Whew, that's a lot of dust!

Challenge today was to use our oldest and newest stamp sets. Basically that ended up being cats (newest) plus stuff (oldest).

 I have this giant background die that I just didn't know what to do with. I stamped it and didn't like it I decided to just take a small die and cut out some pieces for my new kitties from Waffle Flower. I actually really love how this came out. Clean and Simple is SO challenging for me, so when it comes together it's a nice feeling. 

It figures one of my very first stamps I ever bought was a paw print! I am not surprised. I grew up with cats and dogs. My parents had four dogs for a long time, now they have three and I have four cats...Since the goal was clean and simple I went for a border with the paws and a little cat from one of my new Waffle Flower sets. I think it came out pretty cute! Super easy too since I didn't care if they overlapped, I did start with yellow though since it was one stamp. I didn't want to contaminate my stamp. Then I cleaned after orange to go do the light blue and then just stamped away for the rest.

So this is also an old stamp, the embossing folder is new from this Christmas. It's a Stampabilities stamp and I just love it. I ended up cleaning up a lot of old stamps from looking through them but this one isn't going anywhere! 

 

Dragon Valentines

Pink and red are not really my jam for making Valentine's Day cards. But I had this adorable FSC Chasing Rainbows paper pad and thought it would make great Valentine Cards. I used these for a hop that is supposed to have cards that contain a tie besides the theme (Love) and made the tie in for all three, my adorable dragon buttons and the paper pad.

This first card was actually really straight forward. Paper base, check , giant heart in the middle, add the two embellishments and done. I wasn't going for complex cards as I didn't want to spend to much time working on Valentines, but I think the effect came out adorable.

Hopefully this close up helps you see that there are unicorn sequins in the heart too! These beautiful colors reminded me of the Double D Challenge for the week. You can read more about that at the bottom.

Card number two was to highlight the paper pad more! The paper says I love you more than rainbows all over it. Plus I have a TON of washi tape so it was nice to break some out to create this barrier in the middle!

My last one highlights more of this sparkly rainbow paper. It's a bit of an odd smooth texture so I wanted to use it sparingly and I think the busy paper helps keep the shine from being to much. I did have to go back and use glue instead of my tape runner, since the smooth surface keeps the adhesive from adhering very well. 

Hope you enjoyed my alternative Valentines! I still managed to get some pink in there, but all that blue really helped me to enjoy them more! 
 

I'm playing along and entering my project here:

Double D Challenge Blog - Sparkle and Shine - This time I feel like my inspiration was more the colors! I love the opalescent shine and went with something similar for my sequin mix. Plus there is lots of sparkle and shine with that rainbow paper for the third card. I am really feeling inspired by this photo set!

My Newest Stamp

Ironically I got a new stamp two days ago, but this challenge was for this morning, and I had made the card with the next newest stamp! Hopefully, I squeeze in the very newest one tonight. 

How cute is this little cupcake fairy from Whimsy Stamps! I love Whimsy Stamps they always have the cutest stuff. This card was really simple too. First I inked the stamp with Ink3. Their black ink is really the best with alcohol markers from what I've found. Then I colored her in, and used pink. It's not my go to color but I think brown and pink make a cute combo.

Next I distressed the edge and added the inked blue border. Peacock Feather is one of my favorite distressed inks. It felt like it was missing something though, so I grabbed my Waffle Flower Cat Sentiments and added this cute little sentiment. You would think I was done there, buuuut those wings needed sparkle, a quick stickle pen on the wings and she was ready to go. 

I'm playing along and entering my project here:

Double D Challenge Blog - Sparkle and Shine - How pretty is the pictures they used! I went with some wing inspiration for my fairy cupcake gremlin! I suspect there will be more inspiration from this picture in the near future. I just love the opal colors and shimmer!

Stash Busting Old Paper

Hear ye, hear ye, this is my least favorite paper! This week's challenge was to use a "least favorite paper pad" or maybe one you avoid? Sometimes the most beautiful paper is the one avoided because we're afraid to mess it up. In my case I was looking for a really old paper pad that is made of this flimsy computer sheet thin bright neon colored papers. It's not very good quality and I bought as one of my first paper pads, when I was buying cheaper materials. As I was looking for it I came across a different paper pad, just as old with adhesive paper and these patterns that I didn't really like, the paper sticks funny. I actually kept looking for the other paper pad because I didn't want to use the adhesive paper! *Face Palm* I guess that means I least favorite was the adhesive instead of the neons!

 

My strategy was use as much of the paper as possible! So I used two sheets for the backgrounds of two the cards. The paper really isn't that bad, I don't know that it's possible to buy "ugly" paper. I mean then why did you buy it right?! However it's been sitting in my stash forever and it's time to go! A few pretty frame dies, some layers on top, and ta dah! I actually wasn't displeased given they aren't go to patterns. 

I guess now I need to give in and work more on that neon paper pad! I'm sure it'll show up for some fun summer cards.

Christmas in well...

Christmas was crazy for 2023, I felt like I was making cards up to five days before Christmas! So when Amrita suggested a Christmas card hop two cards, once a month I jumped on the opportunity to get that early head start! This will also be perfect for joining along with the Double D Christmas Challenges! Plus the theme for the IG Christmas hop is White Christmas so I went with something non-traditional. No white Christmas trees or scenes with snow! I wanted to think outside the box.

Once again my beautiful Sakura Die from Spellbinders! I just love this die I am working on a seasonal collection, which I will then feature all of them together! It's such an incredibly easy die set to use, and you can put flowers anywhere along the trellis or embellish other areas of the card. This one was even easier because outside of cutting out everything the only addition was the tiny snowflake sequins from Buttons and Galore and a teeny tiny brad in the middle. I love the way this one came out. 

I'm playing along and entering my project here:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge #55 -   I went with color on this one! I actually do not do clean and simple or white cards often. So this really inspired me to stretch that thinky brain and go for a white on white card! 

Border Attribute:  Image by starline  on Freepik 

 

Wacky Fairy Hop!?

Today was a big day! I had two hops that I participated in for IG "Wacky Holiday" AND "Fairies" . I did not combine the two, hehe! 

Let's start off with Happy Mew Year. This is a real holiday folks, not a pun. It's January 2nd. I love the idea of this holiday because I can start the New Year with my cats on a day that doesn't stress them out. My cats don't like fireworks, so they spend a little time under the bed on that day. 

This involved a three layer process. So the first was to take all my metallic distress mica sprays and go to town on some black paper. I splattered some with a paintbrush too. I was going for a festive clustered look to go with the fireworks. After that dried I came back and used Lunar Paste and a stencil over the top. The last step was to color some beautiful kitties from Sunny Studios, give them their festive party hats, and cut up my New Year die and add the M from Merry Christmas! I had a lot of fun making the festive background on this one.

The next two cards are for my fairy hop that I host on IG. If you are interested my IG is @bkeeleycrafts. The stamps are from Fairy Hugs, but I really feel like I nailed the mixed media look for the paper on this one. I was really happy with the outcome. 

All of the words that are faded were stamped and I used distress ink sprays to create the background. I think one of the best ways to make backgrounds, isn't by necessarily getting someone else's color combo, but just taking sprays you think look good and have fun with them. Heavy sprays in some spots light splattering in another. I have made plenty of background that didn't work for me, and some like this one that I feel just came together perfect. 

The sentiment is Tim Holtz, I love his sentiment sticker books because they are quick and easy way to add that little extra to a card front, when you aren't sure what to write! I also distressed the edges with the beautiful gold stamping ink and by running scissors down the edge. 

The last card was one that I had made last year for Valentine's Day and never posted. I wanted to give it some love. The recipient was kind enough to send me a photo as it was one of about 10 cards that my hard drive crashed and lost. Luckily it was so few, since I back them up pretty regularly. 

 Happy Wacky Fairy Day!

I'm playing along and entering my project here:

Double D Challenge Blog - Eighth Birthday/Anniversary Celebration - These are such great celebration colors! It's a nice break from the traditional gold and silver we see around the New Year too! I tried to really add that metallic pop in the background with my fireworks. 

Year in Review Conclusion

 The last two posts showed my favorite cards from when I started really posting and publishing on Instagram. I have one more month to go December. On Instagram I picked one, but for here there were really two that I loved. Plus some companies that I think are my favorite!

December: Kali on Instagram is an amazing card masker. She does some really incredible scenes. It inspired me to try and start using some of those techniques as well. So the first card is my Kindred Stamp sets. I am such a Trekkie. Although Stargate is probably my favorite. I was really happy in how it came out for my very first masking stamped card!

The second one is the adorable Mama Elephant. They have just the absolute cutest stamps!! This tumble of kittens for the tree are just so cute. I know I will be making several of these for next year!

Favorite New Brands or Companies I loved in 2023

Number one has to be Chibitronics. I really love the light cards I've seen and I came across  this Chibitronics brand and decided to buy a starter set. I am totally hooked!! Here are a few samples. 

The second brand I came across was actually due to my parents. So I had seen advertisements for Cora Crafts but hadn't purchased anything. My parents gifted me a gift card for my birthday and now I am hooked. Everything is absolutely lovely and vintage! Such an amazing collection! 

Year in Review Part Two

 Welcome back! So this will highlight my September, October, November cards. I can tell my skill level is getting higher because I had a really hard time choosing for November!! 

September: My husband is SO supportive, he looks at every card I make, sometimes he will give feedback too. I absolutely love how much he supports what I do and will talk crafting with me even though I know it's not his thing. He picked out this one for September. He really likes the photo on this one. So the card was glow in the dark paste by LawnFawn and the stencil is Picket Fence Studios. I took so many photos trying to get my card to glow! I have a blacklight flashlight that I held over the card turned my lights to a "dusk setting" and took a quick snapshot! After several tries I was able to capture it glowing!! Such a pretty stencil, great way to start off the fall. 

October: I love this card. So this Halloween I feel like I spent a lot of time "stretching my stash" using dies in unexpected ways. It's so easy to do with Halloween because it has such LOVELY colors!! Neon green, purple, and orange is probably one of my favorite ink or color combos, as long as it's not the color of the stuff in my house...So I was thinking witches cottage, the shingles with some gold ink and this beautiful sakura blossom die from Spellbinders. It was more elegant I feel like than my usual cards, and I love the way the whole card came out. 

November: I just couldn't pick, I ended up asking my husband and he couldn't pick so I decided to go with my Create 3 Challenge from IG. So this was the Hero Arts kit plus the Katkin Krafts fairy stamp. I love mushrooms and fairies. I have fairies all over my craft room. The challenge for this set was I had to use a theme over the course of all three cards. I love the watercolor effect inking on vellum had. It was the first time I tried. I will have to figure out a way for it to dry flat next time. 

Stayed tuned for exclusive blog comments and my December post tomorrow!

Year in Review Part One

 So although I primarily post on Instagram, you just can't type as much as a blog! So here is my 2023 favorite cards from each month since I started Instagram. Plus a couple of bonus not put on my Instagram Review!

June: So this is from my Spring Crop and Create with Scrapbook and Cards. Well at least the background is! It's watercolor markers from Colorista. We made backgrounds and I turned mine into a mermaid shaker with Hero Arts dies and the seaweed is Memento. I feel like the coloring on my mermaid tail is just gorgeous. The card got a little warped in the mail and my computer hard drive crashed causing me to lose about a month of cards that weren't backed up. I was lucky I got a photo of this one!! 

July: Another magazine I follow is Creative Scrapbooker, this card was not only my favorite it was nominated for their Card of the Month challenge. It didn't make it past round one, but I just LOVE the colors it's so cheerful and bright. Probably one of my favorite card makes ever. More Hero Arts stamps too, this one is their dragon set. They are just so cute!

August: This card is a little more sentimental. My cousin passed away from breast cancer this year. I had just started to really get to know her. She is an amazing artist and she was great with watercolors. I was in a card challenge for Sympathy and Thinking of You and chose watercolors in honor of her. She loved cute and fun things like me and I think she would have loved this card. 

Stay tuned for three more tomorrow! Then the day after will be the last December and bonus favorites I didn't talk about on IG.