Sweet Sunday Snowflakes

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC102. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

My card today is Project Christmas 2011 card #4. I kept this one fairly quick and simple, and if I'd been smart I would have made a couple of these since I didn't get a Christmas card done last week...but apparently I wasn't smart and this is a one-of-a-kind.  :-)

I used my Winter Wonderland set from Taylored Expressions and paired it with Echo Park Wintertime patterned paper. The ink colours I used are Memento rhubard stalk, Memento rich cocoa, sage shadow and blue bayou. I used my Winter Wonderland Snowflake dies to cut out the one snowflake then backed it with a circle of red that I punched with my 1 3/4" circle punch. That way it doesn't get lost on the card. I finished it with some red baker's twine and a button.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now it's time to go see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created.
Dana White
Jen Tapler
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Happy Birthday Bond!!!

Today is a very special day for Bond, Wendy Bond! (I just love saying  that!) It's her birthday and there are a bunch of people sending well wishes so we've organized a little birthday hop. Grab a cuppa joe, or a glass of wine (it's 5pm somewhere, right?), sit back and check out all the cuteness!!

Happy Birthday Wendy!!!

Of course I needed to use an image that was alcohol related...for those of you who don't know Wendy, she adores her wine, so I reached for my Cheers a la mode image from MFT and paired her with this week's Splitcoast sketch SC317.

She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and done up with a combo of paper piecing and copics. I added a couple coats of clear glaze pen to the glass. The patterned is Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934. I used my faux crochet border die-namic to jazz up the edge and finished it with a rolled felt rose (the larger of the mini roses die-namic).

Have a fabulous birthday Wendy!!! Now you're off to see what Dana White created! When you're done hopping, be sure to head over to Wendy's blog and leave her some birthday love.

And just in case you get lost along the way, pop back here because I've posted the entire list of hoppers.

Karen Motz - Paper Playhouse

Dana White - Dana’s House of Cards

Jodi Collins - Stamping a Latte’

Linda Heavens - Heavens Created This

Charlene Austin - Willow & Paisley

Lisa Henke - My Little Creative Escape

Jackie Pedro - The Scalloped Edge

Joanne Basile - Just a Little Something

Cath Groden - Paper Expressions

Jessica Rone - Can You Say Addicted to Stamps?

Jody Morrow - Confessions of a Ribbon Addict

Regan D’Agostino - Stampy McStamperson

Cindy Haffner - Cindy Haffner’s Corner

Amy Rohl - Ink About Me

Christina Fischer - Flowers and Ink

Nancy McKinney - Card Worthy

Barbara Anders - Paper Pursuits

Kim Van der Sanden - My Favorite Things

Jeanie Witmer - The Spotted Chick

Frances Byrne - Stamp Owl

Susan Liles - Susie Stampalot

Elaine Hughes - Quixotic Cards

Paula Williamson - Paper Possibilities

Megan Lock - Megan Lock Designs

Eva Dobilas - For the Love of Life

Pauline Godfrey - Pauline’s Card Cupboard

Jen del Muro - I Heart 2 Stamp

Michele Boyer - Paper Cuts

Maria Fiscella - Maria’s Craft Room

Melody Rupple - A Paper Melody

Julie Dinn - Kreative Jewels

Deanna Woodland - Dee’s Paper Tree

Rhonda Ziemer - Pickles Cards

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Jolinne With Sprinkles {MFTWSC4}

It's time for this week's MFT Wednesday Stamp Club, MFTWSC4. The weekly sketch is posted each Wednesday at midnight on the MFT Blog and in the MFT Forum on Splitcoast, as well as in the weekly newsletter.

There's a prize each week for one participant, chosen at random. You may use any stamps and supplies that you wish. Each week a keyword is assigned to the sketch, and this week's keyword is MFTWSC4. All you need to do to enter is upload your card to the gallery at Splitcoast and enter the given keyword in the keyword box during the upload process. After the deadline (noon Eastern on Tuesday) we randomly choose a winner from that week's entries and the winner will receive a $15 gift voucher. If the winning card uses MFT stamps, the participant will earn a $5 bonus, for a total of a $20 gift voucher!

I decided to use today's sketch to add to my stash of birthday cards. I've had this sweet Jolinne-Sprinkles On Top set for some time now and this sketch seemed to be calling her name. 

She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. I added some clear rhinestones for the sprinkles but coloured them pink with my R85 marker. I adore the new Rosette dies from MFT and I couldn't resist using one here. It's the perfect backdrop for Jolinne. I used the 3/8" Rosette die-namic, and by the way, Jody's Sticky Dots are the perfect adhesive to hold the rosette together! I pulled these fun colours right from my KI Memories Paisley Parade paper but I ended up using one of the tone on tone patterns. I adhered the rosette to some brown that I cut with the largest of the Spellbinders eyelet circles. 

Be sure to head over to Kim's Blog to view the entire list of design team participants...there's plenty of inspiration for you!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

XOXO

I made this card with the sweet Capture My Heart petite set from Taylored Expressions. Hubby has some travel coming up and I thought I'd tuck this into his suitcase. I don't typically do things like this but hey, it's never too late to start, right?

He's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured with copics. I added shine to the hearts with my clear glaze pen and sprinkled some chunky diamond dust onto the ice. I drew in the ground line with my copic multiliner to help ground him.

All the supplies are from my Valentine Project Pantry. The heart border die seemed like a perfect touch, along with the three red brads.

Today I plan to get some stamping done with the upcoming Taylored Expressions sets...sneak peeks are next week!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Happy Birthday Ann!!!!

We're doing a little birthday hop to celebrate Ann Kranitz's birthday today!!! I first met Ann a couple of years ago at the original Stamp New England event. She's such a wonderful person and I'm lucky to have her as a friend!!!

Wishing you a wonderful day!!

I used a Pure Innocence image from MFT for my card (and by the way, it'll be arriving in your mailbox in the next day or two...just extending the celebrations...wink!). She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and done up with a combination of paper piecing and copic colouring. The patterned papers are all from my Basic Grey Olivia pad. I paired them with blush red light, blush red medium, baja blue and basic grey. I gave her patent shoes thanks to my clear glaze pen and added some Crystal Twinkles to the buckles. The layout is SSS92, yesterday's Sweet Stop Sketch.

Now you're off to see what amazing creation Jodi came up with. And don't forget to stop by Ann's blog and leave her some big birthday wishes!

Here's the entire list of hoppers, just in case anyone gets lost along the way.

Karen Motz - Paper Playhouse <----you are here

Jodi Collins - Stamping a Latte

Amy Tsuruta - Tsuruta Designs

Brenda Weaver - Sweet Paper Treats

Jennifer Ingle - Just Jingle

Joanne Basile - Just a Little Something

Wendy Jordan - Paper Therapy

Dana White - Dana’s House of Cards

Kandi Phillips - Krafty Kandi

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Bunny Cake

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC101. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

I decided to flip the sketch this week so I could use another new-to-me set from The Cat's Pajamas, Forget About the Cake. I made this card with my dad in mind...he's celebrating a big 'ole milestone birthday in March and one of the sentiments reads "you're not getting older, you're getting a lot older"...which would be just perfect for him! LOL!!! If I decide to use this card for him then I'll add the sentiment on the inside, but for now I left the sentiment off just in case I come up with something else.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto choice snow white and coloured with copics. I cut out the cake (including his paws) and popped it on foam tape for dimension. I added yellow Stickles to the candles then covered the bunny with white Fun Flock. The patterned papers are from the Echo Park Little Boy collection...such fun colours!! I did some zig zag sewing around the oval and only messed up at one little spot...can you find it? I can't believe how much easier it is to zig zag around an oval or circle rather sewing a straight line! I also picked up the Inside Pinking border die from TCP because it's a fabulous option for masculine cards...I was getting tired of always using stars...ugh.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now it's time to hop around and see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created, and we have a brand new Sweet Sunday Stamper on the team...Dana White! Yay Dana!!!! Be sure to give her a warm welcome!
Dana White
Jen Tapler
Lynn Put (she's out sick this week...feel better soon Lynn!)
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sprinkled with Love - TE Blast from the Past blog hop

Welcome to this month's Blast from the Past customer blog hop sponsored by Taylored Expressions!!!

This time the theme was love, and I interpreted the word a little differently. I have a love for desserts and I thought my Sprinkled with Love set would be perfect for today's hop.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto choice snow white and coloured with copics. I cut it out and popped it on foam tape for dimension and I used my stamp-a-majig to position the sentiment exactly where I wanted it above the cupcake. I added yellow Stickles to the sprinkles and coated the cherry with my clear glaze pen for some shine.

All the papers and embellishments are from my Valentine Project Pantry, including the pink sparkly fluff I used to cover the chipboard heart. In the background you may notice that I used my Hearts impression plate for a subtle pattern and my small scallop border die created the perfect red edge. The layout is Mojo174.

One lucky participant will win a Taylored Expressions stamp set of their choice, just for playing along, so be sure to join the fun and sign up for next month's hop!!

I'm off to check out the rest of this month's fabulous creations!



Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Snow Day {MFTWSC3}

It's time for this week's MFT Wednesday Stamp Club, MFTWSC3. The weekly sketch is posted each Wednesday at midnight on the MFT Blog and in the MFT Forum on Splitcoast, as well as in the weekly newsletter.

There's a prize each week for one participant, chosen at random. You may use any stamps and supplies that you wish. Each week a keyword is assigned to the sketch, and this week's keyword is MFTWSC3. All you need to do to enter is upload your card to the gallery at Splitcoast and enter the given keyword in the keyword box during the upload process. After the deadline (noon Eastern on Tuesday) we randomly choose a winner from that week's entries and the winner will receive a $15 gift voucher. If the winning card uses MFT stamps, the participant will earn a $5 bonus, for a total of a $20 gift voucher!

Today's card is my Project Christmas 2011, card #3. No, I'm not crazy...I just keep myself from going crazy in December by making Christmas cards all year long. You should give it a try!

I used the sweet Snow Day Pure Innocence image...love her! She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and done up with a combination of paper piecing and copic colouring. I {heart} these non-traditional purple patterned papers from the Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather pack. It probably doesn't show in the picture but the snowballs are covered with sparkle thanks to my clear Spica glitter pen and I added chunky diamond dust to the snow on the ground. White liquid applique is the finishing touch on her boots and hat. 

I gave the card more dimension by cutting out the girl and the snowballs before colouring them, then I popped them on foam tape. I added a single pink snowflake which I cut with my snowflake die-namics and I also used my little open scallop die-namic on the base layer. 

Be sure to head over to Kim's Blog to view the entire list of design team participants...there's plenty of inspiration for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Sweet Sunday Congrats

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC100. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog, The Sweetest Thing. Can you believe we're at sketch #100?!? Thanks for all these fabulous layouts Karen!!!

For my card today I made a baby congrats card, because I became an Aunt again last week. My brother and his wife have a new little boy to add to their family. Although I use the term "little" loosely...he weighed 10 pounds 12 ounces...yikes!!! At that rate he'll be bigger than the rest of the kids in no time! LOL!!

I reached for my favourite set for baby cards, Hangin' Out from Taylored Expressions. I adore the sweet little onesie and the simple sentiment. I paper pieced the onesie with a pattern from my MME Fine & Dandy True Blue pad. I have plenty of boy patterned papers but not much in the way of baby boy (with softer blues etc.) but I think this worked out nicely. In addition to the choice buttercream cardstock I added kraft and suede brown dark. I love sewing on my cards and in one of the Splitcoast forums I read a tip that it's easier to zig zag around a circle than sew a straight stitch, so I gave it a try. It turned out perfectly (and I'm not hiding a boo boo under the image panel either...LOL) and wasn't nearly as difficult or time consuming as I thought it would be. I see myself sewing in circles in the future!

I wanted to jazz up the star border a little because I thought it needed some colour. After punching the border on kraft I adhered it to buttercream then trimmed along the star edge with scissors to create a layer. Then I punched the same border out of sunflowers medium and used the punched stars (which normally end up in the trash) to fill in the border. They were super easy to pick up and place with my Embellie Gellie! Love it!!!

I hope you'll play along this week and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's hop over and see what the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers created with today's sketch. Sadly this will be Laura's last sketch on the team so be sure to stop by and leave her lots of love. I'm sure we'll all miss her Sunday inspiration!!
Jen Tapler
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Define Good...

Today I'm playing along with Jen's January Sketch For You To Try and this is my Project Christmas 2011, card #2. Yay me!

I find the best way to motivate myself to make Christmas cards right after Christmas is with new product...grin! So I did a little shopping at The Cat's Pajamas and picked up some fun stuff, including this Define Good set.

My buddie Jeanie often uses kraft cardstock and thanks to her, I'm reaching for kraft cardstock more often. It worked perfectly with my idea to have a white bunny so he really pops. I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto kraft and cut it out with rectangle Nestabilities. Then I stamped it again onto choice snow white, coloured it with copics, then cut it out. It's adhered right to the kraft panel...no foam tape. I added some white flock to the bunny and white liquid applique to his hat.

The patterned papers are from my Basic Grey Jovial pad. I used my MS modern garland border punch along the edge of red and added some clear Twinkles for a little sparkle. The sentiment just cracks me up...that's something I would have said as a child! LOL!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Go Confidently...

Today I have a sweet card (well I think it's sweet anyway) that I made with the New Beginnings set and coordinating Butterfly dies from Taylored Expressions.

I used this week's Mojo173 sketch for the layout. At first I was stumped by the sketch and then I remembered the butterly dies which I hadn't even used yet! I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black onto choice buttercream and cut it out with my Take Note 2 die. As a side note, all TE stamps are made of high quality rubber so when you use them in conjunction with TE dies there's one small trick to get everything lined up every time. Click here for a quick video demo by Taylor.

The patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket Togetherness and I thought the clouds and kite strings were a perfect motif for a 'dreams' card. I whipped up that cute bow with my Bow Easy and finished the card with plenty of crystal Twinkles.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Better Get Better {MFTWSC2}

It's time for this week's MFT Wednesday Stamp Club, MFTWSC2. The weekly sketch is posted each Wednesday at midnight on the MFT Blog and in the MFT Forum on Splitcoast, as well as in the weekly newsletter.

There's a prize each week for one participant, chosen at random. You may use any stamps and supplies that you wish. Each week a keyword is assigned to the sketch, and this week's keyword is MFTWSC2. All you need to do to enter is upload your card to the gallery at Splitcoast and enter the given keyword in the keyword box during the upload process. After the deadline (noon Eastern on Tuesday) we randomly choose a winner from that week's entries and the winner will receive a $15 gift voucher. If the winning card uses MFT stamps, the participant will earn a $5 bonus, for a total of a $20 gift voucher!

For this week's sketch I used Better Get Better to make a card for my mom. She slipped on some ice and broke her wrist last week so this should cheer her up. The bright side of it all is that she broke her left wrist and she's right-handed, and this all happened after the Christmas rush so no home cooking was affected. Aren't I just the most sympathetic daughter ever! LOL!!!

She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. The patterned papers are October Afternoon Thrift Shop. I used my jumbo ric rac die-namic on the darker blue and finished it with three blue rhinestone brads. I kept this card quite flat for mailing because the Christmas card I sent my parents...long before Christmas I might add...just arrived last week. C'mon Canada Post! LOL!!!

Be sure to head over to Kim's Blog to view the entire list of design team participants...there's plenty of inspiration for you!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Masculine Birthday

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, SSSC99. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing.

I went with a masculine birthday card today because, well, hubby's birthday is later this month so I thought I'd knock off his card a little early. My MFT order from this past Wednesday's release arrived yesterday...holy super fast shipping Batman...and I was dying to start using my newest dies (pun intended! sorry, I just couldn't resist that one!). I used my 1/4"  rosette die-namic (which is currently out of stock) to create the pleated medallion for the main circle panel. I needed a big medallion so I cut out three strips, joined them together then formed the pleated medallion. I layered it onto some white that I cut out with the largest of the large classic circle Nestabilities.

Then I used my layered label die-namics for the sentiment panel...LOVE how versatile these are! The sentiment is from More Essential Sentiments and the patterned papers are Basic Grey Marjolaine. The stacking star die-namics are a perfect accent for masculine cards and I covered the stars with glitter. I couldn't resist adding the most perfect pompom trim from my stash.

Then I added a star border and another sentiment from More Essential Sentiments to the inside...it cracks me up! We're not the 'mushy card' kinda couple so this will be perfect. I know he's going to belly laugh when he opens it. And he doesn't read my blog so there's no chance of ruining the surprise.

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch challenge and link your creation on Karen's blog. Now let's go see what gorgeousness the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers came up with.
Jen Tapler
Laura Fredrickson
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen