Friday, November 24, 2017

Black Friday Sales

Hey everyone!  There are lots of great sales happening, and I just wanted to mention a couple that I am affiliated with

First of all Neat & Tangled, 30% off today, and then the percentages go down as you progress through the weekend.  For me, anything over 20% off is the perfect time to pick up those pricier dies that I am always coveting, but not wanting to pull the trigger on.


And Ellen Hutson, EH is offering 20% off all in stock items through Monday using code celebration17.



Here's a special hint for you:  be sure to check out the Hot Buys and Clearance section.  EH just added a ton of stuff there, and your sale percentage will be on top of the sale/clearance price.  In the Hot Buys section there are some great steals on items up to 50% off.  In clearance, it looks like they are discontinuing the whole Taylored Expressions range, including stamps, dies, felt, etc.  They are also discontinuing a whole bunch of Prima Marketing, think their watercolors, as well as Crafter's Companion Colourblend and Aquablend pencils. I linked a bunch of those items below from the clearance section as well as my favorite buys from the Hot Buys section.  You'll need to be quick as many of these items are down to single digits.  Also, if you need any Copics or refills, they are always 20% off at EH, so you'll get an additional 20% off this weekend. 


And finally, not craft related, but there's a fantastic sale at Woven Pear.  They make the cutest socks.  I'm kind of a Plain Jane when it comes to socks, but these are super cute, and I've taken to giving these as gifts.  They are perfect for stocking stuffers and they are running a buy one get a surprise pair free sale today.  I definitely encourage you to take a look!  This is my referral link.  It is supposed to give you 10% off, not positive it will work during this sale, but it's definitely worth a try:  http://wovenpear.refr.cc/miriamp



Altenew:  There are all sorts of great discounts happening over at Altenew today, including some of the stamping kits and the Recollections scrapbook kit.



Hope you are able to get some names crossed off your Christmas lists!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Ellen Hutson 11th Anniversary Blog Hop


Hi everyone!  I'm excited to be participating in Ellen Hutson's Anniversary blog hop today.  This is a week long blog hop, and we're right smack in the middle on Day 3 right now.  You should be arriving from Laurel Beard's blog, and the entire list is posted over at the Ellen Hutson CLASSroom blog.  Here is a bit about prizes too, because we all LOVE prizes, right:
  • EH is giving away two $100 gift codes to use in the store to two lucky, randomly selected winners! To enter share some comment love at each hop stop on each hop day throughout the week!
  • They are also giving away two $50 gift codes to use in the store to two lucky, randomly selected winners, leave a comment on any or all posts this week!
  • And there might be a few surprise prizes too! So make sure you are following Ellen on Facebook & Instagram!
  • Winners will be selected randomly from posts throughout the week and will be announced on the CLASSroom blog on Monday, November 27th (so enter until 11:59pm PST on Sunday).
Each of the designers was asked to create a card featuring their favorite Ellen Hutson set.  This was a tough choice for me, but I finally settled on Mondo Peony because Mondo + Peony = awesome.


I wanted to try something different for me, so I opted to stamp the peonies on black cardstock and emboss them in gold.  Although there are several flowers in the set, I just used the same one multiple times to create a top and bottom border/frame for my panel.

The flowers were then colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I first colored them in with white and then went back with the colors.  This is the first time I've tried coloring on dark cardstock, and I wanted to make sure the colors really popped, so I went with the white first.  Next time I'll try without and see if it's appreciably different.



The sentiment is from the Plant Ladies Say set and was embossed in gold multiple times to get a more puffy/dimensional look.

Your next stop is my buddy Elena Roussakis.

Happy hopping and for those in the US, have a great Thanksgiving!

*Affiliate Links Below

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Adventure is Calling


I was moving things around the craft room the other day (one of my favorite pastimes) and I came across this panel that I colored during Kathy Racoosin's last 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

I figured I ought to put it to good use.

I didn't want to cover it up after all that work, so I opted for a simple matted sentiment embossed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder.  Both the sentiment and background are from the Topography set.


I still have a couple colored background panels I need to do something with, but first, Christmas cards.....

*Affiliate Links below to Ellen Hutson and in text to Neat & Tangled

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Merry & Bright Bows


Hi all!  I'm continuing on my quest for Christmas cards.....the fact that Thanksgiving is next week has me a bit concerned a the height of my stack....

Today's card features a set I picked up earlier this year, but haven't had a chance to use yet, Holiday Bows from The Ton.  As I've mentioned before, I'm really not great at multi-step stamps, so I'm wary of purchasing them, but this one is definitely on the forgiving side, and I just LOVE how realistic these bows look.  There is so much dimension to them!

I went with a non-traditional color palate using Altenew inks (Rock Collection and Sea Shore sets).  


For the sentiment, I used WPlus9's Be Merry set.  The pop of red from the banner (colored with Copics) really gives it the Christmas feel I think.  Incidentally, this is my go-to red combination, I use it all the time (R22 Light Prawn, R24 Prawn, and R29 Lipstick Red).

That's all for me today...halfway to Friday!  

*Affiliate Links below to Ellen Hutson and in text to Altenew (I linked below to the mini Altenew ink cubes.  I have minis for colors that I use less frequently, but if you can swing it I prefer the ovals which are only available as sets through Altenew)

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Best Wishes


I've got a fast easy card, and an equally short post today.  

This is one of my most favorite and underutilized background style stamps.  It's one of those where the stamp does all the work for you, and who doesn't need some of that in their stash.

For today's card I stamped the background on my panel and then did some coloring using Zig Clean Color Brush Pens.  I wasn't being precise in my coloring, just getting some color in there.  I did do a little bit of color mixing with some of the yellows and greens.


The sentiment is from an older Mama Elephant set 

Super quick and easy!  Hope your week is going well!

*Affiliate Links Below

Monday, November 13, 2017

25 Tags of Christmas


Hi everyone!  Today I'm participating with Neat & Tangled in Tracey McNeely's 25 Tags of Christmas event.  You can read all about the event over on Tracy's blog, there are lots of ways to earn participate and be eligible for prizes from the sponsors, including Neat & Tangled.


I created a set of tags featuring my new Joyful Sentiments set and older Faceted background set.

I used the Classic Tag 1 die as my tag base.  They were cut from watercolor paper and then masked off at the top and bottom with Post It tape.  


The Faceted background was then stamped using WPlus9 Fairy Dust Ink, and each was painted with watercolors, using a different color scheme for each.  


The sentiments were then embossed with different metallic powders, I used Princess Gold for the gold tag, silver for the blue, and then regular gold embossing for the green and pink/purple tag.


I finished things off with some Whisker Graphics twine, natural with gold for the gold embossed tag and plain natural for the silver.



That's all for me  Be sure to head over to Tracey's to check out all the other tags for today and to get the details on how to win!

*Affiliate Links Below to Ellen Hutson and in text to Neat & Tangled