Under the Sea Shaker for Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Welcome to another Thursday and a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday this week! The challenge for this week is Brads, Sequins/Gems. So pull out your embellishments and have some fun creating! Looking forward to seeing your creations using these items!

I decided that I was going to use all three items for my card today:

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I’ve used an “oldie but a goodie” Stampin’ Up! stamp set for my masculine shaker card here. I’ve pulled out the “By the Tide” and “Hardwood” rubber stamp sets that I’ve had for a couple of years now. (Not sure if they’re still available or not in the catalog as it’s been such a long time since I’ve bought any SU! products.)

I started by stamping the background “Hardwood” stamp with Basic Gray ink over a piece of Marina Mist cardstock and then blended some gray and black distress inks along the edges of it. I mounted it with some Basic Gray cardstock. I’ve taken some twine pieces and used it to fashion a “netting” accent from the side of the card onto the bottom front and then added some blue glitter around it for some fun texture and sparkle.

For the shaker element of my card, I’ve used some circle dies to create the frames and that’s where I’ve attached the silver brads all around the edge. I’ve used some more distress inks and stamp some more images from the stamp set for the inside of the shaker design. I’ve added some sequins for the inside of the shaker window and placed it over the front of the card over the netting accent. I stamped the images with Gray and Cajun ink pads and then colored them in and randomly placed them over the card design.

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Lastly, I’ve taken some rhinestones and colored them with a Copic marker so that I could get the blue color for my design.

Thanks for dropping in!

challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Going Around in Circles
Use Your Stuff – Yarn/String/Twine
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Retro Rubber – Anything Goes #rrcb109
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes

Rainbow Shaker Birthday!

Hello friends! Yay! It’s Friday and I thought I’d share this happy shaker card that I made.

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I saw over at My Favorite Things “Birthday Project” Challenge was a “rainbow” theme and I thought this would make for a happy and fun birthday card design! So I pulled out the MFT Transparent Triangles Background stamp (now retired) and heat embossed it with white EP over some Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper. I went to work with my rainbow background and sponged several colors of Distress Oxide ink in rainbow form over the heat embossed background for a “resist technique”. I spritzed some water over it and my sprayer went a tad bit “droopy” and I ended up with a weird large droplet pattern, but I decided I wanted to keep it anyway, I liked it.

So to make sure that my shaker balloon was going to line up with my bear, I needed to stamp, color and fussy cut out this bear from the Beary Special Birthday stamp set. I needed to fussy cut it out because the coordinating die cut would also cut out the balloon from the image, and I didn’t want to include it as I was making my own! I’ve also white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set and cut it out with the Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips. I also took the Mini Balloon Shaker Window & Frame Die-namics to cut out all of the pieces that I needed for the balloon. (I used the fussy cut out bear for placement to see where I needed to die cut a hole in the background for the shaker area.) Before attaching the bear down, I also took some green cardstock and cut out a border with the Grassy Fields Die-namics. I sponged the edges with green ink and took a Copic marker to give a shadow around the bear. So after I placed my “balloon hole” where I needed it on the background, I took the rainbow sequins to place inside the Mini Balloon Shaker Pouches and added a piece of black cardstock for the background, which was placed over an A2 sized white top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the bear and how I’ve got him colored in. I forgot that in addition to the rainbow sequins I had, I put some tiny star sequins in there as well. At first, I thought I had gone a bit too dark for coloring the bear, but I like how he blended out and I think he really stands out on the rainbow background and doesn’t get lost with the black accents on the card. I took a white gel pen to his cheeks and added some shimmer to his present with a glitter brush pen.

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Here with the card lying flat, you can better see the shaker bits on the inside of the balloon and how they really stand out against the black balloon background.

I think I got a smile and it was passed around for the shaking.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I thank you so much for stopping in! Wishing you a very happy and rainbow filled weekend too! 🙂

challenges:

MFT Birthday Project – Rainbow
Creative with Stamps – Birthday
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – “Shake It!”
Always Fun – Birthday

April New Release for Whimsy Stamps with Interactive Card!

I’m excited to be sharing this really fun and unique interactive design that I’ve made with one of the cute images called Stretchy Giraffe digital stamp from the new release!

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This giraffe is so sweet and was fun to color up with Copic markers! (See below for the full list of the markers I’ve used.)

I took the extended neck version of the giraffe and made some fold marks in his neck so that when folded, it looks like the “regular neck” version of the image, but when you pull up on the purple balloon at the top, the neck extends up with it! LOL!

Check out this 18 second video below to see how it works:

I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps No-See Kinetic Basics die set along with the Kinetic Straight Basics die set to make the straight track behind the large cloud that is under the flying giraffe. This way there’s no track behind the giraffe to move the neck which I think is pretty cool with these special WS Kinetic No-See dies!

Because this was a giraffe with a long neck, I wanted to make a tall skinny type of card for this design. (It measures 3″ x 6″ when closed.) I’ve used a cloud die cut to hide the interactive track behind the giraffe and then I used a cloud stencil to sponge on some Wilted Violet and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide inks on the cloud die cut as well as the background white panel and the interactive pull behind the balloon so it all matches. I thought it would be fun to add some stars, so I took the star from the Snappy Birthday clear stamp set and stamped them with the Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink. I also took the sentiment from the Dachshund Balloon rubber stamp set and stamped it on the bottom of the white card front panel. (I thought it was the perfect sentiment to go along with this image! LOL!) I’ve rounded the corners of the white panel and cloud panel with a corner chomper.

The giraffe was popped up with the black string wrapped around his left “antler” and then secured on the back. The other end of the black string was tied around the balloon which is attached to the pull tab underneath the cloud area. I covered the stars with a clear glitter brush and added some sequins filled with some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops. I’ve used foam dots to pop up the giraffe over the design.

Here’s a closer view of the extended neck and the coloring I’ve done. Here is the Copic list that I’ve used:

giraffe body – YR24, YR21
spots, muzzle, mail & tail end – E15, E13, E11
Hooves & horns – E49, E47, E44
ears & belly – R20, R11, R00, R000
balloon – V17, V15, V12

I fussy cut the giraffe and the balloon separately from the image so that I could add my own string and make this an interactive card design.

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Really enjoyed creating this fun interactive card in a unique way with this adorable new stamp! I hope you’ve been inspired with it too! Would love to see what you come up with if you purchase this image!!

Thanks so much for popping in today!! I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

TGIF Challenge – Balloons (TGIFC205)
Alphabet Challenge – ‘A’ is for Animals
Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C477 “Trick Card”
Pammies Inky Pinkies – ATG (PIP1913)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: create a kinetic card

Celebrating at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies With a New Challenge For 2019!

Hello friends!! Happy New Year to you!! I hope you’ve enjoyed the celebrating with your family and friends! Are you excited about a brand new 2019?! I sure am! I’ve got lots in store to share with you this year! Hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am!!

Let’s start this year off with a brand-new challenge over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies, shall we? Every first of the month there’s a brand new “Anything Goes” challenge…BUT you must use a critter somewhere on your project is all!

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Isn’t this guy adorable?! I have used one of our sponsor’s image for my card today from Bugaboo. This is the Critter Balloons – elephant digital stamp. I have actually cut him out twice and colored him in, but I cut just his head and the balloon to pop them up with some foam tape for a little dimension.

I’ve made a Center Step Card for my design today. I kept the dimensions at an A2 standard size when it lays flat so that it will still fit inside an A2 envelope for mailing.

I’ve used some fun birthday style papers from my old stash and then I’ve used a sentiment from My Favorite Things More Essential Sentiments and white heat embossed it over a piece of black cardstock that I cut out with the Die-namics Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips. Lastly, I added some silver ribbon above that.

Here’s a bit of a close-up to see the dimension over the image. I’ve also taken a glue pen over the balloon image and added some clear sparkly glitter over it.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and I’ll be back very quickly with a second post today!

Challenges:

QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #328
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes

A Snowy Shaker

Hello friends! I’m back again today to share a shaker card I’ve made using the CUTE digital stamp from Whimsy Stamps called “Snowy“!

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I had “snow” much fun making this shaker card! Hope you’ve enjoyed it for inspiration as well!

Thanks so much for stopping in at my blog today! I appreciate your kind thoughts and encouragement more than you know! I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Simon Says Stamp Monday – “Let it Snow”
Creative Moments – Anything Goes optional twist: put sentiment on creation.
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – “Baby It’s Cold Outside!”
Aud Sentiments – Winter or Christmas Sentiment
Creative Knockouts – Snow Much Fun
Winter Wonderland – Christmas or Winter Characters (people only)
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional twist: “All Wrapped Up”

Seeing Stars at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends and welcome to Thursday already! It seems like the weeks are quickly going by faster and faster as we close in on the end of the year! It’s the “crazy crafting season” for sure! LOL!

Today brings up another Cute Card Thursday Challenge and for this week’s challenge, we’d like to see “STARS” on your creations! I think this is a good one for whatever it is you’re crafting even if it’s Christmas…or not! I have decided to make mine non-Christmasy this time:

I am pretty much “out-numbered” with males in my family, so most of my birthday cards are for men and I have a couple more birthdays to celebrate next month, so I thought this was a great opportunity to sneak one into my Christmas card-making time!

All the stamps and dies used on my card today come from My Favorite Things. (I have recently purchased some Christmas items and look forward to getting my hands crafty with some of it soon!)

I started my card out with the Blueprints 27 scallop rectangle die. I took some star images from a retired MFT stamp set called “Totally Happy” and randomly stamped them with VersaMark on this card front panel and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I taped off the scalloped edges so that they wouldn’t get inked. I’ve used the Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide inks and blended them over the stars for an ink resist effect. I also spritzed this panel and dabbed it with a paper towel for the water drop look.

I thought it would be fun to make a shaker card, so I die cut a star from this ink blended panel with the MFT Star Shaker Window and Frame Die-namics set and then cut the frame out from some black card stock.

What makes this such an easy shaker card is that MFT also has these Star Shaker Pouches that coordinate with the die! So I’ve taken this and fit it through the die cut star area on my card front panel and then filled it from the back with some confetti stars, I found some matching-colored seed beads and pretty sparkly silver glitter chunks to fit inside and then covered the back with some white cardstock. Just love the sound when it shakes because you can hear the seed beads! 🙂

I then took a strip of black card stock and white heat embossed the sentiment (same stamp set mentioned above.) to stamp the greeting. I first layered the scallop inked panel over a black piece of cardstock and then attached the sentiment strip and cut off the edges to match that layer. I then mounted this panel over an A2 sized top folding white card base. I finished it off by adding some silver star sequins filled with some Silver Stickles in the centers of each one.

Sometimes you wonder about “adding too much bling” for a guy, but I think this is a fun shaker birthday card that a male would enjoy too! Hope you’ve had some fun on my blog today! I thank you so much for stopping by! I will see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Challenge Up Your Life – Celebrate/Anniversary, etc. (Happy 100th Challenge!)
Use Your Stuff – Stars
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
Shopping Our Stash – (SOS 380) Tic Tac Toe (I used the middle row going down: stamps, glitter was handed from my grandma to my mom and then to me..so yeah, older than 5 years probably! LOL & Happy Birthday)
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC196 – “All About Occasions”

Caring Thoughts Wreath

Hello friends! Sorry to be throwing so many posts out to you at once, but as you can see there are so many exciting things going on the first of the month and I’m happy to be sharing it with you!

I have come up with an easel card design that I’ve created using the digital set called Memory in Our Hearts:

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The great advantage to using a digital set is that they come with pre-colored images as well as outlined images to create many different looks you’re wanting. In addition to that, you can also manipulate the size and structure of your image as I have done with my card here. (This is a great way to come up with a unique design too!)

I have taken some of the pre-colored “sprigs” in the fall theme color and sized and moved them around in a Word doc. to create my own Fall wreath with it! I then added the beautiful sentiment to the center and placed where I wanted it and then printed it out along with a couple more sprigs that you see on the inside of this design.

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To step things up a notch, I’ve used a protractor to draw a circle around my wreath image as well as a larger circle for a mat behind it and fussy cut them out. (I didn’t have a circle die large enough to accommodate my wreath image.) I took my ink blending tool and some Tea Dye and Vintage Photo distress inks to add some color around the edges. Since I made a Fall wreath design, I wanted to add some glitter to the leaves. So, I took the Nuvo Precision glue pen and added some glitter over them. For the “berries”, I took some Ripened Pumpkin Nuvo Crystal Drops in random areas around the leaves. I made a bow with some natural twine and added it to the top of the wreath. (I did this same process for the smaller “sprigs” on the inside of the card as well.)

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For my card design, I have made an “easel style” card (more on that below). My card size is a 5 1/2″ square. I have used the same cardstock color that I’ve used to print out my wreath image and separated it in two panels to fit on the front of my card base. I took an embossing folder from my stash to add some texture to my design and also used the distress inks again to add some color around the edges. I used glue to add some “dots” in the corners and then sprinkled some “Autumn Medley” glitter over them and let it dry. I have also taken some 1/4″ Tear Tape to the middle edges of the card base and burnished some of this same “Autumn Medley” glitter to that. I think it really brings in that pretty Fall color theme with some added sparkle!

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And for the inside of my card, you can see that those extra “sprigs” that I’ve printed and cut out create an easel style “stopper/display” function for my card design. It’s easy to create this look with a score mark made in the center of the card front base as you can see with the circle wreath shown fully.

I have used some of the same-colored cardstock as the printed-out wreath for the inside of my card with some more distress inks along the edges as well as another strip of 1/4″ Tear Tape along the bottom edge burnished with some more of that “Autumn Medley” glitter. I’ve used some foam tape to pop up the “sprig” cut out images so that they create the “stopper” for the front card base to rest while being displayed.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my interactive card today and I look forward to sharing many more projects with you during my guest design spot!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends! Please be sure to check out my earlier posts from today! See you soon!

challenges:

{Cupcake Inspirations} CIC457 – Fall
Try It On Tuesday – Thankful

Guest Design for the Retro Rubber Challenge

Hello friends! I’m super excited to have been asked to be a guest designer for one of the challenges over at the Retro Rubber Challenge blog! Yay! I really enjoy playing along in their challenges when I feel the need to break out some of my older stamps that have either been unused or neglected for a while. If you have some stamps that are at least one year or older…or older yet as many of mine can be, then this is a great challenge to play along with! Be sure to pop on over there and see what it’s all about, check out the inspiration from the design team and play along!

Here’s the card that I’ve created for the challenge but be sure to check out the full details along with lots more photos below!

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For my card, I went with the bottom row of “animals, window and circles“:

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I have pulled out some stamps from my “penguin stash” as I like to call it! LOL! I have lots and lots of them and most of them are years and years old. I’m actually not really sure how old this stamp set that I’ve used on my card today is, but it’s from Darcie’s Stamps and they haven’t been in the store for quite a while now I think.

For my card, I’ve taken a circle die and cut out my colored images. I had to mask the hat so that it looked like the penguin was wearing it as well as mask that giggling penguin along with the hat so that I could stamp the mug so that it looked like the penguin was in front of the mug. I also white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out with a banner die at the top. The sentiment also came with the stamp set. I cut out a scallop circle and then cut the center out with the same size circle as the penguins to create the frame around the penguin scene. I’ve used some older SU! papers from my stash to go along with my theme and then lastly added some red baker’s twine at the top along with some white enamel dots as well as a cute little wrapped up peppermint candy accent.

I have cut the center of the heart on the mug with my craft knife and now we are going to zoom in on the mug….

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Here you can see the glittery heart window with the penguin on the other side! I have made a window by cutting out the heart on the mug and then on the other side, I’ve used some packing tape with the sticky side exposed through the window so that I could add some glitter to it.

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And then of course when you open the card, you can see this cute little penguin trying to balance himself on these glittery rolling peppermint candies! LOL! This is why the penguin on the front was giggling. I think they had too much sugar!

I colored in a penguin from the set, fussy cut him out and then layered him over this line of peppermint circles that I found from an older card kit I had in my stash. It’s from a piece of patterned paper that I cut out. I added some shimmer over them with a glitter brush pen. At the top you can see the cut-out heart I made.

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This is just a closer view of the penguin on the inside. There is plenty of room above him to write a message. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave this blank or put a Christmas sentiment on the inside yet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card for today!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Get Ready for Christmas
4 Crafty Chicks – (4CC423) Something Old is Something New (old stamps and paper)
Crafting with An Attitude – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers Christmas – Anything Goes with Optional Twist: ribbon
Crazy 4 Challenges (C4C455) – Make any card in honor of WCMD
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes

Anything Goes at Cute Card Thursday with a Shaped Apple Card

Hello friends! It’s time for another weekly Cute Card Thursday Challenge! For this week, since it’s the beginning of the month, we will have our easy peasy “Anything Goes” challenge for you this week! We are sponsored by Whimsy Stamps!

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I couldn’t resist using this cute little fellow on my card for today! This is the Penguin Apple Bushel digital stamp from Whimsy Stamps. I’ve colored him with Copics and pencils and then fussy cut him out and attached him on the front of my apple shaped card with foam tape. Hard to see in the photo, but I’ve added just a wee bit of shimmer with my glitter brush pen on the bitten inside apple he’s holding. I’ve also added some white dots for his eyes with a gel pen.

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For the shape of my apple card, I found a fun apple card pattern and cut it out with my Cricut Explore machine and enlarged it the size that I wanted it to be. I’ve taken some sponges and ink to add some shading and highlighting details to the apple. I’ve taken that CUTE stamp set from Lawn Fawn called Thanks a Bushel to stamp a couple of hearts around the penguin as well as white heat emboss the sentiment on the front.

I’ve also added a black gingham ribbon along with some twine that I’ve attached an apple charm to before attaching it to the top of the apple.

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So of course, I wanted to show you what the inside of the shaped card looked like too! I thought that the inside needed to “look like” the inside of an apple, so I took the Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Apple die and cut a piece to fit the inside of the apple and then followed the “bite marks” to cut off the end and then I took a sponge to sponge around the areas of it with brown colored ink for shadows. I’ve also taken the same die set to add a tiny green apple on the opposite side of the inside of the card. The purpose for that was not just to add an extra decorative element, but I also wanted to cover up the back side of the penguin sticking out from the front of the card. I then needed to add the “apple seeds” to the inside of the apple, so I took the Lawn Fawn Stitched Apple Frames to cut out the seeds die in black cardstock and glued them to the vanilla die cut apple panel. I’ve also added some shimmer to the seeds with my glitter brush pen.

I thought that there was still plenty of room for a message below the seeds or you could also write on the opposite side as well. It’s just a fun and unique card design to go with that darling penguin! I will need to make a special envelope to fit the card inside for giving.

Thanks so much for joining me on my blog today!

Have a fantastic day!

Challenges:

Stamping Sensations – “I Spy with My Little Eye, Something Beginning with ‘B’!” (Bushel, bows, blue cap, bite, barrel)
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations – Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers – All Creatures Great & Small
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Bingo! (I’ve used the third column: die-cuts, ribbons, red)
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes with optional Back to School

Spots and Dots for Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! It’s Thursday once again and time for another new challenge over at the Cute Card Thursday blog! I really enjoy creating with challenges as it gives me inspiration and a push to finish a design in a way I might not have thought about doing otherwise. If you haven’t done this yet with your card making, I encourage you to give it a try…you never know what you might come up with!

I know we are in the heat of August, but I think this month is going by fairly quickly and the Autumn Season will be here before you know it! I was inspired by this along with another GORGEOUS image released this month from Whimsy Stamps, so check out my card for this week’s Cute Card Thursday challenge:

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I have used this stunning Fall image From Whimsy Stamps called Autumn Harvest Ride by Crissy Armstrong. I had some older Fall papers from my stash that had this fun dotted print on them and used these for the theme of the challenge to combine it with this wonderful Fall image as well.

The special card design I’ve used is called a Center Step Card. (Click on the link to see the tutorial on how to make one for yourself on Splitcoaststampers.)

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Upon a closer look at the design, I have also used a brand new (to me) elegant die cut by Spellbinders that I received as a prize winning from a fellow blog friend. I’ve cut that with some garden green color and used that as a “back-drop” for my main image panel. I’ve taken the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio Dies and cut another garden green piece for the image to sit. I’ve also stamped out the sentiment with the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments set and cut it out with an older Whimsy Stamps tag die to attach on the image panel with some twine. I popped up the image panel with craft foam and layered this on the center panel of my card design. I’ve also added a couple of Prima leaves between that. I’ve attached some other dotted papers to the other panels including the bottom long panel and wrapped some gold ribbon around the bottom one before attaching it. Lastly the gold ribbon and twine bows were added along with the button in the center gold bow and then I’ve added gold enamel dots on the side panels.

Here’s a closer look at the image and the coloring I’ve done with it. I’ve mainly used my Copic markers to color it in and then added some gold gel pen coloring to the carousel pole, the saddle and bridle with the gold parts on them. I took some Tinsel Stickles glitter to add to the “dots” on the saddle and bridle. I then fussy cut it and attached it over the white dotted background and garden green border panel at the bottom.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and inspired you in some way to play.

I’ll be back again soon to share more creations! Have a great day!

Here are the challenges I’d like to enter: