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Squirrels Gone Nutz July Hop!!!

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on July 21, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Hop

I know many of us are sweating our butts off in the heat of the summer, but My Squirrel Squad is celebrating Christmas in July as our monthly theme and our randomly selected supply/technique is Acetate! You should have arrived here from the talented Boryana of Bory Crafts, and I’ll list the full lineup here so you can’t get lost on our short little hop.

Sounds easy enough, right? Now the easy way out is to make a Christmas shaker card. But I wanted to set out to do something different… and I had in my head that I wanted to use the acetate to make a window. I’m having technical difficulties with my Silhouette, and I lack an actual window die, but in the spirit of the hop group I pulled out a frame die I got years ago and hadn’t ever used to sub as my window. And once I finished with 1 card, I had the idea of a similar but different card so you get not 1 but 2 cards from me today! Have a looksie:

Some of my good friends know that my house is gray, and the whole interior is gray, black and white. When trying to pick colors for my house and room cards, it was natural for me to stick with the same color combo! Both cards are stamped on the inside “From our home to yours”, which makes it even more fitting. Let’s start with the ‘outside looking in’ version.

SUPPLIES:

  • MFT Jingle All The Way (Santa)
  • MFT Happy Pawlidays (tree)
  • Impression Obsession Brick CAC Background
  • Pinkfresh Studios Christmas Florals Creative Stamping magazine freebie
  • Taylored Expressions Picture Perfect – Vertical die
  • The Paper Boutique Christmas die
  • Prismacolor Pencils
  • Acetate for window

This card is self explanatory, so I won’t bore you with the instructions. I am ridiculously happy that I collected so many background stamps as I used 3 different designs for these 2 cards! Here is another look with a close up of the inside scene:

Now for the ‘inside looking out’ card:

SUPPLIES:

  • MFT Denim Background (carpet)
  • MFT Linen Background (walls… 1 cut straight and 1 cut with the pattern on the diagonal)
  • Inkadinkado Trees
  • Taylored Expressions Picture Perfect – Vertical die
  • MFT Hand Lettered Holiday (Christmas sentiment)
  • Pink & Main Sentiment Strip dies
  • Acetate
  • Ink Blender brushes
  • Elizabeth Crafts cool white glitter

This is 1 of those cards that is better in my head than what I could create with paper, but that said I was still pretty pleased with the outcome. I think this one is pretty self explanatory too. The window is really dimensional with lots of layers of the frame die to allow room for the glitter to move about like a shaker of snow. I also used a white gel pen to brighten the snow on the trees, then used a Quickie glue pen in places on the trees and the snow drifts I ink blended so the glitter would stick and make the snow shimmer. That’s really hard to see in the above picture but you can see it better here:

Here’s a quick peek at the insides too:

I have to apologize for the dramatic lighting for all of the above pics. Between the rain we’ve had all week and the glare on the acetate, I had to get creative for you to actually see the cards! My crafting assistant, Willow, was at my feet for most of the time but at 1 point she wanted to play along and help me stamp.

“Mama, can I make a card???” Truth be told, she was begging for some candy (just off screen on the left) as I was dipping pretty frequently into a carton of Whoppers malted milk balls. I add the full name for the benefit of my international friends as once a friend from Canada thought I was eating Burger King Whoppers while crafting. LOL!!! I still wonder how many she thought I ate in a single crafting session! 😄 Sadly Miss Willow can’t have Whoppers because of the chocolate. She can’t have burgers either!!! That’s it for me… I hope you liked the cards and if not hopefully the picture of my sweet Princess Willowbeez made you smile! For the record, she also goes by Willowmena when she has been naught and Willowbeezerz when she is being silly. Am I the only 1 with 40 names for each dog?!? Leave me a comment with some of the nicknames of your pets. And don’t forget to hop along to the fantabulous V of Passions and Distractions, if you didn’t start there already. Thanks for hopping along, as we appreciate it so much!!!

Next stop is V of Passions and Distractions
MisplacedMojo
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Squirrels Gone Nutz June Hop!!!

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on June 20, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Hop

Welcome to the latest installment of the Squirrels Gone Nutz hops where we use supplies we’ve squirreled away, and follow a monthly theme prompt as well as a specific technique or supply. This month the prompt was Elegant and the technique we’re all using is Marbling. There are several techniques that offer results you would call marbling. Many involve using shaving cream and liquid inks (alcohol, dye reinkers) or pigments (paints, powdered pigments) or even a combo of nail polish and water. I’m sure there are even more ways to obtain the results… and to be fair to everyone who may not have these supplies, we included using marble papers and stamps. I have wanted to try marbling for ages so I set off to create backgrounds with shaving cream and paints. Before I get into the details, let me give you the full hop lineup cause you will *not* want to miss the gorgeous projects the rest of the girls put together for you!!! You should have arrived here from the incredible Marie Bingaman, and next up is the amazing Lounon Riviere.

Here’s a quick look at the cards I made for this prompt:

To create the marble look, I used a small bin and squirted lines of shaving gel in the bottom, and allowed it time to foam up and spread out. Then I randomly squirted some charcoal gray paint in squiggles over the foam. I then dragged the handle end of a paintbrush through the paint and foam, back and forth but not mixing it completely. I placed a card panel made from Bristol smooth paper on top of the foam and pressed it all over the back to ensure that it was making contact with the paint and foam to make a ‘print’. I made several prints or backgrounds from this one paint application. The first I pulled directly off the foam, straight up. The others I sort of slid off, giving it a streaky look which I liked. This process leaves quite a bit of the shaving foam still on the paper, so on 3 I promptly wiped the panels with a baby wipe. On these, the paint shade was not nearly as dark and true as the actual paint color. I left 1 overnight to dry hoping the paint would stain the paper better and the color would be more bold. Even letting it dry overnight did not help the paint remain its true color. I used one of the lighter panels to create a tile look by die cutting it repeatedly with a hexagon die from Spellbinders Nested Hexagon dies. I rotated the hexagons to randomize the pattern. I attached the die cuts to a piece of printer paper and then cut it down to a square. I matted that on black and when I realized I didn’t have a proper gray cardstock to match I decided to just use the gray paint on the edges of a white 5×5″ square card base for the perfect match. I used my Silhouette to create the sentiment with a font on my computer, and this card is done. Here is a closer look at it:

The 4th panel I made with the gray paint was left to dry overnight, and I expected to have to wipe the shaving cream off the panel like the others. Instead, it dried hard like a texture paste, and in the true shade of the paint used, which was a bonus. Not wanting to mess it up at this point, I just die cut a sentiment to add to it using the Celebrate 2 layer die from Pink and Main, and cut it from black and white cardstocks. I also cut the shadow layer from fun foam to give the sentiment dimension. Have a look at it here:

Now, I *really* wanted my marble to be darker, and have some metallic veining in it, so I experimented with black paint… and trying different ways to add shine: foil and a glue pen, Stickles glitter glue, and Nuvo drops. The foil worked really well, but I thought it was actually *too* shiny and distracted from the marble background. The Stickles was just too glittery. But the Nuvo drops in silver were juuuuust right! I could apply it thick for a concentrated line of silver, or spread it out as I applied it for a shimmery and wispy look. I trimmed down my card panel to fit an A2 sized card, then die cut another 2 layer celebrate sentiment die, this time from back cardstock and silver glimmer paper. The silver wasn’t a good match though to the Nuvo silver, so I just covered it with more of the same Nuvo drops and then it matched perfectly! I really like the texture it adds too! Its almost like I used gilding flakes on it. This card also got a shadow layer from fun foam so I could pop up the sentiment, and that finished it off! This is my favorite of the bunch!!! Here’s another look at the final card:

That’s it for me! I actually had a fourth card in the works but ran out of time so you may see it (probably not… LOL) in the near future. I used an *actual* marble covered in copper paint to roll over a piece of cardstock, for a “marbled” yet not marbled background! It made a fun look of its own, though but perhaps not quite “elegant”. 😉 Be sure to head to Lounon’s blog next as I’m sure she found a way to put her creative spin on the prompt again this month!

Next up is Lounon Riviere of Craft Me, Craft Moi!

I appreciate you dropping by and hope you have a great time hopping along today!!!

MisplacedMojo
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June DT Post for 2CCC with Beccy’s Place

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on June 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

Hello, my sweet friends! I hope the weather has been as beautiful in your part of the world as it has been in mine!!! I’ve been enjoying the sunshine and doing quite a bit of gardening, tending to the veggies and flowers. Gardening settles my nerves, gets me back in touch with nature, and renews my gratitude for the everyday things in life. I’m also lucky to live in a wooded area where I get to enjoy the sights and sounds of all the native wildlife while I’m sitting in the garden. One of my favorites is hearing the screech owls at night (not sure why they are called screech owls because they don’t screech!).

This month’s challenge at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies is sponsored by Beccy’s Place. Beccy has some amazing sets on her store site but she also has a ton of freebies on her blog! For my card, I opted to use a free digi called Owl Love, which comes in both b/w and color, and with and without a sentiment. I used the b/w version without a sentiment as I had a plan for an alternate sentiment using stamps in my stash. To create the card I first printed the image, die cut it with a stitched circle die, and colored it up using Prismacolor pencils. I knew I wanted a blue/gray color combo, so I made the owls gray. I made the background next, using products from Impression Obsession… I used their Navy Hybrid ink on a background stamp called Birch Trees stamped on a gray heavy weight card base. I used the same ink to blend the edges of the focal point. The navy ink wasn’t as dark on the white paper as it was on the gray, so to make it match I added some Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide ink to darken the edges.

I created the sentiment by using and masking two sentiment stamps… one said “all you need is love” (from CTMH) and the other said “its OWL good” (an old Studio G stamp). By masking the words “all”, “its” and “good”, I was able to create and stamp “OWL you need is love”!!! I will admit it took a few tries to get it lined up and without smudges… so when I got brush marks in the ink blending on the strip, I wasn’t keen on starting over. This picture was taken as soon as the card was complete, but I noticed today that the brush mark has faded some after drying and is not noticeable. I’m glad I didn’t trash the sentiment strip and start over!!! You might ask why I even bothered to ink blend the strip…. It was just too stark on the gray and navy background but had I stamped on matching gray cardstock, it would have blended in too much. I played around with sequins and confetti stars, but in the end I vetoed the embellishments, and I’m really pleased with how this turned out. Its like someone was using a camera to look at the owls and zoomed in on them sitting in the trees! Here’s another look at the card:

I have had a sneak peek of the rest of the DT’s projects, and there is so much cuteness in store for you at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies!!! Head on over to see all the fun projects, and while you are there be sure to link up your latest critter project for a chance to win a prize from Beccy’s Place!!! For that matter, head over to Beccy’s store and blog because she has some unique images you are going to love! And don’t forget to snatch up the freebies from her blog if you haven’t already!!!

I have a couple crafty events this week and I’m hoping I’ll be able to share more info about those soon! One I’m a little nervous about, and the other I’m *SO* looking forward to!!! My heart is happy to have made a new (and local) crafty friend, and I hope she feels the same! And I feel like both of these crafty events will provide an opportunity for me to grow in new ways, which is a blessing right now as I deal with some of life’s new challenges. Wish me luck!!!

MisplacedMojo

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Squirrels Gone Nutz May Hop!!!

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on May 20, 2021 in Cards, Hop

The year is just whooshing by, because its yet again time for another Squirrels Gone Nuts hop when we make a point to use items we’ve *squirreled away* while creating something for the monthly theme! The prompt for this month is Birthdays and the supply (randomly selected from a loooooong list of possible supplies by a random number generator) is Alpha dies. Before we get to my project, I want to make sure you have the full hop list so you don’t get lost along the way:

I have several alpha die sets… cause you need different sizes and fonts, right??? Technically I don’t, because I got a Silhouette to avoid buying dies… *but* I got 1 on clearance and 2 at a crafty consignment sale before all the fun stuff got canceled because of a certain pandemic, who shall remain nameless. 😒 Alpha dies are not cheap normally, so for today’s card I was eager to try to use the ones that I actually paid full price for because I *had* to have them, and only used them once. 🙄 I know we all do it, but I hate the guilty feeling that brings! So let’s take a look at what I made, shall we?

The alpha set I have officially used *twice* now is called Letter Balloons from Avery Elle, and I made up for not using the set more by cutting 6 of each letter (3 in each rainbow color and 3 in black to layer behind it), and stacking the die cuts with liquid glue for dimension. The black paper was thicker and the hi-light dots on each letter stayed in well, so I colored them in with a white gel pen before layering the rainbow colors over it. This view might show better the dimension:

The balloon strings are from the same alpha die set and are just 1 layer. The birthday die cut sentiment is from MFT. The cloud background is courtesy of another MFT product… their Cloud stencil, and the ink blending was with Distress Oxide ink in Broken China. A simple card to pull together, but made special by the personalization I was able to get from those good ol’ alpha dies! Here’s 1 last look at the card:

This card is going in the mail today to the best friend a girl could ask for, and I had the blessing of a visit and hug from her recently, just when I really needed it the most. Happy Birthday Sharon, and I hope the card isn’t too late!!! You deserve a better Bestie, but at least you know I will always show you grace since I’m such a hot mess! 🤣 Love ya!!!

Oh, and making this card made me realize that I never posted the first time I used this alpha die set, so I thought I would share it now as a bonus card! Is that cheating??? Pffft! So what! LOL Forgive the lack of photography skills… this card is from several years ago now and the recipient will be of legal drinking age soon. Yikes!

Just a quick summary on the bonus card… the background was stamped with MFT’s Balloon Strings and heat embossed in silver embossing powder. In addition to the Avery Elle Balloon Letters, I *had* to have the Balloon Numbers too. The balloons on the inside and the 1 on the front are all from MFT’s Big Birthday Balloons die set, which also hasn’t gotten its price worth of use! Yes, the silver balloon was heat embossed in the matching silver embossing powder multiple times until it was smooth and shiny. And the inside sentiment is also MFT, from an old set called Gifting Fun that has plenty of snarky and fun sentiments. This card went to 1 of my son’s closest friends that I refer to as an adopted son, and yes, the card had money inside 😁 Shame I didn’t get a better shot of the front with the embossing… I was really pleased with how this came out and the teenage boy was too since I used his favorite color, purple, and personalized it.

Next up is Lounon Riviere @ Craft-me-Craft-moi!!!

I have no doubt that the rest of the Squirrel Girls will have beautiful or adorable cards to inspire you to play with your alpha dies or electronic cutters to personalize a birthday card this year! Now, head on to my good friend Lounon’s blog to see her creation, which no doubt will be amazing! Seriously, ALL of these ladies impress me SO MUCH! And I couldn’t ask for more caring or supportive friends 💓 Thanks for visiting with me today!

MisplacedMojo
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May JDS Mid-Month Inspiration and Farewell

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on May 19, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team, Uncategorized

Sad news today… this is my final post for Jan’s Digi Stamps. After 1.5 wonderful years on the DT, I find myself needing to step down from the team. My hands continue to worsen and typing is something that aggravates the pain. Writing the posts would probably still be doable, but leaving comments and love for the participants has gotten harder and harder, and that is a big responsibility of being on a challenge design team. The requirements for 2 projects a month is also getting harder to meet each month, so the time has come to let someone else enjoy the benefits of working with Jan’s fabulous images and getting their feet wet on design team work. Jan Mahew (and her husband Dick) have been fabulous, and the team coordinator NanaConnie has been like family to me and I will miss the team very much! The JDS team is actually taking the summer off to rest and recuperate, and the challenge and new team will return in the fall. Many DT members are staying on, but you may see other changes in the lineup so be sure to check out the new styles of inspiration from the revised team, and all the new images Jan will create over the summer break! Let’s talk about my last card for the Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge, shall we? I had so much fun coloring up this image from the SpringTime set with my Prismacolor pencils! Take a look at how much comes in this set:

Jan’s images come in both color and b/w, and always include sentiments. I needed an encouragement card, so I opted to use a sentiment from the Alone Together set. I love how Jan’s sets work so well together, despite being totally different themes! I knew I wanted to use the b/w version of the pansies, and some of my patterned paper. I found a sheet of patterned paper in my stash with loose flower images and a hint of green, and then used the other colors in the paper to determine the colors of the pansies in the image. My coloring isn’t perfect, but it looks better in real life than it does in photos, so I’m still happy with the work. Unfortunately my hands don’t allow me to blend pencils well anymore, and with my new Eco-Tank printer the only media I can use to color that won’t make the lines bleed out are pencils. Yet another reason that led me to making the hard decision to leave the team. Anyway, I used Gamsol to blend the pencil a little on the flowers (but not the pot, which I wanted to look like a galvanized metal pot). Then I popped the focal image up on craft foam for some dimension, and that finished the card!

I would love it if you would head over to the Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge and see what the rest of the team has made to inspire you. If you have a favorite, please head over to their blog, leave them some love, and subscribe so you can continue to follow them whether or not they return on the team in the fall. Make sure you follow the challenge too so you see their posts when they come back again and start back with the challenges. I still plan on posting here, just not on a schedule, and when I do I will be focusing on ways to use what is in my stash instead. If that sounds good, make sure you subscribe to receive my posts via email. I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest installment of Squirrels Gone Nutz.

MisplacedMojo
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May DT Post for 2CCC

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on May 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

The May challenge at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies has kicked off, and this time we have a brand new sponsor, TNT Artspirations. For today’s card, I had the pleasure of using an image called Squirrel – Just Peeking In, and you guys know how much I love squirrels if you have been here before. Most of the images from TNT Artspriations are what you might call quirky or primative, but this image was more realistic and that appealed to me.

I used the software for my Silhouette Cameo to create the layout of the image and a sentiment I made myself that does not come with the image. I also created a 2nd panel to continue the sentiment on the inside of the card. After printing and cutting the panels down to fit an A2 card, I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils. There was so much white space that it felt like it needed something so I printed the layout again on copy paper and fussy cut the image out to use as a mask. I covered the squirrel and fence, then ink blended Distress Oxide ink in Tumbled Glass with a makeup brush over the mask and onto the panel to create the look of sky in the scene.

The photo above is version 1 of this card. I felt like perhaps the card felt a little off balance and the upper left too plain, so after the photos were taken I went back and added more ink blending to carry the color into the upper left to see if that helped. Below is version 2 with the additional ink blending. Tell me what you think… which do you like better?

And here is the inside of the card with the other sentiment I created:

I hope you enjoyed my card today and I would love if you would head over to 2 Crafty Critter Crazies to see what the rest of the DT created to inspire you! And while you are there be sure to link up your latest critter project for a chance to win a prize from TNT Artspirations!

SPECIAL NOTE: If you follow 2 Crafty Critter Crazies (or any other challenge or blog on Blogger/Blogspot) and receive the emails when there is a new post, you will want to use a blog reader like Bloglovin’ or Feedly to still get the posts. Blogger/Google is getting rid of the Feedburner feature that emails posts to subscribers. The other option you have is to create old fashioned bookmarks on your favorite browser. I personally will be updating the tab at the top of my blog, “I Love These Blogs”, in addition to using Bloglovin’. I don’t want to be completely reliant on any single company if I can help it, so I’m making sure that I update that list in the event Bloglovin’ also comes to an early end. I would prefer Feedly, but I subscribe to more than 100 blogs and that is their cutoff for their free version. And I’d rather use bookmarks than to spend $60 a year just to have a crafty inbox at Feedly. You have until July 2021 to make arrangements for any blogs you want to stay in touch with. I feel like this is just another push to get more people on Facebook and Twitter, and control what you see and what you hear. But we still have choices, my friends, and I intend to use them! One last word on the subject… some bloggers will convert their email followers to Mailchimp or a similar product that sends out email notifications. That said, the little guys may not be able to afford that or know how to do it, so it is better to make a small effort now to make sure you can continue to show support for your favorite bloggers and challenges. I learned today that some WordPress sites use Feedburner too, so this could affect a good number of bloggers. OK, that’s it for my PSA, and I hope this helps someone who hasn’t heard about the upcoming change!

Thank you for dropping by! Hope you have a great weekend!!!

MisplacedMojo
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April Hop with Squirrel Gone Nutz

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on April 20, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Hop

Oh yeah! I don’t know if you look forward to this day as much as I do, but with my crafty time being much more limited these days, our little but mighty hop has become a bright star on a bleak horizon for me. With all of my other crafty obligations requiring me to use digis from specific companies, I am so very thankful that for this hop group we are focused on using things we actually bought because they inspired us!!! I have enough supplies to fill a craft store and they are hardly being touched, but every month my fellow squirrel sisters and I aim to change that! This month the theme is Florals and the technique/supply is Watercolors, which consists of so many possible water based mediums and so many ways to use them! And because I couldn’t pick just 1, I have 3 cards to share with you today!!! And I pulled out all kinds of older supplies that haven’t seen love in awhile, and a handful of Jane’s Doodles stamp sets that I’ve been dying to use!

Be sure to visit my uber talented friends on the hop who will undoubtedly rock this theme! Here is the line up in case you get lost along the way:

For each of my 3 cards, I used a different media to watercolor with, just for fun (and to remind myself how out of practice I was!). Ready for the first card?

I showed some of my squirrel sisters an assortment of Jane’s Doodles floral sets and asked which they wanted to see me use. This one was the top choice! The set is called Wild Flowers and the sentiment is from another Jane’s Doodles set called Mother’s Day. A good friend of mine has been hard on herself lately often when she compares her art to others. I love her style just as it is, but I also understand the disappointment that we can’t all be Jennifer McGuire. I made this card for her because I just wanted her to know she is AMAZING. I suck at mailing cards (and the postal service sucks at delivering them) but I know she will see this card and know it’s for her 😊 I used an assortment of Zig markers to color the image and a waterbrush to blend the colors out. It seemed a little plain, so I colored an extra flower, fussy cut it and then popped it up with foam tape for dimension. Then I popped the whole panel up on more foam tape and added it to an white panel embossed with a Crafts Too folder called Spots. I like the subtle pattern in the background yet it doesn’t detract from the image. I had a couple extra images so I popped them inside:

Next up is a card watercolored with Distress Oxides:

This card is my favorite of the bunch! This beautiful image is from the Jane’s Doodles Hydrangea set. I used only Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet for the flower and was able to get so many different shades from just those 2 inks! The sentiment is from the aforementioned Mother’s Day set from Jane’s Doodles and it was stamped in Wilted Violet. I pulled another embossed panel from my stash of backgrounds… this one is embossed with an old Darice folder called Corner Scroll. I didn’t have coordinating purple cardstock to mat it, so I just inked the edges of the card base with Wilted Violet, then splattered it with water to remove some of the color for yet another watercolored look. And I added some matching epoxy dots to finish it off. I had an extra image from this set too, so I decorated the inside on this one too!

And now let’s look at my final card watercolored with Gansai Tambi paints!

These images are from yet another Jane’s Doodles set called Poppy (gotta love how aptly Jane names her sets!) but the sentiment is from the Hydrangea set. The background was pulled from my stash of previously created backgrounds, but it was made using a really old background stamp from Justrite called Ticking Stripe. After struggling with the Gansai Tambi paints (I think they are potentially going bad as they had a weird finish after they dried) I fussy cut all the images from the set out. I used 2 different thicknesses of foam tape to give the flowers dimension. The sentiment is heat embossed and die cut using a fishtail die from an old Cutter Bee set called Banners. I added a sprinkling of black half pearls to finish the front, and as I had 1 image left that didn’t make it to the card front, I added it to the inside like the others:

And check out the texture I got on the flower centers from just the paint! There is nothing added to the paper other than paint but it looks like Flower Soft or flock!

What this picture doesn’t show is a weird shimmery sheen one shade of the red paint has, which looks weird because the whole flowers doesn’t have the same finish. I’d add Wink of Stella but I don’t want to reactivate the paint and make more of a mess than it already is! LOL

If you are still here, I thank you a bunch!!! And now, please visit my sweet friend Bory who always does a beautiful job making floral cards! I’m betting she even has a video for you… as will Anna and Tasha, so don’t forget to hop to all 7 blogs!!! Remember the full lineup is on the top of this post 😊 so you can make sure you hit them all! Thanks for visiting and be sure to subscribe/follow if you like what we have made for you today! Or leave us a comment… it would mean the world to us!

Your next stop is Boryana Yankova of Bory’s Crafting Place!
MisplacedMojo
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Mid Month Inspiration with JDS

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on April 19, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

Today’s card for the JDS mid-challenge inspiration post was super easy to create using a precolored image and sentiment from Jan’s Digi Stamps, from her set called Floral Flourish. To keep the focus on the image, I printed it large and included the sentiment on the same panel. I didn’t want the background to distract from the image so I simply ink smooshed 3 coordinating shades of Distress Oxide (Squeezed Lemonade, Spun Sugar, and Twisted Citron) along the border of the card base. Once dry, I ran it through my die cutter to flatten it out, then I mounted the focal panel up on foam tape. See, super easy! Here is another look:

This post is to help remind you that there is still time to enter the April challenge at Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge so head over to see what the rest of the DT has created to inspire you! And while you are there, be sure to link up your latest creations. Remember that the JDS challenges are truly Anything Goes and do not need to use digi stamps or even be cards. Anything you created with your hands can be an entry, but *if* you do use an image from Jan’s Digi Stamps, you have an extra chance to win! See the challenge site for all the details!

I hope to eventually be back to posting more than I’m actually obligated to, but its going to be awhile. If it weren’t for obligations, I’d be completely MIA, so at least I’m still getting to play with paper… even if it is only 4 times a month! Thanks for visiting me and being patient with me while I’m adjusting to some unwelcome changes that have virtually eliminated my crafting and computer time. I am missing my crafty friends even more than I miss my crafty time!!! 😘

MisplacedMojo
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April DT Post for Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on April 5, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

Spring isn’t the only thing in the air!!! Today I am sharing a card I used with a set from Jan’s Digi Stamps called Up, UP, AWAY! Now, ***in full disclosure***, the dog I used is NOT part of the set. He’s from a Mama Elephant clear stamp set called Mini Dog Agenda. Here is a picture of what you get in the Up, UP, AWAY! set:

For my purposes, the sweet little boy wasn’t going to work, but I really wanted to use the balloon. All of Jan’s sets come with both precolored images and b/w line art. I love that she included the balloon without the boy, so you can use it as you see fit. I used the b/w image of the balloon and the clouds to create my scene. This set has some of the prettiest sentiments!!! I needed a birthday card, so I used the Happy Birthday cloud. Once it was printed, I masked off the basket and stamp my dog. The line weight was different, but I knew I would be making the balloon rope lines black and thought that would help balance it out so it didn’t look odd.

I originally thought I would use a piece of 6×6 multicolored paper for the card front, so I used those colors when coloring the image with Prismacolor pencils. I ended up using the reverse side (serendipity) instead. I liked the bold colors but it was distracting from the image. The balloon ropes and lines are really small and thin, so rather than making a mess with a colored pencil, I used a Micron pen to fill them in and as I suspected, it helped make the dog look like it was part of the set instead of an afterthought. After the image was fully colored, I used the Clouds stencil from My Favorite Things and Distress Oxide ink in Broken China to ink blend the background. Since the pencils leave a waxy bloom, it helped to resist the ink blending if I accidentally went over the image. I used Gamsol to blend out the image, and this time I wish I had not. I had so much more shading before I used the Gamsol and now it looks flat. I’ll probably try to put down another layer of color before mailing this one out. I gave the front panel a thin black mat before mounting onto the patterned paper and card base. But because I really liked the patterned paper I had originally picked and all the colors on it that matched my balloon, I added a strip of it to the inside of the card to carry through the color scheme.

The April challenge at Jan’s Digi Stamps kicks off today and runs through May 2nd. I’d love if you would head over to see what the rest of the team created to share with you, and while you are there why not enter your latest creation to the challenge? This is a truly Anything Goes challenge, so you can enter your recent baking, jewelry, pottery, drawing, scrapbook layout, card, quilting, etc! Using Jan’s digis (or any digis for that matter) is not required but using Jan’s images gives you an extra chance to win!

My days have been spent in the garden more than the craft room lately, but I have a few project ideas in my head I’d like to get onto paper so hopefully I’ll be back soon with more cards! Thanks for coming by to visit with me ❤

MisplacedMojo
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April 2CCC DT Post with Sheepski Designs

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on April 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team, Uncategorized

Have you ever had a card that almost refused to be made, despite the clear image you had in your head for it??? This was one of those for me but I’m so glad I stuck with the original idea cause I am super pleased with the results. Today’s card is my contribution to the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies April challenge post, where its *always* Anything Goes with a Critter. Our sponsor for the month is Sheepski Designs, and I was provided this image to play with. The vision of what I wanted to do with it formed almost immediately but the execution was trickier than I expected as I realized that the image I received was in JPG format and not PNG. (Ugh! Not gonna lie… very frustrating when every other digi company I use provides PNGS. But for the record, when you buy an image from Sheepski Designs, you receive both the JPG and PNG.) See, I design in Silhouette Studios and I really wanted to add this cute little chameleon image called Camouflage onto digital paper. Try as I might, all my tricks for converting JPG to PNG failed. Thankfully, I found a work around, thanks to physical stamps in my stash.

I opted to print this little guy on red cardstock and stamped a background from Impression Obsession called Wooden Planks over it to get the look of an old, red, barn. I used a couple of gray Prismacolor pencils to shade the chameleon so he would pop off the page a bit. The Silhouette was used to create the barn shape, fence (using woodgrain paper) and tree branches. Unfortunately I developed an issue with my blade before I could cut all the leaves, so they are hand cut (a little wonky, but it worked) and inked for a bit of dimension. For the ones that were not glued behind a branch end, I added a vein with a Copic marker so they would match. I also extended the branch the adorable chameleon is on so he wasn’t just floating there, and colored the branch with the same Copic marker to match the die cut branches. I added white gel pen and black glaze pen to bring out the chameleon’s eye. The sky background is digital paper I printed as its own layer. I finished the card off with a die cut sentiment on the front and this computer generated sentiment on the inside:

Fun, right??? A couple of my Teamies used the same image and came up with completely different ideas that you have to see! Head over to the 2CCC April Challenge to see them all. While you are there, enter in your latest critter project for a chance to win a prize from our sponsor, Sheepski Designs! As always, I appreciate when you drop by and say hello! Have a great day and I hope you survive any April Fool’s Day pranks played on you today! 😁

MisplacedMojo
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Squirrels Gone Nutz March Hop!!!

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on March 20, 2021 in Cards, Hop

My favorite crafty friends and I are back again with another installment of Squirrels Gone Nutz, where we challenge ourselves to use the stash we have squirreled away by working with monthly theme and supply or technique. This month’s prompt is Green with Specialty Paper! Fun, right? So, so many possibilities! My son’s birthday is coming up in April and coincidentally green is his favorite color, so it seemed silly not to use this theme as an opportunity to make his birthday card (and before the eve of his birthday, like usual… LOL). I’m kicking off today’s hop, then up next is the uber talented Tasha Davies. I will provide the full hop link below in case you get lost.

I have no shortage of specialty papers since I buy them and never use them. I have textured, glitter, vellum, foil, mirror, shimmer, rubber, foam, corrugated, and mesh, just to name some. I also have handmade mulberry paper, wood, metal, vinyl, specialty wrapping papers and wallpaper. You name it, and I probably got some hiding in my paper stash! So, I decided to use a few different kinds and make a diagonal striped background in his favorite colors… lime green, black, and silver. I did his card in those same colors last year and did a geometric design you can see HERE. This year’s card looks completely different!

I used green mirror cardstock, green shimmer cardstock, silver embossed specialty wrapping paper, and black textured cardstock to create a pattern that starts in the middle and alternates out to each end. The shimmer cardstock is subtle, and not at all glittery. Think more metallic. Now to make this a birthday card, I used the Happy Birthday die. The shadow layer was cut from vellum to allow the fun pattern to show through but also to help the word layer pop off the background. The words were cut from more of the embossed wrapping paper. It has such a cool texture to the touch and the shine is amazing! If this card wasn’t for a 20 year old guy, I’d have added some bling or epoxy dots or something, but I know you will understand that the masculine half of our species doesn’t understand embellishments. Shoot, we’re lucky they tolerate cards! Ha!!! Here is another look at the finishes of these papers:

I’m so eager for you to see the amazing creations from my Squirrel Gang… they are truly some of the most talented ladies, and they always find a way to up their game for these hops. I am so fortunate to call them my friends as they inspire me to better myself and are just so sweet and supportive. Here’s the full line up so you can go see all the adorable and/or beautiful cards they made this month. And if you are just finding us for the first time this month, check out #squirrelsgonenutz to see all the previous creations at a glance!

Thanks so much for visiting and then hopping along! We appreciate you so much!!!

MisplacedMojo
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March Mid-Month Inspiration for JDS

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on March 19, 2021 in Cards, Design Team

Today I am sharing a card made with an older set from Jan’s Digi Stamps called Harvest Scarecrow. I knew one day I would want to color up this little flower image and this was the perfect time! I previously used this set once before in an October 2020 post, if you would like to see another take on the set. For today’s card, I also used a sentiment from another versatile JDS set called Signs of Autumn, which has so many beautiful, year round sentiments. Take a look at what comes in each set:

I used my Silhouette software to arrange the flower and sentiment to create a card front panel. Initially I was going to go completely CAS and make the white panel the full card front. But then I tripped over some old Authentique paper and fell in love with this pattern. The dot pattern around the flowers in the paper mimicked the flower center in the digi stamp. I printed the card panel on Bristol paper, and colored it with Prismacolor pencils that matched the paper. Then, I cut the panel down so some of that patterned paper would show but I created a thin mat for the focal panel in red to tie into the color palette on the patterned paper. I finished the card with a trio of rhinestones, and now I have an any-time-of-year thinking of you card! While everyone else is dreaming of spring, I was inspired to use a couple autumn sets for a non-autumn card!!! Leave it to my mojo to be totally out of season 🙄 Here is a close up picture of the colored image:

The rest of the team has made a gorgeous (and more seasonally appropriate) assortment of projects to share with you and to inspire you to play with your digis. Head over to the Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge site to see all the amazing cards, and to enter your latest creation in the March challenge!!! Remember you can enter up to 5 times per challenge, and we are a truly Anything Goes challenge!

Much more to come tomorrow when I (hopefully) have a card to share from my adventures with the Squirrel Sisters for our monthly edition of Squirrels Gone Nutz! I hope you will come back and join me for that!!!

MisplacedMojo

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March DT Post for 2CCC with Bugaboo

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on March 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

I have not 1 but 2 posts for you today, so click here if you are looking for the Jan’s Digi Stamps post. As always, the first of the month is the launch date for the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge and this month our sponsor is the amazing Bugaboo Stamps. For my project(s) today I used a set called Birthday Puppies Set which includes 3 separate, adorable puppy images, so I had to use them all! Funny story though… I printed them off weeks ago, and trying to get a jump on my deadlines I colored 2 of them up and made cards with them. Took pictures and everything, stored them away, and promptly forgot all about them!!! I had the 3rd image on my desk as the due date approached and I panicked. Thankfully I had pulled out patterned paper when I did the other 2 cards so the card came together pretty quickly (the cupcake card). Now, you would think that I would remember the other 2 while coloring this 1 up, but no. I just thought I left out the pencils I planned to use. See, this month has been a doozy and I’m not running on all cylinders, as they say. Anyway, as I went to edit my 1 recent Bugaboo card, I found the other 2 in my gallery. Doh!!! So, I pulled them back out and took a shot of the 3 together. The cupcake card looks a little different, but it was nice to see I kept the colors consistent and style similar. This is the 1 time I’m glad I’m very predictable in my crafting! LOL! Let me show you each card a little closer up…

This was the card that was kinda thrown together thinking I was late, but I still like how it turned out! Only after I colored it up did I remember what my original plan for this image was, and this wasn’t it. Oh well, it still turned out cute! The sentiment for this card is from an Art Impressions set called Big Birthday Wishes. All 3 Bugaboo images for my cards were colored with Prismacolor pencils and the patterned paper is from a really old Echo Park 6×6 pad no longer available.

Cute, right? The blowout just cracks me up! The sentiment for this card and the next are from the Stampin’ Up! Party Pandas set. The perfect size and font! And here’s the last one… I think its my favorite of the 3:

So, that’s my part, but there is so much more for you to see at the 2CCC challenge! The team really pulled together in a month of life challenges to create lots of adorable critter cards to inspire you! Special thanks to Faith, Carol and Pam who have worked so hard this month!!! Faith especially has done so much to make sure today’s 2CCC post was ready for you like usual! Please head over to 2 Crafty Critter Crazies to see the amazing cards the team created and to leave them a little love! And be sure to enter your critter projects this month for a chance to win a prize from Bugaboo Stamps! Remember that you can enter up to 5 times per month! Challenge rules are found on the 2CCC site. Thanks for dropping by to visit!

MisplacedMojo
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March DT Post for Jan’s Digi Stamps

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on March 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

Hello, friends! Feels like we’re barely in the new year and yet already March is upon us! And to kick off a new month, I have not just 1, but 2 posts for you today. Click here if you are looking for the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies March post. But here I am sharing my Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge card made with some of Jan’s new sets for Easter. Jan released 2 new Easter sets… Easter Blessings and Happy Easter. Have a look at the sets:

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I love to play with the accessory images included in Jan’s sets as much as I like the full layered images. I selected the Easter Lilies image from Easter Blessings but I decided to pair it up with a sentiment from Happy Easter, because that script font really spoke to me! I arranged them so the sentiment just nestled into the floral image. I started out thinking I was going to stay very CAS but I saw a photo of lilies with a lot of purple in them, which sent me down a completely different road. I used the photo to inspire my coloring with Prismacolor pencils. Then rather that having a completely white card front, I serendipitously found this purple and white polka dot paper and had to use it! I cut down my focal panel and mounted it to the patterned paper, but I wanted a pop of green so I embossed a scrap of matching green cardstock with a dot pattern embossing folder. I used Versamark ink on the scrap just a little to help the dots pop off the page more. To finish the card off, I added 3 matte epoxy dots and the card was done! Here’s another look at it:

And a close up of my purple Easter lilies:

Oh, and in case you were interested in my photo inspiration… this is a photo of a garden flag made by Toland Home Garden I found online.

That’s it for me… but now you have homework to do! First, my team really pulled together this month to make amazing projects to inspire you! Special thanks to Suze and Pam who have made extra projects to wow you as we have other members out this month. Your help this month has been so very appreciated!!! In addition to heading over to the challenge site to see all the beautiful projects, be sure to link up your own in the March anything goes challenge where you have a chance to win images from Jan’s Digi Shop! Full details are on the challenge site! Good luck!!!

MisplacedMojo
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Squirrels Gone Nutz February Hop!

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on February 20, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Hop
February Prompt: Friendship & Shaker Elements

Folks, I have to tell you I have been in a crafty funk for almost a month now. I misplaced my mojo yet again and this time I had a really hard time finding it. But just in the nick of time my mojo returned from wherever it had been to bail me out so I had a card to share today! This month the prompt for the Squirrels Gone Nutz hop is Friendship and Shakers! I am sandwiched between 2 very talented ladies!!! You should have arrived here from Boryana Yankova, from Bory’s Crafting Place. And after me is Natasha Davies, from Handmade By Tasha, and I’ll give her link again at the end of this post!

Now, I don’t know where the mojo went while it was MIA, but while it was gone it got the crazy idea that I could do a galaxy background. (So, clearly it was hiding at another crafter’s house. Maybe it popped in an envelope when I mailed out a card?!? No, probably not, because I’m terrible at actually mailing my cards. Please tell me I’m not the only one!) Anyway, I figured if my mojo thought I could do it, I should at least give it a go. I’m sure it could have come out better but I’m pretty pleased with my first galaxy card! I just used my Gansai Tambi paints and pushed past the hot mess stage. Now the real inspiration for the space theme was the MFT Stars Above stamp set I had to have in 2016… and then never used, until now, 5 embarrassing years later. It has some of the best friendship sentiments in it! Not only that, I knew I had a couple star die sets that I thought I could use to make my shaker. (Spoiler alert: I was wrong. I didn’t use either one because the shape of the stars were different and it would have looked odd.) Instead of physical dies, I used my Silhouette and a watermarked photo of the stamp set to create a slightly larger die cut a matching star in the exact place I wanted on my card front in just the right size. Cool, huh? I don’t know what I’d do without my Silhouette!!! With that step done, I stamped my images and sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in white embossing powder. Then I created masks with a slightly larger border for each to cover my stamping before splattering white paint over the background. The masks helped to keep the images and sentiment sharp enough to read despite all the surrounding splatter stars. Not that you can see it in photos, but I also sprayed the card front with Sparkle Shimmer Spray from Tsukineko for a lovely, starry look.

I wanted the cut out star to line up inside the shaker window, so I used the card front as a positioner to glue the star in the right place on the card base. Then I added acetate and a ludicrous amount of foam tape on the back of the galaxy scene card front and got to the real fun… picking shaker bits! I had to include these silver star confetti I have had since before I started cardmaking, but I auditioned quite a few sequins, confetti, microbeads and embellishments before settling on this combo… colored iridescent sequins from Walmart, the star confetti from my stash, and clear diamonds from Queen & Co. I added a few of the little stars and sequins to the card front as well. And ta-da!!! All done! I’m rather stoked with how this turned out as I was certain I would screw it up somehow along the way. Now please don’t forget that this is a hop and Tasha will be so sad if you don’t continue on and see her project!!! Here is the full line up so you don’t get lost:

I so wish this card was faster to make in multiples because I’d send one to each of the incredible ladies in that list! I’m so thankful for my Squirrel Squad! So appreciative for you guys!!! You definitely make my life brighter! ✨💖✨ And I’m so appreciative for the folks who visit me here and on IG @misplacedmojo too, otherwise I’m just talking to myself here (which really isn’t all that unusual, just ask my husband 😉). Enjoy the rest of the Squirrels Gone Nutz hop, my crafty friends!!!

MisplacedMojo

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February Mid Month Inspiration with JDS

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on February 18, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

The Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge for February is still going strong and to keep you inspired the DT has put together an assortment of projects using both old and new JDS sets. For my part, I enjoyed creating this simple Valentine’s card. The set I used was just released in January and is called Valentine Wishes. Take a look at what comes in the set:

Pretty, right? And those sentiments!!! I love this set! I really liked the color combo Jan used for the floral heart wreath so I opted to use the precolored version of the image, but all the images above come in both color and b/w so you get a lot of bang for your buck! I printed the image and sentiment and die cut it with a Pink & Main’s Stitched Rounded Rectangles die. In my quest this year to use more of my stash, I found patterned paper in my scraps that coordinated with the colors in the image to create the layout. Once layered, I die cut them with a larger die from the same Pink & Main set. I added the focal panel using thin foam tape for dimension. I opted to embellish with die cut flowers from MFT’s Stitched Flowers die set using pink and yellow cardstock also from my scraps. I used an embossing stylus to shape the petals and added epoxy dots to the centers. This card came together quickly I’m looking forward to coloring the b/w version of this image in a bunch of color combos!

That’s it for me but I strongly suggest you visit the challenge site to see all the pretty things the team made for you! While there, be sure to add your own creations there in the current challenge to have a chance to win free images from Jan’s Digi Stamps! Full details are on the challenge site. I’ll be back before you know it with my Squirrel Squad for another little hop using our hoarded nuts…er supplies. In the meantime I hope you are staying safe wherever you are!

MisplacedMojo
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February Challenge at 2CCC – DT Post

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on February 1, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

A new month means a new challenge at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies!!! This month we are sponsored by the delightful Beccy’s Place and this time around I had the pleasure of working with this fun sloth image from the South of the Border set, which is perhaps my all time favorite Beccy’s Place set! All the critters in the set are adorable and have quirky personalities!!! Have a look at what comes in the set:

Super cute, am I right?!? OK, card details…. I printed the image and one of the corresponding sentiments on Bristol paper, which I then cut to fit on an 4″ x 8.5″ slimline card with a 1″ mat. I used Prismacolor pencils to color this lovey dovey sloth and give him (grass? leaves?) something to sit on so he wasn’t levitating… which would have been kinda funny looking! Now in many cases I use Gamsol to blend out the pencil but when it comes to critters, I like the texture it provides and how it makes them look fuzzy and soft. Here’s a close up look at the image:

I knew I was going to use a lime green card base but I wasn’t sure what I was going to use to give it some detail until I found this Tropical Leaves stencil by Kaisercraft in my stash. This is where using Evernote as an inventory system really shines! I totally forgot I had this stencil but I knew I wanted to get a look of tropical leaves. I remembered a small embossing folder, but it was going to leave a seam on a slimline card. So I turned to my trusty Evernote and searched my whole stash for tropical leaves. I found 4 potential stamp sets, but then I saw this stencil I had forgotten about, and it was the clear winner! The background was super easy to create with a little ink (love my Impression Obsession hybrid inks) and a blender brush. I added some clear green epoxy dots from Gina Marie Designs and this card was ready to give to my better half! Here’s one last look:

If you’ve been a follower for any amount of time, you know what comes next… it’s time for you to check out the new post at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies to see what the rest of the talented DT have made, and this month they have knocked it out of the park! While you are there, you’ll also want to get the scoop on the prize for this month from our great sponsor! And since we’re talking about how awesome Beccy’s Place is, drop on over to see what she has in the digi store! But, you can’t win if you don’t play… so be sure to link up your next critter project for a chance to win!!!

That’s it for me. I’m still trying to find my rhythm this year and finding I’m not even on the same bar of the music score. I’m either playing the wrong song or I’m not playing at the right speed. I’m feeling an awful lot like the sloth in my card these days!!! Hubby will find this a fitting Valentine’s card this year! LOL

MisplacedMojo
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Squirrels Gone Nuts – January

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on January 20, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Hop

Welcome my crafty friends to the inaugural edition of my new hop group, Squirrels Gone Nuts!!! I became quite close with several of the members of the Collected Crafty Collabs group and we all wanted to continue on finding fun ways of using our stash through the new year. So my Squirrel Sisters (Anna, Marie, and V) and I nominated a few gals to be Honorary Squirrels (Bory, Lounon, and Natasha) and we set about creating a new set of prompts for each month of the year. There will always be a theme for the month along with either a supply or technique. And being a much smaller group it will be easier and less daunting to our viewers to hop along and see all the inspiration! We plan to have a guest in some of the coming months, but even then the hop size will be manageable. So let’s get to it, shall we?

The Monthly Prompt: The theme for January is “New” (could be new year, new baby, new home, new you, etc) the supply requirement is to use Leftovers… you know, backgrounds, images, die cuts, etc that you created for a previous project and never used or maybe you had extras leftover. Even paper scraps are leftovers! We all had baggies, bins, bowls or boxes of leftovers, so time to use some of them for a project!!!

You should have arrived here from Anna who is kicking off the festivities today! And here is the full lineup for today:

I am notorious for making backgrounds and then not using them. My stash of previously made backgrounds was easily 6″ thick or more. I dug through the stash and picked out several with stars or starbursts as those remind me of celebrations and I wanted to make New Year’s cards. Here was what I started with (the white piece is embossed with an embossing folder), though I didn’t use everything shown:

Let’s start with the rainbow card! It started off as that plain bristol paper embossed with a folder from Darice called Star Border.

Once I ink blended some Distress Oxides on top of that embossing, it went from boring to shazam! All I needed at that point was a sentiment, which I made from a scrap of silver mirror cardstock using dies from Sizzix called Christmas Phrases. I found a star die in my stash from a magazine freebie and cut out a few to sprinkle around the card accenting the embossed stars. I matted the panel on more of the silver mirror paper for some added shine, but true to my nature, I cut a rectangle out of the middle to use for future sentiments. The card felt like it needed just a little something extra, so I added some clear rhinestones and I love how this card turned out!!! Now let’s look at the blue card…

This was a simple stencil background using Kaleidoscope Stencil A from Altenew with 3 shades of Distress Oxides… Chipped Sapphire, Mermaid Lagoon, and Tumbled Glass. I used a thin frame die, also from Altenew, from their Fine Frames Cover die and cut another sentiment out of the same scrap of silver mirror cardstock I used in the first card. A couple more stars, and I thought that was enough on this busy background! I opted to glue everything down flat on these 2 cards to keep them simple, but then I got crazy with the cheeze whiz (sorry, song lyric from Loser by Bexk, circa 1994, that has been stuck in my head ever since) for the final card!!! LOL!

For this card I channeled my inner Jennifer McGuire and made an acetate card. This started out as an embossed background stamp that had either ink or watercolor over it. Its at least 3 years old, so no telling! I certainly can’t remember!!! The stamp is from Impression Obsession and its a Cover a Card background aptly called Starburst. I used an old set of Spellbinders Pinking Circles to die cut out the piece on the front and another from fun foam to pop it up. I placed the negative piece on the inside. Now, ala JM I also cut 2 more pinking circles… 1 to cover the adhesive on the inside of the card front (which is also where I will write my sentiment) and another to fit inside the aperture on the inside. And I backed the card with a full panel of white 110 lb cardstock to cover the adhesive there too. The Cheers sentiment from MFT’s Hand-Lettered Holiday was heat embossed on vellum and die cut to match. The inside image is from fun cocktail set from Stampin’ Up! called Making Spirits Bright, which is colored with Prismacolor pencils. I added a handful of clear sparkling sequins from Pretty Pink Posh to dress it up. I love how well the stamps from 3 different companies came together for this card. Its fairly simple but so different from store bought cards that its special even if it is simple!

I wasn’t planning on making 3 cards but its just kinda part of my process to have more than 1 possible card in the works for any assignment in case something doesn’t turn out. And frankly, after pulling them out, I just didn’t want to stash these backgrounds again. Oh, and the other 2 papers from that first pic? Yeah, lets just say there is a good reason I have more than 1 card going for each assignment. They definitely didn’t turn out. That’s it for me… time for you to head to Marie’s blog!

You’re next stop is Marie Bingaman!

You are going to love my Squirrel Sister Marie’s take on the theme!!! If you are inspired to play along with our monthly theme, be sure to use #SquirrelsGoneNutz when you post so we can see your projects! Thanks for visiting and be sure to see what the rest of my scurry of squirrels have for you today!!!

MisplacedMojo
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Mid-Month Inspiration with JDS

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on January 19, 2021 in Cards, Challenges, Design Team

How on earth did it get to be the middle of January? We welcomed in the new year, I blinked… and here we are! I swear my craft room has a time warp in it!!! Well, let me hurry up and share my project with you before your time warps too! As you know, the challenge at Jan’s Digi Stamps for January is going on and you have a couple weeks left to upload your projects for a chance to win digi images from Jan’s Digi Stamps Shop! The team each created a project to share today over at the challenge site to keep you inspired! Be sure to pop over there and see all the beautiful cards and get details on the current challenge, which as always is Anything Goes!

Now I know that Christmas already passed us by, but at the end there, some of us were panicking a bit because we hadn’t made enough in time. I don’t want that to happen to me ever again, so I make a point to make at least 1 or 2 Christmas cards a month all year long. It helps that Christmas images are some of my favorite to play with!!! For this card, I used the gorgeous pre-colored images in the Holiday Sleigh set. Take a quick peek at everything you get in this set:

After printing, I die cut the images with a stitched circle die. With just 1 sheet of 6×6 paper, I was able to cut the 4″x 5.25″ card front, use half of the remainder as an accent piece on the front, and used the remainder on the inside as a decorative element to tie the inside to the front. I love double sided paper!!! And it was serendipity that both sides coordinated with the precolored images! I had a small sentiment stamp from a Hello Bluebird set that fit perfectly. Using a small, gold, mirror cardstock scrap, I die cut a jingle bell as an embellishment and gave it a red bow to match. A little foam tape and a small sprinkling of sequins to add more metallic gold to the card, and this card was done! This one came together in record time for me!!! And *that* is why Jan’s sets rock… you have line images, pre-colored images, accessory images, and sentiments to choose from or to mix and match with items in your stash. The possibilities are endless! So much versatility! Here’s another view of the card showing the shine of that mirror cardstock and the dimension of the layers:

I would be negligent if I didn’t add that Jan has some great new sets in the shop AND there is a sale going on through the end of January on some awesome sets! So first, go check out the sale! Then please have a look at what the rest of the amazing team has created… and welcome our newest team member, Suze! And while you are there, remember to upload your latest creation in the challenge! As a truly Anything Goes challenge, we want to see not just your cards and scrapbook pages, but also your knitting, baking, jewelry makes, home decor… you name it! Anything goes!!!

I have fun news to share tomorrow and I’d love if you come back to get the details and it would be even more fun if you decided to play along! Details tomorrow at 10AM EST 😁 Hint: it has something to do with Squirrels!!! 😉

MisplacedMojo
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Crafty Goals for 2021

Posted by Karen @ MisplacedMojo.com on January 5, 2021 in Uncategorized

Hello my friends! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have kicked off a great new year in style! And I hope you have recovered from all the festivities and are settling nicely back into your routines.

So many of us reflect at the change of every year, and 2020 had everyone hoping for change in the new year!!! Have you made any resolutions or goals??? What about crafty goals? I have, and thought I’d put them here for the world to see, and to hold me accountable. 😁 Maybe some of these will resonate with you too!!!

Blogging More: I really enjoyed blogging last year and participating with hops, so you will see more of that here in the new year. I have also enjoyed doing DT work, so that will continue through 2021. In 2019 I only posted 32 times in the whole year, but in 2020 that number jumped to 85!!! And I’d love for that # to make another jump in 2021. The more I blog, the more friends I make, which is a win. If I inspire someone along the way, well that would be the frosting on the cupcake!!!

Using My Stash: I’m so very proud of the hop I created last year, Collected Crafty Collabs, where we focused on using things in our stash rather than the latest or greatest stamps or products on the market. Like Justine Hovey, I am tired of trying to keep up and being tempted by so many new releases that I could never use it all. So, the only new products you will be seeing here for awhile are new digi releases for DT work, which I justify as reasonably priced and easy to store, so I’m ok with those. The rest of the year will be me delving deep into my stash and enjoying things I bought and never had a chance to use.

Getting Value for My Purchases: I have given this a lot of thought and think that I should really use a stamp set or die more than once for me to get the $15+ worth of value from it. Ideally, I think 3 uses justifies the purchase. So, when I do break down and buy something new I am *only* doing so if I have 3 different ideas for using the set (not including making multiples of 1 design). Before I place an order, I will either sketch out or describe in writing what my 3 ideas were so that when the set comes in I can keep it with it and not forget my inspiration for the set in the 1-2 weeks it takes to arrive. I also want to review the sets I currently own, try to remember any cards I made using them, and spend the year trying to fulfil that 3 card minimum for each set. That may be 3 cards in 1 go (and post) or 3 times over the course of the year as the set fits a cardmaking need. We’ll see how diligent I can be as the year progresses. I have a Squirrel Sister who might be up for a 3 Cards, 1 Set Challenge, so hopefully that will keep me motivated! (Anna, let’s talk to see how to make this work!!!)

Paper Pad Killing: I will be the first to say that I own more paper pads than any 1 woman should. Twice in 2020 I did posts on killing a paper pad ala Jess Crafts. I have found a group of friends willing to give it a go for their first time ever, and I think when they see how easily it comes together, they will want to do it again. I’m realistic though, this is more likely to be a monthly or quarterly project, and I just need to keep my paper pad purchasing under control until I put a dent in my stash!

Organization: This past year, several of my hop and DT deadlines were in the same week. That week I’d end up eventually cursing and swearing, unable to find a certain ink pad without pulling out 10 others. I’d promise myself that I’d label them before the next deadline week came around, and then I wouldn’t. If biting the bullet 1 day can save me 12+ times of frustrations, why have I not done it yet?!? I own several brands of ink pads, and I want to focus on getting at least the Distress Oxides before the end of January. Maybe my Simon Says Stamp inks in February, and Impression Obsession inks in March, and regular Distress in April. I have some stragglers that aren’t in full sets, so they could be wrapped up in May, and the rest of the year I could enjoy the glory of labeled ink pads. I’m pretty happy with the rest of my organization, though their placement around the room may change a bit to be more efficient. My dies are not near my die cutter, for instance, so I’d like to tweak the room a bit, and sadly new furniture will be the only way I can adjust things. That doesn’t fit into my immediate plans, which I’ll talk about next.

Just Stash January (aka No Spend January): As I mentioned above, I can’t buy it all, and I’ve bought more than 1 woman should. I could craft for the rest of my natural life and not run out of anything but adhesive. Hell, I could craft well into the afterlife (whatever version of it you believe in), nearly for eternity, if there was a way to “take it with you”. My good friend and Squirrel Sister, V of Passions and Distractions, is hosting a Just Stash January party and I want to get creating with my stash to play along. I encourage you to check out THIS POST by V for more details of how you can play along with us!!!

Design Teams: Crafting is therapy, and without it I slide into a funk. Sometimes, I wake up in the funk and would just sit and sulk all day… until I remember I have a deadline, and I go craft… and my mood improves. Dt’s keep me accountable and thus make me craft when I would otherwise spend the day on the internet looking at what other people are making. As much as I enjoy the 2 Challenge DT’s I am on, I would like to add 1 more… 1 that doesn’t require using digis. I have used digis for years, and appreciate the ability to resize, rotate, flip, etc. I have amassed a large number of them and have a good organization for them on my cloud drive. All that said, they are not my go-to when I just want to play with paper. I hate fighting with my printer, and I really hate when I forget its a digi and try to watercolor it and have my ink smear. A couple new unsponsored challenges have sprung up, so maybe I’ll see if they would be a good fit for me and my schedule. Just another way to meet the goals above and get more value for the products I own.

Variety: I find that many of my cards end up looking the same… layers, image, sentiment, sequins. Similar layouts… no real variety. My hop groups really encouraged me to break out of my creative rut and try techniques I hadn’t done before or had forgotten about, or to use supplies I hadn’t reached for in ages. I’ve put together a list of techniques I want to try in the coming year. Hoping I enjoy the variety, produce cards in a wider set of styles, and perhaps find new things I’m good at. And the bonus is that I won’t bore you with the same thing over and over!!!

Whew! That’s a lot to work on, but they have a certain amount of overlap, no? Certainly in 365 days around the sun, I should be able to make a dent in these goals! I’m also really eager to share with you a new project I’m kicking off… details coming on January 20th 😉. Hope you’ll be excited too!!!

MisplacedMojo
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