Reveal of Inky Escape! (Craft Retreat)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Camel stamp set used. Images were stamped on colored cardstock and cut out.
I TOADally FROGgot to run the black cardstock through an embossing folder! Doh! Orange Cream candy cane inside pocket with paper bow and frog on wobbler.
My favorite stamp set of this release is the Gifter set. He was stamped on cardstock and cut out. Present was paper pieced inside his arms.
Cute gingerbread treat container came complete with gingerbread cookies wrapped with twine!
Bonus make-n-take was easy peasy with some very cool Aall & Create washi tape that made this image!
We chose the “winter” gnome that we wanted, but mine was so messed up I had to ditch it! I came home and made a birthday one that similar from my own card kit stash! LOL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mix it Up With Paper Piecing!

**THIS IS POST TWO OF TWO FOR TODAY!  SCROLL BELOW TO SEE MY POST FOR THE GDT CREATIVE ARTISTE.  THANK YOU!**

Hello friends and a happy November!  I think that the last two months completely flew by and here we are getting closer to the end of the year…what?!  I hope that you look forward to happy times ahead and lots of crafting fun too!  I’m thankful you’re here with me, so let’s get this month started.

Today begins a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and it’s always “Anything Goes with an optional theme“.  The optional theme this time is “Paper Piecing“! (This challenge is open for 6 weeks, so you have plenty of time to enter!)  Here’s what I came up with using this theme:

I absolutely love the look of quilts, but I like to keep my making of quilts done with paper!  So I thought this theme would be great for making a quilt pattern design for Christmas.  I normally paper piece stamped images, but I wanted to do something different this time and pull out more stash items and use them!

Several months ago, I purchased a card kit from Taylored Expressions called “Pieced Patterns” and I loved the concept of cut out squares attached over a “map” to follow along on how/where to place the squares.  It’s really easy to piece different colors/patterns together to make a design.  Some squares were also cut diagonal and I stamped a tone on tone pattern over some of the squares before they were cut out.  Then they were placed over the “map” design and cut out with a square die.  I also cut the stitched scallop frame to go around the square pattern.  I die cut a white snowflake twice to layer in the center of the pattern and added a red gem in the middle of it.

I attached the paper pieced pattern over a white card front that was cut with the Taylored Expressions Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate that was then attached to a top folding A2 white card base.  For the sentiment, I white heat embossed it from the Taylored Expressions Jingle All the Way stamp set and cut it out with the coordinating die.  It was popped up at the bottom with thin foam tape.

I can see this might be fun with several different squares cut out ahead of time to place over the different “map” designs to create multiple design patterns ready for cards!  It’s just a matter of taking the time to cut out all of the squares.

I have decided to create a “bonus” card using the same “paper piecing” technique, but with a stamped image this time…as we all need more Christmas cards, right?!  

For this card, I pulled out an older card kit from my stash (2016) and used the Doodlebug pattern papers that was included with the kit.  The papers are too cute not to use and hoarding them is not a good idea! 

I stamped the tree onto a stitched white rectangle, then stamped the tree, star and banner over some of the pattern paper, carefully cut it out and attached it to the stamped tree and white panel.  Before I attached the stamped pattern pieces, I used my Copics to color in the tree stump and outline around the tree.  I also added some details to the pattern pieces for shading as well.

 The banner was popped up with foam tape and I attached all the layers together over a top folding red A2 card base. All the cardstock/papers were included in the kit. I’ve added some red rhinestones on the tree where the ornaments were to finish it off.

Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today and I hope you will take some time to check out the challenge blog to see what the other talented designers have made.  I look forward to seeing what you make!  Have a great day!

Challenges:

  1. Inkspirational – #327 Seasonal (Winter/Christmas) 
  2. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2443 Anything Goes
  3. Cardz 4 Galz – #237 Showcase Your Patterned Paper (second card)
  4. Crafty Catz – #681 Anything Goes with optional twist: use dies/punches (top card, but dies used on both of them!)
  5. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper Crafty – #583 Anything Goes Using Paper

GDT for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Nov Challenge – Autumn Teapot

**THERE WILL BE TWO POSTS FROM ME TODAY.  THIS IS THE FIRST POST OF TWO**

Hello friends and happy November!  The weather has finally decided to give us a bit of a cool down and it feels more like that Autumn Season right now.  We’ve been waiting on some rain as it’s been dry and then the wind blew in some cool with it too!  I always like to give Autumn it’s “due justice” as it never seems to have a spotlight as much I think it should.

I’m very excited to share a mixed media project I made for a guest design spot (that I had won a top spot from a previous challenge).  I was asked to join this month as a guest designer for the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog!

The theme for these monthly challenges is always “Anything Goes Mixed Media“.  So be sure to check out the wonderful inspiration from the team and share your mixed media project over there!  I look forward to seeing your inspiring makes!

I’m always excited when I have an “excuse or reason” to get out all of my mixed media things and play around to make something!  I thought since it was November, it would be a great time to pull out the Autumn media:

I made this fun center/accent piece for Autumn and pulled out the cool Finnebair rusty metal teapot from my shelf to finally decorate on!  It actually looks pretty cool by itself, but I had to add some other details to it that I thought would make it my own.

For the base:  The only thing that was missing for me was a “handle” for my teapot and I went through my husbands things and found an old metal coat hook that I had him screw onto the side.  I also had some extra pieces laying around from the molds I made with resin, so I attached those along the frame opening with 3D matte gel.  I wanted to also add some texture to my teapot and that’s where I added some crackle paste in various areas…all of these things had to dry for quite some time.  It didn’t look pretty at that point as those pieces were white. LOL  The “hurry up and wait” had begun.

After the long drying time:    I started by covering the entire thing with two layers of black gesso so that all of those white areas were completely covered up.  I pulled out some acrylic paints in Raw Umber, Burnt Orange and very light touch of Marigold.  I started with the darkest color first and did not use a brush to apply the layers.  Instead, I used a sponge after each layer was dry.  I very lightly and sparingly used the yellow.  I even went back in with the Burnt Orange and Raw Umber to get the look I was wanting.

After all of the painting, I used more of the 3D matte gel and wrapped some jute/rope around the top handle.

Going to the right side of the teapot, you can see where I’ve added all of that crackle paste and the painting that I’ve done over it.  The only thing missing at this point was the “highlights” to make it look like a found rusty metal teapot.  Since it was Autumn themed, I pulled out the Finnebair Vintage Gold Wax and rubbed over the raised areas with my finger.  You can see the look it gives over the paste and decorative molds around the frame and even the raised “dots” along the top of the teapot.

Moving over to the left side of the teapot, you can see where I’ve screwed in the metal hook to the side of the teapot.  I just incorporated the silver screws with the design by adding paint.  I told my husband that I thought it looked cool to turn the coat hook up-side-down as it looked more like a handle.

And now if we take a closer look to the inside of the teapot frame, you will see an Autumn scene in there.  The back of the teapot comes out so you can decorate how you’d like.  I know it’s a bit hard to see in the photo, but I found some leafy background paper to attach over the metal backing and I also splattered some gold paint over it.

For the bottom of the teapot, I attached some woodland moss mixture with 3D matte gel and also used it to attach the gold splattered gourds, eucalyptus, a wood slice, a cardboard squirrel, sticks and some acorns.  I also went around the outside areas to attach some Fall leaves and more acorns.  The only thing I didn’t have in my stash were the acorns and sticks.  My husband said that he could get them for free…and of course he went to our local park and picked them up! LOL  So those are the only “real” things on my teapot.

I had thought about maybe adding some fairy lights inside at the top so the inside would be more visible, but not sure if I would like that or not…what do you think?

And in case you might want to know, the measurement of the teapot are 12″ across (including the added metal coat hook), 8″ tall and about 3.5″ in depth.  I currently have it sitting in my cabinet at home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my mixed media teapot!  I would love to see your mixed media project as well if you play along with us this month at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog!

Thanks so much for stopping in!  Stay tuned as I will have another post coming up in a couple of hours!

Challenges: (if this project doesn’t fit with your challenge, just delete.)

  1. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  2. 613 Avenue Create – October Anything Goes with optional: lots of leaves (Fall/Spring)
  3. Dragonfly Dreams – October Anything but a Card
  4. Krafty Chicks – #740 Anything Goes
  5. Classic Design – #10-2024 Anything Goes with optional twist:  Anything but a card
  6. The Creative Crafters – #81 Anything Goes

Anniversary Gnomes

Hello friends!  I hope you’re having a great start to your week!  I’m just popping in to share the card I made my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary…he’ll be getting it this morning and then we’re off to a date night (afternoon as we’ve gotten older)!😆 

I think this turned out pretty cute!  I dug into my Whimsy Stamps stash and colored up these cute gnomes and fussy cut them by hand to add to the scene.  I cut off the string and heart in the center of their hats and stamped the image over the green cardstock with the cut out image layered over top of it.

For the background:  I blended some Autumn colored inks in various places and then stenciled in the leaves with a light brown ink.  I die cut the mountains and attached them to the background by sizing it up with the green die cut tree border for placement.  I stamped the “love you” sentiment all over the green background and then layered the colored image over top of the other.  I added some silver sparkle on the heart in the center of the hats.

I also took a die cut silver cardstock frame to go around it and then I silver heat embossed the “happy anniversary” sentiment at the top of the scene.

All the layers were cut with a scallop rectangle die and placed over a side folding A2 grey card base.

And here’s what I put on the inside of the card.  I thought it up myself and printed it out on the computer.  It was cut out with the same scalloped rectangle die and attached.  I still need to sign it as I’m typing this up!

Here’s the inspiration that I used to help me create this card:

These are some more photos that we took while we were in Alaska last month.  After our cruise, we took a land tour and went on a train ride that took us up to Denali Park.  We had a good day to take a 3 mile hike one day and ran into someone that took our photo and we took their photo too!

I will be back later to share some photos of the stamp retreat I just came back from!  Always lots of fun and great to see my crafty friends!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Challenges:

  1. Retro Rubber – #rrcb242 Fall by the Lake (all products are at least 3 yrs old)RRCB #242
  2. Little Red Wagon – Emboss it! (sentiment)
  3. Penny’s Challenge – #583 Anything Goes Using Paper
  4. Krafty Chicks – #739 All Occasions (Anniversary)
  5. CRAFT – #738 Anything Goes
  6. Just Us Girls – #750 Stencil Week (leaves)
  7. Creative Knockouts – #533 Halloween or Fall (Fall)
  8. Crafty Catz – #681 Anything Goes with optional: dies/punches (I used dies)

October Art Journal-A Strange Feeling

Hello friends! **THIS IS A PRE-SCHEDULED POST AS I’M AWAY AT A STAMP RETREAT!!** 

The weather is finally starting to cool down now and we’ve finished cleaning the yard to prepare for winter months to follow soon.  Halloween will also be here in a few days, so I thought it would be fun to make my page today with that in mind!

Today is the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” October prompt of “ODD/Oddities” (anything unusual or strange): 

I don’t know if this is considered odd to anyone else, but I certainly do!  This weird scientist looking guy has a strange facial expression as he’s holding up a head in the bottle!  I’ve put so many details in this page that I thought you’d need to see close-up photos below.

For my background:  Starting with a 5.5″ x 8.5″ heavy watercolor paper with pre-punched holes at the top for binding later, I sprayed the background with mica sprays in Hocus Pocus, Jack-O-Lantern and Flickering Candle.  I sprayed some extra water over top to get them to blend together as they seem very concentrated and they didn’t move much over the watercolor paper after spraying a few times.  I took a leaves stencil inked over places with light brown ink.  I then ink blended the edges with black ink and stamped some lettering stamped randomly.  Lastly, I splattered with black and gold watercolor. 

Upon a closer look at the bottom:  I needed an area for shelves to hold the potion bottles, so I took some Tim Holtz Halloween collage paper and attached it with matte medium.  It crinkled a bit, but I sort of liked that look.  I then found some decorative strips in my stash and added those for the “shelves”.  The crow and “curious” ephemera was also found with all of my Tim Holtz Halloween stash….along with the paper doll “guy”.  I cut off a head from one of them to place inside the jar.  I added some thin metal wire around the jar and cut a slit in the guy’s hand to make it look like he’s holding it.  I also added a bit of color to the guy’s flower and bow tie on his jacket outfit with markers.  BEFORE popping up the paper doll guy to the page, I ripped some black cardstock for the ground underneath him and tucked in the bones.

For the Bottles:  I used a Taylored Expressions “If You Dare” Stamp & Stencil set to make all of the bottles.  I also used the TE “If You Dare Halloween Labels” to foil and cut out to place over each jar.  To die cut some extra “strange things” to put inside a few of the jars and the bones at the bottom, I die cut pieces from the TE “Little Bits Cauldron Confetti” dies.  (The die cut bats from this were also used on the top of the page.)  For more finishing details, I doodled in some of the jars and then added some colored glitter/sparkle and pearl drops for the inside contents.  If you look closely at the crow’s eye, you can see I’ve added a tiny dot of yellow sparkle.  Some of the details were popped up and some were just glued down.

A closer look at the top:  Mostly die cut pieces were used at the top and the first I put down was the spider web and spider from Whimsy Stamps called Spiders and Webs…they’re huge!  (this store is so good at spooky things!)  I drew a line with a black marker from the spider to the web.  For the window, I die cut it out from a really old Mama Elephant die I’ve had in my stash…not sure if it’s still available.  BEFORE I placed the window down, I die cut the moon from the Lawn Fawn Shadow Box Halloween Add-On die set.  I blended in some yellow and gray  and covered it with a glitter sparkle pen.  I added the die cut bats and placed the window over top.

Lastly, I took some Tim Holtz Halloween clippings word strips and added to the page.  I took a black marker and went around the strips above the paper doll “guy”.

I know there are people that are not Halloween fans or care for the spooky things, but I really enjoy the weirdness of it all and have fun making things with it!  In the words of Lydia from Beetlejuice:  “I myself am strange and unusual“.

Winona Ryder in a hat as Lydia in Beetlejuice

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my page today and I really appreciate you stopping by!  I will be back later with things we’re doing at the retreat!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Art Journal Journey – Autumn Colors & Inspiration (Purple, orange, yellow and black!)

Halloween Hauntings

Hello friends!  It seems like this month has really flown by as I now realize that Halloween will be here next week and I wanted to get some cards sent out that I’ve made!

So here are my Halloween cards for this year….I had so much fun!

This one was so much fun putting together and it wouldn’t have been put together if it weren’t for the parameters on Craft Roulette #237 this week!  The four parameters consisted of these – 1. Project: Pop Up Card, 2. Colors: Trick-or-Treat, 3. Element: Boutique and 4. Random: jewelry

I used the Lawn Fawn Platform pop-up die and the build a house die with the Halloween add on plus a few other dies and stamp sets all from Lawn Fawn.  The front “welcome” sentiment was printed out from my computer and I made up the “Bougie BOO-tique” language to fit with the parameters of the challenge.😆  These ghosts are all blinged up and hanging out around their favorite “BOO-tique” to catch up on all of the latest trends in style!  One is wearing a necklace, another a tierra, another carrying a purse, another styling glasses with bling and the front ghost has earrings and a sparkle wand.

The background was done with the Lawn Fawn Platform Pop Up Add On around the back of the pop up.  I ink blended and then splattered with white Copic Opaque White mixed with water to get the starry night background.  This card went to my husband because he really enjoyed it and said that it wasn’t going anywhere, but it does lay flat for mailing.

 

This card was done for an Inky Inkspiration Challenge over on FB for September and they were asking for a slimline card.  I’m more into making the mini slimline size rather than a full size, so that’s what I went with!  I’ve used the cute Bat stamp set for all of the images, except for the background panel, which you’ll notice it looks like a BINGO card and it is!  It was the game that we played in a Zoom class that I took with Inky Stamper and we actually used this Bat stamp set for the projects we made and the BINGO card was included.  I decided instead of throwing it away, that I would use it as background paper for my card.  I just stenciled in some gray clouds over top and stamped some bats from the set with it.  The rest were just cut out and placed on the card with the bat being popped out with foam tape.

(I would’ve showed photos from the class, but I forgot to take photos of them!)

And here’s another card I made for World Card Making Day using the fun sketch from the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group on FB.  I’ve used this really CUTE Zombie stamp set from Inky Stamper for this card.  I had so much fun coloring him up!

 

And this last card I made for someone who loves the spookiness of the season almost as much as I do!  I pulled this really cool image from an older paper pack by Whimsy Stamps.  In fact, all of the images on this card came from this store.  

I die cut the image out with the WS ATC Antique Frames including the sentiment that was white heat embossed.  The background was black heat embossed with the WS Vintage Wallpaper stamp over kraft cardstock.  I sponged some black ink around the edges which was also cut out with the WS Wavy Pieced Rectangle dies.  I cut out a few ghosts from white cardstock using the WS Boo die set and sponged some green ink at the very bottom edges.

I thought it would be fun to make the eyeballs of the skeleton and the edges of the ghosts glow in the dark, so I used some glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over them and finished off the sentiment panel with green gems.  (It’s too hard to take a photo of the glow-in-the-dark!)

Well that’s it for me today with all of the Halloween cards!  I hope you’ve enjoyed them or have been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday with another Art Journal Page for the month! 

Challenges:

  1. Creative Fingers – #287 Anything Goes
  2. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘H’ is for Halloween
  3. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #PIP2442 Anything Goes
  5. Make My Monday – #237 A Spooky Halloween
  6. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  7. Crazy for Stencils – Anything Goes using stencils + Halloween (2nd bat card)
  8. Unicorn – Autumn/Halloween

Mushrooms at Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends!  I hope that your October has been a good for you!  We have just started seeing some cooler weather and even a bit of frost coming tomorrow night!  I also wanted to say thank you for your comments about my last post.  After having such a break, getting my crafting back on has been touchy.  I’m trying to get organized!😁

Today starts the October challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking to see a mushroom(s) on your project.  Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the team has created for you.  Here’s my project for this challenge:

I really like how this one turned out!  I was trying to keep it in an Autumn feel with using these colors and adding leaves.  Everything I’ve used came from Lawn Fawn.

I started by cutting out the background panel, the leaves and the mushrooms in different colors of cardstock.  I sponged over the each of the pieces for dimension and shading and then splattered over top of them with brown and white paint.

I just attached all of the layers together that I thought was pleasing to my eye and then I white heat embossed the sentiment over the brown cardstock and cut out the banner and popped it up over the leaves with foam tape.  Lastly, I just added a few white gems for sparkle.

I hope you like my card today and has inspired you in some way to play along with us for the challenge this month!  I would to see your mushroom creations in the gallery!  I appreciate you stopping today!

Challenges:

  1. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #582 Anything Goes Using Paper
  2. Just Us Girls – #748 Leaves
  3. Creative Friday – #370 Faux Stitching (in die cut background)
  4. Crafty Catz – #680 Anything Goes optional: Autumn Colors
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2441 Anything Goes
  6. Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
  7. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
  8. The Paper Funday – #70 Anything Goes optional: Autumn

 

September Art Journal-Fall Texture

YAY!  I’m back…but a tad bit late for my monthly AJ post!  (So sorry about that Carol!!)  I’m trying to get back into crafting again as it feels like I’ve been away from it for a long time!  It was a fun, crazy, beautiful time away and there a few photos below this post if you care to see….

BUT FIRST, TODAY (BETTER LATE THAN NEVER)….is the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month.  I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” September prompt of “TEXTURE” (anything to create texture): 

Texture is something that I really enjoy using, but sometimes when you’re making cards, you don’t always want that texture or bulk adding to your design because you want to be able to slide it into an envelope to mail out.  Doing an art journal page with lots of texture and bulk is something I can do because it’s my own piece of art to keep and it’s fun to play with lots of media from my stash to create it!

For the background:  I started with my usual 5.5″ x 8.5″ heavy weight watercolor panel with pre-punched holes at the top using my Bind-It-All machine.  Starting with some media paste and my “go to” dotted stencil, this was a quick way to add texture to the background.  I then pulled out some watercolor in blue tones and covered over the background with it and sprinkled some sea salt over it, let it dry completely and then brushed it off.  This leaves some cool effects to the watercolor and it creates some texture as well!

Moving down the page, I have die cut lots of pumpkins and leaves!  These are all die cut sets from Taylored Expressions that I’ve had in my stash for a few years now.  All the pumpkins were cut from orange cardstock.  For the largest pumpkin, I’ve used my Copic markers to give it some dimension/texture.  The other pumpkins had another piece that I cut from a darker orange cardstock.  The stems all cut from green cardstock.  I decided to splatter some brown, gold and white paints all over them for even more texture.  Before attaching the pumpkins, I used some printed tissue paper that was sprayed with color and scrunched up and attached to the bottom of the page with media paste.  Lots of texture going on at the bottom here!

For the leaves, I die cut them out from kraft cardstock and ink blended over them in various fall colors.  You will notice around the edges of the leaves as well as the textured paste background on the page, that I’ve used some gold wax and rubbed around the edges and over the texture.  I then arranged all of the leaves and pumpkins at the bottom of the page with some popped up with foam tape.  I’ve also taken some green wire and curled it to use for a couple of the pumpkins that were attached to the back of them.

Lastly, I’ve added the sentiments that were die cut, gold foiled and attached at the top along with the thin strip of orange cardstock.  The “FALL” letters were popped up with foam tape as well as a portion of the leaf on the side of it.

  • Really hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today!  It was fun getting messy and playing around with crafting again!  I really missed doing it!

Here are just a couple of photos to share on our time away.  We started by flying to Seattle as we’ve never been and visited the Space Needle.  We took a bus to Canada where we boarded a Cruise ship that took us into Alaska to see the glaciers!  We sailed for a week, but went further up to Denali Park in Alaska where we stayed an additional week and made our way back home.  This was certainly a once in a lifetime experience that we’ll never forget!  The photos look nowhere close to how gorgeous it was to see in person. 

While we were traveling on our way back home, it seems that one of our pieces of luggage decided to take a trip to Mexico!  So once we figured all that out, got our luggage back and tons of laundry, cleaning, groceries to get, done….I had an appointment to get an impacted tooth removed the other day!  Been feeling a little overwhelmed, but starting to get better!  

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND SUPPORT, COMMENTS AND COMING TO VISIT ME HERE!  I’VE MISSED CRAFTING AND CATCHING UP WITH ALL OF YOU!  HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND AND SEE YOU SOON!!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Anything Goes

Bon Voyage! Blog Break

Hello friends! I have a project to share which is a great send off post for an announcement of a blog break I’ll be taking for the next month🛳️🛫.

I wanted to share a project I made by request of my husband which was to recycle a plain notebook for traveling, so I pulled out some Doodlebug items and had some fun:

This is the front cover of the notebook which I covered with some Doodlebug papers, but I thought it would look way to busy, so I decided to tone down the papers by adding a wash of white paint over it.  I think it makes the stamped images stand out better.

I’ve used a wave border die to cut some blue cardstock so that the boat could be in the “water” and I’ve added the sentiment underneath it.  I stamped and colored the boat and airplane images and die cut them out with the coordinating dies.  I also die cut a few clouds to add to the scene. 

When I attached the painted pattern papers to the notebook, I decided to add an additional strip along the side of the wire spiral before adding the waves.  I then took a black marker to create stitch marks with.

On the inside cover of the notebook, I took some more of those Doodlebug papers and attached them to the inside.  I’ve made a pocket using the same papers that I’ve used on the front cover and you can see how bright and colorful they are which is why I decided to paint over them.

I added one of the cards from the paper pack to the front of the pocket and then I put a few pieces of washi tape with the airplane postage and travel stamps on the notebook paper.

And this is the inside back cover which was done similar to the inside front cover.

If you look inside the pocket of this, you can see that I’ve also made a bookmark for him that I’ve laminated.  He can use it for his notebook or for another book he may be reading.

And here is the back of the notebook.  This is where I’ve added a black elastic closure for the book BEFORE attaching any papers to it.  The strips from the paper pack help to give it a little design and I’ve also included another shallow pocket.

He seems very pleased with it and has already put it to good use including the pockets and bookmark!  He’s already wrote in it too!  I tried to be sneaky and write a secret message on one of the random pages within the book, but he found it too early!  I don’t get much past him!

I have lots of fun papers and ephemera left over from this cute Doodlebug paper pad, so I will probably be using it for a special scrapbook at some point…hopefully more on that later.

I would like to also let you know that I will be MIA for a while as we will be away on a much needed vacation time!

Thank you so kindly for stopping in and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Challenges:

  1. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  2. The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes #79

Sheetload of Cards With Flashback Card Kit

Hello friends!  I hope you’ve had a good week and looking forward to a great weekend ahead!  The weather has been unseasonably cool for this time of the year and I’m able to get my windows open the last few days and enjoying it!  Unfortunately, it’s going to warm up again, so I know that the air will come back on.

Today I’m sharing something that is a bit different and new to me, but I think it will come in very handy for the future as my “goal for next year” is to use up those old card kits that have been stored in my stash for WAY too long!  I’m hoping to start this on my blog next year each month and focus on a card kit each month so I can clear things out from my stash!  Stay tuned!

I found a fellow crafter Call Me Crafty Al and I decided to give her “Sheetload of Cards“ a try for this month and see how it goes!  It would probably have been much easier to do it the way she did, but I challenged myself to use my card kit items instead:

Here’s the set of all eight cards using the same sketch from Crafty Al’s Sheetload for this month.  You may not recognize the card kit that I’ve used as it’s an old one from Simon Says Stamp.  The box had November 2015 written on it, and the paper inside had “Here’s Looking at You” card kit on it.  I know that I have pulled it out and used a few things out of it, but there was still plenty to use!

I was looking to make some uplifting/inspirational cards so this all worked out great.

Click on the photos above if you’re on my website so you can get a closer view of them.

I’ve used all of the cardstock except one sheet of kraft, all of the 6×6 papers were used except two sheets and I’ve also used up some of the journaling cards that were included as well as the stamp set and thread.  The reason why some of the edges are rounded is because the journaling card inside the kit had rounded edges.  I just decided to incorporate that into the design and I think it worked out okay.

Honestly, I don’t know weather to be proud of myself for using up my extremely old card kit or feel embarrassed for having such an old card kit still in my stash!😂

Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed my play with the “Sheetload of Cards” for August 2024 utilizing a very old card kit!  How about you?  Do you still have some card kits or stashes of something from 2015…er older?  Would you like to use them up too?  Follow along with me next year each month as I attempt to use up those old old old stash items and have a session of “Crafting to the Oldies“!  This is me holding myself accountable!  Let’s do this!

  • Thanks so much for dropping in today and have a great weekend!❤️