Bella Flowers

I have to tell you, this card uses my all-time favourite colour combo...pink, brown and green...LOVE IT! I combined two challenges on this card. The layout is from Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #11, and the idea for the card is from the Chicks Inspiration Challenge #2. It's a fun inspiration piece, so pop over, take a look and play along! YOU could be their next guest designer!

The image, Flower Bottles from Stamping Bella, is stamped with Memento Tuxedo black and coloured with copics. I stamped the flowers a second time, cut them out and popped them on dimensionals. I wanted the vases to look like glass so I coated them with crystal effects. The image is cut out with rectangle nestabilities and layered onto a scallop rectangle of chocolate chip. 

The finished card size is 6.5 x 3.25 inches. The base papers are S.E.I.'s Mimosa line (even the solid pink piece), and I used one of my new EK slim border punches for a little detail. I added some chocolate ribbon then finished the card with three punched flowers and three 5mm Light Amber Bella Bonbons. 

Thanks Karen for a fun sketch and thanks Cathy and Donna for the inspiration piece!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Poochie on the Roof

Poochie's in the house! Yippeee!!!! My stamps from The Cat's Pajamas arrived on Friday...I ordered a bunch of Poochies...he reminds me of our mini Schnauzer, Shadow. :)

This image, Pooch on the Roof, is perfect for my friend Janet's Corrosive Challenge #5 because this week's challenge is to make a Christmas card with animals. Plus, I get to knock off my Christmas Card Per Week with this card...double yippeee! I decided to use Jen's Sketch For You To Try for the layout.

Poochie is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto TE Choice Snow White...this cardstock takes ink beautifully for solid image stamps and copics too. There was only a smidge of colouring on this image...talk about whipping up a card in no time! I added some Stardust Stickles to the snow on the roof. The sentiment is also from The Cat's Pajamas.

I used Janet's fave colour combo for this card. The base is Kraft, which I ran through my snowflakes Cuttlebug folder. Then I added a layer of black topped with some Making Memories FaLaLa patterned paper.

The final details are a ghost snowflake with a rhinestone center and some ribbon from my stash. Thanks for a fun challenge Janet, and a great sketch Jen!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Easter Cuteness

Here's a card I made this morning for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #61. I'm going to be seeing my niece and nephews when I'm home at Easter so I'd like to have a card made for each of them. And I'll need to get some little treat bags done too. This card will definitely be for my niece...she loves pink (and so do I!). 

I stamped the Cuppie image from Sweet Spring onto Choice Snow White with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured some of it with copics. I paper pieced the cupcake liner and the egg, then I cut out an extra brush and glued it on top of the pieced cupcake liner so it didn't look like the brush was in the liner, but on it instead. It's a small detail that I learned from my friend Joanne at Stamp New England...I hadn't really ever thought about it before but it makes total sense to have objects on the right plane. 

The papers are from Imaginisce, The Fairest Of Them All collection. I also used bashful blue for layers. The ribbon is SU pink pirouette and the layered flowers and sparkly brad are from the Taylored Expressions Easter Key Ingredients. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

It's the Inspirational Unity Blog Hop!!!

I'm so happy to be partaking...can't wait to hop along and see what everyone's created. Thanks so much for stopping by, and be sure to start at the Unity Blog to view the entire inspirational Unity blog hop. 

I decided to use my brand new Rain & Flowers set. The umbrella is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Copics. I masked the image then inked the rain drops with Versamark first, followed by Baja Breeze, then embossed them with clear embossing powder. I decided it needed some dimension so I stamped the umbrella again and popped it.  The patterned paper is Fancy Pants and I also used kiwi kiss, pomegranate and chocolate chip. The ribbon is from the Paper Source and the scallop edge was done with my new EK Success border punch. 

My favourite Unity quote...hmmm...that's a tough one, there are so many... Be The Change You Wish To See In The World.

Next you're hopping over to visit Lori for more eye candy. Go give her some lovin'!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Stella's Best Wishes

It's time I gave Stella a little love, so I went to my Stamping Bella collection (yes, it really IS a collection...sigh) and pulled out Stella Needs a Prezzie. For some reason, I love colouring her hair purple and giving her red lips, so I looked for a paper to match those colours and found this one in my stash...it's the Feeling Groovy line from My Mind's Eye. The layout for this card is from this week's sketch on Splitcoast, SC221. 

Stella is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. Her dress is paper pieced and I added some shimmer to the image with my Stardust gelly roll pen...love that thing! All the papers I used on this card (except the black) are from the Feeling Groovy collection. I decided to stitch around all the layers for a little interest. I love sewing on cards...would NEVER sew fabric or hem pants or anything like that, but I LOVE sewing paper. Weird, eh!  :)

The sentiment, Best Wishes, is also from Stamping Bella. The finishing touch is a few carefully placed Bella Baubles. Because the baubles are kind of transparent, I didn't want the edges of a glue dot to show through, so I used some Micro Dots instead. 

If you don't already have micro dots, you NEED them! They're AH-mazing! Perfect for anything little you want to adhere, and they're strong too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Chillin'

My friend Janet's visiting this week so there's no way I was going to get out of playing along with her weekly challenge...really though, I would have played along whether she was here or not. :)

This week's challenge is Under the Sea (I've stretched it to About the Sea, but Janet gave me the a-ok for it!). This darling penguin stamp is a Snag 'em Stamp that I've had for quite some time. I stamped him with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Gina K pure luxury white and coloured him with copics. I know, I know...I used a mitt full of copics on this little guy, but I'm really loving the depth of colour I get when I use several shades. 

I just recently picked up some white flocking at my LSS Right At Home Scrapbooking, so I used it on his tummy. It doesn't really show in the photo, but it's super cute in real life! He's cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto baja breeze then chocolate chip. 

The patterned paper coordinates with the stamp and I've had it for just as long...never quite knowing what to do with it til now. I ran a piece of baja blue through the D'vine Swirls cuttlebug folder then tied some ribbon I picked up at the Paper Source this week (the shade is called Lake). Last but not least...I added some bling with two 7mm Baby Blue Bella Bonbons. 

Stay cool!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeerry Christmas...to all a good night! I'm pretty sure that's what Santa says at the end of his long delivery, right before he takes off his Santa suit and hangs it to dry. 

I picked up this adorable Santa's Clothes a Dryin' image from Stamping Bella last year and time ran out before I could get it inky. So I'm putting it to good use for this year's cards, and I'm continuing with my one Christmas card per week. 

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. I cut it out with rectangle Nestabilities then layered it onto a scallop rectangle of black. Next I added some bling to the image with my Stardust gelly roll pen and I added some texture to the hat and pants with some liquid applique. I must confess...I really love liquid applique. Even after using it for several years it still brings a smile to my face when it puffs up. {giggle!}

The layout is from Jen's Sketch For You To Try from this past weekend. The patterned papers are from the Making Memories FaLaLa collection. The striped piece reminds me of a candy cane. I sewed a zig zag on the background for a little interest and added some 7mm Olive Bella Bonbons to the bottom. The snowflake is a Heidi Swapp ghost snowflake and I covered it with Stardust Stickles so it would be super shimmery. Another Olive Bella Bonbon finishes off the center of the snowflake. 

I know it's still early in the year, but I'm wondering if you've started making any Christmas cards yet? With every one that I complete, I can actually feel a little weight lifted off my shoulders and I'm that much closer to checking this task off my December list. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A New Inspiration Challenge

My friends Cathy and Donna at Chicks with Ink Pads have started a brand new Tuesday Inspiration Challenge. Woo Hoo...another challenge to look forward to every week! Be sure to pop over to their blog to see the inspiration piece and get your creativity flowing. 

Here's the card I created from the inspiration piece. The finished size is 4.25 inches square. It's different than my usual style, but I really wanted to show the papers...they're both so pretty and so sparkly that I wanted to let the papers (from S.E.I. Mimosa line) take center stage. 

The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms, and it's SUCH a true saying. I finished off the card with some retired SU ribbon and a "Joanne" button with a twine bow. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Karen

Scatter Sunshine and Stamp New England Recap

Oh My Goodness...I had SUCH a wonderful time at Stamp New England this past weekend. It was like a big stamping reunion, only I hadn't actually met most of the attendees before. And, talk about a room full of talent too! You should have seen all the prizes...it was INSANE! More on that in a bit though. 

I decided to use one of my prizes and make a card last evening. Hubby couldn't believe I still wanted to stamp after being at a stamping event on Friday and Saturday...he clearly doesn't get it! LOL!!!

The layout for this card is from Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #10. The image is from The Cat's Pajamas (I won a fabulous prize basket from them, which included the ribbon and plastic ribbon slide too...I'll show you the whole prize in a minute) and it's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured it with copics, cut it out, then added a second flower for some dimension. I used my E49 marker to make little dots in the center of the sunflower. 

I used papers from My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow collection...I just LOVE that paper pack! I also used really rust and chocolate chip cardstock for the layers. The sentiment is stamped with black Stazon onto a button slide. I added some Tiny Twinkles to the center of the flowers. 

Now onto all the goodies I came home with. Seriously...I must have had horseshoes around me the entire time, cause I was a VERY lucky girl! I'll start by saying there were more than enough prizes for everyone to go home with at least one. The event sponsors were so generous...it was crazy!

First I won this prize from Unity Stamps. Woo Hoo...my first Unity Stamps!!!

Next I won this fabulous basket full of stamps from Odd Bird Planet. I won this one because of my name tag...how lucky am I that enough people loved my name tag and thought I deserved the prize!!!! I really tried to make my name tag a reflection of me...the colours are pink, green and brown. There's a bird (from Stamping Bella), and a flower, and PLENTY of bling! LOL! 

As the day was drawing to a close on Saturday, I was on my computer, literally filling my shopping cart with Poochie images from The Cat's Pajamas (I've been wanting some for the longest time), when my name was drawn AGAIN and I won this fabulous gift basket from The Cat's Pajamas. Holy Moly!!! So I used the Scatter Sunshine image from one of the sets for my card. 

In addition to all these great prizes, this adorable package from Emma's Paperie was waiting for each of us in our rooms. It's filled with flowers, ribbon, glitter and chocolate.

I also received this darling little backpack, hand stamped by Julia Aston.

AND Papertrey Ink gave everyone an entire stamp set, Life, to use during Lauren Meader's class...wow!

I KNOW I'm forgetting some other things too. Isn't it terrible when you can't remember all the gifts you got? It really was like Christmas day!!! So you can see...between Joanne and myself, the car was packed on the way home! I don't have the other class projects to show you yet...I didn't quite get them finished cause I was a little chatty. {{{grin}}} But, I'm sure you'll see the projects on other people's blogs.   :)

I like to give a huge THANK YOU to the wonderful sponsors, the fabulous organizers and instructors, and to all the attendees who made the event so much fun! Cheers...to SNE!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen 

Surrounded by Love

I just LOVE the sentiment that goes with this cuppie image from Taylored Expressions Sweet Spring. 

I stamped the image and sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White cardstock and cut it out with rectangle Nestabilities. I picked up these fun MME Bloom & Grow papers when I was in Calgary and I thought the colours would be perfect for the jelly bean. 

I stamped the image again onto the patterned papers and paper pieced the jelly bean bag and the cuppie liner. The rest of the image is coloured with copics. I realize now that I didn't add any bling to the image, but I really don't think it needs it. 

The layout uses SC220 from Splitcoast. I knew I'd have a tough time deciding which papers to use so this sketch was perfect...I cut into several of the papers and used a smidge of each piece. The patterned panels are layered onto chocolate chip then I stitched around the edge with my Janome Sew Mini. 

The image is layered onto kiwi kiss, then a scallop of chocolate chip. I added three buttons to the bottom corner...it just seemed kinda naked without any embellishments. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Bestest Friends

Here's my card for yesterday's Bellarific Friday on Bloggabella. Weren't all the submissions super fabulous! OMG...there's SO much stamping talent in the world!!!

The inspiration piece reminded me of the Scenic Route Grafton line of papers...the colours are bang on, so I pulled out the striped piece. I stamped Mr. Turtle with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured him with copics. I cut him out with square Nestabilities and added some orange Stickles to his shell. 

I wanted to keep this layout more simple, with some white space (ok, a teensy bit of white space, LOL)...more like the wonderful layouts Nickabella comes up with. I started with the white base then cut a circle of Tangerine Tango and ran it through the D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. I punched the striped paper with the SU eyelet border punch. The ribbon is old SU from my stash. 

Once the image was in place I stamped the sentiment, Bestest Friends. I added three Burnt Honey Bella Bonbons to the ribbon just under the sentiment and to balance off the other side I added a Prima with a Kajinker flower in the center. The final detail is a small ghost butterfly that I coated with orange Stickles. 

I really like the simplicity of this layout. Thanks for the inspiration Nicky!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

It's Time for Stamp New England!!!

Yippeeeeee!!! It's finally here...no more sleeps!!! It's time for Stamp New England!!! Can you tell I'm SUPER excited!!! So today I thought I'd share with you the make & take I'll be leading tonight. If you're coming to Stamp NE and want it to be a surprise, then you'd better look away now. LOL!

My project is a sketch book using stamps and embellishments from Stamping Bella. Thanks again Em for donating the supplies! MWAH!!!

I started with a set of 5x7.5 inch Zutter Bind It All covers and adhered some fun Twitterpated papers. Then I punched holes in the covers and inside pages with my Bind It All and added the wire spine. I wrapped the covers with some white twill tape to hide the seams. 

I inked up Stampah Huggabugg with Memento Tuxedo Black and stamped it onto white, then coloured the sweet little image with copics. I added Bella Liquid Watercolour Glitter to the wings for a pretty shimmer. The finishing touch is two 5mm Olive Bella Bonbons on the antennas. 

The sentiment was cut out with a Spellbinder Tag Trio and attached to the bow with hemp and a button. Two 7mm Ruby Red Bella Bonbons finish off the details on the cover. The inside pages are blank, ready to fill with great sketches and other inspiration. 

Don't forget, today is also Bellarific Friday, so pop over to Bloggabella to see all the submissions. I'll be sharing my Bellarific card here tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Taylored Expressions News

Did you see Taylor’s big news this week? Taylored Expressions is offering something new that you are definitely going to want... a subscription to her popular Key Ingredients kits! The kits will be shipped straight to your doorstep each month so you'll never miss out! I have to tell you, I received my very first Key Ingredients kit last month and I'm still amazed at how wonderful it is. WHY did I wait so long to try the Key Ingredients Kits??? Seriously, there's so much in the kit...it's a fabulous value, and best of all, everything coordinates beautifully!!! Be sure to check out this post on Taylor's blog for all the details and this post for a peek at the new March Key Ingredients! Tomorrow half of the Baker's Dozen design team will have samples using the March Key Ingredients (I get to tease you next month with the April Key Ingredients). Here are links so you can check them out on Friday. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Ana Wolfhart

Charmaine Ikach

Donna Baker

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Laura Fredrickson

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Whussup???

My new rubbah from Stamping Bella arrived yesterday...yipppeeeee! New Kettos, Huggabuggs, a Stella...soooooo much choice. I was opening the package wondering how I was going to decide what to use first, when this adorable Ketto Bee fell out right beside the Whussup sentiment...PERFECT! 

The layout for this card is from Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #09. The bee is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and I coloured him with two copics..I know...only two! He's cut out with circle Nestabilities and layered onto a scallop of basic grey. I added yellow Stickles to his body and Glamour Dust glitter to his wings...he's definitely a handsome bee!  :)

The black and white paper is from my stash, but the yellow paper is brand new. I picked it up at Scrapbooker's Paradise in Calgary last week {{{waves...hi Gloria!}}}, along with plenty of other cool papers that weighed down my suitcase! LOL! The yellow paper is from Chatterbox and it's flocked velvet...it has wonderful texture!

I added some ribbon from my stash and a patterned Prima. For the center of the flower I punched a small circle from the Chatterbox paper then added a Lemonade Bella Bauble. The sentiment is tucked in behind. This card was super quick to make...the longest part was waiting for the Stickles to dry. LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen