Tuesday, September 21, 2021

SQUIRRELS GONE NUTZ -- STENCILS AND GENDER NEUTRAL -- SEPT 21, 2021

Hello, my fabulous crafty friends!  It's that time of the month again, where my friends in the Squirrel Squad and I do our little hop where we drag out those squirreled away supplies, and use them in conjunction with a theme or technique. You should have arrived here from the uber creative V at Passions and Distractions.   For this month's hop, we are focused on STENCILS and a GENDER NEUTRAL theme.


I have many stencils that I have not yet used...why, I don't know, because they are so versatile!  I pulled out my Sweater Weather stencil from Simon Hurley Create, and searched out some YouTube videos to refresh my memory on how to use it.  The first one I came across was this one from the fabulous Cassie Trask.  Her video inspired me so much, that I got right to work!  I wanted to do two different color combos, and I figured that while I had all the supplies out, I might as well make 4 backgrounds.

           
            

Firstly, I dry embossed all but one of the backgrounds, the red and green one at the very top.  I used oxide inks for all of my blending; the red and green are Festive Berries and Lucky Clover, and the blues are Salty Ocean and Prize Ribbon.  Oh yes, and I chose not to blend on white cardstock, but rather this very light kraft color.  Once the ink blending was dry, I added Martha Stewart Ice Cube glitter paste to the top panels in each photo.  The bottom panels both received generous splatters with watered down Snow White acrylic paint by DecoArt.  You can click on the pics to see the details better.  I used my Spellbinders Card Creator set B (the largest die) to cut my panels down.  Here are the finished cards:





All the cards were finished off with digital images I already had printed out.  The top 2 cards use a Fred, She Said pre-colored image called Winter Westie -- SO CUTE!!  I love that Tracey provides pre-colored images in a lot of her files!  The 3rd card features an image from the now closed MelJens Designs called Bundled Little Snowgirl.  You know me and snow people! 💖  The final card isn't gender neutral AT ALL, but once I came across this ADORABLE image in my little bin, I knew she would be perfect on the blue glittered background.  The image is from Lily of the Valley (LOTV), and is called Christmas Blessings  GAH, I just love her! 😍😍😍

OK, so I colored the snowgirl and the angel with alcohol markers.  The little snowgirl got LOTS of sparkle added in the form of glitter gel pens, and Star Dust Stickles.  She also has a few white gel pen highlights here and there.  I used red glitter gel pen on the tiny berries in the sweet angel's head piece, and yellow Stickles on the stars.  Her wings were coated in several layers of clear Wink of Stella.  All of the die cut sentiments come from the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Christmas Phrases die sets, and each word was cut three times from a coordinating colored cardstock, and stacked for dimension.  The panels are adhered flat to the 100lb Recollections kraft card bases, and all images are popped up on 3M foam tape.  The glue I used is Bearly Art Glue.

--CHALLENGES--

ABC Christmas:  S for stencils
Creative Craft Cottage #144:  Anything but a square

OK, that's it for me in our hop...next up is the TOTALLY AWESOME Karen at Misplaced Mojo.  Please leave us some comment love, and we would love for you to subscribe if you aren't already!  Until next time, my friends...

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie














Sunday, September 19, 2021

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS -- SPONSORED BY SHEEPSKI DESIGNS -- SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back!  It's time for Team B at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends to share our projects with you, and our sponsor is:


**Exclusive Sponsor**

SheepSki Designs


Prize ~ 3 Images


My chosen image from SheepSki was this adorable Snowboardin' snowman.




And since this guy is having so much fun, I decided that I must make him into a slider card!  I used a slider die from a Recollections set to make the channel.  The snow was cut using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Hillside dies, and the clouds were stenciled using Lawn Fawn's Puffy Clouds dies, Tumbled Glass oxide ink, and a Taylored Expressions blender brush.   Two layers of foam tape was used to pop the panel up to allow for proper movement of the penny the snowman is attached to.   I colored the snowman using alcohol markers, and he was sized and cut with my Silhouette Cameo.  I added white gel pen highlights to all his "coal", and also dotted his pompom with it.  Star Dust stickles was added to the image as well.

--CHALLENGES--

Merry Little Christmas #38:  ATG Christmas (2/5)
Love to Craft #62:  ATG (2/5)
Mix it Up #53:  ATG (2/5)
Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring (2/3)
Unicorn Challenge #69:  Add Sparkle 
Creative Craft Cottage #144:  Anything But Square
Polkadoodles #38:  ATG (1/2)


Thanks so much for stopping by!  Don't forget to pop on over to Lil Patch of Crafty Friends to see what the rest of Team B has created, and to join in on the challenge.  We always love to see what you create!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie










Wednesday, September 1, 2021

2CCC -- SPONSORED BY QKR STAMPEDE -- SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back!  Holy cow, how in the world did we make it all the way to September already? It boggles the mind!   As today is September 1st, that means that start of a new critter challenge at 2 Crafty Critter CraziesThis month's sponsor is QKR Stampede:


We were allowed to pick an image we wanted to use, and let me tell you, it was a hard choice to make!  I had heard of QKR Stampede before, but had never taken the time to check them out until this challenge.  They have so many stamps!  I was amazed at the sheer volume and variety that I found when I started to look for an image to use.  When I found this Birdhouse Digital Stamp image, I knew I had found the one!  I only hoped that when I sent in my request that it would qualify, as the bird was such a small part of the image.  I was stoked when I got the go-ahead to use it, and here is my card:


ISN'T IT JUST THE CUTEST??  Those of you who have followed me for awhile KNOW how much I LOVE snowmen, and this one is no exception! 😍😍😍  I colored these 2 cuties up with alcohol markers, and added LOTS of sparkle with Star Dust Stickles.  The little bit of patterned paper you can see around the image panel is from the Recollections Whimsy Christmas 12x12 paper pad.  I backed this paper with a piece of dark green Recollections 65lb. cardstock, and adhered all the layers flat to the card base; except for the image layer, which was popped up with foam tape.  I didn't leave myself much room for a sentiment when I sized this image, but I did manage to fit this Tim Holtz/Sizzix "Believe" die cut from the Christmas Phrases 1 set onto the card.  I cut this 3 times from the same dark green cardstock and layered them up a la Jennifer McGuire for added dimension.  Then I added some of the Star Dust Stickles to just the bottom half of the word.  Here are a few more pics:




This last one really shows all the shine of the Stickles!   I also added some white gel pen highlights, being careful to avoid the glittered areas!

--CHALLENGES--

Christmas with The Cuties #52:  Anything Cute and Christmassy
CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper
Crafty Animals #54:  ATG with an animal

Well, that is all from me today friends!  Don't forget to pop on over to the 2CCC blog and leave the DT some comment love!  Also, you have all month long to join in the challenge with us, so dig out those critters and play along!  Thanks for stopping by today, and until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!  💗

~ Marie











LAST-MINUTE INSPIRATION FROM THE NOVEMBER 2024 RELEASE AT A COLORFUL LIFE DESIGNS -- NOV 30, 2024

 Hello, crafty friends!  I'm back on the blog today to share my last 2 cards for the November 2024 release at A Colorful Life Designs.  ...