Lots of Stamp Joy and Summer School Sessions!

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week and looking forward to a great weekend coming up! We are having a heat advisory for the next several days over my way, so I thought it would be a great idea to stay indoors and craft! I also thought this would be a great time to catch up with some posts sharing some things that I’ve worked on the first part of this year that I hadn’t gotten a chance to share with you.

LONG POST – pull up your chair with your favorite beverage and enjoy!

I thought I’d share the Taylored Expressions Virtual Stamp Joy that I did back in March. I actually spent the weekend attending the classes and creating as I followed along. I managed to get all of the projects done the day after the event was over, but failed to post all of what I had made due to the fact that I was busy helping two different people move…and then life just got really busy after that as well! LOL

*I also have added an additional event from Taylored Expressions this last weekend called “Summer School” which concentrated on foiling techniques. Although I’ve done foiling before, I sure enjoyed seeing new products and learning a few new techniques too! (These four cards are at the end of the gallery photos below)*

If you’re on my website, just click on the images below to enlarge the photos and view any details underneath each one. ENJOY!

Dimension Class-ink blending and splattering die cuts

I always love to learn new things with stamping/crafting along with all of the fun new products that come out too! I know I REALLY don’t need to purchase more things, but when cool stuff comes out, it’s really hard to pass it by! I think doing these classes and joining in on different challenges help me to use these fun things up!

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my post sharing all of the things that I’ve been doing! I will have another post sharing more things that I haven’t shared yet too! In the meantime, I’ve also been working on a scrapbook which has been fun and something that I haven’t done in a really long time! A baby can do that to you! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends! I’ll be seeing you soon! Have a great weekend!😊

It’s a Fairytale/Storybook Time at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends and Happy Father’s Day to all of those in the U.S. that celebrate this day! Our usual is to cook out on the grill and spend time together. So I hope whatever your plans are, you have a great day! (I made a card for hubby, but forgot to take a photo…so I’ll share later.)

I’m stopping by today to share that we have a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “Fairytale/Storybook” this month. Would love to see your take with this theme on your projects, so I hope you’ll join us. Here’s what I came up with:

Since, I had lots of “Winnie the Pooh” on my mind with the baby shower, I thought it would be appropriate to create something using the stash that I already had out and was thinking of when this challenge theme came time to do! I think most of us grew up with this storybook and know who this is! And I had purchased some of these items from Echo Park several months ago, so it was great to be using more of it up!

FRONT of CARD: It doesn’t really look to appealing on the front, but I thought I’d share what I did anyway. I used a stamp set from Echo Park and stamped the tree (and colored it) with the sentiment on the white panel and die cut it out. I also used some of the Winnie the Pooh papers and layered behind it. The green paper was stamped with the sentiment from the stamp set. I added some matching enamel dots all over it.

Since this is a special Fun Fold design, I needed to help it stay closed, so I tied some twine around the right side of the card.

When you open the card, this is what the inside looks like! You see the center fold pops out like a book! So this is called a “Fun Fold Book Card” and the design was cut out with my Cricut machine using the papers and stamps from Echo Park Designs. This way I knew it would all match up on the design. I did stamp the Pooh with balloon and the other side with the sentiment and bee were also stamped. I blended some blue ink around the edges.

I thought this would be such a cute card for a kid!

Thank you so much for stopping in today and I hope you like my fun fold card! Please stop by the challenge blog to see more inspiration and join in to play! See you soon!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – #303 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #136 Anything Goes
Aud Sentiments – #326 Fun Fold &/or Summer Sentiment
Creative Creases – #104 Anything Goes with fun fold card

E is for Embossing

Hello and happy Friday! Thank you so much for the congrats from my last post about the baby! I look forward to meeting our new family member soon! It’s starting to get really warm over my way, so it’s a great time to be indoors with the cool air and craft.

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! Our next letter is E and the hostess has chosen “E” is for Embossing (heat or dry) *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to play along! Here’s what I’ve created:

I absolutely love to emboss! I first fell in love with stamping because of the magic of heat embossing and then fell in love again when those embossing folders came out! So I’ve decided to do both versions for my card.

I haven’t had a chance to use this Drifting Flowers embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp. I thought it was so pretty! I wanted to emboss in black and try out my Lisa Horton Interference Inks with it, so after I embossed it, I used my finger to rub white ink over the raised areas. I then used the LH Interference Inks over that once it dried. (I can’t remember exactly what colors I used, but it basically started as an experiment and I had several pads open!) I also used a silver ink pad to rub the centers of each flower minus the large one.

I should also mention that some of the white ink was very slightly rubbed over the open areas as well because I got a white streak on it…so I just continued to rub all over those areas until blended in. I didn’t mind the look.

While the inks were drying, I silver heat embossed the sentiment and cut out it with the coordinating die. I additionally cut out two more for added thickness and attached to the panel. I layered this embossed panel onto a mirror silver layer with both of these layers getting rounded on two ends with my corner chomper. I added these onto a chomped top folding A2 black card base. Lastly, I added some silver sequins.

Please be sure to stop by the challenge blog to see the inspiration from team as well! I look forward to seeing your embossed projects in the gallery. Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you like my card. See you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Calendar – Add a Sentiment
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2523 Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Fur, Feather and/or Flowers
As You Like It – Favorite: to add a sentiment or not and why? (I most always have sentiments on my cards because I feel it’s important when sending a greeting card to someone and it’s hard for me to leave it blank.)
The Flower Challenge – #103 Embossing (heat/dry)

Penny’s Guest-UnFROGettable

Hello friends! Welcome to June! The “lazy days” of Summer are here! I’m hoping I can be lazy this Summer, but not sure about that! LOL

I’m very happy to share my project with you today as a guest design spot I won from challenge #594 at Penny’s Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog! This is a fortnight (bi-weekly) challenge starting today and the theme is always Anything Goes Using Paper! Hope you will stop by the blog to see the team’s inspiration and play along! Here’s the project I made for the challenge:

They gave me this super cute image called “Frogtini” by Pattie’s Creations to use, so I colored him up with Copics and added some stenciled waves at the bottom along with some blending of yellows and blues above him to create this relaxing scene. I cut him out with a stitched circle die and layered him onto a silver mirror scalloped die cut circle.

I used a fun card sketch I found along with pulling some papers and a sentiment out from an older card kit I had in my stash to complete the card. For the A2 sized top folding card base, I used a corner chomper to round the edges and then I used some more of the yellow ink over the background where the circle image was going to be for a bit of softness and color.

I embossed a strip of the silver mirror cardstock with a 3D embossing folder and rounded the edges of that strip along with the green paper strip to create my layout. I popped up the circle image with foam tape over top.

Lastly, I white heat embossed the “unfrogettable” sentiment and cut it out with a coordinating die and placed it at the bottom of the circle with foam strips behind it. I used the other part of the sentiment and stamped it directly above the frog’s head.

For some more finishing touches, I attached some green sequins, used a glitter brush pen for the frog’s sunglasses and covered the martini glass with Stardust Stickles along with some green Stickles for the centers of the green sequins.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! I had fun coloring him up! Thanks so much for stopping in and I wish you a very hoppy and relaxing day!🐸

Challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments – #464 Sketch
As You Like It – Favorite Type of Embossing & why? (I really like both, but my all time favorite is the heat embossing because it’s so magical!)
Crafty Catz – #694 Anything Goes with twist: “make us smile”
Creative Fingers – #302 Anything Goes
Daring Card Makers – Tic Tac Toe (I used across middle row)
Cut It Up – #331 Anything Goes with a die cut (used two circle and coordinating sentiment dies)
Gem of a Craft – #6 Anything Goes Cardmaking/Papercrafts

Who Let the Dogs Out?

Hello friends! Hope that you’re doing well and enjoying the month of May so far! As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been very busy working on projects “behind the scenes” that I will be sharing at a later date. The next couple of posts are scheduled as I will be away until next week. But I need to catch you up on the new challenge for now…

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are now onto the letter “D” and the hostess has chosen “D” is for Dogs *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to play along! Here’s what I’ve created:

I’ve pulled out this adorable stamp from my stash by Newton’s Nook called Birthday Barks and I’ve colored the stack of dogs along with a few extra balloon and gift images with Copic markers and cut them all out with the coordinating dies. (I’ve used a white gel pen for highlights and a silver gel pen for the bottom dog’s collar.) Some of the balloons and gift images were glued on the blue background, but the stack of dogs and a few of the other images were popped up with foam tape.

I’ve used some papers from the Newton’s Nook Birthday Woofs Paper Pad and the blue background was made using a solid balloon image from my stash and stamping it with white ink. I’ve black heat embossed the sentiment from the Birthday Barks stamp set and added a few clear sequins to the background.

This will make a great birthday card for a guy or girl! (I’m sure I’ve probably missed someone’s birthday somewhere! LOL) Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and will stop by the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with. Pull out those dog stamps and come join in the fun!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll be back with another post tomorrow!

Challenges:

Allsorts – #824 Anything Goes (Happy Birthday!)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2521 Anything Goes
Passion for Markers – #790 4 legged Friends (colored with Copics)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – #770 Anything Goes

HEY! “C” is for Circles!

Hello and happy Friday my friends! After things got heated up the last couple of days, I think I’m ready for a couple of days of cooler weather! I don’t want to skip Spring by going straight into a hot Summer! Hope you have some great things planned this weekend!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are now onto the letter “C” and the hostess has chosen “C” is for Circles *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to play along! Here’s what I’ve created:

I do love me some circles and I thought I would just use them all over the place for this challenge! I pulled out my Taylored Expressions “Talking in Circles card kit” that came out earlier in the year and no longer available. However, the panel that I’ve used to create this design are still available in the store called “Talking in Circles A2 Sugar Cube Maps“. They make it easy to follow where placements need to be and lined up.

I used the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate for the black frame around the circles. I thought I would try and use another cutting plate, but the design pretty much covered it up. I layered this whole panel over a top folding A2 white card base.

For the sentiment in the center, I used another circle die from the TE, but I don’t think it’s in the store any longer. I cut the “HEY” circle out from black cardstock and layered some vellum behind it. I white heat embossed the “You are awesome” sentiment over black and cut that out with a Simply Strip die. This was popped up with a foam strip over the design.

Thanks so much for stopping over today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and you will take a hop on over to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with.

See you soon! In case you need to know…you are awesome!

Challenges:

Love to Scrap – #173 Anything Goes
Allsorts – #823 Paper Piecing or Anything Goes (Not sure if this is considered paper piecing)
Ally’s Angels – #94 Anything Goes
CRAFT – #755 Anything Goes
The Creative Crafters – #88 Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – #319 Anything Goes optional: no squares

Flowers for Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying this month so far! The weather has really started to warm up now and it’s been nice and sunny to be outside. I have so many projects that I’m working on, so my blog has been a bit neglected lately. I will be able to share with you all of the things that I’ve been working on later…but for now, let’s talk about flowers!

Today starts a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and this time it’s my turn to pick a theme and I have chosen “FLOWER(S)” for this month. Flowers seem to work for so many occasions which is why I chose it. Here’s the project that I came up with:

I needed a card for Mother’s Day this last weekend, so I thought I’d pull out my stash of die cut flowers from Taylored Expressions and create several pieces in different colors to place inside my wheel barrow.

I’ve die cut several pieces from the Fresh Cut Flowers die set in pineapple, guava, dried fig, chocolate truffle (centers) and green tea (stems and leaves). I used the same color of ink to sponge a bit of dimension over the centers and then splattered some white Copic ink over just the flowers and the toffee background that was stamped in toffee ink with the Weathered Words Background stamp.

I arranged all of the die cut flowers and leaves behind the Farmhouse Wheelbarrow die cut from chocolate truffle, toffee and woodgrain textured cardstock. I also used the Building Blocks Happy Additions to white heat emboss over a piece of chocolate truffle and cut out with the coordinating die. The toffee background was placed over an A2 sized top folding white card base and then I added a white frame die cut from the A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate for an “anchor/ground” for the wheelbarrow to sit on. The sentiment greeting was popped up with a foam strip and then I’ve added a few enamel dots including in the center of the wheel.

Thank you so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my card and that you will stop by the challenge blog to see the rest of the inspiration from the team. I look forward to seeing what floral creations you share in the gallery with us!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – #125 Flowers
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Floral Delight
Creative Friday – #385 Spring
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2519 Anything goes
Simply Create Too – #209 Anything for a Woman
Little Red Wagon – #807 ‘D’ is for diecut

B is for Butterflies!

Happy Friday my friends! Are you ready for the weekend? I know that I don’t have a regularly scheduled workday every day, but I can still always feel a weekend ahead! LOL Hopefully I can enjoy some time doing some fun projects that I’ve been wanting to get to and go outdoors!

Today starts up a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog! We are now onto the letter “B” and the hostess has chosen “B” is for Butterflies (use more than TWO of them.) *Remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter* I hope you will find some time to join us in the gallery! Here’s what I’ve created:

I do love me some butterflies! I love using soft pastel colors for the Spring months too! I have used this set before, but I have gotten it back out again for my mini slimline card today. I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Butterfly Wings & Coordinating dies to complete this.

I white heat embossed the three wings onto vellum and die cut them out. I also used the die cut to cut out the colored cardstock butterflies for each one along with their center antennas. Glued them together and set aside to work on the layout.

The base of the card is mini slim size of 3.5″ x 6″ side folded. I die cut a white layer with the TE Pettie Scallop Mini Slim dies and then layered another white piece using the Stitched Mini Slim dies. Before I attached it, I splattered some black paint over it.

I then attached each assembled butterfly to the layout design and added the white heat embossed sentiments between them with foam tape. The sentiment came from the TE Fluttering By Mini Strips & a coordinating strip die. I finished by added a rhinestone in the center of each butterfly.

**Just a special attention to the tab pages I’ve added at the top of my blog that shows I now have information about purchasing a handmade card from me as well as another page of craft supplies I have available for purchase if interested. I will regularly update so check back often to see what’s there!**

Thank you for taking the time to stop in and share your support! It really means a lot and I enjoy hearing from you! Whatever your weekend brings, I hope there’s some good in there somewhere!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – #766 Birthday
AAA Birthday – Anything Birthday Goes (Happy 6th birthday!)
Crafts Galore Encore – #135 Anything Goes
As You Like It – Soft or Bold Colors? Why? (I prefer soft tones with calm colors as they seem more pleasing to me)
Love to Craft – #86 Anything Goes

Mix It Up with Paper Piecing!

This is my second post for today, please scroll down to see the Pearly Sparkles Guest Challenge details or click HERE.

Hello again my friends and Happy May Day to you! I think I’m so ready for May so that I can start being outside with hopefully better weather than what April gave us!

Today also brings us to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given for us this time is: Paper Piecing or you can always do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

Look at this darling little gnome holding on tight to his balloons! I got this adorable stamp from Ink ‘n’ Splatter a while back, but this is the first time I’m using it. He’s called Party Gnome Celebration. *Today is also the start of this company merging back up again with Digi Doodle Studios! Dina has some cute artwork with her digital and clear stamps both! You can see some past creations I made on my blog here under the category: Digi Doodle Studios.*

I’ve stamped the party gnome, colored him and then used some pattern paper from my stash to paper piece onto the balloons. I just stamped the same image over different pattern papers, fussy cut each balloon out and glued each balloon in place.

For the background, I thought it would be fun to use some more of the pattern papers to create inchie squares and make a layout with them. I attached the squares to the card front and then I embossed over top of it with a very old “Dotted Cuttlebug” embossing folder. (If you’ve been a crafter for a while, then you know it’s old! LOL) I black heat embossed the sentiment from the Party Gnome stamp set and cut it out with the same wonky stitched rectangle die set I’ve used for the front panel and popped that and the gnome up with foam tape. I also stamped a few of the confetti image around the sentiment and then topped the card off with sequins.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I hope you find some time to create for our Mix It Up Challenge as well! Hop on over to the see the inspiration! Thanks for dropping in!

Challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – #269 ( I used straight across middle row)
Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes with embossing folder with optional: weather twist
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2517 Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #595 Anything Goes Using Paper

Pearly Sparkles Guest

Hello friends again! I have two posts going up for today, so please see my post for the Mix It Up Challenge details in the above post when it goes live or click HERE.

I’m so excited to have been asked to be a guest for this month’s Pearly Sparkles Challenge! I always love playing along in challenges and supporting them when I can as I always find inspiration in using my supplies when I play!

So for May’s Challenge, they would like to see: BLACK, WHITE PLUS ONE OTHER COLOR in your project(s). Here’s the card I made for this theme to inspire you:

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for this, but I thought you couldn’t go wrong with some flowers. I pulled out a long forgotten stamp set from Taylored Expressions called “Picked Posies” (no longer available) and black heat embossed the images over watercolor paper and used one pink watercolor brushed over the petals. I die cut each flower with the coordinating die.

I made the rest of the card layout with all black and white elements. I stamped the TE Checking In Background stamp in black ink over a white panel, placed this over an A2 sized top folding black card base. I also used the TE More Easy Edgers die to cut an additional piece of white cardstock and placed it over the stamped checkered background. I also used some more of the elements from the flower stamp set and stamped some more black images on that background before I attached the watercolor flowers on it. I centered each flower with a black rhinestone.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed over black cardstock using the TE Hello Friend Stamp & Die set.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I hope you’ll check out this challenge to see what the rest of the team has to inspire you with so you can play along too!

See you again tomorrow!

Challenges: