Inspired by seashells

The challenge at Archiscraps for July is to be inspired by seashells. here is my take on this months challenge!

 We are sponsored this month by Blossom tree creations.

 thank you for stopping by! make sure you stop Archiscraps blog and play along with us!

at the beach at sunset

The best part about living close to the beach...ya know besides the swimming and sunbathing LOL was the sun rising and the beautiful sunsets...when I lived in Virginia we lived right across the street from the beach and if you were awake early enough you could watch the sunrise and see the dolphins playing...I always thought it was just something they would tell you to get the tourists in but its true LOL
Anyway, I loved my new die set from (the Scrapsalot shop) hero arts that I wanted to create a sunset scene...I used distress inks for the background squeezed lemon, spiced marmalade, pickled raspberry, fired brick and for the background sand, I used vintage photo Distress ink... I just played around until I liked the blending...I did lay my die panel over to see where I would be adding the sand ...I used the new embossing powder from hero arts called Sand it truly looks like sand which is so cool, when I lay the die panel you can see it through the pieces..this photo just doesn't do it justice. this is a very simple and quick card to make.

I must have taken this photo 30 times and couldn't figure out why it was blurry..haha but the sentiment wasn't...I had some funky shadows going on because I popped up the black frame on foam tape (insert big eye roll)

all supplies used except cardstock can be found at Scrapsalotllc.com

 supplies from Scrapsalot shop

 Inks used
squeezed lemon
spiced marmalade
pickled raspberry
fired brick
vintage photo
Catherin pooler
Midnight Ink

 Stamp and die cut
Hero Arts Beach frame fancy die
(sentiment) Hero arts color layering waves

 thanks for coming to take a peek...hope you'll stop by again

Day 11 and 12 #thedailymarker30day colorchallenge

So I never got the chance to update my blog yesterday for the coloring challenge so I will combine yesterdays and today's...

this is today's...I wanted to get a bit messy so I went with another art journal page...there is no right or wrong everyone sees something different..this page was inspired by another challenge well its more of a personal challenge really they just give you a word and how you interpret
that word is up to you...its called push your boundaries challenge..and my next word was splatter..see where I'm going here? LOL Messy!

 So we were out and about the other day and I saw all those flyers (we live in a touristy area) don't ask me why but I grabbed a couple of different ones my husband just gave me strange looks, anyway as I was looking through one I came across this cool ad for some attractions in the area it looked hand drawn with little splashes of color..I knew I wanted to incorporate that into my page...well really I made it my focus LOL I pulled colors from the image to use on my page...

here are yesterdays ... cute puppies LOL

aren't they adorable...they are from Kate Hadfield Designs, I got them for free from Simply cards and papercrafts magazine.

thanks for coming to check out my work!

Missing the beach

I think this is the first beautiful day we've had in a while and it got me thinking I really miss the beach..the lakes here are great but when you were raised near the coast you kind of miss it! I miss walking along the shore...finding seashells and little sea critters!

well, I tried to recreate a beach scene using all the wonderful Hero arts goodies make it pretty easy...the waves stamp and the die cut go together so well...I also used the mermaid waves stencil in the background..what was really fun was the new embossing powders...Sand which really looks like sand without the mess LOL and sparkling sea...I used it on the tips of the waves...
you can find all these supplies and others in the scrapsalot shop



Supplies used from Scrapsalot
Stamps~ Hero arts~color layering waves
Die cut ~ Hero arts Fancy die Beach frame fancy die
Stencil~ mermaid seawaves
Embossing Powders~Hero arts Sand and sparkling sea
Distress Oxide
Salty Ocean Distress Mini Ink Pad

Stamping Platform by Tim Holtz

Day 10 #thedailymarker30day

this is day 10...which was yesterday I just didn't get a chance to post to my blog LOL Its another Lawn Fawn set which I LOVE!

thanks for stopping by...

Day 9 #thedailymarker30day

I did something a bit different...I did an art journal page haha I needed to color it anyway so I thought that would count as my day of coloring for the daily markers coloring challenge...

this is also a part of the Push your boundaries challenge number 8  Tear. (it's not really a challenge you kind of follow a prompt at your own pace) ..I started with a blank page...I tore up some papers...I love to tear book pages this one was an old dictionary and some scrapbook patterned paper LOL...I used dylusions sprays and a couple different stencils ...O wasn't really going for the red white and blue but it happened...I decided on a big border I traced the edge of a stencil to create the scallopy border and painted it black..I couldn't get my paint pen to work so I used a word stencil and white paint over the border and really liked how that looked. I used the image I colored in day 6 I thought it worked and found a quote I really liked (I actually have a small stack of them printed on tissue paper just for my projects LOL)

there we have it! I like it and it was fun and very messy!

thanks for coming by!

Day 8 #thedailymarker30day

Well we're on day 8 already! Today I decided on a LLama from Honey Bee stamps haha I've done him a couple times but I've never done the cactus before...I did a little masking and made a front panel out of it...I'll crop it and add it to a card base later...It's great for one of those quickie cards we always seem to need!
I made a Booboo when I was stamping...I used archival instead of Memento it really didn't dawn on me until I was coloring :( but it all worked out in the end!

  thanks for stopping by...I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!

Day 7 #thedailymarker30day

So I wanted to try something different..haha like just coloring wasn't hard enough already! LOL anyway, I had seen a couple stamped images and the lady made them look like they had fur or they were fuzzy...
I used ink on 3 fadeout ink to stamp my image...I did it twice since I have a really hard time seeing the image if I don't...LOL

Now as everyone who teaches or does any kind of tutorial tell me I tried to keep my pencils sharp, that's easier said than done but at least now I know why they say keep it sharp. It does make things easier but I think I use too much pressure and always break my tip...yeah yeah I'm working on it LOL

Turns out I am just as bad with fur direction as I am with shadowing LOL But all in all I like how the coloring came out and the redrawn face on the brown kitty but the sad grey kitty has a huge nose 😳

thank you for coming by and reading my ramblings! 

New Favorite

So I thought I'd try my hand at the challenge over at More Than Words which is.....

Word Inspiration - FAVORITE  Creative Challenge - SCRAPLIFT YOURSELF the favorite part was easy I just picked my favorite scrapping subject...isn't she just the cutest thing! now the scraplift was the hard part LOL I had a layout in mind when I first saw the challenge at the beginning of the month but I couldn't find a picture of it :( haha I'll find it after...so I picked this very old layout I'm pretty sure it's from 2014..

Valerie is my new favorite scrapping subject ...she was born on Mothers day weekend and I'm an Honorary Grandma

Old layout

thank you for stopping by!

Day 6 #thedailymarker30day

Here is what I was playing with this morning...its a digital image from a funky blog called wonder strange arts (just in case you were curious)you can find some really cool freebies there...I think they work great in my art journal!

I'm really thrilled with how this one came out...I used alcohol markers and colored pencils to try and get the right highlights LOL as I said try...I'm pretty easy to please it doesn't look so much like a flat image it had a bit of depth to it so all and all I'm happy!
I did use some Nuvo drops seashell on her jewelry and clear her eyeglass lenses so they are shiny!

thank you for coming by!

Something magical

My first try at no line coloring using Ink on 3 Fadeout ink that I received in my design team package from Scrapsalotllc.com they always send the coolest stuff! ... I am also using a stamp set from ink on 3 called  Magical unicorn..such a beautiful stamp and I just love unicorns... so first impression was I couldn't see it LOL well duh but I have pretty bad eyesight so I really couldn't see it so I stamped it more than once to get a good clear image...

 So I did two different ones one in colored pencil and one in alcohol marker...I will admit it's going to take a whole lot of practice LOL heck I'm just getting used to coloring normal and now this LOL I will admit I like the colored pencils better at this point...I paired my Beautiful Unicorn with some pretty Rainbow papers from Honey bee stamps (also in the package)

 I used the colored pencil version in my art journal...LOve how that turned out!

Items used from Scrapsalot shop

Ink~Ink on 3Fadeout Ink
Catherine pooler Midnight ink
Stamp~Magical unicorn
Paper~Honey bee Over the rainbow
Embellishmenst~ Nuvo drops
Stencil~Honey Bee chevron arrows

Day 5 #thedailymarker30day

Day 5 and I'm already feeling a little squirrely LOL I love this little guy he reminds me of the spaz's running around outside tormenting my poor dog..they are so much fun to watch.

one on the left I used Memento ink and alcohol markers with colored pencils the one on the right is archival ink and colored pencils with gamsol ...there are things I like and dislike about both squirrel but I really like the acorn on the right

anyway, thanks for coming by...

Day 4 #thedailymarker30day

I actually colored a few dinosaurs each with a slightly different color combo...its funny how the slight change changes the whole look...

so far I am having a blast in the latest 30 day coloring challenge...

thank you for stopping by!

Day 3 #thedailymarker30day

I don't know about you but I love the little stamp sets from Lawn Fawn...that pack just a big punch for something so small LOL so this is day3 of the daily marker color challenge I decided to ink up some new stamps...I have four or five of these little sets (all different) but I only inked two sets the taco and the dinosaur (Omgosh he is the cutest!)

anyway I colored my little taco with Ohuhu markers and some colored pencils this time ...I'm not sure what I did wrong but he looks a bit blotchy :( It's still a cute card

So you can find these cute little stamps at Scrapsalot.com

thanks for coming by 

Bugaboo Bingo

This is the image I colored this morning for the daily marker color challenge last time Kathy held this challenge I learn also I wanted to take part again but this time to actually make a card out of the images I colored LOL..I did make cards out of a couple of the others but most sat in a pile until recently!

so ....here is the card I made with this darling little lady from Bugaboo stamps..hehe I think I own all the digi's with any kind of cats or dogs in them...they are just too cute! and took part in the new Bingo challenge over at Catch the bug challenge blog!

 I did ribbon, die/punch and sentiment....but then I also did button, Bugaboo image, and sentiment.. it just happened to work out that way!

thank you so much for stopping by!

Day 2 #thedailymarker30day

here is my day 2 of the challenge...I find I get better results if I mix my alcohol markers and use my colored pencils for shading and added texture

thanks for taking a peek!

art journal share

Good morning my crafty friends, as you can see from my posts lately I've been doing a lot of crafty challenges like the 30 color challenge and also the push your boundaries challenge (art journal), that's what I wanted to share with you today.  I'm gonna show what I've done so far starting with the latest one...

Number 7 Mystical- the first thing I thought of was A UNICORN hehe I love unicorns! but I just happen to have a brand new stamp from inkon3 that came from my design team bundle from Scrapsalot shop that would be perfect for this...

I'm not going to go into detail on each one...but if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment/message for me and I'll answer!


Number 6 light

 Number 5 memory

 Number 4 vintage

 Number 3 music

 number 2 collage

 Number 1 Beauty

 thanks for coming to take a peek...Make sure you check out the Scrapsalot shop she has some great deals!

So it begins!!

The 30 Day Coloring Challenge has just started! I took part in the last one and learned so many new techniques and made a couple new crafty friends along the way.


 Day 1:

 I used colored pencils on the pup and cut and distress inks for the brick wall

 thanks for stopping by.

Who's ready for the beach?

I was super excited when my design team package from Scrapsalot came this for this month...it had all sorts of cool things from Hero Arts...and for today's project, I got to use a couple of them lets start with this awesome stamp set from Hero Arts called color layering waves...It's so cool and really simple to line up and even if you don't line it up just right no one will notice its the beach the waves don't match up LOL
 Normally with a layering stamp, you need three (or however many layers your set has) different shades of the same color ..in this case, blue...hmm that was a problem for me...I don't own a whole lot of inks, I'm lucky to even have a one blue LOL

 so I dug through ALL of my inks and found some really old and really generic blues...they came with a stamp set off amazon like 3 years ago let's just say they didn't work LOL so I went back and pull these out...I wasn't sure about the cracked pistachio but I figured tropical places have greenish blue water...so now we have water...

 I masted off the water to add my blotchy (so it would look a bit cloudy) sky ...used the same salty ocean and then I used a light blending of walnut stain and marker for the beach...

I found the white rub-on in my stash while I was looking for something else and thought they would look nice.. I used one of the sentiments from the set "enjoy the beach life" and I heat embossed it with

this cool Embossing Powder looks just like sand!! It's from Hero arts and its called sand Sand (of course LOL)
well, there you have it a super long explanation of a really simple card!

Supplies used from Scrapsalot
 Hero arts~color layering waves
Embossing Powders~Hero arts Sand
Distress Oxide Cracked Pistachio
Salty Ocean Distress Mini Ink Pad

Stamping Platform by Tim Holtz
Lawn fawn paper

Thanks for coming by