Time to Get Your Grumpy On!

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

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

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

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

  • I also have another “grumpy” card to share…

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

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

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

Challenges: (Top card only)

  1. Country View – Halloween or Harvest
  2. Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
  3. Crafting Happiness – Halloween
  4. Aud Sentiments – Halloween/Fall + Sentiment
  5. Crafty Gals Corner – Halloween Colors
  6. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring
  7. Allsorts – Add a Sentiment
  8. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  9. Double D – Orange & Black

A Snarky Friend

Hello friends!  It’s getting closer towards the end of the month and so it has motivated me to get going on some challenges that are about to end soon.  So I’ve grabbed my supplies and had a fun play…

Tee hee!😁  This one makes me chuckle and I think it would be so fun to send to a special friend for Valentine’s Day or even at any time of the year!  Most all of the products I’ve used for this come from Taylored Expressions.  Along with many people, I do enjoy those “snarky” products they sell!

To start, I’ve based my card on a sketch for a challenge that’s about to end and worked with the Taylored Expressions Easy Strips 1/4″ and Easy Strips 1/8″ dies for the bottom right side of the card using the colors Blue Raspberry & Dijon cardstock.  The colors are part of the TE Maker Challenge for January as well which is about to end too which is why this was my choice for this card.  I cut the panel in half diagonal based on the sketch and used a white cardstock for the top right area and blended some TE Blue Raspberry ink with the TE Superstar Rotating Stencil.  Layered these onto some Dijon cardstock which was layered onto the white top folding A2 card base.

  • For the image panel, I stamped the “TE Grouchy Grumplings” (Sorry, it’s been retired it looks like! LOVE that snaggle tooth!😆) and the TE Shenanigans sentiment on the same panel layered over a piece of Blue Raspberry cardstock that was popped up with foam tape.  The image was colored with Copic markers.  I also stamped the TE Simple Strips-Snarky with black ink over a piece of Dijon cardstock that I cut out with the TE Simple Strips-Asymmetrical die and attached at the top right corner of the card. 

To finish off the card, I die cut the stars from the TE Gathered Stars die from Dijon cardstock, glued over the card and then covered with a glitter brush pen.  I also added some TE Tiny Diamonds over the stars to match the Blue Raspberry color of the cardstock.  For the image panel, I used a black pen to doodle around the edges and then covered the heart with glossy accents.

Hope you’ve gotten some chuckles or inspiration from my card today!  Thanks for dropping by!  I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1. *Cheerful Sketches – Jan sketchsketch januari
  2. Taylored Expressions FB Fans Group – TE Maker Challenge Jan
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Jan Stencil Challenge ATG + stencil image (2)
  4. CRAFT – Anything Goes
  5. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring (Copics used)
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

Winter is Shaping Up With Interaction!

So after getting my calendars ready to start the year off, which is easy to sit and craft during the cold snowy winter where I live, my mind turned to winter when creating!  Sometimes it’s nice to create with a “snowflake/winter” theme because I think they can be used interchangeable for Christmas or just a “warm winter greeting” for someone!  (Or… because you might be late sending one out or for those friends overseas that won’t arrive one time!)

Today I’m sharing a card that I’ve made for this month’s Inky Stamper challenge on FB with the theme: “Shaped Cards”

Vicki-InkyStamper-Janchallenge-shapedcard

Isn’t she cute?!  I was trying to come up with a different shape besides a regular circle, etc.  So I looked up “coloring pages for kids” free online and found this one that I resized to what I wanted and printed it out over some light purple cardstock.  I used another printed one as a template so that I could cut another one out over a folded cardstock piece to create a shaped folded card design. (You can partly see the back piece in the photo.)  The sparkly “ball” at the top was just die cut out from a scallop circle die with sparkly silver cardstock.

For the card front, I used the Inky Stamper Snow Angel stamp set to stamp the snowflakes in the background with some purple ink.  I white heat embossed the sentiment over and wanted it to stand out a bit more, so I sponged some more light purple ink over top of it.  I colored “Rosie” over Copic blending card and used the die to cut her out with.  I’ve die cut a couple of the large snowflakes from Lawn Fawn with white cardstock and layered them over the beanie hat.  You can see that “Rosie” is popped out a bit over that snowflake, which is where I’ve added a “wobbler” to her…check it out in the video below:

The wobbling action doesn’t move around in the video as it does in person.  I think my camera slows down the action or something.  (weird)  And of course I finished the card with some sparkly Icicles sequins mix from Inky Stamper too.  I filled the centers of them with some Silver Stickles.

Because of the “ball” on top and the length of the “beanie band”, it needs to be in a 5.5″ square envelope to mail.  You could also make your own envelope which I do all the time anyway.  But the 5.5″ size fits perfectly.

*Speaking of Inky Stamper things, this past prior weekend there was an OOAK event (on FB) that Inky Stamper was apart of, so of course I wanted to get the kit and play along too! (I think that these have recently been sold out.)  But the stamp set used for the kit was this fun Penguin stamp set you can still get in the store.  Here’s my results:

The top card is an interactive “Theater Fold” design.  (All of the pieces were included with the kit along with an instructional video/class.)  I participated in the OOAK FB event to play along.  She usually always includes a mini bonus card which measures about an ATC size. (3.5″ x 2.5″)  She used the “icicles” from the stamp set, but I decided to stamp and cut out another snowflake for the front of mine.  I added a pretty gem to the center of it.

And of course that’s not the ONLY fun I had during the OOAK event!  I decided to play along with the always cute and funny Riley and Co. as well!  Here’s the set of cards created from that class:

I just thought these were so cute with the cow images and their little outfits along with the “Funny Bone” sentiments!  The instructions came with the kit which were really easy to follow along with.  I basically looked at the photos and put together the pieces from the kit.  For the clouds, I decided to pull out some sparkly white flock to cover them with.  They have a nice soft feel to them!  They just make me chuckle and I think it will be fun to send along to someone who needs a smile!😉

*If you are visiting my website, then you can check out each one of these cards in the gallery below by clicking on the photos to enlarge them: (I’ve found some coordinating envelopes from my stash for each card.)

I sure hope that you’ve enjoyed my post today and have been inspired in some way!  Really appreciate you stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!🥰  Stay warm!

Challenges (For Winter Beanie Hat Shaped card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Winter Fun
  2. Papercraft – Winter Wonderland
  3. Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional winter
  4. Make My Monday – Winter-Wherever You Are (snowy and cold!)
  5. Make the Cards – Encouragement (You’re unique sentiment)
  6. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment

Having Some Halloween Fun!🎃

Hey friends!  I know it’s well into October and so you may be wondering where in the world have my Halloween posts been?  Today was gloomy and foggy out…and it’s getting evening, so it was a good time to post!  If you know me, then you know I love all things Halloween, but I’ve actually been in the background lurking with my Halloween projects! Bwhaa!!  I just haven’t had time to sit and make a post for them yet.  The reason for that is, of course, I’m taking too many classes and doing events that I’m like a “mad scientist” in the background with all of the crafting things, but haven’t been sharing them!  So, I’ve decided to set aside some time to create a post with all things Halloween! (Don’t worry, there will be more special ones coming too!)

Now isn’t this one a cutie?!  I’ve received this free digital image especially from the Whimsy Stamps World Card Making Day Event on Facebook that they usually hold every year and have some fun games and challenges.  This image was created by Crissy Armstrong of course and she even did a cute little tutorial with it, so I had to color it up!

I’ve used Copics for the coloring and even made a shadowy creepy black/gray grass along the bottom of the pumpkin.  The hat buckle was colored with a gold gel pen.  The sentiment came from an older Whimsy Stamps candy corn set I had in my stash.  For the background, I’ve used my favorite Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame background stamp to go around kitty.  I then used a couple of different Distress inks to sponge around the edges and then spritzed water over it & blotted it up with a paper towel to make it even “creepier” looking.  I layered it over an orange layer from my stash and then placed this over an A2 sized top folding card base.  I also die cut a bat from an old freebie from Whimsy Stamps years back to glue at the top of the scene and covered it with a glitter brush pen.  Super fun!

Halloween-31-Nights-blog-banner-2018-whimsy-stamps

Now I want to enter this into the annual Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween that they do every year!  Check out the event with lots of Halloween inspiration & fun if you’re interested!  I always love to play along and I think Whimsy Stamps has some of THE best products for crafting Halloween!  CHECK THEM OUT HERE!!

And this is another card I made for the Whimsy Stamps WCMD Event challenge using a fun Autumn/Halloween mood board.  (The event is over, but it was super fun!)  The first thing about the mood board I noticed was all of the orange and fun jack-o-lanterns that popped out at me.  Plus, this was another cute freebie digital image given to us during the event.

So I colored up this dragon using mainly orange tone Copics with a “candy corn” effect.  I also used it for the die cut sentiment at the top that was cut out from the Whimsy Stamps Boo die set.  Hard to tell in the photo, but I covered it with the glitter brush pen too.  I popped up the “dragon guy” over a piece of the Whimsy Stamps 6×6 Haunted Paper Pack cut with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle Dies.  It was all layered over a white A2 top folding card base.  I also added some yellow Stickles to the pumpkin’s face.

And since I’ve been doing so many classes, I thought I’d just create another gallery full of Halloween projects that I’ve done.  I have actually been working on some books and journals as well as mixed media projects and not sure if I’ll get them finished up before Halloween as I’ve been busy, but it’s always fun to get creative and messy especially for all things creepy and spooky!💀  Hope you enjoy! – (If you’re viewing this on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see

Whew!  Was that a lot of Halloween or what?!  Many of these things just give me a big chuckle and I just think they’re so fun especially now that I’ve looked back on them.  Although many of these project were created earlier this Summer, I thought it would be a good time to share them with you. #MakeHalloween365  I still have more Halloween up my sleeve soon, so stayed tuned!

If you haven’t entered my give away yet, there’s still a few days left if you want to leave me a comment saying you’re interested!  CHECK OUT THE POST HERE  I will announce the winner by Oct 11th.

Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween projects here!  HAPPY CRAFTING

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes with animal
  2. Pearly Sparkles – Autumn and/or Halloween
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring
  4. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes with featured Critter
  5. The Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes
  6. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  7. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween
  8. Crafty Calendar – Halloween

Say NO to Pot!

Hello there friends and happy Wednesday!  Hope you’re all doing well and having a great week so far!  It’s so hot over our way with a heat advisory in triple digits, so it’s a good time to stay in and craft, right?!

Stopping by today with another project I’ve made for Inky Stamper!  This one sort of cracks me up a bit as you can see by the title of my post! 😂

Vicki-InkyStamperGDT-Crab-circle easel

So the sentiments from this Inky Stamper Crab stamp set are hilarious and I know many of the stamp sets come with funny sentiments like this too!  It’s always great to have different options for sentiments to go with an image!  Now, I don’t think that I’ve ever been to a crab boil, but I do love me some crab legs!🦀  How about you?!

I’ve used some of the Doodlebug Paper Pads (also in the Inky Stamper store) and made that for the base of my background for the large “pot” image to sit over.  The sentiment was stamped directly onto the “pot” image before I colored it with Copics.  For the “flames” behind the pot, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bear stamp set.  I’ve found so many different uses for that set.  I think it’s one of my faves from this store!

As you can see, the “crab” is inside the pot.  So for this, I used a craft knife to cut a slit for the “crab”, but when you use the coordinating die to cut out the “crab”, he will not exactly fit…so I dismantled the “crab”…like you would for cooking…and placed the cut up parts so his hands were in the air and his eyeballs are sticking out.😆  I taped him on the back of the pot so he would stay put through the slit in the pot and popped it up with foam tape over the flames.  I took the other images from the Crab stamp set and die cut the salt and pepper shakers and fussy cut the sea shells to add to my easel card.

For the easel style card, I’ve used some circle dies for the easel as well as to create the frame for the “port hole” around the cooked crab scene.  I’ve used some brads and rubbed some mixed media silver paste around it.  I’ve also added a piece of rope/twine that I randomly tied a knot on for an accent.  I’ve also added some gems from the Picket Fence – Sand collection (also sold at Inky Stamper) above the crab…for seasoning of course!  The seashell on the inside grouping of the card has foam tape to secure the card front in place for the easel design.  This card will fit perfectly inside an A2 envelope so I can give someone a chuckle of course!

I’m getting ready for a fun “Craft Camping” event starting this weekend with Inky Stamper and I know it will be lots of fun!  So if you’re interested in seeing some more inspiration, come join us over the InkyStamper Inkspiration Facebook Group and say hello!  There is a monthly challenge if you use their product too!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my easel card today and had a chuckle!  Thanks for dropping by!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

  1.  Addicted to Stamps and More – Make Your Mark (all images colored with Copics)
  2. Crafty Sentiments – Anything Goes
  3. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  4. The Crafter’s Cafe – August Anything Goes
  5. Crafty Creations – Aug Anything Goes
  6. Pearly Sparkles – Aug Anything Goes
  7. Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes