All You Need is Ice Cream

April 20, 2017April 20, 2017 KimberlyLeave a comment

The weather is getting warmer, you guys! Actually a little too warm. It was 85 degrees last week. In April! Kind of eerie, but I do appreciate the fact that I was able to get outside and plant my raised bed/container garden this past weekend. Small victories!

If you know me personally, then you know that I’m kind of an ice-cream-aholic. It’s my favorite. My mother even bought me my own ice cream maker a few years ago. She knows. And when the weather gets warmer, I seem to want ice cream all day every day. So, this stamp set is also a favorite, because of all the fun ice cream images. I haven’t played with it too much, but I did put together this quick card not too long ago, right in the middle of my one-layer watercolor card phase.

I stamped out a little parade of popsicles and ice cream treats with Intense Black ink, and also added a sentiment from the same Ice Cream Dream stamp set. I then painted a wash over the top in various shades of green using my Gansai Tambi watercolors. A run through my die cutting machine with a stitched rectangle die to embellish the edges of the card, a card base, a few sequins in coordinating colors and I was finished! Yum!

Now that I’m looking at this card again, it seems that I basically made a card by myself, for myself. ha. :)

What’s your favorite warm weather treat?

Simple Watercolor Wash Thank You Card

March 21, 2017March 21, 2017 Kimberly4 Comments

Last week we got a bit of snow here in central Massachusetts. Fourteen and a half inches, to be exact. It was quite a lot of snow for one storm, especially in March, and especially when you have a long driveway and are armed only with a shovel!

Thankfully, many of my neighbors have snow blowers, and during this last storm, several of them were kind enough to help me out by snow-blowing parts of my sidewalk and driveway. You know that dreaded area at the end of the driveway where the snow is super high because the plow has pushed all of that extra snow into it? That’s always the worst place to shovel, and I’m so glad we didn’t have to shovel it this time, because a snow-blowin’ neighbor helped with that! So, I whipped up some thank you cards to drop in their mailboxes.

This card was fairly simple and straight forward. I started by stamping several floral images from the Hello Sunshine stamp set, using Intense Black ink on to Canson watercolor paper that I had but to about 4.5″ x 6″ or so. I then painted a watercolor wash over the top and cut out a 4.25″ x 5.5″ panel using a stitched rectangle die. I used the Hand Lettered Thanks die by Wplus9 for the sentiment, along with a secondary sentiment from the coordinating stamp set (which I stamped with embossing ink on black paper and heat embossed in white).

After arranging everything on the panel, I decided the sentiment needed a bit more separation from the panel itself, so I die-cut a circle of vellum and then embossed the edge with some white embossing powder, and added it underneath my sentiment arrangement. A few sequins and I was finished!

In related news, I’m asking for a snow blower for my birthday.

Midweek Manicure // Dragon’s Den

November 19, 2014December 30, 2016 Kimberly2 Comments

I recently discovered this really great nail wrap company called Scratch. The company partners with different artists each month, who design nail wraps that are almost always incredible. You can buy the wraps individually, or you can subscribe for a monthly mani box, which is what I decided to do (mostly because I wanted all the wraps ever). What’s nice about the monthly service is that you have the option to skip months if you decide that the featured designs just aren’t for you.

I’m waring the Dragon’s Den wraps that were a part of the October mani box. I love how fun and colorful these are. Even though these were part of a monthly box, you can still buy them individually from the Scratch website, too!

p.s. This post was not sponsored in any way.

Midweek Manicure // Drybrush ++

July 9, 2014 KimberlyLeave a comment

This week, I’m sharing some nail art I created using a drybrush technique. It’s done exactly the way it sounds: you use a dry paint brush to create and abstract, multi-colored, brush-stroke effect on your nails.

I used:

Scotch tape
Ulta Snow White
China Glaze Refresh-Mint
OPI Keeping Suzy at Bay
OPI Can’t Find My Czechbook
Pastel Nail Studs
Seche Vite Top Coat
Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen in White
Small, flat top paint brush (easy to find in your local craft store)
Paper towel
Aluminum foil (or some other surface to place dots of nail polish on that you can then dip your brush into)

First I taped off the lower portion of several nails to keep them bare and unpainted. I then added two coats of Snow White on each nail as a base coat. After putting a small puddle of the green and blue colors I’d be using on a piece of tin foil. I dipped the very dry brush into the first color, and painted a few strokes onto the nail. I repeated this process with the different colors on the same nail, wiping the brush off on a piece of paper towel between color-switches. I then repeated this same process on each nail. Once everything was dry, I added a top coat and placed several nail studs on each half-painted nail to add a bit of interest.

A day or so later, I wanted to add a little somethin’ somethin’, and used a while I Heart Nail Art Pen to draw some designs over the top of the drybrush pattern.

Happy Hump Day!

Midweek Manicure // I Heart Nail Art Pens

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014 Kimberly1 Comment

I picked up some Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art pens a few weeks ago and I LOVE THEM. The water-based fine-tipped markers make nail art super easy. The best thing about them is that if you mess up, you can just wipe away your mistake with a dampened cotton bud and start again. When I was first testing them out, I decided I’d try a simple doodle, and ended up with these leafy stems on my nails that look like…Fronds?

I used:

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Royal Blush
I Heart Nail Art Pens in Turquoise and White
Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat

After a base coat of Royal Blush on all nails, I just began to draw out some stems and leaves on each nail, with not real attention to a specific pattern or symmetry. I drew everything out with the turquoise pen, then went over the top with the white, then back again with the turquoise, to create a shaded effect. Once dry, I topped everything with a coat of the Big Matte top coat (new favorite).

Happy Hump Day!

St. Patrick’s Day Mani

March 16, 2012 Kimberly2 Comments

Glad this week has come to an end. Here’s a festive manicure to kick off the weekend!

After a clear base coat I used Nicole by OPI Peas’s and Q’s. I painted a stripe diagonally across the top part of each nail using China Glaze Turned up Turquoise.