Mojo Monday Butterfly Love Card

Did you guys know that Mojo Monday Sketches are back? Like I know I've been out of the loop, but Mojo Monday!! I'm so totally on board for this.

Today I broke into my Feels Like Home papers. I paired that with one last visit with my April Stamp of the Month. I wish I'd climbed back onto the crafting bandwagon sooner this month. My watercolor paints got to come out and play for the first time in months. I stamped the butterfly over the top of my painting in Charcoal ink, then flicked it all with Black shimmer brush and White watercolor paint.

I fussy cut the flowers out of the Feels Like Home B&T  - its' just so soft and pretty. Then I added black stickles and shimmer brush. Feels good to be home in my creative space again for sure!

I've missed all y'all so much!

Whew! I don't know about you crafty folks, but 2018 was quite literally like living in the last season of a long running soap opera where the writers don't care anymore so they will literally throw anything at you. Good? Bad? Who cares - lets' throw it all in and see what happens! I lost two of my close family members. We moved from a house to an apartment so our landlord could re-rent the house he broke our lease to sell within weeks of our moving. We road tripped to Las Vegas and back in our ancient minivan...in the summer. We bought a house to combine households with my sweet in-laws. The previous owners would not leave, and it took a month of remodel work to turn it into a livable space. I decided to cap off the year with another 2 week road trip in the minivan, because once you start losing family members, it becomes so important to not just stay home.

2019 Came and I thought all right! We are FINALLY moving into the new place for reals...and then my hubby fell down the stairs of our apartment and broke his leg..and his ankle. I finished the move and unpacking while nursing the broken husband, tending the freaked out kids, and inhaling coffee as fast as I could. My in-laws moved in (yay!) on the same day I hosted a Launch event for CTMH. I have a TEENAGE boy living in my house now, people.  I haven't made hardly a thing EXCEPT for card kits or Craft with Heart Layouts because I could barely find glue. And while I do not in any way regret spending so much time and energy on FAMILY FIRST...I miss my inky paws and crafting therapy.

I was having brunch yesterday with a dear friend and I said again, for the umpteenth time, I'm sure I can start crafting again in May. Like next month will suddenly mean I'm completely unpacked and the boys are calmly, amazingly getting along, and the yard will be tidy, and am I serious? I went home and I thought no more waiting. Crafting is my therapy, peeps, and I am in serious need. So I sat down to look at all the things I've missed - almost two entire Seasonal Expressions, and this absolutely adorable Stamp of the Month. Ugh - two days left on this one and it practically has my NAME written all over it. (sob)  So today I went into my tidy and unused new stamp space and I MADE SOME THINGS. Like this card - using I Heart Us (which I bought extra of, even though its gone in two days because it is stinkin' fabulous!!) and that pretty April SOTM. I used a sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, because my tired brain needs to be given a direction, lol. It didn't take all day, and I've still managed to prep potatoes for the rest of the week, make a big pot of spaghetti sauce, and clear 1300 photos off my phone. 

I used the Mint and Black shimmer brushes  to flick speckles onto my stamped images. Do you HEART that arrow zip strip from I Heart Us?  I know I do! I can't promise to post every day (yet), but I am making a promise to myself that I will make time for the things that fill my cup in addition to all the stuff that HAS to get done. So if you missed me, I'm back. If you need to refill your cup, pop over to Atlantic Hearts and try on this sketch. Make time to do what you love, because you are so worth it, Stampin' Friends! ❤

Thankful For You Card

I haven't been crafting much this summer, which is a very sad thing for me. Tonight I broke into some of my newest goodies, most of which aren't even available until the new idea book goes live in a couple of weeks. I figure whatever gets me creating again is what I'm gonna use...and this fall I want to really make a goal of making time for myself and my craft therapy!

Since there is an adorable new sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, I decided I wanted to make something happy! I grabbed some papers from the upcoming Oh What Fun! papers, which is ostensibly for Christmas, but I have this thing about pink... Anyhoooo, combined with the September SOTM (I know, this entire project is all sneak peeks) I've managed a cheerful thank you card by re-purposing holiday items. You can also see a peek of the new stitches stamps coming soon. Seriously big heart eyes for that one!

I used a lot of bashful shimmer brush on the little candies and cocoa mug, along with a fair amount of clear stickles. The whole card sparkles in real life, which lifts my crafty spirits and brings glittery peace to my soul. I'm linking this project up to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Cuteness Overload.

I hope you'll pop over to Atlantic Hearts to join in this week's sketch challenge fun!

Freshly Squeezed Sunshine Card

Hello, Stampin' Friends! I wanted to squeeze in one more May SOTM project before this stamp set rolls away at the end of May. This week's Atlantic Heart's Sketch Challenge included a sweet wreath element, and I thought, "What about a wreath of lemons?" I'd already done yellow lemons, and this big pink Polka dot print from Beautiful Friendship caught my eye and I thought, "What about PINK lemonade?" Aaaaaand, then the sun just smiled down on this project!

I stamped a bunch of lemon clusters, which I colored in using Pixie Ink, Fern Ink, and my Bashful pink Shimmer Brush. After a satisfying session of fussy cutting (am I the only one who finds that soothing?) I trimmed a circle out of the pale pink dotted paper from Central Park and used the edge of the circle to adhere my lemons into a wreath shape. Before adding the lemons I stamped the dotted banner and tiny banner images from the SOTM across the circle. 

I decided I wanted to have this be a cheerful Friend card, so I got out the Central Park - Scrapbooking stamps and stamped the cool 2 step Sunshine sentiment using Pixie Ink. How cool is that dropped shadow? I painted over the SUNSHINE letters with more Pixie Ink picked up with the Bashful Shimmer Brush, and did a faint skinny outline with a pale gray Zig Clean Color brush tip marker for a bit more emphasis. I trimmed out the SUNSHINE sentiment and popped it up with thin 3-d Foam tape. I stamped the FRESHLY SQUEEZED label image and carefully trimmed out the two words I wanted to complete my wreath center and sentiment.

I decided to embellish the bottom banner from the AHSC sketch a bit with some ink rolled lemon slices. I used more Pixie Ink picked up with the Bashful shimmer brush to deepen the slice centers. The Just for YOU sentiment (and that teensy butterfly) is recently retired from Chelsea Gardensin the last Expressions book, and I outlined it using the delicate dotted line image from the SOTM set.  I love all the little extras in this lemony SOTM set, like the dotted lines and banners and the striped straw that makes an excellent border (not to mention that large mason jar - swoon!).

I'm linking this sweet card up to the Heart 2 Heart When Life Hands You Lemons Challenge. I hope it brought you some some of the Freshly Squeezed Sunshine I felt while making it! #craftingismytherapy

Awesome to the Core Teacher Appreciation Card

While I've been traveling and moving a lot of things kinds of fell by the wayside. One of those things was Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm so grateful for the teachers my boys have been lucky enough to learn from, and I figure late is better than never... 

I started off with the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I combined it with some inspiration from this week's Muse Challenge: I pulled the grey from the elephant for the apple basket, the yellow and pale blue elements for my color combo, the stars which I moved into the washi tape, and I added the leaves scattered about the main image like the original stars. The stamp set I used is a sneak peek of the June Stamp of the Month, which isn't quite available yet.

I colored the apples with my Shin Han Markers. I used the fine tip of the Pastel Green marker to pull color from the Leaf Green and Carmine markers to make the speckled apple surface. I paper pieced the basket of apples with papers from Central Park (blue grid and yellow sunburst) and Fresh Air (grey wood print) paper packets. I couldn't capture it with my photos, but the sunburst paper and the AWESOME sentiment banner are outlined with shimmer pen for a little extra something something. 

I hope you'll hop on over to Atlantic Hearts to play along with this week's adorable sketch!

When Life Hands You Lemons

Hello, Stampin' Friends. I swear I just wrote a post about coming back from an unexpected break, and then I went off on another break. Life has been quite the roller coaster around here. Since we last visited, I've lost my mom, and one of my sisters, and we also suddenly and with almost no notice  moved. I've barely had time to breathe, never mind put ink to paper, and that has certainly not been a happy place to be. I'm slowly unpacking and reorganizing what's left of my stamp room finally. When I ran across the May Stamp of the Month I thought it was about time that I started making space in my life for crafting as therapy, so I stopped unpacking and took a moment to enjoy the feel of inky paws again. 

I started off with this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, and combined it with this week's Color Throwdown. Sometimes it helps to have a helping hand to get going! I stamped the white cardstock background with lemons and the banner dots in Lemon and Pebble inks. I layered that stamped panel with Poppy cardstock and some brick wall B&T from the new Central Park paper packet. The mason jar was stamped with Pewter ink onto vellum, and colored with a zig clean color marker on the back, but stamped with ice cubes in Lemon ink on the front. I'm also linking this project to the Heart 2 Heart Creative with Vellum challenge.

I stamped and cut out some lemon slices and the straw to slide behind the mason jar, which was glued behind the coloring so the adhesive wouldn't show. I "sugared" the lemon slice images and the LEMONADE sentiment using a shimmer pen. I especially love the tiny dot border/banner images in this set! 

I'm not going to promise to blog every day, or even very regularly right now. Some days I'm fine, and some days I'm super sad. I'm grateful to all of you who are still here with me while I'm learning how to make some lemonade out of the lemons life has been handing me so often of late. 

Hello Sunshine Card

Good morning, Stampin' Friends! I got a little busy this week and was worried that I hadn't chosen a winner for last week's drawing yet...and then I realized that I set the Rafflecopter incorrectly, so the drawing doesn't end until the 19th. so if you haven't entered yet, check out the drawing entry form HERE. 

Today I'm sharing a new February Stamp of the Month card. I took a card front of Glacier Cardstock and die cut an outline heart thin cuts die. I cut the same heart twice more in Canary Cardstock, once on each side of the double sided cardstock so I could flip the inside and have the outline be more present when I filled in the card front die cut space. I filled the Glacier CS base with a heart outline and the inner heart, then trimmed off the excess heart diecut from the left side of the card. Then I flipped over a small floral cluster stamp to use the BACK side as a cloud shape, stamping that all over the Glacier Cardstock in White Daisy ink. 

I stamped the HELLO sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink across the die cut hearts before adding a banner made with my surgically altered circle sentiment image. The banner is popped up with thin foam tape and knotted twice with thick Gray Twine that I frayed after trimming.  I cut a 1/8" strip of Canary Cardstock and snipped off bits to make the sunshine rays surrounding my die cut heart.

I'm linking this card up to the CAS on Friday Dies Challenge, the Paper Issues Love is in the Air Challenge, and the Heart 2 Heart Love is in the Air Challenge. Don't forget, you still have a couple of days to enter my Atlantic Hearts 250th Sketch Celebration giveaway, too. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Back! Let's Celebrate!

Hello, Stampin' Friends! Some of you may have noticed that I took an (unexpected) break from blogging...and instagramming...and crafting...and pretty much everything except coffee. So, so very much coffee. I've been having a really hard time personally, and I just kind of "turtled up" and withdrew for a little while so I could focus on self care and rebuilding. Sometimes life just happens, runs you over when you least expect it, and sends you in directions you never anticipated. Things are looking better now, and I've been feeling a little itch to get back to, well, being me. Less sad, more happy. Less moping, more crafting. Less napping, more yoga. Less coffee...ok, well that's not true yet, and maybe never, but that's ok.  I am embracing the glorious mess that I am! 

This week though...this week it's the 250th sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, and that is a great reason to dust off the stamp room table and make something pretty. I hadn't touched a thing that I ordered from the new Seasonal Expressions...or almost anything from the last one either. It's pretty much a travesty of crafting, a craft fail of epic proportions for someone who used to craft a little something pretty much every single day. Well, no more!! For this card I used the new Make Waves MERMAID papers combined with the gorgeous February Stamp of the Month. I even broke out my as-yet-to-be-used embossing diffuser, which is now on clearance for a fabulous price to create the perfectly sized smooth circle in the center of the Rose Embossing folder for stamping the circular sentiment from that February SOTM.  

I stamped the sentiment again onto Canary Cardstock to highlight the SUNSHINE word as a banner. Then I stamped the floral bits from Sunny Thoughts in Emerald, Pansy, Pixie, and Canary inks so I could paper piece the floral sprays. I used a fine point journaling pen and the new Bashful (yes pink!) Shimmer pen to add details to the floral sprays. Don't you just love that Rose embossing folder reversed and sanded? I've got blue dust all over the place right now, but it was totally worth it!

 Since it is the 250th Sketch for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, as well as my return to crafting and blogging, I think a giveaway is in order! Enter here to win your very own copy of the February Stamp of the Month : Sunny Thoughts. I'll draw a winner next week on Monday afternoon. If you are still here after all these months of radio silence, I thank you, Stampin' Friends!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

October Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the Stamp of the Month Blog Hop. This month we are featuring the October SOTM, called Christmas Tune, a sweet shaker globe themed set. You may be arriving here from JANNA'S BLOG. You can find a list of all the participating blogs here.

For this project I started with the new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. First I used white detail embossing powder to emboss the word wreath image in the bottom right corner of a panel of watercolor paper. Then I painted over the embossing with green and red watercolor paints. I added strips of black stripey Cats & Bats paper and gold shimmer trim. I added some hand drawn stitching around the edges, as well as both gold glitter gems and Bitty Sparkles that I colored with a green alcohol marker.

I painted scrap white cardstock with more of the red and green paint and hit that with my heat tool to be sure it was dry. I stamped the bottom of the tree image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink before trimming out just the bottom rows as a sentiment banner. I added some touches of gold Wink of Stella and Gold shimmer pen. The Stella is gold shimmer in a gold base, and the CTMH shimmer pen is gold shimmer in a clear base. I love them both!

Next up on the hop is GINA'S BLOG. Don't forget to click here or ask your consultant about scooping up your own October SOTM, before it melts away! 

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!

September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Welcome to the September Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month we have 25 creative ideas for you using the Feel So Blessed stamp set. You might be arriving here from BRANDI'S BLOG, and you'll find a list of all the participating bloggers here. Let's hop!

I have been working a lot in the Whimsy Fundamentals palette this month, and on my desk I had a 4 x 12 cardstock mask I used to paint the backgrounds on this layout. It wasn't what I originally intended for this card, but sometimes the paper just calls to you! I outlined the watercolored background with journaling pen, and stamped on the THANKS sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black. I stamped the SOAR letters using the biggest verse in the stamp set and carefully trimmed out each letter before coloring them in and coating them with gold shimmer pen. The FOR HELPING ME is hand lettered with that same journaling pen, as were the sparkles and bitty sparkles, giving me a few shades of black and grey bling for this card.

I wanted this little baby elephant to be holding up a feather like Dumbo. The feather was colored with Black watercolor paints and gold shimmer pen. The baby elephant was painted with pink and grey watercolors as well. I did a pale coat with more water, and the dry brushed on a bit more grey for the texture on his skin. I'm linking this card up to the Heart 2 Heart Anything Goes Challenge.

Next up on the hop is MICHELE'S BLOG. Be sure to grab your September SOTM here, or from your consultant before it flies away at the end of this month!

Other Projects I've completed with the September SOTM:

Thanks for Everything Card

Thanks for Everything Watercolor Card

September SOTM Sneak Peek

I sat down at my desk to create something for my team to make at our meeting on Sunday. I was stuck for a while, as my desk is literally covered in Whimsy pastels, and the September Stamp of the Month is a gratitude/autumn-y feeling kind of set. I popped over to Color Throwdown, and the challenge this week was also pastels, like the ones covering my desk, so I decided "Why not?" and got down to business. 

I used the new palest pink Bashful cardstock and ink combined with second generation Thistle and Lagoon to go along with the Color Throwdown challenge. I was working off the sketch over at  CAS(E) This Sketch, with the wider border on the right and the banner overlapping the edge. I filled the pink border on the right with the openwork heart image, which I also sprinkled around my feather work as well. I got to use my new Tim Holtz stamp platform for placing the Thanks and that arrow border, which made it way easier to line the border up over multiple cards. I don't know if you can see it but I applied shimmer pen to all the feathers for a subtle shine, then finished off the card with a few teeny sequins. 

The feathers were stamped using both the front AND the back of the feather stamp image. First I inked the back or solid side of the stamp, swiping the ink off and then stamping off before adding it to the card so the image would be distressed and lighter. Then I flipped the image back to the front side on my block so I could stamp it again with the same color full strength on top of the feather "shadows".  The September Stamp of the Month won't be available until September, of course, but I hope you'll forgive me for this little sneak peek!

August SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the August Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month you'll find 22 fabulous SOTM creations on the hop using School Year, a set of nine Back to School themed stamps. You might be arriving here from DARLYS'S BLOG. If you get lost along the way you can find the full list of hoppers here. 

I chose to highlight a single image from this set, the pencil. I stamped a row of pencils along the bottom of a panel of Watercolor paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I misted the watercolor paper heavily with water. I dropped watercolor paint onto the panel, helping the color to move along in stripes across the panel. After the paint had dried I went back to stamp the sentiment in Tuxedo Black across the top. I added some hand drawn lines around the card front edge using a journaling pen, as well as some clear Shimmer Brush on each pencil.

 I'm linking this project up to the Just Us Girls Something Old/Something New Challenge. My Something New is the new Stamp of the Month, of course, and my something old is the sentiment from Little Dreamer (which is retiring soon) and my extremely well loved watercolor paint palette.

Be sure to ask your consultant about the August SOTM or click here to get yours before it's gone! Next up on the hop is GINA'S BLOG. Happy Hopping!

Thinking of You Card

I've got another sweet April Stamp of the Month card to share with you today, Stampin' Friends!

Last time I went bright and cheerful with these stamps, but this time I hit my Hello Lovely papers for a dreamy, whimsical take on this set. I though it was fun to have the hearts floating out of the bird like musical notes. That mini floral on the edges is from the Hello Lovely Zip Strips - wish I had a whole sheet of that!

I paper pieced this bird by stamping it multiple times in different inks - Sorbet, Sea Glass, New England Ivy, and Whisper. then I fussy cut the various layers and glued her back together. I added a little oomph to her lashes with my journaling pen. I'm linking this project up to the Heart 2 Heart Whimsical Challenge.

You're the Sweetest Card

Yesterday I sat down to play with the new sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. That made for a really fun morning!

I had hoped to link this card up to the Color Throwdown, but I forgot to get it blogged in time since I rushed off to fit in Costco before the repairman showed up. It was that color combo that inspired me to break out some of my new AdornIt papers, combining a little Blender Basics with the Flamingo papers. I used my Basic Heart Thin Cuts to cut out that sweet pineapple heart I layered over a mini doily. I added the little hearts to the Polka Dot paper using Blossom ink.

How sweet are these little love birds from the April Stamp of the Month? I stamped them with Canary ink on White Daisy cardstock and then layered them onto my pineapple heart. I snagged the sweetest sentiment from the Sugar Rush - Cardmaking set. I finished off the card with some organdy ribbon tied with a baker's twine bow. Hope you'll hop over to Atlantic Hearts to add a little sweetness of your own this week, Stampin' Friends!