Bringing You Joy With Digi Doodle Studios

Hello friends! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! It’s getting closer to the big day now! Only 11 more days until Christmas! If you’re like me, then you wait until the last possible minute to mail out all of your Christmas cards! So guess what MY plans are this weekend?! LOL! Have you got all of your Christmas done and ready to go? I keep telling myself that NEXT year I will be prepared! LOL!

To help inspire those that are still looking for a fun and simple Christmas card, I have a cute one to share with you today using a Pairables set from Digi Doodle Studios:

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You probably remember not too long ago the fun tags I made on THIS POST. I’ve used that same Pairables Wintertime Penguins digital set that I’m using on my card today! I love that you can get a whole set of digital stamps that coordinate together so that you can use them to create fun scenes or have them doing different things! Do you recognize the sled that this penguin is pulling full of gifts? I took that same sled image and used it as “ice skates” for the penguins feet on my tags in the previous post! That’s how fun and versatile this set can be!

This time my card is really simple. I just arranged the images how I wanted them on my computer and printed it out. I printed it again over some masking paper so that I could mask off the images to create my background.

To create the background, I ripped a piece of the masking paper to go along the bottom of the die cut panel after I masked off the images. I used ink blending for the background and then spritzed with water and dried it with a towel. I then took watered down white paint and splattered it for the snow effect.

Once it was dry, I removed the masks and colored up the images, made the sentiment (also from this same digital set) banner and mounted both pieces with some red cardstock which was mounted over an A2 sized white card base. I added some glitter to the snow ground at the bottom and on the penguin’s hat. Topped it off with some twine and a snowflake rhinestone.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring details of the penguin and his sleigh full of gifts. I used a white gel pen for dots on the one present and his cheeks. I also took some pencils for a few highlights.

I kept this card flat except for the sentiment banner so that I can mail it better. You could even leave it more flat than that if you prefer.

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If you know me, then you know how much I love penguins. I have a special collection of stamps and will probably always keep them around.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and perhaps this little cutie has brought you some joy too!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends! See you soon!

Challenges:

Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Tales From the Craft Room – It’s Christmas!
Penny’s Paper Crafty– Anything Goes
Cardz for Galz – Cute Christmas
CRAFT – Christmas Present
Let’s Craft and Create – Anything Goes with optional: “Let it Snow!”
Crafting With an Attitude – Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland– Anything Christmas Goes

DDS and PND Collaboration Blog Hop is Here!

Hello friends! Today is the “special day” of our really fun and festive Collaboration Blog Hop! Hope you will be joining along with us for lots of inspiration and prizes! Woohoo!

MY HOLIDAY HOP PROJECT:

I am on the Digi Doodle Studios Design team and here is my interpretation of combining each companies’ images together to come up with this fun snow scene for the Holidays:

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For my card here I have taken the Digi Doodle Studios Penguin Wobbles Special Delivery digital stamp along with the Paper Nest Dolls Holiday Friends digital stamp and printed them out over a piece of Copic Blending Card. I’ve colored them up and fussy cut them out for my scene here.

To create the scene, I’ve used some blue cardstock for the background and splattered some watered down gesso over it and then used a die cut to create the fun frame within it. I layered it over a piece of gold cardstock so it shows through. I also die cut some snowy hills with white glitter cardstock and some pine trees with green cardstock.

I arranged them over my blue cardstock panel and created the scene. I popped up the front layer of snow hill along with the penguin image with foam tape. I covered this snow hill layer with some texture snow paste…it’s so glittery!! I also added some more glittery details here and there on the images too.

I white heat embossed the sentiment and placed a peppermint candy embellishment next to it and attached the strip over the blue background. I then mounted this entire scene layer over some fun and festive foiled striped papers and then onto another blue piece which was then mounted over a top folding white 5.5″ square card base.

Here’s a bit of a closer look at the images and how I’ve colored them up with Copic markers. You can see that I’ve used my white gel pen for details on the bow in the present along with the shinny look on the candy cane and the cheeks of all the images. I’ve added a few dots on the deer’s back tail too.

I’ve used a gold gel pen to color in the sleigh runner, the band around the gift sack, the “lettering and dots” on the penguin’s sign as well as the bells the little girl is holding. I used a red gel pen to color in the little deer’s nose. I’ve used a green gel pen to create “dots” on the penguin’s present and the deer’s bow.

I’ve also added some glitter to the heart candies and the girl’s outfit trim.

You can also see just how puffy and dimensional that snow is too! It’s really glittery and was so fun to add to the scene! It looks like they’re gearing up to deliver some presents and the cute little Mr. Penguin Wobbles is all loaded and ready to go! LOL!

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I really hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and have been inspired with it in some way to get you into the festive Holiday spirit!

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends!

Challenges:

Stamping Sensations– Dec Anything Goes
Love to Craft – LTCCB41 – Dec Anything Goes
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash– Happy Holidays!
Crafting By Designs – Dec Anything goes
The Paper Funday – Dec Anything Goes with optional twist: Christmas Holiday
Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes

World Card Making Day with Whimsy Stamps-Halloween Style!

Hello friends! Happy World Card Making Day! Woo hoo!! What a perfect day to celebrate for us card makers, right?! I’m so excited to celebrate a part of this special day with you using Whimsy Stamps products… especially in a Halloween style fashion!

World Cardmaking Day is a day dedicated to celebrating the art of handmade cards – whether made with construction paper and crayons or with more sophisticated supplies. As we crafters can all agree, a store-bought card, while nice, just can’t replace the personal and thoughtful nature of one made by hand.

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Here’s a fun little treat in case you forgot about my Halloween creation post back in August with this fun Whimsy Stamps Penguin Trick or Treaters digital image! (Please click on the “Halloween creation post” for further details!)

Thanks so much for dropping in today!

Never Fear, Super Penguin is Here!

Hello friends! You ever have that certain someone in your life whenever you feel that things are falling apart, that there’s one individual that makes you feel everything is going to be alright? It’s nice to know that you can always depend on that person to come when you call, right? They deserve special recognition like a hand-made card that I’ve made today:

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Isn’t he adorable?! This is the Penguin Superhero digital stamp released this month (previously released in red rubber) from Whimsy Stamps. I have combined some older (retired) stamps from Whimsy Stamps along with some fun ink blending and coloring to come up with this design.

I’ve used some kraft colored ink to stamp the buildings on the panel behind penguin and then used some ink blending and distress inks for the little “sidewalk strip” the penguin is standing on along with the city scape sky. I took a stencil to go over top of the the sky background. I popped the fussy cut penguin over top of that with some foam tape. This was mounted over a black cardstock layer that was mounted over the card front base and popped up with foam tape.

To make the card front, I randomly stamped some images with white ink over a kraft colored card base that I matted onto a white layer which was then mounted over a black A2 sized top folding card base. I took a strip of red cardstock and made my own banner with it using scissors. I did the same for the sentiment banner in black cardstock that I white heat embossed over it. Lastly, I took some silver stars and glued them on the design.

Here’s a good close look at the coloring that I’ve done on this cutie. Something different that I’ve done here is to color with both Copics and pencils on this one. Basically the reasoning for doing this was because a couple of my Copic markers are running out of ink and it was hard to get the blend that I wanted…so I finished it off with Prisma colored pencils. (I’m waiting for refills to arrive! LOL) Here are the Copics that I used on my coloring:

Penguin body – C8, C5, C3, C1, C0, R00, YR27, YR24, Y21
Cape, letters – R39, R37, R35, R32
Shirt – B39, B37, B34
Letter outline – Y38, Y35
blended with Prisma colored pencils on penguin body, cape and shirt

The penguin was fussy cut with scissors and popped up over the scene with foam tape. I also gave the penguin’s shirt initials a bit of shimmer with the Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Pen.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my card with this sweet Whimsy Stamps Penguin!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll be posting again shortly…stay tuned!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Krafty Chicks – #468 masculine
The Creative Crafters – Anything Goes
Sheepski Designs – Animal Madness
QKR Stampede – #359 Anything Goes

It’s Party Time!

Hello friends! It’s been sort of a crazy few days with our weather! Usually it’s pretty warm and sunny, but we’ve been having some severe rain and cooler temps. Plus more rain coming, so I guess I’ll be in my craft room playing! 🙂

Today I have this happy party fellow from Whimsy Stamps to share with you:

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Isn’t he adorable?! This image is called Penguin Birthday by Crissy Armstrong. This was previously released as a rubber stamp, but this month it has been released in digital format so you can have either option available!

I have cut him out with the Whimsy Stamps Notched Squares die set and cut an additional piece in black cardstock for a layer behind him. For the base of my card, I’ve used a green colored 5″ square top folding card base and attached a piece of striped paper across the lower section and sponged some white ink along the edges of the green card base panel. I then used a piece of 1/2″ score tape across the top of the striped strip panel and then used some fun glitter over top of it and burnished into the tape.

I’ve also used this same glitter to go over the Whimsy Stamps Happy Large Word die cut out from some double-sided sticker paper. I white heat embossed the “birthday” over a strip of black cardstock that I’ve cut into a banner and placed it directly underneath the glittered word die. This came from the Happy Everything Clear Stamp set.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done on this cutie. You can also see the fun details of the glitter that I’ve used on the word die. I love the sort of “confetti flex” contained in this glitter. It’s something I got in a sample size from a card kit a couple of months ago and it’s great for birthdays! 🙂 Hard to see in the photo, but I’ve also used a clear glitter pen to go over the balloon and present. I sponged around the image panel with some of the same green ink that I’ve used for the card base cardstock color. I’ve used the following Copic markers to color him with:

Penguin – C8, C5, C3, C1, R00, R000, YR27, YR24, Y32
Balloon, party hat, present – YG01, YG11, YG13, V17, V15, V12
Shading, shadows, ground – C3, C1, E0000

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It’s always nice to have a good selection of birthday cards on hand when you need to hurry up and send one out and I think this one is great for any gender or age.

Challenges:

Little Red Wagon – Happy “BIRD”day!
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #348 Anything Goes
Allsorts – Happy Birthday!!!
Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes + toppings=Balloons!!

P.S. I know that many of you have been asking for updates on the bird nest situation and so here’s another photo of what we were able to capture:

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After the flowers were done blooming, we were able to get more of a clear shot and CAREFULLY get close enough to get the mother Robin sitting on her nest! Like I had mentioned, she doesn’t like it when we go out there. She chirps at us and waits for us to leave.

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Here is one of her standing in the nest. We think that she may have hatched those eggs as it looks like she might be feeding the babies! So next time we’ll check back in and see if we can get a look at those babies in there! 🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed my post today! Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!!

Crafty Retreat Results

Hello friends! I finally found the time to make a post and gather all of my photos together so that I can share a post with you from last week’s “Crafty Retreat” that I went to at my friend’s house.

So the “theme” for the crafty retreat was called “Hats off to Painting!” The majority of the group likes to tole paint, but we all (including myself) like to try our hands at many other crafting avenues to try different products that we may not be familiar with…so there are some “mixed” projects today I’m sharing! I had such fun during the entire 3 days!

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Here we are with our decorated hats on for a group photo! Even little ‘Gizmo’ had his hat on, but not sure he was feeling the fun like the rest of us! LOL! (Unfortunately the host was taking the photo!) We all had our Dick Blick aprons and shirts on which was very kindly donated for our “Painting Divas” group…they were VERY generous with the bag of goodies they gave us! We had all 3 days worth of fun, classes and prizes!

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So, the reason for all of the fun crafty hats is that we were to take a hat and decorate it for a challenge. Here is a photo of all of our hats. There were some really fun and creative ideas as you can see! One of the girls was quite tired from all of the crafting and decided to take a little siesta during the festivities! LOL! It was very cool that I was the winner voted for my created hat design. (You can see on the table above and here’s a closer look below):

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I guess it’s a bit hard to see in the photo above of me wearing it, but I had hubby bring home one of his hard hats from work along with a pair of goggles and then I went to decorating it in “steampunk” style! I had fun with it and enjoyed the process!

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Here is the altered “Potions and Spells” book that I taught for the class! Last year at the “Crafty Retreat” they saw my “altered book” that I had previously made during my time as a Splitcoaststampers.com “Dirty Dozen” DT member and asked if I could teach how to make one for this year’s class. So instead of the “altered book” idea, I had them all use a Tim Holtz Configuration Book.

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Here are some of the book covers all lined up that we were waiting on to dry before we were able to start painting them. A couple of the book covers were left at the work table, but while those were drying, we worked on the inside of the book.

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Here’s another photo of me standing there holding one of the books and everyone was finished with their books looking at them at the end of class. They seemed to really enjoy this messy project! I just loved teaching these fun ladies too!

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This is from my mom’s class where she taught us this cute Santa ornament that we painted on a gourd.

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The host lady is the one that taught this cute penguin class! I adore penguins and I’m so happy that I took the time to finish this up when I got home!

I really hope that you’ve enjoyed all of these projects as much as I enjoyed creating them! I also had another set of calendars that I finished, but I’ll share on another post on another day as this one is pretty full!! LOL!

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One more thing to share is that we have a robin’s nest with one little blue egg inside. We have a a Prairie Fire Crab Apple tree in our backyard full of pretty blooms and I guess the robin thought it was a nice place to make a nest…so we’ll wait and see if there is a baby bird coming soon!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all of you moms out there! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!! Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!!

Whimsy Stamps May Release + Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! Hope you are having a great week so far!

Today starts a brand new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday! The theme for our challenge this week is an easy peasy “Anything Goes” theme! Whimsy Stamps is also our sponsor this week and I have used one of the brand-new May digital releases for my card here:

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This really SWEET penguin by Crissy Armstrong was previously released as a rubber stamp and now it’s available in digital format too! I’ve used the Penguin Prezzie digital stamp on my card here along with some other Whimsy Stamps products!

The image panel was cut out with the Whimsy Stamps Notched Squares Dies Set and mounted over a piece of black cardstock. I added some pearls in each corner. For the tiny hearts and the “mom” sentiment at the bottom, I have used the Whimsy Stamps Mom’s Layered Flowers clear stamp set. I stamped the tiny hearts around the penguin with some pink ink and the “mom” sentiment at the bottom over the pink gingham paper with black ink. I also stamped the sentiment ‘for you’ with black ink on the image panel from the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiments clear stamp set.

I found some soft pink gingham paper to use and mounted it over another piece of black cardstock and another piece of gold cardstock too. After adding the ‘mom’ sentiment, I took three strips of gold cardstock to add for accent pieces and then added some lace in the center strip that I wrapped around the card front panel. I attached these layers onto a white 5×5 top folding card base. The penguin image panel was popped up in the center with some foam tape.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on this image. These penguins are so fun to color! I have used the following Copic markers on my image:

penguin – C8, C5, C3, C1, blender, YR24, Y15, Y11
present – BG45, BG13, BG10
bow – R85, R83, R81, R00
ground shading – C1, E0000

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Although I think you could use this cute penguin image for a birthday or even Christmas, I thought since we are in the month of May, it would be a great card to send to mom! All you need is to make it with a few feminine colors along with lace and pearls for accents!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I appreciate your kind comments so much!

Whimsy Stamps Partner’s with Make a Wish Canada

Hello friends! It’s my pleasure today to post information about this special image that Whimsy Stamps has just released today in honor of our beloved illustrator Crissy Armstrong’s brother, Ray Gauvreau, who is currently battling cancer.

I have made a special card just for him that is being sent out his way:

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I started out by coloring up this image with my Copic markers in the following:

Penguin body, IV wheels/post – C8, C5, C3, C1
penguin feet/beak, tongue, cheeks – YR24, YR21, Y23, R20, R11, R00, R000
Bandage, IV bag – E33, E31, Y11, R00
ground/shadow – C1, E0000

For the background of my card, I took some xyron printed paper and foiled the background which I think looks great for a masculine theme design and that is what I was trying to go for with this card. After foiling it, I took and sponged some yellow distress ink to blend around the edges of it for a bit of color, along with the image panel.

I had an old stamp set from my stash and thought it would be a great fit for this card, so I stamped the vertical “fight” sentiment next to the IV bag and then I took the other sentiment and heat embossed it with white EP and cut it in a strip to attach over the image. Lastly, I’ve added some white enamel dots to each corner of the design.

Here’s a close look at the image and how I’ve colored it in. It’s hard to tell in the photo of course, but I’ve also covered the IV bag with a clear glitter brush pen. I think this image is a really great one to add to a crafter’s collection for “get well” cards and encouragement too like this one. After cutting out the colored image panel and sponging the color around the edges, I’ve also layered this along with the foil panel with some black cardstock before attaching it onto a white top folding A2 sized card base.

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In this photo that I’ve laid flat, you can better see the shine from the foiled background that I’ve done.

Thank you so much for stopping in today and for your kind support too!

I will see you tomorrow for a special blog hop, so I hope you can join me!

Challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday – WWC213 – Anything Masculine Goes
Aud Sentiments – Any sentiment EXCEPT “Happy birthday”
QKR Stampede – #340 Anything Goes

Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! It’s time for an easy peasy “ANYTHING GOES” challenge over at Cute Card Thursday this week!! Our monthly sponsor Whimsy Stamps will be joining us this week and I’m thrilled to share some of those products on my card today:

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I have used this really sweet digital stamp on my card called “Penguin Loves Bunny“! He is holding him ever so tightly and not wanting to let go!! 🙂

As I’m trying to get back into the swing of things here, I wanted to be sure to join some challenges and so I’ve picked out a nice sketch to start my card with here. (See the details below the post for all challenges.) I’ve been wanting to get out these yummy plaid papers that I’ve had for a couple of years. This seemed like the perfect image for that too!

So I took the panel of plaid papers and layered it with some kraft cardstock. I took some white organdy ribbon and wrapped a piece around the left side of it and tied on a bow at the top before attaching it to the upper right of my A2 sized top folding white card base. I’ve cut out the image with an oval die and then layered another oval piece that was cut out with the kraft cardstock. This oval panel was layered over the plaid.

I took a sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Everyday Mini Sentiment clear stamp set and stamped the “miss you” underneath the image. I also used the Whimsy Stamps Friend Word & Shadow die set to cut a piece of vellum with the shadow and then cut the word out with some pink cardstock and then attached them right underneath the stamped “miss you” sentiment. Lastly, I’ve added some of the pink enamel dots from the Whimsy Stamps It’s a Party enamel dots set.

Here’s a closer look at the coloring of this image. I’ve colored it in with Copic markers in the following colors:

Penguin: C8, C5, C3, C1, Y38, Y35, Y32, R00
Bunny: E47, E44, E42, E41, W5, W3, W1, R20, R11, R00

I also used a blender 0 and a white gel pen for cheeks and bunny tail.

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I thought this image would be so fun for Easter too!! I can see it used in so many different ways!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today!! Thanks so much for dropping in!! See you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter my card for:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – #493
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + related to animals
Creative with Stamps – Friends
{Cupcake Inspirations} – Plaid CIC465
QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #337

Hello Cute Chicks!

Hello friends! Err…should I say “Cute Chicks”! 🙂

I have some more Whimsy Stamps inspiration to share with you today using this sweet image by Crissy Armstrong called Penguin’s Cute Chicks. Now it may look familiar to you and that’s because it was originally made as a rubber stamp, but starting with this month’s release it has been released in digital format! So it’s great to now have both options available to you!

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I am a huge penguin fan and Crissy’s penguins are so fun to color! I have colored this image with the following Copics:

Penguin Body, Beak, Feet, Cheeks: C8, C5, C3, C1, C0 – YR18, YR15, YR12 – R00, R000
Penguin hat & scarf: E89, E87, E84, E81
Chicks: Y38, Y17, Y15, Y11 – Cheeks: R00
Chick blue & purple ribbons: B39, B37, B34 – purple: V17, V15, V12
Egg shell and around image: BG000
Grass: YG67, YG63, YG61

(More up-close details below!)

I have also used some fun digital papers from the January digital release called “Oh Boy” digital papers collection. (You may remember the “Crateful of Kittens” card that I had previously done which was using these same papers. I’ve used both the striped and solid papers for my card here. At the top of the striped papers, I used the Whimsy Stamps Pierced Border Trio dies to cut a curvy border. I cut another piece like that in black cardstock to layer behind it.

I took the WS Painted Sayings clear stamp set and stamped the greeting in the upper left corner of the image panel and I also used the splatter images from the set and stamped some black splatters over the solid colored digital papers. Before attaching the striped panel to the solid background, I added some white ribbon with a bow and a black button with a bow twine through it. I attached this to the solid panel and then attached all layers to a white 5″ square top folding card base.

Here’s a closer view of the image with my coloring. For around the edges of the image panel, I took a glue pen and sprinkled on some clear glitter for a bit of a sparkly touch around the design. I layered this onto a black piece of cardstock and then added some craft foam behind it for a slight dimension and attached it to the card front.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today! Thanks for stopping by!! I’ll see you back again tomorrow for another really fun project I made!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

As You Like It – Pearls or Buttons? (I love to add buttons in the center of bows and with different colors it can work on any style you’re designing.)
Crafting From the Heart – #235 Anything Goes