Thursday, June 30, 2011

MFTeasers-Day One!

Are you all set for five fabulous days of sneak peeks with MFT?

For my card today I used Clearly Sentimental - About the Journey. The sayings and quotes are so wonderful, and this particular one is one of my faves.

I used the largest die from You Move Me die-namics to cut out the cream piece and layered it onto the larger of the Dizzy Doily Duo die-namics. The patterned papers are all from Echo Park's For the Record collection. I used the Large Rolled Rose die-namic to create the flower, which adds plenty of texture and dimension, so this is doubling as my sample for the guest designer contest too. I layered it onto a green patterned piece I cut with the leafy flourish die-namic. I also tucked the solid bracket border die-namic in there by cutting out a strip of Berrylicious cardstock.

Here are the details about the upcoming release on July 5 at 10 PM EST:

  • The MFT release is on July 5 at 10 PM EST. You can attend the release party from 8-10 PM EST here in the forum for fun, games, and prizes! All the new sets and dies will be available July 5 at 10 PM EST.
  • The guest designer contest is ON! Check out the forum for details on how YOU can win over $100 in stamp sets and play along with the DT for a month.
  • If you'd like to see all the teasers for today, please click on over to Kim's blog NOW! Be sure to leave comments as you go for a chance to win one of 2 $10 vouchers being given away daily, just for leaving a comment. :) Check Kim's blog every day for the winners.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks Day 2

July Release At a Glance
  • We have sneak peeks to share Wednesday and Thursday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Friday, July 1st at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
  • Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL GIVEAWAY, on Thursday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
  • Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate.  Winners will be chosen from a different Baker's Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor's blog on Release Day!  Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please.  Comments close Thursday 7/30 at 7pm PST for the drawings.

Shall we get right to the good stuff? I'll start with my card using the Hello à la carte image. This is a single image stamp illustrated by Nancy McKinney. I'm sure you'll reach for this word stamp time and again.

I love working with purple lately and I found this perfect patterned paper in the My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky pad. 

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured it with copics, adding a little sparkle with a Spica glitter pen. I remember phones like this one...you stuck your finger in the rotary part to dial and the receiver was so heavy. We've certainly come a long way with cordless and cell technology, but none of them look as cute as this one!

I added a little scallop detail with my small scallop border die and just a touch more sparkle with three purple Twinkles

Next up is the Birds of a Feather set, also illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line. I'm definitely a bird fan (no, not a bird brain, although I guess that depends on who you ask!) so this set is right up my alley. 

The solid images make it easy to whip up cards in a snap and the coordinating Birds & Branch dies can be used with the images or on their own.

I stamped the cage, the chain and the bird, then cut it out with square Nestabilities. I started out using the Mojo Monday sketch but went off into left field on my own with the extra layer. 
I used the branch from the Birds & Branch dies to create the leaves under my flowers. The flowers are a combination of the small flower image from Birds of a Feather and the friendship blooms dies. A few little pearl accents are all this card needed to finish it off.

Now it's time to hop around and see what the rest of the Baker's Dozen created.

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Jami Sibley
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls
Melody Rupple
Nancy McKinney
Regina Mangum
Sankari Wegman
Taylor VanBruggen
Tori Wild
Wanda Guess

See you tomorrow for release day!
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

It's a Birthday Blog Mobbing!

Happy Birthday Kim!!!!!!!!

A bunch of us are doing a little birthday blog mobbing in honour of Kim (the MFT lady's) birthday. So grab a beverage, sit back, and enjoy all the eye candy!!! You'll want to start from Arlene's blog so you don't miss a thing.

I used Pure Innocence - You're So Tweet and fun papers from the Basic Grey June Bug collection. The solid cardstock colours are Orange Fizz, Lemon Drop, and Black Licorice. She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. The double scallop border die-namic and the flower trio die-namics add just the right detail. The layout is SSS111, but I flipped it.

I kept the inside nice and simple, using my simply scallops medium die-namic on the patterned paper then adding the tiny bird from the notched tag die-namics (and I drew in some little legs for him).

"If you'd like to join the celebration, we'd LOVE you to participate! You can add a card to the Splitcoast Galleries using the keyword "HBMFTLADY" or, if you're a Facebook lovin' girl you can add your project to the MFT Fan Facebook page!  Not yet a fan of MFT on Facebook? You can "like" it here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/My-Favorite-Things-Just-Delightful-Clear-Stamps/364057405371 and add your post!  Don't have time to stamp?  Just stop by the MFT Facebook page and wish the MFT Lady a happy birthday.  Let's MOB her on her special day!

Now you're off to see what wonderful creation Kerry has to share!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peeks Day 1


July Release At a Glance
  • We have sneak peeks to share Wednesday and Thursday.  All of the new products will be available for purchase on Friday, July 1st at 8 am PST. You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
  • Join us as a fan on Facebook for an early peek at the stamp sets, as well as a SPECIAL GIVEAWAY, on Thursday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST.
  • Mystery Baker's Dozen Blog Giveaway: Each day, one lucky blog commenter will be chosen by random draw to win a $10 TE Gift Certificate.  Winners will be chosen from a different Baker's Dozen blog each day and will be announced on Taylor's blog on Release Day!  Be sure to hop around to see all the sneak peeks and leave comments on each and every blog for more chances to win. Limit one comment per blog per day, please.  Comments close Thursday 7/30 at 7pm PST for the drawings.

Let's start with In The Clouds, illustrated by Nancy McKinney for the Whimsical Wishes line. This is a full sized stamp set on a 5.75" x 8.5" full colour sturdy storage panel and includes 25 images and sentiments. 

I didn't have a chance to play along with this week's Sweet Sunday sketch, SSSC123, on the actual sketch day, so I used it for my card today. There are plenty of different blimps in this set but I chose one that I could colour with copics, and I really wanted to highlight it and make it the focal point. It was super quick to cut out using the coordinating Blimps and Banners set of 4 dies. The patterned paper is from the My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Fly a Kite pad.

Notice the cloud background paper? It's not patterned paper, but rather the awesome new Clouds Impression Plate. It impresses not just the outline of the clouds but the entire solid cloud shape...swoon!!! After I had impressed the clouds on the light blue paper I sanded the shapes to highlight them a little more. The best part about the Clouds Impression Plate is that it's one plate with a different cloud pattern on each side. You'll want to use the embossing pad kit with all the Taylored Impression Plates. 

Next up is Life Is A Circus, illustrated by Doug Applegate for the Apple Doodle Ink line. This is also a full sized stamp set and includes 17 images and sentiments. 

I can hear the circus music now...and doesn't that bring back fun memories? The images in this set are perfect for either stand-alone focal points or for building little scenes like my "Under the Big Top" scene with the tent and the seal. 

I used fun papers from October Afternoon's Campfire collection and popped the seal and the stand on foam tape so they'd stand out from the tent and look like they're in the foreground. 

The blue strip with the circles and stars is the new Star Border Die. I cut it out once from blue cardstock, then again from yellow, and used the yellow stars to fill in the negative space on the blue strip. 

See you tomorrow with another day of fun sneak peeks!!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Dream Big {MFTWSC26}

Let's get sketchy with the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club and sketch #26.

Wowzers...26 sketches already!!! That means we're half way through the year and we can all start dreaming about what to add to our Holiday wish list! :-)

With that in mind, I used the fabulous à la mode - Dream Big. I just adore how she's lounging on the moon.

She's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with copics. The patterned papers are from the October Afternoon Camp Fire collection. I used my open scallop doily for the background and the stacking stars die-namics for the accents. The sentiment flag is actually the ribbon tab from the first place award ribbon die-namics, and I use that one a lot for sentiments!!!

Here are all the sketchy details:

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 MFTWSC26. 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!
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 with today’s sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Monday, June 27, 2011

A Simple Set of Cards

This is my final week as the featured artist on the Our Craft Lounge blog, and can I just say, I've had a blast!! Thank you SO much Our Craft Lounge!!!

Today I thought I'd showcase some of the wonderful sentiments in Say it With Flowers so I created a simple set of eight cards. I used most of the 'friendship' type sentiments, but this set is so versatile, you could create get well cards, thank you's and birthday cards too!

The flower is from Pretty Petals which I used last week to make the place card holders.

I used a simple colour scheme of white and kraft then paired it with either teal or pink and added a pop of black. I used four of the sentiments and made both a pink and teal card with each sentiment. Here's a picture of each of the different sentiments:

And here's the group of teal cards.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Thursday, June 23, 2011

We're Blast From The Past Hopping with Taylored Expressions

This month's theme for the Blast From The Past customer blog hop with Taylored Expressions is "old Glory"...use red, white and blue. Now, nobody said we had to create a patriotic card so I went totally into left field and used these fab colours to create Project Christmas 2011 card #15!!

I used the fun sketch that Sankari provided for inspiration but I flipped it to fit the image I wanted to use from Wings of Joy.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto choice snow white and coloured with copics. I added some clear rhinestones to the berries then coloured them with a red copic marker. The patterned papers are from Echo Park's Wintertime collection and I added some red baker's twine for the vertical element. I cut a strip of blue with my scalloped eyelet border die and added even more bling.



Thanks for stopping by!
Karen