Emboss It at Sparkles Monthly + Giveaway WINNER!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great month so far and being able to enjoy the nice Spring weather!  It’s been really nice over my way, but I’m seeing we have a bit of cooler temps coming too.  Hopefully not too chilly!  **Be sure to scroll down below this post to see if you’re a winner from my giveaway!!**

Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog and this time we would like for you to “Emboss it”!  I hope you will hop on over to see the inspiration from the team and consider joining in the fun with us this month!

Here’s the DT creation that I’ve made:

I love to do embossing on my cards and I know it’s a favorite for many!  I’ve decided to do a “Letterpress Embossing” technique and inked up an embossing folder to achieve the effect on my orange layer panel.  The raised areas stay white on the white cardstock.

For the two corners, I’ve taken a Simon Says Stamp Garden Greetings stamp set and gold heat embossed the floral spray image.  I’ve also used the same gold embossing for the “sending hugs” sentiment strip as well as the “Get Well Soon” sentiment over the shimmer vellum which was cut from a stitched circle die.  I added some gold sequins over it.

I wanted to keep it somewhat flat for mailing purposes, but I think some of it popped up would be pretty too. I was also very happy to pull out a past card kit and make another card with it.

I would love to see your embossed creations in the gallery this month, so I’ll hope you’ll play along!  Check out the challenge here – Sparkles Monthly

***ARE YOU A WINNER?!!***

vicki-tegiveaway

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I have taken all of the comments from my last post, added all of the names that mentioned they would be interested in the Beautiful Butterflies dies and foil package and wrote those names on pieces of scrap paper. I folded and crumpled them up and had my husband pick out a name. He threw them all into the hat he was wearing and pulled one out!

HERE IS THE NAME THAT HE PICKED OUT…………….

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Yay!  Congratulations Chrissy! 

Please contact me and send me your full name and snail mail address so that I can pop your package in the mail to you!  I hope you enjoy it!  (I haven’t even used mine yet!)  Sorry if your name didn’t get pulled as I only had one, but I know I have several “double” items that I’ve placed in a bin and will be pulling them out at some point to give away! So stay tuned!

Thanks so much for dropping in and taking the time to say hello!  I appreciate you!

Challenges I’d like to enter my above card into:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
  2. Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes optional clouds
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Little Red Wagon – At least 2 layers 
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
  7. Tic Tac Toe – TTTC204 (middle down: die cut, free, embossing)tttc-challenge-board-204

*Vicki*27 Comments

Rainbow Bridge

Hello friends!  Welcome to March!  Although it’s still cold and even some snow coming in our forecast, I know that warmer weather is coming soon along with those pretty flowers!  I have a full weekend of crafting coming, so I’m prepared to get through this cold snap!

So I have unfortunately had to make and send a couple of pet sympathy cards as I didn’t have any on hand.  I decided that I needed to pull out a card kit from My Favorite Things called “Rainbow Bridge“, I think.  It’s no longer available, but I know they have a few things in pet sympathy.  I wanted to make sure that I still had some of these on hand when needed because I feel like these can be hard to make.

This card was made and sent out in January for someone who lost their precious fur friend.  I thought the silhouette looked a similar shape to the photos I saw.  I’ve used the stencil and dies that came with the kit along with some of the papers included in the kit with the paw prints.  I’ve also used the same papers as a liner for the inside of the envelope that you can see in the photo.

I’ve ink blended some rainbow colors and then used the die set in the kit to make the rainbow bridge and added some hearts around the silhouette pup which was popped up over the rainbow bridge.

I also needed to make a kitty one and then just decided that I was going to use this card kit to make several of these different pet sympathy cards so that I had some on hand when needed.  I thought that was a clever card kit and knew it would be very useful to create lots of pet sympathy cards with.

  • These are all in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge the size so you can see the details:

Sometimes it’s just good to sit down and craft to have some cards on hand that you know you’ll probably need at some point, but don’t want to hurry to try and put something together because you need it.

Hope you’ve gotten some inspiration in my post today or found some inspiration with it.  Thanks so much for stopping in today!  

Challenges:

  1. Allsorts – Anything Goes optional 4-legged Friends
  2. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
  3. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes + Featured Creature
  4. Pearly Sparkles – Include Sentiment/Verse
  5. The Diva’s That Cut Paper – Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes Using Paper
  7. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  8. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*25 Comments

Christmas Fun with Kits and Classes

Hello friends!  We’re headed into the home stretch now for Christmas and the end of the year!  Are you ready yet?  Well I thought that I would try and get some Christmas cards made up and have some fun with it rather than trying to rush things too much.  

Tee hee!  This one makes me giggle!  While I was making up some squares for my sampler swap group, I thought I’d use this same MFT Stuffed Santa kit (that I had gotten last year) and made a card along with making the squares too!  The squares I made turned out cute too and I’ll share those later on.  I added some glitter to the snow on the image and on his gold belt buckle too.  The background was white heat embossed with the MFT Christmas Greetings Background and then ink blended with blue inks.  Finished off with snowflake sequins and Stickles glitter in the centers of each.

And here’s another set of cards that I made from a previously purchased kit by Riley & Co using the cute Riley as the Grinch stamp.  The stamp was included along with the kit and so I just thought it would be nice and easy by just coloring him up, adding my own sentiment and putting it together.  So now I want to watch the movie!😄

And lastly are some cards that I put together during an OOAK event with the classes that I selected to get the kits for and just enjoyed the process of putting them together.  **If you are on my website, you can click on the photos below to see them up close and larger**

Craft Fancy class – part 1 (spinner)
Craft Fancy Class – part 2 (shaker card)
Riley & Co – candy lane image (z-fold)
Riley & Co – Merry deer (z-fold)
Riley & Co – funny bones
Inky Stamper – gift card holder inside & mini card

So although I’ve shared several projects here today, I have more craft-making going on so I’m going to shorten up my post and hope that you enjoy the inspiration!  I appreciate you stopping by today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Waiting on Santa (top card! LOL)
  2. Christmas Kickstart – Christmassy
  3. Crafty Friends – Traditional Christmas Colors (2nd card)
  4. Jingle Belles – Wrapping Up Christmas 2022
  5. Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes Christmas
  6. Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas Creations
  7. Moving Along With the Times – Christmas

*Vicki*20 Comments

September AJ Page-Embrace Change

Are you a winner from my TE Background Stamp Give Away?  Check post below or CLICK HERE!

Hello friends!  As of Thursday, Fall has begun!  It actually really does feel like Fall with the cooler temps settling in on exactly that same day too!  I’m looking forward to all of the wonderful changes it brings with it!  I enjoy going out in nature and seeing the trees change into their colors.

It’s also that time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” September prompt of “ANY kind(s) of scrap papers!” :

Like many crafters out there, I’m sure we all have those never ending piles of papers! I especially have a very extensive collection of pattern papers and MANY within those piles of little left over pieces that never seem to get used and just thrown back into the package!  I not only have packages, but I also have several card kits that ALSO have packages of papers in them too…so I pulled out a past kit and was happy that I’ve used pretty much all of the left over scraps from it!  One down and a trillion to go!!😅

For the Background:  The page is a 6″ x 9″ Canson 140# cold-pressed paper with the holes prepared at the top for later book binding.  I’ve used Distress Oxide Sprays and used the left over spray on my glass mat with water until I soaked up all the ink.  I’ve also splattered some Gold and Ivory acrylic paints over top once dry.  I stamped a couple of the tiny leaves with green ink for a bit of depth in the background.

Vicki-SYS-SeptAJ-paper scraps-close

For the Image Elements:  I used the Simon Says Stamp “Woodland Whimsy” stamp set to paper piece all of the image elements with the tall trees on the right, the leaves, the bear, the bear’s belly and ears, also with the berry and leaf branches next to him.  The trees were fussy cut with scissors and the other images were cut with coordinating dies.  I’ve used Copic markers to add a bit of depth and dimension to some of it. Some were glued down while some were popped up with foam squares.  I’ve also taken the Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Leaves dies to cut out a few extra and sponged around them to add to the scene.  I’ve also used the same papers I’ve used to cut those leaves out and added it as a layer behind the two sentiment quote squares.  The quote was printed out from my computer and the “Autumn” sentiment was cut out from pattern papers using the Lawn Fawn henry’s ABCs dies along with more papers to make an “off-set” shadow behind them.

The “ground” was just fussy cut with scissors and ink sponged around the edges.  Lastly, I’ve taken some gold Stickles to create “berries” on the leaf branches and randomly over the page.

I really enjoyed creating this page as it has inspired me to go out in nature for a walk!  I sure hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!  Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Fur or Feathers (I went with fur, but love both!)
  2. Country View – Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  6. Snippets Playground – Anything Goes using snippets (Happy to use up “snippets” of my pattern papers for the paper pieced images!) YES PLEASE!

*Vicki*32 Comments

Some Summer Session Sets

Happy August friends!  This Summer has really flown right by me this year, how about you?  Before you know it we’ll be getting ready for all things Fall…which is my favorite time of the year!🍂  I haven’t been feeling well for the last several days and haven’t done much crafting, but I do have some sets of cards that I’ve made sometime during these Summer months, but haven’t posted, so I’d like to share them with you today.

Taylored Expression had released an adorable collection of fish themed products this Summer that I thought would be so fun for several different occasions, and not just for those that like to fish, but for anyone for any occasion too!

The first white background card on the left was created with the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Stamp & Stencil Combo.  The stencil is really nice to create different effects in an easy way without lots of coloring. I like that the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Dies cut out some of the mass produced stenciled fish background too!  (I saved one for the other card as well and still had a few more left over for another project.)  After I created a couple of the stenciled fish backgrounds, I cut out a panel with a wonky stitched rectangle die and placed it over a Kraft A2 card base.  I added some TE Drip Drops for the “bubbles” on the extra fish and you can see that I’ve covered the body of this fish with a glitter brush pen.

The second card on the right was created with the TE Just Keep Swimming Stencil with Toffee Ink color for a watermark look.  I splattered some white and black paint over the background.  The fishing pool as well as the sentiments for both cards came from the TE Reely Great Stamp & Die Combo.  (It includes the fishing pool die cut with it.)  You will also noticed the tiny little sparkly fish on both of the cards which were cut from the TE Little Bits-Fish die with some blue and turquoise glitter cardstock.  The ‘frame’ around the sentiment on the first card as well as the green frame for the second card were extra pieces in my stash previously cut out with the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate. (I save the extras to use for other projects.)  

Of course I didn’t “invent the wheel” on these as it was simple by following along with the TE “Hugs & Fishes Craft-a-Long Class” which I got for free with my stamp/combo purchase when it came out. I tweaked it slightly, but sometimes it’s nice to just create and follow along without having to think about what to do with it.😁 

This next set of cards was actually pretty fun and easy to put together:

Continuing on with more Taylored Expressions products, I’ve used the TE Create-in-Quads Hexagon Layering Stencil Set.  Taylor had recently come with this series sometime last year I believe and they seem to go over pretty well.  (I think I had previously made Christmas cards and some Mother’s Day type of cards earlier this Spring with other “Create-in-Quads” sets.)  It seems like a lot, but when you see how easy it is to knock out four cards at once…which I did with Christmas last year…it’s such a time saver with wonderful results!

All of these cards were finished off with the TE Oh No You Didn’t stamp set & dies (love this set)! A couple of the cards use the TE Simple Strips-Snarky stamp set that were white heat embossed and cut out.  The other cards have sentiments that were foiled from the TE Simple Strips In Reverse-Everyday Occasions and die cut.  And of course I didn’t want to waste too much of the foiled panels, so I again took my TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate to cut a couple of the frames with it.  I also stamped out a couple of extra stars here and there from another TE stamp set, but I can’t remember which one I used. (I think it was from a previous card kit I have that’s no longer available…but any star will do!)

And again, no need to reinvent the wheel as I believe this was another class I received for free from a purchase.  You can check out the Create-in-Quads Hexagon Craft-a-Long Class if you’re interested in it.  I think I changed up the colors and details a bit for mine, but very similar in style.

**👀  Be on the look-out for another TE project set from me using another Create-in-Quads I recently got and can’t wait to use!  I’m also going to have some things to give away too!  STAY TUNED!!!

I had also attended a class from Riley and Company sometime this Summer as well:

I have loved that little Riley moose character for years, but Tanya (owner) does several of these on-line class events and she comes out with some really cute class kits.  This kit had everything you need to make the projects and this one also included the sentiment die as well as a full 6×6 packet of papers in the coordinating theme.

I looked in the store, but I don’t see any of these kits available currently, but if you’re interested in seeing what kits she offers, check out – “Cool Kits”

For my projects, the giraffe was the only pre-cut image to color.  All of the other bee images came from the papers that were included with the kit that you were to fussy cut from.  Since the sentiment die was also included, I die cut all of those pieces for my card too.  I decided to step-up my cards with some glitter cardstock along the edge of the giraffe card and then I die cut the “gold glitter honey drip” on that card from the Riley and Company Corner Goo Die.  I also added little details like the “flying trail” of the bee with a marker and using a glitter brush pen on the bee wings.  If you’re interested in the sentiment die that came with this kit, check it out HERE.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Summer Session Sets today and have been inspired or brought a smile!  Thank you so kindly for your time to stop in and have a look!  I really appreciate it!

Challenges:

  1. Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
  2. Moving Along With the Times – Anything Goes
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I’ve used both!)ATSM die cut stencils
  5. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes With Dies challengeimage
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

A Beautiful June Wedding!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great week!  We got a tiny break from the hot weather, so I had to spend the last few days enjoying it and was happy to get away from being indoors!  Now as the temps climb back up, it’s time to get busy and craft some more!😃

As promised, I’m catching up with my postings to share the wedding invites, thank you cards and special wedding card I made from my son’s June wedding.  I made them a few months back, obviously, but I thought it would be nice to condense it altogether here in one posting.

The couple had asked for me to make their invites for them and of course it was a great honor to be able to do that for them.  I was given a photo of an image and was educated about the “Tree of Life” to incorporate that into a design as well as a sample of some color shades.  Making a total of 50, here’s what I came up with:

I was able to find some similar Stampin’ Up! colors that closely resembled the samples given and come up with Bermuda Bay and Mint Macaron for the design.  I wanted both the ink and cardstock colors and worked it out from there.

For the base of the design, I’ve used the darker Bermuda Bay and on the front panel, I used a piece of Mint Macaron with a stenciled “tree of life” over top of it with Bermuda Bay ink.  I actually found a fairly inexpensive stencil on Amazon and thought it looked very similar to the image I was given and thought it would be perfect for the front with a partial side off the edge.  I never inked up 50 panels before, but this stencil certainly got a work out!  I was thinking it needed a bit more to it than just the stenciling, but I didn’t want to do too much with having 50 to make!  I took the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to impress a design around the edge, wrapped silver ribbon around the front with the knot and layered it over the front of the invite.

So being happy with that, the hardest task was to figure out the inside details….

I wanted to make the inside a portfolio style with a pocket containing the wedding details as well as the RSVP/envelope inside and then the actual “announcement” on the other side.  As I was piecing it together, I thought a decorative flap with some vellum would be pretty over the announcement too.

I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! Basic Borders die set to die cut the pocket front as well as the vellum flap on the left side.  I had to adhere two Bermuda Bay card panels together and cut out the areas I didn’t need.  (I ended up using the left over pieces to punch out a circle layer.  To add a bit more of a decorative detail, I cut strips of silver cardstock as well as silver heat emboss the “tree of life” circle stamp.  (I was happy to also find this really inexpensive rubber stamp image for a couple of dollars to use for this too!)  For the image on the pocket area, it was stamped with Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, layered with that left over Bermuda Bay circle punched pieces and popped up with foam squares over the silver strip.  I was happy with how the portfolio design was working.

And now once you open up the vellum flap on the left side, you will see the announcement portion.  The silver strips were strategically placed to cover up where all of the layers are glued/attached together, but still looks like it “belongs” there.  The image that was given to me via digital photo was used at the “back drop” behind the wording.  It was a very bright image that I altered on my computer and muted it down so that it was faded in the background, but yet still clearly visible on the design.  I thought it worked out nicely and still coordinated with the stenciled area on the front.

Because this invite was so thick in nature, I didn’t want to add more layers of cardstock, so I used a thinner parchment style copy paper as everything was printed out from the computer anyway.  The parchment made it feel a bit more professional I thought.  I die cut ALL of the printed parchment pieces with a Lawn Fawn RETIRED Small Dotted Rectangle dies. (I thought the “small dots” went with the SU! edges I used on the flaps.) I placed the announcement over a piece of Mint Macaron and then layered it inside the card.  I layered the RSVP card over a piece of Mint Macaron and the “wedding details” card was left on it’s own.

Finally, you can see that on the silver envelope flaps, I silver heat embossed the image. This was also done for the larger silver envelopes for the whole invite to fit in as well.  I even used the “Tree of Life” computer generated image to create some address sticker labels for them and give them extras ones to use.

Of course after the wedding, you need to send out the thank you cards, so I also made 50 of those….

I really didn’t want to event a new wheel with it, so I had plenty of cardstock colors and just repeated the same design on the front as I did with the invites except for this one, I used the Taylored Expressions On Occasion stamps.  I stamped them out with the Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, cut it out with the coordinating dies and popped it up with foam tape over the silver ribbon.  Stenciling another 50 panels with this same stencil gave it another work out yet! 

So for the actual day of their wedding, this is the card I made FOR the couple.  I was able to get a little more “intense” with this one as it was only ONE card!

I was so excited when I saw this stunning card kit come out from Taylored Expressions called “Modern Eucalyptus” (no longer available) and I thought it was the perfect colors to create something with for their wedding.  The white panel was silver foiled and then I stenciled the colors of the wreath pieces, stenciled some silver paste, die cut them out and popped them up over the foiled wreath.  I stamped the sentiment in the center, added some TE Tiny Diamonds to some areas and cut a strip of silver glitter cardstock to go across the bottom.

Around the edge of the panel, I used a free gift that I got with purchasing items and tried it out and on my panel without realizing that it cut the center.  I went ahead and attached it down anyway as I liked the decorative look to it.  I had a matching envelope and off we went to the wedding!!!!!

The couple was married in Hocking Hills (Ohio State Park area) and it was absolutely beautiful over there!  The venue they used only had a certain capacity limit and so this is why there were only 50 invitations that went out.  It was a very nice private wedding with everything done and organized for them.  I do not have any professional photos of the wedding as of yet, but I had to rely on my husband for taking a few photos on his phone and then handing the phone to someone for photos as well…my dress didn’t allow me for handy phone carrying.  LOL  But here a just a few photos (not professional) of the wedding

As being a first time “mom of the groom”, it is quite an experience and very emotional especially when my son picks out a song for our dance with a song I used to sing to him as a baby in my belly!  We both had tears!! LOL  It was such a joyous occasion and I’m thrilled to welcome our new family into our lives for years to come!  May they always feel the joy and love together for ever after!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my wedding post today and have been inspired in some way to brighten your day.  I thank you so much for taking the time to stop in and say hello!  It means so much to me!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Friends – Embossing Wet/Dry (heat embossed on invites)
  2. Crafty Calendar – Add a ribbon (on invites and thank you)
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Anything Goes
  5. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Lawn Fawn Fever!

Hello friends!  I have LOTS to catch up on with all of the blogging of projects that I’ve been working on over the last few months, so I will probably share several projects within one post until I can get caught up!

I know that Christmas in July is going on everywhere right now, so I thought I’d share that along with a few other projects I had going on during my “Lawn Fawn Fever” episode!  I have loved their cute little critters for so long and hope you enjoy what I’ve made:

It’s been a while since I even played along with a Lawn Fawnatics challenge, so I decided to join this one which is asking to see your Lawn Fawn “Fun with Food” challenge projects.  What could be more fun than sharing Christmas cookies?!  I’m not sure I’d share any with mice…but these guys are too cute and add some more fun to the scene.  They’re a bit older and I know I’ve had the set for several years as it was one of the STAMPtember sets called “Merry Christmouse“.

I used some older Lawn Fawn papers from my stash to create the table and backdrop setting and then cut it out with the Lawn Fawn Outside In Rectangle dies.  I used the following sets which include the one mentioned above for my scene: How You Bean?, How You Bean? Christmas Cookie Add On, and Thanks a latte.  I Copic colored them and even added a few stamped images over the cookies including some Chunky Glitter. 

For the mouse hanging over the hot cocoa cup, I cut around his arms to fit over the cup.  I popped up the candy cane as well at the mouse next to the jar for depth on the scene.  I added some touches of glitter and then on the mouse Santa hat, I took some liquid applique and heated it up until it was puffy.  The sentiment was white heat embossed over the dark chocolate cardstock and then I just used my scissors to cut it out and attach at the top.  Really fun scene to create!

I also took part on Friday with the “Hive Five Kit” class they did using the adorable new Hive Five card kit they came out with recently.  I think everything is sold out now, but they mentioned that they might come out with some of the items in the future.  You can check out the video HERE if you’re interested in seeing what we did.  I changed mine up a bit, but pretty similar to what was shown for us.

The first card, I made my sentiment too high so I had to “arrange it” how it worked for me and I wanted it to be a birthday card instead.  The other project was just the hexagon tag.  I changed mine into a shaker and then added to a card.  I also added the speech bubble on this one.

The products included with the card kit were really fun and I’m glad I got it!

The majority of this card came from a fun little kit that my sweet blog friend Shirley gifted me included with a SWAP that I was in with her. (Details of that are below.)  Really love that she included the backdrop for the sky which worked out perfectly!  I actually already purchased this awesome Lawn Fawn Platform Pop-Up die along with the Platform Pop-Up Add-on and the Upon a Star stamp set and dies, but she was so very kind to have all of these pieces already stamped and cut out for me!  I just colored in the critters and the stars, added a few more here and there along with some glitter, white heat embossed the sentiment over the navy cardstock and put it together.

I hadn’t even broken out my Platform die at the time, so this was my first time putting one together!  It looks a little more intimidating than what it really is, so I had lots of fun with it!  Thanks so much for sharing the fun with me my friend!  I can’t wait to attempt another one soon! (Thanks for helping me with my addiction!😁)

 

And as I had mentioned above, I was asked if I’d be interested in joining this “Summer Sampler SWAP” with my wonderful blog friends Patti, Shirley and Donna along with a few other ladies to take part with!  When it was described to me, I quickly realized that I had seen these 12″ x 12″ sized papercraft stamped samplers all over Pinterest.  Of course, I had thought to myself that would be fun to create and never did.

Each square is 3-1/4″ and we each were to use the same color for the back layer so it was all similar for the finished project to coordinate well.  So 9 of us created 9 squares, kept one for ourselves and then mailed out the others to each person in the swap.  Really fun to see everyone’s idea here with the theme of “SUMMER” too!  I love them all and thought how fun that each one is so different from the others!

This is my finished 12″ x 12″ shadow box framed piece with everyone’s squares that I’ve attached to a wood panel background paper.  I have it hanging on the wall.  I think this would be so fun for each season or even gifts!  Hope we can do another one!😉

And here’s the square that I did for the swap.  I zoomed in to take the photo and it’s behind the glass, so it’s not a real great look at it, but as you see, I’ve used Lawn Fawn again! LOL

I had some fun 4th of July papers and thought it would be neat to make somewhat of a shaker element with confetti stars.  I’ve used the Lawn Fawn Dandy Day Flip Flop set along with a mouse from the Bubbles of Joy set for the front of my square.  I was trying to give the impression that the mouse had a sparkler and the sparks were flying while the other mouse was enjoying the show. I used glitter and die cut a star from silver glitter cardstock for the center of the dandelion.  I added a red bow at the top.  I thought with using a shadow box frame that the dimension wouldn’t be an issue and it wasn’t.  

There’s always something fun to keep me hopping, so I know you’ll see more soon including the wedding & painting class projects!  I promise I’ll get there!  Thanks for dropping by!!

 

Challenges:

  1. Lawn Fawnatics – Fun with Food (first card)
  2. Crafty Gals Corner – Christmas in July (first card)
  3. Krafty Chicks – Christmas (first card)
  4. CRAFT – Christmas (first card)
  5. Jingle Belles – BLING on the Holidays! (first card)
  6. Double Trouble – Christmas in July Thing 1, Thing 2 & Thing 3 (I’ve used old stamp sets, papers and added some fun bling on my cookies -plus added to the partner challenge in first card!)
  7. Alphabet – ‘H’ is for Holidays (first card)
  8. My Time to Craft – Christmas in July (first card)
  9. Papercraft – Christmas in July

*Vicki*29 Comments

Pray Until Something Happens With Inky Stamper

Hello friends!  How is your Summer going?  It seems like it is really flying by for me!  After getting back from the wedding, I have a PILE of things to get finished up, literally!  I signed up for classes knowing that I couldn’t participate during the class time, but figured I would finish them up on my own, so along with doing that I’ve decided to also throw in a current challenge project as well and share that today:

So this cute little fella came from Inky Stamper called Praying Mantis, of course.  The challenge for the month of July in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group calls for “watercolor” of any kind and so I pulled out my Zig CC Real Brush markers to color him with, cut him out with the coordinating die and even added a bit of the Liquid Pixie Dust on his wing.

For the watercolor on the background, I’ve used an Inky Stamper Watercolor Panel and ran a few different colored Distress Oxide ink pads over it without touching the colors.  I then spritzed it with water to saturate and let the colors run together over it.  I picked up any extras on my glass mat to completely cover the panel and then I took the Picket Fence Geo Squares Stencil and laid it over top while it was wet, pressed it in and let it just sit until it was dry. I picked up the stencil that had dried ink on it, spritzed it with water and turned the stencil the other way with the ink on it and pressed it onto the panel again and let it dry.  This is how the darker ink color showed up on the lighter end.  I took some green and black watercolor to spritz over top.  Really fun background to play with!

I then white heat embossed a sentiment over a black strip and attached it to the bottom portion of the background and then die cut the panel with a double-stitched rectangle die.  I used foam squares to pop up the bug and wrapped some Doodlebug Limeade Twine under the sentiment.  This panel was layered over a black piece which was attached to a top folding A2 white card base.  I finished it with some Doodlebug rhinestones.

And continuing on with my “Inky Stamper projects”, There was an OOAK event a few days before I left.  I didn’t have time to do my projects during the time, but finished them up when I returned.  We made this fun and unique fold design with a gorgeous butterfly and then of course the mini card to go along with it.  Not sure if the kits will be available at a latter date, but you can check it out in the Inky Stamper Store HERE.

For mine, I colored the butterfly with Copics, popped up the wings with foam tape and added some of that Liquid Pixie Dust which is hard to see in the photo.  Then for the mini card, I used some watercolor to color the hydrangea with.  The sentiment was white heat embossed.

Super fun projects as always! (I usually make my “mini card” into TWO ATCs, I just did the one so far here.)

And for my last set of “Inky Stamper projects”, this was for a special class Chelsea held during the time that I was gone.  Even though I wasn’t able to attend the fun and games with them live, I went ahead and purchased the kit anyway so I could watch the video at a later date to make all of these fun projects centered around this ADORABLE Sloth!  If you are interested in this kit, check it out in the store here – Inky Stamper SLOTHsome Class Kit

I pretty much followed along with the way the class projects were made.  I added some gold thread on the card in the back with the clocks so that it could hang from the sloth’s claw.  I added a glittery heart for the treat container for the sloth to hold as well.  The candy inside the container are slo pokes!! 😂   Super cute and fun projects to make!  I sort of treated myself to the candy while I was creating!

I also think that there were a few days where I could relate to the sloth too, but glad to get things done!

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my projects that I’ve shared today and are inspired in some way too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today…I’ll be sharing more soon!😉

Challenges: (For top card only)

  1. Happy Little Stamper Watercolour – Anything Goes + watercolor
  2. Happy Little Stamper Stencil – Anything Goes + stencil
  3. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
  4. As You Like It – Favorite warm/cool colors and why? (Always been attracted to the cool tones even as a child!)
  5. Krafty Chicks – Week 1: Stamp Act
  6. Crafty Catz – #603 Anything Goes
  7. Creative Fingers – #235 Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Week 27: Anything Goes + coloring
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2228 Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Massive Mass Producing!

Hello friends!  I hope that you are having a great week so far!  After the little “heat wave” hit us, I’ve been enjoying some ‘nicer’ outdoor temperatures, finally.  As you may have read in a previous post, I had been working on my son’s wedding invites as well as some thank you cards for them to send out afterwards.  I will be sharing that later on, but today I have some other “mass production” that I’ve been working on in addition to those:

First up, I’d like to share a set of cards I’ve made for the Taylored Expressions Fans FB Group challenge for May which calls for “4-8 mass-produced cards. (similar or identical)” & the colors “Poblano Pepper with Confetti Cake“.  I do not own the Poblano Pepper, but I do have a small cube of Confetti Cake ink.

I’ve been wanting to create several sympathy cards so that I had them on hand instead of making at the last minute for one, so I was happy to get these made.  I decided it was just easier to make them identical so that I didn’t have to decide how to arrange or cut my papers, etc.  I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Diamond Botanicals with dies as well as the TE Diamonds Masking Stencils for the main image.  The background uses the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock.

Here’s a close-up look at one of the cards.  I stamped the floral image in black ink as well as the sentiment from the stamp set and then took one of the Diamonds masking stencil with some Confetti Cake Ink to softly blend around the edges of the sentiment area with it.  I also used a blender brush to blend around the edges of the cut Toffee layer too.

Since I only had the Confetti Cake ink color, I matched up the coordinating colors with my Copic markers and colored in the image using only those color tones.  I think it worked out great for sympathy cards.  After I colored up the images, I used the coordinating die cut and popped it up over the Toffee cut panels with foam tape squares and then layered it over a side folding white A2 card base.  I finished each one with some of those coordinating TE Pastel Tiny Diamonds.  (Although the suggested listed coordinating colors on the website don’t have the Poblano Pepper or Confetti Cake, I thought it matched up rather nicely to this anyway.)  I think these cards work out great for mailing too.

And speaking of sympathy cards and Taylored Expressions, I thought it would be great to create a nice gift set too:

If you remember one of my previous posts, you may remember where I created a greeting card gift set (CLICK HERE).  I’ve went along with the same idea here and made them all sympathy related cards using my own acetate box and some Taylored Expressions products.  These were all quick and easy to pull together using the Taylored Expressions Done for You Alcohol Ink Background Panels along with a previously released card kit stamp set/dies.

I decided to heat emboss several of the fern images with white, gold and silver over a few of the panels, some over white and vellum and then cut out.  I placed them along with the heat embossed sentiments cut out and arranged them over the panels.  I matched up the cardstock that I had from my stash with the panels to create the completed cards.

Here’s a gallery of a few of the cards up close along with the finished gift box tied with a ribbon: (Just click on each photo from my website to see them enlarged.)

I think this will make a nice gift for someone as I always hear people saying they never have a sympathy card on hand when they need one or for those people that don’t make their own cards too.

And lastly, I’ve made a couple sets of mini slimline style cards using the Taylored Expressions In the Garden-Triple Slim Layering Stencil:

I quickly fell in love with these quad type of stencils especially with these gorgeous florals!  I love the way these floral panels are different from one another and you can stencil them all up with the same color in one pass!  I needed a couple of Mother’s Day cards, so making all of these at once sure came in handy for bonuses too!

Using the “craft-along” video from Taylor and Heather, I used the same, or similar colors that was used, added my black splatters and then used the TE On Occasion with dies as well as the TE Get The Word Out-Mother’s Day with dies for the sentiments where I white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut out.  I just glued to the panels and attached each panel to a white mini slimline card base.

And then here’s another set of mini slimline cards using the same products as above except I used Toffee instead of the white cardstock for these.  I also stamped the sentiment with dark brown ink over white cardstock and then cut them out to place over the stenciled panels. 

I also used both dark brown and white paint to make the splatters over these.  I also used the TE mini slimline stitched and scallop die cuts for these cards and then layered them over top of a Toffee mini slimline card base.  I’ve also added a few TE white rhinestones for a bit of sparkle too.

I also think that these would make great greeting card gift sets as well!  So then it’s just a matter of which ones to keep and which ones to give away as a gift!?🤔

Hope you’ve enjoyed my mass production post today or have been inspired in some way.  Thank you so much for taking the time to drop in and say hi as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

  1. Creative Friday – No patterned paper (top set of cards only)
  2. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (top set of cards only)
  3. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  4. Sparkles Monthly – Floral Frenzy
  5. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  6. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  7. Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes optional: Flowers/Fauna

*Vicki*34 Comments

Challenge Up Your Life with a RAINBOW!🌈

Hello friends!  I don’t know about you, but I’m so happy to see the month of May starting!  That means the flowers will be coming out along with the warmer weather!  It’s also a great time of the year to see a rainbow perhaps?!

#147_regenbogen_CUYL

Today I’m super excited to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer!  I had previously won a Top 3 and a future guest design spot from a past challenge I had entered, so I’ll be joining them as a guest for April, May and June challenges!  Today their new monthly challenge for May is “RAINBOW“.  Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month!  (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

Here’s my guest design creation for this month’s challenge:

Nothing better than to look up into the sky and see a rainbow!  What’s also fun is to be able to create your own and especially on a card to send to someone to brighten their day!  I’ve used a previous card kit from Taylored Expressions that contained these products:  Make a Rainbow Stencils, Over the Rainbow clear stamp set, Rainbow Cloud Duo dies, and Over the Rainbow Sentiments clear stamp set to create this card.  I ink blended the different colors through the rainbow stencil and stamped the orange dots over the rainbow as well as a few hearts in light blue ink. The sentiment was also stamped with black ink over top of the rainbow.  I then die cut the one cloud twice from white cardstock and ink blended some light blue around the edges of it and popped it up with foam tape at the ends of the rainbow.

Then the card front panel was ran through the die machine using the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitch Rectangle dies (Which actually doesn’t cut anything out, but creates the lines.)  I layered it onto a piece of black to make the rainbow pop a bit more and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding TE Pineapple card base.  I also topped it off with a couple of TE Bits & Pieces-Full of Heart sequins. 

I knew the minute I went to create for this challenge that my zippered pouch from Taylored Expressions that has the “A Rainbow of Possibilities” sticker over it was what I was going to grab!  All of my rainbow things are in it!  Makes it easy to grab when you know everything is in there!

I hope you’ll stop over at the challenge blog and join with us to share your rainbow too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card or been inspired!  Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’ – Rainbows & Rainy Days
  2. Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  3. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
  4. Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (encouragement)
  5. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments