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*16 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*26 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*25 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

Delightfully Frightful Guest Designer for Digi Doodle Studios👻

Happy Friday friends!  Another weekend in October is upon us and so is Halloween!  Yay!  Well, I’m excited about it anyway! LOL  If not for being a kid to trick or treat…for treats and spooky fun anyway!

Today I’m so thrilled to be guest designing for Digi Doodle Studios!  If you’ve been around my blog, then you’ve probably seen some of my past creations with the company as a design team member. Dina is such a sweet lady so of course I’m happy to color up one of her amazing images!  So be sure to check out all of the digital stamps in her store.  (I just spied that there is also a design team call as well as guest design call…check it out HERE!)  And…if you are more of a hands-on crafter that prefers to “ink it up”, Dina has also started a store called Ink ‘n’ Splatter for clear stamps, dies, stencils and paper pads to purchase!  I think it’s amazing to have both options for purchasing these CUTE things!  Let her know that I sent you over that way!

Isn’t this such a cute and fun scene?!  I’ve used this adorable Kikimora Halloween Witch digital stamp from Digi Doodle Studios and created this fun scene with her using a past digital set called Ghostly Haunts Pairables which was discontinued on the digital side, but the adorable ghosts from that decided to pop up on the Ink ‘n’ Splatter store in a clear stamp set – CLICK HERE!  I’ve sized and placed the images on my computer before printing them out.  I also printed out an additional one as well as another on some masking paper.

The reason for printing over masking paper was so that I could fussy cut out the image…yes even the tree, to ink blend the background.  (Any “imperfections” can be covered up with the coloring, so I ink blended FIRST.)  You could always ink blend a background and then cut out your image(s) to place over top, but I wanted this to be a one layer with the blended background to be incorporated with it for the glowing moon and night sky with a ground area.  The only thing about the image that is NOT flat are the two ghosts that I fussy cut out from an additional printing of it along with the cloud over the moon.  The ghosts were partially popped up with a foam square and I glued flat the cloud. This helped with the scene to give that dimensional look.  The scene was cut with a MFT rectangle die and was finished with ink blending around the edges ending with Black Soot at the very edges.

So BEFORE I removed the masks from the images to color, I also decided to take some silver paint to create some splatters in the night sky.  I then took some shimmer spray to go over top of it for some sparkle. I then die cut a banner for the sentiment from the DDS Halloween Happiness digital set and ink blended some Carved Pumpkin over it to glue at the top and cut off the edge from the panel. I then layered this scene over an orange scallop edge rectangle die cut piece that was layered over an A2 top folding black card base. 

I’ve also die cut a bat from my stash in black cardstock and glued it around the sentiment banner.  I’ve covered the bat with a glitter brush pen for a bit of sparkle as well.

For the grounding of the images and some shadow effects from the moon, I took a Copic marker to color in some shadow under the witch, tombstone and tree.  You can also see on the witch that I’ve added some highlights with a white gel pen as well as silver and gold gel pens for her outfit.  I also covered the little diamond on her necklace with some Stickles Star Dust glitter.  It looks awesome in person and matches her dress.

I tried, but it’s so hard to capture all of the sparkly glitter goodness over this card.  The entire sky is covered with sparkle.  I do hope you’ve enjoyed my card.

Be sure to check out this month’s challenge over at the DDS Challenge Blog with an October “Halloween” theme and of course you can join the DDS Fan FB Group and enter challenges there as well or just share a creation made with any DDS/Ink ‘n’ Splatter image(s)!

Thanks for dropping in and have an awesome weekend!

CHALLENGES:

  1. Digi Doodle Studios Challenge Blog – October: Fall and/or Halloween
  2. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  3. Creative Friday – Pick 3 – I picked: Moon, Bat, Black
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  5. My Time to Craft – Halloween or Fall Colors
  6. {Cupcake Inspirations} – Halloween Fun
  7. Double Trouble – Halloween Cuteness
  8. Try it On Tuesday – Halloween
  9. Fab ‘n’ Funky – Halloween

*Vicki*36 Comments

It’s the Handmade For Holidays Release at Taylored Expressions🎄

Hello friends!  I’m so excited to share the “Handmade for the Holidays” release at Taylored Expressions today!  You can go check out all the things right now in the store!  I’m extra excited that I get to be apart of this special release with them as a guest designer too!  (This was for my win during the TE 13th birthday celebration challenges I had entered from last month!🎉 Yay!)  There will also be a huge post about it on the Taylored Expressions Blog too!  I really hope that you enjoy the projects I’ve made to share with you and if you stop by the store, please let Taylor know that I sent you! 

For my first set of projects, I’ve made a fun Christmas décor item that you can gift for the Holidays, use as a center piece for your table setting, etc.  I’ve taken the Taylored Expressions (new) Accordion Tree die and used it to make a trio of trees with the “poinsettia style” attached to the accompanying TE Tree Stumps (sold separately) to go with this die and another two trees without the stumps.  For the trio of trees, I’ve used the  Merry Blooms Stamps, Stencil & Clear Combo set to create a background over a Toffee cardstock base inking and blending with Sweet Basil, Cherry Pop and Mulled Wine inks.  I’ve also used the same products to make the tag as well.  I’ve gold heat embossed the centers for the poinsettias in the background.  I’ve also taken the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments Holiday stamp set and used the tiny images from the set to create backgrounds for the other two trees.  I’ve splattered the tree backgrounds as well as the tag background with acrylic white and gold paints. These die cut trees were glued back to back with the score line in the center as a guide which makes them 3D looking.  I’ll explain each item below:

This was such a fun 3D project to create!  I wanted all the trees together in one piece, so I thought it would be fun to grab one of these wood slices I’ve been hoarding forever and glue the trees to this base.  There is an accordion star that comes with the accordion tree die, but I thought it would be fun to take the TE Perfect Poinsettia die and cut out several of the smallest bloom to make that the “star topper” for the poinsettia tree.  I’ve used the coordinating stamps to stamp the “veins” and gold heat embossed the centers for them.  I folded them in half and glued it to the top of the tree.  I also attached some TE Gold Drip Drops for the “ornaments” over the tree (TE Drip Drops make perfect “ornaments” for these trees!) and added some gold twine bows front and back.  I’ve ink blended the edges of the poinsettia tree with Toffee ink and gold paint sponged on the poinsettia topper.

This is what the other side (back) of this piece looks like…so it’s visible from all angles.  Here you can better see the other two trees and how the backgrounds were made.  I’ve also added some thick white paint to the edges of them to make it look more like “snowed over” trees especially since they were splattered with white paint.  For the wood slice that the trees are attached to, I’ve used some Ranger Mica Flakes for a bit of sparkle attaching it with Multi-Medium Matte glue.

For the tag, I’ve die cut the background explained above with the TE Stacklets 2 die and wrapped some gold twine around it with the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tags Holiday set for the little tree with the gold heat embossed sentiment over it.  I’ve also gold heat embossed the large sentiment from the Joyful Season stamp set & dies that I’ve popped with my favorite product TE Sticky Strips.  I’ve cut out another layering piece behind the tag with Sweet Basil cardstock, punched a hole and added more gold twine.

And how stinkin’ CUTE are these guys?!  This is my second set of projects for this release using the NEW TE Snow Squad Dies & Clear Stamp Combo set.  As you can see, the cute die cut critters are made to perfectly fit the Tag Stacklet dies!  I’ve the Tag Stacklet 2 die set for my sweet penguin!  The critters are so easy to cut out and decorate them as you like!  I like that the clear stamp set comes with it to stamp in the eyes as those tiny dots can be so hard to deal with and loose!  You get a penguin, a polar bear and a snowman with this die set!

Again, I thought it would be fun to create a background for my card and tag set, so this time, I’ve taken the TE Let It Snow Layering Stencil set for a snowy background.  I’ve started with a Mint Julep cardstock base, blended the same color ink for the first layer, Sugar Cube ink for the second layer and for the third layer, I’ve used some TE Glitter Grab and immediately covered it with some TE Silver Glitter.  Love how it turned out with the subtle color! 

Starting with my card details, I’ve decided to give the snow squad critters soft colors with their scarves.  The clear stamp set with the dies also come with a two line image for adding details to the scarf, so I silver heat embossed those and then added some matching TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel in between those lines.  They matched up perfectly!  I inked around the edges of each die cut piece for the critters and stamped the face images including the cheeks which I off-stamped first to keep them light.  I used a white gel pen for highlight details.

I thought it would be fun to have these Snow Squad critters pop out from a snow drift, so I took some TE Sugar Cube Glitter Cardstock and cut out a “snow drift” with a piece of the their scarves over it and popped them up over the snowy background I’ve created using a TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle Stacklets for the stitching details behind them which was layered over an A2 sized Sugar Cube top folding card base.  For the sentiment, I silver heat embossed it from the TE Winter Wishes clear stamp set over a Mint Julep cardstock that was cut out using the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets die. 

And of course I had to use the penguin again for my coordinating tag!  I’ve used part of the same background I’ve made for the card and cut it out using the TE Tag Stacklets 2 die set with another Sugar Cube cut out for the layering base.

I did the same thing for this tag that I did for the card above with the snow drift, but I also added a tiny tag that he’s holding with some Doodlebug Gray Twine.  The tag was created with the same TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tag Holiday sets.  I’ve stamped the row of tiny trees from the set with the Mint Julep ink and then silver heat embossed the sentiment above it.  I’ve also used more of the TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel for the center of the bow on the present along with the penguin’s scarf.  I’ve punched a hole at the top and added more of the same twine at the top.

So how about you?!  Are you ready for the up-coming Holiday Season?  I sure hope that I was able to bring you some inspiration with your handmade projects for the Holidays!  Again, you can check out all of the brand new Taylored Expressions products in the store as it’s now been released!  Be sure to check out all of the wonderful inspiration on her blog HERE too!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  I appreciate all of your kind support friends!  Have a great day!

Challenges:

  1. Happy Little Stampers – OCT Anything Goes with Dies (all projects are using dies!)
  2. Simon Says Stamps Wednesday – NOT a card
  3. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  4. Krafty Chicks – Christmas
  5. Creative Knockouts – Embossing (I used heat embossing)
  6. The Crafter’s Cafe – Use a Stencil (used on all projects)
  7. Creative Fingers – #217 Anything Goes
  8. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

The WINNER of my GIVE AWAY!!🎉

Hey friends! I’m just popping by to tell you who the winner is of my Taylored Expressions Giveaway! Thanks so much for all of you for stopping in to say hello, those that just follow my posts, those of you that have been such really good long-time crafty friends and your kind support! It always makes crafting that much more enjoyable for sure!

This time I’ve asked hubby to help me out with choosing a winner because, honestly, he doesn’t know who anyone is and I know he would be very direct in what reason for choosing someone. So hubby picked out…….

SHIRLEY HOTOP

Here’s her comment about the give away:  “…..As for the give away – we have new neighbors and I just started her out with a few stamping supplies – and so far she is loving how creative she can be. I know she would be tickled with a win.“

Congratulations!!  I will be sure to send you an e-mail that you’ve won and we’ll get this mailed out to you as soon as we can so you can enjoy!  Yay!!

The reason for hubby picking this person is because he said:  “I like that this person is sharing her craft supplies so that they can enjoy crafting together and she is trying to help her out with getting supplies.”  Sounds like a win to me too!!  Really hope that it is enjoyed and shared many times over!

Thanks again everyone for your support and friendship!  

*Vicki*6 Comments

Having Some Halloween Fun!🎃

Hey friends!  I know it’s well into October and so you may be wondering where in the world have my Halloween posts been?  Today was gloomy and foggy out…and it’s getting evening, so it was a good time to post!  If you know me, then you know I love all things Halloween, but I’ve actually been in the background lurking with my Halloween projects! Bwhaa!!  I just haven’t had time to sit and make a post for them yet.  The reason for that is, of course, I’m taking too many classes and doing events that I’m like a “mad scientist” in the background with all of the crafting things, but haven’t been sharing them!  So, I’ve decided to set aside some time to create a post with all things Halloween! (Don’t worry, there will be more special ones coming too!)

Now isn’t this one a cutie?!  I’ve received this free digital image especially from the Whimsy Stamps World Card Making Day Event on Facebook that they usually hold every year and have some fun games and challenges.  This image was created by Crissy Armstrong of course and she even did a cute little tutorial with it, so I had to color it up!

I’ve used Copics for the coloring and even made a shadowy creepy black/gray grass along the bottom of the pumpkin.  The hat buckle was colored with a gold gel pen.  The sentiment came from an older Whimsy Stamps candy corn set I had in my stash.  For the background, I’ve used my favorite Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame background stamp to go around kitty.  I then used a couple of different Distress inks to sponge around the edges and then spritzed water over it & blotted it up with a paper towel to make it even “creepier” looking.  I layered it over an orange layer from my stash and then placed this over an A2 sized top folding card base.  I also die cut a bat from an old freebie from Whimsy Stamps years back to glue at the top of the scene and covered it with a glitter brush pen.  Super fun!

Halloween-31-Nights-blog-banner-2018-whimsy-stamps

Now I want to enter this into the annual Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween that they do every year!  Check out the event with lots of Halloween inspiration & fun if you’re interested!  I always love to play along and I think Whimsy Stamps has some of THE best products for crafting Halloween!  CHECK THEM OUT HERE!!

And this is another card I made for the Whimsy Stamps WCMD Event challenge using a fun Autumn/Halloween mood board.  (The event is over, but it was super fun!)  The first thing about the mood board I noticed was all of the orange and fun jack-o-lanterns that popped out at me.  Plus, this was another cute freebie digital image given to us during the event.

So I colored up this dragon using mainly orange tone Copics with a “candy corn” effect.  I also used it for the die cut sentiment at the top that was cut out from the Whimsy Stamps Boo die set.  Hard to tell in the photo, but I covered it with the glitter brush pen too.  I popped up the “dragon guy” over a piece of the Whimsy Stamps 6×6 Haunted Paper Pack cut with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle Dies.  It was all layered over a white A2 top folding card base.  I also added some yellow Stickles to the pumpkin’s face.

And since I’ve been doing so many classes, I thought I’d just create another gallery full of Halloween projects that I’ve done.  I have actually been working on some books and journals as well as mixed media projects and not sure if I’ll get them finished up before Halloween as I’ve been busy, but it’s always fun to get creative and messy especially for all things creepy and spooky!💀  Hope you enjoy! – (If you’re viewing this on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see) 

  • This was a fun one I made using a sketch for the Inky Stamper’s World Card Making Day Event! I had to pull out the Spider set and stamp up the eyeballs for the background! The spider was die cut out over the circle with an added wobbler on him! So fun!
  • A class that Taylor taught using a special Halloween bundle showing how to foil.
  • This is the second portion of Taylor’s class using the same Jack-o-Lantern Cutting Plate.
  • Here’s another set of Halloween cards taught by Taylor for a virtual event I attended in Aug. (I think I over did it on the splatter! LOL)
  • This was a Lawn Fawn class with this set of projects during the Aug virtual event. The back project is a gable box.
  • This was a DecoFoil class class from the Aug virtual event…LOTS of foil! The green background is felt.
  • This was a watercolor mini slimline class taught during the Aug virtual event. I’ve used glow-in-the-dark glitter for the inside faces except the center one was just yellow glitter.
  • From a Riley & Co Halloween class. This is an easel slimline card.
  • Another Riley & Co easel type card. LOL
  • TEE HEE! A Riley & Co Dracula topped with glossy accent hair. Also added it to the bat too. See next photo for the inside…
  • …inside of Dracula card. LOL
  • Riley & Co is so funny! The cat is on a wobbler!
  • This card reminded me of Jimmy Fallon’s Friday Thank you notes! (If you’ve ever caught one of those shows!) See what I mean in the next photo for the inside of this card…
  • …ha ha! inside of Thank you Halloween Candy…

Whew!  Was that a lot of Halloween or what?!  Many of these things just give me a big chuckle and I just think they’re so fun especially now that I’ve looked back on them.  Although many of these project were created earlier this Summer, I thought it would be a good time to share them with you. #MakeHalloween365  I still have more Halloween up my sleeve soon, so stayed tuned!

If you haven’t entered my give away yet, there’s still a few days left if you want to leave me a comment saying you’re interested!  CHECK OUT THE POST HERE  I will announce the winner by Oct 11th.

Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween projects here!  HAPPY CRAFTING

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
  2. Pearly Sparkles – Autumn and/or Halloween
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  4. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with featured Critter
  5. The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  8. Crafty Calendar – Halloween

*Vicki*33 Comments

Amazing Autumn🍂

Hello friends! Happy October! I hope that you’re having a great week so far and looking forward to doing something crafty this weekend for World Card Making Day!!🌍😀  I have decided to post something a bit early as I know there will be tons and tons of special posts planned by many, so I thought it best to post today instead!

IN THE MEANTIME, I DO HAVE A FUN GIVEWAY LOCATED ON MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!  YOU HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th TO ENTER…JUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT THAT YOU’RE INTERESTED!!

There are SO MANY things going on this time of the year and maybe that’s why I love Autumn so much. (WCD, Halloween, birthday, Cooler temps, warm clothes, Harvest, yummy foods, pretty colors, changing leaves, Halloween…oops already said that…but you know!)  I am thankful for all of it!  I have a couple of cards from a TE kit I recently got (yes, I know…another one to pile on!), but I fell in love with it so much & I am using it right away!😁

There is some copper EP that comes in the kit, so I heat embossed both the sunflower and wheat images together so that I could color them both at the same time with some watercolor.  I then cut them both out with the coordinating dies and set aside to work on my background.

The background was so fun!  I’ve used a Bristol Smooth watercolor panel and pulled out some Mica Stains and other sprays from my stash with a spray bottle filled with water and just played.  Some of it I splattered to make “dots”.  I used the “Burlap” background stamp in the kit and randomly stamped the background as well as heat embossed an element and sentiment from the stamp set.  I cut this panel with a die and wrapped some twine around it before attaching to a chocolate truffle card base.  I used some foam strips to pop up the flower and added a twine bow to it.  Finished it off with some Iridescent Rhinestones.

And this is the second card I’ve made using the wheat image that I previously colored with the sunflower image above.  What’s nice about this card is that the background was done using one of the foilable panels from the kit.  I found some copper foil and ran it through my laminator.  I lined up the cut out wheat image with the background and glued it over top cutting off the bottom portion that stuck out.  I also heat embossed a sentiment from the TE clear set in my stash and then punched it out with a circle punch.  I used my blender brush to very lightly add some Sea Salt ink at the top of the foiled panel as well as around the sentiment circle.

Lastly, I attached both the image and sentiment panels onto a piece of copper foil cardstock and then mounted it onto a side folding A2 white card base.  It was simple, but I like the shine it gives.

I had been discussing with someone recently how I really need to make more sympathy cards to have on hand…so here’s a start to getting a pile going hopefully.

Speaking of needing cards, all of the birthday cards from my last post have been spoken for!  Everyone seems to really need birthday cards and like having them on hand.  I can totally relate to that!  I think I need to get some “sorry I forgot” ones thrown in there too! 😂  

I still have some projects that I’ve been working on in the background from some classes I took over the Summer but still haven’t shared yet, so I thought I’d start a little bit at a time and I think these “Autumn themed” cards work with my post today:  (If you’re seeing this post on my website, just click on the photos below in the gallery to see them up close.)

  • These projects were from a class taught by Daniel West for Hero Arts and we received a large woodgrain background stamp for the class. It was fun to make the backgrounds!
  • This is an image from Impression Obsession that was more of a “Spring like” image, but changing up the colors for Fall gave it a different look. I sponged around the image and panel and added some splatters.
  • This was a Simon Says Stamp class using an older stamp set. We used some sprays and also colored with them for the images.

I have taken SO MANY classes, so I still have many more projects to share as I go here!  Hope that you enjoy seeing what I’ve been up to!  It’s just fun to play around and in the process…no matter how little a piece I use…I am using my stash somehow and I’m very happy about that!  At least I’m still crafting anyway! LOL

Thanks for dropping in and have a great crafty weekend!

Challenges to enter for the first two cards only:

  1. Sketch Saturday – Sketch #679 (my second card turned)
  2. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  3. Make My Monday – Embossing (heat on both cards)
  4. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper
  5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
  6. Happy Little Stampers – Watercolor (used on both images)
  7. Creative Knockouts – Fall is in the Air

*Vicki*24 Comments

Taylored Expressions Sept Birthday Challenges & Exciting News!🥳

Hello friends!  Happy Friday and are you ready for the weekend?  I’m supposed to be helping hubby with some outside work, but my allergies have been bad and I’m not feeling well.  Hopefully some medicine will be helping so we can get things finished up!

I have been a “grumpy” fan of Taylored Expressions for a few years as you might have seen in some of my past posts…so of course I get “pulled in” by other cute products too and that’s what happened…my story anyway!  In their FB fan group there is a monthly #TEmakerchallenge with prompts to follow as long as you use at least one of their products.  So I’ve made a fun card for this month I’d like to share:

Now how CUTE are these little critters?!  During TE’s Sept birthday month (13 years in business), they released a collection of birthday related items and this is the introduction of “Chip & Charlie Party“!  I’m saying that Chip is the bird and Charlie is the raccoon…not sure, but that’s what I’m saying! LOL  I’ve colored them up with Copic markers and added some shimmer to the balloon, party hats and cherry on cupcake with a glitter brush pen.  I’ve also added some highlights with a white gel pen.

I wanted something in the background, but not too distracting from the critters, so I stamped the Party Time background stamp in the same cardstock color (Cherry Pop) I then used the stencil from this combo set to white ink blend the tops of the hats.  The paper strip accents came from a TE paper pack I had in my stash.  I thought it needed an extra little image element on the front of the card, so I added some Doodlebug Twine and the party hat from Big Grumpy-Birthday, colored with Copics and popped up with foam tape on bottom corner. It was covered with a glitter brush pen and I also added a Doodlebug Matte Sprinkle at the top of the party hat and in the center of the twine bow.

You might notice that the image panel is not completed adhered to the card front and there’s a score mark in the center as well.  So I was going for something a bit different than a regular A2 birthday card…and the Sept challenge prompts are 1. Heat or non-heat embossing, 2. Napa Valley color quad and/or 3.  Something that begins with “E”  You have to pick at least one of these along with a TE product.  So for the “E” I’ve decided on making an Easel card…

So when you open up the bottom flap, you place it behind the popped up sentiment that was white heat embossed (also a challenge prompt) and cut out with the coordinating die from the “Get the Word Out-Celebrate” set.  I’ve also added some more of those yellow polka-dot papers and a thin strip of Cookie Monster cardstock which is what I used to mat behind the image panel as well as for the sentiment.  There is still room to line the inside of the card with a special birthday message.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and please see at the end of this post for other challenges I’ve entered…PLUS a special birthday give away if you’re interested!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Now for some EXCITING NEWS**

Taylored Expressions was holding a special set of birthday challenges this month in their FB fans group with certain prompts for each one.  There was a set of four different challenges and I decided to make something for each challenge and I ended up winning a future guest design spot for a future release!  WHAT?!  Taylor shared which one was her favorite I made in THIS FB ANNOUNCEMENT, but I will share all the creations I made here: (click on the photos to enlarge them if you are viewing them on my blog.)

  • The first challenge was using Toffee color cardstock/ink + ROYGBIV (rainbow) colors. I made a theater fold design with the Toffee card base and a stenciled rainbow colored background. I also counted out exactly 13 candles to use on the front of the card for TE’s 13th birthday. I’ve also stenciled a few Toffee confetti sprinkles over top. When you pull on each side of this card, it opens up which you can see in the photo below.
  • I white heat embossed the sentiment on the inside and then I took the same confetti stencil and added some white ones over the toffee inside. You can see the candles popped up in the center opening. This card was Taylor’s favorite pick! 🙂
  • These cards were made for the 2nd challenge which was to create a CAS design and then take the similar style and “Step it up”.
  • For the third challenge, you were given a choice of two different photos for inspiration and you had to pick one to create a project from. I sort of was inspired by both and I some what combined the two for my mini slimline card here. This took a bit of time to white heat emboss the sentiments in the rainbow colors and cut all the stars, etc, but I like how this turned out.
  • The fourth challenge was called “shake it up” which meant to create a shaker card. I’ve used this adorable Gus & Gertie set along with some other elements for design from my stash. I ran an embossing folder over the silver foil frame a die cut to make my shaker element from. Check out the next photo for the shaker bits…
  • And this is the shaker lying flat with all of the inside shaker elements. I’ve used some snowflakes from a past kit as well as silver sequins and ice beads.
Taylored Expressions 13th Birthday Challenge entries

I honestly wasn’t thinking about winning anything! I was basically just enjoying the process of creating and pulling out some stash that I hadn’t yet used and wanted to use so I thought I’d just play along.  I was very surprised to see that I was picked as a winner!  Very humbled and honored by that!  So be watching for an up coming GDT post!

I have actually joined several of Taylor’s classes, virtual events, etc and have made many cool things during the time that I wasn’t blogging, so I never shared them… but like I said, I’ve been creating and having fun!  I do remember something fun she taught in a virtual event from July I was apart of that was Halloween themed, so I’ll have to pull those cards out soon as well since the time is coming up and I do love me some Halloween!🎃

One last thing!  With all of the fun and exciting things going, I realized it’s my birthday month as well!  I’m not 13, but let’s just say a few years older!😁  So I think the best thing to do for my birthday is to give rather than receive!  If you feel the same and think someone would enjoy this little Taylored Expressions bundle that I have shown above in the photo, let me know!  If you’d like to gift this for yourself, let me know!  I would love to give someone these extra set of items already in my stash to someone!  There is a Banner Simple Strips die, a 3 piece balloon layering stencil with a clear stamp set combo, a Cupcake ink pad (unwrapped, but NOT used at all, I just noticed I already had one after unwrapping it!) and a tiny cake and celebrate stamp set all from Taylored Expressions and perfect for party making! (There may be a few other things added as well!)

**Please just leave me a comment that you are interested in the TE give away by October 10th, 2021 and I will be happy to pick someone to send it out to!**

Whew!  I think that’s about it!  Thank you for stopping by friends and enjoy your weekend!

I’d like to enter the top easel card ONLY in these challenges:

  1. Taylored Expressions FB Fans Group Sept #TEmakerchallenge – heat/dry embossing and easel card for something beginning with “E”
  2. Festive Friday – #FF0093 I used: balloons, red & twineFestive-Friday-0093-challenge-card
  3. Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (birthday)

*Vicki*36 Comments