Tag: hearts

M is for Mythical

Hello and happy Friday to you friends!  Welcome to the month of October!  We’re still having some unseasonably warm weather right now, but next week it’s supposed to cool down a bit along with maybe some rain which we really need right now.  Hope that wherever you are that things are going well for you!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog!  Our next letter is “M”, and our hostess, Tee, has chosen “M is for MYTHICAL CREATURE(s)” (fairies, gnomes, unicorns, dragons, vampires, zombies, etc.)   I think this will be a fun one for Halloween!  *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.*  I hope you’ll join in the fun with us.  Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

These little grumpy guys from Taylored Expressions always make me giggle and I fell in love with this set a few years back and had to snatch it up!  I pull it out sometimes to make a funny card to send someone.  There are other characters from this set called “Mythical Grumplings” (looks to be a retired set) that are super cute!

Because he’s a grumpy dragon, I mainly used green colors to color him up and for the base/background design.  I used a heart stencil with green ink and overlayed some translucent sparkle paste over it.  I die cut a cloud for the dragon to stand on as well as die cut a heart from shimmer vellum for the dragon to stand out a bit over all of that green color.  I popped both the cloud and dragon up over the vellum heart and added to the background.

I layered it over a scallop white layer and a green A2 top folding card base.  I also white heat embossed the punny sentiment and die cut it out with a stitched banner die.  Sponged the edges with green ink and attached to the top right of the heart panel.

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed my mythical creature card today and that you’ll consider hopping on over the to the challenge blog to see the inspiration from the rest of the team and join in the fun to play along too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Wishing you a happy weekend ahead!

Challenges:

  1. Try it On Tuesday – Animals (real or imaginary)
  2. The Divas That Cut…Paper! – Anything Goes
  3. Crafts Galore Encore – Anything Goes
  4. CRAFT – Grandparents/Anything Goes
  5. As You Like It – Square card or Not & why?  (I most usually make A2 sized cards because it’s what fits best with my envelopes and I can get 2 card bases from one sheet of 8.5″11″ cardstock.  It makes crafting cards more simple with this size.)

L is for Love Letter

Happy Friday friends!  I hope that you’re having a great week and looking forward to the weekend ahead of us!  We’re planning on being outside and have fun with family!  It’s still warm, but hopefully we can get away from the 90 degree (F) weather!

Today is a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog!  Our next letter is “L”, and our hostess, Veronika, has chosen “L is for LOVE LETTER” (include handwriting & hearts)   *Please remember that this is a bi-weekly challenge, so you have two weeks to enter.*  I hope you’ll join in the fun with us.  Here’s the project I’ve made for this challenge:

I always think of handwriting as the most sincere form of a love letter for sure, but I do not like my handwriting at all….so I prefer the typewritten style! LOL  I thought the  Just Write card kit I got from Taylored Expressions would work great for this challenge.

I fell in love with Lori Craig’s card including the colors of it, so I wanted to duplicate it!  I didn’t have everything she used in hers, but I like how it turned out!  The background was done with a 3D Lots of Love embossing folder over a stamped cork background.  I swiped white ink over the popped up hearts to try and bring them out a bit more.  The lined notebook paper inside the typewriter came from the TE Love Letters Clear Stamp & Die combo which is also where I got the “XOXO” to stamp on the heart at the top.  I also used the hearts from this set to stamp on the notebook paper.

Here’s the inside of my card where I used one of the Just Write-Insiders panel for my card and included the stenciled pen and stamped an “ink spot” all included with the card kit.

I thought this would work for my “handwriting” portion of the challenge. *wink*  I could’ve signed it to be completely official, but I don’t know who will be receiving this card right now, but it will be ready to go when the time comes.

  • Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and that you will be joining in the challenge with us!  Thank you so much for stopping in today!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead!

Challenges:

  1. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2537 Anything Goes
  2. Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
  3. The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
  4. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes

Mixing It Up With Layers!

Hello friends!  WOW!  That last month went by really fast!  I think it’s because I was busier than usual on my blog, but that’s great that all of the crafting got me through the cold month quickly!  I know it will still feel cold in March, but hopefully it will start warming up little by little!  Until then, I still need to wear some layers!

Speaking of LAYERS… That 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 this time around is: LAYERS or you can do the ‘Anything Goes” too.  Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

Aren’t these hedgies cute!  I’ve had this stencil set for a while and haven’t had a chance to use it until now and I thought it would be fun to try out the Triple Time Stamping technique.  (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, check out this video on You Tube HERE.)  I thought this would be a great way to insure several layers on my card.

The cute hedgehogs come from the Taylored Expressions Hedgehugs Stamp & Stencil Combo.  I used the technique to layer the panels together and then stamped and stenciled the hedgehogs and then layered each panel with the Spearmint cardstock.  The smallest layer on top was popped up with foam tape.  (I added the white shimmer ribbon around the middle and front panels before attaching to the card.)

I used the coordinating die to cut out some extra hedgehogs and I popped them up with foam tape over a white metallic heart.  I also white heat embossed the sentiment from the TE To the Point stamp set and cut it out to pop up under the “kissing hedgehogs”.  I’ve also added a few more tiny die cut hearts from the white metallic paper.

I THINK I’ve got about 7 layers all together not including the card base.

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and will stop by the challenge blog to see all of the inspiration from the team over there!  I would love to see your creation in the gallery too!

Thanks for dropping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Gem of a challenge – Anything Goes
  2. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2508 Anything Goes
  3. Little Red Wagon – “Tiny Dancer” (tiny things)  I used tiny white hearts
  4. Penny’s – Anything Goes Using Paper
  5. Simon Wednesday – Anything Goes
  6. Just Us Girls – Stencil Week

For Someone You Love at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  I hope that you had a great Valentine’s Day yesterday however you chose to celebrate it!  We chose to stay indoors where it’s warm and watch a movie!  

And speaking of love, this brings us to the February challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking for a “Love Card (for anyone you love)” .  Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created for you.  Here’s my project for this challenge:

Aren’t these heart sweaters adorable?!  I had fun making a couple of cards to send to my kids (whom I love) for Valentine’s Day.  I was actually able to create two similar cards using a stencil set that allows you to make 4 sweaters at one time.

I love the Taylored Expressions Sweater Weather Stencil Set that you can ink blend up to four different sweaters at once.  This had previous come out for Christmas, but in December, they came out with a cute Valentine line to go with this stencil.  So I gold foiled a panel from the TE Foil It-Valentine Sweater Weather pack and then to decorate the sweaters, I used the TE Dinky Decorations Valentine die set.   I wanted more hearts, so I die cut a few extra to place around the background.

Speaking of the background, I used the TE Lots of Love 3D embossing folder and then sponged a bit of white over the hearts so they stood out a bit more.  I also die cut the A2 Thin Frame die for a gold mirror frame.  The sentiment came from the TE Love & Hugs stamp set. 

And here’s a closer look at the other card I made.  I know I could’ve used just one sweater for each card, but I thought these sweaters were too cute, so I decided to use all of them!  I’m thinking one of my sons would probably wear a sweater like one of these and the other would think it’s ridiculous! LOL  Regardless, at least they each know that they are loved by me!

I also had these fun TE Snarky Valentine Insiders panels that I gold foiled.  I have to share some snark with those I love too! LOL  (Click on the photos above to enlarge them if you’re on my website.)

 

I thought I’d share another card I had made for someone I love that was given to my husband for Valentine’s Day yesterday.  (Sometimes, I have to wait until he gets it before I share!):

This pup and his boing heart hat cracks me up!  Look at that face!  I actually made this last month during a Craft Roulette challenge.  I decided that I liked it so much that I put a Valentine greeting on it for my husband to give him on Valentine’s Day.

I used the Taylored Expressions Puppy Love (retired) stamp set and colored in this cute pup with Copic markers and die cut him out.  I stamped the TE Gingham Check BG Stamp in black ink over red cardstock.  I splattered some white Copic Opaque over top.

For the lace, I white heat embossed the border stamp from the TE Flip the Lace stamp/die (retired) over the Toffee cardstock and placed beneath the check background piece.  I added a black strip between the two and then popped the dog on it.  I stamped the “Seriously” from the pup stamp set and the Valentine greeting from the lace stamp set together and fussy cut them out to pop up with foam tape on the card.  I added a few white hearts around the pup.  The entire card is a mini slim from a pre-cut and scored Toffee card base.

  • Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you enjoyed these “love” cards or have been inspired to make and send a card to someone you love too!  I look forward to seeing what you share in the gallery this month!  

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Challenges:

  1. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes With a Featured Creature (Bottom card only)
  2. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + Animal (Bottom card only)
  3. Pearly Sparkles – Love is in the Air
  4. Crafts Galore Encore – #132 Anything Goes
  5. Crafty Calendar – Hearts
  6. 613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Lots of Love
  7. Crazy is Our Fame-Stencils Are Our Game – Pinks &/or Reds + stencil (sweater cards)
  8. Make My Monday – #245 Love (bottom pup card)
  9. Crafty Gals Corner – #264 Fill in the Blank:  “Pink________” (sweaters)

Time to Send Love

Hello friends!  It’s getting closer to Valentine’s Day and Sending out love to others is a good reason to make cards!  I’ve joined a couple of challenges to play along with:

I have fallen in love with these card layout dies from Newton’s Nook called A2 Card Layout Die and was also able to use as part of a sketch for a challenge that worked with it.  The die made it very easy for the layout.  I’ve also used some Newton’s Nook papers as well as a new Valentine themed stamp set that came out in December.  

For the postage stamp on the card, I’ve taken the NN Postage Stamp Layout die and cut one in turquoise and then another in white.  One for the inside and one for the frame.  I cut it apart so that I had several postage stamps.  I stenciled clouds on the turquoise insert and added the heart balloons from the NN Valentine Postage Sampler set over it.  I stamped, colored and cut it out with the coordinating die.  I also white heat embossed the number at the bottom.

I took the same stamp set and stamped some random hearts on the center kraft cardstock panel.  The sentiment came from the NN Sending Hugs stamp set (retired) and was white heat embossed over the hearts.

For the die cut turquoise hearts, I’ve used the NN Charming Hearts Frame die.  It cut out three hearts that I could use for accents on this card.  I’ve attached the entire design over an A2 top folding kraft card base and finished it with some heart shaped sequins.

Thanks so much for joining me today!  I hope you’ve enjoyed my card or found some inspiration!

Challenges:

  1. Newton’s Nook Inky Paws Challenge – Cherry Red, Turquoise, Buttery Brown & White + Newton’s Nook products
  2. Sketch Saturday – #768 sketch with twist:  include a heart
  3. The Divas That Cut…Paper – Something New + die (new Newton’s Nook products!)
  4. Creative Fingers – #293 Anything Goes
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – #2504 Anything Goes

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:

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

Art Journal Inspiration and Valentine’s Day Cards!

Good evening friends!  Tomorrow is about “LOVE” for Valentine’s Day!  I hope that whatever you’re doing that you spend it with those that you love or at least tell someone how much they mean to you!  I have a special post this evening that is dedicated or inspired by love. ❤️

First up is my art journal page with the prompt/theme of “LIGHT/KEEPING IT LIGHT” that I’m guest hosting this month for the Art Journal Journey Challenge.   It’s been so fun to see all of the wonderful art created so far!

This page was inspired by not just the “light” prompt for the challenge, but it was also inspired by the love of my life.  We have spent many moons together and have enjoyed our time in the moonlight as we both love nature and have spent some time traveling and seeing some beautiful things.  I’m so thankful to have had these special memories with him.

For the background:  I started with a 5.5″x8.5″ watercolor with pre-punched holes at the top with my Zutter machine.  I used my watercolor to create the blue sky background with an idea of where I was going to place the moon.  I left that area to watercolor in the yellow rather than the blue.  I then used some white opaque copic watered down and splattered over top for stars.  The “moon” was die cut in white with a heart shaped die and I added a moon stencil over top to make it look like a heart shaped moon and glued it in the center of the watercolor background.

The bottom portion was made with just ripping some cardstock and ink blending one with the greens and one with greys and black.  I die cut the trees in black and glued them in place and then added the ripped layers over top.

I stamped the Lavinia Stamps “Star Gazers” stamp in black in and fussy cut it out.  I colored the rocks they were sitting on as well as their wings and popped them up on the grey ripped border.  I also hand drew more rocks around them and used a white gel pen to highlight.  I added some glitter to the wings.  Lastly, I wrote over black cardstock with a white gel pen, cut them out and attached to the ripped green border.  I then used a black pen to doodle around the words.

Next up are a few Valentine cards that I’ve made.  I’m actually really bummed because I would’ve shared another two cards that I made, but I forgot to take photos of them before I sent them out!  I used a pizza theme and they were so fun! 

This first one is for my husband and I’ve used the Craft Roulette #201 parameters to create it:

We had to make an easel card, so I decided to make a heart shaped one.  I’ve used the cute skunk from Lawn Fawn with all of the “sweets”. (which was also one of the parameters)  My husband loves his sweets!  I also had to use “quiet” colors and some sort of bokeh, so I’ve made a bokeh background and used a solid heart stamp in white over the blended colors.  It reminds me of those conversation hearts.  This skunk makes me smile!

This is another fun card that I’ve made for a friend!  I couldn’t wait to use this fun mosaic heart from Taylored Expressions.  It came as a freebie for a limited time with a Valentine release.  I like that it comes with the solid heart backer which makes putting it together easier.   I ink blended a panel in two shades of pink and then die cut the heart with the pieces.  I used the frame cut in white and then popped in the ink blended pieces inside the frame.  

The embossed heart background was made after cutting out a piece of Bubblegum cardstock with the postage rectangle die.  I stamped and die cut the sentiment over top of the heart and added some gold rhinestones. 

And this card was done for the Inky Stamper FB challenge which was to create a square card.  I have made this one 4.25″ square and used the cute Snail stamp set along with some Doodlebug papers which you can also find in their store.

I just stamped, colored and cut out the images, added a border at the bottom and cut out a scallop square in white and stenciled some clouds at the top.  More pink papers onto a white square card base and called it done!  There’s nothing better than getting snail mail!

  • I hope you’ve enjoyed my heart-filled post today and you’ve been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again on Thursday for a new challenge to try!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Challenges:

  1.  Art Journal Journey – LIGHT/KEEPING IT LIGHT (art journal page only)
  2. Crafty Animals – #80 Anything Goes + animal (skunk card)
  3. Critter Crazy – #83 Anything Goes + critter (snail card)
  4. Pearly Sparkles – Love/Have a Heart (skunk card)
  5. Creative Knockouts – #514 Love/Valentine’s Day (skunk card)
  6. A Place to Start – Monochrome (mosaic heart card – pink)
  7. Aud Sentiments – #310 Dies/Love/Wed/Anniversary + sentiment (skunk card)
  8. Creative Inspirations – For Someone You Love/Special Friend (mosaic heart card)
  9. The Male Room – Valentine/Use a Heart (skunk card)
  10. Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional: Valentine/Love (snail card)

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

Happy weekend friends!  It’s almost time for Valentine’s Day which means we share our appreciation to those that we love!  I like to make cards that are great for any time of year and hearts are versatile enough to do this without being specifically Valentines.  Here are a few cards that I’ve made with this in mind:

I actually participated in last week’s Craft Roulette #149 and the perimeters were: 1. tissue/vellum 2. collage 3. far away 4. three pops of red.  So…while watching, I had decided that I was going for the Tim Holtz Postale Tissue Wrap that was already collaged with images.  I decided because of the collage images, that I was going to find an airplane image to use with it and my thoughts turned to an older Simon Says Stamp card kit I had with the “Home Sweet Home” stamp set.  I white heat embossed the airplane, the long building strip and the sentiment over black cardstock. It seemed to lend itself to a slimline card design, so that’s what I went with and used collage medium to attach the tissue to the background.  Once it dried, I glued the die cut buildings strip and went around it with a Big Brush marker that I smudged to create the shadow effect.

I made a banner with the sentiment and attached a white string to the back and tied a bow with it to the airplane and popped up the plane with foam tape.  The collage background panel was layered over a black piece that was attached to a standard slimline top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the details so that you can see them a bit better.  My “three pops of red” came from 3 hearts that I cut out with red cardstock.  The die was from the coordinating set with the stamps.  I attached them around the airplane and covered them with a glitter brush pen.

If you’re interested in seeing what the Craft Roulette is all about, you can check them out live every Friday night around 6:00 pm CST.  I will be doing this tonight as well!  It’s just something fun to get your crafting thinking and I love that I can pull out my stash and use it up!

 

And of course I couldn’t help but follow along with the Lawn Fawn Create With Us “Wood You Be Mine?” class!  There’s a little inside joke about Woodchucks chuckin’ wood with my son and I couldn’t resist sending him one of these cards. (CLICK ON THE PHOTOS ABOVE TO SEE THEM LARGER IF YOU’RE ON MY WEBSITE)

I just pretty much followed along with the same design as they shared in class with the exception of the background stencil.  I didn’t have the same one they used, so I pulled out one from Taylored Expressions that is no longer available.  but if you’d like to follow along with the class, you can check it out here.

And lastly, I wanted to share a commissioned card that I made for someone that requested a card to give to their partner.  Not really too specific other than they liked wolves and the “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong lyrics somewhere displayed on the design.  So here’s what I came up with:

I did not own any stamps with wolves on them, so I turned to my Cricut machine to cut out a silhouette wolf and then I flipped it to cut another one so that they faced each other.  I wanted to give the appearance of the wolf couple howling together. LOL  I also had some digital map paper that I could print out to use for the hearts as well as making an envelope with it too.

The background was ink blended with the center being lighter toned in blue and then I splattered some white over top for a night sky or an “outer space” looking sky…however you’d like to interpret it, I suppose.  I cut a large heart with the map paper and arranged the two wolves over it so that, although it’s the same image flipped, I can make them look like different wolves and then cut off the bottom portions. I popped up the large heart with foam.  I also used the same papers to cut smaller hearts above them and added some glitter and covered them with crystal effects to make them shinny.  I printed out the lyrics on my computer and cut it out in a banner shape to attach below the wolves.

  • Hope you’ve enjoyed my “love” creations today and have been inspired in some way!  Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’– LOVE (Beavers)
  2. Simon Says Stamp Monday – Love is in the Air (slimline)
  3. Everybody Art – #529 Heart/Love
  4. Cardz 4 Guyz – Valentine for a Guy (wolves)
  5. Try it On Tuesday – All You Need is Love
  6. Fab ‘N’ Funky – Valentines or Hearts
  7. Little Red Wagon – Somebody to Love
  8. The Sisterhood of Crafters – Hearts
  9. Crafty Gals Corner – Add a Heart

Stinky Love

Hello friends!  Happy Friday and I hope that you’re having a great week so far!  I’ve been having some fun creating a couple of Valentine’s Day cards with a fun/snarky inside greeting.

So, I absolutely fell in love with these STINKIN’ CUTE skunks from Lawn Fawn!  A few weeks ago, I caught a live on FB and enjoyed the crafty products shown with these Lawn Fawn Scent with Love stamps!  I wanted to play with them and decided to order it!  I didn’t have them on hand during the video, but I decided to do my own spin from their cards once mine showed up in the mail.

I didn’t use the heart stencil they had as I decided to use my TE Heart of Hearts Layering Stencil on both of these cards.  I’ve used some clear glitter paste over the first layer without using the largest heart, let it dry and then used some red ink for the second layer.  The red strip was embossed with a 3D heart folder.  I’ve used the Lawn Fawn Scripty Love die that was ink blended faded with the red ink and layered over another die cut sentiment with glitter cardstock.  All of the images were colored with Copic markers and die cut with coordinating dies. I’ve used some black glaze and white gel pens for accents.  I just glued all of the pieces down with the exception of the skunk that was popped up with foam tape.

OK, I had shared the inside of the card that the recipient will be receiving as I thought they would get a kick out it. 😆 I’ve used the SSS Sassy Insides stamp set for the inside of both of these cards.  I finished with the Valentine sentiment and the tiny hearts from the Lawn Fawn set.

And so this is also a “spin off” from the second card they did on the live, but I decided not to add another layer to it; instead, I used the large heart within my stencil to center these darling hugging skunks.  I did about the same thing that I did on the card above with different colored inks.  The only thing popped up is the skunks over the sentiment banner that I cut out using the MFT Stamps banner dies.  I think this turned out so cute for a one layer simple card.

And then here’s what the inside of the card looks like with another sentiment from the same SSS stamp set that I’ve used on the above card! 😆  I think this one was so appropriate for using with the skunks!

So I’m thinking that these cards would be something fun for the recipients to receive in the mail.  It’s a great time of year to get something to chuckle about especially if it’s unexpected!  I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them too!

 

Thank you so much for stopping in today!  I wish you a happy and wonderful weekend ahead!!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Lawn Fawnatics – Lots of Heart
  2. Make the Cards – Valentine card
  3. Unicorn – Red (top card only)
  4. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
  5. Pearly Sparkles – Anything Goes
  6. NBUS – #35 NEW SKUNK STAMPS! YAY!
  7. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with animal
  8. Double D – Hearts
  9. Aud Sentiments – Love Sentiment

Working in Washi Encouragement

Hello friends!  Happy Labor Day!  Can you believe we’re in September already?  The time goes so quickly!  I’ve been helping my husband around the house so we can finish up some projects before the weather starts getting cooler on us!  He does keep me busy since being retired! LOL!

As I had mentioned, although I wasn’t posting on my blog, I was still crafting.  I’ve also been trying to organize my craft room with my husband helping me to move things around as my space had really gotten to be over-whelming.  Carrying several card kits (many never used) and boxing them up to store, I realized how many things I actually have and never used!  It’s fun to buy stuff, but I think it’s even better to use something I have…as I’m becoming my own store!  So for this reason, my purpose has really shifted to TRY using what I already have if possible!  I know many of us are in the same boat, so perhaps I can help inspire too!

Here’s a set of cards that I’ve been working on from a virtual class that took place sometime in July.  It was supposed to be a set of 4 cards created with this gorgeous paper, stamp set and washi tape collection from Teresa Collins (Called “Create a Beautiful Life”).  The purple and butterflies really spoke to me, and I got the kit…which I honestly didn’t need, but this is how it’s been!  I was supposed to get some already cut butterflies with the kit, which I didn’t…but it was fine, as of course, I had some dies that worked just fine for these cards, and I decided to go off a bit on my own anyway.

Remember the post I had recently done about the washi tape challenge?  This is what made me think about this card kit class and that I needed to finish it up!  There are a couple ideas in there using some of the pretty washi tape from the TC collection.  I think taking all of these virtual classes has taken a tole and burned me out a bit as well because although I’m making the cards (and have a huge stash of them), I usually still have extra product/material to use up too!  It sort of compounds the problem and doesn’t really help much.  I think it’s just time to consider a heavy freeze on it all!  Or at least until some of my stash gets used up anyway! 🙄

Here’s a closer look at each one of the cards in the set.  If you’re on my website, just click on each photo below to enlarge it or if you are set up with e-mail, it will probably show in original form.  (There’s a caption under each card with the details too.)

The background is made using washi tape.
Left over washi tape pieces from previous card to form heart.
Inside of heart window with washi tape pieces.
layout using pattern paper.
More papers used with an ink blended heart window and black splatters.
Used more snippets from paper collection.
The washi tape cards are the top 3 and the paper snippets/scraps are the bottom 3.

I stamped some of the sentiments that were included with the stamp set from the collection, but there were also strips at the bottom of some of the pattern papers, so I took some of them and used them for some of the other cards.

I really like how they’ve turned out and this will be a nice set of encouragement cards to send along for my donation box this month to “The Butterfly Project” for domestic violence.

Really hope they were inspiring for you as well and that you’re reminded to use your own stash of papers, washi tape and other forgotten materials too!

Would love to play in these challenges for fun:

  1. Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes 
  2. Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
  3. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies – Anything Goes + animals (butterflies count!) 
  4. The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
  5. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  6. Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes
  7. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes (birthday optional)
  8. Just Us Girls – 6 of anything (Didn’t realize it, but used 6 strips of pattern paper on the last card in the gallery!)  Thanks Vicki D!😉