Happy Friday!
There's a new super cute release out today at Sami Stamps called Fall Skunks!  These guys are just so stinkin adorable (haha..)!

I wanted to create a little scene with my cute little Skunk image so I pulled out the Hero Arts Layered Tree set and stamped it out several times before fussy cutting around each tree.  Since it's a wooded scene, I decided to do a woodgrain background in dark brown ink stamped onto some kraft cardstock.

I did a gorgeous deep yellow fall blended sky behind the trees and then layered everything together, adding tiny pieces of foam tape behind the tops of a couple of the front trees.  Then colored my frame with the dark brown ink that I used for the woodgrain stamp and coated that with a thin layer of shimmer pen.

My little skunk was colored in with my pencils and fussy cut out.  I stamped and embossed a fitting greeting onto some vellum and tucked that behind him before adhering the whole thing down to my card.

You still have a little time to enter our Anything Goes challenge!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

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

Hello!  Happy Thursday!
If you're anything like me, you love the idea of finding more uses for something to make the money spent on it stretch just that little bit farther.  I love purchasing new crisp stamp sets...but they are expensive, so I don't get to buy them very often.  So each purchase is important to me.  I want to know that the set I'm buying has lots of versatility so it can be used over and over again.

That's exactly what has happened with the Falling into Autumn set that I purchased from Newton's Nook.  I bought it because I loved the design of the fall leaves, but there is so much inspiration in those images that I find myself coming up with new ways to use them every time I pull the set out.

I recently did a fun blended ink design with them where I applied two colors of ink to one stamp, then misted it and rocked it onto my paper.  You can find that card Here.  Since the set was already on my desk, it was constantly in my line of sight.  So each time I looked at it, the wheels would turn and ideas would come to mind.  That's when this happened:

I took a gorgeous fall stamp set and turned it into a Christmas card!  That vine has been a favorite of mine forever so it was a ton of fun filling this background with it and then using my colored pencils to give it detail.

But my favorite part of this card is that poinsettia!!

One of the stamps in the Falling into Autumn set has the perfect veins to match the poinsettia leaf.  I wanted to play on those and turn it into a flower...but I didn't want to have a colored flower.  I wanted it to stay white.  So in order to do that while also adding some dimension to the leaves, I started by embossing the leaf with white embossing powder.

I have found that by doing this initial white base layer, it helps keep the image crisp and white.  If you want to layer more colors on top, sometimes the paper underneath will start to look "wet" and that can show through if you just use clear.  So start with the white!

On top of the white, I restamped the image in VersaMark and then added some sticky embossing powder.  I haven't had much practice with this stuff so it's a bit tough to not over heat it since that is what I'm used to doing with embossing powder.  You want to set it just until it melts.  So get your heat tool good and HOT and then a quick swipe over the image to melt.  Super simple!

With that being sticky, I took out some Elizabeth Crafts Cool Diamond glitter and sprinkled that on top.  The sticky powder grabs the glitter, and then to set it, just rub your finger over top and shake off anything that remains!  I did hit each leaf with my heat tool again just to help melt everything back together with the glitter on top.

But look at that flower!  I love it!!!  Definitely the star of this card!  And all from a fall leaf stamp :)

To finish the card, I stamped and black glitter embossed a sentiment from Lawn Fawns Snow Day set and mounted that with a black scallop frame.  The center of the poinsettia has silver beads glued into it, and I scattered a few glossy accent capped silver dots around the card as well.

I challenge you to take a stamp set and do something completely different with it!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps and More #220-Christmas Photo Inspiration
    Artistic Inspirations #167-Anything Goes
    Craft Your Passion #338-Anything Goes
    Creative Inspirations #262-Frosted Florals
    Word Art Wednesday #256-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

Hey everyone!  Happy Tuesday!
We're starting a new challenge today at Tuesday Throwdown.  This week we want you to add gems or pearls to your projects!  Our awesome sponsor is Sweet n Sassy Stamps and they have provided us with some darling images to use.

I went super simple with my card this week.  I've got a lot going on right now so simple is best for me.  To start, I printed off this sweet Cocoa's Christmas Tree image and did some quick coloring with my ShinHan markers.  I fussy cut the image out and foam mounted it onto my card panel.  I used some awesome stamps from Altenew to create my sentiment and then colored them in with an ombre red design. 

I decided to use liquid pearls for my project since that seemed fitting for the ornaments.  It took a while for them to dry but I think the silver, red, and blues work great on the tree.  Mounted everything onto a coordinating frame and added a simple stitched line around the outside for a finishing touch.

Be sure to swing by Tuesday Throwdown to join this challenge!

Thanks for visiting! <3

Happy Friday!
We're starting a new challenge today at Sami Stamps and it's an easy one!  Anything Goes!!  The only requirement is that you use a Sami Stamps image!

We don't have a new release for you this time, so the DT has created some fun fall cards using their favorite fall images from Sami's collection.  I chose to work with Sunflower Kitty.

I started this card by printing off my image with a super faint outline.  I really wanted to do some no-line watercoloring on this adorable little kitty and didn't want a bold black line getting in the way.  Once the image was printed, I used some of my Inktense pencils to do some simple coloring on the image.  It may be simple, but I think it is just so adorable!  I of course had to paint the kitty like my little Cloud...couldn't help myself.

For the background, I wanted to do something fun with a tone on tone design.  So I inked up a piece of cardstock in a dark green color and then added some green ink to some embossing paste so that it was just a little bit lighter than the background color.  Spread that on through a striped stencil and then sprinkled it with some glitter embossing powder.  I set that aside to dry and finished working on my kitty panel.

I trimmed the whole thing on an angle, fussy cutting around the kitty.  Then embossed my sentiment on some vellum and wrapped that around the lower portion of my panel.

After the embossing paste had dried, I hit it with my heat tool to set all the glitter embossing powder.  Added my kitty panel and a few Sparkling Clear Sequins and that was it!

I hope you will join us this month for our Anything Goes challenge at Sami Stamps!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    CAS(E) This Sketch #197
    Craft Your Passion #336-Anything Goes
    Fab n Funky #325-Animals
    Simon Says Stamp-Thinking of You
    Word Art Wednesday #254-Anything Goes

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

Happy Tuesday!
We have a new challenge starting for you today at Tuesday Throwdown.  This week it's all about Thanksgiving.  Our awesome sponsor is MyGrafico and they provided some great sentiments for us to use on our projects.

I decided on a very simple design for my card.  The sentiment was printed out so that it would span the width of the card.  I then took it to my paper trimmer and cut out a little frame, leaving the sentiment attached, and then just trimmed around it.

There is a little piece of foam behind the sentiment to help it pop up off the card a bit, but the rest of the frame is adhered flat to a piece of vellum to help mute down the starry background.  I wanted the bright colored leaves to stand out a bit more from the dark paper, so that was the reason for the vellum.

The leaves are from Newton's Nook.  I added 2 colors of distress ink to each leave, spritzed them with water and then did a bit of rock and rolling with the stamp on the paper.  I found that this helped get the water and colors to blend a little easier without leaving a lot of hard lines where the colors met.  And the results were gorgeous!

To finish the card off, I added a green stitched line around the outside and some clear droplets for a bit of shine.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Fussy and Fancy #175-Shades of Fall
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes

Be sure to stop by Tuesday Throwdown to see the rest of the DT's creations and then join in this fun challenge!

Thanks for visiting! <3