myasperations 1-30-24

    I wanted to get one more card posted into the current Butterfly Challenge, one of my favs! The challenge sponsor, Mrs. A, is offering a few changes for the new year. Each challenge will incorporate a letter/sentiment as one of the themes, and this one also includes six colors from which to choose. 

   When looking for acetate to use on my card, I unearthed this pretty embossed acetate that I upcycled from a gift box many years ago.  I layered it atop patterned paper that I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few years ago, and embellished the card with gorgeous butterflies that I found on a scrapbooking years ago long ago and printed on vellum. (See web link for a free sheet of these butterflies in my supplies list.)

   

Supplies: 

·   Butterflies - freebies from a gorgeous Scrapbooking website HERE.

·   Sentiments are computer generated.

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Butterfly Challenge- #191-A is for Anniversary  

Allsorts Challenge- Week 765 AG  (optional Anything But Square)

Paper Funday- #61 Anything Goes      (Twist: Let's Celebrate!)

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #664

I love this sweet snow guy named Mr Squiggles. He is the featured digi for Outlawz January Progressive Challenge, and was provided by Cara. The bright smile on his face made me think that he had Valentine's Day on his mind. And his outstretched arms, I mean twigs, begged to be holding up something with a bit of BLING for his sweetie. So…. I decided to help him celebrate the holiday! So fun!

Supplies: 

·   Digi - Mr Squiggles by Cara 

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment- “Thoughts of You Warm My Heart” from Polka Dot Orchard Digi Set       

     (My Love Mug)

·   Sparkly Heart Sticker- Hobby Lobby

·   Inside Sentiment- “Happy Valentine's Day”-Hero Arts Words of Love digital set (no longer available)

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Outlawz Sunday Challenge-The Snowman

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Happy Hello’s: AG (optional: Add some sparkle!)

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday  (Love Is In the Air, Fun in the Snow)

Outlawz Challenge- Progressive Challenge (Jan)

Double D’s Challenge- Sparkle and/or Shine

Di’s Digi Stamps- Anything New  

Passion for Markers Challenge- Week #724: Friends/Friendship

My final card for this post is for one of my favorite challenges named “Snippets.” I love this Challenge because it encourages me to use all the lovely paper scraps that I hoard… I mean save… for later use! I found a treasure trove of pastel scraps just begging to be put to use as I’m starting on Spring cards. I cut them into strips, then adhered them into a simple herringbone pattern using an often-used tutorial that I found on Pinterest years ago (see web link in supplies list.) The little bunny has been in my collection for a few decades. If you recognize it, please let me know. The sentiment is from a Polkadoodles digi set that is new to me. It also includes a sweet bunny image!)

Supplies: 

·   Herringbone background- made with paper snippets cut into strips (instructions HERE)

·   Digi-unknown source

·   Colored with Aquarelle Watercolor Pencils and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment- from Polka Doodles digi set (Some Bunny Adores You)

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Snippets- Week #472  

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #222

Polkadoodles Challenge- Week #4 AG                                            

Gem of a Challenge- Week #2 AG                                                     

myasperations 1-27-24

      I am honored to have served as a Guest Designer for Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place and am now one of her “Contributors” (which means that she provides me with digis or clear stamp sets several times a year and I get to create cards or other items with them!) It is always fun to see the images Beccy invites me to use and this time my card features Beccy’s new sets named ‘Ruff Day”. I used 1 pre-colored digi (mainly because I knew that I could never get my coloring of this beautiful dog to look this good) and 2 sentiments from the set.  

     I love that Beccy names the characters that she creates, and this noble-looking dog is named Fortescue. I did a bit of research and ancestry.com notes that the name is ”English (of Norman origin): nickname from Old French fort ‘strong’ + escu ‘shield’.”  With a name like that, I have a feeling that a dog named Fortescue does just about anything he wants, when he wants. Ha!

      The Pop-Up Accordion fold took a little time to put together, but a YouTube tutorial helped with the process and I love the resulting card!

 

Supplies: 

·   Digi and Sentiments- Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Ruff Day)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Tutorial for Pop-up Accordion Card HERE

·   Sheer black dotted Swiss ribbon- JoAnne’s

·   Patterned papers, large pawprint, dog bone cut out, and other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Add Some Texture

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Jan)    The Secret Lives of Pets (Universal Studios)

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #664 (Optional twist- Make Me Smile)   

Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge- Celebrations

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #222

This card features an adorable winter digis from Sweet November stamps, a cute penguin named Percy. I love his sweet face and glasses… so decided he needed to be the center of attention on a T-shirt card, amidst a flurry of flakes. I included an A2-sized template so you can create a T-shirt card if you’d like, too!

 

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sweet November Stamps (Percy Penguin)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment “hello” handwritten

·   Inside Sentiment- Desert Diva (Snowflakes Are Kisses from Heaven)

·   Inside Sentiment - We Are 3 Christmas Sentiment can be found HERE.

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

The Paper Shelter- Anything But a Square

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge-Happy Hello’s: AG (optional: Add sparkle!)

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday  (Fun in the Snow)

Outlawz Challenge- Jan 2024 Linky

Allsorts Challenge- Week 765 AG  (optional Anything But Square)

Friends of Sweet November (FB) Jan-Winter Blues 

My final card for this post is for the Butterfly Challenge, one of my favs! The challenge sponsor, Mrs. A, is offering a few changes for the new year. Each challenge will incorporate a letter/sentiment as one of the themes, and this one also includes six colors from which to choose. I had so much fun creating this card, weaving pretty ribbons that I’ve had in my stash for over two decades to tape behind a heart-shaped aperture. The vintage-looking butterflies, trimmed from patterned paper that I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few years ago, embellish the card. A few of them were left in their pretty dusty blue color, the rest were colored into three of the other colors: Apple Green, Almond, and Amethyst. (All of the colors are antiqued versions of the ones in the challenge, to match the Victorian feeling of the card.)   

Supplies: 

·   All items from my stash.

·   Butterflies colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen.

·  Front Sentiment- Desert Diva (Happy Anniversary)

·  Inside Sentiment is computer generated.

Entered into:  

Butterfly Challenge- #191-A is for Anniversary  

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #631-632

Papercraft Challenges- Challenge #102-AG

Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #119 (Anything Goes Positive) 

Paper Funday- #61 Anything Goes (Optional Twist: Let's Celebrate!)

myasperations 1-20-24

     This month’s challenge at  Sheepski Designs  theme is “Anything Goes” and I used one of my favorite winter digis, not only because of Andrea’s wonderful artwork but also because it’s named “Hot Chocolate.” (‘Nuf said?!)

  Because we recently received some of our heaviest snow this year, I layered on a blizzard of flakes from my stash of papers, diecuts and stickers. The layout of the card was inspired by a Sketch challenge in which I often participate because the sketches are always visually striking and usually pretty easy to replicate. I usually decorate the inside the card, but I’m leaving this one blank for now as it is in a packet of cards that I’m donating to the Drug Treatment Agency where I work. (This will be the third time I’ve donated cards, and our clients have really appreciated being able to stay in touch with loved ones in this way during their first few weeks when they can’t have outside visitors. It warms my heart to make these cards, so the front sentiment is a perfect fit for this one!)

     I’m entering this card into several challenges including Park Hopping-My Happy (I discovered this challenge last year and it has become a favorite of mine as I’ve learned lots about amusement parks. The challenge host, Makira, provides a listing of “inspiration” to help learn more about Amusement Parks around the globe. I was thrilled to find the word “snowflakes” in that listing so I could enter this card. Read HERE to learn about Blizzard Bleach…in Florida!) and Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers {BYSHC} Sketch Challenge. 

 

 Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Hot Chocolate)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Sparkly Stickers- Hobby Lobby and JoAnnes

·   Front Sentiment “You Warm my Heart” from Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Christmas Cheers)

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Jan)   

Christmas Craft Creations challenge- Jan-Glitter & Sparkle   

Colorful Options Monthly Challenge:  Jan-Blue Lagoon   

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Winter (Jan 2024)   

{BYSHC} Sketch Challenge FB- #41 Jan 2024  

Caffeinated Christmas Card Challenge Jan-#25 Coffee + Snowflakes 

Double D’s Challenge- Sparkle and/or Shine  

I really like penguins… so this sweet digi from Gerda Steiner makes me smile. And when I saw that it was FREE… I nabbed it immediately! I colored the printed digi with alcohol markers, then added the soft glowing effect by using cotton-tipped swabs (Q-tips) to add smudges of soft pastel chalks. I printed off extra copies of a few of the penguins to adorn the inside sentiment. After seeing how quickly this card went together, I made 15 of them to send out to friends and family members.

                  

Supplies: 

·   Digi- A freebie from Gerda Steiner Designs (2024 Penguin)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen, and Decorating Chalk set from CRAF-T Products (Pebbles, Inc. from American Crafts also makes a nice set.) 

·   Pioneer Black Photo corners 

·   Inside Sentiment- Computer Generated

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

The Paper Shelter- All Things New

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday  (Something New)

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #663 (Twist- No Decorator Paper)   

Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #119 (Anything Goes: New Beginnings)  

Outlawz Challenge- Jan 2024 Linky

Paper Funday- #61 Anything Goes   (Optional Twist: Let's Celebrate!)

myasperations 1-16-24a

      I had fun making another card using a vintage holiday sentiment from The Paper Shelter. Gold photo corners, a scrap of music score paper, burgundy mulberry paper (remember that fun embellie?!) and Nuvo Drops add texture and a lovely vintage feeling to the card.

Supplies: 

·   Front Digi Sentiment- The Paper Shelter (Vintage Xmas Designs)

·   Inside Sentiment “Sending Love this Christmas” from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (GingerbreadSeason) 

·   Gold photo corners available from several web sources (WXJ13 Photo Mounting Corners)

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

The Paper Shelter-  Anything Goes

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday  (Christmas)

Outlawz Challenge- Jan 2024 Linky

    One of my annual resolutions is to organize my collection of stamps, supplies, papers, etc. To regift items I rarely use. In the process, I often find lost treasures like this stamp from Denami Design, which was one of the companies that we carried in a little stamp store I co-owned in South Dakota in the 90s. The owners of Denami, Gary and Nami Nakamura, were kind and gracious to a clueless couple of new business owners, so I was happy to learn that their business is still going strong. You can find them HERE.)

Supplies: 

·   Wood Mount Stamp-Denami Design (This stamp appears to be retired. However, a similar one is available HERE)

·   Stickles- Ice Blue  

·   Tips for stamping with Bleach can be found on Pinterest. My favorite is HERE.

·   Front Sentiment-Upcycled from an old card

·   Inside Sentiment-“It’s a Day to Celebrate” from Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Keeping it Simple)

·   Navy Blue Victorian die-cut postcard, household bleach and other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #221

Colorful Options Monthly Challenge:  Jan-Blue Lagoon  

Paper Funday- #61 Anything Goes   (Optional Twist: Let's Celebrate!)

     My final card also features a wood mount stamp that I unearthed when organizing my many treasures! This one is from Biblical Impressions, another of the companies that were favorites at our wonderful little store in South Dakota named Stampers Den. I’ve had this since the 90’s and it still works like new! I decided to use black pigment ink and fine black embossing powder to provide a bold black outline, which I colored in with a small number of colors (to be able to enter it into the current Cupcake Inspirations challenge.) Dots of several colors of Stickles add bling to the pretty card. 

Supplies: 

·   Wood Mount Stamp and front sentiment from Biblical Impressions (Unsure of status of this stamp line.)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Front Sentiment hand-lettered with a pilot fine-line black pen

·   Inside Sentiment- source unknown (I pulled the stamp from the wood base years ago!) 

·   Stickles, prehistoric decorative scissors, and other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Cupcake Inspirations- #585 Color Challenge

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #663 (Optional twist- No Decorator Paper)