Happy Holidays 2018 | ft Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card (and video) featuring Lawn Fawn's "Say What Christmas Critters", Merry Christmas border die as well as the Merry from the "Happy, Happy" add-on die set.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

If you check out the video, you'll see the list of Copic markers I used to colour all the little critters, as well as hear about the type of paper I use and where these little gems (on his nose) came from.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think!

Missing You | ft. Studio Katia "Floral Trimmings"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today started out not awesome. It wasn't as bad as Monday, but it definitely wasn't spectacular. Then my honey sent flowers to my office and it turned my day right around. Not only was it the first time he has ever sent me flowers, it absolutely made my day to know that he was thinking about me and the hard time I've been going through the last couple of days.

I think a lot of our motivations in crafting comes from these very things. Just letting someone know you are thinking about them, especially when they are having a difficult time can make all the difference in the world. You never know how you can turn a day around just by sending a card to let them know they are in your thoughts. I highly recommend it.

Today, I want to share a card featuring Studio Katia stamps and embellishments. This card wasn't made for anyone in particular, but it's always good to have one on hand for those times when someone just happens to pop into your head out of the blue.

To begin, I stamped the "Floral Trimmings" stamp from Studio Katia with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I coloured the images in with Copic markers. Like I talked about in my video "You are so Loved", I generally like to go big and bold with my floral colouring. Just throwing sunshine off the page, so to speak. That's what I was going for in this image.

To add some detail, I used a white gel pen to add highlights to the petals and leaves as well as dots in the middle of the larger flowers. I then stamped the greeting from Simon Says Stamp with Memento ink over top of the image.

I adhered the panel to a piece of coordinating pink cardstock then mounted the entire piece to the front of an A2 sized card base. Then, because I'm me and I just can't resist, I added a scattering of crystals from Studio Katia across the panel.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own, and maybe let someone know you're thinking of them. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

You're a Star | ft. Lawn Fawn "So Jelly"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card that I created using Lawn Fawn's "So Jelly" stamp set along with Distress Oxide inks and Copic markers.

To begin, I cut down a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and used Carved Pumpkin and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide inks to create my background. Once that was dry, I prepped the piece with my powder tool and stamped the starfish from the So Jelly stamp set with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I then splattered the panel with clean water to get that distressed look we all love, then splattered again with gold Perfect Pearls.

To get a bit more dimension in my starfish, I went in with some Copic markers to add some shadows and highlights.

I adhered that directly to my standard A2 sized card base. I heat embossed the greeting with detail white embossing powder and mounted the strip with foam mounting tape (from the dollar store).

To finish off the card, I used some of the small bubbles, scattered about the panel.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series If Friends Were Flowers | ft. Clearly Besotted "Pretty Pansies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

If you aren't having a great day, then I hope you are at the very least having a better day than I am. We've talked a lot about how my schedule has been crazy; full time job, three kids, just life etc. But I'm trying to post more often, I'm trying to be in the craft room more often, and it's a challenge.

Lemme tell y'all there are days where I get home and I just want to go to bed. I don't have an overly physically demanding job, but it is mentally (and emotionally) exhausting. So today being more challenging than most, especially after taking a few days off to do mom stuff, today I just wanted to through up my hands in the air and be done with it all. I cried. Actually cried at my desk. Now, I'm not one to typically let other people see me cry, but it couldn't be helped. So when my husband asked me what I wanted for dinner, I told him a bottle of wine and a jar of Nutella. No joke.

He declined. Which I think is rather unsupportive. Not really, he's probably right. And we didn't have wine or Nutella for dinner.

The plan when we got home was to sit and watch a show, but I felt that in an effort to bring myself a bit of joy today, I was going to blog first. So now you all know where I'm at. I don't blame you at all if you've just skipped over the last couple paragraphs.

Anyway, for today's card I wanted to share a beautiful new (to me) stamp set from Clearly Besotted. I gotta say that when it comes to floral images, Clearly Besotted is the place to go. Their images are so detailed, and yet leave you enough space to colour using any medium your heart desires.

To begin, I stamped the larger floral image from the Pretty Pansies stamp set, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, then masked that off and stamped it a second time along with the greeting.

I masked off the second image and used some Lawn Fawn "Butter" ink to add a bit of colour to the background around the flowers. I removed the masks and coloured all the images in with Copic markers. Interestingly, I know what a pansy looks like, but I had to Google it to actually get my colours. In retrospect, that seems silly, because I could have coloured this any old way I pleased.

I used some cool grey markers to add a small drop shadow, which isn't even really noticeable, but you would probably notice it if it weren't there.

I adhered the panel to the a piece of coordinating purple cardstock from my stash and then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. To finish off the card, I covered the blossoms with clear Wink of Stella, then added crystals from Pretty Pink Posh.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

It's That Time Again 2018 Edition | ft. Lawn Fawn "Thanks a Latte" and "Happy Harvest"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know I promised another sloth card in my video yesterday, but sadly life got in my way and I was unable to get to it. It is International Count Your Buttons Day - also a thing, you can totally Google it. There's a great link if you are looking for what International Day it happens to be. Because who doesn't like a fun holiday.

That was just a fun fact, it has nothing to do with today's card. LOL

Every year, I try to include a Pumpkin Spice card. What says fall better than pumpkin spice? Exactly nothing. You can see the 2017 card here, and the 2016 card here. In continuing with my tradition, it is a tradition if it's three years running, right? Today, I want to share the 2018 of my Pumpkin Spice Coffee card. I've made others and you may find them if you go back through the blog.

To begin, I stamped the cup from Lawn Fawn's "Thanks a Latte" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic friendly cardstock. I did mask off the back rim, so I could add these little pumpkins from "Happy Harvest". I then stamped the scarf and did a bit of stamp surgery to get my greeting.

All the images are coloured with Copic markers. To finish off the panel, I used clear Wink of Stella over the scarf. I then mounted that panel on a piece of orange cardstock and then adhered the whole piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

International Sloth Day - Happy (belated) Birthday | ft. Lawn Fawn Stamps and Interactive Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card (and video) for an interactive, masculine and SUPER cute belated birthday card, featuring Lawn Fawn's "Double Slider Surprise" die set, "Hang in There" and "Critters in the Jungle" stamp sets, all in honour of International Sloth Day. That's a thing. You can Google it.

So I had a completely different card in mind when I woke up this morning, and not gonna lie - it took a bit for me to get that one out of my head, or at least off to the side, so I could create this one. Sloth Day only happens once a year, and I'll not miss it. They are, after all, my most favouritest of animals.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

In the video you'll see the list of Copics that I used to create this card, I also discuss why this die set gives me the most trouble out of all the interactive sets I have. As well, in the interests of full disclosure, I do go off on a pretty long tangent about the value we put on our work, and why it is important that we continue to do what we love BECAUSE we love it, not to make everyone else happy. Oh, and you'll also see me make a bit of a masking error and how I fixed it. This video is loaded with stuff today; I didn't even list them all!

I really wanted the sloth to be the star of the show, not counting the interactive element, as that generally steals the show. We all love a little interaction in our cards!

I kept the colouring super simple on all of the elements, all of which are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock.

So while we're chatting about mistakes (in the video) I also didn't really put the card together the way I wanted. The pull up panel goes waaaay further than I wanted because I didn't use the stopper mechanism - and they provide it for a reason. Sooo maybe next time. Whoops!

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Adding Dimension with Coloured Pencils | ft. Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Flowers"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card I created using Simon Says Stamp's "Beautiful Flowers" stamp set, Distress Oxide inks and PrismaColor Premier pencils.

The end result of this card is not what I had planned. I had just wanted to do an ombre background and stamp the image over top, just something super simple so I could get back into the swing of things. I've been having some serious issues getting over my creative block. I have a lot of ideas and I find that they build up but then I can't get any one of them out on paper. It's incredibly frustrating.

I began with applying Squeezed Lemonade, Ripe Persimmon and Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide ink to my panel. I then splattered it with clean water and then splattered again with Perfect Pearls in gold.

Once that was dry, I put the panel in my MISTI and stamped the large floral image from Simon Says Stamp's "Beautiful Flowers" with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink.

I had planned on leaving it at that (after adding the greeting from Beautiful Friend), but then I thought I would add a little bit of colour in the areas where I wanted shadows. Then down the rabbit hole I went. I just couldn't stop myself. I started adding darker and darker shades to deepen the shadows. Once the shadows were there, it occurred to me that the highlights weren't highlight-y enough.

When all was said and done, it was completely different than I had originally planned. I intentionally did not do anything with the leaves, I wanted just the flowers to really pop off the page. Kind of like a one layer spotlight technique.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Mini Series | ft. Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Flowers" and 2 Kinds of Watercolour Pens

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card (and video - two days in a row, peoples!!) featuring the Beautiful Flowers stamps set from Simon Says Stamp. I received this in one of their monthly kits, but I think it is still available independently on their site. I wasn't sure how much I was going to love the giant floral images, turns out I love them a lot and I cannot wait to get more. There is a Sketchy Flowers coming in the October card kit, but that hasn't made its way to me yet.... I've been checking every single day and it's like that commercial where the little kid looks so hopefully only to be woefully disappointed - that's me. Every. Day. I can only imagine what my neighbours think when I shuffle back to the house empty-handed.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

So I've done some cards using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and I've done some cards using the Tombow Dual Brush Pens but I've never used the two together. Until now. I didn't have quite the palette I wanted to use in either set, so I ventured just a bit out of my comfort zone and used both sets. 

I stamped the image using VersaMark embossing ink and heat embossed it with Ranger's Rose Gold embossing powder. It's pretty, but it really wasn't as "rose-goldy" as I would have liked. I have a new powder that has arrived (between the filming and the voice-over for this video) and I'm looking forward to trying that out.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think!

2018 Sporadic Fall Series | Happy Everything| ft. Lawn Fawn "Happy Harvest" and Large Wreath Die

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card (and video) featuring Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies, while I have done company mash ups in the past, where I mix different companies together, today I decided I was going to do a seasonal mash up. Where I live it can be any season at any time, and we are currently experiencing a Fall/Winter mix. Gotta love the prairies.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

Check out the video above to see how this card came together. You'll also see the list of Copic Markers I used and some initial thoughts on the Lawn Fawn embossing ink pen.

So this card also has some new to me products, including the Lawn Fawn embossing ink pen, the Lawn Fawn Textured embossing powder and the Marvy Snow Marker - So I have used this marker in the past but I think this is the first time I've used it in a video or in a card that I've posted to the blog.

If you have never used the snow marker before, but want to add some super fun texture to a card you should check it out. In the video I try to do a close up of the poofing that happens when you apply the heat gun to the marker stuff. It's like MAGIC!!

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Sweet Birthday | ft. Lawn Fawn's "Sweet Friends"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a simply sweet birthday card featuring - you guessed it! - Lawn Fawn's "Sweet Friends" stamp set and Copic colouring. I wanted to create a clean but fun birthday card, and while digging through my stash, looking for inspiration, it occurred to me that I haven't used this set very often. So here we are.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and stamped the doughnut image with Memento Tuxedo black ink randomly about the panel, taking care not to stamp in the middle where I wanted my greeting to go.

I stamped the first and last part of the greeting with Lawn Fawn's Black Licorice ink then stamped the "sweet" in three different shades of Lawn Fawn ink.

I coloured the images in with Copic markers. I wanted to create an assortment of doughnuts but not get too out of hand, after all, I wanted this to be a simple card. Next I used some warm grey markers to create a drop shadow at the bottom leftish of each one and in the top right of the hole, so it would appear as though my light source were coming from the top right of the panel.

I trimmed a piece of the Really Rainbow paper to just smaller than my standard A2 sized card base and adhered that down using my tape runner. I popped my panel up on foam tape.

To finish off the card I added a couple layers of Clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to the icing parts then covered each of them with glossy accents.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Interactive Masculine Birthday Card | ft. Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a masculine card (and video) featuring -- SURPRISE!!! Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies. I needed to create a birthday card for my grandfather who turned 86 this year! 86!! And still strong as an ox. He's totally one of my favourite people in the whole world and he got a real kick out of this card. We had his birthday dinner on Saturday (Chinese food - because that's what he loves) and he thought it was great. He even texted me during dinner to say thank you.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

When you watch the video, you'll see that my process isn't really as smooth as it generally is. Or at least as smooth as think I am because I had a little person talking at me and asking me questions and trying to get me to do stuff for her. 

I used Distress Oxide inks to create a simple background so that my little scene wasn't just floating in the middle of nowhere, I used Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass; there is absolutely nothing special about this. I just wanted to get colour on my panel.

I used Lawn Fawn Dye Inks to stamp my little water patch from the Dad & Me set, I knew that it wasn't going to be a solid stamped image and tried to use that to my advantage by restamping the image a second and third time with a lighter colour ink to make it look more like actual water.

I wanted to finish off the inside of the card, something I don't typically do. For this one I stamped the images in second generation Distress Oxide ink and then stamped the sentiment from the Reveal Wheel Sentiments with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

For the grass and dragonflies around the little scene I used Peeled Paint and Black Soot Distress Oxide ink. This isn't in the video because of a certain little person who just *needed* to have my attention. But I do talk about that in the video.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.