Looking forward, looking back - February Challenge at UnstampaBelles

The UnstampaBelles February challenge is Looking forward, looking back with the twist of Window or mirror. You can make whatever you like, but without any stamps.

I was inspired to make a piece that celebrates my journey to changing my life for the better, and I put this on my mantle to remind me how far I've come. All my followers & friends, you have no idea how much you've helped me.

I've had this punched chipboard frame in my stash for years, and I simply inked it with Quick Quotes & Versamark chalk inks and strung some ombre ribbon through the holes. The background is a watercolor paper. I masked the edges before decorating it with spray inks. Then I inked the edges with a black Wink of Stella glitter pen. The phrases are rub-ons from Tim Holtz that I won from the Kraft Outlet, and the yellow silicon frame was handmade by a dear friend. The wings were cut from G45 papers & vellum on my silhouette; they're actually extras from an old project. I made the "mirror" with silver foil cardstock. As you can see, it does reflect!  

I hung it onto this necklace holder my mother-in-law gave me, and put it in my crafting space to inspire me.

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teamies and hope you'll join us this month at UnstampaBelles!

Inspiration/Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #283: Anything BUT A Card
Creative Artiste Challenge: Anything Goes + use Chipboard
UnstampaBelles: Looking forward, looking back with the twist of Window or mirror

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Black & White with a pop of color

The theme this fortnight at Pile It On is Black & White with a pop of color. I used stamps from Latina Crafter.

This card is inspired by my sweet dogs Allen & Walt. AWwww, ain't they cute!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark (ink)
CCEE Stampers: Opposites (black & white)
The Crazy Challenge: Ribbons
Moving along with the Times: Embossing (all stamps are also heat-embossed)
One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Critters (2nd entry)

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

I {heart} Poetry

I really enjoyed making my Poe-inspired book box & keychain for Lost Coast Designs' Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop & Challenge, but I wanted to try something a bit more out of my comfort zone. Here's my Poe-try wall hanging:

click to enlarge

I started by inking a piece of watercolor paper with purple inks. The I stamped a feather & inkpen (both rubber stamps) onto tissue paper, tore out the middle to create a frame, and glued it onto the textured paper with Mod Podge. I added more ink, some glitter spray, a sprinkling of bronze enamel, red embossing powder, & mica chips to finish the background. I made the eyelashes for the googly eye form black paper. The anatomical heart stencil was cut with my Silhouette, inked onto the background shape with red ink, and heat-embossed in red powder. The Poe Bust by Ikesart was printed on shiny cream paper and backed with white cardstock. The tree stamp was stamped onto Shrinky Dink plastic with green distress ink, shrunk in my toaster oven, and inked with a lighter green. I also made Shrinky Dinks with the inkpen & feather stamps. I handmade the tiny book, using a scoring to create "pages" on the top portion. TO hang the piece, I tied on some string with help from a small branch.

Inspiration:
Lost Coast Designs: EAP Appreciation Day (2nd entry)
Quoth The Raven #52: Anything Poes

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop 

Main link-up is at Lost Coast Designs. Wow, can you believe all these gorgeous Poe projects?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Squirrel Appreciation Day

Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day and I was inspired to make a card in honor of the furry little guys who make our backyard their home. I was also inspired by the Virginia Creeper ivy that is about the only green scenery this time of year. We just had our yearly visit by huge groups of starlings that eat the purplish berries off of the ivy, leaving pretty plops of purple poop in the snow. They cover the trees, bugging the squirrels who use those trees as their highway. I also wanted to use some of the great new inks I won from Quick Quotes!

I started by stamping the bark-patterned piece. I used the kissing technique: I inked a solid-to-faded rubber stamp (Hero Arts) with Antique Linen distress ink, then stamped the bark pattern rubber stamp (Rogue Redhead Designs) in Quick Quotes Milk Chocolate chalk ink directly onto the first stamp and stamped it onto white cardstock. I then stamped the ivy (Rogue Redhead Designs) and sentiment (Clear Art Stamps) in Peeled Paint distress ink. I used Quick Quotes Purple Passion ink & the Ink Smooshing technique for the bottom. I like the result! I then used a die to cut the squirrel directly out of the front, and I popped the front from the kraft card base with foam tape. I stamped the bark pattern in brown ink on the kraft card before adding the front. Hi, little guy!

Here's a shot of a couple of our resident squirrels in front of some of our ivy:

Inspiration:
Cards und More: Woodland animals
Happy Little Stampers CAS Card Challenge: Ink Smooshing + CAS (3rd entry)
Less is More #259: Kissing Technique + CAS
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Critters

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Charmingly Poe

Lost Coast Designs is hosting an Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop and is challenging us to link up Poe-inspired projects that include rubber stamping by January 23. Although I've made many Poe-inspired items, somehow I never included rubber stamping! I have lots of great rubber stamps...but not the one I wanted, you know? And then the mail arrived...and I received a fabulous RAK from Elisa at Cards und More that contained rubber stamps of feathers, how perfect is that! Thank you Elisa! From there, I knew what I wanted to make for the Hop. Here's a Book Gift Box containing a Poe-inspired keychain:

I recently purchased this cute Hidden Compartment Book Box by Lori Whitlock at the Silhouette Store. I've made Book Boxes before, but using SVG Attic's discontinued Nevermore set. I like this new set, but I did add cut lines on the "pages" to mimic the old file. I made this box from white paper, inked it with 3 purple inks, and added some purple patterned paper & silver stickers. I used a new feather stamp (by Stampin' Up!) to add 3 feathers to the front (the silver one in the middle doesn't show well in the photo). I stamped the feather in black on some tissue paper and tucked the keychain inside. The box keeps closed with magnets.

inspiration

The silver charm with chains was a groundscore I found while on a walk the other day. I used printable, white Shrinky Dink plastic for the handmade charms. I printed the Poe Bust by Ikesart on one side and the words "Raven Lunatic" on the other. I made a purple gradient background for both. The sentiment is inspired by a T-shirt my mom sent me the last time the Ravens won the Super Bowl. This piece was cut with a label die (from Stampin' Up! & part of Elisa's gift; the holes were made with my Crop-o-dile. I inked both sides of more plastic with purple inks, stamped feathers on one side, and cut them out with deckle scissors. They shrunk quite nicely in our toaster oven. After baking, I coated the pieces (except for the feather sides) with Glossy Accents.

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop 

Main link-up is at Lost Coast Designs. Wow, can you believe all these gorgeous Poe projects?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day

Just this year, our mayor declared January 19th Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day. As a poet in Baltimore, I've had my share of Poe-tastic experiences and so was pleased to see it being celebrated around the world! I've been inspired by the "The Raven" many times over the years, but here are the ones that that feature Allan Poe himself:

Poe Book Box

Pop-out Poe Card

Lost Coast Designs is hosting a Edgar Allan Poe Appreciation Day Blog Hop and is challenging us to link up Poe-inspired projects that include rubber stamping by January 23. Guess I'll be inking up some stamps today!

Thank you for visiting & may your days be filled with poetry,

Gecko in the Cherry Blossoms

When I saw this week's unique color at Pals Paper Arts, I immediately thought of the gecko I die-cut from a can of AriZona Green Tea.

The background is a rubber stamp from my stash, and I stamped it & the sentiment (from Clear Arts Stamps) in black directly onto white cardstock. I was inspired (again) by the Ink Smooshing technique challenge at Happy Little Stampers. After letting the piece dry, I added detail to the cherry blossom stamp with black & clear Wink of Stella glitter pens. I wrapped a bit of baker's twine on the top and adhered the piece to the card with foam tape. The tin can gecko is attached with foam tape & Glossy Accents.

PPA283

Inspiration/Challenges:
Happy Little Stampers CAS Card Challenge: Ink Smooshing + CAS (2nd entry)

Pals Paper Arts: Mint, Melon, Black

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

I Got the Blues Blog Hop + Cards for Men at the Crafter's Cafe

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge theme is Male Cards, and we're calling this our January Blues Challenge.  It's been 3 weeks since Santa was here, 2 weeks since we welcomed the New Year - all the hype and excitement has gone, are you feeling a bit down? So along with our normal challenge prizes, we will be 4 blog hop prizes as well to help spread a little cheer! Be sure to leave a comment on all the Design Team members blogs and mention "January Blues" to be eligible. And of course, link up your great Male Cards!


Welcome to my stop on this fun Blog Hop! Here are two cards featuring products from Angie's Cards & Digis to chase away a few winter blues.


***

Hot Cocoa Gift Card

I used this fun sentiment by one of our generous sponsors, Angie's Cards & Digis. The card base was adapted from an SVG file I grabbed online years ago. It's an actual card, I just used the template to create a pocket on the front, for a packet of hot cocoa.

****

Teddy Pop-up Card

For my second card, I used this cute image by one of our generous sponsors, Angie's Cards & Digis to make a 3-fold card based on this video tutorial by Frenchiestamps. The sentiment is by TLC Creations.

Thank you for visiting & hope you'll join us at The Crafter's Cafe! Be sure to leave me a comment & mention "January Blues" to qualify for the great Blog Hop prizes. Your next stop is the fabulous Fiona.


Best,

Pink Flamingo Feathery Pop-up

I recently acquired Karen Burniston’s Rectangle Pull Card die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs and am really enjoying it, especially the pop-up element.

 Sorry about the photos; it's been gray and windy here.

I used similar techniques as my CAS flamingo feather card. I decorated the paper base with Recollections flamingo stamps, using an outline stamps & a foam die-cut (make your own stamp tutorial). The feathers are from Silhouette & I cut them from light pink on my Cameo; I inked the top parts with the bright pink.

Inspiration/Challenges:
In the Pink: Anything Pink Goes
Great Impressions: Lovey Dovey (Valentine or Bird)
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New (new die) / 2nd entry

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Love you an Eiffel lot

I've been having tons of fun with my new stamps from Latina Crafter (which I won at Connie Can Crop). I bought their Oh la la set mostly for the bilingual sentiments, but I wanted to ink up the Eiffel Tower & this sentiment as well. I'm giving this to a dear crafting friend of mine. Her favorite color is pink & mine is purple, so I think she'll get a kick out of this.

I Inked some white paper with a purplish ink & heat-embossed the Eiffel tower onto it in light pink. I stamped "oh la la" onto a pink ribbon & attached it to the fussy-cut piece. I stamped the sentiment, the tower, and a heart onto a pre-made pink tag, and attached it all to the card with a purple brad that I heat-embossed with more pink. The little Eiffel tower is from Viva Las Vegas Stamps, and is also stamped in black onto pink paper. The background was embossed in my BigShot.

Inspiration:
Allsorts: Ribbon and lace
Share Joy Challenge #17: Sketch & Color Combo
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New (new stamps)

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Smooshed Surf

I've had this groovy surfer stamp forever, and I finally inked it up! I was inspired by the Ink Smooshing technique challenge at Happy Little Stampers, a technique I've admired but never tried. I used Tim Holtz distress inks, Copic refill ink, a sentiment from Verve Stamps, and letterpress paper to create this CAS card:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Color Throwdown: Color Inspiration # 374
Happy Little Stampers CAS Card Challenge: Ink Smooshing + CAS

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Feathery Flourish

I'm having lots of fun with my new pink flamingo die and stamp set by Recollections; this time, I cut the flamingo out of foam and used it as a background stamp. Did you see Monica's great make your own stamp tutorial for Die Cut Divas? Her card is so eye-catching, and let me tell you, this technique really works!

I used two dye inks: "Amaryllis" from Sweet Stamps and "Rose Bud" from Memento. The flamingo & sentiment are inked over the lighter pink flamingo, which I stamped with my foam die-cut. The light pink flourishes were inked over the darker ones. The feathery flourish stamp is from the Baroque Borders set by CTMH. I rounded the bottom corners ever-so-slightly.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Die Cut Divas: New (new technique, new stamps/die)
Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #218
Heart2Heart Challenge: One (1 Layer, 1 color - Pink, 1 Flamingo) + CTMH product (Flourish stamp)
Less is More: One-Layer + Flourish + CAS

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Pilin' on the Chewy

The theme this fortnight at Pile It On is Use something that starts with the first letter of your first name. My name starts with a "C" which actually has a ton of possibilities, so I really piled on the Cs!

With the new Star Wars movie coming out, I imagine that many people are catching up on the other movies at home. I thought this would be a cute present for such a cinematic occasion. I made a Coffee Sleeve treat holder featuring Chewbacca, filled with peanut butter cookies. I made the sentiment with the colors chartreuse and cyan.

I had lots of fun previewing the new Stars Wars-inspired images via the great DT projects for the new release Blog Hop at Sassy Studio Designs. I was the lucky Grand Prize Winner, winning all seven new images! I couldn't wait to use their cute Chewbacca image. I colored it with Copics and covered it with 2 colors of Teddybear Flowersoft. The coffee sleeve is inked with black, silver, and copper inks.

Chunky Peanut butter & Chocolate Chewy Cookies
Basically, you make these delicious 3-ingredient Peanut butter Cookies, but with extra-chunky peanut butter. I've made these with smooth peanut butter and egg replacements work well. The only trick is to bake them just so that the edges brown, then let them rest out of the oven on the pan for a few more minutes until you can remove them; they will be soft when you take them out. I usually bake them at 350F for about 10-15 minutes & then leave them out for 10-15 minutes. Easy-peasy!

For the batch pictured, I mixed half of the batter with powdered chocolate to create a two-tone cookie similar to Chewbacca's furry coloring.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Connie Can Crop #42: Beary Sweet (Bear and/or Something Sweet)
Decorate to Celebrate #1: Anything 3D goes
Naughty or Nice Challenge #23: Let's Get Silly
Pile It On: Your First Initial
Sassy Thursdays: Anything Goes (+ SSD image)


Update: This was the winner at Decorate to Celebrate!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,