Hello friends! Hope you had a great weekend and maybe did some crafting? Did you participate in the World Card Making Day events? There were so many things going on, so I basically opened up the You Tube video marathons and watched while I did a bit of crafting.
I was inspired by the Craft Roulette WCMD event with several crafters showcasing their version of the parameters they were to use for that event. It was several hours long!
Here’s the card that I made with the Craft Roulette World Card Making Day parameters of – PROJECT: A2 card, COLORS: rainbow, ELEMENT: nature, and RANDOM: black dots
I also combined my card using one of the sponsor’s products which I’m entering for this week’s sketch challenge from My Favorite Things.
I’ve had these stamps in my collection for quite a while and it was nice to pull them out for this card. I actually needed a card for an elderly woman who recently fell and broke her hip, so she’ll be recovering with therapy for a while.
For my card, I used the MFT Watercolor flowers and stamped them in red-, orange- and yellow-colored layers and cut them out (This was my nature element parameter). The middle was cut with the MFT Stitched Hexagon diesthat I ink blended with green and blue inks (These colors make up the rainbow parameter). I splattered the shape with white and black. *Before I splattered, I stamped the sentiment from the MFT Essential Sentiments set with black pigment ink and heat embossed it with clear EP. (The sentiment was cut in portion to fit my design.)
For the A2 sized card base (makes up project parameter), I used a MFT Triangle background stamp (retired) in the same kraft color that I inked the centers of the flowers with. I also used this color to ink around the edges of the card. I than layered two more cut out shapes for the ink blended sentiment panel for dimension and attached to the stamped card base. I used foam tape to pop up the flowers and lastly added some black gemstones (for the black dots parameter).
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my inspiration! See you soon!
Hello friends! We have now started the Fall season over my way and although the weather has been quite unpredictable, I am looking forward to the temperatures dropping and pretty Fall colors outdoors. I have just now started seeing some slight changes in some of the foliage.
COMMENT UPDATE: I thank you so much for taking the time and trying to leave a comment with me…I appreciate it! I have been in contact with a support team and they’ve been very helpful. Here’s what I’ve been told – “In response to your inquiry, WordPress.com indeed made some changes recently to enhance security and user experience. We released the new comments User Interface on 20% random sites which we believe is better than the older version in every way. e.g. Earlier the Facebook login was treated as a quick way to fill the guest form, but now when you log in with Facebook, your subscription preferences are recorded and rendered correctly; i.e. you’re actually logged in and remembered, and you can configure your preferences. However, we understand that this might not be convenient for all users.”
So basically this just means that the way the comment box looks is different. You should still be able to leave a comment. Just pull up the comment box and start typing whatever you want to say, once you do that, buttons will appear on how you’d like to enter your information/login. Once you do, the “reply” button will highlight and you can leave your comment. Hopefully you will be “remembered” the next time you visit. Hopefully, this all makes sense. (If you have any more questions or problems, you can always contact me)
So now let’s get back to some Fall crafting! I’ve made a birthday card for a guy that likes to go camping and eat smores by the fire….
I think this turned out so fun! I have used an older STAMPtember collaboration set from My Favorite Things and not sure if it’s last year or before that…but fell in love with the camp critters in the set! (This year’s STAMPtember collaborations will be fun to play with too! Stay tuned for some makes coming up with those!)
I have ink blended a panel in blues for a night sky and splattered some white over it for a starry look. I stamped and colored all the images and cut them out with the coordinating dies. I die cut a very dark green panel with a grass border die and attached it over the blue night panel that was layered onto a white A2 side folding card base. I tucked in and attached all the pieces over the grass and behind it for the scene and then even added some shadow with a marker under some of the images. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the set and then the celebrate banner was attached at the top. Lastly, I’ve added some Stardust Stickles over the flames from the fire.
How about you? Do you like to camp? Eat smores? Enjoy Fall weather? I like all of the above of course! Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve been inspired or gotten smile!
Challenges:
Make My Monday – Create Your Own Background (starry sky)
Happy April friends! We have finished March already and onto Easter very quickly approaching! I hope you’re enjoying all things Spring coming up your way! We’ve had several storms and we’re in the tornado season as well, so I hope everyone is staying safe out there whatever the weather. I do have some things that I had previously finished and wanted to share:
First, I wanted to share about the Virtual Stamp Joy Event by Taylored Expressions that I participated in a few weeks ago. I always have so much fun and enjoy the motivation that it seems to generate! I’m sharing them in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website post, then just click on each photo to enlarge it.
The first four photos were from a class using the same floral stamp set and the others are from the next day of make-n-take projects. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of them!
The last set of four cards were a “mass production” using a background stamp in different colored cardstock panels and clear heat embossing over them. The class sample had “hello” sentiment on each one, but I changed up the sentiments and have placed them in a card box to give them out with envelopes as a gift for someone.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!
From the end of last year up until this last month, I didn’t have much time with the Holidays and everything going on, but as you may have seen in previous posts, I participate in a “square sampler swap” and when everyone sends out their squares, we then complete a home décor piece with all of the squares, so I thought I’d share mine finally completed:
CLICK PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE
This was for the Christmas Sampler SWAP and you can see that I’ve used a black shadow box frame for my sampler and placed some red with red metallic dotted paper behind it. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used My Favorite Things products for my square.)
This was for the Winter Sampler SWAP and I went with a white shadow box for this one. I’ve placed some soft blue snowflake papers for behind my sampler as I thought it was soft enough to not look too busy. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I’ve used Inky Stamper products for my square.)
And recently we finished up our Spring Animals Sampler SWAP that I used another white shadow box for the sampler. I’ve added a piece of pink colored “Watercolor Wishes” paper from Lawn Fawn behind it. It looks a little off in the photo, but it looks better IRL. The square on the right is the one that I made. (I used Taylored Expressions products for my square.)
Not sure if we’re doing any more or not, but I had so much fun making the squares to swap with friends!
Lastly, I have a fun little thing to give to whoever is interested in these Taylored Expressions dies + foil-it panels package. (It’s not sold in stores anywhere as it was a free gift with purchase) I have an extra and so I thought I’d give it away to someone! Just leave me a comment below if you’re interested and I’ll pick someone from the comments.
Leave a comment below if you’re interested!
That’s all I have for today! Thanks so much for stopping in! I’ll be seeing you soon!
Hello friends! Welcome to March! Although it’s still cold and even some snow coming in our forecast, I know that warmer weather is coming soon along with those pretty flowers! I have a full weekend of crafting coming, so I’m prepared to get through this cold snap!
So, I have unfortunately had to make and send a couple of pet sympathy cards as I didn’t have any on hand. I decided that I needed to pull out a card kit from My Favorite Things called “Rainbow Bridge“, I think. It’s no longer available, but I know they have a few things in pet sympathy. I wanted to make sure that I still had some of these on hand when needed because I feel like these can be hard to make.
This card was made and sent out in January for someone who lost their precious fur friend. I thought the silhouette looked a similar shape to the photos I saw. I’ve used the stencil and dies that came with the kit along with some of the papers included in the kit with the paw prints. I’ve also used the same papers as a liner for the inside of the envelope that you can see in the photo.
I’ve ink blended some rainbow colors and then used the die set in the kit to make the rainbow bridge and added some hearts around the silhouette pup which was popped up over the rainbow bridge.
I also needed to make a kitty one and then just decided that I was going to use this card kit to make several of these different pet sympathy cards so that I had some on hand when needed. I thought that was a clever card kit and knew it would be very useful to create lots of pet sympathy cards with.
These are all in the gallery below, so if you’re on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge the size so you can see the details:
Sometimes it’s just good to sit down and craft to have some cards on hand that you know you’ll probably need at some point, but don’t want to hurry to try and put something together because you need it.
Hope you’ve gotten some inspiration in my post today or found some inspiration with it. Thanks so much for stopping in today!
Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and a great start to this new week in February!
I’m really excited to share that I’ve just been invited as a new design team member over at the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog! I really like the fact that it has fun monthly themes to get you thinking and also that I can use up my never-ending piles of my own craft stash! This fits perfectly well with me and something I can handle!😉 So I hope you’ll stop by and follow along to play with us each month! You can find a new one on the 15th of each month.
Today starts a new monthly challenge theme which is #161 “Men Only“…so anything masculine will do! With having sons in my family, I’m always in need of masculine style cards for sure! Here’s my card for this month’s challenge:
Oh yes…tools! This always seems to be a favorite in my craft supply when creating a masculine card for sure! I made this one for my husband who’s a very handy guy, and he likes the color blue. I always like to add lots of textures, distressing and layers when making a masculine card. This also helps for using more of those craft supplies!
I’ve had these stamps and dies from My Favorite Things for quite a while now and only used them a couple of times. I die cut the background panel in the pegboard cover die and stitched rectangle dies, plus, layered with a couple of different blue panels that were stapled together. A die cut circle in woodgrain and blue papers were attached and cut off at the edge before attaching to the top folding white A2 card base.
I’ve added the die cut tool elements over top of the circle using some silver mirror and blue colored cardstocks to cut them out. I added some sponged ink over some places and topped it with a ripped strip of silver embossed screw heads, a strip of dark blue and the stamped sentiment stapled together and placed it over top with a piece of “messy” thread. Lastly, I added the dark blue die cut hearts and covered them with a glitter brush pen.
I hope that you will stop by the Sparkles Monthly Challenge Blog to check out the challenge and inspiration from the creative design team! I look forward to seeing what everyone creates!
Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!
Hello friends! We’re here! We made it to Christmas Eve!😀 My cards have been sent out, my cookies are done and delivered as well as my other little gifts. This is quite a long post, so grab your hot cocoa or whatever your favorite beverage is and a Christmas cookie or treat and let’s see what I’ve been doing this past week:
So, starting with my Christmas cards, I usually make around 40ish cards each year give-or-take and I only like to make a handful of them at a time for not only boredom of the same design, but for product depletion as well.
So back in July, I purchased this really adorable card kit from Taylored Expressions (included was the Frosty Background Cling and Clear Combo set + more.) that came with coordinated colored envelopes as well as the seals. So, I made a set of four different colored designs in two of each one. The snowmen were popped up with foam squares over the backgrounds and I added some fun Snowflake bits that were included with the kit as well.
Next up is another set of cards I made using some more gorgeous products from Taylored Expressions. I’ve used the Seasonal Sprig stamp and die combo along with the stencil to color them in with. Some of these I ink blended the backgrounds, so I just used cardstock with a watermark effect and a white heat embossed sentiment. I used the die to cut an extra frame behind the stamped one for added stability. I made 4 of each design shown here for a total of 16.
I then made another set of four using the same products, but for these I gold heat embossed the image and sentiment and then used some watercolor for coloring it in with. I also got some of these coordinating envelope seals to use on about 10 of the 16 cards. (No longer available in store.) I’ve also partially ink blended the background behind the frame on these as well.
Here are some cards that I’ve actually made a total of 8 similar designs using the large wording background dies from My Favorite Things. I’ve used the “Sending Christmas Joy” and “I Really Miss You” dies for all eight of these, but only after I stamped the backgrounds. I used the MFT Knitted Sweater BG stamp and the Alley Cat BG stamp for a couple of backgrounds before I die cut them. Then I used the die cut letters to place into the other backgrounds on the cards to get that look. So it was like creating 2 cards with one cut and filling it all in. (For the Alley Cat background stamp, I ink blended the background and stamped it as a watermark effect over it and then took the “left over” ink from that to stamp it again to create an additional BG.) I then cut out each of the panels with the MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die and placed over a white A2 sized side folding card base. The penguin image is from the MFT Holiday Penguins set and the bird on the other one is from the MFT “Tweet Holidays” (Not found in store.)
And then of course you don’t want to waste any backgrounds you’ve made, so you make more cards! I’ve used a couple more images to personalize the design for people too. I combined the sets Newton’s Nook Whispering Pines and the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies. I think I took a set from them to create a sentiment to fit my cards as well. (not sure from which set.)
For the other card, I took this cute image from the Whimsy Stamps Gnome for Christmas stamp set, colored him up with my copics and cut him out with the coordinating die to pop him up over my card.
And then for these set of 4 cards, I’ve just die cut a snowflake from some glitter paper and glued in the center of the “O” on each design and popped up a sentiment over that with foam tape stamped and die cut from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips – Holiday and Mini Strips die.
And as you remember in a previous post those “recycled Crystal Light containers” that I make, I made another set of three of them here. This time, I’ve used this snowman stamp. I just used my scissors to fussy cut those cute snowmen out as they were pretty simple to do and then I popped them up over an ink blended tag using the stencil over them. I used coordinating cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment strip at the bottom and of course added my “snowman soup” poem on the back of the containers. I’ve also added a layer of silver mirror cardstock behind the tags.
And I made a couple of these darling ornaments from a fairly “new to me” company that I was actually introduced to with product during my time as a {Cupcake Inspirations} sweetie DT when they sponsored a challenge a while back. P.S. There are a few more days left to enter their current challenge of “SNOWFLAKES” if you want to pop on over to join us too!!
But I was so taken with this darling image and kit from Inky Stampers from this Snow Much Fun Kit. You get the snowflake ornament (with string), the stamp set and die, papers, wobbler, along with glitter to complete it too! Well, I wanted to make more than one, so I grabbed another set of Snowflake Ornaments from the store and just added my own papers and glitter from my stash to make it.
Whew! I’m ready for that “Looong winter’s nap” now!!🥱 I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and it has brought you some inspiration and/or a smile somehow! I have received some beautiful Christmas cards and I so appreciate them and have them all displayed by being pinned around my garland in our pass-through in the living room/dining area. I think after a bit of rest, I need to finish up my projects for the “Bugaboo Christmas Chaos” that I halted in the middle for to finish up Christmas projects….so I’ll be back soon with that.
In the meantime, I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!🎅
Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a nice weekend as your days are growing closer to Christmas.
Today I have a reminder for you about the “Shades of Blue” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and that you still have a few days left to enter your blue shaded projects! Hope you’ll join us! Although thoughts of winter, Christmas and snowflakes come to mind with these colors, I’ve decided to take the colors in a different direction for this week:
Blues made me think of a masculine birthday which is something that I needed for a birthday card for my dad this last week, so my thoughts turned to him when making this card. He’s been having some medical issues recently and I wanted to send him a happy card along with some real balloons to help try and cheer him up a bit. My heart is heavily with him right now as he deals with many physical issues.
For my card, I first started with a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and ink blended some blue oxide inks over the panel with Chipped Saphire, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean Oxide Inks. I die cut the large sentiment die and balloon dies from this piece and then attached the sentiment to a die cut vellum shadow behind it.
I stamped some images with the same blue inks I blended with over a white panel along with doing a very light ink blending in the center of it before attaching the die cut sentiment over top. I then attached that panel to a blue die cut panel and again over a white die cut panel and finally attaching it to an A2 sized side folding blue card base. Lastly, I popped up and glued the die cut balloons along with the silver strings also die cut around the sentiment panel keeping in mind the placement of the strings. I added a few blue sequins to finish it off.
In this close-up photo, you can see the details of the background more clearly along with the shimmer over the balloons which I went over with a glitter brush pen.
So I hope that you’ve enjoyed my birthday card today and were inspired to pull out your blue shaded stash and have a play with them! Really look forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge! Be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Blog and see what the Cupcake Sweeties have to inspire you with this week as well!
Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!
Hello friends! Hope that you’ve had a wonderful weekend! I sure enjoyed my time with hubby relaxing and enjoying the cooler temps for sure! After all the “partying”, are you ready for a new challenge?
Today we’re starting with a brand new challenge over at {Cupcake Inspirations} with the theme “On the Farm“! So whatever farm related project you’re working on, please be sure to link it up in our challenge! We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!
Here’s what I’ve made for the challenge:
I’ve been wanting to use this fun barn die from My Favorite Things for a while and this was super fun to create a farm scene with! It even has the little embossed markings on the barn along with a bail of hay!🐓
I started out using the MFT cloud stencil and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink for the background panel, then layered over a grass border at the bottom and then cut this panel out with the stitched rectangle die. I also stamped the sentiment as well as a few animals from the MFT The Whole Herd stamp set, colored and cut them out with the coordinating dies. (can’t find in the store!) I then placed my fence border over top of the grass border, popped up the barn with foam tape where I wanted it and then placed all of the other images arranging them over the scene. This front panel was attached to a top folding A2 red card base.
So I love how the door on the barn can open up with that die cut! Of course I had to add something inside the barn and with the nest of eggs sitting on top, it only felt right to place the chicken in there! For the backing of the barn, I’ve taken a piece of paper from the MFT Woodgrain Whimsy Paper Pad and attached it from behind before popping it up with some foam tape. I’ve also taken a pen and wrote the “milk” word over top of the colored can next to the cow.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today!
Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll be seeing you again soon!
Hello friends! Yes, I know, not only am I posting every single day, now I’m posting twice in one day!?! What’s going on with me?!😂 Really sorry to “bombard” you with all of these posts, but this is what I meant by me being SO busy “behind the scenes”! If I do miss a day, you’re going to wonder if I’ve left again! It sure is busy, but it’s also fun while the long days of Summer go by.
Today starts the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” annual event full of fun challenges by current and past alumni from the Dirty Dozen Design Team. This is the 16th year that this special event has happened! I’m very proud to be associated with Splitcoaststampers and have been apart of the community since 2003…a lurker👀 a few years before that too! I have some LIFE LONG friends as that’s where I started putting anything I ever created online anywhere. So in June of 2016 I was honored when asked to be apart of the Dirty Dozen Design Team! They certainly have my creative heart forever. So I think I missed last years event because I was not well at that time, so I will be participating as a challenge hostess this year. You must be a “Fan Club Member” over there to be able to see the event, so if you’re interested in joining, please check out the “How to Become a Fan Club Member” page. (Otherwise you will not “see” the event details.).
So each day, there’s about 5-6 new challenges released starting today and lasting until Friday August 28th…that’s a whole lot of challenges! I obviously didn’t have time to make something for every single challenge, but I have made a few to help my fellow “Dare to Get Dirty DT friends” create samples for their challenge.
The first challenge I made a creation for was the lovely Kittie’s challenge. And obviously, I cannot reveal what the challenge is about, I can show you my creation and ask that you head on over to the event to see the details and play along with us….
I had such a fun time creating this fun Holiday themed slimline! I pulled out an old favorite “Santa’s Elves” stamp set from My Favorite Things for this one. I’ve stamped and colored several images from this set using Copic markers and cut them out with a coordinating die. For the scene, I’ve taken a piece of white cardstock and used a wave border die to cut out the different snowy hillsides and before attaching them down, I’ve used a blending tool to add some blue ink to the edges. I then took each individual hill and embossed them with an embossing folder.
I arranged the “hills” over a piece of brushed gold cardstock that was cut out with a stitched slimline die from Trinity Stamps. I “tucked in” the cut out images in between the hills. The gold layer was attached over a red stitched scallop slimline piece that was mounted over a 3.5 x 8.5 slimline card side folding white card base. I’ve also used one of the banners from that Trinity Stamps die set to white heat emboss the sentiment from the stamp set and then popped up the little elf over top of that with foam tape over the bottom of the card front. I also attached that little holly image at the end of it.
Lastly, I topped the card off with holiday colored sequins filled with gold Stickles in the centers.
Here’s a little bit of a closer view of the images on the card. I’ve taken a glitter brush pen and went over the stars on the trees as well as the ornaments and the bell on the elf’s hat for a bit of shimmer. I also covered the holly berries on the bottom sentiment with some glossy accents. (Hard to get all details in there!)
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Christmas slimline card today as well as all of the daily posts I’ve been sharing! I look forward to either seeing what you create during the “Dare to Get Dirty” event or anything else you may be working on! The end of the year is coming soon and I know everyone will be creating lots of fun things!
Thanks for joining me today friends! I’ll see you again tomorrow! Stay well and happy!
Hello friends! Hope you’ve had a great week! Wow…it’s Finally Friday! I’ve been SO busy “behind the scenes” and I will be getting to all of that later on, but I needed to squeak in with the final creations for the MFT Summer School!
I finished up Day 2 with my “smile rainbow” and now for Day 3, they’re asking for a “symmetry” style of creation. I was told that basically it’s something that if you were to split it in half, it would be exactly the same on the other half…so this is what I thought of:
I was so excited about getting the My Favorite Things Cupcakes card kit, so I was determined that I was going to pull it out and use it for the rest of my Summer School cards! LOL! It’s such a cute set with the dies and sentiment stamps! I really had fun!
I used some papers from the kit and sponged ink around the edges of everything pretty much. I just used the two cupcakes side by side for the symmetry class. I just have opposite colors of sprinkles. I added the red cherry on top, covered with the glitter brush pen and then some glossy accents. (The glossy accents really got a work out!😮)
So Day 4 class was “ombre” and that pretty much called to me to use the stencil from the card kit (sprinkles in background) and then I just heat embossed white over white and then used inks for the emboss resist technique moving the colors from lightest to darkest to get that classical “ombre effect”. I also added a die cut cupcake that I used the same ink effect over it. I die cut the words from the kit with the dark papers I used for the base of the card. I finished with some sparkly crystal accents to finish it off!
And last but certainly not least was Day 5 “White Space” class. I don’t often make cards like this, but I honestly love those CAS style cards, but I always want to “teeter” on the fine line between CAS and not…so I always think I’m not doing CAS. I’m just not comfortable with the “CAS” definition or “rules” of what is or isn’t CAS. I just feel happiest doing whatever happens to work out in my plan for a design…that’s pretty much it! Be happy and you’re good!
I used this class to also follow along with the MFT sketch challenge going on as it looked like it was a good sketch for making a “white space” design.
I started by masking off the square and sponging lightly around it, I white heat embossed the sentiment over a black strip and added some silver ink over the stencil again and then attached the cupcake over top with the papers…and added the cherry on top with glossy accents too!
I finished it off with another little flag die from the kit and some silver sequins! I like how it turned out! I think I deserve a cupcake after all the creations I made!!😋
I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations today and I really appreciate you stopping in to see what’s going today! Have a fabulous weekend!
