Happy Friday!
I hope your week has been super fabulous!  It's been chilly here in Washington!  Not sure I'm quite ready for fall, even though it's my favorite time of year.  Just doesn't feel like we really had much of a summer.  But alas, it's here anyhow!

Today at Sami Stamps we are doing a Think Pink showcase!  This means that each image that the DT has used will be half off for the week!  These are some super cute images, and with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, they will all work perfect for any project!

I decided to reuse an image I had created something for a long time ago.  This Butterfly for a Cause image is really sweet and I wasn't totally happy with my first go around with it.

For the first time in what seems like forever, I actually attempted to follow along for some challenges!  Both Share Joy and Creative Inspirations have a bingo board this week, so I pulled lines from both to make my card.

I started by using some distress inks and blending them out into a striped background.  I started with Squeezed Lemonade, then moved to Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Abandoned Coral, and ended with Tattered Rose.  I overlapped them just slightly in each stripe so that they had a nice flow between them.

For some extra detail and fun, I took my white gel pen and a sparkle pen and went back over each stripe to add some dots.  I tried to concentrate a lot of dots on the top left side of each stripe and then scattered them to the bottom of the stripe.  It kind of gives a fun burst feel to each color.

Then I started on my image.  I did some super quick coloring with this by creating a mask and used the same colors from the background to blend the color on!  It was fast and still looks awesome!  To finish it off, I did a little light stippling around the image with some super soft blue colors.  I may have gone a little crazy with the dots on this card...but it was too much fun to stop!

The sentiment is from the WPlus9 set Sending Hoping Wishing.  I white heat embossed that onto some vellum and then trimmed it out into a double flagged banner.  There are some Sparkling Clear Sequins scattered around the card to pull it all together!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the wonderful DT creations!

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
    Creative Inspirations #258-Bingo (white, distress, dots)
    Fussy and Fancy #173-My Favorite Things (distress inks and sparkle!)
    Incy Wincy Designs-Things That Fly
    Share Joy Challenge #55-Tic Tac Toe/Sketch (ink sponging, orange, sequins)
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #250-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting!
<3 Emily

Happy Friday!
I have another super cute card to share with you today featuring one of the images from our newest Sami Stamps release - Little King.

This card was really fun to design and even more fun to put together.  I love it when things fall in to place exactly as I want them too!

I started by inking up a sun ray type pattern in the background with Fossilized Amber.  This is super easy to do.  All you need is a post it note!  I found the center of the top side of my card and made that my starting point.  Placed my post it note there and then took my ink blender, started on the post it and swiped away from it.  This left a darker line right at the edge of the post it that faded away.  Picked up the post it and moved it to the left of the line I just did and repeated the process around the whole card front.  So gorgeous!

Then I printed off my image and colored it in with some ShinHan markers.  I wanted quick and simple and for me, the markers are the easiest for that.  The image was cut out with an oval die cut and then I matted it with black and did a scallop vellum frame around that.

To add some detail to the background, I took one of the awesome new dies from the September Hero Arts kit and die cut it a couple times.  Then took the same markers I used in my image and colored it all in to sort of look like wheat.

I wanted a really golden feel to this whole card and I think that was pretty well represented!  It's all finished off with a black glitter embossed sentiment and some Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!
Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Tuesday!
Here to share a quick little card with you for our new Easel Card challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!

I know it looks a little complicated, but really it wasn't!
I started by blending some Evergreen Bough, Faded Jeans, and Chipped Sapphire to my trimmed front.  Then splattered the whole thing with some white shimmer paint and set that aside to dry while I worked on the ornament.

This image is from our awesome sponsor this week - The Stamping Boutique!!  It's called Cardinal Ornament and is oh so gorgeous!  I did some simple coloring with my ShinHan markers and then a little ink blending around the outside to match the background, leaving the area around the cardinal super light to represent a glow.  I added some little shimmer dots with my gel pen around the bird and then took some clear embossing ink and covered the whole image.  I was a little freaked out to do this thinking it might smear my image, but all was good!

Once the whole thing was covered with this embossing ink, I coated it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  I did this about 3 times to get a nice thick layer with lots of shine.  The nice thing with this smallish sized image was I could keep the whole thing warm and just dip it back into the embossing powder to get another coat.  The heat picks up the powder and then it's super easy to just set it with the heat tool!

After the embossing was done, I threaded a string through the back center of the ornament and into the frame so it's suspended in the window like a spinner card.  Cut out a cute branch and added some ink and puffy snow stuff and then attached it so it looks like the ornament is hanging from that branch.

I added my sentiment on the inside, hidden behind the image so you only see it when you open the easel card.  Love it!!

Be sure to swing by Tuesday Throwdown to see the rest of the DT's awesome easel cards!

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!
Time for another awesome release at Sami Stamps!  It's a little early, but let's be honest...everyone is thinking about Christmas right now.  It can't be helped :)  But that's what makes this next release so awesome!  It's titled Noble Little King and is absolutely perfect!

I decided to try my hand at something new.  It was a super challenge but in the end, I think it turned out pretty adorable!  I used the Our Little King image and turned it into a pop up card!  Or pop out...box card?  Not sure what you call this :)

I started by inking up my background.  I wasn't going for anything fancy, just something that could resemble a night sky.  Once I had it all inked, I splattered it with water, dried the whole thing and then went back over it all with a second layer of ink.  Then splattered it again with the water.  This gave a lot of varied looks to the splatters and gave great texture for the sky.  Then I worked on coloring my images.

I wanted to mimic the colors of the sky to give the whole card a nice flow, so I pulled out my colored pencils and gamsol.  I wanted to use markers but the colors I have were just off or too bright and didn't match very well.  The image is printed twice so that I could cut out sweet baby Jesus and pop Him onto His own layer.

Once everything was colored and cut out, it was time to assemble it all.  That was the toughest part and I'm not even sure I could explain how I did it in a way that you'd understand.  I folded up the sides of the background and laid each layer next to it in the alignment that I wanted.  Then marked where the folds needed to be, folded down flaps and added adhesive.  Getting the slots cut out correctly was the hardest part.  Normally you just attach the flaps on the inside, but I wanted to hide them on the outside, so I needed to cut openings to slide everything through.  Plus getting them lined up properly with each other and straight...lots of work.

But eventually, with the help of my T-ruler, I got everything cut straight and adhered down.  I just cut little panels of white cardstock to adhere on the outside of everything to help cover up the ink spots that bled through from the background and the flaps from each pop up panel.

Remember we have an Add Dots challenge running through September, so pull out your Sami Stamps and join in for your chance to win!!!

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great weekend! <3

Happy Tuesday!
I hope everyone had an awesome long weekend!!!
Today we are showing off our School Spirit with the start of our new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!

Our fabulous sponsor is MyGrafico and they've provided us with the super cute Back To School image set!  I decided to do some watercoloring on that awesome globe and filled in the paint pallet to match the colors that I've used.  I also coated all of the water with some shimmer pen as well so it's nice and sparkly.

Be sure to stop by Tuesday Throwdown to see some amazing inspiration and then join in the fun!

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!!!
We have another super cute release for you today at Sami Stamps!  This one is all about Greyhounds!  And we are starting a new challenge to add dots to your project!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

I've used Greyhound Friends and turned my card into a simple shaker frame!!  By putting foam tape and acetate around the outside of my image, that allowed me to put some tiny beads and sparkly shimmer dots into my shaker, while leaving my image framed in the middle.

My sentiment was black glitter embossed onto some vellum and adhered with some of the Stick It adhesive, since that doesn't show through!!  Hurray for that!

Stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this adorable release!!
Thanks for visiting! <3