Life is a Beautiful Ride!

Hello, friends! If you are reading this on the day it went up, well, you are reading as the entire contents of our home is being moved from one apartment to the other! Fun times! And a great reminder that life truly is a beautiful ride that brings us all kinds of new and interesting experiences! Our Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this week is a Color Inspiration challenge! Check out this beautiful inspiration board!

I am a water girl. I absolutely LOVE the ocean. And summer. And the beach. I so love it all! This inspiration board made me so happy! And I had a blast coming up with a card inspired by it! I used the Beautiful Ride stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, as it seemed a PERFECT fit for this photo!

I did a lot of masking to create the background with Distress inks and then stamped the bike over it using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink. I used a black pen to fill in parts of the bike to keep it simple and give it a sketchy look. I then stamped and colored the puppy and used a bit more masking to add the flowers to the paper sack. I fussy cut these pieces and added them to the bike baskets. I LOVE how cute this turned out and the warm happy colors inspired by the inspiration photo make me happy!

And now it's YOUR turn! Create something fabulous, inspired by the inspiration photo and link it up over on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog for your chance to win a $100 Gift Certificate to the Simon Says Stamp Store! The Design Team is using Simon Says Exclusives this week, you don't have to use them to play along, but if you have some, we would SO love to see you rock them!

Have a Happy!

A Simon Says Stamp Treat!

It's ANYTHING GOES week! Yes, that means this week you get to create anything your heart desires and link it up to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog! Just make sure it is something new! The design team is featuring Art Impressions products this week. You don't have to use them, but if you have some, we'd love to see what you do with them! They have some pretty fun stuff! Both hilarious and adorable! And if you love to color there are SO many awesome options for you!



Naturally, I chose a puppy stamp set. Naturally. I also decided to challenge myself to a one layer design. I used the Cat and Dog mini Front and Back set for this card. I love that you can add the puppy butt to the inside of the card!!!! I de cut the clouds (Memory Box Puffy Clouds), being sure to only partially cut the one with the puppy in it so his little head would stick up!

Now it's YOUR turn! Create a super fun something or another and link it up for ANYTHING GOES week! One lucky participant will win a $50 Gift Certificate to the Simon Says Stamp store! WOOT!!!! That's an awesome prize, folks. For reals, though.

Have a Happy!

Paper Smooches and Puppy Smooches

Happy Wednesday! This week, on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog, we are celebrating the non-human members of our families! Yup! It's Animal Magic week! We want to see you celebrate animals in some way on your creations this week! The Design Team is using Paper Smooches goodies (LOTS of fun critters available from Paper Smooches!) for our projects this week. You don't have to use them to play along, but if you have some, we'd love to see what you create with them!



You know I had to feature dogs. That was just going to happen. This cutie is from the super fabulous Paws for a Cause set from Paper Smooches. It is one of my favorites! The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches Fun and Flirty set! This set has so many awesome sentiments!!!!



Paper Smooches and Puppy Smooches!!! You didn't really think you were going to get out of here without seeing a picture of my sweet Morgan girl, did you? This one is a shot I took while we were in Indianapolis for vacation. She is such a pretty little thing and she makes my heart happy! I love her to pieces!!!

And now it's YOUR turn! Create something showcasing Animal Magic in some way and link it up to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog for your chance to win a $50 Gift Certificate to the Simon Says Stamp store! You can even make a card with your dog if you want. Good luck with that.

Have a Happy!

Guest Designing with SRM!

Are you familiar with SRM Stickers? First of all, let me tell you that they offer MUCH more than stickers. Second of all, the stickers are actually super awesome and I've been a huge fan for a long time. I am so excited that they recently added Jane's Doodles Stamps to their product line! Today I am lucky enough to be doing a guest post over on their blog featuring this super fun card!



For this card I used the super cute Little Miss Mia stamp set for my images. I absolutely LOVE this adorable little pup! SO CUTE! I colored him with Spectrum Noir pens and masked him before stamping the kite. For reals, you guys... CUTENESS!



For the sentiment I used one of the fabulous Thank You stickers, which are now available in the SRM Store as stamps, too! WHAT?! Awesome. I love options! A couple of cute stitches stickers accent the sentiment banner nicely.

Be sure to head on over to my post on the SRM blog to check out the inspiration there and to leave some love!

Have a Happy!

Because Puppies Make Me Smile

They really do. And I like to smile. And I REALLY love puppies. (And for the record, age does not define a puppy in my world. They are ALL PUPPIES!!!) Even though it makes me a little sad to pull out my puppy stamps, it reminds me of both of my sweet girlies and THAT makes me happy. I recently got these adorable Mama Elephant Playful Pups from Simon Says Stamp and I just love them. The puppies are just so sweet!



I colored that sweet little chubby puppy with my Spectrum Noir pens and stamped and colored the tennis ball, as well. I then added the line for the floor by hand. I really like doing this, as it is never perfectly straight and adds a touch of visual interest to the card whilst grounding the images quite well.



I used some fun washi tape in a few places to accent the card. I love this tape! It's super cuteness! It is made by Little B so it comes in a cute little dispenser thingy, too. I think you can find it at Michael's. A single Spellbinders® sequin finishes it off. Did you know Spellbinders even HAD sequins? They do. And they don't have holes in them. And I LOVE that. Also, the colors are amazing and they come in a wonderful little pot. Seriously. I love them. Lots.

I hope this little puppy has made you smile today! You can find my complete supply list below.

Have a Happy!

Supplies:

Stamps: Mama Elephant Playful Pups

Pens: Spectrum Noir, Sakura Fine Line Micron Pens

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Sequins: Hip Hooray by Spellbinders®

Washi Tape: Little B Designs

A Five Minute Valentine

***Don't forget to enter yesterday's giveaway!***

Looking for an adorable card that you can whip up in bulk before tomorrow? Or perhaps you just need one, but you need it fast! I got these stamps in the mail the other day and didn't have a ton of time, but I wanted to make something, so I created this fun little card in about five minutes. I love it. It makes me smile!



The stamps are from Reverse Confetti and they are ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!! I super love them. Had to have them. It was really that simple. HA! I then used WPlus9 inks to add color to the bowtie and hair bow, along with the little hearts and the sentiment. I colored with Copics, but kept it simple by only using flat color. I used a whopping two markers to color these cuties. Yup. Just two. It's allowed. I promise.



I finished it off by rounding the corners with the 1/8" corner chomper. This is a new toy in my studio and, you guys, seriously....it is AMAZEBALLS! I already had the 1/4" version, but this tiny rounded corner... BE STILL MY PAPER LOVING HEART! For reals, though. It's awesome.

And that, my friends, is what I have for you today! Be sure to stop by yesterday's post to enter to win a Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp!

Color Coordinates with Simon Says Stamp

Hello, friends! It's time for another fun challenge from the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog! I indulged in a Peanut Butter and Jelly iced coffee this morning (yes, you read that correctly) AND I am in a crazy good mood as it is a beautiful autumn day and the trees are shining with glorious color, SOOO...that being said... I might be a little chatty this morning. K? K. Glad we covered that little tidbit.

So... back to the challenge. This week we are working with COLOR COORDINATES! Every so often Shari puts together a wonderful bunch of colors for the Simon Says Stamp blog and offers great suggestions for pulling together products using those colors for awesome cards! The challenge this week is to use this fun Color Coordinates collection!

I am LOVING these fun Simon Says Stamp colors! Loving them! Obviously they work great for Halloween, but I do think they really would work well for so many kinds of card designs. LOVE!



I absolutely LOVE this adorable Costumed Pets stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. I combined it with some great Simon Says Stamp cardstock and Inks for this fun Halloween card. It makes me smile. It really does! I colored the image with Spectrum Noir pens...I really love those things. So easy to use and very affordable, too! The patterned paper is from the Fancy Pants Me-Ology 6x6 pad. It's fabulous, too. EVERYTHING is fabulous! Or Awesome. Or cool if you're part of the team... whoa....sidetracked there... K... moving on...



I added a bit of metallic string from May Arts along with sequins and some Glossy Accents on the puppy nose for accents. Just a few little things, but a HUGE impact! Love that! Seriously, though...I impulsively add glossy accents to puppy noses. It just seems WRONG to not have a shiny little nose on those adorable little critters!

AND...as per usual, Simon is generously offering a $50 Gift Voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store to one lucky participant in this week's challenge! All you need to do is create a NEW card based on the Color Coordinates shown above and link it up to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog for your chance to win! You can link up to five projects, but they must be NEW. I hope you play along!

Have a Happy!!!

Thank You

I just want to take a moment to thank you all for your support after my last post. I was overwhelmed by the love and comments coming in. Thank you.



This card, well, these cards, actually, were therapy for me. I created them with my sweet Thatcher baby in mind. (Not that much else has been on my mind as of late, buy you know...) I used the adorable puppy from the You Are Pawsome set by Simon Says Stamp along with a pretty sentiment from Winnie and Walter's Big, Bold, You set.



The puppy is colored with Spectrum Noir pens. I am not great with blacks/greys yet, but this one had to be a black puppy, so I gave it my best shot. I think it turned out pretty darned cute. I added glossy accents to the nose, naturally. The tape along the edge is from Little B Designs. It is mint and silver and I kind of love that. I picked it up at AC Moore. I hadn't been to an ACM in awhile, and they had a really nice selection of Little B tapes.

That's all for today. I am working on getting back into the daily things. But, again, thank you.

Fur Friends are Forever Friends

Everybody now... 'Awwwwwwwwww!'

It's true, though. Fur friends ARE forever friends. For reals. Or maybe FUR reals. (tee-hee! See what I did there? HAHAHA!) Anyway, moving on...

It is time for a brand new challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog! This week we have a super fun one!!! You Gotta Have Friends! That's right, we want to see your friendship themed projects! The design team is excited to be using goodies from Art Impressions! Big thanks to AI for sending us some stamps to play with! I am IN LOVE!!! You don't have to use Art Impressions stamps to play al ong, but if you have some, we'd love to see how you rock them!



I used the super duper adorable Cats and Dogs Front and Back Mini set for my card. That puppy is just too cute for WORDS! I also really love some of the adorable crazy lady stamps they have! SO Much fun! Below you can see the inside of my card.



AAAAAACK! Puppy face cuteness OVERLOAD!!!! I can hardly stand it, folks. Seriously, though.


Annnnnd.... puppy butt cuteness overload, too. 'Cause you need more of that in your life. Just sayin'.

You can find a complete list of supplies in the inlinkz below! Happy shopping!

We have LOTS of fun going on over at the challenge blog! One lucky winner will, of course, win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp super store. PLUS... Artistic Impressions is giving away an AWESOME prize on the Challenge Blog, as well! Woot! Woot! Be sure to head over to link up your card for a chance to win LOTS of awesome!

Have a Happy!

*Art Impressions CAT & DOG MINI SET Front and Backs Cling Rubber Stamps *Art Impressions LAUGHING Girlfriends Cling Rubber Stamp *Art Impressions BUG BUSTER Cling Rubber Stamps *Art Impressions CACKLE, CACKLE! Cling Rubber Stamp *Art Impressions 5 WHOOTS Cling Rubber Stamp *Art Impressions BUNNY Front 'n Backs Cling Rubber Stamps *Art Impressions ALL TIED UP Cling Rubber Stamp *CAS-ual Fridays HEART BOARD Fri-Dies *Simon Says Stamp On the Edge Wafer Die *S136 ALWAYS *Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember?äó ABSOLUTELY Craft DIE S123 *Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Powder Blue & Teal 657900 *Precision Heat Embossing Emboss Tool Gun Hero Arts PW200 *American Crafts Dear Lizzy 6 x 6 POLKA DOT PARTY Paper Pad *Crafter's Companion 50 PACK ULTRA SMOOTH PREMIUM WHITE CARDSTOCK 752252 My Favorite Things Black Licorice Hybrid Ink *Versamark WATERMARK Rubber Stamp Emboss Chalk Resist INK PAD *Ranger Embossing Powder WHITE EPJ36685 *Crafter's Companion GREENS SPECTRUM NOIR MARKERS 404638 *Crafter's Companion SKIN TONES SPECTRUM NOIR MARKERS 404546 *Crafter's Companion BROWNS SPECTRUM NOIR MARKERS 404607

InLinkz.com