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.

Here's a card I recently made for a friend's birthday. It's mostly background paper, punched hearts, a piece of ribbon and a free online image.

Another apple card. I really like the brightness in this card. Believe it or not, this stamp does NOT have a name on it. That is very unusual. Anyway, a simple card, yet crisp and clean. I did the wording in my Printshop program, then stamped it, and colored it with my markers.

I have looked high and low for these stamps. They are mine. My granddaughter, Lexi, and I made cards like this one day, and for the life of me I cannot find the stamps. But, as soon as I do I will post who made them.
I put a little round acrylic thingie from Michaels in the middle of the main flower and hand cut some corner edges for it.Anyway, it was just a really cute little card that was fun to do.

This is an easy little card that I made from some inexpensive plastic stencils. You can purchase these at Walmart and Michaels. When I color my stencils I use chalks, dye inks, and/or pigment inks. I've tried all the different ways and I like them all.

This particular card was colored with pigment inks and then I added some glitter glue on all the little dots just to give it some pizazz!

~Glass Paint~

Another really fun technique I like is painting my images with glass paint. You can purchase it at Michaels and many other craft stores. It's hard to see here, but the glass paint adds a little bit of height and a glass-like shine to your image. On this card I only added the glass paint to the apples to add a little interest on the card...the leaves and stems are colored with markers. Oh, and you do want to stamp your image first with pigment ink and emboss it before applying the glass paint as the embossed edges tend to hold the glass paint where it belongs. And, another nice thing about glass paint is that it cleans up with water.
Again, I don't know who makes this stamp as it belongs to a friend of mine. I layered the image and added a little Swiss dot ribbon.

~Scrap Layering Continued~

Here's the other card I was telling you about on which I did the Scrap Layering.

On this particular card I used two different kinds of background paper and after that was applied then I stamped over them with some pine tree images. I love this technique as it really makes your main image pop! As you can see on this card and the previous card, I also leave little spaces between each piece of scrap background paper so you can see some of the main card stock that shows through. Then I also use a piece of the same card stock to layer the main image.

I can't tell you who makes this image as it belongs to a friend of mine...I made the card at her house.

~Scrap Layering~

I have not used any stamps on this card. The bear image was taken from a greeting card that was given to me and I recycled it! I've done that with a few of my cards. I think it's a good idea. If you're not going to keep certain cards that you've received from people (or if you have cards you've purchased, but probably won't use), recycle them rather than throw them away.
Around the outside edge is a technique I made up that I call "Scrap Layering". I actually take scraps of background paper, cut them different sizes, and glue them randomly around the outside edges of the card. You want to have your image already colored before choosing the background paper scraps, as you want to match the colors in your image with the colors around the edge. Or you can choose your background paper first and then color your image matching the colors in the background paper.
The same background paper is used in the layering of the bear image.
On some of my cards I've used this technique and have also used two or more different kinds of background paper around the edge, and then I've also stamped images on them. You'll see what I mean in my next post.

This is my little Grandson, Brayden, who just turned 5 years old yesterday. He spent a couple of days with me last week and we did a lot of things together and had a very nice time. Here he just finished a Cars puzzle. He loves coming to Grandma's house and I love having him! He is such a sweet little boy!

Oooooo I just love taking my own photos and using them in my cards.....sooooo fun.
Here's another card for the man at my church. The flower image is a photograph I took of some pink flowers. Since this was a flower image I wanted to make it more masculine looking...even though I really don't believe God made flowers only for the female gender.
I put the image into my Printshop program and tweaked it into this image and added the saying. The leaf punch is an edge punch from Fiskars and the little teenie-weenie butterfly comes from a Martha Stewart edge punch.

The fish background on this card is actually from a package of paper I purchased at my local office supply store a long time ago.
The frame is from Art Gone Wild and is embossed in gold and then colored in.
The clouds/sky is a photograph I took of the sky on a cloudy day and cut it out to fit in the frame.
I added some sand and a shell to give it dimension.

Here's a fun little card I made. 
The butterfly is actually from a piece of material I bought. I glued the material onto a piece of card stock and then cut it out and raised it up with mounting tape. I use all kinds of things to make cards with!!! It's fun!!!
The colorful background is done in Kaleidoscope Painter. It's a website that is actually like a kaleidoscope! The designs you can make are unlimited! And, they're free for personal use too. You can find it at:
permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html.