Interactive Musical Birthday Card feat. Avery Elle and Lawn Fawn

Happy weekend, craft friends! If you still read my blog, you may remember last year's POST featuring another cute band of musical animals. Tomorrow, one of Damian's friends turns 16 and I'm pretty sure that if it were up to my son, this wouldn't have been the card of his choice. Lucky for me, I've been talking to the birthday boy's mother and she said that he would absolutely love a cute card! I was so happy about that. ;)

The last time I used Avery Elle's Forest Dance Party stamp set and coordinating dies was when Damian and I collaborated on this CARD for Father's Day last year. This set is currently on clearance at all stores listed in the links below so be sure to grab it before it's gone! Both Damian and his friend play drums but they also play trumpet and guitar, respectively, so these animals are absolutely perfect for this card.

I stamped all of the images and sentiments with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and clear heat embossed them on watercolour cardstock. Then I used mini distress inks smooshed on a silicone mat to watercolour them. When they were dry, I die cut them and set them aside to work on the Reveal Wheel panel from watercolour cardstock and ink blended it (top down) using Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Peeled Paint and Forest Moss distress inks. Then I splattered the panel with Tsukineko Sparkle Shimmer Spritz.

I cut a piece of My Favorite Things Colorful Canvas patterned paper in Chantilly Cream and cut it with the Spellbinders Precision Layering A2 A Dies so it would cover the card base. Then I cut the wheel itself from heavyweight white cardstock as well as from Lawn Fawn's Really Rainbow patterned paper in Purple Posies. Then I used the Reveal Wheel Friends & Family Sentiments to heat emboss on the wheel before assembling all the pieces on the card base.

I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. Thanks so much for your continued support!

Supplies: 

Love Warms the Soul (Mid-Autumn Festival) feat. Catherine Pooler

Today, the Chinese culture is celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival (also called the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival). This is the time of year that I miss my parents the most because my parents would spoil us with mooncakes in bulk and make so many delicious sweets. All of these things were a delicacy and rarely eaten otherwise. It was a special time to gather with family, give thanks to the good things in life and pray for longevity and good fortune.

I love making Asian-inspired cards, especially for Chinese New Year and you can see more of them on my blog HERE. Catherine Pooler's Lantern Festival stamp set and coordinating dies immediately came to mind and I stamped the three lanterns in Green Tea, Aquatini and Serenade.

Naturally, I wanted to add mooncakes or some kind of cake but I don't own any Catherine Pooler stamps that would've worked as a mooncake or some kind of small cake so I had to use the adorable dumplings and chopsticks from Hey There Dumpling, which I stamped with Buttercream, It's a Girl and Slate.

Today is also National Coffee Day so I included a mug from the Pumpkin Season stamp set and coordinating dies, stamped in Tranquil. The apple and pretty leaves are from the Woodland Wonder stamp set and coordinating dies, stamped with Lemongrass, Macchiato, It's a Girl and Aquatini. Can you believe this is my first time inking up both of these stamp sets?! I believe they were released at least two years old and I've never used them. Well, now they're going to get lots of love!

To create the background, I cut the largest of the Scallops & Dots Dies from silver opulent cardstock and blended Tranquil and Serenade ink on the inner panel. I misted it with water and added gold splatters. Before assembling the layers, I gold heat embossed the strings and tassels for the lanterns and cut a piece of patterned paper from Black Tie Gala (retired but I've linked to an alternate).

You may wonder why I mixed gold and silver on this card (and I believe it's the first and only time I've done that) but it works! I did try all gold and all silver but it didn't look right. I used a combination of liquid glue, double-sided tape, glue dots and foam squares to attach all the elements to the card base for varying amounts of dimension and visual interest. I just love this combination of images and soft colours for today's celebration!

TOMORROW, September 30, 2023 is the last day to purchase a craft box from Lindsey's stash for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Scrap 'n Stamp. It's also the last day to take advantage of the sale at Scrap 'n Stamp. By using code LINDSEY10 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your purchase and Scrap 'n Stamp will give 10% to Lindsey's Legacy Fund. Please consider taking advantage of the many ways you can help, even if it's just by reposting one of our hop badges.

Start the BLOG Hop ---> HERE

Start the INSTAGRAM Hop ---> HERE

If you're visiting the Catherine Pooler shop, be sure to add the FREE Holiday De-Lights Download to your cart! I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. 

Thanks so much for your continued support!

Supplies: 

Miss You feat. Catherine Pooler

Hello, crafty friends! If you've read my last three posts, you can probably guess what prompted the creation of this card. I miss my parents and I miss Lindsey but this card is for all of you who are missing someone in your lives for one reason or other. I've accumulated a lot of craft supplies over the last few months that needed some love so I decided to start with Catherine Pooler's Just Add Water.

Just Add Water and its coordinating dies were part of the April 2023 Club Sursee but are now available for purchase individually. I've always felt that Catherine Pooler's Club Sursee offered their best stamp sets. It's hard not to love this stamp set because it has a bit of everything, especially when you combine these images with the sentiments from Happy Thoughts, the other set from that month's Club Sursee.

I stamped the roses with Rockin' Red and the centres with S'mores. The foliage and sentiment strip were stamped with Deck the Halls and the watering can was stamped with Slate, one of the new greys that I finally got a chance to use! To create the life-like ombre effect on the bird, I used Buttercream, Spiced and S'mores with a sponge dauber to blur the lines between colours.

I cut the Chalkboard Frames twice and stacked them for a bit of dimension. The frames I used have been retired but you can partially die cut the Winter Frames to create a similar effect. After the sentiment was white heat embossed and trimmed, all of the elements were arranged, then popped up with foam squares. A few silver enamel dots finish the card nicely.

If you haven't already, please hop along to learn more about Lindsey's Legacy Fund. There's a blog portion and an Instagram portion to the hop. Please consider taking advantage of the many ways you can help, even if it's just by reposting one of our hop badges.

Start the BLOG Hop ---> HERE

Start the INSTAGRAM Hop ---> HERE

If you're visiting the Catherine Pooler shop, be sure to add the FREE Holiday De-Lights Download to your cart! I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. 

Thanks so much for your continued support!

Supplies: 

Lindsey's Legacy Hop for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research | Blog Hop

Today, we are hopping in memory of our dear friend and fellow cardmaker, Lindsey Martin-Penny, who sadly passed away last year from a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer.

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Lindsey’s husband Burke thought it would be a great time to sell off her many craft supplies, with all of the proceeds going towards Lindsey’s Legacy Fund for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research in cooperation with The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

The purpose of this hop will be to honour Lindsey, celebrate her life and all that she loved, as well as help spread the word to raise funds for clear cell ovarian cancer research. You can help in one of several ways!

1. Purchase a Flat Rate Mailer stuffed with loads of fabulous craft supplies. These can only be mailed within Canada and there will be no tax receipts provided with the purchase of these boxes. A box of craft supplies would make a great gift for yourself, a crafty friend or a child/classroom! For details about the boxes and how you can go about purchasing one, please email lindseyslegacyfund@rogers.com with the message "Craft Box" or visit Lindsey’s original blog, Bashful Blogging. Every craft box purchase in September will be entered into a draw and one lucky winner will win a $100 gift certificate to Scrap ‘n Stamp.
2. During the month of September, shop at Scrap ‘n Stamp using the code LINDSEY10 at checkout. You will get 10% off your purchase (sale items excluded) and Scrap ‘n Stamp will donate 10% of their proceeds to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund.
3. Any donations over $15 made directly to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund will receive a digital tax receipt.
4. Repost this hop on your social media and encourage others to share!

If you are here, you are at the start of Lindsey’s Legacy Hop! This hop is split into two portions: (a) a blog hop and (b) an Instagram hop. If you get lost along the way, please return to the full hop list below.

Part 1: Blog Hop

Emily Leiphart (you are here)

Tracey McNeely

Glenda Wyatt

Carol Mayne

Color Hues Color Challenge

Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers

Julie Peddicord

Joyce Mehrberg

Kim Heggins

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Part 2: Instagram Hop

Jessica McAfee

Lori Elder

Angela Hathikhanavala

Natalie Sahl

Karen Boyce

Thanh Vo

Emily Leiphart

How to hop:

💙 Like and leave a comment at each stop

💙 Learn a little bit about Lindsey’s connection to that person

💙 Share this post and help us save lives

I've struggled for more than a year to put into words what Lindsey meant to me and perhaps someday I will say it all in a vlog but, for now, I can tell you that Lindsey and I shared a deep love of books and reading. We would talk endlessly about the next book on our TBR list and discovering new genres. While we both loved physical books the most, we each had hundreds of virtual books on our e-readers.

The colour combo for this card features Lindsey's favourite colours, purple and red. I used several Waffle Flower products, including Layered Books, Shelves and Shelves Additions. I love all the details in these cute dies! The white heat embossed sentiment is my favourite from the Story Sentiments stamp set and it's my way of saying thank you to Lindsey for her friendship.

Other products featured here on this Lindsey-inspired card include Catherine Pooler's Great Start patterned paper, and Spellbinders' gold foil cardstock and oyster pearl dots. All of the coloured cardstock is from Taylored Expressions and you can find a complete list of colours in the supply links below. This was the first card I made in five months and while it was difficult to get started, I loved being able to create freely and combine so many different brands.

The next stop on the hop is Tracey McNeely. Please be sure to leave a comment at each of the stops where you can learn more about Lindsey’s life, loves and her legacy.

Thanks so much for hopping with us!

Supplies: 

Lindsey's Legacy Hop for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research | Instagram Hop

Today, we are hopping in memory of our dear friend and fellow cardmaker, Lindsey Martin-Penny, who sadly passed away last year from a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer.

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Lindsey’s husband Burke thought it would be a great time to sell off her many craft supplies, with all of the proceeds going towards Lindsey’s Legacy Fund for Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer Research in cooperation with The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

The purpose of this hop will be to honour Lindsey, celebrate her life and all that she loved, as well as help spread the word to raise funds for clear cell ovarian cancer research. You can help in one of several ways!

1. Purchase a Flat Rate Mailer stuffed with loads of fabulous craft supplies. These can only be mailed within Canada and there will be no tax receipts provided with the purchase of these boxes. A box of craft supplies would make a great gift for yourself, a crafty friend or a child/classroom! For details about the boxes and how you can go about purchasing one, please email lindseyslegacyfund@rogers.com with the message "Craft Box" or visit Lindsey’s original blog, Bashful Blogging. Every craft box purchase in September will be entered into a draw and one lucky winner will win a $100 gift certificate to Scrap ‘n Stamp.
2. During the month of September, shop at Scrap ‘n Stamp using the code LINDSEY10 at checkout. You will get 10% off your purchase (sale items excluded) and Scrap ‘n Stamp will donate 10% of their proceeds to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund.
3. Any donations over $15 made directly to Lindsey’s Legacy Fund will receive a digital tax receipt.
4. Repost this hop on your social media and encourage others to share!

If you are here, you are at the end of Lindsey’s Legacy Hop! This hop is split into two portions: (a) a blog hop and (b) an Instagram hop. If you get lost along the way, please return to the full hop list below.

Part 1: Blog Hop

Emily Leiphart

Tracey McNeely

Glenda Wyatt

Carol Mayne

Color Hues Color Challenge

Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers

Julie Peddicord

Joyce Mehrberg

Kim Heggins

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Part 2: Instagram Hop

Jessica McAfee

Lori Elder

Angela Hathikhanavala

Natalie Sahl

Karen Boyce

Thanh Vo

Emily Leiphart (you are here)

How to hop:

💙 Like and leave a comment at each stop

💙 Learn a little bit about Lindsey’s connection to that person

💙 Share this post and help us save lives

Lindsey and I talked a lot about being middle-aged women and all the trials that came along with it. We shared so many unpleasant symptoms and we joked that literally everything could be blamed on perimenopause. What I truly miss is being able to talk to Lindsey now that I'm in full menopause and, as you can see, this card was inspired by that. 

One of the things I loved most about Lindsey was her sharp wit, loaded with snark. I, myself, am a very sarcastic person so we were always laughing and rolling our eyes! I'm certain she would've loved this card. I mean, come on! I seriously cannot believe all these stamps are retired though. Maybe Taylored Expressions needs to re-release them?

The panda, chick, wine, bottle and sentiment are from a set called Hot Flash Grumplings. The other four food items are from a set called Binge Worthy. Taylored Expressions has a whole line of grumplings and they're all very funny and real-to-life. In fact, these exact panda and chick images are featured in these snarky calendar cards. My images were heat embossed and watercolored with TE Liquid Watercolor. The patterned paper is from an old Spellbinders Card Kit of the Month.

Since this is the final stop on the hop, you'll start again on my blog post HERE. Please be sure to leave a comment at each of the stops where you can learn more about Lindsey’s life, loves and her legacy.

Thanks so much for hopping with us!

Supplies: 

My Return to Crafting + Lindsey's Legacy Hop

Hello, crafty friends! It has officially been five months since I last created. Yes, it's sad but I've had a lot of heartache in my life these last three years. Losing both my parents and one of my best friends finally broke me and while I'm still not sure if I can craft again, I've helped Lindsey's husband Burke organize a legacy hop which will take a week from today! This means that I will have to make something for next Friday. 

Today's post actually features a couple of cards that I made five months ago and neither photographed nor posted. Even photographing these cards today felt foreign but it's really nice to see them here on my blog so I'm glad I at least forced myself to do that! In fact, I have a few more cards that were made months ago that I'll be sharing over the next few days just to try and get back into a creative mood.

You might recognized this card from a previous post in early May. I loved that card so much that I had to remake it but, this time, I used the back side of the Optical Arches Embossing Folder on Pitch Black cardstock. I used the Sweet & Savory Dies, cutting three sets of donuts from Lavender, Lilac Blossom and Eggplant cardstock, and layering them in various combinations. I "drew" the sprinkles with liquid glue, then topped it with sparkle glitter and set them aside to dry completely.

Next, I adhered all of the donuts to the embossed panel using black foam squares. Both sentiment strips were created using the Mini Everyday Sentiments, which were heat foiled using Matte Silver Hot Foil on Eggplant cardstock. To finish, I embellished the donuts with three shades of purple enamel hearts.

I cut a few extra donuts this time and decided to make a mini slim card using the March 2023 3D Embossing Folder of the Month, Tiled Motif. Unfortunately, this embossing folder is not currently available (though it could be in the future). For a similar look, I recommend the Tile Reflection or Orange Peel embossing folders.

All this purple reminds me of Lindsey because purple was her favourite colour, followed closely by red. When her birthday passed this year, I wished that I could've given her this card. For those of you who've lost loved ones, you must know how hard those "firsts" are -- the birthdays, anniversary and special holidays are when you miss them the most.

If you've made it this far, THANK YOU! As I mentioned at the start of this post, I will be hosting Lindsey's Legacy Hop on Friday, September 15, 2023 9:00 a.m. EST and I hope you will join me and a long list of Lindsey's friends as we celebrate her life and create a legacy helping those with clear cell ovarian cancer.

I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. Thanks so much for your continued support!

Supplies: 

Taylored Expressions | End of Summer Sale!

Hello, crafty friends! It's been a long time since I last posted. I'm desperately trying to craft again and I want to try and make something this long weekend but, first, I have to re-arrange my craft space. You know what that means -- more retired and unused products are going into my destash bin. Please help me clean out my craft space so I can find my crafty mojo!

If you haven't already seen Taylored Expressions' End of Summer Sale, be sure to check it out! Here are some of the projects I've made using products that are currently 40% off now through Tuesday, September 5, 2023. I've linked back to the original post and videos, if available, so you can find more inspiration.

Products:  Squeeze the Day Stencil & Clear Combo, Squeeze the Day Dies (not shown)

Post:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Exclusives Release

Products:  Hoppy Days Cling & Clear Combo, Hoppy Days Dies

Post 1:  Taylored Expressions | 2 Mini Slim Father's Day Cards

Post 2:  Taylored Expressions | Mini Slim Father's Day Cards

Products:  Triple Slim Boho & Clear Add-Ons, Mini Slim Half Dots Cutting Plate

Post:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | 5 Card Ideas

feat. Triple Slim Boho Layering Stencil + Cutting Plate

Products:  On the Block - Cool, On the Block - Cool Shadow, Building Blocks - Cool Additions

Post:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | All Occasion Cards

Products:  Tutti Frutti, Tutti Frutti Dies

Post:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Mini Slim Trifold Cards

Products:  Very Cherry Cling & Clear Combo, Cherry on Top, Cherry on Top Dies

Post:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Very Cherry Cardmaking Kit

Products:  Social Butterflies Cling & Clear Combo, Social Butterflies Dies

Post 1:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Social Butterflies Trio

Post 2:  VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Friendship Cards

Thank you for shopping my affiliate links. Hope to see you again very soon!

Supplies: