Elizabeth Craft Stickers with Watercolor

I'm back today to share the rest of the cards made with my Elizabeth Craft sticker set, Flowers in Frame,  In these cards, I adhered the sticker to a piece of watercolor paper.  I then used my Distress inks and a waterbrush to color the insides of each sticker, also creating washes around the sticker in some cases.  The result is this simple, but elegant card set.

I am playing with the watercolors trying to blend and soften the colors.  I will admit to needing some more practice, but I think these cards really turned out nice.  I'm going to set them into the stash to use as gifts for special occasions.

This inspires me to keep after those supplies that have been accumulating.  Realize, the finish of this set gets ONE sheet of stickers from the pile. However, one at a time baby!  Go, use a supply that has long since been crying out to be used.  Feel the satisfaction, don't look back at the pile.

Delicious Ending to St. Patrick's Day

I made these yummy treats for a few co-workers today.  Simple, but homemade, the sugar cookies were baked by my daughter - she's so kind and helplful most of the time!.  Those are 4 leaf clover and gold medallions on top of the powdered sugar icing.  I found the tag online as a printable - simple and to the point for today.

I ended the day with a home cooked corned beef and cabbage dinner served up by my husband, Dan, himself.  He's the Irish in this household and I told him how very pleased I was to be his wife tonight (and every night!).

What were your St. Patrick's Day celebrations?  More exciting than mine I hope.  Either way, enjoy tomorrow.  It's Friday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Love

Good day and the Luck of the Irish to you as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day today. I thought I'd stop in to share this card that Brandy made with you.  I believe Brandy used the We R Memory Keepers Dotted embossing folder to create the background which she then inked with greens and yellow green ink.  The edge is embossed with gold embossing powder - simply edge the card with embossing ink, sprinkle with powder and melt.  The Hearts were die cut from coordinating green (my favorite!) patterned papers and edged with gold embossing powder in a similar manner as the background.

Simply fantastic, yes!?  I'm going to link Brandy up to the following challenges:

City Crafter Challenge Blog Week#303 - Make It Green
Word Art Wednesday's Challenge Weeks222 and 223 Anything Goes
Get Creative Challenges Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's the day of Green!  I mean, Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.  I hope your corned beef is tasty and your day is filled with green-goodness.

Using Hollyhocks for a Birthday Card

I just have to share this card made by Brandy.  The card is based around some die cuts made with Impression Obsession's Hollyhock dies.  Brandy cut the hollyhocks out onto watercolor paper.  She then used her pan watercolors to color the flowers.  Exquisite, don't you think?  The wash in the background was created using the same pan watercolors - super impressionistic, but it looks like hills with a stream running through at sunset or sunrise.  Perfect for this birthday card.  Notice Brandy's signature at the bottom - a true artist's rendering.

I hope this inspires you to give watercoloring a try.  We've both really been enjoying playing in this medium and hope you join us!

I'm  entering this card into the following challenges:

SSS Wednesday Challenge Simon Says Bit-o-Green
Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #221 Anything Goes

Our Beautiful World - Easter

 Our Beautiful World has a word prompt this week which immediately tugged at my heart.  The word is Easter.  Of course, Easter first makes me think of Jesus, the King above all Kings who sacraficed Himself to save sinners like me.  Celebrating Easter in our family is always a special time and like many families, we have many traditions which have become our expression of joy as we celebrate Jesus.

One of our first traditions is coloring eggs.  We first did this because I did the same as a young child.  Quickly, the eggs became our contribution to Easter dinner and so we turned the activity to a purpose.  Plus it weighs in on the Egg Wars.

My husband's family had a tradition where they cracked the eggs together, seeing which egg doesn't crack creating an ultimate winner.

My role is photographer and this post shows several years of egg wars.

However, the tradition that is closest to my heart is the Smelling of the Eggs.  We've always had St. Bernards and it has always interested them - how the bowl of eggs smells after the coloring treatment.   For being such big dogs, they are most tender in the smelling.

We'll have our first Easter without a dog in a very long time.  I will try to go through it without the actual Smelling of the Eggs with a good spirit.  Guess this might be the best year to join the egg wars.  I'll have pent up energy that can be turned for good and maybe a win!

When you think of Easter, what comes to mind?  Come join the fun over at Our Beautiful World.