My weekend in pictures... Memorial Day Family Time

Hello! How was your holiday weekend? I'm back to reality and wishing I was still relaxing at the cabin. But summer has just begun, and there will be plenty of more opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. Here are a few pictures from my phone to show off from the nice time away...

(clockwise) 1. An afternoon of exploring... came across loons, an adorable porcupine, and some turkeys. 2. A fruit pizza, the first one I've ever made, and was it ever delicious! 3. Good morning! Taken at 5 AM while getting my fish on with pops and my brother. 4. Our nightly bonfires where we reminisced about the day's events and years past. 5. A little trail riding. This pic was taken before we ran into rain and lots of mud puddles... too much fun!

Sketch It Saturday 160 - Hello Lovey

Hello friends! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! I'm popping in today to show off this week's sketch at Unscripted Sketches. You won't want to miss out on this one. 

And here's some inspiration for you:

As you can see, I changed up the original sketch quite a bit. But that's the beauty of Unscripted Sketches. We want you to create a card, layout, or other creation using the sketch as a starting point. Then flip it, change it, make it your own. And don't forget to link up! We want to see what you create and give you a chance to be featured as one of the top three! You have until Thursday, May 31st. 

I did quite a bit of paper piecing for this card. It's a major stress reliever for me to tediously cut a bunch of tiny pieces while watching an episode or two of a show streaming on Netflix. OK! You caught me, a full season ;) I photographed the card before adding the colored pieces to the image to show a more clean and simple version. It's still adorable, but after looking at both I love the pop of color the paper piecing provides. What do you think?

My color inspiration for this card came from Market Street Stamps' Paint the Town Color Challenge. In addition to Sketch It Saturday, join in the fun over at MSS. You have until Monday to post your creation. 

Weekend Update

Hello friends. I'm heading out of town for Memorial Day. The weekend will be full of fishing, family, grilling out, nature walks, and lots of ticks.. eek! But I can't wait. In fact, I'm taking a half day of work today, because we're all so excited to head up to our cabin. We have many military veterans in our family, and I'm positive stories will be shared this weekend as we take a brief moment to recognize the sacrifice of many. It's that sacrifice that has created the freedom and safety I have to enjoy weekends such as these. Here's a little flashback from Memorial Day Weekend a few years ago.

I may be out of town, but please stop by the blog tomorrow for the reveal of last week's Top 3 and the new sketch at Unscripted Sketches. I'll have some inspiration for you... take that extra day in your weekend and join in on the challenge!

Enjoy your holiday friends.

Experimenting With New Paper & Inks

Masculine cards are always the hardest to create. This week I pushed myself to create something a little rugged and manly. How do you think it turned out? 

The new Distress Markers from Ranger and Tim Holtz arrived in our store, Creations Galore. After watching a video of Tim demonstrating the markers, I wanted to give water based markers a try. I grabbed a few Tombow markers and a waterbrush, along with this great stamp from Northwoods, and created this scene. 

I've never used any paper other than watercolor with Tombow markers. But using Tim's direction, I took out a piece of Matte Coat cardstock from Paper Cut. It's a dead ringer for the Specialty Stamping Paper (matte coat) that he uses. I was amazed at the watercolor look this technique gave the stamped image... and quite love it. I'll need to try this again soon!

To try this technique without watching the full video (although you should!) squiggle a bit of each color marker on a craft sheet or acrylic block to create a palette. Dip your waterbrush into the ink you wish to use and paint with it. I mixed a few of the colors on the craft sheet as well to get less intense oranges and reds.

I added Tea Dye and Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges with a foam tool. Due to the coated surface of the paper, the Distress Inks became almost metallic yet still rustic. Manly card officially complete! 

CARD SUPPLIES
Cardstock: Paper Cut
Stamp: Northwoods
Inks: StazOn (Jet Black), Tombow Markers, Distress Inks (Black Soot, Tea Dye)
Brads: Gary Berlin (Copper)

TOMBOW PALETTE
Base Green: 249 Hunter Green
Detail Green: 098 Avocado
Wheel: 899 Redwood, 925 Scarlet
Pheasant: 977 Saddle Brown, 847 Crimson, 098 Avocado

Summer Is Here

On hot summer nights I love to head to the Riverwalk just blocks from my home. It's the perfect way to relax at the end of a long day. Yesterday, however, had a wonderful breeze that cooled us under the warm sun. After grabbing a sub downtown, my dear friend, Anna, and I headed to the Riverwalk to take in the view. It was full of picnicing families, bikers, and fishermen. With Wisconsin's cold winters, you can't help but appreciate summer. I can smell the BBQ already... 

Home Is

I just picked up the Home Swreet Home set from Market Street Stamps and had a great time creating different scenes. I turned one of the many I created into this adorable card... What do you think? Home really is where the heart is.

CARD SUPPLIES
Cardstock: American Crafts, Paper Cut
Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers
Stamps: Market Street Stamps
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Tombow Marker Crimson

Time for my close up...

I had the great privilege to be a model for my sister-in-law's hair and beauty portfolio. She is officially in Phase Two at Paul Mitchell and will be graduating soon. What an honor to to have her work her magic on me. Can't wait to see the final outcome of the shoot. Until then, here are a few behind the scenes shots from the day.