Hello, friends! Here's a little bit about life right now: What are you wearing? I bought this black kimono for $5 with plans to do something to it. But I can't decide what? Paint it? Sew something on it? Embroidery? What have you bought? I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I just bought the Sweet Sugarbelle Magnetic Stencil Frame. It's supposed to make stenciling on cookies easier. I'm looking forward to trying it out! What are you reading? One of my resolutions at the beginning of the year was to replace my phone with a book.... Read more →

This year for my Mom's birthday, Steve managed to get tickets to see Hamilton: The Musical. He asked me to make a card that he could slip the tickets into. And so, I did. (In the photos I used photo booth strips instead of the tickets.) I love how it turned out! I think how you give the gift can matter as much as the gift itself. I designed the card in Adobe Illustrator and then I used my ScanNCut to cut it out. But, you certainly could cut it by hand. Or alternately, you don't need the lacy bits.... Read more →

You've been asking for it and now it's finally here! The ScanNCut Foil Transfer Starter Kit! Yay! The kit comes with everything you need to get started foiling with your ScanNCut. It works with all models of the ScanNCut and the DesignNCut. Here are some of the designs that come with the kit (use the activation card to access them): But don't forget, you can foil almost any design you'd like to. In the video, I use a built-in design from the ScanNCut DX, but you could also use a scanned image! Watch the video for the how to: Here... Read more →

The good folks at Ranger invited me to participate in the 2019 Ranger Designer Challenge, featuring Dina Wakley Pouring Medium. Before I even opened my box, I watched this video about it from Dina: I had done some paint pouring before -- mostly dirty pours with Matte Medium -- so I was super excited to try out Dina' version. Here is the piece I made for the challenge: I used a lot of foam adhesive in order to create dimension on the piece: I really like the way this piece turned out, although I have to confess that it feels... Read more →

One of the most common questions I get asked is, "Where do you find inspiration?" I've given a lot of different answers because I've drawn inspiration from a vast number of places over the years. But I realize now that the fact of the matter is: I'm inspired by living my life. Huh? I think artistic inspiration has to be part of who you are; the things you like already. For instance, I like looking at fashion pictures. Therefore I find lots of the patterns and colors and textures in fashion exciting and interesting and inspiring. Someone else might have... Read more →

I'm back from Creativation -- aka the craft industry's annual industry-only trade show. This year I planned ahead and Mom and I did half the podcast before our trip and half the podcast after our trip. I get pretty deep into some thoughts on the state of the industry in this one. I hope you enjoy it! If you do not see the podcast player above, please click on this link. You can listen to a podcast anywhere and at any time. It is a recording that is available to you whenever you'd like to listen. If you'd like to... Read more →

I wanted to share more of the #CarveDecember fun with you! Today I'm sharing days 24, 25, 26 & 27. The days right around Christmas are always very interesting when it comes to making time to carve a stamp! The prompt on day 24 was "crow." This was my interpretation: If you receive this blog via e-mail and can't see the image above, click on the title of the blog post to be taken to my blog where you can view the images. And here are some other interpretations of the word, "crow." The prompt for day 25 was "Christmas."... Read more →

I recently completed a painting that I love and I wanted to share it with you! I was interested in creating a face with lots and lots of texture. I wanted to see if I could push the face so that it's "off" but still reads as a face. For example, the lips are in the wrong place. On purpose. The eyes don't match. On purpose. And so on. I used some iridescent paint in this piece. Thus, the photos above and below are very different (because of the light). You can see the texture on this piece in these... Read more →

I wanted to pop in and share more of the #CarveDecember fun with you! Today I'm sharing days 20, 21, 22 & 23. The prompt on day 20 was "jungle." This was my interpretation: If you receive this blog via e-mail and can't see the image above, click on the title of the blog post to be taken to my blog where you can view the images. And here are some other interpretations of the word, "jungle." The prompt for day 21 was "candle." This is my interpretation: And here are some other interpretations of the word, "candle." The prompt... Read more →

Thanks for all your kind words about my new stencil release with The Crafter's Workshop. Here are the last six designs: This one is called "Love Frame" and I love it so much that I went super simple with my sample for Creativation. I simply sprayed some spray ink over it...and yum! You'll notice that it's the opposite way from the picture of the stencil. Never forget that stencils are reversible! As long as there's no text, you can use them either way! This stencil is called "Plaid Fringe." At first I was thinking of a piece of burlap when... Read more →