Happy Friday!
I hope everyone has had a fabulous week and is ready for the weekend!!
We went and saw Spiderman Homecoming last night and Oh-My-Gosh!  Go See It!!  I might be biased since we are a Spiderman loving family....but it was so darn good!  Don't get me wrong, I have loved all of the Spiderman movies that have come out in the past.  But there was something super special about this one.  I'm not sure what it was...maybe it was the meaning behind its title - Homecoming.  With Spiderman finally joining the Marvel/Avengers universe, it felt like he had finally made it home in this movie...I don't know.  Now I'm rambling about nerd stuff :)  Just go see it :)

So for today!  We have an adorable new release for you from Sami Stamps!  And we're starting a new Anything Goes challenge!!

This release is called Little Bumbles and I've used the Whiskers and Stingers image, which is so cute!
I actually took the time to create a card for a few challenges!  It's been so long since I've done anything like that and I kind of missed joining in on some of my favorites.

So I followed the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and threw a sweet shimmery sunset in for the challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

I started with some yellow dotted patterned paper and used a sun ray stencil to add a little bit of Fossilized Amber to the rays as well as some Lemon Sorbet Nuvo Mousse.

Cut and colored a few little hills and then colored up my kitty with some Copics.  I layered him onto a vellum cut oval just to give a little frame around him from the scene behind him and then stamped a super cute sentiment from Newton's Nook.

I added a few Nuvo clear drops and that was it!  Super simple card and still so adorable!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps and More #249-CAS
    Freshly Made Sketches #295

    Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-Summer Sunshine

I hope you will join us this month for our Anything Goes challenge!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image! <3

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Hello everyone and Happy Monday!
I don't have a card to share with you today...it has been way too busy and waaayyyyy too hot to be standing at my desk trying to craft with sweaty palms...just doesn't work.

But I wanted to swing by and share with you some really really exciting news! 

I have joined the new Newton's Nook Inspiration Team for their Inky Paws Challenges!!!!!!
There aren't enough words to explain how exciting this is for me.  Newton's Nook has been a game changer for me in card making.  When I started making cards oh so long ago...I remember being so disappointed that there weren't really any cat stamps.  While I loved all the other critters available, I'm a crazy cat lady and that was what I desired to put on cards.

And then along came Newton's Nook.  Their products are the perfect filler in the missing cat category and I find myself constantly reaching for them.  Of course, they have other amazing stamps too that I love to use...I'm just always drawn to the cats...it's who I am :)

I am so excited to work on this new team with some awesome crafters to bring you weekly inspiration using some of the products I have fallen in love with.

While you anxiously await my first inspiration piece, you can check out the retirement sale that Newton's Nook is having right now.  These products are while supplies last, so don't wait to snag them up and add them to your collection!  There are a lot of great stamps that I'm sad to see go, but it just means there will be more room for other awesome designs!!

 

You can find all the sale items in the Retiring Products section. 

Until next time!  Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Whoops...Totally forgot to post my card for this weeks Tuesday Throwdown challenge!  Life has been a bit crazy lately...with releasing my new In Motion interactive card line last week, prepping for vacation, and trying to get a ton of stock ready for my first craft show of the year later this month...I've hardly had time to come up for air!

But, for this week at Tuesday Throwdown, we have a sketch for you!!  I always work better with a sketch...it just helps to ignite the inspiration!  And our fabulous sponsor is Kitty Bee Designs!

I used their Cat image and colored her up really simply with my markers.  Layered her onto a background I created by blending a few blue inks together, then laying a stencil over top and misting the whole thing with water.  The water reacted with the ink and lightened it up just a little bit so you can see the fun design.

I paired this with a sweet little strip of bee themed paper and an embossed Hi sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Check out the Tuesday Throwdown blog for more inspiration!!  <3

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Hello!
It's my third post as Guest Designer over at Newton's Nook and you do not want to miss this one!
Every set of Newton's Nook stamps comes with sooooo many wonderful images, that for this card...I couldn't just settle for one image...I had to use them all!!!

Here is a little sneak at what you will see over at Newton's Nook this week.

You can find all the details on this card at Newton's Nook.  So swing by to see all of the cute little scenes I created for my spinning wheel card!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3


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Hello! I'm happy to be back again at Newton's Nook for my second week as guest designer! This week I'm using the Newton's Birthday Bash stamp set for my card! Here's a little peak:

 Be sure to swing on over to the Newton's Nook blog to read all about this card!

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Hey everyone!
Happy snowy Monday!  We woke up to about 3 inches of snow outside and the entire Puget Sound area shut down :)  I love snow days.  Just wishing I wasn't fighting a cold so I could enjoy it more.

I am beyond excited to share that I am the Guest Designer at Newton's Nook for February!  I adore this company!  When they first popped up, I was over the moon for their sweet little kitty stamps because there weren't too many of those for us cat lovers.  Their selection and variety continues to grow and with each new release, my heart melts a little bit more.  Check them out!

I'll give you a few sneaks at what I created, but be sure to swing by the Newton's Nook blog to read up the full details of how I made these cards!  They were a ton of fun!!

I used the Wild About Zoo stamp set for these cards.  The fun animal print hearts were what stole my heart in this set, but I couldn't hold back from using some of the super adorable wild animal images too!

Thank you so much for visiting!! <3

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Happy Tuesday!
Time to get rolling again with a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown - Snowflakes!  We're supposed to get a little snow here today...not sure if that will happen or not.  Christmas break was lovely since we had snow the entire time!  Granted it was only a dusting of it...but our porch stayed covered the whole time so every time we left the house, we saw snow :)

Our fabulous sponsor this week is the lovely A Day for Daisies, and they've provided us with gorgeous images to use on our projects.

I decided to use Little Cats Christmas for my card.  After a pretty tough emotional weekend, it was nice to sit back and color these cuties up.  I kept my card relatively simple, with a light ombre grey background using Hickory Smoke.

The sentiment strip was colored with some Prismacolor pencils and blended out with some gamsol to get the nice gradient color to it and then I white heat embossed the sentiment from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set.

I added a few vellum die cut snowflakes around the card, and put little tiny sequins in the middles.

The finishing touch was glossy accents on the little blue lights!

I hope you will join us for this challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3

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Happy Friday!
We're starting a new challenge today at Sami Stamps and it's an easy one!  Anything Goes!!  The only requirement is that you use a Sami Stamps image!

We don't have a new release for you this time, so the DT has created some fun fall cards using their favorite fall images from Sami's collection.  I chose to work with Sunflower Kitty.

I started this card by printing off my image with a super faint outline.  I really wanted to do some no-line watercoloring on this adorable little kitty and didn't want a bold black line getting in the way.  Once the image was printed, I used some of my Inktense pencils to do some simple coloring on the image.  It may be simple, but I think it is just so adorable!  I of course had to paint the kitty like my little Cloud...couldn't help myself.

For the background, I wanted to do something fun with a tone on tone design.  So I inked up a piece of cardstock in a dark green color and then added some green ink to some embossing paste so that it was just a little bit lighter than the background color.  Spread that on through a striped stencil and then sprinkled it with some glitter embossing powder.  I set that aside to dry and finished working on my kitty panel.

I trimmed the whole thing on an angle, fussy cutting around the kitty.  Then embossed my sentiment on some vellum and wrapped that around the lower portion of my panel.

After the embossing paste had dried, I hit it with my heat tool to set all the glitter embossing powder.  Added my kitty panel and a few Sparkling Clear Sequins and that was it!

I hope you will join us this month for our Anything Goes challenge at Sami Stamps!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    CAS(E) This Sketch #197
    Craft Your Passion #336-Anything Goes
    Fab n Funky #325-Animals
    Simon Says Stamp-Thinking of You
    Word Art Wednesday #254-Anything Goes

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

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Happy Friday everyone!
I have a super fun project for you today featuring one of the new images from our most recent release at Sami Stamps!  I wasn't able to get a project put together last week when the release came out, but I wanted to be sure to put something together this week since these images are just so darn cute!

This card features the Floating Kitty 4 image and I just adore it!  To start my card, I did some splashy watercoloring for the background, mixing some blues and teals together.  Then took my Landscape Trio die from Mama Elephant and cut the panel apart into layers of clouds.  Once that was all cut, I took some soft grey ShinHan markers and added shading to the bottoms of each cloud layer so that there was a bit of dimension at each layer.

Doing this helped to give the feeling that each layer was behind the one in front of it.  It's a subtle effect, but gorgeous!  Once I had everything colored, I gave the whole panel a nice spritz of shimmer mist, so now the whole thing sparkles!

Then I set to work on my image.  I printed it off on watercolor paper and did some simple painting on it.  The cat was the hardest since I was painting it like my little Storm and I always struggle with shading out black.  It's always either all dark or all washed out...but I think this time I got it pretty right :)

I used the same teals from the background to paint in the balloon and then coated it with a thick layer of glossy accents.  Everything was fussy cut out once it was dry.

Now the fun part!  There is a string drawn into the image, but I wanted to do something a little different with this card so I cut the cat away from the balloon and added my own string wrapped around his paws.  The balloon was attached using some foam tape, but I left the kitty completely free...so it swings!

I couldn't stop playing with this card last night!  Just having that kitty swing back and forth across the card made me so happy!

Since I wanted the focus to be on the swinging cat, I left the rest of the card free of embellishments.  They just would have gotten in the way anyhow :)

So be sure to swing by Sami Stamps to see this full Floating Kitties release, and then join in our Anything Goes challenge that just started!!!

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Happy Friday!
Stopping in to share a fun little card with you using another image from our latest release at Sami Stamps!
This card features the Line of Whiskers image:

The first thing I worked on for this card was the fence that they are all perched on.  I took a piece of the Essentials by Ellen woodgrain paper and added 2 colors of distress ink - the first layer was Frayed Burlap.  I used a lot of pressure with my blending pad to get the ink down into the grain pattern.  Then I want over top of that with the Ground Espresso color.  This time I used a really light hand so that it just covered the top detail.

I really wanted the light grain pattern to show through, and using two tone ink blending gave me the perfect result for that!

Then I printed out my kitty image and colored it up with my pencils.  I just adore Sami's cat images!  They always make me smile, and of course I can't resist coloring them up like my sweet kitties :)

I trimmed them out and added foam tape to the back.  But before adding them to my card base, I used a diagonal brick stencil and added some yellows to the background, then splattered it with some water to get a bit more detail and texture.  After that dried, I adhered the kitties and the fence down.

The clouds were die cut from a Mama Elephant Landscape Trio die and then I simply stamped a fun Newton's Nook sentiment across the top.

Finished the whole thing off with a little twine!!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to check out this adorable release!  And you have a few days left to enter our Anything Goes challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #232-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

 

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Happy Friday!
I'm so glad the week is over!  I just need to make it through today and tomorrow and then I finally get to see Matthew again!  It's been a painfully tough week without him here.  I always tell myself I'm okay and strong enough to be alone...but that's so not true!  I totally depend on him!

But I've been able to keep myself pretty busy!  Actually, so busy that I almost didn't get a card done in time for our new release at Sami Stamps!  Which is a shame because it's all about cats...how could I miss a cat release!  I decided that just wasn't happening and stayed up super late to get a card put together.  Once I thought up the idea, the whole thing came together pretty quick, which is usually the case with Sami Stamps images.  They just radiate inspiration!

Since there's a ton of sweet kitties in here...and my current mood is wishing Matthew were home, I decided to make a card dedicated to him.  To start, I did a fun washy watercolor background, mixing a few blues and a tealish color together.  Then flicking it with some white paint and set it aside to dry. 

The kitties, which is the Sneaky Kitties 2 image (love it!!), was printed on Ranger Watercolor paper.  I used some Inktense pencils and a water brush to get a really quick color down on the kitties.  I always struggle with water brushes.  The water flows too quickly out of them, and since I'm a control freak, it's too hard for me to get the style and details I like with that much water.  But for these soft kitties it was perfect! 

Once the kitties were colored, I trimmed out the middle of the panel to create a frame.  I white heat embossed a couple of sentiments from the Sending Hoping Wishing stamp set from WPlus9.  The Wishing is on vellum, which I then trimmed out and mounted with some foam tape.  The rest is embossed onto some black cardstock and mounted below the vellum. 

I finished the card off with a nice scattering of Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and that was it!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see this uber cute release!!!

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Happy Friday!
Stopping in quick to share a fun little card with you using an image from the Sami Stamps release we had last week.

For this card, I used the All Caught Up image and colored it in with my pencils.  It's colored very similarly to last weeks card because I just loved the color combo...but this time I colored the kitty to represent my little princess, Cloud.

I wanted to have this sweet image sort of suspended in the center of the card but still attached to the frame so I used my trimmer and made about a quarter inch border around the outside of the card, leaving the string and the kite still attached.  Then took my scissors and fussy cut around the rest of the image.

To create the background, I cut a bunch of yellow and orange strips of paper into rays and arranged them around the focal point of the kite.  When it was all put together, it was a bit brighter than I wanted so I added a piece of vellum over top, but then it looked too flat.  So I took a couple of blue pencils and added some sky shading in between each of the rays and that helped to give the whole background a little more depth and detail while still being soft and muted behind the vellum.

I stamped my sentiment on a thin strip of paper (I had meant to keep this attached to the image and frame but forgot while I was cutting everything out..), then slid that underneath the kite and attached it to the frame.

The whole kitty frame is mounted up on foam tape to give it some fun dimension away from the sun ray background.  I did zero embellishing on this card.  I didn't even add shimmer pen!  As I looked at it, I liked the flat cleanness of it and I felt if I added any shimmer, it would be too much.  So I left it off, and I love it!

You still have a little time to enter our challenge at Sami Stamps - Add Pearls or Beads.  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

I'd like to enter this card into the Cas(e) This Sketch challenge #169.


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

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Happy Friday!
I'm so happy the weekend is here!  This has been a very long, tiring week...not sure why.  I've just struggled a lot getting out of bed and staying motivated.  Hopefully I can find my strength over the weekend and be refreshed for next week :)

We have another absolutely adorable release for you today at Sami Stamps called Lovely Snowflakes!  Sami just keeps knocking my socks off with her cute images!  I couldn't resist playing with Curious Snowflake Kitten...of course :)

Isn't she just so adorable!  I just want to scoop her up, scarf and all, off the card and cuddle her!  Fortunately, since I colored her in like my sweet Cloud, I can cuddle the real thing :)

I started by stamping a random pattern of snowflakes and clear heat embossing them.  Then used Stormy Sky, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass to get a nice soft winter sky look around those snowflakes.  I splattered some water around to get the really cool water drop look and then took that panel and ironed off all the embossing powder.  I'm not sure if it's the type of powder I have, but once all the melted stuff was gone, what was left on each of the snowflakes was a soft shimmer.  Looks so cool!!

To finish off the details of the snowy background, I took my Marvey Snow Marker and added little dots to fill in some of the spaces between the snowflakes, then heat it so those little dots puffed up!  It's so fun to watch that happen :)

My image was colored in with pencils.  Super simple coloring to keep the image soft.  I added a little more of the same ink colors around the top of the image panel and then framed it with a scallop trimmed frame.  I added a little sentiment in the corner and then put everything together.

So super cute!!  Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the DT's creations with this adorable new release!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps and More #176-Anything Goes
    Freshly Made Sketches #219
   
    Simon Says Stamp-Ombre

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

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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

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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

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Happy Friday!
This week has been very unproductive for me...lots going on but none of it has really been at my work desk.  I'll get a few projects started, and then pulled into something else and everything gets put on hold.  But that's okay.  Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the cards and focus on other things :)

I did manage to get a card put together for this weeks Halloween Re-Release at Sami Stamps though!!

Whenever there are kitties involved, I can never resist.  Sami has a great collection put together for this re-release, but I chose the kitty :)

This image is Cozy Pumpkin.  I started by embossing a spider web onto my paper and then inking over it with Seedless Preserves, Chipped Sapphire, and Black Soot.  I added a few droplets of water to pull some of the color away and give it a little more creepy vibe...but I think it just made it cuter :)

I colored in my image with my markers and cut it out, backing it with some vellum.  Then I added a simple sentiment from Create with TLC along with a black sparkly stripe of paper as well, and that was pretty much it!

Hope you will stop by Sami Stamps to check out the DT's awesome creations with these fabulous images!  And be sure to join in our Anything Goes challenge this month too!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #50-Clean and Simple Halloween
    Artistic Inspirations #142-Anything Goes/Halloween
    Chocolate Coffee Cards #102-Halloween
    Fussy and Fancy #150-Orange, Black, or Purple
    Retro Sketches #185
    Word Art Wednesday #205-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting!! <3

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Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!!!
I'm excited for this weekend, are you?  Matthew has his possible last flag football game on Saturday (unless they win, then their in the playoffs for next week...fingers crossed!)  Then on Sunday I get to hang out with my bestest friend in the whole world and be crafty!  I'm so excited!

But first, I must share a card with you.  Have you ever thought up an idea and started to execute it, not really knowing how it would look in the end, debating it the whole way until that last piece is added and it's so amazing you want to cry?  Yeah that happened with this card.

I did some things I don't normally do on a card, second guessing them each time and doubting that they would all work together in the end.  But I'm so glad I stuck it out.  I can't tell you how happy this card made me when I put everything together.  It just...well...kind of takes my breath away :)

Ok, I may have been dramatic...but look at that card!  I feel like I got everything right on it for once.  I love a lot of the cards that I make...I wouldn't share them if I didn't.  But this one...this one takes the cake.

So to start, I took a piece of white cardstock and spritzed it from the side with some Amethyst Heidi Swap shimmer spray.  I wanted there to be a concentration on one side and then have it fan out from there, so I also added a lot of larger dots on that left side to build up that idea.  Then I cut of scallop border from the Mama Elephant Borderlines Trio set from black and layered that behind my spritzed panel.  I also added a thin strip of black glitter paper along that edge.

For my cups, I did a fun watercolor technique onto a half sheet of watercolor paper.  First I pressed my distress ink onto my plastic mat...I used Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, and Picked Raspberry.  I misted all that ink, and then pressed my paper down onto it, swirling it a little to get the color to move.  When I pulled it up I had nice coverage on my paper, but wanted more, so I misted the ink a little more and pressed my paper into it again.  Then I dried it a little so the ink on the paper wouldn't move so much anymore, and continued to press the paper into the ink left on my mat.  This helped give it some speckles and variance in the colors.  I also added little drops of black to the puddles of ink on my mat.  I didn't want there to be a lot of black, just little dots.

Once that was all dry, I added some water droplets to lighten and remove some of the ink, and also splattered some of the Heidi Swap shimmer inks in the black and amethyst for a little bit of sparkle.  Set that aside so it could completely dry and worked on my kitties.

I adore these little kitties.  They are so precious and reminded me of Storm and Cloud.  Sami always gets it right, I swear!  So using my ShinHan markers, I colored them up like my babies.  So precious!  Oh, the image is the Cup Kitties 4 image from our most recent release at Sami Stamps!

After everything dried, I cut it all apart so I could piece them all together.  I did add a little bit of Seedless Preserves around the edges of the bottom cup, and Picked Raspberry around the edges of the top cup, just to help separate them a little.

The final thing I added was this Prayers die cut from Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp.  I just got it in the mail and couldn't wait to break it out!  I took some of the Amethyst Heidi Swap shimmer spray and painted it onto some watercolor paper and waited for it to dry.  Then die cut it out, along with 2 more in just regular cardstock.  I layered all of that together, which gives the die cut some really nice dimension, added it to my card and covered it with glossy accents.

By the end of this card, my fingers were covered in purple and black ink and I had to be really careful to not snudge it all over my kitties.  But sometimes getting inky and messy can produce the best product!!

I hope you've enjoyed this sweet little card!  Remember we have an awesome Anything Goes challenge running at Sami Stamps so go join in!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    CAS-ual Fridays #144-Tic Tac Toe (spritzing, coloring, die cutting)
    Chocolate, Coffee, Cards #101-Animals
    Creative Fingers #95-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #204-Anything Goes

I'm also entering this into the Damsel of Distress' Hop to Stop.  This is a great blog hop to help draw attention to Domestic Violence.  I encourage you to check it out!

Thanks for visiting! <3

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...but I'm sharing a Christmas card with you today!!  I apologize...I usually do my best to put that sort of stuff off until after the other holidays...but these adorable new images from Sami Stamps just screamed Christmas!  Please forgive me :)

So I hope everyone is well!  We've had a pretty mellow week...until yesterday when we woke up to the sound of gushing water in our bathroom.  Well, not in our bathroom, but under it.  Yup...broken pipe...ugh...Matthew thankfully was able to stay home from work and get it patched, but even with the fix, it still highlights a much larger problem with our pipes that neither of us really want to deal with, but know we should...someday.

It was awesome having him work from home though!  Being in the office together..me crafting, him clicking away on the computer.  It gets a bit lonely here at home all alone, so having him here was nice.  And it kept me motivated to get my work done!  I cranked out this card showcasing the new Cats in Cups release from Sami Stamps:

I have used the very sweet Cup Kitty 1 image.  It's just so precious!  I, of course, colored her in like my sweet little Cloud.  Then fussed over the cup...I tried coloring it solid with my markers but I couldn't get the blending right and it just looked horrible...so then I decided to paper piece it with some fun Lawn Fawn paper and only added shading around the bottom.  That worked pretty well so I pieced it all back together.

The shape of this image just seemed super perfect to try and make an ornament from it!  Sandy Allnock has a "Go for the Gold" series going on right now and her first card/lesson was about making an ornament and adding it to a card.  Figured I'd give it a try.  To fit some of the gold in, I embossed little hearts on the cup in Enchanted Gold embossing powder and added little gold dots around them, though it's hard to see those in the picture.

I did add a little adhesive behind the image to help it stick to the card, but I rubbed it against my shirt a few times to take most of the sticky away.  My sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio which I printed on vellum and embossed in clear.  This panel is what should be used to hold the ornament in place, but mine isn't super tight.  I did add the little gold brads to help tighten it a little and it's fine, but the adhesive behind the ornament was definitely needed.

Finished the whole card off with some sparkly gold enamel dots!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this adorable release!  And check out the rest of the DT's creations!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Fab n Funky #275-Anything Christmas
    Penny's Paper Crafty #247-Anything Goes
    Sandy Allnock's Go for the Gold Day #1
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Tuesday Morning Sketches #320

Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Hi Everyone!!!
It's been super quiet around here!  That was absolutely not intentional, but you know...life gets busy and the work desk stays empty for a few days longer than it should.  Hopefully I'm over my little creative slump and can get back to sharing super adorable cards with you, along with some fun techniques!

Today's card was put together in a little bit of a hurry.  I needed to leave at a certain time so I could get to a friends concert yesterday but felt like I really needed to get something made.  So after searching my brain (and the internet) for some inspiration, I was finally able to put something together.

It was a really quick make, but man I love it!  I started by using some distress inks in Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, and Worn Lipstick to ink up my background in a slight ombre style.  This color combo was inspired by a recent card by Julia Altermann at Just One More Card.  Don't you just love her blog name!  It's always so true!

Once I had the background blended the way I wanted, I sprayed it with some perfect pearl shimmer mist to give it a ton of shine!!  It's gorgeous!

A little tough to see the sparkle in the picture but if you look right by the cat's back and up by the spider webs, you can see it!

For the images, I decided to combine a couple of stamp companies..two of my favorites-Lawn Fawn and Newton's Nook!  You know I can't resist Newton's Nook...I've featured their products in 3 of my most recent cards...their stamps just never leave my desk!  So I wanted this cute little scene of a kitty walking through the pumpkins, and decided that the sweet cat from the Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume set would be perfect paired with the little pumpkins from the Newton's Nook Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set.  I stamped them out and colored them in with my ShinHan markers and then cut them out.

I laid my images on my sparkly background to get the placement right and then stamped and embossed the fun spider and webs around the outside with some sparkly black embossing powder.  You have to be really careful when using black embossing powder as it can be a pain to get a good crisp emboss with.  I don't use it often, but when I do, I try to really load up my paper with an anti-static powder and get a good impression with my Versamark.  That seems to help get the excess powder to slide off, and with the thick layer of Versamark, you can flick your paper a little harder as well.  Works pretty good for me!

Once everything was dry, I adhered it all down and created a striped pennant to go behind my image panel.  Used a fun sentiment from the Newton's Nook set as well and stamped it on a die cut banner.  Finished everything off with a few purple and black enamel dots!!  So..Much..Fun!!!

I hope you've enjoyed this sweet Meow-oween card!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #141-Anything Goes/Black
    Deep Ocean #113-Autumn
    Newton's Nook Inky Paws #25-Halloween
    Our Daily Bread-Ink or Emboss Your Own Background
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #288
    V's Sweet Ideas #38-Technique Tuesday
    Word Art Wednesday #203-Anything Goes

Thanks 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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