Altenew’s Kid Colorpalooza

 Hi!  I’m just popping in to share my daughter’s entry to the Altenew Colorpalooza Contest, #Altenew #Altenewkids.  Thanks for checking it out!

Trying my Hand Again

Hello again!

I'm not really sure why this time of year has me itching for posting on my blog again, but it seems to be a thing for the past couple of years.  I feel so sad to think that this blog has been so quiet for so long.  For so many years this blog was like another baby to me, in which I poured my crafty soul out to the world.  I had hit such an all time crafting high over a year and a half ago, but then suddenly it all started to become overbearing.  Crafting became more like a second job, and with working full time outside of the house, running my two very active children to all of their activities, coaching competition cheer for the first time, I no longer had any me time... crafting for fun was not... well... fun.  Then the pandemic hit, and I took a bit of a seat to crafting and sharing.  I still crafted occasionally, but not anything like I had in the past.  Nothing came naturally anymore, and so I was at a loss with my art.  I focused more on my family, more on myself, more on moving and building a new house.

Speaking of new house, I now have a dedicated craft space!  I am oh so lucky!  I will share pictures soon, as it is still a work in progress and I still wish to purchase a few more things before I share the whole space.  But I LOVE IT!  It has big beautiful windows, and two smaller windows on the side. ( I thrive on windows and sun )  And I am slowly dipping my toes back into the crafty blog world again.  Posts will not be as often as they once were, but I'm hoping to get back into the routine of sharing my art with all of you, and being inspired by your artwork as well!  I've still visited many crafting sites, while taking my break and left my comments, but I'm excited to be inspired by other blogs again and join in challenges and more!  I'm also hoping to get back into my original paper crafting love of scrapbook pages.  I miss having those sweet memories to flip through, and for my children to look through and ask questions or share stories.  

Alas, I've probably shared more information than you might have been expecting when you stumbled upon this page, but I hope you will take a moment to see the card I've created as a jumping point back into the papercrafting world.

I found my inspiration from the Altenew April 2021 Inspiration Challenge.  

The colors were not colors I would typically think to put together, but I really wanted to try putting them together.  To create my card I used a fun mix of Altenew products including:

Altenew Aztec Motif Stencil

Altenew Precious Moments

Altenew Striped Florals

I really like when crafters use tone on tone, especially with colored cardstock.  Again, this is something I admire of others, but seldom try myself so I decided to give it a go.  Since I was going to use colored cardstock for my background I chose to stamp my images onto colored cardstock as well.  The great thing about stamping on colored cardstock, especially with floral images is that half the coloring is done for you! ha!  I then used my Spectrum Noir Classique Alcohol Markers to add more depth to the stamped images.  Please keep in mind it has been quite sometime since I've colored in stamped images, and so my shading is not quite as accurate as one would hope, but I was just proud of myself for following through with my original idea.  Never missing a chance to add sparkle whenever possible I used my Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen in Crystal Clear to color over my flowers, and oh how I love that pen!  Once I heat embossed my sentiment onto black cardstock I began layering my elements up from the stenciled background, flowers and leaves, sentiment, and a final touch with a mix of flat back pearls and rhinestones.

I am also linking this card up to the Shopping Our Stash: Plant Life Challenge

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog, and I do hope you'll come back!  Next time I promise not to have such a long winded opening to my post lol.  

Have a great rest of your day, and Happy Crafting!

Lisa

Always Happy Layout

Hello crafty friends!  I hope all is finding you well.  I'm happy to say I have been able to venture into my craft room again, and this time I created something I haven't done in more than a year... a layout! I have been wanting to create layouts again for quite some time, but I have had such a craft block lately and I wasn't quite sure where to start with making a layout again.

So I turned to several challenges that helped get the ball rolling, and this is what I created...

To create my layout I used a mix of Pinkfresh Studio products (many that come from older collections such as Up in the Clouds: their very first paper collection). 

I was inspired by the Pinkfresh Studio Challenge:

As well as the Scrap Our Stash Challenge: "Feelings"  The Feeling I chose was Happy! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope to be back with more crafty projects soon!
Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Altenew Love Again

Hello!  I'm back, and again I'm sharing my love for Altenew by playing with a mix of their stamps and dies.

To create this card I started by diecutting Altenew's Garden Picks 3D Dies in various watercolor patterned papers.  I happened to have this frame already cut and in my die stash so I added some drawn on lines in black.  I popped all of this up onto black cardstock.  I then added two strips of different washi tape down the side.  For the sentiment I used Altenew's Beautiful Quotes Stamp Set.

Today I'm linking this up to the Simon Says Stamp Wed. Challenge: Anything Goes

Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Crafting!
Lisa

Long Time No See

 Hello crafty friends!  Wow, it has been a long long time since I've posted on here.  That's not to say that I haven't been crafting during my personal blog silence, quite the opposite.  I simply ran out of time to post any of my creations here.  So much of my crafting was for Design Teams and trying to meet so many requirements, on top of going back to work full time, coaching a competition cheer team, keeping up with household demands, and running my kids to all of their extracurricular activities... well I guess you get the point... I was just too busy to add anything else in.  And that included crafting for fun... that almost sounds like an oxymoron in a way, but here I am!  

Recently I've found myself Design Team less (the first time in 8 years!), teaching my kids and nephews from home, and quarantined to our house.  It has definitely taken me a moment to get use to this new, slower life, but I think I've found a schedule that is working.  I've already gone through many of my craft supplies and purged, so I finally took a deep breath and created something just for fun.  I also have to give credit to a few challenges that helped me jump back into the swing of things, and had me excited to just play.

The first challenge I joined was the Altenew March Inspiration Challenge.   

I loved the colors on here, and while my colors came out a bit brighter than the ones in the above photo I did use the leafy image as inspiration to play with the Retro Plantines Stamp Set.

The sentiment I've used is from the Sohcahtoa Stamp Set, and for colors I used my Altenew Watercolor Set.

I am also linking this card up with the Simon Says Stamp Wed. Challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you for making it this far in my post, and for taking a moment to visit me after such a long absence.

Crafty Hugs,

Lisa

Just a Note...

to say I'm over on the Crafty Doodle Chick Blog today! Yay!!!  I've gone bright, bold and fun with my project and I'm hoping you can stop by to check it out!

Happy Crafting!

Lisa

Some Kind of Wonderful...

Happy Friday friends!  Ohio has had lovely weather lately ( not including today which is rainy and a bit chilly lol ), and with all of the flowers popping up in my yard I couldn't help but to create a floral card with newer Altenew goodies from the Crafty Doodle Chick Store...

You can find my full post and project over on the Crafty Doodle Chick Blog and I do hope you will get a few moments to stop by and check it out!

Happy Crafting!

Lisa