One of the 4 classes I enjoyed at CHA was "Artful Doodle Lettering" by Joanne Sharpe. She was a joyful person and I enjoyed her simple approach to this kind of lettering. We talked about the possibility of Joanne teaching at Art 'n Soul. Joanne does a lot of online classes as well; you can go to her blog at joannezsharpe.blogspot.com or artfulquiltandstitch.blogspot.com. I saw a couple of her quilt and stitch works in progress and they are gorgeous! She's also an author.

Joanne is also putting an art retreat together in Costa Rica. She said it will be very informal, relaxing and lots of fun! For more information on that, go to this link --  www.resortflamingobeach.com/group/Art-Retreat -- for more information.

this is where Joanne was demonstrating how she blends and applies
color using Tombow markers

One of the products she taught us to use was Nicholson's Peerless Transparent Watercolors. They are DrySheet Colors that are vegetable-based. The packaging says they can be used on paper or photographs. With a damp watercolor brush, Niji brush, or cotton swab, you can watercolor from these sheets; they're the perfect size for traveling! The watercolor sheets are mostly in the primary colors because you can blend the colors for additional colors.

This is what we were attempting to achieve.

by Joanne Sharp

I'm still working my way through hundreds of photos. Stopping by the Elizabeth Crafts Designs' booth, I discovered 3 new colors and 2 new packages of Shimmer Sheetz that are on order and should be here next week.

On the far right, those are the 3 new colors.
On the left and middle, those are the 2 new packages
of assorted Shimmer Sheetz.

I'll have more photos of their new dies by Karen Burniston, and the beautiful cards made by using these dies.

From the Poppystamps blog, a very sweet card from Kimberly Coleman. Memory Box is open catalog at Art 'n Soul right now and that includes stamps and dies from Poppystamps as well!

"Kittens! (click on this link to go to the Poppystamps blog)

Happy Saturday to all! I am super excited about the new Poppystamps release. I love animals and it is full of them. For this card, I chose to play with the kittens. What else is more happy and loving and playful than a boatload (or card-load) of kittens?

Supplies used for this card:

982 - Baby Kittens Die by Poppystamps

985 - Heart Lattice Background Die by Poppystamps

990 - Happy Birthday Background Die by Poppystamps

Red and white adhesive heart embellishments

Cardstock, adhesive (I used a glue pen but any adhesive would likely work well too).

The heart lattice was a great background on which the baby kittens play.  I enjoy using the pieces that fall away from the background dies as well so I chose to use the Happy on the front of the card and have kittens playing around on the letters (that is why I didn't place them purr-fectly across) as kittens are prone to knock things over (at least mine did a few times).  Then I used the script birthday on the inside.  

This card could easily be a Valentine's Card as well.  Simply handwrite or cut-out from our sentiment for the inside.

I hope you are enjoying our blog blitz and we inspire you to get creative with the new Poppystamps dies.  Valentines Day is just around the corner and then Easter so don't wait...create!

Want an extra incentive to come back?  Well, how about the chance to win a free die just for leaving a comment?   For every design team post between January 6 - 19th you have a chance to win one of the new release dies from Poppystamps.  The winner from this post will receive the Baby Kittens die.  All you need to do is comment on the posts where you would like to win a prize and then check back on January 27th to see if you won.  My good friend and our coordinator Jeannie will be posting the winners.  You have until January 24, 2014 to leave your comments.  Best of luck!"

It's very cold and beautiful outside tonight; the stars are glistening in the clear skies. So I shall admit that it is bedtime again -- if I don't quit now, I will be waking up with a laptop pressed to my face. See you tomorrow!