Thinking of You Stencil Ink Blending

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for visiting me today. I hope you're all doing well this morning. We are in our last week of school here, so the kiddos are just trying to make it to the finish line!

For today's card, I decided to use the scraps of paper that were left over from the Standup Post It Note Holder I shared last week. I haven't used any stencils in a while, so I got out my Abstract Petals from MFT and did some ink blending. I used Rosie Cheeks, Hot Mama, Soft Navy and Cloudy Sky inks from Simon Says Stamp. I added texture to the card with the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder on the panels behind the image.

I wanted the focus to be on the stenciled image, so I just added a simple "Thinking of You" sentiment at the bottom. The stamp is from Hero Arts Hello Set. I also stamped the small hearts from the set and covered them with Wink of Stella clear glitter pen and some Glossy Accents. I added drops of  Diamond stickles to the centers of the petals in the image panel. Finally, I added some faux
white stitching lines with my Signo White Pen.

That is all for me today. I have decided to provide the links to the products I used in making today's card. It's been a while since I've done this; but I hope it helps you if you are interested in purchasing these products.

Have a great day and I will see you again tomorrow!

Challenges:
Artistic Inspirations: Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies: Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread:Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
Crafting by Designs: Anything Goes
Crafty Creations: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Ocean Tide card stock: PTI	Enchanted Evening: PTI	Melon Berry: PTI	PTI Berry Sorbet
Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets	*Martha Stewart MINI SCORING BOARD Score Craft Tool 42-05013 New 2012	Swiss Dots Embossing Folder Provo Craft	Scalloped Sentiment Border Punch Fiskars
Fiskars SureCut Personal 12 SCBK	RESERVE MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit mistimini	My Favorite Things MIX-ables Stencil, 6 by 6-Inch, Abstract Petals	Hero Arts Hello and Die Set
Simon Says Stamp Cloudy Sky	Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink Pad SOFT NAVY Blue Ink021	Simon Says Stamp Rosie Cheeks	Simon Says Stamp Hot Mama
Diamond Stickles: Ranger Industries	Wink of Stella Clear	Uni-Ball Pen Signo Gel WHITE UM-153	Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents Precision Tip, 2-Ounce

InLinkz.com

Zentangle Circles and Squares

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your holiday! I have something a little different to share with you today. While I am an avid paper crafter and card maker, I also enjoy other forms of creativity as well. One of my favorite things to do is to create pages with intricate designs sometimes in color and sometimes all in black and white. Now, I think this is referred to as "Zentangle" but I'm a little hesitant to call it that because I'm not sure that's exactly what it is. Still, it sounds better than "doodle art" so, we'll stick with "Zentangle"
I have quite the collection of these that I want to share with you; but I thought I would just start with these two for now.
For this first one, I drew a whole page of interlocking circles on a piece of plain white paper. Normally, I use grid paper but when I work with the circles, I like the blank paper better.  I then set out to fill each circle with "doodles" When you look at it, there doesn't appear to be a pattern; but when I was doing it there was, and that is what I love about it!

For this second one I decided to do squares in a variety of sizes and to fill them all in. Sometimes the pattern lies in the design, and sometimes it lies in the color pattern. It's probably best to point out that when I make these, I actually do them in "portrait" mode; but they photograph better in "Landscape" mode. So this design went black, color, black, color etc.

One other quick note before I go, maybe you've noticed a few subtle changes to the blog? There's more to come....stay tuned!

Hope your day is great!

Coffee House Sunday

Hi Everyone!

I hope you had a great week and are enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend. If you're new to Coffeehouse Sunday, welcome! This is a weekly post that I do in which I link to the interesting articles, stories and recipes I've come across in the past week. I try not to post articles and links about all the things that are "major" news events (i.e. Trump and the Russia situation, the Manchester bombings etc) I figure people are well aware of these more prominent stories. This post is designed for more of the "tucked away" stories of the week. It's a great post to just curl up with your coffee on a Sunday morning, relax and wander through the deep passages of the interweb!

•  Speaking of Coffee, do you REALLY know the differences between all those Starbucks coffee drinks?

• It's Memorial Day Weekend, which means there's probably lots of great food for you to eat and enjoy; but are you really hungry?

• If you're hosting a cookout or attending one this weekend, don't underestimate the importance of a crowd pleasing side dish! 

• After you've eaten and enjoyed your fill of great food this weekend, you may experience some food guilt. On your way home from the gym Tuesday, stop by Trader Joe's and pick you up some of these mini avocados!

• This article discussing how Adrian Berlinger decided to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen, made me want to rethink what I'm doing with my life and more importantly my gym routine!

• Raising our kids to be kind, generous and compassionate is so much better than toughening them up for "the real world"

• The residents on this street are all in trouble for being anti social because they let their kids play outside. Confused? Me too...

• Brace yourselves parents...Summer vacation is coming!

I hope your Sunday is great!

Stand Up Post it Note Holder

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back and TGIF, we made it!!  A couple of weeks ago I posted some teacher appreciation gifts.  When I did I bought post it notes and had extras left over so I decided to make another one of these standing post it note holders just for myself to put on my craft desk. Just to review, you can find the tutorial for this project at Song of My Heart 

I've also created a new Pinterest Board featuring non card handmade paper crafts. I would love to have a few people collaborate and add to the board as well. If you are interested in being a contributor for this board, send me an email at jdshelton3@yahoo.com

I've included a couple of extra pictures so you can see the different angles and what it looks like with a pen and the post it note holder in it.

Have a great day and enjoy your weekend! I'll see you Sunday for "Coffee House Sunday"

Supplies:
Paper: SU Cameo Coral (Ret) PTI Enchanted Evening, Melon Berry, Ocean Tides
Ink: SSS Soft Navy
Stamps: Hero Arts Everyday Sentiments
Extras: Stickles, Fiskars edge punch, White Gel Pen, White Ribbon

Challenges:

1. Crafting with An Attitude: Anything Goes  (3rd Entry)
2. Crafty Girls Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
3. Jo's Scrap Shack: Anything Goes
4. Through the Purple Haze: Anything Goes
5. Crafting for the Craic: Anything  Goes (2nd Entry)
6. Crafting with friends : Anything Goes
7. Crafting Fingers: Anything Goes
8. Making Memories Crafting: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)
9. Polkadoodles: Anything Goes
10. Simply Papercraft: Anything Goes

Stars and Hearts Birthday

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I'm a little late this morning with today's card. I'm going to take a moment here to digress from the regularly scheduled program and just have a little chat about blogging for a moment. I would just like to know if there are any of you out there who are running blogs (crafting blogs or otherwise) who are struggling as much as I am with website traffic?! Because apparently Blogger Stats are just plain out and out wrong (which sucked the wind right out of my sails....) and according to Google Analytics NOBODY is visiting my blog, which means I'm pretty much talking to myself right now.. This is a real struggle for me to the point where I'm finding myself faced YET AGAIN with the decision of whether or not to continue blogging. I could go on and on; but for now I'd just like to know if there are others out there who are struggling as well? What can we do to help each other?! Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

For now, we'll just keep plugging along with today's card. I made a simple birthday card...yes, I know...another one! By now, I'm sure you've seen the card and are ready to move on with the rest of your day, so I'm going to skip the description and design notes and just give you a quick "recipe" breakdown:

Paper: SSS Black, PTI Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: Hero Arts "Year Round" 
Sentiment: K & Co Stickers
Ink: Distress Ink Fired Brick
Diecuts: SSS Wafer thin circle dies, Spellbinders Nestablilites Petite scalloped circles
Extras: Signo White Gel pen, silver stickles, Wink of Stella clear glitter pen 



Have a great day and I will be back again on Friday!

Challenges:

1. Crafty Creations: Anything Goes
2. Creative Moments: Anything Goes
3. Inspiration Destination: Anything Goes
4. Modsquad Challenges:  Birthday.

True Friend Blessings

Hi Everyone.

Glad to see you all back again today. I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was busy on Saturday. The hubby and I went on a lunch date and to see the new King Arthur movie, which we both thought was fabulous! Don't listen to the nay sayer critics and reviews. Go see it if you get a chance!

Ok, so on to the card for today. I used Verve's Up Up and Away stamp set. I stamped the balloon in black ink and then colored it in with Copic markers. I don't have a huge selection of Copic Markers so I couldn't match the pink exactly the way I wanted for the balloon. I ended up using R35 for it and added some white gel pen dots. For the trim on the basket, I used YG91 and for the basket I used B00. The sentiment is from a set of sticker quotes from K and Company that I've had for years. For paper I used Simon Says Black for the base and then Hibiscus Burst, Spring Moss and Aqua Mist from PTI. I added some texture with an embossing folder as well as some silver stickles around the outer edge of the aqua circle.
That is all for me today. Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll see you again on Wednesday.

Challenges:

1. Always Fun Challenges: Anything Goes
2. Artistic Inspirations: Anything Goes
3. Crafting from the Heart: Anything Goes

Coffee House Sunday

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for visiting with me today! I hope you're all having a good weekend so far. Welcome to Coffee House Sunday. Grab your coffee and let's see what I found around the interwebz this week.

• Are you a Top Chef fan? Me too! Here's a few behind the scenes secrets from Tom. 

• Finally the answer to your burning question about whether or not you should refrigerate ketchup

• Be on the look out for those nasty little Seed Ticks this summer.

• I have a low level Gluten allergy so I tried going gluten free for a while; but I was gaining weight like crazy! Apparently this is a Common Weight Loss Mistake 

• This Peach Crunch Cake will also probably be a weight loss mistake; but one I think I'm just going to have to make VERY soon! 

• This Pizza Delivery Guy wins the "You the MAN" award this week!

• Luxury stroller stolen at Disney World, not shocking... Selling it on Facebook....Say whaaatt??

• In the "things that make you go hmmmm.." category this week we have the Starburst Wrappers Dress

• Don't worry, just write a story and be happy! 

• There is a Rat Cafe in San Francisco...with REAL Rats! I am not even joking, people. I'll wait a moment for you to absorb that....

• I still can't watch Robin Williams without feeling contradictory feelings of sadness and laughter; but I am glad he helped his daughter Zelda understand and become an advocate for Mental Illness 

• I don't fly very often; but when I do, I must admit there's always a point at which I wonder How is this plane actually flying?

• This story about a malnourished baby who died just makes me sad. FEED your babies, people! 

• And just like that the KFC 11 Herbs and Spices are secret no more.

• Sure your family may annoy you at times; but don't underestimate the value of spending time together as a family.

• Finally, we'll end this week with this heartwarming story about the dad and the stepdad walking their daughter down the aisle. I mean...COME ON! All the feels, people...

I hope your Sunday is great!

Flowers and Buttons Birthday

Hi Everyone!

Hope you're all doing well on this beautiful Friday. Yesterday, I realized that I needed to make a card for today's post, and I didn't have a lot of time. (I never really seem to these days!) So, I challenged myself to make a card with just what I had on my desk. And this is what I came up with.

Super simple, doesn't really even need a lot of explanation. Have a great weekend everyone! I will see you all on Monday!

Challenges:

1 Aud Sentiments: Anything Goes + a Sentiment.
2.Through the Purple Haze: Anything Goes
3. Crafty Girls Creations: Anything Goes

Washi Tape Birthday

Hello Everyone!

So sorry for not posting on Monday. It was a busy weekend for baseball and then of course, there was Mother's Day and my daughter has been sick the last couple of days and well....you know...life has just been happening. I wanted to make sure I got something up for today's post to share with you, though.
Before I tell you about today's card, however, I must ask for forgiveness for this photo. I took it in a hurry this morning and boy oh boy...not my best work for sure! It's all lopsided for one thing. So sorry about that!

For today's card I decided to just create something super simple by making a background using washi tape. Normally, I use my washi tape in my Erin Condren planner and not very often on cards; but I decided to take advantage of the wide variety I have in order to make a quick card. I started with an X in the middle and then just added strips in alternating fashion until I had the whole piece of card stock covered. The background piece I started with was just a piece of white card stock cut to 5 1/4 x 4 when I finished the washi tape background, I adhered it to a Kraft card base cut to standard card size with a side fold. I decided to keep the rest of the card simple as well, and added the two flowers to the center with a pastel green brad (You can seen where I tried to cover a small hole in the flower with some white paint; but that didn't work out very well...🙄) Finally I added just a simple Birthday sentiment from Altenew underneath it.
That is it for today. Thank you for visiting with me and I will try my best to get back with another
post on Friday! Until then, have a great day!

Challenges:

1. Crafty Gals Corner: Add Flowers
2. Creative Moments: Anything Goes
3. Fab n Funky: Create a background (I used the washi tape)

Coffee House Sunday

Good Morning!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there! I hope you all have lots of fabulous plans today with your loved ones and babies whether this is your first Mother's Day or your 40th Mother's Day!
Did you all have a good week? Mine was good, busy as always; but that's the way I like it. Ok, shall we see what's picqued my interest this week around the interwebs? Great! Grab your coffee, curl up in your favorite chair and let's get started!

• Have you heard about this $38 pizza you can get in NYC?  It takes  3 1/2 days to make and requires advanced reservations! Wonder if they throw in a free glass of wine?! 

• Are you a multitasker? I know I am without a doubt...but apparently multitaskers are missing out on the One Truth About Life

• Being an "Uncool Mom" is totally awesome. Not to mention the fact that I'd just like to come to dinner every night at this home! 

• Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell--side by side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--Goals, people GOALS!! 

• Apparently not all onions are the same...

• Neither is bread!

• Not feeling smart lately? Don't worry...apparently there are tried and true tricks to convince people you really are! 

• If you're a parent and love to share things about your children online either through social media or blogging, you need to go read this article about whether or not we reveal too much about our kids. 

• I'm almost finished reading "The Bookshop on the Corner" Cute and easy read. What are your reading right now?! I'd love to know...

• Having a baby changes everything about your life and it is beautiful; but sometimes...a lot of times it is hard and ugly and exhausting! 

• I don't know that I'm a "Highly Sensitive Person"; but I totally understand the idea of alone time every day to recharge.

• It's a perfect day to curl up with your mom and watch these heartfelt Netflix Movies!

• I know we ended last week with a picture of a dog; but I just couldn't help myself because seriously? The dog on the roof?!?! 

I hope your Sunday is great!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Hello Everyone!

How are you? We finally made it to Friday! I hope you have all had a great week. Well, I have a lot to share with you today, so let's get started shall we?!

This week is teacher appreciation week and I have one last child in elementary school, so I decided to  do something a little more special. Now, it's not that I'm not appreciative of the teachers for my high schooler and my middle schooler; but once there is more than one teacher, it's just a little different.

Ok, so the first thing I made was this super cute note pad cover. Now, I originally had plans to make a cover for a 3x5 pad because I usually like those better. However, I couldn't find any 3x 5 post it notes.   So instead I made one for a 4x6 pad.

To make this project:

• Start with a piece of cardstock cut to 9 5/8 x 6 1/4
• Score on the long side at 4 1/2, 4 7/8 and 5 1/4
• Fold along the 4 1/2 score line
• Fold the 4 7/8 line back on to the 4 1/2 line (basically, you're doing a mountain-valley fold) and then fold along the 5 1/4 line.
• Open it up and put some strong adhesive along the back side of the 4 1/2 line (the first one you folder) and adhere it down to the inside of the back of the note holder.
• At this point, you can come down a couple of inches along the 5 1/4 and make a couple of slits so you can have a pen holder. I opted not to include this on my project.
• Then you can decorate the front however you choose. 

Moving right along to the next project. This gift card holder with a little drawer built in for 10 Hershey nuggets was just too adorable not to make. You can find the instructions for this fun project over at "Frenchie Stamps" 

Next, I made a fun and easy washi tape bookmark. I intend to make some more of these soon. The possibilities are endless!

Finally, I made this stand up post it note holder. This is another project I intend to make a few more of as well because, again...cute and easy! I got this tutorial from Lyssa over at Song of my Heart

Then I put it all in these cute little basket I found at Hobby Lobby and wrapped it up and we gave it to her.

Phew...that is all for me today. I hope you all have a great weekend! Don't forget to stop by on Sunday for Coffeehouse Sunday!


Challenges:

1. Craft for the Craic: Anything Goes
2. Crafting with Friends: Anything Goes
3. Jo's Scrap Shack: Anything Goes
4. Making Memories Crafting: Anything Goes
5. Polkadoodles Crafting: Anything Goes

Blue Flower Beautiful Day.

Hi Everyone!
Sorry for not posting yet this week! It has just been a busy few days! So, how are you? Everyone have a good weekend and a good week so far? As I said, it's been busy; but it’s also been productive. I spent most of the last few days making projects for the teacher’s appreciation gift I gave to my son’s teacher yesterday. I will be posting all those projects on Friday, so stay tuned!

For today, however I will be sharing a CAS card I made using Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set. I will mail this card to my mom for Mother’s Day. This card was actually designed a lot differently in my head than how it actually turned out. In the end, I scrapped my elaborate plans and just decided to just go with a simple one flower and sentiment design.
I love layering this flower. It makes having a flower with depth and dimension so easy!! I made a chart a while ago of ink color combinations that I like with this flower and when I want to use it, I just pull out my chart and half my decision is already made for me! For this flower, I used Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans, Cool Caribbean, and Soft Navy. I stamped the flower on a piece of 110# Neenah solar white card stock. I did a bit of masking with the leaves to get the desired arrangement I wanted. For the leaves, I used Willow and New Leaf ink from SSS. I added the sentiment in “Lipstick Red” ink from SSS. I rounded the corners with the ¼ inch corner rounder; and that pretty much finishes the card.

Challenges:

1. Aud Sentiments: Flowers and a Sentiment
2. CCEE Stampers: Flowers
3. Crafting with an Attitude: Anything Goes
4. Crafty Girls Creations: Anything Goes (2nd Entry)