Christmas in July

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Deep breath! Everyone ready?  It's July 1st! Yikes! 

 The first of the month means it's time for a new Fan Club Christmas Challenge! 

I heat embossed the gorgeous Stars and Berries Wreath.  The random twigs totally speak to my soul!   I colored in the stars and berries with a paint pen and added a sheer bow.   Lastly, I added the Merry Christmas sentiment.

I am also playing along with a Summer Playlist VSN Challenge.

You can find a variety of beautiful Christmas stamps and much more at Impression Obsession.

Growing in Unity Day 2 & Giveaway

It's Growing in Unity Day 2!  

Oh my!  Did I ever have fun with the Circle of Friendship set!  I tried my hand at wreath building for the first time and I am smitten!   This set is so versatile it can be used without building a wreath if wreath building isn't your thing.  

I am also playing along in the Summer Playlist VSN.

Once again, I hope you will leave me a comment so that you will have another entry in the Growing in Unity prize drawing!  This time when you leave your comment let me know if you have ever "built" a wreath on a card.  Let me know if you used a wreath builder template or not.  And let me know if you enjoyed the process or if it was a one-time-only technique for you!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Growing In Unity Day 1 - Walking Colorful

Hello!  All this week I am a "Growing In Unity" gal!  I will be featuring some of my favorite Unity Stamps along with a few that are new to my collection and are fast becoming favorites!

Unity Stamp Co. is generously offering prizes to two randomly selected visitors.  So stop by every day and leave a comment!  

First up, is one of my all-time Faves.  Harmony Girl.  I love rainy days so this image speaks to me.  I love how Harmony walks through the rain with style!

I simply stamped Distress Oxide inks on clear plastic packaging and spritzed with water.  Then I dabbed the watery ink on the cardstock.  Once dried I stamped Harmony on the cardstock.  I stamped her a second time and fussy cut her.  

I had so much extra ink that I decided to create a second background.  I took a paintbrush and added color to You Color My World.

That's it for me today but don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know if you would rather paint a wall or take a walk in the rain.

Hugs and healthy wishes!

Miss Your Face

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Impression Obsession has an amazing variety of stamps so we love to take a day and older stamps.  Today I am featuring the adorable Steaming Cup of Tea image.  It's just one small cup but I used the mirror image stamping technique and added a cup.  I had a little fun with the coloring and I made coffee in the cups.  One with cream and sugar like I like it and one without! I think the Miss Your Face sentiment is so perfect for the season most of us find ourselves in.   Don't we just MISS seeing our friends and family IN person?  

I am celebrating this week's Splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper, Cathy!  I was so excited to see Cathy as our Featured Stamper because she is such a sweet person and creates amazing cards.  So I found a beautiful set of CAS cards and I CASEd the idea.  I stamped the Mini Gingham on the lower portion but instead of adding twine as Cathy did, I added the loopy border die-cut.

We hope you will stop by the Impression Obsession Blog to check out to see how the designers have used older stamps in new designs!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope this is a great week for you!

        

Get Well Soon

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Amy is this week's host for the Inspiration Challenge at SCS and she has chosen an amazing mural pinboard to inspire us!  I found THIS pin.  

I made a watercolor wash with distress ink for the background.  Next, I colored the Get Well Soon stamp in greens and pinks.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you get to create something this weekend!

Rainbows After a Storm

Brenda is our host this week for The Watercolor Wednesday Challenge. She chose No Line watercolor which is a little bit of a challenge for me but it was a lot of fun to practice! I stamped the super sweet After the Storm stamp set with Ink On 3 Fadeout Ink.  My pink clouds were inspired by this week's cacti containers from this week's  Art Nudge #15.  And lastly, I sprinkled some Spiked Cider Sequins.

  

Thanks for looking and I hope to see your artwork linked in the challenges!

     

Retirement Sale!

Picket Fence Studios is having a Retirement Sale!  Just click HERE to go directly to the Retirement Page.  No coupon code needed!

Here are a few of the cards I have created in the past with some of the sets but there is a lot more in the shop so be sure to check out the retirement stock soon! Even as I wrote this post I removed a card because the stamp set has been sold out!

Happy Shopping!

Love you and take care!

Puppy Love

(Affiliate links used when possible which means when you click a link and order from my link I receive a small commission without any additional cost added to you.  Thanks so much!)

Happy Monday everyone.  

Over on the Impression Obsession Blog, the design team is sharing Die-Cut cards today.  I chose the Dog and Bird Frame because the CAS Challenge at SCS is to feature Pet Paws!  I used Distress Oxide in Weathered Wood for the background and added a die-cut Hugs and that's it!  

Check out the Impression Obsession Blog for the list of Design Team members participating today!

Impression Obsession is offering a sale right now!  Just use the promo code: FLASH to get 25% off regular priced items!  

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

     

Hamburger Happy!

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As usual, I am late sending this out to my Father-in-law but if we lived in the same town I would have been right on time!

There might be many reasons you don't celebrate Father's Day and if that is the case I GET IT!  Hugs to those who have lost their dad and hugs to those that might have some issues.  Yeah, I am going to go there.  I like to keep my blog happy but well, there are some days that are HARD so here's a hug from me to you if today is one of those days that are HARD!

What I LOVE about this Dad's Day set is that it can be used for so many things OTHER than Dad's day.  It can be a summer celebration card!  Or if using the sentiment "When Life Throws You Hamburgers You Add Ketchup and Eat Them" it can be a yummy encouragement card!

With this card, I am celebrating this week's Featured Stamper at SCS.

Thanks for stopping by today!  HUGS!

Cat Love

It's Saturday and that means it's time for a new Inspiration Challenge at SCS.  Stacy has chosen such a cute Pinterest board to inspire us this week!  

Last night I pulled out this sweet stencil by medlockcrafts that my friend Janine gave me and I created while I was ZOOMing with artsy friends!  It's so fun to laugh and create with a group of friends and in these times ZOOM makes it safe to do so!

I once again I used the technique of stenciling distress ink first.  Then spritz with water and added watercolor Powder.  Spritz with water again then lay another piece of cardstock over the top and blot up the excess water.  I love using distress ink on the bottom layer because it changes the overall look of the watercolor powder.  I am very tired of the look of my watercolor powder but I need to wait a bit to buy new supplies so this is a great technique!  After I picked up my stencil I realized that I had allowed a very little bit of watercolor powder on the corner and it now ruined my clean look.  At first, I thought I might trash it but then I decided to sprinkle more watercolor powder and water on my craft mat and smoosh the paper at the top and bottom.  Viola!  Mistake obliterated and it looks pretty cool!  :)

Thank you Janine for the amazing stencil!  I had so much fun using it!  

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  

Love and Hugs!

Thank you!

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This is my 2nd post of the day, click Fun with Stencils for my 1st post.

I am creating along with two challenges today.  The Free 4 All Challenge is to create a background and add a die-cut.  (No Stamping)  I learned this abstract flower technique at Lydia's online retreat.  So much fun!  The Thank You die is a new one from Impression Obsession.

I am also playing along with Art Nudge #14.

  

For more wonderful dies like this shop HERE.

Fun with stencils

Hello, everyone!  I hope you have had a great week!  Today I am posting over at the Picket Fence Studios blog.  I am sharing two fun ways to use a stencil.
  

First up is the gorgeous Fireburst Stencil.  I have a limited supply of watercolor powders and in truth, I am tired of the colors I have.  So I decided to try an experiment and see if I could get a different look.  First I sponged distress ink through the stencil with a Life-Changing Blender Brush (on sale now!) also sold as a Bundled set with bonus stencil).  Then I spritzed the cardstock, (stencil still in place) with water.  Next, I sprinkled the watercolor powder through the stencil.  I took a piece of cardstock and placed it over the top of the watery ink and rubbed it.  When I removed the top piece I had a negative print that I will use at a later time.  Lastly, I removed the stencil and voila!  Magic!  I adore how the distress ink changed the watercolor powder.  I will be trying this technique again soon!  To finish off the card I heat embossed a sentiment from More Fancy Sentiments and I added a sprinkling of Blueberry Mojito Sequins.

Next up is another fun project this time using the Cat Stencil.  After stenciling the cat with Life-Changing Blender Brushes, I covered her with a mask.  Next, I splattered resist spray all over the background.  Once it was dry I brushed blue distress ink over the cardstock and splattered resist spray again.  Once dry the resist spray splatters sealed in the blue ink where the droplets had fallen.   Next, I brushed on a purple distress ink layer followed by distress spray and lastly a hint of black ink.  The result is a cool background in white, blue, and purple splatters!  So much fun!  The sentiment from Grace Puppy is perfect as a thank you for my cat sitter!  

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you feel inspired to create this weekend!   

             

Discounted Bundle     

    

Impression Obsession Challenge - Birthday Wishes

It's time for a new Impression Obsession Challenge and this time we are celebrating birthdays!  I am featuring the Birthday Queen and Happy Birthday stamp sets today.  They go together beautifully!  

Now it's your turn!    Everyone is welcome to play, simply use your Impression Obsession dies and stamps!  You might even win a Gift Voucher to IO.  All the details can be found on the Impression Obsession Blog.  

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is beautiful!

      

You Had Me at Dog

(Affiliate links used when possible which means when you click a link and order from my link I receive a small commission without any additional cost added to you.  Thanks so much!)

We have a new Watercolor Challenge at Splitcoaststampers and this week it's my turn to host.  Most week's we are including a technique video and this week, I chose Lydia's fun Unexpected Color Watercolor video.  I stayed pretty true to Lydia's colors.   I added Peacock Feathers for my unexpected color just as she did because, well the colors look amazing together.  I am always drawn to the wall art that features just the face of an animal in the lower portion of the art and then the rest is blank space so that is what I went for here.  I almost didn't add the sentiment but I think it actually looks right on this.

Featuring Picket Fence Studios

Lucky Puppy

Grace Puppy

In case you missed it Picket Fence Studios June Release happened on Sunday!  You can see all the new products HERE!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

    

If you love these two you might also like Lucy.