Flurry of Love

It was a chilly, chilly weekend but it was sunny and bright...not snowy and blustery. So I decided to create a little snow storm of my own with my card today.

This month's MFT guest designer challenge is to use stitching...something I do on pretty much every card anyway, so it seemed like the perfect challenge to play along with.

I used my Pure Innocence Flurry of Love set. The first thing I thought of was putting her on navy with big white snowflakes all around her. I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo black, paper pieced her coat and hat with one of the patterns from my Pink Paisley 365 Degrees 6x6 pad. I coloured the rest with copics. I added some sugar sparkly fluff to the hat and boots then cut her out.

I would normally use white liquid applique for the falling snow but this is a stitching challenge so I dug out some white embroidery floss and created the snow with french knot stitches. Now, it's been a really long time since I did any embroidery so I had to google how to do a french knot. LOL!!! Thank goodness for You Tube, eh?!?

I used three layers of white felt for the snow on the ground but I wanted to make it look like the strong wind had blown it into ripples...kinda like the waves do to sand on the beach...so I added plenty of machine stitching on each layer. I played around with adding ribbon and embellishments but nothing looked right so I opted for a very simple layout that lets the image shine.

I did want to add a sentiment though so I ended up decorating the inside...more stitching of course and I also used my jumbo ric rac and let it snowflake die-namics.

You know when a card just makes you smile? Well this one just makes me smile...I keep picking it up and looking at it, and smiling. I know...nerdy, but hey, it's the little things, right?

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Happy Holiday Mittens

Well it's Sunday, but it's not Sweet Sunday...we're taking the week off from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge...pout...pout...pout. Karen's traveling for Thanksgiving and I think time ran out on her (or some excuse like that! LOL!!!) before they left. But the good news is Sweet Sundays will resume next week.  :-)

At first I was at a loss...what will I do without a Sweet Sunday sketch?!? Then I saw Jen's Sketch For You To Try yesterday and I knew it'd been way too long since I played along with one of her fabulous sketches, so that's the layout for my card.

The felt mittens are something I saw Jodi do a while back and I thought it was so clever so I'm shamelessly casing her idea. I used the oven mitt die from the Kitchen Accessories, cut two mitts from red felt and flipped one of them over. The string attaching them is red Baker's Twine. Did you ever have mittens on strings...it was quite common where I'm from because no little kid wanted to loose a mitten in the dead of winter...it's cooooold in Northern Ontario! The sentiment is from Sparkle & Cheer and the snowflakes are from Winter Wonderland and they're both stamped with Memento Grape Jelly. I cut out the snowflakes with the smallest of the coordinating Winter Wonderland Snowflake dies. All the papers, ribbon and rhinestones are from my Snow Day Project Pantry. I love all the purple in this kit and couldn't resist using the dark purple as an accent. Doesn't it look so pretty cut out with my scalloped eyelet border die?

The sale continues at Taylored Expressions!!!

Now through Cyber Monday Taylored Expressions has some fantastic deals for you! Visit our Black Friday Blowout Department to see them all in one place. Here is just a sampling of what you'll see when you get there:

Stamp Sets - Purchase any 5 full sized Stamp Sets and GET ONE FREE!

Taylored Expressions T-shirts (3 styles to choose from) at 25% off!

Twinkles Special - Buy 2 Multi Colored Twinkles and get a Free Package of Crystal Twinkles.

Stickers and Tags - Purchase either the Sweet Season or Waiting for Santa sticker sheet and receive a set of 10 coordinating die cut tags free.

Key Ingredients Subscription - TE is lowering the monthly subscription fee for a 3 Month KI Subscriptionfrom $25.95 per month to $23.95 per month just for this 4 day sale. Normally you would need to subscribe for 6 months to get that monthly rate. This is a great time to give Key Ingredients a try!

A la Carte Stamps - Purchase any 3 Animals in Love A la Carte stamps and GET ONE FREE!

AND SO MUCH MORE!!!! Click over to the Black Friday Blowout Department now through Tuesday at 12:01am CST to take advantage of these incredible deals. Some quantities are limited, so for best selection shop early!

Here are the dies I used on today's card:

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

I'm So Grateful For You

Well, this is a bit of an unplanned post but I just couldn't let today go by without some acknowledgement. Did you know that today is my blogoversary? Well frankly, I didn't realize it either until one of my readers left a comment on the previous post wishing me a happy blogoversary...Thank you Teena in Toronto!!!! Shame on me for not keeping track (really, I have no excuse...there's a blogoversary counter thingy on my sidebar! LOL!!!), but I'm grateful that someone brought it to my attention.

So I made a card for all of you...my blog readers. I still can't believe I've been doing this for 2 years now...and to think I started this little blog "just to get me stamping again". Well I'll tell you, I would probably still be blogging even if you weren't here, but it's a whole lot more FUN with you along for the ride!  :-)

I used my Framed Greetings and coordinating die-namic from MFT...it just seemed like THE perfect sentiment for what I wanted to express in this post. The layout is this week's Mojo Monday sketch, Mojo166. And the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club challenge this week is 'thankful for...' so this card definitely qualifies. The patterned papers are from my October Afternoon Thrift Shop pad and I paired them with island mist light, sunflowers medium, kiwi kiss and a pop of black. I also used my jumbo scallop die-namic and my flower trio die-namic.

Thank you for stopping by!!!!
Karen

Happy Turkey Day and a Blow Out Sale at Taylored Expressions

My card today is dedicated to everyone who will be spending time in the kitchen. And really, pretty much every woman will be in the kitchen at some point today, so three cheers for the cooks!!!! If you're in the USA then you're likely preparing something for Thanksgiving dinner and I'd like to wish you a happy turkey day!

I used my What's Cookin'? set from Taylored Expressions along with the coordinating apron die. The apron is mostly paper pieced with patterns from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 papers and the red parts are coloured with copics. The layout is this week's Splitcoast sketch, SC308, and I used my take note die 3 on the red layer. My scalloped eyelet border die seemed like a perfect fit for all the dots in the patterned papers and I added plenty of Twinkles to the apron, the border and the top corners of the card.

Now for the best part of my post...A SALE!!!!!!!

Now through Cyber Monday Taylored Expressions has some fantastic deals for you! Visit our Black Friday Blowout Department to see them all in one place. Here is just a sampling of what you'll see when you get there:

Stamp Sets - Purchase any 5 full sized Stamp Sets and GET ONE FREE!

Taylored Expressions T-shirts (3 styles to choose from) at 25% off!

Twinkles Special - Buy 2 Multi Colored Twinkles and get a Free Package of Crystal Twinkles.

Stickers and Tags - Purchase either the Sweet Season or Waiting for Santa sticker sheet and receive a set of 10 coordinating die cut tags free.

Key Ingredients Subscription - TE is lowering the monthly subscription fee for a 3 Month KI Subscriptionfrom $25.95 per month to $23.95 per month just for this 4 day sale. Normally you would need to subscribe for 6 months to get that monthly rate. This is a great time to give Key Ingredients a try!

A la Carte Stamps - Purchase any 3 Animals in Love A la Carte stamps and GET ONE FREE!

AND SO MUCH MORE!!!! Click over to the Black Friday Blowout Department now through Tuesday at 12:01am CST to take advantage of these incredible deals. Some quantities are limited, so for best selection shop early!


Here are the dies I used on this card:

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Cooking

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC94. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

For my card today I ended up combining three challenges. I started with the sketch then paired it with the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club challenge...My Favourite Things, inspired by a song from The Sound of Music. But I have a bit of a shocker for you...I've never seen The Sound of Music!!! Eeeeeeks!!! It's become quite comical actually and every time I tell someone I get the same shocked reaction. I see you...close your mouth... ;-)
But now it's become a little mission of mine...I figure I've gone through 40 years without seeing it, now I'm doing my best to never see it. It's a weird quirk of mine...and frankly I love the shock value! LOL!!! BUT, eventhough I've never seen the movie I do know some of the songs and with this song I was inspired by lines "brown paper packages" and "crisp apple streudels". So I used kraft cardstock for the brown paper packages and my A La Mode What's Cooking? is baking up a batch of crisp apple streudels, just in time for Sunday dinner! Yum!!!

The kraft cardstock part of my card qualifies it for my buddy Jeanie's That's Krafty Thursday challenge #42. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and coloured with copics. I added some red sparkle to her head band and the apron ties then I cut her out. I added detail with some black stitching and I my little open scallop border die-namic. Then I used my scalloped rolled flower dienamic and created the gorgeous blue flower. The patterned papers are from my Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 mini deck.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the other Sweet Sunday Stampers created.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Friendship is a Blessing

Welcome to the Taylored Expressions Blast from the Past customer blog hop for November. The theme for this month's hop is Autumn/Thankful, and I'm thankful for all my wonderful friends, so I decided to make a friendship card with a fall colour scheme.

I used the fun sketch that Sankari put together for this months hop because it just seemed to fit perfectly with the vision I had for this card. The images are from Branching Out and Branching Out Coordinates...my very first Taylored Expressions stamp sets and still some of my faves.

I stamped the branch with Memento Rich Cocoa onto Choice Buttercream then stamped the leaves with fall colours of Colorbox Chalk Ink, but I added the sentiment in black to make it pop. The tire swing was stamped on a separate piece of Buttercream, coloured with two grey copic markers then cut out. I stitched the main panel to some suede brown dark and when I placed the tire swing into position I decided to cut away the middle to reveal the herbal garden medium cardstock underneath. I used my scalloped eyelet border die along the bottom edge of the green layer then added some orange Tiny Twinkles between each scallop. The orange patterned paper is from my Crate Paper Restoration Collection pad and that perfect little bow was done with my bow easy.

I know there's plenty more for you to see on the hop so I won't hold you up any longer. Have fun!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Happy Winter

When I was blog surfing this week I saw a fun sketch on the OCL blog, OCLDT39, which I knew would work perfectly with my new OCL stamps, Penguin Fun. I picked up this set along with Snowy Sayings when Dana and I stopped at The Great American Stamp Store in Connecticut, on our way home from our road trip a couple of weeks ago.

I stamped the penguin with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and coloured him with copics. I paper pieced his toque with one of the patterns from my Basic Grey Jovial pad then added white liquid applique to the pompom. The fun snowman paper seemed like just the right paper to compliment the penguin and I paired it with intense teal and blush red dark. My swiss dots and d'vine swirls embossing folders added plenty of texture. The ribbon is PTI and I tied on the sentiment with Divine Twine.

Hopefully I won't be needing a toque or scarf for another few weeks, but once the snow does arrive I hope it stays so the ski hills can open.  :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Happy Birthday Nancy!!!!!!

Today we're doing a special birthday blog hop for Nancy McKinney. It's your special day Nancy so sit back and enjoy the hop!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I've been friends with Nancy since 2005, when we worked together at a scrapbooking store, and although we don't live near each other anymore, we still get together for a Starbucks when I'm home visiting. Nancy illustrates the Whimsical Wishes line of stamps for Taylored Expressions so I decided to use a set that she illustrated...Sweet Occasions. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured with copics. I paper pieced the orange frame around the image using patterned paper from KI's Paisley Parade collection. I added green sparkle to the letters with my Spica glitter pen and made the cherry shiny with my clear glaze pen. I used my open scallop border punch along the bottom of the card and added some crystal Twinkles for sparkle, then I used one of the shapes from garden party blooms dies for the flower.

I know you'll have fun hopping along and be sure to head over to Nancy's blog to wish her happy birthday.

Next you're off to see what the very talented Regina Mangum created.

Just in case you get lost, here's a list of all the hoppers:

Regina Mangum

Donna Baker

Alex Maldonado

Karen Giron

Sankari Wegman

Janet Rossi

Taylor VanBruggen

Carolina Buchting

Dana White

Charmaine Ikach

Jodi Collins

Jackie Pedro

Melissa Sauls

Michelle Leishman

Wendy Bond

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Karen

Cinema Saturday Friends

I played along with a fun challenge for my card today, the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. This is the 100th challenge and they're giving away prizes from some wonderful stamp companies including Taylored Expressions. The inspiration for the 100th challenge is the movie Pride and Prejudice and I went with the friendship story line.

I stamped the Cuppie friends image from Downtown Diva by Taylored Expressions with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured it with copics. I paper pieced the two liners and popped the heart on foam tape for dimension. The patterned papers are from my My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink 6x6 pad and I paired them with suede brown dark and blush red medium. One of the challenge rules is to use some lace, so I added white lace under the brown ribbon, and of course plenty of stitching. The layout is SC306.

If you're looking for a challenge this week I hope you'll consider the Cinema Saturday 100th Creative Challenge. There are great prizes to be had!!! Read all about the challenge and get some inspiration on the Cinema Saturday Blog.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Christmas

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC93. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

But before I jump into my card I have some great news to share. If you're a regular reader then you know that I've been taking flying lessons to get my private pilot licence. Well, yesterday (yes, that would be the 13th, which happens to be a good number in my world) I passed my practical test and joined the rank of private pilots!!! Yay meeeeeeee!!! I'm still taking lessons to get my instrument rating but this is a big accomplishment so I thought I'd toot my horn a little. Toot! Toot!!! Thanks for sticking with me though...now for the real reason you came here today...my card.

I inked up my Pure Innocence Sending You a Little Christmas set from My Favourite Things. I toyed with a few different patterned papers before deciding to use my Basic Grey Jovial 6x6 pad...the colours are so rich and elegant and I thought they'd lend themselves perfectly to this classic Christmas image and sentiment. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and coloured with copic markers. Can I just say, I have a new love...colouring with teal!!! I added sparkle to the ornaments with a red Spica glitter pen then I added white liquid applique to the fluffy parts of her outfit. I took Jody's advice with the liquid applique and applied it once the card was all done, then set it aside to dry for the night. When I came back and heated it the next morning it puffed into perfectly realistic little puffs...thanks Jody! And I might as well thank you for one more thing while I'm at it...the little sentiment flags I see you sewing onto your cards...I shamelessly cased that idea too.  :-)

The solid cardstocks are suede brown dark, intense teal and blush red dark. I used my snowflake die-namics to create the snowflake embellishment and added sparkle with some red Swarovski crystals...they have such a wonderful sparkle IRL!!!

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created with today's fabulous sketch.
Jen Tapler
Joanne Basile
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Bellarific Polar Bear

This week I had a chance to play along with the Bellarific Friday challenge - Christmas/Holiday!!! If I was smart I would have made a few of these cards while I was at it, but of course I didn't think of it...again.

I used my Polar Bear Circle from Stamping Bella and stamped him onto white, then onto navy. I had this idea of a night sky and I thought he'd really pop on the navy background. So I cut out the bear, present and ground then paper pieced it onto the navy circle. I added some glamour dust to make the snow sparkly. The layout is Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC99 and the patterned paper is retired SU.

I'm looking forward to seeing Em's post full of eye candy goodness over on Bloggabella. Hooray for the Holiday season!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Family and Friends...nothing stampy.

I'm starting to catch my breath after having company from Sept 25th until November 3rd. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE it when people come to visit, and my family and friends are low maintenance so they made themselves right at home at the Motz Motel. My parents were here for three weeks (one of which we went to Vegas for a side-trip) then Leslie and Cheryl arrived for four days, then Dana arrived for a week. There was just enough time between visitors for housekeeping (aka: me) to get the rooms refreshed and all the linens cleaned. I even folded the toilet paper to a point just for extra oomph! LOL!!! Anyway, I thought I'd share a few pics.

Here's my mom & dad on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower in Vegas. Aren't they cute!!!

Cheryl and I with our Mike's Pastry goodies.

Cheryl and Leslie after their Bare Escentuals makeovers. Don't they look glamourous?!?

Cheryl, Leslie and I just before we flew to Plymouth for lunch. My flight instructor was with us too. Cheryl's got all the fun details of the flight here.

Leslie and Cheryl in the plane as we're flying along. I think they put on those brave smiles for my instructor! LOL!!!

Dana and I went on a road trip to Hoboken to visit Carlo's Bake Shop, home of the Cake Boss.

Dana and I having lunch at a tavern down the block from Carlo's.

Then we crossed Manhattan and headed to Jodi's on Long Island to visit with her and Ann. I couldn't resist toasting with Edward in her stamp room. Can you believe she has this good looking guy looking over her shoulder when she stamps!

Me, Jodi, Ann and Dana in Jodi's stamp room (aka: the Holy Grail) before heading out for dinner. I think some of Jodi's creativity may have infused me via osmosis...at least I'm hoping so!!!

My house seems so empty and quiet now...miss you all!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen