Going CAS at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends and happy Wednesday!  Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog and this time we would like to see your CAS (or “clean and simple”) creations!  I hope you will hop on over to see the inspiration from the team and consider joining in the fun with us!

Here’s the DT creation that I’ve made for it:

Sometimes I feel that CAS can actually be even more difficult than regular cards and I struggle with thinking I’ve added too much or it doesn’t look right.  I think it’s more of me over-thinking something, though!

It was my son’s birthday yesterday and I thought this would be a great opportunity to make a card for him.  He’s a postal carrier, so I thought this cute owl from the Lawn Fawn Special Delivery would work great for this.  I started with the LF Stitched Cloud Backdrop and the LF Stitched Rectangle Frames dies to create the main focal panel.  I lightly blended some blue ink in a circle before adding the Copic colored postal owl popped up with foam.

Over some red cardstock, I white heat embossed the sentiment.  (I don’t remember which LF stamp set it came from)  I  die cut it with a banner die and popped it up over the cloud panel.  I also had an extra die cut heart lying on my table, so I thought it would be great to add with the owl.

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope you’ve enjoyed my CAS card and have been inspired to join us this month with your take on the challenge too!

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Birthday card for a man
  2. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  3. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional: CAS
  4. Lawn Fawnatics – All things birthday
  5. Sunday Stamps – SSC304 sketchSSC304

*Vicki*27 Comments

New DT for Sparkles Monthly Challenge!

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and a great start to this new week in February!

designer

I’m really excited to share that I’ve just been invited as a new design team member over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog!  I really like the fact that it has fun monthly themes to get you thinking and also that I can use up my never-ending piles of my own craft stash!   This fits perfectly well with me and something I can handle!😉  So I hope you’ll stop by and follow along to play with us each month!  You can find a new one on the 15th of each month.

Today starts a new monthly challenge theme which is #161 “Men Only“…so anything masculine will do!  With having sons in my family, I’m always in need of masculine style cards for sure!  Here’s my card for this month’s challenge:

Oh yes…tools!  This always seems to be a favorite in my craft supply when creating a masculine card for sure!  I made this one for my husband who’s a very handy guy, and he likes the color blue.  I always like to add lots of textures, distressing and layers when making a masculine card.  This also helps for using more of those craft supplies!

I’ve had these stamps and dies from My Favorite Things for quite a while now and only used them a couple of times.  I die cut the background panel in the pegboard cover die and stitched rectangle dies, plus, layered with a couple of different blue panels that were stapled together.  A die cut circle in woodgrain and blue papers were attached and cut off at the edge before attaching to the top folding white A2 card base.

I’ve added the die cut tool elements over top of the circle using some silver mirror and blue colored cardstocks to cut them out.  I added some sponged ink over some places and topped it with a ripped strip of silver embossed screw heads, a strip of dark blue and the stamped sentiment stapled together and placed it over top with a piece of “messy” thread.  Lastly, I added the dark blue die cut hearts and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

I hope that you will stop by the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog to check out the challenge and inspiration from the creative design team!  I look forward to seeing what everyone creates!

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

Challenges:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
  2. Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
  3. The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: Lots of Layers 
  4. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  6. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  7. Allsorts – Anything Goes optional: hearts
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

Happy weekend friends!  It’s almost time for Valentine’s Day which means we share our appreciation to those that we love!  I like to make cards that are great for any time of year and hearts are versatile enough to do this without being specifically Valentines.  Here are a few cards that I’ve made with this in mind:

I actually participated in last week’s Craft Roulette #149 and the perimeters were: 1. tissue/vellum 2. collage 3. far away 4. three pops of red.  So…while watching, I had decided that I was going for the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap that was already collaged with images.  I decided because of the collage images, that I was going to find an airplane image to use with it and my thoughts turned to an older Simon Says Stamp card kit I had with the “Home Sweet Home” stamp set.  I white heat embossed the airplane, the long building strip and the sentiment over black cardstock. It seemed to lend itself to a slimline card design, so that’s what I went with and used collage medium to attach the tissue to the background.  Once it dried, I glued the die cut buildings strip and went around it with a Big Brush marker that I smudged to create the shadow effect.

I made a banner with the sentiment and attached a white string to the back and tied a bow with it to the airplane and popped up the plane with foam tape.  The collage background panel was layered over a black piece that was attached to a standard slimline top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the details so that you can see them a bit better.  My “three pops of red” came from 3 hearts that I cut out with red cardstock.  The die was from the coordinating set with the stamps.  I attached them around the airplane and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Craft Roulette is all about, you can check them out live every Friday night around 6:00 pm CST.  I will be doing this tonight as well!  It’s just something fun to get your crafting thinking and I love that I can pull out my stash and use it up!

 

And of course I couldn’t help but follow along with the Lawn Fawn Create With Us “Wood You Be Mine?” class!  There’s a little inside joke about Woodchucks chuckin’ wood with my son and I couldn’t resist sending him one of these cards. (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THEM LARGER IF YOU’RE ON MY WEBSITE)

I just pretty much followed along with the same design as they shared in class with the exception of the background stencil.  I didn’t have the same one they used, so I pulled out one from Taylored Expressions that is no longer available.  but if you’d like to follow along with the class, you can check it out here.

And lastly, I wanted to share a commissioned card that I made for someone that requested a card to give to their partner.  Not really too specific other than they liked wolves and the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong lyrics somewhere displayed on the design.  So here’s what I came up with:

I did not own any stamps with wolves on them, so I turned to my Cricut machine to cut out a silhouette wolf and then I flipped it to cut another one so that they faced each other.  I wanted to give the appearance of the wolf couple howling together. LOL  I also had some digital map paper that I could print out to use for the hearts as well as making an envelope with it too.

The background was ink blended with the center being lighter toned in blue and then I splattered some white over top for a night sky or an “outer space” looking sky…however you’d like to interpret it, I suppose.  I cut a large heart with the map paper and arranged the two wolves over it so that, although it’s the same image flipped, I can make them look like different wolves and then cut off the bottom portions. I popped up the large heart with foam.  I also used the same papers to cut smaller hearts above them and added some glitter and covered them with crystal effects to make them shinny.  I printed out the lyrics on my computer and cut it out in a banner shape to attach below the wolves.

  • Hope you’ve enjoyed my “love” creations today and have been inspired in some way!  Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’– LOVE (Beavers)
  2. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Love is in the Air (slimline)
  3. Everybody Art – #529 Heart/Love
  4. Cardz 4 Guyz – Valentine for a Guy (wolves)
  5. Try it On Tuesday – All You Need is Love
  6. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Valentines or Hearts
  7. Little Red Wagon – Somebody to Love
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Hearts
  9. Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart

*Vicki*32 Comments

November GDT for Inky Stamper – It’s OWLright!🦉

Hello friends and happy November!  Really excited to share that I’ve been asked to a be guest designer this month for one of my favorite companies which is Inky Stamper!  Yay!🎉   If you follow along with me, then you’ve probably already seen some of my creations using their products.  Please be sure to click the badge below to be taken to the store! (The characters are so cute!)  I will be adding this badge to the sidebar of my blog here so you can find it if you want to come back to it later.

IS GDT Badge 2022

For my first project this month, I actually pulled out an older stamp set which I think is perfect for this time of year especially when you want to give “thanks” to those special people in your life.

Isn’t this guy with his quirky face adorable?!  I’ve used this fun Inky Stamper Owl stamp set with dies for this card. The punny sentiments that are always with these stamp sets make perfect options!

Have you seen the “Torn Window Card” technique around social media?  I think you could probably find it just about anywhere and not sure where exactly it originated from, but I wanted to try it and give it my own spin by creating a torn hole with a slightly pulled around opening.  Which I thought was a perfect “tree hole” for my quirky owl to pop out of!  What’s fun is that you don’t need any special tools or die to do this…just rip it!

For my papers, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check & Woodgrain 6×6 paper pad from Inky Stamper with the brown color for the outside “tree trunk” portion that I ripped the hole in the center for and then another piece of the woodgrain in black for behind the hole which makes it look like the inside of the “tree trunk”.  Plus, I think it makes the owl stand out more.  To rip the hole, I just cut through it with scissors and gauged what size to rip based on my owl image.  I used some brown ink to sponge around the edges including around the “hole”.  I then distressed the edges of the paper as well as lifted/curled the torn edges of the “hole” area.  When I did that, it exposed the buffalo check pattern on the other side of the paper, so then I took my VersaMark ink pad to rub around the edges and gold heat embossed all the distressed edging.  I also gold heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set over some of the black woodgrain for the banner at the bottom.

Here’s a closer look at the owl all colored up with Copic markers. I added a few white gel pen marks to his beak and feet.  I also colored up several of the leaves with this set and die cut all the pieces to attach to the card.  I glued the leaves around the owl and then for the owl, I glued the bottom of him over the leaves and then popped up his head with foam tape.  I also used foam tape for the leaf to the left of the owl.

For a little extra sparkle, I painted on (using a brush) some Liquid Pixie Dust for the leaves and the owl’s eye whites. To finish it off, I added some Picket Fence Sands of Time-Gems. (These are a couple of my personal favorite extras!)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ripped hole owl card today and have been inspired to doing some ripping of your own!

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

Challenges:

*Vicki*24 Comments

Batty Anniversary

Hello friends!  I wanted to share the anniversary card I made for hubby this year.  Now that I’m posting this (without him knowing), I think I made a bat style card last year too!  It just happens to fit with this time of the year and we got married close to Halloween…so it works, right?!😉  I’m just thankful that we BOTH like Halloween!

So I fell in love with these cute cuddly bats (Yep, I said that!) from Lawn Fawn called Fangtastic Friends.  I stamped, colored and die cut out the images that I wanted before I started to work on the background.

For the background, I pulled out a cloud stenciled and mixed purple, black and blue oxide inks to blend in a night sky.  I spritzed it with water for the water droplets.  I then die cut the full moon from the LF Full Moon die set and then used some Distress Mica Stain Harvest Moon and sprayed over it so it has a bit of a shimmer to it.  I placed it where I wanted to go over my sky background and then cut them both out with a double-stitched rectangle die and attached the panel to a side folding A2 black card base. (The sentiment strip was added before attaching)

The sentiment was heat embossed over a black strip of cardstock using some white glitter embossing powder.

I attached this strip at the bottom of the sky panel and cut off each end.  I added the rest of the elements and images to my scene and stamped the “eek!” by the bat on the right and a couple of hearts on the moon above the hanging couple.  I added some shimmer to the hearts with a purple glitter gel pen.

I thought I would share the inside of the card with the stamped hanging spider, the sentiment and the hearts I stamped around it with some more of the purple glitter gel pen coloring.  I also used some purple and black distress oxide inks to blend around the edges of my white inside panel which was also cut out with the double-stitched rectangle die.

I certainly do love hanging out with my husband, but hopefully not in the manner on the card!😅

  • We’re enjoying time together right now as this has been scheduled to post, so I hope you enjoy and thanks for dropping in!  I’ll see you soon!

*Vicki*17 Comments

Magnificent Scene, Birthday Crap and Craft Storage

**IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN MY GIVE AWAY OR LOOKING FOR IT, CHECK OUT MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE.  ENDS SEPT 22nd**

Hello friends!  Welcome to September!  Really hope that you’ve had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and have had a great start to the month so far!  I’m still trying to get my MOJO in gear as I really love this time of the year with all of the wonderful Autumn things happening both outside AND in the crafty world too!  Really love when it starts up, but as it gets closer to the end of the year…I’m ready to skip right over it! LOL!

Today I have a fun post to share with some projects I made with several Inky Stamper products!  They have a FB challenge to participate in every month and so I thought I’d share what I came up with.  (Check it out and play along if you have any Inky Stamper stamps!) *Check out the store as well because there is a brand new release that just came out!

This was a fun little scene to create on a mini slimline card!  So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge THIS month (Sept) is to use more than just one Inky Stamper stamp set on one design. I really liked this challenge because it got me thinking of what to use and pull out several different images and actually use them!  Looking forward to see what other people come up with too!  So for my scene, I’ve actually pulled out EIGHT different stamp sets!!!😮

To start with the background, I pulled out the *Housefly set with the squares image to clear heat emboss the background and then ink blend over top for an “emboss resist” technique. I took the *Rainy Day set and stamped the rainbow/cloud image and fussy cut the clouds to add on the background sky.  For the “flying birds” and the “pattern” at the bottom over the green strip, I’ve used the *Pelican set.  Of course the main characters are different sets from *Rosie Solo and *Ralph Solo.  For Rosie’s “hair”, I stamped the butterfly from the *Bug Catcher set to color and fussy cut it out which was then popped up over the flower she originally has. I also used this same set to white heat emboss the sentiment.  For Ralph, I pulled out the *Snail set to stamp and color a heart which he is holding.  I just made a slit around Ralph’s “hand” to help him hold the heart.  And lastly, I pulled out the *Bee set to stamp, color and fussy cut the flower image.  I cut off the stem and just attached the flowers with one of them popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the butterfly on Rosie and the heart with Ralph using my glitter brush pen.  I then added some sequins from the Fall Flowers sequins mix and filled the centers with some Stickles.

So did I do it?  Did you count out the eight different sets?  I think this mouse couple is too cute…and no…they aren’t the “real” mice, these are the good ones to have!😁

Ralph is showing up again!  I needed to make a humorous birthday card for my son and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out it!😂  This is actually the first card I made for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge, but I didn’t use eight different sets like I did on the one above, I only used four different sets.  However; I used REAL TP!

The background was created using some of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper which the “bricks” image was stamped over with grey ink from the *Goat set.  I also used this same set to stamp the “grass” border towards the bottom with another strip of green from the same Doodlebug paper pack.  I just fussy cut the top of the grass strip to attach over the grey brick background.  Of course the Ralph inside the TP roll came from the *TP set along with the “pile of poo”💩 and the “Oh Crap!!!” sentiment that was white heat embossed over a black banner and popped up with foam tape.  The balloon image came from the *Bunny set.  I decided to attach a piece of the white Doodlebug twine and pop up the balloon with foam tape.  I attached the other end to Ralph’s “hand”.  Lastly, the forth set I used was the sentiment at the bottom from the *Iguana set.  (For that sentiment, I only used a portion of it from the stamp.)  So that makes FOUR sets used!

The images on this card were colored using my CC Real Brush markers, I stamped the Ralph image again over the TP…yep, stamped directly onto the TP and fussy cut it out to paper piece over the image.  Gives it the REAL look and feel of TP!😉 I have die cut a black scallop frame to go around the scene and lastly I’ve added some sparkle to the balloon and the tiny flies around the “poo” with a glitter brush pen.  I didn’t want to add too much as this is a masculine style birthday card.

And then I have one last project to share that I actually made for last month’s challenge that I “squeaked” in just in time too!  (See what I did there?!😂) Ralph is just so popular today!  I had a plastic bag sitting around on my table that I kept moving out of my way and it was frustrating me, so I made this “container” to hold some crafty things to sit on my table!  It’s actually a REALLY old tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers using chipboard coasters!  I have SO MANY of those coasters and I was happy to use some up.  CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL HERE (P.S. The tutorial is actually done up by Taylor from Taylored Expressions, before her store years!  That’s how old it is!)

The challenge last month was to use primary colors on your project which are the red, blue and yellow colors.  Not realizing what the challenge would be for THIS month, it would actually fit in with that too!  I used THREE different sets for this project. Again, I’ve used the *Ralph Solo set that was colored up and fussy cut out as this was done before the new die came out for him! (see top card)  I took out several of the different Doodlebug papers to cover my chipboard coaster panels being mindful of the Primary Color challenge.  Rather than leave the papers as is, I decided to pull out the *Inky Greetings set to stamp the splatter image in the coordinating colors with the papers.  I also decided Ralph needed to be holding a pencil, so I pulled out the *Owl set and stamped, colored and fussy cut the pencil image which was added to Ralph’s “hand” by making a small slit for him to hold it.

I was happy to pull out some of my old punches to create the backdrop for “pencil holding Ralph” as well as using up those old coasters and some more papers and ribbon from my stash! (I’m really hoping to be doing more of this often!)

I know this was a long worded post, but hope you enjoyed the projects and got some smiles too!  Thanks for catching up with me today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
  2. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
  3. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  4. Happy Little Stampers Birthday – Anything Goes Birthday (2nd card)
  5. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘B’ is for Birthday
  6. We Love Stamping – Anything Goes with stamping (all are stamped!)
  7. Crafting Happiness – NOT A CARD: Anything Goes (3rd project)
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  9. Try It On Tuesdays – Animals -real or imagined

*Vicki*29 Comments

Pray Until Something Happens With Inky Stamper

Hello friends!  How is your Summer going?  It seems like it is really flying by for me!  After getting back from the wedding, I have a PILE of things to get finished up, literally!  I signed up for classes knowing that I couldn’t participate during the class time, but figured I would finish them up on my own, so along with doing that I’ve decided to also throw in a current challenge project as well and share that today:

So this cute little fella came from Inky Stamper called Praying Mantis, of course.  The challenge for the month of July in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group calls for “watercolor” of any kind and so I pulled out my Zig CC Real Brush markers to color him with, cut him out with the coordinating die and even added a bit of the Liquid Pixie Dust on his wing.

For the watercolor on the background, I’ve used an Inky Stamper Watercolor Panel and ran a few different colored Distress Oxide ink pads over it without touching the colors.  I then spritzed it with water to saturate and let the colors run together over it.  I picked up any extras on my glass mat to completely cover the panel and then I took the Picket Fence Geo Squares Stencil and laid it over top while it was wet, pressed it in and let it just sit until it was dry. I picked up the stencil that had dried ink on it, spritzed it with water and turned the stencil the other way with the ink on it and pressed it onto the panel again and let it dry.  This is how the darker ink color showed up on the lighter end.  I took some green and black watercolor to spritz over top.  Really fun background to play with!

I then white heat embossed a sentiment over a black strip and attached it to the bottom portion of the background and then die cut the panel with a double-stitched rectangle die.  I used foam squares to pop up the bug and wrapped some Doodlebug Limeade Twine under the sentiment.  This panel was layered over a black piece which was attached to a top folding A2 white card base.  I finished it with some Doodlebug rhinestones.

And continuing on with my “Inky Stamper projects”, There was an OOAK event a few days before I left.  I didn’t have time to do my projects during the time, but finished them up when I returned.  We made this fun and unique fold design with a gorgeous butterfly and then of course the mini card to go along with it.  Not sure if the kits will be available at a latter date, but you can check it out in the Inky Stamper Store HERE.

For mine, I colored the butterfly with Copics, popped up the wings with foam tape and added some of that Liquid Pixie Dust which is hard to see in the photo.  Then for the mini card, I used some watercolor to color the hydrangea with.  The sentiment was white heat embossed.

Super fun projects as always! (I usually make my “mini card” into TWO ATCs, I just did the one so far here.)

And for my last set of “Inky Stamper projects”, this was for a special class Chelsea held during the time that I was gone.  Even though I wasn’t able to attend the fun and games with them live, I went ahead and purchased the kit anyway so I could watch the video at a later date to make all of these fun projects centered around this ADORABLE Sloth!  If you are interested in this kit, check it out in the store here – Inky Stamper SLOTHsome Class Kit

I pretty much followed along with the way the class projects were made.  I added some gold thread on the card in the back with the clocks so that it could hang from the sloth’s claw.  I added a glittery heart for the treat container for the sloth to hold as well.  The candy inside the container are slo pokes!! 😂   Super cute and fun projects to make!  I sort of treated myself to the candy while I was creating!

I also think that there were a few days where I could relate to the sloth too, but glad to get things done!

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my projects that I’ve shared today and are inspired in some way too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today…I’ll be sharing more soon!😉

Challenges: (For top card only)

  1. Happy Little Stamper Watercolour – Anything Goes + watercolor
  2. Happy Little Stamper Stencil – Anything Goes + stencil
  3. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
  4. As You Like It – Favorite warm/cool colors and why? (Always been attracted to the cool tones even as a child!)
  5. Krafty Chicks – Week 1: Stamp Act
  6. Crafty Catz – #603 Anything Goes
  7. Creative Fingers – #235 Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Week 27: Anything Goes + coloring
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2228 Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Cowboy Courage and Dad Jokes

Hello friends!  Hope you’ve had a great Fourth of July weekend and staying cool through this really hot week too!  I had planned on scheduling a post or two while I was gone last month, but time just didn’t let me get there and I’m a bit behind, but I wanted to share a couple of masculine cards I made for some men in my life for Father’s Day:

Up first is this card I made for my own dad.  He’s a huge John Wayne fan and so I thought it would be fun to print out one of his famous quotes for a card.  After printing it out, I stamped the large rope lasso image around it from the Whimsy Stamps Cowpoke clear stamp set.  I printed the quote over a piece of kraft cardstock and stamped with chocolate colored ink with the rope frame and colored it with Copics.  I also cut the other images from the same stamp set over White Copic Blending Card and colored it with Copics.  I just fussy cut them out with scissors and placed them over my card front with some foam squares.  I cut a section of the horseshoe out so that it “appears” as if it’s hanging around the lasso and glued it over each side of the lasso.

I thought it would be fun to add some more details to mimic the boots by die cutting the loopy stitched borders from the Whimsy Stamps Straight Edger Die Set and then I ink blended around the edges with chocolate ink.  I also did this with the envelope you see behind the card too.

He really liked this one!  I remember as a child sitting with him sometimes and watching those really old “cowboy movies”.  LOL

The next card I made was for my husband…

This card was PERFECT for him!  Most of the time, the kids would always tell him that his jokes were NOT funny, but the fact that HE thought they were so funny is what made them laugh!😂  And then he would claim that they were laughing or smiling, so he knew they liked them!😄

So when I saw this Dad Jokes stamp set from Lawn Fawn, I knew it would be a good one to have on hand for cards with him.  I kept this card a simple one with a grassy stitched border and then I used one of those woodgrain papers from Lawn Fawn and also die cut the LF Father’s Day Border using the same woodgrain paper for it.

I positioned the little chicks to the side with the *crickets* sentiment above them and then the other one laughing while the little chick with the tie is telling the “dad joke”.  I popped up the speech bubbles with foam squares.  You will also see that I’ve stamped another “dad joke” on the envelope with some ha ha ha next to it as well.

**Side note:  My husband’s favorite “dad joke” from the stamp set was…”What’s brown and sticky?….A stick!“**  He had to tell that one to the (adult)kids of course!🙄 

Hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine cards today or had a smile!  Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. 7. JulyThe Male Room – Monochrome (Top card only with brown tones)
  2. Alphabet – ‘G’ is for Giggle/humorous card (Second card only)
  3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  4. Corrosive – Anything Goes
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper

*Vicki*23 Comments

Some Inky Stamper Escaping!

Hello friends!  It has not only warmed up over my way, but we went from about 50 degrees to straight up 90 degrees within the last few weeks!  I think it’s supposed to slightly cool down in a few days, but I’m happy it’s warmer anyway.  Hope that you’re all doing well too.  Been wanting to share with you what I’ve been up to, but first I have this fun card I recently made:

I thought this was so fun and easy to create!  If you’ve ever made a gate-fold card, try one of these interlocking ones!  I love the way it opens up from just a traditional card.  This is the first time I’ve tried one of these and I’ve made it for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group‘s challenge…which is to make a gatefold card.

I’ve also used one of the brand new stamp sets that came out from Inky Stamper called “Iguana“.  I’ve stamped the images out on Bristol Smooth watercolor and used my Zig Brush Markers to color them in.  The stamp set has a coordinating Iguana die, but I fussy cut the cactus out to place behind him.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut it out with a banner die to place at the bottom of the card.

You will notice that I’ve only attached HALF of the panels on the front so it can be opened freely with the circle frame interlocking with the circle image panel.

To complete the decorating, I’ve used the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper pad and added some Picket Fence Reflections Gems for a few accents on the front.  I also took a few markers to add some stitch lines.

Here’s what the card looks like when it is completely shut.  You just have to be sure that the two circle panels can freely open without interference, which is why I had to cut a very small piece from the Iguana’s tail so it could close properly.  I honestly don’t think it takes anything away from the design.

And then when the gatefold opens, you can see my inside sentiment.  I’ve taken a strip of the paper I’ve used on the front and added it to the inside to make it all cohesive.  (I think I’ll add some stitch lines to it now that I’m looking at it.)

And speaking of “Inky Stamper“, I had a really fun time not this past weekend but the prior weekend taking part in the “Inky Stamper Escape Event”!  I spent the weekend crafting, doing some fun make’n takes, shopping and meeting the special people behind the company!  So very exciting and so much fun…especially meeting new friends!

SO EXCITED to have met Chelsea and Kim!  Really enjoyed the time and trying out all of the new things!!

Here we are!  This is the crew that stayed for the weekend although there were several others that stopped in to partake in the make-n-take fun or do some shopping.  It was so fun to meet some new friends and get to know them too!

And of course here are the Make-n-takes we did with all of the new release items!  Lots of interactive fun with a waterfall card, shaker card, slider card, mini treats and even a mini card with a cool foiling technique.

The swag bag was too cute with a special tag that had my name on it, an Inky Stamper pin and lots of fun goodies inside (not shown).  Plus an Inky Stamper mug with some yummy goodies inside too!  Aside from being spoiled, it was fun to be able to stamp with friends while working on some of my own projects.  Really great time and special thanks to Chelsea and Kim for making it a memorable one.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my gatefold card and post today!  Thanks so much for stopping in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

  1. Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group – gatefold card
  2. Crafty Friends – Animals and/or birds (including insects)
  3. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)
  4. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
  7. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

*Vicki*32 Comments

Challenge Up Your Life With Splatters

Hello friends and happy April 1st!  We’re moving right along into Spring now and it seems that I’m still waiting for the warmer temperatures to come rolling in any time now.  Hope that you’re enjoying the season wherever you are. 

Gastdesigner_CUYL

Today I’m super excited to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer!  I had previously won a Top 3 and a future guest design spot from a past challenge I had entered.  So today their new challenge for April is “SPLATTERS“.  Hope you can share your splattering makes with us this month!  (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

#146_Kleckse_CUYL

Here’s the card that I’ve created for this month’s challenge:

I haven’t used my alcohol inks in a while and I just got some new Black Alcohol ink cardstock to try out.  I started by dropping some alcohol ink “mixatives” and added a few other metallic and non-metallic alcohol inks over it.  It seemed that the Pearl “mixative” was a good base to layer other colors over top of it.  I pushed the colors around a bit with an air blower where I wanted, but left some black area in places too.  I then took a brush and loaded it with some silver metallic alcohol ink and splattered over the panel.  I thought the black made for a really easy galaxy style background with great results.

Once I was finished with the look, I also took some silver foil that picks up places over the “wet looking” areas of the alcohol inks.  This is such a shinny and shimmer look!

The stamp I chose to use for the card comes from the Taylored Expressions Gus & Gertie-Best Buds stamp set and dies.  I stamped and colored the image on white cardstock, then cut it out with the coordinating die.  The die also cuts the stars next to the image, but I just cut this die out again in silver mirror cardstock for just placing the stars where I wanted them on my card.  I also took a strip of regular black cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and layered it over more silver mirror cardstock. 

The alcohol ink panel as layered over the silver mirror cardstock and attached to an A2 sized top folding black card base.  And before popping up the colored image with foam tape, I splattered some yellow over the moon and then once dry I covered it with a glitter brush pen.  It’s so hard to capture it all in a photo, but hopefully you can see some of the details if I point it out.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today with the “splatters” theme and come join in the challenge with us this month!

Thanks so much for stopping in and enjoy your day!

Challenges:

  1. Krafty Chicks – Anything Goes
  2. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
  3. Fab ‘N’ Funky – masculine
  4. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

*Vicki*25 Comments