A Snarky Friend

Hello friends!  It’s getting closer towards the end of the month and so it has motivated me to get going on some challenges that are about to end soon.  So I’ve grabbed my supplies and had a fun play…

Tee hee!😁  This one makes me chuckle and I think it would be so fun to send to a special friend for Valentine’s Day or even at any time of the year!  Most all of the products I’ve used for this come from Taylored Expressions.  Along with many people, I do enjoy those “snarky” products they sell!

To start, I’ve based my card on a sketch for a challenge that’s about to end and worked with the Taylored Expressions Easy Strips 1/4″ and Easy Strips 1/8″ dies for the bottom right side of the card using the colors Blue Raspberry & Dijon cardstock.  The colors are part of the TE Maker Challenge for January as well which is about to end too which is why this was my choice for this card.  I cut the panel in half diagonal based on the sketch and used a white cardstock for the top right area and blended some TE Blue Raspberry ink with the TE Superstar Rotating Stencil.  Layered these onto some Dijon cardstock which was layered onto the white top folding A2 card base.

  • For the image panel, I stamped the “TE Grouchy Grumplings” (Sorry, it’s been retired it looks like! LOVE that snaggle tooth!😆) and the TE Shenanigans sentiment on the same panel layered over a piece of Blue Raspberry cardstock that was popped up with foam tape.  The image was colored with Copic markers.  I also stamped the TE Simple Strips-Snarky with black ink over a piece of Dijon cardstock that I cut out with the TE Simple Strips-Asymmetrical die and attached at the top right corner of the card. 

To finish off the card, I die cut the stars from the TE Gathered Stars die from Dijon cardstock, glued over the card and then covered with a glitter brush pen.  I also added some TE Tiny Diamonds over the stars to match the Blue Raspberry color of the cardstock.  For the image panel, I used a black pen to doodle around the edges and then covered the heart with glossy accents.

Hope you’ve gotten some chuckles or inspiration from my card today!  Thanks for dropping by!  I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. *Cheerful Sketches – Jan sketchsketch januari
  2. Taylored Expressions FB Fans Group – TE Maker Challenge Jan
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Jan Stencil Challenge ATG + stencil image (2)
  4. CRAFT – Anything Goes
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring (Copics used)
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*14 Comments

Making Condolence and Get Well Cards

Hello friends!  I hope that you’re having a great start to your week and are staying safe and warm in your world.

Today I’m sharing a collection of creations that I never seem to have in my stash because it’s never really something that I think about when creating…and I always seem to be making them as needed rather than having a few on hand.  Even though, a couple of these were needed, I decided to make duplicates to have on hand this time around.

As you can see, this is a pet sympathy card I created and one was needed to send to a friend that had recently lost her special companion.  For anyone that has lost a pet knows how this feels and I wanted to be sure to send something special her way.  It’s always great to have one on hand when needed.

I’ve used this wonderful stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Furever in Our Hearts.  I started by ink blending the background with distress inks in Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn and Blueprint Sketch on a piece of Neenah Solar White.  I sprayed the panel with water and used a towel to blot up the water droplets.  I then took some white shimmer paint mixed with water and splattered it over top with a paint brush.

I cut out the panel with a Lawn Fawn Cross-stitched die.  I used my Brilliance Black pigment ink to stamp the paw prints and sentiment over top of it so that it would show up over the background.  I die cut a couple of clouds out (MFT I think) and lightly sponged the bottom of them and placed them over the areas I wanted with popping up the one cloud using foam tape at the top of the paw prints.  I layered this panel onto a piece of black cardstock and then layered them both over a white A2 sized top folding card base.  I finished it off with a few sparkling clear sequins.

Another card that I needed was for someone that had recently been through a surgery and I actually didn’t have any more “get well” in my stash… again, so I decided to create a duplicate of this one too.  This set of cards along with the set of cards below actually were the results from the previous OOAK event (Craft Fancy class) I had attended and these were part of a class I had taken.  So this class actually came in handy!

All of the papers including that beautiful die (from Memory Box-Verdant Leaf Collage), Get Well Soon die, and dewdrop water droplets came with the kit.  I subtly changed up the design given for the class by adding black paint splatters and changing up the die cut lettering and the layering of the papers.   I really liked doing more of that ink blending and then having it fade to the white for a soft look.  The outside woodgrain frame was popped up with foam tape.

And here’s the second set of cards created within the same class using the same Memory Box die and ink blended colors.  I changed up the layout with these as well by making the card base black (instead of white like shown in class) and instead of the sentiments used in class, I created my own version with the Whimsy Stamps Deepest Sympathy clear stamps and the WS Sympathy Heartfelt and Condolences die set.  I also added the black paint splatters to the ink blended panels like on the set above.

I thought these sets made for some really nice cards to have on hand when needed.  I’m not sure that I would’ve actually sat down to make up these type of cards in production if I hadn’t have taken the class, so I’m glad I did.

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope I have inspired your crafty inspiration in some way!  I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  2. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Diesimage
  3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes 
  4. Stamping Sensations – Anything Stamped with optional add a die
  5. Addicted to Stamps and More – Make Your Markimage (1)
  6. Watercooler Wednesday – All About OccasionsChallenge WWC333 - Dawn's Challenge All About Occasions
  7. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper 

*Vicki*23 Comments

Winter is Shaping Up With Interaction!

So after getting my calendars ready to start the year off, which is easy to sit and craft during the cold snowy winter where I live, my mind turned to winter when creating!  Sometimes it’s nice to create with a “snowflake/winter” theme because I think they can be used interchangeable for Christmas or just a “warm winter greeting” for someone!  (Or… because you might be late sending one out or for those friends overseas that won’t arrive one time!)

Today I’m sharing a card that I’ve made for this month’s Inky Stamper challenge on FB with the theme: “Shaped Cards”

Vicki-InkyStamper-Janchallenge-shapedcard

Isn’t she cute?!  I was trying to come up with a different shape besides a regular circle, etc.  So I looked up “coloring pages for kids” free online and found this one that I resized to what I wanted and printed it out over some light purple cardstock.  I used another printed one as a template so that I could cut another one out over a folded cardstock piece to create a shaped folded card design. (You can partly see the back piece in the photo.)  The sparkly “ball” at the top was just die cut out from a scallop circle die with sparkly silver cardstock.

For the card front, I used the Inky Stamper Snow Angel stamp set to stamp the snowflakes in the background with some purple ink.  I white heat embossed the sentiment over and wanted it to stand out a bit more, so I sponged some more light purple ink over top of it.  I colored “Rosie” over Copic blending card and used the die to cut her out with.  I’ve die cut a couple of the large snowflakes from Lawn Fawn with white cardstock and layered them over the beanie hat.  You can see that “Rosie” is popped out a bit over that snowflake, which is where I’ve added a “wobbler” to her…check it out in the video below:

The wobbling action doesn’t move around in the video as it does in person.  I think my camera slows down the action or something.  (weird)  And of course I finished the card with some sparkly Icicles sequins mix from Inky Stamper too.  I filled the centers of them with some Silver Stickles.

Because of the “ball” on top and the length of the “beanie band”, it needs to be in a 5.5″ square envelope to mail.  You could also make your own envelope which I do all the time anyway.  But the 5.5″ size fits perfectly.

*Speaking of Inky Stamper things, this past prior weekend there was an OOAK event (on FB) that Inky Stamper was apart of, so of course I wanted to get the kit and play along too! (I think that these have recently been sold out.)  But the stamp set used for the kit was this fun Penguin stamp set you can still get in the store.  Here’s my results:

The top card is an interactive “Theater Fold” design.  (All of the pieces were included with the kit along with an instructional video/class.)  I participated in the OOAK FB event to play along.  She usually always includes a mini bonus card which measures about an ATC size. (3.5″ x 2.5″)  She used the “icicles” from the stamp set, but I decided to stamp and cut out another snowflake for the front of mine.  I added a pretty gem to the center of it.

And of course that’s not the ONLY fun I had during the OOAK event!  I decided to play along with the always cute and funny Riley and Co. as well!  Here’s the set of cards created from that class:

I just thought these were so cute with the cow images and their little outfits along with the “Funny Bone” sentiments!  The instructions came with the kit which were really easy to follow along with.  I basically looked at the photos and put together the pieces from the kit.  For the clouds, I decided to pull out some sparkly white flock to cover them with.  They have a nice soft feel to them!  They just make me chuckle and I think it will be fun to send along to someone who needs a smile!😉

*If you are visiting my website, then you can check out each one of these cards in the gallery below by clicking on the photos to enlarge them: (I’ve found some coordinating envelopes from my stash for each card.)

Flock was added to the clouds.
purple, sparkle and funny sentiment…what more could you ask?!
rainbow image was turned upside-down for the swing! So clever!

I sure hope that you’ve enjoyed my post today and have been inspired in some way!  Really appreciate you stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!🥰  Stay warm!

Challenges (For Winter Beanie Hat Shaped card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Winter Fun
  2. Papercraft – Winter Wonderland
  3. Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional winter
  4. Make My Monday – Winter-Wherever You Are (snowy and cold!)
  5. Make the Cards – Encouragement (You’re unique sentiment)
  6. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment

*Vicki*31 Comments

Creating Calendars…Do You Need One?

Hello friends!  How are you dealing with the 2022 year so far?  I hope that you have a fantastic start and look forward to a brilliant and crafty future ahead of you!  Speaking of starting a New Year, I realized that I needed to start my crafty calendars…which really should’ve been started sooner!🙄  I actually enjoy putting them together, especially the coloring as it’s very relaxing for me.

I’ve had this set of calendar cards along with this stand since this last Spring from Taylored Expressions and of course I’ve waited until recently to get them finished up!  I’m glad I did though as I think these will be so fun to look at and chuckle to change out each month:

Tee hee!  What got me interested in Taylored Expressions from the start were these adorable and funny Grumpy characters that she has in one of her product lines!  (You may have seen a “Grumpy” calendar I’ve made in the past on THIS POST.)  She has LOTS of different types of calendars and accessories to choose from, but this is a set that had came out this past year.  Check out all of calendar products at Taylored Expressions HERE.  I thought this would be a fun way to help motivate me this year for creative inspiration!😁

I’ve taken a white piece of cardstock cut to size my calendar stand that would accommodate the tear-off calendar pad and hold the “snarky cards” in place with the gold clip.  I’ve used some TE inks and blender brushes to blend over top of the white piece.  I then used the TE Striped Squares stencil to go over it using the same colors and then mounted this piece over a black cardstock layer.  (This piece and the changeable cards are held to the stand with the gold clip.)

Here are all of the completed cards in the set that I can change out each month or whenever I want.  I’ve used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Snarky for my own personal calendar that I’ve colored up with Copic markers.  The frames were colored with coordinating colors that matched up with the rainbow stenciled background for my calendar front.  Really enjoyed coloring and giggling while making this set!

I also wanted to show you the back side of this TE Walnut Wood Clipboard Stand so that you can see how I store all of the extra cards on my calendar when I need to change one out.  You can choose to add a package of the TE Calendar Storage Sleeves with the stand if you get one, but I thought this whole system was a nice and sturdy option of creating a calendar that you can personalize for yourself or for a gift.  I ended up creating a calendar last year for Mother’s Day and gave it as a gift. I used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Sweet for that one and did some foiling on them.  (Just don’t forget to purchase the next year’s tear-off calendars to replenish the recipient for next year!)

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And I also wanted another calendar for my computer area which also brings a smile to me each month!  I bought a calendar set last year from Inky Stamper and really enjoyed flipping the cute characters each month as the year went on.  Happily, she came out with another new calendar set for this year and I happily purchased it BEFORE it ran out! (So sadly, it sold out quickly!)

With these calendar kits, the stand, the monthly calendar cards as well as all of the pattern paper strips, stamped and die cut characters and sentiment strips ALL come with this kit!  I think it’s a pretty good bargain for all that was included with it.  Of course you have to color and put together each card…but THAT’S what the fun is about!  

And here’s a look at the entire set of calendar cards that I colored and put together.  There were instructions for each card along with the Copic markers used in the examples.  For some of the cards, I already owned the stamp set, so I added a few extra details to some of them and I also added a few of my Inky Stamper Gems and Sequins mixes to some of them.  Square dots and a strip of gold enamel dots were also included to decorate with.

So I had an awesome time putting this one together as well!  I look forward to seeing these every single month throughout the entire year!

Since I had a couple of left over Taylored Expressions 2022 Tear-Off calendars, I thought it would be fun to just create a “calendar card stand” for crafters and give them out to whoever wants one!

EDITED UPDATE:  All of the calendars have been claimed!  Sorry if you’re looking to get one as I have no more left.  Hope everyone enjoys their calendar all crafty year!

So I had 5 of these calendars left over and I knew I wasn’t going to use them, but of course I didn’t want to just throw them out either!  So I took the TE Big Grumpy Bear and the TE Big Grumpy Cat sets to help motivate a fellow craft friend throughout the year! TEE HEE!  I’ve made a rainbow colored background for these by taking the TE Art From the Heart background stamp and stamping it with black over a white piece of cardstock.  I used some TE ink and blender brushes to blend in the rainbow colors.  I stamped an extra background image to color in some of the images and fussy cut them out for accents.

I attached the “Grumpies” over the background and layered the calendar with a black layered piece behind it to go over top of the “Grumpies” with their “feet” underneath so you can see them.  I then added the fussy cut out images that I colored in a corner of each one.

I made a “stand” for this by creating a valley fold piece to attach in between the top folding A2 black card base.  This will make for a permanent stand to display your calendar through the year! (And hopefully motivate someone’s crafty process through the year too!❤)  I receive so much inspiration from many of you crafty friends, so it would be nice if I could possibly reciprocate that in some way!

Check out each one of these calendars I’ve made below in detail!  Just click on the photos to enlarge them if you’re on my website:

Grumpy Bear with glue bottle
Grumpy Bear with marker
Grumpy Bear with stamp
Gray Cat with ink pad
Orange Cat with scissors

So now that we’ve got the year started and in place, let’s hope for a really creative and productive one ahead!

I have some more craft projects that I’ve been working on as well as a really BIG craft project that I’m taking on for the love and excitement of it all!  I look forward to sharing with you soon!

Thanks for stopping in and I wish you a happy, healthy and productive rest of your week!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’ – NEW (stamped New Year calendars with new products!)
  2. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes + critter
  3. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
  4. River of Creativity – Anything Goes
  5. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  6. CRAFT – New (New Year calendars with new products!)
  7. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

*Vicki*30 Comments

Hello! Welcome to 2022!

Hello friends!  I hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a promising year this go around!  I sure am!  I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I was having a bit of a hard time with having lost my “MOJO” for a period, feeling really down and not myself at all.  Christmas came and then on top of it, I’ve gotten sick.  I am starting to feel a bit better now, so I decided that the only way to get through all of this is by doing what I’ve always felt to be therapeutic, which is to keep on creating!  I just need to get back into the mindset of it again is all, but I do enjoy it when I’m creating as I’m sure my fellow crafty friends can relate to!😉  Appreciate your kindness to me always.

Since I really haven’t created much lately other than Christmas cards (as you can see from my previous post below), I’m going to share some projects that I had done at the end of last year including some commissioned cards I was asked to do:

Last month was a birthday card for my dad, so I’ve pulled out a special birthday kit that came out sometime last year from Simon Says Stamp.  Everything I’ve used on the card including the embossing folder, stamps, sentiment strips and paper all came from the kit.  It may be hard to see in the photo, but I’ve foiled over the “super happy” sentiment strip that was included with the kit and glued it over top of the cake slice.

I’ve added some glitter over the candle flame, the yellow stars and the inside of the white embossed “birthday” strip under the cake slice.  I pulled out the blue colors from the striped paper to color the image with using Copic markers and die cut it out to glue over top of the sentiment strip and embossed oval layer.

And speaking of birthdays, I was commissioned to do a 50th birthday card for a guy that is a professional painter and enjoys grilling outdoors.  The first image that came to my mind was this really cute LOTV image.  I printed him out and thought it would be fun to incorporate the birthday number above “the painter” to make it look like he’s in the process of doing it while the paint is dripping everywhere.  So while the boy painter was printed out, I stamped and embossed the numbers above him.

My husband had the idea of the little grill along the edge going “up in smoke”.  So I created a “ground” area for the ladder and the grill to be on.  I stamped the grill image, colored it in and then a liner pen to draw the line to establish the separation.  I then ripped the corner above the grill and sponged some Black Soot distress ink around the grill and corner edging.  I didn’t want the background to be white or black, so I dug out some brick style pattern paper to place behind that corner area before attaching it to the card base.  Hopefully there were some chuckles from it!

So for the inside of the card, I thought it would be fun to take this corner border die that I received from a Halloween class and make it look like the red paint drip continued on the inside.  Then I found this really funny sentiment to go along with the grilling bit too!  I also sponged some more of that Black Soot distress ink around the edges.

These were really fun cards to do and I enjoyed the coloring process so much!  I find that coloring images really helps me get through some creative blocks…even if it’s a simple image or something that I don’t use, so I’m thankful to at least to be able to do that.  Hopefully I can get back into what I enjoy doing here.

I know people sometimes struggle with masculine style cards, so here are a few examples of cards that I came up with for men.  Hope it helped with some ideas for you too!  Thanks for stopping by today and I’m glad you did!

Challenges:

  1. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes
  2. Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes with stamping + use a die (top card only)
  3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #173 Anything Goes
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

What? It’s Christmas Already?!

Hey there friends!  Wow, so my last post was Thanksgiving and I pretty much missed the entire month of December it seems like, right?!  It has been a very crazy month with lots of different things (including personal) going on so pardon me for going MIA!

I HAVE been working on some projects here and there and I would be happy to share those, but for right now, let’s focus on the Christmas projects that I’ve been working on getting ready for the up-coming Holiday next week! 

I have already sent out my Christmas cards, thank goodness, as I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen either!  I was very impressed with the new Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mistletoe Layering Stencil and how quickly I was able to knock out 4 card panels at a time, which was a huge time saver to get my Christmas cards finished up!  There is actually a set of 4 designs here (like shown below), but I was in the middle of addressing the cards and forgot to photograph some before shoving into envelopes! LOL  This set was using the white cardstock with the green and red colors which turned out very pretty.  I also used the red glitter paste for the highlights on the berries.

And here is the other set of four cards that I made using the Toffee colored cardstock with green and white inks for the stenciling.  I’ve also splattered these with brown and white paint.  The sentiments were white heat embossed over some TE Chocolate Truffle cardstock and cut out with some MFT dies.  Before attaching to the pre-made white A2 card bases, I also wrapped some twine around some of the panels or added a bow with it. (I love the homespun look of the white mistletoe!)

These all turned out great because they were pretty much flat and fairly easy to mail off.  I think I was short just a few which is where I’m glad that I still have a few extra cards that I had made throughout this year and I have previously given out some “extra special” Christmas cards earlier in the year as well.  I think you may have already seen them from a previous post…I will have to take a look and see under my “Christmas” section!

If you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift/tag, these wood slice things are so quick easy and fun to create!  I’ve had a huge box of these wood slices for a long time, so I pulled one out to make a project for the Inky Stamper December challenge on FB.  (I also believe that Chelsea sells some wood slices in her store!)  I had hubby drill out a hole for me at the top before decorating so as I knew where to put everything.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Christmas Bauble stamp set for the stamping on the wood and colored in with pencils and gamsol.  I’ve added details with a glitter brush pen on the ornament and added some snowflakes with Nuvo White Crystal Drops.  I had to mask the frog to stamp the Santa hat on him.  I’ve used some silver twine for the hanging portion and then I glued a silver bow with some silver ribbon from my stash under the hole.

And lastly, I’ve also been working on some commissioned cards as well!  Last year, I had a request from someone to create a special Christmas card for his cleaning lady.  I had him pick out an image and asked about the colors…you may remember it as I had posted it last year.

a few months back, someone had asked me to re-create the same design for them with pretty much the exact design with the exception of the sentiment which I changed out for this person.  This one went to another country and I was concerned about the shipping costs, but it was not a problem.  The package had taken an unexpected journey because of the crazy mailing system going on at this time, but it arrived eventually and was in “perfect condition” as reported to me, so I was so thrilled with that and they seemed very pleased with it.

With the square size of the design (5″ x 5″), I’ve handmade the envelope for this one as well.  I found the exact papers used in the designs for these cards, but I don’t think I have any more left after completing this one.

Here’s how I’ve decorated the inside of the card and left blank as requested for their own personal use.

So now, I just want to take this time to say THANKS SO MUCH for hanging in there and stopping in today!  I don’t have too much time on my hands right now as I’m getting ready to make some Christmas treats and the Holidays will soon be over.  I hope you are all doing well and I wish each and every one of you a very safe, happy and healthy Holiday Season!

See you again in the New Year 2022 friends!!

*Vicki*16 Comments

Thanksgiving Cuteness

Hello! Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow for my U.S. friends!  Just wanted to pop in here to share this fun little card I made to help me get into the Thanksgiving mood and I needed a bit of a giggle which is what I was doing as I colored these fun critters:

Aren’t these guys hilarious?!  This is one of the stamp sets that was released during the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember event this year and of course if you recognize the critters, then you know it was designed by Newton’s Nook.  The stamp set is called “Talk Turkey” and was only available during this event.  I don’t make very many Thanksgiving cards, but when I saw this stamp set come out, it just had me giggling and so I nabbed it up!  I think I would certainly enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner with this crew!

For the card, I ink blended the background with the distress inks:  Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw.  I spritzed with water and dried the splotches with a towel.  (I’ve done the same method with the sentiment strip too.)  I then used some black and white paint to splatter over it and set aside to dry.

While waiting for the panel to dry, I colored up all of the images with my Copics.  I’ve added some gold and white gel pen marks in certain places and then I fussy cut them all out leaving a white border around them.  

I took a strip of green cardstock and die cut a grassy border and attached to the background panel.  I cut both of these layers out with a stitched scallop die and then cut out the black embossed sentiment with a banner die.  I then arranged all of the images where I wanted them and glued them down.  I took the banner and popped it up with foam tape.  I added the leaves and covered them with a glitter brush pen for a bit of sparkle.  I attached all of these layers to a white A2 card base and cut off the sentiment strip along the edge.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and it made you smile!  Thanks for dropping by!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving with love, laughter and lots of thankfulness in your heart.🦃

CHALLENGES:

  1. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
  2. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  4. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Shopping Our Stash – Triple Threat (3 of something- I used 3 different dies, 3 critters, 3 leaves)

*Vicki*20 Comments

Autumn Birthday For My Deer

Hello friends!  Really hope that you’re having a great week as we start to dip down into cooler temps and that means that Autumn is coming to a close (sadly) and winter is upon us along with Christmas!  Are you ready?  I’m working on things…that’s all I can say!  I need to get more motivated for sure!  Many things are already done, but it’s the double checking to make sure…and sometimes it’s not! LOL

Recently, I needed to make a birthday card for hubby, so I pulled out a card kit I had from last year and came up with this one for him:

This was a really fun one to do from the Simon Says Stamp Woodland Whimsy card kit from last year. (I linked the stamp set and dies still available.)   My husband is a huge fan of outdoor wilderness and especially deer in the Autumn season as they can be easier to spot with the falling leaves.  So it just seemed like the type of card to make suited for him.

I’ve colored in all of the images with Copic markers and die cut them out with the exception of the birch trees as there were no dies included with the set.  I placed them behind my die cut circle from the woodgrain paper included with the kit.  I backed it with another piece of the paper from the kit as well.  I even tucked in the back part of the deer’s feet along with a leaf to make it part of the scene.  I like the banner from the set which is left blank so that you can add whatever greeting you want with it.

The little heart above the deer was also fussy cut out and then I covered it with a glitter brush pen as well as some crystal effects over top for the shine. I thought about adding some sequins, but decided it wasn’t needed. The scene was layered over a piece of cardstock included with the kit and then I stamped some of the birch trees onto a coordinating envelope as well.

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Also thought I’d share some other projects that I’ve been working on since my last post.  It seems that I’ve become a little addicted to taking those classes and events…honestly don’t need to be taking them, but sometimes it’s just fun to participate in the fun with fellow crafters!  I do enjoy sharing with those like-minded crafters like myself!😁

These are all projects I’ve made using products from Inky Stamper.  (I will link to the information in the descriptions below.  ***If you are on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see better and the wording will also be more visible.) 

  • These are projects we made during a “Game Night” event! Cute fun fold card, a mini card and the little round container is decorated with a deck of circle playing cards inside! It has a magnetic closure! Super fun event!
  • This is a set of projects made during an OOAK event class with Chelsea from Inky Stamper. We made the fun vellum shaker card and the mini Fall card with this class. The kit is still available in the store here – Peppermint Mocha Latte Kit
  • This card was made up by me for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group using the colors Blue and White for this month’s challenge. I used “Bear” for my main image.

Inky Stamper has just came out with several new stamp sets this month…super cute and great for Christmas!  So be sure to check out the store’s front page to see them!

I’ve also been working on some Christmas things that I will share soon as well as some other requested commissioned cards that I’ve recently finished. I would like to get those Christmas cards finished up early for a change!  How about you?!  Are you all done creating for the Holidays yet?

Until next time, thanks for stopping in today friends!

Challenges (For deer card only)

  1. Alphabet Challenge – ‘P’ is for Patterned Paper
  2. Happy Little Stamper – Anything Goes with Diesimage
  3. Addicted to Stamps and More – Birthdaysimage (1)
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. {Cupcake Inspirations} – Fall Foliage#532
  6. The Crafter’s Café – Male

*Vicki*27 Comments

Hey! Let’s Squash It! I’m Guest Designing!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great week!  I’m stopping in today as a guest design spot winner to share a fun new challenge today over at the Let’s Squash It! Challenge Blog!

I’ve just recently discovered this challenge blog a few months ago and thought it was fantastic because I have so many embossing folders and I know I only use them a fraction of the time creating cards.  I thought that this would give me some inspiration to use them and learn fun new techniques with them to stretch out the use as well!  I had won on a previous challenge so was asked to be a guest designer for them in this month’s challenge!  How exciting!

So for the challenge this month, they ask that you “use some stenciling over your cards and then use an embossing folder over it“.  So this had me thinking and I don’t really recall doing this before!  So of course you start pulling out tons of stencils and then grabbing the embossing folders to see what looks you might achieve with the idea and here’s what I thought of…

I love how it turned out!  I’m so thrilled that the card is pretty much flat first of all.  It has only the card front layer attached to the card base and then the sentiment strip.  Great for mailing a Christmas card!

I took the Taylored Expressions Rectangle Masking Stencils and then also added a Snowflake Masking Stencil (unknown from my stash) so that I could line it up properly over the rectangle area.  I started by ink blending with TE inks in a rainbow color pattern in a diagonal direction. BEFORE removing the stencil, I sprayed it with some Shimmer Spray.  I lifted off the snowflake mask being careful to leave the remaining rectangle stencil in place and then I took the “negative” snowflake from the stencil to cover it up.  I then used some blue tones of TE ink over the rectangle stencil in a straight across direction with the rainbow snowflake being covered up.  Once I was happy with the ink blending, I removed all stencils.

Lastly, I took the entire stenciled panel and ran my Sizzix Winter Snowflakes Textured embossing folder over top of it.  That added bit of an embossing folder really stepped it up!  I also rubbed over top of the impressions with a white ink pad on the colored sections to make it pop a bit more.

I white heat embossed the sentiment from Taylored Expressions Mini Strips Holiday and die cut it out with the TE Mini Strips Asymmetrical Die over a TE Blue Corn cardstock piece which was what the card base is cut from too.  Popped up the strip with foam tape and finished with some silver sequins.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and that you’ll pop on over at the “Let’s Squash It!” Challenge Blog to check out the challenge this month and play along with us too!  Looking forward to seeing what everyone’s comes up with for this one!  Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Wonderful Winter/Feeling Festive
  2. Crafty Creations – #427 Anything Goes
  3. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  4. Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas/Winter
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Letters ‘U’, ‘V’ or ‘W’ for inspiration (I used “W” for winter!)
  7. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

It’s a Spooky Kind of Love

Happy Friday friends!  We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃  Are you ready?!  Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check.  Scary movies at the ready…check.  Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!

Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too!  So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”!  I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:

And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky!  We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so!  I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme.  I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.

Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean.  I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink.  I ink blended the edges and bottom with black.  I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy!  I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink.  The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart.  Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.

It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!

Here’s a collection of just a few snippets of some current moments we’ve had:

  • Enjoying Fall time picking apples from a local Orchid we love to visit each year. He’s my “Picking apple punk boy”!
  • Oh no! Those darn bats! Our visit to a literally COOL cave from a Minnesota trip.
  • A morning “Cabin Coffee” time together
  • He’s always giving me a hard time for making “goofy faces” in photos…so he “allows” it as long as I get a “nice” one in!😂 This is what I call a little “Hocking Hills Humor” visiting the state park.
  • Awesome beach and lighthouse history at Lake Erie
  • Recent trip to Niagara Falls with our rain gear on. I’m not wearing my glasses because I drenched myself under the Falls and he thought it was funny!
  • Cruising a carousel ride at Silver Beach on our trip to Lake Michigan
  • It’s a Halloween photo booth at Silver Beach…so of course! Watch out for those bats and spider webs!
  • Indeed❤

And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge (over on the FB InkyStamper Inkspiration Group) using a recycled item!  I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat!  I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers.  I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched out circle for the bottom.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder.  I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle.  Really easy and fun to create!  You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
  2. Alphabet – ‘O’ is for Outdoors
  3. Sweet Stampin’ – All Hallows Eve
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. Make My Monday – (E)scape it (scene)
  6. Little Red Wagon – Outside (outdoors)
  7. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
  8. CCEE Stampers – Create a Scene
  9. Stamping Sensations – Animals, Birds & Bugs

*Vicki*27 Comments