Hey friends! Just poppin’ in with another card I made and wanted to get it in before the deadline ends…which I normally don’t always do!😁
I have been playing along (with the exception of the last few years) with the Coffee Loving Papercrafters “Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” which has been going on since 2014! It’s hard to believe it’s been around that long, but looking back at the posts that were shared recently for “a look back”, I had a different blog platform and there I was playing along 10 years ago! Really appreciate all of the fun that Amy has provided to us through the years as well as the many sponsors that have been apart of it.
I’ve pulled out some stamp sets from one of the sponsors (Newton’s Nook) new and older from my stash in honor of this occasion:
That is the cutest cup of Pumpkin Spice Latte that I’ve ever seen! I’ve used the NN Newton’s Mug stamp set with coordinating die to stamp, color and cut him out. He was popped up with foam tape over the background. For the pumpkin image on top of the mug, I’ve used an older NN stamp set called “Love a La Carte” (No longer available). I just stamped, colored and fussy cut the image to place over the mug. I also added some gold glitter on the heart above it.
For the background: I cut a piece of paper with the NN Frameworks die set and pulled out some watercolors for the background and then splattered some gold after the background was dry. I layered this over the brown cardstock. I also used a piece of that brown cardstock to white heat emboss the sentiment which came from an older STAMPtember collaboration set with NN called “Talk Turkey“. I cut it out with a banner die and attached it to the side of the scallop panel. The leaves under the mug and over the watercolor panel were from the NN Autumn Mice stamp set and coordinating dies.
I was trying to also follow along with a fun sketch from the Inky Paws Challenge (see below) and so I’ve pulled out some more papers from the NN Coffee House Stories paper pad that I thought went with the coloring on my cup and attached it to an A2 top folding brown card base. I also added a strip of gold glitter paper to bring out the touch of glitter on the tiny heart above the pumpkin.
That’s it for today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my coffee card or have been inspired to create something fun too! I’m off to check out all the other entries for more inspiration! Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Challenges:
Coffee Loving Papercrafters – #fallwinter2024clh 2024 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Hop using coffee, tea, cocoa, and/or apple cider
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 #6 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!
Hello friends! I have a mix of projects that I’ve recently been working on and wanted to share my latest since I’ve gotten all caught up with the projects that I hadn’t posted.
I had a few birthdays come up and of course I forgot to take photos of a few of them before I sent them out the door and now they’re long gone! (DOH!) But I did remember to take photos of these:
I fell in love with the stack of party pups from Newton’s Nookand I always wanted to try out one of those cool card layout dies! The person that I’m sending this to loves his dog and I know the dog also has some “friends” she visits with, so why not a “PAW-ty” of them together!
I’ve used the NN Birthday Barks stamps & diesand colored it out with Copic markers. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in the top right square and added a stamped paw print from the stamp set. All the images were popped up with foam squares.
For the background, I took the NN A2 Card Layout 2 die and cut the frame with all of the stitched pieces using the NN Birthday Woofs Paper Pad. These dies make for some quick and easy cards without much thinking involved which is great when you’re in a hurry!
Next card was made as a thank you for a pizza night using one of those Ooni Pizza outdoor grills. I’ve never had one and so of course being the pizza lovers that hubby and I are, we gladly excepted! Very good pizza it was! I wanted to thank them for having us and made this card:
I’ve used this really cute pizza set from My Favorite Things and I was happy to pull some papers I had for years and years to help pull it together.
I’ve used the MFT A2 Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the checkered pattern paper as well as the light blue panel. I’ve used the MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle dies to cut the white piece behind the blue panel. (The red and white checkered paper is so old…got it at a stamp event so many years ago and hoarded it of course!)
Decorating the pizza was so much fun and I used the same ingredients we received on our Ooni pizza which was a handmade crust, tomatoes, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, cheese and sprinkled with basil leaves. All of the cut pieces to make the pizza came from the MFT Pizza Maker dies and the sentiment came from the MFT Pizza My Heart sentiment set (I don’t see it on the website, so I’m not sure if it’s available any longer?) I stamped it with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I’ve also used the same size stitched rectangle die as the blue panel to cut off a portion of the pizza to make it fit into design.
Lastly, this is a card made hot off the press tonight using the current Craft Roulette parameters! So if you missed it, go catch tonight’s latest episode #228 and play along! This is the card that I’ve made with tonight’s parameters:
I decided I wanted to also use the image from Beccy’s Place August Freebie challenge and add myself another challenge on top of the 4 parameters! I loved the image as it looked so refreshing! I played around with the image on my computer and added an extra one next to it, but flipped it around and placed it behind the other one. I also typed up my own sentiment underneath to go with the “Monday” parameter with Craft Roulette.
Project: I used a Geometric Square stencil for the background with yellow ink and to fit Beccy’s extra twist challenge which was to use something old from your stash, I did dust off those square sequins and brads that I’ve had for years and years to add on the front of the cups. (Now the image reminds me of those Recesses Peanut Butter shakes! YUM!)
Colors: Bee Garden colors are obviously the black and yellow and I had to add in some orange for the guest Irene who is a #teamorange color person.
Element: Monday was typed up within the sentiment.
Random: Use A Marker(s) which the image was colored in with Copic markers.
Ok…so that’s it for me this weekend! I needed to get this posted this evening because I would be missing out on a challenge that I wanted to be sure to play in before time runs out and that will be in like a couple of hours!
Thanks for dropping by today friends! I hope you have an amazing weekend!!
Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying your August so far! Recently, we’ve been experiencing much cooler temperatures than we normally have this time of year, so it’s been great to go out for a few walks.
I’m ALMOST caught up with things that I haven’t posted, with the exception of a few birthday cards that I’ll share later. For today, I’d like to share some projects that I’ve made at an event I attended back in April along with a class from Inky Stamper.
But first, here are a few projects I’ve made for their recent challenges:
This is a tag I’ve made for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group July challenge. The challenge was to make a tag and I thought I’d try out a fun idea of making a pocket for my tag that held another tag inside so that you could put a message and a gift card.
I’ve used some Limeade Dots/Stripe 12×12 Doodlebug paper to cut it out with and used a border die to help with the pocket decoration. I cut another tag to place inside the pocket for a special message and to include a gift card. At the top of the inside tag, I’ve made little “charms” with images from the Inky Stamper Margarita stamp set. I’ve also stamped the background of the inside tag. I don’t usually color with pencils, but this time I decided to pull them out.
To get the sentiment to fit around the pocket border, I had to curve the stamp a bit to make it work with the tag.
So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge for August was to use a white pencil. This happens to be a favorite to use for Chelsea with her images and it does make for a nice quick highlight. So the images were just stamped on colored cardstock and I used the white pencil to highlight them with.
I decided to combine this with last week’s Craft Roulette Episode #226 with the parameters of – Project: “See-through” (I made a see-through shaker card) Colors: “Jungle” (I used greens and browns for my jungle) Element: “Teacher(s)” (The sentiment says it all!) Random: “Tangle” (There are a tangle of leaves inside shaker element.)
Back in April there was an Inky Stamper Inky Escape event that I attended and here are some projects that I made from the Make-n-Takes that were provided as well as some of the projects that I was working on using the new release that came out during the event:
(If you are on my website, click each photo to enlarge it and read the captions)
The tag was made my Chelsea that was attached to my “swag bag” and the box was a make-n-take project. There was a moon pie included with project, but when I came home, I added 4 Ghirardelli chocolate squares to show how many fit inside.This card uses the same stamp set as the tag above. The background is a scratch ‘N’ sniff made with Kool-Aid.This was a light up card using the Pear Blossom EZ Light.Cute make ‘N” take with a magnet on the back of the baby roo that fits inside the mama pouch slit!This was an extra make ‘N’ take using some ALL & Create Washi Tape! Cool!
There is actually another Inky Escape coming up in October that I’m attending and I’m sure it will be fun with Halloween and Christmas theme combined!
While I was there, I worked on some more of my own projects using some of the new sets:
I decided to take and use one 6×6 paper pack from my stash and it seemed to go really well with the outer space theme and I love the purple colors from this set. I’ve used the following Inky Stamper stamps sets: Astronaut, Big Words, & Alien.
Click on the photos below to see a close up look at each card:
Before the Inky Escape Event, there was also an on-line class from Inky Stamper that I took part in and that’s because I thought the projects were super cute! Here are the projects that were completed for this class:
These were both created with the Inky Stamper Hedgehog stamp set. The Journal Book , the Doodlebug DIY Snow globe and Doodlebug dimensional stickers/shaker balls were all provided with the class. I decided to add a few extra elements with mine. The tiny hedgehog on top of the snow globe was included in our box, but not apart of the projects…but I thought it would be fun to add it!
Speaking of Doodlebug, while I was at the Inky Escape Event, Chelsea had a few things on sale and I snagged a kit and special ordered the Doodlebug Frame with it. So when I got back home and the frame came in, I wanted to do my project right away:
I have this displayed in my stamp room and I love the rainbow of colors in it with the different crafty tools in smile faces! The size is 8in. x 8in. with a glass on the front. Although it’s not really that visible in the photo, it is actually quite dimensional.
I think it goes well with the black frame that matches my black frame with the crafty squares swap group I was in. (You can see that post here.)
Whew!😳 I’ve been really busy this year, but I don’t think you would’ve known this without my posting about it! I’m glad that I’ve gotten caught up with things that I’ve done and hopefully I won’t be doing posts like this in the future! It just seems like so much all at once!
Anyway, there we go and now I need to finish and send out a few birthday cards coming up, so I will catch up with that later as well! For now, thanks so much for stopping in and keeping tracks of my sporadic postings! I will be back to share a DT post for a challenge coming!
Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far! We have officially started Spring over my way and now I’m just waiting for the weather to warm up to match it. I’m looking forward to being outside with the flowers!
Speaking of flowers, I saw this really cute image over at Beccy’s Place and wanted to play along, so I printed it out and colored it, but didn’t quite know what I wanted to do with it until I saw Beccy’s tutorial – Tricorn Fold Card: (click name for her tutorial)
Isn’t this so fun!? I thought it was such a unique design that stands up, but also folds flat for a 4×6 card size. I usually make an A2 (5.5″x4.25″) card size, but I can also easily create my own envelope for any size too. It was a bit tricky at first and I messed it up because I put the scores going in the opposite direction, so I had to start over. I wasn’t confident enough to figure out the mat layers of all the angles, so I just added some pattern papers to the largest two panels and then placed blank white on the back of the card for a message.
I also found a stitched hexagon layering die in my stash that worked out for the design which is what I used to cut out my colored mouse and layer behind him. I found a sentiment that worked well for the space I had on my card and then finished it with a couple of teal rhinestones I had laying on my table. It was fun to create, and it will also be great to send out too!
Here’s a closer view of the colored image that I’ve done using Copic markers. I did add a few white dots to his cheeks with a white gel pen as well as the center of his eyes.
I have my card lying flat so you can see that it will fit inside an envelope for mailing. It does spring back up, but I think that’s what will be great for a recipient to pull out of the envelope to see that the card stands up by itself.
Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you’ve enjoyed my card!
Challenges:
Beccy’s Place – March Monthly Challenge optional Bingo (Not sure if the flowers in the image qualify, but if it does then I used the center across row)
Hello friends! Easter is coming for us for very soon and I’ve been enjoying all of the Spring that’s starting to come up outside with flowers and buds on the trees! It’s still a little cool, but hopefully the weather will even out and stay warmer!
Since I’ve been trying to get motivated for Easter, I’ve pulled out some papers from my stash and have been inspired to CASE (copy & share everything) a friend that really inspires me to use things I have! First, I’d like to share a fun Easter card that I’ve made for a sketch challenge that I was inspired by as well:
That sitting bunny is so cute! (Thank you Carol…more on that later in post!) If you check out the sketch from the Sketch Saturday challenge blog (see in challenge list below), you will see all of the fun angle strips in the sketch. I thought it would be fun to pull out some Easter papers from my stash. I wasn’t sure how to do the background until I saw that this sitting bunny worked perfect for a part of the paper pad that had this wheelbarrow image in it! I cut it out from the paper and placed the bunny on it.
For the background of the card, I thought it would be fun to use my stencils to create a scene with grass and clouds. The wheelbarrow bunny fit in the open area and then I used the angles from the sketch to cut pieces with the same Easter paper pad. I just eyeballed everything by marking notches and lining those notches in my paper trimmer to get a straight cut. Even the solid paper on the base layer came from the paper pad. I just cut it A2 size to fit over an A2 top folding white card base.
The sentiment was stamped and cut out with the coordinating die. I added some shadow under wheelbarrow with a green marker (not really the color I wanted, but it worked), and colored a bit of pink on the bunny too. I added teal rhinestones next to the sentiment and done.
Next, I wanted to share something else that I was inspired by from my friend Carol at https://ourlittleinspirations.blogspot.com who sent me a very cool card and kind gift:
She always inspires me with her “snippet” creations and coming up with cards like this one to utilize those pattern papers we hoard so much! The pattern is very pleasing to the eye and so I wanted to create one myself! With all of the papers I have, I’m sure I could make a zillion cards! 😆 I also love how she used a monochromatic green theme with it…which I will need to try another one with this idea! You should go check her blog out and be inspired too!
Also, she was very kind in sending me these die cut sitting bunnies & stools! I do not know exactly where this bunny is from, but I’ve seen it around the craft world. So cute! Thank you so much for your kindness and inspiration my friend!
So here’s the card that I created inspired by Carol. I really love plaids and I thought it would be fun to re-create her design which I measured out her pieces and cut based on what I thought they were. It was really fun and not as hard as it looks like it might be. I wrote the measurements and cut from the same Easter paper pad as I used on the card above. I started with a white base…that way if I messed up, it wouldn’t matter too much. The sentiment piece was also from the same paper pad. I just white heat embossed the sentiment and added some stitch details with a white gel pen.
I used one of the sitting bunnies that Carol provided me with, and tried to match up what I had from my stash the best I could to die cut some hearts along with the A2 side folding card base.
I brushed the hearts with a glitter brush pen and called it done.
I had so much fun playing with these paper blocks and bunnies! I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations and inspiration today as well! Thanks so much for stopping by! C U SOON!
Hello friends! Happy March! I’m happy to see this month come as signs of Spring start popping out everywhere! Pretty soon the flowers will start coming up too! Are you ready for Spring?
Today starts a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog! There is always lots of wonderful inspiration from the team, so please go check it out and play along! The challenges are always ANYTHING GOES with an optional theme. This month’s theme is FANCY FOLD! For these challenges, you have plenty of time to enter as they run for 6 weeks! I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Here’s the project I made:
These birds are ready to party! How fun are those party hats?! I’ve found this really cool take on a “Z” fold card, but this one has been named “Diamond Z Fold Pop-Up Card“. There are so many variations of this that I found on You Tube, but they’re all the same concept of the two diamond shapes on front and then an additional diamond pop-up mechanism on the inside that moves when you open the card. (Click on the card name for a tutorial.) The only thing I did differently than hers was using scallop square die cuts and I covered the pop-up mechanism on the inside with pattern paper so it’s not as noticeable.
I’ve used the My Favorite Things (retired) Birthday Chicks that I stamped, colored and die cut out and arranged over the design. I’ve also used the My Favorite Things (retired) pattern papers and of course the same for the scallop stitched squares. For the white squares, I’ve used a MFT cloud stencil with blue ink for the clouds and the sentiment was white heat embossed and cut out with a banner die.
When this card is closed, this is what it looks like. Notice that you do not see the bird on the inside panel next to the bird on top of the balloon as he is hidden until you open it.
It folds up just like a Z fold would and it’s A2 and ready for a regular A2 envelope. I’ve placed an extra panel on the back of the card for a special handwritten message and decorated it a strip of pattern paper and another party bird. I didn’t put anything on the inside stars pattern because I thought it took too much away from the front of the card and you don’t want an inside message to show on the front of the card. It takes a bit of maneuvering to decorate images and sentiments as to where to put them strategically on the card, but it was so fun!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and go check out the challenge to come and play along with us! I really look forward to seeing all of the different fancy fold projects in the gallery this month!
Thanks so much for dropping by and I’ll see you soon!
Hello friends! I can’t believe that February is gone and we’re moving onto March! That month went by quickly, but now I can look forward to Spring coming, which is a good thing!
I had won a guest spot over at the Once Upon a Time Challenge blog in January, so I’m sharing my project for the March month’s book title: “The Cat in the Hat“! I remember this book so well as I read it so many times as a child! You can be inspired to create with this book/book cover to make your project for this challenge:
I chose to use the cover photo for my inspiration and I remembered something that I had which went perfectly with this theme in mind too:
I kept my card simple because the book cover photo was simple as well. This is a digital image by Bugaboo Stamps(no longer in business) that I’ve had in my computer for a long time. I still pull one out from time to time as they’re so great to color with! The file name on my computer was “Cat in Hat“. Really love that quote from Dr. Seuss!
I printed the image out twice. Once to cut out the entire image panel and then another to color just the cat’s head, cut out and pop up over the image for dimension. I felt compelled to color the background behind the cat in blue to match the cover photo. It was easy to color because the cat was done in black and white with a pop of red color in certain areas. I also added some glossy accents over his nose.
The image panel was layered over a piece of red scallop and then attached to a top folding white A2 card base. I thought it would be a great card to send for encouragement to someone.
I hope you can play along in the challenge as I’d love to see your take with this book! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing some time with me! I’ll be back shortly with another challenge post, so stay tuned!
Happy weekend friends! We’ve had some great sunshine for the last few days and it’s been really nice, but it’s very unusual for us to have these warmer temperatures for this time of the year. I will enjoy whatever it brings for sure! But in the meantime, I’ve also been enjoying time in my craft room getting creative too!
As you know, this month I’ve been sharing several art journal pages as I’ve been hosting this month’s challenge theme over at Art Journal Journey. There is still lots of time left to join in the fun with us and share your inspiration with the “LIGHT” theme and I’d love to see your take on it!
Today, I’m not only sharing my project for that, but it’s also time for our 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” February prompt of “LIGHT” (of course!):
Oh my stars! I don’t know if these guys are expecting several rainy days ahead, but they really want to be prepared for it! For my “stash smashing” I went with using some metallics. Do you have a problem hoarding those metallic things because they’re just so pretty? I am guilty! I’ve used some metallic paper to cut out the lettering, I’ve used some metallic watercolor that I avoid using so I don’t run out and those star sequins I have so many in every metallic color!
For the background: I’ve used a 5.5″x8.5″ piece of Canson watercolor paper with the pre-punched holes at the top using my Zutter machine. I’ve pulled out my watercolors and used shades of blues, but also dark turquoise and dark violet. I’ve used the metallic copper watercolor to splatter over the background for those distant stars. I also added a very light touch of this metallic watercolor on the top highlight areas of the critters, around the wheelbarrow, the net, the lantern and the star with the mouse. (Sometimes it’s hard to capture all of the shine on a project, but this thing is very shinny and sparkly!)
But before I put all of the details on the images, I took a black marker and drew in a ladder to reach up towards the clouds so Mr. Fox could climb up to the clouds and catch his star. I then took a grass border die and die cut a strip in black for the bottom.
All of the stamped critters and clouds came from Lawn Fawn sets. I stamped, colored and die cut them to arrange my scene. Some of images are popped up with foam tape for dimension. As you can see, I’ve added tons and tons of metallic copper sequin stars filling the wheelbarrow, dropping from the sky and even the little bunny is holding his star.
Lastly, I die cut the metallic copper letters, backed them with black cardstock and popped it with foam tape over the page and printed off the quote on the computer and cut them in strips to arrange on the scene.
This was lots of fun to do as I was able to use up some of that hoarded metallic stash! Hope you’ve enjoyed it and gotten some inspiration from it.
Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!
Good evening friends! Tomorrow is about “LOVE” for Valentine’s Day! I hope that whatever you’re doing that you spend it with those that you love or at least tell someone how much they mean to you! I have a special post this evening that is dedicated or inspired by love. ❤️
First up is my art journal page with the prompt/theme of “LIGHT/KEEPING IT LIGHT” that I’m guest hosting this month for the Art Journal Journey Challenge. It’s been so fun to see all of the wonderful art created so far!
This page was inspired by not just the “light” prompt for the challenge, but it was also inspired by the love of my life. We have spent many moons together and have enjoyed our time in the moonlight as we both love nature and have spent some time traveling and seeing some beautiful things. I’m so thankful to have had these special memories with him.
For the background: I started with a 5.5″x8.5″ watercolor with pre-punched holes at the top with my Zutter machine. I used my watercolor to create the blue sky background with an idea of where I was going to place the moon. I left that area to watercolor in the yellow rather than the blue. I then used some white opaque copic watered down and splattered over top for stars. The “moon” was die cut in white with a heart shaped die and I added a moon stencil over top to make it look like a heart shaped moon and glued it in the center of the watercolor background.
The bottom portion was made with just ripping some cardstock and ink blending one with the greens and one with greys and black. I die cut the trees in black and glued them in place and then added the ripped layers over top.
I stamped the Lavinia Stamps “Star Gazers” stamp in black in and fussy cut it out. I colored the rocks they were sitting on as well as their wings and popped them up on the grey ripped border. I also hand drew more rocks around them and used a white gel pen to highlight. I added some glitter to the wings. Lastly, I wrote over black cardstock with a white gel pen, cut them out and attached to the ripped green border. I then used a black pen to doodle around the words.
Next up are a few Valentine cards that I’ve made. I’m actually really bummed because I would’ve shared another two cards that I made, but I forgot to take photos of them before I sent them out! I used a pizza theme and they were so fun!
This first one is for my husband and I’ve used the Craft Roulette #201 parameters to create it:
We had to make an easel card, so I decided to make a heart shaped one. I’ve used the cute skunk from Lawn Fawn with all of the “sweets”. (which was also one of the parameters) My husband loves his sweets! I also had to use “quiet” colors and some sort of bokeh, so I’ve made a bokeh background and used a solid heart stamp in white over the blended colors. It reminds me of those conversation hearts. This skunk makes me smile!
This is another fun card that I’ve made for a friend! I couldn’t wait to use this fun mosaic heart from Taylored Expressions. It came as a freebie for a limited time with a Valentine release. I like that it comes with the solid heart backer which makes putting it together easier. I ink blended a panel in two shades of pink and then die cut the heart with the pieces. I used the frame cut in white and then popped in the ink blended pieces inside the frame.
The embossed heart background was made after cutting out a piece of Bubblegum cardstock with the postage rectangle die. I stamped and die cut the sentiment over top of the heart and added some gold rhinestones.
And this card was done for the Inky Stamper FB challenge which was to create a square card. I have made this one 4.25″ square and used the cute Snail stamp set along with some Doodlebug papers which you can also find in their store.
I just stamped, colored and cut out the images, added a border at the bottom and cut out a scallop square in white and stenciled some clouds at the top. More pink papers onto a white square card base and called it done! There’s nothing better than getting snail mail!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my heart-filled post today and you’ve been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Thursday for a new challenge to try! Happy Valentine’s Day!
