My Birthday Cards

I celebrated my birthday last week and I squealed when I received this card from Chris and Damian. Isn't it the cutest little scene? OMG, that squirrel from Lawn Fawn's Let's Go Nuts was clearly made to play the drums from Julie Ebersole's Twelve Days! It's pure genius!!

The sentiment combo -- one of them masked and partially stamped -- and the cheerful bunny are from Brandi Kincaid's Backyard Party and the dancing squirrel is also from Lawn Fawn's Let's Go Nuts.

The beautifully coloured pile of leaves is from Lawn Fawn's Let's Go Nuts and the oft-used widgeon is from Technique Tuesday's Duck Swan Goose. The stage from Forest Feast makes a great anchor for the scene. My husband did all the colouring and arranged the scene with guidance from my son. They make a great team, don't they?

I also received a bunch of gorgeous cards from crafty friends -- and a surprise visit with food from one -- which made me super happy! On the top, from left to right, the cards are by Lindsey, Tracey and Angela. On the bottom row, from left to right, the cards are from Heidi, Angela and Lori. Thanks so much, dear friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Valentine's Day Cards from the boys

After every special occasion, I get messages asking to see the cards my son and husband made me so here are their Valentine's Day cards! If you didn't already know, we're a very weird and quirky trio. ;) We love cute and funny things and with all the new games we started playing during the pandemic, we've become completely obsessed and competitive about everything.

Just before the pandemic officially began in 2020 and right before our first lockdown in March 2020, I came across a new stuffie line called Squishmallows at our local pharmacy. A couple of months before, during a game of Scrabble, I laid down all seven of my tiles to spell the word widgeon, a small river duck. I didn't know this word at the time but it looked like a word and I gambled and won. Now we call mallard ducks (and all ducks, in general) widgeons. One of the Squishmallows turned out to be a widgeon so, of course, purchasing it was a must. My son wasn't even interested in it at first but he quickly grew to love it and is now obsessed with it. It's his favourite. Since then, we've collected quite a few more Squishmallows, including those of my (panda) and my husband's (beaver) personae.

Anyway, Damian's card cracked me up so much because he turned the Taylored Expressions' Hot Flash Grumplings into us. He transformed the hedgehog into a beaver by adding buck teeth and a tail. His transformation of the chick into a widgeon, especially the tiny tag on his head, is the ultimate. He also used Big Grumpy - Valentine, Mini Caps Alpha & #s, Building Blocks - Happy Additions, Petite Scallop Mini Slim Stacklets and Stitched Mini Slim Stacklets.

We have two games that we're completely obsessed with playing and those are Upwords and Unstable Unicorns. If you haven't heard of them, you need to check them out! Upwords is a word game like Scrabble but with a twist and Unstable Unicorns is hands-down the best card game ever. In fact, we've added two expansion packs to the game, making it more difficult and strategic.

My husband's card is clearly based on Unstable Unicorns and he also used Hot Flash Grumplings and Big Grumpy - Valentine. He coloured the zebra as a big unicorn, added the little unicorn and speech bubble from Lawn Fawn's Say What? Christmas Critters, as well as a masked partial sentiment from Technique Tuesday's Hanna the Horse (you can see one of my projects using this set HERE).

I hope you enjoyed seeing the boys' creativity!! I certainly love my cards and I made a hilarious Instagram Reel that you can watch HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Christmas Cards from the boys

I hope you're all having a wonderful start to the New Year! I'm popping in to share the cards that Damian and Chris made for Christmas. I love that they're winter-themed and have something in common - a widgeon (small river duck). LOL I'm not sure if I ever mentioned the widgeon story here on the blog but during a game of Scrabble last year, I started by placing all seven tiles to spell the word widgeon for a bonus 50 points. Then a couple of months later, I came across the Squishmallow Avery, which apparently has a cult following, and purchased it on a whim. It's now my son's favourite stuffed animal.

Damian's card features the Duck Goose Swan and Hello Winter stamp sets from Technique Tuesday on Strathmore Toned Grey mixed media paper. He modified the widgeon to look like the Squishmallow Avery and used the MISTI stamping tool to stamp the other images around the widgeon. Then he coloured everything with Prismacolor pencils. I always love it when he uses coloured pencils and this card is definitely a labour of love!

Chris' card also features the widgeon from Duck Goose Swan but in a more comical way. Here, the widgeon is actually my son who has an addiction to lattes. Don't worry, they are always decaf lattes and he doesn't have them all the time. If we're out, he will get a treat from Starbucks or I will make them at home using David's Tea. Yum! 

The rest of this card features Speech Bubbles, Peek-a-Boo Pals and Cocoa Stand from Avery Elle, as well as a retired Safari Die for the snow by My Favorite Things. If you're looking for a similar landscape die, I recommend Slimline Stitched Hillside Borders by Lawn Fawn. All of these images were coloured with Copic markers.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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My Birthday Card from the boys

 

Hello, friends! It's been a very busy few weeks between my dad and my son going back to school so I'm finally getting around to share this card that my husband and son collaborated on for my birthday!

They used Let's Go Nuts from Lawn Fawn, Build It Beaver (original retired) from Clearly Besotted, Beau & Beatrice Beaver from Technique Tuesday, Pandamonium from Mama Elephant, He Said, She Said (retired) from Paper Smooches and Tucked-In Turf Vertical from My Favorite Things. I don't normally keep retired items but these are family favourites that my boys often reach for. I've included alternates for the retired items in the shop links below.

I'm impressed with the way my husband masked off the beaver's log and modified it into pants. I also love how the the three of us are represented in this card - my husband is the hard working beaver pulling me up the hill in the wagon while my son plays, er, gathers acorns in the field. LOL They're both very proud of this card and think it's their best collaboration yet. I'm just happy to receive a handmade card from them!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Masculine Tween Birthday Card

Today's card features Technique Tuesday stamps, a Trinity Stamps stencil and distress inks for watercolouring and ink blending. I made it for my son's champagne (golden) birthday and you know there's a story behind it. ;) As with many families during the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, we started playing a lot of board games.

One of our most-played games was Scrabble and in one of those games, I went first and laid down all seven of my tiles for 50 bonus points. The word was widgeon, a small river duck. It had been several years since I had done this so we started using the term widgeoning to describe laying down all of your tiles.

Then I was out shopping one day and came across a bunch of new stuffies and, lo and behold, one of them happened to be a widgeon! Seeing as I'm a sucker for cute stuffed animals, I brought the widgeon home with me -- for myself. My son didn't even think anything of it at first but as time went by, he found the widgeon quite endearing and now it's his favourite stuffie, on the verge of being an obsession.

Lucky for me, I owned Technique Tuesday's Duck Swan Goose stamp set (and coordinating dies -- 40% off at Ellen Hutson) which had the perfect duck image and sentiments! You can see another card I made with this set HERE. After heat embossing the image and sentiments, I watercolored and masked the widgeon and two sides of the panel.

I stencilled the entire background using Trinity Stamps' Layered Lakeside Mountain stencil. To finish, I splattered shimmer mist on the water and used a tiny attacher to put two 'kisses' on the card. I think this bit of hardware makes it more of a masculine card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Crafty Together | Father's Day Card by Damian

Happy Dad's Day to all of you who are celebrating at home or virtually! Damian and I had very different ideas on the perfect card for Chris but his idea won. Damian chose the Beau & Beatrice Beaver stamp set and coordinating dies from Technique Tuesday.  We needed something for the Father's Day part so Altenew's Inline Alpha Die Set came to the rescue. The glitter green cardstock tied in nicely with the leaves in the images and ink blended grass.

Damian stamped and watercoloured all the images with distress inks. Then he ink blended the background and scored the white linen panel on all four sides. It's hard to see the vertical scoring in the photos but those lines are there! To finish, I adhered the die cut letters and gold enamel hearts.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Crafty Together | Valentine's Day Cards

I always look forward to receiving handmade cards from my husband and son. It's so fun to see what they dream up and these Valentine's Day cards are no exception. In fact, I think they outdid themselves this year! My husband always worries that he won't be able to live up to his last card. 😆

My son's card features Wood You? from Avery Elle. That adorable, derpy beaver will always have my heart and the stamps are dies are currently on sale so head over there now and grab them while you still can!

The cactus (see this post for backstory) and sentiment are from A Little Prickly - currently on sale - by Technique Tuesday. The images were stamped on smooth Bristol cardstock and coloured with Primacolor pencils.

Chris combined three Lawn Fawn sets, including Love Letters, Forest Feast and Cheery Christmas. He stamped his images with Memento inks and coloured them with Copic markers. He also used a piece of retired patterned paper from my stash but you can find something similar in the Sweet Stack paper pad from My Favorite Things.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Technique Tuesday & WOW! Embossing Powder Blog Hop + Giveaways!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Technique Tuesday & WOW! Embossing Powder Blog Hop! If you missed Day 1, head over to Technique Tuesday's blog post HERE and hop along. We have prizes so be sure to hop along on both days and comment for your chance to win! Today, you should've arrived from the WOW! Embossing Powder Blog, your first stop for Day 2 of this fun collaboration hop.

My projects feature the Sweet Summertime stamp set, Sweet Summertime dies, and Cool & Sweet Words dies. I previously featured the Sweet Summertime stamp set HERE.  Yup, I can pretty much combine any stamp set with a squirrel. 🤪😂

All images were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink before being watercolored with distress inks (listed below) and heat embossed with various WOW! Embossing Powders. For those of you who've been following me for a while, you'll know that I love combining classic fonts with scripted ones so I wanted to use both the Cool & Sweet Words dies with words and phrases from Sweet Summertime. I stamped specific treats to go with the custom sentiments.

I specifically used the three ice cream cones so I could feature the Bursting With Color Trio. I added Clear Sparkle to the cones themselves and to heat emboss the base layer of the Cool & Sweet Words dies. The top layer was heat embossed with Black Twinkle Glitter. Both of these together are so sparkly in person!

I think we all know that anything can be made into a wreath, including fruit. It looks delicious, doesn't it? LOL I added Primary Pink Lady on the strawberries and watermelon, Black Twinkle Glitter on the watermelon seeds, and Berryburst on the blueberries.

Since the first card was too clean and simple, I used the Cars on the Border die to dry emboss some details on the panel before adhering all of the elements. I also felt it was too wide for the design so I trimmed a quarter inch off the width, making it a sleeker and more proportional card.

DAY 2 HOP LIST

WOW! Embossing Powder

Emily Leiphart

Yasmin Diaz

Allison Arbour

Lisa Spangler  

Julie Chaddock

Ashlee McGregor

Dana Kirby

Seeka

Natasha Kara

Dana Gong

Sidnie Des Jardins

Nathalie Desousa

Technique Tuesday

GIVEAWAYS

Technique Tuesday is giving away TWO $20 gift certificates to their store and WOW! Embossing Powder is giving away SIX powders of your choice, plus a WOW carry case. Winners will be chosen randomly from ALL THE POSTS on both days. The more you comment, the higher your chances of winning these fabulous prizes.

Your next stop is Yasmin Diaz! Please head over to her blog to see her gorgeous projects!

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