Higgledy-Piggledy Crafts: April 2020

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Kangaroo for Mom

Had an amazing time making a card with Irina Blount from La La Land Crafts yesterday. I have the perfect card for my mother-in-law (and godmother) for Mothers' Day.

First of all, Irina was good enough to give away this Kangaroo digi image set. The tutorial started with Irina demonstrating how to color the kangaroos with Copic markers.

I didn't have all of the dies that Irina used, but I just love going through my stash looking for things to make my card look close to the sample.

I could have used some square dies from my stash to make the window, but I had this La La Land Crafts Double Stitched Hexagons set which worked just as well.

I used Burniston's Flower and Bee die set for the flowers and branches. Also her Nature edges had this grass used here.

I don't have the La La Land banners or flags ( I do intend to get these soon. She uses them all of the time. ) so I used my trimmer to make those.

Inside of Card

The inside of the card is very similar to Irina's, but I had a couple of other scraps left on the table, so I added the branch and the hexagon left from the window on the front of the card.

Materials List:

Patterned Paper: Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Botanicals

Card Stock: Gina K - White and Kraft

Stamp: La La Land - Mommy Kangaroo

Dies: La La Land - Double Stitched Hexagons

Burniston - Flowers and Bees

Nature Edges

Copics: Mother Kangaroo - E42, 42, 43, 44

Child Kangaroo - E51, 53, 55

Ears, Cheeks, Flowers - R20

Flower - YG25

Tummy Shading - C1

Embossing Folder: Momenta - Honeycomb

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Birdhouses Galore

These birdhouse Stamps of Life dies are certainly a temptation. I couldn't wait to get the larger double decker birdhouse on a layout. I started out with a sketch for this layout, but in order to get this enormous birdhouse on it, I ended up abandoning it.

I used some Pebbles paper from 2013. I had quite a bit left over from a 6 card set that I have on display in my craft room, from 2014. They are here.

The front of this birdhouse is made from Bazzill's celery, a textured card stock. I used a favorite technique to make it look like real wood slats. This faux weathered wood technique is made by scoring at 1/2 inch intervals on a sheet of 6 x 9 inch card stock. Then take a white pigment ink pad and pull in strokes down the card stock in the same direction as the score lines. Repeat this step with an old brown ink pad. You will not want to use anything you like, because it will get contaminated with white pigment ink. Finally, I die cut both of the double decker birdhouses from this piece of card stock, being careful to make sure there was a scoreline coming down the center of it.

This birdhouse looked pretty bare, so I added some homemade flowers to soften it up. The stand they are on is actually three matted strips of paper. Originally they were on the sketch as separate strips, but I accidentally pushed them together in an effort to move them out of the way and I ended up with something I like even better.

I guess the one interesting thing about the smaller birdhouses is that I had to die cut each them entirely out of each color of card stock - green, yellow, blue, yellow, pink. That means that technically there are enough scraps on the table to make each one of these birdhouses 4 more times. I have to say that I feel a birdhouse card in the making.

I had some real fun getting these flourishes pulled through the picket fence so they met my specifications. Some of the paper in the flourishes may be a bit worn out from the effort.

Materials List:

Card Stock: Bazzill - Lemon Custard

Celery

Baby Blue Medium

Coredinations - Black Iris

My Colors - Ivory

Echo Park - Sunny Ahead (Pink)

Patterned Paper: Pebbles - Family Ties

Dies: Stamps of Life - Birdhouses

Birdhouse Fold-It

Shabby Chic Flowers

Elizabeth Craft Designs - Flourishes & Branches

Poppy Stamps - Picket Fence

Ink: Brillance - Moonlight White

Old Brown Stamp Pad

Leaves - G82, 85

Embellies - Gems - Pink & Gold

Wood Veneer - Mini Circles

Monday, April 20, 2020

Just Bee-cause Marci

Here is a card made from "extra stuff". I was experimenting with different hair colors for "Bee Happy Marci". I also colored an extra set of the trio of bees.

I am making a conscious effort to use my embossing folders. During each project I have completed this month, I have asked myself, "Is there a place where I can do some dry embossing. It wasn't even on my radar anymore and check out how much it adds to the front and inside of this card.

I completed this card in no time using this sketch from Sketch N Scrap. I already had all of the elements. It was quick work to place them on the card.

Card Sketch #16 by Lisa Hidy

I put approximately 2/3 of the mat into the embossing folder. It leaves a rough edge, so I add a border strip for the transition. Another way to do this is to just use two pieces of paper. No one can tell which method is used.

Inside of Card

Materials List:

Card Stock: Bazzill - Candy Buttons

Candle Glow Medium

My Colors - Deep Indigo

Stamp: La La Land - Bee Happy Marcy

Just Bee-cause

Dies: La La Land - Double Stitched Hexagons

Ink: Momento - Tuxedo Black

Gina K - Blue Denim

Copics: Skin - E000, 00, 11, R20,22

Hair - E30, 31, 33, 35,39

Stripes - B41, 93, 45

G40, 43, 46

Wings - B0000, 000, 00

Pail - C3, 4, 5, 7

Embossing Folder: Momenta - Honeycomb

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Cute as Can Bee 2.0

Why you say - 2.0? Karrie at Scrappn' Savvy made a kit for a layout with this release. I purchased the kit, but when I got home I had neglected to take any pics of the layout or to ask her for the directions (which she sends via email).
I dumped the kit contents on to the craft table ( I do love a crafting challenge) and went to work. I used almost everything in the kit, but added some things from my own stash to finish it off.

The original kit contained: Copic paper, the embossed yellow card stock, the honeycomb print and floral print (pre-cut), die cut flowers, leaves and centers, picture mats.

I stamped and colored my Marci and bees. I added the pimento red border punch, used the Silhouette to make the mats and words for the title. BTW: the fun pieces in the hexagon with the worker bee are punch poop. I wanted the bee to stand higher in the hexagon, so I added this for him to stand on. Anything that falls on my craft table is in danger of becoming a part of the project.

When my email with instructions came in, my layout background was very similar to Karrie's. The only difference was that I placed the floral print at an angle and added the punched border. Otherwise the two layouts look nothing alike.

Copics:

Hair: Y21, YR23, E15, 37, 47 (my new fave hair color)

Skin: E50, 51, 53, 93

Wings: B0000, 000, 00

Bee Stripes: RV10, 11, 13

C3, 5, 7

Pail: W00, 1. 3. 5

Cute as can "Bee"

My granddaughter's kindergarten field trip was to Ol' McDonald's Farm. She had a fun day with her friends. They rode horses, picked out favorite pumpkins, fed farm animals, played on a special playground, and had a picnic lunch.

With Pictures

I took a picture of the the layout before I put the pictures on it.

Before Pictures

You can see that the left page of this layout was made using this sketch by Lisa Hidy at Sketch N Scrap.

Sketch #198 by Lisa Hidy

I colored these La La Land images from the February Club release. Since the isolation of the pandemic, I have been coloring these Marcy's like a crazy woman. I already have 4 layouts and 4 cards. I have participated in video classes taught by Karen Burniston, Irina from La La Land Crafts, and Karrie and Nicole from Scrapp' Savvy. I am so lucky to have a well-stocked craft room that is keeping me as busy as I would like to be. In addition to crafting, I am tutoring two of my grandchildren 2-3 hours per day -- 3 days per week. All in all I am very busy.
My husband and I had booked 90 days of travel for the year in our RV. He is at the moment in the process of cancelling all of our April/May travel plans.

Left Page

Right Page

Bee Happy Marci

Bee in a Tree

The tree is a Silhouette file. I used the same tree twice by reversing it. I also trimmed each tree differently to make it appear to be two separate trees.

For the bucket handle I used a black Micron pen (01) to draw in the missing pail handle. I had all of the pics completed and THEN remembered that I wanted to do this. Ultimately, this pic does not have the handle on the pail.

Worker Bee in the Title

I actually discontinued my Really Reasonable Ribbon subscription a year ago. It was starting to build up. When I found this "Blue Land" collection by Stamperia, I emailed the company and asked if they would let me purchase the February club Blue & Brown ribbons. They were made for this paper. As a former club member she was good enough to let me purchase two of the club collections. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Queen Bee

Beehive

I colored the bee hive using the same stripes as Marci. I ran a C5 down the sides for a quick extra shading. The hole is the white die poop colored with E87. How do you like my color match with the tree?