Happy Friday!!
I hope your week has been fabulous and you are ready for the weekend!  We had a crazy day here yesterday.  Apparently a large wind storm blew through Washington Wednesday night.  We weren't aware of it...until Thursday morning around 6:30 when our neighbors giant tree cracked out of the ground and knocked over the power lines!  I'm not sure I've ever jumped out of bed that quick...ok maybe one other time because of a super large spider...

Needless to say, we were without power for about 15 hours...which made for a pretty boring day yesterday since it rained most of the day too so I couldn't work outside.  I'm so happy and thankful for our electric crews that I'm sure had an insanely busy day yesterday.  So very glad to have power back :)

With that, I wanted to share a card I created with an image from our most recent release with Sami Stamps!

I started my card by creating my background.  I had originally created this background on black paper with soft colored embossing paste.  It turned out okay, but the colors were much more muted than I wanted so I switched to a white background and sponged the colors on.

I've used Broken China, Squeezed Lemonade, and Spun Sugar to get that fabulous spring colored background.  It turned out so super cute, I just adore it!

After printing off my Easter Pile image, I sent it through my die cut machine to cut it into a tag shape.  Then colored it up with my markers.  I used chalk to get the blue sky since my super light blue ShinHan markers have dried up and I haven't had the chance to replace them.  I framed the tag with a scallop cut piece of vellum and then tied a few ribbons through the top.  I white heat embossed a fun sentiment on some black cardstock and added a die cut stitch along the top and bottom with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Borders dies.

A few Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and the card was done!  So super sweet!  I hope you will check out this release from Sami Stamps!  It just makes me smile :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #164-Spring
    Artistic Inspirations #151-Anything Goes
    Caseology #188-Laugh

Thanks so much for visiting!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!! <3

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Hi again!
I'm back with a quick share :)
I know, I know...I'm on a cat kick right now...bare with me.  I just love kitties so much that I can't help but put them on my cards, and Newton's Nook is just the cure for my addiction :)

I had this card design pop into my head late one night just as I was about to fall asleep...yeah it is kind of annoying that my best ideas usually come to me when I have nothing to jot them down on...so I had to try and remember it till I could make notes someplace.  Then it was time to get to work!

The idea came from remembering when I was younger and had new kittens around my house all the time.  They would run and play in my mom's flower beds all day long.  My sweet hubby was so kind in letting me purchase the new Gleeful Gardens stamp set from Lawn Fawn last weekend, and I thought this cute little daisy image would work perfect for my flower garden.

I did a bunch of masking on this card!  Since the challenge at Newton's Nook is one layer, masking was a must.  But who doesn't love masking?  It creates the coolest scenes!  I tucked my little kitty (from Newton's Antics) into the flowers, and colored him in like our sweet Storm.

My first attempt at this card was messed up when I decided to try and do a black glitter embossed frame around the whole image...which resulted in warped paper and a bunch of black dust around the edges...really irritated me.  So I tried again, and this time just used a black Wink of Stella pen for my border.  Much cleaner :)

So so sweet!!  And the sentiment just makes me smile :)  Can't help but think "aww!"

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    2 Cute Ink #124-Spring
    Addicted to Stamps #134-Clean and Simple
    Less is More #213-This makes me happy!  (Definitely the kitty, but the flowers too!)
    Newton's Nook #18-Just One Layer

Anyhow, thanks for visiting again today!  Have a great weekend!! <3

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TGIF!!!!
Chilly this morning...but I'll take it since this past week has been so incredibly gorgeous and it's only going to get better!  The snow is almost all gone, leaving behind giant puddles everywhere :)  It has been so nice to throw open the slider door each morning and just let the fresh air in!

We have just the perfect release for you today at Sami Stamps!  The new release is Spring Flowers and will just have you longing to get into your garden and pray for those beauties to start popping up!
I loved this release so much, that I requested 3 images to work with...I couldn't get enough of them!
(Warning...long post...maybe grab a snack before you start :) )

For my first card, I've used the image Spring Branch:

 I've been on a bit of a quest lately to branch out my supplies and skills and try new things.  There have been some victories...and some major fails...but I've stuck with the challenge.  While I really love using my simple colored pencils, I have sort of fallen in love with the whole watercolor idea and wanted to try out the watercolor pencils.  Instead of spending way more money than I have on a full set, I decided to just purchase a few pencils to try them out and see if they were something I would want to use.  With this card/image in mind, I picked up a few of the Derwent Inktense pencils from our local art supply store...and fell in love with them!  Oh man where they a dream to color with!

I just love how softly the colors smoothed out over the image.  Definitely will be adding more of those to my wish list!  I paired my flowers with a sweet sentiment from Create with TLC and followed the sketch that we have for our April challenge at Sami Stamps (more on that below).

I would like to enter this Spring Branch card into the following challenges:
    Deep Ocean #74-For a Friend
    Work it Wednesday-Spring

My next card uses the Poppies Bunch image:

I mulled over this one for a long time.  My original plan was to combine this image with another one, but the layout never worked, and I couldn't find the right theme or papers to put it all together, so I canned that idea and started over...and decided to take a more elegant look to the card.

This black background paper has been hoarded in my stash for so long now...I love the pattern and the elegance of it all, and didn't want to use all of it since it's my last piece...but it called to me when I pulled it out of the pile and I knew I had to use it.  The scallop frame was cut with my Silhouette, and then I trimmed down some silver glitter paper and some black card stock to create a frame, so the image would sit down inside, not on top of those mats like normal.

The image has been printed a few times so that I could cut out the different petals and layer them all up for some fun dimension on the flower within it's frame.

Then came the work on the ribbon and buckle.  I didn't want to just layer 2 ribbons together and be done...I wanted it to really pop, so I pulled apart some twine to get just the white part and tied that into a bow, which was then woven through the buckle along with the rest of the ribbon layers.  Trimmed some black ribbon so that they criss-crossed through the buckle, but made sure the twine loops wrapped around into the front.  It took a lot of fiddling to get it just right, but I just love how it turned out!

I would like to enter this Poppies Bunch card into the following challenges:
    The Corrosive Challenge #196-Show us Your Metal
    Crafty Cardmakers #113-You've Been Framed
    Crafty Catz #225-Springtime

Ok, my last card uses the Red Rose image:

I have been trying so hard lately to make more clean and simple cards.  I love them, love how they can be simple yet striking...and a lot of people I know love simpler/flatter cards.  So I challenged myself to take our sketch and work it into a clean and simple card...and it worked!

I adore this card so much!  The blue watercolor along the side was supposed to be a bit more ombre, but it didn't wash down quite as nicely as I wanted...but that's okay cuz it still looks cool :)

For the stamped details, I raided my stamp bin and pulled out a set that I've had forever, stamped the dot stripe and sentiments and then clear embossed them so that they would resist the watercolor and pop through.  Before I added my image, I took a shimmer mist and sprayed the crap out of the card so now when held in the light, it has this awesome shimmer to it.  Plus it added the fun water marks to the blue along the side :)

The image was printed off and colored with my ShinHans markers, then cut out and foam mounted to the card.  Love love love it!

I'd like to enter this Red Rose card into the following challenges:
    A Creative Romance-Spring Flowers
    Loves Rubberstamps #97-Anything Goes
    Stampin for the Weekend-Spring Colors

I know this was an extremely long post...did you make it through?  If so, thanks for sticking it out!
Have you used Inktense pencils before?  The one thing I'm struggling with is when I print my image and use the pencils, the image lines smear...do you know of any way to prevent that?  Maybe it's just how my printer prints...and I have to just deal with it...but tips would be nice :)

Ok, now go check out Sami Stamps to see all the gorgeous creations with this new release, and be sure to join in our sketch challenge this month following this sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!!! <3

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Yay it's Friday!!  Have any fun plans this weekend?
We are going to try playing Dungeons & Dragons online tonight with some of our Seattle friends, and I'm so excited!!  And tomorrow we have a Seattle Sounders vs. Montreal Impact soccer game to go to!  Gotta love our soccer team :)

So today we have a super adorable new release from Sami Stamps to share with you!  The release is titled Easter Fun and is full of cuteness!  Working with these images just made me long for spring weather even more!

I combined two of the images from this release: Egg Cluster and 4 Spring Chicks.
My goal for the card was to arrange the images so that the eggs were in the background with the chicks up front...but I'm not sure that's how it worked out.  It's still cute though.

I love coloring in ground under my images and each time I do it, I get a little more comfortable adding that step.  But just dirt never looks good, so I always add some grass tufts :)  They just help to place everything on the ground instead of just sitting them in dirt :)

Everything is colored with my ShinHan markers.  I cut out and popped up the chicks a little just for some dimension and stamped a few hearts around just for fun.  The sun was cut out with my Silhouette and layered behind everything so the card really had a springy feel.

Check out the rest of the release at Sami Stamps, and browse through the design teams creations.  You will be blown away!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Catered Crop-Spring Fever
    Crafty Little Fairies-Down on the Farm
    Delightful Challenges-Welcome Spring
    Inky Impressions #151-Think Spring
    Send A Smile 4 Kids-Pastel Colors
    Sentimental Sundays #198-Cute and Cuddly
    Sweet Sunday Sketch #211

Thanks for stopping by!! <3

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Happy Monday!  I hope your weekend was fabulous!  We were able to hang out with some friends on Saturday and play some games together.  It was quite a blast!

Today we are starting a new challenge at Digi Makeover and it's the Great Outdoors!  When I started making my card the weather was gorgeous.  Bright and sunny with a slight breeze.  Made me totally think of having a picnic!  Now though...it's freezing with talks of snow...not so much picnic weather anymore...but I still love my card :)

My plan was to make up the front of my card to look like a picnic basket and then add a sweet little image to the middle of it.  But the basket turned out so stinkin cute that I didn't want to cover it up!

So instead I added my image to the inside.

For the front, I took a bunch of 1/2 inch strips and wove them together to form the basket.  All of the edges are inked with some brown ink to give them dimension.  I punched a border into the red gingham paper and added that to make the top of the basket.  Then placed a few brads at the base of the handles.

When you open the card, the image sort of pops up at you on the left side.  I used the sweet image Picnic Duo and colored them in with my pencils.

Then printed off a sentiment from the Freckled Lemonade set and framed it in a scallop circle.

I hope you will join us this week for our Great Outdoors challenge!
Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Monday!!
Man what an odd spring huh?  We went from high 30's on Monday to 2 feet of snow on Tuesday last week...and now half of that snow is gone.  Crazy!!
I don't know about you but I am ready for spring!  I love the snow, don't get me wrong...but there is something about March and April that just gets me in the mood for spring flowers and throwing the windows open to get some fresh air.  This snow stuff is getting in the way of that though...so I think it needs to go away now :)

This week we have a fun challenge for you at Digi Makeover.  We want to see some fancy folds in your projects!!  I had a little fun with this one.  Actually, my card started off not working out the way I wanted it to.  I had no clue what papers to use or what details I wanted to add.  Since I've been trying to work through my scraps, I decided on a little bit of a wild pattern in hopes that it would all come together.

I think it did, though it took a little convincing from the hubby...

And he actually contributed a little bit to this double easel card.  Since it's fancy folds, I wanted something a little more than just an easel.  When we were dating (a looonnngg time ago :) ) he would fold up dollar bills into these origami hearts and send them to me.  It was so sweet!  So when he mentioned adding one to this card, I knew I had to include it somehow.

The large frame around the image is a die cut I made from the Paper Makeup Framed Set.  I then used a few of the flowers and grass from the Faith, Hope, Love set.  The grass was printed in color but didn't print so well...so I went back over it with my colored pencils.  I had printed out another set of the flowers and colored/glittered them all out to layer on top of the blank print out, but once the card was all done, I sort of liked the black silhouette so I left them.  What do you think?

While I was putting everything together, I had Matthew make up the origami heart so I could add that as my second easel.  I cut out and popped up one of the butterflies on the paper to help hold the larger easel in place.

I do love this card!  It's bright, bold, and beautiful!  I hope you will jump in on this challenge!  We'd love to have you!  Just remember to use a digi.  And be sure to swing by the rest of the makeup artists and check out their gorgeous creations!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Catered Crop-Flower Power
    Charisma Cardz #11-Die Cuts
    Stamp n Doodle-Anything Goes
    Whoopsi Daisy-Use a Digi
    Word Art Wednesday #72-Anything Goes

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Whoo!  My 200th post!  Crazy how quickly I got to this point...sort of.  Just a year and a half ago I was starting this little blog of mine, diving head long into an adventure I had dreamed of doing for so long.  It hasn't all been smooth, and it hasn't progressed as quickly as I wanted, but I love coming here to share my work and connect with you!

Thank you to all of my followers for being here with me, enjoying my posts and leaving me your sweet comments.  If your not a follower yet and you'd like to be (which would mean the world to me!!!) there are a few options for you.  You can follow me on Facebook where I have my blog networked so everything posts there and you can stay connected easily.  There is also BlogLovin.  I personally love BlogLovin.  It keeps all of the posts from the blogs that I follow in a neat list and emails me each day with any new blog posts.  So handy!  And of course, there is Google Friend Connect where your sweet little pic gets added on the right side over there :)

I'd love to have you here!  And your friends, so spread the love!! <3

So this post is for Digi Makeover's new challenge this week!  We are challenging you to use pastel colors on your creations!  I love pastel colors.  Especially this time of year when spring is just around the corner and you can smell it in the air!  We've had some pretty cold temps this past week which hasn't been very nice, but when the sun shines the spring fever kicks in :)

I forgot that I had this sweet paper in my stash.  It's actually 2 sided and has cute little Easter chicks on the other side...so I guess it's Easter paper...but the soft colors remind me of spring.  I used this cutie from Paper Makeup-Kirsten.  She reminded me of the days when I would sit down by our pond and play with all the weeds and dandelions, just enjoying the sun and breeze.

I colored her in with my colored pencils and added glitter to her wings.  I double layered some ribbons, but did sort of a wave affect with the top pink one.  It's pretty simple.  I just spaced out some double sided tape across the top of the white ribbon, then bubbled up the pink in between so it was waved.  I love how it looks!

The sentiment is printed and layered onto some blue card stock.  The finishing touch was the light purple pearls in the bottom two corners.

I hope you will join us this week!  Just remember to use a digi!  Be sure to check out the rest of the makeup artists fabulous creations!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #71-Easter/Spring
    Alota Rubber Stamps #103-Springtime
    Color Me Creative #64-Spring Colors
    Craft Your Passion #154-Ribbons/Lace
    Ladybug Crafts-Spring
    Without Words-Time of Renewal (Spring or Easter)
    Word Art Wednesday #71-Anything Goes

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Happy Tuesday!
I completely forgot to post my Tuesday Throwdown DT card today!  Oops :)
So it's a little late...no biggie right?

This week our challenge is paper piecing!  I see so many wonderful paper pieced cards every day, that I wish I was better at it or remembered to do it more often.  But it's one of those things I forget about so often.  And most of my papers have patterns that are too big for paper piecing.  But I worked it out for this card, and I think it turned out pretty darn good.

Our fabulous sponsor this week is Fred She Said, and they have provided some adorable images for us to use on our cards.  I chose Emma Blowing Bubbles.  She looked so cute and springy, I just had to use her.

I used my scallop scissors to cut around the image and added glitter to all her bubbles.  Wrapped a light blue ribbon and bow around the card and then finished it all off with some purple liquid pearls in the corners.

Be sure to check out the rest of the DT's cards as they have done an absolutely fabulous job paper piecing on their cards!  Gorgeous work!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Happy Monday!
What a morning...I never like time changes and today was no exception to that...so hard to get out of bed!  And of course, now I seem to be behind on everything this morning!
But I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend!  It was gor-juss here in Montreal!  Like open-the-shades-throw-the-window-open gorgeous! 

We went out for a nice long walk/run yesterday around noon down by the river.  I really wanted to run out on the ice but hubby wasn't so keen on that idea.  Don't you think it would be fun!?

We also went out and looked at a new apartment that we fell in love with, and just might be getting!
Yeah, it's been an exciting couple of days, and this week will bring lots more excitement that I can't quite talk about yet.  But I'll share it with you later! :)

Onto this weeks Digi Makeover challenge!  The weather is getting warmer, the flowers are popping up, and every store in the neighborhood has those fun plastic eggs stocked!  So why not make our challenge Spring/Easter!
Now, honest truth here...Easter cards have not been going so well for me.  This is year 2 that I have not been able to make a decent Easter card to save-my-life!  I mean...how hard can it be to make a cute card with bunnies and chicks!?  I keep trying, and I see so many adorable ones out there, but when it comes to my turn...nothing...so I chose the spring theme :)

 I love how this card turned out!!  Caliope is just the sweetest monster from Paper Makeup and he goes so well with my girly paper :)  The daisy print paper is actually all sparkly and such, but you can't tell in the photo.  I love that paper pack!  So much glitter on the pages!

I colored Caliope in with my pencils and then used my copics to add the dot shadows around him.  I imagine those dots being like little flower pollens swirling around him as he inhales that flower!

The sentiment is also from Paper Makeup and I felt went along with this image beautifully.  I punched the mat layer around the image with my MS Lace Edge punch.  Then cut out a layered daisy to fill in some of the space on the flag.

The final details were the little dots in the corners that I covered with tiny beads to match the center of the daisy.

Come join us this week, just remember to use a digi!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    A Gem of a Challenge #70-Floral Frenzy
    Daisy Doodles #79-Spring Time
    Fussy and Fancy #84-Flowers
    The Squirrel and the Fox #39-Autumn or Spring

Thanks for stopping by!

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Another Saturated Canary card to share with you today :)
What can I say...I love them!

 This darling image is Springtime.  I just picked her up this week! 

 I'm still playing around and learning how to make different flowers, and the most recent one I've been practicing is gerbera daisys.  Since the background paper has daisy flowers on it I figured it would work perfect to make some gerbera's and arrange them around the image.  Instead of cutting them with my cricut though, I used some daisy punches since they were just about the right size.  Layered them all up and added a brown brad to the centers...probably wasn't the best color choice for the center...but I think it helps the flowers stand out a little more...

The inside is very simple with just a small sentiment from Create with TLC.

This card is entered in the following challenges:

    Sketches by Carly #56

    Crafty Ribbons #19-Flowers

    Card Makin Mamas #45-May Flowers

    Stamp, Scrap & Doodle-Flowers

    PanPastel #19-Pastel Colors

    Phindy's Place #106-Summer is Coming

    Lia Stampz #17-April Showers Bring May Flowers

    Dilly Beans Designs-Flowers

    Little Scrap Pieces-Use Green

Thanks for stopping by!

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I've seen this topic come up a lot in the challenges this month.  It's one of those themes that I don't ever think of to apply to a card so I have just been skipping over them, until I saw this sentiment at Ginger's House.  It seemed perfect for a card, so I had to use it!

It's not an elaborate card...very few details...but it was fun putting together.  I'm apparently in to trying new techniques and such lately...this week at Friday Mashup the suggested technique is "Ghosting."  All the guides say to use the Versamark stamp pad in order to get the ghosted affect.  Well, since I don't have a Versamark stamp pad...I started using what I had to see if it would work.  The only way that really gave me a decent result was when I used a clear embossing pad to stamp my rain drops.  Once I had swiped my color ink pads over my photo paper, I used a paper towel and rubbed really hard to get the ink to wipe off the rain drop stamp.  It worked pretty well...it's certainly not as beautiful as what the design team did at Friday mashup...but I'll take it :)
The sun and the tulips are cut from my Create-a-Critter cartridge and the clouds are from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I added some stitching around the edges with a colored pencil and then put some glossy accents around the bottom of the clouds.

I used an absolutely adorable image from Saturated Canary-Let it Rain.  She's colored with my pencils and I added some glossy accents around her as well since she's standing in the rain :)

I took the sentiment from Ginger's House and retyped it out into a shape that would fit on my card.
The hearts coming out of the cloud was an idea I got from a card Karen Giron recently made...I follow her blog religiously...every card she makes is absolutely beautiful!...I get jealous :)

This card is entered in the following challenges:
    Friday Mashup #55-I ain't afraid of no ghost!
    Cardz TV #106-April Showers
    Saturated Canary #15-April Showers
    Cardmadfairy's Digi Days-April Showers
    Raise the Bar #101-Cloudy Skies

Thanks for stopping by!

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