Inky Stamper Fun

Hello friends!  Lots of fun crafty things happen during the month of October with the start of World Card Making Day to kick us off, then there’s the changing seasons with Fall, then Halloween with the treats which then turns into the Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I have taken the time to participate in some fun challenges and classes this month with some Inky Stamper inspiration for today’s post.

Although it says “EEK” next to the spider, I think he’s a cute one and not one to run away from!  This cute spider comes from the Inky Stamper Spider stamp set that I’ve used on the tag for my Hershey Nugget treat holder. (I made this for the October challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group with the theme of “Treat Holder”.)  I’ve stamped and colored the spider with Copic markers, used the coordinating die to cut him out and pop him over the green oval tag with the spider web and EEK stamped over it.  I’ve used the green colored markers to his eyes to match my project.

For the treat package, I’ve used the Inky Stamper Scallop Candy Wrappers die cut out from some black Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper to wrap around the candies.  I made a “holder” for the nuggets with regular black cardstock and scored each side 1/4″ for a container to hold the nuggets in place.  I used some stickers from my stash to add the “B-O-O” letters and then slid the container into an Inky Stamper Hershey Bag that was gathered and tied up at the top with a piece of Doodlebug Limeade Twine.  I punched a hole in my spider tag/gift card and threaded the twine through it to wrap around the treat and then took a piece of black ribbon to tie a bow around it all.  These were so fun and easy to make!

Another thing I did was participate in the World Card Making Day Challenge in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration Group. The challenge was to create a card using a sketch that was given and turn in by a certain time frame.  This was my take on the sketch using the Inky Stamper Cow stamp set.

I used the “cow pattern” image from the stamp to create my background, white heat embossed the sentiment strip over black cardstock and sponged white around the edges of the banner.  I popped it up with foam tape, stamped, colored and popped up the cow image over the banner as well.  I also used the Inky Stamper Bunny set for the balloon image and the Inky Stamper Goat set for the party hat over the cow’s head.  The balloon string was attached behind the cow and then I made a bow for around the cow’s neck with the Doodlebug Beetle Black Twine.  To make my card fit with the sketch, I added some silver glitter cardstock strips behind the oval layers.  I also added some silver Stickles glitter over the party hat to bring in the silver as well.  So glad I ended up playing as I was picked to win a gift certificate!

I also participated in a “game night” class making these fun projects all made with the Inky Stamper Bug Catcher set.  This class was was a kit and all of the pre-cut items were included.  I already had the stamp set so I didn’t need to purchase that with it.  Even the candy spiders and magnifier came with it all!  I had fun putting it all together and I really liked the versatility of the projects we did.

  • If you’re on my website, just click on the photos below to take a closer look at each project
When you pull the slider tab the mouse moves over to catch the butterfly!
The magnifier is attached with Velcro dots from card! It works!
Mini card and treat box with candy spiders inside!

Hope you’ve enjoyed the projects that I’ve made and been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for stopping in!

Challenges:

  1. Two Old Bats – Anything Goes Halloween (spider treat)
  2. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  4. Make My Monday – Birthday Wishes (COW CARD)
  5. Happy Little Stamper Birthday – Anything Goes Bday (COW CARD)
  6. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  7. CRAFT – Gift Bag or Box (spider treat)
  8. This is Halloween – Gothic and/or Halloween (spider treat)

*Vicki*29 Comments

Magnificent Scene, Birthday Crap and Craft Storage

**IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN MY GIVE AWAY OR LOOKING FOR IT, CHECK OUT MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE.  ENDS SEPT 22nd**

Hello friends!  Welcome to September!  Really hope that you’ve had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and have had a great start to the month so far!  I’m still trying to get my MOJO in gear as I really love this time of the year with all of the wonderful Autumn things happening both outside AND in the crafty world too!  Really love when it starts up, but as it gets closer to the end of the year…I’m ready to skip right over it! LOL!

Today I have a fun post to share with some projects I made with several Inky Stamper products!  They have a FB challenge to participate in every month and so I thought I’d share what I came up with.  (Check it out and play along if you have any Inky Stamper stamps!) *Check out the store as well because there is a brand new release that just came out!

This was a fun little scene to create on a mini slimline card!  So the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge THIS month (Sept) is to use more than just one Inky Stamper stamp set on one design. I really liked this challenge because it got me thinking of what to use and pull out several different images and actually use them!  Looking forward to see what other people come up with too!  So for my scene, I’ve actually pulled out EIGHT different stamp sets!!!😮

To start with the background, I pulled out the *Housefly set with the squares image to clear heat emboss the background and then ink blend over top for an “emboss resist” technique. I took the *Rainy Day set and stamped the rainbow/cloud image and fussy cut the clouds to add on the background sky.  For the “flying birds” and the “pattern” at the bottom over the green strip, I’ve used the *Pelican set.  Of course the main characters are different sets from *Rosie Solo and *Ralph Solo.  For Rosie’s “hair”, I stamped the butterfly from the *Bug Catcher set to color and fussy cut it out which was then popped up over the flower she originally has. I also used this same set to white heat emboss the sentiment.  For Ralph, I pulled out the *Snail set to stamp and color a heart which he is holding.  I just made a slit around Ralph’s “hand” to help him hold the heart.  And lastly, I pulled out the *Bee set to stamp, color and fussy cut the flower image.  I cut off the stem and just attached the flowers with one of them popped up with foam tape. Lastly, I’ve added some sparkle to the butterfly on Rosie and the heart with Ralph using my glitter brush pen.  I then added some sequins from the Fall Flowers sequins mix and filled the centers with some Stickles.

So did I do it?  Did you count out the eight different sets?  I think this mouse couple is too cute…and no…they aren’t the “real” mice, these are the good ones to have!😁

Ralph is showing up again!  I needed to make a humorous birthday card for my son and I’m sure he’ll get a kick out it!😂  This is actually the first card I made for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group challenge, but I didn’t use eight different sets like I did on the one above, I only used four different sets.  However; I used REAL TP!

The background was created using some of the Doodlebug Gingham/Linen paper which the “bricks” image was stamped over with grey ink from the *Goat set.  I also used this same set to stamp the “grass” border towards the bottom with another strip of green from the same Doodlebug paper pack.  I just fussy cut the top of the grass strip to attach over the grey brick background.  Of course the Ralph inside the TP roll came from the *TP set along with the “pile of poo”💩 and the “Oh Crap!!!” sentiment that was white heat embossed over a black banner and popped up with foam tape.  The balloon image came from the *Bunny set.  I decided to attach a piece of the white Doodlebug twine and pop up the balloon with foam tape.  I attached the other end to Ralph’s “hand”.  Lastly, the forth set I used was the sentiment at the bottom from the *Iguana set.  (For that sentiment, I only used a portion of it from the stamp.)  So that makes FOUR sets used!

The images on this card were colored using my CC Real Brush markers, I stamped the Ralph image again over the TP…yep, stamped directly onto the TP and fussy cut it out to paper piece over the image.  Gives it the REAL look and feel of TP!😉 I have die cut a black scallop frame to go around the scene and lastly I’ve added some sparkle to the balloon and the tiny flies around the “poo” with a glitter brush pen.  I didn’t want to add too much as this is a masculine style birthday card.

And then I have one last project to share that I actually made for last month’s challenge that I “squeaked” in just in time too!  (See what I did there?!😂) Ralph is just so popular today!  I had a plastic bag sitting around on my table that I kept moving out of my way and it was frustrating me, so I made this “container” to hold some crafty things to sit on my table!  It’s actually a REALLY old tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers using chipboard coasters!  I have SO MANY of those coasters and I was happy to use some up.  CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL HERE (P.S. The tutorial is actually done up by Taylor from Taylored Expressions, before her store years!  That’s how old it is!)

The challenge last month was to use primary colors on your project which are the red, blue and yellow colors.  Not realizing what the challenge would be for THIS month, it would actually fit in with that too!  I used THREE different sets for this project. Again, I’ve used the *Ralph Solo set that was colored up and fussy cut out as this was done before the new die came out for him! (see top card)  I took out several of the different Doodlebug papers to cover my chipboard coaster panels being mindful of the Primary Color challenge.  Rather than leave the papers as is, I decided to pull out the *Inky Greetings set to stamp the splatter image in the coordinating colors with the papers.  I also decided Ralph needed to be holding a pencil, so I pulled out the *Owl set and stamped, colored and fussy cut the pencil image which was added to Ralph’s “hand” by making a small slit for him to hold it.

I was happy to pull out some of my old punches to create the backdrop for “pencil holding Ralph” as well as using up those old coasters and some more papers and ribbon from my stash! (I’m really hoping to be doing more of this often!)

I know this was a long worded post, but hope you enjoyed the projects and got some smiles too!  Thanks for catching up with me today!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
  2. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
  3. Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  4. Happy Little Stampers Birthday – Anything Goes Birthday (2nd card)
  5. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – ‘B’ is for Birthday
  6. We Love Stamping – Anything Goes with stamping (all are stamped!)
  7. Crafting Happiness – NOT A CARD: Anything Goes (3rd project)
  8. The Corrosive – Anything Goes
  9. Try It On Tuesdays – Animals -real or imagined

*Vicki*29 Comments

Pray Until Something Happens With Inky Stamper

Hello friends!  How is your Summer going?  It seems like it is really flying by for me!  After getting back from the wedding, I have a PILE of things to get finished up, literally!  I signed up for classes knowing that I couldn’t participate during the class time, but figured I would finish them up on my own, so along with doing that I’ve decided to also throw in a current challenge project as well and share that today:

So this cute little fella came from Inky Stamper called Praying Mantis, of course.  The challenge for the month of July in the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group calls for “watercolor” of any kind and so I pulled out my Zig CC Real Brush markers to color him with, cut him out with the coordinating die and even added a bit of the Liquid Pixie Dust on his wing.

For the watercolor on the background, I’ve used an Inky Stamper Watercolor Panel and ran a few different colored Distress Oxide ink pads over it without touching the colors.  I then spritzed it with water to saturate and let the colors run together over it.  I picked up any extras on my glass mat to completely cover the panel and then I took the Picket Fence Geo Squares Stencil and laid it over top while it was wet, pressed it in and let it just sit until it was dry. I picked up the stencil that had dried ink on it, spritzed it with water and turned the stencil the other way with the ink on it and pressed it onto the panel again and let it dry.  This is how the darker ink color showed up on the lighter end.  I took some green and black watercolor to spritz over top.  Really fun background to play with!

I then white heat embossed a sentiment over a black strip and attached it to the bottom portion of the background and then die cut the panel with a double-stitched rectangle die.  I used foam squares to pop up the bug and wrapped some Doodlebug Limeade Twine under the sentiment.  This panel was layered over a black piece which was attached to a top folding A2 white card base.  I finished it with some Doodlebug rhinestones.

And continuing on with my “Inky Stamper projects”, There was an OOAK event a few days before I left.  I didn’t have time to do my projects during the time, but finished them up when I returned.  We made this fun and unique fold design with a gorgeous butterfly and then of course the mini card to go along with it.  Not sure if the kits will be available at a latter date, but you can check it out in the Inky Stamper Store HERE.

For mine, I colored the butterfly with Copics, popped up the wings with foam tape and added some of that Liquid Pixie Dust which is hard to see in the photo.  Then for the mini card, I used some watercolor to color the hydrangea with.  The sentiment was white heat embossed.

Super fun projects as always! (I usually make my “mini card” into TWO ATCs, I just did the one so far here.)

And for my last set of “Inky Stamper projects”, this was for a special class Chelsea held during the time that I was gone.  Even though I wasn’t able to attend the fun and games with them live, I went ahead and purchased the kit anyway so I could watch the video at a later date to make all of these fun projects centered around this ADORABLE Sloth!  If you are interested in this kit, check it out in the store here – Inky Stamper SLOTHsome Class Kit

I pretty much followed along with the way the class projects were made.  I added some gold thread on the card in the back with the clocks so that it could hang from the sloth’s claw.  I added a glittery heart for the treat container for the sloth to hold as well.  The candy inside the container are slo pokes!! 😂   Super cute and fun projects to make!  I sort of treated myself to the candy while I was creating!

I also think that there were a few days where I could relate to the sloth too, but glad to get things done!

Really hope you’ve enjoyed my projects that I’ve shared today and are inspired in some way too!  Thanks so much for stopping in today…I’ll be sharing more soon!😉

Challenges: (For top card only)

  1. Happy Little Stamper Watercolour – Anything Goes + watercolor
  2. Happy Little Stamper Stencil – Anything Goes + stencil
  3. Aud Sentiments – Anything Goes + sentiment
  4. As You Like It – Favorite warm/cool colors and why? (Always been attracted to the cool tones even as a child!)
  5. Krafty Chicks – Week 1: Stamp Act
  6. Crafty Catz – #603 Anything Goes
  7. Creative Fingers – #235 Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Week 27: Anything Goes + coloring
  9. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2228 Anything Goes

*Vicki*23 Comments

Some Inky Stamper Escaping!

Hello friends!  It has not only warmed up over my way, but we went from about 50 degrees to straight up 90 degrees within the last few weeks!  I think it’s supposed to slightly cool down in a few days, but I’m happy it’s warmer anyway.  Hope that you’re all doing well too.  Been wanting to share with you what I’ve been up to, but first I have this fun card I recently made:

I thought this was so fun and easy to create!  If you’ve ever made a gate-fold card, try one of these interlocking ones!  I love the way it opens up from just a traditional card.  This is the first time I’ve tried one of these and I’ve made it for this month’s Inky Stamper Inkspirations FB Group‘s challenge…which is to make a gatefold card.

I’ve also used one of the brand new stamp sets that came out from Inky Stamper called “Iguana“.  I’ve stamped the images out on Bristol Smooth watercolor and used my Zig Brush Markers to color them in.  The stamp set has a coordinating Iguana die, but I fussy cut the cactus out to place behind him.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut it out with a banner die to place at the bottom of the card.

You will notice that I’ve only attached HALF of the panels on the front so it can be opened freely with the circle frame interlocking with the circle image panel.

To complete the decorating, I’ve used the Doodlebug Swiss Dot paper pad and added some Picket Fence Reflections Gems for a few accents on the front.  I also took a few markers to add some stitch lines.

Here’s what the card looks like when it is completely shut.  You just have to be sure that the two circle panels can freely open without interference, which is why I had to cut a very small piece from the Iguana’s tail so it could close properly.  I honestly don’t think it takes anything away from the design.

And then when the gatefold opens, you can see my inside sentiment.  I’ve taken a strip of the paper I’ve used on the front and added it to the inside to make it all cohesive.  (I think I’ll add some stitch lines to it now that I’m looking at it.)

And speaking of “Inky Stamper“, I had a really fun time not this past weekend but the prior weekend taking part in the “Inky Stamper Escape Event”!  I spent the weekend crafting, doing some fun make’n takes, shopping and meeting the special people behind the company!  So very exciting and so much fun…especially meeting new friends!

SO EXCITED to have met Chelsea and Kim!  Really enjoyed the time and trying out all of the new things!!

Here we are!  This is the crew that stayed for the weekend although there were several others that stopped in to partake in the make-n-take fun or do some shopping.  It was so fun to meet some new friends and get to know them too!

And of course here are the Make-n-takes we did with all of the new release items!  Lots of interactive fun with a waterfall card, shaker card, slider card, mini treats and even a mini card with a cool foiling technique.

The swag bag was too cute with a special tag that had my name on it, an Inky Stamper pin and lots of fun goodies inside (not shown).  Plus an Inky Stamper mug with some yummy goodies inside too!  Aside from being spoiled, it was fun to be able to stamp with friends while working on some of my own projects.  Really great time and special thanks to Chelsea and Kim for making it a memorable one.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my gatefold card and post today!  Thanks so much for stopping in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

  1. Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group – gatefold card
  2. Crafty Friends – Animals and/or birds (including insects)
  3. Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal(s)
  4. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes
  7. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

*Vicki*32 Comments

ATCs, Greeting Card Gift Set, Pet Sympathy and Class Results too!

Hello friends!  It seems that I have went MIA on you, but I promise I’m still here!  I’ve been really busy “Behind the Scenes” as they say and have many things going on at once that I’m trying to juggle, but I do have TONS of things to share that I’ve been doing and hope you enjoy seeing them!  (LOTS of photos!)

First up I have a couple of fun Summer themed ATC sized cards using some Inky Stamper sets called “Splash” and “Chaise Lounge“.  (Still not wanting to warm up much for Spring…so I’m wishing for HOT summer now!😁) I made them for this month’s theme of “ATC sized or mini cards” challenge in their FB group.  I started out with a sunray stencil and used some yellow glaze paste and once dried I added some watercolor over it which was resisted by the glaze which gave me this look for the background.  I splattered it and then added some strips of blue dotted paper cut from a wave border and then I ripped a piece of gold at the bottom.  I cut cut with a scallop die and layered over a black 2.5″x3.5″ piece of black cardstock folded in half and went around the edges with a gold ink pad.

I white heat embossed the sentiments from each stamp set and then cut portions of them out with my scissors to attach over the backgrounds.  The images were colored with Copics, fussy cut out and popped up with foam tape over top.

Next, I wanted to share a “Greeting Card Gift Set” that I have made and gave as a gift for someone.  I used this wonderful product idea from Taylored Expressions called “Stamp & Give Card Kit 1” and it’s something that I had wanted to put together for a very long time on my own, but this product came along recently which pushed me into gear with no excuse of gathering things together on my own as this was already together for me.  All I had to do was do the stamping and stenciling.  I coordinated the colors with what was in the set.  I like the fact that the recipient of this give set can choose which greeting they want to use for each card and the package of greetings are ready with a foam strip on the back of each one.  For my designs, I’ve used the TE “Floral Flurry” Background stamp and stencils which I received from the “Stamp Joy Virtual Event” that I had attended. (not in store as it was exclusive for the event…photos at the bottom of post for that!)  I’ve added 3 gems randomly to the fronts of each card.

With the kit, it comes with all of the envelopes, card bases, glassine bag to hold all of the sentiment strips, the card fronts and even the acetate box to put them all in.  I just added some ribbon once I put all the cards inside.  I certainly plan on doing some more of these greeting card gift sets soon!  I think it’s always nice to have a set of themed cards all together and ready to go when you need to grab one quickly!

Unfortunately, next up I needed a pet sympathy card and I thought you could never go wrong with paw prints and hearts.  I’ve kept this simple and pulled out some favorite Whimsy Stamps “Fill My Heart” and “Furever In Our Hearts” stamp sets for the paw prints and the sentiment. I’ve also used the My Favorite Things “Paw Prints Die-Namics” to die cut a couple of paw prints over the heart that I’ve punched out from red cardstock along with some smaller hearts above it.

I’ve used a glitter brush pen to make the hearts sparkly looking.  This was all done over a kraft colored card front that was cut with a double-stitched rectangle die and placed over an A2 sized white card base.

I really need to get a set of pet sympathy going so that I already have them on hand as needed because it seems like I’ve sent many out and don’t have anymore…and I need another one already.  I actually need to make sure I have several sympathy cards in general on hand, so I know I’ll be replenishing that soon too.

____________________________________________________________________________________

And lastly, I thought you might want to see all of the projects that I made during my classes and make-n-takes that I’ve done during the Taylored Expressions “Stamp Joy Spring Virtual Event” from last month…gosh, It’s been that long already and I’m just now posting them!🙄

The first four cards were from the classes on the first day (using the same product/style line), and the others are from the second day with all of the Make-n-Takes.  If you’re visiting directly on my website, just click on each photo below and it will enlarge so you can see it better along with the typed details about it!  

This is the first card in the TE Stamp Joy class series using the “Floral Flurry” products that I also used in the greeting card gift set above in the post. We used some markers on this for details and did some foiling. This is a “special” card….see next photo for the inside.
This is a “view finder” style of card, but lays flat for mailing. It’s a mini slim sized card.
Second card done with same floral products with some white and silver embossing details.
The sentiment on the acetate panel was pre-printed for us and we laminated it along with the background floral panel with gold foil. We turned it into a shaker card.
Last card for the classes was done over Toffee cardstock with some splattering details. I’ve used paint for mine.
Card one of Make-n-Takes with ink blending and using pixie spray to foil…pretty shimmer!
Make-n-Take 2 with a cool secret “ghosting effect” for a mini slim sized card!!
Make-n-Take 3 was this set of four cards using a fun “Mod” Create-in-Quads Layering Stencil” and coordinating stamp set for sentiments and accents!
Make-n-Take 4 was this cut mini slim sized card with highlight details using a white gel pen.
Make-n-Take 5 with ink blended stencil background and adding details with colored pencils. I splattered with white paint.
Make-n-Take 6 was one of my faves with the sparkly embossed strips in the middle and the black glossy die cut elements!
Make-n-Take 7 was fun with the ink blending and adding glitter paste through stencil. The critter is too cute!

I’m really far behind in catching up with whatever the challenges currently are as well as seeing what’s going on with my fellow blogging friends, so I will get going as soon as I can!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!😘

*Vicki*23 Comments

Hopping By For an Easter Hi

Hello friends!  I don’t make too many Easter cards, but I sure do love those cute bunnies, the Spring theme and of course who doesn’t love a good chocolate candy or two?!  I’ve been seeing some bunnies hopping around my yard lately and so they’ve inspired me!  Since the month of March is starting to run away from me, I wanted to participate in a few challenges going on.

This cute little bunny waving out his hand to say “hello” is Bunny from Inky Stamper!  He comes with the bow tie I have colored and popped up with foam tape.  He also comes with the sentiment as well as the smaller egg hiding among the grass.  Such a CUTE stamp set not just for Easter, but other occasions too!

For the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group, the challenge for the month of March is “stitching” and it can be any sort of stitching.  I’ve pulled out some Doodlebug Swiss Dot papers along with a special Doodlebug Cute & Crafty paper pad (used for the large egg) to create my scene.

I’ve used lots of fun stitched style dies to help me out including the stitched hexagon die from the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die set you see at the top to create a border. I’ve also used the Taylored Expressions Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over my stitched oval piece. (You will see this same cutting plate in the card below too.)  I’ve also used some stitched cloud dies from Lawn Fawn.  I’ve also used a grass border die for the bunny to stand on too.

Once I’ve die cut and placed all of my images and die cut pieces together on my card front, I took a black marker and a white gel pen to create stitch lines for the challenge theme as well.  I even added stitch marks to the small egg and the bunny’s bow tie.  The sentiment was white heat embossed over a black strip and attached to the large oval “egg” and I’ve added some glossy accents to the bunny’s eyes.  I think he turned out pretty cute!

This card was made for the #TEMaker challenge in the Taylored Expressions FB Fan Group.  The challenge for March is using the colors Lavender Glaze & Potato Chip and/or Easter Parade (Easter/Spring theme).  There are SO MANY cute Easter products, but I was trying to use some things that I haven’t pulled out yet.

As in the card above, I’ve used the TE Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock.  I used a double stitched circle die to cut it out along with another piece of white cardstock to layer behind the Toffee.

The center of the circle was made by taking the Lavender Glaze and Potato Chip cardstock and using the Easy Strips 1/4″ die and layering them over a double adhesive sheet.  Once I’ve cut it down to size, I attached it over the white A2 top folding card base and stamped the Full Circle -Easter stamp in Toffee ink.  I took a white pencil to color in portions of the images within it.

I then used foam tape to pop up the toffee layer over top centering the circle image through it.  I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut from a banner die in my stash and popped it up over the center of the circle image.  I also die cut a Lavender Glaze frame from the TE A2 Think Frame Cutting Plate and attached to the card along with a little white bunny from the TE Little Bits-Oh Hoppy Day die set. I sponged some brown ink around the edges and glued a white pom pom for his tail and attached him right above the frame on the right bottom of the card.

It looks like he’s getting ready to hop into the hole to join his other Spring friends.

Well I HOP you’ve enjoyed my Easter cards today, or at least gotten a smile or been inspired in some way!  Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

  1. Cardz 4 Guyz – Equinox Seasonal Change-Spring
  2. CRAFT – Anything Goes
  3. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with Colored image (top card)
  4. Crafty Catz – Anything Goes Optional Easter
  5. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
  6. A Bit More Time To Craft – Anything Goes

*Vicki*26 Comments

One Layer Challenge and More Riley Fun!

Hello friends!  Hope you’re having a great week so far!  I have a few cards to share with you today that I’ve made over the weekend having some fun.

Vicki-InkyStamper-FebCAS

I love the cute little grin this goat has! This goat along with all of the images used are from the same stamp set by Inky Stamper. This month, the Inky Stamper FB group challenged us to create a ONE-LAYER only card…not even ribbon/twine, etc could be used! I haven’t made one of these CAS or one-layer cards for quite some time, but I enjoyed the play with it.

So I’ve used masking paper to create this by stamping the goat over masking paper, stamping the goat over the front of the card and then placing the cut out masked goat to cover him up.  I then die cut a circle over another piece of masking paper and placed the left over piece on top of my card where I masked my goat image.  All that was left was the circle opening and this is where I ink blended the opening with distress inks.  I also stamped the small line of grass with green ink.

I took off the circle mask along with the goat mask.  I colored up the goat with Copic markers and then I stamped the triangle image from the same stamp set along with the sentiment.  I then added 3 black gems and colored the inside triangles with a glitter brush pen.  I also used my corner chomper to round the two bottom corners.

This last weekend there was another OOAK event and there was another fun card kit from Riley and Co.  I didn’t attend the entire event, but joined in to see what the new release was about while I was making my cards from the kit.  I’m pretty sure that there are no more of these kits left as they sold out of the first batch and had to make more.

The critters are so fun to color and I really loved these papers from the kit as they have me anxiously awaiting Spring to get here!  I’m bundled up, drinking hot liquids and trying to stay warm, but nothing beats a warm Spring day!😁

To get a better look at each one of these cards up close along with what’s going on for the insides, check out the gallery below.  If you’re directly on my blog website, you can click on each photo below to enlarge it:

The cat’s bugged out eyeballs is too funny! I’ve used foam tape to pop up his sign.
To continue with the cat sentiment on the outside, here’s what the inside part says! LOL
It may be hard to tell in the photo, but the sentiment is a window. Check out next photo to see the complete sentiment.
Full sentiment for giraffe card…here you can window.
This card opens along the side edge…check out next photo to see inside…
I sort of messed this one up as I should’ve placed the outward fold back a little more as the card doesn’t completely open and I didn’t have room for the sentiment…so this was changed later.

Just wanted to share my recent makes as I’m still trying to work at finishing up some Valentine cards along with getting going on the wedding invites.  Sure enjoy seeing the wonderful inspiration from everyone and hope that you’re all staying safe and warm friends!  Thanks for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges (Top Goat card ONLY):

  1. Challenge Up Your Life – Triangles
  2. Happy Little Stampers CAS – “Inky”
  3. CAS on Friday – Male
  4. Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act
  5. Just Add Ink – Minimalist 

*Vicki*25 Comments

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.)

Flock was added to the clouds.
purple, sparkle and funny sentiment…what more could you ask?!
rainbow image was turned upside-down for the swing! So clever!

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

*Vicki*34 Comments

Creating Calendars…Do You Need One?

Hello friends!  How are you dealing with the 2022 year so far?  I hope that you have a fantastic start and look forward to a brilliant and crafty future ahead of you!  Speaking of starting a New Year, I realized that I needed to start my crafty calendars…which really should’ve been started sooner!🙄  I actually enjoy putting them together, especially the coloring as it’s very relaxing for me.

I’ve had this set of calendar cards along with this stand since this last Spring from Taylored Expressions and of course I’ve waited until recently to get them finished up!  I’m glad I did though as I think these will be so fun to look at and chuckle to change out each month:

Tee hee!  What got me interested in Taylored Expressions from the start were these adorable and funny Grumpy characters that she has in one of her product lines!  (You may have seen a “Grumpy” calendar I’ve made in the past on THIS POST.)  She has LOTS of different types of calendars and accessories to choose from, but this is a set that had came out this past year.  Check out all of calendar products at Taylored Expressions HERE.  I thought this would be a fun way to help motivate me this year for creative inspiration!😁

I’ve taken a white piece of cardstock cut to size my calendar stand that would accommodate the tear-off calendar pad and hold the “snarky cards” in place with the gold clip.  I’ve used some TE inks and blender brushes to blend over top of the white piece.  I then used the TE Striped Squares stencil to go over it using the same colors and then mounted this piece over a black cardstock layer.  (This piece and the changeable cards are held to the stand with the gold clip.)

Here are all of the completed cards in the set that I can change out each month or whenever I want.  I’ve used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Snarky for my own personal calendar that I’ve colored up with Copic markers.  The frames were colored with coordinating colors that matched up with the rainbow stenciled background for my calendar front.  Really enjoyed coloring and giggling while making this set!

I also wanted to show you the back side of this TE Walnut Wood Clipboard Stand so that you can see how I store all of the extra cards on my calendar when I need to change one out.  You can choose to add a package of the TE Calendar Storage Sleeves with the stand if you get one, but I thought this whole system was a nice and sturdy option of creating a calendar that you can personalize for yourself or for a gift.  I ended up creating a calendar last year for Mother’s Day and gave it as a gift. I used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Sweet for that one and did some foiling on them.  (Just don’t forget to purchase the next year’s tear-off calendars to replenish the recipient for next year!)

——————————————————————————————————————–

And I also wanted another calendar for my computer area which also brings a smile to me each month!  I bought a calendar set last year from Inky Stamper and really enjoyed flipping the cute characters each month as the year went on.  Happily, she came out with another new calendar set for this year and I happily purchased it BEFORE it ran out! (So sadly, it sold out quickly!)

With these calendar kits, the stand, the monthly calendar cards as well as all of the pattern paper strips, stamped and die cut characters and sentiment strips ALL come with this kit!  I think it’s a pretty good bargain for all that was included with it.  Of course you have to color and put together each card…but THAT’S what the fun is about!  

And here’s a look at the entire set of calendar cards that I colored and put together.  There were instructions for each card along with the Copic markers used in the examples.  For some of the cards, I already owned the stamp set, so I added a few extra details to some of them and I also added a few of my Inky Stamper Gems and Sequins mixes to some of them.  Square dots and a strip of gold enamel dots were also included to decorate with.

So I had an awesome time putting this one together as well!  I look forward to seeing these every single month throughout the entire year!

Since I had a couple of left over Taylored Expressions 2022 Tear-Off calendars, I thought it would be fun to just create a “calendar card stand” for crafters and give them out to whoever wants one!

EDITED UPDATE:  All of the calendars have been claimed!  Sorry if you’re looking to get one as I have no more left.  Hope everyone enjoys their calendar all crafty year!

So I had 5 of these calendars left over and I knew I wasn’t going to use them, but of course I didn’t want to just throw them out either!  So I took the TE Big Grumpy Bear and the TE Big Grumpy Cat sets to help motivate a fellow craft friend throughout the year! TEE HEE!  I’ve made a rainbow colored background for these by taking the TE Art From the Heart background stamp and stamping it with black over a white piece of cardstock.  I used some TE ink and blender brushes to blend in the rainbow colors.  I stamped an extra background image to color in some of the images and fussy cut them out for accents.

I attached the “Grumpies” over the background and layered the calendar with a black layered piece behind it to go over top of the “Grumpies” with their “feet” underneath so you can see them.  I then added the fussy cut out images that I colored in a corner of each one.

I made a “stand” for this by creating a valley fold piece to attach in between the top folding A2 black card base.  This will make for a permanent stand to display your calendar through the year! (And hopefully motivate someone’s crafty process through the year too!❤)  I receive so much inspiration from many of you crafty friends, so it would be nice if I could possibly reciprocate that in some way!

Check out each one of these calendars I’ve made below in detail!  Just click on the photos to enlarge them if you’re on my website:

Grumpy Bear with glue bottle
Grumpy Bear with marker
Grumpy Bear with stamp
Gray Cat with ink pad
Orange Cat with scissors

So now that we’ve got the year started and in place, let’s hope for a really creative and productive one ahead!

I have some more craft projects that I’ve been working on as well as a really BIG craft project that I’m taking on for the love and excitement of it all!  I look forward to sharing with you soon!

Thanks for stopping in and I wish you a happy, healthy and productive rest of your week!

Challenges:

  1. Sweet Stampin’ – NEW (stamped New Year calendars with new products!)
  2. Critter Crazy – Anything Goes + critter
  3. Creative Inspirations – Anything Goes
  4. River of Creativity – Anything Goes
  5. Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
  6. CRAFT – New (New Year calendars with new products!)
  7. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  8. Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes + coloring

*Vicki*30 Comments

What? It’s Christmas Already?!

Hey there friends!  Wow, so my last post was Thanksgiving and I pretty much missed the entire month of December it seems like, right?!  It has been a very crazy month with lots of different things (including personal) going on so pardon me for going MIA!

I HAVE been working on some projects here and there and I would be happy to share those, but for right now, let’s focus on the Christmas projects that I’ve been working on getting ready for the up-coming Holiday next week! 

I have already sent out my Christmas cards, thank goodness, as I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen either!  I was very impressed with the new Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mistletoe Layering Stencil and how quickly I was able to knock out 4 card panels at a time, which was a huge time saver to get my Christmas cards finished up!  There is actually a set of 4 designs here (like shown below), but I was in the middle of addressing the cards and forgot to photograph some before shoving into envelopes! LOL  This set was using the white cardstock with the green and red colors which turned out very pretty.  I also used the red glitter paste for the highlights on the berries.

And here is the other set of four cards that I made using the Toffee colored cardstock with green and white inks for the stenciling.  I’ve also splattered these with brown and white paint.  The sentiments were white heat embossed over some TE Chocolate Truffle cardstock and cut out with some MFT dies.  Before attaching to the pre-made white A2 card bases, I also wrapped some twine around some of the panels or added a bow with it. (I love the homespun look of the white mistletoe!)

These all turned out great because they were pretty much flat and fairly easy to mail off.  I think I was short just a few which is where I’m glad that I still have a few extra cards that I had made throughout this year and I have previously given out some “extra special” Christmas cards earlier in the year as well.  I think you may have already seen them from a previous post…I will have to take a look and see under my “Christmas” section!

If you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift/tag, these wood slice things are so quick easy and fun to create!  I’ve had a huge box of these wood slices for a long time, so I pulled one out to make a project for the Inky Stamper December challenge on FB.  (I also believe that Chelsea sells some wood slices in her store!)  I had hubby drill out a hole for me at the top before decorating so as I knew where to put everything.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Christmas Bauble stamp set for the stamping on the wood and colored in with pencils and gamsol.  I’ve added details with a glitter brush pen on the ornament and added some snowflakes with Nuvo White Crystal Drops.  I had to mask the frog to stamp the Santa hat on him.  I’ve used some silver twine for the hanging portion and then I glued a silver bow with some silver ribbon from my stash under the hole.

And lastly, I’ve also been working on some commissioned cards as well!  Last year, I had a request from someone to create a special Christmas card for his cleaning lady.  I had him pick out an image and asked about the colors…you may remember it as I had posted it last year.

a few months back, someone had asked me to re-create the same design for them with pretty much the exact design with the exception of the sentiment which I changed out for this person.  This one went to another country and I was concerned about the shipping costs, but it was not a problem.  The package had taken an unexpected journey because of the crazy mailing system going on at this time, but it arrived eventually and was in “perfect condition” as reported to me, so I was so thrilled with that and they seemed very pleased with it.

With the square size of the design (5″ x 5″), I’ve handmade the envelope for this one as well.  I found the exact papers used in the designs for these cards, but I don’t think I have any more left after completing this one.

Here’s how I’ve decorated the inside of the card and left blank as requested for their own personal use.

So now, I just want to take this time to say THANKS SO MUCH for hanging in there and stopping in today!  I don’t have too much time on my hands right now as I’m getting ready to make some Christmas treats and the Holidays will soon be over.  I hope you are all doing well and I wish each and every one of you a very safe, happy and healthy Holiday Season!

See you again in the New Year 2022 friends!!

*Vicki*16 Comments