Spellbinders – Out and About with the Pups

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been a long week and I’m really looking forward to relaxing and crafting this weekend. How about you?

Before that though, I wanted to share a couple more projects featuring the Spellbinders Out and About Collection. These pups crack me up and I couldn’t resist snagging them and playing with them straight out of the package too!

I didn’t have much in mind but just wanted to cut and create both of the dogs – Skateboarding Terry and Roller Disco Dottie – how cute are their names too!?! After I put them together I went digging through my stash to create a card with Skateboarding Terry first.

I used the Mirrored Arch Labels nested die set to cut my focal point pieces. Then I embossed the smaller one with the Loops embossing folder and went over it with a blending brush and green ink. My sentiment strip comes from the Stitched Kaleidoscope Arch stamp and die combo.

After adhering all the layers, I went around the white card base with the same green ink and tied jute twine around the top of the card, tying it in a bow.

When I created my Dottie dog, I couldn’t resist a bright fun pink with her black and white spots so I kept that vibe going when creating a tag for her to go on. Super simple, I cut 2 Make a Wish Arches from white cardstock and glued them together for stability. I inked up the center of the front with picked raspberry distress oxide ink and splattered a little water. Then I just popped Dottie up with foam squares, punched a hole and threaded some pink twine.

The back is blank so I can write a message to go with the occasion but until then this is generic and fun so I have the versatility to choose when I use it!

Like I said earlier in the week, head over and check out the fun Out and About Collection for some sweeties to add to your stash!

Products used:
Skateboarding Terry dies
Roller Disco Dottie dies
Mirrored Arch dies
Loops embossing folder
Make a Wish Arch dies
Foam tape
Liquid glue
Picked Raspberry distress oxide ink
Artichoke Lawn Fawn ink
Blending brushes

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

Spellbinders – Out and About Release

Hey friends, have you seen the new Spellbinders Out and About release? It’s an absolutely adorable collection of small die sets that go perfectly with the new Scout Die Cutting Machine! Today I have a card using a couple of the new dies that was SO FUN to put together!

This card features the Garden Buddies and Stitched Hello sets. Garden Buddies is going to be so much fun to create in all the different color combos, I’m sure of it! And the Stitched Hello is going to be awesome with and without stitching which is great when you don’t have as much time on your hands.

Have you checked out the adorable new Scout Die Cutting Machine yet too? It’s the perfect size for these small projects and for taking on the go with you! I’m not usually one for having all the versions of something but this was so inviting to me with the prospect of crafting on the go again. I used to pack up once a month and craft with a friend but it became cumbersome. This die cutter is a game changer for that. Or even moving from my craft room to the downstairs to hang out with my family.

Whether you’re interested in the Scout machine or not, please check out the Out and About Collection! It’s SO MUCH FUN! I’ll be back later in the week with another project using two more die sets from this collection that you’re going to LOVE!

Products used today:
Spellbinders Garden Friends dies
Spellbinders Stitched Hello dies
Spellbinders Flower Frenzy embossing folder
Spellbinders Scout die cutting machine
Liquid glue
EZ tear tape

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

Doodlebugs – Treat Yourself on your Berry Special Day

Hello everyone! It’s time for another mix-it-up Monday on the Doodlebugs blog. Today we’re mixing all the strawberry things together again in a different way. I love how bright today’s card turned out! It’s so sweet you can almost taste it.

I started with the Pretty Pink Posh Fresh Berries stamp set. I stamped out a few berries and leaves, coloring everything with copic markers before using the coordinating dies to cut it all out.

Next, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from the Waffle Flower Birthday Wishes stamp set and cut it out with the coordinating die. I also cut a Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice panel for my background.

With all the pieces ready to go, it’s time to assemble some. Using the sentiment as a guide on the background panel, I used liquid glue to adhere the strawberries and foliage in place. Then I added the sentiment with foam squares so there is some dimension.

Not wanting white on white for my background, I took the Lawn Fawn guava ink pad direct to my card base for some textured color. Then I used liquid glue to adhere the lattice in place.

For finishing touches I added a few Spellbinders pearls and white gel pen highlights to the images.

Products used:
Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice die
Waffle Flower Birthday Wishes stamps and dies
Pretty Pink Posh Fresh Berries stamps and dies
Lawn Fawn guava ink
Liquid glue
Foam squares
Spellbinders Pearls – fashion topaz
Sakura gelly roll pen – white

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

Doodlebugs – Tri-Fold Scene Card

Hey everyone! Today’s mix-it-up Monday is packed full of amazing! I went a little extra coloring some images from the Mama Elephant Me and My Whale set. After cutting everything out and playing around I had a fun thought to make a window card that opened into the scene but I had too much so I went a step further and created a tri-fold card with an ever unfolding scene and still room to write a message.

Okay, starting things off, you just need 2 regular card bases, flip one backwards and slide them together. You’ll glue the back flaps together and it will give you a tri-fold card base to work with.

My front panel is scored every half inch for a shiplap look on the front. Then ink blended with peeled paint distress oxide ink. I used the Spellbinders Coastal Escape View die set to cut my window and add all of the fun porthole decorations to the front. My sentiment is from Mama Elephant’s Essential Tag Sayings. It has a great bubble font that stands out perfectly.

For the scene our card opens up to, I inked a wave panel with salvaged patina and the card flap itself with salty ocean and tumbled glass. The seashells are more great dies from the Spellbinders Coast View set and the other images are from Mama Elephant Me and My Whale. This sentiment comes from Mama Elephant’s Mixed Wishes Greetings.

Our final descent brings us to the center of the card and down in the depths with more Me and My Whale images, paired with a little coral and seaweed from the same Spellbinders die set. I did pull in another sentiment set from Mama Elephant because I couldn’t resist the whale talking to his mermaid friend. This one is called Simple Friends Bubbles and it stamps and die cuts 6 sentiments at once!

The background on this panel is ink blended with mermaid lagoon and tumbled glass distress oxide inks. All of the panels were also spritzed with water and splattered with white paint for texture.

Because of the nature of this card, everything is glued flat and there are no extra embellishments on the inside. I always get nervous that the dimension will ruin the layer above it or pages will stick together. So I kept it all simple except for a little stardust Stickles on the stamen of the front flowers.

It has been years since I’ve created a card this extra. I loved taking my time and enjoying the entire process of this project. I’d love to know if you create cards this involved or like to keep it simple.

Products used:
Mama Elephant Me and My Whale stamps and dies
Mama Elephant Simple Friends Bubbles stamps and dies
Mama Elephant Mixed Wishes Greetings stamps
Mama Elephant Essential Tag Saying stamps
Spellbinders Coastal View dies
Lawn Fawn Stitched Wave Border dies
Distress Oxide Ink – peeled pain, mermaid lagoon, salvaged patina, tumbled glass, salty ocean
Liquid glue
Stickles – stardust
Scoring board

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

Doodlebugs – A Berry Fun Full Card Front Shaker

Welcome to mix-it-up Monday on the Doodlebugs blog! We’re creating a quick and fun full card front shaker with a summery strawberry theme. We’ve had a little relapse in weather but I’m not giving up on summer crafting in the slightest!

I started my card today by inking up the Waffle Flower Strawberries background stencil set. To be sure the ink showed up really well on my kraft base, I used distress oxide inks. The colors I chose were candied apple, pine needles, mowed lawn and mustard seed. Then I spread a little glossy gel through the final seed layer for subtle shiny details.

Once the glossy gel was dry, I trimmed the panel to 4×5.25 inches and wrapped a Waffle Flower shaker cover around it. I only adhered 3 sides at first, pouring in my shaker bits and then securing the last side down. I used tear tape for this because it’s strong and instant. I find it works best with the plastic shaker covers. My sequins are from Pretty Pink Posh and Spellbinders.

Next, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh Fresh Berries and used the coordinating die to cut it out. Then I stamped another small sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Valentine and cut it out with the smallest Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strip die. I adhered both of these to the front of my shaker panel with foam strips.

Last of all, I added more tear tape to the back of the shaker panel and adhered it to a white card base. Once again, the tear tape is great against the plastic and gives you instant bond.

Now, just give it a little shake, shake, shake and it’s ready to go!

Products used:
Waffle Flower Shaker Covers
Waffle Flower Strawberries stencil set
Waffle Flower Grip Mat
Pretty Pink Posh Fresh Berries stamps and dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Valentine stamps
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips dies
Pretty Pink Posh Mossy Green confetti
Spellbinders Red smooth discs
Foam strips
Tear tape – 1/4″
Distress Oxide Ink – pine needles, mowed lawn, mustard seed, candied apple
Glossy gel
Palette knife

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

Doodlebugs – Combining Dies For a Fun Ocean Scene

Hey friends! Is anyone else just searching for all the sunshine they can get? I really feel like I am, which is seeping into the craft room. I’m so excited and happy for all of these summer themed releases starting to come out.

Today we’re creating and all die cut card combining fun products from Spellbinders and Mama Elephant. I love the new Seaside Vibes die set from Mama Elephant so I had to create with it as soon as it hit my mailbox. And when I ordered it, I thought the new Spellbinders Coastal Escape View dies would go perfectly so I snagged it at the same time. And I wasn’t wrong!

I used all of the dies from the Seaside Vibes set and pulled in the coral, seashells and palm tree island from Coast Escape View. I cut everything from colored cardstock and gave them some ink blending shadows, with a little copic detail on the seashells and palm trees too.

For once, this is a one-layer card, with no foam tape in sight. Trust me, this was difficult but I do love how it turned out. I also held back on sparkly and shiny because it felt complete once I finished gluing everything in place.

To create the card base, I traced the outer arch on white cardstock and cut it out by hand. Then I scored it on the left side 3/8″ in and adhered the flap to the back of my scene panel with tear tape. *Remember, you can use this technique on pretty much any shape to create a shaped card.*

Products used:
Mama Elephant Seaside Vibes dies
Spellbinders Coast Escape View dies
Liquid glue
Blending brushes
Lawn Fawn ink – walnut, jalapeno, peach fuzz, sunflower, guava, mermaid
Tear tape – 1/4″

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

Doodlebugs – Birthday Balloons on Balloons

You can never have too many birthday balloons. Am I right?!? Well, I don’t think so. So when I had the chance to ink up the adorable Mama Elephant It’s Poppin, I had to pair it with my favorite Spellbinders Floating Balloons 3D embossing folder. It’s a match made in heaven.

To start, I actually stamped all of the images in It’s Poppin and colored them all with my copic markers. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out and stashed the other two for later on.

I took a piece of white cardstock and embossed it with the Spellbinders Floating Balloons 3D embossing folder, then placed the panel in my splatter box and went to town with distress oxide sprays. I let the panel dry, splattered it with water, let that dry and then thought it better to run the panel through the embossing folder again. It did make a difference in the balloons standing out.

***So, suggestion to spray your panel with color first, let it dry completely and then emboss it.***

With that done, I splattered the panel with white paint and then trimmed it down to 4×5.5 inches and popped it up on a white card base. I added a couple strips of washi tape to the bottom edge. Then I cut the Mama Elephant Big Happy Birthday three times and glued the layers together before gluing them to the card front. Last, I added the image with foam squares.

For finishing touches I added black glaze pen to the kitties’ eyes and noses and stardust Stickles to the stars in the balloon.

Products used:
Mama Elephant It’s Poppin stamps and dies
Mama Elephant Big Happy Birthday die
Spellbinders Floating Balloons 3D embossing folder
Foam tape and squares
Distress Oxide Sprays – wild honey, abandoned coral and wilted violet
Sakura Gelly Roll black glaze pen

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

Doodlebugs – Reverse Embossed Backgrounds

Hey friends! I’m playing with reverse embossed backgrounds today and LOVING the outcome! It’s simple to do but looks complex which makes it all that much cooler!

I started with a piece of white cardstock and ink blende it randomly with distress oxide inks. Today I chose picked raspberry, abandoned coral and wild honey for my colors. There was very little blending involved, mostly just getting color coverage on the panel. Then I put the panel in my Spellbinders Flower Frenzy embossing folder with the color side touching the protruding flowers. This way the flowers are inset into the panel instead of popping up.

After running that through my die cut machine, I inked up my brayer roller with black ink and carefully rolled ink over the panel. As long as you don’t push your embossing flat with the roller, the ink will stick to the top of the panel and not go in the flower indents.

I glued the panel to a white card base and pulled out the Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Butterflies dies. I chose a simple one to cut from white cardstock with a gold glitter body. I used liquid glue to adhere the pieces, wrapped some gold thread behind the butterfly and popped it up with foam squares on my card front. Last, I chose a sentiment from the Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Valentine stamps to ink up with Lawn Fawn guava ink on a sentiment strip, also from Pretty Pink Posh.

Isn’t this technique so cool?!? I can’t wait to try it with different color combos. Maybe even leaving the embossing white and rolling a color over the top. So many possibilities!

Product used:
Spellbinders Flower Frenzy embossing folder
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strip dies
Pretty Pink Posh Sentiment Strips | Valentine stamps
Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Butterflies dies
Foam squares
Distress Oxide Ink – picked raspberry, abandoned coral, wild honey
VersaFine black onyx ink
Lawn Fawn guava ink
Brayer roller

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

Doodlebugs – Cover Plates with Embossing Texture

Welcome to a fresh new week everyone! I’m on the Doodlebugs blog today finding new looks for all the fun window cover plates out there. I love using them for added interest and ways to ground images but sometimes that plain background in the windows is boring. Today I played with an idea that you could definitely grow on to add texture and interest to those spaces.

I cut the Mama Elephant Window Grid from kraft cardstock and slid a white panel behind it. Then I pulled out my Little Dinosaur Agenda stamps out and chose a few to fill in the windows. After stamping and coloring the ones I picked, I used the coordinating dies to cut them out.

When it was time to start layering everything together I didn’t want just ink blending or splatter in the windows so I took the Spellbinders Columns embossing folder and ran the white panel through my die cut machine. That was cool but now I wanted a little more so I did random ink blending with distress oxide gathered twigs ink on the window panel and the embossed panel. Then I splattered it all with water. This was much more my style.

I used liquid glue to adhere those panels to a white card base and then popped all my dinosaurs up with foam squares. For my sentiment I cut one of the Mama Elephant Banner Greetings, glued the layers together and popped it in place with a foam strip like the pterodactyl is holding it while flying. This seriously made me giggle.

Remember you could keep the windows that cut out of the cover plate and emboss those pieces too! Another way to test the idea out and not use another piece of cardstock. Anyone interested in seeing that idea? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Products used:
Mama Elephant Grid Panel die
Mama Elephant Banner Greetings dies
Mama Elephant Little Dinosaur Agenda stamps and dies
Spellbinders Columns embossing folder
Distress Oxide Ink – gathered twigs
Distress sprayer
Liquid glue
Foam squares and strips
Lawn Fawn Ink – crunchy leaf (for copic coloring)

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

Doodlebugs – Texturizing Your Backgrounds

Hey friends! I’m on the Doodlebugs blog for Mix it up Monday with an idea for adding color and texture to your backgrounds in a different way. We’re going to ink, emboss and then ink again for added awesomeness!

I had an idea for embossing folders and wanted to try it so that’s where today’s project started. I took a piece of white cardstock and die cut it with the largest Spellbinders Modern Oval die. I inked the panel up with yellow ink and inserted it into the Spellbinders Tiny Dot embossing folder and ran it through my die cutter. After I removed it, I flipped it over to what we normally consider the back side. So the dots indent instead of stick up. Then I added a layer of teal ink over the top with a brayer roller. This kept the ink out of the dots and just added a layer over the panel. Then I added a layer of peacock feathers distress oxide ink over that for a darker effect. I spritzed the panel with water and then flicked white paint on it too.

While that was drying I pulled out some Mama Elephant sets to stamp, color and die cut. I started with Little Agenda Farm and then moved on to Simple Friends Bubbles for my sentiments. Last I used liquid glue to assemble my critters in place and added foam squares to the back of everything.

I didn’t want the card base to be stark white so I inked it up with distress oxide ink in ripe persimmon and spiced marmalade and spritzed it with water. Then I adhered the oval with foam tape and finally added the images and speech bubbles.

For finishing touches I added glossy accents to the critter nose/beaks and bits of the tractor and wagon too. Last I added some enamel dots across the design for a bit of shine and reflection in the light.

Products used today:
Mama Elephant Little Agenda Farm stamps and dies
Mama Elephant Simple Friends Bubbles stamps and dies
Spellbinders Modern Oval dies
Spellbinders Tiny Dots embossing folder
Brayer roller
Lawn Fawn Ink – sunflower, peachy keen and mermaid
Distress Oxide Ink – peacock feathers, ripe persimmon and spiced marmalade
Foam tape and squares
Glossy accents
Enamel dots

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