Trying something new...

A lot of my scrappy friends have been using watercolors lately on their projects and I have to admit that I love the look of it.  I've said before that I am not an artist.  My 6 year old is better at drawing than I am.  And I have used watercolors in the past...in coloring books when I'm coloring with my girls.  :)

When I saw this weeks Pinspired Challenge, I decided to grab my biggie's watercolor set (she doesn't turn every color black like my youngest does) and try my hand at some boldly-colored ombre designs. I love how both of them turned out!  Here is the challenge picture:

And here are the cards I made:

For this first card, I stamped the watercolor paper with a fun new background stamp I recently got using Versamark, then used clear embossing powder to create a resist for the watercolors.  I brushed the watercolors on from the bottom to the top, so the bulk of the color would be at the bottom of the card.  I added the sentiment with dimensional adhesive to make it stand out.  I like how the ombre effect adds something extra to this simple card.  

Update:  The first card helped me win the challenge!  :)

For my second card, which ironically I made first and didn't realize I was going to be making two cards with such similar-colored backgrounds, I used some washi tape to mask off the edges to create a border.  Once the paint was dry, I stamped the sentiment with Versamark and then used white embossing powder to make the sentiment look crisp against the colored background.
    
 That is all for today!  Until next time...

Everywhere a butterfly...

Happy first day of Spring, everyone!  Seems kind of like it's been spring all winter long here, minus the few weeks we had 20 inches of snow on the ground from back-to-back blizzards in February.  Mother Nature is one bipolar chick, that's for sure!

Anyway, I have a couple cards I wanted to share today.  I used butterflies on both of these cards, which I have never done before.  Whenever I've seen or pinned a card with butterflies on it, I always thought they looked so beautiful and delicate, but I've never been inspired to actually use them before.  Well, until now.  :) 

This first card was commissioned by my brother-in-law.  My sister-in-law gave up a baby girl for adoption a couple years before she and my BIL got married, so they celebrate Birth Mother's Day, which is the day before Mother's Day, every year.  This is the card I came up with:

 

I wanted to make a card that was happy and pretty and not hokey in any way.  I had to print out the sentiment myself because, let's face it, stamp makers haven't rushed out to make stamps celebrating the incredibly difficult decision of giving up a child.  But I digress...  Here is a close-up:

I have known my SIL for MANY years and I was dating my husband when she was pregnant.  I have been lucky enough to have met the little girl she gave up for adoption a few times as my SIL has been very close with the family who adopted her.  Her birth daughter is a spitting image of her.  Just beautiful.  It was an HONOR to make this card for my BIL to give her this year. 

The second card I am showing you doesn't have quite as exciting of a story, sad to say.  I made it for a challenge.  :)  I actually might be entering it for TWO challenges, so this story is actually looking up a bit.  I made it for this challenge:

And here is what I created:

 

I wanted this card to be simple with little pops of color, which I think I accomplished.  In retrospect, I wish I would have chosen a paper that didn't have so much white in it, but it still works. 
 

I used a rainbow of colors for the gemstones in the center of the butterflies.  You can't really see them well in this picture, so just try to imagine them.  :)

The other challenge I will be entering this card in is this Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge:

My card isn't SCREAMING these colors, but the butterflies definitely have these colors on them in one way or another. 

Thank you for stopping by today to see my latest creations!  Until next time...

Pinspired Challenge #4

 I thought I would sneak in between my Growing in Unity posts to play along with this week's Pinspired Challenge!  I am sad to say that this is only my first entry, but luckily they are only on week 4, so I'm not too far behind!  :) 

 Here is the inspiration picture:

And here is my interpretation:

I decided to play off the wood grain background and use some papers from Basic Grey's Life of the Party collection, which all have wood grain on them.  Then I used the brightly colored stickers from Basic Grey's Shine On collection to jazz the card up a bit. 

Thank you for taking a look at my card!  Until next time...