CAS(E) this Sketch #12

Good evening crafty friends!  I had a wonderful weekend with some of my favorite girlfriends, especially my bestest friend Krista who came to town for a girls night and we had a blast.  Even better I got to finish up my Sunday evening with a little card-making time.  I thought I'd get in on the action over at CAS(E) this Sketch! this week.

I used my goodies from the Simon Says Stamp February Card Kit (except the tree stamp which is Paper Smooches.)  I think I'll throw my hat/card in the ring for the first time at the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog this week, where the challenge is to use paper piercing.

Here's the great inspiration sketch at CTS this week:

A super big thanks to the ladies at CTS for choosing my card as one of the honorable mentions last week, you all made my day!  Thanks for stopping by and having a look, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

-Katie :)

Muse #1

Hello all!  A quick post to make sure I get in on this fun new challenge/club, Muse.  I love the clean look of the inspiration card and I struggled to find my own take on it.  I knew I wanted to use a chalkboard looking panel but that's all I knew when I started.  My first attempt is sadly in the trash bin, and here is attempt no. 2...Anyone else cursing the gray cloudy days when trying to take a bright pic?  I sure am!

I love the scored box around her sentiment, and to mock the look of the box I made window for the chalkboard panel with the sentiment, and I used a 3D butterfly as a focal point in the lower left corner instead of the popped up flower.  I also used patterned paper as a vertical border on the edges of the card's background.  The yellow and spring colors inspired my color choices as well.

Here's the beautiful inspiration card by Amy Kolling:

To make a panel that looks like a chalkboard I stamped the image in white pigment ink, then restamped it  with Versamark and used white embossing powder, it made a smudged look, then I used a white colored pencil for the faux stitching around the border.

 Check out all of the amazing cards inspired by this one at Muse.  They are all inspiring, I can't wait for more great cards by all of the muses out there!  Thanks for looking!

You're Very Special (Retro-Duo challenge card)

Happy Sunday everyone!  It's been far too long since my pal Bree over at Craft-somnia Momma and I decided to tackle a couple of the same challenges together.  Thanks Bree for tossing the ball over in my court!  I chose the sketch over at retro sketches #47, and the color combo from Dynamic Duos #36.

Here's what I came up with while working with my little crafting assistant underfoot, in an embarassingly small clear spot of space on my desk.  I can't be the only one who sometimes just shoves everything aside so I can work in an 8x8 space, right?

Here are the inspiration graphics for these challenges:

Thanks for looking! Don't forget to check out my pal Bree's take on the same challenges at Craft-Somnia Momma!

Always Thinking of You ... retro sketches #46

OK, no posts for a few days after this I promise!  This is just a quick one of my second card I made today for the retro sketches challenge #46. Again, I had new-supplies-fever this afternoon :)

Supplies: cardstock: SU! Primrose Petals, Crumb Cake, Stamp: Simon Says Stamp "Very Special" stamp set, Ink:  Primrose Petals,  Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline 6x6 Dolled Up paper pad, SU! Honeycomb embossing folder

Here's the sketch for their challenge this week:

Thanks for looking!

-Katie

Love You Card for CAS(E) this Sketch! #11

I want to say thank you to everyone who left the wonderful and encouraging comments on my previous post about my dad and his card, it means so much to me.  You all are amazing!  

I was able to crank out a couple of cards today using a some great sketches.  The first is from CAS(E) this Sketch! Challenge #11.  

Supplies: Cardstock: Ultra Heavy white cardstock from Simon Says Stamp, SU! Basic Gray, Primrose Petals and Regal Rose,  Stamps: Stampin' Up! Hearts a Flutter and Seasonal Sayings, Ink: SU! Primrose Petals, SU! Honeycomb embossing folder, SU! Black embossing powder, Love me patterned paper by My Mind's Eye

I got a bunch of new goodies today so I was inspired to break them out.  I love the Hearts a Flutter stamp set, and the SU! embossing powder is super fine so it does great details.  Here's the sketch I was using:

Thanks for looking!

-Katie

Project Life 2013. I'm in.

After much deliberation I decided to make an attempt at Project Life during 2013!  I'm excited and I'll admit a bit intimidated.  Scrapbooking is about capturing life's little moments that are so easily forgotten, but that make up the best of our every day lives.  Project Life is the epitome of capturing life's little moments, week by week for an entire year.  I didn't want to saddle myself with a huge commitment or set myself up for feeling guilty if I fall behind, but I decided to jump in with both feet and here goes!

Around New Year's Eve I gave myself a warm-up project of a 6x12 title page... ok... I can do this....

Hey, that's not so hard, right? We got this...(we meaning me, my cameo and my die-hard photo printing husband, couldn't do this without him!) and I decided to start off with New Year's Eve itself and start week 1 with (duh) January 1st.  

Off with a bang! Here's my week 1 spread, I started off making all my own title and journaling cards but I caved just today and bought some of the actual project life stuff.  I'm close to finishing week 2 whilst currently living week 3.  I'm not even behind yet!  

If I can keep it up a whole year this little book will be so amazing to look at down the road.  I think it will be even if it's not completely Complete.  I would love to have a glimpse into the world I grew up in with my parents & at the little details of life back when. (if only Project Life had been around in the 70's...how cool would that be)? So all the hard work...WORTH IT!

thanks for looking and wish me luck!

-Katie

Happy Birthday Mom! ...a card...

Happy Birthday to my mom!  You're a wonderful lady and I'm so glad I have you around!  Now here's her card:

Supplies used: Ultra heavy white cardstock, patterned paper, brads and stamp set all from Simon Says Stamp January Card kit.   Butterfly stamp, silver embossing powder, Lucky Limeade baker's twine, Vine Street embossing folder, and vellum all by Stampin' Up!

I used the card sketch from Hand Stamped Sentiments this week:  

And I love the prompt over at The Friday Mashup! this week to use "different patterns" love using lots of patterned papers. 

And the CAS-ology Cue Card this week because I love these navy blue patterns.  Love pairing navy blue with a pale pink.

Thanks for all the great inspiration at some of my favorite challenge blogs.  Thanks for looking!

-Katie

I'm back! With a card for my Dad

Happy New Year!  I've taken quite a long break from the blog world over the holiday season but I've still been watching what all of my favorite crafty ladies are doing and as usual y'all are rockin' it.  

I'm back with my first post of the new year, a card for my dad.  I almost feel guilty giving him cards anymore because he never throws them away and is running out of storage space!  That's a great "problem" to have. :)

Supplies used: stamps: CAS-ual Fridays "Calm and Gentle" stamp set, patterned paper: Echo Park This & That Charming collection, cardstock: Stampin ' Up! Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake, ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Vintage Photo distress ink 

 

He's been battling stage 4 lung and brain cancer for about 9 months.  It goes without saying that there have been some really rough times these last months and that there will be more to come, but we also have much to enjoy.  Today he and my mom spent the day with our family to celebrate my mom's birthday.  We watched football and ate more than we should have, and I cherished every moment of it! 

I don't want to go on too much, we're here to talk cards, right?  When I saw the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps "Calm and Gentle" stamp set I knew I had to have it.  It's so perfect for a lot of things I want to say to him, like how proud I am of him and how he's pretty much a badass. {Well, there's no stamp for that particular sentiment ;)}  This is my take on a masculine card for cheering someone on when they are going through so much.   When he was first diagnosed he wasn't even sure he would do any treatment but he has fought through all the doctors could throw at the ugly cancer beast.  He's amazing.

Dad and me outside my house today.  (He humors my desire to take a million pictures of us, but it's not his favorite thing!)

I love you so much, Dad.  You really "get" me, I love that we make each other laugh and I wouldn't trade you for the world! 

Challenges entered: 

CAS-ual Fridays CFC 85: Round of Applause

The Friday Mashup! FM92

check out the other amazing entries in these challenges!  Thanks for looking!