Be A Warrior!

As soon as I saw the adorable designs by Tracey Hey on Instagram I knew I had to have them... especially this adorable Brave Lion and another that you'll be seeing soon.  And if you fall in love too, you can find them at the Alpacapals website here!  I can honestly say there is not one set that I wouldn't love to have!

I'm so not over the rainbows and I thought it would be fun to give him a beautiful rainbow mane so I used my watercolor pencils and colored him in.

  I wanted a rainbow background also, but didn't want it to compete with the little guy too much so I printed one of the fun digital backgrounds I recently one over at the Outlawz Challenges from We Are 3 digital shop on Etsy!  You should check it out... lots of cool stuff!  I decided to give foiling on Kraft a try... and I love the way it came out... the foil didn't seem to transfer solidly and not sure if it was my heat settings or just the kraft paper, but it worked out perfectly because it looks a little distressed.  I cut my foiled paper out using the Crazy Stitched Rectangle dies from CDD.

Isn't he just the most adorable??  I added a few leaves cut with some MFT dies because of course he'll be in the jungle!

Love the sentiments on this set and I used my favorite banner dies from CDD... I also decided an arrow would be appropriate for a warrior, but since this guy is obviously a lover and a fighter, I made it a heart arrow from CDD.  I took a stab at covering the die cut with adhesive from a decofoil pen and ran that through with some foil... it took came out a little distressed looking.... maybe I didn't cover it completely... but again!  Happy accident!

So that's it for me today!  A quick one!  And I highly suggest you check out the stamp offerings by Tracey Hey!  I'm positive you'll fall in love with at least one set... but probably more...lol!

I'm playing along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday today!  No twist for me... got a little to carried away with the color...lol... as the twist is Primary Colors, Red, Blue and Yellow... but you could go for it!

Ink Road - What the Frapp!

Quick post sharing a card I made this weekend... was so excited to get my order in from Ink Road I HAD to play!  I've had the Bella Flora set for some time and LOVE it and even love it more now that there are matching dies... and these dies ... this set... it is huge!  You get all of the outlines for all of the stamps in the stamp set AND a whole 'nother set of Stand Alone Dies!  14 Dies in all... so worth the price and then some!

Updated to add:  This one was a top pick over at Outlawz!!

And can we talk about the Mug Life stamp set??  As with so many of the Ink Road stamp sets.. the sentiments are SO fun and funny!!  Love that many of them fit on the coffee images in the set which are also quite awesome!

I was coloring up these flowers over the weekend, not really sure what I'd use them on, but knew I wanted to use a different color than my norm so I chose the orange and yellow... I wasn't planning on using them here, but when I laid it against that pretty plaid paper from my new Amy Tangerine Better Together paper pad that I picked up over at Our Creative Escape in Goodyear AZ.  And those floral pieces I cut off on my right bottom corner cluster... see what I did with those?  I'm not telling... you can find them I'm sure.

The pretty stitched frame is from Paper Smooches and cut from beautiful Hero Arts Woodgrain Cardstock.  And that beautiful stitched background was cut using a die from Stamplorations.  And one of my most used dies... that banner from Craftin Desert Divas.. not to mention the pretty sequins!

So I'm linking up to the Twisted Thursday over at The Outlawz which goes through tonight!  The twist is Taste of Summer... this challenge is always Anything Goes with a twist and you can use the twist or not (but if you do you get extra chances to win some great prizes!)  You should check out this Ning group for sure!

Thanks for stopping!  Be sure to checkout my Paper Sweeties post for today here and see what's going on for Release Day!

Kat Scrappiness August Challenge-Critters and Coffee!

Well, of course when I found out that Kat Scrappiness was having a challenge this month of Coffee and Critters - my two most favorite things - I knew I had to play along!  I started with one of my favorite die sets, the Double Stitched Rectangle Dies from the shop and some cute Doodlebug Pineapple paper! I love these dies when I want a simple background with just the little bit of character the stitching gives them.  They are just the right sizes for all kinds of projects!

I knew right away I'd be using this awesome Layered Coffee Cup Die from the KS shop!  It was a lot of fun to use them along with this pretty upcycled Coffee Cozy I picked up on my recent trip ... our hotel had the coolest coffee cozies!  And this one had some pretty tropical flair so it was just right!

I picked up this adorable owl from Technique Tuesday and was excited to use her here!  Loved that she had a crown of flowers on... probably placed on her head and she exited the airplane on her way to her tropical vacation!  And those beautiful Hibiscus dies from Newton's Nook... got those a while ago also and was excited to use them with some watercolored paper from my stash.

When I was deciding on a sentiment, I finally landed on this simple die cut one from Stamplorations.  I love making my sentiments so that the card will be the most flexible to send for any occasion!

And here's your inspiration photo!

Hope you'll play along with this fun challenge!  I'm also playing along over at Double Trouble challenges where the theme is Summer  and they're teaming up with Heartful Stamping Challenge's Dog Days of Summer as well so I'm linking up there too!  And can't forget the Outlawz Twisted Thursday where the twist is Travel/Vacation!  You should definitely check these two out as well!

Time to get ready for work and out the door!  Please do come back tomorrow for some Cutting Cafe Inspiration!  Thanks for stopping!

Stamplorations Sweet 16 Card

A co-worker asked me to create a card for her to give her Granddaughter for her 16th birthday.  I always ask for a couple details about the person so I can make it personal and she said simply... she loves horses!  I realized I didn't own any horse stamps and I was browsing Stamplorations website one evening right before bed and stumbled upon this awesome Live, Love, Ride Stamp Set and it was perfect!

I started this one by ink blending some Distress Oxides in Broken China and Mermaid Lagoon.  After I was done blending I splattered with some water droplets and when that was dry, I dotted some white Nuvo Drops (I've noticed these seem to soak up the color they are placed on) in a random pattern and then some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in white.  Once that was dry, I used some powder to avoid static and stamped the horse outline stamp with Versamark and embossed it with white powder in the bottom left corner.

Then I die cut a stitched oval in Copic friendly paper and scalloped oval in vellum using some dies from my stash.  I stamped the horse with flowers in it's mane onto the Copic friendly paper using some Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it in with my Copics.

Once I was done with that I layered my scalloped oval first, then popped up my stitched oval with the horse image and proceeded to embellish with some paper flowers from my stash mimicking the colors of the flowers in the horse's mane.  I had that pretty Cute Cluster Wise Die from Paper Smooches sitting on my desk from another project and cut it in half and placed that beneath the flowers... tucking the cut end underneath the oval.  Then just a few Shimmer Sequins from CDD to finish it off!

Before I added any layers, I used some Kat Scrappiness number dies to cut 16 out of my distressed layer before adding it to a white piece of cardstock.  Then I cut 4 more of each number to stack them, placing the ink distressed layer at the top and then placing them back into the negative space that was die cut.  Once they were stacked and attached I added liquid glass to the top to help it stand out a bit more and once that was dry used a Sweet word die from my stash to complete the sentiment!

That's it for me today!  I'm playing along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Anything Goes challenge that has an optional twist of Country & Western this week.  I'm not sure that this meets the Country Western theme, but I'll let them decide (I'm good either way!)  But I know it at least fits the Anything Goes...lol!  I'm also playing along with the Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge to use a Die and/or Punch, and the Stamplorations Summer Theme & Sketch Challenge which is Anything Goes for the summer, and the Stamplorations Never Ending Anything Goes Challenge!  You should check all of these out!

Also!  Speaking of Stamplorations... this is happening on Friday:

Don't miss it!

Adventure Awaits - Pinkfresh Studio and Double Trouble

So glad you're back!  I'm sharing with you today another vacation project that I created for the Double Trouble 1,2,3 Challenge that is going on now and they are teaming up with Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, so I've used this week's sketch for an additional chance to win the prize over at Double Trouble!

I started with some awesome papers from Lil' Inker Designs.  My bottom layer was cut with the gorgeous Lacy Layers 2 die from Waffle Flower Stamps and the image is from PinkFresh Studio's Enjoy The Journey stamp set... LOVE!  So sweet!

For Double Trouble, the challenge is:

The ingredients are:

Three (3) Colors 

A Two (2) Word Sentiment (Happy Birthday, Thank You, etc.) 

One (1) Stamped or Digital Image (Flowers, Critter, Hearts, etc.)

The main three colors I've used that are not neutrals are the blue, pink and yellow.  My two word sentiment...lol!  (I originally used the Enjoy The Journey sentiment from this set and when I realized what I did I stamped it over... but I do think my friend Kathy will use the other one so it's all good!) and one image... which is really two images from the set but since they're connected here, I believe that makes one!

I stamped my image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it in with my Copic markers.  I added some butterflies and am also entering this one into this week's Outlawz Twisted Thursday which is Anything Goes with an Optional Twist.  This week's twist is Wings or Scales... and I chose wings!  I'm loving these Stitched Fluttering Butterflies dies from Poppy Stamps that I found while on vacation at our favorite place to visit when we're in Buffalo, Buffalo Stamps and Stuff!  I added a few Nuvo drops and my favorite Shimmer Sequins from Craftin Desert Divas!

And here's the sketch!

Thanks for stopping!  You should definitely check out all of these challenges I'm joining today!  And at Double Trouble, if you play along with both their challenge and Atlantic Hearts for this week, you'll receive two chances to win their prize!

Come back soon!

Coffee, Flowers, and Back to Normal

I'm Back!  Maybe you didn't know I was gone... or care...lol!  It's ok!  But I'm glad to be back home after a long, wonderful and exhausting vacation!  It will take me a while to catch up with everything, but part of my vacation was a long crafty weekend which was quite awesome!  And I'll be sharing some of what I made while I was away over the next few days while I try to get unpacked and back to normal.

For today, I'm playing along with Challenge 9 over at the Honey Bee Stamps Buzzworthy Challenges group on Facebook!  You have to join the group to play and your project should have Honey Bee products as the focal point!  You are allowed to use other company's products in your stash along with your Honey Bee images and dies, but they should be the focus.  I was excited when I checked on the new challenge and it was all about Florals!!  

I had brought this striped packaging with me when I packed my bags.  It's from the bag that some of my Honeybee order came in and I knew I'd want to use it!

During the last Coffee Lovers Hop, I won a gift certificate to the shop of Super Sponsor Honey Bee Stamps and it took me a while to decide what I was going to get... of course I ordered a few extras because...well... free shipping!  I finally got the awesome Coffee Break stamp set that has been on my wish list for quite some time!

Not to mention the fantastic Perfect Blend sentiment set that goes along with the Coffee Break set so well (along with any other Coffee stamps and dies you have!)  I LOVE that it's made up of small words and phrases that you can put together in any way you want to create a sentiment that's uniquely yours or a favorite sentiment that you've seen before!  I love to keep mine open when I can so that the card can later be sent out on a variety of occasions.

And these.  These gorgeous floral stamps from the Spring Blossom stamp set... oh my.  Part of the reason it took me so long to decide was... how many floral sets do I need???  I mean really!  I'm so glad I finally decided just to get it because it turns out that the answer to that question is "This one" for sure... and, well, as many as I want!  I LOVE this set and how it's so open to be colored in so many different ways.  And these green Nuvo drops turned out to be perfect for the stamens... although I've found recently that Nuvo drops tend to soak up the colors of some of the mediums I use... in this case, Copic markers.  Some of my drops turned orange, BUT in this case, I don't mind at all... I love the way they turned out!

SO! If you love florals like I do, then this is the challenge for you!  Join the group and play along... you have until July 14th!

I'm also playing along with the Outlawz Challenges Twisted Thursday Anything Goes Challenge... I didn't meet the twist this time around, but that's ok!  You can still play along with the Anything Goes part... and I always forget that!  You should check that one out also!

See you soon!  Hopefully lots of stuff going on around here this week in and around my unpacking!  I'll be seeing you soon!

Papertrey Ink Create Along With Us Release Week Challenge June 2018

A quick post for today!  I wanted to play along with the Papertrey Ink Create Along With Us Challenge for this month as well as the Tall and Skinny Twist over at Outlawz for this week's Twisted Thursday!  ALSO, there's a new challenge called Double Trouble and my mom and her friends are running it.  They team up with other challenges each time and you get extra chances to win at their challenge if you also join the other challenge.  This time around they're teaming up with the Three Amigos.  I've used both die cuts and no design paper on this, so I'm entering it over there!  

Anywho, after some mishaps this morning, I was able to get this done and I love it!

For Create Along With Us, you should create something using inspiration from the DT makes for the release!  I was inspired by Stephanie Gold's design at the top of this post... the way she stamped her flowers coming up from the bottom of the card, the Kraft and white... but I really couldn't add my sentiment like hers because I felt it would leave too much space at the top, so I also gained inspiration from Heather Nichols creation here ... also the kraft... that sentiment at the top with mixed colors and dimension.

I also decided to add lots of dots ... still inspired by last week's Make It Monday challenge and I love to use Nuvo's to add "splatters" when I need control... although sometimes even they get a little out of control...lol!  I used the lavender from the Stemmed Statements set from PTI... LOVE that floral set... so happy I purchased it and the dies!!

And I chose this sentiment because courage is something I have to muster up right now.  Nothing earth shattering... just thinking about making a change with my job and I need to work myself up to it.  I'm not really afraid of change, however, I know my leaving would affect a lot of the people I love best there in a bad way, so I'm fearful of hurting them.  I know they would understand and wouldn't be mad... it's just the thought of making things more difficult for them.  Anyway, I love this Words To Live By Courage set!!!  And that beautiful butterfly from the Butterfly Blooms stamp set!  (I tried lots of dots on that one too like in last weeks beautiful creation by Michelle Leone but either she's very good at making tiny dots or her butterflies were bigger... and I do want that set to!...lol)

So gotta run!  Late for work!  Maybe I'm hoping they make my decision for me, but I don't think that's gonna happen!..lol!

Keep crafting and I'll see you again tomorrow with some Paper Sweeties goodness!

Papertrey Ink April 2018 Blog Hop Challenge

It's time for a new Blog Hop Challenge over at Papertrey Ink!  This is the inspiration photo (right up my alley).  And here's how I was inspired:

I chose my paper because it had the feeling of the textured background in the inspiration photo.  And the Plaid Mix and Mat... well... I just wanted to...lol!  I LOVE that die so much!

My initial plan was to stack my cups... but I cut my first one with this cool Fancy Tea Cup Die and I had the thought.. why does the height have to come from more cups... why not this:

I used some old retired cactus stamps from CTMH for the height and then the beautiful flowers and leaves are from the Stemmed Statements stamp set.  These are the geraniums from the set, but I used these flowers mostly because the size was right.. 

I picked the paper because of the pretty floral and it had the colors in the cups from the inspiration photo... all of the colors in the bottom cup,  alike yet different... and I thought it was pretty!

And since I knew I wanted to enter this into the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge with a Twist of homemade flowers, I cut and rolled this 3D flower from the Impression Obsession Spiral Flowers set.  The center stamens were from a poinsettia set and then added a sparkly center using a Doodlebug Sprinkle in green... I love the way it turned out!  It really looks like some of the flowers that are blooming in my garden right now...

These smell really good too... it's an Argentinian Cactus... one of my faves... and they're almost as big as my face...lol!

I had this banner piece sitting on my desk and it was just the right color and size for the Simple Joys sentiment from the Stemmed Statements set.   I highly recommend this floral stamp and die set.  There are some really beautiful flowers and lots of smallish sentiments like this one.  I've already used it twice in the short time I've had it, and I know I'll be using it a lot more.  A few more Sprinkles is all this one needed to finish it up!

Hope you enjoyed your time here today!  This challenge only runs until this evening, however, if you sign up for the newsletter you get an advance peek at the inspiration photo each month so if you can't play along this time, sign up for the newsletter so you can play along next time.

Get Your Happy On - Going Green with Cas-ual Fridays!

I LOVE it when I have a little time to do whatever I want in my craft room!  I decided to see what the challenge was over at Cas-ual Fridays and it was all about the green.  Then I checked out Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and it was a Floral Frenzy and this week the twist over at Outlawz is Seasons!  So this is what I came up with!  A pretty green flowery springy creation.

I started by using an old CC Designs panel die (no longer available) for the circle background.  I attached it to another piece of white cardstock and did some ink blending with distress inks and then squirted a little bit of Ken Oliver colorburst on it and sprayed with water.  Let dry.  (I HATE drying time)... but while that was drying I cut out my other pieces!

I pulled out the Friendly Flowers Fri-Dies again  and cut a whole bunch of sets all in white (I just left these flower dies attached and when I cut them I cut a whole bunch at once-if I have leftovers, I just store them for use on a later project... very little goes to waste!  I love all of the different combinations I can use to put my layered flowers together.  Then I took out my Casual Trees Fri-Dies to use as the leaves... cut little tiny leaves from some paper I'd watercolored quite some time ago for another project.  I LOVE these branches .. I cut them apart and placed them in a few spots.  Love how they look... kind of clover like.  

And since I'm in need of some birthday cards, I used this sentiment from the Whole Shebang sentiment set.

So there it is!  Three challenges in the books!  You should check them all out for sure!

Coffee Is My Pot of Gold

I know what you're thinking!  Coffee again?  Yes... I just had to share another card using the Verve digi sets Irish Coffee and Lucky Day sets!  There is a sale going on right now over at Verve and a couple challenges that I'm playing along with.

I had the idea right after I finished my last card using this set to create a foiled background with the four leaf clover in the Irish Coffee set.  I just took the digi, pulled it into word, made it the size I wanted and then copy and pasted it, turning the clover every which way.  I tried to keep them around the same distance apart, but made sure that I varied the direction the stems were going in so that it looked more random.

I printed that out using my laser printer on some white cardstock, die cut it with a Waffle Flowers Scalloped die, and then placed a piece of that beautiful Gina K Designs Gold Sequins foil over it and ran it through my Minc machine.  Voila!  It turned out just how I was hoping!

I had printed out both sets in pdf form the other day, so I chose this sentiment, die cut it with a circle die and then ran that through the Minc as well.  That Gold Sequin foil is just sooo cool and looks different at every angle.  I original had one larger green circle behind my scalloped circle here, but it covered up more of my clover than I wanted covered so I decided to leave it out... turns out I didn't need it at all!

Then I colored and cut out the clover and to go cup from the Lucky Day set, tied some ribbon around and embellished it with the cut out digis, some flowers and a few Doodlebug Sprinkles in green.

 

I think you're starting to understanding that I've fallen in love with my Minc and I'm finding a new love for digital stamps.  I will always love my physical, touchable, smellable, real life stamps, but I LOVE all of the extra stuff I can do with the digis now since I got a laser printer and my Minc.  Very excited!

So, as I said, I'm playing along with some challenges!  I used the sketch from Viva La Verve for this month again... it's such a versatile sketch and it was perfect for this combo of stamps, dies, and "stuff".  I'm also playing along with the Verve March 2018 Inspirations Hop and Challenge.  Also, I'm adding this to the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Mixed Medium Challenge for this week!