Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - Tribute to Craftin' Desert Divas

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today with a special Caffeine Fueled Paper Play.  You may have heard that long time Super Sponsor of the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, Craftin Desert Divas has closed its doors.  We wanted to send it off with a special post and I've got a couple special people joining me over there so after you leave here, please do pop over there and check it out!

We're all using Craftin Desert Divas products to inspire you today and we have two prizes for two separate winners for this month's challenge!  Play along for your chance to win and get the details over at the CLC Blog.

 Amy and I have each put together a little prize pack.  Here's a pic of one of the prizes:

You can check out the second prize at Amy's blog here!

Here's how I was inspired:

I started by creating this background with a Coffee stencil from CDD.... I have coffee beans flying through my autumn air instead of leaves... maybe it would be easier to get someone to rake up the yard if that really happened!

I used the Timber stamp set for my images... which isn't a coffee stamp set, but if you come here often, you know my favorite thing to do is make a coffee card from a non-coffee stamp set!  And this cute little lumberjack was perfect... I'm sure lumberjacks love Pumpkin Spice as much as the rest of us!

CDD has always had some of the cutest critters!  And I have to say the landscape dies have been long time faves of mine and I use them all of the time... like this tree border.  I cut it from white cardstock and colored it with distress oxides.

I used a cup from another CDD set and it was perfect for this little lumberjack!  And built my sentiment using the Tiny Sentiments set.

I'm playing along at Double Trouble Challenges Fall Themed Challenge and using the Twist of Sweet Treats!  And Double Trouble is partnering with The Paper Girls who are also having a Fall Themed Challenge!  Play along with both for extra chances to win the Double Trouble prize!  AND with my sweet treat I'm playing along over at Cupcake Inspirations Food and Drink Challenge!  You should check that out for sure!

That's what I have for you!  I hope you enjoyed your stop!  Be sure to check out the challenge post up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog here and I hope you'll play along with us!  And give our special guests a visit as well... there are links to each of their posts up on the blog and I'm sure they'd love to hear from you!  And you can leave some love for Tara as well up on the CDD blog here if you'd like!  I'm sure she could use some nice words!

See you again soon!

Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas - August 2019 Edition

Welcome to the August edition of Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  My friend Debra Davison and I decided we were going to create a Christmas card a week for the year so that come December all of our cards would be made and it has been awesome!  I've so been enjoying the chance to use some of the products I purchased during the season last year and love our monthly posts!  

For me, this month's post is all about elves! So without further ado:

I picked up this Elf'd set from Ellen Hutson after one of the first Coffee Lover's Hops I participated in.  It was a while ago... and this is the first I've used it.  It's not even available any more and I'm just NOW using it.  The good news is I just got the coordinating dies on clearance!  I don't know why I hadn't used it... I love it... that's why I bought it...lol!  So I'm very excited to be using it now.

I'm playing along at Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge which is Clean & Simple.

I used the die for this guy and laid it on some Copic friendly cardstock and traced the outer edges with a very light cool Gray Copic... C0 I think.  Then I used C00, C0, and C1 and dotted around the outline using the darker color on the crevices and lighter as I moved outward.  Then I used some Alene's True Snow and dabbed it around with a paint brush.  Next I used some glittery clear stickles and dabbed it around.  And Voila!  Snow Angel!  I popped up that cute little elf right in the middle.

The snowflakes and sentiment banner are from Paper Smooches.

The sentiment is from Picket Fence Studios.

I used this embossing folder from Taylored Expressions.

Of course I had to have a cup or two for you!  I used the Holiday Cheer papers from Sunny Studio Stamps.  This one was fun!  And did you see how perfect that sentiment die is for one of these cards?

There is Elf right there in it!!  I added some mirror cardstock over the glitter on the "elf" area so it would stand out just a little bit more.

The Treat Yo-self Die is from Ellen Hutson (also not available any more...lol!)

The heart and mug are from MFT.

For this one I used the Sunny Studio Stamps paper and the awesome Letterboard Essentials Dies from Ellen Hutson and that Christmas Light Border is from Craftin Desert Divas.

And guess what I got since your last Crafty Elves visit:

I got my hands on one of these adorable Crafty Little Elf stamps from Unity Stamp Co.... you know... the namesake of our little monthly post!  

I'm playing along with a Mini Challenge at Unity Show & Tell Group which is Drips, Drops & Splatters and at Wow Embossing Powder Fans Group's Pearl Challenge.

Well... the splatters are obvious...lol... but some of those splatters are with some pearl white watercolor... hard to see, but it's in there!

I've also used:

Christmas Over/Again by Brutus Monroe for Unity Stamp Co.

Sending Love from Birch Press Design.

Nested Rectangles and Nested Deckle Rectangles from Rubbernecker Stamps.

Wow Gold and Wow Sparkling Snow Embossing Powders.

Merry Christmas Dies from MFT.

And finally... yeah... he's not an elf, but I love this Winter gnome from Picket Fence Studios A Gnome Winter Stamp Set:

Isn't he just so adorable??

For this one I also used the following items:

Cable Knit Embossing Folder and Snowflake embossing folder from Taylored Expressions.

Funky Flakes and Coffee Cup Fri Dies from CAS-ual Fridays.

Now it's time to announce the winner of some Happy Mail from last month's Crafty Elves post:

Lagene!  Please e-mail me at bzscrapper66 at gmail dot com with your mailing address!

We're doing it again... next month I'll choose someone from the comments on this post to win some Happy mail from me.

Thanks so much for stopping and come again soon!  Be sure to head on over to Debra's place and see what she's created for your viewing pleasure!

Spring/Summer 2019 Coffee Lover's Blog Hop - Day 2

It's Day 2 of the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop!  Today I'm using a great new stamp set from Super Sponsor The Rabbit Hole Designs called Caffeinated: Rabbit!

So yeah... it's a little busy that background!  I created it using some "springy" colors of alcohol inks and then used the Alcohol Lift pad and an old CTMH clock stamp to life off the image of the clock.  It's a sort of Foggy Head Morning, psychadelic climbing out of the rabbit hole background!

I think it looks pretty cool!

I stamped, cut and colored the rabbit from TRHD set and created a very subtle scene around him using some CDD dies from this set and this set... purposely leaving the background exposed as much as possible.  His real world is trying to break on through... but not quite yet!

This sentiment from TRHD Caffeinated Rabbit set is what inspired this design (that time change get my like that... well, it used to when I had a time change...lololol!).... I stamped it on a die from Kat Scrappiness Stitched Flag set... love this set!  And did you know Kat Scrappiness is going to be carrying The Rabbit Hole Designs products in their store??  Yup they are!

And that's me for today!  Hope you enjoyed your stop!  I'll be back again... either today or tomorrow... depends on how easily the ideas keep flowing!  See you soon! 

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - White Rose Crafts LLC

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today and playing along with a Sketch Challenge at White Rose Crafts LLC!  Find out who won the Gina K stamp set from my last post and have a chance to win some beautiful sequins from new Super Sponsor Doodles Paper Playground!  Hope you'll "Hop" on over there and check it out!  Here's a sneak peek!

Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge #25 - Springtime!

Welcome to this month's Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge!  In April we're celebrating the wonderful Spring season!  Here's how I was inspired:

I decided to create a little scene using mostly dies and then a pop of the most adorable House Mouse image you can imagine!  This is an image I colored in a class with Jennifer Dove... she made a beautiful card design to go along with it, but it's not my design so I decided to use the image on a different card... that's just how I am!  The image is called Crocus Nap and its from Stampendous. 

I must say I do miss the sight of Crocus in the early Spring... now that I live in Southwest Arizona I don't get to see them like I did in Western New York.  Aren't they SO adorable??  I fussy cut them out and inserted them into my background created with the grass from Crafting Desert Divas and the hill and fence from Whimsy Stamps.

I used all printed papers for a touch of playfulness... my sky is made of all kinds of sweet springtime words...

Eep!!  I can't stand it!!  Those little feets!!

I kept the sentiment simple with a sweet phrase die from Stamplorations and my favorite sun from C.C. Designs... I think both of these aren't available any more and I'm so glad I got them when I could!

And that's me!  Be sure to hop on over to Donna's and Susan's to see how they were inspired by Springtime!   And then head on over to the Three Amigos Challenge Blog to see who won from March's Rainbow Challenge and play along with us this month!  I can't wait to see what you create!

I'm also playing along with a couple other challenges!  You might say "a few"...lol!  Here it goes and please do check these out too!

There is a House Mouse and Friends Challenge and it's always Anything Goes!   Just create something using any House Mouse, Happy Hopper or Gruffie image and play along... I'll be honest... idk what a Happy Hopper or a Gruffie is... but I intend to find out!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Animal Antics!  I'm not sure if Napping is an antic, but I've sure never seen adorable mice sleeping inside of beautiful crocus.. crocuses.. croci?...lol!

Cupcake Inspirations is having a Woodland Critters challenge... and living near lots of woods in NY I can tell you mice are absolutely a woodland critter.  And they're partnering with Double Trouble!

Over at Double Trouble, the challenge is to incorporate something wood into your project... my fence is wood!

And at the Outlawz Twisted Thursday the twist is to use your Favorite Product or Technique and tell why.  I've used lots of landscape dies here... I love a good scene and landscape dies make it so easy to add layers.. and love me some layers!  Oh!  And did I mention foam tape... lots of different thicknesses of foam tape... def one of my faves!

Thanks SO much for stopping today and hope you enjoyed it!  See you again soon!

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - Wow Embossing Powder!

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog and playing along with a challenge over at the Wow Embossing Powder Fan Group on Facebook and the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop that is going on right now!  I hope you'll hop on over there to check out all of the details!

Polka Dot Orchard-Coffee Pumpkin Flourish!

I have a quick post today as I should be doing other things (as usual...lol!) but I was so lucky to get a chance to play with this new digi set from Polka Dot Orchard!  It's called Coffee Pumpkin Flourish and it's available in the Polka Dot Orchard Etsy Shop here!  The shop is owned by my bloggy friend, Jessica!  She's got this one and another really cute set, Sketchy Pumpkin Spice available now with more to come!  Both are available at the above link!

Other products I used are: the adorable Lawn Fawn Knit Picky papers that I picked up at one of my local papercrafting stores, The Paper Collage and those pretty stitched leaves also from Lawn Fawn.  The Square Scallop dies are from Craftin Desert Divas and the stitched background is from Stamplorations!

Have to run!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge #18 - Fun Folds!

Welcome to the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge for September 2018!  This time around we're playing with fun folds!  I'm excited because it gave me a push to make a step card ... been wanting to do this for a while using some Gina K Designs stamps I purchased a little while ago and hadn't inked up yet... but I've been dying to 'cause they're so adorable!!  Here's how I was inspired:

I fell in love with this Llama Love stamp set the minute I saw it!  Coffee, Owls, Unicorns and Llamas... can you have too many?

I could never be an Engineer in any of my lives... lol... I'm not good at figuring out, measuring, putting things together.  So I LOVE my Side Step Card die from Our Daily Bread...lol... just run it through my Big Shot and it's cut and scored in all of the right places!   All I have to do is figure out which way the folds go... which usually take me a minute!  I did have to measure my layers, but I'm pretty close to ordering the die set that cuts the layers too!

I just love the adorable llamas in this Gina K Designs Llama Love set!  They are so cute and fluffy.   And love the fun accessories too... it was fun to color his blanket in some rustic colors... kind of Fall-ish colors to match the rest of this card AND the challenge over at Stamp TV this month is Autumn Is In The Air and I knew these desert colors would be perfect for that!  Stamp TV is a Ning site and you have to join, but you should give it a try if you're not already signed up!  I'm also playing along with this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is Stamp It On!

I used some cloud/sky paper and landscape dies from CDD and some mountains from my stash to decorate my landscape.  Then I colored and cut out my images.  I didn't attach them right away though because I wanted to place them in just the right places!

She's a sweety, isn't she?  IDK why I decided this one is a she and the other is a he... at least for this card!

I used some cacti dies from CDD, Lil' Inker, and some Marianne Design dies that I got at my LSS for all of my succulents and cacti.  And these beautiful flowers are part of the Llama Love set.  I colored them in autumn colors as well.

I chose this sentiment from the set and embossed it in white onto a CDD banner cut from the same color as the aloe on the card and flanked it with the larger flower spray from the set.  A few sequins and it was finished!

I just love the dimension these Side Step Cards have!  You know I love my layers so they give me even more opportunity to pile it on!

Thanks for stopping!  Now be sure to head on over to Donna and Susan's blogs to see what they have for you today!  Then check out the Three Amigos Blog Hop Challenge Blog and see who won for August and play along with our Fun Folds Card Challenge for September!

And don't forget to check out StampTV!

Be A Warrior!

As soon as I saw the adorable designs by Tracey Hey on Instagram I knew I had to have them... especially this adorable Brave Lion and another that you'll be seeing soon.  And if you fall in love too, you can find them at the Alpacapals website here!  I can honestly say there is not one set that I wouldn't love to have!

I'm so not over the rainbows and I thought it would be fun to give him a beautiful rainbow mane so I used my watercolor pencils and colored him in.

  I wanted a rainbow background also, but didn't want it to compete with the little guy too much so I printed one of the fun digital backgrounds I recently one over at the Outlawz Challenges from We Are 3 digital shop on Etsy!  You should check it out... lots of cool stuff!  I decided to give foiling on Kraft a try... and I love the way it came out... the foil didn't seem to transfer solidly and not sure if it was my heat settings or just the kraft paper, but it worked out perfectly because it looks a little distressed.  I cut my foiled paper out using the Crazy Stitched Rectangle dies from CDD.

Isn't he just the most adorable??  I added a few leaves cut with some MFT dies because of course he'll be in the jungle!

Love the sentiments on this set and I used my favorite banner dies from CDD... I also decided an arrow would be appropriate for a warrior, but since this guy is obviously a lover and a fighter, I made it a heart arrow from CDD.  I took a stab at covering the die cut with adhesive from a decofoil pen and ran that through with some foil... it took came out a little distressed looking.... maybe I didn't cover it completely... but again!  Happy accident!

So that's it for me today!  A quick one!  And I highly suggest you check out the stamp offerings by Tracey Hey!  I'm positive you'll fall in love with at least one set... but probably more...lol!

I'm playing along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday today!  No twist for me... got a little to carried away with the color...lol... as the twist is Primary Colors, Red, Blue and Yellow... but you could go for it!

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #449

Was so excited that I finally got this beautiful Ocean Bliss stamp set from HoneyBee Stamps that I couldn't wait to color her up and get her on a card!  I love the Inspiration Photo for this week's Cupcake Inspirations challenge and it was perfect!

Edited to add: This one was a Sweet Select over at Cupcake Inspirations!

I've also used my awesome new Perfectly Plaid Cover Up die from Lil' Inkers for my background; the Island dies from CDD, and the cool Wave Border die from WPlus9.

This challenge has a cool prize of a $25 gift certificate from Birch Press!  So check it out and play along!  You have a couple more days as of today.

Quick post because I'm on vacation!  Thanks for visiting me!  And be sure to check out my other post for today here for some exciting news!