Hello there! Happy New Year to all of you. 2015 was a really busy year with many great and not so great things. Pretty much just a normal summary of Life. 

For 2016 I have a few resolutions. 

• My One Little Word this year is "relax"; I would like to get this hand-lettered and framed so that I can remember to take a step back and enjoy what is actually going on around me; and also as a reminder to work smarter and not harder
• I am going to card and blog more in 2016; and it's really not hard to do seeing what a lack luster job I did last year. However, when I get together with my favorite girls and craft all weekend I realize how much I miss this.
• To make sure I get a balance of things done that I want to get done for *myself*, I'm going to try bullet journaling; if it works out, I might post it on here (you see what i did there? very non-committal...;) 

It is Fusion's Second Birthday and their design team member Betty invited me along. So make sure to stop by the Fusion Card Challenge blog and leave some hugs and love on their blog for continuing this inspiration challenge.

I finally broke and got my first supplies of Winnie & Walter stamps and am so smitten with their designs. And when I received my beautiful shipment of stamps, it was all wrapped up with a nice personalized tag and a little small surprise. Small businesses that really care about the details really impress me. And it's not like this is the first stint; they have been around since 2013, I believe? What a lovely company, and I hope to meet Julie & Shay one day (and their cute dogs).

For me, getting back into making that first cards is always difficult to make, especially when I haven't crafted in a long time. It's being a newbie all over again. But that's why sketch and inspirations prompts are great to get my creative juices flowing in a focused direction.

This card is also inspired and in memory of my dear friend Leslie (aka The Crooked Stamper) who I love with all my heart.

Supplies
will be updated

Share Handmade Kindness

Hello Blogland... It's high time to dust off the three foot of dust that has accumulating. I haven't touched this blog in months, it almost feels like learning how to ride a bike again. But thanks to Google's intuitive WYSIWYG interface, it's not too bad (minus the photo editing...coughcough).

Thanks to my brilliant, honest friend Leslie I found the courage to dig this old blog up and make a re-appearance. She pointed me to this great page called Blogging without Obligation. And I love how Leslie reminded me that if I feel like jumping in I should just jump back in, and not blog for the sakes of blogging. Or feel like I need to apologize. Or feel guilty. Or obligated to explain. Or feel overwhelmed or anxious to start again ... or whatever reason there may be...?

So here is my one reason to resurface...

Have you heard of this Jennifer McGuire? I'm sure you have. If not, go check out her blog and her Instagram feed. I'm so lucky to be able to say that I have met her a handful of times now, and she is truly one of the most kindest, generous and humblest person I know. Not to mention funny and wise and open to share any good advice. This #sharehandmadekindness campaign really embodies who she is as a person and I absolutely love how she is using the reach of her audience to create an impact - to spread more kindness, more caring, more love, and to bring awareness to the Kind Campaign - a campaign to end bullying. Yes!

Thank you for doing this, Jennifer. Thank you for infecting us to share kindness through our craft. 

She's also packed up some kits made with love and these two stamp sets from Hero Arts are quickly becoming my go-to sets. They are sitting out here and have been winking at me to get my craft back on. And for every purchase made of these stamp sets, 25% of the profits go to the Kind Campaign.

Pssst - Simon Says Stamps has them in stock.

Here is my card using this stamp set

I felt inspired to play along in Ka's Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge. Here is the board in case you haven't seen it and want to play along as well.

I chose OneLayer - Embossing - Kraft; right down the middle. One Layer cards are always a challenge for me, but I thought I would add interest by building lots of layers onto the card. I heat-embossed the white sentiment onto the card and then started adding layers: stamped Distress Ink Tea-Dye across the card, added layer of acrylic white paint, followed by stenciling small brown hearts by scattering them across the card. I also added some shadow into the sentiment with the Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Dust Gold pen and liked how that turned out; to add more gold accents I added a few more gold hearts using the stencil again and then wiped a bit of Viva Decor Champagne as a small shimmery finish.

I find One-layer cards super challenging but I love how they carry in the mail :) I'm off to send this card to a friend...

Supplies
Stamps: (Acts of Kindness) Hero Arts
Paper: (Kraft) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Hero Hues Pigment Ink - Unicorn) Hero Arts; (Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Tea-dye) Ranger 
Embellishments: (Artists' Acrylics Basic Color Set - Titanium White) Utrecht; (Zig Wink of Stella Fine Glitter Dust - Gold) Kuretake; (Precision Pen 01 - Brown) American Crafts; (6x6 Stencil - Tiny Spaced Hearts) Simon Says Stamps; (Inka Gold - Champagne) Viva Decor

[Uniko Studio] June 2014 Release - Release Day

Hello Uniko Studio fans - are you ready for the big day? Uniko Studio is releasing four fabulous stamp sets today. Here are the four in it's entirety.

Hopefully you're hopping over from Nicki's fabulous creations... if not, start at the beginning at Bev's blog, because you don't want to miss out on prizes and inspirations.

First up, Classic Alphabet set, where the frames can be use by itself to make a pattern, or to use with the alphabet to make monogrammed, personalized cards. Or just spell out fun things (see project for today).

Then English Country Garden - Butterflies is another lovely must-have. The largest butterfly measures 2.75" x 2" whereas the small ones measure 1.5" x 1".

Flower Power #5 is the newest family member to the Flower Power series, and I love the series of Thank You sentiments. Wouldn't it pair up nicely with the frame from the Classic Alphabet set?

The last and one of the most stunning sets Bev has ever designed is a beautiful hummingbird image. The bird measures 3.5" x 2.75" and there are two wonderful sentiments to go along with this set. The flowers can easily be used to also create a beautiful background pattern.

So for today's Design Team blog hop, I have created a simple card using the Classic Alphabet set. And I decided to jump onto the nautical trend...



So here is very straight forward card with some washi, die cutting some circles and stamping the frame out. It's easy enough to fill in the border of the frame to give the frame and alphabets a different look. And when in doubt, just add Wink of Stella.



You are off to *amazing* *talented* *i wanna be her when i grow up* Taheerah ;)

Here the entire blog list in its entirety for easy of navigation...

• Amber
• Erika
• Gillian
• N@ Ali
• Nicki
• Ren-Yi
• Taheerah
• Guest Designer Lynn

Remember that Bev is going to draw prizes. You have until 11:59p BST Jun 15 to comment. 

(I'll add a supply list by the end of the week - things have just been super crazy here - thanks for understanding)

[Uniko Studio] Challenge No. 9 - Thinking of You

Hi everyone - It's time for another Uniko Studio challenge. And I love this month's color combo. Isn't it gorgeous?

Photo Credit: Design Seed

And our theme this week is Thinking of You. I haven't had a chance to pull out Flower Power #4 and give it a spin, so this challenge is just the perfect thing.



I decided to stamp a background with the silhouette stamp in both Lilac Posies and Blush ink. I then splattered the background with some Mister Huey Calico White. I also colored in the spaces with watered done Mister Huey Aqua mists to give it a more playful look. The colors are really faint, but you can see it in the next close-up picture.



The sentiment embossed using a label maker and I decided to mat the whole card on black to match it. I like how the aqua strip grounds the sentiment a little more. Small strips of paper can be a gold mine - so don't toss those away so readily.

Please also check out the rest of the girl's cards and leave them a sweet comment or two. Remember you don't have to use all the colors - any or all as an inspiration.

Lastly, a few helpful things to remember:

• Challenge ends Jun 14th, 2014, 11:59p BST; Check back for the winners after
• Prize is £10 Gift Certificate to the random Winner & a Guest Design spot on our following challenge
• Three people will win a spotlight
• We would like you to use a Uniko Studio product; If you don't have any, check out the freebies here

I hope to see you play along, so that I can pop in on your lovely blogs! See you soon.

*Memento Luxe Ink Pad LILAC POSIES Tsukineko	*Mama Elephant BLUSH Creative Color Ink Pad Me-BLU	Perfect Match True Black Cardstock (50 sheets)	Perfect Match Aqua Mist Cardstock (50 sheets)
Paper Basics - Vintage Cream Cardstock (50 Sheets)	Flower Power #4 Clear Stamps	*Studio Calico OPAQUE WHITE Mister Huey's Color Mists 101100	*Studio Calico MINT JULEP Mister Huey's Color Mists 331086
*K&Company LABEL MAKER REFILL Smash 30-664616 New 2012	*K&Company LABEL MAKER Smash 30-664609 New 2012

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[Little Tangles] Challenge #36 - Color Challenge: Peach & Mint

Hi there! I have a special post up here today. I'm invited to guest design over at Little Tangles today and they have a fun color challenge today.

Aren't those colors gorgeous? Peach & Mint - just in time for spring. Here is what I whipped up for you guys.



The notecard base is a from Target's Dollar Spot. I stamped Vellum with Versamark and embossed it with White Zing! powder. I also water colored the vellum with Ranger Feathered Peacock. After it tried, I turned around the speech bubble and embossed the other side with this beautiful white script.



The washi tape is a fun little white polka dot peach roll also from the Target Dollar Spot. I just ran it across the speech bubble and trimmed it out using an craft knife. Then I decided to add some darker, water-colored dots to embellish the speech bubble.

Anyways, this was super fun. I miss Little Tangles and it was super fun to whip up some Neat & Tangled goodies. Thank you to Heather and the team for asking me to join them - it's always fun, especially with these talented girls!

*Versamark WATERMARK Rubber Stamp Emboss Chalk Resist INK PAD	*American Crafts Zing! OPAQUE White Embossing Powder	*Neat & Tangled DREAMS Clear Stamp nt18	*Neat & Tangled A LOT TO SAY clear stamps nt07
*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PEACOCK FEATHERS Ranger SPRING	Papertrey Ink - Paper Basics - Stamper's Select Vellum Cardstock (24 Sheets)

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[Uniko Studio] Challenge No. 9 - Easter

Hi everyone - It's time for another challenge, and we're coming up on another big holiday Easter. It's only appropriate to dedicate this challenge to all things springing up and about. I especially love these colors, because they go back and celebrate all the fun colors that are starting to sprout.

Here is this month's color combo...

Photo Credit: Design Seed

Ok I was in dire need for a card to say hello to a dear friend I haven't talked to in a long time. She needs some much cheering on and remind how amazing she is. So here is my card (so not fitting to the theme - I hope you forgive me)



By the way, if you're used to seeing the supply list given here and are thinking "she's gone senile and forgotten to post the supplies," don't fret. I'm finally moving into this century when it comes to blogging, and I'm trying out a Product List using the Inlinkz Project Manager tool. So scroll down to the bottom to check it out. And while you're at it, let me know if you like the old format or new format better. I always eager to hear what you guys think.

I really like how Nature Treasures I can be used to make a fun, messy background. I also decide to use the doilies or flowers from Today, Tomorrow & Always Time to add more layers to the background paper I was making.

Then I cut out the butterflies in duos from some Basic Grey Serenade paper, so that I can stack them onto each other. This gives the butterflies a little bit of more pop off the card. I also wanted to give them some extra shine treatment, so I dabbed each dot from the pattern paper with some Liquid Pearls. This explains why some of the dots aren't quite perfect, but the effect is quite lovely.



Anyways, that's all I have for you. Incidentally, Florian's Teddy was hovering about when I was taking a picture, so I thought it'd be fun to take a picture with him. Here he is wishing everyone a wonderful Easter holiday and reminding you how special each of you are.



Please also check out the rest of the girl's cards and leave them a sweet comment or two. Remember you don't have to use all the colors - any or all as an inspiration.

Lastly, a few helpful things to remember:

• Challenge ends May 14th, 2013, 9:00a BST; Check back for the winners after
• Prize is £10 Gift Certificate to the random Winner & a Guest Design spot on our following challenge
• Three people will win a spotlight
• We would like you to use a Uniko Studio product; If you don't have any, check out the freebies here

I hope to see you play along, so that I can pop in on your lovely blogs! Also let us know what you think of this new format of a challenge. See you soon!

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