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Sunday, August 1, 2021

Summer Fun!

 Hello and Happy August! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying Summer, even if you're doing it in air conditioning like me! 😁 It's time for another design team make for Love to Craft Anything Goes Challenge #61!

Love To Craft challenges are monthly, going live at 4:00 AM Mountain Time on the first day of every month and run until 4:00 PM Mountain Time on the last day of the month. We always play Anything Goes and would love to have you join us! For more details, check the sidebar HERE. 
I need some more Summer decorations, so I decided to make this. I bought this Createful Heart digi called Backyard Grill because I thought it was adorable and then got the idea to cut the printed image with my Creative Expressions by Sue Wilson Apron die I'd yet to use. I went old skool with patterned  papers from Carolee's Creation, DCWV and Creative Imaginations. Then I went really old skool and added some eyelets and brads from my stash. I literally forgot for a bit how to use my eyelet setters, lol, but it did come back to me, finally! 
   
I used this SplitCoastStampers Sketch SC308, but resized it to 7.25" x 8" in PSE. I've been using a 9x12 Stampin' Up 3-ring binder album with oversized 8.5x8.5" page protectors to store my decos in. It's now full of 8x8" decos, and I cannot find any more albums like that, so I'm having to make my decos a bit smaller to fit into the other 8x8 albums I have. I've been experimenting -- this one is my first time to keep the 8-inch height but make the width smaller and I do like it.
I used several die cuts: Lawn Fawn sun, MFT chevron zig zag strips (colored with Promarkers), Newton's Nook flip flops (stamped and colored), Sunny Stamps watermelon and seeds (stamped and colored), and I mentioned the apron (colored with Promarkers) but to fill the apron pockets I also used utensils from the Sue Wilson die set and one from a Gina Marie Baking set.
I just had to document this. The bane of my scrapbooking existence has always begun and ended with rub-ons. They never lasted long for me before drying out, and there was always a surprise (like part of the letter wouldn't rub off or would break off). Well, except for one pack of rub-ons that are pictured above. They are 15 years old but still work! Just had to notate that. To me and my track record with rub-ons,  that's almost a miracle, lol! 😇
The base for my deco is the chipboard backing from an 8x8 paper pad. I used a Posca metallic silver paint pen to accent the legs and various other parts of the grill and to color the utensils. I used the skinniest satin ribbon I had in my stash for the apron strings and neck. Because it was brown, I used brown eyelets and outlined the apron in brown Promarker. I also outlined all the papers with Promarkers in matching colors. I was going to add a beer bottle die cut, but got really tired of messing with it, I guess, because I just now remembered that as I type this. 😬😚😛
I have the back of the deco covered up with a piece of the DCWV paper and Promarker-colored MFT photo corner die cuts. This was to finish it as well as cover up the brad prongs and as always use up more paper! 
This close-up is to show the metallic silver accents to the grill and pocketed utensils. I love that the blue Promarker I used on the apron matches the blue in the plaid paper so well. I used some foam tape to adhere the sun, butterfly, apron, flip flops, watermelon and bottom zig zag strip, so there's a bit of dimension to the piece.
This close-up is to show the eyelets and brads on the chevron zig zag strip. Right in the middle of making this I ended up going through my eyelets and throwing a bunch away because they were too... strong? thick? None of my setters could pound 'em down. And I knew this as soon as I bought them ages ago. Why did I keep them? Did I think I'd suddenly become stronger, or they would soften? LOLOL Yes, I admit, I'm a hoarder collector! 😋
And here is a final view of it on display on my front foyer table. As many home decorations as I've made, I really need to do more for some seasons: Summer being one, Christmas being another. It never ends and I'm never caught up. Welcome to Crafting! 😂 Hope you have a great day and until next time, Stay Well and Craft On! XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:
2.   Createful Heart Design Challenge #34: AG -- #1/3 I used Createful Hearts' Backyard Grill digi.
4.   Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 29: AAG w/Colouring -- #2/2 Promarkers used to color apron and all die cuts except for sun.
9.   The Crafter's Cafe Challenge #271: AG -- #1/5 11 Challenges Max
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Saturday, July 31, 2021

Summer Wildflowers

 Hello! I haven't posted anything this week...been working on future DT projects and battling my back, hip and neck...again. After researching it, I began intermittent fasting with my low carb diet, and believe it or not, it's helping with my energy and stamina. Anyone in constant pain will tell you, it zaps both. I wanted to finish at least one more "for me" project by month's end, so I'm popping in to share this page in my 7x7" Stamp & Stencil Art Journal.
I began by stamping this Jane Davenport stamp called Hair Lines in the middle of my page using Versafine Clair Nocturne. I stamped again on my masking paper and fussy cut a mask for her. I laid Stamplorations Daisy Dance stencil/mask over her mask, taped the top and bottom of the page off and drug my blender brushes across the stencil using various colors of Distress Inks. I used a Promarker to color in the daisy centers. 
I let all of that dry well and then masked off the middle section and stenciled the clouds on top using an MFT stencil and DI's. Then I used a Funky Fossil stencil and DI to stencil the grass/weeds. I colored in that background with a pale aqua Promarker, then stamped the Stamplorations sentiment.
The final step was to color the woman with Promarkers and I brushed gold shimmer paint in her locks.
A close-up to show the shimmer paint in her hair.
And a final view. Thanks for visiting and until next time, stay well and craft on!! XOX

8.   Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 29: AAG with Colouring -- #1/2 Promarkers and shimmering paint used to color stamped image, and also distress inks for the stenciling.
9.   Passion 4 Markers Week 602: Make It Bloom -- Promarkers and shimmering paint used to color stamped image and part of bottom section.
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Friday, July 23, 2021

Sweet Christmas Wishes for Outlawz Festive Fridays

 Happy Fri-YAY, blogging friends! I hope you are all doing well. Today I'm sharing my first DT make for Outlawz Festive Fridays Challenges! The new challenge opens today and runs until Thursday, August 5th. This challenge gives you themes to choose from and you can enter a different project as many times as you like. The themes this time are: Birthday, Get Well, Christmas and Anything Goes. 
I chose to make a Christmas card using digital images from our challenge sponsor, Bugaboo Stamps. You may have heard the sad and sudden news that Bugaboo closed their shop and challenge blog. 😧 I am hopeful that this is a temporary situation. At any rate, I own several hundred Bugaboo images, so I chose 3 from my files with candy canes: Candy Cane Cow, Candy Cane Stocking and Candy Cane Elf. I chose these images because they remind me of a scene in a story I was read as a very young child called Madeline's Christmas. It wasn't even a book (then). It was inside a McCall's magazine in the Christmas issue of my first Christmas in 1956, and my parents kept it and read it to me every year until I could read it myself. By the time our daughter was born in 1988, it had been published as a book, so my parents bought it and gave it to her...and the tradition continued! I love little treasured memories like that! 🎅
 
This was planned to be such a simple card. Just color the images and cut / layer the paper as per the sketch. Ha! I got the bright idea to use Kraft and emboss it with my Snowflake folder, then run a white ink pad across the raised snowflakes (top photo above). Well, that didn't look good enough for me, so I gathered every white pen, paint, ink pad and crayon I owned and went down a rabbit hole trying to get those snowflakes to stand out! I finally was very pleased to get the results I was after! Thought I would show you, in the bottom photo above, the card front before I covered it up with images and embellishments. 😄
I started the card construction with a Recollections red card base and my embossed Kraft card mats. I layered on some red-matted Doodlebug Christmas candy patterned paper, then my 3 red-matted Kraft panels, then my digital images printed on Springhill Digital card which I colored with Promarkers and fussy cut. The elf's bells are colored with my Sakura red Gold Shadow metallic gel pen and the little accents around the stocking were outlined with my Sakura glitter gel pen. I used some red and green Cosmo Cricket Tiny Alpha stickers to make my sentiment, which I embellished with some Frosted Lace Stickles after adhering. I also added some iridescent snowflakes I had bought on Amazon and a skinny candy cane stripe border sticker from my Christmas stash. 
I used SplitCoastStampers Sketch SC82 for my layout, resizing to A7 in PSE but otherwise following it pretty faithfully. 
Inside of my card, I have hand-stamped HOTP, Sweet n Sassy, and Clear Dollar Stamps sentiments, along with fussy-cut and colored CC Designs candy canes, all in Nocturne Versafine Clair ink.
On the back of the card, I let my Kraft-y snowflakes take center stage. I had a large snippet of the patterned paper left, so I cut it with a Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square die, cut that into fourths and used them as photo corners. I added a snippet strip scrap of red polka dots and my Kaisercraft siggie hand-stamped on a scrap of the Kraft card in Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink.
   
A couple of angle shots to try to show all of the sparkle....
And a final view. Thanks so much for visiting me and until next time, stay well and craft on! XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:
6.   Jingle Belles JB-21-15: A Christmas Story -- Madeline's Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans
7.   Sparkles Christmas #125: Snowflaakes (More than 1) -- #1/3 I have lots of embossed background snowflakes and 5 iridescent snowflakes on top layer.
8.   CHNCC #551: ACG + Opt. Use a Die or Punch -- Option played (on back of card)!
21. APTS #7 July 2021: Craft Your Favorite Holiday/Celebration -- #4/8 Birthdays my fave celebration, but CHRISTMAS is my fave holiday!
22. 613 Avenue Create #7 July 2021: AG Only -- #3/8 Option not played this time
24. Colour Crazy Craft Challenge #28: AAG w/Colouring -- #1/2 All 3 images colored with Promarkers and the snowflakes embossed on my kraft background colored with white paint pens  
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Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Have a Beautiful Birthday!

 Happy Hump Day, everyone! I am excited because today is my first design team make for The Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge. My Love To Craft DT time will be ending at the end of 2021, so I'd been quietly considering looking for something else. I play over at Outlawz so much that it seemed like a natural fit. So I'll be creating for the Sketch Challenge and the Festive Fridays Challenge. I joined Outlawz in 2019 and have been very happy there. All the people are great and there is always something going on.
Here's my make. Our generous sponsor is Sheepski Designs, so I've used their Peonies image.
   
And here is the sketch for this challenge, which has begun today and runs until 8/3.
I began with a tan-ish 6x6 card base cut from 12x12 textured Chatterbox card stock, and I layered  papers on front and back from BoBunny Provence 6x6 pad. I then added a white paper doily, lightly ink-blended on some Distress inks (Spun Sugar and Brushed Corduroy), cut out an inner circle with a Spellbinders die and then cut a circle from more BoBunny and layered it all in the center of the card. I colored the peonies with Promarkers, brushed them with clear Wink of Stella, fussy cut and added to the center collage. I arranged 3 Prima paper flower at 3 corners with an enamel dot in each center. At the 4th corner, I added a hand-stamped an MFT sentiment, cut with a Lawn Fawn banner die. 
Isn't this paper gorgeous? It's from DCWV 12x12 Heirloom Papers Stack. I'd pulled the paper a while back and spied it while making the card, saw that the colors were complementary, so I cut into it for the inside mats. The Impression Obsession sentiment is stamped with Nocturne Versafine Clair ink and cut with a Spellbinders A7 Art Deco Astoria Label die.
For the back of the card, I used the leftovers created from the front! I hand-stamped my fave Kaiserkraft siggie with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink.
A close-up of the Wink of Stella glitter brush penning across each blossom.
And a final view. Thanks so much for visiting and until next time, stay well and craft on! xoxo

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:
2.   Outlawz Sunday Songs & Rhymes 7/11/7/24: The Open Road -- Inspired by the line mentioning flowers  
6.   A Place to Start #7 July 2021: Craft Your Favorite Holiday/Celebration -- #3/8 Birthdays! Especially this year when all my high school classmates and I have been turning the big 65. 😎
7.   Passion 4 Markers Week 601: Celebrate -- Promarkers and Wink of Stella used to color flowers
8.   Sheepski Designs Challenge #52: Celebration -- #1/3 Used Sheepski Peonies
9.   I Love Promarkers #440: AG Only -- #1/3 Option not played this time. Promarkers used to color flowers.
10. INKspirational Photo Challenge: Greenhouse -- Inspiration: flowers are grown there. 😏
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Sunday, July 18, 2021

A Very Sweet Happy Birthday!

 Happy Weekend to all my blogging friends! I hope you are all doing well. The pinched nerve in my hip has decided to be not quite as irritated as it was, so that's an improvement! I'm currently slathering  on BioFreeze 4-6 times a day and between it and the BenGay, Honey and I've learned to love the smell of menthol! 👃😊 It's the little things in Life, y'all! 
I'm sharing a birthday card today for a high school classmate girlfriend. She loves to post sumptuous and calorie-laden dessert recipes on Facebook. I think I gain a pound just looking at them, so this is my way of getting her back! 😘😝😘  I've used The Paper Shelter's gorgeous precolored digital images on both the front and back, so no hand coloring from me this time. I began with a green Chatterbox card base, some very old 12x12 MAMBI gingham check scrapbooking borders, some black n white check ribbon from my stash, my printed image cut with Spellbinders 6x6 Art Deco Fairmont label dies, and then an MFT hand-stamped sentiment cut with a Lawn Fawn banner die on white Springhill digital card.
   
I used SplitCoastStampers sketch SC444 for my layout, resizing it to 6X6 and then turning it 90 degrees counter-clockwise. The circle is in the image as well as multiple horizontal bands. I first tried to put my black and white gingham check ribbon exactly like the sketch has (layers #2,3,4), but it looked weird and bunched up so I spaced them out more and it looked better to me. All sketch elements are there!
Here is a close-up hopefully showing you all the Stickles glitter gel accent work I did. I used several different colors of Ice/Distress/Regular Stickles: Clear Rock Candy, Aged Mahogany, Coffee Ice, Cinnamon, Cotton Candy and Baby Blue. I did not think it would much matter, but went ahead with it, and boy am I glad I did. The photos don't do it justice. It really makes those desserts pop in real life! 
On the inside of the card, I've used Colorbok Carnival collection 6x6 paper to make mats cut with the Spellbinders label dies. Then I hand-stamped some Hero Arts sentiments.
Here's a back that's as pretty as the front, thanks to another gorgeous TPS digital image and lucky paper choices. I've matted with more Colorbok paper layers and then added a hand-stamped Kaiserkraft siggie (which has fast become my new favorite to use!). Don't those papers go perfectly with that image? 💓
Let's all have some looks at the desserts, shall we? LOL I want YOU to gain a pound too! 😎😍😎
And a final view. I thank you for visiting and hope the rest of your weekend is tasty and sweet! Until next time, stay well and craft on! XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:
1.   The Paper Shelter Challenge #478: Girly -- #1/3  I used the precoloured versions of  Pastry Chef on front and Berry Delight on back.
2.   Double D Challenge: Summer Gingham -- #1/3  I've used rosy colored gingham check on the card base and black n white gingham check ribbon.
4.   My Time to Craft #461: Ribbon and/or Bows -- #1/3 I've 3 rows of black and white check ribbon underneath focal image.
5.   Outlawz Twisted Thursdays 7/15-7/28: AG only -- #1/2 Twist not played
6.   CD Sunday Plus #65: AG w/USB, CD or Digital Image -- #1/3 I've used digital precolored images from The Paper Shelter--Pastry Chef on front and Berry Delight on back of card.
12. MAWTT #132: Cool It Down -- #2/3  
17. Let's Craft and Create #173: AG + Opt. Punch/Die -- #1/3 Dies Used: Spellbinders 6x6 Art Deco Fairmont Label dies and Lawn Fawn Banner die
18. Daisy Chain Challenge #54: Use Dies and/or Stencils -- Dies Used: Spellbinders 6x6 Art Deco Fairmont Label dies and Lawn Fawn Banner die   
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