Tag, You're It! #55 with Melissa Bickford!

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged last!  I knew this would be a crazy summer, but not this crazy.  Aside from starting my new job and having the kids on summer break, we are also renovating our basement.  It's been a slow process since we're tackling the project ourselves.  The best part for me is that I will have my own craft room!  I cannot wait, but in the meantime, please excuse my absence.  I seem to be using my free time hauling drywall down the stairs, staining wood trim, hanging doors and painting walls.  I hope it won't be too much longer.  I will share some photos when it's finished.

Thankfully, I got the chance to create a tag CASE-ing the very sweet and talented Melissa Bickford!  She is our featured artist for the latest challenge at TYI!  I had so much fun following her amazing design:

Here is Melissa's wonderful tag:

This tag came along in stages.  First, I knew I wanted to create a tag in the same shape as Melissa's, so I used a SSS Basic Banners die and a Spellbinders circle die to create my tags.  Next, I thought it would be fun to use leaves from my new stamp set from WPlus9, All Year Cheer, to replicate Melissa's cascade of flowers.  I used the MISTI so I could use various layers of color on each leaf.  Last, I found a word die cut that conveyed a similar meaning, and some twine that had multiple strands in order to round out the look.

Supplies Used:
Stamps - WPlus9 All Year Cheer
Dies - PTI Big Hugs, SSS Basic Banners, Spellbinders Circles
Paper - PTI Pure Poppy, The Paper Company Gold Shimmer, gold glitter cs scrap, white cs scrap
Ink - DI Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Ground Espresso, Tea Dye, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn, Crushed Olive, Rusty Hinge, Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Fired Brick, and Aged Mahogany
Embellishments - Nuvo Crystal Drops Bright Gold

Thanks for sticking with me during my absence.  I do hope to see you over in the TYI gallery.  Hop on over to the Tag, You're It! challenge blog to see much more inspiration.

This tag is also going over to play in Darnell's wildly popular (did I say Darnell is wildly popular, well, read it that way) NBUS challenge #7.

Thanks for coming over to visit.  I hope you have a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #53 with Michele Ferguson

Happy Friday!  Today is the start of another amazing Tag, You're It! challenge.  Our featured artist is none other than Michele Ferguson!  Michele has graced us with this inspiration tag:

So SWEET!  I love the Swiss dots and the long, thin shape of her tag.  The dainty bouquet in those darling colors is beautiful!  Here's how I CASEd Michele's tag:

I kept my design elements close to Michele's with the double narrow tag, dry embossing, flowers, and color.  The flowers were cut on the Silhouette, ink blended, and shaped with a stylus.  I used the end of the stylus dipped in Nuvo Crystal Drops to create the centers of the flowers.  I made slits in the embossed background and threaded the ribbon through to make is look like it was tied to the "basket".

Supplies Used:
We R Memory Keepers Woven Next Level Embossing Folder
My Favorite Things Die-namics Leafy Greenery
Silhouette Store - 5 Petal Flowers (larger flowers), and 3 Layered Flowers (small flower)
Distress Ink: Shabby Shutters, Carved Pumpkin, Tumbled Glass
Nuvo Crystal Drops - Ebony Black
McGill stylus and mat
PTI cs - Limeade Ice
Ribbon from stash

I hope you are inspired by Michele too!  Take a closer look at Michele's tag and the rest of the design team's interpretations over at Tag, You're It!  See you in the gallery!

As always, thanks for coming over to visit.  I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #51 with Donna Mikasa!

Hi Everyone!  Welcome to Friday and a new Tag, You're It! challenge!   There are some exciting new changes at Tag, You're It.  This term we are introducing a Featured Designer for each new challenge.  Our Featured Designer will create the tag for the inspiration.  Starting with challenge #51 our first Featured Designer is Tag, You're It Alumni member Donna Mikasa!  We will still be having a Guest Designer each challenge so nothing changes there.  Hope this new format brings even more excitement to Tag, You're It!

Now, on to the tag!  It's summer here where I live, and a perfect time for frozen treats and flip flops.  I colored up this cute Wryn from Tiddly Inks using Copics, added a gem to her hair clip and shimmer to her ice cream.  She's all ready to celebrate summer:

My tag was inspired today by the extremely talented and wonderful Donna Mikasa!  There's so much to love here on her tag!  Look at her watercolor background; I had to follow along with that.  I love the strength of her black sentiment and elements, so I carried that through on my tag as well, except I decided my enamel dots needed to spread some extra color around my tag.  I opted to ink up the stamp in black simply because it worked better with my focal image, but I love Donna's white heat embossing and the blending of her colors!

How will you be inspired by Donna's tag?  I would love to see your creations linked up over at Tag, You're It!.  Head on over to the blog to get much more inspiration from our amazing designers!

Supplies Used:

Stamp - Tiddly Inks Sweet Treat Wryn (Mine was a clear stamp, but I think she's digital now).

Die - PTI Birthday Cheer

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Water Colors - Pale Aqua, May Green, Cornflower Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Menthol Violet

Copics - E000,00, 11, 40, 42, 44, 47,49, BG000, 02, 05, YR65, 68, RV00, 02, 04, R20, 22

Doodlebug Sprinkles - Swimming Pool, Tangerine

Pattern Paper - Doodlebug Black Eyelet

Ribbon - Recollections (Michaels)

Extras - Clear Wink of Stella,  gem from Michaels (colored with YR68)

Thanks for coming over to visit!           

Kara Lynne 

Rainbows, Unicorns, Glitter, and a Shaker!

I'm super excited to be joining some challenges today!  Between starting a new job, kids on summer break, and weekend camping trips, I've not had much of a chance to play along lately.  The MFT sketch challenge gave me the starting point, and Virginia's View gave me the extra boost I needed to put this card together.

I rotated the sketch a quarter turn to the left.  The images were stamped, colored with Copics, and given a bit of shimmer.  I patterned the unicorn after the one from Despicable Me - He's so FLUFFY!  The clouds were ink blended with Distress Ink using the cloud die cuts as a stencil.  I die cut the inked clouds with the circle frame to create a shaker.  The rainbow was created using the straw die and spaced a straw width apart.  The bottom cloud was ink blended and the middle portion is raised with fun foam.  The sentiment was inked in DI Picked Raspberry to reflect the unicorn.

Supplies Used:
Copics - C00, C01, C03, Y23, Y26, RV000, RV00, RV02, RV04, RV06, RV63, RV66
Stamps - MFT Magical Unicorns
Dies - MFT Stitched Cloud Edges, MFT Pierced Circle Frame, MFT LLD Cool Cup (straw for the rainbow stripes)
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, DI Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet
Paper - AC Glitter Paper, Paper Studios card base, scraps of colored cs
Extras - Wink of Stella, fun foam, seed beads from Hobby Lobby, acetate from packaging

This card is going over to play in the following challenges:
     MFT Card Challenges: Sketch 286     Virginia's View Challenge #22: All About Color      SSS Wednesday Challenge: Add Some Shimmer
                           
Thanks so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #49

A new challenge starts today at Tag, You're It!  Anja created a beautiful card that features a gorgeous tag.  Here's how I was inspired:

Take a look at Anja's card:

So much to love here on Anja's card!  The combination of blue and green with the crisp white is beautiful!  I love how she focused the grouping on the left side of the tag, and yet your eye spans out to see the flecks of shine on to the right of the card.

My card takes the grouping off of the tag and onto the card itself, still coming from the upper left side.  I blended her blue and green to create a minty color palette for my card.  Her shiny flecks became silver birds and her focal butterfly was exchanged with a die cut house.  The two tags hang in the tree branches along with some leafy springs to reflect Anja's cluster of elements.

This card was so much fun to create, especially because I got to play with some of my new Poppystamp dies!  Check out that layered house.  I mean, really? A layer for curtains and tiny shutters?  Way too much fun!  The heavy silver cs didn't fold on the door's score line very well.  Next time I will score that with a stylus.

Supplies used:
Dies: Poppystamps Baylan House, Chirping Birds, Cheery Cardinals, Exquisite Branch Frame, Main Street Tags, and MFT Leafy Greenery
Stencil: Memory Box Modern Radio Waves
Ink:  PTI Aqua Mist
Card base:  Paper Studios
Paper:  All from scrap paper stash

I hope you will join us over at Tag, You're It! for this wonderful challenge.  I'd love to see how you are inspired!

Thanks for coming over for a visit.  I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne

Can't Say Thanks Enough

During the April Poppystamps Blog Blitz, Jeanne Jachna introduced a company, Birch Press Design, created by the same gentleman, Dave Brethauer, that created Poppystamps.  Birch Press Design has special unique items for the home and office and also carries a craft line with exclusive dies and stamps.  There was a comment to win contest for an entire set of 3 layering dies and I won!

Thank you so much, Birch Press Design and Poppystamps for this amazing gift!  I chose the set called Dazzle, and here is my thank you card:

Amazing layering, right?!  The Dazzle design immediately makes me think of warm colors, so I went the opposite way, just to showcase the versatility of these dies.  Not much to say about how I made the card, it really made itself.  All I did was add 1/8" score tape around the perimeter of the die cuts and white heat embossed a stamped sentiment from SSS Apothecary Labels (I think they are discontinued) on the base of the card and a couple of banners.  The cardstock is PTI Smokey Shadow, Aqua Mist, and Winter Wisteria.

Thanks for coming over to visit, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It Challenge #47

Today begins a new challenge over at Tag, You're It!, and I couldn't be more excited about it!  Jeanne Jachna designed a beautiful tag with so many elements from which to be inspired.  I hope you are inspired too, and play along with us!  Here is my tag:

Here's Jeanne's wonderful tag:

Isn't that gorgeous!?  I love Jeanne's ability to mix colors and patterns.  I took an easy route and used coordinating papers from one collection.  I replaced her focal butterfly with a coffee cup, which is curved for dimension.  I used the word "Coffee" as my "scallop" going across the tag.  I wanted to use Jeanne's dry embossing somewhere, but it just wasn't happening on this tag.


Supplies:
DI Ground Espresso, Gathered Twigs
MME Stella & Rose dp
MFT LLD Hug in a Mug stamp set
MFT Die-namics Warm & Fuzzy
PTI Tag Sale #10 die
Silhouette cut design: Coffee Hug In Mug Phrase (just used the "coffee" word)
Recycled twine



I enjoyed this project so much, I just kept going and made my Mother's Day cards:

Supplies:
MFT Die-Namics Flutter of Butterflies Lace and Solid
PTI Tag Sale #10 Die
Lawn Fawn Mother's Day Border Die
MFT Romantic Script Background
PTI Big Hugs Die
SSS Stitched Rectangles Die
PTI Branching Out Die
DI - Tumbled Glass, and Shabby Shutters
PTI CS - Aqua Mist, Limeade Ice, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet
MME Stella and Rose dp

Head on over to the Tag, You're It! challenge blog to see much more inspiration!

Thanks for coming over to visit.  I hope you are having a great day!
Kara Lynne