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

Prize ~ 3 Images

The Paper Shelter Shop

The Paper Shelter Blog

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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

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

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #81:  ATG

Merry Little Christmas #38:  ATG Christmas

Love to Craft #62:  ATG

Mix it Up #53:  ATG

Besties International:  ATG (3/3) 

The Paper Funday #33:  ATG (3/4)

Unicorn Challenge #69:  Add Sparkle

The Creative Crafters #44:  ATG (2/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #9:  ATG (2/4)

Cute Card Thursday #692:  ATG

Creative Craft Cottage #144:  Anything but a square

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Christmas

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

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

Sheep ski Design Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SheepSkiDesigns
Blog: https://sheepskidesigns.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1730005463906336/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheepskidesigns/
DT Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/knutselmeisjes/dt-sheep-ski-design/

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--

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #81:  ATG Christmas (2/10)

Merry Little Christmas #38:  ATG Christmas (2/5)

Crafty Calendar:  ATG

Love to Craft #62:  ATG (2/5)

Mix it Up #53:  ATG (2/5)

Besties International:  ATG (2/3)

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

Crafts Galore Encore #91:  ATG (2/3)

Classic Design #9:  ATG 

The Paper Funday #33:  ATG (2/4)

Unicorn Challenge #69:  Add Sparkle 

A Perfect Time to Craft #9:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #44:  ATG (1/3)

The Corrosive Challenge #9:  ATG (1/4)

Cute Card Thursday #692:  ATG

Creative Craft Cottage #144:  Anything But Square

Word Art Wednesday #509 - #510:  ATG (1/5)

Polkadoodles #38:  ATG (1/2)

Penny's Paper Crafty #505:  ATG (1/3)

The Outlawz Festive Fridays:  Christmas

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

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 Crazies!  This 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

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #81:  ATG Christmas

Merry Little Christmas #38:  ATG Christmas

CHN Patterned Paper:  ATG using patterned paper

Love to Craft #62:  ATG

Mix it Up #53:  ATG

Besties International:  ATG

Color It, Create It, Show it Off:  ATG with coloring

Crafts Galore Encore #91:  ATG 

Crafty Animals #54:  ATG with an animal

Classic Design #9:  ATG 

Paper Funday #33:  ATG

A Perfect Time to Craft #9:  ATG

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

SQUIRRELS GONE NUTZ -- STITCHING AND THANK YOU -- AUGUST 22, 2021

Hello friends!  It's that time of the month again where my favorite crafty people, aka The Squirrel Squad, and I share what we have made for our Squirrels Gone Nutz hop.  In case you have forgotten the reason we started this hop, we all wanted to be able to use those supplies we have stashed (squirreled) away, add a specific technique or supply, and hopefully inspire others to do the same!  Don't you just love our crazy graphic that Karen designed for us?  I think that guy is hilarious!

For this month, it was decided to do stitching, which could be real or faux, and using thank you as a theme.  Now it might seem that we really just chose a technique and a theme, without actually focusing on using any tucked away supplies.  But, you're wrong!  Some of us thought with stitching, we could be using some stitching dies that hadn't been used, or thread that we have had from other crafts we've done in the past (hello cross-stitching!).  At least those were my thoughts about it!  So, with that in mind, let's have a look at what I made:

I have been getting the Spellbinders Large die of the month for the last couple of months now, and this card uses the card panel stitching die from the May 2021 kit.  Now, I know it hasn't been in my stash *all* that long, but I really did want to use it before the flowers wilted! 😆  I cut it from black 65lb. cardstock from Recollections, and then decided to use some variegated DMC thread that I have in my stash for the larger flowers, leaves, and stems.  this was all done using 3 strands.  The centers of the purple flowers were stitched with gold metallic DMC thread in 2 strands, and the smaller flowers were stitched using Gutermann Sulky thread in Holoshimmer, done with a single strand, but stitched 4 times.  All that stitching took me several evenings of watching Outlander to finish!

Once all the stitching was completed, I used Simon's Craft Tacky glue to attach any loose ends.  Then, I trimmed and attached tiny pieces of foam tape to the back of the panel, and adhered it to the front of an A2 card base.  For the sentiment, I grabbed my Bitty Buzzwords stamps and dies from Honey Bee, and cut the "thanks" shadow layer twice from the same black cardstock as the panel, and the word 3 times from the same white as the card case.  I adhered all the word layers together with Bearly Art glue, then used my MISTI and Versa Fine Clair Nocturne ink to stamp the "sending you" from the stamp set, using the die cuts as a placement guide before adhering them to the card base. As an added touch, I adhered some gems from my stash to some of the flower centers. Here are some other views of my card...I think the last 2 pics really show the dimension this card has!

Since this is a hop, you may have come here from the fabulously talented Bory...if not, I encourage you to continue on with the hop to the wonderful Karen, and make your way back around!  We are a small hop, so it wouldn't take you long at all!  As always, thanks for stopping by, and don't forget that we'd love it if you subscribed, and left us some comment love!  Until next time,

Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless!

~ Marie

 

LIL PATCH OF CRAFTY FRIENDS -- SPONSORED BY FABRIKA FANTASY -- AUGUST 15, 2021

Hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!  Today's post is a bit cheesy, LOL!  It's Team B's turn over at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends, and our awesome sponsor is Fabrika Fantasy.

Prize ~ 3 Images

Here is my card:

I used this cute Happy Mouse image.  He looks quite pleased with himself, don't you think?

Please click on the picture to enlarge it; I'm not sure why it looks so blurry here!    Anyway, I chose to use the pre-colored version, as you do get both pre-colored and uncolored versions in the file.  YAY!  I found this cheese cut file in the Silhouette Store, and modified it to suit my plan for the card.  It is originally a "whole slice," but I chose to cut it on a diagonal.  I also added what I hope looks like a bite mark (those 3 scallops close together).  I used Oxide inks in Fossilized Amber and Scattered Straw to color the cheese, which I had cut from Accent Opaque 120lb cardstock.  Before adhering the 2 layers of cheese together, I splattered the top layer with the leftover Scattered Straw ink mixed with water.  I also had to do some fussy cutting of the bottom layer so there wouldn't be weird looking edges when I offset the layers.

I asked my crafty Squirrel Sisters for advice on what sentiment to use, and they came up with several "cheesy " ones.  I liked this one the best, as I really do love cheese!  I printed that out and cut it with a banner cut file, also layering it up 2 times to add dimension.  The mouse has 4 layers altogether, as I wanted him to really stand out.

I inked the edges of the yellow cardstock layer with Fossilized Amber so it wouldn't seem so flat compared to the rest of the card.  Everything was adhered flat to the 5.5" square card base, and the card was finished!

--CHALLENGES--

Love to Craft #61:  ATG (2/5)

Mix It Up #52:  ATG (2/5)

Crafts Galore Encore #90:  ATG (2/3)

Crafty Animals #53:  ATG using animals

Classic Design #8:  ATG

A Perfect Time to Craft #8:  ATG

The Creative Crafters #43:  ATG (1/3)

SheepSki Designs #53:  Let's Be Cute (2/3)

Pearly Sparkles #65:  ATG

Gem of a Challenge #17:  ATG (1/2)

Paper Funday #32:  ATG w/optional twist Cute Critters (1/4)

Unicorn Challenge #68:  ATG

Cute Card Thursday #691:  ATG

Creative Craft Cottage #143:  No Patterned Paper (1/5)

Aud Sentiments #281:  ATG with a sentiment (1/5)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to pop on over to the Lil Patch of Crafty Friends blog to see what the rest of Team B has created with their images; you won't be disappointed!  Please leave us some crafty comment love, and subscribe to our blogs too!  We appreciate you so much!  Until next time friends,

Stay Healthy, Take Care and God Bless! 💖

~ Marie