mermazing + kitty's favorite things {neat and tangled release week}

Today is my big day - both of the sets that I illustrated are being shown off on the Neat and Tangled blog this morning.

First up, Mermazing! This sweet little mermaid makes me smile every time I see her. I don't always feel that way about my illustrations, haha.

I took inspiration from The Little Mermaid, and colored her to look like Ariel. Bold red hair, purple top and green tail. Her little fishy friend (from Kitty's Favorite Things) has Flounder's coloring.

I just think they are....



Mermazing. ha.

Next up, Kitty's Favorite Things. (Side note, do you know how hard it is to come up with names for stamp sets? Dude.)

I did a no-line coloring on my cat, and overlapped the banner right in front. I also used the Journaling Alpha dies to create a fuller sentiment.

ps, did you see that Jennifer Mcguire did a product release video featuring Neat and Tangled products? She loves those alpha dies and so do I! They really are the perfect size.



Back to the kitty! He can hold any of the elements found in the set: the fish, the yarn, the milk... but all soft and fuzzily colored? He suited the heart best.

I hope you like the new sets!  Leave me a comment on this blog post for a chance to win a 25$ giveaway to the Neat and Tangled Store.

And, I am also giving away my own stamp set here! Lemme know which of these stamp sets you prefer and you could win it! I'll announce the winner by Friday morning.

Thanks for stopping by! Click over to the NT blog to see more.

Hello you {neat and tangled release week}

Hello You!

It's a beautiful morning to kick things off for Neat and Tangled's July release week. Danielle's 3x4 brush lettered set, called Hello You, is perfect for sending a big, bold HELLO.

I paired it with a couple of sweet sea friends (from my new set, MERMAZING, which you'll see in full tomorrow.) Don't they look so sweet together? I die.

The card base was striped using a pale blue copic marker and a ruler (super fancy, y'all) and the greeting was stamped using Lawn Fawn's plastic flamingo ink. Go bright or go home, right?



The dies are new too! and my first time designing a stand-alone die set. The waves are so fun, and it comes with another piece you'll see tomorrow.

I hope you like what you see so far! Leave me a comment here for a chance to win a 25$ gift certificate to the Neat and Tangled store, and then pop over to the NT blog for more inspiration with today's sets!

♥.

lawn fawn meets xyron week!

Hi there!

The Lawn Fawn team is collaborating with Xyron this week! I love their tape runners, and I use the adhesive eraser to clean up my messy crafty efforts on a regular basis.

For my card, I used the flamingo pair from Flamingo Together. They are sitting in the little lake image from Dad + Me, and against the hello sentiment from Yay! Kites.

The card base was done with a ruler and the highlighter edge of a copic marker. So quick and easy! I created the candy cane stripe pattern by alternating using the just the tip of the marker edge and the entire weight of the broad tip.



I hope you like it! Check out the LF blog (HERE) and the Xyron facebook page (HERE) for more!

♥.

brand new baby {just ME digital stamps}

Hi there!  I'm continuing to show off the summer collection of digital stamps found in my etsy shop: Just ME digital stamps.

There is nothing sweeter than a Brand New Baby:

You can change out the word girl for boy, or brand new.

I printed, colored and cut out the image, and hung it onto the card with a piece of soft, fuzzy yarn.

The image is sized big enough to stand alone on a card-front, but you can certainly shrink it for use on baby shower invites or tags.

I also used the image to celebrate my littlest sister's weekend announcement:



TWINS! We are all so excited! Come Christmas, there will be 2 more babies to love and hold. Congrats, Nadia!

I hope you like the image! Check it out in the shop: CLICK!

Do you have multiples in the family? What's your best advice for the new mom and the rest of us wanting to help?

♥.

Harry Potter party!

It all started when Sofia, turning 11, asked me to throw her a Harry Potter party. She has read through the series at least a handful of times, and chats all things HP when she gets together with some of her friends. But, she wanted it to be a "cute" HP party...

I looked around, but didn't find what I wanted, so I drew my own images for the party. They are available in my etsy shop - CLICK!



This party was so much fun to put together. There are so many ideas out there for foods and desserts, and I picked my favorites and ran with it. Let's take a closer look at everything!

When the girls came in, I gave them each a little vial to drink to start off the party. They thought it was hilarious. Sparkling peach juice!

The butterbeer cake was obviously homemade! Everything was, and I'm really proud of that. You can throw your kids a party on a budget and still have it look amazing.



I manipulated the Hedwig graphic to create a simple cake topper.



Some vellum wings glued to Ferrero Rocher chocolates made for the cutest golden snitches.



I found a tutorial online for decorating owl cupcakes.



They are like teeny baby alien owls, ha. Here's a party tip for you: I always bake a smaller cake (like, recipes usually are geared for 8 or 9 inch cakes, and I bake mine in 6 inch pans.) This way, there is enough leftover batter to make cupcakes! No extra baking required. I ended up with 8 extra cupcakes, and they all went on the table. Same cake, same frosting, just differently decorated.



Jelly beans are my kryptonite. I can willpower-myself into avoiding cake and chips, but I double-fist jelly beans like it's my last day on earth. oh boy.

Apart from baking the cake, this was the easiest party to put together (dessert-wise.) I mean, jelly beans in jars? I can handle that. Dipping long pretzels into chocolate? Got it. Melting chocolate into frog molds? No problem.



The water bottles were labeled with each girl's name:

And I also created labels for a green punch,

It was limemade and 7up! I also labeled a bottle of milk:

We also had some party games! We did a little wand painting:

I found a tutorial online for wrapping hot glue around chopsticks, and then painting it. Sofia and I did the hot-glueing ahead of time, and they were able to paint their own magic wands!





We also took some fun photos with a prop idea I found online:

I found this graphic online, but recreated it for our party because I wanted the fonts to be consistent throughout. The poster, printed on engineering paper at Staples, was 18x24 inches and only costed 2$! I added another dollar to purchase a foam core board of the same size, and glued them together for stability.

The backdrop for the dessert table (scroll up to see the full party shot at the top) was created in the same way. I just typed up Harry Potter "locations" and had the file printed onto a 24x36 inch engineering print. It was under 5$! We had a frame that size which I borrowed for the event. Super easy!



Who knew the snitch wings made such great mustaches? ha. And I love that Sofia let her little sister tag along all day!



To finish off, the girls got to take home their wands, all the jelly beans they could carry (because I can't control myself around them!) and a little box containing the cutest golden snitch necklace.

I hope you've enjoyed this look at our Harry Potter party! It was so much fun to put together!

If you'd like to check out the party invitations, click HERE.

The Harry Potter digi stamp set can be found in my Etsy shop HERE.

♥.

Flamingo floating!

Hi there!

A few weeks ago, I introduced a few new images to my Etsy digital stamp shop, Just ME Digital Stamps.  I never got a chance to show them off or promote them here! for shame.

Why not kick things off with a brand-new, just added this morning, new image?

I'm obsessed with all the weird pool floats that are for sale everywhere: swans, pizza slices, donuts, unicorns... but flamingos just scream summer fun!

Flamingo Floating features a little girl beating the heat in style.



I printed her out at full-size. She covers almost the entire card-front. After coloring everything in with copic markers, I used glossy accents on the flamingo:



Looking all plastic/pool floatie, right? I love the subtle dimension and shine you get from the gloss layer.

I hope you like it! Check out the new image in the store, and see my entire collection - click!

♥.

3 smart cookies {lawn fawn inspiration week}

Hi there, and welcome back to the last day of this month's Lawn Fawn inspiration week. Today, we're showing off the mini graduation set, Smart Cookie.

I have 3 smart cookies at home, so I thought I'd create a card to give them when school ends next week. And possibly some cookies to go along with.

I stamped and colored 3 cookies and 3 graduation caps. I gave the cookies the larger smiley face from So Smooth instead of the glasses provided in this set.



I love the 3 smart cookies tossing the caps in the air! I used a black multiliner pen to add the motion lines.

The large congrats is from Big Scripty Words. I really love that set, and how perfect the words look stamped and cut out.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the LF blog this morning - click!

♥.