MIA, but BACK!!!!!

I know I was MIA for a LONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG time....  I have been so busy with life, kids, the job, buying a house and a traveling husband that I could barely find time to sleep...  But life has calmed down considerably and I am enjoying the fruits of my new (2 years now) craft room...  I have been playing along with some of the challenges over on Splitcoast as well as getting some cards prepared for Mother's Day...  This is what I have been doing lately....  Grab a cup of coffee and browse through....  By the way, it's great to be back!!!!

 Brand new Rose Wonder Die/Stamp set.  This die is absolutely amazing and the cards I have seen made with them are just superb...  I can't wait to try a few more...

 

 I just picked this stamp up from Pleasanton, California a few weeks ago.  The stamp set came with the matching die to fussy cut.  I don't think you can tell from the photo but a few of the petals are actually cut out and popped up.  This is a really cool stamp/die combo...    And the details on the stamp are just awesome!!!!

This was a fun card to put together...  I love the look of inlaid dies cuts but this time I just cut out the hearts and placed DSP below the main panel.  I added a few smaller heart cut outs and tied the twine to the bottoms...  I am not big on hand drawn stitching but it looks super cute on this card...

 This is a card that I CASED for the Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast a few weeks ago...  I absolutely love this new heart embossing folder.  The embossing is super crisp and deep...  I also miss the simply pressed clay from Stampin' Up!.  I am so glad that I got my few bags before it retired.  Little did I know that Michaels sells Martha Stewart clay as well...    I also made my "glitter twine" using Sparkle N Sprinkle Tear ific tape...  So much fun and so cute....

This new butterfly set from Stampin' Up! is nothing short of stunning...   As soon as I saw this set I placed my order immediately...  Would have been so much cheaper if I had only ordered this butterfly...  *cough cough*  I plan to use this set A LOT!!!!  The color combinations are truly endless...

 Thank you Beth for letting me borrow this beauty...  Lotus Blossoms was a Sale-A-Bration set last year and I missed out getting it...  So when I found out she had it, I knew I had to borrow it....  Luckily I found  set and should have it soon...  I am not sure why I chose the blues here but they pop and look amazing...  The small little pop of sequins just gives it that over the top wow...  Another set I plan to wear out using....

I saw this card on Pinterest a couple days ago and was wow'd.  I decided to play around today and see if I could make it...  The flowers are just amazing and they pop off the card.  This effect is created using clear embossing powder only.  Yup, that's it... Clear...  Stunning isn't it?

This is another variation of the previous card.  I changed the colors and made my main panel a lighter color.  I used white embossing powder instead of clear and I chose to sponge the centers for another "pop" factor.  I am really liking the way this one turned out...  

 Very simple Mother's Day card.  I used a couple different embossing folders, a gorgeous matching DSP, and one of my favorite blooms.  I love the simple, clean look of 1 color cards...  May have to rethink which card  I am sending my mom this year...  It's gonna be a hard decision...

Another simple card using the Lotus Blossom...  I feel like this card is missing something but not sure what..  I added some Mon Ami Gaby bling for some bling and used a gorgeous embossing folder behind my main image...

Simple, Elegant, Neutral....  I love this card!!!

 I happen to fall upon this new die set from Sizzix today.  I am sure it's not new, but new to me and I am in LOVE...  There are 4 "mixed media" dies in this set, one of which is going to be great for my Father's Day card, and the other 2 are just going to be so much fun to play with...  I can't wait...

 Same die cut as in the previous card, but also uses the Sizzix Ornate Labels die cuts here... Also new to me...  When you take so much time off from stamping your next move it to buy all the stuff that came out while you were "retired" and it ends up costing you big time...  *gulp*

 Any time a stamp has a matching punch or die, I am going to make that a go-to set.  I have always been one to "fussy" cut, but I have to tell you that matching dies have made my life so much easier.  Where were these 10 years ago?  I know, in time all good things come... I can't wait to see what we are crafting with in 10 more years...

This is all for today...  I am so glad I was able to catch up and get my cards uploaded...  Thank you so much for taking the time to sit back, relax, enjoy a cup of coffee and browse my blog...  If I have made 1 person smile today, then I have done my job here!!!

More HYCCT Challenge Cards

This is going to be short and sweet... I just wanted to update my blog with what I have been doing lately... I have been playing along with the Hope You Can Cling To challenges at splitcoast.  We are halfway through the month and the challenges are great...  Here are the rest of the cards I have done so far.  Can you believe I am actually caught up and done all of the challenges?  Me either but I plan to do them all this year...  :-)  So here they are:

This is the step card that I was teaching at the Santa Clara scrapbook expo.  I thought it was perfect to put together for this "step" challenge..

This is for the Bind It All challenge.  To make our card look bound like a book or binder or such.  I used the top note die and some ribbon for my binding...

This card had to be friend associated.  An image, sentiment, etc.  I chose one of my favorite friend sentiments from Stampin Up's All Holiday set...

Something's Missing... Yup, my heart in the card front.  I punched my main heart and tied the twine through it.  All the other hearts were punched out and placed.  I also place DSP inside my card as well

Use music on your card... Sure no problem when you have this gorgeous music sheet background stamp.  I chose to emboss the background for a more dimensional look...

Quilts are nice and warm and cozy right?  Because that is what I was thinking when I was doing this card...  And these are some of my favorite colors...  :-)

Warm fuzzies.. What isn't warm about sharing a cup of coffee with a friend?  And a coffee that has a coffee cozy on it?  

No stamps? No problem..  I am in love with the inlaid die cute technique... So much fun and such an amazing look when its used...  This card makes me want to make a dozen more....

So that's it for today... Hope you enjoyed my cards.  Stay tuned for more the rest of the month...

Inky Hugs!!!

HYCCT- First 5 cards

For those of you that don't know what HYCCT is, it's Hope You Can Cling To.  They are a month long daily challenge for the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness.  I try to play along as much as possible because my mom is a breast cancer survivor and I know how hard a road it is and just how much a person's spirits can be lifted with a simple card.  I am not going to go into great details about these cards but I will post them for you to see....

This challenge is Paper Tole (3-d).  I stamped and punched my flowers and then used my paper tool kit to give them dimension.  I rounded the larger flower petals and bent them so they would look as much like a real flower as possible. I then layered a smaller flower on top and also added dimension by lifting the petals.  I added an enamel dot (that I made at home) to each flower center for even more dimension.  Below you can see the actual flowers and how I have layered them and given them the dimension that you see.






As you can see from the photo I have done several layers for my flowers.  I added some twine and a cut out sentiment to finish my card off.  This is a super simple card with very little but so much
dimension just makes it pop...





My next card is for the Shine On challenge.  We had to
have a light source somewhere on our card.  I chose to
stamp this adorable light from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  I added
a pearl to the center of my lamp for the bulb.  My main
image and sentiment are both embossed and the border
is drawn with a Soft Sky Stampin' Write marker.  I added
a few pearls to the corners and some twine and a button across the lower portion of my card to finish this one off..





                                                                               

Next up is my card for the Hope Floats challenge.  We had to have something that floated.  Well balloons float right?  So I decided to stamp my awareness ribbons in 3 shades of pink and fussy cut them out.  I tied a matching color of twine around each one of them to create balloons.  I ran my background through my clouds embossing folder to make the balloons look like they are in the sky ( yes a pink sky)  I tied all of my twine strings together and added a cute sentiment across the bottom and over the strings.  So here we have it "Hope Floats"...




So we are getting there... Slowly but surely..  And these are only the first 5.  These challenges go all month long.  So this next card is for the Two by Two, Side by Side challenge.  We had to use pink and purple on our card and somethng had to be in two's.  Of course you can see I have 2 butterflies here...  I love the gorgeous grunge stamp set and it made this card so easy to create.  I did a little sponging around my white edge and also around the word hope.  I am super pleased with how this card ended up...  So let me show you my last one for the day....  I saved the best for last....  (I think!)





Okay... So I really think this card is just too adorable...  I love everything about this card and how it all came together.  The stamp set is from Stampin Up and it's called Create-A-Cupcake... And you do just that... The best part is there is a matching punch to punch out all of the elements...  So cute!!!...  I made the hearts into enamel dots, (Super simple) and added them to my border.  I then used the ruched ribbon technique to create this gorgeous border and added my bow...   The final touch was a small amount of Bronze Splendor glitter added to the cupcake frosting to look like sprinkles...  Really happy with this one...


Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and see what I have created.  Stay tuned for more as this month of challenges continues.  Please join us over at splitcoast and see what great ideas you can come up with...  Until next time...

Inky Hugs!!!!

Beautiful Butterflies

        I am in love with this card...  I am just so happy with how it turned out...

I die cut my butterfly from Certainly Celery DSP.  (I really miss this color)  My main card color is a new Stampin' Up! In Color called Pistachio Pudding.  I absolutely love this color so maybe I will be okay with Certainly Celery being gone as long as I have Pistachio Pudding...

      I used my envelope punch board to make my envelope and then used my labels 1 die to cut the top flap.  I added a few strips of tear-ific tape in 1/4" and 1/8" across the bottom, head embossed my button, which is so cool... added some sequins and twine and then embossed my sentiment in the same color as my button.  The button is from Mon Ami and the glitters, tapes and embossing powder are all from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

        I had so much fun making this card today for no reason at all other than to sit on my shelf behind my head while I am filming...  :-)  Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by.  I hope you enjoy what I have done here today.  Please let me know what you think.

Inky Hugs!!

Count My Blessings

It's been quite some time since I sat down and thought about the colors of fall and I have to say... I'm NOT ready...  I want the summer to last so much longer... For us in Washington State, the fall means 8 months of rain and quite honestly I can do without...  Nonetheless, here is my card for today's Autumn Leaves challenge....

The scallop rows are made with Sparkle N Sprinkle glitters and Super Adhesive Sheets.  I picked 3 fall colors and ran with it...  The leaf colored were inspired by the glitter colors...  Both stamp sets used are also from Sparkle N Sprinkle and I just love these leaves...  I hope you enjoy my card today and I would love to know what you think..

Happy Stamping!!!

February SNS Blog Hop - Monochromatic

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the February Monochromatic blog hop by Sparkle N Sprinkle.  If you arrived here by way of Julie's Blog , then you are at the right place, but if not and you want to be eligible for great prizes, then click here to start from the beginning. WOW.... by now you should be getting inspired. Are you having fun? Monochromatic!! What a great theme and such a great way to get started without having to pick out a few coordinating colors... Pick just one and roll with it...

Prizes will be awarded, so don't forget to leave comments on everyone's blog, 'cause that's how you become eligible for the prizes that are to be given away. This is a 2 day blog hop so you'll have plenty of time to view all the projects and leave comments.The prizes are stamp sets, flocking, glitter embossing powders, etc.  BTW, there are 3 designers who've been designated to have prizes "hidden" on their blogs, so comments are important and we LOVE getting comments.They really make our day. So without further adieus, here is the card I chose to share with you for this blog hop...

For this card, I started with a simple white cardstock base making my card 5X5 in size.  I used my scor pal to create the embossed edges around my card.  I embossed the sentiment in the upper right corner using Princess Rose Embossing powder from SNS.  This embossing powder is a cosmic powder which leaves a beautiful sheen.  I DID NOT use my embossing buddy because I wanted to cover the entire card front with the embossing powder and tapped it off... I heat set the card so the shimmer would stay on the card front instead of wiping it away.  That is how I got the pink shimmer effect to my white cardstock.  I then punched out my border and added a strip of tear ific tape across the center and applied my bubblegum glitter.  I attached the strip and then layered my cut out hearts in their desired location.  I added a crochet bow to finish this card off...  I made this card for my husband who is currently deployed and can't be here to celebrate with me this year... I photographed the card with a dozen red roses and 2 heart balloons and I will be sending him a photo to look at while he is away...  That is the best I can do for him this year..  :(

Thanks for me and the rest of the SNS team on this blog hop. Before hopping on to Brigita's Blog, please leave a comment here on my blog to be eligible for a prize.... Now don't forget to return to Sparkle N Sprinkle so that you can purchase everything you saw while on our blog hop so you too can recreate all of these wonderful projects..

In case you get lost here is a list in order of all the team members on today's hop.

** April Williams  **  Barbara Bruder ** Shana Sands  **  Jackie Smith **  

** Marie Berquist ** Dawn Bennett  ** Julie Zippel  **Keri Brown (this is me)  ** 

** Brigita Skopas ** Karalee Ingram**Cammy Vietzke  ** Anne Temple ** 

Shona Erlenborn **Karin Martin  ** Brenda Smalle

 

Music in the Air

I love how this card turned out... I made this card last month but never uploaded it to my blog.  Per request from a friend, I am uploading it now... absolutely love how the glitter changed colors on this card...

I stamped the music background in versamark and embossed and then distressed the edges a little by rolling the corners as well as sponging around the edges.  My sentiment is also embossed.  I then used the Waterscape Glitter from SNS around the edges of my label.  The actual color is more of a semi-transparent white almost clear glitter but when I added it to the brown cardstock it almost turned a golden color.  I was pretty amazed and absolutely loved the look so I added more to the butterflies.  I added some twine and a button to finish this one off.  I hope you like this card as much as  I do... Thank you so much for taking the time to look...  :)

Golden Poinsettias

I made a few different Christmas cards to send out this year but this is by far my favorite one...  I can honestly say that this took me so long to make that my mom and dad were the only ones to receive it...  My mom is big into crafting and she allows me to enable her with all the wonderful products  I find and since I love them, she does too and ends up getting them too...  So she deserved this card and then some...

I

I started with shimmer gold cardstock and layered with neenah solar white that I ran though with my snowflake embossing folder.  This was the easy part...  The poinsettias are what took all the time to create...  The 2 smaller poinsettias have 3 layers and the larger one has 4.  I stamped the layers individually and then embossed them.  I used my Spellbinder's poinsettia dies to cut out all the layers.  I then adhered the layers together to create my flowers...  Probably doesn't seem like a lot of work, but the dies had to line up perfectly with the stamped image to look right...  Had quite a few mess ups...  I then stamped and embossed my sentiment and cut out with spellbinders ovals and scallop oval dies.  I added some gold balls and a gold cord to finish off this card...  I love the look of this and I really wish it were easily duplicated because I would have loved to find the time to create more of these to send...  That being said, I like how all of my Christmas cards turned out...  Some of you will see them when they show up in your mailbox and you aren't even expecting one...  ;)  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my card today...  I would love to know what you think... 

Triple Fold Tutorial

Tutorials really do take some extra time to put together...  They require so much time and work...  So I hope that you will grab a cup of coffee and a snack and join me here today...  As I said in my previous post, the Sparkle N Sprinkle DT members are creating projects this month incorporating "fun folds."  I want to share with you my favorite fold card and a tutorial to show you how to create this fabulous jaw dropper in your home...  All glitters, embossing powders and adhesives can be purchased at Sparkle N Sprinkle, as well as the 2X2 acrylic blocks that I am using in this tutorial.  You don't have to use the 2X2 size and they have plenty others to choose from...  So I hope you have your drink and snack in hand.... Here we go...  Start with a sheet of cardstock measuring 4" X 12" and score lengthwise at 4" and 8"

 

Then on your center panel find your center point with intersecting lines and draw with a light pencil mark.

 

Place your 2 X 2 sized square die cut side facing you on your center lines as shown and tape in place with removable adhesive.

Fold both left and right sides over your die and run through you die cut machine.  This will cut out both left and right panels at the same time exactly where you need them.

When you have finished running through your die cut machine, reopen both flaps and carefully remove die                                                and erase pencils markings as shown.

As you see in the next photo close up, you die will leave an indentation in your cardstock... Don't worry                               as you will be covering this in a later step and will aid in placement of your block.

Now it is time to start preparing our acrylic block to emboss.  This step is very important.  Remove protective film from 1 side of your acrylic and rub your anti static bag over surface really well.  If you don't do this step you will end up with a lot of "flakes" left on your acrylic and you won't get a clear crisp image.

Next carefully stamp your image on your acrylic block without touching your block.  You don't want to
                                                  leave fingerprints or oil from your fingers.

Apply desired embossing powder and heat set.  I chose to use Sweetheart EP for my sample shown here.

Remove paper backing from other side of acrylic again being careful not to leave finger prints on the new side and gently press entire block into your versamark pad to coat the backside of your block (NOTE:  You want to versamark the OPPOSITE side of your block then you embossed on....)

Using a coffee filter to catch any extra powder, apply stickum powder to your wet versamark and heat set just until melted and quickly sprinkle glitter onto hot wet stickum powder and gently heat set again to "seal" in glitter.  (Use can also use sparkle embossing powder which has a glitter look to it as well but I wanted to get the full sparkle on my block.)

                       This is what your finished block will look like...  Nice and sparkly and shiny....

Now using the same die as in the first couple steps above, die cut a white square to place behind your                                                                                 acrylic block.

Now cut out scallop squares the same size as your square block.  Cut 2 "window" squares as shown on the left and 1 solid square like shown on the right.

Attach acrylic block to white die cut square using "tear"ific tape (you won't see it I promise) and being very careful not to scratch your glitter off the block when you are removing paper backing from tape and then adhere to solid die cut scallop square as shown below. (Your glittered side should be adhered to the white die cut square.)

Attach to your card base centering and covering the indented portion previously created with your die.

Now when you close both left and right flaps closed again you will be able to see the beautifully                                                         created  acrylic block now showing through those openings. 

Decorate as desired to finish off your card.  I have 2 samples shown here for you.  The best part is that these acrylic blocks are so thin that you will be able to mail them as you normally would with no added bulk. 

These are gorgeous eye catching cards that sparkle with the look of glitter but won't give your recipient the surprise of being covered with glitter when they open their card.  This is a fun technique to do and an even more fun card to receive.  I hope you will try one of these cards and  I would love to see what you come up with...  Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today... I really do appreciate all of the love and support you show...  Please let me know what you think as I value your comments and feedback greatly!!!