Class Fun & Square Samplers + Give Away

Happy April friends!  We have finished March already and onto Easter very quickly approaching!  I hope you’re enjoying all things Spring coming up your way!  We’ve had several storms and we’re in the tornado season as well, so I hope everyone is staying safe out there whatever the weather.  I do have some things that I had previously finished and wanted to share:

First, I wanted to share about the Virtual Stamp Joy Event by Taylored Expressions that I participated in a few weeks ago.  I always have so much fun and enjoy the motivation that it seems to generate!  I’m sharing them in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website post, then just click on each photo to enlarge it.

  • The first four photos were from a class using the same floral stamp set and the others are from the next day of make-n-take projects.  Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them!

The last set of four cards were a “mass production” using a background stamp in different colored cardstock panels and clear heat embossing over them.  The class sample had “hello” sentiment on each one, but I changed up the sentiments and have placed them in a card box to give them out with envelopes as a gift for someone.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!

From the end of last year up until this last month, I didn’t have much time with the Holidays and everything going on, but as you may have seen in previous posts, I participate in a “square sampler swap” and when everyone sends out their squares, we then complete a home décor piece with all of the squares, so I thought I’d share mine finally completed:

  • CLICK PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE

This was for the Christmas Sampler SWAP and you can see that I’ve used a black shadow box frame for my sampler and placed some red with red metallic dotted paper behind it.  The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used My Favorite Things products for my square.)

This was for the Winter Sampler SWAP and I went with a white shadow box for this one.  I’ve placed some soft blue snowflake papers for behind my sampler as I thought it was soft enough to not look too busy.  The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used Inky Stamper products for my square.)

And recently we finished up our Spring Animals Sampler SWAP that I used another white shadow box for the sampler.  I’ve added a piece of pink colored “Watercolor Wishes” paper from Lawn Fawn behind it.  It looks a little off in the photo, but it looks better IRL.  The square on the right is the one that I made.  (I used Taylored Expressions products for my square.)

Not sure if we’re doing any more or not, but I had so much fun making the squares to swap with friends!

Lastly, I have a fun little thing to give to whoever is interested in these Taylored Expressions dies + foil-it panels package. (It’s not sold in stores anywhere as it was a free gift with purchase)  I have an extra and so I thought I’d give it away to someone!  Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll pick someone from the comments.
Leave a comment below if you’re interested!

That’s all I have for today!  Thanks so much for stopping in!  I’ll be seeing you soon!

*Vicki*18 Comments

Playing with Roulette and Colors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

*Vicki*26 Comments

It’s 2023! Commissioned Calendars and More Calendars to Start the Year!

We’ve made it to 2023!🎉  Congratulations and a huge welcome!  I’m so thrilled to have you with me for another crafty year and honored to be apart of your creative journey in some way.

Towards the end of last year…which was a few months ago…I was asked to create a set of those calendar cards that I had made last January which you can view in my previous post HERE. If you look at the calendars at the bottom of the post, it explains the details. In sharing those, someone asked me to create a set with a particular theme in mind for giving as Christmas gifts.

I was given instructions to use a sheep image for their card/game group that call themselves “Sheeples”.😄  The first one that came to my mind was this adorable little die cut set from Taylored Expressions called Spring Squad Die & Clear Stamp Combo.  I love the added stamp set to create the details of the characters!  And of course I’ve also used the TE Mini Tear-Off Calendars.

For the background, I wanted to incorporate some game theme items with this cutie, so I pulled out the fun stamp set from Inky Stamper called Game Night, of course!  I ink blended the background panel with some reds and black/gray Oxide Ink colors and spritzed it with water for some texture.  Once dried, I added the different “suit” images in the corresponding colors of the suits.  I also stamped a sentiment from this same stamp set and die cut a banner with it to pop up under the sheep.  Lastly, I’ve added a few Playing Card Shaker Elements and rhinestones.

In total, I needed to create 8 of these calendars and I think they turned out really cute and fun!  I didn’t know if there were any masculine members of the group, so I wanted to keep it for use either way and I’m glad I did as it was needed.  So these are each A2 size that can fold flat and fit inside A2 envelopes for mailing if you needed. Then the recipient can stand them up to remind them of their next game night fun throughout the year!  She seemed pretty pleased with them, so that was great too!  And of course she received them in plenty of time for Christmas giving, but I’m just now getting them posted.

I enjoy creating a new calendar for my craft room every year and there is a fun 2023 Calendar Kit from Inky Stamper that I completed.

Every year Inky Stamper comes out with these calendars that comes with all of the calendar month cards plus pre-stamped and cut images along with a sentiment strip and papers for each month.  It also includes some sort of stand to display them on. (I like to use the previous year calendar to make cards with too!)

I was able to get them all colored and assembled for this year and have it displayed on a shelf next to my computer so that I can flip through each month and enjoy.  I enjoy taking the time to sit and color especially with it being cold and snowy again over my way.

And since this post is all about calendars, I thought I’d take the time to complete TWO Perpetual Occasions Calendars from Taylored Expressions that I had gotten sometime last year for gifts and never got around to finishing them up.

Vicki-TE-perpetual calendar

I’ve just turned it to January to show, but you can see the other pages of the calendar on the bottom corner that were all stenciled up similarly.  The link above takes you to the class kit which includes the TE Perpetual Occasions Calendar, the TE Calendar Coil plus the video class instructions from Taylor on how to put everything together.  You can also get the TE Floral Vines Layering Stencils that work with this calendar which I’ve used with these that I made.

And of course you can also use these same stencils to make a pretty card too!  I’ve taken the same stencils that I’ve used on my calendar and made a birthday card.  I took the instruction from Taylor’s class and applied it similar to my own card using the TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle die to partially cut one side of the stenciled panel.  I also pulled out the TE On Occasion stamps & dies to white heat emboss over black and cut out over the front of the card.

And then after creating two sets of the perpetual calendars and birthday cards to match, I’ve added a rainbow pen that I had previously purchased from Taylored Expressions (no longer in the store) and placed them all inside these TE 5×8 Clear Calendar Boxes.  I pulled out some ribbon in my stash and wrapped it around the boxes.  I now have two completed birthday gifts with cards this year!  Yay!  I feel like I’ve accomplished something ahead of time for a change!

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed my New Year calendar post today and have been inspired to start getting crafty!  Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon! 

Challenges:

  1. Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional something new (new calendar kit for 2023)
  2. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  3. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  4. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal (top and middle projects)
  5. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes with paper
  7. Paper a la Mode – Let’s Get Started (no cards)

*Vicki*21 Comments

It’s Time For Tags!

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Christmas
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
  6. Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
  7. Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

Christmas Fun with Kits and Classes

Hello friends!  We’re headed into the home stretch now for Christmas and the end of the year!  Are you ready yet?  Well I thought that I would try and get some Christmas cards made up and have some fun with it rather than trying to rush things too much.  

Tee hee!  This one makes me giggle!  While I was making up some squares for my sampler swap group, I thought I’d use this same MFT Stuffed Santa kit (that I had gotten last year) and made a card along with making the squares too!  The squares I made turned out cute too and I’ll share those later on.  I added some glitter to the snow on the image and on his gold belt buckle too.  The background was white heat embossed with the MFT Christmas Greetings Background and then ink blended with blue inks.  Finished off with snowflake sequins and Stickles glitter in the centers of each.

And here’s another set of cards that I made from a previously purchased kit by Riley & Co using the cute Riley as the Grinch stamp.  The stamp was included along with the kit and so I just thought it would be nice and easy by just coloring him up, adding my own sentiment and putting it together.  So now I want to watch the movie!😄

And lastly are some cards that I put together during an OOAK event with the classes that I selected to get the kits for and just enjoyed the process of putting them together.  **If you are on my website, you can click on the photos below to see them up close and larger**

Craft Fancy class – part 1 (spinner)
Craft Fancy Class – part 2 (shaker card)
Riley & Co – candy lane image (z-fold)
Riley & Co – Merry deer (z-fold)
Riley & Co – funny bones
Inky Stamper – gift card holder inside & mini card

So although I’ve shared several projects here today, I have more craft-making going on so I’m going to shorten up my post and hope that you enjoy the inspiration!  I appreciate you stopping by today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Waiting on Santa (top card! LOL)
  2. Christmas Kickstart – Christmassy
  3. Crafty Friends – Traditional Christmas Colors (2nd card)
  4. Jingle Belles – Wrapping Up Christmas 2022
  5. Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes Christmas
  6. Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas Creations
  7. Moving Along With the Times – Christmas

*Vicki*20 Comments

Inky Stamper Craft Room Shake Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle
  2. Shopping Our Stash – Bling it Up and/or lighting
  3. Penny’s Paper-crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  5. Daring Cardmakers – ShineCOVER
  6. Tic Tac Toe – used bottom row across (patterned paper, stamped image & sparkle/shiny)tttc-challenge-board-189

*Vicki*29 Comments

Black Friday Frog at Inky Stamper!

Hello friends!  Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with grateful hearts and full tummies!  Today is another tradition after Thanksgiving which is the “Black Friday” deals!  So I wanted to share something fun with you today and I strongly encourage you to head on over to the Inky Stamper Store to see all of the wonderful Black Friday deals that are going on! 

Inky Stamper Black Friday ad

So click on the badge above to be taken to the store to shop and don’t forget these special codes at checkout for free shipping and the “FREEFREDDY” when you spend $30 or more!  And if you like the coordinating die to cut out Freddy, then you can purchase the die for only $5!  In honor of Black Friday, I have some inspiration using this NEW Freddy Solo:

And of course what’s better than a good “Black Friday” deal than a black frog to go with it?!!  It was proposed to have Freddy Solo the Frog colored up in black, so I took on the challenge and made a fun monochromatic card with him.  I think he turned out cute!

I found a sketch (linked in challenges below post) and used that for inspiration in creating my card with him.  I’ve used several different patterns for my papers from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain and Gingham/Linen paper pads which are also sold in the store as well. I’ve used some for the card front panel that was layered onto an A2 black top folding card base.  I’ve layered some silver foil papers with the pattern papers for the image panel that was lightly sponged with black ink.  I wrapped some silver cord around the image panel, white heat embossed the sentiment with Freddy over a piece of the pattern paper, popped up Freddy with foam squares and finished off the design with some Picket Fence Day and Night Gems. (click on the links to be taken to these products in the Inky Stamper store.)

Here’s a closer look at the Black Friday Freddy and how I’ve colored him up using Copic markers in the cool grey tones.  I’ve also added a highlight on his eyeballs with a white gel pen and then I emphasized the “dots” on him with a black gel pen.  You can see it looks a tad bit shinny and raised on the dots.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my Black Friday card today and are able to take advantage of the fun deals this weekend!  So hop hop hop on over there and shop!  Have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Through the Purple Haze – Monochromatic
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Crafter’s Cafe – Dies and/or punches
  4. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Paper Piecing and/or sketchNovember
  7. Double Trouble – Scrapper’s GORP teaming with TSOT aboveChallenge #126 Gorp Mix It Up copy

*Vicki*22 Comments

It’s Never Too Latte For a Friend

Hello friends!  Hope that your week has been going great so far and you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving Day for my friends in the U.S. that celebrate.  So since Christmas is coming up quickly, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of little gifts for a friend you might like to share coffee/cocoa with:

Aren’t these little mini coffee cups with the gift card holder so fun?!  I had fun making and gifting them!  Of course I love coffee, but if your friend would rather do a cocoa, that will work for this too!  I’ve used this adorable Inky Stamper Latte stamp set to create my project here with that adorable “Rosie” character popping out of the cup.  I colored and cut her out with the coordinating die.  For the “candy cane” image on the front of Rosie’s cup, as well as the “coffee ring stain” image on the coffee cup sleeve, I used the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set to accompany my design.  (There are some great cocoa images in there to trade off for the coffee too!)

These little mini coffee to go cups were found on Amazon (4 oz cups pack of 50 with lids) and there are tons of videos on You Tube on how to construct the holder for these. (Check out several from search here)  I sort of tweaked mine from a die set that I’ve had for years, but there’s no reason to buy a die if you can create without an additional purchase.  I’ve added an additional backing with a pocket and thumb opening to hold a Starbucks gift card in.

And then when you open the coffee cup, there is a great place to add some extra treats inside!  I chose to add some Bailey’s chocolate truffle candy inside of these cups.  You can also see how I decorated the cups with papers that has peppermint candies on them as well as the top of the lid, the cup sleeves with stamping and the red twine wrapped around the lid as well.  The little peppermints that I’ve added on the top of the lid as well as on Rosie’s head came from the Inky Stamper Christmas Candy Mix…love that container!  The Doodlebug red Gingham/Linen papers come from the Inky Stamper store as well.

And since the lid on the cup was not as secure as I would’ve liked it to be, I decided to wrap the entire thing inside of a gusseted cello bag and tie it up with some more of the red twine, which also made it look like a gift wrapped present too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project(s) today and have been inspired to create a fun gift for Christmas too!  Thanks so much for stopping in and have yourself a very grateful Thanksgiving Day!🦃

Challenges:

  1. Double D – Hot Beverages
  2. Sparkles Monthly – Dies and/or Punches (both used!)
  3. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  5. Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki*20 Comments

Stretching Out Inky Stamper Products

Hello friends!  I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far!  We have experienced our very first snow accumulation this year and it was very pretty on the inside where it’s warm! LOL  It wasn’t necessary to shovel as it melted when it hit the pavement/streets, which makes it nice too!  I’m excited to be sharing some more Inky Stamper products with you today as I continue on with my Guest DT for this month.  This time it’s all about stretching out those products you purchase to get even more out of them which I’m sure we all need during this time of the year!

Isn’t this little mouse gnome the cutest?!  I don’t think I’ve seen a mouse gnome before, but this is another brand new stamp set from Inky Stamper called Gnome, of course!  (Click on the link(s) to see everything in the store)

I’m not only using this same stamp set for both of my projects today, but I wanted to point out that this one above is not a card, but it’s a gift card envelope that I’ve created using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die.  I love this die for quickly creating the perfect sized envelope to fit your gift card inside, but Chelsea also comes up with fun mini cards in alot of her kits that work great for tucking inside this envelope too!  (There’s a brand new kit in the store that has just came out using one of the brand new stamp sets making a mini card in her class.)  I also wanted to point out that this die can be cut from one of the 6×6 Doodlebug paper packs sold in the store too!

For the front of my envelope here: I thought it would be fun to create a little scene for my mouse gnome to hang up his stockings!  I took a strip from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Wood Grain paper pack to place along the bottom and stenciled some bricks for the background.  I stamped, colored and cut out the gnome with the coordinating die and I punched a small hole on each side of him where his hands are for the string.  I then took some of the “stockings” from the Picket Fence Fireplace Stockings sequins and attached them to the string that wraps around the back of the scene panel.  I added a sentiment from the same stamp set, popped up the gnome and attached to a piece of green glitter cardstock and then attached it to the envelope front.

Here you can see the other side of the envelope that I’ve white heat embossed the deer from this gnome stamp set and sponged some white ink around the edges.  Now to keep the envelope flap closed, you could wrap some twine or ribbon around it, but I love using the Inky Stamper Papercrafting Velcro because it’s the perfect size for this closure and it’s such a great price!  You can see how easily a gift card can fit right inside too!

And here’s another scene I’ve created using this adorable Gnome stamp set, but on a regular A2 sized card this time.

So as I was using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die for my gift card envelope above, I was looking at the other die pieces that come with this set and thought that the stitched triangle die would make for some great pine trees for my little mouse gnome scene.  I pulled out some Doodlebug Gingham/Linen as well as the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper packs to cut out the triangles and design my scene with the “ground” and “snowy sky” too.  I placed the “sky” paper down first, added a curved “ground” and tucked in my formed triangle pines.  I also tucked in the wooden sign from the stamp set and stamped the greeting over it.  This gnome stamp set also has a tiny pipe that you can die cut out which is just the right size for the gnome.  You can see that I’ve tucked that in behind the gnome’s hand on the right and I added some “smoke” with a marker on the background too.

I thought that the Picket Fence Woodlands sequins would be perfect with our gnome, so I’ve attached a few over the “ground” area.  I also added some Picket Fence Icicles sequins to the “sky” area for the appearance of snowfall in the background.  I also added another white “snowflake” to the center of my gold cord bow at the top. This is a great way to stretch your sequins by making it apart of your main scene.

For the glittery “snow”, I’ve covered the pines, sign, the gnome, the mushrooms and “ground” with some white Nuvo Crystal Drops and then covered those areas with some loose glitter while it was still wet.  The reason for that is because if you just use glitter, it will dry clear and I wanted some white to show.

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed my mouse gnome projects today and have been inspired to see something different with the products that you have in your stash too!  Thanks so much for dropping in!  Be sure to check out the Inky Stamper Store as well as LIKE the Facebook page to see a live video on Tuesday nights.  There is also a fun InkyStamper Inkspiration Facebook Group to join for more inspiration and fun challenges each month too!

Challenges:

  1. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Goes
  2. Jingle Belles – Funny Ho, Ho (punny gnome sentiments)
  3. Crafty Friends – Christmas
  4. Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle
  5. Craft Rocket – Christmas/Winter
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Stamping Sensations – Christmas Celebrations
  8. We Love Stamping – Christmas
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

Inky Stamper *NEW* Stamps Inspiration!

Hello friends!  I’m really excited to be sharing some more inspiration today as a guest designer this month using some brand new Inky Stamper stamp sets that were just released!  Stop by the store and check them out…they’re so cute!

First, I have a couple of shaped interactive cards for those warm drinks as the temperatures start to cool down.  I made one for Autumn and shared it in the Inky Stamper FB Group and was asked how it I made it, so I thought I’d share that one along with another Christmas style version that I made too:

Aren’t these so cute with that little raccoon from the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set?!  The one on the right is the one I made with Fall colors covering the front of the cup with the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper pad.  I also used the Doodlebug Bon Bon Twine around the cup sleeve.

The cup on the left is more Christmas themed and I’ve used pretty much the same products, but just changed up the colors a little bit.  This cup is slightly different because it’s about 1/4″ shorter so that it would properly fit inside an A2 envelope.  The Autumn card was a bit snug, so I tweaked the size a bit more on the Christmas to make it fit nicely.

When you pull the lid off the top of the coffee cup, there is an insert with a greeting and/or a place where you can add a gift certificate.  These were so fun to create and easy to do!  Mass production could be possible for sure!

All that is needed are some measurements and a few tips along the way to get you started.  I thought it would be easier to understand with a video, so check that out below or watch on You Tube HERE.

I also had a birthday card that I needed to make for someone, so I thought I’d pull out the new Inky Stamper Hippo stamp set and have some fun with it!

Aren’t these party animals so cute?!  I thought this one would be fun to turn into a polaroid style, so I pulled out a square die to create my own polaroid frame with it!  I also cut another one in black cardstock so that I had a bit of dimension with it.  I stamped the sentiment from the set at the bottom of the frame.

The background behind the Hippo was created by white heat embossing the music note image from the stamp set over some Inky Stamper Watercolor Panels and then using some watercolors for an emboss resist background.  I colored up the Hippo, bird and party hat and cut them out to arrange over the background.  I added a couple of pieces of the Doodlebug Grey Swiss Dot Washi Tape over top of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen Paper that was cut out with a wonky stitched die and attached to a white top folding A2 card base.  I found a couple of sequins from the Picket Fence Rubber Duckies mix and then filling the centers of them with yellow Stickles.

So many different things going on in this post, but I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and have been inspired to create something too!  Thank you so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes 
  2. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  3. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  4. My Time to Craft – Critters
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  6. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes

*Vicki*19 Comments