Hello hello!
Welcome to a new challenge at Inky Paws!!  It's time for a super fun sketch!!  I had a lot of fun coming up with a card design using this sketch.  I hope you love it too!

When I saw the sketch, I got this super fun idea to make a shaker card using one of the images from Newton's Birthday Bash, so that Newton would be floating up through each of the openings in the card.  But as I was developing the idea in my mind, I got an even better thought to turn it into an underwater scene and add the adorable shark costume to the image!!

It was really easy to stamp together.  I stamped the shark costume from Newton's Costume Party first, then masked off the mouth area where the kitties face would go and stamped down my balloon hugging kitty.  I stamped that image a second time so I could adhere the balloon section separately on top of everything.

The images are all colored in with my copics before I fussy cut them out.  I have been playing around with acrylic pouring a lot lately and had a fun blue piece sitting on my desk that felt like the perfect background for this card.  So I trimmed it out and got it all set to be the background to my shaker.  Put the card together using the Flags and Frames die since I love that set and then added my sentiment!

I got my pictures taken and then disaster struck as the whole shaker window opened up and all my little bits fell out....Turns out the glue didn't really hold to the acrylic paint so I never actually had a good seal on my shaker window...I'm so bummed!  I haven't had the chance to tear it all apart and try again...but hopefully I can find a way to get it adhered securely!  But at least I got the pictures taken!!

I hope you'll join us for this fun sketch challenge!!

Thanks so much for visiting!! <3

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Hey there!  Happy Monday!
Are you ready to see some more inspiration for our current sketch at Inky Paws?

For my card, I really wanted just a simple little kitty in a santa hat.  But I didn't have anything like that in my stash...so I had to scratch my brain a little bit and try to figure out a way to finagle one together.   What I ended up doing was using the head of the chimney kitty in Santa Paws Newton and adding it to the body of the kitty in Newtons Costume Party...and it worked!  I have a simple kitty I can color however I want, and he's wearing a santa hat!  Love it!!

To create my elements to fit the sketch, I started with a bright blue piece of cardstock and added some embossing paste through a snowflake stencil.  I had tried this with the snowfall stencil from Newton's Nook...but I didn't apply the paste very well and it smudged and squished through the stencil in a few places...I'll have to try that again later.

I cut a tag from some vellum and then made a little pocket in the front using another piece of the patterned paper I used in the background.  I stamped and heat embossed a fun sentiment onto a piece of shimmer cardstock and adhered that right over the seam where my pocket starts.

Here's how it looks without the gift card in it.  Still super cute and fun!!

I hope you've been inspired to check out this sketch challenge and join in the fun!

Just remember to use Newton's Nook products on your creations!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3

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Hey there!!
Welcome back to another awesome Inky Paws challenge!!  For the next 2 weeks, we're challenging you to use Polka Dots on your cards!  This is such a fun challenge!  Polka dots are always a great accent to any card and they work for nearly any topic!

So as you know, I'm addicted to interactive cards.  They make me smile, even in the midst of their complexity.  But I couldn't help myself from making another one.  These kitties in the Newton's Birthday Bash set are just so much fun!

So I started with a piece of polka dotted paper in some bright pinks and greens.  It felt like a great color combo for a birthday card.  I added a little banner strip of pink polka dotted paper down the middle as well.

For the focal frame, I colored up the kitty with the presents with some copic markers and trimmed him out to add to the front of my slider.  Then use a couple of die cuts to make my frame and sliding mechanism.

To add a fun little element to the slider, I added another image to the area that you pull up.

Hehe!  I just love the little kitty flying on the balloon!  As he floats up, your sentiment is revealed below.  So much fun!!!

I hope you will join us for this awesome challenge!  Don't forget to use a Newton's Nook product!

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Hello hello and happy Monday!!
Stopping in to share a little reminder card for our current Inky Paws sketch challenge!  You have just a couple of days left to enter, so don't miss out!

For my card today, I've used the Hanging Around set.  This set is retiring and I've been told there are only a few left, so be sure to snatch yours up soon before it's gone!

I started by embossing my background panel and cutting it apart into 3 different sized stripes.  Then applied a very light blend of color from the bottoms fading up to white at the tops, and adhered all of those down onto a light grey cardstock.

Then, to make this card a little fun, I decided to have my koala swinging along the card!  So I cut a little track in my front panel, stamped my branch a couple of times, and hung the koala onto one of them!  So now he slides back and forth!

So super fun!  I'm addicted to making interactive cards right now and this one just fit so perfect with the stamp set!  To finish it all off, I stamped a coordinating sentiment and a few little lines to mimic ribbon and then clear embossed them.  Added a few white Nuvo drops and that was it!

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3

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Hello hello and Happy Monday!
Welcome to another new Inky Paws Challenge!!!  This one is super fun!  I'm always inspired by sketch challenges.  It's such a great way to have a starting block for your card when your mind just can't pull an idea together.  Some people can totally be inspired by an image, and that is wonderful!
But for me...the sketch is always what helps wrap my head around an idea.

Since my birthday was this weekend, I wanted to make something for myself :)
I absolutely adore the Newton Loves Cake stamp set, so decided to pull one of those images out and put it into a shaker card!

Now, I interpreted the sketch a little different from what it should be.  Here is the sketch:

But instead of doing 3 separate panels on the background, I used 3 different sizes of striped stamps.  It was an idea that popped into my head while I was working on coloring, and I just couldn't shake it out.  So I ran with it instead :)

I did a simple watercolor wash with some Tempting Turquoise and once that dried, took the Scenery Stripes set from Winnie & Walter, inked them up with Black Soot, misted them generously and stamped them down on my card base.  On a couple of them, I lightly tapped the acrylic block to get little splatters to shoot out the top and bottoms.  It was a really cool effect to add!  Once everything was dry, I went back over the stripes super quick with a glitter brush just to add some shimmer without moving any of the ink.

I colored in my kitty to look like my little Ezio, and of course gave him a giant chocolate cupcake.  There are also some candles sprinkled into the shaker window.  I wrapped some sparkly thread around the bottom and added a couple sentiment tags before tying it all off!

Hopefully you've found some inspiration here and are ready to join in this super fun sketch challenge!  Be sure to use a Newton's Nook product and join in!!

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Why hello there :)
It's been a while!  Can I just say that I don't even know what happened to May.  It started...then I blinked and it was gone.  But believe me...it was packed with adventure!  I got to spend a week in Georgia with my sister and niece, soaking up as many snuggles as I could while Matthew traveled off to Spain for work.  Then the week after that trip I took part in a 2 day street fair in Seattle.  That was only my second ever fair and it was FANTASTIC!  I really can't wait to get my little business into more street fairs now!

Then Memorial Day weekend and time spent with friends, and then here we are.  Already at June.  So lets kick this month off proper with a new challenge at Sami Stamps and some fun inspiration for ya!

I just love this little bow tie from Sami Stamps.  It's like my go-to image for Father's Day cards lately.  There are so many possible techniques and ideas to use with it.  I decided to challenge my coloring a little bit on this one and used an image of an actual bow tie as my guide.  Ultimately, I think it turned out amazing!  Best bow tie I've ever colored :)

Since it's a Father's Day card, I wanted to keep it relatively simple.  You can't really add a lot of bling and jazz to man cards...I think that's why they are so hard to make.  Nothing ever feels complete without shimmer and shine! (which I did sneak in there on the "rock" wording :) )

With the card being overall pretty simple, I needed to spice it up a little.  So why not add an action wobble!!!  I placed one of the mini wobbles behind the bow tie and stuck it down to my front panel.  It reminds me of those spinning bow ties that clowns wear to spray people with water.  But it's so cool!  Really jazzes this card up and makes it a ton of fun!

Our challenge this month is to add something glossy or shiny.  I hope you will join us!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image.

Thanks for visiting and have a fabulous weekend!!! read more →

Happy Tuesday!
Time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  This week is all about those Tropical Critters!  Our fabulous sponsor is MyGrafico and they provided us with the adorable little Koala images!

This card ended up a lot more pink than I usually make, but I think it's just so adorable.  I started by embossing my background paper for some fun texture.  Then printed off my koala image and colored it in with my markers.

To give this card a little bit of life, I decided to put the heart on an action wobbler!  Those things have become a mini addiction for me!  They just make a card so much more fun when you have something that moves!

I finished off the card with some clear sequins for a little shine and coated the flower and heart with some shimmer pen.

Hope you will join us this week!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  <3

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Hello and Happy Friday!!!
We have a super fun new release to share with you today over at Sami Stamps!  This release is called Planes and Play and is oh so adorable!

For my card, I've used the Flying Boy image.  To color him up, I first started with a solid layer of marker.  Then came in with my pencils to add all the shading and detail.  I have much more control with my pencils, but I like the solid base that the markers give me to start off with.

This little boy looks so excited to be flying!  I wanted it to look like he was flying up out of the clouds into space.  So I started my background by adding a little tiny area of yellow for the sun.  Then came in from the edges with a couple shades of blue, getting darker towards the outer right corner.

I die cut several cloud layers from white and a few from vellum and layered them all up all along the lower edge of the card.  My little fly boy was fussy cut out and added with a little bit of foam tape.  I tucked one wing under the clouds to give that suggestion that he's just popped up out of them.

For the propeller...I wanted to try something a little fun.  So I printed it all off 2 more times, once on vellum and once on white cardstock.  I cut the vellum out to include the whole front of the plane, including the motion stripes since the vellum represents the wind created by the propeller.

Then I colored and cut out just the propellers.  I added a brad in the middle and joined it with the vellum layer, keeping it a little loose so the propellers would spin!  It's a little tight...there are a few things I'd do a little different to make it spin better...but for now, it's so super cute that you can still spin the blades around!

I finished the card off by stitching my sentiment to the top of the card and added some white and glitter stars to the sky.

Oh and we're starting a new challenge for this month to Add Blue! 

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

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Hello and happy snowy Monday!!
I knew snow was in the forecast for this weekend but waking up to a good inch of it on the ground was a surprise! Everything looked like it was covered with dippin dots! Don't get me wrong...I LOVE snow...but I'm also kind of ready to start working in my yard to get it ready for summer.. I mean...I have flowers starting to pop up out of the ground! Give me spring already! Lol...

Sadly, today is my final post with Newton's Nook. I have loved being their guest designer so much this month! Such an awesome company with amazing people surrounding it! I can't recommend their products enough because everything about them is heavenly! But I wanted to share a picture of my project with you. You're getting the full image this week because I created this card to go along with the Newton's Nook challenge this month to use the colors Mint, Pink, and Yellow. Enjoy!

You can read all about this card over on the Newton's Nook blog and the see an additional picture that shows the interactive features!

I'd like to enter this card into the Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge!

Thanks so much for a wonderful month!  <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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Happy Friday!
There's a new super cute release out today at Sami Stamps called Fall Skunks!  These guys are just so stinkin adorable (haha..)!

I wanted to create a little scene with my cute little Skunk image so I pulled out the Hero Arts Layered Tree set and stamped it out several times before fussy cutting around each tree.  Since it's a wooded scene, I decided to do a woodgrain background in dark brown ink stamped onto some kraft cardstock.

I did a gorgeous deep yellow fall blended sky behind the trees and then layered everything together, adding tiny pieces of foam tape behind the tops of a couple of the front trees.  Then colored my frame with the dark brown ink that I used for the woodgrain stamp and coated that with a thin layer of shimmer pen.

My little skunk was colored in with my pencils and fussy cut out.  I stamped and embossed a fitting greeting onto some vellum and tucked that behind him before adhering the whole thing down to my card.

You still have a little time to enter our Anything Goes challenge!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

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

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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

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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

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Hello!!!
I hope you are ready for another fun challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  This week we want to see your birthday themed cards!!  And we have an awesome sponsor for you - Winnie & Walter!!!  They have provided us with some uber amazing products for this challenge so be sure to stop by the Tuesday Throwdown blog to see lots of inspiration!

For my card, I have used the Scenery: Stripes stamp set and the In A Word: Hello Cutaway die.  I have been dying to get my hands on a stripe stamp set for some time now, but they were always sold out or I opted to go with something else...so when the opportunity came to get this set from Winnie & Walter, I didn't hesitate :)

I figure you can never go wrong with having a good stripe set in your collection.  There are a million things you can use it for!! 

So I used one of the solid stripes in the set to stamp some blue and yellow stripes for my background.  Originally I was just going to do an opening with the word die hung across it...but then decided it would look better as a shaker card!  So I filled it with some fun Pretty Pink Posh sequins that coordinated well with the background.  Then added a solid black frame around the oval and adhered my Hello word across the front.

The final detail I added was a few scattered sequins around the outside and some little black dots.  Honestly, the card could have gone without these...I'm not super fond of them.  But it's too late to remove them now, so oh well :)

Thanks so much 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 Tuesday!
We have a fun new challenge for you at Tuesday Throwdown - Welcome Spring!!  With all the flowers in bloom and the warmer weather rolling in, it's not too hard to find some sort of inspiration from your window.  I love this time of year when the world comes back to life!  It's refreshing, and hearing the birds sing and the frogs chirp outside just makes my heart happy.

Our awesome sponsor this week is MyGrafico and they have provided us with some super adorable images to use on our cards!

I used an image from the Lady Labybug set and printed it off super large so it was the focus of my card.  Then used my Inktense pencils to watercolor it in.  I'm learning that it is really important to layer up your watercoloring.  I'm the type of person that likes to do it once and be done, but it doesn't always work that way.  Watercolor needs layers..plain and simple :)

While my large flower dried, I worked on my background.  I blended out a few light shades of blue around where my flower would sit and then took a couple of stamps from Winnie & Walter's In Bloom:  Addie's Garden set and stamped them in black around the outside.  I wanted to have the look of a nice large bouquet without having all the bulk of each image cut out and layered into it.

I absolutely love how it looks!  The flower is the focal point, but the outlined foliage is the perfect backdrop for it!

Once my flower was dry, I turned it into a shaker!  I only added tiny beads and seed beads since this window was super small.  But I think that combo worked out perfectly!

For the sentiment, I used one from last month's Hero Arts kit and white embossed it onto some vellum before stretching that across the whole card front.  I scattered some little drops of glossy accents all around the arrangement and that finished the card!!

I hope you will join us this week for our Welcome Spring challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #63-CAS Shaker
    Artistic Inspirations #155-Anything Goes
    Crafting When We Can #118-Add Flowers
    The Cat's Pajamas #313-Flowers

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!!
Oh boy...do we have a super cute release for you today at Sami Stamps!  It's called Round Easter Friends and adorable doesn't even begin to describe how cute they are!!

I've chosen to use the Sweet Carrot Bunny image for my card:

I decided to make a spinner card with this image!  He just looked like he needed to be on the move.  I started by first creating a watercolored background by just dropping some colors onto a wet piece of watercolor paper.  I'm a fussy painter so of course I couldn't just let it sit and do it's own thing.  I had to mess around and move the colors till I felt like they were how I wanted them.

Once that was dry, I took the Lots of Dots stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and created a bokeh look over top of the watercoloring.  This helped mute down the bright colors and give it more detail and texture.  I purposefully left some areas empty so that some of the bright color would peak through and add some variance to it all.

When that was done, I created my scallop frame with my Silhouette and cut out the openings from my card base and the watercolor panel.  I colored up my sweet little bunny with some pencils and then attached him to the string in the center of my window.  I learned that stronger thicker string works better...if the string is too whimpy, it won't stay nice and tight with the weight of the image.

I chose a fun sentiment from the For the Record stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and embossed that below my spinning bunny.  Then added a few dots of glossy accents and the card was done!

We are starting a fun new challenge today at Sami Stamps - Add Stitching (real or faux).  I hope you will join us!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Have a fabulous weekend! <3

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Hello Everyone!!!
I hope you've had a fabulous week!  This post is scheduled, but I can guarantee that I have been having a blast spending the week with my sister and smooshing my sweet little niece :)

I'm bringing you another awesome card for the most recent Sami Stamps release, this time featuring the Cute Heart Fairy image:

I made this card for my sister, and since she's already received it, I can share it with you!
I loved this fun little fairy, and had the idea to make her swinging through the clouds.  Unfortunately, the way I added the strings, the image wasn't weighted correctly so she just kept flipping over....but I kept the strings attached and just adhered her down to the background.  Still looks super cool :)

For the background, I die cut a whole panel of white with one of the borders included in the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio set.  Then took a little Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon distress inks and blended up the bottoms of each cut.  Once each stripe was colored the way I wanted them, I adhered them down to a new piece of cardstock, overlapping them just slightly so you couldn't see the cut lines and it was just a smooth seamless cloud background.  I love how it turned out!  Though it's a little hard to see now that the card is complete...

I cut out a stitched scallop frame with my Silhouette and then added a clear page protector to that cut out to give me a clear front for my shaker window.  The shaker is filled with all sorts of sequins and beads and a few heart sequins.  Just a whole bunch of happy, and I love that they can get caught in the clouds  :)

Once everything was sealed into my shaker, I adhered everything down to my card base, and added a little sentiment banner.  I didn't do any extra embellishing because there was so much going on in the window, I figured that was enough detail :)

I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous Valentine's Day!!!  I love each and every one of you and your constant comments and support!  They always make my day and put a smile on my face!!

Thank you so much for visiting! <3

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