Field of Flowers

Here is the other stamp I bought on my craft store research trip with Erin and Lisa. I coloured the Hero Arts stamp with my SU markers and then misted it lightly before stamping. It took me three tries to get this right. The first one had too much water. For the second one I tried it on watercolour paper and it was too harsh. I like how this one turned out... but can you see a goof? I'm going to try it again with a little more water. My last three cards have really shown how much I am going to miss all the Bold and Bright colours that Stampin' Up is retiring!

Thanks for looking,

Kim

SU Card Stock - Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise

Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps - Hero Arts S5033 DesignBlock Silhouette, PTI Mixed Messages

Accessories - SU Markers - Orchid Opulence, Cameo Coral, Pink Passion, Pumpkin Pie, Ballet Blue, Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Always Artichoke; Nestabilities

Floral Wishes Thank You

Here is one of the new stamp sets I bought last weekend. It is a clear stamp set and I struggled with getting a crisp looking image using my SU ink. It helped to "erase" the stamp with a white eraser. I also put the stamp in VersaMark first and then the SU ink... I think I need to play a little more with using the clear stamps. I like the clear stamps, but I'm wondering if I should try a different brand of ink. The VersaFine ink works well, but I only have it in black and brown. Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to play around a bit more.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

Card Stock - PTI Stamper's Select White, SU Tempting Turquoise
Ink - SU Pixie Pink, Only Orange, Lovely Lilac; VersaFine Onyx Black

Stamps - Inkadinkado - Floral Wishes, SU - Short & Sweet

Accessories - Nestablitities, embroidery thread, 1/2" punch

Watercoloured Birthday Cake

I had the pleasure of going with Erin and Lisa on Saturday to check out two scrapbooking stores. I didn't pick up a ton of new stuff, but I loved having the time to check everything out and get inspired. I managed to make three new cards yesterday! The afternoon of shopping certainly picked up my spirits! Thanks, Erin and Lisa!



This card was created using an Elizabeth Craft Designs sticker on watercolour card stock. I love the look of these stickers. They are like embossing, but thicker and shinier. The watercolour card stock is thicker than the watercolour paper I was using before. It is really nice to work with. I coloured the cake with Stamping Up markers and then used my aqua painter. I love the bright bold look of the cake.

Thanks for looking,

Kim

Card Stock - Watercolour Card Stock, SU Tempting Turquoise; PTI Stamper's Select White
Accessories - SU Markers - Gable Green, Barely Banana, Lovely Lilac, Pixie Pink, Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange; Aqua Painter; Nestabilities

Easel Card

I used Darlene's card for inspiration for this card. I had never seen an easel card before and was quite intrigued by it. It was quite easy to make and I think it makes a great masculine card, even though it has ribbon on it!

I didn't take a picture of it closed up, but here is a side view of the card so you can see how the top folds down and makes the card look like a little present. Darlene has a tutorial on her blog if you wish to know how to make one.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - Maine Blueberry
Ink - VesaFine - Onyx Black
SU Stamps - Birthday Counts
Accessories - Nestabilities, Big Shot, Stampin' Dimensionals, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon

Branch Out Winter

I created this card for a thank you note for my brother-in-law's mother who is always very kind to send us a gift at Christmas.

First, I sponged Night Navy Ink from a stamp pad on to Whisper White card stock using a circle mask for the moon and a scrap piece of paper for the snow. I coloured the moon with Barely Banana pastel, which you can't really see in the picture. The snow on the tree branches was created with a white gel pen.

I punched three holes side by side on the panel with my Crop-A-Dile to make the hole for the ribbon to go through because a punch wouldn't go through three layers of card stock. I put the ribbon around the card, through the panel and tied the knot before I used two-sided tape to adhere the panel. That way there wasn't a hole on the inside of the card.

Happy New Year!
Kim

Card Stock - PTI Stamper's Select White for base, SU Whisper White, SU Real Red, SU Night of Navy
SU Ink - Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Real Red
SU Stamps - Branch Out
Accessories - Nestabilities, Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Sakura White Gel Pen. Stampin' Pastels, Crop-A-Dile

Fifth Avenue Red

I started out with plans to CASE this card by Carol Lee. I just got the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set for Christmas and I knew I wanted to use it for my sister-in-law's birthday card. Her favourite colour is red and Carol Lee's card is just perfect! Things weren't going as planned so I decided to try out my new Elegant Bouquet embossing folder that I also received as a Christmas gift and I ended up with the above card. I love PTI's Stamper's Select White for card bases, but I don't think it goes through the embossing folders as well as SU's Whisper White.

I still had the designer paper strip and real red card stock and ribbon piece, so I decided to give Carol Lee's card another try. I learned a few years ago to use whisper white craft ink with white embossing powder, but I noticed that it wasn't really smooth - it looked a bit like stitches. I decided to emboss three more flowers, but use VersaMark instead. That produced smoother embossing, but when you cut the flowers out (and oh how I LOVE to cut out little tiny things - NOT!), sometimes the embossing flakes off. It is less noticeable if you have stamped with the white craft ink first. So, if I'm cutting things out that have been embossed with white embossing powder, I am going to use craft ink, if I'm not cutting out, I am going to use VersaMark. Here is how my card turned out:

I decided to play around with it a bit more and added another flower that is raised with dimensionals. I also trimmed the ribbon a bit more:
In real life, I think I like the card with four flowers better, but in the pictures, I think I like the three flowered one better! What do you think?

My husband picked the first card to send to his sister so I'll save the other one for someone else or for Debbie next year! :)

Thanks for looking,
Kim

Card Stock - PTI Stamper's Select White, SU Real Red
SU Designer Paper - Pink Flamingo
Stamps - SU - Fifth Avenue Florals, SU - Warmest Regards, PTI - Faux Ribbon
Ink - SU - Real Red, VersaFine - Black Onyx
Accessories - Whisper White Embossing Powder, oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities, Stampin' Dimensionals, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Offray white satin ribbon from Wal-Mart, red satin ribbon from my stash

Whimsical Santa

This Santa from A Whimsical Winter was even more challenging than the Snowman. First of all, I made it to fit on a 4.25" x 5.5" card, which meant the Santa was much smaller than the snowman so there were LOTS of itty-bitty pieces. Boy, those are tough to glue! I made a couple of goofs, but nothing so tradgic that I felt I had to scrap it and start again. I forgot to add Santa's front. Adding that piece would have given definition between his body and right arm - actually his left, but on the right side of the picture :) I put his boots on the back of the trim of his coat, which made the trim bumpy. Next time I would put his boots behind his main body.

Merry Christmas!
Kim

Card Stock - PTI Stamper's Select White for Base, SU Whisper White, SU Baja Breeze (Retired), SU Real Red, SU Old Olive, SU Blush Blossom, Basic Black
SU Designer Paper - Holiday Treasures (Retired), Merry Moments
Accessories - Sakura White Gel Pen, SU Basic Black Marker, Cricut, SCAL Software, A Whimsical Winter SVG File, Rectangle Nestie, Big Shot

Baby Boy Sailboat

I haven't stopped stamping, I just haven't taken the time to get them on my blog. Hopefully this will change...

This card was inspired by Beth's card. My daughter needed a baby card for a shower last night so we sat down and created this one. I decided to make one along with her so I would have one in my stash. It uses the sailboat idea from the SU Nursery Necessities set. The half circle was cut with my Cricut at 1 1/2".

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - Bashful Blue
SU Ink - Chocolate Chip

SU Stamps - Short & Sweet
Accessories - So Saffron ribbon from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, Chocolate Chip Corduroy button, Nestabilities, Cricut, Stampin' Dimensionals

Good Luck Retirement

I created this card for my principal who is sort of retiring. I say sort of because he is retiring from our school district and has accepted a job as the head master of a private school. Since he is going to continue working, I didn't think "Happy Retirement" was an appropriate sentiment so I went with "Good Luck" instead. I just have two more retirement cards to make before the end of school.

I used Denise's card for inspiration. My Cricut came in handy for the circles, but I used my Nestabilities for the ovals.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Confetti White
SU Designer Paper - To the Nines Speciality
Ink - SU Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Stamps - SU - Lovely as a Tree, PTI - Mixed Messages
Accessories - Always Artichoke brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, Cricut, Oval Nestablities

Two Sympathy Cards

I needed two sympathy cards last week. Both were for grandfathers that passed away, so I wanted to make the cards masculine looking.

The first one didn't thrill me at first, but it has grown on me a bit more. I used Silke's card as an inspiration. I wanted to use some of my designer paper, but once I made my pick, I realized that the colours wouldn't look good for colouring the trees. I think I could have "upped" the quality of this card by embossing the trees, but I didn't want to use black. I'm also a little frustrated with my paper piercing. I used the Mat Pack so the holes are evenly spaced, but I find that they are not as straight as I would like them. I guess I need to focus on this the next time I use it.


For the second one, I used Kim Scotti's card for inspiration. I really like how this one turned out. I stamped off some of the leaves so that there is a variation in the colour of them.


Thanks for looking,
Kim

First Card
SU Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - To the Nines Specialty Textured C/S
SU Ink - Chocolate Chip
SU Stamps - Lovely as a Tree, Warmest Regards
Accessories - Chocolate Chip brads from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, Mat Pack, Crafters' Tool Kit

Second Card
SU Card Stock - Basic Black, Whisper White, Ruby Red
SU Designer Paper - Old Olive
Ink - SU Old Olive, SU Ruby Red, Versa Fine Black Onyx
Stamps - SU Branch Out, Papertry Ink - Mixed Messages
Accessories - SU Black Brads, Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls Embossing Folder, Corner Rounder Punch

Birthday Goodies

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I last posted. The sad thing is that before this past weekend, I had only made one card since then. (I'll post that one later. First, I want to remake it with some ideas I have for improvements

I just celebrated my birthday and my mom and husband were kind enough to add to my stamping addiction. This afternoon I sat down to use my new SU stamp set, Branch Out. I had seen some beautiful flowering crab apple or cherry blossom trees made with this set so that is what I set out to do. After I stamped the tree I cut it out with my Big Shot using my second largest Nestie oval. I framed that with the largest oval in Certainly Celery and then added the largest scallop oval in Regal Rose. After I made that, I was at a loss as to what to do next...
I did an Internet search and came up with Mary Fish's card for inspiration. The interesting thing is that Mary Fish's blog is on my blog reader, but I hadn't saved this card in my Inspiration folder because I didn't own the stamp set when I first saw it!

I liked the card when I finished it, but there were changes that I wanted to make. I thought the word window should be wrapped around the left side of the Whisper White oval and the brads needed to be closer to the ticket punch corner. So after dinner I decided to make another card, this time following Mary's a little more closely:

I finally broke down and bought the Sure Cuts A Lot program in March and I am SO glad that I did! The program allows me to cut pretty well any shape with my Cricut. I used the image of the SU Bigz Die Oval Scallop Frame from the Spring/Summer catalogue for the second card. I just loaded an image of the die into Inkscape to make a SVG file and then imported that into SCAL. Not only can I cut any image that I want without buying dies or cartridges, but I also can change the size to whatever I want! Let me know if you would like the SCUT file or more information about how to make your own files.

I cut the frame from two pieces of box board (cereal box) - cutting each piece separately and using the cut 3x feature. I glued those together and then cut a piece of Old Olive card stock and glued that on top.

I think the only thing that I would change about this card is make the Whisper White oval just slightly bigger than the frame so I wouldn't have to worry about the designer paper peeking through.

Well, thanks for looking and I hope I'll be back to making cards a little more regularly.

Kim

First Card
SU Card Stock - Regal Rose, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
SU Designer Paper - Certainly Celery
SU Ink - Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip
Stamps - SU - Branch Out, Papertry Ink - Faux Ribbon
Accessories - SU Organdy Ribbon - Certainly Celery, Pretty In Pink Satin Ribbon (from my stash). Pretty in Pink Brads from Pink Hedge Hog Paper Crafts, Ticket Corner Punch, Word Window Punch, Oval and Scalloped Oval Nesties, Stampin' Dimensionals

Second Card
SU Card Stock - Whisper White, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink
SU Designer Paper - Regal Rose
SU Ink - Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip
Stamps - SU - Branch Out, Papertry Ink - Faux Ribbon
Accessories - Regal Rose Brads from Pink Hedge Hog Paper Crafts, Ticket Corner Punch, Word Window Punch, Stampin' Dimensionals. Cricut, Sure Cuts A Lot

Quick Valentine's Day Card

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for my husband for a Valentine's Day card. I bookmarked a few, but wasn't feeling really inspired. Guy cards are such a challenge. This is what I ended up making:

On the inside I am going to write "I love ewe" or the words from that old song that is stuck in my head - "I love youuuuuuuuu...." I can't remember all the words or who sings it so I'm having a little trouble with my Google search! Too bad I couldn't sing to Google!

For the image, I found this great Doodlebat font called DB Animal Valentine's at Scrap N Font . I couldn't decide between that font and DB Animal Occasion and decided to go with the Valentine one because of the hearts and the sayings. Lots of the animals are the same in the two fonts. Since I ended up covering up the ewe's heart with a Cricut cut out heart, I could of gone with the DB Animal Occasions font and got the CUTE penguin image that is in that set... I guess I'll have to spend another $3 US for that one too! What an awesome way to add to my images without breaking the bank. Besides lots of images for a cheap price, I also can print this images any size I want.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red
Accessories - Rectangular and Scalloped Rectangular Nestabilities, Stampin' Dimensionals, Cricket George cartridge

Snowman Thank You

I like this colour combination - cool and soft looking. There's not much to say about this card as it is pretty self explanatory. I made it for my husband's, sister's mother-in-law who always sends us a gift each Christmas. I made the inside so I could write lots as I know she loves receiving letters - plus I wanted to cover the brad backs... they were an afterthought!

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Bashful Blue, Lavender Lace, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink
SU Designer Paper - Bashful Blue
Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black
Stamps - Snowman - Provocraft - handed down to me from my sister-in-law; Sentiment from Greetings Galore
Accessories - Bashful Blue brads from Pink Hedgehog Papercrafts; Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle Nestablities; Stampin Dimensionals; Ticket Corner Punch; Word Window Punch; Cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing Folder; SU Markers (Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Lavender Lace and Pumpkin Pie)

You've Got Mail

I LOVED Jennifer's card when I found it. Of course, CASING it turned out to be a bit of a challenge for me... you don't want to know how long this card took me! First of all, I don't have Nesties in the heart shape. I also don't have the Quickutz envelope die.

I was quite pleased with myself when I easily made the envelope shape using my trial version of the Cricut Design Studio and the George cartridge. I just welded a rounded corner rectangle with a rounded corner triangle. If anyone wants the cut file just e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

The scalloped heart didn't turn out to be so easy. First of all the hearts with the George cartridge are not perfect hearts - both are a little more funky. They are not scalloped and they also do not "nest". I tried making a larger white heart and cutting it with my Fiskar's small scallop scissors, but that did not go well. The only other cartridge I have is the Mini-Monograms and it doesn't have a heart on it.

I scoured the Internet, but did not come up with a cut file for a scalloped heart. I was "this close" to buying the Sure Cuts A Lot program to use to make a scalloped heart when I decided to try and venture out a little more on my own while CASING Jennifer's card. I'm happy to say that I'm pleased with my end result.

I think I really want the Sure Cuts A Lot program, but I don't want to spend the money right now and I realy want to make sure that the program will do all the things that I dream it will do. Unfortunately I downloaded the trial version of the program but didn't play enough with it before the the tiral ran out. While I have used the Cricut Design Studio quite a bit, I think the Sure Cuts A Lot program is a better program because you don't have to buy all the Cricut cartridges. I also find the CDS program a little frustrating because I can't always input the size values I want and I have difficulties selecting shapes onces I have placed them on the mat. Does anybody else have those programs? I won't complain too much as I'm using the program for free (trial version) and it has given me more opportunities to use my Cricut, which at one point I wondered if I should have bought.

The card also looked great without the Nestie's scalloped oval and "Love You" sentiment, but I decided I wanted to mail this one to my mom. She gave me the Nestablities ovals and scalloped oval for Christmas so I wanted to use them on a card for her. She is down in Yuma until April and we talk almost everyday on MSN. At the end of our converstations we always say "Love You", so I needed to have that sentiment on her card. I know that I said this card was made for my mom for Valentine's, but I think I'll send this one to her instead. I can use the other one for either my sister-in-law's or my step-sister's birthday - both of them are in February.

I also tried a trick that I had read somewhere about using acrylic stamps. I inked my stamp with VersaMark before using it with the SU Chocolate Chip ink. It worked much better than when I used the SU ink alone. It is quite crisp and solid - especially considering I stamped it on textured card stock.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red textured c/s, Pink Pirouette textured c/s
SU Designer Paper - Riding Hood Red
SU Ink - VersaMark and Chocolate Chip
Stamps - Studio G ($1 Stamp from Michael's)
Accessories - 5/8" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in Riding Hood Red, D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Cricut, Cricut Design Studio, Nestablities, Stampin' Dimensionals (for the oval)

Measurements
5 1/2" Whisper White Card Base
5" Chocolate Chip Square

4 1/4" Pink Piroutee Square - I cut the 3" heart from this square to save paper

4" Designer Paper Square

3" Heart

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #36

I decided to give Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #36 a try. I've been reading her blog for quite awhile and really enjoy her style. Many of the other blogs I have in my reader were found by looking at Kristina's Color Inspiration Round Up and I look forward to seeing all the cards in her round up each week. I love the colours she chose this week - rose red, pretty in pink, old olive and whisper white.


Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner and the pinks of the inspiration work for that holiday, I decided to make a card for my mom. One problem I have is that I have a limited amount of stamps and other than a few hearts, I don't really have a Valentine's Day stamp. I feel that I need to work on my colouring skills. I was beating myself up a bit about it and then decided to give myself a break. I've only had the markers for a few days and this card is definitely an improvement from the ones I've made in previous years. It's hard when you are comparing yourself to all the wonderful stampers that are out there. I am so thankful that they share their creations so that I have something to aspire towards. The positive thing I can say about this card is that I tried Michelle Skillicorn's Stay Put Bow for the first time and I love how it turned out.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Pretty in Pink; Rose Red; Old Olive; Whisper White
SU Designer Paper - Old Olive
Ink - VersaFine Onyx Black
SU Stamps - Send a Celebration
Accessories - Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle Nestablities; Pink Satin Ribbon from Wal-Mart; SU Markers (Pretty in Pink; Rose Red; Old Olive); Rhinestone from the Dollar Store

Playing with Christmas Gifts

I finally had a chance to sit down and make a card today using some of my new stamping stuff that I received for Christmas. I coloured the snowmen with my new SU markers. I LOVE these markers! I just coloured today, but I can't wait to try out some other techniques.

I cut the Flaky Friends out using my new oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities. I'm not sure that I like the embossing of the white oval, but it isn't so bad that I felt I should toss it out.

The eyelets are the bonus eyelets my husband (with the help of my mom) got from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts when he ordered 1500 brads for me... I now have brads in every SU regular colour! He also got me 10 yards of ribbon in So Saffron (Buttercup on the website) so I could check out the quality. It's great. What an awesome price for ribbon plus it comes in more colours than what SU offers. I'll definitely be getting more ribbon from them.

The last new thing that I used on this card is my atYou Spica Glitter Pen in Clear. I don't think you can see it very well in the picture, but it is super cool. It's so easy to add a glitter to tiny areas like the stars. My husband also got that from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts . I don't think it is on their website, but if you join their mailing list you'll find out about special orders. They had an awesome deal on Copic markers, but I decided that SU markers were a better investment for me. It's not that I wasn't tempted to join the Copic bandwagon, but I'm practical girl and don't think I'll be colouring enough to justify investing in Copics.

This card is missing something. I'm wondering if there should have been another layer between the Banbury paper and the Close to Cocoa base.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Watercolour
SU Designer Paper - Banbury
Ink - Black Staz-On
SU Stamps - Flaky Friends
Accessories - SU Markers (Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Regal Rose, So Saffron), Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities; Chocolate Brads; Certainly Celery 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, atYou Spica Glitter Pen (Clear); Ziggy Painter (Silver)

Gratitude

I LOVE quotes and have been collecting them for quite awhile. I was so excited the other day when I found Scrapnfonts . First because of all of the great doodlebat fonts that I will be able to use with the Sure Cuts A Lot program (when I get it) and my Cricut. Then when I signed up for their newsletter, I found out about this great collection of Word Art.

Even though I have at least a $1 000 worth of stamping stuff (Oh, my!) it never seems to meet all my needs. It is hard for me to justify getting all my wants because this is just a hobby and if I make two cards in a week, I think I'm doing well. So if I can figure out ways to create with out buying more stuff, I'm pretty excited.

I used Photoshop Elements 6 and this chart to change the colours of the quote to match Stampin' Up's colours. It ended up being a real easy card once I figured out how to change the colours! I must say I'm also really loving my Big Shot and Nestablities.

Thanks for looking,

Kim

SU Card Stock - Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla
SU Designer Paper - Haiku
Accessories - Nestablities; Stampin' Dimensionals

New Baby Teddy Bear

Natasha's card on the Clean & Simple blog was my inspiration for this card. My image was a little wider than hers so I didn't have enough room for the ribbon... the only ribbon I had that matched my colours was 5/8".


I tried using my Blender Pen to colour the bear, but the colour was way off. The bear on the left is with the Blender Pen and the one on the right is with the Aqua Painter. Both used Creamy Caramel ink.

Thanks for looking,
Kim

SU Card Stock - Whisper White, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette Textured C/S
SU Designer Paper - Sweet Always

Other Paper - Bientang Watercolouring Paper
SU Ink - Creamy Caramel

Ink - Black StazOn

Stamps - I inherited the teddy bear from my sister-in-law; SU Greetings Galore
Accessories - Nestablities Rectangle and Scallop Rectangle in the Big Shot; Stampin' Dimensionals; Aqua Painter