Lawn Fawn | Bunny and Turtle Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Every now and then I get a special request. Someone needs a birthday card, but instead of choosing from what I have available, they want something a little more specific. This card was one of those.

I was told "something nice with a turtle and a bunny". Literally that is all I had to go off of. Ummm, what? There was no colour palette, no insight into what it was she wanted. Just "a turtle and a bunny".

Needless to say I fretted about this for a bit. I stopped offering custom cards quite some time ago, for any of you that have done this, you understand why. It can be incredibly frustrating when you think you've got what they are looking for, having literally put in hours of time only to hear "It's nice.... but maybe some brighter colours? or more muted? or something funner." So more hours go in, and it's not like we can actually charge for our time... I mean who is going to be paying for each iteration of a card because it's not "quite what I'm looking for".

So now for the most part, what I have available is what I have available. But this was for my mom. How could I say no? Fortunately, she provides me with quite a bit of creative freedom and there haven't been any flat-out "no" cards.

I stamped the banner, the bunny and the turtle (now wearing a hat) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them out.

I used one of my DIY stencils to create some fading grassy hills with Distress Ink and did the same with the cloud stencil for the sky. I then stamped some of the flowers directly to the panel and coloured those in as well.

I trimmed down a piece of perfectly plaid patterned paper (yay alliteration) and adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I then trimmed down the coloured panel with the second largest of the Stitched Rectangle dies and mounted that on top. Finally I added my banner and my little birthday critters.

If I'm being completely honest, I was not really all that happy with this card, but mom LOVED it, and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

The Greeting Farm "Be A Unicorn" | Party Like a Pony Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Remember before you had kids, everyone was like "Oh, you should totally have a baby!", and "They're so cute!", and "Being a parent is such a rewarding experience!"? Remember that?

Let's get real for a minute. No one ever said anything about how incredibly frustrating it is to raise another human. How growing a human will take away a huge part of your identity. How your whole life will revolve around another little person. How you worry about whether or not you should go back to work, because if you go back to work, you'll worry about daycare and what to do if your job calls you out of town, but if you don't go back to work and "you're just a stay at home parent" you worry about all sorts of money issues and the giant gap in your career (whatever that may be) that could set you back years in your climb of the corporate ladder, not to mention thinking about retirement.

And when do you get time for yourself? You either spend every waking minute running after your kid(s) or you're so exhausted from work, then coming home and cleaning up after your kid(s) and dealing with whatever 3, 5, 9, 14 year old drama happened that is likely the end of the world.

My point today is carve out time for yourself. Every moment with the kids is important, but you can't take care of another human effectively if you, yourself are worn down completely. And that's in a house with TWO parents. I've done the single parent thing as well and that's an entirely different ball game. That's the difference between pee-wee and the major leagues.

So if at the end of the day, your child is fed, clothed and remembers to say "Thank you" (most of the time), you're probably doing a good job. Give yourself a break and if you need help, ask for it.

Today I have a card that has nothing to do with the ramble I just went on, but a super cute celebration card, featuring stamps from The Greeting Farm.

To begin, I cut down a piece of butter yellow cardstock with the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangle dies from Lawn Fawn, and another piece of 110lb Copic-friendly white cardstock with the next largest die from the same set.

I used a small polka-dot stencil and some Sunflower ink (Lawn Fawn) to create a fun tone-on-tone patterned paper. I then stamped the Unicorn, butterflies and the greeting with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and masked them off.

I used my cloud stencil (DIY!!) and some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to create my sky, then blended in some Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Ink for my grassy area.

Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured the images in with Copic markers. I adhered my coloured panel to the yellow piece and mounted the lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card I used clear Wink of Stella on the pony's hair and tail as well as on the butterflies' wings. Finally I used some Glossy Accents on the wings to add a bit of shine. 

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "On the Beach" | Have a Relaxing Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Well it's summer time now. My kids are all off school, and for the most part seem to be under the impression they can play video games or sit in front of a screen all day long. That is not the case. Last night the two older ones sat down and had to write out a step-by-step checklist of their chores. Sure, the chore is "do the kitchen" but what exactly does that entail? They sent in their lists last night, where they will be consolidated and finalized today (for each of their chores, not just the kitchen) then laminated as a checklist, so we don't have to continually send them back to rewash a dish, or actually wipe down all the baseboards in the bathroom when cleaning the floor. It'll be good to have everyone on the same page regarding our expectations. It'll definitely make for a smoother summer, and hopefully instill some good habits for their futures.

Today I have a (mostly) single layer birthday card, that can be used for either as either a masculine or feminine (which is always handy) using Lawn Fawn's "On the Beach" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock then coloured them with Copic markers and masked them off. I used the negative space of a circular mask to allow for ink blending.

I used my dollar store (FTW) blending brushes along with Distress Ink to create a soft sandy/beachy background for this guy to be hanging out on.

Once I peeled the masks away, I put the panel back into my MISTI and stamped the greeting. I then adhered this panel to a piece of patterned paper and mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Magic Picture Changer Happy Birthday | Lawn Fawn "Birthday Before and After"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So you know when you already don't like your phone, and then you see a killer deal from your own provider? And you think, maybe, juuuust maybe they can save the relationship? That was my yesterday. So I'm chatting with the guy from my provider and he's giving me the information on this (already overpriced but better than my plan at the same price) plan and then says I have to pay out my contract in order to go on this plan. Nearly 8 years, 3 phones and there's not a thing they're going to do for me. So naturally I'm mega frustrated, so my husband says "Let's pay out the contract and get you switched over to another provider" so that's what we did. So for WAAAY less monies and WAAAY more GBs I have a WAAAY better phone, no charge accessories and a happier day. So that's where I'm at.

Today, I have another Magic Picture Changer card (currently my favourite interactive die, can you tell?) along with the "Birthday Before and After" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. I wanted to keep the cupcakes on the background panel in the same families as the main cupcakes, so I just went a few shades lighter.

For the outside of changer piece, I shaded the whole cover piece with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, which I thought was closest to the pink I had chosen for the pink cupcakes. Once that was dry I stamped my greetings with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's White Embossing Powder.

I mounted my custom background on a piece of black cardstock then adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I used to two layers of foam tape to mount the slider to the front of the card.

To finish off today's card I stamped the sprinkles in coordinating ink and filled them in with Glossy Accents for some sprinkly shine!

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer | Be a Little Shellfish Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by!

I just wanted to start out by saying how grateful I am to all of you that have been reaching out. Not only is it encouraging to know that I have been able to bring some inspiration to your card making, it's incredibly comforting to know that behind the screens are real people that care and miss me. Loneliness is a terrible feeling, especially when you're surrounded by people. It means a lot that people I've never met have taken the time to reach out and just check in. It really can make all the difference in the world on a bad day. Thank you.

Today, I want to share a card I created using the Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer Dies. This is fast becoming my favourite interactive die set, and if you've been following along, you know I have most of them. I love how you can tell a little story without taking up additional space, this set is brilliant.

I began by stamping all the images on the front with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, colouring them with Copic markers and fussy cutting them out.

I cut the pieces for the Magic Picture changer out of the same 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and used my Dollar Store ink blending brushes with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to shade the outsides and the closed position of the changer, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon for the waves, which were cut down using the stitched wave dies.

When you pull up the little tab to get the second image, this super sweet little Shellfish appears, he was coloured with Copic markers, masked off and the same blue was used to blend around him.

Once the mechanism was together, I used the light blue from the Really Rainbow Scallops 6x6 paper pack along with the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangles for my background. Then adhered the mechanism with foam tape - this gives the recipient an easier time when trying to pull the tab.

Next I added the greeting to the front-most wave and adhered them in place, then added all my little party-going sea creatures.

To finish off the card I added some iridescent bubbles from Studio Katia, and Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen over the shell.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted "Pretty Pansies" | A Floral Thoughts Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So y'know the other day when I said I had so much more time to myself and I was looking forward to getting more posts and videos done? Well as it turns out, I've just been making cards; it hadn't even occurred to me until late last night as I was dozing off to sleep that I should probably be blogging as well. LOL, I guess I have been so excited about this uninterrupted time that I've just been making and finishing off half done cards like a crazy lady.

So today, when I sat down and logged into my computer for other reasons, it struck me that "While I'm here.....", so today, I wanted to share this lovely birthday card I created for my sister-in-law back in January, featuring Clearly Besotted's "Pretty Pansies" stamp set.

To create this card I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and put it in my MISTI, I stamped the larger image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink then turned the paper and stamped again.

I coloured all the images with Copic markers, you'll notice the bottom image has a darker blue halo than the one on the top. As it turns out my B000 and BG0000 both decided to dry right up after finishing the top image, so I had no choice but to go darker for the bottom. Because of this, I opted to have the greeting heat embossed on a piece of vellum to place over the lower image. I felt this would tone it down and make it less noticeable.

I then adhered the panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock and then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. To finish off the card, I added some crystals from Pretty Pink Posh in both blue and purple because I gotta have me some shine.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Oh Gnome!" | Masculine Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know it's been a little while since I posted, it's been kinda crazy around here. If you remember last year when my full time job was part time and I got that other full time job, then my part time job offered me a full time position, so I left the original full time? Catch all that? Well the original full time job called and offered me an amazing opportunity, so I've moved back to that company full time. It was a difficult transition because I wasn't looking for a new job, it all happened very fast, Friday was my last day at the one and yesterday was my first day at the other, as well as having my older daughter's 13th birthday, then my birthday and we all have this dreadful lingering cold.

Lemme tell y'all, it's all I can do to even stay awake.

So today, while I have a couple minutes of quiet after delivering the youngest to daycare and before I head out to work I wanted to share a masculine birthday card I created using Lawn Fawn (shocking, right?) stamps and dies.

To begin, I stamped the gnome from "Oh Gnome" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and masked him off, I then stamped the large mushroom over him, so it would appear that he is sitting. I also stamped the other two mushrooms because they are just too darn cute! I removed the mask and coloured all the images with Copic markers.

I used the grassy hillside border dies to cut two levels of grass, and the new mushroom border die to cut out some mushrooms from cream cardstock and the caps from some deep red cardstock.

I pieced all the mushrooms together and adhered them behind my grassy pieces. I used my Lori blending brushes (dollar store FTW) to add colour to both the grass and the sky. I had some extra clouds lying around from another project so I added those to the sky just to fill in some of the space.

I die cut a balloon from the same red cardstock, then ran the mushroom cap die over the cream cardstock so I could use the little spots to make the balloon look mushroom-y as well.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Beam Me Up" and Outta This World Pop-Up Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to post a card that I created using some older supplies in my stash. You know when you get a new thing and you're like "I HAVE ALL THE IDEAS!!!" and then you get it and you make a few things then it gets put into the stash and mostly forgotten about because there's something else new and shiny for you to play with.... it's almost like they do that on purpose... hmmmm.

Every now and then I'll be flipping through my giant binder 'o dies and I'll see something and remember all the ideas I had. That's what happened. That's how this card became more than an idea.

For the outside, I trimmed a piece of 110lb cardstock using the largest of the Small Stitched Rectangle dies and blended my background using my Lori Brushes and Distress Ink. I only really focused on the middle, I wanted it to look like a space tunnel or a wormhole, through which he was stealing away the cake.

Once the ink was dry, I used clean water and splattered for my distressed look, then splattered again using Copic Opaque white to get the stars.

I stamped my ship and all the images inside the card with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. For his tractor beam, I prepped a piece of vellum with my powder tool then stamped the beam image with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Lawn Fawn's Glow in the Dark embossing powder. I would love to show you a picture of what this looks like, but I can't take a picture in the dark to save my life. I can't even tell you how many I tried and they look awful. So you'll just have to trust me when I say it looks nifty.

Once the entire panel was dry, I prepped the lower right corner and stamped the greeting then heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's White embossing powder. This is the first time I've used their embossing powder, normally I use the Ranger detail white, but I gotta say this stuff is great. I mean, I'm not going to toss my other stuff, but it's really nice to know that I have more if I ever run out in a hundred years.

To finish off my ship, I adhered small red gems over the lights to give it some dimension. I think I would have gotten nearly the same result with glossy accents, but I had them on my desk, so why not.

Turns out, he's bringing the cake to a party!! YAY!!

I created this galaxy background the same way directly on the inside of the card base. While that was drying I used the pop-up dies to cut a piece of kraft cardstock and sponged on some Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress ink to give a bit of texture to the ground.

Once I had everything dry and put together I adhered all my little guys in place. I wanted to two ships to be floating, so I used the acetate trick to make them really look like they were on their way in. More guests to the party!

If I were to make this card again, and I'm sure I will, I would use a different alien. While this guy is my favourite, he just looks silly with the birthday hat, and I think it would have been nice to have some birthday hats going on. Maybe we'll see that in the future. Who even knows.....

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Hap-Pea" Belated Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A little while ago, I showed you the Lawn Fawn Spring 2019 Release Haul video, and in it I mentioned that I had already made a card for my Aunt's birthday using the "Be Hap-Pea" stamp set. I chose this set because she enjoys gardening and when I saw it I immediately thought of her.

I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, I masked all the images off and sponged Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink around the images. Once that was dry I removed the masks and coloured all the images with Copic-markers.

I used the "Hap-pea" and "Birthday" from the "Be Hap-pea" set along with the "belated" from the "Hang in There" to create my greeting.

I used the second largest of the "Large Stitched Rectangles" dies to cut this panel and the largest of "Large Stitched Rectangles" to cut the patterned paper. I adhered them together then mounted them to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted "Go Wild Again" | Snappy Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So, while I'm waiting for the rest of my Lawn Fawn stuff to come in, I thought I would share a super cute card using the "Go Wild Again" stamp set by Clearly Besotted.

When I first came into the stamps from Clearly Besotted, it was mainly for their beautiful floral sets. I absolutely adore how elegant their flowers are, they make for some of the most wonderful cards for "grown ups". Not really, but you know what I'm saying. But they also have some super amazing cute stamps that can be for grown ups and for those of us that are kids at heart.

To begin, I stamped this super sweet little gator with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and masked him off. I then stamped the plant and the water. I removed the masks and coloured all the images with Copic markers.

I then remasked everything and used Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks to create more of the background.

Once that was completely dry, I used clear Wink of Stella over the gator and the water to make sure they had some serious sparkle. I used my MISTI to stamp the greeting, the black with Memento and the green with a couple of Lawn Fawn inks.

I adhered the panel to a piece of green cardstock then mounted the entire piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I covered the water with Glossy Accents by Ranger.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

MFT "Saddle Up" | A Little Country Birthday Card with PrismaColor Premier Pencils

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a birthday card that can be used for either masculine or feminine, and those are by far my favourite kind to have on hand. I mean, who knows what you're going to need. I mean, those of your with calendars might know what you need, but for those of me that aren't quite as organized as we'd like to be.

This card features the "Saddle Up" set by My Favourite Things, I had done this panel a little while ago, and shared the picture but now it's finally a card and a post!

To begin, I stamped and masked the images, working front to back, with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 65lb Kraft cardstock.

I used me PrismaColor Premier pencils to color them in. I find that when I colour with Copic markers, my usual medium of choice, I start with my midtone, then go darker and then blend out lighter; but when working with my pencils I start with my darkest shade and blend out lighter.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted | Masculine Birthday ft. "Hip Hip Hooray"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a masculine birthday card I created using the Clearly Besotted "Hip Hip Hooray" stamp set. When I first saw this set, I couldn't wait to use it; and now, all this time later, I still turn to this one when I'm looking for inspiration in masculine cards.

I started by stamping the little viking man with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then masked him off and stamped the mountains across the background along with the greeting, then I masked the mountains off.

I used Distress inks in Stormy Sky to create my sky and a very light hand of Gathered Twigs to create the ground. Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured my images with Copic markers.

I used the stitched note card die to cut down my panel and adhered it to a piece of subtly patterned paper. I then mounted the entire piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I used clear Wink of Stella over the metal parts of the image and black Nuvo drops to create some interest and dimension.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! For those of you that follow me on Google+, please subscribe directly to the blog so you don't miss out on any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Lovable Legends" | Unbelievable Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Two in a row. That's right folks. LOL. See? I am really trying. Perhaps my crafting is cyclical? Lots of posting, lots of making but never do they meet..

Today I have a simple to make birthday card, featuring Lawn  Fawn's "Lovable Legends" stamps set.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 140lb cold press watercolour paper using the largest of the "Small Stitched Rectangles" die, I then used Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron Distress Inks to create my background. I just sponged them on randomly, much like the beginnings of a galaxy background. In the end you couldn't really see the Twisted Citron, but it did help create some nice highlights when I was sponging.

I used some clean water in my Distress Sprayer and spritzed the background to get that wonderful distressed look.

Once the panel was completely dry - not just mostly, but completely! - I prepped it with my powder tool and stamped the giant squid and the greeting with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Lawn Fawn's White embossing powder.

I then used Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserves Distress Ink to drop in some colour to the squid. My idea here was to create a somewhat transparent look with the purple acting as the shadows around his curves.

The stamp set comes with a long dotted wave border stamp, so I used that along with the Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink to create some tone-on-tone wave textures.

I had an extra frame from another project that coordinated well with the panel and (more importantly fit) so I adhered both to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish it off, I covered the giant squid with clear Wink of Stella (and as you can see, I went a little bit heavy handed here). But I gotta have that glitter. I then added some clear and iridescent bubbles.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate every like, thumbs up, new subscriber and comment - I LOVE hearing from everyone!

Lawn Fawn "Coaster Critters" | Awesome Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I mentioned in the last post, the one with the late Christmas card, that I've been creating more than I've been posting. Which is good - I have a bunch of cards stocked up now, so I don't feel pressured or the need to scramble when something comes up. But it's also bad - I haven't been sharing with you all and I miss that. I love reading all your comments!

I never thought it would be so hard to be a full-time Mom with three kids, have a full-time job and do everything else that is expected of us adults. Lemme tell y'all, I don't remember it being this hard, before. But then I only had one kid and it was just me and her. There are so many more people in the house now that finding even a few extra minutes is tough. The older two are great and pretty self-sufficient now (for the most part), the little one *thinks* she can do it all on her own .... but not so much.

Anyway, today I wanted to share this super fun birthday card featuring Lawn Fawn's "Coaster Critters" stamp set. I'll be honest, this one didn't really strike my fancy when it came out. In fact, it took a little while for me to warm up to this set. Don't get me wrong, it's super cute, I just didn't know what to do with it. It seemed to me that this was a one and done sort of set. How many roller-coaster cards can a person make? Luckily, I'm a huge fan of mixing and matching sets and none do it better than Lawn Fawn.

We all know I'm a fan of one layer cards, I love the magic of masking! To begin I stamped the three little critters (which will be making appearances outside this county fair) as well as the ticket book with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. Then masked them off. I then stamped the balloons and masked them, then the larger piece of the roller-coaster, masked that then the smaller piece and the flag and masked those. Yeah, I masked a lot. LOL

I used Tumbled Glass and Cracked Pistachio Distress inks to create my sky and grass, adding a bit of Bundled Sage to the very bottom.

I removed all the masks (which I save with the stamps to use again - literally until they fall apart or the ink starts to seep through) and coloured all the images with Copic markers. I really wanted to keep this one in primaries. I added some detail with my white gel pen, then stamped my greeting with the same Memento Ink.

To finish off the card I used clear Wink of Stella on the balloons, all the metal of the coaster cars and rails as well as the top of the stand.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think! I cannot tell you how much each of your "likes", comments, subscribes and "thumbs up" means to me.

This card is for:

International Sloth Day - Happy (belated) Birthday | ft. Lawn Fawn Stamps and Interactive Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card (and video) for an interactive, masculine and SUPER cute belated birthday card, featuring Lawn Fawn's "Double Slider Surprise" die set, "Hang in There" and "Critters in the Jungle" stamp sets, all in honour of International Sloth Day. That's a thing. You can Google it.

So I had a completely different card in mind when I woke up this morning, and not gonna lie - it took a bit for me to get that one out of my head, or at least off to the side, so I could create this one. Sloth Day only happens once a year, and I'll not miss it. They are, after all, my most favouritest of animals.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

In the video you'll see the list of Copics that I used to create this card, I also discuss why this die set gives me the most trouble out of all the interactive sets I have. As well, in the interests of full disclosure, I do go off on a pretty long tangent about the value we put on our work, and why it is important that we continue to do what we love BECAUSE we love it, not to make everyone else happy. Oh, and you'll also see me make a bit of a masking error and how I fixed it. This video is loaded with stuff today; I didn't even list them all!

I really wanted the sloth to be the star of the show, not counting the interactive element, as that generally steals the show. We all love a little interaction in our cards!

I kept the colouring super simple on all of the elements, all of which are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock.

So while we're chatting about mistakes (in the video) I also didn't really put the card together the way I wanted. The pull up panel goes waaaay further than I wanted because I didn't use the stopper mechanism - and they provide it for a reason. Sooo maybe next time. Whoops!

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Sweet Birthday | ft. Lawn Fawn's "Sweet Friends"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a simply sweet birthday card featuring - you guessed it! - Lawn Fawn's "Sweet Friends" stamp set and Copic colouring. I wanted to create a clean but fun birthday card, and while digging through my stash, looking for inspiration, it occurred to me that I haven't used this set very often. So here we are.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and stamped the doughnut image with Memento Tuxedo black ink randomly about the panel, taking care not to stamp in the middle where I wanted my greeting to go.

I stamped the first and last part of the greeting with Lawn Fawn's Black Licorice ink then stamped the "sweet" in three different shades of Lawn Fawn ink.

I coloured the images in with Copic markers. I wanted to create an assortment of doughnuts but not get too out of hand, after all, I wanted this to be a simple card. Next I used some warm grey markers to create a drop shadow at the bottom leftish of each one and in the top right of the hole, so it would appear as though my light source were coming from the top right of the panel.

I trimmed a piece of the Really Rainbow paper to just smaller than my standard A2 sized card base and adhered that down using my tape runner. I popped my panel up on foam tape.

To finish off the card I added a couple layers of Clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to the icing parts then covered each of them with glossy accents.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Interactive Masculine Birthday Card | ft. Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a masculine card (and video) featuring -- SURPRISE!!! Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies. I needed to create a birthday card for my grandfather who turned 86 this year! 86!! And still strong as an ox. He's totally one of my favourite people in the whole world and he got a real kick out of this card. We had his birthday dinner on Saturday (Chinese food - because that's what he loves) and he thought it was great. He even texted me during dinner to say thank you.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

When you watch the video, you'll see that my process isn't really as smooth as it generally is. Or at least as smooth as think I am because I had a little person talking at me and asking me questions and trying to get me to do stuff for her. 

I used Distress Oxide inks to create a simple background so that my little scene wasn't just floating in the middle of nowhere, I used Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass; there is absolutely nothing special about this. I just wanted to get colour on my panel.

I used Lawn Fawn Dye Inks to stamp my little water patch from the Dad & Me set, I knew that it wasn't going to be a solid stamped image and tried to use that to my advantage by restamping the image a second and third time with a lighter colour ink to make it look more like actual water.

I wanted to finish off the inside of the card, something I don't typically do. For this one I stamped the images in second generation Distress Oxide ink and then stamped the sentiment from the Reveal Wheel Sentiments with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

For the grass and dragonflies around the little scene I used Peeled Paint and Black Soot Distress Oxide ink. This isn't in the video because of a certain little person who just *needed* to have my attention. But I do talk about that in the video.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clean and Simple Reveal Wheel Birthday Card | ft. Lawn Fawn Stamps and Dies

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day!

Today I'm back to share with you a CAS Birthday card using the new interactive Reveal Wheel die set from Lawn Fawn along with their new Critters in Concert stamp set.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

Watch the video to see how this card came together!

This die set makes creating a reveal card so incredibly easy. There really isn't a whole lot more work to take your card to the next level.

To see this card come together and see the list of Copic markers I used, check out the video! As well as my thoughts on animals playing instruments, LOL.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Anything Goes

A Manatee-rific Birthday Card | ft. Lawn Fawn "Reveal Wheel" Die Set

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So before I get into the card (which is awesome, by the way) I'll give a little back story to where I've been. Last month, my old boss called me up and offered me a full-time job, naturally I jumped at the chance. I opted to not give up my part time job, and therefore have been working insane hours. Twelve days on and only two off, so it was exhausting. Then my part-time job, also offered me a full time position, so I left the other job and am only working one at full time now. Sadly, they will now need to full my part time position so I'm still all about the map for days. I'm desperately hoping to get some time in the art room. I miss it, and all of you dreadfully.

Anyway, on to the card!

To begin, I cut all the pieces I needed with the "Reveal Wheel" die set out of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I stamped the images from "Manatee-rific" with Memento Tuxedo black ink and created masks for them.

I masked the images, then used Distress Inks to create the ocean background. Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured all the images with Copic markers.

Once my panel was completed, I assembled the wheel mechanism; which is so incredibly easy.

I then mounted the entire lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. To finish off the card, I used some of the Ocean Wave crystals by Studio Katia (which FINALLY arrived, like a week ago) in place of bubbles.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on Youtube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Shadowed Birthday | ft. Distress Ink and Heat Embossing

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a CAS birthday card featuring Distress Oxide Inks and heat embossing with some translucent embossing powder. I felt the contrast between the colours lent a striking yet delicate look to this birthday card.

As with all cards, if I were to redo it, there would be some things that I do differently, but as it stands I'm rather pleased with how the card turned out.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb cardstock to just smaller than the standard A2 size, and smooshed the Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold Distress Oxide pads directly to the paper. I used my heat tool to speed up the drying. I choose to use the Oxide inks as they are more opaque and in this technique will not blend so much as lay down on top of each other.

Once that was completely dry, I prepped the whole page with my powder tool and stamped the floral shadow image with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with some translucent teal powder by recollections. I repeated the process with the greeting from Recollections.

Generally if you use contrasting colours or complimentary colours (the teal and the orange) you will get a muddied brown. Contrasting colours look great next to each other but they aren't awesome for blending.

I was pleased to find that this didn't happen. I think that this would also be lovely in shades of green or blue with different embossed images.

I then used a piece of coordinating twine and wrapped it about the bottom of the panel and tied it off in a bow. I used foam tape to mount the panel to the front of my A2 size card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.