Christmas in May

I created this card for a challenge on the Justrite blog to create a Christmas card in May.

I wanted to create a card that was easily mailable (not so bulky) and so this is what I came up with. I really like to use a religious image for my Christmas cards and this set has two images that I really love.

I stamped this beautiful Justrite image onto vanilla cardstock using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then clear embossing. This was cut using Spellbinders Circles dies. Next I stamped the sentiment onto vanilla cardstock with Versamark ink and embossing with Gold detail embossing powder. This was cut/embossed using two Spellbinders circle dies, creating the open circle. The base card is chocolate cardstock and the paper on it is from Crafty Secrets Classic Paper Designs. I layered a brown velvet ribbon onto the darker chocolate ribbon, wrapping the top around the dp layer and tucking it behind. The image was added using foam squares to pop it up just a bit, then when I added the sentiment border, it was popped up even a little more. A simple card that is easily mailed.

What do you think?

JustRite Manly Card`

JustRite is showcasing new stamps being released and part of the fun is a contest creating manly cards. Now, those seem to be difficult for lots of people, including me. I generally tend to lean towards flowers, ribbons, and sparkle. Well, most men don't really like that - for themselves anyway. So here is my attempt at a manly card.

I used JustRite's By The Sea set. This set is great for manly cards, but really isn't limited to just manly, for sure. They are such lovely images for summer.

I stamped the image using versamark ink onto a light blue cardstock and embossed with clear. This was cut using Spellbinders Classic oval and mounted onto another from Not Quite Navy cardstock. The card is Riding Hood Red with another layer of the Not Quite Navy and then a panel of Daisy Bucket designs Garden Gate Evening Primrose paper. I actually used the reverse side (the stripe). I used foam squares to mount the image oval. On the right side of the card, I used twill tape which is adhered with Xyron adhesive. I tied a figure eight knot using regular old twine and adhered the knot with a pop up glue dot. I adhered the ends on the back of the panel using hot glue, since there is so much bulk there. It looks manly to me. What do you think?

Sparkle and shimmer!

I just love sparkle and shimmer. This project has lots and lots of it, trust me. You just can't see it very well in the photo.



I wanted to do a smoosh background, so I dropped some reinkers onto my craft mat, misted lightly with water and this is where the smooosh came in. Smoosh, smoosh, smoosh the tag and dry. Then I sprayed with gold glimmer mist. Oooooo, it is so pretty in real life. The bottom of the tag is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. Now I always get the back of my project messy when I do the smoosh technique, so I adhered it to a folded piece of artichoke cardstock. The green was just too flat with all that sparkle, so I misted it with the gold as well. Oh yeah, that's the ticket. I scored the top of the tag and the card so it would bend and open properly and then punched through all layers and tied the ribbons. So pretty. The image was also stamped onto a tag and clear embossed, then colored with Copic markers and AtYou Spica pens. I added some liquid pearls to the pin heads. This was cut/embossed using Spellbinders scalloped circle, misted with gold glimmer mist and then popped up with foam squares. What loveliness!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a beautiful day full of love and happiness!

Hugs,
Karen

Why wait?

Here are the other three cards I created for my card ensemble. Now you can see the entire ensemble. I hope you like them.






Thanks for stopping by!

One of four

I do hope you enjoyed the blog hop. There were so many amazing creations, weren't there? I loved it.

I thought I would share a card I made as a result of the blog hopping I did. Lisa made a wonderful ensemble of cards that I just had to try. I'll share the first one with you today.



This is a simple layout and really showcases the beautiful JustRite stamps so well. The paper is from My Mind's Eye. The stamp set is the same one I used for my blog hop project, JustRite Stamps® JB 09700 Plant a Little Love Set and I also used Spellbinders™ Circles Nestabilities® and Lattice Borderabilities. The image was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored with Copic markers. One thing I love about the ensemble I made is that all the cards are flat and therefore so mailable. Another product that made these so easy to assemble is Xyron adhesives! Oh boy do I love being able to apply the adhesive so easily and so well! I use the Xyron create-a-sticker™ for smaller pieces and the Xyron 900 for the bigger pieces. Love them both!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post #2 of 4 tomorrow, so be sure to come on back! Have a great day!

Welcome to Day 3

Isn't this blog hop exciting? Today is my turn to share what I came up with using the new release stamps from JustRite.

JustRite Stamps®: JB 09700 Plant a Little Love Set

Spellbinders™ products: Circles Nestabilities®, Big Scalloped Circles Small Nestabilities®, Flower Silhouette Impressabilities™.

Copic: E13, BV08.

This is a 5" square card.

Stamp the image and border on Vanilla cardstock with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink then clear emboss. Cut/emboss using Spellbinders™ Circles Nestabilities®, then distress the edges and ink again with the Vintage Photo ink, really working it in towards the center of the image to give it a very vintage look. Color the flowers with Copic Sketch markers and add a little sparkle with Diamond Stickles

Use Core'dinations Blackberry cardstock to create the mat. Cut/emboss with Spellbinders™ Big Scalloped Circles Small #7 and emboss with Flower Silhouette Impressabilities™. Sand to bring up the detail. The color wasn't dark enough for what I wanted, so I airbrushed using the Impressabilities™ as a stencil. Distress the edges, inking with Vintage Photo. Use foam squares to pop the layers up.

The next layer is white cardstock stamped with Rubbernecker Victorian Lace background stamp using vintage photo ink and overstamping with Rubbernecker Flourish stamps using Elegant Eggplant ink. Distress and heavily ink the edges. Airbrush the white half pearls using Copic E13 and adhere one in each corner.

The card is Elegant eggplant stamped with Versmark ink and the Flourish stamps then heat embossed with clear EP. Distress the edges and ink using Vintage photo once again. For a finishing touch, I airbrushed the ribbon to match my project. The ribbon is actually ¼" white silk ribbon! Seriously, it was. Doesn't it look old?

For all the important details, visit the JustRite Blog.

30 designers, FIVE shopping sprees each day. No one knows where the prizes will be! Each day of the hop JustRite will have five Mystery Blog Candy Prizes hidden along the hop with a total retail value of $600. JustRite will randomly select five mystery blogs each day of the hop and randomly allocate each of the shopping sprees. For your chance to win, simply leave a little love (a comment) on each designer’s blog including the JustRite blog. The more designers you leave comments with, the better your chances of winning. Each day’s comments will remain open for three days. A winner from each of the mystery blogs’ comments will be randomly chosen using Random.org. Consult the listing of designers at the JustRite blog each day (each day’s designers will be different) and start out on your way! Beginning Friday, March 26, summaries of all the winners will be posted on the JustRite blog. Good luck to everyone and enjoy all the JustRite eye candy along the hop!

Today during the JustRite Mega March Blog Hop (Day Three) JustRite and its sponsors will be giving away the following five prizes:

· $200 JustRite Shopping Spree
· $100 Spellbinders Shopping Spree
· $100 Copic Prize Package, and
· Two additional $100 JustRite Shopping Sprees!

Blog comments for Day Three will be open until Saturday at 6pm EST. On Sunday, JustRite will announce on their blog which five blogs have the mystery candy for Day Three. You will need to go to the JustRite blog to determine where you need to go to find out if you are one of the five lucky winners.

Be sure to check out all the fabulous designer's projects by going to all these blogs today.

Just Rite Inspiration Blog

Debbie Olson

Sherrie Siemens

Beate Johns

Heidi Blankenship

Kathy Jones

Karen Hunsaker (you are here!)

Peet Roeven - Belgium

Michele Kovak

Cheryl Nelson

Anja Curvers - Netherlands

Kay Sibley

Katarina Menzies

Holly McMillen

Tammy Hershberger

Angela Barkhouse

Heidi Van Laar

Jerri Jimenez

Sarah Parker

Jennie Black

Laura Davis

Ashley Newell

Alice Wertz

Shanna Vineyard

Rae Barthel

Ryann Salamon

Terre Fry

Mona Pendleton

Jenn Balcer

Lisa Silver

Kim Moreno

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't miss out on this fabulous blog hop! There are prizes! Lots and lots of prizes! I will be posting my creation for it on Thursday, March 25th! It's gonna be good!

Click here to go right to the JustRite blog!

A great resource

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by my blog.

I want to share a great resource with you. I'm sure you love your Spellbinders™ Nestabilities, Nesties™, and other die templates as much as I do, so here is a chart that lets you know which dies are compatible with which JustRite stamps! It also has some punches listed as well. What a great resource. I hope it helps you out:

Punch and Die Compatibility Chart

Grateful Heart

I wanted to share this Thanksgiving card with you. I created it to send to some special people so I had to make it larger so I would have enough room to write my thoughts. I still ran out of room, but I got most of my gratitude in it.

The card base is a red card measured to fit a legal size envelope, with the brown mat behind it. I used another piece of brown and then a piece of striped designer paper, cut/embossed with Spellbinders Deckled Mega Rectangles. I added machine stitching around the edges. On that is mounted a Spellbinders oval of Always Artichoke cardstock which was embossed with the Flowers Impressabilities. The JustRite image was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored with Copic markers before being cut/embossed with Spellbinders Standard Circles. I colored the embossed edge with a Copic Spica pen and mounted it onto a Scalloped Circle cut from Real Red Cardstock. I added some square jewels and a rich chocolate satin ribbon with two loops on the left side.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

My first instructional video!

Hey look! I figured out how to put a video on youtube and on my blog! I'm so proud! I'm not very techno savvy, so I am pretty impressed with myself. Okay, enough patting myself on the back. Take a look at my little tip!



A few of you have said you wanted to see the card I created using the tip in my video. Well, here it is!

For this card, I inked the JustRite stamp with markers before stamping. After stamping I used a watercolor brush and some ink to color the leaves pink. Using the video tip, I cut/embossed the stamped image out perfectly using Spellbinders Large Oval Die Template. I then used a Copic marker and the airbrush system to add some light color to the panel. I cut/embossed a regal rose scalloped oval to back the sentiment panel. I added a little airbrushed copic to the ribbon to add some of the deeper rose color to it and used a glue dot to adhere it. The dp squares are 2 ¼” and they are backed with regal rose 2 ½” squares. The green panel is 1 ¾” X 5 ¼” with borders of 1/16th of Old Olive. I embossed the green panel with the Sizzix Happy Birthday folder and added a bit of ribbon. The card is white but I used ”Mini Cosmic Swirl” template from The Crafter’s Workshop to mask before airbrushing with two shades of pink Copic markers. I backed the whole card with a regal rose panel. The stamp is from JustRite’s Thinking of You set.

If you want to see just how close I could get the cutting using my tip, click on the photo for a close-up.

Products Used:
Spellbinders Wizard
Spellbinders Large Oval Die Templates
JustRite Thinking of You set
Copic Markers: RV11, RV14, airbrush system
Stampin' Up! Regal Rose, Rose Red and Old Olive inks, Cardstock: Regal Rose, White, Always Artichoke, dp also in Regal Rose and Certainly Celery. Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink ribbons.
The Crafter's Workshop Mini Cosmic Swirl template

Thanks for stopping by. I would love to know what you think of my first video!

Mailable too

Here is another easy peasy card for my girl's class.


Stamp image onto white cardstock using Brown ink. I used colored pencils to color the leaves and berries on border of the image and the gingerbread man. Cut/emboss image with circle die template. Cut/emboss red scalloped circle. Adhere image circle to red circle. Emboss front of card with snowflake embossing folder. Tie ribbon around front of card near the bottom. Use foam squares on back of circle and adhere to card front on right side, over ribbon. Carefully apply small bits of Candy Cane stickles to berries and to buttons and cheeks. Be very careful not to smear them. Ask me how I know! lol Set aside to dry!

I hope you like this little cutie. Thanks for stopping by today! Make it a great day!