Cherry Cherry Yum Yum!!

Happy Sunday ya'll!

A joined a swap hosted by one of the girls from my SCS Souther Ontario group. We try and get together once a month for dinner, and what's sometimes ended up to be some pretty obscene chatter. Well.. _ I _ am present, so that's really not much of a surprise... right girls? LOL

Krissie started a food themed swap and since I didn't have any food themed stamps, I decided not to join. But seeing as its Sunday and football season - I pretty much am confined to my stamping room, unless I want to watch a bunch of big men in shiny tights touch each other's bums. Okay, i don't hate football THAT much.... lol, but I would rather be stamping!

So... I was rifling through my stuff and came accross a shapabilites that I had purchased a while ago. So I immediately thought of Krissie's swap and since we're meeting up on the 27th for dinner, I had time to join!

I have been hoarding this DSP from SU! for quite some time, and if you follow my blog, you may realize that I have a hoarding problem with papers and images =) But when something comes together so easily, i'm happy to slice it all up!

The layout I CASED from a card I had seen. If I remember correctly, it is from the site I purchased the shapabilties from. Ask me now what site that was?! No IDEA!

I also barely stamped a THING on this card. The cherry shapabilities are a great focal point, and I was stuck for a sentiment anyways. So I used a stamp from a CTMH set I had. It says Happy at the top and there are checkboxes for "day" "anniversary" "birthday" "holiday" and "go lucky". I think this card would be great for Happy Day!

It got me thinking about how obssessive I can get over stamping supplies. Do you ever find that some days, you seem to be more addicted to BUYING stamps than actually putting ink to paper? I do! I have several stamps and sets that I have never even used.......! (doesn't help that I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic for the 3rd or 4th time last night)

I have been ooohing and ahhing over the Cricut, Silouhette, electric Big shot, the Spellbinders presto punch, the Xyron Creatopia.. all these wonderful things that can do so much! I wish, I drool, and then I check my pocketbook!

So, I thought about the tools I have, that I LOVE and wouldn't want to stamp without... and that I have been creating without the "mega tools" for years. So what do i have today, that I wouldn't want to stamp without??

- 12" table top Fiskars rotary trimmer (Thanks to my most treasured sisters!)

- My 3M ATG gun

- Martha Stewart scoring board (which i bought not too long ago and has pretty much completely taken over from my Scor Pal

Don't get me wrong, all this thinking will probably not deter me from putting in another order for supplies in the near future, and I am STILL drooling over those "mega tools".

So if you had to go "back to basics" ~ what could you not stamp without?

LAST SCRAPS........................

I had some leftover scraps from this project, so I whipped up a few matching tags. They're not all the same, but I'll be putting one in with each card randomly.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ karen

Stamps: CTMH & Recollections

DSP: Stampin' Up!

CS: Stampin' Up & Cougar

Tools: C-bug, Spellbinders Shapabilities

Embellishments: Satin ribbon

Coasters anyone?

Hi ya'll!
Hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend!

Here is another project I made for the latest craft show. I have made coasters before. Many. For the first show, I bought an entire box of tiles and went to town, only to have nearly every one smudge and run when i sealed it. It was terribly discouraging, and I think I showed up at the show with a handful, IF that.

Before the last show, I decided to try a different tile, and a different sealant. It worked!!

My trouble then, was deciding what images were best for a coaster! I had done alot with swirlys and sayings, flowers and plant life - but I wanted something different and I don't know why it didn't dawn on me until a week before he show that I could use images of people and animals! I started with some CC Designs (Coffee Kiki, how more appropriate can you get?), and some Anyas and eventually got up the nerve to ink up a recently purchased Stampavie image. That's her you see there. The image is Gillian Roberts - "Being Together" from Stampavie. I think its one of the most adorable images I have ever seen.

One of the best things about these is that your tile DOES NOT have to be perfect! The differences in markings make each one unique and you can find similar ones if you want to make a set.

There's a few things I learned that might help a first timer, that I'll pass along so you can avoid some of the frustration I went through with the useless box I had!

First, choose a very smooth tile. I like a smooth tumbled marble.

Next, don't press too hard on your image, but use a juicy pad.

If you're going to seal your tile (which I recommend and is a must if you are coloring), use a good quality poly. I used Verathane. Spray a thin quick layer, allow it to dry and repeat a few times for a good seal. Don't saturate your tile or else you will run the chance of your artwork smudging and running!!

Color as much as you want to! I have used lots of mediums on my tiles. You must stamp your image with Staz On. Momento does not work. But color, the sky's the limit! I have used markers, copics (careful you do not touch the Staz On with your copic or it will blend your line). but my favorite is watercolor pencils. You get the watercoloring effect on the the tile and you can shade very well with it and add/take away color as needed.

Go! Go! I wanna see you make one now!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you're on a roll.......

Well, When you're on a roll... you're on a roll! When you're not.. well.. you're not!

I thought I'd show you what I've been working on this summer! I had signed up for a couple of craft shows this summer, and had been furiously trying to churn out cards. All in all, I made over 200 cards. I wish I SOLD 200 cards, but I did rid the stash of a number of them!! Here's a bit of a spread of some of the cards I made. I stuck to simple layouts and use up some of the DSP I have been hoarding. Now if I could only be so productive when I swap... or remember to send birthday cards... I would be golden.

Here's one more spread, and shows some of the wedding cards I did up. I completely am in love with the 5x7 size white bases for wedding and anniversary cards. In fact, I am in love with 5x7 cards period! I bought a whole whack of envelopes in this size, so I see some bigger cards in my future. What do you think??

Well, that's what I have been busy doing this summer!!

A little something......

A quick post today with a couple of things to share. I found this bird stamp in the dollar fifty bin at Michael's. There's another one that faces the other way with a different pattern on it and I picked that one up too so I'm working on a layout with the two birds. For now, here's something I whipped up. I'm just LOVING white card bases right now. I am in LOVE with PTI's white cardstock since its so heavy. I wish I could find some locally as the shipping is insane!

The sentiment is from a CTMH set and the ribbon is from the dollar store. I recently have discovered CTMH after years of being curious about it. Now, I am still a rubber lover. My first preference I think will always be a wood mounted red rubber stamp. I was going to give up on clear stamps until I discovered that not all clear poly is alike! CTMH stamps are very pliable and they come off the backing without a fight. Unlike the cheapie dollar fifty bin stamps that come from Michael's, the cheapie Imaginesce and not so cheap Inkadinkadoo stamps that I have that I feel I have to fight with to get off the backing. There are a few other clear stamp companies that have this same particular texture & I'm starting to wonder if the material is different altogether?! Now if only I could find the "perfect" storage solution......lol

Onto the next....!

Some time ago, I made a couple of quick kid's frames and gave them to bf's cousin for her kids. They were in place of a birthday card to accompany birthday presents. They loved them! She sent a message not long after asking if I would please also make a frame for her step-daughter and so I was quite happy to oblige. I picked up the frame at Michael's and a little tube of paint and anything I could find in my stash that was purple. I didn't want the frame to be too busy so i did up some flowers, used my new-to-me Sizzix lollipop dies for the letters and voila! I hope she likes it! (thought it will be some time before we see them next).

Well, that's me for today! Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO K

Card Kit Fun!

Hello!
It has been so busy around here, which accounts for my lack of posting!

A while ago, I was really getting into the card kit swaps. I ended up with quite a collection of all sorts of kits. And when I'm in a funk, its a great way to get my mojo going again. So - the other day when I needed some inspiration, I reached into my stash and pulled out this kit. Here is what the contents had in it:



The kit consisted of a cute little fairy, and sentments - with some great papers and embellies... I pulled out some copics and here is what I ended up with.. whatcha think? I went a little outside of my comfort zone. I realized when looking through old cards that i'd made, that I rarely use more than one design of patterned paper on my cards. Well, this lovely kit helped me get over that one! Don't you just LOVE the matching ribbon?????!!!!!!




I needed to snazz up the wings, and I'm pretty sure the inclusion of "fairy dust" in the kit was meant JUST for this purpose, so I used some crystal effects and shook on the sparkle. I love this stuff! Its not as messy as glitter, but gives you a twinkle all the same! here is a bit of a close up on the wings....

Thank you to all the kit swap hostesses over the last oh.. year and half I guess....!

Thanks for stopping by!