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.)

Penny’s Guest-UnFROGettable

Hello friends! Welcome to June! The “lazy days” of Summer are here! I’m hoping I can be lazy this Summer, but not sure about that! LOL

I’m very happy to share my project with you today as a guest design spot I won from challenge #594 at Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog! This is a fortnight (bi-weekly) challenge starting today and the theme is always Anything Goes Using Paper! Hope you will stop by the blog to see the team’s inspiration and play along! Here’s the project I made for the challenge:

They gave me this super cute image called “Frogtini” by Pattie’s Creations to use, so I colored him up with Copics and added some stenciled waves at the bottom along with some blending of yellows and blues above him to create this relaxing scene. I cut him out with a stitched circle die and layered him onto a silver mirror scalloped die cut circle.

I used a fun card sketch I found along with pulling some papers and a sentiment out from an older card kit I had in my stash to complete the card. For the A2 sized top folding card base, I used a corner chomper to round the edges and then I used some more of the yellow ink over the background where the circle image was going to be for a bit of softness and color.

I embossed a strip of the silver mirror cardstock with a 3D embossing folder and rounded the edges of that strip along with the green paper strip to create my layout. I popped up the circle image with foam tape over top.

Lastly, I white heat embossed the “unfrogettable” sentiment and cut it out with a coordinating die and placed it at the bottom of the circle with foam strips behind it. I used the other part of the sentiment and stamped it directly above the frog’s head.

For some more finishing touches, I attached some green sequins, used a glitter brush pen for the frog’s sunglasses and covered the martini glass with Stardust Stickles along with some green Stickles for the centers of the green sequins.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! I had fun coloring him up! Thanks so much for stopping in and I wish you a very hoppy and relaxing day!🐸

Challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments – #464 Sketch
As You Like It – Favorite Type of Embossing & why? (I really like both, but my all time favorite is the heat embossing because it’s so magical!)
Crafty Catz – #694 Anything Goes with twist: “make us smile”
Creative Fingers – #302 Anything Goes
Daring Card Makers – Tic Tac Toe (I used across middle row)
Cut It Up – #331 Anything Goes with a die cut (used two circle and coordinating sentiment dies)
Gem of a Craft – #6 Anything Goes Cardmaking/Papercrafts

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Hello friends! Hope that you’re doing well and enjoying the month of May so far! As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been very busy working on projects “behind the scenes” that I will be sharing at a later date. The next couple of posts are scheduled as I will be away until next week. But I need to catch you up on the new challenge for now…

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are now onto the letter “D” and the hostess has chosen “D” is for Dogs *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to play along! Here’s what I’ve created:

I’ve pulled out this adorable stamp from my stash by Newton’s Nook called Birthday Barks and I’ve colored the stack of dogs along with a few extra balloon and gift images with Copic markers and cut them all out with the coordinating dies. (I’ve used a white gel pen for highlights and a silver gel pen for the bottom dog’s collar.) Some of the balloons and gift images were glued on the blue background, but the stack of dogs and a few of the other images were popped up with foam tape.

I’ve used some papers from the Newton’s Nook Birthday Woofs Paper Pad and the blue background was made using a solid balloon image from my stash and stamping it with white ink. I’ve black heat embossed the sentiment from the Birthday Barks stamp set and added a few clear sequins to the background.

This will make a great birthday card for a guy or girl! (I’m sure I’ve probably missed someone’s birthday somewhere! LOL) Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and will stop by the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with. Pull out those dog stamps and come join in the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll be back with another post tomorrow!

Challenges:

Allsorts – #824 Anything Goes (Happy Birthday!)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2521 Anything Goes
Passion for Markers – #790 4 legged Friends (colored with Copics)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – #770 Anything Goes

HEY! “C” is for Circles!

Hello and happy Friday my friends! After things got heated up the last couple of days, I think I’m ready for a couple of days of cooler weather! I don’t want to skip Spring by going straight into a hot Summer! Hope you have some great things planned this weekend!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are now onto the letter “C” and the hostess has chosen “C” is for Circles *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to play along! Here’s what I’ve created:

I do love me some circles and I thought I would just use them all over the place for this challenge! I pulled out my Taylored Expressions “Talking in Circles card kit” that came out earlier in the year and no longer available. However, the panel that I’ve used to create this design are still available in the store called “Talking in Circles A2 Sugar Cube Maps“. They make it easy to follow where placements need to be and lined up.

I used the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate for the black frame around the circles. I thought I would try and use another cutting plate, but the design pretty much covered it up. I layered this whole panel over a top folding A2 white card base.

For the sentiment in the center, I used another circle die from the TE, but I don’t think it’s in the store any longer. I cut the “HEY” circle out from black cardstock and layered some vellum behind it. I white heat embossed the “You are awesome” sentiment over black and cut that out with a Simply Strip die. This was popped up with a foam strip over the design.

Thanks so much for stopping over today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and you will take a hop on over to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with.

See you soon! In case you need to know…you are awesome!

Challenges:

Love to Scrap – #173 Anything Goes
Allsorts – #823 Paper Piecing or Anything Goes (Not sure if this is considered paper piecing)
Ally’s Angels – #94 Anything Goes
CRAFT – #755 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #88 Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – #319 Anything Goes optional: no squares

Mix It Up with Paper Piecing!

This is my second post for today, please scroll down to see the Pearly Sparkles Guest Challenge details or click HERE.

Hello again my friends and Happy May Day to you! I think I’m so ready for May so that I can start being outside with hopefully better weather than what April gave us!

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: Paper Piecing or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

Look at this darling little gnome holding on tight to his balloons! I got this adorable stamp from Ink ‘n’ Splatter a while back, but this is the first time I’m using it. He’s called Party Gnome Celebration. *Today is also the start of this company merging back up again with Digi Doodle Studios! Dina has some cute artwork with her digital and clear stamps both! You can see some past creations I made on my blog here under the category: Digi Doodle Studios.*

I’ve stamped the party gnome, colored him and then used some pattern paper from my stash to paper piece onto the balloons. I just stamped the same image over different pattern papers, fussy cut each balloon out and glued each balloon in place.

For the background, I thought it would be fun to use some more of the pattern papers to create inchie squares and make a layout with them. I attached the squares to the card front and then I embossed over top of it with a very old “Dotted Cuttlebug” embossing folder. (If you’ve been a crafter for a while, then you know it’s old! LOL) I black heat embossed the sentiment from the Party Gnome stamp set and cut it out with the same wonky stitched rectangle die set I’ve used for the front panel and popped that and the gnome up with foam tape. I also stamped a few of the confetti image around the sentiment and then topped the card off with sequins.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I hope you find some time to create for our Mix It Up Challenge as well! Hop on over to the see the inspiration! Thanks for dropping in!

Challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – #269 ( I used straight across middle row)
Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes with embossing folder with optional: weather twist
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2517 Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #595 Anything Goes Using Paper

A is for Alphabet

Hello and happy Friday! It’s not only “Good Friday”, but it’s Easter weekend here for us, so plans to enjoy the time we have together with food and laughter. At least that’s the plan anyway! I hope that whatever plans you have that you enjoy yourself.

Today starts up a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We have finished up the entire alphabet round and starting back up again for the 14th round which began in 2011! WOW! So beginning with the alphabet, the hostess has chosen “A” is for Alphabet (choose your own letter of the alphabet and a theme that begins with that chosen letter.) *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to join us in the gallery! Here’s what I’ve created:

The alphabet letter that I have chosen is “C” is for Chickens! I needed a card for someone and so I thought of these Spring Chickens Stencil from Taylored Expressions. I used that, plus the coordinating die to cut out the chickens. Along with that, I used the Yard House die set, Chicken Wire BG and the Just Chicken In sentiment set.

The quirky chickens and for an inside joke were sent to help cheer someone up not feeling well.

I started with a separate panel to stamp and stencil the chickens on. I cut them out from the stenciled panel. On another piece of cardstock, I stamped the Wire BG and ink blended around the edges. I placed this onto a top folding A2 sized gray panel. I wanted the area with the chickens to be the focus, so I took the TE Rounded Rectangle Stacklets and cut a piece of vellum that I used to create my scene on with the Yard House die set. I centered the “hen house” and then used the placement of that to adhere the vellum panel to the center of the card front.

Lastly, I added the other chickens to the scene and the stamped/die cut sentiment which was popped up with foam tape at the bottom right of card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and it gave you a smile! 😊 Have a wonderful Easter weekend my friends!

Challenges:

Creative Friday – #383 Humorous
Allsorts – #821 Stencils & Masks/AG (chicken stencils/die cut bundle)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2515 Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – #93 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #87 Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams – Animals

Z is for ZOOM!

Hello there friends and welcome to April already! I do not know if this year seems to be flying by because I’ve been busy with life or it’s just flying by anyway! Speaking of things flying by…

Today starts up a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are on the last letter of the alphabet this time and the hostess has chosen “Z” is for ZOOM (anything that goes fast) for the theme. *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to join us in the gallery! Here’s what I’ve created:

How cute is that pup standing on the bike seat to look over his bird friend perched on the basket! The name of these adorable animal friends are called “Gus & Gertie” which are a set of characters designed by Taylored Expressions. (If you click on the link, you can see the full line of them.) The set I’ve chosen is called Gus & Gertie Best Buds. I like these animals because they’re very easy to color!

I could’ve chosen the airplane from the set, but I kept thinking of those electric bikes & scooters you can rent from cities and they seem to go really fast when I see kids whizzing by on them! LOL

I kept my scene in a circle and added some clouds in the background that I stenciled in and then layered some hills/slopes and a grass border on the front. I just popped the “ride or die” sentiment at the top and attached the die cut image with foam tape. I layered the scene onto a black circle base that was attached to a red brick embossed background. All was attached to a top folding A2 white card base.

That’s all for me today! Thanks so much for checking in with me as I enjoy reading what you have to say! Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Critter Crazy – #97 Anything Goes with a Featured Creature
Unicorn – #108 Use Dies
Crafty Animals – #93 Anything Goes with Animal(s)
Crafts Galore Encore – #134 Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #769 Die Week (no flowers)

Y is for YUMMY!

Hello and happy Spring! Hope you’re having a great March so far. We just received about an inch of snow on Spring day, so I hope it starts getting warmed up from here! I’m ready for warmer weather so I can cook out on the grill….YUM! Speaking of that….

Today starts a new letter over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog and our lovely hostess would like to use “Y” is for YUMMY as the theme this time. How fun is that! Remember you have two weeks to join in the gallery to play with us. Here’s my creation for this challenge:

I couldn’t resist getting out this fun “Food Truck” set from Riley and Company to color up! I also paired it with the BBQ Riley to complete the scene full of yummy goodies! The images were both stamped and colored up with Copics. I used the coordinating die to cut out the Food Truck and I just fussy cut with scissors for the BBQ Riley.

Before attaching the images, I used a cloud stencil and blended the background and then took a piece of green cardstock to cut out a grass border for the bottom. I ink blended the edges of the blades and then used a green Copic marker to add some shadowing for the stamped images before placing them down on the scene. BBQ Riley was popped up with foam tape.

Here’s a closer view of the images. I used a liner pen to draw “yum items” under the menu board on the truck with a drawing of a balloon. I also used a silver gel pen to color in parts of the truck, the lights above the “food” word along with the utensils on BBQ Riley and parts of the grill.

I found a speech bubble and sentiment from my stash that I thought would be perfect for this card and stamped it above Riley’s head as he’s holding up a hot dog.

Do you like to stop and eat at food trucks? What’s your favorite? Last summer we went to a small town festival and they served some lemon shake ups at one place along with some BBQ shredded pork and it was so yummy! We also like to grab some kettle corn to take home too.

Did I make you hungry now?! Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I hope you’ll stop by the Alphabet Challenge Blog to come play along too! We’d love to see your yummy creations! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by! I enjoy reading your thoughts! Have a great weekend!

Challenges:

AAA Birthday – #71 Masculine
Love to Craft – #85 Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Any Occasion
Unicorn – #107 Boys/Men
Passion for Markers – #780 Add a Sentiment (colored with Copic markers)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2511 Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #250 Anything Goes

For Someone You Love at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that you had a great Valentine’s Day yesterday however you chose to celebrate it! We chose to stay indoors where it’s warm and watch a movie!

And speaking of love, this brings us to the February challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking for a “Love Card (for anyone you love)” . Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created for you. Here’s my project for this challenge:

Aren’t these heart sweaters adorable?! I had fun making a couple of cards to send to my kids (whom I love) for Valentine’s Day. I was actually able to create two similar cards using a stencil set that allows you to make 4 sweaters at one time.

I love the Taylored Expressions Sweater Weather Stencil Set that you can ink blend up to four different sweaters at once. This had previous come out for Christmas, but in December, they came out with a cute Valentine line to go with this stencil. So I gold foiled a panel from the TE Foil It-Valentine Sweater Weather pack and then to decorate the sweaters, I used the TE Dinky Decorations Valentine die set. I wanted more hearts, so I die cut a few extra to place around the background.

Speaking of the background, I used the TE Lots of Love 3D embossing folder and then sponged a bit of white over the hearts so they stood out a bit more. I also die cut the A2 Thin Frame die for a gold mirror frame. The sentiment came from the TE Love & Hugs stamp set.

And here’s a closer look at the other card I made. I know I could’ve used just one sweater for each card, but I thought these sweaters were too cute, so I decided to use all of them! I’m thinking one of my sons would probably wear a sweater like one of these and the other would think it’s ridiculous! LOL Regardless, at least they each know that they are loved by me!

I also had these fun TE Snarky Valentine Insiders panels that I gold foiled. I have to share some snark with those I love too! LOL (Click on the photos above to enlarge them if you’re on my website.)

I thought I’d share another card I had made for someone I love that was given to my husband for Valentine’s Day yesterday. (Sometimes, I have to wait until he gets it before I share!):

This pup and his boing heart hat cracks me up! Look at that face! I actually made this last month during a Craft Roulette challenge. I decided that I liked it so much that I put a Valentine greeting on it for my husband to give him on Valentine’s Day.

I used the Taylored Expressions Puppy Love (retired) stamp set and colored in this cute pup with Copic markers and die cut him out. I stamped the TE Gingham Check BG Stamp in black ink over red cardstock. I splattered some white Copic Opaque over top.

For the lace, I white heat embossed the border stamp from the TE Flip the Lace stamp/die (retired) over the Toffee cardstock and placed beneath the check background piece. I added a black strip between the two and then popped the dog on it. I stamped the “Seriously” from the pup stamp set and the Valentine greeting from the lace stamp set together and fussy cut them out to pop up with foam tape on the card. I added a few white hearts around the pup. The entire card is a mini slim from a pre-cut and scored Toffee card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you enjoyed these “love” cards or have been inspired to make and send a card to someone you love too! I look forward to seeing what you share in the gallery this month!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Challenges:

Critter Crazy – #95 Anything Goes With a Featured Creature (Bottom card only)
Crafty Animals – #91 Anything Goes + Animal (Bottom card only)
Pearly Sparkles – #104 Love is in the Air
Crafts Galore Encore – #132 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Hearts
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Lots of Love
Crazy is Our Fame-Stencils Are Our Game – Pinks &/or Reds + stencil (sweater cards)
Make My Monday – #245 Love (bottom pup card)
Crafty Gals Corner – #264 Fill in the Blank: “Pink________” (sweaters)

“U” is for Underwater

Hello friends! It’s already closer to the end of our first month for 2025 and I hope you’re staying warm and/or cozy where you are!

Today I’m excited to share that I’ve joined the Alphabet Challenge design team! I’ve been playing along with the challenges for a few years, so this will be a fun one! Please be sure to check out the challenge blog to see how to play as we go through the alphabet letters every-other week (fortnight) for each new challenge.

For this challenge, we are at the letter “U” for Underwater and here’s what I’ve come up with:

Now how cute are these smiling underwater critters?! It was hard to believe that going through my stash that I didn’t have much of any underwater critters besides mermaids, but last year I saw this adorable Doodlebug Sea Life stamp set on sale and decided to add it to my collection. This is the first time I’ve used it.

For the background: I’ve taken my Distress Oxide inks and ink blended the colors Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint sketch over some Bristol Smooth watercolor paper. I sprayed it with water and blotted it up with a paper towel. I used a stitched wave die cut border at the top and another wavy landscape border die for the sand at the bottom with kraft cardstock. I’ve used markers and gel pens to create “dots” for the sand and then attached it to the ink blended panel. Once I had it all attached, I cut out the entire panel with a stitched rectangle die and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding kraft card base.

I stamped several of the images and colored them with Copic markers and die cut them out with each coordinating die. The “seaweed” was part of the coordinating die set that I inked over in green Oxide inks and then attached all of the images to the underwater scene.

Lastly, I white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set (it says: “with oceans & oceans of love”) in the top corner of the card base and stamped some blue solid hearts from the set for “bubbles”. I couldn’t resist adding some googly eyes to the crab too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and hop on over to the challenge blog to play along with us! I look forward to seeing your underwater creations in the gallery!

Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll see you tomorrow for my monthly Art Journal Page!

Challenges: