Before we dive into today's post, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all so much, for the heartfelt comments and emails I've received from so many of you regarding my Grandma's passing this weekend. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support, your love and encouragement, and once again, your prayers. We've had several "heavy" things going on in our lives over the last few weeks and months with my stomach issues, Bart's prostate cancer and now my Grandma's death, and I just want to reiterate yet again, how grateful I am for so many of you standing in the gap for us....lifting us up in prayer, during this season we've been in. Your support means more than you know and we're just so appreciative. I also want to thank those of you that have sent cards and gifts -- thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking of us enough to send notes of encouragement. Please know that I'm so grateful for each one! You all are just the best blog readers ever....but let's face it. You're more than that....you're friends.
With that being said, how about I share a couple of cards with you....!
Aloha!
In case you didn't catch it last month, we've started a new feature for the Stamp Designers at Papertrey Ink where we can each pull out one of our previously released stamp sets and share some fresh inspiration with you, using that set! Perhaps it's a set that you've already got and this will give you some new ideas for how to use it, possibly even pairing it with new dies or other newer products. Or maybe it's a set that you don't yet have, but might want to add to your wish list! It's just a fun way for us to keep bringing you more inspiration, and I'm happy to be able to play along again this month!
With summer fast approaching, it makes me think of family vacations and gorgeous, sunny weather and it just seems fitting that for my Stamp Designer Showcase this month, I pulled out my Aloha stamp set and whipped up a couple new cards to share with you!
It's no secret that I have loved hibiscus for years now! I snapped this photo a couple years ago at the San Diego Zoo -- this is the Rainbow Christy hibiscus. Isn't it just STUNNING?! Oh my word! And those blooms were about 7" - 8" across! I don't know that I've ever seen a more amazing and awe-inspiring flower. It's a tropical variety and while we did buy one to keep in the house last year, it croaked on us before it ever bloomed. Tear. Haha. I haven't lost hope yet though.....I WILL try again when we can find another one! We had to order the last one online....they're kind of tough to find.
Last year, we planted this lovely in our yard and she thrilled us all summer long with her gorgeous blooms! But she's also a tropical, and I'm fairly certain she didn't survive our Midwest winter.
Anyway, the point to all this hibiscus talk is that the Aloha stamp set has a lovely hibiscus image in it that I wanted to highlight today! Hope you enjoy....
First up, I went with a fairly simple approach. I used my watercolors to create a large circle on a piece of watercolor paper from Michael's. Beneath the circle, I stamped the sentiments from Wet Paint using summer sunrise and smokey shadow inks.
I stamped the hibiscus image twice on new leaf and raspberry fizz card stocks, using versamark ink and then heat embossed them both with white embossing powder. I cut them out by hand and layered the flower on top of the new leaf flower with foam adhesive.
For this one, I used all of the same elements, just in different ways. I stamped the hibiscus image several times on more watercolor paper, and heat embossed them all with white embossing powder. Then, I watercolored all the flowers with watercolor paints. Once everything was dry, I stamped the same sentiments from Wet Paint, using the same inks as on the first card.
I hope you've enjoyed today's cards. Do you already have the Aloha set? Think it might be one you could see yourself using? I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks for sharing a bit of your day with me!
See you tomorrow!
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{Paper Pieced Thanks supplies -- click on thumbnails}
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{Watercolor Thanks supplies}
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