Sunday, April 3, 2011

A Sunny Day!

Hello friends.  I hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  I've been having a fabulous weekend!

I made my card with an old stamp from Hippo Heart.  I made the yellow layer of my card using the Polished Stone technique.  It's layered on a dark green card.  I used a charm with the word "Dream" on it for my sentiment.  I sponged around  the image with a sea sponge.  I love the texture a sea sponge gives.
 I heat embossed the image with gold embossing powder and watercolored it with Tombow makers.  To do this, scribble the Tombow markers on an old plastic lid and pick up the color with a waterbrush or wet paint brush.  Then paint in whatever watercolor style that pleases you.
 Here are some samples of the Polished Stone techniques papers that I made.  The picture doesn't show them at their best, because I took it at night.  Some are made with dye re-inkers and some are made with alcohol inks. You'll notice that I didn't add any metallic ink to the yellow paper.  It was easier to match the yellow paper to my colored image, but I think the papers with the metallic inks in them would look gorgeous as backgrounds for cards with sentiments as their focal point.  Here are a few links to learn more about the Polished Stone Technique: Stamp tv, Split Coast Stampers, Sara Janes Studio.

Today's Tip:  I save the paper that has been printed on from our computer printer.  I use it as a mat under my paper crafting to catch adhesive, ink, paint and other messy things that I don't want on my desk surface.  Once I've used the paper for a mat it's ready for the recycling bin.  This way I get double use out of a sheet of paper before it gets sent to the recycling bin.  Another small way to help keep our planet green. :)

Challenges:
Top Tip Tuesday
The Crafty Pad
Paper Sundaes
Scrappy Frogs
Allsorts
Pattie's Creations


Yesterday My husband and I spent a wonderful afternoon together.  One of the things we did was have a picnic at a park at the beach.  It was a perfect day for it- warm and sunny, but not hot.  We didn't go down on the beach itself, because it was too windy there for the Trigeminal Neuralgia in my face, but I did  snap a few quick pictures of the ocean from the boardwalk.  The ocean was extremely calm - no surfers - one man in a kayak fishing. :)
I never grow tired of the beauty of the ocean.  I'm so blessed to live this close to it.

Blessings
  • The chance to spend special time with my best friend & soul mate, my hubby, yesterday.
  • A fabulous answer to prayer that I'll elaborate more on as I can!!!
  • Another precious phone call from my little niece.  Such a great surprise. :)
  • A safe trip for our friends that were traveling a long distance.
  • I saw a beautiful new species of bird out back yesterday morning. I have to do more research to find out what it was.  It sure was pretty and one I've never seen in 29 yr. of living here.
Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

12 comments:

Vee said...

Such a lovely card and a fab image. Thanks for joining Top Tip Tuesday this week.
xx Vee

Caroljenks said...

Shelly your card is gorgeous! Fab papers you have made too.
I love your tip about re-using printer paper :)

Thanks for joining in with Top Tip Tuesday this week :)

Carol x

Sheila said...

Gorgeous card - love the sea sponge texture too. The polished stone techniques papers are great -will have to find out how you did those. Beautiful ocean pics - still hoping for the day we can come see it and you again. Luv U Sis.

Sandra DeFalco said...

Shelly - Wow, beautiful embossing on the sunflower stamp! You did a super job with this. Love your ocean pictures from Florida, gorgeous water!
Thanks for playing in our 'Flowers OR Flowers and Pearls' challenge!
♥ Sandi
DT Coordinator for Pattie's Creations Challenge!
and Pattie's shop
Home of Pattieboop and Allie!

Lorraine said...

Lovely. You've done a super job with that sunflower. Thanks for taking part at The Crafty Pad this week.

brenda said...

A beautiful sunflower card Shelly and great background as ell.

I have TN as well, so can totally understand what the wind can do.

Thank you so much for sharing your lovely creation and joining in my Bloomin’ Blossoms theme at Allsorts this week

B x

There's a Stampalot voucher up for grabs here

Unknown said...

You did a marvellous job with that gorgeous sunflower Shelly! Very smart techniques, too! TFS! Hugs, Ira

~♥~The Navy Wife~♥~ said...

Your sunflower is just gorgeous! I love your card and the warm colors! Thanks for joining us at The Crafty Pad Flowers Challenge this week & good luck in the draw!

Cleota said...

Gorgeous! I love how you embossed with the gold to give it a nice sparkle. Great card and beautiful pictures of the ocean! Thanks for joining us at Pattie's Creations Design Challenges this week.

Cleota
DT Member

Pattie G said...

Shelly, this is such a pretty card and I love how you embossed the sunflower image. Thanks for joing us this week at Pattie's Creations Design Challenge.

Hugs ♥

Alica said...

Very pretty! Love the background technique!
Thanks for joining us at Paper Sundaes this week!

Erum Tasneem said...

i have no idea about the polished stone technique, but your card looks gorgeous! I better google about this! And oh my goodness the blue blue blue sea! BEAUTIFUL!