Happy Thanksgiving!!! And look: Crafty Sales!!!

Ok, I know I've been MIA for a while from my blog. But I have great news for all my crafty friends out there! It's Thanksgiving, which means shopping and sales this weekend!

1. MFT Sale:

I saw the email and flipped! 30% off!!! MFT is, by far, one of my favorite stamp companies out there. Totally going to check to this out tonight!

2. Simon Says Stamp Sale:

Again, I saw this in my email and flipped! 30% off!!! Definitely browsing and shopping this weekend!

3. Lil' Inker Designs Sale - Starts Friday:

Smaller stamp company but have lots of great stuff! I have several stamps and die from them. Very clever and punny products. The best thing about this sale is that no code is needed! 

4.  Concord & 9th Sale:

This is a newer stamp company with great products. I only have two stamp sets from them and I like them a lot. Definitely worth checking out. 

Happy shopping crafters!

Detashing: Halloween cards

It's October. This means it's officially fall/pumpkin/apple cider/Halloween time! This is my favorite season: perfect hoodie weather and I can still go outside without getting too hot or cold. Plus, who doesn't love apple-picking-pumpkin-spiced season?

So I went through my scrapbooking supplies and found a bunch of Halloween stuff. I decided to make them all into cards (so that I can clear out some space for other craft things). There's a glimpse of my first batch:

By far, my favorite of this batch is this one:

It's simple and clean. I love the sparkly bat and the color combo! I think it's great for any age, kids or adults.

Challenges entered:
SSS Monday: Halloween
SSS Wednesday: Halloween Inspiration

First day of fall.... already!?

It's officially fall today. That's crazy; time is flying by so fast! This means that Christmas is just around the corner and it's the start of holiday craft show season. I'm excited, but at the same time, I know how busy I'll get!

Without further to do, I've been doing through my Christmas stash:

That is a small glimpse into my Christmas card box. I told myself that I will update my Etsy this year and really push my online store. That's my goal for the next few months! This also allows me to get many uses out of my stamps and crafty tools. (I love playing with my toys! Who doesn't?!)

Here's one that I really like that I made recently:

This was inspired by the song "White Christmas" (call me old-school, but I love the Frank Sinatra version - so classic and has that warm holiday vibe). I think of this song every time I write a Christmas card. 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmases be white

I applied some clear wink of stella on the "Merry," so it shimmers when you hold it in the light. So pretty! The ornament gems were randomly picked and adhered using Rangers multi-medium.

Challenge:
Simon Says Stamp: Inspired by Music

Healing Smiles

Happy Mid-September everyone! I'm back from taking a craft blogging break this summer. There are all these stamp companies doing their fall/holiday release this week and is making me very excited! I can't wait to play with this year's holiday stamps!

Meanwhile, Altenew is doing really exciting things! They're having their Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop!

There are so many inspiration and card shares on all the artists blog! I highly recommend you take a look.

I got their Doctors Rule stamp around early spring and was so looking forward to making some cards for my doctor and medical friends. (I know, I'm really nerdy!) Recently, I made this:

I love how this card is super simple and realistic! This card is so sweet and great not only for medical professionals but also to others that had cared for you during illness. I love how this card came out! Here's a closer look at the "pop-up" heart.

I stamped the heart image three times and had fuzzy cut all three. Then, I cut out a portion of the image each time, and stacked them on top of one another to create the "pop-up" effect. Lastly, I did a simple embossing for the sentiment. 

Challenges entered:
Altenew Ultimate Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Clean and Simple

Wonderful Sip

Since I had my Misti out already (from the last post), why not make a whole bunch of other things!

I wanted to use my coffee stamps to make something summer-like and colorful. I combined three different stamp sets to make this:

Of course I had to make matching envelopes too.  

Challenge entered:
Simon Says: Anything Goes

Succulent Revival

My older sister and her husband came home last week for our younger sister's wedding. She caught me red-handed as the succulent neglecter. I had no idea how my plants were all dying... guess I haven't been a very good gardener lately. Nonetheless, with her help. my succulents are back in recovery and good shape! I can't wait for my baby plants to grow into a bigger size!

With that, I decided to make a succulent card:

I also kinda went on a Misti-craze and made a whole set of card! I used several different shades of greens/mint. Then, I double stamped smaller plant with some light purple ink. 

I really like the layering of the inks. I purposely didn't blend the ink and hoping for an effect like this. I'm so happy with the results. 

Challenge entered:

Simon Says: Anything Goes

Birthday Sprinkles

I made this card for Ashley's birthday (about a month ago) using the new PTI's Just Dessert stamp set.

My favorite part about this card is the texture. It's very settle, so I'm not sure if you can see it in the pictures. There are some sprinkle-like dimensions/texture on the cake. I did this by stamping out the image, then stamp it again in VersaMark and clear embossing. I also did it for the strawberries.

Challenge entered:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make it Girly

Breaking into my kit! (finally...)

Thank you Simon Says Stamp for featuring me in your Designer’s Spotlight for last week's posts!

This is my second time in the spotlight. This made me so happy! 

Ok, so I finally broke int to January My Monthly Hero from Hero Arts. I also got the additional stamp set, You are my Happy. It has such wonderful sentiments; but, somehow I misplaced it. So sad.

My sister's wedding is a week away and I still haven't made a card for her, so I thought this kit would be perfect! And I made this card:

It's a no-bulk shaker card. For the shaker component, I added additional glitter to what's in the kit already.

Doodling Feathers

Working on some changes in life and haven't had much time to post. I can't wait to post more in the up coming weeks about some projects I've been working on.

First up - doodling feathers:
To be honest, I'm not a fan of the doodling/coloring thing that's been so super popular these days. I see a lot of adult coloring books everywhere. The designs are interesting but I'm more of a simple and clean design person. The doodle and color combo has too may lines and colors; it's so very distracting to me. So when PTI came out with their "What the Doodle" line, I was not very impressed. However, I decided to give it a chance and bought the feather set anyway. Surprising, it grew on me quickly.

The feathers and background were done with Zig Clean Color Real Brush. I also mixed in some gold from the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set to give the background some shine. The background looked terrible at first, but it went perfectly with the feather die cuts on top. On the feather I embossed the detailing in white. I also added a plain vellum feather and gold/white twine to give some softness to the bright colors. Lastly, "thinking of you" was embossed with Rangers liquid platinum (love this color!).

Challenges entered:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: We Can See Clearly
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Coffee + MFTWSC269

I can't believe it's the end of February already. This only means that spring craft shows are around the corner! I've been working on some new inventory which were inspired by my recent visit to the Starbucks near my home. I do have to say, I am a coffee drinker. For this week's MFT challenge, I decided to deep into my coffee stamps. 

Here's my take on it, plus some coffee love:

Instead of using dots or sequins, I decided to make the back ground some with shinny alcohol based paint. Originally, I was going for the coffee-cup stain as the background, but it didn't work. So the splatting is what it came to be.

Like I said, craft shows are near, I've definitely made more than just this card for the sketch challenge. You can see more on my Etsy store.

Last PTI For now

Yup, another PTI challenger post! (crazy, I know!)

  

Here's my take on the paper crafting alphabet challenge:

This one took some time but FINALLY! It's done! There's a little bit of everything here: die cutting, ombre inking, emboss resist, etc. This was fun but so much brain work before putting it all together. 

Valentine + PTI

Happy Valentine's Day! Despite this how much I don't like how this day has became a Hallmark holiday, I still wish my boyfriend was in town. He did, however, send me a parcel last week for this day. It came in the mail on Wednesday and I told myself I had to wait until today to open it. (It felt a little but like waiting to open your presents on Christmas day.) He sent me some chocolates (mint! my favorite!), origami flowers (handmade by him), and a card. So sweet!! Thank you my dear!!!

So spending the day at home, I decided to finally upload some PTI challenges. Yup, another PTI entry post! In this post, I'm several challenges within one blog post (crazy, I know!). I've been creating just no time posting until now. 

  

Here's my Saturday Snail Mail challenge for this month's release:

The "thankful" is made of multiple layers of the die cut and the top layer is a gold foil cardstock. It's super shinny! It was kind of hard to take a picture of it without glare. I'm sending this one off to the PTI warehouse workers!

This one here is for Day 8: Color Pop Fortune Teller challenge:

 

You can't really see it in the picture, but there are several mini gems on the card. The "Thanks" is also made of multiple layers of the die cut, giving the card some extra dimension. 

Here's my Day 3: Grab & Craft Challenge:

Oh man, I was so surprise how little time 5mins really was! I kept going back and forth between stamp sets and colors!!! Before I knew it, time was up and needed to start crafting! This was a hard challenge!

And last and not least, Day 2: Dress Up Inspiration:

I thought this was so much fun! The fabric inspired is the my summer teal dress (it's the fabric behind the card in the picture). Unfortunately, the closest teal PTI I could find was tropical teal; hawaiian shores was too light in color. The "thanks" is also made of multiple layers of die cuts. (I feel like that may be my "go to technique" for the time being... I think I did something similar on all my recent cards!) I put glossy accents all over the "thanks" to give it some 3D detailing. Lastly, I heat embossed "for all you do" in white. 

Oh man, that was a lot of cards!

PTI: Color Recipe

As I've mentioned in the past posts, PTI is having their anniversary release this week and they're having lots of fun challenges. I'm trying to keep up with all of them. And here's one from day 1: Color Recipe Inspiration. I chose this recipe card:

I wanted to stick with four colors that were kind of neutral. Here's what I've came up with:

I'm thinking of making more of these with different color recipes and send the cards to CFHK.

CFHK collects handmade cards for kids that have chronic illnesses. "Doctors provide medicine and we provide hope, joy & magic." I hope this encourages you to get involve and send your cards in as well. Happy crafting!

Creating Along

This is the second post today (I've never posted twice in one day before)! I was so excited that I couldn't wait until tomorrow. This post is for PTI's February: 

During the release, I saw these from the PTI design team members:

  

Inspired by their lovely watercoloring, I decided to so some of my own. Here's my take on their inspirations:

I'm totally not a painter; nonetheless, this turned out "okay." I practiced some before actually making this panel. The original one I had to toss it (it was really bad). I think I'm getting more comfortable with watercoloring, but still lots of room to be improved. 

PTI release Day 5: Sampler Square Challenge

This year is PTI's 9th anniversary and they're doing a bunch of cool challenges! I'm slowly catching up, starting with day 5. (I know, I still have day 1-4 to do, hahaha!)

PTI Challenge: Sampler Square Challenge:

Sorry for the lighting. I tried to take this photo in natural lighting but due to how the window is in the room, the color's a bit off. This picture turned out a little cooler in temperature than I expected. I'm excited to send this off to one of the missionaries that my church supports after getting everyone to sign it. I think they'd be very encouraged.

MFT Sketch 266

First craft show for 2016 over the weekend was a success! 

We did much better than I expected! We will definitely be part of this show next year.

After the show I was so exhausted. But then, my MFT mail had arrived!!! I got my new "toys" (stamps) and couldn't wait to get crafting. So I looked into MFT's weekly Sketch Challenge.

Here's my take on the sketch:

I've been meaning to make a few more sympathy cards. This sympathy stamp set has so many great sayings and words of comfort.

supplies:

MFT - Mini Modern Blooms Stamp Set

MFT - Die-namics Mini Modern Blooms

*My Favorite Things CSA SYMPATHY Clear Stamps MFT

My Favorite Things INSIDE AND OUT DIAGONAL STITCHED RECTANGLE STAX Die-Namics MFT606