Please Send Coffee and GIVEAWAY

TGIF friends!!!

ok and just to clarify my first favorite F-word is FREE...hahaha!

Okey dokey, down to the wire to get my second card in for 

I was totally having a blast with hopping around and was so happy to see

 Halloween cards (my fave holiday!) so I decided to make one myself!

The background was stamped with the latest Hero Arts Kelly's Coffee and Donuts

For us coffee lovers this set is a must have with such fun sentiments and cute images!

I thought the little Lawn Fawn Franken-boo (colored in copics) 

from the set Booyah, would be perfect for the sentiment

"please send coffee."

The oval was embossed with an embossing folder and

then I used a new-to-me item StazOn Studio Glaze!

It's a pretty cool medium in that it highlights the embossed areas

and gives it a cool glazed/glossy look for a bit of shine.

I just used a palette knife to spread over the entire surface and it dries pretty quickly!

For a bit more color I added on the orange polka dot panel from 

Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka in the Dark and added some 

Lawn Trimmings in Spooky which is a hemp twine with 3 different colors...so fun!!

Here's a closeup...

I totally giggled at this card adding all the little details.

Do you like the little spider on the mug?!

All right folks...that's it for me!  

I would love it if you would follow me here, on Instagram, and/or Flickr

and in return I have a $20 gift code

GIVEAWAY to A2Z Scrapbooking

(one of the sponsors for the Fall Coffee Lover's Blog Hop)

I fully support this store as proceeds go towards 

auto immune disease communities such as

Behcets and Celiac Disease.  

Don't want to wait for the giveaway? 

Go to the store by clicking on the link above

and use code Nicki15 for 15% off your entire order!

Mahalo for stopping by!!

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

and 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Rainbow Aloha

Thanks to the hubby I've been able to get some time in for me to play!

So happy to finally have a day off from work and oncall and

 just be able to spend time in my crafty space. 

It truly is so therapeutic...haha.

I wanted to jump in to the latest Avery Elle Challenge

This was totally my kind of challenge as I realized I don't usually use too much white for 

my card bases.  I do love COLOR and went with this idea that popped in my head...

The Stay Fresh stamp and die set is one of my favorites from Avery Elle!

Super easy to do with die cutting a rainbow of cardstock from some scrap pieces and adhering 

to a black cardbase with multi medium matte glue.  Then I heat embossed the pineapple on 

vellum using Ranger Liquid Platinum powder and adhered with the same glue 

(tip: to keep the glue from showing through, I placed tiny dots 

in places where the stamp lines would cover).
I'm gonna enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge as well:  Make it colorful!

Hope you liked this fun way to use your dies and a non white card base!

Mahalo for stopping by!!

TGIF with A Birthday Cactus

TGIF Friends!

With Lawn Fawn's newest release out, I decided to start looking

at some of the stamps I hadn't played with since the last release.

I'm a HUGE Lawn Fawn fan (if you already didn't know) so to have untouched

Lawn Fawn stamps is sacrilege...LOL!

On to today's card...

I love all the little images from Party Animal and paired them up with
Stuck on You.  The cactus and pot are solid stamps and Lawn Fawn inks are
PERFECT for solid stamps.  I layered the cactus with Celery Stick and Fresh Cut Grass
using the rock n roll technique for a bit of shading.  You can see it better with the
pot using Peacock with Deep Sea on the edges...so pretty!
The little images were colored with copics, die cut and adhered with foam tape on
the die cut stitched oval also from Lawn Fawn.
All the pattern paper is from Lawn Fawn's Sweater Weather collection.
Lastly the sentiment was heat embossed using Hero Arts White Embossing Powder.

Here's a closeup...

Cute right?!
I wanted to join the fun over at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes!

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Shimmery Wedding Congrats

My apologies friends!

I completely spaced the winner for the 

Summer Coffee Lover's Bloghop.

I truly enjoyed hopping around and seeing everyone's coffee inspired projects.

Even more fun was receiving your comments!

They totally made my day!!

So without further ado...

butterfly843 is the lucky winner of the 

Lawn Fawn Scripty Love die!!!

I have contacted her through email.

Again a big MAHALO to everyone that stopped by and left a comment!

On to today's card...

I love the Scripty dies from Lawn Fawn and know that I'll be collecting

every word they come out with...LOL!

I die cut the word twice from the DCWV Glitzy Glitter Matstack and 

again in black to create some shadowing.

The ring was stamped, colored with a silver pen and fussy cut

 from Lawn Fawn's Happily Ever After.

I did a little snip, snip to create the plain wedding band.

The background is a Sizzix Mini Hearts embossing folder.

Tried to keep it simple with all the bling and shimmer.

I'm in love with the Neenah Metallics Cardstock which was found at my

local Wal Mart...can you believe it?!

I'll be entering this in the latest 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything Goes

and using this for inspiration

I went with a Clean and Layered look.

I hope you'll come back on Friday for an exciting blog hop

with the Lawnscaping Challenge!

There's tons of prizes from some great sponsors!!

Mahalo for stopping by!!!

Playing with a NEW tool!

I got this new tool for Mother's Day and could not wait to play!

I've seen a lot of crafters use this tool to create pockets for photos and memorabilia,

but I've also seen it used to make shaker cards!

I LOVE shaker cards, but not fond of the bulk and expense in using a lot of foam tape.

The sewing machine and I don't get along, so stitchwork doesn't work for me.

This tool though...

LOVE!

I took left over plastic packaging

(from the hundreds of stamp packages that seem to accumulate, haha)

I used the We R Memory Keepers nested heart die as a template to run the tool

along the inside of the die to seal the shape.

(don't forget to leave an opening to place sequins and goodies before completely sealing)
In the shaker I used Lawn Fawn's Happy Birthday Border die
and snipped the words apart.  I added some Doodlebug Designs
sequins in Bubblegum and die cut some stars from
Lawn Fawn's Stitched Journaling Card.

I took the larger heart and die cut the shape.

*TIP: I took tweezers and ran it along the edging between the plastic layers
making sure everything was sealed.
I did have a couple of spots that did not seal well, so I just ran the tool again over those spots.

I actually wanted to just pop this on a card, but the hubby said it looked unfinished.

I wanted to enter this in the next
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
so I went with this week's theme colors.

I created a heart window with the smaller heart die
after stamping the background
(with Simons Says Stamp Falling Snow)
 in Hero Arts Shadow Inks in Bubble Gum.
Those sweet images along the bottom is
Simon Says Stamp Baby Party Animals that were copic colored
and fussy cut.  I added some dots to create grounding for the images.

Ok that's it for me!
Hope you're having a great weekend.

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Simon Says Stamp Falling Hearts 4 Ways!

Hello there!

This weekend I played with the latest

Simon Says Stamp Falling Hearts background stamp.

Talk about SUPER versatile!!

Let's get to it shall we...

#1. Get your favorite ink color and get inky

(You can get a little fancy too and create an ombre effect like I did below)

I actually used the Hero Arts Ombre ink Pink to Red

I took it a step further and used the

 Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle die

to create a fun frame for a shaker card!

I used Lawn Fawn's Finley's ABCs die to cut cork letters

and used Lawn Fawn's wood veneer for the "O."

I thought it a little plain so I added my own little banner

from the scrap piece of cork I couldn't bare to throw away!

I stamped it in StazOn from Lawn Fawn's Love 'n Breakfast set.

I just loved the little heart dotted "I."

Found a new challenge to enter
D.L. Art Thankful Thursday Challenge

#2. Create a tone on tone look with colored cardstock and similar colored ink.

I used the Hero Arts Lilac Layering Paper

and inked the background stamp with 

Hero Arts Shadow inks in Grape Juice and Passion Flower.

I had a request from a friend to make a photo shaker card for his wife.

I used Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese polaroid die and cut it out

5 times on 110lb white cardstock, stacked and glued them together.

The photo was glued to the back of the stacked die cuts.

I then cut one more polaroid and added acetate paper, filled with sequins

and glued to the top.

(if there are requests I could make a video! ;o)

Stamped the sentiment and added Lawn Trimmings to complete the look.

Next up...

#3.  White heat emboss and play with watercolors!

After inking up the background stamp with Versamark ink

I sprinkled white embossing powder and heat set.

Then I got out my watercolors!

I'm totally in LOVE with my Gansai Tambi 36 color water set!

It has a beautiful rose gold color that I just swept across the card 

from side to side, putting the heaviest of color at the top.

I wanted the bottom of the card to have a similar shimmer

so I dipped the brush in this pearlescent color...

talk about GORGEOUS!!!

(check out stampnhi on Instagram to see it in action)

I kept it simple by die cutting letters from 

Lawn Fawn's Cole's ABCs

in DCWV Glitter Matstack (my favorite glitter paper of all time!)

This will be entered in Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge too
since it's pretty Clean and Simple.

The sentiment below is from Lawn Fawn's Penelope's Blossoms inked in 

Lawn Fawn's Hippo ink.

Finally...thanks for hanging in there...

#4. Create a scene!

Again I white heat embossed, but this time I wanted the concentration of hearts

towards the bottom so I did a little masking and sort of reverse stamped from bottom

of panel to top, leaving a little space for the sentiment.

The sentiment is Hero Arts/Basic Grey Be Silly and added

"MOM" with Hero Arts CL492 Typewriter Letters.

I thought it matched perfectly!

I actually stamped out the flower from 

Hero Arts Hello Flowers and masked with 

Fineline Masking Fluid before using

distress inks in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.

**Note to self...don't peel the masking fluid right after inking with distress inks

it peeled my paper and I hit myself on the forehead thinking...duh...

let the ink dry first...sheesh!

So to fix it I just restamped the flower using Hero Arts Ombre inks in 

Butter to Orange for the flower and Mint to Green for the leaves,

fussy cut and adhered...can't tell right?!

Versatile right?!

There's so many techniques and designs to create with this fun

background.  I hope it's inspired you!

Ok...

A few days ago (ok about a week ago...sorry)

I had a giveaway

The lucky commenter of some bloggy goodies...

Shawna Standish!

(please e-mail me your address so I can send the goodies!)

Mahalo for stopping by!!

I WHEELIE need more birthday cards!

I am having a blast crafting today!

It's amazing the things you can do when both kids are away!!

Any of you going to be a part of True Stamp 2015 on Saturday?

My entire family knows it's my personal day off to craft to my hearts content.

Today was a bonus!

In my efforts to make more birthday cards, 

I've opted for this Lawn Fawn mini set.

They have a bunch of them perfect for any occasion

and to make quick cards with sweet sentiments!

Let me show and tell one of the cards I made...

Lawn Fawn I Wheelie Like You, Lawn Fawn Sophie's Sentiment, Lawn Fawn year Two,

Lawn Fawn Clark's ABCs, Lawn Fawn Happily Ever After, Hero Arts Ombre ink 

in Pool to Navy, copics, Chickeniddy enamel hearts

I quickly stamped a background in Hero Arts Soft Sand ink

and used Simon Says Stamp Stitched Square for a panel.

The rest was colored, die cut and assembled.

For inspiration I used the latest

CAS(E) this Sketch

and since this also fits the 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge 

of  Anything Goes...I'll link there too!

Again in an effort to make more cards I've decided
to make tags with the same stamp set.
That way I can either quickly pop it on a card
or add it to a gift bag!

I'll be back with more so stay tuned...

MAHALO for stopping by!!

Oh Monday...

Monday...again...

Today's card was made for Amy Tsuruta's friend who 

was newly diagnosed with lung cancer.

I believe she is still collecting encouragement cards if you feel

inclined to make one and send it her way.

I am a strong believer in "support medicine"

as I've seen patients with strong support get through just about anything.

If you follow me on instagram you'll see a lot of my
"work in progress" pics of coloring and layouts, and may have seen
my practice coloring of these beautiful daffodils drawn by thee
talented Sandy Allnock.
She has a EduDigi series that has really improved my coloring!

I created my own window of sorts with a left over piece
from the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle die.
At the last minute I decided to use a stencil to create a background
so I taped/masked the edges and used a Hero Arts Medallion Stencil.
Lastly the sentiment was stamped from Hero Arts Bits and Pieces.

I saw a sweet mood board over at
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
of daffodils so I thought I'd link up.

MAHALO for stopping by!

Masking, Doodling and White Space

I'm so excited that my cards have been a 

hit at work, and love that my coworkers

are now asking for "custom cards."

I was specifically asked for a wedding

card with an aquarium theme 

and not too fussy.

Here's what I came up with...

Lawn Fawn Critters in the Sea, Lawn Fawn Feathered Friends, 

Lawn Fawn Milk and Cookies, Lawn Fawn Hearts die,

Inktense Water Pencils with Dove Blender, Distress Ink in Cracked Psitachio,

Hero Arts India Ink black

I did a little masking and mirror stamping to get the 

sweet girl octopus.  Added some doodled eyelashes

and wedding rings to give a wedding flair.

Here's a closeup...

I really liked their little wedding bands and added a little gemstone 

on the girl!

Do you see that lovely watercolored background?

That is the latest Distress Ink color

Cracked Pistachio!!!

It is GORGEOUS!

With all that white space I'll be entering this in the next

Lawnscaping Challenge 

I also wanted to share a few of my 

Valentine grams that another coworker asked for...

and some closeups...

I've said it before, but I'm in love with the

Simon Says Stamp stitched dies!

The square ones make the perfect candy gram...

on the back will have Ghirardelli chocolates attached!!

This will be entered in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge

Ok thanks for letting me share and

MAHALO for stopping by!!

#10 Gift Card Holders

Oh Monday,

why do you come so quickly!?

We are 3 days away from my 

GIVEAWAY!

Click HERE for details

Do you know what's the best last minute gift?

GIFT CARDS!

What's the best way to give a gift card?

In a handmade gift card holder of course!

I actually give these away as gifts too.

I loved the simplicity and functionality of this

Silhouette GC holder cut

I used heavy card stock for it to really hold its shape

and a strong adhesive...

Please excuse the poor photos, but I quickly took them

before giving them away!

I love that you can put anything on the front and even emboss the flap

for a fun, but subtle background.

(Left: Uses Dandelion Designs and Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You

Middle: Uses Sizzlit Poinsettia die with washi tape and sequins

Right: Uses Lawn Fawn Love You a Latte)

And purple ones for my coworker...

using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Snowflakes die and a rhinestone embellishment.

The polar bear is from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Snow

I'm going to quickly add these to 

the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Winter!

Much MAHALO for following me daily for a dose of 

Holiday inspiration!!

Day #4 Happy HONUdays

I've got a punny card for you today...

hopefully it'll give you a good chuckle to start your week off right.

 Don't forget I'm having a big giveaway by Christmas so be sure to comment 

on each of my Holiday Inspiration card posts found

HERE, HERE and HERE

The Hawaiian name for a sea turtle is Honu (ho-noo).

I recently purchased some sweet dies in the shape of a honu 

and couldn't believe Spellbinders had such a thing!

Again going for the less traditional Christmas card,

I turned the die cuts into a wreath and added some sequins for fun.

Spellbinders Turtles One, Avery Elle Berry Blend Sequins, Memory Box Tiny Bow die,

Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs die, Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts, gold embossing powder

I'll be entering this in Simon Says Stamp 

Wednesday Challenge: Bling It On

 

Because I was so in love with the punny sentiment I decided to make

a second card...

 

This time using a Memory Box die Turtle Borders with pattern paper from

Sierra Pacific Crafts A Merry Christmas and white embossing powder.

I was thinking these were more gender neutral cards for the holidays.

Mahalo for stopping by 

and I hope you'll be back for tomorrow's card!

HINT: you'll be in for a real (zero calorie) treat.

Day #2 of Holiday Card Inspiration

I'm back for more holiday inspired cards!

I've been thrilled to see the turnout with the 

Holiday Coffee Lover's Blog Hop 

and can't thank you enough for leaving such sweet comments. 

 If you haven't had a chance

 stop by HERE

and by December 20th I'm randomly giving 

away a $20 gift certificate to one lucky commenter.

On to today's card...

Lawn Fawn Happy Trails, Lawn Fawn Sally's ABCs, Lawn Fawn FaLaLa paper,

Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling die

 I thought I'd pay tribute to all those traveling 

and blessed enough to spend the holidays with loved ones.

Everything is paper pieced and those presents are actually from 

birthday tags and winter gifts.

The challenge theme over 
at Simon Says Stamps is Transportation 
so I'll be linking this up there!

If you're traveling this season,

I wish you all safe travels!

I'll be back with more holiday inspired cards tomorrow.

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Fun Card Swap!

My sweet and fun Kitty Bee Designs teammate Shirl of Creations by Shirl had a fun idea of doing a Christmas card swap!  We were randomly paired up and I was paired with Shirl.  She totally spoiled me with more than a card, but lets take a look at her creation...

Cute right?!  That Kitty Bee Designs stamp can be found HERE.  I love all her die cut pieces for embellishments and of course the glitter!  MAHALO Shirl for this sweet card!  And this is how she spoiled me...

I can't wait to have time to play with them!

Curious on the card I sent?!  This is the card given to Shirl...

I had to use that sweet Kitty Bee Designs Christmas owl... added some Lawn Fawn paper with a Avery Elle die cut bell for fun!  It's hard to see but stickles was used for the hat trim and holly.

I'm quickly going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes since it has some Lawn Fawn paper!

Mahalo for stopping by!!

Mummies in 1 hour!

My daughter has choir practice every Saturday morning and Friday night, after a 12 hour shift at work, she tells me that she wants to pass out Halloween goodies to her choir.  After a big *inner sigh* the wheels start turning.  This year I haven't gone crazy over the Halloween candy (I've been a bit turned off by the prices in some of the stores) so in looking at the kids' snack stash for school, I found enough of those cookie and cracker variety packs...gotta love Costco!  Now what to do for packaging?  The hubby came up with the idea of mummies and wrapping them.  Of course I was not into using my precious white cardstock, so instead we used left over crepe paper!  Totally quick and easy.  The kids started wrapping and inking for a "dirty" look.  I had them place their googly eyes and draw in a little mouth. VOILA!  Treats for everyone in under an hour!!

I'm gonna try my luck and enter the SSS Monday Challenge: Anything Goes.

I'll be back to post more soon...I hope!

Made My Own Background

I've not had much time lately to make things worthy of posting...boo...

But I thought I'd share a card that didn't make it into the publishing category.  Remember the call for Scandinavian Folk Art from Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking?  I'm not Scandinavian by any means, but I remember growing up with my mom's cupboards full of dishware that had these sweet little images and pretty patterns in avocado green and mustard yellows.  Those were the good ol' days with delicious home cooked meals in them!

On to my card...

Lawn Fawn Peace, Joy, Love, Lawn Fawn Harvest Season, Hero Arts Shadow Inks
Avery Elle Custom Panels Die

So I made my design super colorful...cause you know that's how I roll!

I thought why not enter this in Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Make Your Own Background.

All righty gang...have a great week and I hope to be back again soon!!

Mahalo for stopping by!!!

Seeing Stars

I'm back with a fun card I created using some scrap pieces left over from a card I entered for publication over at Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking.  Wondering why I try out for publication?  Scroll to the bottom of this post HERE.  Crossing my fingers and toes!

This card is going to my supervisor for her birthday.  I'm super blessed that I have an amazing supervisor to work with.  A while ago I came across this picture...

This simple picture describes my supervisor very well...the bottom is exactly how I've seen my supervisor in the 8 years that I've worked with her.  She has always led by example and never expects us to do more than she does. In the nursing field this can be pretty rare!

Back to my card...

The stars are die cut using Lawn Fawn's Puffy Star Stackables cut from the Let's Polka 6x6 pad.  I kinda just scattered them on the card and glued or foam taped the die cut pieces.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Birthday Tags that was heat embossed in silver to enter in the Creative Card Crew Challenge: Wet or Dry Emboss.  The card seemed a little too white so I added some stamped stars in silver...I wish you could see the shine!  The inside of the card's edges were swiped with some Audrey Blue ink from Simon Says Stamp to tie in the blue star on the front and it is my supervisor's favorite color.  I thought the colors were bright and summery so I'll be entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

That's it for me.  Mahalo for stopping by!

Birthday Balloons...a gender neutral card

I always seem to need a birthday card that's either reeeeally general or at least gender neutral.  You can't go wrong with balloons right?  I recently purchased this awesome Echo Park paper pad "For the Record 2" (on sale over at Butterfly Reflections Ink) and it had some awesome blues, teals and yellows...talk about fabulous color combo!

Here it is...

Aveyr Elle Simply Said Happy Die, Avery Elle Storybook, Avery Elle Handwritten Notes,

Echo Park For the Record 2 paper pad, copics, glossy accents, Memento ink in Tuxedo Black

I'm loving that Avery Elle word die!  I was a little worried about how thin and tall it was, but it really is just a fun font! I die cut the word again in black to give a bit of shadow because the blue pattern paper didn't pop as much as I wanted it too against the yellow background.  I added glossy accents for fun to the balloons to enter in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Let's Be Clear

I was inspired by the recent CAS(E) this Sketch following this...

and since I used a word die will also enter the Moxie Fab World Challenge : Wonderful Words Challenge

Until next time...mahalo for stopping by!

Woo hoo...another card!

Making this short as I realized I only have 2 more hours to enter the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Stencil It!

The card...

Hero Arts Bubble Confetti Stencil, Hero Arts Live Life, 

Shadow inks in Pool, Tide Pool and Stone Wash

Hero Hues ink in Unicorn, Lawn Fawn Into the Woods pattern paper, 

white embossing powder

I was going for the bokeh effect for the next A Blog Named Hero Challenge as well.  Started with the Unicorn ink and then slightly moved the stencil for the ombre effect of inks.  The panel is foam taped to the card front for dimension.

It feels good to start up card making again!  Mahalo for stopping by!!