Animals – Page 2 – Stamped Smiles

Inky Stamper Craft Room Shake Up

Hello friends! It’s the very last day of November and also the last day as a Guest Designer for Inky Stamper too. Really enjoyed creating with their fun products and hope that you’ve gotten some inspiration as well! If you are ever looking for their store in the future, I will have the badge with link on the sidebar of my blog so you can find it or look for all of my posts under the “Inky Stamper” category also found on the side of this blog.

Today I’m sharing a fun way to make a full front/infinity shaker card using their products:

Rosie is having some fun cutting up paper!✂ She is from the Inky Stamper Craft Room set that I’ve colored up along with the little bottle and cut out. This was so fun to put together and reminds me of the fun that I enjoyed during the Inky Escape event! (I will share the projects I made in a future post) The heat embossed sentiment as well as the envelope and ink splatters in the background, came from the Inky Stamper Inky Greetings stamp set.

At a previous Inky event I went to, I learned how to put together a full front shaker in a very easy way and wanted to use this same idea for my card here. So I started with the Inky Stamper Shaker Sealable Pouches and added a piece of 3.75″ x 5″ Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper (released temporarily from Inky Stamper in the past) that I stamped the ink splatters with orange and pink inks over. Before sealing up the pouch, I added some Iridescent Clear Shaker Garnish and some Picket Fence Crafty Friends sequence mix. I used some Red Line Tape to attach the shaker pouch to the scallop orange piece that was layered over an A2 top folding bright pink card base. I like this because there is no wondering if the foam tape will hold all of the bits where they’re supposed to be…so very easy!

I’ve also used the same Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” papers to heat emboss my sentiment at the bottom and I’ve also used a pink gem from the Picket Fence Reflections. For the “floor” of the craft room, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pad and die cut a piece for the bottom that was popped up with foam squares over the shaker pouch panel.

I wanted to share a closer look at the shaker details with the pouch and the shaker goodies inside. The sequins mix is so fun with those tiny scissors in there, can you see them?!

For the picture frame, I’ve taken one of the squares from the Doodlebug “Cute & Crafty” paper pad for the main focal of it and added some dashes along the edge. I also sponged around it with light blue ink and cut out the little brush from the “Craft Room” stamp set after coloring it up and then glued it to the panel. I also cut out more of the woodgrain paper for a frame look and then added a tiny piece of the Doodlebug Gray Twine behind it. I pulled at the top and added a round foam dot to it so that it was held in place over the shaker pouch. I then used the Metallic Transfer Foil Sheets to press over top of the foam dot so that it looked more like something hanging up the picture.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my full front shaker card today and have been inspired to make time to make stuff too! If you have any questions about anything here, let me know! Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle
Shopping Our Stash – Bling it Up and/or lighting
Penny’s Paper-crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
Daring Cardmakers – Shine
Tic Tac Toe – used bottom row across (patterned paper, stamped image & sparkle/shiny)

November 30, 2022November 29, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles29 Comments

November AJ Page-Peace Love and Hope

Hello friends! Hope that you’re having a wonderful weekend and I can’t believe we’re looking at the end of November already as well as almost the end of the year too! Since I’ve been doing most of my post this month with guesting for Inky Stamper, it’s time to change it up a bit.

At the end of the month, I do an Art Journal page and collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for her AJ page too! We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” November prompt of “washi tape/stickers/border stickers, etc” :

So with the Smash our stash theme, I went through and pulled out so many stickers in my collection…and then realized that I’ve had some of these things for such a long time! I couldn’t use them all, but I made something work with a fun Christmas theme in mind.

For the background: I started out with my pre-punched holes at the top of my 140# cold press paper sized 6″x9″ and covered the bottom portion of the page with some Tim Holtz Christmas themed washi tape. I thought it was a bit too bright and went over it with some white paint and a brayer. I also took a collage paper of Christmas music sheet paper and stamped a couple of different images over it to further the collaged background. I also covered this area with a thin layer of mixed media silver paint.

I die cut a pine tree and sponged some inks around the edges and turned that as well as the die cut sparkle snowflakes into stickers using my Xron machine. I stamped the two deer in black ink and heat embossed over it a clear EP. I then took a Tim Holtz stencil and used some sparkle texture paste over it for snow. (Before I attached the larger snowflake stickers.) I also splattered the page with some white paint too…lots of snowfall going on!

For the wording: I had some black thickers (as they call them, which are thick foam letter stickers) for the “PEACE” and then the other words are stickers from my stash. The heart is from the thicker sheet too. I took some silver rubbing paste with my finger and went along the edges of the page as well as the thicker letters to add some interest. Lastly: I made a “snow ground” for the deer by applying some glue and covering it with some glitter crystals. I also added some black gem stickers to the center of each snowflake sticker.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today and have been inspired in some way. Thanks for much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Collage Fodder and/or Food and Drink (collage fodder here)
Mixed Media Lovers – Letters/text/quote
Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media
Creative Moments – Winter
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – NOT a card

November 26, 2022November 25, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

Black Friday Frog at Inky Stamper!

Hello friends! Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with grateful hearts and full tummies! Today is another tradition after Thanksgiving which is the “Black Friday” deals! So I wanted to share something fun with you today and I strongly encourage you to head on over to the Inky Stamper Store to see all of the wonderful Black Friday deals that are going on!

So click on the badge above to be taken to the store to shop and don’t forget these special codes at checkout for free shipping and the “FREEFREDDY” when you spend $30 or more! And if you like the coordinating die to cut out Freddy, then you can purchase the die for only $5! In honor of Black Friday, I have some inspiration using this NEW Freddy Solo:

And of course what’s better than a good “Black Friday” deal than a black frog to go with it?!! It was proposed to have Freddy Solo the Frog colored up in black, so I took on the challenge and made a fun monochromatic card with him. I think he turned out cute!

I found a sketch (linked in challenges below post) and used that for inspiration in creating my card with him. I’ve used several different patterns for my papers from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain and Gingham/Linen paper pads which are also sold in the store as well. I’ve used some for the card front panel that was layered onto an A2 black top folding card base. I’ve layered some silver foil papers with the pattern papers for the image panel that was lightly sponged with black ink. I wrapped some silver cord around the image panel, white heat embossed the sentiment with Freddy over a piece of the pattern paper, popped up Freddy with foam squares and finished off the design with some Picket Fence Day and Night Gems. (click on the links to be taken to these products in the Inky Stamper store.)

Here’s a closer look at the Black Friday Freddy and how I’ve colored him up using Copic markers in the cool grey tones. I’ve also added a highlight on his eyeballs with a white gel pen and then I emphasized the “dots” on him with a black gel pen. You can see it looks a tad bit shinny and raised on the dots.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my Black Friday card today and are able to take advantage of the fun deals this weekend! So hop hop hop on over there and shop! Have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Through the Purple Haze – Monochromatic
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Dies and/or punches
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Paper Piecing and/or sketch
Double Trouble – Scrapper’s GORP teaming with TSOT above

November 25, 2022November 24, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles22 Comments

It’s Never Too Latte For a Friend

Hello friends! Hope that your week has been going great so far and you’re getting ready for Thanksgiving Day for my friends in the U.S. that celebrate. So since Christmas is coming up quickly, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of little gifts for a friend you might like to share coffee/cocoa with:

Aren’t these little mini coffee cups with the gift card holder so fun?! I had fun making and gifting them! Of course I love coffee, but if your friend would rather do a cocoa, that will work for this too! I’ve used this adorable Inky Stamper Latte stamp set to create my project here with that adorable “Rosie” character popping out of the cup. I colored and cut her out with the coordinating die. For the “candy cane” image on the front of Rosie’s cup, as well as the “coffee ring stain” image on the coffee cup sleeve, I used the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set to accompany my design. (There are some great cocoa images in there to trade off for the coffee too!)

These little mini coffee to go cups were found on Amazon (4 oz cups pack of 50 with lids) and there are tons of videos on You Tube on how to construct the holder for these. (Check out several from search here) I sort of tweaked mine from a die set that I’ve had for years, but there’s no reason to buy a die if you can create without an additional purchase. I’ve added an additional backing with a pocket and thumb opening to hold a Starbucks gift card in.

And then when you open the coffee cup, there is a great place to add some extra treats inside! I chose to add some Bailey’s chocolate truffle candy inside of these cups. You can also see how I decorated the cups with papers that has peppermint candies on them as well as the top of the lid, the cup sleeves with stamping and the red twine wrapped around the lid as well. The little peppermints that I’ve added on the top of the lid as well as on Rosie’s head came from the Inky Stamper Christmas Candy Mix…love that container! The Doodlebug red Gingham/Linen papers come from the Inky Stamper store as well.

And since the lid on the cup was not as secure as I would’ve liked it to be, I decided to wrap the entire thing inside of a gusseted cello bag and tie it up with some more of the red twine, which also made it look like a gift wrapped present too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project(s) today and have been inspired to create a fun gift for Christmas too! Thanks so much for stopping in and have yourself a very grateful Thanksgiving Day!🦃

Challenges:

Double D – Hot Beverages
Sparkles Monthly – Dies and/or Punches (both used!)
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional Christmas
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

November 23, 2022November 22, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles20 Comments

Stretching Out Inky Stamper Products

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far! We have experienced our very first snow accumulation this year and it was very pretty on the inside where it’s warm! LOL It wasn’t necessary to shovel as it melted when it hit the pavement/streets, which makes it nice too! I’m excited to be sharing some more Inky Stamper products with you today as I continue on with my Guest DT for this month. This time it’s all about stretching out those products you purchase to get even more out of them which I’m sure we all need during this time of the year!

Isn’t this little mouse gnome the cutest?! I don’t think I’ve seen a mouse gnome before, but this is another brand new stamp set from Inky Stamper called Gnome, of course! (Click on the link(s) to see everything in the store)

I’m not only using this same stamp set for both of my projects today, but I wanted to point out that this one above is not a card, but it’s a gift card envelope that I’ve created using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die. I love this die for quickly creating the perfect sized envelope to fit your gift card inside, but Chelsea also comes up with fun mini cards in alot of her kits that work great for tucking inside this envelope too! (There’s a brand new kit in the store that has just came out using one of the brand new stamp sets making a mini card in her class.) I also wanted to point out that this die can be cut from one of the 6×6 Doodlebug paper packs sold in the store too!

For the front of my envelope here: I thought it would be fun to create a little scene for my mouse gnome to hang up his stockings! I took a strip from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Wood Grain paper pack to place along the bottom and stenciled some bricks for the background. I stamped, colored and cut out the gnome with the coordinating die and I punched a small hole on each side of him where his hands are for the string. I then took some of the “stockings” from the Picket Fence Fireplace Stockings sequins and attached them to the string that wraps around the back of the scene panel. I added a sentiment from the same stamp set, popped up the gnome and attached to a piece of green glitter cardstock and then attached it to the envelope front.

Here you can see the other side of the envelope that I’ve white heat embossed the deer from this gnome stamp set and sponged some white ink around the edges. Now to keep the envelope flap closed, you could wrap some twine or ribbon around it, but I love using the Inky Stamper Papercrafting Velcro because it’s the perfect size for this closure and it’s such a great price! You can see how easily a gift card can fit right inside too!

And here’s another scene I’ve created using this adorable Gnome stamp set, but on a regular A2 sized card this time.

So as I was using the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die for my gift card envelope above, I was looking at the other die pieces that come with this set and thought that the stitched triangle die would make for some great pine trees for my little mouse gnome scene. I pulled out some Doodlebug Gingham/Linen as well as the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper packs to cut out the triangles and design my scene with the “ground” and “snowy sky” too. I placed the “sky” paper down first, added a curved “ground” and tucked in my formed triangle pines. I also tucked in the wooden sign from the stamp set and stamped the greeting over it. This gnome stamp set also has a tiny pipe that you can die cut out which is just the right size for the gnome. You can see that I’ve tucked that in behind the gnome’s hand on the right and I added some “smoke” with a marker on the background too.

I thought that the Picket Fence Woodlands sequins would be perfect with our gnome, so I’ve attached a few over the “ground” area. I also added some Picket Fence Icicles sequins to the “sky” area for the appearance of snowfall in the background. I also added another white “snowflake” to the center of my gold cord bow at the top. This is a great way to stretch your sequins by making it apart of your main scene.

For the glittery “snow”, I’ve covered the pines, sign, the gnome, the mushrooms and “ground” with some white Nuvo Crystal Drops and then covered those areas with some loose glitter while it was still wet. The reason for that is because if you just use glitter, it will dry clear and I wanted some white to show.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my mouse gnome projects today and have been inspired to see something different with the products that you have in your stash too! Thanks so much for dropping in! Be sure to check out the Inky Stamper Store as well as LIKE the Facebook page to see a live video on Tuesday nights. There is also a fun InkyStamper Inkspiration Facebook Group to join for more inspiration and fun challenges each month too!

Challenges:

Merry Little Christmas – Anything Goes
Jingle Belles – Funny Ho, Ho (punny gnome sentiments)
Crafty Friends – Christmas
Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle
Craft Rocket – Christmas/Winter
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Christmas Celebrations
We Love Stamping – Christmas
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

November 16, 2022November 15, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles27 Comments

Inky Stamper NEW Stamps Inspiration!

Hello friends! I’m really excited to be sharing some more inspiration today as a guest designer this month using some brand new Inky Stamper stamp sets that were just released! Stop by the store and check them out…they’re so cute!

First, I have a couple of shaped interactive cards for those warm drinks as the temperatures start to cool down. I made one for Autumn and shared it in the Inky Stamper FB Group and was asked how it I made it, so I thought I’d share that one along with another Christmas style version that I made too:

Aren’t these so cute with that little raccoon from the Inky Stamper Warm Beverages stamp set?! The one on the right is the one I made with Fall colors covering the front of the cup with the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper pad. I also used the Doodlebug Bon Bon Twine around the cup sleeve.

The cup on the left is more Christmas themed and I’ve used pretty much the same products, but just changed up the colors a little bit. This cup is slightly different because it’s about 1/4″ shorter so that it would properly fit inside an A2 envelope. The Autumn card was a bit snug, so I tweaked the size a bit more on the Christmas to make it fit nicely.

When you pull the lid off the top of the coffee cup, there is an insert with a greeting and/or a place where you can add a gift certificate. These were so fun to create and easy to do! Mass production could be possible for sure!

All that is needed are some measurements and a few tips along the way to get you started. I thought it would be easier to understand with a video, so check that out below or watch on You Tube HERE.

I also had a birthday card that I needed to make for someone, so I thought I’d pull out the new Inky Stamper Hippo stamp set and have some fun with it!

Aren’t these party animals so cute?! I thought this one would be fun to turn into a polaroid style, so I pulled out a square die to create my own polaroid frame with it! I also cut another one in black cardstock so that I had a bit of dimension with it. I stamped the sentiment from the set at the bottom of the frame.

The background behind the Hippo was created by white heat embossing the music note image from the stamp set over some Inky Stamper Watercolor Panels and then using some watercolors for an emboss resist background. I colored up the Hippo, bird and party hat and cut them out to arrange over the background. I added a couple of pieces of the Doodlebug Grey Swiss Dot Washi Tape over top of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen Paper that was cut out with a wonky stitched die and attached to a white top folding A2 card base. I found a couple of sequins from the Picket Fence Rubber Duckies mix and then filling the centers of them with yellow Stickles.

So many different things going on in this post, but I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and have been inspired to create something too! Thank you so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
My Time to Craft – Critters
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
The Corrosive – Anything Goes

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles19 Comments

November GDT for Inky Stamper – It’s OWLright!🦉

Hello friends and happy November! Really excited to share that I’ve been asked to a be guest designer this month for one of my favorite companies which is Inky Stamper! Yay!🎉 If you follow along with me, then you’ve probably already seen some of my creations using their products. Please be sure to click the badge below to be taken to the store! (The characters are so cute!) I will be adding this badge to the sidebar of my blog here so you can find it if you want to come back to it later.

For my first project this month, I actually pulled out an older stamp set which I think is perfect for this time of year especially when you want to give “thanks” to those special people in your life.

Isn’t this guy with his quirky face adorable?! I’ve used this fun Inky Stamper Owl stamp set with dies for this card. The punny sentiments that are always with these stamp sets make perfect options!

Have you seen the “Torn Window Card” technique around social media? I think you could probably find it just about anywhere and not sure where exactly it originated from, but I wanted to try it and give it my own spin by creating a torn hole with a slightly pulled around opening. Which I thought was a perfect “tree hole” for my quirky owl to pop out of! What’s fun is that you don’t need any special tools or die to do this…just rip it!

For my papers, I’ve used the Doodlebug Buffalo Check & Woodgrain 6×6 paper pad from Inky Stamper with the brown color for the outside “tree trunk” portion that I ripped the hole in the center for and then another piece of the woodgrain in black for behind the hole which makes it look like the inside of the “tree trunk”. Plus, I think it makes the owl stand out more. To rip the hole, I just cut through it with scissors and gauged what size to rip based on my owl image. I used some brown ink to sponge around the edges including around the “hole”. I then distressed the edges of the paper as well as lifted/curled the torn edges of the “hole” area. When I did that, it exposed the buffalo check pattern on the other side of the paper, so then I took my VersaMark ink pad to rub around the edges and gold heat embossed all the distressed edging. I also gold heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set over some of the black woodgrain for the banner at the bottom.

Here’s a closer look at the owl all colored up with Copic markers. I added a few white gel pen marks to his beak and feet. I also colored up several of the leaves with this set and die cut all the pieces to attach to the card. I glued the leaves around the owl and then for the owl, I glued the bottom of him over the leaves and then popped up his head with foam tape. I also used foam tape for the leaf to the left of the owl.

For a little extra sparkle, I painted on (using a brush) some Liquid Pixie Dust for the leaves and the owl’s eye whites. To finish it off, I added some Picket Fence Sands of Time-Gems. (These are a couple of my personal favorite extras!)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ripped hole owl card today and have been inspired to doing some ripping of your own!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Creatalicious – Anything Goes + optional Fall
Double D – Thankful/Blessings/Grateful
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #455
Kreativ-Tanten – Autumn Greetings

November 2, 2022November 4, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles24 Comments

Batty Anniversary

Hello friends! I wanted to share the anniversary card I made for hubby this year. Now that I’m posting this (without him knowing), I think I made a bat style card last year too! It just happens to fit with this time of the year and we got married close to Halloween…so it works, right?!😉 I’m just thankful that we BOTH like Halloween!

So I fell in love with these cute cuddly bats (Yep, I said that!) from Lawn Fawn called Fangtastic Friends. I stamped, colored and die cut out the images that I wanted before I started to work on the background.

For the background, I pulled out a cloud stenciled and mixed purple, black and blue oxide inks to blend in a night sky. I spritzed it with water for the water droplets. I then die cut the full moon from the LF Full Moon die set and then used some Distress Mica Stain Harvest Moon and sprayed over it so it has a bit of a shimmer to it. I placed it where I wanted to go over my sky background and then cut them both out with a double-stitched rectangle die and attached the panel to a side folding A2 black card base. (The sentiment strip was added before attaching)

The sentiment was heat embossed over a black strip of cardstock using some white glitter embossing powder.

I attached this strip at the bottom of the sky panel and cut off each end. I added the rest of the elements and images to my scene and stamped the “eek!” by the bat on the right and a couple of hearts on the moon above the hanging couple. I added some shimmer to the hearts with a purple glitter gel pen.

I thought I would share the inside of the card with the stamped hanging spider, the sentiment and the hearts I stamped around it with some more of the purple glitter gel pen coloring. I also used some purple and black distress oxide inks to blend around the edges of my white inside panel which was also cut out with the double-stitched rectangle die.

I certainly do love hanging out with my husband, but hopefully not in the manner on the card!😅

We’re enjoying time together right now as this has been scheduled to post, so I hope you enjoy and thanks for dropping in! I’ll see you soon!

October 30, 2022October 17, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles17 Comments

Apple Picking Fun

Autumn is always a favorite time of the year with the changing of the Season: cooler temps, pretty colors and being able to go out enjoy all of nature with it’s bounty and beauty. There’s also nothing better than freshly picked apples from the orchid too! It’s something that I love to do with my husband every year at our local orchid.

So when Lawn Fawn came out with this adorable set along with a free craft-a-long class, I knew I wanted to participate!

This is the first card we created using the LF Apple-solutely Awesome stamp set and dies. For the class, we actually stamped, colored and cut out all of the images that we would be using for both of these cards. I think the fun thing about this set is arranging the images to figure out where you want to place them for your scene. Since it was a class and I didn’t have to think too much, I decided to just follow along with what I had and just enjoy the process.

I didn’t have the stencil set that they used for the class, so I had this Pink & Main Leafy Stencil that I thought would work out fine and I just blended different colors with some Oxide inks. The white panel was cut with the LF Small Stitched Rectangle dies, popped up over the stenciled leaf panel and the sentiment was stamped at the bottom before attaching the images.

I’ve already sent this card to someone that gifted us some homemade applesauce…YUM! (Already gone!)

And here’s the second card we created for the class using the same stamp set and stitched rectangle dies. I had fun with that “cider jug” and adding a bit of sparkle to the contents inside with my glitter brush pen.

For the sentiment, I die cut it out with some LF Woodgrain Cardstock and ink blended some brown Oxide ink at the bottom of the die cut. I used some foam strips to pop it up over the panel. The white panel was done the same as the above card. I used the same stencil as the above card as well but only kept the yellow tones for this one as it seemed too busy with all that was going on with the card.

So although this was a class that I mainly followed along with except for a few minor changes, I had fun making these while getting into the Fall spirit! I hope you’ve enjoyed them as well! Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges:

Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Crafty Friends – Use More Than One Die
Happy Little Stampers Stencils – Anything Goes + stencil
Stamping Sensations – All Things Autumn
We Love Stamping – Autumn Colors
Addicted to Stamps & More – Die Cuts & Stencils

October 23, 2022October 17, 2022

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

Time to Get Your Grumpy On!

Hey there friends! Hope you’re having a wonderful week so far! We’re getting closer and closer to Halloween already!🎃 I haven’t made as many Halloween makes as I usually do, but as the day gets closer I’ve been more in the mood to pull out some things to have fun with my stash and my thoughts turned to “Grumpy”.

If you’re not familiar with “Grumpy”, this is the Big Grumpy Cat from Taylored Expressions. I absolutely love the “Grumpy” and “Grumplings” line and I don’t pull them out as much as I’d like to. Since it’s closer to Halloween, I’ve also pulled out the Big Grumpy-Halloween accessory set to go along with him too! (The only thing I used from this set was the witch hat and the sentiment.) I’ve stamped, colored and cut out each of these items for my card.

The #TEMakerChallenge has the theme this month of using Oreo & Sugar Cube with the option of adding any other pop of color. I’ve decided to pop in an orange color for mine. The theme was also “Sparkle & Shine” through foiling, heat-embossing, glitter paste or sparkly cardstock.

So for the “Sparkle & Shine” I’ve taken a Foil-It Spiderweb panel and foiled some orange Deco Foil over it. I then took one of the Frame in Frame 3 dies to cut out the middle of this panel, added some acetate over the opening and made it into a shaker panel. I die cut the same frame as well as the Little Bits-Spiders die from some black Glitter Cardstock. I attached these pieces onto the web panel along with adding the Grumpy Cat with his hat string and extra spider attached to him over the acetate. I attached double-sided foam around the opening and added some “shaker stars” in the colors orange, black and silver. And lastly, I thought it would be fun to pop up a left-over ghost I had from a previous project at the top! (I think the ghost is in fear of the “witch switch”!)😂

I also have another “grumpy” card to share…

So this card was made to send a smile to a friend. I’ve used a cat for this one as well from the Taylored Expressions “Grouchy Grumplings” set which I don’t believe is available in the store any longer.

I kept it a simple card by stamping, coloring and cutting out the grumpy. I ink blended a circle that fit him with blue ink, white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out from the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets. I popped grumpy with foam tape over the sentiment banner and circle. I also used some TE decorative papers from my stash and cut out a banner with it using my scissors. A corner chomper was used to round the top left corner of the card to finish it off.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Grumpy” projects today and have been inspired in some way! Really appreciate you stopping in!

Challenges: (Top card only)