When Life Gets Nutty

I'm Here For You!

Hi everyone!  Today is the 10th of October and it's World Mental Health Day.  A group of crafty gals and myself are celebrating today with a Instagram Hop.   Head on over for your chance to win one of many prized from companies listed above!  Check out all of the great craft companies!

With the world in a complete upheaval due to the Corona Virus, it has left many of us isolated and feeling emotionally imbalanced.   This is the reason why we decided that we would make a hope to share how each of us is using crafting as a coping mechanism.

Each of us have a story and we are sharing some of our own stories.  Hop along on the blogs too: 

• Perky Hobby
• The Creative Twins
• Heartcraftpaper <<< You are here
• London Days
• Claudia Cubas
• Kraftempress
• My Artsy Craftsy Collections
• Varda Shama
• Quillish
• Pearblossom Press

​Personally I have had my emotional roller-coaster ride this year and I have had to make a complete change with my work, how I interact with people and even the inability to visit my own family.  It had been so bad that depression had set in.  I Had actually started back up in my crafting due to the whole stay-at-home order and it gave me something to really focus on.  I have zoom crafts meets ups with friends, have mail out trades and make video tutorials to help myself keep out of an isolation rut.

With that said, I decided on making this particular craft because the sentiment from the newest Lawn Fawn release fit the bill perfectly.  "When Life Get's Nutt...I'm There For You."  My card lays out the idea of two little squirrels out in the forest, cleaning up the fall leaves and just taking the time to have fun and pay in the leaf piles.  We all need to get a little nuts some times to have fun and break that monotony.

Let's Go Nuts Stamps
Let's Go Nuts Dies
Acorn House Dies
Copic Markers
White Card Stock
Tan Card stock
Brown Gingham & Linen Doodlebug
​Green Gingham & Linen Doodlebug
​Brown Cardstock

Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide
Carved Pumpkin Distress Oxide
​Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide
Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide
Dried Marigold Distress Oxide
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Liquid Glue
1/4" Foam Tape
​Black Ink

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Crack Up All The Nuts!

Stamp out and die cut: (2) squirrels, (1) rake, (3) Leaf piles, (2) scarves (4) sets of individual leaves. 

The Coloring is fairly simple.
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Squirrel:  E30, E23
Scarves: YG17, R46
Rake: E27, C04
Leaves: Y18, YR68, R29, R59, E08, 

With the images complete and out of the way, it's time to work on the Acorn House.  I started by blending Crackling Campfire and Carved Pumpkin onto some white cardstock.  This will allow me to die cut two leaves from the dies set.  I die cut the acorn background in tan.  I used the brown gingham to cut out the acorn top, door and window piece.  Using white vellum I cut out window backings for the door and window piece. Finally I used brown cardstock to cut out the door step and lock.

To bring a little color to the acorn, I used Vintage Photo along the edges of the acorn.  I then used Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide to dab some color onto the vellum pieces.  I layered and completed my house and adding the leaves at the top of the house for an accent. 

To make the background, I blended Dried Marigold and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxides on a 5.5" x 4.25" white cardstock.  I felt this give the sky more of a sunset feel.  Using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border die, I cut a 2" piece of green linen cardstock. Then I adhered this down on to the card with liquid glue.

Now I started to build up my card.  I adhered the Acorn House to the center of the card on the grassy hill.  I then glued the leaf piles together to make one large piece.  This was given dimension by adhering it down on the lower right of the card using 1/4" foam tape.

Next, I dressed up the squirrels with their scarves and then glued the standing squirrel behind the leaf pile so that it looked like he was popping right on out.  I then used 1/4" foam tape to adhere the running squirrel leaping into the fray. 

With liquid glue, I adhered the singular leaves all around the squirrels to make it look as if the one popping out from the pile is tossing some into the air, and the rest are flying behind the leaping squirrel as he runs through the grass.  I also laid the rake on the grass, as if it has been tossed there during all the fun.  Finally, for the sentiment I stamped out my sentiment onto a 1/4" strip of white cardstock that I trimmed down.  I used that to adhere to the upper left of the card and then stamped out the remainder of the sentiment on the inside of the card so that it does not remain blank. 

This is what the final product should look like!

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Thank you all for visiting.  Don't forget to visit my Instagram page to get more info for your chance to enter and win in the prize drawing!

Best of luck to you all!

XOXO - HeartcraftPaper