Reveal of Inky Escape! (Craft Retreat)

Hello friends! November has come with the pretty leaves on the trees and the coolness in the winds. I always turn to comforting “things” this time of the year and it always gives me a sense of peace before the year comes to an end. A warm fuzzy blanket, socks/slippers, sweaters, etc. is what I usually turn to. What is your comfort “thing”?

I promised to share with you the fun things we did over at the “Inky Escape” event that I recently attended and it was wonderful to see all of my crafty friends again for laughs and fun together. I think I miss them already!

I lifted this fun photo from the Inky Stamper FB page as I don’t have any photos other than seeing what others took. There were a total of 18 of us this time:

Everyone received a “swag bag”…but the case this time was a Christmas stocking full of fun goodies and one of them was that everyone received cute fluffy socks. I’m not exactly sure which one is me in that photo, but I did have a polar bear sock! LOL We each placed one foot in the circle and Chelsea took the photo.

And speaking of the “swag bag”/Christmas stocking…here’s what we each received:

When I got to the event, there was this black stocking on my table with the cute tag attached to it with my name. Each person received a personalized tag on the swag bag, plus the “skull” dies that were used to create the tag which was inside the stocking! There are my polar bear fuzzy socks (I’ve already washed them up by hand so the colors wouldn’t bleed in the wash…and they’re so warm and fuzzy!) I also received the cute “Christmas bulb” drink holder with a candy cane straw and a little ghost stopper for the top! We used these containers to hold the “Jingle Juice” that we drank at some point! And then I received a light up Christmas bulb necklace that has different settings when you push the button the back. The theme for this event was called “Merry Spookmas” which you can see the greeting for that on my personalized tag. So fun!

And speaking of fun…here are all of the Make-n-Takes that we created during the event. We sat and made 4 projects and then two of those projects were “bonus” makes using some other special items. (There is a “story” about one of them, but you can check out each project up close in the gallery below.)

*If you are on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge and scroll downward to see more information about each photo while it’s enlarged.*

Camel stamp set used. Images were stamped on colored cardstock and cut out.

The first four make-n-takes were made using the brand new Inky Stamper release that came out during this event! You should go check them out now on the website! (They’re all shown on the home page under “Featured Products”.) My favorite is that darling “Gifter” stamp set! I’m sure you’ll be seeing something from that set soon from me! *wink*

And since I was there to “crop” (as they say), I brought some things to work on that I really wanted to get done. So I decided to pull out some more Inky Stamper images to color and make a “Sheetload of Cards” using the September Sheetload of Cards Template by Crafty Al. If you’re not familiar with her, check out her You Tube Channel and look for all of her “Sheetload of Cards” videos to see how you can find instructions for each month. #SUYSSep2024 #ShowUsYourSheetLoad

I utilized her template to create the full 12 cards as demonstrated. The dimensions of the finished card design is 3.5″ x 6.25″ which I really liked as it helped to use up the full 6″x6″ size of those paper pads! Also, you don’t have to create envelopes for these as they fit perfectly inside those #6 envelopes (3-5/8″ x 6.5″) that you can find at any office supply area of a store.

As you can see, I used a variety of images that I stamped, colored and cut out for each design. I matched up my design papers to coordinate with the images. All of the images I used are from Inky Stamper. All papers come from a variety of Doodlebug Design papers.

Here’s a closer look at two of the cards I made from the set so that you can see how the card opens up and the greetings on the inside of each card. (Sentiments come from Taylored Expressions.) You can also see the coordinating envelopes next to them with the matching critter stamped in grey ink.

These cards are on the way for a special charity for ill children patients to help lift spirts and I hope each one will!

I know there were so many things going on during the event that I was even surprised that I got all of these finished. They were mostly finished with the exception of the greeting which I added when I got home. I had plenty to do while I was there and also enjoyed all the activities too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today as well! I thank you so much for stopping in!

Lots of Inky Stamping to Catch Up On!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying your August so far! Recently, we’ve been experiencing much cooler temperatures than we normally have this time of year, so it’s been great to go out for a few walks.

I’m ALMOST caught up with things that I haven’t posted, with the exception of a few birthday cards that I’ll share later. For today, I’d like to share some projects that I’ve made at an event I attended back in April along with a class from Inky Stamper.

But first, here are a few projects I’ve made for their recent challenges:

This is a tag I’ve made for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group July challenge. The challenge was to make a tag and I thought I’d try out a fun idea of making a pocket for my tag that held another tag inside so that you could put a message and a gift card.

I’ve used some Limeade Dots/Stripe 12×12 Doodlebug paper to cut it out with and used a border die to help with the pocket decoration. I cut another tag to place inside the pocket for a special message and to include a gift card. At the top of the inside tag, I’ve made little “charms” with images from the Inky Stamper Margarita stamp set. I’ve also stamped the background of the inside tag. I don’t usually color with pencils, but this time I decided to pull them out.

To get the sentiment to fit around the pocket border, I had to curve the stamp a bit to make it work with the tag.

Here’s another project I’ve made using Inky Stamper products for both the August Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group as well as the Craft Roulette episode #226. (If you play along with Craft Roulette, Inky Stamper is a sponsor for this month.)

So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge for August was to use a white pencil. This happens to be a favorite to use for Chelsea with her images and it does make for a nice quick highlight. So the images were just stamped on colored cardstock and I used the white pencil to highlight them with.

I decided to combine this with last week’s Craft Roulette Episode #226 with the parameters of – Project: “See-through” (I made a see-through shaker card) Colors: “Jungle” (I used greens and browns for my jungle) Element: “Teacher(s)” (The sentiment says it all!) Random: “Tangle” (There are a tangle of leaves inside shaker element.)

For all of the images, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Monkey stamp set. The inside of the shaker was stenciled with a Tropical Leaves stencil from Taylored Expressions with green inks. The circle was cut out with a retired MFT die. I found some fun monkey shaker elements to put inside.

Back in April there was an Inky Stamper Inky Escape event that I attended and here are some projects that I made from the Make-n-Takes that were provided as well as some of the projects that I was working on using the new release that came out during the event:

(If you are on my website, click each photo to enlarge it and read the captions)

The tag was made my Chelsea that was attached to my “swag bag” and the box was a make-n-take project. There was a moon pie included with project, but when I came home, I added 4 Ghirardelli chocolate squares to show how many fit inside.

There is actually another Inky Escape coming up in October that I’m attending and I’m sure it will be fun with Halloween and Christmas theme combined!

While I was there, I worked on some more of my own projects using some of the new sets:

I decided to take and use one 6×6 paper pack from my stash and it seemed to go really well with the outer space theme and I love the purple colors from this set. I’ve used the following Inky Stamper stamps sets: Astronaut, Big Words, & Alien.

Click on the photos below to see a close up look at each card:

Before the Inky Escape Event, there was also an on-line class from Inky Stamper that I took part in and that’s because I thought the projects were super cute! Here are the projects that were completed for this class:

These were both created with the Inky Stamper Hedgehog stamp set. The Journal Book , the Doodlebug DIY Snow globe and Doodlebug dimensional stickers/shaker balls were all provided with the class. I decided to add a few extra elements with mine. The tiny hedgehog on top of the snow globe was included in our box, but not apart of the projects…but I thought it would be fun to add it!

Speaking of Doodlebug, while I was at the Inky Escape Event, Chelsea had a few things on sale and I snagged a kit and special ordered the Doodlebug Frame with it. So when I got back home and the frame came in, I wanted to do my project right away:

I have this displayed in my stamp room and I love the rainbow of colors in it with the different crafty tools in smile faces! The size is 8in. x 8in. with a glass on the front. Although it’s not really that visible in the photo, it is actually quite dimensional.

I think it goes well with the black frame that matches my black frame with the crafty squares swap group I was in. (You can see that post here.)

Whew!😳 I’ve been really busy this year, but I don’t think you would’ve known this without my posting about it! I’m glad that I’ve gotten caught up with things that I’ve done and hopefully I won’t be doing posts like this in the future! It just seems like so much all at once!

Anyway, there we go and now I need to finish and send out a few birthday cards coming up, so I will catch up with that later as well! For now, thanks so much for stopping in and keeping tracks of my sporadic postings! I will be back to share a DT post for a challenge coming!

Have a happy crafty day my friends!

It’s Never Too Latte For a Friend

Hello friends! Hope that your week has been going great so far and you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving Day for my friends in the U.S. that celebrate. So since Christmas is coming up quickly, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of little gifts for a friend you might like to share coffee/cocoa with:

Aren’t these little mini coffee cups with the gift card holder so fun?! I had fun making and gifting them! Of course, I love coffee, but if your friend would rather do a cocoa, that will work for this too! I’ve used this adorable Inky Stamper Latte stamp set to create my project here with that adorable “Rosie” character popping out of the cup. I colored and cut her out with the coordinating die. For the “candy cane” image on the front of Rosie’s cup, as well as the “coffee ring stain” image on the coffee cup sleeve, I used the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set to accompany my design. (There are some great cocoa images in there to trade off for the coffee too!)

This little mini coffee to go cups were found on Amazon (4 oz cups pack of 50 with lids) and there are tons of videos on You Tube on how to construct the holder for these. I sort of tweaked mine from a die set that I’ve had for years, but there’s no reason to buy a die if you can create without an additional purchase. I’ve added an additional backing with a pocket and thumb opening to hold a Starbucks gift card in.

And then when you open the coffee cup, there is a great place to add some extra treats inside! I chose to add some Bailey’s chocolate truffle candy inside of these cups. You can also see how I decorated the cups with papers that has peppermint candies on them as well as the top of the lid, the cup sleeves with stamping and the red twine wrapped around the lid as well. The little peppermints that I’ve added on the top of the lid as well as on Rosie’s head came from the Inky Stamper Christmas Candy Mix…love that container! The Doodlebug red Gingham/Linen papers come from the Inky Stamper store as well.

And since the lid on the cup was not as secure as I would’ve liked it to be, I decided to wrap the entire thing inside of a gusseted cello bag and tie it up with some more of the red twine, which also made it look like a gift wrapped present too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project(s) today and have been inspired to create a fun gift for Christmas too! Thanks so much for stopping in and have yourself a very grateful Thanksgiving Day!🦃

Challenges:

Double D – Hot Beverages
Sparkles Monthly – Dies and/or Punches (both used!)
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

Inky Stamper NEW Stamps Inspiration!

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 Panels and 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!

Challenges:

Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
My Time to Craft – Critters
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
The Corrosive – Anything Goes

Inky Stamper Fun

Hello friends! Lots of fun crafty things happen during the month of October with the start of World Card Making Day to kick us off, then there’s the changing seasons with Fall, then Halloween with the treats which then turns into the Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas! I have taken the time to participate in some fun challenges and classes this month with some Inky Stamper inspiration for today’s post.

Although it says “EEK” next to the spider, I think he’s a cute one and not one to run away from! This cute spider comes from the Inky Stamper Spider stamp set that I’ve used on the tag for my Hershey Nugget treat holder. (I made this for the October challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group with the theme of “Treat Holder”.) I’ve stamped and colored the spider with Copic markers, used the coordinating die to cut him out and pop him over the green oval tag with the spider web and EEK stamped over it. I’ve used the green colored markers to his eyes to match my project.

For the treat package, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Scallop Candy Wrappers die cut out from some black Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper to wrap around the candies. I made a “holder” for the nuggets with regular black cardstock and scored each side 1/4″ for a container to hold the nuggets in place. I used some stickers from my stash to add the “B-O-O” letters and then slid the container into an Inky Stamper Hershey Bag that was gathered and tied up at the top with a piece of Doodlebug Limeade Twine. I punched a hole in my spider tag/gift card and threaded the twine through it to wrap around the treat and then took a piece of black ribbon to tie a bow around it all. These were so fun and easy to make!

Another thing I did was participate in the World Card Making Day Challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group. The challenge was to create a card using a sketch that was given and turn in by a certain time frame. This was my take on the sketch using the Inky Stamper Cow stamp set.

I used the “cow pattern” image from the stamp to create my background, white heat embossed the sentiment strip over black cardstock and sponged white around the edges of the banner. I popped it up with foam tape, stamped, colored and popped up the cow image over the banner as well. I also used the Inky Stamper Bunny set for the balloon image and the Inky Stamper Goat set for the party hat over the cow’s head. The balloon string was attached behind the cow and then I made a bow for around the cow’s neck with the Doodlebug Beetle Black Twine. To make my card fit with the sketch, I added some silver glitter cardstock strips behind the oval layers. I also added some silver Stickles glitter over the party hat to bring in the silver as well. So glad I ended up playing as I was picked to win a gift certificate!

I also participated in a “game night” class making these fun projects all made with the Inky Stamper Bug Catcher set. This class was a kit and all of the pre-cut items were included. I already had the stamp set so I didn’t need to purchase that with it. Even the candy spiders and magnifier came with it all! I had fun putting it all together and I really liked the versatility of the projects we did.

If you’re on my website, just click on the photos below to take a closer look at each project.

When you pull the slider tab the mouse moves over to catch the butterfly!

Hope you’ve enjoyed the projects that I’ve made and been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween (spider treat)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – Birthday Wishes (COW CARD)
Happy Little Stamper Birthday – Anything Goes Bday (COW CARD)
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
CRAFT – Gift Bag or Box (spider treat)
This is Halloween – Gothic and/or Halloween (spider treat)

Magnificent Scene, Birthday Crap and Craft Storage

Hello friends! Welcome to September! Really hope that you’ve had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and have had a great start to the month so far! I’m still trying to get my MOJO in gear as I really love this time of the year with all of the wonderful Autumn things happening both outside AND in the crafty world too! Really love when it starts up, but as it gets closer to the end of the year…I’m ready to skip right over it! LOL!

Today I have a fun post to share with some projects I made with several Inky Stamper products! They have a FB challenge to participate in every month and so I thought I’d share what I came up with. (Check it out and play along if you have any Inky Stamper stamps!) *Check out the store as well because there is a brand-new release that just came out!

This was a fun little scene to create on a mini slimline card! So, the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge THIS month (Sept) is to use more than just one Inky Stamper stamp set on one design. I really liked this challenge because it got me thinking of what to use and pull out several different images and actually use them! Looking forward to seeing what other people come up with too! So, for my scene, I’ve actually pulled out EIGHT different stamp sets!!!😮

To start with the background, I pulled out the *Housefly set with the squares image to clear heat emboss the background and then ink blend over top for an “emboss resist” technique. I took the *Rainy Day set and stamped the rainbow/cloud image and fussy cut the clouds to add on the background sky. For the “flying birds” and the “pattern” at the bottom over the green strip, I’ve used the *Pelican set. Of course, the main characters are different sets from *Rosie Solo and *Ralph Solo. For Rosie’s “hair”, I stamped the butterfly from the *Bug Catcher set to color and fussy cut it out which was then popped up over the flower she originally has. I also used this same set to white heat emboss the sentiment. For Ralph, I pulled out the *Snail set to stamp and color a heart which he is holding. I just made a slit around Ralph’s “hand” to help him hold the heart. And lastly, I pulled out the *Bee set to stamp, color and fussy cut the flower image. I cut off the stem and just attached the flowers with one of them popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the butterfly on Rosie and the heart with Ralph using my glitter brush pen. I then added some sequins from the Fall Flowers sequins mix and filled the centers with some Stickles.

So, did I, do it? Did you count out the eight different sets? I think this mouse couple is too cute…and no… they aren’t the “real” mice, these are the good ones to have! 😁

Ralph is showing up again! I needed to make a humorous birthday card for my son and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out it! 😂 This is actually the first card I made for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge, but I didn’t use eight different sets like I did on the one above, I only used four different sets. However, I used REAL TP!

The background was created using some of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper which the “bricks” image was stamped over with grey ink from the *Goat set. I also used this same set to stamp the “grass” border towards the bottom with another strip of green from the same Doodlebug paper pack. I just fussy cut the top of the grass strip to attach over the grey brick background. Of course, the Ralph inside the TP roll came from the *TP set along with the “pile of poo”💩 and the “Oh Crap!!!” sentiment that was white heat embossed over a black banner and popped up with foam tape. The balloon image came from the *Bunny set. I decided to attach a piece of the white Doodlebug twine and pop up the balloon with foam tape. I attached the other end to Ralph’s “hand”. Lastly, the fourth set I used was the sentiment at the bottom from the *Iguana set. (For that sentiment, I only used a portion of it from the stamp.) So that makes FOUR sets used!

The images on this card were colored using my CC Real Brush markers, I stamped the Ralph image again over the TP… yep, stamped directly onto the TP and fussy cut it out to paper piece over the image. Gives it the REAL look and feel of TP! 😉 I have die cut a black scallop frame to go around the scene and lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the balloon and the tiny flies around the “poo” with a glitter brush pen. I didn’t want to add too much as this is a masculine style birthday card.

And then I have one last project to share that I actually made for last month’s challenge that I “squeaked” in just in time too! (See what I did there?!😂) Ralph is just so popular today! I had a plastic bag sitting around on my table that I kept moving out of my way and it was frustrating me, so I made this “container” to hold some crafty things to sit on my table! It’s actually a REALLY old tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers using chipboard coasters! I have SO MANY of those coasters and I was happy to use some up. CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL HERE (P.S. The tutorial is actually done up by Taylor from Taylored Expressions, before her store years! That’s how old it is!)

The challenge last month was to use primary colors on your project which are the red, blue and yellow colors. Not realizing what the challenge would be for THIS month, it would actually fit in with that too! I used THREE different sets for this project. Again, I’ve used the *Ralph Solo set that was colored up and fussy cut out as this was done before the new die came out for him! (see top card) I took out several of the different Doodlebug papers to cover my chipboard coaster panels being mindful of the Primary Color challenge. Rather than leave the papers as is, I decided to pull out the *Inky Greetings set to stamp the splatter image in the coordinating colors with the papers. I also decided Ralph needed to be holding a pencil, so I pulled out the *Owl set and stamped, colored and fussy cut the pencil image which was added to Ralph’s “hand” by making a small slit for him to hold it.

I was happy to pull out some of my old punches to create the backdrop for “pencil holding Ralph” as well as using up those old coasters and some more papers and ribbon from my stash! (I’m really hoping to be doing more of this often!)

I know this was a long-worded post, but hope you enjoyed the projects and got some smiles too! Thanks for catching up with me today! See you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers Birthday – Anything Goes Birthday (2nd card)
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘B’ is for Birthday
We Love Stamping – Anything Goes with stamping (all are stamped!)
Crafting Happiness – NOT A CARD: Anything Goes (3rd project)
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesdays – Animals -real or imagined

Donut You Want a Sweet Birthday!?🍩

Hello friends and happy Friday! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead as we head into Valentine’s Day on Monday! With this holiday, I’m always reminded by the sweet treats and memories of my children passing out their Valentines, making special boxes to hold them in and classroom parties with lots of goodies! I thought it would be fun to incorporate those thoughts into a fun birthday set and a small treat with NO ‘REAL’ SUGAR ADDED!

I can never turn down a good donut, how about you? I had so much fun creating this set with the Taylored Expressions Donut Days Cling & Clear Combo and decorating them! This was created with the February #TEMakerChallenge color combo and theme in mind when putting the set together. I’ve used both the TE Spearmint & Peaches ‘N Cream ink and cardstock for these. I’ve added some Chocolate Truffle, Toffee and White EP as well.

To create the “donut box” on the card, I’ve stamped the TE Argyle stamp only without using the stencils and then I’ve cut it out with the TE Box Top Stacklets die to give the frame look for the donuts to be placed in! (Note the small treat container was decorated on the front with the left-over middle piece from the frame…so save everything!) I then took the stamped frame and ran the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over it for an added design. To assemble the box of donuts, I took a piece of tissue paper, crumpled it up and glued the decorated donuts together over it. The back of the frame with foam tape was then centered over the donuts so it was popped up. I ripped the excess tissue paper and attached the card together. I used some of the TE Peaches ‘N Cream cardstock and white heat embossed the TE Mini Strips Donut Worry and cut them out with the TE Mini Strips die.

FOR THE TREAT HOLDER –

I found this really fun video tutorial for a Hand Sanitizer PocketBac box container using my envelope punch board. (CLICK NAME FOR THE TUTORIAL!) I always love finding new ways to use a tool I have especially in a totally different way than what it was intended for! I didn’t wrap decorative paper around mine like she did, but like I mentioned above, I saved the center of the cut-out frame and cut it down to size to decorate the front. I took one of the sentiments and donuts left over from the card, wrapped some twine around it and tied it so the bow is centered inside the donut hole.

I do love me a good pun…so please feel free to pun away my friends!!😅 Maybe you can come up with a “hole in one”!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my birthday sweet treats today and thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Watercooler Wednesday – Helen’s “All About Occasions”
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
River of Creativity – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Thank you to all of the wonderful challenge blogs and keeping them going!

It’s a Spooky Kind of Love

Happy Friday friends! We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃 Are you ready?! Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check. Scary movies at the ready…check. Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!

Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too! So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”! I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:

And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky! We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so! I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme. I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.

Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean. I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink. I ink blended the edges and bottom with black. I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy! I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink. The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart. Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.

It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!

And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge using a recycled item! I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat! I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers. I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched-out circle for the bottom.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder. I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle. Really easy and fun to create! You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Alphabet – ‘O’ is for Outdoors
Sweet Stampin’ – All Hallows Eve
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – (E)scape it (scene)
Little Red Wagon – Outside (outdoors)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers – Create a Scene
Stamping Sensations – Animals, Birds & Bugs

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.

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 halted 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!!🎅

“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 weeklong “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 were 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 sneak in an extra “surprise” or 2 inside! You may have recalled these on my blog before, but they’re just recycled 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?! This really touches my heart and uplifts me about the kindness 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:

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