Pinch Me!

I could hardly believe it when Taylor Van Bruggen emailed to ask if I'd be her Featured Cupcake Sampler this week! Little 'ole me??? Eeeeeeek! Breathe Karen...Breathe... I was SO excited, and of course I accepted. 

Lucky me...I got to play with the sketch early this week. And what a great sketch it is! I love circles so this is definitely a 'Karen' sketch.  BIG {grin}!

I enjoyed putting the card together, but I must say I was a little stressed too. My card was going to be on someone else's blog...it had to be just perfect. I hadn't used my Cupcake Flopsey yet, or my BG Urban Prairie paper...gasp! I know...what rock have I been under! I had a lot of fun pairing up these delicious goodies. 

Flopsey is stamped on Gina K pure luxury cardstock and coloured with copics. I popped the cupcake once, then I popped the icing again and added a little of SU's Rose Pink glitter. I used my coluzzle to cut out the white circle then finished off by trimming around his ears with my snips. Coincidentally, a scallop circle nestie fit perfectly as a frame under my image. Yay! But the white circle looked a little boring without the pretty embossed 'nestie' edge, so I pierced it. 

The card base is Gina's 120lb white cardstock...it's sooooo sturdy as a base! Love it! Then I added a layer of black followed by a layer of 'corn husk' paper from the Urban Prairie collection, which I also pierced along the edges. 

The patterned strip is 'weather vane' (still in the Urban collection). I layered it on black so it would stand out and added the frilly pink ribbon (retired SU) tied with white thread and a Bella dot for sparkle.

The sentiment ended up kinda looking like a mini version of the sketch...

that was purely by accident. I've seen people layer punches so creatively for sentiments that I thought I'd give it a whirl. This is what I ended up with. And, to follow the sketch, I added three more Bella dots under the words. 

TGIF-have a great weekend.

Thanks again Taylor, and thank you for stopping by!

Karen

October Afternoon Ice Cream

I made this card for the weekly challenge on the Bella-Riffic Friday blog. This week Shannan asked us to create a card with and "ice" theme. Well, my favourite kind of ice is Ice Cream (you scream, we all scream for ice cream!...I'm such a kid!). And, since we've already had our fair share of real ice here in New England, I decided to go with my ice cream idea. Lucky us though, we're far enough south that we weren't directly affected by the ice storm last week. Phew!

The sketch is from Splitcoast, SC207. 

I stamped my Sweetybellas with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury CS. They're coloured with copics. You can't see in any of the photos, but I added a little shimmer to the bags with my Stardust pen. Love that thing...it's so precise!

I cut out the image with my Labels 2 nesties (taking care that it didn't move on the embossing cycle...I really should start cutting them out before I colour the image, then it wouldn't be so stressful). It's layered onto Night of Navy and that panel is popped up with dimensionals. 

The card base is Gina's 120lb CS and the finished size is 5.25 x 5.25 inches. I added a layer of Night of Navy then a pretty patterned paper from October Afternoon. The yellow paper is also from October Afternoon and I layered it with Night of Navy so it would stand out. I added some Blue Jean Bella Dots to each of the yellow tabs. 

I like to think this is my friend Dana and I (cause she has curly hair and mine is straight...but not nearly as voluminous as Bella's!) after a day (or an hour) of shopping (cause we're efficient spenders, er, I mean shoppers). And, she was here visiting in October, so in my twisted stamping mind this is all tied together! 

My post tomorrow will be a little later in the morning, but be sure to check back to see what it's all about! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Gift Tins

Last week, at my friend Joanne's stamp class, we decorated cute little tins to fill with treats and give away over the holidays. Well, I needed a few more tins, so I cased her fabulous idea and added my twist. 

These are the same square tins we used at Joanne's class. I covered mine with some Be Merry paper from MME, and filled the tins with Ghirardelli squares...yummy!!! Each tin holds 6 squares. 

But, I also had a couple of gift cards to give to these specific people (the family stylists...aka...my hair dresser and the dog's groomer!). Let me tell you, the colours on the Dunkin Donuts gift cards just did NOT go with my project. So I created a little 'wrap' for the gift card. 

The baja blue cardstock wrap measures 7" x 4.5". It's scored at 2.25" and 5.25", then the long way at .5" for the bottom flap. Cut away the two small rectangles on the ends, leaving the small middle flap to enclose the GC. Adhere it together with Sticky Strip then slip in your GC. 

To finish it off, I wrapped around a 2" wide piece of patterned paper, then inked a chipboard snowflake with Ridinghood Red. On one of them I added a Martha snowflake punch under the button. The white string is just cotton butcher's thread. 

To make sure the gift card doesn't fall out, I punched right through the holder and threaded it onto the ribbon. They'll have to untie the ribbon to get the GC out. 

Off to make a few more of these. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Hey Tweetie

This card is completely different from my usual stuff. I needed to get a bunch of things done today and I wanted to participate in Kristina Werner's colour challenge, so I opted for super simple and quick.

The colour challenge is to use Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Baja Blue, So Saffron and Vanilla. 

I decided to use Kim Hughes' Pretty Birds set. I like that the images are simple and not too detailed...seemed to tie in with my theme for this card. 

I stamped the branch on retired SU Close to Cocoa designer paper so it would have a bit of detail from the pattern on the paper, then cut it out. I stamped the bird on plain old So Saffron and cut it out. The felt flowers are SU's Flower Fusion Too. 

For the bottom of the card, I used my scallop border punch on a piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock. The sentiment is stamped on So Saffron. I added a styled vanilla Hodgepodge frame and finished it off with a Baja Blue bow. There's no bling or glitter anywhere on this card...gasp! 

I like how the scallop edge reminds me of a fence, and it looks like the bird is peering into his neighbours yard.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Polly's Happy Holidays

I know, I know...another Christmas card. But really, I can't help it. I still have uninked Christmas rubber and full sheets of wonderful holiday papers! Let's just say, I'm starting my stash for next year.   :)

The sketch for this card is from the Bella Sketch Challenge over on Splitcoast. There's a new sketch each Monday. I decided that Polly Packages from Stamping Bella was the perfect image for this card layout. 

Then I chose my Scenic Route Garland papers for colour inspiration. The image was stamped with Memento black onto Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock then cut out with oval nesties. I made sure the image wouldn't slip this time...wink!

The card base is Gina K's fabulous 120lb cardtock...it's soooooooo dreamy! I couldn't seem to incorporate any ribbon on the card...gasp! but the left side looked a little plain so I added an Artichoke snowflake using my Martha punch, with a red Bella Bonbon in the centre for some bling. I finished off the image by adding a teeny bit of sparkle to the holly berries on her hat, with Christmas Red Stickles. 

Oh, and I should tell you, the yellow strip is So Saffron and the green is Always Artichoke.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Check it out...

Are you a follower of Nancy Riley's blog? If not, you have to run over there and check out her iPicks. She posts links to cool projects that she's found throughout the week. She always has a great selection of eye candy, and it's all in one place! And she's featured a few of my cards this week...lucky me!  :)

Thanks Nancy!

Here Comes Elzybells

Sing it with me:

Here comes Elzybells...Here comes Elzybells...Right down Elzybells lane!!!

Isn't she just sooooooooo adorable! I know I said I didn't need more Christmas cards, but, this sweet image has been stamped for over a week now just waiting to be coloured, so I HAD to turn her into a card. 

My Be Merry paper from My Minds Eye was still on my desk so I used it again since the colours just seemed perfect. The sketch is from Jen del Muro's weekend Sketch For You To Try. This card ended up a little busier than I would have liked, but I needed to cover up a boo-boo. 

The image was stamped with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury cardstock and coloured with copics. After it was all coloured I cut it out with nesties...then the boo-boo happened. The paper moved while I was running it through my big shot during the 'embossing' cycle and it ended up all askew. 

I had to hand trim all around the nestie to get rid of most of the evidence, then I cut another nestie (the same size) of pomegranate as a layer. 

I could still see some of my boo-boo around the edges of the white so I decided to zig-zag around the image with my Sew Mini (it's been a little neglected lately anyway). The sewing pretty much covered up the rest of the boo-boo, as long as you don't look too close. LOL!

I finished off the image with some liquid applique on her hat, coat and boots for that 'faux fur' look. I also put a good helping of diamond dust on the snow line for some sparkle. 

I ended up sewing around the other panels on the card too (that's where the busier than I would have liked came in). The solid colours are the same as yesterday's card, Pink Pirouette, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi. 

Hopefully Elzy will bring a sleigh full of goodies to you too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Merry Christmas Cupcake

Really, I don't need any more Christmas cards, but I just can't seem to stop making them. Isn't that always the case...just like shopping. When you really need to buy an outfit you can never find anything, but when you're not looking practically everything you see is fabulous. I guess I'll just start my stash for next year's cards.  :)

The sketch for this card is from Taylor's Cupcake Challenge #46. Another wonderful sketch to work with. Since I'm still feeling festive, I pulled out my Cupcake with Holly on Top from Stamping Bella. The image is stamped with Memento black onto Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock and coloured with copics. The sentiment is also Stamping Bella, but it's a combination of two sentiments. 

I added some Bella Baubles to the top of the cupcake for dimension and interest, and a bit of sparkle too. 

The rest of the card is just a bunch of layers. The base is retired SU Wild Wasabi, then Purely Pomegranate, then Pink Pirouette which I ran through my Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder. 

The striped paper is My Minds Eye Be Merry line. The blue scallop is Baja Blue and the ribbon is retired SU Wild Wasabi. 

Happy Sunday  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Stella's Half Flower

I made this card as a thank you to one of my neighbours. Not sure I can give it away though, it's really pretty! Is she card-worthy? I did make it to coordinate with her home decor though. I guess I can always make another one, right?  :)

So it all started when I read the Thursday "ways to use it" challenge on Splitcoast...to use just half an image. My first thought was, that's bizarre, how will half an image look? So I decided on a flower, cause it's pretty symetrical and you can imagine what the other half of the image will look like. But, the half I do work on needs to be pretty nice to stand on it's own...right?

This beautiful flower is from the set "A Year of Flowers" from Gina K. I thought the detail and layers of the image were absolutely perfect for layers and layers of petals. 

I stamped the flower three times with Memento ink onto Gina K pure luxury cardstock. I imagined the layers going from darkest on the bottom to lightest on top. So I coloured the three images with various copic colours. Don't be scared away by all the colours I used...I just kept layering and blending until I got the shades I wanted but I'm sure you could get the same effect with far fewer colours. 

Once they were coloured, I cropped the darkest flower in half for my base. Then I cut out the petals on the other two flowers and layered them, bending the petals upward for dimension and to show the colours. I offset the petals of each layer too so it didn't just look like a stack. Oh, and I painted the middle layer with Angel Wings Shimmerz, so there's a little shimmer peeking between the top petals. 

The patterned paper is Basic Grey Stella Ruby, which I layered onto SU chocolate then pierced around the edges. The three panels are attached with dimensionals to Artichoke cardstock, then onto a Kraft card base. The ribbon is SU Kraft Taffeta and the pearls are from Stamping Bella, String of Pearls. LOVE those pearls!!!

This is one of my favourite 'grown up' cards in quite some time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Basic Grey Bella Christmas

Yet another lovely Bella crying out to be inked up before she has to hibernate for a year. Since she's got a tree in her cart, it was perfect for the Bella colour challenge on Splitcoast, to use red and green. And, since she also has presents in her cart, she's perfect for this week's challenge on the Bella-riffic Friday blog.

Right away I thought of my still untouched Basic Grey Wassail paper. I pulled all the colours from the patterned piece and matched them as best I could to my copics. Bella was stamped with Memento ink onto Gina K pure luxury cardstock, then coloured with copics. Sigh...I really LOVE colouring! I added just a bit of sparkle to the image with my new red and green Atyou Spica glitter pens (I feel like I need to say "bless you" after pronouncing that name...giggle!).

The rest of the card is quite simple. Once I cut out the image with nesties, I realized it was pretty big for a standard size card, but I didn't want to make a square card. Then I remembered seeing this idea on someone's blog (probably a bunch of blogs, sorry, can't recall exactly where though) and I thought it would work perfectly. 

The base is Kraft cardstock and the finished size is 5.5 x 3.25 inches. When I adhered Bella to the card I placed her so there's an inch sticking above the card. That way it still fits in a regular envelope. 

The dark green and patterned layers are both from the Wassail line. The ribbon is retired SU, and the dots on the sides are from Stamping Bella. 

Now, if only we could all look as thrilled as she is to be doing Christmas shopping! Just remember...It's the most...wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmme of the year.   :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen