Happy Saturday!
I totally meant to get this post up much earlier in the day today...but Matthew and I have been working under the house to get our furnace fixed...what a pain!  I don't do well in small spaces...and being surrounded by spiders - eek!  But we got things taken care of and our repairs seem to have fixed everything with the heating, which is fabulous!  It works better than it ever has in the 8 years we've owned this house - Woohoo!!

So onto my very late post for today :)
I purchased the beautiful Big Bloom stamp set from Simon Says Stamp during their Stamptember event this year, but had not had the chance to do anything with it.  So I forced myself to pull it out this week and let my brain wander with ideas for it.

I was inspired by the sketch at Mojo Monday this week and set to work on my card.

You have no idea how much fun this card was to make!  That flower!  Wow!  I decided to keep the image as one piece and not do any layers besides the center.  So I pulled out my new Inktense pencils and started to color in the image, adding water to smooth everything out and intensify those colors.

In the shadow areas I layered up lots of color to get some really dark depth and kept the centers of each petal nice and light.  This image took me awhile to color.  I was really afraid of messing it up, so I took my time and got everything colored the way I wanted it.

While that dried, I added a little embossing paste over a heart stencil and then let some Hickory Smoke distress ink run over top of that (just got that distress color...wow!  Love it!!).  It created really cool water streaks and highlighted those hearts.  Let me share the sketch I followed so I can describe what I used for each shape.

 

I used the large flower in the circle space, figured that fit well.  Then the little square behind that circle is what I intended the embossed hearts to represent.  I felt those worked better for me than trying to find paper that I enjoyed or felt worked with my image.  

For the stripe running behind the circle, I die cut a little scallop border, and then added a little pink striped piece of paper on top of that to tie it all together.  I embossed my sentiment onto some vellum and added it behind the center of the flower.  It's on a little bit of an angle because I didn't want it to fully cover that sweet pink border I added :)

To finish the card, I did another thin stripe of that pink paper along the side and scattered some Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh around the card.

So much fun!  I adore this gorgeous card, and I'm so happy with how it all turned out!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

    A Gem of a Challenge #160-Female Birthday

    Crafty Catz #306-Flowers

    Creative Inspirations #342-Florals

    Mojo Monday #429
    Share Joy Challenge #17 

    Simon Says Stamp-Something New

    The Crazy Challenge #213-Celebrations

    Time Out #47-Birthdays

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!!!
I hope you have had a wonderful week back from the holidays!  It was rough here in our house...we got so used to staying up till 2 in the morning and waking up whenever that trying to get back to a normal sleeping pattern was tough.  But a little touch of coffee in the mornings has been helping a bit.  We aren't huge coffee drinkers, but we have found a simple blend that works for us.  I like to mix a little spoonful with some cocoa powder so it's more like a hot chocolate than coffee...but I'm weird :)

So with the slow groggy mornings brought inspiration to put together a few cards using a super cute image from the most recent Sami Stamps release - Fuzzy Cup Friends.  I used the Cup Pup image and went to town!

For this card, I started by taking a jar that was sitting on my desk and inking up the rim to use as a circle stamp to try and mimic coffee rings on my watercolor paper.  I'm not sure it fully worked the way I wanted, but it looks pretty cool in the background.  I did some splattering and inked up the edges as well so it wasn't a stark white background.

I printed off and colored up my image using Spectrum Noir pencils and some Gamsol to blend.  I have used baby oil in the past and that worked fine, but I was able to purchase some Gamsol a little bit ago and gave it a shot.  It does work a bit better than the baby oil which makes me very happy :)

Since the cups are normally all blank, I decided to do a little doodling on them with the pencils, a white gel pen, and some glittery pens as well.  I think the added detail really helps finish off the image.

Then I simply layered the image onto some glitter cardstock and vellum and mounted it onto my dry card base.  I stamped the Enjoy sentiment from the Simon Say Stamp and Winnie & Walter collaboration set Big Bloom and adhered that on the edge of the image.

My colors for the cups were pulled from Lawn Fawn's Sweater Weather paper pack, so I added a thin strip of that to the side as well, and that finished this card!

I did make another card with this image that I'll briefly describe.

It's pretty much the same card, but I watercolored the image with my new Derwent Inktense pencils and then added funny sayings to each of the cups.  I have terrible hand writing and had planned to print those on, but decided it would be easier to just write them out.  So I went super slow to try and not mess any of them up :)

Since there are so many words on the front of this card, I added the sentiment to the inside so it wouldn't clutter the front too much.

Super cute cards that I loved making!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps, we have an Add Sparkle challenge running this month!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image and join in!!

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:
    Craft Your Passion #293-Anything Goes
    Fab n Funky #286-Something New
    Inky Impressions #281-All Things New
    Simon Says Stamp-Something New
    Try Stampin on Tuesday #252
    Word Art Wednesday #217-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting!! <3

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Happy Tuesday!
Anyone else get a little mixed up with the holiday yesterday?  I did!  Totally forgot today was Tuesday and we have a new challenge starting at Tuesday Throwdown!  Sorry my post is late!

We have an awesome new sponsor for this challenge:  Newton's Nook!  I love this company and I love that we have them as a sponsor now!  And with our challenge being Anything Goes, I got to do whatever I wanted with their fun stamps :)

 I absolutely LOVE this card!  It makes me giggle every time I see it...I think because I colored my kitty from the Newton's Antics set up to be like my little Ezio and this is totally something that would happen to him.  Now, if you look at past cards where I have colored a kitty like Ezio, you might notice he is more orange/brown in those cards...while looking at him again to make this card, it dawned on me that he's actually more grey than brown...so I had to adjust my coloring with just a little bit of brown.  This kitty is much closer to what Ezio looks like :)

I stamped out the balloon from the Newton's Birthday Flutter set, along with the birdie and then cut them all out.  The bottom panel was watercolored with a few different shades of blue to give a nice soft sky background.  I die cut out a few clouds and stamped my sentiments on the larger ones before arranging them around my scene.

Getting the balloons lined up properly was interesting.  I laid them all out the way I wanted them and then used some washi tape to keep them in the correct order while I attached different levels of adhesive on the backs.  Once it was all on the card, I took all the little balloon strings and wound them around Ezio's tail and off to the side of the card.

Finished it all off with some glitter brush and glossy accent dots around the card.  So stinking cute!!!

I hope you will stop by Tuesday Throwdown to see the rest of the DT's creations, and then join in the fun of our Anything Goes challenge to win an awesome prize from Newton's Nook!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Craft Your Passion #278-Anything Goes
    Incy Wincy Designs-For the Boys
    Simon Says Stamp-Make it Colorful

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Sunday everyone!!
Ok this card isn't really all that scary...not visually.  But making it!  Yikes!  I was scared :)  Let me explain.

One of my all time favorite companies-Newton's Nook Designs has a new challenge running right now to make a one layer card.  One Layer!  Usually for me this means making my card on a separate card panel and then just attaching it to the card base so it resembles one layer...a little bit of a cheat but it helps give me some wiggle room in case I mess up.  Well...one layer is a challenge right?  So I decided to take it for it's true meaning and go for a serious one layer card.  This meant I couldn't mess up or I'd have to start over...I couldn't goof because there was no way to cover it up...scary!!!

But I did it!  And I love it so much!  I went for a bit of a wild card...I was trying to keep the rainbowish colors a little softer, but you know...that didn't happen and they got a little bright :)  Enjoy!

This sweet kitty (from Newton's Antics) is just so darn cute!  I love it so much because we have 3 cats, and ever single one of them loves to play in boxes.  Storm isn't the biggest fan, but he'll mess around a little.  But Ezio and Cloud will fight over every box that comes into the house.  It's hilarious!  So I colored this cutie up like Cloud, using my Spectrum Noir pencils for easy blending that wouldn't bleed through the paper.

To get the colors around Cloud, I masked her off with a post it note.  I had originally just done orange around her, but decided after I got her all colored up that she needed just a touch of some red to add some depth behind her.  So I reapplied the mask to get the red applied.

The arrows...I wasn't sure if the arrows were going to work.  It was more of a trial/play card to see what I thought, and I ended up loving it so much that I finished it all off.  I kept my colors in rainbow order still.  I didn't want a ton of purple on there but just enough to complete the rainbow.  And I love the combo of the large arrows with the little ones :)  That stencil is from Winnie & Walter and I love it!

I stamped a simple sentiment and covered it with some clear sparkly embossing powder.  Then went back over all the large arrows with some shimmer brush so that they sparkle.  You can just see the shimmer on the arrows towards the top of the card...always hard to catch those in photos :)

Such a fun card, and definitely a nail-bitter challenge, but I love how it turned out so much!  I might have to keep pushing myself on this one layer style to see what I can really do with it :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #33-Orange You Glad UR CAS

    Inky Paws Challenge #18-Just One Layer
    Lawnscaping Challenge #100-Birthday
   
Thanks for stopping by today!! <3

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Happy Friday!!!
It's cold and snowy here...what's it like by you?  I miss the sun so much...being able to go out for walks at 9 at night without freezing my tushy off, or just waking up in the morning and not feeling my feet freeze as soon as they hit the floor...I'm really ready for spring to get here now!

But unfortunately, I can't control the weather.  So I'll just stay nestled into my sweats and play with paper all day :)

With that, we have an awesome release this week from Sami Stamps!!!  It's all about Poodles, and man are they adorable!

I chose to use the Christmas Gift Poodle, and turned it into a birthday card.  I've been trying to focus on birthday cards a bit more lately since I have none in my stash...but it turns out my birthday stamp collection is kind of lacking...need to work on that :)

I went with a fun pink and green theme for my card.  Turns out, pink was the popular color among the design team for this release since we all used it!  Lol :)
I absolutely love how this card turned out!  There is something about the soft splatter wash behind the poodle that keeps drawing my attention.  I think I will need to use that on a few more cards!

The coloring was kept pretty simple on the pup with just a few pink and grey shades used.  I misted the splattered background with some shimmer mist so it has a nice sparkle to it.  So much fun!!
I followed the sketch at The Fusion Card Challenge.  They always have the best photo inspiration and sketch challenges, but I chose to just use the sketch this time.

So be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this release and all of the DT's pink poodles!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Fusion Card Challenge-Heartful/Sketch

    Penny's Paper Crafty #212-Anything Goes
    Send a Smile 4 Kids-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #168-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Thursday!!
Time to start another awesome challenge at Meljen's Designs!  Did you know that you can now use any image you want on your creations for that challenge!?  You'll get a double entry if you use a Meljen's Designs image, and we always love seeing what you can do with those!

For this weeks challenge, we want to see you use a funny sentiment!  Make us laugh :)
This challenge can always be fun...who doesn't love to receive a funny card in the mail?  I really wanted to do something Halloween related with mummy's and stuff...but just couldn't wrap my head around something funny to say on the card.  So I sifted through my sentiments and knew as soon as I saw this one that I had to use it...even if it has nothing to do with Halloween (I'll try that theme again later :) ).

Bahahahaha!  That sentiment just cracks me up!  Fortunately there is no cake or ice cream around to come out my nose...but I'm still getting a good chuckle from it :)

I chose to use the Triple Treat Cupcakes image from Meljen's Designs for this card.  It's colored in really softly with my Spectrum Noir pencils and blended slightly with some baby oil.  I then covered each of the tops of the cupcakes with Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen, the swirls with some Star Dust Stickles, and the hearts with some Glossy Accents.

I wrapped the twine around my card and mounted the sentiment where all the threads met together.  I was thinking of trying to make up a striped straw or something to use instead of the twine, but the twine was just right there on my desk...begging to be used.  So I stuck with that :)

Finished it all off with some clear gems in the corners!  Love this fun birthday card!!

So be sure to swing by Meljen's Designs to check out the rest of the design teams creations, they will crack you up!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    DigiStamps4Joy #100-Celebrations
    Divas by Design-Anything Goes
    Mojo Monday Sketch #362
    Totally Gorjuss #252-Bling

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Good morning!
Stopping in on this rainy morning to share a few cards I worked on this week to go along with a few more challenges over at Winnie & Walter.

This first set of cards goes along with a challenge to choose a stamp set from both Simon Says Stamp and Winnie & Walter and make 2 projects with them (Day 3).
I chose to use Flower Friend from SSS, and The Big, The Bold & The Happy from Winnie & Walter.

This was the first card I made.  I really loved a tutorial by Jennifer McGuire using this same set where she stamped her image in white pigment ink and colored over it with pencils.  So thought I would give it a shot.  My pigment ink wasn't the best...it's one of the old Stampin Up pigment inks that they no longer carry and it just isn't as smooth as I would like it to be.  But maybe that's okay, because it gave the flowers a little texture, but was hard to color over.

For the sentiment, I die cut out the banner shape right from the flower panel and did a little inlaying to make it one layer.  Finished off the flowers with some white enamel dots.

For the second card, I decided to try some multi-tone stamping, dabbing off ink around the edges to get some nice shading in the centers.

I really wasn't all that happy with this card at first.  The flowers were just a bit boring and overpowering.  But I stamped the striped background in a light grey, added the white embossing to the centers, and the little black dots, and the whole thing just sort of worked out.

It's really pretty and bright, and was fun to try out a bunch of new techniques with these fun stamps.

This card also works for the One Layer challenge from Day 4.

My final card is for the sketch that Winnie & Walter has for Day 5.  Totally love simple/fun sketches like this one and I've been trying to get into the mood to make Halloween cards, so I ran with that idea for this card.

I stamped out and colored in a bunch of silhouette trees and layered a few behind some vellum so they were in the background.  The kitties are from the You Are Pawesome set from SSS, and I used a hat from the Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume set.

For the sentiment, I mixed up a few embossing powders because I wanted it in black, but I wanted it to sparkle and I don't have any sparkly black embossing powder yet.  I think mixing two together worked out pretty well..gave me the effect I was looking for :)

Finished the card off with a few Lawn Fawn bats in the sky.  I just love the little witchy kitties!  That hat totally belongs on them :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous weekend! <3

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Hey everyone!
Happy Wednesday!!  We are finally getting some cooler weather here in Montreal, which is such a relief!  I'm not a fan of heat, but I was thankful that the humidity stayed away for most of it.  Now it's rain, which is always refreshing :)

For my birthday a few weeks ago, I decided to buy myself a little gift...some goodies from Mama Elephant that I've had my eyes on for quite awhile.    Believe me...it was hard only picking a few!  I have a whole entire wish list for Mama Elephant, but I had a budget to stick to so only a few things made it into my basket.  But since receiving them, I haven't been able to stop playing!  They haven't even made it to a proper storage place yet because I'm always grabbing for them!  That's how you know you love something :)

Of course, that pile of things-I-can't-stop-reaching-for has gotten pretty large...but oh well!  

See!!  So incredibly adorable!  Since the challenge over at Mama Elephant right now is watercolor birthday, and I'm addicted to watercolor, I decided to join in!  The background is actually a watercolor piece that I did quite awhile ago and never found a proper home for it, but it was too pretty to throw out.  It was a test piece really.  I was trying to do a fun background where you apply paint to an embossing folder, mist it a few times and then press your watercolor paper onto it.  The paint should transfer to your paper and leave the embossing pattern empty.  Well, I learned that too small of a pattern doesn't really work.  This piece, I was trying to use the Swiss Dots folder...but those dots are just too small and all the paint smooshed into them.  There were just a few that showed up in one of the corners and if you look really really hard, you can see them in the upper left corner under the vellum.

But like I said, even without the pattern, the colors looked so pretty that I couldn't throw it out.  But it worked perfect for this card!

One of my fun birthday goodies was the adorable In My Heart stamp set from Mama Elephant.  Love these little cuties!  And it has all the perfect "miss you" sentiments on it, which is something I was telling Matthew a little while ago that I really needed.  I've colored the cute little girls in with my ShinHan markers and then trimmed them all out.

And see all those stitched hills?  Yup!  My second little gift, the Landscape Trio!  I used the fun cloud die to make little shrub mounds in the background.  Looks pretty cool to me :)

The balloons are stamped from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine set.  I had do to a little watercoloring on them to get the shading to blend properly, because trying to wipe off some color and stamp it just wasn't working very well for me.  I added a black border around them and glued some strings so the little girl could be holding big bundles of balloons.

The sentiment is from Winnie & Walter's The Big, The Bold & The Happy.  It was supposed to be more of a silver color, but I picked the wrong embossing powder the first time, so had to go over it again with the right one and I think that muted down the color a bit.  But it still looks awesome :)

A few little flowers and turtles, and some glitter to the balloons and the card was done!  So cute and so fun!

Hope you made it through all those rambling details :) 

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Card Mania #53-Birthday Party
    Little Tangles #42-Happy Birthday
    Mama Elephant & Me-Watercolor + Birthday
    Paper Shelter #169-Punches/Dies
    Winnie & Walter-Join in to Win
    Work it Wednesday-Blue

Thanks for stopping by! <3

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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

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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

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Hello!
Wanted to swing in real quick tonight and share a fun card I made today for our niece's birthday next weekend.

I have been in love with making shaker cards lately.  This is my third one in just as many days...and I have a lot more ideas in my head.  I wanted this card to be a little more fun than just a shaker card, so I made it a little more interactive, allowing the butterfly to spin around the center sentiment.

It's so cute...I just love it!

I'd like to enter this card into the Pretty Pink Posh Sequin Shaker Blog Hop!

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

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I'm a bit sad that this class is over, but so thankful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it and learn so much from the amazing teachers.  I know that each technique will be well used!

For today's cards, I'm combining two days since the final day was showing us how to use one stamp set in multiple ways, and I made both of these cards from the same set.  Since purchasing the Lawn Fawn stamp sets Starry Backdrops and Hello Sunshine, I haven't been able to stop using them!  Somehow they are just perfect for everything I've been making lately.

My first card features embossing powder, or more specific, layered embossing powder.  I love the final glossy look that layering different types of embossing powder gives to the image, and the confetti makes me smile.

I pretty much cased the card example shared with us by Stephanie Klauk because it was so sweet, and I had similar supplies on hand.  Of course, every card I've made for this class has seemed to have some sort of imperfection to it...and for this one it was the big Happy stamp that decided to tilt down before I was ready to fully stamp it...so the letters have little feet under them.  And this is actually my second version of this card...the first one was ruined when the balloon stamp fell out of my hands and stamped a big purple balloon splotch on the outside border.  Adds character I guess? :)

This is my attempt at the Bokeh effect.  I tried to use multiple colors for the raindrops so that it wasn't all just shades of blue, but some of the colors didn't cover well or stamp nicely in second/third generations.  But I do love the glitter stripes down the middle :)

I'll be back again tomorrow with some other random cards that I've made for this class.  There has been so much information shared with us that it has my mind racing.  But, while everything I've learned has been awesome, there are several techniques that I can't do right now due to lack of materials.  But I've been filling in where I can, so you'll see those tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Yes I know...I haven't posted anything for the lessons from Day 3...I'm still working on those as they were a little bit harder for me to do with my supplies.  I'll get to them soon, I promise! :)

But this card came together so quickly with today's lesson that I wanted to share it right away!

So Fun!!!  I love this technique and I'm positive I'll be using it a lot!  The star background is a cut file that I bought from Some Odd Girl...so glad I made that purchase because I just adore all those stars!

I added a little stamp from the Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops stamp set that I picked up this past weekend!!!  A few gems and lots of glitter pen added to the stars :)

You can see the sparkle better in this picture.

I'd like to enter this into the Lawnscaping Clean and Simple challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!!! <3

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Guess what!
I've made a card just for fun finally!!  And I'm posting twice in one day!  Haven't done that in forever!  It will be a quick post, I promise :)

Isn't it so cute!!  There have been so many challenges that I have longed to participate in, but never seem to find the time to make something up for...but I set a goal to do it this week!  I get so busy with DT projects that the just-for-fun stuff gets sort of put to the side, but I'm figuring out that I need to make time for it :)

So I used a sweet Meljen's Designs image Tweet Heart Birds.  It's colored in with my ShinHan markers and decorated with some liquid pearls and glitter pen.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I have become obsessed with my sewing machine..so of course I stitched on this card :)  I sort of messed up on the zigzags on the image panel...but a little clever embellishing helped cover that up.

I used a simple tag from Lili of the Valley, but did some masking so that it could face the other way.  Tucked it behind a sweet little bow with some twine strung through it and that was it!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Creative Romance-Bingo (pearls, glitter, bow)
    Corrosive Challenge #194-Animals
    Craft Your Passion #203-Birthday
    DigiStamps4Joy #87-Birthday Sentiment
    Fussy and Fancy #109-Birthdays
    Meljen's Designs-Celebration
    Sassy Studio #219-Make it Fly
    Sketch Saturday #299
    Totally Gorjuss #225-Happy Birthday

Thanks for visiting again!!! <3

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I am so beyond happy that it is finally Friday!
What a not so grand week I've had...was sick over the weekend (which caused me to miss my Paper Makeup DT creation...), computer crashed on me Monday, internet broke on Tuesday, Wednesday was overloaded with catching up from the last several days...and the list goes on..

But I'm happy everything is settled back down to normal and I can show you this awesome new Sami Stamps release, because let me tell you, it's adorable!!

Sami drew up some Birthday Animals for this release, and I had a blast creating with them!

This first image is called Birthday Surprise and I just love it!  The cake looks so delicious, and the sweet little kitty on top is so cute!  I went girlie on this card...couldn't get the idea of a pink cake out my head so I just decided to roll with it.

I colored up the cake with my ShinHan markers and added some glitter pen to the platter and candles, and some liquid pearls to the dotted layers.

I used a sentiment stripe from Beccy's Place and printed it on vellum.  To color the little flower, I flipped the vellum over and drew on the back.  It was a technique I watched a video on a few weeks ago, and they made it into like a stained glass image.  Not sure mine turned out that way, but I thought it worked well coloring on the back instead of smearing the ink on the front.
Then I just layered that onto a MS Lace Edge punched border and put everything together!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    As You Like It #15-Spots or Stripes? (I love spots!!  As you can see from both of my cards :) )
    Card Mania #33-Anything Goes
    Creative Creations #23-Sparkle and Shine

Since I went super girlie with my kitty, I went in the opposite direction for this card.

Isn't he cute!!  This is Balloon Puppy.  So freaking cute!  And you can get him free with any purchase from the Sami Stamps store!!

I colored him in with my pencils instead of my markers.  Have to pull them out once in awhile still :)

I used my ShinHan's to add the little dots around him though.  I coordinated up some brown and green scraps and put them all together with some light green twine wrapped behind the image.  And I couldn't help myself with the sentiment...he just had the curious look on his face that was perfect!  So I printed it off and flagged the ends to finish off the card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #67-Use a Sentiment
    Sunday Sketch and Stamp #182
    That Craft Place-Sentiment

Check out the rest of the design teams amazing creations on the Sami Stamps blog!  And remember we have our Clean and Simple challenge going on this month, so join in the fun!! read more →

I wanted to squeeze this post in real quick before shutting down for the night.  It was made following the sketch at Sweet Sketch Wednesday and that closes in a few hours and I don't want to miss that deadline :)

I got a request for a custom birthday card from a family member last week.  She wanted it for her daughter who is a cheerleader.  But instead of doing normal school colors, she wanted to include pink since the school had done a "pink out" football game in support of breast cancer research and the cheerleaders loved it.  So I rolled with that, and this is the result:

I absolutely love how this card turned out!!  It's all pink and girlie but still has the dark green in the background representing the school.  And how adorable is that Meljen's Designs image?  This little Cheer Girl was the first thing that popped into my mind to use when the card was requested and it worked out perfect!

I added a lot of sparkle to the banner and pom poms as well.  The daisy paper is already loaded with glitter so the whole card just sparkles.  I really hope the birthday girl likes it :)

Here's the inside as well.  Nice and simple.

 I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Card Mania #33-Anything Goes
    DigiStamps4Joy #79-3 Papers, 3 Layers
    Pattie's Creations #79-Birthdays
    Simon Says-Anything Goes
    Sweet Sketch #230

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

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Time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and it's Birthday Party!!  Perfect since yesterday was my birthday, and the sponsor is one of my all time favorites!!

It's no secret I love love love Saturated Canary!  It's so easy to create with Krista's images and the inspiration just seems to pour out of them.  So I was stoked when she said yes to being our sponsor for this week!!  She graciously offered the design team an image to work with, but I decided to use a couple for my card this week.

I'm so happy with how it all turned out.  I've actually been working on this card for about a month now and it just didn't seem to be coming together at all!  But I stuck with it and finally got it right :)

The cuties I used on this card are Smokin Hot, Cali Girl, and Ani.  They all fit perfectly into the beach theme, and since I'm craving the beach so bad, I figured that would be a great theme for my card.  I die cut out some palm trees and then tore up some sand colored paper for the different steps.  I've had these beach stickers in my stash for just about ever, and thought they would work well on this card.  So I pulled a few out and stuck em on.

Matthew suggested the dolphin, which I wasn't going to add at first, but now I'm glad I did because it just seems to work.
All the cute girlies are colored in with a combination of ShinHan, Copic, and Spectrum Noir markers.  I love playing with those!  I'm working on building my ShinHan collection, but don't have enough to cover multiple color groups, so I have to combine different brands for a little while.  But I'm getting there!

I hope you will join us this week for our fun challenge, and the chance to win some gorgeous images from Saturated Canary!!!
Thanks for stopping by!  And don't forget about my giveaway here:  Birthday Giveaway
Only a few more hours to enter!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #52-Celebrations
    Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards #44-Animals
    The Corrosive Challenge #179-Fancy Folds
    Craft Your Passion #173-3D It
    Delicious Doodles #46-Summertime
    Fussy and Fancy #94-More Than 1 Fold
    Inky Impressions #118-Birthdays
    Ladybug Crafts-Birthday Greetings
    Quirky Crafts #15-Octopus Garden
    Simon Says-Summer Food and/or Drink
    The Squirrel and the Fox #49-Nautical/Sea Life read more →

Happy Monday!
Still time to enter my birthday giveaway here: Giveaway

This week we have a fun sketch at Paper Makeup for our challenge.  I love following sketches.  Sometimes my layouts get into a rut...so it's nice to look at a sketch and work in different elements that I wouldn't have otherwise thought of.

Since it's my birthday today, I went with a fun dessert card and a super appropriate sentiment.  The colors are actually much more pink, but my camera washed them all out for some reason...

I used the yummy ice cream image from Paper Makeup's So Sweet set and framed it in a die cut scallop circle.  Then flagged a sentiment from the Guilty Pleasures set that I felt was very fitting.

The two corner borders are punched with my MS Lace Edge punch and then wrapped in pink and brown twine from The Twinery.  I added a few pearls to the corners for some extra bling.
Here's the sketch:

Be sure to stop on by and join us! 

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Oh boy am I late this week!  Moving is some tough stuff and can really mess up a persons schedule :)
But we are all settled in, though my craft room still needs some work before I can get crafting again.

I'm so sorry that it took me a few days to get this posted, but I'm here now!  This weeks Digi Makeover challenge is Celebrations!  I never have enough celebration cards on hand to send out...and it seems I am always in need of one...so it was nice to get a birthday card made up, even though I'm not completely fond of it.

Sorry for the poor photo quality as well.. After I finished this card I realized all my normal photo stuff was packed...so I had to try and find good lighting, which was rare in our old apartment.

I used Bobo the Clown Fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps and colored him in with my pencils.  I added lots of bright papers to this card and I'm not really sure it worked out.  They all match each other, but in a way, there's just too many colors.  Oh well :)  Still cute, in a way.

I hope you will join us this week!  Just use a digi.  And be sure to check out the rest of the makeup artists if you haven't already :)
<3 Emily read more →

Hello Loves!
It's time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  This week it's Fancy Folds!  We want to see your creations that include more than 1 fold!  So start making those gate folds, and Z folds, and easel cards now, cuz we have a fabulous sponsor this week that you are going to love!!

That's right!  Little Darlings Rubber Stamps is our sponsor this week!  Woot woot!  The winner will receive a $15 gift voucher to their shop...now who doesn't want to win that?  Lol!

LDRS provided our design team with some stamps to use on our projects this week.
I went a little crazy with my card, but only because it is a birthday card for the wonderful mother-in-law so I wanted it to be special :)

 I went with a gate fold for my fancy folds card.  I've done a lot of easels lately and wanted to try something different.  There was this awesome idea I found at From My Craft Room to use a die cut to cut out a window in the middle of the card!  I loved the cards she made that way, so thought I would give it a shot.  And I love it!

Of course, I was a little stumped with the papers...I love this blue fuzzy paper, but because it already has detail of it's own, I wasn't sure what to add to it.  So I stuck with flowers...those go with everything right?  Especially when the center image is this gorgeous Fairy Wishes from Saturated Canary!!

I colored her in with my pencils and added glitter to her wings.  She was a blast coloring!!
 All of my flowers are handmade.  There are a few large rolled roses in the centers, and then some smaller punched roses around them.  Along with some blue daisy's and some fillers.  I misted both sprays with some shimmer mist so that they sparkled.

Since the inside of the card is still a main focal point of the card, I wanted to add something that could be used for writing a message on.  So I added a pocket behind the image so I could have a pull out tab there.

And printed off a fun little birthday sentiment :)
The card doesn't really stay closed but that's ok since it will look great on display!

I really hope you will join us this week!  You can use any images/stamps you wish and make any project you would like!  Remember there is a limit of 3 entries per person, but that still offers a great chance to win this awesome prize!

I also wanted to remind you that a great way to stay connected is to follow me on Bloglovin! 

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    7 Kids College Fund #70-Things With Wings
    Alota Rubber Stamps #104-Dress to Impress
    Delicious Doodles #30-Folds
    Mayzy Art #14-Sparkle
    Melonheadz Friends-Make it Girly
    Ruby's Rainbow-Birthday
    Simon Says-Happy Birthday
    Totally Gorjuss #178-Anything Goes with Sparkle
    Whoopsi Daisy-Swirls

Thanks for stopping by!

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