Mail Carrier Birthday and Class Results

Hello friends! I hope that this Spring weather hasn’t gotten too crazy for you. I know that this is a season of storms and tornadoes where I live in the Midwest, and I saw Iowa get some tornadoes come through. It’s windy here, but luckily not that bad. So, I thought this would be a good time to catch up sharing some things I’ve been working on!

My first project is a birthday card that I made for my son last month. He’s a mail carrier and so I thought this would be fitting for him. The mail carrier came from a MFT Birdie Brown stamp set (retired) that was actually a female with ponytails and a dress. So, I’ve altered it and masked off the ponytails and drew in some shorts. The mailbox die (retired) and other postal related stamps/dies all came from MFT as well.

For the background: I’ve used a MFT cloud stencil and cut it out with a stitched rectangle die. After coloring the image with Copics, I cut it out with another rectangle die and placed it over the red postage stamp rectangle. I cut out the mailbox pieces and put it together over the cloud panel and added a few postal images at the top right corner along with the envelope in the background. I finished it out with the birthday sentiment on the mailbox (retired) and a few white gel pen details on the image.

Although he’s a mail carrier, I didn’t have to mail this card to him, and I got to see him smile when he opened it…which is better than mailing it!😊

Last month, I also participated in the Taylored Expressions Virtual Stamp Joy. I also just realized when registering for this event that I have participated in every single one of these since she started it during the pandemic in 2020! I think the pandemic has really changed the world in several different ways, but I’m glad that this was one of them as I have enjoyed doing these. There’s just something about getting a class event mailed to you and attending in your PJs while having snacks and crafting that I find appealing, I guess! 😉

Of course, doing virtual, I have lots of time to finish up projects, but I think I had them all completed within a week after the event…I just had to photograph everything and now I’m finally getting them on this post to share: (IF YOU ARE ON MY WEBSITE, CLICK EACH PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT-CLASS INFO AT BOTTOM OF PHOTO)

This was the “Strip Class” where we used the TE Strip dies in various ways…I made a few extras!

I had a busy month for sure! I’m also in the middle of another session of classes that I’ve been working on and having to go back in my spare time to get through each one. During the exact same time as Stamp Joy was going on, there was another freebie class weekend that was going on, so now I’m going back and watching the replays to do little bits at a time…I have a little way to get through it still, but when I finish, I will share those results too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my catch-up post today and have been inspired to have some fun even if you can’t be outside! I’m sure when it gets a bit warmer, I will want to enjoy it, but for now, I’m going to play in my craft room!

Thanks so much for stopping in and have a great day!

Challenges: (top card only)

Pearly Sparkles – For a Man/Boy #94
Dragonfly Dreams – Use a Die
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2415 Anything Goes
Creatalicious – #276 Anything Goes with Optional: Use Something New (new postage dies/stamps from MFT)
Ally’s Angels – #81 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stencil It (stenciled cloud background)

Class Fun & Square Samplers + Give Away

Happy April friends! We have finished March already and onto Easter very quickly approaching! I hope you’re enjoying all things Spring coming up your way! We’ve had several storms and we’re in the tornado season as well, so I hope everyone is staying safe out there whatever the weather. I do have some things that I had previously finished and wanted to share:

First, I wanted to share about the Virtual Stamp Joy Event by Taylored Expressions that I participated in a few weeks ago. I always have so much fun and enjoy the motivation that it seems to generate! I’m sharing them in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website post, then just click on each photo to enlarge it.

The first four photos were from a class using the same floral stamp set and the others are from the next day of make-n-take projects. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them!

The last set of four cards were a “mass production” using a background stamp in different colored cardstock panels and clear heat embossing over them. The class sample had “hello” sentiment on each one, but I changed up the sentiments and have placed them in a card box to give them out with envelopes as a gift for someone.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!

From the end of last year up until this last month, I didn’t have much time with the Holidays and everything going on, but as you may have seen in previous posts, I participate in a “square sampler swap” and when everyone sends out their squares, we then complete a home décor piece with all of the squares, so I thought I’d share mine finally completed:

CLICK PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE

This was for the Christmas Sampler SWAP and you can see that I’ve used a black shadow box frame for my sampler and placed some red with red metallic dotted paper behind it. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used My Favorite Things products for my square.)

This was for the Winter Sampler SWAP and I went with a white shadow box for this one. I’ve placed some soft blue snowflake papers for behind my sampler as I thought it was soft enough to not look too busy. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used Inky Stamper products for my square.)

And recently we finished up our Spring Animals Sampler SWAP that I used another white shadow box for the sampler. I’ve added a piece of pink colored “Watercolor Wishes” paper from Lawn Fawn behind it. It looks a little off in the photo, but it looks better IRL. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I used Taylored Expressions products for my square.)

Not sure if we’re doing any more or not, but I had so much fun making the squares to swap with friends!

Lastly, I have a fun little thing to give to whoever is interested in these Taylored Expressions dies + foil-it panels package. (It’s not sold in stores anywhere as it was a free gift with purchase) I have an extra and so I thought I’d give it away to someone! Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll pick someone from the comments.

Leave a comment below if you’re interested!

That’s all I have for today! Thanks so much for stopping in! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Lawn Fawn Thanks+Painting Divas Class Projects!

Happy weekend! It’s very hot here today as we are under a heat advisory! So thought it was best to stay indoors and keep working on my “catch-up” posts! This one is a bit different than my usual papercrafting posts, but it’s my finished projects from the crafting retreat I had with friends right before the wedding and why I was so busy! But first, I’d like to share a fun “thank you” card I made for my friend that hosted it all:

And as you know from my last post, I was on a Lawn Fawn fever mode, so this was also made for my friend that hosted the fun “Painting Divas” retreat for us! This ADORABLE set called Just Add Glitter was a perfect set to use to create a card for the theme as well as those products to accompany it with the Art Supplies dies, Canvas and Easel as well as the Paint Splatter Background Stencil too!

For the background, I created a scene with a brick stencil from my stash that I’ve had for years which was blended on with some grey ink. The bottom solid grey portion of the scene I used that paint splatter stencil and some Distress Oxide colors and blended in over it. By using the oxide inks, the colors showed up better over the grey.

I used these same colors of Oxide inks to sponge over the die cut pieces from the Art Supplies dies as well as the “masterpiece” splatter on the “canvas” and the brick wall splatters. I’ve used some LF Woodgrain paper to cut out portions of the “wooden” pieces and the rest of the pieces were cut from white cardstock and then just colored with Copic markers. I arranged the scene to make it fit the way I wanted and then attached it down with some of the pieces being popped up with foam tape. (The sentiment on the rainbow canvas blob was from a freebie stamp the company is famous for adding to your order.) I had fun making this one and I chuckle at the “I arted” sentiment! 😅

Painting Diva Vicki 2022

For the “Painting Divas” Retreat, we had projects with different teachers and of course you probably recall the Mixed Media birdhouse I did from my past blog post. CLICK HERE TO VIEW POST The theme was on that cute little sign as we arrived…”Gnomes & Fairies & Unicorns & Glitter”…how fun is that?!! We were to create a decorated gift bag to bring with us using the theme and enter for a contest…but totally forgot to bring mine back home for a photo to show! LOL (I am hoping that we get together to share some photos as I wish I had taken more than what I did!)

I took a quick photo with birdhouses everyone finished for my class, and it was so fun to see everyone’s interpretation of how they made their own. I enjoyed seeing what everyone did! (I think two of these are missing in this photo.)

Now, I am not an avid decorative painter and don’t spend a whole lot of time doing it, but a couple of girls at this retreat are, and have been doing it for many years! (even longer than I have been a paper crafter…which is a LONG time! LOL) So I have had the privilege of learning a bit about it. I’m glad to have this time to share something together and doing when we can. I appreciate it and the memories that are made. 🥰

Below is my gallery of projects that I did for each class. I did this in order of when each class was taught. If you’re directly on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge it and also see the description of what the dimensions and types of surfaces that were used. All were hand painted by me using acrylic paints.

Painted over a canvas board measuring 8″ x 10″ with addition of 3 stars, buttons and knob for nose. You could make a face or paint a gnome, so of course I painted a gnome for mine. I went on my own and added twine to the star…not sure I like it.

I have one last project to share which is something I recently finished up before this painting retreat, but it had been sitting around the last few years as an un-finished box not being used.

A few years back, I had gone to a paint convention and purchased this brush box that was hand-made by an older gentleman and vendor at this place. I started it quite a while back and finished up the top portion of the box doing some ombre painting. I added the wooden lettering on the front and some glitter paint to the lettering after it was sealed.

And here’s what the inside of the box looks like with all of my brushes stored in it. (Well most of them anyway! LOL) What I like is that there are separate compartments so that I can organize the different types/styles of brushes in each. The brushes are protected and dust-free. The dimensions of this brush box are 11″ x 7″ x 4″ deep all made with wood. The hardware was removed and then replaced after painting and sealing.

Like I mentioned, I don’t always do decorative painting like this, but since it’s already part of my life and I have accumulated things related to it, I will probably do some things here and there. It’s like a mixed media thing for me as I don’t always do that, but sometimes I enjoy getting things out for something different. I like many different crafts which makes this all so fun for me. It’s nice to have a variety of interests to keep enthusiasm going!

How about you? Do you have interests in other things besides paper crafts?

Stay COOL and safe out there today friends…how do you like to keep cool?

Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope you were inspired in some way on your visit!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything with an animal (card)
Dragonfly Dreams – Indoor Hobbies (card)
Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Dies (card)
Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Stencils (card)
Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion (card)
Cardz 4 Galz – Get Inky (card)
Creative Moments – Anything Goes optional: CUTE (card)
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (card)

Some Inky Stamper Escaping!

Hello friends! It has not only warmed up over my way, but we went from about 50 degrees to straight up 90 degrees within the last few weeks! I think it’s supposed to slightly cool down in a few days, but I’m happy it’s warmer anyway. Hope that you’re all doing well too. Been wanting to share with you what I’ve been up to, but first I have this fun card I recently made:

I thought this was so fun and easy to create! If you’ve ever made a gate-fold card, try one of these interlocking ones! I love the way it opens up from just a traditional card. This is the first time I’ve tried one of these and I’ve made it for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group‘s challenge…which is to make a gatefold card.

I’ve also used one of the brand-new stamp sets that came out from Inky Stamper called “Iguana“. I’ve stamped the images out on Bristol Smooth watercolor and used my Zig Brush Markers to color them in. The stamp set has a coordinating Iguana die, but I fussy cut the cactus out to place behind him. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut it out with a banner die to place at the bottom of the card.

You will notice that I’ve only attached HALF of the panels on the front so it can be opened freely with the circle frame interlocking with the circle image panel.

To complete the decorating, I’ve used the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper pad and added some Picket Fence Reflections Gems for a few accents on the front. I also took a few markers to add some stitch lines.

Here’s what the card looks like when it is completely shut. You just have to be sure that the two circle panels can freely open without interference, which is why I had to cut a very small piece from the Iguana’s tail so it could close properly. I honestly don’t think it takes anything away from the design.

And then when the gatefold opens, you can see my inside sentiment. I’ve taken a strip of the paper I’ve used on the front and added it to the inside to make it all cohesive. (I think I’ll add some stitch lines to it now that I’m looking at it.)

And speaking of “Inky Stamper“, I had a really fun time not this past weekend but the prior weekend taking part in the “Inky Stamper Escape Event”! I spent the weekend crafting, doing some fun make’n takes, shopping and meeting the special people behind the company! So very exciting and so much fun…especially meeting new friends!

SO EXCITED to have met Chelsea and Kim! Really enjoyed the time and trying out all of the new things!!

Here we are! This is the crew that stayed for the weekend although there were several others that stopped in to partake in the make-n-take fun or do some shopping. It was so fun to meet some new friends and get to know them too!

And of course here are the Make-n-takes we did with all of the new release items! Lots of interactive fun with a waterfall card, shaker card, slider card, mini treats and even a mini card with a cool foiling technique.

The swag bag was too cute with a special tag that had my name on it, an Inky Stamper pin and lots of fun goodies inside (not shown). Plus an Inky Stamper mug with some yummy goodies inside too! Aside from being spoiled, it was fun to be able to stamp with friends while working on some of my own projects. Really great time and special thanks to Chelsea and Kim for making it a memorable one.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my gatefold card and post today! Thanks so much for stopping in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group – gatefold card
Crafty Friends – Animals and/or birds (including insects)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)
Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

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! 🙂

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

Boo!👻 It’s Halloween!!!🎃

Hello my crafty friends!! Today is Halloween and I thought it would be a great time to share several Halloween themed creations that I had made during the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat! I’m actually STILL working on the project kits because there were SO MANY of them and I’m such a slow crafter there was no way that I could’ve done them within that weekend time frame! It sure was so much fun and so many treats along with it! So happy that I decided to join the virtual event! I encourage everyone to join the next!!

So what I decided to do was to go through all of my 23 kits and pick out the Halloween themed ones to get them finished up before Halloween so that I would have them to share and give out! Enjoy the spooky creative fun:

Kit 1 – spooky green behind the eyes! Slimline design

Kit 2 – Slimline design with a spooky graveyard! The cockroach bugs were a nice little “surprise gift” from our lovely instructor for the first two kits! LOL

Kit 5 – All Copic coloring and something brand new to me was coloring a scene freehand! So scary!! But I made it!

Kit 7 – a slimline die used two different ways…LOVED the ink blending!

Kit 10 – Cutest little treat box! Added crystal eyeballs to my skull and sparkled it up with sparkly clear EP. I’ve rubbed white ink around the black edges.

Kit 11 – The ink blending on this was awesome too! I have so many new combos now! The black sparkly die cut is my fave!

Kit 16 – Last but not least, this really adorable card made me giggle the whole time! I’ve added some glossy accents to the eyeballs.

So there are still SO many more kits left to do and I look forward to crafting them and sharing more with you as I go too! Obviously these kits were created and put together by the talented group of people for Whimsy Stamps, so they’re the ones that get the credit for the creativity on these, and therefore, I won’t enter these into any challenges.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my share from the retreat and I’ll be sharing more soon!

I also have finished one more treat bag that I’ve made with the special Halloween Creative Kit from Brutus Monroe:

I used the stencil from the kit to ink over the stencil from the kit and then added the fun stamped and colored elements over the pattern paper from the kit. I used the spooky graveyard stamp and heat embossed it over the pattern paper with Raven Sparkle EP including the moon image at the top left.

I even used the ribbon and sequins from the kit to decorate with and then added a tag from my stash to tie on the bow.

This is the little poem that I’ve attached to the back of the bag that was a fun little print out from Brutus Monroe as well as the colorful strips that I’ve used on the top and bottom portions of the image panel on the front of the treat bag. I thought they were fun little elements to add and give out to my goblins this year! LOL!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween projects and thanks so much for dropping in!

**Please don’t forget to add your “Monsters/Ghouls” projects to the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge too!

Want to wish all a very happy, spooky and SAFE Halloween!🎃💀👻

Crafty Retreat Results

Hello friends! I finally found the time to make a post and gather all of my photos together so that I can share a post with you from last week’s “Crafty Retreat” that I went to at my friend’s house.

So the “theme” for the crafty retreat was called “Hats off to Painting!” The majority of the group likes to tole paint, but we all (including myself) like to try our hands at many other crafting avenues to try different products that we may not be familiar with…so there are some “mixed” projects today I’m sharing! I had such fun during the entire 3 days!

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Here we are with our decorated hats on for a group photo! Even little ‘Gizmo’ had his hat on, but not sure he was feeling the fun like the rest of us! LOL! (Unfortunately the host was taking the photo!) We all had our Dick Blick aprons and shirts on which was very kindly donated for our “Painting Divas” group…they were VERY generous with the bag of goodies they gave us! We had all 3 days worth of fun, classes and prizes!

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So, the reason for all of the fun crafty hats is that we were to take a hat and decorate it for a challenge. Here is a photo of all of our hats. There were some really fun and creative ideas as you can see! One of the girls was quite tired from all of the crafting and decided to take a little siesta during the festivities! LOL! It was very cool that I was the winner voted for my created hat design. (You can see on the table above and here’s a closer look below):

Vicki-Sreampunk Hat

I guess it’s a bit hard to see in the photo above of me wearing it, but I had hubby bring home one of his hard hats from work along with a pair of goggles and then I went to decorating it in “steampunk” style! I had fun with it and enjoyed the process!

Vicki-Configuration Spell Book

Here is the altered “Potions and Spells” book that I taught for the class! Last year at the “Crafty Retreat” they saw my “altered book” that I had previously made during my time as a Splitcoaststampers.com “Dirty Dozen” DT member and asked if I could teach how to make one for this year’s class. So instead of the “altered book” idea, I had them all use a Tim Holtz Configuration Book.

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Here are some of the book covers all lined up that we were waiting on to dry before we were able to start painting them. A couple of the book covers were left at the work table, but while those were drying, we worked on the inside of the book.

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Here’s another photo of me standing there holding one of the books and everyone was finished with their books looking at them at the end of class. They seemed to really enjoy this messy project! I just loved teaching these fun ladies too!

Vicki-Santa Gourd Ornament Class

This is from my mom’s class where she taught us this cute Santa ornament that we painted on a gourd.

Vicki-PenguinChill Class

The host lady is the one that taught this cute penguin class! I adore penguins and I’m so happy that I took the time to finish this up when I got home!

I really hope that you’ve enjoyed all of these projects as much as I enjoyed creating them! I also had another set of calendars that I finished, but I’ll share on another post on another day as this one is pretty full!! LOL!

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One more thing to share is that we have a robin’s nest with one little blue egg inside. We have a a Prairie Fire Crab Apple tree in our backyard full of pretty blooms and I guess the robin thought it was a nice place to make a nest…so we’ll wait and see if there is a baby bird coming soon!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all of you moms out there! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!!