Hello!!!
I hope you are ready for another fun challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  This week we want to see your birthday themed cards!!  And we have an awesome sponsor for you - Winnie & Walter!!!  They have provided us with some uber amazing products for this challenge so be sure to stop by the Tuesday Throwdown blog to see lots of inspiration!

For my card, I have used the Scenery: Stripes stamp set and the In A Word: Hello Cutaway die.  I have been dying to get my hands on a stripe stamp set for some time now, but they were always sold out or I opted to go with something else...so when the opportunity came to get this set from Winnie & Walter, I didn't hesitate :)

I figure you can never go wrong with having a good stripe set in your collection.  There are a million things you can use it for!! 

So I used one of the solid stripes in the set to stamp some blue and yellow stripes for my background.  Originally I was just going to do an opening with the word die hung across it...but then decided it would look better as a shaker card!  So I filled it with some fun Pretty Pink Posh sequins that coordinated well with the background.  Then added a solid black frame around the oval and adhered my Hello word across the front.

The final detail I added was a few scattered sequins around the outside and some little black dots.  Honestly, the card could have gone without these...I'm not super fond of them.  But it's too late to remove them now, so oh well :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!! <3

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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

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Hello everyone!!
Today is a huge day for me.  Today I released my very first line of greeting cards!  This may not seem huge to some people, but this is something I have been working on for months.

The purpose of this was I wanted to have a line of cards that would stick around in my shop.  Something that I could replicate relatively easily and always have it available for purchase.  I love doing one of a kind cards, but those aren't always as appealing as a set of cards at a lower cost. 

The details of this release (which can be found on Etsy):
~There are 10 new designs!!
     ~5 of these designs are available as packs of 6
     ~5 of these designs are special occasion cards available for single card purchase, but can be    
          purchased in multiples if desired

~Each design has multiple color options for you to choose from!
     ~I tried to keep all the colors close to the same from card to card so there wasn't a huge difference
       in each one

~You have 6 basic sentiments to choose from!!!  This is perfect for your grab and go, or need a card  
   quick type of situation
     ~Sentiments available:
           ~Congrats!
           ~Get Well
           ~Happy Birthday
           ~Hello!
           ~Thank You
           ~Thinking of You

~All the cards are blank inside unless you want a custom sentiment added.  I do this so that you can write whatever you want without being limited on space

~Envelopes are always included

~The card packs are shipped in clear boxes within the shipping box to ensure they are protected while in transit, and you have something to keep them stored in until use.

This release was really spurred by one huge event for me though....
My application was accepted by Amazon Handmade!!!   I am still working on getting that shop set up, but in the next few days you will be able to purchase everything I just released on Amazon!  How cool is that!? 

And because of Amazon, Scrappy Sweet Creations is now an official business!!  I can't believe the huge steps forward this has taken, from just being something to keep me busy to my actual business!  I love my job! :)

This whole process of getting the business running to putting together the card line has been a huge undertaking for me.  It's something I've never really done before and it's been a lot of hard work figuring out the designs I wanted to release, making sure they had some sort of flow to them, and then putting physical products together so I knew what production time would be like and had something to photograph and post....it's been a good 3 months of working on this, but I'm so glad it all came together.

And I'm thankful to you...each and every one of you...for sticking by my side, showing your support and giving me the little boosts I needed to keep pushing forward.  I love you all!!

So, after all that are you ready to see the release??  I'm only going to show you a few cards...you have to go to my Etsy shop (or Amazon when that is set up) to see the full release!

I'm so excited!  And I hope with this greeting card release, you will see something you really want to have.  That's what I'm here for, to provide you with handmade greeting cards that are perfect for every situation.  Everyone loves to receive handmade cards and I hope that you will think of me when you need one :)

Thank you so much!!! <3 read more →

Happy Good Friday!!!
I'm here to share a super adorable card using some images from our most recent Sami Stamps release.  While these images were meant for Easter, I thought they looked super cute together for a wedding card.

See!!  Aren't they adorable!?

I've been obsessed with ink blending lately so of course I did that through a stencil for my background.  I used some Worn Lipstick and Hickory Smoke to create a super gorgeous swirl pattern.

Then I arranged my images - Little Miss Fancy Chick and Mr. Gentleman Chick - the way I wanted them (I really wanted them to look like they are holding wings :) ), printed them off and colored them in with my colored pencils.  Of course I had to use the roses from the image I used in last weeks card.  I love Sami's flowers, and these rose vines are no exception!  I trimmed 2 images apart so that they would create an arch above the happy chicks.

The image was framed with a scallop cut piece of vellum and I mounted that over a piece of gorgeous lace.  Then used a few Winnie & Walter stamps from the Big Bold You and Sparkle sets to create my full sentiment.  I scattered a few Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear sequins around the card and added little black dots to the centers.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Fab n Funky #297-Flowers
    Inkspirational #104-Pink and Grey
    The Challenge #65-Photo Inspiration (I loved the bright pink flowers!)
    Word Art Wednesday #222-Anything Goes

I hope you have a fabulous Easter weekend!  Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Tuesday!
We're starting a new challenge today at Tuesday Throwdown - Create Your Own Background!
Our fabulous sponsor is DRS Designs, and they have provided the team with some awesome images to use!
I chose to use the Argyle Background image for my card:

I started my card by filling a word document with the argyle pattern so that it would cover an entire card.  Once it was printed, I blended a couple of distress ink colors in around the edges so that the center remained light to help highlight the rest of the details on my card.

I had a few roses (from Winnie & Walter's Elsa's Flora) left over from a large batch of cards I had put together for the Lasting Hearts Card Drive, so I grabbed a few of those and arranged them on the card.  Then used the Prayers die cut from the Hero Arts Prayers set and cut it out from a few layers of white cardstock.  I layered them together and then adhered the rest of the sentiment, which was white heat embossed onto vellum, under the 'P' and glued the whole thing down.

I really wanted to keep this card simple, so I skipped all the extra embellishments.  Honestly, I don't feel it needs them.  This card turned out perfect and I had enough supplies left over to get a second one made!  Love it when that happens :)

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

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    CASology #186-Distress
    Crafting When We Can #113-Use a Digi  (the Argyle Background is a digi image)
    Word Art Wednesday #220-Anything Goes
Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Wednesday!
Around Christmas this last year I found out that a dear man that was a huge part of my life growing up had passed away.  I knew he was sick, so it was expected...but it was still a huge shock and left me pretty down for a few days.  This man...I don't really know what to say about him.  He was so amazing!  He was so connected with his faith it beamed from his face, and every word he spoke was uplifting and positive.  He reminded me so much of my dad and that made me love him even more.  I will miss him so much...but I know that heaven gained an amazing person, and I'm sure he's up there now putting his auctioneer skills to good use :)

Since this family meant so much to me, I really needed to send them a card of sympathy.  These types of cards suck to make...no one wants to put together something out of sorrow...but I knew I had to.  And I'm glad I did because the whole time I made this card, memories flooded through my brain of this wonderful person...and yeah, the tears streamed down my face a few times...but I think that made this card even sweeter...because it's dedicated to him...

I used the Winnie & Walter Elsa's Floral set for this card.  The roses in there felt perfect for this card.  I wanted a few buds to help fill in the spray so I stamped a bunch of each rose, and then created masks so I could get just the centers of each flower.  Since I ended up cutting each flower out, I probably didn't need the mask, but it sort of helped me visualize the whole card better having just the buds stamped.

I used my Inktense pencils for everything, adding bits of depth to help the flowers pop.  I wanted the card to remain simple so I kept the embellishments minimal.  Just a few perlen pen dots scattered around the flowers and little shimmer.

The sentiment is from the Hero Arts Prayers set.  I'm so glad I purchased this set during Simon Says Stamps Stamptember collaborations.  It really is perfect for these cards.  Everything is white embossed onto vellum and then I wrapped that piece of vellum around the whole card front and adhered it on the back.  There are a few score lines around the edge, just for a final finishing detail.

Not a favorite occasion to send a card for...but for it's purpose and who it's for, I think it's perfect....he's always in my heart <3

This card is for the following challenges:
    Case This Sketch #154
   
    Incy Wincy Designs-White with Splash of Color

Thanks for visiting.

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Happy Saturday!
I totally meant to get this post up much earlier in the day today...but Matthew and I have been working under the house to get our furnace fixed...what a pain!  I don't do well in small spaces...and being surrounded by spiders - eek!  But we got things taken care of and our repairs seem to have fixed everything with the heating, which is fabulous!  It works better than it ever has in the 8 years we've owned this house - Woohoo!!

So onto my very late post for today :)
I purchased the beautiful Big Bloom stamp set from Simon Says Stamp during their Stamptember event this year, but had not had the chance to do anything with it.  So I forced myself to pull it out this week and let my brain wander with ideas for it.

I was inspired by the sketch at Mojo Monday this week and set to work on my card.

You have no idea how much fun this card was to make!  That flower!  Wow!  I decided to keep the image as one piece and not do any layers besides the center.  So I pulled out my new Inktense pencils and started to color in the image, adding water to smooth everything out and intensify those colors.

In the shadow areas I layered up lots of color to get some really dark depth and kept the centers of each petal nice and light.  This image took me awhile to color.  I was really afraid of messing it up, so I took my time and got everything colored the way I wanted it.

While that dried, I added a little embossing paste over a heart stencil and then let some Hickory Smoke distress ink run over top of that (just got that distress color...wow!  Love it!!).  It created really cool water streaks and highlighted those hearts.  Let me share the sketch I followed so I can describe what I used for each shape.

 

I used the large flower in the circle space, figured that fit well.  Then the little square behind that circle is what I intended the embossed hearts to represent.  I felt those worked better for me than trying to find paper that I enjoyed or felt worked with my image.  

For the stripe running behind the circle, I die cut a little scallop border, and then added a little pink striped piece of paper on top of that to tie it all together.  I embossed my sentiment onto some vellum and added it behind the center of the flower.  It's on a little bit of an angle because I didn't want it to fully cover that sweet pink border I added :)

To finish the card, I did another thin stripe of that pink paper along the side and scattered some Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh around the card.

So much fun!  I adore this gorgeous card, and I'm so happy with how it all turned out!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

    A Gem of a Challenge #160-Female Birthday

    Crafty Catz #306-Flowers

    Creative Inspirations #342-Florals

    Mojo Monday #429
    Share Joy Challenge #17 

    Simon Says Stamp-Something New

    The Crazy Challenge #213-Celebrations

    Time Out #47-Birthdays

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!
I know it's super late in the evening for me to be posting, but I am so proud of these cards that I had to share them right away!

I was in a little funk this morning, trying to put ideas to paper and failing with every attempt.  It had me super frustrated and angry...but I kept trying...and I'm glad I did.  With a little inspiration from some challenges, I was able to create 2 cards that I am absolutely in love with.  Probably my favorite holiday cards so far this year.

It started with a red poinsettia.  I ordered the amazing new Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Elsa's Flora stamp set as soon as it came out.  Every single one of those images spoke to me..I knew I had to have it.  I've mulled ideas over in my head with it a lot since getting it, and the poinsettia just kept popping back up.  I decided to try a few different ways to color it in: watercolor like the red one above, and using distress inks with a shimmer mist like you'll see in my second card.

My first few attempts were major failures...but that was okay because I was just playing.  When I broke out the watercolors though, this whole card just came to life in my mind.  I colored in the poinsettia and the pinecones and did some washes over the white embossing of the pine branches.

I used a wood grain background stamp from Hero Arts and did a second generation stamping of it onto some kraft cardstock.  Then cut a few diagonal slits in it so I could put some silver glitter paper behind it all.  I had tried the layout with the glitter paper on top and it was too much, so I thought recessing it down behind the wood grain would look better...and it did!!

I popped the wood grain paper up with some fun foam and then started to assemble my flower arrangement.  Everything really came together easily, so I finished it off with a cute sentiment from the Winnie & Walter Eat Drink Gingerbread Man stamp.  I only inked up the bottom line for this card :)  A few white enamel dots and that was it!  I didn't add any shimmer to this card because I thought the glitter paper was enough.

Now for the second card, I did almost the exact same thing but I changed up the colors a little:

For this poinsettia, I used a little bit of Vintage Photo distress ink just in the middle, and then misted it from above with some shimmer mist.  Then set it aside to dry...and holy wow!  It is so gorgeous!

So much sparkle!  I changed the glitter paper underneath to a sort of brownish bronze.  The silver didn't work very well with the white poinsettia.  I also used a different sentiment stamp and red enamel dots instead of white.  But overall, very much like the first card. 

I'm just proud of myself for getting 2 cards done at once!  That never happens!!  Go me :)  Maybe I can make it a habit?  Probably not...

Anyhow, thanks for visiting and have a fabulous weekend!!  <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Retro Sketches #189
    The Challenge #50-Red, White, Silver, Kraft

    The Corrosive Challenge #237-Add a Sentiment
    Word Art Wednesday #209-Anything Goes

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Hi Everyone and happy Tuesday!!
I hope your weekends were fabulous and the week has started off with a bang!  We celebrated Matthew's birthday with friends on Sunday at our place.  It was fantastic and I'm thankful for those that came :)

We have an awesome color/image challenge for you this week at Tuesday Throwdown!  It's perfect for fall.  And our amazing sponsor this week is Winnie & Walter!!!  They have kindly provided materials for our team to use on their projects.

I chose the In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set for my project.  I adore all the giant flowers and can't wait to put more of them to paper!

To begin my card, I stamped all the leaves and the fun little flower/berry branch onto watercolor paper and heat embossed them in a gold and bronze powder.  Then did some really simple watercoloring by covering the image with water first, and just dropping my paint in the centers.  The clean water pulls the paint out and gives it a great fade.

While those were drying, I worked on my background.  I started by blending together Faded Jeans and Black Soot.  I really wanted a dark blue at the bottom but using just the blue wasn't getting it there.  You have to be careful when blending ink on watercolor paper though.  This type of paper doesn't allow the ink to soak in very quick, so it sits on top for quite awhile and if you rub too hard to blend the ink, you're just going to pick it back up.  So I did sort of a dabbing motion with the black and again with the dark blue over top of it.

Then added Broken China above the Faded Jeans and blended that out to a nice white at the top.  I felt the bottom needed a little bit more interest, so I pulled out a few of the words from Winnie & Walters Big & Bold sets and lined them up.

When you do tone on tone stamping, you can usually use the same ink that was put in the background like I did here.  I used the Faded Jeans color for my stamping.  You can see it gets a little hard to see at the very bottom where there is black as well.  But for the most part, when you do ink blending, you're not applying the full strength of the color.  So this allows you to stamp something that is at full strength and have it show up over those colors.  It's an awesome technique and really adds a lot to the projects!

To finish the card off, I cut out 3 layers of the Hello die cut from Winnie & Walter and heat embossed it with glittery gold.  A simple piece of twine was wrapped around everything and tied in a bow, and then I added a couple of glossy accent dots around the lower corners.  This has been a fun way for me to add a little more detail and dimension without too much bulk, or worrying that I don't have the right color of gems or sequins :)

I hope you've enjoyed this awesome card!  Give the tone on tone stamping a try and let me know in the comments below how it went for you!  I'd love to check your projects out!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to CAS #72-Leaves
    Crafty Cardmakers #148-Make it Sparkle
    Simon Says Stamps-Die Crazy
    Winnie & Walter's Join in to Win 

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!...evening!
This card seriously took me all...stinkin...day!
Between not having a set plan or design, to getting distracted by my own brain a thousand times, to still not having a plan....ugh...it just took forever!
But maybe that's a good thing, because in the end I absolutely love this card!

I haven't really done a card like this before (meaning, cluster of flowers behind a die cut sentiment)..so getting the flowers placed in an appealing way was tough for me.  I think that's probably what I struggled with the most...and coloring them.

I started by stamping these roses from the Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Addie's Garden set in a super light blue ink.  My original plan was pink, but the coloring didn't come out right and my blue's matched better...
Once they were all stamped, I pulled out my Spectrum Noir pencils and lightly colored them all in.  I really wanted the tips of the petals to be super soft, so I kept a really light hand and only applied intense color to the darkest parts of the flowers.  It's not perfect, but I really love them and hope that with more practice, I can be more confident in my coloring.

I did the same steps for the leaves and cut them all out.  The Thanks die cut is a cut file from Winnie & Walter that I layered 3 times and then embossed with some sparkly silver powder.  I did a light ink blending on the background with some Tea Dye ink just to add a little more color and interest and then set about getting the arrangement together (which again...took forever...)

Once it was all laid out the way I wanted, I adhered it all down, sprinkled some Pretty Pink Posh sequins around the flowers and added little drops of glossy accents.  I also added tiny sparkly dots around the whole arrangement.  That wasn't originally in my plan, but I think it really helped finish it all off.

I hope you enjoy this card, and it inspires you in some way!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps & More #161-Anything Goes
    Chocolate, Coffee & Cards #99-Fancy & Feminine
    Craft Cardmakers #147-Floral Embellishments
    Retro Sketches #180 
    Simon Says Stamp-Use A Stamp
    Word Art Wednesday #200-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting!! <3

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Happy Friday!!!  The weekend is here!!  Woot woot!!
Now if only the weather were nice enough for us to get outside and do something...oh well..snuggles on the couch will have to do :)

I'm popping in today to share a cute card I made for Sami Stamps.  This Lights Poodle image is from an older release, but I never got around to make a card for it back then, so decided I should do that now.

This card was so much fun to put together!  It took me a few tries to get the coloring on my poodle image right, but those attempts were so worth it!  I started with the background of the image, outlining the poodle with a really light grey, then going around that with a darker grey and blending the two together.  Then the final color around the outside was the black, which I blended in with the darker grey to get a really nice halo look around the pup.

I colored in the lights with some fun bright colors, and then used a colorless blender around the outside to again get a halo, which I added just a little bit of the bulbs color to so that the lights looked like they were glowing.  I kept the colors of the poodle very simple with just some really light greys.  Since the theme of the card was coloring my world, I figured the poodle staying white was a good choice (and my previous attempt at coloring it brown was awful!...)

To finish the card, I found some matching cardstock scraps and cut them out into stitched circles with my Silhouette, laying them out across the left side of the card base.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawns Starry Backdrops set, which I heat embossed onto some purple cardstock.  I also stamped the centers of each circle with the Peppermint Zone stamp from Winnie & Walter.  A few clear sequins with a little dot of black in the middle, and some glitter brush on the lights, and it was all done!!!

Such a fun card, I just love it so much!!
Don't forget we have a sweet Anything Goes challenge running for one more day at Sami Stamps!  Don't miss out on your chance to win some of these adorable images!!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Crafting When We Can #88-Stitching
    Craft Your Passion #250-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    The Paper Shelter #192-Make it Digital

Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Happy Sunday everyone!!
Ok this card isn't really all that scary...not visually.  But making it!  Yikes!  I was scared :)  Let me explain.

One of my all time favorite companies-Newton's Nook Designs has a new challenge running right now to make a one layer card.  One Layer!  Usually for me this means making my card on a separate card panel and then just attaching it to the card base so it resembles one layer...a little bit of a cheat but it helps give me some wiggle room in case I mess up.  Well...one layer is a challenge right?  So I decided to take it for it's true meaning and go for a serious one layer card.  This meant I couldn't mess up or I'd have to start over...I couldn't goof because there was no way to cover it up...scary!!!

But I did it!  And I love it so much!  I went for a bit of a wild card...I was trying to keep the rainbowish colors a little softer, but you know...that didn't happen and they got a little bright :)  Enjoy!

This sweet kitty (from Newton's Antics) is just so darn cute!  I love it so much because we have 3 cats, and ever single one of them loves to play in boxes.  Storm isn't the biggest fan, but he'll mess around a little.  But Ezio and Cloud will fight over every box that comes into the house.  It's hilarious!  So I colored this cutie up like Cloud, using my Spectrum Noir pencils for easy blending that wouldn't bleed through the paper.

To get the colors around Cloud, I masked her off with a post it note.  I had originally just done orange around her, but decided after I got her all colored up that she needed just a touch of some red to add some depth behind her.  So I reapplied the mask to get the red applied.

The arrows...I wasn't sure if the arrows were going to work.  It was more of a trial/play card to see what I thought, and I ended up loving it so much that I finished it all off.  I kept my colors in rainbow order still.  I didn't want a ton of purple on there but just enough to complete the rainbow.  And I love the combo of the large arrows with the little ones :)  That stencil is from Winnie & Walter and I love it!

I stamped a simple sentiment and covered it with some clear sparkly embossing powder.  Then went back over all the large arrows with some shimmer brush so that they sparkle.  You can just see the shimmer on the arrows towards the top of the card...always hard to catch those in photos :)

Such a fun card, and definitely a nail-bitter challenge, but I love how it turned out so much!  I might have to keep pushing myself on this one layer style to see what I can really do with it :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #33-Orange You Glad UR CAS

    Inky Paws Challenge #18-Just One Layer
    Lawnscaping Challenge #100-Birthday
   
Thanks for stopping by today!! <3

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Happy Saturday!
As you may know from the last month or so of my posts, I'm a bit in love with sunflowers.  They are just too gorgeous and I adore adding them to my cards.  So this card is no different.  But since I've used them so much lately, I wanted to try something different with them.

So I took a shot at the no-lines technique.  I'm not sure I mastered it this first time, but it did turn out pretty good.

I stamped these sunflowers from the Lawn Fawn Our Friendship Grows stamp set in some really light distress inks before pulling out my watercolors.  Not having those lines to define each petal and add the detail in the middle was a bit frustrating because I couldn't get the right depth I wanted with the colors I chose.  But it was still super fun to finally give this technique a try, and I know that I will try it more often.

This card was made following the inspiration image over on the Winnie & Walter blog.  I loved the woodgrain in the image but I don't have any paper patterned like that.  So I attempted to make my own.  I used some watercolor paper and smeared 3 shades of brown inks across it to try and imitate a wood grain pattern.  I think it worked out pretty well!  It was fun to watch this come together as it dried.

To pull in the pinks and oranges from the inspiration photo, I used another piece of watercolor paper and added touches of pink and yellow and sprayed it with water to get it all moving.  This helped create an orange tint as well and I softened it all by lightly adding some white over the colors.  Totally love how soft but colorful it all is!  The perfect background for my sunflower woodgrain piece :)

I used just a simple sentiment, which is not normal for me, but it seemed to fit perfectly.  Then finished it all off with a few matte black sequins.  I always struggle to find good placement for sequins on my cards.  They never flow correctly it seems...but I keep trying :)

Oh yeah, and all the sunflowers have been generously sprayed with some gold glitter mist!  The sparkle is incredible on them!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #23-Watercolor
    Addicted to Stamps & More #116-Anything Goes
    Inky Impressions #180-Flowers and Leaves
    Simon Says Stamp-Use Watercolors
    Winnie & Walter-Pinspiration with Vanessa


Thanks so much for stopping by!  I will be back a little later today to share another card for a Winnie & Walter challenge..it's just in the middle of drying right now :)  <3

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Happy Wednesday everyone!!
I worked on this card last week, and then it got lost in the piles of other stuff on my desk and I forgot about it.  Do you ever lose cards on your desk?  I've been trying so hard to keep everything organized and clean up after myself each day, but some days the mess just stays...

But since I've been on a sunflower kick lately...figured what's the harm in one more? :)  I'm sure it won't be my last!

Sorry for the poor photo quality...been struggling really hard lately to get nice photos and it's frustrating me!..

But for this card I used the Our Friendship Grows set again from Lawn Fawn.  The sunflower has been white heat embossed and I did some masking to get the leaves positioned correctly.  Then I set to coloring with my ShinHan markers.  I found a gorgeous sunflower color combo that I just love and can't get enough of!  And the white outline just looks so elegant with this flower!

To keep everything one layer, I die cut out the Stitched Journaling card die from Lawn Fawn right from my patterned paper and did the same with my image so they pieced together.

To get the sentiment lined up, I first stamped it directly below the sunflower.  Then used my Spellbinders banner die to cut out the sentiment banner, fit in the Kraft piece and stamped the sentiment again, using the top of the L to line everything up.  Worked perfectly!

I kept the embellishing simple with just a few dots of liquid pearls and some Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to the whole sunflower.  Super sparkly!!  I love this card.  Just so soft and gorgeous!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Lawnscaping Challenge-One Layer
    Ooh La La #164-Clean and Simple
    The Paper Shelter #173-Embossing

Thanks for stopping by today!! <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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Happy Sunday!
I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend so far!

I wanted to stop in real quick and share a few cards that I've been working on.  If I haven't mentioned it before, I love my Winnie & Walter stamps!  Unfortunately right now I only have 1 set...but I'm dying to get my hands on more as soon as I can afford them.  But even with just one set, there are always fun new designs to make with them!

For this first card, I followed the colors and sketch that Winnie & Walter have for their Playdate #3.  I was a little intimidated to be honest.  The colors are quite different than my normal palette..but I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone and give it a shot!  Believe me...a lot of attempts went into the trash before this one stuck!

I couldn't be happier with this card!  As I mentioned, the colors for the playdate are so much different than anything I'd ever put together, but I really wanted to try.  I had this awesome patterned paper in my stash forever...the other side is covered in some gorgeous butterflies, which is usually the side I use...but this backside pattern offered up some fun ideas and I thought it would work great for this card.

Something else new and exciting for me to try was using embossing paste on only part of a stencil!  I mixed the embossing paste with some purple ink and swiped it over the Distress Grid stencil from Memory Box.  It was really really (really...) hard not to just cover the whole thing, or fill in all the little squares around the edge...I like things neat so leaving the edges messy was tough!  But I did it...and I love it!

The "Love" sentiment (from The Big, The Bold & The Happy) was a left over from a previous card attempt that I thought would work perfect on this card.  I wrapped some sparkly white thread around the card and added some wood veneer hearts that I had covered in white paint, dipped in glitter, and then coated with glossy accents.  They are so awesome and sparkly!!

Of course, since I construct my cards on the fly, I assembled everything and then decided on where to add my sentiment...which resulted in some uneven stamping...but that's okay.  It still looks awesome!  The last touch was a few enamel dots.  I layered this panel onto a patterned piece of coordinating purple paper that's been covered with a piece of vellum to help tone down the color.  Otherwise the papers just clashed too much.

I'm so in love with this card!  It's totally different for me, but so awesome!  I hope you love it too!

I'd also like to enter this card into the Creative Fingers challenge #46-Texture.

My next card is for the Winnie & Walter Share the Love Day 1 to use a rainbow palette.  Well...rainbow colors are another thing I'm obsessed with right now.  It just works for everything and I had a ton of fun making this card!

I started by adding my distress inks to a piece of watercolor paper and misting them a little to get the colors to mix.  Then I placed a stripe stencil that I created with my Silhouette over top and weighed it down with a few bottles.  Unfortunately those weights seem to have caused the water underneath to pool a bit in those areas...but overall it turned out super cool!  I love how the stripes are a bit bolder and helped bleed the colors together a bit more!

For the sentiment circle, I used the large Hello from the Winnie & Walter The Big The Bold and The Happy set.  The "miss you" is from a stamp in the Mama Elephant In My Heart set, and the dotted border is from the Simon Says Music to My Ears set.  I embossed all of those with black embossing powder on a piece of vellum because I really wanted the background to still show through.

But I wanted some dimension on that panel.  Let me tell you...trying to affix itty bitty pieces of dimensional adhesive behind those letters was not easy!  But I did it, and it looks totally awesome!

I surrounded that whole panel with some fun color matching sequins and added little tiny gems to the centers for some extra sparkle.  Love it!!

I'd like to enter this card into the AAA Cards Watercolor challenge as well.


I hope you made it through all that!  Quite a long post today...but I couldn't resist sharing these cards! :)

Have a fabulous rest of the weekend!!  Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Hey everyone!
Happy Tuesday!

We have a fun new Anything Goes challenge starting today at Tuesday Throwdown!  And we have an amazing sponsor - Freckled Fawn!!  They were so incredibly generous to send our design team a little goodie bag of materials to use on our cards!  This was so much fun!

So this card is actually my second attempt to make something.  The first one I had done weeks ago, but it just wasn't working for me...so I decided to try again.

I just love the little patterned acetate sheets they sent us!  And I discovered that those cute sheets have a protective film over them...learned that with the first card (cuz you know...I sewed the panels down and then realized there was the protective film..oops :) )  I made sure to remove it for this card before adhering the sweet heart panels to their frames :)

The Daylily image is from DigiStamps4Joy, which I have used my watercolor paints on.  The colors turned out a bit darker than I wanted...mostly because the printer ink bled pretty bad with the water...but overall I think it still turned out gorgeous.

For the sentiments, I used part of a stamp from Mama Elephants In My Heart set, and the big Happy is from Winnie & Walters The Big The Bold & The Happy, which I embossed with some sparkly embossing powder.

A few simple rhinestones in the corner and the card was done!
My plan was to follow the sketch at Seize the Sketch this week...I veered a little...but hopefully you can still tell where I got the inspiration from :)

 

Thanks for visiting!! <3

 

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