Happy Labor Day!!!

Hello friends and family!!! I'm still in Eugene with my girls. We've had a blast shopping and just enjoying ourselves. This year I decided to treat them to manicures and pedicures. Yep, even my 4 year old got one!!! It's so much fun to just spend time me and them....making memories and enjoying one last weekend together before the school year starts! My girls start on Wednesday so we will take tomorrow and unpack and just relax a little. I try to always make a special dinner the night before school starts also....little things that I hope they remember when they have a family of their own.

All three of these cards are traditional size and are from the Wanted SU stamp set. Well, except for the "Howdy" stamp....he's from AMuse stamps....super cute and just blended right in!!! This was a super fun set to work with and though not my traditional style I think they turned out pretty good!!! I have a friend in Kansas that requested some blank cards and these are some ideas I came up with. I don't take all credit....there are some great inspiration cards over at the Wanted Splitcoast Gallery....take a peek for other ideas with this set.

Have a great holiday and I hope you get to enjoy some family time too!!! If anyone wants details leave me a comment and I would be happy to post them, I'm just in a hurry right not to get back to hanging with the kiddos. =) See you Wednesday!!

Watercoloring with Markers

Wow, I can't believe it's already Wednesday!! I had a fabulous weekend. At my house it's never complete if we don't have visitors and this weekend was no exception. I was lucky enough to have some long time friends stop by for a visit and of couse there is always an extra teen or two amongst the mix around here! I've been too busy catching up on chores to relax and stamp.

So, on to stamping news. Leslie Miller has a fabulous blog and this card came from reading through her wonderful coloring tutorials. Here is a link directly to those tutorials. Thank you Leslie for some fabulous coloring ideas!! I know I will be using those tutorials again soon!!

Every week Splitcoast has a color challenge and this week looked fun!! I enjoy trying to step outside my norm and try something different. You can click the link to go directly to the gallery....some fabulous stuff was created this week! CC181 was to use Basic Black, Rose Red and Kraft or Creamy Caramel. I don't have Kraft at the moment so Creamy Caramel was up to bat! I watercolored with markers. I enjoy this method of watercoloring. I've been practicing this for a few weeks now after learning it hands on from my SU demonstrator Nancy Morgan. After that I thought it definitely needed some softening and a little more brightness...so I revisited Leslie's blog and worked with the sponging chalks on my background, used my tearing tool on the watercolor paper, then finally I distressed all the layers with my handy distressing tool!!



I was going for a subtle look and I like the finished product. I really don't grab for my chalks very often but this was fun, and I definitely want to do it again!!

I'm off to spend time with my kiddos...I hope you all have a great day and I'll see you for another post on Friday!!

p.s. Don't forget to leave me a comment...I love hearing from all of my family and friends!! =)