Living My Dream

Card Backgrounds 2 - Distress Inks and Winter Skies

I recently did a blog post about making card backgrounds ahead of time as that is something I usually do. I primarily focused on watercolor backgrounds on this post since it is my most commonly used medium. You can see the post HERE. I've recently been seeing a lot of Distress Ink backgrounds that have snow spots on them or dark night skies. I had no idea how to do these nor have I ever tried. So I got out all my Distress Inks and decided to play and learn and then share it all with you! I'm calling this Card Backgrounds 2 and I hope you enjoy it as I certainly had fun making all of these. And the... Read more →

Pretty Pink Posh Winter Cards

Today I pulled out a couple of my older Pretty Pink Posh winter sets and made two cards. I received these in the mail some time ago and hadn't had a chance to use them. I love them even if they are old. I especially love mixing older sets with newer ones - but this time it's just the older ones. Here are images of the two sets called Winter Wonderland and Holiday Pals: CARD 1: To make the background for this card, I embossed the snowflakes in the Winter Wonderland stamp set over and over on a card size piece of Ranger Watercolor Paper with white embossing powder. I then rubbed Distress Oxide Inks over it using Broken China,... Read more →

Mama Elephant Cards With Random Stamping

You all know (if you have visited before) I love to make what I call random stamping cards with stamp sets with small images. My recently acquired Mama Elephant stamps are perfect for this technique, so I made two cards to share with you today. I love puzzles, so making random stamped cards is really fun to me if I use my Misti. I just line up all of the stamps together like a puzzle and then stamp them at one time. This way it only takes about three or so times to get them all stamped. My first card uses the new Little Agenda Trains stamp and die set. I stamped all of the images with black intense ink... Read more →

Pretty Pink Posh + Glue Dots Blog Hop Day 2

Today I'm part of the second day of the Pretty Pink Posh and Glue Dots Blog Hop collaboration. I made two cards using the new Glue Dots products that were sent to me for the hop. I LOVE THEM. It's always so fun when you discover new adhesives, right? I was the most in love with the little itty bitty glue dots that fit so perfectly under the PPP jewels - even the smallest one! No more glue dried everywhere on my card! I decided to work with two of my favorite floral sets by PPP because flowers are always my favorite to color! Card 1: Both of my cards used the PPP Stitched Notes die for the backgrounds. I... Read more →

Mama Elephant Christmas Cards

Mama Elephant recently came out with a holiday line of stamps and dies that were used in their 6 year celebration blog hop. I was lucky enough to be part of that hop, so I received two sets to work with. That post is HERE if you want to check out my 5 cards. But then I had to go back and buy three more sets as I loved them that much! Well actually four if you count the greetings stamp set as well. They are all linked at the end of this post, but I've primarily focused on the Santa's Sleigh stamp set for this post. I'm saving my Penguin cards for another post as they deserve their own... Read more →

Simon Says Stamp November 2018 Card Kit

Today the new Simon Says Stamp Card Kit was released - it is called Thanks and Leaves. Here is an image: As usual, I like to focus on the stamp set in the card kits which can be purchased alone if you prefer - Thanks and Leaves Stamp Set. But unfortunately I didn't get time to do a "one stamp, five ways" post this time. I do have three cards to share with you - they are all 3x4" as there are 3x4" Kraft envelopes in the kit. I have mentioned I'm in LOVE with colored pencils lately, so I went with that look (((again))). Hopefully this love affair will die down so I can get back to my regularly... Read more →

SSS Fun and Festive Blog Hop (Day 1) - Suzy's Snowmen Watercolor Cards

Today is day 1 of a 2 day blog hop celebrating the Simon Says Stamp new Fun and Festive product release. I'm excited to be sharing with you a new set of watercolor cards called Suzy's Snowmen. Here is an image: I'll be showing you all 12 of these cards colored and made into greeting cards below. I have a lot of images as I wanted to show you both a full image and a close up image of each card. This is because I went crazy with the Tonic Nuvo Drops on these and I wanted you to see all the dimension and sheen they add to the cards. At the end of all of these images, I'll list... Read more →

Making Card Backgrounds Ahead of Time

DiIf you have been reading my blog for very long, you probably have heard me talk about how I make many of my card backgrounds ahead of time. I like to stock pile them! I can spend one afternoon making a bunch and then have them ready when I have to make some cards quickly. I also get "in the mood" and enjoy doing it this way. Maybe I should say "in the groove". haha These backgrounds can be used as is, or used to die-cut for a background, or use to die-cut out designs or words to use ON a card (not for the background). I often use them as patterned paper to die-cut greetings for cards. Ok, that's... Read more →

Simon Says Stamp Fun and Festive Release

The Fun and Festive release by Simon Says Stamp is now live and I'm ready to show it off! I've been playing with some of the new products all day today and I have two cards to share with you using a few of them. I have a watercolor card set in this release called Suzy's Snowmen Watercolor Prints. Here is an image: I'll have all 12 of these cards painted to show you on the first day of the blog hop tomorrow (Thursday, October 11th) so come back and visit to see them made into actual cards. My two cards that I have to share with you today use some of my other favorite products in this release -... Read more →

Pretty Pink Posh FALL Cards

Hi Friends! I have three FALL cards to share with you today using many of the Pretty Pink Posh new products. As you will soon see, I had a lot of fun playing with all of these products! Hopefully these will inspire you to create something yourself over the weekend which is National Card Making Day or something like that haha! Any excuse to create works for me.... Card 1: This card uses a few of the stand-alone dies from the last release and NO STAMPS (that's a first for me!). I loved the Thanks Leaf Shaker die, so I used it as the focal point for the card. I also used the Small Stitched Foliage and Fall Tags dies.... Read more →