Class Fun & Square Samplers + Give Away

Happy April friends!  We have finished March already and onto Easter very quickly approaching!  I hope you’re enjoying all things Spring coming up your way!  We’ve had several storms and we’re in the tornado season as well, so I hope everyone is staying safe out there whatever the weather.  I do have some things that I had previously finished and wanted to share:

First, I wanted to share about the Virtual Stamp Joy Event by Taylored Expressions that I participated in a few weeks ago.  I always have so much fun and enjoy the motivation that it seems to generate!  I’m sharing them in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website post, then just click on each photo to enlarge it.

  • The first four photos were from a class using the same floral stamp set and the others are from the next day of make-n-take projects.  Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them!

The last set of four cards were a “mass production” using a background stamp in different colored cardstock panels and clear heat embossing over them.  The class sample had “hello” sentiment on each one, but I changed up the sentiments and have placed them in a card box to give them out with envelopes as a gift for someone.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!

From the end of last year up until this last month, I didn’t have much time with the Holidays and everything going on, but as you may have seen in previous posts, I participate in a “square sampler swap” and when everyone sends out their squares, we then complete a home décor piece with all of the squares, so I thought I’d share mine finally completed:

  • CLICK PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE

This was for the Christmas Sampler SWAP and you can see that I’ve used a black shadow box frame for my sampler and placed some red with red metallic dotted paper behind it.  The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used My Favorite Things products for my square.)

This was for the Winter Sampler SWAP and I went with a white shadow box for this one.  I’ve placed some soft blue snowflake papers for behind my sampler as I thought it was soft enough to not look too busy.  The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used Inky Stamper products for my square.)

And recently we finished up our Spring Animals Sampler SWAP that I used another white shadow box for the sampler.  I’ve added a piece of pink colored “Watercolor Wishes” paper from Lawn Fawn behind it.  It looks a little off in the photo, but it looks better IRL.  The square on the right is the one that I made.  (I used Taylored Expressions products for my square.)

Not sure if we’re doing any more or not, but I had so much fun making the squares to swap with friends!

Lastly, I have a fun little thing to give to whoever is interested in these Taylored Expressions dies + foil-it panels package. (It’s not sold in stores anywhere as it was a free gift with purchase)  I have an extra and so I thought I’d give it away to someone!  Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll pick someone from the comments.
Leave a comment below if you’re interested!

That’s all I have for today!  Thanks so much for stopping in!  I’ll be seeing you soon!

*Vicki*18 Comments

Warm Wishes & Christmas too!

Hello friends!  Gosh, it’s been a few minutes since my last posting, but I’ve not been with a computer for a while and I haven’t been able to post or see what’s been going on in blog world.  I’m still without sound, but hopefully I’ll be fixed with that soon as well.  After you get used to a computer, it’s time consuming trying to set everything back up on a new one and make sure you have all of your stored photos/files too!  I’m getting there though!

Everything was a bit busy at the end of last year and I was not able to get around to participating in some classes that I’ve been wanting to do.  Unfortunately with no sound, I couldn’t hear the videos, but I managed to easily figure things out anyway along with an instruction print out.  So I was happy to get these Christmas/Winter cards finished:

I absolutely fell in love with the Lawn Fawn Ugly and Bright stamp set and I wanted to play with it and participate in their “Create with Us” class using it.  I colored the stamped pieces similar to the class, but I didn’t have the same snowflake stencil for the background, so I pulled out my Taylored Expressions Let it Snow stencil (retired) to use for it.

The critters as well as the letters were popped up with foam tape and I’ve added some loose glitter to the speech bubbles, and hats.  I used some LF chunky glitter to the bottom section of the letters.  The letters were die cut from the LF Henry’s ABCs and colored with Copic markers. 

And this one was also from the class using the same products as above, except the large sentiment came from the LF Giant Merry Christmas die and this time it was ink blended and sprayed with a shimmer spray.  This was also popped up with foam tape along with the speech bubble and Santa hat.  I was happy about the colors on this one and thought it was fun to put together and color.

For this last card, it was not apart of the class above, but I still wanted to play a bit more with the set and I had an extra deer critter cut out and colored and ready to be clothed!  For this one I decided to keep it as just a wintry theme so it could be used for Christmas OR non-Holiday-ish.  I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Snow Flurries Backdrop die to cut out a frame over top of a piece of the LF Knit Picky Winter Paper Pack that was ink blended along the edges and attached to an A2 top folding card base.

Thought that the deer looked a bit plain with no “grounding”, so I die cut a piece from some silver cardstock for him to stand on. (retired MFT die set) Added some glitter to his hat and sweater and popped him up with foam tape.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add some sequins, dots or other snowflakes to it, so I left for now.

  • Really sorry if you’re over with anything Christmas, but I am just happy to have finished the class and hopefully it won’t take me as long to get to the next one…which has already been out and I haven’t gotten to yet!🤨

Thanks so much for stopping in today and hope that you’ve been inspired in some way!  I will be doing my monthly AJ page Saturday, so I hope you’ll come back to see this month’s inspiration.

Challenges:

  1. NBUS – #46 New LF! Yay!
  2. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Goes Christmas
  3. Christmas Kickstart – Masks and Stencils
  4. Once Upon a Time – Snowy Day (third card)
  5. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes optional winter theme
  6. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Merry Christmas!🎄

Just wanted to share some Christmas cards I made this year and wish each and everyone a peaceful, loving and joyful season!  

Made with the Taylored Expressions Woodland Reindeer Silhouettes stamps & dies and the Woodland Reindeer Deco Foil Transfer Sheets.  The sentiments were foiled from the TE Simple Strips in Reverse Christmas Panels.  The shaded oval panel was blended on by using the TE Oval Masking Stencils and I splattered the background with white paint.

This card was made using a TE freebie (not available for purchase) and created in the same way with the card on top except this one has the sentiment in the center rather than the reindeer.  I also foiled a couple of the snowflake/stars randomly over it and rounded the corners.

  • Thanks so much for your continued support my friends!!!

Challenges:

  1. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Last minute Christmas
  2. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Traditional Christmas Colors
  3. Crafty Gals Corner – ‘Tis the Season
  4. Creative Moments – Christmas/Winter Celebrations
  5. Creative Knockouts – ‘Tis the Season
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  8. Pammies Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

It’s Time For Tags!

Hello friends!  I thought I’d take some time for making up some tags which is something that I really enjoy doing, but don’t do it very often.  They’re so nice to have a batch made up ahead of time so that you can pull one out as you need it instead of trying to hurry through making something.  It’s always better to have fun instead of rushing! 

This trio of tags was a bit time consuming, but it was nice to finally pull out some things that I’ve been wanting to play with and use without being in a hurry.  The characters are from the Taylored Expressions Holiday Squad die set.  The tags themselves were cut from the TE Pierced Stacklets dies, the TE Tag Stacklets 2 dies and the TE Tag Reinforcements dies. The background for the tags was made with the TE Foil It-Plaid Layering Panels that I foiled in gold along with the stenciling from the TE Plaid Layering Stencil set.  The sentiments were white heat embossed from the TE Just Saying-Christmas stamps.  I’ve used various colors of Taylored Expressions papers and inks and then finished the embellishments for the “holly berries” using the red from TE Tiny Diamonds-Bold set and then I also used the TE Gold Drip Drops in the background.  The ribbon and twine from my stash at the top.

 

My next trio of tags here was really fun with these adorable penguins from Taylored Expressions Dancing Through the Snow stamp set and dies.  I placed them over top of the transparency that was used to create a shaker tag behind the penguins.  I used the TE Tag Stacklets 3 dies and also used some pink polka dotted papers from a free paper pad I received with an order.  The bright shinny purple paper came from my stash I’ve had for quite a while and thought it would be a fun non-traditional color to use with these.  I filled the shaker tags with the TE Bits & Pieces-Snowflakes and the TE Bits & Pieces-Sparkly Stars. 

 

And these tags were a little hard to photograph with all of that cording in the way! (pardon my photograph skills! LOL)  They’re smaller than the tags above, but they work great for different packaging sizes!  These were easy and fun as I’ve done mostly foiling with these using the Taylored Expressions Foil It-Simple Tags Holidays panels and the stencil to go with it.  I cut them all out at the same time with the coordinating dies. The tags with the black cording are the negatives from foiling the toffee colored tags and are mostly completely foiled.  I just used different colored Stickles glitter to create the Christmas lights on those.  (Really been having fun with the foiling this year!)

 

And lastly I wanted to share a set of tags that I’ve made using various Inky Stamper sets!  I decided to go through all of the different Christmas sets that I have from them and pull out the ones that I either haven’t used or barely used to play with them.  The tag at the top was made with the Inky Stamper Fox set that I really enjoyed coloring.  The presents at the bottom and the Santa hat were colored and fussy cut from the same stamp set.  I made the background of that one with the Falling Snowflake Stencil with white ink and heat embossing over it with sparkly white embossing powder. 

The tag on the bottom left is another fun shaker tag!  I pulled out the Inky Stamper Nutcracker set to color him up and cut out with the coordinating die.  He was placed over the acetate on the shaker tag.  I used a scallop circle tag die with gold foil cardstock that I cut out the center with a circle die, added some papers for the background from the Doodlebug Buffalo Check/Woodgrain paper pack.  The shaker bits inside are the Shaker Garnish which is really lightweight and still make a great shaker sound too!

The bottom right tag was cut from an Infinity Tree die set.  I sponged the edges with some white ink and punched a hole at the top to make it a tag.  That cute little truck is from the Inky Stamper Vintage Truck set that I colored and cut out with the coordinating dies.  I used a fun Lawn Fawn road die to place him over and then stamped the sentiment from the stamp set with white ink.  I also added some snowflake sequins above him with the Icicles sequins mix.  And both blue and red Doodlebug Twine was used for two of the tags.  The other ribbons/cord from my stash.

  • Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Hope you’ve been inspired and enjoying the Season!

Challenges:

  1. Country View – Christmas
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  5. Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
  6. Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
  7. Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

Christmas Fun with Kits and Classes

Hello friends!  We’re headed into the home stretch now for Christmas and the end of the year!  Are you ready yet?  Well I thought that I would try and get some Christmas cards made up and have some fun with it rather than trying to rush things too much.  

Tee hee!  This one makes me giggle!  While I was making up some squares for my sampler swap group, I thought I’d use this same MFT Stuffed Santa kit (that I had gotten last year) and made a card along with making the squares too!  The squares I made turned out cute too and I’ll share those later on.  I added some glitter to the snow on the image and on his gold belt buckle too.  The background was white heat embossed with the MFT Christmas Greetings Background and then ink blended with blue inks.  Finished off with snowflake sequins and Stickles glitter in the centers of each.

And here’s another set of cards that I made from a previously purchased kit by Riley & Co using the cute Riley as the Grinch stamp.  The stamp was included along with the kit and so I just thought it would be nice and easy by just coloring him up, adding my own sentiment and putting it together.  So now I want to watch the movie!😄

And lastly are some cards that I put together during an OOAK event with the classes that I selected to get the kits for and just enjoyed the process of putting them together.  **If you are on my website, you can click on the photos below to see them up close and larger**

Craft Fancy class – part 1 (spinner)
Craft Fancy Class – part 2 (shaker card)
Riley & Co – candy lane image (z-fold)
Riley & Co – Merry deer (z-fold)
Riley & Co – funny bones
Inky Stamper – gift card holder inside & mini card

So although I’ve shared several projects here today, I have more craft-making going on so I’m going to shorten up my post and hope that you enjoy the inspiration!  I appreciate you stopping by today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Christmas Crafts All Year ‘Round – Waiting on Santa (top card! LOL)
  2. Christmas Kickstart – Christmassy
  3. Crafty Friends – Traditional Christmas Colors (2nd card)
  4. Jingle Belles – Wrapping Up Christmas 2022
  5. Winter Wonderland – Anything Goes Christmas
  6. Sweet Stampin’ – Christmas Creations
  7. Moving Along With the Times – Christmas

*Vicki*20 Comments

November AJ Page-Peace Love and Hope

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

*Vicki*25 Comments

It’s Never Too Latte For a Friend

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

*Vicki*20 Comments

Stretching Out Inky Stamper Products

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

  1. Merry Little Christmas – Anything Goes
  2. Jingle Belles – Funny Ho, Ho (punny gnome sentiments)
  3. Crafty Friends – Christmas
  4. Creative Inspirations – Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle
  5. Craft Rocket – Christmas/Winter
  6. Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
  7. Stamping Sensations – Christmas Celebrations
  8. We Love Stamping – Christmas
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

*Vicki*27 Comments

Inky Stamper *NEW* Stamps Inspiration!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

  1. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes 
  2. Love to Craft – Anything Goes
  3. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  4. My Time to Craft – Critters
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  6. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes

*Vicki*19 Comments

Lawn Fawn Thanks+Painting Divas Class Projects!

Happy weekend!  It’s very hot here today as we are under a heat advisory!  So thought it was best to stay indoors and keep working on my “catch-up” posts!  This one is a bit different than my usual papercrafting posts, but it’s my finished projects from the crafting retreat I had with friends right before the wedding and why I was so busy!  But first, I’d like to share a fun “thank you” card I made for my friend that hosted it all:

And as you know from my last post, I was on a Lawn Fawn fever mode, so this was also made for my friend that hosted the fun “Painting Divas” retreat for us!  This ADORABLE set called Just Add Glitter was a perfect set to use to create a card for the theme as well as those products to accompany it with the Art Supplies dies, Canvas and Easel as well as the Paint Splatter Background Stencil too!

For the background, I created a scene with a brick stencil from my stash that I’ve had for years which was blended on with some grey ink.  The bottom solid grey portion of the scene I used that paint splatter stencil and some Distress Oxide colors and blended in over it.  By using the oxide inks, the colors showed up better over the grey.

I used these same colors of Oxide inks to sponge over the die cut pieces from the Art Supplies dies as well as the “master piece” splatter on the “canvas” and the brick wall splatters.  I’ve used some LF Woodgrain paper to cut out portions of the “wooden” pieces and the rest of the pieces were cut from white cardstock and then just colored with Copic markers. I arranged the scene to make it fit the way I wanted and then attached it down with some of the pieces being popped up with foam tape.  (The sentiment on the rainbow canvas blob was from a freebie stamp the company is famous for adding to your order.)  I had fun making this one and I chuckle at the “I arted” sentiment!😅

Painting Diva Vicki 2022

For the “Painting Divas” Retreat, we had projects with different teachers and of course you probably recall the Mixed Media birdhouse I did from my past blog post.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW POST  The theme was on that cute little sign as we arrived…”Gnomes & Fairies & Unicorns & Glitter”…how fun is that?!!  We were to created a decorated gift bag to bring with us using the theme and enter for a contest…but totally forgot to bring mine back home for a photo to show! LOL  (I am hoping that we get together to share some photos as I wish I had taken more than what I did!)

I took a quick photo with birdhouses everyone finished for my class and it was so fun to see everyone’s interpretation of how they made their own.  I enjoyed seeing what everyone did! (I think two of these are missing in this photo.) 

Now, I am not an avid decorative painter and don’t spend a whole lot of time doing it, but my mom along with a couple of girls at this retreat are, and have been doing it for many years! (even longer than I have been a paper crafter…which is a LONG time! LOL)  So I have had the privilege of learning a bit about it, through them and mainly my mom.  I’m glad to have this time to share something together and doing when we can.  I appreciate it more than I think it is realized and the memories that are made.🥰

Below is my gallery of projects that I did for each class.  I did this in order of when each class was taught.  If you’re directly on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge it and also see the description of what the dimensions and types of surfaces that were used.  All were hand painted by me using acrylic paints.

Taught by my mom over a canvas board measuring 8″ x 10″ with addition of 3 stars, buttons and knob for nose. You could make a face or paint a gnome, so of course I painted a gnome for mine. I went on my own and added twine to the star…not sure I like it.
Taught by Linda over a 6″ x 14″ thin wood board. I love Halloween so this was a fun one. It came prepped base coated with the blue background. Stars were stenciled with dry brushing. I added some glitter paint on some of the candies after I sealed it.
I zoomed in for a closer look at the pumpkin and some of the candy as it’s hard to see from a distance.
Taught by the host of the event painted over a stretch canvas in 10″ x10″ size pre base coated with black paint. The snowflakes were stenciled with dry brushing and glitter paint was added over the green and red areas. Gold Drip Drops were added to elf and Rhinestones to a few of the larger snowflakes. There was also some splattering done over entire piece.
Taught by Kathy was this cute “photo holder tag” from an 8″ x 5″ thin wood board. I painted over white and then washed with some black for a shiplap look. Wrapped around burlap ribbon plus other ribbons/twine. I added my own decoration at the bottom and popped in a photo.

I have one last project to share which is something I recently finished up before this painting retreat, but it had been sitting around the last few years as an un-finished box not being used.

A few years back, I had gone to a paint convention with my mom and purchased this brush box that was hand-made by an older gentleman and vendor at this place.  My mom also purchased one as well.  I started it quite a while back and had been left at my mom’s place.  I brought it home and finished up the top portion of the box doing some ombre painting and added the wooden lettering on the front.  I added some glitter paint to the lettering after it was sealed.

And here’s what the inside of the box looks like with all of my brushes stored in it.  (Well most of them anyway! LOL)  What I like is that there are separate compartments so that I can organize the different types/styles of brushes in each.  The brushes are protected and dust-free.  The dimensions of this brush box are 11″ x 7″ x 4″ deep all made with wood.  The hardware was removed and then replaced after painting and sealing.

Like I mentioned, I don’t always do decorative painting like this, but since it’s already part of my life and I have accumulated things related to it, I will probably do some things here and there.  It’s like a mixed media thing for me as I don’t always do that, but sometimes I enjoy getting things out for something different.  I like many different crafts which makes this all so fun for me.  It’s nice to have a variety of interests to keep enthusiasm going!

How about you?  Do you have interests in other things besides paper crafts?

Stay COOL and safe out there today friends…how do you like to keep cool?  

Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope you were inspired in some way on your visit!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything with an animal (card)
  2. Dragonfly Dreams – Indoor Hobbies (card)
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Dies (card)
  4. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Stencils (card)
  5. Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion (card)
  6. Cardz 4 Galz – Get Inky (card)
  7. Creative Moments – Anything Goes optional: CUTE (card)
  8. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (card)

*Vicki*21 Comments