Embrace Life!

At my open house for the current SU! IB&C back in August, several of my customers asked to do a preorder class featuring Embrace Life. They actually requested several stamp sets for preorder classes, and I had some ideas of my own, so we finally got around to the Embrace Life class this month.

I also was recently inspired to try to create a watermark for my SU! photos that I post here and on SCS. So here was my first attempt. I made a "cooler" one, but it didn't look right once I added it to the cards, so I've asked my SIL to try and make me a watermark for Christmas. ;) She's created several for her blog, but has recently outsourced and paid a professional to make a very sophisticated one for her. What I want (at least for now) is a simple one, so I hope she'll be able to figure it out for me. She said she knows how to make them for herself, but she's not sure if she can save it as a separate file that she could email me. We'll see. In the meantime, let me know what you think about this one.

This first card, I call it the "tile card," was CASEd from a card by Sharon Dudek that I found in the Stampers' Showcase, which is on the demonstrator side of the SU! website. Aren't the colors and layout clean and classic? We stamped in Basic Brown and used the VersaMarker to add the tone on tone shading. The base is Mellow Moss, the mat, Chocolate Chip, and the tiles, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, More Mustard, and Ruby Red.

The inspiration for this card came from a creation by Colleen Laux, also on Stampers' Showcase. I ordered a couple sets of the bulk buy Stylized Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware frames when they became available, so I'm sure you'll be seeing those around for a while. I am usually so bad about hoarding things that I am forcing myself to use these frames on at least one project in each class or workshop.

And the layout for the card above was borrowed from this card by SuzanneBrown over on SCS. I love the colors she used, but unfortunately they are retired, so I went with Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace, and Handsome Hunter for my green accent. The sentiment comes from the Best Yet level 1 hostess set. We used the faux silk technique for our focal point. It doesn't show up so well in the picture, but you can find the tutorial from the resources page on SCS by clicking here.

Sweet wishes!

ps. I'm having my 3rd installment of the "What do I do with THIS???" class tomorrow morning featuring rub-ons. Just wanted to whet your appetite for the projects we will be creating. ;)