Bright Birthday and More Whimsy Retreat Projects!💡

Hello friends!  Hope that you’re having a great week so far!  Hubby and I are trying to figure out how this “retirement thing” goes together! LOL!  I think we’ll be having so much fun and we’re just really excited about the future and what we’ll be doing.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday he also celebrated a birthday and of course I had to make him a card that was suited for an electrician.  I had to add a bit of humor about his age on the inside, but this is what I came up with:

I’ve had this Stampin’ Up! Sunburst die and stamp set and haven’t used it that much since I bought it. (Quite a while ago! Not quite sure how old. LOL) I thought it would make a great light beam for my VERY old Simon Says Stamp ‘Watts Up’ stamp set that was from a past card kit. (circa 2014/2015) …yep, all old!

I die cut the sunburst from some yellow and gold glitter stock that I glued together slightly off-set and then attached it over a side folding A2 sized black card base.  I stamped the sentiments over a couple of the yellow strips with black ink taking care to make room for the circle panel.

I then stamped the lightbulb over a white piece of cardstock and colored the base with Copics and used a marker draw a line above it for the string.  I took a solid heart from the stamp set and heat embossed it with some Gold Metallic Gilded EP and then sponged some yellow ink over the bulb for some glow.  I die cut it out with a circle die and then layered over another die cut circle black piece and popped it up over the sunburst layers with foam tape.

I tied a bow with some black twine and glued it to the light bulb base.  I also stamped the bulb in a lighter gray ink over the envelope and added a string to that as well with a gray marker. (The inside of the card said:  “Old is the new black.” 😆)

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And I also wanted to share that I’m still plugging away on the several kits that I received from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat last month!  These are really amazing projects and I’m having lots of fun putting them together still! (Christmas will be coming next. So, stay tuned for those!):

This is a fun interactive card with a pull tab at the top where this cut little dragon slides upwards towards the sky! This kit 9 came with an A2 sized envelope, but I had to make my own envelope slightly larger to accommodate for the pull tab sticking above the card. I’ve added doodle lines around the edges and shadow stamped a sentiment at the bottom for my own added details.
This set was from kit 14. The hexagon shaped box was super fun and even came with the candy! There was also an extra stamped and cut out bee, so I used it to make another card… shaker style! I used the left over honeycomb die cut piece as a stencil on the card as well. I used the envelope that was provided in the kit above and decorated it for this A2 sized card instead. (I know someone that loves these candies…so they might get a surprise at some point! 😉)
And lastly, this was from kit 15 and TOTALLY different than what was photographed in the booklet! First of all, I received a plant image with a die cut speech bubble sentiments and thought it might be cool for a Halloween card on another project, so I saved those to use later. I received an EXTRA stamped sunflower image from kit 22 that I had posted earlier and decided to use it for this card here. I colored it similar to that one and cut it out, but cut off a portion of it on this design. I also changed up the background ink blended colors and splattered some gold paint on this one. Love how it turned out. This will be for an Autumn anniversary card for someone coming soon.

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today!  Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges (For the Birthday Lightbulb card ONLY):

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

Retirement Time and More Whimsy Stamp Workshop Retreat Projects

Hello there friends!  It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it to November and rounding the corner to end 2020!  It’s been a very strange year all the way around, but I have to say that it’s a bitter sweet day today as hubby will have his last day of work on his 40 year career as an electrician.  So today I’m dedicating my post to him:

This would be a perfect situation for my hubby and something he talked about all the time…which was to go out to the lake, relax, enjoy some fishing time on a boat including staying in a cabin.  Sure look forward to spending some time with him doing just that next year too!⛵🌅  He is a hard worker and certainly deserves it.

The stamp set that I’ve used for this card was a perfect scene image from Whimsy Stamps called Happy Place.  I colored it up with Copic markers and cut it out with an oval die and layered another oval piece from black cardstock.

I found some papers in my stash that I thought would be perfect with this, so I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio Dies to cut it with to fit half-way on my A2 white side folding card base.  Before attaching the piece down over the base, I took some Mustard Seed Oxide Ink and sponged across the middle of it and then used some Tumbled Glass Oxide Ink slightly at the top.  I then attached all piece including the image panel.

I took the sentiment from the Happy Place stamp set and stamped one of the sentiments at the top of the oval panel and then I white heat embossed the “relax” sentiment over black cardstock and cut it out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set, glued it along the edge and trimmed off the excess.  Lastly, I’ve added some Whimsy Stamps It’s a Party Enamel Dots.

Then of course I wanted to share the inside of the card which you can see that I’ve used the same image from the stamp set from the front of the card and just stamped that in a lighter grey ink color.  I masked off the edge of the inside of the card so it didn’t stamp completely.  I also used it in the same way on the envelope as well.

For the greeting, I took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word Die and cut it out with some black cardstock and then attached it with liquid glue.  I stamped the “retirement” greeting right underneath it from the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings stamp set with black ink.

It may be hard to tell in the photo above, but I’ve also taken a glitter brush pen and went over the sun as well as the water for some added sparkle.

This card was actually fun to put together and I was thinking about the future and all the things we had talked about the last few years and getting ready for this day.  Things are a bit different than we had envisioned of course, but we will have “our time” for sure.  We’re so excited about it!

This card is being handed to him this morning while we have our coffee before he leaves for work on his last day!😀


And now I also have some more finished kits that I’ve been working on since the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Workshop Weekend!  I’m still really enjoying finishing them up and still have MANY more to do!  I’m so amazed at how much we received and very happy that there were several Christmas projects which I’ll be working on next!  For now…here’s more of the finished kits:

This was for kit 12 and I LOVED the cute dragon in the purples! This card is going to my youngest grandchild as she is my “PURPLE girl”!!
This is the INSIDE of Kit 12. It was a really cool “FUN FOLD” design! I put my image off to the edge so I had room to write a message.
This was for Kit 6 and the entire scene was made using Copic coloring including the sky background! The squirrel and pumpkins were popped up with foam tape.
This was for kit 21 and my first time practicing with no-line coloring!
This was for kit 22. This mega large sunflower is gorgeous! Loved coloring and fussy cutting it out!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects and post today!  I sure have been having fun just playing and trying out different things with my cards.  I do look forward to finishing up these kits as we get near the Christmas time!  So be watching for more of those!

Thanks for dropping in with me today and I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges: (For Retirement Card ONLY)

  1. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  2. A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes Nov
  3. A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
  4. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes Nov
  5. Love to Craft – LTCCB52 Anything Goes Nov
  6. QKR Stampede – #407 Anything Goes
  7. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #145 Anything Goes
  8. The Corrosive Challenge – #11Nov Anything Goes
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2044 Anything Goes

Boo!👻 It’s Halloween!!!🎃

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

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

Kit 1 – spooky green behind the eyes! Slimline design
Kit 2 – Slimline design with a spooky graveyard! The cockroach bugs were a nice little “surprise gift” from our lovely instructor for the first two kits! LOL
Kit 5 – All Copic coloring and something brand new to me was coloring a scene freehand! So scary!! But I made it!
Kit 7 – a slimline die used two different ways…LOVED the ink blending!
Kit 10 – Cutest little treat box! Added crystal eyeballs to my skull and sparkled it up with sparkly clear EP. I’ve rubbed white ink around the black edges.
Kit 11 – The ink blending on this was awesome too! I have so many new combos now! The black sparkly die cut is my fave!
Kit 16 – Last but not least, this really adorable card made me giggle the whole time! I’ve added some glossy accents to the eyeballs.

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Autumn Anniversary

Hello friends!  It’s been so cold over my way and even snowed the other day which is a tad bit early for this time of the year.  I’m still trying to hold onto to Fall a bit longer as I know that the Holiday/Winter Season will be approaching us very quickly now!  It seems that Autumn never gets it’s due justice and goes by so fast!🍂

I’m popping in today to share a card I’ve made for hubby to help celebrate our special day of 21 years together🥰:

I adore this sweet image by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps called “Your Love Lifts Me” as I thought it was a great representation of how I feel about hubby and how I wanted it to reflect on my card for him.  He will have already received this card by the time this posts…so it’s OK if he sees this!😉

I’ve stamped the image over a panel of Copic Blending Card off to one side of it and then cut it out with a stitched rectangle die.  I took a piece of orange colored cardstock and used the same die to cut it with, but I cut this piece in half, stamped the sentiment over it and sponged around the edges of it with some Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I also took the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments set and white heat embossed it over a piece of brown cardstock that was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set and attached underneath the sentiment and cut off at the edge.

The few leaves over the design was stamped from an older Simon Says Stamp set and colored with Copics.  I then added some more Vintage Photo sponged around the image panel and attached the orange sentiment panel over top of the colored image panel and wrapped some twine around the center of it. I layered this panel over top of an A2 sized top folding brown card base.  I’ve added some sequins filled with gold Stickles in the center along with a few more dots.

Here’s a closer look at the Copic coloring I’ve done over the image.  I’ve kept it pretty simple and decided I didn’t want to add white dots to their cheeks like I usually do.  I don’t know why there are times I do and times I don’t.  This time it just seemed to call for none.

I used a light blue marker to color in the background and then with the same colors that I’ve used to color in the leaves, I took the markers and made my own leaves on the ground surrounding the couple.  I even stamped some more of the leaves on the inside of the card as well as the envelope and colored them.

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Autumn Anniversary card today as I sure had fun colored this sweet image.

I’m very lucky to have such a wonderful person to share my life with in the past 21 years and look forward to our times together in the future.  Thank you for stopping in today friends!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  2. Allsorts – Celebration Time
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2043 Anything Goes
  4. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC295 All About Occasions

5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

6. The House That Stamps Built – O2820 Anything Goes

WARNING: Spooky post with Monsters/Ghouls for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello there friends!  Halloween is very quickly approaching us at the end of this week and it’s one of my favorite Holidays ever since I can remember and it was such a fun memory of things I passed onto my own children to have fun with as well.  We have lots of fun memories together.  I know there are some people that don’t like it…or maybe the “scary” things that come from it, but for me, the more scary, the better! (With the exception of the little ones, I don’t like to scare people that don’t like a good scare…but for me, it’s all in fun and make believe.)  This is the reason for my warning post title…just in case you happen to not like it.  It’s totally fine if you don’t!😉 – OR clowns!! LOL!

 

Today starts a fun new challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog with the theme of “Monsters/Ghouls“.  Looking at the photo, you can opt to make a cute little colorful monster/alien type of birthday card if you’re not into the Halloween or scary, so just another way you could interpret the challenge idea if you wanted to.

But here’s my scary “monster/ghoul” creation I made for the challenge:

He is a bit on the spooky/scary side, isn’t he?!  I have been looking for a creepy clown image like this for a couple of years and finally Whimsy Stamps came out with this “Creepy Clown Sleep Tight” rubber stamp set and I knew I had to grab it up and specifically in reference to the movie “It” by Stephen King who’s a favorite author of mine.  My younger son is really into these type of things too, so this one’s going to him!

I started out the background with a piece of watercolor cardstock that I used some Black Soot Distress ink to sponge in some clouds with using a cloud stencil from my stash.  I then took some Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Spray and water and let the color run into the background with the sprayed water.  I also watered down some more Black Soot ink and made some splatters with a brush over it.  I then black heat embossed the Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame over top of it, cut it out with the WS Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle die and then added some more Black Soot ink around the edges.  I layered it over an A2 sized top folding black card base.

For the creepy clown image, I black heat embossed it twice over a piece of Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and a water brush to color it with.  I fussy cut it out and then just cut out the hands only of the second image, and used some foam tape to pop the hands over the image and then the entire clown image over the frame background.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the “Creepy Clown Sleep Tight” set over a piece of black cardstock and then die cut it out using the WS Quick Strips die set.  (Note:  I used a partial die cut method to lengthen the die so that it would fit the sentiment.)  I sponged around it with white ink and then glued in place under the clown image.

If you “dare” to take a closer look at mister creepy clown here, you see how I’ve colored him and cut him out.

I did use some brighter colors as he’s a clown and I really wanted him to pop from the design.  I used a silver metallic gel pen to color in the bells on his hat and then I’ve used some glossy accents over his yellow colored eyeballs to make them pop out a bit more as well.  The teeth were left white, but I used a white gel pen to color them in a bit for more prominent whiteness.  It is such a detailed image so it was fairly easy to color.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my good Monday morning scare for you today!😱🤡😂

Other Challenges I’d like to enter “Creepy Clown” for:

  1. Double D – October:  What does it mean to you? (spooky Fall fun Halloween!)
  2. Mod Squad – Spooky Halloween
  3. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Layer it Up (popped up layers over clown)
  4. Creative Moments – #201 Anything Goes
  5. Cute Card Thursday – Stamping
  6. Creative Knockouts – #373 Halloween (black, green, purple, orange)
  7. Crafty Catz – #524 Anything Goes optional: hats
  8. Daring Cardmakers – Spooktacular Makes
  9. Two Old Bats – Halloween Jump Start *NEW CHALLENGE BLOG

Color Challenge Reminder Bagged for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Happy Monday morning to you friends!  As I have pre-scheduled this post, I’m sure that I’m probably worn out from a weekend of crafty fun!🥱  Sleeping is over-rated anyway, right?!😆  (I will share some fun things with you all later though!)  But for now, I’d like to remind you about our color combo challenge for {Cupcake Inspirations} and hope you will join in the fun with us using Olive, Red & Lavender:

From my last post, I’m continuing on with making Halloween treat bags for my grands so I thought I’d pull out the colors that would work for this color combo challenge too! Plus, I’m also adding this to another entry for the Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween:

 

I fell in LOVE with those Whimsy Stamps Haunted papers!  I thought it would be a fun backdrop for this darling little Whimsy Stamps Frankie digital stamp to be in front of!  I colored her up with Copics and fussy cut her out and popped her up over the background paper.

Before I placed the background paper over the bag, I took the Batty Stencil from Brutus Monroe and went over the paper sack with some Black Soot Distress Ink.  I cut a couple of strips of cardstock to go with the color combo and white heat embossed the sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Corny Candy Corns stamp set.  I’ve also added a couple of the silver mirror cardstock stars around it and then used some foam squares to pop up the Frankie girl with.

To close up the treat bag, I folded over the top and then punched a couple of holes in the top and added a tag from a paper pack in my stash, rubbed some Black Soot Distress Ink around it and tied it on the bag with the olive colored yarn string that was tied in a bow.

Here’s a closer look at the colored up image and how I’ve incorporated the colors into it.  I did use a silver metallic gel pen to color in the “bolts” on the sides of her head and then used a white gel pen to dot her eyes and cheeks with.  I think that hair is my favorite part about her!  She’s just too cute to spook, I think!😁 

Thanks so much for dropping in today!  I hope you’ve enjoyed my project and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

  1. The Cutie Pie Challenge – Too Cute to Spook
  2. Aud Sentiments – #262 Halloween/Fall Sentiment
  3. A Bit More Time to Craft Anything Goes
  4. QKR Stampede – #406 Anything Goes
  5. Crafty Catz – #523 Anything Goes
  6. Creative Fingers – #195 Anything Goes
  7. My Time to Craft – #443 Halloween or Cats
  8. This is Halloween Anything Goes Halloween (3rd and last entry) NEW!!!
  9. Two Old Bats Halloween Anything Goes Halloween “Jump Start” (3rd entry) NEW!!!

👻🦇🕷👁🎃(Please support the Halloween challenges and get them going!  All lovers of Halloween unite!)

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 Anything Goes Halloween (entry 2) **NEW!!
  10. Two Old Bats Halloween Anything Goes Halloween (entry 2) **NEW!!

Birthday Penguin Slimline🐧

Hello friends!  There are SO many things going on this month and I’m having such a hard time keeping up with all of it!  After having some computer issues and trying to figure out what’s going on…I realized how far behind I am with my crafting!  I have waaay too many new things I want to play with too!  Really hate it when that happens!🤨😅  Totally missed out on World Card Making Day this year…however…

..before the WCMD “Inspired By” challenge ends over on the Whimsy Stamps Inspiration Blog, I wanted to be sure to play along which is using one of the design team’s projects for inspiration to create your own project:

I have made this fun slimline card using the Whimsy Stamps Penguin Poop stamp set along with the Whimsy Stamps Slimline Connected Bubbles die for my card today.  I am a huge penguin fan and these guys crack me up so much!

I wanted to keep the colors in a cool tone.  Over a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper, I’ve cut it down to fit over a black side folding 3.5″ x 8.5″ slimline card base.  (I use the 8.5″ measurement because I find the size easier to use with a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock.  Then I only need to cut at 7″ on the long (11″) side and score in half at 3.5″ on this same side.  I am then left with another piece for layering over the slimline card if I choose.)  It’s easier to remember also…which is something good for me right now! LOL!  I digress…

I’ve used the Pink and Main blender brushes to ink blend Weathered Wood, Shaded Lilac, Broken China and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks for the background and then I used a water spritzer to make the droplet pattern over it.

I’ve cut the Slimline Connected Bubbles die from some Brutus Monroe Mermaid Glitterstock and glued it over the ink blended background.  I had a left over border of a punched out goo drip from white glitterstock, so I used the die to cut out pieces to glue over top of some of the circles from the die.  I stamped the sentiments inside a couple of the circles where I wanted with black ink and then used some foam dots to pop out the stamped and fussy cut penguins.

Lastly, I’ve taken a black marker to make some stitch marks along the edges of the ink blended panel and glued on some clear sparkling crystals.

Here’s closer view of one of the penguins.  It was very easy to grab a couple of Copic markers to color them in with and they were pretty easy to cut out along with the balloon.  I’ve used a black twine to connect the backside of the balloon and added a dab of glue to the penguin’s hand.

I used a glitter brush pen over the balloon and then added some glossy accents to both of the penguin’s big eyeballs.

This was such a fun card to create and it will be perfect for a winter birthday I will have coming up soon!🥳  The way I’ve been crafting behind, this will help out to have ready on hand when I need it!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends!  I hope you’ve enjoyed my slimline card and that it has brought you a smile!  I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

  1. Whimsy Stamps Inspirations – WCMD Inspired By challenge (Bev’s card)
  2. Shopping Our Stash – #430 On Trend Slimline
  3. Crafty Animals – #43 Anything Goes + animal
  4. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #43 Anything Goes + animal
  5. Moving Along with the Times – #123 Animals and/or Birds
  6. Cute Card Thursday – #654 Anything Goes
  7. Craft Rocket – #75 Add Sparkle
  8. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional winged things

Color Combo for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  I hope that you’ve had a very pleasant weekend!  I enjoyed spending some time visiting with my son for his birthday as I haven’t seen him for a while, so it was nice to laugh with him.  If you haven’t checked out the card I made for his birthday, check out my last post for the blog hop along with a video I shared!

 

Today starts a brand new challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge blog!  We are Playing with a fun color combination this time using the colors: Lime, Pink and Green It’s not only a yummy cupcake, but yummy colors too!  Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

Here’s my take with the colors for my first card for the challenge:

For some reason, the first thing I thought of was gnomes!  So I grabbed this really adorable Gnome Matter What clear stamp set from Whimsy Stamps and colored up that gnome and frog pair!  I fussy cut them out and made a grassy hill for them to sit on by ink blending a panel that was spritzed with water and then cutting it out with a mushroom border die from Lawn Fawn.

I also used the Lawn Fawn Watercolor Wishes paper pack in the pink shade for the background behind the grassy hill which I stamped the sentiment over and gently rubbed some more pink pastel over it.

The entire panel was cut out with my fave Wonky Stitched Rectangle die from MFT and layered over a bright pink A2 sized top folding card base.

A closer look at the images, you can see how I’ve got them colored up with Copics, but I’ve also added the usual details to the images with a white gel pen for the gnome’s cheeks and flower center.  I went over the flower with a glitter brush pen.  I’ve also added some dots to his shirt with a metallic green gel pen and then went over his buckle with a gold gel pen.

I’ve just attached the gnome with liquid glue, but I’ve used foam tape to pop up the frog pair and then I’ve added some more dots with the white and green metallic gel pens and then went over their eyes with glossy accents for shine.

I think maybe this is a fantastic message for all of us right now.  That gnome looks pretty chill!😉

Thanks for joining me today friends and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Love to Scrap – LTSCB137 Anything Goes September
  2. Crafty Catz – #518 Anything Goes optional:  gems and/or glitter
  3. Creative Craft Cottage – Include an animal (frogs)
  4. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

Crafty Chefs Group and Sympathy

Hello friends!  I know I’ve said this before, but it seems that I don’t ever have a sympathy card on hand when one is needed, so this time as I was making one because I needed it, I’ve also created an additional to have in my stash.

I have also just joined with some fellow crafty friends who started a sort of “challenge group” and I think we dubbed ourselves the “Crafty Chefs” simply because our challenges consist of “recipes” to follow of “MUST DO” and another list of “CAN DO” items to follow when making our projects and we each take turns being the “top head chef” in charge of making the recipes or lists.  It’s just something non-pressure and just for fun which I think is fabulous as it helps me to use up my expansive crafty stash and join my fellow friends in paper crafting which we all have in common and love to do!😀

Vicki-PaintchipSympathy

Here’s the sympathy card that I’ve come up with for our July’s Crafty Chefs Group Challenge!  The July challenge is as follows:

MUST DO:

  1.  monochromatic
  2. sentiment as focal point
  3. paint chips
  4. decorative papers

CAN DO: (items that are optional to add)

  1.  die cut
  2. favorite color
  3. summer fruits

When I saw the paint chips on the list, it immediately made me think of this technique with the wavy die cut along the edge of the design over a card and I think I had done it before, but it had been a long time ago.  So with the decorative papers in mind, I went through my stash to find different ones in similar monochromatic color and the most I had was the yellow color.  I love yellow, but if you know me, then you know purple is my favorite color…so I didn’t do that one or the summer fruits from the list..but the MUST DO are all included!

Vicki-PaintchipSympathy-close

I die cut the word for the focal point of my design with some of the pattern papers that I’ve used and cut several to stack on each other. I also die cut a butterfly to add as an accent along with the stitched wave border die to cut my edge with.  I also took the small word stamped with yellow ink over white and die cut it with a banner die to place over the design and then the panel was mounted over a yellow A2 sized top folding card base and finished with clear sequins that were filled with glitter glue.

Vicki-PaintchipSympathy-flat

I‘m really happy how it turned out and sort of challenged myself to make it a sympathy card.  It had it’s twists and turns to complete each thing on my list, but worth the thought process to figure out!  I’m glad I had this challenge!  Hope you enjoyed it as well! 


Vicki-SUsympathy

Here’s the sympathy card that I had made and actually hand delivered in person so I know they’ve already received it.

My thought on this one was the card was for females and I based my design on the flowers that I also gave to the recipient which had pinks in the mix along with the base of the lantern being white with the candle.

Vicki-SUsympathy-close

I went through my stash of floral stamps and have always loved this one from Stampin’ Up! which was stamped in black ink over white.  I used some watercolor to just color in one of the flowers within the image.  I used a piece of vellum to silver heat emboss the sentiment which was wrapped around the panel.  I also took some silver shimmer paint that was watered down and splattered over top.

Vicki-SUsympathy-flat

I die cut the panel, layered it over a piece of silver foil cardstock and then another piece of pink cardstock that was mounted onto an A2 sized white top folding card base.  Lastly, I’ve added some silver sequins to finish it off.

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends!  I hope you’ve gotten some inspiration from my projects and I’ll be seeing you again soon!!

Challenges: 

  1.  Dragonfly Dreams – No Pattern Paper (second card only)
  2. 613 Avenue Create – #235 Anything Goes optional: Sentiment as Focal (first card only)
  3. Daisy Chain – #43 No Design Paper (second card only)
  4. The Corrosive Anything Goes
  5. Crafting Happiness – #56 Anything Goes optional: things that fly (first card only)
  6. Pammies Inky Pinkies – PIP2027 Anything Goes
  7. Creative Craft Cottage – #131 Add a Flower(s) (second card only)
  8. Creative Moments – #194 Anything Goes
  9. Little Red Wagon – #557 embossing (second card only heat embossing)