IT'S A POLKA DOTS AND PAISLEY KIND OF DAY!

Today it's a Polka Dots and Paisley kind of day. This is another older Stampin' Up stamp set.  I say older because I stopped being a SU demonstrator in 2009  and so I know I got the set before that.  I haven't even seen a catalog since then so I have no idea whether it is a retired set or not.  Oh well.

I did not find this an easy set to work with.  I had to spend a lot of time in the Split Coast Stampers gallery of cards for this set to get some inspiration.  I did manage to  come up with 6 designs.  Today /i have here two cards where I used the flower stamp three times on each.  On this first one I used same color flowers.  Once again I used my markers to color the stamps, huffed on them and then stamped.  Unlike the past two days this time I didn't use watercolor paper but just white card stock.  I wish I could tell you what kind of card stock it is but I can't.  I have many different kinds and over time I have lost track of what is what.  The patterned paper here is another of my scraps that was found in the brimming scrap folder. The sentiment is not a SU stamp but is from a large set of stamps I got at Costco years ago.  I'm not sure of the company, but know it is an acrylic stamp. 


For the second card here I colored each flower differently.  I forgot to say that I used my stamp-a-ma-jig for the first card as well as this one to get the placement of the flowers where I wanted them.  I just love that little gizmo.  Once again I use designer paper scraps and also my scallop punch which is from SU and I love it!  The sentiment on this second card is part of the Polka Dot and Paisley set. The ovals were cut using my Cuttlebug and spellbinders oval sets. 

So that is today's post. I am so happy that I got to do some stamping last weekend.  I really need to make time to do more.  I am a much more content person when I have put rubber and ink to paper withing 24 hours or so........

MORE EASY ELEGANCE

The previous two cards had all three of the Easy Elegance flowers on them.  For this card I only used one of the floral stems.  I've been going though a major clean out of my home and part of that was sorting through organizing and, yes, even reducing my scrap  stash.  I have a file folder full to brimming with designer paper scraps. While working with this stamp set I remembered a scrap I had found of a paper that had a floral motif very similar to this stamp.  Digging through the scraps again I found it and this is the resulting card.  Once again the image was colored with my water color markers, spritzed with water and stamped onto water color paper.  I pulled out another favorite tool to distress the edges of the water color paper to give a torn appearance to the rectangular piece,  I think the jagged edges work well with the somewhat irregular appearance of the watercolor stamped image,

All in all I like the look of this card. 

Tomorrow I'm move on to my use of the Polka Dot and Paisley set.  It was a very challenging set to use.  I needed to get some major inspiration and help from the Split Coast Stamper gallery for this set.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I STAMPED TODAY!

It's been so very long, but today I actually allowed myself to take a break from all that needs to be done and made some cards.  I stamped pretty much all day, rediscovering how much I love creating cards.  I also rediscovered that I am not a neat stampers.  Hard to believe one person can create such a mess is such a short time.  BUT it was a lovely mess.

I haven't purchased any new stamps in over a year so I pulled out two of my old sets and challenged myself to use only those two sets for my days worth of creativity.  The two sets I  used were Easy Elegance and Polka Dots and Paisley. Both are Stampin' Up sets from when I was a demonstrator. 


I love using the Easy Elegance set with water color paper.  I colored the stamps with my water color markers and then spritzed them with water just before stamping onto the watercolor paper.  This stamp set has three lovely long stemmed flowers and I used them in both a portrait and a landscape arrangement with the Top Note diecuts using my cuttlebug.  I love my bug! 

If you are not familiar with the Top Note die that is from Stampin' Up it has a perforation that gives you a cutting line to follow if you want to create two layers.  I cut down the water color die cut so that it would layer over the top of the color. For both of these I stamped the flowers after cutting the shape so I could place them where I wanted them. 

More designs later.  I can't use them all on this one post becasue who knows when I have another day to stamp again for a while.......still so much that needs to be done around the house.  Right now that is number one priority