13% Off to Celebrate Our 13th Birthday — EXTENDED to July 13! Plus New Create in Color with Sandy Allnock

Maybe it's the rebellious new teenager in us, but we've decided to break the rules by extending our birthday sale for two more days! Through July 13, use code BDAY13 at checkout to apply your discount and save 13% on every order placed. Don't forget that through the end of July, every order of $25 or more placed within the contiguous US will receive free shipping as well! Hawaii, Alaska, and international orders will receive a $6.50 shipping discount on orders over $25, automatically applied to your shopping cart. What an incredible time to shop for all of your favorite MFT products. *not valid on previous purchases

Before we get to today's post, we have our randomly selected New Product Launch winners. Both of these lucky winners will receive a $100 Shopping Spree in the MFT boutique.

from Stephanie’s blog: Andre M.

from Donna’s blog: Zlatka

Congratulations to you both! Andre and Zlatka, please send an email to erica@mftstamps.com to claim your prize. Thank you to everyone that commented on our Design Team blogs — we appreciate every comment!

Mistakes happen, even to the best of us! We've all experienced a momentary panic over a crafting mishap but mistakes are just opportunities to adapt and improve, and today's card from Sandy, featuring the new Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes, is proof that it can all work out beautifully in the end.

Hey everyone, it's Sandy Allnock, and I had an interesting learning about coloring recently that I thought I’d share with you!

Maybe I’m the only one who’s done this: you get out your stamps, and get the image all ready on the Primitive White Card Stock that you wanted to color on. You did fancy layering with masks to get the scene just right. You pull out a set of pencils — thinking they’re regular colored pencils, not watercolor — and you discover the mistake just as you start coloring.

What do you do? Keep going, or abandon ship? Well I’m the kind of person who believes in learning all I can from a piece of paper before throwing it in the recycle bin, so I just kept going...and found that I *can* use watercolor pencils on regular card stock!

Watch the video below or click HERE to see it over on YouTube.

Lots of different types of card stock are capable of accepting watercolor pencil, as long as you don’t use much water. Squeeze out the brush after rinsing it; don’t let any water puddle up. I ended up being able to make a one-layer card that wasn’t at all warped this way!

The watercolor pencils I used were Museum Aquarelle pencils; they’re generally overkill for the cost for paper crafting but if you find it hard to blend with your brand of watercolor pencils, try just getting one of these to see if you like it — just pick the color that you find hardest to work with in your set.  These are the colors I used on this card:

Don’t forget to decorate the inside too. I love stamping an image partially off the edge of the card, making it look like the critter is sneaking back into the card on his own. I just love that little turtle!

Hope you enjoyed this month’s coloring video...even with my little mistake!

When was the last time you were able to recover from a crafting mis-step? Share your tips and quick-fix ideas so others can benefit from your wisdom and experience!