Friendly Garden Walk Blog Hop ~

Welcome to the Paper Garden Projects Friendly Garden Walk!!

Take a stroll through the blogs of all the Paper Gardeners and enjoy some friendly inspiration. We're introducing some new gardening buddies so be sure to say "hi" to our new design team members.
While you visit, subscribe to each Gardener's blog and take note of each designer's name and their Friendly Word in their blog post. Once you finish your garden tour, send an E-mail to custserv@papergardenprojects.com with the list of designers and their Friendly Word.
Everyone who sends the correct list of designers and words will be entered in a random drawing to win a prize. You need to send an e-mail to the address above; please don't leave your list as a comment. You have until midnight (EST) on Tuesday, April 27 to send your list.
And the prize? How about a couple new little buddies (the OA Buddies cling set from The Greeting Farm)?

So enjoy the garden tour (feel free to bring along a friend!). Here is the garden tour guide list:

Cathy  ~  Amber  ~  Tangii  ~  Tricia  ~  Linda  ~  Erin  ~  Andrea  ~  Alyssa {you're already here!}

Well, yesterday I mentioned in my post that I had found something fun and exciting at the grocery store...that may have been a bit misleading!  I am one of those horrible people that shops at WalMart - I can't afford the other stores!  Anyway, I needed some saucers for beneath my houseplants and found these cool little 4" cork coasters for $0.87.  Hmmm, I wonder what it would look like if I stamped and colored on one...

This is for my wonderful friend, Danielle.  Friends are really what get us through things, aren't they?  Danielle and I are an unlikely pair at first glance but our personalities is what seals the deal.  She is very sarcastic, joyful and fun...and I am too!  lol  I'm just the heavily tattooed, biker chick while she's the soccer mom type.  We've been through so much over the past 7 years.   I'm extremely lucky to have her as a friend.  Even though she's a talented stamper herself, I like to make things for her. 

Anywho, back to the coaster.  I stamped 3 of the butterflies from an Amy R Stamps set in Memento Tuxedo Black.  Because of the porousness of the cork it was a bit, shall we say, blotchy.  I colored over the black parts with a black Copic and proceeded to color the butterfly.  Not the best of moves!  I had to keep removing the black ink from the lighter colored nibs of the other markers, so on the other butterflies, I colored with the lighter colors first.  Yep, I'm a thinker!  The *Dream* is a SU rub on that reminds her to do just that while she's at work, and I'm at home stamping!  lol

If you've followed my blog at all, you know I can't make something without making a matchy, matchy card to go with it.  I used this opportunity to make her a birthday card.

 

I wanted to keep it simple and show the beauty of the butterfly and the gorgeous Prism cardstock.  I'm not kidding, I've never used this stuff before Cathy sent it to me, and I love it!  Unfortunately, you can't tell from the photo but the orangey color is the textured side of the Prism - beautiful - so it doesn't need any extra stamping.   I stamped the Monarch in Versafine Onyx Black and embossed it in superfine clear embossing powder - I'm really on a kick with embossing but it just makes it all stand out so much better!  I used a real Monarch I have for inspiration in the coloring. The little dots on the outsides of the wings are actually white, so I dotted those with a white pigment pen.  The sentiment is another rub on from the same pack.

The inside is finished with some more of that beautiful paper and the additional butterflies from the coaster.  The sentiment is pieced together from a couple of PaperTrey sets. 

Ok, I hope you've enjoyed your stop here on the Garden Tour!  My word on the tour is SIDEKICK.  Remember to stop by all of the blogs on the tour, if you haven't already, and send your email in for a chance to win a super, duper adorable new Greeting Farm set.  Here's the list again in case you started here:

 Cathy  ~  Amber  ~  Tangii  ~  Tricia  ~  Linda  ~  Erin  ~  Andrea  ~  Alyssa {you're already here!}
Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!  :o) lyss