It's Spring! Well, For Coffee Loving Cardmakers, Anyway

I couldn't resist a second card for the Spring Coffee Loving Cardmakers Bloghop!  I actually made two, but my family said they are too much alike so I can only post one.  I listen to them, most of the time, they are usually right (but I'll show you both)!

 

Here's the second one I made using the same papers on the cups, but this time a thank you card.

 I used Mama Elephant's Cup of Wishes on both cards, SSS Apothecary labels for the sentiment on the first card, and PTI Thank You Kindly on the second card.  The papers are mostly from My Mind's Eye Fiddlesticks with a couple of extras from my scraps.  The twine and card bases are from Hobby Lobby.

Check out the wonderful creations over at the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  Thank you, once again, Amy, for putting this together, and thank you to all the wonderful sponsors!

These cups are also going to play at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: No Rules,
and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes!

 

Thanks for coming by to visit!  I hope you are enjoying the hop!

Kara Lynne

A Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop!

Time for the Spring Coffee Lovers Bloghop over at Coffee Loving Cardmakers  Thank you, Amy Tsuruta and Chaitali Narla for putting this together!  I can't wait to see all the coffee/tea/cocoa cards with a spring flair.  Here is my card for the hop:

I used a Hobby Lobby card base and added My Mind's Eye Lost and Found papers on the bottom.  With the Silhouette, I die cut "Ladies Who Lunch", flowers from "3 Layered Flowers", and a speech bubble I created using an oval and adding/changing a few points.  The "hello" die cut is from the PTI Swoosh die set.  The creamy/gray cardstock was unnamed in my stash, and the green is The Paper Co. Metallic Cover in Aloe.  I used a stylus to curve the flowers, then turned them over and pressed down the middles.

I hope you can play along, check out all the details at the Coffee Loving Cardmaker Blog

I won't keep you long, I know you're hopping!  Have fun!

Kara Lynne

A Mini Vacation

Sometimes we don't need a big trip away to rejuvenate.  Sometimes all we need is a comfy chair.  To quote my all time favorite quarterback, Aaron Rodgers:

I used the font "Girls Are Weird" and cut the word in both white and PTI's Aqua Mist on the Silhouette.  They were adhered together and popped up on a card base using foam adhesive.  The little chair is an older stamp from Stampin' Up! and it's colored with Copics.  I stamped once on the cs, and once more on a scrap piece, fussy cut and popped it up with foam adhesive.

This card is going to go play over at the following challenges:

Casology Week #135: Mini, because it's all about proportion!
 
CAS(E) this Sketch! #112 which is a WONDERFUL sketch by Chrissy Larson.
 
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: No Rules

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes


Thanks so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you are enjoying your day, and RELAX!

Kara Lynne

MIM #202: Anchoring With Border/Banner Dies

This post would more aptly be titled:  Well, I tried!

I watched Melissa Phillips' MIM video several times.  I cut various dies from many different papers.  I layered, unlayered, layered, and unlayered, over and over until I finally had to call it done.  I tried to add some more layers, but nothing looked right.  I didn't know layering could be so difficult!

The base was made from Aqua Mist cs.  The white cs is from Walmart.  The sequins and patterned paper is from the MIM kit Shakers + Sprinkles.  I cut it and some Hibiscus Burst cs into tags and punched a hole through them.  The ribbon is from pajama packaging.   The cupcake, semi-oval, and banners were cut from the Baker's Dozen die set.  The white banner was cut in half to make it longer.  The cake stand was cut from Harvest Gold cs using the Cake Plates die set.  The Swoosh "birthday" was cut from Hawaiian Shores cs.  I stamped the March cupcake from Baker's Dozen Stamp Set in DI Antique Linen and colored it with Distress Markers and a water brush.

If you're looking for some real layering inspiration, check out Melissa Phillips MIM video!

I am happy to report that only scrap pieces were used to put together this card, so it's also going over to the City Crafters Challenge Blog week #250: Use It Up!  With these little layers, it was easy to do!


Thank you so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you are enjoying your day!

Kara Lynne

Papertrey February 2015 Blog Hop

Papertrey Ink is hosting their February 2015 blog hop today, and I am so grateful for the chance to play along:

 

I heat embossed a stamp from PTI's Giga Guide Lines stamp set in white onto water color paper.  I pressed ink onto my acrylic blocks and used a water brush to paint on the following colors: Tropical Teal, Royal Velvet, Raspberry Fizz, and Melon Berry.  I heat embossed a sentiment from Stylish Sentiments: Birthday in Zing Purple powder onto vellum and folded the piece behind the water color paper.  The panel was placed on a Royal Velvet cardstock base.  The aqua sequins are from PTI's MIM Shakers + Sprinkles, and the purple ones are from Doodlebug.

Here is the beautiful inspiration piece:  photo credit: Micklyn via society6

 

 

Check out the amazing PTI creations HERE

 

Thank you for coming over to visit!  I hope you are enjoying this day!

 

Kara Lynne

SSS/Lawn Fawn Flickr Challenge

Barb and Nancy, two wonderful ladies in the blogging community, teamed up to present a Flickr Challenge that combines both Simon Says Stamp products, and Lawn Fawn products.  The challenge is called: Get Crafty with Kraft:

I used SSS Sending Happy Thoughts stamp set to create a pile of envelopes, masking as I went along.  I  gave them a bit of shadow using a Copic C1 marker.  I used Lawn Fawn's Cole's ABCs to spell out the word, "hello" by die cutting it out of the pile of envelopes.  I know I saw a video of someone else masking and piling these envelopes, but for the life of me, I can't find that video in order to give her credit.  If you know the video I'm talking about, please let me know and I will edit this post.  The ribbon is left over from a Lindt chocolate reindeer from Christmas.  The kraft cardstock is from a Recollections card base, and the black note card is PTI True Black cardstock.  The little red heart, also from Sending Happy Thoughts, was stamped with Festive Berries DI.

Edited to add:  Yes, Jenny, that's it!  It was Sandy Allnock's "Bruce is Back" video from 1/14/15. 

Here are the details about this fantastic challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group and at the Lawn Fawn Flickr Group.

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

Sparkling Lemons

I was excited to use some of my new Simon Says Stamp goodies I purchased with my SSS gift card from Barb to create a glittery card for the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge:

 

I cut a white panel and used SSS Waves stencil to blend both SSS Lemon Chiffon, and HA Lemon Yellow, moving the stencil slightly to create the various lines.  I then did the same with Liquitex modeling paste, and a layer of Liquitex mat medium and glitter.  I added mat medium over the top to keep the glitter adhered.  I blended DI Squeezed Lemonade on a piece of white cardstock.  The stamps are from SSS Lemonade.  I heat embossed the sentiment with PSX silver embossing powder.  The sentiment was adhered to a piece of vellum which was foam adhered to the main panel.  The lemon slices were stamped with HA Lemon Yellow, cut with a circle die, brushed with WOS, and adhered with foam tape.

This card is going to play over with the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group Challenge #12: So Sparkly!


I'm also linking up to Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: A Piece of Paradise.  Those glittery yellow waves make me think of warmer days with a glass of sweet lemonade in hand!


Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

Birthday Blues

Unlike the title today, birthdays don't seem to get me down, although sometimes I am shocked to find out I'm no longer in my 20s!  Like in that one dream, you know the one, where we're in college, but we never can find that one math class and therefore we can't graduate, and then at some point we yell, but I'm 44 years old now!  Okay, maybe that's just my dream?  Anyhoo, embrace each year of your life, they all matter!  By the way, just in case you were wondering if I have college remorse issues, I did indeed graduate.

Papertrey Ink is hosting their eighth anniversary party and today they introduced sky themed stamps and dies, along with linen cardstock in white and cream!  Today's challenge is to create a blue ombre card:

The image from PTI's Stylish Sentiments: Birthday was heat embossed and then ink blended with PTI Enchanted Evening ink to get an ombre effect around the sentiment, and then down onto the rest of the card.  I used a combination of Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, and Enchanted Evening cardstock and ink to make five different shades of blue for the buttons (Button Stacks II Die).  For example, I don't have Enchanted Evening cardstock, so I blended the ink onto Spring Rain cardstock instead.  Spring Rain ink on Spring Rain cardstock is just a shade darker than the cardstock alone.  Stacked the way they are, it's not so easy to see the variations.  I threaded them with some floss and popped them up on foam adhesive.  The panel was adhered to a True Black card base and I will use a white pen for the inside message, or maybe just add a white insert, we'll see.

Click here for today's PTI Eighth Anniversary challenge

Thanks for coming over to visit, and I hope you are enjoying this important day of your life!

Kara Lynne

Golden Gratitude

Papertrey Ink is celebrating another day of their eighth anniversary, this time with silver and gold.  They introduced new Luxe Metallics papers.  The look is beautiful!  They also announced this year's Stamp-a-faire which has a Project Runway theme.  It is August 29th and everyone is welcome to join in free of charge!  The challenge today is to incorporate nothing but metallics and neutrals into a new card creation:

Wow, that was a tough one to photograph!  I gold embossed using PTI's Giga Guidelines Stamp Set onto PTI's Fine Linen and some white cs from my stash.  I has a sheet of gold foil from days of old.  My embossing powder is PSX, also from days of old.

Click here for today's Papertrey Ink Challenge


Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you're having a great day!

Kara Lynne

Springing Into Action

We're in the middle of Papertrey Ink's Eighth Anniversary celebration, where they introduced "All Things Spring" with gorgeous new products soon to be released.  Today's challenge is to spring into action, meaning that we are to ink up a set that has yet to see ink.  This fall I ordered the Mat Stack 3 stamp set and hadn't used it, until today:

I stamped the Mat Stack 3 stamp in Smokey Shadow and the two stamps from PTI's Thank You Kindly stamp set in Raspberry Fizz.  It was die cut using the Mat Stack 3 die and matted with both Raspberry Fizz and Smokey Shadow card stock.  The white paper is from my scraps, they were embossed using two different Darice embossing folders.  The ribbon is from packaging from some Christmas PJs I bought for my girls.

Click here to link back to PTI's All Things Spring challenge

 

Thanks for coming over to visit, I know I've been posting more than usual so, as the card says, thank you ever so much for staying with me this week!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

 

Kara Lynne



Watercolor Bouquet

Okay, my family better not want to eat this week because I'm way too busy making cards for the PTI eighth anniversary party!  Day four brought the challenge of combining two different floral stamp sets to create a bouquet: 

I chose Doodlie Do and Happiness in bloom.  I stamped the various leaves and flowers in PTI inks Pure Poppy, Berry Sorbet, Simply Chartreuse, and Limeade Ice on watercolor paper.  I mostly used the small flower and medium solid leaf from Happiness in Bloom along with two larger and one smaller flower and some leaves from Doodlie Do. Then I used a wet paintbrush and blended the colors together.  I used a white Gelly Roll pen to slightly add a little detail back into some of the flowers.  The sentiment from Stylish Sentiments: Birthday was white heat embossed onto Limeade Ice card stock, matted by white card stock, and popped up using adhesive and fun foam.  The water color panel was adhered to a Pure Poppy card base.

Click HERE to link to PTI's Day Four Challenge



That's all for now.  Thanks so much for visiting!  I hope you have a beautiful day!

Kara Lynne

Sprinkled with Joy!

Another day of fun over at the Papertrey Ink blog!  They introduced several new products today including a new monthly feature called Enclosed which includes an innovative way to make tags.  The design team did an amazing job featuring the first release called Enclosed: Flower.  The challenge is to create a tag for a gift bag that you make from scratch or pick up at the store.  I was excited to play along!  Here is my gift tag shaker and bag:

 

 

I had a difficult time with the photos today, sorry about that.  The papers are PTI Lemon Tart and Harvest Gold.  The tag was made using PTI Shakers + Sprinkles set.  I stamped some flowers from Happiness in Bloom using Lemon Tart on the bag to reflect the flower sequins in the tag.  The twine is from Paper Studio and the white paper bag is one I had in my gift wrapping supplies.  I cut an extra white heart, scored it near the top, and attached it to the back of the shaker, creating a flap inside to write on.

Here is the link again to PTI's third challenge for their eighth anniversary party:

This little shaker tag is also going to be linked over at the super fun Virginia's View Challenge Blog where challenge #12 is to make a shaker!  Virginia and her guests have demonstrated some awesome shaker ideas!

Thanks for coming to visit!  I hope your day is sprinkled with joy!

Kara Lynne



Dad's Pajamas

I received the PTI Guide Lines Two Stamp Set for Christmas.  I have so many ideas of ways to use it in my head, but I'm not sure how it all works on paper.  I need to stock up on masculine cards, so I decided to put ink to paper and use it.  When I finished the card I realized the colors and pattern look very similar to a pair of pajamas my father wore!  Well, that must mean I achieved masculine.

For the second day celebrating Papertrey Ink's eighth anniversary, we are challenged to create a card inspired by one of Mailes Belles' creations.  So many things about her cards inspire me!  For this card I chose her splitting technique, but took a wider approach, and I used her colors from her feather card that was featured as one of the color recipes. 

All papers and inks are from PTI.  The colors include:  Blueberry Sky, Spring Rain, Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, and Smokey Shadow.  The sentiment die is One Liners: Happy, and the stamped sentiment is from Happiness in Bloom.

Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne