Time to Get Your Grumpy On!

Hey there friends!  Hope you’re having a wonderful week so far!  We’re getting closer and closer to Halloween already!🎃  I haven’t made as many Halloween makes as I usually do, but as the day gets closer I’ve been more in the mood to pull out some things to have fun with my stash and my thoughts turned to “Grumpy”.

If you’re not familiar with “Grumpy”, this is the Big Grumpy Cat from Taylored Expressions.  I absolutely love the “Grumpy” and “Grumplings” line and I don’t pull them out as much as I’d like to.  Since it’s closer to Halloween, I’ve also pulled out the Big Grumpy-Halloween accessory set to go along with him too! (The only thing I used from this set was the witch hat and the sentiment.)  I’ve stamped, colored and cut out each of these items for my card.

The #TEMakerChallenge has the theme this month of using Oreo & Sugar Cube with the option of adding any other pop of color.  I’ve decided to pop in an orange color for mine.  The theme was also “Sparkle & Shine” through foiling, heat-embossing, glitter paste or sparkly cardstock.  

So for the “Sparkle & Shine” I’ve taken a Foil-It Spiderweb panel and foiled some orange Deco Foil over it.  I then took one of the Frame in Frame 3 dies to cut out the middle of this panel, added some acetate over the opening and made it into a shaker panel.  I die cut the same frame as well as the Little Bits-Spiders die from some black Glitter Cardstock.  I attached these pieces onto the web panel along with adding the Grumpy Cat with his hat string and extra spider attached to him over the acetate.  I attached double-sided foam around the opening and added some “shaker stars” in the colors orange, black and silver.  And lastly, I thought it would be fun to pop up a left-over ghost I had from a previous project at the top!  (I think the ghost is in fear of the “witch switch”!)😂

  • I also have another “grumpy” card to share…

So this card was made to send a smile to a friend.  I’ve used a cat for this one as well from the Taylored Expressions “Grouchy Grumplings” set which I don’t believe is available in the store any longer.

I kept it a simple card by stamping, coloring and cutting out the grumpy.  I ink blended a circle that fit him with blue ink, white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out from the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets. I popped grumpy with foam tape over the sentiment banner and circle.  I also used some TE decorative papers from my stash and cut out a banner with it using my scissors.  A corner chomper was used to round the top left corner of the card to finish it off.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Grumpy” projects today and have been inspired in some way!  Really appreciate you stopping in!

Challenges: (Top card only)

  1. Country View – Halloween or Harvest
  2. Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
  3. Crafting Happiness – Halloween
  4. Aud Sentiments – Halloween/Fall + Sentiment
  5. Crafty Gals Corner – Halloween Colors
  6. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  7. Allsorts – Add a Sentiment
  8. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  9. Double D – Orange & Black

*Vicki*28 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

Challenge Up Your Life with a RAINBOW!🌈

Hello friends!  I don’t know about you, but I’m so happy to see the month of May starting!  That means the flowers will be coming out along with the warmer weather!  It’s also a great time of the year to see a rainbow perhaps?!

#147_regenbogen_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 I’ll be joining them as a guest for April, May and June challenges!  Today their new monthly challenge for May is “RAINBOW“.  Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month!  (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

Here’s my guest design creation for this month’s challenge:

Nothing better than to look up into the sky and see a rainbow!  What’s also fun is to be able to create your own and especially on a card to send to someone to brighten their day!  I’ve used a previous card kit from Taylored Expressions that contained these products:  Make a Rainbow Stencils, Over the Rainbow clear stamp set, Rainbow Cloud Duo dies, and Over the Rainbow Sentiments clear stamp set to create this card.  I ink blended the different colors through the rainbow stencil and stamped the orange dots over the rainbow as well as a few hearts in light blue ink. The sentiment was also stamped with black ink over top of the rainbow.  I then die cut the one cloud twice from white cardstock and ink blended some light blue around the edges of it and popped it up with foam tape at the ends of the rainbow.

Then the card front panel was ran through the die machine using the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitch Rectangle dies (Which actually doesn’t cut anything out, but creates the lines.)  I layered it onto a piece of black to make the rainbow pop a bit more and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding TE Pineapple card base.  I also topped it off with a couple of TE Bits & Pieces-Full of Heart sequins. 

I knew the minute I went to create for this challenge that my zippered pouch from Taylored Expressions that has the “A Rainbow of Possibilities” sticker over it was what I was going to grab!  All of my rainbow things are in it!  Makes it easy to grab when you know everything is in there!

I hope you’ll stop over at the challenge blog and join with us to share your rainbow too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card or been inspired!  Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’ – Rainbows & Rainy Days
  2. Arty Divas – Anything Goes
  3. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
  4. Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (encouragement)
  5. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

You Are Not Alone Ukraine

Hello friends! Welcome to the weekend and hoping it’s a good one for you.

So as I’m sure you’ve been seeing lots of card makers pulling together in making some beautiful inspiration with the Ukraine flag colors and Sunflowers in support.  I’m seeing where there is some sort of card auction going on over at Instagram too, but I’m not on there to see anything.  It has moved and inspired me, so I would still like to help support in some way as a card maker to share some inspiration and hope for peace in the world too.

So my first thought was to turn to one of my favorite sunflower stamps which comes from the Taylored Expressions Wheatfield Dreams and I thought they would be appropriate for me to pull out some of my Karin Brush markers to watercolor.  I’ve also used the coordinating die for the set to die cut the flowers.

For the background, I’ve used some watercolor paper and some Ranger Blue Ribbon Oxide ink for the background by smooshing the ink pad onto my glass mat, spritzing with water and smooshing it over again with layers of water, smooshing, drying, spritzing, etc.  I also used the Taylored Expressions Heart to Heart stencil with the same ink and foam tool to go over top of it.

I prepped the background with an anti-static tool and white heat embossed the sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Soul stamp set.  I cut down the sides of the watercolor paper and added some strips of yellow cardstock to the edges and attached it over an A2 sized top folding white card base.

I then glued down the die cut sunflowers except for the one in front where I used some foam tape to pop it up.

I took a white gel pen and added a few light dots in the center of each flower for some highlights and then took a glitter brush pen for some shimmer to the petals, but it’s so hard to see in the photo.  I decided to water down some white paint to add a few splatters.

Lastly, I’ve taken some heart shaped clear dew drops and attached a few to the background.

I’m pleased with how the card turned out and hope you’ve been inspired in some way too.  Thanks for stopping in and sharing your wonderful inspiration and lovely thoughts my friends.  Take care of yourself and one another.

Challenges:

  1. Festive Friday – ###0104 Choose 3 from list: I chose Flowers/Plants, Encouragement & Stencils Festive-Friday-0104challenge-card

2.  Freshly Made Sketches – FMS525FMS Final 525-001

3.  Happy Little Stampers Watercolor – March Anything Goes Watercolorchallenge badge

*Vicki*29 Comments

One Layer Challenge and More Riley Fun!

Hello friends!  Hope you’re having a great week so far!  I have a few cards to share with you today that I’ve made over the weekend having some fun.

Vicki-InkyStamper-FebCAS

I love the cute little grin this goat has! This goat along with all of the images used are from the same stamp set by Inky Stamper. This month, the Inky Stamper FB group challenged us to create a ONE-LAYER only card…not even ribbon/twine, etc could be used! I haven’t made one of these CAS or one-layer cards for quite some time, but I enjoyed the play with it.

So I’ve used masking paper to create this by stamping the goat over masking paper, stamping the goat over the front of the card and then placing the cut out masked goat to cover him up.  I then die cut a circle over another piece of masking paper and placed the left over piece on top of my card where I masked my goat image.  All that was left was the circle opening and this is where I ink blended the opening with distress inks.  I also stamped the small line of grass with green ink.

I took off the circle mask along with the goat mask.  I colored up the goat with Copic markers and then I stamped the triangle image from the same stamp set along with the sentiment.  I then added 3 black gems and colored the inside triangles with a glitter brush pen.  I also used my corner chomper to round the two bottom corners.

This last weekend there was another OOAK event and there was another fun card kit from Riley and Co.  I didn’t attend the entire event, but joined in to see what the new release was about while I was making my cards from the kit.  I’m pretty sure that there are no more of these kits left as they sold out of the first batch and had to make more.

The critters are so fun to color and I really loved these papers from the kit as they have me anxiously awaiting Spring to get here!  I’m bundled up, drinking hot liquids and trying to stay warm, but nothing beats a warm Spring day!😁

To get a better look at each one of these cards up close along with what’s going on for the insides, check out the gallery below.  If you’re directly on my blog website, you can click on each photo below to enlarge it:

The cat’s bugged out eyeballs is too funny! I’ve used foam tape to pop up his sign.
To continue with the cat sentiment on the outside, here’s what the inside part says! LOL
It may be hard to tell in the photo, but the sentiment is a window. Check out next photo to see the complete sentiment.
Full sentiment for giraffe card…here you can window.
This card opens along the side edge…check out next photo to see inside…
I sort of messed this one up as I should’ve placed the outward fold back a little more as the card doesn’t completely open and I didn’t have room for the sentiment…so this was changed later.

Just wanted to share my recent makes as I’m still trying to work at finishing up some Valentine cards along with getting going on the wedding invites.  Sure enjoy seeing the wonderful inspiration from everyone and hope that you’re all staying safe and warm friends!  Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges (Top Goat card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Triangles
  2. Happy Little Stampers CAS – “Inky”
  3. CAS on Friday – Male
  4. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  5. Just Add Ink – Minimalist 

*Vicki*25 Comments

A Snarky Friend

Hello friends!  It’s getting closer towards the end of the month and so it has motivated me to get going on some challenges that are about to end soon.  So I’ve grabbed my supplies and had a fun play…

Tee hee!😁  This one makes me chuckle and I think it would be so fun to send to a special friend for Valentine’s Day or even at any time of the year!  Most all of the products I’ve used for this come from Taylored Expressions.  Along with many people, I do enjoy those “snarky” products they sell!

To start, I’ve based my card on a sketch for a challenge that’s about to end and worked with the Taylored Expressions Easy Strips 1/4″ and Easy Strips 1/8″ dies for the bottom right side of the card using the colors Blue Raspberry & Dijon cardstock.  The colors are part of the TE Maker Challenge for January as well which is about to end too which is why this was my choice for this card.  I cut the panel in half diagonal based on the sketch and used a white cardstock for the top right area and blended some TE Blue Raspberry ink with the TE Superstar Rotating Stencil.  Layered these onto some Dijon cardstock which was layered onto the white top folding A2 card base.

  • For the image panel, I stamped the “TE Grouchy Grumplings” (Sorry, it’s been retired it looks like! LOVE that snaggle tooth!😆) and the TE Shenanigans sentiment on the same panel layered over a piece of Blue Raspberry cardstock that was popped up with foam tape.  The image was colored with Copic markers.  I also stamped the TE Simple Strips-Snarky with black ink over a piece of Dijon cardstock that I cut out with the TE Simple Strips-Asymmetrical die and attached at the top right corner of the card. 

To finish off the card, I die cut the stars from the TE Gathered Stars die from Dijon cardstock, glued over the card and then covered with a glitter brush pen.  I also added some TE Tiny Diamonds over the stars to match the Blue Raspberry color of the cardstock.  For the image panel, I used a black pen to doodle around the edges and then covered the heart with glossy accents.

Hope you’ve gotten some chuckles or inspiration from my card today!  Thanks for dropping by!  I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. *Cheerful Sketches – Jan sketchsketch januari
  2. Taylored Expressions FB Fans Group – TE Maker Challenge Jan
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Jan Stencil Challenge ATG + stencil image (2)
  4. CRAFT – Anything Goes
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring (Copics used)
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*25 Comments

Winter is Shaping Up With Interaction!

So after getting my calendars ready to start the year off, which is easy to sit and craft during the cold snowy winter where I live, my mind turned to winter when creating!  Sometimes it’s nice to create with a “snowflake/winter” theme because I think they can be used interchangeable for Christmas or just a “warm winter greeting” for someone!  (Or… because you might be late sending one out or for those friends overseas that won’t arrive one time!)

Today I’m sharing a card that I’ve made for this month’s Inky Stamper challenge on FB with the theme: “Shaped Cards”

Vicki-InkyStamper-Janchallenge-shapedcard

Isn’t she cute?!  I was trying to come up with a different shape besides a regular circle, etc.  So I looked up “coloring pages for kids” free online and found this one that I resized to what I wanted and printed it out over some light purple cardstock.  I used another printed one as a template so that I could cut another one out over a folded cardstock piece to create a shaped folded card design. (You can partly see the back piece in the photo.)  The sparkly “ball” at the top was just die cut out from a scallop circle die with sparkly silver cardstock.

For the card front, I used the Inky Stamper Snow Angel stamp set to stamp the snowflakes in the background with some purple ink.  I white heat embossed the sentiment over and wanted it to stand out a bit more, so I sponged some more light purple ink over top of it.  I colored “Rosie” over Copic blending card and used the die to cut her out with.  I’ve die cut a couple of the large snowflakes from Lawn Fawn with white cardstock and layered them over the beanie hat.  You can see that “Rosie” is popped out a bit over that snowflake, which is where I’ve added a “wobbler” to her…check it out in the video below:

The wobbling action doesn’t move around in the video as it does in person.  I think my camera slows down the action or something.  (weird)  And of course I finished the card with some sparkly Icicles sequins mix from Inky Stamper too.  I filled the centers of them with some Silver Stickles.

Because of the “ball” on top and the length of the “beanie band”, it needs to be in a 5.5″ square envelope to mail.  You could also make your own envelope which I do all the time anyway.  But the 5.5″ size fits perfectly.

*Speaking of Inky Stamper things, this past prior weekend there was an OOAK event (on FB) that Inky Stamper was apart of, so of course I wanted to get the kit and play along too! (I think that these have recently been sold out.)  But the stamp set used for the kit was this fun Penguin stamp set you can still get in the store.  Here’s my results:

The top card is an interactive “Theater Fold” design.  (All of the pieces were included with the kit along with an instructional video/class.)  I participated in the OOAK FB event to play along.  She usually always includes a mini bonus card which measures about an ATC size. (3.5″ x 2.5″)  She used the “icicles” from the stamp set, but I decided to stamp and cut out another snowflake for the front of mine.  I added a pretty gem to the center of it.

And of course that’s not the ONLY fun I had during the OOAK event!  I decided to play along with the always cute and funny Riley and Co. as well!  Here’s the set of cards created from that class:

I just thought these were so cute with the cow images and their little outfits along with the “Funny Bone” sentiments!  The instructions came with the kit which were really easy to follow along with.  I basically looked at the photos and put together the pieces from the kit.  For the clouds, I decided to pull out some sparkly white flock to cover them with.  They have a nice soft feel to them!  They just make me chuckle and I think it will be fun to send along to someone who needs a smile!😉

*If you are visiting my website, then you can check out each one of these cards in the gallery below by clicking on the photos to enlarge them: (I’ve found some coordinating envelopes from my stash for each card.)

Flock was added to the clouds.
purple, sparkle and funny sentiment…what more could you ask?!
rainbow image was turned upside-down for the swing! So clever!

I sure hope that you’ve enjoyed my post today and have been inspired in some way!  Really appreciate you stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!🥰  Stay warm!

Challenges (For Winter Beanie Hat Shaped card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Winter Fun
  2. Papercraft – Winter Wonderland
  3. Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional winter
  4. Make My Monday – Winter-Wherever You Are (snowy and cold!)
  5. Make the Cards – Encouragement (You’re unique sentiment)
  6. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment

*Vicki*34 Comments

Amazing Autumn🍂

Hello friends! Happy October! I hope that you’re having a great week so far and looking forward to doing something crafty this weekend for World Card Making Day!!🌍😀  I have decided to post something a bit early as I know there will be tons and tons of special posts planned by many, so I thought it best to post today instead!

IN THE MEANTIME, I DO HAVE A FUN GIVEWAY LOCATED ON MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!!  YOU HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th TO ENTER…JUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT THAT YOU’RE INTERESTED!!

There are SO MANY things going on this time of the year and maybe that’s why I love Autumn so much. (WCD, Halloween, birthday, Cooler temps, warm clothes, Harvest, yummy foods, pretty colors, changing leaves, Halloween…oops already said that…but you know!)  I am thankful for all of it!  I have a couple of cards from a TE kit I recently got (yes, I know…another one to pile on!), but I fell in love with it so much & I am using it right away!😁

There is some copper EP that comes in the kit, so I heat embossed both the sunflower and wheat images together so that I could color them both at the same time with some watercolor.  I then cut them both out with the coordinating dies and set aside to work on my background.

The background was so fun!  I’ve used a Bristol Smooth watercolor panel and pulled out some Mica Stains and other sprays from my stash with a spray bottle filled with water and just played.  Some of it I splattered to make “dots”.  I used the “Burlap” background stamp in the kit and randomly stamped the background as well as heat embossed an element and sentiment from the stamp set.  I cut this panel with a die and wrapped some twine around it before attaching to a chocolate truffle card base.  I used some foam strips to pop up the flower and added a twine bow to it.  Finished it off with some Iridescent Rhinestones.

And this is the second card I’ve made using the wheat image that I previously colored with the sunflower image above.  What’s nice about this card is that the background was done using one of the foilable panels from the kit.  I found some copper foil and ran it through my laminator.  I lined up the cut out wheat image with the background and glued it over top cutting off the bottom portion that stuck out.  I also heat embossed a sentiment from the TE clear set in my stash and then punched it out with a circle punch.  I used my blender brush to very lightly add some Sea Salt ink at the top of the foiled panel as well as around the sentiment circle.

Lastly, I attached both the image and sentiment panels onto a piece of copper foil cardstock and then mounted it onto a side folding A2 white card base.  It was simple, but I like the shine it gives.

I had been discussing with someone recently how I really need to make more sympathy cards to have on hand…so here’s a start to getting a pile going hopefully.

Speaking of needing cards, all of the birthday cards from my last post have been spoken for!  Everyone seems to really need birthday cards and like having them on hand.  I can totally relate to that!  I think I need to get some “sorry I forgot” ones thrown in there too! 😂  

I still have some projects that I’ve been working on in the background from some classes I took over the Summer but still haven’t shared yet, so I thought I’d start a little bit at a time and I think these “Autumn themed” cards work with my post today:  (If you’re seeing this post on my website, just click on the photos below in the gallery to see them up close.)

  • These projects were from a class taught by Daniel West for Hero Arts and we received a large woodgrain background stamp for the class. It was fun to make the backgrounds!
  • This is an image from Impression Obsession that was more of a “Spring like” image, but changing up the colors for Fall gave it a different look. I sponged around the image and panel and added some splatters.
  • This was a Simon Says Stamp class using an older stamp set. We used some sprays and also colored with them for the images.

I have taken SO MANY classes, so I still have many more projects to share as I go here!  Hope that you enjoy seeing what I’ve been up to!  It’s just fun to play around and in the process…no matter how little a piece I use…I am using my stash somehow and I’m very happy about that!  At least I’m still crafting anyway! LOL

Thanks for dropping in and have a great crafty weekend!

Challenges to enter for the first two cards only:

  1. Sketch Saturday – Sketch #679 (my second card turned)
  2. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  3. Make My Monday – Embossing (heat on both cards)
  4. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using Paper
  5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
  6. Happy Little Stampers – Watercolor (used on both images)
  7. Creative Knockouts – Fall is in the Air

*Vicki*24 Comments

Classes, Donation and Challenged

Hey friends!  Hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend and will be enjoying the first ‘official’ day of Autumn tomorrow!🍂 Yay!  I know that this is my most favorite time of the year and today it seems like it has finally cooled off a bit which is very welcoming to give the air condition a break!  Decorating for Fall/Halloween is also a favorite thing I like to do along with being outside…so I’ll be doing that this week and weekend for sure!

Today I have some creations that I’ve been working on.  The first one comes from a challenge that I wanted to enter along with breaking out a new stamp set, but excited about using an older embossing folder and some paper that has been in my stash for far too long:

He even looks like a wise old owl…and I thought he would be cute with a little bow around his neck too!  This is not a ‘new’ stamp set from Inky Stamper, but it’s the first time I’ve broken out to use this Owl stamp set!  Their challenge issued this month was “embossing” and so I pulled out a VERY old embossing folder (remember the Cuttlebug days?! LOL)  I think it was one of my very first ones!  Plus, I pulled out some Coordinations Sandable textured and colored cardstock.  It is weathered looking, but when you sand over it, the color comes out underneath…really cool stuff that I haven’t used very much!  You can get the coordinating dies for this ‘Owl’ set which also cuts out the owl and the leaf in the set.  I’ve colored them up with Copic markers and used the die to cut them out with.

For the embossing folder card front, I took a piece of the Coordinations paper, die cut it out and then ran that piece through the selected embossing folder and then sanded over it with a sanding block.  I also die cut a frame the same color as the card base and took a separate embossing folder from Stampin’ Up! to go over that with and sanded it a bit as well before popping it up on the card front.

Before placing all of the elements on the card front, I decided to add some white and black paint splatters over the background.  I also copper heat embossed the sentiment underneath the owl, die cut the strip and popped it up with one of the leaves over top. (You can also see along the edges that I’ve heat embossed too!)  I popped up the owl, but left him grounded to the frame and then finished it with copper sequins filled with glitter drops.  The copper twine bow was a last element decision.  LOL🦉    

Speaking of sanding, it reminded me of this class I took with Inky Stamper making these cards. (couple weeks ago)  I believe there are still a few kits available in the store if interested.  The directions are recorded and saved on their You Tube channel.

Anyway, the sanding reminded me of this class because at the bottom of the card, the kit included sandpaper for the beach.  Really love the look it gave to the design with the texture and tiny bit of sparkle in it!

 

And the same day I had the class above, I had this class from Craft Fancy during their OOAK event.  These were made from their “Alcohol Pearls Butterfly card kit” (I think they have some left in store if interested).  The kit came with one alcohol ink color in Celestial Pearls, which is beautiful, but I decided to also add some copper metallic from my stash for another bit of color.  I also went on my own a bit with the white heat embossed sentiments at the bottom.  I really had fun playing with the alcohol backgrounds and being able to cut them out in one pass for different looks.

I thought this set of four cards would be perfect to add to my donation box to The Butterfly Project in support of domestic violence.  So I was able to send off a batch of cards for that this past week too.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my mixed collection of projects here and I’m sure I’ll have more fun things coming soon!  Thank you for stopping in!

Challenges I’d like to enter for OWL CARD only:

  1. Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Sept Challenge – Embossing (heat or dry)
  2. Let’s Squash It! – embossing folder (Cuttlebug & SU! used on mine) with letters or #s and sand it
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  5. Allsorts – ‘real’ animal/creature
  6. My Time to Craft – embossing (heat/dry)
  7. Splitcoaststampers – SC871 Wednesday SketchSC871 Color

*Vicki*26 Comments

Working in Washi Encouragement

Hello friends!  Happy Labor Day!  Can you believe we’re in September already?  The time goes so quickly!  I’ve been helping my husband around the house so we can finish up some projects before the weather starts getting cooler on us!  He does keep me busy since being retired! LOL!

As I had mentioned, although I wasn’t posting on my blog, I was still crafting.  I’ve also been trying to organize my craft room with my husband helping me to move things around as my space had really gotten to be over-whelming.  Carrying several card kits (many never used) and boxing them up to store, I realized how many things I actually have and never used!  It’s fun to buy stuff, but I think it’s even better to use something I have…as I’m becoming my own store!  So for this reason, my purpose has really shifted to TRY using what I already have if possible!  I know many of us are in the same boat, so perhaps I can help inspire too!

Here’s a set of cards that I’ve been working on from a virtual class that took place sometime in July.  It was supposed to be a set of 4 cards created with this gorgeous paper, stamp set and washi tape collection from Teresa Collins (Called “Create a Beautiful Life”).  The purple and butterflies really spoke to me and I got the kit…which I honestly didn’t need, but this is how it’s been!  I was supposed to get some already cut butterflies with the kit, which I didn’t…but it was fine, as of course, I had some dies that worked just fine for these cards and I decided to go off a bit on my own anyway.

Remember the post I had recently done about the washi tape challenge?  This is what made me think about this card kit class and that I needed to finish it up!  There’s a couple ideas in there using some of the pretty washi tape from the TC collection.  I think taking all of these virtual classes has taken a tole and burned me out a bit as well because although I’m making the cards (and have a huge stash of them), I usually still have extra product/material to use up too!  It sort of compounds the problem and doesn’t really help much.  I think it’s just time to consider a heavy freeze on it all!  Or at least until some of my stash gets used up anyway!🙄

Here’s a closer look at each one of the cards in the set.  If you’re on my website, just click on each photo below to enlarge it or if you are set up with e-mail, it will probably show in original form.  (There’s a caption under each card with the details too.)

  • The background is made using washi tape.
  • Left over washi tape pieces from previous card to form heart.
  • Inside of heart window with washi tape pieces.
  • layout using pattern paper.
  • More papers used with an ink blended heart window and black splatters.
  • Used more snippets from paper collection.
The washi tape cards are the top 3 and the paper snippets/scraps are the bottom 3.

I stamped some of the sentiments that were included with the stamp set from the collection, but there were also strips at the bottom of some of the pattern papers, so I took some of them and used them for some of the other cards.

I really like how they’ve turned out and this will be a nice set of encouragement cards to send along for my donation box this month to “The Butterfly Project” for domestic violence.

Really hope they were inspiring for you as well and that you’re reminded to use your own stash of papers, washi tape and other forgotten materials too!

Would love to play in these challenges for fun:

  1. Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes 
  2. Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
  3. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animals (butterflies count!) 
  4. The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes
  7. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes (birthday optional)
  8. Just Us Girls – 6 of anything (Didn’t realize it, but used 6 strips of pattern paper on the last card in the gallery!)  Thanks Vicki D!😉

*Vicki*23 Comments