Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!  I hope you have some fun plans for today, whether it's with friends, family, or both :)

I wanted to put together a little decoration to have around for the holidays and decided that a couple of Sami Stamps images would be perfect for this fall banner.

I bought a roll of burlap ribbon and cut it up into little pieces for each of the banner flags.  Using my Silhouette, I cut out a couple of leaf shapes and the letters.  I inked up the edges of all the leaves to help add some depth and life to them.  You'd be amazed how much of a difference just a little color on the edges makes.  Changes the whole look of the leaf :)

I cut out frames for all the letters and then started to assemble my banner.
The first image I chose to use was the Little Acorn Bird from Sami Stamps.

I settled on a Gold Finch design and watercolored in the image.  It turned out so stinkin cute!  Once everything was dry, I arranged it all around these little yellow daisies I made and then glued it all down.

The other image I used for the second end cap was the Little Acorn Squirrel.

(sorry for the not so perfect pictures...it was super late at night and we were using our projector to get some nice bright lighting...but it left a lot of weird shadows...)

I watercolored this image in as well and once again arranged everything together on the banner flag.
The fun part about this whole banner is that I stitched all the elements on to the flags, so when the season changes, I can remove them and change out the theme!  And there is plenty of burlap left so if I need more flags, I can easily add them :)

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps...we still have our November challenge of Anything Goes running!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

I'd like to enter this project into the following challenges:
    Fussy and Fancy #152-Thankful
    Sassy Studio #309-Happy Thanksgiving
    The Crazy Challenge #211-Everything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #211-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting, and Happy Thanksgiving!!!  <3

Happy Wednesday!
Today is a good day...no Great Day!  My niece has arrived!!

I'm so excited and elated for my sister.  Such a sweet little blessing that came into her life at the perfect moment.  I am thrilled to become an aunt, and I know my sister will be the most amazing mommy in the world.  It's funny...I think back to when we were growing up...she never wanted kids.  Fast forward about 20 years...and this little blessing has arrived.  You never know what the future holds, do you? :)

To welcome this little bundle of pure Joy into the world, I put together a little baby package for the parents and sealed it up with today's card.  I waited to share this until she arrived :)

I used a few Lawn Fawn products on this card because they were just perfect for the occasion and it feels like forever since I played with these adorable sets.  The background flowers and hummingbird are from the Gleeful Gardens set and the cute little bunnies are from the Hello Baby set.

I did some tone on tone stamping for the woodgrain background, and used a stencil for the circle pattern, along with a white and glitter gel pen to make the highlight circles.

I filled this fun shaker card full of sequins and beads.  It's pretty packed...probably too packed...but oh well :)  It's more fun that way.

The sentiment is a combination of a few from the Hello Baby set.  I had to add a few individual S' at the end of princess because the stamp actually only says prince.  But it worked :)

Being so far away from my sister is really hard...and even harder now that there is a little one to snuggle.  But sweet little cards like this help to keep in touch and I can't wait to finally meet my little niece!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #172-Make Your Mark
    Lawnscaping Challenge-In With the Old
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!!!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week!  We've been fighting off head colds all week, so it's been a bit slow going here.  But we are on the mend and ready to take on Thanksgiving next week!!  Glad the sickness hit now instead of then :)

We have an adorable little release this week for you at Sami Stamps.  It's actually a bundle deal - if you spend $8 or more in Sami's shop, you get this sweet little collection of 3 fox images for free!!  Let me tell you, these little foxes are so stinkin cute!  I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted to use, because I wanted them all!!

I chose to use Acorns Under My Paws for my card.  Even though I felt like complete crud working on this card, I'm so happy with how it turned out!

I started by first inking up a fun chevron brick stencil with some Pumice Stone distress ink.  I tried to keep it nice and soft.  Once it was all applied, I left the stencil on my card front and misted it with some shimmer mist.  Leaving the stencil in place allowed for the shimmer to only hit the inked areas, resulting in a nice shimmery pattern.  I love it!

Then I started working on my image.  I wanted to have a really pretty fall sunsetish style scene.  I printed off my image on both regular cardstock and some labels that I could use as a mask.  Masked off my image and started to apply my ink.  I started with Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap for the dark shadowy area behind the fox.  Then added Squeezed Lemonade for the sky.  I took the edge of my ink blending foam and tapped it into my ink pad and swiped it across the sky randomly to get the fun swirly cloud design.  I used Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade to do this.  There is a little bit of Pumice Stone in the sky just to add a bit more depth and darkness.  I finished off the scene with some Forest Moss for the grass.

After uncovering my image, I colored it in with some colored pencils and used a white gel pen to fill in the little buds on the flowers.

Grabbed some coordinating paper from a Lawn Fawn pack and added that across the top of the card.  Then adhered my sentiment, which is embossed onto some vellum, across my image and lined up where the background stripe is.  The greeting is from an awesome Simon Says Stamp set called Lots of Thanks.

I finished off the card with a scattering of some Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins.  I adore this card!  It turned out almost exactly as I planned.  And for being under the weather while making it, I'm proud that I could still get something together :)

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to take advantage of this awesome little bundle you'll receive with an $8 purchase!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Curtain Call-Foxy
   
    Freshly Made Sketches #213
   
    Incy Wincy Designs-Critters Large and Small

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!
I know it's super late in the evening for me to be posting, but I am so proud of these cards that I had to share them right away!

I was in a little funk this morning, trying to put ideas to paper and failing with every attempt.  It had me super frustrated and angry...but I kept trying...and I'm glad I did.  With a little inspiration from some challenges, I was able to create 2 cards that I am absolutely in love with.  Probably my favorite holiday cards so far this year.

It started with a red poinsettia.  I ordered the amazing new Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Elsa's Flora stamp set as soon as it came out.  Every single one of those images spoke to me..I knew I had to have it.  I've mulled ideas over in my head with it a lot since getting it, and the poinsettia just kept popping back up.  I decided to try a few different ways to color it in: watercolor like the red one above, and using distress inks with a shimmer mist like you'll see in my second card.

My first few attempts were major failures...but that was okay because I was just playing.  When I broke out the watercolors though, this whole card just came to life in my mind.  I colored in the poinsettia and the pinecones and did some washes over the white embossing of the pine branches.

I used a wood grain background stamp from Hero Arts and did a second generation stamping of it onto some kraft cardstock.  Then cut a few diagonal slits in it so I could put some silver glitter paper behind it all.  I had tried the layout with the glitter paper on top and it was too much, so I thought recessing it down behind the wood grain would look better...and it did!!

I popped the wood grain paper up with some fun foam and then started to assemble my flower arrangement.  Everything really came together easily, so I finished it off with a cute sentiment from the Winnie & Walter Eat Drink Gingerbread Man stamp.  I only inked up the bottom line for this card :)  A few white enamel dots and that was it!  I didn't add any shimmer to this card because I thought the glitter paper was enough.

Now for the second card, I did almost the exact same thing but I changed up the colors a little:

For this poinsettia, I used a little bit of Vintage Photo distress ink just in the middle, and then misted it from above with some shimmer mist.  Then set it aside to dry...and holy wow!  It is so gorgeous!

So much sparkle!  I changed the glitter paper underneath to a sort of brownish bronze.  The silver didn't work very well with the white poinsettia.  I also used a different sentiment stamp and red enamel dots instead of white.  But overall, very much like the first card. 

I'm just proud of myself for getting 2 cards done at once!  That never happens!!  Go me :)  Maybe I can make it a habit?  Probably not...

Anyhow, thanks for visiting and have a fabulous weekend!!  <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Retro Sketches #189
    The Challenge #50-Red, White, Silver, Kraft

    The Corrosive Challenge #237-Add a Sentiment
    Word Art Wednesday #209-Anything Goes

Hi!!!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far!  We were able to go out Monday night and see The Struts at The Crocodile in downtown Seattle.  It was so incredibly awesome!  A word of advice though, don't wear 5 inch heels unless you're prepared to be in them for 10 hours...holy ouch!  But it was worth it...without the heels I might not have been able to see the stage...and I didn't want to miss anything!  Such a fun night!

Tonight Matthew has a soccer game down in Redmond, but I was able to get a little crafting in before I need to head out to get him.  I was super excited to get back to my work desk because I actually placed an order for some new stamps!  That doesn't happen nearly as often as I want and there are always so many new releases coming out that I get farther and farther behind on the stamps I want to get.  But I finally ordered a few, they came this week and I was dying to ink them up!

I chose to use the Folk Art Flurries stamp set from WPlus9 for my card today.  I adore these sweet little snowflakes!  They are so unique and elegant...I just love them!  The colors I chose are based off of the photo inspiration at the Sparkle & Shine challenge.  I've been wanting to play along with that image for awhile now but kept getting distracted and pulled away from any projects I was working on.  But I finally got it done today!

To start, I chose several Stampin Up inks that matched the image and inked up a bunch of different sized circles with those colors.  Then chose the snowflakes I wanted and stamped those in VersaMark and heat embossed them with white powder.  I love the crispness of the white snowflakes on the dark backgrounds!!

Once everything was inked and embossed, I worked on the card base.  I did some die cutting to get the stitches around the edge.  I don't have a full stitched rectangle die cut so I used the Stitched Borders die from Lawn Fawn.  It looked a little plain with just the white, so I decided to use some silver glitter paper and added just a little stripe along the inside curve and the outside border.  It added just the perfect bit of shimmer and finishing touch.

Got all my snowflakes arranged in an order that worked really well and stuck them all down.  I die cut out the merry word die from the Hero Arts Merry set and then used the coordinating stamp on the die.  It took me a few tries, but I finally managed to get it all lined up together!  I coated them in some clear embossing powder and heat set that so the whole thing had a nice glossy finish.

I added the Christmas to an inked up banner and stuck that under the word die.  Then finished off the whole card with what might just be my new favorite embellishment.  Have you purchased any Pretty Pink Posh sequins yet?  Let me tell you...do it!  These Sparkling Clear sequins are gorgeous!  They add the perfect touch of sparkle to the whole card!  Love it!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafty Catz #300-Winter
    Fab n Funky #281-Clean and Simple
    Inkspirational #95-Anything Goes with Silver
    Sparkle and Shine #17 
    WPlus9 Sketch #4

Thanks so much for stopping by!! <3

Hi Everyone and Happy Friday!
We are preparing to head down to Ocean Shores for the weekend for a fun little trip with our friends.  It's going to be cold, but who cares!  I love being on the beach and being there with friends just makes it better :)

So today we have an awesome new release from Sami Stamps and the cool thing with this release is that it was featured in the Through the Craftroom Door Magazine!!  I've never been published in a magazine before, so this is super cool for me!  And the images are just gorgeous, you don't want to miss them!

The first image I chose to work with was this Pretty Flower - which is currently the freebie image at Sami Stamps!  I loved the simplicity of it.  That gave me so many options on how to use it.  So I decided to color it up multiple times with my pencils and fussy cut around them so I could add dimensional tape behind them and pop them up off my card panel.

Overall the card is simple, but that's the beauty of this image.  It can be kept simple, or embellished out and it's still beautiful.  I layered up a simple Hello die cut and then scattered some clear sequins around each of the flowers.  Gorgeous!!

I'd like to enter this Hello card into the following challenges:
    Creative Inspirations #334-Sparkle
    Fab n Funky #280-Die Cuts/Punches
    Fussy and Fancy #151-Flowers

My second card features the Blossoms Girl image.

I adore this cute little flower that Sami draws, so when I saw it covering this beauty, I knew I had to use this image.  I really wanted the whole card to have a graceful elegance to it so I kept the colors soft.  I used a piece of watercolor cardstock that I had colored up in the past as my background.  It was made by dabbing distress paint onto an embossing folder, misting it with water and then pressing my paper into it.  It's a super fun technique and the results are so gorgeous!

I layered a piece of embossed vellum over top of that to mute the colors a little bit and then strung a couple layers of ribbon along the side to help draw the eye to the sentiment.  Everything was colored in with my markers and I've added a lot of shimmer to her dress and the sentiment frame.  So incredibly gorgeous!!!  I love this release!

We are also starting a new challenge today at Sami Stamps and it's simple - Anything Goes!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image on your project!!

I hope you will stop by Sami Stamps and Through the Craftroom Door to check out this wonderful feature!  I'm so happy and proud of Sami for all the work she has put into this!  She is an incredibly amazing person and I'm so thankful to know her and get to work with her gorgeous art!!

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday!
We have a fun new challenge starting today over at Tuesday Throwdown - a Tic Tac Toe board!!
We also have a fabulous sponsor this week - DRS Designs, who has graciously provided my team with images to use on their cards.  I chose to use the Large Stained Glass image.  I thought it would make a perfect background, and why not follow it's name and do some stained glass painting on it!

I started by printing the background image onto some watercolor paper.  Then chose some very basic watercolors and set to work.  I first filled the space I wanted to color with clean clear water and then dropped my color in, moving around the image and then circling back to the previous spots to spread the color to the edges if it didn't make it with just the water.  I wanted there to be more red than any other color so I started with that one and filled in a lot of the little spaces.  Then went back in with the green and super watered down black so it would be grey.  The white spots actually have a really light blue in them.  I didn't want them to be left white but I didn't want another bright color to pull away from the Christmas colors...so I just did a light blue.

Once all of the paint was dry, I went over the light blue and red spots with my wink of stella clear glitter brush to add a little bit of shimmer.  Let that set and then traced over all the lines with a black sharpie.  My printer ink is running out so they weren't a nice bold black like I wanted, but they worked fine enough so I could paint them and then go back over them.

Once everything was completely dry, I smooshed my VersaMark ink pad over the whole thing!  This worried me a little.  I wasn't sure if all my paint would then transfer to the ink pad so I tested it first and it came out clean!  So I did the rest of the panel and then coated it with clear embossing powder and heated it till everything had melted and the whole panel had a nice glossy shine to it!  So perfect!

I cut out the large "Merry" with my Silhouette and layered it onto black cardstock.  Then white heat embossed the word Christmas onto some black cardstock as well.  I found a holly image in my digital collection (sorry...I don't know who it is from...) colored them up with my Shin Han markers and added them around the sentiments.

The last touch to everything was another coat of wink of stella and a little bit of star dust stickles on the berries!  This card turned out perfect!  I love how shiny the stained glass is and everything just gels together so well!!

I hope you will join us for this fun challenge!  Here is the tic tac toe board for this week:

I went right down the center with red & green, digital stamp, ribbon.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Creative Fingers #96-Anything Goes
    Ooh La La #192-Embossing
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting!! <3

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween this weekend!  We were able to attend a little party with our close friends...it was awesome!  We even did a little dressing up :)  I'll share that pic at the end...but first, to my card!

Awhile ago I was working on making up some stationary for a letter that I'm trying to build up the courage to write...figured it might be easier/nicer to have some gorgeous paper to write it on.  But after getting the stationary finished, I had these little scraps left over that just screamed to be used...I knew I couldn't throw them away.  So I mulled it over for a little bit, and the best idea ever struck me!

I turned them into Christmas Lights!!  Ok so the die cut that I was using for my stationary pieces was the Notebook Edge Die-namic from My Favorite Things.  It's a super fun die to have and I love the nice finished edge it gives...but it also leaves behind these cute little strips with circles from where the holes are in the notebook edge!

With the holidays bearing down on us, I thought those cute little circle string stripes were perfect for Christmas lights, so I colored them up with my markers and generously coated them with some wink of stella clear glitter.  I even added foam tape to the back of each of those little circles so they had some dimension behind them!  Once they were all adhered, I coated them in glossy accents so they would really shine!

I think they look so perfect with the blue night sky behind them :)  And I've been addicted to my new Liquid Platinum embossing powder, so of course I had to use it for the sentiment on this card!  The final touch was a few white and silver dots in the sky for the stars.  I adore this card!  It was so fun to come up with a unique way to use scraps from a previous project!

I encourage you to try and think outside the box with your scraps...you never know what you might come up with!  If you do have a unique project using your scraps, share it with me here!  I'd love to check them out!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #168-Holiday
    Fab n Funky #279-Christmas
    Incy Wincy Designs-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes

Oh and here is our Halloween pic :)

Thanks so much for visiting!!! <3