Hello and Happy Monday!
Just swinging in to share a little reminder about our current Inky Paws Challenge at Newton's Nook!  You have until Friday to create something Tropical using your NND stamps!

I couldn't wait to get my hands on the latest NND release!  That stencil! ~swoon~
For my card, I started with a different layout in mind, which is why I created a background with Distress Oxide inks, putting blue in the middle and yellow on the edges.  But as I was assembling everything together, I didn't like covering up all that gorgeous blue!  So I put the image to the side instead.

But back to that background!  I started by blending on some Distress Oxide inks for a great tropical combo.  Then took the Tropical Leaves Stencil and added Cracked Pistachio and Faded Jeans to get a 2 tone pattern.  I was hoping the ink would stay wet long enough for me to add some embossing powder, but some it dried by the time I finished.  So I placed my stencil back over the design and used a mini blending tool to add some Versamark.

Once the Versamark was added, I covered the leaves with a sticky embossing powder.  You want to heat that just to melted, not any longer or it won't be sticky anymore.  Then I coated the whole thing in some clear rock glitter!!  I used my finger to rub the glitter into the sticky embossing powder really well and then I always go back over everything with my heat gun just to be sure it's all set.  Now the background is bright, colorful, and sparkly!!

I colored up an image from Aloha Newton with my pencils, fussy cut her out and layered her onto a little beach scene oval.  Paired her with a fun sentiment from MFT Stamps and that was it!

I hope you will join us this week before the challenge ends!!
Thanks for visiting! <3

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Hello and Happy Monday!
We're starting another 2 week challenge today at Inky Paws and it's something I dream off often.  We want to see your Tropical Themed cards!

I was in the mood for some watercoloring.  I love this medium but I do struggle with it a lot still and the only way to get better is to play with it!  To start, I did a washy sunset background with some Gansai Tambi watercolors.  There are 2 layers to the background to get the colors nice and vibrant.  Once it was completely dry, I went back over it with just some light streaks to mimic clouds and haze in the sky.  Then set that aside to dry while I worked on my image.

I chose a couple images from the Aloha Newton set for my card today.  First up was the sweet little kitty in the bed of flowers.  I wanted to do a no-lines watercolor so I stamped everything is Antique Linen distress ink before working on getting it all painted.

The palm trees are from another image in that set with Newton swinging in the hammock, but I just trimmed out the trees from that image so I had just an individual palm tree.

My shading's not perfect...and the painting is a little rough.  But overall, I think it's an adorable card and a scene that makes me wish I was someplace tropical right now :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the Inspiration Teams creations, they've done an amazing job with this theme!  Then crack open your Newton's Nook products and join in the fun!

Thanks for visiting! <3

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Hi everyone!
Wow, twice in one weekend!  I never post on weekends, so this is a change for me.  I can't guarantee it will continue, but I had so much fun making these cards this week that I wanted to take the time to share them all with you.

I shared one of these cards on my Instagram feed earlier this week.  You can find me HERE if you wish to follow along!  I'd love to have you join me!  I'm really trying to stay consistent with posting there...social media is a little tough for me because I always feel a bit stupid sharing things in my life that I'm sure no one is really interested in (how many cat photos can one person handle in a day?)...but I'm working on it :)

So for Christmas, Matthew bought me the super cute Polynesian Paradise stamp set from My Favorite Things.  Ever since our vacation to Hawaii this past August, I have been drooling over this set and dreaming of the day when I could get my little fingers on it.  I was so excited to open that gift!  And couldn't wait to get around to playing with it!  I did use a few of the flowers in our Christmas card this year but that was all I had done, until I saw the sketch this week at My Favorite Things and knew I had to play along!

Don't you just love this card!!  I am over the moon excited about how it turned out!  I started by cutting out the frame with my Silhouette and then taking each of the rectangle inserts and coloring them up with some soft beachy colors.  I splattered them with a little water so they had some fun flecks to them and then set to work coloring up the flowers. 

I used my Inktense pencils for them...totally addicted to those right now!!  I added a little bit of shimmer to each flower as well.  The tucan in the set actually comes facing to the left..but the way I wanted to position him on my card needed to have him facing the right.  So I did a little mirror stamping by inking up the stamp, pressing it down onto the backside of a larger stamp and then pressing that onto the paper.  The lines don't come out super bold, and it took me a few tries to get the whole image to fully stamp.  But it worked well enough so I could go back over the whole image with the outliner pencil in the Inktense set and darken the lines up.  Then I colored him in as well :)

I finished this card off with one of the awesome sentiments and a scattering of Sparking Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh..of course!!

My next card is the one I gave a sneak peak of on my Instagram.  I couldn't resist sharing a little bit of it because it's just so cute!!

When I created the first card, I actually cut out two of those frames so I had one ready for a second card.  So I decided to use just the rectangle inserts on this card.  I lined them up the way they should fit into the frame, and then stamped them with a woodgrain background and heat embossed that in white, so it's a fun white on white design.

The background colors are Hickory Smoke, Blueprint Sketch, and Twisted Citron distress inks.  These colors come together in the mini set and I thought they would work so well together on this card...which they did :)

I got those all blended together and then once again splattered it with water and some shimmer mist to give some fun texture and sparkle.  While that dried, I colored in a few more flowers and the sweet Chameleon.  You can see that just the tips of his little toes are turning pink from where he's standing on the flower, but the rest of him matches the background.  So much fun!!!

I wanted to make this a birthday card, so I stamped a few tags from Lily of the Valley and used a little coordinating twine to tie them all together.  And then finished it all off with the Clear Droplets from Pretty Pink Posh.

I'm in love...this stamp set is my favorite and I am so excited to keep playing with it!!!

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:
    Crafting When We Can #110-Something New
    My Favorite Things Sketch #262
    Simon Says Stamp-Something New
    Word Art Wednesday #217-Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by!

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Hey Everyone!
Ready for a new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown?
This week we want to see your vacation themed creations!
Our awesome sponsor is The Stamping Boutique and they have provided some super cute images for the DT to use.  But I decided to use one of the images I already had in my collection.

I'm in a shaker card kind of mood.  I just love filling in those clear spaces with these fun little beads and shaking them around!  My original plan was to use some dew drop type beads in the middle, but after layering about 15 circle frames and still not having enough room to shake those beads around, I nixed that plan and went with the tiny beads instead :)  They're more fun anyhow :)

The image I've colored up is Uncommon Friendship.  I've used my colored pencils on everything, and added touches of stickles to all the little sea friends, and the mermaids tail.

Overall, the card was left really simple, but it did take me a little bit to put together because of all the layers for the frame.  And I added a fun sentiment to go with the image :)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    613 Avenue Create #80-Anything Goes/Shaped Cards
    Crafty Cardmakers #119-Under the Sea
    The Crazy Challenge #175-Summer Vacation
    Fab n Funky #223-Feels Like Summer
    Let's Craft and Create #94-Shaped Cards
    Simon Says Stamp-Let's Be Clear

Hope you will join us this week!  Thanks for stopping by! <3

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Happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  We went out yesterday and picked 40 pounds of blueberries!!  Woohoo!!  Big plans for those babies :)
Then we stopped into a friends house and spent a few hours in their pool, it was heaven!

Now I'm all burnt and refreshed for this new week!  Fortunately the weather is supposed to be cooler, so maybe I'll actually be able to function and get some stuff done around here.

Today we start a new challenge at Digi Makeover.  It's pretty simple, just select a digi image and color it!  Then add it to your creation and link it up to the blog so we can stop by and visit you!

I ended up working on my card super late last night since we were busy all weekend.  But in the end I think it turned out pretty good.  Matthew suggested a sunset theme, so I used the Scenery image from Paper Makeup.  I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to color it appropriately to really make it shine, but it turned out pretty good.  Reminds me of when we lived in Seattle and we'd watch the sun set over the Olympic mountains.  Was always so gorgeous.

To add a little more detail to the card, I colored up Danny, cut him out and mounted him in front of the image.  I'd sure love the chase dragonflies with that background!

I added a simple brown bow and stamped a sweet sentiment that I thought fit kind of well with the images.  Then a few little paint dots and it was all done!

I hope you will join us this week!  Be sure to visit the rest of the Makeup Artists blogs, they have done a fabulous job with this challenge, I just love working with these ladies!!  <3

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

    The Crazy Challenge #150-Summertime

    Inky Impressions #117-Summer

    Nutcrafters #47-One for the Boys

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I hope everyone's 4th of July week has started out fabulous!  I'm still visiting with family, so this post is scheduled :)

This week at Tuesday Throwdown, we are sponsored by Robyn's Fetish and challenging you to make a creation featuring the stars and stripes!

I used a super appropriate image for this challenge-George Washington from Robyn's Fetish.  It was a little difficult to color with all the shading drawn into it, but I still think it turned out great.

I paired my image with lots of stars and stripes and punched out a sweet scallop border to go under the image.  Then simply printed out a sentiment and it was done!

Do stop by and visit the rest of the design teams fabulous creations for this fun challenge!!
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Once again, I am late with my card this week...I am so sorry!  We are in Michigan visiting with our family for the week.  It worked out best since Matthew had his Tough Mudder race on Saturday, which was absolutely fabulous!!  Him, Andrew, and Dan did a fantastic job and it was so awesome watching them do this race together.

But our challenge this week at Digi Makeover is Vacation!  Which is perfect since that's what I'm enjoying right now :)

I decided to use Dude the Surfer Fairy because he just looked like he was having a total ball on that surf board!  My card was kept super simple this week since things were kind of rushed to get out the door..but I did my best :)

I colored him in with my pencils and then added some sparkle to his wings and the waves.  The finishing touch was some twine wrapped around and tied into a bow.  Sweet and simple.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Makeup Artists fabulous creations, and then come on back and join in our fun challenge!! read more →