{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 8 – Halfway Reminder! Cupcakes or Bust!

Hey there friends! We’re now at the half-way mark of our wonderful “Birthday Celebration” challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations}!

Have you been adding your birthday/celebration themed creations to the gallery yet for your chance to win a prize from one of the amazing sponsors we’ve enjoyed sharing the inspiration with?! If you haven’t, we hope you will be able to join in the fun with us as we’re really loving the wonderful projects we’ve been seeing so far!

Today I thought it would be fun to create a unique card with my friends for {Cupcake Inspirations} as well as another of an old favorite from our sponsor Riley and Company that was also featured for yesterday! I have loved this adorable moose for many years and so I couldn’t help but use another image to create something for a little chuckle….

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I had so much fun with this easy to make card! I’ve used my Cricut Explore to print out and cut the shape of the cupcake. I actually did this twice so that I could make a folding card with the shaped design. I made a score mark on the bottom cupcake along the left side and glued it together so that it would open up on the right side.

I’ve taken this really adorable Riley and Company “Or Bust” stamp that I’ve had for a few years and stamped and colored him up. Since the space above the “or bust” words is empty, I filled it with a sentiment from a MFT set that was perfect! 😂 I then fussy cut him out and popped him up with foam tape over the card.

I used a gold metallic gel pen to color the frame of the sign he’s holding, wrapped some gold metallic ribbon around the cupcake with a bow and a cupcake button in the center and then finished it off with some glitter over the sprinkles on the top of the cupcake.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my fun little shaped card today! Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you on Day 10 for more inspiration with another sponsor!

Challenges:

Cut It Up – #207 Old School + die cut (Have had this Riley for years! Used Cricut)

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 7🧁

We are rolling now! We are on day 7 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Super cool!!

Today, we are highlighting Riley and Company – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

I have loved this little moose for many years and have collected some stamps from them over the years including some recent ones and I always get a chuckle from either the moose or the “Funny Bone” sentiments! So I had to help with featuring this sponsor:

I had to combine this funny sentiment with the cupcake theme and I thought it would be so fun to have little Riley peeking out from the edge holding a cupcake!😂

I took one of the images from the Basic Dress Up Riley, colored him with Copics and cut him out with coordinating dies. The sentiment was white heat embossed over a strip of black that I added Riley partially to the back of before attaching it to the background paper. I’ve also added a couple of banners and tied some black twine around the top of the card. I used a cupcake image from my stash, colored and cut it out and popped it up with a foam dot over Riley’s hand.

I finished the card with some sequins and some clear glitter Stickles.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration card for today’s sponsor and be sure to play along with us soon! Thanks so much for dropping by and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 6

Hey there friends! We are on day 6 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! FUN FUN!

Today, we are highlighting Bugaboo Stamps & Lawn Fawn – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

So on our first day, I had used some fabulous products from our sponsor Lawn Fawn. But for today’s post, I wanted to highlight our other sponsor Bugaboo Stamps…

Vicki-CIC500-Day6-Bugaboo

Now how stinkin’ CUTE is this little guy with his ginormous cupcake coming at you?!

I printed out this Picnic Ant-Cupcake2 from Bugaboo Stamps and colored him up with Copic markers. I sponged some clouds behind him and colored some grass with my markers too. I used my oval dies to cut the image out with along with the scallop oval layer behind it.

Found some fun papers from my stash along with the rectangle die, sentiment die, ribbon, twine and button to complete the card.

I “dressed up” the cupcake with some liquid applique that was heated up to make it “puffy” and then added some glossy accents over the cherry on top.

Really had fun with this cutie and I hope he brought you a little smile today friends! Thanks for joining me! See you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

Catch the Bug Challenge – End of Summer (what could be better than celebrating a picnic?!)
Little Red Wagon – Use a Stencil (cloud background)
Creative Knockouts – #364 Something to Say
Aud Sentiments – #258 Anything Goes + Sentiment
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + Coloring

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 4

Ready for more celebrating!? We are on day 4 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yipee!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Varada Sharma – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

Our DT has been generously provided with an entire new release collection from this sponsor! There were so many fun things to play with, so I did some combining:

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How fun and yummy is this?! There’s just something about cupcakes that are so fun to decorate with frosting, sugar crystals, sprinkles, fruit, etc etc and so why not do that with crafting too?!

I started with the background and decided to take the Hanging Banners Background image and print it out over some teal cardstock and then I used a Copic marker to add some shadowing around the images. I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die and layered it over a piece of yellow cardstock to match the sentiment banner…which actually looks green in the photo, but it’s yellow IRL! LOL! Then I mounted it over another A2 sized side folding teal cardstock base.

I sized and placed together the two different cupcakes from the Cupcakes, Cake Slices and Toppers set, printed it out and then colored them in with Copics. I’ve cut them out with a circle die, layered it over another circle layer cut from some silver mirror cardstock. I sponged some teal ink around the edges of the cupcake circle, added some stitch lines with a marker and then cut off the excess from the edge.

I used some glitter, glimmer and shine to add details to the cupcakes! (The photo is not showing all of the fun details at all!) Bummer…

I added a thin strip of that silver mirror cardstock across the bottom of the card front and then took the sentiment that I put together from the Celebration set, printed it out over white cardstock and then used my yellow ink to sponge over it. I fussy cut it out and then popped it up with foam tape over the silver strip.

This is going to make a fabulous card for someone’s birthday.

Challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends– #140 Anything Goes
Crafting Happiness – #62 Anything Goes

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 3

Hello again friends! We are on day 3 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yay!

Today, we are highlighting Crafty Scrappers & Gerda Steiner Designs – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

The DT was given images from Crafty Scrappers to use for our creations:

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Isn’t she the cutest with her oversized cupcake and glasses?! I’ve used images including the sentiment from the Ms. Cupcake stamp set provided by our sponsor.

I had so much fun coloring her up with Copic markers and then adding lots of details to it like the gold glitter shimmer over the ribbon on the cupcake, the shimmer over the frosting and then some glossy accents for the chocolate syrup, cherry on top and over her glasses too! I’ve also used a white gel pen for highlights on areas. I actually fussy cut her out and popped her up over the circle die cut panel with foam tape.

I thought she fit the circle nicely and would work for a circle easel card design. I matted her over a purple fancy circle die cut layer and then made the circle easel base a pink color. I cut a strip for the sentiment and layered that over purple cardstock for the inside which is helping to keep the front layer propped up. I’ve also added some gold sparkle crystals over the design to match her ribboned cupcake.

Thanks for dropping in today friends and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Challenges:

Dream Valley– Add Gems/Pearls or both
As You Like It– Favorite Color to Pair With Pink and Why? (Purple is my favorite color, but I think it’s amazing with pink because it gives a wonderful feminine look…and it’s great for princesses and unicorns too!)
Creative Knockouts – #363 Finish the Inside (my inside is propping up the front of card!)
Alphabet – ‘J’ is for Jewels or Jewlery
Creatalicious– #193 Anything Goes with optional: Anything but square or rectangle

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 2

Hello friends! The celebration continues over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with our feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Woot!!

Today, we are highlighting STAMPlorations & Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

The DT was provided with an image from STAMPlorations to use:

Vicki-CIC500-Day2-Stamplorations

What could be more fun and happy for a celebration than rainbow colors?!

I was provided with this lovely Framed Tea Cups stamp to use for my card which I’ve colored up with Copic markers using the traditional ROYGBV rainbow colors for the cups.

I also decided to mask off the image and using the ARTplorations Weaving Stencil, I inked over with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then cut out the panel with the CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle die that was barely trimmed along the edges so that I could layer it over a black A2 sized top folding card base. I also took one of the images from the Scribbly Splattery Grunge stamp set and randomly stamped it a few times with black ink before attaching the panel to the card base.

Lastly, I used the CUTplorations Celebrate Word die to cut out the sentiment with silver foil cardstock and attached it to the bottom of the card and then I added some silver sequins to the design.

Thank you for stopping in today friends! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

STAMPlorations Never-Ending Challenge – Anything Goes + STAMPlorations product
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes
Creativ Fusion Arts & Crafts – #20 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – Bright Colors
Seize the Birthday– Rainbow Colors or Anything Birthday

Finishing Up Summer School With Cupcake Creations!🧁

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! Wow…it’s Finally Friday! I’ve been SO busy “behind the scenes” and I will be getting to all of that later on, but I needed to squeak in with the final creations for the MFT Summer School!

I finished up Day 2 with my “smile rainbow” and now for Day 3, they’re asking for a “symmetry” style of creation. I was told that basically it’s something that if you were to split it in half, it would be exactly the same on the other half…so this is what I thought of:

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I was so excited about getting the My Favorite Things Cupcakes card kit, so I was determined that I was going to pull it out and use it for the rest of my Summer School cards! LOL! It’s such a cute set with the dies and sentiment stamps! I really had fun!

I used some papers from the kit and sponged ink around the edges of everything pretty much. I just used the two cupcakes side by side for the symmetry class. I just have opposite colors of sprinkles. I added the red cherry on top, covered with the glitter brush pen and then some glossy accents. (The glossy accents really got a work out!😮)

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So Day 4 class was “ombre” and that pretty much called to me to use the stencil from the card kit (sprinkles in background) and then I just heat embossed white over white and then used inks for the emboss resist technique moving the colors from lightest to darkest to get that classical “ombre effect”. I also added a die cut cupcake that I used the same ink effect over it. I die cut the words from the kit with the dark papers I used for the base of the card. I finished with some sparkly crystal accents to finish it off!

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And last but certainly not least was Day 5 “White Space” class. I don’t often make cards like this, but I honestly love those CAS style cards, but I always want to “teeter” on the fine line between CAS and not…so I always think I’m not doing CAS. I’m just not comfortable with the “CAS” definition or “rules” of what is or isn’t CAS. I just feel happiest doing whatever happens to work out in my plan for a design…that’s pretty much it! Be happy and you’re good!

I used this class to also follow along with the MFT sketch challenge going on as it looked like it was a good sketch for making a “white space” design.

I started by masking off the square and sponging lightly around it, I white heat embossed the sentiment over a black strip and added some silver ink over the stencil again and then attached the cupcake over top with the papers…and added the cherry on top with glossy accents too!

I finished it off with another little flag die from the kit and some silver sequins! I like how it turned out! I think I deserve a cupcake after all the creations I made!!😋

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations today and I really appreciate you stopping in to see what’s going today! Have a fabulous weekend!

Challenges:

MFT Summer School– Day 3 Symmetry
MFT Summer School – Day 4 Ombre
MFT Summer School – Day 5 White Space
My Favorite Things – Wednesday Sketch Challenge MFTWSC502 (my last card and I flipped the sketch on the side)
Crafty Creations – #412 August Anything Goes
Craft Rocket – #73 Birthday
Creative Fingers – #191 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – Bonus Birthday Challenge
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes

Dir-Tea Birthday Bunny Coffee Card🐰

Hello friends! I’m back again today with another fun card that I wanted to enter before the time runs out! So check it out:

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This adorable smiling bunny is so fun and I really loved creating this coffee themed cup shaped card using some products from Trinity Stamps. I’ve used the Dir-Tea Bunny stamp set along with the coordinating dies that also cut out his hands so you can stick stuff between them like I did with the coffee cup and balloon! The coffee cup came with the stamp set and I added that sentiment to it! The balloon is a die set from MFT. I cut out the balloon with vellum and used my Copic marker to color it in.

I used the Trinity Stamps Coffee Mug Card die set in white cardstock and then took the Slimline Stripes stencil to sponge over it. I completely sponged over the handle of the cup and then I sponged the center of the cup in grey colored ink for the bunny to be on top. I also stamped a few coffee beans from the stamp set with the same sponged ink. I took some Glitterstock to cut the die cut piece for the top of the coffee cup and for the inside of the card is where I added my gift card holder which comes with this die…which is pretty cool! It’s already to go for my coffee loving birthday person now!!

I did not have a Trinity Stamps birthday sentiment, so I pulled out one from my stash and white heat embossed it over a strip of cardstock that is the same color of ink from my cup. The banner was actually cut out with the Trinity Stamps Slimline Scalloped Card Panels and Banners die set. (I just shortened it as needed.) I used foam squares to pop up the die cut bunny to sit on top of the banner.

Here’s a close up view of the details on the card. I’ve used Copic markers to color in the bunny and added dots to his cheeks with a white gel pen. I’ve also took some glitter and added it to the inside of his coffee cup to make it look as glittery as the larger cup!

Hard to tell in the photos, but the blue vellum balloon was also covered with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen for a bit of shimmer. To attach the vellum balloon, I ran it through my Xyron Machine so you couldn’t “see” any glue marks.

(I love how he can hold different items!) 😀🎈

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Wished I remembered to take a photo of the inside of the card, but it just has a coffee gift card holder on the inside along with a greeting and more stamped coffee beans.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my funny bunny shaped coffee cup card today! I sure appreciate you stopping in and I’ll be seeing you again soon!!

Challenges:

Trinity Stamps Crafty Troop – #4 Birthdays + Trinity Stamps products
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP2025 – Anything Goes
Dream Valley – #228 All Occasions
Always Fun – #168 Anything Goes
The Male Room – #139 Use Die Cuts
The House That Stamps Built – J2420 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday– WWC277 All About Occasions

Essential Worker Chef

Hello friends! I hope that your week is finding you in a good place right now. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed with things that are going on in the world, but I am so thankful that I have the crafty time to keep my mind creative and music to help alongside to keep on keeping on. This is one way that I know I can express myself in a postitive way and hopefully inspire someone too.

In my previous post, I had made several healthcare worker cards and I had made one for my son who is a mail carrier, but I was having a hard time finding an image for a food service worker. (check out that post HERE.) I asked if anyone knew of any images. Someone had reached out to me and shared a few images that were just too adorable and I couldn’t pass up on nabbing one for my other essential worker son:

Isn’t he just as cute as can be?! I’ve used the LOTV Pancake Day digi stamp for my card. It actually reminds me of my son making crepes for a restaurant that he used to work for. I was treated with a delicious pumpkin pecan cream crepe by him a few years back on my birthday! It was yummy!

As you can see, I’ve altered the image a bit to fit with the current covid-19 restrictions by giving him a make-shift face mask as well as coloring some plastic-style gloves on his hands. To make it even more personal, I decided to give him a couple of colored tattoos on his arms as my son has tattoos on his arms and dark brown hair.😁

For the card, I’ve used some Sidewalk cardstock from Brutus Monroe and used a Stampin’ Up! brick embossing folder over it and then sponged some distress ink around the edges. It was cut out with a stitched rectangle die. I added a strip of Prism paper and some silver metallic ribbon over it before attaching it to a top folding A2 sized black card base. I finished it off with some silver Glossy Dots from Pink and Main.

I colored the image with Copic markers and as mentioned above added the special coloring for the tattos and gloves for his hands. I’ve also covered the pan with a glitter brush pen.

To make the face mask, I took a Copic liner to draw in the lines for the cord around his ear and then I took a tiny piece of thin tissue style paper that was used between the packages of acetate sheets you buy. I wanted it because it was thin and I was able to create tiny folds and wrinkles in it…I just glued it over the area on his face and manipulated it before it completely dried.

I stamped the sentiment from a Lawn Fawn stamp set with black ink next to the image and then I used a stencil that was cut out by my mom, thanks mom, on her Cricut machine and inked it up with some red ink using a foam brush tool. I wasn’t very accurate with not covering the image, but thankfully the sand eraser helped out! I finished coloring up the “ground” area and sponged around the stitched square cut out of the image. I layered it onto another piece of black cardstock and popped it up over the card with craft foam.

I think this card turned out so cute and it’s on the way to him now! I think he’ll get a kick out of it and he’ll probably notice the extra personalized details I’ve added to it too!😂

I hope you have enjoyed my special essential worker card today and brought you a smile! Thank you so kindly for stopping in and I’ll see you again soon!✌

Challenges:

Pearly Sparkles – #52 For the Boys/Men
Love to Scrap – LTSCB134 For the Boys
QKR Stampede – #400 Anything Goes
Digi Choosday – Anything Goes + colored image
Arty Divas – #23 Anything Goes
The Paper Funday – #18 Anything Goes with twist: make it masculine
Simon Say Stamp Wednesday – Masculine
Unicorn – Masculine

Caffeinated Changito☕

Hello there friends! Really hope that you have enjoyed your long Memorial weekend! The weather finally turned warm and once it turned warm, it REALLY turned warm and humid over my way! So we were able to plant some flowers in our garden pots outside and enjoy some cookout time too!

I noticed that the “Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” had started up this weekend and I thought it would be a great opportunity to pull out some old stamps and have some fun with it while making a masculine card for the up-coming Father’s Day holiday too:

Does anyone remember these cute little “Changito” stamps back in the day?! I have used the Changito Coffee stamp (only found this one online) and the sentiment to go with it too! I actually bought these wood mounted rubber stamps years ago at a convention I had went to and have kept them hoarded like my other old stamps. LOL!

I stamped the image on Copic blending card and then again on some blue gingham background paper for paper piecing his PJs in! For the sentiment, I heat embossed it over my background with some appropriately named “Coffee” EP which has a metallic copper with some brown speckling in it…very cool. the store is no longer active that it came from.

For the background of this card, I had some fun playing with my Oxide Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Broken China, Scattered Straw and touches of Espresso. I sprayed and dried layers as I went. I even took the bottom of a jar I had laying on my table to ink up some Espresso ink to make the “ring” marks over the background. I also took some more of that “Coffee” EP and sprinkled some over the background for even more distressing.

I wrapped some twine around it and attached it to an A2 sized white card base that I sponged around the edges with some Vintage Photo ink.

Here you can see a better look at the image and how I’ve got him colored up with Copic markers. You can barely see the gingham pattern in his paper pieced PJs, but I thought it was cute! I also took a black Copic liner and drew lettering on the coffee cups. I added just a hint of sparkle over the coffee inside the cups with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen. I also took a black gel pen to dot his eyeballs, the buttons on his PJs as well as dot the bunny slipper eyes. I think that little detail really makes his pop more with a bit of character.

The image was cut out with a stitched circle die and then I also cut out an additional circle to mat behind him, which I took a VersaMark ink pad and then used the “Coffee” EP to heat set along the edges of it so it has the same look and texture as the background and sentiment. This was attached over the background with twine.

Lastly, I’ve taken some brown colored sequins from my stash and attached them to the background and filled the centers with some Nuvo Honey Gold Glitter Drops.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine and quirky card for today! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you again soon!!😉

Challenges: