I Pine For You

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My sister saw this card by Nichol Magourick and asked me how to make it. Nichol has released a fantastic video about it but I didn't know about that at the time I made this so I just used my best guess on that background. I stamped and heat embossed the stars from Lawn Fawn's Teeny Tiny Backdrops and then used Distress Ink to blend out a sky. I wanted to mix it up a bit with the critters though so I create a different scene with a little raccoon dreaming of her crush. I don't usually take so much from someone else's card design but it was mostly to show my sister and I didn't want to waste the background so thanks Nichol for the great inspiration and all your fabulous videos.

Challenges for this card

Shopping Our Stash- Background Check

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge 59

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I have a new card today for Sister Act Card Challenges. I love these challenges because it's a simple anything goes card only challenge that gives people a platform to share their work. So please feel free to join us a link up a card anytime. I would love to check out your work. This week we are being sponsored by All Dressed Up and I was so enjoyed working with their freebie stamp The little puppy is just so cute! The coloring is done with Copic markers. 

Other challenges
Crafting From the Heart- Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes

Hey Foxy

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This week at Lawnscaping they are having a Distress challenge. I decided to use Distress Ink to make a watercolor background. I combined Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, and Milled Lavender. Then I colored in the letters from Quinn's ABCs for a sentiment and used Distress markers to color the fox from Into the Woods. 

Other Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Artsy Stamp (background)

Creative Knockouts: Coloring Show Off

May All Your Dreams Come True

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This week at Lawnscaping they are having a Distress challenge. I decided to use Distress Ink to make a starry night background. I combined Dusty Concord, Peacock Feathers and Black Soot over embossed starts from Teeny Tiny Backdrops. The hills were made with Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint. I colored the castle and unicorn from Critters Ever After and combined it with some clouds and a moon from other sets. 

Other Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Artsy Stamp (background)

Creative Knockouts: Coloring Show Off

OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop 2014

I'm honored to be joining the 2014 Operation Write Home Memorial Day Blog Hop. It is important to take some time out of our day to think about and thank the Heroes for their hard work and dedicated service. I decided to do an Any Hero card for this hop and provide you with a free printable so you can make one too. Simply right click and save the image below to use it on your personal Any Hero card. I made it the centerpiece of my own card with some Bo Bunny papers. Please feel free to check out my Freebies page for more printables, my Etsy shop for other crafty items and this link for my blog candy. Have fun hopping and consider writing your own piece of Any Hero mail today!

Sister Act Card Challenge #58

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I have a new card today for Sister Act Card Challenges. I love these challenges because it's a simple anything goes card only challenge that gives people a platform to share their work. So please feel free to join us a link up a card anytime. I would love to check out your work. This week we are being sponsored by Eureka Stamps whose images I adore and I was so excited to work with their Baby Animals stamp The little elephant is just so cute! The coloring is done with Distress Ink and Copic markers. 

Other challenges

Sunday Stamps- Sketch

Digi Galore- Kraft

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge- Spots and/or Stripes

Hippo Birdie To You

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This was made with the Lawn Fawn Year Four stamp set and dies with Here and There paper from Studio Calico. 

Challenges for this card:

Seize the Sketch -sketch

Shopping Our Stash- birthday challenge. 

Addicted to Stamps Challenge - anything goes

You Make My World Go Round

I was determined to use the Lawn Fawn Admit One stamp set and dies because I do not use them often enough. I knew I was going to use Lawn Fawn Into the Woods papers so I colored the adorable ferris wheel to match. I also cut some hearts from some various Lawn Fawn die sets and popped them up to add a little extra something to this card. 

Challenges for this card:

CAS(E) this Sketch -sketch

Addicted to Stamps Challenge - anything goes

Cute Card Thursday- handmade embellishments (die cut hearts)

Thank You Tree

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I picked up this cool leaf and tree combo from Deadbeat Designs at my LSS a few weeks ago. I loved the idea of simple beautiful tree cards so much that I actually bought wood mounted rubber stamps. I can't wait to do some simple winter tree Christmas card sets. Anyway for my first card with the stamps I was inspired by the 

Addicted to Stamps Photo Inspiration Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Botanical

The Paper Players CAS with Florals

All of Me Loves All of You

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I've had the song All of Me by John Legend stuck in my head all week so when I saw the challenge at Shopping Our Stash to use a song for inspiration I knew I wanted to pair some sweet critters with the lyric "All of Me Loves All of You." I emphasized some elements with glossy accents, but overall I kept it really simple to focus on the sentiment. All of the stamps are from Lawn Fawn and the coloring was done mostly with Inktense pencils.

Huge Birthday Wishes

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The Paper Smooches Sparks challenge is a photo inspiration this week. I loved the bright color combo and the fun paper lanterns so I focused on those elements for my inspiration. The paper lanterns reminded me to the elements in the Mojo Monday sketch so I used that as well for my card. The dino and sentiment are from Party Posse. The coloring is done with Inktense pencils.

I Love You!

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For this card I started with the Runway Inspired Challenge from the picture below. Of course the green drapery is very eye catching, but my card focuses on the lace top of the dress. I stamped a Hero Arts background stamp that had straight lines and florals similar to the lace then added some Antique Linen Distress Ink to mimic the skin tone. I added in the green by coloring the floral images and then tried to invoke the layered green with the green lace trim. I also put the two solid black bands along the side to invoke the black bands on the dress. I think I went a little dark with my greens, but I wanted to work with Distress for the techniques and it is generally a more muted palette. This is also for the Open Minded Crafting: Use Some Ribbon challenge.

Sister Act Card Challenge #57

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I just joined the team over at Sister Act Card Challenges. I love their challenge because it's a simple anything goes card only challenge that gives people a platform to share their work. So please feel free to join us a link up a card anytime. I would love to check out your work. This week we are being sponsored by Deasy Designs whose images I adore and I was so excited to work with their Space Adventure set. The little martians are just so cute! The coloring is done with Distress Ink and Distress Markers. I am still experimenting with coloring digital images as I get a lot of smearing with Copics, but I think I will try some more with the Distress products as I like the ease of coloring with them. I think I will try colored pencil as well and pick my favorite.

Other challenges

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge- M Challenge M is for Martian

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog- Anything Goes

Crafty Girls Challenge- Anything Goes

Clean and Graphic Watercolor Tutorial

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I recently created this trio of cards using my Inktense pencils and a Technique Tuesday pennant stamp that I got from Amy's destash giveaway. I wanted to put together a quick photo tutorial for anyone who wants to try a similar look.

I started by inking the pennant in the middle towards the top of the card.

Then I kept going alternating the stamp up and down to create a pattern.

I scribbled in a little pencil in the corner creating a pattern with three colors.

Then I used a little water to pull out the color for an ombre effect inside each pennant.

I mounted the finished panel onto some black cardstock and finished it off with a white glitter embossed sentiment. This card was inspired by Iron Craft Challenge Inspiration 3 Difficult Colors (purple and green) and Inspiration 1 Trends (watercolor)

Foxy Couple

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I've been experimenting with creating some digital art. Of course I love critters of all types but I wanted to try to create my own critters so that I can tailor them to specific events or occasions. So I created this fox couple digital stamp and it is available in my Etsy store for just $1 if you would like to use them on a card. I was sure to keep them easy to cut out since I often like to cut out my images. I used an Avery Elle sentiment on my card, but I did include two digital sentiments with the stamp for you to use if you like.

Challenges for this card:

Pile It On- Fuzzy

Shopping Our Stash- Inspiration Photo (orange and aqua color scheme)

Time Out Challenges- "Time Flies, Love Lasts"

Sister Act Card Challenge- Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday- Paw Pals

Blog Candy

  

I wanted to give out a little blog candy to celebrate my return to blogging and the opening of my Etsy shop. I have two prizes. I will be giving away: a pack of Miss You Flair Badges from American Crafts and a pack of dimensional stickers from Pebbles. I want to keep this simple but I also want to keep in touch with you my lovely readers. So in order to be entered for a chance to win, please pick your favorite way to follow me (my blog, Facebook, Etsy, one of my Pinterest boards) and leave a comment letting me know which way you are following me. The link to my social media and Etsy are in the sidebar. For a second chance to win  please share a link to my Etsy shop on your Facebook account and leave a second comment letting me know you shared. My Etsy shop contains discounted stamps from my destash, digital stamps, and of course cards so be sure to check it out. This giveaway will be open until May 31st. Good luck!

P.S. Be sure sure to check out my Freebies page if you want some instant goodies!

Wish BIG

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This week at Lawnscaping the challenge is to create a custom background using stamps. I wanted to play with sentiments as part of the make your own patterned paper. I was inspired by sentiment 'wish big' in the Critters from the Past set. But I adapted it with Milo's ABCs and Cole's ABCs. I used watercolor, clear embossed stars from Teeny Tiny Backdrops and the Wish part of the sentiment to create the custom background for the dino. The "Happy Birthday" is from Year Two and the dino is of course from Critters in the Past. The dino was colored with Inktense pencils and the Big sentiment was dipped in watered down Distress Ink. The orange layer is from Into the Woods and the green background is just a simple watercolored panel.

Season's Greetings

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I always like to make a few Christmas cards throughout the year so I will have them ready when the time comes so I combined the Paper Smooches Anything Goes challenge with some Christmas challenges. I used the Paper Smooches Chilly Chums set for the walrus. The patterned paper is from Carta Bella.

Challenges

Paper Smooches Sparks- Anything Goes

Tis the Season- Sketch

Jingle Belles- Bling

Christmas Card Challenges- No Embellishments

Cute Card Thursday- Paws/Animals

Wishing You a Merry Christmas

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I always like to make a few Christmas cards throughout the year so I will have them ready when the time comes so I combined the Paper Smooches Anything Goes challenge with some Christmas challenges. I used the Paper Smooches Chilly Chums set for the fox.

Challenges

Paper Smooches Sparks- Anything Goes

Tis the Season- Sketch

Jingle Belles- Bling

Cute Card Thursday- Paws/Animals

Thankful Flowers

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The current Avery Elle AEIHeartU challenge is to make a mother's day card. Unfortunately I don't have a mother's day specific sentiment or an alphabet from Avery Elle but I think the sentiment "Thankful for all you do" from Handwritten Notes  is very fitting for mother's day. I decided to create a fun custom background with a watercolor wash and then layered the flowers and elements from Thanks a Bunch in some different colors of Distress Ink. I'm still not very happy with the way the picture turned out. But after trying a few times I have given up and settled that this will be the best shot of it I can get. If you love Avery Elle go check out this fabulous challenge!

Other Challenges

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Spring Flowers

The Squirrel and the Fox- Mother's Day

The Pink Elephant- Mother's Day

If you still need a quick mother's day card here's a link to my printable freebie.

Just Wavin Hello

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This week at Lawnscaping the challenge is to create a custom background using stamps. I used the Critters in the Sea set for my card. The light blue background paper was created by clear heat embossing the little shell image. The main panel was created by strategic placement of the elements in the set and then a watercolor wash with Inktense pencils. The dolphin was colored separately with water and Distress Ink then adhered with foam adhesive for a little dimension. 

Let's Celebrate

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I wanted to try my hand at something a bit bold and graphic to mix things up. I stamped a banner stamp from Technique Tuesday and then scribbled in a bit of Inktense pencils. Then I blended it out with some water. I mounted it on some black cardstock so it would pop and added a quick heat embossed sentiment. The colors were inspired by the latest Curtain Call challenge. This is also for the Addicted to Stamps CAS challenge.