I Scream, You Scream

Did you say “We All Scream for Ice Cream”? or did you think this was about Halloween? Well although that season is quickly approaching and I do love all the spooky things, this one is actually about ice cream today. As hot as it has been and going to be this weekend, it might be nice to have! However, I do have some on my card today:

I made a birthday card for someone that loves a local ice cream parlor that sells lemon ice cream, so that’s why it’s all in the bright yellow colors! I’ve used some yummy goodies today from Newton’s Nook for my card. I also followed along with a sketch challenge for the Inky Paws Challenge, and it’s about over, so I needed to get it in! (see details below)

I pulled out the NN Summer Scoops stamp set and stamped a couple of the cones, colored and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I also took a strip of vellum and heat embossed the sentiment in black over the pattern and black layers. The striped pattern was from the NN Birthday Woofs paper pad, and I used the largest of the NN Frameworks die set to cut it out. For the center of the striped panel, I used the heart die from the NN Furr-ever Friends die set and cut out the center where the vellum sentiment strip was placed. I added a piece of yellow cardstock behind the heart so that the sentiment would show up and layered the striped panel onto a black layer which I placed over a top folding A2 sized white card base. After popping up the ice cream cones, I added two black strips above and below them to fit the sketch design.

The Summer Scoops set also had the extra heart which I colored and cut out to place next to the sentiment. I added some shimmer to all of the hearts with a glitter brush pen and then I took some individual sprinkles from the NN Celebration Embellishment Mix and glued those on top of the ice cream. I saved the twine that came with my order from Newton’s Nook and tied a couple of bows to go on top of the ice cream cones. It was the perfect color to go with the sprinkles!

Of course, I need to make the envelope yellow too and I stamped an additional cone image on the bottom left corner of that too. And yes, the birthday person was also gifted some lemon ice cream!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my lemon ice cream card today or found some inspiration with it! Thanks for dropping by and I hope you’re able to enjoy yourself something refreshing this weekend even if it isn’t ice cream! 😉

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Inky Paws Challenge – #204 Sketch challenge using NND product
Cupcake Inspirations – CIC575 Add a bow/ribbon
AAA Birthday – Game #52 Anything Goes Birthday
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
Tic Tac Toe – TTTC222 I used middle down: patterned paper, free, birthday
Penny’s Paper-Crafty– #553 Anything Goes using paper
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2332 Anything Goes

Feeling Tropical at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that whatever state you’re finding yourself right now, that you’re able to find a bright spot in your day somewhere. In watching the news, there are so many variable patterns in the weather and my heart goes to those in Hawaii dealing with the wildfire disaster. My card today is not only for the DT challenge, but also a tribute to our tropical friends in Hawaii.

There’s a new challenge today over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the theme of: TROPICAL and/or BEACH

Since I live in the Midwest area, I don’t get a chance to see too many scenes like this, but maybe someday hubby and I will get a chance soon! The inspiration for my card came from my computer background photo and I loved the look of the water with the setting sun. Everything I’ve used on my card today came from Lawn Fawn.

The entire background was done with stenciling using the LF Beach Sunset Stencils and inks. I added that mice couple from a freebie stamp set that came with one of my orders. I colored them pretty dark with cool grey tones so that they blended into the beach and looked like a silhouette. The sentiment at the bottom was white heat embossed from the LF Butterfly Kisses set. I’ve used a glitter brush pen over the sun and purple reflective water. I think I got a little carried away with the white gel pen, but I was trying to make it look like the dark areas were highlighted with some of that setting sun over it and there’s just no removing any lines! (If you’ve done this, then you know what I’m saying!)

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my Tropical themed card today or found some inspiration with it. Thanks so much for dropping in and please check out the challenge details with inspiration from the DT and play along!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Four Seasons – Anything Goes Summer
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional: Great Outdoors
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Get Creative – Summer Nights
My Time to Craft – Stenciling
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

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

Patriotic Pandemonium

Hello friends! I had a day of some crafty fun and wanted to share things I’ve made for some challenges. I absolutely love the red, white and blue colors. Most of the time it’s associated with patriotic colors and July 4th Holiday, but I’ve decided to take not just the colors, but the theme using one stamp set and a sheet of paper to create different looks with it.

First up is this really cute mouse waving his flag with a fun patriotic theme…which is what this new stamp set from Inky Stamper (called Americana) was intended for. I printed out some freebie papers and used them on all of my cards here today. I colored Ralph up with Copics and popped him up on a scallop circle silver glitter cardstock and stamped the sentiments and stars with red and blue inks. I also added some sequins from the Stars & Stripes sequins mix at Inky Stamper and added some silver Stickles in the centers of those as well as the stars. I also added one of the flags from the sequins mix next to the sentiment at the top. (I’ve used these on all of these cards too.)

I’ve made this card for SCS Teapotter Tuseday challenge as a Patriotic Congrats card for someone in the military whose been promoted to Colonel, so this worked out really well for sending this one out.

For this card, I wanted to share that a teeny tiny image from a stamp set can be fun to use in a different way as well. I took the “bomb popsicle” image that was stamped and colored and popped them up with foam tape over die cut stars from white glitter cardstock. I’ve used some more of the freebie papers and added a sentiment that was white heat embossed over red cardstock and cut out with a banner die. The tiny red stars came from that sequins mix I mentioned above.

I made this card based on a sketch for a challenge that I wanted to enter before it ended too. (Check it out in the challenges listed below.)

And lastly using this same stamp set, freebie papers, sequins mix and color theme, I made a Christmas card with it. I took the little star image from this stamp set and stamped it several times, colored it in and fussy cut several of them out. It’s not that bad when you’re cutting and watching videos while you do it!

I took a circle die and traced a circle with a pencil so that I would have a guide as to where to create my wreath. I stamped a few stars directly on the circle area and then erased the line before I colored them. the other stars that I fussy cut, I glued some on and popped some up with foam squares. I also added an extra star in the center of the silver bow on the wreath.

I added some silver sequins from the same sequins mix mentioned above and then placed some silver Stickles in the centers of them as well as in the center of the stars.

These were so much fun to make with all of the same products and color theme to challenge myself with. I hope you’ve enjoyed them too or been inspired in some way. Thanks for dropping by!

Challenges:

Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – sketch + cold treats (card 2)
Crafting Happiness – Anything Goes (card 1)
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Summer (card 2)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal (card 1)
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes featuring animal (card 1)
Pearly Sparkles – Christmas in July (card 3)
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes (card 1)
Challenge Up Your Life – Patterned Paper (all cards use papers)
The Paper Fun Day – Anything Goes optional: red, white & blue (all cards)
Try it On Tuesday – Use 3 colours (red, white and blue)

Rainbow Chicken

Hello friends! Hope you’re enjoying your week so far. We’ve been having some really hot and dry days lately, so I’m trying to get some motivation going and have some play time for crafting!

I have not played along before, but I decided to grab this fun digital freebie from the Beccy’s Place Challenge and have a go at it because it really made me laugh when I saw it!

Isn’t this such a fun image?! There was an option of different pre-colored images, but I decided to print out the lined image to color in. I colored the chicken in rainbow and then added a pair of die cut glasses in silver mirror cardstock that I had on hand. (I already had the glasses cut out from another card I made that was laying out on my desk, so when coloring this image, I thought it would be fun to add!)

The layout came from a sketch challenge that she’s also sponsoring. (see challenge list below) I thought that I was going to leave it as just black and white to make the rainbow chicken stand out, but I found some fun rainbow papers and decided to add one panel to go with the chicken. I came up with and typed out the sentiment underneath the image and printed them both together.

For another part of Beccy’s challenge, there is an optional theme she included which was “doodling”. So I took a white gel pen and added some lines for highlights on the chicken. I’ve also taken a black marker pen to make some squiggle lines around the image panel too. I blended some grey ink around the edges and then used a distress tool for the distressed edges.

After adding the glasses, I covered the eyeballs with some crystal effects for shine.

And this one has been sent off to hopefully make someone smile! I hope you like it too!

Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday for another AJ page!

Challenges:

Beccy’s Place Challenges – June Challenge using Beccy’s Place image with optional doodling
Cheerful Sketches – June sketch
The Diva’s That Cut..Paper! – Use a Critter
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Humorous
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional: FUN
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – 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

Emboss It at Sparkles Monthly + Giveaway WINNER!

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?!!

vicki-tegiveaway

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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…………….

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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!

Challenges I’d like to enter my above card into:

Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes optional clouds
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – At least 2 layers
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
Tic Tac Toe – TTTC204 (middle down: die cut, free, embossing)

Class Fun & Square Samplers + Give Away

Happy April friends! We have finished March already and onto Easter very quickly approaching! I hope you’re enjoying all things Spring coming up your way! We’ve had several storms and we’re in the tornado season as well, so I hope everyone is staying safe out there whatever the weather. I do have some things that I had previously finished and wanted to share:

First, I wanted to share about the Virtual Stamp Joy Event by Taylored Expressions that I participated in a few weeks ago. I always have so much fun and enjoy the motivation that it seems to generate! I’m sharing them in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website post, then just click on each photo to enlarge it.

The first four photos were from a class using the same floral stamp set and the others are from the next day of make-n-take projects. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them!

The last set of four cards were a “mass production” using a background stamp in different colored cardstock panels and clear heat embossing over them. The class sample had “hello” sentiment on each one, but I changed up the sentiments and have placed them in a card box to give them out with envelopes as a gift for someone.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!

From the end of last year up until this last month, I didn’t have much time with the Holidays and everything going on, but as you may have seen in previous posts, I participate in a “square sampler swap” and when everyone sends out their squares, we then complete a home décor piece with all of the squares, so I thought I’d share mine finally completed:

CLICK PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE

This was for the Christmas Sampler SWAP and you can see that I’ve used a black shadow box frame for my sampler and placed some red with red metallic dotted paper behind it. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used My Favorite Things products for my square.)

This was for the Winter Sampler SWAP and I went with a white shadow box for this one. I’ve placed some soft blue snowflake papers for behind my sampler as I thought it was soft enough to not look too busy. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used Inky Stamper products for my square.)

And recently we finished up our Spring Animals Sampler SWAP that I used another white shadow box for the sampler. I’ve added a piece of pink colored “Watercolor Wishes” paper from Lawn Fawn behind it. It looks a little off in the photo, but it looks better IRL. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I used Taylored Expressions products for my square.)

Not sure if we’re doing any more or not, but I had so much fun making the squares to swap with friends!

Lastly, I have a fun little thing to give to whoever is interested in these Taylored Expressions dies + foil-it panels package. (It’s not sold in stores anywhere as it was a free gift with purchase) I have an extra and so I thought I’d give it away to someone! Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll pick someone from the comments.

Leave a comment below if you’re interested!

That’s all I have for today! Thanks so much for stopping in! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Party Pandas

Hello friends! I had another birthday card to make and this person likes panda bears, so I thought I’d go through my stash and see what I had for that. Here’s what I came up with:

So, I found this cute little guy that I believe was a “freebie” a few years back for your birthday month from Lawn Fawn called “Party Panda” and the extra was that “Happy birthday” sentiment as well. There was also a set of coordinating dies with it that cut out the panda as well as the tiny cupcake.

So, to make it a good party, you need more than one panda, so I stamped him out three times and stamped out some “party elements” as well from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals stamp set, colored and cut everything out with the coordinating dies. These little guys turned out so cute with their party hats on and holding their birthday items to celebrate with another panda friend, of course!

I thought it would be fun to create a green colored frame with the Watercolor Wishes paper cut out with the Outside In Stitched Rectangle and the Reversed Stitched Scallop Rectangle dies to create a frame. I had some additional metallic gold polka dotted papers for the background behind it that were also a freebie with one of my orders. Before attaching it to the back of the green frame, I also added a piece of Noble Fir cardstock cut from the Grassy Border die. Attaching this border to the frame only gave me some room to tuck the pandas behind the grass.

I stamped the sentiment in black, cut it out with my scissors to make a banner and sponged some green ink around it before attaching to the card. Lastly, I added some gold sequins and placed it over an A2 sized top-folding white card base. I decided to create my own envelope with more of that green Watercolor Wishes paper to mail it in.

Well, the green and grass have me thinking of Spring coming and I think I might party like a panda myself when it finally arrives!! 😆🎈 I’m sure ready to be outdoors!

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired! I’ll be back Saturday for this month’s Art Journal Page and hope to see you then! Thanks for dropping in!

Challenges: