I'm a Coffee Loving Papercrafter! (duh!)

We've all known for quite some time that I'm a non-recovering coffee addict, and that I love papercrafting but now I can OFFICIALLY state that I'm a Coffee Loving Papercrafter because I'm joining their design team!! 

Wooooo! I'm so excited about this and hope you'll join me in my celebrations and stop by the blog to see who else is inducted into the caffeinated crafter list! 

 

I'll be back soon with some awesome crafty goodness, but for now am recovering from a whirlwind month of community event planning and vacationing!! 

And Though She be But Little, She Is Fierce.

Hullo Ladies and Gents! 

Today, I'm sharing a design that I am pretty dang proud of. And it was all inspired by the latest inspiration up at the old Fusion Card Challenge.

 

Originally, I was a little bit stumped by this one. As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of layers on my card so the sketch wasn't doing it for me, and I wasn't really sure how to interpret the inspiration image...

And then I got some new Dina Wakely Scribbly Girlies stamps in the mail and couldn't get this card idea out of my head: 

Isn't it very Banksy? I stamped my image and then created a grayish haze of a background using watercolor. I added a splash of yellow to her dress, and layered up the background using some DCWV papers, gemstones, and vellum. The butterfly is a leftover Post-It note mask from yesterday's card. Recycling at its finest!! 

I hope you'll come play along at Fusion! Can't wait to see what you create! 

I'm going to enter this at:
Take it Make It Craft Stamper Magazine Challenge - ATG
Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge - Layers

I'm baaaaack - and so is Card Concept

I'm baaaack from my rolling vacation on the high seas. After a short-lived career as a pirate, I've retired my eyepatch and have gotten back to work in my craft room. 

And no hard task it was - especially with the the beeeautiful new inspiration image up at the Card Concept. 

Check it:

Next to purple and teal, pink and orange is one of my fave color combos so I was totally stoked to soak in this image. 

Here's how I transformed it into card form:

At Card Concept, we celebrate all sorts of cardmaking styles. I chose to work in the Mixed Media style and created a background by making some orange watercolor swirls (a la the pillow in the inspiration photo). 

For my focal image, I masked and stamped a bouquet of tulips using Winnie & Walter's In Bloom: Addie's Garden. I colored them in with Distress Inks and a wet paintbrush, then I stamped a sentiment from Verve's Poppy Birthday set. 

I hope you'll come play along at The Card Concept using whatever style you like best!  

STAMPlorations theme & sketch challenge

It's a whole new month - well, actually a whole new year! And that means it's time for the first Theme & Sketch Challenge of 2017 to be posted at STAMPlorations! I know that I usually have pretty detailed blog posts with step-by-step instructions, but you all will have to forgive me for making this quick and snappy because I am on my way to the Caribbean today! Woooooo!

So without further ado, here's the design I made for the challenge following the Mixed Media Theme.

This card was made with gauze ribbon, pearl embellishments, flowers, DCWV gauze paper (which I adore) Distress Ink and Distress Spray Stains. The stamp was embossed and is a sentiment from the Fond Expressions 2 stamp set. 

I'm sure you're all dying to know what the sketch looks like and what the theme is, so here you go. 

I hope you'll all go play along so I can see your beautiful creations (when I get back from the Caribbean that is... did I mention I'm going to the Caribbean? Because I'm going to the Caribbean.) haha  

You can use either the sketch or the theme or both! So there's options. 

Fusion - Hot Stuff in the Winter

It's a PARTYYYYYYYY! One of my favorite challenges on the web, Fusion, is turning the big 3! 

When I first started blogging a little over 2 years ago, Fusion was one of the first challenges I found. Since I'm a girl who likes options, I love the fact that there is both an inspiration image AND a sketch to choose from. Or you can get all funky with their challenges and use both! 


That's why I was so excited when I was asked to join the other super-amazing-awesome-incredible-talented designers this year. I'm still feeling the pinch-me moment! 

 
It is -17 degrees here. Air temp. With the windchill it is in the -30s. 
So when I saw the current inspiration image, I decided to take a chilly card and turn it into something oh-so-warm.

I used the Stunning Snowflakes set by Uniko, along with some blue & purple colorburst powders to create my background, then used my new STAMPlorations A Cuppa Love stamp set to add in my warmth. :) 

But I'm not gonna hog the spotlight here. Let me introduce you to a woman who needs no introduction, especially when it comes to hot beverages - Ms. Amy Tsurata. 

In honor of our pahr-tay for Fusion's 3rd birthday, we all got to invite one guest. Now the prospect of choosing just one of my hundreds of bloggy friends left my nails in a permanently bitten state. However - as soon as I saw that inspiration image... there's no way I could have invited anyone BUT the coffee queen herself, Amy T. 

And check out her glorious cards! 

Amy used the sketch & inspiration image, because she's genius like that. And she even used my Literary Caffeinations set and the STAMPlorations After Coffee set. 

Would all of my bloggy friends go give Amy a little love today on her blog post? 

Now go make sure you check out the Fusion Pahr-tay and especially make sure you play along!

All the Pretty Things!

I've got a HUGE announcement to make! I was asked to be on The Card Concept Design Team! Yaaaaaaay!

This DT is so full of talent, that I'm a little bit speechless to be amongst such crazy talented crafters! Which makes me a little nervous for my first posting, naturally!

Even though I was nervous, when I saw the beeeeeeeautiful inspiration image, a design just popped right into my head and this layery lux card sort of happened.

I've never thought about mixing black and gold patterns - but it turns out it works! This is why I love inspiration images, because they force you to try things you never might have otherwise. I added some glittery gemstones, a glitter-dipped feather, and some die cuts sent to me by a bloggy friend (thanks Betty!).

This card is also going to play along in:
Ooh La La Creations - Feminine Challenge
Card Mania - Layer It
Simon Says Stamp - Start Afresh (brand new die cut shapes, brand new paper packs)

I'm soooooooooooo excited to have broken out the Valentine's Day cards. It's my favorite time of the year! I'd love for you go see what else my talented new teamies came up with for The Card Concept Challenge. (Believe me you'll be blown away!)

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Change

Sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffffffffffff*
Ahhh do you smell that?
That my friends is the smell of 2017 air. The smell of fresh new beginnings. The smell of CHANGE!

Speaking of change, that's the theme for our very first challenge at the Mixed Media Card Challenge for 2017.

When reflecting on what I could do with the theme change, many things came up  - things like new chapters in life, changing colors, changing seasons... What I decided to do was start scrolling through my stamps to see if there were ones that inspired a mixed media piece about changing.

In doing so, I found a NBUS beautiful sentiment from Unity Stamp Co, and a only-used-once Stenciled Women by Dina Wakely stencil. Combined, I felt like the two really spoke to "change".

I also thought I could incorporate "change" into my mediums by using Ken Oliver ColorBurst watercolor crystals. I absolutely ADOOOOOORE these things, because you just sprinkle some onto your paper, spritz with water, and you get these vibrant color washes that are totally unique and stunning every time.

Next, I stamped some various shapes across my background in coordinating colors to create more dimension.

I used some Abandoned Coral Distress Paint to paint through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over Stencil.

Next, I sponged through the Dina Wakely stencil to create my focal image.