Peppermint Planner

I forget things. A lot, actually. SO, when The Hubbums mentions something that I want to tuck away in the back of my mind as a potential Christmas gift, I like to write it down. Or...when I get one of those, OH! I KNOW WHAT I CAN BUY MY SISTER! moments, again, I need to write that stuff DOWN, folks! I decided to create a fun little holiday planner for just this purpose.

This is my Peppermint Planner! Cute name, huh? Yup. Totally. I love it! Tee-hee!!!! I pulled together some fun stamps and dies from Paper Smooches for this one and I just love it! The planner, itself, is a simple Moleskine notebook. Nothing fancy, and super easy to alter. I used the Paper Smooches Rainbow Die to cut the red and white curves to form the fun circle around my critter. The adorable penguin is from the Chilly Chums set and he is fussy cut and then mounted on an Action Wobble so when you touch him he WOBBLES!!! So. Much. Cuteness.

The alphabet letters are Kelly Purkey stickers and no longer available, but I am sure you can find some similar ones out there to create your own planner. I used a great holiday flair piece from Bossy Joscie (who also sells AMAZEBALLS custom stamps, so you should really click through and check it out, dude. For reals.) at the top of the planner for just a bit of extra and then finally finished it off with a pen stitch around the edge. I am READY to plan, folks!

Have a Happy!

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!!!

You're the Best!

When I saw this playful image over on Moxie Fab World Just Blocky Challenge, I just loved the bright color tones and the classic wood blocks. Such a simple toy, but still such a fun one! That inspired me to create a clean and simple design inspired by both the color in the photo and the material represented.



I pulled out some fun Mama Elephant stamps and some new markers I recently received recently. They are Sakura Koi watercolor markers and I absolutely LOVE how vibrant they are! I used the awesome pierced circle dies from Spellbinders® to die cut the window on the card and add some detail around it. LOVE that! I brought in the wood with three simple, unfinished wood stars from Studio Calico.



So... I may or may not have whipped this card together this morning before work and photographed it while the matte medium was still wet, so, yes, you can see it in that shot. Don't worry...it' dries clear and matte. LOL!

I am also linking this up to the Mama Elephant and Me Anything Goes Challenge and the Virginia's View Clean and Simple Challenge.

Have a Happy!!!

Playing with Spellbinders and Vertigo

I have a super fun card up over on the Spellbinders Blog today! I used a some great dies along with a fun product from Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts called Vertigo! Come on over and check it out!



See you there!

Have a Happy!

Leading Lady Take 2: Super CAS & Super Scary?

Welcome to Take 2 of my Leading Lady posts for Winnie &Walter! Today we are going CAS. SUPER CAS, actually. Super SCARY CAS, even. So, firstly, what is CAS? CAS is Clean and Simple. Yup. Does that mean the cards lack technique? Nope. Does it mean they only use one thing? Nope. It just means that the finished look is Clean and Simple in appearance. Honestly, some of my CAS cards have taken me longer than ones I've done with multiple layers, so it doesn't necessarily mean EASY, either! LOL! Today I have four cards to share with you featuring the super awesome Moonlight stamp set. I loved it so much I wanted to dedicate an entire post to it. For reals, you guys. For. Reals.



Okay, so, I am starting with my favorite of the group. LOL! Is that allowed? I do hope so! This one is SUPER CAS and super simple, too. I love how this sentiment stamp stands out SO brilliantly, so I let it take center stage on a white panel and accented it only with the small mask stamp, which I coated with my Wink of Stella black for a bit of shimmer. The panel is popped up on a white card base, keeping the design simple, but adding some interest and depth, as well.



For this card I layered my images just *slightly* to bring them together. I colored the hat and then colored the sentiment in an ombre style. I love how the words look! The spider is just sorta hanging out. That is fun. Lotsa fun. For reals, though.



CAS doesn't mean leaving out the embellishments, either! For this card, I used a small bit of cork to accent the top, along with some sequins. A favorite trick of mine is to cut a sequin in half and use the partial on the edge of an accent or the card. You can see my half sequin on the cork strip. It adds a bit of shine along with the texture!



And my final card shows how the corner of a card can most definitely be your focal point! I added the spider web, letting it go off the edges a bit and then stamped the spider. A few sequins 'caught' in the web certainly are a bit prettier than flies! HA! I wanted the sentiment to both stand out and ground the design, so I stamped and embossed it on a strip of black cardstock and adhered it with foam tape.

AND... don't forget to leave a comment on this post, for your chance to win a $30 Gift Card to Winnie & Walter! I will choose a winner from the comments on ALL FOUR of my Leading Lady posts at the end of the month! YAY!!! So fun!

I am also linking these fun cards up to the Virginia's View Clean and  Simple Challenge. YAY!

Have a Happy!

It's Your Pig Day!

I just have a quick, cute card to share with you today. It's another one using some fun watercoloring along with the Simon Says Stamp Birthday Farm Animals stamp set. Which is adorable. For reals, though. It's adorbs.



I added a touch of glossy accents to his eyes and used my white gel pen to add just a bit of shine to the balloon. Other than that, it's all watercolor paints and I even kept them loose and a bit messy because it's good for me to do that now and then. LOL!



Just a little bit of happy today. I am linking this cute little guy up to the CAS Challenge over at Virginia's View!

Have a Happy!

A Watercolor Christmas

We have a brand new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog for you today and, given the weather here in Massachusetts today, it is quite appropriate! It's a WATERCOLOR challenge! (It's raining. The weather could do half the work for you. For reals, though.)



Okay, so here's my confession. I made three projects for this challenge. Seriously. I just couldn't decide which to use and I didn't hate them, but I was sure I loved them, either, so really, it was kind of a crazy-town sort of mess. BUT, alas, I decided on this one. I painted the scene using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor paints. Which I love. With all of my heart. I added a bit of sparkle with my Wink of Stella because... glitter.



I added a few gem stone ornaments and then stamped the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Essential Greetings, embossing only the 'Merry' in gold. I like it. It is kind of cozy, I think.

And now it's YOUR turn! Create a project using watercolor of some kind and link it up over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 Gift Voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store! Woot! Woot!!!

Have a Happy!