Happy Gerbera Daisies

Hi friends!  I saw some exciting news the other day - I was picked as one of the Peeps of the Week over on the Power Poppy blog!!!  It's so fun to see your own card up on a stamp company's blog!  

Then the next day, I got some happy mail - some new stamps from Power Poppy!  A dear friend gifted me some Power Poppy stamps (thank you so much, sweetie!!!) and I was so excited, I was squealing!  LOL  I absolutely love gerbera daisies, and I immediately inked up this gerbera daisy stamp from Power Poppy's Glads and Gerberas Stamp Set.  There is one particular color of gerbera daisy that I always look for, a deep reddish/salmony/orange-ish color.  Something about that color just calls my name.  I love the reds and yellows, but that orange-y red flower is the one I crave when shopping for gerbera daisy plants.

So I tried to color these flowers up in that orange-y red color that I love so much.  I think I came close, if a bit more vivid than the real flowers would be.  :-)  I stamped a sentiment from the same set above the flowers and tied some twine around the flowers for a sweet little accent.  I'm keeping this card as flat as possible so I can pop it in the mail to a sweet friend.  

I'm also entering this card into this week's Peep of the Week challenge on the Power Poppy blog.  If you have some Power Poppy stamps, why don't you play along too?  You never know if you might be the next Peep of the Week!!

Amazing Crackled Paint

Hi friends!  Let me tell you a little story about this card.  See that crackled paint background?  That all came about because of two things - a cleaning spree and a Dare to Get Dirty challenge.

Several weeks ago, I got into a cleaning fit in my studio and I came across my old jars of Distress Crackle Paint from Ranger.  Remember when they were brand new?  Yeah, I bought almost every color because I just knew I was gonna use them all the time.  Flash forward to present day, and these 20 or 30 bottles were all dusty.  Some even still had the plastic wrap on them, never been opened.  

So.... I thought I'd open one and just paint a few backgrounds for the heck of it.  The open bottle revealed a solid hard chunk of rock inside.  The paint was completely and totally dried up.  ACK!  NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!  So I pulled out ALLLLL of the bottles and opened them, one by one.  Out of all those bottles, only about 7 were not completely dried out.  

But when I say "not completely dried out," that doesn't mean they were still liquidy and flowy and paintable.  Oh no.  These were more like silly putty or clay, honestly.  So I stuck my finger into a bottle of Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint, dug out the sticky dough, and spread it all over some cardstock.  Hey, might as well try it, huh?  My tester piece seemed to work okay, so I set about using up whatever leftover paints I could before tossing all of them into the trash.

Then the Dare to Get Dirty challenges came around about a week or two after I painted up all these backgrounds.  One of the challenges was an inspiration challenge with a gorgeous inspiration picture showing a door with crackled green paint on it.  Coincidence???  However, none of the paints that I could salvage were green.  Hmmmmmm......  Upon looking through my crackled paint backgrounds, the ones with the Old Paper paint had possibilities.  I pulled out some Sage distress ink and sponged it all over the Old Paper crackled paint background.  Hey, whadaya know, it worked!  

Next, because the inspiration picture had some gorgeous peach-colored flowers in it, I pulled out my Azalea stamp set from Power Poppy and colored the flowers with some pale peach-y Copic markers.  The sentiment on this card is also from the Azalea stamp set, and I finished off the card with a little bit of linen twine.

Did you know that Power Poppy has a fun challenge called Peep of the Week?  Most weeks, it's anything goes and you can enter your cards/projects into the challenge as long as you use a Power Poppy stamp on it.  This week is one of those Anything Goes challenges, and I'm entering this card into their challenge.  I was fortunate to be named one of their Peeps of the Week last month and that was so exciting!!  Here is hoping I am picked again!!  :-)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Blue Glitter Peony

Hi friends!  I was in the mood to play with some glitter, and this turned out so soft and pretty, I decided to make it a sympathy card.

I started by cutting a piece of 6x6 double-sided Scor Tape sheet with the Lovely Peony Background die. I then cut out the Lovely Peony Outline die with white cardstock, and then I carefully adhered it to the adhesive peony background die cut. The open parts of the flower were covered with the gorgeous blue Fascination glitter, which I burnished in with my finger and then tapped off. All the excess glitter was returned to the jar and I set the flower aside while I made my card.

The card base is a white cardstock, and then I added a smaller layer of Kraft cardstock. I then cut a piece of the gorgeous soft blue paper from the Bellisima paper pad and adhered it to the Kraft layer. A small strip of Kraft cardstock was glued near the bottom of the blue paper, and then I stamped the sentiment from the With Sympathy set (JustRite) at the top. Finally, I affixed the glittery peony flower to the card.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Sparkle n Sprinkle - glitter, flocking, or embossing powder
Simon Says Stamp - Make it Sparkle
Craft Creations Challenges - Flower
Word Art Wednesday #144 - Anything Goes