Hello!
I hope everyone had an awesome holiday weekend!  We hung out with friends and did lots of yard work!  I love having Matthew home and when the weather is nice, it's like a double bonus!

We're starting a new challenge today at Tuesday Throwdown - Proud of You!  Our awesome sponsor is Sami Stamps!  She has provided everyone with adorable images to use.  I've chosen the Umbrella Pals image for my card:

 I started by coloring in my image with some Inktense pencils and covering the umbrellas with a little shimmer brush.  Then worked on my background by using the Zig Zag Dots Stencil from Simon Says Stamp and some white pigment ink.  I inked the stencil up over some Midnight Green cardstock.  Then grabbed a Lawn Fawn paper that worked perfectly from the Sweater Weather pack for my background.

I trimmed out my image, leaving a little white border around the edge.  This helps to separate your image from dark or busy backgrounds. 

To get my images lined up on my card panel where I wanted them, I put everything into a cd case (my make-shift "misti") and positioned it all on my card.  Then closed the lid so the stamps would transfer to that, and inked it up.  I first inked them with VersaMark, then with Hero Arts Black ink.  This allowed there to be a sticky top layer over the stamps so that I could apply clear embossing powder and heat set it.

Once that was embossed, I added my image with some foam tape and that was it!

I hope you will join us for this fun challenge!
Thanks for visiting! <3

 

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

 

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!!!

Thanks for visiting!

Hey everyone!!  Happy Tuesday!
I can't believe the sun is shining today!  It was supposed to be gloomy all week here in Washington, so I'm so excited that the sun is out!  Gives us a chance to dry off a little bit and let all my flowers bloom!  I love this time of year with everything blooming.  My roses are just starting to pop open and they are so gorgeous!  How about you?

So today we have a fun new challenge starting at Tuesday Throwdown - Embossing!!  This can be powder, dry, or paste.  Doesn't matter!  I love to use embossing paste on my projects.  It has some really neat qualities to it..but I decided to just go with some regular heat embossing for my card.

Our awesome sponsor for this weeks challenge is Create A Smile Stamps!!!  I was so excited to get them added to our sponsor list this year!  Plus they provided us with a discount code so I also got to get my hands on some of their amazing stamps!!!  For my card today I've used the Magical Flowers stamp set.  I couldn't help myself...I'm a sucker for sunflowers and that large one right there in the center of my arrangement was calling my name :)

I started my card by white heat embossing a woodgrain stamp onto some Neenah Grey cardstock.  Then began layer stamping all of my flowers.  In order to get everything layered like this without all the bulk, you have to do some masking.

Masking is like magic!  But you have to remember that anything you want to be at the front needs to be stamped first.  So for this arrangement, that was the sunflower.  Once that was stamped, I made my mask and stamped the next flower that I wanted in the foreground of the arrangement but behind the sunflower, which was the super cute little flowers from the (retired) My Favorite Things Sweet Roses set.  I finished off the arrangement with a few little flower sprigs and leaves from the Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Addie's Garden set.

The flowers were then all colored in really quickly with my ShinHan markers.  I didn't focus much on depth or details with the markers because once they were all colored in, I went back over everything with my Spectrum Noir pencils and added the depth and details with those.  I love this technique!  I am horribly heavy handed and can never get nice little detailed coloring with my markers.  But the pencils have such a nice fine tip that I have more control and can easily get those details exactly where I want them.

To finish off the card, I white heat embossed a sentiment from the Winnie & Walter Big Bold & You set onto vellum and then trimmed around just the top portion of the sentiment.  That whole vellum piece was wrapped around my front panel and then I scattered some Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh around the card.

Do you love it?  Cuz I love it!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Create A Smile Stamps Monthly LinkUp
    Simon Says Stamp-Flowers
    Word Art Wednesday #230-Anything Goes

Thank you so much for visiting!  Be sure to join us at Tuesday Throwdown for our Embossing challenge!!! <3

Happy Friday!
How has everyone been?  I hope your week was absolutely spectacular and you are ready for a super fun weekend!

I wanted to stop in quick today and share a little card using an image from the most recent Sami Stamps release.  This image is called Already Loved and is so precious!

I figured since I had done a blue card last week, I'd do a pink card this week.  I started by working on the background.  You know that I love to put together my own background designs.  It gives me a much bigger sense of accomplishment and pride in my card when I know I've put the whole thing together instead of trying to match up patterned paper...not sure why that is...I just love it though :)

So I started by taking a die cut from Simon Says Stamp that I just recently purchased and cutting it out several times.  I wanted one specific piece of it so needed to cut it out about 8 times in order to get enough to fill my background.  The die I used was the Heart of Roses die!  It's such a gorgeous die, but I loved that I could doctor it a bit and get a whole different look!  I cut out 2 roses that were connected and solid along with the 2 leaves connected to them.

To get the placement right, I laid them all out on my card base first, then sketched little lines around each one to know where they would sit.  I decided to color them all in with my chalks.  I was going to try and use distress inks, but I didn't know a good way to get a nice even coating in such small spaces, and the chalk seemed to be the best option.  I did slight shading for each flower and leaf but not a lot since they are small spaces.

Around each flower and leaf I filled in with a little bit of blue.  Once the chalk was all applied, I glued down my roses!  It turned out so perfect and soft!  I love this technique and will need to do it again soon!

I printed off and colored up my image with my Spectrum Noir pencils and then mounted it onto my card with some fun foam behind it for dimension.  Then went around each of the roses with a shimmer pen so there was just a touch of sparkle on the card.

So..Stinkin..Cute!!!  Honestly the picture doesn't do it justice because in person, the card is so precious.  I wish photos could properly portray something...

But, thanks for visiting!  Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see this sweet release and then join in our Anything Goes challenge!! <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #156-Anything Goes/Die Cuts
    Crafty Catz #324-Dies/Punches
    Paper Play Sketches #7
    Sassy Studio #333-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Flowers
    Word Art Wednesday #230-Anything Goes

Happy Friday!
We have a super sweet new release for you today from Sami Stamps called Beautiful Baby Bump.

For my card, I have used the Baby Bump Dress image.

I kept my card pretty simple, though I don't think it would qualify as a clean and simple card.  I started by picking out some paper from Lawn Fawn to use for the dress.  I don't normally paper piece but there was something about this image that called me to do it.  Then I matched a few inks to the paper and used a couple of tiny stamps to stamp a simple floral background.  You can just barely see it peaking out around the edges.

Using my Silhouette, I cut out a scallop frame and then set to work on my image.  I printed it off twice so that I could also cut out the hair and layer that on top of the dress.  I added a little bit of shading to the plaid paper as well for more depth.

Then using the same ink as I did for the background, did a light blended layer on the background, concentrating a bit more ink around her feet and where the sentiment would be.  I grabbed a shimmer mist and sprayed the whole thing, which gave it a cool textured look.

The sentiment was cut out with my Silhouette as well and then layered over top of the image.  I opted not to add any other embellishments to keep the focus on the super sweet image.  And the background is already super shimmery so I felt it didn't need any more sparkle.

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this precious release!

Oh!  And we have a new challenge starting today - Anything Goes!  Nice and easy, just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!!!

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

HI!!!
I am so happy to be guest designing this week at CAS(E) This Sketch!!  I was thrilled to have won one of their past challenges, but when Chrissy contacted me to be a guest designer, I was on cloud 9!  That totally made my month!  Making cards is such a passion of mine and I love waking up each morning to a fresh new idea, but winning a challenge or being asked to guest design helps reassure me that I'm still headed in the right direction.

So thank you a million times to Chrissy and the team at CAS(E) This Sketch for having me this week!!

I adored the sketch that we have for you to follow!  I just recently got a little order from Create A Smile Stamps and was dying to dig into them.  So this sketch offered up the perfect opportunity to do so.

Here is the sketch:

 

I started my card by first cutting out a couple of stitched circles in yellow cardstock and vellum.  I wanted there to be a little color peaking through the vellum so it wasn't just white on white.  Then I used a woodgrain background stamp and white heat embossed it on the vellum.

The flowers are from the Crokisses set from Create A Smile.  I was absolutely head over heels in love with this set when I saw it released!  Crocus isn't a common flower for people to make stamps of, so this was definitely a one of a kind must have set!  I stamped the flower a couple of times and then used some Spectrum Noir pencils to color them all in.  I have to say, I'm incredibly pleased with my coloring!  I took my time and really focused on getting nice solid blending and detailed strokes.  They turned out perfect!

Once the flowers were done, I splattered some purple flecks on the background and added a black scallop frame to the woodgrain circle.  Then arranged my flowers with a little dimensional tape and added a simple sentiment banner and stuck it down to my card base!  I did add a little tiny stripe of purple glitter paper to one side to help add a little detail throughout the whole card. 

I hope you've enjoyed this card!  Be sure to swing by the CAS(E) This Sketch challenge blog to see the Design Teams creations, and then join in with this super fun sketch!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #192-Make Your Mark
    Word Art Wednesday #228-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

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