Peaceful

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I'm here today with a peaceful peek at the new Hero Arts Kit tomorrow! I would encourage you to bookmark this one because it will go fast. The theme should be pretty obvious by now but there are some suprises waiting for you! 

The water is a stunning new background stamp you will see here tomorrow, and I've kept most of the rest of the kit a secret today except for a peek of the beautiful fonts and sentiments and the surfboard that gives away the theme. For the sand, I just tore two pieces of cardstock for a little dune to nest the board in. If you love hibiscus, you're going to want to clear your calendar, ahem DANA because there are some beauties. The water background is a stunning new add-on. 

I'll see you back here tomorrow with my projects and a video using the kit! In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend! Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
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Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Masked Sentiment Collage + Meatball Recipe

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

It's Monday - AGAIN! How have we not cured this yet?? It's like we're not even trying.

I spent most of the weekend cooking. I made six pounds of meatballs - most for the freezer - two pounds of a new to me carnitas recipe, and we ground a few pounds of homemade sausage. This was our first sausage experiment, and it wasn't all that great so we will keep trying. Like art, perfection is for serial killers - recipe development takes a willingness to fail and learn. The meatballs and carnitas were delightful, so I'm happy with that - I'm including the meatball recipe below. For the carnitas, we used Chef John's recipe - you can find it on YouTube here - but we used 1/4 of the cinnamon, omitted the five spice and we didn't have any lime, which we feel like we need next time, but it was delicious!

But what this means is I DO NOT HAVE TO COOK THIS WEEK! Pretty much my favorite during this all cooking all the time pandemic. So I will have a little more time for art and sending cards. 

I did get some art time in though! I spent a little time looking up different kinds of emperor moths before settling on an eyecatching color palette for this stunning moth image. The photos I used were of golden emperor moths, and on the way to finding my moth, I fell down a hilarious internet rabbit hole where enough people were convinced that a toy felted moth was a real moth that there's a whole Snopes page about it! Hilarious. 

Anyway, after stamping, coloring and die cutting my moth, I took some beautiful wrapping paper that my friend Carole Anne sent me with a gift, and I inked the edges in Warm Cocoa, and splattered it with Hero Arts gold ink. I die cut a Warm Cocoa moth too and backed my moth with a drop shadow. The new Master Layouts dies make the perfect sized panel for triple layering the card front!! Such a sweet scallop and I have serious plans for the postage die. I love the encouraging sentiments from this second new set and I cut a banner with one of them for the sentiment.

For the second card, I thought I would do a masked sentiment collage with this stunning floral set. I was thinking there's enough of each sentiment peeking out to let you see the theme of encouragement and friendship, that I'd mask the gorgeous flower and stamp the sentiments partially over it. My original plan for this card was to color the flower yellow, but after I masked the flower and ink blended sea glass ink around it, when I pulled up the mask I LOVED just the crisp black and white, so I decided to leave well enough alone! What do you think? I added three sequins (they aren't as blue as they look in this photo - sorry!) but other than that it's a one layer card. 

Here are all the supplies I used on this card, and then stay tuned for meatballs!

January Gina K Release [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Warm... [ GNK ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- Warm... [ GNK ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Sea... [ GNK ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- Sea... [ GNK ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Blending Brush Stand - Stamp-n-Storage [ S&S ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Storage Envelopes, Medium 25pk,... [ ELH ] CheckOutStore Stamp & Die Clear... [ CHC ] Extra Large -50 pk, Avery Elle Stamp... [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Did you see the new brush storage from Stamp-n-Storage, speaking of ink blending?

My meatball recipe is here. I do not use bread or cheese in my meatballs - the sauteed veggies are the perfect binder and add so much flavor.

Do you meal prep? If so what are your freezer favorites? I tend to do proteins in the freezer because they are easy to add veggies and pantry staples to.

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

You Light Up a Room! + Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I'm here today with a super fun zombie card that lights up!! I'm completely addicted to zombies, as you know - and now I'm addicted to these lights! All you have to do is pop a battery in before you use them on your card and they are good to go. Perfect for any non-engineering gifted people like me, who also love zombies in lightning storms! (unique combo, I know)

I put my zombies and gravestones from this set in this retro TV set die and then drew some lightning. I picked three light points and punched holes, which I then backed with Duralar, and I taped the lights behind those. 

Then I just wrote "ON" on a circle over the TV button on the die cut and you can see the lights in action below! So fun.

Here are all the supplies I used today:

CM478 Graveyard HeroScape - Hero Arts [ HA ] DI812 Graveyard HeroScape Frame Cuts... [ HA ] DI702 1950s Television Fancy Die (D)... [ HA ] Pearblossom Press EZ-Lights [ PRB ] Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight Pens and... [ BLIC ]

And here's a fun blog hop with Hero & Pear Blossom! WITH giveaways - $50 from each! Winners will be announced on the Pear Blossom Press site on February 6th, so be sure and comment!

Pear Blossom Press

Kelly Latevola Taylor

Carissa Wiley

Lynnea Hollendonner

Niccole Kulig

Daniel West

Lydia Fiedler

Ilina Crouse

Maria Willis 

Mindy Eggen

Dana Joy

Seeka

Libby Hickson

Pocono Pam

Hero Arts

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

VIDEO: Mini Boards with Hand Carved Wood Stamps

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

For this month's Gel Press video, I did a super fun collection of little artist trading stamps, using Indian carved wood stamps, Splash Inks and the Postage Infinity dies! The little people from A Walk in the Park and More for A Walk in the Park are perfectly sized for these fun little stamps! I used this set, which has some perfect postal items in it, for the words. And I threw in one freaking adorable little bee from this set. These are going to be so fun to give away or abandon! The video for the mini board concept for how I created these is below. 

Don't forget to sign up for my online Gel Press workshop in February! (it doesn't matter if that date is a conflict, because it's all online!) If you sign up today you will get two of the supply items mailed to you, but the cutoff for that is today because the mail is so crazy right now! 

And here's the video - click HERE if you don't see a player below.

Here are the simple supplies I used.

Gel Press 5 x 7 REUSABLE GEL PRINTING... [ SSS ] Yasutomo - Niji Splash Ink - (4 per... [ FRN ] DI345 Nesting Postage Stamps Infinity... [ HA ] CM510 Bee the Queen - Hero Arts [ HA ] DI861 Bee the Queen Frame Cuts (C) -... [ HA ] Clear Stamps- Stately Flowers 11 -... [ GNK ] A Walk in the Park – Picket Fence... [ PFS ] A Walk in the Park Coordinating Die –... [ PFS ] More for A Walk in the Park... [ PFS ] More for A Walk in the Park – Picket... [ PFS ] Indian Wood Print Stamp Blocks for... [ ETS ]

I hope you have a great weekend lined up! 

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

One Layer Simplicity!

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I'm a clean and simple girl at heart when I'm not being a chaotic mixed media artist!

For my cards, I do tend to go home to the one layer white space type card, so that's what I'm bringing you today.

I stamped the main image from this stamp set  in Fadeout Ink - and the beauty of Fadeout is you don't need to mask! I stamped the vase, and then stamped the flowers and leaves on top of it, knowing my coloring would obscure the overlap - so simple!

I colored the images with Graphit Markers (coupon in footer) and then accented it with colored pencils.

I did mask the bottom of the vase to stamp the wood table image, and then I did some distressed stenciling in the background to make it look like wallpaper. This actually looks a lot like an antique pitcher my mother in law gave me!

Simon Says Clear Stamps MAGNOLIA... [ SSS ] Picket Fence Studios TALL GRASS AND... [ SSS ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] Gina K Designs WARM GLOW AMALGAM Ink... [ SSS ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils and... [ BLIC ] My Sweet Petunia [ MSP ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

I hope you've had a great week - we're almost through it!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE