Dare to Get Dirty Has Begun with Something Festive!

Hello friends! Yes, I know, not only am I posting every single day, now I’m posting twice in one day!?! What’s going on with me?!😂 Really sorry to “bombard” you with all of these posts, but this is what I meant by me being SO busy “behind the scenes”! If I do miss a day, you’re going to wonder if I’ve left again! It sure is busy, but it’s also fun while the long days of Summer go by.

Today starts the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” annual event full of fun challenges by current and past alumni from the Dirty Dozen Design Team. This is the 16th year that this special event has happened! I’m very proud to be associated with Splitcoaststampers and have been apart of the community since 2003…a lurker👀 a few years before that too! I have some LIFE LONG friends as that’s where I started putting anything I ever created online anywhere. So in June of 2016 I was honored when asked to be apart of the Dirty Dozen Design Team! They certainly have my creative heart forever. So I think I missed last years event because I was not well at that time, so I will be participating as a challenge hostess this year. You must be a “Fan Club Member” over there to be able to see the event, so if you’re interested in joining, please check out the “How to Become a Fan Club Member” page. (Otherwise you will not “see” the event details.).

So each day, there’s about 5-6 new challenges released starting today and lasting until Friday August 28th…that’s a whole lot of challenges! I obviously didn’t have time to make something for every single challenge, but I have made a few to help my fellow “Dare to Get Dirty DT friends” create samples for their challenge.

The first challenge I made a creation for was the lovely Kittie’s challenge. And obviously, I cannot reveal what the challenge is about, I can show you my creation and ask that you head on over to the event to see the details and play along with us….

I had such a fun time creating this fun Holiday themed slimline! I pulled out an old favorite “Santa’s Elves” stamp set from My Favorite Things for this one. I’ve stamped and colored several images from this set using Copic markers and cut them out with a coordinating die. For the scene, I’ve taken a piece of white cardstock and used a wave border die to cut out the different snowy hillsides and before attaching them down, I’ve used a blending tool to add some blue ink to the edges. I then took each individual hill and embossed them with an embossing folder.

I arranged the “hills” over a piece of brushed gold cardstock that was cut out with a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps. I “tucked in” the cut out images in between the hills. The gold layer was attached over a red stitched scallop slimline piece that was mounted over a 3.5 x 8.5 slimline card side folding white card base. I’ve also used one of the banners from that Trinity Stamps die set to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then popped up the little elf over top of that with foam tape over the bottom of the card front. I also attached that little holly image at the end of it.

Lastly, I topped the card off with holiday colored sequins filled with gold Stickles in the centers.

Here’s a little bit of a closer view of the images on the card. I’ve taken a glitter brush pen and went over the stars on the trees as well as the ornaments and the bell on the elf’s hat for a bit of shimmer. I also covered the holly berries on the bottom sentiment with some glossy accents. (Hard to get all details in there!)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas slimline card today as well as all of the daily posts I’ve been sharing! I look forward to either seeing what you create during the “Dare to Get Dirty” event or anything else you may be working on! The end of the year is coming soon and I know everyone will be creating lots of fun things!

Thanks for joining me today friends! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Stay well and happy!

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Christmas Goes for August
Jingle Belles – Cardstock Christmas
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
The Pper Girls – Emboss Like a Boss (both heat and embossing folder used)
Shopping Our Stash – Pile it on! (layers)
Cute Card Thursday – Embossing

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 6

Hey there friends! We are on day 6 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! FUN FUN!

Today, we are highlighting Bugaboo Stamps & Lawn Fawn – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

So on our first day, I had used some fabulous products from our sponsor Lawn Fawn. But for today’s post, I wanted to highlight our other sponsor Bugaboo Stamps…

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Now how stinkin’ CUTE is this little guy with his ginormous cupcake coming at you?!

I printed out this Picnic Ant-Cupcake2 from Bugaboo Stamps and colored him up with Copic markers. I sponged some clouds behind him and colored some grass with my markers too. I used my oval dies to cut the image out with along with the scallop oval layer behind it.

Found some fun papers from my stash along with the rectangle die, sentiment die, ribbon, twine and button to complete the card.

I “dressed up” the cupcake with some liquid applique that was heated up to make it “puffy” and then added some glossy accents over the cherry on top.

Really had fun with this cutie and I hope he brought you a little smile today friends! Thanks for joining me! See you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

Catch the Bug Challenge – End of Summer (what could be better than celebrating a picnic?!)
Little Red Wagon – Use a Stencil (cloud background)
Creative Knockouts – #364 Something to Say
Aud Sentiments – #258 Anything Goes + Sentiment
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + Coloring

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 5

Let’s keep on celebrating! We are on day 5 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yeehaw!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Newton’s Nook – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

I adore the stamps from this company and already own some faves..including retired ones that I refuse to give up! LOL! I have recently gotten some new ones to party with though! Check it out…

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Winston is one of the cute characters I adore! I’ve used the Sending Hugs stamp set with the coordinating dies. And the special thing about the coordinating dies is that they cut out the arms of each of the characters within the set so that they can be holding different objects! I think that’s too cute!

So I’ve colored up my Winston character with Copics and for the item he’s holding, you can see he has a cupcake, which is included in this set! I stamped, colored and die cut an additional cupcake next to the banner sentiment which was included with the set as well.

For the background, I’ve done some fun watercoloring. I’ve used a balloon image from a retired set “Winston’s Birthday” which is also where I’ve got his party hat from as well. Love it along with the “Winston’s BBQ” set that I won’t give up either! LOL!! I pull it out pretty much every Father’s Day! (I made a cute apron card with it this year and forgot to take a photo of it! Sigh….)

I photographed the card laying flat so that you could see the fun shaker contents inside the square frame! Lots of sprinkles, little cupcakes and balloon sequins in there! I thought it needed a pink glittery frame along with metallic shine on the party hat too! I finished it off with a metallic clear ribbon bow at the bottom.

Hope you’re having fun with the inspiration so far and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animal
Papercraft – #61 animals
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2033 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Oh So Cute

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 4

Ready for more celebrating!? We are on day 4 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yipee!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Varada Sharma – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

Our DT has been generously provided with an entire new release collection from this sponsor! There were so many fun things to play with, so I did some combining:

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How fun and yummy is this?! There’s just something about cupcakes that are so fun to decorate with frosting, sugar crystals, sprinkles, fruit, etc etc and so why not do that with crafting too?!

I started with the background and decided to take the Hanging Banners Background image and print it out over some teal cardstock and then I used a Copic marker to add some shadowing around the images. I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die and layered it over a piece of yellow cardstock to match the sentiment banner…which actually looks green in the photo, but it’s yellow IRL! LOL! Then I mounted it over another A2 sized side folding teal cardstock base.

I sized and placed together the two different cupcakes from the Cupcakes, Cake Slices and Toppers set, printed it out and then colored them in with Copics. I’ve cut them out with a circle die, layered it over another circle layer cut from some silver mirror cardstock. I sponged some teal ink around the edges of the cupcake circle, added some stitch lines with a marker and then cut off the excess from the edge.

I used some glitter, glimmer and shine to add details to the cupcakes! (The photo is not showing all of the fun details at all!) Bummer…

I added a thin strip of that silver mirror cardstock across the bottom of the card front and then took the sentiment that I put together from the Celebration set, printed it out over white cardstock and then used my yellow ink to sponge over it. I fussy cut it out and then popped it up with foam tape over the silver strip.

This is going to make a fabulous card for someone’s birthday.

Challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends– #140 Anything Goes
Crafting Happiness – #62 Anything Goes

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 3

Hello again friends! We are on day 3 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yay!

Today, we are highlighting Crafty Scrappers & Gerda Steiner Designs – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

The DT was given images from Crafty Scrappers to use for our creations:

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Isn’t she the cutest with her oversized cupcake and glasses?! I’ve used images including the sentiment from the Ms. Cupcake stamp set provided by our sponsor.

I had so much fun coloring her up with Copic markers and then adding lots of details to it like the gold glitter shimmer over the ribbon on the cupcake, the shimmer over the frosting and then some glossy accents for the chocolate syrup, cherry on top and over her glasses too! I’ve also used a white gel pen for highlights on areas. I actually fussy cut her out and popped her up over the circle die cut panel with foam tape.

I thought she fit the circle nicely and would work for a circle easel card design. I matted her over a purple fancy circle die cut layer and then made the circle easel base a pink color. I cut a strip for the sentiment and layered that over purple cardstock for the inside which is helping to keep the front layer propped up. I’ve also added some gold sparkle crystals over the design to match her ribboned cupcake.

Thanks for dropping in today friends and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Challenges:

Dream Valley– Add Gems/Pearls or both
As You Like It– Favorite Color to Pair With Pink and Why? (Purple is my favorite color, but I think it’s amazing with pink because it gives a wonderful feminine look…and it’s great for princesses and unicorns too!)
Creative Knockouts – #363 Finish the Inside (my inside is propping up the front of card!)
Alphabet – ‘J’ is for Jewels or Jewlery
Creatalicious– #193 Anything Goes with optional: Anything but square or rectangle

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 2

Hello friends! The celebration continues over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with our feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Woot!!

Today, we are highlighting STAMPlorations & Rachelle Anne Miller Creative Studios – check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

The DT was provided with an image from STAMPlorations to use:

Vicki-CIC500-Day2-Stamplorations

What could be more fun and happy for a celebration than rainbow colors?!

I was provided with this lovely Framed Tea Cups stamp to use for my card which I’ve colored up with Copic markers using the traditional ROYGBV rainbow colors for the cups.

I also decided to mask off the image and using the ARTplorations Weaving Stencil, I inked over with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then cut out the panel with the CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle die that was barely trimmed along the edges so that I could layer it over a black A2 sized top folding card base. I also took one of the images from the Scribbly Splattery Grunge stamp set and randomly stamped it a few times with black ink before attaching the panel to the card base.

Lastly, I used the CUTplorations Celebrate Word die to cut out the sentiment with silver foil cardstock and attached it to the bottom of the card and then I added some silver sequins to the design.

Thank you for stopping in today friends! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

STAMPlorations Never-Ending Challenge – Anything Goes + STAMPlorations product
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes
Creativ Fusion Arts & Crafts – #20 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – Bright Colors
Seize the Birthday– Rainbow Colors or Anything Birthday

{Cupcake Inspirations} celebrates it’s 500th Challenge! WOW!🥳

Hello friends!! Happy Monday! I have something very special to share with you today!

The {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog has hit a wonderful milestone and is celebrating their 500th challenge! How cool is that?!

I’m so thrilled to be apart of the celebration with them and share in the excitement! I hope that you will be celebrating right along with us and join the challenge too! We also have an AMAZING list of sponsors to share in the celebration with us! Please be sure to check out the challenge blog for the complete list…AND…we will be sharing inspiration EVERY SINGLE DAY throughout the 2 week challenge using products from our sponsors, so you won’t want to miss any of the posts so you can see the inspiration!

I WILL BE POSTING INSPIRATION FROM MOST OF THE SPONSORS RIGHT HERE ON MY BLOG EACH DAY AS WELL! SO STAY TUNED IN!

The theme for this challenge is “Birthday Celebration“! We can always use birthday cards! So we look forward to seeing your creations!!🥳🧁

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Remember those fun birthday parties as a child and all of those fun photos you took with your friends? Everyone is having a great time together! I miss those days for sure!

I have used the Wild for You stamp set along with the coordinating dies for the animals friends and colored them up with Copic markers. I have also taken the Party Animal stamp set and coordinating dies for the sentiment over the black banner that was white heat embossed as well as the balloon that is tied around the gator’s tail with black twine. I popped up the balloon and covered it with glossy accents. The cupcake on the gator’s back came from the “Party Panda” stamp set and dies that I received as a gift for my birthday month. (P.S. You may notice a cupcake in almost every one of my creations for these two weeks…see if you can spot them!)

I’ve used the Selfie Frames die set to cut out the polaroid frames, plus I die cut some grass in them with the Grassy Border die. I pulled out a piece of paper from the Watercolor Wishes paper pad and cut it out using the Small Dotted Rectangle die.

I finished my card with some bright blue and purple sequins. (Although it almost looks black on the photo! LOL!) I’ve added details with metallic gel pens and glitter too.

Really fun card to make with some really adorable products…love Lawn Fawn!

Thanks for stopping in today friends! Be sure to check and see what I’m making for tomorrow’s post with another sponsor!

Challenges:

Not Just Cards – August Anything Goes
Retro Rubber – rrcb141 Anything Goes (have had all at least 1 year or more!)
Arty Divas– #28 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC284 Occasions
Colour Crazy– Anything Goes + coloring

Finishing Up Summer School With Cupcake Creations!🧁

Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! Wow…it’s Finally Friday! I’ve been SO busy “behind the scenes” and I will be getting to all of that later on, but I needed to squeak in with the final creations for the MFT Summer School!

I finished up Day 2 with my “smile rainbow” and now for Day 3, they’re asking for a “symmetry” style of creation. I was told that basically it’s something that if you were to split it in half, it would be exactly the same on the other half…so this is what I thought of:

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I was so excited about getting the My Favorite Things Cupcakes card kit, so I was determined that I was going to pull it out and use it for the rest of my Summer School cards! LOL! It’s such a cute set with the dies and sentiment stamps! I really had fun!

I used some papers from the kit and sponged ink around the edges of everything pretty much. I just used the two cupcakes side by side for the symmetry class. I just have opposite colors of sprinkles. I added the red cherry on top, covered with the glitter brush pen and then some glossy accents. (The glossy accents really got a work out!😮)

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So Day 4 class was “ombre” and that pretty much called to me to use the stencil from the card kit (sprinkles in background) and then I just heat embossed white over white and then used inks for the emboss resist technique moving the colors from lightest to darkest to get that classical “ombre effect”. I also added a die cut cupcake that I used the same ink effect over it. I die cut the words from the kit with the dark papers I used for the base of the card. I finished with some sparkly crystal accents to finish it off!

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And last but certainly not least was Day 5 “White Space” class. I don’t often make cards like this, but I honestly love those CAS style cards, but I always want to “teeter” on the fine line between CAS and not…so I always think I’m not doing CAS. I’m just not comfortable with the “CAS” definition or “rules” of what is or isn’t CAS. I just feel happiest doing whatever happens to work out in my plan for a design…that’s pretty much it! Be happy and you’re good!

I used this class to also follow along with the MFT sketch challenge going on as it looked like it was a good sketch for making a “white space” design.

I started by masking off the square and sponging lightly around it, I white heat embossed the sentiment over a black strip and added some silver ink over the stencil again and then attached the cupcake over top with the papers…and added the cherry on top with glossy accents too!

I finished it off with another little flag die from the kit and some silver sequins! I like how it turned out! I think I deserve a cupcake after all the creations I made!!😋

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations today and I really appreciate you stopping in to see what’s going today! Have a fabulous weekend!

Challenges:

MFT Summer School– Day 3 Symmetry
MFT Summer School – Day 4 Ombre
MFT Summer School – Day 5 White Space
My Favorite Things – Wednesday Sketch Challenge MFTWSC502 (my last card and I flipped the sketch on the side)
Crafty Creations – #412 August Anything Goes
Craft Rocket – #73 Birthday
Creative Fingers – #191 Anything Goes
Arty Divas – Bonus Birthday Challenge
Crafty Friends – #142 Anything Goes

Nautical Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations}⚓

Hello friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Stopping in today to share more inspiration for the current {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge:

“Nautical” is the theme for our challenge and you still have another 5 days to play along with us! It really is such a fun theme to play with especially during the Summer!

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I don’t get a chance to be near any oceans as I live in the middle of the U.S., but I’ve always wanted to travel near the East Coast near Maine as I imagine how interesting it would be to see it all!

I don’t own very many nautical style crafty products, but I remembered this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set called “By the Tide” and it reminds me of those sailor type Inns or Pubs and you can see the wording of that with the circle anchor accent. I went with colors that related to the feel of “nautical” for me.

I also recently purchased this anchor stencil from Brutus Monroe and thought it would make a cool background with red foiling over the navy-blue color. So, I took some DecoFoil Transfer Gel Blanco so that it would be white over the dark background and the Red Static DecoFoil Sheet would show up over it. I put it through my laminator.

I just stamped the images from the SU! set in various colors, cut out layers of cardstock and added some stitch marks by hand along with a strip of anchor paper I found in my stash. I punched a hole in the circle anchor accent and tied a piece of twine through it and popped it up with foam tape.

Here’s a different angle of the card so that you can see the red shine of the DecoFoil background in the card.

I also took some of the Brutus Monroe Ruby Fluid Acrylic and watered it down to splatter over top of the crab image panel. I didn’t want to add too much in fear that it would look like blood or something. LOL!

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my “nautical” style card today and that you’ll hop on over to the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and see what the rest of the design team has for inspiration and play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends! I appreciate you taking the time and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
2 Crafty Critter Crazies– Anythiing Goes + animal
Allsorts – Make it Masculine
Joy of Sets – I went with Splash (hope splatter works), Sand (color), blue
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Make it Masculine
Daisy Chain – #44 for the Boys/Men
Let’s Craft and Create – #162 Anything Goes + optional Lots of Layers

Sparkly Rainbow Smile🌈

Hello there friends! Just popping in here today to share a smile with you!

The MFT Summer School lessons continue with Day 2: RAINBOW! For me, nothing says “smile” like a rainbow and we certainly need plenty of smiles these days!😀

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I wanted the rainbow on my card to really stand out, so I’ve used an older MFT background stamp no longer available called “Floral Fantasy” and stamped it with Steel Gray Ink over a piece of Grout Gray cardstock that was cut out with the Wonky Stitched Rectangle die.

I used the “End of the Rainbow” die, no longer available, to cut through the background and then I used the different strips in the rainbow to die cut the different colors of glitter paper to fill it in with. I used the Sunset and Mermaid glitter paper stacks for the strips. I then took an older MFT SMILE die and die cut over top of the rainbow and stamped background. I die cut the words again with Black Licorice cardstock and inlaid the letters over top of the background. I mounted the background over an A2 sized top folding Black Licorice card base.

Lastly, I stamped the sentiment from the “All Smiles” stamp set (no longer available) over more of the Grout Gray cardstock and cut out with a banner die and popped it up underneath the die cut letters with foam tape. I finished the card with some sparkling clear sequins.

Here’s a closer look at the glittery rainbow that I’ve inlaid for the background as well as the “smile” letters too. Hopefully, you can see from this angle how all of it is incorporated into the background of the design. The only thing that I popped up was the sentiment banner.

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I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and it helped bring a smile your way! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop in today my friends! I’ll see you soon!

Challenges: