For Someone You Love at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that you had a great Valentine’s Day yesterday however you chose to celebrate it! We chose to stay indoors where it’s warm and watch a movie!

And speaking of love, this brings us to the February challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking for a “Love Card (for anyone you love)” . Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created for you. Here’s my project for this challenge:

Aren’t these heart sweaters adorable?! I had fun making a couple of cards to send to my kids (whom I love) for Valentine’s Day. I was actually able to create two similar cards using a stencil set that allows you to make 4 sweaters at one time.

I love the Taylored Expressions Sweater Weather Stencil Set that you can ink blend up to four different sweaters at once. This had previous come out for Christmas, but in December, they came out with a cute Valentine line to go with this stencil. So I gold foiled a panel from the TE Foil It-Valentine Sweater Weather pack and then to decorate the sweaters, I used the TE Dinky Decorations Valentine die set. I wanted more hearts, so I die cut a few extra to place around the background.

Speaking of the background, I used the TE Lots of Love 3D embossing folder and then sponged a bit of white over the hearts so they stood out a bit more. I also die cut the A2 Thin Frame die for a gold mirror frame. The sentiment came from the TE Love & Hugs stamp set.

And here’s a closer look at the other card I made. I know I could’ve used just one sweater for each card, but I thought these sweaters were too cute, so I decided to use all of them! I’m thinking one of my sons would probably wear a sweater like one of these and the other would think it’s ridiculous! LOL Regardless, at least they each know that they are loved by me!

I also had these fun TE Snarky Valentine Insiders panels that I gold foiled. I have to share some snark with those I love too! LOL (Click on the photos above to enlarge them if you’re on my website.)

I thought I’d share another card I had made for someone I love that was given to my husband for Valentine’s Day yesterday. (Sometimes, I have to wait until he gets it before I share!):

This pup and his boing heart hat cracks me up! Look at that face! I actually made this last month during a Craft Roulette challenge. I decided that I liked it so much that I put a Valentine greeting on it for my husband to give him on Valentine’s Day.

I used the Taylored Expressions Puppy Love (retired) stamp set and colored in this cute pup with Copic markers and die cut him out. I stamped the TE Gingham Check BG Stamp in black ink over red cardstock. I splattered some white Copic Opaque over top.

For the lace, I white heat embossed the border stamp from the TE Flip the Lace stamp/die (retired) over the Toffee cardstock and placed beneath the check background piece. I added a black strip between the two and then popped the dog on it. I stamped the “Seriously” from the pup stamp set and the Valentine greeting from the lace stamp set together and fussy cut them out to pop up with foam tape on the card. I added a few white hearts around the pup. The entire card is a mini slim from a pre-cut and scored Toffee card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you enjoyed these “love” cards or have been inspired to make and send a card to someone you love too! I look forward to seeing what you share in the gallery this month!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Challenges:

Critter Crazy – #95 Anything Goes With a Featured Creature (Bottom card only)
Crafty Animals – #91 Anything Goes + Animal (Bottom card only)
Pearly Sparkles – #104 Love is in the Air
Crafts Galore Encore – #132 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Hearts
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Lots of Love
Crazy is Our Fame-Stencils Are Our Game – Pinks &/or Reds + stencil (sweater cards)
Make My Monday – #245 Love (bottom pup card)
Crafty Gals Corner – #264 Fill in the Blank: “Pink________” (sweaters)

Merry Christmas Makes PLUS GIVE AWAY!!!!

Hello friends! Just wanted to pop in to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to share some final Christmas creations that I’ve made basically within the last few weeks! Some of these are cards that I’ve sent friends and family and some are recent makes for Craft Roulette challenges.

Scroll below this post to see the give away!

First up are the last few weeks of the Craft Roulette challenges:

(I got out my stretchy pants to play along!)😉

(These are money holders for Christmas with recycled wrapping paper)

(This is a diagonal joy fold card design)

(Tri-Panel Card for me was 3 layer panels on the front! LOL)

(Always stepping on those tiny gems on my floor!)

Hopefully the next several cards have been received by everyone they were sent to, but if not, maybe the surprise will be which one you will get! I don’t like making several at one time, so I’ve split up the design in sessions using the Taylored Expressions Make It Merry Stamp Set along with the Happy Half Sheets: (I’ve made my own “map” with the images)

Lastly, I’ve made several of these photo frame cards using the Lisa Horton Framed Poinsettia Stencils/Die/Embossing Folder: (Using a photo recently taken for our 25th wedding anniversary)

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of my Christmas projects this year and a very special thank you for being apart of the crafting journey with me! I’m so thankful for the friends I’ve met along the way!

ALERT!! GIVEAWAY!!

Since this is the season of giving, I would like to gift someone that would like to receive this set that I have collected myself (over the entire year as an extra) to give away to someone:

Vicki-December2024-giveaway Vicki-December2024-giveawayback

If you’re NOT familiar with Taylored Expressions, this is a collection of the “freebie” rubber stamps that a person receives when placing an order. Each month the stamp image changes to something else. I have not only collected a set for myself, but I’ve also collected another entire set (12 rubber stamps) to give to someone else that would like one! I have included the sturdy laminated Collection card, in addition, a sturdy plastic sleeve in which to store it all in. Plus, I’ve also included a set of 2025 tear-off calendars in a package of ten to go with it!

You can purchase these in the store here under the Pretty Postage Collection, but I’m giving them all away in one set for the entire year as I’ve collected them. I did NOT include the Pretty Postage die set that cuts out the images, but you can purchase your own by clicking on the link.

If you are interested in this give away from me (no affiliation with any company), please just leave me a comment below to tell me that you’re interested in the give away. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO DO, BUT YOU HAVE TO TELL ME IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN GIVE AWAY!
You will need to leave your comment below by January 3rd, 2025 to enter. I will announce here on my blog who won by January 5th, 2025. (The winner will need to be in contact for mailing out prize.)
P.S. If you have been collecting and looking for one you’re missing, let me know which month and I’ll see if I have it as I have several months that are extras! (I know that I do NOT have any August left, though.)

Just wanted to send out a little Christmas cheer to a crafty friend! It doesn’t matter where you live, I will be happy to mail it out…so please don’t let that stop you! It’s just a special gift from one crafter to another to enjoy!

Thank you for making my crafting journey a special one and for joining me here to share inspiration with one another! Looking forward to more in the coming year!

Wishing you and yours a VERY Merry Christmas with lots of joy and love!

(I will be back after Christmas (Saturday) to share an art journal page with you!)

Halloween Hauntings

Hello friends! It seems like this month has really flown by as I now realize that Halloween will be here next week and I wanted to get some cards sent out that I’ve made!

So here are my Halloween cards for this year….I had so much fun!

This one was so much fun putting together and it wouldn’t have been put together if it weren’t for the parameters on Craft Roulette #237 this week! The four parameters consisted of these – 1. Project: Pop Up Card, 2. Colors: Trick-or-Treat, 3. Element: Boutique and 4. Random: jewelry

I used the Lawn Fawn Platform pop-up die and the build a house die with the Halloween add on plus a few other dies and stamp sets all from Lawn Fawn. The front “welcome” sentiment was printed out from my computer and I made up the “Bougie BOO-tique” language to fit with the parameters of the challenge.😆 These ghosts are all blinged up and hanging out around their favorite “BOO-tique” to catch up on all of the latest trends in style! One is wearing a necklace, another a tierra, another carrying a purse, another styling glasses with bling and the front ghost has earrings and a sparkle wand.

The background was done with the Lawn Fawn Platform Pop Up Add On around the back of the pop up. I ink blended and then splattered with white Copic Opaque White mixed with water to get the starry night background. This card went to my husband because he really enjoyed it and said that it wasn’t going anywhere, but it does lay flat for mailing.

This card was done for an Inky Inkspiration Challenge over on FB for September and they were asking for a slimline card. I’m more into making the mini slimline size rather than a full size, so that’s what I went with! I’ve used the cute Bat stamp set for all of the images, except for the background panel, which you’ll notice it looks like a BINGO card and it is! It was the game that we played in a Zoom class that I took with Inky Stamper and we actually used this Bat stamp set for the projects we made and the BINGO card was included. I decided instead of throwing it away, that I would use it as background paper for my card. I just stenciled in some gray clouds over top and stamped some bats from the set with it. The rest were just cut out and placed on the card with the bat being popped out with foam tape.

(I would’ve showed photos from the class, but I forgot to take photos of them!)

And here’s another card I made for World Card Making Day using the fun sketch from the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group on FB. I’ve used this really CUTE Zombie stamp set from Inky Stamper for this card. I had so much fun coloring him up!

And this last card I made for someone who loves the spookiness of the season almost as much as I do! I pulled this really cool image from an older paper pack by Whimsy Stamps. In fact, all of the images on this card came from this store.

I die cut the image out with the WS ATC Antique Frames including the sentiment that was white heat embossed. The background was black heat embossed with the WS Vintage Wallpaper stamp over kraft cardstock. I sponged some black ink around the edges which was also cut out with the WS Wavy Pieced Rectangle dies. I cut out a few ghosts from white cardstock using the WS Boo die set and sponged some green ink at the very bottom edges.

I thought it would be fun to make the eyeballs of the skeleton and the edges of the ghosts glow in the dark, so I used some glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over them and finished off the sentiment panel with green gems. (It’s too hard to take a photo of the glow-in-the-dark!)

Well that’s it for me today with all of the Halloween cards! I hope you’ve enjoyed them or have been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday with another Art Journal Page for the month!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – #287 Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – #255 ‘H’ is for Halloween
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #PIP2442 Anything Goes
Make My Monday – #237 A Spooky Halloween
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Crazy for Stencils – Anything Goes using stencils + Halloween (2nd bat card)
Unicorn – #103 Autumn/Halloween

Birthday, Pizza & Craft Roulette Play #228

Hello friends! I have a mix of projects that I’ve recently been working on and wanted to share my latest since I’ve gotten all caught up with the projects that I hadn’t posted.

I had a few birthdays come up and of course I forgot to take photos of a few of them before I sent them out the door and now they’re long gone! (DOH!) But I did remember to take photos of these:

I fell in love with the stack of party pups from Newton’s Nook and I always wanted to try out one of those cool card layout dies! The person that I’m sending this to loves his dog and I know the dog also has some “friends” she visits with, so why not a “PAW-ty” of them together!

I’ve used the NN Birthday Barks stamps & dies and colored it out with Copic markers. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in the top right square and added a stamped paw print from the stamp set. All the images were popped up with foam squares.

For the background, I took the NN A2 Card Layout 2 die and cut the frame with all of the stitched pieces using the NN Birthday Woofs Paper Pad. These dies make for some quick and easy cards without much thinking involved which is great when you’re in a hurry!

Next card was made as a thank you for a pizza night using one of those Ooni Pizza outdoor grills. I’ve never had one and so of course being the pizza lovers that hubby and I are, we gladly excepted! Very good pizza it was! I wanted to thank them for having us and made this card:

I’ve used this really cute pizza set from My Favorite Things and I was happy to pull some papers I had for years and years to help pull it together.

I’ve used the MFT A2 Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the checkered pattern paper as well as the light blue panel. I’ve used the MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle dies to cut the white piece behind the blue panel. (The red and white checkered paper is so old…got it at a stamp event so many years ago and hoarded it of course!)

Decorating the pizza was so much fun and I used the same ingredients we received on our Ooni pizza which was a handmade crust, tomatoes, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, cheese and sprinkled with basil leaves. All of the cut pieces to make the pizza came from the MFT Pizza Maker dies and the sentiment came from the MFT Pizza My Heart sentiment set (I don’t see it on the website, so I’m not sure if it’s available any longer?) I stamped it with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I’ve also used the same size stitched rectangle die as the blue panel to cut off a portion of the pizza to make it fit into design.

Lastly, this is a card made hot off the press tonight using the current Craft Roulette parameters! So if you missed it, go catch tonight’s latest episode #228 and play along! This is the card that I’ve made with tonight’s parameters:

I decided I wanted to also use the image from Beccy’s Place August Freebie challenge and add myself another challenge on top of the 4 parameters! I loved the image as it looked so refreshing! I played around with the image on my computer and added an extra one next to it, but flipped it around and placed it behind the other one. I also typed up my own sentiment underneath to go with the “Monday” parameter with Craft Roulette.

Project: I used a Geometric Square stencil for the background with yellow ink and to fit Beccy’s extra twist challenge which was to use something old from your stash, I did dust off those square sequins and brads that I’ve had for years and years to add on the front of the cups. (Now the image reminds me of those Recesses Peanut Butter shakes! YUM!)

Colors: Bee Garden colors are obviously the black and yellow and I had to add in some orange for the guest Irene who is a #teamorange color person.

Element: Monday was typed up within the sentiment.

Random: Use A Marker(s) which the image was colored in with Copic markers.

Ok…so that’s it for me this weekend! I needed to get this posted this evening because I would be missing out on a challenge that I wanted to be sure to play in before time runs out and that will be in like a couple of hours!

Thanks for dropping by today friends! I hope you have an amazing weekend!!

Challenges:

Inky Paws – #229 Birthday Theme + NN products (Top card only)
Cupcake Inspirations – #600 Happy Birthday!!! (Top card only)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2432 Anything Goes
The Cutie Pie – #197 Four Legged Friends (Top card only)
AAA Birthday – #64 Critters + Birthday (Top card only)
Penny’s – #578 Anything Goes Using Paper
Beccy’s Place – Use Beccy’s Place image twist: add older stash (sequins & brads)
Ally’s Angels – #85 Anything Goes

Aliens Made Me Do It for Craft Roulette & More Catching Up!

Hello friends! For those that celebrate the July 4th holiday, I hope you had/ having a great weekend! We usually do a cookout and later watch fireworks. It was a bit hot and humid so we didn’t stay outdoors very long and watched a movie instead.

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY POST!!!!

0CraftRoulette

I think I may have posted about this before, but last year I was introduced to Craft Roulette (a papercraft game show on You Tube) by Chelsea from Inky Stamper when she was a guest on there last year. I quickly became addicted to it and have been playing quite regularly. In fact, this is Chelsea’s third time as a guest on there and I wanted to share what I’ve made for episode #222 that aired on You Tube Friday July 5th, 2024.

The parameters this week are…

PROJECT – Dutch Door (create a card/project with dutch door)
COLORS – Gnomes (whatever inspires those colors to you)
ELEMENT – Movie
RANDOM – Building Blocks

If you’re interested in playing along, check out the Craft Roulette website on how to enter and watch the episode! You can watch/play along on You Tube with them every Friday evening. (Check what time zone you’re in compared to the Central US time zone used for Craft Roulette live shows.) You have until Sunday evening to play. If you enter the Craft Roulette #222 episode by then, you can also enter your card over at Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group on FB for a chance to win a prize from her as well. So check it out!

I think this one turned out cool using the Inky Stamper Alien stamp set! I have my alien (which is my “movie” element parameter) colored up with pencils and cut out with the die. I stamped the molecule (which is my “building blocks” random parameter in red ink over a piece of Doodlebug graph paper. I sponged the edges of this piece with some grey ink before attaching it to the bottom portion of the card. The sentiment also came from the same stamp set that was white heat embossed over black and cut out with a banner die and popped up with foam squares.

To create the “Dutch Door” card for the project parameter, I just used a black A2 card base and cut the front in half so that only the bottom portion of the card opens up. For the torn hole behind the alien, I used the Lisa Horton Torn Aperture 3D embossing folder and die. I used some silver mirror for the outer edges and black for the back along with a piece of white for the background details. I finished it off with some Pinkfresh Studio Ice clear drops.

Here’s the inside of my Dutch door card. I took a white piece of cardstock for the inside of the card along with the white piece from behind the torn aperture on the front and ink blended a galaxy background with reds, blues, greens, yellows and black which works with the “gnomes colors” for the colors parameter. I sprayed the background with water, let it dry and then I white heat embossed the sentiment from the alien stamp set and then I used silver watercolor to splatter over top of both pieces.

I attached the insert for the aperture back in with the silver frame and attached it to the front bottom portion with half of it sticking up above it. (As you can see in the photo above.) The alien was attached over the aperture with foam squares.

Had a lot of fun making this one and playing along using the parameters!

Obviously, I don’t post the cards I make every week for Craft Roulette on my blog, but I thought I’d share all the creations that I made last year since my very first contribution that I’ve done. I thought I’d save the cards for posting at the end of each year to look back on them. I started in January of last year and only skipped a couple of them. This card today will be my 72nd contribution!

So here’s a gallery of cards that I’ve contributed since I first discovered Craft Roulette in January of 2023 up to December 2023: (I will post the cards for this year in December!)

If you’re on my website, click on the photos to see enlarged

Wow! That was ALOT of cards! I placed the episode #s on each one for reference on what the parameters would’ve been. So this is what happens when I don’t post!

I have fun trying out the parameters each week and entering. I did win a prize one week from The Paper Insider which was a box of gorgeous papers. They’re all so gorgeous that I seem to be hoarding them and not used any of it!🙄 That will be a goal for one of these weeks for sure!

Hope you’ve been inspired with my post today and maybe I’ll see you over at Craft Roulette sometime! Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges: (For Alien card only!)