Commissioned Cards – Stamped Smiles

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

Happy weekend friends! It’s almost time for Valentine’s Day which means we share our appreciation to those that we love! I like to make cards that are great for any time of year and hearts are versatile enough to do this without being specifically Valentines. Here are a few cards that I’ve made with this in mind:

I actually participated in last week’s Craft Roulette #149 and the perimeters were: 1. tissue/vellum 2. collage 3. far away 4. three pops of red. So…while watching, I had decided that I was going for the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap that was already collaged with images. I decided because of the collage images, that I was going to find an airplane image to use with it and my thoughts turned to an older Simon Says Stamp card kit I had with the “Home Sweet Home” stamp set. I white heat embossed the airplane, the long building strip and the sentiment over black cardstock. It seemed to lend itself to a slimline card design, so that’s what I went with and used collage medium to attach the tissue to the background. Once it dried, I glued the die cut buildings strip and went around it with a Big Brush marker that I smudged to create the shadow effect.

I made a banner with the sentiment and attached a white string to the back and tied a bow with it to the airplane and popped up the plane with foam tape. The collage background panel was layered over a black piece that was attached to a standard slimline top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the details so that you can see them a bit better. My “three pops of red” came from 3 hearts that I cut out with red cardstock. The die was from the coordinating set with the stamps. I attached them around the airplane and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Craft Roulette is all about, you can check them out live every Friday night around 6:00 pm CST. I will be doing this tonight as well! It’s just something fun to get your crafting thinking and I love that I can pull out my stash and use it up!

And of course I couldn’t help but follow along with the Lawn Fawn Create With Us “Wood You Be Mine?” class! There’s a little inside joke about Woodchucks chuckin’ wood with my son and I couldn’t resist sending him one of these cards. (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THEM LARGER IF YOU’RE ON MY WEBSITE)

I just pretty much followed along with the same design as they shared in class with the exception of the background stencil. I didn’t have the same one they used, so I pulled out one from Taylored Expressions that is no longer available. but if you’d like to follow along with the class, you can check it out here.

And lastly, I wanted to share a commissioned card that I made for someone that requested a card to give to their partner. Not really too specific other than they liked wolves and the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong lyrics somewhere displayed on the design. So here’s what I came up with:

I did not own any stamps with wolves on them, so I turned to my Cricut machine to cut out a silhouette wolf and then I flipped it to cut another one so that they faced each other. I wanted to give the appearance of the wolf couple howling together. LOL I also had some digital map paper that I could print out to use for the hearts as well as making an envelope with it too.

The background was ink blended with the center being lighter toned in blue and then I splattered some white over top for a night sky or an “outer space” looking sky…however you’d like to interpret it, I suppose. I cut a large heart with the map paper and arranged the two wolves over it so that, although it’s the same image flipped, I can make them look like different wolves and then cut off the bottom portions. I popped up the large heart with foam. I also used the same papers to cut smaller hearts above them and added some glitter and covered them with crystal effects to make them shinny. I printed out the lyrics on my computer and cut it out in a banner shape to attach below the wolves.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my “love” creations today and have been inspired in some way! Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’– LOVE (Beavers)
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Love is in the Air (slimline)
Everybody Art – #529 Heart/Love
Cardz 4 Guyz – Valentine for a Guy (wolves)
Try it On Tuesday – All You Need is Love
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Valentines or Hearts
Little Red Wagon – Somebody to Love
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Hearts
Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart

February 10, 2023

*Vicki*32 Comments

It’s 2023! Commissioned Calendars and More Calendars to Start the Year!

We’ve made it to 2023!🎉 Congratulations and a huge welcome! I’m so thrilled to have you with me for another crafty year and honored to be apart of your creative journey in some way.

Towards the end of last year…which was a few months ago…I was asked to create a set of those calendar cards that I had made last January which you can view in my previous post HERE. If you look at the calendars at the bottom of the post, it explains the details. In sharing those, someone asked me to create a set with a particular theme in mind for giving as Christmas gifts.

I was given instructions to use a sheep image for their card/game group that call themselves “Sheeples”.😄 The first one that came to my mind was this adorable little die cut set from Taylored Expressions called Spring Squad Die & Clear Stamp Combo. I love the added stamp set to create the details of the characters! And of course I’ve also used the TE Mini Tear-Off Calendars.

For the background, I wanted to incorporate some game theme items with this cutie, so I pulled out the fun stamp set from Inky Stamper called Game Night, of course! I ink blended the background panel with some reds and black/gray Oxide Ink colors and spritzed it with water for some texture. Once dried, I added the different “suit” images in the corresponding colors of the suits. I also stamped a sentiment from this same stamp set and die cut a banner with it to pop up under the sheep. Lastly, I’ve added a few Playing Card Shaker Elements and rhinestones.

In total, I needed to create 8 of these calendars and I think they turned out really cute and fun! I didn’t know if there were any masculine members of the group, so I wanted to keep it for use either way and I’m glad I did as it was needed. So these are each A2 size that can fold flat and fit inside A2 envelopes for mailing if you needed. Then the recipient can stand them up to remind them of their next game night fun throughout the year! She seemed pretty pleased with them, so that was great too! And of course she received them in plenty of time for Christmas giving, but I’m just now getting them posted.

I enjoy creating a new calendar for my craft room every year and there is a fun 2023 Calendar Kit from Inky Stamper that I completed.

Every year Inky Stamper comes out with these calendars that comes with all of the calendar month cards plus pre-stamped and cut images along with a sentiment strip and papers for each month. It also includes some sort of stand to display them on. (I like to use the previous year calendar to make cards with too!)

I was able to get them all colored and assembled for this year and have it displayed on a shelf next to my computer so that I can flip through each month and enjoy. I enjoy taking the time to sit and color especially with it being cold and snowy again over my way.

And since this post is all about calendars, I thought I’d take the time to complete TWO Perpetual Occasions Calendars from Taylored Expressions that I had gotten sometime last year for gifts and never got around to finishing them up.

I’ve just turned it to January to show, but you can see the other pages of the calendar on the bottom corner that were all stenciled up similarly. The link above takes you to the class kit which includes the TE Perpetual Occasions Calendar, the TE Calendar Coil plus the video class instructions from Taylor on how to put everything together. You can also get the TE Floral Vines Layering Stencils that work with this calendar which I’ve used with these that I made.

And of course you can also use these same stencils to make a pretty card too! I’ve taken the same stencils that I’ve used on my calendar and made a birthday card. I took the instruction from Taylor’s class and applied it similar to my own card using the TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle die to partially cut one side of the stenciled panel. I also pulled out the TE On Occasion stamps & dies to white heat emboss over black and cut out over the front of the card.

And then after creating two sets of the perpetual calendars and birthday cards to match, I’ve added a rainbow pen that I had previously purchased from Taylored Expressions (no longer in the store) and placed them all inside these TE 5×8 Clear Calendar Boxes. I pulled out some ribbon in my stash and wrapped it around the boxes. I now have two completed birthday gifts with cards this year! Yay! I feel like I’ve accomplished something ahead of time for a change!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my New Year calendar post today and have been inspired to start getting crafty! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional something new (new calendar kit for 2023)
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal (top and middle projects)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes with paper
Paper a la Mode – Let’s Get Started (no cards)

January 6, 2023January 12, 2023

*Vicki*21 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:

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

July 28, 2022July 27, 2022

*Vicki*23 Comments

So Proud of You Commissioned Grad

Hello friends! Just popping in to share a commissioned graduation card that I made for someone a few weeks ago. I love making grad cards and was happy to help accommodate a personalized one for a special person in someone’s life.

She didn’t even realize that she told me her grandson’s name, and all she mentioned was the school colors to go by. So I decided to have fun with personalizing an infinity shaker this time:

Vicki-TEgradshaker-comm

For the background of this card: I’ve started with the Taylored Expressions Bokeh Stars Layering Stencils blended over a white 4″ x 5.25″ cardstock piece with coordinating colors assigned to me using a burgundy/silver school color scheme. I’ve decided for the inside shaker bits, to die cut a few sized stars with the burgundy (TE Mulled Wine) and some Brushed Silver from my stash. I also had some TE Sparkly Stars Bits & Pieces to add to them. I turned the stenciled panel into an “infinity shaker” by using a TE A2 Infinity Shaker Panel and attaching it to a A2 sized “Mulled Wine” side folding card base.

For the front of the clear shaker panel: I die cut a frame from the Brushed Silver cardstock with the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate that was also attached to a Mulled Wine die cut banner that I’ve silver heat embossed the “so proud of you” sentiment from the TE Mini Strips-Grad stamp set. I personalized the silver frame by die cutting the letters from the TE Cap It Off Alpha die set with the same Brushed Silver cardstock. I attached these letters before setting the frame in place and then just cutting the frame off where the letters meet up with it. Lastly, I thought of the Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You stamp set, stamped, colored it in to match up with the colors and added a bit of sparkle to the tassel with a silver gel pen and cut it out with the coordinating die. I popped it up with foam squares so that it is tilted over the “C” in the name.

The envelope was decorated with the year by die cutting the outline with the Mulled Wine cardstock from the TE Cap It Off Numbers die. I also used one of the Mulled Wine stars I previously cut for the shaker to place in the middle of the “0” as well.

Here’s the “action” of the infinity shaker…

I think I enjoyed seeing those stars move around from edge to edge on this one! LOL You can never have too many confetti stars shaking around to celebrate the grad, right?!⭐

And of course I made a greeting for the inside of the card stamped in the same Mulled Wine color along with a few stars stamped in there. I used another piece of the die cut frame in Brushed Silver cardstock to go around the stamped panel and attached to the inside of the card.

You can see on the front of the silver envelope in the corner, that I’ve added a couple more of those die cut stars to decorate it as well.

She seemed pretty pleased with the card and of course very proud of her grandson.👨‍🎓

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project too and thank you so much for stopping in! See you soon!

Challenges:

{Cupcake Inspirations} – Graduation
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional “Celebrate”
Country View – Seeing Stars
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

June 7, 2022June 6, 2022

*Vicki*24 Comments

Vintage Anniversary and Commissioned Ones Too!

Hello friends and happy February! I feel like we just started a new year and it’s already into the second month! I will need to get going on a couple of Valentine cards really soon! Today, I wanted to share a card I had made for my parent’s 57th wedding anniversary along with a few other anniversary cards I was commissioned to make that I had forgotten to share until I made my parent’s card! LOL!

I really like how this one turned out for my parent’s anniversary card! If this looks familiar to you, then you may recognize it from a past Simon Says Stamp card kit. (This one came from a Valentine 2020 kit.) I thought that the papers in the kit looked “Vintage” and I really liked that, so I thought I’d try to go for that style in my card.

I used the heart rose stamp image from the kit and colored it with Copics and fussy cut it out. I also copper heat embossed the leaves from the stamp set included in the kit over some green cardstock and fussy cut those out as well. The sentiment was also from the same set as the leaves and I copper heat embossed that for the bottom right corner of the card. It’s hard to see from the shine, but it says: “Happily ever together” and was fussy cut as well.

I started with the Vintage looking papers and cut a piece down to size and inked up along the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and layered it over a side folding A2 white card base. I pulled out a piece of shimmer vellum that I ran through a Sizzix 3D heart embossing folder and layered it over top of the background. I also took some of the ephemera from the kit and added those to parts of the background after sponging the edges of that too. (see the “ticket” in the top left.)

Finally, I arranged the heat embossed leaves along with the heart shaped rose over top. I glued the leaves and then popped up the rose with foam tape along with the heat embossed sentiment. I added some shimmer to the leaves with a shimmer brush pen and then took some sequins from the kit to attach over the card and filled with Stickles glitter.

I think this would be a special Valentine card as well for someone!😉

At the end of last year, I was also commissioned to make a 50th wedding anniversary card for someone. I was just given the detail that the wedding photos were shown with the colors black and white…so I based my card using that idea.

I always think that wedding/anniversary style cards look especially elegant with die cuts and embossing, so I dig through my die cut and embossing folder stash. I’m sure you can imagine me sitting on the floor with things everywhere! LOL!! Do you do this too when you’re not sure what you want to do and/or what all you have?

So I found this really pretty Memory Box die cut with the heart in the center that I wanted to use and thought some glitter paper behind it would be so pretty. This is why my card is a square shaped design. Since it was celebrating 50 years, I thought it would be appropriate to add some gold in there too and die cut the numbers for the center of the heart as well at the border pieces on the top and bottom of the heart. (Not sure where that die came from as it’s old. The number dies are really old too!)

I layered this onto the glitter paper and gold foil paper. I stamped a sentiment (Taylored Expressions-The Inside Scoop Anniversary used both inside and out of card.) and die cut it out with a banner die and popped it up under the heart with foam tape. I layered this onto a white 3D embossed background that was layered over a black top folding square card base. I attached a gold ribbon bow over top.

I stamped a sentiment for the inside of the card and you can see that I’ve decorated the inside of the card using the same die cut border with gold foil cardstock. The papers I’ve used for the borders on the inside were also used to create a custom envelope for this card. Sometimes if I don’t have the envelope on hand, I make my own envelope. Sometimes I prefer to do this for special cards anyway.

And this is another card that I had been commissioned to do for someone that wanted a card for an anniversary on Christmas Eve. I was given the detail about them spending time at Disney World and seem to be a fan of Disney along with it being their 25th anniversary…so my card was based on those details.

I have no Disney character type stamps/products at all. My thought was to create something with a “winter/Fairytale” theme which is why I turned to my Cricut machine for help. I was lucky enough to find the carriage and horse image that I cut out using brushed metallic silver and silver glitter cardstock for the different pieces. I also found a castle image that I cut from the brushed metallic silver as well. I used black cardstock for the base and insides of the cut out images. After I cut out the castle, I ran it through a brick embossing folder to give it that brick castle look. I also die cut the numbers from Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Numbers dies. I attached the numbers in the center of the castle and attached a silver ribbon bow over top of the numbers.

Since I had my main cut out images for my card, I was able to create my scene and size based on those. My finished card measures approx. 7″ x 5″ which is not a regular size for me, but I thought it was fitting given the type of card it was along with the cut out images. I started with a piece of blue cardstock and generously sprayed it with some Pearlescent Cosmic Shimmer previously received from a class I took. It gives a really stunning look and the shimmer doesn’t show very well from the photo either. Once dried, I die cut both the snowflakes and snow border at the bottom from some white glitter cardstock. Both dies used for them come from Lawn Fawn. The trees behind the bottom snow border were cut from some pearl white paper with an older Stampin’ Up! die set in my stash.

I attached the sprayed blue background over a piece of silver metallic cardstock after wrapping a silver ribbon around the center. I then attached the trees and added the snow border at the bottom. I added the castle and snowflakes next being careful that everything was showing the way I wanted and then I popped up the carriage with foam tape.

This whole scene was placed over a white 7 x 5 top folding card base. I also took some silver glitter to add to the little flag ends on the castle. I thought with all of the glitter and shimmer it didn’t need any more embellishment! I was happy with how it turned out because I wasn’t quite sure it would!

There was a custom envelope that was also made for this card using some pretty silver pattern paper from my stash.

Everyone seemed to be pretty pleased with how the cards turned out for them and I was very happy to have had the privilege of being apart of someone’s special day too!

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, I’ve been given the honor to create wedding invites for my son’s wedding coming up this Summer and I know I’ll be getting really busy putting those together as well! So that will be coming up really fast and I hope I can keep up with things! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations or been inspired in some way! See you soon!

Challenges (TOP CARD ONLY)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional add flowers
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (Copics used for heart rose image)
Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional love
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use embossing folder (3D heart folder over vellum piece)

February 1, 2022January 31, 2022

*Vicki*24 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:

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

January 4, 2022

*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!!

December 17, 2021

*Vicki*16 Comments

It’s Graduation Time!👩‍🎓

Hello friends! It’s started to really warm up over my way, so now it’s time to stay indoors and have some crafty play in the cool air! I will be trying out some new goodies too! Yay!

A few weeks ago or so, I was commissioned to create some graduation cards using certain school themed colors for a few local grads in my area so I wanted to share what I came up with.

I made a set of 3 graduation cards each one of a different style/design and I was told the color theme for each school/college to use along with the instruction of adding a pocket or place holder to fit a gift card inside. So I pulled out what graduation themed stamps I had in my stash and came up with a few different designs you can see below…

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Gown

I dubbed this card “hassle with the tassel”!🤣

The colors were to be purple and gold. I just used my paper trimmer to trim out my cardstock to make the “V” line to mimic a grad gown and then I created the grad cap with a square piece of cardstock. The tassel was made with some gold metallic thread which was so very slippery that I went through like 4 “globs” of it to create a final tassel that looked decent enough to attach to the cap! Oh my goodness!🤨

I used gold mirror cardstock for the accent layers and I had a greeting for the sentiment from an older Stampin’ Up! set in my stash…(hadn’t pulled these out since my youngest graduated back in 2015!) I added the year along the neckline.

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Gown1

And then to add pockets, as instructed, I took the Lawn Fawn Diagonal Gift Card Pocket die for the inside corner of the card along with stamping a sentiment for the grad. (All of these cards were made for females graduating, so I knew this would work!)

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Spring

For my next card, my colors were blue and yellow. Being limited on my grad stamps, I’ve used the same greeting as the card above, but this one was used in a slightly different way.

I wanted to have this card look like the “appearance” of a graduation cap flying in the air. So I took this “Spring Card” idea to make it so that although it lays flat to place in a regular A2 sized envelope, it springs up like this for display. I added some stamped clouds in the background along with the year and greeting at the bottom.

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Spring1

When you turn the card over on the back, you can see that I’ve stamped a greeting along with leaving a blank spot for a message or to sign a name.

You can also see the little area at the top where the thumb hole spot is to place a gift card inside the pocket that I created. Thought that was a fun little card display for the grad!

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Twist

And for this last card, the colors were the same purple and gold colors to work with. I still wanted to work with the grad cap scheme as my supplies were somewhat limited and I wanted to come up with some different and unique designs for each.

So this is my take on a “Twist Turn Card”. This was so fun to do and actually super simple! I took parts of an older stamp image I had and used it for the stamping on this design. I die cut some numbers for the year and of course the design of the card mimics the square grad cap. The tassel actually came from a Stampin’ Up! balloon die set and fit nicely with this.

Vicki-Gradcards-custom-Twist1

So when you open up this card, this is what it looks like on the inside with a nice little gift card slot at the top along with a stamped sentiment on the inside and space to write a personal message too.

Thanks so much for dropping in today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my graduation themed cards and were inspired! If you’d like to know how to make any of these cards, just let me know and I can show you!😉

I have some fun things coming…so I’ll see you soon!!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – #188 Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin’ – Diecuts/Punches (Used both on all of them!!)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2024 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #118 Anything Goes
Papercraft – Geometric (Squares, diamonds, circles, triangles)
Creatalicious– #189 Anything Goes optional: no design paper

June 18, 2020May 25, 2023

*Vicki*34 Comments

Christmas for a Cleaning Lady

Hello friends! As I continue on here with my “Countdown to Christmas” sharing, I’ve also received a request for a Christmas card that I needed to work on along with my own Christmas cards! LOL! The request was from someone that wanted me to make something special for their “cleaning lady” and here’s what I came up with:

I actually didn’t realize how hard it was to find a variety of this type of occupation in a digital stamp. (I didn’t have time to purchase anything and wait for it to get here, so I had to look up something in digital format.) This person was requesting this type of image specifically and so I sent photos of different images I found and this is the one that was picked out for me to color.

I’ve not heard of this company before, but in searching for this type of image and the one that was ultimately picked is called Spring Cleaning-Version 1 from Cute As A Button Stamps and Design.

Because it needed to be a Christmas card, I needed to make it more “Christmas” than “Spring”…so I just tried using more traditional Christmas colors with it. Found a nice plaid background paper with a pretty die cut to go along the edge that was cut from some silver mirror cardstock and then added the Christmas sentiment with a bow from some seam binding and then a twine bow with a glossy dot in the center.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on the image. The eyes were requested to be brown, but I just took the image and again, added in the red and green colors for a Christmas themed look to it.

For the vacuum wheel, I added a silver brad in the center and the handle was colored with a gel pen as well as the “grommets” on her shoes. I used a white gel pen to create the “dots” on the bottom of her apron. I covered the pail and the liquid in her spray bottle with a glitter brush pen. You can also see the “foam” from her pail that was made with some liquid applique. I just heat set it to make it “puffy”.

I used a stitched rectangle die to cut her out with and then sponged on some light green around the edges. I did the same for the sentiment that was cut from a stitched circle die and then layered with a green piece cut from a scallop circle die.

I think the colors and the silver accents really helped pull this together for a fun Christmas card tailor fit for a “Cleaning Lady”!

The person who commissioned the card has received it and was very pleased with it and even gave me an extra tip for it! That was not necessary, but very appreciated of course! I’m happy that it was well received and I enjoy the coloring too!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my share today and I’ll be back again tomorrow with some more Crafty Christmas sharing! Thanks so much for stopping in!!

Challenges:

Cute As A Button Challenge – Anything Goes #51
Not Just Cards – December Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #376
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes #106
The Creatie Crafters – Anything Goes #23
Createful Heart Design – Anything Goes #15
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes #120
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP1950 Anything Goes

December 18, 2019May 25, 2023

*Vicki*24 Comments

Animal Star Gazers

Good evening friends! Just swinging by to share a card I made with some cute animal star gazers! 🙂 I thought evening would be an appropriate time to post it:

When this set first came out from Lawn Fawn called Upon a Star, I knew I had to get it as I fell in love with it. I really hadn’t used it all that much, so it was great to get it out for a play as I needed to make a commissioned card. I have created a scene for these critters using masks that I made with my circle die set and some ink blending with my distress inks. For the stars, I took a brush and splattered some “Super Sparkle Lumiere Paint” watered down a bit while masking off the moon and hill. The moon was created with some watered-down distress inks and a brush.

I then stamped the critters sitting on top of the grassy hill where I wanted them and colored them in with my Copics. I took a brush filled with clear water to “take out” the inks on the critters before I did that. I also took a gray Copic marker to create shadows on the animals as well as draw in my own shadows on the hill. I took a white gel pen to add some highlights on the animals where I thought the moon would be shining on them. I also put dots in the center of the bunny’s eyes to make it appear as if a star is reflected in them.

To cut out the image panel, I have used a rectangle frame die which was used to cut out some watercolor cardstock. I then used the same die and cut out a piece of this gorgeous black glitter cardstock and popped the frame up with foam tape to go around the edges of the image panel design. I mounted everything over a black A2 sized top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the details. Here you can better see the shimmer on the moon. As always you have to get just the right angle for the photograph, but I covered the moon with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen.

I took a couple of the tiny solid stars from the stamp set and heat embossed them with Sparkle N Sprinkle Vanilla Ice EP. Love the way it gives a bit of extra sparkle! I think the stars really show up beautifully and it always looks better in person of course! 🙂

I do not have a sentiment on this as waiting for instruction on how to proceed with that if necessary. I’m happy with the way this turned out and look forward to playing with more starry sky creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I wish you a wonderful weekend my friends!

Challenges: