Greetings | Woodblock Wednesday

Hello and Welcome back to Woodblock Wednesday.  I'm going to be honest, I didn't think I was going to have a project for today.  This card took multiple tries but I'm happy with the overall outcome.

Let me introduce you to the stamps:

[retired] Art Definition - Stampers Anonymous - V1-929

Antique Bee and Flowers - Hero Arts - K6224

Greetings from the Northwest - Impress - 5254D

I had a heck of a time with that Stampers Anonymous text design.  I tried with both dye ink and distress oxide and settled with the Distress Oxide Pumice Stone on Reverse Confetti Stone cardstock.  

I heat embossed the Antique Bee and Flowers image with Hero Arts White Satin Pearl.  I absolutely love the look...it kind of all goes with the uneven text stamping. 

That stone panel was stamped on both sides so while I was giving it a go on the 'original' side, I didn't realize the backside picked up ink from my work surface...sigh.  I then proceeded to use the backside for what ultimately became my front panel.  It all goes with the distress look don't you think?

Before you go, guess what the girl and I did on Sunday afternoon:

For you green thumbs, it doesn't seem like a big deal and you're probably shaking your head thinking it's late in the season to do this but I'm so happy with how they turned out.  Honestly before this, there were dead sticks in there...LOL.

I have yet another plant for the inside of the house too.  I couldn't resist the coffee drinking gnome:

Some links might be affiliate at no extra cost to you:

Merci | Impress + A Muse

I'm on a citrus kick, I spotted the Lemons stamp from Impress and wanted to color it up: 

I decided to stamp up a plaid with their Thin Stripe Lines stamp.  Although I have the Sweet and Sour sentiment, it wasn't hitting me with the design I had in mind.  I stepped away from the project, with the supplies gathered.

Hours later, I needed to take a belated photo of a wonderful print that Seeka sent to me.  It's the

Coffee Because Adulting is Hard

by The Grayter Good

To prep for that photo, I had to clean and move a basket full of vintage A Muse stamps when I spotted the Merci one. 

Perfect, eh?  

The cardstock I used is Bazzill Marshmallow.  I stumbled across several packages when cleaning (story of my life).  I stocked up after taking several Julie Ebersole classes.  I love the texture and how you can lightly watercolor.  For my project, I did Zig on Zig.

My project was inspired by 'give me lemons':

Some links are affiliate at no extra cost to you:

Pumpkin Spice

Hello and Happy Sunday!  Yesterday I left the house around 8 am and got home around 10:30 pm.  Super fun filled day, that started with a crafty day.  Here's my Make 'n Take that I brought:

Some of you recognize some of the items in my project.  I just picked up the sentiment and thin stripe border stamps are from Impress.  I used following Catherine Pooler inks for the plaid:

Tiki Torch  |  Mint To Be

The orange cardstock is a cut apart Memory Box note card combined with Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip cardstock.  The dies are Lil' Inker Designs' Coffee Talk 2 and Kat Scrappiness' Wonky Wavy Stitched Rectangle Dies.

The Spectrum Noirs are new to me.  Trying them out with the MnT.  Will generally use them for MnT of if I need any extra filler colors when copic coloring at home.

Here's my original haul photo from Impress: 

Here's a photo that was taken of our Crafty Group:

Thanks so much for our Hostess/Host with the mostess:  Toni + Allen.

Kimberly  |  Jen  |  Hadley  |  me  |  Novell  |  Katie

Lenae  |  Tonya  |  Laura  |  Toni  |  Cherrie

Such a fun group of friends!  We loved having Cherrie (center/bottom) join us for the first time.  There's always a ton of laughing, crafting, eating at these events.  I (surprisingly) managed to complete 5 make 'n takes...that wasn't even all the ones that were available.  I ran out of time!

I ended my evening with my non-crafty group of friends, having dinner and getting home late (for a girl that wakes up at 3 am!).

Today is a 3k walk benefiting pediatric brain tumor research.  I hope that you're having a great weekend!

Affiliate links used when applicable at no extra cost to you:

Berry Sweet!

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend, I did.  It always goes by so quickly, doesn't it?  I've been noticing a couple things have changed in my crafting 'habits'.  I've been using my copics more!  Have you noticed a slight shift in my color palette lately?  I've been definitely gravitating towards soft pastels: 

Ordinarily that Impress Strawberry would be rich red...oh boy, I hate working with red copics...so unforgiving.  I went with pale pinks...

I did use my pale grey Zig and a water saturated paintbrush to color up my skinny cardbase (5 x 3.5 inches).  I was inspired by all the wonderful Impress note cards.

Don't you love that sentiment?  That's from Impress too.  For non-locals, if you every visit Seattle you need to pop into one of the two Impress locations.  They have the best products AND inspiration...seriously.  I know how lucky we are to have such a wonderful brick + mortar shop.

I was inspired by the Color Throwdown:

Thanks for stoppin' by and have an awesome week!

Guest Blogger: Valentine's Series Part Four

Hello!  Today is my last installment of my Valentine's Day Series for Impress!  I can't believe that 4 weeks have gone by!  Let's get to today's cards!

First up is my feminine version:

The hearts inside the jar are from the Impress Heart Border stamp.  It's always fun to use stamps in different ways!  I used it in a traditional way on my envelope with Fresh Ink Red Current, it makes it look like a strip of washi.  Isn't the jar cute?!  I love how it has a thin border which is die cut to coordinate with the gold glitter lid.  I picked up the Hello from Seattle stamp over the weekend, I used Fresh Ink Charcoal.  I topped my card off with flat heart confetti's.  I almost forgot, the card base is from the Whimsical Stripe notecards....isn't it fun?!

Next up is my masculine card.  I used the same main ingredients but added some other elements:

I used the same Jar and sentiment on my card but mixed it up a bit for a masculine feel.  I love the Savvy Seattle Skyline die!  I used Peacock Feathers distress ink on my base panel and loaded it up with the ink.  I then splattered water on it.  To bring in a Valentine's theme, I topped off the Space Needle with a flat heart confetti and stamped the envelope with the Impress Coloring Book Heart stamp.  Isn't it awesome?  I stamped it with Fresh Ink Turquoise.  I love how the colors pop off of the kraft!

I wanted to give a big shout out to Impress and Savvy Stamps for letting me their Guest Blogger!  I've had so much fun designing cards with their products.  I feel so fortunate that we have Impress in our community, we all know that brick + mortar shops are becoming very scarce...how fabulous that they have a great online shop too♡

Here's a quick peek at some of my other cards I designed especially for this series:

Guest Blogger: Valentine's - Series Part 2

I'm back with my Impress Guest Blogger - Valentine's Day Series!  Today I'm sharing a feminine and masculine card.  Let's get started with the girlie one:

How cute is that Savvy Stamps polar bear with mug?  Mine is a hybrid brown polar version :)  I couldn't resist adding pink cheeks and matching mittens.  She's enjoying a cup of coffee (wink).  I've stamped her with Ranger Archival Black and colored her with Zig Clean Color Markers and a paintbrush.  Do you see the Impress heart border?  I thought I grabbed my Hero Arts white embossing powder but it was the clear.  I like it with the tone on tone look, how about you?

Savvy Stamps Polar Bear with Mug

Impress Heart Border

My card was inspired by:

retro sketches

Next up is my masculine card.  If you've been following me for a while, you know that masculine cards continue to be a challenge for me...how do you think I did?

black + gold = WOW

The background is the new Valentine's Day Coloring Book stamp by Impress.  Isn't it beautiful?  I heat embossed it in clear...it adds so much drama to the overall design!

I topped off the card with the Savvy Deer Head die and hello my deer sentiment.

 Impress Valentine's Day Coloring Book

Savvy Deer Head

Savvy hello my deer

Make sure you visit the Impress BLOG + SHOP.

make a wish!

Hello and a Happy Monday to you!

Can you believe that it is almost Halloween?  This year is flying by....

Here's a super quick card:

Actually, it wasn't very quick, I ended up re-doing that tag several times.  I finally decided on Impress Fresh Ink Pink Lemonade.  Originally I was using Impress Sugar which was really too pale for the impact I was going for.

The sentiment is from Fresh Squeezed Stamps, Everyday Expressions.  LOVE that font.

Can you tell that the card base is a rich chocolate brown that has woodgrain embossed on it?

This cardstock is amazing.  It's german and my local supplier is now out of business...RIP Paper Zone.  I seriously hoard this stuff, it seems to be at least 120 lb and well, luxurious.

I topped off my tag with the delish

Timeless Twine

Chocolate Chip

Envision the tag without the twine...it just isn't the same, eh?

I was inspired by the current

CASE Study

I was inspired by

silhouette image

colors

twine

tag

I'd love it if you'd stop by the Timeless Twine blog and left me some bloggie love!

whale done!

Hello & Happy Monday!

Still playing with the Basic Grey Persimmon Collection.  I'm pleased that it can rock the nautical theme, whaddya think?

I combined it with Reverse Confetti's Happy Harbor.  It's such a cute set, I'm still quite smitten with anything nautical.  One of these days, I'm going to have to break down and buy one of those notebook dies.  I tried to emulate it with my Crop-a-dile.

I found a package of those wood buttons that I picked up at Impress...threaded it through using some Timeless Twine natural twine.

By the way, Timeless Twine has all their spools on sale this week for $6/each!

I was inspired by the current

retro sketch

I'm also linking up to

'fetti find

Here's to an awesome week!