Frankie box and card!

Aren't these guys just too cute? Is cute a good thing for a monster? lol Well, I had such fun making these, I thought you might like to make them too! If you would like to make them at my craft night October 9th, 16th or 23rd, just let me know ASAP. The card is 40 cents and the box is 35 cents. Give me a call, or email me if you would like me to prepare kits for you.

Happy Saturday!

Awwww, a nice, quiet weekend! I love it. And the weather is cooling a bit - FINALLY! I'm so relieved. It's been a long, hot summer.

So today I needed a gift card holder for a niece that is getting married next weekend. Sharon has a gorgeous one posted on her blog - http://notimetostamp.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/category/gift-card-holders/ I just love Sharon's style and this design is easy to duplicate and oh so nice.

I stamped the flourish from Baroque Motifs and then ran it through my cuttlebug with the birds & swirls folder. Oh so nice, don't you think? I used the elegant eggplant, as that is the color used on the wedding invitation. Of course the Paradise Bakery gift card will be replaced, but it's what I had on hand. How do you like this one?

NO, NO, NO, PUT THAT DOWN!

hee hee hee, this was the title of today's challenge on SCS. You know you say that to children all the time. So today's challenge was to simplify - NO embellishments at all. Now that should be easy, but . . . somtimes it's difficult not to add all those beauties we have lurking in the cupboards and drawers! lol

So here is my card for the challenge. The card base is very vanilla and stamped with French Script with Riding Hood Red ink. I then sponged on more riding hood red and a little creamy caramel. I then stamped the snowflakes from the Snow Swirled set with versamark and embossed with copper again. Ooooo, pretty!

For the tree, I used versamark to stamp the tree and embossed it with Copper embossing powder. That really looks nice on that red. I then cut it out and mounted it onto scalloped rectangles made with my nesties. The sentiment is also using the nesties, and I did paper pierce around the edges for even more detail, since we couldn't add ribbon or any other fun embellishments.

I hope you like it and I hope you have a wonderful Friday!

Beautiful Christmas!

I hope today's card redeems me after the last fiasco! Yikes!

I really love beautiful Christmas sentiments, and this new one from Treehouse Stamps is a definite favorite. I wanted that to be the main focus of my card, so I stamped it on the inside and used my nesties to cut and frame it on the outside of the card. I used rose red, whisper white and always artichoke card stock. I stamped and embossed the sentiment and little holly sprig. For the bow, I layered satin ribbon and organdy which was heated. I just love the look that gives to organdy ribbon. Ooooo, maybe I should have used some of my pretties kit on this as well. Hmmm, I may add a bit to it. This is definitely a hand deliver type of card. I would hate to mail it with this bow. So, what do you think?

Cooking? It's not really my thing anymore.

So now that there are just two of us at home (okay, so I'm making excuses) cooking is just not that much fun for me. We go out to eat a lot, and it's pretty expensive. So, I thought I would try to cut the costs a bit, going to a local place where you make your dinner entrees and freeze them. My daughter had gone to this one and thought they were very good. Okay, I'll give it a try. $156 for 12 dinners for 2-3 people.

So last Saturday my daughter and I went and prepared our meals. Now I have a tiny freezer, so I only brought home a few of mine and left the others in my daughter's freezer.

Sunday evening I cooked our first one - Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas. I made some Spanish Rice to go with them and heated them according to the directions. Well, I don't really like red enchilada sauce all that much, so I am not crazy about this one. My dh said he prefers my old sour cream chicken enchiladas, but of course they are way way unhealthier than this recipe. We ate only half of them and saved the other two for another day. Now when we eat them I will warm up some green enchilada sauce and add that. I'm sure I will like it more.

Last night we had a guest for dinner and I made the Balsamic honey glazed pork medallions. It is a very easy recipe and it smelled oh so good. I also made some oven roasted red potatoes and a salad. There was plenty for the three of us and I even had left overs for my lunch today. I think I over cooked the pork just a bit, but it was really good and I will enjoy having this one again!

I really love having a quick dinner ready to make. This is a great idea and is really pretty economical for the two of us. It was fun putting them together with my daughter. It really was easy, as everything you need is right there, all chopped, cubed or whatever and ready to assemble. As MS would say, "It's a good thing." lol

OH NO!

Well, this wasn't what I had pictured in my mind at all, and I'm not sure it's even a good result. I'm still mulling this one over. lol Maybe I should have stopped back a step or two.

So, for the snowman panel, I stamped him with white craft ink. I stamped him again onto the ruby red paper and cut out the hat, scarf and carrot nose and glued that on. Okay, that looks good. So, I punch out the buttons out of the brown and glue them on. Okay, not bad. Well, the white snowman just didn't show up all that well. Hmmm, what to do? I know, I'll go over the lines with my white gel pen. A little better, but still not so hot. So, knowing it still needed something, I punched out the snow flake and backed it with white to show up. Hmmm, too symetrical, it doesn't look good. So, why not run it through the cuttlebug with the snowflakes folder. I rather liked that, it was definitely better. Well, we can't leave well enough alone, so I used my glue pen and added flocking to the snowman. Sorry you can't see that step, but that is exactly why it wasn't so great! So, I came back and added liquid applique. Mmmmmm, I don't know. So I used my trusty glue pen to add sticky and throw on some dazzling diamonds. That has to help, right? Well, actually it did! I'm liking it better. I know it's not my greatest creation, but it is finished. I promise I am not going to do another thing to this one. Oh yeah, I glued the snowflake I punched out to the inside and glittered it up. I like that a lot. Well, if you've read through all this you're a brave soul. Thanks for stopping by. lol Have a great day!

Happy Fall with a little Breeze

This card is for the SCS color challenge: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze.

I used markers to put the three colors onto the sentiment and onto the small leaves (by Treehouse) before stamping, mounted it onto the chocolate chip cs and then onto the scalloped square photo corners in Baja Breeze. I popped that up onto the really rust cuttlebugged card front and the organdy ribbon (heated slightly). That is mounted onto a Baja Breeze card which is mounted onto the chocolate chip backer. I thought it needed something more, so I embossed one more pumpkin and cut it out and popped it up on the corner of the sentiment.

What do you think of these colors together?

Don't forget to visit Treehouse stamps and take advantage of the 10% off! Just use the promo code FallFun!!!!!!!

Moo-ey Christmas!

The challenge on SCS for the limited supply challenge was to use an animal and make a holiday card. Well, this cow seemed perfect to me, so I added a little hat and here you go! She makes me laugh anyway. All stamps are from Treehouse and you'd better head on over to their website. They are running a 10% off special on all orders from now until October 5th. Don't miss it!

I made the card for the limited supply challenge, and the only embellishment allowed was ribbon. So, after I posted it on SCS I added some more bling, just for fun - liquid applique to the hat, and red stickles to the tree and the gifts and around the sentiment. I'm posting both photos. Which do you like best?

Olivia the Snow Owl

So, today's SCS challenge was to use a charm on your card. Well, do I have any charms? I thought and thought and couldn't think of any, but them I went through some drawers and found a few, but nothing terrific. Then I thought of all my old jewelry. Surely there must be something in there, and sure enough, there was! I found this little charm bracelet that came with a DVD my dh bought and the Christmas cardinal was perfect. Oooops, I think I called it something else when I posted it on SCS. lol Oh well, eventually the right words come to my mind.

So, this is Olivia the owl from Treehouse stamps. I wanted to make her all white since she is a snow owl. Aren't those beautiful birds? I stamped and embossed her with white ep twice, cutting out the wings and popping them up. I then stamped the eyes with black craft ink and clear embossed before cutting them out and popping them up too. I love the "LOOK" she has now. I overlayed the stamped scarf she is wearing with the red gingham ribbon. I mounted her onto this scalloped oval of a basic grey paper, being sure it looks like she is perched on a branch of the paper. See, I even curled her little toes so she wouldn't fall off! lol The card base is embossed with the cuttlebug snowflake folder, and the sentiment is embossed and cut out with my nestabilities.

BWC and SC

Oooo, a combo card here. This is to meet [url=http://www.ashleyscreativecorner.com/] Ashley's blog brain wave challenge [/url] and for Rox's sketch challenge on SCS.

What do you think of this. I used clear embossing powder and stickles for shine and dimension. I am very happy with the look of this card. It has a very vintage feel to it, don't you think? If you want more details, you can check it out in my SCS gallery.

And here is the inside of the card. I love the new sentiments that Treehouse is releasing for the inside of cards. They are really lovely. Be sure to check them out.

Alzheimer Caregiver Thanks

So today's card was made using the cc from SCS, but also to fit with Cammie's challenge found on her blog here: http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/ Check it out. She has an amazing BLOG CANDY give away! WOW!

I stamped the flower from Eastern Blooms and used the butterfly trail from Flight of the Butterfly as the stem. I like how that works, and that sentiment is perfect for an Alzheimer caregiver, don't you think? It says: One person can make such a difference and that person is you. I stacked some scalloped squares to pop the main panel up and then used a cuttlbug border folder on the card base. I added a Martha Stewart punched butterfly, which I added depth to by sponging on some color on the edges of the wings and a blender pen to add it to the body.

What do you think?

Happy Friday!

Things are getting better, hour by hour and day by day. I'm so grateful. My dh is doing better and feeling better and I am coping better too! What a relief!

Today's SCS challenge was a white out and this is the card I came up with. It is using a new Treehouse stamp from the set Christmas Favorites. I love this flower and think it will make some lovely, lovely cards.

I stamped the flower with black craft ink and clear embossed three times, cutting two images out and layering them with dimensionals. I added the red stickles to the center, and of course the three red ribbons on the side. The sentiment is stamped with red and clear embossed also.

I hope you like it. I hope you have a great day, filled with love and joy!

Hugs,
Karen

It's been too long!

No wonder I've been stressed. I haven't stamped for more than a week. Well, today I took the time to stamp. So what if I had to get up earlier to make it happen. lol

So I made this card for two challenges, the SCS ways to use it challenge, incorporating silhouettes, and Sharon/Tammy's challenge to make a warm and cozy/stamped simply card. I think it fits both categories. What do you think?

Now I need to get busy using my new Treehouse stamps. I just got a load of new ones and they are soooooo cute! Check back to see what I create with them.

What a Monday!

Yikes, it's been a long, tough day. My dh had an out patient procedure on Friday and was soooooo uncomfortable (in great pain) all weekend long. He called his Dr. this morning and they said to go to the ER for an x-ray, so we did. Of course we both thought it would take maybe two hours and we would be home and he would feel better. NOPE! They informed us he had a perforated bowel and would need immediate emergency surgery. Oh my word, we never expected that! So, here it is - midnight and I am finally home and he is resting in the ICU. He wasn't breathing really well, so they wanted to keep a close eye on him all night. I think now he is there I can rest easier myself. Well, I'm going to try and get some rest. I may not post anything for a few days. We appreciate any and all prayers in his behalf. His name is Allen. Thanks!

Oh such fun!

So I had a shoebox swap at my home on Friday night with some wonderful SCS friends! Oh it was great. These are my friends. Back row: Kathleen (Defoe) came all the way from Canada to our hot hot desert in Phoenix. Heather, Julee, Connie (cmc2stamp)
Front row: My dd Wendy (wonniegirl) Melissa (toknighton) and me!

Barbara is taking the photo, so you can't see her in the first one! She and Wendy traded spots for the second one so you can see her.

Our shoebox projects!

These ladies are all such talented stampers, so our projects were just wonderful, as you can see here.

Our shoebox projects!

Embossed Shimmer

This is a new technique to me called embossed shimmer! You use an acetate sheet and lumiere mixed with ink and then run it through the cuttlebug. It's very pretty, don't you think? I only had a small scrap to work with, so I used Cav's (Maggie's Mummy) layout from a card I just received from her. It's so nice. I hope you like it.

Glorious Glitter

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today's challenge on SCS was to use specialty papers and so I dug into my hoarded stash and used some green embossed polka dot paper and a stripe with lots of glitter on it. Well, that just wasn't enough glitter, so I added a little more with my glue pen and dazzling diamonds. I wish I could capture that sparkle better in the picture, but . . . it just doesn't happen.

I stamped the cup and saucer (it's being released by Treehouse stamps tomorrow!!) with brown craft and clear embossed before cutting it out and popping it up with dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped with versamark and clear embossed, then punched out. Of course I used my glue pen to add glitter around the edges of the oval as well as the scalloped square and those are popped up. One tip I really liked at convention was adding glitter to the edges of ribbon. I did that with my certainly celery ribbon, adding dazzling diamonds, once again.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

A little project

I have some friends coming over tomorrow night and wanted to create a little project for them to do, if they wish to. Well, I was browsing through the SCS gallery and came upon a cute little love note by justcrazy and created one like it for my friends.

For mine, I stamped the image with Tangerine Tango ink onto white cs, and mounted it onto Only Orange. The card base is embossed with the cuttlebug paisley folder. I added flowers punched with our old/retired daisy punch and added white centers. I think it is so cute. Inside I stamped a little butterfly with a trail saying love you. I think they will like it. Do you?

Deer Friends and chocolate! Yum!

I really like the sketch challenge Rox posted on SCS today, and I really like the card I came up with. Yes, my arm hurts from patting myself on the back. lol But I do like it, and I don't always like what I come up with.

For this card I started by coloring the reindeer image with markers to get the brown deer and the red sentiment. Want to know what really happened from there? Well, I thought the red nose would look great covered with red glitter. I added the red glitter, but it didn't look good because the white showed through, so I scraped the glitter off and colored the nose with my red marker, added glue and the red glitter again. Now that looked way better. I punched that out with my circle punch. I wanted a snowflake behind that image, so I stamped the snowflake from Snowflake Spot with white craft ink onto real red cs and embossed it with white embossing powder. Oh yeah, I liked that too. I punched it out with the scallop circle punch. I colored the sentiment stamp with markers too, so that Christmas would stand out. I added a bit of ribbon and a chocolate chip mat, and there ya go. Oh yeah, I did run the card base through my cuttlebug using the snowflake embossing folder. I hope you like it too! Now, let's go eat some chocolate! Dove dark chocolate for me. It's medicinal, you know! wink wink wink

Monochromatic in Gray

For the SCS monochromatic color challenge this week, I chose shades of gray. Hmmmm, now that I look at it, I find it kind of boring.

I stamped the image with going gray and basic gray onto the white cs, then mounted it onto going gray and then onto the card base of basic gray. To kick it up, I added some silver brads, piercing and taffeta ribbon.

Do you think it is boring, or ? ? ? ? ?

Hot Chocolate

I created this card using a new stamp set being released by Treehouse this Friday, Sept. 5! I think it is going to be a very popular set, so swing on by and check it out!

The card base is chocolate chip cs which was embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder. I used Pacific Point for the corners to set off the main panel which is Baja Breeze. I stamped the image with Pacific Point, then came back in and colored the beverage with a chocolate chip marker. I used the white gel pen to add dots to the dots (oooo, is that redundant?) and to circle the dots on the saucer. I stamped the steam with versamark and embossed with irredescent ice ep. I love how that turned out.

Coloring Craft

This is a different technique for me. I kind of did what Frances calls Black Magic for this card.

I stamped the solid image with white craft and set with my heat gun, then colored with Crayola colored pencils. Fancy, eh? lol I blended the colors with a Prismacolor blender pencil, then I stamped the white outline with white craft and embossed with white instead of outlining with the white gel pen. Close enough to Frances' technique, don't you think? The sentiment is stamped with white craft. For the background, I cuttlebugged it and then ran the white craft pad over it. I also sponged the white craft around the edges a bit more and hit it with the colored pencil to bring that color to the edge. Then I used my sponge to blend that in. It's very subtle, but I like the look. I added a little organdy and taffeta ribbon and heated it. What do you think?

I'm working on my house

So I have been finding more goodies and putting things together in my house. I need to hurry! I'm having several get togethers here soon and it should look like a home, right?

Here is a wall in my eating area that just begged for family photos, don't you think? I hear you saying, oh yeah! I picked up the wooden "family" piece in Utah when I was visiting with Wendybell one time. I love it, so that was the beginning. Well I finally found some of my favorite family photos in one of those many boxes still in the garage, so I pulled them out and hung a few up. I know there are more of my favorites out there. I still have room on that wall, so that is fine. The bad part is, every time I move I change how and where I display my photos. Do I need to go out and buy all new frames that match? Arrrgghhhhh, I don't want to have to do that, but this is bugging me. I know I need to reframe a few of them - for sure. Oh well, for now those happy faces are looking at me, and I like that much of it.

Flutterby!

I just love butterflies and pink, white and black together, so this card was so much fun to make. I followed the sketch challenge on SCS (thanks Roxie) for the layout.

Want to know how I did it? You can probably guess, but just in case you can't figure it out, or just don't want to think . . .

I stamped the solid butterfly image onto the white cs with pink pirouette. This is one of the new SU! in colors and is such a nice, soft pink. Then I over stamped the polka dot part and the sentiment with black craft ink and clear embossed. I think I've mentioned a time or two how much I like that clear ep stuff! I use it on almost everthing I make. Is that an addiction? lol I matted that with black and pink cs. Now for the background, I stamped the white cs with black craft ink and didn't even emboss those dots. Then I stamped the black piece with versamark and clear embossed so you could actually see the dots on the black. Yep, that worked. I mounted that black piece onto a bit more of the pink, which I punched with the scallop edge punch. I thought about piercing it, but decided against that. I think it would have looked good if I had, but it looks just fine without that step. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you that I outlined the butterfly with my pretty in pink marker, and then went over that with a glue pen and added dazzling diamonds glitter. Oh yeah, that is the sparkle it needed. So pretty! So there you have it. Now go stamp something and feel great all day!

BWC#20

Hi there! Happy Wednesday! Time for another Brain Wave Challenge from Ashley's blog. It is a sketch challenge today.

I inked the pumpkin stamp with markers, huffed, stamped, clear embossed and then colored it with markers. I shadowed it a little bit, but I think I need some work on that. I used creamy caramel, really rust and pumpkin pie on the leaf stamp before generation stamping it on the top of the main panel. The bg is pumpkin pie card stock and stamped using tangerine tango ink. I like these colors together. The sentiment is stamped with chocolate chip craft ink and clear embossed.

Now head on over to Ashley's blog to see who else made a card for this challenge. You can find the link at the top of the main page.

AND there will be a new stamp released on Sept. 5th. It is the Friends and Lattes stamp set, so keep an eye on my blog for a sneak peek, or visit the other Treehouse design team members blogs or SCS galleries. They have already made some darling cards using it. Their links are at the top of the main page too! Now go, go see!

Getting krafty with basic black and rose red!

Today's card features the colors rose red, black and kraft. I really like these colors together, don't you? For my card today, I used the same stamp on the card base as I did on the main image. This is for Sharon's challenge found on her fabulous blog http://notimetostamp.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ I want to be Sharon if and when I grow up. I love her style, and she really has style!

For the main image, I colored the stamp with markers, huffed and stamped then quickly added clear embossing powder. It worked! Then I used a white pencil to highlight the image. Doesn't that look cool? It almost makes it look dry embossed as well. I think you can guess what I did for everything else, but if you have any questions, please ask. I'm happy to share what I know.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Faux dry embossing

I love using techniques, but forget about them from time to time. I know I've done this one before, and I really like the results.

It's really easy to achieve this look. First, stamp your image using white or vanilla craft ink - I used white. Wait for it to dry, or speed the process with your heat gun. Use a stamp a ma jig and offset your image just a little bit and stamp it onto your card with a dark color of ink. I used the same ink color as my card stock, which is ruby red. It really does have a 3D/embossed look to it. I stamped the sentiment with chocolate chip ink, distressed the edges, added some brads and ribbon, and there you have it. Hmm, I wonder who I will send this one to?

New bedding

When I asked my dh what he wanted for his birthday, he wanted this bed set we had seen at Bed Bath and Beyond. I couldn't stand to pay their price for it, so I came home and found it online for a much better price. It really is nice, and he loves it, so . . . enough said!