Happy Friday!
I hope everyone is ready for an awesome weekend!  The sun is shining, it's going to be nice and hot here in Seattle again!  We're going to pick some massive bucket loads of blueberries!  I'm excited!

I'm also excited because today we have another amazing Sami Stamps release for you!  This release is Shell Mermaids, and they are so precious!  You must check them out!
I decided to work with the Shell Mermaid 2 image for my card.

I'll be honest...I struggled coming up with a card idea for this sweet image.  My brain isn't quite back into the creative mode and I kept drawing blanks every time I tried to brainstorm.  I eventually ran out of time and knew I had to get something made.  So I used this fun Hero Arts woodgrain background stamp to try and mimic flowing water.  I misted it a bunch and dropped water all around the image to try and represent bubbles.  It turned out pretty cute, but I think the blues are little too dark...should have gone lighter.

For the image, I colored that in with some watercolor pencils and a shimmer brush.  It was going beautifully till I got to her sweet hair...and I stalled...I wanted there to be curls and swooshy waves in her hair and I just couldn't get it to work out right...guess I'll have to try again sometime.

Since I was drawing blank on a good design, I decided to just keep it simple and did some zig zag stitching around the edge with a simple sentiment and some white glitter enamel dots to finish it all off.

Now be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this release and the DT's jaw dropping creations!  While I struggled, they pulled out all the stops...their work is amazing!  You must see it!

And remember we have an Anything Goes challenge still running, so join in that as well!

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

Hi Everyone!
Happy Tuesday!  Seems I just got back into this crafty world and I'm already running behind in it!  Sorry my post for today's new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown is late, but at least it's here!!

We have an awesome new challenge with a fabulous new sponsor this week!  MilkCoffee has graciously provided our team with some wonderful images to go along with our Tic Tac Toe board!!!

And I just realized I didn't watermark my card image!  Ugh...need to pull it together :)

Anyhow, I have used the adorable Heart Sign with Butterflies image from MilkCoffee.  I decided to keep everything pretty light and pastel for this and I followed the "Image, Enamel Dots, Die Cuts" line from our board:

I used an awesome Mama Elephant border die to do my die cut edges, and a fun butterfly die cut from Simon Says stamp.  I cut those out of vellum since I again, wanted everything to be super light.  My image was colored up really simply with pencils and a little glitter brush, then cut out and framed in a scallop oval.  I stamped the simple "Hello" sentiment right on the image and finished it all off with some coordinating enamel dots in the centers of the butterflies.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to check out the rest of the DT's creations at Tuesday Throwdown, and then join in our fun Tic Tac Toe challenge!!!  <3

Heellllooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Wow it's been a long time!  I've missed you guys so much!  But so much has happened at the same time!  My absence has been because we moved!

We were so fortunate when Matthew finally landed a job.  It had been a long, long journey for that to finally happen.  While we absolutely loved his job at Ubisoft, Montreal just wasn't working for us and we knew we needed to leave...

After several heartbreaking rejections, God finally opened a path for us to get home, and Matthew was offered a job at Motiga in Bellevue, WA.  So for the last 3 months, we have been getting everything settled back into our home here in Washington!!  I'm so happy to be here!  There is no place like home, and man...Washington is definitely home!  Our house was in pretty good condition, considering it had been rented for 4 years, but there was still a lot of work that needed to be done.  So that has occupied a lot of my time (a lot!).

It's taken me a bit longer to get back to work here on my blog, but I'm happy to finally be back at it!  My work desk is still a bit disorganized as we work to find storage shelves and what not.  But it's workable and I'm diving in!  (I'll share pics of our house later :) )

And I'm so happy that I get to return with a Sami Stamps card!!!!  There is nothing better than working with Sami's images!  This release is called Birds and Beauties...such a fitting title!  They are beautiful!  I've worked with Bird on my Knee:

Now, bear with me as I work on figuring out how I want to take my pictures.  I thought this super cute plant stand would be perfect for featuring my cards on...but the cream background doesn't work for me.  So my pictures will probably change over the course of these next few weeks as I work that all out :)

I kept this card really simple since it is my first one back and I'm dusting out the old cobwebs in my brain :)  Just some simple ink blending in the background through a triangle stencil from Winnie & Walter.  The colors I've used are the new Cracked Pistachio and Fossilized Amber distress inks.  Oh My Gosh!  If you don't have these new colors...run and get them now!  I just got mine and this is my first card using them on, and I'm hooked!  They are amazing and I know they will not be leaving my desk for quite some time!

Oh, and the Hello die cut was colored with the Mermaid Lagoon distress ink...my heart melted when that ink hit the paper...it's so gorgeous!!

Anyhow, there is a little piece of scallop cut vellum behind the image but you can't really see it.  I did some light shading on the beauty (need to get coloring practice in again...) and then affixed her to look like she was sitting on the Hello die cut.  Surrounded her with some clear sequins and called it good!  I really do love this card!  First one in 3 months, and I'd say it turned out perfect :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and for sticking around while I was away!  I love you all and I'm so happy to be back sharing my passion with you!!! <3

Also, don't forget we have a new challenge starting at Sami Stamps and it's super easy!!  Anything Goes!!!  Whoohoo!  So run on over, check out the DT's amazing creations and then join in the fun!!! <3