10 YEAR BLOG-IVERSARY!!!!

Welcome, Welcome! Today I am celebrating a BIG milestone...my blog turns 10 today! I can't believe it's been 10 YEARS! What a journey this has been...an amazing journey! I want to share a verse of song with you that I sang in church a few weeks ago that really struck a chord with me (no pun intended); it says" Our talents improve, by the patience of hope and the labor of love." This blog has definitely been a labor of love and I've definitely needed patience of hope many times when I felt like quitting and questioned why I was even continuing keeping up with it. For those of you who have been with me since the beginning, you know of my journey. While I set out to share my love of papercrafting, my life took a course that led away from my ability to share as often as I liked or wanted. I wouldn't trade my beautiful children for the world and I am so grateful for them. Things have gotten easier and I made a New Year's resolution at the beginning of 2017 that I would blog more. Wow! I am so glad that I did! It has been SO MUCH FUN getting back into the creative world and reconnecting with old friends and making new ones!

As I have shared my love of papercrafting this year, I have been introduced to so many new friends, companies, products, etc. Not only that, but I have had so many fun opportunities come my way that I am so grateful for! For a while, I felt like my time had come and gone and that there wasn't a place for me here anymore. That certainly isn't true and I'm happy to say that I didn't let the negativity get the better of me! I would encourage all of you, if you are struggling, to simply press forward! If you feel passion for something, it will always be a part of your life! My life has been so much happier, mentally, as I have taken the time to work on the things that bring me joy. Creating is a central point of my happiness and I am so thrilled to have this little place to call my own where I can share what I love! As a thank you, I am offering a $50 Papertrey Ink Gift Certificate to one of my lucky readers! Leave a comment on how you found my blog and I will draw a winner next Sunday the 21st!

 I thought this sentiment said it perfectly and is from A life she loved from Taylored Expressions. I heat embossed it in white onto a strip of red cardstock. I stamped the paint brush image using black ink onto  a piece of white cardstock and colored it using Copic Markers. After it was colored, I die cut it using the coordinating DIES. I added a little Wink of Stella to the paintbrush handles for some sparkle. Once they were cut, I added them onto a circle of Sea Glass cardstock to help ground the image.

For the background, I ran the Hexagon Die coverplate through my Cuttlebug, but I used the tan embossing pad so that it wouldn't cut, just emboss it. I wanted it to look more like a quilt and I like the embossed lines. After that was done, I ran it through again, but this time cutting it so that I would have the little Hexagons to stamp. I used the coordinating Happy Hexagons stamp set to stamp the images in a variety of colors. I adhered them to the background with foam squares for some dimension.

The entire focal panel was added to an A2 Sea Glass card base. This was such a fun card to make and I appreciate you stopping by today! Thanks for fluttering by!