Love Swans Valentine POP!

Did you know today is Kris Breach's birthday?!  Well, it is!!  She is the designer of the digital images at Imagine That, and a dear friend of mine.  If you have a little time yet this evening, and you are here on line, please stop by and wish her a happy birthday either at her blog or the Imagine That blog.  I am sure she will appreciate it! :)

I was blog hopping this afternoon and found this beautiful pop-up box card by Karon (another guest designer at Imagine That), and I just had to find the tutorial and give it a try.  Mine is a little basic, as I didn't use a lot of layers, but after you see all the love that went into Karon's pop-up box card, You will just want to give it a try too!  I sure did!

So ... after work I hurried up found that tutorial from SplitcoastStampers and gave it a whirl.  Here's what I came up with using the Love Swans digi and some Bella papers (saved from Stampin' Up many moons ago).  I just love those papers and hate to use them all up.  :(

This is a photo of the entire card with many punched out hearts

and even some stuck up on acetate to jiggle a bit when you open it.

This is what it will look like when I close it up and put it in the envelope,

or should I say when hubby pulls it from the envelope.

Lastly, here is a closeup of all the sweet patterns and images that come together to make a little show of affection for my sweet hubby for Valentine's Day.  I hope he doesn't mind all of the lace and hearts ...
It's to represent love and affection, so ... he will just have to put up with the mushiness, right?! :D  lol

Thanks for stopping by to take a look, and I hope your

sweetheart gets you a little "mushiness" for Valentine's Day too.  xoxo

P.S. - I will also be submitting this card to the terrific challenge #40 at CardMania - Love is All Around

Inky Hugs,

You're such a Sweet Deer!! Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a little fun tonight with some new digis called Sweet Deer created by Kris at Imagine That.  

Can you believe this whole set with both colored images and drawn images that you can color yourself as well as sentiments can be yours for only $2.50?!  

Now, that's a pretty good deal!! :)

I trimmed this already colored deer image with the largest small Spellbinders oval and then trimmed out some Bittersweet BasicGrey papers with the Fleur de Lis die for the perfect Valentine's day for someone deer to me for Valentine's Day.  The hearts were punched with my Stampin Up heart punch and trimmed in red ink.  The wide chocolate ribbon is from Stampin Up as well.  An "I Love You" sentiment and a chocolate strip of scrap paper finished out the inside.  All of this was layered onto Stampin Up's blush blossom card stock.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think.  :)  I hope you get a chance to make some  Valentine's for your sweetie too.  Check out Imagine That for more great images to create some adorable cards quickly with Kris' colored images, sentiments and digi papers to match.

Inky Hugs,

Valentine Card from an Imagine That Image

CAN YOU BELIEVE it?!  Two posts within the past 4 days.  I hope to get back here from time to time (possibly one post a week to get my feet wet again).  No weekly commitments yet though ;)  Stay tuned.

With today's new January release going on over at Imagine That, I just had to play again with an I.T. image that I had still waiting for me on my craft table.  It's another Jenn & Friends image from Imagine That, and it is so sweet, it can be used for so many different occasions (simple Hello card during the winter months, Valentine's card or Birthday or even a Thank You among friends).

I think this is such a beautifully colored digital image, and it's all ready to be used on your own card sketch.  I chose a simple sketch today with a few accent pieces of Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses that I have been saving for my Christmas cards for a while now.  I also used my Snowflake Cuttlebug folder to add texture.

Everyone who played in Imagine That's December challenge received the Jenn & Friends set FREE!!  If you didn't get a chance to play, you can still jump in now by purchasing Jenn & Friends in the store at a discounted price and play along.  Everyone who links up on their blog using this challenge set will receive February's set FREE!! Some stop on by Imagine That and play along.  You will be glad you did.  Did you see today's releases?  They are so dog-gone cute, I can't pick just one!! :)

Inky Hugs,

Quick Valentine Post

Here are a few cards created with Penny  Black "Her Heart," "His Heart" and some left over  Bitter Sweet BasicGrey card kits.  I love BitterSweet still, and I have a few packs saved for me-self :)  Check 'em out here ...

Happy Valentine's Day from Kelly

Hey there, Blog Readers!  Are there still any of you out here that peek in on me anymore?!  If so, bless your hearts, I hope to start getting creative more often, I truly do.  Thanks for being so loyal and peeking in on me.

I actually got some time to make a few things the past few days in preparation for Valentine's Day today ...

This one was created with a stamp from Penny Black "Hugs" colored with Copic markers and highlighted with a white gel pen and some goodies from a BasicGrey Bittersweet card kit.  The bottom left corner is rounded.

These cute little clear pails were snagged at Targets dollar spot just after Christmas.  I used more BasicGrey paper from my stash, JustRite baking stamp for the tops and Stampin Ups All Year Cheer (From the Heart) stamp with some gray grosgrain and chocolate satin ribbon.  Kept it simple.

This card was created from an extra ATC I had from a previous SWAP in which I had used a valentine House Mouse stamp, shades of brown and pink, more BasicGrey, chocolate satin ribbon, swirly pearls and ribbon roses.

I made a nice dinner for my hubby thanks to some great recipes I found at Eatingwell.com - Grilled Filet Mignon with Herb Butter (minus the Texas Toast) and Herbed Roasted Potatoes, broccoli and some lava cakes.  If I do say so myself, they were pretty yummy! :)  Hope you all got to spend time with one you love

Shoe Box Kits at My Neighbors!!

Hey there, everyone!  I wasn't quite sure what to title this one, and I wasn't quite sure what we called our little get together, but BOY was it fun to get together with the girls and stamp and fold and glue and all that fun stuff! :)

We created 8 cards all together and a couple of cool 3D items.  Here are some pictures.  I wish I had taken my camera and got some smiling faces, too.  I had planned on doing that, but ... well long story short, I ran out of time that morning and was running late for our 1:30 start time.

So, here is a little inspiration for you ...

This was a pretty, sparkly card created by Athena for us to put together using a great embossing folder of roses and the SU bird punch and a scalloped velum piece in behind the bird.  So pretty.  My rhinestone didn't photograph very well (the bird's eye) though.

Helen's Snowmen .. love how she used the scalloped piece for the snow, and the circle in behind them make it look like a snowglobe.  I colored quickly, so I will have to touch that up with the aqua painter before I send it out for sure!  :)

Kathy's BeeHive card ... this was so cute!  She had us emboss the black part and then watercolor it, but the really cool parts were bubble wrap stamping on the background (looked like a honeycomb) and a piece of black plastic foam that worked well to add some dots and textured look behind the beehive.

These guys are so dog-gone cute, I may have to order this set.  :)

Luanne added a touch of class with a pretty embossing folder that created a framework around the focal point (Nesties label 8? I think) with flowers, pearls, brads and some punched leaves.

This is MaryLou's pretty flower card.  I just love the looks of red and light blue together.  My friend, Jessica uses these colors together and whenever I see them, I think of her.  So pretty!  Another great cuttlebug folder that made a framework of swirls around the focal image (SU flower not sure the name).

I think I need to add a big ribbon and fluffy bow across the top of this to finish it off.  :)

Sue used this really great technique in which you press your parts onto the card with the embossing folder (can't remember what it was called now - dang), and unfotunately the color is a little fuzzy, but that new medallion-type stamp is GORGEOUS!  I need to get my mini back out and find out the name, cause I really love the looks of this stamp, simply elegant!

Paula came with all kinds of goodies (forgot to take a photo of the Chinese takeout boxes), but I did get

a photo of these cute little purses, and they open up for a great place to tuck a little girls party invitation, bridal shower invite, or photos of your family.  So many fun ideas we thought of with these.

This was the card I created ... Scalloped hearts by Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, cuttlebug corner embossing folder for the center of the white one, CraftySecrets Clear Art Stamps Cherub set was used for the flourish behind the heart, the small heart and the Love sentiment.  Since I created my card on a base of black cs, I added a layer of white printer paper inside for the area for the sentiment

and stamped a little "love" in there too.

Luanne gave us all this sweet little Thank You gift created with the medallion stamp.  Every time I see this, I really think I need to add it to my "to get list."   The card was tucked in a nice clear envelope and the top embellished with a cuttlebugged Top Note piece.  Isn't it pretty?!  I hated to open it.

Thanks everyone for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed

the get together with my friends.

Monkeyin around at Tuesday Morning Sketches

There is some fun going on over at Tuesday Morning Sketches Blog (hosted by Melissa Craig), and although they're not really monkeyin around, I guess I was when I used this sketch. LOL KL Stampin N Scrappin is sponsoring this week at TMS, so stop on over there to check out what you can win from me and Melissa! :)

Using the TMS challenge, I created a set of 6 little Valentine cards for some friends. I also used the new Monkey stamp acquired for my store from C. C. Designs called Flower Power and colored him with Copics and accented with a white Signo gel pen (these stamps will be available in the store later on today). I then used some of my left over Bittersweet BasicGrey paper from last year, pink textured cs, white cs punched with the MS doily punch and the heart stamp and friend sentiment are both from Stampin Up.

I sure hope the girls that receive these love them as much as I did creating them. Thanks so much for the great challenge, Melissa. Hope to see LOTS of you ladies (and gents) out there participating over at TMS!

Also, if you haven't stopped by the KL SNS DT blog, we are still in the middle of challenge #15 (a sketch challenge too), and we would love for you to join us. There are prizes to be had there as well! :)

Valentine's Goodies

This is a 2-5-7-10 box I created for my hubby with peanut M&M's inside. They are so fast and easy to make. Found the tutorial under resources on Splitcoaststampers, and then I used some BasicGrey papers and the BasicGrey Bittersweet card kit for the items. The chipboard heart and rub on sentiment were so easy to use (heart is already adhesive). I just inked up the edges of the heart and rubbed on the sentiment. Then added some liquid pearls, scalloped punch for the flap, polka dot ribbon for the closure, and a couple of half pearls for embellishments at the bottom. Very quick and easy. The part that took the longes was waiting for it to dry so I could take a picture. *wink*


Here is a photo of the card I made earlier, the box, and some beautiful tulips I picked up at Sam's Club yesterday. I know it's a little before Valentine's day, but I couldn't resist.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are able to create something for your loved ones this week. :) Happy Stampin' N Scrappin'!

House Mouse Valentine

I did get this done this past week, but I saw on a friend's blog that the House Mouse challenge was for a Valentine this week, so . . . I just had to post it to show you!! Since it is an ATC, not a lot of layers or space for that matter, but little Monica is showing her love with a tiny Valentine! :) Isn't she sweet?!

Card details: CS is SU chocolate chip. DP is BasicGrey Bittersweet DP with swirls and little pink hearts. Accessories were white and black gel pen, black and brown organdy ribbon, prismacolor pencils, OMS, and Copic markers all for coloring, crystal effects on the tiny Valentine, and a pink foam glitter heart. The BG layer was created with the curved rectangle nestabilities dies and sponged with chocolate chip ink. I handwrote the sentiment "Love." The HM stamps are "I Can Catch It" and "Monica Romance."

Thanks for stopping by!! :)

All-American Snoopy

I have been trying to catch up on some of my swap commitments lately, and here are a couple of Snoopy cards I created for Mary Williams' snoopy card swap.

The first card is Snoopy in his convertible with some Harley Davidson diamond plated embossed dp. I actually bought it for the motorcycle, but thought it would go well with the car, too. Cause Snoopy's tough, ya know *wink*

I also created the motorcycle card with another challenge in mind. It's a patriotic card for a challenge my friend, Deb, is hostessing. Her goal is to help us use up our card kit swaps instead of holding on to them. You don't have to send anything and there are really no deadlines. She is just looking for some crafters to play along with her challenges. All of my kits are Christmas ones, but I wanted to play along anyway. :) Hope she likes it. I distressed the white and red sheet by crinkling it and sponging with tea dye Ranger distress ink. Added lots of sparkle, too. The All American sentiment was printed on the computer to fit the large oval punch.

This photo is to show you all the sparkle and shine of the stickles on the stars, and crystal effects and sakura gel pen on the motorcycle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hot Stuff . . .

I am trying to fit a few challenges in now and then in between my swaps I am participating in. I have one due Feb 1st that I just keep getting brain block on. I think of an idea, then . . . no, that's not very original, then another . . . no, I don't like that either. I am having a hard time deciding what I want to do, and all of the ladies in this group come up with totally AWESOME ideas, so I want it to be a good one. Anyway, even thought I probably should have worked on that today, I worked on a sketch challenge instead. This one just came to me and worked out pretty good, I think. So, here is Roxie's Sketch Challenge 159 for this week from SCS.





You had to have 3 layers.
The bottom one being the card base,
then a second layer about half way up the card or a little more,
then a rectangle slightly to the left. See the picture to the right.






So, I was stamping off some Penny Black images for the Wish RAK group, and I thought this image would be perfect in a rectangle, so here she is . . . gonna give this one to my DH for Valentine's Day. See the closeup for a better view, but it says . . . "Hey, Hot Stuff!" On the inside, since we clown around a lot, I wrote . . . "Wanna Get Lucky?!" LOL (sorry if I offended anyone). I thought it was cute. I am sure he will LOVE it.


So for the details:





Stamps: Light the Night from Penny Black, a tiny heart stamp from Inkadinkado, Happy Valentine's day stamp shown used on the inside (from Canadian Maple Collection)





Ink: Basic Black and versamark





CS: Real red, black, pretty in pink and some old SU dp and Ice stickles (not showing well in the photograph).





Accessories: Heart brad, silver round brads, prismacolors and gamsol, index tab punch, sheer black ribbon and red grosgrain ribbon and paper piercing.

Step-by-step details:

First I stamped the image of the Light the Night image, colored it with Prismacolors and gamsoled, and then added Stickles to her earrings, purse string, jewlry, dress collar and hemline, and the beads that hang from her shawl.





While this dried, I sponged the white cs with some ruby red for added softness and depth, cut the black cs to length for the bottom (might look a little better longer) panel and added the red floral dp from SU, ticket punched the corners to add my round silver brads, then covered the seam from that layer with the sheer black and grosgrain red. I use a slit punch at the fold to pull the ribbon through to the inside of card, then secure it with tape. You can use another sheet of cs or paper on the inside if you want to cover the ribbon and brad heads.





The image was then trimmed out rather close and I made a rectangle to layer her on. I chose the pink first, but it needed jazzed up a little. A heart from the Inkadinkadoo baby set I have worked well here with versamark, but it just wasn't bright enough, so I quickly added some clear EP and heated it. Then I ran a strip of red across the top and bottom of this piece and layered it on black sc to make it pop. I still thought it needed a little something, so I got out the paper piercer and added some holes along the top and bottom. I wanted to somehow use one of these pretty heart brads I have been hoarding for about a year (given to me by a dear friend). This was placed at the top of the rectangle for added dimension. With an image this size, it is hard to add a sentiment, so I got out the tab punch and in my own handwriting printed, "Hey, Hot Stuff!" on the tab, a little doodline, adding the image to the pink layer and the note and Valentine stamp on the inside, and it was done.





Thanks for looking, and if you also take a stab at this challenge, leave a comment and link up here so we can all take a look, too. No blog candy this time, but there will be one again in a few weeks. So stay tuned! :) Kelly

Another Valentine and the Challenge Winner!!!

First the card: I have been trying some different ideas for Valentine's cards and doing some challenges on other stampers' blogs. Check out Poppicrafts for her red, white and black Valentine challenge and our own Kristine from SBS4 group for her Valentine challenge as well!

It was rather hard for me to make a Valentine's card without using pink. I submitted my last card at Poppicraft's blog telling her "it's in shades of red," but then I felt guilty that I had not conformed to the challenge rules very well, so I started with sketch 158 from SCS, made a kickstand card and used some scalloped circles . . . then I went blank. I let it set for the night and this morning it all just seemed to click. I added the sentiment from Forever in My Heart (SU), doodled around it, swiped the edges on my ruby red ink pad, punched the holes around the scalloped edge with my 1/16-inch hole punch and then I needed something for the bg.

So I used real red on my white cs base, stamped it with the little heart that says LOVE in opaque StazOn (cursing myself that I didn't just by the regular StazOn white), added clear EP and heated it . . . now my white seemed to totally disappear. . . ughhh, so I stamped some black hearts too to add more depth and color back into my bg paper. I love this polka dot ribbon (I think Jessica sent me). I have others, but it is sheer. This is more like organdy ribbon, and it worked perfectly btw.

I stamped a few more hearts in basic black on my real read cs, cut them out and popped them up on the card base. I wanted a little heart charm, but it seems I am out of those, so I stamped another in the opaque white StazOn, punched a small hole in it and used a jump ring from another charm to attach it to the ribbon. The white wasn't quite bright enough for me, so I traced around the stamp with my white gel pen to accent it a bit too. I also added a strip of real red at the bottom so that when it closes you don't see the white sticking out there, stamped the love sentiment along the bottom and added another popped up "love" heart. These are so much fun, I may have to try another one. :)


All in all, I really like how this card turned out. Isn' t it funny how sometimes you haven't a clue what you are going to do, sleep on it, and then it just all comes together?!


Here are the deets:

cs: white, real red, ruby red and black

ink: StazOn opaque white and SU basic black

acc: clear EP, polka dot black ribbon, scalloped circles made with nestabilities, jump ring for charm heart, 1/16-inch hole punch, scrap pieces of cs to pop up the hearts a little bit, white gel pen, and basic black marker.

**********************************

Oh yeah, and I bet you are wondering who the winner of my challenge is, huh?!

What you are really here for no doubt . . .

Okay, so I was going to hang out until midnight, but getting up at 5:30 . . . well, the eyelids are getting like the rest of me--pretty heavy. :) So, here is the list after Random.org rearranged the 5 ladies that participated in the challenge (with one of them making 2 different cards).

THE WINNER IS . . . **insert drum roll here**

By True Random Number Service/List Randomizer
There were 6 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Jessica
Kristine
Chris
Allieles
Kristine
Deb
Timestamp: 2008-01-11 04:20:16 UTC (this was around 11:20 p.m. ET)


Wooohoo, congrats, Jessica!

I will be getting a package around to send out to you by Monday at the latest.

Please shoot me an email with your address.

Night, ladies!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz Kelly signing off. ;)

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Edited to show you subscribers what you missed:

I really hope I can get more of you to participate in the months to come. Maybe you were really busy right now with Valentine's day coming up and all or the new year has you busy with other commitments, but it would be awesome to have more playing in the challenges this year. I know this is new, and it will catch on, but I just wanted to show you what you missed by not participating. This lovely little collection of yummy papers, die cuts, mini envelopes and brads will be going out to Jessica tomorrow morning, as I didn't have it ready earlier, and our mail carrier has already gone for the day. Hope you play next month. :) Kelly