Playing with Roulette and Colors

Hello friends!  Hope your week is getting off to a great start.  I can’t believe that January is over and we’re starting a new winter month already, but at the same time I’m already feeling like this cold weather can move along faster to Spring!

Today I have a couple of creations that I’ve made using those Inky Stamper products and playing a little “Craft Roulette” too!  Chelsea was on Craft Roulette and if you’ve never seen it play out in action, take a look at the You Tube channel to see what it’s about!  She was on episode #146 and here’s my card that I’ve made with her perimeters:

I had so much fun with this and I’ve never made a tag shaped accordion card before, but it was stuck in my head to give it a try and pull out the Inky Stamper Craft Room set to create it.  The “Roulette Wheel” spun on: Double Tags, shelf/shelves, 2 shades of green and something in the background.

The two shades of green were easy with using the Doodlebug Paper Packs and adding in a few other greens to the coloring.  I’ve also made two tags and placed them inside the pocket area in the middle of the accordion design.  I used a stencil in the background of the other two panels and of course I added some crafty goodies to the shelves in Rosie’s craft room!  The accordion card was easier than I had anticipated and just made a mini slim line size design by cutting off the edges to create the tag shape.  The hole and reinforcers were made using punches and dies.  You can see that I’ve colored up, cut out “Rosie” in her craft room where she is cutting her design going through her creative head!

When it’s all folded up and closed, this is what the card looks like.  I could always add a sentiment on the back, but I thought this would be fun to send to a fellow crafter for sure!  I just wish my shelves looked this organized!  And I always try to use another thing from my stash as I pulled out lots of twine that gets thrown in a bin, so it was nice to use for the tops of each tag area. (Maybe on the back of the card, the crafter can add items to use up on their next project and display it! LOL)

And here’s another card that I’ve done for the January challenge on the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group which was to use: Black, white plus one other color:

I decided to pull out the Grasshopper set and make everything in the background black and white, but just color the grasshopper in green.  All of the elements including the sentiment came from the same stamp set.  I splattered some black paint over the background and the images were colored with some cool gray Copic markers.  I white heat embossed the sentiment over black and cut it out with a banner die.

Behind the white panel, I took a piece of the black floral paper from the Doodlebug Floral & Graph Paper Pad and attached that to a white top folding A2 card base.  It was a fun and easy card to put together!

Thanks so much for “hopping” over here today!  Hope you’ve been inspired or smiled!😊

Challenges:

  1. Cardz 4 Galz – Shaped Card (top card-tag shaped)
  2. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  3. Passion for Markers – use die cuts (both cards use dies and are colored with Copics)
  4. Creatalicious – Anything Goes optional love &/or hearts (top card has hearts)
  5. Papercraft – Anything Goes
  6. Sparkles Monthly – Friendship (both cards evoke friendship to me!)

*Vicki*26 Comments

It’s Time For Tags!

Hello friends!  I thought I’d take some time for making up some tags which is something that I really enjoy doing, but don’t do it very often.  They’re so nice to have a batch made up ahead of time so that you can pull one out as you need it instead of trying to hurry through making something.  It’s always better to have fun instead of rushing! 

This trio of tags was a bit time consuming, but it was nice to finally pull out some things that I’ve been wanting to play with and use without being in a hurry.  The characters are from the Taylored Expressions Holiday Squad die set.  The tags themselves were cut from the TE Pierced Stacklets dies, the TE Tag Stacklets 2 dies and the TE Tag Reinforcements dies. The background for the tags was made with the TE Foil It-Plaid Layering Panels that I foiled in gold along with the stenciling from the TE Plaid Layering Stencil set.  The sentiments were white heat embossed from the TE Just Saying-Christmas stamps.  I’ve used various colors of Taylored Expressions papers and inks and then finished the embellishments for the “holly berries” using the red from TE Tiny Diamonds-Bold set and then I also used the TE Gold Drip Drops in the background.  The ribbon and twine from my stash at the top.

 

My next trio of tags here was really fun with these adorable penguins from Taylored Expressions Dancing Through the Snow stamp set and dies.  I placed them over top of the transparency that was used to create a shaker tag behind the penguins.  I used the TE Tag Stacklets 3 dies and also used some pink polka dotted papers from a free paper pad I received with an order.  The bright shinny purple paper came from my stash I’ve had for quite a while and thought it would be a fun non-traditional color to use with these.  I filled the shaker tags with the TE Bits & Pieces-Snowflakes and the TE Bits & Pieces-Sparkly Stars. 

 

And these tags were a little hard to photograph with all of that cording in the way! (pardon my photograph skills! LOL)  They’re smaller than the tags above, but they work great for different packaging sizes!  These were easy and fun as I’ve done mostly foiling with these using the Taylored Expressions Foil It-Simple Tags Holidays panels and the stencil to go with it.  I cut them all out at the same time with the coordinating dies. The tags with the black cording are the negatives from foiling the toffee colored tags and are mostly completely foiled.  I just used different colored Stickles glitter to create the Christmas lights on those.  (Really been having fun with the foiling this year!)

 

And lastly I wanted to share a set of tags that I’ve made using various Inky Stamper sets!  I decided to go through all of the different Christmas sets that I have from them and pull out the ones that I either haven’t used or barely used to play with them.  The tag at the top was made with the Inky Stamper Fox set that I really enjoyed coloring.  The presents at the bottom and the Santa hat were colored and fussy cut from the same stamp set.  I made the background of that one with the Falling Snowflake Stencil with white ink and heat embossing over it with sparkly white embossing powder. 

The tag on the bottom left is another fun shaker tag!  I pulled out the Inky Stamper Nutcracker set to color him up and cut out with the coordinating die.  He was placed over the acetate on the shaker tag.  I used a scallop circle tag die with gold foil cardstock that I cut out the center with a circle die, added some papers for the background from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pack.  The shaker bits inside are the Shaker Garnish which is really lightweight and still make a great shaker sound too!

The bottom right tag was cut from an Infinity Tree die set.  I sponged the edges with some white ink and punched a hole at the top to make it a tag.  That cute little truck is from the Inky Stamper Vintage Truck set that I colored and cut out with the coordinating dies.  I used a fun Lawn Fawn road die to place him over and then stamped the sentiment from the stamp set with white ink.  I also added some snowflake sequins above him with the Icicles sequins mix.  And both blue and red Doodlebug Twine was used for two of the tags.  The other ribbons/cord from my stash.

  • Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope you’ve been inspired and enjoying the Season!

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Christmas
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
  6. Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
  7. Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

What? It’s Christmas Already?!

Hey there friends!  Wow, so my last post was Thanksgiving and I pretty much missed the entire month of December it seems like, right?!  It has been a very crazy month with lots of different things (including personal) going on so pardon me for going MIA!

I HAVE been working on some projects here and there and I would be happy to share those, but for right now, let’s focus on the Christmas projects that I’ve been working on getting ready for the up-coming Holiday next week! 

I have already sent out my Christmas cards, thank goodness, as I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen either!  I was very impressed with the new Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mistletoe Layering Stencil and how quickly I was able to knock out 4 card panels at a time, which was a huge time saver to get my Christmas cards finished up!  There is actually a set of 4 designs here (like shown below), but I was in the middle of addressing the cards and forgot to photograph some before shoving into envelopes! LOL  This set was using the white cardstock with the green and red colors which turned out very pretty.  I also used the red glitter paste for the highlights on the berries.

And here is the other set of four cards that I made using the Toffee colored cardstock with green and white inks for the stenciling.  I’ve also splattered these with brown and white paint.  The sentiments were white heat embossed over some TE Chocolate Truffle cardstock and cut out with some MFT dies.  Before attaching to the pre-made white A2 card bases, I also wrapped some twine around some of the panels or added a bow with it. (I love the homespun look of the white mistletoe!)

These all turned out great because they were pretty much flat and fairly easy to mail off.  I think I was short just a few which is where I’m glad that I still have a few extra cards that I had made throughout this year and I have previously given out some “extra special” Christmas cards earlier in the year as well.  I think you may have already seen them from a previous post…I will have to take a look and see under my “Christmas” section!

If you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift/tag, these wood slice things are so quick easy and fun to create!  I’ve had a huge box of these wood slices for a long time, so I pulled one out to make a project for the Inky Stamper December challenge on FB.  (I also believe that Chelsea sells some wood slices in her store!)  I had hubby drill out a hole for me at the top before decorating so as I knew where to put everything.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Christmas Bauble stamp set for the stamping on the wood and colored in with pencils and gamsol.  I’ve added details with a glitter brush pen on the ornament and added some snowflakes with Nuvo White Crystal Drops.  I had to mask the frog to stamp the Santa hat on him.  I’ve used some silver twine for the hanging portion and then I glued a silver bow with some silver ribbon from my stash under the hole.

And lastly, I’ve also been working on some commissioned cards as well!  Last year, I had a request from someone to create a special Christmas card for his cleaning lady.  I had him pick out an image and asked about the colors…you may remember it as I had posted it last year.

a few months back, someone had asked me to re-create the same design for them with pretty much the exact design with the exception of the sentiment which I changed out for this person.  This one went to another country and I was concerned about the shipping costs, but it was not a problem.  The package had taken an unexpected journey because of the crazy mailing system going on at this time, but it arrived eventually and was in “perfect condition” as reported to me, so I was so thrilled with that and they seemed very pleased with it.

With the square size of the design (5″ x 5″), I’ve handmade the envelope for this one as well.  I found the exact papers used in the designs for these cards, but I don’t think I have any more left after completing this one.

Here’s how I’ve decorated the inside of the card and left blank as requested for their own personal use.

So now, I just want to take this time to say THANKS SO MUCH for hanging in there and stopping in today!  I don’t have too much time on my hands right now as I’m getting ready to make some Christmas treats and the Holidays will soon be over.  I hope you are all doing well and I wish each and every one of you a very safe, happy and healthy Holiday Season!

See you again in the New Year 2022 friends!!

*Vicki*16 Comments

It’s the Handmade For Holidays Release at Taylored Expressions🎄

Hello friends!  I’m so excited to share the “Handmade for the Holidays” release at Taylored Expressions today!  You can go check out all the things right now in the store!  I’m extra excited that I get to be apart of this special release with them as a guest designer too!  (This was for my win during the TE 13th birthday celebration challenges I had entered from last month!🎉 Yay!)  There will also be a huge post about it on the Taylored Expressions Blog too!  I really hope that you enjoy the projects I’ve made to share with you and if you stop by the store, please let Taylor know that I sent you! 

For my first set of projects, I’ve made a fun Christmas décor item that you can gift for the Holidays, use as a center piece for your table setting, etc.  I’ve taken the Taylored Expressions (new) Accordion Tree die and used it to make a trio of trees with the “poinsettia style” attached to the accompanying TE Tree Stumps (sold separately) to go with this die and another two trees without the stumps.  For the trio of trees, I’ve used the  Merry Blooms Stamps, Stencil & Clear Combo set to create a background over a Toffee cardstock base inking and blending with Sweet Basil, Cherry Pop and Mulled Wine inks.  I’ve also used the same products to make the tag as well.  I’ve gold heat embossed the centers for the poinsettias in the background.  I’ve also taken the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments Holiday stamp set and used the tiny images from the set to create backgrounds for the other two trees.  I’ve splattered the tree backgrounds as well as the tag background with acrylic white and gold paints. These die cut trees were glued back to back with the score line in the center as a guide which makes them 3D looking.  I’ll explain each item below:

This was such a fun 3D project to create!  I wanted all the trees together in one piece, so I thought it would be fun to grab one of these wood slices I’ve been hoarding forever and glue the trees to this base.  There is an accordion star that comes with the accordion tree die, but I thought it would be fun to take the TE Perfect Poinsettia die and cut out several of the smallest bloom to make that the “star topper” for the poinsettia tree.  I’ve used the coordinating stamps to stamp the “veins” and gold heat embossed the centers for them.  I folded them in half and glued it to the top of the tree.  I also attached some TE Gold Drip Drops for the “ornaments” over the tree (TE Drip Drops make perfect “ornaments” for these trees!) and added some gold twine bows front and back.  I’ve ink blended the edges of the poinsettia tree with Toffee ink and gold paint sponged on the poinsettia topper.

This is what the other side (back) of this piece looks like…so it’s visible from all angles.  Here you can better see the other two trees and how the backgrounds were made.  I’ve also added some thick white paint to the edges of them to make it look more like “snowed over” trees especially since they were splattered with white paint.  For the wood slice that the trees are attached to, I’ve used some Ranger Mica Flakes for a bit of sparkle attaching it with Multi-Medium Matte glue.

For the tag, I’ve die cut the background explained above with the TE Stacklets 2 die and wrapped some gold twine around it with the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tags Holiday set for the little tree with the gold heat embossed sentiment over it.  I’ve also gold heat embossed the large sentiment from the Joyful Season stamp set & dies that I’ve popped with my favorite product TE Sticky Strips.  I’ve cut out another layering piece behind the tag with Sweet Basil cardstock, punched a hole and added more gold twine.

And how stinkin’ CUTE are these guys?!  This is my second set of projects for this release using the NEW TE Snow Squad Dies & Clear Stamp Combo set.  As you can see, the cute die cut critters are made to perfectly fit the Tag Stacklet dies!  I’ve the Tag Stacklet 2 die set for my sweet penguin!  The critters are so easy to cut out and decorate them as you like!  I like that the clear stamp set comes with it to stamp in the eyes as those tiny dots can be so hard to deal with and loose!  You get a penguin, a polar bear and a snowman with this die set!

Again, I thought it would be fun to create a background for my card and tag set, so this time, I’ve taken the TE Let It Snow Layering Stencil set for a snowy background.  I’ve started with a Mint Julep cardstock base, blended the same color ink for the first layer, Sugar Cube ink for the second layer and for the third layer, I’ve used some TE Glitter Grab and immediately covered it with some TE Silver Glitter.  Love how it turned out with the subtle color! 

Starting with my card details, I’ve decided to give the snow squad critters soft colors with their scarves.  The clear stamp set with the dies also come with a two line image for adding details to the scarf, so I silver heat embossed those and then added some matching TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel in between those lines.  They matched up perfectly!  I inked around the edges of each die cut piece for the critters and stamped the face images including the cheeks which I off-stamped first to keep them light.  I used a white gel pen for highlight details.

I thought it would be fun to have these Snow Squad critters pop out from a snow drift, so I took some TE Sugar Cube Glitter Cardstock and cut out a “snow drift” with a piece of the their scarves over it and popped them up over the snowy background I’ve created using a TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle Stacklets for the stitching details behind them which was layered over an A2 sized Sugar Cube top folding card base.  For the sentiment, I silver heat embossed it from the TE Winter Wishes clear stamp set over a Mint Julep cardstock that was cut out using the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets die. 

And of course I had to use the penguin again for my coordinating tag!  I’ve used part of the same background I’ve made for the card and cut it out using the TE Tag Stacklets 2 die set with another Sugar Cube cut out for the layering base.

I did the same thing for this tag that I did for the card above with the snow drift, but I also added a tiny tag that he’s holding with some Doodlebug Gray Twine.  The tag was created with the same TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tag Holiday sets.  I’ve stamped the row of tiny trees from the set with the Mint Julep ink and then silver heat embossed the sentiment above it.  I’ve also used more of the TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel for the center of the bow on the present along with the penguin’s scarf.  I’ve punched a hole at the top and added more of the same twine at the top.

So how about you?!  Are you ready for the up-coming Holiday Season?  I sure hope that I was able to bring you some inspiration with your handmade projects for the Holidays!  Again, you can check out all of the brand new Taylored Expressions products in the store as it’s now been released!  Be sure to check out all of the wonderful inspiration on her blog HERE too!

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  I appreciate all of your kind support friends!  Have a great day!

Challenges:

  1. Happy Little Stampers – OCT Anything Goes with Dies (all projects are using dies!)
  2. Simon Says Stamps Wednesday – NOT a card
  3. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  4. Krafty Chicks – Christmas
  5. Creative Knockouts – Embossing (I used heat embossing)
  6. The Crafter’s Cafe – Use a Stencil (used on all projects)
  7. Creative Fingers – #217 Anything Goes
  8. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

*Vicki*28 Comments

August GDT for Inky Stamper!

Hello friends!  Wanted to thank you for your kind comments!  Like I previously mentioned in my last post, I’ve still been crafting and following on FB by joining some classes, challenges, etc.  So although I haven’t been active on my blog, I’ve been crafting and sharing over there once in a while.  Just having some fun while using more of my crafty stash is all!  However, while playing around on FB, this happened:

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A couple of weeks ago I was invited to join as a guest designer for Inky Stamper this month! Yay!  If you haven’t heard of this company, check out the stamps…they’re too cute and the owner, Chelsea, is so fun too!  She has such an infectious excitement about her that you can see if you happen to catch her on one of her weekly FB lives every Tuesday at 7:30 pm CST. (On the Company FB Page)  Hop on over there and say hello! 😉 

So I will be sharing my creations using Inky Stamper products every Wednesday this month and I hope that I will be able to INKspire you with something fun!  I’m starting this Wednesday with some products that just recently released:

The first thing that Summer reminds me of is flip flops!  There is a cute little image of flip flops in this Splash stamp set which inspired me to create this shaped card and birthday tag!  That’s also where that cute little mouse you see is from as well!  But the sun and chair come from the Chaise Lounge stamp set, which I’ve combined both sets to use on my creations here.  I think these two sets go hand in hand with each other and it’s probably best to just get them both!  If you choose to get the dies with these sets, it cuts out the mouse and frog separately from the floaties they’re already on so you can pop them up!  So they work on the floaties as well as the chairs..so cute!

For my flip flop card, I’ve taken a very old template that I had found in my stash while cleaning up my craft room and thought this would be perfect to make a shaped card with!  I started by tracing the pattern for the base of my card and cutting two shapes so that I can make a card that opens from the side as you see in the photo.  The card measures approx. 7″ x 3.5″.  It’s a bit taller than a mini slimline card, but I can easily make my own custom envelopes with my envelope punch board.  This is another fabulous way to use up those hoarded papers too!

I took the smaller template and used the fun Doodlebug Floral & Graph paper pad (Available in the Inky Stamper store too!) to cut the inner flip flop pattern with. (I had to angle the template to make it fit onto the 6×6 sized paper.)  I added a couple of flowers from my stash along with the matching ribbon for the flip flop straps before attaching to the card base.  Colored the images, cut them out and added the sentiment strip at the bottom and cut it to measure with the inner flip flop edge.  I added some texture by sanding the edges of the paper too.

  • Here’s a little tip if you’re cutting out the stamped mouse image from the floatie:  When you use the die to cut it out, the edges around it will have some stamped lines on it where the white border is.  All I did was take a white gel pen to cover up those lines to that it looks like a perfect white line around the image!  P.S.  This is also a great way to cover any coloring mistakes made! 😉  This also works for fussy cutting an image as well!

I popped up “Rosie” (the mouse), as she is called, with foam tape over the chair.  I’ve also added some Doodlebug gems to the center of the flower on Rosie and for the flower at the top of the flip flop card.

I thought this would be a nice Summer birthday card so I wanted to make a matching tag to go with it.  I’ve pulled out the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die and used it for this tag design.  Again, I pulled out the Doodlebug Floral & Graph paper pad and used this die to cut my tag with making sure that the center of the envelope die would be cut out.  This is what I’ve used for the base of my tag.  I like using these papers because they’re double sided. That way the back still has a nice color/pattern to it too.

  • I used this particular die for my tag because of the size.  Putting another strip of paper on the back side of this tag will create a pocket for you to tuck a gift card inside if you want to use it for that!  See below:

Vicki-InkyStamperGDT-flipflop-tagbackpocket

Since there are score marks to make the envelope, I ignored those lines and used my paper trimmer to cut out the center which is where the orange base of my tag came from.  I cut off the top two corners diagonally and punched a hole at the top which created my tag. I also die cut the envelope tag again with the Doodlebug Swiss Dot Paper Pad this time being sure that I had a good portion of the scallop edging cut from it.  I used that piece for a design element on the tag.

I stamped the sentiment and flip flops from the Splash stamp set as well as the sun from the Chaise Lounge stamp set, colored them, fussy cut/die cut them out to add to the tag.  I used a black pen for stitch lines along the edges.  I added my own hole reinforcer circle punched out and then added some Doodlebug Bumblebee Twine to the top. Finished it off with a couple of clear sequins from the Fishy Wishes sequins mix and filled the centers with Nuvo Glitter drops.  I also covered the sun with a Sparkle Glitter Pen.

I hope that I’ve INKspired you today with my Summer flip flop theme!  Thanks so much for dropping in here.  If you’d like to see more from this company, be sure to join the Inkystamper Inkspiration FB group!  Hope to see you there!  Have a great day!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

  1. Just Us Girls – Anything but a card (tag only)Screen Shot 2021-04-29 at 9.10.28 AM
  2. Daring Cardmakers – Gift Tags Galore (tag only)
  3. Moving Along With the Times – Summer Fun and/or Colors (orange/yellow)
  4. NBUS #29 – Aug “Never Before Used Schtuff” (never used new stamps!)
  5. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
  6. Sparkles Monthly – Outdoor Fun
  7. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – ATG + critter

*Vicki*23 Comments

Christmas Cards, Projects and Cookies…ready for Santa!🎅

Hello friends!  We’re here!  We made it to Christmas Eve!😀  My cards have been sent out, my cookies are done and delivered as well as my other little gifts.  This is quite a long post, so grab your hot cocoa or whatever your favorite beverage is and a Christmas cookie or treat and let’s see what I’ve been doing this past week:

So starting with my Christmas cards, I usually make around 40ish cards each year give-or-take and I only like to make a handful of them at a time for not only boredom of the same design, but for product depletion as well.

So back in July, I purchased this really adorable card kit from Taylored Expressions (included was the Frosty Background Cling and Clear Combo set + more.) that came with coordinated colored envelopes as well as the seals.  So I made a set of four different colored designs in two of each one.  The snowmen were popped up with foam squares over the backgrounds and I added some fun Snowflake bits that were included with the kit as well.

Next up is another set of cards I made using some more gorgeous products from Taylored Expressions.  I’ve used the Seasonal Sprig stamp and die combo along with the stencil to color them in with.  Some of these I ink blended the backgrounds, so I just used cardstock with a watermark effect and a white heat embossed sentiment.  I used the die to cut an extra frame behind the stamped one for added stability.  I made 4 of each design shown here for a total of 16.

I then made another set of four using the same products, but for these I gold heat embossed the image and sentiment and then used some watercolor for coloring it in with.  I also got some of these coordinating envelope seals to use on about 10 of the 16 cards.  (No longer available in store.)  I’ve also partially ink blended the background behind the frame on these as well.

Here are some cards that I’ve actually made a total of 8 similar designs using the large wording background dies from My Favorite Things.  I’ve used the “Sending Christmas Joy” and “I Really Miss You” dies for all eight of these, but only after I stamped the backgrounds.  I used the MFT Knitted Sweater BG stamp and the Alley Cat BG stamp for a couple of backgrounds before I die cut them.  Then I used the die cut letters to place into the other backgrounds on the cards to get that look.  So it was like creating 2 cards with one cut and filling it all in.  (For the Alley Cat background stamp, I ink blended the background and stamped it as a watermark effect over it and then took the “left over” ink from that to stamp it again to create an additional BG.) I then cut out each of the panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and placed over a white A2 sized side folding card base.  The penguin image is from the MFT Holiday Penguins set and the bird on the other one is from the MFT “Tweet Holidays” (Not found in store.)

And then of course you don’t want to waste any backgrounds you’ve made, so you make more cards!  I’ve used a couple more images to personalize the design for people too.  I combined the sets Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines and the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies.  I think I took a set from them to create a sentiment to fit my cards as well. (not sure from which set.)

For the other card, I took this cute image from the Whimsy Stamps Gnome for Christmas stamp set, colored him up with my copics and cut him out with the coordinating die to pop him up over my card.

And then for these set of 4 cards, I’ve just die cut a snowflake from some glitter paper and glued in the center of the “O” on each design and popped up a sentiment over that with foam tape stamped and die cut from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips – Holiday and Mini Strips die.

And as you remember in a previous post those “recycled Crystal Light containers” that I make, I made another set of three of them here.  This time, I’ve used this snowman stamp.  I just used my scissors to fussy cut those cute snowmen out as they were pretty simple to do and then I popped them up over an ink blended tag using the stencil over them.  I used coordinating cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment strip at the bottom and of course added my “snowman soup” poem on the back of the containers.  I’ve also added a layer of silver mirror cardstock behind the tags.

And I made a couple of these darling ornaments from a fairly “new to me” company that I was actually introduced to with product during my time as a {Cupcake Inspirations} sweetie DT when they sponsored a challenge a while back.  P.S.  There are a few more days left to enter their current challenge of “SNOWFLAKES” if you want to pop on over to join us too!!

But I was so taken with this darling image and kit from Inky Stampers from this Snow Much Fun Kit.  You get the snowflake ornament (with string), the stamp set and die, papers, wobbler, along with glitter to complete it too!  Well I wanted to make more than one, so I grabbed another set of Snowflake Ornaments from the store and just added my own papers and glitter from my stash to make it.  

And of course, last, but certainly not least, here’s all of the Christmas treats that I’ve made to give out to family and of course for hubby to eat up as we went along too!😋  I have made from top left on down:  Homemade caramel corn, white chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter fudge, molasses cookies, chocolate covered caramel pecan clusters, scottish peanut butter cereal cookies, chocolate fudge, snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles.  Of course each family member has a favorite they like me to make and there are a couple of old recipes passed down from grandparents/parents that I like to add in as well.  They’re all delicious and I enjoyed making them.

Whew!  I’m ready for that “Looong winter’s nap” now!!🥱  I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and it has brought you some inspiration and/or a smile somehow!  I have received some beautiful Christmas cards and I so appreciate them and have them all displayed by being pinned around my garland in our pass-through in the living room/dining area.  I think after a bit of rest, I need to finish up my projects for the “Bugaboo Christmas Chaos” that I haulted in the middle for to finish up Christmas projects….so I’ll be back soon with that.

In the meantime, I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!🎅

*Vicki*22 Comments

“tis the Season for Holiday Chaos and Update on Christmas Cards for Danny🎅

Hello friends!  This is my second post for today, so please scroll down to see it or CLICK HERE for the {Cupcake Inspirations} Reminder post.

I have several creations to share with you today because while I’m working on trying to get some last minute Christmas projects finished, I thought that I would join in the fun week long “Holiday Chaos” challenges over at the Catch the Bug Blog for Bugaboo Stamps.  I’ve caught up with all of the challenges up to today and then hopefully later this week I’ll be able to post the remainder of them:

This card is for the Day 1 challenge of “Reindeer Games”, so I had this really cute Bugaboo image called Little Penguin Reindeer and colored him up for my card.  I had these fun reindeer papers in my stash to pair with him and then found this fun sentiment strip to add with it as well.😂

I’ve used some gold glitter paper and added some gold glitter enamel dots in the corner.  The bells on the penguin’s waist was covered with a gold glitter pen and then I added some faux snowflakes along the circle image border too.

This next card was created for Day 2 Challenge of a sketch.  I’ve colored up this adorable Bugaboo image called Christmas Teddy 2 Ornaments all in blue colors!  Hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve used glitter gel pens to color in the stripe of the ornament and the silver tops.

I have been itching to pull out my Martha Stewart papers that have been lurking in my stash and I really love the colors in them along with the silver foil!  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Brutus Monroe “Holiday Essentials” stamp set and cut it out as a banner with my scissors and popped it up over the card with foam tape.  I finished the design with some Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions.

And of course here’s my project for today’s challenge Day 3 ABC/Anything But a Card.  I make these little “snowman soup” containers every year for my family and sometimes sneek in an extra “surprise” or 2 inside!  You may have recalled these on my blog before, but they’re just recyled Crystal Light containers and they fit the hot cocoa, candy cane, marshmallows and a few chocolate kisses all in there perfectly together.  I’ve decorated them in many different ways.  CLICK HERE to see a previous post that shows another way I’ve made them in the past.  This time, I just made tags to attach around the containers.  I have made another set of 3 of these containers (different images) that I will show in a future post too!

I’ve used these adorable snowmen from Bugaboo Stamps called “Snowman Snowflakes” (right) and “Snowman Snowballs” (left).  I colored them up with Copics and added a sentiment that was stamped at the bottom from Whimsy Stamps Holiday Mini Sentiments stamp set.

I’ve had this “snowman soup” poem for years and years and just printed it out on my computer and attached it to the back of the containers.  The top of the lids are also covered with pattern papers.  P.S.  If you haven’t tried the “Hot Cocoa Hershey Kisses”…oh my goodness they’re so good!😋

UPDATE:

I also wanted to share an update on the “Christmas Cards for Danny” post you may remember that I posted about a few weeks back.  I’ve actually seen an update in my own hometown newspaper about all the cards he’s received and as of December 10th, he’s received 2,544 Christmas cards from ALL OVER THE WORLD! How cool is that?!  Please CLICK HERE to read the newspaper article about the overwhelming support and heartfelt Christmas wishes people have sent him!  This really touches my heart and uplifts me about the kindess in the human spirit.  Thank you to those that took the time to send a Christmas card his way!  It’s really what Christmas is all about.

Challenges:

  1. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 1: Reindeer Games (card 1)
  2. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 2: Sketch (card 2)
  3. Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 3: ABC Anything But a Card (snowmen soup)
  4. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – December Gifts/Containers (snowmen soup)
  5. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #45 Anything Goes + critter (card 2)
  6. Crafty Animals – #45 Anything Goes + animal (card 2)
  7. Daring Cardmakers – Animal Antics at Christmas (card 1)
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Anything Christmas/Winter (snowmen soup)
  9. Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C565 past sketch from 2020 (I used sketch C4C553 for card 1)

*Vicki*33 Comments

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?

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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!  CLICK HERE to read about the article in the newspaper if you’d like to send one to him too.  Here’s the card I made for Danny:

**Edited to add Danny’s mailing address as I’ve been contacted about some not being able to access the link to the newspaper article:

  • Danny Moreland
  • 2701 N. Prospect Road
  • Peoria, IL  61603
  • USA

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:

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

*Vicki*33 Comments

Crafty Chefs Cooking Up Some BOOs and Stamp Joy Results!👻

Hello there friends!  I know that my blog doesn’t appear to look as if I’ve been doing much, but the exact opposite is happening right now! LOL!  I’ve been busy crafting away and feeling a bit overwhelmed to say the least!  Now that I have my computer issues solved, hoping I can get back into things and get caught up!  Videos are in cache and I also am REALLY excited to be doing the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat this weekend and it starts tonight and lasts through Sunday too!  Woohoo!! – – – – So more crafting is coming!  Snacks are stocked and the craft table is ready to go!!😉

 

Today I have this fun little Halloween treat bag to share that I’ve made for one of the grands and I thought I’d pair it with the Crafty Chefs October Recipe. (Check out the link if you’re interested in joining in the recipe fun with us!) AND I’m also including this into the fun annual Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween too!

So I pulled out these stack of paper lunch bags I had and thought it would be a great little bag to decorate for the grands…I have more coming, but I’ve pulled out some papers and I had so much fun coloring up this darling digital image by Crissy Armstrong from Whimsy Stamps called “Boo!” – of course!

For the Crafty Chefs October recipe, the lovely Carol has given the following recipe for us this month:

Must Have:

  1. Add a Tag (from previous chef)
  2. Have or create a pocket
  3. 2-3 colors next to each other on the color wheel
  4. Use a die 

Can Have:

  1. Mirror Cardstock (passing onto next chef)
  2. Charm
  3. Stitching

I cut out the image with the Whimsy Stamps Notched Square Dies and then cut out a yellow and an orange panel to layer behind it. (colors for recipe)  I’ve also used a strip of the orange cardstock to go above and below the spooky eyes decorative paper from my stash.  I used a black marker to add stitch marks to the strips. (stitching for recipe)  I’ve also used some silver mirror cardstock to cut out the “boo” letters from the Whimsy Stamps Boo die set and attached it at the bottom with the swirly eyes too. (mirror cardstock for recipe)  I also added some tiny stars from the mirror cardstock to each corner of the image panel. 

And lastly for the Crafty Chefs recipe, I’ve used foam tape to pop up the image panel and left a section that fit around my orange die cut tag from an older Whimsy Stamps die.  I stamped the “pull” word on it, punched a hole and added a string so it was easier to grab.  Check it out below to see the tag…

When you lift the tag up, you can see the cute little ghost with a message. It was from a Halloween paper pack in my stash that I glued over the orange die cut tag. I took a white gel pen to add more stitching detail to it.

Here’s also a closer view of the image I colored up with Copic markers. I thought it would be fun to add a moon behind the ghost, so I just drew it in with my Copic markers and added a fun yellow glow behind the images. I also covered it with a glitter brush pen and then I took some Stickles glitter and added it to the pumpkin’s face. I also took a white gel pen and dotted the inside of the ghost’s eyes…thought it would give it character.

For the background behind the image, I took a cloud stencil to blend in some clouds with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween treat bag today! Check out the challenges I’m entering it for below!

So last weekend I was involved in another virtual stamp retreat from Taylored Expressions called Stamp Joy.  As I had mentioned, it’s so much fun to experience the “in person” part of it, but I think they did such an amazing job with it and it was so much fun to be apart of the crafty fun and laughter.  Here’s my results:

I have so many cards and I have even started up a collection of FOUR Christmas cards for the year! Yay!

I decided to participate in the FULL experience of it, so I opted to do the Friday classes which are the top left 4 butterfly cards I completed. I love the projects we received for everything and I know I’ll be making more things!

The other cards were all created for the 7 different Make-n-Takes on Saturday. One of the seven was the total of mass produced set of 4 snowflake cards. I have tweaked a few things about the cards here and there, but not much was changed as we were pretty much provided everything needed including some cool products!😀

At the bottom, I took a photo of one of the stamp sets that was provided to use for the event. There was no graphic photo on this stamp set as it was left blank because it was especially put together for this event. It’s a collection of certain stamps in several of the most popular sets from their store which we used throughout the Make-n-Takes. So what I did was take a sharpie marker and wrote: “Taylored Expressions Stamp Joy 2020 Pandemic Edition”. LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends!  I will be very busy crafting away this weekend, so I’ll be having fun and seeing you all very soon!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Challenges (for treat bag only):

  1. Cute Card Thursday – Halloween 
  2. Crafty Creations – #414 Anything Goes
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  4. Sweet Stampers – #49 Autumn or Halloween
  5. Not Just Cards – Anything Goes
  6. International Art & Soul – Halloween
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2041 Anything Goes
  8. Creatalicious – #197 Anything Goes optional Halloween
  9. This is Halloween – #2 Anything Goes Halloween (entry 2) **NEW!!
  10. Two Old Bats Halloween – #1 Anything Goes Halloween (entry 2) **NEW!!

*Vicki*32 Comments

Spooky Undertaker Tag for {Cupcake INspirations} Color Challenge

Hello there friends!  I’ve been a bit MIA lately but that’s because I’ve actually been having fun attending a virtual stamp event which I will be sharing some things I’ve done with you later and I’ll be doing it all over again this weekend as well!🥳  Although it doesn’t replace an in-person live event, it was lots of fun!  I’ve also been enjoying time visiting with my son who stopped by for the weekend!

 

Today I’m stopping in to share my creation with you for the brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} using this unique color combo:  OLIVE, RED and LAVENDER  The first thing I had thought of was the inspirational photo to go along with it and it reminded me of this cool Tim Holtz stamps/stencil set I bought a few years ago:

I thought it would be fun to play around a bit with my Distress Spray Stains over one of those Distress Tags.  So I sprayed a few of the colors over it and then also sprayed water over it as well to get the colors moving and blending together.  I think it turned out pretty cool.  I used the Distress Sprays I used were Crushed Olive, Fired Brick and Seedless Preserves.

I then took the stencil from the Tim Holt “Halloween 2 Stamps/Stencil” set and used some Black Soot distress ink to sponge the bats in the center of the tag.  I then used the coordinating distress ink colors and used the other portion of the stencil to sponge the colors with.  I took a thin strip of black cardstock to attach above and below the stenciled bat areas.

I took the skull image from the Tim Holtz “Halloween 2” stamp set and stamped it with black pigment ink over a piece of vanilla style cardstock and heat set it with clear embossing powder.  I fussy cut him out and added a piece of purple metallic ribbon around his hat and then glued on a purple flower along the side before popping him with foam tape in the center of the oval die cut piece from silver foil cardstock.

I stamped the “undertaker” sentiment from the stamp set with black permanent ink along with some scripty words in random places over the tag.  I also had some Tim Holtz Halloween rub-ons that I used for the spider and the “31” numbers.  I finished the tag with some more of that purple metallic ribbon and the key charm at the top.

Here’s a closer view of the skull with the embossed details along with the shine from the foil cardstock and ribbons.

Really had fun putting this tag together and I think it will make a fun spooky treat to share with someone I love because I have several family members that are really into the spooky Halloween theme besides myself! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your kind support! It’s very much appreciated and I’ll be seeing you again soon my friends!!

Challenges:

  1. Unicorn – Spooky and/or Cute
  2. Arty Divas – #30 Anything Goes
  3. Creative Craft Cottage – #134 Spooky and/or Cute
  4. The Paper Funday – #22 Anything Goes optional: Halloween/All Hallows Eve
  5. Creative Moments – #200 Anything Goes
  6. As You Like It – Fave non-card project and why? (I love making tags because I feel like you can “experiment” with different media on it and I like that I can use it for putting on gifts or even add to a card later.)
  7. This is Halloween – #2 Anything Halloween
  8. The Divas That Cut Paper – Autumn-Thoughts of Halloween + die cut/punch
  9. Crafty Cardmakers – Create a Tag
  10. Two Old Bats Halloween – Anything Halloween Goes *new challenge blog*

*Vicki*35 Comments