Hello again, Stampin' Friends

Hello, Stampin' Friends! So I can see by the date stamp that my last post was in May. It is now October. I'd love to say time flies while your having fun, but I'm not sure that's what I've been doing, lol. In Summer I have been focused on so many things: no school time with the boys, CTMH Convention in Utah, remodeling the second floor of our new house, traveling back and forth to California with the boys and my Dad(!), and then back to school...so basically life. I've been doing life...but in my crafting I've been literally FROZEN, unable to find the time, focus, energy, and drive all at the same time for far too long, because everything around was a bit of a fixer-upper. 

Now that the new second floor is almost unpacked (and my new, bigger craft space is usable!), I am finally able to Let It Go and get my paws inky again. I have missed crafting so, so much. I've managed to squeeze in a bit here and there, but last night I sat at my new desk, made a card for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, and I just felt so happy and at peace. I busted out the Whimsical Holiday stamps from this month's Holiday Cheer special. I paired those holiday images with Craft On papers, which are going to retire soon, but I have missed SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, so I'm gonna use whatever I have and whatever I want until I feel craft-satisfied. I will craft what I want! 

 I paper pieced the little Snow Dude, adding shimmer brush to his body and touches of marker color. The snowflakes were fussy cut and mounted onto glitter paper backgrounds (from an older Tim Holtz die set), but that adorable little swirl is from the Thin Cuts - Crafting Shapes die set which is literally to DIE for if you are any kind of crafter. I can't even with how sad I was that I just opened this set like last night. Lots of shimmer brush, red baker's twine, and bitty sparkles finished off my first card in forever. If you want to build a snowman (card) of your own...or any other theme using this cute sketch, be sure to check out Atlantic Hearts this week. Okay, bye!

Sealed with a Kiss Card

Over the weekend I got to borrow one of the new Hostess only stamp sets from the new Expressions idea book. My sweet friend Carolyn let me ink up her new set, and I paired it with some sweet Gimme Some Sugar papers.

I stamped each envelope onto various patterned papers from the Gimme Some Sugar line. How yummy is that woodgrain?  I was working from this week's sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch.

I hadn't brought enough stamps with me last weekend, so instead I fussy cut roses and leaves from one of the patterns in Gimme Some Sugar - all the pretty flowers with none of the work! Hope you enjoyed this happy mail, Stampin' Friends!

National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the National Stamping Month Blog Heart. This month we are featuring projects using this month's CTMH special From the Heart, a special double stamp set and interactive card kit in celebration of National Stamping Month. You may be arriving here from JANNA'S BLOG, and the full list of hoppers can be found here.

One thing I love about using clear acrylic stamps in lieu of the more traditional red rubber is that I'm fully in control of what my image looks like. For this card I cut apart the sheet of images that were outline florals with these adorable sentiments. I trimmed off the flower images, and I've even separated out some of the scripty words from the sentiments to use individually. I can easily put it back together to get the look originally intended, but it allows a lot more flexibility in how the images are used. I stamped a few of the outline floral images across the top . 

Then I went over the stamped images with blobs of watercolor paint, ignoring outlines and just filling in the areas as the paint fell. I splattered some extra purple watercolor paint over the whole thing and ran my mostly dry brush down around the edges to define the card front. When it was dry I stamped on the sentiment and added bitty sparkles throughout the watercolored area for a bit more sparkle. I'm linking this card up to this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge. 

Next up on the hop is MICHELE'S BLOG. Be sure to visit all the blogs in the hop for tons of From the Heart inspiration!

My Other From the Heart Projects:

Color Throwdown Special Thoughts Card

You're in My Heart Card

Thanks for Everything Watercolor Card

Happy September, Stamping Friends! I'm looking forward to slightly more crafting time once the littles head back to school tomorrow morning... Sure I'll miss them, but I've been missing my stamp room a lot last month! For example, today was the first day I managed to crack open my new Rose embossing folder, which I brought home from Convention in July. It's a travesty of crafting.

Anyhoo, I embossed some of the new Basic Fundamentals in a subdued burlap pattern. Then I lightly sponged that embossed patterned paper with Mink ink. I was working off the new Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge for this week, and I grabbed a few more patterns from the Basic Fundamentals packet to fill in the sketch. The glittery heart border came from the Inspire Complements. I added some sparkles and bitty sparkles that I turned purple using a Shin Han alcohol marker. The sentiments came from the September SOTM.

The floral image came from an AdornIt paintables card. I love the weight of the watercolor paper on those! I colored the card with my Zig Clean Color pens, and topped the jar with Liquid Glass sprinkled with just a pinch of super fine glitter. I tucked in a few extra sprays of leaves and florals that I stamped and watercolored from this month's From the Heart National Stamping Month promotion set.  I just stamped them in a light color of ink and went over the images with watercolor paint. I hope you'll pop over to Atlantic Hearts and play along with this week's adorable sketch!

Smile You Are Loved Card

As much as I love being at CTMH Convention, it's always nice to come home and settle back into family life...and have access to my stamp studio again! For this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge I dug out an oldie but goodie, the September Word Puzzle stamp set. The Word Puzzles (one for each month) are part of a special set of retired stamps CTMH is re-releasing for this month's Stampaganza special.

I started with an oval-ish watercolor card from the ADORNit Floral Frames Paintables sheet. I colored it using Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. I stamped the SMILE sentiment onto the dried and fussy cut image. Then I popped up the "you are loved" sentiment onto a little banner and added some outlining with a journaling pen. The papers are from the Prickly Pear papers. 

I added glitter gel to the flower centers and a few glitter gems and tiny sequins scattered about the card. I also went over the letters of SMILE with shimmer pen and outlined them with my journaling pen as well. All of the stamps on my website are Buy 2 Get 1 Free this month with Stampaganza, including the limited time release stamps like the word puzzle I used on this card. If you love a deal, that ought to put a smile on your face. Hop over and grab your Stampaganza deals before the end of July!

Live Beautifully Doily Card

I was cleaning up my photo files when I realized I hadn't yet shared this sweet Mother's Day using the National Scrapbooking Month Live Beautifully papers. They are almost gone, and Mother's Day is past, but I hope you won't mind...

There's literally no stamping on this card except for the easily changed out sentiment. How pretty is that huge vintage floral? I paired it with a doily, the subtle grey stripe from the Live Beautifully packet and the gold foil dots. I'm just so sad that there's only a little bit of time left to grab this gorgeous floral paper suite!

I cut the trio of cream roses from another print in the packet, and popped them up with some thin foam tape. The black glitter is Shimmer Trim I punched with a scallop border. I sprinkled on a few gold glitter gems and tiny gold sequins to finish this pretty project off. I'm linking it up to the Heart 2 Heart Coming Up Roses Challenge, the Color My Heart Live Beautifully Challenge, and the Paper Issues May Mom-O-Gram Challenge. 

Live Beautifully Congratulations Card

While I love making more complicated watercolor versions of this month's Live Beautifully rose images, I also wanted to see what I could do just stamping a single rose, fast and simple.

Inspired by the Navy in this week's Fusion Card Challenge, this little Congrats card comes together in no time at all. I simply inked the rose in blue ink and stamped it repeatedly all over the card front. each time I stamped the rose I also stamped off the second and third generation lighter images in the spaces between the roses. 

I love how that extra pouncing of the stamp image fills in the spaces of the background without adding more images to compete with the roses. I layered my sentiment strip over some navy organdy ribbon from my stash, and topped it off with a couple of sparkly gems. I'm linking this card up to the Heart 2 Heart Coming Up Roses Challenge. Check out the Live Beautifully Collection before it sells out!

Happy Wishes Live Beautifully Card

Many of you know that this month is National Scrapbooking month. CTMH always offers an amazing special kit just for NSM, and this year it is the lovely and elegant Live Beautifully collection. The papers are gorgeous, with gold foil accents, but the stamp set might just be my favorite part.

Here I've layered two stamped roses from that set over a couple of the papers in the collection. That tiny polka dot in the background is foiled, as is the striped piece running behind the roses. I added some hand stitching detail around the center block, and I'm linking up to the Just Add Ink Stitching Challenge.

I stamped the Roses in a light colored ink (Sea Glass) and went over them with watercolor pencils for depth. I did blend the colors a bit using my smallest waterbrush. I used the same watercolor pencil technique on the leaves. After I fussy cut the images I popped one of the roses up on thin foam tape. I'm also linking up to the Heart 2 Heart Everything's Coming Up Roses Challenge. 

Don't forget to pop over and check out the National Scrapbooking Month Live Beautifully collection - it's only available while supplies last!

Live Beautifully in May

Our National Scrapbooking Day crop is coming May 6th, and I cannot wait to scrap with my local Stampin' Friends that day!

This is one of 5 beautiful layouts from the Live Beautifully Scrapbooking Workshop we will be doing that day.  I especially love all the gold foil embossed roses on the background. 

If you want more kit details, join my VIP Monthly Memories Facebook Group or contact me for all the scoop!

Live Beautifully Workshop Coming in May!

Did you know that May is National Scrapbooking Month? I'm super excited this year, in part because I'll be hosting a crop on May 6th with my local Crafty Peeps, and in part because we will be making up this stunning Live Beautifully 10 page Scrapbooking Workshop!

Below is my favorite of the gorgeous 5 double page layouts included - each kit includes preprinted bases, precut papers, diecuts, and stickers with gold foil accents. I whipped up this special kit today, adding just a few extra goodies, like a bit of washi tape, Gold Glitter Gems, and adorably teensy gold sequins. I can't wait to get my pics onto these beautiful layouts!

If you are interested in creating this amazing kit in May, I've got the full pages (with my twist on the basic kit) loaded to my VIP Monthly Memories Facebook Group. Let me know if you'd like to join! That's where I share all my upcoming classes and organize our twice monthly crop days. I offer both in person and To- Go kits shipped right to your home. Contact me if you have any questions or want to reserve your kit!

So Happy Hungry Caterpillar Layout

Happy Valentine's Day, Stampin' Friends! Today I'm sharing a sweet and scrappy project featuring my littlest dude. When I saw this sketch from Stuck Sketches, I immediately remembered these sweet pics of Max taking home his classroom caterpillar. I only had three pics, and my favorite one is kind of blurry, but I couldn't let sleeping caterpillars lie...

 I used papers from the Dreamin' Big line. I just love this woodgrain! I drew and trimmed out my rustic star. The edges of all the pieces are scissor distressed. 

Most of the embellishments came from the coordinating Complements. Some are cardstock weight stickers, but then there are these super cool acrylic pieces! I added black acrylic dots to the flower stickers.

This is my slightly blurry favorite picture. He gets that look when he thinks he's being funny or getting away with something, and he's had it since he was a tiny baby! to me, this is so Max. Also, can I just point out the ladybug? I mean, seriously. {Double heart!} Am I the only one with a thing for ladybugs? 

In honor of the sweetest day of the year, CTMH is offering an awesome flash sale from 2 p.m. on February 14th through 2 p.m. on the 15th. To see which items will be discounted during the sale, visit my shopping website at any time during the sale—the Sweet Sale items will be listed on that page. All the items included in the sale are only available while supplies last, and there is no grace period for placing orders, so be sure to get your orders in before the sale ends! 

Check out the goods starting at 2 p.m. PST on my CTMH website. Have a sweet day!

Kindness Changes Everything Card

This month CTMH has a sweet special card kit called Create Kindness to celebrate National Stamping Month. I love all 8 of the thoughtful stamp images, but this "Kindness changes everything" sentiment is my absolute favorite. Choosing kindness is something I talk about with my boys all the time, so you could say that this one is very close to my mommy heart.

I had painted some small panels of watercolor last week, just messing around with my waterbrush and some thick cream colored watercolor paper. Once that was dry I trimmed the panels to size and stamped over the watercolor with the balloon boy from True Love. I paper pieced the balloons with a bit of Oh Deer paper. Then I set those aside to ponder what to do with them. When I saw this week's CAS(E) this Sketch challenge, I knew they would be perfect!

I tore the bottom edge of a colonial white panel and inked the edges with black  ink. I added the watercolor panel to the top, and stamped the sentiment at the bottom in Black ink. I stamped it again onto a scrap of colonial White CS and trimmed out the "KINDNESS" word. I layered this over two banners with thin foam tape, overlapping the bottom of the watercolor panel. I added a scattering of gold star sequins and I painted the banners and balloons with shimmer pen.

You can see all the sweet stamps that are part of this Choose Kindness special here. I'm happy to share that the stamps are available as part of a kit or as individual images. You can use the hashtag #createkindness to follow along with the acts of kindness or post some kindness of your very own. Hugs to you, Stampin' Peeps!

Teacher Thank You Card

I'm heading out to Orlando in a few short hours for the 2016 Close To My Heart convention. In all the bustle of the end of school and getting ready for this trip I forgot to post the cute little cards I did for the boys' teachers on the last day of school. 

It was based on last week's Retro Sketches sketch, but I didn't get it posted before the sketch closed. I sued the Happy Times papers from the May Special, and the Treats of Friendship stamp set.

Be sure to pop over and check out the stamp sets - so, so much is going away next month when CTMH retires some of our Cricut Cartridges and I don't want you to miss out! Plus there is new (!) Clearance and the Friday Flash Sales going on this month. Happy stamping! 

Congratulations Graduate Card

This is the card I made to go with the Grad Cap jars. It's based on the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. 

I used the May Special Happy Times papers for this graduation card. I wanted something more girlie than I've been doing with this sweet grad set. I trimmed the flowers from that gorgeous floral paper. I stitched a lot on this card, all around the edges, on the center sentiment, and that little corner detail. 

I just love this diagonal wood grain! I wish I hadn't been so sick this month, because I didn't get to play with  Happy Times nearly enough. I hope you got your packet - it'll be gone in just two more days!

Real Sweet Happy Times Card

Hi, Stampin' Friends! I've been a little absent lately, partly because I've been sick with the allergies (boo!), and partly because I've been finishing up my stamp studio(yay!!). I'll have a post on the space later after I finish up the last bit here, and then I plan to get my craft on more often again!

Today I'm sharing my take on the new sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. This is the first time I cut into this adorable Happy Times paper, and I already want more! The stamps from my card are also part of the Happy Times special. I inked, rolled, and stamped the individual flower pieces, then assembled using thin foam tape. It was a good sick-on-the-couch project!

I added a giant gold glitter dot to my center flower and dabbed some tiny gold glitter gel dots around the completed floral spray. It would be real Sweet if you hopped over to AHSC to play along this week!

Sending Laughs and Love on Mother's Day

True confession time...I'm almost incapable of mailing anything on time. I'm trying to be a better person about going to the Post Office. Does anyone else here struggle with that particular experience? I make cards all the time, but can't mail them on time to save my life. I'm fabulous at email and texting. I love getting snail mail. Yet I seem to lose all adulting function when I have to mail a package. 

This year I've got my Mother's Day cards done early, thanks to the fab sketch over at Retro Sketches. I used the adorable new stamp set from this month's Happy Times special (plus the two sentiments from a retired camera set, but seriously, do you blame me?). I still had the bit and pieces from my next Scrap Much? layout on my desk (it'll post on Friday), so the paper is Bazzill cardstock and a teensy bit of Simple Stories You & Me.

I stamped the flowers and fussy cut all the shapes, putting them together with thin foam tape. I added red acrylic hearts and some tiny red glitter dots, so the Post Office will super love me this week. Cross your fingers for me that these will arrive (mostly) on time!