Blog

Doodlebugs – Florals For All Through the Year

Hey friends! It’s Mix it up Monday on the Doodlebugs blog and I’m moving outside of my typical and playing with florals. There are some newer die sets from Spellbinders that are a fabulous price point but adorable, fun to create with and really versatile. The one we’re playing with today is called Little Blooms. The dies in this collection range from $7 to $15 and you can use them for a billion and one different cards!

For today’s card, I cut the different elements from a limited color palette (happens to be a favorite these days) and used liquid glue to assemble all the pieces. I played around with arrangement on my craft mat and landed on a loose circle. To make it easy to add them to a card front, I used a piece of Press-n-Seal to hold them together while I added foam squares to the back of everything. This also made it a piece of cake to figure out what size circle die I could use for my background and actually adhering all the pieces to that circle at once. Definitely a kitchen item to keep in your craft room.

So after the florals were stuck to the Press-n-Seal, I die cut a white circle from the Mama Elephant Circle Combo dies and ink blended distress oxide spun sugar to the center. I spritzed it with water and blotted it dry. Then I cut two of the scallop layers from a peach-orange cardstock and used liquid glue to adhere all my layers together.

After removing the release paper from the foam squares on my flowers I popped them in place on the scalloped circle card front. To turn this into a card, I cut the same stitched circle a second time, scored it 3/8″ from one side and used liquid glue to adhere it to the back.

I went digging for a specific theme of sentiment and landed on it in the Spellbinders I’ve Got You Covered stamp and die set. I stamped it with celery stick ink and cut it out before popping it up across the center with foam strips.

I’m not a floral crafter but sometimes they’re just what you need. This little die set will be a long standing part of my stash for that reason. It’s simple and so pretty.

Products used:
Mama Elephant Circle Combo dies
Spellbinders I’ve Got You Covered stamps and dies
Spellbinders Little Blooms dies
Liquid glue
Reverse tweezers
Blending brushes
Distress Oxide Ink – spun sugar
Lawn Fawn Ink – celery stick

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Twiddler’s Nook Spooktacular

Happy 31st of the month everyone! Please hop on over to Instagram and join us for one of the final Spooktacular hops of 2024. We’ve got a super fun lineup of spooky inspiration for you just in time for the masses to really start fall crafting.

Today I’ve mixed Hello Bluebird cuties with some of my favorites from Mama Elephant for a sweet scene card that extends into the inside of my card too.

The images I chose today are from Hello Bluebird Spooky Spellers. They are adorable and can be dressed up and their signs customized too! I love how these features make this stamp set super versatile all year long!

For my background, I ink blended distress oxide ink from twisted citron to mowed lawn with an edge of black soot to darken things up. I added a spooky black grass border from Newton’s Nook along the bottom and a spooky tree and ghost from the Hello Bluebird Halloween Tree die set.

I stamped and heat embossed the beginning of my sentiment using the Mama Elephant Be Scary stamp and die set. I adhered it by hiding dabs of liquid glue behind the embossing powder.

Before finishing things up on the front, I went to the inside with the rest of my sentiment and also added some Mama Elephant Little Ghost Agenda cuties to liven things up a bit.

Back to the front, I added glossy accents to noses, the pumpkin face and accents on the bat and skunk. Then I added black glaze pen to all the critter eyes so they stood out a bit better too.

Finally, I glued a scattering of Twiddler’s Nook Pastel Wishes clay embellishments across the sky. I really like the combination of softer pastel elements and the dark black shadows on this card. The contrast is really cool!

Products used:
Twiddler’s Nook Pressure Pal
Twiddler’s Nook Pastel Wishes embellishments
Twiddler’s Nook Paw Print embellishment tray

Hello Bluebird Spooky Spellers stamps and dies
Hello Bluebird Halloween Tree dies

Mama Elephant Little Ghost Agenda stamps
Mama Elephant Be Scary stamps and dies

Distress Oxide Ink – mowed lawn, twisted citron, black soot
Newton’s Nook Land Borders dies
Liquid glue
Embossing powder – frosting
Embossing ink
Magic anti-static brush
Foam tape and squares

Lawn Fawn ink – cilantro, jalapeno

Remember to head to Instagram and hop along with us for a chance to win a gift certificate to the Twiddler’s Nook shop.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Doodlebugs – Monochromatic Fun and Shaped Cards

Happy Mix it up Monday everyone! On the Doodlebugs blog I’m playing with monochromatic designs and shaped cards to make things a little extra interesting.

I started by creating an adorable Spellbinders Roller Disco Dottie with a red collar and red skates. She’s the cutest but I couldn’t decide on a complimentary color that I liked today. So I decided to keep it all in the family, the red family.

Next, I pulled out some Mama Elephant dies and created a sentiment banner using Spring Banner Greetings dies. Then I created my card base with the Mama Elephant Circle Combo dies. I love the wiggle room of liquid glue for all of these types of things. It gives you that couple of seconds to line things up.

After creating the 3 top layers of my circle, I cut an additional white circle, scored it about 3/8″ away from one edge and then used liquid glue to adhere it to the back of the stacked circle combo. You can decide if your card opens up or to the side this way too. Total flexibility.

I ink blended the center of the circle on the front and splattered it with the same red ink color. Then I popped Dottie and her sentiment banner up with foam squares and strips.

I’m excited to pop this cutie in the mail to a special friend along with some crafty goodies I picked up.

Products used:
Spellbinders Roller Disco Dottie dies
Mama Elephant Circle Combo dies
Mama Elephant Spring Banner Greetings dies
Liquid glue
Foam squares
Scoring board
Blending brush
Lawn Fawn lobster ink
Reverse tweezers

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Newton’s Nook – Pastel Vibes with Heartfelt Fall

Hey everyone! I’m on the Newton’s Nook blog today with a little taste of fall, but the soft, pastel version. I took a break from Halloween for a moment to pull out some fall fun for a moment.

I stamped the Heartfelt Fall image in a brown copic-friendly ink and colored it in with softer fall colors. Then I cut that out with the largest scallop Heart Frames die and inked up the edges with a little tea dye distress ink.

I chose some coordinating scraps of cardstock and cut 1/4″ strips to glue on a white cardstock panel. Once those were dry, I trimmed the panel down to 4×5.25 inches and splattered it with gold watercolor. I popped the panel up on a white card base and then did the same with my heart image.

I chose kraft for my sentiment banner using one of the Banner Trio dies and a sentiment from the Heartfelt Fall stamp set. Then I painted the open letters with gold watercolor from the splattering and also painted bits of the heart image with an extra watered down version of the same gold watercolor.

I really adore how this card turned out and the relaxing feel it gives. I think that also plays really well with the sentiment I chose too.

Products used:
Heartfelt Fall stamps
Heart Frames dies
Banner Trio dies

LH Colors watercolor – gold
Foam tape
Magic Anti-static brush
Embossing ink
Embossing powder – frosting

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Doodlebugs – Pastel Christmas Wishes, Non-Traditional Color Palettes for the Holidays

Welcome to a fun Mix it up Monday for the Doodlebugs blog where I’m still thinking of the holidays that are far away but are sure to creep up on us in no time! Typically I’m not a make ahead Christmas card type of person, I start late fall and do my best. But this year I’ve been really inspired by all the Christmas in July releases and extra inspiration I’ve seen from other design team members. It’s fabulous and so fun!

Another thing that happens for me when I create outside of the typical time of year for a holiday or season…I’m interested and willing to choose outside of my typical color palettes. It’s been SO FUN!

Today I have the Spellbinders Delivering Joy Sleigh in pinks, teals and mint greens. I added a little gold for some flair and kept the gifts classy with white. Isn’t is so pretty?!? I really adore it!

For the background, I went with the same green and teal color scheme using the Pretty Pink Posh Christmas Trees stencil set. I trimmed the panel down to 3.75×5 inches and popped it up on a pink card base because, well, pink. I chose the same teal from the poinsettias for my sentiment strip, which is also Pretty Pink Posh.

After popping the sleigh and sentiment strip up on the stenciled panel, I finished the design off with a scattering of Spellbinders pearls.

I’m really curious to know how you feel about non-traditional colors for any holiday season. Please share! I used to be really rigid with my colors and now I’m definitely enjoying playing around with it all.

Products used:
Spellbinders Delivering Joy Sleigh dies
Spellbinders pearls
Pretty Pink Posh Christmas Trees stencils
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Christmas stamps
Foam tape, squares and strips
Liquid glue
Reverse tweezers
Lawn Fawn Ink – cilantro, mermaid, doe

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Newton’s Nook – Ghostly Good Times

Hey friends! I’m over on the Newton’s Nook blog today with an extra fun Halloween card. I had some inky fun stenciling on kraft and creating vellum ghosts which is always super cool looking!

I used distress oxide inks for my stenciling so the ink sat on top of the kraft cardstock and showed up really well. The colors I chose were carved pumpkin with a little ripe persimmon on the bottoms, mowed lawn and black soot. I cut that panel with the largest Frames & Tags die for that awesome zigzag edge. Then cut the frame in that set from black cardstock and popped it up with foam strips.

I heat embossed the ghosts from Ghostly Good Times and used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I adhered them to the card front by cutting tiny foam squares to hide behind their eyes, mouth and nose.

Last, I stamped a sentiment on one of the tags in the same die set using the same distress oxide inks as the pumpkins. I tied a little bow with some twine and added it with foam squares. I finished that off with one cute jack-o-lantern embellishment and popped the whole panel up on a white card base with foam tape.

You know how much I love Halloween so this card was a blast to create! I wanted to mention that the face layer of this stencil set is also optional if you wanted to create fall cards with it too. Definitely extends the use tons!!!

Products used:
Ghostly Good Times stamps and dies
Jack-O-Lantern stencils
Frames & Tags dies

Foam squares and tape
Distress Oxide Ink – carved pumpkin, ripe persimmon, mowed lawn, black soot
Twiddler’s Nook Happy Jacks embellishments

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Doodlebugs – Christmas Mixes

Hey friends! It’s Mix it up Monday on the Doodlebugs blog and today I went the holiday route. I feel like Christmas is one of those holidays where mixing and matching all the themes together work, pretty much no matter what. It’s all fun and festive, and I love it!!!

I started by playing around with the Waffle Flower Holly background die and stencil combo. These background dies from Waffle Flower are genius and so much fun to play with different color combos. I can never stop at one because one color idea leads to another and next thing I know, I’ve got 12 backgrounds and some serious cardmaking ahead of me. It’s wonderful!

With the backgrounds inked up, I pulled out the Waffle Flower Merry Christmas sentiment dies and cut the shadows from coordinating cardstock as the berries on my background. The words are white and everything is assembled with liquid glue.

I really think I could have just popped the sentiment up in the upper center but what’s the fun in that?!? So I pulled out the Pretty Pink Posh Winter Mug dies and created a couple of those in coordinating colors to each background as well.

I popped everything up on the background panel with foam tape and added a pearl to the center of each snowflake for a little something.

These cards would be simple and quick to mass produce for the holidays, especially if you got started early! I’ll definitely be adding a few more color combos to my stash before I’m done with them.

Products used:
Waffle Flower Holly Jolly die and stencil
Waffle Flower Merry Christmas Print dies
Waffle Flower blending brushes
Pretty Pink Posh Winter Mug dies
Pretty Pink Posh pearls
Liquid glue
Foam tape

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Doodlebugs – Summer Birthday Fun

Hey friends! I’m on the Doodlebugs blog today sharing a fun birthday Mix it up Monday with summer vibes. We don’t have many summer birthdays in our family and friends so I don’t make many cards this style and it was really fun!

I started with the fun Pretty Pink Posh Celebration Cupcake dies, wanting to expand the use from 4th of July vibes to general summer, so I cut the fruit and sunglasses, omitting all the other parts at first. I added some detail with copic markers instead of ink blending this time and used liquid glue to adhere all the parts and pieces together.

Next, I cut 2 Mama Elephant Arches from vellum and a green polka dot cardstock in my stash. I used tape runner to adhere the layers together and foam tape to add the cupcake to that.

I started with a blank pink background but didn’t like that so I ran the panel through my die cutter with the Spellbinders Tiny Dots embossing folder, ink blended the edges with some picked raspberry distress oxide ink and splattered it with white paint. Ahhh, that feels so much more like me. Then I popped the arches up with foam tape.

I cut a couple of Pretty Pink Posh sentiment strips from white cardstock and stamped sentiments from the Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Birthday stamp set in guava and peacock inks. These are popped up with foam strips.

Now my card is really bottom heavy so I went back to the cupcake die set and cut some of the other decoration type shapes out and glued them all around with liquid glue. I think they add a fun touch and extend the design up without pulling everything apart.

The last thing I did was add white gel pen accents to all of the images.

Products used:
Pretty Pink Posh Celebration Cupcake dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Birthday stamps
Mama Elephant B2B Arches dies
Spellbinders Tiny Dots embossing folder
Lawn Fawn ink – peacock and guava
Distress oxide ink – picked raspberry
Liquid glue
Foam squares, tape and strips
Gelly roll pen – white

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Spellbinders – Mini Slimline St. Nick Card

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. Today I’m sharing a mini slimline card featuring the recently released Spellbinders St. Nick die set. This set builds a gorgeous Santa figure with a couple of add-ons like layers for a Christmas tree, a star and a snowflake.

I took my time cutting and assembling my St. Nick using liquid glue a reverse tweezers along the way. I also didn’t pay much attention to how tall he was turning out until he was complete. This meant a shift from a typical A2 card to a mini slimline which I haven’t made it a while. They are a really fun size to create and always surprise people when they open them.

My background is a piece of white cardstock embossing with the Loops embossing folder, then ink blended with green dye ink fading from one corner to the other. I like the gradient look. I glued the panel to a card base and wrapped silver floral wire around it, tying it with a tag from the Delivery Joy die set.

Finally, I popped St. Nick up with foam tape on the card front. I didn’t find a lot of reason for finishing touches so there are none today. The lantern was cut from foiled cardstock and his buckle from glitter cardstock. Not much else to make shine or sparkle. I think it turned out really pretty though. St. Nick was a joy to create as well!

Products used:
St. Nick dies
Delivery Joy dies
Loops embossing folder
Liquid glue
Foam tape
Blending brush
Lawn Fawn ink – noble fir
Reverse tweezers

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!