NEWS with Thoughts and Smiles!

Hello!!  I'm SO excited for today because I finally get to share fun news - I was asked to be the Guest Designer for May at Avocado Arts!  YIPEE!! What a treat!  Ever since Avocado Arts came on the stamping scene I've watched with great interest.  They have a super cool, talented design team and really beautiful, very fresh stamps!  So when I got an email from Lisa asking me to guest design I was so thrilled - thank you, thank you!!

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Avocado Arts but if you aren't I highly encourage you to check out their website and their blog. You'll find inspiration and so many amazing stamps. They even have a Stamp of the Month club that gives you lots of perks!  I got to work with the May Stamp of the Month set, Thoughts and Smiles, which is perfect for Mother's Day and beyond.

I used bright, happy colors to create my "patterned paper" for the background.  The large solid flower image is perfect for this and I used 3 color for the flowers.  Once I had the flowers stamped I used the dotted border image and stamped it repeatedly right on top of the flowers.  I love how it adds depth and contrast!

The sentiment was stamped on the chicken wire framed image (which this country girl totally can relate too - we just got new chicks 3 weeks ago!) and then added the smaller line image flower.  I used a dye ink and watercolored the flower to give it a watercolor wash look, a nice contrast to the bold large stamped flowers.

Thanks for joining me today!! I hope you take some time to also check out the Avocado Art's Blog which will direct you to even more inspiration from Pit Crew's (their design team).  I'll be back next week with another project too! :)



Cardstock: (White) Neenah, (Simply Chartreuse, Kraft) Papertrey Ink, (Mambo Mango) SU!, Stamps: (Thoughts and Smiles) Avocado Arts, Ink: (Rich Razzleberry, Mambo Mango) SU!, (Shell Pink) Adirondack, (Frayed Burlap) Ranger, (Black) Versafine, Accessories:  (Olive Seam Binding) The Cat's Pajamas, Tools: (Queen of Hearts CutUps die) The Cat's Pajamas, (Nestabilities Labels) Spellbinders, watercolor pen