What's on My Kitchen Counter

I t has been hot, hot, hot here in Central Alabama.  I would love to be at the lake, a swimming pool, or some type of water.  I had to settle for making some cards with water scenes instead.  My first card was made by inking up a panel in Pacific Point and then stamping Vicki's Versatile Background  in the same color.  Next, I stamped on two of the fish from  4 in 1 Ocean Designs   and then coloring them in with a Sharpie pen.  I added on some eyes with white paint and then stamped the  Eyes for You Greeting .   On the back panel, I stamped the same fish in Sahara Sand. My next card was made this weekend and was inspired by  THIS  lovely picture at Ballard Designs which was the inspiration site at  Splitcoaststampers . com .  After painting up the scene in watercolors (really just a bunch of upward flecks in different colors of green and brown with a touch of blue and white), I stamped the  Dreams Inspire Fu ture Greeting .   I stamped the greeting one more time and cut out and

Today's card was inspired by the sketch at the Global Design Project and the Inspiration Site at Splitcoaststampers.com, Ballard Designs.  I picked THIS lovely map as my inspiration.  The GDP sketch ( #GDP190 ) is super cool - I think I may use it on some cards in the future as well. Here is my card.  I started the card by stamping the journal image in the Open Seas stamp set from SU!  I stamped it several times and then sponged on some red to color it up and some brown to age it.  Next, I stamped the global map image in Pacific Point, fussy cut,it and then sponged on more blue and some brown ink.  To add the line from the sketch, I masked off a strip and sponged on a heavy amount of Pacific Point.  The sentiment is from the SU! Tasty Trucks set.  I finished it with a light stamp of the compass from the Open Seas set.  The panel at the bottom of my picture is going inside.  Hugz, Nancy

The Lake and some Bacon for you today.  Love them both! My first card is for two challenges.  One is the Global Design Project #GDP189 - Color Challenge . Some gorgeous colors! The other challenge that inspired me is the Tea Party Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com.  The challenge involves making a card for a lovely cardmaker facing a huge battle.  She loves the lake, colors, flowers, boats, Christian sayings/Scripture, vintage, etc.  I tried to incorporate all of those in my card.  To make this card, I took some cardboard from a SU! box, peeled off the top layer of paper, and painted it white.  Next I did water color washes in the three GDP colors, I then pounced on the bg with  paper towel dipped in some white acrylic paint.  Next, I stamped images from these three SU! sets:  Lilypad Lake (boats and sentiment), Home to Roost (the foliage in the right corner) and Tea Together (the little flower I added).  Framed up the picture with a stitched frame. My next card is all abou

Swans are so graceful and pretty, and DRS Designs has a lovely new Swan image.  I have two cards to share with you featuring this image. On my first card, I stamped the s wan twice, fussy cut both images, and set them at the bottom of a cool new shaker die and kit I bought from CTMH (my aunt is a CTMH demo).  For the base of the shaker, I used the new Life Together Happiness Greeting from DRS Designs.  The Swan image is $8 mounted or $4 unmounted and the greeting is $8 mounted and $4.50 unmounted - these are some great prices for these lovely rubber stamps.  I just love my next card. It was inspired by THIS painting at Great BIG Canvas.  These are the steps I used to make it: * stamped the new   Swan  image in Vintage Photo Distress Ink *colored in the black part of the swan head with a Fine tipped Sharpie *sponged a line for the ground/water separation *used watercolors to add in interest on the swan, sky, and water.  *painted over the lines of the swan with white acrylic p

I dug out a 2005 SU! set called Fashion Statements for this card - it has always been one of my favorites.  The angel wings grabbed me back in 2005, and they still do.  I love to put on some SU! Dazzling Diamonds on the wings - hope you can see the sparkle.   I was inspired to make the card by The Global Design Team Challenge  #GDP188 .  This week's challenge is to case a lovely card by Brian King, one of the GDC design team members: Here is my card: I made the card base by stamping the heart stamp all over some white card stock.  It was too dark, so I dabbed a paper towel in some white acrylic paint - then I dabbed that all over the stamped panel.  It softened up so that my main panels would show better.   Next I cut up part of a SU! box that my new stamps came in.  SU! boxes have the best cardboard!  I took off the outside layer of paper from the cardboard and painted it white.  I then sponged brown all around the edges to look like rust or aging.  I stamped the

I was inspired to do this card by the Global Design Project #GDP187 - Landscapes and the Inspiration Challenge #700 at Splitcoaststampers.com.  The SCS site was Quora.  I picked this as my inspiration picture: I started by swiping SU! Pacific Point on some aluminum foil and misting with water. I dipped my paper on the ink a few times to soak it all up. Then I took a paper towel dipped in white acrylic paint and pounced it on my inked paper while it was still wet. After the paper dried. I sponged around a circle to make the moon and torn paper to make my mountains. Next, I stamped some leaves from Rooted in Nature and then heat embossed the sentiment on a strip of Night of Navy. Sympathy card for my stash. Also did this card for the Global Design Project - a landscape on your card.  Hugz! Nancy

I love the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.  There is usually a site and you get to pick the picture that inspires you.  This week THIS was the picture that inspired me from At Home .  The lines reminded me of crosses so I painted some crosses in black and yellow watercolors.  Next I splattered on some white acrylic paint.  I swirled around some of the splatters and decided to do some very loosely abstract heads and bodies on the two full crosses.  I splattered on some black and then did a few more lines.  I finished it off with The Way, The Truth, and the Life greeting from DRS Designs. Hope your week is going well.  Hugz, Nancy