LOTV - It's a Baby Blog Hop!

Gee, first I "disappear" for weeks, and now you see me twice in two days! :)  Thanks for stopping by today, and for my U.S. friends, Happy Thanksgiving! It's late in the evening now in the U.S. (except for my friends in Alaska and Hawaii), and you're either relaxed on the sofa, playing family games, or, if you're really brave, out shopping in the stores that opened this evening for a head-start on Black Friday deals. Me? I'm relaxed at home, on the web with all of you, because it's another fun Lili of the Valley blog hop day!

We're celebrating the launch of 10 adorable new Baby Stamps, that will be available to purchase at the LOTV Christmas event at the Leeds shop on Saturday, November 30, and available on the LOTV website at midday Monday, December 2 (GBT).

To participate and be eligible for the prizes (isn't it fun that the LOTV hops have prizes?!), just "hop" from one blog to the next, and be sure to leave a comment on each blog. Why a comment on each blog? Because the prizes are "hidden"...even we don't know whose blog(s)  is/are  the "magic" prize blog(s).

You see, this time, 2 full sets of the new Baby stamps will be given away...2 lucky commenters will each get all 10 new designs! Annnnnnd....there will be a third winner of a clear set of the new Baby companion stamps!  The lucky winners will be randomly drawn from all the commenters on the lucky blog(s), and announced on Saturday morning...so hop and comment away!

Here's a list of all the blogs taking part in today's hop. For the best chance of winning a prize, remember to leave a comment at each stop along the way...

Ideas to Inspire

Anne

Becky
Dawny

Debbie

Dena
Elise

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy (you're here!)

Kim

Lou

Mary J

Moni

Enough chatter...bring on the pics, right? OK...here they are! As you may know, my main focus with LOTV is to highlight the use of the wonderful sentiment stamps and papers...but this time I couldn't resist using the baby shoes companion set to include a set of tiny tennies on this little-boy-colored card. And these papers from the Winter Wishes paper pad are the perfect complement to this theme!

The chipboard heart is painted, inked, and coated with coarse clear glitter, and surrounded with blue and tan flowers and a flourish die cut...

After fussy-cutting the stamped and colored tennies, I punched a tiny hole in each heel to "string them up"  so they'd dangle from the floral cluster. They fall right over the center of the twine bow...

Here's a detail shot of a corner of the sentiment block - the sentiment stamp is in LOTV's  Set 61, Quotables/Celebrate set. It's stamped onto cold press watercolor paper, die cut, the edges watercolored with Faded Jeans Distress Ink refill ink, and has just a sprinkling of Vintage Blue Frantage embossing powder around the edges...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  Winter Wishes, Mary Fran/Nitwit Collections for Lili of the Valley

Sentiment stamp:  LOTV Set 61, Quotables/Celebrate

Baby Shoes: *new* LOTV Boys Shoes stamp

Dies:   Spellbinders Labels Two;   Sizzix Flowers Branches & Leaves;   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Chipboard heart:  Maya Road          Cream burlap:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Brown crystals:   Prima          Flowers:   Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts

Embossing powder:   Stampendous Frantage Vintage Blue

Miscellaneous supplies:  hemp cording, lace, paper doily

Your next stop on the hop is Kim's blog to see the lovely treasure she's made to share with you! You can always use the link list up above to get back on track if you get lost along the way. :)

Remember to stop by the Ideas to Inspire blog on Saturday evening (GBT) to find out if you're one of the lucky prize winners!

Good luck on the hop, have a wonderful weekend...and a big thanks for stopping by!

C.A.S.E.ing with a Twist...

Happy Monday, everyone! Today I'm sharing a baby card that I "lifted" from some I've made earlier, but added a little twist on the inside.

If you've been keeping tabs on me for a while, you've seen previous shadowbox-front cards here,  here, and here.  (As shown in my blog post with the first card, you can find the video by Olga, whose original design I used, here.) When I was asked to make a baby card to celebrate the birth of twins, I knew right away that I wanted to copy the last one (the baby card) the closest, and adapt it to this custom request.

After I pulled the papers and embellishments full of fun and bright colors, I set to work making up a little digital collage that I could use inside the shadowbox front. Then I "CASEd" (copy and scraplift everything) the front of the previous baby card I'd made, again working the babies' first name initials into the floral cluster with cardstock letters covered with Glossy Accents...

It's hard to see in the pics, but the white rose in the center is dusted with clear glitter, just to add a little sparkle...

Covering the cardstock initials with a medium-heavy coating of Glossy Accents adds stability to the letters, keeping them from bending...

Here's a little peek to the inside.  I was asked to include a way to be able to add a photo of the babies to the inside of the card...

...so I added a pocket to the inside, with room to place the photo on the front of the pocket. But it looked a little "plain" with just a large piece of patterned paper sitting there, so I used the clipart of twin babies that I'd used for the digital collage, and over it I added a verse about the "twin connection."  This decorated piece of cardstock is held onto the pocket front by sliding it inside a couple wedges cut into one upper and lower corner of the pocket front. This decorated piece can be removed and replaced by a photo on the pocket front, but in the meantime, makes the inside look more finished and complete...

Here's what that little note card inside the pocket looks like...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Basic Grey Kioshi/Rebun (stripe);   My Minds Eye Wild Asparagus Spring Polka Dot (orange dot); 

Fancy Pants Designs True/Pure (green dot)

Dies:   Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles Large;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves;   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Punch:   Martha Stewart Medium Branch          Alpha letters:   Luxe Designs

Flowers and stamens:   Wild Orchid Crafts, Prima, and The Paper Studio          Lace:   local craft store

Pearls: Recollections (flat back) and local craft store (round beads)          Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth, clear coarse glitter

Digital Collage Elements:

Background paper:   Designer Digitals/KPertiet          Baby clipart:   Karenswhimsy.com

Flowers:   VintageImages.org (flowers29 and flowers425)          Edge detail:   Designer Digitals/LynnG/crisp2

Grungy white lace heart:   source unknown          "LOVE" font:   Miss Scarlett Plain

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Catching Up a Bit...

Well, by my conspicuous absence for the past week, you can see that crafting has slowed down quite a bit in the Korner lately. :)  I will most likely be posting only once a week until after the first of the year.

Truth be told, paper crafting normally slows down a little during December, but last year wasn't as obvious because I had prepared several projects in advance to post on the blog. But not this year, so you're seeing the results of that now. In fact, I've totally slowed down just about everything this year in an effort to enjoy the Christmas season to the max, and not spend so much of it under pressure to get things "made in time" or finished for a holiday deadline. And I can tell you now that it's really enjoyable!  I've always thought of myself as the type of person who works best under the stress of a deadline, but I'm finding out that's not always true anymore.  LOL

However, all crafty play hasn't stopped, and I do have a couple projects to share with you this week.  One is the shadowbox baby card I talked about a couple posts back...and the second, a trio of Christmas cards.

By the reactions I got from the recipient, this baby card was a hit.  And that made me happy, because I liked it so much, too!  (The "a" on the card represents the baby's first name...and his mom's first name...so it was a perfect embellishment for the mom-to-be's card, don't you think? :) )

Baby shower cards are fun, because even though the gifts may be for a little boy, the fact that the card's for Mom means you can throw in some feminine embellishments...so my favorite, a flower cluster, could be adapted for one of the corners...with the addition of the large cardstock letter...

The banner was stamped, inked, and glued only at the left end and just to the right of the center...the dimension really worked well in the lower left corner opposite the flower cluster...

Another change to the aperture (cutout) shape...this time a large scalloped circle...

Dark red gems dress up the twine swags, with a little banner with rub-on letters spelling out "baby boy"...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:  My Minds Eye Tres Jolie "C'est La Vie";  Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl collection

Alpha Rub-ons:  My Minds Eye and 7Gypsies      Sentiment stamp:  Hero Arts

Vintage collage elements:  vintageimages.org (florals);  pjhdesignsoneofakind.blogspot.com (mother & child image)

Dies:  Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles Small; My Favorite Things Royal Leaves; Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork

Punch:  Martha Stewart Medium Branch      Paper flowers:  Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts

Crystal gems:  Creative Imaginations     Bronze pearls:  Queen & Co. 

Miscellaneous: clear coarse glitter, cotton lace scrap; cheesecloth

This trio of holiday wreath cards was fun to make...trying to make them the same, but different.  There's lots of white-on-white, with only the wreaths and fir branches to break that up.  I was hoping for a sunny day to photograph them, but it wasn't going to happen, although I now understand the sun might be back tomorrow.  I had to settle for my trusty "sunlight" indoor lamps...not my favorite way to photograph white cards. The wreaths are made with punched branches, leaves, and flowers on a circle of cardstock.

This is the "medium" sized wreath - the diameter is approximately 2-3/4"...

Supplies:

Dies: Spellbinders Labels 22 (for aperture shape); Spellbinders Fancy Framed Tags Two (sentiment)

Sizzix Diamond embossing folder      Sentiment stamp: Inkadinkado

Punches: Martha Stewart Medium Branch; Punch Bunch Ash Leaf; Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Hydrangea  (wreath)

Miscellaneous: foam tape, ribbon, Golden Rod Stickles

The wreath on this card is the largest of the three...the finished diameter is approximately 3-1/2"...

Supplies:

Dies: Spellbinders Labels 22 (aperture shape)      Sizzix Diamond embossing folder

Punches: Martha Stewart Medium Branch; Punch Bunch Ash Leaf; Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Hydrangea (wreath)

Pearls: Recollections      Miscellaneous: ribbon, foam tape, Golden Rod Stickles

I changed things up just a little on this card.  After embossing the front piece with the woodgrain texture, I cut it into strips, distressed the long edges, and adhered them to the card front, using foam tape to adhere every other "plank" to provide a little more dimension...

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Woodgrain Texture Fade embossing folder

Punches: Martha Stewart Medium Branch; Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Hydrangea (wreath and pine spray)

Glitter dots: Pebbles      Maya Road chipboard window and flower box

Miscellaneous: ribbon, foam tape, Tonic edge distresser, Golden Rod Stickles

Thanks so much for visiting today! I hope you're having a wonderful week, and that you, too, are able to find time for some joyful moments in this busy holiday season.