I'm too excited to sleep!

I decided to apply for the Spellbinder's design team, so I've been busy creating my projects and taking pictures. It was so hard to decide which projects to submit! I finally hit the send button on my application. Now I have to wait and see. I am not posting any of my projects until after I hear that I have been chosen! How's that for positive thinking?

Well, this is one of the cards that I thought of submitting, but in the end another one ended up going in. I hope I made the right decision! lol

For this one, I stamped French script on the main card which is Pretty In Pink. The heart lock is cut out with the Timeless Heritage die, using the die as a stencil, I sponged on chocolate chip craft ink and clear embossed. I sponged the edges with the chocolate chip ink and clear embossing powder. I tied a knot of the satin ribbon through opening.

The brown panel is embossed with the key. The key was cut out and reverse embossed onto the pink card stock using chocolate chip craft ink and clear embossing powder. It is mounted onto a panel cut out with the deckle edge rectangle. (This is a brand new die which my friend that is on the current design team let me use. The pink panel it is mounted on is embossed with the textile texture cuttlebug folder and then stamped with the French Script and I sponged on more color to highlight the embossing. The corner is punched with the wrought iron corner punch. I added chocolate chip satin ribbon with a metal slider.

What do you think?

Thank you Kelly Jean!

I got a blog award from my friend Kelly Jean. Go check out her wonderful blog. She is inspiring and creates such wonderful projects. And she is cute as a button too!Kelly Jean's blog
And thank you for recognizing my blog! I so appreciate it!

Here are links to seven of the blogs I like to check out!
Wendy's
Sharon's
Paula's
Leslie's
Amber's
Ann's
Kelly's

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Ooooo, the weather is so bad - well, not here, but across the midwest and east! Brrrrr! I'm so sorry for all those people without electricity! I hope they have gas heat or at least fireplaces.

Ashley Bowen (Treehouse stamps) has no electricity and isn't able to fill orders. So if you are waiting for an order, it will be delayed a bit, but she will get them out as soon as possible!

I hope you are all staying warm!

Bella Rose Dreams

Julia challenged us to add to designer paper and create a card. For this one, I used this piece of the beautiful Bella Rose paper and stamped the French Flair bg stamp with versamark and embossed with silver ep. I layered the ribbons, a silver mesh and a pink velvet. The sentiment is stamped with versamark and silver embossed before being cut and embossed with the Label 2 nestability from Spellbinders. I just got it and had to use it. It is layered onto a glittery silver cs. I added a fun corner using silver cord and a rhinestone brad from the pretties kit. I think it is a simple card but oh so nice. What do you think?

Dreaming of roses!

I looked at the sketch challenge on SCS just before going to bed and then dreamed up this creation. I really like monochromatic cards and to use it in layers just took it over the top for me.

I stamped the image on the large panel with chocolate chip craft and clear embossed, overstamping with French Script and classic ink. The edges are sponged. I made the long thin panel, using the same method. The rose bud is stamped and embossed on vellum and punched out with the scallop circle. The sentiment is embossed and sponged, and the hardware is distressed with chocolate chip craft ink.

Happy Valentine's day cupcake!

I'm back from my daughter's and so I had time to stamp this morning. I used the colors from the SCS color challenge, bravo burgundy, regal rose and kiwi kiss for this card. The stamp was colored with markers, omitting the holly on the cupcake. I watercolored the image with my watercolor wonder crayons and added stickles. Ya gotta have sparkle! The hearts are punched out and I used the bravo burgundy marker on the edges to give them definition before adding more stickles to them and layering them with dimensionals. The image is embossed and cut out with the nesties rectangle, and I also used it as a stencil, sponging on the regal rose color, which leaves the white border. I love how that looks. The regal rose is cut with the scalloped rectangle. The Bravo Burgundy layer was embossed with the cuttlebug swiss dots folder. So, what do you think?

The image is by Treehouse Stamps - Christmas Cupcake. Click on over to their site to see other fun new stuff! Lots and lots of fun new stuff!

Hmmmmm, how do you use kraft, Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy? I don't usually care for blue flowers, so I tried to find a different image to use and came up with this bird. I stamped it with versamark onto the kraft cs which was cut with the top notch die, and then clear embossed it before coloring with watercolor pencils. I stamped the Itty Bitty backgrounds splatter with the Baha Breeze and sponged the edges with Not Quite Navy. I stamped the sentiment onto the Baja Breeze cs with Not Quite Navy ink and cut the ovals with nesties, of course. I added the rhinestone brad and loops of silver cord before popping it up with dimensionals. The main card is embossed with the cuttlebug stylized flowers folder. How do you like these colors together? Thanks for stopping by!

Card 'o' the month!

Kristine asked me to make a card for each month as a gift for her mother. I hope she likes what I came up with. Today I figured out a fun way to package them. I really like it. I hope you do too!

These show the packaging, January and February.

Here are March, April, May, June and July!

Here are August, September, October, November and December.

BLOG CANDY

Hey, do you want to win some blog candy? I do!

Sally has a great prize she is giving away, so go check it out on her blog: http://sallyscreativecorner.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-candy.html

Check this one out by Rach: http://papercraftsbyrach.blogspot.com/

Michelle has some: http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/2009/01/valentine-blog-candy.html

Doris has some too! You have to hurry! http://stampingtower.blogspot.com/


Good luck!

Touch my heart

Today's challenge on SCS is to use hearts and red. I think I've accomplished that with this card and I love how it looks. I used heat embossing on the vellum layer and I love how it has a slightly transparent look to it. I inked up the stamps used on the vellum with versamark, then real red ink before stamping, and then embossed with clear ep. The layer underneath that is white card stock. Again, I inked up the stamp with versamark ink and then inked it with markers using real read for the roses and always artichoke for the greenery and heat embossed with clear ep. To distress it a bit, I stamped the splatters from Itty Bitty backgrounds in red and then went over the edges and further into the center with tea dye distress ink and then again just on the edges with real red ink. I attached the vellum layer with my atg glue gun under the ribbon and also attached it with the red heart brads in the lower corners.

I think I met the challenge to use hearts and red. What do you think?

Isn't it fun when you think of a new way to use a stamp? I did that today and it actually turned out pretty well!

I first stamped the flowers onto the white card base with versamark and Tangerine Tango and clear embossed. I stamped the stems from Both Way Blossoms onto the flowers, using my stamp-a-ma-jig, of course. I stamped the flowers again onto barely banana and tangerine tango cs and clear embossed. I punched out the stars from the stamped flowers and cut out the centers and layered on before adding a gold brad to the centers. I used itty bitty backgrounds around the main panel and onto the sentiment. The sentiment is from Pocket Silhouettes and punched using nesties and then I colored the edges with sponging and blender pen with ink from the pad.

Star flowers! Yeah, that's it.

Another fun sketch

I made this card for the sketch challenge on SCS today. I was so inspired by Rox's sample. It is a beauty for sure. Well, I couldn't do anything but flowers and butterflies on my card today.

. . . and purple! I used a piece of Anna Griffin dp for the main panel. The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch done in very vanilla and Elegant Eggplant, embossed with the cuttlebug swiss dot folder and glued together with the wings up a bit. I used some iridescent ice ep for the bodies of the butterflies and the center of the flower on the Love you panel - I colored it with my blender pen and markers. The very vanilla layer is embossed with the cuttlebug textile texture folder and the Lovely Lilac layers are reverse embossed with elegant eggplant ink in the cuttlebug birds and swirls folder, and then I brayered on a bit of elegant eggplant ink on the lower portion for even more dimension. I hope you like it!

Tacky glitter!

I hope my card doesn't fit the title too well. lol

I made this card for today's tacky glitter technique challenge and the Sweet N Sassy sketch challenge. I used two colors and texture of glitter. The brown is Martha Stewart's brownstone glitter and the bigger chunky glitter is Treehouse Stamps new Black Onyx chunky glitter. Boy do I love that stuff. You must try it. I also used it on the black butterfly.

The main panel is Heritage Postcard by Kathy Griffiths and Provo Craft. All the panels are embossed with the textile texture embossing folder.

The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossed before being sponged with Creamy Caramel and Tye Dye distress ink.

I applied glue dots and the brownstone glitter behind the black brads. I hope you can see it.

So, what do you think?

I've been busy today!

I created another card using the colors for the Sweet N Sassy color challenge, pink, white, gray, black and red.

This is a new Valentine set by Treehouse Stamps called Owlentine. I stamped them with basic gray ink and colored with Watercolor crayons and markers before cutting out and mounting on the shimmery moon and grey background (glitter cardstock) from DCWV. The shapes were cut out and embossed with nesties. I created the little ribbon cluster using a crystal brad from the SU! pretties kit.

I hope you like it!

More roses

So yesterday's card used the paper tole technique, and I used it again on these roses.

I stamped the image with basic grey ink onto the pretty in pink paper, cut and embossed the oval with nesties. I then stamped the roses again with real red ink and versamark and clear embossed before cutting out and adding to the image. I popped up the bigger rose and the smaller bud has one petal cut out and popped higher. I used glue and dazzling diamonds on the image. I stamped the sentiment from Treehouse (I've been wanting to use this since I got it. I love what it says)stamps onto the corner of the main panel and heat embossed before embossing the whole panel with the textile texture folder in my cuttlebug. In case you are having trouble reading it, it says: Life life passionately, Laugh until your belly hurts, Love unconditionally. I then sponged the edges and highlighted the embossed pattern with basic grey ink. I added some ribbons and I heated the pink taffeta to get a bit more dimension.

The bottom photo is to show you how some areas are popped up. I hope you can tell.

A few of my favorite things!

Judy challenged us to use some of our favorite things to create today. Well, that's exactly what I did. I love the Roses in Winter stamp set, my cuttlebug (especially the textile texture folder) and ribbon (especially heated organdy ribbon). For this creation I stamped my image several times onto very vanilla card stock and then overstamped it with the Fine Lace bg stamp. I then ran that layer through the cuttlebug with the textile texture folder and sponged around the edges. For the main flower, I stamped the image several times and cut it out, layering and molding each layer. I also used one of my favorite punches in the Martha Stewart line for some of the greenery. I used the mellow moss card stock and then sponged that with the always artichoke ink for a bit more dimension. The vanilla organdy ribbon was colored with my elegant eggplant marker and after tying into the bow, I heated it to make it curl (a favorite technique). It is very vintage looking, don't you think? That is another of my favorite things.

Thanks for looking! I appreciate you stopping by and leaving comments. I love to read them.

Hugs,
Karen

Happy New Year!

So, the challenge today is to use silver on a card. Well, I got these new butterfly dies and wanted to use them, and of course, I thought of this grass being embossed with silver. Oh yeah, that works. I used a bit of silver on all the butterflies too. The small ones are Martha Stewart punches and the large one is a Spellbinders die. I'm just learning how to use them, but having a great time.

I stamped the image with Pacific Point ink and then again, just barely off with the versamark and silver embossed so it has a bit of a shadow. I like how that turned out.

So, this is my theme for the year - Live With Passion! What is your theme going to be for this year?