Romantic Expressions - New Release

Valentine's Day might be gone, but I just can't make myself stop with all things glittery and pink. 

Luckily there are some new releases over at STAMPlorations today that are making it easy for me to keep on with my love of... well... love. 

Hop on up to the STAMPlorations blog to see Romantic Expressions 1, Romantic Expressions 2, and Romantic Expressions 3 in action.

Because I wanted my design to be all full of elegance, I broke out the embossing gun and sprinkled on some platinum powder. 

I also used a sketch from Sunday Stamps. 

Some foiled papers brought the elegance to the forefront of the overall design. It's textured and lovely and I just want to keep running my hands over it and twisting it in the sunlight. That's not weird - right? 

Thanks for popping by!

Elegant Autumn Leaves Thank You Card

Happy Thursday! 
This weekend, I'm off to a concert series down in the Twin Cities area and I can't wait! 

But before I go, I get to show off the design I made for the latest Fusion challenge. I loved the warmth of the inspiration image and I took a stab at the sketch, too. 

I've had these gold leaf stickers from Martha Stewart for so long. They're just so lovely and I haven't been able to bring myself to use them. I finally found the perfect design that would let me part with them. 

My little design is also going to go play along over at
Die Cut Divas - Autumn 
Little Red Wagon - Harvest Time

I hope you'll come play along at Fusion this fortnight! 

Cheers!

Elegant Wedding Card

Ooooo! There's a doozy of a new challenge just posted today at The Card Concept. It's filled with glamor and pops of red and feathers!

Since I love all of these things, I was excited to take on the inspiration image!

I reeeallllllly wanted to incorporate feathers, but alas! - my black chicken finally gave up the goat (yes, that was a barnyard pun) and so I was all out of stock of black feathers.



Instead, I decided to play with the bold red blooms and work in that black and white damask wrap.

I stamped a big ol' flowy poppy from the Penny Black XYZ stamp set and colored a portion of it in with Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks.

Let's pause for a second to let me exclaim my LOVE for these scribble sticks. Initially I bought them thinking that they would be just like Distress Crayons or Gelatos, but they are not even close. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these are my new all-time favorite coloring medium of all time.

The scribble sticks act as like a cocaine-fueled watercolor crayon. Meaning they are super dope. They can write on canvas on TOP of acrylic paint, too! I'd highly recommend and if you're interested in trying them out for yourself, Amazon has them on sale for $20.99. *affiliate link

Once you scribble on a marginal amount of color, just use a waterbrush to pull out the color. Insta-shading and fewer harsh lines or coloring required than watercolor pencils. 

I added a sentiment from the Unity Love is Grand sentiment set because wedding season is upon us and I need to do some serious stocking up on some lovey dovey designs. 

Some glittery black damask paper, a lacy die cut from Spellbinders and some crinkle ribbon from Verve later - voila! 

I hope you'll all go and play along with The Card Concept's latest challenge because I can't wait to see what you'll make!

I'm also going to play along with some awesome challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Flowers 
Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Girl - Anything Goes + Ribbons

Thanks for popping by!

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!)

It's my NEW STAMP RELEASE: Funny Kinda Love + GIVEAWAY

AAAAAhhhhh! I'm beyond excited to share my latest stamp set release for STAMPlorations with you all today!

I wanted to design something with a little bit of snarky attitude (who me?!) and I also was lacking in the love department. Well... let me rephrase that... my stamp collection was lacking in the love department. With all of the weddings I've attended recently and with Valentine's Day on the horizon, I thought this would be the PERFECT set.

Introducing: A Funny Kinda Love!

The great thing about this set is that you can choose to have nice, elegant cards, or you can choose to add a little spunk to your sentiments with the sentiment builder format.

Here are some examples:

Nice, elegant design:

This card is going to the Try it on Tuesday: Handmade by You challenge 

To snarky and sassy design: 

This card was made using the DCWV stackaholic challenge card sketch, the Violet Leaf and Foiled Vellum paper stacks.

I also had fun playing with rainbow splashes of color: 

 

This card is going to Come and Get It's Make Um Laugh challenge

 And this card is going to: Tuesday Throwdown: Add a Border challenge. 

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!
Want a chance to win this set for your very own OR a $20 gift certificate? Leave a comment below AND a comment on the STAMPlorations blog by November 1 for an entry to win!  

While you're at it - check out the other 3 AWESOME stamp sets being released this week and - hey! - if you purchase this set this week in the STAMPlorations store, you get 10% off your order which means it's only $10.80. Can't get much better than that!

Wedding Season!- Stamped Wedding Card

I don't know about you, but I've depleted my stock of wedding cards pretty quickly this summer. It seems like everyone and their dogs are merrily walking down an aisle somewhere. Meanwhile, I am happily walking down the aisle of my local craft store to pick up more supplies for wedding season.

This card was inspired by the latest STAMPlorations theme and sketch challenge. Every month we give  you a new theme & a new sketch. You can choose to use either the sketch or the theme OR both - so many options! And you DO NOT have to use STAMPlorations products to play along.  So get creating already. 

This month's theme is Stamps & Stars, and I chose to ignore that altogether. Instead, I got all rebellious with the sketch by using the basic outline and adding a couple more layers. hehe. 

>>I'm such a rebel.<<

Here it is in all its glittery glory! I think it turned out oh-so-elegant. 

Supplies List - STAMPS: STAMPlorations Vignette: Ever After, PAPER: Recollections,
RIBBON: Verve Signature Ribbon Collection. EMBELLISHMENTS: BoBunny

I hope I'll see your project in the STAMPlorations challenge gallery this month! We've got some AWESOMESAUCE prizes for the winning creations. 

Speaking of challenges - I'm going to play along in some too!
Aud Sentiments - For a Girl + Sentiment
Crafty Gals Corner - Lots of Layers

P.S. - while you're over at the STAMPlorations blog, check out my very first piece of blackout poetry on this Spotlight post. 

 
Blackout poetry is something I've long admired and never undertaken. Let me know what you think!
 

A Tale of Two Cards: Shabby Chic vs. CAS

Good Friday! Well not THE Good Friday, but it is a good Friday! Because... well... it's Friday! And it seems like I'm on the mend from my 5 1/2 week stint of bronchitis. The doc gave me a new round of antibiotics AND some steroids. So either I am getting better OR I am turning into the incredible hulk... one of the two!

And now - back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

I am absolutely pumped about the cards I get to show off today because I've been having so much fun playing in my craft room lately. I'm in one of those really good cardmaking zones. My mojo is BACK!

I am stronger than I think. Oh wait... Just kidding. 

This card isn't ABOUT me! 

This card is about the new STAMPlorations challenge. We've got a killer sketch and a brand new theme and we'd LOVE it if you played along so we could award you some fun prizes! 

On the first card I followed the sketch to a capital T. Ok, Ok, the sentiment isn't exactly in the right place but creative liberties are my favorite kind of liberties. 

For this card, I did some stenciling with glossy black embossing paste over a piece of Graphic 45 newsprint. 

I used the Botanical Lush ARTplorations stencil and masked off an angle using some scrap paper. Then I tied a big, bold black bow and found a cool old vintage earring to weave in between the layers of the bow. OOoooo shiny! I finished off the look with an embossed sentiment from the SENTIMENT BUILDERS: Love set.

I'm going to link this up to Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes Challenge. 

Now for those of you who closely follow card making challenges, you're probably looking at this and saying..... HEY that looks familiar. (at least I hope so). 

One of my fave cardmaking challenges, The Card Concept, is having an blog-o-versary challenge and I instantaneously fell in LOVE with their inspiration image. 

Since it's their 2nd anniversary, I thought I'd make TWO cards showcasing different styles. My first card was clean and simple.... or Classy Elegance, I can't tell which. 

After peering at it, I thought "Self, why not do more of your signature mixed media shabby chic style, too?" And so I did:

I started this card off with a very similar base, except instead of stenciling through the stencil to create some texture, I used all the embossing paste still left on the stencil and pressed it onto the paper to create a reverse image. 

Once the texture paste dried, I added some splatters (because that's the STAMPlorations theme this month - remember?!) using Distress Spray Stains. 



This was the Picket Fence splatter layer, and then I went on to add some Black Soot splatters, too. I added a wealth of flowers and a sentiment from the Fond Expressions 2 set. 

I'm also going to add this card to the Vintage Stamping Challenges - Lots of Layers challenge.

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Thanks for popping by! I hope you'll play along at STAMPlorations this month because I'd LOVE to see what you make.

This weekend, my brother is coming for a visit and I'll get to see two of my adorable nieces and one of my adorable nephews. I'm ready to show off my new house (even though it's a cluttery box-filled zoo right now) and give them all the grand tour! Don't worry - I'm working on my new craft room and as soon as that's finished in a couple of weeks I'll be giving YOU all a grand tour, too!

Cards for Causes - Hop to Stop and Breast Cancer Awareness

So, one week ago I posted the link-up for the Hop to Stop and I have been BLOWN AWAY by the amazing support of the crafty world. Seriously, you all are SO beyond amazing.

I've read through every linkup, often laughing (even though domestic violence is a serious subject) and even more often while tearing up. It's been absolutely amazing to see people raising their voices and talents to bring awareness to just how many men and women have suffered at the hands of an abusive partner. 

There have been so many GORGEOUS designs, and I wanted to share a couple stories with you that have touched me. I am not sharing stories to sensationalize this issue, but rather to show you that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. We are not alone in our darkness. Through community, there is hope and light.

Jessi Fogan of One Crafty Mama

I "met" Jessi a year ago on a very similar post that I made for Domestic Violence Awareness month. She reached out to me and we've been fast friends ever since. She shared her story then, and it's definitely worth the read.

"He was excellent at belittling me and making me feel unworthy. He simultaneously made me feel that I was unlovable - and also that I was a slut. The emotional abuse was constant. The physical abuse began with a bang".

Jade Morrison of Crafts by Jade

Jade shared bits of her story on her blog, and I couldn't help but to have my heart reach out to her. She also made two very beautiful, emotion-filled creations. One about her childhood, and one about the woman she is now.

 

"I hear the crackle of his belt and the screams my mother makes. She is suddenly quiet... then I hear his footsteps coming towards my door, nowhere to go and nowhere to hide..."

Dr. Sonia SV

Sometimes the blog posts I read through weren't relating to personal experiences of domestic violence, but secondhand experiences. I thought Dr. Sonia's account was so powerful. 

"Some months back I got a new receptionist for my clinic. She appeared lazy and disinterested in her work, she wouldn't hear the phone ring and would walk slowly and lazily even though she was healthy and young. She left after a forth-night and afterwards we came to know why she had been so distracted... the poor lady had an alcoholic husband who would regularly beat her up. Appearances can be so deceptive..."

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I wish I could post ALL of the accounts that touch me right here, but I have a couple of my own creations to share, too! But I will be sharing more as this week goes along because there was some powerful art and POWERFUL comments!

POWERFUL My first card is another purple creation for the Hop to Stop - which, by the way - you have one full week left to link up! There are over $500 in sponsored prizes, and I'd LOVE to see what you make.

 Click >>HERE<< or on the image below to link up!

So my card features a bunch a purple goodness and it will be donated to my local domestic violence agency - Community Violence Intervention Center because the Hop to Stop is doing a card drive for their clients.

I wanted to keep it a simple sentiment so I colored a pretty flower and used some gorgeous papers and lovely ribbon to finish it off. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Blooming Buds by Dee's Artsy Impressions, STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches,
Paper: DCWV Magnolia Way Paper Stack, Paper Temptress Laser Gold Glossy Lustre
Ribbon: Paper Temptress Cappuccino Satin with Gold Edges

Overall, I love how elegant it turned out! 

It was inspired by one of my favorite challenge - aptly named The Challenge. It is back from summer hiatus, but due to my move I haven't gotten a chance to play along, so woohoo! And I'm also playing along with Through the Craftroom Door -Anything Goes Challenge

 

And purple isn't the only color lighting up the web right now, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. I don't have personal experience with breast cancer, but it has affected friends and coworkers. So I'm happy to help spread awareness for another worthy cause. 

I love the dresses from the STAMPlorations PartyDresses Bee's Knees set. I tried to get at the spirit of being different and being proud of those differences, as many women who've undergone breast cancer treatment and mastectomies have experienced. 

There are a few challenges that are going PINK in honor of the month and I'd like to support Words 2 Scrap By's - Fight like a Girl challenge, 613 Avenue Create - ATG with Pink option, Craft Rocket Challenge - Pink, D.L. Art - Pink Linky Party

I'm also linking it up to Virginia's View - All things Colored

Whew! What a ridiculously long post! Before I go, I'd like to say a 

HUGE THANK YOU

to those of you who've followed my blog in the last week. 

Usually I try to call people out by name, but with 32 of you, I don't think it's possible. Just know that I appreciate all of you!