Emboss It at Sparkles Monthly + Giveaway WINNER!

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great month so far and being able to enjoy the nice Spring weather!  It’s been really nice over my way, but I’m seeing we have a bit of cooler temps coming too.  Hopefully not too chilly!  **Be sure to scroll down below this post to see if you’re a winner from my giveaway!!**

Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog and this time we would like for you to “Emboss it”!  I hope you will hop on over to see the inspiration from the team and consider joining in the fun with us this month!

Here’s the DT creation that I’ve made:

I love to do embossing on my cards and I know it’s a favorite for many!  I’ve decided to do a “Letterpress Embossing” technique and inked up an embossing folder to achieve the effect on my orange layer panel.  The raised areas stay white on the white cardstock.

For the two corners, I’ve taken a Simon Says Stamp Garden Greetings stamp set and gold heat embossed the floral spray image.  I’ve also used the same gold embossing for the “sending hugs” sentiment strip as well as the “Get Well Soon” sentiment over the shimmer vellum which was cut from a stitched circle die.  I added some gold sequins over it.

I wanted to keep it somewhat flat for mailing purposes, but I think some of it popped up would be pretty too. I was also very happy to pull out a past card kit and make another card with it.

I would love to see your embossed creations in the gallery this month, so I’ll hope you’ll play along!  Check out the challenge here – Sparkles Monthly

***ARE YOU A WINNER?!!***

vicki-tegiveaway

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I have taken all of the comments from my last post, added all of the names that mentioned they would be interested in the Beautiful Butterflies dies and foil package and wrote those names on pieces of scrap paper. I folded and crumpled them up and had my husband pick out a name. He threw them all into the hat he was wearing and pulled one out!

HERE IS THE NAME THAT HE PICKED OUT…………….

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Yay!  Congratulations Chrissy! 

Please contact me and send me your full name and snail mail address so that I can pop your package in the mail to you!  I hope you enjoy it!  (I haven’t even used mine yet!)  Sorry if your name didn’t get pulled as I only had one, but I know I have several “double” items that I’ve placed in a bin and will be pulling them out at some point to give away! So stay tuned!

Thanks so much for dropping in and taking the time to say hello!  I appreciate you!

Challenges I’d like to enter my above card into:

  1. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
  2. Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes optional clouds
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Little Red Wagon – At least 2 layers 
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
  7. Tic Tac Toe – TTTC204 (middle down: die cut, free, embossing)tttc-challenge-board-204

*Vicki*27 Comments

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

Happy weekend friends!  It’s almost time for Valentine’s Day which means we share our appreciation to those that we love!  I like to make cards that are great for any time of year and hearts are versatile enough to do this without being specifically Valentines.  Here are a few cards that I’ve made with this in mind:

I actually participated in last week’s Craft Roulette #149 and the perimeters were: 1. tissue/vellum 2. collage 3. far away 4. three pops of red.  So…while watching, I had decided that I was going for the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap that was already collaged with images.  I decided because of the collage images, that I was going to find an airplane image to use with it and my thoughts turned to an older Simon Says Stamp card kit I had with the “Home Sweet Home” stamp set.  I white heat embossed the airplane, the long building strip and the sentiment over black cardstock. It seemed to lend itself to a slimline card design, so that’s what I went with and used collage medium to attach the tissue to the background.  Once it dried, I glued the die cut buildings strip and went around it with a Big Brush marker that I smudged to create the shadow effect.

I made a banner with the sentiment and attached a white string to the back and tied a bow with it to the airplane and popped up the plane with foam tape.  The collage background panel was layered over a black piece that was attached to a standard slimline top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the details so that you can see them a bit better.  My “three pops of red” came from 3 hearts that I cut out with red cardstock.  The die was from the coordinating set with the stamps.  I attached them around the airplane and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Craft Roulette is all about, you can check them out live every Friday night around 6:00 pm CST.  I will be doing this tonight as well!  It’s just something fun to get your crafting thinking and I love that I can pull out my stash and use it up!

 

And of course I couldn’t help but follow along with the Lawn Fawn Create With Us “Wood You Be Mine?” class!  There’s a little inside joke about Woodchucks chuckin’ wood with my son and I couldn’t resist sending him one of these cards. (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THEM LARGER IF YOU’RE ON MY WEBSITE)

I just pretty much followed along with the same design as they shared in class with the exception of the background stencil.  I didn’t have the same one they used, so I pulled out one from Taylored Expressions that is no longer available.  but if you’d like to follow along with the class, you can check it out here.

And lastly, I wanted to share a commissioned card that I made for someone that requested a card to give to their partner.  Not really too specific other than they liked wolves and the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong lyrics somewhere displayed on the design.  So here’s what I came up with:

I did not own any stamps with wolves on them, so I turned to my Cricut machine to cut out a silhouette wolf and then I flipped it to cut another one so that they faced each other.  I wanted to give the appearance of the wolf couple howling together. LOL  I also had some digital map paper that I could print out to use for the hearts as well as making an envelope with it too.

The background was ink blended with the center being lighter toned in blue and then I splattered some white over top for a night sky or an “outer space” looking sky…however you’d like to interpret it, I suppose.  I cut a large heart with the map paper and arranged the two wolves over it so that, although it’s the same image flipped, I can make them look like different wolves and then cut off the bottom portions. I popped up the large heart with foam.  I also used the same papers to cut smaller hearts above them and added some glitter and covered them with crystal effects to make them shinny.  I printed out the lyrics on my computer and cut it out in a banner shape to attach below the wolves.

  • Hope you’ve enjoyed my “love” creations today and have been inspired in some way!  Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’– LOVE (Beavers)
  2. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Love is in the Air (slimline)
  3. Everybody Art – #529 Heart/Love
  4. Cardz 4 Guyz – Valentine for a Guy (wolves)
  5. Try it On Tuesday – All You Need is Love
  6. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Valentines or Hearts
  7. Little Red Wagon – Somebody to Love
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Hearts
  9. Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart

*Vicki*32 Comments

September AJ Page-Embrace Change

Are you a winner from my TE Background Stamp Give Away?  Check post below or CLICK HERE!

Hello friends!  As of Thursday, Fall has begun!  It actually really does feel like Fall with the cooler temps settling in on exactly that same day too!  I’m looking forward to all of the wonderful changes it brings with it!  I enjoy going out in nature and seeing the trees change into their colors.

It’s also that time for a monthly Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too!🥰  We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles!  So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” September prompt of “ANY kind(s) of scrap papers!” :

Like many crafters out there, I’m sure we all have those never ending piles of papers! I especially have a very extensive collection of pattern papers and MANY within those piles of little left over pieces that never seem to get used and just thrown back into the package!  I not only have packages, but I also have several card kits that ALSO have packages of papers in them too…so I pulled out a past kit and was happy that I’ve used pretty much all of the left over scraps from it!  One down and a trillion to go!!😅

For the Background:  The page is a 6″ x 9″ Canson 140# cold-pressed paper with the holes prepared at the top for later book binding.  I’ve used Distress Oxide Sprays and used the left over spray on my glass mat with water until I soaked up all the ink.  I’ve also splattered some Gold and Ivory acrylic paints over top once dry.  I stamped a couple of the tiny leaves with green ink for a bit of depth in the background.

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For the Image Elements:  I used the Simon Says Stamp “Woodland Whimsy” stamp set to paper piece all of the image elements with the tall trees on the right, the leaves, the bear, the bear’s belly and ears, also with the berry and leaf branches next to him.  The trees were fussy cut with scissors and the other images were cut with coordinating dies.  I’ve used Copic markers to add a bit of depth and dimension to some of it. Some were glued down while some were popped up with foam squares.  I’ve also taken the Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Leaves dies to cut out a few extra and sponged around them to add to the scene.  I’ve also used the same papers I’ve used to cut those leaves out and added it as a layer behind the two sentiment quote squares.  The quote was printed out from my computer and the “Autumn” sentiment was cut out from pattern papers using the Lawn Fawn henry’s ABCs dies along with more papers to make an “off-set” shadow behind them.

The “ground” was just fussy cut with scissors and ink sponged around the edges.  Lastly, I’ve taken some gold Stickles to create “berries” on the leaf branches and randomly over the page.

I really enjoyed creating this page as it has inspired me to go out in nature for a walk!  I sure hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!  Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Fur or Feathers (I went with fur, but love both!)
  2. Country View – Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
  3. Creative Artiste – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  6. Snippets Playground – Anything Goes using snippets (Happy to use up “snippets” of my pattern papers for the paper pieced images!) YES PLEASE!

*Vicki*32 Comments

An Electric Connection and Happy Mail Love For Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day friends!  Today is the day all about hearts and love!  Although I’ve already sent out my Valentine cards, I have a couple of lovely individuals who take a peek at my blog from time to time…so I have to wait until they’ve received their cards before I share them here!😉  It’s somewhat hard to “hide” my crafting since hubby’s now retired! LOL  So here’s the cards I made:

I just KNEW the minute I saw this Taylored Expressions Love Lights Stamps & Stencil Combo set that it was something perfect for making cards for my retired electrician hubby!  This set also coordinates with other products and so I started by foiling the TE Foil It-Love Lights panel and then ink blending with the stencil set.  I had to use blue as this is hubby’s favorite color.  So I’ve used the TE Sprinkles and Potato Chip inks.  The cardstock is TE Sprinkles. (I used softer tones for the Valentine feel.)  I also used the coordinating TE Mini Strips-Watt’s Up sentiment set that was silver heat embossed over the TE Sprinkles cardstock and cut out with the TE Mini Strips-Asymmetrical Die.  I just love the punny sentiments that go with this set!

The tiny light bulb for the accent I used actually came from a TE ‘freebie’ with one of my orders, so I die cut the light bulb with white glitter cardstock and lightly sponged some yellow ink in the center.  I die cut the center and bottom of the bulb with silver brushed cardstock and glued it onto the light bulb.  I die cut a circle from some vellum and also sponged this with yellow ink and glued the light bulb on top of it and attached it to the side of the card nestled with the sentiment strips that were popped up with foam tape.  He will have gotten this one this morning.

And here’s another card that I sent to someone very special!  It’s a simple card, but wow it was so much fun to create with using the Simon Says Stamp Limited Edition Happy Mail Love card kit! (Looks like it’s still available at the time I’m writing up this post, but not sure how long it will stay available.)  I so love those CUTE Doodlebug products and there are so many of them including the stamp set that goes together in this kit!  I wanted to play some more with it, but I have so many other things to focus on so I’ll have to come back to it later! LOL

I’ve used the Doodlebug background papers from the kit and cut it out with a Lawn Fawn Cross-Stitch die and also cut a strip of ‘grass’ with green cardstock at the bottom using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die.  The heart papers were attached over a red piece of cardstock from the kit and layered onto a top folding A2 white card base.  The grass border was attached over the red cardstock and heart background papers.  This gave me the room to take the CUTE Doodlebug LOTS OF LOVE Odds and Ends Ephemera die cut shapes to create my scene with!  This pack came in the kit and there are SO many pieces!  I’m sure you could go on and on making cards!  The bird and bunny die cuts were popped up with foam tape.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but I’ve taken my glitter brush pen to all of the hearts on the images and the cheeks on the cloud.

I think these cards did what was intended which was to create smiles during this cold winter season!  Sure hope that it has done the same for you as well!😉  Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day with all of my heart!❤  Thanks for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Moving Along With the Times – Love/Anniversary/Wedding
  2. Creative Inspirations – With Love
  3. The Paper Funday – Anything Goes optional ‘Hugs & Kisses’
  4. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional ‘Whimsical Valentine’
  5. Everybody Art – Love and/or Heart
  6. Try It On Tuesday – ‘All Loved Up’
  7. Cardz 4 Guys – ‘Love’ cards
  8. Little Red Wagon – Be My Love/Valentines

Huge thank you to those that keep the challenge blogs going!

*Vicki*39 Comments

Vintage Anniversary and Commissioned Ones Too!

Hello friends and happy February!  I feel like we just started a new year and it’s already into the second month!  I will need to get going on a couple of Valentine cards really soon!  Today, I wanted to share a card I had made for my parent’s 57th wedding anniversary along with a few other anniversary cards I was commissioned to make that I had forgotten to share until I made my parent’s card! LOL!

I really like how this one turned out for my parent’s anniversary card!  If this looks familiar to you, then you may recognize it from a past Simon Says Stamp card kit. (This one came from a Valentine 2020 kit.)  I thought that the papers in the kit looked “Vintage” and I really liked that, so I thought I’d try to go for that style in my card.

I used the heart rose stamp image from the kit and colored it with Copics and fussy cut it out.  I also copper heat embossed the leaves from the stamp set included in the kit over some green cardstock and fussy cut those out as well.  The sentiment was also from the same set as the leaves and I copper heat embossed that for the bottom right corner of the card.  It’s hard to see from the shine, but it says: “Happily ever together” and was fussy cut as well.

I started with the Vintage looking papers and cut a piece down to size and inked up along the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and layered it over a side folding A2 white card base.  I pulled out a piece of shimmer vellum that I ran through a Sizzix 3D heart embossing folder and layered it over top of the background.  I also took some of the ephemera from the kit and added those to parts of the background after sponging the edges of that too.  (see the “ticket” in the top left.) 

Finally, I arranged the heat embossed leaves along with the heart shaped rose over top.  I glued the leaves and then popped up the rose with foam tape along with the heat embossed sentiment.  I added some shimmer to the leaves with a shimmer brush pen and then took some sequins from the kit to attach over the card and filled with Stickles glitter.

I think this would be a special Valentine card as well for someone!😉

At the end of last year, I was also commissioned to make a 50th wedding anniversary card for someone.  I was just given the detail that the wedding photos were shown with the colors black and white…so I based my card using that idea.

I always think that wedding/anniversary style cards look especially elegant with die cuts and embossing, so I dig through my die cut and embossing folder stash.  I’m sure you can imagine me sitting on the floor with things everywhere! LOL!!  Do you do this too when you’re not sure what you want to do and/or what all you have?

So I found this really pretty Memory Box die cut with the heart in the center that I wanted to use and thought some glitter paper behind it would be so pretty.  This is why my card is a square shaped design.  Since it was celebrating 50 years, I thought it would be appropriate to add some gold in there too and die cut the numbers for the center of the heart as well at the border pieces on the top and bottom of the heart.  (Not sure where that die came from as it’s old. The number dies are really old too!)

I layered this onto the glitter paper and gold foil paper.  I stamped a sentiment (Taylored Expressions-The Inside Scoop Anniversary used both inside and out of card.) and die cut it out with a banner die and popped it up under the heart with foam tape.  I layered this onto a white 3D embossed background that was layered over a black top folding square card base.  I attached a gold ribbon bow over top.

I stamped a sentiment for the inside of the card and you can see that I’ve decorated the inside of the card using the same die cut border with gold foil cardstock.  The papers I’ve used for the borders on the inside were also used to create a custom envelope for this card.  Sometimes if I don’t have the envelope on hand, I make my own envelope.  Sometimes I prefer to do this for special cards anyway.

And this is another card that I had been commissioned to do for someone that wanted a card for an anniversary on Christmas Eve.  I was given the detail about them spending time at Disney World and seem to be a fan of Disney along with it being their 25th anniversary…so my card was based on those details.

I have no Disney character type stamps/products at all.  My thought was to create something with a “winter/Fairytale” theme which is why I turned to my Cricut machine for help.  I was lucky enough to find the carriage and horse image that I cut out using brushed metallic silver and silver glitter cardstock for the different pieces.  I also found a castle image that I cut from the brushed metallic silver as well.  I used black cardstock for the base and insides of the cut out images.  After I cut out the castle, I ran it through a brick embossing folder to give it that brick castle look.  I also die cut the numbers from Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Numbers dies.  I attached the numbers in the center of the castle and attached a silver ribbon bow over top of the numbers.

Since I had my main cut out images for my card, I was able to create my scene and size based on those.  My finished card measures approx. 7″ x 5″ which is not a regular size for me, but I thought it was fitting given the type of card it was along with the cut out images.  I started with a piece of blue cardstock and generously sprayed it with some Pearlescent Cosmic Shimmer previously received from a class I took.  It gives a really stunning look and the shimmer doesn’t show very well from the photo either.  Once dried, I die cut both the snowflakes and snow border at the bottom from some white glitter cardstock.  Both dies used for them come from Lawn Fawn.  The trees behind the bottom snow border were cut from some pearl white paper with an older Stampin’ Up! die set in my stash.  

I attached the sprayed blue background over a piece of silver metallic cardstock after wrapping a silver ribbon around the center.  I then attached the trees and added the snow border at the bottom.  I added the castle and snowflakes next being careful that everything was showing the way I wanted and then I popped up the carriage with foam tape.

This whole scene was placed over a white 7 x 5 top folding card base. I also took some silver glitter to add to the little flag ends on the castle.  I thought with all of the glitter and shimmer it didn’t need any more embellishment!  I was happy with how it turned out because I wasn’t quite sure it would!

There was a custom envelope that was also made for this card using some pretty silver pattern paper from my stash.

Everyone seemed to be pretty pleased with how the cards turned out for them and I was very happy to have had the privilege of being apart of someone’s special day too!

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, I’ve been given the honor to create wedding invites for my son’s wedding coming up this Summer and I know I’ll be getting really busy putting those together as well!  So that will be coming up really fast and I hope I can keep up with things! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations or been inspired in some way!  See you soon!

Challenges (TOP CARD ONLY)

  1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
  2. Krafty Chicks – All Occasions
  3. Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional add flowers
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (Copics used for heart rose image)
  5. Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional love
  6. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use embossing folder (3D heart folder over vellum piece)

*Vicki*24 Comments

Hello! Welcome to 2022!

Hello friends!  I hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a promising year this go around!  I sure am!  I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I was having a bit of a hard time with having lost my “MOJO” for a period, feeling really down and not myself at all.  Christmas came and then on top of it, I’ve gotten sick.  I am starting to feel a bit better now, so I decided that the only way to get through all of this is by doing what I’ve always felt to be therapeutic, which is to keep on creating!  I just need to get back into the mindset of it again is all, but I do enjoy it when I’m creating as I’m sure my fellow crafty friends can relate to!😉  Appreciate your kindness to me always.

Since I really haven’t created much lately other than Christmas cards (as you can see from my previous post below), I’m going to share some projects that I had done at the end of last year including some commissioned cards I was asked to do:

Last month was a birthday card for my dad, so I’ve pulled out a special birthday kit that came out sometime last year from Simon Says Stamp.  Everything I’ve used on the card including the embossing folder, stamps, sentiment strips and paper all came from the kit.  It may be hard to see in the photo, but I’ve foiled over the “super happy” sentiment strip that was included with the kit and glued it over top of the cake slice.

I’ve added some glitter over the candle flame, the yellow stars and the inside of the white embossed “birthday” strip under the cake slice.  I pulled out the blue colors from the striped paper to color the image with using Copic markers and die cut it out to glue over top of the sentiment strip and embossed oval layer.

And speaking of birthdays, I was commissioned to do a 50th birthday card for a guy that is a professional painter and enjoys grilling outdoors.  The first image that came to my mind was this really cute LOTV image.  I printed him out and thought it would be fun to incorporate the birthday number above “the painter” to make it look like he’s in the process of doing it while the paint is dripping everywhere.  So while the boy painter was printed out, I stamped and embossed the numbers above him.

My husband had the idea of the little grill along the edge going “up in smoke”.  So I created a “ground” area for the ladder and the grill to be on.  I stamped the grill image, colored it in and then a liner pen to draw the line to establish the separation.  I then ripped the corner above the grill and sponged some Black Soot distress ink around the grill and corner edging.  I didn’t want the background to be white or black, so I dug out some brick style pattern paper to place behind that corner area before attaching it to the card base.  Hopefully there were some chuckles from it!

So for the inside of the card, I thought it would be fun to take this corner border die that I received from a Halloween class and make it look like the red paint drip continued on the inside.  Then I found this really funny sentiment to go along with the grilling bit too!  I also sponged some more of that Black Soot distress ink around the edges.

These were really fun cards to do and I enjoyed the coloring process so much!  I find that coloring images really helps me get through some creative blocks…even if it’s a simple image or something that I don’t use, so I’m thankful to at least to be able to do that.  Hopefully I can get back into what I enjoy doing here.

I know people sometimes struggle with masculine style cards, so here are a few examples of cards that I came up with for men.  Hope it helped with some ideas for you too!  Thanks for stopping by today and I’m glad you did!

Challenges:

  1. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes
  2. Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes with stamping + use a die (top card only)
  3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #173 Anything Goes
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

Autumn Birthday For My Deer

Hello friends!  Really hope that you’re having a great week as we start to dip down into cooler temps and that means that Autumn is coming to a close (sadly) and winter is upon us along with Christmas!  Are you ready?  I’m working on things…that’s all I can say!  I need to get more motivated for sure!  Many things are already done, but it’s the double checking to make sure…and sometimes it’s not! LOL

Recently, I needed to make a birthday card for hubby, so I pulled out a card kit I had from last year and came up with this one for him:

This was a really fun one to do from the Simon Says Stamp Woodland Whimsy card kit from last year. (I linked the stamp set and dies still available.)   My husband is a huge fan of outdoor wilderness and especially deer in the Autumn season as they can be easier to spot with the falling leaves.  So it just seemed like the type of card to make suited for him.

I’ve colored in all of the images with Copic markers and die cut them out with the exception of the birch trees as there were no dies included with the set.  I placed them behind my die cut circle from the woodgrain paper included with the kit.  I backed it with another piece of the paper from the kit as well.  I even tucked in the back part of the deer’s feet along with a leaf to make it part of the scene.  I like the banner from the set which is left blank so that you can add whatever greeting you want with it.

The little heart above the deer was also fussy cut out and then I covered it with a glitter brush pen as well as some crystal effects over top for the shine. I thought about adding some sequins, but decided it wasn’t needed. The scene was layered over a piece of cardstock included with the kit and then I stamped some of the birch trees onto a coordinating envelope as well.

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Also thought I’d share some other projects that I’ve been working on since my last post.  It seems that I’ve become a little addicted to taking those classes and events…honestly don’t need to be taking them, but sometimes it’s just fun to participate in the fun with fellow crafters!  I do enjoy sharing with those like-minded crafters like myself!😁

These are all projects I’ve made using products from Inky Stamper.  (I will link to the information in the descriptions below.  ***If you are on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see better and the wording will also be more visible.) 

  • These are projects we made during a “Game Night” event! Cute fun fold card, a mini card and the little round container is decorated with a deck of circle playing cards inside! It has a magnetic closure! Super fun event!
  • This is a set of projects made during an OOAK event class with Chelsea from Inky Stamper. We made the fun vellum shaker card and the mini Fall card with this class. The kit is still available in the store here – Peppermint Mocha Latte Kit
  • This card was made up by me for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group using the colors Blue and White for this month’s challenge. I used “Bear” for my main image.

Inky Stamper has just came out with several new stamp sets this month…super cute and great for Christmas!  So be sure to check out the store’s front page to see them!

I’ve also been working on some Christmas things that I will share soon as well as some other requested commissioned cards that I’ve recently finished. I would like to get those Christmas cards finished up early for a change!  How about you?!  Are you all done creating for the Holidays yet?

Until next time, thanks for stopping in today friends!

Challenges (For deer card only)

  1. Alphabet Challenge – ‘P’ is for Patterned Paper
  2. Happy Little Stamper – Anything Goes with Diesimage
  3. Addicted to Stamps and More – Birthdaysimage (1)
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. {Cupcake Inspirations} – Fall Foliage#532
  6. The Crafter’s Café – Male

*Vicki*27 Comments

Holiday Sweets for {Cupcake Inspirations}!🥧

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve enjoyed your weekend!  Thanksgiving is coming up this week and the full Holiday Season has begun and one of the things that most people are thinking about (at least my family anyway!) are those wonderful “Holiday Sweets“!  Yum!😋

This is also our new challenge for the next 2 weeks over at {Cupcake Inspirations}!  So I hope that you are able to start (if you haven’t already) thinking about creating something crafty with those “Holiday Sweets” in mind and join along in the fun with us!  Here’s what I’ve come up with for this challenge:

I remember times with my kids when we did the “milk and cookies” you leave for Santa along with your nice letter about some things you wish for him to bring you. We always wrote the letters to Santa and made sure that we put out the cookies…and usually hot cocoa on Christmas Eve.  There were always candy canes on the tree to pluck off to stir your hot cocoa with as well!

I remembered this fun little Simon Says Stamp Christmas card kit (Christmas Squad) that I hardly made a dent in to use at all, so it was really great to pull out these adorable Doodlebug items with a “milk and cookies” theme in the papers and images! I had unopened packages of cut out images which is the table with the lamp, Santa letter and mug on it.  I took the doggie image from the stamp set, stamped, colored and used the coordinating dies to cut it out with and popped it over the table image panel with foam tape. This panel was cut with a Wonky Stitch Rectangle die as well as the background papers.  I layered everything over an A2 sized top folding red card base.  The image panel was also layered over some of this red cardstock as well after sponging around the edges with some light blue ink.

Lastly, I took a sentiment from the same stamp set and white heat embossed it over another piece of red cardstock that was cut out with a banner die and popped up underneath the image panel with foam tape. (I thought it was the perfect sentiment to add especially for this year to someone you miss!)

Here’s a closer view of the images that I’ve put together onto this panel.  The pup was colored with my usual Copic markers and I’ve used a silver gel pen to color in his collar tag with.

I also had some Doodlebug stickers with the kit and added the bitten cookie with a smile face next to the other cookie on the table.  I also added a candy cane enamel sticker to the table as well as the heart enamel stickers above the table.

The strip of papers in the center of the card came from the backside left over piece that was cut out from the milk and cookies panel in the background.  The colors matched up nicely with the images.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Holiday Sweets” card today and it has brought you a smile, a special memory or inspiration.  If you need more inspiration for this challenge, please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to see the rest of the DT sweeties and what they came up with!  Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

**WISHING YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING**

Challenges:

  1. Simons Says Stamp Wednesday – Christmas
  2. CRAFT – Christmas
  3. Cardz 4 Galz – Cute Christmas
  4. Cute Card Thursday – Sentimental
  5. Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas

*Vicki*27 Comments

Choose to be Grateful for Crafty Chefs

Hello friends!  I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far!  The weekend is here, but it sure has been a beautiful couple of days this week with sunny and warm days so hubby and I were able to go out to walk around a bit before the snow starts hitting us!

Something that is great to go out in nature to see are the critters with the birds and the silly squirrels…we have them EVERYWHERE!  They’re busy gathering and burying their food for winter time around here.  My thoughts turned to the Simon Says Stamp “Big Thanks Autumn” November card kit (sold out, but not papers) as I love all things Fall/Autumn and this card kit with those beautiful papers spoke to me and I wanted to create with it to make my project for this month’s Crafty Chef’s Group recipe from our lovely friend Meg’s recipe:

There were some blue colored A2 card bases already cut and scored inside the kit, so I used one for my side folding card base here and then layered a dark brown cardstock piece from the kit as well as a piece of copper mirrored cardstock which was then layered over a piece of the decorative papers (I mentioned above) in the kit, which is also where the critter, mushrooms and leaves images came from on this card.

The leafy background paper was cut from a MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle Die and then I took a strip of the copper mirrored cardstock across the bottom third of the layered pieces and also added some twine wrapped around the bottom of the layers before popping them up with craft foam over the card base.  I die cut a branch from a die in my stash and then fussy cut the images out from the papers included in the kit which were glued or popped up with foam squares over the panel.  I sponged some Tea Stain Distress Ink around the edges of these pieces before attaching.

Lastly, I’ve taken one of the sentiments from the sentiment strips sheet included in the kit and ran it through my laminator with a piece of copper Deco Foil.  (I think that is a cool way to add a little extra something to those sentiments.)  I made a banner out of it, sponged it with some of the ink I used for the images and popped it up over the leafy background piece with foam tape.  

Here’s a closer look at the critters I’ve cut out and how I’ve arranged and popped some of them up to create my scene.  There was also a very pretty SSS Autumn Sequins Mix included in the kit and I took some of those and added it to the layout and then filled the centers with some Gold Stickles glue.

For the Crafty Chef’s recipe that was given, here’s what I MUST use:

  1. Mirror cardstock
  2. 3 layers or more
  3. ribbon (I hope my twine counts!)
  4. image of garden visitors (birds, hedgehogs, etc)

CAN do items:

  1. Sparkle/Glitter (I used sequins and Stickles)
  2. pearls/gems (I did not use) *passed onto next chef
  3. dry embossing (I did not use)

If you’re interested in joining this pressure free and just for fun crafty group, just CLICK HERE to join the Facebook Group and you can even take turns coming up with the recipe if you’re interested.  There is a new recipe given for each month and no pressure to follow along or even when you want to follow along and play…which is great and I’m happy to be able to use up some of the goodies from my stash (NEW AND OLD) and just have fun with it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today as well and I will be seeing you all again soon!  Thanks so much for stopping in today friend, as I’m very grateful for you!

Challenges:

  1. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animal(s)
  2. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)
  3. Creatalicious – #199 Anything Goes optional Autumn/Thanksgiving
  4. The Paper Girls – #212 Thankful/Grateful
  5. The Divas That Cut Paper – Thanks or Thanksgiving
  6. A Bit More Time to Craft – #128 Anything Goes
  7. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #146 Anything Goes
  8. QKR Stampede – #408 Anything Goes

*Vicki*33 Comments

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 glitterstock 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):

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

*Vicki*31 Comments