A Challenge and an Award

My friend Janet gave out this photo challenge so I'm taking her up on it. I had to go into my photo file, open the sixth folder and post the sixth picture. Here it is:

This photo was taken at 7:14pm (obviously!) on August 25th, 2008. We had just moved to Massachusetts in June and my friend Lorraine {{{waves...hi Lorraine!}}} told me she'd be in the are in August because her son's soccer team was playing exhibition games in New England. Of course we met up and spent the day together laughing and catching up, then I went into Boston with her to watch the soccer game at Boston University. There aren't any people in the photo, but it still puts a smile on my face when I think back to how much fun we had.  :)

An Award: Earlier in January Mamawheelie gave me a wonderful blog award. Thank you so much! 

The award means that this blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. The following blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandissement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who much choose eight more and include this cleverly written-text in the body of their award.

I'm sending both of these out at the same time, to the same people, YOU! So please play along. I think the photo challenge is a hoot...it's so much fun reading people's stories. And the blog award...who doesn't deserve a blog award. Please feel free to consider yourself "awarded" and pass it along.  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Karen

Cupcake Tree

This is the last card I managed to get done for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge celebration. I sampled Vicki Chrisman's sketch for this one. I didn't get all nine sketches completed in time for the contest, but I've printed the other sketches and I'll play along at some point, cause I'm always up for a sketch challenge and it's really never too late to play.  :)

I had this idea to add cupcakes to the tree from Season of Friendship. I was originally going to colour cupcakes from Crazy for Cupcakes but I found this fabulous paper with rows and rows of cupcakes, so I made my life easier and just cut them out from the paper. 

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, then So Saffron followed by Rose Red. The strips of patterned paper are Heidi Grace Designs Valentine's day line. I used my scallop border punch for the bottom strip then tied some Rose Red grosgrain ribbon as an accent. The sentiment is from Crazy for Cupcakes. 

I can't believe it...I did a card without any bling on it! But, the cupcake paper has this shimmery coating that doesn't really show up in the pictures, so my card still has some bling. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Sketchey Cupcake Flopsey

I'm back on my Taylor's Cupcake Challenges for her one year celebration. At this point, I KNOW I won't finish all nine sketches, but I'm certainly having fun completing as many as possible. This one is for Jackie Pedro's sketch which you'll find on her blog. 

I thought Cupcake Flopsey from MFT would look great in the circle. I stamped him with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury cardstock then got to work colouring him with my copics. I stamped the cupcake a second time, cut it out and popped it with dimensionals. I had visited my LSS, Right At Home Scrapbooking, earlier in the day and picked up this fabulous paper from My Mind's Eye, along with some turquoise Stickles which add the perfect bling to the cupcake. Flopsey is cut out with nesties and layered onto a scallop of Taken with Teal. 

The card base is 5.25" square. The patterned paper is layered onto a square of Kraft cardstock and I pierced all around the edge. There's plenty of bling on this card...the blue dots are Aqua Bonbons from Stamping Bella and the rhinestones around the circle are from Hero Arts. 

I opted not to add a sentiment and placed some flowers and a button instead. Really, it's cause I couldn't get the sentiment to look right, at least not the sentiment I really wanted to use, anyway.   ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Are you a Bag Lady?

I know a few people who fall into this category, myself included. LOL! 

I thought of this idea when I saw Lauren's Saturday Sketch. I started by choosing my paper...Basic Grey Gypsy 6x6 pad. I was looking for both a fun colour combo and papers that had a dense pattern so I could paper piece the bags. I coloured the straps with my Pumpkin Pie SU marker and added a little silver to the buckles with my Zig painty pen. Then I cut out the bags. The stamps are from MFT's Tote-ally Fantastic set in the Who's That Girl line. LOVE that line!!! 

I ran the background through my houndstooth cuttlebug folder then stitched around the edge for a bit of a fabric feel. The sentiment was cut out with long rectangle nesties. 

The bags are 'hanging' from SU rhinestone brads, and there's one in the center of the Primas too. I had the hardest time with the two accents at the top...everything I tried looked too much like a pair of eyes staring back at me...creepy! So I finally thought to add the pumpkin word window punches under the buttons and that seemed to do the trick for me...no more eyes.   :)

This card just makes me laugh...I love the sentiment. I know exactly who I should send it too, question is, do I have the nerve!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A Cupcake Intermission

I'm taking a little intermission from Taylor's Cupcake Celebration sketches cause Jen posted her Sketch For You To Try on the weekend and I {heart} her sketches too, so I just had to play along. 

I grabbed one of my many 'circle' stamps from Stamping Bella (sorry, I looked for this specific one to link to it on her website but I couldn't find this one). These circle stamps are great because they fit perfectly inside the Jumbo Marvy circle punch (the blue one). Then I used my circle nesties for the layers. 

The image is coloured with copics and I added Pink and Stardust Stickles to the balloons for lots of bling. It's layered onto Rose Red and Chocolate Chip. 

For the card base, I started with some Gina K 120lb pure luxury cardstock, then a layer of Chocolate Chip followed by Pumpkin Pie. The patterned paper is Basic Grey Phoebe (6x6 pad) cause it was still out on my desk. I pierced around the edges of the patterned paper for a little interest. Then I ran a piece of Rose Red through my Spots & Dots cuttlebug folder and inked the raised areas with Brilliance Moonlight White. 

The ribbon is retired SU chocolate...I love the frilly look! It seemed to need a little something though so I ran a bead of Crystal Effect down the middle of the ribbon and added a row of Hot Lips Bella Baubles (isn't that a fabulous name for an emBELLAshiment!). 

I must have been thinking of my BFF {{{waves...hi Dana!}}} when I made this card, cause it's 'our' colours. Haven't chatted with her all weekend...feels like forever to me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Especially For You

Let me start right off the top saying how much I love this card. No, it's not my ego talking...LOL!...I just REALLY like how this turned out. Even hubby "Wowed" out loud when I showed him.

I'm continuing with Taylor's challenges in celebration of her One Year of Cupcake Challenges. This card follows Ana Wohlfart's sketch. 

I chose Matilda Muffinbread from Stamping Bella as my image cause she was calling out to get inky. I wanted to do a little paper piecing on this and I thought her skirt would look great pieced. I used papers from my Basic Grey Phoebe 6x6 pad. What I didn't think of when I decided to piece her skirt was that the three bows would need to be cut out. Ugh...why do I do this to myself? I ended up using my Judikins pen knife to cut out the bows...it has a really fine point for detail work. The rest of the image was coloured with copics.

I added some Bella Liquid Watercolour Glitter to her wings and some pink Stickles to the muffin. I also used the Stickles for the dotted line below the sentiment. I added shimmer to the flower centers with my Stardust gelly roll pen. 

The card base is Pink Pirouette. The patterned panel is layered onto Rose Red and the strip is Chocolate Chip. I have to say, it looks REALLY dark and 'out of place' in the photo, but the chocolate chip blends in much better IRL. The floral embellie is a Heidi Swap gel blossom with some Primas and a cotton candy Bella Bonbon in the centre. I LOVE using ghost shapes...must get me some more of those! 

Have you been working on any of Taylor's sketch challenges? If not, get to it...prizes are involved...yippeee! Really...there could be no prize at all and I'd still participate.   :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Two down, seven more to go...

...Sketches, that is, for Taylor's one year celebration of the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge. Check out the details on her blog...there's prizes! Each of the ladies in the Cupcake Crew designed a sketch for the celebration. I sampled Donna's sketch yesterday, and this card is for Taylor's sketch.

This was a fun sketch to work with. I decided on my Mommy and Baby Cupcake stamp from Stamping Bella because it looked great in the oval.  I stamped the image with Memento black and coloured it with copics. I added lots of shimmer to the image with my Lemon and Pink Atyou Spica glitter pens. The image is layered onto Rose Red then So Saffron, all cut out with oval Nesties. 

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure 

luxury white, then a layer of Rose Red followed by this awesome patterned paper, Heidi Grace Designs Valentine's Day. I actually bought it specifically for Taylor's celebration because there are rows of cupcakes on the coordinating design, but for this card I wanted to use the dotted pattern. You'll probably see the other one in the next few days. The strips of paper at the bottom are Rose Red and Pink Pirouette. I had this great yellow ribbon...I think it may be crocheted or something...so I used that for my 'scallop'. 

There are actually buttons under those pink flowers on either side of the image, but they only show a teeny bit. For the finishing touch I added some random pink & yellow Hero Arts Gemstones to the dots on the patterned paper. I really like the sparkle and dimension they add. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

It's a Cupcake-ariffic Friday!

You're in for a SUPER treat today! Taylor is celebrating the one year anniversary of the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge! Woo Hoo!!! This has become one of my favourite weekly challenges. 

Each of the ladies on the Weekly Cupcake Crew has designed their own sketch for the celebration. I'm featuring Donna Baker's sketch challenge. You can check out the sketch on Donna's blog and find out about the fabulous prize you can win by participating! 

These talented stampers are also sampling Donna's sketch, so hop over to their blogs to see what they've created. Angela, Carol, Carolina, and of course, Donna.

You'll want to hop over to Taylor's blog, the anniversary headquarters, for all the sketch challenges as well as an awesome grand prize for one random winner who participates in ALL 9 sketch challenges! Wowzers...it's gonna be a wonderfully stampy weekend! We hope you'll dig in and help us celebrate this yummy occasion!

I couldn't stop at just one card for this challenge, so I've got two to show you. This first one uses Taylor's Love is Sweet set. It's simply adorable! I coloured the image with copics and cut it out with nesties. The two heart gemstones have been in my stash for years and I've finally put them to great use! I cut out the sentiment with a spellbinder tags trio and attached it with ribbon.

 

The background is super cool. I used some digital papers from MFT - the Kiss Collection - resized them so the pattern would be much smaller then printed them out. I used my 1 1/4" square punch and glued the squares to the Real Red base layer. Then I sewed around the outer edge with a straight stitch. This card really makes me smile! It's so bright and happy.

 

My next card uses Taylor's Sweet Celebration set. I combined two images to make this one. I kinda flubbed the sketch though...I wasn't thinking it would end up being such a wide rectangle. I went with it anyway, instead of flipping the sketch, and I actually like how it turned out. 

This little cuppie was also coloured with copics. It doesn't show in the photo but I added lots of bling with my Stardust gellyroll pen. This time I used my ribbon tags trio to cut out the sentiment. 

For the base, I added an extra layer then the squares of patterned paper could be placed directly side by side. The paper is from Imaginisce, A Shore Thing line. I sewed zig zags around each of the squares so it looks quilted. I'm really pleased with how both cards turned out. 

So head on over to the anniversary celebration headquarters on Taylor's blog...check out the sketches and everyone's creations, read about the fabulous grand prize and start stamping! 

Have a Cupcake-ariffic weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Good Coffee and Good Friends

I finally had some time today to play with Lauren's Saturday sketch. I must admit, this one stumped me a little so I thought long and hard before deciding which stamp set to use. I knew I wanted to use smaller images in the two small circles and not just embellishments, so I finally landed on using My Cuppa Joe from Gina K Designs. 

I stamped the two mugs and the coffee pot with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury 80lb white. I coloured the images with copics then cut them out with either circle punches or circle nesties. I chose to go with pinks and browns because my Bittersweet paper was still out on my stamp table and I wanted to use it again.  :)

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, followed by some Chocolate Chip. I stamped the sentiment with versamark and embossed it with white EP so it would stand out against the chocolate background. I pierced along the top and left edges of the chocolate piece. I found it needed some bling to spice it up so I added a row of Cotton Candy Bella Bonbons beside the sentiment. Then I tied a little pink gingham bow onto a mini library clip and attached it to the coffee pot circle. The very last thing I did was coat the coffee pot with crystal effects so it would look glassy...then I set it aside in a safe place to dry. The layers are all popped on dimensionals so it adds a lot of height, which doesnt' really show in the photos. 

I love coffee and I love friends, and I love chatting with friends over coffee. It's such a good excuse to get together! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Blog Banners for a Cause

My friend Nancy created my fabulous blog banner and watermark. I turned to her when I started my blog cause she's super creative and a very talented designer. I just knew she'd come up with something fresh and fun. Well, guess what...she's now offering her blog banner/watermark service to everyone. There's one really great catch...instead of payment she's asking people to donate to a few very worthy causes. How amazing is that! So hop over to see Nancy on her blog Cardworthy to read more about it, and the story of why she's so supportive of these organizations. You can contact Nancy directly at nancy.mckinney3@gmail.com 

Say Charge Girls

This card came about because my BFF Dana told me about an MFT challenge on Splitcoast that I seemed to have overlooked. Not sure how that happened but I'm happy she set me on the straight and narrow. {wink!}

The challenge is the Who's That Girl challenge #18. I don't own the featured set (gasp!) so I decided to use my Say Charge! girls instead. The second part of the challenge is to use patriotic red, white and blue colours...although my red is more like burgundy. 

I stamped the girls with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury, then I stamped them again onto three patterned papers from the Making Memories Paperie line. The image is coloured with a combination of paper piecing and copics. I added a sparkly blue jean Bella dot to the center of the flower.

The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, followed by a piece of Bravo Burgundy which I ran through my Birds & Swirls cuttlebug folder. Next I used my threading water border punch on a strip of the blue patterned paper from Making Memories Paperie line. That's layered onto a strip of Brocade Blue.  The ribbon is from my stash...not sure who makes it, and I added a spiral clip from my old Hodgepodge set to the image. 

So friends...let's all Say Charge! and stimulate this economy with more stamps!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Urban Chick

I love this week's Mojo Monday sketch...so many fun layers! I always have a difficult time coming up with interesting layouts on my own, which is the reason you see me using SO many sketches. It works for me though, so I'm gonna stick with it. 

I picked up this little chick stamp from my LSS-Right at Home Scrapbooking quite a few months ago and he sat unused, until now that is. He's from Imaginisce, the Snag'em Stamps...you know, those cute little single stamps that just can't be resisted! LOL! I stamped him with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury and coloured him with copics. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the colours I used so here they are: YR21, YR23, R32, R35. The flower on his body is paper pieced, popped up and has a gemstone in the centre.

The patterned papers are from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line. The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury, followed by a piece of Basic Black. Next I ran some Rose Red through my paisley cuttlebug folder. I added some larger turquoise Hero Arts gemstones around the edge of my circle piece for a little more bling and interest. 

I'll leave this one blank until I find the right sentiment, then I'll add it to the inside and decorate it to coordinate. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

My Prince Charming

Today is hubby's birthday and this is the card I made for him cause he's my Prince Charming. I used the MFT sketch challenge over on Splitcoast for the layout. 

I knew I wanted to use the castle stamp for his card after seeing this stunner on Jessica Rone's blog. The castle is kind of a play on words too, cause our last name is Motz (it rhymes with boats) and it always makes me think of the moat around a castle. And he seems to think he's king (in a good way of course), so I HAD to get the Good Knight set from MFT as soon as it was released.  :)

The castle was stamped 5 times with Memento black onto Sahara Sand. I coloured the images with Lyra pencils, odourless mineral spirits and a stump. Then I cut out the different layers and popped them on dimensionals, for a total of 5 layers of the castle. I knew this card wasn't going in the mail so I went a little layer crazy, but it looks awesome! I used Waterfall Stickles on the flags. The image is layered onto Night of Navy then Chocolate Chip.

The base is Sahara Sand, followed by Chocolate Chip, and the patterned papers are from my Basic Grey Granola 6x6 pad. For the banner, the 'King of the Castle' words come in the set, then I pieced together the other words to make the saying work for my card. The buttons are also from the Granola line. 

We're hitting the slopes today for our first skiing of the season, then home for my mom's famous chocolate birthday cake (well it's famous in our family anyway but I had to bake it so it's never as good as when she makes it).  

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

I'm Super Pumped!

I really AM super pumped!!! Yesterday was a day of fabulosity: I went onto Jen del Muro's blog to check her weekend sketch and discovered that I had won her blog tart from last week. Woo Hoo! BIG thanks Jen! Then, after much searching on the internet for a decent priced flight, I officially booked my trip to Calgary in March to visit my BFF Dana. There was already a spring in my step from winning blog tart (my very first blog candy too), so you could have called me "Tigger" after my flight was booked...I was bouncing all around the house! Then, it's hubby's birthday on Monday so we went out for a yumalicious dinner to celebrate. Oh, and this one's gonna sound silly, but it's often the little things that make me happy...we were at Barnes & Noble in the afternoon and I picked up a mini book light, and it's pink!  :) 

In celebration of booking my flight, I just had to make a card for Dana, and I really wanted to use our favourite colours (mine is pink...shocking I know! and her's is pumpkin). Coincidentally, I had just picked up some new Stephanie Fizer digital papers from MFT stamps and the pack I chose was the perfect colours. I have to tell you, I was a little skeptical about digi papers, but I'm totally over that now! I LOVE them! It's so easy...buy, download, print, create. New paper in a matter of minutes. Make a wrong cut or run out of paper, just print another piece. Easy peasy! 

The card actually evolved as I was creating it. It didn't start out in my mind looking like a window display in a fancy boutique, but I'm 'super pumped' with how it turned out. {grin!} It doesn't show in the photo, but I even included a piece of acetate for the look of a real window.  As the design was evolving I wasn't sure if it would work with Jen's Sketch For You To Try this week, but in the end, the top seemed bare and the corner accent was just what it needed. 

I used two MFT stamp sets, Window Shopping and Meet Me at the Cafe (for the awning). The shoes, boot and platforms are all paper pieced. I used two rectangle nesties to cut out the window frame. The card base is Gina K 120lb pure luxury with a piece of Pink Pirouette which I ran through the 'textile' cuttlebug folder. For the sentiment, I stamped it onto the striped paper then cut out a banner shape. I added a row of Hero Arts gemstones along the bottom then two flowers and bonbons from Stamping Bella. The orange flowers in the top corner are layered Primas with a Bella bonbon in the center. 

There's lots of dimension on this card and it looks so much better in real life. You know how it is when you finish a card and it just makes you happy to look at it? Well, this card does that for me.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

The Ugly Duckling and the Swan

Friday's, for me anyway, have come to be "Taylor's Cupcake Challenge" day. I look forward to seeing her featured cupcake sampler each week and to see what new sketch she's come up with. So today was no different. Darn time zones though...I have to wait til 11am eastern for Taylor's posts...that's like nearly half a day! LOL! 

When I got home in afternoon I looked at the sketch and thought 'great sketch...this shouldn't be too difficult'. Let me just say, boy was I wrong...it wasn't the sketch that made it difficult, but rather my choice of paper. Like pretty much everyone, I'm trying to use my stash of older papers, so I chose one with lots of colours and I set to work colouring my Stella's Cupcake image from Stamping Bella. 

When she was all coloured I thought, Hmm...she looks kinda Halloweenish. Then I looked at my paper choice again and sure enough it was from a Halloween line...sheesh! I honestly thought I could salvage it...to the point where I actually finished the card. I'm pretty sure I went colour blind at some point during the assembly process. Of course, as soon as it was done I knew immediately that I was going to start over with a different paper. My BIG decision was 'do I show you the reject so we can all laugh together?". I'm only showing it to you very small cause I'm totally embarassed. Please...tell me I'm not the only one who can mess up a card this badly. 

And now for the swan. This time I chose a paper from Scenic Route, with my favourite colour combo, pinks and green. I did everything pretty much the same, sewing, layering, sentiment, but it turned out SO much better. I'm super happy with this one! I did paper piece the cupcake wrapper on this one, but virtually everything else remained the same. I didn't tie a bow with the green ribbon because I found it was too thick and ended up right at the edge of the card. I used my green Atyou Spica pen on the star and the crown and added an olive Bella Bonbon to the top of the cupcake. The solid paper colours I used were Regal Rose, Rose Red and Kiwi Kiss. The sentiment is from A Muse Artstamps. 

Ok, you can stop laughing at my ugly duckling card now.  {grin}

Seriously though, not every card can be a masterpiece, right? My reject Stella is probably gonna get filed under "G" (or "R" for recycle).

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

A Clean Challenge

This card is for my friend Joanne's "keep it clean" challenge in the Gina K Designs forum on Splitcoast. The rules are only two layers on the card base and three embellishments. 

So I just HAD to pull out my brand new Gina K set 'Home Tweet Home'. Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to learn this was on my first stamp order from Gina K...I love birds and I have a bird house collection.  :)

I stamped the image with Memento black onto Sahara Sand cardstock...I really liked the look of pencils on kraft cardstock on my Blue Shoe Mojo card, so I was thinking of doing something along those lines. Next I decided on a patterned paper...I ended up with a piece from my Basic Grey Periphery 6x6 paper pad. I let the colours in the paper guide my colour choices for the image. 

I used my Lyra pencils, odourless mineral spirits and a stump to colour the image. I have to say, I'm not entirely thrilled with how bright the blue came out, but there isn't a nice light blue in my set of 72 pencils (really, there isn't)...hmmm...do I need more already?!?{grin!} Once it was all coloured I cut it out with a scallop nestie and sponged some Close to Cocoa around the edges. 

The card base is Always Artichoke. I also sponged around the edge of the card with Always Artichoke, to give it a bit of a shadow on the outer edges. Once I tore the patterned paper, I found the white core too bright so I sponged both Cocoa and Artichoke to tone it down, then I distressed the bottom edge of the card base for more texture. 

The ribbon is SU chocolate felt and I tied in the blue on the image with a blue button and some linen thread. Once it was all put together I pierced along the ribbon and around the image.

There you have it, one card base, two layers, three embellishments...a handmade card, priceless.  :) 

Hmph...I've just realized...this is one of only two cards I've made lately that doesn't use any Gina K pure luxury cardstock at all...not even as a card base. The ironic part is that this one is for a challenge in the Gina K forum. LOL! Hope they don't hold it against me!   :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Whoo Loves You?

Oh, what a super fun colour combo to work with from Kristina Werner's Colour Inspiration #38. I decided to use my new An Owl for all Seasons from MFT. 

I stamped the owls with Memento black onto Gina K pure luxury and coloured them with copics. I had originally cut out a rectangle with nesties, but while I was mid-design I changed my mind and cut out the owls instead. I also stamped the owls once on the pink base layer so their legs would show. 

The entire is actually a very simple layout. White base (Gina K 120lb white) followed by a layer of Pretty in Pink. Then a scallop of Ruby Red and a strip of retired SU Pumpkin Pie designer paper. I finished it off with some black & white polkadot May Arts ribbon and a flower embellishment consisting of a pumpkin Prima, a pink SU felt fusion then a Ruby Red button, all kept together with a black brad. 

When the card was all done I was looking at it and it seemed to be missing something...nothing big, just a little something. I was thinking for about 10 minutes (while writing this post) then it hit me...the sentiment looked like it was just floating there so I lifted the layers an added a row of paper piercing just below to anchor it.  Of course that was after I had already photographed it so my card got re-takes! LOL! Oh, and about that sentiment, in the set the sentiment reads 'whoo loves you baby?', but I omitted the baby part then stamped the question mark...that's what I love most about clear sets...you can see where you're stamping to line things up.  :)

This one's already going in the mail as a thank you to someone...can't say "Whoo" just in case they're reading (slim chance of that, but you never know...I want them to be surprised).  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen