Weather Related at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  When I read about the weather from other areas, it always amazes me how different and even to extremes the weather gets especially during this time of the year!  I hear everything from rain, sun, snow, tornadoes, flooding, cold, warm, hot, etc.  So where do you find your own weather to be at right now?  In my area, we have reached past the snow, but it’s still pretty cool at night…so I know that Spring and the rain is here for us with a bright spot of flowers/sprouts starting to come out in the Midwest U.S.

With this in mind, we have a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have a very fitting theme of “Weather Related  (rain, wind, sun, etc.) this month.  Would love to see lots of different varieties of weather related projects, so I hope you’ll join us.  Here’s what I came up with:

I was so happy to finally get a chance to use this adorable set by Lawn Fawn called Beary Rainy Day as I’ve had it for a while, but never used it until now.  

I started with a kraft A2 sized top folding card base and stenciled some white clouds over it.  I then splattered some navy watercolor paint over it.

While that was drying, I worked on my scene.  For the background, I took some blue oxide inks in Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean and ink blended them on the stitched die cut panel.  I used some water to spritz over it for a watermark look.  While that was drying, I took another stitched panel and ink blended some Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness Oxide inks for the grass area and die cut a hill to place at the bottom.  Before I attached it, I also die cut a white picket fence to go behind it.  I placed this scene onto a piece of navy cardstock and attached to the card base.

To complete the scene, I’ve stamped, colored with Copics and die cut the critters, rain puddles and clouds.  I used the coordinating raindrop die with the set and just die cut a few raindrops in silver glitter paper to add to the scene.  Lastly, I white heat embossed part of the sentiment on navy cardstock, cut out with a banner die and then just stamped the sentiment at the bottom in navy ink.  Also hard to see in the photo, but I’ve added some shimmer to the puddles with a glitter brush pen.

  • That’s all from me today!  Hope you’ll stop by the Sparkles Monthly blog is see what the team has come up with using this theme and join us in the challenge!  Thanks so much for stopping in as I love to read your comments!

Challenges:

  1. Craft Rocket Layer it Up 
  2. Addicted to Stamps & More Die cuts and/or stencils (clouds stenciled and variety of die cuts used)
  3. Penny’s Paper-crafty Anything Goes Using Paper
  4. Crafty Gals Corner Fill in the Blank:  “Adorable puddle jumping!”
  5. Time Out Pick 2 from list:  I picked Stencil & Water + Spots ( I was inspired to stencil some clouds and add some spots (splatter) to go with the colors/clouds of my scene and I was inspired by the water with the rain, puddles and watermark for ink blending)
  • Thank you to all the challenge blogs for keeping us all inspired to create and play along with our supplies!  I try to play along as much as I can.

April Showers Bring May Flowers at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  I’m so very happy to see April come as well as the warmer weather it has brought our way!  I’ve actually been taking sometime outside to see some blooms with daffodils, tulips and other buds popping out everywhere!  We are expected to get some rain tomorrow, but that is exactly what April is all about…and then the May flowers to follow!

This is exactly what it’s all about for this month’s challenge over at Sparkles Monthly too!  We hope you can share your “April Showers-May Flowers” projects with us this month!  Here’s what I’ve chosen to make:

I always love a good Spring rain with a little bit of sunshine peeking through that causes rainbows!  I never get a good photo of one, so I just enjoy it while it lasts! 

I’ve used a fairly new product from Taylored Expressions with my card today called “Create-in-quads ROYGBV” which creates 4 different card panels at one layered stencil session.  (I now have 3 other panels to make cards with too.)  I used the “Create-in-quads ROYGBV vase die” to cut it out and then another one in black cardstock for a slightly off shadow effect behind it.

For the background card panel, I had a DCWV rain drops stencil (that I’ve had for a long time) and blended some blue ink over it.  I’ve also cut a piece of blue/teal colored glitter paper for a thin border behind it to attach over an A2 white top folding card base.  I then took another piece of blue cardstock strip to make a “landing/grounding” for the vase to sit on.  Before popping up the ROYGBV vase, I took a marker to create a blue shadow underneath where the vase would be positioned.  I was going for a “rain puddle” look.  Popped it up with foam tape and added a white enamel dot in the center of one of the flowers.  I also took a glitter pen to cover over the raindrops and “rain puddle” under the ROYGBV vase.

The sentiment came from the Taylored Expressions Mini Strips-Rainbow stamp that I’ve white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut it out with the Mini Strips-Asymmetrical die and chose the ones that I wanted to use for this card to attach over top of the vase.  (I also have extra sentiments to use on other projects.)

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today!  I also hope that you will take some time to stop in and join in the challenge with us this month!  I have several projects finished that I’d like to share, but I find it so hard to come and sit at a computer when the sunshine and happy weather is calling my name!  Maybe when it rains tomorrow, I will post more things! 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:

  1. Just Us Girls – Word Week: RAIN
  2. A Place to Start – One or More Flowers
  3. Crafts Galore Encore – #122 Anything Goes
  4. Try it On Tuesday – Rainbow Colors
  5. Addicted to Stamps & More – #465 Die Cut and/or Stencil
  6. Crafting Happiness – #170 Rainy Weather

Guest Designing for Digi Doodle!

Hello friends!  I’m back today to share some fun news with you!!!!

I’m very excited to finally be able to share with you that I’m guest designing for

Digi Doodle Stamps!

Today, I’m sharing my first card for them with this really adorable image:

Vicki-DDLovesMeNot-June7

I have used the Loves Me Loves Me Not digital stamp to create my card.

What I had in mind when making this card was all of that crazy rain we were having this past month and how it seemed to never end.  I also loved the flowers she was holding because my daisies came up in my back yard and they really make me happy seeing them bloom.  So I combined this image with some rainfall in the background and took away the petals from the image to make it appear as if she’s holding out her hand in the rain!  🙂  Hubby has been taking extra great care of me while all of this rain was happening around us and I think this would be a special card for someone who always seems to bring out that happy sunshine no matter the weather!  (His favorite color is blue!)  Wink wink

Vicki-DDLovesMeNot-June7-close

Here’s a closer view of the coloring I’ve done on her with Copics.  For the background, I’ve taken a white panel and stamped some rain drops from another stamp set in my stash.  I fussy cut out my colored image and attached her over top of that rain panel.  I took some Nuvo Glitter Drops and added them over the rain drops in the background behind her.  I also white heat embossed the sentiment (From MFT) and cut it out with a banner die and slipped that under her foot when placing it on my card.

It’s hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve covered her bow and top of her hair with a glitter pen to make it look like she’s been wet in the rain.

Vicki-DDLovesMeNot-June7-flat

For the rest of my card, I’ve added the raindrop background light blue stitched scallop card panel over a dark blue layer and attached some pink ribbon around them.  I’ve added the bow to the side and then attached a yellow enamel heart over that.  These panels were mounted over an A2 sized white top folding card base.

Lastly, I’ve added the image panel and mounted it over the yellow scalloped panel and another piece of dark blue cardstock that was attached with foam tape.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and it brought you a smile!  Thank you so much for stopping by with me today!  I will be having another really super fun post to share with you tomorrow, be sure to stop by!

Challenges:

  1.  Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
  2. Creative Craft Cottage – Eileen’s Anything Goes (Digi Doodle is sponsoring!)
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP1922 Anything Goes
  4. The Paper Girls – Top 5 Faves (Coloring, sparkle, hearts, ribbon, flowers)
  5. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC224Anything Goes Feminine
  6. Crafting with an Attitude – Anything Goes

Brightening A Rainy Day

Hello friends!  Are you longing for that rainy Springtime showers with lots of flowers because you’re tired of snow?  I know that I’ve been wanting Spring to get here very soon!  I thought I’d bring some of that feeling into my blog post this morning:

Vicki-SNSMayShowersBundle-Feb20-card3

I started out with my images from these stamp sets that were released as a bundle set called May Showers Spring Bundle.

I wanted to incorporate both of these rubber stamp sets into my design, so I heat embossed the parasol image from the Showers of Tulips set and the bows from the May Showers set with White EP over some Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper.  I colored them in with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and fussy cut them out with my scissors and set them aside.

Vicki-SNSMayShowersBundle-Feb20-card3-close

For the background panel, I took another piece of watercolor paper and spritzed it with water to get it good and wet before sprinkling on some Nuvo Blue Blitz Shimmer Powder.  I spritzed it again to really get the water moving around and manipulated the panel so that I could get the water drips going down the panel.  Once this dried, I cut it out with the Tonic Basics Scalloped Square Dies.

Using my cut-out parasol image for placement, I heat embossed the sentiment from the May Showers stamp set with the Coffee EP where I wanted it over the watercolor panel.  I then took the raindrops image from the same stamp set and stamped it with VersaMark ink repeatedly over the background and heat embossed it with that Magic Speckle EP.  I’ve also added some Nuvo Morning Dew Crystal Drops to the center of each drop for more dimension and shine to get a nice wet water look to it!  This was set aside to dry for a bit.

I took another piece of cardstock (slightly larger than the watercolor panel) and rubbed my VersaMark Ink pad along the edges to heat emboss it with the Coffee EP.  I attached these layers together and then glued some craft foam behind it for dimension.

Vicki-SNSMayShowersBundle-Feb20-card3-flat

I’ve used a blue 5″ square top folding card base for my design and took a piece of white doily I had from my stash and glued it on with some Dimensional Glue.  I then added a strip of white cardstock covered with a piece of 1/2″ Tear Tape going diagonally across the card base and burnished some Sunny Daze glitter over it.

Finally, I added the watercolor and embossed layers over top of the card base and then took my fussy cut images and added them to the design with some foam dots.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Spring Showers card today and it’s inspired you in some way!  I thank you SO MUCH for dropping in!  I appreciate all of the kind comments and a big welcome to my new followers…love meeting fellow crafty friends!!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1.  Cardz 4 Galz – Weather (any condition)
  2. Moving Along With the Times – Little Bit ‘Shabby Chic’
  3. The Flower Challenge – Use Latest Stamp/Dies + flowers (SNS stamps)
  4. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – (PIP1907) – Anything Goes
  5. Try it On Tuesday – “Powder Your……..” (Shimmer powder, Embossing powder)

Late Valentine Share and Looking Into Future With More Calendar Months!

Hello friends!   (Long post with lots of photos!!)

I wanted to share the Valentine card I made for my hubby on Valentine’s Day yesterday, but I couldn’t share it on my blog until after he got it because he can be known to be a “stalker” on my blog to see what I’m up to!!  LOL!

Vicki-BMLoveBug-Valentine

Vicki-BMLoveBug-Valentine-close

I’ve colored up these “wasps” with Copics and for the wings and hearts there is a bit of shimmer on them as you can see in the photo.  For that I have used the Aqua Pigments Valentine Collection plus the Aqua Pigment Pearl for the wings.   I heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set with EP and I cut the banner myself with scissors and mounted it over the card with the Foam Tape. The little wooden Convo heart accent was added too.  Lastly, I took some Nuvo White Crystal Drops and added a few dots here and there around the hearts.

I’ve cut the “wasps” out with a stitched circle die and mounted it over some cardstock from the kit that was cut with a scallop circle die.

Vicki-BMLoveBug-Valentine-flat

So, for the background of my card, as I had mentioned above, I used the stencil in the background which is a huge heart with several hearts inside of it.  I took some Ink and sponged it over my white card front background.  I was able to take some Nuvo Moonstone Glitter Paste and go over it to add sparkly dimension to it!  LOVE how it turned out!  I stamped a couple more hearts in the bottom corner and colored them the same as the hearts with the “wasps” using the same Aqua Pigments collection.  I also added more dots with the Nuvo White Crystal Drops.  I layered this onto a piece of red cardstock and cut it out with a scallop rectangle die and then mounted this entire design onto an A2 sized top folding white card base.  The envelope underneath was used to house the card in and I embellished it with some heart glitter stickers that was included in the box as well.

Challenges I’d like to enter this above card for:

  1.  Crazy 4 Challenges (C4C470) – Valentine’s Day Card
  2. Crafty Cardmakers – Love, Love, Love
  3. Always Fun – Love/Valentines
  4. Tuesday Throwdown – Falling Hearts
  5. Try it On Tuesday – Romance
  6. Crafting By Designs – Love is in the Air
  7. Crafty Gals Corner – Love is in the Air (Add a Heart)
  8. Creative Knockouts – Love is in the Air

Now if you remember this post I had a few weeks ago where I had started (late of course) making up my calendar pages for 2019 to put in my stamp room, I needed to make up a couple more of them as the time keeps on ticking….

Vicki-TE-March and April Grumplings Calendar

LOL!  These cute Calendar Grumplings from Taylored Expressions so crack me up! 🙂

Oh, I can’t believe we are getting ready to look into the month of March soon!  I think after having so much cold, ice and snow, I’m about ready to see some pretty flowers in my back yard! Yay!

Vicki-TE-March Grumplings Calendar

So, here’s my March calendar and like the entire calendar card set, I’ve used the Taylor Expressions pre-made 3×4 Calendar set for 2019.  I’ve cut down this panel very slightly so that I could mat a black piece of cardstock behind it.

For the image area, I’ve used a rainbow die from Lawn Fawn and cut it out in several different colors to create rainbow strips which I’ve added to the backside of the black scallop frame from the TE Build A Scene – Calendar 2 die set.  I’ve also cut out a strip of grass from the Build A Scene – Calendar die set.  The sentiment (from the same stamp set) was stamped with black pigment ink and clear heat embossed over a strip of vellum which I cut into a banner with scissors and then attached it to the corner of the black frame.

Vicki-TE-March-Grumplings Calendar-close

Here’s a closer view of the image panel.  I colored the image with Copic markers and then cut it out with the coordinating TE Calendar Grumplings die set.   I’ve also added some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops over the clover.

Vicki-TE-April Grumplings Calendar

And here’s my April Calendar card using the same stamp set, coordinating dies and 2019 pre-printed calendar cards.  I slightly cut the edges to mat the blue cardstock behind it as well.  I’ve used this same color of cardstock to cut the frame from the TE Build A Scene – Calendar Dies.  I stamped the sentiment onto a strip of white cardstock and made a banner with my scissors and attached it behind the frame on the top left side.  (I’ve also used this same die set to cut a couple of clouds and sponged some gray ink at the bottom of each one.

For the bottom of the frame, I took a piece of vellum and cut out that piece from the Build A Scene – Calendar 2 dies.  I took a glitter brush pen to add some sparkle to this piece of vellum, so it makes it look like a “rain puddle” he’s standing in.

Vicki-TE-April Grumplings Calendar-close

For this elephant image, I also colored him up with Copic markers and cut him out with the coordinating dies.  I attached him along with the clouds over the panel where I wanted them to be.  I cut out some “rain drops” with vellum but ended up not being able to see them very well, so I took the Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops and went over them and then created more “rain drops” with it….I ended up liking that effect better, but I had already attached the vellum and just decided to leave it and go over them.  LOL!

There you go, that just tells you that I’m either getting old and my sight is failing me or I just have been continuously crafting until I’m blinding myself!!  ha!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my crafty makes today and I will be back again tomorrow to share a special post with you for a VERY special cause and I hope you can join me to share in this event!!  So please be sure to come back tomorrow!

Have a great Friday evening and thanks for dropping by!