Quickie post 2

 Card number 4!

quickie post

 adding these at the last minute to {BYSHC}

Add more info soon!

FINAL CARD FOR DIGI DOODLE STUDIOS -- HOPPY HALLOWEEN PAIRABLES -- OCTOBER 28, 2022

Hello friends!  As you can see from my title, this is my last card as a DT member for Digi Doodle Studios.  Dina is closing the digi shop after October 31st in order to concentrate all her energy on her physical stamp, die and paper line, Ink N Splatter.  I wish her the best.

This is my second card featuring the Hoppy Halloween Bunny Pairables set.  I chose the little wizard bunny this time and paired him with some cute Halloween digi papers from my stash.  I colored this cutie with Copics and added white gel pen accents to the image, and yellow Stickles glitter glue to the stars.  The sentiment also comes from the set, and I used my Silhouette Designer edition software to pull a color from the patterned paper to color the shadow.  I think this card turned out super cute!

Ok, the Digi Doodle Studios shop will be closed after the 31st, so if there is anything you've been really wanting to grab, now is the time!  I know that I just grabbed some cuties for my collection!  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Marie

{BYSHC} LINKY PARTY -- FALLING FOR THE HOLIDAYS -- OCTOBER 2022

Hello friends!  I'm back with another card for the Falling for the Holidays 2022 {BYSH} Cardmakers Linky Party.  I was hoping to have made more cards for this party, but I will still have some time tomorrow, so maybe...

This card features an adorable image from one of our sponsors, Newton's Nook!  I have had this Snowman Roundabout set for a few years now after winning a GC from a challenge that Newton's Nook had sponsored.  As is my usual way of doing things, it has been in my drawer, unused until now. 😲 If you've been around here for a while now, you know that I love ALL THINGS snowmen, so this set HAD to become a part of my collection!  I decided to also break out something else that I hadn't used but one other time, my set of Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.  Of course, that meant stamping the image onto Bristol with Versa Fine Clair Nocturne ink, and then clear heat embossing it.  I just chose a bunch of colors that looked festive and went to town coloring.  I used a blender pen from Recollections to blend the colors out.  Using that pen that I bought on clearance the other year made me sure that I want to buy the regular Zig blender pen instead!  I have seen Lynn Dion from Pink Whisper Designs on YT use it many times, and it looks like it would work better than the one from Recollections. 

 Anyway, after the coloring was completed and dried, I die cut the image using the largest circle from the Spellbinders Classic Circles set, and then cut the pink scalloped mat with the Petite Scalloped Circle set.  After searching my vast collection of Christmas paper, I found this multi-colored chevron one from the Fa La La La 12x12 paper pad from Recollections that I have had a few years now.  I thought it went well with the colors I had chosen.  Since I popped this image up on foam tape onto a 5.5" square card base, I thought the sentiments from the same Newton's Nook stamp set were too small, so I went back to a Lawn Fawn favorite, the Winter Big Scripty Words stamp set and coordinating dies.  Lawn Fawn is also a wonderful Linky Party sponsor!  I stamped the sentiment with Versa Color white pigment ink, and heat embossed with white embossing powder onto the same pink cardstock used for the mats.  I cut it with its coordinating die, and also cut it 4 additional times from the pink and glued them all together for added dimension.  I think this turned out cute!

Well, the Linky Party is up into the 170s as I get ready to link this card, will you be adding to it?  I sure hope to see you there!

~ Marie

SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH -- OCTOBER 21, 2022

 Hello friends!  Welcome back.  Today is the day that my crafty friends and I (aka the Squirrel Squad) get together and do a little hoppin'!  As you may or may not know, the goal for our little hop is to use some of that "squirreled away" stash of crafty goodies that we have collected and not yet used.  And throw in a technique we want to try or a specific supply or theme.  This month, we are focusing on BUTTONS and VINTAGE.  I do have a nice little collection of buttons that I don't really use, so it's good to be busting those out.  The vintage theme is a bit harder for me to work with, as it really isn't my crafty style.  I love the look of it, but actually CREATING IT is a different story.  Before I show you my card, let me share the hop list with you in case you get lost:

V at Passions and Distractions

Karen at Misplaced Mojo

Anna at Craftyanna Studio

Lounon at Craft Me, Craft Moi

Boryana ~ skipping this month

Marie ~ That's me!

And now, here is my card:

I went looking on Pinterest for vintage Christmas cards, and when I found the snowmen ones, I knew what I wanted to do.  I busted out the new-but-not-yet-used Build-a-Snowman die set from Lawn Fawn and started die cutting pieces to match this fella here:

Isn't he just so joyful with his little birdie friend?  I really do love the look of these old Christmas cards!  I used the same colors as on this vintage card, and even gave him a coal nose instead of a carrot one.

I started out by die cutting the larger snowman from the white glitter cardstock from Walmart (my new favorite!).  I used a scrap piece to test out which oxide ink color would look best and determined that Black Soot gave me the look I wanted...as long as I used a light hand to ink blend.  Light-handed ink blending is NOT my strong suit, but I think I managed it well here! 😀   I die cut the rest of the pieces I needed from red, black, and kraft colored cardstocks, and added details and shading with white gel pens and the Black Soot oxide ink. I built my snowman, and then added Glossy Accents to the entire hat, the coal nose, his eyes and each dot of his smile.  I think it really adds to the look!  Then I had to wait for it to dry....

In the meantime, I worked on the rest of the card.  I decided that I really liked the green background on the vintage card, so I dug out a similar shade of green, and then...inspiration struck!  I have had the Honey Bee Stamps Pierced Fancy Flakes Cover Plate in my card making stash for at least a year now without having touched it other than to repackage it and put it away.  I thought this would be a great way to add more interest to the background without getting too fancy or complicated.  I cut my panel to 4.25" x 5.5", and then ran it through my Cuttlebug (yes, I am still using it!) with the cover plate on top.  I then chose the largest rectangle from the Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics  A Card Creator die set to cut the panel down to allow for a small bit of the card base to show.  After the die cutting, I then did the ink blending around the edges.

For the sentiment, I chose to use Lawn Fawn's Winter Big Scripty Words stamp and die sets.  I stamped Let It Snow with Versa Color white pigment ink onto a scrap of black cardstock, and then heat embossed it with Recollections Snow embossing powder.  After the embossing was cool, I die cut it with the coordinating die.

When the Glossy Accents was finally dry, I glued the hat band to the hat, and added white gel pen accents on top of the dried Glossy Accents.  I carefully gave Mr. Snowman some rosy cheeks with a R22 Copic marker and added a white gel pen dot in the middle of each one.  I debated about whether or not I wanted to use an action wobbler to adhere him to the card, but I decided just to use thick foam squares.  The green panel and the sentiment were both adhered down flat with Bearly Art Glue.  And that's it!  I have to admit that I waited until the last minute to make this card and write my blog post...even more so than I usually do!  I really need to get better at that...

Anyway, thank you for stopping by!  I hope you all have a nice weekend.  Don't forget to hop on to V's blog to start the hop if you just happened to land here first.  Also, we would love it if you would leave us some comment love and subscribe to our blogs if you haven't already!  Until next time, my friends...

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

{BYSHC} LINKY PARTY -- FALLING FOR THE HOLIDAYS -- OCTOBER 2022

Hello friends! It's time, it's time!  It's finally time for the Falling for the Holidays 2022 Linky Party at Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers!!

In case you don't already know, this is a week-long event at {BYSHC}, where you can link up as many newly made Christmas, Hanukkah or other winter holiday cards as you want.  There are great prizes to be had, and here is a list of the fantastic sponsors:

Angie Blom Digital Designs

Fresh and Renewed with Teresa

Gina K. Designs

Colorado Crafty Company

Newton's Nook

Jaded Blossom

NEW Sponsor - Pink & Main!!

Gina Marie Designs

Tawny Owl Paperie

Unity Stamp Co.

NEW Sponsor - Pretty Pink Posh!!

Twiddler’s Nook

Lawn Fawn

NEW Sponsor - Therm O Web!!

Not 2 Shabby

NEW Sponsor - Danni’s Dreams!!

In Love with Paper ~ Cindy Messer

Taylored Expressions

NEW Sponsor - Kat Scrappiness!!

What a great sponsor list this is! It is definitely worthwhile to "build up your stash" and submit as many cards as you can to the linky party! Speaking of cards, here is mine:

I based my card off of Sketch #11, and I used a beautiful snowflake from the Sparkling Season stamps and dies from our lovely sponsor, Gina K.  This was the limited-edition collaboration set that she did with Simon Says Stamp for Stamptember this year, so I can't do a product link for it.  You really could just grab ANY of Gina's beautiful snowflakes to make this card, though!  The dark teal and snowflake patterned cardstock come from a 12x12 Love Nicole paper pad called Let it Snow.  I bought this at AC Moore several years ago, so of course it's not available anymore either, but it was so pretty, I just HAD to use it!

I inked up the snowflake with Uncharted Mariner oxide ink using my MISTI, and then used the matching die to cut it out.  I used the trick that I learned from watching Gina's videos where she cuts the die from plain cardstock first and then uses that to perfectly align the die over the stamped image.  That is such a brilliant trick!  I can't tell you how much I HATE IT when my die cut images are not perfectly aligned!

The sentiment also comes from that set and is stamped with Uncharted Mariner oxide ink as well.  I used the same die cutting trick for this too.  To add solid dimension to both the snowflake and the sentiment, I die cut 3 additional layers from scrap cardstock to layer beneath the stamped pieces.

To add a bit of sparkle, I did use a small amount of Wink of Stella on some parts of the snowflake.  I wanted to do more, but when I realized that the ink was smearing, I just used the Wink of Stella sparingly.  Since that idea kind of failed, I decided to add some bling.  I routed through my bling container and found these clear gems that I bought on clearance somewhere.  They did have small pieces of foam tape on them, but I wanted to make sure they held fast, so I also added tiny drops of UltraBond glue from another of our sponsors, Therm O Web.  They shouldn't be going anywhere now! 😁

--CHALLENGES--

Well, that is all for this post.  I will have another one coming up at 10am where I am hopping with my fellow Squirrels, so I hope you will come back for that one!  I appreciate that you dropped by today!  This Linky Party runs from Oct 21-28, so head on over to the {BYSHC} post and link up those Christmas, Hanukkah, and other winter holiday cards!  I can't wait to see all the cards!  

Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

BUILD YOUR STASH HOLIDAY CARD LINKY HOP--COMING SOON!!

 Hey there friends!  I just wanted to let you know about this exciting event starting this Friday...

Grab your Christmas and wintry holiday goodies and start building your stash of holiday cards!!

• Please use the above graphic and hashtag #fallingfortheholidays2022byshclp
• Direct link to BYSHC blog post {goes live on October 21, 2022}: https://byshcardmakers.blogspot.com/2022/10/falling-for-holidays-2022-byshc-linky.html
• No backlinking, please only share new projects
• All projects MUST be Christmas, Hanukkah, Yuletide, wintry, etc.

Doesn't this sound like fun? I know I'm excited! I hope you will come and join us! 😁

~ Marie

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS #192 -- SPONSORED BY SHEEPSKI DESIGNS -- OCTOBER 16, 2022

 Hello friends!  I hope you're all having a nice weekend!  Hubby and I went to Gettysburg, and the weather was perfect!  Today is the start of another new ANYTHING GOES challenge at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends and our sponsor is 

**Sponsor**

Sheepski Designs

Prize:  3 Images

Sheepski Designs Shop

Blog

Facebook

Instagram

I got to chose an image this time, and of course I went with a Christmas theme:

I chose this pretty Christmas Bells image to work with.  In planning the coloring for this card, I had it in mind the whole time to make the bells gold, but when it came time to do it, the song Silver Bells was going through my head, so what else could I do but color them silver?  I used a silver metallic pen from Recollections to color the Bells, taking care the whole time not to go over the black lines of the image.  If I did, I went over them later with a Micron pen.  I used mostly gel pens to color this image, but I also used green Copics on the holly leaves. I used the current Sketch #27 from {BYSHC}Sketch #27 from {BYSHC} to construct my card, and foil cardstocks in gold and green.  The sentiment comes from the Mama Elephant Joyful Greetings stamp set and coordinating Creative Cuts.

--CHALLENGES--

Well, that's all I have for today!  Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to stop by the Lil  Patch of Crafty Friends challenge to enter!

~ Marie

ABC CHRISTMAS -- U FOR UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS COLORS, AND V FOR VELVET -- OCTOBER 12, 2022

Hello friends, and Happy Wednesday!  I hope that your week is going well so far, and that all of my Canadian family and friends had a great Thanksgiving.  Today starts a new challenge at the ABC Christmas challenge blog.  We are now up to the letters U for Unusual Christmas colors, and V for Velvet.  Here is my card:

I was throwing around quite a few color combinations in my head before I started my card like navy with pink, and navy with orange; but then when I opened the drawer unit my colored cardstocks are in, I came across this cardstock pack from Recollections called Cool Water.  It has a light and dark teal, light and dark purple, and a dark gray in it that go so well together, and I thought "HEY!"  How about that for an unusual color combo for a Christmas card?  So, then I thought, how can I incorporate some or all of these colors on one card and make it look nice?  Spellbinders Kaleidoscope Plaid dies to the rescue!  I die cut several of each layer from the two teals and the lighter purple so I could play around with which patterns would look best, and I ultimately settled on this combo.  After die cutting and assembling 4 of the layered plaid pieces, I cut the dark gray cardstock using the largest rectangle in the A2 Matting Basics Card Creator Set A to use as a mat behind the plaid layers.  I adhered them to the mat using the corners as my guide for placement.  

To top this off, I felt that it just needed a bold sentiment, and I just so happened to recently purchase the Bold Merry Words Creative Cuts from Mama Elephant, which was perfect!  I die cut the Merry Christmas sentiment 4 times from some scrap Accent Opaque 100lb. cardstock and stacked them up beneath a white glitter layer cut from White Glitter Cardstock from Pen+Gear that I bought at Walmart.  I forget where I saw someone else that had used this on a project, and I just thought it was so gorgeous that I had to have it.  Never mind that I already had other white glitter paper and cardstock!  The colors on this one are slightly different from what I already had, so it's OK. 😁 That's what I tell myself anyway!

--CHALLENGES--

Thanks a bunch for stopping by today!  We're getting closer and closer to that big card-sending holiday, so if you haven't started on your Christmas cards yet, you'd better get moving!  While you're at it, come on over to the ABC Christmas challenge and join in with our letters U for Unusual Christmas colors and V for Velvet.  I think these should definitely yield some creative cards!  Also, don't forget to leave the DT some love for their inspiring creations!  Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

IT'S MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR, AND SOME FABULOUS NEWS!

Hello friends!  Welcome back to my blog, where I have some news to share with you.  I have accepted a DT spot on the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmaker team, otherwise seen as {BYSHC}!! I am super excited to be on this team, as it means that I get to use some fabulous sketches and ALL of my enormous stash of Christmas supplies to build up MY stash of Holiday cards!  We are on Sketch #27 and here it is:

Now, I did also mention that it's my favorite time of year, and do you know why?  Not only is it Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, where the temps are getting colder, and the leaves are changing colors, BUT it's also the time of year where I start to see A LOT of Christmas card inspiration all over the place!  Companies release more adorable and beautiful Christmas stamps, dies, paper, etc., and creators make samples with these new products, which absolutely makes me GIDDY!  I totally wish I could just be in my craft room all day long, creating Christmas cards, but hubby says I have to keep working if I want to buy more stuff.  Humph. 😞 Enough of that, here is my first card for Sketch #27:

I love that Crystal also provides measurements for the design elements, as that makes it easier for me to just pick the elements I want to use to decorate with.  The purple holographic snowflake paper on the left is one of my favorites and it comes from the Northern Lights 12x12 paper pad by Recollections.  I wish that I had bought more than one of these pads!  I wanted to cover the paper's edge with something decorative, so I pulled out some holographic ricrac and glued it down using Simon's Craft Tacky glue.  After I trimmed the ends off, I added some Bearly Art glue to the edges so hopefully they don't fray.  To continue on with the holographic theme, I cut a Gina Marie Designs Nested Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die from some Recollections holographic foil cardstock for the panel on the left side.  The white panel was cut from a piece of Accent Opaque 80lb. cardstock using a Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle die.  The cutie patootie image comes from Stinkin Cute Paper Piecings, and she is called Snow Bunny with Snowball Print & Cut, item number 53041, at the Silhouette Design Store.  I thought her hat and scarf matched the patterned paper perfectly!  I did veer off from the sketch a little bit by placing my sentiment on the bottom right of the card, but I really didn't think it would fit where the sketch wanted it to be.  It comes from the Mama Elephant Let It Snow stamp set, and I did perform stamp surgery on it to make it fit.  Both sides of the stamp have been reunited and are recovering well after their separation. 😆 Oh, and I stamped it with Wilted Violet oxide ink using the MISTI.

--CHALLENGES--

Well, that's all for today!  I hope you'll come join us at the {BYSHC} Facebook page to enter in the challenge using Sketch #27.  I always enjoy seeing what others come up with using the same layout. 😊 Until next time, friends...

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

GUEST DESIGN TEAM SPOT FOR LEANN'S WORLD 101 - OCTOBER 2022

Hello friends!  I hope you've had a good week!  For my Canadian friends and relatives, I hope you will have a lovely Thanksgiving weekend; and for those of us elsewhere, I hope you just enjoy your weekend. 😊 I'm here today to share the card I made as a guest designer for the LeAnn's World 101 challenge.  I came to be a guest designer by winning last month's challenge and being able to choose some images from her shop at LeAnn's World 101.  Here's my card:

For this card, I used the sweet Candy image, and she was colored with Copics.  My original plan was to have her dress colored in the lighter BGs, but as I continued to color the shadows, the whole dress got darker.  I think it still looks nice though.  For her hair, I went completely rogue and colored it with Cool Grays.  Younger girls are doing that to their hair nowadays anyway, and I think it looks nice.  I will continue to fight Mother Nature tooth and nail when it comes to my hair color changing to gray though! 😉

For the card layout, I was loosely following an old Papertake Weekly sketch.  I had this green polka dot paper on my desk that I had planned to use on another card but chose a different paper for that one instead.  I thought it matched her dress really well, and then I found this darker gray cardstock that I thought played off her hair.  The green cardstock mat behind the image panel was also found to match pretty well. All of these cardstocks and papers are by Recollections.  The glittery snowflake on top of the green polka dot paper was laying on my desk also, planned for another project that never came about.  It's an acrylic ornament I picked up somewhere.  Due to the dimension created by this ornament, I had to pop up most of the image panel with some foam tape.  The sentiment is from a brand-new stamp set from Mama Elephant called Joyful Greetings.  I stamped it with Versa Fine Clair Nocturne ink using the MISTI.  I then cut it with the coordinating die from the Creative Cuts die set.  I added dimension behind the sentiment by cutting four additional die cuts from cardstock scraps and stacking them up.  And that's it! 😊

--CHALLENGES--

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #93:  ATG Christmas (1/10)

Most Magical Time of the Year #1:  ATG Christmas/Winter/Halloween/Day of the Dead theme

Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

613 Avenue Create #10:  ATG (2/10)

Crafts Galore Encore #104:  ATG (1/3)

Classic Design #10:  ATG

A Place to Start #10:  ATG (2/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft:  ATG

Happy Little Stampers Christmas:  ATG

Morgan's ArtWorld #10:  ATG (2/3)

Ellibelle's Corner: ATG (1/3)

QKR Stampede #453:  ATG (1/3)

Creatalicious #244:  ATG (1/3)

Colour Crazy #40:  ATG w/coloring (1/2)

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday:  ATG (1/3)

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Christmas (2/3)

The Outlawz October Linky: ATG

Well, that is all I have for this post.  I will be back hopefully today with another post about another new DT I have joined!  Until then my friends,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

SHARING IS CARING - WINNIE SUGAR SPRINKLES COLLECTION BY POLKADOODLES - DIGI CHOOSDAY WEEK 40 - OCTOBER 4, 2022

 Hello friends!  Happy Tuesday! I'm back today to share my final card for the Digi Choosday challenge blog.  The DT theme was Autumn, and here is the card I created:

This gorgeous image is called Sharing is Caring from the Winnie Sugar Sprinkles collection. I colored her using Copic markers in Autumn colors, of course.  I always feel like kraft is the perfect color to use for Autumn-themed cards, so I used a lot of it here!  The image is die cut using the largest of the Spellbinders Classic Ovals, and the mat layer is cut using the largest of the Lacey Ovals dies.  The gorgeous colors of foil cardstock come from various packs of 8.5x11 cardstock from Michael's.  The pretty plaid paper is a 12x12 single sheet by Authentique that I got at Hobby Lobby.  The die cut leaves and sentiment all come from the Stitched Fall Leaves Small Die of the Month set for September 2022 from Spellbinders.  I opted not to stitch them for this card, but I bet they would look really pretty if I had stitched them.  I die cut each stitching layer 3 times to really make them substantial.  I had fun creating all the elements for this card, and I think it turned out well. 😊

--CHALLENGES--

Creative Moments #238:  Autumn Colors

613 Avenue Create #10:  ATG (1/8)

Crafty Gals Corner #235:  Signs of Fall (1/3)

Classic Design #10:  ATG

A Place to Start #10:  ATG (1/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft #10:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #56:  ATG (2/3)

SheepSki Designs #67:  Autumn Things incl. Halloween (1/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #10:  ATG (1/4)

Crafty Friends #160:  Use More Than One Die (1/5)

Dragonfly Dreams:  Halloween/Autumn (1/3)

Pearly Sparkles #78:  Autumn and/or Halloween

Sweet Stampers #72:  Add a Sentiment (3/5)

Morgan's ArtWorld #10:  ATG (1/3)

The Crafting Challenge:  Autumn Colors (1/3)

Colorful Options:  Orange

Your Scrapbook Place:  ATG (1/3)

Four Seasons:  ATG FALL

Word Art Wednesday #563 - #564:  ATG (1/5)

My Time to Craft #491: Pick 3 Autumn colors (kraft, orange, brown)

Use Your Stuff #468:  Autumn/Fall

Addicted to Stamps and More #439:  Any Occasion

CD Sunday Plus #95: ATG with digital elements (1/3)

Everybody Art #521:  Autumn Magic

QKR Stampede #453:  ATG (1/3)

Creatalicious #244: ATG (1/3)

Simon Says Wednesday:  ATG

Penny's Paper Crafty #531:  ATG (1/3)

Colour Crazy #39:  ATG (1/2)

Crafty Catz #608:  ATG 

Make My Monday #184:  Autumn Flora or Fauna

Krafty Chicks #631:  ATG

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday:  ATG

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Fall

The Outlawz October Linky:  ATG

Ok friends, that's all for today!  I appreciate you stopping by, and don't forget to head on over to the Digi Choosday challenge to join in! Until next time...

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie