August GDT for Inky Stamper!

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

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:

Vicki-InkyStamperGDT-flipflop-tagbackpocket

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

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

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

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Just Us Girls – Anything but a card (tag only)
Daring Cardmakers – Gift Tags Galore (tag only)
Moving Along With the Times – Summer Fun and/or Colors (orange/yellow)
NBUS #29 – Aug “Never Before Used Schtuff” (never used new stamps!)
Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
Sparkles Monthly – Outdoor Fun
2 Crafty Critter Crazies – ATG + critter

Hello! Anyone still with me?

Hello there friends! I know that I had posted that I’m stepping away , but this blog is still “active” for now and I have been crafting anyway… so after stepping away from it, I still follow along with different companies and inspiration on FB. But because I have SO much product and I wanted to be able to actually USE the things that I have instead of letting it just “sit around”, I was taking photos and posting (in FB groups) anyway, so I thought why not just BLOG IT?! Not just the crafty aspect of it all, but blogging itself is a bit of a release too. It gives me a “record” of my crafty experience, what and why I might have done something…so I decided for my own personal reasons, to come back to this “old dinosaur” method to enhance my crafty journey. It may not be exactly like it had been before, but that’s how crafty journeys evolve.

It’s been fun and busy with hubby being retired and home, but after getting use to it and traveling a bit, I was and still am taking a few classes here and there and just having fun. Because of the pandemic, so many companies have turned to “online” classes, conventions, challenges, etc so I thought it was a great opportunity to try some of that out without the expense of traveling for it! I’ve done several actually, but just mainly posted within the groups they were made for. Then I started thinking once again about all of the “stuff” I have and still ARE accumulating…so my mission is to actually use the product I have. I will try NOT to keep purchasing in the future! (Let’s see how THAT goes! LOL!) The blogging might help keep me motivated in doing that too…I hope!

So if you are still following…Wow! Thanks for being here!! Not really sure how often I will be posting, but this will be mainly where I will be sharing anything “crafty” that I’m doing. Maybe I can inspire someone to use their own crafty stash? Hope you can join the fun with me here too! 🙂

I’m starting with a couple of summer classes that I just recently completed with Taylored Expressions. She did a class earlier this month with a set of 4 completed cards using similar style products for each class. The first one was called the “Gifted” class:

The top left card was used with a watercolor wash for the background. There’s a cover plate die that cuts out all those presents which I used on the card below that one to arrange over the sponged square area. The cards on the right side were both ink blended with the bottom right card using a stencil. I’ve also added some sparkle with a glitter brush pen and some glossy accents to the die cut “YAY!” lettering. Envelopes with seals were also included with this class set which you can see on the far right of the photo. I always need birthday cards, so these will work out great!

This next set is also from Taylored Expressions that I just finished up this weekend. Really enjoyed this class with some things that I forget about doing with my cards:

This class was called the “Diamond Botanical” class with another set of 4 cards. The top left card was fun with a more mixed media style using paint for the background and splatters. The only thing that I changed up was the background stamp. I didn’t have the stamp from Taylored Expressions that they used in the class, so I used a Stampin’ Up! Birch background stamp I found in my stash. (So yay that I’ve already started with using my existing stash with the new!)

The top right card is a shaker card and the bottom left card is a gate fold card with the sentiment panel helping to hold it in place. Again, with this class we were given envelopes with the matching seals off to the right. These were fun little classes to take and get some cards completed with!

Hope you enjoyed these sets too and were inspired! Are you taking any virtual or in-person classes or events this Summer? Has your crafting experience changed for you recently and what things have you changed about it?

I know I’ll be back again with more creations I’ve been working on. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you’re all doing really well! Have a great day! 🙂

Time to Move On…

Hello friends! It’s a sad/happy good-bye today.

I wasn’t sure weather or not I was going to be typing this up at the beginning of this year or not, but with the way the world has been with covid, it actually has given me a reason to “put this off” for a while.

I had actually planned on making this post last year around the time my husband retired from his job as we had lots of plans and my time would be occupied with other things besides having a blog, being on design teams, etc. When covid happened, it really haulted most all of our plans and was really disappointing, but hopefully now with vaccines coming shortly we can “get back” to some type of normal soon. We still plan on continuing with our plans as we get closer to those goals we set ourselves and we look forward to enjoying our lives!

That’s the “happy” part of this post is the looking forward to what’s coming and the enjoyment of life together with my husband… but the sad part is saying good-bye to all of my wonderful and faithful friends that have followed me here and everywhere I’ve been on the Internet for several years. I thank you SO MUCH for your kind support, friendship and inspiration that you’ve always given and I will miss that most of all for sure.

But in talking with my husband, it’s time for me to say good-bye to being on design teams along with struggling to try and post something on a regular basis. I’ve had a blog for the most part on different platforms since 2006 and that’s quite a while to be doing this. I’ve had so many different experiences, made so many different projects and have met and made so many different crafty friends. It’s been such a rememberable experience in so many different ways and I’m thrilled you have come along and touched my journey in some way. It was meant to be, but now it’s time for me to move on to something different.

No, I will not be giving up crafting all together. As long as I have time to set aside for crafting, I will continue to do it, but it will be a very random thing. So I’m not giving up crafting, just pacing myself and what I want to do.

I will not be on Instragram any longer nor have a Facebook Page. Just my personal FB account and that’s all.

In the words of a REO Speedwagon song…”I know it hurts to say good-bye, but it’s time for me to fly.”

Happy crafting, stay healthy and happy sweet people!💗💗💗

Adelina Fairy from Digi Doodle Studios Celebrating Peace & Happiness for 2021🎉

Hello friends! It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m so excited to kick this year to the curb…how about you?! Whatever your plans are to ring in the New Year, please stay safe and enjoy sharing with those you love for hope of peace and happiness in the New Year for 2021!❤🎉

Today, I have a card that I’ve made for a challenge deadline and needed to have it in by today, so I wanted to be sure to share it with you all:

This was actually a “Digital freebie” from the Kit and Clowder Group Advent Calendar of Events they do every year. Digi Doodle Studios gave away this darling image called Adelina-Fairy.

I made this card and colored up this sweet image as the Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group was holding a special “coloring challenge” using this specific image and I wanted to make sure that it met the deadline for getting it in and so I actually posted it in there yesterday, but I’m posting on my blog today along with more photos and details.

The image is beautiful with her poinsettia flowers and so I wanted to be sure to color it up with red and green colors in mind…although I think she would be great for ANY occasion as well as coloring the flowers differently. I used some die cut circles for cutting her out with and then layering her over a die cut piece of gold mirror cardstock.

I’ve used some poinsettia decorative papers from my stash for the background and layered some red poinsettia embossed strips layered with gold mirror cardstock over the background before adding the layered circle image on top. The embossed strips also had white ink rubbed over top lightly to emphasize the textures. I white heat embossed a sentiment and cut it out with a banner die to place on the bottom corner with craft foam which is what I also added behind the image circle panel too.

Before attaching the bottom strip to the card, I also added some gold cord and a bow. I finished off the card with three poinsettia flowers from my stash. The entire card measures 5″ square.

Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve got her colored up. I added some really subtle shading with my Copics underneath her legs for shadows. I did my usual white gel pen for checks and hightlights and then I used a gold gel pen for coloring in the dots on her wings and in her hair.

Really enjoyed coloring this gorgeous image and it’s awesome that I now have another Christmas card ready for next year as well! Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope that you’ve enjoyed my final card and post for the year.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the wonderful support, kindness and friendship you have given to me this past year. It really means so much to me and it’s been quite a year of creativity too! I see that so many of my favorite companies are represented as my top photos which tickles me so much!

Here’s to wishing us ALL a happy, healthy and prosperous life in 2021!!🎉

See you in the New Year friends!

Challenges:

Digi Doodle Studios Facebook Group – coloring challenge
Double D – Poinsettia
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Creative Moments – #205 Anything Goes
Die Cut Divas – Anything Goes December

Christmas Chaos Finish Line…

Hello friends!! I sure hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas! I am sure looking forward to starting a New Year as well! Moving on to positive things for sure! 😀

**Needed to apologize for anyone who subscribes to my blog via e-mail and couldn’t get the link to work from my last post. I don’t know what happened, but it got “wonky” when I scheduled it. CLICK HERE for the link to that post if you didn’t get a chance to view it.** THANK YOU!

Although I’m finished with sending out my Christmas cards, I still enjoy creating for Christmas and can ALWAYS get a good start on Christmas cards for the next year too, so that’s what this fun “Bugaboo Holiday Chaos” challenge event has allotted me to do and have some fun! So, this post will finish up the last of my projects for that event before the deadline is up! (To see the first 3 challenge projects, I made CLICK HERE for that post.)

Here are my projects to finish up the challenges:

This card was made for the Holiday Chaos Bingo Challenge on Day 4. There was also this really adorable freebie up that day, so I wanted to be sure to grab it while it was available. This is the Kidz Reindeer image and I enjoyed coloring him up for my card here. For the Bingo, I used the middle row across, but could also have used the first row down or first square diagonal too. (See photo below)

I happened to have some Christmas Lights pattern paper with some of the green lightbulbs foiled on it. I thought the green shimmer ribbon would go well with that and break up the “busy-ness” of it! I took a Christmas Lights die from Lawn Fawn to attach across the card and image panel and then white heat embossed a sentiment at the bottom. I’ve used some glitter for the snow around the image and then I’ve covered all the Christmas Lights with glossy accents.

If you know Bugaboo Stamps, then you got to love Stella! 😂 This was made for Day 5 Holiday Chaos with the theme “Make Us Laugh”. So of course, my mind went to Stella, and I thought this Stella Calendar November was a good one for a laugh about now as we were just hit with a winter storm with snow and ice.

Found some snowflake papers and paired her with some purple colors along with just adding some silver glitter snowflakes to the design. I added a button in the center of one of them and attached a sliver bow over top.

Stella’s glasses were colored in with a gel pen for the shine.

This card was created for Day 6 Photo Inspired Challenge. I thought it was such a darling photo and I noticed that the deer in the photo was so large compared to that little girl and so I was trying to capture that detail about with the photo by making the Bugaboo Ornament Element and this cute moose that was actually part of a tag image that I fussy cut out and attached him to the ornament. (I can’t find the moose I used in the store.) I die cut a snowflake and the “believe” word to attach over top of the ornament. I then took the sweet Bugaboo Ava Mistletoe Fairy that I’ve colored and fussy cut out in a smaller size to place on my scene.

The scene was created with some white Glitterstock that was die cut with a hillside border die with some die cut pines behind it. I also used an embossing folder for the snowfall in the background. I colored the snow with a Copic marker under the images before I attached them to the scene.

And this card was made for the final Day 7 color combo challenge. Plus, there was this really fun and cute freebie during the event that I grabbed up again before it expired, but it’s the Bugaboo AKV Reindeer Skate image. I colored him up and even created an “ice rink” for him with a pen and then used a Copic marker to make a “skating trail” inside the rink and then I covered the entire area with a glitter pen for shimmer. I also stamped some snowflakes above him and dotted the centers with a gold gel pen which was also used to color part of his scarf with.

I added some papers to the opposite side of the image panel and lined the center between with gold foil paper. I also gold heat embossed a sentiment over a red banner at the bottom and attached three gold accents at the top too. The base of the card is kraft. Hopefully I have met all the challenges. 😉

Thank you SO MUCH for joining me here today friends! I will be back with just one more project for tomorrow as I need to meet another deadline for a challenge…so I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges:

Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 4 BINGO!
Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 5 “Make Us Laugh!”
Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 6 Photo Inspiration
Catch the Bug – Holiday Chaos Day 7 Color Combo
Papercraft – #65 Snowflakes (second card)
CRAFT – #581 Christmas the Last Stretch
Alphabet Challenge – ‘S’ is for Snow Scene (third card)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #148 Anything Goes
Christmas Kickstart – #45 Christmassy

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!!🎅

Snowflakes for {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Happy Monday! Hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend and are ready for Christmas to come! This Friday will be Christmas Day and I’m happy to have everything finished and ready to deliver the cookies and presents to family and enjoy the time with my husband. Hoping that next year will be looking much different too! Are you ready for Christmas or just ready for the year to be finished? 😉

Today is the start of a new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with the theme of “SNOWFLAKES“! The only difference for this challenge is that it is only lasting for ONE week instead of the noraml 2 weeks. Also, this will be my final post as a design team member for them as well. I have really enjoyed being apart of this team as what’s better with crafting than with a cupcake inspired theme, right?!🧁😋 So I’m sure I’ll be inspired to play along with the challenges in the future as I have been! Hope you’ve enjoyed my creations for this challenge. Here is my “snowflake” cupcake inspired project for today:

I thought it would be appropriate to create a New Year’s themed card for this challenge as I don’t really need to make any more Christmas cards, but sometimes I forget to send out a Christmas card to someone and don’t realize it until later, so that’s when a New Year’s card can come in handy! LOL!

I absolutely LOVE the fabulous slimline dies that Whimsy Stamps has! Such a huge selection of them and I spotted this gorgeous Elegant Snowflakes and Border die and thought it would make some really incredible slimline style cards no matter what color scheme you have in mind! I knew that I first wanted to try it out with some metallic mirror cardstock, and I was also inspired by these gorgeous Gilded Holiday papers from Whimsy Stamps with the snowflakes in gold and black colors. It looked elegant like the die, so I pulled out a strip to fit across the top, but because it’s 6 x 6, it didn’t fit, but I decided to piece the strip together anyway and I don’t really think you can tell that much until you look up closely to know that it’s there.

So, I then layered the gold metallic die cut piece right underneath the strip that was attached to a 3.5 x 8.5 black cardstock layer. There are also a couple of extra snowflake dies included with that border die, so I used them layered together (one in gold and another in black cardstock) on the right side of the slimline design.

To create the sentiment on the card, I used the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings Clear Stamp Set and gold heat embossed it along the bottom of the black card panel. I also took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word die and die cut it out in black cardstock several times to layer together for thickness. Before attaching it to the card, I used a gold ink pad and brushed around the edges with it as well as the entire black card front panel before attaching all together. I then layered it over a white top folding slimline card base.

Here’s a closer view of the gold metallic die along with the gold heat embossed sentiment as well as the gold inked edges around the design. I’ve also decided to add some gold Drip Drops from Taylored Expressions in the center of some of the snowflakes as well as a couple of black sequins that I filled the centers with some gold Stickles with.

Of course I think it looks so much more elegant, shinny and sparkly in person as it’s hard to photograph and be able to capture all of the lighting that you see when you’re holding it in your hands!

Hopefully by sharing a few different angled photos, you’re able to see some of these details in this card design.

Please be sure to stop by the {Cupake Inspirations} Challenge blog and come join us with your “snowflake” creations this week and check out the inspiration from the design team whle you’re there! REMEMBER: You have only ONE WEEK to enter! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll be seeing you soon with another post soon!

Challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft – #130 Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #410 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC302 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – #381 Anything Goes
Crafty Catz – #532 Anything Goes optional: Anything New (new die!)
Allsorts – Sparkle and Shine

“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)

Reminder for the Blues at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a nice weekend as your days are growing closer to Christmas.

Today I have a reminder for you about the “Shades of Blue” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and that you still have a few days left to enter your blue shaded projects! Hope you’ll join us! Although thoughts of winter, Christmas and snowflakes come to mind with these colors, I’ve decided to take the colors in a different direction for this week:

Blues made me think of a masculine birthday which is something that I needed for a birthday card for my dad this last week, so my thoughts turned to him when making this card. He’s been having some medical issues recently and I wanted to send him a happy card along with some real balloons to help try and cheer him up a bit. My heart is heavily with him right now as he deals with many physical issues.

For my card, I first started with a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and ink blended some blue oxide inks over the panel with Chipped Saphire, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean Oxide Inks. I die cut the large sentiment die and balloon dies from this piece and then attached the sentiment to a die cut vellum shadow behind it.

I stamped some images with the same blue inks I blended with over a white panel along with doing a very light ink blending in the center of it before attaching the die cut sentiment over top. I then attached that panel to a blue die cut panel and again over a white die cut panel and finally attaching it to an A2 sized side folding blue card base. Lastly, I popped up and glued the die cut balloons along with the silver strings also die cut around the sentiment panel keeping in mind the placement of the strings. I added a few blue sequins to finish it off.

In this close-up photo, you can see the details of the background more clearly along with the shimmer over the balloons which I went over with a glitter brush pen.

So I hope that you’ve enjoyed my birthday card today and were inspired to pull out your blue shaded stash and have a play with them! Really look forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge! Be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Blog and see what the Cupcake Sweeties have to inspire you with this week as well!

Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

The Divas That Cut Paper – Dec Anything Goes + die cut machine.
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #147 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #12 December Anything Goes
AAA Birthday – #20 Twinkle
Creative Moments – #204 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC301 Occasions
Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

Crafty Chefs Gnome Joy & FINALLY Finished Projects from Whimsy Retreat!🎉

Hello my friends! Are you getting all of your Holiday errands finished up? I’ve still got some cards to send out and get going on my cookies! I always feel behind every year…are you this way too?

So, while I was “making merry” literally, I thought I’d join in the December Crafty Chefs Group Challenge and see what I could come up with for it. This cute little gnome has been wanting to jump on my craft table for a while…

Isn’t he adorable?! He came from a stamp set that I had actually got last year around this time and just never had the time to pull it to play with before Christmas rush finished up. Note to self…I have TONS of those items this year, so plan EARLIER! LOL! It seems I always get closer to a deadline and then want to come up with all kinds of things I want to try…is it the pressure or what?!

Anyway, I’ve got him all colored up with Copics and then I used the coordinating dies to cut him out with that I’ve attached with foam tape over my “Joy Fold Card“. (This was part of the challenge for the Crafty Chefs this month and I followed along with a tutorial to a link *see link above* that was given, but I changed it up slightly by making it an A2 size.) For the card design, I’ve used these Sweater Weather Papers. I’ve added some shimmer metallic ribbon and also stamped some green snowflakes from the gnome stamp set and cut them out with the coordinating dies as well. I also found some green colored pearls to add to the centers of each one too! The ribbon, pearls/gems and color green were a requirement for the Crafty Chefs challenge.

The snowflake on the left side of the gnome is popped up and actually helping to hold the top flap down, so you have to pull it out to open the card.

So when you pull open the flap, open the inside flap, this is what you’ll see inside. I heat embossed the sentiment along with a couple of snowflakes from the gnome stamp set with white EP and colored up a gift package, cut it out with the coordinating dies and attached it to the green panel. I also took the white Ink Pad and rubbed it along the edges of the green panel before attaching.

Here’s this month’s requirements for the December Crafty Chef Challenge. I used them all except for the very last one. It’s been a long time since I’ve made a Joy Fold card, so this was really fun!

I’m also VERY excited to announce that I have FINALLY finished all of those projects from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat that I took over a weekend back in October! Yep, I guess I’m pretty slow! In my defense, I took extra time so that I could enjoy each minute of it all and go back to revisit posts and tutorials! There were 23 projects total, and I made a few extras along the way. Here are my last ones:

This was for kit 19 and a wonderful coloring tutorial from the one and only Crissy who also illustrated the image of course! The sentiment I added myself is from Lawn Fawn.

This was for kit 20 and I was so thrilled to finally be able to get to these adorable gnomes! Love this fun shaker design! I put my own spin on it with the embossing folder background, stitches, twine and snowflakes.

Last, but certainly not least is this fun mixed media project by Iris for the final project. We even got to make a customized envelope to house the slimline card. She had Christmas greeting on her design, but I wanted to make it a winter birthday card. Love how it turned out!

So that’s all I have to share for now, but I know I’ll be back again on Monday to share a reminder challenge post for you! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by to see what I’m doing friends! Hope you are staying healthy and happy! Enjoy your weekend!

Challenges (ONLY for Joy Fold Gnome Card):