Mix it Up With Paper Piecing!

**THIS IS POST TWO OF TWO FOR TODAY! SCROLL BELOW TO SEE MY POST FOR THE GDT CREATIVE ARTISTE. THANK YOU!**

Hello friends and a happy November! I think that the last two months completely flew by and here we are getting closer to the end of the year…what?! I hope that you look forward to happy times ahead and lots of crafting fun too! I’m thankful you’re here with me, so let’s get this month started.

Today begins a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and it’s always “Anything Goes with an optional theme“. The optional theme this time is “Paper Piecing“! (This challenge is open for 6 weeks, so you have plenty of time to enter!) Here’s what I came up with using this theme:

I absolutely love the look of quilts, but I like to keep my making of quilts done with paper! So I thought this theme would be great for making a quilt pattern design for Christmas. I normally paper piece stamped images, but I wanted to do something different this time and pull out more stash items and use them!

Several months ago, I purchased a card kit from Taylored Expressions called “Pieced Patterns” and I loved the concept of cut out squares attached over a “map” to follow along on how/where to place the squares. It’s really easy to piece different colors/patterns together to make a design. Some squares were also cut diagonal and I stamped a tone on tone pattern over some of the squares before they were cut out. Then they were placed over the “map” design and cut out with a square die. I also cut the stitched scallop frame to go around the square pattern. I die cut a white snowflake twice to layer in the center of the pattern and added a red gem in the middle of it.

I attached the paper pieced pattern over a white card front that was cut with the Taylored Expressions Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate that was then attached to a top folding A2 white card base. For the sentiment, I white heat embossed it from the Taylored Expressions Jingle All the Way stamp set and cut it out with the coordinating die. It was popped up at the bottom with thin foam tape.

I can see this might be fun with several different squares cut out ahead of time to place over the different “map” designs to create multiple design patterns ready for cards! It’s just a matter of taking the time to cut out all of the squares.

I have decided to create a “bonus” card using the same “paper piecing” technique, but with a stamped image this time…as we all need more Christmas cards, right?!

For this card, I pulled out an older card kit from my stash (2016) and used the Doodlebug pattern papers that was included with the kit. The papers are too cute not to use and hoarding them is not a good idea!

I stamped the tree onto a stitched white rectangle, then stamped the tree, star and banner over some of the pattern paper, carefully cut it out and attached it to the stamped tree and white panel. Before I attached the stamped pattern pieces, I used my Copics to color in the tree stump and outline around the tree. I also added some details to the pattern pieces for shading as well.

The banner was popped up with foam tape and I attached all the layers together over a top folding red A2 card base. All the cardstock/papers were included in the kit. I’ve added some red rhinestones on the tree where the ornaments were to finish it off.

Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed all of my projects today and I hope you will take some time to check out the challenge blog to see what the other talented designers have made. I look forward to seeing what you make! Have a great day!

Challenges:

Inkspirational – #327 Seasonal (Winter/Christmas)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2443 Anything Goes
Cardz 4 Galz – #237 Showcase Your Patterned Paper (second card)
Crafty Catz – #681 Anything Goes with optional twist: use dies/punches (top card, but dies used on both of them!)
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper Crafty – #583 Anything Goes Using Paper

Anniversary Gnomes

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great start to your week! I’m just popping in to share the card I made my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary…he’ll be getting it this morning and then we’re off to a date ~~night~~ (afternoon as we’ve gotten older)!😆

I think this turned out pretty cute! I dug into my Whimsy Stamps stash and colored up these cute gnomes and fussy cut them by hand to add to the scene. I cut off the string and heart in the center of their hats and stamped the image over the green cardstock with the cut out image layered over top of it.

For the background: I blended some Autumn colored inks in various places and then stenciled in the leaves with a light brown ink. I die cut the mountains and attached them to the background by sizing it up with the green die cut tree border for placement. I stamped the “love you” sentiment all over the green background and then layered the colored image over top of the other. I added some silver sparkle on the heart in the center of the hats.

I also took a die cut silver cardstock frame to go around it and then I silver heat embossed the “happy anniversary” sentiment at the top of the scene.

All the layers were cut with a scallop rectangle die and placed over a side folding A2 grey card base.

And here’s what I put on the inside of the card. I thought it up myself and printed it out on the computer. It was cut out with the same scalloped rectangle die and attached. I still need to sign it as I’m typing this up!

Here’s the inspiration that I used to help me create this card:

These are some more photos that we took while we were in Alaska last month. After our cruise, we took a land tour and went on a train ride that took us up to Denali Park. We had a good day to take a 3 mile hike one day and ran into someone that took our photo and we took their photo too!

I will be back later to share some photos of the stamp retreat I just came back from! Always lots of fun and great to see my crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by today!

Challenges:

Retro Rubber – #rrcb242 Fall by the Lake (all products are at least 3 yrs old)
Little Red Wagon – #779 Emboss it! (sentiment)
Penny’s Challenge – #583 Anything Goes Using Paper
Krafty Chicks – #739 All Occasions (Anniversary)
CRAFT – #738 Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #750 Stencil Week (leaves)
Creative Knockouts – #533 Halloween or Fall (Fall)
Crafty Catz – #681 Anything Goes with optional: dies/punches (I used dies)

Halloween Hauntings

Hello friends! It seems like this month has really flown by as I now realize that Halloween will be here next week and I wanted to get some cards sent out that I’ve made!

So here are my Halloween cards for this year….I had so much fun!

This one was so much fun putting together and it wouldn’t have been put together if it weren’t for the parameters on Craft Roulette #237 this week! The four parameters consisted of these – 1. Project: Pop Up Card, 2. Colors: Trick-or-Treat, 3. Element: Boutique and 4. Random: jewelry

I used the Lawn Fawn Platform pop-up die and the build a house die with the Halloween add on plus a few other dies and stamp sets all from Lawn Fawn. The front “welcome” sentiment was printed out from my computer and I made up the “Bougie BOO-tique” language to fit with the parameters of the challenge.😆 These ghosts are all blinged up and hanging out around their favorite “BOO-tique” to catch up on all of the latest trends in style! One is wearing a necklace, another a tierra, another carrying a purse, another styling glasses with bling and the front ghost has earrings and a sparkle wand.

The background was done with the Lawn Fawn Platform Pop Up Add On around the back of the pop up. I ink blended and then splattered with white Copic Opaque White mixed with water to get the starry night background. This card went to my husband because he really enjoyed it and said that it wasn’t going anywhere, but it does lay flat for mailing.

This card was done for an Inky Inkspiration Challenge over on FB for September and they were asking for a slimline card. I’m more into making the mini slimline size rather than a full size, so that’s what I went with! I’ve used the cute Bat stamp set for all of the images, except for the background panel, which you’ll notice it looks like a BINGO card and it is! It was the game that we played in a Zoom class that I took with Inky Stamper and we actually used this Bat stamp set for the projects we made and the BINGO card was included. I decided instead of throwing it away, that I would use it as background paper for my card. I just stenciled in some gray clouds over top and stamped some bats from the set with it. The rest were just cut out and placed on the card with the bat being popped out with foam tape.

(I would’ve showed photos from the class, but I forgot to take photos of them!)

And here’s another card I made for World Card Making Day using the fun sketch from the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group on FB. I’ve used this really CUTE Zombie stamp set from Inky Stamper for this card. I had so much fun coloring him up!

And this last card I made for someone who loves the spookiness of the season almost as much as I do! I pulled this really cool image from an older paper pack by Whimsy Stamps. In fact, all of the images on this card came from this store.

I die cut the image out with the WS ATC Antique Frames including the sentiment that was white heat embossed. The background was black heat embossed with the WS Vintage Wallpaper stamp over kraft cardstock. I sponged some black ink around the edges which was also cut out with the WS Wavy Pieced Rectangle dies. I cut out a few ghosts from white cardstock using the WS Boo die set and sponged some green ink at the very bottom edges.

I thought it would be fun to make the eyeballs of the skeleton and the edges of the ghosts glow in the dark, so I used some glow-in-the-dark embossing powder over them and finished off the sentiment panel with green gems. (It’s too hard to take a photo of the glow-in-the-dark!)

Well that’s it for me today with all of the Halloween cards! I hope you’ve enjoyed them or have been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Saturday with another Art Journal Page for the month!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – #287 Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – #255 ‘H’ is for Halloween
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #240 Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #PIP2442 Anything Goes
Make My Monday – #237 A Spooky Halloween
Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
Crazy for Stencils – Anything Goes using stencils + Halloween (2nd bat card)
Unicorn – #103 Autumn/Halloween

Mushrooms at Sparkles Monthly!

Hello friends! I hope that your October has been a good for you! We have just started seeing some cooler weather and even a bit of frost coming tomorrow night! I also wanted to say thank you for your comments about my last post. After having such a break, getting my crafting back on has been touchy. I’m trying to get organized!😁

Today starts the October challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking to see a mushroom(s) 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:

I really like how this one turned out! I was trying to keep it in an Autumn feel with using these colors and adding leaves. Everything I’ve used came from Lawn Fawn.

I started by cutting out the background panel, the leaves and the mushrooms in different colors of cardstock. I sponged over the each of the pieces for dimension and shading and then splattered over top of them with brown and white paint.

I just attached all of the layers together that I thought was pleasing to my eye and then I white heat embossed the sentiment over the brown cardstock and cut out the banner and popped it up over the leaves with foam tape. Lastly, I just added a few white gems for sparkle.

I hope you like my card today and has inspired you in some way to play along with us for the challenge this month! I would to see your mushroom creations in the gallery! I appreciate you stopping today!

Challenges:

Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #582 Anything Goes Using Paper
Just Us Girls – #748 Leaves
Creative Friday – #370 Faux Stitching (in die cut background)
Crafty Catz – #680 Anything Goes optional: Autumn Colors
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2441 Anything Goes
Four Seasons – Anything Goes Fall
Crafts Galore Encore – #128 Anything Goes
The Paper Funday – #70 Anything Goes optional: Autumn

Sheetload of Cards With Flashback Card Kit

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a good week and looking forward to a great weekend ahead! The weather has been unseasonably cool for this time of the year and I’m able to get my windows open the last few days and enjoying it! Unfortunately, it’s going to warm up again, so I know that the air will come back on.

Today I’m sharing something that is a bit different and new to me, but I think it will come in very handy for the future as my “goal for next year” is to use up those old card kits that have been stored in my stash for WAY too long! I’m hoping to start this on my blog next year each month and focus on a card kit each month so I can clear things out from my stash! Stay tuned!

I found a fellow crafter Call Me Crafty Al and I decided to give her “Sheetload of Cards“ a try for this month and see how it goes! It would probably have been much easier to do it the way she did, but I challenged myself to use my card kit items instead:

Here’s the set of all eight cards using the same sketch from Crafty Al’s Sheetload for this month. You may not recognize the card kit that I’ve used as it’s an old one from Simon Says Stamp. The box had November 2015 written on it, and the paper inside had “Here’s Looking at You” card kit on it. I know that I have pulled it out and used a few things out of it, but there was still plenty to use!

I was looking to make some uplifting/inspirational cards so this all worked out great.

Click on the photos above if you’re on my website so you can get a closer view of them.

I’ve used all of the cardstock except one sheet of kraft, all of the 6×6 papers were used except two sheets and I’ve also used up some of the journaling cards that were included as well as the stamp set and thread. The reason why some of the edges are rounded is because the journaling card inside the kit had rounded edges. I just decided to incorporate that into the design and I think it worked out okay.

Honestly, I don’t know weather to be proud of myself for using up my extremely old card kit or feel embarrassed for having such an old card kit still in my stash!😂

Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed my play with the “Sheetload of Cards” for August 2024 utilizing a very old card kit! How about you? Do you still have some card kits or stashes of something from 2015…er older? Would you like to use them up too? Follow along with me next year each month as I attempt to use up those old old old stash items and have a session of “Crafting to the Oldies“! This is me holding myself accountable! Let’s do this!

Thanks so much for dropping in today and have a great weekend!❤️

Birthday, Pizza & Craft Roulette Play #228

Hello friends! I have a mix of projects that I’ve recently been working on and wanted to share my latest since I’ve gotten all caught up with the projects that I hadn’t posted.

I had a few birthdays come up and of course I forgot to take photos of a few of them before I sent them out the door and now they’re long gone! (DOH!) But I did remember to take photos of these:

I fell in love with the stack of party pups from Newton’s Nook and I always wanted to try out one of those cool card layout dies! The person that I’m sending this to loves his dog and I know the dog also has some “friends” she visits with, so why not a “PAW-ty” of them together!

I’ve used the NN Birthday Barks stamps & dies and colored it out with Copic markers. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in the top right square and added a stamped paw print from the stamp set. All the images were popped up with foam squares.

For the background, I took the NN A2 Card Layout 2 die and cut the frame with all of the stitched pieces using the NN Birthday Woofs Paper Pad. These dies make for some quick and easy cards without much thinking involved which is great when you’re in a hurry!

Next card was made as a thank you for a pizza night using one of those Ooni Pizza outdoor grills. I’ve never had one and so of course being the pizza lovers that hubby and I are, we gladly excepted! Very good pizza it was! I wanted to thank them for having us and made this card:

I’ve used this really cute pizza set from My Favorite Things and I was happy to pull some papers I had for years and years to help pull it together.

I’ve used the MFT A2 Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the checkered pattern paper as well as the light blue panel. I’ve used the MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle dies to cut the white piece behind the blue panel. (The red and white checkered paper is so old…got it at a stamp event so many years ago and hoarded it of course!)

Decorating the pizza was so much fun and I used the same ingredients we received on our Ooni pizza which was a handmade crust, tomatoes, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, cheese and sprinkled with basil leaves. All of the cut pieces to make the pizza came from the MFT Pizza Maker dies and the sentiment came from the MFT Pizza My Heart sentiment set (I don’t see it on the website, so I’m not sure if it’s available any longer?) I stamped it with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I’ve also used the same size stitched rectangle die as the blue panel to cut off a portion of the pizza to make it fit into design.

Lastly, this is a card made hot off the press tonight using the current Craft Roulette parameters! So if you missed it, go catch tonight’s latest episode #228 and play along! This is the card that I’ve made with tonight’s parameters:

I decided I wanted to also use the image from Beccy’s Place August Freebie challenge and add myself another challenge on top of the 4 parameters! I loved the image as it looked so refreshing! I played around with the image on my computer and added an extra one next to it, but flipped it around and placed it behind the other one. I also typed up my own sentiment underneath to go with the “Monday” parameter with Craft Roulette.

Project: I used a Geometric Square stencil for the background with yellow ink and to fit Beccy’s extra twist challenge which was to use something old from your stash, I did dust off those square sequins and brads that I’ve had for years and years to add on the front of the cups. (Now the image reminds me of those Recesses Peanut Butter shakes! YUM!)

Colors: Bee Garden colors are obviously the black and yellow and I had to add in some orange for the guest Irene who is a #teamorange color person.

Element: Monday was typed up within the sentiment.

Random: Use A Marker(s) which the image was colored in with Copic markers.

Ok…so that’s it for me this weekend! I needed to get this posted this evening because I would be missing out on a challenge that I wanted to be sure to play in before time runs out and that will be in like a couple of hours!

Thanks for dropping by today friends! I hope you have an amazing weekend!!

Challenges:

Inky Paws – #229 Birthday Theme + NN products (Top card only)
Cupcake Inspirations – #600 Happy Birthday!!! (Top card only)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2432 Anything Goes
The Cutie Pie – #197 Four Legged Friends (Top card only)
AAA Birthday – #64 Critters + Birthday (Top card only)
Penny’s – #578 Anything Goes Using Paper
Beccy’s Place – Use Beccy’s Place image twist: add older stash (sequins & brads)
Ally’s Angels – #85 Anything Goes

Butterflies at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! Hope that your week has been a good one for you! Thank you to everyone for stopping by and taking your time to spend with me as I appreciate your kindness.

Today starts the August challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking to see a butterfly or butterflies on your projects. I love butterflies and look forward viewing the gallery on this one. 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:

I like how this one came together! I’ve used several butterfly items from Taylored Expressions. I started with the background by taking the Fluttering Friends Layering Stencil and stencil the colors Sour Gummy, Spearmint & Peaches ‘N’ Cream over a white card base. Once the stenciling was finished, I used the Fluttering Friends 3D embossing folder over it which also impresses the bodies and antenna on them. I layered this over a top folding A2 Spearmint card base. (I also cut out a frame with the same colored cardstock using the Frame in Frame 3 Cutting Plate).

For the butterfly focal, I white heat embossed a butterfly from the Beautiful Butterfly Wings stamp set and cut it out along with the layered wings and body from the Beautiful Butterflies die set. I layered it onto a piece of vellum cut out with the Petite Scallop Circle Stacklets die. I also white heat embossed the sentiment from the Mini Strips-Fluttering By stamp set over Sour Gummy cardstock cut from the Mini Strips die. I used foam strips to pop it up and I also added some rhinestones on the butterfly wings.

I hope you like my inspiration for the challenge and that you’ll take some time this month to create something with butterflies too.

Thank you for stopping in and have a great day!

Challenges:

Cut It Up – #310 ‘Thinking of You’ + use of die cut
The Divas That Cut…Paper! – Wet/Dry Embossing (I did both)
Crafty Gals Corner – #258 Anything Goes optional: Embossing Folder
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Can You Handle the Pressure? – Anything Goes using Embossing Folder optional: wheels
Stencil Fun – Anything Goes using Stencil optional: Summertime
Triple B – Butterflies/Birds/Blooms (I used butterflies)

Lots of Inky Stamping to Catch Up On!

Hello friends! I hope that you’re enjoying your August so far! Recently, we’ve been experiencing much cooler temperatures than we normally have this time of year, so it’s been great to go out for a few walks.

I’m ALMOST caught up with things that I haven’t posted, with the exception of a few birthday cards that I’ll share later. For today, I’d like to share some projects that I’ve made at an event I attended back in April along with a class from Inky Stamper.

But first, here are a few projects I’ve made for their recent challenges:

This is a tag I’ve made for the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group July challenge. The challenge was to make a tag and I thought I’d try out a fun idea of making a pocket for my tag that held another tag inside so that you could put a message and a gift card.

I’ve used some Limeade Dots/Stripe 12×12 Doodlebug paper to cut it out with and used a border die to help with the pocket decoration. I cut another tag to place inside the pocket for a special message and to include a gift card. At the top of the inside tag, I’ve made little “charms” with images from the Inky Stamper Margarita stamp set. I’ve also stamped the background of the inside tag. I don’t usually color with pencils, but this time I decided to pull them out.

To get the sentiment to fit around the pocket border, I had to curve the stamp a bit to make it work with the tag.

Here’s another project I’ve made using Inky Stamper products for both the August Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group as well as the Craft Roulette episode #226. (If you play along with Craft Roulette, Inky Stamper is a sponsor for this month.)

So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge for August was to use a white pencil. This happens to be a favorite to use for Chelsea with her images and it does make for a nice quick highlight. So the images were just stamped on colored cardstock and I used the white pencil to highlight them with.

I decided to combine this with last week’s Craft Roulette Episode #226 with the parameters of – Project: “See-through” (I made a see-through shaker card) Colors: “Jungle” (I used greens and browns for my jungle) Element: “Teacher(s)” (The sentiment says it all!) Random: “Tangle” (There are a tangle of leaves inside shaker element.)

For all of the images, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Monkey stamp set. The inside of the shaker was stenciled with a Tropical Leaves stencil from Taylored Expressions with green inks. The circle was cut out with a retired MFT die. I found some fun monkey shaker elements to put inside.

Back in April there was an Inky Stamper Inky Escape event that I attended and here are some projects that I made from the Make-n-Takes that were provided as well as some of the projects that I was working on using the new release that came out during the event:

(If you are on my website, click each photo to enlarge it and read the captions)

The tag was made my Chelsea that was attached to my “swag bag” and the box was a make-n-take project. There was a moon pie included with project, but when I came home, I added 4 Ghirardelli chocolate squares to show how many fit inside.

There is actually another Inky Escape coming up in October that I’m attending and I’m sure it will be fun with Halloween and Christmas theme combined!

While I was there, I worked on some more of my own projects using some of the new sets:

I decided to take and use one 6×6 paper pack from my stash and it seemed to go really well with the outer space theme and I love the purple colors from this set. I’ve used the following Inky Stamper stamps sets: Astronaut, Big Words, & Alien.

Click on the photos below to see a close up look at each card:

Before the Inky Escape Event, there was also an on-line class from Inky Stamper that I took part in and that’s because I thought the projects were super cute! Here are the projects that were completed for this class:

These were both created with the Inky Stamper Hedgehog stamp set. The Journal Book , the Doodlebug DIY Snow globe and Doodlebug dimensional stickers/shaker balls were all provided with the class. I decided to add a few extra elements with mine. The tiny hedgehog on top of the snow globe was included in our box, but not apart of the projects…but I thought it would be fun to add it!

Speaking of Doodlebug, while I was at the Inky Escape Event, Chelsea had a few things on sale and I snagged a kit and special ordered the Doodlebug Frame with it. So when I got back home and the frame came in, I wanted to do my project right away:

I have this displayed in my stamp room and I love the rainbow of colors in it with the different crafty tools in smile faces! The size is 8in. x 8in. with a glass on the front. Although it’s not really that visible in the photo, it is actually quite dimensional.

I think it goes well with the black frame that matches my black frame with the crafty squares swap group I was in. (You can see that post here.)

Whew!😳 I’ve been really busy this year, but I don’t think you would’ve known this without my posting about it! I’m glad that I’ve gotten caught up with things that I’ve done and hopefully I won’t be doing posts like this in the future! It just seems like so much all at once!

Anyway, there we go and now I need to finish and send out a few birthday cards coming up, so I will catch up with that later as well! For now, thanks so much for stopping in and keeping tracks of my sporadic postings! I will be back to share a DT post for a challenge coming!

Have a happy crafty day my friends!

Hello Flowers & Catch Up

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a great week so far! It’s a rainy day, but I have some errands to do as it will be a busy weekend so I wanted to get some things done. I also have some more catching up to share with you at the end of the post too!

I made a card using some older Newton’s Nook products I have and played along in a few challenges as well:

I am not sure if I used this stamp set or not before that I received a few years back from Newton’s Nook called Versatile Vases (retired), but I think it’s a great set with lots of versatility.

I stamped the flowers, then stamped the vase over top of it to make it look like the flowers are inside the vase. I colored with my Copic markers and cut out the panel with the Newton’s Nook Framework Die Set and then cut another panel with pink cardstock for the frame around it. I then stamped the hello sentiment at the top right corner of the panel.

I followed along with the sketch (see below) for the Inky Paws challenge and used some pink ink to stamp the solid flower image from the Versatile Vases set and layered it over a pink cardstock layer. The purple dotted paper came from the Newton’s Nook Birthday Woofs Paper Pad. I arranged each panel over a white top folding A2 card base, but before attaching the purple dotted strip going horizontally behind the flower panel, I wrapped some white twine around it and added a bow with it.

I used some foam tape to pop up the flower panel and then added some purple rhinestones to the center of each flower.

It’s a very simple and sweet card perfect for sending a smile!

I’m still catching up with some projects that I had been working on earlier this year and never had a chance to post each thing I was doing at the time.

You may remember the “Stamp Joy Virtual Event” that I did back in March and I shared those in my post here. During the exact same time I was doing that, there was another event going on through Scrapbook.com called SBC Fest which was recorded so I watched it later and participated in the classes as I had time. I finally finished what I wanted out of it in May and so here are the things I made except for the scrapbooking classes as I wasn’t interested in those projects. (I used items mostly from my stash.)

*If you’re on my website, click on each photo to enlarge*

I’m getting closer and closer to posting my “catch-up” projects! I have one more event that I attended this Spring and a class that I haven’t shared yet, but will post soon!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by, for leaving me a comment or just catching the photos of what I’m doing. I hope you enjoy my sharing as much as I’m enjoying creating.

Have a wonderful day!

Challenges: (Top card only)

Inky Paws – #228 sketch
Cupcake Inspirations – #599 Pink & Purple
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2430 Flowers
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

One for the Boys at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a nice weekend. I spent mine doing house chores which is fine as there has been a heat advisory here for a couple of days, so I thought I’d stay indoors!

I’m here today to share my project(s) for the new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly with the theme of “One for the Boys“. I’m always needing masculine cards, so this worked for me!

Cheers! I’ve pulled out the Taylored Expressions Hoppy Days stamp set for this card. I like the pun sentiments that go with it. I stamped the “bubble pops” image above the beer in yellow ink and added some sparkle with Stickles. I also used some liquid applique and heated it up for the “foam” on the beer stein. The die set cuts out the beer stein as well as that oval platform underneath. I cut off the excess on the side of the card after I popped it up with foam squares.

I stamped the pun sentiment in navy ink on the top left of the card.

I trimmed two thin strips of copper mirror cardstock then attached on each side of the pattern design before popping up the beer stein.

For the pattern details on the card, I used the Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mod stencil set which actually makes 4 different card panels at once. (this particular one is retired, but click here for other sets.) These are all of the four cards I completed:

I had the beer theme in mind when creating a card in the first place, but then I thought it would be fun to pull out one of these create-in-quads stencils to make a pattern and have four cards completed at the same time.

I was thinking of masculine colors to use and I came up with the Taylored Expressions colors: Blue Corn, Mushroom, Pineapple and Salt Water Taffy. I used a full sheet of white cardstock and after the stenciling was finished, they were cut into 4 sections for card fronts. All the card fronts were attached to Blue Corn A2 side folding card bases.

To continue with the masculine look of the cards, I’ve added some touches of Copper metallic with mirror cardstock and other details. Each card was done a bit different and you can see the others in the gallery below with details.

If you’re on my website, click on each photo below to enlarge:

I used copper watercolor to make splatters and die cut sentiment with copper and blue corn.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my set of masculine cards today! Please be sure to stop by the Sparkles Monthly challenge blog to see the inspiration from the team and I hope you’ll play along!

Thanks so much for stopping in! I appreciate you taking the time to join me here!

CHALLENGES: