A Beary Sweet Christmas Tag for 2 Crafty Critter Crazies

Hello friends! I’m back with another new challenge for you today!

It’s the first of the month, so that means it’s time for a new monthly challenge over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies! As always, the challenge will last for 1 whole month and all you need to remember is to add a critter to your creation! We look forward to seeing your critter makes this month!

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I have used this darling digital stamp set called A Peppermint Christmas. I used a Word doc. to design it before printing it out. Once printed out, I cut it down to size for my black tag and rounded the corners with a corner chomper.

I’ve been trying to develop my skills a bit with colored pencils and invested in a large set of them recently. So, this is what I have used to color in the images of my tag. After coloring it all in, I took out my Quicky Glue Pen and then sprinkled some Glitter (Semi-Transparent) over the snowflakes and dark gold star bursts. For the stars, I’ve sprinkled the Lemonade Ultrafine Glitter (Semi-Transparent) over it for a bit brighter sparkle! I’ve also covered the peppermint candies with the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss Pen for some shimmer. AND… if that wasn’t enough, I took the Quickly Glue Pen again and went along the edges of the white image panel and added the Waterscape Glitter to the edges.

For the assembly of my tag, I’ve used a pre-made tag from Graphic 45 and sponged around the edges of it with white ink. I took some green colored glitter paper from my stash and added a strip of it across the center of the black tag. I then added some pink silk ribbon strips on each side of the glitter paper. I then used some craft foam to pop up the image panel and placed it on the tag.

I finished it off with a pink silk ribbon bow and added some more of it to the tag hole for a hanging element and tied that together with a piece of white twine. Decided for a finishing touch to add a sparkly snowflake gem in the center of the bow.

I hope that you have enjoyed my critter project! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Challenges:

QKR Stampede – Anything Goes (319)
Sunny Day Crafting – Animal
The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
The Merry Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes

Anything Goes at Cute Card Thursday + Whimsy Stamps November Release

Hello friends and welcome to November!! It’s hard to believe that we are closing in on the end of another year! Time has went by so fast especially since I’ve started back up on my new blog here! 🙂 So glad you are here with me! Thank you for that!

Today starts a brand new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday! For this week, it’s an easy “Anything Goes” challenge! And since our sponsor this week is Whimsy Stamps, I thought this would also be a great time to introduce to you an image from the brand new Digital Release that has just came out TODAY!! Check it out:

Vicki-WSSealinWater-Nov1

This cute seal critter is presenting his underwater gift for the Holidays! This new digital image from Whimsy Stamps is called Seal in Water by Crissy Armstrong. I had fun coloring him up with my Copic markers. I decided to use the markers in a “pointilism” fashion to give him a spotted seal look. (I’ve also added some light dots with a white gel pen.) Copics used: for seal – Blender 0, W7, W5, W3, W1, R00 for hat/bow – R39, R37, R35, R32 for package – BG99, BG96, BG93 for trimming/bubbles – C3, C1, C0, BG000

For the background I used a stencil to blend some blue colors to make them appear as if he’s underwater as he has bubbles around him. I cut him out with a stitched oval die and cut out a piece of gold foil cardstock with a larger stitched oval for matting behind the image.

If you take a look at those fun festive papers on my card, this is also part of the new Whimsy Stamps November Digital release as well! The papers are from the Christmas Traditions Collection. I’m sure I’ll be using more from this collection on an upcoming card soon! I have took the corner chomper and rounded the two bottom corners and then took a gold ink pad to rub along the edges with it. You can also see that I’ve used one of the Whimsy Stamps Penguin Christmas Sentiments 1 digital set and cut a banner with it to place on the bottom of my card. I’ve die cut a border in red cardstock going across the middle and added some white silk ribbon with a bow. I mounted the oval image panel on the card front with foam tape and then cut off the edge. I mounted everything over an A2 sized red top folding card base.

I’ve finished off my card with some Christmas sequins filled with Tinsel Stickles and I’ve also covered the bubbles with some Nuvo White Blizzard Crystal Drops.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring details of my spotted Holiday seal along with the sequins, glitter and bubbles! Gotta love that popped out belly!! 🙂

Be sure to check out not only the new Whimsy Stamps release on the Inspirations Blog, but please be sure to check out the Cute Card Thursday challenge to see the inspiration from the rest of the design team and play along this week! We love to see what you’ve created!

Thanks for stopping in! Please stay tuned in for more posts today!

Challenges:

Winter Wonderland – Color It!
Crafting From the Heart (226) – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – Stencil Stories (Used a wave stencil for behind the seal)

Happy Halloween – All Treats & No Tricks! :)

Hello friends! I want to thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone of you that has left such sweet comments full of birthday wishes and lots of kindness that you’ve shared through something we have in common which is creating and sharing smiles! I so enjoyed the stories that you’ve left about how you share your handmade creations with others. PLEASE continue to create doing what you love and share those smiles with as many people as you can! It really makes the world a much better place when we can serve one another in kindness.

I have always loved Halloween as a child and have so many fond memories dressing up each year and thinking about what I would be. I tried to pass that tradition onto my children, and I dressed up right along with them! For me, Halloween is full of lots of fun things besides just treats! I wanted to celebrate those memories with a card today:

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I’ve stamped the trick-or-treaters and bat and then colored them up with my Copic markers and fussy cut them all out and put them aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

For the background of the card, that “tree branch” panel came in the kit, so I ran it through my laminator to foil it…it turned out awesome! (See photo below!) I then took my distress inks and blended in a night sky over it. I spritzed it with water and dried it off with a towel to get the water drop look.

I took this awesome border silhouette die from Impression Obsession and attached to the bottom of the scene for the trick-or-treaters to stand on. I sponged the bottom edge with white ink. Speaking of white ink, this is what I used to stamp the sentiment on a piece of black cardstock as well as sponge around the edges with it. I used the glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over top of it. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good photo of it glowing in the dark…. but it does, and it looks cool!) I made a banner with that strip and attached it to the left side of the card and then popped the bat up over it with foam tape.

Vicki-BM-HalloweenBox-foiled

Here you can capture a better look at the foiled tree branch in the background as well as the heat embossed sentiment. I glued down the mummy girl and then I took foam tape to pop up the Frankenstein for dimension and depth. I also added some yellow Stickles to the eyes and mouths on the pumpkins.

This card was so fun to do! Hope you’ve enjoyed it as well!

Wishing you all a very fun Halloween however you choose to spend it! I think I will be watching some scary movies and eating some popcorn which is something I enjoy doing with hubby!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Creative Moments – Anything Goes with optional twist: Spooktacular
Crafty Gals Corner – Halloween Colors
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Halloween/Spooky
The House That Stamps Built (O2418) – Anything Goes
Moving Along With the Times – Halloween
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with an Optional Twist: Halloween
Always Fun – Halloween

It Sparkles at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! Yes, that quick and we are ready for a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday! This is a really fun one too! This week we’d love to see your “Sparkles” on your creations! We look forward to seeing what you come up with for it!

Here’s the creation I made:

Vicki-CCT553-KC-Sparkles

I have used one of our sponsor’s image this week called Reindeer and Snowman from Kinda Cute Stamps. Now how cute is that reindeer making a snow reindeer?! I just had to give them both a red nose! 🙂

I printed out the image on white blending card and cut it out with a wonky stitched rectangle die, and then cut out some snowflakes with silver sparkle paper along with layering the image panel over some as well. I took a sentiment from a new My Favorite Things stamp set and silver heat embossed it over the top of the image panel. I’ve also dotted the center of the snowflakes along with making some additional dots with some silver Stickles.

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Here’s a closer view of the image. You can see where I’ve taken a glue pen and covered the snow-reindeer with loose glitter. I’ve also taken a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen and covered the noses as well as the snow on the ground. I used a glitter pen to color the charm on the reindeer’s collar.

Thanks for dropping in! See you soon!

Challenges:

Jingle Belles – Animals (Christmas Flock)
Christmas with the Cuties – Wrap Up Warm
City Crafter – Silver Bells (lots of silver)
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Fab ‘n’ Funky – Christmas
Watercooler Wednesdays (WWC193) – Holidays

Gingerbread Christmas Tag

Hello friends! It seems like it’s been a while since my last post! I have been feeling a little under the weather for a few days and I’m trying to get myself back on track…so hopefully I’m getting there! Thank you to all who’ve left comments and a big welcome to my new followers! So happy to have you here and hope you enjoy the postings!

I have a cute Christmas tag to share with you today using an oldie but a goodie Whimsy Stamps digital image:

Vicki-Oct24-Gingerbreadman Tag

This sweet little Gingerbread Man was so much fun to color and “bling up” a bit with some accents! I have him colored up with Copic markers in the following:

Body: E39, E37, E35, E15, E13 (Cheeks 0blender, R20 and frosting BG000 in certain areas.)
Candy Cane and circle candy: R39, R37, R35, R32, C3, C1, C0
Nose and arm accents: G16, G09
Outer Edge of image: BG10, BG000

I used a manila tag and got out a zig zag image from an older Whimsy Stamps clear set called Basic Backgrounds & Borders (retired) and stamped it on the tag with Rusty Hinge Oxide Ink. I also used that color along with Tea Stain and Vintage Photo Oxide inks to sponge around the edges of the tag. I used a water spritzer to add some drops and then blotted it with a towel to get the watermark look.

The gingerbread man panel was cut to fit the tag and I used some Tumbled Glass Oxide ink to stamp a few snowflakes around the gingerbread man from the Whimsy Stamps Snow Flurry stamp set and then sponged around the edges of this panel with the same brown oxide inks listed above. I also stamped a sentiment at the bottom of the tag from the Whimsy Stamps Penguins Winter Adventure stamp set with Archival Jet Black ink. I then added a strip of black washi tape from Tim Holtz Ideaology Christmas collection and then added some “faux snow” flakes at the bottom of the gingerbread man panel with some liquid glue.

For the ribbon, I used some seam binding ribbon and sprayed it with distress ink sprays in the same brown colors as inks that I’ve used, crinkled up and let it dry. I added that to the top of the tag along with some tinsel ribbon. I thought it went well with the snow!

A closer view of the gingerbread man and you can see the added extra details that I’ve added to him. For the candy cane and circle candy on his head, I covered them with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen. I’ve added some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops to the green dots and then some Nuvo Clear Crystal Drops to the frosting lines. (You can see how it shines in the photo!)

Thank so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my tag and I’ll be seeing you very soon!! 🙂

Challenges:

The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #318
Sweet Stampin’ – Chevrons or Stripes
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – distressing (Distress Oxide inks)

Animal Star Gazers

Good evening friends! Just swinging by to share a card I made with some cute animal star gazers! 🙂 I thought evening would be an appropriate time to post it:

When this set first came out from Lawn Fawn called Upon a Star, I knew I had to get it as I fell in love with it. I really hadn’t used it all that much, so it was great to get it out for a play as I needed to make a commissioned card. I have created a scene for these critters using masks that I made with my circle die set and some ink blending with my distress inks. For the stars, I took a brush and splattered some “Super Sparkle Lumiere Paint” watered down a bit while masking off the moon and hill. The moon was created with some watered-down distress inks and a brush.

I then stamped the critters sitting on top of the grassy hill where I wanted them and colored them in with my Copics. I took a brush filled with clear water to “take out” the inks on the critters before I did that. I also took a gray Copic marker to create shadows on the animals as well as draw in my own shadows on the hill. I took a white gel pen to add some highlights on the animals where I thought the moon would be shining on them. I also put dots in the center of the bunny’s eyes to make it appear as if a star is reflected in them.

To cut out the image panel, I have used a rectangle frame die which was used to cut out some watercolor cardstock. I then used the same die and cut out a piece of this gorgeous black glitter cardstock and popped the frame up with foam tape to go around the edges of the image panel design. I mounted everything over a black A2 sized top folding card base.

Here’s a closer look at the details. Here you can better see the shimmer on the moon. As always you have to get just the right angle for the photograph, but I covered the moon with a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen.

I took a couple of the tiny solid stars from the stamp set and heat embossed them with Sparkle N Sprinkle Vanilla Ice EP. Love the way it gives a bit of extra sparkle! I think the stars really show up beautifully and it always looks better in person of course! 🙂

I do not have a sentiment on this as waiting for instruction on how to proceed with that if necessary. I’m happy with the way this turned out and look forward to playing with more starry sky creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I wish you a wonderful weekend my friends!

Challenges:

Lawn Fawnatics – Bling It Out!
AAA Cards – Moonlight
Sunny Day Crafting – Animals
The Creative Crafter – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Starry Night
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Animal Antics

Food and Drink at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! It’s time for a new Cute Card Thursday challenge! This one may have a tendency to make you a little hungry as we are asking for your “Food and/or Drink” creations to add to the challenge gallery this week! We really look forward to seeing what you come up with for it!

Here’s my take on the challenge:

Vicki-CCT552-NachoBday

LOL! I can’t help but giggle at these silly puns and especially with the smiling faces on the food images too! 🙂 I just had to grab the Simon Says Stamp “I Chews You” card kit and I couldn’t wait to have a play with it! Everything that I’ve used on my card including the paper all come from this card kit.

There were some pre-scored card bases, so I used one of those for my card base, then I took a strip of the colored stripes paper and a thin strip of the gold glitter paper included in the kit and glued it on at the bottom with the glue included in the kit.

I then stamped the images and colored them with my Copic markers. I put the “salsa bowl” at the bottom so it looks like it’s setting on top of the colored stripes. I added the speech bubble with the punny sentiment inside of it too. I then added the sequins from the kit and then filled the centers with some Nuvo Crystal Drops for the centers.

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Here you can see a closer look at the coloring of the images. I’ve also added some shimmer with a Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter Brush Pen over the “salsa” images. I know that it shows it as “guacamole”, but I’m more of a “salsa” person myself and decided to go for that instead. Hubby is not a guac fan either, but we love to eat Mexican food! 🙂

Thanks for joining me today!. What’s on your menu?!

Challenges:

Moving Along With the Times – For a Man
Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes
CASology – Menu
Addicted to Stamps and More – Clean and Simple
Watercooler Wednesday (WWC192) – Marsha’s Masculine Anything Goes

Top O Morning Snowman Wishes

Hello friends! Well, it’s certainly not morning, but maybe it is where you’re from or it’s morning when you see this post! 🙂

I have a really fun Whimsy Stamps digital image to share with you today appropriately named to coincide with my post title:

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This really sweet, faced snowman is called Top O the Morning Snowman which is a digital image created by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps. I thought it was so cute with the little birdie joining him and his little heart buttons! I had fun coloring him up!

I’ve colored him with Copics and cut it out using the Hand Stitched Nested Rectangles die and matted some black cardstock behind that panel. I’ve also used the October Digital papers release called Christmas Red, Gold and Green and attached it to the front of an A2 sized white card base. I then took the wavy die from the Pierced Border Trio dies and cut a piece of glitter cardstock to add at the bottom of the decorated digital paper panel.

I then added the snowman panel over top and then stamped the sentiment below the snowman with the Holiday Mini Sentiments stamp set. I then added the twine bow and button as well as a few snowflake sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Crystal Drops to finish it off.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring:

I have used all Copic markers to color this image in the following colors:

Hat and Snowman body/snow: C8, C5, C3, C1, C00
Hat Band, buttons, bird hat/scarf: R37, R35, R32
Holly: YG67, YG63, YG61, (hollies colored with pink glitter gel pen and covered with Nuvo Crystal Drops
Snowman Scarf: G24, G21, G20 + green glitter gel pen for lines and ends
Snowman nose and cheeks: R20, R00, R000, YR18, YR15, Y11
Bird: B34, B32, R00, E000, Y21, Y11

I’ve also used a white gel pen for the cheeks on both the snowman and bird as well at the eyes on the snowman and to randomly add some dots for falling snow effect. I also went around the outside of the image with a B000 marker for a bit of sky behind him.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my card! See you soon!

Challenges:

CRAFT – Christmas
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #317
Allsorts – Christmas
The Merry Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas Goes
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes

It’s Halloween On Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Happy Thursday! As this month creeps along and the weather slowly changes to cooler temps, the eerie feeling of Halloween comes to mind! So get your “Halloween” on and come join us this week at Cute Card Thursday!

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Here’s the project that I’ve made for the challenge using this adorable image from this week’s sponsor All Dressed Up! The image is called “Have a Magical Evening” and I have colored the entire image panel including the background with Copic markers. I have also used gel pens to color in gold details on the stars, her dress and shoes. Then I took the gold and white gel pens to add dots for the background sky. I’ve used a gold ink pad and rubbed it around the edges of the panel and then I mounted it over a gold foil cardstock base.

For this treat box, I’ve used the 2-5-7-10 box tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com to create a similar version, but I cut off the flap part and made a handle for my version. I covered the box with some fun “spooky” papers from my stash, added some gray with black stripes silk ribbon on the front panel along with making some bows with it for the sides of my box handle and glued them on. The image panel was added over top of the ribbon strip and design paper. It’s ready to add a nice treat inside for someone’s “magical evening”!

Here’s a closer look at the coloring of the image. I have also added some shimmer to the crescent moon with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen which of course is hard to capture in the photo, but you can see the areas where I’ve used the gel pens.

The blue background was made using my Copic markers and I blended them out so that the lighter tones were towards the witch and the darker tones to the edges.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my treat box creation and thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
Brown Sugar – (October) Spooky Halloween and/or Autumn
Use Your Stuff – Autumn/Halloween (always great to use more paper from my stash!)
Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes
Words 2 Crafty By – “Listen! The Wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our Summer evenings, now for October’s eves.”
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything BUT a card
All Dressed Up – #85 Anything Goes + use ADU image
Scor-Pal (Oct) – More than one score Fall/Harvest/Halloween (Scored at the marks, 2-5-7-10 inch marks)

The Feeling of Happy Mail

Hello friends! Back with you again today to share another Whimsy Stamps digital “pretty”! If you missed my Guest Design post for the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog, please click on the link or scroll down below this post. – thank you

You all know the feeling you get when you receive “happy mail” from the mailbox, and I think this cute image on my card today really sums up that feeling:

Vicki-WS-Pretty Girl Happy Mail- Oct 9

I have used the brand-new October digital stamp from Whimsy Stamps called “Pretty Girl Happy Mail” on my card today. Oh those curly locks are adorable!

I have colored her in with my Copic markers in the following:

Coat/hat (darker tone) – R85, R83, R81 and for trimming – E11, E00, E000 (also coat fasteners)
Coat/hat (fur) – W5, W3, W1 and highlighted with white gel pen flicks.
Hair – E47, E43, E42 (eyebrows too)
Skin – E21, E11, E00, E000, R20, R00 (eyes BG49)
Mail – B00, B000 (unsure of tiny bit of color on postage stamp or coat fastener centers and string)

I then took a retired Whimsy Stamps clear set called “Handmade From Me” which had a couple of tiny solid hearts in it, and I took some pink colored ink to stamp a few hearts around the girl. She really loves all her mail after all! 🙂

I cut her out with a stitched circle die and then mounted her over a piece of silver foil cardstock cut with a scallop stitched circle die. I have used the same stamp set that I’ve mentioned above to heat emboss the sentiment with silver EP and cut it out with a banner die cut. This is the same-colored cardstock I’ve used for the A2 sized top folding card base too.

The snowflake paper is from my stash and some I’ve been hoarding because I love it so much, but the snowflakes on it are silver metallic and have the texture on it as if it was heat embossed. I placed this panel over my card base, attached the banner and then added the circle image panel over top of that including some craft foam to raise it up slightly over the design.

I was thinking that this image would work for either Christmas, winter or Valentine’s Day. Yes, I know, I said the V word already!! Oops!

Here’s a closer view of the coloring that I’ve done on her as well as the heat embossing. Had so much fun coloring her up. I think she especially looks wonderful on such a simple style design!

Thanks so much for stopping in and sharing your thoughts with me! I appreciate that so much! See you soon!

Challenges: