July Creative Crew Challenge

 Hello there.  Time to revitalize my little blog.  I've been busy the last few months, searching for a new place to live, getting ready to move, the move itself...and of course, Grandma Duty with my grandson, Jake!

On the 15th of each month a group of friends called the Creative Crew have a challenge. We take turns hosting the challenge and this time it is Terry's month. Terry sent us the image and sentiment from "Silly Goose" by Taylored Expressions.  She also included a fun assortment of papers from her stash.

Here's my card. 

The sentiment and image are colored with Olo markers and I fussy-cut the goose.

The layout uses the papers that Terry sent to us. The die used to create the background layout is by Newton's Nook and is called "Card Layout 6".  It's a fun way to show off papers.

I used clear Wink of Stella to sparkle up the balloon and birthday hat.

I cut a strip of the remaining paper and put it on the inside of the card, leaving room for a message when I get ready to send it off.

Thank you, Terry, for such a great kit! That goose just melts my heart and makes me smile!

Here are the links to view the other members of the Creative Crew.  Please view their cards and leave some love.

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie 

February Creative Crew Challenge

This round it was my turn to come up with the Creative Crew Challenge.  I was inspired by our own Crew member, Terry.  She always impresses me with her creations and one of her favorite companies is Concord & 9th.

So I decided to use C&9th's Accordion Card Base Dies and give our Crew free reign on what to use with it. Other dies, stamps, stenciling, whatever they come up with.

A bit of a different take on hosting the monthly challenge, so I hope that everyone had fun with it!

Here's my card.  

Everyone received the Accordion Card Base cut with white card stock.  Since I have the dies, I resisted the urge to cut designer paper.  Instead I used inks, embossing folders, stencils and other die cuts to make my card.

The kit included a half height panel that can be used to create a scene mid way through the window and the background.  I just cut a narrow section off of that panel, ink blended green on it and attached the flowers, leaves and little dog.

I used a wood grain embossing folder and rubbed a light brown ink cube over it for the wood panel look.

The back panel used 2 different stencils to get the grass and the clouds. The hearts, puppy and sentiment are from a stamp set called Pocket Full of Sunshine by Gina K Designs. 

The vine and leaves are from a set of cover dies by Stampin Up called Gorgeous Garden. I cut the vines apart and arranged them to frame the oval window.

The stems and flowers beside the puppy are from the Playful Posies die set by Gina K Designs. All in all, this took me a while. I had a bit of a learning curve on the middle element with the puppy and flowers.  But now that I have done it once, I can't wait to make more!

I sure hope that my friends on the Creative Crew also had a good time with this. 

Here are the links to their blogs and Lorraine's gallery on SplitCoast:

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie 

January Catch Up Challenge

Several friends and I enroll in various Virtual Card Making events and classes.  Sometimes we are unable to attend the class when it is live, but fortunately the videos are available to participants to view later. 

One day we were lamenting how behind we were. One thing led to another and the concept of the Catch Up Challenge was created!  On the last day of the month we would post cards made from an event or a kit received in the past. 

This sets of cards are from March, 2025's Virtual Stamp Joy event by Taylored Expressions.  

This set uses watercolor panels that we colored with Karin markers.  The panels were ink blended first with very light blue.  The last addition is the sentiment.

These were mailed out a few weeks ago.

The next set of cards are also from the Virtual Stamp Joy event.

These cards feature a stencil set to create 4 scenes at once. I love that!

I varied a bit from the instructions and used a wood grain embossing folder that had brown ink applied, direct-to-paper. Otherwise I followed the class examples with ink blending and die cutting.  I only used the "Hello" Sentiment on each card to better suit my purpose for the cards.

These cards have already been sent out but I can assure you that I'll be making more soon!

Here are the links for my friends in the Catch Up Club.  Please visit their blogs and admire their work from some past project or class.

Barb's Inkin' to Retirement

It's Totally Terry

Cre8tive Play: It's Cheaper than Therapy

Encore Challenge using Simon Hurley Penguins!

We all have so many wonderful things for this hobby. Friends and I noticed that some items only get used once. We love them and promise ourselves that we will use it again, but somehow we never get around to it.  So we created the Encore Challenge! 

We go into our stash and select any item, a stamp set, dies, stencils, etc. and show it the love it deserves. We post our creations on or around the 25th of each month. We would love to have anyone interested play along, as often as you like.

This time I circled back to these adorable penguins by Simon Hurley. The penguins, sentiment and confetti stamp were all part of a Simon Hurley kit a few years ago during the Crop & Create Delivered virtual card making event.  

Aren't they cute?!  I made a pile of these for a lot of January birthday cards that are all ready to mail.

The confetti is white embossed and the penguin is clear embossed and then colored with Olo Markers.
 

Here's another version with silver and gold embossing.

The penguin is also part of the same set by Simon Hurley. So cute!

Please visit the blogs of the other Encore Challenge participants.  The list and links are provided below:

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Terry - It's Totally Terry 

Double Duty Featuring Pinkfresh Studio

On the 22nd of each month some friends challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards repeating the same image, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go! 

Our featured company for January is Pinkfresh Studio. Recently I bought a pretty little set called"Sending Love". Here are my cards using this cute set.

This card used silver embossing powder on "Huckleberry card stock by Taylored Expressions.

The background has the floral image randomly stamped using Macaron ink by Taylored Expressions. I stamped it off first to make the image lighter.

For my second card I used the stencils in the set to color the florals using
"Persimmon" and "Papaya" inks by Taylored Expressions. The background panel is "Persimmon" card stock die cut with the "Ornate Medallions" coverplate by Pinkfresh. 

This sentiment is also part of the stamp set.

This is such a versatile set.  I'm sure to get a lot of use out of it. And even better that i got it at a great price during their Black Friday sale!

Please drop by the blogs of the other Double Duty members and comment on their work:

Barb

Jeanette 

Terry

Creative Crew & Snowmen!

Here it is! The 15th of the month and time to post the Creative Crew Challenge. 

The Creative Crew is a group of friends on Splitcoast Stampers who participate in a monthly challenge.  We take turns identifying the theme for the challenge and this month  Barb & Jeanette set our theme.  They chose snowman/snowmen.  So we make a card featuring a snowman.  How fun!

I used the stamps and sentiment from the "Snowflake Kisses" set by Gina K Designs.  The images are colored with Olo Markers. 

The blue card stock is of unkown origin from my stash. But it's a bright, deep blue.

Frostbite Astro Paste by Simon Hurley was applied using a Snowflake stencil by Taylored Expressions.  I also applied some with my finger, dotting it around the base of the snowmen and onto each snowman. The texture and sparkle looks like snow at night!

Once dry, the panels were spritzed with "Beluga" Solar Spray, also by Simon Hurley.

I really like how these turned out!  They have already been received by 3 people that I try to mail a card to every week.

Thanks for getting 2026 off to a great start, Jeanette & Barb. This was a fun theme to get us going.

Here are the links to the Creative Crew blogs and Lorraine's gallery on SplitCoast:

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie 

January Hot Mess Birthday Cards

On the 12th of each month a group of my friends hold a Hot Mess = Success Challenge.  Our goal is to create a card using any messy technique we want.  And we determine what is our personal definition of messy!

This month I decided to stock up on birthday cards. One of my favorite methods is to use various pastes with stencils. Then cut the panels into shapes, ink blend the card base with the same stencil and adhere the decorative shapes and happy birthday sentiment.  

This panel was white, and I ink blended Lime Zest, Passion Fruit and Cookie Monster inks by Taylored Expressions. I did direct-to-paper with the ink pads.

Then using the Mini Slim Polka Dot stencil by Taylored Expressions, I applied Opal Chroma Glaze by Brutus Monroe.

Here's the finished card (two were created from the panel).

It's not visible in the photo, but Passion Fruit ink was blended onto the Huckleberry base panel using the polka dot stencil. The sentiment is heat embossed in silver.

The next set of panels were also done with Opal Chroma Glaze using the Daisy Mosaic stencil by Hero Arts.  The panel is Cookie Monster card stock by Taylored Expressions.

These panels were cut in half and layered onto white card bases with ink blending using Cookie Monster ink and the Daisy Mosaic stencil. 

This netted six cards like this.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white.

Each set of cards feature the ovals in Master Layouts 1 by Gina K Designs and the Happy Birthday stamp in the "On Occasion" set by Taylored Expressions.

The final set of cards were made the same way using Lime Zest card stock and
Simon Hurley's Later Gator Astro Paste.

The sentiment is black heat embossed on Lime Zest stock.

This round of Hot Mess resulted in 11 cards for my stash of birthday cards.  Not too shabby for one afternoon of getting messy!

Thanks for dropping by my blog!  Be sure to visit my Hot Mess friends using the links below.

Jeanette

Barb

Terry