A Good Heart

I'm up on The Ton blog today with this sweet card. Go check it out for details and leave some love. Thank you for the love!

Linking to the following challenges: 

Virginia's View Challenge #15: Ombre/Monochromatic

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Happy Birthday

Hello there! Yes, it's my birthday today, but I'm also featuring a birthday card on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog today. Please visit for details on how I created this cute shaker card featuring the new Avery Elle Swim Team. :-)

Remember my giveaway for The Ton's I Got You set ends the night of June 15th and my Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop blog candy giveaway ends the night of June 12th. Leave comments for your chances to win! Also, I am giving away Mama Elephant's Photobomb stamp set on my Instagram account. :-) Thanks for visiting!

The Ton's Third Release: Day 4

Welcome to day 4 of The Ton's third release. Today, we are showing cards featuring Heart Diamonds. Check out their blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a stamp set of your choice! Stop by other Design Team members Jessica and Mayline's blogs for details on their cards! :-)

I created four cards with Heart Diamonds. I love that it's a versatile stamp set that can be stamped with ink pads in layers, heat embossed for dimension, or stamped with the outline and colored with any medium. The first three cards show how I used the outline heart stamps and watercolored with distress inks. The last card features a very CAS design and shows how beautiful it looks stamped in layers. The sentiments in this set are some of my favorite! 

I created a lot of really 'happy' backgrounds using blending tools and distress inks and Mama Elephant pigment inks. I picked random colors just to see where it would take me. For some of them, I added splatters of water, sprays of gold, black, or white inks, and then some shimmer mist. Some were colored completely and others were partially colored. My embossing paste has been sitting and collecting dust so I took it out for these cards... before I put the cards together, I stamped several of the heart outline stamps on watercolor paper and heat embossed them in clear. I colored them with distress ink markers and added some water to lighten the color in some areas. Then I fussy cut them all out. 

I added drops of different colored Distress Ink reinkers on my embossing paste on my kraft sheet to create these textured colors for the card. I used a Tim Holtz stencil for this card. It's hard to tell in the photo, but I used three colors... a yellow, an orange, and I tried to create pink but got a pretty dark one because I ended up adding too many drops of the reinker. Oh well :) 

I stamped the "fabulous knows fabulous" on black cardstock with VersaMark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. This sentiment is from a set we'll be showing you tomorrow! I added a strip of white cardstock behind it to bring out more of the white of the sentiment. I trimmed down the card on both sides so I could add black strips. I arranged some of the colored hearts to the card and stuck them down with foam tape.

For my next card, I used less colors. ;-) 

This time, I used my metallic gold embossing paste. Why have I not used this yet???? It's GORGEOUS, especially paired with this beautiful soft color. This card was much simpler. I had colored the background with Mama Elephant pigment ink and added white and shimmer spray to it. Then I used the same stencil and added the embossing paste in a diagonal manner. The sentiment is from the Pyrotechnics stamp set that we showed you yesterday. I stamped it on white cardstock with VersaMark and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. I fussy cut around it and added it with foam tape. I see to use a lot of foam tape... I love dimension! 

I added foam tape behind three matching heart outlines and arranged them over the embossed part. Once I knew where I wanted them, I added some gold thread behind them and pressed them down. I don't know if you can tell in this image below but I added some Zig Wink of Stella Clear Glitter to the hearts. You can also see the shine of the metallic gold embossed circles. 

For my third card, I thought of doing a shaker card, but I still used some embossing paste and inky background. I only used WPlus9's Lake House Spray Mist and added white embossing paste using another stencil. I thought the Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale #11 Die was rather unique to use here... it's more than just luggage tag, right?! I die-cut the pieces out using black cardstock and filled it with some of the heart outlines that I fussy cut earlier. I glued some down inside so all the pieces didn't fall to the bottom. I added pink and white twine to it and taped it down at an angle. The sentiment "you were a good find" was stamped on white cardstock with VersaMark and heat embossed with teal embossing powder. I fussy cut it and added it below the tag. The sentiment will be in a set we'll debut tomorrow. 

Here's a closer look at the tag contents. I love how this sentiment goes really well with the heart diamonds or any of our earlier diamond sets! 

My last card is really clean and simple! I love colors, but I try to create really different designs with all my cards. This was so easy to make, I could mass produce them. There are so many layer stamps out and finding the right colors for those layers has been a pain. I've got a lot of ink pads and experimented with various colors, but last week I discovered that I could use my Hero Arts Ombre Ink pads for layered stamps! Doh! So that's what I used here for the hearts below. Don't they look gorgeous? Don't need to search for different combinations now! I mean, you can still do that... lol. I stamped four of the hearts with all three layers in the various Hero Arts Ombre Ink pads and added the sentiment above in black dye ink. I taped it over black cardstock to give it a beautiful contrast. 

Here is a closer look at the hearts. I didn't stamp them perfectly but I think they came out great regardless. :)

I hope you enjoyed our design team's inspiration today. We love hearing what you have to say about the new release and our cards.

Come back every day this week and leave a comment on The Ton's blog posts for your chance to win a stamp set from the new release! Thanks for visiting! ♥ ♥ ♥

Linking to the following challenges: 

Virginia's View Challenge #15: Ombre/Monochromatic

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

The Ton's Third Release: Day 3

Welcome to day 3 of The Ton's third release. Today, we are showing cards featuring Pyrotechnics. Check out their blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a stamp set of your choice! Stop by other Design Team members Jessica and Mayline's blogs for details on their cards! :-)

When I saw this set for the first time, I thought of fireworks over skylines and how they reflect in the water. I tried to do some watercoloring and heat embossing... and I think this is fine for a first-timer. I will keep trying until I get it to look more like those skyline photos! Lol. 

I used some distress inks to watercolor the sky, water, and buildings. I waited for it to completely dry before I stamped the firework combinations in VersaMark and heat embossed in various colors. The reflection parts were a little messy and handdrawn with a VersaMarker and heat embossed with matching colors. I wonder if I should have used lighter colors? The sentiment was stamped on white cardstock and heat embossed with black embossing powder. I added a flag banner cut and added it to the piece with foam tape. The whole piece was then taped onto black cardstock and then white cardstock outlines. 

Come back every day this week and leave a comment on The Ton's blog posts for your chance to win a stamp set from the new release! Thanks for visiting! ♥ ♥ ♥

Linking to the following challenges: 

Virginia's View Challenge #15: Ombre/Monochromatic

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Relax

If you're looking for The Ton's new release posts, go to day 1 post or day 2 post. I am also on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog today with another Lawn Fawn scene! I tried watercoloring objects for the first time! I mean, I tried it before and it was kind of a fail so I didn't even show anyone... but thanks to a friend's suggestions, I changed the brushes I was using. And I'm so having so much fun now! This stamp set is pretty basic for a beach scene. I think using Copic markers would have been great, but I wanted to give watercoloring with distress inks a try. This took me a while since I'm so new to it... hope you like it! Please be gentle! ;-) Go to their blog to check for details on how this came together. 

First, I used a unique size. I saw these watercolor cards 4x9 on an art website and thought they would be cool to use. The size is great for a beach scene, don't you think?! So I started with stamping the sand outline first in Antique Linen and then some waves in the back in Salty Ocean. I used the same inks to color in sand and water. I came in with Vintage Photo to add some shadowing to the sand. I used Mermaid Lagoon to add some shadowing to the waves. For the sun in the back, I used Fired Brick, Ripe Persimmon, Mustard Seed, and Squeezed Lemonade. Using Antique Linen again, I stamped a bunch of the images from the set onto a separate watercolor sheet. I watercolored with various Distress Ink markers. Once they were all colored, I die-cut them and arranged them over the sand. I stamped some of the bird outlines in the back and stamped the sentiments "relax" and "life is good." I added in the periods with a black marker.

Linking to the following challenges: 

Lawnscaping Challenge No. 107

Virginia's View Challenge #15: Ombre/Monochromatic

The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

The Ton's Third Release: Day 1

Hello! The week is finally here for The Ton's third release debut. We have LOTS of goodies for you this week. Stop by their blog today to see day one's reveal of three stamp sets and all the cards we made using those sets. We hope you'll be inspired by our creativity! Stop by other Design Team members Jessica and Mayline's blogs for details on their cards! :-)

Here's a quick look at my cards, but be sure to check out what the other ladies made. I used the Zig Clean Color Brushes for these watercolored backgrounds. All sequins can be found at The Ton. By the way, we are launching more couture mixes! More details can be found on their blog!

I co-designed these sentiment sets with Effie. Aren't they fabulous? These are PERFECT for uplifting and encouraging your loved ones. Knowing me, you know I'll be making a set of cards for sure! Lots of sets! ;-) 

Come back every day this week and leave a comment on The Ton's blog posts for your chance to win a stamp set from the new release! Thanks for visiting! ♥ ♥ ♥

Linking this to the following challenge:
Virginia's View Challenge #15: Ombre/Monochromatic

Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness

Hello and welcome to the Light It Up Blue For Autism Awareness Blog Hop! As a social worker, I knew that I had to join in on raising awareness for autism. 

 

Autism Speaks shares a lot of information about autism. You can register on their website to officially participate in shining a light on autism! 

According to Autism Society:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability; signs typically appear during early childhood and affect a person’s ability to communicate, and interact with others. ASD is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a “spectrum condition” that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. There is no known single cause of autism, but increased awareness and early diagnosis and intervention and access to appropriate services/supports lead to significantly improved outcomes. Some of the behaviors associated with autism include delayed learning of language; difficulty making eye contact or holding a conversation; difficulty with executive functioning, which relates to reasoning and planning; narrow, intense interests; poor motor skills’ and sensory sensitivities. Again, a person on the spectrum might follow many of these behaviors or just a few, or many others besides. The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is applied based on analysis of all behaviors and their severity.

In March 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued their ADDM autism prevalence report. The report concluded that the prevalence of autism had risen to 1 in every 68 births in the United States – nearly twice as great as the 2004 rate of 1 in 125 – and almost 1 in 54 boys. The spotlight shining on autism as a result has opened opportunities for the nation to consider how to serve families facing a lifetime of supports for their children. In June 2014, researchers estimated the lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism is as great as $2.4 million. The Autism Society estimates that the United States is facing almost $90 billion annually in costs for autism. (This figure includes research, insurance costs and non-covered expenses, Medicaid waivers for autism, educational spending, housing, transportation, employment, related therapeutic services and caregiver costs.)

Know the signs: Early identification can change lives

Autism is treatable. Children do not “outgrow” autism, but studies show that early diagnosis and intervention lead to significantly improved outcomes. For more information on developmental milestones, visit the CDC’s “Know the Signs. Act Early” site.

Here are some signs to look for in the children in your life:

• Lack of or delay in spoken language
• Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms (e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
• Little or no eye contact
• Lack of interest in peer relationships
• Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
• Persistent fixation on parts of objects

© Autism Speaks

We have so many fantastic sponsors that have shown their support for Autism Awareness and you can see the complete list here. If you would like a chance to win a prize from one of these fabulous companies, leave a comment on this blog and any of the other blogs participating in today's hop! Winners will be chosen at random and will be announced on Monday, April 6. Now here is the card I created for today's hop! 

I created a cute layered card with Panda Can't Even and Building Blocks. 

Since I have a lot of pattern paper, I felt that I could use a few of them and this actually came together quite accidentally. Many things in my scrap bin are die-cut pieces, like the cloud and circles. The panda was stamped in Hero Arts black dye ink and then stamped again in Versamark and heat embossed with Hero Arts clear embossing powder for a glossy look. The labels were die-cut from the Building Blocks dies. I took "omg" from Panda Can't Even and "you're amazing just the way you are" from Building Blocks. The heart was from the panda set. My finishing touch included Smarty Pants and Lemon Chiffon sequins from The Ton.  

Thanks for visiting! Remember, you have until Friday night to comment on The Ton's Blog Hop & Bauble Giveaway!!

Linking this to the following challenge:
Virginia's View Challenge #14: Layers and Dimensions
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Pastel 

Love Songs + Winners

As you may already know, I'm busy with school. I squeezed in the time to make some love-you cards. It's such a great feeling when others like your work enough to want to buy it. A huge thank you to those who understand the value of a handmade card and also get me enough to know that I totally undercharge for my cards ❤

This adorable card has already been given away :-) Sometimes I come back to older stamp sets - they don't go out of style for me. 

It wasn't too hard to make. I just want to add in that eventually I have lots of plans for my blog, which includes a whole new domain and look for the site, more detailed entries with step-by-step instructions on how I created my cards, and a weekly series. It's hard right now with school but I hope you stick around long enough to watch where I take my work :-) 

The winner for my personal giveaway has already been contacted. Using random.org, the winner was Barb Macaskill. Congratulations!

The winner for the Blog Hop, Skip and Jump sponsored by The Ton has been announced on their blog. Thanks so much to everyone who participated and shared with friends. We truly appreciate your support! 

Linking this to the following challenge:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: H is for hearts!
7KidsCollegeFund Challenge: Anything Goes
Virginia's View Challenge #12: Shaker Cards

The Ton Stamps Blog Hop, Skip and Jump

Welcome to the third and final stop for our first Blog Hop, Skip and Jump and Bauble Giveaway sponsored by The Ton. The first stop was at the The Season and the second stop was at Effie's blog.

I am introducing two sets today: Round Diamonds and Vintage Frames.

Round Diamonds was such a fun set to play with! We have a few tips on the site on how to layer the gems so you can get the desired results. In this card, I tried to keep it a little clean and simple. I love using color with black. You can't really see it in the picture but I added clear embossing powder for one of the layers so that it can add some texture to the gems. It looks so cool!

For my second card using the same set, I decided to use the large outline stamp to create this colorful background. I heat embossed different sizes in white and added color using the Gansai Tambi watercolors. These colors are so rich - love how they turned out. I heat embossed the sentiment on vellum.

This next card, I used Vintage Frames and created a background with one of the frames in a soft gray color. I used the heart from the set and heat embossed it in red on the top layer. The shaker card features some beautiful heart confetti. The sentiment is from Shoe Wardrobe Lined.

Here's another simple card I made using Vintage Frames. I heat embossed a frame and sentiment in gold on black cardstock and added some fun layers in the back, including a touch of cotton, gold thread, and sequins! These frames are one of a kind and make for great focal points. With some masking, one can even frame anything inside. :)

I decided to add in one more card, featuring a set I introduced last week: Shoe Wardrobe Filled. This one is quite simple, too.

Check out my design team posts from last week, featuring Shoes Wardrobe, Sketchy Menagerie, and planner set Scheduled! I also have a personal giveaway in celebration of six months of crafting.

All the sequins featured are from The Ton!

GIVEAWAY PRIZE: Remember, for The Ton Stamps Blog Hop, Skip, and Jump, one lucky winner will win a stamp set of their choice, our four exclusive couture mixes of fabulous sequins, and one bauble. For the bauble, we are giving away one fabulous statement necklace!

Here are the details of the Blog Hop, Skip and Jump:

Who:
– Our shop blog, The Season, will be the first stop in the blog hop;
– Next up, skip on over to the founder’s blog, Effie over at Stamper, Esq., and
– Last but not least, jump over to the last stop over to our fabulous design team member, Ruby, at A Rare Ruby (you are here).

What:
To qualify to enter into our giveaway, you must:

– Leave a comment on each blog telling us which stamp set from our first release is your favorite and which card from the blog you’re visiting is your favorite;
– Follow @TheTonStamps on Instagram or Like our page on Facebook and post a comment on our wall.

*Optional: Follow Effie (@happieffie) and Ruby (@rubznaz) on Instagram; Follow @TheTonStamps on Pinterest and Twitter.

– The winner of our giveaway will be chosen randomly and will be announced on Saturday, February 7, 2015.The winner will have 48 hours to contact us.

Thank you for hopping along and please share with friends!

**Please excuse the quality of the pictures. It's gloomy and rainy here, and there's no battery for my lightbox. Stay warm!

Linking to the following challenge: 
Virginia's View Challenge #12: Shaker Cards