Blessings to You!

This is another Christmas creation I sent out to family and friends this year.  I wanted to use the scraps I had left over from the other cards I created so this card is an original- one and only.  I usually make 10 to 12 of each design and make one extra -original with the leftover scraps...

 I just love the teal and the red together!  One of my favorite color combos this year!!!

Gotta add a litte ribbon, twine and Stickles too!!! ")

I'll be back again tomorrow to close out my 2012 Christmas Card Collection Review!  Hope you stop back and take a peek!

Kerry

For Unto You a Child is Born...

Here's another Christmas card created to send out to friends and family this year.  I created the "North Star" myself to go with the sentiment image.  The sentiment is from an older TAC ( now through Red Rubber Designs) set.   

I remember when there was a scrapbooking craze at TAC and I was so frustrated with the lack of "card maker images" in the catalog.  I'm SO happy I DID purchase some of those "Scrapbooker" images because they are just my kind of cardmaking images right now.  How things change!  

 I'll be back again tomorrow to share another Christmas card creation...Stay tuned!

Christmas wishes...

Here's one of the card designs I created to send out to family and friends this year.  I was reminiscing this year and pulled out lots of older stamp sets that have been sitting on the shelves.  So sad when I think of all the older sets that are pushed aside to make way for newer designs...

 The stamps used for this card originally came from TAC.  When TAC closed and sold most/all products to Red Rubber Designs, I hoped this set would resurface there.  I can't find them there yet, but I'm sure eventually, they'll hit their store shelves.  If you like these sets, keep your eyes peeled!

Blessings!

I'll be back tomorrow to share another Christmas card creation made for family and friends.

Apple of my Eye...

Hey stamping friends!  I just wanted to pop in before July ends to post this adorable little card.  I created it for a Paper Crafts Call over a year ago and it wasn't picked up.  Time passed and I kept forgetting to post it here on my blog.  This card was one of my favorites and I was disappointed that it didn't get the pick-up.  Maybe they knew something about TAC closing before I did.  HA!  

Yep, it's a MabelleRO set that was given to designers at convention last year.  This set is also available in digi form through Mabelle's etsy store HERE.  


Here are the details:  
Stamps:  TAC R2056 Apple of My Eye
Paper:  TAC Designer Collection paper, The Paper Company Kraft and Light blue, White card base DCWV, Copic Xpress-it Card
Inkssentials/Ranger Glossy Accents
Pop Dots

Offray red ribbon

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics:  Bear:  W00, 1, 3, 5; E02, 50  Bow and Dots:  R22; E93  Dress B00, 02  Pie:  E00, 21, 33,  35  Apple:  R22, 17, 93; YG06; G7, E57

Busy week...

This week has been pretty busy...crafty busy and a little extra work for the school system evaluating some lesson plans in the foreign language department to see how well they aligned with curriculum and state standards...I thought I'd pop on to post some of my crafty creations for this week as well as remind you of two things:

My color challenge will end soon so make sure to post a link to your creation before Monday when I will be asking inlinks to select a winner...

I'll will be participating in the Christmas All Year Long Blog hop for Magnolia-Licious again this month, please stop by on Sunday and check out my Christmas Maggie...I LOVE it...and hope you will too.

OK, so back to showing you my creations for this week:

The first few projects were created for a couple ATC swaps I'm participating in at the Stamp Shack. I used to create tons of swap ATCs but these days, I usually create an ATC to attach to a card I'm making. I don't swap them much anymore. I thought I would participate in a few more just for the fun of it...Anyway, here they are:

This swap ATC was created for the "Christmas in July" swap. I used my copics of course!

I used three stamp sets for this card. A Heidi Swap set, The penguins are from a set by MSE (I think) and the sentiment is from TAC. Added some ribbon from Ribbons and Bows Oh My!, a MS snowflake punch, Fiskars Threading water punch, and a little button from some shop at the GASC convention...I need to figure out who they were because I WILL definitely be ordering more buttons from them.

The next set of 10 ATC's were made for the "Try a new Coloring Technique" challenge. I saw this video a few months back where the person was painting with Liquid Pearls and thought it was an awesome way to use the medium in a non-traditional way. I knew this was the technique I was going to use for this swap so I had to hunt for a great stamp set that would allow me to display the technique...SO I pulled out my Fiskars Cupcake set that I hadn't used yet and whipped up some images, colored them with my copics then used Liquid Pearls like a watercolor wash over the top...WOW...It reminded me of Perfect Pearls or the Opalite Ink I used to use long ago, but oh how easy!!! This technique is a keeper! I added the traditional Liquid Pearl Drops to the edge to give the viewer two ways to see how this medium can be used...in it's traditional form, or as a watercolor wash...NEAT!

So, you may be wondering why I haven't posted a sample or a creation to my own color challenge right??? Well, I haven't been slacking, no, I decided to use the colors in the challenge on another project...The Thinking Inking classes I've been refreshing myself with on Twopeasinabucket. This weeks episodes challenged me to take out my acrylic paint, clear embossing powder and paper and create some lucious backgrounds...Here's what I created:

Isn't it just elegant? I loved how it turned out and didn't want to cover up the background with other stuff so I kept the tag pretty plain other than to layer with all the colors in the color challenge, add a little ribbon and a colored flower, and then to top it all off, added a little spritz of dazzle with my Shimmerz...love the sparkle! Here are the other sample swatches I created and you'll find one show up this Sunday in my Christmas Card Post!!!

Watch for a photo journaling in the next few weeks of this technique....I took step by step photos for my art journal.

Flowers for YOU!

This is for all the MOMS out there...Love, Your kids!

Sorry, no copic list, I was just pulling and coloring to match the card base (found in dollar section of TARGET last year). The little girl image is one of my favorite coloring sets from TAC (The Angel Company).

I can give a little plug for the "white dots" you see...I have wondered how the COPIC White OPAQUE paint works and YUM! I love it. I just applied it with the tip of a pin. I purchased it from HERE and it's on order again so you'll have to wait if you want some! Here's a picture of how it is packaged.



Kerry

Purple Passion

Here's another card I worked on over the weekend. The image was colored a few weeks ago. I tend to dislike purples except for the hydrangea (bluish) purples so this was a bit of a stretch for me. I think the colors (even the purples) are still in my safety zone though.
At the moment, I'm infatuated with Martha Stewart's Three Hydrangea punch and seem to use it on almost every card. Oh yes, I do have oodles and oodles of Prima Flowers, but for some reason or another, I just don't seem to grab them.

Hope you enjoy it!
Here are the details for the card:

Magnolia Image: Tilda With Flowing Hair

Sentiment: TAC

Patterned Paper: I'll get back to you (It's an old pattern from Michael's)

MS Three Hydrangeas Punch

Spellbinders Nesties: Oval, oval scallops (in my cuttlebug)

Quickcutz Tag

White Floss: Karen Foster

Solid Paper: Olive, pink and lavender: The Paper Company, shredded paper bag, Bazzill (bamboo color)

Making Memories Brads

Diamond Stickles

MS punch and Silk ribbon from Michaels

Acrylic Paint (the dots)

Copics Used:

• Hair: E13, 15, 51, 77, YR 24
• Dress/Flowers N0, 2, 4, BV000, 02, V04, 12
• Shoes: B39, C5, 7
• Basket: E11, 15, 31, 33, 37, YR 24
• Skin: E000, E01
• White Pen: Inkssentials
• I also used a dry Versafine Onyx pad to distress the whole thing up a bit.

Yummy Colors!

Yipee! I finished another Stamp Shack Challenge...This time I did it before the deadline! Boy, since the flu bug is everywhere but my house, I'm kooped up trying to find things to do other than planning and schoolwork. It's been nice, but I hope my family gets better soon!

Here's the photo that inspired the colors for this challenge:

Don't you just love the colors? Better yet, LOVE the whole bedding set. Hmmm...I'd better ask the challenge host where I can purchase that bedding set! Anyway, I tried to pull all the colors from the photo as well as mimic the fillagree design on the comforter. My TAC set I don't use much worked perfectly for this card.

So, I'll be back later with another challenge creation: My SHACK Survivor card. I bet I'll be voted off quickly, but I had an idea and wanted to go with it...

Kerry

Ready, Set, Sketch...Stamp Shack Monochromatic Color Challenge

This week's challenge over at the Stamp Shack was a Monochromatic Color Challenge hosted by Jennfer aka inkinupstamps. I decided to use the color RED and forced myself NOT to make a Christmas Card! I drew a quick card sketch and got to work. I love my Flip so much (it sits right above my workspace) that I had to video tape it too.

So here's the final product...I kept true to the monochromatic color scheme this time. WOO HOO!!! Thanks Jennifer for a FUN and CHALLENGING challenge.

If you would like to give the sketch a try, please do. I'd love to see what you make with it so make sure you come back here and add a link to your creation in my comment section.

The video is live now...


Bye for now...I've got some painting to do in my new Craft Space. Oh, did I mention I'm relocating my craft space to my downstairs area? I've torn up the carpet, will be applying laminate flooring and will be adding cabinetry. I'm doing this because I need to reclaim my spare bedroom. Goodness, I never have any guests over because there is no place for them to sleep!!!

K:)

I'm baaaaack!

My Florida vacation is over and I'm back home to spend the rest of my summer relaxing. Whew...A two week vacation is so relaxing and fun. I think it'll become a yearly tradition for me. I did take a few photos of the beach on the evening of July 4, but darn, I didn't take a picture of the beach during the day. I was scared to bring my camera to the beach because I thought it would get sand on the lens or get salty water inside. Anyway, I did take a few mini videos while I was there so I'll have to post one later. The water was really pretty!

I don't think I went through any stamping withdrawal while I was gone but did think of it a few times. I came home to a box of goodies from my TAC demo Chelsea so I had to get to my room and make her a thank you card. Here it is:

Looks like Christmas to me but acutally, it's not. Chelsea was so nice and sent me a new catalog and lots of empty clamshell boxes. I store all my wood mounted stamps in clamshell boxes and I really needed some more. That was one of the perks I had as a demo...LOTS of clamshells after putting my TAC stamps into CD cases. Well, I was totally out of the perfect sized ones and Chelsea rescued me! Any time you have some extra ones, please think of me...I need about 100 more! LOL.

I'll be back later with more GOOD STUFF I got the day I was heading out on vacation (and was really wanting to get them inky).

K

I've been busy working on a challenge over at Papercraftplanet and wanted to post my final product here today. I was really excited to see the group Copic Colour Challenge. You can see the link to the blog on my sidebar. WOW! SO fun to have a challenge once a week to use three specific colors. It's neat too because you can use any stamps you want and even if you don't have one of the colors posted, you can improvise. I may not need to do a lot of that since I have quite a big selection, but I know there will be a time when I will! Anyway, here's the card and the colors for this week.

Aren't the colors yummy? They are R85, Y19 and BG05. They scream SUMMER don't you think? I finally got a chance to pull out one of my new TAC sets to play with. Yes, I could have used this little girl long ago but gee, these colors were just screaming her name.

I also used the plaid background stamp by TAC for this card. I stamped it with Versamagic and then sprinkled it with iridescent embossing powder to give it some shimmer.

I think I'll send this card to a friend who moved away because the little girl reminds me of her little daughter, Ella. She's an awesome teacher in South Carolina who won the SC teacher of the year award this year. I miss working with her and just spending some time with her having a beer or a margarita.

I see her posts on facebook all the time and am always jealous that she's having fun with her friends in SC. Boy, I wish I could head down there and join them. Maybe someday. Instead, I just sit in my house and craft, craft, craft.

I wonder what the color challenge will be next week? I'll be offline for two weeks after that as I'll be vacationing in Florida, so I hope it's a combination I really have so I can get right to work. Maybe I'll make two other cards with my own color combos, and get them ready to post while I'm gone...

Gotta go for now, I've gotta go to bed so I can get to my class in the morning!
Ker