R is for Ribbon

Hello friends and happy busy December to you! It’s that time of the year and things start getting really busy with Christmas activities! I’ve been working on lots of different things, but it seems hard to take the time out to photograph it and post about it! LOL Maybe when things settle down a bit for me, I can post some of it!

Today marks another new challenge for the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “R”, and our hostess Billie has chosen “Ribbon”. I hope you will join in the fun with us! (This will be the last challenge of the year until they start back up in January with the letter “S”) *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

I really enjoyed making this one and I was very happy to pull some more items out from my stash to use up for this challenge! Ribbon is something that I have so much of and don’t use it as often as what I used to!

For my card front, I took a red base and die cut a large star from it keeping in mind that I wanted to add a sentiment at the bottom. I used an embossing folder and then rubbed a metallic gold ink pad over the raised areas to make it stand out a bit and set it aside.

For behind the star, I took another thin cardstock panel slightly smaller than the red star panel and covered it with double sided strong adhesive. I then took some stitched ribbon in red and green as well as the thin metallic gold ribbon and layered them in a strip pattern over the entire panel. I kept in mind where the star opening would be. I then layered the red star panel over it and attached it to a top folding A2 kraft card base.

I die cut a smaller star in kraft cardstock for the center of the star opening and added a gold gem in the center of it. I also took the thin gold ribbon and attached it from the top of the star around the red base and then added a bow above it. Lastly, I just gold heat embossed the sentiment, die cut with the coordinating die and popped it up under the star with a foam strip.

Just a note that this will be my final project as a design team member for the Alphabet Challenge. I have enjoyed working on this team and wish Caz all the best in the coming year for her challenges. I appreciate the kind support.

I will try to get another post in before Christmas is here, if I can find the time to share the things that I’ve been working on. I also have another art journal page to share before the end of the year as well. Thanks so much for stopping by as I enjoy hearing from you! Enjoy the Holiday Season as it approaches and take care of yourself.

Challenges:

A Cut Above – Anything Goes with a die cut
The Neglected Stuff – Old items (I’ve got not sure how old Stampin’ Up ribbon, old embossing folder and old star die cuts!)
Crafts Galore Encore – #142 Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations – ‘Tis the Season
Fab ‘n’ Funky – #627 Christmas
Penny’s Paper Crafty – #611 Anything Goes Using Paper
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #267 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2549 Anything Goes

November AJ Page-Time

Hello friends and happy weekend! Monday will be the first of December already! Wow, time seems to be going so fast especially at the end of year! This is exactly what my page was inspired by in this post!

Last Saturday of November brings us to the monthly “SMASH OUR STASH” Art Journaling. I’ve collaborated with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) to join in. Here’s my AJ page with the NOVEMBER prompt of “TRADITIONS”:

This is a little different type of style, but most of the time I just come up with whatever happens to pop into my head and hopefully with older items I have from my stash!

This may not seem like I’ve used the “traditions” prompt for this month, but if you look at the wording at the bottom of the pocket watch, It says “Sentimental Traditions”. I was thinking of “old timey” type of things and the story about traditions on my page comes from my family going to our favorite place every fall for picking apples and now my children go every year as well, so it’s fun to know they’re still enjoying the same tradition we had with them.

For the background: (size of Mixed Media paper is 5.5″ x 8.5″) I ink blended with brushed corduroy oxide ink and spritzed with water to create the watermarks. I stenciled the dots with fired brick oxide and went around the edges with black soot oxide. I added some background paper to the other side that has the apple tree and then I added the paper doll couple over top and then added the “TIME” lettering that was die cut with black cardstock above them. I also sponged around the edges of the apple tree paper with black soot oxide. I added a gold metallic sticker line in the center between the paper and ink background.

I took a really old Whimsy Stamp stamp set with the pocket watch stamp and stamped it with black ink and then used a pen to write the words: “TIME has a way of showing us what matters.” I then stamped a couple more of the pocket watch image in brushed corduroy oxide and then splattered some gold watercolor over right side of the page.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – A Moment In Time
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No cards
Creative Artiste – #121 Anything Goes Mixed Media

Thank You for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends and happy weekend to you! As we inch closer and closer to Thanksgiving at the end of this month, I think this is a perfect time to create a few thank you style cards to use throughout the year!

This brings us to a new monthly challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “Thank you Card” this month. I look forward to seeing all of the projects in the gallery for this one. Here’s what I came up with:

I thought I’d try out a mini slim sized card for this one and the tall larger flower was a great fit for it! I used the Taylored Expressions Natures Canvas Card kit (no longer available).

For the background panel, I embossed a kraft cardstock piece with the TE Sketched Plaid embossing folder and the went around the edges with the same color ink and then added some brown and white splatters before attaching it to a mini slim top folding card base. I also die cut a frame from the TE Mini Slim Frame in Frame dies out of white cardstock to place over the embossed layer.

I stamped, hand colored and die cut the flower. I used one of the greeting panels (from card kit) to gold foil and cut out the coordinating sentiment with it to pop up with foam tape over the flower stem. It was then finished off with some gold gem/rhinestones.

I hope you’ve been inspired by my thank you card and will join in the fun with us this month for the challenge! **NOTE** This will be my final project for the Sparkles Monthly Challenge as a design team member. I have enjoyed my time and wish Caz all of the best for the challenge blog in the coming year as well. Thank you!

Challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore – #141 Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Thank you
Triple B – Birds, Blooms &/or Butterflies (bloom)
Penny’s – #609 Anything Goes using Paper
Crafty Catz – #704 Anything Goes/Thanksgiving/Thank you
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2545 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Thank you

P is for Pumpkin(s)

Hello friends! I hope that your month of November has been a good one for you so far! It’s getting cooler by the week, but I try to get out to enjoy the warmer days as much as I can before the winter gets here!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “P”, and our hostess, Deborah, has chosen “Pumpkin(s)” I hope you will join in the fun with us! *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

When I saw this challenge, I remembered that I had gotten a stitched pumpkin die set from Lawn Fawn a few years back and haven’t used them yet, so I pulled them out to use for this challenge! (I had to clip the metal dies apart, so I knew I hadn’t used it yet!)

I decided to cut them out in different colors of cardstock and then ink blended the bottoms of each in a darker shade including the stem on the top pumpkin. I also took them and splattered some gold, brown and white over all three pumpkins before assembling them in stacking order.

For the card front, I took a stitched white panel and stenciled some leaves (Pink & Main-not in store) in light tan ink. I made my scene for the pumpkin stack by using some Fall Plaid papers (not in store anymore) by Lawn Fawn for the background and die cutting a hill for the pumpkins to set on. I placed the plaid paper and ground over a darker brown cardstock layer and popped it up with foam tape over the stenciled leaves card front. I attached all of these layers onto a white top folding A2 card base.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed the sentiment (not sure what Lawn Fawn set I used this for it) over dark brown cardstock and cut out a banner to pop up above the pumpkin stack with thin foam squares. I added a few gold rhinestones for sparkle.

Hope you’ve been inspired by my card today and stop on over at the challenge blog to join in the fun with us! I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be back tomorrow with another challenge project!

Challenges:

Four Seasons – Fall
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #265 Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes with optional: Something new (I used a “new to me” stitched pumpkins die set from Lawn Fawn!)
A Cut Above – Anything Goes with a die cut (used several Lawn Fawn dies!)
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts and/or Stencils (I used both!)

Mix It Up by Keeping it Simple!

Hello friends! Happy November! It seems like I was just thinking about Autumn with cooler temps…and now we’re getting REAL close to Christmas and the end of the year! Time is going so quickly! Are you getting your Christmas cards started yet?

So let’s take a moment for ourselves and work on keeping life simple! This brings me to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given for us this time is: KIS (Keep It Simple) or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

I thought that “keeping it simple” for Christmas cards and getting down to the wire for making them and sending out would be a good thought for this challenge!

I pulled out this cute Scrapbook.com stamp set called “Holiday” to create a simple design with the solid bauble images and added a few heat embossed elements over two of them and then heat embossed a hook for each. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold to match the hooks and then just stamped a couple of doo-dads around the panel and drew lines from the ornament hooks coming off the edge with a gold fine line pen. That’s pretty much it! I did die cut a few “Mini Bows” from Taylored Expressions for each ornament. Then I layered the ornament panel onto gold and then onto a white A2 card base.

This would certainly be a very easy design to mass produce using the MISTI tool.

I hope you like my card and will stop by the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team has created too! *NOTE* This is the last project that I’m making for this challenge blog as I have decided to step down from the design team. Thank you to Tina for having me as part of the challenge team this year and keeping the blog running. Best wishes for the coming year!

Thanks so much for dropping in today! Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

Ally’s Angels – #99 Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – #324 Anything Goes with optional: Christmas
ABC Christmas -‘U’ is for Uncluttered (CAS) & ‘V’ is for Vertical
CRAFT – #767 Christmas

October AJ Page-Magical Potion

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the last Saturday for this month and next week will be November 1st! Can you believe it?! We’re nearing the end of the year, but I’d like to stop and enjoy the wonderful Autumn season right now while it’s here!

Last Saturday of October brings us to the monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! 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” OCTOBER prompt of “MAGICAL”:

I couldn’t let this month go by without adding in a Halloween themed AJ page! I love making them and getting out lots of dies from several different companies that made this one a fun project to pull together.

Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of Mixed Media cardstock and blended the background in various colors using a light yellow for the center where the window is open and the cauldron is brewing up something magical!

I then took a cogs and wheel stencil and sponged on some gold ink in various places. I took a cool background stamp from Whimsy Stamps called Vintage Wallpaper and stamped it in random places. I also cut a strip of wood plank background paper from my stash to add at the bottom of the page. I then took my gold ink pad and swiped it around the edges of the page.

Die Cuts: The large spider web cut from holographic paper, the witch, the fire, and cats all came from Whimsy Stamps. The Cauldron and potion bottle came from Taylored Expressions, the window came from Simon Says Stamp and the wood under the cauldron came from Lawn Fawn. For some of the pieces, I ink blended or added a gold highlight to the edges. For the potion bottle, there is a tiny label on it that says “Moon Dust” with a moon on it. (It’s hard to see in the photo.) I added some glitter to the contents. After ink blending the flames, I covered it with a glitter brush pen.

I took a marker to added some shadows under the witch, cat and cauldron. I took some yellow sequins and added it under the potion bottle to make it look like she’s added it to the potion. Lastly, I took a couple of Tim Holtz sentiment clippings to add to the scene.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I had fun with it! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Steampunk/Halloween or both
Creative Artiste – #120 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No Cards
Penny’s – #608 Anything Goes Using Paper
Little Red Wagon – #830 Not a Card

N is for Night

Hello friends! Once again, it’s another Friday in October! Two weeks from today will be Halloween! I may have a few “goblins” showing up for some candy! 👻 This reminds me that I will be needing to make up a few treat bags!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is “N”, and our hostess, Pamela, has chosen “N is for NIGHT” (clouds, moon, sky, sleeping image, stars, etc.) I think this will be a fun one for Halloween! *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.* I hope you’ll join in the fun with us. Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

Well, you know I had to do this challenge in the Halloween theme, right?! I absolutely loved making this card! I pulled out all of my Taylored Expressions Halloween items to play with!

I started with the background and created the moon with the Moonlight Layering Stencil. I made sure to center it where I wanted the moon to be in placement on my background before I ink blended everything in. I also used a very light hand when making the moon in greys and yellow tones. This stencil also comes with a mask to cover the entire moon shape, so I used some Pixie Spray to tack it down to stay in place over my card before I began ink blending the blues in the background for the sky. While leaving the moon mask in place, I also used some Copic opaque white watered down and splattered over the blue ink blended sky for “stars”.

I was then able to remove the moon mask to finish my card. I layered this panel over an A2 side folding black card base. I used the Taylored Expressions Trick or Treat Border die to cut out another black piece to fit over the moon. I left some space at the bottom of the border to white heat emboss the sentiment from the TE Spooktacular Sentiments set. I just attached this to the bottom of the moon sky panel and then I die cut some bats from the TE Little Bits-Bats die with the TE Black Glitter Cardstock and attached them to the sky.

I’m loving how the moon seems to be glowing over the trick or treaters! I hope you like it too and will join in the fun with us! Be sure to check out the challenge blog to see more inspiration!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR DROPPING IN TODAY!! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AHEAD!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Autumn/Something Spooky
Craft Rocket – #130 Autumn/Halloween
Crafty Calendar – Halloween
Let’s Craft & Create – #224 Anything Goes with optional: Things with Wings (bats)
Crazy is our Fame-Stencils are our Game! – Stencil(s) with optional: Halloween
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Unicorn – #114 Autumn and/or Halloween
Crafty Gals Corner – #271 Fill in the Blank: “Spooky________” – NIGHT!

Autumn Leaves & Pumpkins for Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope that your October month is going well so far. We’re starting to get some noticeably cooler temps in the forecast as we creep towards Halloween at the end of the month. Love this time of year when those leaves start showing their pretty colors as they fall from the trees! We should be getting that soon as well to clean up the yard! LOL

This brings us to a new monthly challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “AUTUMN LEAVES & PUMPKINS” this month. I look forward to seeing all of the projects in the gallery for this one. Here’s what I came up with:

I fell in love with this cute scarecrow from Newton’s Nook called Autumn Fields and I knew that I wanted to use it for this challenge. I colored up the image along with a few pumpkins and cut them out in the coordinating dies. I was going to add a couple of leaves for the background, but I thought it would be cool to pull out the NN Fabulous Fall Toner Card Fronts and ink blend over it for the background. So I gold foiled the background and blended some various inks to create the background scene for the scarecrow.

I die cut a grassy hill border from Lawn Fawn and inked the blades with a gold ink pad and layered that onto my foiled leaves background. I tucked in the scarecrow and pumpkins for grounding and then white heat embossed a sentiment (from the scarecrow set) that was cut out with a banner die (from MFT- closed). I also used the gold ink pad around that as well.

I cut out the entire layered panel with a cross-stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn and then used a scalloped rectangle die from Taylored Expressions cut from white cardstock to layer behind it. I attached everything to an A2 side folding card base in the Latte color from Taylored Expressions.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card and will hop on over to the challenge blog to check out what the rest of the design team has made for inspiration.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STOPPING BY TODAY!!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Autumn Colors
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2541 Anything Goes
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Pearly Sparkles – #112 Pumpkins and/or Fall Leaves
Creative Fingers – #309 Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Autumn/Anything Goes
We Love Stamping – Anything Autumn/Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – #628 Fall Harvest
Aud Sentiments – #330 Ink Blending and/or Fall/Thanksgiving + sentiment

September AJ Page-Quiet Beauty

Hello friends! I do not even know where this month went! Wow! I guess life has a way of keeping us busy and sometimes we just need to make time to take time. I do hope that you’re having a great September month and looking to the Autumn season. It’s my favorite season to be out in…I still need the cooler weather though! I’m hoping for it soon!

Can’t believe it, but it’s time for another monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! 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” SEPTEMBER prompt of “WOOD”:

Although the temps are still unseasonably warm right now, I’m dreaming of those pretty Autumn colors and cooler temps! I decided to get lots of inks out and make a background for this one to display my leaves across it.

For the background: I started with a kraft piece of cardstock measuring my usual 8.5″x 5.5″ size and then at every 3/4″ I scored a line across the longer side edge. So, using the score marks with the texture line facing up at me, I swiped a few colors of distress inks in Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge and Black Soot. I then took a flat DRY paint brush and brushed down over the ink marks I swiped to brighten the colors. It’s such a simple technique to make a background!

I definitely “shopped my stash” this time and pulled out a VERY old Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Wonderfall” and the Bigz die to cut them out. Those were the days where we didn’t have a MISTI tool to help us line stamps up! LOL It’s much easier now with the MISTI! So I splattered all of the leaves after the die cutting and stamping with metallic gold watercolor, brown and white Copic Opaque white. I arranged them all over the background and attached them.

Here’s a closer view of the background so you can see how I’ve done it along with the details on the leaves.

For the sentiment, I die cut some letters from gold metallic foil cardstock and attached to background. I used my computer to print out the other words and die cut them out with a banner die and sponged the edges. I used foam tape to pop up the one over the leaf.

Lastly, I used some gold glitter drops to add a bit of sparkle to it.

Thanks so much for dropping in today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I hope you’re able to get outside and enjoy your weekend!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Make Your Own Background (wood panel/plank background with inks)

A Single Flower at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! Welcome to the start of a new week for mid-September! I think Summer actually DID come back to us as we’ve set record high heats for this time of the year! I think I’m ready for those cooler temps to come back! Ugh! I know it won’t be long now and we can start enjoying trips outdoors as we look forward to picking apples and all Autumn festivities that we do!

Today is time to share a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “USE A SNGLE FLOWER (floral image)” this month. Flowers seem to be everyone’s favorite. Here’s what I came up with:

Mine is a single sunflower image. My husband planting them in our backyard this year and they were so pretty! Of course, I forgot to take a photo of one before they died off.

The items I’ve used came from an older card kit from Simon Says Stamp including the stamp set called Sunflower Fields. There is a single sunflower image that I thought would be perfect for this challenge, plus I can use more items from my stash!

For the size of the flower image, I wanted it to stand out, so I used a tag and twine from the kit and decided to make this a mini slim card size.

For the background: I used a piece of watercolor cardstock and gold heat embossed the “Romantic Script” background stamp (retired) from My Favorite Things and then used some oxide inks swiped on glass with spritzed water to make a “smooshed” background. I also used these same colors to watercolor my flower with. (except the green, I only used that for the flower) I also used some gold watercolor to splatter over the tag. I only splattered the tag because I didn’t think it would show very much over the card background.

I cut the smooshed watercolor panel to fit over a kraft side folding mini slimline card base. I die cut the flower and the sentiment to attach over the tag, added some twine and then used foam tape to pop it up over the ink smooshed background. Lastly, I’ve added some yellow sequins to finish it off.

I hope you will take some time to pull out a single flower and join us in the challenge this month! Looking forward to seeing your creations! Thanks so much for dropping by!

Challenges: