Sending Hugs and Kisses

I have been so busy sewing that my beloved stamps and copics have had a bit of a vacation, but this week I pulled them back out to create a card for the MarkerPop Blog as a Guest Designer on Challenge #125 - We're Going To The Fair! At our summertime County Fair there are lots of animals shown and always different cooking contests so I figured why couldn't this cute little piggy enter her yummy cupcakes in the competition! Products featured on the card are linked for you on the MarkerPop Blog , come on over there and join us at the fair!

The Wednesday Challenge , for this week, at Simon Says Stamp is tags!  They are also featuring Ranger products, because we all know Ranger and tags go hand in hand! My tag features only a few of the great products and manufacturers that you can find at Simon Says Stamp! The tag base  is from Ranger and I blended both Distress Inks and various Tattered Angels shimmer sprays to create the background and the hill. I used this awesome  Big Bang Scenery set from Winnie and Walter along with some Versamark and Hero Arts Silver Embossing Powder to create a starry background.  The moon is a heart from the Simon Says Stamp Set Tons of Hearts ! The adorable bear family is from two Mama Elephant's stamp sets Bear Hugs and Cub Cuddles . I stamped the bears with Antique Linen Distress Ink  onto Ranger Watercolor Paper and used my Distress Inks  ,  Ranger Artist Brus hes and Distress Markers to paint them.  I then fussy cut them using my Fiskars Spr...

Sharing a sewing post today; it has been a bit since I could get much sewing done. My Littlest is now older and I can do a bit more while she plays, with the pin cushions, because of course the dangerous things are her favorite *insert head shake*. Speaking of my Littlest she is BUSY, like all the time BUSY and has trouble falling asleep.  I had read about weighted blankets several years ago and thought about making one for my Oldest but I never did get around to it.  Fast forward a few years and I am talking with my friend about Littlest's sleep troubles and she mentions that her nephew has a weighted blanket that he loves... hello light bulb moment! I immediately was on Pinterest and Google searching DIY Weighted Blankets and holy smokes there are tons of awesome tutorials out there!  I am going to link a few below in case you are interested in making one too! I let Littlest dig through my fabric stash and she picked out these adorable fox fabrics from Joanns  for...

For this last card I wanted to challenge myself to make a card in 10 minutes that I would still be happy to give to someone.   I often find both sketches & color challenges to be good starting points for any card.  They also give me a great plan when trying to make a quick card like this one! For this card I combined the current MarkerPop color challenge with the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge. I was inspired by my crafty friend Kevin Bray  and his use of stacked washi tape strips to create a quick background!  Next I cut out a cute Pix image from Mama Elephant Pix's Favorites , I had painted her with Zig Clean Color Markers & Distress Markers .  I found a shimmery bit of vellum and used the Sizzix nesting hearts to cut out two to place Pix on... they really weren't distinct as two so I inked the smaller heart with Cranberry Ink from Lawn Fawn .  I still felt the vellum heart wasn't really distinct against the washi so I trimmed the...

Today I wanted to share with you an idea using a sketch from Scrapbook and Cards Today .  This is their challenge sketch for February and I thought it would be perfect for bookmark cards!  These cards are perfect for Grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles for any occasion and Valentine's Day is no exception! The important thing to remember about a sketch is that it is meant to be a starting point but if you want to CASE it completely that is okay too!  Sketches are a great way to get your creativity flowing.  I followed the sketch pretty closely on these card but tweaked it to work with the supplies I had on hand.  I created two cards; one more manly and the other a bit more feminine. These adorable bears were colored with Staedtler Watercolor Pencils, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, and Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils.  I was going for a specific look with these images; I wanted them to look like illustrations.  The bear stamp sets are Cub Cud...

Some people just aren't stampers, I get it as I wasn't always either.  So today I went back to my first love... die cuts!  Each of these cards was created using only die cuts and really they could be used for any occasion but are perfectly suited for Valentine's Day! The card above features dies from Lawn Fawn, the heart die from the Stitched Party Banners and  a few of the smiley faces from the Make Me Smile die set!  I used some micropore tape to hold the smiles in place for die cutting and it worked perfectly to keep them in just the right spot on the hearts! The next card features a water colored background done with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers on some Canson XL watercolor paper.  This amazing Heart Beat die is from SugarPea Designs; I used it on both the background and a piece of black cardstock to create the inlaid panel! My final card features the Rose Background Die from Wplus9, I love that this die covers the entire card front!  I cut ...

I had really wanted to share some cute lunch box love notes that I created but they have disappeared! I even tried to recreate them but I can't find the die anywhere... it is a BIG die... I am feeling beyond frustrated.  I hope to find them in time for Day 10, but if not I will share a variation on that theme. Today's card is on the more masculine side.  My hubby isn't one for sequins and roses so I created this card with some great wood grain texture and the adorable squirrels from My Favorite Nut by Neat & Tangled!  The images were all painted using my daughter's Crayola watercolors since I was painting with her at the time, oddly they have a bit of sheen to them but I am pleasantly surprised at how well they did work for blending and creating colors! See you back here tomorrow to spread more love!

I am enamored with images that have a mid-century modern feel and these deer from the Kitsch Christmas Stamp Set by Caryn Davies for Avery Elle are right up my alley! I was browsing through cards on my Pinterest boards and I came across this gem by Caryn Davies !  I think these deer are slightly flirty and therefore perfect for a Valentine's Day card so I grabbed one from my CCC "Colored Critters Cache"   (I colored a ton of these around Christmas time so I had a few leftover, yes, I REALLY love these deer!) and I set about recreating this card with a romantic feel. I used the My Favorite Things Die-namics Stitched Mini Scallop Circle Stax and the Die-namics Inside & Out Stitched Circle Stax to create the base of my focal point. Next I used a stencil brush to blend some Festive Berries Distress Ink on the inner white circle. I used Avery Elle Laurels Stamps and Dies to create the flower and leaf accents around the edge. They were all stamped with various Al...

Today's cards use minimal supplies, minimal time and mini stamp sets to help you send big love!  Each of these cards uses the following supplies: 1 Mini Stamp Set from Lawn Fawn - Whale You Be Mine , Love You Tons and Cutie Pie  (I also used the coordinating Lawn Cuts but you could easily cut these by hand) 2 Colors of Lawn Fawn Ink - Sunflower & Hippo , Wild Rose & Cranberry , Merman & Deep Sea 1 Die Cut Set from Lawn Fawn - Stitched Party Banners (heart and circle used) 1 pinch of clear micro-fine glitter 2 Colors of Cardstock (I used some from my scraps stash) 1 White Card Front Panel 1 Colored Card Base 1 4x6" adhesive sheet from Scrapbook Adhesives (I only used one for all the cards) 1 Epoxy Heart (from my stash & totally optional) It only took about 10 minutes to create each card; I definitely became faster as I went too!   Place your sentiment stamp on an acrylic block and fill the white card panel, using the lighter of the two ink colors, lea...

Hi there, sorry but I wasn't able to get this posted yesterday... my littlest has decided that sleeping alone just isn't for her anymore :(  It has been a rough couple of weeks and I am so tired that I keep falling asleep in my big cozy chair in her room, which means I am snoring instead of creating!  No worries though, I still plan to get all ten cards up before February 4th and hopefully you will feel inspired to create your own cards this year too! Today's card features Altenew products!   Altenew is a newer company and they make some AMAZING layering stamps,  inks sets, dies and their sentiment sets are a must have!  Today I used the Vintage Roses stamp set and coordinating dies , the Red Cosmos ink set , the Green Fields ink set and the Shutter Cover Die .  I was going for a card that had a vintage glam feel with a modern edginess to it; I am really happy with the outcome! To create the card I started by cutting the cover die with both black and gra...

Critters in love, what could be cuter!? Today's card features some adorable Lawn Fawn critters in love!  This card was inspired by this fantastic card by Nichol Spohr. I think her use of the washi tape with this polaroid die cut is just too cute! Each set of critters was colored with Copic markers and then die cut with this adorable Polaroid Fun die from Mama Elephant!   I did run each die cut through my Big Shot with a piece of 110lb cardstock to smooth them out and help them to fit together without gaps. I wanted to showcase these cute couples so I chose a deep black cardstock for my background.  Once I laid out my design I used the new Lawn Fawn Valentine Borders to cut out the row of hearts which I backed with a piece of pinkinsh red paper.   I did end up adhering a few of the black hearts back into the card as I felt this looked better under the die cut sentiment.   The sentiment is created using the hello stamp from Lawn Fawn's Hello Baby stamp set and...

Today's card is guaranteed to bring a smile to your dearest friend's face when they see these adorable bunnies from the Pix's Favorites stamp set by Mama Elephant! This card was very simple to put together.  I began by stamping the Pix images with Ranger Archival Ink onto Canson Fanboy paper ( this is my favorite paper to use with Zig Clean Color Markers)  as you can guess I colored them with my Zigs and used a wet paint for blending. I did add a bit of sparkle with my Wink of Stella Clear to these cuties and once they were dry I fussy cut them leaving a white border to help them standout from my background. I knew that I wanted to use a thought bubble so I stamped one from Lawn Fawn with Hero Arts Unicorn ink and heat embossed it using Hero Arts White Satin Pearl embossing powder.  I used the coordinating dies to cut these. For the background I did some quick watercolor with Distress Inks on watercolor paper.  I die cut that with the Mama Elephant Hillside Cov...

We are closing in on the end of January which means Valentine's Day isn't too far away!  I have always loved Valentine's Day, doing the mailboxes and classroom Valentine's as a kid, roses and chocolates as I got older and then helping my kiddos with their Valentine's as a Mama Bear... I love it all!  In the spirit of love I am going to share ten Valentine's Day cards with you, one each in the coming days, some feature new to me techniques (like today's card), some will be for your Love and others for your little love bugs.  I hope you'll find something to inspire you to create a card for your sweetie! Let's get started... today's card features ink smooshing (yes, that is the technical name!) to create a fun background!  I have been trying this technique out for the past week and I found these two video tutorials to be really helpful... Kari Webster and Laura Bassen ... make sure to check them out!  I really want to say ' Don't get frustr...

Marker Pop is hosting another fantastic color challenge  over on their blog ! I started my card by choosing this cute hot air balloon from Wplus9 ' Going Places ' and the adorable bear from ' Happy Mail '.  I used Distress Inks to blend a background panel,  but I felt it needed something to anchor the scene so I used the Impression Obsession pine tree background stamp and added in a forest!  To give the background just a bit more detail I cut it with the stitched card front die from the My Favorite Things Blueprints 25 Die-namics After I stamped and colored my images with Copic markers I die cut them  with the coordinating dies.  How cute is it that the dies cut out the bunnies paw to hold onto the basket?!!!  For my sentiment I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles and cut a bit of vellum on which to emboss my sentiment, it comes from another Wplus9 set ' Party Animal '.  I used teeny dots of adhesive behind the embossing to adhere this to t...

I love a good card challenge and when I created this card I was excited to realized that it fit the bill for two of them! The design for this card was inspired by the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #314 (see photo below).  I really wanted to try something new, so after browsing the web I decided to try some spotlight coloring; it is a fantastic way to make a big impact on a CAS card. I started out with this awesome My Favorite Things Bundles of Blossoms Background Stamp and stamped it with Momento Tuxedo Black ink onto two pieces of white card stock, then I got down to some serious coloring with my Copics!  Once I had colored a decent sized area I die cut it with one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die s to mimic the stitching on the background that was cut with the My Favorite Things Blueprints 25 Die-namics .  I then popped the colored piece up on some fun foam and added it to the card.  Holy moly, I LOVE spotlight coloring!  I had never tried this ...

Okay, okay, I know the title is super cheesy but I'm a sucker for cheesy movies, puns and titles!  With the idea of cheesy romance in mind I wanted to share with you these super cute Valentine's Day Coupons that I made for my hubby using the new Lawn Fawn Valentine's Day Release.  As soon as I saw the Stitched Heart Envelope I knew I wanted to make these! Please excuse the strange redness in the photo,  it is snowing outside and I had the toughest time getting  a shot that wasn't too blue!  I will try and get some better photos posted soon! I began by cutting a dozen of the Stitched Heart Envelopes out of some mid-weight patterned paper in my stash (I believe these are all from a Dear Lizzy release).  I really hate to waste any of my pretty papers so I cut them to 7" x 12", held up the die and cut outside of the die to make two envelopes out of each piece.  Next I cut 12 of the cute scalloped tags out for the front using a fun polka dotted paper, and...

This Lawnscaping Challenge is bittersweet as it is the last one in their amazing five year run.  I only discovered the Challenge this year but I have gleaned so much inspiration from everyone who participates and I have also received so much encouragement through the Challenge.  Thank you to Laurel Beard for creating, designing and hosting this awesome challenge.  Thank you to the Lawnscaping Design Team who has spent so many hours creating amazing cards and commenting on all of our blogs. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday filled with laughter, tasty treats and lots of memories.  I am sure the Lawn Fawn Critters have some pretty rowdy celebrations and with that in mind I created this card for the Challenge... Merry Christmas From The Whole Gang ! This card features lots of the adorable Lawn Fawn critters that I have colored throughout the past year. I gave them a few Christmas-y accessories to so they would all look their merriest for the group photo! Li...

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it so I was really excited to find the Whale You Be Mine stamps and dies at my LSS Scrap2It . I rushed home and made a card with them during naptime☺ This card features the following products: Lawn Fawn Whale You Be Mine Stamps and Dies Lawn Fawn Mermaid Ink Lawn Fawn Deep Sea Ink My Favorite Things  BG Wave Background My Favorite Things Blueprints 27 (longer banner) Versamark White Embossing Powder Copic Markers QuicKutz 4x4 Heart with Scalloped Border (no longer made, sorry) Thanks for stopping by, so sorry for such a short post, but my Littlest didn't sleep last night and I need a naptime today!

The current Lawnscaping Challenge is all about the fluffy white stuff!  We usually have lots of it here in Colorado but this year we have only had a couple inches and few flurries :(  My little one is impatiently waiting for enough snow to go sledding down our neighborhood hill.  In the meantime we have been keeping cozy inside getting crafty for the holidays. I have to admit that when I was creating this card I had a little yearning for the white stuff too! I began by browsing my Lawn Fawn critter collection and I instantly thought that these cuties from Yay, kites ! would definitely be out building snowmen during the winter!  Luckily, the snowmen from Ready Set Snow  were the perfect size to pair with these critters.  To build my scene I used glitter mist for a snowy background and then built up my scene using the Stitched Tree Border , Stitched Hillside Border s, and framed it out with the  Leafy Tree Backdrop .  To finish it off I added a sen...

Oh how I love the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenges and they do them every week!  As an added bonus you can even download PDFs of ALL the past sketches on their blog!!! Last week I received my new goodies from the MFT Thanksgiving Sale, including the awesome Blueprints 27 that I had been lusting after, and I couldn't wait to use it on Sketch 310 ~ the white frame, light green banner, large heart and watermelon scalloped edge are all cut from this one Die-Namics set! The Birdie Brown piggies make an appearance on this card and of course I couldn't resist dolling a couple of them up with a little flower and bow tie! I made this with Mother's Day in mind, the little piggies are my kiddos & myself, and Grandma certainly does hog our hearts! Thanks for stopping by today, I can't wait to see what you create for the MFT Sketch 310!