Critters Galore

It's Wednesday! So it’s  time for another challenge at Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog where challenges are always Anything Goes and prizes are awarded from one or more sponsors.  Stop by the blog to check it out!

As I DT I get to choose the images that I want to use. This week we have two sponsors and I wanted to use images from both… so I did! The first card features a new sponsor, but one that I know and love, Beccy’s Place. I’ve been a Guest DT for artist Beccy Muir for several years, and now serve as one of the “Contributors” for her blog. I love how easy Beccy’s images are to color as the lines of her artwork are so clean and bold. For this card, I used an image and two sentiments from a Beccy’s Place digi set named “South of the Border.” I created the A7 sized card base, which I decorated with patterned paper. I colored the cute sloth with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen, then fussy-cut and adhered him to the inside of the card. It took me a little time to work out the dimensions so that the sloth didn't stick out of the card when it was closed. But I was finally able to fold the image correctly so that the cutie holds his arms wide to match the inside sentiment. Next time I think I’ll make a long thin card that will fit into a #10 envelope. That will allow the sloth to stretch out a bit further, bending at the wrist instead of the elbow!  I am entering this card into several challenges, including Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Interactive." 

  

Entered into:  

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Interactive                                            

Beccy’s Place Challenge- Sept                                                                 

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- Sept                                 

The second sponsor this week is Patties Creations. I love Pattie’s image named “Cardinal on a Branch with Snow.” I used an upcycled calendar page as the card base, colored the cardinal image with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen. I embellished the finished card with snowflakes cut from a Lawn Fawn die set and Polar White Flower Soft mixed with micro-fine glitter. The sentiment on the front is from a Beccy’s Place digi set named “Baby Robin” and the inside sentiment is from a Beccy’s Place digi set named “Bessings of the Season.” Am entering this card in several challenges including Day 25 of Spectember- Holiday Time.

  

Entered into: 
Spectember Day 25 Holiday Time

Cute Card Thursday- Challenge #600 Dies and Punches

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge- #456 Anything Goes                 

Outlawz Challenge- Saturday Paper Ala Mode- All About Trees            

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       

Rudolph Days Challenge- September

Pattie's Creations Challenge- #162 Things that Fly

I couldn’t wait to get to Day 24 of the Spectember challenges because the theme is Furtastic, and I knew exactly which stamp to use. The cute feline in the stamp set from Biblical Impressions named “Crazy Kitty” always makes me laugh. So I pulled it out, stamped it on cream-colored cardstock with black ink and got to work with my Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen. The paws, which come in the set, were stamped on scrap paper, colored and fussy-cut. I then mounted them with foam tape, positioning them to look like the kitty was peeking over them. Isn’t the little fur face adorable? The sentiment on the front is a vintage wood-mount stamp from Printworks. The “Excerpt from the Diary of a Cat” on the inside is computer-generated. I found it on the internet years ago and it was love at first sight. (Since I like to give credit when I use an image or sentiment, I spent time researching its source when I used in it past posts. I couldn’t find the original author, but in 2017 I did find this article from the 1990s that included it. I just checked and that site is no longer available. Instead, the fun sentiment appears to be in a 400+ page book named “Getting Out: Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary” by John Woodcock. I plan to check it out!)  

 

Entered into: 

Spectember Day 24Furtastic

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #114 Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge- Anything Goes #103

Polkadoodles Challenge- Week 38-Anything Goes  

Two for Spectember

I’m a little behind in completing the Spectember challenges-avoiding two of the challenges that will be particularly challenging! Instead, I’ll share two that I loved completing.

The first is for Day 21- Nature. For this card, I used a Stamps Happen wood mount stamp named “A Friendly Light” that has been in my wood mount collection for over 15 years.  It appears that the company is out of business, but there were some of their wonderful images on eBay. I stamped the lighthouse image and colored it with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen. I found a wonderful scene from an old calendar that I wanted to add to the layout, then decided to add a cute little Hermit Crab (wood mount stamp from Biblical Impressions that you can find HERE.)  The inside sentiment is a freebie but I cannot find it in my files right now. I currently have over 6000 digital images on my laptop. Some are within the 445 folders of digi sets so I cannot just easily pull them up. I know that this sentiment is hidden in one of those folders as I did print it off to make this card. And… I remember that it was a freebie, other than that I’m at a loss. When I find it I'll add the source here. In the meantime, if any of you recognize this sentiment and can tell me it's source, please let me know.]

 

Entered into:

Spectember Day 21 Nature

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #114 Anything Goes

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       

This second card for Day 23-Stamp It is from a blog that I discovered last year. It is named Ruscht and features the wonderful art of its owner, Christina Valenzuela. She is creating 52 ATCs during 2019, developing an original drawing for each and offering them through her blog as freebies. I’ve saved several of these images and am sharing a card that features one of them. I colored her with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen. Isn’t this little beach cutie adorable? I also used an upcycled calendar page, some journal items from my scrapbook stash and a few tags from Lily of the Valley Digi set named "Sentiment Tags." (PS Stop by Ruscht to see Christina's other wonderful digis. She is also a teacher for Copics so the coloring on her cards is AMAZING!) 

I hope it's okay that I used a digi stamp for this Spectember challenge. I do use them on my cards much more often than I use clear or wood mount stamps these days!

 

Entered into: 

Spectember Day 23 Stamp It!

Crafty Catz Challenge- #475 Anything Goes

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       

The Paper Shelter- #398 Digital Image

My next card was created for Double D’s current challenge “Focus on the Sentiment.”  In this case, the sentiment “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a wonderful freebie from TLC that you can find HERE. The little Santa is a Hero Arts wood mount stamp from my vintage stash. And the inside sentiment is from a Beccy’s Place digi set named “Seasonal Window.”  (Sorry, the photo is blurry. My camera battery needs to recharge and I’ll take another pic after it gets its oomph back!) The holly and berries on the inside of the card is made with sequins and seed beads that I’ve had in my stash forever.

 

Entered into: 

Double D’s Challenge- Focus on the Sentiment [photo]                  

Art Impressions- #266 Use Circles                                                        

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge- #456 Anything Goes                 

My final card for this post is for the current Simon Says Wednesday Challenge named “Interactive.” I wanted to make a penny slider and when I found a packet with this ladybug that a friend gave me a few years ago, I knew that I wanted to use it on my card. Created the circle slider base using a tutorial that I found HERE and some swirly patterned paper. Stamped some roses and leaves with two solid Posh Impression wood-mount stamps, fussy-cut them and attached them to the base. Printed “Love Bug” onto a rose to add a sentiment to the card that I knew the little girl that would be receiving this card would like since it is her daddy’s nickname for her.  

Entered into: 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Interactive                                      

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- Sept                                 

Cute Card Thursday- Challenge #600 Dies and Punches

Spectember Continues!

My first card in this posting was created for the Spectember Day 18 Challenge named Under the Sea. I used a sweet digi image from LeeAnn’s  World 101 named Thessa. I colored Thessa with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen. After fussy-cutting the colored image, I adhered her atop patterned paper and a rectangle of blue plastic document folder. (NOTE- you can find details about this wonderful office supply staple in one of my blog posts last month. You can find it HERE.)  The sentiments are from a Bugaboo digi set named Under the Sea, and the anchor image on the inside of the card is from a Beccy’s Place digi set named “Smooth Seas.” I added shimmer to her scales with Spectrum Noir gold and silver Sparkle Pens and added water bubbles with Morning Dew Nuvo Crystal drops.

 

Entered into:  

Spectember Day 18 Under the Sea

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #114 Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge- #475 Anything Goes 

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- Sept                                 

This weeks challenge at the wecraftcards Forum was to create a card that represented the where we live. I had fun making this slider card... that represents Wisconsin's many dairy farms! I've had this paper clay cow since the late '90s. I made it when I was selling Stampin' Up and recently found it when cleaning out (i.e. organizing) my collection of card stuff. The background of the card is upcycled from an old calendar page. I used instructions found HERE to create the slider pull card. The Happy Birthday Sentiment is from an Imagine That Digi set named “Butter to my toast” and the little maple leaves are from an Imagine That digi set named “Autumn.” You can find both of these items HERE. The inside sentiment is one of the first wood mount stamps I ever owned from a company named Azadi Earles.

 

Entered into: 

We Craft Cards Monday Challenge- Regional Birthday

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge-Interactive                                      

Pink Gem Challenge- Week 18 Anything Goes

Ching-Chou Kuik's Digital Stamps Inspiration & Challenge- Fall   

For my final card, I pulled out another old stamp. I pulled the rubber from the wood mount a while ago, but I think it is from a company named Uptown Stamps. I colored the sweet image with Spectrum Noir Coloring System alcohol markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen, focusing on using shades of grey, pink and yellow (so I can enter it into the Outlawz Tuesday Color Challenge.) I didn’t have a sentiment that would fit on the banner, so hand-printed Happy Birthday. Since I was making use of old items, I decided to used one of my Fiskars decorative scissors to add some interest to the card’s corners and inside liner. The inside sentiment is from Petersen Rubber Stamps (a small husband and wife in-home business in South Dakota in the late 1990’s. They were nice people!)  

 

Entered into: 

Outlawz Challenges- Tuesday Color Challenge

Polkadoodles Challenge- Week 38-Anything Goes                                 

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       

Snowy Fun

It’s Friday, so time for another challenge at QKR Stampede!  Stop by the challenge, which is always “Anything Goes” and several prizes are awarded. Maybe you’ll be inspired to enter a card or two yourself? My DT card features a QKR digi image and sentiment (Q-digi14514-Birdhouse & Q-digi16108 Thinking of You). I colored the scene with Spectrum Noir markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen.  I ended up with several layers, adding more and more until I ended up with a look that I liked. The base is strips of patterned paper, this is topped with a lacy square cut from a plastic tablecloth (that I purchased by the yard at a hardware store!!), then vellum, the colored image, and a swirly of snowflakes and the sentiment. The inside sentiment is from a Beccy’s Place digital set named “Seasonal Windows” that you can find HERE.  The snowflakes are made with a Lawn Fawn die set.

 

Entered into: 

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #404-405 Anything Goes                   

Cute Card Thursday- Challenge #600 Dies and Punches

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge- #455 Anything Goes                 

2craftycrittercrazies Challenge- #30                                                     

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- Sept                                 

This September Progressive Challenge on Cute As A Button FB page features a wonderful image named “Thankful.” I cropped the image, allowing a portion to go off the edge of the page so that I could also enter the card into the current Power Poppy challenge, especially since I used the sentiments from the Power Poppy  digi set named “Autumns Opulence.” I colored the image with Spectrum Noir markers and a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen and added extra color with some lovely ribbon I picked up at Hobby Lobby last week (for 50% off!) To add texture to the card, I used some burlap from my stash and some greenery that I picked up at the local Goodwill a while ago. I loved its rich hunter green color and the soft fuzzy feel of the fronds. So fun!  

 

Entered into:  

Power Poppy- Creative Confetti- Over the Edge

Crafty Catz Challenge- #475 Anything Goes 

Di’s Digi Stamps- Hand-colored Image                                                  

Ching-Chou Kuik's Digital Stamps Inspiration & Challenge- Fall  

Cute As A Button-#48 Anything Goes 

Cute As A Button-FB Progressive Challenge No. 29-Thankful

My final card in this posting was created for the Spectember Day 17 Challenge named Create a Scene. I immediately thought of my Stampscaped collection, which I don’t use very often anymore since I prefer digis, but they are PERFECT for creating scenes. I combined three of the images on my wood mount stamps: “Lakeside Cabin”(main section) “Pines and Rocks” (tops of pines on the right side) and “Spruce” (large tree on the left side.) When digging for my stamps, I found some photos I’d taken of clouds that I felt might make n using my Stampscapes. I stamped the images with black Memento ink, then added color to the cabin, water and trees with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I didn’t expect the markers to react with the glossy photo paper as they did, causing them to bleed. But… once the colors dried, I decided I really liked the hazy feeling of the scene. So… I decided to finish the card!  Added a few layers of cardstock matting, a bit of raffia and a sticker from my scrapbook stash. 

Entered into: 

Spectember Day 17 Create a Scene

Outlawz Challenge- Saturday Paper Ala Mode- All About Trees            

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays        

Sweet Music

Hello! It’s the third Thursday of the month, so time for a new challenge at Imagine That Digi Stamps. For my DT card, I used a pre-colored image and two sentiments from a digi set named Grand Piano. The base is a fold called an “Impossible Card.” It is actually very easy to make. You can find instructions HERE. I used patterned papers and gold photo corners from my scrapbook stash to add some elegance to the card.

One added note- The designer/owner of Imagine That, Kris Breach, provides her DTs with a coupon code that allows any friends a discount on their next digi order. If you stop by the shop I know that you'll find lots of digis you'll want to add to your collection. Then, make sure to enter your card into this months challenge with an "Anything Goes" theme for a chance to win a $12 coupon to the Imagine That Digistamp shop, or a Top 3 award which includes 2 free digi sets of your choice and an invite to be our Guest Designer in the next challenge!  You can find the full rules HERE.

Entered into: 

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #404-405 Anything Goes                   

The Paper Shelter- #398 Digital Image

Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge- Sept                                 

I absolutely loved making this card! Am thinking this image from Sheepski Designs named “Ballgown” inspired the Cinderella wanna be in me and this is the result. A diecut background that I upcycled from a birthday card, some scraps of vellum, a bit of ribbon, a strip of acetate, a nice sharp scissors, computer-generated sentiments, a few clear stamps (I picked up the castle, pumpkin coach and glass slipper at a garage sale and don’t know who makes them), and "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" this card appeared! So fun. Am entering it into several challenges, a few need a bit of explanation- Spectember Day 15 (my mixed media is markers plus vellum, acetate for the glass slipper, brushed silver cardstock, ribbon and assorted gems) and Power Poppy (the Ballgown digi image that runs off of the right lower edge of the card is trimmed to fit the card.)

  

Entered into: 

Sheepski Designs- #30 Diecuts and/or Punches                   

SheepSki Designs FB- #38 Anything Goes

Spectember Day 15 Mix Up Your Media

Bugaboo Stamp- Stella Says Sketch Challenge #715                              

Power Poppy- Creative Confetti- Over the Edge

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Fridays                                                       

A few years ago I discovered a website named Little Scraps of Heaven. Artist Tricia Moore provides a wonderful free digi and/or paper piecing image every week. You can download this weeks freebie HERE. This cute image named “Little Harvest Bear” was the freebie last September 3-9. I colored him with Spectrum Noir markers and adhered him to a leafy background made with an upcycled calendar page. The sentiment on the front is from a We Are 3 Digital Sentiment set named "Autumn Sentiments."  The inside sentiment is a freebie from Create With TLC. And the wonderful little maple leaves are from an Imagine That digi set named “Autumn.”

Entered into: 

Outlawz Challenges- Songs and Rhymes- See You In September

Outlawz Challenge- Saturday Paper Ala Mode- All About Trees            

Spectember Day 16 Autumn Vibes