SQUIRRELS GONE NUTZ -- A GALAXY CELEBRATION -- OCTOBER 20, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  Today's that most special day of the month, where my closest crafty friends and I, aka the Squirrel Squad,  do our little blog hop!  If you are already hopping along, you should have arrived here from the always fabulous Anna's blog.  If you just happened to stop here first, please continue to hop along; I promise it won't take long at all! 😊

So, this month's inspiration was the technique of creating a galaxy background, and the theme of celebration.  This was my first time creating this type of background, and it did fill me with some apprehension.  I always want my creations to look as awesome as possible, and I was worried that I would totally mess this up!  I watched a couple of YouTube videos, especially this one from (the one and only) Jennifer McGuire, which was very helpful and encouraging.  I used the exact same colors that she used, and created mine in the exact same way in the hopes of being able to channel some of her awesomeness!  Here are the colors:

And here is my card:

I think it turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. 😁    After I created the main part of the background, I gave it an extra spritz of shimmer water made with Perfect Pearls, and when that dried, I splattered the heck out of it with watered down white acrylic paint.  I wish my "stars" were more white though!  Then I die cut the Tim Holtz distress watercolor paper down with one of my Spellbinders card creator dies.   I hadn't had this particular Lawn Fawn set  (Out Of This World)  until just recently, and it is definitely perfect for this background!  I bought it from a friend who was doing a destash, and I got the dies too!  I stamped all the images using Lawn Fawn Jet Black ink for alcohol markers, and colored them with Copics.  The sentiment, which is part of the same stamp set, was heat embossed on the same 110lb Recollections black card stock as the card base using Versa Color white pigment ink and Recollections Snow detail embossing powder.

To assemble the card, I glued craft foam onto the back of my panel, and then colored the edges that could be seen underneath with a black marker.  All the images were glued down flat to the panel, after much fussing about placement.  To add more shimmer, I went over the colored stripes of the planets, the ring around the yellow planet, and the spaceship window with clear Wink of Stella.  I couldn't let the poor cute astronaut out of the fun, so his visor and tiny little panel buttons got the Glossy Accents treatment, and so did the ship's window.  Viola!

--CHALLENGES--

Love to Craft #63:  ATG (4/5)

Mix it Up #54:  ATG (4/5)

613 Avenue Create #11:  ATG (3/5)

Classic Design #10:  ATG

The Paper Funday #34:  ATG (3/4)

A Perfect Time to Craft:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #45:  ATG (3/3)

Let's Craft and Create #176:  ATG (2/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #10:  ATG (3/4)

Cute Card Thursday #693:  ATG

Digi Choosday #42:  ATG (2/2)

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Birthday

OK, your next stop is the wonderful Bory.  Don't forget to leave us some comment love, and please subscribe if you haven't already!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie

GOING PINK FOR THE JINGLE BELLES -- OCTOBER 19, 2021

Hello friends!  Welcome back to my blog!  It's that time of the year again where those fun ladies over at the Jingle Belles blog, Stef and Lauren, host a very special challenge!  Of course, I mean the PINK challenge to raise money for breast cancer research!  For every card made for this challenge, each of these wonderful ladies will donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Isn't that wonderful?  I wanted to make more cards for the challenge, but I ran out of time.  I did manage to make 3 though:

The first 2 are mini slimlines made with the Jolly Christmas Tree die from Lawn Fawn.  The first one was cut from pastel pink glitter cardstock, and I inlaid the ornament shapes into it from the holographic card stock I used for the tree in card #2.  I thought it would be cute to add the tree topper as well, so I glued that on top of the pink layer.  The Tim Holtz sentiment was also cut from the pink glitter cardstock, as well as 3 layers of 110lb white cardstock that are underneath the pink.  The tree itself I popped up on foam tape.  The blue ink blended card front was done using Prize Ribbon oxide ink.  

Card #2 has a background blended with Kitsch Flamingo oxide ink, and some Picked Raspberry at the bottom for a deeper pink.  The tree and the sentiment are all done the same; 2 layers of 110lb white underneath the holographic cardstock.

For card #3, I decided to go a completely different route, and pulled out the Poinsettia stencil from Honey Bee Stamps.  I used Spun Sugar and Kitsch Flamingo oxides for my "petals", and the "leaves" were blended with Twisted Citron and either Lucky Clover or Evergreen Bough...I don't remember which one now!  I just lightly went over the circle centers so I could see to cover them with gold Stickles.  All my layers were die cut using Spellbinders card creator dies.  I created the sentiment with Lawn Fawn's Oliver's Stitched ABCs, and the same shiny gold cardstock as the layer beneath the main panel.  I added 4 layers of 110lb white cardstock underneath the letters for lots of dimension!  All of these cards look so much better IRL than in these photos! 😕

--CHALLENGES--

Sparkles Christmas:  Flora/ Fauna (third card)

ABC Christmas:  U for under the tree/ V for vocabulary (I'm doing V w/card #3)

CCAYR:  Something beginning with S or T (T for trees)

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #82:  ATG 

Merry Little Christmas #39:  ATG Christmas (2/5)

Love to Craft #63:  ATG (3/5)

Mix it Up #54:  ATG (3/5)

613 Avenue Create #11:  ATG (2/5)

Crafts Galore Encore #92:  ATG (3/3)

Classic Design #10:  ATG

The Paper Funday #34:  ATG (2/4)

A Perfect Time to Craft:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #45:  ATG (2/3)

Let's Craft and Create #176:  ATG

The Corrosive Challenge #10:  ATG (2/4)

Dragonfly Dreams:  In the PINK

Cute Card Thursday #693:  ATG 

Word Art Wednesday #513 - #514:  ATG (2/5)

The Holly and Ivy #103:  ATG (2/3)

C.R.A.F.T Challenge #615:  Non-Traditional Christmas colors (PINK!)

Polkadoodles #42:  ATG (2/2)

Digi Choosday #42:  ATG (1/2)

CHNC #564:  ATG Christmas

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Christmas

I am a bit late getting these linked up to the challenge, as tomorrow is the last day!  If you hurry, you could probably get one done...the challenge is open until 6pm EST.  That's all for me today...thanks for stopping by, and until next time...

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS, SPONSORED BY THE PAPER SHELTER -- OCTOBER 17, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! The challenge starting today at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends is being sponsored by:

**Exclusive Sponsor**

The Paper Shelter

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The Paper Shelter Shop

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We were all given the lovely Autumn Breeze set to create with, and here is my project:

Now, the really nice thing about The Paper Shelter sets is that you receive not only the black and white digital image, you also get a wonderful pre-colored version of the image, and a stunning coordinating paper to go with it!  As tempted as I was to use the pre-colored version, I decided I would be brave and color it myself. Also, instead of printing everything out on white, I changed it up and used this light kraft colored cardstock that I also used on these cards here.  To stretch myself even further, I used colored pencils as my coloring medium, which I don't often do.  Using the pre-colored version as inspiration for shading, I came up with this, and I love it!  I have been very inspired lately by seeing purples used in fall cards, so I chose to use purples and greens for her dress.   A Sakura gold Gelly Roll pen was used to add accents to her dress and tights:

To die cut the image,  I used Oblong Doily Frames by Darice, gluing the frame flat to the patterned paper (which is the one that came with the image), and popping up the image oval piece on foam tape.  After die cutting the pieces, I dry embossed the frame, and then added either Brushed Corduroy or Frayed Burlap oxide ink to the decorative openings in the die.  Wink of Stella clear brush pen was also added to these areas.  You can see a bit of that in this next photo.  To make the image panel match, I inked around the edges also.  I don't really care for the yellow edge it left around the image though.  😬

You can also see the shimmer I added to this Honey Bee Stamps Bitty Buzzwords die using a gold Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen.  Does anyone else still use these?  I have a bunch of them in different colors that I got on sale at Michael's years ago, but I never have much luck using them without making a mess. 😦  OH, I almost forgot...I added lots of splatter to the patterned paper with the oxide inks before I added it to the brown cardstock layer.  I thought that was needed to help differentiate the patterned paper from the kraft card base.

--CHALLENGES--

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #63:  ATG (2/5)

Mix it Up #54:  ATG (2/5)

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

Moving Along with the Times #135:  BINGO board (center row--image, patterned paper, glitter-pens)

Craft Rocket #86:  Autumn or mushrooms (Autumn for my entry)

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

613 Avenue Create #11:  ATG (1/5)

Crafts Galore Encore #92:  ATG (2/3)

Daisy Chain #57:  Autumn/Halloween

Classic Design #10:  ATG

Digi Doodle Studios #43:  Fall/Halloween

The Paper Funday #34:  ATG or optional Halloween/color purple (her dress has some purple)

Unicorn Challenge #70:  Autumn/Halloween

A Perfect Time to Craft #10:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #45:  ATG (1/3)

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

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #161: Fall Colors 

Pearly Sparkles #67:  Autumn/Halloween

Cute Card Thursday #693:  ATG

Creative Craft Cottage #145: Fall/Halloween

Gem of a Challenge #21:  ATG

Word Art Wednesday #513- #514:  ATG (1/5)

My Time to Craft #468:  Halloween or Fall Colors

Use Your Stuff #433:  Autumn 

Polkadoodles #42:  ATG (1/2)

Colour Crazy #41:  ATG with coloring

Crafty Catz #568:  ATG

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Fall

So, that's my card!  Be sure to head on over to the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog to see what the rest of Team B have created, and to join us!  The challenge runs for 2 weeks, so hopefully you will have plenty of time.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie

A NEW NAME FOR 2CCC, AND SOME CHANGES -- OCTOBER 1, 2021

Hello, crafty friends!  Welcome back to my blog.  In case you didn't know, 2 Crafty Critter Crazies very last challenge was last month's, and the challenge blog was going to close unless someone else wanted to jump in and keep it going.  For awhile, it looked as though things were coming to an end, but then in swooped Kleido to save the blog from ending!  So now, the new name for the challenge is Critter Crazy Challenges, and we no longer have any sponsors, but are just for fun.  You can read all about the changes in the September 27th blog post.

So, for my first post under the new changes, I made an easel card using this awesome Paper Nest Dolls image called Sleigh Ride Owen:

I love that Owen is taking his little puppy along for the ride, and their penguin buddy has joined the fun!  I colored this image very simply with alcohol markers, and die cut it using Spellbinders Curved Rectangles next to largest die.  With the largest die in the set, I cut the necessary pieces to make the easel card, and inked the top layer and the inside with Speckled Egg oxide ink.  To create the sentiment, I dug out a Recollections stamp and die set for the word "snow," and cut it 5 times from a scrap of Accent Opaque white 100lb. cardstock.  After adhereing the 5 layers together, I glittered it up with the same Star Dust Stickles I used for the snow on the image.  The word "much" comes from the Honey Bee Stamps Kindness set, and "fun!" comes from Lawn Fawn's Oh What Fun set.  These were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed on black.  Having glued the sentiment in place, I thought the bottom looked rather empty, so I dug out this snowflake die from Momenta, and cut this line of snowflakes from another scrap of the same cardstock.  Sparkle and shine was added with my clear Wink of Stella brush pen, and some random iridescent jewels were added to the snowflake centers.  Here are 2 more pics:

--CHALLENGES--

My Time to Craft Christmas:  Christmas Critters (1/3)

CCAYR:  Something that starts with S or T (sled, snowflakes, snow word, sparkle)

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #82:  ATG (1/10)

Merry Little Christmas #39:  ATG Christmas (1/5)

Love to Craft #63:  ATG (1/5)

Mix It Up #54:  ATG (1/5)

Besties International:  ATG (1/3)

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

Crafts Galore Encore #92:  ATG (1/3)

Crafty Animals #55:  ATG using animals

Classic Design #10:  ATG 

The Creative Crafters #44:  ATG (3/3)

Cute Card Thursday #692:  ATG

Gem of a Challenge #20:  ATG (1/2) 

Word Art Wednesday #511 - #512:  ATG (1/5)

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #102:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

Creative Fingers #216:  ATG (1/3)

Simon Says Wednesday:  ATG (1/5)

Sweet Stampin':  Christmas in September

Polkadoodles #40:  ATG (1/2)

Digi Choosday #39:  ATG (1/2)

Penny's Paper Crafty #506:  ATG (1/3)

Colour Crazy #39:  ATG (1/2)

Jingle Belles:  Dashing through the snow

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday:  ATG

The Outlawz Festive Friday:  Christmas

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge:  ATG Christmas (1/3)

Ok friends, be sure to head over to the Critter Crazy Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT has in store for you, and to join in the fun!  Thanks for spending time here today, and until next time...

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!  💖

~ Marie