Follow Your Bliss…

Here’s a fun little card I made for my design work with Lizzie Anne! Since it’s also distressed, it fits in to Shel9999’s challenge over on Splitcoast~ “Distress Your Best”. Thanks for the challenge, Michele!

This uses the Lizzie Anne Designs set called “Shore Thoughts”. It’s such a fun set to use in the summer! I stamped 3 of the starfish using caramel ink, cut them out, added stickles, and set aside to dry. For the focal image, I stamped the line of swirls on shimmery white to create water using caribbean ink, the sun was stamped in marigold, and the sentiment in Clearsnap’s Ancient Page coal black. This panel was distressed, then machine stitched to a distressed caribbean layer. It was then adhered to the cardfront.

Using the Cropodile, I set two white eyelets, then ran the stitched ribbon through and tied knots. I added stickles to the water and sunshine, then added the 3 starfish. One starfish is adhered diectly to the panel, the next is on a dimensional, and the third is on two dimensionals.

The patterned paper is “Hit the Beach” by Flair, and Jacksonbelle has it ON SALE! You can also find the stitched ribbon in her store!

I hope your day is “Beachy Keen” today!

Well here is a different card for me!

I wanted to do Lindsey and Julia’s challenges over on Splitcoast, so I combined them both for this card. Lindsey’s challenge was to use black and brown to make a card. I’ve never used those two colors together, but I kinda like the way it turned out? Julia’s challenge was a great sketch. I am the proud owner of her original card that inspired this sketch, and I LOVE it!

I used 2 of my basic rectangle Spellbinders Nestability dies for this card. All 3 panels are cut and embossed~ I really love the depth that the embossing adds! (patterned papers are by Flair and Basic Grey available from Jacksonbelle Embellishments HERE)

I stamped the Lockhart cupcakes using Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink, then clear embossed it, then ran it through my Spellbinders Wizard to cut and emboss.

They were very easy to color, since Lindsey’s rule was to only use black and brown! I used the following Copic markers:

After I was done coloring, I sponged the edges with Clearsnap’s Ancient page chocolate ink, and added some AMuse bling for the cherries! (Sorry, Linz, but I just couldn’t put black bling on these cupcakes!) The base card is a vanilla bean notecard by Memory Box. I like these because they are white on the inside!

I assembled the layout according to Julia’s sketch, then went around the panels with some faux stitching, and a black Copic Multiliner SP pen. This pen has taken the place of my Pigma Micron pen, because it’s refillable! I really love that feature, in addition to the wide range of sizes it comes in, and the aluminum barrel. Copic rocks my world!

Lindsey is having a contest on her blog!! I just know you won’t want to miss this one–WOW!! Check it out HERE!!

Now that I have posted this, I have an unbelievable hunger for CHOCOLATE! LOL! Have a great day!

Hooray!! Today is the day that I have my challenge for the “Dare to Get Dirty” challenge on Splitcoast! I decided to do an inspiration challenge using a photo from a paint sample booklet! To see my challenge and the inspiration photo, CLICK HERE! You have to be a Fan Club member on Splitcoast to access that forum. If you’re not a member…WHY NOT?! Splitcoast is the number one stamping site on the web, filled with thousands of samples in its galleries. There’s also tons of forums filled with valuable information, as well as inspiration! CLICK HERE to become a member and help support a wonderful community! Then you’ll be able to see all of the wonderful challenges we have made for you in honor of the 3rd anniversary of the Fan Club!

So, on to the card. When I saw the inspiration picture, I knew I had to use my Lockhart Lavender bouquet. I stamped the image on shimmery white cardstock, and colored it using my Copic markers. Then, I took one of my basic rectangle Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, and placed it on top of the reverse side of my stamped image. I made a sandwich using the white master mat, then the tan embossing mat, then the stamped image face down, then the rectangle die, flat side down (cutting side up), then the top white mat. I ran it through my Wizard, and created an embossed rectangle around my stamped image, that I could then layer behind my Spellbinders embossed scalloped rectangle window! Cool, right? The scalloped rectangle window is cut and embossed in a piece of luscious buttercream Arturo notecard. I simply cut the card in half and used the front for this card.

Next, I added the PaperTrey sentiment to the pewter label holder, and attached to the cardfront using some lavender gingham. It’s also raised up with some pop-up glue dots. I felt like it still needed something, so I added two rows of piercing below the ribbon, and also on the two top corners. Then, I added this whole panel on to the SU! amethyst cardfront.

I hope you come and join me for my challenge! Let me know what you think, OK? Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Today is a very special day! It is the 50th wedding anniversary of my Mom & Dad!!! I just love this picture of them

I wanted to make a simple, yet elegant card for them, so here’s what I came up with:

I used a 5×7 Fabirano Medioevalis card, and embossed it with the textile Cuttlebug embossing folder. Since the card is bigger than the folder, I had to make a seam, which you can just barely see on the upper third of the card. After I embossed it, I rubbed Versamark on the raised pattern, then brushed gold pearl-ex over it. I wish you could see the beautiful shimmer that it has in person.

I trimmed the edge using a victorian style blade with my Carl cutter, then added some brushed gold cardstock under it. I made this before I had my Spellbinders dies, so I punched a large scalloped square out of brushed gold, and then a medium square out of vellum cardstock. I adhered it using 4 gold brads. I added the “50″ which was cut using the Olivia cuttlebug alphabet, and mounted the panel on pop-up glue dots. To finish it off, I added some gold organdy to the side. (It really doesn’t look that orange-y in person, the color is way off in this photo for some odd reason).

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!!!

This week’s sketch challenge on SCS is Michelle Wooderson’s tent topper card!! I have loved this since the first moment Mish made it, and I thought today would be a great time to try it!!

I used a lot of SU! on this…porcelain prints DP, heartspeak stamp set, soft sky & blue bayou cardstock, and some of the new sorbet ribbon. Other supplies are: Spellbinders Nestabilities oval scalloped die, and the companion nesting basic oval. (both shapes were also embossed), thumbtack brads, white detail EP, dimensionals, stickles, and of course my beloved Copic markers and airbrush system.

Here’s the Copic colors that I used for this card:

The image was stamped on PaperTrey white cardstock using Brilliance black ink, then run through the Spellbinders Wizard to cut and emboss the oval. I colored it with the above Copic markers, using light and medium colors for shading. More depth was achieved by combining the 2 warm gray colors for shading under and around the basket. Then, I used the airbrush system to add some yellow and gray around the image. This was then mounted to a cut and embossed Spellbinders scalloped oval in soft sky.

I really love this Heartspeak set, and I love how it fits so perfectly in the Nestability dies!!

Hope you have a great day today! Thanks for stopping by! ~HUGS!~

Hey there!

I just wanted to share 3 samples I made for the Hampton Art Holiday supplement. I like to keep them fairly simple so they can be easily reproduced. One of the cards was on display at CHA, and all 3 are in their catalog. YAY! Here they are:

This one uses Limited Edition’s “Marah’s Christmas”. Since the stamps are clear, I was able to bend the sentiment to fit in the oval. The holly berries are red stickles, and the patterned paper is Basic Grey Dasher.

This one uses the Clear Expressions”Holiday Sentiment” set. The background paper is by Flair Designs, and the angels and sentiment are gold embossed.

Saving the best for last I just LOVE this set! It’s Clear Expressions “Swinging Christmas”. I wanted some non-traditional colors for this one, and thought this sweet ice skating girl would look cute in pink and green. There’s stickles on the pom-pom of her hat, and there’s accents from a glitter gel pen on the sentiment and swirls.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my “behind the scenes” work!! Make today a great day!!

I came home to see that some sweeties nominated me for “Rockin’ Girl Blogger”. Thanks to Amy, Jen and Julia!!!

So, I am supposed to name 5 other rockin’ gals. It’s hard to do this because I go to wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more than 5 blogs!! I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings! You can click in my sidebar blogroll to see tons of awesome blogs!

1. The trifecta of awesomeness: Michele, Julia, & Lindsey. Can’t pick just one, they all ROCK MY WORLD!!
   
2. Pam Hooten is so fabulous, she always has something fun on her blog! I love her 3-d items as well as her cards!
3. Leslie Miller’s blog is so inspiring. I love when she posts about her garden! Her creations are always top notch, and she is just the sweetest!
4. Ellen Hutson is one of the most generous people I have ever met. She is ALWAYS sharing tons of information to help us improve our skills. I was so lucky to spend time with her at CHA. Ellen is quite simply…amazing!
5. Heather Nichols, aka Pinefeather. Pine is quite possibly the sweetest gal I have ever met…OMGosh!! She is so uber talented, no only as a stamper/scrapper, but she also has a shop where she alters vintage items into useful things! You must check out her blog and see what she’s done.

So there ya have it…check these gals out, as well as the list to the right. You won’t be disappointed!!

I just loved K&Co’s booth and wanted to share two of my faves. First is this dress made from paper..WOW! So gorgeous! I have seen it done before, but never in person. It looks SO REAL!

And here’s their new Halloween line. GAWD is this stuff not the cutest thing you’ve seen?! I believe its going to be available in August. I’m sure I’ll be buying almost all of it! LOL!

Well here’s some of my faves from CHA. There was SO MUCH to see, I didn’t get nearly as many pictures as I had wanted!

First up is a company I had never heard of: Daisy Bucket. Ummm…I am in LOVE with their line! Check out this display they had!!!!

Here’s a closeup of their cake…WOW!!!

Here’s some awesome stamps from Stampendous! OMGosh, these Halloween and Christmas elves are must haves for my collection!! TOTALLY adorable!!! (these are larger pics and you will need to click on them)

Here’s Martha Stewart’s new Halloween line. She has some REALLY cool stuff! I love her bat, spider, and pumpkin punches!! And lots of cool glittery things!

BoBunny has a new line called Bella Journee, and I think I must have it ALL! LOL! My faves are Tuscany and Napa, though. GORGEOUS!!

7gypsies had some really cool things on display. I loved this book that opens and has little flaps inside that open as well. When it’s closed, there’s 2 elastics that wrap around the corners as seen in the larger book underneath it there on the table:

They also had this ultra-cool ATC revolving holder. Check it out!!

They also had a ton of other cool alterable stuff…pizza boxes, cd holders, journals, you name it! 7gypsies really captured my attention this weekend!

Doodlebug never ceases to amaze me with their displays, and this show was no exception. They had the most darling houses! Check ‘em out!

They also had these great little vials of glitter! You KNOW that I will have to get these!! Everything in their booth was just sparkling with glitter. I was in heaven I tell ya!

I hope you enjoyed some of these pics! I will share some more with you soon. I don’t have “people” pics on my camera, but I will share those as soon as I get some from the gals I was with, OK? Thanks for stopping by! HUGS!!

Hellooooooooooooooooo!!

I am in the airport and almost home!! I had the most amazing time, and can’t wait to share pics with you! I will get some up ASAP! Missed you all very much, as internet time was extremely limited!!

Be back soon!! {{{{Blog friends}}}}