Top O Morning Snowman Wishes

Hello friends! Well, it’s certainly not morning, but maybe it is where you’re from or it’s morning when you see this post! 🙂

I have a really fun Whimsy Stamps digital image to share with you today appropriately named to coincide with my post title:

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This really sweet, faced snowman is called Top O the Morning Snowman which is a digital image created by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps. I thought it was so cute with the little birdie joining him and his little heart buttons! I had fun coloring him up!

I’ve colored him with Copics and cut it out using the Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles die and matted some black cardstock behind that panel. I’ve also used the October Digital papers release called Christmas Red, Gold and Green and attached it to the front of an A2 sized white card base. I then took the wavy die from the Pierced Border Trio dies and cut a piece of glitter cardstock to add at the bottom of the decorated digital paper panel.

I then added the snowman panel over top and then stamped the sentiment below the snowman with the Holiday Mini Sentiments stamp set. I then added the twine bow and button as well as a few snowflake sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Crystal Drops to finish it off.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring:

I have used all Copic markers to color this image in the following colors:

Hat and Snowman body/snow: C8, C5, C3, C1, C00
Hat Band, buttons, bird hat/scarf: R37, R35, R32
Holly: YG67, YG63, YG61, (hollies colored with pink glitter gel pen and covered with Nuvo Crystal Drops
Snowman Scarf: G24, G21, G20 + green glitter gel pen for lines and ends
Snowman nose and cheeks: R20, R00, R000, YR18, YR15, Y11
Bird: B34, B32, R00, E000, Y21, Y11

I’ve also used a white gel pen for the cheeks on both the snowman and bird as well at the eyes on the snowman and to randomly add some dots for falling snow effect. I also went around the outside of the image with a B000 marker for a bit of sky behind him.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my card! See you soon!

Challenges:

CRAFT – Christmas
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #317
Allsorts – Christmas
The Merry Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes

It’s Halloween On Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Happy Thursday! As this month creeps along and the weather slowly changes to cooler temps, the eerie feeling of Halloween comes to mind! So get your “Halloween” on and come join us this week at Cute Card Thursday!

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Here’s the project that I’ve made for the challenge using this adorable image from this week’s sponsor All Dressed Up! The image is called “Have a Magical Evening” and I have colored the entire image panel including the background with Copic markers. I have also used gel pens to color in gold details on the stars, her dress and shoes. Then I took the gold and white gel pens to add dots for the background sky. I’ve used a gold ink pad and rubbed it around the edges of the panel and then I mounted it over a gold foil cardstock base.

For this treat box, I’ve used the 2-5-7-10 box tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com to create a similar version, but I cut off the flap part and made a handle for my version. I covered the box with some fun “spooky” papers from my stash, added some gray with black stripes silk ribbon on the front panel along with making some bows with it for the sides of my box handle and glued them on. The image panel was added over top of the ribbon strip and design paper. It’s ready to add a nice treat inside for someone’s “magical evening”!

Here’s a closer look at the coloring of the image. I have also added some shimmer to the crescent moon with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen which of course is hard to capture in the photo, but you can see the areas where I’ve used the gel pens.

The blue background was made using my Copic markers and I blended them out so that the lighter tones were towards the witch and the darker tones to the edges.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my treat box creation and thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
Brown Sugar – (October) Spooky Halloween and/or Autumn
Use Your Stuff – Autumn/Halloween (always great to use more paper from my stash!)
Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes
Words 2 Crafty By – “Listen! The Wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our Summer evenings, now for October’s eves.”
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything BUT a card
All Dressed Up – #85 Anything Goes + use ADU image
Scor-Pal (Oct) – More than one score Fall/Harvest/Halloween (Scored at the marks, 2-5-7-10 inch marks)

The Feeling of Happy Mail

Hello friends! Back with you again today to share another Whimsy Stamps digital “pretty”! If you missed my Guest Design post for the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, please click on the link or scroll down below this post. – thank you

You all know the feeling you get when you receive “happy mail” from the mailbox, and I think this cute image on my card today really sums up that feeling:

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I have used the brand-new October digital stamp from Whimsy Stamps called “Pretty Girl Happy Mail” on my card today. Oh those curly locks are adorable!

I have colored her in with my Copic markers in the following:

Coat/hat (darker tone) – R85, R83, R81 and for trimming – E11, E00, E000 (also coat fasteners)
Coat/hat (fur) – W5, W3, W1 and highlighted with white gel pen flicks.
Hair – E47, E43, E42 (eyebrows too)
Skin – E21, E11, E00, E000, R20, R00 (eyes BG49)
Mail – B00, B000 (unsure of tiny bit of color on postage stamp or coat fastener centers and string)

I then took a retired Whimsy Stamps clear set called “Handmade From Me” which had a couple of tiny solid hearts in it, and I took some pink colored ink to stamp a few hearts around the girl. She really loves all her mail after all! 🙂

I cut her out with a stitched circle die and then mounted her over a piece of silver foil cardstock cut with a scallop stitched circle die. I have used the same stamp set that I’ve mentioned above to heat emboss the sentiment with silver EP and cut it out with a banner die cut. This is the same-colored cardstock I’ve used for the A2 sized top folding card base too.

The snowflake paper is from my stash and some I’ve been hoarding because I love it so much, but the snowflakes on it are silver metallic and have the texture on it as if it was heat embossed. I placed this panel over my card base, attached the banner and then added the circle image panel over top of that including some craft foam to raise it up slightly over the design.

I was thinking that this image would work for either Christmas, winter or Valentine’s Day. Yes, I know, I said the V word already!! Oops!

Here’s a closer view of the coloring that I’ve done on her as well as the heat embossing. Had so much fun coloring her up. I think she especially looks wonderful on such a simple style design!

Thanks so much for stopping in and sharing your thoughts with me! I appreciate that so much! See you soon!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #316
Crafty Friends – Use more than 1 die (I’ve used 3)
Stamp & Fun = Creativity – Die cuts
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes

Guest Design for the Retro Rubber Challenge

Hello friends! I’m super excited to have been asked to be a guest designer for one of the challenges over at the Retro Rubber Challenge blog! Yay! I really enjoy playing along in their challenges when I feel the need to break out some of my older stamps that have either been unused or neglected for a while. If you have some stamps that are at least one year or older…or older yet as many of mine can be, then this is a great challenge to play along with! Be sure to pop on over there and see what it’s all about, check out the inspiration from the design team and play along!

Here’s the card that I’ve created for the challenge but be sure to check out the full details along with lots more photos below!

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For my card, I went with the bottom row of “animals, window and circles“:

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I have pulled out some stamps from my “penguin stash” as I like to call it! LOL! I have lots and lots of them and most of them are years and years old. I’m actually not really sure how old this stamp set that I’ve used on my card today is, but it’s from Darcie’s Stamps and they haven’t been in the store for quite a while now I think.

For my card, I’ve taken a circle die and cut out my colored images. I had to mask the hat so that it looked like the penguin was wearing it as well as mask that giggling penguin along with the hat so that I could stamp the mug so that it looked like the penguin was in front of the mug. I also white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with a banner die at the top. The sentiment also came with the stamp set. I cut out a scallop circle and then cut the center out with the same size circle as the penguins to create the frame around the penguin scene. I’ve used some older SU! papers from my stash to go along with my theme and then lastly added some red baker’s twine at the top along with some white enamel dots as well as a cute little wrapped up peppermint candy accent.

I have cut the center of the heart on the mug with my craft knife and now we are going to zoom in on the mug….

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Here you can see the glittery heart window with the penguin on the other side! I have made a window by cutting out the heart on the mug and then on the other side, I’ve used some packing tape with the sticky side exposed through the window so that I could add some glitter to it.

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And then of course when you open the card, you can see this cute little penguin trying to balance himself on these glittery rolling peppermint candies! LOL! This is why the penguin on the front was giggling. I think they had too much sugar!

I colored in a penguin from the set, fussy cut him out and then layered him over this line of peppermint circles that I found from an older card kit I had in my stash. It’s from a piece of patterned paper that I cut out. I added some shimmer over them with a glitter brush pen. At the top you can see the cut-out heart I made.

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This is just a closer view of the penguin on the inside. There is plenty of room above him to write a message. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave this blank or put a Christmas sentiment on the inside yet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card for today!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Get Ready for Christmas
4 Crafty Chicks – (4CC423) Something Old is Something New (old stamps and paper)
Crafting with An Attitude – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes with Optional Twist: ribbon
Crazy 4 Challenges (C4C455) – Make any card in honor of WCMD
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes

Happy World Card Making Day!

Hello friends! Of course I can’t let this day go by without making a card for it, right?!

I love Halloween and when I received this image, I thought it would be so fun to create a card with it for the occasion!

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This image is from the retired artist Kirsten Winkelbauer (for Whimsy Stamps) and she’s so cute and perfect for Halloween crafting! I’ve colored her up with Copic markers and added a few details with my gel pens. I’ve also put some loose glitter over the eyes and nose of the pumpkin on her hat. I fussy cut her out and popped her up with foam squares over a Kraft cardstock cut out stitched oval that was sponged with some black ink. I’ve also cut around the sentiment and sponged some more black ink around the edges and attached it to the oval panel.

For the card base, I used an A2 sized Kraft card base and then I took another piece of Kraft card stock and cut out a piece using the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested dies that I’ve covered with a piece of Halloween paper from my stash and also sponged around the edges with some black ink. I wrapped a piece of Halloween purple ribbon around it and attached it to the back and then adhered my card front to the card base. I die cut a web twice with black card stock and glued it to the corners of the card front and then brushed over it with a clear glitter brush marker.

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Here’s a closer look at my coloring. You can better see where I’ve added my gel pen dots and the glitter on my pumpkin. Her green hair was so fun to color! 🙂

Hope that you are taking the time to have fun and create a card today! Thanks so much for stopping by!! See you soon!

Challenges:

{Cupcake Inspirations} – CIC455 ‘Bump in the Night’
Always Fun – Dies & Punches
Creative With Stamps – (CWS31) Halloween or Leaves
Artistic Inspirations – Anything Goes

Anything Goes For Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! It’s Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday!

This week is an easy “Anything Goes” challenge! So please share with us what you are working on this week weather it be a card, a scrapbook page, journal page or altered item, etc. We look forward to seeing what you’re doing!

I’ve decided to use another newly released image from Whimsy Stamps (our sponsor this week) on my design today:

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Isn’t this cat just too stinkin’ CUTE?! I’ve used the newly released October digital stamp Scruffy Cat by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps on my card today.

*Edited to Add Copic marker colors I’ve used! *

For hat: R59 for darkest shadows blended out with R29, R27 and R24. I’ve used a white Prismacolor pencil for some highlighting. I did use some B000 for shadows on the hat trimmings, but the loose glitter I glued on covers it up in the photo.

For cat: I used W5, W3, W1 and W0 and started with the darkest color along edges and flicked in with the other colors. R20 blended out with R00 for his ears and cheeks.

Collar: G07 and G05. I used a glitter gel pen for the tag.

I have used the Whimsy Stamps Notched Rectangles die set to cut him out with and mount him over a piece of red card stock. I’ve also used a strip of red card stock cut with the same die and white heat embossed the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set and attached under the kitty.

Before attaching the kitty panel, I’ve used some of the Whimsy Stamps Christmas Cool Mix digital papers and added a white organza ribbon around it. I also sponged around the edges with some white ink using a sponge dauber and then I attached that to the front of a red top folding card base. Lastly, I’ve attached the kitty panel along with the ribbon bow underneath and finished the card with snowflake sequins and silver glitter in the centers.

Here’s a closer look at my coloring as well as the glittery details on the kitty collar tag and the loose fine glitter on the hat trimmings.

Please be sure to check out the challenge blog to see the details of the challenge and catch the inspiration from the rest of the design team!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and look forward to seeing what you come up with! Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #315
The Paper Players (PP412) – Tic-Tac-Toe: Green, any embossing, sequins/glitter
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers – Lace or Ribbon

It’s New Release Time at Whimsy Stamps!

Hello friends! Can you believe that October has gotten here so fast?! I thank you SO MUCH to everyone that has shared about my give away and I really have been enjoying your comments about the way you share smiles through your creations. It is such an inspiration and joy to hear about this.

For my card today, I am sharing a sweet and fun festive image from the new release:

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Yes, I cannot get enough of the penguins that Crissy Armstrong makes up for Whimsy Stamps! This image is called Penguin Elves at the Workshop and I think they’re having lots of fun for Christmas! They’re colored up with Copic markers and then I’ve taken a white gel pen for highlights as well as a silver and gold gel pen for detailing. I took some fine loose glitter and attached with liquid glue on parts of the penguins’ hats and then a glitter brush pen on the bow the penguin is holding. I have used the Pierced Border Trio dies to cut the panel on the top and bottom of the image. I then took an ink blending tool to add some distress ink around the panel.

For the sentiment banner, I printed out the new released Penguin Christmas Sentiments 1 and cut out a banner and then went over it with a Copic marker so that it matched up with my design. For the front panel of my card, I also took the newly released digital papers called Christmas Red, Gold and Green and printed them out and trimmed it to size my A2 white card base. I also took my ink blending tool to distress more coloring on the edges to match my image panel. I then took that and mounted it over the papers and then glued some gold thin ribbon on the top and bottom of the image panel and added a bow along with some festive sequins filled with Stickles tinsel glitter glue.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today using the new digital release from Whimsy Stamps this month. Be sure to check back for other creations I make from the new release this month too!! Thanks so much for stopping by!

challenges:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge – Anything Goes with Christmas
Christmas Card Throwdown – Technique: Coloring
Crafting By Designs – Get Ready for Christmas
Aud Sentiments – Use a 2 word sentiment
Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes + Christmas
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – Animals

It’s Autumn at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! It’s Cute Card Thursday again and we are going all Autumn over there this week! Sounds like a great challenge to me…hope you will stop over and check out the inspiration and add your creation in the gallery too! Looking forward to seeing your makes!

Here’s my card:

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I thought this image was so darn cute! I’ve used an image from our sponsor this week called Girl with Wheelbarrow from Kinda Cute Stamps. She is busy gathering pumpkins in that wheelbarrow and looks to be on a mission with it too! I adore that sweet little bunny along for the ride!

I’ve colored the image with Copic markers including for the ground. I’ve taken a tiny sponge with some blue ink and very lightly sponged in a sky. The sentiment was stamped with brown ink from an older Lawn Fawn set. I’ve also used the Stitched Leaves die from Lawn Fawn to cut out some leaves with kraft cardstock and then sponged some color over the edges to attach to the design.

I cut out both the image panel and the orange design paper with a Stitched Scallop rectangle die set from My Favorite Things. I’ve also cut out a tiny brown banner at the top left corner from a die set from MFT as well. Lastly, I’ve added some gold sparkling enamel dots around the leaves.

Hope you are out and about enjoying the Autumn season! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, I’m so happy to have you here! See you very soon!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’ – Dies/Punches (I stamped the sentiment-hopefully this qualifies)
Always Fun – Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps & More – Anything Goes #311
Crafty Gals Corner – Anything Goes + Fall
Mod Squad – Autumn Colors (Orange, red, purple, yellow, brown) I used all EXCEPT purple! – must use at least 3

Just A Girl and Her Pumpkin

Hello friends! Wow, I think Fall has begun over my way as the air has changed with cooler temperatures and I absolutely LOVE it! 🙂 Although I’ve been busy crafting away in my room, I like to get outdoors for a few breaks to walk around and see signs of the leave starting to change over.

Today, I am over at the Whimsy Stamps Inspiration blog to share my card with you using one of the really adorable images from this month’s release called “A Girl and Her Pumpkin” digital stamp by Crissy Armstrong:

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Isn’t she adorable?! I really enjoyed coloring her up with my Copic markers. As I was coloring, it actually reminded me of going to a near-by apple orchid with my children as they were growing up. I would take photos of them with all of the pumpkins surrounding them as they would pick out which one they wanted to carve for Halloween. (My oldest was not a fan of “pumpkin guts” and so we always ended up doing that part for him! LOL!) But it must have made an impression with them because they still enjoy going as adults now! Besides, what’s better than apple cider donuts and freshly picked apples?! YUM!

So, after the reminiscing of memories, I cut her out with the WS Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles along with the card front base and attached to a white A2 sized top folding card base. For the sentiment, I took a piece of vellum and heat embossed a greeting from the WS Painted Sayings stamp set and I also took some of the splatter images from the same set and stamped them randomly in the background with white ink.

Before attaching the image panels onto the card, I’ve added some gold ink around the edges, attached some leaves behind it and popped it up with foam tape. The piece of vellum was hand cut into a banner and folded around card base and attached with glue behind the letters to hide it. I then put some burlap ribbon around the card front base as well as the image panel, vellum banner and gold sequins filled with gold Stickles.

Here’s a closer view of the image and how she’s colored. You can also better see the gold inked edges. And of course, the photo didn’t pick it up, but I took some Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen to go over the pumpkin with.

I’ve also used a cloud stencil to lightly sponge in a nice Fall sky behind her.

I think she would look so cute surrounded by a field of pumpkins…so there’s an idea! Maybe I’ll work on that for next time!

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I appreciate you taking the time! See you soon!

challenges:

QKR Stampeded – Anything Goes #314
Just Us Girls – JUGS459 photo week
Crafty Friends – Autumn Colors
Stamps & Fun = Creativity – Fall
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes

Traditional Mermaid Christmas

Hello friends! Although it still feels a bit like summer outside where I’m from with the temps in upper 80s and 90s all week long, I enjoy creating Christmas and snow-themed cards any time of the year! Besides, I know that once Fall hits, it will soon be time for Christmas to come along right behind it! I have used this adorable September release from Whimsy Stamps once again to inspire you with a more traditional Christmas themed colors and design this time:

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I have used this gorgeous Christmas Mermaid digital stamp by Crissy Armstrong for my card today. She is an amazing image for the coloring enthusiasts for sure!

My last card with this image showed her in more soft pastel tones. (You can see that post by CLICKING HERE if you don’t remember it.) This time I went for a more traditional Christmas color theme. I found some really cool green with white splatter pattern paper to use, so I worked around that by coloring the mermaid outfit in reds with gold trimmings. I took inspiration from the gold ribbon, bells and buckle and added in more elements with some gold on my card as well.

I was almost too scared to try this, but after coloring the image, I took some white Shimmerz paint and a paint brush to add some white splattering effect over top of her to give the appearance of snow and to also coordinate with the pattern paper in the background. I didn’t get too carried away, but just enough and then I cut her out with the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles die set and took my ink foam blending tool and went around the edges with some Pine Needles distress ink. I then took some gold cord and wrapped it around the two corners and then added a double bow with some red jingle bells on one end. I also glued some cheese cloth on each corner before I added some foam tape behind her to mount her on the card design.

For the card design, the base is a red top folding 5.5″ square design with the green splattered pattern paper over it. I took some chunky glitter and glued it around the edges and then perhaps you remember this “oldie but a goodie” border die from Whimsy Stamps along the edge of the image panel? I cut it out with mirror gold card stock and then wrapped some gold silk ribbon over it and attached to the card. I placed the foam taped image panel over top and then added the finishing touches over the image:

Here’s a closer look at the image where you can see all of the glitter and shimmer on her. Before I splattered it, I covered her outfit with a clear glitter brush pen and went over her gold buckle and the jingle bells with a gold metallic gel pen. I went over the tiny holly berries with a red metallic gel pen. I then took some liquid glue and added some clear glitter to her hat and outfit trimmings along with the tiny creature’s hats.

After she was splattered, I added some gold sequins and then some gold Stickles in the centers of each one.

Those tiny creature faces just make me giggle every time! 🙂

I know she has tons of shimmer and sparkle, but she is a mermaid after all, and I do love adding a little bit of this and that as much as I can! Do you like lots of bling?

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, I truly appreciate your time! I’ll see you again very soon!

Challenges: