SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH -- LOVE AND FREINDSHIP/INK BLENDING -- JAN 27, 2023

Hey friends!  Super short and sweet post, as I have very limited time to post tonight.  It's that time where my crafty besties and I dig into our stashes and create some beauties to look at.  That's right it's time for...

This month we focused on LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP with ink blending.  Here's my card:

I used the Lawn Fawn Lots of Hearts stencil set to do my ink blending through, and used Gina K inks in Bubblegum Pink, Passionate Pink, Lovely Lavendar, and Wild Lilac.  I had wanted to add a clear glitter paste on top of the lighter colored hearts, but my paste had dried up, and that was the only one I had.  I tried to use Stickles, but it went all over the place, so this is actually panel #2.  😏  I die cut the ink blended panel with a Wonky Rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs.  The black layer behind the panel is glitter cardstock I had lying around, and so is the die cut sentiment from Honey Bee Stamps honey cuts set Bitty Buzzwords.  The die cut heart is from Spellbinders, and I embossed the white layer with a Spellbinders Embossing folder of the month called Spreading Love.  I finished the inside with the sentiment "to know you sweet friend" from the Bitty Buzzwords stamp set.

Next in the hop is the super talented V of Passions and Distractions, and I know you won't want to miss out on what she has created!  Please subscribe to our blogs if you haven't already and leave us some comment love!  Take Care!

~ Marie 

SQUIIRELS STASH BASH -- DECEMBER 30, 2022

Hello friends!  Welcome back to my blog!  My Squirrel Sisters and I have managed to squeeze in *one more* hop for this year.

This month's theme is FAVORITE TECHNIQUE, so you are bound to see that we all have our favorite things to do when it comes to this card making hobby we all share.  After some pondering, I decided that my favorite technique (for now anyway) is die cutting.  Now as far as a theme goes, you know that I will ALWAYS choose Christmas, and that I can't pass up a cute critter, so my card encompasses all three of these things.

Now, I REALLY busted through my stash for this card!  I have a small basket I keep uncolored images and completed die cuts in, so I rummaged through it, looking for something I could throw together at the last minute.  Like, literally.  It is after midnight as I type this, and we are leaving for Gettysburg tomorrow morning!  ANYWAY, I found some shimmer backgrounds I had made ohhh, probably this past summer or maybe even last summer.  Then I found this Cheery Deer from Lawn Fawn that I had assembled some time ago too.  I fell in love with the idea of that cute deer sitting in the middle of this shimmery background.  I cut the background down with a Wonky Stitched Rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs, then popped the deer up on foam tape.  I die cut the fa la la from Lawn Fawn's Winter Big Scripty Words lawn cuts from black cardstock and glued it down at the bottom of the shimmer panel.  All of this is adhered to a standard A2 top-folding card base.

OK friends, I have got to go to bed!  The lovely Ms. Anna is next in the hop lineup this time, but please won't you take a little extra time to hop the whole way through?  We love it when you do!  We also love it when you leave us some comment love!  Take care! 😊

~ Marie 💗

{BYSHC} SKETCH #29 -- DECEMBER 23, 2022

Hello friends, happy Friday, and happy Christmas Eve eve!  Are you all ready for the BIG DAY in 2 days?  I can hardly believe that it's that close already; I remember as a kid it always seemed that Christmas was SOOOOO FAAAAARRR AWAAAAAAY, and now it just comes and goes in a flash!  Sigh, to be a kid again at Christmas!  What a magical time!

Anyway, I digress...I'm here today to share the first card I made using the current sketch at {BYSHC}, Sketch #29:

As meticulous as I like to be when making my cards, this sketch threw me for a loop when it came to placing the triangular pieces on the green vellum mat "just right."  I NEEDED to have all the spacing equal or I would go crazy!  I tried just placing the patterned paper from Lawn Fawn's Knit Picky 6x6 paper pad onto the vellum, but it just kept sliding around, so I finally tore off some pieces of        Therm-o-Web's Pixie Tape (love this stuff!) and made hinges over the edge of the vellum to keep the pieces in place while I glued them down.  They are still a *little* off, but I think this method worked pretty well overall.

Now, the centerpiece of this card is made up of the negative pieces of this Circle Ho Ho Ho Die from My Creative Time that I used to make this ornament.  I just thought they would make an excellent focal point also, as the Ho's are so easy to read.  I glued all of the layers (7 or 8 of them) together with the white glitter layer on top and added them to a die cut circle of the green vellum.  This may have been a bit of overkill for the front of a card, as now it is pretty heavy and bulky.  I will know better for the next time!  I really like how you can still see the patterned paper, especially the red, through the vellum.  All of this is adhered onto a white A2 top-folding card base.

--CHALLENGES--

Moving Along With The Times #149:  Christmas (4/5)

613 Avenue Create #12:  ATG (4/8)

Classic Design #12:  ATG

The Paper Funday #48:  ATG w/optional twist - Holiday Time

A Place to Start:  ATG w/optional twist - Happy Holidays

A Perfect Time to Craft #12:  ATG

Fab 'n' Funky #563:  Last Minute Christmas

The Holly and Ivy #130:  ATG Christmas (3/3)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (4/4)

Creatalicious #249:  ATG (2/3)

Crafting Happiness #137:  Christmas

Crafty Gals Corner #238:  Tis the Season

LeAnn's World 101 #57:  ATG

CCAYR:  Waiting for Santa

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #95:  ATG Christmas (3/10)

OK friends, thanks for stopping by today!   Head on over to the {BYSHC} blog to see what DT creations there are to inspire you, and then head on over to the Facebook Group to join in with a card if you have some time to spare in this "crunch time" before Christmas.  Take care!  😊

~ Marie 💗

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS #196 -- SPONSORED BY ALEX SYBERIA -- DECEMBER 18, 2022

Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  As you may or may not know, this will be my last post as a DT member for Lil Patch of Crafty Friends, please see my previous post for the reason.

OK, this month we are being sponsored by the fabulous

Alex Syberia

PRIZE:  $15 GIFT CARD

SHOP

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

The design team could choose any image or cut file for their project, so I chose this gorgeous Layered Christmas Ornament and Bow cut file.  Here is what I created:

I was in need of some presents for my purple-loving work besties, so I got to work choosing glitter and shimmer cardstocks and regular cardstocks to go with them.  For some, I didn't have cardstock to match, so I busted out some Distress inks in regular and Oxides to make my own papers.  That would be the lightest layers on the first 2 ornaments.  For the third one, I just chose a silver shimmer paper to add to the mix.  I made 2 of each, for a total of 6.  That way, I could give them each a set.

  My last day of work for the year (YAY!) was this past Wednesday (thanks in part to some inclement weather on Thursday), so I have already given them to my besties, and they loved them!  This cut file was very nice to work with, and I love that it gives me that layered look that some of those expensive dies have, for much cheaper!  Thank you, Alex for the pretty cut file!  Oh, and I didn't get the chance to add the bow, although I would have loved to!

--CHALLENGES--

Winter Wonderland:  End of Year ATG (3/3)

Sparkles Christmas:  Non-traditional Christmas Colors

Crafty Calendar:  ATG

Besties International:  ATG (3/3) 

Moving Along With The Times #149:  Christmas (3/5)

613 Avenue Create #12:  ATG

Crafts Galore Encore #106:  ATG (3/3) 

Classic Design #12:  ATG

The Paper Funday #48:  ATG (3/6)

A Place to Start:  ATG

A Perfect Time to Craft #12:  ATG 

SheepSki Designs #69:  Tis the Season (3/3)

The Crafting Challenge:  Christmas (3/3)

Your Scrapbook Place:  ATG (3/3)

Ellibelle's Wednesday Challenge:  ATG (3/3)

Fab 'n' Funky #563:  Last Minute Christmas (ATG)

Word Art Wednesday #573 - #574:  ATG (3/5)

The Holly and Ivy #130:  ATG Christmas (2/3)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (3/4)

QKR Stampede #457:  ATG (3/3)

Creatalicious #249:  ATG

Crafting Happiness #137:  Christmas

Papercraft Challenges #89:  Decking the Halls

Crafty Gals Corner #238:  Tis the Season (2/3)

Well, I so appreciate you stopping by today!  I don't know if I will be posting again before Christmas or not, so if I don't, I wish those of you who celebrate to have a Merry Christmas!  Happy Holidays to those who celebrate other holidays this time of year and may we all have a Blessed New Year in 2023!  Take care! 😄

~ Marie 💗

--EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!--

 Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  I have some exciting news that I have been DYING to share with you all...I am now a member of the Whimsy Stamps 2023 Instapinner team! 

I am BEYOND EXCITED about this yall!  When Crystal Komara asked me about joining a few months ago, I was totally flabbergasted to have even been noticed by anyone, and since then I have been chomping at the bit to let it be known!  I have not always been good at keeping secrets, and sometimes I still am not good at it, but I did manage to keep this one under wraps until a couple of days ago, when it was announced.  So being an Instapinner is probably pretty self-explanatory to those of us familiar with Instagram and Pinterest, but just to be clear, those are the places where we will be concentrating on sharing our projects.  I may or may not have time to add them here to my blog, so I may be silent here for a while.  I'll have to see what happens once the ball gets rolling starting January 1, 2023.

For the time being, I am stepping down from all of my design teams, with the exception of {BYSHC}.  I signed up for a 6-month term, and I plan to follow through with it.  Once that time period is up, I will be better able to see if I can handle staying on the team or not.

ANYWAY, that's my exciting news!  I am super excited to see where this new adventure will lead!  Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for my last Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog post coming tomorrow.  Take care! 😄

~ Marie 💗

ABC CHRISTMAS -- Y FOR YOUNGSTERS (FOR OR FEATURING A CHILD), AND/OR Z FOR ZOOM (MODE OF TRANSPORT)

Hello, my friends and welcome back to my blog!  It's time for another ABC Christmas challenge, and this will be my last one.  I haven't been on this team for very long, but it sure has been a very pleasant experience for me, and given the chance in the future, I would love to become a DT member again!  Many thanks to Helen for this opportunity to work with her and the rest of the DT!

Anyway, this challenge is for the letters

Y for Youngsters (for or featuring a child)

and/or

Z for Zoom (mode of transportation)

This card features stamps and dies from Your Next Stamp called Paw-liday Pups.  I let the patterned paper from the Journey to the North Pole 6x6 paper pad from Recollections do the majority of the work on this card.  I hardly ever do this, but I really like the end result!  I used Wonky Stitched Rectangles from Gina Marie Designs to cut the dark green cardstock mat layer, and also the image layer.  The striped layer was die cut with a Spellbinders card creator die, but it was so close in size to the image panel that I could hardly see it.  I decided to cut it diagonally and offset it a bit behind the image panel, which I liked much better.  I stamped, die cut and colored the doggie, and added white gel pen highlights and shimmer with Wink of Stella.  Since he's zooming down that hill, I mounted him to the card with a mini action wobbler.  The sentiment was stamped with Versa Fine Clair Nocturne using the MISTI.

--CHALLENGES--

Winter Wonderland:  ATG end of year challenge

Sparkles Christmas:  Non-traditional Christmas colors

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #95:  ATG Christmas

Crafty Calendar:  ATG

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

Moving Along With The Times #149:  Christmas (2/5)

613 Avenue Create #12:  ATG

Crafts Galore Encore #106: ATG (2/3)

Classic Design #12:  ATG

Critter Crazy #69:  ATG with a featured critter

The Paper Funday #48:  ATG w/optional twist, Holiday Time (2/6)

A Place to Start #12:  ATG w/optional twist, Happy Holidays

A Perfect Time to Craft #12:  ATG

SheepSki Designs #69:  Tis the Season (2/3)

Happy Little Stampers:  Christmas

LeAnn's World 101 #57:  ATG

The Crafting Challenge:  Christmas (2/3)

Incy Wincy Designs:  Christmas and/or Movement (2/5)

Your Scrapbook Place: ATG (2/3)

The Four Seasons Challenge:  ATG Winter (2/3)

Ellibelle's Wednesday Challenge:  ATG (2/3)

Fab 'n' Funky #563:  Last Minute Christmas (ATG Christmas)

Word Art Wednesday #573 - #574:  ATG (2/5)

The Holly and Ivy #130:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (2/4)

QKR Stampede #457:  ATG (2/3)

Crafty Gals Corner #238:  Tis the Season (1/3)

I thank you so much for stopping by today!  Don't forget to head on over to the ABC Christmas challenge to see what the rest of the DT made, and to join in!  Take care!  😊

~ Marie 💗

GUEST DESIGN SPOT FOR SWEET SKETCH WEDNESDAY 2 -- DECEMBER 7, 2022

Hello dear friends!  How are you doing now that we are mere WEEKS away from the BIG DAY?  I myself am starting to freak out a bit, as I don't have any cards ready to mail out yet.  UGH!!  Making them is one thing, but sending them is quite another, isn't it?  I'll be off Thursday and Friday this week, so I am planning to put a dent in it then.  Cross your fingers for me, will ya?  😉

Anyway, for today's post, I have 2 cards to share with you that I created as a guest designer for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 challenge.  Each month, there are 2 sketches provided, and you can work with one or both.  There is also an optional twist to spark your creativity.  Here are the sketches for this month:

The optional twist is Ditsy & Dotty (Spots & Stripes).  Here are my cards, using only the first sketch:

For the blue card, I used beautiful papers from the 6x6 Oh Holy Night paper pad from Hobby Lobby, and this gorgeous Momenta dove die set, also from Hobby Lobby.  I cut the dove parts from gold foil paper, and I partially cut the wing design from the white glitter cardstock I have been using lately in order to inlay the leafy part of the design back into the gold wing. Honestly, I did that to hide the fact that I made one HECK of a mess getting glue on the gold foil.  UGH.  I did my best to clean it up, and the finished result looks fine.  I used some white Diamond Dotz over the holes in the design, and a holographic one for the eye.  When I bought these, I actually thought that the holographic ones looked black, which is why I bought them.  Guess I'll have to go back to JoAnn's for some more!   The peace and joy words are also part of the dove die set, so I cut them from the same white glitter cardstock and used them as the side elements on the sketch.

For my second card, I used papers from the Christmas Gingerbread Kisses 6x6 paper pad from My Creative Time.  This company is fairly new to me, but I have to say that I am in love with their gingerbread products!  SO CUTE!!!  The cutie patootie gingerbread in a hot cocoa cup image also comes from the paper pad, and was die cut with the die that coordinates with the You Warm My Heart stamp and die combo.  That's another thing I love about this company...Emma (the owner) sells the stamp sets and coordinating dies together, and the price point is excellent.  Not only that, but oftentimes the dies will correspond to images in the paper pads that you can cut out for quick card making.  How's that for fantastic??  And that isn't all; the die sets always contain dies to cut out the SENTIMENTS!!!  My mind is literally blown by how well-thought-out Emma's products are. 💥 Obviously, the sentiment comes from the You Warm My Heart stamp set.

I was lucky enough to find coordinating cardstock colors in my stash to make mats for all the papers on both cards. 😁

--CHALLENGES--

Winter Wonderland:  ATG (1/3)

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #95:  ATG (1/10)

Crafty Calendar:  ATG (1/3)

Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

Moving Along With The Times #149:  Christmas (1/5)

613 Avenue Create #12:  ATG w/optional twist --Up in the Sky

Crafts Galore Encore #106:  ATG (1/3)

Classic Design #12:  ATG

Critter Crazy #69:  ATG with a featured critter (dove)

The Paper Funday #48:  ATG w/optional twist - Holiday Time

A Place to Start #12:  ATG w/optional twist - Happy Holidays

A Perfect Time to Craft #12: ATG

SheepSki Designs:  Tis the Season (1/3) 

Crafty Friends #162:  Traditional Christmas Colors

Happy Little Stampers Christmas:  ATG

LeAnn's World 101 #57:  ATG

The Crafting Challenge:  Christmas (1/3)

Incy Wincy Designs:  Christmas (1/5)

Your Scrapbook Place:  ATG (1/3)

Sparkles Challenge #15:  Dies and/or Punches

The Four Seasons Challenge:  Winter

Ellibelle's Wednesday Challenge:  ATG (1/3)

Fab 'n' Funky #562:  Die Cuts or Embossing only, NO Stamping

Word Art Wednesday #573 - #574:  ATG (1/5)

The Holly and Ivy Christmas challenge:  ATG Christmas

The Sisterhood of Crafters:  ATG Christmas or Winter

Cardz 4 Galz #187:  Anything from the 12 Days of Christmas (dove)

Double Trouble #127:  Kaleidoscope of colors (Thing 1 choice - you choose the theme and colors)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (1/4)

Peace on Earth Christmas #29:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

QKR Stampede #457:  ATG (1/3)

Creatalicious #248:  ATG 

I thank you so much for dropping by today!  I know that the designers over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2 have created lovely projects using these sketches, so head on over to the challenge blog to check them out!  You have all month (pretty much) to play along, so hopefully you can find a few hours of creative time here and there to join in with a card or two!  That's all for now, friends.  Take Care.

~ Marie 💗

SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH -- NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Hello friends and fellow crafters!  It's that time of the month again where my closest crafty buddies and I bash through our stash to use those oh-I-gotta-have-it items that have been collecting dust instead of being loved.  That's right it's time for the

  SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH

November 2022 edition!!!!!

This month we are focusing our attention on LEAVES and MASKING.  Now I have to be honest here...most of the time I had NO IDEA what I was going to do for my card!  Thank goodness for YouTube and my addiction to crafty videos, because this time, it came in super handy!  I was doing my usual spending-time-in-my-craft-room-watching-videos-instead-of-crafting thing a few days ago, when I came upon THIS VIDEO by Ardyth Percy-Robb.  If you are unfamiliar with her, you had best go make yourself familiar with her RIGHT NOW!!!  She is a fabulous card maker, and I love how she thinks outside the box! 

 

In her video she is focused on creative finishing touches to elevate your card making, but right around the 7:48 mark, she starts doing some masking with snowflakes and post its.  The masking is multi-layered, and she keeps adding more snowflake masks, and blending on different shades of blue (after letting the previous blending dry, of course!) until she is happy with the number of snowflakes on her panel.  After she adds her darkest shade of blue, she removes all the masks and has a "blizzard" of white and blue snowflakes!  The lightbulb came on right above my head (I swear it did!), and I thought "HEY, that would be PERFECT for this month's theme and technique!"

Now, being the Christmas-lover that I am, and given the time of the year, my card was definitely going to be Christmas in nature.  My first thought went straight to holly leaves, so I dug out my MFT holly leaves die set and got to work die cutting full sticky post its.  Here is a picture of all the masks after I removed them from my card panel, plus the inks I used for blending:

And here is my finished card:

I am totally smitten with how this came out!  I placed all the leaves in bunches of threes, like we usually see them in the crafting world, and followed what Ardyth did in her video.  When I removed all the masks, I didn't care for how glaringly white the first leaves looked, so I decided to die cut some more of the leaves from green foil cardstock to cover them up.  Before I added them though, I cut down the panel with a Spellbinders rectangle die.  The cluster in the center is popped up with foam tape.  Then I glued the panel to a scalloped green foil mat cut with a Gina Marie Designs Stitched Scalloped rectangle die.  That was then mounted to a kraft A2 card base. I used my Bearly Art glue for all the adhering.  I will leave the sentiment for the inside of the card, since the front is so busy.

OK, now if you just happened along by today, that is great!  You can continue hopping along by going to the fabulous V's blog.  Please consider subscribing to our blogs, if you don't already, and also leave us some comment love!  That's all for now.  Take Care!  😀

~ Marie 💗

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS #194 -- SPONSORED BY JOY CLAIR DESIGNS -- NOVEMBER 20, 2022

Hello crafty friends and welcome back to my blog!  It's been a hot minute (or maybe I should say "cold" since it is getting colder here in PA!) since I have posted here, but it's time for another new challenge at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends!  Our sponsor for the next 2 weeks is:

**SPONSOR**

Joy Clair Designs

PRIZE:  One digital stamp set

SHOP

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

The design team was given the super adorable Santa's Favorite Digital Set to work with and here is my card!

I had lots of fun imagining this scene for the little fishing penguin.  He's found a private little spot to do his ice fishing so that he doesn't have to share his catch with any of his penguin buddies!  Or maybe, he just wants some peace and quiet so that the fish don't get spooked.  Who knows for sure?  Either way, it looks like he's been successful!  I used the Silhouette Designer Edition software to size and manipulate the tree and this little guy from the set, and also to create his little frozen pond complete with fishing hole.  The image panel was cut using the second largest die from the Spellbinders Card Creator set B.  I did have to do some "surgery" on it after I ink blended the clouds though, as I blended them too far down. 😖 To fix that, I used one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders to cut the bottom of the panel off, and then replaced it with my new favorite glitter cardstock from Walmart, cut with the same die.  I wasn't originally planning on using so much glitter cardstock, but I figured what the heck, it's a Christmas card, after all!

After that was all fixed up, I glued down the forest I created and had colored very simply with Copics.  Then came the ice pond, but before I glued it down, I eyeballed where it would be and colored the glitter cardstock under the hole with a black marker.  The sentiment came next, and I had already created the "fishmas" part of it by cutting Henry's ABC's from Lawn Fawn 4 times from white cardstock scraps, and once from the white glitter and layering them up for dimension.  I took a while deciding exactly how I wanted the sentiment to read, but I finally settled on this phrase.  "Have a merry" comes from the Frosty Fairy Friends stamp set, also from Lawn Fawn.  The final part of creating the scene was adding the penguin with a mini action wobbler for a touch of fun!  He was also colored simply with Copics and gel pens.  The image panel was glued to a black mat (Gina K, anyone?), which was then glued to a side folding A2 card base.  Although I experienced some bumps along the way in the making of this card, I really love how it turned out in the end!

--CHALLENGES--

Sparkles Christmas #142:  Festive things with Wings

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #94:  ATG (3/10)

Creative Moments #240:  Winter

Crafty Calendar:  ATG (2/3)

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

Craft Rocket #98:  Christmas/Winter 

613 Avenue Create #11:  ATG (1/8)

Crafts Galore Encore #105:  ATG (3/3)

Crafty Animals #67:  ATG w/animals

Daisy Chain #69:  Christmas is Coming 

Classic Design #11:  ATG

The Paper Funday #47:  ATG (3/6)

Unicorn Challenge #82:  Christmas is Coming 

A Place to Start #11:  ATG (1/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft #11:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #58:  ATG (1/3)

Let's Craft and Create #189:  ATG (1/3)

SheepSki Designs #68:  Gems, Glitter, Sparkle (lots of sparkle on this one!) (2/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #11:  ATG (1/4)

Crafty Friends #161:  Christmas (3/5)

Dragonfly Dreams:  Christmas (1/3)

Pearly Sparkles #79:  Merry Christmas

Stamping Sensations:  Christmas Celebrations

Happy Little Stampers:  Christmas

Sweet Stampers #74:  Christmas

We Love Stamping:  Christmas

The Crafting Challenge:  Add a Sentiment (2/3)

Fab 'n' Funky #561:  Christmas Animals

The Holly and Ivy #128:  ATG (1/3)

Use Your Stuff #471:  Winter/Snow

Peace on Earth Christmas #28:  ATG Christmas

CD Sunday Plus #98:  ATG using digitals

Dream Valley #282:  ATG

Everybody Art #524:  Winter Forest

QKR Stampede #456:  ATG

Creative Inspirations:  Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!

Well, that's all for today, friends!  Now it's time to head on over to the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog to join in on the ANYTHING GOES challenge!  Also, please consider checking out the rest of the DT blogs and leaving them some love!  Thanks again for stopping by and take care!

~ Marie 💗