Happy Friday!!!
Stopping in to share a super cute little image with you from our most recent release at Sami Stamps!

This card is nothing like what I originally envisioned for it.  I used Mr. Pencil Peep on this card, but he was totally giving me a Harry Potter vibe from the beginning!  I tried so hard to come up with a great idea to turn it into that, but nothing was working out.  So I switched gears and want with something else.

I still wanted this cutie to be colored like Hedwig though...or at least like a white snowy owl.  So I fussed around with that for a good long while.  I didn't want to do just flat shading, I wanted there to be feathers and puffs...not sure it looks like that...but he's still cute :)

Then I set to working on my background.  I decided to do some ink blending around an embossed frame.  So, using my rubber embossing mat in my Cuttlebug, I embossed this fun design into my card front and then created a mask so I could ink the background around it.  After that was done, I cut out my owl and was starting to assemble everything, but really felt like the whole card was too plain.

So I put the die back into place that I had used for the embossing, and then used the same inks to blend on the inside of the frame.  Having the frame in place allowed for there to still be this nice white border so there is separation between the inside and outside areas.  Once it was all colored, I flicked on some white, black, and purple shimmer sprays.  Much better!  Plus now if you look close, you can see that his glasses are see through!

I printed just his glasses onto some transparency!  Cutting them apart was a bit tough but you just have to take it slow and really focus.  Before I adhered the transparent glasses, I outlined the eyes and added the white highlights in with a white gel pen so that they were a little bit bolder.  The transparency was dulling them down a bit so they needed some touching up.  Then I took some glossy accents and added little dots to the eyes and stuck the "glasses" down!  Worked like a charm!

I embossed my sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps Beautiful Life set onto some vellum and then flagged the ends and added it to my card with tiny strips of foam tape.  Scattered a few shimmy dots of glossy accents around the card and it was done!

You have just a few more days to enter our Anything Goes challenge, so don't miss out!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    As You Like It-Favorite Shaped Card Base (I don't really get into making anything other than the standard A2 size card base.  It's easy for me to visualize this style card and find great ways to use that space, whereas if I try to do any other shape, the design gets muddy or I just can't make it flow well enough.)
    Fussy and Fancy #171-Let's Fly Away
    Penny's Paper Crafty #292-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Saturday!
I hope the start to your weekend has been fabulous!  Right now I am probably in the middle of running my first ever Tough Mudder race!!  Eek!  So as you can guess, this post has been scheduled :)

I am so excited to be a guest designer over at Send A Smile 4 Kids this week!  Thank you so much for having me SAS4K!! 

The challenge there this week is to use fall colors and make a creation for kids!  The sponsors are Jelly Park (offering 4 images), QKR Stampede (offering 5 images), and Sassy Studio (offering 4 images).  Such awesome sponsors and prizes, so be sure to join in!!

For my card, I've used the adorable Jumping in Leaves image from Jelly Park.  This was such a fun image to color, with all those sweet leaves.  Just made me smile!

I paired the card with some really fun fall papers from my stash, and used a doily in the background.  To soften the doily and not have it be so stark white, I used some Antique Linen distress ink around the edges.

When I saw this fun sentiment from Create with TLC, I knew it would fit perfectly with this joyful image! 

Be sure to swing by the Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge and join in the fun!!

Thanks for visiting today!  <3

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I totally agree with that title...Disney is just too awesome to grow out of.  I still love watching the Lion King and Beauty & the Beast.  Gives me a little break from adulthood to go back in time and watch something from when I was younger.

Matthew's brother and his wife took our sweet little nieces to Disney World this past week.  We loved seeing all the fun pictures of the girls with characters like Minnie Mouse and Cinderella where they are all smiles (mostly Natalie...Clara is only a few months old :) )!  And the not so smiley ones like the pic with Goofy :)

But I wanted to send Natalie a fun little card that she could pack away in a scrapbook of this fun trip and remember that she is never too old to live a Disney life.

This card came together so perfectly I just love it to pieces!  I used the Mousey Mo image from Saturated Canary, which I have been dying to use for so long!  She's just so cute, and perfect to put on a card for Natalie.

I used papers from the Cold Hearted digital paper collection from Mindy Baxter.  The sweet colors worked so well for me to through in the pink in the image.  Then I just added a few Mickey embellishments, some glitter and paint dots, and a fun sentiment from Ginger's House and it was done!

I really hope Natalie likes it and will be reminded of all the fun she had whenever she looks at it :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Deep Ocean #53-For a Girl
    DigiStamps4Joy #68-Oh to be Young Again
    Send a Smile 4 Kids-Anything Goes
    Sketch Saturday #261

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love if you would follow me on Bloglovin and/or Facebook!! <3 read more →

Happy Monday!
Why do weekends go by so quickly?  I think Monday should be included in the weekend...for real :)

So Friday I shared with you my wedding card that featured my favorite color combo, so today I am sharing with you a card using my favorite color, which just so happens to be our challenge this week at Digi Makeover!  Convenient right? :)

(please forgive the odd quality of my pics lately...we have so much wonderful sunlight in our new apartment that I really want to use it for my card pics, but I'm not a pro at it yet and still practicing :) )

If you can't tell, my all time favorite color is BLUE!  It's also my hubby's favorite color, and funny story, on our first date he showed up with a blue Cavalier (my forever favorite car) and I knew I was going to marry him :)

I've had these funky papers in my stash forever and haven't really been able to find a good way to use them.  But my plan for this card seemed to work out perfectly to have an odd background and not something simply patterned.  The image I colored up is Hugging Fairies from Paper Makeup (LOVE!).  I was so excited to use this image, and you can now get it as a digi!!  Woot Woot!
I did my best to match the colors of the paper and then added glitter to their wings.  They just look so happy to be friends, I just love that.

Then came the fun part of the card.  I wanted to do something different than just a normal flat fronted card.  My fabulous mother-in-law gave me 2 whole binders of card pattern ideas a few years ago, so I dug those out and started searching.  Finally found one that I liked and got to work making it happen.

Ok, not all that exciting of a motion card, but it's still pretty cute!  And the fun thing with the star is that it's the same ribbon buckle I used on my wedding card.  I only cut out the outer edges instead of the entire thing to make a sun shape! 

The last little details are some marigold twine from The Twinery and some light blue liquid pearls along the bottom and in the top corners.

Be sure to use a digi and join in the fun with us this week! 

I'd love to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Let's Craft and Create #69-One for the Girls
    Shelly's Images-Kid Theme
    Simon Says-Happy Mail
    Sweet Sketch #204

Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Wednesday!!..right...it's Wednesday?  I swear I woke up this morning dreading that it was Tuesday...again...I mean, I had a nice day yesterday, but I much prefer to be moving toward the weekend instead of away :)  Are you with me on that?

So we had a pretty big event happen in our family last week.  Matthew's brother and wife welcomed their second little girl into the world on Wednesday!  I can't believe it's been a week already!  She came a day earlier than planned, but she is gorgeous in every way!  We can't wait to meet little Clara Annabelle in June when we finally get to go to MI again.  As I mentioned, this is their second little girl.  Natalie is their oldest at almost 3 years old in May.  It is going to be so much fun loving and snuggling with these 2 little sweeties when we visit!

Little girls always make me think of playing dress up!  For this past Christmas, Matthew's mom made Natalie a dress-up box and filled it with costumes!  It was so adorable watching her try on every single one of them and prance around the living room!  So now that she has a little sister, I can only imagine the fun they are going to have some day!

That was the inspiration behind my card today.  Sweet little sisters playing dress up together and dreaming of being in a fairytale.  Take a moment and remember all those times you wished you could be Belle or Cinderella...ahhh...
Ok, back to my card :)  A little picture heavy...but I love this card and want to show it off...heavily :)

The sweet image is Queenie and Princess from Saturated Canary.  This is one of those images that I have had for a long time and never got around to using it.  It was one I just longed to have in my stash so I could look at it and remember being young again.  But I figured it was about time I used it!
I used some pretty rich papers on this card.  Even though it's inspiration was fun little girls playing dress-up, I didn't want to use bright or goofy papers.  I wanted it to more reflect the royalty of what they are representing.  Thus the dark purples and black.

For my sketch, I did something a little different than I normally do.  I took the sketch from Sweet Sunday sketch

 and made it into an easel card!

It just seemed to work perfectly that way!  And once I thought of that idea...it seemed to be all I could think of, so I rolled with it :)
Here's some side views:

In this one you can see that I tucked a small tag behind the sentiment so that there was a place to write a message if desired.
The flowers are all cut with my Cameo.  The very small centers of the smaller flowers are a little tiny flower punch I have that worked well to fill the space under the pearls.
I used my MS Lace Border punch for the easel stand and tucked my flags under that.

The card came together pretty quickly once I got it all worked out, and I'm so extremely happy with it!  Thanks for stopping by and reading my long post today :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Cupcake Crafts #232-Sparkle
    Eclectic Ellapu-For a Child
    The Paper Shelter #102-Punches and Dies
    Pattie's Creations #62-Fancy Folds
    Saturated Canary #38-Good vs Evil
    The Squirrel and the Fox #38-Fairytale or Fantasy
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #179
    Sweet n Sassy Digi Challenge #94-Girl Time
    There She Goes #197-Black Cardstock
    Whoopsi Daisy-2 Patterned Papers
    Word Art Wednesday #70-Anything Goes

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I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  We did a whole lot of nothing...which is nice.  Went out to eat Friday night for my husbands birthday and then came home and played Borderlands 2 together...all weekend :)  It was nice.  I'm not much of a video game player but sometimes we find one that works for both of us and we just play the crap out of it :)

But alas...the weekend had to end..I don't like Mondays.  I love having my husband home with me.  I love not having to really do anything because it's the weekend.  But they always end...oh well :)

Today starts a new challenge at Paper Makeup and this week is a favorite-Anything Goes!!  Super easy :)

I had my husband help me with my card this week.  Paper Makeup has so many wonderful images, I needed a little help choosing which one to use.  So I had him choose/come up with a theme.  His explanation for this image was "the only reason my brother and I ever checked our height was to see if we were tall enough to go on the rides."  Makes sense :)  So I ran with that idea.  I printed off some Disney paper and followed the sketch at Sketch Saturday.

The image is Beyond Measure, colored with my colored pencils.  I typed up and printed out the sentiment, then trimmed around it with my scallop scissors.  The stars are cut from the George cartridge and I made up some buttons to go in the centers, then strung some cord around them.  I added a few black and white staples to the corners...not sure if I like how they look but they were fun to try for once.  I drew in some stitching and added some black and yellow ribbon and it was done!

I'm actually very happy with how it turned out!  Not my normal theme for a card but I love it :)

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
    Send a Smile 4 Kids-Anything Goes
    Sketch Saturday #226
    Totally Papercrafts #135-For a Child

Swing on over to the Paper Makeup challenge blog and check out all the fabulous creations by our Makeup Artists!!  And welcome our guest designer this week-Donna!

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I'm back again today with another post on Child's Play, the charity organization that I talked about in my previous post.

Child's Play is a charity based in Seattle, WA that works to contribute games and game consoles to different hospitals around the world so that the children staying in those hospitals have a fun way to distract themselves "from an otherwise generally unpleasant experience." (from their About section)

Matthew and I are drawn to this charity because our lives are submerged in the gaming industry.  With Matthew being a game developer at Ubisoft Entertainment, video games are a huge part of our lives, and we know how a child can benefit from having access to age-appropriate games.  Games can be a great distraction from whatever treatment they are receiving and help them feel like a normal kid, giving them something familiar to handle in an unfamiliar place.

And it's not just games that Child's Play strives to donate to hospitals.  Tablets, and Ipods are so beneficial to the hospitals.  One testimonial on the Child's Play site states that Ipads and other tablets are being used to help children communicate with their parents if they are in 2 separate hospitals.  How amazing our world of technology is now!  And how comforting for a child to be able to talk to their parents even if they are not able to be there in the room with them.  All with the help of Child's Play.

I encourage you/ask you to please take a few minutes and look around the Child's Play website.  See their work.  Read the testimonials and know how much the work they are doing is impacting patients lives!  It's so incredible to read!

So here is my card for today.  This is the "girl" version for my Child's Play charity cards.

The card base is cut from the Lacy Labels cartridge.  I welded 2 of them together, then cut out a third as the top layer so it was the full shape.
I used the Balloon Wishes image from Saturated Canary.  I love the soft colors of the card and how everything flows together :)
For the 2 flowers in the corner, I tried to do stamp resisting on them...it sort of worked...I tried to do it on glossy paper like all the tutorials instruct, but I couldn't get the embossing powder to stick!  Anyone have any tips for that?  So I did it on normal card stock, embossed it with clear embossing powder and rubbed my pink ink pad over it :)  Rubbed off whatever I could from the embossing and cut around the 2 stamped flowers.

The bees are a stamp that I have had for...oh so long!  But they are so cute on this card!
I made up a few buttons in staggering sizes to put in the corner...just love making those.  The frame behind the image is wrapped with some lacy ribbon and embossed with the D'vine Swirls folder.

I used a new sentiment stamp from Cardz TV for the Big Hugs sentiment.  I love general sentiments and this one was perfect!

Then I cut out the Child's Play logo and mounted it into the corner!  Super cute!  I think it's perfect!

I have decided that for the month of September, 10% of each sale made in my Etsy shop will be donated to Child's Play.  I will also be adding my 2 Child's Play cards to my shop in the next day or two and 100% of the purchase cost of those cards will also go to Child's Play.  It's my small way of helping out a wonderful organization.

I am entering this card in the following challenges in hopes of having as many people as possible hear about Child's Play:
    Bitten by the Bug 2-All Shaped Up
    Celebrate the Occasion #78-Hey Honey (include a bee)
    Come and Get it-Light Shade of Green, Pink, and Blue
    Craft Your Passion #126-Floral Image
    The Crafty Pad #186-Anything but Square
    Catered Crop-In the Pink
    Deep Ocean #33-Things with Wings
    Digital Tuesday #176-Shaped Cards
    Divas by Design #51-Friendship
    Our Creative Corner-Dare You to Resist (use resisting)
    Ribbon Carousel #69-Beautiful Bows
    Robyn's Fetish #123-Pearls, Swirls, Glitter
    Scrappy Moms Stamps-Shape Up
    Seems a Little Sketchy #21
    Tammy's Scrapin Corner #26-Anything with Wings
    V's Sweet Ideas #3-Photo Inspiration

Thank you so much for enduring my long post once again on Child's Play :)  I hope you have a wonderful day and are encouraged to look into your own charities to support!
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Today I wanted to share with you some information about a charity that we learned about when we lived in Seattle, WA.

Many of you know that last month Krista Smith at Saturated Canary put together a fundraiser of sorts to help raise money for St. Jude's Children Hospital.  After reading through her posts about giving big and thinking about my own life and what I support, my husband and I decided that we wanted to start contributing more to different charity organizations.  There are so many out there, and most if not all of them run off of the money that they receive from gracious donors.

One such organization is Child's Play located in Seattle, WA.  Child's Play works with several hospitals worldwide to create wish lists of items that the hospital would like to have available for the patients staying there.  You can view these wish lists and donate an item by visiting their site.  They also accent donations that will go toward the purchase of new games, toys, and other items for the hospitals.

Living in a hospital doesn't seem to be an easy way of life.  And having a life threatening condition doesn't help.  But Child's Play works to make the lives of these children a little more enjoyable and interactive with the games and consoles they provide.

A quote from their "About" section seems to say it all:  "These donations allow for children to enjoy age-appropriate entertainment, interact with their peers, friends, and family, and can provide vital distraction from an otherwise generally unpleasant experience."
We all wish for distractions from some things in our lives.  Why not help provide that for an ill child?

So here is my card to go along with the Child's Play charity:

This is the Give Big Boy image from Saturated Canary.  I felt it went perfect for this theme.  I will be posting another card later today/tomorrow that also is in support of Child's Play.

I embossed the background behind the image with the traffic jam folder and then dabbed a blue ink pad across the pattern.  The red card stock behind the red ribbons are embossed with the swiss dots folder, along with the yellow flags on the banner.  The banner is cut from the Birthday Bash cartridge.  I cut out and wrote up a little Happy Birthday banner at the top that is removable...I wasn't totally set on a birthday card, but wanted something at the top of the flags.

The 3 red stars are gems that I covered in red paint :)  Worked out pretty good!
I then made a die cut of the Child's Play logo and mounted it in the corner next to the boy.

I hope this blog post helps to draw your attention to new charity organizations and encourages you to consider giving.  So many people need help in so many ways and if there is something in this world that touches your heart, there is probably a charity organization dedicated to it!  And you can always help!

I am entering this card in the following challenges in hopes of having as many people as possible hear about Child's Play:
    2 Sisters #107-Primary Colors
    A Gem of a Challenge #54-A Boy Thing
    By the Cute and Girly-Boys/Men
    Cardz TV #115-Color Play
    Cooking with Cricut #101-What did you do this Summer?
    The Crazy Challenge #128-Seeing Spots
    Divas by Design #50-Let's Celebrate
    Forever Friends #44-Embossing
    Lia Stampz #24-Red, Ribbon, Rhinestones
    My Heart Pieces-Layers Layers Layers
    My Mum's Craft Shop #72-All the 3's (3 stars)
    One Stitch at a Time #129-Use a Digi
    The Paper Shelter #79-Layers on Layers
    Pattie's Creations #51-Birthdays 
    The Pink Elephant #164-Use Patterned Paper
    Saturated Canary #25-Dotty   
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Sketches by Carly #64
    The Squirrel and the Fox #25-One for the Men
    Stampin Sisters in Christ #155-Birthday Card

Thank you so much for stopping by and enduring my long post :)  Please leave me a comment!  I'd love to hear what charities you are drawn to, or if my post encouraged you to consider your own contributions :) read more →