2016 Holiday Series #10

Happy Friday!

Today's card features one of the best Santa stamps I have. I am rather picky when it comes to my Santas because I like them to look friendly and jolly. The method I used for the background was taught to be by my friend Stacy of Craft-a-holic Momma. It is a great way to use 6x6 pads but I applied to my stash of left over papers that I had from multiple pads over the years. Here is a video that Stacy has made if you would like to give it a go.

The Santa face stamp is from American Crafts Shimelle Christmas Magic collection and I colored him using my Copic Sketch Markers. The Merry Christmas is from SSS (I can almost pick out Kristina Werner's handwriting anywhere now). I used my Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle marker to add shimmer to the die cut words and to Santa's hat. 

My friend Teresa at Fresh and Renewed also has some Christmas card inspiration over on her blog so if you are hunting for ideas visit her as well! Teresa is also the owner of scrappingforless.com where I get all of my hot trendy items for less than retail prices so feel free to go to the website to grab a great deal or if you want to get in on the ordering as things come hot off the presses head over to the Scrapping For Less FaceBook Group and ask to join. The welcome letter will explain how that group works. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and hope you get out there and have a great weekend making memories with your loved ones!!!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

2016 Holiday Series #6

Hi ya!

So here we are only 17 days until Christmas Day! It still seems like it's a good distance away but now I'm thinking I better get my Christmas postage stamps ordered!!! Card #6 has to be one of my favorite images ever! It is so sweet! The stamp is from Art Impressions "Twinkle in a Tangle", I colored the image with my Copic Sketch markers. I came back and hit the lights that Mr. and Mrs. Claus is wrapped in with my clear Wink of Stella.

I used a jumbo fishtail flag die for the striped paper and used my MFT blueprints #2 die to cut out the paper with the lights on it (by the way how perfect was that paper with that stamp right?). Then as a finishing touch I added the little enamel dots that are also very glittery but that doesn't show up in the picture so well.  On the inside I added the strip of string lights at the top, I started to put them on the bottom because that is typically where I add the inside decoration but being as the lights look like they are hanging it just looked wrong!

Don't forget to head over to Fresh and Renewed and see what card Teresa made for today and pick some different ideas.

Scrappingforless.com is having a sale on everything Christmas! Head on over to the website for some great deals!

Thank you so much for stopping by I sure hope you are enjoying the series and I would love to hear your comments! 

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

2016 Holiday Series #5

Here's card #5! The background paper I used here was from my stash so I'm not sure the name of the collection. This little image is "Snowflake Garland Marci" from La La Land Crafts. The snowflakes in the corners are made with a Martha Stewart snowflake punch. I used Copic Sketch Markers to color the image.

 I carried the snowflakes on to the inside to give the card a more complete feeling. This card is a great Christmas card for a friend but is also versatile to use for winter cards as well.

If you are looking for some inspiration or just some pretty pictures of really cute cards check out Fresh and Renewed my friend, Teresa has some beautiful cards on her blog!

Looking for some great prices on any of the product types I've used in this series so far head on over to scrappingforless.com.

Thank you so much for spending a little time with me and please feel free to leave a comment!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

2016 Holiday Card Series: Card #1

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you did any shopping I hope you found some great deals!!! I LOVE making cards and I feel like Christmas cards are so much! I will be sharing with you my Holiday Card Series beginning today and then continuing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through December 23rd.

Not only will I be sharing with you my creations but I will also link to my friend Teresa's blog at Fresh and Renewed. We hatched this idea together and even though we often made cards either on our own or while we were FaceTiming we have supporting each other on this goal of sharing these cards on our blogs.

Image is from Penny Black "Christmas with Mimi" used black card stock for the base, MFT Pierced Oval, Bo Bunny Glitter Paste in Wasabi on a chevron stencil. I used Marvy Uchida Snow Marker for the hats. Colored image with Copic Sketch Markers. Put Stickles on bow, used black Pearl Pen on eyes for a touch of gloss and Wink of Stella Brush Pen on hearts. The sentiment is from Crafter's Companion stamp set "Home for Christmas" which I heat embossed using Versamark Ink and WOW! detail embossing powder in white. 

 Don't forget the majority of my supplies I get from Scrapping For Less and there are two...count them TWO ways to order with Scrapping For Less. Pre-order recently released materials from the FaceBook Group Scrapping For Less or go to the website at scrappingforless.com to get in stock items shipped to you next day! Happy Creating!

I did a second generation stamp with the "Christmas with Mimi" Stamp so that I could write on top of it without it being difficult to read. 

So come with us and get in the Spirit of the Season whether you are looking for inspiration or just enjoy looking. I hope you make the most of the holidays with your loved ones and that you enjoy my cards as we head toward Christmas Day!



Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :) 

Extending Easter 2016

Happy Belated Easter!

I hope you spent the day exactly where you wanted to be. Whether it was at church, at an Easter egg hunt, at a family dinner or all of the above, wherever you spent it I hope it was where you wanted to be! I had big plans for Easter cards this year, I wanted to do a series and make several cards using several stamps that I haven't gotten to use (I bought a few of them over two years ago!) but alas that was not to be. I promise all I did was go outside and hose down our front porch because we had company coming over and it hadn't been done since before last summer. I started sneezing that afternoon and two days after although I never ran a fever or anything I felt poopy!

Turns out that here in Florida we have an excess of pollen, our car even seems to keep a dusting of yellow on it and I am figuring that was the culprit. It was weird because I felt bad enough to not want to do anything but good enough that not doing anything was driving me crazy! I did end up making a couple of Easter cards finally, one of them using my Silhouette Cameo but I forgot to take a picture of that one and it would figure that one was the only one I mailed.

I do have one to share with you though, this image is so sweet and it reminds me of when I was little and participated in egg hunts. The stamp itself is from Stampendous and the image created by Mo Manning, she has an incredible talent for drawing people especially children.

Supplies:

• background paper is from my stash
• image from Stampendous
• washi tape from Echo Park (sorry can't remember the name)
• colored with Copic markers
• added a little shimmer with clear Wink of Stella pen
• covered shoes with Glossy Accents
• sentiment is a clear stamp from my stash
• colored the eggs with Smooch accent ink

 I hope you enjoy this card. Thank you for stopping by and please come back soon!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

Birthday Series 2016 #3

Hi everybody!

I hope you are all having a fabulous day! The card I am showing you today was a bit of a challenge to me. I truly love the technique of masking an image and stamping on top of it so that when you remove the mask you have created an entirely new image. I also very much enjoy masking an image and using distress inks to create a background around said image and find peeling off the mask to reveal the unblemished stamped image highly satisfying!

All that being said...I get the steps backwards. Every. Time. I don't understand the disconnect with my brain or why I pretty much have to make a few trial runs before I get it right because I do this technique rather frequently. I tell you all this to give you hope and help you to not give up even if you do waste a little paper along the way.

I discovered Newton's Nook a few years ago but this is the first purchase I have made from Newton's Nook. I am smitten with this kitty cat!!! Newton's Nook had a great sale on Black Friday or Cyber Monday (I can't remember) so I jumped at the chance to grab some of the stamp sets I have been drooling over.

Let's get into it...I stamped the image of the cat clinging to the balloon and then went to add the party hat...that was the first time.

The hat looks like it is floating about the cat's head

I started again and that was the second attempt...

The hat STILL doesn't look the way I want it

At this point in time as I am working on this card I begin to ask myself "should I just let this go? Maybe masking isn't for me..." and then immediately think "No, I am not giving up I really love this technique!" I kept working at it and finally got the masking down in the right order. In the past when watching other card makers doing this technique I remember someone saying "always work back to front" as in reference to what you want to see of the scene you are creating. I hate that even though I knew that helpful hint it still took me FIVE attempts to get it right. It was totally worth it!

FINALLY! SUCCESS! I was so happy and proud and couldn't wait to tell the world that I had figured out how to mask! (Seriously it is super easy, I don't know why I make it so difficult, I think it just means I need to use this technique more frequently.)

Here are the steps:

1. stamp the image you want to see in it's entirety first
2. mask off the first image you stamped
3. stamp the next image, for this scene I was only working with two images so it really simple
4. now mask off both images 
5. add your background colors, I used distress inks to create the sky and the grass colors
6. peel off masking and color your image!

Ingredients for this card:

• Newton's Birthday Bash stamp set
• MFT Hybrid Ink Black Licorice stamp pad
• Distress Ink Minis- grass: Mowed Lawn, Shabby Shutters  sky: Tumbled Glass, Broken China
• Tim Holtz Distress Markers used to color image

This technique is perfect for a card that you know you need to mail since it's quite easy to make it a single layer card. Thank you so much for dropping by and I sure do hope that you give this technique a try.

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

Birthday Card Series 2016 #1

Happy Birthday!

Well it's bound to be someone's birthday today so that's for them. For the rest of you I hope you are also having a fine day!

The Birthday Card is probably the type of card I make most often barring Christmas cards and I always seem to either be making them after the recipient's actual birthday or cutting it super close.

So this year I am on a mission to not only send out the cards I make for the birthday guys and gals in my life but to also make more than I need so that I can have a collection to pull from. This first card in the series had to have a little card surgery...turns out that I did not like the way the sentiment looked when I stamped it and I wasn't sure what to do about it. It wasn't horrible and I certainly could have left it as it was but it just kept bothering me! So I finally thought to take my purple Wink of Stella pen and go over the sentiment. I was so happy when it seemed to fix whatever it was about the sentiment that I didn't like.

I was halfway through fixing the sentiment when it hit me I should take a before picture or no one would have a clue what I was talking about...

The picture doesn't quite do it justice because you are not able to see the sparkle that the Wink of Stella pen added, also since it is a darker purple it is much easier to read.

I tell you all this as a friendly suggestion that if you find yourself pretty much finished with your card but still not happy with it try to fix it. Some of the cutest cards I've made were results of me trying to fix a mistake. Also I have found that if there is something about a card that just isn't working for me I for some reason cannot bring myself to give it away. I know I'm not being judged or critiqued for the cards I give to my friends and family but for some reason if it doesn't look right to me I just can't leave it alone.

Thankfully, it's just card making and not life and death worse case scenario you scrap it and start over! (Yeah I know that's the absolute worse case scenario, right?)

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

Valentine Series 2016 #6

Hi ya!

I am excited to show the image I used on today's card. I borrowed this stamp from a friend over a year ago I believe (and am a little embarrassed to admit). I took it with me to Ireland and looked at it often always having the intention of making this card but didn't quite get to it. I brought it back home with me because I had the card I intended to use it on already in my head. It has been in my mind for quite some time and it feels great to get it out here into the real world!

This is for a friend of mine who LOVES tulips and I wanted to make a card for her with this image because I cannot look at it without thinking of her. Plus the little gal on the image looks to me like she is just bursting with joy to share all the tulips she has. I think the image lends itself to bright and happy colors and I really wanted it to have a cheery feeling.

Ingredients: 

• image is from Penny Black and created by Mo Manning
• the yellow and blue paper is from my stash
• the red striped paper is from Echo Park 8x8 paper pad Dots & Stripes
• I used Copic markers to color the image
• Wink of Stella in clear to add some sparkle to the flowers and the vases
• I stamped the sentiment on to a label created with a label punch from the Paper Studio
• the sentiment is from Hampton Arts Jillibean Soup Handwritten Sentiments
• stamped the sentiment using My Favorite Things hybrid ink in Wild Cherry
• stamped the main image using My Favorite Things hybrid ink in Black Licorice
• the paper the image is stamped on is Neenah Classic Crest Card in Solar White (this is the paper I bought in the UK and the sizing is different than in the States) 

I have made this card for one of my closest girlfriends and I look forward to giving it to her for Valentine's Day. There really isn't anything that lends this particular image to V-day itself but when I see this image I think of my friend and I thought it would be a perfect image to include on a card to let her know I love her and am thinking of her. So keep in mind that if you don't feel that you have a Valentine specific image that lends itself to be used for friends or family etc you don't have to! Just find an image that either makes you think of them or that you think they would enjoy seeing. The sentiment doesn't even have to be related to Valentine's Day you can always just write it on the inside. Either way I cannot imagine that they wouldn't be pleased to get a card from you and that it would certainly bring a smile to their face, we all like to know we are loved.

Oh! One more thing...it may not stand out to you and I realize that I may be pointing it out and ruining the image for you but it SCREAMS out to me when I look at the card but I have repeated the mantra that "handmade items are NOT perfect nor are they meant to be" (sigh) and I am okay now. I was coloring that tiny little piece of her scarf between her ear and her hair and my marker "burped", which means that too much ink came out and I FREAKED OUT!!! It went into her face and I thought the image was ruined and i had already colored all the flowers and vases and I was in shock! Then I calmed down, blotted the area with a paper towel and used my lightest skin color to move the yellow out of her face as much as I could. I think it is passable enough to still be used and given but I would be lying through my teeth if I said that my eyes don't go straight to that blemish as soon as I look at the card, I am however able to take in the entire image and I feel better about it. I mention this little incident to just encourage you that if you make a mistake or a mistake is made for you DON'T PANIC! There is usually a way to resolve it without trashing the card and starting over. :)

Thanks for joining me for a card and a bit of rambling!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)

Valentine Series 2016 #5

Hello Everyone!!!

I bring a new cutie your way today and he was as much fun to color as he was to use on a card! While I was coloring this image I was thinking about musicians and how they have a reputation for people popular with the ladies. I find that to be true for me too...but to an extent. There are certain instruments that I find more attractive than others for example a saxophone is hot as is a guitar or even a piano but...the bongos? Bongos just don't do it for me. This image while not sexy in any way is stinkin' adorable!

Ingredients: 

• card base from my stash
• "lover boy" background paper from DCWV scrapbook kit in a stack Love & Wedding
• grid paper from my stash (I think it was from a collection called Lost & Found from My Mind's Eye but not 100%)
• image from La La Land Crafts Saxophone Luka
• I cut out the wonky frame with My Favorite Things Blueprint 15
• the wooden LOVE is from my stash and I used Smooches to color the wood
• I had also used Smooches to color accents on the saxophone
• I colored in the hearts with clear Wink of Stella to add some shimmer
• Glossy Accents on his eyes 

Everything I used to make this card can be purchased from Scrapping For Less (keep in mind all items depend on availability such as paper packs etc.)

Valentine Series 2016 #4

TGIF!!!!

Happy Friday everybody, well it was Friday when I started this post! (I am easily distracted and apparently cannot watch American Idol and type)  ;)  Here we go into the weekend and here I am with one of the sweetest images I think I have ever found! This image makes me think of the conversation hearts candy which I loved as a kid which is ridiculous because now when I see that candy I think "eww I'm not wasting my carbs on those!". Thankfully I don't have to make carb choices when card making! Yay!!!

Ingredients:

• image is a digi stamp from Saturated Canary LLC, created by Krista Smith
• striped patterned paper is from BoBunny #foreveryoung collection 6x6 paper pad which I purchased from Scrapping For Less
• wooden embellishment with sentiment is from Crate Paper Kiss Kiss wood pieces also from SFL (Scrapping For Less)
• yellow cardstock was from my stash
• the sweet little enamel heart stickers were part of SFL's 2015 card kit (I think it was February but not completely sure)
• Wink of Stella on the hearts in her hair and on her leg warmers (that's what I'm calling them) and also on the hearts in the box and the one in her hands
• Glossy Accents on her eyes (one of my favorite things about the Saturated Canary characters) and her lips

One last thing: If you are making a card with an image like this and are fussy cutting it out I picked up a great tip from Kristina Werner about taking a black ink marker and running it along the edges of the image. It gives it a clear, crisp, more finished look and can also hide any little scissor slips you may have along the way. 

I am missing my buddy Teresa but for an excellent reason. She is off lending a helping hand and some much needed TLC to my friend and her sister Beth. If you are looking for some inspiration on card making, goal setting, or just a pick me up check out her blog at Fresh and Renewed. 

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoy this little gal, she is so sweet I want to print out a bunch of her and color her in a ton of different color combos! Happy Weekend!!!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,

Kim :) 

2016 Valentine's Series Begins!!!

Hi ya's!!!

The candy's been on the shelves for weeks now! I walked into the grocery store a couple of days ago and it was chocolates, stuffed animals, forever roses galore...so thus beggineth the Valentine Series!!! I am so excited! I love cutesy images, fun colors, hearts galore, and finding ways to use images that don't typically lend themselves to the holiday of focus and bending them to my will! (Bwahahahaha!!! Hmm I feel as though a holiday built around letting your loved ones know they are special should not bring out the villain laugh in me...oh well! )

The lovely little banner at the top of this post is brought to you by Teresa Russell (I am still working on acquiring such skills). She has been posting her Valentine Series since January 6th. You should definitely check it out over on her blog at Fresh and Renewed. Many thanks to Teresa for making this for us, I had to tweak my dates a little since I was still traveling through the first of the year.

So here we go!

I always use items that are in my stash, the majority of my supplies I order from Scrapping For Less which is a preorder site that Teresa runs on FaceBook. I am sure if you follow this blog for any length of time you will hear about it again and again. :)

The Ingredients:

• textured cardstock
• patterned paper from my stash (thought the hearts on grey were so cute)
• image is from La La Land Crafts (I participate in the La La Land Club Kit it is absolutely worth it! )
• used copic  markers to color the image
• the sentiment is also from La La Land Crafts (is part of the same kit the image came it...told you it was worth it!)
• the pearl spray is a Zva sticker
• the little purple heart is a wood heart that I colored in with a purple Wink of Stella pen

I don't think the photo really shows it but on the buttons on the hat and on her eyes I added Glossy Accents. I also used a Uniball Signo white pen to color the white of her eyes.

 I put in links where I could just in case you see something you would like to add to your arsenal. I don't get any kickbacks or endorsement for any of the products they are what I happened to use while making the card. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Wishing you sunshine and smiles,
Kim :)