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! 🙂

Crafty Chefs Gnome Joy & FINALLY Finished Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎉

Hello my friends! Are you getting all of your Holiday errands finished up? I’ve still got some cards to send out and get going on my cookies! I always feel behind every year…are you this way too?

So, while I was “making merry” literally, I thought I’d join in the December Crafty Chefs Group Challenge and see what I could come up with for it. This cute little gnome has been wanting to jump on my craft table for a while…

Isn’t he adorable?! He came from a stamp set that I had actually got last year around this time and just never had the time to pull it to play with before Christmas rush finished up. Note to self…I have TONS of those items this year, so plan EARLIER! LOL! It seems I always get closer to a deadline and then want to come up with all kinds of things I want to try…is it the pressure or what?!

Anyway, I’ve got him all colored up with Copics and then I used the coordinating dies to cut him out with that I’ve attached with foam tape over my “Joy Fold Card“. (This was part of the challenge for the Crafty Chefs this month and I followed along with a tutorial to a link *see link above* that was given, but I changed it up slightly by making it an A2 size.) For the card design, I’ve used these Sweater Weather Papers. I’ve added some shimmer metallic ribbon and also stamped some green snowflakes from the gnome stamp set and cut them out with the coordinating dies as well. I also found some green colored pearls to add to the centers of each one too! The ribbon, pearls/gems and color green were a requirement for the Crafty Chefs challenge.

The snowflake on the left side of the gnome is popped up and actually helping to hold the top flap down, so you have to pull it out to open the card.

So when you pull open the flap, open the inside flap, this is what you’ll see inside. I heat embossed the sentiment along with a couple of snowflakes from the gnome stamp set with white EP and colored up a gift package, cut it out with the coordinating dies and attached it to the green panel. I also took the white Ink Pad and rubbed it along the edges of the green panel before attaching.

Here’s this month’s requirements for the December Crafty Chef Challenge. I used them all except for the very last one. It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Joy Fold card, so this was really fun!

I’m also VERY excited to announce that I have FINALLY finished all of those projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat that I took over a weekend back in October! Yep, I guess I’m pretty slow! In my defense, I took extra time so that I could enjoy each minute of it all and go back to revisit posts and tutorials! There were 23 projects total, and I made a few extras along the way. Here are my last ones:

This was for kit 19 and a wonderful coloring tutorial from the one and only Crissy who also illustrated the image of course! The sentiment I added myself is from Lawn Fawn.

This was for kit 20 and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get to these adorable gnomes! Love this fun shaker design! I put my own spin on it with the embossing folder background, stitches, twine and snowflakes.

Last, but certainly not least is this fun mixed media project by Iris for the final project. We even got to make a customized envelope to house the slimline card. She had Christmas greeting on her design, but I wanted to make it a winter birthday card. Love how it turned out!

So that’s all I have to share for now, but I know I’ll be back again on Monday to share a reminder challenge post for you! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to see what I’m doing friends! Hope you are staying healthy and happy! Enjoy your weekend!

Challenges (ONLY for Joy Fold Gnome Card):

A Perfect Time to Craft – #12 Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – #129 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #82 December Anything Goes
Love to Craft – LTCCB53 December Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #409 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – #32 Anything Goes
Crafty Creations – #416 December Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

Card for Santa’s Friend and Christmas Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎅

Hello there friends! I hope that you enjoyed Thanksgiving Day for those of you that celebrate. It’s difficult not being able to celebrate the holiday in the usual way with sitting at the table with family and I really miss them all so much and look forward to being able to hug them tightly in the future. I did have a nice dinner with hubby and we stuffed ourselves, also enjoyed spending time with each other.

After Thanksgiving comes the “Black Friday” shopping which I don’t go out and do in the department stores anyway let alone during this time, but I do enjoy taking advantage of deals online! Did you shop any sales or plan to this weekend?

Today I have a Christmas card that I’ve made for a very special individual with Down Syndrome. He has a very weakened immune system and is unable to go out and visit Santa like he usually does (6 times at least each year)! Santa is his friend, and he doesn’t understand why he can’t see him and thinks he’s been “bad” this year. 😥 Although he is an adult in age, he doesn’t understand with his mental handicap and his mother has asked if people would help in sending a Christmas card to him. Of course, THIS is the reason I love making cards! Here’s the card I made for Danny:

I was trying to go through all of my stamps that had a Santa and the first one that came to my mind was this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “Jolly Old Saint Nick” and it’s one of my favorite images for a Santa! I love how he’s got that “wink” going!

I colored him up with Copic markers and cut it out with a stitched round rectangle die and then layered it over a piece of red mirror cardstock that was cut with a rounder punch. For the design of this card, I’ve used a current sketch challenge (see below this post). I found some festive papers in my stash and cut the strips that I rounded the corners on with the punch as well. For the middle strip, I used some more of the red mirror cardstock and ran it through a brick embossing folder before attaching it to the other pieces. I layered them over a white A2 sized side folding card base that I also rounded the corners on as well.

For the sentiment, which also came from the same stamp set, I heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Christmas Eve EP over a piece of white cardstock and cut it out with a banner die and cut off the edge of the card.

Here’s a closer look at Santa and how I’ve colored him in. I couldn’t resist giving him white highlights on his cheeks with a gel pen. You can see the beautiful mirror effect with that embossed middle strip as well as the pretty sparkle in the sentiment from that EP I mentioned above.

And of course, I wanted to make the outside envelope that it’s getting mailed in just as fun! I took a diagonal striped stencil and inked it up with red ink along the bottom on both sides. I also had a fun “Postal Christmas” stamp set (unknown) and stamped a few of those all over the envelope in red and green inks. I sure hope that he enjoys this card and helps to bring a smile to let him know that Santa KNOWS he’s been good! 😉

I had also told you in a previous post that I was still working on projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Workshop that I participated in during October…well I’ve just been slowly enjoying completing them as I go, and I saved the Christmas projects for last for this reason! LOL! I’m getting closer to finishing up all of those projects! (Only 3-4 left to do I think!) For now…here’s some Christmas projects from the retreat:

This was for kit 8. What’s fun about this card is that there is an action wobbler behind the pile of treats she’s holding! I had fun coloring her up and I couldn’t stop playing with the wobbler! LOL! PS: This is a good reminder for the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge too!😋😉

This was for kit 13. I slightly changed up the card, but not much. I actually made a shaker with the jar and put some acetate behind it and then I also added a tag and silver ribbon at the top of the jar. I paper pieced the fairy’s gift box instead of coloring the strips too. I love the colors in this one!

This slimline card was for kit 17. All of the dies were actually really fun to color and arrange to create a scene with. I didn’t change things up too much with this one other than covering the bottom snow with glitter and then adding a sentiment onto the bottom of the frame. I splattered the sky with white paint instead of using a white gel pen.

And this fun bookmark was for kit 18. The ink blended colors were similar to the above card, but I colored in the letters with a white pencil and then used a gel pen to trace around the letters. I white heat embossed some snowflakes and added doodles with gel pens as well as pearl drops. I also added some tinsel ribbon to go along with the twine given. I might use this as a tag…not sure yet.

That was a rather long post! I’m a bit behind and trying to catch up with my projects, posting right now. I hope that you’ve enjoyed my projects today and have been inspired to get some festive projects going! I’ll be back very soon with another project and challenge reminder soon!

Challenges for Santa card only:

Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Sketch
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2047 Anything Goes
Always Fun – #190 Inspired On a Movie (“The Santa Clause” starring Tim Allen)
Sweet Stampers – #50 Christmas
The House That Stamps Built – N2520 Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin’ – Spots or Stripes
Christmas 24 – #22 Santa Claus

Bright Birthday and More Whimsy Retreat Projects!💡

Hello friends! Hope that you’re having a great week so far! Hubby and I are trying to figure out how this “retirement thing” goes together! LOL! I think we’ll be having so much fun and we’re just really excited about the future and what we’ll be doing.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday he also celebrated a birthday and of course I had to make him a card that was suited for an electrician. I had to add a bit of humor about his age on the inside, but this is what I came up with:

I’ve had this Stampin’ Up! Sunburst die and stamp set and haven’t used it that much since I bought it. (Quite a while ago! Not quite sure how old. LOL) I thought it would make a great light beam for my VERY old Simon Says Stamp ‘Watts Up’ stamp set that was from a past card kit. (circa 2014/2015) …yep, all old!

I die cut the sunburst from some yellow and gold glitter stock that I glued together slightly off-set and then attached it over a side folding A2 sized black card base. I stamped the sentiments over a couple of the yellow strips with black ink taking care to make room for the circle panel.

I then stamped the lightbulb over a white piece of cardstock and colored the base with Copics and used a marker draw a line above it for the string. I took a solid heart from the stamp set and heat embossed it with some Gold Metallic Gilded EP and then sponged some yellow ink over the bulb for some glow. I die cut it out with a circle die and then layered over another die cut circle black piece and popped it up over the sunburst layers with foam tape.

I tied a bow with some black twine and glued it to the light bulb base. I also stamped the bulb in a lighter gray ink over the envelope and added a string to that as well with a gray marker. (The inside of the card said: “Old is the new black.” 😆)

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And I also wanted to share that I’m still plugging away on the several kits that I received from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat last month! These are really amazing projects and I’m having lots of fun putting them together still! (Christmas will be coming next. So, stay tuned for those!):

This is a fun interactive card with a pull tab at the top where this cut little dragon slides upwards towards the sky! This kit 9 came with an A2 sized envelope, but I had to make my own envelope slightly larger to accommodate for the pull tab sticking above the card. I’ve added doodle lines around the edges and shadow stamped a sentiment at the bottom for my own added details.

This set was from kit 14. The hexagon shaped box was super fun and even came with the candy! There was also an extra stamped and cut out bee, so I used it to make another card… shaker style! I used the left over honeycomb die cut piece as a stencil on the card as well. I used the envelope that was provided in the kit above and decorated it for this A2 sized card instead. (I know someone that loves these candies…so they might get a surprise at some point! 😉)

And lastly, this was from kit 15 and TOTALLY different than what was photographed in the booklet! First of all, I received a plant image with a die cut speech bubble sentiments and thought it might be cool for a Halloween card on another project, so I saved those to use later. I received an EXTRA stamped sunflower image from kit 22 that I had posted earlier and decided to use it for this card here. I colored it similar to that one and cut it out, but cut off a portion of it on this design. I also changed up the background ink blended colors and splattered some gold paint on this one. Love how it turned out. This will be for an Autumn anniversary card for someone coming soon.

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges (For the Birthday Lightbulb card ONLY):

Retro Rubber – Anything Goes + stamps older than one year
Cardz 4 Guys – Birthday for adult male
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash – Tic Tac Toe (I used middle across: String/twine, 5 year old stamp, bright colors)
Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions (birthday)

Retirement Time and More Whimsy Stamp Workshop Retreat Projects

Hello there friends! It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it to November and rounding the corner to end 2020! It’s been a very strange year all the way around, but I have to say that it’s a bitter sweet day today as hubby will have his last day of work on his 40 year career as an electrician. So today I’m dedicating my post to him:

This would be a perfect situation for my hubby and something he talked about all the time…which was to go out to the lake, relax, enjoy some fishing time on a boat including staying in a cabin. Sure look forward to spending some time with him doing just that next year too!⛵🌅 He is a hard worker and certainly deserves it.

The stamp set that I’ve used for this card was a perfect scene image from Whimsy Stamps called Happy Place. I colored it up with Copic markers and cut it out with an oval die and layered another oval piece from black cardstock.

I found some papers in my stash that I thought would be perfect with this, so I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio Dies to cut it with to fit half-way on my A2 white side folding card base. Before attaching the piece down over the base, I took some Mustard Seed Oxide Ink and sponged across the middle of it and then used some Tumbled Glass Oxide Ink slightly at the top. I then attached all piece including the image panel.

I took the sentiment from the Happy Place stamp set and stamped one of the sentiments at the top of the oval panel and then I white heat embossed the “relax” sentiment over black cardstock and cut it out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set, glued it along the edge and trimmed off the excess. Lastly, I’ve added some Whimsy Stamps It’s a Party Enamel Dots.

Then of course I wanted to share the inside of the card which you can see that I’ve used the same image from the stamp set from the front of the card and just stamped that in a lighter grey ink color. I masked off the edge of the inside of the card so it didn’t stamp completely. I also used it in the same way on the envelope as well.

For the greeting, I took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word Die and cut it out with some black cardstock and then attached it with liquid glue. I stamped the “retirement” greeting right underneath it from the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings stamp set with black ink.

It may be hard to tell in the photo above, but I’ve also taken a glitter brush pen and went over the sun as well as the water for some added sparkle.

This card was actually fun to put together and I was thinking about the future and all the things we had talked about the last few years and getting ready for this day. Things are a bit different than we had envisioned of course, but we will have “our time” for sure. We’re so excited about it!

This card is being handed to him this morning while we have our coffee before he leaves for work on his last day!😀

And now I also have some more finished kits that I’ve been working on since the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Workshop Weekend! I’m still really enjoying finishing them up and still have MANY more to do! I’m so amazed at how much we received and very happy that there were several Christmas projects which I’ll be working on next! For now…here’s more of the finished kits:

This was for kit 12 and I LOVED the cute dragon in the purples! This card is going to my youngest grandchild as she is my “PURPLE girl”!!

This is the INSIDE of Kit 12. It was a really cool “FUN FOLD” design! I put my image off to the edge so I had room to write a message.

This was for Kit 6 and the entire scene was made using Copic coloring including the sky background! The squirrel and pumpkins were popped up with foam tape.

This was for kit 21 and my first time practicing with no-line coloring!

This was for kit 22. This mega large sunflower is gorgeous! Loved coloring and fussy cutting it out!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects and post today! I sure have been having fun just playing and trying out different things with my cards. I do look forward to finishing up these kits as we get near the Christmas time! So be watching for more of those!

Thanks for dropping in with me today and I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges: (For Retirement Card ONLY)

Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes Nov
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes Nov
Love to Craft – LTCCB52 Anything Goes Nov
QKR Stampede – #407 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #145 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #11Nov Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2044 Anything Goes

Sports Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge

Hello friends! Stopping by with a reminder today that there are still a few days left to join our “Sports” themed challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog! Hope you will join in the fun with us!

It’s that time of the year over here in the U.S. for Fall football season and I have some male family members that enjoy watching it along with having birthdays around this time which brings me to making these type of cards for them! So this challenge has worked out really well for that! So here’s my second card for this challenge:

I’ve pulled out this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set that I refused to part with just for this reason because I knew that I would be using it down the line…which is the “Great Sport” stamp set. (I think it’s maybe circa 2013?)

I think the embossing folder is just as old if not older than the stamp sets that I’ve used as it has that pattern on it that would remind you of the football texture. (pigskin leather as the guys say) I’ve recently picked up some sport themed decorative papers and thought I would use a strip down the center of my design and then I’ve also used the same pattern to stamp the wings and football images over that were all fussy cut out with scissors.

For the navy banner in the background, I’ve used a die cut to cut it out with and then stamped some stars with white ink over it and then sponged around the edged of it as well. I took another strip of orange colored cardstock and stamped a fun birthday greeting over it and then added some stars around it that were punched out from navy cardstock. All of these layered were attached over an A2 sized top folding navy card base.

Really thought it would be fun to add an interactive detail to this card as well by adding a wobbler to the back of the football image. So when you put your finger along the side of the ball, it will wobble.🏈😂 (something fun for the birthday guy to play with!)

For the decorative papers I’ve used, I took a sand block to distress the edges a bit and smooth out the edges of my fussy cutting details.

Hope this will help bring a smile!

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

Challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday – WWC291 5th Week Anything Goes

2. Krafty Chicks – #527 Stamp Act

3. Love to Craft – LTCCB51 October Anything Goes

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…

vicki-mmtpt632-forpop-open-1

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

Feeling Sentimental for Dare To Get Dirty

Hello again friends! If you missed my previous post, be sure to check it out for details about a GIVEAWAY on my You Tube Channel! You only have ONE week to enter it!

Today is my turn over at Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” Event to a host a challenge, so I wanted to share the creations that I’ve made for it.

Vicki-DTGD20basementstamper-words-shaker

First up I have this shaker style card I made with some of my fave Lawn Fawn products!

I’ve colored up that sweet little mouse standing over the banner from the Wild For You stamp set and cut him out with the coordinating die. The black banner he’s sitting on was white heat embossed from the Happy, Happy Happy stamp set. I also used the tiny smile face from this set to randomly stamp the background inside my shaker frame. I then used the envelope at the bottom from the Love Letters stamp set that was colored and cut out with the coordinating die.

I’ve used some Stitched rectangle LF dies to create the shaker frame and the striped papers also come from some random LF papers in my stash. I’ve used the LF Scripty Smile die in black cardstock that I’ve attached over top of the acetate window area.

Vicki-DTGD20basementstamper-words-shaker-flat

Since the card was mainly black and white, I wanted to add a happy rainbow color which is where the shaker sequins came in. I looked through my collection and found some Tie Dye Rainbow Sequins from Brutus Monroe.

Vicki-DTGD20basementstamper-wordsHUG

I guess I had rainbow colors in mind with my next card as well! I absolutely LOVE this sentiment stamp from Trinity Stamps called Folded Hug. I started by white heat embossing it over black cardstock and then I cut it out with my MFT Wonky Stitch Rectangle die and layered it over a white scallop rectangle layer and layered that again over a black piece of cardstock. I also used the coordinating Sending Hugs die set to cut the “hug” letters out multiple times to raise them up over the image and then finished with the rainbow colors that I’ve used for the background of the card.

Upon a closer look at the image, you can see where I’ve colored in parts of the image with my Karin Brush Metallic pen set. I think it showed up so pretty over the black cardstock. I’ve also covered the rainbow letters with a glitter brush pen and then went over that with glossy accents. I love how shinny the letters are IRL!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my share of creations during the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” Event and has helped inspire you in some way! I appreciate you stopping in!

Challenges:

Lawn Fawnatics – Make the Sentiment the Star
Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + Sentiment
Inkspirational – Rain or Rainbows (second card)
The Sisterhood of Crafters – Sentiment as Focal Point

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 8 – Halfway Reminder! Cupcakes or Bust!

Hey there friends! We’re now at the half-way mark of our wonderful “Birthday Celebration” challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations}!

Have you been adding your birthday/celebration themed creations to the gallery yet for your chance to win a prize from one of the amazing sponsors we’ve enjoyed sharing the inspiration with?! If you haven’t, we hope you will be able to join in the fun with us as we’re really loving the wonderful projects we’ve been seeing so far!

Today I thought it would be fun to create a unique card with my friends for {Cupcake Inspirations} as well as another of an old favorite from our sponsor Riley and Company that was also featured for yesterday! I have loved this adorable moose for many years and so I couldn’t help but use another image to create something for a little chuckle….

Vicki-CIC500-Day8reminder-RileyandCo

I had so much fun with this easy to make card! I’ve used my Cricut Explore to print out and cut the shape of the cupcake. I actually did this twice so that I could make a folding card with the shaped design. I made a score mark on the bottom cupcake along the left side and glued it together so that it would open up on the right side.

I’ve taken this really adorable Riley and Company “Or Bust” stamp that I’ve had for a few years and stamped and colored him up. Since the space above the “or bust” words is empty, I filled it with a sentiment from a MFT set that was perfect! 😂 I then fussy cut him out and popped him up with foam tape over the card.

I used a gold metallic gel pen to color the frame of the sign he’s holding, wrapped some gold metallic ribbon around the cupcake with a bow and a cupcake button in the center and then finished it off with some glitter over the sprinkles on the top of the cupcake.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my fun little shaped card today! Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you on Day 10 for more inspiration with another sponsor!

Challenges:

Cut It Up – #207 Old School + die cut (Have had this Riley for years! Used Cricut)

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 5

Let’s keep on celebrating! We are on day 5 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yeehaw!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Newton’s Nook – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

I adore the stamps from this company and already own some faves..including retired ones that I refuse to give up! LOL! I have recently gotten some new ones to party with though! Check it out…

Vicki-CIC500-Day5-NewtonsNook

Winston is one of the cute characters I adore! I’ve used the Sending Hugs stamp set with the coordinating dies. And the special thing about the coordinating dies is that they cut out the arms of each of the characters within the set so that they can be holding different objects! I think that’s too cute!

So I’ve colored up my Winston character with Copics and for the item he’s holding, you can see he has a cupcake, which is included in this set! I stamped, colored and die cut an additional cupcake next to the banner sentiment which was included with the set as well.

For the background, I’ve done some fun watercoloring. I’ve used a balloon image from a retired set “Winston’s Birthday” which is also where I’ve got his party hat from as well. Love it along with the “Winston’s BBQ” set that I won’t give up either! LOL!! I pull it out pretty much every Father’s Day! (I made a cute apron card with it this year and forgot to take a photo of it! Sigh….)

I photographed the card laying flat so that you could see the fun shaker contents inside the square frame! Lots of sprinkles, little cupcakes and balloon sequins in there! I thought it needed a pink glittery frame along with metallic shine on the party hat too! I finished it off with a metallic clear ribbon bow at the bottom.

Hope you’re having fun with the inspiration so far and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Challenges: