Margarita and a Rainbow

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far and that you’re able to keep cool as I know it seems to be pretty warm for many of us in the U.S. It’s a great time to do some crafting, so I thought I’d share a few cards that I made that I needed. (Scroll down in this post to see the ‘rainbow’ card.)

I think a margarita sounds pretty refreshing in this heat! Newton here seems to be enjoying it anyway! All of the stamps I’ve used are from Newton’s Nook and I’ve made this card for a special person’s birthday. This person I’m making this card for had gotten me hooked on mango margaritas and I wanted to represent that in the card. (Note the salt rim on the glass.) The color is more a strawberry color, but I wanted to go with the colors for the Inky Paws Challenge. (See below in the challenge list.)

I stamped the “happy birthday” sentiment (retired set from Newton’s Nook) repeatedly in the background on the pink panel and then I splattered it with white Copic and water with a brush. The panel was cut from the Newton’s Nook Framework die set and layered with colors that match with the challenge. The blue card base was repeated stamped with the taco and I stamped, colored and cut one out to place behind Newton with the margarita. I took a strip of Doodlebug green polka-dot paper and white heat embossed the sentiment. I cut a tiny strip off and turned it over to glue at the top of the strip. I used foam tape to add the margarita kitty, finished it off with white twine and sequins with a spot of Stickles in the centers.

Challenges for margarita card:

Inky Paws – #203 color challenge
Country View – 4 legged friend
The Diva’s That Cut Paper – Birthday theme
NBUS – #52 July (Never Before Used Schtuff!) New Newton’s Nook products!
Crazy for Cats – Anything ‘CAT’ goes optional: festive
Daring Cardmakers – summer drinks
Simon Says Stamp – Anything Goes

Here’s another card I wanted to make for Beccy’s Place challenge using the free image that was provided this month and I thought it would make a great card for encouragement to send for a special cause I’m donating for:

I’ve used the non-colored version of this image and before printing it out, I’ve added a sentiment at the bottom from the Seasonal Window digital set from Beccy’s Place. (There are quite a few uplifting quotes in that one.) I colored the image with Copics and added a bit of shimmer on the sun with a glitter pen.

I think I’ve made this popped up frame around the image more complicated than what it needed to be, but I cut out the scallop frame twice for thickness, and also printed out a piece of the rainbow looking papers that was also a part of this month’s Beccy’s Place Challenge free image. I cut it out with the scalloped frame and attached it to my double thick frame layers. The image was placed over a black cardstock and the popped-out rainbow frame was placed over the image keeping a portion of the black frame showing. These layers were mounted over a 4 1/2″ square white card base.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my cards today! Thank you for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you Saturday for another Art Journal Page!

Challenges for ‘rainbow’ card:

Beccy’s Place Challenge – July Anything Goes using Beccy’s Place image optional: animal(s)
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes

NO STAMPING ALLOWED at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! It’s been a bit since my last posting! I’m still crafting, but I’m also enjoying the outdoors lately too! I’m just not making the time I need to post on my blog here! However, being on a design team helps to keep me focused on posting and hopefully it’s something that will bring motivation because I need it! So I will try and get some more posts in!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge and the theme is “No Stamping Allowed!” This may seem a bit challenging, but I look forward to seeing what people come up with for it! Be sure to check out the blog to see what the design team has come up with for inspiration! Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge this month:

I was trying to channel something that would work and realized that I had these fun strip dies from Taylored Expressions and I wanted to play with some new colors, so I ran with that on the middle of my card front by alternating the strip colors.

I also die cut a frond three times and glued them together for thickness and sturdiness. I attached it over the colored strip panel and then added a sentiment that was already toner printed so that I could foil over it with silver Deco Foil. I also had a die that cut it out which was popped up with foam strips and added to the bottom of the die cut frond. Lastly, I’ve just added some silver glitter drops randomly over the card front.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my non-stamped card today and will think about joining in the challenge with us this month! Thanks so much for stopping in! Have a great week!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – Use Dies
NBUS – #51 June – new colors and dies
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes and/or twist: flower + one other thing
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
CAS on Friday – Leaves

Sparkles Monthly Challenge-Things with Wings

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a lovely Mother’s Day weekend and are enjoying the month of May so far! I look forward to seeing those beautiful blooms and digging in the garden!

Today starts a brand new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge and the theme is “Things with Wings“! This is a good one as there’s several ways to interpret it! Be sure to check out the blog to see what the design team has come up with for inspiration! Speaking of design team, Caz is looking to add to the team, so be sure to check out the details if you would be interested in joining. Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge this month:

I thought the butterfly from this Taylored Expressions stamp set called Endless Joy would be so fun to color and use for this challenge. They were stamped with Copic markers and cut out with the coordinating dies.

For the background, I’ve taken the rectangle masking stencil and blended some blue ink over the center and then I’ve added an additional stencil over top of it and blended bluer to get the pattern. I then added some raw umber paint and opaque white Copic to splatter over top of it. I cut out a stitched frame and added it over the blended area.

I added the flowers and butterfly to the card by gluing and popping out the smaller flower as well as the wings on the butterfly. The sentiment was gold foiled and cut out with a coordinating die that was glued at the top. I added some highlights on the butterfly with a white gel pen and added some Stickles glitter to the center of the flowers. The white panel was attached to a top folding A2 white card base.

I hope that you have enjoyed my card today! I hope that you will stop into the challenge and play along with us this month! Looking forward to seeing the gallery of wings!!

Have an amazing day and see you again soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Four Seasons – Spring Season
Triple B (Birds, Blooms &/or Butterflies) – Spring
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Unicorn – Flowers
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes + featured critter
Fab ‘n’ Funky – Things with Wings
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes

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!

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:

Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: Lots of Layers
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Allsorts – Anything Goes optional: hearts
The Corrosive – Anything Goes

Playing with Roulette and Colors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

Black Friday Frog at Inky Stamper!

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

In honor of Black Friday, I have some inspiration using this NEW Freddy Solo:

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

Through the Purple Haze – Monochromatic
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Dies and/or punches
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Paper Piecing and/or sketch
Double Trouble – Scrapper’s GORP teaming with TSOT above

Some Summer Session Sets

Happy August friends! This Summer has really flown right by me this year, how about you? Before you know it we’ll be getting ready for all things Fall…which is my favorite time of the year!🍂 I haven’t been feeling well for the last several days and haven’t done much crafting, but I do have some sets of cards that I’ve made sometime during these Summer months, but haven’t posted, so I’d like to share them with you today.

Taylored Expression had released an adorable collection of fish themed products this Summer that I thought would be so fun for several different occasions, and not just for those that like to fish, but for anyone for any occasion too!

The first white background card on the left was created with the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Stamp & Stencil Combo. The stencil is really nice to create different effects in an easy way without lots of coloring. I like that the TE Hook, Line & Sinker Dies cut out some of the mass-produced stenciled fish background too! (I saved one for the other card as well and still had a few more left over for another project.) After I created a couple of the stenciled fish backgrounds, I cut out a panel with a wonky stitched rectangle die and placed it over a Kraft A2 card base. I added some TE Drip Drops for the “bubbles” on the extra fish and you can see that I’ve covered the body of this fish with a glitter brush pen.

The second card on the right was created with the TE Just Keep Swimming Stencil with Toffee Ink color for a watermark look. I splattered some white and black paint over the background. The fishing pool as well as the sentiments for both cards came from the TE Reely Great Stamp & Die Combo. (It includes the fishing pool die cut with it.) You will also notice the tiny little sparkly fish on both of the cards which were cut from the TE Little Bits-Fish die with some blue and turquoise glitter cardstock. The ‘frame’ around the sentiment on the first card as well as the green frame for the second card were extra pieces in my stash previously cut out with the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate. (I save the extras to use for other projects.)

Of course, I didn’t “invent the wheel” on these as it was simple by following along with the TE “Hugs & Fishes Craft-a-Long Class” which I got for free with my stamp/combo purchase when it came out. I tweaked it slightly, but sometimes it’s nice to just create and follow along without having to think about what to do with it. 😁

This next set of cards was actually pretty fun and easy to put together:

Continuing on with more Taylored Expressions products, I’ve used the TE Create-in-Quads Hexagon Layering Stencil Set. Taylor had recently come with this series sometime last year I believe, and they seem to go over pretty well. (I think I had previously made Christmas cards and some Mother’s Day type of cards earlier this Spring with other “Create-in-Quads” sets.) It seems like a lot, but when you see how easy it is to knock out four cards at once…which I did with Christmas last year…it’s such a time saver with wonderful results!

All of these cards were finished off with the TE Oh No You Didn’t stamp set & dies (love this set)! A couple of the cards use the TE Simple Strips-Snarky stamp set that were white heat embossed and cut out. The other cards have sentiments that were foiled from the TE Simple Strips In Reverse-Everyday Occasions and die cut. And of course, I didn’t want to waste too much of the foiled panels, so I again took my TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate to cut a couple of the frames with it. I also stamped out a couple of extra stars here and there from another TE stamp set, but I can’t remember which one I used. (I think it was from a previous card kit I have that’s no longer available…but any star will do!)

And again, no need to reinvent the wheel as I believe this was another class I received for free from a purchase. You can check out the Create-in-Quads Hexagon Craft-a-Long Class if you’re interested in it. I think I changed up the colors and details a bit for mine, but very similar in style.

**👀 Be on the look-out for another TE project set from me using another Create-in-Quads I recently got and can’t wait to use! I’m also going to have some things to give away too! STAY TUNED!!!

I had also attended a class from Riley and Company sometime this Summer as well:

I have loved that little Riley moose character for years, but Tanya (owner) does several of these on-line class events and she comes out with some really cute class kits. This kit had everything you need to make the projects and this one also included the sentiment die as well as a full 6×6 packet of papers in the coordinating theme.

For my projects, the giraffe was the only pre-cut image to color. All of the other bee images came from the papers that were included with the kit that you were to fussy cut from. Since the sentiment die was also included, I die cut all of those pieces for my card too. I decided to step-up my cards with some glitter cardstock along the edge of the giraffe card and then I die cut the “gold glitter honey drip” on that card from the Riley and Company Corner Goo Die. I also added little details like the “flying trail” of the bee with a marker and using a glitter brush pen on the bee wings.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Summer Session Sets today and have been inspired or brought a smile! Thank you so kindly for your time to stop in and have a look! I really appreciate it!

Challenges:

Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
Moving Along With the Times – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I’ve used both!)
Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes With Dies challenge
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes

Challenge Up Your Life-Fun in the Sun

Happy June 1st friends! This month will bring us into the Summer months which means it’s time for all of those fun outdoor activities! I’m also getting ready for lots of things going on this month including my son’s wedding! So I know I’ll be busy! How about you?

This is my last time to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer. I’ve had a great time with them as a guest for the past three challenges and appreciate being asked! Today their new monthly challenge for June is “Fun in the Sun“. Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month! (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!) And here’s my take on this theme:

What could be more fun than a cute little fairy sipping a drink floating on a lily pad?! Love those shades too!

There happened to be a good sale on a few digital stamps from LOTV recently and so I snatched a few and this was one of them that I fell in love with. This one is called Water Lily, of course. (The sentiment also came from the same company.) She looked like she was having some “fun in the sun” for sure, so I colored her up with my Copic markers and die cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die. I’ve also used a scalloped stitched die to cut out a piece of pink cardstock to go with some of the colors in the image.

For the background papers, I’ve found some great *yellow rainbow paper from Lawn Fawn and then I used a *sun die from My Favorite Things and cut out with some yellow glitter cardstock. (*These items have retired) I took a wave die from Lawn Fawn and cut out a strip from vellum and used my blue marker to add some color towards the top of the waves. To attach the strip, I wrapped it around the layers and glued it from behind. I then added the ribbon with the bow and attached these layers to an A2 top folding white card base.

Here’s a closer look at the image with the coloring I’ve done. I’ve used a gold gel pen to color in her head band and then a silver one to color in the little “dots” on the ends of her glasses. I used a glitter brush pen over her sunglass lenses as well as her wings.

I finished the card off with a few colorful sequins.

So does that look like something you’d be having some “Fun in the Sun” with?! I know I sure would!😎

I sure hope to see you playing along with us this month with your creations! I also hope that you’ve enjoyed my inspiration as guest designer for these challenges the last few months. Thanks for your support friends!

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts – For the Kids
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional “All About the Girls”
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Allsorts – Anything BUT birthdays
Everybody Art – Glitter and/or Pearls
Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional: lots of bling/glitter
Creative Moments – Summer is Here

Penny’s Paper-Crafty Guest Designer “Sealed With Love”

Hello friends and happy Wednesday! We seem to be rolling well into this month of March and my thoughts are turning to Spring and being able to get outdoors again after the cold winter months get put behind us! I’m seeing a couple of buds on my daffodils…yay!

I’m super excited to be sharing a card with you today that I’ve made for Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog as a guest designer for their #517 challenge! Last month, I had won a top pick for a prize as well as a future guest design spot with my calendar cards that I had entered. The challenge is always “Anything Goes using Paper“, so I hope you will take the time to join in the fun with us for this challenge! Here’s what I’ve created:

Isn’t this fella so cute?! I was given a few choices of images from the challenge sponsor(s) to use for my creation and I picked out this adorable image from Pattie’s Creations called, of course, “Snail Mail“. You can click on the name to get him in the store! Who doesn’t love a good snail mail especially with that adorable smile! 🐌 I colored him up with my Copic markers adding a few dotted details with my white gel pen. He was fussy cut with scissors and popped up with foam tape.

So, I thought it would be fun to create a background for him using the Taylored Expressions Sealed With Love background stamp. I used the heart stamp to give color and then colored the one envelope underneath the snail. I also used the sentiment in the clear set that comes with it and white heat embossed it over a strip of cardstock that was later added to the design.

I cut the background in half diagonally and used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Cloud Portrait Backdrop die and then sponged some blue ink over top of it. I used the top portion of it for my card front and cut this piece as well as the bottom stamped piece with the Lawn Fawn Small Cross-Stitch Rectangle Stackables die. To break up the section of where these two pieces meet on the front, I took some dark brown cardstock and cut a strip with a My Favorite Things border die. I layered this onto a piece of cardstock that was used for the sentiment and that’s where the ends of the scallop border was cut off. I then attached all of the layers onto an A2 sized white top folding card base.

I decided to die cut some hearts out with the same-colored cardstock (as the sentiment piece) to place above the snail’s head. I added some sparkle over them with some Stickles “Star Dust” glitter. I used it for the snails’ antennas and underneath his body where he’s sliding across to deliver his envelope.

I do hope that you’ve enjoyed my creation today for Penny’s challenge and will think about popping over there to see the wonderful inspiration from the design team! I sure had fun playing along too!

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

Challenges: