Taylored Expressions Sept Birthday Challenges & Exciting News!🥳

Hello friends! Happy Friday and are you ready for the weekend? I’m supposed to be helping hubby with some outside work, but my allergies have been bad and I’m not feeling well. Hopefully some medicine will be helping so we can get things finished up!

I have been a “grumpy” fan of Taylored Expressions for a few years as you might have seen in some of my past posts…so of course I get “pulled in” by other cute products too and that’s what happened…my story anyway! In their FB fan group there is a monthly #TEmakerchallenge with prompts to follow as long as you use at least one of their products. So I’ve made a fun card for this month I’d like to share:

Now how CUTE are these little critters?! During TE’s Sept birthday month (13 years in business), they released a collection of birthday related items, and this is the introduction of “Chip & Charlie Party“! I’m saying that Chip is the bird and Charlie is the raccoon…not sure, but that’s what I’m saying! LOL I’ve colored them up with Copic markers and added some shimmer to the balloon, party hats and cherry on cupcake with a glitter brush pen. I’ve also added some highlights with a white gel pen.

I wanted something in the background, but not too distracting from the critters, so I stamped the Party Time background stamp in the same cardstock color (Cherry Pop) I then used the stencil from this combo set to white ink blend the tops of the hats. The paper strip accents came from a TE paper pack I had in my stash. I thought it needed an extra little image element on the front of the card, so I added some Doodlebug Twine and the party hat from Big Grumpy-Birthday, colored with Copics and popped up with foam tape on bottom corner. It was covered with a glitter brush pen, and I also added a Doodlebug Matte Sprinkle at the top of the party hat and in the center of the twine bow.

You might notice that the image panel is not completed adhered to the card front and there’s a score mark in the center as well. So, I was going for something a bit different than a regular A2 birthday card…and the Sept challenge prompts are 1. Heat or non-heat embossing, 2. Napa Valley color quad and/or 3. Something that begins with “E” You have to pick at least one of these along with a TE product. So, for the “E” I’ve decided on making an Easel card…

So, when you open up the bottom flap, you place it behind the popped-up sentiment that was white heat embossed (also a challenge prompt) and cut out with the coordinating die from the “Get the Word Out-Celebrate” set. I’ve also added some more of those yellow polka-dot papers and a thin strip of Cookie Monster cardstock which is what I used to mat behind the image panel as well as for the sentiment. There is still room to line the inside of the card with a special birthday message.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and please see at the end of this post for other challenges I’ve entered…PLUS a special birthday give away if you’re interested!

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Now for some EXCITING NEWS

Taylored Expressions was holding a special set of birthday challenges this month in their FB fans group with certain prompts for each one. There was a set of four different challenges, and I decided to make something for each challenge, and I ended up winning a future guest design spot for a future release! WHAT?! Taylor shared which one was her favorite I made in THIS FB ANNOUNCEMENT, but I will share all the creations I made here: (click on the photos to enlarge them if you are viewing them on my blog.)

The first challenge was using Toffee color cardstock/ink + ROYGBIV (rainbow) colors. I made a theater fold design with the Toffee card base and a stenciled rainbow colored background. I also counted out exactly 13 candles to use on the front of the card for TE’s 13th birthday. I’ve also stenciled a few Toffee confetti sprinkles over top. When you pull on each side of this card, it opens up which you can see in the photo below.

I honestly wasn’t thinking about winning anything! I was basically just enjoying the process of creating and pulling out some stash that I hadn’t yet used and wanted to use so I thought I’d just play along. I was very surprised to see that I was picked as a winner! Very humbled and honored by that! So be watching for an upcoming GDT post!

I have actually joined several of Taylor’s classes, virtual events, etc. and have made many cool things during the time that I wasn’t blogging, so I never shared them… but like I said, I’ve been creating and having fun! I do remember something fun she taught in a virtual event from July I was a part of that was Halloween themed, so I’ll have to pull those cards out soon as well since the time is coming up and I do love me some Halloween! 🎃

One last thing! With all of the fun and exciting things going, I realized it’s my birthday month as well! I’m not 13, but let’s just say a few years older!😁 So I think the best thing to do for my birthday is to give rather than receive! If you feel the same and think someone would enjoy this little Taylored Expressions bundle that I have shown above in the photo, let me know! If you’d like to gift this for yourself, let me know! I would love to give someone these extra set of items already in my stash to someone! There is a Banner Simple Strips die, a 3 piece balloon layering stencil with a clear stamp set combo, a Cupcake ink pad (unwrapped, but NOT used at all, I just noticed I already had one after unwrapping it!) and a tiny cake and celebrate stamp set all from Taylored Expressions and perfect for party making! (There may be a few other things added as well!)

Please just leave me a comment that you are interested in the TE give away by October 10th, 2021 and I will be happy to pick someone to send it out to!

Whew! I think that’s about it! Thank you for stopping by friends and enjoy your weekend!

I’d like to enter the top easel card ONLY in these challenges:

Taylored Expressions FB Fans Group Sept #TEmakerchallenge – heat/dry embossing and easel card for something beginning with “E”
Festive Friday – #FF0093 I used: balloons, red & twine
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (birthday)

August GDT for Inky Stamper!

Hello friends! Wanted to thank you for your kind comments! Like I previously mentioned in my last post, I’ve still been crafting and following on FB by joining some classes, challenges, etc. So, although I haven’t been active on my blog, I’ve been crafting and sharing over there once in a while. Just having some fun while using more of my crafty stash is all! However, while playing around on FB, this happened:

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to join as a guest designer for Inky Stamper this month! Yay! If you haven’t heard of this company, check out the stamps…they’re too cute and the owner, Chelsea, is so fun too! She has such an infectious excitement about her that you can see if you happen to catch her on one of her weekly FB lives every Tuesday at 7:30 pm CST. (On the Company FB Page)

So, I will be sharing my creations using Inky Stamper products every Wednesday this month and I hope that I will be able to INKspire you with something fun! I’m starting this Wednesday with some products that just recently released:

The first thing that Summer reminds me of is flip flops! There is a cute little image of flip flops in this Splash stamp set which inspired me to create this shaped card and birthday tag! That’s also where that cute little mouse you see is from as well! But the sun and chair come from the Chaise Lounge stamp set, which I’ve combined both sets to use on my creations here. I think these two sets go hand in hand with each other and it’s probably best to just get them both! If you choose to get the dies with these sets, it cuts out the mouse and frog separately from the floaties they’re already on so you can pop them up! So, they work on the floaties as well as the chairs. So cute!

For my flip flop card, I’ve taken a very old template that I had found in my stash while cleaning up my craft room and thought this would be perfect to make a shaped card with! I started by tracing the pattern for the base of my card and cutting two shapes so that I can make a card that opens from the side as you see in the photo. The card measures approx. 7″ x 3.5″. It’s a bit taller than a mini slimline card, but I can easily make my own custom envelopes with my envelope punch board. This is another fabulous way to use up those hoarded papers too!

I took the smaller template and used the fun Doodlebug Floral & Graph paper pad (Available in the Inky Stamper store too!) to cut the inner flip flop pattern with. (I had to angle the template to make it fit onto the 6×6 sized paper.) I added a couple of flowers from my stash along with the matching ribbon for the flip flop straps before attaching to the card base. Colored the images, cut them out and added the sentiment strip at the bottom and cut it to measure with the inner flip flop edge. I added some texture by sanding the edges of the paper too.

Here’s a little tip if you’re cutting out the stamped mouse image from the floatie: When you use the die to cut it out, the edges around it will have some stamped lines on it where the white border is. All I did was take a white gel pen to cover up those lines to that it looks like a perfect white line around the image! P.S. This is also a great way to cover any coloring mistakes made! 😉 This also works for fussy cutting an image as well!

I popped up “Rosie” (the mouse), as she is called, with foam tape over the chair. I’ve also added some Doodlebug gems to the center of the flower on Rosie and for the flower at the top of the flip flop card.

I thought this would be a nice summer birthday card so I wanted to make a matching tag to go with it. I’ve pulled out the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die and used it for this tag design. Again, I pulled out the Doodlebug Floral & Graph paper pad and used this die to cut my tag with making sure that the center of the envelope die would be cut out. This is what I’ve used for the base of my tag. I like using these papers because they’re double sided. That way the back still has a nice color/pattern to it too.

I used this particular die for my tag because of the size. Putting another strip of paper on the back side of this tag will create a pocket for you to tuck a gift card inside if you want to use it for that! See below:

Vicki-InkyStamperGDT-flipflop-tagbackpocket

Since there are score marks to make the envelope, I ignored those lines and used my paper trimmer to cut out the center which is where the orange base of my tag came from. I cut off the top two corners diagonally and punched a hole at the top which created my tag. I also die cut the envelope tag again with the Doodlebug Swiss Dot Paper Pad this time being sure that I had a good portion of the scallop edging cut from it. I used that piece for a design element on the tag.

I stamped the sentiment and flip flops from the Splash stamp set as well as the sun from the Chaise Lounge stamp set, colored them, fussy cut/die cut them out to add to the tag. I used a black pen for stitch lines along the edges. I added my own hole reinforcer circle punched out and then added some Doodlebug Bumblebee Twine to the top. Finished it off with a couple of clear sequins from the Fishy Wishes sequins mix and filled the centers with Nuvo Glitter drops. I also covered the sun with a Sparkle Glitter Pen.

I hope that I’ve INKspired you today with my summer flip flop theme! Thanks so much for dropping in here. If you’d like to see more from this company, be sure to join the Inkystamper Inkspiration FB group! Hope to see you there! Have a great day!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Just Us Girls – Anything but a card (tag only)
Daring Cardmakers – Gift Tags Galore (tag only)
Moving Along With the Times – Summer Fun and/or Colors (orange/yellow)
NBUS #29 – Aug “Never Before Used Schtuff” (never used new stamps!)
Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
Sparkles Monthly – Outdoor Fun
2 Crafty Critter Crazies – ATG + critter

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

Bright Birthday and More Whimsy Retreat Projects!💡

Hello friends! Hope that you’re having a great week so far! Hubby and I are trying to figure out how this “retirement thing” goes together! LOL! I think we’ll be having so much fun and we’re just really excited about the future and what we’ll be doing.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday he also celebrated a birthday and of course I had to make him a card that was suited for an electrician. I had to add a bit of humor about his age on the inside, but this is what I came up with:

I’ve had this Stampin’ Up! Sunburst die and stamp set and haven’t used it that much since I bought it. (Quite a while ago! Not quite sure how old. LOL) I thought it would make a great light beam for my VERY old Simon Says Stamp ‘Watts Up’ stamp set that was from a past card kit. (circa 2014/2015) …yep, all old!

I die cut the sunburst from some yellow and gold glitter stock that I glued together slightly off-set and then attached it over a side folding A2 sized black card base. I stamped the sentiments over a couple of the yellow strips with black ink taking care to make room for the circle panel.

I then stamped the lightbulb over a white piece of cardstock and colored the base with Copics and used a marker draw a line above it for the string. I took a solid heart from the stamp set and heat embossed it with some Gold Metallic Gilded EP and then sponged some yellow ink over the bulb for some glow. I die cut it out with a circle die and then layered over another die cut circle black piece and popped it up over the sunburst layers with foam tape.

I tied a bow with some black twine and glued it to the light bulb base. I also stamped the bulb in a lighter gray ink over the envelope and added a string to that as well with a gray marker. (The inside of the card said: “Old is the new black.” 😆)

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And I also wanted to share that I’m still plugging away on the several kits that I received from the Whimsy Stamps Virtual Retreat last month! These are really amazing projects and I’m having lots of fun putting them together still! (Christmas will be coming next. So, stay tuned for those!):

This is a fun interactive card with a pull tab at the top where this cut little dragon slides upwards towards the sky! This kit 9 came with an A2 sized envelope, but I had to make my own envelope slightly larger to accommodate for the pull tab sticking above the card. I’ve added doodle lines around the edges and shadow stamped a sentiment at the bottom for my own added details.

This set was from kit 14. The hexagon shaped box was super fun and even came with the candy! There was also an extra stamped and cut out bee, so I used it to make another card… shaker style! I used the left over honeycomb die cut piece as a stencil on the card as well. I used the envelope that was provided in the kit above and decorated it for this A2 sized card instead. (I know someone that loves these candies…so they might get a surprise at some point! 😉)

And lastly, this was from kit 15 and TOTALLY different than what was photographed in the booklet! First of all, I received a plant image with a die cut speech bubble sentiments and thought it might be cool for a Halloween card on another project, so I saved those to use later. I received an EXTRA stamped sunflower image from kit 22 that I had posted earlier and decided to use it for this card here. I colored it similar to that one and cut it out, but cut off a portion of it on this design. I also changed up the background ink blended colors and splattered some gold paint on this one. Love how it turned out. This will be for an Autumn anniversary card for someone coming soon.

Hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges (For the Birthday Lightbulb card ONLY):

Retro Rubber – Anything Goes + stamps older than one year
Cardz 4 Guys – Birthday for adult male
Creative Moments – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash – Tic Tac Toe (I used middle across: String/twine, 5 year old stamp, bright colors)
Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions (birthday)

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} Day 10

Hello friends! I’m back again with more celebration fun as we continue with our celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} for another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! YAY!

Today, we are highlighting Digital Delights by Louby Lou – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

The DT was provided with images from this sponsor to use for our creations:

Vicki-CIC500-Day10-DigiDelightsLoubbyLou

Isn’t she a cutie?! I have used Cupcake Josie for my image here that was colored with Copics and cut out with a stitched rectangle die. I used some fun birthday papers I’ve found in my stash to layer my design with along with a sentiment that was white heat embossed and die cut with a banner die that I’ve attached over the design.

I’ve added some glossy accents over the cherry on her cupcake as well as some dotting with a metallic gel pen for the sprinkles as well as for her bows.

Please be sure to add your birthday/celebration creations in the gallery soon before the challenge ends in a few days! We look forward to seeing them all!

Thank you for popping over here today friends! See you tomorrow!

Challenges:

Creative Moments – #197Anything Goes optional pretty papers
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2034 Anything Goes

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 7🧁

We are rolling now! We are on day 7 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Super cool!!

Today, we are highlighting Riley and Company – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

I have loved this little moose for many years and have collected some stamps from them over the years including some recent ones and I always get a chuckle from either the moose or the “Funny Bone” sentiments! So I had to help with featuring this sponsor:

I had to combine this funny sentiment with the cupcake theme and I thought it would be so fun to have little Riley peeking out from the edge holding a cupcake!😂

I took one of the images from the Basic Dress Up Riley, colored him with Copics and cut him out with coordinating dies. The sentiment was white heat embossed over a strip of black that I added Riley partially to the back of before attaching it to the background paper. I’ve also added a couple of banners and tied some black twine around the top of the card. I used a cupcake image from my stash, colored and cut it out and popped it up with a foam dot over Riley’s hand.

I finished the card with some sequins and some clear glitter Stickles.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration card for today’s sponsor and be sure to play along with us soon! Thanks so much for dropping by and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 6

Hey there friends! We are on day 6 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! FUN FUN!

Today, we are highlighting Bugaboo Stamps & Lawn Fawn – Please check out the challenge blog for more details about these sponsors.

So on our first day, I had used some fabulous products from our sponsor Lawn Fawn. But for today’s post, I wanted to highlight our other sponsor Bugaboo Stamps…

Vicki-CIC500-Day6-Bugaboo

Now how stinkin’ CUTE is this little guy with his ginormous cupcake coming at you?!

I printed out this Picnic Ant-Cupcake2 from Bugaboo Stamps and colored him up with Copic markers. I sponged some clouds behind him and colored some grass with my markers too. I used my oval dies to cut the image out with along with the scallop oval layer behind it.

Found some fun papers from my stash along with the rectangle die, sentiment die, ribbon, twine and button to complete the card.

I “dressed up” the cupcake with some liquid applique that was heated up to make it “puffy” and then added some glossy accents over the cherry on top.

Really had fun with this cutie and I hope he brought you a little smile today friends! Thanks for joining me! See you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

Catch the Bug Challenge – End of Summer (what could be better than celebrating a picnic?!)
Little Red Wagon – Use a Stencil (cloud background)
Creative Knockouts – #364 Something to Say
Aud Sentiments – #258 Anything Goes + Sentiment
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + Coloring

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 5

Let’s keep on celebrating! We are on day 5 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yeehaw!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Newton’s Nook – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

I adore the stamps from this company and already own some faves..including retired ones that I refuse to give up! LOL! I have recently gotten some new ones to party with though! Check it out…

Vicki-CIC500-Day5-NewtonsNook

Winston is one of the cute characters I adore! I’ve used the Sending Hugs stamp set with the coordinating dies. And the special thing about the coordinating dies is that they cut out the arms of each of the characters within the set so that they can be holding different objects! I think that’s too cute!

So I’ve colored up my Winston character with Copics and for the item he’s holding, you can see he has a cupcake, which is included in this set! I stamped, colored and die cut an additional cupcake next to the banner sentiment which was included with the set as well.

For the background, I’ve done some fun watercoloring. I’ve used a balloon image from a retired set “Winston’s Birthday” which is also where I’ve got his party hat from as well. Love it along with the “Winston’s BBQ” set that I won’t give up either! LOL!! I pull it out pretty much every Father’s Day! (I made a cute apron card with it this year and forgot to take a photo of it! Sigh….)

I photographed the card laying flat so that you could see the fun shaker contents inside the square frame! Lots of sprinkles, little cupcakes and balloon sequins in there! I thought it needed a pink glittery frame along with metallic shine on the party hat too! I finished it off with a metallic clear ribbon bow at the bottom.

Hope you’re having fun with the inspiration so far and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animal
Papercraft – #61 animals
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2033 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Oh So Cute

{Cupcake Inspirations} Birthday Celebration Day 4

Ready for more celebrating!? We are on day 4 of celebrating over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with another feature of sponsors for our 500th “birthday celebration” challenge!! Yipee!🥳

Today, we are highlighting Varada Sharma – check out the challenge blog for more details about this sponsor.

Our DT has been generously provided with an entire new release collection from this sponsor! There were so many fun things to play with, so I did some combining:

Vicki-CIC500-Day4-VardaSharma

How fun and yummy is this?! There’s just something about cupcakes that are so fun to decorate with frosting, sugar crystals, sprinkles, fruit, etc etc and so why not do that with crafting too?!

I started with the background and decided to take the Hanging Banners Background image and print it out over some teal cardstock and then I used a Copic marker to add some shadowing around the images. I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die and layered it over a piece of yellow cardstock to match the sentiment banner…which actually looks green in the photo, but it’s yellow IRL! LOL! Then I mounted it over another A2 sized side folding teal cardstock base.

I sized and placed together the two different cupcakes from the Cupcakes, Cake Slices and Toppers set, printed it out and then colored them in with Copics. I’ve cut them out with a circle die, layered it over another circle layer cut from some silver mirror cardstock. I sponged some teal ink around the edges of the cupcake circle, added some stitch lines with a marker and then cut off the excess from the edge.

I used some glitter, glimmer and shine to add details to the cupcakes! (The photo is not showing all of the fun details at all!) Bummer…

I added a thin strip of that silver mirror cardstock across the bottom of the card front and then took the sentiment that I put together from the Celebration set, printed it out over white cardstock and then used my yellow ink to sponge over it. I fussy cut it out and then popped it up with foam tape over the silver strip.

This is going to make a fabulous card for someone’s birthday.

Challenges: