Sending a Smile to a Hunter and Winner on You Tube!

Hello friends! Welcome to the month of September! I cannot believe that Fall is at the door here! The weather has already started to cool us down a bit and Summer is starting to fade as you can see the flowers starting to die off. Now I will look forward to the changing color of leaves which is always amazing.

Today I have a project to share that I’ve made for the Splitcoaststampers Teapot “Make it Pop” challenge. This card is in need of a special SCS friend’s father who is having some difficulties with health and I wanted to help with a smile for him if I could:

“Pop” as he is lovingly called, enjoys the outdoors and hunting which is something that several men in my own life enjoy, so I knew that this would be a direction I was going in with some stamps I have from Newton’s Nook.

For the background, I took a woodgrain embossing folder before fully assembling the card.

Since this is a hunting theme, I thought it would be fun to make a camouflage background and so I’ve used the fabulous tutorial on SCS HERE to create the look. I also cut off a thin strip towards the bottom to add some interest to the design as well. Over top of the background, I layered the sentiment from MFT and also cut it out with a banner die. I used a grassy feilds border die from MFT for the strip at the bottom of the panel and stamped the “Pop…” over it in brown ink. I stamped and cut out the deer from the Newton’s Nook Serene Silhouettes set with coordinating dies. I also die cut a few green leaves with an older MFT die for a few accents inside and out.

When you open up the card…

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Because of the name “Pop”, the challenge was “Make it Pop”, we needed to show some sort of element like this on our design. So I found this really fun “Pop-Up Diorama” card tutorial on SCS for my design.

I’ve used an oval die to cut the center of my card and then used a piece of cardstock for the background to attach behind it. On this panel, I created a scene with blending inks and adding stamped and die cut elements from the Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines stamp set that I’ve also used the sentiment from on the inside.

For the rest of the card, I’ve used the same stamp set that I used on the outside of the card and arranged them to create this scene with different layers that are popped up.

Hope this helps bring a smile over to “Pop”. Thanks so much for stopping in today and I hope you were inspired in some way too!

Have a great day friends and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers Teapot Tuesday – Make it Pop
International Art & Soul – Include an animal
Crafting Happiness – #64 Anything Goes
2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animal
Moving Along with the Times – Create a Scene
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal

We’re On the Farm for {Cupcake Inspirations}!🐄

Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend! I sure enjoyed my time with hubby relaxing and enjoying the cooler temps for sure! After all the “partying”, are you ready for a new challenge?

Today we’re starting with a brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with the theme “On the Farm“! So whatever farm related project you’re working on, please be sure to link it up in our challenge! We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!

Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge:

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I’ve been wanting to use this fun barn die from My Favorite Things for a while and this was super fun to create a farm scene with! It even has the little embossed markings on the barn along with a bail of hay!🐓

I started out using the MFT cloud stencil and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink for the background panel, then layered over a grass border at the bottom and then cut this panel out with the stitched rectangle die. I also stamped the sentiment as well as a few animals from the MFT The Whole Herd stamp set, colored and cut them out with the coordinating dies. (can’t find in the store!) I then placed my fence border over top of the grass border, popped up the barn with foam tape where I wanted it and then placed all of the other images arranging them over the scene. This front panel was attached to a top folding A2 red card base.

So I love how the door on the barn can open up with that die cut! Of course I had to add something inside the barn and with the nest of eggs sitting on top, it only felt right to place the chicken in there! For the backing of the barn, I’ve taken a piece of paper from the MFT Woodgrain Whimsy Paper Pad and attached it from behind before popping it up with some foam tape. I’ve also taken a pen and wrote the “milk” word over top of the colored can next to the cow.

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz – #252 Explore Outdoors
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 11

Today is a new day! We are on day 11 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! YEEOWZA!

Today, we are highlighting Rachel Vass Designs – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

The DT was provided with digital image sets to use for our creations:

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I have the gorgeous Sunshine Daisies digital set for my design here by printing the image along with the sentiment that came with the set on a piece of Bristol watercolor paper. I remember hubby brightening up my day a while back with some very pretty colorful rainbow of daisy flowers he brought home, so I based my colors that way.

I’ve used my watercolor markers and water brush to color the image with and then I took some yellow sparkle AquaPigment along with some Cream Grey Aquapigment from Brutus Monroe to splatter over top of the design before I cut it out with a Wonky Stitch rectangle die from MFT.

I layered this panel over an A2 top folding Soft Suede card base and finished it off with some clear sparkle sequins that I added some yellow Stickles to the centers.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my watercolor rainbow daisies today! Thank you for stopping in to check my post today! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

The Divas that Cut…Paper – Flowers + die cut
My Time to Craft – Clean and Simple
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Beautiful Botanicals
Little Red Wagon – #564 Digi Do

Spooky Ombre & Welcome Gnomes for Dare to Get Dirty

Hello friends! I’m back again today to share a couple more cards that I’ve made for the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” event! They’ve released another batch of challenge over there today! There is certainly lots of crafty fun going on lately, isn’t there?!😀

My first card was made for a challenge from the lovely Lee:

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This card was so much fun to create! I’ve used only purple shades to make this entire design! I started out with a white piece of cardstock using the MFT Rolling Clouds stencil and ink blended them in with several Stampin’ Up! inks that I’ve had in my stash for quite a while now! LOL! After I was done, I spritzed it with a water bottle.

I took the awesomely spooky Trick or Treat stamp set and used some SU! Elegant Eggplant ink to stamp the witch image, bat and the sentiment at the bottom. I used my MISTI to stamp several times to darken the ink up on them.

I cut out the panel with a stitched rectangle and then cut out an additional piece of Potion Cardstock with a stitched scallop rectangle die from MFT. I layered it over an A2 sized top folding Elegant Eggplant card base.

I then took a glitter brush pen to “color in” the inside of the moon around the witch that gave a really cool shimmer look to it. I then started noticing that it was taking away some of the purple ink while doing this, which was really awesome as it made the moon glow even more! (I just had to be careful around the witch because she was stamped with regular dye purple ink and I didn’t want to blur it.)

I finished the design with some Lilac Matte Sequins that I filled with some Violet Galaxy Crystal Nuvo Drops. It’s much more sparkly in person!

My next card was made for a challenge from the lovely Kelly:

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This scene was really fun to put together! I fell in the love with the little house and gnomes from the Simon Says Stamp Gnome School. I thought it would make a nice “new home” type of card. I colored them up and cut them out with the coordinating dies to arrange over my scene.

The scene started with a piece of kraft that was ran over with the SSS Petal Plate die for the texture in the background. I cut out some clouds and a border of grass with dies and inked them up with some inks for shadows. I then took this panel and cut it all out with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it over a top folding A2 sized black card base. I also took a sentiment strip from the SSS Gnome School Sentiment Strips to place over the design while arranging the images over the scene.

For the sign on top of the “home”, I used one of the sentiments made for that spot and white heat embossed it over my coloring. Hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve also covered the heart on the gnome’s hat as well as the glasses on the gnome with a glitter brush pen. I also did the same for the windows on the home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations for today and I sure appreciate you stopping in to check out all of the happenings that are going on! Hope you’re able to join in some of what’s going on too! See you soon!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Oh So cute (bottom card only)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity – #372 Lavender or Purple (top card)
Always Fun – #177 In the Sky Scene (top card)
Crafting Happiness – #63 Anything Goes

Dare to Get Dirty Has Begun with Something Festive!

Hello friends! Yes, I know, not only am I posting every single day, now I’m posting twice in one day!?! What’s going on with me?!😂 Really sorry to “bombard” you with all of these posts, but this is what I meant by me being SO busy “behind the scenes”! If I do miss a day, you’re going to wonder if I’ve left again! It sure is busy, but it’s also fun while the long days of Summer go by.

Today starts the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” annual event full of fun challenges by current and past alumni from the Dirty Dozen Design Team. This is the 16th year that this special event has happened! I’m very proud to be associated with Splitcoaststampers and have been apart of the community since 2003…a lurker👀 a few years before that too! I have some LIFE LONG friends as that’s where I started putting anything I ever created online anywhere. So in June of 2016 I was honored when asked to be apart of the Dirty Dozen Design Team! They certainly have my creative heart forever. So I think I missed last years event because I was not well at that time, so I will be participating as a challenge hostess this year. You must be a “Fan Club Member” over there to be able to see the event, so if you’re interested in joining, please check out the “How to Become a Fan Club Member” page. (Otherwise you will not “see” the event details.).

So each day, there’s about 5-6 new challenges released starting today and lasting until Friday August 28th…that’s a whole lot of challenges! I obviously didn’t have time to make something for every single challenge, but I have made a few to help my fellow “Dare to Get Dirty DT friends” create samples for their challenge.

The first challenge I made a creation for was the lovely Kittie’s challenge. And obviously, I cannot reveal what the challenge is about, I can show you my creation and ask that you head on over to the event to see the details and play along with us….

I had such a fun time creating this fun Holiday themed slimline! I pulled out an old favorite “Santa’s Elves” stamp set from My Favorite Things for this one. I’ve stamped and colored several images from this set using Copic markers and cut them out with a coordinating die. For the scene, I’ve taken a piece of white cardstock and used a wave border die to cut out the different snowy hillsides and before attaching them down, I’ve used a blending tool to add some blue ink to the edges. I then took each individual hill and embossed them with an embossing folder.

I arranged the “hills” over a piece of brushed gold cardstock that was cut out with a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps. I “tucked in” the cut out images in between the hills. The gold layer was attached over a red stitched scallop slimline piece that was mounted over a 3.5 x 8.5 slimline card side folding white card base. I’ve also used one of the banners from that Trinity Stamps die set to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then popped up the little elf over top of that with foam tape over the bottom of the card front. I also attached that little holly image at the end of it.

Lastly, I topped the card off with holiday colored sequins filled with gold Stickles in the centers.

Here’s a little bit of a closer view of the images on the card. I’ve taken a glitter brush pen and went over the stars on the trees as well as the ornaments and the bell on the elf’s hat for a bit of shimmer. I also covered the holly berries on the bottom sentiment with some glossy accents. (Hard to get all details in there!)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas slimline card today as well as all of the daily posts I’ve been sharing! I look forward to either seeing what you create during the “Dare to Get Dirty” event or anything else you may be working on! The end of the year is coming soon and I know everyone will be creating lots of fun things!

Thanks for joining me today friends! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Stay well and happy!

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes for August
Jingle Belles – Cardstock Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
The Pper Girls – Emboss Like a Boss (both heat and embossing folder used)
Shopping Our Stash – Pile it on! (layers)
Cute Card Thursday – Embossing

Nautical Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations}⚓

Hello friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Stopping in today to share more inspiration for the current {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge:

“Nautical” is the theme for our challenge and you still have another 5 days to play along with us! It really is such a fun theme to play with especially during the Summer!

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I don’t get a chance to be near any oceans as I live in the middle of the U.S., but I’ve always wanted to travel near the East Coast near Maine as I imagine how interesting it would be to see it all!

I don’t own very many nautical style crafty products, but I remembered this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “By the Tide” and it reminds me of those sailor type Inns or Pubs and you can see the wording of that with the circle anchor accent. I went with colors that related to the feel of “nautical” for me.

I also recently purchased this anchor stencil from Brutus Monroe and thought it would make a cool background with red foiling over the navy-blue color. So, I took some DecoFoil Transfer Gel Blanco so that it would be white over the dark background and the Red Static DecoFoil Sheet would show up over it. I put it through my laminator.

I just stamped the images from the SU! set in various colors, cut out layers of cardstock and added some stitch marks by hand along with a strip of anchor paper I found in my stash. I punched a hole in the circle anchor accent and tied a piece of twine through it and popped it up with foam tape.

Here’s a different angle of the card so that you can see the red shine of the DecoFoil background in the card.

I also took some of the Brutus Monroe Ruby Fluid Acrylic and watered it down to splatter over top of the crab image panel. I didn’t want to add too much in fear that it would look like blood or something. LOL!

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my “nautical” style card today and that you’ll hop on over to the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and see what the rest of the design team has for inspiration and play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends! I appreciate you taking the time and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
2 Crafty Critter Crazies– Anythiing Goes + animal
Allsorts – Make it Masculine
Joy of Sets – I went with Splash (hope splatter works), Sand (color), blue
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Make it Masculine
Daisy Chain – #44 for the Boys/Men
Let’s Craft and Create – #162 Anything Goes + optional Lots of Layers

Interactive Fun for Crafty Chefs + Video

Hello friends! We are nearing the end of July and I wanted to be sure to try and get at least ONE “Christmas in July” project in before the month is gone, so I thought I’d keep things fun and simple as well as “kill 2 birds with one stone” so-to-speak!

Now we’re given one “must do” item from the previous chef to use on our recipe. My item from Nana Connie was *”die cut” and so here is the project that I’ve made for this month’s “Crafty Chefs” group:

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I have used a scallop square (cut from gold metallic mirror cardstock) and stitched square die cuts for layers on my project here. I’ve taken this really cute elf image from the Christmas Elves Pairables digital set from Digi Doodle Studios on the front of my design.

I’ve printed out and colored the present from the same digital set along with another elf image (for his arm only) so that I could cut them out to make it look like he’s holding the gift. His cut out arm was popped up with foam tape. I’ve colored with Copic markers, added details with gel pens, liquid applique and Stickles glitter under his feet for snow affects. I also stamped extra snowflakes for the background as well as add three snowflake rhinestones for accents.

Here’s the Crafty Chef’s August Recipe:

MUST DO:

*Die Cut (can also use electronic machine like Cricut, etc)
Interactive (More than 1 fold eg: easel card, gatefold, etc.)
Specialty Paper (foil, vellum, glitter, etc.)
ribbon/twine/raffia

CAN DO:

Color an image
Add THREE of something
**add glitter/sparkle – (this one I’m passing along to the next chef)

It doesn’t appear to be very interactive by looking at it, but when you untie the ribbon along the side, this is what it looks like when you open it up:

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I have decorated two of the opposite panels with a greeting and then I’ve added a pocket to the top left panel so that I could include a gift card or cash to the recipient for Christmas! I thought it was a super quick and fun interactive design to do!

If you are interested in learning how this project comes together, I’ve made a video sharing the measurements on how it’s done: (CLICK HERE to see the video on You Tube.)

During this time of the year when it’s pretty warm over my way, it’s sort of a nice thought to think about some snow! Plus, it always nice to get a start on some Christmas too! (It’s not necessary for the “Crafty Chefs” to use a Christmas theme…it can be anything.)

I hope you’ve been inspired by my project today and have learned something fun in my video with it too! (I have even more interactive tutorials on my You Tube video channel if you’d like to see other ideas!)

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Daring Cardmakers – Three Musketeers (3 snowflake rhinestones)
Sweet Stampin’ – Chrismas in July
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (Christmas in July)
Crafting Happiness– #59 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2030 Anything Goes
Dream Valley – Christmas in July
Fab ‘N’ Funky – #492 Christmas
Christmas in July 2020 Hop – Anything Christmas

It’s a Color Challenge for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great weekend and enjoying your Summer so far!

Today starts up a brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} and this time we have a fun color challenge for you to try out.

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When I saw this challenge, the first thing that went through my mind was this unique and fun bicycle image from the Blooming Bicycle stamp set.

I left the “wheels” white for daisies and colored the rest in blues and yellows with Copic markers, fussy cut it out and popped it up with foam tape over the sponged cloudy background. I cut that panel with a stitched rectangle die, layered it over a piece of yellow cardstock and used some pretty daisy papers from my stash for the background. I’ve also used these papers for the strip on the front and stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set with navy ink. I’ve mounted these layers over an A2 sized top folding navy blue card base. (I followed a sketch design for a challenge, see below.)

The flower from my stash was actually a bright turquoise color, but I’ve used some white gesso and painted over it. I’ve also taken some crackle paint and went over it along with some sparkly white paint and went over the crackle with that. (I’ve always hoarded my paper flowers because I believe you can always change the colors for your project.) I’ve added some yellow ribbon around the strip and added a blue button and yellow bow with the ribbon over the flower to finish it off.

Here’s a closer view of the bicycle colored in as well as the details of the painted flower.

I colored parts of the bike in blue colors and then left some areas on the bike that I thought would be metal and colored those areas with a clear metallic gel pen. I popped up the bike with foam tape and left it sticking off the edges to make it look like it’s ready to get on for a ride!

You can really see the shimmer over the flower with the Lumiere acrylic paint I’ve used…love that stuff! (The white flowers in my photo props I felt weren’t “daisy” looking enough, so I opted to paint over a colored one with longer petals. I’m silly like that😉!)

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Well I don’t know how you feel about this color combo, but it really makes me feel happy and so I thought that the sentiment was just perfect for this one!

Challenges:

Cheerful Sketches – July sketch
Arty Divas – #26 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #120 Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – #490 Creaive Free-For-All
Allsorts – Flowers All Over

Slimline Waving Hello🧜‍♀️

Hello there friends! Hope you’re having a wonderful week! Just wanted to stop in with a Slimline style card I had made with a fun underwater scene. (I’m thinking a magical place like this would be great to be in right now! How about you?)

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These slimline cards are really great for creating scenes like this on and I was also having fun being able to “experiment” with my different products too!

I’ve the stamp set called Sea You Soon along with the background paper (mermaid skin) and the Lilac Shimmering Sand Paste were all items from a past card kit.

I created my underwater scene basically using the mermaid skin paper as the background. Although it has a cool texture and smoothness to it, I was able to take the School of Fish stencil and add that Lilac sand paste over it. Love that extra texture and purple hue it gave! I also took the silhouette images from the stamp set and heat embossed them over this paper with black EP.

I stamped and colored the rest of the images from the stamp set with Copic markers and then fussy cut them out to arrange for my scene and popped some up with foam tape and then lastly added some clear acrylic bubbles over it.

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You can see now that it’s lying flat how the color shifts and changes on the paper!

I’ve used some stitched wave border dies to help create the scene using some Kraft cardstock where I’ve also fit in to arrange the sand castle image that I colored and cut out. I used Copic markers and gel pens to help fit the borders and image together.

I cut out the background paper with the Trinity Stamps Slimeline Stitched Card Panels and Windows die set. I layered it over a piece of blue paper that was included with the kit and then layered that over a Slimline style card base measuring 8.5″ x 7″ folded in half from a piece of Aubergine Cardstock. The sentiment was actually stamped from the Merfriends stamp set using black Ink.

You can see parts of the images with shimmer on them which have been colored with metallic gel pens. I’ve also covered the mermaid tail and jelly fish with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen.

The bubbles are looking a bit white instead of clear because my glue wasn’t quite dry enough when taking my photos, so my apology on that, but it took a couple of days to completely dry up clear for some weird reason! Those babies aren’t going anywhere though!! LOL!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my magical underwater slimline card today! Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll SEA you again soon!😁

Challenges:

Just Us Girls – #544 Trend Week: Long & Skinny
Crafting Happiness– #57 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2028 Anything Goes
Mod Squad – Slim Line Scene
Little Red Wagon – #558 Fantasy
Papercraft – Fantasy
There’s a Stamp For That FB Challenge – #2 Summer and/or Slimline
Not Just Cards – July Anything Goes

Turtley Adorable!🐢

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far! Really hate it when technology doesn’t cooporate and I have to figure it out, but hopefully I can soon! Sometimes it just needs to be done!🤔

Anyway, I was wanting to post some masculine cards I made for Father’s Day earlier this week, but I’ll have to post another time as this card was already done and is needed to enter a challenge that is ending soon:

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I love that wee little baby turtle riding on the back with his tongue out! The stamp was colored up with Copic markers, cut out with a circle die, along with another circle layer of Cabbage cardstock that I’ve also used for the A2 top folding card base, and another circle layer of vellum.

I was super excited to try out the brand new Ranger Distress line color “Speckled Egg” products! I’ve used the Distress Oxide ink to sponge over the image onto a piece of Sidewalk cardstock that was cut out with a stitched rectangle die. I also took the Circle Tone stencil and added some Opal Chroma Glaze over it. You can see how pretty the shimmer is on those dots!

For the banner along the side, I took another piece of sidewalk cardstock and cut my own banner with scissors. I took my embossing ink pad and covered the banner piece with it and then heat embossed the Speckled Egg Distress Glaze EP over it…turned out so pretty! I heat embossed the sentiment from the same turtle stamp set over a piece of vellum and wrapped it around the banner before attaching it to the card.

Lastly, I’ve added some metallic shimmer ribbon from my stash and some pretty sparkling sequins that remind me of bubbles. The card was designed based upon a sketch, see details below post.

Here’s a better view of the cute image and coloring I’ve done. I’ve added some dots with a white gel pen for their cheeks as well as their eyes and noses. I’ve also used it for highlights on their shell.

You can also see a better view of that pretty shimmer from the Metallic Chroma Glaze that I used over a stencil. Thought it was great for the circle theme going on.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired in some way or has brought you a smile! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for: