It's been far too long!

I was expecting to be gone for a couple of weeks and ended up being gone for months!  One thing happened after another.  I had my mom living with me waiting for back surgery (lumbar fusion for those who've been there), and life was full of appointments and pain meds.  After surgery, she recovered with us and is now back home and better than ever.  I've been missing all of you!  I have a few cards to share from over the past months.

These cards were for my mom's birthday in September, yes, that's right, SEPTEMBER!.

My brother asked me to make a card for him to give to her that included something about swimming.  She was the "head starfish" of her high school synchronized swimming club in the early 60s, so I gave her an appropriate bathing cap.  The swimming symbol was made on my Silhouette program.  I made it rather than purchasing it by using a series of lines and circles and merged it all together.

My card for her included some beautiful flowers from my blogging friend, Sheryl

Both of my daughters' birthdays were in November.  They are two very different girls as reflected by their cards.

Nine year old Kate's card uses the LOTV stamp, Emma Walkies.  She loves dogs and she's oh so girly and detail oriented.  The frame is a Silhouette cut, "Artisans Tag Ultimate Set"  The "Happy Birthday" stamp is from Inkadinkado, but I can't find a link anywhere, sorry.

Eleven year old Elle's card is a Silhouette cut called, "happy birthday card".  She's into lime green these days, and she's more of the clean and simple, direct and to the point.

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I'm so grateful to be back!  I'm looking forward to enjoying your blogs and wonderful creations.

Thanks so much for coming over to visit today.  I feel like I should say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I've been gone that long!

Have a great day!
Kara Lynne

All the Leaves are Brown, and the Sky is Gray

Oh, you're all going to think I'm a liar!  I just announced that I would be away a couple of weeks, and here I am posting a card!  Well, it was a great way to procrastinate.

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I masked the background with a cloud template I made by merging some clouds together on the Silhouette.  The hill template is just cut freehand.  I made a rectangle and three squares on the Silhouette and used the alignment tool for even spacing.  The leaves are a design cut from the Silhouette store called, "8 fall leaves"  I replicated them in five different sizes.  The leaves were then crumpled and inked.  The sentiment was embossed.

This card was inspired by the following challenges:
The Cameo Spotlight #3: color

 Retrosketches #29  This weeks it's Laurie's card we're CASEing and here's the sketch:

Moxie Fab World: Card Design Handbook Week:  The Movement Challenge

The white foreground, in my opinion, is "white space" (not because it's white) that breaks up the card and gives it interest.  The movement in this design is almost too obvious I suppose, but it's the flow of those leaves in and through the "white space".

Thanks so much for coming over to visit.  I'm off now to grocery shop and do some cleaning before the V.I.P.s arrive!

Have a great day!
Kara Lynne

Go Pack!

I'm going to be away from the blog for a couple of weeks.  We have dear friends visiting from Scotland, and I want to be all prepared.  Confession:  I'm not a natural in the kitchen, although I wish I was.  So I need to get a head start there too.  I thought I'd share a picture my brother took of me and Gene (DH) at last night's Packers/Bears game!

I'm very shy about posting pictures, but we did have a great time!  The next photos are of my nephews room.  I took the design from his bed comforter.  I don't have a good picture of the room all put together, but it was a fun design, so I wanted to share.  It took a lot of tape, as you can imagine, but also a massive amount of touch up where the tapes had to cross, and because the walls are textured!

Thanks for coming over to visit!  I will miss you all and will try to sneak a few peeks throughout the next couple of weeks.

Much love,
Kara Lynne