Prickly Pear with Cactus and a Llama

Hello! Have you been browsing the newest Idea Book? I always love turning each page back and seeing all of the newest collections and projects. I am always pleasantly surprised with the creativity and cleverness that CTMH comes up with each season. Now of course I like all of the new papers, but sometimes there is one collection that captures my interest first. In the new book it was the Prickly Pear collection and that adorable Llama stamp set.

The Prickly Pear cardmaking stamp comes with coordinating thin cuts in the Llama and Cactus shapes. This makes the cutting and stamping super easy. These cards were made in no time at all and the papers are really awesome too!

We created this Llama card at my Open House. It was a llama fun to make! Do you llama make one too?

You can get the paper collection and stamp set with thin cuts online now. Just think of the creations on both your scrapbooking pages and cards!

Hug Some Watercolor Cactus

Watercolors wow me! I have recently been doing a lot of research and experimenting with watercolor. Here is a cool technique that I had to try. I have to say that it is a little strange at first to color outside the lines, but then it just flows and the result is amazing!

Look how the vivid colors just begin to spill into each other!
You can get the Stuck on You stamp set in the new Seasonal Expressions Idea Book now until the end of April. You can stamp them on their own or cut them out easily with the Thin Cuts. Order online here.

Stuck on You

I love all the recent artwork lately with images of cactus. Living in the Southwest all my life, I've grown to love the desert and all it's beauty. Just last weekend I was talking to my husband about how lovely it is to look out across the vast desert of cactus and Joshua trees as the towering purple mountains lie in the backdrop. Especially since some peaks are dusted with just a bit of snow right now, it's my favorite! 

Close To My Heart made it even easier to create these cactus works of art with their Stuck on You stamp set and coordinating Thin Cuts. I'd like to share a few cards that I have been experimenting with. Here is just one for today that is pretty simple and straight forward. It makes me think of the warmer Spring days in the desert, no more snow-capped mountains in the background when the cactus are in bloom!

I cut out the images first with the Thin Cuts and a Big Shot embossing machine. I used watercolor paper as I knew that I wanted to color in the images. Then I simply lined up the stamp over the cut paper. I colored in with water paints and placed them on my card creating a scene.

Here is some artwork from the Seasonal Expressions Idea Book. I will share some more cards I created in the coming week!

 You can create you own cactus art by ordering the stamp set and Thin Cuts here.