Beautiful Blends

Good Morning all!

Back at the crafting desk creating something special for a friend of mine.
In Northern Alberta we have a wonderful support group called Tiny Hands of Hope. It's a very delicate conversation topic as it deals with infant and pregnancy loss, and wanting to bring awareness to it as it's one of those 'don't talk about it' issues- and it should not be.
So a friend of mine is on the board and needing a donation item for a big to-do they have coming up and I am so honored and excited to create something amazing for her- so that will be coming in the near future!
As for today I went into my recent archives to find something fun. As I stated before I quit my full time job in lieu of my current job. There was a month between the two, so noonly did I spend that time in interviews, online applying and pounding the pavement, I found my creative mo-jo again and went nuts making a variety of cards.
So today's creation used a retired Stampin' Up! set called Secret Garden. It's a gorgeous set perfect for blend coloring- so I purchased it when I first got Stampin' Up!'s blendability markers. Unfortunately the markers got recalled due to a manufacturing issue- but copics worked fine in a pinch.
(on topic- make sure to check out the 2018 Stampin' Up! Occasions catalogue as they have fixed that issue and now re-launched them. They have a beautiful array of colors and at a decent price point.)
ANYWAYS the thin outline in these images were also perfect to emboss in Whisper White and do some emboss resist techniques. I found a beautiful card on Pinterest who used the technique as I did for a Christmas card- stamped a border and then smudged various colors over it and had a bold black sentiment in the middle.
So here's my take on it:
I used Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight to do a warm sunset sort of color scheme. Plus the stamp set had coordinating dies so it was fun to create that same technique and just die the pieces out and do a 3D dimension element on the side.

  

I followed the same technique on the inside to bring the inside and outside of the card together. I love doing that so it keeps the same theme and there is interest on the inside of the card.

Well that's it for me! Thanks for stopping by!
~Brandie~

Back at It

Just a quick one today- and though it's quick, and though I've said it before, I do plan on blogging and sharing on a more regular basis. As I've stated, writing and crafting are both passions of mine- passions I have wanted to purue. Not sure how to really make a career out of them, but I know that it wasn't going to happen sitting behind a desk each day to the point of exhaustion where I had no energy to pour into my passions.

This poster popped up on my Facebook newsfeed one day and I just had to post it on my own page. It really spoke to me. I, especially as a woman and especially as a wife and mother, put my own desires on the back burner for so long. I tried to balance work and life and family and business for so long and it was a slow agony.
Something had to give.
So I have quit my full time job and as scary as it is, and as much of a leap of faith as it has been, I feel freer for it.
I have so many plans and ideas and dreams that it's quite intoxicating lol.
Got myself a part time job that frees me up to focus on my passions more. And that excites me more than the telliing of it. 

So with all that said, here's a quick inspiration for any of my followers and fellow stampers:

 These are the "Cheeky Monkeys" from a company called Clearly Besotted. They have the cutest critters I have ever seen. I'll defintely be show casing more of their sets later as someone got spoiled this past Christmas.
So in trying to be unique, I love having cut-away parts on my cards. They add a different sort of dimenssion to cards to make them different than what you'd normally see. So what I did here was cut 2 inches off the front of a standard A2 card and then layered some leaves and random monkey images to cover the cut. It works really well with the inside of the card which does this cute peek-a-boo effect.

Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Crumb Cake Stampin' Up!
Dies: Spellbinders
Stamped Images: Cheeky Monkey- Clearly Besotted


Thanks for stopping by!
~Brandie~