Here’s the card I made using the new daubers, repeatedly stamping the bird + circle border from this set, and of course sequins. :)

Love how the daubers fit perfectly inside the circles!

Please join us over on the Hero Arts blog in wishing Tami a very happy birthday. She is just the best, really want to make her day! :)

Supplies:

I stamped him on some wood veneer paper that comes in the main card kit, Roundabout. And colored with pencils. Love!

Here are some more balloon stamps, also in the card kit add-on:

The add-on also has some yummy papers, including this woodgrain and distressed grey! And these awesome embellishments called Candi Minis. They are just awesome. The tiny polka dots kill me :)

Ombre paper? Yes, please!

What’s better than sequins? Why these sequin *stamps* in the main card kit! Love. Seriously.

This next stamp *melts* me:

And last but not least, had to break out some mists from the Atlantic collection and play with some cloud paper that’s in the main kit.

Hope you enjoyed the sneaks, and see you on the 27th for the full reveal! xx

And here’s some fun behind-the-scenes facts — the map that is on the card truly has a LOT of miles on it — as does the card, no wonder it has a little bent corner doh!

• First the map got to Big Bend National Park, somehow (unknown where it was printed and how it got there, ha!). Big Bend National park is pretty remote, tho.
• Then we drove it all around the park — the park is HUGE in case you didn’t know…
• Then it went to the Davis Mountains, about an hour and a half drive
• From there it came home with us to Austin, another 8 hours
• Then I made it into a card and sent it to Hero Arts in California for the catalog
• I didn’t have a chance to photo it by itself, so Jackie sent it back to me. (You may have noticed it on page 3 of the Stamp Your Story catalog along with Sally’s mini book! I took that photo when I was doing group shots.)
• After I photo’d it, I sent it back to Hero where it will be used for a display in a show

Wonder where it will go next? Sure wish I had all those miles in frequent flier points, ha! :)

The best thing is that I can easily make this card — or any other card — again since I have a scan of the paper. Yay!

Anyhow, see you over there on the Hero Arts blog!

Supplies:

Join me over at Hero to find out more! xx

Supplies:

First up, a little number I’m giving to J. In case ya can’t read it, the message says “sail away with me” :)

Isn’t the little wooden boat just adorable? :)

I made the waves using the half circle stamp from the Hero Arts Brush Strokes set and tide pool and deep end pool inks. Appropriate names, no? And this set is so versatile — the sky’s the limit as to what you can use it for. Love that.

And another thing I’m really into lately? Sequins. And wood paper. Yep, I said wood paper. Yum.

Studio Calico released a cute little ole anchor punch as part of the collection, and as I was admiring the woodgrain case it hit me — why not try to punch it out of the wood paper? And guess what? Worked great. Isn’t it a happy feeling when things come together like that?

Now for my second card! It uses some of the same elements as the first, but adds in a vellum message and a happy sun!

The sun stamp is appropriately called Yes! And I’ve been looking for an excuse to use it! To get this look, first I stamped it with white pigment ink and then I stamped it again using butter bar. Too cool.

And one last thing before I go — I used the new Mister Huey’s navy , seafoam, and shell that are in the Atlantic collection to make the splatters in the background + a little bit of trusty old white. I love how they look on kraft! Especially the shell. And the navy and seafoam really make me a happy camper — wait no —  make that sailor :)

So what floats your boat lately? I’d love to hear!

Supplies:

And here’s a closeup so you can see the texture in the background better and the feather — I just can’t seem to get enough of it! (It’s from the new Hero Arts My Favorite set – and yep, I think it’s my favorite. ha!)

I did a video right HERE to show how to add the texture. It’s one of my favorite techniques, and works great whether you or doing a card, journaling page — anything. Love how it really adds that extra something without being too overpowering.

See you over at the Hero blog for more! xx

Supplies:

I kept the card on the clean and simple side to focus on the gorgeous rose in the new Remember set.

It has such great texture, don’t you think?

To get this look, I just inked the stem and leaves with a cottage ivy marker, then used worn lipstick on the whole rose and added a little rhubarb stalk to the edges. Misted it with water and that was that!

That “I love you Mom!” stamp from this set is a good one in my opinion, because you can use it all year long. Who needs to wait for Mother’s Day to tell our moms we love them? Not me! :)

My step-mom and my dad just celebrated their 27 year wedding anniversary yesterday — so crazy how time flies by, right? I can still remember the wedding. And the fun we had baking a chess pie together last time I was home for a vist. (And eating  it, yum!)

And, I am so lucky to have a wonderful MIL. I know many people who don’t really like theirs. But me? I am lucky. We share a love of nature, photography, J (of course) and — are you ready for it? — stamping!!!  Check out her blog right here.

I love you, Moms! Wish we we lived closer. Happy, happy Mother’s Day. xx

Supplies:

Hi there, and welcome to my stop on the Hero Arts Stamp Your Story blog hop! You should have arrived here from Shari’s blog, but you can always head back to the start right HERE at Hero Arts.

The new stamps from the Stamp Your Story catalog are all about telling your story — whether you are a cardmaker, a scrapbooker, art journaler — whoever you are. As for me, I’m a cardmaker through and through. But I’ve been keeping nature journals for years. This is where I document hikes with J, prairie trips, plants, birds, butterflies, sightings in our backyard wildlife habitat — and I even do some sketches in them.

I also like to keep a journal of stamp ideas. Things I’ve tried, what worked. What didn’t. Often when I get some new supplies I grab a journal and play around. That’s what I did when I got some of the newly released daubers and stamps. Check it out!

First I made some stripes with the daubers across the top of the page. Love how they turned out, especially how the colors blend together. Then I thought that they went with the shape of a feather, somehow. So I stamped one on there from the My Favorite set and thought it looked good! Next I grabbed my trusty white pen and colored in some of the lines on the feathers.

From here it was easy to make a bunch of cards!

Love how the neon daubers really pop, don’t you? Then I had to make one more, alternating the feathers as I went:

And I couldn’t stop there! Remember the blotches at the bottom of the page? Well, that gave me an idea for a card too:

Love how this turned out! And love how you can make different blotches with the daubers depending on how hard you tap them on the paper. All of the blotches are from the daubers, except for the one under the “hello”, which is a stamp from the Not Perfect set. I did “ink” it with a dauber tho!

Of course, I had to add a few sequins, too. (You know me and sequins lately, ha!)

So that’s six cards, all from one journal page!

Now how about another share? This one uses the flowers from the Remember set — I kinda think they look like California poppies. (Bet you didn’t know that there are California poppies in Texas, did you?)

For this journal page, I actually played around on a scrap of paper and then taped it in the journal after I was done. This can be less intimidating, and it also allows you to do some techniques easier — like this one.  Here I tried daubing the daubers on a craft sheet, misting them with water, and then dragging my paper through it. Turned out so pretty!

I decided that the flower stems looked a little lonely, so I added some leaves with a green marker. Here’s how they look without my leaves :)

I added some centers to the flowers too. Then when I made the cards I just had a add a bird from the My Favorite set! (This set is rapidly becoming my favorite, ha.)

And I came up with two cards using this idea! They are kind of similar, just different sizes. First up, the square one — because it’s hip to be square, right?

Love this “be who you are” so much. It’s so true. (It’s from the My Notebook set.)

And here’s a closeup of the second card:

Eagle eyed readers may notice that the old book text has “Texas” in it. Yep, that’s where I live. :) (It also has Nebraska, where two other artists on the blog hop are from. Do you know who?)

Well, that’s it for me today — thanks so much for joining me.  Now, on with the hop! There ‘s an awesome prize up for grabs, and the winner will be chosen from all the comments on all the blogs in the hop. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win — so you may want to leave a comment here before you click on over to your next stop! That would be the talented Kelly!  I just love her style. Can’t wait to see what she’s made.

Supplies:

On the cover you’ll find a little tag that I made with a stamp that has one of my all time favorite sayings on it:

Our boss and CEO of the company, Aaron, likes to say this. And it’s so true. Whenever I encounter an obstacle, or try and fail at something, I just tell myself “today is a new day”. 24 golden hours, to live and love.

Okay enough deep thoughts, ha ha! Besides the clear set with this sentiment (Not Perfect, page 18), there are so many great stamps in the catalog! Can’t wait to get them and play. There are also new daubers (in 12 colors, including neon), new stencils, and peach and mint inks! Um, yes, please!

More soon, including a blog hop on Friday! Cannot wait.

Feeling a little flat? Join layering expert Jen Jockisch for this sequel to last year’s popular class and learn how to layer your paper and embellishments to add detail, dimension and visual interest to any project. We’ll be kicking off the class with a refresher PDF to discuss ideas shared in the first class, and will follow that up with four PDFs discussing even more concepts in layering. In the end, you’ll have access to 5 PDFs filled with 28 new projects, 2 videos (one from Jen and one from Celine) and oodles of Pop Off The Page tips and tricks.

Jen is joined by a talented group of contributors – they have a diverse range of styles, but they all know how to rock the layers. Becky Novacek, Celine Navarro, Dawn McVey, Debee Campos, Emily Branch, Jill Sprott, Kim Stewart, Lilith Eeckels, Lisa Spangler, Marcy Penner, Patricia Roebuck, Sasha Farina, Shanna Noel, Stephanie Bryan and Stephanie Dagan will each be sharing a project and their own personal layering tips.

While supplies last, students will receive an embellishment kit of layering essentials, including an exclusive stamp set. This kit will ship free to you, no matter where you are! We will update this page when the class kit is sold out. The class also comes with exclusive downloads – printables from In A Creative Bubble and Blinks of Life and die cut files in .svg, .png and .studio from Kinsey Wilson. You can see all of the digital files here.

In addition, you’ll have access to a private message board where you can ask Jen all of your layering questions! Here’s a look at the class syllabus :

May 1 : Layering refresher – layouts from Jen, Marcy, Becky, Lilith and Sasha

May 6 : Layering with mixed media – layouts from Jen, Jill, Celine and Shanna, card from Lisa

May 13 : Layering with paper techniques – layouts from Jen, Patricia, and Kim, card from Dawn, Project Life spread from Stephanie Bryan

May 20 : Layering in other projects – 3 tags from Jen, mini album from Stephanie Dagan, art piece from Debee Campos, 3 cards from Emily

May 27 : Jen’s layering tips and tricks – 4 layouts and 1 card from Jen

I am super honored to be a guest artist for the class — here is a little peek at the mixed media card that I came up with:

Just love these sequins that come in the class kit. There are MORE goodies too, like the “dude” digital file and the words in the background. Just love. :)

Find out more and sign up right HERE — but don’t delay, today is the last day to register!

Hope to see ya there,