Conservatory of Quotes + video!

I had SO MUCH FUN with my creation today and I can’t wait to share it with you…

*To check out the full details on how I put together this card and how I created the rainbow background, be sure to check out this video!  (CLICK HERE to view it on You Tube.)

Vicki-Brutus Monroe-ConservatoryofQuotes-JuneGDT

One of my most favorite products is watercolor and all of the really cool affects you can get with them!  This is what I have used throughout the card here from the background to coloring the floral image.

Speaking of floral image, isn’t it gorgeous?!  It not only has this gorgeous floral image, but it has some really awesome quotes to go with it!

For my card, I first started by masking off an area with some purple tape on some paper that was large enough for my floral image.  Then I made the background with some help from a ruler and baby wipes.  I used a stitched rectangle die, added the sentiment at the bottom of my rainbow panel and made some splatters.  I mounted this piece onto an A2 sized top folding black cardstock.

Vicki-Brutus Monroe-ConservatoryofQuotes-JuneGDT-close

For the image, I had actually started out doing this card in one direction and then totally went a different way.  But the image was stamped with black ink a couple of times over the paper and colored with Aqua Pigments using a water brush.  I cut an entire image of one and attached it over the rainbow background with liquid glue and then I fussy cut just the flowers and popped them up with foam tape over the full image.  I added some of that gorgeous shimmer with the Aqua Pigment and then finished off the design by adding some clear sequins over it.

Vicki-Brutus Monroe-ConservatoryofQuotes-JuneGDT-flat

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today as I had so much fun making it!  I can’t wait to create another project to share with you!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1.  Stamping Sensations – Show Your True Colors
  2. Get Creative – Anything Goes with optional twist: Favorite color combo
  3. Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
  4. Artistic Inspiration – Anything Goes
  5. Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
  6. Alphabet Challenge – “F” is for Flowers
  7. Simply Create Too – Anything Goes with optional twist:  Lots of flowers
  8. Rainbow Card Challenge – Neon Rainbow

Rainbow Shaker Birthday!

Hello friends!  Yay!  It’s Friday and I thought I’d share this happy shaker card that I made.

Vicki-MFT Birthday Bear Rainbow

I saw over at My Favorite Things “Birthday Project” Challenge was a “rainbow” theme and I thought this would make for a happy and fun birthday card design!  So I pulled out the MFT Transparent Triangles Background stamp (now retired) and heat embossed it with white EP over some Bristol Smooth Watercolor paper.  I went to work with my rainbow background and sponged several colors of Distress Oxide ink in rainbow form over the heat embossed background for a “resist technique”.  I spritzed some water over it and my sprayer went a tad bit “droopy” and I ended up with a weird large droplet pattern, but I decided I wanted to keep it anyway, I liked it.

So to make sure that my shaker balloon was going to line up with my bear, I needed to stamp, color and fussy cut out this bear from the Beary Special Birthday stamp set.  I needed to fussy cut it out because the coordinating die cut would also cut out the balloon from the image, and I didn’t want to include it as I was making my own!  I’ve also white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set and cut it out with the Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips.  I also took the Mini Balloon Shaker Window & Frame Die-namics to cut out all of the pieces that I needed for the balloon.  (I used the fussy cut out bear for placement to see where I needed to die cut a hole in the background for the shaker area.)  Before attaching the bear down, I also took some green cardstock and cut out a border with the Grassy Fields Die-namics.  I sponged the edges with green ink and took a Copic marker to give a shadow around the bear.  So after I placed my “balloon hole” where I needed it on the background, I took the rainbow sequins to place inside the Mini Balloon Shaker Pouches and added a piece of black cardstock for the background, which was placed over an A2 sized white top folding card base.

Vicki-MFT Birthday Bear Rainbow-close

Here’s a closer look at the bear and how I’ve got him colored in.  I forgot that in addition to the rainbow sequins I had, I put some tiny star sequins in there as well.  At first, I thought I had gone a bit too dark for coloring the bear, but I like how he blended out and I think he really stands out on the rainbow background and doesn’t get lost with the black accents on the card.  I took a white gel pen to his cheeks and added some shimmer to his present with a glitter brush pen.

Vicki-MFT Birthday Bear Rainbow-flat

Here with the card lying flat, you can better see the shaker bits on the inside of the balloon and how they really stand out against the black balloon background.

I think I got a smile and it was passed around for the shaking.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I thank you so much for stopping in!  Wishing you a very happy and rainbow filled weekend too! 🙂

challenges:

  1.  MFT Birthday Project – Rainbow
  2. Creative with Stamps – Birthday
  3. Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
  4. Little Red Wagon – “Shake It!”
  5. Always Fun – Birthday

Another Pot O’ Gold!

Hi there friends!  I guess I am really feeling the luck of the Irish this week!  I have another fun St. Patrick’s Day themed card to share today:

Vicki-SNSPotOGold

My card here may seem a bit simple, but it has a few really fun added extras to really make it shinny and glittery!  I have used Lil Leprechaun (Digital only stamp set).   I took the pre-colored versions of the set and arranged them in a blank Word.doc for how I wanted it to appear on my card front.  I used the clover images and resized them to fit around the bottom of the pot of gold area and then placed the sentiment where I wanted it off to the side.

I then printed it out and then cut it out with the Nuvo Basics Rectangle dies.

I used a couple of Copic green markers to make the “blades of grass” next to the pot of gold and clovers.  I also used some colored chalk to sponge in some colors for the rainbow behind the pot of gold.

Vicki-SNSPotOGold2

Here you can also see on the panel where I’ve taken some Super Thick Gold EP and sprinkled some in the corners of my image panel and then heat set it from underneath.

I also took a Nuvo Precision Glue Pen to add some “dots” in the center of the clovers and then of course used the Shamrock Glitter to go over them!  I also covered the coins in the pot with the glue and sprinkled some Champagne Glitter over them for some sparkle!

With the same Champagne Glitter that I used on the coins in the pot, I also took some Sticker Paper and covered an entire panel with it and burnished it in!  The shimmer and glitz on this are stunning in person and really sets off the card!  I’ve also used the Glitter Brush to take away the excess glitter particles and it’s a must have for clean up too!  (Instead of clinging to the brush, it repels it away!)  These sheets are somewhat thin, so I made sure that I’ve added some layers of cardstock in between this glitter panel for stability to the card.  (Keep this in mind if you are using the sticker paper for this idea.)

Vicki-SNSPotOGold-flat

I tried to capture some of the sparkle in the photo, but it really looks brilliant when you are holding it in person! 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I really appreciate you stopping in!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1.  Crafting With an Attitude – Anything Goes
  2. Creative Moments – Anything Goes
  3. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #338
  4. Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
  5. Pammies Inky Pinkes – Anything Goes PIP1910
  6. Not Just Cards – Anything Goes

Whimsy Stamps St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations Week!

Hello friends!!  I’m so happy that we are into March as I hope to be feeling warmer temps and “seeing the green” very shortly over my way!  I’m more than ready for that!

In the meantime, how about we celebrate with some inspiration!

Vicki-WSPatricks Day Celebrations

I have made this super fun (mostly green) card especially for this fun event with the really adorable Little Leprechaun digital stamp by Crissy Armstrong.  I thought he was so cute sitting atop his pot of gold with his new winged friend there!  He was so fun to color up for this card! (See the Copic list below!)

For the card, I started out with some watercolor paper, and I’ve used some Aqua pigments (liquid watercolor from Brutus Monroe) and some extra water for the background of my card, then I cut it out with the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested Rectangle Dies.  I also used this to cut out the leprechaun image too.  I’ve used some gold mirror cardstock to mat a layer of it behind the image panel.

I thought it would be fun to add a rainbow behind the image panel, so I took the WS Kinetic Curved Hills die set and cut strips with the straight curve die in the colors of the rainbow and added the strips over the background.  Then I attached the layered image panel and took the WS No-See All Seasons Tree die set to cut some grass and mushrooms to attach at the bottom of the card.  I used a white gel pen to color the spots on the tops of the mushrooms.  I also sponged some ink over all the pieces.  One of the sections of grass was popped up with foam tape.  Lastly, I took an older sentiment from Whimsy Stamps and made a banner that was popped up with foam tape over the design.  I then mounted the entire card panel over an A2 top folding white card base.

Vicki-WSPatricks Day Celebrations-close

Here you can see a close-up view of the coloring.  I have used the following Copics to color in the image with:

  •  pot, hat band, stockings, coat trims & dragonfly body:  C8, C5, C3
  • Leprechaun outfit:  C09, C07, G05, G03, Y11, Y13
  • Leprechaun gold trim and coins:  Y17, Y15 (layered over with gold gel pen)
  • hair, skin, dragonfly wings:  E09, E23, E21, E00, E000, Y11, R20, R00
  • clover on hat:  YG97, YG95
  • outline of image and “dots”:  C3, C1, C0, Y11, gold gel pen

You can also see the rainbow has some shimmer on it.  This is where I took a Spectrum Noir clear glitter brush pen to go over it.  You can also see a bit of shimmer from the Aqua pigments in the background…they’re really stunning, and I’ll be using them again in the future, so be sure to check back!! 🙂

Vicki-WSPatricks Day Celebrations-flat

I wanted to bring out some more of that gold with the mirror layer behind the leprechaun, so I brought some gold sequins into the layout and filled them with some gold Stickles.  When you hold this card up to the light, the whole thing really shimmers and sparkles!!  I loved how it turned out!  I hope you’ve enjoyed it too!

Thanks so much for dropping in today!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

  1.  Double Trouble – challenge #23 – “Thing 1“:  The Wearin’ O’ the Green “Thing 2“:  Collaboration with Heart 2 Heart Challenge (entered below!)  “Thing 3“:  Include a golden touch (used gold mirror cardstock and sequins filled with gold Stickles!)
  2. Heart 2 Heart Challenge – Greens, Rainbows & Pots of Gold (3 part challenge)
  3. Daisy Chain – Spring is in the Air!
  4. Creative Inspirations – Spring Greens
  5. Mod Squad – Green, Green Everywhere
  6. Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
  7. Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenges – Rainbow

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!

It’s Magical at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends and happy Thursday to you!  Tomorrow is Friday and we are about to get started on the weekend!  I am ready for it too!

We have another brand new challenge up for you this week at Cute Card Thursday and the theme is “Magical“.  This will be fun to see how you interpret this one! 🙂  Here’s the card that I made for the challenge:

Vicki-CCT545-oddball-magical

I have used one of the sponsor’s images this week from Oddball Stamps which is Kawaii Big Eye Unicorn (with and without ornaments) Twinkles.  I have used the image without the ornaments on him, but it comes with both!  I think it’s adorable!

I printed out the image and used a wonky stitch rectangle die to cut out the panel with the image in the bottom right corner.  I printed it out a second time so that I can cut it out with some masking paper.  I placed the cut out masked paper unicorn over my card panel unicorn and stenciled the colorful cloudy background.  I colored the unicorn and the grass he’s sitting on with Copic markers.  Lastly, I stamped a sentiment from a My Favorite Things stamp set at the top with black ink.

Vicki-CCT545-oddball-magical-close

So looking at the unicorn from a different angle, you can see that I’ve added tons of shimmer and glitter to it.  I used a glitter brush pen for the muzzle, the hooves, the inside ears and around the eyes.  I’ve also went around the unicorn on the grass for a bit more shimmer too.  I took some clear dazzling diamonds glitter to add to the rainbow horn and tail using liquid glue.   Of course, there’s even more sparkle with the sequins.  I had a couple of heart sequins to add around the unicorn as well.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Challenges:

  1.  Papercraft Challenges – animals
  2. Addicted to Stamps & More! – Make Your Mark (stencil and Copics)
  3. Crafty Gals Corner – Anything Goes

I’ve Been Schooled!

Hello friends!  Hope you are doing well and are having a great week!

I took some time over the last few days to try and follow along with all of the videos and classes going on over the My Favorite Things blog as they are doing “Session 2 of their MFT Summer School“.  I don’t know about you, but I find that there is always something new to learn and different things to try with crafting and I enjoy learning about it so that I can continue to improve in what I already enjoy doing.  Sometimes that self-doubt creeps into the skull to tell you that “you’re not good enough” and “give up”, etc.    The way for me to try and stomp out those feelings is to take classes and try something new.  I just want to enjoy the process and learning can help bring on more positive feelings.

Since there are SO MANY creations in this post, I won’t go into too many details other than share the links to the MFT Summer School links that I made each card for.  I hope you enjoy having a look at them:

Day 1 – Monochromatic (CAS)

Vicki-MFTcamp-monochromatic CAS

I used several colors of MFT purple (of course!) cardstock and stamped a background stamp with VersaMark over it.  I think the die I’ve used is from something retired.

Day 2 – Focal Point

Vicki-MFTcamp-FocalPoint

Really had fun with this sweet little bear! 🙂  I loved the layout so much from class and decided to follow that for my card here.  The balloon and die cut sentiment actually have shimmer over them which doesn’t show in the photo very well.

Day 3 – Visual Triangle

Vicki-MFTcamp-VisualTriangle

This one took me quite a bit to put together.  I think maybe part of it was all of the coloring, but I was struggling a bit with the concept…I’m hoping this was how she was going with it.  3 long strips at the bottom, 3 images at the bottom and 3 images at the top.  The purple in the background was a watercolor wash like she showed in the video, but I didn’t heat emboss any image like she did.

Day 4 – Rainbow

Vicki-MFTcamp-rainbows

I have done this before, and I really like how you can use up your paper scraps in a colorful way.  I used the same frame die here in a similar manner as I did the card above this one.  I cut the sentiment several times before laying down the top one and then I slightly off centered it to show the white slightly behind it.

Day 5 – Ombre

Vicki-MFTcamp-Ombre

And here I go with another purple card! LOL!  I actually remembered a fantastic video that I created this card based on a tutorial from Jennifer McGuire.

If you have any questions about these, please feel free to contact me or simply leave a comment below and I will be happy to reply.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you again on Thursday for a new challenge! 🙂

Rainbows and Butterflies

Hello friends!

That was quite a post yesterday and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your kind words…it was even hard to read those, but please know I appreciated your kind hearts immensely!

I have a very fun and cheerful card for you today!  Although I had missed the Cute Card Thursday challenge this last time, it is still going on and you have a few more days to enter if you wish to play along with us using your Bugs and/or Butterfly creations!  I just love playing with butterflies and the first thing that came to my mind was that past Simon Says Stamp card kit called “Beautiful Butterflies”.  There was some awesome rainbow patterned paper in the kit as well as a butterfly stencil and so I decided to mix them together!

Vicki-CCT539-rainbow butterflies

I used the rainbow papers (from Lawn Fawn) for the base background of my card.  I took the butterfly stencil from the kit and sponged in some Distress Oxide inks for the different butterflies in rainbow ink color!  I’ve used:  Picked Raspberry, Orange Marmalade, Squeezed Lemon, Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet and sponged them in with a sponge dauber.  Mounted it onto a strip of black cardstock and placed over the rainbow background.  I heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set included in the kit with white embossing powder and then used some foam tape to mount it over the card.  I finished off the card with some black enamel dots.

Simple and fun card to make!  Thanks so much for stopping in today!!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Addicted to Stamps & More! – Anything Goes
  2. Butterfly Challenge – Butterfly wheel on letter ‘O’:  butterfly, orange, over the edge (sentiment banner)
  3. Casual Friday (CFC204) – Rainbows & Butterflies
  4. Crafting From the Heart – Anything Goes
  5. Artistic Inspirations – Anything Goes