Raindrop Echo Designs: June 2010

Whiff of Joy Tutorial: Coloring Black and White images

Hi everyone! I hope that you're having a good week so far :)

I would just like to point you all to the Whiff of Joy Inspiration blog for a tutorial that I created on how to use distress inks to color black and white images. I've used Graduation Willow, which is part of the new City Girls II Collection that released on the 25th. This card uses the sketch at KL Stampin N Scrappin Challenge.

Here's my finished card:

Stamp: Whiff of Joy Graduation Willow; Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Ambrosia; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, pearls, Prima flowers, MS leaf punch, Spritz Concrete

Sentimental Sundays #9: Lift Someone's Spirits

Even though the days are longer, the Sundays seem to get here so quickly! Welcome, everyone, to another Sentimental Sunday. This week at Sentimental Sunday, our theme is: encouragement and support.

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be able to be surrounded by the gals at Sentimental Sundays? We have challenges there every week, but I am only asking them to create for two challenges out of the month, but guess what? They all created something for this week's challenge! They really are a great bunch :) Make sure to head over to the Sentimental Sundays Challenge Blog to see the fantastic creations by the design team and to grab the freebie.

For this week's challenge, I've created two cards. The first card is for the Crafty Creations Challenge (We want to see you shine) and the Allsorts Challenge (Embossing). The second card is for the CAS-tastic Challenge (yellow, blue, neutral) and the Papertake Weekly Challenge (sketch). The lighting was bad and the DP on the second card really is blue!! It just seems to be showing up as black : /

Both of them use sentiments from the "Amongst the Stars" digital sentiment set that will be released on July 1, 2010 at the Whimsy Stamps Digital Collection Store. Make sure to tune in for some sneak peaks of the new images by the Whimsy Stamps design team starting June 28th!

Sentiments: Whimsy Stamps Amongst the Stars Digital Sentiments set (releasing July 1); Paper: BasicGrey; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Pendant die, Stickles

Sentimental Sundays Weekly Freebie:

Kimberly's Sentiments
Click here to go to the blog
A special thank you to those who link back to the blog when using these sentiments!

Prairie Fairy Friday: Summer Vacation

Are you ready for summer? I'm not, but since it's coming anyway, might as well enjoy it :)

Today at the Prairie Fairy Fridays Challenge Blog, we have a new challenge for you: summer vacation! It's time to break out those fun, colorful papers and images. This card features two new images from Prairie Fairy: Lewis at the Beach, and Gillian at the Beach. Actually, I think of the new, little Lewis as big Lewis' brother :)

Make sure to head to the blog to see the fun creations that the Prairie Fairy team came up with and to join the challenge!

Image: Prairie Fairy Lewis, Lewis at the Beach, and Gillian at the Beach; Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: Cosmo Cricket

This card is for a few challenges:

Stamp with Fun - Sketch
KL Stampin N Scrappin - Shabby
Little Paper Shop - Bright and Colorful
The Crazy Challenge - All Things Spotty
Tellen's Place - Summertime
Delightful Sketches - It's All About Summer
CCEE Stampers - Summertime
Hand Full of Stamps - Joys of Summer
Stampin' B's Design Team - Summer Fun
Crafty Catz - Digital

Whiff of Joy - Another sneak peak of new collection!

Are you ready for another sneak peak for the upcoming Whiff of Joy City Girls II Collection? Well, here it is :)

Today I'm using this beautiful Willow image. She looks so sophisticated with her drink. I think she has an apple martini, but I've never gotten an umbrella with my martinis. Maybe it's a margarita, then :) This card uses the current Card Patterns Sketch and fits the challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges (paper flowers).

Make sure to head over to the Whiff of Joy Design Team's and Guest Designers' blogs (see my sidebar to the right) to check out the rest of the sneak peaks. Oh, and be sure to head over to the Whiff of Joy Store on June 25th, which is when the new release images are going to be available. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp: Whiff of Joy from City Girls II Collection; Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Pendant die, Prima flowers, flowers from Wild Orchids, rhinestones, ticket punch

Blog award

My lovely fellow Prairie Fairy DT members Margreet and Cor have kindly awarded me a blog award! Thank you, you sweet ladies, for thinking of me :)

I'd like to pass this on to all my readers, so if you fancy, go ahead and grab it! Thanks for all your wonderful comments and your kind words!

Sentimental Sundays #8: Your Favorite Sentiment(s)

Hello all! I hope that everyone has had a good weekend so far :)

Today I actually have a sample for your for for Sentimental Sundays! I missed last week because it was just way too hectic and I didn't have a card done in time. This week, the challenge is super easy: use your favorite sentiment(s). On my card, I've used two: "Love U" and "You make life beautiful." I guess I've been feeling lovey dovey lately, lol. The image is one of my favorite images from Whimsy Stamps called Love U Mice. The sentiment is also from the Whimsy Stamps Marriage Sentiments digital set.

Image: Whimsy Stamps Love U Mice; Sentiment: Whimsy Stamps Marriage Sentiments digital set; Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Sugar Rush; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Fancy Tags, lace

This card is for a few challenges:

Sweet Stampin - Clean and Simple
Crafty Catz - Shaped Cards
Totally Gorjuss - Sugar and Spice
Lots To Do - Quotations
Cards & Things - Sketch

As always, I've created a freebie sentiment for this week's Sentimental Sundays challenge. Below is a preview, but you have to head to the blog to get the link!

Sentimental Sundays Weekly Freebie:

An Assortment of Sentiments
Click here to head to the blog
A special thank you to those who link back to the blog when using these sentiments!

Whiff of Joy Sneak Peak: City Girls II Collection

Are you excited about the new release from Whiff of Joy??

Today I'm showing you a sneak peak of the new City Girls II Collection illustrated by Elisabeth Bell. This is a follow-up to the first City Girls Collection. Her images are always so gorgeous and this collection is no exception. Not only are there some wonderful "city" themed images, but there are also two graduation images. The Whiff of Joy Design team and the Whiff of Joy Guest Designers will be showing you some sneak peaks (which started yesterday). Make sure to visit their links on my right sidebar!

The new images will be released on June 25th so make sure to visit the Whiff of Joy website when the come out!

On this card, I've used three new images from the upcoming release. I added some Diamond Glaze on the ladies' glasses, but again, my poor lighting and camera didn't catch it very well :( I created the flowers by hand from some lace laying around. I apologize - I don't remember what the technique is called nor where to find the tutorial! All you have to do to make them is do a little sewing. If anyone can help out and tell me what/where the tutorial is, I would greatly appreciate it :)

Edited: I finally find a tutorial for the flower! Here's a great tutorial on this blog post: http://lisapace.com/2007/04/18/ribbon-flower-tutorial/. For mine, I just layered two of the flowers then stuck a brad in the middle. Have fun making your own!

Images: Whiff of Joy City Girls II Collection (releasing June 25th); Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: Cosmo Cricket; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, lace, pearls, BG brad

This card is for a few challenges:

Cupcake Inspiration - Inspiration Picture
The Shabby Tea Room - Summer Fun
Scrappy Frogs - Summer Fun
My Time To Craft - Xtra Special
Whiff of Joy Challenge - Inspiration Picture
Charisma Cardz - All About Bling
PaperPlay - Something Old - the lace is really old!
Friday Sketchers - Sketch

Prairie Fairy Friday - For the Dads!

It's time for another Prairie Fairy Friday!

This week for Prairie Fairy Friday, the challenge is an easy one (especially for those who have been putting of those Father's Day card) because this week, we're asking you to make something For Dad! Father's Day is only a couple of days away and hopefully you've already made a card for that special dad in your life. Mine is out of the country so I've already sent him his card. This card is still for a dad, but just not for Father's Day :) My card uses the ever-so-cute Lewis with his big old glasses and those freckly cheeks! I used Diamond Glaze on his glasses and it looks pretty cool in person, but my poor camera didn't pick it up very well. The sentiment is from the Whimsy Stamps Circle Postmarks set.

Make sure to head over to the Prairie Fairy Friday blog to check out all the wonderful For Dad cards created by the design team!

Image: Prairie Fairy Designs - Lewis; Sentiment: Whimsy Stamps Circle Postmarks; Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Origins; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, hemp cord, embossing folder, Diamond Glaze

This card is for a few challenges:

Totally Gorjuss - For the Boys
Our Creative Corner - Gotcha Cornered
Stamptacular - For Fathers
Magical Crafts Challenge - For a Male/Dad
Cupcake Craft - One for the Boys
Crafty Cardmaker - Cards for Men
Incy Wincy Designs - One for the Guys
The Corrosive Challenge - Sketch
Card Patterns - Sketch #68
Creative Craft - Man in your Life
Tanda Teaser - For the Big Man
Creative Inspirations - One for the Boys
Raise the Bar - What a Special Guy!

Whiff of Joy: Another magically-inspired card

Wow, it feels like I haven't made a card in so long! Hah, actually it's only been a few days since I made a one. I guess this craft really is addicting, isn't it?

Today I'm sharing a creation with you made as a guest designer for Whiff of Joy. This card uses images from the May Store Kit - Aladin (1001 Nights) illustrated by the talented Elisabeth Bell. I just love coloring the WOJ images with my distress inks! Even though I was a little intimidated by the detail, I've grown to really appreciate them.

Oh yeah, and while you're at the Whiff of Joy store, you should check out the June Stamp Kit - Fun in the Sun. It's also illustrated by Elisabeth Bell. It's just a gorgeous kit and the sitting Willow image is just beautiful!

Stamps: Whiff of Joy May Store Kit - Aladin (1001 Nights)

Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Capella; Accessories/tools: Prima flowers, flowers from Wild Orchids, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, velvet ribbon, lace, Fiskars corner punch, rhinestones, Stickles

This card is for a few challenges:

Sketch and Stash - Sketch - My new stash is the velvet ribbon
Stamp with Fun - Fairy Tales/Myths
Lexi's Creations - Something Old - The little blue Prima flowers are at least a couple of years old!

Tutorials: How to add watermarks to your photos

As a service to all those who have purchased custom watermarks from the Whimsy Stamps Custom Designs Store and also to all my blog readers who might also be interested in this topic, I've decided to put together a few tutorials on how to add watermarks to your photos. Below are links of where to find three FREE programs you can use to watermark your photos as well as the screencast tutorial on how to use the program to watermark your photo. Hopefully these all make sense, and if it still doesn't, please feel free to email me at raindropecho@gmail.com.

You can also find the tutorials permanently on my blog page here: http://raindropechodesigns.blogspot.com/p/tutorials-on-how-to-add-watermarks-to.html

Adding Watermarks to Your Images

Screencast tutorials by Ann Vento of Raindrop Echo Designs

Please email raindropecho@gmail.com for questions and/or comments

Using Photoscape
(download Photoscape for free here)
http://www.screencast.com/t/ZTVkNWJj

Using Paint.NET
(download Paint.NET for free here)
http://www.screencast.com/t/MGVhN2Q4Mz

Using GIMP
(download GIMP for free here)
http://www.screencast.com/t/MjJiOWE4Zm

Other screencasts coming soon:
Adding Watermarks Using Photoshop
How to change watermark colors
Changing colors of digital images

New Watermark and Signature styles!

Hello everyone!
Thank you for the wonderful response that I've received so far about the custom signatures and watermarks at Whimsy Stamps. I just wanted to let you know that there are a few more styles that were added today. You can click each image to be taken to the product page and you can save $1 if you purchase the set instead of separately!

Thank you for your continued support! I truly appreciate all your kind comments :)

NEW Style: Dragonfly 1

NEW Style: Butterfly 3

NEW Style: Flourish 2

Sentimental Sundays #7: Summertime!

I didn't get a chance to create something for the Sentimental Sundays this week, but the fantastic design team sure has come up with some eye candy for you! This week's theme is: Summertime (plus a sentiment). Make sure to head over to the blog to find out what they've cooked up and to grab the freebie below.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sentimental Sundays Weekly Freebie:

Click here to go to the blog and get the download link

A special thank you to those who link back to the blog when using these sentiments!

Some Odd Girl Blog Hop

Welcome to the FIRST Some Odd Girl Blog Hop! If you haven't come from Marcie's blog, then make sure to start at the Some Odd Girl Blog to make sure you haven't missed anyone.

We are happy you've joined us and I know the Oddies have a ton of goodies to show you! So just take the journey through the Blogosphere and not only will you see some lovely projects, but you will get some sneaks of our June 15th release! So start your hop at the Some Odd Girl Challenge blog and make some Odd stops on each of our Odd Girls' blogs ending up at Kristy's blog.

1. Some Odd Girl Blog EDITED WITH CORRECT ADDRESS (thanks Cor!)
2. Leah
3. Robin
4. Shelley
5. Jen
6. Marcie
7. Ann (you're here!)
8. Kimmy
9. Kristy

AND if you leave all the Oddies a lil love you may just win our WHOLE June 15th release!

Today I'm sharing with you a card and bookmark using Sleepy Mae:

Image: Some Odd Girl Sleepy Mae; Medium: Copics and Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Max and Whiskers; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, ribbon

Here's how I put together the bookmark:

Supplies needed: punches, cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, SOG image

1. Punch the edges of the cardstock and patterned papers as desired.

2. Lay patterned paper over cardstock

3. Color up image as desired, preferably to match patterned papers :)

4. Place image on patterned paper and embellish as desired.

Some Odd Girl is also having their first Digi Day at the SNR Ning - head over to the Some Odd Girl SNR Group page to join all the fun! So why not be Odd? You have until 2pm EST on Sunday June 13th to make the entire hop. We will be choosing our winner that evening.

Your next stop is Kimmy. Get to hopping! Thanks for stopping by!

Prairie Fairy Friday: Glitz and Glitter

Welcome to another Prairie Fairy Friday!

My internet was down all last night so I'm writing this post from work (I know, bad bad). This will be a short post, for now, and I'll edit it more when I get home.

This week, the challenge at Prairie Fairy is Glitz and Glitter! Head over to the new Prairie Fairy Friday blog to join in on the challenge and be inspired by the design team! For this card, I've used the Prairie Fairy Image Sending You Love 2.

Image: Prairie Fairy Sending You Love 2; Papers: BasicGrey; Medium: Copics; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, flowers from Wild Orchids, Stickles, lace

Whimsy Stamps - Proud To Be

Another post from me today!

Today I'm sharing with you two of the newest rubber stamps from Whimsy Stamps. The carousel horse is appropriately named: Proud to Be and paired up with the new Ticket Sentiments. I'm really glad that my fellow design teams ink up stamps before I do because, really, I have a hard time coloring! When I can't figure out where the shading should go, sometimes I head over to the Whimsy Stamps Gallery to get inspired by my fellow team members. The Gallery really is a fantastic source and you should head over there if you haven't already :)

Image: Whimsy Stamps Proud to Be; Sentiment: Whimsy Stamps Ticket Sentiments

Medium: Distress Inks; Paper: BasicGrey Max and Whiskers, Wild Asparagus; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Ticket punch, hemp cord

This card is for a few challenges:

Sketch Saturday - Sketch
Creative Card Crew - Thank You
2 Sketches 4 You - Sketch

A Day that Sparkles

Whew, we're past Monday already :)

Today I have my first creation to share as a Whiff of Joy guest designer. I was pleasantly surprised to receive this wonderful May Store Kit - Aladin (1001 Nights) from Katharina yesterday. I just couldn't wait to ink up the stamps and get to coloring! These stamps are incredibly detailed and it wasn't until I started coloring it that I noticed all the little things that really make these images so wonderful.

Hope you're having a wonderful start to your week!

Stamps: Whiff of Joy May Store Stamp Kit - Aladin (1001 Nights)

Paper: BasicGrey Capella; Medium: Distress Inks; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Prima flowers, flowers from Wild Orchids, ribbon, Stickles

This card is for a few challenges:

Oh-la-la Challenges - Colors of the Challenge Blog
Whiff of Joy Challenge - Sketch
Delightful Sketches -Texture
Paperplay Challenges - Flowers and Sparkle
Clearly iStamp - Birthday
The Corrosive Challenge - Die Cuts
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Dazzle Us
Pollycraft Monday - Ribbon and Bling
Critter Challenge - Child Birthday - this is more for a teen :)
Tuesday Taggers - All That Blooms
My Time To Craft Challenge - Xtra Special
A Spoon Full Of Sugar - Floral Delight
Cards & Things - Color Challenge

Sentimental Sundays #6: New or Neglected Stash

Thank you for joining me for another Sentimental Sunday!

This week at Sentimental Sundays, we have a stash challenge for you to take up: use your new or neglected stash. Either use something you've just recently added to your stash of goodies or something you've forgotten about, but you just "had to have" back then.

For this week's challenge, I've used some new papers given me to by the lovely Denise and used my neglected buttons and hemp cord. I paired it up with a sentiment from the Daddy's Heartbeat Digital Sentiment set from Whimsy Stamps. The glue was still wet when I took this picture (see the buttons?) - sorry about that!

Make sure you head over to the Sentimental Sundays blog to see all the wonderful creations that the DT have come up with!

Sentiment: Whimsy Stamps Daddy's Heartbeat Sentiments; Paper: Wild Asparagus; Accessories/tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, buttons, hemp cord

Want to grab this freebie?

Head over to Sentimental Sundays to get the download link!

A special thank you to those who link back to the blog when using these sentiments!

This card is for a few of challenges:

The Cuttlebug Spot - Dad and Grad
Creative Craft - Ribbons and Bows - Hope the hemp cord counts!
Tuesday Taggers - Touchy Feely Texture
Delightful Sketches - Texture
CAS-tastic - Focus on Sentiments - Of course I had to join this challenge :)
Hand Full Of Stamps - Hats Off to You
Stampin' B's Design Team - Masculine Card
Stamp Something - Something Digi
Frosted Designs - Buttons
Etsy Inspired - Shop: Howbeadyful - I used this as my inspiration
Card Patterns - Sketch 67