A Beautiful June Wedding!

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week! We got a tiny break from the hot weather, so I had to spend the last few days enjoying it and was happy to get away from being indoors! Now as the temps climb back up, it’s time to get busy and craft some more!😃

As promised, I’m catching up with my postings to share the wedding invites, thank you cards and special wedding card I made from my son’s June wedding. I made them a few months back, obviously, but I thought it would be nice to condense it altogether here in one posting.

The couple had asked for me to make their invites for them and of course it was a great honor to be able to do that for them. I was given a photo of an image and was educated about the “Tree of Life” to incorporate that into a design as well as a sample of some color shades. Making a total of 50, here’s what I came up with:

I was able to find some similar Stampin’ Up! colors that closely resembled the samples given and come up with Bermuda Bay and Mint Macaron for the design. I wanted both the ink and cardstock colors and worked it out from there.

For the base of the design, I’ve used the darker Bermuda Bay and on the front panel, I used a piece of Mint Macaron with a stenciled “tree of life” over top of it with Bermuda Bay ink. I actually found a fairly inexpensive stencil on Amazon and thought it looked very similar to the image I was given and thought it would be perfect for the front with a partial side off the edge. I never inked up 50 panels before, but this stencil certainly got a workout! I was thinking it needed a bit more to it than just the stenciling, but I didn’t want to do too much with having 50 to make! I took the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to impress a design around the edge, wrapped silver ribbon around the front with the knot and layered it over the front of the invite.

So being happy with that, the hardest task was to figure out the inside details….

I wanted to make the inside a portfolio style with a pocket containing the wedding details as well as the RSVP/envelope inside and then the actual “announcement” on the other side. As I was piecing it together, I thought a decorative flap with some vellum would be pretty over the announcement too.

I’ve used the Stampin’ Up! Basic Borders die set to die cut the pocket front as well as the vellum flap on the left side. I had to adhere two Bermuda Bay card panels together and cut out the areas I didn’t need. (I ended up using the left over pieces to punch out a circle layer. To add a bit more of a decorative detail, I cut strips of silver cardstock as well as silver heat emboss the “tree of life” circle stamp. (I was happy to also find this really inexpensive rubber stamp image for a couple of dollars to use for this too!) For the image on the pocket area, it was stamped with Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, layered with that left over Bermuda Bay circle punched pieces and popped up with foam squares over the silver strip. I was happy with how the portfolio design was working.

And now once you open up the vellum flap on the left side, you will see the announcement portion. The silver strips were strategically placed to cover up where all of the layers are glued/attached together, but still looks like it “belongs” there. The image that was given to me via digital photo was used at the “back drop” behind the wording. It was a very bright image that I altered on my computer and muted it down so that it was faded in the background, but yet still clearly visible on the design. I thought it worked out nicely and still coordinated with the stenciled area on the front.

Because this invite was so thick in nature, I didn’t want to add more layers of cardstock, so I used a thinner parchment style copy paper as everything was printed out from the computer anyway. The parchment made it feel a bit more professional I thought. I die cut ALL of the printed parchment pieces with a Lawn Fawn RETIRED Small Dotted Rectangle dies. (I thought the “small dots” went with the SU! edges I used on the flaps.) I placed the announcement over a piece of Mint Macaron and then layered it inside the card. I layered the RSVP card over a piece of Mint Macaron and the “wedding details” card was left on its own.

Finally, you can see that on the silver envelope flaps, I silver heat embossed the image. This was also done for the larger silver envelopes for the whole invite to fit in as well. I even used the “Tree of Life” computer generated image to create some address sticker labels for them and give them extras ones to use.

Of course, after the wedding, you need to send out the thank you cards, so I also made 50 of those….

I really didn’t want to event a new wheel with it, so I had plenty of cardstock colors and just repeated the same design on the front as I did with the invites except for this one, I used the Taylored Expressions On Occasion stamps. I stamped them out with the Bermuda Bay over the Mint Macaron cardstock, cut it out with the coordinating dies and popped it up with foam tape over the silver ribbon. Stenciling another 50 panels with this same stencil gave it another work out yet!

So, for the actual day of their wedding, this is the card I made FOR the couple. I was able to get a little more “intense” with this one as it was only ONE card!

I was so excited when I saw this stunning card kit come out from Taylored Expressions called “Modern Eucalyptus” (no longer available) and I thought it was the perfect colors to create something with for their wedding. The white panel was silver foiled and then I stenciled the colors of the wreath pieces, stenciled some silver paste, die cut them out and popped them up over the foiled wreath. I stamped the sentiment in the center, added some TE Tiny Diamonds to some areas and cut a strip of silver glitter cardstock to go across the bottom.

Around the edge of the panel, I used a free gift that I got with purchasing items and tried it out and on my panel without realizing that it cut the center. I went ahead and attached it down anyway as I liked the decorative look to it. I had a matching envelope and off we went to the wedding!!!!!

The couple was married in Hocking Hills (Ohio State Park area) and it was absolutely beautiful over there! The venue they used only had a certain capacity limit and so this is why there were only 50 invitations that went out. It was a very nice private wedding with everything done and organized for them. I do not have any professional photos of the wedding as of yet, but I had to rely on my husband for taking a few photos on his phone and then handing the phone to someone for photos as well…my dress didn’t allow me for handy phone carrying. LOL But here a just a few photos (not professional) of the wedding.

As being a first time “mom of the groom”, it is quite an experience and very emotional especially when my son picks out a song for our dance with a song I used to sing to him as a baby in my belly! We both had tears!! LOL It was such a joyous occasion and I’m thrilled to welcome our new family into our lives for years to come! May they always feel the joy and love together for ever after!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my wedding post today and have been inspired in some way to brighten your day. I thank you so much for taking the time to stop in and say hello! It means so much to me! See you soon!

Challenges:

Crafty Friends – Embossing Wet/Dry (heat embossed on invites)
Crafty Calendar – Add a ribbon (on invites and thank you)
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

Your Own Sparkle AJ Page

*This is a scheduled post as I’m away for my son’s wedding and don’t have access to Internet at this time*

Hello friends! Here we are towards the end of June already and in full Summer mode now! Time has went by so fast! I do hope you’re all doing well, staying safe and enjoying your time however you’re spending it.

The end of the month also brings the monthly AJ page collaboration with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), so please check out her blog for more inspiration too! We’re trying to get creative by using up our never-ending stash piles! So here’s my Art Journal inspiration with the “SMASH OUR STASH” June prompt of: “buttons/sequins/gems.“

So who doesn’t have oodles of sequins in their stash? (I probably had enough to cover the entire page, but left it strictly for the fish scales and “bubbles”.😄) I was inspired by the Art Journal Journey challenge prompt this month of “FISH” and with the stash prompt in mind, it had me thinking of a book I had gotten for the kids years ago, perhaps you’re familiar with “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister?

In the book, the fish’s scales were very shimmery, and it made me think to add the sequins to a fish, so I actually found a fun and free “coloring page” fish image to print out and color for my page! I used Copic markers to color that fish and the sequins are a glittery silver sequin that were topped with some silver Stickles as well as the “lines” on his fins. I also added some clear iridescent sequins for the “bubbles” above him.

For my background – Since the goal is to use my stash, I pulled out my set of gelatos that I’ve had for a few years to create my background. I found it fun to blend them and smudge them with my finger. I also used a piece of punchella trim for stenciling with them too. Of course, since they’re water soluble, I needed to cover it with some matte medium using a spatula rather than a brush. Once the matte medium dried, I added some printed vellum pieces ripped up over it and then used some white and silver paint for splatters and stamping an empty roll circle. I also went around the edges a bit with the silver paint for shimmer. For a little bit more texture, I took some Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) and heated up a few “piles” of the crystals and melted them…I haven’t used that in a long time either! I needed to be VERY careful with my heat gun because of the matte medium…it started to smoke a bit! 😮

For the background fish – I had a few extra cut out fish pieces from a previous project I made using the Taylored Expressions Hook, Line & Sinker Stamp & Stencil Combo with dies and adding them to the scene. I also added some sparkly fish that was die cut from the TE Little Bits-Fish dies. (I haven’t posted this project yet, but I will later on!) I took a micron pen to add a fishing line coming down from the top with a hook.

Here’s a closer view of the fish as well as some of the details in the background.

For the sentiment – it was printed out along with the fish and then I just ripped around it and then using the same ink colors as the background fish, I blended over this piece. I also used the same UTEE on it as the background. I took a white Big Brush marker to highlight the letters and underline. I also used it for highlights on the fish. I used different colors of the Big Brush markers to add some shading details around the fish.

All of the sequins and silver Stickles were added very last to the page.

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Fish (will have to link later when I get back!)

So Proud of You Commissioned Grad

Hello friends! Just popping in to share a commissioned graduation card that I made for someone a few weeks ago. I love making grad cards and was happy to help accommodate a personalized one for a special person in someone’s life.

She didn’t even realize that she told me her grandson’s name, and all she mentioned was the school colors to go by. So I decided to have fun with personalizing an infinity shaker this time:

Vicki-TEgradshaker-comm

For the background of this card: I’ve started with the Taylored Expressions Bokeh Stars Layering Stencils blended over a white 4″ x 5.25″ cardstock piece with coordinating colors assigned to me using a burgundy/silver school color scheme. I’ve decided for the inside shaker bits, to die cut a few sized stars with the burgundy (TE Mulled Wine) and some Brushed Silver from my stash. I also had some TE Sparkly Stars Bits & Pieces to add to them. I turned the stenciled panel into an “infinity shaker” by using a TE A2 Infinity Shaker Panel and attaching it to a A2 sized “Mulled Wine” side folding card base.

For the front of the clear shaker panel: I die cut a frame from the Brushed Silver cardstock with the TE A2 Thin Frame Cutting Plate that was also attached to a Mulled Wine die cut banner that I’ve silver heat embossed the “so proud of you” sentiment from the TE Mini Strips-Grad stamp set. I personalized the silver frame by die cutting the letters from the TE Cap It Off Alpha die set with the same Brushed Silver cardstock. I attached these letters before setting the frame in place and then just cutting the frame off where the letters meet up with it. Lastly, I thought of the Lawn Fawn Hats Off to You stamp set, stamped, colored it in to match up with the colors and added a bit of sparkle to the tassel with a silver gel pen and cut it out with the coordinating die. I popped it up with foam squares so that it is tilted over the “C” in the name.

The envelope was decorated with the year by die cutting the outline with the Mulled Wine cardstock from the TE Cap It Off Numbers die. I also used one of the Mulled Wine stars I previously cut for the shaker to place in the middle of the “0” as well.

Here’s the “action” of the infinity shaker…

I think I enjoyed seeing those stars move around from edge to edge on this one! LOL You can never have too many confetti stars shaking around to celebrate the grad, right?!⭐

And of course I made a greeting for the inside of the card stamped in the same Mulled Wine color along with a few stars stamped in there. I used another piece of the die cut frame in Brushed Silver cardstock to go around the stamped panel and attached to the inside of the card.

You can see on the front of the silver envelope in the corner, that I’ve added a couple more of those die cut stars to decorate it as well.

She seemed pretty pleased with the card and of course very proud of her grandson.👨‍🎓

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project too and thank you so much for stopping in! See you soon!

Challenges:

{Cupcake Inspirations} – Graduation
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes with optional “Celebrate”
Country View – Seeing Stars
Crafty Calendar – Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes

Massive Mass Producing!

Hello friends! I hope that you are having a great week so far! After the little “heat wave” hit us, I’ve been enjoying some ‘nicer’ outdoor temperatures, finally. As you may have read in a previous post, I had been working on my son’s wedding invites as well as some thank you cards for them to send out afterwards. I will be sharing that later on, but today I have some other “mass production” that I’ve been working on in addition to those:

First up, I’d like to share a set of cards I’ve made for the Taylored Expressions Fans FB Group challenge for May which calls for “4-8 mass-produced cards. (similar or identical)” & the colors “Poblano Pepper with Confetti Cake“. I do not own the Poblano Pepper, but I do have a small cube of Confetti Cake ink.

I’ve been wanting to create several sympathy cards so that I had them on hand instead of making at the last minute for one, so I was happy to get these made. I decided it was just easier to make them identical so that I didn’t have to decide how to arrange or cut my papers, etc. I’ve used the Taylored Expressions Diamond Botanicals with dies as well as the TE Diamonds Masking Stencils for the main image. The background uses the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock.

Here’s a close-up look at one of the cards. I stamped the floral image in black ink as well as the sentiment from the stamp set and then took one of the Diamonds masking stencils with some Confetti Cake Ink to softly blend around the edges of the sentiment area with it. I also used a blender brush to blend around the edges of the cut Toffee layer too.

Since I only had the Confetti Cake ink color, I matched up the coordinating colors with my Copic markers and colored in the image using only those color tones. I think it worked out great for sympathy cards. After I colored up the images, I used the coordinating die cut and popped it up over the Toffee cut panels with foam tape squares and then layered it over a side folding white A2 card base. I finished each one with some of those coordinating TE Pastel Tiny Diamonds. (Although the suggested listed coordinating colors on the website don’t have the Poblano Pepper or Confetti Cake, I thought it matched up rather nicely to this anyway.) I think these cards work out great for mailing too.

And speaking of sympathy cards and Taylored Expressions, I thought it would be great to create a nice gift set too:

If you remember one of my previous posts, you may remember where I created a greeting card gift set (CLICK HERE). I’ve went along with the same idea here and made them all sympathy related cards using my own acetate box and some Taylored Expressions products. These were all quick and easy to pull together using the Taylored Expressions Done for You Alcohol Ink Background Panels along with a previously released card kit stamp set/die.

I decided to heat emboss several of the fern images with white, gold and silver over a few of the panels, some over white and vellum and then cut out. I placed them along with the heat embossed sentiments cut out and arranged them over the panels. I matched up the cardstock that I had from my stash with the panels to create the completed cards.

Here’s a gallery of a few of the cards up close along with the finished gift box tied with a ribbon: (Just click on each photo from my website to see them enlarged.)

I think this will make a nice gift for someone as I always hear people saying they never have a sympathy card on hand when they need one or for those people that don’t make their own cards too.

And lastly, I’ve made a couple sets of mini slimline style cards using the Taylored Expressions In the Garden-Triple Slim Layering Stencil:

I quickly fell in love with this quad type of stencils especially with these gorgeous florals! I love the way these floral panels are different from one another, and you can stencil them all up with the same color in one pass! I needed a couple of Mother’s Day cards, so making all of these at once sure came in handy for bonuses too!

Using the “craft-along” video from Taylor and Heather, I used the same, or similar colors that was used, added my black splatters and then used the TE On Occasion with dies as well as the TE Get the Word Out-Mother’s Day with dies for the sentiments where I white heat embossed over black cardstock and cut out. I just glued to the panels and attached each panel to a white mini slimline card base.

And then here’s another set of mini slimline cards using the same products as above except I used Toffee instead of the white cardstock for these. I also stamped the sentiment with dark brown ink over white cardstock and then cut them out to place over the stenciled panels.

I also used both dark brown and white paint to make the splatters over these. I also used the TE mini slimline stitched and scallop die cuts for these cards and then layered them over top of a Toffee mini slimline card base. I’ve also added a few TE white rhinestones for a bit of sparkle too.

I also think that these would make great greeting card gift sets as well! So, then it’s just a matter of which ones to keep and which ones to give away as a gift!?🤔

Hope you’ve enjoyed my mass production post today or have been inspired in some way. Thank you so much for taking the time to drop in and say hi as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

Creative Friday – No patterned paper (top set of cards only)
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with coloring (top set of cards only)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly – Floral Frenzy
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations – Anything Goes optional: Flowers/Fauna

Challenge Up Your Life with a RAINBOW!🌈

Hello friends! I don’t know about you, but I’m so happy to see the month of May starting! That means the flowers will be coming out along with the warmer weather! It’s also a great time of the year to see a rainbow perhaps?!

#147_regenbogen_CUYL

Today I’m super excited to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer! I had previously won a Top 3 and a future guest design spot from a past challenge I had entered, so I’ll be joining them as a guest for April, May and June challenges! Today their new monthly challenge for May is “RAINBOW“. Hope you can share your lovely creations with us this month! (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

Here’s my guest design creation for this month’s challenge:

Nothing better than to look up into the sky and see a rainbow! What’s also fun is to be able to create your own and especially on a card to send to someone to brighten their day! I’ve used a previous card kit from Taylored Expressions that contained these products: Make a Rainbow Stencils, Over the Rainbow clear stamp set, Rainbow Cloud Duo dies, and Over the Rainbow Sentiments clear stamp set to create this card. I ink blended the different colors through the rainbow stencil and stamped the orange dots over the rainbow as well as a few hearts in light blue ink. The sentiment was also stamped with black ink over top of the rainbow. I then die cut the one cloud twice from white cardstock and ink blended some light blue around the edges of it and popped it up with foam tape at the ends of the rainbow.

Then the card front panel was run through the die machine using the Taylored Expressions Diagonal Stitch Rectangle dies (Which actually doesn’t cut anything out but creates the lines.) I layered it onto a piece of black to make the rainbow pop a bit more and then attached it to an A2 sized top folding TE Pineapple card base. I also topped it off with a couple of TE Bits & Pieces-Full of Heart sequins.

I knew the minute I went to create for this challenge that my zippered pouch from Taylored Expressions that has the “A Rainbow of Possibilities” sticker over it was what I was going to grab! All of my rainbow things are in it! Makes it easy to grab when you know everything is in there!

I hope you’ll stop over at the challenge blog and join with us to share your rainbow too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card or been inspired! Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’ – Rainbows & Rainy Days
Arty Divas – Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes
Krafty Chicks – All Occasions (encouragement)
Creative Fingers – Anything Goes

ATCs, Greeting Card Gift Set, Pet Sympathy and Class Results too!

Hello friends! It seems that I have went MIA on you, but I promise I’m still here! I’ve been really busy “Behind the Scenes” as they say and have many things going on at once that I’m trying to juggle, but I do have TONS of things to share that I’ve been doing and hope you enjoy seeing them! (LOTS of photos!)

First up I have a couple of fun Summer themed ATC sized cards using some Inky Stamper sets called “Splash” and “Chaise Lounge“. (Still not wanting to warm up much for Spring…so I’m wishing for HOT summer now!😁) I made them for this month’s theme of “ATC sized or mini cards” challenge in their FB group. I started out with a sunray stencil and used some yellow glaze paste and once dried I added some watercolor over it which was resisted by the glaze which gave me this look for the background. I splattered it and then added some strips of blue dotted paper cut from a wave border and then I ripped a piece of gold at the bottom. I cut cut with a scallop die and layered over a black 2.5″x3.5″ piece of black cardstock folded in half and went around the edges with a gold ink pad.

I white heat embossed the sentiments from each stamp set and then cut portions of them out with my scissors to attach over the backgrounds. The images were colored with Copics, fussy cut out and popped up with foam tape over top.

Next, I wanted to share a “Greeting Card Gift Set” that I have made and gave as a gift for someone. I used this wonderful product idea from Taylored Expressions called “Stamp & Give Card Kit 1” and it’s something that I had wanted to put together for a very long time on my own, but this product came along recently which pushed me into gear with no excuse of gathering things together on my own as this was already together for me. All I had to do was do the stamping and stenciling. I coordinated the colors with what was in the set. I like the fact that the recipient of this give set can choose which greeting they want to use for each card and the package of greetings are ready with a foam strip on the back of each one. For my designs, I’ve used the TE “Floral Flurry” Background stamp and stencils which I received from the “Stamp Joy Virtual Event” that I had attended. (not in store as it was exclusive for the event…photos at the bottom of post for that!) I’ve added 3 gems randomly to the fronts of each card.

With the kit, it comes with all of the envelopes, card bases, glassine bag to hold all of the sentiment strips, the card fronts and even the acetate box to put them all in. I just added some ribbon once I put all the cards inside. I certainly plan on doing some more of these greeting card gift sets soon! I think it’s always nice to have a set of themed cards all together and ready to go when you need to grab one quickly!

Unfortunately, next up I needed a pet sympathy card and I thought you could never go wrong with paw prints and hearts. I’ve kept this simple and pulled out some favorite Whimsy Stamps “Fill My Heart” and “Furever In Our Hearts” stamp sets for the paw prints and the sentiment. I’ve also used the My Favorite Things “Paw Prints Die-Namics” to die cut a couple of paw prints over the heart that I’ve punched out from red cardstock along with some smaller hearts above it.

I’ve used a glitter brush pen to make the hearts sparkly looking. This was all done over a kraft colored card front that was cut with a double-stitched rectangle die and placed over an A2 sized white card base.

I really need to get a set of pet sympathy going so that I already have them on hand as needed because it seems like I’ve sent many out and don’t have anymore…and I need another one already. I actually need to make sure I have several sympathy cards in general on hand, so I know I’ll be replenishing that soon too.

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And lastly, I thought you might want to see all of the projects that I made during my classes and make-n-takes that I’ve done during the Taylored Expressions “Stamp Joy Spring Virtual Event” from last month…gosh, It’s been that long already and I’m just now posting them!🙄

The first four cards were from the classes on the first day (using the same product/style line), and the others are from the second day with all of the Make-n-Takes. If you’re visiting directly on my website, just click on each photo below and it will enlarge so you can see it better along with the typed details about it!

This is the first card in the TE Stamp Joy class series using the “Floral Flurry” products that I also used in the greeting card gift set above in the post. We used some markers on this for details and did some foiling. This is a “special” card….see next photo for the inside.

I’m really far behind in catching up with whatever the challenges currently are as well as seeing what’s going on with my fellow blogging friends, so I will get going as soon as I can!

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll see you soon!😘

Challenge Up Your Life With Splatters

Hello friends and happy April 1st! We’re moving right along into Spring now and it seems that I’m still waiting for the warmer temperatures to come rolling in any time now. Hope that you’re enjoying the season wherever you are.

Today I’m super excited to be joining the “Challenge Up Your Life” challenge blog as a guest designer! I had previously won a Top 3 and a future guest design spot from a past challenge I had entered. So today their new challenge for April is “SPLATTERS“. Hope you can share your splattering makes with us this month! (Check out the challenge blog for details and inspiration!)

#146_Kleckse_CUYL

Here’s the card that I’ve created for this month’s challenge:

I haven’t used my alcohol inks in a while, and I just got some new Black Alcohol ink cardstock to try out. I started by dropping some alcohol ink “mixatives” and added a few other metallic and non-metallic alcohol inks over it. It seemed that the Pearl “mixative” was a good base to layer other colors over top of it. I pushed the colors around a bit with an air blower where I wanted but left some black area in places too. I then took a brush and loaded it with some silver metallic alcohol ink and splattered over the panel. I thought the black made for a really easy galaxy style background with great results.

Once I was finished with the look, I also took some silver foil that picks up places over the “wet looking” areas of the alcohol inks. This is such a shiny and shimmer look!

The stamp I chose to use for the card comes from the Taylored Expressions Gus & Gertie-Best Buds stamp set and dies. I stamped and colored the image on white cardstock, then cut it out with the coordinating die. The die also cuts the stars next to the image, but I just cut this die out again in silver mirror cardstock for just placing the stars where I wanted them on my card. I also took a strip of regular black cardstock and silver heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and layered it over more silver mirror cardstock.

The alcohol ink panel as layered over the silver mirror cardstock and attached to an A2 sized top folding black card base. And before popping up the colored image with foam tape, I splattered some yellow over the moon and then once dry I covered it with a glitter brush pen. It’s so hard to capture it all in a photo, but hopefully you can see some of the details if I point it out.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today with the “splatters” theme and come join in the challenge with us this month!

Thanks so much for stopping in and enjoy your day!

Challenges:

Krafty Chicks – Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts – Anything Goes
Fab ‘N’ Funky – masculine
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything Goes using paper
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Hopping By For an Easter Hi

Hello friends! I don’t make too many Easter cards, but I sure do love those cute bunnies, the Spring theme and of course who doesn’t love a good chocolate candy or two?! I’ve been seeing some bunnies hopping around my yard lately and so they’ve inspired me! Since the month of March is starting to run away from me, I wanted to participate in a few challenges going on.

This cute little bunny waving out his hand to say “hello” is Bunny from Inky Stamper! He comes with the bow tie I have colored and popped up with foam tape. He also comes with the sentiment as well as the smaller egg hiding among the grass. Such a CUTE stamp set not just for Easter, but other occasions too!

For the Inky Stamper Inkspiration FB Group, the challenge for the month of March is “stitching” and it can be any sort of stitching. I’ve pulled out some Doodlebug Swiss Dot papers along with a special Doodlebug Cute & Crafty paper pad (used for the large egg) to create my scene.

I’ve used lots of fun stitched style dies to help me out including the stitched hexagon die from the Inky Stamper Mini Envie Die set you see at the top to create a border. I’ve also used the Taylored Expressions Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over my stitched oval piece. (You will see this same cutting plate in the card below too.) I’ve also used some stitched cloud dies from Lawn Fawn. I’ve also used a grass border die for the bunny to stand on too.

Once I’ve die cut and placed all of my images and die cut pieces together on my card front, I took a black marker and a white gel pen to create stitch lines for the challenge theme as well. I even added stitch marks to the small egg and the bunny’s bow tie. The sentiment was white heat embossed over a black strip and attached to the large oval “egg” and I’ve added some glossy accents to the bunny’s eyes. I think he turned out pretty cute!

This card was made for the #TEMaker challenge in the Taylored Expressions FB Fan Group. The challenge for March is using the colors Lavender Glaze & Potato Chip and/or Easter Parade (Easter/Spring theme). There are SO MANY cute Easter products, but I was trying to use some things that I haven’t pulled out yet.

As in the card above, I’ve used the TE Stitched With Love Cutting Plate over a piece of Toffee cardstock. I used a double stitched circle die to cut it out along with another piece of white cardstock to layer behind the Toffee.

The center of the circle was made by taking the Lavender Glaze and Potato Chip cardstock and using the Easy Strips 1/4″ die and layering them over a double adhesive sheet. Once I’ve cut it down to size, I attached it over the white A2 top folding card base and stamped the Full Circle -Easter stamp in Toffee ink. I took a white pencil to color in portions of the images within it.

I then used foam tape to pop up the toffee layer over top centering the circle image through it. I white heat embossed the sentiment from the stamp set and die cut from a banner die in my stash and popped it up over the center of the circle image. I also die cut a Lavender Glaze frame from the TE A2 Think Frame Cutting Plate and attached to the card along with a little white bunny from the TE Little Bits-Oh Hoppy Day die set. I sponged some brown ink around the edges and glued a white pom pom for his tail and attached him right above the frame on the right bottom of the card.

It looks like he’s getting ready to hop into the hole to join his other Spring friends.

Well, I HOP you’ve enjoyed my Easter cards today, or at least gotten a smile or been inspired in some way! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in as I enjoy hearing from you!

Challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz – Equinox Seasonal Change-Spring
CRAFT – Anything Goes
Colour Crazy Craft – Anything Goes with Colored image (top card)
Crafty Catz – Anything Goes Optional Easter
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – Anything Goes
A Bit More Time To Craft – Anything Goes

You Are Not Alone Ukraine

Hello friends! Welcome to the weekend and hoping it’s a good one for you.

So as I’m sure you’ve been seeing lots of card makers pulling together in making some beautiful inspiration with the Ukraine flag colors and Sunflowers in support. I’m seeing where there is some sort of card auction going on over at Instagram too, but I’m not on there to see anything. It has moved and inspired me, so I would still like to help support in some way as a card maker to share some inspiration and hope for peace in the world too.

So my first thought was to turn to one of my favorite sunflower stamps which comes from the Taylored Expressions Wheatfield Dreams and I thought they would be appropriate for me to pull out some of my Karin Brush markers to watercolor. I’ve also used the coordinating die for the set to die cut the flowers.

For the background, I’ve used some watercolor paper and some Ranger Blue Ribbon Oxide ink for the background by smooshing the ink pad onto my glass mat, spritzing with water and smooshing it over again with layers of water, smooshing, drying, spritzing, etc. I also used the Taylored Expressions Heart to Heart stencil with the same ink and foam tool to go over top of it.

I prepped the background with an anti-static tool and white heat embossed the sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Beautiful Soul stamp set. I cut down the sides of the watercolor paper and added some strips of yellow cardstock to the edges and attached it over an A2 sized top folding white card base.

I then glued down the die cut sunflowers except for the one in front where I used some foam tape to pop it up.

I took a white gel pen and added a few light dots in the center of each flower for some highlights and then took a glitter brush pen for some shimmer to the petals, but it’s so hard to see in the photo. I decided to water down some white paint to add a few splatters.

Lastly, I’ve taken some heart shaped clear dew drops and attached a few to the background.

I’m pleased with how the card turned out and hope you’ve been inspired in some way too. Thanks for stopping in and sharing your wonderful inspiration and lovely thoughts my friends. Take care of yourself and one another.

Challenges:

1. Festive Friday – ###0104 Choose 3 from list: I chose Flowers/Plants, Encouragement & Stencils Festive-Friday-0104challenge-card

2. Freshly Made Sketches – FMS525 FMS Final 525-001

3. Happy Little Stampers Watercolor – March Anything Goes Watercolor

An Electric Connection and Happy Mail Love For Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! Today is the day all about hearts and love! Although I’ve already sent out my Valentine cards, I have a couple of lovely individuals who take a peek at my blog from time to time…so I have to wait until they’ve received their cards before I share them here!😉 It’s somewhat hard to “hide” my crafting since hubby’s now retired! LOL So here’s the cards I made:

I just KNEW the minute I saw this Taylored Expressions Love Lights Stamps & Stencil Combo set that it was something perfect for making cards for my retired electrician hubby! This set also coordinates with other products and so I started by foiling the TE Foil It-Love Lights panel and then ink blending with the stencil set. I had to use blue as this is hubby’s favorite color. So, I’ve used the TE Sprinkles and Potato Chip inks. The cardstock is TE Sprinkles. (I used softer tones for the Valentine feel.) I also used the coordinating TE Mini Strips-Watt’s Up sentiment set that was silver heat embossed over the TE Sprinkles cardstock and cut out with the TE Mini Strips-Asymmetrical Die. I just love the punny sentiments that go with this set!

The tiny light bulb for the accent I used actually came from a TE ‘freebie’ with one of my orders, so I die cut the light bulb with white glitter cardstock and lightly sponged some yellow ink in the center. I die cut the center and bottom of the bulb with silver brushed cardstock and glued it onto the light bulb. I die cut a circle from some vellum and also sponged this with yellow ink and glued the light bulb on top of it and attached it to the side of the card nestled with the sentiment strips that were popped up with foam tape. He will have gotten this one this morning.

And here’s another card that I sent to someone very special! It’s a simple card, but wow it was so much fun to create with using the Simon Says Stamp Limited Edition Happy Mail Love card kit! (Looks like it’s still available at the time I’m writing up this post, but not sure how long it will stay available.) I so love those CUTE Doodlebug products and there are so many of them including the stamp set that goes together in this kit! I wanted to play some more with it, but I have so many other things to focus on, so I’ll have to come back to it later! LOL

I’ve used the Doodlebug background papers from the kit and cut it out with a Lawn Fawn Cross-Stitch die and also cut a strip of ‘grass’ with green cardstock at the bottom using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die. The heart papers were attached over a red piece of cardstock from the kit and layered onto a top folding A2 white card base. The grass border was attached over the red cardstock and heart background papers. This gave me the room to take the CUTE Doodlebug LOTS OF LOVE Odds and Ends Ephemera die cut shapes to create my scene with! This pack came in the kit and there are SO many pieces! I’m sure you could go on and on making cards! The bird and bunny die cuts were popped up with foam tape. It’s hard to see in the photo, but I’ve taken my glitter brush pen to all of the hearts on the images and the cheeks on the cloud.

I think these cards did what was intended which was to create smiles during this cold winter season! I sure hope that it has done the same for you as well! 😉 Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day with all of my heart! ❤ Thanks for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges: