Happy for You, PTI!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating eight years in the business.  Congratulations PTI, may you be successful for many many years to come!  To celebrate, they are having all sorts of fun including some great challenges.  My card today is following the inspiration of PTI's design team with both a color recipe and a sketch:

The color recipe:
 
The sketch:


I went all literal on this one.  The stamp set is PTI's Doodlie Do, and the cardstock is PTI too.  I colored the flowers with Copics using colors that coordinated with the cardstock.  The centers of the flowers were stamped on the colored cardstock, cut out, and embossed with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder to give some dimension.  The flowers were adhered with foam tape with the middle flower given a double dose.  The centers of the flowers are also popped up a bit with foam tape.

Here is how you can play along with the Papertrey Ink Challenge

This card is also playing in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  All Things Bright and Beautiful



Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are having a great day!

Kara Lynne

Caught a Bug? Maybe Influenza A?

I know the flu is really going around, yuk!  My mother has it, and it is no fun.  I made a card to send to her.  She only lives five miles away, but I thought it might cheer her up to get something in her mailbox.  What could cheer someone up more than a shaker card?!  This little bug was corralled behind the shaker window by a circle of tissue boxes ready to strike!  Fortunately, Mom has a great sense of humor.

All of the stamps are from Paper Smooches Healthy Vibes.  The tissue box papers are from The Paper Studio, Khloe Lane and the background is PTI Limeade Ice.  The bug was colored with Copics YG21 and YG23.  I was going to use green sequins and beads, but then I realized that would just be gross, so I went with a cheerier pink and orange.  Some of the sequins are from Doodle Bug, and the others are Hobby Lobby's brand.

This card is joining the fun at the following challenges:

Virginia's View #12: Shaker Cards                                Paper Smooches Sparks: Anything Goes
                            

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: H is for... Health!


Thanks for coming over to visit today!  Stay healthy!

Kara Lynne

City Crafter Challenge Blog Guest Designer!

I am so thrilled to announce that today I am a guest designer over at the City Crafter Challenge Blog!  Please go on over there and check it out.  I have so much admiration for the design team and all they do to bring this challenge to our online community!  This week's inspiration comes from this photo with the theme of "lace and roses":

I was inspired by the contrasts of the background and foreground, which I hope is reflected in my card:

 

 

 

 

The chevron background is a Silhouette cut called Chevron Fancy Frame, I used five cuts each of a flower from 5-Petal Flowers for the roses, and Abstract Decorative Wreath makes up the lacey "doily" around the tea cup.  The cup itself is Silver Metallic from the Paper Company, cut using Mama Elephant's Cup of Wishes die, and the lace on it is from Offray.  The other papers are sadly unknown from my stash.  I inked the rose petals with Brilliance Moonlight White, then shaped them using a McGill Paper Blossom tool, and glued them together.  The sentiment panel (also cut from Chevron Fancy Frame, is raised with foam adhesive.  The sentiment is from SSS Apothecary Labels and is inked in SSS Slate. 

 

Here's a close up of a couple of the flowers before they were put together:

 

A side note:  At City Crafter's I mentioned that I started by scrapbooking.  That was in 2001 when our first daughter was born!  Being a very organized person (sometimes to the point of paralysis - ahem), a have a systematic way in which I do scrapbooking.  Each child (we have two girls) has 24 pages from her first year, and then 12 pages for every year after that, all the way up to the present.  I just did the math and that's 312 pages so far.  Lord willing, I plan to stop with age 18 (480 pages).  Do you scrapbook, and if so, do you have a system you use?

 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

 

Kara Lynne

My Tweetheart

Before I talk about the card today, I would like to thank Barb of ...Enjoying Life... for the very generous gift to Simon Says Stamp!  She had a random drawing while promoting the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Group and Challenge.  Being fairly recently back to blogging, I didn't know it was there until I saw her post.  It's very fun and incredibly supportive over there!

Not much time in the craft room this weekend, but enough to join the shaker challenge over at Virginia's view and still play with those wonderful colors at ColourQ.  There's even a little time left at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes!

 

I received this whimsical image and sentiment from the sweet Vera Yates of Ling's Design Studio a couple of years ago.  It's called Tweethearts by Paperworks Co.  I colored it with Copics.  I had to add a little green (outside the color scheme), but I kept it a grayish green.  I made the shaker using dies and sequins from PTI Shakers + Sprinkles.  The seed beads are from Michaels.  The PP is from Authentique's Essentials Collection, and the cardstock is older paper that I had in my collection.

Here are the challenges that inspired this card:
Virginia's View Challenge #12: Shaker Cards           Colour Q Challenge #277 (Still working to get their badge on the side bar)
       

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes


It's so much fun being back in blogland reconnecting with friends and making new ones!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog.  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Kara Lynne

Love is in the Air!

I love all of the great techniques people are doing with water color!  One thing I learned in the process is that water coloring is a lot like taking photos of my cards:  I have to make quite a few before getting one I like, and the colors never really look exactly as I thought they would.  Watercolor and love seem to be the theme of the day, so here is my card:

First, I taped down some water color paper and wet it with a brush (our school gave me its extra water color paper when it shut down).  Then, with a wet brush, I added DI Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, and Worn Lipstick.  I let that dry, then cut it with the largest die from a set I can't figure out.  I don't know how it didn't get a label when I put it in the sleeve!.  I die cut the clouds from Paper Smooches Clouds, and the buildings from Paper Smooches Super 2.  I cut the hearts and the word from some scrap paper.  The word die is PTI Wet Paint. and the hearts are from PTI Shakers and Sprinkles.  I printed out the "is in the air!" strategically on white card stock and cut and scored it into a card base.

 

This card is joining the fun over at the following challenge blogs:

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #136:  Must Love Watercolor

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Up in the Clouds...

 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog:  Anything Goes


Thank your so much for coming over to visit!  I hope love is in the air and all around you today!

Kara Lynne

Cheers to the Hope of Warmer Weather

Last night my husband and I went to a wine pairing dinner.  The theme was, "Summer in the Southern Hemisphere".  What a lovely idea since it's a cold, gray winter on this side.  We had wines and dishes from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa.  It was fun and delicious!  My card seems to reflect my feelings today; it's gray here, but somewhere beyond the tropical leis lies a fruity concoction for happy hour!

I masked the hibiscus flowers to create the border and cut around the outer edge.  I stamped and colored the inner images, and then popped up the panel using fun foam.  The hibiscus flowers, pineapple drink, and lower sentiment are from PS Get Outta Town.  The "Cheers" is from PS Birthday Sampler, and the tiny flowers are from PS Hang Ups.  The oval is from PS Shadows and was stamped with SSS Hot Lips.  Everything else was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I used various Copics from the YR0, R2, and R3 families along with a white Jelly Roll pen for highlights.  The gray striped paper is called Charcoal Stripe from Keeping Memories Alive
(2001).

 

This card is joining the fun at the following challenges:

Paper Smooches Sparks: Designer Draft Challenge          ColourQ Challenge #277

                                       

City Crafter Challenge #246 Cheers                        Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

 

                           

 

I'm hoping my card will cheer up a Vitamin D deficient friend here in Wisconsin.  Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you are warm and happy wherever you are today!

 

Kara Lynne

Confetti Garland with MIM

Yesterday, on the Make It Monday #199 video, Betsy Veldman showed us a fun way to add dimension to our cards using sequins as a garland, so I wanted to play along:

Here's a closer look at those sequins, I die cut a little window as their background:

I used PTI Wonderful Words: Birthday Die and PTI papers Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Ripe Avocado, and Hawaiian Shores.  I also used Raspberry Fizz, and Aqua Mist in the sequins.  The sequins and little starburst die cuts are from PTI's Make It Market Kit: Shakers + Sprinkles. 

I also want to link this to the current CASology Challenge for Week 131: Birthday.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Kara Lynne