Gnome Home

When I got the monthly file from Gerda Steiner Designs, I was super excited to color up this image.  Who wouldn't be excited to color up this cute gnome couple?!?

I have been TRYING to learn to use my Zig water color markers - think I'm making progress lol.  I wanted my whole card front to be a scene so I found a cute coloring page and added my digi of the gnomes.

Perfect? No. But I learned and to me that makes this an accomplishment.  

My card has been entered in the Gerda Steiner Monthly Challenge found here

Brighten My Day

I've been off the radar for most of the past week or so - we lost my Gram last week and it took us all by surprise. So I traveled back home to be with my family, which was amazing!  

I'm a kid of the 80's and still listen to the music and enjoy the fun toys we had growing up.  Yes, I still collect these cuties lol.   This is one of my favorite sets as it allows you so many different possibilities.

I thought this adorable image and sentiment were a perfect pick me up card.

The card base is one I created since I wanted it to resemble clouds.  I will be doing a full tutorial on how I made it next week as  I have another card using an adorable 80's set in the making!!

For that fun rainbow, it's actually made using a set of circle dies. I cut my circles in half and only used half the rainbow, saving the other half for another project.  I'm all for being thrifty when crafting and I don't like to waste anything.

I colored my bear with Zig watercolor markers.  I love the soft look you can get from them.  Added a few sequins and the perfect sentiment and the card is done.  I hope this card puts a smile on the recipients face.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Kindred Stamps April Release

Welcome to the Kindred Stamps April Release Blog Hop!!

We've been changing things up this month, and we've introduced a Design Team to our group! These ladies are INCREDIBLY talented and will be with us for the next several months! We couldn't be more excited to be working with them! We also have Guest Designer Lois with us AGAIN, because we love her so much.

Please visit their blogs, and ours, and comment on all the blog posts. Doing so will make you eligible for winning shop credit! The winner will be chosen Friday evening, the night of the 20th, and will be announced in our Fan Club!

Kindred Stamps 
R Winn Creates
My Clever Creations
The Frolicking Fairy
Mad Crafter's Tea Party
Fanciful Spaces
Wunder's Crafty World
Crafting Love
Clownmom Creations
DaggDesigns Blog

I was super lucky to work with the Forest Friends set.  Luckily for me, I love the outdoors so this was a perfect set for me =) 

I created 3 projects for the new release, so I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did creating them.  

Up first is this adorable box style card, that will fold flat for mailing.

A wooded scene with the cuties was a must!  I colored this cutie with my Prismacolor pencils.  That sentiment is so perfect for this set 💚

My second project is a couple pages in my travelers journal, which is more like a book of my life and those important times.  These two pages will feature pictures of me and my husband when we first met...many years ago (almost 23!!)

I scanned the deer to create a mirrored image so I'd have two deer representing us.  I split the sentiment so it would fit across both pages.  These were colored with Zig Clean Color Real Watercolor markers.

My last project is one that I truly had a blast making.  It's quite outside the box, but I love a good challenge lol.

Who would ever think to take your stamped image and do a little wood burning on a scrap piece of wood?  I used the scanned image of the deer from my journal pages and enlarged it to 5" tall.  I then added the sentiment from this awesome set cut in vinyl to finish my sign, which is hanging in my kitchen.

Here's a close up of one of the deer

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my projects.  I hope you  have enjoyed seeing this amazing set and feel inspired.

Your next stop will be the talented Waleska at Crafting Love.

Complete hop lineup

Kindred Stamps:
https://www.kindredstamps.com/blogs/features/blog-hop-4-18-18

R Winn Creates

https://rwinncreates.blogspot.com/2018/04/no-line-coloring.html

My Clever Creations
https://myclevercreations.blogspot.com/2018/04/kindred-stamps-april-release-blog-hop.html

The Frolicking Fairy
https://www.thefrolickingfairy.com/blogs/fairy-notes/kindred-stamps-april-release-were-in-a-club

Mad Crafter's Tea Party
meganhayashi.wixsite.com/madcraftersteaparty/single-post/2018/04/16/Kindred-Stampa-April-Release--Family-is-Forever

Fanciful Spaces

http://fancifulspaces.com/kindred-stamps-space-western/

Wunder's Crafty World (here)
https://wunderscraftyworld.blogspot.com/2018/04/kindred-stamps-april-release.html

Crafting Love (Next)
https://craftinglovew.blogspot.com/2018/04/kindred-stamps-april-release-blog-hop.html

Clownmom Creations
https://clownmomcreations.blogspot.com/2018/04/masters-of-magic-kindred-stamps-april.html

DaggDesigns Blog
http://blog.daggdesigns.com/2018/04/17/are-you-alliance/

For the love of baseball....

Baseball is one of my all time favorite sports.  I grew up watching baseball games with my Grandma, who always watched the Braves so that's where my love for the team stems from.  When I met my amazing husband, he too was a baseball fan!  He told me early on Pete Rose was his cousin ~ can you imagine being related the Big Red Machine?!?  So of course he is a Reds fan.  Thankfully we both share the love of the game and like each others teams.  

When KaDoodle Bug Designs released the new Baseball Cutie, I knew it would be a great file to use on a couple pages in my travelers journal.  But of course i had to rep both of our teams since we've been lucky to attend both home fields.

I started out by created digital paper for both pages - one for each team.

Each got matted on white cardstock and applied to my pages.

Now time to cut that adorable baseball cutie!!

I assembled my bigger cuties in the same fashion I always do.  Each one is created to represent my hubby and I so their eye colors match ours lol.

I wanted to make a decorated paperclip as well since I can't get enough of this file.  She's roughly 1.5" wide and 1.5" tall. So everything was cut a lot smaller.  I doubled the base piece so you wouldn't see the paperclip. 

Time to assemble the little ball.

I ran both of my backing pieces through my Xyron so they would hold together better.

I removed the backing from the piece ran through the Xyron and added a paperclip where I wanted it to be.

Then put your two pieces together, sandwiching the paperclip in the middle.  And there you have a custom made clip.

Next up was creating the mini albums to hold my pics and any mementos I wanted to add from our trips to the games.  I'll be posting a tutorial on the albums sometime next week =)

And here are my finished pages ready to add photos to the albums.

 

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my journal pages.

Princess Shaker

When I saw the adorable Glass Slipper Princess stamp set from Kindred Stamps, I knew she was going to be a shaker card.  Isn't she the cutest?!?!

I wanted to step outside the standard circle/rectangle shaker so when I saw the glass slipper I knew it would be the perfect shaker filled with blue/white goodies.  I stamped my slipper and broke out my PixScan Mat for my Cameo.

I took a photo of the mat with my phone and imported that into the Silhouette Design Studio.

I had to block out the other areas as those projects are not finished 😏  But you can see the slipper stamp.  I then traced it and got just the outline.

I selected the trace area, changed to outline and then selected "trace outer edge".  You can see the outline in red next to the slipper.

I then had to decide how big I wanted my slipper shaker to be.  Since I used a standard card size, I created a 4in. x 5.25in rectangle to resemble my top layer. I then started to enlarge the slipper until I was happy with the size.  I knew how tall my princess was going to be, so I tried to keep it large enough so she wouldn't cover it.

Since this is a custom shape, I knew cutting and applying foam tape around the slipper was not going to be fun!  To remedy that, I chose to do a bunch of layers of kraft cardstock smaller than my card top with the slipper cut out.  I kept my slipper the same size but made the rectangle smaller so I could use foam tape to adhere the top layer to my base.  

Here are the pieces cut. I cut about a dozen of the kraft cutouts as I wasn't sure how many I would need to stack to allow my sequins and beads to move freely.  I also used a piece of clear cardstock behind the pattern paper - it's a lot thicker than acetate so it's studier.

I flipped the top layer over and applied a layer of double sided tape around the shoe.  This will attach the clear cardstock (be sure to remove the protective film before sticking it in place lol).  In addition, I added some wider pieces around the edges.

In order for the first layer of kraft to stick to the clear cardstock, I ran it through my Xyron Creative Station.  I wanted to make sure the layer was not going to come off and liquid glue was not going to hold it in place.

Apply your first layer after removing the backing from the Xyron.  I then stacked my foam tape around the cutout so as I was layering the kraft cutouts, I knew how tall to make my layer.  Going with 2 layers of foam tape will give the shaker pieces plenty of room to move freely.

Using liquid glue, I stacked my layers.  Once I was at the level of the foam tape, I ran the last layer of my kraft cutout through the Xyron flipped over, so the top layer will have the adhesive.  I removed only the top piece of plastic and glued it in place.  Then it was time to add my sequin mix.

I cut a piece of blue cardstock to the same size as the kraft cutout and stuck that to the adhesive - using the Xyron adhesive stops the sequins from being able to move beyond the shaker area and you don't have liquid glue seeping into your sequins.

Flip it over and give it a shake 😊  I added this to a standard, 5.5in x 4.25in white card base.

Now it's time to color up a Princess.  My first attempt with Zig watercolor brushes and I think she turned out pretty cute.  I added some Nuvo drops for her earrings and a little sparkle to her dress with a Spectrum Noir Sparkle Marker.

I wanted to add her pumpkins as well to the card.

And here's my finished shaker card. I popped the princess up with some foam tape.  I then added the adorable sentiment, which is perfect for this card as it will be a surprise for my niece and she's all done.

Goodies used on this card:

Kindred Stamps ~ Glass Slipper Princess Stamps

DCWV ~ Blossoms & Butterflies Stack

Bazzill Cardstock

Recollections Kraft Cardstock

Tim Holtz Watercolor Paper

Tim Holtz Stamp Platform

Archival Jet Black Ink

Xyron Creative Station

BigShot

MFT Die-namics ~ Mini Tabs Dies

Simon Says ~ Rain Sequin Mix

Nuvo Crystal Drops ~ Duck Egg Blue

ColorBox Chalk ~ Chestnut Roan

Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen

Double Sided Tape

Clear Scraps ~ Clear Cardstock
Foam Tape

Love You

I can finally spill the beans... I'm a Guest Designer at Kindred Stamps!!  I'm so excited to be using their awesome stamps!!!

I think I grew up in the best era - still an 80's kid today lol.  Took a stroll down memory lane while creating this fun card.  I loved collecting these and still do 😊  I may have even rubbed off my obsession with them onto my son, but who doesn't love them?!    Here's my fun card featuring the Bears with Feelings stamp set from Kindred Stamps.

I love making Magic Slider cards to reveal a fun colored image.

I used the Lawn Fawn Magic Color Slider Dies and my BigShot to cut all the pieces out.

Next, I had to stamp my bear on my piece of clear cardstock.  In order to make sure it would line up with my already colored bear, I had to overlay the clear cardstock and place my stamp over it.  Using a stamp platform makes this super easy!

Since these cuties love the clouds, I thought it would be fun to make some clouds around him.  I had a bear cutout that I wasn't thrilled with the coloring, so I used that as a mask.  The clouds are created with my eBrush and sharpies and a flower petal cutout.

Removed the mask and you can see the clouds around the bear placement.

Time to assemble the card.  I placed my bear and background on the back of the slider.  Added some double sided tape around the clear cardstock and lined up the stamped images.

Now you can see both images in place.

Next, I put the pull tab in place.

Taped down the track for the pull tab.

Added another layer of double sided tape over the pull tab track to close the slider.

The slider part is now complete.  Time to add it to a card base. 

Here's the finished cutie.  I added some twine and the adorable sentiment.

Here's the card in motion.

Thank you for stopping by today!!

Goodies used on this card:

Kindred Stamps ~ Bears with Feelings

StazOn  Jet Black Ink

ClearScraps ~ Clear Cardstock

Bazzill Cardstock

Tim Holtz Stamp Platform

BigShot

Scrappy Moms Twine

eBrush

Sharpie Markers

Prismacolor Pencils

Double Sided Tape

Lawn Fawn Magic Color Slider Dies

ColorBox Chalk ~ Warm Red