Scrappy Sweet Creations

Happy Thursday!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week! Mine has been nice and quiet, filled with crafting...perfect way to spend a birthday week :)

We have a new challenge starting today at Meljen's Designs - colorful cardstock! So we don't want to see any patterned paper, just cardstock! This one is a bit tough, but give it a shot anyhow!
I made 3 attempts at this challenge...the first one turned out great, but I had made it for my husband and after giving it to him felt it should remain between us, so I started on a new card, but it ended horribly...and so did the next one. The card I finally put together almost went in the trash as well, but I fiddled and fussed over it and finally got something to work properly. And then my husband came to the rescue with my birthday present that was perfect for finishing the card off!

The clouds! Ahhhh...I just love that spellbinders die set! I'm so thankful that he gave me that for my birthday (along with a few other goodies I'll be sharing with you soon)!!

So my card features the super adorable Turtle's Friend image. I've colored it in with my ShinHan markers and that was the part that I almost ditched. It just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to...but like I said, I fussed and fiddled, added a ground and shaded in the sky and then set it aside. After a little while I picked it back up and actually ended up liking it :) So I cut a scallop frame around it and used my Silhouette to cut out the chevron background. I added the hand stitching around the edge because it just really needed something finishing around the outside.

There is a small piece of vellum in the middle of the card. While it doesn't show all that much, in person it totally completes the card! I printed off my own sentiment (which made me chuckle...hey I'm easily entertained!), flagged the end and tucked it behind the turtle.

Then came the clouds! I squealed a little when I pulled them out of my cuttlebug, they were just so cute! I see myself using those a ton now!

So stop on by Meljen's Designs and join in this super fun challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #82-Anything Goes/Sentiment
    Creative Inspirations #275-Here Comes Summer
    Divas By Design-Anything Goes
    Fab n Funky #224-Walk on the Wild Side
    Word Art Wednesday #143-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Hey Everyone!
Time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and this week we want to see something other than a card or tag! This can be super challenging, but also really fun to step out of your comfort zone, so give it a shot!

Our awesome sponsor is Creations by AR, and they have provided templates for the DT to use this week.

I decided to work with the Haute Tote template for my project. It was so cute, I just loved it! But I ended up keeping my design super plain. As I was putting it together, I had all these ideas for embellishments to add but once it was done, I felt the papers were enough. So I just added some simple ribbon handles and sewed on some buttons.

I'd like to make up a fun card pack to put in here and give to a friend...maybe I'll be able to get to that this week :)

Be sure to stop by and see the rest of the DT's awesome creations!
Thanks for visiting! <3

Hey everyone!
Wanted to stop in real quick before I melt away from the heat to share a card that I made a few days ago. It wasn't for any other purpose than for me to stare and daydream at during the day.

I have been missing my home in Seattle so much lately. It's always on my mind and makes me long to be back there again. I know that if that is meant to happen, it will and I just need to be patient. But missing home makes patience hard. So I brought a little bit of home to me.

The silhouette was cut out with my machine and I did a bunch of ink blending on the background for the sky. Seattle had an absolutely amazing sunset a little while ago and I really wanted to replicate it on this card...but I certainly didn't do justice to the real deal. You can see photos of it on the Komo News site.

I used a sentiment from Create with TLC that seemed to fit my mood just perfectly! A few little stars in the sky and a layered button and heart finish off the card.

This will sit on my desk for quite awhile. When I need a little break, I'll stare at it and dream of that beautiful city!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #124-Both Spots and Stripes
    The Crazy Challenge #176-Die Cuts/Punches
    Deconstructed Sketch #160
    Deep Ocean #82-Lots of Layers
    Delightful Challenge-Buttons
    Simon Says Stamp-Spots and Dots
    Word Art Wednesday #141-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! <3

Happy Monday!
Can't believe it's Monday already...the weekend went by way too fast!
But the good news is we start a new challenge at Paper Makeup today! We want to see your die cuts and punches!

I use my Silhouette for most of my die cutting. It used to be my Cricut until that decided to die on me a few years ago. While I may not use it to it's full potential, it definitely opens a lot of doors in creating for me that I never had access to before.

So for my card today, I was able to take one of the Paper Makeup Frames images and turn it into a cut file! And it was the perfect placement and size to use one of the images from the Dandy Wishes set!

Before printing and cutting out my image, I added a little wash of watercolor to some paper. When it cut out, I was a little bummed that not very much green made it into the cut, but it ended up lining up perfect for the image!

My background paper was a little brighter than I wanted, so I found this cool patterned vellum in my scraps pile to cover up a small section in the middle. Then just stamped a little sentiment flag and added a few blue flags under it to help pull that color across the card from the watercolor.

Then I want a little crazy with the gems. I wanted them there so I had a place to add some glue to the vellum...but I may have added a few too many? Maybe not, but sometimes I'm not sure where to stop when it comes to gems and pearls :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Catered Crop-Vellum
    Curtain Call-Anything Goes
    Freshly Made Sketches #145

Thanks for visiting!! <3

Happy Friday!!!
The weekend has arrived, yay!

So we don't have a new release this week for Sami Stamps, but there are some amazing deals going on at the shop for you to check out! Instead, we are revisiting some of the past releases and making our samples from them. I, of course, have 2 cards to share with you today :)

My first cards features the Sunny Spot image, but instead of a sunny spot, I put the sweet little foxes under a night sky. They just looked so peaceful snuggled up together.

I really love how soft this card turned out. The vellum in the background really helped to mellow it all out and really make the image pop that much more. For the sentiment I used one of the Lili of the Valley stamps and tucked it under my cord bow. I'm frustrated with how stiff that cord still is...I couldn't get that kink out of the tails from the bow, so it looks really goofy...

To finish it off, I added a few Hero Arts pearls.
I'd like to enter this Fox Friends card into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #100-Anything Goes
    Crafting When We Can #73-Friendship
    Retro Sketches #123
    Simon Says-Spots and Dots

My second card features the Bird on a Branch image.

This card looks so much better in person. I was really skeptical about it at first. There seemed to be something missing from it, but I really didn't want to clutter it all up. I wanted the bird to pop off the card. But once I added it to the yellow card base, the whole thing pulled together perfectly and I just adore it!

I colored in the bird with my pencils and added a little glitter pen around the wings. I also paired this image with the Spring Branch image, cutting up the flowers to scatter along the branch so it looked like the bird was sitting on a cherry tree branch. Love!

Again, to finish it, I scattered some Hero Arts gems around the bird and sentiment.
I'd like to enter this Birdie card into the following challenges:
Chocolate, Coffee, Cards #69-Birds
Fusion Card Challenge

Penny's Paper Crafty #186-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! And be sure to check out the deals at Sami Stamps! <3

Happy Thursday!
We have a super fun challenge starting for you today over at Meljen's Designs. Use your favorite book as your inspiration!

I don't know if I have one favorite book...I've read a lot that I really love! So it was hard for me to pinpoint a single book to draw inspiration from...but I came up with something pretty cool so let's see if you can guess which book I chose :)

Any guesses? Come on, I know you know this!

Game of Thrones! I've only read 4 of the books so far...I can't decide if I like watching the show and then reading the books or reading the books and then watching the show. I feel like I get much more emotion with the show and I love that, but my husband really wants me to read the books with him so we can talk about everything that's happening...it's a big situation here :)

The main part of the series that stands out to me (and probably everyone else) is the dragons, so I picked out 3 super adorable dragon images from Meljen's Designs: Cuddle Dragon, Dragon's Little Friend, and Sleepy Little Dragon. I colored them all in with my colored pencils and blended them out a little bit so they had a smoother finish than what straight pencils could give.

Since I had already planned out my layout before printing the images, they were already scaled to the size I needed them so placing them on the card was easy. I also colored up the Fairy Tale Castle image from Meljen's to have in the background. I suppose if I was being true to the books, the hills would be brown for sand and dirt instead of grassy green...but I like the green better :)

I struggled with a sentiment so browsed around for some inspiration while playing with the words in my head to try and come up with something clever. "Time's a dragon without ya" seemed like a really cute sentiment, and I stamped Miss You on the inside.

So stop on over to Meljen's Designs and join in this awesome challenge! You should also check out the rest of the DT's creations as they are gorgeous like always!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #123-Animals
    Artistic Inspirations #100-Anything Goes
    Crafting When We Can #73-Friendship
    Crafting With Dragonflies #30-Clean and Simple

Thanks for visiting! <3

Hey Everyone!
Ready for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown?
This week we want to see your vacation themed creations!
Our awesome sponsor is The Stamping Boutique and they have provided some super cute images for the DT to use. But I decided to use one of the images I already had in my collection.

I'm in a shaker card kind of mood. I just love filling in those clear spaces with these fun little beads and shaking them around! My original plan was to use some dew drop type beads in the middle, but after layering about 15 circle frames and still not having enough room to shake those beads around, I nixed that plan and went with the tiny beads instead :) They're more fun anyhow :)

The image I've colored up is Uncommon Friendship. I've used my colored pencils on everything, and added touches of stickles to all the little sea friends, and the mermaids tail.

Overall, the card was left really simple, but it did take me a little bit to put together because of all the layers for the frame. And I added a fun sentiment to go with the image :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    613 Avenue Create #80-Anything Goes/Shaped Cards
    Crafty Cardmakers #119-Under the Sea
    The Crazy Challenge #175-Summer Vacation
    Fab n Funky #223-Feels Like Summer
    Let's Craft and Create #94-Shaped Cards
    Simon Says Stamp-Let's Be Clear

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

Happy Monday!
Starting a new challenge today at Paper Makeup and it's Girly Girl!

I'm not a girly girl...pretty far from it. But when I hear this little phrase, I usually think of shopping, purses, makeup..all that stuff. So I thought this Retail Therapy set from Paper Makeup would be perfect to use on my card this week!

I left it really simple...that's mostly because I don't have a lot of girly embellishments :) I used the purse and a simple sentiment from the set and added some liquid pearls to the handle of the purse. It was a little difficult cutting out that detailed handle, but I think it was totally worth it!

Adhered some clear gems around the corners and above the sentiment, and that was it!
Stop by and check out the rest of the DT's creations, and then join to win!!

Thanks for visiting! <3

Hey Everyone!
Happy Friday!
I wanted to stop in real quick to share a sweet card that I just finished up. The idea popped into my head late in the day on Wednesday, so I got it started then but wasn't able to really put it all together until today. But I am really in love with it.

The theme over at Catered Crop right now is BFF and since I was one of their winners last week, I get to join in for the Sunday Quickfire this week.

I only have one BFF in the world and that's Matthew, and I kept him in mind when I made this card (though I did sort of just realize how girly it is for having the focus be on my husband...oops :) Sorry babe <3 ).

Matthew is my world. Not sure I can really put it any other way. He's there to pick me up when I need some help, hold me when I need to be close, and be goofy when nothing else matters. I've leaned on him so much over the last several years and (somehow and thankfully) he's still standing by me.

My day just seems empty when he's not here with me, but he'll be home soon and that's the time of day I look forward to the most! That's why I chose this sentiment (from Ginger's House). It seemed to fit exactly how I was feeling when I was thinking about my best friend.

For the background, I mixed a few colors with some embossing paste and then smeared them over a stencil I cut out from my Silhouette, making sure to blend the colors a little where they overlapped. There is a little bit of sparkly embossing paste sprinkled on top, just for a touch of shine.

The rest I left very simple. A couple ribbons layered together into a bow and the sentiment printed onto white cardstock that has been layered onto some vellum. The background turned out so cool that I really wanted that to be seen. I colored a few pearls to match the pink in the background and scattered them around the sentiment.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Charisma Cardz #15-Anything Goes
    Penny's Paper Crafty #185-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Let's Be Clear
    Totally Gorjuss #243-Bling
    Word Art Wednesday #140-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! <3

Hey everyone!
I'm over on the Meljen's Designs blog today sharing a super sweet card that I had a ton of fun putting together! It stretched my skills a little bit but turned out so darn cute!

Here, I'll share it with you :)

I've used the super adorable Kitty Cat Love image and colored them up with my pencils to represent my Storm and Ezio kitties. They're sitting on a stamped brick wall. I don't own any rectangle stamps, but I figured out that some of the Lawn Fawn sentiment stamps are perfect rectangles when you turn them over to the backside! So I found one that was the size I wanted and stamped away!

The sweet sentiment is from Ginger's House. It just seemed to fit with the cute little kitties snuggling on the wall.

To make the background, I just cut out a large circle to create a mask for the moon. I started by masking off the sky and working from lightest to darkest on the moon and then splattering the colors around for some texture and dimension. Then I masked off the moon and did the same process on the sky. The little sparkly stars are just some glimmer mist sprinkled around :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to CAS #42-Sky
    A Gem of a Challenge #123-Animals
    As You Like It-Animal or People Images? (I prefer to use animal images...gives the card more versatility. Animals can work for just about anyone, where as people images tend to end up needing a very specific audience.)
    Color Me Creative #95-Friends
    Deep Ocean #81-Add a Sentiment
    Word Art Wednesday #139-Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by! <3

Happy Monday!
Time for a new challenge at Paper Makeup and since it's the first challenge of the month, that means it's Anything Goes! We're also having our August Guest Designer call, so run on over and join in!!

I tried something a little different and a bit out of my normal comfort zone for my card. I attempted to do a color challenge...these are never easy for me and I'm not sure why. But I gave it my best shot, and while I'm not 100% in love with this card, I do still like it and it was fun to put together.

The color challenge is from Always Playing with Paper to use kraft, coral, pink, and green. My selection of coral paper is pretty slim but I found one that I felt could work in my scraps. For the background, I used a stencil I cut out with my Silhouette and did some double inking, starting with a white pigment ink, and then shifting the stencil a little before layering on the pink pigment ink. It's super cute and I love how it turned out! Will be doing that again for sure!

I used my Lin & Lene heart border die along the edge, but completely forgot that I only wanted to partially cut it out...so I had to improvise with it and decided that leaving just a little gap between the papers would work out well. I tied a simple knot in the green ribbon. I didn't want to do a big giant bow, felt that would be too distracting and I couldn't find a proper placement for it.

Then I printed off my image from the Tweet Things set from Paper Makeup, colored it in with my pencils and fussy cut it all out. My first attempt at the image did not work out so well...it was about an inch and a half too small and was lost to the background...so I reprinted it much larger and tried again. To finish it all off, I scattered some pink gems around the image, some glitter pen and a little heart covered in glossy accents.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge #123-Animals
Always Playing with Paper #10-Sketch and Color Combo

Totally Gorjuss #243-Bling

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

Happy Friday!
So excited to be sharing with you the new release at Sami Stamps!! After the horribly hot week we've had, creating with these super sweet images was perfect since they are based around ice cream!

I chose to use the image Kitty in my Lap. It just reminded me so much of our kitties, mostly Cloud. She loves ice cream and will not leave us alone until we share :) So this card is for her!

I have been really trying to use up some of the scrap papers in my stash. It seems that pile keeps getting bigger instead of smaller...so I sifted through to try and find some patterns that worked together.

Since we are starting a new challenge as well at Sami Stamps to use polka dots, I grabbed this teal paper first and began the quest of finding something that matched it. I buy all of my papers as 12x12 individual sheets, so I don't always have great combos...but I try since most of my color palette seems to blend pretty well. After figuring out some paper combos, I decided to use the sketch from SugarPea Designs for my card.

I colored up my image with my colored pencils and added a bit of glitter pen and glossy accents to the ice cream and hearts. The chevron heart was stamped onto some coordinating paper and then trimmed out and framed before I added my simple sentiment from Lawn Fawn. For the twine, I just simply punched a few little holes and tied it up, securing it with a little dot of glossy accents.

Stop by Sami Stamps, check out this super adorable release and the DT projects, and then join in our Polka Dots challenge!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Chocolate Coffee Cards #68-Summer Days
    Send A Smile 4 Kids-Animals
    Sugar Sketch #6

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Thursday!
I'm noticing a theme with my cards lately...3 of the last 4 have been based around sunshine and smiles :) And that's okay! Not sure what has brought that kick on, but it makes me smile so I'll just keep rolling with it!

Our new challenge starting today at Meljen's Designs is Button It Up! I really wanted to step out of my normal comfort zone with the buttons and try something new. While I browsed around the Meljen's store to find an image to use, several ideas popped into my head with other images. But they weren't quite hitting that "challenging" zone. Until I found this sweet Smile Flowers image. I knew it would be perfect!

So I printed it out and colored it all up with my pencils. What you can't see is the middles of the flowers spell out SMILE but I sifted through my small button collection and found appropriate sizes to cover them up! Ok, not super challenging like I made it sound...I know. I just didn't want to scatter the buttons in the corners like I normally do...wanted to do something different :)

Since I really loved the smile sentiment in the flowers, I still wanted to use that somehow. So I found a different image from Meljen's - Smile Bug - and printed that on some patterned paper to go below the flowers. I added the "just because" with a Hero Arts stamp and Wink of Stella to all the flowers and buggies :)

I really love how it turned out. Very light and summery. Be sure to stop by the Meljen's Design Team Challenge Blog, check the rest of the DT's amazing creations, and then join in the fun!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Color Me Creative #95-Friends
    Penny's Paper-Crafty #184-Buttons, Butterflies, or Bows
    Seize the Sketch #23
    Word Art Wednesday #139-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

Hello!
Time for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown and it's an easy one - Anything Goes! Woohoo!
Our sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish, and they have provided some sweet images for the DT to use.

I chose the fun Sunflower Smiles for my card this week. Decided to do a little watercoloring for a simple background.

My image is colored in with my ShinHan markers and I've embossed the sentiment with black embossing powder. I really love using sequins on my cards, but realized with this card that I need a bit more practice on the placement of them. Always seems like when I add embellishments like gems or sequins, the card ends up looking like I just dumped them on there....even though I try really hard to get them in the right eye-catching positions! Just need more practice I guess...

But overall, I love the simple cheeriness of the whole thing! So stop by Tuesday Throwdown and join in the fun!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to CAS #41-Sun
    Catered Crop-Summer Lovin
    Fussy and Fancy #117-Summertime
    Sentimental Sundays #213-Summer
    Stampin for the Weekend-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3