you can do hard things - autism awareness blog hop

This is my 3rd post today. Looking for Pinkfresh Studio's 4th birthday bash blog hop? click HERE

Or for Neat and Tangled release week post, day 1? click HERE

My friend Veronica Zalis organized a fantastic hop for Autism Awareness day. The cause is near and dear to her heart, as it touches her family personally, and I am happy to be a part of this hop. To learn more about autism, I suggest you visit autismspeaks.org

There are prizes up for grabs from a ton of crafty sponsors, and you have the opportunity to link up a card to help increase autism awareness. For all of the details, be sure to check out Veroica's blog - click!

In honor of Veronica's son Cameron, I used the little boy from Neat and Tangled's Better Together and stamped an uplifting sentiment from So Many Sentiments.

I hope you like it! Here is a complete list of blog participants:

Veronica Zalis 

Erica A-B

Sandy Allnock

Amanda Bodine

Kimberly Crawford 

Joscelyne Cutchens (Instagram)

Dana Joy

Wanda Guess

Jill Dewey Hawkins

Jennifer Ingle (Instagram)

Emily Midgett

Kay Miller

Carly Tee Minner

Miriam Prantner

Elena Roussakis

Heather Ruwe

Amy Tsuruta

Marcie Sharp

Alice Wertz

Vera Yates

Tenia Nelson

Katherine Cosimano

Rachel Parys

Pocono Pam

Terri Burson

Becca Dawn Cruger

Welcome Home (Neat and Tangled release week)

Hi there!

Welcome back to day 3 of this month's Neat and Tangled new release.

In case you're just tuning in, here's what you missed:

Day 1: Bloom

Day 2: Beach Day

Today, we're showing off Welcome Home, a set that would be perfect to announce a new pregnancy or a house move.

I couldn't help but add in some images from older sets: the girl is from Better Together, and the little fishbowl, from Yo Ho Ho. I love that it looks like the little girl is excited for her new home, and already has her favorite things all ready to go.

I also used a few dies to add layers to the card. The Polygon coverplate is one I didn't get around to using last release, but I absolutely love it.  The Stitched Sunburst was perfect for drawing the eye to the girl, it's subtle but the card definitely benefited from it.



The grassy hill was created using a Lawn Fawn die.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the NT blog this morning! Before you go, leave a comment - you'll be eligible to win a 25$ gift card to the store at the end of the week.

♥.

Neat & Tangled - Cosmo Cricket week

Hi there!

I'm sharing a few projects here and on the Neat & Tangled blog for our collaboration week with Cosmo Cricket.



For my first card, I stamped and colored elements from Mermazing and set them against watercolored backdrop. I adore these new products from Cosmo Cricket. They are made for watercoloring dummies like me! I used the watercolor brush to spread a little water around, then sprinkled some Pool Pixie Paint onto the piece, and basically my work was done.



I blended out the background a bit and added some flecks of lighter and darker paint to give depth to the scene.

My next projects are a little tag duo. I played around with the Candy Pixie Paint for both. On this tag, I used the Resist Pen to add polka dots to the bottom half of the tag, let it dry, and then watercolored with the Pixie Paint over-top.  When everything was dry, I used a brown pen to add doodly circles around each polka-dot.

I added the little girl image from Better Together, and the new script Celebrate die to finish off the tag.

For my last tag, I did more of the same: doodled polka-dots with the Resist Pen and watercolored over-top with the Candy Pixie Paint. I added the Hooray wreath a little bird (from Kitty's Favorite Things) to finish off.



Be sure to visit the NT blog for Laura's project, and for the chance to win a Cosmo Cricket prize pack - click!

♥.

Neat and Tangled with We R Memory Keepers

This is my 2nd post today! If you're looking for my LF teacher card set, scroll down or click HERE!

The Neat and Tangled team is partnering with WRMK this week!

I was lucky enough to find the Fringe and Score Board in the mail - just my thing!  I can't wait to make allll the tassle garlands. For now, I thought I would show off 2 ways to use it for card-making.

My first card features my favorite donut girl with some party fringe:

I stamped, colored and die-cut the girl from Say Yes to Donuts, and stamped a sentiment from the set to frame the donut top. It's so easy to bend and manipulate sentiments to get a whole new look!

To ground the donut girl image, I folded a few sheets of blue tissue paper so that I had 3 tiers. Then, with one quick pass of the blade, I had the entire fringe piece, ready to glue onto the card front.

In order to hide the top part of the fringe (which I had stapled together since I am a lazy crafter!) I cut an extra white panel the same width of the card front and tied some twine around it.

My second card uses the Fringe Board in an even easier way:

I used the girl from Better Together, and created a little square shaker behind her. With a quick pass of the fringe blade, I had strips of pink tissue paper that I cut into little squares with a set of paper snips.

Visit the NT blog this morning for even more WRMK inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!

♥.

Better Together: Hemptique & Neat and Tangled

Hi there!

Neat and Tangled is collaborating with Hemptique this month, with prizes to be won on the NT blog.

The nasty gastro bug is spreading in our home, so instead of giving you a full how-to on today's card, please visit the NT blog this morning to learn more about the Hemptique products I used.

Hopefully all will be back to normal soon!

♥.

you are my favorite

Hi there!

I have one last card to share with you before the new Neat and Tangled release goes live at 8am EST.

I used Better Together, masking the sentiment before stamping the girl over-top. It made for a tighter focal image, and fit better into the circle that way!

I'm amazed how different the little girl looks here, with darker hair and skin. I had colored her more blond earlier this week, and I love them both.

In case you struggle with copics for skin color, I colored the darker skin with E11, E13, E15 and E19 markers. I used R22 for the cheeks. The light skin color was colored with E00 and E02, with R20 for the cheeks. 

Once again, I used the largest solid flower from Scandinavian Prints to create a polka dot background, this time with white pigment ink from Lawn Fawn (my favorite white ink!) onto kraft cardstock.

I hope you like it!

Check out the NT blog around 7:30 this morning, where Danielle will be announcing this week's winners, and happy shopping at 8am!

♥.

Scandinavian Prints

Hi there, and welcome back to this month's Neat and Tangled release week!

This is my last pre-scheduled post. I'm due to be back in snowy Montreal by tonight....

Today, we're showing off the new set, Scandinavian Prints, designed by my friend Miriam Prantner.

I know what you're thinking. There are no florals to be seen here! Can you guess how I incorporated the set into this card?

The largest solid flower base makes for the cutest polka dot backgrounds. I love that it is slightly irregular, and not a perfect circle. Makes it feel more trendy! Also, you could rock a watercolor look with it too! I'll try that when I get back and see how it goes.



I love the sentiments in Miriam's set. Some of them work so well with the Better Together images and larger sentiments! I used the girl with her dog and "hugs" from Better Together, and complimented them with "I'm here for you" from Scandinavian Prints.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the NT blog today - click!

♥.

Better together

Hiya! It's release week for Neat and Tangled!

I'm still on the beach, which is great, but I'm sad I won't be around for a few more days to see what the reaction is to this set. I illustrated Better Together for Neat and Tangled, and I am so excited, along with the entire design team, to be showing it off today.



There are 3 little kids in the set, each one holding their favorite stuffed animals. Honestly, I just think they are the cutest. I know I'm biased, but that's what it is.

I stamped the middle girl, holding her dog over her head, and then masked her before stamping the others.  After coloring all 3 kids, I masked them and rubbed a light blue ink over everything. I didn't love how it lightened my black stamped outline in places, but I do love the way it makes the images pop.

I hope you like it! Visit the NT blog this morning to see more - click!

♥.