It's the most wonderful time of the year!
I hope you are all having a fabulously Merry Christmas! Enjoying time with friends and family, it's always such a cheery season.  I'm really sad that we aren't able to spend this Christmas with family, but I'm thrilled that we are home in Washington and able to start our own traditions, and see the "family" that we have built here with our friends.

I wanted to share a quick little card with you today featuring a fun image from the most recent Sami Stamps release.

I've used the super sweet A Love for Christmas Sweaters image and colored her up like my sweet little princess Cloud.  We took her out on our Christmas Eve light tour last night.  It was so much fun driving around and seeing all the lights twinkling around the houses.  Some places really go nuts around here!!  We got a lot of ideas for things we want to do with our house decorations :)  And Cloud loved every second of it, staring out the window while on my lap.  She's so sweet.  She didn't have a sweater on though...just a super cute jingle bell collar her Grandma Tammy made her a few years ago.

For my card, I printed off my image and colored it up with my ShinHan markers.  Then trimmed it out and cut a semi circle around the kitty so I could have a little window behind her to show the light blue through.

The Merry was cut with the Hero Arts Merry Stamp & Cut set.  I love this set!  It's been used so much this season and I can't imagine I will be putting it away any time soon.  That die cut is just so perfect!  I colored it in with some shades of red to give it an ombre type look and then coated it with some shimmer brush.

Christmas was stamped with some Garden Green Stampin Up ink right below the die cut.  Then I finished it all off with a few silver stars scattered around the image from that same stamp and cut set.

I adore how this card turned out.  Super simple and sweet with some bold pops of color.  Adorable!!

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!!!  Thanks for sticking with my during my spotty year posting here on the blog.  So many changes, I'll post about them sometime in January.  But I love and appreciate all of you!!  <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    CASology #178-Merry
    Freshly Made Sketches #217
   
    Simon Says Stamp-Make it Sparkle

Happy Friday!
Can you believe Christmas is one week away!!!  I've been frantically working to get everything finished and put together so it all could be mailed out to our families in Michigan...was a little stressed, but it all went out yesterday so I feel a little more at ease.

But what better way to help calm down than to play with some absolutely adorable new images from Sami Stamps!  This release is called Christmas Sweaters, and it's so stinkin cute...as always!!

I chose to work with Unwraveled today for my card:

Since I've had a lot of other stresses going on, I decided to keep this card pretty simple.  I used a few other stamps in the background from Newton's Nook and Pretty Pink Posh to help set the scene, and put this sweet little sweater coated kitty in front of it all.  He's so darn cute!  I wish my kitties would tolerate wearing sweaters...

Everything was colored in with my ShinHan markers and I added little bits of silver and gold glitter pen to the tree and gifts.  Then scattered a few of the Holly Jolly Christmas sequins from Pretty Pink Posh around the scene and that was it!

I hope you will stop by and see the rest of the DT's creations with this super cute release!  And remember we have a fun Use Red challenge running for a few more weeks, so join in to that as well but be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Craft Your Passion #292-Anything Goes
    Fussy and Fancy #154-Happy Holidays
    Penny's Paper Crafty #258-Anything Goes
    The Paper Shelter-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #214-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting, have a fabulous weekend!! <3

Happy Tuesday!
I'm so excited to be a guest designer this week at the Curtain Call Challenge!  Their images are always so gorgeous and inspiring, I love playing along!

Today also marks the start of a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown.  Nice and simple Anything Goes!  This is our last challenge for the year before Christmas, so we like to keep it easy for you :)

Our fabulous sponsor this week at Tuesday Throwdown is Deedee's Digis.  And the theme for the Curtain Call challenge is milk and cookies, so I used this adorable Christmas Cookies collection for my card.  I started by printing off my candy canes and coloring them in with my ShinHan markers.  I also added some clear glitter brush so they have a nice sparkle.

I die cut out a tag and added a few gold glitter stripes and then "strung" my candy canes to the tag, adding a little enamel dot to the center of the bow.

The background was splattered with some red and gold Heidi Swap Color Shine spray.  While that dried, I cut out a few stripes of glitter paper in bronze and gold.  I felt those colors coordinated the best with the colors I used on the cookies.  I did a stitched scallop edge as well on the card front with the Mama Elephant Borderlines Trio die.

I heat embossed a fitting sentiment in some red glitter embossing powder onto vellum and then attached that below the tag, adding a few more of those little enamel dots.  And that wrapped up the card!  Super cute and fun!

I really loved coming up with this card for these two challenges!  I hope you will join us for both the Anything Goes challenge at Tuesday Throwdown, and the fun Milk & Cookies Photo challenge at Curtain Call!!

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Happy Friday!
I hope everyone's week has been fabulous!  We've been going through a bit of a rough patch lately because it seems like everything we own has been breaking on us.  So it's been a bit quiet on my blog because we are just trying to stay ahead of everything.  Plus, the holidays are always busy with other projects and events, so my time in the office gets short or taken up elsewhere.  I'll still pop in once in a while to share something, but it might not be as often as it has been for a while.

But today I wanted to share another sweet little image from our most recent Sami Stamps release called Holiday Cheer.

This card is a little busy...I just couldn't stop playing with some new products and the layers just kept building.  But I still think it's super cute!

I started by inking up a piece of watercolor paper with some Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon distress ink.  Then misted it a bunch to get the colors to mesh a bit and set it aside to dry.  Once it was dry, I placed the Winter Tiny Snowflakes stencil from Memory Box over top and coated it with some Bo Bunny Frost Glitter Paste.  This stuff is amazing!  I've had it for a little while now but hadn't played with it yet.  It's so super sparkly and it spreads so easily!!  Love it!!

Once that was dry, I used another new purchase, the Marvy Snow Marker!  I added dots all around the sparkly blue snowflakes.  When that dried, I hit it with my heat gun so those little white dots would puff up to look like snowflakes as well!!  So much fun!

Then it was time to work on my image.  Since our main computer totally crashed on us earlier this week, I don't have all my normal programs for card making...like Word...so I had to figure out a different way to print my image.  Silhouette Cameo to the rescue!  I used the print and cut feature to get my image printed in the size I wanted!  I skipped the cutting part though :)

This sweet Chihuahua is colored in with my ShinHan markers and then I've added little bits of glitter pen and glossy accents to the lights and his face.

Then I pulled out the super fun Botanical Wreath stamp set from Impress Cards and stamped out a couple poinsettias and foliage.  Cut them out and arranged them in the corner for some fun festive color.  Stamped in the sentiment and the card was done!

Remember we have a Use Red challenge going this month at Sami Stamps.  So use a Stami Stamps image on your card and join in the fun!!

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!
Hoping you've had a wonderful week!  Wet and rainy here in Washington...makes the days really dreary and short.  I will be happy to finally get our Christmas lights up this weekend.  Hopefully that will bring a little cheer :)

We have a sweet little release for you today at Sami Stamps - Christmas Chihuahua's!  I love Sami's animal images, can never get enough of them.  And these sweet little pups are no different!

I chose to use Good This Year for my card today:

The background of this card went through several phases before I finally felt like it was complete.  My first thought was to mix some pearl ex with my embossing paste in hopes that it would shimmer a bit, but the pearl ex just turned the paste a sort of pearl color instead....so that didn't work.

Then I decided to just tint the embossing paste with some ink and add red glitter on top.  That worked pretty well, but after it was dry, every time I touched it I got glitter everywhere...and I don't like making "glitter bomb" cards...so I had to decide on a way to seal all that glitter in.  I thought about using my versamark pad to clear emboss it, but since it was loose glitter, it would get all over the ink pad...so no to that.  I finally decided to just coat each little circle with glossy accents.  It worked really well but took forever and used most of my tiny bottle of glossy accents.  But I like it!  The sparkle is still there from the glitter, but now it also has a glossy shine to it.

I printed off my image and used a fun little die to cut it out.  I kept the whole thing in the die while I colored it so that once I was done, I could go around the edge with some Bundled Sage distress ink.  I love this color!!

The scallop frame was cut with my Silhouette and I inked that up with the same Bundled Sage color again.  Then cut a little scallop border and added a little bit of patterned paper.  I stamped the sentiment onto some vellum and then tucked it up under the stocking by cutting right along the stocking edge and lifting it up.  Was a little tough since I had already super adhered it all down...but I got it :)  Then I coated the sentiment in some red stickles and set it all aside to dry.

Be sure to stop by the Sami Stamps blog to check out the rest of the DT's creations with this cute release!  We are also starting a new challenge today to Use Red!  Remember to use a Sami Stamps image and join in!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #173-Holiday
    Crafting When We Can #108-Animals
    Inky Impressions #278-Traditional Christmas Colors
    Quirky Crafts #24-Anything Christmas
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #297

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Happy Tuesday!
I hope everyone is rested up from their busy holiday weekend!  I spent yesterday on the couch sick...once again.  Matthew and I can't seem to shake this silly bug that is cycling between us.  We are feeling a bit better now, so hopefully it is gone...we'll see :)

We have a fun new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown for you - Cute and Cuddly.  Our fabulous sponsor - MyGrafico - has provided some adorable little images for our team to use.

I don't use a lot of patterned paper on my cards anymore...I find it much more fun to come up with my own backgrounds.  But once in awhile, a paper catches my eye and screams to be used.  That was the case with a Recollections Christmas paper pack at Michaels called Be Merry.  I had seen it on my last shopping trip there and walked around the store with it, only to decide to put it back.  But when we went there again on Black Friday, and I still wanted it, I decided to pick it up.  It has the most beautiful pastel sparkly patterns...I'm excited to use it :)

So I grabbed a piece that worked for today's card and set to making all the details.  I started by stamping snowflakes onto an inked up banner and embossing them.  Then I inked up and die cut a little tag and used the Mini Scenery: Peppermint Zone stamp from Winnie & Walter to get a fun swirl in the background.  I achieved that by misting the stamp with some white shimmer spray and stamping it down on my blue inked tag.  It's subtle, but so cute!  Then used my Fuse tool to create a cute little shaker with it!  It took me a few tries...I'm not sure if the plastic that I'm using is too thin, or if I just need more practice, but I keep melting it too much so I have all these little holes everywhere and have to start over...oh well.  I got it on the third try for this tag :)

I printed off and colored up one of the cute penguins from the Penguin Digital Set from MyGrafico and cut it all out.  I white heat embossed the sentiment onto some vellum and then added a cute little present in the penguins hands.  After getting it all assembled, I decided it needed a little more detail, so I white heat embossed and then fussy cut out some snowflakes from the WPlus9 Folk Art Flurries set, and adhered them around the card.  This helped to really finish it all off.

I hope you'll join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #146-Anything Goes/Christmas
    Crafting When We Can #108-Don't Forget the Animals
    Fab n Funky #283-Christmas
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    The Paper Shelter #229-A Christmas Card

Thanks so much for visiting! <3