DRIED FLOWER CARD:

I love this card. It is sooooo pretty when you see it in real life! These were flowers I dried myself. After the flowers are dried, you lay the flowers out on the sticky side of clear Self-Adhesive Laminating paper. After you get the arrangement you want, then top it with another sheet of laminating paper, making sure to get as much air out as possible without breaking the flowers, and seal the edges of the laminating paper very well. When you make dried flower cards they come out sooooo stunning. You would surprise yourself!

The easiest way I find to dry the flowers is to place the flower between the pages of a large book, such as a dictionary. Close the book and then place several other large books on top of it and let it sit for a few weeks. The results are fabulous!

P. S. Don't add too many flowers to a page/book as it could cause too much dampness and the flowers could mildew.

PEARL EX / GLASS PAINT

Vison Inc. makes this stamp. I love it, not only because it is such a beautiful stamp, but also because it is so versatile. You can stamp it alone, as I did, or you can use any/all of the flowers and/or butterfly separately and/or on other cards.

It is colored with Pearl Ex paints and the lady bugs are colored with red glass paint...love the glass paint and the Pearl Ex!

Reminder: Always remember to stamp your card with pigment ink and emboss it before using Pearl Ex, as the embossed edges of your image hold in the paint and prevent the different colors from running into each other.

Stampendous makes a line of bee stamps that are sooooo cute! I have a few of these stamps and use them often.

The Bzzzz and the Just B' Cuz were done in my Printshop program.

The yellow strip is just a piece of card stock. I added a little ribbon and some dashes.

Then I added some glitter to the wings and flower just to add some pizazz!

I took this photo of clouds around sunset. You can really get some cool photos of clouds when the sun is about to set.
I now carry my little digital camera with me in my purse so that I am always ready if I see a sunset, clouds, flowers, children, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and always carry an extra battery that is charged so you don't get caught without power to your camera.
The scenery image is by Stampendous and the little boat/fisherman is from Stampscapes. I drew in the rocks at the bottom of the card by hand.

Here's another card I made by stamping on a cloud photo. This is a pretty good example of what happens when you don't have enough of the white clouds in the lower part of the photo. The sky portion shows up as shadows after you color the image. Also, if you have too much gray in the clouds it will also show up as shadows. You want to make sure your clouds are as white as possible.
The image is by Stampendous.

This also is my own photograph. I was in my neighborhood taking pictures of flowers and I liked the way this photo of roses turned out, so I made it into a card. This shows how you can use your own photographs to make cards.
The angel stamp is from Penny Black, and the little hearts background stamp is from Dots and is called "Heart Dust".

And here is yet another cloud photograph that I stamped on.
This stamp belonged to a friend of mine, but I believe it is also from Stampscapes.
I showed this card to a friend of mine who was in the South Pacific during World War II and he said, "Wow, it's just like being there!"
The photograph of the clouds really makes the card look like a postcard.

~STAMPING ON PHOTOGRAPHS OF CLOUDS~

One of my favorite techniques is stamping on photos of clouds.
I'm sure you've all seen the awesome clouds that float up in the sky during the months of March and April. Springtime is the best time to take these photographs.
You want to make sure most of the white part of the clouds is from the bottom to 3/4Th's the way up the photo because that's the area you are going to stamp and color on. If you have blue sky at the bottom of the photo then your image comes out too dark when you stamp and color it. So you want to make sure your card is mostly white clouds with a little bit of blue sky towards the top.
The images on this card are from Stampscapes.

Pearl Ex

This looks like a pretty plain card, but in person it just pops.

The background is done with glossy black card stock. I put dots/swirls of Marvy Metallics on the card stock and then wadded up a piece of plastic wrap and dabbed all over the card stock to spread around the metallic ink. You have to dab the ink quickly as it dries rather quickly.

The angel is by Penny Black and is stamped with pigment ink and embossed and then painted with Pearl-Ex paints.