October AJ Page-Magical Potion

Hello friends and happy weekend! It’s the last Saturday for this month and next week will be November 1st! Can you believe it?! We’re nearing the end of the year, but I’d like to stop and enjoy the wonderful Autumn season right now while it’s here!

Last Saturday of October brings us to the 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” OCTOBER prompt of “MAGICAL”:

I couldn’t let this month go by without adding in a Halloween themed AJ page! I love making them and getting out lots of dies from several different companies that made this one a fun project to pull together.

Background: I used an 8.5″ x 5.5″ piece of Mixed Media cardstock and blended the background in various colors using a light yellow for the center where the window is open and the cauldron is brewing up something magical!

I then took a cogs and wheel stencil and sponged on some gold ink in various places. I took a cool background stamp from Whimsy Stamps called Vintage Wallpaper and stamped it in random places. I also cut a strip of wood plank background paper from my stash to add at the bottom of the page. I then took my gold ink pad and swiped it around the edges of the page.

Die Cuts: The large spider web cut from holographic paper, the witch, the fire, and cats all came from Whimsy Stamps. The Cauldron and potion bottle came from Taylored Expressions, the window came from Simon Says Stamp and the wood under the cauldron came from Lawn Fawn. For some of the pieces, I ink blended or added a gold highlight to the edges. For the potion bottle, there is a tiny label on it that says “Moon Dust” with a moon on it. (It’s hard to see in the photo.) I added some glitter to the contents. After ink blending the flames, I covered it with a glitter brush pen.

I took a marker to added some shadows under the witch, cat and cauldron. I took some yellow sequins and added it under the potion bottle to make it look like she’s added it to the potion. Lastly, I took a couple of Tim Holtz sentiment clippings to add to the scene.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my art journal page today! I had fun with it! Thanks so much for dropping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

Art Journal Journey – Steampunk/Halloween or both
Creative Artiste – #120 Anything Goes Mixed Media
Anything Goes in a Card Free Zone – No Cards
Penny’s – #608 Anything Goes Using Paper
Little Red Wagon – #830 Not a Card

Pink Halloween for Digi Doodle Studios GDT

Hello friends! I hope that you’re all having a wonderful week so far! The weather has really been changing this week as we get into Fall now. Speaking of that, it’s time for sharing some fun Halloween themed projects!

I’m VERY honored to have won a guest spot for this month over at the Digi Doodle Studios Challenge Blog! So, for the October challenge, the theme is “Pink and/or Halloween” You can choose to use either or both…I’ve decided to use BOTH on my creation:

As a winner, I was given this darling image to play with called Gwendoline DDS Good Halloween Witch and I thought she would be so much fun to color up in the pink and black colors! I think she turned out adorable in her pinkness!

I have also decided to print out a sentiment from the DDS Halloween Happiness Digital Sentiments Collection that I’ve used as a strip on the right side of my panel placed directly under the image panel. Both of these panels have been sponged with some pink ink around the edges. The witch image panel was popped up with some craft foam.

For the papers, I have printed out the fun pink and black dotted patterns from the DDS Wonky Halloween Digi Paper Pack and then used a sander around the edges of them for a bit of distressed look. Before attaching the black with pink dots strip in the center, I wrapped some pink metallic ribbon around it with a bow. This strip was placed behind the image panel, but in front of the layers behind the image panel. Those layers are pink metallic mirror cardstock and a scallop die cut black cardstock which was also layered behind the sentiment strip. All of the panels were placed over a black top folding 5″ card base.

I’ve added a couple of die cut spider webs from some white glitter paper and attached them in the corners of the design and then found some pink sequins with stars that I filled the centers with some pink glitter drops scattered around as well as placing an extra die cut star and sequins in the center of the bow.

And here’s a closer look at the coloring I’ve done over her using Copic markers. I’ve used a white gel pen for the dots on her cheeks as well as highlights on her legs.

It’s always hard to really show all of the wonderful shimmer and sparkle, but I’ve used a glitter brush pen over the pink stars in her dress as well as the stars surrounding her. (Her pink earrings were covered with it too.) I took a pink metallic gel pen to color in the dots on her dress and the ones surrounding her. I then took the pink glitter drops that I’ve used in the center of the sequins and add a couple more around her trailing stars and the center of the star in her wand too.

I also very lightly sponged in some pink chalk for the stars and dots area around her after it was all dry.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card for today and have been inspired in some way!

Thanks for dropping in today my friends and I’ll be seeing you again very soon!😉

Challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – 3 Things Starting with ‘S”: Stars, Spider Webs, Sequins
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP 2039 Anything Goes
Always Fun – Die-cutting (my fave is stitched scallop!)
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes Oct
Creatalicious – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Spooky Ombre & Welcome Gnomes for Dare to Get Dirty

Hello friends! I’m back again today to share a couple more cards that I’ve made for the Splitcoaststampers “Dare to Get Dirty” event! They’ve released another batch of challenge over there today! There is certainly lots of crafty fun going on lately, isn’t there?!😀

My first card was made for a challenge from the lovely Lee:

Vicki-DTGD20LuvLee-ombre

This card was so much fun to create! I’ve used only purple shades to make this entire design! I started out with a white piece of cardstock using the MFT Rolling Clouds stencil and ink blended them in with several Stampin’ Up! inks that I’ve had in my stash for quite a while now! LOL! After I was done, I spritzed it with a water bottle.

I took the awesomely spooky Trick or Treat stamp set and used some SU! Elegant Eggplant ink to stamp the witch image, bat and the sentiment at the bottom. I used my MISTI to stamp several times to darken the ink up on them.

I cut out the panel with a stitched rectangle and then cut out an additional piece of Potion Cardstock with a stitched scallop rectangle die from MFT. I layered it over an A2 sized top folding Elegant Eggplant card base.

I then took a glitter brush pen to “color in” the inside of the moon around the witch that gave a really cool shimmer look to it. I then started noticing that it was taking away some of the purple ink while doing this, which was really awesome as it made the moon glow even more! (I just had to be careful around the witch because she was stamped with regular dye purple ink and I didn’t want to blur it.)

I finished the design with some Lilac Matte Sequins that I filled with some Violet Galaxy Crystal Nuvo Drops. It’s much more sparkly in person!

My next card was made for a challenge from the lovely Kelly:

Vicki-DTGD20MiamiKel4-gnomes

This scene was really fun to put together! I fell in the love with the little house and gnomes from the Simon Says Stamp Gnome School. I thought it would make a nice “new home” type of card. I colored them up and cut them out with the coordinating dies to arrange over my scene.

The scene started with a piece of kraft that was ran over with the SSS Petal Plate die for the texture in the background. I cut out some clouds and a border of grass with dies and inked them up with some inks for shadows. I then took this panel and cut it all out with a stitched rectangle die and mounted it over a top folding A2 sized black card base. I also took a sentiment strip from the SSS Gnome School Sentiment Strips to place over the design while arranging the images over the scene.

For the sign on top of the “home”, I used one of the sentiments made for that spot and white heat embossed it over my coloring. Hard to tell in the photo, but I’ve also covered the heart on the gnome’s hat as well as the glasses on the gnome with a glitter brush pen. I also did the same for the windows on the home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creations for today and I sure appreciate you stopping in to check out all of the happenings that are going on! Hope you’re able to join in some of what’s going on too! See you soon!

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Oh So cute (bottom card only)
Stamps & Fun = Creativity – #372 Lavender or Purple (top card)
Always Fun – #177 In the Sky Scene (top card)
Crafting Happiness – #63 Anything Goes

It’s Halloween at Cute Card Thurday!

Hello friends! Has the weather been cooling down for you yet? We are supposed to get much cooler than normal over my way this weekend! Night time low around 36 degrees is a bit too chilly this time of year! I need Fall to last! 🙂

Today starts up a new challenge this week for Cute Card Thursday! The theme for this one is “Halloween“!! So if you still have some more Halloween cards or treat projects, etc that you need to make, please share it with us! We look forward to seeing what you make!

For my card, I thought it would be fun to use another Whimsy Stamps October digital stamp with a Halloween theme:

Vicki-CCT603-Witch Cinnamon-Oct10

This cute little witch is called Witch Cinnamon and I’ve used her in a little different way from the original version for my card.

First thing I did was take some black cardstock and used an embossing folder for the trees in the background. I took a white ink pad over it so the embossing stands out a bit better over it. I layered this onto a piece of purple cardstock and then added it over an A2 sized top folding black card base.

I took a circle die and cut it out with some yellow glitter cardstock which I then popped up with some black craft foam that I also cut out with a circle die. I took the bat die and also die cut some bats from black glitter card stock and attached them over the design along with the witch image that is “flying” in front of the moon. I black heat embossed (sparkly black EP) the sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp Frightful Fun set over purple card stock that I cut into a banner over the design. I then added a thin strip of green glitter card stock at the bottom of the card.

Vicki-CCT603-Witch Cinnamon-Oct10-dark

For this photo, I tried shutting the lights off so that you can see the “green dots” in the sky that glow in the dark! These are Nuvo Glow Drops Neon – Apple Sour that I added for the dots in the sky area. I’ve also taken a Stampin’ Up! punch from my stash and added some purple colored stars around the area too. If you compare this photo to the one above, you can see that with the light on, the drops are a bit more translucent. When the lights are dimmed, you can see the glow-in-the-dark effect!

I’ve zoomed in on how I’ve colored up this cutie for my card. She’s colored with Copic markers and colored pencils. If you take a look at the original image, you can see that I have decided to fussy cut out just the witch as I wanted her flying in front of a full bright glittery moon! She still looks pretty cool if you were to cut her out entirely with a circle die too! 🙂

I’ve used a colored pencil to create a nice little “moon glow” on one side of her and in some areas along the top of her where I thought the moon would be glowing some light on her.

I’ve also used a white gel pen for her checks and for highlighting on her stockings. I also used a silver gel pen to color in the buckle on her hat. Hard to see in the photo, but behind her broom, I took a glitter pen to add a bit of shimmer where she was flying.

Vicki-CCT603-Witch Cinnamon-Oct10-flat

I hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and been inspired to create some Halloween projects soon!

Challenges this card was entered for:

Aud Sentiments – Halloween/Fall + sentiment
Brown Sugar – October Anything Goes
QKR Stampede – #366 Anything Goes
Daisy Chain – Pink or Halloween
Simply create Too – Anything Goes with optional: Spooky/Scary
Fab ‘n’ Funky – Halloween
Little Red Wagon – Cut it Out!

Brand New Images from Digi Doodle Studios + Video!

Hello friends! Happy Friday! I’m happy for the weekend to get here, how about you?! The weather has started to cool down slightly and it’s so nice to have that air conditioning turned off for a change!

Today I’m super excited to share with you some really fun and adorable new image set that Digi Doodle Studios has come out with from the brand new “Pairables” Collection! The set that I’m sharing today is adorable and so fun to mix and match images with! Check out the two cards I made with it:

Vicki-DDSWizardPairables-video

I absolutely had so much fun creating a little scene with the images and then printing them out for coloring and making cards with! All of the images that I’ve used here come from the new Digi Doodle Studios Charming Enchanters Wizard Pairables Digital Stamp Set and I believe that I’ve probably used most of the images from the set on these two cards.

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For this particular card, I’ve used my computer to arrange the stars from the wizard’s wand and the sentiment how I want them placed and then printed it out twice. One I printed on Copic blending card and another image printed out on Neenah Solar White cardstock so that I can do the ink blended background on it.

Here’s a closer view of the coloring details on the wizard. You can see that he has a bit of a “glow” about him. So after I colored him in with my Copic markers, I decided that I could use a yellow color pencil to add just a bit of glow to certain parts of the image. I’ve then used gel pens to color in other detailed portions of the image and a white gel pen for the stars in the background as well. I’ve tried to capture a little bit of that stunning shimmer for the background, but of course it doesn’t show up as great as it is in real life!

He was fussy cut out and placed over the ink blended background that I’ve made.

Since my last video on the ink blending, I’ve had a few more questions about it, so I thought I’d share a more in-depth look into it. To see a video of how I’ve created the background on this “wizard” card, I’ve made a video to show in detail how I’ve done it with a few tips and tricks along the way. So check it out below or watch it on You Tube by CLICKING HERE.

I hope that this helps a little more on explaining how I achieved the look for ink blending backgrounds. I know that I’ve had people ask me to do a video on another background I’ve made on another card, so perhaps I will share another video on that later.

If you do have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here or on You Tube or contact me and let me know! If you have other suggestions, I’d always love to hear that too!

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Here’s the other card that I’ve made using the same Charming Enchanters Wizard Pairables Digital Stamp Set. Again, I’ve arranged and sized the images how I wanted them on my computer, printed it out just the same as above and fussy cut out all of the colored images to place over my background.

I’ve mounted the image panel over a piece of purple cardstock and then placed it over a top folding 5″ square black card base. I’ve used a piece of ribbon to run behind the layered image panel and then added some fun decorative metal corners on it.

For this card on the background, I didn’t distress it with water, I just left it ink blended.

Here’s an up-close look at the coloring I’ve done on the image. You can see again that I’ve used my gel pens to color in the tiny details like the stars on her hat, the bubbles from her cauldron, the bookmarker and the tiny nail on the wall.

To get the glow on the images, I’ve taken a green colored pencil and added it in the places that I thought her green magic potion would glow from.

Thanks so much for stopping in and hanging out with me today! See you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter:

Get Creative – Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door – Anything Goes
Try it On Tuesday – Boys/Girls/Children
Addicted to Stamps and More – Make Your Mark
Crafting By Designs – September Anything Goes

It’s Halloween On Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends! Happy Thursday! As this month creeps along and the weather slowly changes to cooler temps, the eerie feeling of Halloween comes to mind! So get your “Halloween” on and come join us this week at Cute Card Thursday!

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Here’s the project that I’ve made for the challenge using this adorable image from this week’s sponsor All Dressed Up! The image is called “Have a Magical Evening” and I have colored the entire image panel including the background with Copic markers. I have also used gel pens to color in gold details on the stars, her dress and shoes. Then I took the gold and white gel pens to add dots for the background sky. I’ve used a gold ink pad and rubbed it around the edges of the panel and then I mounted it over a gold foil cardstock base.

For this treat box, I’ve used the 2-5-7-10 box tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com to create a similar version, but I cut off the flap part and made a handle for my version. I covered the box with some fun “spooky” papers from my stash, added some gray with black stripes silk ribbon on the front panel along with making some bows with it for the sides of my box handle and glued them on. The image panel was added over top of the ribbon strip and design paper. It’s ready to add a nice treat inside for someone’s “magical evening”!

Here’s a closer look at the coloring of the image. I have also added some shimmer to the crescent moon with a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen which of course is hard to capture in the photo, but you can see the areas where I’ve used the gel pens.

The blue background was made using my Copic markers and I blended them out so that the lighter tones were towards the witch and the darker tones to the edges.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my treat box creation and thanks so much for stopping in today!

Challenges:

Craft Rocket – Autumn/Halloween
Brown Sugar – (October) Spooky Halloween and/or Autumn
Use Your Stuff – Autumn/Halloween (always great to use more paper from my stash!)
Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes
Words 2 Crafty By – “Listen! The Wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves. We have had our Summer evenings, now for October’s eves.”
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything BUT a card
All Dressed Up – #85 Anything Goes + use ADU image
Scor-Pal (Oct) – More than one score Fall/Harvest/Halloween (Scored at the marks, 2-5-7-10 inch marks)

Happy World Card Making Day!

Hello friends! Of course I can’t let this day go by without making a card for it, right?!

I love Halloween and when I received this image, I thought it would be so fun to create a card with it for the occasion!

Vicki-WCMD2018-Freebieimage on FB

This image is from the retired artist Kirsten Winkelbauer (for Whimsy Stamps) and she’s so cute and perfect for Halloween crafting! I’ve colored her up with Copic markers and added a few details with my gel pens. I’ve also put some loose glitter over the eyes and nose of the pumpkin on her hat. I fussy cut her out and popped her up with foam squares over a Kraft cardstock cut out stitched oval that was sponged with some black ink. I’ve also cut around the sentiment and sponged some more black ink around the edges and attached it to the oval panel.

For the card base, I used an A2 sized Kraft card base and then I took another piece of Kraft card stock and cut out a piece using the Whimsy Stamps Hand Stitched Nested dies that I’ve covered with a piece of Halloween paper from my stash and also sponged around the edges with some black ink. I wrapped a piece of Halloween purple ribbon around it and attached it to the back and then adhered my card front to the card base. I die cut a web twice with black card stock and glued it to the corners of the card front and then brushed over it with a clear glitter brush marker.

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Here’s a closer look at my coloring. You can better see where I’ve added my gel pen dots and the glitter on my pumpkin. Her green hair was so fun to color! 🙂

Hope that you are taking the time to have fun and create a card today! Thanks so much for stopping by!! See you soon!

Challenges:

{Cupcake Inspirations} – CIC455 ‘Bump in the Night’
Always Fun – Dies & Punches
Creative With Stamps – (CWS31) Halloween or Leaves
Artistic Inspirations – Anything Goes

Witches Fly In a Glowing Moon

Hello friends! With Fall on the way, I was really in the mood to create some spooky fun Halloween cards! (Plus I’m trying to get ready to fill my card rack for an up-coming craft booth and I ran low on Halloween cards from last year!) I’ve also just received my winnings from playing in a challenge on Facebook, so I thought I’d use some products to enter again! 🙂

Vicki-SnS Black Magic-Glowing Moon

I thought I’d go for two cards here with the same products but used in a slightly different way with the colored backgrounds and orientation.

I’ve picked out this cute Cackle On stamp set and the Wicked Web die cut for my winnings that I’ve used on both cards. As you can see from the props in the photo above, I have also used the Black Magic embossing powder to heat emboss the witch image on both of them. I just love the sparkle effect that stuff has! I’ve also die cut the webs in black cardstock and then went over them with clear embossing powder.

Below I will share details about each one:

Vicki-SnS-BigGirls-sky

To get the moon, I die cut a circle from masking paper and used the negative from the circle cut and placed it over my card front where I wanted the moon to be. I inked the open circle area with VersaMark and then sprinkled some Glow-in-the Dark embossing powder over it and heat set it. For my background, I have used some Ranger Mixed Media card stock because of all of the embossing and inking that I’ve done. I didn’t have to, but I put the circle cut from masking paper back over the moon. (The embossing would resist the ink, but I didn’t want to take a chance and covered it anyway…although it didn’t stick very well! LOL!) I then used my ink foam blending tool and added some distress oxide inks to create the background sky. I even used purple over the orange color, which is something you normally wouldn’t do, but with the oxide inks…it turns out stunning!

I then added some Nuvo Black Mousse with a sponge dauber along the edges which doesn’t show in the photo very well, but it has a cool shimmer. Then this is where I’ve added the witch over the moon by inking it up with some pigment black ink and then heat embossed the Black Magic EP on it. (I used my stamp positioner so that I could ink it several times as it was getting inked over the embossed moon.) I’ve also inked up the sentiment in the same way except that I used some clear EP over it.

At the bottom, I cut a strip of ground with a grass edge border die and then used some Nuvo Copper mousse to sponge some color on top to make it look like the moon is shining over it. I mounted card front panel over a top folding black A2 sized card base. Then lastly, I added some black sequins and filled the centers with Nuvo Silver Glitter Drops and then a smaller dot with some Nuvo Black enamel Drops.

Vicki-SnS-Lifesawitch-sky

This card pretty much was made in the same manner as the above card with the exception of the Distress Oxide colors, I’ve used for sponging. I also took my spray bottle and added some water droplets and then dabbed it off with a paper towel.

I cut out this panel with a MFT Wonky Stitch Rectangle die before attaching it to a black card base.

Then I wanted to show how cool this embossing powder is when the lights are off:

Vici-SnS-glowingMoon

I tried to get it as dark as I could so that you could see how that embossing powder really glows in the dark!! To get a really fabulous glow, it’s best to do a couple of layers of embossing over it.

Hope you are having a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Challenges:

{CupCake Inspirations} CIC453 – Spectacular Backgrounds
Crafting With an Attitude – Anything Goes
Crafty Friends – Embossing (wet or dry)

I’ve Been Schooled!

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

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

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

Day 1 – Monochromatic (CAS)

Vicki-MFTcamp-monochromatic CAS

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

Day 2 – Focal Point

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

Day 3 – Visual Triangle

Vicki-MFTcamp-VisualTriangle

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

Day 4 – Rainbow

Vicki-MFTcamp-rainbows

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

Day 5 – Ombre

Vicki-MFTcamp-Ombre

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

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

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