Happy Friday!!  Woot!
What a slow week...man...It's always so annoying when you want something to get here really quick and then the days in between just drag.  Hopefully the next few weeks will be different?  :)

So today we have another amazing release from Sami Stamps, like always :)
The release title is We Love Dad, and it is stuffed full of perfect adorable images!
Whenever I'm making Father's Day cards, doesn't matter if it's for my dad or someone elses...I always have my dad in mind.  He's been a rock for me through so much and continues to support me in all my crazy decisions :)  I just love him!

But through all that, he wouldn't have been my dad if he and my mom hadn't decided to take the route of adoption when they decided they were ready for kids.  I thank God every day for the parents he chose to give me :)  So this first card was really focused on that.

I found this sentiment while browsing through my files and felt it fit perfectly.  Since I have fallen in love with shaker cards, that's what I decided to make up.  So I cut out a pocket and all the necessary layers and then filled it with some pretty sequins and a few sparkly die cut stars.  I added some simple stitching around the pocket too.

Then I colored up the sweet Striped Bow image from Sami Stamps and adhered it above the pocket.  After getting it all done, I thought it really looked like a cute hair bow instead of a bowtie :)  But that's okay!  While the card is simple, it has the most perfect sentiment!

I'd like to enter this shaker card into the following challenges:
    Card Mania #47-Clean and Simple
    Loves Rubberstamps #105-Add Some Doodling

With the striped bow also comes a Striped Tie!

I've been going for very simple cards lately, and this one turned out better than perfect!  I started by stamping a fun dotted line from Lawn Fawn all over the background, and then layered everything on.  All the edges are distressed and my tie image has been colored in with my ShinHan markers.  This card just feels like is screams DAD!  Lol :)  I love it!

I'd like to enter this Tie card into the following challenges:
    Charisma Cardz #12-Father's Day
    Paper Shelter #160-Make it Manly
    V's Sweet Ideas #23-Distress
    Viva La Verve Sketch Week 4

For my final card, when I saw this image (Watching the Baby) I knew I needed to use it.  While my husband and I don't have any kids yet, I still picture this being him someday when that does finally happen for us.

Baby cradled in his arms, playing games :)  So I made my sentiment a little bit more fun, and just kept the embellishments to a few stars.

I would like to enter this Gamer card into the following challenges:
    Delightful Challenges-It's a Guy Thing
    Color Me Creative #93-Father's Day/Boys Stuff

I hope you've enjoyed this release!  Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of the images, and the beautiful creations the design team has made to display them!!!

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Happy Thursday!
I really wish that today was Friday...this week has been going by a bit slow for me, and I'm just ready for the weekend :)

I had a load of fun coming up with my card for this weeks inspiration at Little Miss Muffet.  I'm super sad though that this is my last week as their guest designer!  It's been so amazing to share this month with the incredibly talented team there and I'm so thankful for the opportunity!!

I decided to make a card using my very first image ever purchased from LMM, which also happens to be my favorite :)

A couple weeks ago I won an amazing prize from Hero Arts/Jennifer Mcguire for 2 sets of the Spectrum Noir colored pencils, and they arrived in the mail the other day!!  Just in time to make up this sweet card!  I need a lot of practice with them still, but my first impression is that I love them :)

To start my card, I clear embossed some stars from the Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops set onto watercolor paper and them used a few Stampin Up ink pads to color in the background.  I did the whole smoosh them on the craft mat, spray them with water and drop your paper on technique :)

I did a few layers to get it sort of how I wanted, and then went around the edges with a blender to give just a little more definition.  I think it turned out super awesome!  That was my first time doing a background that way!  Then I used the Stitched Journaling die and made my focal panel.  I blended together a light purple, pink, and yellow for the background.  I die cut out the clouds and layered them up all dreamy like on my focal panel.

Once my Boon & Jitters image was colored, I cut them out and then adhered them with dimensional tape to the clouds.  The sentiment is heat embossed in white, and I stamped a few random little stars in the sky, along with adding a few sparkly die cut stars for extra pop.

I really love to whole fantasy/fairytale feel to this card.  It was so fun, and something completely different for me to make!

Thanks again to LMM for letting me tag along with month!  You can still join in the current Anything Goes challenge on their blog, so run!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafty Catz #232-Embossing
    Inky Impressions #161-Anything Goes
    Nutcrafters #69-Animals/Insects
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Sweet n Sassy #13-Make it Colorful

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Memorial Day!
Thank you so much to everyone who has served or is serving in the military for everything that you have given for your country!  And thank you to their families...no one will ever know the sacrifices and struggles you go through!  I admire your strength, and thank you for being out there protecting us!

We have a fun challenge starting today at Digi Makeover.  We want to see flowers on your creations!

I'm still struggling to get my creativity back...it just up and disappeared and all of my searches seem to come back empty handed.  So a lot of what I've been creating lately has been very blah.  I do love how this card turned out, but I know it's not my best work...

I've printed off and colored up the sweet Rose image from Paper Makeup and framed her in a Spellbinders die.  Made a few simple roses for embellishments and kept the rest simple.  I couldn't find a good place for a sentiment, so I left it off and let the image take center stage.

Be sure to swing by and join in the challenge!!
Thanks for visiting <3

Hey again!
Back to share my Meljen's Designs creation for this weeks challenge-Bookmarks!
I never make bookmarks....it usually ends up just being a piece of paper or something totally random that holds my place in my book.  But I had a fun idea for this challenge that I tried to play out as best I could.

Meljen's Designs has so many adorable images, it's always difficult to choose which one I want to use.  But as I was browsing, I found a lot that were nursery rhyme related and thought it would be really cute to have a set of bookmarks with those nursery rhymes on them!

The images I chose are Little Bo Peep, Over the Moon, and Little Lamb.  I colored them all in with my pencils and then layered them onto some oval spellbinders dies.  They ended up being quite large...so not really ideal for little books.  But I think they could be cute attached to a set of nursery rhymes or something.  Just that little bit extra cuteness :)

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #92-Anything Goes/Dies/Punches
    Ooh La La #156-Quotations
    Ruby's Rainbow #79-Animals

Stop by to see the rest of the design teams awesome bookmarks, and then join in the fun!!
Thanks for stopping by! <3

Hi All!
Hope your day has started off with a bang!  It's a little chilly here in Montreal, but I'm okay with that since we've been bouncing all over the place with our weather lately.

It's time to start a new challenge today at Little Miss Muffet!  I've loved being their guest designer so much this month!  Hard to believe that it's almost over...
Our challenge for you is Anything Goes!  Nice and easy :)

I had this fun idea in my head to make sort of a Polaroid frame for Fiona to peek through, but as I was assembling the card, it just didn't work out right.  So I went with a circle frame instead.  Fiona is colored in with my pencils, and I added a little bit of glossy accents to her glasses...just for fun :)

The flowers were stamped and "watercolored"...I used a few distress markers but because I only have about 5 of those, there isn't much shading or depth to the flowers.  But they were still cute enough to put on the card :)  The stamp set I used for the flowers was Lawn Fawns Flutter By set.

I wrapped some twine around the bottom and then did my favorite double loop bow behind a button.  I've been doing that a lot lately...for some reason it just seems to always be the perfect finishing touch on a card.  Then I stamped a few Lili of the Valley sentiment tags, masking the inside of one off so I could stamp the Hello from Winnie & Walter.  A few touches of glitter pen and some liquid pearls, and it was all done!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Charisma Cardz #11-May Flowers
    Chocolate, Coffee, Cards #65-Use a Tag
    Send A Smile 4 Kids-Anything Goes
    Sentimental Sundays #207-Funky Flowers
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #220

Stop by Little Miss Muffet, check out the rest of the DT's creation, and then join in the fun!!!
Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Wednesday!
Just popping in quick to share a fun card with you.  I made it last week, but held off sharing it because I debated on remaking it...and I still might.  But decided to share it anyhow.

It was a really fun card to make!  And took me several days.  I sort of built it up by each layer...making one layer and then setting it all aside to ponder what to do next while I worked on other projects.

Ultimately I think it turned out really cute because I've tried a lot of new stuff on it and love how it all came together.  But my fabulous husband made me second guess myself :)

See that sweet little string behind the big butterfly?  I've seen a lot of people using string/thread on their cards lately.  It always looks so dainty and elegant and I thought it would be perfect behind the butterfly, sort of give it some whimsy.  But bless his heart, my husbands first response was "why is the butterfly caught in a web?"....sigh...guess it wasn't all that cute after all :)  I'll have to keep trying to see if I can get better at the placement of my strings now.

But besides the string, the rest is super cute!  I tried out the letterpress technique that I learned from my online card class last month.  It looks so awesome, and I've learned that it works best on colored cardstock so the white will show up better.  The circles were stamped with the Lots of Dots set from Simon Says Stamp.

I also used the big scripty Hello stamp from Winnie & Walter's The Big, The Bold & The Happy.  I love that the white pigment ink dots sort of peak through the letters so the word is a bit polka dotted itself.

And I tried out some more washi tape!  My selection isn't all that great and I never seem to use it on any of my projects...so I pulled out a few that I felt matched relatively well.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Penny's Paper Crafty #178-Spots and/or Stripes
    Winnie & Walter Join in to Win
    Viva la Verve-Week #1 Sketch
    Work it Wednesday-Patterned Paper

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Ok, sorry...I wasn't really sure what to title this post :)

It's time to start a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and the theme is Teacher Appreciation Gift...when I came up with the challenge schedule for TT and filled in this theme, I sort of forgot that there was an actual teacher appreciation week...which was like 3 weeks ago.  So we're a little off schedule here but just roll with it anyhow :)

Our fabulous sponsor is The Cutting Cafe, and they have provided some really cute images for us to use.  I decided to make a little card box, of course I haven't put any cards in it yet...but the box is done!

I've really enjoyed putting together these little boxes.  They hold about 5 cards and envelopes and are just so cute!  I made up a few for an MS charity auction my cousins were putting on last month.

The box is really simple, just put together with card stock and some covered patterned pieces.  I tied the ribbon and bow around it to help keep the flap shut since it seemed to want to keep popping open.  Then printed off and colored up my image with my colored pencils!

Hope you will join us this week!!
Thanks for stopping by! <3

Happy Monday!
Want to say welcome to my new followers!  So honored to have you here :)

We have a new challenge starting today at Digi Makeover and it's String/Ribbon/Twine!  I love using these on my cards.  They always seem to provide that perfect finishing touch to everything.

I decided to do a little bit of detailing with the ribbon for my card.  It was pretty fun to try something different.  I used the Oo La La set from Paper Makeup and colored in my image with my ShinHan markers.  Then ruffled some ribbon around the edges and made up a few teeny tiny bows.  The last little bit I added to the corset was some thread for the lacing up the middle.

Added all my layers together, which was a bit hard.  I couldn't seem to get any good coordinating papers together...but since I love green and purple together, I kept searching to find a combo that would work.  I used one of the sentiments from the set and added on a few purple gems for some fun bling, and that was it!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #119-Favorite Color Combo
    Crafting with Dragonflies #26-Celebration
    Creative Fingers #36-Anything Goes/Girly
    SugarPea Designs Sketch #3
    Totally Gorjuss #236-Lace

I hope you will join us this week!
Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Happy Friday!!!
It's time for a fun new release from Sami Stamps and this time around it's Fancy Hats!!

I adore this sweet image (Holding Flower in my Hat).  My first thought when I saw her was to do a scene with her standing in an open field full of purple flowers.

But that failed...both parts (the background scene and the girl) turned out great, but together they just didn't mesh right...so I had to start over.  That wasn't easy and I sat around stumped for quite some time.  After looking at sketches and inspiration for the day, I finally settled on something that would hopefully work.  I didn't want her to get lost in a sea of large flowers and leaves, but needed to add something that wasn't just buttons or gems.

I followed the sketch at Viva La Verve, and used a flower stamp from Lawn Fawn that matched pretty well to what she was holding.  And they didn't drown her out too much.  Colored her in with my ShinHan markers, cut her out with the Stitched Journaling die from Lawn Fawn and put everything together.  The sentiment was hard to decide on since I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to put it.  But after playing with a few options, I used the pennant die from the same Lawn Fawn set and stuck it under my bow.

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this super cute release, and don't forget to join in our challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    7 Kids College Fund #99-Anything Goes/Flowers
    Crafts 4 Eternity #176-To Die For
    Inky Impressions #159-Flower Power
    Penny's Paper Crafty #177-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Die Crazy
    Viva La Verve Sketch #2

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Happy Thursday!
I hope your day has been just fabulous so far!  We've decided here in Montreal to skip spring and jump right to sticky summer...fun fun!

Continuing with my guest designing at Little Miss Muffet, it's inspiration day for us!  You still have time to enter in the Buttons challenge, so be sure to swing by the challenge blog and join in!

To be honest...I had a bit of "crafter's block" lately...just had a lot of stuff on my mind and it seems all the crafty goodness is stuck somewhere else up there..So I needed to find a little inspiration myself so I could pass it along to you :)

Fortunately there are some amazing designers on the Little Miss Muffet team, so I spent some time browsing around their creations to see if I could pull something together..enjoy!  :)

I've used the super sweet Jr. Hatter Kathrina on my card.  I couldn't resist her sweet little kitty hat!  It hasn't really been a secret around here...I'm obsessed with watercolor and all things related...and I tried something a little different for this background.  I bought this awesome stamp from Michael's a few weeks ago and really love it!

But it's a little difficult to smoosh large ink pads onto a stamp and make it look nice...but I still wanted a fun rainbow background.  As I was looking around my room, I found my old Crayola markers and an idea popped into my head.  Pulled out the rainbow colors, swiped them across the stamp, misted it a few times with water and set my paper down all while crossing my fingers that I didn't just create a giant mess.

When I pulled the paper up it was like the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen on paper!  And all with the use of some cheap markers I've had for years :)  Needless to say, I've done this background a few times now because it's just that much fun.  But for the sake of this card, I wanted that rainbow but not quite as bright.  So I used my sewing machine to sew on a piece of vellum over the background.

The rest was simple.  A few rows of die cut hearts from Lawn Fawn backed with some glitter covered black paper to go under my image.  Scallop cut out my colored image and stuck her on my card base.  Finally, a button to stick with the challenge theme and a suitable sentiment :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #91-No Designer Paper
    Simon Says Stamp-Die Crazy
    The Sketchy Challenge #73

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and a gorgeous Mother's Day!  The weather was amazing here and we managed to get outside for a bit to enjoy it.

It's the start of a new challenge today at Paper Makeup and we want to see lots of sparkle on your creations!
I love sparkle...it's a problem, I know.  So this theme worked out well for me...gave me the chance to go a little overboard :)

I managed to keep myself from just spraying the whole card base in glitter and stuck with just adding it to the stars and moon.  But the moon is quite covered!  I did about 3 layers of glitter on it...I really wanted it to shine in that night sky :)

The starry background was cut out with my Silhouette and I blended some ink together to make the faded background.  There is also a little yellow dotted around each star to give them the illusion of shining.

I printed off and colored up Celeste the Moon Fairy from Paper Makeup, and then cut her out and mounted her up on some foam tape so that she was sitting in the sky.  I'm not too wild about the sentiment tag...the shape just doesn't quite work but I wasn't really sure what else to use...so I stuck with it anyhow.

Be sure to visit the Digi Makeover challenge blog, check out the rest of the awesome design teams creations, and then join in the sparkly fun!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    2 Cute Ink #106-Glitter
    Artistic Inspirations #91-No Designer Paper
    Crafting When We Can #69-Die Cuts

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

I've been quiet all week and now you get me twice in one day!  Lol :)

But this is an exciting post for me since it is my first official post as a Meljen's Design team member!!  I know I did a little thank you post here last week, but that was more for me...whereas this post is actually associated with a challenge!!  Yay!

So the challenge for this week is Mom!  I've made a lot of mom cards these last few weeks, so mine isn't necessarily specific to mother's day, but could be given to a mom for any reason :)

I had a blast making this card!  Learned that the ink in my black refill bottle actually looks purple..but I rolled with it anyhow :)

I've used the super cute Little Layered Flowers set and colored them all in with my pencils.  Of course, I've added glitter to the centers.  A fun package came in the mail for me this week containing my order from Simon Says Stamp, so I pulled out my new Stitched Journaling die from Lawn Fawn and did some half embossing to make a small tag for the sentiment, which was also in that fun package.

The stripes are from a Tim Holtz stencil and I used some embossing paste to fill it all in.  It was really fun to see this whole card come together, and I think the flowers just finished it off perfectly!

So swing by Meljen's Designs to check out the rest of the design teams creations, and then join in the fun!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #90-All for Mom/Anything Goes
    Inky Impressions #159-Mother's Day
    Simon Says Stamp-Spring Flowers
    The Squirrel and the Fox #69-Mother's Day
    Word Art Wednesday #131-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Thursday!
I know it's been a bit quiet around here this week...I was so busy last week that I didn't have any time to make up my normal DT creations for both Paper Makeup and Tuesday Throwdown...but I fortunately have very understanding teams that let my poor time management slide :)

But I'm here today with a new post for the Little Miss Muffet challenge!!  I'm so happy to be a guest designer there this month, and just love using their images!

The challenge for the next 2 weeks is Buttons!  I love buttons.  My collection is very small, but I work with what I have, and love the fact that I can always color them to make them fit perfectly with my card.  I didn't have to do that with this card though :)

I used the awesome image Dudley Balloon for my card and colored him in with my ShinHan markers.  I was a bit nervous, won't lie...all that open space on his body was tough for me to color and shade just right.  I'm still not a pro with the markers and I'm missing a few colors in the middle to get nice even shades...but I think in the end it turned out pretty cute :)

I added a few coordinating buttons along the side and a little glitter to the balloon.  I can't ever get enough glitter...somehow I always end up reaching for my wink of stella pens :)

Be sure to stop by Little Miss Muffet and join in the fun challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Color Me Creative-Birthdays
    The Crazy Challenge #170-All About Stripes
    Penny's Paper Crafty #176-2 or More Patterned Papers

Thanks for visiting!!! <3

Happy Friday!!!
We have another awesome new release for you today at Sami Stamps, and a fun challenge!
Our release is Mother's Love and is full of super sweet images, so let's jump in :)

My first card uses the Stroller Mom image, which was so hip and stylish that I had to use some fun and funky papers for my card.

I colored up the image with my pencils and layered it onto a bunch of bright sparkly papers.  Then added a simple circle sentiment, colored up a button to match my papers, and put a sweet little heart in the center.

I would like to enter this Stroller Mom card into the following challenges:
    Inky Impressions #157-Anything Goes
    Pattie's Creations #91-Mother's Day
    Sassy Studio #227-So Bright Gotta Wear Shades
    That Craft Place-Anything Goes

My second card came together almost exactly as I imagined and I am beyond thrilled with it!

I've been a little addicted to watercoloring lately...it's just such a fun tool to use on cards since every time it turns out different. 

I spread some water across my paper to sort of prep it and then chose a few soft baby type colors and just swiped them across the paper randomly.  Then sprayed it really well, swirled the paper to get the colors to move, added more where needed and mopped up the muddy puddles as they formed.  And it's perfect! 

The image I used is Waiting for You.  It's a silhouette so I thought it would be cool to just leave it as that.  So I colored it all in and added a little heart punch over the belly.  The love stamp seemed to be the perfect size and fit for this card so I inked it up and stamped it next to the image.  Then just added little stripes of black cardstock to give a nice crisp edge around the whole card.

I'd like to enter this Silhouette card into the following challenges:
    613 Avenue Create #69-Anything Goes
    Penny's Paper Crafty #175-Pastel Colors
    Sentimental Sundays #204-Clean and Simple
    Word Art Wednesday #130-Anything Goes

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this sweet release and check out the DT gals creations!  Then join in our Anything Goes challenge!!

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

...to the Meljen's Design Team!!!!!
Oh my goodness this was one of the best emails to ever receive!  Totally lifted my spirits!

I'm beyond excited to join this team, and even though it isn't my turn to post anything for their challenge, I wanted to make something up anyhow.  I couldn't resist...they have too many cute images!

I've had this sweetie for quite some time now...he just sits quietly in my folder, staring at me with that little grin every time I browse through to find an image.  And I always smile back and dream of the day when I could use him on a project.  And that day finally came!  I thought he would be perfect for a sweet little thank you card.  So I printed him off and set to work...only to ruin my first attempt with smeared printer ink all of the image....that was frustrating!  But I tried again...only with pencils :)

I paired him with some Lawn Fawn sunflowers and a fun embossed Thanks stamp.  He looks so cute tucked in behind the sunflowers.  Two of my favorite things...tigers and sunflowers :)

Anyhow, I just want to give a HUGE thank you to the Meljen's Designs team for inviting me to join them!  I know it's going to be a blast!!  <3

 I'd like to enter this card into the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge.

Happy Thursday!!
Today is a very exciting day for me!  It's the first day of a very busy month, but a month that will be filled with so much fun!  I'm going to be guest designing with Little Miss Muffet!!

I adore their images...I often turn to them first when I am working on a card, so I was thrilled when Faye asked me to guest design this month!

Today is an inspiration day on their Facebook page since LMM current challenge is still running for another week.  The theme for that challenge is anything goes...couldn't be easier!  So go check them out and join in the fun!

Here is my inspiration for you today:

These cuties just screamed at me to use them!  I love the swings and slides images.  This one is Wagon...who remembers riding around in their little wagons during the summer?  It was always easier with a friend around :)

I used a lot of bright papers on this card.  Seems I've been in a bright color mood lately, but I thought they would work well on this cheery card.  Overall it's pretty simple with just a few layers.  I die cut out some hanging stars and painted the stars with some 3D paint, they have a little bit of sparkle to them from that paint.  A sweet sentiment wraps up the whole thing!

Thanks for stopping by! <3