Tag: avery elle stamps

Easter treats for 2023!

Hey guys! How are you? I hope you are doing well and ready for a new week! Only two weeks until Easter – my favorite holiday! Lots going on here and mostly we are trying to keep our heads above water. It's been a hard year so far. Lots of things have gone wrong and we are stressed out. Especially me. I saw this shirt the other day online that says "my anxieties have anxiety" and that's how I feel right now. The things that are going wrong each would be a big deal on their own, but they are coming at us one after the other like a box of marbles on a tile floor…. I have, as always, turned to my faith to get me through. But gosh I'm tired and weary. On top of the ten other things that have happened this year…. On Friday our dryer broke and then today one of my old fillings broke, which means an emergency trip to the dentist this week. Oh, and did I mention my husband is having surgery on Friday? (He is going to be fine after)… Well, it's a sad tale and I won't tell you everything. It's the hardest season we've been through in many many years. Please say a little prayer for me. I'm having a really hard time. I truly know in my heart that everything will be okay and life will get back to 'normal' but right now I'm just struggling. God is good and He will continue to comfort me. I am grateful that it's Easter time and I have so many great activities at church happening to keep me busy and uplifted. Remember that old poster with the tiny kitten hanging from a branch? Hang in there! Well, that's me…. In addition to spending a lot of time at church, I've been trying to craft up the rest of my Easter ideas. I have two projects to share with you today! Easter treats for my friends and the people at church who have been leading my awesome Bible study the past few months….

First up are these adorable Bunny Treat Wraps from Taylored Expressions!! These are super duper easy to put together and so cute! Each treat box is only three pieces. You can make white bunnies, or kraft bunnies, or gray bunnies like I did here. I made two – a girl and a boy! The die set comes with a matching small stamp set to do the eyes, cheeks and mouth. Love it.

To make one treat wrap, I die cut two bunny heads and one gingham piece for the center. They I die cut pink ear centers, the heart nose, and the bows. That's it! I used my MISTI to line up the eyes and mouth and stamped them before I folded the bunny pieces. Instead of stamping the cheeks, I used an old Chalk Set to rub some pink chalk!! I like the soft effect.

There are two different sets of stamps for the eyes – one with lashes and one without. Adorbs. I used some Enamel Dots for the centers of the bows to add a bit of shine.

I love gingham all the time, but especially at Easter. I chose the light grey gingham for the sides of my treat wrap. It matches the gray exactly!

Here's a top down view – I put in some Cadbury Eggs as my treats!

I used a white gel pen to color in the centers of the eyes and to add dots to the cheeks…

My second set of treat ideas are these adorable little tin Easter buckets I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. These treats are for church and I can't wait to deliver them on Wednesday! I used the new Bunny Tag stamps and dies from Avery Elle to make the adorable tags to go on my treat buckets!!

These bunnies are sooooo cute! I stamped the bunnies in dark grey ink and then stamped the whiskers and "happy easter" in black ink. I die cut out the bunnies and the pink ear pieces…. Like above, another super easy project! I used chalk again for the cheeks on the bunnies, and glued on pom poms for their little cottontails.

I die cut just the outline of the bunny a second time out of gingham paper from my stash. I glued the two together, so the back of each bunny is gingham. I stamped the recipients' names over the gingham on the back.

I used my Crop-o-Dile to cut a hole in the ear and used gingham ribbon to tie each tag onto the buckets.

I used a new Lawn Fawn alphabet set to stamp the names on the back of my tags. So fun!

This is what the buckets look like – I love these old vintage images!! And polka dots too!!

I put chocolates and Easter grass inside, and a small cross decoration piece.

I had the chance to decorate the house for Easter and it is festive and cheerful. I got this new honeycomb egg banner and it is just the right thing to make me smile!! It's such an old fashioned thing and I love it.

Saturday morning I had the chance to get out in the front yard and take some photos of our flowers. My husband planted tons of daffodils and tulips and they are magnificent!! I think they are at their peak right now. I've had this photo idea in my head for a couple of weeks – take that low shot up to the sky and the pretty tree above… I love how it came out. I know a lot of you are still waiting for Spring to arrive so I hope this brings you some joy! Here, Spring is almost over if you can believe it! All the trees have blossomed and are now green instead of flowery. It's very pretty right now!! After all the rain we had this year, I feel like the plants are so happy!

That's it for today! I hope you have a great week this week. Thanks for being there for me and sending me encouragement and love – like you always do. I appreciate you and our creative journey we share here. I hope you're inspired to finish up some Easter treats. XOXO

As always, it REALLY helps me out when you shop my affiliate links (more than you could know)… CLICK HERE for my favorite shop links!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's projects! (Affiliate Links Used)

March 26, 2023
Sweet Summertime!

Hi everyone! It’s the last week of July already! WOW! I can’t believe it. It’s definitely Summer. It was over 100 degrees here this weekend and that always makes it seem more like July. We had a fun and relaxing weekend. We took a mini road trip to the ocean on Friday and I’ll share some pictures below from our trip. We are so lucky to be able to drive to so many places in one day. Saves money on hotels and such. We love to escape to the water when it’s hot here. We have our routine all set. Chairs, towels, sunscreen, cooler….all piled in the car and ready to go. My husband and I travel so well together. It’s a joy to have long conversations in the car and get a change of scenery.

My post today is alllll about sweet summertime. My card is full of ice creams! I colored these images for National Ice Cream Day a week or so ago. Now I’ve made them into a card using a technique I’ve been wanting to try for a while – inlaid die cuts. The stamps are from Avery Elle. I didn’t do a supply list, since unfortunately the stamps are discontinued now. The set I used is called “The Scoop” if you want to look for it! It’s so fun, I was surprised when I couldn’t find it to make a list. You could easily make this card with any other ice cream set though. The finished card is A2 sized.

First I stamped four ice cream cones and stamped their little faces on them! Then I die cut them out with the matching dies, and colored them with pastel Copic Marker shades. I added white gel pen highlights too. I love the soft colors!!

The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder onto black cardstock. I like the contrast of this!! I used some pink and white gingham from my stash to completely cover the front of the card base. I die cut a stitched rectangle from white cardstock for the top layer.

I used washi tape to tape the dies to the stitched rectangle and die cut out four matching shapes to the images I colored. Then I mounted the top layer to the card using foam tape. The final step is putting the colored images into the cut outs! Reminded me of playing the “Operation” game! LOL. Makes a nice look, don’t you think??

Here are my Copic Marker Choices!

You are SO SWEET!

For our mini road trip on Friday we drove down Highway One through Half Moon Bay to Capitola, Moss Landing and Santa Cruz! It was a glorious day, perfect cool weather and a nice mix of fog and sun. Had the sun roof open on the car and the tunes blasting! NOTHING makes me happier than being by the ocean. I’m attaching some of my favorite photos from the day….Hope you enjoy them!

This is Capitola Beach from up above looking down on the wharf and town. This is the cutest town! It was really crowded!

We drove down to the Moss Landing Wildlife Sanctuary and guess what??? SEA OTTERS!!!! There were about ten of them swimming around, playing and eating. We watched them for a long time! SOOOOO cute. One of them was jumping in and out of the water like a dolphin! And they were wrestling each other. You can kayak there and the kayakers were able to get super close to them! We were on the shore and they came about ten feet from us. OMG I was smiling so big!!

We drove back to spend the rest of the day in Santa Cruz. We grabbed some early dinner and then headed over to the Boardwalk. I have soooo many good memories from the Beach Boardwalk here. I actually started crying when we walked in. All these memories just flooded me. My family is from the coast and my Aunts and Uncles used to bring me here and let me ride all the rides and spoil me! Some of my best childhood memories. I hadn’t been here in ages.

First stop….DOLE WHIP! YUM!

The sunset on Friday night was mixed with a perfect layer of fog, and it was the most beautiful purple/pink color. I love fog and usually you don’t get fog AND a sunset, but we got both. Magical light!!!

We tried some fun long exposure photos on the rides. This one was my favorite of those. Captures the action!!

The Big Dipper!

That’s it for me today! Have a wonderful happy week! One of my favorite people is flying in from Florida this week and on Wednesday we’re going wine tasting and champagne sipping in Napa all day. I am SO EXCITED!!! Take care my friends. I will see you back here real soon. XOXO

July 29, 2019
Summer Pool Party with Avery Elle!

Hi everyone!!! Happy weekend again! I hope you had a fantastic week! My week went by so fast. I was really busy making lots of things and going here and there. The weather here has been perfect!! Nice to be outside. Today I'm going to a Convalidation Ceremony for one of my friends and a party after to celebrate. Really looking forward to it! What are you doing this weekend?? Whatever it is, have fun!!

Today I'm sharing a card sure to make you smile!! It's a pool party! LOL! The absolutely cutest stamps from Avery Elle!! I colored these images a few days ago for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and then finally made them into a card. This is why we craft, to smile! The finished card is A2 sized.

I made the card base from white cardstock and then covered the entire front of the card with the PERFECT paper from Sunny Studio! The paper has the subtle blue waves on it and it matched my project exactly. I love it when that happens!

The images were all stamped and die cut with the matching dies and colored with Copic Markers. I used a white gel pen to add highlights over my coloring. I also used quite a bit of clear shimmer pen on the elements. I love this sentiment!! Wishing you Sunshiny Days for sure!

The most adorable clouds! I added a tiny edge of color (BG11) and some shimmer to them before putting them on the card. All the elements are affixed to the card with foam tape.

I had a hard time deciding what color to do her bathing suit and the unicorn hair… I finally decided to do both parts in a soft pastel rainbow! Really just funnnnn!

That's it for me for today! Go on out and have a blast this weekend! And don't forget to get in some creative time too! Take care friends! XOXO CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to go to the supply list for today! (Affiliate Links Used). Until next time!

June 29, 2019
Pool Party! Fun card with Avery Elle stamps and watercolors!

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! (At least it's a holiday!) How was your weekend? We spent most (all) of the weekend at home. I was working on some cool photography assignments and my husband was studying and preparing for some re-certification classes for his job. We watched a lot of Olympics too! It was a mellow weekend and that's fine with me. We are having really nice weather during the day and we got some of our Spring yard work started. Pruning things and fertilizing things… And I did some crafting!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day at the beach last week and I edited some photos to share with you – later in my post. It was a glorious day! Much better than a fancy and crowded dinner out. We both love the ocean and it's just so close, so off we went. Nothing makes me happier than fresh clean ocean air. It's like I come back to life or something. I've always been like that. I was born by the ocean and most of my happy memories involving my family were by the ocean… I've been so sad since Buddy passed away that I really needed a change of scenery and to spend time alone with my husband doing something positive and happy. What makes you happy like that? The Ocean? The Lake? The Mountains? If I win lotto, you can bet the first thing we're doing is moving to the sea! Anyhooo…. I digressed here!

I am SOOOOOO excited to share this card today! Remember when I told you about all my favorite things from Creativation? Well, the products I used today were at the TOP of that list! I ordered right on release day so I had them ASAP! I literally couldn't wait to stamp with the adorable Avery Elle Splash stamps and dies. YAY! And, now I can share with you! I also used the new Avery Elle Liquid Watercolors on this card today… And my MIjello watercolors too. I had ALLLL my supplies out! I guess liquid watercolors are a thing now! I like them very much…both the Hero Arts ones I used last week and these new Avery Elle ones today. They are so easy to use – they flow so nicely. Wait until you see the colors for today! YUM.

Can you even stand it??? OMG those cuties are so fabulous in their pool floaties! Everything is soooo FUN. Kind of a modern retro cool vibe to these stamps. I love them so much. I saw this set at Creativation and was hooked. The matching dies include the big swimming pool, diving board and ladder! EEEK. So much fun to mix and match and color. I used the Avery Elle water colors for the green grass background and the pool, and most of the images. I used my new (AND AWESOME) Mijello water colors for the grey, brown and yellows since the liquids didn't come in those colors. I used watercolor paper for all the pieces and the background. My card base is white A2 cardstock.

Here's a close up of the colors and the images! Everything was attached to the card with foam tape for more dimension. I also added some Diamond Stickles and some clear droplets at the end to add shimmer and to look like water. The flamingo was colored with the Cherry Liquid watercolor…. OH MY.

The new Avery Elle watercolors come in 10 colors. Here is a swatch sheet with all the colors! SO PRETTTTYYYY.

To make the green grass background I used only the Lemon Grass water color. I got my paper wet first with clear water. Then I used a flat brush and swept back and forth over the wet paper and let the watercolor soak in. When it was about half way dry, I sprinkled some more green flecks and splatters with the undiluted paint. I love how it came out. Such a gorgeous color.

To make the swimming pool, I used the Mint To Be and the Aquamarine liquid water colors. I also got the paper wet first. Then I layered the two colors to make an ombre effect for the pool. These two colors together are perfection! I think it really looks like a pool!!!

Awesome sentiment! Good reminder….

Here are the ocean and beach photos. We were in Pacifica, which is just south of San Francisco. I used to live just down the highway (in Half Moon Bay) when I first graduated from college. So this is a place that feels comfortable and familiar to me. It was a beautiful day, not too cold, with just the right amount of clouds… And we had the entire beach to ourselves practically!

Okay, that's it for me today! (That was a lot)! Hope you have a wonderful week. I have a busy week ahead with a good mix of work and fun. I will be back here on Thursday with some cards for a super awesome blog hop with one of my favorite companies – and their new release! Hope to see you soon. Be well and take care. XOXO

February 19, 2018
Mon Cheri Valentine!

Bonjour mes amis! Valentine's Day is less than a week away and I have made hardly any Valentine projects this year. I love making cheery and happy Valentines – you can be super cute and funny or more serious and classy. Today's card is of the fun variety! Happy Friday! Now that my studio is organized I can actually find exactly what I'm looking for! In this case, some adorable cherry stamps from Avery Elle. I have all my clear stamps organized by company now (YAY) and there they were, right in the stack. Whew. That feels good. It was a hard week so I stayed busy crafting and blasting music in the studio so I would keep my mind occupied. I made a lot of cards evidently. LOL. My husband will be home from his business trip tonight and then he took next week off so we could be together. I cannot wait.

Today's card has design elements from several different companies…some Simon Says Stamp things, MFT dies, Avery Elle stamps… That's how I craft when I am not working on a specific assignment. I like to combine and mix and match what I have here in the studio.

This finished card is a 4.75 x 4.75 square cut from pretty red cardstock. The big white circle fits perfectly into the square and this card will fit into an A6 envelope for mailing. I did some stamping, some Copic coloring, and some embossing! This card has a bit of everything.

I started by making my square card base. Then I stamped the cherries (so cute right) in Memento Ink. Then I went over to the die cut machine and die cut the cherries, the words and the circle piece. I like to die cut everything at once and then bring it all back to my table. I also die cut before coloring in case I happen to mess up the die cut!! Then I colored the cherries with Copic Markers. I used a white gel pen to add a bit of accent.

For the card base, I wanted to add some visual interest, but I didn't want to use patterned paper. I used a stamp and stamped with red ink onto the red paper creating this look below! I like how there is something going on in the background but it doesn't take away from the focal point.

I love this Taylored Expressions Cherry Pop red ink! Oooh la la. Here is what my card base looks like underneath everything else. That red is messssy!!! (Or maybe I'm messy)

These are the Copic Marker colors I used. Just a few reds and greens.

The die cut of the words is glued down with a glue pen and my tweezers. I was able to move the die cuts into a shape that went with the circle. I left room for my little cherry couple on the bottom.

The mon cheri words come with the cherry stamp set. I heat embossed the words with white embossing powder onto black cardstock and attached it to the top of the circle. Lastly I placed the cherries on with foam squares.

Have you finished your Valentine cards? Are they already mailed? It's a fun holiday, not too serious around here. I am lucky to be spoiled most of the time. I think on Valentine's Day I will ask for a drive to the ocean. We'll see what happens. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday morning with something cool to share. XOXOXO

February 9, 2018
Pretty Vivid Butterflies! Happy 4th of July Weekend!

Hello everyone! Where have I been? I just realized it's been a while since I did a blog post. Time lately is going so quickly. Never enough hours in the day, right? The summer is flying by and here we are at 4th of July weekend! Wow! What are you doing this weekend? Our heat wave broke today and it's the first day that it's not over 100 degrees in over a week. YAY! We are having a low key holiday, mostly hanging out at home. My back is out and I have been in a lot of pain. I'm not really very good at sitting still or taking care of myself. I am learning to take it easy – but mostly because I have no choice!! It's one of those things where it hurts to stand, it hurts to sit and it hurts to lay down – so I'm just really frustrated! Usually I can get my mind off of things by heading into the studio, so that's what I did last night!

I have a pretty basket I keep on my desk with all new stamp sets that I haven't used yet. Some of my assignments for Simon Says Stamp and some things I had to have because they are so fun and gorgeous. So last night I reached for this gorgeous new Butterflies stamp set from Avery Elle. My card was inspired by THIS POST by Kathy. DANG! When I saw her butterfly coloring a while back the image really stuck in my mind! It was so vivid and pretty. That's what I was going for on my card to share today.

I stamped and colored three of the butterflies with my Copic Markers, then die cut them out with the matching dies. Then I added pretty white accents with a white gel pen. I left a lot of white space on my card to give all the color some 'room' to breathe!

The large butterfly was colored in shades of aqua…so pretty! This is my favorite color, so I had to make the large one this color! The three butterflies are attached to the card using foam squares for dimension. The little trails are a stamp from a different Avery Elle stamp set and I thought it worked just right! (see stamp sets below)

I added just a bit of a black and white gingham border to bring in some black to the white card layer. Then I added a few matching enamel dots…just because!

I'm not really that great with the white gel pen. I tend to make a big mess!!! Do you have troubles with this too? Maybe I just need to practice more and work with it some more…. I sure do love the effect you can achieve with it!

Thank you very much for popping by to see me this weekend! I hope you're having fun in the sun with your friends and family! I have a coooooool coffee card up on the Simon Says Stamp blog today too if you want to check it out! (CLICK HERE) Until we meet again! XOXOXO

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY'S POST:

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July 3, 2016
Beeeeee Mine – Another Valentine Card! CASE(E) This Sketch and CAS-ual Fridays Challenges!

Hi! Happy Weekend! Happy February! Happy Super Bowl Day! Dang, there's a lot going on today! LOL. I am in full on Valentine mode and trying to get cards made before the holiday comes and goes. Don't you loooooove to make Valentines?

Yesterday in the craft room I challenged myself to do some challenges! I found two that I thought would go together nicely – a sketch and a technique! I made a Clean and Simple (CAS) card using watercoloring with markers and then used a cool sketch to put it all together. I'm entering this card in the CAS(E) this Sketch #108 Challenge and the CAS-ual Fridays #CFC136 – Must Love Watercolor Challenge. Click on the links, pop over, and enter your card too!

Here's my card, and I used a new stamp set from Avery Elle! Beeeee Mine!

I stamped my beehive onto the smooth side of some Ranger Tim Holtz watercolor paper in Archival black ink. Then I colored my images using Tim Holtz Distress Markers and a watercoloring brush! It's such an easy and pretty way to watercolor! I added a pretty enamel heart to the center of my hive. Can you see the yummy stitched rectangles….new dies!! Yippeeeee!

I used three shades of yellow markers to achieve my desired effect. Then I outlined the beehive in blue and used my watercolor brush to soften the edges.

Here's how you do it! Color directly onto the paper with your Distress Markers as you see I've done here. Then take your water brush and 'paint' the colors together until they blend in the way you want them. I used darker shades towards the outside, and a lighter color on the center.

These are the yellows I used. The full marker list is in my supply links!

Instead of stamping stripes, I used a pretty striped paper as my background. Man, I love me some stripes… I think I probably have 10 nautical striped shirts in my closet too! LOL.

Here is the sketch image:

February 1, 2015