Surgery Woes, But A Bright Future Ahead

Well, my surgery did not go as planned.  It ended up being a full torn rotator cuff repair and my left shoulder is still immobilized for a few more weeks.  The physical therapist moves my shoulder twice a week and that is all for now.  Thankfully this is temporary, but I wanted to let you know why I'm really not back in blogland yet.

Before surgery, I put a few posts together for some upcoming events.  Birthdays, babies, and graduations wait for no man, nor should they.

My nephew is graduating this May and starting law school in the fall.  He is such a fantastic guy and has a genuine passion for helping others.  I am so excited for him!

The gator was colored with copics.  I drew a little diploma for him to hold.  The seal is a stamped and gold heat embossed star with a couple of drawn ribbons coming down from it.

The sentiment was computer generated on green cs.  I then cut out the word 'graduate' on the Silhouette (while holding my breath that I measured the placement right).  It was then ink blended and popped up with foam to form a shaker.  The sunshine was stamped on white cs and then clear heat embossed so that the background could be ink blended without turning the yellow sun green.

This gator is going to play in a couple of challenges:
Heffy Doodle Challenge:  Summer Loving - sunshine and graduation is a great start to summer.
Timeout Challenges:  #108 Wild
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Animal Magic

 

Supplies:
Stamps:  Heffy Doodle Happy Snappy Crocs, WPlus9 A Pocketful,  PTI Galaxy (small star)
Silhouette and Computer generated sentiment font:  Conventional Wisdom, Calibri
Copics:  YG 21,23,25,63, G05, 0, R27, C00, C0, Multi-liner .3, and .05
Inks:  PTI Bright Buttercup, VersaMark, DI Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass
Paper:  MFT Cool as a Cucumber
Other:  Ranger Clear embossing powder, Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, Michael's star confetti, fun foam

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

Twofer Card Challenge #4: Pets

Pets is the name of the game this time at Twofer Card Challenge!  We've always had dogs in my family, so I'm partial to dog stamps.  Our dog, Remmington, is a little mix breed that we got ten years ago when our girls were 6 and 4.  He was supposed to be a family dog, but he's really a mama's dog. 

I wanted to use many of these fun dogs on both cards, so the way I changed them up was patterned paper and ink blending verses white with water coloring.  More obvious is the difference in colors and positioning.

This pyramid of dogs was colored with Copics and fussy cut.  Clouds were stenciled in the sky, and the fence is a piece of dp that I zig-zag cut and shaded a bit with a Copic marker.  The sentiment was printed from the computer onto green cs, inked a bit, and die cut to create the ground.

On this next card, I moved away from traditional dog colors.  Each dog was colored with Copics, but the balloons and ground were painted with Zig CCRB pens.  I tied a string to each of the dogs, cutting slits if need be, and adhered the end under each balloon.  The strings that "tie" to the balloons were just glued to the balloon back and wrapped around the end part to look as though the entire string was tied there.

Here's our little Remmington:
We cropped around his photo to mimic a print we found to go in our daughter's room.

So what's your favorite pet?  I hope you will join in the fun with us.  You can find all of the information and much more inspiration from the rest of the design team over at the Twofer Card Challenge blog. 

Supplies:
Card 1 -
Stamps: Katzelkraft - Les Chiens
Dies:  MFT Grassy Hills
Paper:  MME Miss Caroline, PTI Green Parakeet
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, DI Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass
Copics: W00,1,3,5, N6,8, C00,1,3,5,7,100, RV000, R20,81,83,85, E000,00,07,11,13,15,18,19,21,23,25,27,29,30,31,33,35,37,42,43,44,47,49
Other: MFT Mini Cloud Edges, Sentiment typed in Word with font Dam* Noisy Kids

Card 2 -
Stamps: Katzelkraft - Les Chiens, PTI Swoosh (wishes sentiment), Studio Katia Kobi the Birthday Bear (balloons)
Dies:  PTI Wonderful Words: Birthday
Paper: Bristol Smooth CS, PTI True Black
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens - 25,27,32,34,40,41,50,52,70,80,84
Copics:  0,V01,04,06,09,17,91,93,95,99, BV00,04, B000,00,02,05,21,24,28, G02,05,07,09, YG00,03,21,Y000,00,02,04,17,32,35,38, YR000,00,02,04,14,27,65,68, R08,22,24,27,59, RV000,00,19,52,55
Other:  SSS Fine Detail white embossing powder, Nuvo ebony crystal drops, Uni-ball Signo white gel pen, White floss from Hobby Lobby, Sharpie silver marker

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you have a wonderful day filled with puppies and rainbows (but not all together).
Kara

Time Off for Surgery

A couple of years ago I had shoulder surgery on my right shoulder, and apparently my left shoulder did not want to be left out, so now it is taking it's turn.  I will be away from blogging while I go through the rehab process.  I may not be commenting, but know that I will still be silently visiting when I can.

I thought a pocketful of sunshine would do us all some good.  I love this WPlus9 pocket and its many possibilities.  I always adhere it so that it gaps open at the top slightly. 

Some masking and ink blending brought out the brightness of the stamped sun.  I stamped the pocket die onto blue colored cs, so I went around with a white gel pen to emphasize the stitching.  The little sentiments were silver heat embossed onto the popped up clouds and the 'sunshine' was die cut from both cs and fun foam.

This card is going over to play at the Fusion Challenge - Rain or Shine.  I focused on the photo concept.

Supplies:
Stamps:  WPlus9 A Pocketful
Dies:  WPlus9 Sunshine Layers
Ink:  DI Faded Jeans, Fossilized Amber, PTI Harvest Gold, Enchanted Evening, VersaMark
Paper:  PTI Blueberry Sky
Other:  MFT Radiating Rays stencil, SSS Ultra fine sliver embossing powder, Uni-ball Signo White gel pen, fun foam

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

Crafty Friends are the Best!

I've often read posts of bloggers getting together to meet in person, and wished I could meet so many of the wonderful friends I've gotten to know through the years.  Two weekends ago I had an amazing opportunity to meet five of my dear blogging/card making friends at the Whatever Craft House in Newton, KS.  It was a jam packed four days of talking, laughing, creating, and connecting.  I learned a lot about these ladies and I learned a lot from them too:  Marcia, Nancy, Birgit, Linda, and Colleen. Yes, I am holding the camera!

 

Here's a few of the projects we made or partial projects that I finished when I got home:

Colleen gave us each a notepad to cover.  Some ladies brought Distress Oxide inks so I tried them with these PTI birds that Colleen brought with her.  Marcia showed us a stencil technique with Oxides that became my background, and Nancy brought all of us some die cuts which became my scalloped frame and borders.  I added a little cs and a PTI leaf sprig and PTI sentiment when I got home and now I have the most gorgeous notepad I have ever owned!

Colleen put a beautiful kit together for each of us featuring this W+9 bird and flowers.  She even stamped the envelope!  I colored them in Copics and added a few sequins.

Nancy gifted us each with this beautiful bracelet made by her daughter, Alisa.  It is stamped with a heart and the number 18 as a memento of the year we were together.  Nancy stamped and gold embossed this beautiful spray of flowers on black cs so we could all try her Finetec watercolors.  Notice how well the bracelet and card go together?  I added a gold embossed border and a sentiment from PTI.

Linda gave us each a kit to make this wonderful gift bag.  I added some die cuts from dies Marcia gave to us.  I've already used this bag to give a set of cards to a hostess who invited our family over for dinner yesterday.  Linda also got me hooked on the Catherine Pooler inks.  I can't afford to need new ink!!  You would find that you need them too if you tried them for yourself, just sayin'.

Birgit showed us all how to make this adorable pop-up card.  I just love this little scene with the whimsical banner, mushrooms and ferns and those sweet deer!  Birgit also shared many stamps and dies which were new to me so now I have many many projects to keep me busy. 

Marcia die cut some SSS flowers for all of us and let us play with her Lindy's Magicals.  They are a powder similar to Brusho, but they shine like nothing I've ever seen!  I added a SSS sentiment.

 Here's my attempt of showing you the shine.

Marcia also made us each a kit to create this adorable pop-up box complete with pompom bunny tails!

My craft table is full right now with many more bits and pieces from our time together.  My heart is full of memories and love for each one of these precious ladies.

Thanks for coming over to visit.  I hope that you are having a wonderful day.  Who knows, maybe you and I will also meet in person one day!

Kara

Twofer Card Challenge #3: Blossoms

Welcome back to another fun Twofer Card Challenge!  This time around the cue word is Blossoms.  There are many gorgeous flowers out there, so I hope you will join in on the fun by making two completely different cards for two completely different occasions, with the same stamp/die.

I used a versatile and fun stamp set from PTI called Doodlie-do:

In order to come up with two very different designs, I went with lots of flowers white heat embossed on colored cs for the first card, and changed it up with a bright water coloried focal point and clean lines/white space on my second card.

The card below is a Valentine card.  The flower was stamped on both white and watercolored paper twice and fussy cut to create a layered flower.  The die cut sentiment was cut from both black and the pink layer, with a tiny strip of black between the pink and doodled bottom border.  Do you see the tiny stamped sentiment within my doodled lines?  At first I tried to write the word in with the lines, but it looked much better stamped.

This second card was fun to create, thanks to my friend, Birgit of Crafting While I Wait, because she gave me the matching dies!  A while ago, I blogged about a card with these stamps and said I fussy cut them out.  Birgit emailed me saying that she had an extra set and would send it to me!  Thank you, once again, Birgit, so thoughtful, and what a life saver on this card!

I hope you will join us for this fun and creative challenge!  Please check out all the details and amazing inspiration over at the Twofer Card Challenge Blog. 

 

Supplies:

CARD 1

Stamps:  PTI Doodlie-do, SSS Sending and Wishing

Dies:  PTI Swoosh

Ink:  Archival Ink - Jet Black, DI Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar

Paper:  Tim Holtz water color paper, PTI Raspberry Fizz, True Black

Other:  Uni-ball Signo White gel pen, Copic Multi-liner 0.3

CARD 2

Stamps:  PTI Doodlie-do, Friendly Flower (sentiment)

Dies:  PTI Doodlie-do, Poppy Stamps Stitched Main Street Tags

Ink:  VersaMark, PTI Amethyst Allure

Paper:  PTI Enchanted Evening, Amethyst Allure, Royal Velvet, Limeade Ice

Other:  Altenew Halftone stencil

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

A Pond Treat Box

I was excited to use my new Lawn Fawn stamps and dies and decided to make a scenic treat box.  The images were stamped with a little masking, and then the lines were drawn to connect the box sides. Everything was colored with Copics.  Cattails, grass, and vines were then die cut, colored, and adhered.  I would fear for those ducks but that alligator looks so innocent...

Here it is with the bottom taped together and before a few added details.

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #24 Fun With Dies is the name of the game, and yes, I sure had fun!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lawn Fawn Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Toadally Awesome, Wild for You
Dies:  Lawn Fawn Scalloped Treat Box, Bayou Backdrop, Scalloped Treat Box Spring House
Copics:  0, YG13,21,23,25,63, G05,12,14,20,21,24,28,67, E30,31,33,35,39,40,41,42,44,47, B000,00,12,14,21,91, Y11,13,15, YR14,68, RV52,55, W0,1, Multi-liner 0.3
Other:  Signo white gel pen, Memento Tuxedo Black ink, scrap colored cs, GP white cs

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

Coloring Bubbles

Lawn Fawnatics latest challenge is to try a new technique.  Since I just got a hold of Lawn Fawn's Rub-a-Dub-Dub stamp set, I decided to look into coloring bubbles.  There are a few videos on YouTube here and here, but I also looked at pictures of the Disney Cinderella scene where she was washing the floor.  There's much room for improvement, but I enjoyed the process of this first try.

I wanted the tub to be white, and I'm more comfortable with Copics, so I colored and cut the bottom portion and placed it over the colored card stock panel.  The shower was also colored with Copics on white and cut out.  There is a cut in the colored cs so the pole could slide behind the bubble, and then a little white pencil in the bubble helps it look like it's visible through the bubble. 

The bubbles were colored with pencils and a white gel pen.  The little bubbles were stamps from LF Mermaid for You and Rub-a-Dub-Dub.  The larger bubbles were drawn lightly with a pencil by tracing circle dies.  To add a little depth to the background, I outlined the bubbles with Copics B66,63,and 60.

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #23 - Try a New Technique

Supplies:
Stamps:  Lawn Fawn Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Mermaid for You
Dies: Spellbinder Circle Nesting Dies
Copics: 0, B60,63,66,91, BG70, C00,0,1
Colored Pencils:  Prisma Color White, Faber Castel Aquarelle 111,104,119,136,141,143,154
Ink:  VersaMark, Memento Summer Sky, SSS Blue Velvet
Other:  Recollections CS, SSS Fine Detail white EP, Signo white gel pen

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I hope you are having a wonderful, and maybe even relaxing, day!
Kara