sharing smiles through my crafty creations
I just wanted to share some news with you. I am dealing with some health issues right now that are keeping me from crafting. Just wanted to let you know what was going on in case you were looking for me somewhere.
I can’t give an answer on when I will recover, but I will try and update you on my progress when I can. Thank you all so much for your kind support.
Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far!! I had forgotten to give updates on the “bird nest” situation, but actually the last time we had checked, the baby bird hopped onto the roof next door and the mother bird was chirping at us and then the baby took off and flew away! We never were able to get any more photos. I think there was just that one baby bird that survived. Now we have the empty nest in the tree. We think another bird may be trying to build on it, but we don’t see anything.
Today is Thursday which means it’s time for a brand new Cute Card Thursday Challenge!! The theme for this week is CAS (clean & simple) Our sponsor is All Dressed Up, so be sure to play along for your chance to win!
Here’s my take on the challenge:
I have used this really cute image kindly donated by our sponsor called Dreaming of Summer. I love the “dreamy” pose she has! I thought she would look so cute proped up over a fence, so I made one for her!
**Sometimes, CAS puzzles me as to the “definition” of what it TRULY is. To me, it is a bit different to some than others. I feel it to be more like an “art term” where everything is subjective in it’s form and if I have to think about it TOO much, I’m not being “me” and having my fun with it…so I just create weather it is considered simple or not. 🙂 For me, this seemed like a CAS design.**
First, I colored up the image and then stenciled on some clouds behind her. I took a craft knife and cut out just the bottoms of her elbows. I stamped another panel with a woodgrain stamp in gray colored ink and then used a punch with a sharp point to create the “planks” for the fence. I sponged around the edges with more gray ink and then I tucked the fence panel underneath her elbows and attached it to the image panel. I cut out these pieces with a stitched rectangle die and layered that onto a piece of black cardstock that was layered over an A2 top folding white card base. Lastly, I added the die cut “hello” with black cardstock in the corner.
Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on this image. I’ve colored her in with Copic markers and then for the tiny butterflies, bees and flowers around her, I’ve used some metallic gel pens to color them with. You can see the shimmer on them.
I’ve also taken some liquid pearls to place some dots around her as well. I thought it made her look a bit more whimsical.
You can also see where her elbows are lifted up over the fence panel too.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and I hope you will stop on over at the Cute Card Thursday blog and see the inspiration from the rest of the team and play along with us!! We look forward to see what you come up with!!
Thanks so much for stopping by!! See you soon!!
Challenges for this card:
Hello friends! I hope you are having a wonderful week so far! Thank you for all of your kind comments and wishes from my posts last week! I really appreciate it so much!
Today I have a creation to share with you using a wonderful magical/mystical image from Whimsy Stamps:
I have used this gorgeous image called Wee Snippet & Mystic by Crissy Armstrong. This was previously released as a rubber stamp, but this month it has become available in digital format too! (Click HERE to see the June Digial release.)
I sort of let the colors of the card pull together after I had colored in the image and then I went from there. I thought that this image would look nice with a woodgrain theme, so I’ve also taken some of the Whimsy Stamps Rustic Wood and Brick digi papers collection and cut a section and layered it with some purple cardstock for behind the image panel. I had some pretty green colored woodgrain papers with flowers on it from my stash and used that for the background of the card design which was mounted over an A2 sized top folding card base. The white woodgrain panel has some metallic purple ribbon wrapped around it that I’ve attached to the background of the card.
I’ve used a die to cut some edging accents for the sides of the image panel with the same color of cardstock as the background layer. I popped this up over the card design with some craft foam. I then added a stitched banner piece at the top right of the card design that hung over the image panel and then I have die cut some flowers from the Whimsy Stamps No-See All Seasons Tree Die set, sponged some ink around the edges and added them to the design. I took some Purple Nuvo Crystal Drops and added a dot to the center of each one. I’ve also taken a sentiment from an older Whimsy Stamps set and stamped it in black in the bottom corner of the card.
Here’s a closer view of the coloring on the image. I’ve used the Copic markers listed below to color with and then used a few gel pens to add details. I took a glue pen and went over the horn on the unicorn as well as along the edges of the die cut image panel and sprinkled on some clear glitter. Before attaching the glitter along the edges of the image panel, I used an ink foam blending tool and some Wilted Violet distress ink over it.
I tried to incorporate everything that I thought would bring out the “magical” essance of this image from the several layers with the paper, the glitter and metallic ribbon too. I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I really appreciate you stopping by! I’ll see you again soon!
Whimsy Stamps products used on my card today:
Challenges I’d like to enter:
Hello friends! I’m super excited that this month I have the pleasure of guest designing for Brutus Monroe! Yay!
I know you have probably heard me mention some of their products in my creations here on my blog, so it’s really an honor to be among one of the guests joining with them over on their blog this month! 🙂
I had SO MUCH FUN with my creation today and I can’t wait to share it with you…
*To check out the full details on how I put together this card and how I created the rainbow background, be sure to check out this video below! (CLICK HERE to view it on You Tube.)
I have used mostly ALL Brutus Monroe products on this design. One of my most favorite products of theirs to “play” with is the Aqua Pigments and all of the really cool watercolor effects you can get with them! This is what I have used throughout the card here from the background to coloring the floral image.
Speaking of floral image, isn’t it gorgeous?! I have had this stamp set on my wish list for a very long time, so I was happy to recieve the Conservatory of Quotes stamp set to play with for this design. It not only has this gorgeous floral image, but it has some really awesome quotes to go with it!
For my card, I first started by masking off an area with some purple tape on some Aqua Pigment Paper that was large enough for my floral image. Then I made the background with some help from the “Create Your Own Ending ruler” and baby wipes. I used a stitched rectangle die, added the sentiment at the bottom of my rainbow panel and made some splatters. I mounted this piece onto an A2 sized top folding BM Raven cardstock.
For the image, I had actually started out doing this card in one direction and then totally went a different way. But the image was stamped with the BM Raven Detail Ink a couple of times over the Aqua Pigment Paper and colored it with Aqua Pigments using the Aqua Pigment Brush Set. I cut an entire image of one and attached it over the rainbow background with liquid glue and then I fussy cut just the flowers and popped them up with foam tape over the full image. I added some of that gorgeous shimmer with the BM Pearl Aqua Pigment and then finished off the design by adding some clear sequins over it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today as I had so much fun making it! I can’t wait to create another project to share with you this month using Brutus Monroe products! So be sure to stay tuned this month and follow along on the Brutus Monroe Blog for more inspiration with these products!
Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:
Hello friends! I’m back today to share some fun news with you!!!!
I’m very excited to finally be able to share with you that I’m guest designing for
Please be sure and stop by the adorable shop and have a look at these images! They’re so cute! They also have a fun monthly challenge if you’re interested in playing along with that too! You can use any image as long as it’s colored! You can also join in their Facebook Group for lots of inspiration too!
Today, I’m sharing my first card for them with this really adorable image:
I have used the Loves Me Loves Me Not digital stamp to create my card.
What I had in mind when making this card was all of that crazy rain we were having this past month and how it seemed to never end. I also loved the flowers she was holding because my daisies came up in my back yard and they really make me happy seeing them bloom. So I combined this image with some rainfall in the background and took away the petals from the image to make it appear as if she’s holding out her hand in the rain! 🙂 Hubby has been taking extra great care of me while all of this rain was happening around us and I think this would be a special card for someone who always seems to bring out that happy sunshine no matter the weather! (His favorite color is blue!) Wink wink
Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on her with Copics. For the background, I’ve taken a white panel and stamped some rain drops from another stamp set in my stash. I fussy cut out my colored image and attached her over top of that rain panel. I took some Nuvo Glitter Drops and added them over the rain drops in the background behind her. I also white heat embossed the sentiment (From MFT) and cut it out with a banner die and slipped that under her foot when placing it on my card.
It’s hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve covered her bow and top of her hair with a glitter pen to make it look like she’s been wet in the rain.
For the rest of my card, I’ve added the raindrop background light blue stitched scallop card panel over a dark blue layer and attached some pink ribbon around them. I’ve added the bow to the side and then attached a yellow enamel heart over that. These panels were mounted over an A2 sized white top folding card base.
Lastly, I’ve added the image panel and mounted it over the yellow scalloped panel and another piece of dark blue cardstock that was attached with foam tape.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and it brought you a smile! Thank you so much for stopping by with me today! I will be having another really super fun post to share with you tomorrow, be sure to stop by!
Challenges:
Hello friends! I hope you’re all having a wonderful week so far!! It’s really starting to feel like Summer now with the warmer temps!
Today is a new challenge this week over at Cute Card Thursday! This week we have our “Anything Goes” challenge with our sponsor Whimsy Stamps! So of course I am using a cute image from Whimsy Stamps for my card today:
Tee hee! This little guy holding the tiny “sea creature” makes me smile and giggle! I’m not really sure what reaction he has about it! His name is just as cute too! This is Curly from Whimsy Stamps. I thought he needed a scene, so I made one for him.
I started with some Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and masked off the line between the sky and the sand. I used my Distress Inks to blend in the colors. After doing the sky, I thought that it was a bit too dark, so what I did was take a baby wipe and swiped it across which lightened up the colors the way I wanted them for the sky. The bottom “sand” portion was also masked and I blended the bottom blue color into the sandy colors which created a nice shore line. I then took a water bottle and spritzed some water droplets over it to create “texture” for the sand. I also took some Copic markers to create more texture with the pointilism technique, plus added some white ones with a gel pen. the water at the bottom was covered with a glitter pen. (You can see better details in the photos/description below.)
So I’ve got him all colored up in the following Copic markers: (CLICK HERE to see all in the Whimsy Stamps store or click underlined color below.)
I fussy cut this image and used some liquid glue to attach over my scene.
For the scene, I stamped the birds in the sky and a star fish image from an older Whimsy Stamps clear stamp set. I then took the sentiment from the WS Everyday Mini Sentiments and white heat embossed it over a black strip of cardstock and then used my scissors to cut out a banner to attach over the scene. I layered this over another piece of black cardstock that was attached to an A2 sized top folding white card base.
Lastly, I’ve taken some WS It’s a Party enamel dots and added them to the card.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! Please be sure to stop by the Cute Card Thursday Challenge and play along with us, plus you get a chance at winning something from our sponsor too! Thanks for stopping in! I’ll be seeing you tomorrow for some fun news!
Here are the Whimsy Stamps products used on my card today:
Challenges for this card:
Hello friends! There is so much to “bee” happy about for sure! It’s been sunny out lately, it’s the weekend and I have some fun creations to share with you for the Whimsy Stamps June digital release today! 🙂
Check out these ADORABLE bees!! I have made 3 different cards because I just couldn’t stand not being able to color each one of these which are all included in this set! I have used Crissy Armstrong’s “Bee Happy” digital stamp set. This is a set that was previously released as a stamp set, but now available in digital format starting this month! Good news that you can now choose between either format you prefer!
I’ve sized each of these bees in the format to fit onto a 4″ square card design. I’ve cut them out with a hexagon die cut and layered another black piece of cardstock behind each one.
For the background, I’ve taken a yellow piece of cardstock slight smaller than the 4″ square top folding white card base and embossed it with a fun hexagon embossing folder. Before attaching them to the card base, I’ve added some black ribbon at an angle over it. I then attached the image panels and added the ribbon bow which I then placed a bee wooden accent to the center of each one.
The story with the black splatters actually came about from an accident I had! I opened up a black shimmer pen over top one of the cards and it had a leak in it! When I popped open the cap, it spilled all over my card!! OH NO!!! Obviously, I had all of my cards done at this point and I loved the way I had colored them….so I just decided to “go with it” and added some more splatters to each one. I actually like the way it looked after I completed it! They look like “busy bee’s” now! TEE HEE!
Here’s a closer look at the “couple bees” image. For each one of the hexagon image panels, I’ve taken a black marker along the edges to make the stitch lines. I went around the edges of the image panel with some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and ink foam blending tool for each card. Also, for the sentiments on each card, I found an old “bee” style stamp set and used it to go with them. I believe that the “Bee Happy” rubber stamp set comes with sentiments that go perfectly with these cuties!
CLICK HERE to purchase/view Copic markers at Whimsy Stamps. Here’s how all of the bees were colored up with the Copic colors:
This little dude was so fun to color up with his party accents! 🙂 Here are the Copic colors I’ve used for the accecories: (See above for the basic bee coloring details.)
I just love how he’s trying to hand out a flower to you! 🙂 Here’s the following Copic colors that I’ve used for the flower (Please see above for basic bee coloring details.)
I hope you’ve enjoyed my bee creation today! Please be sure to BUZZZZ on over to the Whimsy Stamps store and check out all of the new June Digital Release today!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you again soon!
Here’s the Whimsy Stamps products used on my cards today: (click on photos to purchase/view in store.)
Challenges I’d like to enter:
