Friday, June 8, 2012

Ahoy Matey...

I have to share some exciting news I received yesterday!  As anyone one who stops by my blog knows,  I am a HUGE Lili of the Valley stamp fan.  If I'm going to color up an image, it's usually from LOTV.  Now in honor of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, LOTV's Ideas to Inspire blog had a candy drawing for a goodie bag worth 60 pounds (sorry, I can't find the sign for pounds)!  701 of us put our names into the pool and guess who won!  I was shocked, and so grateful!!!  I just stared at my name in disbelief.  Coming to, I decided to celebrate, and how does one celebrate such an occasion?  By making a card!




Another new image from LOTV with the boy and his dog called, Walk the Plank.  They are colored with Copics.  That poor dog!  Well, he loves that little boy and will put up with a lot.  I made the background map by getting some white cardstock wet, scrunching it, and rubbing it over some Ranger Distress Ink.  I singed the edges with a kitchen lighter (outside, phew!  Smelled like a campfire).  It didn't get brown like I thought it would, probably because it was still damp, but for the best, because it makes the paper too brittle.  So, Ranger to the rescue!  I just blended ink around the edges to distress it more.  I drew a couple of green blobs with a blue line around them with Copics.  I used a Zig Writer for the black dotted lines and sentiment.  The ship's wheel, skull, ship, and compass were cut using my Silhouette and distressed.  The ship's wheel was sprayed with Glimmer Mist.  I wet and rolled the paper sentiment and distressed that too.  I usually use a light box and copy a computer font when I have to write a sentiment, but I thought free hand would look more authentic, meh.  Now I'm looking at the right lower corner and wonder if it needs something to better ground the image, but I was afraid the card was getting too busy.



This card is entered in the following challenges:
Lili's Little Fairies: One for the Boys

Our Creative Corner: Embellished Frame

Thanks so much for coming over today.  May you have a wonderful weekend my friends!  I'll post a pic when I get my goodie bag!
Kara Lynne

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Take the Plunge!


I've got an amazing friend (truly amazing!) who is retiring soon.  With such a huge life change, she talked about feeling that she was standing on the edge of a cliff.  I thought these images from the Craft's Meow's Life is a Carnival would be PERFECT!  Now she'll probably see this out here, but I just had to share it.  I guess she gets the card twice this way!

Virginia's challenge on her blog is still going, and she keeps inspiring us with rainbow creations!  Vicky's offer for free Link Manager by Inlinkz during it's beta phase is still available with the opportunity to win some prizes!  The Craft's Meow blog has a great sketch this month and I have new (to me) CM stamps to ink!  All these incentives to make a card for a girl that needs no incentive - love it!



Well, a whole lot of ink blending going on here!  I inked the sentiment with ink pads too.  You know, with all our craft supplies, we always need MORE.  Those new distress markers would've really been handy with that sentiment.  One thing to note about the Inlinkz Manager.  It does not work with Windows Explorer, which is what I use.  I fretted a bit, but then I installed Firefox.  It was easy to do.  I'm sure Vicky just has to roll her eyes at non-tech people like me - Ha! 



This card is entered in the following challenges:
The Craft's Meow June Sketch Challenge

Yes, Virginia...I'm Inspired!
 Clips-n-Cuts Giveaway

Thanks for coming over, hope you're having a great day my blogging friends!
Kara Lynne

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

A Little Bird Told Me...

Okay, I know I JUST said, "It's summer, and woe-is-me, no time to make cards."  This card was in my mind just waiting to get out, so I had to make time!  I also wanted to try out Vicky's Link Manager offer by Inlinkz





InLinkz.com

Well that was fun!  I think I'm going to like this Link Manager thing.  Thanks, Vicky!  The gems were similar to the ones here, but I could not find the ones I used anywhere online.  I colored the gems with Copic markers.  The first pictures were taken outside and the third was inside and then auto adjusted to lighten it up.  Still trying to figure out the best way of showing the true colors.

This card is entered in the following challenges:
The Play Date Cafe: PDCC 134

Retro Sketches #14

  Clips-n-cuts Giveaway
That's a lot for one little card!  Thanks for coming over, and have a great day!
Kara Lynne

Thank You, Eileen, and Sharing the Love!

I want to share a big "Thank You" to Eileen.  She honored me with the very special Liebster Blog Award!

The idea of the Leibster Blog Award is to spread the love from one small blog (under 200 followers) to other small blogs. This helps to spread knowledge and readership.

To accept the award, you must:
  1. Link back to the person who gave it and thank them for thinking of you.
  2. Post the award on your blog.
  3. Give the award to 5 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) that you appreciate and value.
  4. Leave a comment on the blogs of the 5 people you have chosen to let them know.
Well that's easy enough, there are so many inspiring bloggers I could thank, including Eileen!  Eileen is a master with coloring.  She's got a style full of details.  It was difficult to narrow it down, but the following ladies, I can honestly say, are inspiring and "dearest" to me as the German word, "Liebster" suggests.

And the nominees are:

Darnell J Knauss of djkardkreations  This amazing lady has great card ideas, a fun way with words, and you really need to check out her playhouse! 

Kelly of You and Your Big Dreams  Kelly always has encouraging words and fantastic designs.  She comes up with some great ideas!

Sarah J Moerman of My Impressions  Sarah just moved to her new blog.  I always Ooh and Ahh over her creations!

Marybeth of Marybeth's Time for Paper  Marybeth's style is clean and creative.  She is definately one to watch! 

Sanketi of The Storyteller  I just stare at her works of art!  So much detail carefully pieced together.

Thanks for coming over today, and check out these ladies if you don't already know them!
Kara Lynne

Sweet Sweet Baby

The kids are out of school, we just put up the trampoline, camping trips are all scheduled, and summer has begun!  I will be curious to see how it effects my card making.  So far, NOT helpful!  This time with them is so precious to me, so I'm learning to adjust.  One of my summer's projects is to teach my oldest daughter how to play the clarinet.  I don't play it myself, so a bit of a challenge, but my undergrad degree was music therapy, so I have enough background to get her started.  So far, so good, she can make a pretty good sound without squeaks!  Both girls want to learn to knit, so we'll do that too, and we'll start a new book series.  Not sure which one yet, last summer's was Narnia.  Sounds like I'm making them into Susie Homemakers - Ha!  
This little card was a process, let me tell you.  It started out for Freshly Made Sketches, but got WAY too distressed to consider it "fresh"!  Rita on their design team is having a baby girl and is not into all the pink, so I decided to use that as part of my challenge.  I used LOTV Baby Girl image and WeRMemory Keepers Anthologie for the background and  the little dot paper.  The sentiment is from old Stampin' Up stamps that, unfortunately, I can't identify.  I cut the flowers and swirl frames on my Silhouette.  I used Copics to color, and Ranger Distress ink Old Paper to blend.  The cardstock, fibers, and brads are from my stash.

This card is entered in the following challenges:
Lili's Little Fairies - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for coming over today!  I always love visitors and especially when you comment - that just makes my day!
Kara Lynne