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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
Hello friends! I hope that you’ve had a great weekend! The weather has really started to cool down over the weekend and I can feel the Autumn breeze in the air right now!
I’m swinging in today to remind you about our current color combo challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} and the second card I’ve made using the colors GREEN, PINK and LIME:
If you remember my card from last week, I had so much fun blending the green ink colors on the grass, I thought I’d continue with another panel of the ink blending on this background too! I also spritzed it with water and then once it was dry, I stamped the images from a Simon Says Stamp Crafty Friend stamp set with black ink. I’ve used the stamp set throughout the card with the cut out scissors and envelope accents and the strip across the pink piece too.
I did white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set over the black strip on the heart. I used just a set of Hero Arts Inifinity Heart dies to cut out the pink heart and another will vellum behind the heart and pink strip. The pink heart was popped up with craft foam and so was that little envelope over top of it. I did run the pink die cut heart through a Tim Holtz embossing folder and rubbed some white ink over it.
The blended ink and stamped background was cut out with a stitched rectangle die and layered over a black and then a green panel, which was then layered over top of an A2 sized top folding white card base. I finished the card with some pink die cut hearts and some Studio Katia Cupid’s Kiss Crystals. (So happy to have again pulled out an older card kit!)
Here’s a closer look at the images on my card. I just fussy cut the envelope and scissors WITH my scissors.😂 For the open areas in the handle of the scissors, I just took a small hand held circle punch to create the circle openings.
I have taken one of the pink hearts that I die cut for my background and used one over the tiny envelope on the heart. The crystals add a nice bit of sparkle to the design too.
I think this will be a nice card to send out to one of my crafty friends! I think maybe we could all use a crafty hug right now so maybe this will help! Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll see you again soon!
Hello my friends! Today starts the annual “Purple Day” blog hop and I have joined with my friend Fiki to help bring awareness about epilepsy.
Please take a moment and read important information about this special day:
Purple Dayis a global grassroots event formed with the intention to increase worldwide awareness of epilepsy, and to dispel common myths and fears of this neurological disorder. Further intentions of this movement are to reduce the social stigmas commonly endured by many individuals afflicted with the condition; to provide assurance and advocacy to those living with epilepsy that they are not alone in their ongoing endurance; and to initiate individuals living with the condition to take action in their communities to achieve these aims.
The day occurs annually on March 26. To read more about epilepsy or how you can help in the U.S., check out the Epilepsy Foundation’s website.
My card inspiration:
Isn’t she just the sweetest little girl with her big heart?! So delighted, of course, to have been provided this darling image from Digi Doodle Studios which is one of the sponsors for our blog hop today! This image is called Sweet Carlina and I’ve got her colored up in purples and pinks. She has a little white heart tucked in her jacket pocket to go with the white hearts on my design.
I found some pretty purplish decorative papers from a recent card kit I had and then I just followed along with a sketch to complete my design. (See challenges below.) After coloring her out, I’ve cut her out with a MFT Wonky Stitch rectangle die and then layered with a purple cardstock layer cut out with a MFT Scallop Stitch rectangle die. I popped it up with craft foam over strips of lace, twine and accents I’ve created with the papers. I’ve used a LF scallop border die to cut accents to go with my heart paper strips. Extra hearts left over were used in the top corner. I also added a purple flower button with twine to finish it off.
Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on her with my Copic markers. I’ve used white gel pen to dot her checks and color the heart in her pocket. You can barely see the shimmer that I’ve done over the heart she’s holding with a glitter brush pen.
You’ll also notice that I’ve printed out this image twice, fussy cut out just the portion of the heart she’s holding along with her hands and popped it out over the colored image to give it some depth.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration for the blog hop! I sure enjoyed creating it and helping to give support to my friend along with creating awareness for epilepsy!
Challenges:
Time Out – Purple (helping to support epilepsy awareness with us!)
Happy Valentine’s Day my friends!! Hope that you’re “feeling the love” and have a wonderful day today!
I wanted to share a card I made for Valentine’s Day.
This really cute images is from Stamp On It called “Love You” digital stamp by QKR Stampede. I wanted to try and keep to the “original” Raggedy Ann style of colors as I could, so I ended up Google searching for photos so that I could use that as a basis for my coloring. I also thought that the rectangle die cut panels would go great for cutting her out with.
I sponged around the edges of the image panel with some blue distress ink, added some heart confetti pieces along with a white twine bow to the center of the heart.
Taking a closer look at the image, you can see how dimensional those confetti hearts are. There is actually a heart that prints out in the center of the “o” in the sentiment, but I decided to place one of those confetti hearts over it.
There is also some shimmer you can see in the heart with the bow that I’ve covered with a glitter brush pen. And in coloring her in, I’ve added some extra “dots” on her blue dress and then I took a white gel pen to add a pattern on her red patch on the apron and then also to add some “stripes” to her socks and “dots” to her cheeks.
If you look at her eyes, I’ve taken a black gel pen which gives them a slight dimension and makes them stand out a bit more.
I really hope you’ve enjoyed my “Raggedy Love” card today and that you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day today!
Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you again very soon!
Hello friends! So now that we have celebrated the Holidays and have started the year, it’s time to look at all things “new”, right?! I have some new things to share with you today using Digi Doodle Studios products!
To me, there’s nothing better to celebrate “new” than new crafty items to play with as well as a new baby theme:
I hope you just said “Awe!” right along with me here! Absolutely fell in love with this precious digital Pairables set that’s BRAND NEW at Digi Doodle Studios called “Little Ones“!
I started by printing out the images and coloring them up. I colored the giraffe, balloon, heart and baby rattle and then fussy cut them out for my card design. There is a very soft interlocking heart grey background papers from the Digi Doodle Studios Baby Boy digital paper pack that I’ve used for the background with the frame layout.
The frame was cut out using the Whimsy Stamps Peekaboo Window 3 die from some yellow cardstock. I then took a brand new textured embossing folder from Sizzix that I got over the Holidays and embossed it. Love the texture of the hearts!
I used some pop dots to lift the images up a bit and added some white twine to the balloon and giraffe. The sentiment was printed out (also from the same Pairables set) and cut out with a banner die. Lastly, I’ve added the ribbon bow, button and some tiny heart sequins in random areas.
Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on this sweet little giraffe. I’ve used Copics to color all the images. You can see how pretty that texture from the embossing is! Lots of little hearts going on here! (Including on the giraffe in case you didn’t see that!) 🙂
You can see where I’ve added some shimmer to the balloon, tiny hearts on rattle and the tiny heart inside the yellow heart with a glitter brush pen.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my “NEW” creation for you today! Please be sure to stop in the store and check it out along with all of the other new items available!
Hello friends! As mentioned yesterday, I wanted to share with you a very special post today and it’s such a fantastic worthwhile cause!
And of course, it can’t be a fun party without some crafting involved, right?!! So, since that little Doxie pup on the end was calling to my heart reminding me of my forever angel girl Mocca (on the sidebar of my blog here), I wanted to make something with that:
Gosh this was SO fun to color! That sheep dog in the background cracks me up!! 🙂
I have used the Adopt Don’t Shop DOGS clear stamp set and colored them up with my Copic Markersalong with the grassy hill they’re on. I also added some clouds behind the pups with a stencil and foam ink blending tool with blue ink.
For the hearts paper behind them, I’ve used a left-over strip from the Hearts A Flutter Digital Paper Collection and attached this strip to the background of my white A2 top folding card base. I layered the doggie panel onto a strip of black cardstock and mounted it over the heart background.
For the sentiment, I’ve layered it onto another piece of black cardstock and attached it in the corner of the doggie panel. I used a circle punch to punch out the paw print and added it to the layout with a foam dot.
Here’s a closer view of the image and how I’ve colored the pups. Do they not make you smile or what?!
The dogs were mainly colored with the Copic ‘E’, ‘C’ and ‘W’ families.
To bring in some more hearts around the pups, I die cut the hearts from the Baby Animals die setand then covered them with a Wink of Stella Glitter Pen for a bit of shimmer.
Thanks so much for dropping in this evening and I know I have been very busy this week, but I will be trying to catch up with you all very soon! Have a wonderful weekend!
Words 2 Crafty By – (W2CB62) Best Friends Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh” he whispered. “Yes, Piglet?” “Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
Stamped Smiles 