Hello hello and Happy Monday!
Welcome back to a new challenge at Inky Paws!!
We have a gorgeous spring color palette for you to use for this challenge!  Perfect to go with all those super cute little flowers poking up in some of your yards :)

For my card today, I stuck with a simple design, only using the adorable little kitty from Newton's Costume Party.  But to start my card, I first created that circle in the background by doing an acrylic pour!  I'm still learning how to do this, and I'm not entirely that good at it...but I've been practicing for awhile and trying to find ways to use this technique on my cards.  So this card design felt like a good way to use it.  I mixed some blue, yellow, and white paints in a cup and them poured them onto my circle die cut....and they all mixed massively together to make green!  You can see a little bit of the other colors behind the kitty...but the green really took over.

So while that dried, I cut out a couple layers of vellum with a Hugs word die and also a simple white background for some extra fun detail.  I stamped and colored up my kitty image and then trimmed him out.

When the circle die was finally dry...it took forever!!  I adhered everything together onto my die cut background and added a few clear nuvo drops for a little extra shine.

I hope you'll join us for this fun color challenge!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!! <3 read more →

Hey!!  Happy Monday!
Have you had the chance to check out the newest sketch challenge at Inky Paws??
I say this ever time, sketches are a great way to kick-start your creativity if you are struggling to come up with an idea.  And this sketch is fabulous!

For my card this week, I pulled out the adorable Newton's Birdbath stamp set.  I colored this sweet image up with my copics and then trimmed it all out so I could layer the image onto a little scene.

Then I created my background by blending a couple of distress oxide colors together and used the Radiating Rays stencil from MFT Stamps for some extra detail.  I splattered the whole background with water and perfect pearls and set that aside to dry before cutting it out using the scallop frame from the Flags and Frames die set.

I layered my scallop framed oval onto the background and embossed my sentiment onto some vellum banners that I tucked behind everything.

I hope you'll give this sketch a try!  Can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Thanks for stopping by! <3 read more →

Happy Friday!
I hope your week has been super fabulous!  It's been chilly here in Washington!  Not sure I'm quite ready for fall, even though it's my favorite time of year.  Just doesn't feel like we really had much of a summer.  But alas, it's here anyhow!

Today at Sami Stamps we are doing a Think Pink showcase!  This means that each image that the DT has used will be half off for the week!  These are some super cute images, and with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, they will all work perfect for any project!

I decided to reuse an image I had created something for a long time ago.  This Butterfly for a Cause image is really sweet and I wasn't totally happy with my first go around with it.

For the first time in what seems like forever, I actually attempted to follow along for some challenges!  Both Share Joy and Creative Inspirations have a bingo board this week, so I pulled lines from both to make my card.

I started by using some distress inks and blending them out into a striped background.  I started with Squeezed Lemonade, then moved to Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Abandoned Coral, and ended with Tattered Rose.  I overlapped them just slightly in each stripe so that they had a nice flow between them.

For some extra detail and fun, I took my white gel pen and a sparkle pen and went back over each stripe to add some dots.  I tried to concentrate a lot of dots on the top left side of each stripe and then scattered them to the bottom of the stripe.  It kind of gives a fun burst feel to each color.

Then I started on my image.  I did some super quick coloring with this by creating a mask and used the same colors from the background to blend the color on!  It was fast and still looks awesome!  To finish it off, I did a little light stippling around the image with some super soft blue colors.  I may have gone a little crazy with the dots on this card...but it was too much fun to stop!

The sentiment is from the WPlus9 set Sending Hoping Wishing.  I white heat embossed that onto some vellum and then trimmed it out into a double flagged banner.  There are some Sparkling Clear Sequins scattered around the card to pull it all together!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the wonderful DT creations!

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:
    Creative Inspirations #258-Bingo (white, distress, dots)
    Fussy and Fancy #173-My Favorite Things (distress inks and sparkle!)
    Incy Wincy Designs-Things That Fly
    Share Joy Challenge #55-Tic Tac Toe/Sketch (ink sponging, orange, sequins)
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #250-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting!
<3 Emily

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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

 

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Happy New Year!
Hard to believe it is already 2015!  The start of the new year brings new challenges your way as well!  Starting with Meljen's Designs!  We've made this weeks challenge easy for you since we probably all are still recuperating from holiday vacations, so it's Anything Goes!

I kept my card pretty simple.  Been fighting a head cold the last few days and didn't have much energy to stand around too long.  But I still wanted to play with some of the new goodies I received for Christmas :)

I pulled out the Falling Hearts die from Simon Says and created a stencil with it so I could ink up the hearts and also add a layer of clear embossing powder over top so they would shine.

The image I've used is the adorable new Fluffy Baby Penguin.  I just love this cutie!!!  Colored him all up with my markers and added some glitter pen to the heart and his cheeks.  A couple of stripes of glitter ribbon behind the image finish off the card nicely.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will join in this fun challenge!!  <3

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Happy Friday!  And Happy Halloween!
It has been a busy week here in my little apartment.  I always love to spoil the group that Matthew works with during the holidays, and sometimes just because.  They work so hard, they deserve a treat.  So I've been busy baking up a couple hundred cookies for them to enjoy today!  Don't get me wrong, other than crafting, baking is the next best activity that relaxes me.  I could bake all day, ever day.  But standing on my feet that long, and frosting that many cookies...oy...that was a lot of work :)
It's all worth it though because I know they are grateful, and will totally devour those tins of cookies :)

Today is usually a new release day at Sami Stamps, but instead Sami has decided to do something a little different.  She allowed each of us on the design team to select an image from a past release to use on our projects, and for today only (Friday Oct. 31) those images we selected are available for $1.50 each!!  What an awesome deal!

She is also running a limited time sale of 35% off, so don't miss out!  Run over there now and grab some stamps!!

So for my card, I decided to go wintery...I know I know...I've been dreading the change in seasons and holidays...I've tried so hard to avoid making Christmas cards until now, but they just keep creeping onto my to-do list.  While this card isn't Christmasy necessarily...it's close.

I do adore this image.  And the card turned out super cute too.  Ok, I love it! :)
I've used the My Snowey Friend image and colored it all in with my markers.  Then I trimmed around each image individually so that I could position them correctly on my card.

For the background, I laid down a few colors of distress ink to make a soft snowy blue sky.  I wanted some dimension and depth to my snowflakes, so I used 2 stencils over the distress inks.  The first one I used is a dots background that looks like falling snow.  I laid that over my background and then used a baby wipe to blot up some of the ink.  It fades it out just enough so the snowflakes look like they are in the background.  I could have misted it and then dabbed up the water, but I didn't want the water to seep under the stencil.

Then I placed a new stencil from Memory Box called Tiny Snowflakes over the background, secured it down and applied some texture paste over top.  Once I peeled the stencil up, I coated the whole thing with some sparkly embossing powder and heated it all up.  Applying the heat helped the texture paste bubble really well so it adds some fun dimension to the flakes.

I die cut out a few hills from the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio set and coated them with the same glitter embossing powder.  Then added my image.  I wanted there to be snowflakes in front of them as well, so once the snowman and little kid were added, I replaced the stencil and added a few more snowflakes with the texture paste, following the same steps as the background.

This card is just so adorable!  I love this sweet image and all the soft wintery blues are really helping to get me into the winter/Christmas mood.  Maybe I will get started on some Christmas cards this week :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Card Mania #58-Buttons
    DigiStamps4Joy #103-Anything Goes
    Divas by Design-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Sweet Sunday Sketch  #242

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to go check out Sami Stamps to see the awesome creations by the design team.  They always blow me away!! <3

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Good morning!
Stopping in on this rainy morning to share a few cards I worked on this week to go along with a few more challenges over at Winnie & Walter.

This first set of cards goes along with a challenge to choose a stamp set from both Simon Says Stamp and Winnie & Walter and make 2 projects with them (Day 3).
I chose to use Flower Friend from SSS, and The Big, The Bold & The Happy from Winnie & Walter.

This was the first card I made.  I really loved a tutorial by Jennifer McGuire using this same set where she stamped her image in white pigment ink and colored over it with pencils.  So thought I would give it a shot.  My pigment ink wasn't the best...it's one of the old Stampin Up pigment inks that they no longer carry and it just isn't as smooth as I would like it to be.  But maybe that's okay, because it gave the flowers a little texture, but was hard to color over.

For the sentiment, I die cut out the banner shape right from the flower panel and did a little inlaying to make it one layer.  Finished off the flowers with some white enamel dots.

For the second card, I decided to try some multi-tone stamping, dabbing off ink around the edges to get some nice shading in the centers.

I really wasn't all that happy with this card at first.  The flowers were just a bit boring and overpowering.  But I stamped the striped background in a light grey, added the white embossing to the centers, and the little black dots, and the whole thing just sort of worked out.

It's really pretty and bright, and was fun to try out a bunch of new techniques with these fun stamps.

This card also works for the One Layer challenge from Day 4.

My final card is for the sketch that Winnie & Walter has for Day 5.  Totally love simple/fun sketches like this one and I've been trying to get into the mood to make Halloween cards, so I ran with that idea for this card.

I stamped out and colored in a bunch of silhouette trees and layered a few behind some vellum so they were in the background.  The kitties are from the You Are Pawesome set from SSS, and I used a hat from the Lawn Fawn Critters in Costume set.

For the sentiment, I mixed up a few embossing powders because I wanted it in black, but I wanted it to sparkle and I don't have any sparkly black embossing powder yet.  I think mixing two together worked out pretty well..gave me the effect I was looking for :)

Finished the card off with a few Lawn Fawn bats in the sky.  I just love the little witchy kitties!  That hat totally belongs on them :)

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

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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

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Happy Monday!
I've scheduled this post, so hopefully it shows up properly :)

We have started a new challenge at Digi Makeover and this week it's Thinking of You!
My cards have seemed to focus more on this theme lately.  I find them more versatile that way, and easier to send for any occasion.

This weeks card turned out super simple but I love it anyhow!

The sun rays look super neon in the picture...they really aren't that bright :)
I've used the adorable sun from Jen's Sunshine, colored in with my pencils.  The middle has been cut out and mounted with some foam tape for some dimension.  I did a little stitching at the top of the blue banner, and layered a few more flagged scraps under the sun.

For the sentiment, my original plan was to use one from the Jen's Sunshine set, but of course I forgot to print it on the card panel before assembling everything...so I had to dig around my stamps for something else.

I ended up piecing a few together, but I think it works out perfectly!

Stop by and join in the fun this week!  We'd love to see your Thinking of You cards!! <3

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Happy Friday!
Well right now I am off in the middle of nowhere Vermont spending a much needed week of doing nothing with my husband.  It's our 10 year anniversary getaway and I'm so happy that we finally got to do something!  Especially since it's in the mountains :)

So today is a new release at Sami Stamps, and I just absolutely love these new images!!  I say that every time, I'm sure...because Sami just does such an awesome job with her releases!!  This release is called Fashionable Halloween-Witches and Whiskers, which means more kitties!!!

This first image I used is called Witch Beauty.

I loved the sweet little kitty peaking around her skirt, it's so adorable!!  I paper pieced the dress and left the card pretty simple (mostly because I was in a bit of a hurry to get packed for our vacation).  I made a cute little rosette with some of my new orange washi tape, and then cut out a perfect sentiment from Create with TLC.

This second image is called Witch and Whiskers, and oh-my-gosh it is so sweet!

I decided to do something not Halloween with this image because I just loved the closeness and love being displayed between the kitty and the witch.  So once again I paper pieced her dress and colored everything else in with my pencils.  I stamped a simple but perfect sentiment along the backside of the image.  It's just perfect!  I love the sweet little nose bump going on in the image!  Reminds me so much of my sweet little kitties :)

Just another fabulous release from Sami!!  Be sure to check out her website to join in our current challenge:  Halloween Colors
And visit her Etsy shop!!

Thanks for stopping by!!  <3

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Happy Sunday!  Wow...what wicked weather we are having!  It's like I'm swimming through the air.  And I don't like it.  Nights have been miserable here for sleeping...even with our air conditioner.

But with so much moisture in the air, the thought of swimming ties in great with my card!
Addicted to CAS has started up a new challenge for the next 2 weeks, and the theme is circles!  I have been trying my hand a little harder at doing clean and simple cards.  They aren't easy, but I like to think I'm getting better at them.  Paper Makeup Stamps is their sponsor, so I am thrilled to be guest designing for them on this challenge!

Here is what I came up with for circles:

Isn't this just so cute!!?  I saw this background technique done by Kelly at Lawn Fawn where she used the backs of her circle stamps to make a background.  (you can watch the video here)  Anyway, it looked so fun I decided to try it!  I made a different card first to see how I liked it and had so much fun I went on to make this card. Now, I didn't have any varying sized circle stamps so I had to cut out my own...lol :) 

To make the bubbles I just stuck the "stamp" to my finger and the pressed the outside of the stamp into the ink, then dabbed it onto the paper.  I love the bubbles effect it gave and the card turned out so cute!  I added a little glitter around the bubbles so they sparkled a bit.

Then colored up Angie the Angelfish with my pencils and a few stickles and mounted her onto a stamped scallop circle with a sweet printed sentiment tag.  All done!
Super cute and pretty simple :)

Stop on by the Addicted to CAS challenge and join in the fun this week! read more →