Happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

We're starting a new challenge at Inky Paws today!  Use some buttons on your projects!
This one was a struggle for me...mostly because while working out my card design, I quickly realized that I don't really have any buttons in my possession!  Apparently moving thousands of miles several times resulting in all of those little gems being discarded...but I worked with what I could find for this week.

I decided to do a magic slider card with the awesome and totally adorable Woof Pack stamp set.  This collection of doggies is just the cutest and I have been dying to get it colored up!  But I never realized just how much work coloring all these cuties would be.  Wowzers...that took a long time!  I need to do a little better planning of my schedule next time I got to colors these guys up!

To incorporate my button, I decided to use that as the object that gets pulled to reveal the magic underneath.  So I also stamped and stitched on a little Pull Here tag so people knew what to do.

Check out those puppies!!  So cute!  It looks a little fuzzy only because there is dimension between the acetate and the colored image and I took the photo on an angle.  But they do line up, I promise!!

I finished the card with a simple stamped sentiment from that set and called it good!  So cute!!

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

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Happy Friday!!!
We have another super cute release for you today at Sami Stamps!  This one is all about Greyhounds!  And we are starting a new challenge to add dots to your project!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image!

I've used Greyhound Friends and turned my card into a simple shaker frame!!  By putting foam tape and acetate around the outside of my image, that allowed me to put some tiny beads and sparkly shimmer dots into my shaker, while leaving my image framed in the middle.

My sentiment was black glitter embossed onto some vellum and adhered with some of the Stick It adhesive, since that doesn't show through!!  Hurray for that!

Stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this adorable release!!
Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Tuesday!
Quick little post for you today as we kick off another fun challenge at Tuesday Throwdown!  Our theme this week is New Addition and our awesome sponsor is All Dressed Up!!

We were provided with some super cute images, but I decided to use an older image for my card called Cute Got Cuter.  It doesn't appear to be in her shop anymore though...but look at that face!  He's so sweet!

I kept the layout pretty simple and just added a few glitter paste chevrons and some silver foiled chevrons.  I had a ton of those cut out from a project I did awhile ago and have been trying to figure out what to do with them.  Turns out adding a bit of glue and then covering each chevron with some foil works great!  And now they are pretty embellishments!

I decided on watercoloring this sweet pup with my Inktense pencils because...well...I'm obsessed with those now :)  The paper I used wasn't all that great and it didn't move the color around as nicely as I wanted, but I think in the end the image turned out cute anyhow!

I wanted to keep the sentiment relatively simple so I chose this adorable little saying from a Hero Arts set and embossed it in Liquid Platinum onto vellum.  Flagged the end and stuck it behind my little pup.  A few black splatters before assembling everything helped to finish off the card!

Be sure to stop by Tuesday Throwdown for this fun challenge!

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!
It feels like it's been forever since I had the chance to stand at my desk and just let my mind wander into the creative realm to come up with a card design.  My time has been so dedicated to one specific task these last few weeks, and that will be the case all through June.  But it will be worth it, I hope.  Once my confirmation comes in, I will be able to share the good news with you...but for now, thanks for sticking with me through the long gaps :)

I did manage to get a card put together quickly yesterday for Sami Stamps using an image from our most recent release.

Keeping with the theme of our current challenge to Use Stripes, I played around with my ShinHan markers a little bit.  I made a pile of all my blues and a few of my blue-greens and put them in ombre order.  Then made thick stripes across the piece of diagonal cut card stock.  I did use a colorless blender in between each color transition to try and give it a different faded look, but it wasn't as noticeable as I wanted, so I added some stitching between each color as well.

Then set to work on my Three Loyal Friends puppy image.  Dogs can be tough to color...since I usually stick to cats...but I wanted to feature several colors of Labs on this card so did a google search and had a perfect image pulled up on my computer screen while I worked.  My first go around with this image was going great until I got to the middle pup...and my markers bled so far out of the lines that I had to start over...so I printed this image again on some thicker card stock and started over.

But that little bit of bleeding ended up working in my favor in the end because I needed a mask in order to add the ink blended sunset behind these pups.  So I just trimmed out my previous colored image and added a little re-positionable glue to the back.  Once the glue was dry (you want to let it dry so that it becomes tacky), I placed it over my colored image and added my sunset!  Worked perfectly.

I kept the background plain white outside of the striped piece at the bottom.  I did add a little ripped up piece of vellum along the side and some twine to pull everything together.  The sentiment was stamped right onto the image panel in some black ink.

Remember we have our Use Stripes challenge running for this month, so stop by Sami Stamps and join in for your chance to win!  Just be sure to use a Sami Stamps image!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #197-Make Your Mark
    Crafty Catz #328-Animal Magic
    Retro Sketches #217
    Simon Says Stamp-For a Guy
    Word Art Wednesday #234-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!!!
I hope you have had a wonderful week back from the holidays!  It was rough here in our house...we got so used to staying up till 2 in the morning and waking up whenever that trying to get back to a normal sleeping pattern was tough.  But a little touch of coffee in the mornings has been helping a bit.  We aren't huge coffee drinkers, but we have found a simple blend that works for us.  I like to mix a little spoonful with some cocoa powder so it's more like a hot chocolate than coffee...but I'm weird :)

So with the slow groggy mornings brought inspiration to put together a few cards using a super cute image from the most recent Sami Stamps release - Fuzzy Cup Friends.  I used the Cup Pup image and went to town!

For this card, I started by taking a jar that was sitting on my desk and inking up the rim to use as a circle stamp to try and mimic coffee rings on my watercolor paper.  I'm not sure it fully worked the way I wanted, but it looks pretty cool in the background.  I did some splattering and inked up the edges as well so it wasn't a stark white background.

I printed off and colored up my image using Spectrum Noir pencils and some Gamsol to blend.  I have used baby oil in the past and that worked fine, but I was able to purchase some Gamsol a little bit ago and gave it a shot.  It does work a bit better than the baby oil which makes me very happy :)

Since the cups are normally all blank, I decided to do a little doodling on them with the pencils, a white gel pen, and some glittery pens as well.  I think the added detail really helps finish off the image.

Then I simply layered the image onto some glitter cardstock and vellum and mounted it onto my dry card base.  I stamped the Enjoy sentiment from the Simon Say Stamp and Winnie & Walter collaboration set Big Bloom and adhered that on the edge of the image.

My colors for the cups were pulled from Lawn Fawn's Sweater Weather paper pack, so I added a thin strip of that to the side as well, and that finished this card!

I did make another card with this image that I'll briefly describe.

It's pretty much the same card, but I watercolored the image with my new Derwent Inktense pencils and then added funny sayings to each of the cups.  I have terrible hand writing and had planned to print those on, but decided it would be easier to just write them out.  So I went super slow to try and not mess any of them up :)

Since there are so many words on the front of this card, I added the sentiment to the inside so it wouldn't clutter the front too much.

Super cute cards that I loved making!

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps, we have an Add Sparkle challenge running this month!  Just remember to use a Sami Stamps image and join in!!

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:
    Craft Your Passion #293-Anything Goes
    Fab n Funky #286-Something New
    Inky Impressions #281-All Things New
    Simon Says Stamp-Something New
    Try Stampin on Tuesday #252
    Word Art Wednesday #217-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for visiting!! <3

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Happy Friday!
I hope everyone's week has been fabulous!  We've been going through a bit of a rough patch lately because it seems like everything we own has been breaking on us.  So it's been a bit quiet on my blog because we are just trying to stay ahead of everything.  Plus, the holidays are always busy with other projects and events, so my time in the office gets short or taken up elsewhere.  I'll still pop in once in a while to share something, but it might not be as often as it has been for a while.

But today I wanted to share another sweet little image from our most recent Sami Stamps release called Holiday Cheer.

This card is a little busy...I just couldn't stop playing with some new products and the layers just kept building.  But I still think it's super cute!

I started by inking up a piece of watercolor paper with some Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon distress ink.  Then misted it a bunch to get the colors to mesh a bit and set it aside to dry.  Once it was dry, I placed the Winter Tiny Snowflakes stencil from Memory Box over top and coated it with some Bo Bunny Frost Glitter Paste.  This stuff is amazing!  I've had it for a little while now but hadn't played with it yet.  It's so super sparkly and it spreads so easily!!  Love it!!

Once that was dry, I used another new purchase, the Marvy Snow Marker!  I added dots all around the sparkly blue snowflakes.  When that dried, I hit it with my heat gun so those little white dots would puff up to look like snowflakes as well!!  So much fun!

Then it was time to work on my image.  Since our main computer totally crashed on us earlier this week, I don't have all my normal programs for card making...like Word...so I had to figure out a different way to print my image.  Silhouette Cameo to the rescue!  I used the print and cut feature to get my image printed in the size I wanted!  I skipped the cutting part though :)

This sweet Chihuahua is colored in with my ShinHan markers and then I've added little bits of glitter pen and glossy accents to the lights and his face.

Then I pulled out the super fun Botanical Wreath stamp set from Impress Cards and stamped out a couple poinsettias and foliage.  Cut them out and arranged them in the corner for some fun festive color.  Stamped in the sentiment and the card was done!

Remember we have a Use Red challenge going this month at Sami Stamps.  So use a Stami Stamps image on your card and join in the fun!!

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!
Hoping you've had a wonderful week!  Wet and rainy here in Washington...makes the days really dreary and short.  I will be happy to finally get our Christmas lights up this weekend.  Hopefully that will bring a little cheer :)

We have a sweet little release for you today at Sami Stamps - Christmas Chihuahua's!  I love Sami's animal images, can never get enough of them.  And these sweet little pups are no different!

I chose to use Good This Year for my card today:

The background of this card went through several phases before I finally felt like it was complete.  My first thought was to mix some pearl ex with my embossing paste in hopes that it would shimmer a bit, but the pearl ex just turned the paste a sort of pearl color instead....so that didn't work.

Then I decided to just tint the embossing paste with some ink and add red glitter on top.  That worked pretty well, but after it was dry, every time I touched it I got glitter everywhere...and I don't like making "glitter bomb" cards...so I had to decide on a way to seal all that glitter in.  I thought about using my versamark pad to clear emboss it, but since it was loose glitter, it would get all over the ink pad...so no to that.  I finally decided to just coat each little circle with glossy accents.  It worked really well but took forever and used most of my tiny bottle of glossy accents.  But I like it!  The sparkle is still there from the glitter, but now it also has a glossy shine to it.

I printed off my image and used a fun little die to cut it out.  I kept the whole thing in the die while I colored it so that once I was done, I could go around the edge with some Bundled Sage distress ink.  I love this color!!

The scallop frame was cut with my Silhouette and I inked that up with the same Bundled Sage color again.  Then cut a little scallop border and added a little bit of patterned paper.  I stamped the sentiment onto some vellum and then tucked it up under the stocking by cutting right along the stocking edge and lifting it up.  Was a little tough since I had already super adhered it all down...but I got it :)  Then I coated the sentiment in some red stickles and set it all aside to dry.

Be sure to stop by the Sami Stamps blog to check out the rest of the DT's creations with this cute release!  We are also starting a new challenge today to Use Red!  Remember to use a Sami Stamps image and join in!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Addicted to Stamps #173-Holiday
    Crafting When We Can #108-Animals
    Inky Impressions #278-Traditional Christmas Colors
    Quirky Crafts #24-Anything Christmas
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #297

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 Friday!
I know it has been incredibly quiet around here...it's been a little hard to pull myself back together from holiday vacations and family loss...but I'm working on that!  Just bare with me as I work to get my mojo flowing again :)

But today we have a fun new release from Sami Stamps!  Remember those adorable poodles from a few weeks ago?  We have more!!!  And they are even cuter!, if that's possible...

I chose to use the Sweet Begging Poodle image for my card.  She was just so sweet, and begging to be used :)  I kept her coloring really simple with some light grey shades.  As I was browsing through my challenge timelines, I saw the photo from Cure for the Monday Blues and absolutely loved the fun bright colors in it...so decided I wanted to try and pull those together on a card.

Sifting through my much to large pile of scraps, I found a pink, yellow, and blue that coordinated pretty well together.  Created a fun swirl file in my Silhouette and cut them all out!  Then came the fun part of piecing them together...for the most part, they all fit.  But there were a few little spots where the lines didn't match.  But overall, the swirls turned out fabulous!

I tried something a little new with the background.  I really wanted some clear sparkly dots on the background, but didn't want to just emboss them on there.  So I took my dot stencil and applied some glossy accents.  While that was still wet, I covered it with sparkly embossing powder and then let it dry.  It didn't turn out quite the way I wanted...even after letting it dry for awhile, when I heat set it the glossy accents bubbled and burned a little.  And it warped the paper so much more than I wanted.  So I think I'll just stick with clear embossing for now, and maybe some day get my hands on some translucent embossing paste :)

To finish the card off, I added a mix of fun sequins from the Winnie & Walter 1st Birthday Bash Pretty Pink Posh mix.  So many delicious colors in there!  And this is my first batch of PPP sequins and let me tell you...they are amazing!!!  Can't wait to get my hands on more of them!!

So, be sure to stop by Sami Stamps and see the rest of these adorable little poodles, and check out the DT's creations!!  And you still have time to join in our Anything Goes Challenge!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Cure for the Monday Blues #43-Photo
    Inky Impressions #197-Cute & Cuddly
    Penny's Paper Crafty #215-Spots and Stripes
    Sassy Studio #269-Circles
    The Paper Shelter #191-Animal Magic

Thanks for visiting!! <3

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Happy Friday!!!
It's cold and snowy here...what's it like by you?  I miss the sun so much...being able to go out for walks at 9 at night without freezing my tushy off, or just waking up in the morning and not feeling my feet freeze as soon as they hit the floor...I'm really ready for spring to get here now!

But unfortunately, I can't control the weather.  So I'll just stay nestled into my sweats and play with paper all day :)

With that, we have an awesome release this week from Sami Stamps!!!  It's all about Poodles, and man are they adorable!

I chose to use the Christmas Gift Poodle, and turned it into a birthday card.  I've been trying to focus on birthday cards a bit more lately since I have none in my stash...but it turns out my birthday stamp collection is kind of lacking...need to work on that :)

I went with a fun pink and green theme for my card.  Turns out, pink was the popular color among the design team for this release since we all used it!  Lol :)
I absolutely love how this card turned out!  There is something about the soft splatter wash behind the poodle that keeps drawing my attention.  I think I will need to use that on a few more cards!

The coloring was kept pretty simple on the pup with just a few pink and grey shades used.  I misted the splattered background with some shimmer mist so it has a nice sparkle to it.  So much fun!!
I followed the sketch at The Fusion Card Challenge.  They always have the best photo inspiration and sketch challenges, but I chose to just use the sketch this time.

So be sure to stop by Sami Stamps to see the rest of this release and all of the DT's pink poodles!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Fusion Card Challenge-Heartful/Sketch

    Penny's Paper Crafty #212-Anything Goes
    Send a Smile 4 Kids-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    Word Art Wednesday #168-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Friday!!!
One more week and we will be on the nice long drive to Michigan to spend Christmas with our families!  It's coming so much faster than I'm ready for it to...so got to keep myself moving!  Lots to do over the next week :)

Last week we had a fabulously cute release over at Sami Stamps.  Totally adorable puppies and kitties, just perfect for Christmas.  I chose to use the Present Pups image for the release.  Those 3 little cuties just called my name.  But unfortunately, I didn't make a card that really showcased them well enough.  I just didn't like it, and I knew I needed to redo it to give my best work to Sami...she deserves that from me.

So I tried again :)

Ah, much better :)  It's not perfect...I know.  It feels a little empty, but at the same time, I knew that I couldn't put anything else on it.

I decided to keep the coloring of the puppies the same.  They turned out so cute on the first card, that I just wanted to stick with the same colors.  I did darken up the present box they are in though to try and work it a little better with the darker papers I've used.  I kept the sentiment the same as well, and tried my best to heat emboss it...but it dried too quickly for me to get the powder to stick.  So I went over the whole thing with a Wink of Stella glitter brush which added just enough moisture to the top so I could quickly sprinkle the powder on letter by letter.  It worked, and I'm happy with it :)

Since our challenge this month at Sami Stamps is Christmas Embellishments, and I used jingle bells on the last card, I opted for something different.  These creamish colored snowflakes worked really well and matched the color scheme.  And that's it for the details!  Still a pretty simple card, but I love it so much more.  It just flows a lot better :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Chocolate Coffee Cards #80-Christmas
    Crafts 4 Eternity #206-Christmas
    Crafty Catz #259-Last Minute Christmas
    Creative Fingers #60-Anything Goes/Traditional Christmas
    Divas by Design-Seeing Red
    Fab n Funky #241-Christmas
    The Corrosive Challenge #214-Anything Goes
    The Crazy Challenge #186-Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!  <3

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Happy Friday!!!
It is time for another fabulous release from Sami Stamps!  Woot Woot!!  I can never get enough of her releases and they are always so perfect!  This release is no different.  It's a Christmas Mix release and definitely one you want to go check out!

I decided to use Present Pups for my release card.

To be honest...this card doesn't sit right with me.  Something is just off with it and I'm not sure what...maybe the checker background...the colors?  I'm not sure.  I still like it, but feel I could have done something different to make it much better.

To start, I took a couple shades of red distress ink and blended out the background before spritzing it with some shimmer mist.  I had the checkerboard panel cut out from a different card idea and grabbed that to place over top of the reds.  Maybe white wasn't the right color?...I don't know.

The image was the most fun to work with!  Since I don't have puppies, I had to sift around for some coloring inspiration and settled on a rescue organization out in Washington called Panda Paws Rescue.  I've been following them on Facebook for awhile now and my heart goes out to them for all the work they do with the pups that they rescue.  Amazing people there!!

They have a few dogs that I just adore-Duncan Lou "Dubs", Effie, and Maggie Simpson.  I did my best to color in my pups to represent these 3 adorable cuties :)

The card was finished off with a button strung with some red twine and a couple of jingle bells, and a perfectly fitting sentiment from Create with TLC.  I printed the sentiment onto vellum so I could heat emboss it with some black sparkle powder.

Be sure to stop by Sami Stamps today!  We are starting a new challenge and we want to see your Christmas Embellishments!!  I've been using snowflakes a lot lately, so I opted for the jingle bells this time around.  But you can use anything you feel represents a Christmas embellishment!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    DigiStamps4Joy #105-Christmas
    Pattie's Creations #105-Christmas Cards
    Simon Says-Christmas/Holidays
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #247
    Totally Gorjuss #264-Christmas Animals

Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Happy Thursday!
We're starting a fun new challenge today at Meljen's Designs!  This week it's Trick or Treat!!  So pull out those Halloween images and share your makes with us!  Remember, you don't have to use a Meljen's Designs image to enter, but if you do, you get a double entry!

Here is what I came up with:

I had this idea to use these 3 images together awhile ago for one of my DT Days, but couldn't quite get it to work the way I wanted it to, so I shelved it back then.  Well I decided to give it another shot this week.

Of course, this week has been crazy busy for me with card orders and Christmas card planning that I almost completely forgot that it was my teams challenge week!  So this card was quite rushed...but even in the rush, I think it turned out so incredibly cute!

The images I used are Mummy Kitty, Mummy Bear, and Mummy Dog all from Meljen's Designs.  I layered them all together in paint.net to get the right placement on them and then printed them off onto some watercolor paper.  I let the ink dry for a little bit, and even zapped it with my heat tool before working on the coloring.  It still bled a little bit, which is frustrating, but I did my best to avoid touching the lines to try and prevent them from smearing.

I used a ton of Distress Inks to watercolor this image all up.  I started with the mummies and did their wraps first.  Then filled in their fur and the cute pumpkin in the background.  I set that aside for a couple minutes to dry up a bit before moving on to the background.  I used 3 shades of blue and some black at the top to darken it up.  I just love how easily distress inks blend together.  Getting a nice gradient blend to those colors was so incredibly easy, I hardly had to do anything!  And another fun thing is that the whole background shimmers!  It was sort of an accident...the large brush that I used is the one I've been using to play around with my silver pearlex pigment powder...so it was full of that stuff still when I started painting.  While it wasn't planned, it's totally perfect!

I finished the card off with a simple white heat embossed sentiment and a few bats from Lawn Fawn, which are also sparkly :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #130-Create a Scene
    Artistic Inspirations #114-Halloween
    Creative Inspirations #286-Happy Halloween
    Sentimental Sundays #229-Too Cute to Spook

Now jog on over to Meljen's Designs, check out the rest of the DT's creations, and join in!!!
Thanks for visiting! <3

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Happy Thursday!
Thanks to everyone that stopped by during my scheduled posts over the last week!  It was nice to have a little get-away with the hubby and see some family and friends.  Oh and get my butt kicked in my first Tough Mudder race!  That's right, I did that!  I'll share pics at the end of this post.

But for now, we have a fun new challenge starting today at Meljen's Designs!  We want to see patchwork on your creations!  I had a lot of fun with this one.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my card, but like always, waited until the last minute to get it done...oh well :)

I still love it :)

I used a bunch of sweet little heart papers from Lawn Fawn, cut them into 1x1 inch squares and pieced them all together on my white mat.  Then I did a zig-zag stitch around all of them with my sewing machine.  That took a lot of time, but fortunately my machine didn't fuss with me too much so it went pretty smooth!

After finishing the background, I really didn't want to cover the whole thing up, so I kept everything else pretty simple.  I used the sweet Little Pocket Puppy image from Meljen's Designs and colored it all in with my ShinHan markers.  I added a little StarDust stickles to the pocket and some gold thread for some fun added detail.  The heart doily fit perfectly behind him, so I had to add that.  And then I used my favorite new Spellbinders die banner for the sentiment!  It seems to be the banner I reach for with almost every card lately.  Perfect size!  I stamped a fun sentiment from the Hero Arts Everyday Sayings set.

So be sure to stop by Meljen's Designs to see the rest of the DT's creations, then join in the fun!  Remember, you don't have to use a Meljen's image anymore, but you get a double entry if you do!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Blog Named Hero #52-Patterned Papers
    Card Mania Challenge #56-Doily
    Delightful Challenge-Cute & Cuddly
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes

Ok, back to that Tough Mudder race...well...not race.  We've been calling it an "adventure run" :)  Matthew and I have been training all year for this race...I knew it would be tough since I watched Matthew do it last year.  So we ran, and ran, and ran some more.  Race day came and I still struggled with the running...but I had my wonderful husband and some awesome friends to keep pushing me forward!

Enjoy some pics :)

 All clean and smiling before hand.

 Just yeah...so much mud.

 "Arctic Enema"...giant hole of freezing ice water that we had to jump in...so cold!

 It's all about team work...and I had the best team ever!

So thankful it was over!  But pumped for next year!! <3

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Hi everyone!
I wanted to swing in real quick to share a super fun card with you!  Right now I'm on the road to Michigan, preparing to run my first ever Tough Mudder race with my husband!  A bit nervous, but it will be so fun!

This card popped into my mind as I was digging around for different ways to use this super adorable stamp set.

See!! So cute!  I used the adorable little pup image from the Simon Says Stamp You Are Pawesome set.  But instead of just leaving him alone, I sketched out a fun cape and eye mask to make a super pup :)

I figured he needed a starry sky to fly through, so I used some fun patterned paper and a couple sparkly stars over a vellum circle.

Finished it all off with a little sentiment tag and some clear buttons.

I just love this card!  And I hope you do too!  I hope it inspires you to take a look at your stamps and see what else you can do with them :)

Thanks for visiting!! <3

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Hey!
Hope everyone's weekend is going fabulously!
Stopping in to share another super sweet card with you.  I've been promising to share some projects featuring some of the other birthday gifts my amazing husband bought me.  Well, today I am finally doing that!

See, I have this thing where I really really love animals.  Lately they seem to be about the only thing I want to put on my cards...next to flowers.  So for my birthday, Matthew decided to buy me a super cute set from Simon Says Stamp that I haven't been able to put down.

I adore this sweet little puppy from the You Are Pawesome set!  He's so cute and so easy to put on any card I'm making!  I decided to try flipping him for this card, which ended up working out pretty well.  To do that, I inked up the stamp and then stamped it on the backside of a larger stamp so the ink transferred.  Then all I needed to do was line up the outline with the coordinating die cut shape and it was done!  I ended up tracing around the whole image to crisp up the lines, but it worked so well I know I will be doing that more often!

I have loved making little scenes for my cards lately too.  So I pulled out a cute little star stencil I made with my Silhouette and used some embossing paste to give it dimension.  There is a bit of sparkle gold pigment powder mixed into the embossing paste and in person you can really see the soft subtle shimmer it gives to the stars.

Then I used my Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies to make the bushy background and hills for my pups to sit on.

The last part I added was the sentiment from the Hero Arts Shoot for the Moon set.  I divided it up since the whole thing wouldn't fit in the banner die cut I wanted to use.  So I stamped the I Love You separately and cut it out with the Landscape Trio as well.  Both sentiments are embossed in gold and the second half of the sentiment is cut out with a Spellbinders banner die.

Totally adorable, I just love this fun stamp set and how sweet this pup is!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #17-Stencils

    The Crazy Challenge #178-Cute Little Animals
    Fussy and Fancy #121-Pets or Favorite Animal
    Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop

Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Friday!!
I'm happy it's Friday because that means the weekend is here and I get to spend a few days snuggled on the couch with my hubby!

We have a gorgeous new release today at Sami Stamps!  So much cuteness in this release, you are not going to want to miss it!

The release is Love Hearts and features all sorts of lovey animals :)

I, of course, chose one of the kitties :)  This Pretty Kitty Heart image was so precious, with the kitty sitting there in front of her heart, I just had to use her.  I made my card all pink and girlie and filled it with hearts!  The border at the top was cut out with my Silhouette and then I wrapped some pink twine through the ribbon slots.  I've colored the image in with my ShinHan markers and paper pieced the heart before popping it all up on foam tape.  Then I had some fun with my liquid pearls and made little borders across the top panel.

I'd like to enter this Kitty card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #76-Anything Goes/Animals
    In the Pink #36-Die Cuts/Punches
    Simon Says-Anything Goes with Twine/String
    Totally Gorjuss #220-Furtastic

I couldn't help but use this sweet little Heart Puppy image on my next card.  I could just see him wrestling around with that heart, dragging it away, so I had to use him.

This card didn't turn out quite the way I had visioned...it's actually quite boring and I really debated about just redoing the whole thing.  But I set it aside and moved on to other projects and when I came back to it the next day, I added a few things and decided I did indeed like it.  It's still isn't quite perfect, but it's closer.

I colored in the pup with my pencils and added lots of glitter to his heart.  The simple sentiment is stamped on a heart patterned paper and I, of course, added liquid pearls to the scallop frame.

I'd like to enter this Puppy card into the following challenges:
    A Creative Romance-Show us some love
    Incy Wincy Designs-Ribbons and Pearls
    Penny's Paper Crafty #162-Spots and Dots

Stop by Sami Stamps and check out this squeal-worthy release!  And be sure to admire the DT's creations because they are gorgeous!

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

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Sneaking in a quick post tonight before the sun goes down!
I've been working diligently on some birthday/valentine cards for my sister and it's been a little tough.  See...she asked for "manly" cards...and I don't do too well with those.  It's stretched me out of my comfort zone quite a bit this last week or so, but I have a new found love for "manly" cards :)

I wanted to share one of the cards I made for her (I'll share another tomorrow) because I just love it so much!

I am happy to say that this is my first card using a Lili of the Valley image!!!  I adore LOTV and have been slowly hoarding a collection of their stamps.  But I've been so afraid to use them because I didn't think I could do them justice...they are just so cute and I knew I would screw them up some how!

But I tried to get over my fear with this card..and I think I did pretty good!  The stamp is Scooter Boy and I've colored it all in with my ShinHan markers.  No frilly girly stuff...no ribbons or pearls..man that was hard!  Since the card is for a 6 year old, I wanted a fun catchy sentiment, so I used some stamps from Lawn Fawn and stamped them onto a label to tuck under the border.  Then finished it all off with some star brads to pull that theme up from the border as well.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #111-For the Boys
    Charisma Cardz #2-It's a Boy Thing
    Crafting With Dragonflies #18-Anything Goes
    Crafty Little Fairies-Sport
    Creative Fingers #21-Anything Goes/Polka Dots
    Let's Craft and Create #86-Masculine
    Lili of the Valley-Anything Goes
    Mojo Monday #329
    Ooh La La #148-A Man Card
    Word Art Wednesday #116-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for stopping by!!  <3

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I am so beyond happy that it is finally Friday!
What a not so grand week I've had...was sick over the weekend (which caused me to miss my Paper Makeup DT creation...), computer crashed on me Monday, internet broke on Tuesday, Wednesday was overloaded with catching up from the last several days...and the list goes on..

But I'm happy everything is settled back down to normal and I can show you this awesome new Sami Stamps release, because let me tell you, it's adorable!!

Sami drew up some Birthday Animals for this release, and I had a blast creating with them!

This first image is called Birthday Surprise and I just love it!  The cake looks so delicious, and the sweet little kitty on top is so cute!  I went girlie on this card...couldn't get the idea of a pink cake out my head so I just decided to roll with it.

I colored up the cake with my ShinHan markers and added some glitter pen to the platter and candles, and some liquid pearls to the dotted layers.

I used a sentiment stripe from Beccy's Place and printed it on vellum.  To color the little flower, I flipped the vellum over and drew on the back.  It was a technique I watched a video on a few weeks ago, and they made it into like a stained glass image.  Not sure mine turned out that way, but I thought it worked well coloring on the back instead of smearing the ink on the front.
Then I just layered that onto a MS Lace Edge punched border and put everything together!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    As You Like It #15-Spots or Stripes? (I love spots!!  As you can see from both of my cards :) )
    Card Mania #33-Anything Goes
    Creative Creations #23-Sparkle and Shine

Since I went super girlie with my kitty, I went in the opposite direction for this card.

Isn't he cute!!  This is Balloon Puppy.  So freaking cute!  And you can get him free with any purchase from the Sami Stamps store!!

I colored him in with my pencils instead of my markers.  Have to pull them out once in awhile still :)

I used my ShinHan's to add the little dots around him though.  I coordinated up some brown and green scraps and put them all together with some light green twine wrapped behind the image.  And I couldn't help myself with the sentiment...he just had the curious look on his face that was perfect!  So I printed it off and flagged the ends to finish off the card.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #67-Use a Sentiment
    Sunday Sketch and Stamp #182
    That Craft Place-Sentiment

Check out the rest of the design teams amazing creations on the Sami Stamps blog!  And remember we have our Clean and Simple challenge going on this month, so join in the fun!! read more →