2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 10 | Of Christmas Past

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today is the final day in this year's card series, and I chose to keep this card for last, because it was really this stamp that started it all.

Six years ago, when I started making cards and had no idea where to start, what was I to do? It was Pinterest. I scrolled and scrolled looking in wonder at the beauty people were creating and adding to the world, not just for Christmas, but for everything! Birthdays, Easter, Sympathy, Divorce, Babies, New Pets - I cannot remember wanting to be a part of anything more than I wanted to be a part of this.

And then there it was. The sweet little fox that started it all. His big bushy tail wrapped around him as he sat in the corner of the card. I fell in love with that little fox and that was the beginning for me. I haven't stopped since.

I have taken breaks, I have been frustrated, angry and sad. I've used card making to pull me out of dark moments of despair. When my Father passed away, I would sit for hours just surrounded by my colours, letting their beauty guide me back.

Each birthday, funeral, wedding and anniversary has been marked in some way with my cards, that little something more that I could do.

I discovered more brands, I soaked up YouTube videos like a dry sponge wanting to absorb it all; but I still come back to that little fox when I just need something to make me smile.

So for today's card, my ghost of Christmas past, I hope he brings a smile to your face as well.

I stamped the fox from "Into the Woods" with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink, I masked him off and stamped the log from "Critters in the Forest" and masked that as well.

I used Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Inks and my dollarstore blending brushes to create my sky. Once that was dry, I masked off the bottom and used Moonstone Glimmer Paste by Nuvo through the Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil to finish off my background.

I removed all my masks and coloured the images with Copic markers. I mounted my panel to a coordinating piece of purple cardstock then adhered the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 9 | Clean and Simple

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

In our world of rush rush rush, it is really hard to enjoy the little things. Especially this time of year. Is it me, or does the news seem more depressing than usual? I'm not going to get all political here, with everything that is going on, I'm sure we've all got other ways than a crafty-blog to get Presidential opinions.

I'm just talking about what people do to each other. There seems to be more fires right before Christmas, and there seems to be more home invasions right before Christmas, and there seems to be more killing right before Christmas. Are there actually more? Or are we just more sensitive to it, because we so desperately want to hear that there is good out there this time of year?

Perhaps if more people took a moment to appreciate something beautiful around them, they'd be less inclined to set their neighbor's house on fire? I can appreciate the beauty of falling snow, despite the crippling sense of sadness that winter brings me.

Today's card is super simple, clean and one of my favourite go-tos when I need a quick card in a hurry. Not for me, but to make someone else's day a little bit brighter.

I used a snowflake embossing folder to create the dry embossed design on my background panel. I then used Lawn Fawn's "Joy" die and the Mini Stitched Snowflake dies to cut my pieces of blue glitter cardstock.

The rest of the greeting is from the "Let's Bokeh" stamp set, it is stamped with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's white embossing powder.

This card would be ridiculously easy to mass produce and could be done in any colour palette.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 8 | Silent Night (of Reflection)

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

We're down to the crunch. Are you ready? I mean, really ready? Not just ready with the shopping, is anyone ever really done shopping? The answer is no. If the answer were yes, we wouldn't have Boxing Day Sales; or Boxing Week Blowouts; or New Year's Door Crashers. We're never done.

Then there's the decorating, maybe we're done. I'm about a third of what I normally do, and I'm pretty done for this year. Every year, my husband and I argue about the placement of the tree and the arrangement of the furniture. Then every year he finally moves stuff around, and I find a time when there is no one in the house and I decorate the tree, and usually the entire upper floor common areas (living room, dining room and kitchen), then every year he comes after it is all done and tells me how "cold and soulless it looks" and I respond with "No, honey. It's perfect." and the rest of the family ooooos and ahhhhhs and that's that. That's our fun tradition. This year, I decorated the tree and the front entry way. That's it, because this year, I don't feel like doing the rest.

Then there's the cooking and the baking. If people know you're a baker, there's never an end in sight. There's always one more person who could use one more loaf of something, and if you do it for a couple close friends or coworkers you have to do if for everyone, because it's the season of giving, right? RIGHT?? So yeah, I don't bake - unless I'm sad.

Finally, the cards (I know there's more, but this is getting long). Are you done the cards? I am. Most of my Christmas supplies are packed right up and put away. I've found that the more cards I send out the fewer I receive in return. I can't be the only crafter to have experienced this. Perhaps this is just a side effect of the additional beauty we put out in world; who knows?

For today's card I created a Silent Night Shaker, featuring stamps from Lawn Fawn's Winter village, along with the Say Cheese Again die and some snowflakes from the Mini Stitched Snowflakes dies.

I stamped the images with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and coloured them with Copic Markers. I used double-sided adhesive from Darice (this is that really thin stuff) to create my shaker window, which is filled with various snow-looking stuff from my stash (it's older, so there are no labels, but if I had to guess I would say I got it at Michael's crafts).

I adhered the shaker to piece of dark blue patterned paper, then mounted the lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

(Also, the point of my super long story above, was to take it easy. Christmas is only a day. One little day in the whole year and you are only human.)

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 7 | Sea-Sons Greetings

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So you know that moment when something bad happens? That moment when you're like "Well, "crap", did that just happen?" Not something catastrophic, that's not what I'm talking about here, but something that wasn't in the plan for that day. That was my yesterday.

After I got finished with Day 6, I loaded up my video games (because as cool as I make myself sound here, I'm actually a giant nerd), and everything was totally fine, I was going from one zone to the next and waiting on the loading screen, and waiting, and waiting.

And. Waiting.

After more than 5 minutes, and the game not booting me from the server (which is generally what happens when you get caught in the loading screen), I hit the windows key so I could manually shut down the game to restart. And my screen looked like something from the Matrix. Well "crap". It still brought up the start menu, so I shut down the computer, waited a bit and restarted.

Restart went fine, there was nothing delayed or anything like that, then my background went back to the Matrix. It allowed me to log in, and it all looked okay. It said I have some drivers to update, so I went to do that, download went fine. Then the install. That's when the site told me that these weren't even valid for my computer. The same site that scanned my computer and said I needed these drivers.

So ultimately, I ended up having to get a new computer. I'm still blogging on my old one, because nothing else has happened and all my programs are here, but gaming is now happening on a different computer.

The point to my very long story, is that sometimes things happen that are not according to plan.

When I saw the stamp set I used in today's card, my whole plan was a complete underwater Christmas series. The whole Christmas was going to be ocean themed. This set was just absolutely adorable, but as you can see from the previous cards in this year's series - that didn't actually happen, and if you could look into the future, you'd find that this was the only underwater card I created. It was the first card I made this year, but then stuff that I didn't plan on happened and it was the only ocean card.

I stamped the images from Christmas Fishes with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, masking them off as I went. I wanted to create a one layer card, but still have a lot of depth.

Once all the images were stamped, I masked the bottom, what will become my sandy area and used my dollarstore blending brushes to add some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I then used the wavy stencil and added more Distress Ink, trying to keep it darker around the edges.

Once that was dry, I masked off the upper portion and applied some Scattered Straw Distress Ink to the bottom, adding a very light touch of Gathered Twigs to darken it up.

I removed all the masks and coloured my images with Copic markers. I also used some of my brown Copics to add dots to the sand area, giving it more texture.

The greeting is Stamped with VersaFine Onyx ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 6 | Wild Wonder

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Wasn't it day 6 last year where I started talking about the colds my kids bring home just before the holidays? I'm too lazy to check, but we can probably just assume I'm close to right. It happens every year. We get right close to Winter Break and bang, all the kids are sick, all the co-workers are sick so Trina gets sick. Yep. Like clockwork, or to put a more positive spin on it, like tradition.

Because traditions are important. Structure, familiarity and whatnot. This particular "tradition" sucks, but at least it is predictable.

Today's card is probably my favourite of this year's collection, and with a few tweaks, I can probably make it for other seasons as well. So, stay tuned for that in the coming months.

All the images from Lawn Fawn's "Joy to the Woods" are stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and cut with the coordinating dies (clearly I got this set and its dies before I got the SNC, so why not use them if you have them, right?)

Again I wanted the whole scene to appear very cold, I find there is an elegant beauty in a frozen scene and for me, this one captures it perfectly.

I created the background with Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink and my dollarstore blending brushes. I then used the SSS Falling Snow stencil along with some Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone to get the glitter of falling snow.

I played around with the placement of the trees quite a bit. As this card is relatively flat, I wanted to create the illusion of depth by having some elements come outside my focus window.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 4 | Take the Ho-Ho-Holidays

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

You ever have that moment? That split second, when you when you want to throw your hands up in the air and just - not? Just toss in the towel? Quit? As a mom I experience those moments a whole lot. As someone with a full time job, I experience those moments a whole lot. As a crafter, I experience those moments a whole lot.

The entire month of December is like one of those moments. As a crafter, aside from posting here and if I ever actually get time, to YouTube, I've already moved passed Christmas. You know what I'm talking about. For me, I'm mostly done Valentine's Day and I'm well on my way to planning out Easter. It makes it incredibly difficult to stay in the Christmas Cheer moment when all you want is a really good Spring Sentiment set.

Anyway, my point is - take some time for yourself this week, today, after you read this and realize "Wow, she is SO right", if you have vacation time and you're able to take some, even just a day. Do it. Take a day. A day with no plans and no chores and no work, and dare I say it? A day when the kids are still in school? Take that time for yourself, because as I've learned I'm generally not the only one who feels this way, and if one person will say it, a hundred more are thinking it. So just go on, take a day.

Today I wanted to share an interactive card with you featuring some of Lawn Fawn's Winter release. I stamped the images from Ho-Ho-Holidays with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, coloured them with Copic markers and fussy cut them out.

The roof and chimney were made using the Roof-Top Border die set, then I used Fired Brick and Gathered Twigs Distress Ink to shade them. I also cut a snowy border from some glitter cardstock, but that was an afterthought and so only made it to one layer of my roof. If I were to remake this card, I would add it to all the layers.

I used a piece of patterned paper from my stash for the background and used the "Lets Toast" Pull tab die set to make Santa pop out of the chimney.

The greeting was heat embossed with clear embossing powder over VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 3 | Holly Jelly Days

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Every year there is something that all the kids want. Something that's all the rage. Something they'll just "die" without. This card is inspired by books that my daughter and her cousins are just "all about"; you'll forgive me if my lingo isn't down with the generation LOL. The things we do for our kids, right?

The images from Lawn Fawn are stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured with Copic markers.

I masked off the images and used Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink along with my Dollar Store blending brush, to create a soft aura around the images. Once the background was completely dry, I used the Lawn Fawndamentals Liquid Stardust to create some shiny splatter.

I removed the masks and then heat embossed the greeting from the same same narwhal stamp set with clear embossing powder over VersaFine Onyx Black ink.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

2019 Happy Holidays Card Series | Day 2 | Frosty Merry Christmas

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

It's no surprise that I don't like winter. This is, what, our sixth? no, our fifth winter season together; and every year we discuss how much I hate winter and how I don't like the snow, or the cold or the grey or the anything that has to do with anything winter related.

But let's be real for a minute. Hating winter and being cold is one thing, SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder is a real thing and it's scary. It's waking up to see a grey sky with a little bit of snow on the ground and staring out the window and crying for an hour. It's struggling to do anything because the blanket of snow on the ground literally feels as though it is smothering you, or in this case, me. It's your partner worrying about you because the forecast looks bad. It's more than some seasonal blues, it's a crushing weight that is incredibly lonely.

Find something that you love. Find help, it's a real thing and it's a terrible thing to go through alone.

Now that that's out of the way, lets get back to the card. The thing that I love, the thing helps me get through the winter.

The images from Lawn Fawn's Frosty Fairy Friends are stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured with Copic markers.

I then masked the images and used Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink for the background sky. I didn't intend for these to be this year's winter colours, but as I worked through this year's series it turned out that purple and blue were where it's at.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Have a "Flippin' Awesome" Birthday | Lawn Fawn

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Sadly, I missed Halloween this year. I did have a video all set up, just had to do the voice over, but then I got ridiculously sick and couldn't record. I ended up going to the doctor a couple of days ago, apparently my cold turned into "quite a severe sinus infection"; so now I'm on these crazy antibiotics. The doc says they are the strongest antibiotics she can prescribe for a sinus infection and then went all mom-voice on me about taking so long to get into see her.

Anyway, I may still do the voice-over and video, even though Halloween is over because it's fun and I love Halloween, but for today I have a super fun birthday card featuring the new Flippin Awesome die and add-on, as well as the Yeti or Not stamp set. (Best part about this? All the extra pictures! Yay!!!)

I created the background panel using the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangle dies with some Spiffy Speckles paper. I wanted something that would compliment the card without taking away from the star of the show.

All the images are stamped with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink on 110lb cardstock, coloured in with Copic markers and then fussy cut out.

I used the scalloped rectangle from the Flippin' Awesome Add On to die cut the dark blue from Perfectly Plaid Chill paper.

The Flippin' Awesome mechanism is cut from 65lb white cardstock. I know, I typically use the same 110lb cardstock for everything, but with this many moving pieces, I knew it wouldn't work as smoothly. The 65lb holds up really well and allows for easy movement.

The smaller squares are cut from some of the blue paper from Perfectly Plaid Spring paper. I used the same die to cut two squares of glittered cardstock then used the Stitched Border dies to cut the snowbanks.

Once the backgrounds were put together, I started to add my trees, then cut the Yetis in half so that I could create a fluid scene. First he's coming in, then he's leaving each square. This really creates some movement and allows for an animation feel.

So it wasn't until I was stamping the greeting on the very last panel that this became a birthday card. It *WAS* going to be a fun Christmas card, but sometimes you just grab the wrong stamp and then it's just too late.

I didn't want to add anything else to the front, so I decided to offset the rectangle instead of having it straight across the card.

I added my sentiment to the inside of the card, then decided to stamp one more yeti to add some flare. And nothing says flare like a yeti doing a flip on the inside of the card. Amiright?

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Lawn Fawn | Bunny and Turtle Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Every now and then I get a special request. Someone needs a birthday card, but instead of choosing from what I have available, they want something a little more specific. This card was one of those.

I was told "something nice with a turtle and a bunny". Literally that is all I had to go off of. Ummm, what? There was no colour palette, no insight into what it was she wanted. Just "a turtle and a bunny".

Needless to say I fretted about this for a bit. I stopped offering custom cards quite some time ago, for any of you that have done this, you understand why. It can be incredibly frustrating when you think you've got what they are looking for, having literally put in hours of time only to hear "It's nice.... but maybe some brighter colours? or more muted? or something funner." So more hours go in, and it's not like we can actually charge for our time... I mean who is going to be paying for each iteration of a card because it's not "quite what I'm looking for".

So now for the most part, what I have available is what I have available. But this was for my mom. How could I say no? Fortunately, she provides me with quite a bit of creative freedom and there haven't been any flat-out "no" cards.

I stamped the banner, the bunny and the turtle (now wearing a hat) with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them out.

I used one of my DIY stencils to create some fading grassy hills with Distress Ink and did the same with the cloud stencil for the sky. I then stamped some of the flowers directly to the panel and coloured those in as well.

I trimmed down a piece of perfectly plaid patterned paper (yay alliteration) and adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I then trimmed down the coloured panel with the second largest of the Stitched Rectangle dies and mounted that on top. Finally I added my banner and my little birthday critters.

If I'm being completely honest, I was not really all that happy with this card, but mom LOVED it, and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

The Greeting Farm "Be A Unicorn" | Party Like a Pony Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Remember before you had kids, everyone was like "Oh, you should totally have a baby!", and "They're so cute!", and "Being a parent is such a rewarding experience!"? Remember that?

Let's get real for a minute. No one ever said anything about how incredibly frustrating it is to raise another human. How growing a human will take away a huge part of your identity. How your whole life will revolve around another little person. How you worry about whether or not you should go back to work, because if you go back to work, you'll worry about daycare and what to do if your job calls you out of town, but if you don't go back to work and "you're just a stay at home parent" you worry about all sorts of money issues and the giant gap in your career (whatever that may be) that could set you back years in your climb of the corporate ladder, not to mention thinking about retirement.

And when do you get time for yourself? You either spend every waking minute running after your kid(s) or you're so exhausted from work, then coming home and cleaning up after your kid(s) and dealing with whatever 3, 5, 9, 14 year old drama happened that is likely the end of the world.

My point today is carve out time for yourself. Every moment with the kids is important, but you can't take care of another human effectively if you, yourself are worn down completely. And that's in a house with TWO parents. I've done the single parent thing as well and that's an entirely different ball game. That's the difference between pee-wee and the major leagues.

So if at the end of the day, your child is fed, clothed and remembers to say "Thank you" (most of the time), you're probably doing a good job. Give yourself a break and if you need help, ask for it.

Today I have a card that has nothing to do with the ramble I just went on, but a super cute celebration card, featuring stamps from The Greeting Farm.

To begin, I cut down a piece of butter yellow cardstock with the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangle dies from Lawn Fawn, and another piece of 110lb Copic-friendly white cardstock with the next largest die from the same set.

I used a small polka-dot stencil and some Sunflower ink (Lawn Fawn) to create a fun tone-on-tone patterned paper. I then stamped the Unicorn, butterflies and the greeting with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and masked them off.

I used my cloud stencil (DIY!!) and some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to create my sky, then blended in some Mowed Lawn and Forest Moss Distress Ink for my grassy area.

Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured the images in with Copic markers. I adhered my coloured panel to the yellow piece and mounted the lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card I used clear Wink of Stella on the pony's hair and tail as well as on the butterflies' wings. Finally I used some Glossy Accents on the wings to add a bit of shine. 

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "On the Beach" | Have a Relaxing Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Well it's summer time now. My kids are all off school, and for the most part seem to be under the impression they can play video games or sit in front of a screen all day long. That is not the case. Last night the two older ones sat down and had to write out a step-by-step checklist of their chores. Sure, the chore is "do the kitchen" but what exactly does that entail? They sent in their lists last night, where they will be consolidated and finalized today (for each of their chores, not just the kitchen) then laminated as a checklist, so we don't have to continually send them back to rewash a dish, or actually wipe down all the baseboards in the bathroom when cleaning the floor. It'll be good to have everyone on the same page regarding our expectations. It'll definitely make for a smoother summer, and hopefully instill some good habits for their futures.

Today I have a (mostly) single layer birthday card, that can be used for either as either a masculine or feminine (which is always handy) using Lawn Fawn's "On the Beach" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock then coloured them with Copic markers and masked them off. I used the negative space of a circular mask to allow for ink blending.

I used my dollar store (FTW) blending brushes along with Distress Ink to create a soft sandy/beachy background for this guy to be hanging out on.

Once I peeled the masks away, I put the panel back into my MISTI and stamped the greeting. I then adhered this panel to a piece of patterned paper and mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Magic Picture Changer Happy Birthday | Lawn Fawn "Birthday Before and After"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So you know when you already don't like your phone, and then you see a killer deal from your own provider? And you think, maybe, juuuust maybe they can save the relationship? That was my yesterday. So I'm chatting with the guy from my provider and he's giving me the information on this (already overpriced but better than my plan at the same price) plan and then says I have to pay out my contract in order to go on this plan. Nearly 8 years, 3 phones and there's not a thing they're going to do for me. So naturally I'm mega frustrated, so my husband says "Let's pay out the contract and get you switched over to another provider" so that's what we did. So for WAAAY less monies and WAAAY more GBs I have a WAAAY better phone, no charge accessories and a happier day. So that's where I'm at.

Today, I have another Magic Picture Changer card (currently my favourite interactive die, can you tell?) along with the "Birthday Before and After" stamp set.

To begin, I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. I wanted to keep the cupcakes on the background panel in the same families as the main cupcakes, so I just went a few shades lighter.

For the outside of changer piece, I shaded the whole cover piece with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, which I thought was closest to the pink I had chosen for the pink cupcakes. Once that was dry I stamped my greetings with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's White Embossing Powder.

I mounted my custom background on a piece of black cardstock then adhered that to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. I used to two layers of foam tape to mount the slider to the front of the card.

To finish off today's card I stamped the sprinkles in coordinating ink and filled them in with Glossy Accents for some sprinkly shine!

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer | Be a Little Shellfish Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by!

I just wanted to start out by saying how grateful I am to all of you that have been reaching out. Not only is it encouraging to know that I have been able to bring some inspiration to your card making, it's incredibly comforting to know that behind the screens are real people that care and miss me. Loneliness is a terrible feeling, especially when you're surrounded by people. It means a lot that people I've never met have taken the time to reach out and just check in. It really can make all the difference in the world on a bad day. Thank you.

Today, I want to share a card I created using the Lawn Fawn Magic Picture Changer Dies. This is fast becoming my favourite interactive die set, and if you've been following along, you know I have most of them. I love how you can tell a little story without taking up additional space, this set is brilliant.

I began by stamping all the images on the front with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, colouring them with Copic markers and fussy cutting them out.

I cut the pieces for the Magic Picture changer out of the same 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and used my Dollar Store ink blending brushes with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to shade the outsides and the closed position of the changer, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon for the waves, which were cut down using the stitched wave dies.

When you pull up the little tab to get the second image, this super sweet little Shellfish appears, he was coloured with Copic markers, masked off and the same blue was used to blend around him.

Once the mechanism was together, I used the light blue from the Really Rainbow Scallops 6x6 paper pack along with the largest of the Large Stitched Rectangles for my background. Then adhered the mechanism with foam tape - this gives the recipient an easier time when trying to pull the tab.

Next I added the greeting to the front-most wave and adhered them in place, then added all my little party-going sea creatures.

To finish off the card I added some iridescent bubbles from Studio Katia, and Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen over the shell.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Smooth Sailing" and Chibi Lights Appreciation

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

It's been a bit, right? I know, I'd like to say that I've been super busy, and I guess in some ways I have, but the truth is, lately I just don't wanna. I don't want to post, I don't want to video, I don't want to talk, I don't want to play, I just don't wanna. I've been spending some free time making cards, but what used to take me an hour, will now take the morning or two mornings. The thought of sitting down to edit a video is a completely overwhelming thought. Even today, I'm blogging because I had to turn my computer on to do some other stuff. Work is keeping me busy and maybe that's why I just don't have a lot left in me.

Today, I want to share a card I created using the Lawn Fawn "Smooth Sailing" stamp set and Chibi Lights. I had purchased the starter set some time ago, but no matter how many times I read the instructions or watched tutorial videos I was terrified of messing it up. But why? What was literally the worst thing that could happen? I lose a foot or so of copper wire?

So when I got my hands on this set, I finally took the plunge. And after I lost a foot or so of copper wire, I managed to get it working and it turned out just better than I thought.

After I got all the mechanisms sorted out, I stamped the images from Smooth Sailing with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers.

I used the stitched wave borders die to cut down a piece of patterned paper and then used some Salty Ocean Distress Ink to add some shading. I cut down another piece of cardstock with the Stitched Hillside border for the sandy island.

The sky was created from a leftover piece of a starry sky background from another project.

So when you press the button, the lighthouse actually lights up!! It takes a lot more planning than usual to create this kind of card, and perhaps after a I've done a few more I'll do a video, but I make no promises on when that will happen.

I thought I would add this last photo in so you could see them side-by-side.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. As for me, I'm trying. I really am. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Oh Gnome!" | Masculine Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know it's been a little while since I posted, it's been kinda crazy around here. If you remember last year when my full time job was part time and I got that other full time job, then my part time job offered me a full time position, so I left the original full time? Catch all that? Well the original full time job called and offered me an amazing opportunity, so I've moved back to that company full time. It was a difficult transition because I wasn't looking for a new job, it all happened very fast, Friday was my last day at the one and yesterday was my first day at the other, as well as having my older daughter's 13th birthday, then my birthday and we all have this dreadful lingering cold.

Lemme tell y'all, it's all I can do to even stay awake.

So today, while I have a couple minutes of quiet after delivering the youngest to daycare and before I head out to work I wanted to share a masculine birthday card I created using Lawn Fawn (shocking, right?) stamps and dies.

To begin, I stamped the gnome from "Oh Gnome" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and masked him off, I then stamped the large mushroom over him, so it would appear that he is sitting. I also stamped the other two mushrooms because they are just too darn cute! I removed the mask and coloured all the images with Copic markers.

I used the grassy hillside border dies to cut two levels of grass, and the new mushroom border die to cut out some mushrooms from cream cardstock and the caps from some deep red cardstock.

I pieced all the mushrooms together and adhered them behind my grassy pieces. I used my Lori blending brushes (dollar store FTW) to add colour to both the grass and the sky. I had some extra clouds lying around from another project so I added those to the sky just to fill in some of the space.

I die cut a balloon from the same red cardstock, then ran the mushroom cap die over the cream cardstock so I could use the little spots to make the balloon look mushroom-y as well.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Beam Me Up" and Outta This World Pop-Up Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to post a card that I created using some older supplies in my stash. You know when you get a new thing and you're like "I HAVE ALL THE IDEAS!!!" and then you get it and you make a few things then it gets put into the stash and mostly forgotten about because there's something else new and shiny for you to play with.... it's almost like they do that on purpose... hmmmm.

Every now and then I'll be flipping through my giant binder 'o dies and I'll see something and remember all the ideas I had. That's what happened. That's how this card became more than an idea.

For the outside, I trimmed a piece of 110lb cardstock using the largest of the Small Stitched Rectangle dies and blended my background using my Lori Brushes and Distress Ink. I only really focused on the middle, I wanted it to look like a space tunnel or a wormhole, through which he was stealing away the cake.

Once the ink was dry, I used clean water and splattered for my distressed look, then splattered again using Copic Opaque white to get the stars.

I stamped my ship and all the images inside the card with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. For his tractor beam, I prepped a piece of vellum with my powder tool then stamped the beam image with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Lawn Fawn's Glow in the Dark embossing powder. I would love to show you a picture of what this looks like, but I can't take a picture in the dark to save my life. I can't even tell you how many I tried and they look awful. So you'll just have to trust me when I say it looks nifty.

Once the entire panel was dry, I prepped the lower right corner and stamped the greeting then heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's White embossing powder. This is the first time I've used their embossing powder, normally I use the Ranger detail white, but I gotta say this stuff is great. I mean, I'm not going to toss my other stuff, but it's really nice to know that I have more if I ever run out in a hundred years.

To finish off my ship, I adhered small red gems over the lights to give it some dimension. I think I would have gotten nearly the same result with glossy accents, but I had them on my desk, so why not.

Turns out, he's bringing the cake to a party!! YAY!!

I created this galaxy background the same way directly on the inside of the card base. While that was drying I used the pop-up dies to cut a piece of kraft cardstock and sponged on some Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress ink to give a bit of texture to the ground.

Once I had everything dry and put together I adhered all my little guys in place. I wanted to two ships to be floating, so I used the acetate trick to make them really look like they were on their way in. More guests to the party!

If I were to make this card again, and I'm sure I will, I would use a different alien. While this guy is my favourite, he just looks silly with the birthday hat, and I think it would have been nice to have some birthday hats going on. Maybe we'll see that in the future. Who even knows.....

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "Hap-Pea" Belated Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A little while ago, I showed you the Lawn Fawn Spring 2019 Release Haul video, and in it I mentioned that I had already made a card for my Aunt's birthday using the "Be Hap-Pea" stamp set. I chose this set because she enjoys gardening and when I saw it I immediately thought of her.

I stamped all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, I masked all the images off and sponged Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink around the images. Once that was dry I removed the masks and coloured all the images with Copic-markers.

I used the "Hap-pea" and "Birthday" from the "Be Hap-pea" set along with the "belated" from the "Hang in There" to create my greeting.

I used the second largest of the "Large Stitched Rectangles" dies to cut this panel and the largest of "Large Stitched Rectangles" to cut the patterned paper. I adhered them together then mounted them to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawn "You Color My World" Reveal Wheel

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card I created using the "One in a Chameleon", "Blissful Botanicals" and "You Color my World" stamp sets along with the "Reveal Wheel" dies. This card can be used for the ladies and the gents, which is always a bonus as well as a just because or a cheer up kind of card.

All the images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured with Copic markers.

I used the Reveal Wheel die set along with the Chameleon die to create my view window. It's handy that the wheel is big enough to accommodate dies from other sets even if they don't have the little puzzle piece to fit into the die.

I used Distress Inks and my Lori blending brushes to get a rainbow gradient for a smooth colour change when you turn the wheel. Once the wheel was dry, I assembled the mechanism and adhered it to a piece of patterned paper; then mounted it to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I stamped the chameleon on a piece of acetate with StazOn black ink. The background hanging vine plants were stamped with Shabby Shutters Distress Oxide ink.

Click on the Video to see this little guy change colours

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge "Inspired by a Book, Movie or Song"

Hello, everyone. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day!

Today's card is for the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge "Inspired by a Book, Movie or Song". This one took me a while. Not gonna lie, I was super intimidated by the stuff the design team put out for this challenge. Their cards are absolutely amazing!

The movie I chose was "Mary Poppins", I wanted to do something I hadn't yet seen on the entries and something that would let me use some of the sets that were hanging out in my stash that I hadn't opened yet. (Crazy, right?)

All the images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I started by stamping the umbrella from "Elphie Selfie" and masking that off, I then stamped one of the fairies from "Fairy Friends", but made sure to not ink up her wings.

For the houses and trees I stamped the images from "Happy Village" with a bit of masking to make the front layer a single piece. I coloured all the images with Copic markers. I added some clear Wink of Stella over her dress and the umbrella.

For my background panel, I sponged Peacock Feathers, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot Distress Ink to create my twilight sky. I knew that the front row of house was going to be popped up, so I sponged a bit of Forest Moss to create the ground.

Once the ink was completely dry, I splattered some White Gold from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors palette to create some soft stars.

I adhered the back layer of trees with the larger cluster of houses directly to the panel and popped up the front row with some foam tape. I popped up the top half of Mary Poppins with more foam tape, but used Scor tape to adhere her lower half to the panel. I wanted her to appear to be coming out of the picture as though she were flying up and away from the houses, but the effect did not translate well to camera. In person you get the idea.

The greeting from "Fairy Friends" was stamped with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with Lawn Fawn's Silver embossing powder.

I then mounted the panel to a piece of dark blue cardstock with foam tape and adhered the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for: