Mixing It Up With Layers!

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

Speaking of LAYERS… That brings us to a new challenge over at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog. The challenges always run for 6 weeks so there is plenty of time to enter. The theme given this time around is: LAYERS or you can do the ‘Anything Goes” too. Here’s the card that I came up with for the challenge using the theme:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

Gem of a challenge – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2508 Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon – #796 “Tiny Dancer” (tiny things) I used tiny white hearts
Penny’s – #591 Anything Goes Using Paper
Simon Wednesday – Anything Goes
Just Us Girls – #764 Stencil Week

For Someone You Love at Sparkles Monthly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Challenges:

Critter Crazy – #95 Anything Goes With a Featured Creature (Bottom card only)
Crafty Animals – #91 Anything Goes + Animal (Bottom card only)
Pearly Sparkles – #104 Love is in the Air
Crafts Galore Encore – #132 Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar – Hearts
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: Lots of Love
Crazy is Our Fame-Stencils Are Our Game – Pinks &/or Reds + stencil (sweater cards)
Make My Monday – #245 Love (bottom pup card)
Crafty Gals Corner – #264 Fill in the Blank: “Pink________” (sweaters)

Time to Send Love

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

Hearts and Flowers for Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week so far and enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day yesterday with some yummy sweets! We enjoyed some treats of our own! 😉

Today I have a new challenge to share with you for the Sparkles Monthly Challenge blog and this month the lovely Dawn would like to see some “Hearts & Flowers” on your creations! Although Valentine’s Day is over, I think hearts are great for adding any time of the year, so check out the inspiration from the design team and here’s what I’ve made:

I’ve made a mini slim card using the Taylored Expressions Hearts in Bloom Layering Stencils which are so great for mass producing several cards at once. For this card and the other cards below, I decided I wanted to use the TE Hearts in Bloom Foil Panels which works with these stencils. I foiled them with gold foil. I think the foiling adds such a pretty shine and glitter. I also used the TE Love & Hugs Foil Panels for the sentiment and die cut it out with the coordinating die set.

So after foiling everything, I used the stencils to create the pretty bouquet of flowers with the hearts in it and then added a frame around the edge with a TE Diagonal Stitch Mini Slim die that doesn’t cut anything, but adds those slash marks. I used some foam tape to pop up the foiled sentiment and just attached everything to a coordinating mini slim card base.

I couldn’t just make this one to show you, so here is the whole set of cards I’ve made together:

Those stencils create all of these patterns at one time. I just lined the foil panels up at one time and then used each stencil for the colors. If you didn’t want to use the foil panels, you could also just use the stencils on one sheet of cardstock and then cut them apart to make the card fronts.

I found these sets to become very addicting! And just like that, two of them have been sent out!

I’ve been really busy with creating behind the scenes and I will be sharing more soon! I will be around to see what’s been going on with you all shortly! I really appreciate your kindness and support…it really means so much!❤️ Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges:

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

Art Journal Inspiration and Valentine’s Day Cards!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – LIGHT/KEEPING IT LIGHT (art journal page only)
Crafty Animals – #80 Anything Goes + animal (skunk card)
Critter Crazy – #83 Anything Goes + critter (snail card)
Pearly Sparkles – #92 Love/Have a Heart (skunk card)
Creative Knockouts – #514 Love/Valentine’s Day (skunk card)
A Place to Start – Monochrome (mosaic heart card – pink)
Aud Sentiments – #310 Dies/Love/Wed/Anniversary + sentiment (skunk card)
Creative Inspirations – For Someone You Love/Special Friend (mosaic heart card)
The Male Room – Valentine/Use a Heart (skunk card)
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes optional: Valentine/Love (snail card)

Lots of Love and Commissioned Wolves

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

Stinky Love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenges:

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

Vintage Anniversary and Commissioned Ones Too!

Hello friends and happy February! I feel like we just started a new year and it’s already into the second month! I will need to get going on a couple of Valentine cards really soon! Today, I wanted to share a card I had made for my parent’s 57th wedding anniversary along with a few other anniversary cards I was commissioned to make that I had forgotten to share until I made my parent’s card! LOL!

I really like how this one turned out! If this looks familiar to you, then you may recognize it from a past Simon Says Stamp card kit. (This one came from a Valentine 2020 kit.) I thought that the papers in the kit looked “Vintage” and I really liked that, so I thought I’d try to go for that style in my card.

I used the heart rose stamp image from the kit and colored it with Copics and fussy cut it out. I also copper heat embossed the leaves from the stamp set included in the kit over some green cardstock and fussy cut those out as well. The sentiment was also from the same set as the leaves, and I copper heat embossed that for the bottom right corner of the card. It’s hard to see from the shine, but it says: “Happily ever together” and was fussy cut as well.

I started with the Vintage looking papers and cut a piece down to size and inked up along the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and layered it over a side folding A2 white card base. I pulled out a piece of shimmer vellum that I ran through a Sizzix 3D heart embossing folder and layered it over top of the background. I also took some of the ephemera from the kit and added those to parts of the background after sponging the edges of that too. (See the “ticket” in the top left.)

Finally, I arranged the heat embossed leaves along with the heart shaped rose over top. I glued the leaves and then popped up the rose with foam tape along with the heat embossed sentiment. I added some shimmer to the leaves with a shimmer brush pen and then took some sequins from the kit to attach over the card and filled with Stickles glitter.

I think this would be a special Valentine card as well for someone! 😉

At the end of last year, I was also commissioned to make a 50th wedding anniversary card for someone. I was just given the detail that the wedding photos were shown with the colors black and white…so I based my card using that idea.

I always think that wedding/anniversary style cards look especially elegant with die cuts and embossing, so I dig through my die cut and embossing folder stash. I’m sure you can imagine me sitting on the floor with things everywhere! LOL!! Do you do this too when you’re not sure what you want to do and/or what all you have?

So I found this really pretty Memory Box die cut with the heart in the center that I wanted to use and thought some glitter paper behind it would be so pretty. This is why my card is a square shaped design. Since it was celebrating 50 years, I thought it would be appropriate to add some gold in there too and die cut the numbers for the center of the heart as well at the border pieces on the top and bottom of the heart. (Not sure where that die came from as it’s old. The number dies are really old too!)

I layered this onto the glitter paper and gold foil paper. I stamped a sentiment (Taylored Expressions-The Inside Scoop Anniversary used both inside and out of card.) and die cut it out with a banner die and popped it up under the heart with foam tape. I layered this onto a white 3D embossed background that was layered over a black top folding square card base. I attached a gold ribbon bow over top.

I stamped a sentiment for the inside of the card and you can see that I’ve decorated the inside of the card using the same die cut border with gold foil cardstock. The papers I’ve used for the borders on the inside were also used to create a custom envelope for this card. Sometimes if I don’t have the envelope on hand, I make my own envelope. Sometimes I prefer to do this for special cards anyway.

And this is another card that I had been commissioned to do for someone that wanted a card for an anniversary on Christmas Eve. I was given the detail about them spending time at Disney World and seem to be a fan of Disney along with it being their 25th anniversary…so my card was based on those details.

I have no Disney character type stamps/products at all. My thought was to create something with a “winter/Fairytale” theme which is why I turned to my Cricut machine for help. I was lucky enough to find the carriage and horse image that I cut out using brushed metallic silver and silver glitter cardstock for the different pieces. I also found a castle image that I cut from the brushed metallic silver as well. I used black cardstock for the base and insides of the cut-out images. After I cut out the castle, I ran it through a brick embossing folder to give it that brick castle look. I also die cut the numbers from Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Numbers dies. I attached the numbers in the center of the castle and attached a silver ribbon bow over top of the numbers.

Since I had my main cut out images for my card, I was able to create my scene and size based on those. My finished card measures approx. 7″ x 5″ which is not a regular size for me, but I thought it was fitting given the type of card it was along with the cut-out images. I started with a piece of blue cardstock and generously sprayed it with some Pearlescent Cosmic Shimmer previously received from a class I took. It gives a really stunning look, and the shimmer doesn’t show very well from the photo either. Once dried, I die cut both the snowflakes and snow border at the bottom from some white glitter cardstock. Both dies used for them come from Lawn Fawn. The trees behind the bottom snow border were cut from some pearl white paper with an older Stampin’ Up! die set in my stash.

I attached the sprayed blue background over a piece of silver metallic cardstock after wrapping a silver ribbon around the center. I then attached the trees and added the snow border at the bottom. I added the castle and snowflakes next being careful that everything was showing the way I wanted and then I popped up the carriage with foam tape.

This whole scene was placed over a white 7 x 5 top folding card base. I also took some silver glitter to add to the little flag ends on the castle. I thought with all of the glitter and shimmer it didn’t need any more embellishment! I was happy with how it turned out because I wasn’t quite sure it would!

There was a custom envelope that was also made for this card using some pretty silver pattern paper from my stash.

Everyone seemed to be pretty pleased with how the cards turned out for them and I was very happy to have had the privilege of being a part of someone’s special day too!

Speaking of wedding anniversaries, I’ve been given the honor to create wedding invites for my son’s wedding coming up this Summer and I know I’ll be getting really busy putting those together as well! So that will be coming up really fast and I hope I can keep up with things! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today! I hope that you’ve enjoyed my creations or been inspired in some way! See you soon!

Challenges (TOP CARD ONLY)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional add flowers
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (Copics used for heart rose image)
Creatalicious – Anything Goes with optional love
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Use embossing folder (3D heart folder over vellum piece)

It’s a Spooky Kind of Love

Happy Friday friends! We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃 Are you ready?! Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check. Scary movies at the ready…check. Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!

Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too! So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”! I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:

And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky! We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so! I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme. I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.

Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean. I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink. I ink blended the edges and bottom with black. I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy! I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink. The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart. Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.

It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!

And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge using a recycled item! I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat! I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers. I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched-out circle for the bottom.

I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder. I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle. Really easy and fun to create! You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Challenges:

Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Alphabet – ‘O’ is for Outdoors
Sweet Stampin’ – All Hallows Eve
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Make My Monday – (E)scape it (scene)
Little Red Wagon – Outside (outdoors)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes
CCEE Stampers – Create a Scene
Stamping Sensations – Animals, Birds & Bugs

An Autumn Anniversary

Hello friends! It’s been so cold over my way and even snowed the other day which is a tad bit early for this time of the year. I’m still trying to hold onto to Fall a bit longer as I know that the Holiday/Winter Season will be approaching us very quickly now! It seems that Autumn never gets it’s due justice and goes by so fast!🍂

I’m popping in today to share a card I’ve made for hubby to help celebrate our special day of 21 years together🥰:

I adore this sweet image by Crissy Armstrong for Whimsy Stamps called “Your Love Lifts Me” as I thought it was a great representation of how I feel about hubby and how I wanted it to reflect on my card for him. He will have already received this card by the time this posts…so it’s OK if he sees this!😉

I’ve stamped the image over a panel of Copic Blending Card off to one side of it and then cut it out with a stitched rectangle die. I took a piece of orange colored cardstock and used the same die to cut it with, but I cut this piece in half, stamped the sentiment over it and sponged around the edges of it with some Vintage Photo Distress ink. I also took the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments set and white heat embossed it over a piece of brown cardstock that was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Quick Strips die set and attached underneath the sentiment and cut off at the edge.

The few leaves over the design was stamped from an older Simon Says Stamp set and colored with Copics. I then added some more Vintage Photo sponged around the image panel and attached the orange sentiment panel over top of the colored image panel and wrapped some twine around the center of it. I layered this panel over top of an A2 sized top folding brown card base. I’ve added some sequins filled with gold Stickles in the center along with a few more dots.

Here’s a closer look at the Copic coloring I’ve done over the image. I’ve kept it pretty simple and decided I didn’t want to add white dots to their cheeks like I usually do. I don’t know why there are times I do and times I don’t. This time it just seemed to call for none.

I used a light blue marker to color in the background and then with the same colors that I’ve used to color in the leaves, I took the markers and made my own leaves on the ground surrounding the couple. I even stamped some more of the leaves on the inside of the card as well as the envelope and colored them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Autumn Anniversary card today as I sure had fun colored this sweet image.

I’m very lucky to have such a wonderful person to share my life with in the past 21 years and look forward to our times together in the future. Thank you for stopping in today friends! See you soon!

Challenges: