First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that comes to visit my little blog.  I’m amazed at how kind and supportive everyone has been with their comments.  This week my blog counter, in the less than 2 months, has reached 40,000 amazing! 

Here is yet another little glimpse at my craft-room. This is how I store my punches.  They seem rather neglected of late.  I may have to get them out to play soon.

I use an over the door shoe holder that I purchased from Wal-mart.  Thrifty solution, I think.  I use to have them in drawers and would have to rummage through them to find the one I needed.  Now, thanks to the see through netting on the shoe holder, I can clearly see them.  I do need to reorganize them and put the small punches on the top and the largest on the bottom.  It would be easier to see the smaller ones that way, don’t you think? 

This holder was also a good solution to use for me since I have very little wall space available.  The door is usually open and they are hidden away behind the door.

I would be interested and so would other readers as to how you store your punches.  So, please leave a comment and let us all know.  A link to a photo would even be better if you have it.

Have a super day!

Until tomorrow. . . . . . . . 

I love to look at art work and get so much inspiration from it.  A piece of art can inspire you in so many different ways, whether it is a color, layout or placement of stamps.  How can you not be inspired by the masters!  This card was inspired by the art work of Norman Wyatt Jr.

On with the tutorial.

Supplies:

Stamped flourish on Whisper White using Ginger ink.  I loaded my stamp with Ginger ink and then took a sponge and dabbed some of the ink off of the bottom of the stamp before stamping to get the image to look lighter at the bottom.

Brayered Aqua ink on the top half of the card stock.

Brayered Creamy Caramel ink on bottom of card stock.

Covered bottom of card stock with Post it Notes to mask it so I could put in my horizon line.

Sponged Lettuce ink along the edge of the Post it Note mask.

Removed mask and turned it around to cover the sky portion of the card stock and the Lettuce ink.

Sponged on Ginger ink at the top and bottom of the earth area leaving a light area in the middle.

Sponged on Espresso ink at the top of the earth area.

Removed Post it Note mask and stamped tree with Oregano ink.

Sponged Lettuce ink on the leaf area of tree.

Sponged Oregano ink at the bottom of the leaf area of the tree to create the effect of shadow.

Colored the trunk of the tree with Close to Cocoa & Black markers.

Sponged Stonewashed ink at the top of the sky.

Used a white gel pen and made dots in the tree.

Stamped vein side of Mable cube with Ginger ink at the bottom of card stock.

Stamped vein side of Marble cube with Stonewashed ink on top of card stock.

Assembled card and here it is finished.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and take a look at some art today and get inspired to use what you see in your creations.

Have a beautiful day!

Until tomorrow. . . . . .

This is what I ended up with while trying to create the look of dappled light with my Stampin’ Up set - Simply Circles.    I think I will continue to practice this. 

Ready for the tutorial?  Let’s get started.

Supplies:

On Whisper White card stock stamped the first set of silhouettes, on the left hand side, by loading my stamp first with Versamark and then with Bravo Burgundy ink.  Heat embossed each image as I went along using clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Stamped second set of leaves, on the right side of card, by first loading stamp with Versamark and then with Rust ink.  Heat embossed each image as it was stamped with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Note:  When creating a scene with emboss resist you will want to work from the foreground toward the background.

Stamped third set of images by loading the stamp with Versamark and then Butterscotch ink.  Each image was heat embossed as I went along using clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Sponged on Old Paper ink lightly with a circular motion on upper left hand corner of card stock.

Cut a mask for the sun out of the sticky part of a Post it Note with a 1 3/8″ circle punch.  Put it on my card stock where I want the sun to be.

Sponged on more Old Paper ink over and around the mask to give the sun definition.  Removed mask.

Stamped circle with Old Paper ink and stamping off once on my scrap paper before stamping on my card stock, for a lighter image.

Sponged on River Rock ink working into the Old Paper ink area, but not covering it entirely.

Sponged on Old Olive ink working into the River Rock ink, but not covering it completely.

Sponged on True Thyme ink, working over some of the Old Olive ink, but not covering it entirely.

Getting even darker yet by sponging on Oregano ink at the bottom of the card stock using a pouncing motion with the sponge.  This looks really dark, but it will all dry lighter in color.

Stamped some more circles around the top half of card stock with Old Paper ink and some with Old Olive towards the middle of the card stock.

I thought my Sun looked a little faded so I put my sun Post it Note mask back on and sponged more Old Paper ink over the area to define it even more.

Sponged Oregano ink around edges of my two square layers and Walnut Stain ink around the edge of my Burgundy card stock layer.

Cropped image on the right side to make the left side more interesting.  It’s amazing what a little cropping can do to highlight your main subject.  Main subject here is the plants on the left and then sun.

Assembled the card and here it is finished!

Glad you could follow along with this tutorial.  Now you give it a try!

Hope your day is filled with soft filter sun and peaceful gardens.

Until tomorrow. . . . . .