Love is in the Air!

I love all of the great techniques people are doing with water color!  One thing I learned in the process is that water coloring is a lot like taking photos of my cards:  I have to make quite a few before getting one I like, and the colors never really look exactly as I thought they would.  Watercolor and love seem to be the theme of the day, so here is my card:

First, I taped down some water color paper and wet it with a brush (our school gave me its extra water color paper when it shut down).  Then, with a wet brush, I added DI Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, and Worn Lipstick.  I let that dry, then cut it with the largest die from a set I can't figure out.  I don't know how it didn't get a label when I put it in the sleeve!.  I die cut the clouds from Paper Smooches Clouds, and the buildings from Paper Smooches Super 2.  I cut the hearts and the word from some scrap paper.  The word die is PTI Wet Paint. and the hearts are from PTI Shakers and Sprinkles.  I printed out the "is in the air!" strategically on white card stock and cut and scored it into a card base.

 

This card is joining the fun over at the following challenge blogs:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #136:  Must Love Watercolor

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Up in the Clouds...

 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog:  Anything Goes


Thank your so much for coming over to visit!  I hope love is in the air and all around you today!

Kara Lynne

Cheers to the Hope of Warmer Weather

Last night my husband and I went to a wine pairing dinner.  The theme was, "Summer in the Southern Hemisphere".  What a lovely idea since it's a cold, gray winter on this side.  We had wines and dishes from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa.  It was fun and delicious!  My card seems to reflect my feelings today; it's gray here, but somewhere beyond the tropical leis lies a fruity concoction for happy hour!

I masked the hibiscus flowers to create the border and cut around the outer edge.  I stamped and colored the inner images, and then popped up the panel using fun foam.  The hibiscus flowers, pineapple drink, and lower sentiment are from PS Get Outta Town.  The "Cheers" is from PS Birthday Sampler, and the tiny flowers are from PS Hang Ups.  The oval is from PS Shadows and was stamped with SSS Hot Lips.  Everything else was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I used various Copics from the YR0, R2, and R3 families along with a white Jelly Roll pen for highlights.  The gray striped paper is called Charcoal Stripe from Keeping Memories Alive
(2001).

 

This card is joining the fun at the following challenges:

Paper Smooches Sparks: Designer Draft Challenge          ColourQ Challenge #277

                                       

City Crafter Challenge #246 Cheers                        Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

 

                           

 

I'm hoping my card will cheer up a Vitamin D deficient friend here in Wisconsin.  Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you are warm and happy wherever you are today!

 

Kara Lynne

Confetti Garland with MIM

Yesterday, on the Make It Monday #199 video, Betsy Veldman showed us a fun way to add dimension to our cards using sequins as a garland, so I wanted to play along:

Here's a closer look at those sequins, I die cut a little window as their background:

I used PTI Wonderful Words: Birthday Die and PTI papers Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado, and Hawaiian Shores.  I also used Raspberry Fizz, and Aqua Mist in the sequins.  The sequins and little starburst die cuts are from PTI's Make It Market Kit: Shakers + Sprinkles. 

I also want to link this to the current CASology Challenge for Week 131: Birthday.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne

Celebratory Lions

My husband and I had a little weekend get away in Chicago last weekend and I wanted something to color with Copics on the way down.  I decided to make a background paper with those cute little guys from Carnival Cupcakes by Mama Elephant.  I love the fact that they come in two sizes!  I waited for Wednesday to roll around knowing that Freshly Made Sketches would probably have a great sketch to turn that paper into a card.  This week's sketch did not disappoint!  As an added bonus, I just found that Marker Pop has a challenge and this week is Anything Goes.

 

 

I randomly stamped the mini lions with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copics.  I made the dots using the smallest dot from Mama Elephant's Cup of Wishes and stamped them with PTI Hawaiian Shores and Pure Poppy inks.  The black backing is PTI True Black.  I colored the lion on the cupcake similarly and die cut it using PTI Layerz Mat Stack 3 Die.  I hand cut a black mat for the die cut.  The cupcake edge was cut with a craft knife to hold the banner and then the die cut panel was popped up with foam tape.  The sentiment is heat embossed from LOTV's Handwritten Phrases.

I usually don't keep a record of the Copics I use, but this time I happen to have them:
Lion's mane: Ell, E13, E15, YR27, E19
Lion's body: YR21, YR61, YR65
Cupcake icing: BG10, BG13, BG18, R37
Cupcake wrapper: All the same from both lion's mane and body

Here's the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches #170  Here are the details for Marker Pop challenge #60
                

Thanks so much for coming over, I hope you are enjoying your day!
Kara Lynne

A Dotty Birthday

I recently saw a post from Barb's blog, Enjoying Life that talked about a new Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge.  If you are not aware of it, you can check out her post, she's even having a big giveaway.  Being away from the blogs for over a year, I am trying to navigate through the changes.  There are some cool new challenges out there for sure!  Speaking of which, CASology is featuring the lovely Darnell Knauss who developed the NBUS acronym for "Never Before Used Schtuff".  I decided to combine these challenges and made the following card:

I used the NBUS circle die from SSS Apothecary Labels to cut out some blue shimmer paper (Bazzill).  Then I went back where the circles cut into each other, and used the die to cut an "overlap" in green shimmer paper (The Paper Company).  I adhered it all to white shimmer paper (Bazzill) and then cut into the panel with the SSS Happy Birthday Craft Dies.  I cut another Happy Birthday from orange shimmer paper (The Paper Company) and inlaid the words on the panel.  Doodle Bug sequins completed the card.

Here are the challenges this card is joining:

Simon Says Stamp Flickr: Spots and Dots          CASology: NBUS
        

Thanks for coming over, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

Sprinkled with Love

I've been mentally designing a card for both the CAS-ual Fridays challenge and Virginia's View challenge for the last several days.  I had my checklist of ideas: felt, sequins, lots of white space, and CAS.  Finally, it's out of my brain and onto a card:

A bit of an edit:  I thought the picture of this card on the bright background looked a little overpowering so I'm posting another picture on the white background.  I'm still not sure which photo looks better.

 

The stamps are from PTI's Shakers and Sprinkles and so are the tiny little sequins, as well as the dies that were used for the little hearts and the word, "Sprinkled".  The ink is PTI's Raspberry Fizz.  The clouds were cut using the cut file, "6 clouds" from the Silhouette store.  The felt is from Hobby Lobby.  I glued paper to the back of the felt before I ran it through the Big Shot and it cut like butter!  The hearts were then run through a Xyron sticker maker, while the other die cuts were layered five times and adhered with Tombow Mono Multi glue.  Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium Matte was used to adhere the sequins.

I really appreciate all of your help and information about watermarks!  I took a look at PicMonkey.com and it looks easy peasy.  Of course, you'll notice no watermark yet on the above photo... um, baby steps (she said sheepishly).

This card is playing in the following challenges:

Virginia's View Challenge #11 - Clean Slate                                        CAS-ual Fridays: CFC135 - Felt and Sequins

       

Thanks for coming over, have a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne

29 Again?

You know, I think I'm starting to appreciate January.  Freezing, short days with nothing to look forward to REALLY means the ability to cozy up, and spend time crafting!  Today I want to share a card I made for my brother's birthday:

 I made the inside guy a wobbler by making a spring out of wire:

Hee hee, that's why we have brothers, right?  I used water color paper and Distress inks for the background and the grass.  Something odd happened to the grass on the left of the card, not sure how that happened.  Looking at it now, I think I would try to get the grass darker in the background and lighter in the foreground, but hey.  I stamped the images from Paper Smooches Cuteasaurus and sentiment from Birthday Sampler.   They were inked with Memento Tuxedo Black, and colored with Copics.  The speech bubble was hand drawn and outlined with a Zig Writer marker in black.  The images on the front were popped up with foam adhesive.

I have a few blogging goals this year:
1)  Figure out how to put a watermark on my photos
2)  Become a more consistent blogger while balancing time wisely
3)  Meet and share with more people in this great community

Here's a funny story:
My brother likes to compete in Iron Man competitions, so a couple of years ago for his birthday I made him this card:

For those of you who don't know, that's the Iron Man logo.  I blogged about it here.  Anyway, my brother was reading an Iron Man Facebook group thing (okay, now I'm showing you now how little I understand Facebook) and saw his card used as a guy's profile picture.  So cool how images get around!  So I Googled the image and found it didn't link back to my blog, but to a bakery blog with their watermark on the photo.  How interesting!  He thought I would be offended, but I'm actually just honored by it, I'm sure their watermark just appears on all of their pictures.  It did boost me to create this year's goal to learn how to put a watermark on my photos.  "Easy," you say, but the whole technical process is slow for me.  What I'd really love to do is sit down with someone face to face and ask them all my "how do you" questions.  How about you?  What are your blogging goals this year?  I'd love to hear what you're wanting to do.

I'm joining the fun today over at the following challenge blogs:
Paper Smooches SPARKS:  January Anything Goes (wk1) challenge


Darnell's NBUS Challenge #3:  Using never before used schtuff - Okay, last entry, but if you don't know Darnell, you've got to go meet her and you'll see why I couldn't resist putting in three entries!  My NBUS was this Cutesaurus stamp set.


Papertake Weekly Challenge:  Anything Goes


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying your day!
Kara Lynne

Colorful Card Corners with Make it Monday

A happy day to you all!  It's a happy day for me because I got to make a card using some new Christmas gifts! PTI's Make it Monday #196 over at Capture the Moment is all about adding color to the corners.  This one took a few times to get the coloring and inking the way I wanted, but I was happy with the end result:

 

It was my first time using PTI's Happiness in Bloom and Guide Lines Two, and I love them both!.  Inking on watercolor paper was really the key that helped the colors blend so nicely.  The large blossoms are actually the medium ones in the set.  I used Sweet Blush as the base, with Berry Sorbet stamped for both inside details.  The center was stamped with Lemon Tart and brushed back over with Harvest Gold.  I Masked off the flowers and used Limeade Ice for the dots and leaves.  The leaves were randomly stamped off on scratch paper first.  I also brushed some extra strokes of Limeade Ice as background foliage.  The background was made with a wash of Lemon Tart and stamped with Sweet Blush.  The sentiment, also from Happiness in Bloom, was stamped with Smokey Shadow.  I placed the panel on a card base made with Sweet Blush and added a strip of Melon Berry to balance things out. 

I was inspired by the following challenges:

Make it Monday #196: Colorful Card Corners - Thank you Danielle, your card was SO inspiring!

Virginia's View Challenge #11:  Clean Slate - I masked the flowers.  I was also attempting a one-layer card, but putting a panel on the card base probably counts as two layers - hee hee.

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #3:  Using never before used schtuff - After being away from blogland for a year and a half, you can imagine I have lots of this (buying did not reflect using).  I'll just mention both stamp sets and leave it at that.



Thank you so much for stopping by, have a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

You Shine Wherever You Go!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas break.  I am so thankful for the time we had with the kids home.  Not much time to craft and absolutely no time to myself, but I loved every minute of it.  Now it's time to look ahead, dream of warmer weather, and I know a sweet young lady that is a senior in high school this year.  She will be leaving for college in the fall, and I want to her an encouraging card:
 

 

Okay, warmer weather is NOT around the corner here in Wisconsin, but I love the cheerful feel of this image from Tiddly Inks called, "Cute as a Bug."  Our family plays "Slug Bug" in the car.  It's a game I used to play as a kid.  Any time someone sees a VW Bug they yell, "Slug Bug!" and name the color.  Then they get to hit someone.  Now, being a family of mostly girls, we really just tap each other, but I grew up with an older brother, so you can imagine the pain! 

 

I paired the image with the Sparkle & Shine die and stamp set from PTI as well as paper from their Shakers + Sprinkles MakeIt Market Kit and PTI cardstock. The image was colored with Copics and both it and the word die cut were given a good dose of Glossy Accents.  The lines on the road were created with a white American Crafts Galaxy Marker.  The kraft card base is from Michaels, it's a pack I've had since I started making cards - I need to get it out more often! 

 

I'm so happy to be playing along with the following challenges: 

 

Tiddly Inks Challenge:  #148...New Beginnings  Going off to college.

 

NBUS Challenge #3 at djkardkreations  The "Cute as a Bug" stamp for starters!

 

Simon Monday Challenge:  Make New Friends, but Keep the Old  New stamps, Old card base.

 

Papertake Weekly Challenge:  Anything Goes  Hey, anything goes!

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoy the day!

 

Kara Lynne