Clear Cardstock

Using clear cardstock has been on my "To Try" list for quite some time now.  Nichole pushed me over the edge with her Make It Monday challenge this week.  She also used one of my favorite stamp sets - Springtime Doodles!

You can see her video and play along if you click here. 

Here's my card for her challenge today:

 I used New Leaf polka dot paper and cardstock to create the grass.  I adhered it to the front, along with the sun, cut in Summer Sunrise and some A*Muse gingham paper.

I stamped the inside panel with images from Springtime Doodles, colored them and blended them with a pencil.  Love my colored pencils!!

Here's the inside:

I took inspiration from looking out my window -clear, blue skies, beautiful green trees and flowers blooming!  Spring has sprung in Texas!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

A Week With Springtime Doodles - Day 7

Here we are.  I'm glad you have made it to the end with me in "A Week with Springtime Doodles," the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card might be my favorite.  It uses my favorite colors, some of my favorite patterned paper, and a few of my favorite images from Springtime Doodles.

Here it is:

This time, I decided to try out my watercolor pencils one more time with this set, and I'm glad I did.  The blending gave it just enough shading - love that! I stitched around all of the panels of patterned paper to give the card a little extra something.  The bee, left tulip and right yellow flower are popped up for some dimension, and the flowers and bee are all outlined with Sakura Stardust pen to give the card some sparkle.  I used the "thanks" sentiment as leaves today - thought that was something different.  Instead of matting the focal point on a solid piece of cardstock, I inked the edges with yellow and green. 

This was such a fun week, and I can't wait to try out even more images from this great set!  You'll be seeing some soon.  Here are all the cards together:

Did you catch Erin Lincoln's comment on the PTI forum about this set?  Last week she said she had just used Springtime Doodles on a release week project and that it goes perfectly with one of the new sets being released. 

I waited...

and waited...

and waited...

patiently...

to see her project and which set she was talking about. 

Then, yesterday - this appeared:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!  Wow - it blew me away.  The set she was highlighting was Happy Trails!  Guess I'll add it to my ongoing wish list.  Honestly, I just want to make this card.  So - very- cool!   I'm going to print it out to stare at.  It just makes me happy.  You can see Erin's post and other amazing projects here.

Well, there it is.  A Week With Springtime Doodles already over.  I hope I have enabled you a little this week.  I'll be back with another week of something or another soon.  In the meantime, I'll just post my random makings. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

P.S.  This will be one more for Jenny over at Wee Memories.  Have you played along yet?  Here's the link.

A Week with Springtime Doodles - Day 6

We are nearing the end, and I have to admit, I'm a little sad.  Here we are on Day 6 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles," the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card is a little different.  I'm using Raspberry Fizz, which I have always been afraid of, but recently discovered to be an AWESOME color.  I'm also using a bit of a different design on the card base.

Here's my card:

Bright, huh?  I finally figured out how to use some Martha Stewart doilies I bought a few months ago.  I stamped the butterfly on separate cardstock, colored it with my Bic Mark It Markers, and added some glitter, Sakura Stardust pen and a trail of gems to give it some sparkle.  After cutting it out, I adhered it to the doily.  Here's a close-up: 

I lifted up the wings a bit to give it some dimension.

I mentioned above that the design of the base is a bit different.  That's because the left panel opens like this: 

And then finally the full opening is:

That's one of the tricks I learned in a class at the convention last week.   There is the typical scor-line in the center of the base, and then on the front cover, in the center is another scor-line to fold in the opposite direction.  It's something a little different and fun.  The sentiment, stamped on Hibiscus paper, is from Butterfly Dreams. 

Jenny, at Wee Memories, is going to get sick of me, but I'll submit this one too!  Here's the link if you want to play along. 

Well, I have one more card with this set to finish out my week.  It may be my favorite one of all of them.  Hope to see you here then. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

A Week With Springtime Doodles - Day 5

Have you stuck with me this long?   Here we are on Day 5 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles."
Have you found any favorite images from the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink?

  

  

There are a lot to choose from, that's for sure!  I'm afraid a week won't be long enough for me to use all of them, but I'll try. 

I'm using 3 images and a sentiment on today's card.  Here it is:

Do you recognize the cloud in the left corner?  It's the same image I used to create the flowers in yesterday's post!  Cool, huh?  I love that dragonfly image, and it was very easy to color.  The wings were highlighted with Stickles.  I accented the waves with some more and put down some rhinestones.  When I started this card, I had intended it to be a masculine card, but with the glitter and the rhinestones, I think I went the other direction.  The "hello" sentiment is also from this set.  I inked the edges with Spring Rain to give it a little more detail. 

Here's a close-up of the dragonfly:

And again, I was able to use some patterned paper that I bought a while ago and hoarded.  I just cut right into it and used it...just like that.  If I can do it, you can too!  Go on and give it a try!

And again, I'm submitting this card to the Wee Memories challenge.  Jenny has given us two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme, I'll enter it over there - again!  Here's the link.  

I have a couple of more days with this set and two of my favorite cards from the week still to share.  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  See you tomorrow!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 4

Today is Day 4 of  "A Week with Springtime Doodles,"  My new favorite set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.  Here it is:

  

  

Today's card is for this week's Make It Monday, hosted by Betsy Veldman.  You can see the video and link up your creation if you click here. Honestly, I didn't think I had any tissue paper, and then I went and dug around in the guest room closet, and found a lot.  Isn't everybody's tissue paper in the guest room closet?  That's not weird, right?

Here's my card:

I created all the flowers with tissue paper.  There are 2 layers of each color.  I glued them on some white paper and set them aside to let them dry.  I stamped the stem and leaves and then ran it through my Big Shot with the Woodgrain impression plate.  I used the medium scallop die on the two colors of blue to mimic the sky and added the green rhinestones on the bottom to mimic the grass.  When the flowers were dry, I adhered them down, some with pop dots to add dimension, and added the silver centers.  Then everything was mounted on a piece of Royal Velvet cardstock. 

Betsy put me a little out of my comfort zone with her technique this week, which is what Make It Monday is about, I suppose.  

And you know, I'm going to enter this in Jenny's challenge at Wee Memories.  With  two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme,why not?   Here's the link if you want to play along.

Three more days of highlighting this set!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 3

I'm back with Day 3 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles." I'm so glad to hear that I am enabling some of you all a little bit.  This set is turning out to be a lot of fun - A LOT - and if you passed it on before, you may want to take a second look. 

Here's the cute set that  Beth Silaika designed for Papertrey Ink.

  

  

Today's card is Clean and Simple (CAS) and I'm submitting it this week to the CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog.  I'll give you details about that below.  For now, here's my card:

 

 

I began with a piece of Lemon Tart and embossed the cute daisy image from the set in white Zing.  I colored in the daisy with my Bic Mark-It Markers, and then stamped the stem and leaves in my Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet ink.  The sentiment is from the set as well, and I stamped it on a piece of white cardstock cut with my Double Ended Banner die.  After matting it on some patterned paper (yay - I used some more!), I added the buttons at the bottom corner to give it some balance.  I matted the Lemon Tart on a piece of Summer Sunrise and then secured it to the Kraft card base.  Kraft + yellow = Yummy!

 

The CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week is super fun, and the girls have given us a lot of options!

See what I mean? The pattern I chose is on the diagonal - Emboss, Dies or Punch, Buttons.  I may try to incorporate this challenge into another card this week. Fun time!  

And again, since Jenny has given us two-weeks to enter as many projects as we want to and with any theme, I'll enter it over there - again!  Here's the link.  

 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!  Come back tomorrow for Day 4 - already - time flies when you are having fun!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 2

I'm back with Day 2 of "A Week with Springtime Doodles." This is part of a summer-time event here on my blog.  Hopefully, I can highlight several sets before heading back to the classroom in August.

My first set for this summer is Springtime Doodles by Beth Silaika..   Here's the cute set that Beth designed.

  

  

Today, I'm using that cute dandelion stamp, with a technique that I have seen several times, and always wanted to try, but never did.  You know the feeling?

Here's my card:

So, what's the technique?  I used the back of the dandelion stamp to stamp the colored circles in Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst and Hawaiian Shores.  After the colors dried, I turned it over and stamped the dandelion in Versa Mark and heat embossed with white Zing.  I stamped the stem and leaves in my new Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet ink I bought at the convention last week.  (That's the same ink I used on yesterday's card too.)

I recently did some cleaning out and organizing in my scrap room, so I knew that I also wanted to focus on using some patterned paper this week - which I failed to do yesterday.  The striped paper you see here is from Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection.  I cut a strip for the top and bottom and then stitched them to the flowered panel. 

The big task was deciding what color the base would be.  I finally settled on Hawaiian Shores - an awesome color for anything!

I'm entering this card in Jenny's Anything Goes at wee Memories.  This time it's a two-week challenge with unlimited entries - so why not?  Come play along!

I'll be back tomorrow to share more of this wonderful set!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

A Week with Springtime Doodles-Day 1

Last summer I spent a week highlighting two of my favorite stamp sets from Papertrey Ink, Flower Garden and Wishing You.  I wanted everyone to love these sets as much as I do, and it was fun to push myself to think of different ways to use the same set.  That was my motivation.  

Now, a year later, I thought I would highlight a few other sets this summer.  My first set is one that has been unloved in my stash for a long time.  It was a set I loved at first sight when it was released, but I just never seem to be able to make it work for me.  So, I wanted to concentrate on this set for a week and learn to love it.  

The set I'm highlighting for the next seven days is Springtime Doodles by Beth Silaika.

See what I mean?  Love at first sight!  I think my main problem in the beginning was that I didn't have the right tools for coloring.  I'm certainly not a Copic girl, but I love my water colored pencils.  Those don't seem right for these images though.  Last Fall, I found some Bic Mark-It Markers on another blogger's site and decided to try them out.  LOVE them!!  (But if you like to blend your colors, you may want to stick with Copics.)

Here's my first card using my new favorite set:

I stamped the lady-bug image in Staz-On and colored it in with my markers.  Then I added some Glossy Accents to the bugs to give them some dimension and glitter on the antennae to give the bugs some sparkle.   Then I had to walk away for awhile and let it dry.  That's hard to do.

Here's a close-up:

When the Glossy Accents had dried, I stamped the leaves and added the sentiment, which I printed from the computer.  Three little rhinestones and I was all finished.  My love for this set was returning!

I'm entering this card in Jenny's Anything Goes at wee Memories.  This time it's a two-week challenge - come play along!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Come back tomorrow for a very Spring-y card using Springtime Doodles!