My First One Layer Card

Thanks to Jackie Rockwell for her inspiring One Layer Holiday Card Challenge. I follow Jackie's blog because her cards always rock! This was just what I needed to make my first attempt at a one-layer-wonder:

I used the Polar Party stamp set from Stampin' Up! (penguins), and the Gnome for the Holidays set from Simon Says Stamp (banner, sentiment and snowflakes).  The white embossed geometric "glaciers" are from an inkadinkadoo ($1!) stamp. I colored the image with SU markers and blender pens in the colors Pool Party, Real Red, Basic Gray and Peach Parfait.  

This has a bit of a blue wintery feeling to me, so I'm also submitting it for the CAS-ual Fridays CFC79 "Winter Blues".

Thanks for looking, sending cheer to you all!

Katie

Retro Sketches 39 & The Friday Mashup 86

Here's a card inspired by the two challenges I chose for my crafty friend Bree at Craft-somnia Momma and myself to take a crack at this week.  We tackled the Retro Sketches #39 and The Friday Mashup!

Here's what I came up with after tossing my first attempt and starting over a few days later :)

The Friday Mashup challenge was to make a Christmas card with a non-Christmas stamp set or non-tradional images.  This was a lot harder than it sounded at first.  I used a geometric background stamp and used clear glitter embossing powder. The bow is a cut file from the Silhouette store. The tag is Basic Grey.

Here's the inspiration we were working with:

Thanks for looking, have a great and creative day!

Me and My Bestie on Thanksgiving

Just a quick post about my best friend Krista.  I got to see her for a few minutes on Thanksgiving day, hooray!  She is one of the most generous, thoughtful and positive people I've ever known and she is amazing.  We took a few pics and I want to share them, especially with her :)

We've been friends for (gasp!) 19 years. We've stood next to each other in both our weddings and each of us were there when the other's babies were born.  I could go on about all the great things she does for everyone in her life but this post would be WAY TOO LONG!

Krista: I'm so glad I've had you through thick and thin and I wouldn't trade you for the world! I may be an only child, but Ansley is lucky to have an Aunt like you.  Thanks for friendship, I love you!

Katie

(And the best part is, she is turning into a paper crafty addict too, so we can speak "paper nerd" to each other now! Who could ask for more?)

Fancy Flap Christmas Card

Yay! It's officially the Christmas Season! To celebrate I made a (semi-) fancy fold card.  It's a simple fold that opens in the front and is fastened by a small circle and a brad. Fancy fold cards are challenging because there are so many more panels to decorate and "tie" together.  Thanks to Hand Stamped Sentiments for another inspiring Technique challenge, they're good at getting me out of my comfort zone.  I see more non-traditional folds in my future, I can't believe the endless possibilities!

Among some of my new goodies I used that I've been dying to get at are a 3pc gift die and silver glitter brad from the Simon Says Stamp Stamp Festive Holiday card kit (love love love! what Kristina Werner designs AND puts together for the kits, she rocks!) and the Owl Occasions stamp set and silver glimmer paper from Stampin' Up! I also used Old Olive card stock, Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler ink all by SU which you can get HERE at my favorite SU! demonstrator's online store.  

Check out this week's challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments

Thanks for looking!  Hope everyone had a wonderful day either braving or avoiding the Black Friday madness :)

Happy Thanksgiving! and a Turkey Card

Hello there! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who read this post.  I'm so grateful that I started this blog a few months ago, and so very thankful for all the kindness and encouragement the crafty ladies out there give to me and to each other.  What an amazing and supportive group to be a part of.  You all rock!  Thanks for the inspiration and the kind words!

This fall card has been a long time coming, my head hasn't been in an autumn-y place but I'm getting one more done just under the wire before it's Christmas full on!

I got some inspiration from 3 different challenges.  I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, the color palette from Fab Friday and the cue card from CASology:

Check out the other creative entries at these awesome challenges.  Thanks for looking! I wish you the best of Thanksgivings!

Gnome for the Holidays Card

Here's another quickie post with today's card.  I've been thinking about the current color challenge at The Cameo Spotlight for what feels like weeks (ok, it's been almost 2 weeks).  My first attempt just left me feeling like I hadn't quite conquered it. So I decided to have another go at it, with a little push from the theme challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  The theme is snowflakes, right up my alley since I can't seem to make anything but a Christmas card lately, but I'm going to try to switch it up soon!

I used the SU! colors Poppy Parade (love that red, wish it wasn't retired) Peach Parfait and Lucky Limeade,  I felt like they were perfect for the challenge graphic at TCS.  I love this silly stamp! I usually consider myself anti-pun, but this one won me over.  I'm learning to "never say never" when it comes to being creative.  I colored him with my SU! markers, and you can tell I really haven't done much coloring, with all the amazing work people are doing with colored images it makes me realize my practice as a kid isn't really holding up...well, you gotta start somewhere!  I cut the hexagons and snowflakes with my Cameo and covered the snowflakes with glue and dumped them into a bowl of glitter.  A ton of glitter stuck to them but it reminds me of actual snow that way.

Here's the color combo that kicked my butt (in the very best way):

  And this week at HSS:

Thanks for looking, you should "gnome" it makes my day!

Gingerbread Men for CAS(E) this Sketch! #5

It's past my bedtime so this is a super quick post to throw my hat in the ring for the CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge #5.  Here's my card and this week's sketch:

These little guys were felt-(ish?) buttons my mom gave me a while back but with the Red Stickles on the buttonholes it reminds of real gingerbread cookies filled with jelly.  Hmmm....yum? Eh, probably not.

Da sketch:

Thanks for looking!

Merry Christmas, Dear

Here's a Christmas Card I made using inspiration chosen by my pal Bree over at Craft-somnia Momma. We both made a card using a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches & the color palette from Color Me Beautiful. Here's my take on the two:

I was all set to use my Stampin' Up! Polar Party stamp set when this little Rudolf just called out to me. (And dang wouldn't you know it, you're supposed to use SU! stamps for the Color Me Beautiful challenge.  It pays to read the rules BEFORE you are ready to post!  Well I know for next time, and I'll be back!) He's super cute and I used my SU! blender pen to color him with Soft Suede, Real Red, Primrose Petals and Crumb Cake ink.  The blender pen is so cool because it turns all of your inkpads into markers, love it.

Here are the inspiration photos used.  I LOVE these colors and simple sketch.  Nice choices, Bree :)

Thanks for looking, dears! Happy Monday to all :)

Just A Note

Hooray!  I just got my first Paper Smooches stamps in the mail (don't you just love finding a box of crafty goodies on your doorstep?)  I was super excited to break these out today along with some new washi tape and other little fun things I got.  This card came together with very few "ingredients".  I love that! 

 When I started out I was planning to use a different stamp, but I found this one in my new Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler set.  I think the "Just a Note" goes perfectly with this music note washi tape. The theme this week over at CAS-ual Fridays is "So torn" so I knew I needed at least one ripped element on my card, and I thought this tape would be perfect with a few things "bursting" out from behind the stripes. I made the heart with just some red card stock and topped it with glossy accents.  That's such a quick way to add a special pop to something small like that, I can't get enough of that stuff lately.

I'm super excited that I can finally join in the fun over at the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge blog.  You can find their cute stamp sets here.  Here's the Trend Watch: Typography inspiration photo for this week.  

CAS-ual Fridays also has started making stamps and they are super cute (of course)! I definitely have a few of those on my wish list.  Check 'em out here:

It's the time of year when it really feels good to express gratitude and take time to appreciate all our blessings big and small.  So I'd like to give a shout-out to my friend Bree at Craft-somnia Momma.  She's an amazing Stampin' Up! demonstrator and she treated a bunch of our crafty friends to yet another great night of cards and stamping projects.  Thanks for inviting us into your home every month and sharing all your ideas and supplies with us (no matter how nutty we can be!).  I think you rock!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Katie

Snowman Card for The Cameo Spotlight #7

This week at The Cameo Spotlight it's a color challenge to use Apple Green, Bright Orange, Rich Red & Medium Gray.

This was a difficult color combo for me, but here's where I ended up:

Love this little snowman cut with my Cameo.  I freehand cut the snow banks and covered them with tiny Martha Stewart glass microbeads.  They are tiny, shiny and super reflective.  Here's how they look up close.

The trees were stickers from my stash and I put some really chunky silver glitter on the hat, I really like  how shiny and sharp the big chunks look.  Just for funsies I'm including a picture taken with the flash on to show just how reflective the microbeads are.

Thanks for looking!

A Break Up Card (for dudes)

Today I did something for the very first time.... I made a Break Up card.   It's for an important guy in my life who could use a little pick-me-up right now.   The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays this week is to make a masculine card, so I thought this would be a perfect excuse to try my hand at a new "genre" of cards. (And hopefully cheer someone up too!)

It took me a while to come up with just the right sentiment.  I knew I would be making my own with some alphabet stamps because I've never seen a stamp set for this particular "occasion".  Some of the sentiments I considered were "it's not you, it's her" and "she never even made you a mixed tape" (ha, it made me laugh, but not sure it's funny to anyone else, lol).  The whole idea is pretty tongue-in-cheek, the intent is to make the recipient smile and you definitely don't want to make them feel worse!  Here's what I decided to go with:

I used SU Midnight Muse card stock for the base, and Crumb Cake for the heart.  Then I added some tone-on-tone details with some Midnight Muse ink.  I embossed the letters in white and cut up the heart, crumpled it and stapled it back together with black staples. 

Dare I say it was kind of fun?  Who hasn't felt at some point that their heart was all smooshed and needed to be put back together? It's not a feeling you get to express much in card-making so it was fun to think outside the box on this one, even if the reason is a bit sad.  

Well, I hope it does its job and makes my pal smile.  Thanks for looking!

Dynamic Christmas Mashup Card

Here's a Christmas card I made today while my favorite 2 year old stampin' girl was underfoot. A few weeks ago I let my daughter play around with some old stamps and ink.  Well, she loved it and now whenever we're in the craft room she announces "I need to stamp!" I've created a tiny crafty monster!
Here's what "we" came up with:

It's time for another combo of challenges to play with my talented friend Bree over at Craft-somnia Momma.  I chose the sketch and mashup challenge to use a rosette from The Friday Mashup!  and the colors from this week's Dynamic Duos.

I used the Polar Party stamp set, and to get the single trees in the background panels I colored them with Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple inks using a blender pen, then fussy cut them out individually.  I added some Star Dust stickles to the front trees. I made a rosette with the Gumball Green DSP, and topped it with a brad from my stash.

And here's my favorite stamping assistant caught in the act:

Love this!

Thanks for looking, happy day to all!

Katie

Christmas Tags

Every year I tell myself I'm going to make gift tags for Christmas and it never happens.  So thanks to the challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments for their tag theme:

Here's what I made with a cut file from the cameo:

I used the Stampin Up colors Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler which matches some of their new Christmas DSP.  The DSP was perfect because the double sided designs really look great with this library style tag cut file.

Thanks for looking and thanks for getting me to {finally!} make some tags!

Three Gifts Card

It's a brand new month and what better way to start it out than with a CAS card for CAS(E) this Sketch!

I love this challenge, every time I get inspired by the sketch, sit down to have a go at it, and it never goes as planned.  This is great because it's making me work and flex those creative muscles.

Here's my third (and final!) attempt at my original idea...

I still find the hardest part of making a CAS card is STOPPING.  It's so tempting to...just...add...one...more...thing...(and then that's it I promise!)  I think I'm happy with it, I'll re-evaluate tomorrow :)

(Excuse the pic, I had to use my phone)  Thanks for looking and Happy November to all of you!