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!