CASEING GENIUS: Kelly Latevola

 

Hello Crafters!

(That's how Kelly starts out her posts).

What a super exciting hop we have for you today, and all to honor our wonderful blog friend, Kelly!  Kelly goes out of her way to feature card artists and CASE them on her blog.  I met Kelly when I first began blogging, and she's been inspiring me ever since!  You should have reached my blog from the wonderful and talented Kara Vrabel!

So let's get to three of the many many inspiring cards from Kelly:

Just look at those amazing colors together!  Kelly's watercoloring was super inspiring to me, I just had to try it!  You can see her post and video HERE.

Keeping with the watercolor theme, I love Kelly's cutout of that gorgeous leaf, and the side detail is amazing!  You can find this card HERE.

Something about CASEing Kelly from when she CASEd me just seemed like a fun thing to do!  It may have been a CASE, but the card is all her own.  Kelly has MAD coloring skills, and often makes cards that say, "hello".

The CASE:

 

I decided to give Kelly's water color technique a try and painted these blooms from Verve, Be Blessed.  The pink ones use the same colors as Kelly used on the first card.  Many times Kelly uses white pen to add highlights to her coloring, so I did that here too.  I followed the second card with the design edging the side, and die cut an opening to highlight one flower.  The "hello" sentiment, of course, is similar to the third card, and ends with "dearest friend" because Kelly has to be one of the dearest friends in Blogland!

 

Here's a close-up of the cutout detail:

Stamps:  Verve Be Blessed, PTI Scripted
Inks: DI Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserves, Mermaid Lagoon, Dusty Concord
Dies:  Verve Be Blessed, Mamma Elephant Hello
CS: PTI Royal Velvet, Watercolor paper
Other:  Zing Purple embossing powder, White Gelly Roll pen

What is a blog hop without some fun prizes?! Leave a comment by 11:59 pm EDT on Thursday, October 29th along each stop in the hop to increase your chances of winning a prize from one of our sponsors: a2z Scrapbooking, Altenew, Create a Smile Stamps, Dee's Artsy Impressions, djkardkreations, Hero Arts, Ink Road, Lia Stampz and Simon Says Stamp,! Winners will be notified by email after October 29th.

 

 

a2z Scrapbooking
Amy Tsuruta
Ardyth Percy Robb
Brandi Hall
Char Kochensparger
Cindy Chiu
Darnell Knauss
Dawn Turley
Debra James
Deepti Malik
Donna Idlet
Elizabeth Campau
Ellen Haxelmans
Heather Ruwe
Jennifer Loftfield
Joan Bardee
Kara Vrabel
Kara-Lynne (You Are Here!)
Kathy Wade
Katie Gehring
Kristie Goulet
Kristina Beagle
Kymona Tracey
Laura Jane
Leigh Penner
Lin Brandyberry
Linda Trace
Lindsay Amrhein
Lydia Evans
Maria Sabina Raita
Marika Rahtu
Martha Lucia Gomez
Michele Cunningham
Michele Ferguson
Michelle Lupton
Michelle Williams
Monica Maier
Niki G.
Nina-Marie Trapani
Rubeena Naz
Shelly Kurth
Taunya Butler
Thordis Dogg
Vera Yates

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you're having a great day!  Enjoy the hop!
Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #33 and a Winner!

Candy corn, you either love it or you hate it, but you have to admit that at this time of year, it's as cute as can be!  Today starts a new challenge over at Tag, You're It! and I have the privilege of presenting the inspiration piece:

I created a 5 1/2"x2" long tag out of GP white cardstock.  I cut a half circle at the 1 1/4" mark by partial die cutting a (size) circle die, and scored a line from the curve to the ends.  Next I scored a line another 1 1/4" from the first score line.  I stamped the images and sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink using Paper Smooches' Sugar Rush stamp set and colored them with Copic markers.  The end of the tag was cut with pinking sheers and backed with PTI Orange Zest cs.  Another strip of Orange Zest cs was adhered to the top of the tag, and stamped with circles from Paper Smooches Alphadot stamp set.  Some dots were colored in with a white Gelly Roll pen.  Two thin strips of PTI (name) cs bordered the top and bottom of the tag.  A bit of yellow grosgrain ribbon finished off the top.

I hope you get the chance to play along with us at Tag, You're It!  I would love to see how you are inspired!

 

And now, the winner of the stamp set is... Vinita Jain!  Congratulations, Vinita, please email me your address and I will get that stamp set out to you ASAP!

 

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you have a great day!

Kara Lynne

Tripping over Pumpkins



These little mice must be siblings on my card today, because each of their personalities are textbook classic birth order.  There's the first mouse, he's the oldest.  He's doing what he's supposed to, and irritated with his brother, the youngest, who's clowning around on those pumpkins!  Doesn't he know this is their food for the winter!!  Life's going to get a lot more stressful for that first born when he walks right off the tag!  The last guy there is the middle child.  It's never about him, is it?  He's just watching the show. 

I had these mice colored since I made my last card with MFT''s BB Harvest Mouse, but I couldn't come up with a good background for them.  Yay! MFT sketch #251 got my brain moving!  The little circle on the sketch enlarged and fell down to the corner to hold the sentiment (and probably the mouse that's not paying attention).  The ribbon acts as the flourish.  I kept the background VERY simple since there is so much going on in the scene.  The circles were made with the inside of the largest Die-Namics pierced circle frames.  The tag was cut with the new Die-Namics Tag Builder Blueprints 4.  The two patterned papers are the front and back of the same piece (sorry, there was no name on it).  The mice and their bounty were colored with Copics, and the sentiment was heat embossed with Zing, Apricot embossing powder.  The cs is PTI's Terracotta Tile and Summer Sunrise, and the ribbon was in my stash.

These mice siblings are going to go play at the following challenges:

 MFT Sketch Challenge #251                                              Marker Pop Challenge #80:  Thanksgiving

 

 

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you are having a wonderful day, no matter where you sit in the birth order!

 

Kara Lynne

A Card, a Confession, and a Small Give-Away

First the Card:
Coloring is so therapeutic, and I had a chance to color this sweet little guy:

The image, LOTV's Get Well Bunny, was colored with Copics.  I cut out the oval, fussy cutting around the image.  The card base was blended with DI and stamped with PTI's Big Hugs, and HA's Say It All.  The panel was popped up with foam, and the die cut, SSS Sending, was cut from PTI's Orange Zest and adhered to the panel.

This card is going to go play at the following challenges:
Virginia's View#19: All Things Colored           Marker Pop! Challenge #79: Anything Goes
                             
The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge


Now the confession:
In my last post I was so excited to share the card I made for Taunya.  As I addressed the envelope and sealed it up, the more logical side of my brain said, "Don't you think Taunya would've liked to open her mail BEFORE you posted it?!  The  impulsive, excited side of my brain said, "Doh!"  Yes, that's how I roll, people, that's how I roll.  Sorry, Taunya, for ruining your surprise!

And finally the Give-Away:
I've enjoyed seeing everyone's spooky Halloween cards lately, but I'm not into making them myself.  Once, when I ordered some stamps from Tiddly Inks, I received this stamp set as a bonus:

It's actually called Wicked Birthday, but I think it would be great for Halloween.  I would love to get it into the hands of someone who would give it the love it deserves.  If you are interested in it, just indicate in your comment with the word: WICKED.  If more than one person would like it, I'll have a random drawing.  Please comment by noon CST, 10/22 and I will announce the recipient on Friday, the 23rd.

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

Kara Lynne

Daisies for Daisies Girl!

I've been itching to use this beautiful NBUS SSS Congratulations die cut so I'm sqeaking in here last minute to join the SSS Flickr Challenge #29.  The challenge is to use the colors yellow, black, and white.  It just so happens that Taunya, aka Daisies Girl, is celebrating her four year Blogaversary and I wanted to make some paper daisies to help her celebrate:

To make the daisies, I cut out three flowers for each daisy on the Silhouette, scored the petals and folded each one.  I then cut a yellow uneven circle and snipped tiny cuts all around.  Finally, I dampened a 1" circle of yellow paper and covered a brad, then coated it with Wink of Stella.

The die cut is two black and one white pieces glued together.  I cut a rectangle out of black and cut away the inside with a knife and a ruler to make a frame.  The yellow panel is a piece of vellum.

I had a lot of fun making this card!  Happy Blogaversary, Taunya, this card is coming your way soon!

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you have a great day!

Kara Lynne

Up With Elephants!

Virginia's View this month is all about color.  Now autumn has GORGEOUS color, but I decided to take a break from fall, and delve into the BRIGHTS:

I hoarded kept my old water colored scraps and decided to turn them into balloons.  Each one was stamped with the balloon from one of my very favorite stamp sets, W+9's Unforgettable.  I colored up Ellie, also from Unforgettable, with Copics, and set her afloat by drawing strings from each balloon to her tail  (you can see that one balloon on the bottom left is losing its helium).  One floss bow ties them all together.  Some of the balloons are raised with foam tape.  The clouds behind Ellie are from Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio dies. 

Ellie and her watercolor balloons are going over to play at the following challenges:

Virginia's View #19 All Things Colored                    SSS- Monday Challenge: Wonderful Watercolor

 

Thanks so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you are having a wonderful day!

 

Kara Lynne

 

 

A Silly Autumn Card

low-hang·ing fruit

noun

informal

noun: low-hanging fruit

a thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort.

"we know mining our own customer base is low-hanging fruit"

I modified and cut a tree on the Silhouette using SSS Wood Grain paper, then I inked it up with DI Gathered Twigs.  I masked off the corner of my card and blended DI Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, and Mustard Seed.  The images are MFT BB Harvest Mouse colored with Copics.  The beginning of the sentiment is also from that set, and I computer generated the second part.  The apple in the tree is the same one as in his hand, just masked and modified.

I found a great sketch over at Retro Sketches, and a fun cue word over at CASology.  It feels good to be coloring again, which is the current challenge over at Virginia's View, and I love the feel of autumn, which is what this week's challenge over at Simon Says Stamp - Monday is all about!  Whee!  I think I've gone challenge crazy!  Thank you all for running these challenges, and keeping us all inspired! 

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

Kara Lynne

Hey, I'm Back!

I want to thank all of you who stayed with me, commenting on my blog posts when I haven't been able to reciprocate.  I know how sporadic I've been lately.  I have missed out on so many of your fabulous cards and all the news buzzing around the blogs.  Moving both of our parents is fairly complete.  Mom and I will have a winter project of going through about 30 large boxes of photos (yes THIRTY and LARGE)!  I also know that many of you are way busier than me and you still keep up consistently, so you probably think I'm just a big baby.  Well, me too, and maybe that is what influenced my card:

I looked back and CASEd one of my own cards for the current challenge over at AAA Cards where the challenge is to use words as the focal point.  I love this font called Recorda Script.  I cut it out using the Silhouette.  The panel was popped up with foam over a piece of dp from My Mind's Eye, My Girl.  The onsie stamp is an older one from Stampin' Up!, colored with Copics.  I made the hanger out of some wire and hung it on the word.

This card is joining in on the following challenges:

AAA Cards: Game #49: Word Play

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes


Thanks so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne, the Big...