Flower Cards

Happy Friday everyone.  It's been such a gray day.  We even had snow flurries this morning.  A great day to stamp (and to have a steaming cup of tea or coffee within arms reach)!  Today was the day to ink up my Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set (finally!) and try the watercolor technique inspired by Rochell Gould at www.istampicreateihavefun.blogspot.com/2010/11/dark-roses-scic28.html 
Her card is gorgeous!  This was a time consuming project and since I was just playing, I left my card plain.  This will NOT be a technique to use at my upcoming Stamp Camp.

I pretty much followed Rochelle's directions/colors to watercolor the roses except I substituted So Saffron for the Daffodil Delight.  Regal Rose was used on the pink flower in addition to Blushing Bride & So Saffron. The watercolor focal piece was matted onto Early Espresso then onto a More Mustard card base.  Still deciding if I should add a sentiment to the top left area.  I'm thinking maybe punch out an oval shape and pop it up with dimensionals.

The following group of cards wasn't as labor intensive.  I used Fast & Fabulous (a Level-2 Hostess set) and Pocket Silhouettes (such a versatile set) for the group.  The inspiration came from Donna Centamore's blog http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/.  What a wonderful gift set and I love the clean and simple look. 

SU! supplies used unless otherwise noted
Stamp: Fast & Fabulous, sentiment from Kind & Caring Thoughts (retired Hostess set)
Paper: White, non-SU! navy blue that was in my scraps  Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy  Other: Nestability oval to make masking template, Elegant Lines embossing folder

Stamp: Pocket Silhouettes, sentiment from Kind & Caring Thoughts (retired Hostess set)
Paper: White, Night of Navy  Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy

Stamp: Pocket Silhouettes, sentiment from Because I Care (Level-1 Hostess set)
Paper: White, Early Espresso  Ink: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede

Although I really like how this group of cards turned out, they won't make the cut for Stamp Camp either.  Lining up the embossing folder would be a bit tedious for some of my customers.  Oh well, it was fun but back to the drawing board - or blurfing (blog surfing) - to find more inspiration to CAS (copy and share).

Oh! I had such a brilliant idea IMHO (in my humble opinion).  Someone wrote on their blog that they used a storage cube as a photo box.  I don't have any plain cubes - let alone an empty one!  Then I had a light bulb moment.  I purchased a canvas storage cube (on sale of course) that was still in the package.  Opened that puppy up and voila - a light box!  Doesn't help with my photography skills but hey...Rome wasn't built in a day. LOL

OK friends, it is time to go to bed.  It's past midnight.  Been staying up waaay too late this week.