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Heloooo Friends! How has your week been thus far?  I hope you've had nothing but wonderful-ness surrounding you and your loved ones. Our week has been lovely and the weather so-very-promising! I must admit, I'm tickled pink to think about the snow finally being gone. I may or may not have read somewhere recently that our little city saw more snow this previous month than ALL winter long! How crazy is that?  But all of that is about to change, and I am certain that all of these Spring colors I'm surrounding myself with will usher in the sunny skies in no time! And if you've been following this blog for some time, you'll know that will make one very, very happy girl :) Okay, enough about weather now! Today I'm sharing a magical card!  I designed this little number for a very special and sweet little girl in our lives for her upcoming birthday. Oh how I love all the frilly bits and dreamy tones! To start this card, I used a Rustic White cardstock base, and added a...

Today, I'm sharing a card I created with some of my new favorite inks, and below that I've included a feature post on why I  love using them.  I've refrained mentioning them in heavy detail here before now, because I really wanted to make sure they were worthy of getting a shout-out. I'm so pleased to say that after using them over this past year quite extensively, they  definitely  deserve a post of their own :) But before we get to that, here's a quick peek at today's card. I created this little number with just a few supplies because I wanted the inks to really shine here.  I first started with an embossing folder edger to create a subtle texture at the bottom of the card. It's such a great way to add a subtle accent, but if you don't happen to have any embossing folders such as this one, an edger die would work just as well here.  For the floral centerpiece, I used Peonies on Parade and Gran's Garden floral stamps from Papertrey Ink. I honestl...

Hello Dear Friends,  I wanted to stop in and extend a BIG, warm thank you to the incredible response and help in light of this weekend's events.  Just a quick update on where things stand.  Several parcels have gone out in the mail, and a few more are due out today. So far I've counted 24 cards made + spoken for,  and 5 new batches of cards ready to go. Between the direct donations to the Go Fund Me page, and your card purchases, we have reached $600 already!! And I am certain that many of your donations are not even included in this sum (I am simply going off of the incredibly sweet and wonderful e-mails I have received over the past few days). If you have donated, please feel free to send me a note at ivanacamdzicstoicescu@gmail.com , if you want to help me count your donation towards this blog's $1000 goal. This is SUCH an incredible response and I cannot begin to thank you all enough! The stories, kind words, and support I have seen from all of you is more than I...

Hi Friends.  I'm stopping in quickly this morning to share the card we've created in honour of the  heartbreaking loss of the Humboldt Broncos. This was a very difficult card to make. With each stroke of the brush, our hearts were overwhelmed by emotion...Our eyes welling up with tears.  We designed the card to reflect the 29 individuals that were on the bus that day. Each flower representing a life of this group of very special people that will forever remain in our hearts. We connected the flowers with a green wreath in Bronco's team color. A symbol of the team's unity - their everlasting bond, despite this terrible tragedy.  Sequins to capture their sparkling light, which will never be forgotten. And words of comfort, to share with loved ones. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way - through thoughts, prayers, kind words...And thank you everyone who has reached out to help support the families through these cards or directly through the Go Fund Me page....

(image sourced from 980 CJME ) Dear Friends,  It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.  Words cannot describe the feeling of utter heartbreak and pain that our tight-knit Saskatchewan community feels for all the families affected by the tragic bus accident involving the Humboldt Broncos hockey team that occurred Friday afternoon. The news of this horrific tragedy came to us in the very early hours of Saturday morning, as we were preparing to travel out of province for the weekend. Weary eyed and half-asleep, my husband read the news as we sat in our bed.  I heard the words...Nipawin...Hockey Team of Young Players...Many Deceased...  Against the silence of the early  morning, these words rung in my ears.  I saw tears forming in the corners of my husbands eyes.   As our minds tried to put together what all of this meant, we sat still in the silence of the early morning, thinking that this couldn't possibly be.  As the morning unraveled...

G'morning! How is this Saturday treating you? I hope you've had a wonderful start to your weekend! Things are fabulous around here, and the studio is looking more and more like a florist's domain :)  So many beautiful floral stamps to play with and so little time! For today's card I wanted to try mixing solid-style floral stamps (such as  Gran's Garden  ) along with outline floral stamps (such as  Peonies on Parade ). I've found that in the past when mixing these two styles together, it's often resulted in a mis-matched, hodge-podge type of a look that I wasn't very fond of. But I think I've found a way to mix and match the two, and I'm happy to say that I love how this sweet marriage turned out on my card today! It turns out that my finicky eye seems to be really drawn to a similar style when mixing florals, and although these two sets couldn't be more different from a design perspective, I think what makes them work together has actually mo...

Lately, I've been finding that when I'm stamping large focal points, the rest of my card can quickly start to suffer from a lack of attention. Any of you been there too?  What I mean by this, is that I'm so intently focused on coloring the pretty flowers, picking just the right sentiment, or thinking about topper details, that when I look around the card, the rest of it just seems so empty and neglected. Now I will be the first to admit that I looove white space. It really allows beautiful focal points to shine. But sometimes all that white can be overwhelming and I can find myself at a loss of how to make the white space appear just a tad less white. Come in subtle backgrounds :)  I've been playing with adding in a soft detail (or two) to bring my cards to life, without losing that white space feeling. And I thought it would be fun to share here with you my go-to way of doing this. I started this card by cutting out a scalloped card base with these beautiful Lawn Fawn ...