May AJ Page-Never Forgotten

Hello friends! I hope that your month has been going well so far! We’ve been doing lots of things outdoors and enjoying the time as much as possible until the temperatures climb higher and gets too hot. I’m enjoying it now, but unfortunately, there will be storms this weekend in my area.

This weekend (Monday) is also Memorial Day for those of us in the U.S. The date and name may vary by different countries, but it’s all about remembrance of our active military who’ve died. I wanted to create my art journal page today in reflection of this.

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” May prompt of “MATERIAL”-(use fabric/cloth in some way):

For the “material/cloth/fabric” prompt, it got me thinking because I don’t sew very much. Sometimes I get out my sewing machine, but rarely! I do have some fabric scraps and I thought it would be fun to cut out some squares with pinking shears! Then I had to figure out what to do with them!

For the background: I used a 5.5″ x 8.5″ of canvas heavy weight paper with the pre-punched holes at the top made with my Bind-It-All Machine and painted over it with some Crisp Blue Americana acrylic paint. Once dry, I sprayed some silver metallic over it. (You can see some of the shine at the top.) I didn’t know how busy looking the fabric squares would look, so I decided to stop there.

Although I did cut several different squares of fabric patterns, my eyes were pulled to the red, white and blues which were perfect for Memorial Day. I pulled out only those type of colors and used some fabric glue to attach over the background randomizing the patterns. I also took some silver and navy ribbons to attach at the top and bottom areas where the fabric squares stopped.

The poem was a memory that I had during a vacation time with my husband when we ran into a memorial with a park bench and this poem was engraved with birds around it. I looked it up and printed it out on my computer over a parchment paper. I ripped it out and sponged the edges. I also printed out the “forgotten” at the top and cut it out in a banner. The poem was popped up with foam tape over the fabric squares. “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” – by Mary Elisabeth Frye

The stars and “never” letters were die cut and attached and I finished it with red rhinestones next to the “forgotten” banner.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today and I really appreciate you stopping in! I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Poems
Creative Artiste – #104 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Love to Craft – #80 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Let’s Art Journal
Crafting Happiness – #176 Any Craft

Occasional Blooms

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

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

Rainbow Bridge

Hello friends! Welcome to March! Although it’s still cold and even some snow coming in our forecast, I know that warmer weather is coming soon along with those pretty flowers! I have a full weekend of crafting coming, so I’m prepared to get through this cold snap!

So, I have unfortunately had to make and send a couple of pet sympathy cards as I didn’t have any on hand. I decided that I needed to pull out a card kit from My Favorite Things called “Rainbow Bridge“, I think. It’s no longer available, but I know they have a few things in pet sympathy. I wanted to make sure that I still had some of these on hand when needed because I feel like these can be hard to make.

This card was made and sent out in January for someone who lost their precious fur friend. I thought the silhouette looked a similar shape to the photos I saw. I’ve used the stencil and dies that came with the kit along with some of the papers included in the kit with the paw prints. I’ve also used the same papers as a liner for the inside of the envelope that you can see in the photo.

I’ve ink blended some rainbow colors and then used the die set in the kit to make the rainbow bridge and added some hearts around the silhouette pup which was popped up over the rainbow bridge.

I also needed to make a kitty one and then just decided that I was going to use this card kit to make several of these different pet sympathy cards so that I had some on hand when needed. I thought that was a clever card kit and knew it would be very useful to create lots of pet sympathy cards with.

These are all in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge the size so you can see the details:

Sometimes it’s just good to sit down and craft to have some cards on hand that you know you’ll probably need at some point, but don’t want to hurry to try and put something together because you need it.

Hope you’ve gotten some inspiration in my post today or found some inspiration with it. Thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Allsorts – Anything Goes optional 4-legged Friends
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Critter Crazy – Anything Goes + Featured Creature
Pearly Sparkles – Include Sentiment/Verse
The Diva’s That Cut Paper – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes Using Paper
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

Friendly SWAPs

Hello friends! The weather has been really nice over my way so I’ve been taking advantage of it by enjoying the outdoors before it starts changing into more chilly temperatures. All of the prize winners have contacted me and the packages have all been sent out. I have received notice that the U.S. winners have gotten their packages and hopefully the overseas will be arriving soon. My thoughts are also with those that were affected from Storm Ian and hope for healing and recovery as soon as possible.

Although it’s been a while since I last posted, I have been working on some things for SWAPs and a few other cards that I had created as well to share with you.

please click on the photos below to see them close-up

Within a FB Group that I’m in, we could choose to join an ATC SWAP with the theme of “Friendship” and these are the cards that I had created. I swapped with two others and then kept one set of three for myself. I was excited because this is the first ATCs I’ve sent overseas and really enjoyed making the collection. I thought the butterfly theme with similar colors would work keeping the “Friendship” in mind…

And then below are the set of ATCs I’ve received from my SWAP partners in return. The first lady sent her ATCs from Australia and the other lady was from the UK I believe. Love them and was excited to receive them to add to my book.

I was also involved in another “Stamped Sampler SWAP” making those squares like I had done with my Summer one if you remember that with my friends Patti, Shirley and Donna. This time our squares were the theme of Autumn/Fall using the Stampin’ Up! colors Pumpkin Pie and Mossy Meadow. It’s so fun to see them come in and then put it all together in the frame! Here’s how mine finished out:

For my Sampler frame, I used some different colored woodgrain pattern paper to attach the squares to and this frame is a bit different than my Summer Sampler (Check it out in THIS POST if you want to see that one.) It can stand on a table surface or you can hang it up. I also decided to add a burlap bow at the top of the frame using a hot glue gun.

This is the Sampler Square that I had made using the adorable fox from the Taylored Expressions Woodland Squad Die & Clear Stamp Combo set. The background was stamped with the TE Four Seasons Stamp & Stencil Combo set using ONLY the background stamp in one color. I then using some gold acrylic paint to splatter over it. I also added a twine bow to the fox. I believe we’re going to be doing another one for Winter too…stay tuned!

My friend Patti had also sent me an extra card kit from one of her classes along with her SWAP square, which I thought was so nice…so I had some fun putting it together as I don’t have this set which I believe is a Stampin’ Up! one.

The card kit had all of the pieces in it along with the stamped birds cut out, the stamped branches and sentiments (even on the included envelope) along with cut glitter clouds and flowers! There was a sheet with photo and instructions so I just followed along except I die cut some leaves for the branches from a piece of scrap green paper I had. Now I have a cute little birthday card ready to send out, so thank you for the fun Patti!😉

And speaking of birds and Stampin’ Up!, I had to make a sympathy card for someone that lost their pet bird. I was looking through my stash and found an older Stampin’ Up! set with a bird silhouette which I thought would be good for a sympathy card like this. I was inspired to pull out more of my older Stampin’ Up! stash to use so I used some old punches, ribbon and paper for my card as well.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration today and I thank you so much for stopping in! If you have any questions about my post, please let me know. Have a great day and see you soon!

Challenges:

Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (Bird sympathy card)
The Corrosive – Anything Goes (Butterfly ATCs)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal (Fox Square and/or Bird sympathy card)
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Embossing wet/dry (Bird sympathy card)
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes (Butterfly ATCs)
Sweet Stampin’ – Anything Goes EXCEPT birthday (Bird sympathy card)
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes (Butterfly ATCs)

Massive Mass Producing!

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)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly – Floral Frenzy
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes optional: Flowers/Fauna

ATCs, Greeting Card Gift Set, Pet Sympathy and Class Results too!

Hello friends! It seems that I have went MIA on you, but I promise I’m still here! I’ve been really busy “Behind the Scenes” as they say and have many things going on at once that I’m trying to juggle, but I do have TONS of things to share that I’ve been doing and hope you enjoy seeing them! (LOTS of photos!)

First up I have a couple of fun Summer themed ATC sized cards using some Inky Stamper sets called “Splash” and “Chaise Lounge“. (Still not wanting to warm up much for Spring…so I’m wishing for HOT summer now!😁) I made them for this month’s theme of “ATC sized or mini cards” challenge in their FB group. I started out with a sunray stencil and used some yellow glaze paste and once dried I added some watercolor over it which was resisted by the glaze which gave me this look for the background. I splattered it and then added some strips of blue dotted paper cut from a wave border and then I ripped a piece of gold at the bottom. I cut cut with a scallop die and layered over a black 2.5″x3.5″ piece of black cardstock folded in half and went around the edges with a gold ink pad.

I white heat embossed the sentiments from each stamp set and then cut portions of them out with my scissors to attach over the backgrounds. The images were colored with Copics, fussy cut out and popped up with foam tape over top.

Next, I wanted to share a “Greeting Card Gift Set” that I have made and gave as a gift for someone. I used this wonderful product idea from Taylored Expressions called “Stamp & Give Card Kit 1” and it’s something that I had wanted to put together for a very long time on my own, but this product came along recently which pushed me into gear with no excuse of gathering things together on my own as this was already together for me. All I had to do was do the stamping and stenciling. I coordinated the colors with what was in the set. I like the fact that the recipient of this give set can choose which greeting they want to use for each card and the package of greetings are ready with a foam strip on the back of each one. For my designs, I’ve used the TE “Floral Flurry” Background stamp and stencils which I received from the “Stamp Joy Virtual Event” that I had attended. (not in store as it was exclusive for the event…photos at the bottom of post for that!) I’ve added 3 gems randomly to the fronts of each card.

With the kit, it comes with all of the envelopes, card bases, glassine bag to hold all of the sentiment strips, the card fronts and even the acetate box to put them all in. I just added some ribbon once I put all the cards inside. I certainly plan on doing some more of these greeting card gift sets soon! I think it’s always nice to have a set of themed cards all together and ready to go when you need to grab one quickly!

Unfortunately, next up I needed a pet sympathy card and I thought you could never go wrong with paw prints and hearts. I’ve kept this simple and pulled out some favorite Whimsy Stamps “Fill My Heart” and “Furever In Our Hearts” stamp sets for the paw prints and the sentiment. I’ve also used the My Favorite Things “Paw Prints Die-Namics” to die cut a couple of paw prints over the heart that I’ve punched out from red cardstock along with some smaller hearts above it.

I’ve used a glitter brush pen to make the hearts sparkly looking. This was all done over a kraft colored card front that was cut with a double-stitched rectangle die and placed over an A2 sized white card base.

I really need to get a set of pet sympathy going so that I already have them on hand as needed because it seems like I’ve sent many out and don’t have anymore…and I need another one already. I actually need to make sure I have several sympathy cards in general on hand, so I know I’ll be replenishing that soon too.

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And lastly, I thought you might want to see all of the projects that I made during my classes and make-n-takes that I’ve done during the Taylored Expressions “Stamp Joy Spring Virtual Event” from last month…gosh, It’s been that long already and I’m just now posting them!🙄

The first four cards were from the classes on the first day (using the same product/style line), and the others are from the second day with all of the Make-n-Takes. If you’re visiting directly on my website, just click on each photo below and it will enlarge so you can see it better along with the typed details about it!

This is the first card in the TE Stamp Joy class series using the “Floral Flurry” products that I also used in the greeting card gift set above in the post. We used some markers on this for details and did some foiling. This is a “special” card….see next photo for the inside.

I’m really far behind in catching up with whatever the challenges currently are as well as seeing what’s going on with my fellow blogging friends, so I will get going as soon as I can!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!😘

Making Condolence and Get Well Cards

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!

Challenges:

Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Dies
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Anything Stamped with optional add a die
Addicted to Stamps and More – Make Your Mark
Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper

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!

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:

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

Hello! Anyone still with me?

Hello there friends! I know that I had posted that I’m stepping away , but this blog is still “active” for now and I have been crafting anyway… so after stepping away from it, I still follow along with different companies and inspiration on FB. But because I have SO much product and I wanted to be able to actually USE the things that I have instead of letting it just “sit around”, I was taking photos and posting (in FB groups) anyway, so I thought why not just BLOG IT?! Not just the crafty aspect of it all, but blogging itself is a bit of a release too. It gives me a “record” of my crafty experience, what and why I might have done something…so I decided for my own personal reasons, to come back to this “old dinosaur” method to enhance my crafty journey. It may not be exactly like it had been before, but that’s how crafty journeys evolve.

It’s been fun and busy with hubby being retired and home, but after getting use to it and traveling a bit, I was and still am taking a few classes here and there and just having fun. Because of the pandemic, so many companies have turned to “online” classes, conventions, challenges, etc so I thought it was a great opportunity to try some of that out without the expense of traveling for it! I’ve done several actually, but just mainly posted within the groups they were made for. Then I started thinking once again about all of the “stuff” I have and still ARE accumulating…so my mission is to actually use the product I have. I will try NOT to keep purchasing in the future! (Let’s see how THAT goes! LOL!) The blogging might help keep me motivated in doing that too…I hope!

So if you are still following…Wow! Thanks for being here!! Not really sure how often I will be posting, but this will be mainly where I will be sharing anything “crafty” that I’m doing. Maybe I can inspire someone to use their own crafty stash? Hope you can join the fun with me here too! 🙂

I’m starting with a couple of summer classes that I just recently completed with Taylored Expressions. She did a class earlier this month with a set of 4 completed cards using similar style products for each class. The first one was called the “Gifted” class:

The top left card was used with a watercolor wash for the background. There’s a cover plate die that cuts out all those presents which I used on the card below that one to arrange over the sponged square area. The cards on the right side were both ink blended with the bottom right card using a stencil. I’ve also added some sparkle with a glitter brush pen and some glossy accents to the die cut “YAY!” lettering. Envelopes with seals were also included with this class set which you can see on the far right of the photo. I always need birthday cards, so these will work out great!

This next set is also from Taylored Expressions that I just finished up this weekend. Really enjoyed this class with some things that I forget about doing with my cards:

This class was called the “Diamond Botanical” class with another set of 4 cards. The top left card was fun with a more mixed media style using paint for the background and splatters. The only thing that I changed up was the background stamp. I didn’t have the stamp from Taylored Expressions that they used in the class, so I used a Stampin’ Up! Birch background stamp I found in my stash. (So yay that I’ve already started with using my existing stash with the new!)

The top right card is a shaker card and the bottom left card is a gate fold card with the sentiment panel helping to hold it in place. Again, with this class we were given envelopes with the matching seals off to the right. These were fun little classes to take and get some cards completed with!

Hope you enjoyed these sets too and were inspired! Are you taking any virtual or in-person classes or events this Summer? Has your crafting experience changed for you recently and what things have you changed about it?

I know I’ll be back again with more creations I’ve been working on. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you’re all doing really well! Have a great day! 🙂