Paper; Palette Noir; Inkssentials Handle & Sponges for shading; Sakura Glitter Pen; EK Success Circle Punches; SU Piercing Template; Making Memories Paper Piercer

Good morning! When I saw Our Daily Bread Stamps add banner on Splitcoast a few weeks ago, I had to check it out. What I saw, made me so happy! Beautiful unmounted stamp sets with coordinating Bible verses all at very reasonable prices! This gorgeous Fishers of Men stamp set is one of their newest stamps sets. My dad is a Pastor who loves to fish, so it was calling my name and I know I'll get lots of use from it! Their shipping is reasonable and really fast, so I highly recommend them!

Card Details: Fishers of Men (Our Daily Bread); SU: white confetti, black, olive dsp; SU Slot punch & corner rounder; Ribbons; Crystal Brad

The first card is loaded with texture, while the second card is my attempt at a one layer card. I always have a hard time actually completing a one layer card. I try, but when I finish, it never looks finished to me. So, I end up adding embellishments (thus the name of my blog!!) and then my clean and simple attempt has failed again! I like both cards, though and am looking forward to using them soon!

Have a wonderful rest of your Monday!
Jessica