Hello all, hope this post finds you well.  

Today I am sharing a card I made for the Impression Obsession Flowers for Friends challenge.  

I started my card by stamping my image with IO black ink.  The image is the IO Rambling Rose.  

Then I colored my image with copic markers. The flowers are colored with just two markers.  

R85, R83

The leaves are colored with three colors. 

YG00, R83 and R 89.

Once I finished coloring, I fussy cut around the leaves on the right side and trimmed off the white paper.  I think leaving some leaves hanging over the edge gives the flowers a more realistic look.  I wanted to keep my flowers as the focal point for the card. 

I adhered patterned paper to the card base, then used foam tape to pop the center image up.  

I finished the card by adding this sentiment from the IO Layered Pinecone set.  

I am also playing along with the 30 day coloring challenge.  

To learn more about the challenge visit The Daily Marker by clicking here.  

I hope you find time to stamp and color soon! 

Affiliate links are used

Layered Pinecone Shop at: Unity | IO	Black Shop at: IO	Melon Shop at: IO	Copic Sketch Markers Shop at: DB
Misti Shop at: Amazon	cut align ruler Shop at: Amazon	Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX Die-namics Shop at: stamps	Rambling Roses Shop at: IO

Feel Better Flowers

Hello, Today I woke up feeling good.  I cherish those days! The first day in a long time I felt like I could get out and get some fresh air.  So we are calling this a reset.  I had been working through the Couch to 10K app.  I was on week 11, but after having some down time I am not finding it easy to pick up where I let off.  So now I need to determine if I should keep working on week 11 or do a restart.  I am not a runner so no matter what it's going to be hard.  What do you do to keep your heart and mind healthy? How do you stay motivated, even when your body is being a slacker? 

I would love to hear from you.  

Misti is up this week hosting the CAS challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.   Her challenge is Under the Weather.  Her challenge is to make a get well or use weather as part of your card.  I chose to go with a feel better soon.  As flu season is seems to be hanging on I figured I'll likely need a card soon.  

If you would like to play along upload your card in the Splitcoast Stampers gallery and link your card to the CAS522 thread here.  

I started this card by first cutting the die cut for this stamp set, then I used my Misti to stamp the image with perfect alignment.  The Misti makes it so easy!  I colored the image with copic markers.  For the background I used a MFT stencil to lightly sponge the background, then cut it using a MFT die.  I love this die.  The I just needed to layer the background and flower on a white card base.  I use a sentiment and die from Technique Tuesday to finish my card.  

I'm also playing along with this months inspiration challenge on the Altenew blog. 
Just click the image below to see the challenge post. 

I chose to use just the floral sprig as my inspiration and inked up my new Altenew stamps. Flowers are just my thing so I hope to do some more cards for this inspiration challenge.  

I hope you get some stamping time today and I hope you can play along with any of this weeks challenges on SCS or the Altenew inspiration challenge.  

Affiliate links are used

Black Shop at: IO	Melon Shop at: IO	Copic Sketch Markers Shop at: DB	sponge daubers Shop at: Amazon
Misti Shop at: Amazon	cut align ruler Shop at: Amazon	Dotted Blooms Stamp & Die Bundle Shop at: stamps	Technique Tuesday Shop at: stamps
Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX Die-namics Shop at: stamps

Beautiful You!

 If no one has told you lately, you are beautiful! Heart and soul you are the best you you can be.  So keep up being you!  

I've been coloring along with the #30daycoloring challenge. If you want to know more about it visit Kathy's awesome blog by clicking here.  I haven't completed a project every day but I've done all kinds of coloring, from alchol markers to water color scenes.  

This is one of the cards I made for the coloring challenge.  I only used two colors of copic markers.  CAS yet totally stunning!

I started by stamping with Impression Obession alcohol ink, using my Misti it's super easy stamping a perfect image every time!  

I then colored with copic markers.  Just around the stamen to represent a white flower.  And the leaves tot a touch of green.  My Lamy fountain pen matched perfectly.  

I mounted the card front on coordinating paper.  

And to finish the card I just tied with some twine.  

This card was for a Splitcoast Stampers image swap.  I colored this cute little guy and made the card base using the Cut Align ruler. Worked great! 

Ellen Hutson Stamp 

Affiliate links are used

Black Shop at: IO	Copic Sketch Markers Shop at: DB	Misti Shop at: Amazon	cut align ruler Shop at: Amazon

Morning coffee to go, please!

Good morning! 

I have a confession to make.....

I don't drink coffee! Like can't stand the taste.  Although I love the smell of most coffees.  

Give me tea any day.  And give me a cute cup to drink it in and I'm all about it! So I'm just going to pretend these cute little cups are filled with my favorite tea and are ready to help get my day started. 

Every month a group of SplitCoast Stapers swaps card kits.  This month kit was from Barb.  Barb sent us this super cute to go cup from Unity Stamps.  

I colored my cups with copic markers.  And of course added this set to my wish list.   

I love how the background of this one turned out.  It just feels nice and warm to me! 

And this one reminds me of how cold winter is.  

Thanks Barb for a fun kit!  

And thanks all for stopping by today.  

Have a warm and cozy day! 

Simply CAS

HELLO my sweet friends.  I hope your are still hanging in there if you are in the midst of the winter doldrums. I am feeling for you as I am feeling it as well. I'm so ready for spring so of course I pulled out some pretty spring flowers to color.  I took on two mediums with the exact same layout.  Water colors gave me bright and beautiful yellow blooms and alcohol markers on kraft gave me a muted more subtle look.  I love them both and had two completed cards in less then 30 minutes.  

To start I used impression obsession black ink, and then just the sentiment I added a layer of Versamark then embossed with clear embossing powder. 

For my first card I used the wonderful liquid watercolor paints I picked up on clearance last year.  I am in awe at how pretty and vibrant the colors are and how well they blend.   Makes me want the entire set! It's Brea Reese Cadmium Yellow Glitter.  I painted the area I wanted to color, then I just added the color towards the center of the flower and let it blend out on it's on.  So quick and easy.  And looks so sparkly and pretty.  

For this card I started with the same image, just a little different placement.  Heat embossed the sentiment.  I colored using copic markers.  Super quick and easy for a perfect card that is mail friendly with no bumps or baubles to worry about.  

I played along with the SCS challenges TLC730, CC726, CAS521

The stamps are 

ESSENTIALS BY ELLEN CLEAR STAMPS, MONDO SAKURA BY JULIE EBERSOLE

The die is MFT. 

Affiliate links are used

Black Shop at: IO	Copic Sketch Markers Shop at: DB	Sticky all over notes Shop at: Amazon	Misti Shop at: Amazon
Strathmore Watercolor Cards Shop at: Amazon	Brea Reese 30817 Glitter Ink Cadmium Yellow Shop at: Amazon	Clear embossing powder Shop at: Amazon	water color paper Shop at: Amazon

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope you had a lovely day with all those that mean the most to you! 

Are you a traditionalist with candy and flowers? Do you do anything special today? 

We tend to just go out to dinner but don't exchange gifts.  

This is our second Valentine's Day in Texas, we did the exact same thing we did last year.  We went to our local watering hole, where they have the best craw-fish and had dinner. It's not the kind of place you need to dress up for.  It's more of the kind of place with torn seats and if the area was smaller everyone would know your name. We have a favorite waitress, but I think she is the only one that recognizes us.   Then we walked down the street to a new ice-cream and candy store to try some of their chocolate.  We were home by 8. 

I made a few cards for Valentines Day this year and invited the neighborhood to come and join me for a card class.  I had an awesome time!  This is the group that came to make cards. 

And a few shots of everyone in action.

The kids were the first to finish their cards! 

I made 4 card kits and everyone could choose 2-3 cards to complete.  

These are the cards we made.  

This is an adorable Penny Black image.  I colored with a combination of copics and colored pencils.  

And this is a cute stamp set from Sugar Pea Designs.  I colored with puppies with colored pencils and the shadow is copic markers.  

Thanks for visiting me today and have a wonderful Valentine's Day!