Create with Connie and Mary--Cute Critters!

This week our creative theme is Cute Critters and if you have looked through the catalogue at all you know, there are quite a few options? So how could I pick just one. I decided to make ONE card template and FOUR critter cards from it! I think this shows how versatile a great card design can be!

What is also worth noting is that on each of the four cards, they only use ONE stamp set per card! This is also important to our customers because it shows the value and potential in a single stamp set.

This little zebra is just too cute for words! You can find him and two other zebra friends in the Zany Zebra stamp set. I added a bit of extra color to his stripes with my light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blend and Magenta Madness Stampin’ Write Marker.

I absolutely could not choose just one stamp set to use as all of these sets have so much potential and are all ‘cute critters’, even the whale by my definition!

I started with a Coastal Cabana base and layer. I chose one sentiment out of each set to stamp in the background and then I used my Water Painter brush with the matching ink to create a splatter effect in the background. Each card has a strip of DSP from the Flowers for All Season 6x6 collection in a Just Jade polkadot pattern. I love how Just Jade and Coastal Cabana look together, they pair up perfectly! I wanted a little punch of color so I decided to add in Magenta Madness as an accent color. I cut little strips of the woodgrain pattern from the In Color 6x6 collection to add behind the critter on each card along with some Just Jade ribbon. The Playful Patterns Resin dots in Coastal Cabana were the perfect finishing touch!

Each critter is on a white stitched circle and I found one little stamp in each set to add to the circle in Magenta Madness! It could not have worked out better to choose these four stamp sets and this is going to make the perfect class in September!

This little cutie is from the Pampered Pets Bundle and is coloured with the Smoky Slate Stampin Blends!

This was actually my first play with the Hippo Happiness Bundle. What I really love about this bundle are the Hippo & Friends dies. There are 25 dies in this set including 3 different types of labels. It really is a tremendous value!

And finally Mr. Whale as I have nicknamed him from the Whale Done bundle. I love that he is a punch and you can stamp him and punch him out or create him using punch art!

I hope this card collection inspires you to take one design and create different projects from it! Now you can go back on our hop to see what Melissa created or you can keep going forward to see what Connie has designed! Either way, I know you will be inspired! Have a wonderful Saturday! And if you want to shop my store for any of these projects, please do and use the August Host Code! Thank you!

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Create with Connie and Mary--Hot Summer Days!

When I think of “Hot Summer Days” I definitely think of ice cream! I hope you enjoying this weeks Create with Connie and Mary Blog Hop theme! Make sure you visit everyone on the Hop!

We have been having some super hot days here in Alberta and I am LOVING every minute of it! And summer ice cream calories don’t count I have decided!

Have you been following along with my blog regularly? Are you noticing a trend…maybe with the Playing with Patterns Suite? Hahaha, I don’t even notice I am using it half the time! It just seems to work with EVERYTHING! Hopefully I have you hooked on it too and you can use my August Host Code to shop for anything you need!

What is unique about this page, is all of the DSP strips of paper are actually from 6x6 DSP stacks! You would never know though as I strategically hid the seams behind the photos. I used the Playing With Patterns, In Color, Whale of a Time and Flowers for Every Season 6x6 collections. I used my finger nail to soften the edges of the DSP to give it some added texture when I added it to the 12 x 12 Whisper White.

I used a trusty old favourite, the baby wipe technique, to create this soft background. I then used my Water Painter to flick the Coastal Cabana ink all over.

I don’t know how you feel about ice cream but I think the sentiments on this page describe my feelings for it perfectly! Hahaha! And my sons expression on his triple scoop ice cream cone is just priceless!

I used a bunch of different sentiments from three different stamp sets to enhance this page. I used Nothings Better Than, Blossoms in Bloom, and Bloom and Grow. And of course, the Playful Alphabet dies!

I hope you enjoy what the other gals have created this week for you and I hope you are having an awesome summer yourself! You can go back to see what Melissa has created and next to see what Connie has designed!

Splish Splash! Joy of Sets Blog Hop!

The theme for June is Splish Splash and what a better way to introduce you to this amazing new product suite, Whale of a Time. The whale punch is literally so cute I can’t even handle it! Everything I used on these two cards are new so let me take you through it!

I wanted to created a water background so I used watercolor paper with our new Water Painters. The brushes come in 3 tip sizes and before you twist the brush on super tight, twist in REVERSE, to get the brush tip off to add water! I added a drop of re-inker in three colors, Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, and Pretty Peacock, to an acrylic block. I took the widest brush tip (shown below) and dripped a drop or two of water onto the block. I mixed the re-inker around and then added it to my watercolour paper in a horizontal brush stroke. I then took the medium water brush and dripped some water on top to give sort of a bubble finish. I let those dry and while waiting put together the whale using the builder punch. I stamped a bit of detail to his back and top fin in Shaded Spruce. When the background was dry I used the same color to add in the sea weed.

When I looked through the Whale of a Time Designer Series Paper I knew immediately that I wanted to cut the ‘wave’ design apart and layer it on my card to create more 3D feeling waves. I was able to get two cards out of one piece of DSP. I added some of the Whale of a Time sequins into the sea weed for a bit of whimsy. The sentiments are stamped and embossed with White Embossing powder on Pretty Peacock card stock and then just cut by hand and added onto the cards with Mini Dimensionals.

The card bases are Pretty Peacock and Mint Macaron and both have a Shaded Spruce layer which was ran through the new Seabed embossing folder.

Isn’t the detail in these DSP waves amazing? It was my inspiration for the color pallet of this card. I think these cards would be super cute to give my kids next week when they finally finish their online schooling.

Narelle is next on our blog hop today, I absolutely love her style! I can’t wait to see her fabulous creation with this unique theme!