myasperations 11-23-23

      This month’s Sheepski Designs FB Challenge theme is “Gems, Sparkle, Shine” and I used a yummy digi from Andrea’s artwork named “Birthday Cocktail” plus lots of items from my stash to help it sparkle and shine!

     I’m entering this card into several challenges including Creative Fingers (the talented and generous challenge host, Hilde, provides wonderful “blog candy” to celebrate milestones of visitors with her blog. I was excited to win one of her prizes a few years ago and it was so fun to unpack and start using all my new treasures. Visit the link HERE by Dec 1^st to view and sign up for some great  blog candy.)

Supplies: 

·   Easel Card- Instructions found HERE  

·   Digi- Sheepski Designs (Birthday Cocktail)

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

·   Auld Lang Syne sheet music (the version I used is no longer available. But here is a freebie that I like even better!)

·   Inside Sentiment- TlcVintage Junk Journal Printables  (New Years Card Sentiments)

·   Glossy Accents- layered on the image to add depth and shine.

·   Stickles- Diamonds (to add texture and sparkle to the glass rim.)

·   Sparkly star stickers-Hobby Lobby

·   An aqua and Gold foil card and matching envelopes found in the wedding clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Time Out Challenge- #252 Theme Challenge-Winter/Holiday  

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge- Make it Sparkle

Creative Fingers Challenge Blog: ATG #266

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Anything goes)

Di’s Digi Stamps- FANCY FOLDS and/or ABaC (Anything But a Card)

   

     Because of an unexpectedly busy work schedule,  I’m very behind in entering cards into the Annual Month of Holiday Cards Challenge that artist/owner, Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place has hosted for a decade. (This is her 11^th time in offering the challenge, which invites participants to create cards for ANY holiday, using images from any company. And… she offers several prizes on a daily and weekly basis. It is totally worth the time and effort to get involved!)

    I was excited to serve as a Guest DT for Beccy for a short time and then honored when she invited me to become a member of her team (called “Contributors.”) Because of this, I play along just for fun and try to include Beccy’s images or sentiments on my cards.

    For this card, which highlights the letter F (for Friends and Family), I printed two gingerbread houses on kraft cardstock, fussy-cut and colored them. After adhering them to tree-filled patterned paper, I added texture and realism with accents of “frosting” on the gingerbread and sprinkles of “sugar” on the spice drop decorations. Then, came the really fun part. I added “neighbors” (that I fussy-cut from gingerbread cookie patterned paper) and a smattering of hand-lettered greetings in “talk bubbles.”

      I’m entering this card into several challenges including Cupcake Inspirations and The Paper Shelter (both ask that our cards feature friends and family/home. My mom loved baking. And one of my favorite holiday memories is the many times we’d bake cookies to deliver to friends and neighbors. It is a tradition that I still like to do whenever possible… and is a great way to meet neighbors and treat co-workers!)

Supplies: 

·   Digi and Front Sentiment from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Gingerbread Wishes)

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

·   Background papers (Trees and gingerbread cookies)-Hobby Lobby

·   Inside Sentiment- Freebie from Birdscards (Merry Christmas from Our House…)

·   White Frosting decorations made with Scribbles Shiny White 3-D Paint from JoAnne’s Fabrics 

·   Sugar sprinkles on spice drops made with Diamond Stickles.

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Beccy’s Place: A Month of Holiday Cards- Nov 2023   (Day 7-"F” for Friends and Family)

        Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place (sponsor), I’m entering just for fun!

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #218

        Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place (sponsor), I’m entering just for fun!

Cupcake Inspirations- #582  Theme-Home Sweet Home)  

The Paper Shelter- #577 All About Family

Allsorts Challenge- Week 755 AG  (optional Christmas Time)

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Nov)      Santa’s Village in New Hampshire, USA

Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #117 (Twist-Texture) 

     I hosted a Stampin’ Up! party back in the 1990’s, and selected a sweet wood-mounted stamp set with some of my hostess credits. Thus started my stamping adventure/addiction(!?). The scarecrow, corn stalks and pumpkins in this set just shout “Autumn”… so I made them the center of attention on this multi-layered card. (That reminds me… I need to add foam tape to my shopping list!)

Supplies: 

·   Images- Stampin’ Up! Rubber Stamp Set “Harvest” (retired)

·   Colored with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white & silver gel pens

·   Sentiments-Freebies from RG Ave (Company no longer in business)  

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Outlawz Sunday Challenge- Thanksgiving Time  

Outlawz Twisted Thursday Challenge- Fall Colors

Outlawz Challenge- Nov 2023 Linky

Inspiration Station- Challenge #55 Inspiration Prompt 

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #623-6245 Anything Goes  

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Fall (Nov)   

myasperations 11-11-23

   This is my final card for the “Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop” hosted by coffeelovingcardmakers.com. I’ve participated in this challenge for several years and almost missed it this year because of some family health issues. But I was able to create three cards. I remembered making a pull-top coffee cup card at a class back in the 90’s, and after some trial and error, was able to create this similar card, using a digi from Patties Creations Challenge as the base. (If you spend a little time on Pinterest, you can find several different versions of this type of card.)  I found the fun sentiment on a card many years ago, and it still makes me chuckle… mainly because I think it is a very good idea!) 

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Pattie’s Creations Digi (A freebie from Sept 2022 that appears to no longer be available.)

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

·   Inside Sentiment- Source unknown (if you can provide this information, I’ll be happy to cite it!)   

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

coffeelovingcardmakers.com- 2023 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop    

Pattie's Creations Challenge- #212November

I joined a FB group named "Printables for your Junk Journaling with TLC" a few years ago, and really enjoy the wonderful freebies and affordable digis that are available to members. The leaves on this card and the front sentiment are freebies from a recent challenge on that site. The inside sentiment is from a Beccy’s Place digi set.

Supplies: 

·   Leaves and front sentiment are freebies from the TLC FB page. (Join HERE, then start downloading digis and sentiments!)

·   Leaves and front sentiment are from a free TLC Creates digi sheet named “Autumn Blessings”

·   Inside Sentiment- “Thankful, Grateful, Blessed” from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Pumpkin and Spice)

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Inspiration Station- Challenge #55 Inspiration Prompt 

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge-Fall/Halloween Greeting

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Anything goes)

Outlawz Challenge- Nov 2023 Linky

Paper Funday- #59 Anything Goes      (Optional Twist: Grateful, Thankful, Thank you)

My last card this post features one of the first stamps I ever purchased, back in the late 1990’s. This pudgy little snowguy is a wood-mount rubber stamp made by a company named Azadi Earles. I was looking for a stamp with an unusual hat for the current challenge at Christmas Craft Creations Challenge and I think this one is a winner!

Supplies: 

·    Snowman Image- Azadi Earles Rubber Stamp (Company no longer in business)

·    Inside Sentiment- unmounted rubber stamp from an unknown company

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

·    Puffy Heart Stickers- The brand name is Sticko’s

·    Stickers-All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Christmas Craft Creations challenge- Nov-Add a Hat  

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #621-622 Anything Goes   

myasperations 11-10-23a

    This is my second hot beverage card to enter into two of my favorite annual challenges- Beccy’s Place “A Month of Holiday Cards” and coffeelovingcardmakers.com’s “Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.” Beccy’s wonderful attention to detail when drawing this tall and elegant glass mug of apple cider looks so realistic. Can’t you almost smell its yummy spicy aroma? Ahhh… heaven!

  

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Pumpkin and Spice)

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

·   Front Sentiment “Happy Thanksgiving from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Celebration Panels)

·   Inside Sentiment- a Freebie From Decosses Dynamite Doodles (May the Bounty…)  

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Beccy’s Place Challenge- A Month of Holiday Cards- Nov 2023  

        Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place, I’m entering just for fun!

coffeelovingcardmakers.com- 2023 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Inspiration Station- Challenge #55 Inspiration Prompt 

The Sisterhood of Crafters- Fall Harvest 

Paper Funday- #59 Anything Goes    (Optional Twist: Grateful, Thankful, Thank you)

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Fall (Nov)   

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge-Fall/Halloween Greeting  

Outlawz Challenge- Nov 2023 Linky

     The sponsor for the November Outlawz Progressive Challenge is Sandra, and I got creative with her wonderful background digi, using it to create a quilt for a baby card!  I copied and pasted the digi into a Word document. Then I reduced, resized and recolored it before arranging the squares into a quilt pattern. I like the result… except for one unexpected oops. I wanted to add some depth to the card, so used a light grey marker to add impressions under the cute baby's body and sketching a few ‘folds” in the quilt. I didn’t anticipate that the black ink would smear. So… I tried to fix it with a white colored pencil. Meh… didn’t work very well. But I think I’m just being a little overly picky. (I often get that way with my creations!) If you look closely, you can also see the stitches I added to the quilt with a white gel pen. 

     I’m entering this card into several other challenges, including The Paper Shelter’s “Warm and Fussy” (babies with binkies always give a warm and fuzzy feeling inside!)

Supplies: 

·   Digi- Sandra’s Starry Background (Freebie for Outlaws Nov 2023 Progressive Challenge)

·   Baby with Binkie Digi- Freebie from Skogstokiga (Blog now closed)

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

·   Front Sentiment- Freebie from Papercrafts Magazine (no longer available)

·   Inside Sentiment - We Are 3 Sentiment set (Baby Wishes)

·   Sparkly Star Stickers- Hobby Lobby

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

The Paper Shelter- #575 Warm and Fuzzy

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #621-622 Anything Goes  

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Anything goes)

Outlawz Challenge- Progressive Challenge (Nov) Starry Background by Sandra

    My final card is a simple one that I made for a few challenges, Crafty Cats “Make it Sparkle” and Park Hopping “My Happy Place.” (This second challenge has become a favorite of mine as it has introduced me to many new amusement parks. The inspiration for this card is the original Disneyland in California… which opened when I was in elementary school. I’ve loved Tink ever since I was Disney's first Peter Pan movie!)

    This card was inspired by an amusement park- challenge [shades of yellow], plus I found a template for the sweet Tinkerbell silhouette on a blog that was sharing creative pumpkin carving. Yep, you read that correctly. This Tink was created to be carved into a pumpkin. (I added a pic of the beautiful pumpkin, which you can find, along with the Tink Template HERE.) I resized the template a bit and traced it onto a scrap of black paper, actually is a scrap from a black envelope that had a white interior which made it very easy to see my pencil tracings. I created a swath of sparkles by sketching  a spray of assorted-sized dots of white gel pen that I then topped with sparkly Stickles. So fun! 

Supplies: 

·   Tink Silhouette- Template available HERE

·   Sentiments- Computer Generated

·   Pioneer Silver Photo corners- available from several sources

·   Sheer black dotted Swiss ribbon- JoAnne’s

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #658 (Optional twist- Make it Sparkle)   

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Nov)   

Polkadoodles Challenge- Week #44 AG                                          

Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #117 (Anything Goes Positive/Twist-Texture 

myasperations 11-10-23

     I’m a bit behind in entering cards into the Annual Month of Holiday Cards Challenge that artist/owner, Beccy Muir at Beccy’s Place has hosted for a decade. (This is her 11^th time in offering the challenge, which invites participants to create cards for ANY holiday, using images from any company. And… she offers several prizes on a daily and weekly basis. So there is no reason not to get involved.

    I was excited to serve as a Guest DT for Beccy for a short time, and then honored when she invited me to become a member of her design team (called  “Contributors.”) Because of this, I play along just for fun and also try to make sure that I include Beccy’s images or sentiments on my cards. (I really do love Beccy’s attention to detail. She even names all of her “characters!”)

    This card is just my second entry into the challenge, fits the second letter of the alphabet, “B is for… Beverage.”

Supplies: 

·  Digi from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Café Elements)

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

·  Black & White Buffalo Check & Sunflower Sleeve Silverware Holders-Hobby Lobby

·  Front Sentiment “Happy Thanksgiving from a Beccy’s Place Digi Set (Celebration Panels)

·  Inside Sentiment- a Freebie From Decosses Dynamite Doodles (May the Bounty…)  

·  All other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Beccy’s Place Challenge- A Month of Holiday Cards- Nov 2023  

        Since I’m a Contributor for Beccy’s Place, I’m entering just for fun!

coffeelovingcardmakers.com- 2023 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop  

Passion for Markers Challenge- Week #715 Favourite Digi Or Stamp

Allsorts Challenge-  Week 754 AG

Paper Funday- #59 Anything Goes  (Optional Twist: Grateful, Thankful, Thank you)

   

This entry into Beccy’s Place Annual Challenge, and fits into the third letter of the alphabet, “C… is for Chalkboard.” Although The card was tedious to make, but I do like how it turned out. It features two of Beccy’ Free digis, and the chalkboard card base and matching envelope is an invitation from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. (I love repurposing paper items, especially when I find them at 80% off!) The tedious part of making a “template” to help me more easily paper-piece the stocking. It took a little time to figure out, but will be easier to make more of these cards in the next month. I used a strip of antique lace from my mom’s “treasure box” and want to make more copies of this card to send to my five siblings. If I don’t get them finished in time for Christmas, they’ll surely be ready by next Christmas?!

Supplies: 

·   Digi- A freebie from Beccy’s Place (Christmas Stocking)

·   Shading and highlights added to paper piecing with Spectrum Noir Classique markers, Sakura Gelly Roll white & silver gel pens

·   Front Sentiment- from my scrapbook stash

·   Inside Sentiment- A freebie from Beccy’s Place (Margie’s Christmas)

·   Chalkboard card base and envelope from Hobby Lobby Clearance aisle

·   All other items from my stash.

Entered into: 

Word Art Wednesday Challenge- #621-622 Anything Goes   

Outlawz Challenge- Festive Friday (Christmas)

Outlawz Challenge- Nov 2023 Linky

Crafty Catz Challenge- Anything Goes #658

Park Hopping-My Happy Place (Nov)      Santa’s Village in New Hampshire, USA

Path Of Positivity Challenge- Challenge #117 (AG Positive, Twist-Texture) 

   I joined a FB group named "Printables for your Junk Journaling with TLC" a few years ago, and really enjoy the wonderful freebies and affordable digis that are available to members. This cute little pup is a freebie I downloaded a few months ago. (See details in my supply list)

I made Halloween cards this year to share with the people I work with at a treatment/recovery agency, plus with the clients to help them keep in touch with family during their 28-day stay with us. This was one of those cards, and the background helped me to use up some of the many paper scraps left from my card-making frenzy during October. So fun!

Supplies: 

·   Halloween Dog- Precolored image is free on the TLC FB page. (Join HERE, then find the cute pup on the 9-5-23 post to easily download it!)

·   A bit of shading and highlights were added to the image with Spectrum Noir Classique markers and Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

·   Sentiments- Computer Generated

·   Assorted background papers and other items from my stash.

Entered into:  

Snippets- Week #466

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends- #217

Outlawz Challenges- Monday Greeting Challenge-Fall/Halloween Greeting 

The Four Seasons Challenge- Anything Fall (Nov)