Merry Mouse

Today's card is one that the group of cardmakers from my local library will be making at our December gathering. I will be entering it @ heARTful Stamping Challenge for "Anything Goes plus a Stamp", @ Hiding in my Craftroom for "3x Designer Paper", @  2 Crafty Critter Crazies for"Anything Goes -w/ a Critter", and @ Animal Friends Challenge for "Christmas". 

Using two new paper pads that I picked up at AC Moore a few weeks ago and a retired stamp set from the 2016 Stampin' Up! Holiday catalog, I cut the rectangles from 4 different patterns and glued them to the side folding A2 vertical card front leaving a small border of white card showing between them.

 The oval came from white cardstock using my Creative Memories cutter set. The banner is a rectangle cut from green cardstock and then trimmed out using the corner of a square punch.

The cute mouse was stamped in black archival ink and then colored using watercolor pencils, a blender pen and accented with some clear Wink of Stella.

I then tapped on some light blue ink using a sponge dauber to make the sky around the mouse. The sentiment banner was hand cut from white cardstock, stamped in red ink and mounted using mini foam dots.

Using black and white gel pens, I added faux stitching along the edges of the central oval and the green banner. The oval is adhered using foam pop dots to lift it off the card front.

Inside, the greeting and accent stars were simply stamped in Real Red ink.

Until next time~

The Making of my October Paper Pumpkin Kit

For those of you that may not know, Paper Pumpkin is a craft box subscription from Stampin' Up! that is all inclusive for less that $20 (INCLUDING the shipping!!!) a month. You literally need nothing other than your box of crafty goodness and a flat surface to craft on!

The kits are a surprise every time and this one made 10 gorgeous holiday shaker cards (in 4 designs) using everything you see pictured below...and it even included the lined envelopes that match. It's amazing how much can fit in that little box, lol!

The first time that you subscribe to Paper Pumpkin you will be sent a clear acrylic stamping block to use with your stamp set each month. You receive at least one ink pad each time and all the adhesives you will need to complete your projects.

A photo instruction booklet and a video on You Tube every month walk you through the assembly process. This time I stamped banner sentiments and sentiments for inside the shaker boxes in the Cherry Cobbler red ink spot that was included.

Everything is precut and or diecut to the perfect size -which leaves you to enjoy the creative process without all the measuring and design logistics. I used my paper piercer to apply the mini glue dots for adhering the acetate windows because it makes it super simple to pick off the sticker backing sheet.

There were more than enough of the sequin shaker elements in 3 colors to fill all the shaker circles with...I have a ton leftover to use on other projects in the future. There were also 5 of the self-adhesive foam shaker circle rings left that I can use in the future -woohoo!

There is so much else you can do to change up your cards a bit and make them your own...check Pinterest and the Paper Pumpkin Fan Club on Face Book for lots of alternate ideas! No need to make the cards all the same unless you want to. I made this kit exactly as instructed because I loved the ideas "as is"...but YOU decide how you want to finish your projects when you are crafting with Paper Pumpkin!

After spending all that quality time crafting these gorgeous holiday greetings, I stamped, dated and signed the back of my cards like you can see here below. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did with this month's kit as much as I enjoyed the time I spent crafting with it! If you are curious to learn more about how Paper Pumpkin works, please click the tab at the top of my blog that says "PAPER PUMPKIN" and contains everything you need to know.

Until next time~

How I Used The Best Glue Ever and Scraps to Make a Holiday Card

Today's design team creation for ScraPerfect was made using the Best Glue Ever and lots of scraps that were floating around on my craft stamping desk, lol.

The first step was transforming this piece of glossy gold scrap - leftover from punching out banners for another project from my October Paper Pumpkin kit- turning it into a layer by gluing it to the back of green patterned trimmed to fit on top with a small border, so that it just looks like a solid piece of gold underneath once it's done.

Using the No Clog Writing Cap kept the glue dots tiny enough that they didn't ooze out and make a mess when I adhered the 2 pieces together.

Using Versamark ink and a "Season's Greetings" sentiment from this Stampin' Up Paper Pumpkin stamp set, I repeat stamped right down the center of the green and gold piece. I trimmed the larger green patterned paper piece into a panel for the front of the A2 top folded vertical kraft card and glued it on. 

The finishing touch was adding the wood grain deer diecut (that I got from the free pile at my last planner meet-up) to the card front using mini foam dots to pop it up.

Inside I simply stamped another of the sentiments in pine green ink.

Well, that's it for me today! Until next time, happy crafting with ScraPerfect~

Truly Thankful!

Today's AHSC DT contribution card was made using the sketch from Atlantic Hearts and the inspiration from Cupcake Inspirations. It will also be entered @ International Art & Soul for "Autumn Colors", @ Dare 2 B Artsy for "Gratitude" and @ Come and Get It for "Thank You/ Thankful".

The first step was cutting an A2 side folding vertical card from white Bristol cardstock, picking out a patterned paper from my stash and finding scraps of metallic cardstocks that would fit my small diecuts.

 Once they were all cut out, I laid them out exactly the way I wanted them to be around the oval that I cut into the front of the patterned paper layer for the card front. I then used a little trick that I had learned from a Jennifer McGuire video to use Press N Seal to pick up all the pieces and hold them in their places...I just laid it right over the top of the diecut pieces, pressed down and then gently pealed it back -being super careful to keep everything intact!

I then flipped it all over to the back -with the sticky side of the plastic wrap facing up -and added glue to the outside of each diecut piece so that it would adhere to the outside of the oval frame in the patterned paper later. I let it sit for several minutes to give the glue a chance to set up and get tacky -you'll know it's ready when it changes from that white color to more of a clear color. Doing it this way insured that when I was ready to make the transfer to the patterned paper it would grab that instead of just sticking fast to the Press N Seal.

The next step was to carefully lay the plastic wrap holding the diecuts back down over the oval -this is fairly easy to do since you can see through the Press N Seal pretty well. Carefully peel back and press down the dies to make sure they are sticking well and that part is done!

All the stamping and coloring was done directly on the card front where it would peak through the oval window in the patterned paper. To get this just right, I had lightly traced inside the oval using a pencil before I glued the diecuts on. Using retired stamps from Stampin' Up! and new stamps from Sugar Pea, I stamped in black archival ink so that I could then color everything in using watercolor pencils and a blender pen.

To build the background, I  colored the sky by using a finger tip sponge dauber and light blue distress ink. After it was all sponged on, I then washed over it with a watercolor brush to soften the look.

To finish my design, I adhered the patterned paper layer using foam tape, topped off the fox's scarf with some clear Wink of Stella and adhered the wood grain sequins from Close To My Heart.

On the inside, I used the oval cut out from the front window, stamped my sentiment (retired from TAC) on it using black ink and glued on some leftover diecut leaves.

That's it for me today...until next time~

"You Rule" ~ A Really Cute Gift Card Holder & Birthday Greeting

Today's design team post is for Itsy Bitsy and uses the new Jungle Birthday clear stamp set. There are so many cute stamps and sayings in this set that I know I will be using it alot! I started by making a cute gift card holder that's built right into the card...follow along to find out how easy it is to make...

So here is the template I used for the dimensions to make this A2 sized card. (It will fit in a regular envelope). I started by cutting an 8.5" x 11" sheet of mustard colored cardstock from my stash in half long ways. Then I scored it 2" from the bottom and again 7.5" from the bottom. The bottom flap gets folded up and becomes the pocket for holding the gift card. The top flap folds down and becomes the focal panel of the card front.

I trimmed the tan polka dotted patterned paper from the Retro Style paper pack to fit on both of the front panels and inside the card.

Using my die cut machine, I cut one Stitched Square from White Cardstock and then using the next 2 smaller dies, I simply embossed with them instead of cutting with them. Every brand of machine will be different in how you can do this, but for mine I made the "sandwich" from the bottom up using a magnetic platform, my dies with the cutting blade facing up, my cardstock, a tan embossing mat and an embossing plate. Google it and I bet you can easily find instructions for embossing using dies and your specific machine. The result is that the shape of the die basically becomes impressed in the cardstock and as such it makes a nice frame for my stamped image.

I stamped the Lion in the center of the embossed squares using Black chalk ink and then colored it using Watercolor Pencils and a water brush. I did the same using the tree branch and several of the sentiments for the inside greeting. This chalk ink works beautifully with many different coloring mediums when stamping! 

As you can see, when coloring with watercolor pencils, you don't need to color the images in completely -just use the waterbrush to spread the color around -it's like magic and is alot of fun to do. I adhered the Lion panel to the card front using Mini Foam Squares for the added dimension it gave.

To add to the feel of the Lion being the King of the Jungle, I added a Cream Skeleton Leaf accent to the bottom pocket panel using a tiny bit of glue on the spine of the leaf. To hold the pocket closed so that the gift card doesn't fall out, I wrapped Jute Twine around it twice and tied it in a knot.

When you lift the top flap, you'll see inside the pocket where a gift card is tucked in below the birthday greeting...I used a thin lined black pen to draw the dots in the sentiment for added interest.

What a cute and easy way to give someone you care for a gift card to one of their favorite places. Just change the patterned paper and the stamps out to make this suitable for any special occasion that comes your way all year long.

Until next time, happy crafting with Itsy Bitsy~