Hot Dog! It’s Birthday Time!

Hello friends! As you know, I’ve been TRYING to get my MOJO flowing and I REALLY appreciate the feedback that I’ve gotten from you and others about things I can try including non-craft related things! (Honestly, right now in this world with what is going on, it is hard to concentrate along with worrying about my own family in different ways…so that doesn’t help either!) But I’ve been trying to find things to keep my mind focused and try new things that are interesting to me…so I will just keep going along and see what happens!! I would like to continue with as many “stamped smiles” as I possibly can right now….we all need that at this time! 🙂

Today’s card was made for my son’s birthday that was this past Saturday. I wanted to make sure he recieved it before I posted it:

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I pulled out an older Simon Says Stamp card kit and used the So Pun Friends and the I Chews You stamp sets along with the coordinating dies. I’ve used the cardstock and cute Doodlebug So Much Pun Papers that came with the card kit as well. The tag was cut using the My Favorite Things Stitched Tag dies. I created the hole at the top of the tag with circle punches and the twine is from left over packaging.

I cut the tag shape out again with more of the papers from the kit and then popped up the image tag with foam tape and added some white enamel dots.

On the inside I stamped a birthday greeting and made a pocket to hold a gift card for him. We usually take him out to dinner for his birthday, but since he’s moved away I had to send him a gift card instead. Bummer…

Here’s a closer look at the cute smile face images that I colored up with my Copic markers. I cut out the food images with the So Pun Friends coordinating dies. For the sentiment, I stamped the speech bubble from the I Chews You stamp set over a piece of the Doodlebug papers and then added the sentiment from the So Pun Friends stamp set in the center of the speech bubble. I then die cut it out with the I Chews You coordinating dies.

I used some blue distress ink to blend some color over the center of the white area on the tag and then popped up the speech bubble with some foam tape over that area. The hotdog at the bottom was also popped up with foam tape as well.

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I actually had some fun pulling out this older card kit to play with and who could resist a hotdog smiling at you?! LOL!

Thanks so much for stopping in and for your continued support! It’s very much appreciated and I hope that I helped bring a smile or inspiration to you today!

I actually have a couple more birthdays coming up that I need to make cards for, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of those in the near future too!

Challenges:

Not Just Cards – March Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – Etc, etc, etc (3 enamel dots and 3 food images with smiles)
Cute Card Thursday – Celebrate!
TIME OUT – Birthday with optional twist: die cutting or fussy cutting
Seize the Birthday – #185 Touch of Green or Anything Goes

A Vintage Love

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week! I must be really wishing for flowers as this seems to be my theme this week!…along with watercolor and heat embossing! LOL!

Today I wanted to share a card I’ve made for my parent’s anniversary:

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As you can see from the card itself, my parents have been married for 55 years. So when I saw this Simon Says Stamp LE Valentine 2020 card kit, I knew that this would be a great way to start using the kit immediately! (This card kit is still available as of this posting, but I think it’s going soon!)

I actually really didn’t know what direction I was going to go with this anniversary card and I just started pulling things out and swatching different items to see what I wanted to do. I sampled the stencil with the metallic paste from the kit and really liked it, but when I pulled out my copper metallic mirror cardstock, I decided to heat emboss over the stencil with the same copper EP that I used on the sentiment for this card.

I’ve also cut out the numbers with the copper metallic mirror cardstock along with the layer behind some of the papers from the card kit. I’ve added another heart strip of the papers from the kit at the top and used one of the butterflies from the kit to go over the piece of lace I’ve added from my stash. The layers were all attached over an A2 sized top folding card base. Lastly, I added some white hearts that were actually from a different card kit. LOL!

I wanted to share a closer look at the flower. The stamp set in that card kit is so stunning! I’ve white heat embossed the flower and leaves over some watercolor paper and then used my Clean Color Real Brush markers to color it with. I’ve used some foam tape to pop up the flower over the stenciled heat embossed piece that was cut out with a circle die and attached to the card front.

You can see the shimmer over the butterfly wings that I’ve covered with a glitter brush pen. I only glued the center of the butterfly so that I could pop out the wings a bit.

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Although this card looks a bit simple, there were a few steps to the stenciling and heat embossing some of the elements.

My parents commented how pretty it was, so I’m glad they liked it!

I hope you like it too! Please be sure to come back to visit my blog this Saturday as there will be a new challenge to share as well as a special blog hop! Hope to see you there! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednsday – Anything Goes (Instagram: #ssswchallenge)
QKR Stampede – #382 Anything Goes
Allsorts – Take Flight
Creative Fingers – #178 Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC256 All About Occasions
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #124 Anything Goes

Working in a Winter Kit!

Hello friends! If you live around my area, then you know that it’s in full swing Winter Weather time! We do have snowflakes in the forecast for tomorrow, but hopefully it’s not too bad!

So while we’re thinking of snow, I thought this would be a great time to share with you all of the winter style cards I’ve made using a brand new subscription card kit that I’ve got going from Pink and Main. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy some crafty winter inspiration!

So my first card kit from Pink and Main was the December 2019 Winter Wonderland Crafty Courtyard Box which is no longer available, but they have this month’s box out which I will I get soon! Here’s what I’ve made for the December box:

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Yeah, I know! That’s alot of cards, right?! I was surprised myself how many cards I was creating from this kit and I could’ve just kept going as I still have plenty of supplies left! I needed to make a few more cards to send out after Christmas for the ones I missed and send out thank yous…so this came in handy actually!

P.S. Every single one of these cards were completed with an envelope too! (So far so good on my New Year’s Resolution! Yay!)

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My first card here is a “see through” design using acetate for the center of the design. I have used a Bold Snowflake die from Pink and Main NOT included in the kit, but overlayed it with another foam snowflake and button that WAS included in the kit.

I stamped snowflakes from the stamp set in the kit and added some “dots” with Stickles over the design too.

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This card was pretty simple, but I love it! I’ve used the sentiment die that was included in the kit and die cut it with the sparkle cardstock from the kit as well as the pretty snowflake papers. All I did was stamp 3 snowflakes and added another dot of Stickles to the centers. I chomped the corners at the bottom and done!

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For this particular card, I’ve decided to make a ‘Z-fold’ card design and if you’d like to know the measurements and/or how to see one put together, then please check out my video tutorial on it here – “Coffee Style Z-fold Gift Card Holder“.

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This is how the card folds closed. It folds down to an A2 size. I love how the colors look on this one! Everything on this card except for the greeting on the inside was from the kit.

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So I wanted to use lots of those papers from the paper pad included with the kit and they were double sided so I had even more choices to deal with! LOL! I decided to make square panels for my layout and use those sparkly silver snowflakes from the kit to place over top. I heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set at the bottom.

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This card was just destined to be a square design. I wanted to use my Reverse Scallop Square dies from Pink and Main for this one. I’ve also used papers from the kit as well as the silver sparkle paper and snowflake. I took a snowflake embossing folder fort he background. I used sequins from the kit and filled the centers with more of that silver Stickles. (I got a bit of the prop over my sentiment there. LOL!)

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I wasn’t finished using that “Reverse Scallop Square” die set, so I took it to die cut some embossed snowflakes and layer them over some of the papers from the kit. The middle of the card has a strip of the awesome transluscent tape included in the kit. I covered the middle of the snowflakes with a rhinestone and pop up the embossed sentiment with foam tape over the tape.

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And this last one was hubby’s favorite. I took the largest image from the stamp set in the kit and heat embossed it over a watercolor panel. Then I took some Distress Oxide ink spritzed with water over a glass mat and brushed them over it and splatterd some with with a brush as well. I die cut the sentiment from the die included in the kit with the sparkle paper in the kit and finished the design with more sequins filled with Silver Stickles.

I had “SNOW” much fun with this kit and creating these cards! I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well and have been inspired in some way!!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I enjoy seeing what you have say! I loved reading all of your New Year’s resolutions and NOT resolutions too! LOL!!

I’ll see you again soon my friends! 🙂

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz – Blue is the Color
Arty Divas – #12 Anything Goes
Classic Design– Anything Goes
Creative Inspiration – Something New or Something Old
Challenge Up Your Life– Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Snowflakes!

Spots and Dots for Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Hope you’re having a great week so far. The month of October is flying right through and I know once Halloween gets here, it will be the end of the year before we know it!

Today starts a new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday this week! We are looking for “Spots and Dots” on your creations this time! We look forward to seeing your take on this one!

For my card, I decided to keep it rather simple as I needed a card for my brother’s birthday this past weekend, so I didn’t want to add too much to it:

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This card is using items from the Simon Says Stamp Sweet Birthday Limited Edition card kit which has since been sold out, but I know that you can still purchase a few of the items that were included in the kit.

I started out by taking the SSS Celebrate stencil from the kit and spread on some Deco Foil Transfer Gel over a white piece of cardstock from the kit and let it completely dry before moving on. After it was dry, I took the Rainbow Shattered Glass transfer foil sheet and put it through my laminator. It looks so pretty and shinny with a wow factor to it! I cut this piece down and layered it over a black scallop square die cut panel. I then layered these pieces over the green colored Tim Holtz Metallic paper from the kit.

For the square card, I used a black top folding 4.25″ black card base and then layered another piece of that green metallic paper over it. I took a ‘dotted’ piece of paper from the Honey Bee Over the Rainbow papers (included in the kit) and layered it over top of the metallic green. Then I added my foiled balloons panel over this.

Lastly, I took the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Sweet Birthday stamp set and white heat embossed it over a piece of black cardstock that I trimmed down to a banner and popped up over the card with some foam tape.

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I really didn’t want to add too much more to it as it was for a male and I think with all of that foil and shine, it really didn’t need much else! I think it’s fun, simple and really cheery looking especially with that foiling done.

I was able to pop this in his door before we left for the weekend and he let me know that it brightened up his day, so that was great to hear!

I know that I’m getting this fun kit out again very soon as I am in need of another birthday card to send to someone that needs a good birthday cheer and I’m happy to do it! Besides, this kit looks to be so much to play with for sure! 🙂

Be sure to join us over the Cute Card Thursday Challenge this week! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

**Please scroll down if you care to see some personal photos of our recent trips!**

Challenges:

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP1941 Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers – Sparkle
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC243 Masculine Anything Goes

**Below are some photos and details of our recent trips if you’re interested!**

Now I wanted to be sure to share some photos with you as promised from hubby and my last two weekends out and about with our shenanigans! LOL

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The first weekend in October we visited Hannibal, MO and visited the Mark Twain museum and even went for a tour in the Mark Twain Cave! It was very interesting! You couldn’t be claustraphobic as there were a few tight areas in there! I didn’t get any photos of the cave, but it’s so amazing in person!

This photo above shows us after we came back down from seeing the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. As you can see there are several steps to get up there, but what you don’t see is how many steps we took just to get to the point of where we are in the photo too! Whew!

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My husband finally decided to take me on that cruise…along the Mississippi River that is! LOL! They had a Mark Twain Riverboat tour that we took and it was a fun boat to check out along the river while listening to the stories from the captain.

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So while listening to the stories from the Captain on the riverboat cruise, we heard about the story of “Lover’s Leap” and so we decided to investigate it before we left. In the background you can see a view of the Mississippi River. It was pretty up there and a long way down!

So we came back home for some “downtime” and to unwind before going out this last weekend for another trip near the Starved Rock Park area:

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We decided to get going in the morning but it had really cooled down over night and we knew starting out we would need our heavy coats.

And all I can say is that the photos do not do justice to what it was actually like over here. It is absolutely gorgeous! The photo above is our “lowest level starting point” during our ‘hike’ and that is the Illinois River behind us.

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We came through the Visitor’s Center and briefly went through the small museum and started going through some of the trails. They seemed to wind all over the place with many different areas to go to!

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The main trail going straight was a slow incline and then several stairs to go upwards to where the top of Starved Rock was. Here we are at the top along with tons of other people. That is the Illinois River behind us again. This was later in the day as you see the sun shining on us and getting warmer.

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And here we are with this gorgeous feature behind us among the trees where shelves of rock walls lay and water running down. It had warmed up enough for me to take my heavy coat off while walking around. I think we look more serious as we were trying to capture the pretty view behind us. LOL! Nothing like seeing it in person of course! (I just wish I was able to do more than what we did, but was still excited about what we did accomplish!)

We wanted to get up the next day and try to walk around a small town festival going on along with catching a tour to the Reddick Mansion later that day before we left, but we weren’t able to get there and had to get back home. (I will try again another day.)

This was fun to just get out and enjoy nature especially this time of the year. I look forward to many more fun little trips in the future…especially with the love of my life!

Thanks so much for stopping in and sharing a bit of myself with you! Wishing you a beautiful day friends!

Brutus Monroe JunkieFest Class Projects

Hello friends! Just wanted to pop in and share the projects I made for this fun class I took! As you know, I am a huge fan of the Brutus Monroe products and I heard that they were going to be at an event called “Stamp Junkie Fest”, which was held during the time I wasn’t well and wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. I had never heard of it before, but it sure sounded like it was something I would love! I’ll have to look into that next year! 🙂

Anyway, Brutus Monroe was teaching a class over at the event, but they also offered a fun “JunkieFest 2019 Class Kit and Video” from their store for those of us that were not able to attend! It was full of lots of cool things and plenty to complete the projects below plus I had some things left over too:

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The first project was this ginormous, very thick tag! It measures approximately 9.5″ tall and 5.25″ in width! I thought it would be cool on a project you frame or hang from the wall. Thinking about a burlap or something. hmmm….. Have any suggestions?

Everything you need except the stamps, ink and adhesive come with this class kit. So the background was foiled (foil included in kit) and I used my own tape adhesive to do that with the stripes for the background. The wreath was made with a chipboard circle from the kit which the flowers were attached to. I stamped and cut out the flowers from the BM Spring Wreath stamp set which were colored with some of the Aqua Pigments that were included with the kit. I used a deco foil pen to create “dots” in the center of the flowers and used the left over foil from the kit. I curled up some of the edges of the flowers for added dimension.

For the banner, I used one of the sentiments from the same stamp set and stamped it out with the Brutus Monroe Raven Detail Ink over the tag included with the kit. I decided to change mine up from the way it was shown in class. So I cut off the end and added it underneath the wreath. Then I took the twine from the kit, doubled it up and added it as a bow on the bottom of the wreath. I took a cute bird button from a past Inspiration Box and glued it to the center of the twine bow. I thought to add a bit more color along the edges of the tag and sentiment banner with the BM Alabaster Ink which I think softened up the edges nicely.

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My second project was this card! The background was created with some sample sized Chroma Glazes from the kit. I chose to use a past stencil I had from the “Stencil of the Month” club (Speaking of which, did you see this month’s? Wow!) The Chroma Glazes really blended nicely together…love how it turned out!

I decided to matt my stenciled background onto a BM Macchiato Cardstock A2 sized card base and also create an oval matt for behind my oval image panel. There was an oval piece and full base card piece that came in the kit, but I decided with all of the Aqua Pigment coloring I did, I needed to use the Aqua Pigment Paper for stability. I used the Aqua Pigments from the kit as well as pulling in some browns and blacks from my stash. I mixed colors together to get the look I wanted. The image was stamped out from the BM Feathered Friends stamp set. I stamped the branch first, masked it off and then stamped the bird so his tail was behind the branch. I then stamped the bird again and cut out his claws and attached them over the branch. It makes it look more dimensional that way and so it really looks like the bird is perched. I added some color to the background with the yellow Aqua Pigment from the kit.

I took the sentiment from this same stamp set and heat embossed it with some BM Alabaster EP and cut it into a banner to pop up over the card with some BM Foam Tape. I took the Acrylic Bubbles that came in the kit and colored the backs of them with a yellow alcohol marker and attached them ranomly to the design.

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The final project for the class was making up these set of tags! These tags came in the kit along with the blue twine. There wasn’t quite enough to string the 5th tag, so I took a piece from my stash. Not sure if I was supposed to get 4 or 5 tags…but I got 5! 🙂

I didn’t have the same stamp set that was shown in class, so I thought it would be a good idea to make up some birthday tags that I can add to gifts and/or cards! So I used the BM “Birthday Circle” stamp set from a past card kit and colored them all in with the Aqua Pigments from the class kit. I just cut pieces of the twine and added them to the top of the tags. Simple, but fun!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my project share from class! Thanks so much for dropping in today and I’ll be seeing you soon!! Have an excellent weekend!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Stamping Sensations – Things With Wings (for bird card)
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional create/decorate a container
Through the Craftroom Door – Anything Goes

Happy Spring With Brutus Monroe Beautiful Blooms

Hello friends! Just popping by to wish you all a wonderful weekend and to share a “Happy Spring” card to make you smile:

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I’ve just gotten this month’s Brutus Monroe Beautiful Blooms Inspiration Box (sorry, sold out!) and was wanting to play with the lovely stamp set and products inside! I also wanted to play with the Buttercup Aqua Pigment released this month too. (For Aqua Pigment subscribers only.) If you haven’t tried coloring with these Aqua Pigments, they’re so so pretty! – (See a closer view of my image below!) They have just released some NEON ones that are so awesome! You can color them on black cardstock and they glow so bright with a black light over them! -see his video on it HERE (started at 15:30) Reminds me of those glow in the dark necklaces as a child! – Hope to be trying some soon!

So for my card, I started with the glitter embossed panel from the kit and took the Sea Glass ink pad that came with the kit and ink blended over this panel. I cut it down and then die cut a scallop piece of the purple cardstock from the kit and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding BM Alabaster piece of cardstock.

Although I really liked the sentiments from this month’s stamp set (Spring Wreath), I wanted it to be Spring-like, so I took a sentiment from last month’s Inspiration Box (Some Bunny) and stamped it with black ink over a piece of vellum and then clear heat embossed it. I cut the strip into a banner and then ran it through my Xyron machine to get it sticky and attached to the bottom of the card front.

Lastly, I’ve attached the image with foam tape over the card front panel and then glued a bow made with some of the ribbon from the kit. I then atached some purple colored gems, also from the kit, randomly over the front.

Here’s a closer view of the watercolor I’ve done over this image. First, I’ve heat embossed the image and used the BM Aqua Pigments to color it in. I’ve slightly tilted it so you can see the pretty shimmer that these Aqua Pigments give to the look of it! The regular colors don’t shimmer, but the metallics (linked above) do shimmer beautifully! There are so many cool things you can do with these and maybe some day I can share more! 🙂 I then glued the bow of the wreath image and popped up the wreath to place on the front of the card.

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Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I wish you all a very happy Easter! Thanks so much for stopping in! See you soon!

Challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Try it On Tuesday – Springtime
Addicted to Stamps & More! – Make Your Mark
Daring Cardmakers – Blooming Wonderful
My Time to Craft – Spring Flowers

Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello there friends! Have you been busy with your Christmas festivities? I am doing a “run-run Rudolph” right now and trying to finish up my Christmas cards let alone some baking, preparing for a Christmas dinner and finish wrapping up presents!! It is the fun of the Holiday Season and I enjoy spending time with my family, so I look forward to seeing them all!

It’s a new challenge today over at Cute Card Thursday! Since it’s that time of year and busy, we made this any easy “ANYTHING GOES” challenge for you!! We are looking forward to seeing what you’re making!

Since I am trying to finish up some Christmas cards, I thought I’d try and work on some doing “mass production” of a design. I only do so many of these before I have to switch things up, but I thought these turned out pretty cute:

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I have used the My Favorite Things “Filled with Joy” card kit (sold out) to make these plus I have pulled out the MFT “Simply Snowflakes” stamp set (retired) to clear heat emboss the background and then rubbed some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink over it. The panel was cut out with the MFT Die-namics Blueprints 27 and the heat embossed sentiment strip was cut out with the MFT Die-namics Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips.

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Here you can see how I’ve pieced together the snowman. The die in the card kit cuts out everything including the letters. I’ve cut his top hat with some black felt paper that was also included in the kit and then I decided to cut out the snowman head so that I could cut out those tiny eyes and mouth with the felt paper as well! So if you happen to get this card from me, please be sure to rub your finger over the felt pieces in his hat and face!! I very carefully and lovingly placed each tiny felt dot in!! 🙂 I think that the blue snowflake background really makes him stand out even more!

On an even closer look at the card, you can see that I’ve added a sequins snowflake to each snowman’s hat and then added some sequins to the card background. I filled each one of these with some silver Stickles. The snowman head was popped up with a foam circle and the rest is just glued down.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! Please be sure to check out what the rest of the design team has for inspiration and come add your creation to the gallery over on the Cute Card Thursday blog too!

I’ll be back again soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter: