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!

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!

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!

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!

Doodlebugs – Give You a Squeeze Card

Welcome everyone! I’m pining for sunshine and summer vibes lately so I pulled out some older favorites to craft my way into sunshine.

First I pulled out the Pretty Pink Posh Citrus stamp set and stamped a whole bundle of each image in the set. I colored everything with copic markers in combos of oranges of lemons on my mind. Then I used the coordinating dies to cut everything out and started playing around with arrangements. I landed on this line of fruit vibe and used liquid glue to adhere them all together.

With this much direction I knew I wanted a vibrant, fun background so I pulled out this Lawn Fawn Stitched Wavy Backdrop. I spritzed distress oxide sprays on a panel. Let it dry and then spritzed it with water and watered down white paint. When that layer dried, I cut it out with the backdrop die.

Finally, I glued the background to a card base, then popped the strip of citrus up with foam squares. Last, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment in the Citrus stamp set on black cardstock and die cut it with a Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strip die. This is also popped up with foam strips.

For finishing touches I added stardust Stickles to the flower centers and glued a scattering of yellow baubles I had in my stash.

Products used today:
Pretty Pink Posh Citrus stamps and dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips dies
Lawn Fawn Stitched Wavy Backdrop die
Foam squares and strips
Liquid glue
Stickles – stardust
Magic anti-static bag
Embossing powder
Embossing and watermark ink
Distress Oxide Spray – mermaid lagoon

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

Doodlebugs – Flying By to Say… and a Contest Winner

Happy Mix it up Monday everyone! I’m here with this week’s fun concoction, featuring the giveaway from last week – the Mama Elephant Curly Screen Frame – and at the end of this post the reveal of the winner of this die set!

To create this card, I stamped and colored the images from the Lawn Fawn Have a Mice Flight stamp set, then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. Switching gears to my background, I die cut the Mama Elephant Curly Screen Frame from blue cardstock and the frame from melon cardstock.

I paired my blue panel with the Lawn Fawn Stratus Cloud stencil, spreading white lie Stellar Paste through it for some great textured glossy clouds. Once that panel was dry, I glued the frame over the top and popped up my images in the center.

Next, I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment, cutting it out with a Pretty Pink Posh sentiment strip die. I popped this up with foam strips and then added foam tape to the back of the curly screen panel to adhere it to a light yellow card base.

For finishing touches I added glossy accents to the mouse’s goggles and nose. Isn’t it so sweet?!?

Now, on to the part you scrolled down to find out…the winner of the Mama Elephant Curly Screen Frame die set donated by Doodlebugs!

Congratulations BO GILMORE!!! You are the winner! Please email me at twiddlersnook@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Products from today’s card are:
Mama Elephant Curly Screen Frame dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips dies
Lawn Fawn Have a Mice Flight stamps and dies
Lawn Fawn Stratus Clouds stencil
Stellar Paste – white lie
Glossy accents
Foam tape, strips and squares
Liquid glue

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

Doodlebugs – Valentine Mini Note Cards

Over the years I have done many different things to celebrate Valentine’s Day differently at home. One year I made a scavenger hunt for my daughter to find her gift, another year I made a mini tag or card to tape to her door every morning leading up to the day, and others I make a card or tag to give my daughter and husband on the holiday. As I was creating these mini note cards I was thinking they would be perfect lunchbox notes on random days in February to brighten anyone’s day.

I made 5 note cards because I simply couldn’t resist stamping and coloring all of the adorable versions of the Lawn Fawn Critter Conversation Hearts! After coloring, I stamped a senitment in each heart and then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. Next, I took notes from Mona Toth and added vellum wings to their backs using the Lawn Fawn Build-a-Critter Valentine Accessories die set.

Then, for each one I die cut the Pretty Pink Posh Mini Scallop Card from teal cardstock and the decorative panel from pink. I used the Pretty Pink Posh Layered Hearts stencils to add a little interest behind the images. Nothing crazy, just Lawn Fawn ballet slippers pink on pink. I glued the panel to the card fronts and popped the critters up with foam squares. The designs are finished off with some white gel pen highlights on the hearts.

Do you have any fun Valentine traditions or ways of celebrating to share?

Products used:
Lawn Fawn Critter Conversation Heart stamps and dies
Lawn Fawn Build-a-Critter Valentine Accessories dies
Pretty Pink Posh Mini Scallop Note Card dies
Pretty Pink Posh Layered Hearts stencils
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn ballet slippers ink
Foam squares
Liquid glue

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

Doodlebugs – Sending Love Valentine Mice

Welcome everyone! It’s time for Mix it up Monday with Doodlebugs! Still in my Valentine vibe and every time Lawn Fawn comes out with more cute mice, I must play with them! I just adore their little stances and cute faces!

Today’s card started by stamping all the images from the Lawn Fawn Valentine Mice set and coloring with copic markers. This is a mid-size set so it’s great for your pocket book but complete enough to use it on projects on its own too. I used the coordinating dies to cut everything out and set it aside to figure out my background.

While I was digging around for a stencil or embossing folder for my background, I remembered these awesome Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Heart dies from last year and thought they would be perfect! So I started cutting them from all my red and pink scraps. Then, because it’s me, I didn’t want a plain background so I spritzed distress sprays on a piece of white cardstock to add color and texture at the same time. Then I glued my hearts directly to that.

Then I added foam squares to the back of my mice and the mini sentiment that amazingly has a coordinating die to it and placed them in different areas of the card. Triangles are appealing to the eye so I keep that in mind when positioning focal points.

Last, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Valentine Mice stamp set and trimmed it into a couple of sentiment strips. These are popped up with foam strips. Then I finished the design off with a touch of glossy accents on mouse noses and the baby hearts.

Status check, have you created anything Valentine themed yet???

Products used:
Lawn Fawn Valentine Mice stamps and dies
Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Hearts dies
Embossing and watermark ink
Embossing powder – white
Magic anti-static bag
Foam squares and strips
Liquid glue
Distress Spray Stain – lumberjack plaid, gold
Glossy accents

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

Doodlebugs – Cutest Cupid Around

Hey friends! I’m back with a Doodlebugs Mix it Up Monday post for you! I haven’t been the greatest at getting these written up but we all have goals right?!? I’ve been having fun creating Valentine themed things for a bit now and I’m so excited to start sharing them!

I couldn’t wait to play with the new Lawn Fawn Valentine accessories for the build-a-critters! And I love this bunny so it was the perfect combo! I did a little ink blending for depth and some white gel pen highlights on the nose and eyes. So cute!

Next, I ink blended a white panel with the Pretty Pink Posh layered hearts stencil set. I used Lawn Fawn inks – ballet slippers and lobster with blending brushes. Then I die cut the Pretty Pink Posh Love Word Shaker from the center of the panel.

I glued the negative of the panel to a red panel and added that to a card base but it wasn’t working for me. So I popped up the actual die cut for a subtle raised look. Then I added the cupid bunny to that with more foam squares.

I was mindful to use a top fold card base when I assembled my card so that I could easily wrap and tie some twine around the top of the card to finish the design off. This twine has a strand of silver sparkle in it too!

Products:
Lawn Fawn Build-a-Critter Bunny dies
Lawn Fawn Build-a-Critter Accessories Valentine dies
Pretty Pink Posh Layered Hearts stencils
Pretty Pink Posh Love Shaker dies
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn inks – lobster and ballet slippers
Liquid glue
Foam squares
Gelly roll pen – white

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

Doodlebugs – Distress Sprays for Holiday Color

Happy Mix it up Monday again! Today I have a card to share that I worked on intermittently for a few days. Spritzing and spraying with distress oxide sprays, water and watercolor to get fun textures before die cutting my pieces. It was really low stress and fun to pop in the craft room play a little and leave to see what it looked like after it had dried.

I did this with red, green and yellow panels to create my poinsettias. Then I added some white paint splatter to my kraft background for texture as well. There are quite a few layers to the Lawn Fawn Stitched Poinsettias so I didn’t used foam on them at all, just liquid glue and reverse tweezers to hold pieces while they dried.

I chose the Pretty Pink Posh Pierced Scallop cover die for my background, so when I went to choose which Banner Greetings die to use, I chose the one with the same piercing detail on it. I stamped and heat embossed sentiments on the banners and did add foam strips to the back so they laid nicely with the poinsettia layers.