A Cherry Hello and Catching Up!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying your week so far! Summer is now in full swing over my way and it certainly is feeling that way too!

Where I live, June is also a time of year when the blooming cherry trees from May now turn into the cherries ready to be picked! If you’ve never tried a cherry jam, I highly recommend it! With the freebie image over at Beccy’s Place, it seemed like a great idea to make a card with it:

Without the sugar, cherries can be extremely tart and so it’s never something I would pick from a tree and eat especially with a pit in it! I do love a good cherry pie though!

Coloring cherries is also fun! I opted to use the non-colored version of the image and I printed it out twice because I cut out the front cherry and front leaf on the image to pop up with foam tape for dimension. I used Copics to color it in along with the background circle it’s on. I also added a white highlight with a gel pen.

I thought it would be fun to make a punny sentiment to print out “A Cherry” on my computer and then cut it out to weave into my white heat embossed “hello” cut from red cardstock.

I die cut the scallop circle which also cuts out the center that the cherry image is on. I layered it onto the Doodlebug gingham paper and attached it to the white scallop rectangle that is all attached to a red A2 top folding card base. I finished it with a couple of red rhinestones.

FOR THE CATCHING UP: The last several months/year, it seemed like my blog posts were really random and sometimes I would go a few weeks before posting the next time. I seem to struggle on and off with having no motivation to get crafting or even go into my craft room at all. I know this happens from time to time, but it seemed to be up and down and all over the place which is why I took on joining a few challenge design teams. It helped to get me a routine of at least getting motivated to get into my room on a regular basis anyway. I didn’t want anything that was too strenuous, or I felt that I would give up completely. This is also the reason why I do art journaling…it helped with “no pressure” on what I could create and use whatever I wanted. After looking at things I’ve created, I still have things that I’ve made but never posted about! So I thought I’d try to catch up with some of the things I’ve done and finally post it. There will have to be some more posts to catch up with it too!

So here is the start of some of my catching up towards the end of last year…

Do you remember the 12×12 Sampler SWAPS that I was doing with my blog buddy group? (Patti, Shirley and Donna) We would swap out the squares and then finish it ourselves by adding the background papers and placing into 12×12 shadow box frames. We had completed one for each season, but for this last one we decided to make one about our “favorite craft”. Here’s all of the squares that is still hanging up on my wall right above my computer and next to a clock and other craft items I made. I enjoy looking at it and seeing all of the squares from fellow crafting friends. This was fun to participate in and it really helped me with struggling motivation as well, so I’m glad I did it! Plus, it is cool to have it for inspiration in my room!

I actually had this done AND photographed last June! I forgot to get it posted on my blog.🙄

This is the square that I decided to do for this swap. I do love lots of glitter, so of course there is glitter on the floor spilled over along with glitter on the “walls”. If you don’t recognize these cute mice, they’re from Lawn Fawn Just Add Glitter stamp set. For each square, I wrote each person’s name on the paper from the table. Of course my name is on this one.

I was also asked to commission a card for someone’s very special birthday in November last year and forgot to post it as well:

I thought this one turned out so cute! I was told this card was to be for a special lady’s birthday who turned 100 and that she really liked plants.

Of course my first thought turned to plants and green colors. Then I thought, I don’t think I have any “plant” style stamps! The only thing that I thought of at the time was this darling My Favorite Things Sittin’ Pretty stamp set from my stash. I also thought it would be fun to have a banner going across a wreath with the special number over it. I found the My Favorite Things “Fall Wreath” stamp set (not in store) and the banner came from an older (retired) Lawn Fawn set.

I also had a fern embossing folder that I embossed over green cardstock and then rubbed some gold wax over it to bring it out. I gold heat embossed the banner and popped it up over the wreath. I was just going to place the colored plants around it, but decided it would be cute to add the girl sitting on the wreath. She’s there to wish the special lady happy 100 with all of those plants around her! I added a border of grass at the bottom to help ground everything, added some gold foil for a layer and attached it to a green A2 card base.

Here’s what I did for the inside of the card: I stamped the wreath off the edge on each side of the panel with green ink and then sponged around the edges with the lighter green ink. I gold heat embossed the sentiment.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my new “Cherry Hello” card today as well as the projects that I am catching up with posting about! There will be more coming!

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING IN! I’M GRATEFUL FOR YOUR TIME AND THOUGHTS!

Challenges: (For Cherry Hello card ONLY)

Beccy’s Place – June Freebie image (THANK YOU!) optional: Food
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2425 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Emboss it (embossed hello)
Alphabet – ‘F’ is for Fruit
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes Using Paper

Masculine Makes

Hello friends! I hope you had a great weekend! It’s been record heat and continuing to be all this week over my way and it’s way too hot to be outdoors for any length of time! So I thought it would be nice to bring the outdoors to my craft room instead.

I wanted to share the card I made for my husband for Father’s Day:

My husband is an outdoor type and where he prefers to be most of the time. We really have fun going hiking and visiting parks whenever we can and this seemed like a great start for making a card for him.

I’ve used several Taylored Expressions items for this card including: Great Outdoors Layering Stencil & Clear Combo, Through the Woods, Wood Slice Background Stamp, and Hello Lovely sentiment set to make this card along with an entire set pictured below.

For the background: I stamped the Wood Slice stamp over kraft cardstock (along with the envelopes to match) and then I splattered some black and cream color paints over them. I took the panel cut the Ridged Circle Stacklets into the background. I wrapped some twine around it and attached them to an A2 side folding black card base.

The stencil creates four different scenes all at once by layering the stencils with colors you choose and then you cut each one out. I layered mine over black cardstock and attached to the kraft card front panels. I stamped the trees and sentiments and also added those to each card with some of them being popped up with foam tape.

Here’s what the rest of the cards look like using the same products. I changed up the scenes for each one but using the same colors for each stencil layer. I changed the sentiment so that I have a masculine card for several different occasions too. There are lots of males in my family to send cards to and I always seem to run out of them.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I appreciate your kind words and taking the time out of your day! See you soon!

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz – Father’ Day
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts & Stencils #470
Crafty Catz– Make it Masculine #674
Cupcake Inspirations – For the Guys #596
Allsorts – Masculine or Anything Goes #785
Papercraft – For the Boys #106

Clean & Simple at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far! We’ve been getting some rain, which is great for the freshly planted flowers. I enjoy being able to sit on my covered porch and listen to it rain as long as it doesn’t get too stormy!

Today starts a new challenge theme over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge! For this month, we’d like to see your CAS (clean & simple) creations! I look forward to seeing the inspiration in the gallery, so I hope you can join! Here’s what I’ve made for this challenge:

Sometimes I can really struggle with a clean and simple design because I always feel like I need to add something more. The end result is in the minimal embellishments and design. This one got stuck in my head and came together rather quickly and I like how it turned out.

Most everything used on my card came from My Favorite Things. I started with watercolor (Bristol Smooth) paper and the Watercolor Wash stencil and blended a rainbow of colors over it. While the stencil was still in place, I took a water bottle to spritz water droplets over it and removed the stencil. I let it dry and then clear heat embossed the sentiment that was stamped in a black pigment ink. (The key to this is to make sure the watercolor area is completely dry before you heat emboss anything over it.)

I cut out the panel with a wonky stitched rectangle die. I’ve attached it to an A2 side folding black card base. I was pulled to splatter over this, but thought I needed to keep it simple, so I took some drip drops in “cosmic” color and added them randomly to the design.

So, what do you think? Simple enough you can do it too and enter it in the challenge, right? If you need more inspiration, check out the challenge blog to see what the other design team members came up with for CAS.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope you have an amazing week!

Challenges:

AAA Birthday – #61 CAS birthday card
CRAFT – Birthday (Happy 15th birthday!)
AAA Cards – #265 Anything Goes Birthday (Happy 10th birthday!)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2419 Anything Goes

Mail Carrier Birthday and Class Results

Hello friends! I hope that this Spring weather hasn’t gotten too crazy for you. I know that this is a season of storms and tornadoes where I live in the Midwest, and I saw Iowa get some tornadoes come through. It’s windy here, but luckily not that bad. So, I thought this would be a good time to catch up sharing some things I’ve been working on!

My first project is a birthday card that I made for my son last month. He’s a mail carrier and so I thought this would be fitting for him. The mail carrier came from a MFT Birdie Brown stamp set (retired) that was actually a female with ponytails and a dress. So, I’ve altered it and masked off the ponytails and drew in some shorts. The mailbox die (retired) and other postal related stamps/dies all came from MFT as well.

For the background: I’ve used a MFT cloud stencil and cut it out with a stitched rectangle die. After coloring the image with Copics, I cut it out with another rectangle die and placed it over the red postage stamp rectangle. I cut out the mailbox pieces and put it together over the cloud panel and added a few postal images at the top right corner along with the envelope in the background. I finished it out with the birthday sentiment on the mailbox (retired) and a few white gel pen details on the image.

Although he’s a mail carrier, I didn’t have to mail this card to him, and I got to see him smile when he opened it…which is better than mailing it!😊

Last month, I also participated in the Taylored Expressions Virtual Stamp Joy. I also just realized when registering for this event that I have participated in every single one of these since she started it during the pandemic in 2020! I think the pandemic has really changed the world in several different ways, but I’m glad that this was one of them as I have enjoyed doing these. There’s just something about getting a class event mailed to you and attending in your PJs while having snacks and crafting that I find appealing, I guess! 😉

Of course, doing virtual, I have lots of time to finish up projects, but I think I had them all completed within a week after the event…I just had to photograph everything and now I’m finally getting them on this post to share: (IF YOU ARE ON MY WEBSITE, CLICK EACH PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT-CLASS INFO AT BOTTOM OF PHOTO)

This was the “Strip Class” where we used the TE Strip dies in various ways…I made a few extras!

I had a busy month for sure! I’m also in the middle of another session of classes that I’ve been working on and having to go back in my spare time to get through each one. During the exact same time as Stamp Joy was going on, there was another freebie class weekend that was going on, so now I’m going back and watching the replays to do little bits at a time…I have a little way to get through it still, but when I finish, I will share those results too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my catch-up post today and have been inspired to have some fun even if you can’t be outside! I’m sure when it gets a bit warmer, I will want to enjoy it, but for now, I’m going to play in my craft room!

Thanks so much for stopping in and have a great day!

Challenges: (top card only)

Pearly Sparkles – For a Man/Boy #94
Dragonfly Dreams – Use a Die
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2415 Anything Goes
Creatalicious – #276 Anything Goes with Optional: Use Something New (new postage dies/stamps from MFT)
Ally’s Angels – #81 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stencil It (stenciled cloud background)

Sweet Treats for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a great week! Do you have any up-coming plans this weekend? I think I’m going to catch up on some craft things because it’s going to be a bit cooler and rainy over my way. The flowers are starting to come out and some of the daffodils have bloomed…so I hope the weather holds!

Today begins a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and Helen would like to see some “Sweet Treats” this month! I always think of birthday cards with this theme, so I thought I’d get ahead and make another birthday card to add to my stash especially since my son’s birthday was yesterday! So here’s my card for this challenge:

YUM! I’ve used the Simon Says Stamp Sundae Afternoons set and had lots of fun coloring up this image, and as I did, I was thinking of all of the different flavors of ice cream and toppings!

I realized that I needed a background and a surface for the sundae to be placed on, so I created a background with a cutting plate and sponged over the area where I was placing the sundae image. I also took a strip the same size and sponged the top area where the sundae would set on and then cut both pieces out with a stitched rectangle die. I also used some fun polka-dotted papers from my stash and added another stitched rectangle piece behind it before placing in on an A2 top folding white card base. The die cut background front panel was popped up with foam tape.

For finishing it off, I stamped the sentiment at the bottom from the stamp set, added some shimmer with a glitter brush pen over the whip cream on top and the fruit slice. I took some glossy accents over the cherries, toppings and jellybeans. I also added a few clear bubble drops to the background.

This was a really fun card to create and now I have a birthday card ready for someone! I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired to join the challenge with us this month as I’d love to see what everyone comes up with!

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy your weekend ahead!

Challenges:

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes PIP2410
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes Using Paper #567
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes #121
Love to Craft – Anything Goes #79
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes #225
The Male Room – Food & Drink #184

Mix it Up With a Fun Fold

Hello friends! Happy March! I’m happy to see this month come as signs of Spring start popping out everywhere! Pretty soon the flowers will start coming up too! Are you ready for Spring?

Today starts a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog! There is always lots of wonderful inspiration from the team, so please go check it out and play along! The challenges are always ANYTHING GOES with an optional theme. This month’s theme is FANCY FOLD! For these challenges, you have plenty of time to enter as they run for 6 weeks! I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Here’s the project I made:

These birds are ready to party! How fun are those party hats?! I’ve found this really cool take on a “Z” fold card, but this one has been named “Diamond Z Fold Pop-Up Card“. There are so many variations of this that I found on You Tube, but they’re all the same concept of the two diamond shapes on front and then an additional diamond pop-up mechanism on the inside that moves when you open the card. (Click on the card name for a tutorial.) The only thing I did differently than hers was using scallop square die cuts and I covered the pop-up mechanism on the inside with pattern paper so it’s not as noticeable.

I’ve used the My Favorite Things (retired) Birthday Chicks that I stamped, colored and die cut out and arranged over the design. I’ve also used the My Favorite Things (retired) pattern papers and of course the same for the scallop stitched squares. For the white squares, I’ve used a MFT cloud stencil with blue ink for the clouds and the sentiment was white heat embossed and cut out with a banner die.

When this card is closed, this is what it looks like. Notice that you do not see the bird on the inside panel next to the bird on top of the balloon as he is hidden until you open it.

It folds up just like a Z fold would and it’s A2 and ready for a regular A2 envelope. I’ve placed an extra panel on the back of the card for a special handwritten message and decorated it a strip of pattern paper and another party bird. I didn’t put anything on the inside stars pattern because I thought it took too much away from the front of the card and you don’t want an inside message to show on the front of the card. It takes a bit of maneuvering to decorate images and sentiments as to where to put them strategically on the card, but it was so fun!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and go check out the challenge to come and play along with us! I really look forward to seeing all of the different fancy fold projects in the gallery this month!

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

Challenges:

Make My Monday – Fun Folds #220
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper #566
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – More Than One Fold/Anything Goes #666
Krafty Chicks – #705 Anything Goes

Hearts and Flowers for Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far and enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day yesterday with some yummy sweets! We enjoyed some treats of our own! 😉

Today I have a new challenge to share with you for the Sparkles Monthly Challenge blog and this month the lovely Dawn would like to see some “Hearts & Flowers” on your creations! Although Valentine’s Day is over, I think hearts are great for adding any time of the year, so check out the inspiration from the design team and here’s what I’ve made:

I’ve made a mini slim card using the Taylored Expressions Hearts in Bloom Layering Stencils which are so great for mass producing several cards at once. For this card and the other cards below, I decided I wanted to use the TE Hearts in Bloom Foil Panels which works with these stencils. I foiled them with gold foil. I think the foiling adds such a pretty shine and glitter. I also used the TE Love & Hugs Foil Panels for the sentiment and die cut it out with the coordinating die set.

So after foiling everything, I used the stencils to create the pretty bouquet of flowers with the hearts in it and then added a frame around the edge with a TE Diagonal Stitch Mini Slim die that doesn’t cut anything, but adds those slash marks. I used some foam tape to pop up the foiled sentiment and just attached everything to a coordinating mini slim card base.

I couldn’t just make this one to show you, so here is the whole set of cards I’ve made together:

Those stencils create all of these patterns at one time. I just lined the foil panels up at one time and then used each stencil for the colors. If you didn’t want to use the foil panels, you could also just use the stencils on one sheet of cardstock and then cut them apart to make the card fronts.

I found these sets to become very addicting! And just like that, two of them have been sent out!

I’ve been really busy with creating behind the scenes and I will be sharing more soon! I will be around to see what’s been going on with you all shortly! I really appreciate your kindness and support…it really means so much!❤️ Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Hearts &/or Flowers
Make My Monday – Love
Allsorts – Anything Goes/Hearts
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – Show Us Some Love/Valentine
Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday– Fun with Foil

Let the Fall Begin!

Hello friends! We have now started the Fall season over my way and although the weather has been quite unpredictable, I am looking forward to the temperatures dropping and pretty Fall colors outdoors. I have just now started seeing some slight changes in some of the foliage.

COMMENT UPDATE: I thank you so much for taking the time and trying to leave a comment with me…I appreciate it! I have been in contact with a support team and they’ve been very helpful. Here’s what I’ve been told – “In response to your inquiry, WordPress.com indeed made some changes recently to enhance security and user experience. We released the new comments User Interface on 20% random sites which we believe is better than the older version in every way. e.g. Earlier the Facebook login was treated as a quick way to fill the guest form, but now when you log in with Facebook, your subscription preferences are recorded and rendered correctly; i.e. you’re actually logged in and remembered, and you can configure your preferences. However, we understand that this might not be convenient for all users.”
So basically this just means that the way the comment box looks is different. You should still be able to leave a comment. Just pull up the comment box and start typing whatever you want to say, once you do that, buttons will appear on how you’d like to enter your information/login. Once you do, the “reply” button will highlight and you can leave your comment. Hopefully you will be “remembered” the next time you visit. Hopefully, this all makes sense. (If you have any more questions or problems, you can always contact me)

So now let’s get back to some Fall crafting! I’ve made a birthday card for a guy that likes to go camping and eat smores by the fire….

I think this turned out so fun! I have used an older STAMPtember collaboration set from My Favorite Things and not sure if it’s last year or before that…but fell in love with the camp critters in the set! (This year’s STAMPtember collaborations will be fun to play with too! Stay tuned for some makes coming up with those!)

I have ink blended a panel in blues for a night sky and splattered some white over it for a starry look. I stamped and colored all the images and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I die cut a very dark green panel with a grass border die and attached it over the blue night panel that was layered onto a white A2 side folding card base. I tucked in and attached all the pieces over the grass and behind it for the scene and then even added some shadow with a marker under some of the images. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the set and then the celebrate banner was attached at the top. Lastly, I’ve added some Stardust Stickles over the flames from the fire.

How about you? Do you like to camp? Eat smores? Enjoy Fall weather? I like all of the above of course! Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve been inspired or gotten smile!

Challenges:

Make My Monday – Create Your Own Background (starry sky)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Allsorts – 4-legged Friends or Anything Goes
Passion for Markers – For a Man or a Boy (colored with Copic markers)

Occasional Blooms

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week! I’m excited about the changes I’m seeing outside with the weather! Looking forward to that cooler temperature and pretty colors!

I wanted to do a bit of “house keeping” regarding my blog. I apologize if you’re having problems trying to leave a comment. I’ve had a few people contact me about this and I noticed that when I cleared the “cookies/cache” from my end…it somehow changed the appearance of my blog comment area…I don’t know why!? I did find out that if you start typing in the comment box, buttons above the box will appear in which you can choose how to login. I suggest that if you don’t have a WordPress/Gravatar account, to choose the envelope button to leave your name and e-mail address that way. (The Facebook login does not work.) Then you can hit the reply button below the box to publish it. I tried letting the commenter leave an anonymous reply (without having to type in name and e-mail), but then I’ll have NO idea who it is unless a name is given within the comment, so I had to re-engage that again. I have also contacted a support person to help me navigate what’s going on and maybe I can get it back the way it was before. I do apologize if it’s giving you a problem. You can also go to gravatar.com to create an account which will work with ANY WordPress platform blog….but you don’t have to unless you want to do that! You should still be able to leave a comment regardless. Thank you for taking the time to care enough to share your support with me…I deeply appreciate it!

So now to get on with some crafting projects! I’ve had to change gears on the seasonal makes and create some cards that I needed to send out to some people and they all happen to be in blooms:

First up is a “thinking of you” card creating for a friend using several Lisa Horton products. These particular LH products all came from Inky Stamper.

I started with the craft background and embossed it with the LH Variegated Leaf 3D embossing folder and went over the texture with white ink. I then used the LH Hydrangea Stencil/Die/Embossing Folder to create the blooms…love how it turned out! I took some gold ink on the last layer of the stencil to go over the centers of the flowers. I popped the bloom up over the embossed craft background and white heat embossed the sentiment from the IS Pig Cause stamp set and cut it out in a banner to place over the blooms. I finished it with some gold gems.

My next card is a sympathy card needed for a craft friend who lost a loved one. This person likes to cross-stitch and quilt, so I thought this MFT stitched quilt die (this one retired) would be fun to do over some pretty floral papers. I had to die cut several white frames with it and lay the centers of the paper cut pieces on the first frame and then I layered two more of the white frames over top with the last pattern paper over that to give it that 3D look. (Not sure where the paper came from other my stash!)

I cut the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Sympathy/Heartfelt/Condolences die set and layered it in the same way I did the quilt frame die. I also white heat embossed the sentiment from the WS Deepest Sympathy stamp set and cut it out from a banner to attach right underneath the “p” in the die cut word. I finished this one off with some clear gems.

And on a happier note, I’ve made another bloom card to wish someone turning 75 years young a happy birthday! This is the first chance I’ve had to use this fun die set from Taylored Expressions! The bottom container came from the TE Antique Pails die set. I stamped the TE Burlap Background over it with the same color ink as the cardstock as well as Butter Cream ink to give it some texture. The flower arrangement was cut out from the TE Garden Variety die set in various colors. I also brushed some of the same colors in the centers of the flowers. The centers of the flowers have a silver metallic enamel dot.

For the frame, I’ve used the TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle die that only leaves the marks but doesn’t cut anything out. The sentiment was stamped and cut out with the TE All Together-Occasions 2 set/die and popped up with foam squares over the panel.

I think the most fun was arranging the flowers in the container!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my cards today and you’ve been inspired! Thank you so much for stopping by! I appreciate you! Have a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Die Cuts/Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Cardz 4 Galz – Use a Stencil, a Sentiment, an Image (top card only)
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes no twist
The Corrosive – Anything Goes

Alice in Wonderland for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! Hope you’re doing well and have had a great start to September! It’s hard to believe we’re almost into Autumn already! I’ve been enjoying the outdoors for as long as I can and Autumn around my area is so pretty, so I need to go out in it! Crafting will be waiting for me soon!

Today starts a new challenge for Sparkles Monthly with the theme of: Alice in Wonderland! So I hope that you will stop by the blog to check out the inspiration and join us this month! Here’s what I’ve come up with:

This was really fun to put together! I have always loved the Alice in Wonderland stuff and I actually have quite a bit of it for crafting, but this stamp set by Visible Image was new to me and something that I had gotten from a win for a challenge I entered a few months back. I also used the Supernova Stencil for the background from the same company.

For the background: I ink blended several colored and then spritzed with water for the watermark effect. I went over it with the stencil in a darker blue ink and spritzed it again. I then added some gold and white ink splatters over top for more texture. It was cut out with the wonky stitch rectangle die and layered over mirror gold cardstock.

I had some Alice in Wonderland papers and used s strip of the blue checks to cut out a wavy border and attached it to the bottom of the stenciled panel. I added these layers to an A2 top folding blue card base. I had some old-fashioned looking stamps which I had for years and stamped a few on the background in blue ink.

I colored “Alice” with Copic markers along with the piece of cake and key and then used the coordinating die to cut them out and attach to the card front. I added some pink glitter to Alice’s drink in her hand and the filling in the cake. I also added some gold sequins over the card. The sentiment was cut out with a banner die which I thought would make for a fun birthday card.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my card and I hope you’ve got some inspiration with it! (I’m a bit behind with so many things, so I will be checking out to see what you’re up to!)

Challenges: