Hello friends and happy Friday! Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead as we head into Valentine’s Day on Monday! With this holiday, I’m always reminded by the sweet treats and memories of my children passing out their Valentines, making special boxes to hold them in and classroom parties with lots of goodies! I thought it would be fun to incorporate those thoughts into a fun birthday set and a small treat with NO ‘REAL’ SUGAR ADDED!
I can never turn down a good donut, how about you? I had so much fun creating this set with the Taylored Expressions Donut Days Cling & Clear Combo and decorating them! This was created with the February #TEMakerChallenge color combo and theme in mind when putting the set together. I’ve used both the TE Spearmint & Peaches ‘N Cream ink and cardstock for these. I’ve added some Chocolate Truffle, Toffee and White EP as well.
To create the “donut box” on the card, I’ve stamped the TE Argyle stamp only without using the stencils and then I’ve cut it out with the TE Box Top Stacklets die to give the frame look for the donuts to be placed in! (Note the small treat container was decorated on the front with the left-over middle piece from the frame…so save everything!) I then took the stamped frame and ran the TE Pierced Lattice Cutting Plate over it for an added design. To assemble the box of donuts, I took a piece of tissue paper, crumpled it up and glued the decorated donuts together over it. The back of the frame with foam tape was then centered over the donuts so it was popped up. I ripped the excess tissue paper and attached the card together. I used some of the TE Peaches ‘N Cream cardstock and white heat embossed the TE Mini Strips Donut Worry and cut them out with the TE Mini Strips die.
FOR THE TREAT HOLDER –
I found this really fun video tutorial for a Hand Sanitizer PocketBac box container using my envelope punch board. (CLICK NAME FOR THE TUTORIAL!) I always love finding new ways to use a tool I have especially in a totally different way than what it was intended for! I didn’t wrap decorative paper around mine like she did, but like I mentioned above, I saved the center of the cut-out frame and cut it down to size to decorate the front. I took one of the sentiments and donuts left over from the card, wrapped some twine around it and tied it so the bow is centered inside the donut hole.
I do love me a good pun…so please feel free to pun away my friends!!😅 Maybe you can come up with a “hole in one”!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my birthday sweet treats today and thanks so much for stopping in!
Hello friends! It’s getting closer towards the end of the month and so it has motivated me to get going on some challenges that are about to end soon. So I’ve grabbed my supplies and had a fun play…
Tee hee!😁 This one makes me chuckle and I think it would be so fun to send to a special friend for Valentine’s Day or even at any time of the year! Most all of the products I’ve used for this come from Taylored Expressions. Along with many people, I do enjoy those “snarky” products they sell!
To start, I’ve based my card on a sketch for a challenge that’s about to end and worked with the Taylored Expressions Easy Strips 1/4″ and Easy Strips 1/8″ dies for the bottom right side of the card using the colors Blue Raspberry & Dijon cardstock. The colors are part of the TE Maker Challenge for January as well which is about to end too which is why this was my choice for this card. I cut the panel in half diagonal based on the sketch and used a white cardstock for the top right area and blended some TE Blue Raspberry ink with the TE Superstar Rotating Stencil. Layered these onto some Dijon cardstock which was layered onto the white top folding A2 card base.
For the image panel, I stamped the “TE Grouchy Grumplings” (Sorry, it’s been retired it looks like! LOVE that snaggle tooth! 😆) and the TE Shenanigans sentiment on the same panel layered over a piece of Blue Raspberry cardstock that was popped up with foam tape. The image was colored with Copic markers. I also stamped the TE Simple Strips-Snarky with black ink over a piece of Dijon cardstock that I cut out with the TE Simple Strips-Asymmetrical die and attached at the top right corner of the card.
To finish off the card, I die cut the stars from the TE Gathered Stars die from Dijon cardstock, glued over the card and then covered with a glitter brush pen. I also added some TE Tiny Diamonds over the stars to match the Blue Raspberry color of the cardstock. For the image panel, I used a black pen to doodle around the edges and then covered the heart with glossy accents.
Hope you’ve gotten some chuckles or inspiration from my card today! Thanks for dropping by! I’ll see you soon!
Hello friends! How are you dealing with the 2022 year so far? I hope that you have a fantastic start and look forward to a brilliant and crafty future ahead of you! Speaking of starting a New Year, I realized that I needed to start my crafty calendars…which really should’ve been started sooner!🙄 I actually enjoy putting them together, especially the coloring as it’s very relaxing for me.
I’ve had this set of calendar cards along with this stand since this last Spring from Taylored Expressions and of course I’ve waited until recently to get them finished up! I’m glad I did though as I think these will be so fun to look at and chuckle to change out each month:
Tee hee! What got me interested in Taylored Expressions from the start were these adorable and funny Grumpy characters that she has in one of her product lines! (You may have seen a “Grumpy” calendar I’ve made in the past on THIS POST.) She has LOTS of different types of calendars and accessories to choose from, but this is a set that had come out this past year. I thought this would be a fun way to help motivate me this year for creative inspiration!😁
I’ve taken a white piece of cardstock cut to size my calendar stand that would accommodate the tear-off calendar pad and hold the “snarky cards” in place with the gold clip. I’ve used some TE inks and blender brushes to blend over top of the white piece. I then used the TE Striped Squares stencil to go over it using the same colors and then mounted this piece over a black cardstock layer. (This piece and the changeable cards are held to the stand with the gold clip.)
Here are all of the completed cards in the set that I can change out each month or whenever I want. I’ve used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Snarky for my own personal calendar that I’ve colored up with Copic markers. The frames were colored with coordinating colors that matched up with the rainbow stenciled background for my calendar front. Really enjoyed coloring and giggling while making this set!
I also wanted to show you the back side of this TE Walnut Wood Clipboard Stand so that you can see how I store all of the extra cards on my calendar when I need to change one out. You can choose to add a package of the TE Calendar Storage Sleeves with the stand if you get one, but I thought this whole system was a nice and sturdy option of creating a calendar that you can personalize for yourself or for a gift. I ended up creating a calendar last year for Mother’s Day and gave it as a gift. I used the TE Clipboard Calendar Cards-Sweet for that one and did some foiling on them. (Just don’t forget to purchase the next year’s tear-off calendars to replenish the recipient for next year!)
And I also wanted another calendar for my computer area which also brings a smile to me each month! I bought a calendar set last year from Inky Stamper and really enjoyed flipping the cute characters each month as the year went on. Happily, she came out with another new calendar set for this year and I happily purchased it BEFORE it ran out! (So sadly, it sold out quickly!)
With these calendar kits, the stand, the monthly calendar cards as well as all of the pattern paper strips, stamped and die cut characters and sentiment strips ALL come with this kit! I think it’s a pretty good bargain for all that was included with it. Of course, you have to color and put together each card…but THAT’S what the fun is about!
And here’s a look at the entire set of calendar cards that I colored and put together. There were instructions for each card along with the Copic markers used in the examples. For some of the cards, I already owned the stamp set, so I added a few extra details to some of them and I also added a few of my Inky Stamper Gems and Sequins mixes to some of them. Square dots and a strip of gold enamel dots were also included to decorate with.
So, I had an awesome time putting this one together as well! I look forward to seeing every single month throughout the entire year!
Since I had a couple of left over Taylored Expressions 2022 Tear-Off calendars, I thought it would be fun to just create a “calendar card stand” for crafters and give them out to whoever wants one!
EDITED UPDATE: All of the calendars have been claimed! Sorry if you’re looking to get one as I have no more left. Hope everyone enjoys their calendar all crafty year!
So, I had 5 of these calendars left over and I knew I wasn’t going to use them, but of course I didn’t want to just throw them out either! So, I took the TE Big Grumpy Bear and the TE Big Grumpy Cat sets to help motivate a fellow craft friend throughout the year! TEE HEE! I’ve made a rainbow-colored background for these by taking the TE Art From the Heart background stamp and stamping it with black over a white piece of cardstock. I used some TE ink and blender brushes to blend in the rainbow colors. I stamped an extra background image to color in some of the images and fussy cut them out for accents.
I attached the “Grumpies” over the background and layered the calendar with a black layered piece behind it to go over top of the “Grumpies” with their “feet” underneath so you can see them. I then added the fussy cut out images that I colored in a corner of each one.
I made a “stand” for this by creating a valley fold piece to attach in between the top folding A2 black card base. This will make for a permanent stand to display your calendar through the year! (And hopefully motivate someone’s crafty process throughout the year) I receive so much inspiration from many of you crafty friends, so it would be nice if I could possibly reciprocate that in some way!
Check out each one of these calendars I’ve made below in detail! Just click on the photos to enlarge them if you’re on my website:
Grumpy Bear with glue bottleGrumpy Bear with markerGrumpy Bear with stampGray Cat with ink padOrange Cat with scissors
So now that we’ve got the year started and in place, let’s hope for a really creative and productive one ahead!
I have some more craft projects that I’ve been working on as well as a really BIG craft project that I’m taking on for the love and excitement of it all! I look forward to sharing with you soon!
Thanks for stopping in and I wish you a happy, healthy and productive rest of your week!
Challenges:
Sweet Stampin’ – NEW (stamped New Year calendars with new products!)
Hey there friends! Wow, so my last post was Thanksgiving and I pretty much missed the entire month of December it seems like, right?! It has been a very crazy month with lots of different things (including personal) going on so pardon me for going MIA!
I HAVE been working on some projects here and there and I would be happy to share those, but for right now, let’s focus on the Christmas projects that I’ve been working on getting ready for the up-coming Holiday next week!
I have already sent out my Christmas cards, thank goodness, as I wasn’t even sure that was going to happen either! I was very impressed with the new Taylored Expressions Create-in-Quads Mistletoe Layering Stencil and how quickly I was able to knock out 4 card panels at a time, which was a huge time saver to get my Christmas cards finished up! There is actually a set of 4 designs here (like shown below), but I was in the middle of addressing the cards and forgot to photograph some before shoving into envelopes! LOL This set was using the white cardstock with the green and red colors which turned out very pretty. I also used the red glitter paste for the highlights on the berries.
And here is the other set of four cards that I made using the Toffee colored cardstock with green and white inks for the stenciling. I’ve also splattered these with brown and white paint. The sentiments were white heat embossed over some TE Chocolate Truffle cardstock and cut out with some MFT dies. Before attaching to the pre-made white A2 card bases, I also wrapped some twine around some of the panels or added a bow with it. (I love the homespun look of the white mistletoe!)
These all turned out great because they were pretty much flat and fairly easy to mail off. I think I was short just a few which is where I’m glad that I still have a few extra cards that I had made throughout this year and I have previously given out some “extra special” Christmas cards earlier in the year as well. I think you may have already seen them from a previous post…I will have to take a look and see under my “Christmas” section!
If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift/tag, these wood slice things are so quick easy and fun to create! I’ve had a huge box of these wood slices for a long time, so I pulled one out to make a project for the Inky Stamper December challenge on FB. I had hubby drill out a hole for me at the top before decorating so as I knew where to put everything.
I’ve used the Inky Stamper Christmas Bauble stamp set for the stamping on the wood and colored in with pencils and gamsol. I’ve added details with a glitter brush pen on the ornament and added some snowflakes with Nuvo White Crystal Drops. I had to mask the frog to stamp the Santa hat on him. I’ve used some silver twine for the hanging portion and then I glued a silver bow with some silver ribbon from my stash under the hole.
And lastly, I’ve also been working on some commissioned cards as well! Last year, I had a request from someone to create a special Christmas card for his cleaning lady. I had him pick out an image and asked about the colors…you may remember it as I had posted it last year.
a few months back, someone had asked me to re-create the same design for them with pretty much the exact design with the exception of the sentiment which I changed out for this person. This one went to another country and I was concerned about the shipping costs, but it was not a problem. The package had taken an unexpected journey because of the crazy mailing system going on at this time, but it arrived eventually and was in “perfect condition” as reported to me, so I was so thrilled with that and they seemed very pleased with it.
With the square size of the design (5″ x 5″), I’ve handmade the envelope for this one as well. I found the exact papers used in the designs for these cards, but I don’t think I have any more left after completing this one.
Here’s how I’ve decorated the inside of the card and left blank as requested for their own personal use.
So now, I just want to take this time to say THANKS SO MUCH for hanging in there and stopping in today! I don’t have too much time on my hands right now as I’m getting ready to make some Christmas treats and the Holidays will soon be over. I hope you are all doing well and I wish each and every one of you a very safe, happy and healthy Holiday Season!
Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great week! I’m stopping in today as a guest design spot winner to share a fun new challenge today over at the Let’s Squash It! Challenge Blog!
I’ve just recently discovered this challenge blog a few months ago and thought it was fantastic because I have so many embossing folders and I know I only use them a fraction of the time creating cards. I thought that this would give me some inspiration to use them and learn fun new techniques with them to stretch out the use as well! I had won on a previous challenge so was asked to be a guest designer for them in this month’s challenge! How exciting!
So, for the challenge this month, they ask that you “use some stenciling over your cards and then use an embossing folder over it“. So, this had me thinking and I don’t really recall doing this before! So of course, you start pulling out tons of stencils and then grabbing the embossing folders to see what looks you might achieve with the idea and here’s what I thought of…
I love how it turned out! I’m so thrilled that the card is pretty much flat first of all. It has only the card front layer attached to the card base and then the sentiment strip. Great for mailing a Christmas card!
I took the Taylored Expressions Rectangle Masking Stencils and then also added a Snowflake Masking Stencil (unknown from my stash) so that I could line it up properly over the rectangle area. I started by ink blending with TE inks in a rainbow color pattern in a diagonal direction. BEFORE removing the stencil, I sprayed it with some Shimmer Spray. I lifted off the snowflake mask being careful to leave the remaining rectangle stencil in place and then I took the “negative” snowflake from the stencil to cover it up. I then used some blue tones of TE ink over the rectangle stencil in a straight across direction with the rainbow snowflake being covered up. Once I was happy with the ink blending, I removed all stencils.
Lastly, I took the entire stenciled panel and ran my Sizzix Winter Snowflakes Textured embossing folder over top of it. That added bit of an embossing folder really stepped it up! I also rubbed over top of the impressions with a white ink pad on the colored sections to make it pop a bit more.
I white heat embossed the sentiment from Taylored Expressions Mini Strips Holiday and die cut it out with the TE Mini Strips Asymmetrical Die over a TE Blue Corn cardstock piece which was what the card base is cut from too. Popped up the strip with foam tape and finished with some silver sequins.
So, I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and that you’ll pop on over at the “Let’s Squash It!” Challenge Blog to check out the challenge this month and play along with us too! Looking forward to seeing what everyone’s comes up with for this one! Thanks for stopping by today and I’ll see you soon!
Happy Friday friends! We’re now upon Halloween weekend!🎃 Are you ready?! Lots of candy on hand to give out and some to enjoy for yourself…check. Scary movies at the ready…check. Ready for lots of fun before the weekend ends!
Not really sure exactly where my love for Halloween comes from, but I love it so much that even my wedding anniversary comes real close too! So today is our 22nd year anniversary and I couldn’t have made it in this crazy life without my “Boo”! I’ve made a card to let him know how I feel:
And yes, this is probably something we would certainly be doing under that moon as we’ve done before including watching bats fly around in the sky! We do weird and wonderful things which is just ONE of the gazillion reasons why I love him so! I’ve made a card with a bit of a “love/Halloween” theme. I’m not sure I’ve ever really made a Halloween style card for him before, but I know this will make total sense for him and he’ll get a kick out it.
Started with the background using some Oxide ink blending keeping careful with leaving the “moon” area clean. I sprayed water over top of the purplish/black background for that texture and then took a Taylored Expressions heart stencil over the background and introduced another color of oxide ink. I ink blended the edges and bottom with black. I have a Tim Holtz “Moon Mask” to create the moon with…which makes it super easy! I stamped the fence at the bottom right and the bats with black ink. The couple on the bench (TE “Love Story” die) was die cut from black cardstock and glued in the center of the large heart. Lastly, I white heat embossed the sentiment over another piece of black cardstock and cut it out with a sentiment banner attached to the top left edge.
It’s really a simple card, but I loved creating the background with a “spooky love” feel that I know he’ll like too!
And since we’re going “all batty” here, I thought I’d share my creation that I’ve made for this months’ Inky Stamper challenge using a recycled item! I thought this might be a good opportunity to create a fun treat! I took an empty paper towel holder to cut a 2″ tall container with a handle and covered it with some Doodlebug papers. I layered some trim and ribbon around it and added a punched-out circle for the bottom.
I’ve used the Inky Stamper Bat stamp set for the bat that I’ve stamped, colored and die cut for the front of my treat holder. I’ve cut out a stamped sentiment banner to tie onto the handle. Really easy and fun to create! You could get about 5 containers per empty roll which I thought was a lot!
I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my “BATTY” makes today and I wish you a very frightfully FUN weekend!
Hello friends! I’m so excited to share the “Handmade for the Holidays” release at Taylored Expressions today! You can go check out all the things right now in the store! I’m extra excited that I get to be a part of this special release with them as a guest designer too! (This was for my win during the TE 13th birthday celebration challenges I had entered from last month! 🎉 Yay!) There will also be a huge post about it on the Taylored Expressions Blog too! I really hope that you enjoy the projects I’ve made to share with you and if you stop by the store, please let Taylor know that I sent you!
For my first set of projects, I’ve made a fun Christmas décor item that you can gift for the Holidays, use as a center piece for your table setting, etc. I’ve taken the Taylored Expressions (new) Accordion Tree die and used it to make a trio of trees with the “poinsettia style” attached to the accompanying TE Tree Stumps (sold separately) to go with this die and another two trees without the stumps. For the trio of trees, I’ve used the Merry Blooms Stamps, Stencil & Clear Combo set to create a background over a Toffee cardstock base inking and blending with Sweet Basil, Cherry Pop and Mulled Wine inks. I’ve also used the same products to make the tag as well. I’ve gold heat embossed the centers for the poinsettias in the background. I’ve also taken the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments Holiday stamp set and used the tiny images from the set to create backgrounds for the other two trees. I’ve splattered the tree backgrounds as well as the tag background with acrylic white and gold paints. These die cut trees were glued back-to-back with the score line in the center as a guide which makes them 3D looking. I’ll explain each item below:
This was such a fun 3D project to create! I wanted all the trees together in one piece, so I thought it would be fun to grab one of these wood slices I’ve been hoarding forever and glue the trees to this base. There is an accordion star that comes with the accordion tree die, but I thought it would be fun to take the TE Perfect Poinsettia die and cut out several of the smallest bloom to make that the “star topper” for the poinsettia tree. I’ve used the coordinating stamps to stamp the “veins” and gold heat embossed the centers for them. I folded them in half and glued it to the top of the tree. I also attached some TE Gold Drip Drops for the “ornaments” over the tree (TE Drip Drops make perfect “ornaments” for these trees!) and added some gold twine bows front and back. I’ve ink blended the edges of the poinsettia tree with Toffee ink and gold paint sponged on the poinsettia topper.
This is what the other side (back) of this piece looks like…so it’s visible from all angles. Here you can better see the other two trees and how the backgrounds were made. I’ve also added some thick white paint to the edges of them to make it look more like “snowed over” trees especially since they were splattered with white paint. For the wood slice that the trees are attached to, I’ve used some Ranger Mica Flakes for a bit of sparkle attaching it with Multi-Medium Matte glue.
For the tag, I’ve die cut the background explained above with the TE Stacklets 2 die and wrapped some gold twine around it with the TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tags Holiday set for the little tree with the gold heat embossed sentiment over it. I’ve also gold heat embossed the large sentiment from the Joyful Season stamp set & dies that I’ve popped with my favorite product TE Sticky Strips. I’ve cut out another layering piece behind the tag with Sweet Basil cardstock, punched a hole and added more gold twine.
And how stinkin’ CUTE are these guys?! This is my second set of projects for this release using the NEW TE Snow Squad Dies & Clear Stamp Combo set. As you can see, the cute die cut critters are made to perfectly fit the Tag Stacklet dies! I’ve the Tag Stacklet 2 die set for my sweet penguin! The critters are so easy to cut out and decorate them as you like! I like that the clear stamp set comes with it to stamp in the eyes as those tiny dots can be so hard to deal with and loose! You get a penguin, a polar bear and a snowman with this die set!
Again, I thought it would be fun to create a background for my card and tag set, so this time, I’ve taken the TE Let It Snow Layering Stencil set for a snowy background. I’ve started with a Mint Julep cardstock base, blended the same color ink for the first layer, Sugar Cube ink for the second layer and for the third layer, I’ve used some TE Glitter Grab and immediately covered it with some TE Silver Glitter. Love how it turned out with the subtle color!
Starting with my card details, I’ve decided to give the snow squad critters soft colors with their scarves. The clear stamp set with the dies also come with a two-line image for adding details to the scarf, so I silver heat embossed those and then added some matching TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel in between those lines. They matched up perfectly! I inked around the edges of each die cut piece for the critters and stamped the face images including the cheeks which I off-stamped first to keep them light. I used a white gel pen for highlight details.
I thought it would be fun to have these Snow Squad critters pop out from a snow drift, so I took some TE Sugar Cube Glitter Cardstock and cut out a “snow drift” with a piece of the their scarves over it and popped them up over the snowy background I’ve created using a TE Diagonal Stitch Rectangle Stacklets for the stitching details behind them which was layered over an A2 sized Sugar Cube top folding card base. For the sentiment, I silver heat embossed it from the TE Winter Wishes clear stamp set over a Mint Julep cardstock that was cut out using the TE Stitched Banner Stacklets die.
And of course, I had to use the penguin again for my coordinating tag! I’ve used part of the same background I’ve made for the card and cut it out using the TE Tag Stacklets 2 die set with another Sugar Cube cut out for the layering base.
I did the same thing for this tag that I did for the card above with the snow drift, but I also added a tiny tag that he’s holding with some Doodlebug Gray Twine. The tag was created with the same TE (new) Itty Bitty Sentiments & Tag Holiday sets. I’ve stamped the row of tiny trees from the set with the Mint Julep ink and then silver heat embossed the sentiment above it. I’ve also used more of the TE Tiny Diamonds Pastel for the center of the bow on the present along with the penguin’s scarf. I’ve punched a hole at the top and added more of the same twine at the top.
So how about you?! Are you ready for the up-coming Holiday Season? I sure hope that I was able to bring you some inspiration with your handmade projects for the Holidays! Again, you can check out all of the brand new Taylored Expressions products in the store as it’s now been released! Be sure to check out all of the wonderful inspiration on her blog too!
Thanks so much for stopping in today! I appreciate all of your kind support friends! Have a great day!
Hey friends! I know it’s well into October and so you may be wondering where in the world have my Halloween posts been? Today was gloomy and foggy out…and it’s getting evening, so it was a good time to post! If you know me, then you know I love all things Halloween, but I’ve actually been in the background lurking with my Halloween projects! Bwhaa!! I just haven’t had time to sit and make a post for them yet. The reason for that is, of course, I’m taking too many classes and doing events that I’m like a “mad scientist” in the background with all of the crafting things, but haven’t been sharing them! So, I’ve decided to set aside some time to create a post with all things Halloween! (Don’t worry, there will be more special ones coming too!)
Now isn’t this one a cutie?! I’ve received this free digital image especially from the Whimsy Stamps World Card Making Day Event on Facebook that they usually hold every year and have some fun games and challenges. This image was created by Crissy Armstrong of course and she even did a cute little tutorial with it, so I had to color it up!
I’ve used Copics for the coloring and even made a shadowy creepy black/gray grass along the bottom of the pumpkin. The hat buckle was colored with a gold gel pen. The sentiment came from an older Whimsy Stamps candy corn set I had in my stash. For the background, I’ve used my favorite Whimsy Stamps Spider Web Frame background stamp to go around kitty. I then used a couple of different Distress inks to sponge around the edges and then spritzed water over it & blotted it up with a paper towel to make it even “creepier” looking. I layered it over an orange layer from my stash and then placed this over an A2 sized top folding card base. I also die cut a bat from an old freebie from Whimsy Stamps years back to glue at the top of the scene and covered it with a glitter brush pen. Super fun!
Now I want to enter this into the annual Whimsy Stamps 31 Nights of Halloween that they do every year! Check out the event with lots of Halloween inspiration & fun if you’re interested! I always love to play along, and I think Whimsy Stamps has some of THE best products for crafting Halloween!
And this is another card I made for the Whimsy Stamps WCMD Event challenge using a fun Autumn/Halloween mood board. (The event is over, but it was super fun!) The first thing about the mood board I noticed was all of the orange and fun jack-o-lanterns that popped out at me. Plus, this was another cute freebie digital image given to us during the event.
So I colored up this dragon using mainly orange tone Copics with a “candy corn” effect. I also used it for the die cut sentiment at the top that was cut out from the Whimsy Stamps Boo die set. Hard to tell in the photo, but I covered it with the glitter brush pen too. I popped up the “dragon guy” over a piece of the Whimsy Stamps 6×6 Haunted Paper Pack cut with the Whimsy Stamps Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle Dies. It was all layered over a white A2 top folding card base. I also added some yellow Stickles to the pumpkin’s face.
And since I’ve been doing so many classes, I thought I’d just create another gallery full of Halloween projects that I’ve done. I have actually been working on some books and journals as well as mixed media projects and not sure if I’ll get them finished up before Halloween as I’ve been busy, but it’s always fun to get creative and messy especially for all things creepy and spooky! 💀 Hope you enjoy! – (If you’re viewing this on my website, just click on the photos to enlarge them to see)
This was a fun one I made using a sketch for the Inky Stamper’s World Card Making Day Event! I had to pull out the Spider set and stamp up the eyeballs for the background! The spider was die cut out over the circle with an added wobbler on him! So fun!A class that Taylor taught using a special Halloween bundle showing how to foil. This is the second portion of Taylor’s class using the same Jack-o-Lantern Cutting Plate.Here’s another set of Halloween cards taught by Taylor for a virtual event I attended in Aug. (I think I over did it on the splatter! LOL)This was a Lawn Fawn class with this set of projects during the Aug virtual event. The back project is a gable box.This was a DecoFoil class class from the Aug virtual event…LOTS of foil! The green background is felt.This was a watercolor mini slimline class taught during the Aug virtual event. I’ve used glow-in-the-dark glitter for the inside faces except the center one was just yellow glitter.From a Riley & Co Halloween class. This is an easel slimline card.Another Riley & Co easel type card. LOLTEE HEE! A Riley & Co Dracula topped with glossy accent hair. Also added it to the bat too. See next photo for the inside……inside of Dracula card. LOLRiley & Co is so funny! The cat is on a wobbler!This card reminded me of Jimmy Fallon’s Friday Thank you notes! (If you’ve ever caught one of those shows!) See what I mean in the next photo for the inside of this card……ha ha! inside of Thank you Halloween Candy…
Whew! Was that a lot of Halloween or what?! Many of these things just give me a big chuckle and I just think they’re so fun especially now that I’ve looked back on them. Although many of these projects were created earlier this Summer, I thought it would be a good time to share them with you. #MakeHalloween365 I still have more Halloween up my sleeve soon, so stayed tuned!
Thanks so much for stopping by this evening and I hope you’ve enjoyed my Halloween projects here! HAPPY CRAFTING
Hello friends! Happy October! I hope that you’re having a great week so far and looking forward to doing something crafty this weekend for World Card Making Day!!🌍😀 I have decided to post something a bit early as I know there will be tons and tons of special posts planned by many, so I thought it best to post today instead!
IN THE MEANTIME, I DO HAVE A FUN GIVEWAY LOCATED ON MY POST BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!! YOU HAVE UNTIL OCTOBER 10th TO ENTER…JUST LEAVE ME A COMMENT THAT YOU’RE INTERESTED!!
There are SO MANY things going on this time of the year and maybe that’s why I love Autumn so much. (WCD, Halloween, birthday, Cooler temps, warm clothes, Harvest, yummy foods, pretty colors, changing leaves, Halloween…oops already said that…but you know!) I am thankful for all of it! I have a couple of cards from a TE kit I recently got (yes, I know…another one to pile on!), but I fell in love with it so much & I am using it right away! 😁
There is some copper EP that comes in the kit, so I heat embossed both the sunflower and wheat images together so that I could color them both at the same time with some watercolor. I then cut them both out with the coordinating dies and set aside to work on my background.
The background was so fun! I’ve used a Bristol Smooth watercolor panel and pulled out some Mica Stains and other sprays from my stash with a spray bottle filled with water and just played. Some of it I splattered to make “dots”. I used the “Burlap” background stamp in the kit and randomly stamped the background as well as heat embossed an element and sentiment from the stamp set. I cut this panel with a die and wrapped some twine around it before attaching to a chocolate truffle card base. I used some foam strips to pop up the flower and added a twine bow to it. Finished it off with some Iridescent Rhinestones.
And this is the second card I’ve made using the wheat image that I previously colored with the sunflower image above. What’s nice about this card is that the background was done using one of the foilable panels from the kit. I found some copper foil and ran it through my laminator. I lined up the cut out wheat image with the background and glued it over top cutting off the bottom portion that stuck out. I also heat embossed a sentiment from the TE clear set in my stash and then punched it out with a circle punch. I used my blender brush to very lightly add some Sea Salt ink at the top of the foiled panel as well as around the sentiment circle.
Lastly, I attached both the image and sentiment panels onto a piece of copper foil cardstock and then mounted it onto a side folding A2 white card base. It was simple, but I like the shine it gives.
I had been discussing with someone recently how I really need to make more sympathy cards to have on hand…so here’s a start to getting a pile going hopefully.
Speaking of needing cards, all of the birthday cards from my last post have been spoken for! Everyone seems to really need birthday cards and like having them on hand. I can totally relate to that! I think I need to get some “sorry I forgot” ones thrown in there too! 😂
I still have some projects that I’ve been working on in the background from some classes I took over the Summer but still haven’t shared yet, so I thought I’d start a little bit at a time and I think these “Autumn themed” cards work with my post today: (If you’re seeing this post on my website, just click on the photos below in the gallery to see them up close.)
These projects were from a class taught by Daniel West for Hero Arts and we received a large woodgrain background stamp for the class. It was fun to make the backgrounds!This is an image from Impression Obsession that was more of a “Spring like” image, but changing up the colors for Fall gave it a different look. I sponged around the image and panel and added some splatters.This was a Simon Says Stamp class using an older stamp set. We used some sprays and also colored with them for the images.
I have taken SO MANY classes, so I still have many more projects to share as I go here! Hope that you enjoy seeing what I’ve been up to! It’s just fun to play around and in the process…no matter how little a piece I use…I am using my stash somehow and I’m very happy about that! At least I’m still crafting anyway! LOL
Thanks for dropping in and have a great crafty weekend!
Hello friends! Happy Friday and are you ready for the weekend? I’m supposed to be helping hubby with some outside work, but my allergies have been bad and I’m not feeling well. Hopefully some medicine will be helping so we can get things finished up!
I have been a “grumpy” fan of Taylored Expressions for a few years as you might have seen in some of my past posts…so of course I get “pulled in” by other cute products too and that’s what happened…my story anyway! In their FB fan group there is a monthly #TEmakerchallenge with prompts to follow as long as you use at least one of their products. So I’ve made a fun card for this month I’d like to share:
Now how CUTE are these little critters?! During TE’s Sept birthday month (13 years in business), they released a collection of birthday related items, and this is the introduction of “Chip & Charlie Party“! I’m saying that Chip is the bird and Charlie is the raccoon…not sure, but that’s what I’m saying! LOL I’ve colored them up with Copic markers and added some shimmer to the balloon, party hats and cherry on cupcake with a glitter brush pen. I’ve also added some highlights with a white gel pen.
I wanted something in the background, but not too distracting from the critters, so I stamped the Party Time background stamp in the same cardstock color (Cherry Pop) I then used the stencil from this combo set to white ink blend the tops of the hats. The paper strip accents came from a TE paper pack I had in my stash. I thought it needed an extra little image element on the front of the card, so I added some Doodlebug Twine and the party hat from Big Grumpy-Birthday, colored with Copics and popped up with foam tape on bottom corner. It was covered with a glitter brush pen, and I also added a Doodlebug Matte Sprinkle at the top of the party hat and in the center of the twine bow.
You might notice that the image panel is not completed adhered to the card front and there’s a score mark in the center as well. So, I was going for something a bit different than a regular A2 birthday card…and the Sept challenge prompts are 1. Heat or non-heat embossing, 2. Napa Valley color quad and/or 3. Something that begins with “E” You have to pick at least one of these along with a TE product. So, for the “E” I’ve decided on making an Easel card…
So, when you open up the bottom flap, you place it behind the popped-up sentiment that was white heat embossed (also a challenge prompt) and cut out with the coordinating die from the “Get the Word Out-Celebrate” set. I’ve also added some more of those yellow polka-dot papers and a thin strip of Cookie Monster cardstock which is what I used to mat behind the image panel as well as for the sentiment. There is still room to line the inside of the card with a special birthday message.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my card and please see at the end of this post for other challenges I’ve entered…PLUS a special birthday give away if you’re interested!
Taylored Expressions was holding a special set of birthday challenges this month in their FB fans group with certain prompts for each one. There was a set of four different challenges, and I decided to make something for each challenge, and I ended up winning a future guest design spot for a future release! WHAT?! Taylor shared which one was her favorite I made in THIS FB ANNOUNCEMENT, but I will share all the creations I made here: (click on the photos to enlarge them if you are viewing them on my blog.)
The first challenge was using Toffee color cardstock/ink + ROYGBIV (rainbow) colors. I made a theater fold design with the Toffee card base and a stenciled rainbow colored background. I also counted out exactly 13 candles to use on the front of the card for TE’s 13th birthday. I’ve also stenciled a few Toffee confetti sprinkles over top. When you pull on each side of this card, it opens up which you can see in the photo below.I white heat embossed the sentiment on the inside and then I took the same confetti stencil and added some white ones over the toffee inside. You can see the candles popped up in the center opening. This card was Taylor’s favorite pick! 🙂 These cards were made for the 2nd challenge which was to create a CAS design and then take the similar style and “Step it up”.For the third challenge, you were given a choice of two different photos for inspiration and you had to pick one to create a project from. I sort of was inspired by both and I some what combined the two for my mini slimline card here. This took a bit of time to white heat emboss the sentiments in the rainbow colors and cut all the stars, etc, but I like how this turned out.The fourth challenge was called “shake it up” which meant to create a shaker card. I’ve used this adorable Gus & Gertie set along with some other elements for design from my stash. I ran an embossing folder over the silver foil frame a die cut to make my shaker element from. Check out the next photo for the shaker bits…And this is the shaker lying flat with all of the inside shaker elements. I’ve used some snowflakes from a past kit as well as silver sequins and ice beads.Taylored Expressions 13th Birthday Challenge entries
I honestly wasn’t thinking about winning anything! I was basically just enjoying the process of creating and pulling out some stash that I hadn’t yet used and wanted to use so I thought I’d just play along. I was very surprised to see that I was picked as a winner! Very humbled and honored by that! So be watching for an upcoming GDT post!
I have actually joined several of Taylor’s classes, virtual events, etc. and have made many cool things during the time that I wasn’t blogging, so I never shared them… but like I said, I’ve been creating and having fun! I do remember something fun she taught in a virtual event from July I was a part of that was Halloween themed, so I’ll have to pull those cards out soon as well since the time is coming up and I do love me some Halloween! 🎃
One last thing! With all of the fun and exciting things going, I realized it’s my birthday month as well! I’m not 13, but let’s just say a few years older!😁 So I think the best thing to do for my birthday is to give rather than receive! If you feel the same and think someone would enjoy this little Taylored Expressions bundle that I have shown above in the photo, let me know! If you’d like to gift this for yourself, let me know! I would love to give someone these extra set of items already in my stash to someone! There is a Banner Simple Strips die, a 3 piece balloon layering stencil with a clear stamp set combo, a Cupcake ink pad (unwrapped, but NOT used at all, I just noticed I already had one after unwrapping it!) and a tiny cake and celebrate stamp set all from Taylored Expressions and perfect for party making! (There may be a few other things added as well!)
**Please just leave me a comment that you are interested in the TE give away by October 10th, 2021 and I will be happy to pick someone to send it out to!**
Whew! I think that’s about it! Thank you for stopping by friends and enjoy your weekend!
I’d like to enter the top easel card ONLY in these challenges:
