3D Balloons with lots of Bits and Baubles

Hey friends - how are you doing? We are having some beautiful weather of late, mid-high 80's, low 90's; I'll take that over the 100+ days ANY TIME!!

Friday and Saturday, I judged at our County 4H Fair - always fun, and long! 😊 Friday was Food and Nutrition (definitely out of my league, but I try my absolute best); Saturday was Visual Arts and that is much more in my wheelhouse. The kids are always fun and the learning experience is probably unmatched in the real world. They need to speak up, make eye contact, be able to explain what they made, HOW they made it, etc. I saw some incredible creations!

Anywho, onward we go to this card. I took all my inspiration from Lilybean Paperie; I absolutely love everything Melissa creates! This was so much fun and a whole lotta work. lol

I die cut the balloons from Tim Holtz watercolor paper and heavily shaded with Distress inks, then splattered with water, dried those drops and splattered some watered down white gouache and distress spray strains to each balloon. I cut the strings from mirror cardstock and set everything aside. 

I then die cut lots of little bits and baubles from the Hey Honeycomb Flower Power dies and Pretty Pink Posh Birthday Mug Additions. Some of the pieces I had cut previously and was able to use - can't beat that.

The sentiment is from the Four Square Birthday Tags stamp set, it's ombre - which I love. I assembled all the pieces; the balloons were mounted with foam squares, most of the bits and baubles were adhered directly to the balloons. Then I got out my white gel pen and added ALL THE HIGHLIGHTS, love me some white gel pen! 

The background is two different Bitty Bit Raspberry Fizz papers from Papertreyink. I added some shading to the top layer, and in between those papers, I added a scalloped layer of vellum, all these were cut with The Ton Nested Slimline dies (stitched and scalloped).

I sent this card to someone I love dearly for their birthday; I hope it touched their heart!

And thank YOU for stopping by, I appreciate your visit and hope this spurs you to create and mail your cards!

Have a great day!

Love to Scrap Challenge Blog - July 2024

Hi there, friends. I hope you are doing great and gearing up for the holiday ahead (for those in the US)!

It's time for another challenge at Love to Scrap; won't you join us, our theme is always ANYTHING GOES!

I made this card at a stampaway a few months ago and I love it! I probably love it most because, as you can see, the outside says "Let's Celebrate" and the inside says "your existence" and I think that's perfect for anyone's birthday!

I stamped the candles repeatedly and had fun coloring them. I added glitter to the flames, blended some purple around the edges, added some star stamping, second generation, stamped my sentiments and I was good to go! Of course, I needed to add some bling! 💗I do believe this stamp set was either limited edition or is retired, sorry about that - but I try to keep stamp sets I really love and know I will use repeatedly and this one has great images!

Thanks for stopping by; hope you will join us at Love to Scrap!

Mix It Up Challenge Blog - Veggie Stamping

Hi friends, how are you?

We just returned from watching our oldest graduate with her Masters in International Studies, quick trip, but so good to be there with her and our other two kids were able to get away and attend too. Very special!

The bi-monthly challenge for the Mix It Up Challenge Blog is VEGGIE STAMPING! I tend to bend the rules, I guess - didn't realize it till this month. lol I didn't stamp with my veggie, I used it to create the background.

And before we move on, my mojo has so left the building!! I know this happens to all of us, but man - digging yourself out can be super hard. I'm truly not happy with this card, but you know, it is what it is. I'm working hard not to judge myself, but to TRY to enjoy the process and keep pushing on. 😅

I used Color Burst Fresh Florals for the background - I put down the Naples Yellow, added more water, dried the panel, then put down my veggies on the watercolor cardstock and sprinkled with Peony. The Peony came off much darker than I anticipated. I added lots of water, then dried the cardstock. Once dry, I sprinkled on the Marigold. Not much of it came through as the Peony was so dark.

I then removed my veggies, made sure the panel was dry and used the Papertrey Ink Lattice die. I then set about creating my balloons and elements for a fun honeycomb ball surprise. 

I stamped the interior of the frame with 2nd generation stamping using the stars from The Greetery's Four Square Birthday Tags stamp set. I cut 3 balloons, added the Make a Wish to the pink balloon, added glitter paste to the orange balloon using a stencil from Taylored Expressions, Delightful Daisy. 

The yellow balloon was the one I added the honeycomb to with all the little elements. Aren't those stamps cute, 'Open Here', 'Peel, Open, Stick!'; lots of cute sentiments. I die cut the balloon strings from silver cardstock.

I added a flower from The Greetery's Flower Power die and called it good!

Lots going on.

Now, can you guess the veggie? PICKLES! lol Here's the photo of the pickles after they were abused...and the clean looking one? I dropped it on the floor! 😂 Always entertaining in my craft room. The napkin looks pretty though, doesn't it?

Thanks for stopping by; hope you will visit us at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog and join the fun!

Color Throwndown 793

Hi friends!

How are you? I hope you are enjoying some longer days of sunshine; our weather has been beautiful!

I saw the Color Throwdown (photo below) challenge this morning and decided to play along. I used lots of products from The Greetery and a cover panel from Papertrey Ink. I used inks from both Taylored Expressions and Simon Says Stamp; the SSS stamps are super juicy, so my detail layer lost a bit of definition, but I still think the purples look good together. The orange is Sherbert from SSS, love that color!

I used the 2nd and 3rd layers of the Sprinkled with Kindness (watering can) from The Greetery; love how it turned out! The flowers are from Budding Beauties and Mimosa Musings (one of my absolute favorites). I also used the jar fillers in the background after I had smooshed on some purple ink. I blended gray around the bottom third of the main panel to ground the watering can.

Everything was mounted with foam (watering can, flowers, main panel) on the Papertrey Ink Lots of Dots. I added clear wink of stella to all the flowers and tied on a little twine to finish it off. 

Thanks for stopping by; I appreciate you!

CHALLENGE:

  CTD793

Love to Scrap Challenge Blog - May 2024

Hey friends, thanks for stopping by!

This round at Love to Scrap, I used this insanely fun Cup of Kindness stamp and die set from Concord and 9th! I die cut 2 of the large cups, 'wrappers', and lids for the cups. Before putting the cups together, I used a couple stencils to accent the base of the cups. For the pink cup I used the sketched lines from the PTI A Little Sketchy set; for the aqua cup, I used SSS XL Rose Bouquet (all inks from Taylored Expressions).

The background is a, new to me, die set, Spellbinders Candy Stripes, in which I die cut two pieces and flipped one over to create the criss-cross pattern. I lightly blended some blue on the background before adhering everything together. 

I love how this turned out, the colors are so happy and if you're a coffee lover like me, it speaks to your heart!  😂

Stop by Love to Scrap and grab some inspiration, then join us. We love seeing your creations!!

Mix It Up Challenge Blog - Inlaid Die Cutting

Hello friends - how are you doing?

We are back at the Mix It Up Challenge Blog (MIUCB) with another super fun challenge - inlaid die cutting, so many was you can do this! I love to send birthday cards or tags, but I leave them blank so the recipient can re-use them. This is no exception!

I created a watercolor smooshed birthday tag with various Distress Inks and a retired Reverse Confetti CELEBRATE die. Rather than the tag with the Reverse Confetti set, I used the largest tag die from the Hero Arts Nested Infinity Tags. I smooshed the inks on and dried with a heat gun, I then cut the word CELEBRATE from the tag, as well as, black cardstock, and a few layers of white cardstock. I inlaid the black CELEBRATE into the tag; I then adhered the white layers to the watercolor piece and adhered the stacked CELEBRATE to the tag slightly offset to the left and down; this way you can peek the black cardstock. I also splattered some black ink for a bit more texture.

I then stamped and colored, with Copic markers, some balloons and presents from MFT's XXX set. I added some white gel pen accents and adhered a blank tag to the back for a handwritten message. I failed to capture a photo of the back of the tag, but it has the Hero Arts sentiment 'Some things just get better with age and you are definitely one of them', I love this Hero Arts birthday sentiment set - so many great sentiments!

Hope you will join us at the MIUCB with an inlaid die cutting project, or ANY project. We always love 'anything goes' creations too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Donut Worry, Be Happy!

Good ole quote, but seriously, if you can eat all these donuts with zero impact, so worth it, am I right?

I thought the Color Throwdown 786 (ctd786) was the perfect challenge for this card. The stamp set is from Taylored Expressions, Donut Days, it's a cling and clear set, also has an individual donut die, and the cutest donut mini strip sentiments! The little clay hearts are from Trinity Stamps.

Remember, sprinkle kindness everywhere...even on your donuts. 😉

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 2024 - Love To Scrap Challenge Blog

And we are off to the races of 2024, which will close out in the absolute blink of an eye! Are you ready?

For Love to Scrap this round, I'm sharing a couple quick Halloween cards I made; all the pieces/parts were left over from previous projects, I kept everything clean and simple, taking inspiration from Spellbinders Truckin Through the Seasons samples. Lots of die cutting, shading, and zero coloring! I stamped and embossed the sentiment, added some white gel pen, and voila, they were ready.

 Hope you will join us at the Love to Scrap challenge blog, we love seeing things you take time to create!

HELLO 2024! Mix It Up Challenge Blog - Mixed Media

 Hi friends,

 How are you? Ready for 2024, did you get to read the terms and conditions before it arrived?  😁😂 

We're back for another fun year of Mix It Up challenges, this round we're focusing on mixed media - I had made this card before I knew the challenge but I have lots of mixed media on this mini slimline card. 

 I so love these candy canes from Honeybee Stamps; all the elements of my card come from the die set with cardstock from Taylored Expressions. I shaded some of the elements, also with Taylored Expressions inks. 

The base scalloped layer was cut with a Taylored Expressions mini slimline die, and embossed with a 3D embossing folder (sorry, I failed to write down which one 😟); alas you can't see much of it, but peek hard. lol

Once embossed, I sprayed with both Frozen Fog and Peppermint Stick mica distress sprays; the shimmer is insane! I set this aside to dry and worked on the candy canes - there are so many options in how you put them together, you truly can't go wrong! I used pink, white, and red. Once adhered, I used glossy accents as the base for all the snow - including the drips - I think the snow is my favorite part! Once added, I sprinkled on rock candy glitter and set aside to dry. I then watered down, slightly, some Honeybee brilliant white ink to splatter on the greenery and berries. the bow was cut from bright white glitter paper. Some white gel pen was the final touch. 

Thanks for stopping by; I hope you will join us, we'd love to see your creations over on the Mix It Up Challenge Blog!!

Love to Scrap - Anything Goes

Hi there, I hope this post finds you doing well! Won't you join us this month at Love to Scrap, it's Anything Goes - always fun and easy for everyone!

Have you tried the washi tapes from Pinkfresh Studios? They have lots of varieties, but this one is by far my favorite for creating quick birthday cards; there are matching dies and a stamp set. I combined it with the birthday cake stencil from Pretty Pink Posh creating a slimline card. I mounted the stitched panel on a scalloped edge with paper from Papertreyink. I finished it off with my absolute favorite sequins, Friendship Mix. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have time to join us - we would love to see your creations!