R is for Ribbon

Hello friends and happy busy December to you! It’s that time of the year and things start getting really busy with Christmas activities! I’ve been working on lots of different things, but it seems hard to take the time out to photograph it and post about it! LOL Maybe when things settle down a bit for me, I can post some of it!

Today marks another new challenge for the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “R”, and our hostess Billie has chosen “Ribbon”. I hope you will join in the fun with us! (This will be the last challenge of the year until they start back up in January with the letter “S”) *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

I really enjoyed making this one and I was very happy to pull some more items out from my stash to use up for this challenge! Ribbon is something that I have so much of and don’t use it as often as what I used to!

For my card front, I took a red base and die cut a large star from it keeping in mind that I wanted to add a sentiment at the bottom. I used an embossing folder and then rubbed a metallic gold ink pad over the raised areas to make it stand out a bit and set it aside.

For behind the star, I took another thin cardstock panel slightly smaller than the red star panel and covered it with double sided strong adhesive. I then took some stitched ribbon in red and green as well as the thin metallic gold ribbon and layered them in a strip pattern over the entire panel. I kept in mind where the star opening would be. I then layered the red star panel over it and attached it to a top folding A2 kraft card base.

I die cut a smaller star in kraft cardstock for the center of the star opening and added a gold gem in the center of it. I also took the thin gold ribbon and attached it from the top of the star around the red base and then added a bow above it. Lastly, I just gold heat embossed the sentiment, die cut with the coordinating die and popped it up under the star with a foam strip.

Just a note that this will be my final project as a design team member for the Alphabet Challenge. I have enjoyed working on this team and wish Caz all the best in the coming year for her challenges. I appreciate the kind support.

I will try to get another post in before Christmas is here, if I can find the time to share the things that I’ve been working on. I also have another art journal page to share before the end of the year as well. Thanks so much for stopping by as I enjoy hearing from you! Enjoy the Holiday Season as it approaches and take care of yourself.

Challenges:

A Cut Above – Anything Goes with a die cut
The Neglected Stuff – Old items (I’ve got not sure how old Stampin’ Up ribbon, old embossing folder and old star die cuts!)
Crafts Galore Encore – #142 Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations – ‘Tis the Season
Fab ‘n’ Funky – #627 Christmas
Penny’s Paper Crafty – #611 Anything Goes Using Paper
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #267 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2549 Anything Goes

P is for Pumpkin(s)

Hello friends! I hope that your month of November has been a good one for you so far! It’s getting cooler by the week, but I try to get out to enjoy the warmer days as much as I can before the winter gets here!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “P”, and our hostess, Deborah, has chosen “Pumpkin(s)” I hope you will join in the fun with us! *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

When I saw this challenge, I remembered that I had gotten a stitched pumpkin die set from Lawn Fawn a few years back and haven’t used them yet, so I pulled them out to use for this challenge! (I had to clip the metal dies apart, so I knew I hadn’t used it yet!)

I decided to cut them out in different colors of cardstock and then ink blended the bottoms of each in a darker shade including the stem on the top pumpkin. I also took them and splattered some gold, brown and white over all three pumpkins before assembling them in stacking order.

For the card front, I took a stitched white panel and stenciled some leaves (Pink & Main-not in store) in light tan ink. I made my scene for the pumpkin stack by using some Fall Plaid papers (not in store anymore) by Lawn Fawn for the background and die cutting a hill for the pumpkins to set on. I placed the plaid paper and ground over a darker brown cardstock layer and popped it up with foam tape over the stenciled leaves card front. I attached all of these layers onto a white top folding A2 card base.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the sentiment (not sure what Lawn Fawn set I used this for it) over dark brown cardstock and cut out a banner to pop up above the pumpkin stack with thin foam squares. I added a few gold rhinestones for sparkle.

Hope you’ve been inspired by my card today and stop on over at the challenge blog to join in the fun with us! I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be back tomorrow with another challenge project!

Challenges:

Four Seasons – Fall
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #265 Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes with optional: Something new (I used a “new to me” stitched pumpkins die set from Lawn Fawn!)
A Cut Above – Anything Goes with a die cut (used several Lawn Fawn dies!)
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I used both!)

Mix It Up by Keeping it Simple!

Hello friends! Happy November! It seems like I was just thinking about Autumn with cooler temps…and now we’re getting REAL close to Christmas and the end of the year! Time is going so quickly! Are you getting your Christmas cards started yet?

So let’s take a moment for ourselves and work on keeping life simple! This brings me to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given for us this time is: KIS (Keep It Simple) or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

I thought that “keeping it simple” for Christmas cards and getting down to the wire for making them and sending out would be a good thought for this challenge!

I pulled out this cute Scrapbook.com stamp set called “Holiday” to create a simple design with the solid bauble images and added a few heat embossed elements over two of them and then heat embossed a hook for each. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold to match the hooks and then just stamped a couple of doo-dads around the panel and drew lines from the ornament hooks coming off the edge with a gold fine line pen. That’s pretty much it! I did die cut a few “Mini Bows” from Taylored Expressions for each ornament. Then I layered the ornament panel onto gold and then onto a white A2 card base.

This would certainly be a very easy design to mass produce using the MISTI tool.

I hope you like my card and will stop by the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team has created too! *NOTE* This is the last project that I’m making for this challenge blog as I have decided to step down from the design team. Thank you to Tina for having me as part of the challenge team this year and keeping the blog running. Best wishes for the coming year!

Thanks so much for dropping in today! Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

Ally’s Angels – #99 Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – #324 Anything Goes with optional: Christmas
ABC Christmas -‘U’ is for Uncluttered (CAS) & ‘V’ is for Vertical
CRAFT – #767 Christmas

October AJ Page-Magical Potion

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the last Saturday for this month and next week will be November 1st! Can you believe it?! We’re nearing the end of the year, but I’d like to stop and enjoy the wonderful Autumn season right now while it’s here!

Last Saturday of October brings us to the monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” OCTOBER prompt of “MAGICAL”:

I couldn’t let this month go by without adding in a Halloween themed AJ page! I love making them and getting out lots of dies from several different companies that made this one a fun project to pull together.

Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of Mixed Media cardstock and blended the background in various colors using a light yellow for the center where the window is open and the cauldron is brewing up something magical!

I then took a cogs and wheel stencil and sponged on some gold ink in various places. I took a cool background stamp from Whimsy Stamps called Vintage Wallpaper and stamped it in random places. I also cut a strip of wood plank background paper from my stash to add at the bottom of the page. I then took my gold ink pad and swiped it around the edges of the page.

Die Cuts: The large spider web cut from holographic paper, the witch, the fire, and cats all came from Whimsy Stamps. The Cauldron and potion bottle came from Taylored Expressions, the window came from Simon Says Stamp and the wood under the cauldron came from Lawn Fawn. For some of the pieces, I ink blended or added a gold highlight to the edges. For the potion bottle, there is a tiny label on it that says “Moon Dust” with a moon on it. (It’s hard to see in the photo.) I added some glitter to the contents. After ink blending the flames, I covered it with a glitter brush pen.

I took a marker to added some shadows under the witch, cat and cauldron. I took some yellow sequins and added it under the potion bottle to make it look like she’s added it to the potion. Lastly, I took a couple of Tim Holtz sentiment clippings to add to the scene.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I had fun with it! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Steampunk/Halloween or both
Creative Artiste – #120 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No Cards
Penny’s – #608 Anything Goes Using Paper
Little Red Wagon – #830 Not a Card

N is for Night

Hello friends! Once again, it’s another Friday in October! Two weeks from today will be Halloween! I may have a few “goblins” showing up for some candy! 👻 This reminds me that I will be needing to make up a few treat bags!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “N”, and our hostess, Pamela, has chosen “N is for NIGHT” (clouds, moon, sky, sleeping image, stars, etc.) I think this will be a fun one for Halloween! *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:

Well, you know I had to do this challenge in the Halloween theme, right?! I absolutely loved making this card! I pulled out all of my Taylored Expressions Halloween items to play with!

I started with the background and created the moon with the Moonlight Layering Stencil. I made sure to center it where I wanted the moon to be in placement on my background before I ink blended everything in. I also used a very light hand when making the moon in greys and yellow tones. This stencil also comes with a mask to cover the entire moon shape, so I used some Pixie Spray to tack it down to stay in place over my card before I began ink blending the blues in the background for the sky. While leaving the moon mask in place, I also used some Copic opaque white watered down and splattered over the blue ink blended sky for “stars”.

I was then able to remove the moon mask to finish my card. I layered this panel over an A2 side folding black card base. I used the Taylored Expressions Trick or Treat Border die to cut out another black piece to fit over the moon. I left some space at the bottom of the border to white heat emboss the sentiment from the TE Spooktacular Sentiments set. I just attached this to the bottom of the moon sky panel and then I die cut some bats from the TE Little Bits-Bats die with the TE Black Glitter Cardstock and attached them to the sky.

I’m loving how the moon seems to be glowing over the trick or treaters! I hope you like it too and will join in the fun with us! Be sure to check out the challenge blog to see more inspiration!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR DROPPING IN TODAY!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AHEAD!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Autumn/Something Spooky
Craft Rocket – #130 Autumn/Halloween
Crafty Calendar – Halloween
Let’s Craft & Create – #224 Anything Goes with optional: Things with Wings (bats)
Crazy is our Fame-Stencils are our Game! – Stencil(s) with optional: Halloween
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Unicorn – #114 Autumn and/or Halloween
Crafty Gals Corner – #271 Fill in the Blank: “Spooky________” – NIGHT!

Autumn Leaves & Pumpkins for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that your October month is going well so far. We’re starting to get some noticeably cooler temps in the forecast as we creep towards Halloween at the end of the month. Love this time of year when those leaves start showing their pretty colors as they fall from the trees! We should be getting that soon as well to clean up the yard! LOL

This brings us to a new monthly challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “AUTUMN LEAVES & PUMPKINS” this month. I look forward to seeing all of the projects in the gallery for this one. Here’s what I came up with:

I fell in love with this cute scarecrow from Newton’s Nook called Autumn Fields and I knew that I wanted to use it for this challenge. I colored up the image along with a few pumpkins and cut them out in the coordinating dies. I was going to add a couple of leaves for the background, but I thought it would be cool to pull out the NN Fabulous Fall Toner Card Fronts and ink blend over it for the background. So I gold foiled the background and blended some various inks to create the background scene for the scarecrow.

I die cut a grassy hill border from Lawn Fawn and inked the blades with a gold ink pad and layered that onto my foiled leaves background. I tucked in the scarecrow and pumpkins for grounding and then white heat embossed a sentiment (from the scarecrow set) that was cut out with a banner die (from MFT- closed). I also used the gold ink pad around that as well.

I cut out the entire layered panel with a cross-stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn and then used a scalloped rectangle die from Taylored Expressions cut from white cardstock to layer behind it. I attached everything to an A2 side folding card base in the Latte color from Taylored Expressions.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card and will hop on over to the challenge blog to check out what the rest of the design team has made for inspiration.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY TODAY!!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Autumn Colors
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2541 Anything Goes
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Pearly Sparkles – #112 Pumpkins and/or Fall Leaves
Creative Fingers – #309 Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Autumn/Anything Goes
We Love Stamping – Anything Autumn/Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – #628 Fall Harvest
Aud Sentiments – #330 Ink Blending and/or Fall/Thanksgiving + sentiment

M is for Mythical

Hello and happy Friday to you friends! Welcome to the month of October! We’re still having some unseasonably warm weather right now, but next week it’s supposed to cool down a bit along with maybe some rain which we really need right now. Hope that wherever you are that things are going well for you!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “M”, and our hostess, Tee, has chosen “M is for MYTHICAL CREATURE(s)” (fairies, gnomes, unicorns, dragons, vampires, zombies, etc.) I think this will be a fun one for Halloween! *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:

These little grumpy guys from Taylored Expressions always make me giggle and I fell in love with this set a few years back and had to snatch it up! I pull it out sometimes to make a funny card to send someone. There are other characters from this set called “Mythical Grumplings” (looks to be a retired set) that are super cute!

Because he’s a grumpy dragon, I mainly used green colors to color him up and for the base/background design. I used a heart stencil with green ink and overlayed some translucent sparkle paste over it. I die cut a cloud for the dragon to stand on as well as die cut a heart from shimmer vellum for the dragon to stand out a bit over all of that green color. I popped both the cloud and dragon up over the vellum heart and added to the background.

I layered it over a scallop white layer and a green A2 top folding card base. I also white heat embossed the punny sentiment and die cut it out with a stitched banner die. Sponged the edges with green ink and attached to the top right of the heart panel.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my mythical creature card today and that you’ll consider hopping on over the to the challenge blog to see the inspiration from the rest of the team and join in the fun to play along too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Wishing you a happy weekend ahead!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Animals (real or imaginary)
The Divas That Cut…Paper! – Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #140 Anything Goes
CRAFT – #765 Grandparents/Anything Goes
As You Like It – Square card or Not & why? (I most usually make A2 sized cards because it’s what fits best with my envelopes and I can get 2 card bases from one sheet of 8.5″11″ cardstock. It makes crafting cards more simple with this size.)

L is for Love Letter

Happy Friday friends! I hope that you’re having a great week and looking forward to the weekend ahead of us! We’re planning on being outside and have fun with family! It’s still warm, but hopefully we can get away from the 90 degree (F) weather!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “L”, and our hostess, Veronika, has chosen “L is for LOVE LETTER” (include handwriting & hearts) *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 always think of handwriting as the most sincere form of a love letter for sure, but I do not like my handwriting at all….so I prefer the typewritten style! LOL I thought the Just Write card kit I got from Taylored Expressions would work great for this challenge.

I fell in love with Lori Craig’s card including the colors of it, so I wanted to duplicate it! I didn’t have everything she used in hers, but I like how it turned out! The background was done with a 3D Lots of Love embossing folder over a stamped cork background. I swiped white ink over the popped up hearts to try and bring them out a bit more. The lined notebook paper inside the typewriter came from the TE Love Letters Clear Stamp & Die combo which is also where I got the “XOXO” to stamp on the heart at the top. I also used the hearts from this set to stamp on the notebook paper.

Here’s the inside of my card where I used one of the Just Write-Insiders panel for my card and included the stenciled pen and stamped an “ink spot” all included with the card kit.

I thought this would work for my “handwriting” portion of the challenge. *wink* I could’ve signed it to be completely official, but I don’t know who will be receiving this card right now, but it will be ready to go when the time comes.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and that you will be joining in the challenge with us! Thank you so much for stopping in today! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!

Challenges:

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2537 Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – #98 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #92 Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – #555 Anything Goes

K is for Keep It Simple (CAS)

Hello friends and happy Friday! The weather has decided to cool down quite a bit over the last couple of days and it’s been very nice to have the windows open for a change! I think we’re supposed to have another spell of warm weather, but I’ll take the cool down for now!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “K”, and the hostess has chosen “K is for KEEP IT SIMPLE” (CAS style) *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:

That cat is not a fan of winter! LOL I do love me some snark for the Holidays, so I thought this stamp set called “Holiday Grumplings” (retired stamp set) from Taylored Expressions would be great for a simple Holiday card.

I also think that CAS style cards are great for pulling out those left over scraps from your papers for little strips to create a simple layout, so that’s what I did here. I stamped, colored with Copics the kitty and popped him/her up with foam tape over the snowflake strip.

Lastly, I just added a light brush with pink ink to the left of the kitty and then gold heat embossed the sentiment over it. Placed the white panel over a pink A2 sized top folding card base and done.

I’m happy to report that I’ve spent some time going through my stash of cards and realized that I have several already finished and ready for sending out Christmas cards! So I’m basically DONE for Christmas cards! Yay! The first time ever that I’m ready ahead of time! NOW…hopefully I’ll send them out on time too! LOL

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and helped to inspire you to “KEEP YOUR CRAFTING SIMPLE” and join us for the challenge! Look forward to seeing what you make! Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Critter Crazy – #102 Anything Goes with Featured Critter
Crafty Animals – #98 Anything Goes including Animal
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2535 Anything Goes
Merry Little Christmas – #64 Anything Christmas Goes
Creative Inspirations – #202 Christmas in September

Mix It Up with a Fancy Fold

Happy September friends! Can you believe we’re getting ready to get into the Autumn season already?! It seems like the summer flew by, but I have to say that I’m so very ready for the falling leaves and all things Autumn to start up now…especially cooler temps!

Today also brings us to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given for us this time is: Fancy Folds or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

This is a something I came across a while back and saved the tutorial for later to give it a go. This is called a “Faceted Vertical Easel Card” and this is a 5″x7″ size. I would give you a link to the tutorial, but when I started creating half-way through to come upon the layers, I noticed the measurements were not quite right, so I had to figure out an adjustment to make it work correctly. I do love the look of it with its unique faceted design. It’s basically just an easel style card with a bit of a design in the center fold area and going vertical instead of horizontal. (If I make another again, I’ve decided another easier way to work it.

Since I was in the mood for the Autumn season, I decided to make my design with that in mind. I started with a kraft cardstock base measuring 10″x7″ with all of the different scores/cuts for this design as well. For decorating it, I’ve pulled out some Autumn papers by Photoplay in my stash and added a layer of glitter gold cardstock. To make square aperture with the pumpkins, I pull a cardboard cutout from the paper pack to use with it, and then white heat embossed a sentiment and die cut to place on the bottom right of card. Lastly, I’ve added some gold gems to both panels as well as the square panel in the center of the card.

I think what I like most about this is that it folds completely flat for mailing in an envelope. Once the recipient receives it, you can slide it open to catch the strip on the right side of the card and it will stand up like the first photo in this post.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my fancy fold card today and you’ll hop on over to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with. I look forward to seeing the gallery and what fancy folds will be in there!

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Have a great day!

Challenges: