My First Post!

I'm so excited to finally have started this blog! Its something I've been wanting to do for such a long time and I've now finally gotten around to it:-) SInce this is my first post, I guess I should probably start with a little intro. I'm a freelance illustrator specializing in art for children. I recently just finished my second children's book, which is a huge accomplishment for me and one I am thrilled about! About a year ago I was contacted by Christie at Paper Pretties to see if I would like to start designing stamps for her company. She had seen my Sophia:



on my website and thought she would be perfect for Paper Pretties. And it looks like she was right! Its been so much fun designing stamps and coming up with other characters as well. I think what I love most is seeing the cards and other creations that other people have done with them. I love that a little line drawing can be turned into so many different things! Well, seeing all of the amazing cards that people were making with Sophia and the gang finally got me into trying to make my own cards. And that is where the addiction began:-) I am having so much fun making cards with our stamps that I decided I just had to start my own blog to share them with you! All of you stamping ladies will see that they do not compare to the amazing design team over at Paper Pretties, but I hope you will enjoy seeing what I've come up with! Those of you who know me know that I already have an illustration blog and are probably wondering why I need another one when I have a hard time already keeping up with one! This blog is going to be mostly about stamping and card making, but I'll probably also throw in a few knitting projects when I finish them (or should I say IF I finish them!) or any other crafty hobby that comes my way:-)

So enough intro, here is my first card to share with you! Every Wednesday over at Paper Pretties a design team member issues a challenge to the team, and anyone else who would like to play along, and they get two weeks to finish it before mailing it off to someone on the team. I was lucky enough to be asked to join these extraordinary ladies. It is so much fun to see what they come up with every Wednesday and even more fun to see one of those gorgeous cards appear in your mail! Because I have been so busy trying to get my book finished, I got VERY behind on the challenge, just by oh about 3 MONTHS! So a couple weekends ago I went stamping crazy and whipped those challenges out like you wouldn't believe:-) The one I will be showing you today was issued by Jana Weaver and it was a sketch challenge. I used the Sweets for the Sweets set and came up with this!



I love this layout, but for some reason it took my awhile to get it to look the way I wanted it to. But in the end I'm happy with it:-) This week was Jessie Rone's turn to challenge us and her challenge was to use at least three embellishments on one card! Ok, I already know that this is going to be a tough one for me, I have trouble figuring out where to put one!

I hope you enjoyed my card and I'll be back tomorrow with other challenge cards. I have a whole 3 months worth to show you;-)