SQUIRRELS GONE NUTZ -- MAY 20, 2021 --BIRTHDAY AND ALPHABET DIES

Hey there my crafty friends!  How ya been?  Things in my neck of the woods are going strong.  Hubby has been busy planting a vegetable garden in the evenings, which has left me a bit more time in my craft room.  Not that I have made much of anything, but I have gotten a *little bit* of organizing done. 😄  

Anyhow, today is my favorite day of the month, where I get to collaborate and hop with Squirrels Gone Nutz, aka the Squirrel Squad.  We are still making that ever-so-valiant attempt to use those crafty things in our stash that we have forgotten about or are hoarding (WHAT?!?  NO WAY!) 😆  Our theme/supply for this month is BIRTHDAY, and ALPHABET DIES.  Here is my card:

I have had these SUPER CUTE little bees (free digi from Clearly Besotted) sitting on my desk for THE LONGEST TIME.  I just adore them!  I colored the images with Copics, and then let them sit around on my desk some more.  When it came time to create the card for this hop, I decided it was time to use them!  This die cut circle (Spellbinders) was stashed in the storage pocket with the dies, so I pulled it out and did some ink blending through a stencil.  I have had this stencil for a really long time, and I think it is from Recollections.  I used Scattered Straw and Wild Honey oxide inks for the blending, and after removing the stencil, I added more Scattered Straw lightly over the entire circle so it wouldn't be stark white.  For more texture, I first spritzed the circle with water, and dabbed it up with a paper towel.  Then I grabbed my Gathered Twigs regular distress mini ink pad, smooshed some onto my glass desktop, and spritzed it with water.  Using a paintbrush, I splattered my circle (and a few other things on my desk!) with the ink.  Then my final addition to the circle was to spritz it with shimmer spray made from Perfect Pearls and water.  I did lots of spritzing today! 😆  The happy die cut is from Tim Holtz (Celebration Words Script), and the alphabet dies are Oliver's Stitched ABC's from Lawn Fawn.  I cut each of these 2 times from 110lb white cardstock scraps, and once from the brown glitter cardstock (Recollections).

Now at first, I thought I was going to pop up the circle on foam tape, so I added lots of it and stuck it down to the card base. Then, as I set about figuring out the positions of the other elements, I realized that popping up the circle was NOT a good idea, as it would make adhering the happy word and letters way too difficult.  Thankfully, I was able to peel the circle up and remove all the foam tape. (whew!)  After I adhered the circle with LIQUID GLUE instead, the word and letters were much easier to adhere with liquid glue as well.  The bee images are popped up on foam tape.  I also added some of the Gathered Twigs ink around the edges of the kraft card base, and some shimmer to the bees wings with clear Wink of Stella.

--CHALLENGES--

Papercraft #70:  ATG

Love to Craft #58:  ATG (4/5)

Mix It Up #49:  ATG (4/5)

613 Avenue Create #5:  ATG (4/8)

Classic Design #5:  ATG 

Paper Funday #29:  ATG (3/4)

A Place to Start #5:  ATG (3/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft #5:  ATG 

Let's Craft and Create #171:  ATG (3/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #5:  ATG (4/4)

Word Art Wednesday #491-#492:  ATG (2/5)

Lemon Shortbread #146:  ATG (1/3)

Creative Fingers #208:  ATG (2/3)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #20:  ATG (1/3)

Penny's Paper Crafty #496:  ATG (2/3)

The Outlawz Monday Greetings:  Use dies (1/3)

Simon Says Wednesday:  Use dies and/or Punches

Alrighty, your next stop in our hop is the fabulous V, right HERE.  There's only a few of us in this hop, so it won't take you too long to get through it all, I promise!  I sincerely hope that we can inspire you today, that you will leave us some comment love, and subscribe if you haven't already!  We sure do appreciate it!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 

~Marie~

DEBUT AS A DESIGNER FOR LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS -- LEMON SHORTBREAD -- MAY 16, 2021

 Hello friends!  Welcome back to my blog!  I have some exciting news to share with you -- today is my first post as a designer for Lil Patch of Crafty Friends!  I'm super excited to be joining this group of talented crafters, and I hope to be an asset to the team!  Our sponsor for the next 2 weeks is Lemon Shortbread:

And here is my card:

I chose to use this image called Rain Shield.  I used Copic markers to color her up, and I wanted her to look like she is some kind of nature fairy or something, so I used a lot of shades of green.  I'm pretty happy with how she turned out.  I used brand new stencils from Michael's (Recollections brand) to create the grass and sky.  All the inks I used were Distress Oxides; for the grass, I used Mowed Lawn, and then splattered with that ink and also Rustic Wilderness.  The sky is Tumbled Glass, and splattered with the same ink and Broken China as well.  I feel like I was channeling my inner Marine Simon as I was splattering away! 😆 

 

I cut all the elements of my card using my Cameo.  For the cloud shaker, I designed and cut out the frame 8 times; 7 plain ones, and one stitched one for the top.  I also cut my acetate with my machine.  Even the tiny raindrops inside the shaker were cut with my Cameo.  Now you would think, with all of this planning, that I would have thought to color my cardstock BEFORE cutting those raindrops.  But did I?  NOPE!  I had a HECK of a time coloring each of those buggers, on both sides!  They still were a bit sticky from the cutting mat, which made the process even more difficult.  BUT, I persevered and got the job done.  Next time I will know better...I hope. 😄  I also added clear seed beads and some Rock Candy distress glitter to help the raindrops move around.  The sentiment is computer generated.

--CHALLENGES--

Papercraft Challenge #70:  ATG 

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG (the patterned paper is behind the shaker)

Love to Craft #58:  ATG (3/5)

Mix it Up #49:  ATG (3/5)

Besties International:  ATG (3/3)

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

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (3/8)

Classic Design #5:  ATG

The Paper Funday #29:  ATG (2/4)

A Place to Start #5:  ATG (2/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft #5:  ATG

Let's Craft and Create #171:  ATG ( I didn't follow the option this time!) (2/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #5:  ATG (3/4)

Word Art Wednesday #491 -#492:  ATG (1/5)

Lemon Shortbread #145:  ATG (2/3)

Creative Fingers #208:  ATG (1/3)

Through the Craft Room Door:  ATG (1/2)

Use Your Stuff #422:  Stencils

Polkadoodles #20:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #19:  ATG (1/2)

Penny's Paper Crafty #496:  ATG (1/3)

Colour Crazy #19:  ATG with coloring (1/2)

Crafty Catz #551:  ATG 

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday:  First letter of your mom's name (Cyndi, clouds)

Well, that's about it for today, my friends!  Thanks again for stopping by, and don't forget to come on over to the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog to play along with the always Anything Goes challenge!  Oh, and leave the DT some love for their projects too! 

Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care and God Bless!

~Marie~

BUGABOO STELLA SAYS SKETCH -- SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  I'm back today to share my card for the current Stella Says Sketch challenge at the Catch the Bug blog.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I took a few liberties with the sketch...actually because I forgot I was to be using the sketch!  Luckily my card turned out pretty close to it anyway! 😉  I used a Bird's Cards free cut file for the honeycomb pattern, layered it onto a lighter yellow layer of cardstock, and jazzed it up a bit with some Brushed Corduroy oxide ink around the edges, and on some select cut out pieces.  I also mixed the ink with water and then splattered the pieces for more interest.  All the hexagon pieces are popped up on one layer of foam tape, while the image oval was given 2 layers of foam tape.  I decided not to add a sentiment just yet, although it will probably be something simple like "hi."  Oh yes, and the image is Bees - Small Flower, which was a recent freebie.

--CHALLENGES--

Love to Craft #58:  ATG (2/5)

Mix it Up #49:  ATG (2/5)

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring (2/3)

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (2/8)

Crafty Animals #50:  ATG using animals

Classic Design #5:  ATG 

Paper Funday #29:  ATG (1/4)

A Place to Start #5:  ATG (1/8)

A Perfect Time to Craft #5:  ATG 

Let's Craft and Create #171:  ATG/optional no patterned paper (1/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #5:  ATG (2/4)

Gem of a Challenge #10:  ATG (1/2)

Word Art Wednesday #489 - #490:  ATG

Lemon Shortbread #145:  ATG (1/3)

Creative Fingers #207:  ATG

Cute Card Thursday #685:  ATG

Fab 'n' Funky #522:  Sunshine Colors

Sweet Stampin':  Things with Wings (1/3)

Polkadoodles #19:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #18:  ATG (1/2)

Penny's Paper Crafty #495:  ATG

Crafting Happiness #95:  ATG option

Colour Crazy #18:  ATG with coloring (1/2)

Crafty Catz #550:  ATG option

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  ATG

Thanks so much for stopping by...don't forget that our challenges now run for two weeks!  That should be plenty of time for you all to join us!  Also, don't forget to leave the DT some love, because we all need more of that these days!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~

BUGABOO ANYTHING GOES BI-WEEKLY CHALLENGE -- MAY 1, 2021

 Hello, and welcome back!  It's May 1st, and this is my second post for today.  I hope you don't mind!  In this post, I am featuring my card for Bugaboo Stamps Anything Goes bi-weekly challenge at the Catch the Bug blog:

I've had this adorable Banana Monkey image printed and colored sitting on my desk for a little while now, as I was going to use her for a Humor Me Wednesday card on April 21st, which was banana day.  Since the format of the site has changed, I was able to use her for this challenge instead.  I also had it mind the whole time she was sitting on my desk that I wanted to make a shaker card with bananas in it.  So, I set about finding a good banana image, and I made my own patterned paper with it, as well as a smaller version of the image for the shaker bits.  Of course, it wouldn't do just to have tiny cardstock bananas in my shaker, so I added plenty of sequins too...mostly from the Doodles Paper Playground Bee Creative Sparkle Blend mix, but also some Moonshine confetti sequins form Cartwright's, a few Crystal Rainbow Fusion sequins from Studio Katia, and some yellow clay hearts from the Sherbet Clay Hearts mix from Twiddler's Nook.  Even though this see through shaker was a bit of a thorn in my side to put together (I had to start over again 3 times!), I am pleased with the outcome.  I don't think I will be making another one anytime soon though!  😉

Here's a close up of the image that was colored with alcohol markers.

Hopefully here you can get a better look at the sequins.

--CHALLENGES--

Papercraft Challenges #69:  Fruits, food, and Vegetables

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #58:  ATG (1/5)

Mix it Up #49:  ATG (1/5)

Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

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

613 Avenue Create:  ATG (1/8)

Crafty Animals #50:  ATG using animals

The Corrosive Challenge #5:  ATG (1/4)

Gem of a Craft Challenge #9:  ATG (1/2)

Ok, that's all from me...don't forget to check out our bi-weekly anything goes challenge that starts today!  Leave the rest of the participating DT members some love for their creations, and PLEASE join in on the fun!  It wouldn't be the same without your participation!  Until next time...

Stay Healthy, Take Care and God Bless!

~Marie~

2CCC -- TNT ARTSPIRATIONS --MAY 1, 2021

 Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  Today is May 1st, and that means it's time for a new challenge at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies!  This month's sponsor is TNT Artspirations:

We were permitted to choose which image we wanted to use, so I decided on this Betta Fish:

And here is my card:

We have had a few Bettas over the years, and I know none of them were "quite" this color, but I chose 2 colors I thought would look nice together from my Tombow markers, 606 Violet, and 620 Lilac.  I did one body section at a time, and started with the lilac as a base layer.  Then I brought in the violet for the shaded areas and blended that out with more lilac.  I did go over the fins and tail twice to get the blend I wanted, and made sure to go over the lines in the drawing (as best I could) for definition.  I thought the main body looked a bit plain, so I added dot detail with the violet marker.

For the card base, I thought an actual fish bowl would be AWESOME, so I cut 2 bowls from acetate, put a score line in the bottom one, and adhered them together with strong double sided tape.  It's not pretty by any means, but it works!  The fish bowl is a cut file from the Silhouette store, and it came with the water, "sand," and the 2 pieces of "grass."  I deleted the fish that came with it, of course, and the castle was a separate file.  I just thought he should have a castle, even though he covers most of it.  😊  I cut the water piece from Bristol smooth surface watercolor cardstock so I could play some more with my Tonic shimmer powders. 😍  I used Blue Blitz and Green Parade to make my Betta some pretty, shimmery water to swim in.  I cut 3 more of these pieces, 2 of them in reverse to make panels for hiding the adhesive.  The other pieces in the bowl were colored with alcohol markers.  I didn't notice until editing my pictures, but I can see that I adhered these a teensy bit crooked...well, it is a hand made card, right?  Here are a couple more pics:

As you can see in this picture, I adhered everything flat, except for the Betta, to which I added foam tape.

Thanks so much to TNT Artspirations for sponsoring 2CCC this month.  I had fun coloring the Betta and making a home for him!  Don't forget to check out what the rest of the DT made with the images they chose, and to stop by their blogs and leave them some love!  Until next time...

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~Marie~