Happy Tuesday!!!
Today's challenge starting at Tuesday Throwdown is kind of a special one...its our 300th!  How awesome is that!

I've been with the Tuesday Throwdown design team for 4 years now and have loved it so much!  It's so exciting to hit such a milestone with this fabulous team!  I have loved the ladies that join our team, both past and present, I've adored being the sponsorship coordinate for almost all of those 4 years I've been on the team.  And I greatly appreciate their patience with me every single day.

But the thing that keeps this challenge blog going is you, our followers.  Our participants!  The ones that come back every week and join in our silly challenges and leave wonderful comments on our blogs!  So, to celebrate you, we are doing a blog hop that is filled with fun giveaways!  If you're doing the hop, you should have arrived at my blog from Debi's!  Of course, you can always find the full blog list at Tuesday Throwdown if you get lost :)

While we are doing a blog hop for this 300th celebration, we do also have a new challenge starting with our fabulous sponsor - The Paper Shelter!
Our challenge this week is Fairies and Fantasy!

I've chosen to use The Fairy of the Cookies image and did some super soft light water coloring.  I've been deep into the preparation stage of getting ready for my first ever craft fair on July 4, so my free time has been super scarce.  I wanted to keep my card simple and quick but still highlight this adorable image and watercolor was the perfect medium to use.

I added a little sparkly embossing paste through a stencil across the background for some fun fairy twinkle and then added my sentiment across the top.

Now the fun part about this blog hop, as I mentioned before, is the prizes!  Leaving a comment on our blogs will get you entered into the giveaway.  Each of us has something different as a prize, so be sure to stop by everyone's blog!

My prize is provided by the always amazing Sami Stamps!!
Sami has offered up a $12 gift certificate for the winner drawn from the comments on my blog!  How awesome! 

So, to enter, leave me a comment below!  If you become, or are a follower (either though the Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin option) , leave a separate comment!  That gives you 2 chances to win!

This giveaway/blog hop will be open for one week!  So you have until 11:59 pm on Monday July 4 to enter!  The winner from my blog will be announced the next day on Tuesday July 5.

The next person for you to visit along this hop is:

Jacqueline!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful week! <3

Hey Everyone!
Today I'm participating in a fun SURPRISE blog hop for a very special person!  Asha has been on my Tuesday Throwdown team for quite some time, and I just absolutely adore her soft and sweet style!  She is a wonderful person and I'm so happy to celebrate her birthday along with her and lots of her friends with this blog hop!

You should have arrived here from Debi Brile's blog, but if you get lost, you can find the whole hop list at the MHK Designs blog.

This also coincides with a new challenge starting today at Tuesday Throwdown to use distressing on your card!

Mynn from MHK Designs is the one that coordinated this whole fabulous hop and she provided some super fun images for everyone to use!  I've chosen a few butterflies from the Butterfly Wisdom set and a sentiment from the Eat Your Cake set.

The theme is supposed to be beachy, but I had already put my card together before I saw that...oops :)

For the background, I used a Salty Ocean and Spiced Marmalade distress stain spray over a script stencil.  It's sort of hard to tell that there is script in all the mist...but that sort of makes it look even cooler!  I cut out a scallop frame with my Silhouette and then framed my fun little sentiment, which I did a little ink blending around to help it coordinate with the background.

Printed off a few butterflies and added just a touch of Antique Linen to them for some color.  Then I scattered a bunch of Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh throughout the butterflies, and that was it!

Thank you so much for joining in our hop to say Happy Birthday to a dear friend! Your next stop on
the hop is Jacqueline's blog!

Have a fabulous day! <3

Happy Friday!
So I was really bad and behind schedule and totally forgot to get Father's Day cards put together and sent out to all of our dads...I feel horrible...cards are my thing!  And I can't seem to pull stuff together to send out to one of my biggest heros!  Ugh...well...hopefully they understand :)

But I did get something pulled together for our Father's Day showcase this week at Sami Stamps!  Too late to get in the mail, but still a fun card :)

I've used two really awesome images for this card:  Dad's Side Kick, and Daddy's Super Girl
I'm not sure if Dad's Side Kick was supposed to be a son or a dad...but I used him as the dad in my card so he and his daughter could play dress up together in their super fun capes!

I did a bunch of ink blending on the background to get a really awesome night sky with the halo of the city in the background.  Of course, I used my Seattle Skyline die from Impress Cards.  It just seemed to fit so perfectly in the background.  The moons were masked with a couple of cut out circles and then I blended the ink all around them.  I forgot to leave a little bit of a halo around them for the glow, but I think ultimately they worked out fine.  The colors I used were:  Scattered Straw, Victorian Velvet, Dusty Concord, Mermaid Lagoon, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot.

That whole color combo worked so well.  I'm in love with the gradual shift from the city glow up to the deep dark universe.  Just love it!

To give detail to the moons, I took my ShinHan markers and just squiggled a bunch of marks around the masked off space, adding dark shadows and depth where needed.  I did take the ink blending foams to the little moons just to give them a little tiny bit of color.

Then colored in my images with my Spectrum Noir pencils and trimmed them out so they could be standing on the hillside together over looking the city.

I hope you enjoy this card!  It was a blast to put together!  I always forget how awesome and fun ink blending is!  I miss getting to sit at my desk and just play...but hopefully soon my schedule will slow down and I'll be able to relax a bit more. 

Thanks for visiting! <3

Hi everyone, welcome to a new challenge this week at Tuesday Throwdown where we want to see you use watercolors on your project.

I almost didn't get the chance to create something for this challenge, but after the events of this weekend, I couldn't resist and pulled something together.  But the whole process of putting this card together and reflecting on what is going on in this country just drove my crazy.

The tragedy that happened in Florida this past weekend is heartbreaking...

Whether you or I agree with any of the lifestyles of the LGBT community has no place in this right now.  What does matter is that there is so much hate in this country.  And I keep asking myself WHY?  Why can't we agree to disagree?  Why can't we support everyone in what they choose to do with their lives?  Why do we need to turn to violence when we disagree?  Why?  Just Why??....

I am terrified of the direction that the hearts of so many in this country are going.  I don't believe it's a gun issue..or a terror issue...those are all just scapegoats for the real problem.  It's a LOVE issue...
I'm not talking that sappy romantic type of love...this is a different kind.  One that has not limits or rules.  It's open to everyone and we should all feel it for the people in our lives and the people of this beautiful country.

It made my heart swell to see so much support pop up so quickly for the victims of this tragedy.  To know that, while the news may show us so much of the bad that happens, there are always good people around too.

Hold onto that good...hold onto the love.  Feel it in your soul and live it in your lives.

And just choose love!

"All Life is Precious" - TWD

If you want to help the people of Florida in some way, here are a few links I've found:

This is a straight up GoFundMe page for the victims:  Pulse Victims Fund

Here is a great article that highlights so many options to help out:  How To Help

As I said before, whether you agree with the lifestyles of these victims or not, this isn't the time to judge.  Our country has been under attack by haters for so long now, and this is just the most recent one....sadly they will keep happening until we can fill the country with love and outshine the blackness in so many hearts...

I leave you with my card, dedicated to everyone in Florida dealing with this horrible situation..

Materials:  Watercolor paint for the background.   WPlus9 Sending Hoping Wishing stamp set.  Freckled Fawn Long Classic Arrow

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #66-Watercolor
    A Gem of a Challenge #171-Love and Romance  (this more highlights on the love side.)
    Artistic Inspirations #158-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Guy Card
    Word Art Wednesday #234-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting <3

 

Happy Friday!
It feels like it's been forever since I had the chance to stand at my desk and just let my mind wander into the creative realm to come up with a card design.  My time has been so dedicated to one specific task these last few weeks, and that will be the case all through June.  But it will be worth it, I hope.  Once my confirmation comes in, I will be able to share the good news with you...but for now, thanks for sticking with me through the long gaps :)

I did manage to get a card put together quickly yesterday for Sami Stamps using an image from our most recent release.

Keeping with the theme of our current challenge to Use Stripes, I played around with my ShinHan markers a little bit.  I made a pile of all my blues and a few of my blue-greens and put them in ombre order.  Then made thick stripes across the piece of diagonal cut card stock.  I did use a colorless blender in between each color transition to try and give it a different faded look, but it wasn't as noticeable as I wanted, so I added some stitching between each color as well.

Then set to work on my Three Loyal Friends puppy image.  Dogs can be tough to color...since I usually stick to cats...but I wanted to feature several colors of Labs on this card so did a google search and had a perfect image pulled up on my computer screen while I worked.  My first go around with this image was going great until I got to the middle pup...and my markers bled so far out of the lines that I had to start over...so I printed this image again on some thicker card stock and started over.

But that little bit of bleeding ended up working in my favor in the end because I needed a mask in order to add the ink blended sunset behind these pups.  So I just trimmed out my previous colored image and added a little re-positionable glue to the back.  Once the glue was dry (you want to let it dry so that it becomes tacky), I placed it over my colored image and added my sunset!  Worked perfectly.

I kept the background plain white outside of the striped piece at the bottom.  I did add a little ripped up piece of vellum along the side and some twine to pull everything together.  The sentiment was stamped right onto the image panel in some black ink.

Remember we have our Use Stripes challenge running for this month, so stop by Sami Stamps and join in for your chance to win!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #197-Make Your Mark
    Crafty Catz #328-Animal Magic
    Retro Sketches #217
    Simon Says Stamp-For a Guy
    Word Art Wednesday #234-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!
Any fun plans for this weekend?  The sun will be shining here so it will be nice and warm!  Hoping to get a little yard work done with Matthew...but I foresee a lot of just relaxing :)

So today is another super cute release from Sami Stamps!  This one is called Man's Best Friend and is full of super sweet little puppy images!  I'm always a sucker for Sami's kitty images, but her pups are just as adorable!

For my card, I chose to use Moving:

We're also starting a new challenge for this month.  We want to see some stripes on your projects!

Now I'm sure most of you have seen the fabulous video by Jennifer McQuire on how she makes multiple colored stripes on a card base.  I adored that technique!  It's one I've done in the past several times, but it does take a lot of work moving masks around and trying not to mess up your design.  I thought it would go perfect with this image and challenge, so I gave it another shot today.

And wouldn't you know, I totally screwed up my first attempt.  Had the whole panel nearly done when I tore right down the middle of it removing some masking tape....fortunately I had planned on that happening and had another card front ready to go to start right in on.  The second time worked better, but I did tear it a little.  Fortunately it was in a place I knew would be covered by the image so I didn't mind :)

I think the key with making this background is to remove some of the stickiness from your tape.  This makes sure that it doesn't adhere too strongly to your paper.

The second key thing to keep in mind is that wet paper will tear easier.  So if you want to completely prevent that, dry your paper between each color.  I didn't dry it until I had the whole first layer down, but removing some of the stickiness helped keep everything from ripping too much for me.

Once the stripes were done, I went back over top of the design with a really thin striped stencil and added embossing paste.  This helped give it great texture and sort of muted a lot of the colors.  So even though I only used 4 colors on the background, it looks like there are a lot of different shades.  Love it!

While the embossing paste dried, I worked on getting my image colored up.  I started by adding a solid coat of marker to each part of the image.  Then went back over top with my pencils to add all the shading and details.  I absolutely love this technique!  I have so much more control with pencils but having the base of color from the marker means the image will be a solid color even if my pencil lines are a bit streaky.

I wrapped everything up with a little vellum panel and a sentiment from Create with TLC!  Oh and a few fun black glittery stars :)

Hope you will stop by Sami Stamps to see this fun release, and then join in our challenge!
And give yourself a gold star if you made it to the end!  That is one giant wall of text here...but I wanted to explain everything I did so that you can give this fun technique a try!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafting When We Can #120-Add Stars
    Incy Wincy Designs-Touchy Feely
    Paper Play Sketches #9
    Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-Mask It (I masked off each stripe for the background)
    The Crazy Challenge #223-Your Fav Color (blue!)

Thanks for visiting! <3