Hello friends! I’m so very happy to see April come as well as the warmer weather it has brought our way! I’ve actually been taking sometime outside to see some blooms with daffodils, tulips and other buds popping out everywhere! We are expected to get some rain tomorrow, but that is exactly what April is all about…and then the May flowers to follow!
This is exactly what it’s all about for this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly too! We hope you can share your “April Showers-May Flowers” projects with us this month! Here’s what I’ve chosen to make:
I always love a good Spring rain with a little bit of sunshine peeking through that causes rainbows! I never get a good photo of one, so I just enjoy it while it lasts!
I’ve used a fairly new product from Taylored Expressions with my card today called “Create-in-quads ROYGBV” which creates 4 different card panels at one layered stencil session. (I now have 3 other panels to make cards with too.) I used the “Create-in-quads ROYGBV vase die” to cut it out and then another one in black cardstock for a slightly off shadow effect behind it.
For the background card panel, I had a DCWV rain drops stencil (that I’ve had for a long time) and blended some blue ink over it. I’ve also cut a piece of blue/teal colored glitter paper for a thin border behind it to attach over an A2 white top folding card base. I then took another piece of blue cardstock strip to make a “landing/grounding” for the vase to sit on. Before popping up the ROYGBV vase, I took a marker to create a blue shadow underneath where the vase would be positioned. I was going for a “rain puddle” look. Popped it up with foam tape and added a white enamel dot in the center of one of the flowers. I also took a glitter pen to cover over the raindrops and “rain puddle” under the ROYGBV vase.
The sentiment came from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips-Rainbow stamp that I’ve white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut it out with the Mini Strips-Asymmetrical die and chose the ones that I wanted to use for this card to attach over top of the vase. (I also have extra sentiments to use on other projects.)
Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! I also hope that you will take some time to stop in and join in the challenge with us this month! I have several projects finished that I’d like to share, but I find it so hard to come and sit at a computer when the sunshine and happy weather is calling my name! Maybe when it rains tomorrow, I will post more things!
Hello friends! Hope you had a great weekend and maybe did some crafting? Did you participate in the World Card Making Day events? There were so many things going on, so I basically opened up the You Tube video marathons and watched while I did a bit of crafting.
I was inspired by the Craft Roulette WCMD event with several crafters showcasing their version of the parameters they were to use for that event. It was several hours long!
Here’s the card that I made with the Craft Roulette World Card Making Day parameters of – PROJECT: A2 card, COLORS: rainbow, ELEMENT: nature, and RANDOM: black dots
I also combined my card using one of the sponsor’s products which I’m entering for this week’s sketch challenge from My Favorite Things.
I’ve had these stamps in my collection for quite a while and it was nice to pull them out for this card. I actually needed a card for an elderly woman who recently fell and broke her hip, so she’ll be recovering with therapy for a while.
For my card, I used the MFT Watercolor flowers and stamped them in red-, orange- and yellow-colored layers and cut them out (This was my nature element parameter). The middle was cut with the MFT Stitched Hexagon diesthat I ink blended with green and blue inks (These colors make up the rainbow parameter). I splattered the shape with white and black. *Before I splattered, I stamped the sentiment from the MFT Essential Sentiments set with black pigment ink and heat embossed it with clear EP. (The sentiment was cut in portion to fit my design.)
For the A2 sized card base (makes up project parameter), I used a MFT Triangle background stamp (retired) in the same kraft color that I inked the centers of the flowers with. I also used this color to ink around the edges of the card. I than layered two more cut out shapes for the ink blended sentiment panel for dimension and attached to the stamped card base. I used foam tape to pop up the flowers and lastly added some black gemstones (for the black dots parameter).
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration! See you soon!
Hello friends! I hope you’re having a good week so far and staying safe wherever you are in the world. Sending hugs to all experiencing a troubled time. I hope that my post can bring a smile to you today.
I needed to create some get well type of cards and so I thought I’d try to incorporate some challenges while working on them which helps me to concentrate more in what I’m doing and maybe think outside the box a bit.
My first card is made with the Beccy’s Place Challenge freebie this month and she also challenged us with a sketch which I’ve decided to use for my card. (see sketch below) I was really happy to use up some more pattern papers with it and I also decided to add a tiny dragonfly at the top to enter another challenge and to adhere to my “bug” theme today!
I printed the image in black and white and colored with Copics. The dragonfly and the center pink strip were stamps that I cut out and added to the design. The rest is pattern paper from my stash except the scalloped kraft border in the center that I cut out with a die. I stamped the sentiment and cut it out to go with my twine around it. *You will notice in ALL of these cards that I’ve used some sparkly gems. I wasn’t aware until posting them! I must be on a kick of wanting to use them!*
And for this next card, I’ve played with a large bug:
Around my area this time of year, you can hear the sound of these cicada bugs with their distinct noise throughout the trees. My husband likes the sound when a bird catches one! EEW! This bug is a cute one from Inky Stamper called Cicada and I’ve colored it up with pencils this time. Hard to see, but I’ve also added some shimmer with a glitter pen on his wings.
I’ve used the Picket Fence Tree Bark stencil over kraft on the background and then splattered it with brown and white paint. The leaves under the bug and the accent came from the Lisa Horton Variegated Leaf EF+die that I cut over light green cardstock. I used some metallic green wax to go over the details in them. I also used some gel pens to make some doodles around the strip, the circle and under the sentiment along with following a sketch. (details below) You will also notice more sparkly gems! I’m also entering this in the Inky Stamper FB challenge this month which is using an IS bug image.
For my last card I decided to keep this one simple’ish’:
So, I know these aren’t real bugs because I’m not squealing, but these guys are too cute! They’re popping up out of the dirt for a special greeting! I mixed in both a new and older stamp set from Lawn Fawn on this one. I’ve used another sketch for this one and decided to keep it very simple. The hardest part of this was the coloring which honestly wasn’t all that difficult either because they’re small images. I’ve also added some shimmer with a glitter pen on the wings and of course, there’s those sparkly gems again!
Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great month so far and being able to enjoy the nice Spring weather! It’s been really nice over my way, but I’m seeing we have a bit of cooler temps coming too. Hopefully not too chilly!
Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog and this time we would like for you to “Emboss it”! I hope you will hop on over to see the inspiration from the team and consider joining in the fun with us this month!
Here’s the DT creation that I’ve made:
I love to do embossing on my cards, and I know it’s a favorite for many! I’ve decided to do a “Letterpress Embossing” technique and inked up an embossing folder to achieve the effect on my orange layer panel. The raised areas stay white on the white cardstock.
For the two corners, I’ve taken a Simon Says Stamp Garden Greetings stamp set and gold heat embossed the floral spray image. I’ve also used the same gold embossing for the “sending hugs” sentiment strip as well as the “Get Well Soon” sentiment over the shimmer vellum which was cut from a stitched circle die. I added some gold sequins over it.
I wanted to keep it somewhat flat for mailing purposes, but I think some of it popped up would be pretty too. I was also very happy to pull out a past card kit and make another card with it.
I would love to see your embossed creations in the gallery this month, so I’ll hope you’ll play along! Check out the challenge here – Sparkles Monthly
***ARE YOU A WINNER?!!***
I have taken all of the comments from my last post, added all of the names that mentioned they would be interested in the Beautiful Butterflies dies and foil package and wrote those names on pieces of scrap paper. I folded and crumpled them up and had my husband pick out a name. He threw them all into the hat he was wearing and pulled one out!
HERE IS THE NAME THAT HE PICKED OUT…………….
Yay! Congratulations Chrissy!
Please contact me and send me your full name and snail mail address so that I can pop your package in the mail to you! I hope you enjoy it! (I haven’t even used mine yet!) Sorry if your name didn’t get pulled as I only had one, but I know I have several “double” items that I’ve placed in a bin and will be pulling them out at some point to give away! So, stay tuned!
Thanks so much for dropping in and taking the time to say hello! I appreciate you!
Hello friends! I hope that you are having a great week so far! After the little “heat wave” hit us, I’ve been enjoying some ‘nicer’ outdoor temperatures, finally. As you may have read in a previous post, I had been working on my son’s wedding invites as well as some thank you cards for them to send out afterwards. I will be sharing that later on, but today I have some other “mass production” that I’ve been working on in addition to those:
First up, I’d like to share a set of cards I’ve made for the Taylored Expressions Fans FB Group challenge for May which calls for “4-8 mass-produced cards. (similar or identical)” & the colors “Poblano Pepper with Confetti Cake“. I do not own the Poblano Pepper, but I do have a small cube of Confetti Cake ink.
I’ve been wanting to create several sympathy cards so that I had them on hand instead of making at the last minute for one, so I was happy to get these made. I decided it was just easier to make them identical so that I didn’t have to decide how to arrange or cut my papers, etc. I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Diamond Botanicals with dies as well as the TE Diamonds Masking Stencils for the main image. The background uses the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock.
Here’s a close-up look at one of the cards. I stamped the floral image in black ink as well as the sentiment from the stamp set and then took one of the Diamonds masking stencils with some Confetti Cake Ink to softly blend around the edges of the sentiment area with it. I also used a blender brush to blend around the edges of the cut Toffee layer too.
Since I only had the Confetti Cake ink color, I matched up the coordinating colors with my Copic markers and colored in the image using only those color tones. I think it worked out great for sympathy cards. After I colored up the images, I used the coordinating die cut and popped it up over the Toffee cut panels with foam tape squares and then layered it over a side folding white A2 card base. I finished each one with some of those coordinating TE Pastel Tiny Diamonds. (Although the suggested listed coordinating colors on the website don’t have the Poblano Pepper or Confetti Cake, I thought it matched up rather nicely to this anyway.) I think these cards work out great for mailing too.
And speaking of sympathy cards and Taylored Expressions, I thought it would be great to create a nice gift set too:
If you remember one of my previous posts, you may remember where I created a greeting card gift set (CLICK HERE). I’ve went along with the same idea here and made them all sympathy related cards using my own acetate box and some Taylored Expressions products. These were all quick and easy to pull together using the Taylored Expressions Done for You Alcohol Ink Background Panels along with a previously released card kit stamp set/die.
I decided to heat emboss several of the fern images with white, gold and silver over a few of the panels, some over white and vellum and then cut out. I placed them along with the heat embossed sentiments cut out and arranged them over the panels. I matched up the cardstock that I had from my stash with the panels to create the completed cards.
Here’s a gallery of a few of the cards up close along with the finished gift box tied with a ribbon: (Just click on each photo from my website to see them enlarged.)
I think this will make a nice gift for someone as I always hear people saying they never have a sympathy card on hand when they need one or for those people that don’t make their own cards too.
And lastly, I’ve made a couple sets of mini slimline style cards using the Taylored Expressions In the Garden-Triple Slim Layering Stencil:
I quickly fell in love with this quad type of stencils especially with these gorgeous florals! I love the way these floral panels are different from one another, and you can stencil them all up with the same color in one pass! I needed a couple of Mother’s Day cards, so making all of these at once sure came in handy for bonuses too!
Using the “craft-along” video from Taylor and Heather, I used the same, or similar colors that was used, added my black splatters and then used the TE On Occasion with dies as well as the TE Get the Word Out-Mother’s Day with dies for the sentiments where I white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut out. I just glued to the panels and attached each panel to a white mini slimline card base.
And then here’s another set of mini slimline cards using the same products as above except I used Toffee instead of the white cardstock for these. I also stamped the sentiment with dark brown ink over white cardstock and then cut them out to place over the stenciled panels.
I also used both dark brown and white paint to make the splatters over these. I also used the TE mini slimline stitched and scallop die cuts for these cards and then layered them over top of a Toffee mini slimline card base. I’ve also added a few TE white rhinestones for a bit of sparkle too.
I also think that these would make great greeting card gift sets as well! So, then it’s just a matter of which ones to keep and which ones to give away as a gift!?🤔
Hope you’ve enjoyed my mass production post today or have been inspired in some way. Thank you so much for taking the time to drop in and say hi as I enjoy hearing from you!
Challenges:
Creative Friday – No patterned paper (top set of cards only)
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (top set of cards only)
Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a great start to your week and are staying safe and warm in your world.
Today I’m sharing a collection of creations that I never seem to have in my stash because it’s never really something that I think about when creating…and I always seem to be making them as needed rather than having a few on hand. Even though, a couple of these were needed, I decided to make duplicates to have on hand this time around.
As you can see, this is a pet sympathy card I created, and one was needed to send to a friend that had recently lost her special companion. For anyone that has lost a pet knows how this feels and I wanted to be sure to send something special her way. It’s always great to have one on hand when needed.
I’ve used this wonderful stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Furever in Our Hearts. I started by ink blending the background with distress inks in Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn and Blueprint Sketch on a piece of Neenah Solar White. I sprayed the panel with water and used a towel to blot up the water droplets. I then took some white shimmer paint mixed with water and splattered it over top with a paint brush.
I cut out the panel with a Lawn Fawn Cross-stitched die. I used my Brilliance Black pigment ink to stamp the paw prints and sentiment over top of it so that it would show up over the background. I die cut a couple of clouds out (MFT I think) and lightly sponged the bottom of them and placed them over the areas I wanted with popping up the one cloud using foam tape at the top of the paw prints. I layered this panel onto a piece of black cardstock and then layered them both over a white A2 sized top folding card base. I finished it off with a few sparkling clear sequins.
Another card that I needed was for someone that had recently been through a surgery, and I actually didn’t have any more “get well” in my stash… again, so I decided to create a duplicate of this one too. This set of cards along with the set of cards below actually were the results from the previous OOAK event I had attended, and these were part of a class I had taken. So, this class actually came in handy!
All of the papers including that beautiful die (from Memory Box-Verdant Leaf Collage), Get Well Soon die, and dewdrop water droplets came with the kit. I subtly changed up the design given for the class by adding black paint splatters and changing up the die cut lettering and the layering of the papers. I really liked doing more of that ink blending and then having it fade to the white for a soft look. The outside woodgrain frame was popped up with foam tape.
And here’s the second set of cards created within the same class using the same Memory Box die and ink blended colors. I changed up the layout with these as well by making the card base black (instead of white like shown in class) and instead of the sentiments used in class, I created my own version with the Whimsy Stamps Deepest Sympathy clear stamps and the WS Sympathy Heartfelt and Condolences die set. I also added the black paint splatters to the ink blended panels like on the set above.
I thought these sets made for some really nice cards to have on hand when needed. I’m not sure that I would’ve actually sat down to make up these types of cards in production if I hadn’t have taken the class, so I’m glad I did.
Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope I have inspired your crafty inspiration in some way! I’ll be seeing you soon!
Hello friends! Hope you’re having a great week so far and have been enjoying the September month! I look forward to the Autumn Season and all of the beautiful changes it brings! Today, I have a fun post to share with you!
Super excited to have won a guest design spot over at the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge blog! Have loved playing along with the challenges over there for years! A few years back I had been on the DT for a bit which was really fun too!
They have fun challenges every other week with a select set of 5 categories/themes that alternate for each challenge which makes it nice so that you can plan your creations according to each one! So, the category/theme for this challenge happens to be “Any Occasion.“
This turned out to be a really great category to work with because my husband came to me and said one of his friends that he used to work with broke his leg. So he’d asked me to make an “interactive” get well card for him:
The first thing that came to mind for this was the cute Lawn Fawn stamp set “Get Well Before n Afters” along with the “Magic Picture Changer” die set. Once you’ve made one of these picture changers, it’s not hard at all and it’s really fun to see it change. I had made a card a couple of years ago for someone else with this set and it was a really fun card to make! So I grabbed the items and started with the scene for the background.
As you can see, there’s not much showing once you place the pull tab picture changer layer over it. So I just sponged some clouds over the white background and die cut a grass border for the bottom section of the card. I also white heat embossed the sentiment at the bottom of the grass section, but waited until the picture changer area was done so that I could use that for placement of the sentiment. I also added one of the band-aids for decoration to the right of it.
I wanted a tiny scene inside of the picture changers with the cute turtle. If you’re familiar with the stamp set, then you know there is a turtle on his back not feeling well and then there’s also a “healthy turtle” image too. So for the “sick turtle” I sponged the sky and grass behind him and the stamped clouds by using masks I cut out from the images. I then colored him up with Copics.
And then of course when you pull on the slider tab, the picture changes and you see the “healthy turtle” with the sun and rainbow instead of the clouds and rain. LOL, I colored the images with Copics again and made masks for the images so that I could sponge over them for the sky and ground.
I popped up the picture changer section with foam tape over my background panel and then layered it over a top folding A2 sized card base so that there’s message inside too. Lastly, I’ve added another band-aid image on the green frame and stamped some band-aids on the envelope for mailing too.
It’s certainly no fun to be laid up with a broken leg, so maybe this will help cheer him up!
Hello there friends! Hoping that you had a fabulous weekend! Although it has been really hot over my way lately, I enjoyed spending a bit of time with hubby going out for a cold Starbucks frozen treat and time at the park. What is something that you enjoy as part of your Summers? In this crazy time right now, it seems we’re having to come up with different situations than we have in the past.
Today I’m sharing with you another project and reminder for our current {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge.
For my card here, I’ve pulled out another Stampin’ Up! set that has been a favorite of mine and I think it’s from a previous year Sale-a-bration set along with the embossing folder in the background behind it. The stamp set is called “Blossoming Basket”.
I have used the 3D “basket weave” embossing folder to emboss the white background, but before putting it through the embossing machine, I’ve taken an ink pad and inked up the folder to add the color to the background design.
I’ve also taken the “Hardwood” background stamp from Stampin’ Up! and inked it up over a piece of kraft cardstock and then used some brown ink around the edges of it and a cut strip for the bottom portion of my card to create the table area for the basket to set on. The sentiment as well as the banner strip and the scallop kraft layer were from My Favorite Things products and then I layered everything over an A2 sized top folding yellow card base.
Here’s a closer look at the image and how I’ve colored it in with my Copic markers.
I ended up fussy cutting out the images with my scissors and attaching them to the card design. I stamped the basket image a couple of different times and cut out extra flowers to place next to the basket and another set of flowers were popped up over the original image with foam tape. I only used glue in the center of the butterfly to lift up the wings.
I added a twine bow to the basket along with some pearls in the center of the flowers along with the top corner of the design.
I hope you’ve been inspired by my creation today in some way!
Speaking of which…I have some challenges I’d like to enter my card for:
Double Trouble – I used the tic-tac-toe board in 2 ways: emboss, insect, sponging and also insect, flowers, woodgrain
Hello friends! Wow, this week has really been flying by! I seem to think this almost every week, but I know when the weather starts getting warm, I seem to get more busy outside and perhaps that’s why with the weather being so nice, warm and sunny. I am enjoying it!
Today starts a brand new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday this week and the theme is “Stitching (faux or real)“. There are all types of ways to incorporate stitching into your paper crafting and I enjoy adding it to my creations. So here’s how I’ve added it to my card for today. I thought this would be such a cute idea for a get well card.
To make the slider for my card design, I have used the Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer and the Magic Picture Changer Add-On dies. It looks pretty intimidating, but it actually wasn’t that bad to put together as the measuring and cutting is done with the die. I’ve used the adorable Get Well Before ‘n Afters stamp set to create this and I know I’ll be making another one with the whale to make another card as I’m in need of one. The turtles were colored with Copic markers and I’ve used them to also create the grass and sky background behind the turtle as he needed something to “ground” him and not be up in the air. I took a water-proof pen and added a scribble above his head as he’s not happy being up-side-down!
I’ve cut the “add-on” pieces and the background of the card with the Lawn Fawn Watercolor Wishes and Really Rainbow paper packs. But before attaching the “add-on” papers to the turtle frame, I took a needle and some linen thread and added a few cross-stitch marks around the blue frame. I’ve also cut a few clouds from a retired LF die set and added the die cut “bottle” that I colored from the same “Get Well” stamp set.
Before I attached the turtle mechanism onto the card, I also die cut a strip of grass with the Grassy Hillside Pop-Up Add-On die in some green cardstock. I then took one of the sentiments from the same “Get Well” stamp set and white heat embossed it at the bottom of this piece. The turtle mechanism was popped up over the card front base with some foam tape which was all mounted to an A2 sized top folding card base.
I thought it would be fun to decorate the envelope too, so I die cut a piece of the grass again and used it as a stencil to sponge in some grass along the bottom of the envelope and then I also stenciled some clouds over it.
And here’s what the turtle looks like when you pull the tab out. He is much happier now that he’s back on his feet again! I think I played with this card and pulled that tab to watch that turtle get on his feet over and over! LOL! I hope it will have the same effect on the person who receives it too!
Here’s a closer view of the coloring that I’ve done. It was a small image and so I’ve kept the coloring pretty simple. For the “happy” turtle I’ve made a few clouds in the sky. To make the slider part work, you don’t want to add anything other than the coloring so that it slides smoothly.
Here you can sort of get a better look at the coordinating envelope that I’ve made to go with the card. Although I have made some hand stitched marks on my card, the dies themselves already have lots of cool stitch details in them when you cut it out, so I think it just helped add to the design. This card is going to a male, so I didn’t want to create anything that was too over done. I think this might bring a smile, what do you think?
P.S. If you remembered my post the other day, I shared a photo of the Robin’s nest with one egg in it. Well, since I’ve last checked, there are a couple more in there now:
Every time we go out there, the mother watches for us to leave as she wants to sit on her eggs! This is why we can’t get a photo of her actually sitting on it. But we will see if anything happens in a few weeks! 🙂
Thanks so much for dropping by today! I hope you are enjoying your week and I’ll see you soon!!
Hello friends! It’s my pleasure today to post information about this special image that Whimsy Stamps has just released today in honor of our beloved illustrator Crissy Armstrong’s brother, Ray Gauvreau, who is currently battling cancer.
I have made a special card just for him that is being sent out his way:
I started out by coloring up this image with my Copic markers in the following:
For the background of my card, I took some xyron printed paper and foiled the background which I think looks great for a masculine theme design and that is what I was trying to go for with this card. After foiling it, I took and sponged some yellow distress ink to blend around the edges of it for a bit of color, along with the image panel.
I had an old stamp set from my stash and thought it would be a great fit for this card, so I stamped the vertical “fight” sentiment next to the IV bag and then I took the other sentiment and heat embossed it with white EP and cut it in a strip to attach over the image. Lastly, I’ve added some white enamel dots to each corner of the design.
Here’s a close look at the image and how I’ve colored it in. It’s hard to tell in the photo of course, but I’ve also covered the IV bag with a clear glitter brush pen. I think this image is a really great one to add to a crafter’s collection for “get well” cards and encouragement too like this one. After cutting out the colored image panel and sponging the color around the edges, I’ve also layered this along with the foil panel with some black cardstock before attaching it onto a white top folding A2 sized card base.
In this photo that I’ve laid flat, you can better see the shine from the foiled background that I’ve done.
Thank you so much for stopping in today and for your kind support too!
I will see you tomorrow for a special blog hop, so I hope you can join me!
Stamped Smiles 