Tag, You're It! #49

A new challenge starts today at Tag, You're It!  Anja created a beautiful card that features a gorgeous tag.  Here's how I was inspired:

Take a look at Anja's card:

So much to love here on Anja's card!  The combination of blue and green with the crisp white is beautiful!  I love how she focused the grouping on the left side of the tag, and yet your eye spans out to see the flecks of shine on to the right of the card.

My card takes the grouping off of the tag and onto the card itself, still coming from the upper left side.  I blended her blue and green to create a minty color palette for my card.  Her shiny flecks became silver birds and her focal butterfly was exchanged with a die cut house.  The two tags hang in the tree branches along with some leafy springs to reflect Anja's cluster of elements.

This card was so much fun to create, especially because I got to play with some of my new Poppystamp dies!  Check out that layered house.  I mean, really? A layer for curtains and tiny shutters?  Way too much fun!  The heavy silver cs didn't fold on the door's score line very well.  Next time I will score that with a stylus.

Supplies used:
Dies: Poppystamps Baylan House, Chirping Birds, Cheery Cardinals, Exquisite Branch Frame, Main Street Tags, and MFT Leafy Greenery
Stencil: Memory Box Modern Radio Waves
Ink:  PTI Aqua Mist
Card base:  Paper Studios
Paper:  All from scrap paper stash

I hope you will join us over at Tag, You're It! for this wonderful challenge.  I'd love to see how you are inspired!

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

Can't Say Thanks Enough

During the April Poppystamps Blog Blitz, Jeanne Jachna introduced a company, Birch Press Design, created by the same gentleman, Dave Brethauer, that created Poppystamps.  Birch Press Design has special unique items for the home and office and also carries a craft line with exclusive dies and stamps.  There was a comment to win contest for an entire set of 3 layering dies and I won!

Thank you so much, Birch Press Design and Poppystamps for this amazing gift!  I chose the set called Dazzle, and here is my thank you card:

Amazing layering, right?!  The Dazzle design immediately makes me think of warm colors, so I went the opposite way, just to showcase the versatility of these dies.  Not much to say about how I made the card, it really made itself.  All I did was add 1/8" score tape around the perimeter of the die cuts and white heat embossed a stamped sentiment from SSS Apothecary Labels (I think they are discontinued) on the base of the card and a couple of banners.  The cardstock is PTI Smokey Shadow, Aqua Mist, and Winter Wisteria.

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

Tag, You're It Challenge #47

Today begins a new challenge over at Tag, You're It!, and I couldn't be more excited about it!  Jeanne Jachna designed a beautiful tag with so many elements from which to be inspired.  I hope you are inspired too, and play along with us!  Here is my tag:

Here's Jeanne's wonderful tag:

Isn't that gorgeous!?  I love Jeanne's ability to mix colors and patterns.  I took an easy route and used coordinating papers from one collection.  I replaced her focal butterfly with a coffee cup, which is curved for dimension.  I used the word "Coffee" as my "scallop" going across the tag.  I wanted to use Jeanne's dry embossing somewhere, but it just wasn't happening on this tag.


Supplies:
DI Ground Espresso, Gathered Twigs
MME Stella & Rose dp
MFT LLD Hug in a Mug stamp set
MFT Die-namics Warm & Fuzzy
PTI Tag Sale #10 die
Silhouette cut design: Coffee Hug In Mug Phrase (just used the "coffee" word)
Recycled twine



I enjoyed this project so much, I just kept going and made my Mother's Day cards:

Supplies:
MFT Die-Namics Flutter of Butterflies Lace and Solid
PTI Tag Sale #10 Die
Lawn Fawn Mother's Day Border Die
MFT Romantic Script Background
PTI Big Hugs Die
SSS Stitched Rectangles Die
PTI Branching Out Die
DI - Tumbled Glass, and Shabby Shutters
PTI CS - Aqua Mist, Limeade Ice, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet
MME Stella and Rose dp

Head on over to the Tag, You're It! challenge blog to see much more inspiration!

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

Super Moms

With Mother's Day approaching, I thought it would be fun to make a couple of cards for my mom friends: 

 



The background in the second card is gray, not black, it's PTI Smokey Shadow.  I don't know why it wouldn't photograph correctly.  Maybe I should've asked one of "those" moms to take the photo for me.  Anyway, the sentiment is from Riley and Co. and I cut it apart to separate the sentiment.  The images are from the Paper Smooches Squeaky Clean stamp set. I cut the heart center out of the original washing machine image (yes, I cut out it's heart, yikes!) and used the circle (sun) from Paper Smooches Sunny Side Up stamp set instead.  I added some water in the machine with a Copic multi-liner.  I colored the images with Copics, fussy cut them, and adhered them to PTI Scene It: Basic Backer die cut in Sweet Blush.  I stamped a shadow under the images in SSS Smoke ink using Paper Smooches Shadows stamp set.  The top part of the sentiment was stamped onto a SSS Stitched Rectangle die cut, also in Sweet Blush.  The papers are MME My Girl, PTI cs, and some scraps.  The little trim of embossed dots was made with a Lifetime Crafts embossing folder.

The top card is looking especially girlie, so it's going over to play at SSS Wednesday Challenge where the theme is: Make It Girlie.


It's also going to play over at MarkerPop Challenge Blog where the theme is: Anything Goes.


Thanks so much for coming over to visit!  I hope you're having a great day!

Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #45

Yay, it's Friday!  It's also time for a new challenge over at Tag, You're It!  Our Muse this time is the wonderful Carol Mayne.  I pieced together a Paper Smooches vacuum cleaner that didn't end up on a card, but I still wanted to use it.  I closely followed Carol's design, because it was so perfect for it!  Here's Carol's inspiring card:

Here's my CASE:

I followed a similar color palette, including the rich colors blended on Carol's tag, and even used a smaller version of her tag shape.  I stenciled the card base with a pink background, and then stenciled with multi-colored dots to reflect the dotted paper on the vacuum.  I love the open space Carol left on her tag which gives the full focus to the shiny dragonfly, and a sentiment that pairs with it beautifully.  Originally, I masked the sentiment section to look like suction underneath the vacuum cleaner, but then my husband pointed out that it looks like a path made by the vacuum, and then the vacuum turned to the left.  Okay, I see it!  Either way, it's a fun card to give to a friend going through a rough patch.

Supplies Used:

Paper Smooches Squeaky Clean stamp set

Poppy Stamps Stitched Mainstreet Tags craft die

My Favorite Things stencils - Snowfall and Wonky Chevron

Distress Inks - Candied Apple, Abandoned Coral, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade, Lucky Clover, and Hickory Smoke

Copics on the vacuum cleaner

My Mind's Eye "My Girl" patterned paper on the vacuum cleaner

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Ranger Archival Jet Black ink

Paper Studios card base

I hope you have the opportunity to play along with Tag, You're It!  I would love to see how you are inspired!

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

Kara Lynne

Sending Prayers; a Copic CASE

I think I'm finally back now.  My shoulder is healing nicely (although slower than I would like).  I've made some cards, and I'm ready to get back into blogging!

Did you see Sandy Alnock's post and video where she colored that MFT Etched Flower stamp with just three Copics, R17, 37, and 89?  Amazing!  I thought, "I have that stamp and those three Copics, why not give it a try!" 

So I did:

I used Memento Lady Bug ink to stamp the image.  This was actually my second go of it.  The first one I turned into cards:

Then I decided to color using four Copics, V12, V15, V17, and V09

That was my second attempt too.  I used Memento Lulu Lavender ink to stamp that image.  The first attempt I also turned into cards, but used Memento London Fog ink to stamp the image.

Then I decided to use five Copics, BG10, BG11, BG13, BG15, and BG18, and colored this:

I used Memento London Fog ink to stamp the image.  Again, this was a second panel, and the first was turned into two cards.  Here is one of them:

The sentiment on the aqua card was stamped with PTI's Hawaiian Shores.  After I photographed everything, I turned the other panels into similar cards.  I used SSS Stitched Rectangle Dies and the SSS/Hero Arts Prayers stamp and die set.  The cardstock was all from my scraps. 

Thanks so much for coming over to visit, I hope you're having a great day!

Kara Lynne

Tag, You're It! #43, Sincere Thanks

Today we begin a new challenge over at Tag, You're It! and Donna is the creative designer to CASE!  Before we begin, I want to say thank you for all the well wishes and prayers.  My shoulder is healing nicely from the surgery, and I should be back blogging in full-swing soon.

Donna gives us beautiful inspiration from nature, and here is my card:

 Here is Donna's wonderful creation, but you should check it out fully on her blog.

I love how Donna framed her sentiment, so I framed mine with the tag itself.  My flowers imitate her wheat, and I added a butterfly in yellow, but wanted to capture the red from her butterflies with a bit of splatter. 

The stamps are from PTI Flower Favorites, and Thank You Kindly, and the tag die is MFT Tag Builder Blue Prints 4.  I used the MISTI to stamp Distress Inks to create the flowers.  I used Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, and Milled Lavender.  The butterfly is Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade, and the splatters are Fired Brick.  I created a bit of a wash around the flowers with Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade.  The water color paper is from Tim Holtz, and the cardstock is PTI.  Baker's Twine is Recollections.

I hope you will join us over at Tag, You're It! this week.  I would love to see how you are inspired!
Thanks for coming over to visit, I hope you're having a great day!

Kara Lynne