Scrappy Sweet Creations

Happy Monday!
I hope you had a fabulous weekend. We went to the Seattle Sounders vs. Montreal Impact soccer game, which was postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to the crazy snow storm we were hit with. The game was awesome though, and Seattle won!!

So onto our new challenge at Digi Makeover. We want to see your Thank You cards! This is always a card theme that I love to send but never have on hand...so it's nice when I get the chance to make a few :)

I used the hummingbird image from the Tweet Things set and colored it in with my ShinHan markers. And of course, because I'm addicted, I added a bunch of Wink of Stella glitter pen to the wings and tail feathers. I actually printed the image twice so that I could snip apart the wings and tail feathers to add some dimension to the whole image.

I kept the colors really soft for this card, and I love how it turned out! I hope you will join us for this fun challenge!! Be sure to check out the rest of the design teams creations!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    613 Avenue Create #64-Anything Goes/Birds of a Feather
    Artistic Inspirations #84-Anything Goes
    Crafts 4 Eternity #168-Anything Goes
    Creative Fingers #28-Anything Goes w/Glitter
    Deconstructed Sketch #143
    Eclectic Ellapu-Wings
    Word Art Wednesday #124-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! <3

Yay it's Friday!! Have any fun plans this weekend?
We are going to try playing Dungeons & Dragons online tonight with some of our Seattle friends, and I'm so excited!! And tomorrow we have a Seattle Sounders vs. Montreal Impact soccer game to go to! Gotta love our soccer team :)

So today we have a super adorable new release from Sami Stamps to share with you! The release is titled Easter Fun and is full of cuteness! Working with these images just made me long for spring weather even more!

I combined two of the images from this release: Egg Cluster and 4 Spring Chicks.
My goal for the card was to arrange the images so that the eggs were in the background with the chicks up front...but I'm not sure that's how it worked out. It's still cute though.

I love coloring in ground under my images and each time I do it, I get a little more comfortable adding that step. But just dirt never looks good, so I always add some grass tufts :) They just help to place everything on the ground instead of just sitting them in dirt :)

Everything is colored with my ShinHan markers. I cut out and popped up the chicks a little just for some dimension and stamped a few hearts around just for fun. The sun was cut out with my Silhouette and layered behind everything so the card really had a springy feel.

Check out the rest of the release at Sami Stamps, and browse through the design teams creations. You will be blown away!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Catered Crop-Spring Fever
    Crafty Little Fairies-Down on the Farm
    Delightful Challenges-Welcome Spring
    Inky Impressions #151-Think Spring
    Send A Smile 4 Kids-Pastel Colors
    Sentimental Sundays #198-Cute and Cuddly
Sweet Sunday Sketch #211

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

I really struggled with the lessons and techniques from day 3 of my class. Not really sure why...it seemed like every attempt that I made got messed up somehow and it was so frustrating! But the techniques the amazing teachers showed us were too awesome for me to give up on...so I kept trying..and trying...and trying...

While I'm still not completely happy with the results, here are a few of the ones I have liked.

This one started off great..and then I flipped it to start doing the stripes the other way and it all fell apart. The stripes aren't evenly spaced, I didn't leave enough white stripes so everything ended up just blending together, and the stamping in the middle got all lopsided and didn't impress very well. But I like the colors and I'm not totally unhappy with it...just needs a few tweaks.

I tried again with a different color combo and tried to consider the first card and the things I wanted to improve on.

The background of this one turned out much better, even with being all shades of pink. But wouldn't you know it...after inking up and testing out my stamp, when I went to apply it to the card, it didn't impress properly again and part of one corner is missing....ugh!!..
But again, I'm not completely unhappy with it. The card turned out really cute, and with just a little bit of bling in the corner, it's sort of a keeper. But it bugs me when the last thing I add is the one that screws up the card.

Oh well...I'll keep working on this technique because it was super fun, though time consuming, and I do like the effect it adds to the background.

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Happy Tuesday!
I know I've said this a lot lately...but I'm completely ready for spring! It's supposed to get pretty warm by this weekend, and I cannot wait! I know the weather is just in it's funny yo-yo stage between seasons...but spring needs to get here!
Since I've been in need of some springy brightness, I snatched up a Meljen's Designs image to fit my mood and got to work on a sweet little card.

This image is just so cute! It's called Cup of Sunshine, and I love that it could be colored as flowers or shamrocks! I went with flowers because I'm so ready for those beauties to start blossoming...

Everything is colored in with my pencils and detailed with some glitter, glitter pen, and liquid pearls. I did a bunch of layered on this card. While I'm loving learning how to make some fabulous one layer cards, I needed to make something with loads of layers for once :)

I stamped a cute sentiment from Lawn Fawn and flagged the ends of it. With all the fun patterned papers on this card, I thought the sentiment fit perfectly. Then I just added a few gems to finish it all off!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Catered Crop-Spring Fever
    Crafting When We Can #65-Hearts and Flowers
    Deconstructed Sketch #142
    Meljen's Designs #201-Lucky You /Use Green

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

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

Happy Monday! and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Starting a new challenge today at Digi Makeover and it's Colors of the Rainbow!
Rainbows are always so gorgeous, calming...I love seeing them in the sky, but they rarely show up on my cards. So I decided to change that for today.

I used a cute little rainbow from the Raindrops and Rainbows set from Paper Makeup Stamps. It's colored with a combination of Copic and ShinHan markers.
The clouds have some shadowing added and then I covered the whole image with Wink of Stella glitter pen so it all has super sparkle to it :)

I used another sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps and then finished it off with a fun rainbow ribbon bow and a couple gems. Cute and simple :)

Stop by and join in the fun this week!! <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Creative Fingers #27-Anything Goes
    Retro Sketches #106
    Stampin for the Weekend-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #123-Anything Goes

I'm really loving this class! It's opening my mind up to so many ideas that were never there before!
Yesterday and today's lessons were on optical illusion. At first I didn't really think I had any stamps that would work for this style of one layer cards...so I was just browsing the class samples and dreaming up ideas for when I did get something that would work. But once I really started to browse my stash, I realized that one of my Lawn Fawn sets might just do the trick :)

I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Flutter By set that has some really great flowers and butterflies included and tried to work out which would be best for this style card. I chose one of the larger flowers and set about making my mask template by die cutting out an oval from some scrap paper and washi taping that down. I also cut out a mask of one of the flowers to help me get the leaves stamped down properly.

Then I just colored it all in with my ShinHan Markers. I love how it turned out...but...the markers bled a bit more than I expected...so there isn't a nice crisp line around the outside. That bugged me a little but not enough to ditch the card. So I rethought my process and tried again.

With this card, I embossed the flowers in white and used some foam sponges to ink the flowers. I also sponged a really pale yellow around the inside of the oval just to help set it off a little bit more. Once I stamped my sentiment on the inside, I added some glitter pen so that it sparkled :)

I really love this second card! It's so soft and dainty! My only problem is that whenever I heat emboss, my paper gets really warped...and I don't know how to prevent that...

So I turn to you...how do you keep your paper nice and flat when you heat emboss? Do you have specific little tricks you do or special paper that never warps? I'd love to learn from you :)

Thanks for stopping by!!! <3

I was so lucky to win a seat from Lawn Fawn to the new Clean & Simple One Layer Cards 3 class! This style of card is one that I have really loved to make, but I wanted to take my knowledge of what to do on a one layer card to the next level. So winning this seat has been fabulous and I thank Lawn Fawn so much!!

The first techniques shown to us yesterday were faux metal, faux layered die cuts, and faux letterpress. I haven't tried the letterpress yet because I'm not sure if I have any stamps that would work well for it...but I took a stab at the other two.

This was my attempt at the faux metal. I like how it turned out, but the card is a bit empty...
I had a little bit of trouble with the card warping with so many layers of embossing powder, and ended up cracking it a bit to get the paper to straighten out. Not sure how to avoid that...but I think the cracks look a bit cool :)

I used the Lawn Fawn stamp set Our Friendship Grows for this card because I just love this set and added some gold dots and green splatters, along with some gold shimmer mist (which you can't see...)

I'd like to enter this card into the Lawnscaping challenge Bling It!

Now this next card I had to do a little different than what the teachers showed us...

The goal is to die cut everything together so that the end result of your card is completely one layer. It's an awesome technique and I have so many ideas on how to use this swirling around in my head...but while going through my limited stash of die cuts, I realized that none of them will really work for this technique. So (per a suggestion from my husband) I turned to my Silhouette for this. And it worked out great!

I know I just used this chevron background on a card last week...but it was already open in my Silhouette program and I thought the design of it would be an easy one to try this technique with...so I used it again. Besides...chevrons are in right now...right? :)

The fun part about this card was that with using the same cutout, I got 2 cards with the materials! The "love" scroll is a little hard to see in the pink...but it still looks cool :)

I can't wait for the rest of this class! <3 read more →

Happy Tuesday!
Ok...what is with this snow!!?? It was going away and now all of a sudden we've got another 3 inches...I'm so ready for spring...please come soon!

My card today puts me in the spring spirit...it's a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and the theme is Stitching!! If you've read my last couple of posts, you know that I've been going a little stitch crazy lately...it's been super fun using my sewing machine and I can't get enough of it.

So this challenge was super easy...and of course, I went a little nuts with the stitching...again :)

I'm so excited that we have Sassy Cheryl as our sponsor this week!! She has provided the DT with some adorable images that I just love! I've used Sassy Sally is Just Hanging Around. I adore the little pup hanging next to her (though I'm considering it a kitty :) ). I've colored them all in with my ShinHan markers and then layered them onto a chalked cloud background.

The frame has been cut out with my Silhouette and then I stitched around it. That was not easy and I ended up hand cranking the stitches all the way around because trying to use the foot pedal would have sped it up way too fast for me to control..and I've never really done a circle before. So I played it safe :)

I inked up some wood cloud cutouts that I won from Freckled Fawn and adhered them above my image. I thought the little one that said Hi was good enough for a sentiment, so I finished it all off with a few little pink flowers and liquid pearls.

I hope you will join us this week for the chance to win a super adorable image from Sassy Cheryl!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
A Creative Romance-Bingo (Pink, Flowers, Pearls (hopefully liquid pearls count?) )
    Craft Your Passion #204-Young at Heart
    Creative Fingers #26-Anything Goes
Sassy Cheryl-Anything Sassy Cheryl Goes!
    Send a Smile 4 Kids-Easter/Spring
    That Craft Place-Anything Goes
    Totally Gorjuss #226-Pink and Green

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Happy Monday!!!
Time to start a new Digi Makeover challenge and this week we want to see buttons on your creations!!!

I've sort of fallen in love with adding buttons to my cards. They add a lot of bulk, which discourages me from using them sometimes, depending on the destination of the card...but I tend to reach for them more often than anything else. So this challenge was right up my alley :)

I adore this image from Paper Makeup. It's Me and Pops and it's just so perfect! The excitement in the little monsters expression, the look of admiration from pops...so cute! I pulled out my ShinHan markers and started coloring it up..but the first round didn't go so well. So I printed it again and started over, with a much better end result that second time.

I don't remember right off the top of my head where the sentiment is from...I'll have to look that up when I get my craft computer booted later today. But it fit so well with this image and it's so true! I will always look up to my dad...he's always been there for me through the good times and the bad and I love him so much for all the support he has given me!!

The card is finished off with some twine wrapped buttons, which is also an addiction of mine :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Deconstructed Sketch #141
    Divas by Design-Let's hear it for the boys
    Nutcrafters #63-Boys, boys, boys
    Sentimental Sundays #197-Cards for Men/Boys
    Word Art Wednesday #122-Anything Goes

I'd also like to thank my sweet husband for helping me come up with an awesome watermark to now add to my cards! I've gone so long without one...and I still get a little nervous adding it to my card images because I don't want it to interfere with the details of the card...but I know it's important...so we worked something up together...and I love it :)

I've also had Matthew help me get the social media buttons added at the end of each post, so now it's super easy for you to pin, share, or recommend my cards on your social media outlets!! Or you can just follow me on Facebook, Bloglovin, or by adding your cute little image under My Friends over there on the right :)

Thanks for stopping by!!! <3

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

Happy Friday!! Woohoo!!
Who's over winter? Anyone?...I know I am! While I'm not a fan of hot summers either, right now I am thoroughly over freezing my butt off! Spring can come anytime now!

But I can tell it's getting closer because my projects have taken on a bit of a lighter feel to them. And it all began with this weeks Sami Stamps release - Shamrock Girls! I'm not sure why, but I love St. Patrick's Day...not for the drinking but just the fun that surrounds it. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Irish and am diligently saving my pennies so we can make a trip to Ireland someday. So of course I adored this fun release!

When Sami posted the images, there was one that I had to have..and I think Sami knew I would snag it as well :)

This image is Lucky Whiskers and I couldn't resist scooping him up and putting him on a card! I had this vision of a fun chevron type background behind the image but I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be a full cutout background or like a stenciled background. So I set out to look for some ideas/inspiration and settled on doing a full cutout. I found this fun background in the Silhouette store and cut it out in green.

The paper behind it has been inked up in different shades of yellow and then splattered with the refill ink from one of the pads I used. I wanted it to be a bit more splotchy, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Then I grabbed my sewing machine! Man, I've been having fun with that lately! I mean, yeah there were a few moments where I wanted to throw the thing out the window because it kept jamming on me while I was figuring out the settings...but now that I have it worked out, I'm having a blast sewing every card in sight! So I zigzagged a stitch in gold around the edge. Then layered my image onto a chalked scene with some sparkles in the sky. Since I cut the image out, I used some twine to represent the string that the shamrock is attached to. Then used that same twine in the button (which I colored orange to match the gems) and printed off my flagged sentiment!

I'd like to enter Lucky Whiskers card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #81-Sparkles/Anything Goes
    The Corrosive Challenge #194-Animals
    Seize the Sketch #15
    Word Art Wednesday #122-Anything Goes

I love how simple this next image is.

Those shamrocks would be perfect with almost anything! I had a different layout in mind for this card, but as I was putting it all together, this is kind of how the pieces fell and I really love it! The image is Twisted Shamrocks and I've colored them in with my ShinHan markers and added some glitter pen and liquid pearls to the centers.

I printed off the sentiment, flagged the ends and then layered it on top of the image, lining it up with the stripe of glitter tape I put underneath the image panel. The final touch was liquid pearls on the sentiment banner and in the corners to tie it all together.

I'd like to enter this Shamrock card into the following challenges:
Card Mania #41-Use a Sentiment
Pattie's Creations #87-Green for St. Patrick's Day
Ruby's Rainbow #74-Monochromatic Green + 1

We're also starting a new challenge at Sami Stamps - Use Green! Stop by, check out the rest of the design teams amazing projects and then join in the fun!!

Thanks for stopping by! <3

Happy Monday!
We're starting a new challenge at Digi Makeover today and it's Anything Goes! We are also having our April Guest Designer call so be sure to join in!!

I wanted to make a card for a friend that just went through a really rough surgery (and a couple after that to fix some complications that arose...) so I needed to make it simple so that it could go through the postal service without costing a crazy amount in postage.

While I feel that most of my cards tend to be more on the simple side, they still always manage to have lots of layers, making them super heavy. So I tried to tone down those layers for my card.

I think I did pretty good. This is probably the fastest card I've ever made from forming the idea to putting it together. Everything just clicked. I love it when that happens!

I used a simple sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps and layered it onto to some fun bright scrap papers! I punched out one of the flowers from the paper to decorate the corner of the sentiment flag and embossed the background with my Swiss Dots folder which is my go to detail for a simple background. It seems to work with everything and I love it

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #61-Anything Goes/Use Stash
    As You Like It-Favorite 3D Texture (embossing)
    Crafts 4 Eternity #165-Texture
    Delightful Challenges-Make it Simple
    Let's Craft and Create #89-Embossing
    Retro Sketches #104
    Word Art Wednesday #121-Anything Goes

Be sure to visit the rest of the makeup artists, and check out our guest designer Colette!
Thanks for stopping by! <3

Happy Tuesday!
Man...this head cold will not let go! I start to feel better and get back to my normal routine and then I'm laying on the couch again exhausted and feeling crummy...

Fortunately I had made my DT project for Tuesday Throwdown before my vacation so it was all ready for today's new challenge which is-Anything Goes!

Our awesome sponsor is 2 Cute Ink, and they have supplied us with some absolutely adorable images!

How cute is that!? I've used the Patches the Dachshund Dog image and colored him in with my pencils. Then die cut him out with a Spellbinders frame and layered him onto a fun sketch.

The sentiment is stamped and flagged and added to the lower corner and then I punched some holes so I could decorate the tops of the stripes with some heart eyelets.

The final touch was a ton of liquid pearls! They seem to be my go to embellishment now...cards missing something? Add liquid pearls! Lol :)

Anyhow, I hope you will join us this week! Be sure to check out the rest of the DT's creations because they are oh-so-cute!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge #113-Spots and Stripes
    Artistic Inspirations #80-For the Kids
    Card Mania #41-Use a Sentiment
    Pattie's Creations #86-Spots or Dots
    Send A Smile 4 Kids-Punches or Die Cuts
    The Squirrel and the Fox #64-Something Spooled

Thanks for stopping by! <3