Doodlebugs – Smile, Thinking of You

Hi friends! Today is going to be the last Mix it up Monday for Doodlebugs for now. Cathy has some family things to attend to and the design team is going away. We will continue to cheerlead and support Doodlebugs in all the ways we can but weekly posts won’t happen anymore.

For my last design team card, I’m using a combo of multiple companies, old and new products. Shopping your stash can really be so fun and invigorating when you get to extend the life of something you’ve had for years and put something shiny and new to use too!

I recently got the Lawn Fawn Daisy Bloom Outline stencil and wanted to play with it so that’s how my card started. I inked it up using mini blending brushes and Lawn Fawn dye inks – guava, mermaid and sunflower specifically. I removed the stencil and splattered the panel with pink metallic watercolor which adds so much shimmery fun to the background!

This is the point where I played with the new thing I’d been putting off so what to pair with it. Digging for a sentiment to guide my way, I came across my Pretty Pink Posh die cut sentiments and loved the “smile” idea with happy flowers. To grow on that, I added a favorite banner greeting to take it a step further. But that was all too plain so I went looking for one of my staple cute critters to liven things up.

That is when I found one of my oldest and most favorite Mama Elephant sets called Page Huggers! I haven’t used it in a while so I was excited to find an excuse to. This set has four animals, today I chose the bunny for his height in proportion to the sentiment. I colored and cut him out with the coordinating die, then layered everything together.

Everything is adhered with foam squares for that dimension and interest. Plus, I want to note that there is no harsh black on my card anywhere so I went chose to stamp an image, I used Lawn Fawn Crunchy Leaf ink which is copic friendly but also kept the overall appearance on my card soft.

Products used today:
Mama Elephant Page Huggers stamps and dies
Pretty Pink Posh Banner Greetings 3 dies
Pretty Pink Posh Everyday Banner Greetings stamps
Pretty Pink Posh Large Smile Shadow dies
Lawn Fawn Daisy Bloom Outline stencil
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn ink – mermaid, guava, sunflower, crunchy leaf
Foam squares
Liquid glue

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

Newton’s Nook – August Release Day

Hip, hip, hooray!!! It’s release day!!! But first, you have to head to Instagram and hop along with us. Comment as you go for a chance to win credit to the Newton’s Nook shop! Then go wild and snag all these super fun goodies to start your birthday card stash!

Today the card I’m sharing features the Birthday Greetings stamps along with the Cat Builder and Birthday Accessories dies.

Today, I cut the pieces from colored cardstock but used ink blending on all the parts to add depth and interest. I always use liquid glue to adhere bits and pieces together, sometimes reverse tweezers help told them in place while the glue dries.

I had a layout planned in my head, so after all the pieces were cut and glued together. I cut the A2 Card Layout die from white cardstock, saving the frame for another day, using the stitched rectangles that also cut with the frame. I added a sentiment to the longer top rectangle and popped up all my elements with foam squares.

I added those to a green cardstock panel with foam tape. The panel is cut down to 4×5.25 inches. Before gluing that to my card base, I took guava ink direct to the paper so I got a textured color edge instead of another layer of cardstock.

For finishing touches I added glossy accents on parts of each icon. Then stardust Stickles to the party hat and each balloon too.

Just a reminder that today is release day and our Instagram hop is going on. Click here to get started!

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

Newton’s Nook – August Release Sneak Peeks Day 2

Welcome back again! Today we’ve got three new builder die sets to share with you, plus fun inspiration before the whole lot goes on sale tomorrow!

Cat Builder, Dog Builder and Birthday Accessories dies

With so much goodness to share today, I have two cards to share featuring all of these new products! First up, let’s build a super cute cat and get him ready for the party!

I cut everything for the kitty and party accessories from white cardstock and used blending brushes with dye inks to add my color. Then I used liquid glue and reverse tweezers to assemble everything.

*A great tip, the packaging for these builder die sets has a map to show you how to put the pieces together in different ways. I cut my packaging down and kept that part with the die sets for all of them.

If you saw my post yesterday, you’ll realize that I was very stuck on the Birthday Time paper pad. It fit with everything I was creating this time so why fight it?!? I trimmed another piece down to 4.25×4.5 inches. I stamped my sentiment at the bottom of a top folding card and popped the orange panel up with foam tape. Next, I cut a strip from another pattern in the same set and glued it to the bottom of the orange panel.

Last, I popped my kitty up with foam tape as well and finished the design off with a scattering of flat sequins for some added sparkle and shine across the design.

Next, I took some time to build a dog and some of the super fun accessories that come with him!

For this card, I used the same paper pad plus the Frames & Tags die set for my layout. I took the teal inserts that cut with the frame and splattered them with teal ink. After those were dry, I stamped my sentiment from yesterday’s Birthday Greetings set on one of the smaller rectangles and popped my other elements up with foam squares on the last two.

I chose a pattern for my card front, trimmed it down and glued it to a card base. Not wanting to cover up the fun words, I cut the zig zag rectangle from vellum, added my teal rectangles to it with foam tape and then hid tape runner behind the rectangles to adhere the whole thing to my card front.

*Tip, liquid glue tends to make vellum ripple because of the liquid part so I always try my hardest to use dry adhesive like tape runner.

For finishing touches on this card, I went a different route again and added white gel pen highlights to all of the bits. It doesn’t require drying time but can also change the look of your card completely.

Check out the Design Team blogs for more inspiration and featured project details:

Newton’s Nook Designs
Larissa Heskett
Donna Idlet
Rosie Lopez
Samantha Mann
Diane Morales
Amanda Wilcox

Newton’s Nook – August Release Sneak Peeks Day 1

Happy Wednesday friends! We have a quick two-day set of sneak peeks for the Newton’s Nook August release and then on Friday you get to enjoy a fun Instagram hop for added inspiration (and chances to win) plus the goodies go on sale so you can shop to heart’s content!

Today we have a builder die set and a new sentiment stamp set to share with you.

Cake Builder dies and Birthday Greetings stamps

For my card today, I used all the new goodies but surrounded my color palette around a previously released paper pad called Birthday Time. It’s a great collection of images and patterns in more pastel vibes than bright which was perfect for my crafting mood.

For my cake, I cut all the pieces from various colors of cardstock. Then I took the cake layers and spritzed them with white paint. It gave great texture and toned down the brightness of my cardstock colors. I used liquid glue to assemble it all and moved on to the other elements.

I stamped part of my sentiment on a banner trio die and trimmed the other half with scissors after stamping. My background panel is from the Birthday Time paper pad, trimmed to A2 and glued to a card base. Then I added ovals from the oval frames die set. The white scallop oval is glued to my card base and the teal is popped up with foam tape.

Last, I added the sentiment strips and cake with foam tape. For finishing touches I added stardust Stickles to the candles and glossy accents to the flames and frosting on each cake layer. I feel like these last details really pulled this card together. It went from alright to super cool!

Check out the Design Team blogs for more inspiration and featured project details:

more inspiration and featured project details:

Newton’s Nook Designs
Larissa Heskett
Donna Idlet
Rosie Lopez
Samantha Mann
Diane Morales
Amanda Wilcox

Doodlebugs – Happy Birthday to Moo Tag

Hey friends! It’s mix-it-up Monday and I’m here with some birthday fun using Lawn Fawn and Mama Elephant new and old together. It’s great when things work out that way – getting new goodies that give your older stuff new life at the same time!

I’ve been dying to play with the Lawn Fawn Highland Cows since they released and today I finally took my opportunity and ran with it! Isn’t this little guy THE CUTEST!?! He’s perfect! Pretty sure I’m giving this tag to myself on my birthday, not even hiding it.

To create it, I started by gathering some images from the Highland Cow stamp set and creating a mini scene. Once I had enough filler, I stamped everything and colored with my copic markers. Then I used the coordinating dies to cut it all out. However, this set doesn’t come with a speech bubble so I went digging and found this one in the Silly Goose set. Lots of Lawn Fawn sets have them so just dig in your stash.

Then I pulled out the Mama Elephant Emerald Package die set and cut the tag shape and the shape one size smaller from yellow and white cardstock, respectively. I taped off a portion of the white panel and inked it green, then flipped my tape and inked the sky teal. I splattered some water for texture and blotted it dry.

Finally, I glued the foliage down with liquid glue and popped the cow and speech bubble up with foam squares. Then I popped the scene panel up on the yellow tag with foam tape. For finishing touches I added some white gel pen to the cow’s cheecks and stardust Stickles to the tip of the hat. Last, I added glossy accents to the flower center and two stripes on the hat. I threaded ribbon through the hole, tied it with twine and voila, my tag is finished!

Products used:
Lawn Fawn Highland Cows stamps and dies
Lawn Fawn Silly Goose stamps and dies (speech bubble only)
Mama Elephant Emerald Package dies
Foam tape
Glossy accents
Stickles – stardust
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn inks – mermaid and cilantro
Gelly Roll pen – white

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

Simon Hurley Create – If You’ve Got it, Haunt It

Welcome everyone! Today I’m playing with Halloween goodies that released last year but I was late to the party so I get them last month and finally carved out time to play. They are a combo Spellbinders | Simon Hurley Create release, which always equals perfection!

These ghosts are adorable and I was so happy to finally get a chance to create with them! The set is called Boo Crew. I started by cutting and inking up all the pieces to build adorably funny ghosts, then used liquid glue to adhere the layers together. Everything is cut from white cardstock and color was applied with copic markers or blending brushes.

For my background, I used the Damask 3D embossing folder on cardstock that I sprayed with twisted citron Distress Stain Spray, then mowed lawn Distress Oxide Spray. After embossing the panel, I drug the black soot distress ink pad across the embossing, then came in with a blending brush to give the embossing more definition. Next, I tore the edge off the panel and roughed it up with scissors and used reverse tweezers to help some edges curl up.

I folded a white card base and glued a strip of black cardstock to the right edge before popping the embossed panel up with foam tape. Next, I added my ghosts with foam tape as well, leaving space for a mysterious sentiment…because I hadn’t chosen one yet.

Boo Crew has a die cut sentiment included in the set but I was feeling restless and went digging anyway. I came across a retired Spellbinders stamp set from Halloween years ago and couldn’t resist. I stamped and heat embossed it, then fussy cut it before popping it up with foam squares as well.

Products used:
Boo Crew dies
Damask 3D embossing folder
Foam tape and squares
Liquid glue
Reverse tweezers
Scissors
Distress Ink – black soot
Distress Oxide Spray – mowed lawn
Distress Spray Stain – twisted citron
Blending brush
*Retired* Boo Dance Party stamps

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

Newton’s Nook – Espresso Your SPOOKY Side

Hey friends! Happy to be over on the Newton’s Nook blog. Today I’m diving farther into my Halloween stash and giving a fun idea for a stenciled background! Let’s dive in!

Full transparency, I did this in a different order but sometimes hindsight is 20/20 so I’m sharing a more time effective or to create this card, but whatever works for your brain is going to be perfect!

I recommend a sticky mat for stenciling but if you don’t have one, tape your black cardstock panel to your stencil so it doesn’t shift while spreading paste. Then choose your different solar pastes. I used a palette knife to add blobs of the different colors all over the panel. Then I used a long paste spreader to level it all out and (sort of) mix the colors giving you the variegated effect.

Then I stamped, colored and die cut all of my images from the Newton’s Nook Spooky Coffees. Instead of my normal vellum steam, I went with fun spooky colors for a change of pace.

Next, I trimmed a piece of black cardstock to about 1″ wide and heat embossed my sentiment on it. To break up the background from the sentiment strip, I added a 1/4″ piece of brown cardstock to the edge.

Working my way from the bottom up, I added foam tape to everything and adhered the sentiment strip, then the brown strip, then the mugs on that. I glued the panel to a top folding card base and then tied string around the top for some added interest.

For finishing touches on this design, I used my glitter brush pen on all the steam for some sparkle. Then I added bits of glossy accents to each mug so they shine too!

Products used:
Ghosts stencil
Spooky Coffees stamps and dies
Solar Paste – pity part, sublime, neptune
Paste spreading tools (variety pack)
Foam tape and squares
Glossy accents
Glitter brush pen
Anti-static bag
Embossing ink
Embossing powder – white

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

Doodlebugs – Bright and Bold Summer Hugs

Welcome back everyone! This week’s Mix it up Monday for Doodlebugs is much bolder and brighter than I originally planned but sometimes you just go with the flow and see where you end up.

This card started with my desire to play with the Pretty Pink Posh Summer Fun stencil set again in a more calculated way by inking each item separately with mini blending brushes instead of the global one color per layer idea. It started out easy enough but quickly took a turn on the second layer when my color choices turned much bolder than I originally pictured. But nothing was wrong so I kept going and actually love where we ended up.

Once the ink blending was done I wanted to add some texture so I went with Distress Spritz Spray in tumbled glass lightly across the whole panel. Then while that was drying, I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Giant Sending Big Hugs die and cut it from Spellbinders glitter foam. *Pro Tip: This foam is made from something different because after it goes through the die cut machine you can actually watch it pop back up to full volume. It’s crazy.

I really wanted to tie in the sentiment to something summery so I pulled out the Pretty Pink Posh Banner Greetings stamps and dies, finding the perfect sub-sentiment to add. I adorned that with some embellishments from my stash which I think are SO FUN on this design!

After adding the whole thing to a card base with liquid glue, I wrapped some twine around the top for added brightness and interest.

Products used:
Pretty Pink Posh Summer Fun stencils
Pretty Pink Posh Summer Banner Greetings stamps
Pretty Pink Posh Banner Greetings 3 dies
Lawn Fawn Giant Sending Big Hugs die
Liquid glue
Distress Spritz Spray – tumbled glass
Blending brushes
Stellar Inks

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

Mama Elephant – Follow Your Dreams

Welcome everyone! Mama Elephant’s own, Angie, has been sharing a fun journey on Instagram that’s got us all inspired in many different ways. For me, it’s the kick to dig in my ME stash and use some of those dusty beauties in the back. Right now, that happens to be the zodiac series of cute chubby critters! I love this whole series and have been growing it slowly over the years. Today we’re going to play with Zodiac Sheep!

I started by stamping some cute sheep and fun things for them to hold onto, the necessities like cupcakes and coffee! I colored everything with copic markers and used the coordinating dies to cut it all out. This set includes dies to cut the hands so they can easily hold the items too! It’s perfect! I added a little dab of liquid glue and inserted them into place.

Next, I cut the Rolling Waves cover plate from white cardstock. I taped off the border and inked the ground with Lawn Fawn celery stick ink. The sky and clouds come out of the panel so I inked the sky up separately with mermaid ink. Then I glued the mail portion down with liquid glue to a card base, inserting the sky and finally popping up the clouds with foam squares.

I added the sheep with a combination of foam squares and liquid glue where it made sense. Switching gears to my sentiment, my daughter helped me choose this gem thinking of counting sheep while you’re heading off to dreamland. It’s part of the Way to Go stamp set. I heat embossed this on light purple cardstock and used the coordinating die to cut it out. It is adhered with a combo of liquid glue and foam squares as well.

For finishing touches on this card, I just came in with glossy accents on all the sheep noses and then bits like the heart, strawberry and coffee cup lid.

Products used:
Zodiac Sheep stamps and dies
Rolling Waves cover plate
Foam squares
Liquid glue
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn ink – celery stick and mermaid
Glossy accents

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

Journal Decorating

Hi friends! I have a non-brand specific post for you today. Quite a while ago I ordered a bulk set of kraft cardstock journals. They’re simple but I really wanted to decorate covers and share them with people. I have done a few but not many, today I’m sharing a new one I created.

These journals measure about 8.25×5.5 and the pages are lined. There are probably 60 sheets per notebook so they aren’t huge but enough to make them worth collecting thoughts on any given subject.

This one started by me playing with an array of blue distress oxide and spritz sprays on the cover. I just went to town spraying and splattering, drying in between, all over the course of a couple of days. I would splatter some water and blot it dry in between some layers too. I even tried some white splatter at one point. Just playing until I was done. Then it sat there for a few weeks, until inspiration hit.

I went digging in my stash of paper pads (I know you have one of those too…don’t deny it.) and found an old one from Simple Stories that played off of the blue I already had going on. I started cutting and tearing pieces, layering them together, gluing them down and popping some up. I roughed up some edges with my scissors, used the Spellbinders banner punch to create a couple of those.

Then I pulled out the Mama Elephant Postage Frame dies, purely for the strip of hearts you can cut at once. You get two sizes and seven hearts total with one pass in the die cutter.

I added the hearts with a combo of liquid glue and foam squares so they are at different levels all over the cover. Then, once the cover sufficed for me, I went to the side and thought it would be fun to create dividers. This took me a while to figure out because I don’t have a tab die or punch. After digging, I landed on a pull tab from the Lawn Fawn flippin awesome die set. It’s got a fun shape and wasn’t too long. In fact, the math worked out perfect for eight tabs perfectly.

I cut out a patterned paper front with a white cardstock back for each one, gluing them on the front and back of the paper. Once they were all glued I pulled out a real oldie but goodie – my crop-a-dile and added rivets to each divider. I love the detail this gives!!!

Now I just have to decide the fate of this wonderful notebook. Do I keep it or do I share it? Do you journal at all? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Products used:
Journals (Amazon)
Simple Stories (paper pad retired but so much cute available now)
Lawn Fawn Flippin’ Awesome dies
Mama Elephant Postage Frame dies
Spellbinders Banner punch
Foam squares
Liquid glue

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