Welcome Back!

Hello and welcome back! The last 4 months of  packing, moving, unpacking and getting settled here in our new home state of Illinois just flew right on by. I am happy to report that we survived the Polar Vortex of January 2019 and I am finally getting back into a creative groove in my new craftroom!

I am happy to say that I am starting back up as a member of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Design Team and for my first card created from scratch in 4 long months, I used the sketch you can see below...

This card will be my hubby's Valentine and uses two stamp sets that I got from CAS-ual Friday along with hearts I diecut from Spellbinders.

I repeatedly stamped "smooches" in 3 ink colors to make my own decorative paper. I had fun adding Liquid Glass to the hour glass figure, but then tried to adhere it to my card before it was completely dry, so the top cracked and the bottom smudged...I must remember patience the next time, lol! 

I made use of the "scrap" I cut off for the front and adhered it to the inside of the card -pretty way to tie it all together.

That's it from me for today, but I hope to be back here to share with you regularly again at least 2 times a month. Until next time~

My January Paper Pumpkin Valentines

Today's post is all about what I did with the January Paper Pumpkin kit to make my hubby's Valentines this year. Since he was traveling out of state on business over the holiday of love, I made him 2 cards...one for each night that he was away.

I added some die cuts and additional stamping to make them my own, but otherwise pretty much stuck to the basic card as designed and using the supplies from the kit. I really loved all the rosy gold metallic accents in this kit!!

Until next time~

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today's card is the second of two that I designed for the February card making class at the library and it will be entered @ Use Your Stuff for "Love is All Around", @ Unicorn Challenge for "Love/Valentines", @ Try It On Tuesday for "Love is in the Air", @ Stinkin' Inkers for "Love is in the Air", @ Deep Ocean for "Love is All Around" and Die Cuttin' Divas for "Valentine's Day".

This card features a fun and simple Z-fold with patterned papers from my stash and a long ago retired stamp set from Stampin' Up!

The coloring was done with water based markers, faux stitching details done with a black pen and shimmer added with a clear Wink of Stella pen. The inside sentiment was stamped on a scalloped circle die cut from Itsy Bitsy.

Until next time ~ Happy Valentine's Day!

You Got Mail

Today's design team card was made using the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and a digi image from Craftin' Desert Divas for their February Release Event.

The image was colored using my Chameleon colored pencils and cut with a circle punch. The red vellum was trimmed with scalloped edge scissors for the layer behind the focal point.

Inside I used 2 more circle punches and a digi sentiment.

The pink glitter washi tape I cut in half using my paper trimmer and adhered to each side. The wrapped thread is just a white and silver crochet thread.

That's it for me today -until next time~

February Planning

How did it get to be the last day of February already?!? I realized just this morning that I don't believe I showed you any of my February planner stuff here on my blog yet...boy, I am slacking! So, to make up for that, here is a bit of how I planned this month:

First I'll share with you the front and the back of the pocket page Dashboard I created using a Simple Stories SNAP page protector and a few cardstock stickers, retired printed papers from Basic Grey and retired stamps from The Angel Company. I added some glimmer by embossing many of my stamped images with gold embossing powder and made some heart diecuts with my monthly Spellbinder's die club kit. Getting the papers trimmed to just the right size for each pocket was super easy by using the Pocket Cuts die set from Fun Stamper's Journey...it even includes the smaller postage edge squares that I used for the layers you see on both sides. Some of the decorative clips were made with stamped images and then felt backed, and some are several different types of ribbon and/or yarn...super cute!

For my monthly spread, I again used stickers from Simple Stories -this time from the Love and Adore sticker pack.

Too many times this month I'd start writing on my pages before taking the pictures, so I don't have them all to share -but here are 3 out of the 4, lol. These were made using some basic stamping in black archival ink, washi tape from ACMoore, more Love and Adore/Simple Stories stickers and Happy Planner stickers from the large sticker value packs that I bought at Michael's and Hobby Lobby.

I will try to do a better job of remembering to take pics before the actual pen goes to the page for the month of March! I usually remember to post them on Instagram first -so if you'd like to stay up to date on my planning, just follow me @create.365 over on IG! (follow the link at the top right of my blog to get there quick and easy)