CHRISTMAS CRAFTS ALL YEAR ROUND -- FALL COLORS -- AUGUST 1, 2020

Hello again, my friends!  This is my third post for today, and I'm so glad you've stopped by!  It's a new month, which means it's time for another theme challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year Round.  This month, we want to see you make a Christmas project with Autumn/Fall colors.  Yes, Fall colors!  This one had me stumped almost until the deadline, but I managed to get something created that didn't read too Christmassy:

This is the Rudolph image that comes in the A Kids View Reindeer Names set from Bugaboo Stamps.  I do believe this is the set that was given away for the winner of last year's Christmas in July event.  There is a pre-colored version and a un-colored version in the set to choose from , and I went with the un-colored one.  I thought it wouldn't take all that long to color this simple image up.  I used my favorite brown Prismacolor marker combo, Sepia, Mocha Dark, and Mocha Light, to color this fella.  I think these 3 browns together are just perfect!  For his antlers, I used a Spectrum Noir EB7 marker.  His nose and the heart beside his name were colored with Prismacolor marker Crimson, and the bells on his collar were colored with a YR23 Copic marker.  I like to color any areas I am adding Stickles to, just to make sure there is no white showing through the glitter glue.  The Stickles I used were Christmas Red and Gold.  I added white gel pen to his eyes, and the coloring was done!  I die cut the image with Spellbinders Labels One in the largest size, and made my card base from 2 pieces of kraft card stock using the largest Scalloped Labels One die.

--CHALLENGES--

CHNC #501:  ATG Christmas

Love to Craft #49:  ATG (1/5)

Mix it Up #40:  ATG (1/5)

My Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

Colour It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring (1/3)

Crafts Galore Encore #78:  ATG (1/3)

Crafty Animals #41:  ATG

Classic Design #8:  ATG

A Perfect Time to Craft #8:  ATG

2 Crafty Critter Crazies #41:  ATG using critters (1/5)

Gem of a Challenge #16:  ATG (1/2)

Crimbo Crackers #212:  ATG (1/2)

Word Art Wednesday #450 - #451:  ATG (1/5)

Lemon Shortbread #125:  ATG (1/3)

Polkadoodles #31:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #30:  ATG (1/2)

Crafting Happiness #59:  ATG

A Bit More Time to Craft Extra:  ATG

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #68:  ATG Christmas (1/10)

A Bit More Time to Craft:  ATG

Don't forget to stop by the CCAYR blog to see what the rest of the DT have made for this month!  

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~

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IT'S SATURDAY! TIME FOR A BUGABOO CHALLENGE -- AUGUST 1, 2020

Happy Saturday, friends!  I just love Saturdays!  That usually means I don't have to work, and I can hang out with my hubby or in the craft room to my heart's content!  Well, there may be some cleaning and laundry thrown in there too.  Necessary evils.  LOL  

Anyway, we aren't here to talk about chores, are we?  I want to share the card I made for today's challenge at Catch the Bug:  Anything Goes (my favorite!)

I'm actually killing two birds with one stone here...isn't that a horrible saying?  This card is also serving as my submission in the #summerlovincardhop happening on Instagram today.  I picked this cute little doggie getting ready to hit the waves, and the file name is Summer Dog Surf.  I printed him out using my inkjet printer on Canson Recycled Bristol card stock, and water colored him using Tombow markers.  The card panel is cut from the same card stock.  I made a stencil out of a scrap of 65lb. card stock cut to the same size as the panel, using the largest of the Spellbinders Classic Circle dies.  Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink and the stencil I created using Lawn Fawn's Puffy Cloud die were used to create the ocean.  Clearly, I need some work on making ocean waves!  The clouds in the sky were made using Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink, and the cloud stencil from the fabulous Create & Inkspire kit by Courtney Kreeber.  After I applied these to my scene, I decided to channel my inner Marine Simon and add texture with splatters of water and ink .  The ink splatters on the sky were made with Broken China Distress Oxide, and the ocean splatters were created with Blueprint Sketch Distress Oxide.  I will add a sentiment at a later date, as I ran out of time!  😕   

                                                --CHALLENGES--                                                   
Mix It Up #40:  ATG (3/5) 
Love to Craft #49:  ATG (3/5)
Classic Design #8:  ATG
A Perfect Time to Craft:  ATG
Crafting Happiness #59:  ATG
2 Crafty Critter Crazies #41:  ATG using critters (2/5)
The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Travel/Vacation
Little Red Wagon #560:  Give Us Your Background
A Bit More Time to Craft:  ATG

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Don't forget to hop on over to the Catch the Bug blog to see what other Bugaboo inspiration awaits!  Until next time,

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~

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FREEBIE FRIDAY...ON SATURDAY? AUGUST 1, 2020

Hey friends!  I just wanted to pop in with a quick post to share the card I made for Bugaboo's Freebie Friday at Catch the Bug:

This little fella is called Kidlet - Curly Hair Boy.  Isn't he just so adorable?    I love him in his little bib overalls and matching shirt!  Kinda reminds me of Garanimals clothing...do you remember those?  They were always so cute and matchy-matchy.  I'm pretty sure I wore my fair share of those back in the day! 😉  

For this card, I wanted to choose colors that didn't really expressly shout "BOY", but nothing that would read girly either.  I chose this green striped paper and the wood paper from a Recollections 12x12 paper pad called Seaglass.  The sentiment also comes from the paper pad, and I thought it would be really cute with this small guy.  I asked my buddy Renee from Delaney Jane Cards for advice on whether or not a hexagon looked like a "masculine" shape, LOL!  We both agreed that it kinda did, so I just went with it!  I used the largest Spellbinders Hexagon die to cut the wood paper, and then just traced the outside of the die onto the olivey-green card stock and cut it with my trimmer.  Easy peasy!

--CHALLENGES--

Love to Craft #49:  ATG (2/5)

Mix it Up #40:  ATG (2/5)

My Besties International:  (2/3)

Colour It, Create It, Show it Off: ATG (2/3) 

Crafts Galore Encore #78:  ATG (2/3)

Classic Design #8:  ATG

A Perfect Time to Craft:  ATG

Gem of a Challenge #16: ATG (2/2)

Word Art Wednesday #450 - #451:  ATG (2/5)

Lemon Shortbread #125:  ATG (2/3)

Polkadoodles #31:  ATG (2/2)

Digi Choosday #30:  ATG (2/2)

Crafting Happiness #59:  ATG

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Travel/Vacation

A Bit More Time to Craft:  ATG

Thanks for stopping by today!  Make sure you stop by the Catch the Bug blog, if you haven't already (since I'm a day late!), to see what the rest of the DT made, and to snag this cutie while he's still a freebie!

Until next time, Take Care and God Bless! 

~Marie~

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY CRAFTY FRIEND COLLAB, WITH RENEE FROM DELANEY JANE CARDS

Hello friends!  This is my second post for today; if you're looking for the Collected Crafty Collab post, click here.  This post is also a collaboration, but this time with just one other person; my very special crafty friend Renee, from Delaney Jane Cards. 

I had asked Renee if she had some free time in her super busy schedule to do a collaboration with me, and lucky for me, she said she did!  YAY!  Of course, I wanted to do a Christmas in July theme, because, why not?  I feel like I have been immersed in Christmas all month long!  Here is my card!

I had fun designing this card!  The ornaments along the edge are a card design in the Silhouette Design Store called Christmas Ornament Border.  I thought this design looked really cute paired up with this Bugaboo Stamps image called A Kid's View Christmas Tree.  HEY, I just noticed that this image will be retiring soon, and is only $1.00!  If you want her, you'd better grab her before she's gone!  Anyway, when I first came up with the idea to do this card, I had it in mind to simply cut the image out from white card stock using an offset, and glue it to the front of the card.  Then it struck me...why not cut the offset out of the front of the card, and use it as a window to the image on the inside? 💡

I positioned the image so that it would be where it needed to be when cut from a piece of card stock that is 3 7/8" wide by 5 3/8" tall.  The size of the finished card is 4 1/8" by 5 1/2".

I cut two of the card base; one from white Recollections 110lb, and one from pink card stock, also by Recollections.  The pink is only 65lb, so I wanted a sturdier base by adhering these together.  I printed and cut the image how I mentioned above, colored her up with alcohol markers, and glued her to the inside of the card, making sure she lined up in her offset window correctly.  Then this card sat around my room for a few weeks, unfinished.  I had a plan to put a die cut sentiment on the front of the card, but not much else.

The more I looked at this card though, I thought it was just missing something.  I kind of wanted to back the ornaments with some kind of specialty paper so they made more of an impact, so I asked my Squirrel Sisters for advice.  I showed them different things I had, and I finally hit on a winner with this white glitter paper from Walmart.

Instead of making it a solid backing piece, since I had to cut it with my Cameo to match the edge anyway, I decided to make it a cut out as well.  It's hard to see (of course!), but I bet if you click on the picture, you'll get a better view.  To finish it off then, I die cut the sentiment from the Christmas Phrases 2 set from Sizzix; twice from a scrap of Recollections 110, and once from the same white glitter paper, and layered them up.

Overall, I think it ended up pretty cute, even if it is hard to get a decent picture of it.  😆

--CHALLENGES--

Classic Design #7:  ATG

CHNC #500:  ATG Christmas

A Perfect Time to Craft #7:  ATG

A Bit More Time to Craft Extra:  ATG

Sweet Stampin':  Christmas in July (2/3)

ABC Christmas:  N is for No Fuss, O is for Over the Top (I think this is an O)

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #67:  ATG (9/10)

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Christmas

Alrighty my friends, PLEASE click on over to see what my friend Renee from Delaney Jane Cards has made for our Christmas in July collaboration.  I haven't seen it yet, but knowing her, it will be absolutely AMAZING!!!

Until next time, 

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~

COLLECTED CRAFTY COLLABS #2 -- JULY EDITION

Hey there my crafty friends, welcome back to my blog!  It's that time of the month where a bunch of us crafters get together to work on using up those "squirreled away" supplies!  July's theme is Outdoors, with the option to use patterned paper.

  

Here is what I came up with:

My Squirrel Sisters may or may not know, but I am determined to make as many Christmas cards as I can with our monthly hop themes!  😁 LOL  I thought this month's Outdoor theme and the option to use patterned paper was the perfect chance to use these ADORABLE Mice on Ice from Lawn Fawn.  I had used some of the sentiments in other cards, but this is my first time inking up these cuties.  I'm not a big fan of mice in real life, but Lawn Fawn's mice are too cute for words!

On my card, these mice are skating on a pond of silver contact paper.  It's the same "ice" I used for this card; just the leftover piece I've had sticking to my maglite.  I knew it would come in handy someday!  LOL  Waste not, want not...isn't that how the saying goes?  My piece of patterned paper comes from the 12x12  Northern Lights Recollections paper pad.  I stamped the mice out onto a scrap of Recollections 110lb. white card stock using Lawn Fawn Jet Black alcohol marker friendly ink.  For the mouse fur, I used brown and warm gray Prismacolor markers.  The scarves and tiny ice skates were colored with R85 and BV11 Copics.  I used my Scan N Cut (YAY!!) to cut them out, and popped them up on teeny pieces of foam tape.  The sentiment, which does come from the same stamp set, was stamped in Versamark ink using my MISTI, and heat embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver Sparkle embossing powder.  That looks so much better in real life than it does in the pictures I took, believe me!  I haven't done this yet, but I plan to stamp a mouse on the inside with the sentiment "May the little things bring you happiness."

--CHALLENGES--

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #67:  ATG (8/10)

Classic Design #7:  ATG

CHNC #500:  ATG Christmas

A Perfect Time to Craft #7:  ATG

A Bit More Time to Craft Extra:  ATG

Double Trouble #62:  Christmas in July (4/4)

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

The Holly and Ivy #75:  ATG (3/3)

Polkadoodles #30:  ATG (2/2)

Little Red Wagon #559:  Spots or Stripes

Crafty Animals #40:  ATG using animals

Sweet Stampin':  Christmas in July (1/3)

ABC Christmas:  N is for No Fuss, O is for Over the Top (I think N this time!)

Stamping Sensations:  All Creatures Great and Small (3/3)

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Christmas

Thanks for stopping by today!  If you're hopping along with us, you probably came here from my lovely Squirrel Sister Anna's blog.  If you came here on accident, click on over to her blog, as she is the starting point.  The next stop on the hop is at my friend Val's IG page.  I'm sure there is so much inspiration in today's hop, you won't wanna miss it!

I'll have another post going live today at 1, as a Christmas in July collaboration with someone special, so be on the lookout for that!  Until then my friends,

Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~