Poppy Flower– 

Thank you for stopping by today. As you may know, during the past few weeks, I have been refreshing my card-craft supplies and have fallen in love the the Dove Art stamp collection through Whimsy Stamps.The stamp used for this article is called the Himalayan Poppy, DA1013. The Himalayan Poppy is, in reality, blue! (See descriptive notes at the end.)

However, having never seen the Himalayan, I went with the poppy colors I am more use to seeing, an off red/orange.

For this project, I used:
                                                                                                  

White Card Stock – from Staples (top layer and base card)

Middle layer – Neenah's Stardream Collection - Onyx 105lb.

Inked Impression: Memento Tuxedo Black – no embossing

Prismacolor Colored Pencils – start lightly applying the color, then, build up to a deeper intensity, then using a blender stick, blend:

·         Canary Yellow

·         Crimson Red
·         Goldenrod
·         Green Ochre
·         Marine Green
·         Raspberry
·         White

Hope you will give this a try - just relax and have some fun.

Till later,
God Bless




Special Note: 
The Himalayan Blue poppy flower, Meconopsis, is one of the most prized in the poppy flower family for its true blue colored blooms. This member of the poppy flower family is particularly sensitive to temperature changes and therefore can be difficult to grow. Found mostly in the Scottish highlands and Himalayas, they have been successfully grown in Alaska and coastal Washington. Their optimum temperature range is 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Old Water Mill…  

This summer has been a time of reorganization for my craft areas (that seems to be a continual chore) and expanding upon some of my creative goals. During my “reorganization,” I realized that I have a large collection of inks, paints and colored pencils that I have not used in a while. So, I set a new goal … utilize those products.

Recently, I started collecting some of the beautiful Dove Art stamps from Whimsy Stamps. (See my July 31^st posting). The Water Mill (DA104) is one of my latest additions. Did you know that the use of Water Mills goes back long before the rise of Rome?

Materials –

Whimsy Stamps: The Water Mill (DA 104)

Elizabeth Craft Designs: Soft Finish: White and  Dark Chocolate

Dies: Dashing Squares

Chameleon Pencils:  Avocado and Spanish Olive

Rembrant Polycolor: Olive Green and Brown Ochre

Faber-Castell’s Pitt Pastel: 151 Helioblue-Reddish, 165 Juniper Green, 179 Bistre. 185 Naples Yellow, 273 Warm Grey IV

Prismcolor: Limepeel, Green Ochre, Cool Grey 90%, Orange Mineral, Blue Slate and Dark Green

Memento: Tuxedo Black

Krylon: Workable Fixatif (1306)

US Art Supply: Artist Blending Stump

Hope you will stop by again.

Till  next time – God Bless

Today’s Flower…

Hello and welcome. As you may know, my passion is creating, and sharing with you, my hand-made greeting cards. It is my custom to try to consider what a person might enjoy and create a card with just that person in mind. Today’s recipient loves the color purple so…

To my delight, Heartfelt Creations recently introduced a new series of dies in their Sweet Peony collection. For this card, I selected their Large Sweet Peony Die.

One of the many advantages when using 0.6mm foamiran from Whimsy Stamps is that I was able to cut two layers of Purple Foamiran and two layers of Lilac Foamiran at one time. (I have cut as many as six layers with no difficulty.)  To make my life easier, I use the Gemini die cutting and embossing machine by Crafter’s Companion.

To enhance the petals, I blended Memento’s Sweet Plum to the outer edges of all the petals. To give you a great visual demo, please visit Monika Weclewski’s video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EyKwC68SP8. Monika is such a talented flower maker, I enjoy her demos.

That beautiful background paper is from USArt Quest called Indian Batik Marble, Forest Green. I love working with this type of paper and because of its texture, will often use it to create some of my leaves. There are dozens of colors in this exciting paper line – you may want to check it out.

To set the flower off, I added a fantastic laser-cut chipboard piece from 14 Craft Bar. Their collection of delicate chipboard art forms is fantastic and well worth a look-see.

Hope you enjoyed Todays Flower and will stop by again.

For now,

May God Bless You and Yours

In Style…

Thank you for taking time to stop by today. Gee, this week has been a busy crafting week for me. I have to admit that I have really been having fun, especially with this card. It is for a young lady who loves to dressed-up. So, wanting to follow through with that idea, I decided to show a few stylishly dressed ladies…older styles and new.

Wish I could say who designed the two older styled stamps (I have had them for years) but the lady in the middle is from the Stampin’ Up’s the Beautiful You collection.

Using a Memento’s Gray Flannel ink, I stamped the images on Gina K’s Layering White card stock. To create more line emphasis, I heat set Ranger’s Fine Clear embossing powder.  To add the coloration, I used alcohol-based pens from Chameleon Pens: NUOO – Nude, YO3 – Warm Sunset, PK3 – Bubble Gun, and BG1 – Lagoon.  For the dresses, I infused the colors for a 2-3 second count – love how they blended.

I used Elisabeth Crafts’ Dashing Rectangle dies to cut the ladies and several layers of black cardstock. Wanting this project to have a little punch, I selected Elizabeth Crafts Time for Teal Soft Finish cardstock for the card base.

Again, thank you for stopping by today. I need to get back to my craft room as I have some new equipment scheduled to arrive in the next few days and I need to make more workable room.

Till later,

Have a Happy Easter and

May God Bless You and Yours