Cheerful Sketches Guest Designer

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend! I just got back from a lovely weekend trip with hubby and we had such a great time visiting over in Hannibal, MO. This was something we both really needed to just get away for a bit and it was wonderful to be able to go and do something fun!

Today I’m sharing my creation I made as a guest designer for the Cheerful Sketches challenge blog. (I had won a spot with one of my creations I had entered.) I was also shared the sketch and an image to work with:

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The was a company that I have heard of before, but this is the first time that I have actually colored one up. This is from the My Bestie Shop in their Harvest Collection called Harvest Besties Doll 25.

I took the image and colored it up and cut it out the size I needed for my card and layered it with some dark brown cardstock. I took some sunflower style papers from my stash and placed a piece over a 5.5″ square dark brown top folding card base.

I cut out a couple of squares for each corner of the card and layered a scallop die cut square to each one with some orange colored cardstock. I also took a strip of this same orange cardstock and attached it diagonally across it.

Lastly, I took the image panel and wrapped some seam binding ribbon around it with a bow, twine and button. For the seam binding ribbon, I spritzed it with water and crinkled it up a bit and let it dry before adding to my card. I then added some Fall Prima flowers around the design.

Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve colored her up with Copic markers. For the gold glittery details in the Fall sentiment and around her (including the buttons on her shoes), I’ve taken a Quickie Glue Pen to color it in with and then added some pretty Fall gold glitter over it.

The edges of this image panel were sponged with some Tea Dye Distress Ink and then sprayed with water for the water droplet marks.

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She has put me in the mood to go to the pumpkin patch and bring one home!

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve been inspired in some way and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Love to Craft – LTCCB39 Oct Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – Pumpkin Party
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Autumn Colors
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC241 Anything Goes Feminine
Crafting with an Attitude – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with option of Ribbon, Bow or Flower
Creative Knockouts – Lots of Layers

Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! And here we are almost the first week in October coming to a close! Wow, time goes so quickly I can’t keep up with it! LOL!

It’s Thursday and time for a brand new challenge over at the Cute Card Thursday Challenge blog! The challenge for this week is our monthly “Anything Goes” theme with our sponsor Whimsy Stamps!

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Now how cute is this little Frankenstein girl?! She could be a trick-or-treater coming around the tree with her arms out trying to walk like a Frankenstein to scare you, but I’m giggling! 🙂 This digital cutie is called, of course, Frankie by CC Designs for Whimsy Stamps.

I wanted to create a spooky scene for her (you know, to help with her trying to be scary and all!) So I took a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and made a circle mask for the glowing moon and placed it where I wanted it go and began ink blending around it with some Carved Pumpkin distress ink. I then went over that a bit with some Twisted Citron and then worked my way with Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord and Black Soot for the bottom portion. I removed the mask and went over circle with some Squeezed Lemonade. I wanted lots of stars in the sky, so I first sprayed the background with water and picked up the colors, then I added some “dots” with a white gel pen. I know it won’t show up in the photos, but I sprayed the background with some shimmer spray which really makes the background so sparkly.

To finish the scene I took the Whimsy Stamps No-See All Seasons Tree die set and cut the tree out from the Whimsy stamps Rustic Wood and Brick digital papers and then sponged around the edges of it with some Black Soot distress ink. I also took the grass die from that set and cut out 3 pieces of it with black cardstock for the ground. I took the sentiment and spider image from the Simon Says Stamp Spook Up Some Fun stamp set and added it to the scene. I had an older Whimsy Stamps Halloween die cut set that I cut the bat from black cardstock and added to the scene too.

Here’s a closer look at the image and how I’ve colored it in. I tried to capture the sparkle in the background, but it just doesn’t show up like it does in person. You can see for the “streaks” in her hair that I’ve used a purple gel pen so it’s glittery. I’ve also used that same gel pen for the trim on her outfit. I used a silver gel pen for the “bolts” from her neck/face area. She was fussy cut out and attached to the scene. I took a glitter pen and went over her skirt too.

I’ve used Copic markers to color her in with and they’re listed below:

Frankie’s Hair and Shoes – C8, C7, C5, C3, C1
Frankie’s Skin – YG67, YG63, YG61
Frankie’s Outfit – V20, V17, V15, V12, YG11, C3, C1

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Of course, I needed to make it even more spooky by adding some plastic spiders to the scene! And yeah…. if I see a real spider…you’d be hearing a very high-pitched scream coming from me!! LOL!! Not a fan…but pretend is just fine! Let’s just hope I don’t drop one on the floor and see it later and scream! LOL!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my spooky Halloween card today!

Challenges I’d like to enter for this card:

Creatilicious – Anything Goes with optional: use a punch
Pearly Sparkles – Spooky and/or Cute
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps and More! – Anything Goes #361
Crafting by Designs – Anything Goes

Whimsy Stamps New Release with 2 Christmas Tails

Hello friends! It’s October 1st which also means it’s time for a brand-new release for Whimsy Stamps…I’m back to share a card I’ve made for the brand-new digital release at Whimsy Stamps.

Today I’m sharing a Christmas card I’ve made using an adorable image:

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These adorable critters are having some festive fun! This image is by Crissy Armstrong called “2 Christmas Tails“.

This is an unusual size and card opening for me on this card, but I wanted to be sure that the image fit completely on the design I was creating.

So I started with a 4.5″ x 5.75” side folding white card base. I took a piece of red foil paper and clear heat embossed the snowflakes over it from the Whimsy Stamps Basic Christmas Backgrounds clear stamp set. I mounted this over a piece of gold foil paper, added the striped paper in the bottom corner, the oval cut image panel and tied a glitter ribbon around the layers and mounted it to the white card base.

I took the Whimsy Stamps Christmas Large Word die and cut it from some of the gold foil paper and layered it over top of the gold foil banner I created by black heat embossing the sentiment. I finished it off with some snowflake rhinestones above the critters.

Here’s a closer look at how I’ve colored in these adorable critters. The photos never show everything about the details of the card, but it’s so cool in person! 🙂

I’ve used Copic markers to color this in. Here are the colors that I’ve used:

Santa Hats & Candy Cane – R39, R37, R35, R32, BG000
Bunny – E35, E33, E31, E30, R20, R00, C3, C1, C0
Mouse – W7, W5, W3, W1, R20, R00
Bell – Y28, Y26, Y21, YG13, YG11
Ground/Shadows – E84, E81, C1, E0000

I used a white gel pen for highlights on the candy cane and parts of the bunny’s tail. I also covered the bell with a glitter brush pen. I took a glue pen and added some clear glitter over the hat trimmings. To get the blue faded color around the image, I used the oval die I cut it out with as a “mask” to blend some blue distress ink softly over it.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas card today and have been inspired in some way!

Thanks so much for joining me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
The House That Stamps Built – S2519 Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – #476 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #365 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Let’s Get Ready for Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers – Add a Critter
Sketch Saturday – (I turned sketch)

Meow-lloween Party for 2 Crafty Critter Crazies

Meow friends! 🙂 It’s October and I’m always excited about this month because there are so many fun Fall activities that happen and I also really enjoy the Halloween atmosphere around this time. I hope you’ll enjoy the fun right along with me!

Today, I’m excited to bring you my creation for a brand new challenge for this month over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies! Remember that it’s always an “anything goes” challenge PLUS you need to use a critter on your creation!

This month we’re being sponsored by Beccy’s Place and was generous to supply the team with an image to play with:

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I just fell in love with this adorable kitty from the Scaredy Cats digital set. I think he’s all dressed up and seriously ready to “get this meow-lloween party started“!!

So fun to pull out some Halloween papers and colors for this card. I usually like to add in some purple somewhere if I can, so I found some ribbon and thought it matched up with kitty’s hat.

I couldn’t help but to add a few more elements to this kitty by taking a spider image from a Tim Holtz stamp set and adding it to kitty’s hat. I also stamped the stars at the top along with the sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp Halloween stamp set from last year…I think. The web up in the corner is an older die from my stash that I usually pull out for Halloween creations.

Here you can see how I’ve colored up this fun kitty with Copic markers. I’ve also colored the belt buckle on the hat with a gold gel pen.

I used some Wilted Violet to sponge around the edges of the kitty panel after I stamped the stars at the top.

While I was filling the sequins with gold Stickles, I added a few dots to the starry sky for just a bit more sparkle.

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my fun “meow-lloween” card today!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends and be sure to check right back again here today as I have another post coming soon!

Challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes
Creative Moments – Anything Goes + optional twist: masculine
CRAFT -Animals
The Paper Players – PP461 Tic Tac Toe

Clearly Foiling

Hello friends! I had so much “foiling fun” that I kept going with making more! This time, I’m using those “clear sheets” from the Designer Toner Sheets:

For my Christmas card here, I’ve used my laminator to foil over the “clear sheet” from the Peppermint Twist Designer Toner Sheets with the Red Static Foil Sheets. This creates a “see-through” area for the shaker contents.

For the shaker part, I’ve taken a Self-Adhesive Shaker Pouch, attached it to a piece of white cardstock, very carefully trimmed off the edges, filled it with lots of sequins and confetti stars and then sealed it up to keep the contents inside moving freely. I then placed the clear foiled piece over top of it by using some Stick-It sheets which helps to keep the adhesive from showing through.

I then took an A2 sized top folding white card base and used some score tape along the two edges and then rubbed some of the Gold Static Foil over it. I then took the shaker panel and mounted it over top.

The greeting and the Santa hat were attached over top from the Yuletide Greetings stamp set that I’ve cut out using the Yuletide Greetings Cut File. I’ve colored up the hat with Copic markers and then added some glitter over the fur trimming. I’ve just used my Xyron machine to run adhesive on the back of these pieces to adhere them.

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I’ve added a ribbon in the upper corner with a couple of gold bells tied to the center of the bow.

So I continued on with my “foiling fun” by also making Halloween too….

My second card uses one of the clear sheets as well from the Carved Designer Toner Sheets and I’ve used the Orange Sketch Foil sheet over that. Since this is a clear sheet, I thought it would be fun to make the pumpkin faces stand out a little bit. So I turned the sheet over and added some glitter behind each pumpkin face and let it dry. (This might take some time to dry depending upon how thick you make it.) Once dry, I took a Stick-It sheet again to attach it to a piece of black cardstock.

I mounted this over a piece of Green Neon Cardstock that I’ve also used for my sentiment banner. I then added these layers over an A2 sized top folding card base.

Here you can see the glitter showing through pumpkin faces and how they appear to somewhat “glow” with the darker panel behind them.

For the sentiment banner, I took the sentiment from the Trick or Treat stamp set and heat embossed it with the Raven Sparkle EP and cut it into a banner. I added a small wooden pumpkin for the accent that I painted with orange paint and clear glitter paint over that.

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Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations and were inspired in some way!

Wishing you all a wonderful rest of your weekend and I’ll be seeing you again soon! 🙂

It’s Fall Y’All!

Hello friends!

For my card today I’ve used acrylic bubbles and that is one of my faves to use on pretty much ANY style of creation I’m making and here you can see why:

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Fall is certainly my most favorite time of the year and I really enjoy creating with all of the fun Autumn style products. The wreath and sentiment that I’ve used are from the Fall Y’All stamp set and I’ve cut it out using the Fall Y’All Cut File that you can get for your cutting machine. I have a Cricut, so I’ve used that to cut it out with.

Now that cut file does NOT cut out the center of the wreath, so I just poked my scissors in the center of it that made a large enough hole so that I could fussy cut around the inside of it. The cut file will also cut around for your sentiment.

The base of the card is an A2 top folding card. I took a couple of the leaf images from the Autumn Essentials stamp set and heat embossed a couple of them on the card base with the Gilded EP.

I then glued on the cut-out wreath image, popped up the sentiment in the center with foam tape and also added some gold thread behind it before attaching. I took some white ink and sponged around the edges of the card base and then finally attached the acrylic bubbles over the card.

Here’s a closer look at the image and how I’ve got it colored in. I’ve used Copic markers to color it along with the leaves on the sentiment. I also took some distress ink and sponged around the edges of the cut images.

For the sentiment, I first stamped it with the black ink and then cleaned off the stamp and then stamped it again with the embossing ink. I sprinkled the Gilded EP over the sentiment and then brushed off the EP on the leaf areas as I didn’t want those embossed. I heat set only the wording.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and were inspired in some way!

Challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner – Fall Colors
Cardz 4 Galz – Welcome Autum/Fall
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP1937 Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers – Autumn Colors

It’s Time for Foiling Fun!

Hello friends! Happy Saturday!! I hope you have a fun weekend planned!

I’d like to share with you a couple of creations that I’ve made using some new Deco foil products:

For this card, I used both the Red and Gold Static transfer sheets and foiled it with the Ornamental Toner Sheet. I first foiled it in red (but that sheet wasn’t used for this.) I took the negative of that red piece and placed it over a full Deco Foil Toner Sheet and then the black areas where the ornaments are, I took the gold transfer sheet and foiled the ornaments in that. So it’s sort of a double foiling!

I added this foiled panel over a piece of white cardstock that I wrapped some gold ribbon around and then I heat set the sentiment from the Yuletide Greetings stamp set with Gilded embossing powder. The sentiment was stamped with Embossing Ink from a Yuletide Greetings Cut File. I also had fun making a Halloween card:

For this card, I pretty much did the same as the card above in where I took the “negative” from the foiled Webbed Toner Sheet using the Gold Transfer Sheet which made the webbing black. I left it like that for the background of my card.

For the “ground” I took a piece of black cardstock and ripped some strips for the “dirt” and sponged the edges of it with a gold ink. I took the images from the Trick or Treat stamp set and colored them up, fussy cut them out and arranged a scene at the bottom. I took a Copic liner to write in my own grave markers. 🙂

I took the silhouette bat from the stamp set and heat embossed it over the foiled background with Raven Sparkle embossing powder. I also used this for the sentiment banner that I made from some Speckled Egg card stock. I also took some of the same cardstock and layered it behind the card front and then mounted this over an A2 sized top folding card base.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my fun foiled cards today! Thanks for stopping in today and I’ll see you again soon!!

Challenges:

Always Fun – Create a Scene #127 (bottom Halloween card)
Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP1936 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Stamp It
Sweet Stampers – Use a Sentiment
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes

Autumn Embossed Background

Hello friends!

Here’s what I’ve made today:

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For my card, I stamped the image and cut it out with a circle die. I’ve just colored mine up with Copic markers over a piece of White cardstock.

For the background, I’ve used a stencil with EP.

I took the stencil over a piece of white cardstock and covered it with the Embossing Ink and then lifted the stencil to sprinkle the embossing powder over it to heat set. I cut out that piece and layered it over another piece of white cardstock that I die cut with a stitched scallop die.

Terracotta cardstock was used for my card base and the circle layer behind the image.

Lastly, I’ve added another circle layer with gold glitter paper, popped it up with some foam tape and added some gold thread nested behind it. I took some gold sequins and filled them with gold glitter too.

Here’s a closer look at the image and how I’ve colored it in. As you know, I like to use my gel pens to add just a bit of sparkle to certain areas of the image and I’ve also added some “dots” around it with gel pens.

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Here you can get a better glimpse of the heat embossed background on the left corner of the card. It’s a very pretty Fall color and appropriately named “Crisp Leaves”.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Brown Sugar – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #362 Anything Goes
Simply Create Too – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Add Lots of Layers

Always Be Grateful

Hello friends! Happy Saturday! Yay! The weekend is finally here! 🙂

I really love all things Fall including the beautiful colors you start seeing from the leaves on the trees. Nothing better than a nice walk in the brisk cool air! This is what has inspired my card today too!

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I knew I wanted to used this sentiment for a Fall theme. I think it’s awesome just to have a sentiment be the focal of your card sometimes. It was heat set over a piece of white cardstock and then sponged around the edges with the yellow Ink. I wanted a bit more sparkle, so I took my Embossing Ink pad and rubbed it along the edges of the panel and heat embossed some of the Vintage Sparkle EP over it.

And of course I wanted to do some foiling too because it’s just fun especially when you have these cool Vintage Wallpaper-Foilable Washi Sheets to do it on! I used the Deco Foil Spring Grass transfer sheets over it and then used more of that ink to sponge around the edges and also heat set some more of that Vintage Sparkle over the edges too.

For the background, I took a piece of white cardstock measuring 4″ x5.25″ and covered it with the Embossing Ink pad. I used some more of that Golden Gourd EP and heat set this entire piece. Then I took the foiled strips and attached them over top of this panel and layered onto a top folding A2 sized Jurassic card base. I also layered the embossed sentiment panel over a piece of this same cardstock.

I then added the sentiment panel over the card front with some foam tape and then added some die cut leaves that I sponged with ink and then a couple of gold sequins with some gold glitter in the centers for more sparkle.

Here’s a closer look at the heat embossed sentiment, background, and the sparkle around the edges where I heat embossed.

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And here’s another look at the foiled washi strips too with the card laying flat.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Fall creation today and were inspired in some way! Thank you for joining me today as well as the entire week! See you soon!!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Creative with Stamps – Autumn
Unicorn – #47 Autumn
The Male Room – Autumn
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stamp It
Aud Sentiments – Fall/Autumn + Sentiment
Daisy Chain – Autumn is Coming

Brand New Images from Digi Doodle Studios + Video!

Hello friends! Happy Friday! I’m happy for the weekend to get here, how about you?! The weather has started to cool down slightly and it’s so nice to have that air conditioning turned off for a change!

Today I’m super excited to share with you some really fun and adorable new image set that Digi Doodle Studios has come out with from the brand new “Pairables” Collection! The set that I’m sharing today is adorable and so fun to mix and match images with! Check out the two cards I made with it:

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I absolutely had so much fun creating a little scene with the images and then printing them out for coloring and making cards with! All of the images that I’ve used here come from the new Digi Doodle Studios Charming Enchanters Wizard Pairables Digital Stamp Set and I believe that I’ve probably used most of the images from the set on these two cards.

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For this particular card, I’ve used my computer to arrange the stars from the wizard’s wand and the sentiment how I want them placed and then printed it out twice. One I printed on Copic blending card and another image printed out on Neenah Solar White cardstock so that I can do the ink blended background on it.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring details on the wizard. You can see that he has a bit of a “glow” about him. So after I colored him in with my Copic markers, I decided that I could use a yellow color pencil to add just a bit of glow to certain parts of the image. I’ve then used gel pens to color in other detailed portions of the image and a white gel pen for the stars in the background as well. I’ve tried to capture a little bit of that stunning shimmer for the background, but of course it doesn’t show up as great as it is in real life!

He was fussy cut out and placed over the ink blended background that I’ve made.

Since my last video on the ink blending, I’ve had a few more questions about it, so I thought I’d share a more in-depth look into it. To see a video of how I’ve created the background on this “wizard” card, I’ve made a video to show in detail how I’ve done it with a few tips and tricks along the way. So check it out below or watch it on You Tube by CLICKING HERE.

I hope that this helps a little more on explaining how I achieved the look for ink blending backgrounds. I know that I’ve had people ask me to do a video on another background I’ve made on another card, so perhaps I will share another video on that later.

If you do have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here or on You Tube or contact me and let me know! If you have other suggestions, I’d always love to hear that too!

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Here’s the other card that I’ve made using the same Charming Enchanters Wizard Pairables Digital Stamp Set. Again, I’ve arranged and sized the images how I wanted them on my computer, printed it out just the same as above and fussy cut out all of the colored images to place over my background.

I’ve mounted the image panel over a piece of purple cardstock and then placed it over a top folding 5″ square black card base. I’ve used a piece of ribbon to run behind the layered image panel and then added some fun decorative metal corners on it.

For this card on the background, I didn’t distress it with water, I just left it ink blended.

Here’s an up-close look at the coloring I’ve done on the image. You can see again that I’ve used my gel pens to color in the tiny details like the stars on her hat, the bubbles from her cauldron, the bookmarker and the tiny nail on the wall.

To get the glow on the images, I’ve taken a green colored pencil and added it in the places that I thought her green magic potion would glow from.

Thanks so much for stopping in and hanging out with me today! See you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter: