Holiday Alpaca - Lawnscaping Challenge #119

Good morning, friends! It's time for another Lawnscaping Challenge! #119 is all about Tags. Tags for gifts, tags for cards, tags for whatever you can think of! Tags are a perfect opportunity to utilize Lawn Fawn's great mini sets, like Winter Alpaca. To give him a soft, furry look, I colored him with colored pencils and blended them out with gamsol.

To set my scene I also used the Tag You're It dies, Stitched Hillside borders, and borrowed the tree from Toboggan Together.

Huge thanks to Ellen Hutson, LLC for sponsoring our challenge with a generous $25 gift certificate to her online shop. Please check out the other amazing design team samples at the Lawnscaping Challenge blog and link up your tags to play along!

Holiday Hugs - Day 4 of my 2015 Holiday Card Series

Happy Friday, crafty friends! I am super excited to bring you today's card, because POLAR BEARS! Oh my goodness, I just love them so much. And this stamp set by Dawn of Wplus9 just makes my heart so happy! It's called Holiday Hugs and at an awesome price point of just $6, how could I possibly pass it up? Am I right?

I decided to take a teensy break from my Copics to bring you a different coloring medium, so I broke out my Spectrum Noir Blendable Colored Pencils and gamsol. And what's a Christmas card without a little sparkle? So you'll see me bring out my Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush Pen for some extra shine.

I hope you enjoy the video! Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right to watch it there in HD and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! All those things let's YouTube know that you're interested in more videos from me, which really helps get the word out to other viewers as well. So I thank you so much for doing that.

I would like to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp: Let It Snow Challenge and in the Virginia's View December Challenge: All About Glitter. Even though that Wink of Stella doesn't show up well in the photo, it's definitely there in real life! And also to the Christmas Card Challenges #52: Anything Goes.

Have an awesome weekend, everybody!

Thanks A Bunch

Hey friends! Well, it's been a busy few days but I finally got the opportunity to film a new video. This adorable Lawn Fawn Critters In The Jungle stamp set has been sitting on my desk for weeks just waiting to get some love. I've colored my images with a mix of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers so you can see some comparisons in the video. No matter which you prefer, they both offer such great results. I hope you enjoy the video!

To watch in HD on YouTube, click the icon at the bottom right. And please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe!

I'd like to enter this card in The Color Throwdown #338 as I definitely used that color palette as my inspiration. And in the Virginia's View Challenge #14 Layers and Dimension.

You've Got A Friend In Me

Hi friends! Today I got to play with this adorable Mama Elephant Ella & Friends stamp set and I got to film a video too! As soon as I saw that cute little bunny, I thought he would look so fun chasing butterflies, so I combined this set with In My Heart. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

To watch the video in HD, click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right. And don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! Thanks for watching!

I would also like to enter this in Virginia's View Challenge #14 Layers and Dimension. This is a challenge I've been wanting to enter for some time, and it was right in line with what I wanted to make today. And also in the Mama Elephant Stamp With ME Challenge: Make Me Laugh. Even though this isn't a laugh out loud funny card, that bunny chasing butterflies definitely gives me a chuckle. ;)

Card Collab with Kari of KWCardDesign

Hey friends! Happy Saturday! Today I've got something extra fun to share with you. My dear friend Kari of KWCardDesign and I decided to do a collaboration video and it was SO MUCH FUN! I love collabs because they're like a little mini challenge to see what each person's take will be on an idea. 

For our collab, I got to pick the stamp set we would use and Kari chose the color palette. I chose Lawn Fawn's Gleeful Gardens because it was my favorite full-sized set from the new release and I'd been dying to use it! And isn't the color palette Kari picked out just gorgeous! It looks like spring candy colors to me. 

I hope you enjoy the video! Click on the YouTube icon at the lower right corner to watch there in HD. Please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! At the end of the video, and in the description bar, I'll have a direct link to Kari's video as well, so be sure to check that out and subscribe to her channel if you haven't already. She's an amazing crafter and the sweetest person! I'm so grateful to call her friend.

Happy Birthday Lawn Fawn!

Hey friends! Thank you so much for hopping with us today in celebration of Lawn Fawn's 5th Birthday! They are such a wonderful company, with the most darling images, run by the most lovely people. I'm so grateful and appreciative of what they've brought to this industry. Lawn Fawn has my heart, forever and always.

You should have come by way of the lovely and super talented Yuki who I'm sure blew you away with one of her stunning creations! She's a hard act to follow, but I'll try. 

Incorporated into my card are Year One, Two, Four, Critters In The Burbs, Critters In The Forest, Gleeful Gardens, and So Much To Say as well as the Spring Showers and Grassy Border dies. I hope you like it!

Continue on by hopping on to the lovely Elise's blog where I'm sure she's sure to delight you with her cute creation! If you get lost along the way, you can find the entire list of hop participants at Jenn's blog where it all began.

Happy Birthday, Lawn Fawn! :)

You're The Bessst - Lawnscaping Challenge #101

Welcome to Lawnscaping Challenge #101! This challenge is all about dots and stripes which led me straight to one of Lawn Fawn's newest sets, Critters In The Jungle. I colored my critters and leaves with Spectrum Noirs and cut them out with the matching dies.

We are sponsored by the lovely Ellen Hutson, who has generously offered up a $25 gift certificate to her store to our winner.

Please head on over to the Lawnscaping Challenge blog and check out the other amazing design team Dots & Stripes samples and don't forget to link up your own projects and play along!

Otterly Great Birthday

Hey y'all! Just stopping in to share my latest Make A Card With Christy Video. As soon as I got my new Lawn Fawn New Release Haul I could not wait to make a card with the adorable Year Five stamp set featuring this sweet little otter. I hope you enjoy the video!

Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right to watch there in HD and please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! Thanks for watching!

Happy Birthday With Meatballs On Top

Happy Birthday with meatballs on top! Haha! If that sounds strange to you, than you haven't met my co-worker and friend Caitlin. Girl LOVES her pasta! And meatballs! I mean truly. Caitlin is an amazing artist who interned at the Cartoon Network and whose stories and wisecracks always make the day pass by in no time. I knew when her birthday was approaching that I would need to make her a special card, and I had just the design in mind.

It's no secret that one of my favorite stamp sets of all time is Mama Elephant's In My Heart. Those cute kiddos get me every time. But the minute I saw the sneak peek reveal of Purrfect Pair, this card idea was born. That pasta bowl was perfect.

To add some texture and dimension I used a little May Arts button twine and some Multi Medium Matte to form my pasta, then scribbled some red/brown Spectrum Noirs on a scrap paper and then punched them out with a hole punch. To make them look more like meatballs, I roughed up the edges with my fingernail to give them a slightly irregular shape. Pretty Pink Posh sequins dressed it up.

Caitlin loved it! I hope you do too.

Unforgettable Birthday

I seriously cannot get enough of these cute elephants from the WPlus9 Unforgettable stamp set. As soon as I got another chance to play, this was unquestionably the set I reached for. These little guys have so much personality, and it's so easy to bring them to life with just a few scribbles of my Spectrum Noirs. These gorgeous Serendipity 6x6 papers and a scattering of Pretty Pink Posh sequins completes the card.

Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right to watch there in HD and please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! Have an awesome day!

Roaring Good Birthday - Lawnscaping Challenge #100!

Hello, dear friends! Today is the day! Lawnscaping's 100th Challenge is finally here! When we began this journey back on January 4th of 2011, we had no idea where the road would take us. But all you fellow Lawn Fawn lovers embraced us and traveled with us until we arrived where we are today. 100 challenges! And I can't tell you how much I've been inspired and blessed by all of you who participate and support us. This is definitely cause for celebration, don't you think? 

To make this an even bigger party, each of us designers have invited a special guest to play along and knock your socks off with even more inspiration and fun! 

I am lucky enough to have the gorgeous and extremely talented Paulina Nakamura of Pretty Pink Posh guesting with me, which makes me feel a little bit like I have the hottest date to the prom! ;)

Just take a look at her adorable card. So bright and fun! Please be sure to stop by her blog and leave her some special love.

Huge thanks to Lawn Fawn for not only being the reason for our eternal fangirldom (if that's not a word, it should be) but also for sponsoring us once again with a FREE stamp set of our winner's choice, and since this week is also release week, you couldn't ask for a more perfectly-timed prize!

Please be sure to stop by the Lawnscaping Challenge blog and check out the other amazing design team projects, as well as those of their specially invited guests! And don't forget to link up your projects and help us get this party started! Have an awesome day!

Big Hugs, I Love You

Hi there! Happy Valentine's Day! Today I wanted to pop in and share the fifth and final card in my 2015 Loads Of Love Valentine Series. It stars this super cute image Big Hug by Lili of the Valley which I colored with my Spectrum Noirs. I die cut my panels with the Mama Elephant Femme Frames and Avery Elle Pinked Elle-ments.

You can watch in HD on YouTube by clicking the icon on the bottom right. And please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe!

Guesting With TAWS

Good morning! Today I am happy to be guest designing with The Alley Way Stamps! I'm highlighting the Petal Pushers stamp set. Everything on this card was created with that set, including the little bunny! As soon as I saw those petal images, I thought of bunny ears and I knew I would create a card inspired by one of my favorite childhood stories, Peter Rabbit. 

This set also includes a triangular shaped petal that made the perfect bunny face to attach my "ears" to. All that was left was to stamp the terra cotta pot and paint in some grass and sky. I hope you like it!

My second card also shows how versatile this stamp set is. I decided to switch up the tall plant by covering up the bulbs with these florals that I colored to look like pansies. By turning the flowers a bit, it actually looks like multiple stamped images instead of one. I stamped my flower pot in gold to give it a sleeker look and compliment my gold splattered background.

Please check out The Alley Way Stamps for this set and many more! And don't forget to stop by the blog and leave me some comment love! 

Have a great day!

Hello Love - BRI Guest Designer

Hi, crafty peeps! Today I am happy to be guest designing again with Butterfly Reflections Ink. It's hands-down my favorite place to shop, with all the latest products, super fast shipping, and the best customer service I've ever encountered, anywhere. Go ahead and take a look-see. You won't be sorry you did! If you like, you can even use my affiliate link by clicking on the badge in my righthand sidebar. Either way, don't you think it's time that you were treated the way a customer should be?

So for today's card, I started out by using a Lawn Fawn Navy Woodgrain Notecard, then die cut a focal panel from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Serendipity 6x6 pad. I trimmed two more patterns into strips, cut banner ends, and layered them on my card base for extra pops of color. 

On the focal panel, I sponged pink ink through the Memory Box Heart Confetti Stencil to give it more visual interest. Then I stamped out the birds from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine, and stamped them an additional time on white card stock. I colored them with alcohol markers, fussy cut them out, and adhered them over the stamped images.

I happened to notice that the font of the Hello Sunshine sentiment was the same as one of the sentiments in the new Lawn Fawn Bugs and Kisses stamp set, so I decided to do a custom sentiment with some selective inking in Memento Tuxedo Black.

And finally, I popped my focal panel up with foam tape to add dimension.

I hope you enjoy it! Special thanks to Butterfly Refections Ink for inviting me to be your January guest designer! I had a blast! 

Smitten With You

Hey friends! Happy Friday to you! Aren't you glad it's the weekend? I sure am. Do you have any plans to get crafty? I'll be working on finishing up my cards for the Cards From The Heart Drive benefitting St. Jude's Children's Hospital, as the January 31st deadline is fast approaching.

In fact, I've got another card to share with you today, using a more non-traditional color palette for Valentine's Day, but super duper cute all the same. I was working off the latest MFT Sketch Challenge which is such a versatile layout.

I was eager to use my new Cute Critters stamp set. Isn't that squirrel a cutie? I paired him with some American Crafts papers and a Mama Elephant Smitten sentiment.

This is card #2 in my 2015 Loads of Love Valentine Series. I hope you enjoy the video. Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right to watch there in HD, and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! Have a great day!

Bugs & Kisses - Lawnscaping Challenge #98

Good morning! Welcome to Lawnscaping Challenge #98! This time we are all about creating a background with your stamps. For my card, I used the jar, branch and leaf from the new Lawn Fawn Bugs & Kisses combined with the clouds from Into The Woods to create my background scene, then added the sweet love bugs on top to give them a little pop. I hope you like it. :)

Lawn Fawn is graciously sponsoring us with a FREE stamp set of the winner's choice! So exciting! 

Please check out the other amazing design team samples at the Lawnscaping Challenge blog and don't forget to link up your projects as well! I can't wait to see what you create.

Have a great day!

Happy Heart Day - Kicking Off The Loads of Love Card Series

So today I'm kicking off my Loads of Love 2015 Valentine Series which benefits the Cards From The Heart Card Drive, that collects valentines for the kids at St. Jude's Children's Hospital. This is such a worthy cause and I just love participating. All the cards in this series from now until the January 31st deadline will go to the card drive. This is your chance as a crafter to make some cards that will truly make a difference in someone's life. These kids have been through so much. Just imagine the smiles you can bring to their faces. I really encourage you to click on the link and find out how you can get involved.

This card features the WPlus9 Winter Pals stamp and die set with the addition of a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Love From Above. I've also used Mama Elephant Femme Frames dies and WPlus9 Landscape Borders dies to complete the scene.

I hope you enjoy the video! Click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right corner to watch there in HD. And please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe! Have an awesome day!

Have A Cool Day

Hey friends! So one of my new years resolutions is to craft for fun, rather than toward a deadline, and the best way I know to do that is to play along in challenges! Challenges are a great way to get yourself thinking out of the box and connecting with other crafters.

So today I'm playing along with MFT's first challenge of the year, which just so happens to be a sketch challenge.

One of my favorite stamp sets of 2014 was the MFT Cool Day Stamp Set by Birdie Brown. You all know I just love polar bears so I just had to use it again for this challenge. I paired him with some Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather patterned papers to keep it decidedly winter and not Christmas-y at all. I hope you enjoy it!

Have a great day!

True Friends, Warm Heart - BRI Guest Designer

Happy Sunday, friends! Today I am delighted to announce that I am the January guest designer for Butterfly Reflections Ink. The owner, Vanessa, is a dear friend and a fabulous business woman, not to mention a tremendous asset to the crafting community. She offers all the latest, greatest products on the market, plus the tried and true essentials you can't craft without. If you have never shopped with her before, I encourage you to head over and take a look. Plus the customer service is excellent and she ships super fast! 

So for today's card, I just had to break out my new WPlus9 Winter Pals stamp set and give it some inky love! Aren't these images adorable? After coloring them, I die-cut them using the matching dies. Gotta love that! I layered some American Crafts Jack Frost patterned paper over a gray card base, popped everything up with foam tape, and stamped my sentiment in Memento Luxe Nautical Blue ink. As I final step, I took the Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen and went over the iceberg and the penguin's earmuffs. When it catches the light, it adds such a nice shimmer!

You can find all the products I mentioned today in the Butterfly Reflections Ink store by clicking the links provided. Also, I'd love it if you check out my guest post over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Meowy Birthday, a Life Update, & a Winner

Hey friends! Today I wanted to pop on a share a card I made last month for my dear friend Kari's birthday. I used the sweet Purrfect Pair and Balloon Et Cetera stamps from Mama Elephant along with Avery Elle Finished Frames dies and Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

I've taken a short break from creating cards for two reasons. First, because I can't seem to shake this laryngitis that has robbed me of my voice for literally weeks upon weeks. Second, which is definitely the more exciting of the two, is because my husband and I have been very busy finalizing the initial process of building our very first home! We've been renters our entire married life, and this is something we've been wanting to do for a very long time. We settled on a lot and a building plan, and we will meet with the builder again this coming week to tweak just a couple of things. All that's left will be to wait for the lot and loan closings and if all goes well, we should be breaking ground mid-March! And to answer your burning question (you know you're wondering!) YES, I will have my own craft room! I was fully prepared that I might just have to claim some corner of the basement or family room, but as it turns out I will get a 10'x10' room all to myself. I can't wait to design and decorate it! So that's what's been going on with me.

Before I go, I want to announce the winner of my Season Givings Blog Giveaway. Huge thanks to all who left fabulous comments! I read and appreciated every single one. But there can only be one winner and that person is:

SHAUGHN WOODRUFF

I'll be contacting Shaughn shortly to let her know. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!