Whimsical Birthday Wishes

I {heart} this adorable floppy dog from the Beary Special set at Taylored Expressions and I thought he'd be perfect for Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge, TESC78.

I started by stamping the hat then masked it and stamped the dog, all with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Choice Snow White. Then I stamped the hat and present (both from Beary Special Accessories) onto a scrap of Choice Snow White because I knew I'd be cutting them out. I was about to reach for my copics and then I saw my Lyra pencils (because they're out on display on my desk now, thanks to the sweet handbag tidy I altered...you can see it here) and decided to colour everything with my pencils, OMS and a stump. The hat is popped on foam tape for dimension and I added liquid applique for the pompom. The image is cut out with deckle rectangle Nestabilities.

I layered Prism Suede Brown Dark and Frosted Teal onto the white card base then added some polka dot paper from the My Mind's Eye Delighted line. Next I wrapped some orange polytwill and tied a bow then secured the present to the bow with a white jump ring. I finised the card with three Multicolour Twinkles on the left side.

I'd like to remind you that Beary Special and Beary Special Accessories are the charitable sets for this quarter's TE Giving Tree. Proceeds from the sale of these two sets until August 31st will benefit Sick Kids Hospital. You'll still be able to purchase the sets after August 31st, but then the TE Giving Tree will be focussing on another charitable organization, so if you want to help benefit a wonderful children's hospital, pick up your sets before the end of August.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Black & White Flopsey

It feels so good to be back in my stamp room after our vacation. I didn't take any stamping stuff with me this time because we were moving around a lot, driving to visit both our families in Ontario, so I really wouldn't have had time to stamp anyway.

But, when we got home, my Bubble Bunny from MFT was waiting for me in the mailbox so I decided to get him inky right away. I thought it would be fun to use this Flopsey with the Black & White challenge in the MFT forum on Splitcoast.

I started by rooting through my paper collection and pulled out all the black and white patterned paper...I have way more than I thought I did! I ended up using some Bo Bunny paper along with solids of black, grey and white. The challenge says it's ok to use shades of grey and there can be some colour in the image, but everything else must be black and white.

Flopsey is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with Lyra pencils. I wanted to keep the colours on the image soft and I find it's easier to do that with pencils instead of copics. If you look closely you can see that the bubbles have a hint of light pink. I added some Hero Arts gemstones to the bath tub...shouldn't everyone have a sparkly tub?!?

The card base is 5 inches square. I ran the grey piece through my Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder then added some ribbon from my stash. I layered some Primas onto a ghost flower and finished it with a black brad.

I don't often think of using only black, white and grey, but I really like how this turned out! Thanks for the challenge Joanne and Christina!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Friendly Bellarific Friday

I love this circle of Snowman friends! It's so adorable with them all hugging, or maybe they're in a huddle about to play snowman football!?! This week's Bellarific sketch hostess was Joanneabella...thanks for a fun sketch Joanne!

I actually put away my copics for this card and pulled out my Lyras and mineral spirits! I stamped Group Hug with Memento Tuxedo black onto Prism Nautical Blue Light then coloured it with pencils. It's cut out with circle Nestabilities, layered onto a circle of white then onto a scallop circle on Not Quite Navy.

The white card base is 5 inches square. I layered Not Quite Navy and more Nautical Blue Light then added some fun patterned paper from Pebbles Inc.. A little sewing around the edge adds a nice detail, especially to the green triangle. The sentiment is also from Stamping Bella. I played around with a few things for the diagonal line and finally landed on a row of Blue Jean Glitter Bella dots in both sizes. I can't wait to see what the other Sistahs have come up with for this sketch. Let's hop over to Bloggabella and see.

This card is teetering on my Christmas card pile...it might make it to Christmas because of the winter theme, but I may end up giving it away before then. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Summertime Travel Fun

It's release day for the June 20th Key Ingredients at Taylored Expressions and I have a super cute (in my opinion anyway) project to share. This month Taylor challenged us to create a card/project for a June event/occasion without using copics...eeeeeks!!! Oh, and we had to add dimension to the project, but you'll see I covered that off, no problem. So when I thought about June events I remembered back to my childhood and to me, June means the start of weekends at the cottage and road trips with lots of time spent in the car of course. Now our ride to the cottage was only 20 minutes...not long enough to get bored, but our road trips from Northern Ontario to Toronto were 8 hours or more. So I decided to create a travel Tic Tac Toe game!

I reached for my adorable Beach Bum set because it's summertime after all! I stamped the sandcastle image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Choice Snow White (included in the June 20th Key Ingredients)...remember, no copics...and coloured it with my Lyra pencils, gamsol and a stump. The image is cut out with rectangle Nestabilities and layered onto a scalloped rectangle. 

I paper pieced the cupcake liner, shovel and pail, then added some Stardust Stickles to Cuppies Liner and a white candy dot (also from the June 20th KI) to his head. The case for my game is a metal CD tin from my stash. I covered the front with some of the patterned papers from the June 20th Key Ingredients and embellished it with the included ribbons and paper flowers. For the flower center I wanted an orange candy dot, but the kit includes white, so I tried colouring it with an orange pencil (remember, no copics) and it worked!!! The gamsol even blended away the pencil marks!!! For the title I reached for my new JustRite Times New Roman Lower Case font set (which appears to be sold out in the TE Store because of Taylor's fabulous sale) and Rectangle Stamper. 

The cover was super fun to decorate, but I really had a blast with the inside!

I started by covering the inside with one of the patterned papers then I created my game grid with red ric rac (rhymes with Tic Tac...get it? I just couldn't resist that one! LOL!). I added some white candy dots to the intersections and I still have plenty leftover too. Then I set to work on the game pieces. 

I wanted them to be sturdy so I paper pieced each game piece with several layers of paper, both solids and patterns from the June 20th Key Ingredients. I popped the top layer of each piece on foam tape for dimension and added some shadows with Lyra pencils. Lime Green and Stardust Stickles added the perfect bling to each piece. To make it easy to pick up the game pieces I mounted each one on two thicknesses of foam tape before adding a Basic Grey magnet. 

I really LOVE how this project turned out. I can definitely see myself taking this game along on our summer adventures, or even packing it for our next Caribbean vacation since hubby and I are both kids at heart!

I have a few important reminders for you:

1. Taylor's fabulous Moving Sale is on now at Taylored Expressions. You'll find items from 20-50% off! Sale prices are in effect until a product runs out of stock or until June 26th.

2. If you're not already a Key Ingredients Subscriber now is the perfect time to join. Purchase a 6 month KI subscription before June 25th and you'll receive a grab bag of TE products valued between $12-15! 

3. Because of the move to Iowa, the TE Store will not be shipping orders for two weeks from June 27th-July 11th. The TE Store will be open and taking orders during that time and those orders will begin shipping on Monday July 13th. KI Subscribers-your July KI will ship out on time and you will have the same opportunity you do each month to add to your order with no additional shipping cost. 

Now let's go see what some of the other Baker's Dozen have cooked up with the June 20th Key Ingredients.

Dawn Easton

Denise Marzec

Jen del Muro

Laurie Schmidlin

Sankari Wegman

and Taylor Van Bruggen

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

To The Moon...

I LOVE colouring, and I'd like to get better at the shading part. I really admire Paula's colouring...it's absolutely out-of-this-world gorgeous! This lovely card totally inspired me and I wanted to try my hand at her shading technique. Believe it or not, I spent about half an hour studying the images on her blog, going from card to card, trying my best to notice everything...I felt like I was stalking her or something! LOL!

I ended up completely CASEing her card...it was tough enough doing the colouring part, I didn't want to have to come up with a layout too. I stamped my brand new Moon Girl Elzybell onto Sahara Sand with Memento black and coloured with my Lyra pencils, odourless mineral spirits and a stump. I just kept layering and shading, layering and shading...it ended up taking me a lot longer than it would have with my copics, but I'm really pleased with the result. It's still nowhere near Paula's, but I'm happy with it for my first try. 

When I picked up the Elzy stamp on Friday I also grabbed the sentiment (also from AMuse) cause I thought they were perfect together. The little star stamp is from the retired SU set Bundle Up. 

This card's going to my parents for Valentine's Day, cause I really do love them to the moon and back! 

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

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

Blue Shoe Mojo

Hey, say that title fast and it sounds like a dish on a chinese food menu! LOL! 

When I finally sat down to stamp tonight at about 8:30pm, I looked at the colour challenge on Splitcoast (Not Quite Navy, Kraft, Baja Blue) and decided to make a card based on that and the Mojo Monday sketch challenge. 

I pulled out my Shoebag image from Stamping Bella cause I thought I could do a lot with the blues on it. Then my brain kicked into high gear...I've been wanting to give my Lyra pencils a little lovin', and wouldn't they show up beautifully on Kraft cardstock? Really...it was a question to myself cause this is only the second time I've used them. So I stamped the image with Memento black onto Kraft and coloured it with Lyra pencils, OMS and a stump. I did lots of layering and blending to get this result. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with it! I painted the bag with Angel Wings Shimmerz then added some Hero Arts gemstones. The image was cut out with circle nesties and layered onto a scallop of Not Quite Navy.

The card base is Kraft, then a layer of Not Quite Navy. The patterned paper is from the Making Memories Paperie line. I used just a smidge of Baja on the card...the little circles behind the white flowers from my SU Pretties kit. I finished off the flower centers with some shimmery blue jean dots from Stamping Bella. 

Mmmmm...shoes....can we ever have enough???  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Flopsey in a Single Layer

Usually, when it's cold out, you dress in layers to stay warm. Well, I figured that since Flopsey already has a fur coat, that he only needed one layer to stay warm. :)

This is my attempt at a no-layer card. I started out with some Gina K 120lb for my card, cause I knew it would be super sturdy. Then I embossed the centre panel with my labels two nesties. I then stamped Snow Bunny Flopsey with Memento black ink. I wanted it to look like it was snowing, so I pulled out my much neglected light table, a brass template and my stylus, and got to work dry embossing the dots around the central frame. The template I was using only has 4 small circles in a diamond shape so I had to keep moving the card and lining up the circles again. It took for-ever, but it was worth it! Oh, and that super sturdy Gina K 120lb paper is maybe not the best choice if you're going to be dry embossing...it gave me a good workout though...the stylus needed lots of pressure to make a decent embossed dot.

Once that was done I coloured Flopsey with my Lyra pencils (also a much neglected item), odourless mineral spirits and a stump. I really need to give those pencils some more lovin' cause they're just wonderful to use! The lovely Nickabella turned me onto them when I went to her classes with my BFF at Stamping Bellaland. Thanks Nicky!!! They blend beautifully on Gina K paper. Yes, I know...I have a love affair with Gina K paper. :)

The hat, scarf and mittens were coloured with a blue copic, B95, and the mug with a brown copic, E49. I added some liquid applique to the hat and mittens, and also to the mug to make it look like whipped cream. There's also some Waterfall blue Stickles on the hat and scarf. I made the snowflake embellishment by punching an acetate sheet with my MSL snowflake punch, then covering it with Waterfall Stickles. While that dried I painted the background inside the frame with Star Dust Stickles. The whole card is super sparkly IRL!

I think I'll go back to layering tomorrow, cause the weather is supposed to turn chil-ly here by the end of the week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen