I is for Ink Blending

Hello friends and happy August! Hope you’ve been having a good start to your month so far. I thought it was supposed to be the “lazy days of Summer”, but it sure isn’t feeling that way lately! LOL Now it seems like we’re getting ready for “back to school” time! Where is this year going?!

Just wanted to share a new challenge up today over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “I” and the hostess has chosen “I is for Ink Blending” *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* I hope you’ll join in the fun with us. Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

I sure love to do some ink blending! I love doing the dark to light with a watermark effect especially for ocean scenes. So I started with a regular blend of blue ink colors starting light at the top and then working my way down to darker blues. I think the colors used were Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Blue Saphire Distress Oxide inks. I then added the “Ray of Light” stencil (MFT store closed) over and ink blended with the same colors. It was then spritzed with water and dabbed with paper towel for the bubbly look.

BEFORE I started any ink blending at all, I had an “Under the Sea” border die cut (MFT store closed) that I used to create a mask with labeling tape so that I could leave the border at the bottom for sand. After the ink blending was finished, I ink blended some Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Oxide inks to create the sand. I didn’t worry about it getting into the blue area because the colors are much lighter in tone. After ink blending was done, I cut the panel out with a “Wavy Pierced Rectangle dies” From Whimsy Stamps.

For the rest of the scene, I pulled out these cute ocean critters from Doodlebug called “Sea Life” (purchased from Scrapbook.com) that I stamped, colored with Copics and then fussy cut. Even though I had the coordinating dies (no longer available), I didn’t want the white border to distract from the ocean scene. It did come with an extra “seaweed” die in the set that I just cut out in white cardstock and then ink blended some green colors over it to add to the scene. I also used a white gel pen for highlights and dots in the sand along with a brown marker and glitter gel pen for more details to the sand.

Here’s a closer view of some of the details. I tried tilting it slightly, but it’s hard to capture the sparkle from the sand with the glitter gel pen.

I know this looks really similar to my last post with the mermaid AJ page, but I think I was having some fun with these underwater projects, and I just sat and had a playing session with it. I do hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and will join us in the challenge for some ink blending fun too!

Thanks so much for dropping by today! Have a great weekend!

Challenges:

Four Season – Anything Goes Summer
Critter Crazy – #101 Anything Goes with Featured Critter
Pearly Sparkles – #110 Under the Sea
Sweet Stampin’ – Use a Stencil + stamping
Try it On Tuesday – Summer
Cardz for Galz – #256 Create a Scene
Crafty Animals – #97 Anything Goes with Animal(s)
Allsorts – #829 Animals/Anything Goes (various products mentioned and linked throughout the post)

“U” is for Underwater

Hello friends! It’s already closer to the end of our first month for 2025 and I hope you’re staying warm and/or cozy where you are!

Today I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the Alphabet Challenge design team! I’ve been playing along with the challenges for a few years, so this will be a fun one! Please be sure to check out the challenge blog to see how to play as we go through the alphabet letters every-other week (fortnight) for each new challenge.

For this challenge, we are at the letter “U” for Underwater and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Now how cute are these smiling underwater critters?! It was hard to believe that going through my stash that I didn’t have much of any underwater critters besides mermaids, but last year I saw this adorable Doodlebug Sea Life stamp set on sale and decided to add it to my collection. This is the first time I’ve used it.

For the background: I’ve taken my Distress Oxide inks and ink blended the colors Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint sketch over some Bristol Smooth watercolor paper. I sprayed it with water and blotted it up with a paper towel. I used a stitched wave die cut border at the top and another wavy landscape border die for the sand at the bottom with kraft cardstock. I’ve used markers and gel pens to create “dots” for the sand and then attached it to the ink blended panel. Once I had it all attached, I cut out the entire panel with a stitched rectangle die and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding kraft card base.

I stamped several of the images and colored them with Copic markers and die cut them out with each coordinating die. The “seaweed” was part of the coordinating die set that I inked over in green Oxide inks and then attached all of the images to the underwater scene.

Lastly, I white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set (it says: “with oceans & oceans of love”) in the top corner of the card base and stamped some blue solid hearts from the set for “bubbles”. I couldn’t resist adding some googly eyes to the crab too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and hop on over to the challenge blog to play along with us! I look forward to seeing your underwater creations in the gallery!

Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll see you tomorrow for my monthly Art Journal Page!

Challenges:

Allsorts – Close to Nature/Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2503 Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – #791 Can You Feel the Love Tonight (love theme)
Critter Crazy – #94 Anything Goes with Featured Creature
Crafty Animals – #90 Anything Goes with Animal(s)

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!)

Reveal of Inky Escape! (Craft Retreat)

Hello friends! November has come with the pretty leaves on the trees and the coolness in the winds. I always turn to comforting “things” this time of the year and it always gives me a sense of peace before the year comes to an end. A warm fuzzy blanket, socks/slippers, sweaters, etc. is what I usually turn to. What is your comfort “thing”?

I promised to share with you the fun things we did over at the “Inky Escape” event that I recently attended and it was wonderful to see all of my crafty friends again for laughs and fun together. I think I miss them already!

I lifted this fun photo from the Inky Stamper FB page as I don’t have any photos other than seeing what others took. There were a total of 18 of us this time:

Everyone received a “swag bag”…but the case this time was a Christmas stocking full of fun goodies and one of them was that everyone received cute fluffy socks. I’m not exactly sure which one is me in that photo, but I did have a polar bear sock! LOL We each placed one foot in the circle and Chelsea took the photo.

And speaking of the “swag bag”/Christmas stocking…here’s what we each received:

When I got to the event, there was this black stocking on my table with the cute tag attached to it with my name. Each person received a personalized tag on the swag bag, plus the “skull” dies that were used to create the tag which was inside the stocking! There are my polar bear fuzzy socks (I’ve already washed them up by hand so the colors wouldn’t bleed in the wash…and they’re so warm and fuzzy!) I also received the cute “Christmas bulb” drink holder with a candy cane straw and a little ghost stopper for the top! We used these containers to hold the “Jingle Juice” that we drank at some point! And then I received a light up Christmas bulb necklace that has different settings when you push the button the back. The theme for this event was called “Merry Spookmas” which you can see the greeting for that on my personalized tag. So fun!

And speaking of fun…here are all of the Make-n-Takes that we created during the event. We sat and made 4 projects and then two of those projects were “bonus” makes using some other special items. (There is a “story” about one of them, but you can check out each project up close in the gallery below.)

*If you are on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge and scroll downward to see more information about each photo while it’s enlarged.*

Camel stamp set used. Images were stamped on colored cardstock and cut out.

The first four make-n-takes were made using the brand new Inky Stamper release that came out during this event! You should go check them out now on the website! (They’re all shown on the home page under “Featured Products”.) My favorite is that darling “Gifter” stamp set! I’m sure you’ll be seeing something from that set soon from me! *wink*

And since I was there to “crop” (as they say), I brought some things to work on that I really wanted to get done. So I decided to pull out some more Inky Stamper images to color and make a “Sheetload of Cards” using the September Sheetload of Cards Template by Crafty Al. If you’re not familiar with her, check out her You Tube Channel and look for all of her “Sheetload of Cards” videos to see how you can find instructions for each month. #SUYSSep2024 #ShowUsYourSheetLoad

I utilized her template to create the full 12 cards as demonstrated. The dimensions of the finished card design is 3.5″ x 6.25″ which I really liked as it helped to use up the full 6″x6″ size of those paper pads! Also, you don’t have to create envelopes for these as they fit perfectly inside those #6 envelopes (3-5/8″ x 6.5″) that you can find at any office supply area of a store.

As you can see, I used a variety of images that I stamped, colored and cut out for each design. I matched up my design papers to coordinate with the images. All of the images I used are from Inky Stamper. All papers come from a variety of Doodlebug Design papers.

Here’s a closer look at two of the cards I made from the set so that you can see how the card opens up and the greetings on the inside of each card. (Sentiments come from Taylored Expressions.) You can also see the coordinating envelopes next to them with the matching critter stamped in grey ink.

These cards are on the way for a special charity for ill children patients to help lift spirts and I hope each one will!

I know there were so many things going on during the event that I was even surprised that I got all of these finished. They were mostly finished with the exception of the greeting which I added when I got home. I had plenty to do while I was there and also enjoyed all the activities too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today as well! I thank you so much for stopping in!

Bon Voyage! Blog Break

Hello friends! I have a project to share which is a great send off post for an announcement of a blog break I’ll be taking for the next month🛳️🛫.

I wanted to share a project I made by request of my husband which was to recycle a plain notebook for traveling, so I pulled out some Doodlebug items and had some fun:

This is the front cover of the notebook which I covered with some Doodlebug papers, but I thought it would look way to busy, so I decided to tone down the papers by adding a wash of white paint over it. I think it makes the stamped images stand out better.

I’ve used a wave border die to cut some blue cardstock so that the boat could be in the “water” and I’ve added the sentiment underneath it. I stamped and colored the boat and airplane images and die cut them out with the coordinating dies. I also die cut a few clouds to add to the scene.

When I attached the painted pattern papers to the notebook, I decided to add an additional strip along the side of the wire spiral before adding the waves. I then took a black marker to create stitch marks with.

On the inside cover of the notebook, I took some more of those Doodlebug papers and attached them to the inside. I’ve made a pocket using the same papers that I’ve used on the front cover and you can see how bright and colorful they are which is why I decided to paint over them.

I added one of the cards from the paper pack to the front of the pocket and then I put a few pieces of washi tape with the airplane postage and travel stamps on the notebook paper.

And this is the inside back cover which was done similar to the inside front cover.

If you look inside the pocket of this, you can see that I’ve also made a bookmark for him that I’ve laminated. He can use it for his notebook or for another book he may be reading.

And here is the back of the notebook. This is where I’ve added a black elastic closure for the book BEFORE attaching any papers to it. The strips from the paper pack help to give it a little design and I’ve also included another shallow pocket.

He seems very pleased with it and has already put it to good use including the pockets and bookmark! He’s already wrote in it too! I tried to be sneaky and write a secret message on one of the random pages within the book, but he found it too early! I don’t get much past him!

I have lots of fun papers and ephemera left over from this cute Doodlebug paper pad, so I will probably be using it for a special scrapbook at some point…hopefully more on that later.

I would like to also let you know that I will be MIA for a while as we will be away on a much needed vacation time!

Thank you so kindly for stopping in and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Challenges:

Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes #85
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes #79

Lots of Inky Stamping to Catch Up On!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying your August so far! Recently, we’ve been experiencing much cooler temperatures than we normally have this time of year, so it’s been great to go out for a few walks.

I’m ALMOST caught up with things that I haven’t posted, with the exception of a few birthday cards that I’ll share later. For today, I’d like to share some projects that I’ve made at an event I attended back in April along with a class from Inky Stamper.

But first, here are a few projects I’ve made for their recent challenges:

This is a tag I’ve made for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group July challenge. The challenge was to make a tag and I thought I’d try out a fun idea of making a pocket for my tag that held another tag inside so that you could put a message and a gift card.

I’ve used some Limeade Dots/Stripe 12×12 Doodlebug paper to cut it out with and used a border die to help with the pocket decoration. I cut another tag to place inside the pocket for a special message and to include a gift card. At the top of the inside tag, I’ve made little “charms” with images from the Inky Stamper Margarita stamp set. I’ve also stamped the background of the inside tag. I don’t usually color with pencils, but this time I decided to pull them out.

To get the sentiment to fit around the pocket border, I had to curve the stamp a bit to make it work with the tag.

Here’s another project I’ve made using Inky Stamper products for both the August Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group as well as the Craft Roulette episode #226. (If you play along with Craft Roulette, Inky Stamper is a sponsor for this month.)

So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge for August was to use a white pencil. This happens to be a favorite to use for Chelsea with her images and it does make for a nice quick highlight. So the images were just stamped on colored cardstock and I used the white pencil to highlight them with.

I decided to combine this with last week’s Craft Roulette Episode #226 with the parameters of – Project: “See-through” (I made a see-through shaker card) Colors: “Jungle” (I used greens and browns for my jungle) Element: “Teacher(s)” (The sentiment says it all!) Random: “Tangle” (There are a tangle of leaves inside shaker element.)

For all of the images, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Monkey stamp set. The inside of the shaker was stenciled with a Tropical Leaves stencil from Taylored Expressions with green inks. The circle was cut out with a retired MFT die. I found some fun monkey shaker elements to put inside.

Back in April there was an Inky Stamper Inky Escape event that I attended and here are some projects that I made from the Make-n-Takes that were provided as well as some of the projects that I was working on using the new release that came out during the event:

(If you are on my website, click each photo to enlarge it and read the captions)

The tag was made my Chelsea that was attached to my “swag bag” and the box was a make-n-take project. There was a moon pie included with project, but when I came home, I added 4 Ghirardelli chocolate squares to show how many fit inside.

There is actually another Inky Escape coming up in October that I’m attending and I’m sure it will be fun with Halloween and Christmas theme combined!

While I was there, I worked on some more of my own projects using some of the new sets:

I decided to take and use one 6×6 paper pack from my stash and it seemed to go really well with the outer space theme and I love the purple colors from this set. I’ve used the following Inky Stamper stamps sets: Astronaut, Big Words, & Alien.

Click on the photos below to see a close up look at each card:

Before the Inky Escape Event, there was also an on-line class from Inky Stamper that I took part in and that’s because I thought the projects were super cute! Here are the projects that were completed for this class:

These were both created with the Inky Stamper Hedgehog stamp set. The Journal Book , the Doodlebug DIY Snow globe and Doodlebug dimensional stickers/shaker balls were all provided with the class. I decided to add a few extra elements with mine. The tiny hedgehog on top of the snow globe was included in our box, but not apart of the projects…but I thought it would be fun to add it!

Speaking of Doodlebug, while I was at the Inky Escape Event, Chelsea had a few things on sale and I snagged a kit and special ordered the Doodlebug Frame with it. So when I got back home and the frame came in, I wanted to do my project right away:

I have this displayed in my stamp room and I love the rainbow of colors in it with the different crafty tools in smile faces! The size is 8in. x 8in. with a glass on the front. Although it’s not really that visible in the photo, it is actually quite dimensional.

I think it goes well with the black frame that matches my black frame with the crafty squares swap group I was in. (You can see that post here.)

Whew!😳 I’ve been really busy this year, but I don’t think you would’ve known this without my posting about it! I’m glad that I’ve gotten caught up with things that I’ve done and hopefully I won’t be doing posts like this in the future! It just seems like so much all at once!

Anyway, there we go and now I need to finish and send out a few birthday cards coming up, so I will catch up with that later as well! For now, thanks so much for stopping in and keeping tracks of my sporadic postings! I will be back to share a DT post for a challenge coming!

Have a happy crafty day my friends!

It’s Funny and/or a Pun at Sparkles Monthly Challenge!

Hello friends! Happy weekend! Wow, it’s been very warm outside and I’ve been spending my time indoors. I hope to be sharing some more posts with lots of things very soon, so stay tuned in! Today starts another challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge blog!

This time was my turn to choose a theme and I thought with Father’s Day, masculine cards are a good way to use those “FUNNNY and/or a PUN” on our cards! To make someone laugh or at least smile, is the main reason why I love to make cards! If you feel like having a chuckle with your cards, make one and enter this month! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Here’s my card for the challenge:

Nothing better than a hot French fry, but a French fry with a smile and bow tie is too fun!😆 (This is an American term for this food, but I know they’re called “chips” in Britain…either way, delicious and fun!)

For this challenge, I knew I wanted to pull out a large card kit I had gotten back in 2018 from Simon Says Stamp partnered with Doodlebug to create the I Chews You kit. (Most of the items are not available any more other than the stamp set that I’ve linked.) I fell in love with all of the cute images and puns from the Doodlebug So Pun Friends collection! In this card kit, there was a die that cut out the box and fries. The sentiments came from some “Chit-Chat Clippings“.

I first took a piece of white cardstock for the front panel and cut it with a wonky stitched rectangle die and placed it over a side folded A2 red card base. I then took a wonky stitched circle die and cut a circle from the Doodlebug So Much Pun paper pad. I placed it in the lower right and cut off part of the edge of the circle sticking out past the white panel.

I took the die cut fry box and cut it out in red and white. I used the white strip to make the band at the top of the box. I cut out the fries and sponged around the edges and arranged them behind the box and attached it to the circle panel.

The sentiment bubble was inked around the edges and placed in the top left above the fries. I added a black layer behind the box sentiment strip and cut off the edge sticking out. Lastly, I thought it would be fun to add a smile face to the fry and then I stamped, colored and die cut a bow tie from my stash to add on the one fry. I finished it with some Doodlebug Heart Sprinkles.

I really had a great time putting this one together and I hope you’ve enjoyed it too! Hoping to pull out this card kit again and make several cards with it as there is still so many things in this kit that I never got a chance to play with! (I have so many things I need to do this with!)😉

Please be sure to check out the challenge blog to see the inspiration from the team and I hope you will take some time to have fun and play along with us!

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by! I’ll catch you soon!

Challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore – #124 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2423 Anything Goes
As You Like It – With or Without Words and Why? (I feel like this is the main reason to send a card to someone that includes a sentiment. I especially like the fun and/or pun for sending smiles.)
Tic Tac Toe – TTTC249 (I used first row down: layers, die cut, pattern paper)
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #573 Anything Goes Using Paper
Aloha Friday – #11 Masculine
Creative Moments – #259 optional twist: Men and Boys

Playing with Roulette and Colors

Hello friends! Hope your week is getting off to a great start. I can’t believe that January is over and we’re starting a new winter month already, but at the same time I’m already feeling like this cold weather can move along faster to Spring!

Today I have a couple of creations that I’ve made using those Inky Stamper products and playing a little “Craft Roulette” too! Chelsea was on Craft Roulette and if you’ve never seen it play out in action, take a look at the You Tube channel to see what it’s about! She was on episode #146 and here’s my card that I’ve made with her perimeters:

I had so much fun with this and I’ve never made a tag shaped accordion card before, but it was stuck in my head to give it a try and pull out the Inky Stamper Craft Room set to create it. The “Roulette Wheel” spun on: Double Tags, shelf/shelves, 2 shades of green and something in the background.

The two shades of green were easy with using the Doodlebug Paper Packs and adding in a few other greens to the coloring. I’ve also made two tags and placed them inside the pocket area in the middle of the accordion design. I used a stencil in the background of the other two panels and of course I added some crafty goodies to the shelves in Rosie’s craft room! The accordion card was easier than I had anticipated and just made a mini slim line size design by cutting off the edges to create the tag shape. The hole and reinforcers were made using punches and dies. You can see that I’ve colored up, cut out “Rosie” in her craft room where she is cutting her design going through her creative head!

When it’s all folded up and closed, this is what the card looks like. I could always add a sentiment on the back, but I thought this would be fun to send to a fellow crafter for sure! I just wish my shelves looked this organized! And I always try to use another thing from my stash as I pulled out lots of twine that gets thrown in a bin, so it was nice to use for the tops of each tag area. (Maybe on the back of the card, the crafter can add items to use up on their next project and display it! LOL)

And here’s another card that I’ve done for the January challenge on the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group which was to use: Black, white plus one other color:

I decided to pull out the Grasshopper set and make everything in the background black and white, but just color the grasshopper in green. All of the elements including the sentiment came from the same stamp set. I splattered some black paint over the background and the images were colored with some cool gray Copic markers. I white heat embossed the sentiment over black and cut it out with a banner die.

Behind the white panel, I took a piece of the black floral paper from the Doodlebug Floral & Graph Paper Pad and attached that to a white top folding A2 card base. It was a fun and easy card to put together!

Thanks so much for “hopping” over here today! Hope you’ve been inspired or smiled!😊

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz – Shaped Card (top card-tag shaped)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Passion for Markers – use die cuts (both cards use dies and are colored with Copics)
Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional love &/or hearts (top card has hearts)
Papercraft – Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly – Friendship (both cards evoke friendship to me!)

It’s Time For Tags!

Hello friends! I thought I’d take some time for making up some tags which is something that I really enjoy doing, but don’t do it very often. They’re so nice to have a batch made up ahead of time so that you can pull one out as you need it instead of trying to hurry through making something. It’s always better to have fun instead of rushing!

This trio of tags was a bit time consuming, but it was nice to finally pull out some things that I’ve been wanting to play with and use without being in a hurry. The characters are from the Taylored Expressions Holiday Squad die set. The tags themselves were cut from the TE Pierced Stacklets dies, the TE Tag Stacklets 2 dies and the TE Tag Reinforcements dies. The background for the tags was made with the TE Foil It-Plaid Layering Panels that I foiled in gold along with the stenciling from the TE Plaid Layering Stencil set. The sentiments were white heat embossed from the TE Just Saying-Christmas stamps. I’ve used various colors of Taylored Expressions papers and inks and then finished the embellishments for the “holly berries” using the red from TE Tiny Diamonds-Bold set and then I also used the TE Gold Drip Drops in the background. The ribbon and twine from my stash at the top.

My next trio of tags here was really fun with these adorable penguins from Taylored Expressions Dancing Through the Snow stamp set and dies. I placed them over top of the transparency that was used to create a shaker tag behind the penguins. I used the TE Tag Stacklets 3 dies and also used some pink polka dotted papers from a free paper pad I received with an order. The bright shinny purple paper came from my stash I’ve had for quite a while and thought it would be a fun non-traditional color to use with these. I filled the shaker tags with the TE Bits & Pieces-Snowflakes and the TE Bits & Pieces-Sparkly Stars.

And these tags were a little hard to photograph with all of that cording in the way! (Pardon my photograph skills! LOL) They’re smaller than the tags above, but they work great for different packaging sizes! These were easy and fun as I’ve done mostly foiling with these using the Taylored Expressions Foil It-Simple Tags Holidays panels and the stencil to go with it. I cut them all out at the same time with the coordinating dies. The tags with the black cording are the negatives from foiling the toffee-colored tags and are mostly completely foiled. I just used different colored Stickles glitter to create the Christmas lights on those. (Really been having fun with the foiling this year!)

And lastly, I wanted to share a set of tags that I’ve made using various Inky Stamper sets! I decided to go through all of the different Christmas sets that I have from them and pull out the ones that I either haven’t used or barely used to play with them. The tag at the top was made with the Inky Stamper Fox set that I really enjoyed coloring. The presents at the bottom and the Santa hat were colored and fussy cut from the same stamp set. I made the background of that one with the Falling Snowflake Stencil with white ink and heat embossing over it with sparkly white embossing powder.

The tag on the bottom left is another fun shaker tag! I pulled out the Inky Stamper Nutcracker set to color him up and cut out with the coordinating die. He was placed over the acetate on the shaker tag. I used a scallop circle tag die with gold foil cardstock that I cut out the center with a circle die, added some papers for the background from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pack. The shaker bits inside are the Shaker Garnish which is really lightweight and still make a great shaker sound too!

The bottom right tag was cut from an Infinity Tree die set. I sponged the edges with some white ink and punched a hole at the top to make it a tag. That cute little truck is from the Inky Stamper Vintage Truck set that I colored and cut out with the coordinating dies. I used a fun Lawn Fawn road die to place him over and then stamped the sentiment from the stamp set with white ink. I also added some snowflake sequins above him with the Icicles sequins mix. And both blue and red Doodlebug Twine was used for two of the tags. The other ribbons/cord from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve been inspired and enjoying the Season!

Challenges:

Country View – Christmas
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

Inky Stamper Craft Room Shake Up

Hello friends! It’s the very last day of November and also the last day as a Guest Designer for Inky Stamper too. Really enjoyed creating with their fun products and hope that you’ve gotten some inspiration as well! If you are ever looking for their store in the future, I will have the badge with link on the sidebar of my blog so you can find it or look for all of my posts under the “Inky Stamper” category also found on the side of this blog.

Today I’m sharing a fun way to make a full front/infinity shaker card using their products:

Rosie is having some fun cutting up paper! ✂ She is from the Inky Stamper Craft Room set that I’ve colored up along with the little bottle and cut out. This was so fun to put together and reminds me of the fun that I enjoyed during the Inky Escape event! (I will share the projects I made in a future post) The heat embossed sentiment as well as the envelope and ink splatters in the background, came from the Inky Stamper Inky Greetings stamp set.

At a previous Inky event I went to, I learned how to put together a full front shaker in a very easy way and wanted to use this same idea for my card here. So, I started with the Inky Stamper Shaker Sealable Pouches and added a piece of 3.75″ x 5″ Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper (released temporarily from Inky Stamper in the past) that I stamped the ink splatters with orange and pink inks over. Before sealing up the pouch, I added some Iridescent Clear Shaker Garnish and some Picket Fence Crafty Friends sequence mix. I used some Red Line Tape to attach the shaker pouch to the scallop orange piece that was layered over an A2 top folding bright pink card base. I like this because there is no wondering if the foam tape will hold all of the bits where they’re supposed to be…so very easy!

I’ve also used the same Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” papers to heat emboss my sentiment at the bottom and I’ve also used a pink gem from the Picket Fence Reflections. For the “floor” of the craft room, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pad and die cut a piece for the bottom that was popped up with foam squares over the shaker pouch panel.

I wanted to share a closer look at the shaker details with the pouch and the shaker goodies inside. The sequins mix is so fun with those tiny scissors in there, can you see them?!

For the picture frame, I’ve taken one of the squares from the Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper pad for the main focal of it and added some dashes along the edge. I also sponged around it with light blue ink and cut out the little brush from the “Craft Room” stamp set after coloring it up and then glued it to the panel. I also cut out more of the woodgrain paper for a frame look and then added a tiny piece of the Doodlebug Gray Twine behind it. I pulled at the top and added a round foam dot to it so that it was held in place over the shaker pouch. I then used the Metallic Transfer Foil Sheets to press over top of the foam dot so that it looked more like something hanging up the picture.

So, I hope you’ve enjoyed my full front shaker card today and have been inspired to make time to make stuff too! If you have any questions about anything here, let me know! Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle
Shopping Our Stash – Bling it Up and/or lighting
Penny’s Paper-crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Daring Cardmakers – Shine
Tic Tac Toe – used bottom row across (patterned paper, stamped image & sparkle/shiny)

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