A trio of Poppies 21

Hi! There's a lot of exciting things going on in the paper crafting world! In case you missed it, Prima started revealing their CHA Winter 2016 Sneak Peeks! Please be sure to visit the Prima blog and take a look at what new Prima products will be coming your way in the new year! Also, please be sure to stop by the More Than Words Challenge blog to see how you may be able to win some amazing prizes!

I've been practicing painting flowers in my art journal. I used acrylic paints to paint this page but next time, I'm going to give oil paints a try. I'm practicing brush strokes and different techniques in hopes of painting a couple of pieces that I can hang in my home. 

Thanks so much for stopping by ~ I hope you have a wonderful day!
Be sweet :)

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delight in life... 25

Hi there! I hope you are having a great week! Today I have a couple of art journal pages to share that were inspired by the Donna Downey Studios 1ST SEMESTER - 48 WEEKS ONLINE COURSE which I highly recommend if you are looking to learn new techniques or refresh your skills.

I followed Donna's tutorial substituting products I had on hand:

The first page, features a beautiful vintage image that was transferred to the page. I'm lovin' the aged, rustic look:

She's not perfect but worked well for mage pages :)

I pulled out the 12" x 12" Crafter's Workshop brick stencil and created a lot of texture using Liquitex Stucco paste along with the stencil: 

The window frame was die cut using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and the sentiment is from a Stampin' Up stamp set that dates back to 2007!

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you are looking to get your creative MOJO jump started or are interested in learning many techniques, please be sure to visit Donna Downey Studios.
Be Sweet ;)

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Happy St. Patrick's Day! 34

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all whom celebrate! Today I have a card to share that I made for my dear Irish DIL in celebration of St. Patrick's Day featuring a variety of pretty ColourArte products. 

To create this card, I added lots of texture to a piece of watercolor paper using a stencil and modeling paste. Once dry, I randomly applied Radiant Rain Fern and Radiant Rain Honey Dew sprays. I topped it off with a Honey Dew colored bow and a shaker full of pretty sequins.

For sketch inspiration, I joined along with the current As You See It challenge:

as well as this month's Mixed Media Monthly Card challenge where the theme is Spring:

Many thanks for stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)








ColourArte products used on card:
Radiant Rain Fern
Radiant Rain Honey Dew

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love 44

Hi there! Today I have a mixed media style Valentine's Day card to share featuring lots of texture:

For color, I combined the following various ColourArte Silks Acrylic Glazes: SLK-140 Bolivian Blue, SLK-148 African Jade and SLK-121 Stargazer:

To create texture to the background, I used texture paste along with the MFT Brick Wall stencil and Golden Gel Beads:

The trio of die cut grungeboard hearts were covered with crackle paste. Once dry, ColourArte Silver Bells Silks Acrylic Glaze was applied to give the hearts a shimmery metallic appearance: 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
For sketch inspiration, I joined along with the current cardabilities sketch challenge:

I was inspired by the metallic hearts in the current Fusion challenge inspiration photo:

and for the theme inspiration, the current Mixed Media Card Challenge LOVE themed challenge:

Many thanks for stopping by ~ I hope you have a great Tuesday!
Be Sweet ;)

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believe... 34

Hi there! I'm so proud of April because she will be graduating from Arizona State University on May 10th then she is packing her bags and relocating to San Francisco to start her life with Jerry :)! Last weekend, we spent all day Sunday making 25 invitations for her graduation ceremony which involved a photo shoot in my backyard courtesy of Scott of course ;) 

I made a canvas for April / Jerry featuring one of the photos that were taken that day:

To create this canvas, I first applied a generous layer of Golden fiber paste which creates an awesome textured background to work with.

 Once dry, I applied MANY layers of various paints and inks.

 I finished it off with a few chipboard pieces that I coated with embossing enamel for a white shimmery look and adhered various blossoms and Prima trinkets.

I am honored and thrilled to share a few cards that I recently had published in the awesome Simply Cards & papercraft magazine which is full of a ton of inspiring projects from crafters around the world! I personally believe that getting published is like winning the paper crafting lottery :) The one below was featured in the Simply Cards & papercraft 106 issue:

and the two below were featured in the Simply Cards & papercraft 107 issue:

For color inspiration, I joined along with The Play Date Cafe which happens to be April's favorite color combo :)

Many thanks for visiting! I hope you have a great day / evening!
Be Sweet ;)

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Happy Girls...A Mixed Media Canvas & a tutorial 52

 Hi there! Hope you are having a great day / night! I have the day off from work and before I go for a bike ride, I took the time to create a mixed media canvas to share with you today inspired by Anna Dabrowska featuring a fun photo of Meredith ;) Meri looooves to play with makeup so one weekend, she brought her case over and this is what she came up with:

I combined various MFT buttons, canvas flowers made using Die-namics dies along with metal and chipboard embellishments. The canvas flower shown below was made using  Die-namics Pretty Posies dies:

The canvas butterfly was made using Die-namics Butterflies and the heart (hidden behind the gear) was made using Die-namics Hearts a Plenty:

More canvas flowers made using Die-namics Perfect Petal Trio and Die-namics Upsy-Daisy dies:

and the sentiment is from MFT Clearly Sentimental about Audrey Hepburn:

Thanks so much for visiting ~ I hope you have a great weekend!
Be Sweet ;)

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Happy Birthday Tina! 43

Hi there! Today is my dearest sister Tina's birthday! She is currently out of town traveling with her job so we have to celebrate when she returns. I made her this mixed media canvas board using a combination of MFT stamps, paints, markers, molding paste and chalk pastels.

I started by creating a collage of patterned paper on the canvas board, then using a mixture of paints, molding paste and a stencil, I added the damask design. Collaged and painted the vase then added the bouquet of MFT flowers that were made using the following stamp sets: MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #1 and MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2. If you want to see a tutorial that I made creating a painted vase of flowers, please feel free to check out my tutorial HERE. 

I painted the Daffodils from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #1, the Daisies and Roses from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2 using a variety of paints then outlined using a variety of Pan Pastels and Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. To complete my project, I swiped a layer of a few different colors of Pan Pastels over the background. 

For texture inspiration, I referred to Christy Kinard's beautiful gallery and for color inspiration, I joined along with The Play Date Cafe:

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you have a great Tuesday!
Be Sweet ;)

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