Going Somewhere?

What's that you ask? Going somewhere???

You bet I am!!!! Wooo hooooooooooo...finally, no more sleeps!!! My bags are packed and I'm impatiently waiting for my flight to Calgary to visit my BFF Dana!!! We're going to have a fabulous week together...a little shopping, hanging out, maybe some sightseeing, and likely a little stamping too...oh, and I'll be seeing Wendy too...waves!!!

So when I saw this adorable Miss You Much Jolinne from MFT I knew she'd be perfect for my travel day post. I made this card last night while watching the Oscars and it's almost entirely paper pieced because I like cutting while watching the tv. The only parts that are coloured with copics are her skin and hair and her boots. The sentiment is from Going Places.

What you really can't see in the photo is all the paper layers. I tried to get a close-up of the layers...not great but you get the idea. I wanted to be sure to keep the proper perspective so I kept cutting and layering, cutting and layering, cutting and layering until the entire image was complete. That's six layers of paper starting with the bottom suitcase and finishing with her head/hair as the top-most layer. I should have taken a picture of all the layers but I didn't think of it til it was all glued together...sorry! Hopefully I'll remember next time.

The patterned papers are from my Cosmo Cricket Material Girl mini deck and I paired them with Prism solids in desert coral light, desert coral dark, and island mist dark. I finished the card with a simple ghost flower/button combo.

Although it's wonderful to be able to travel across a country in one day, it's still a long day in airplanes. I wish I could be like Dorothy and just click my heels together or something! But you're worth it Dana!!!  {{{hugs}}}

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Snow Day

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC59. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

My love of snowmen continues with this fun snow guy!!! Isn't he adorable with that pot on his head?!? And of course, there were birds in the image too...swoon...so it was a must buy. Happy Snow Day is a digi image from Tiddly Inks and Christy has plenty more sweetness to choose from.

I printed him onto Bella's Bestest Paper then coloured him with copics. I didn't do a whole lot of shading but I still ended up using a pile of copics...sigh...but I guess that's why I bought them, right? I gave him sparkly red buttons with my red Spica glitter pen. For once there's no sewing or piercing on my card. But when it was all assembled it looked too plain, so I doodled a little border around the image...I like it! Oh, and this is my Christmas-card-of-the-week for this week.

I used papers from Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly line and paired them with Prism blush red dark and Prism island mist dark. The sentiment is from Home Sweet Home. I layered a few snowflakes and a button to top it off. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly this card came together. I had visions of fighting with this sketch but it all worked out in the end!

I hope you'll play along with this week's sketch and link your creation on Karen's blog. You'll find more sketch inspiration if you hop over to the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers.
Jen Tapler
Lynn Put
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Bellarific Polka Dots

I may be a day late but I'm not a dot short! LOL!!! Here's my Bellarific card from yesterday's round-up. The challenge last week was Polka Dots-Big or Small we Love them All!!!

I decided to start with a polka dotted image, Fluttery Lollipop from Stamping Bella. Fluttery is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured with copics. I added a splattering of Glamour Dust to the dots on the wings. I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge, MTSC63, for the layout.

I chose this patterned paper because it's bright and fun, and had plenty of polka dots. There's also another coordinating piece that's covered with small flowers and I tried talking myself into being able to say they're polka dots, but my BFF wouldn't let me...they're flowers, not polka dots. LOL!!! I can't remember what the paper is because I cut of the name strip, BUT, it's ooooold. I ran the blue piece through my Spots & Dots Cuttlebug folder then sanded it lightly to reveal the white core. It kinda looks a little like denim all sanded like that. I finished the card with some white ribbon and two Glitter dots.

Didja see all the entries in yesterday's post on Bloggabella? Wowzers...LOVE to see that many people playing along. Next week's theme is "Anything Goes-Freestyle!" because we're having a Stamping Bella release. Email your card created with Stamping Bella images to Em by Thursday evening to be included in the Friday round-up.


Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Taylored Expressions Release Day-It's a Party!!!

It's release day at Taylored Expressions and all the fabulous stamps and key ingredients you've seen over the past two days are now available for purchase.

Today we're having a party to celebrate one year since the Whimsical Wishes line was launched. There have been so many wonderful Whimsical Wishes sets designed by the talented Nancy McKinney over the past year and to celebrate we have a gift for you! Taylor is giving away a set of digital images called Whimsical Wishes Throughout the Year with any purchase from Taylored Expressions from now through Monday, March 8th. 

This is a set of four never-before-seen seasonal images and coordinating sentiments. These are open line images ready for you to colour with your favourite medium. And of course we have inspiration for you because today the Baker's Dozen is showcasing the four images from Whimsical Wishes Throughout the Year.

I chose to work with The Wonder of Winter. Those who know me won't be surprised by that choice...there's a bird in the image and it also works into my plan for creating Christmas cards all year long.   :)

I printed the image with my ink jet printer onto Choice Snow White, twice, and coloured it with copic markers (no heat setting required). The image is cut out with square Nestabilities and layered onto a scalloped square. I cut out the cardinal and popped it for dimension. Then I added two coats of clear glaze pen to the balls on the wreath and used my red Spica pen to add just a little sparkle to the cardinal.

To get the sentiment onto the Prism Classic Red layer I masked off what I didn't want to print (by adhering a sheet of regular copy paper over top of the red cardstock leaving the red exposed at the bottom) then ran the red cardstock throuh my printer and cut it to size. The patterned paper is from  SEI and I also used Prism Suede Brown Dark and Prism Frosted Pink. But how about that ribbon...YUM!!! It's carnation pink silk ribbon and it's sooooooo luxurious! It's thin and very easy to work with but still keeps it's form when you fluff the bow...LOVE it!!!

But that's not all...Taylored Expressions is also having an anniversary sale. The first two sets released in the Whimsical Wishes family last year were Branching Out and Branching Out Coordinates. Each of these 2 sets are on sale for 25% off through Monday March 8th. Note: since these two sets were originally part of our Giving Tree charitable program they come in sheet form attached to EZ Mount. You will need to trim them out when you receive them.

AND...Nancy's having a little contest on her blog, Card Worthy. Be sure to hop over and wish her Happy Anniversary and play along in her contest for a chance to win a FREE Whimsical Wishes set!!!

In case you're looking for the new products, here are the links to the TE store:
You're My Hero stamp set
Rock Star Key Ingredients
Rock Star Copic Kit
Easter Blessings stamp set
Favourite Peeps stamp set
Easter Key Ingredients
Easter Copic kit
Spring Sampler
Eggstra Special Image Sheet Download

Or you can click on the Fresh Out of the Oven tab to see these new products and several others, like the brand new Spellbinders dies that were just released at CHA...nested eggs, big scalloped Nestabilities, Labels 10, 11, 12, & 13, along with the Basic Grey Kioshi and Green at Heart paper and embellishments.

If you're still with me after all that information, then you certainly deserve to see the rest of the Baker's Dozen  creations using Whimsical Wishes Throughout the Year.

Alex Maldonado

Amy Sheffer (guest designer extraordinaire!)

Carolina Butching

Charmaine Ikach

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jeanie Witmer

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Melissa Sauls

Nancy McKinney (stamp designer extraordinaire!)

Sankari Wegman

and Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek Day 2-Easter EGGstravaganza

In case you didn't figure it out from my post title, today the Baker's Dozen is sharing samples using two new Easter sets and an Easter digital download. First up I'd like to share the card I made with Easter Blessings and the Easter Key Ingredients.

Easter Blessings is the newest set in the Lasting Impressions line from Taylored Expressions. This set is full of wonderful Easter sentiments, quotes and bible verses along with a beautiful selection of images. I used this week's Splitcoast sketch, SC270, for the layout. Although I realized as I was photographing my card that I didn't exactly follow the sketch for the bottom part...oh well...I still like how it turned out. The sentiment is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and the cross is stamped with Memento Lulu Lavender.  I ran the patterned papers (Basic Grey Kioshi from the Easter Key Ingredients) through my swiss dots Cuttlebug folder then sanded them lightly to add textures. A few embellishements from the Easter Key Ingredients finish the card nicely.

Next up I have a card using the adorably sweet Favourite Peeps set. I had such trouble deciding which image and sentiment to use...they're all so wonderful! And as you can see from my card, Favourite Peeps  can be used for "other-than-Easter" cards.

I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black  and coloured it with copics. I added a little glitter to the black lines for sparkle and sponged Memento Desert Sand around the image (I left my circle Nestabilitie in place while sponging to conserve the white border). I paired the circles with Labels Three for an eye pleasing layer. The lavender ribbon from the Easter Key Ingredients has a sparkle to it...I hope you can see it in the photo...it's sooooo pretty! The pink rhinestones I used as "O's" in the sentiment are from the Spring Sampler...it's chock full of fabulous supplies to coordinate with the Easter Key Ingredients.

The flower embellishment was completely inspired by one of the papers from the Kioshi line. I looked at the paper and saw layers cut out and popped on foam tape to create a gorgeous floral embellishment. It was super easy to do and I topped it with one of the mini flowers from the Easter Key Ingredients.

Last but not least I want to share a tea light holder I created using the Eggstra Special Image Sheet Download and the Easter Key Ingredients (along with some vellum from my stash).

When I saw all the gorgeous patterned eggs in this download I immediately thought of light glowing through the patterns. I used my laser printer to print the download sheet onto vellum cardstock (I printed it using my ink jet first but the ink bled on the vellum paper). Then I simply constructed a box for the base, added the punched corner strips and adhered the vellum eggs to the insides of the corners. I jazzed up the bottom of the box with striped "grass" and a pretty bow. Finally I added a battery operated tea light, took it into a dark room (my washroom...LOL!) and ooohed and aaaaahed.

There's so much you can do with the Eggstra Special Image Sheet Download and the eggs are sized to work with the Limited edition nested Egg Dies from Spellbinders.

It's time to hop over to the rest of the Baker's Dozen to see what egg-citing creations they have to share today!   :)

Alex Maldonado

Carolina Butching

Charmaine Ikach

Donna Baker

Jackie Pedro

Jeanie Witmer

Jodi Collins

Karen Giron

Melissa Sauls

Nancy McKinney (stamp designer extraordinaire!)

Sankari Wegman

and Taylor Van Bruggen

Tomorrow is release day and I'll have something else new to share so be sure to check back!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Taylored Expressions Sneak Peek Day 1-You're My Hero

Let the sneak peeks begin!!! I'm super excited about the new set, You're My Hero, the Baker's Dozen is showcasing today. I think it'll Rock Your World!!! It's fresh & fun and it's also the new charitable set for the TE Giving Tree Program. The new products will be available at Taylored Expressions from 8am Friday, March 5th.

You're My Hero was inspired by and designed in honour of Taylor's 10 year old neighbour, Darrin Zimmerman, who passed away last fall from cancer. Please visit Taylor's blog for the full story. $7 from the sale of each You're My Hero set will be donated to CureSearch. CureSearch unites the world's largest childhood cancer research organization, the Children's Oncology Group, and the National Childhood Cancer Foundation through their mission to cure childhood cancer. Research is the key to the cure.

The possibilities are endless for this set. Next week I'll be in Calgary visiting my BFF (5 more sleeps!) and I have a nephew there who's birthday is next week, so I used You're My Hero and the Rock Star Key Ingredients to create his birthday card and a fun altered composition book. I used sketch SC269 from Splitcoast for the layout on my card.

The guitar is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White and coloured it with copics. I used my orange Spica glitter pen to add a smidge of sparkle to the flames, which ties in nicely with the orange glitter brads from the Rock Star Key Ingredients. I used my stamp positioner to line up the handle and the guitar head. There are actually four different guitar heads included in You're My Hero, but I thought Carter would get a kick out of the flames. He's turning 12 and actually appreciates hand-made cards, so I know he'll love this one.

The patterned papers in the Rock Star Key Ingredients are from the We R Memory Keepers Teen Angst collection and they're so cool! The piece I used on my card has a silver foil line running through it. I also love how the sentiments in You're My Hero have a bit of a grunge feel with letters that have a scratched up look.

Next I decided to alter a composition book using the Rock Star Key Ingredients and You're My Hero. I stamped the three guitars with Memento Cantaloupe, Bamboo Leaves and Summer Sky then added the rock star shadow with Memento Tuxedo Black. The image is cut out with Labels One Nestabilities and for the black mat I simply traced around the outside of the same nestie then cut it out with scissors.

I love the tone on tone effect of stamping the circle splatter and the star with Versamark onto the green and yellow papers. The star border punch was a logical choice for this project then I stitched everything together before adhering it to the book. I think the edges of the ribbon will look even more cool once they fray a little and the stitching will stop it from going too far.

To personalize the book even more I used chipboard letters from my stash. I used the funky Glazed Glitter technique that Jen del Muro shared in this post on her blog. I used Black Diamond Stickles but then to keep with the grunge feel of the stamped words, I covered the letters with Ranger Crackle Accents. It's a little difficult to see the crackle because of the black background but trust me...they look cool and sparkly in a "guy" kinda way!

You're My Hero is the same deeply etched rubber as all the Taylored Expressions sets but it will need to be trimmed when you receive it. This is to keep manufacturing costs as low as possible to maximize the amount donated to CureSearch. The set was designed with teens and tweens in mind, but I see myself using it for both masculine and feminine cards for my brothers, sisters-in-law, and friends. It would be perfect for a scrapbook page too or to wrap up a pair of concert tickets or an iTunes gift card! This set just makes me want to go play Rock Band!!!

I know the rest of the Baker's Dozen will have many more ideas with You're My Hero and the Rock Star Key Ingredients so let's hop over and take a look.
Alex Maldonado
Carolina Butching
Charmaine Ikach
Donna Baker
Jackie Pedro
Jeanie Witmer
Jodi Collins
Karen Giron
Melissa Sauls
Nancy McKinney (stamp designer extraordinaire!)
Sankari Wegman
and Taylor Van Bruggen

I'll be back tomorrow with sneak peeks of two more egg-cellent sets!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Izzie's Birthday Balloons

I can't believe it's already March! Where does the time go...my goodness. Another month means more birthdays and I still haven't "grown" my stash of birthday cards, so I thought I'd start the month on the right foot with a birthday card.

This sweet image, Izzie Has Balloons, was part of the most recent release from Stamping Bella and she arrived at my doorstep last week. I stamped Izzie with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Paper and coloured her with copics. I added a little sparkle to her hat and the lollipop with my red Spica glitter pen. I used this week's Mojo128 layout for the sketch but turned it into a square card to accommodate the tall image.

The balloons are paper pieced with patterned papers from my Cosmo Cricket Material Girl 6x6 mini deck and the solid balloon is Prism blush red medium. I ran the square of island mist light through my Moroccan Screen Cuttlebug folder before stitching it to the so saffron layer. For the sentiment I inked each word separately, stamped them, then punched them out. I finished the card with a couple of pearl Baubles.

This week's Bellarific Friday Challenge is "Polka Dots-big or small we love them all" so I hope you'll play along! Email your submission to Em by Thursday evening to be included in the weekly Friday round-up.

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Scoring

ETA: OMG!!! That was an exciting game!!! A total nail biter right down to the clincher in overtime. I'm so happy for Team Canada...Wooo Hooo...14 gold medals for Canada in these Winter Olympics!!! But I have to say, if there was a tournament MVP it would be the US goalie Ryan Miller, IMHO...he was so consistent the entire time, like a wall in front of the net!  Phew...I can breathe again.....    :)

Or at least I hope it'll be Sweet Sunday Scoring for Team Canada in the gold medal hockey game today!!! I'm already getting nervous for the game and it's still 4 hours away! I think that regardless of who wins (of course I'm cheering for Canada, but if Canada wasn't in the game I'd be cheering for the USA) it's going to be one of the most amazing games ever, and best of all, both countries will be adding one last medal to their medal counts!

I couldn't let today slide by without making one last Canadian card, and my friend Nancy designed a few more Canadian images so I decided to use the Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC58, again. The mitts and hat are covered with Rockstar Red Sparkly Fluff. If you'd like these images simply visit Nancy's blog, Card Worthy, and you can email her for the file. Thank you Nancy!!!

So dinner's in the crock pot and my Olympic mittens are on the couch waiting for me...tick tock tick tock...now we wait! In fact, I'm sure two great nations are waiting not so patiently for this game...talk about excitement to top off the Winter Olympics!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

Sweet Sunday Cupcakes

It's time for this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch, SSSC58. You'll find the sketch on Karen Giron's blog, The Sweetest Thing.

I've been a bit of a slacker the last two weeks with my Christmas cards because I've been glued to the tv watching the Olympics (I have the gold medal men's curling on right now as I type this...Go Canada!) so I decided to use today's sketch for my Christmas-card-of-the-week.

I combined images from Season's Sweetings and Home Sweet Home, both from Taylored Expressions. Each Cuppie is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Buttercream and coloured with copics. Then I cut them out and popped them onto squares of Prism Blush Red Dark. I ran the red squares through my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.

The blue snowflake paper is from my October Afternoon Good Cheer 8x8 pack and I layered it onto pink pirouette. There's a ghost snowflake hiding in the cluster of embellishments and a few buttons finish the details along the green glimmer twill.

I know the rest of the Sweet Sunday Stampers have fabulous eye candy to share so let's hop along and visit their blogs.
Jen Tapler
Lynn Put
Nancy Riley
Sarah-Jane Kale'
Vicki Burdick
and Karen Giron

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

A Bellarific Winner!

Happy Bellarific Friday everyone!!! The theme for this week was Winter/Winter Sports in honour of the Winter Olympics. Didja play along? Huh...didja???   :)

When the theme was first announced my mind immediately went to DaisyboardaBella but I knew I could come up with something else if I looked carefully through my six Bella Bindahs (yes...six...and they're overflowing...I'll be needing another very soon!). Then I found First-place-aBella...wooo hoooo!!!! With the way Canada's been performing in these Olympics, this image is absolutely perfect!

I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Bella's Bestest Cream Paper and coloured her with copics. Now, I realize she's dressed more like a summer Olympian but I'm thinking that she's just had the best competition of her life...she was on fire actually, and she was so hot that she had to strip off her competition outfit for the medal ceremony...wink! (Maybe she's one of the players from the Canadian Women's Hockey team that wond GOLD last night!!!) Bella is cut out with Labels 8 Nestabilities then I hand cut the blue mat and left the nestie in place while I pierced around the edge.

My fellow Babe Joanneabella is having a huge blog candy giveaway with challenges and this week's challenge is to use sewing and Kraft cardstock on your card...hence my colour combo. I don't often use Kraft but I really should reach for it more often...maybe I'll keep a piece on my table to remind me. The patterned paper is from my October Afternoon Good Cheer 8x8 pack. I like to think the sheet music is for O' Canada (but I know it's not). I stitched the ribbon into pleats but then covered most of it up...doh! And I've been wanting to do one of the fabulous flowers I see in blog land so I went for it on this card...it's to mimic the lovely bouquet she's holding. I used this tutorial on Mercy's Blog and I really love how it turned out with a mix of the two patterned papers. I finished the card with a sentiment banner tucked under the flower.

Next week's Bellarific Friday Challenge is Polka Dots - Big or Small We Love Them All!!! Email your submission to Em (emily@stampingbella.com) by next Thursday evening to be included in the weekly round-up and you may just win some Bella Bucks for participating!

I'm looking forward to seeing all this week's entries on Bloggabella. I hope you'll join me there and leave some love while you're there for another chance at winning Bella Bucks!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen