Charlestonians are delighted about this year's new Stampin' Up! catalog! Want to know why?

Pineapples, pineapples, everywhere!!!

Pineapples are a symbol of southern hospitality and there are two gorgeous pineapple stamps in the new catalog! I have featured both here on a recipe book for a coworker (as a bridal shower gift)!

I did some clear embossing on our shimmery cardstock and then watercolored around the pineapple for a soft look. Then I embossed in our new Copper Embossing powder! SO PRETTY!

Below is a view inside the recipe book. I had purchased some recipe cards from Mary & Martha and the color scheme was green, crumb cake, and orange. I found that an old Project Life by Stampin' Up! set actually matched quite nicely so I ran with that! Everyone from the office contributed a recipe to the book (and her mom and future mother-in-law)! It was a sweet gift!

My pineapple craze did not stop there. Then I made the card below for a team swap (don't you love the new Emerald Envy color??)! If you want to learn how to make this card-- come to my class later this month: 

​https://www.facebook.com/events/1204161366282968/ 

If you need a catalog-- let me know! And everything is live now-- so shop away! In fact,  when you place a $50 or more order with me using this hostess code (SASVBBEG) I will send you a box with stamping goodies worth at least $25! (This is good until Sunday, June 12th!)

Happy stamping,
Melissa

I absolutely love the sentiments and images in the Picture Perfect stamp set! It is a technique stamp set-- you are supposed to do two or three step stamping with different colors to layer the images! Now, I will say that I don't find it to be that forgiving of a technique-- if you don't line it up just so it doesn't look at that great to me... But....

Add water and tada! Gorgeous!

My daughter loved making this hummingbird. Basically you stamp the image (I used Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe, and Watermelon Wonder) and then use a spritzer to spray the wings out with water... All on watercolor paper, of course.

Now the flower took a bit more playing around... But I ended up liking Calypso Coral, Melon Mambo, and Watermelon Wonder. And my pattern was to spritz the first layer on your stamp before you stamp it on the paper, then stamp the next two layers. 

Add a few flicks of Watermelon Wonder and some Wink of Stella Clear and you have a gorgeous flower!

The final image from this stamp set was the starfish and I just heat embossed the "darker" of the two stamps with gold and then once that cooled off I spritzed the paper and did a wash of Lost Lagoon on the watercolor paper. Nice right? And our new black archival ink stamped clean on the watercolor paper for the sentiment. Plus, this ribbon is luscious!

Hope you enjoyed the cards! Make sure that you subscribe to my blog using the Feedburner link at the top so that you won't miss out on all my creations!

Happy crafting,
​Melissa

Welcome back to blog hop for Stampin' Friends in 2016! Hopefully, you just arrived from Elizabeth's blog-- isn't she terrific? Make sure that you keep hopping on over to Cheryl's blog- I can't wait to see what she has designed for this month's theme! Plus, keep reading for a chance to win a bunch of new crafty goodies!

This month we have several guest blog hoppers. Make sure to check them out too!
Barbara Welch
Charlene Luks
Cheryl Hillen Piotrowski
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We were challenged to create a card and project that was spring themed or pastel colored. This is very difficult for me as I don't really do pastel colors often but I had a terrific occasion to create for-- a surprise baby shower for our front desk graduate assistant! 

So, I did some recon work and found out that she was inspired by this wallpaper from Anthropologie called Watercolor Flora! It's very expensive but I thought those flowers look similar to some of the DSP we have... She also wanted touches of gold, pink, and teal.

So I started with this card that used many elements from our February Paper Pumpkin kit "Hello Sunshine" and the Botanical Blooms framelit set! You can get a refill of that kit for only $8 if you subscribe to Paper Pumpkin and trust me-- it's a great deal! The nine card bases are gorgeous and all the stickers and sequins really make it worth it! 

Below is the sweet wall decor item that I worked on for Baby Zora for several weeks! I love our Birthday Bouquet DSP and thought it made the perfect background for this frame. I painted the frame teal and the dry brushed on some gold-- okay-- lots of gold!

This emboss resist watercolors flower looks gorgeous-- right??? I love the way that Watermelon Wonder and Melon Mambo washed together so well! And I used a layer of gold vellum foil to soften this section... 

So where are you on the hop? Here is the list of all the Stampin' Friends blog hoppers, including our guest hoppers!

​1. Melissa Thomas- you are here!
2.  Cheryl
3. Steph Jandrow 
4. Kathie Rotti 
5. Barbara Welch
6. Charlene Luks
7. Carolina Evans
8. Leanne Johnson
9. Lynn Streifert    
10. Kirsteen Gill
11. Elizabeth Jeanne 
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​Or just click the previous or next buttons below! 
​And as always...

Happy crafting,
Melissa

One of the prettiest kits I've seen so far is the Watercolor Winter card kit (available August 28 for customers) in the Holiday Catalog!

We got to play with this kit (and received the stamp set, snail, and Tombow too)! Below are some pictures of the cards I designed-- but they are all made by water coloring chipboard!

Hope you love it as much as me! I think it would make a terrific November class... Which one us your favorite? The kit makes 20 cards!!

Happy crafting!