it's weekend sketch challenge time!

Happy Friday! Today is Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge and this one is fantastic! This sketch is perfect for a single image card and can be done in a snap. Part of the Big Brown Truck delivery the other day was the set Nursery Necessities and the Nursery Letters jumbo wheel and today I got to play around with them a little bit. I chose to do a square version of the challenge to be a little different from my usual A2 size (5-1/2 x 4-1/4). The base is 4-1/4 x 8-1/2 so saffron. I layered the 4-1/8 x 3-1/8 piece of so saffron prints designer paper on a 4-1/8 x 4-1/8 piece of certainly celery. I took my bashful blue (1-7/8 x 4-1/8) and used versamark ink on the Nursery Letters wheel to get a subtle background. I stamped 'rock-a-bye-baby' in black Staz-on ink on a piece of 2-1/2 x 2-1/4 whisper white. The boat is stamped in bashful blue, certainly celery and so saffron and I just cut out the pieces I needed to make the boat so colorful. DID YOU KNOW??? The 1-1/4" circle punch frames out the bottom of the boat perfectly!!! That was a fun discovery. I don't know about you, but when I try to cut out something curvy, it looks pretty crazy. Now I can cheat and have a nice smooth line. I popped each piece of the boat up on a pop up dot and did the same with the framed rectangle. The brads are from the soft subtles collection and the ribbon is apricot grosgrain. I think you'll be seeing a whole lot more of this sketch from me, loved it! Have a great weekend everyone - see you Monday.
~Karen

just peeking

I have another spring card for you today - seems like I stamp in themes lately. This card comes from a featured stamper challenge at splitcoaststampers. The idea is you copy the featured stamper's card from their gallery, only changing a few things (at least 2). Here is the card I copied or CASE'd. I didn't change much at all, just the colors and sentiment. What I love about her card is the flower is just peeking into the picture. If you are looking for inspiration, try a featured stamper challenge to get those creative vibes going. By the way, this week's featured stamper is Mary Jo Albright and her cards are gorgeous! Love all her stuff. She's always featured in Stampin' Up! magazines.
The card base is Papertrey's stampers select white - now this is THE best white cardstock to use as a card base. It's very thick, not at all flimsy, and holds the ink just great. Plus, you can either order it in already cut and scored cardstock (including envelopes) or as an 8-1/2 x 11 paper pack. Ok, enough of the promo - ha! You may recognize the soft sky prints designer paper and I love how much it complements the Pick a Petal stamp set. Love those polka dots! The HB (happy birthday) stamp is from It's Your Birthday. I used a rhinestone brad to hold the flower accent in place and the ribbon is chocolate grosgrain.


On a side note, does anyone know how to set up a blog to open a new window when you click on a link? Not that I want to hold you hostage at my blog or anything, hee! Thanks for stopping by!


~Karen

new stamps!

My doorbell rang yesterday afternoon and I was extremely excited because it was Mr. Brown with my new stamps and paper!! I finally ordered some fun new things from the Occasions mini catalog and boy am I happy! First of all, the new Afternoon Tea paper is devine. I absolutely love it and it's so much better in real life than in the catalog. Second, as a demonstrator I can order some things in bulk, so I took advantage and ordered some rub-ons, die cuts, and these cute little flower slides that are part of a new hodgepodge hardware kit that is styled silver. Very cute! I had to my new toys in today's card. The card base is standard 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 soft sky and I layered chocolate chip and a piece of Afternoon Tea on top. The thick strip across the middle of the card is groovy guava, scalloped of course, and then the other side of the designer paper. I slid chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon through the flower slide and attached the ribbon underneath the chocolate chip layer (I didn't attach the main panel of the card to the soft sky cardstock until I was finished). To create an aged look on the flower stems, I stamped them in chocolate chip and then stamped it off on a scrap piece of paper. Then I inked the stamp in wild wasabi and you can still see a faint tint of the chocolate. I stamped the flowers again in groovy guava and cut the blooms out and popped them up with a dimensional. The 3 brads up top are from the antique brads package. Oh, I did sponge chocolate chip ink around all of the papers to keep the aged theme going. The stamp set is Live your Dream, which coordinates with the Afternoon Tea designer paper. Today I'll have to dream up a card or project with those fantastic rub-ons!

~Karen

something new to try

I have always wanted to try to make a card using the joy fold, and I finally did today - yea for me! Ok, just patting myself on the back here. I was intimidated by it, truthfully, but you know what? It's a piece of cake really. Thank goodness for coordinating patterned paper because that is what made this a very easy card. I got out my packet of Spring Fling designer paper and took out the patterns that I wanted to use and there you have it - just pick the coordinating cardstock. My card base is so saffron and the card middle is certainly celery. I used my 3/4" circle punch and an EK Success flower punch to make a little clasp for the card to fold underneath. To tie the ribbon around the card, I cut a slit in the fold of the paper and slid the ribbon right through it. The inside sentiment is from Cheery Chat (retired) and I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to center the Happy Birthday and then the sentiment over the top of it. It's difficult to see in this teeny tiny picture though. Happy Birthday is stamped in so saffron and I used black Staz-On for the sentiment. I wanted to have the Happy Birthday as a subtle background. If you would like to try out a joy fold card, the tutorial is here.
~Karen

a beautiful weekend

We had an amazing weekend here - the weather was simply beautiful and we were able to enjoy the sunshine. Spring is right around the corner! I took my daughter to Target on Saturday and bought a snorkel for the pool this summer. She's been wearing it around the house pretty much ever since. It's so funny the way her little face gets all squished up in the mask. We found some other goggles and my son joined in on the fun. By the time they were finished swimming around the family room, Andrew's goggles were so foggy he could barely see out of them. Avery has already asked to wear them in the bathtub -that's gotta be fun, errr... It's going to be a long wait until the end of May when our neighborhood pool opens.

I did find some time to stamp and I hopped over to Beate Johns' blog for her weekend sketch challenge. If you've been reading my blog, you know I love Beate's challenges and try to do them every week. So much fun and very handy when you hit a creative wall. I will say that this one was right up my alley and I had to do 2 cards (I'll post them in my splitcoast gallery later today). This card is made with the Fall Flowers designer paper - I love all the patterns in this packet! So soft and fun. The card base is 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 sahara sand cardstock and I layered really rust and soft sky together after I scalloped the edge of the soft sky. The flower is from So Many Scallops and I punched out the middle with the 1" circle punch and then punched out the flower with the scallop punch. The build-a-brad in the middle is made from the same striped paper on the side of the main panel and I placed a 3/4" circle in old olive underneath it to give it a little pop. I couldn't find a sentiment I like for this card, so we'll just call it an 'all occasion' card and move on, ha! I'm starting to regret selling some of my retired stamp sets now! There are some that I really could use, but I got a little bit out of control thinking I *needed* more room in my stamping space. What was I thinking?!
~Karen