Remember Those Cute Bugaboo Characters?

Hello, my friends! Another post from me! (giggle)

Today's cards are doubly sweet - made with fond thoughts of Jodie (former owner of Bugaboo Stamps), and also for a dear friend who loves her little white mischievous puppies! Her birthday is drawing near, so it was the perfect opportunity to showcase Jodie's silly images for a person who will appreciate them. 

Copics, inks, paper-piecing techniques, and recycled ribbon comprise this 5 inch square card. 

Does anyone know the name of this fun fold card? 

I think it might be called the Triple Panel Pop Out Fold?

Anne Buckingham taught me the mechanics in making the fun fold last year, but I don't know the name of the fold. It's really simple to make. Cut a piece of cardstock that matches the card base - 4 inches wide by however tall your card is (in this case, it is 6" tall). Score the piece at one, two and three inches. Fold into a "square tube". Apply adhesive to the two ends of the "tube" - first and last segments - and adhere both on either side of the card base fold. Be sure to fold the card while your glue is drying to make sure you have placed it perfectly on either side of the card fold. NOTE: It was easier adhering the sentiments after the tube was in place. Decorate with all sorts of ephemera, images, sentiments, die cuts - so cute ~ !

Thanks for popping by!

Products: Baxter Puppy from Bugaboo, digital sentiments, Dies: Darice Nested Ornate Rectangles, Surprise Creations Large stitched rectangles, Tutti Stitched Rectangles, LaLaLand Flag Banner, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis, Embossing Folder: We R Memory Keepers Next Level Woven 2, Coloring: Copics and Distress inks, Patterned Papers and cardstock from stash, Glitter, Ribbon

ALWAYS THANKFUL FOR THE DESIGN TEAMS AND HOSTS OF ON-LINE CHALLENGES:

1. Critter Crazy Challenges #95 (final challenge SOB!) AG with Featured Critter 2/25
2. Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2508 AG 11/25
3. CD Sunday Plus #152 Anything Goes (3 digital images, several digital sentiments as shown on the fun fold card - I hope it fits the rules of your challenge). 2/25
4. Snippet's Playground Challenge #500 CELEBRATE 500! (in the fun fold card I used snippets for interest in the bottom portion of card front, and lots of snippets from scraps of designer papers in the flags/banners. The yellow glitter border is the "negative" left over portion of a die cut. The interior also uses several snippets of left over lengths of cardstock and pattern paper - thanks for the fun challenge! 2/25 (playing JFF for top 3 spot)
5. Love those Pretty Papers (a D&D challenge) Feb 1 Use pattern papers 3/1
6. Creative Fingers Challenge #295 Anything Goes 3/8 (products I used are listed above - hybrid layering. Thank you!)
7. Heart's Quest Celebrations of Love Challenges Blog #2 (Feb2) BEWAS - using birthday cards, one is pop out. 3/2
8. Halloween & Other Occasions Crafts Year Round (Feb 1) Birthdays and Dogs 2/28

Stamping Hugs,

LOST AND FOUND - MORE "unfinished stuff" from my old stash - freebie

I've been plugging away in my craft room, a little at a time and using more "stuff" discovered in my "unfinished projects" box. I love using my old stamps and papers from long ago. Do you?  Today, I am using previously cut out triangles of papers in the backgrounds of these cards.

I especially enjoy this Fred She Said stamp because it works for people from our past or present - still present in our lives, and/or having moved away until we next talk. I love hearing the stories about my friends' relatives and family stories. Those kinds of memories come alive when retold, and give us inspiration to live in a way that inspires others, too. On this occasion, the card was sent to a friend's husband who has been chronically ill, and fighting a terminal illness, for decades. His strength and influence have encouraged me. In the card, I shared that he and I are "aged to a perfection" only the two of us can appreciate (giggle).

Aged to Perfection - Fred She Said Old Trucks

Using the backgrounds from my unfinished box, with a little help from Fred She Said Old Trucks, I utilized an ancient (dare I say "vintage") technique. Some call it "Cracked Glass" and others call it "Cracked Ice". 

Using Sepia tones to further the vintage look, I die cut the images, inked them up, coated with several layers of clear EP, and put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then the images were "cracked" before the EP could thaw:

I liberally smooshed Black Soot DI on top of the images, so the ink could get into the crevices. The rest comes off easily with paper towel. These cracked really well -- kinda like me! (giggle)

I tried to capture more detail in the photograph by removing the overhead light on my desk:

Products: Stamps: Fred She Said Old Trucks, Freebie Digital Sentiment below Dies: Surprise Creations Pierced Decorative Ovals, Sue Wilson Double Pierced Ovals, Sue Wilson Pierced Flags, Inks: Distress Oxides Vintage Photo & Brushed Corduroy, Distress inks Black Soot, Old Paper, VersaMark, Clear EP, other: Charcoal colored Vellum, FREEZER TECHNIQUE

FREEBIE SENTIMENT

My gift to you - Arrangements of the same sentiment for use on the inside or outside of your projects. Please do not sell these Sentiments. Use on any of your projects, including projects involving any design teams you might be on.

Click on the image to bring it to full size. Because of the changes Google Made with Blogger (June 2020), your image will appear to be solid black. Don’t panic. Right click and do a SAVE AS PNG. Once it is saved on your hard drive, you can open it and it will have a transparent background. I create PNGs instead of JPGs so they can be placed anywhere on a scene or project, and so backgrounds can be made using them. Please let me know if you have any problems. I hope they serve you well!

Enjoy!

Playing in the following challenges please:

1. Perfect Time to Craft (June 1) #6 AG 7/1
2. Classic Design Challenge #5 AG with masculine 6/15
3. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #231 AG 6/16
4. The Alphabet Challenge (May 31) E is for Embossing 6/13 (one of the background triangles is dry embossed with dots - the main image has several coats of Clear Embossing Powder - wet embossing - was placed in the freezer, then cracked and distressed as mentioned above)
5. Aloha Friday #11 Masculine 7/3

Stamping Hugs,

Non-Traditionally Colored Valentine for my Sweetie

Happy Valentine's Day, friends! My bestie is also the love of my life, so it was fun making a card for him.

 Actually, my time creating the card felt like I was in Leslie Miller's craft room. We both enjoy Bugaboo's fun, quirky images (so sad Jodie is no longer on-line). We both are married to wonderful guys who love the outdoors (Leslie with Rich, I with Jack) and who prefer comical to mushy. 

Will share my major boo-boo at the bottom of this post.

Valentine Bird is colored with Copic Markers, and distressed with the inks shown at left.

The brads were also colored with Copic Markers.

Being inspired by many of my dear crafting friends, I attempt to use "old stuff" from my stash on each card. Here three yellow star brads were utilized - each was altered with a different color yellow alcohol marker for visual interest.  OLD OLD OLD burlap is a "break" between two designer papers, which are also at least 7 years old.

At the very end of assembling this card, I picked up a "love" stamp, inked it up and promptly dropped its wet, inky self onto the image, picked the stamp up again and dropped it again, so TWO "love" images ruined the main element. Then I pondered stamping "love" multiple times, thinking it might look intentional. THAT DID NOT WORK. So here is the boo-boo scene:

Fortunately, a quickie home-made sentiment die cut with a tag, covered up most of the mess.

Because the message was exceedingly corny, and personal, I blurred out the bottom message in Photos, but thought you might enjoy seeing the finished product:

Who could possibly resist this love-struck little birdie full of happiness?

Products: Image: Bugaboo Valentine Bird #2,  Dies: La-La Land - Flag Banner,  Surprise Creations Double Stitched Tags, LifeStyle Quickutz Nesting Hearts,   Papers: Studio G designer & SU "turquoise", Colored with Copics, Inks: DI Speckled Egg, D Oxide Stormy Sky and Iced Spruce, Other: Star Brads, Burlap

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges I would like to play in please:

1. Try It On Tuesday - Feb 6 - Hearts and/or Flowers (heart balloon, die cuts, heart eyes, little flowers) 2/20 (check 2/27)
2. Dragonfly Dreams Challenges Feb 4 - Hearts (heart balloon, heart die cuts, heart eyes) 3/3 (check 3/10)
3. Allsorts Challenges #767  Feb 10 Hearts- (heart balloon, heart die cuts, heart eyes) 2/16
4. Inkspirational Challenge #309 Feb 10 Hearts (heart balloon, heart die cuts, heart eyes) 2/20 (sep post)
5. Cut it Up Challenge #297 Feb 9 - Have a Heart (LifeStyle Quickutz nesting heart dies) 2/21
6. Pearly Sparkles Challenges Feb 1 #92 - Love/Have a Heart 2/28 (check 3/1)
7. Moving Along With the Times #163 Feb 1 - Love/Hearts 3/1 (scroll down in post)
8. Crafty Gals Corner #252 Feb 14  Add a Heart (heart balloon, heart die cuts, heart eyes) 3/13 (sep post) 
9. Critter Crazy Challenge #83 Feb 1 - AG with a Featured Critter (bird here) 3/1 (sep post)

Sending Friendship your way,

Monochromatic Theme at Christmas at Sweet Stampin' Challenge

Good Morning, fellow crafters!
I'm starting the day with lots of glitter - are you surprised?
Please see my STAMPING ON GLITTER TUTORIAL HERE.

Today begins a new challenge at 

Christmas at Sweet Stampin'!

My marvelously brilliant teammates have fantastic samples to share! We hope to see your imaginative artwork each month in our "Anything Goes Christmas" Challenges. The challenge is for ANY Christmas theme craft project. April's Challenge is open until May 7 and has an option of monochromatic theme.

Technique: STAMPING ON GLITTER

if you're reading on my blog, enlarge the photos by clicking on them:

BOO BOO TIME

Having watercolored with this technique frequently, I was surprised at a huge boo-boo this card ended up having. Where the "crack and peel" portion of the sticker paper had been, some watercolor puddled there, leaving a visible line:

After waiting overnight, and the line not disappearing, I tried fixing it by hiding part, and adhering the other part. You can still see it a little bit when the light hits just "so":

The brads were dipped into the same pretty Mediterranean Star embossing powder as the frame.



To customize the "snowy" background, I used the same ink as the sentiment on an embossing folder:


All Done! It's quite sparkly in person:

Some Products Used:

Images: Penny Black Winter Song, SU Beauty of the Season, Glitter: Cloud Nine Microfine Glitter, Inks: Staz-On Azure Blue Ink, Adirondack Pool, Warm Breeze VersaFine Clair, EP: Mediterranean Star embossing powder, Dies: Surprise Creation Polygon Square Double Stitch die set, SB Grommet Tag Set

Challenges I'd like to play in please:

1. Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenges (April) Use Glitter and EP 5/1
2. Classic DT Open Challenge (April #4) AG DT 5/1
3. Sparkles Christmas Challenges #93/99 Feature a Creature 5/1
4. Tuesday Throwdown #429 AG (rubber stamp on glitter) 4/23
5. Holly and Ivy Christmas #47 AG Christmas 4/23
6. Merry Little Christmas #9 AG Christmas 4/30 (sep post 5/5)

On a Personal Note:
Early Spring Morning last week facing the tree line as the sun greets me with a myriad of birds singing "Good Morning!":



Thanks for popping by today!
hugs,
de

Beautiful Pear by Beccy Muir

Waving HELLO to all my friends
and grateful you can stop by today.

I was inspired by Beccy's Coloring Tutorial paired with her March freebie Beautiful Pear to create my fruity cards. Both pear clusters are colored similarly with Copic Markers and Prismacolor Markers, but different techniques were employed:

Steps:

1. I downloaded Beccy's Beautiful Pear image in black and white, converting it to  PNG with transparent background.
2. I placed three pears on my word processor and arranged to my liking before printing.
3. The pears were then colored with Copic and PC markers.

Here are the results:



For texture, a burlap strip was added with partial black die cut on the left. The sentiment was stamped with Nocturne VF Clair and heat set with a black detail EP that contains glitter, so the sentiment sparkles and shines:

Also colored with Copic and PC markers, my next card, partially embraces the pointillism technique found here:

The sentiment (from my new floral rubber stamp set which will debut on April 1) has been heat set with white detail embossing powder. The crinkled ribbon is seam binding with different color inks:

Some Products:

Stamps: Beccy's Beautiful Pear digital image, SNS Sentiment from my personal stamp set #938 Botanical Ruffled Peony, Hero Arts Sentiment Clear Stamps CL582, Dies: SB Grommet Tags, Spellbinders Grand Ovals, SB Floral Ovals, Sue Wilson Indian Ocean Tag Duo, SB Grand Decorative Labels One, Surprise Creations Double Stitched die set,  Ribbons: Lace and hand-dyed ribbon from my stash, and from Really Reasonable Ribbon Leaves (green) and loose-weave burlap (looks like it's retired)

Challenges I'd like to play in, please:

1. Beccy's Challenges (new blog location) AG using a Beccy Muir image 4/1
2. Crafting with Friends #1 Anything Goes 3/30
3. Aud Sentiments #223 Any Sentiment except HB 4/4 (sep post)
4. Scrapy Land Challenges #110 AG SL dies (SB Grommet Tags, Spellbinders Grand Ovals, SB Floral Ovals, Sue Wilson Indian Ocean Tag Duo, SB Grand Decorative Labels One) 4/2 (sep post)
5. A Bit More Time to Craft #88 Anything Goes 4/1 (sep post)
6. Crafty Friends Challenge #106 "Spring Colors" 4/6

On a Personal Note - 
Last week our Chinese Fringe Plants were blooming. This one is on the side in the back. They will stop blooming in a week, and I'll drastically prune it. The new foliage will come out a pretty burgundy color for the next 6 months.

Exterior View

Interior View

Close up - taken from a nursery

Smiles,