At last... some creativity to share!

I've been away from my blog for WAY too long!  Thanks for the emails checking up on me... everything is fine... I haven't fallen off the face of the planet... but thanks to the school holidays I'm FINALLY getting some time in my craft room and I'm loving it!

Today is my Mum's birthday and I've made her a super cute card (at least I think it's super cute!) but I can't share that with you until after I actually give it to her on Saturday.  In the meantime I've got it sitting on the shelf above my desk and it's making me smile each time I look at it!

I do have some other cards to share with you though.  Over the past few months I've been watching blog posts and you tube tutorials... and buying some new card making goodies... and now I've actually had some time to create... loving it!

This set of cards was inspired by a You Tube tutorial by Nichol Magouirk.

I really loved the cards and of course Distress Inks are right up my street.  A couple of years ago my Dad asked me to make him some sympathy cards and I used photos and sentiments in photoshop to create some for him but I thought these might be good too so I went ahead and ordered the stamps.

So here's my process... much the same as Nichol's although I didn't do the water splattering!  I started off by die cutting some watercolour cardstock:

Then I stamped my sentiments and hearts using embossing ink and heat set it with clear embossing powder:

Next came the fun stuff... Distress Ink!

Mowed Lawn, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean

 Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon

Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch and Mowed Lawn

And then I got a bit carried away with the creating and forgot to take photos of the last card with the inks... oops!

Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry

I decided to keep the cards really simple and only added 5 small pearls to the bottom right corner of each card.

And here are the finished cards:

Thanks for visiting my blog again xx