Inspired by 25 Days of Christmas Tags | Tag 1

Hi, guys! Back at the blog. Have you been checking out Tracey McNeely’s 25 Days of Christmas Tags event? Tracey puts this event on with loads of tag inspiration annually and gets all kinds of people sharing Christmas tags. It’s always fun!

I’m going to spend some time over the next week or two, creating some Christmas tags inspired by ones shared during the event.

So, with that, here’s my first tag.

This was inspired by one of the tags Joyce shared on Day 8. I dug Joyce’s blue inked background and did something similar for my tag here.

Avery Elle was the Day 8 sponsor of this year’s event and that felt like a great reason to dig into my Avery Elle stash to make this tag so I did just that! 🙂 I pulled out the Christmas Magic set (which I think might be retired) and stamped and die-cut the little snowman and light pole. Just a little basic coloring to both. To create the look of glass, I did add a light layer of Glossy Accents to the light.

To finish off the tag, I stamped a few snowflakes and a sentiment, plus I added the white pompoms.

Alright! That’s it for me. Be sure to check out this post on Tracey’s blog for details about the event, as well to see how others have been inspired by this year’s tags! (A big thank you to Tracey for continuing to put this event together! The time and effort is so appreciated!)

You’ve “Bean” on My Mind

Hi, friends!

Feeling the card making bug the last few days. Back with another card to share with you. Today’s card is coffee-themed.

A unicorn holding a coffee cup? Yes. Yes, indeed!

The image (from the Unicorn Ice Castle stamp set from Flora & Fauna) truly inspired this card. It’s Christmas stamp set, but that didn’t hold me back. I mean, hello, coffee. I could send something with this little lady on it all year long to one of my friends.

I created the background by sponging ink in a circle on my card and then drawing a circle with a black pen. To add some interest to the sky, I stamped some stars (with the Peek-a-Boo Pals set from Avery Elle) and added some dots with a white pen and white Nuvo Crystal Drops.

The sentiment was created by pairing together sentiments from stamp sets from Avery Elle and My Favorite Things. Fun how they look like they were made to go together. A happy discovery indeed.

Alright. That is it for now.

Oh wait! One more thing! Speaking of unicorns, have you seen my unicorn enamel pin? I made him awhile back, offering him at Plannercon. I put her up in an Etsy shop. (You can also find him at Simon Says Stamp! and Doodlebugs. Both are wonderful places to pick up crafty things… and enamel pins too!)

 

 

 

 

Valentine Challenge

Hi everyone!

Back again with a card to share.

My pal, Ashley, suggested we challenge each other again to make cards. This time, we’re making cards for Valentine’s Day.

Here’s my take for Day 1.

I took it upon myself for the challenge to pull out some stamps I’ve had and haven’t given a lot of inky love to. This viking stamp? Totally unloved. Shameful, I tell you. Shameful.

I stamped the viking (from Avery Elle) a few times on cardstock and then stamped him off a couple times on my white card panel. I colored in the first few vikings with markers, fussy cut them with my scissors and then stacked ’em up.

I may (or may not be) a wiggle eye addict. Fact. So yeah. I added a couple wiggle eyes to the top guy’s face. Just something about them makes him extra fun.

All those little hearts in the background. They are stamps from the viking set too. It was fun to just kinda go crazy and stamp them a lot!

So yeah. That’s all I have today.

Be sure to swing by Ashley’s blog to see her take on the challenge! See you again tomorrow.

Today’s card (1-16)

Hi guys!

Back again. Got another card to share with you.

Put this one together last week. Was going through some stamps I hadn’t used in awhile.

Challenged myself to make something with some of them. This one uses images from the super sweet Storybook set from Avery Elle, plus the coordinating dies. The words are also from Avery Elle, although I cannot remember which set I pulled them from off the top of my head as I write this post. That’s me, guys. Keeping it real as I blog.

I just had fun coloring the images here with markers. Add a little extra detail the deer with a white pen. A few dots go a long way.

All the patterned papers in the background are a little box of scraps I keep near my desk. 🙂 Always fun to just take scraps and make a little design with them.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll be back again later, friends.

Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Card Challenge 2017… the finale!

Hi guys!

Here again with one last take on this year’s Christmas Card Challenge with my pal, Ashley.

On your mark. Get set. Meet today’s card.

Pulled out my Avery Elle stash of stamps to put this guy together. The little snowman and snowflakes are from the Be Jolly set, while the words are from the Let It Snow set.

Little secret about the background. I made this really awesome sky background with the Cloud stencil from My Favorite Things. I was all set to make a little scene and then… BOOM…. dropped a black ink pad on the corner! Tears! Seriously, don’t you hate it when that happens?!

I had an idea for saving it. I stamped the snowman one more time on cardstock. Fussy cut it out with my scissors, adhered it the cloud paper and then … boom… use a circle die to cut it out.

Meet the leftovers of Exhibit A.

See the black ink mark. Kinda makes me wanna cry… even now.  Wink!

So anyhoo, I used the circle with the snowman on my card as you see here.

It worked out. Yep. It worked out.

Alright! That’s all I got. Be sure to swing by Ashley’s blog to see her latest take on the challenge.

Be back later, gators.

Birthday Card Challenge

(Looking for my Essentials by Ellen Blog Hop post? It’s the post right below this one. Scroll down or click here.)

Hi guys!

Ashley and I are back at with our Birthday Card Challenge. Our posting days are a bit unpredictable but we are still doing it. So yeah. 😉

This is my take on the challenge today.

It “might” be a stretch for a birthday card but I am running with it.

The adorable bunny and words are from Avery Elle’s Pure Magic stamp set. So cute.

For the bunny’s face, I used a Copic marker to tap dots. Then I used a blender pen to tap even more dots. Then I used another Copic marker (just a shade darker) to tap even more dots. And then (one more time!) I tapped even more dots with the blender pen. If you try this at home, I warn you: Be patient. All that dotting looked kinda of lame and made me question what I had done to the poor bunny until the ink dried and then things looked good.

Wondering about the panel I stamped the bunny on? Cut that bad boy with the Blueprints 21 Die-namics from My Favorite Things. Some of my most favorite, practical dies. (Dearest friends at MFT, please keep making more of them? K, thanks. I love you guys… like a lot. Hugs, kisses and creative wishes, T)

Alright! That’s what I have.

Don’t miss Ashley’s take on the challenge. It will not disappoint. I’m sure.

Today’s Not-A-Card Project

Hi guys!

How goes it? Got a little something to share today.

I was inspired to play by the Holiday Tag challenge over on the AEI♥U Challenge blog. So play I did. 😉 And so I came up with this little number.

It is somewhat the product of a late night crafting session the other day with Avery Elle’s Penguin Greetings stamp set. It’s just so darn cute! I made several tags but this one is a little different.

After doing the stamping and coloring, I used my hole punch to pop some holes in the tag. Then I adhered it onto vellum and poked another hole and tied some twine through the whole thing.

If you flipped the tag over, you’d see I used Copic marker to add a little yellow coloring where the holes fall. It’s real faint, but it’s kind cool when you look at the tag up close.

By the way, I wanted the little guy’s vest to look a bit puffy so I added some Glossy Accents to the top of his vest. I wish the dimension showed a little better. You will just have to trust me that the Glossy Accents are there. Deal?

Alright, that’s what I have for you. Over and out. Thanks for swing by!

AEI♥U Challenge #30 – Holiday Tag

 

Today’s card

Hi all!

Just playing today! I haven’t really had a lot of time to just play in a few weeks.

Saw the Stripes challenge on the AEIHeartU Challenge blog  and really wanted to give it a go… so I did. 🙂 Here’s what I came up with.

So I cut the bottles with the Bottle It – Up Elle-ments dies from Avery Elle. I cut actually cut the bottles each two times and then I cut down the second one to make the stripes. Sorta kinda a different way to add stripes.

The words and the vegetation are from Bottle It Up stamp set.

So there you have it. 😉

And glad I played! I really wanted to play!

See you again soon, y’all!

Go-to Gal Designer Challenge: IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko

Well, well, well, friends! We meet again! It’s time for another challenge with the Go-to Gals.

We’ve challenged each other this time to make something with the fine products from IMAGINE Crafts/Tsukineko.

What’s the deal with these challenges? Well, every so often we challenge each  to make something (just for the fun of it) with a specific manufacturer’s products. Sometimes, we all play. Sometimes, we all don’t. That’s OK because it’s all about having fun.

So here’s what I made.

 

I’ve been a Tsukineko ink fan as long as I can remember. In fact, my Tsukineko black ink pads sit on my desk at all times.

For this project, I have been itching to make something with their Radiant Neon ink pads so I challenged myself to use for today’s challenge.

Nothing really super fancy here. I just took some stamps (from Avery Elle), inked them up and then stamped them one after the other. You’ll notice that I left them overlap a little. I love that the ink still pops even with that little overlapping.

Can’t wait to see what the rest of the crew cooked up.

• Heather
• Kim
• Laina 
• Laura

Be back again later, gators!

PS. Who scored the stash of Studio AE stamps mentioned in this post here? Well, that would be JilldHawkins. Jill, I’ve sent you an email! Thanks to all who left comments. I’ll have another giveaway here in the next week or so!

Today’s card (4-12)

Hi all!

This is today’s card!

Had a really good time the other day playing around with the new Storybook stamp set (and steel dies) from Avery Elle. Heather Campbell, my pal/homie, designed them. 😉

One of the things I really love is using products designed by my friends. I don’t know. There’s just something that makes it extra special about,although I do feel a little  extra pressure to make something good with it… because… well, you know. One doesn’t want to be known as the loser friend and all.

To make the background, I scribbled with watercolor crayons on stamping block, doused the color with water and then pulled it down a journaling card cut from watercolor paper. Each of the little critters were die-cut and stamped from good old Neenah cardstock. Then I used watercolor pencils and water to give them a little bit of shading. To give the dots to the deer, I pulled out my trusty white paint pen from Elmer’s. (<—- Love, that thing.)

Anyway, I guess you could say that I just kinda stepped out of the creative box here and had fun. 🙂

Not much else to say so I’ll be back later. Hope you are having a dandy good day!