Hello friends! I hope you’ve been enjoying your month so far! We’ve had a few really nice days this month, but it’s still a tad bit chilly and hopefully it will warm up more next month! It’s hard to believe we are already headed into May for this year!
That means it’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” April prompt of “HALF” -(e.g. 2 halves to create whole item/half of something):
Yes, coffee please! I’m a coffee lover and so is my husband! I don’t think we’d be able to start a day without it! I know there are lots of people who don’t like coffee and that’s OK…as long as there will be some somewhere for me, I’m good! 😉☕
It was my husband that inspired this page for me when I asked him what his favorite shape was, and he answered with a circle. Looking down at my coffee cup was the circle I saw and decided to take more inspiration from a coffee cup we purchased at one of our favorite local coffee cafes you can see in the top corner of the photo. To achieve the look, I took a cardstock color matching the cup and splattered white paint over it. The “HALF” is obviously the coffee cup that was cut out with circle dies. I cut another piece of the handle which makes it look like the view you would see from the top of the cup. The other “HALF” of the cup was placed in the corner area at the bottom and this coffee is more of my husband who likes plain black coffee. But this is certainly how we start our day together which is great since he’s retired now. The other “HALF” cup has the latte art, and I did that one with light sponging around the edge and then took my colored pencils to free hand the design. Not sure if that’s exactly what it looks like, but I gave it a try.
For the background: I’ve used a strip of wood plank pattern paper from my stash, and I’ve also heat embossed a coffee bean background stamp with, of course, coffee embossing powder that I’ve had for a very long time, and it was a great time to use it! I’ve also heat embossed the “coffee” sentiment and quotes with it. Below the embossed coffee is a sentiment that says: “Take life one cup at a time” and the other two at the bottom say: “First we drink coffee, then we do the things”😂
The coffee cup-stained background, I’ll share more about below.
I also took a big brush marker to go around the edges of the cups and the sentiment strips. I wanted the heat embossing to stand out a bit more over the brown cardstock, so I took a white Tim Holtz crayon and rubbed over top of it to brighten it up.
Have you ever made backgrounds with coffee? I had such a fun time playing with it and decided to make several different backgrounds that I could use for later!
I don’t drink instant coffee, but I have some in my cupboard because I like to make a chocolate cake that has instant coffee in it…so good! I took some of this instant coffee and made the coffee cup-stained background for my page to create more circles that went with my circle coffee cups.
I also decided that since I had a cup of it, that I would go ahead and make more backgrounds with it and just play around with different things. I splattered, I smooshed, I’ve added salt along with a few other things and let dry and make patterns with. Once dry, I cleaned them off and here are the results of my play. I wish I had done another cup circle background though.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page and been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for dropping in! Have a great weekend! Mine will be busy!
Hello friends! I’m really excited to be sharing some more inspiration today as a guest designer this month using some brand-new Inky Stamper stamp sets that were just released! Stop by the store and check them out…they’re so cute!
First, I have a couple of shaped interactive cards for those warm drinks as the temperatures start to cool down. I made one for Autumn and shared it in the Inky Stamper FB Group and was asked how it I made it, so I thought I’d share that one along with another Christmas style version that I made too:
Aren’t these so cute with that little raccoon from the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set?! The one on the right is the one I made with Fall colors covering the front of the cup with the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper pad. I also used the Doodlebug Bon Bon Twine around the cup sleeve.
The cup on the left is more Christmas themed and I’ve used pretty much the same products, but just changed up the colors a little bit. This cup is slightly different because it’s about 1/4″ shorter so that it would properly fit inside an A2 envelope. The Autumn card was a bit snug, so I tweaked the size a bit more on the Christmas to make it fit nicely.
When you pull the lid off the top of the coffee cup, there is an insert with a greeting and/or a place where you can add a gift certificate. These were so fun to create and easy to do! Mass production could be possible for sure!
All that is needed are some measurements and a few tips along the way to get you started. I thought it would be easier to understand with a video, so check that out below or watch on You Tube HERE.
I also had a birthday card that I needed to make for someone, so I thought I’d pull out the new Inky Stamper Hippo stamp set and have some fun with it!
Aren’t these party animals so cute?! I thought this one would be fun to turn into a polaroid style, so I pulled out a square die to create my own polaroid frame with it! I also cut another one in black cardstock so that I had a bit of dimension with it. I stamped the sentiment from the set at the bottom of the frame.
The background behind the Hippo was created by white heat embossing the music note image from the stamp set over some Inky Stamper Watercolor Panelsand then using some watercolors for an emboss resist background. I colored up the Hippo, bird and party hat and cut them out to arrange over the background. I added a couple of pieces of the Doodlebug Grey Swiss Dot Washi Tape over top of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen Paper that was cut out with a wonky stitched die and attached to a white top folding A2 card base. I found a couple of sequins from the Picket Fence Rubber Duckies mix and then filling the centers of them with yellow Stickles.
So many different things going on in this post, but I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and have been inspired to create something too! Thank you so much for stopping in today!
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:
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)
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:
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!
Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week! It seems like this month is flying by!
I’m excited to share with you a fun video hop collaboration with Pink and Main on my You Tube Channel today! (Be sure to check it out on MY VIDEO because there is a giveaway and you’ll need to leave comments on the videos to be entered to win!) So head on over to see the wonderful inspiration with the Pink and Main products going on!
Here’s the fun Autumn themed slimline card I’ve made for the video hop today:
So Pink and Main has come out with some fabulous new products which I’ve used for my card here and I’ve added some fun techniques to use with some of those products as well!
The background was really fun to create using the Pink & Main Blending Brushes along with the new Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Ink color that just came out! I’ve also used the wonderful Leafy Stencil from Pink & Main over the background too. The cups and leaves were also colored using the oxide inks and a waterbrush which you can see in my video as well as how I’ve inked and cut out the one image backwards so I have two cups with the handles in opposite directions on my design here.
You can check out how I’ve put this design together and the techniques I’ve used in this video below, or to leave a comment and see the link to the next person in the video hop, CLICK HERE to go to the video on You Tube.
I absolutely fell in love with that Need to Venti stamp set and coordinating dies! I loved that older Christmas Mugs stamps they had previously came out, but Autumn is awesome to add to my collection because it’s my favorite time of the year! So be sure to check out how to stretch out the use of this set in video above!
The Blessings slimline die was so fun to use on my card too and I love that the frame cuts out separately from the center and there was room to layer behind it before attaching to your slimline card base. The Brutus Monroe Copper Glitterstock was the perfect accent behind the scallop frame. That frame was cut out with several layers of cardstock and stacked together for thickness.
The same Copper Glitterstock was used to cut out the sentiment dies as well. I’ve used some vellum to layer behind the Autumn sentiment, which the backing diecut was also included in this same slimeline die set! The final measurement of my slimline card was a piece of brown cardstock measuring 8.5″ x 7″ and scored at 3.5″ in the center. The finished card will fit inside a #10 envelope when closed.
Here’s a closer view of the details with my colored cups using the distress oxide inks and waterbrush. I’ve also used the same Need to Venti stamp set and oxide ink colors to stamp the leaves and die cut them out to arrange over my scene as well.
I popped up the cups with foam squares and added some drops over the whip topping in the cups with some Nuvo Honey Gold Crystal Drops.
Hopefully you can see the pretty Autumn colors and dimension in the card. I sure had lots of fun putting all of this together!
Thanks so much for dropping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon!
Hello friends! I’m so excited to be sharing a special collaboration blog hop with my fellow crafty friends collab FB group as we share our own personal progression on how practice over time can help to increase your confidence and skills within your crafting journey.
So please grab your favorite beverage and join us in this fun and informative blog hop that shows how “the power of practice” can be utilized in your own crafting! (highlights are done in red.)
I would like to start off by stating each person’s experience is their own journey and will run on it’s own pace which is something that we all need to be aware of and patient with. Some particular skills will take much longer to grasp than others and you need to take it easy on yourself without harsh judgement. Just enjoy the process and have fun with it! (That was and still is the hardest thing for me to learn.)
Although I’ve been paper crafting for the last 20 years or so, I’ve been involved in several different crafts throughout my entire childhood or since I could hold a crayon in my hand! My grandmother as well as my mother has passed down their experience with crafts which I learned from and picked up many others along the way including what I love today. So some things I do may already come naturally for me without recognizing where it came from because it was taught to me long ago. There are some things, however, that I’ve had to spend the time learning.
Now taking classes aren’t the ONLY way to learn something for sure! Good ole “Trial and Error” are great for learning and gaining personal experience from…which I tend to learn the most from actually!😁 Another thing that helps is new tools/products to help make the process easier or look more “finished” or “professional” in nature. When I first started with my stamps, there was not a common heat tool for instance. I had to heat emboss over a stove! So times have changed as well as techniques and inspiration. Inspiration is EVERYWHERE over the Internet too! Many people have so many clever ideas…I wish I could keep up with them all! Some things may not be of interest to you and others may intrigue or intimidate you. Find what interests you the MOST..at the time…and work on it because you will love learning about it which means you will gain more knowledge from it. You don’t have to share with others what you do as long as YOU enjoy what you’re doing. Do what feels right to you and your journey. It’s never about others, it’s about YOU!
I feel like I could write an entire book on just this matter, but since this is a visual craft, it’s better to “see” with your eyes sometimes or show how things can come together…or not!🤨
I’m starting with a photo of a card I had made back in 2007 when I had already been a year into having a blog and was still a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator at the time. Even the technology of simply taking a photograph has improved tremendously over the years…
I no longer have most of the products used here and I had to lift the photo from my Splitcoaststampers gallery as they have stored my oldest photos I have anywhere. This was the first place that I shared anything I made online. (There are 124 pages of my gallery and if you look through, you will see the progression over time.)
Now I could really criticize myself and pick this all apart, but it was part of my process at the time. And at that time, I was happy with it. It looks like I’ve colored with ink pads and a blender pen, cut out the images with scissors as well as cut fringes of the grass border. (tools have improved since and many purchases have been made as well!😊) As we move forward, I can share how I updated that design today:
What I have decided to do was to take the photo of the older card above and make an updated version of the same design, but with the mindset and techniques that I’ve learned since. You can see that my coloring has improved as well as the different tools and items that have been updated to help with my design execution. I still used similar colors, similar layout design as well as coloring an image, but just maybe updated the look from the practicing of not just the coloring over time, but the practice of just cutting the layers and putting things together as compared to years past. Just meerily putting together card after card has helped me with the practice and made me better aware. So you can see how just putting together a card in general, with practice, can help improve skills!
Another tip I find helpful is to join your fellow crafty friends in groups and collaborations like this blog hop as well as other groups which is what I’ve also made this card for, called “The Crafty Chefs“, where we take turns coming up with a new “recipe” to follow each month. There’s no pressure, just a group of friends coming together, learning from each other through challenges, and inspiring one another as we enjoy our love of crafting! For me, this is a huge deal. Check out the link above if you’re interested in joining with us! It’s still fun to craft, but it’s even better when it’s shared with someone. So here’s the September Crafty Chef’s recipe that our head chef Linda has come up with for us to use.
(I have used ALL of the “must do” items and then added a couple of pearls from the “can do” items.)
I have found that within the last several years, many people enjoy watching video tutorials on You Tube..which makes sense because seeing someone actually doing something or putting something together is a better way to learn rather than just seeing a finished photo of a project. So to see how I’ve made my latest card for my son’s birthday, check it out below or CLICK HERE to view on my You Tube channel:
Hopefully through the video you were able to learn a few things that you can incorporate into your own card making. Sometimes we can improve upon ourselves by even trying to recreate something we’ve done in the past and add some new things you’ve learned along the way. It’s a great way to see how far you’ve come along and not be so critical of yourself to remind you that you are always learning, as I still am right now as well.
I have to chuckle at this card for my son’s birthday as he is a fun-loving jokester that will appreciate this along with the fact that it’s a bear image. He was nicknamed “Bear” in his school years, so I thought these Big Grumpy products from Taylored Expressions would work perfectly for this! I’ve also used the Big Grumpy Birthday stamps to go with him along with the other products used in my video above.
For the sparkle, I’ve taken some Stickles Star Dust glitter and added to the birthday hat as well as the center of the bow in the present. I used a glitter brush pen over the balloon and bow. I added dots to his cheeks, hat and the present with a white gel pen. I forgot to mention in the video that I’ve added a couple of brown pearls to the blue strip so that I added something from the “can do” list for the Crafty Chefs recipe!😉
I really hope that this post was helpful as well as enjoyable for you and that you received some benefit for taking the time to read over it. I know that I will be looking forward to seeing what my other crafty friends have to share and inspire me with! I think there is something to learn from everyone no matter how long you’ve been doing it.
The power of practice simply means, to me, being able to refine your skills into something that you want to be better at, take in more information or take it to the limits of your ability. This is done by repeating often and over time to increase or add to your knowledge of what you’re trying to improve upon. If we are not trying new things, then we are not learning or growing as individuals.
Thanks so much for stopping by my friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!
Hello friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend! We’ve had such beautiful weather and it was nice to be out in it! Warm temps are soon to follow, so I know I’ll be crafting indoors then!
Today, I’m sharing something I did for a challenge a couple of months ago and really enjoyed the process of just creating using a single sheet of pretty floral papers in my stash. Have you ever heard of or tried the “One Sheet Wonder” method?
I only have this ‘overhead shot’ of all the cards I made because I wasn’t blogging at this time, but if you notice in each one of these cards, I have used the same floral pattern in each one. I’ve pulled out a single 6×6 piece of decorative paper from the Farmhouse Floral Paper Pad.
For the top and bottom left cards, you can see that I’ve used the diagonal pieces from the *”One Sheet Wonder” template. For the top one, I’ve just used an image and sentiment from the Farmhouse Friends stamp set. For the bottom card, I actually cut out a floral image from another piece of the same paper pad I’ve used for the template as the focal for my design. (It’s a great way to use up more of the scraps you may have!)
(*See the diagram below for how I cut out a template from the 6×6 sheet to use on my cards.)
For the top and bottom right cards, I’ve taken a couple of the strips cut from the *”One Sheet Wonder” template and then made it my own by cutting it up for a banner and then just separating in half to make a unique design on my card. The top one uses the Eggcellent Gnomes stamp set and the bottom one uses the Take Flight stamp set.
Basically, all I needed to do was sit with my pattern paper and match up the colors to create cards with. It was a great thing to have as a starting point with just a piece of pattern paper in my hand. So if you’re struggling a bit, this is great way to get going! Give it a try!
Here’s the template that I used of the cut out pieces from the one 6×6 sheet of pattern paper. Please feel free to use this as an idea for yourself to get started.
Another idea that I used for this one is that this floral pattern has several different colors in it to work from, so I was able to choose a different color for each of my cards. I believe I could’ve gotten even more than just the 4 cards too!
Hope you’ve enjoyed my post today sharing a little tip for you when you might be struggling! I’ve learned that just getting started can be half the battle sometimes!🤔 Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you again soon!!
Hello friends! I’m back again to share my Rose Heart card! I’m still “in the mood for love”, so here’s what I’ve got for you today:
I absolutely love this new Rose Heart stamp set! It’s a wonderful layering stamp set, and I can see so many creative possibilities with it! I really hope to get some time to play with it some more!
I thought this stamp set had an elegant Vintage feel to it and I wanted to create with it in that way. There are lots of fun heat embossing, ink blending and layering going on in this design.
Thanks so much for stopping in today! I appreciate your time and comments very much! 🙂
Stamped Smiles 