Warning: This post includes enabling material, read at your own risk

So, how was your weekend?  I hope you had a good two days, we spent Saturday at my husband's brothers house, celebrated two birthdays and visited with my hubby's Dad, "Pops," who is almost 92 years young.  It was a very nice time, lots of family, food and of course cake : )

And the WEATHER!  Oh my!  It is simply amazing lately, as I am sitting here at almost 8 pm all of our windows are still open and there is still light outside.  I love summer, the warm nights, the bright days, the energy that seems to come with summer.  Of course we are still in spring, and according to the weather report we are expecting rain again this next week, but oh well, at least it is during the work week and not on the weekend.

Given that you didn't come to the blog to hear my ramblings, time to get on with some stamping stuff, and boy do I have some stamping stuff for you this week, and a surprise for next week!

Susana of Susana's Custom Art and Card Design has invited me to participate in a blog hop very soon.  Susana will be rolling out new Elizabeth Bell stamps (you can see all of the previous collections here) and I am so excited to be part of this blog hop!  Stay tuned, and I might be able to also come up with some blog candy for that day, so make sure to checking this blog for more details.

This weekend I did manage to get one other card made, and well, this is where the warning part of the post comes in, so watch out : )  Last week I received my spring kit from Magnolia, Sweden (which was, sadly, messed up, I have two of one of the stamps and am missing one I am supposed to have, sigh), and let me tell you this new collection from Magnolia, FairyTale, is adorable!

Here is a card I made with two of the stamps, the butterfly and the Tilda:

From 2010-04-18

Close ups:

From 2010-04-18

From 2010-04-18

For the glitter I used the Viva Decor Glitter Liner, Hologram, which I like much better then Stickles.  For one thing it is much easier to work with, it has more "bling" and you can use the glitter various ways.  On my card I used a paint brush to spread the glitter in Tilda's dress, and for the headband I used the glitter liner as a dimensional paint.  You can also make some cool looking "pearls" with the glitter liner, and I am working on a few other ways to use the glitter liner as well, stay tuned.

Tilda and the butterflies were colored with distress inks (yes, I am still loving the distress inks).

I also used the Viva Decor Paper Pen, Opal, to add some bling to my flowers.  The white flowers are colored with the Paper Pen, which gives the flowers added depth and blig.  When the pen drives it gives the flowers a nice sheen and it also makes the flowers a bit stiffer, which means they are easier to work with.

Not long ago I bought some prima flowers that had a coating very similar to the Viva Decor Pen, and yes, soon you will see me doing some DYI flowers using the Decor products.  It is amazing what you can make yourself if you have the right tools and products.

Now, about that Fairy Tale collection, everything is pre-order right now, and I have pre-ordered far too many stamps from this collection (even though I have some of the stamps from the kit).  Diana Crick is the owner of  Magnolia-lious, and she has absolutely the best customer service around. Wait until you see the stamps in this new collection, some of the cutest stamps I have seen from Magnolia.  I have ordered this one, and this one, and this one,  and others too.  Once you see this collection you are going to have a hard time resisting buying, so be warned!

And now some more links for your week:

Glossary of Stamping Terms:  This is a great link that has definitions for almost every stamp related thing you can imagine!

Watercoloring how to:  Very nice tutorial on how to watercolor your stamped images.

Make a card that you can plant:  Wait till you see this!  You grind up paper, add some flower seeds, let it dry, stamp on it, cut it out and then the person who gets the card can remove your stamped image, plant it and get a gift of flowers!

Tim Holtz Grunge Paper:  I am still trying to get my hands on this product, Grunge Board is great, and I can only imagine that the paper is soooo cool too!  Given that everyone seems to be out of stock, let me know if you happen to find a store that has some in stock.

Check out this YouTube Channel, over 38 videos on using Nestibilities, Impressabilities, all sorts of stuff!  Here is one of the videos on the channel:




That is all for this week, make sure to mark your calendars for the Susana's Art and Card Design Elizabeth Bell Blog Hop!