Crafty Secrets!

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a wonderful three day holiday weekend! The girls and I are officially on summer vacation now, woohoo! I have some exciting news......I was asked by Crafty Secrets to join their design team!! Of course, I accepted because I LOVE their fun, vintage-like products. I added the link to Crafty Secrets under the *Shop Here!* link at the right. You can visit the website to get familiar with their products, which include acrylic stamps, sticker sheets, little cut out booklets, printed cotton scraps, patterned paper and more! And wait til you see the fun stuff coming this summer! While at the site, you can sign up for a fun newsletter and also visit the sample gallery. It's set up just like Splitcoast and is easy to navigate. If you want to view the line of acrylic stamps, click on the Clear Art Stamps link on the right hand side of the Crafty Secrets website. There is a preview of two new sets coming out. I adore that new coffee set!

The Clear Art Stamps are jam packed full of fun images. The possibilities are truly endless because there are so many images included in each set. And the quality is really good...the images are incredibly detailed and stamp nicely. One of my favorite sets is Kitchen Classics. The card above was created using the salt and pepper shakes from that set. I added the sentiment Favorite Recipes and the adorable utensils along the bottom edge. Images are colored using SU! Watercolor Crayons and aquapainter. Patterned paper is Amy Butler series from K & Company, available at Eclectic Paperie(link under *Shop Here* at right). I stitched around the torn patterned paper to add that *home-made* feel to the card. Dazzling Diamonds glitter was added to the salt and pepper shakers.

I made this card for my neighbor, who wants a few recipes I shared at a party. Stay tuned this week as my theme is going to be all things home made! Crafting, cooking, sewing, and gardening are a big part of who I am. I grew up on a farm and these activities were a way of life when I was little. So it just comes natural that they are now my hobbies as an adult. So check back for some fun recipes and I even have my mother involved in a special project that I can't wait to show you!

Tip of the day: When I add stitching to my cards like the one here, I cut the green cardstock as a card front only. Then I adhere the torn paper and ribbon strip and stitch the entire card front. THEN, I add it to a folded white card base. This conceals all stitching and the end result is a nice, white card inside to write a message.

Where can you get Crafty Secrets products and stamps? Check out Sweet Miss Daisy's blog......Anna Wight has a ton of CS products and offers excellent customer service!