Christmas Florals for Sparkles Monthly Challenge!

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great month so far and looking forward to a great weekend ahead! I know it’s starting to get “crunch time” with the Holidays quickly approaching us in a few weeks, so it’s time to get those Holiday cards finished up and sent out!

Today starts the November challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking to see Christmas Florals on your project. Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the team has created for you. Here’s my project for this challenge:

When I saw this challenge, I knew what I wanted to pull out to play with right away! I’ve pulled out the beautiful Taylored Expressions Scattered Holiday Blooms Bundle. I also wanted to use the Scattered Holiday Blooms Foil Panels which I foiled in gold.

After I foiled the panel, I used the coordinating layered stencils to go over it. I was almost thinking that I might not want to cut the panel out after blending it because I liked it so much, but I wanted to try out the die that cuts each of the blooms out. I love that the center of the large poinsettias has an extra cut in the center to lift up the edges too. I ended up layering two of the poinsettias together for each one for even more dimension. I layered some of the leaves around them and they were popped up over the card with foam tape again.

For the background of the card, I used the TE Sketched Plaid embossing folder over a toffee cardstock. I took some gold ribbon and wrapped it around the two corners with the top one in a bow. I then attached this over a white top folding A2 card base. I used my corner chomper to round the corners of the base and toffee card panel.

Lastly, I die cut the “JOY” letters in white and gold mirror cardstock and attached them by slightly off-setting them before placing on the card front. I added the holly to the “O” and a few more of the tiny blooms that were cut out from the blended panel to finish off the card.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today or have been inspired to get those holiday makes going by joining in the challenge with us this month! I look forward to seeing what you create! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Creative Friday – #372 Christmas
Crafty Catz – #682 Anything Goes with optional: ribbon/twine
Pammies’ Inky Pinkies – PIP2445 Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – #742 Christmas
Just Us Girls – #753 Word Week: JOY
Crafts Galore Encore – #129 Anything Goes
Love to Craft – #83 Anything Goes
Merry Little Christmas – #59 Anything Goes Christmas
Let’s Craft & Create – Anything Goes with optional: use a bow

Hearts and Flowers for Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far and enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day yesterday with some yummy sweets! We enjoyed some treats of our own! 😉

Today I have a new challenge to share with you for the Sparkles Monthly Challenge blog and this month the lovely Dawn would like to see some “Hearts & Flowers” on your creations! Although Valentine’s Day is over, I think hearts are great for adding any time of the year, so check out the inspiration from the design team and here’s what I’ve made:

I’ve made a mini slim card using the Taylored Expressions Hearts in Bloom Layering Stencils which are so great for mass producing several cards at once. For this card and the other cards below, I decided I wanted to use the TE Hearts in Bloom Foil Panels which works with these stencils. I foiled them with gold foil. I think the foiling adds such a pretty shine and glitter. I also used the TE Love & Hugs Foil Panels for the sentiment and die cut it out with the coordinating die set.

So after foiling everything, I used the stencils to create the pretty bouquet of flowers with the hearts in it and then added a frame around the edge with a TE Diagonal Stitch Mini Slim die that doesn’t cut anything, but adds those slash marks. I used some foam tape to pop up the foiled sentiment and just attached everything to a coordinating mini slim card base.

I couldn’t just make this one to show you, so here is the whole set of cards I’ve made together:

Those stencils create all of these patterns at one time. I just lined the foil panels up at one time and then used each stencil for the colors. If you didn’t want to use the foil panels, you could also just use the stencils on one sheet of cardstock and then cut them apart to make the card fronts.

I found these sets to become very addicting! And just like that, two of them have been sent out!

I’ve been really busy with creating behind the scenes and I will be sharing more soon! I will be around to see what’s been going on with you all shortly! I really appreciate your kindness and support…it really means so much!❤️ Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges:

Try it On Tuesday – Hearts &/or Flowers
Make My Monday – Love
Allsorts – Anything Goes/Hearts
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – Show Us Some Love/Valentine
Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday– Fun with Foil

2024 Calendars Completed

Hello friends! It’s that time of year when we turn over a new year and then realize that we need a calendar to keep track of our days…at least I do anyway! I don’t feel ready for the year ahead until I’ve got my calendars up and ready to roll! Usually, I’m ready to go by the end of the year, but I ran out of time with the Holidays, and I had planned on giving calendar gifts which I sent late, but I did get them done! I still feel in Holiday mode because of this…Ugh!

So this month I’ve been working on several calendars and spending most of my time coloring them up. It’s been very cold over my way, so I actually enjoyed doing them. Here are a few sets that I sent out for gifts:

I think these Taylored Expressions Feisty Square Calendar Cards are my favorite!😆 I was laughing at each one as I was coloring them up! The cards are already printed and makes it easy to get them colored up and attach them to the Desk Calendars. All of the image cards are blank so that you can use them however. I decided to just create my own background with each one using my markers in different ways while I was coloring them up.

I gave this set as a gift and wasn’t sure how they would choose to be displayed, so I added a magnet on the back of each one and also included a Walnut Wood Display, so they had a couple of options to use.

This next set was put together the same way I did the calendar above, expect these are the Taylored Expressions Scratch-Off cards. (This one is not available in the store because I received the entire set with my Advent Calendar purchase.) I thought these pups and cats were too cute and a perfect gift for someone that has both a dog and cat in their family.

After I colored them in, I added the Taylored Expressions Scratch Off Stickers to cover up the joke punch line. I then used the TE Square Tear Off Calendar dies to create the design around the edges and a layer of cardstock to coordinate behind each one before placing on the calendar cards. I also stamped “scratch off” under each card so that the person can scratch off the joke punch line for every month and see a new joke.

I also added a magnet on the back of each one as well as include a Walnut Wood Display so the recipient can choose how to display the calendar.

Click on the photos to enlarge on website!

Every year I always get the Inky Stamper Calendar kit that gets put together at the end of each year. There is usually a number limit on how many are available each year, so if you are interested, you might want to click on the link to get one because I’m not sure how many more there are left.

These were also fun to put together and color. I chose to stamp my own images and cut them out. You still get the pattern papers and white sentiment strip with each month.

I absolutely love how this calendar turned out! I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Friendly Square Calendar Cards and I thought they were so uplifting. This time of the year positivity is something that is very important to me and can be hard to come by. The days seem to be gloomy and short with little sunshine, so coloring all of these was great to fill my time with.

For this display, you may remember a calendar I had done a few years ago on THIS POST using the TE Snarky Calendar Cards. I’ve decided to update that one and used the same display stand to create this one, which is why I prefer using this stand. It’s nice and durable.

I have gold foiled each card and colored it. I’ve made a new background display card with a layered stencil and I’ve layered everything with gold foil cardstock. I’ve got a bag on the back to store my extra cards so that I can switch them out whenever I’d like. All of the gold shine really catches my eye and is pleasant to view.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post this afternoon and I REALLY appreciate you taking the time out of your day to leave me a comment. It means very much to me as does your support!

Have a beautiful day and I’ll see you on Saturday for my first Art Journal Page of the year!

Challenges:

Crafting From the Heart– Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
Love to Craft – Anything Goes
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

Lots of Joy Mailed Out!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a great start to your week! We’re almost there as Christmas approaches us quickly! I’ve been enjoying the Season and having fun keeping busy. Currently baking cookies and decided to take a break from that to sit and make a post about all of things that I’ve been doing besides posting!😆

This is just one of the several similar cards that I created for my Christmas cards this year. It came from a Christmas in July card kit from Taylored Expressions. It mainly used the Wreathed in Joy Stamp & Stencil Combo set. There are dies you can cut them out with as well as foilable panels which is shown on this one.

I do not like to make several of the “same thing”, so I’ve changed them up to different colors, layouts, etc. So you can see the different versions I’ve done below. (If you are visiting my web page, just click on each photo to see it enlarged.)

*Apologies for the messy stack for photo taking…it was a lot to do all at once!

Most of these are blue and silver which is my favorite color combination for Christmas colors, so I did about 6 of these.

I thought these would be enough for all of the Christmas cards to send out, but I realized going back through my list that I wasn’t going to quite have enough.

So I’m glad that at the beginning of this month I took a Hero Arts Stamp-a-Long and made several different types of Christmas cards. Here are the results of these below: (Again, if you’re looking on my web page, just click on the photos to enlarge them.)

background using sprays and coloring die cuts

So some of these were also taken and used for sending out more Christmas cards. I’m glad that I did the projects for this class or I probably would not have had enough cards.

BUT WAIT! That’s not all! I’ve also made a few other Christmas items that I’ve also sent out. I’m also sharing some gifts and gift tags that I’ve made from a Taylored Expressions Advent Calendar that I got this year. I made some more cards and tags. (I tried out wax melting which is something I’ve never done…it was fun) Others are from classes I took or participated in Craft Roulette for.

If you’re on my web page, just click on the photos below to enlarge each one.

Wow, so that was a lot! I know that my blog has been pretty sparse with posts lately and I am finally getting around to posting the things that I’ve been working on, so I hope you’ll get that and you’re able to take some time for yourself this season and enjoy the peaceful quiet moments!

I will be sure to take a moment and catch up with everyone before Christmas arrives. In the meantime, it’s back to cookie making! Thanks so much for stopping in today!❤️

NO STAMPING ALLOWED at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! It’s been a bit since my last posting! I’m still crafting, but I’m also enjoying the outdoors lately too! I’m just not making the time I need to post on my blog here! However, being on a design team helps to keep me focused on posting and hopefully it’s something that will bring motivation because I need it! So I will try and get some more posts in!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge and the theme is “No Stamping Allowed!” This may seem a bit challenging, but I look forward to seeing what people come up with for it! Be sure to check out the blog to see what the design team has come up with for inspiration! Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge this month:

I was trying to channel something that would work and realized that I had these fun strip dies from Taylored Expressions and I wanted to play with some new colors, so I ran with that on the middle of my card front by alternating the strip colors.

I also die cut a frond three times and glued them together for thickness and sturdiness. I attached it over the colored strip panel and then added a sentiment that was already toner printed so that I could foil over it with silver Deco Foil. I also had a die that cut it out which was popped up with foam strips and added to the bottom of the die cut frond. Lastly, I’ve just added some silver glitter drops randomly over the card front.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my non-stamped card today and will think about joining in the challenge with us this month! Thanks so much for stopping in! Have a great week!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – Use Dies
NBUS – #51 June – new colors and dies
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
A Place to Start – Anything Goes and/or twist: flower + one other thing
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
The Crafty Addicts – Anything Goes
CAS on Friday – Leaves

April AJ Page Sparkle and Shine

Hello friends! I can’t believe that it’s already at the end of the month! I feel like this month went by very quickly, but as the weather gets warmer, it seems the more I want to be out. Spring is always a great time to start seeing those pretty flowers which also means more weeds to pull too!

It’s time for the monthly Art Journal Page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper)! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she will have some wonderful inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” April prompt of “SHINNY/SPARKLY” :

I am a sucker for anything that shines or sparkles! So of course I had so many things to choose from in my stash to play with! I really had loads of fun making this one and the photos do not look quite as “wow” as it does in person of course, but you can probably guess what it may seem like once you know all what I’ve done.

For the background: I used my normal pre-punched holes on a 6″x9″ watercolor paper and covered it with water spritzing and Brushos Crystal Color media in lemon, orange and brilliant red. Once dried, I went around the edges with a scrapper and white gesso. (I didn’t use a ton of it, just enough to make a scant frame. Once that was dried, I took a leafy stencil with coordinating colored Distress Oxide inks and sponged over the page randomly. I then spritzed with large water drops, once dry, I sprayed the whole page with shimmer spray.

On the dragonfly, you can see directly on the page a bit of a shinny gold shadow under the wings. I have this dragonfly stencil that I used Deco Stencil Paste over that when dry, you can foil over it. I did that directly on the page where I wanted the dragonfly and then again on a black piece of cardstock that was cut out. I added some black string (This was a stray piece of string from a project that I did not use, so I decided to re-use it for this project) around the dragonfly, glued the center down over top the one on the page and then used black foam tape over the wings to give them a bit of a lift. Before gluing down the cut out dragonfly, I used a gray Big Brush marker to create more shadows around it. I also used a white Big Brush marker to create the dash lines around the page.

The sentiment was a piece that was cut out from a magazine that I recycled to use for this page and attached it with media paste. I used the grey Big Brush marker to add some shadows around it as well.

On the left side of the page, you can see some gold sparkles which were created with another Tim Holtz Christmas stencil that I had which looked like fun sparkle images. I used some gold glitter paste to go over that and then I took some gold Stickles glue to add some details with dots in various places.

And this is just one more photo of trying to capture that shine and sparkle:

Perhaps you can see more of the shine and sparkles in there. I just had to move the page around in the light to get it in just the “right spot” to capture it better, so pardon my fingers in there.

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my AJ page today and gotten some inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping in! I’ll be seeing you again soon!

Challenges:

Country View – Things with Wings
Art Journal Journey – Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose (black string & sentiment)
Creative Moments – Wings and Things
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes-no cards *First challenge*

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:

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

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:

Country View – Christmas
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Cupcake Inspirations – Happy Holidays
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Mon – Tag It
Tag Tuesday – Winter Holidays
Crafter’s Café – Anything Goes

Time to Get Your Grumpy On!

Hey there friends! Hope you’re having a wonderful week so far! We’re getting closer and closer to Halloween already!🎃 I haven’t made as many Halloween makes as I usually do, but as the day gets closer I’ve been more in the mood to pull out some things to have fun with my stash and my thoughts turned to “Grumpy”.

If you’re not familiar with “Grumpy”, this is the Big Grumpy Cat from Taylored Expressions. I absolutely love the “Grumpy” and “Grumplings” line and I don’t pull them out as much as I’d like to. Since it’s closer to Halloween, I’ve also pulled out the Big Grumpy-Halloween accessory set to go along with him too! (The only thing I used from this set was the witch hat and the sentiment.) I’ve stamped, colored and cut out each of these items for my card.

The #TEMakerChallenge has the theme this month of using Oreo & Sugar Cube with the option of adding any other pop of color. I’ve decided to pop in an orange color for mine. The theme was also “Sparkle & Shine” through foiling, heat-embossing, glitter paste or sparkly cardstock.

So, for the “Sparkle & Shine” I’ve taken a Foil-It Spiderweb panel and foiled some orange Deco Foil over it. I then took one of the Frame in Frame 3 dies to cut out the middle of this panel, added some acetate over the opening and made it into a shaker panel. I die cut the same frame as well as the Little Bits-Spiders die from some black Glitter Cardstock. I attached these pieces onto the web panel along with adding the Grumpy Cat with his hat string and extra spider attached to him over the acetate. I attached double-sided foam around the opening and added some “shaker stars” in the colors orange, black and silver. And lastly, I thought it would be fun to pop up a left-over ghost I had from a previous project at the top! (I think the ghost is in fear of the “witch switch”!) 😂

I also have another “grumpy” card to share…

So this card was made to send a smile to a friend. I’ve used a cat for this one as well from the Taylored Expressions “Grouchy Grumplings” set which I don’t believe is available in the store any longer.

I kept it a simple card by stamping, coloring and cutting out the grumpy. I ink blended a circle that fit him with blue ink, white heat embossed the sentiment and cut it out from the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets. I popped grumpy with foam tape over the sentiment banner and circle. I also used some TE decorative papers from my stash and cut out a banner with it using my scissors. A corner chomper was used to round the top left corner of the card to finish it off.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my “Grumpy” projects today and have been inspired in some way! Really appreciate you stopping in!

Challenges: (Top card only)

Country View – Halloween or Harvest
Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
Crafting Happiness – Halloween
Aud Sentiments – Halloween/Fall + Sentiment
Crafty Gals Corner – Halloween Colors
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
Allsorts – Add a Sentiment
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Double D – Orange & Black

Choose to be Grateful for Crafty Chefs

Hello friends! I hope that you’re having a wonderful week so far! The weekend is here, but it sure has been a beautiful couple of days this week with sunny and warm days so hubby and I were able to go out to walk around a bit before the snow starts hitting us!

Something that is great to go out in nature to see are the critters with the birds and the silly squirrels…we have them EVERYWHERE! They’re busy gathering and burying their food for wintertime around here. My thoughts turned to the Simon Says Stamp “Big Thanks Autumn” November card kit (sold out, but not papers) as I love all things Fall/Autumn and this card kit with those beautiful papers spoke to me and I wanted to create with it to make my project for this month’s Crafty Chef’s Group recipe from our lovely friend Meg’s recipe:

There were some blue colored A2 card bases already cut and scored inside the kit, so I used one for my side folding card base here and then layered a dark brown cardstock piece from the kit as well as a piece of copper mirrored cardstock which was then layered over a piece of the decorative papers (I mentioned above) in the kit, which is also where the critter, mushrooms and leaves images came from on this card.

The leafy background paper was cut from a MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle Die and then I took a strip of the copper mirrored cardstock across the bottom third of the layered pieces and also added some twine wrapped around the bottom of the layers before popping them up with craft foam over the card base. I die cut a branch from a die in my stash and then fussy cut the images out from the papers included in the kit which were glued or popped up with foam squares over the panel. I sponged some Tea Stain Distress Ink around the edges of these pieces before attaching.

Lastly, I’ve taken one of the sentiments from the sentiment strips sheet included in the kit and ran it through my laminator with a piece of copper Deco Foil. (I think that is a cool way to add a little extra something to those sentiments.) I made a banner out of it, sponged it with some of the ink I used for the images and popped it up over the leafy background piece with foam tape.

Here’s a closer look at the critters I’ve cut out and how I’ve arranged and popped some of them up to create my scene. There was also a very pretty SSS Autumn Sequins Mix included in the kit, and I took some of those and added it to the layout and then filled the centers with some gold Stickles glue.

For the Crafty Chef’s recipe that was given, here’s what I MUST use:

Mirror cardstock
3 layers or more
ribbon (I hope my twine counts!)
image of garden visitors (birds, hedgehogs, etc)

CAN do items:

Sparkle/Glitter (I used sequins and Stickles)
pearls/gems (I did not use) *passed onto next chef.
dry embossing (I did not use)

There is a new recipe given for each month and no pressure to follow along or even when you want to follow along and play…which is great and I’m happy to be able to use up some of the goodies from my stash (NEW AND OLD) and just have fun with it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today as well and I will be seeing you all again soon! Thanks so much for stopping in today friend, as I’m very grateful for you!

Challenges: