Magnificent Scene, Birthday Crap and Craft Storage

Hello friends! Welcome to September! Really hope that you’ve had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and have had a great start to the month so far! I’m still trying to get my MOJO in gear as I really love this time of the year with all of the wonderful Autumn things happening both outside AND in the crafty world too! Really love when it starts up, but as it gets closer to the end of the year…I’m ready to skip right over it! LOL!

Today I have a fun post to share with some projects I made with several Inky Stamper products! They have a FB challenge to participate in every month and so I thought I’d share what I came up with. (Check it out and play along if you have any Inky Stamper stamps!) *Check out the store as well because there is a brand-new release that just came out!

This was a fun little scene to create on a mini slimline card! So, the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge THIS month (Sept) is to use more than just one Inky Stamper stamp set on one design. I really liked this challenge because it got me thinking of what to use and pull out several different images and actually use them! Looking forward to seeing what other people come up with too! So, for my scene, I’ve actually pulled out EIGHT different stamp sets!!!😮

To start with the background, I pulled out the *Housefly set with the squares image to clear heat emboss the background and then ink blend over top for an “emboss resist” technique. I took the *Rainy Day set and stamped the rainbow/cloud image and fussy cut the clouds to add on the background sky. For the “flying birds” and the “pattern” at the bottom over the green strip, I’ve used the *Pelican set. Of course, the main characters are different sets from *Rosie Solo and *Ralph Solo. For Rosie’s “hair”, I stamped the butterfly from the *Bug Catcher set to color and fussy cut it out which was then popped up over the flower she originally has. I also used this same set to white heat emboss the sentiment. For Ralph, I pulled out the *Snail set to stamp and color a heart which he is holding. I just made a slit around Ralph’s “hand” to help him hold the heart. And lastly, I pulled out the *Bee set to stamp, color and fussy cut the flower image. I cut off the stem and just attached the flowers with one of them popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the butterfly on Rosie and the heart with Ralph using my glitter brush pen. I then added some sequins from the Fall Flowers sequins mix and filled the centers with some Stickles.

So, did I, do it? Did you count out the eight different sets? I think this mouse couple is too cute…and no… they aren’t the “real” mice, these are the good ones to have! 😁

Ralph is showing up again! I needed to make a humorous birthday card for my son and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out it! 😂 This is actually the first card I made for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge, but I didn’t use eight different sets like I did on the one above, I only used four different sets. However, I used REAL TP!

The background was created using some of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper which the “bricks” image was stamped over with grey ink from the *Goat set. I also used this same set to stamp the “grass” border towards the bottom with another strip of green from the same Doodlebug paper pack. I just fussy cut the top of the grass strip to attach over the grey brick background. Of course, the Ralph inside the TP roll came from the *TP set along with the “pile of poo”💩 and the “Oh Crap!!!” sentiment that was white heat embossed over a black banner and popped up with foam tape. The balloon image came from the *Bunny set. I decided to attach a piece of the white Doodlebug twine and pop up the balloon with foam tape. I attached the other end to Ralph’s “hand”. Lastly, the fourth set I used was the sentiment at the bottom from the *Iguana set. (For that sentiment, I only used a portion of it from the stamp.) So that makes FOUR sets used!

The images on this card were colored using my CC Real Brush markers, I stamped the Ralph image again over the TP… yep, stamped directly onto the TP and fussy cut it out to paper piece over the image. Gives it the REAL look and feel of TP! 😉 I have die cut a black scallop frame to go around the scene and lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the balloon and the tiny flies around the “poo” with a glitter brush pen. I didn’t want to add too much as this is a masculine style birthday card.

And then I have one last project to share that I actually made for last month’s challenge that I “squeaked” in just in time too! (See what I did there?!😂) Ralph is just so popular today! I had a plastic bag sitting around on my table that I kept moving out of my way and it was frustrating me, so I made this “container” to hold some crafty things to sit on my table! It’s actually a REALLY old tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers using chipboard coasters! I have SO MANY of those coasters and I was happy to use some up. CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL HERE (P.S. The tutorial is actually done up by Taylor from Taylored Expressions, before her store years! That’s how old it is!)

The challenge last month was to use primary colors on your project which are the red, blue and yellow colors. Not realizing what the challenge would be for THIS month, it would actually fit in with that too! I used THREE different sets for this project. Again, I’ve used the *Ralph Solo set that was colored up and fussy cut out as this was done before the new die came out for him! (see top card) I took out several of the different Doodlebug papers to cover my chipboard coaster panels being mindful of the Primary Color challenge. Rather than leave the papers as is, I decided to pull out the *Inky Greetings set to stamp the splatter image in the coordinating colors with the papers. I also decided Ralph needed to be holding a pencil, so I pulled out the *Owl set and stamped, colored and fussy cut the pencil image which was added to Ralph’s “hand” by making a small slit for him to hold it.

I was happy to pull out some of my old punches to create the backdrop for “pencil holding Ralph” as well as using up those old coasters and some more papers and ribbon from my stash! (I’m really hoping to be doing more of this often!)

I know this was a long-worded post, but hope you enjoyed the projects and got some smiles too! Thanks for catching up with me today! See you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers Birthday – Anything Goes Birthday (2nd card)
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘B’ is for Birthday
We Love Stamping – Anything Goes with stamping (all are stamped!)
Crafting Happiness – NOT A CARD: Anything Goes (3rd project)
The Corrosive – Anything Goes
Try It On Tuesdays – Animals -real or imagined

Lawn Fawn Fever!

Hello friends! I have LOTS to catch up on with all of the blogging of projects that I’ve been working on over the last few months, so I will probably share several projects within one post until I can get caught up!

I know that Christmas in July is going on everywhere right now, so I thought I’d share that along with a few other projects I had going on during my “Lawn Fawn Fever” episode! I have loved their cute little critters for so long and hope you enjoy what I’ve made:

It’s been a while since I even played along with a Lawn Fawnatics challenge, so I decided to join this one which is asking to see your Lawn Fawn “Fun with Food” challenge projects. What could be more fun than sharing Christmas cookies?! I’m not sure I’d share any with mice…but these guys are too cute and add some more fun to the scene. They’re a bit older and I know I’ve had the set for several years as it was one of the STAMPtember sets called “Merry Christmouse“.

I used some older Lawn Fawn papers from my stash to create the table and backdrop setting and then cut it out with the Lawn Fawn Outside In Rectangle dies. I used the following sets which include the one mentioned above for my scene: How You Bean?, How You Bean? Christmas Cookie Add On, and Thanks a latte. I Copic colored them and even added a few stamped images over the cookies including some Chunky Glitter.

For the mouse hanging over the hot cocoa cup, I cut around his arms to fit over the cup. I popped up the candy cane as well at the mouse next to the jar for depth on the scene. I added some touches of glitter and then on the mouse Santa hat, I took some liquid applique and heated it up until it was puffy. The sentiment was white heat embossed over the dark chocolate cardstock and then I just used my scissors to cut it out and attach at the top. Really fun scene to create!

I also took part on Friday with the “Hive Five Kit” class they did using the adorable new Hive Five card kit they came out with recently.

For the first card, I made my sentiment too high, so I had to “arrange it” how it worked for me, and I wanted it to be a birthday card instead. The other project was just the hexagon tag. I changed mine into a shaker and then added to a card. I also added the speech bubble on this one.

The products included with the card kit were really fun and I’m glad I got it!

The majority of this card came from a fun little kit that my sweet blog friend Shirley gifted me included with a SWAP that I was in with her. (Details of that are below.) Really love that she included the backdrop for the sky which worked out perfectly! I actually already purchased this awesome Lawn Fawn Platform Pop-Up die along with the Platform Pop-Up Add-on and the Upon a Star stamp set and dies, but she was so very kind to have all of these pieces already stamped and cut out for me! I just colored in the critters and the stars, added a few more here and there along with some glitter, white heat embossed the sentiment over the navy cardstock and put it together.

I hadn’t even broken out my Platform die at the time, so this was my first time putting one together! It looks a little more intimidating than what it really is, so I had lots of fun with it! Thanks so much for sharing the fun with me my friend! I can’t wait to attempt another one soon! (Thanks for helping me with my addiction! 😁)

And as I had mentioned above, I was asked if I’d be interested in joining this “Summer Sampler SWAP” with my wonderful blog friends Patti, Shirley and Donna along with a few other ladies to take part with! When it was described to me, I quickly realized that I had seen these 12″ x 12″ sized papercraft stamped samplers all over Pinterest. Of course, I had thought to myself that would be fun to create and never did.

Each square is 3-1/4″ and we each were to use the same color for the back layer so it was all similar for the finished project to coordinate well. So 9 of us created 9 squares, kept one for ourselves and then mailed out the others to each person in the swap. Really fun to see everyone’s idea here with the theme of “SUMMER” too! I love them all and thought how fun that each one is so different from the others!

This is my finished 12″ x 12″ shadow box framed piece with everyone’s squares that I’ve attached to a wood panel background paper. I have it hanging on the wall. I think this would be so fun for each season or even gifts! Hope we can do another one!😉

And here’s the square that I did for the swap. I zoomed in to take the photo and it’s behind the glass, so it’s not a real great look at it, but as you see, I’ve used Lawn Fawn again! LOL

I had some fun 4th of July papers and thought it would be neat to make somewhat of a shaker element with confetti stars. I’ve used the Lawn Fawn Dandy Day Flip Flop set along with a mouse from the Bubbles of Joy set for the front of my square. I was trying to give the impression that the mouse had a sparkler, and the sparks were flying while the other mouse was enjoying the show. I used glitter and die cut a star from silver glitter cardstock for the center of the dandelion. I added a red bow at the top. I thought with using a shadow box frame that the dimension wouldn’t be an issue and it wasn’t.

There’s always something fun to keep me hopping, so I know you’ll see more soon including the wedding & painting class projects! I promise I’ll get there! Thanks for dropping by!!

Challenges:

Lawn Fawnatics – Fun with Food (first card)
Crafty Gals Corner – Christmas in July (first card)
Krafty Chicks – Christmas (first card)
CRAFT – Christmas (first card)
Jingle Belles – BLING on the Holidays! (first card)
Double Trouble – Christmas in July Thing 1, Thing 2 & Thing 3 (I’ve used old stamp sets, papers and added some fun bling on my cookies -plus added to the partner challenge in first card!)
Alphabet – ‘H’ is for Holidays (first card)
My Time to Craft – Christmas in July (first card)
Papercraft – Christmas in July

Some Inky Stamper Escaping!

Hello friends! It has not only warmed up over my way, but we went from about 50 degrees to straight up 90 degrees within the last few weeks! I think it’s supposed to slightly cool down in a few days, but I’m happy it’s warmer anyway. Hope that you’re all doing well too. Been wanting to share with you what I’ve been up to, but first I have this fun card I recently made:

I thought this was so fun and easy to create! If you’ve ever made a gate-fold card, try one of these interlocking ones! I love the way it opens up from just a traditional card. This is the first time I’ve tried one of these and I’ve made it for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group‘s challenge…which is to make a gatefold card.

I’ve also used one of the brand-new stamp sets that came out from Inky Stamper called “Iguana“. I’ve stamped the images out on Bristol Smooth watercolor and used my Zig Brush Markers to color them in. The stamp set has a coordinating Iguana die, but I fussy cut the cactus out to place behind him. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut it out with a banner die to place at the bottom of the card.

You will notice that I’ve only attached HALF of the panels on the front so it can be opened freely with the circle frame interlocking with the circle image panel.

To complete the decorating, I’ve used the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper pad and added some Picket Fence Reflections Gems for a few accents on the front. I also took a few markers to add some stitch lines.

Here’s what the card looks like when it is completely shut. You just have to be sure that the two circle panels can freely open without interference, which is why I had to cut a very small piece from the Iguana’s tail so it could close properly. I honestly don’t think it takes anything away from the design.

And then when the gatefold opens, you can see my inside sentiment. I’ve taken a strip of the paper I’ve used on the front and added it to the inside to make it all cohesive. (I think I’ll add some stitch lines to it now that I’m looking at it.)

And speaking of “Inky Stamper“, I had a really fun time not this past weekend but the prior weekend taking part in the “Inky Stamper Escape Event”! I spent the weekend crafting, doing some fun make’n takes, shopping and meeting the special people behind the company! So very exciting and so much fun…especially meeting new friends!

SO EXCITED to have met Chelsea and Kim! Really enjoyed the time and trying out all of the new things!!

Here we are! This is the crew that stayed for the weekend although there were several others that stopped in to partake in the make-n-take fun or do some shopping. It was so fun to meet some new friends and get to know them too!

And of course here are the Make-n-takes we did with all of the new release items! Lots of interactive fun with a waterfall card, shaker card, slider card, mini treats and even a mini card with a cool foiling technique.

The swag bag was too cute with a special tag that had my name on it, an Inky Stamper pin and lots of fun goodies inside (not shown). Plus an Inky Stamper mug with some yummy goodies inside too! Aside from being spoiled, it was fun to be able to stamp with friends while working on some of my own projects. Really great time and special thanks to Chelsea and Kim for making it a memorable one.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my gatefold card and post today! Thanks so much for stopping in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group – gatefold card
Crafty Friends – Animals and/or birds (including insects)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)
Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Hello! Anyone still with me?

Hello there friends! I know that I had posted that I’m stepping away , but this blog is still “active” for now and I have been crafting anyway… so after stepping away from it, I still follow along with different companies and inspiration on FB. But because I have SO much product and I wanted to be able to actually USE the things that I have instead of letting it just “sit around”, I was taking photos and posting (in FB groups) anyway, so I thought why not just BLOG IT?! Not just the crafty aspect of it all, but blogging itself is a bit of a release too. It gives me a “record” of my crafty experience, what and why I might have done something…so I decided for my own personal reasons, to come back to this “old dinosaur” method to enhance my crafty journey. It may not be exactly like it had been before, but that’s how crafty journeys evolve.

It’s been fun and busy with hubby being retired and home, but after getting use to it and traveling a bit, I was and still am taking a few classes here and there and just having fun. Because of the pandemic, so many companies have turned to “online” classes, conventions, challenges, etc so I thought it was a great opportunity to try some of that out without the expense of traveling for it! I’ve done several actually, but just mainly posted within the groups they were made for. Then I started thinking once again about all of the “stuff” I have and still ARE accumulating…so my mission is to actually use the product I have. I will try NOT to keep purchasing in the future! (Let’s see how THAT goes! LOL!) The blogging might help keep me motivated in doing that too…I hope!

So if you are still following…Wow! Thanks for being here!! Not really sure how often I will be posting, but this will be mainly where I will be sharing anything “crafty” that I’m doing. Maybe I can inspire someone to use their own crafty stash? Hope you can join the fun with me here too! 🙂

I’m starting with a couple of summer classes that I just recently completed with Taylored Expressions. She did a class earlier this month with a set of 4 completed cards using similar style products for each class. The first one was called the “Gifted” class:

The top left card was used with a watercolor wash for the background. There’s a cover plate die that cuts out all those presents which I used on the card below that one to arrange over the sponged square area. The cards on the right side were both ink blended with the bottom right card using a stencil. I’ve also added some sparkle with a glitter brush pen and some glossy accents to the die cut “YAY!” lettering. Envelopes with seals were also included with this class set which you can see on the far right of the photo. I always need birthday cards, so these will work out great!

This next set is also from Taylored Expressions that I just finished up this weekend. Really enjoyed this class with some things that I forget about doing with my cards:

This class was called the “Diamond Botanical” class with another set of 4 cards. The top left card was fun with a more mixed media style using paint for the background and splatters. The only thing that I changed up was the background stamp. I didn’t have the stamp from Taylored Expressions that they used in the class, so I used a Stampin’ Up! Birch background stamp I found in my stash. (So yay that I’ve already started with using my existing stash with the new!)

The top right card is a shaker card and the bottom left card is a gate fold card with the sentiment panel helping to hold it in place. Again, with this class we were given envelopes with the matching seals off to the right. These were fun little classes to take and get some cards completed with!

Hope you enjoyed these sets too and were inspired! Are you taking any virtual or in-person classes or events this Summer? Has your crafting experience changed for you recently and what things have you changed about it?

I know I’ll be back again with more creations I’ve been working on. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you’re all doing really well! Have a great day! 🙂

Reminder for the Blues at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a nice weekend as your days are growing closer to Christmas.

Today I have a reminder for you about the “Shades of Blue” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and that you still have a few days left to enter your blue shaded projects! Hope you’ll join us! Although thoughts of winter, Christmas and snowflakes come to mind with these colors, I’ve decided to take the colors in a different direction for this week:

Blues made me think of a masculine birthday which is something that I needed for a birthday card for my dad this last week, so my thoughts turned to him when making this card. He’s been having some medical issues recently and I wanted to send him a happy card along with some real balloons to help try and cheer him up a bit. My heart is heavily with him right now as he deals with many physical issues.

For my card, I first started with a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and ink blended some blue oxide inks over the panel with Chipped Saphire, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean Oxide Inks. I die cut the large sentiment die and balloon dies from this piece and then attached the sentiment to a die cut vellum shadow behind it.

I stamped some images with the same blue inks I blended with over a white panel along with doing a very light ink blending in the center of it before attaching the die cut sentiment over top. I then attached that panel to a blue die cut panel and again over a white die cut panel and finally attaching it to an A2 sized side folding blue card base. Lastly, I popped up and glued the die cut balloons along with the silver strings also die cut around the sentiment panel keeping in mind the placement of the strings. I added a few blue sequins to finish it off.

In this close-up photo, you can see the details of the background more clearly along with the shimmer over the balloons which I went over with a glitter brush pen.

So I hope that you’ve enjoyed my birthday card today and were inspired to pull out your blue shaded stash and have a play with them! Really look forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge! Be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Blog and see what the Cupcake Sweeties have to inspire you with this week as well!

Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

The Divas That Cut Paper – Dec Anything Goes + die cut machine.
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #147 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #12 December Anything Goes
AAA Birthday – #20 Twinkle
Creative Moments – #204 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC301 Occasions
Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

Retirement Time and More Whimsy Stamp Workshop Retreat Projects

Hello there friends! It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it to November and rounding the corner to end 2020! It’s been a very strange year all the way around, but I have to say that it’s a bitter sweet day today as hubby will have his last day of work on his 40 year career as an electrician. So today I’m dedicating my post to him:

This would be a perfect situation for my hubby and something he talked about all the time…which was to go out to the lake, relax, enjoy some fishing time on a boat including staying in a cabin. Sure look forward to spending some time with him doing just that next year too!⛵🌅 He is a hard worker and certainly deserves it.

The stamp set that I’ve used for this card was a perfect scene image from Whimsy Stamps called Happy Place. I colored it up with Copic markers and cut it out with an oval die and layered another oval piece from black cardstock.

I found some papers in my stash that I thought would be perfect with this, so I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio Dies to cut it with to fit half-way on my A2 white side folding card base. Before attaching the piece down over the base, I took some Mustard Seed Oxide Ink and sponged across the middle of it and then used some Tumbled Glass Oxide Ink slightly at the top. I then attached all piece including the image panel.

I took the sentiment from the Happy Place stamp set and stamped one of the sentiments at the top of the oval panel and then I white heat embossed the “relax” sentiment over black cardstock and cut it out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set, glued it along the edge and trimmed off the excess. Lastly, I’ve added some Whimsy Stamps It’s a Party Enamel Dots.

Then of course I wanted to share the inside of the card which you can see that I’ve used the same image from the stamp set from the front of the card and just stamped that in a lighter grey ink color. I masked off the edge of the inside of the card so it didn’t stamp completely. I also used it in the same way on the envelope as well.

For the greeting, I took the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word Die and cut it out with some black cardstock and then attached it with liquid glue. I stamped the “retirement” greeting right underneath it from the Whimsy Stamps Happy Sayings stamp set with black ink.

It may be hard to tell in the photo above, but I’ve also taken a glitter brush pen and went over the sun as well as the water for some added sparkle.

This card was actually fun to put together and I was thinking about the future and all the things we had talked about the last few years and getting ready for this day. Things are a bit different than we had envisioned of course, but we will have “our time” for sure. We’re so excited about it!

This card is being handed to him this morning while we have our coffee before he leaves for work on his last day!😀

And now I also have some more finished kits that I’ve been working on since the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Workshop Weekend! I’m still really enjoying finishing them up and still have MANY more to do! I’m so amazed at how much we received and very happy that there were several Christmas projects which I’ll be working on next! For now…here’s more of the finished kits:

This was for kit 12 and I LOVED the cute dragon in the purples! This card is going to my youngest grandchild as she is my “PURPLE girl”!!

This is the INSIDE of Kit 12. It was a really cool “FUN FOLD” design! I put my image off to the edge so I had room to write a message.

This was for Kit 6 and the entire scene was made using Copic coloring including the sky background! The squirrel and pumpkins were popped up with foam tape.

This was for kit 21 and my first time practicing with no-line coloring!

This was for kit 22. This mega large sunflower is gorgeous! Loved coloring and fussy cutting it out!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my projects and post today! I sure have been having fun just playing and trying out different things with my cards. I do look forward to finishing up these kits as we get near the Christmas time! So be watching for more of those!

Thanks for dropping in with me today and I’ll see you again soon!

Challenges: (For Retirement Card ONLY)

Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes Nov
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes Nov
Love to Craft – LTCCB52 Anything Goes Nov
QKR Stampede – #407 Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #145 Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge – #11Nov Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2044 Anything Goes

Birthday Penguin Slimline🐧

Hello friends! There are SO many things going on this month and I’m having such a hard time keeping up with all of it! After having some computer issues and trying to figure out what’s going on…I realized how far behind I am with my crafting! I have waaay too many new things I want to play with too! Really hate it when that happens!🤨😅 Totally missed out on World Card Making Day this year…however…

..before the WCMD “Inspired By” challenge ends over on the Whimsy Stamps Inspiration Blog, I wanted to be sure to play along which is using one of the design team’s projects for inspiration to create your own project:

I have made this fun slimline card using the Whimsy Stamps Penguin Poop stamp set along with the Whimsy Stamps Slimline Connected Bubbles die for my card today. I am a huge penguin fan and these guys crack me up so much!

I wanted to keep the colors in a cool tone. Over a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper, I’ve cut it down to fit over a black side folding 3.5″ x 8.5″ slimline card base. (I use the 8.5″ measurement because I find the size easier to use with a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ cardstock. Then I only need to cut at 7″ on the long (11″) side and score in half at 3.5″ on this same side. I am then left with another piece for layering over the slimline card if I choose.) It’s easier to remember also…which is something good for me right now! LOL! I digress…

I’ve used the Pink and Main blender brushes to ink blend Weathered Wood, Shaded Lilac, Broken China and Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks for the background and then I used a water spritzer to make the droplet pattern over it.

I’ve cut the Slimline Connected Bubbles die from some Brutus Monroe Mermaid Glitterstock and glued it over the ink blended background. I had a left over border of a punched out goo drip from white glitterstock, so I used the die to cut out pieces to glue over top of some of the circles from the die. I stamped the sentiments inside a couple of the circles where I wanted with black ink and then used some foam dots to pop out the stamped and fussy cut penguins.

Lastly, I’ve taken a black marker to make some stitch marks along the edges of the ink blended panel and glued on some clear sparkling crystals.

Here’s closer view of one of the penguins. It was very easy to grab a couple of Copic markers to color them in with and they were pretty easy to cut out along with the balloon. I’ve used a black twine to connect the backside of the balloon and added a dab of glue to the penguin’s hand.

I used a glitter brush pen over the balloon and then added some glossy accents to both of the penguin’s big eyeballs.

This was such a fun card to create and it will be perfect for a winter birthday I will have coming up soon!🥳 The way I’ve been crafting behind, this will help out to have ready on hand when I need it!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed my slimline card and that it has brought you a smile! I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Whimsy Stamps Inspirations – WCMD Inspired By challenge (Bev’s card)
Shopping Our Stash – #430 On Trend Slimline
Crafty Animals – #43 Anything Goes + animal
2 Crafty Critter Crazies – #43 Anything Goes + animal
Moving Along with the Times – #123 Animals and/or Birds
Cute Card Thursday – #654 Anything Goes
Craft Rocket – #75 Add Sparkle
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional winged things

Sports Reminder for {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge

Hello friends! Stopping by with a reminder today that there are still a few days left to join our “Sports” themed challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} blog! Hope you will join in the fun with us!

It’s that time of the year over here in the U.S. for Fall football season and I have some male family members that enjoy watching it along with having birthdays around this time which brings me to making these type of cards for them! So this challenge has worked out really well for that! So here’s my second card for this challenge:

I’ve pulled out this older Stampin’ Up! stamp set that I refused to part with just for this reason because I knew that I would be using it down the line…which is the “Great Sport” stamp set. (I think it’s maybe circa 2013?)

I think the embossing folder is just as old if not older than the stamp sets that I’ve used as it has that pattern on it that would remind you of the football texture. (pigskin leather as the guys say) I’ve recently picked up some sport themed decorative papers and thought I would use a strip down the center of my design and then I’ve also used the same pattern to stamp the wings and football images over that were all fussy cut out with scissors.

For the navy banner in the background, I’ve used a die cut to cut it out with and then stamped some stars with white ink over it and then sponged around the edged of it as well. I took another strip of orange colored cardstock and stamped a fun birthday greeting over it and then added some stars around it that were punched out from navy cardstock. All of these layered were attached over an A2 sized top folding navy card base.

Really thought it would be fun to add an interactive detail to this card as well by adding a wobbler to the back of the football image. So when you put your finger along the side of the ball, it will wobble.🏈😂 (something fun for the birthday guy to play with!)

For the decorative papers I’ve used, I took a sand block to distress the edges a bit and smooth out the edges of my fussy cutting details.

Hope this will help bring a smile!

Thanks so much for dropping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon friends!

Challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday – WWC291 5th Week Anything Goes

2. Krafty Chicks – #527 Stamp Act

3. Love to Craft – LTCCB51 October Anything Goes

The “Power of Practice” Blog Hop

Hello friends! I’m so excited to be sharing a special collaboration blog hop with my fellow crafty friends collab FB group as we share our own personal progression on how practice over time can help to increase your confidence and skills within your crafting journey.

So please grab your favorite beverage and join us in this fun and informative blog hop that shows how “the power of practice” can be utilized in your own crafting! (highlights are done in red.)

I would like to start off by stating each person’s experience is their own journey and will run on it’s own pace which is something that we all need to be aware of and patient with. Some particular skills will take much longer to grasp than others and you need to take it easy on yourself without harsh judgement. Just enjoy the process and have fun with it! (That was and still is the hardest thing for me to learn.)

Although I’ve been paper crafting for the last 20 years or so, I’ve been involved in several different crafts throughout my entire childhood or since I could hold a crayon in my hand! My grandmother as well as my mother has passed down their experience with crafts which I learned from and picked up many others along the way including what I love today. So some things I do may already come naturally for me without recognizing where it came from because it was taught to me long ago. There are some things, however, that I’ve had to spend the time learning.

Now taking classes aren’t the ONLY way to learn something for sure! Good ole “Trial and Error” are great for learning and gaining personal experience from…which I tend to learn the most from actually!😁 Another thing that helps is new tools/products to help make the process easier or look more “finished” or “professional” in nature. When I first started with my stamps, there was not a common heat tool for instance. I had to heat emboss over a stove! So times have changed as well as techniques and inspiration. Inspiration is EVERYWHERE over the Internet too! Many people have so many clever ideas…I wish I could keep up with them all! Some things may not be of interest to you and others may intrigue or intimidate you. Find what interests you the MOST..at the time…and work on it because you will love learning about it which means you will gain more knowledge from it. You don’t have to share with others what you do as long as YOU enjoy what you’re doing. Do what feels right to you and your journey. It’s never about others, it’s about YOU!

I feel like I could write an entire book on just this matter, but since this is a visual craft, it’s better to “see” with your eyes sometimes or show how things can come together…or not!🤨

I’m starting with a photo of a card I had made back in 2007 when I had already been a year into having a blog and was still a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator at the time. Even the technology of simply taking a photograph has improved tremendously over the years…

Neighborhood_by_basement_stamper

I no longer have most of the products used here and I had to lift the photo from my Splitcoaststampers gallery as they have stored my oldest photos I have anywhere. This was the first place that I shared anything I made online. (There are 124 pages of my gallery and if you look through, you will see the progression over time.)

Now I could really criticize myself and pick this all apart, but it was part of my process at the time. And at that time, I was happy with it. It looks like I’ve colored with ink pads and a blender pen, cut out the images with scissors as well as cut fringes of the grass border. (tools have improved since and many purchases have been made as well!😊) As we move forward, I can share how I updated that design today:

Vicki-CraftyChefs and POPhop

What I have decided to do was to take the photo of the older card above and make an updated version of the same design, but with the mindset and techniques that I’ve learned since. You can see that my coloring has improved as well as the different tools and items that have been updated to help with my design execution. I still used similar colors, similar layout design as well as coloring an image, but just maybe updated the look from the practicing of not just the coloring over time, but the practice of just cutting the layers and putting things together as compared to years past. Just meerily putting together card after card has helped me with the practice and made me better aware. So you can see how just putting together a card in general, with practice, can help improve skills!

Another tip I find helpful is to join your fellow crafty friends in groups and collaborations like this blog hop as well as other groups which is what I’ve also made this card for, called “The Crafty Chefs“, where we take turns coming up with a new “recipe” to follow each month. There’s no pressure, just a group of friends coming together, learning from each other through challenges, and inspiring one another as we enjoy our love of crafting! For me, this is a huge deal. Check out the link above if you’re interested in joining with us! It’s still fun to craft, but it’s even better when it’s shared with someone. So here’s the September Crafty Chef’s recipe that our head chef Linda has come up with for us to use.

(I have used ALL of the “must do” items and then added a couple of pearls from the “can do” items.)

I have found that within the last several years, many people enjoy watching video tutorials on You Tube..which makes sense because seeing someone actually doing something or putting something together is a better way to learn rather than just seeing a finished photo of a project. So to see how I’ve made my latest card for my son’s birthday, check it out below or CLICK HERE to view on my You Tube channel:

Hopefully through the video you were able to learn a few things that you can incorporate into your own card making. Sometimes we can improve upon ourselves by even trying to recreate something we’ve done in the past and add some new things you’ve learned along the way. It’s a great way to see how far you’ve come along and not be so critical of yourself to remind you that you are always learning, as I still am right now as well.

I have to chuckle at this card for my son’s birthday as he is a fun-loving jokester that will appreciate this along with the fact that it’s a bear image. He was nicknamed “Bear” in his school years, so I thought these Big Grumpy products from Taylored Expressions would work perfectly for this! I’ve also used the Big Grumpy Birthday stamps to go with him along with the other products used in my video above.

For the sparkle, I’ve taken some Stickles Star Dust glitter and added to the birthday hat as well as the center of the bow in the present. I used a glitter brush pen over the balloon and bow. I added dots to his cheeks, hat and the present with a white gel pen. I forgot to mention in the video that I’ve added a couple of brown pearls to the blue strip so that I added something from the “can do” list for the Crafty Chefs recipe!😉

I really hope that this post was helpful as well as enjoyable for you and that you received some benefit for taking the time to read over it. I know that I will be looking forward to seeing what my other crafty friends have to share and inspire me with! I think there is something to learn from everyone no matter how long you’ve been doing it.

The power of practice simply means, to me, being able to refine your skills into something that you want to be better at, take in more information or take it to the limits of your ability. This is done by repeating often and over time to increase or add to your knowledge of what you’re trying to improve upon. If we are not trying new things, then we are not learning or growing as individuals.

Thanks so much for stopping by my friends and I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Inkspirational – Birthday Photo
Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Dragonfly Dreams – Happy Birthday Traci!
The Corrosive Challenge – #9 Sept Anything Goes
Creative Moments – #198 Anything Goes optional: Make it Funny
AAA Birthday – #17 Animals & Critters
Creative Craft Cottage – #133 Include and Animal
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Humorous/Fun Card

{Cupcake Inspirations} Bithday Celebration Day 12 -Party Ending Soon!

Here we are friends! This is my final day of inspiration to share with you on Day 12 of the special celebration over at {Cupcake Inspirations} for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! WHAT A PARTY IT HAS BEEN!! WOW!🧁🎉

Today, we are highlighting with our last but not least sponsor Inky Stamper – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

The DT was generously given a stamp and die set to use for our creations:

Vicki-CIC500-Day12-InkyStamper

I have used this Oh so adorable Cupcake stamp and die set for my 4.5″ square card design. So I thought it would be fun to create a fun little scene where you have the mouse coming out of his little “mouse hole” in the wall where he discovers this delicious looking cupcake with the sprinkles falling about! 😂

I started by masking off the middle of the square panel and created the “floor” by ink blending from the middle out. I then moved my masking by covering that area up and used the negative from an oval die cut area to ink blend the “mouse hole” on the scene. Lastly, I wanted it to look like a “wall”, so I just took a brick stencil and inked over it to go around the “mouse hole”

I stamped, colored and die cut the image and then popped him up with foam tape over the scene and stamped the sentiment underneath him. I just glued on the sprinkles for the card. I mounted the image panel over a die cut scallop square and then added a strip of sparkle washi tape over the card base. (The scallop square panel was popped up with some craft foam.) Hard to see in the photo, but I’ve brushed some glitter over the cupcake frosting!

Thank you so much for joining me here every day to check out the inspiration I’ve made from each of our sponsors. I’m so glad that you took the time to celebrate right along with us! I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

The House That Stamps Built – A2620 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday – Inky! (used distress inks, masking and stencils for background)
Creative Knockouts – #365 Anything Goes