A Single Flower at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends! Welcome to the start of a new week for mid-September! I think Summer actually DID come back to us as we’ve set record high heats for this time of the year! I think I’m ready for those cooler temps to come back! Ugh! I know it won’t be long now and we can start enjoying trips outdoors as we look forward to picking apples and all Autumn festivities that we do!

Today is time to share a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and we have the theme of “USE A SNGLE FLOWER (floral image)” this month. Flowers seem to be everyone’s favorite. Here’s what I came up with:

Mine is a single sunflower image. My husband planting them in our backyard this year and they were so pretty! Of course, I forgot to take a photo of one before they died off.

The items I’ve used came from an older card kit from Simon Says Stamp including the stamp set called Sunflower Fields. There is a single sunflower image that I thought would be perfect for this challenge, plus I can use more items from my stash!

For the size of the flower image, I wanted it to stand out, so I used a tag and twine from the kit and decided to make this a mini slim card size.

For the background: I used a piece of watercolor cardstock and gold heat embossed the “Romantic Script” background stamp (retired) from My Favorite Things and then used some oxide inks swiped on glass with spritzed water to make a “smooshed” background. I also used these same colors to watercolor my flower with. (except the green, I only used that for the flower) I also used some gold watercolor to splatter over the tag. I only splattered the tag because I didn’t think it would show very much over the card background.

I cut the smooshed watercolor panel to fit over a kraft side folding mini slimline card base. I die cut the flower and the sentiment to attach over the tag, added some twine and then used foam tape to pop it up over the ink smooshed background. Lastly, I’ve added some yellow sequins to finish it off.

I hope you will take some time to pull out a single flower and join us in the challenge this month! Looking forward to seeing your creations! Thanks so much for dropping by!

Challenges:

Creative Inspirations – #30 Anything Goes
Ellibelle’s Garden Party – #7 Anything In or From a Garden
Creative Fingers – #307 Anything Goes
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #261 Anything Goes
Penny’s – #605 Anything Goes Using Paper
Love to Craft – #88 Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore – #139 Anything Goes

August AJ Page-Good-bye Summer

Hello friends! Here we are at the end of August already! I’ve already been feeling the Autumn vibes, so I thought I’d create with Summer one more time. There is still a few more weeks left of Summer, so let’s enjoy it!

Wanted to share a photo that hubby took a really good close-up shot of a bumble bee enjoying the last bit of summer blooms on one of our flowers in the back yard the other day. He is covered in pollen! I love the bright colors in the flower.

Speaking of bright colors, today starts another monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” AUGUST prompt of “BRIGHT/HAPPY COLORS”:

Bright and happy colors to me are those sunny yellows, citrus and basically a rainbow of bright colors. I tried to reflect this with my page using mainly blended ink colors, but I also used some watercolor and paint too.

FOR THE BACKGROUND: I used a 5.5″ x 8.5″ piece of Bristol Smooth Watercolor cardstock. I covered the background with a light wash of blue watercolor and let it dry. I took a stencil from My Favorite Things (closed) called “Sun Ray” and went over the background with yellow paint applying with a watered-down sponge. Once that was dry, I splattered the entire background with some metallic gold watercolor. I covered the bottom portion of the page with some wood plank background paper. (I like to make my own book to add my finished pages in.)

The “Summer” lettering was die cut with white cardstock and then ink blended with several different bright colors. I stamped out the lettering above it. Both the stamp and dies came from Lawn Fawn.

Here’s a closer view of the drink glass I created using some die sets from Taylored Expressions called Summertime Sips. There was the glass that I lightly ink blended around the edges and then for the separate die for inside the glass, I ink blended a few different colors for that tropical drink look. There are also ice cube dies that I cut from glitter cardstock to put in there. I cut another glass from vellum and then cut the stem of it so that I could attach it to the front of the glass which is where I added all of the items inside to make it look see-though.

The straw and the umbrella were cut in white and then ink blended and put together for the glass. I also took the TE Fresh Squeezed die set to cut more pieces from white cardstock and then I ink blended some green and orange colors over them to arrange around my cup. The green slice on the top of the cup was cut with scissors so that I could add it to the inside of the glass rim. I covered the inside of these citruses with a glitter brush pen.

Lastly, I took a black detail pen to make lines around the edges of the page and also the stitch marks within the lettering and around the sentiment strip at the bottom. This was printed from computer and ink blended with yellow ink.

Thanks so much for stopping in today! Hope you’ve enjoyed my page! Have a wonderful weekend!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Hot Summer (Nights and Days)
Creative Artiste – #118 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – August -No Cards

And speaking of bright and happy, I know a few people have mentioned my new grandson and wondering if I get to see him. My answer to that is every single chance I can get! LOL He’s growing so very fast! He came for a visit for lunch…well grandma fed him his bottle.

I will be getting to see him again VERY soon and I’m so excited! How can you resist that face!?

Thought I’d share a little update to make you smile! 😉

July AJ Page-Always Make Waves

Hello friends! I hope that you’re staying cool and having a great weekend so far! This is another pre-scheduled post from me again as I’m away for now. So glad you’re here!

Today starts another monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” JULY prompt of “ACROSS THE OCEAN”:

At one point I was going through my extremely large stash of card kits and realized how crazy it was that I had SO many mermaid/under the sea type of card kits/stamps, papers, etc. So I didn’t have any problem finding something from my stash for this prompt!

For the Background: I started with my usual size of 8.5″x5.5″ with Bristol Smooth cardstock this time. I wanted to do some ink blending with a large 6″x9″ layered stencil that I got from Trinity Stamps. I’ve used several different ink colors to create the underwater scene with the stencils. I had lots of fun with it. I then used some of the masks in the set and spritzed some water over it for the bubble effects in the “water”. The “light beams” came with the stencil set and I just used white ink for that layer.

I thought since I was using water, that I would watercolor the images from an older mermaid card kit that I had from Brutus Monroe. I die cut those along with the turtle and bubbles. The sentiment came with this set too and I thought it was a wonderful saying, so I white heat embossed it on the page.

I also had an “Under the Sea” die set from My Favorite Things (store closed) that I cut a few pieces from to add to the scene at the bottom. I took a gel pen and markers to add details to some of the ocean floor botanicals/rocks and then a glitter brush pen on the mermaids and glitter glue over the bubbles above the turtle to finish it off.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my Art Journal Page today! Thanks so much for dropping by and spending some time with me! I’ll be back later next week to see what you’re all up to! See you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Botanicals (Hope seaweed counts!)

Lots of Stamp Joy and Summer School Sessions!

Hello friends! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week and looking forward to a great weekend coming up! We are having a heat advisory for the next several days over my way, so I thought it would be a great idea to stay indoors and craft! I also thought this would be a great time to catch up with some posts sharing some things that I’ve worked on the first part of this year that I hadn’t gotten a chance to share with you.

LONG POST – pull up your chair with your favorite beverage and enjoy!

I thought I’d share the Taylored Expressions Virtual Stamp Joy that I did back in March. I actually spent the weekend attending the classes and creating as I followed along. I managed to get all of the projects done the day after the event was over, but failed to post all of what I had made due to the fact that I was busy helping two different people move…and then life just got really busy after that as well! LOL

*I also have added an additional event from Taylored Expressions this last weekend called “Summer School” which concentrated on foiling techniques. Although I’ve done foiling before, I sure enjoyed seeing new products and learning a few new techniques too! (These four cards are at the end of the gallery photos below)*

If you’re on my website, just click on the images below to enlarge the photos and view any details underneath each one. ENJOY!

Dimension Class-ink blending and splattering die cuts

I always love to learn new things with stamping/crafting along with all of the fun new products that come out too! I know I REALLY don’t need to purchase more things, but when cool stuff comes out, it’s really hard to pass it by! I think doing these classes and joining in on different challenges help me to use these fun things up!

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my post sharing all of the things that I’ve been doing! I will have another post sharing more things that I haven’t shared yet too! In the meantime, I’ve also been working on a scrapbook which has been fun and something that I haven’t done in a really long time! A baby can do that to you! LOL

Thanks so much for stopping in today my friends! I’ll be seeing you soon! Have a great weekend!😊

Pearly Sparkles Guest

Hello friends again! I have two posts going up for today, so please see my post for the Mix It Up Challenge details in the above post when it goes live or click HERE.

I’m so excited to have been asked to be a guest for this month’s Pearly Sparkles Challenge! I always love playing along in challenges and supporting them when I can as I always find inspiration in using my supplies when I play!

So for May’s Challenge, they would like to see: BLACK, WHITE PLUS ONE OTHER COLOR in your project(s). Here’s the card I made for this theme to inspire you:

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for this, but I thought you couldn’t go wrong with some flowers. I pulled out a long forgotten stamp set from Taylored Expressions called “Picked Posies” (no longer available) and black heat embossed the images over watercolor paper and used one pink watercolor brushed over the petals. I die cut each flower with the coordinating die.

I made the rest of the card layout with all black and white elements. I stamped the TE Checking In Background stamp in black ink over a white panel, placed this over an A2 sized top folding black card base. I also used the TE More Easy Edgers die to cut an additional piece of white cardstock and placed it over the stamped checkered background. I also used some more of the elements from the flower stamp set and stamped some more black images on that background before I attached the watercolor flowers on it. I centered each flower with a black rhinestone.

For the sentiment, I white heat embossed over black cardstock using the TE Hello Friend Stamp & Die set.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and I hope you’ll check out this challenge to see what the rest of the team has to inspire you with so you can play along too!

See you again tomorrow!

Challenges:

Creative Fingers – Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: splash of color
Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes
Ally’s Angels – Anything Goes
Crafter’s Cafe – Anything Goes optional: Female
Double D – Springtime Flowers

March AJ Page-Favorites

Hello friends! Here we are again at the end of another month! Although I’ve been really busy this past week, I think I’m ready for March to be over with! Mainly because of this crazy weather and another because I’ve been busy doing things other than crafting! LOL (Must be time for that organizing…er as I like to say “agonizing”!)

Today is our monthly AJ page with my crafty friend Carol (from Crafty-Stamper) who is collaborating with me to “SMASH OUR STASH”! We get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles along with a prompt for each month. I know she always has great inspiration to share, so please check out her blog too! Here’s my AJ page with the “SMASH OUR STASH” March prompt of “Favorite Things”:

I’m sure you might’ve guessed that one of my favorite things to do is obvious on this page! (This craft room actually looks a bit more organized than mine is currently!) I did have so much fun with this one! I’ve used SO many of my favorite things on here: old stamps, mixed company favorite stamps, foiling, heat embossing, coloring (Copics and watercolor), ink blending, die cutting, fussy cutting, using old paper stash, mix of papers, favorite colors, the subject of stamping, my favorite room, wearing sweats, crafting while sun going down, etc, etc, etc. Honestly, this was easy, but it could be because I enjoyed putting it together.

For the background: I used a standard white cardstock base measuring 5.5″x8.5″ and then took some very old Stampin’ Up! paper (Porcelain Prints) to cover the entire size so that I could get the look of wallpaper. I then used some textured woodgrain cardstock from my stash for the floor, the window and the shelves. (The shelves were popped up with a foam strip) I die cut a scallop border in white for the trim above the floor and also die cut a frame for the wall hanging. The sentiment for the wall hanging was gold heat embossed and placed behind the frame. (I sponged some white clouds in there too.) The border at the top was printed off my computer and I used another scallop border die to cut it out. I sponged some brown ink around the edges of the page and added all of the elements.

The stamper girl image was from an old company called “Hambo Stamps” (went out of business several years ago), but I think it’s so cute and funny! This is where the gold embossed sentiment came from as well. Had fun coloring her up with my watercolor pens.

For the window, I used the Taylored Expressions Foil It-Dreamscapes along with the coordinating stencils that I received from Virtual Stamp Joy earlier this month. (I will share my projects in another post later on.) I also used the TE Arch Windowpanes die set to cut out a frame in the woodgrain cardstock over one of the ink blended panels.

And lastly, the little crafty items on the shelves and floor came from the Lawn Fawn Just Add Glitter stamps & dies. I stamped and colored those up with Copics to place on the shelves. I also thought it would be fun to add some glitter spilling from the gold glitter bottle and dumping onto the floor…always a fun thing to happen in the craft room while you ignore it because you’re so intently working on something!

All this page did for me was to remind me that I really need to do more organizing! I hope you’ve enjoyed my page today and take a hop on over to see Carol’s inspiration too! Thanks so much for stopping in today!

(P.S. I’m currently away and it will be a few days before I can reciprocate your comments, but I truly appreciate your kind words of support.)

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Home Sweet Home
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – March (no cards)

Art Journal Inspiration-Soul Singing

Hello friends! I’m back today with one last inspiration for Art Journal Journey to remind you that there are still a few days left to enter your art journal project for this month! So please be sure to hop on over to the Art Journal Journey Challenge Blog to see the details about how to enter. I have really enjoyed all of the inspiration from the gallery! So fun to see what everyone comes up with using my “MUSIC” theme this month! I thank everyone for having me along as a host and sharing your kindness in welcoming me back this year.

I went with some animals this time:

I’m pretty sure that there has to be some sort of music going on at farm too, right?! LOL I found these cute “singing” critters online and thought that a farm scene would be a perfect platform stage for them! This is also the first time that I’ve ever added an interactive element to an art journal page, so that was fun!

For the background: Starting with an 8.5″x 5.5″ watercolor paper, I printed the critters over it in the position that I wanted…this is so that the musical notes showed on the page.

I then used my Kuratake Gansi watercolors and brush to paint a scene starting with blues for the sky, letting that dry and then adding some green hills for the bottom of the scene. I went over the areas a couple of times to get the look I wanted and let it dry. I also die cut a green grassy border at the bottom of the page with green cardstock being careful to place it so that it covered the “legs/feet” of all the critters.

More layers over the background: I used older Tim Holtz stamps to add some texture by stamping brown ink, then I used an old TH stencil and some yellow paint for the “sun rays” around the hill with a sponge to apply it. I also used a sponge with white ink to stencil over another stencil in areas and lastly, I stamped some musical notes in silver ink in a few places.

Here’s a closer look at some of the details including the critters.

Since I covered up the critters with the grassy border, I printed out the critters again on a separate piece of cardstock, colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them out with my scissors. I attached them over top of the printed out ones on the page so that they align with the music notes above them. I used more markers to add some darker shadow grounding underneath each critter before permanently attaching to the page.

For the interactive element: I used a die cut to cut out the pieces for the windmill in the brown, white and silver cardstock pieces. I then used a circle die to cut a hole in the center of the windmill on the page and then added an element that makes the wheel portion spin in a circle when you spin it with your finger.

I went around the edges with some blue ink for the sky, attached some clouds and then printed out the quote on my computer and cut out each word attached to the page. I used some blue ink to lightly add to the bottom of each one.

Lastly, I went around the edges of the page along with the edges of each word with a black micron pen and then I used a silver paint pen to go around the edges of the page again.

It’s a pretty flat page, but it made me happy! What song do you think they’re singing?

I hope you’ve enjoyed my page today as well as my art journal inspiration throughout the month! Thank you so much for your kindness and support! See you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – MUSIC
Creative Artiste – #112 Anything Goes Mixed Media
We Love 2 Create Mixed Media – #2 Anything Goes MM/Papercraft
Creative Fingers – #295 Anything Goes
Gem of a Craft – Anything Goes

“V” is for Vintage

Hello friends and happy Friday! Are you looking forward to a nice weekend? I have some crafty time in store for me, but honestly, I need to be cleaning my craft room!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge blog! Please be sure to check out the challenge blog to see how to play as we go through the alphabet letters every-other week (fortnight) for each new challenge.

For this challenge, we are at the letter “V” for Vintage and here’s what I’ve come up with:

I love the look of vintage style cards, but I don’t make them very often, so this was a great challenge to get me motivated in making one!

I fell in love with the Simon Hurley “In the Garden” stamp set (discontinued) last year , but never got a chance to play with it until now. I thought the images were perfect for a “vintage vibe”. I got that along with these gorgeous papers from Scrapbook.com called “Vintage“, of course! The imagery went well with the stamps in the set.

I started with cutting all of the different patterns from the paper pad into a card design. I sponged around the edges with Hickory Smoke oxide ink. I die cut the “graph paper” panel with Taylored Expressions A2 Postage Stamp Stacklets die. On that panel, I stamped the wording from the SH stamp set with Hickory Smoke oxide as well as a few hearts in Tattered Rose oxide ink. I also took a music score rub-on that I got from Scrapbook.com to add in the corner and then sponged around the edges with Hickory Smoke oxide. I layered this panel onto a piece of grey cardstock. The second layer was also layered onto another piece of grey cardstock and then layered over another piece of the Vintage pattern paper over an A2 top folding white card base.

For the stamped images, I stamped them in black pigment ink and then clear heat embossed them. I used Shabby Shutters, Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet oxide inks to watercolor by smooshing the ink pads onto a surface and using a water brush for coloring. I fussy cut out the images and popped them up over the panel with foam tape.

Before attaching this panel onto the next panel, I added some grey seam binding ribbon tied in a bow on the side and then popped it up with foam tape. I also die cut the lettering from the Tim Holtz Script Words set in black and attached onto the graph panel.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card for you today and that you’ll stop over to the blog to play along in the challenge with us! Wishing you a happy and productive weekend!

Challenges:

Sweet Stampin’ – LOVE! (must use stamp)
Allsorts – #816 Romance and/or Music
Stamping Sensations – Valentines, Weddings, Romance or Anything Goes + must have stamping
Aud Sentiments – #322 Love/Anniversary/Wedding and/or Shimmer + sentiment
Triple B – Birds/Butterflies/Blooms (must use at least one)
Try it On Tuesday – Romance

Art Journal Journey Host for February-MUSIC

Hello friends and welcome to February! Hoping that wherever you are that this is a great month for you! This month I’m excited to be the host over at Art Journal Journey for my second year! So be on the look-out for several art journal pages from me this month!

For my prompt, I was feeling a musical theme🎵 would be a broad area to cover for art journaling. You could pull out some old sheet music, use music notes and/or instruments, song titles and/or lyrics, musical quotes, etc. I look forward to seeing all of the musical inspiration in the gallery, so I hope you can join too! Here’s my first sample page to get started:

I had made a card a few years back that I made my own piano, but in a smaller scale size and I thought it would be fun to try and incorporate that idea onto a page.

For the background: I started with my usual size 5.5″ x 8.5″ cold press 140# watercolor paper and used a ruler to line ” white keys” for the piano at the bottom with a black marker. I cut strips of black glossy cardstock for “black keys” and attached them over top. BEFORE attaching the sheet music in the center, I attached some baby wipes to a ruler with rubber bands and dropped watercolor in rainbow on it. I then dragged the ruler down several times to achieve the rainbow pattern at the top. (I made a video a few years back if you want to see how it’s done on a card HERE.)

I die cut a scallop curved border on the sheet music and added some black ink around the edges before attaching in the center of the page so that the piano keys and rainbow pattern shows. I then took some gold watercolor and splattered over the page but covering the piano keys to prevent them from getting splatter.

Once the background and piano was done, I die cut the “music” lettering from more of the glossy black cardstock and added a musical note brad next to it. I took a white gel pen and wrote the quote in the center and then lined that black strip and the keyboard area with strips of gold metallic paper.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today and have been inspired to play along too! I look forward to seeing your musical inspiration in the Art Journal Journey gallery soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – MUSIC (hosted by me)
We Love to Create – Anything Goes Mixed Media
Little Red Wagon – #792 “A” is for Anything Goes
Penny’s Paper-Crafty – #589 Anything Goes Using Paper
Simon Says Stamp Wed – Anything Goes

Thankful for Fall, Pumpkins and Coffee!

Hey friends! Just poppin’ in with another card I made and wanted to get it in before the deadline ends…which I normally don’t always do!😁

I have been playing along (with the exception of the last few years) with the Coffee Loving Papercrafters “Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” which has been going on since 2014! It’s hard to believe it’s been around that long, but looking back at the posts that were shared recently for “a look back”, I had a different blog platform and there I was playing along 10 years ago! Really appreciate all of the fun that Amy has provided to us through the years as well as the many sponsors that have been apart of it.

I’ve pulled out some stamp sets from one of the sponsors (Newton’s Nook) new and older from my stash in honor of this occasion:

That is the cutest cup of Pumpkin Spice Latte that I’ve ever seen! I’ve used the NN Newton’s Mug stamp set with coordinating die to stamp, color and cut him out. He was popped up with foam tape over the background. For the pumpkin image on top of the mug, I’ve used an older NN stamp set called “Love a La Carte” (No longer available). I just stamped, colored and fussy cut the image to place over the mug. I also added some gold glitter on the heart above it.

For the background: I cut a piece of paper with the NN Frameworks die set and pulled out some watercolors for the background and then splattered some gold after the background was dry. I layered this over the brown cardstock. I also used a piece of that brown cardstock to white heat emboss the sentiment which came from an older STAMPtember collaboration set with NN called “Talk Turkey“. I cut it out with a banner die and attached it to the side of the scallop panel. The leaves under the mug and over the watercolor panel were from the NN Autumn Mice stamp set and coordinating dies.

I was trying to also follow along with a fun sketch from the Inky Paws Challenge (see below) and so I’ve pulled out some more papers from the NN Coffee House Stories paper pad that I thought went with the coloring on my cup and attached it to an A2 top folding brown card base. I also added a strip of gold glitter paper to bring out the touch of glitter on the tiny heart above the pumpkin.

That’s it for today! I hope you’ve enjoyed my coffee card or have been inspired to create something fun too! I’m off to check out all the other entries for more inspiration! Have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Challenges:

Coffee Loving Papercrafters – #fallwinter2024clh 2024 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Hop using coffee, tea, cocoa, and/or apple cider
Inky Paws Challenge – #234 sketch
Double Trouble – #179 Lotsa Layers
Inspiration Station – #67 inspirational photo (the coffee, leaves and pumpkin inspired me)
Crafty Animals – #89 Anything Goes + animal
Critter Crazy – #92 Anything Goes with a Featured Critter
Inkspirational – #328 Layer It (layered leaves and panels)
Shopping Our Stash – #534 Time for a Hot Drink

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