Sail On and Thank You

I'm sharing another watercolor project from Brandy today.  I've known Brandy's talent for over a decade now, but she still blows me away from time to time.  I gasped aloud when we sent over this photo of a card made to say thank you to a co-worker and her dad for a kindness bestowed.  Given, the stamped image is a old Heartfelt Creations stamp, so the detailing and quality of the image is spectacular.  However, the shading - in the waves, in the sail, in the clouds, in the sunset.  It is all so beautiful.  This image was colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  The technique with these markers is slightly different, but very much the same as what you would do with traditional watercolors and a clean brush.  Here's a video of Jennifer McGuire demonstrating these markers.

I hope this brightens your day and makes you long for a clear sunset overlooking the water.  That's what I think of when I look at this card!

I'm linking this card up with:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge Wonderful Watercolor

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge Simon Says Color Inspiration

Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #205 Anything Goes

A Set Of Notecards

I decided to try my hand a new use for my Brusho water color crystals.  Today I die cut this leafy branch using my Cricut Straight From the Nest cart.  I cut this from white cardstock at between 4 and 5 inches.  I then used my Yellow, Leaf Green and Brown Brusho water color crystals, strategically sprinkling them onto the die cut.  I liberally spritzed water from a spray bottle over the die cut and let it do some magic.  With these die cuts, I used a lot more water to create the blended look typically seen when using watercolors.

I used my SSS Stitched Rectangles die to create the white cardstock background, embossing the sentiment with gold embossing powder.  To create a thicker result, I sprinkled embossing powder over the image while still hot from the first time I melted the image and re-heated to melt the new powder.  This technique can work to fill in and enhance the image, creating a rich look.  I also used the same technique on the cardstock background, edging the paper with my embossing ink and sprinkling with the embossing powder, adding bits as I went to create a shiny edge.  I really like this technique.

You'll notice some hexagonal glimmer on the cards.  Depending upon the light and angle, they look different colors, but are really gold.  I simply glued these sequins in place to add some interest to the page.  Another nice card set that I'm setting aside for Christmas gifts.  I'm collecting quite a stash and anticipate needing all of them as small gifts to acquaintances at work and otherwise.

How about you?  Any Christmas shopping yet?  It is a tough thing to think about, but time is shorter than we think.  I hear Christmas carols as we speak...

I'm linking up to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge Wonderful Watercolor

Word Art Wednesday's Challenge # 205 Anything Goes

Virginia's  View Challenge #19

Come join the fun or stop to be inspired.

Shaking a Happy Birthday in Your General Direction

I, once again, get to share one of Brandy's creations with you today.  This shaker card was made using a die cut from Cricut's Paper Lace cart which was cut out of cream cardstock and green cardstock.  The cream die cut was then fit into the opening of the green cardstock to create the card front.  The shaker card was made using Jennifer McQuire's shaker card method to assemble the card, filling it with Recollections sequins.  So simple, yet extremely effective shaker card!

Our Beautiful World - Weather

Our Beautiful World has a word prompt this week - weather.  The idea is to post pictures of what the weather in your part of the world looks like.  I'd be lying if I suggested that our weather looks anything different than this most days of the year.  Phoenix (near Chandler where I live) averages 299 days of sunshine a year.  This means we average sunshine 80% of the time.  With sunshine come heat, dryness and shadows - not the best picture taking time of the day.

The weather can be volitle when a storm rolls through.  Occasionally, as in the year of El Nino like we are now, we can string two days of rainy, overcast weather together, but mostly it is sunshine all the way.

My dog free grass in the backyard

Still, once you get used to it, Arizona is a wonderful place to live. I now enjoy all the sunshine and even the heat, though with near 100 degree heat this week, I'm ready for fall.  If you haven't checked them out yet, head on over to Our Beautiful World to see what the weather is like in other parts of the world.

A Very Floral Notecard Set

Told you I'd be back with more Altenew Vintage Flowers card sets.  This one was made similarly to the previous set.  Here I paired Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue pigment ink in the background and CTMH Moonstruck dye ink in the foreground.  The twine is dark blue, but the picture doesn't capture that well.  All sentiments were made using my SSS Handwritten Borders stamp set and black Archival Ink.

This flower was made with SSS Smoke hybrid ink in the background and VersaMagic Perfect Plumeria pigment ink.

I made a set of 3 of each color and intend to wrap them up as Christmas gifts.  Now I'm thinking, how to wrap them... hmmmm.  I created all my stamped flowers using my MISTI tool and the Altenew Vintage Flowers stamp set.  I followed the tutorial provided by Jennifer Mcguire's video.  If you haven't tried the MISTI or this stamp set, I'd highly recommend both.

I had so much fun I'm going to link up at Word Art Wednesday's Challenge # 204: Anything Goes.  Come see what people have been doing and/or join the fun!