Thank You Sarah Anderson

I'm back playing along with The Play Date Cafe this week. This challenge is special because it is a farewell to one of the Design Team members, and not just any member one of the co-founders, Sarah Anderson.

Here is the challenge: black, white, and a splash of green

and my take

I decided to make a thank you for Sarah. She has provided so much inspiration at the Play Date Cafe!

I cut a piece of white card stock to 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.

I cut another piece of white to 3 x3 then covered it in peeled paint, shabby shutters, and crushed olive. I cut the piece into 1x1 squares. I used black soot distress ink to stamp each square with a different background (all Hero Arts, Reversed Flowers and Leaves, Music Background, Envelope Pattern, Flourish Background, Stripes Pattern, Friend Definition, Cling Dots, Magical Background, and Large Fabric Design).
I cut a piece of black to 3 1/4 x 3  1/4 and adhered all my squares flat. I attached the black panel to the card with foam adhesive.

The sentiment (Hero Arts, Essential Messages) was stamped in jet black archival ink (Ranger) on a 1/2 x 2 1/2 each piece of white. I then notched the edges to make it a banner.

Thanks to you for stopping by to visit and to Sarah for all her time and inspiration these past years. Good Luck in your future endeavors Sarah!

P.S. I'll have some exciting news to share soon :)

Just for You

Well the weather has finally calmed down here, I hope it has where you are too :) Heading into Memorial Day weekend with some nice weather I hope!

Today's card is for the Digital Challenge over at Lily Pad cards. I'm also playing along with Wee Memories Stamps challenge.

Without further ado ;)

I started by printing the files from my computer, I don't have a digital cutter so I did everything by hand. Once I saw the shapes in the file I knew I wanted to build with the base of the pot. I cut out about 20 pieces of just the flower pot base. I inked them all with brushed corduroy first, then I edged with walnut stain. For some added texture I stamped the Hero Arts Envelope Pattern with walnut stain. I was trying to make it look like a deck. I'm pretty happy with how it came out :)
I printed the flower pot out again on teal then stamped it with versa mark and Hero Arts Reversed Flowers and Leaves.

The flowers, leaves, and stems are all from Hero Arts Dots N Flowers. I stamped them, fussy cut them, outlined them with marker, and added stardust stickles (of course!). The centers are black pearls.

I stamped the sentiment in jet black (ranger) and accented with some dark teal rhinestones.

I hope you all get to enjoy some good weather this weekend and thanks for visiting!

I Pine for You, Polka Dots

So we are getting some crazy storms in Ohio. I was at Archivers tonight taking a class when it started raining and hailing really hard. The front of the store started flooding!!These tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are hitting everywhere :( I hope you all are staying safe!! I know how scary the weather has been here and it's not even a quarter of what the plain states are seeing.

On a happier note this week I'm playing along with Lawnscaping Polka Dot Frenzy challenge

*All the stamps used are from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forest set.

I started by cutting a card base out of whit card stock 4 1/4 x 4 1/4. I cut the pink polka dot paper (Making Memories, Just Chillin) to the same size.

I stamped the tree 4 times then colored them with peeled paint and shabby shutters. I used walnut stain for the trunk. I cut them out and layered them with foam tape. To add some dimension I glued the top part flat and put the foam under the very bottom edges.

I stamped the fox on white then colored her in with brushed corduroy and walnut stain. I avoided getting too much color on the tip of the tale then to make it whiter I colored with a gel pen (Sakura).

I cut a piece of kraft to 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 and a white piece just an 1/8in smaller.

I stamped the sentiment in archival jet black (Ranger) and added some pink gem stones.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all are safe in this scary weather !!!

Just Wanted to let You Know You're Fabulous!

Playing along with CAS-ual Fridays Bring the Bling challenge
Sorry if this is a bit rushed deadlines looming and all :)

I stamped the border (Hero Arts, Mixed Design) twice in black. I colored the bursts with sharpies in a rainbow of colors. Then I colored some clear rhinestones to match. The sentiment (Hero Arts, Essential Messages) is originally one solid block so I did some masking so it would flow across the whole card.

Thanks for looking :) :)

To you Penny Black

If you haven't had the chance to visit Lily Pad Cards you need to ASAP. They have such fun challenges not to mention the articles. One of the current challenges is Kathy's Color Throwdown. I am a huge fan of Kathy's  and I missed the first throwdown so I had to play along with this one :)

Here are our colors

I'm also playing along with Penny Black. This week over on the Penny Black Blog they challenged us to decorate our envelopes.

So let's get started

I started by cutting a piece of white card stock to 3 3/4 x 3 3/4. I stamped and masked the pansies (Penny Black, Flower Gallery) multiple times. Since cream was one of Kathy's colors and well I didn't have any good cream card stock I just rubbed on some antique linen. I colored the flowers using markers (Whispers, Strokes). I filled the centers with glossy accents, once dry I layered it on top of a green panel. 

I used dark brown card stock for my base. Using part of the "To You From Me" stamp (Penny Black, To You) I stamped with versamark and heat embossed.

I didn't have any plain cream ribbon (looking at my craft room you would think I owned everything lol) so colored white satin ribbon (Offray) with a cream marker. I used my bow easy to make my bow. I layered some dark brown embroidery floss and a dark blue button on top.

For the envelope I masked off a square and repeatedly stamped the pansies. I colored and added glossy accents just like on my card. I added a black outline with my ruler and a gel pen (Sakura).

Here is just the envelope

Thanks for coming to visit, Hope you have a happy Thursday!

Thank you very much

Hello, Hello!

I hope wherever you are you're having drier weather than I am! It's been raining for the past 5 days here in Ohio yuk!! I'm so done with it :( It does give me lots of time for crafting but I would like to actually go out of the house every once in a while and enjoy myself! Anywho . . .

I'm playing along with Wee Memories Get Sticky challenge.

Although I have totes upon totes of stickers I rarely use them in my card designs. So I foraged through the totes and found these super cute journal spots (Me & My Big Ideas, Rachel). You'll have to forgive the photo the spot is actually a blue (think broken china) metallic and it did NOT photograph well.

Once I picked my sticker I moved on to paper. I created a standard sized card out of white card stock. I cut the floral paper (My Mind's Eye, Tickled Pink) a 1/4 in smaller and inked the edges with broken china. I sewed around the edges with white embroidery floss (dmc) then adhered it flat. I almost always sew first because I don't like the inside of my card to look messy. I added the journaling spot slightly off center.

I stamped the flower (Hero Arts, Flower Blossom) on pink floral (My Mind's Eye, Tickled Pink) and on the green polka dot (Making Memories, Just Chillin'). I fussy cut them out and adhered them to the journaling spot.

For the sentiment (Hero Arts, All Occasion Messages) I cut a banner and inked the edges with broken china. I added a button to my flower center to complete.

As always I so appreciate when you stop by :)

Just Saying Hello

If you follow my blog regularly you already know how much I love playing at The Play Date Cafe.
Here are this week's colors

I missed the last two challenges :( so this week I was determined to play along. It turns out that was going to be harder than I thought! I was on a hunting trip through my stash for gray paper, or gray ink, or well gray anything!! The only thing I could find that had any kind of gray in it was graduation paper . . .eek! Thankfully, amongst all the wonderful bright colors in the Jillibean Soup staples pack there was a 6 x6 sheet of gray :) After a hour long scavenger hunt I finally got to work :)

I started with a standard size white card. I rubbed dusty concord distress ink all over the front. Next I cut my precious gray paper to 3 1/2 x 4 1/4. I rounded the top two corners and adhered it flat.

I cut a piece of white to 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 and added some gray ribbon (American Crafts) I accidentally found this while looking for my purple ribbon,  I had no clue I even owned it  . . oops :) I added my purple ribbon and then trimmed the edges.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts, All Occasion Messages.

The flower was stamped 3 times on white cardstock and the leaf twice (both from Hero Arts, Layered Flowers) I colored the flower with my H20 pen and dusty concord. The leaves were colored with crushed olive. I fussy cut everything out. The flower was put to together with foam tape and adhered flat to the card.

I topped the flower off with some stardust stickles and a purple button.

So now that it's all said and done I think I like it enough to go get some more gray paper :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Unity!

Hi all!

I'm back after a week long hiatus. I tried to post the other but blogger was down, as I'm sure you all know :) I'm glad everything is back up and running again!

This month marks Unity Stamps 3rd Birthday. Yay Unity!! All Things Unity is celebrating by having a Trifecta Challenge. The guidelines were to make a 3x3 card, with 3 embellishments, in a birthday or anniversary theme.

I started by stamping the heart from Love Grows in Iris chalk ink on white paper. I fussy cut it out and covered it in glossy accents. Funny thing happened here. I didn't want to wait forever for the glossy accents to dry so I decided to help it along with a little heat. Well the heat completely changed the color, thank God it was a pretty color lol! The original color was the same as the punched border. What a happy accident :)

I cut a kraft card base to 3x3 and then cut off a 1/2in from the bottom of the front. I rubbed some more iris ink onto white cardstock and punched (EK Success) the border. I adhered this to the inside of the card. I cut a piece of pink polka dot (My Mind's Eye, Tickled Pink) and also adhered to the inside.

I stitched around the kraft then added some white ribbon. I popped up the heart with foam and topped it off with a cute little purple button.

Thanks for popping by!!

Celebrate!

Happy Monday! I hope all you Momma's out there had a great  day yesterday :) My sister and I took our parents out to dinner. I {heart} family time :)

I also hope you had time to hop along with us during There She Goes Clear Stamps MOABH. Wow there are so many great stamps from them and the inspiration on the hop was amazing!!

Now onto the crafting!

I played along with Penny Black for National Scrapbooking Day. The challenge was to make a monochromatic card, we also only had 24 hours to do it!

I kept mine pretty simple. I stamped the butterfly 3 times, once on bright red and twice on dark red. I fussy cut out the whole butterfly from dark red, the inside layers from the bright red, and the top wing from the second dark red. I adhered the whole butterfly and it's layers flat to the card. For some added dimension I adhered the top wing with foam tape but only on the left edge, the right edge I glued flat. The butterfly and the sentiment are both from Penny Black's To You set.

I added some stardust stickles and some ribbon to complete it.

Thanks for visiting!!

There She Goes Blog Hop!

Welcome to the 2^nd annual Mother of All Blog Hops sponsored by There She Goes Clears Stamps!   If you’ve arrived here from  Jodi's blog then you are in the right spot!  If not,  you will want to start back on the There She Goes Team blog in order to find out what you need to do to be eligible for the prizes we are offering!

The wonderful stamp set I'm representing is Art is The Window. This is the first There She Goes set I ever owned (but not definitely not the last he he) Here is the set with all it's adorable pieces parts

I made a couple of different cards to show you the endless possibilities :) I'm not going to give the rundown like I usually do because I know it's a hop and you have other creations to be inspired by. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

and as if five cards isn't enough (yeah right?!)  Here and Here are other cards using this set. I hope you found something to inspire you, if you did I hope you'll consider becoming a follower!!

Now it’s time to hop over to Jessica's blog, I know she has something wonderful to show you!!

Thank you for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment you never know which blog is the it blog :)

Happy Hopping!

Best Fishes

This one is for OTWC and here are the inspiration colors

When I saw the colors I immediately thought of the little fish in Hero Arts Let's Chill set.

I cut the waves in white, light blue, and dark blue using Tim Holtz scallop edge die. I then layered them on the card with foam tape.

I stamped the three fish on white card stock and colored them with two different colors of yellow glitter pens. (fish are always so shimmery :) I fussy cut them out and tucked them into the waves adhered flat.

For the sentiment I used Hero Arts Essential Messages. I used the Best Wishes but masked off the W. I used the F from the Thinking of You in the same set.

I outlined the tops of the waves in glossy accents and added two buttons.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Welcome Little One

I have been MIA from blog land preparing for this weekends hop :) I am back now with a card to share (just under the wire) for Wee Memories Paper Piecing challenge. I'm also playing along with CAS-ual Fridays first ever challenge (YAY Julie & Michelle!!) Texting Skills.

Here is my card.

I masked off my white card base and stamped all the text in worn lipstick. The different sentiments are from  Hero Arts, All Occasion Messages and Fiskars Precious Baby Quotes. I used another set also by Fiskars but it doesn't have a name it.

For the main image (Bundle of Joy, Stampavie) I paper pieced everything except their skin color for that I used a marker.

I added some stardust stickles to the heart on her apron and the flower in her hair. Topped it off with a brown bow.

This card is for my niece Chloe . . .now I just have to wait for her to get here :)