Monday, April 30, 2012

Gina K Inspiration Blog Hop!

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop!!! Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through their blogs, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of deeply etched, pre-cut Gina K. Designs stamps! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a couple of days after the hops!!

I used Sweet Strawberries (by Theresa Momber) for my first card today:  


I just love Theresa's beautiful hand drawn strawberries so I had to use them for this card.  I stamped the main image with Memento ink and colored it with Copic Markers.  I traced around a Spellbinders circle die with a pencil and then cut it out with scissors but leaving the areas that had the stamped image.  I layered the circle on some patterned paper, added a ribbon and then I used a strip of patterned paper from Petals and Wings paper pack underneath.  I inked all edges with Tea dye distress ink and sewed around the edges of my card.  Finally, I stamped the birthday sentiment from the set and added some rhinestones.  

My second card features Vintage Notes (by Tami Mayberry)
 
I love Tami's clean graphic style.  This is a set I know I will use a lot!  For this card, I stamped the note on patterned paper and inked the edges.  I used two colors of brown ink to stamp the "Just a Note" sentiment over and over.  I used the number strip in the set to add some interest to the background.  I inked the numbers in Tea dye ink and then stamped off on some scrap paper before I stamped on the background. The result is just a hit of the numbers here and there.

Check out all the amazing designs and inspiration:
Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

All Star

Hello!  Just a quick card today using one of the Echo Park Mini Theme collections-- Grand Slam.  I love these smaller collections.  Since baseball season is here---I couldn't wait to tear into this collection.  What was originally going to be a mini album became a card...since we are still waiting to play our first game here -- too many rain-outs :(
 
 

Have a great Sunday! Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Twinery & SRM Stickers - Perfect together!

Hello! For two days,  The Twinery and SRM Stickers are teaming up to show you what you can do with their products.  You can check out the SRM stickers projects on the SRM blog and the list of designers for The Twinery hop are on The Twinery Blog.  


 


Of course, there are PRIZES up for grabs just for visiting the blogs on the hop:
The prize will be 3 full spools of winner's choice ($42 value)
To be eligible to win, you MUST leave a comment on each participating designer from The Twinery (16 total, 8 on Thursday and 8 on Friday)
A complete list of designers will be on The Twinery blog each day.
Deadline to leave comments is 11:59pm Sunday, April 29th

And be sure to stop by the SRM blog to be entered into their awesome giveaway, too!

Here are my projects:
 For my first project, I altered a wooden ornament I found at Jo Ann's.  I painted the ornament and added some patterned paper over the body.  I cut out a chipboard heart and added some Caribbean twine and a SRM sticker (Love) in the middle.  I added an SRM sticker border along the bottom of the ornament and then added a row of adhesive pearls.  To create her hair, I braided a section of Lemondrop baker's twine.

Supplies: wooden angel (Jo Ann's); acrylic paint- butter creme, blue, pink; stickers- Love, Thinking of You (SRM stickers); adhesive pearls and rhinestones- Recollections (Michael's); baker's twine- Caribbean, Pink Sorbet, Lemondrop (The Twinery); Patterned paper- Be Mine: Love Letters (Echo Park Paper).

My next project is a fun tube.  I wanted it to look like a rainbow coming from a cloud:
 
I used a SRM tube and filled it with m&ms in many different colors.  Then I added some baker's twine between each color--Denim, Mandarin, Lilac, Peapod, Lemondrop.  For the cloud, I separated the Shore twine piece and stitched through some the edges of the cloud.  I added a SRM sticker in the cloud.
  
Supplies: The Tube (SRM Stickers); sticker sentiment-Life is Good (SRM stickers); baker's twine-Denim, Lilac, Peapod, Shore, Lemondrop, Mandarin (The Twinery); cloud- Silhouette file (by Lori Whitlock); bird- element sticker- Hello Summer! (Echo Park Paper); m&ms.

Hope you enjoyed the project.  Don't forget to leave a comment on all the blogs along the hop to be entered into the giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Gift Set and Some Updates!


Hello! First of all...thanks so much for all the birthday wishes that were left here, on Facebook and in my email and mailbox yesterday.  I was so overwhelmed.  I really felt special!

Next,  I am sad to say that my design team term with Lori Whitlock AND with Helmar Inc. is up at the end of this month.  I decided not to reapply to either team because summer is quickly approaching and I will have the kids home and we have lots of fun things planned.  In the fall, all the kids will be in school all day so I am clinging to this time.   I am sad but I can say that I LOVED being part of both teams and, although I won't officially be on the teams, I will still be a big promoter/cheerleader of them.

Today is my last post for both teams.  You can see my Helmar post up on the Helmar Blog.  
Here is my Lori Whitlock project:

I just adore the little milk carton box that Lori created so I decided to use that to create a card and treat holder:

I used Note to Self Collection (Echo Park, designed by Lori Whitlock) on both:
Here is a close up of the treat holder.  I just love how quickly it came together.  THIS is such a fun/easy way to give some treats or buttons/ ribbons or a gift:
 

Special thanks to Lori Whitlock and Helmar for allowing me to be a part of your teams.  xoxo

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great one!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

SRM Wedding Ensemble

Hi there! Today I have a post up on the SRM blog :)  It's my birthday so you really should go check it out!  
Fine.....here it is:   I created a wedding set using SRM tubes and stickers:


 Here is the card:
I used the Swoon collection (Little Yellow Bicycle) on the bottom of the card.  I layered the SRM sticker on some cardstock and then matted it over a cardboard frame (LYB).  I added the ribbon pleated embellishment (LYB), some stick pins (LYB), the felt flower and a rub on.  The white SRM sentiment along the bottom was offset by some rhinestones.  I finished by inking all edges with Tea Dye Distress ink.

And here are the tubes, dressed in their finest attire:
 
For the tubes, I used two different Silhouette files.  The dress file was actually to make a dress box but I ended up altering it (excuse the pun!) to make it just a dress.  I cut it with my silhouette and then embossed it with the Textile embossing folder (Cuttlebug; Provocraft) and then sponged over the pattern with Antique Lined distress ink (Ranger) and then I added some pearls.  I cut the tux out using black, silver and white cardstock.  I rolled some Marachino baker's twine (The Twinery) to create a little rose boutonniere for the tuxedo.   I filled the tubes with some candies and then added some stickers along the bottom.

SRM products I used are: Skinny Tubes (#38004)
Stickers-
Say it with Stickers- Anniversary (#39029)
We've Got Your Sticker- Forever (#53008)

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a GREAT one!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Office Organization

Hello!  Hope you are enjoying your weekend.  I have been doing lots of office organization and thought I would share some pictures.  No matter what, I always find I need to re-organize and haul out old stuff every few months or I get totally swamped in my little office.

My husband gave me my birthday present a few days early this week and so I took it as the perfect opportunity to get cleaning!  He made me a peg board similar in concept to one I saw in Paper Crafts Practical Solutions for Paper Crafters. I asked him to make one that would go with my office and here is what he made:



 Cool, ugh?  It holds a TON of stuff.  I have so many rhinestones and embellishments on this thing so now I can see what I have and USE it!

I also bought this organizer from Michael's because it was 40% off this weekend and all the craft organizing stuff was also 40% off so everything was super cheap!  The kids helped me to sort buttons for two hours on Thursday night! Ha! They didn't last long but I finally finished.  I don't think I will be using a button for awhile. Kind of hate them at the moment :)

So...this is what I have been up to.  I will have some projects to share this week, I promise!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Rock Stars Cardmaker Hop

Today the Cardmaker Blog Team is having a Rock Stars blog hop.  We all designed cards inspired by a song.  Totally fun!  I had PLENTY of help picking my songs.  (My kids loved this and had great song ideas for me:)

In the end I picked songs, with their blessing, that are inspiring and fun (and had suitable lyrics!) and used them to create two cards.  (You can click the song titles to see the music videos for the songs.)

My first song is FIREWORK by Katy Perry:
I used the Skyline Border by My Favorite Things for this card and then used a fireworks silhouette file to create the fireworks.  (TIP: I cut the fireworks from the blue patterned paper and then peeled off some of the paper so that some of the offshoots were white.  I used a butter creme Copic marker to color it yellow to get two colors in the design.)  I added some red rhinestones in the center and some red paper behind the one building.  I adhered some more red patterned paper on the card base and some twine from The Twinery and finally a SRM sticker finish the design.

Supplies: white cardstock (Gina K Designs); patterned paper- Dots & Stripes: Ruby Red, Winter Park: Light Blue (Echo Park); Dienamics die- skyline border (My Favorite Things); Silhouette file- fireworks; rhinestones- Recollections, Michael's; baker's twine- Charcoal (The Twinery); tiny attacher stapler (Tim Holtz); SRM stickers- Life is Good; corner rounder punch (Creative Memories).

The second song that I chose was HONEY BEE by Blake Shelton:
Such a cute song --my oldest daughter loved  it first came out.  It was easy to make a card based on this one :)  I grabbed my favorite bear sets by The Cat's Pajamas for this card---Honey Bear and Happy Camper.  I stamped the images and colored them with Copic markers and cut them out.   I cut out the honeycomb paper from Jillibean Soup to place under the bear.  I cut one extra honeycomb out and adhered it on the top of the card and stamped the sentiment over it.  The finishing touch is some Lemondrop baker's twine from The Twinery.

Supplies: white cardstock (Gina K. Designs); Stamps- Honey Bear, Happy Camper (The Cat's Pajamas); patterned paper- Coordinating Atomic Soup paper (Jillibean Soup); memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; baker's twine-- Lemondrop (The Twinery); tiny attacher stapler (Tim Holtz); corner rounder punch (Creative Memories).

I cannot wait to check out the songs/cards by the rest of the team.  Here is the hop order:
Cardmaker blog
Kimberly Crawford
Carolyn King - You are here!
Colleen Schaan
Anya Schrier
Trudy Sjolander
Michelle Woerner

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A Mother's Love

Last week I had a post up on the Cardmaker blog talking about inspiration.   If you want to see the original post, you can find it here.

Here is the card that I created for the post.  It is intended for my daughter's 16th birthday that is coming up in May!


Supplies:  Cardstock- white, onyx (Gina K Designs); rub-on- Limited Edition Lady Silhouette (Jenni Bowlin); Patterned paper- Recollections, Michael’s; sentiment sticker- Fancy Sticker Sentiments- Love (SRM stickers); rhinestones- Recollections, Michael’s; corner rounder punch (Creative Memories); ribbon.

Stop back tomorrow for a fun Cardmaker blog team hop! Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Spring Cleaning #2 Winner

Hello! Just popping in real quick to post the winner of the Spring Cleaning #2 giveaway.  Random.Cara picked #18 as the lucky winner.  Congratulations to Linda who said...
"Wow! how generous of you!"
April 12, 2012 8:59 PM

Linda--Please email me your mailing address so I can get that package in the mail! (Email address is on sidebar.)

Thanks so much for playing along.  I am working on a bunch of things I cannot share right now.  I will be back soon with some crafty posts! Have a great day!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spring Cleaning #2-- Comment to Win LOTS of Dies!

Hello--I am continuing my spring cleaning and have some dies to give to a good home!

If you would like to be including into this drawing, please comment on this post and Random.Cara will pick a winner on Sunday, April 15 at 8 p.m. Eastern time.  As always, subscribers to this blog can post twice.

 

Included in this are the following gently-used dies:
*All will work in the Cuttlebug (Provocraft)
Provocraft labels dies
Cuttlebug Decorative Hearts Embossing folders
Spellbinders Flowers Impressabilities
QuicKutz Frame die
Spellbinders Hardware Buckles
Spellbinders Piercerabilities Fancy Scalloped Border
Spellbinders Piercerabilities Pinking Border
Spellbinders Daisy Heads 

Good luck!!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

You're the Best!

Good morning!  Today I have a quick SRM stickers card to share:
 

Supplies: Stamps- Dot Spot (Papertrey); ink- Cat's Eye Archival dye ink pads (Color Box); Sticker sentiment- Congratulations (SRM Stickers); baker's twine- Lemondrop (The Twinery); Paper- A Boy's Life: Teal/Yellow, Playtime (Echo Park)

I cut the card from white cardstock and added the strip of patterned paper along the bottom.  I cut three squares from white cardstock and cut the fourth from patterned paper.  I stamped the design in each square and for the last, I added a SRM sticker to white cardstock, trimmed it and mounted it on the yellow.  I adhered all the squares to a piece of blue patterned paper and then tied some Lemondrop baker's twine (The Twinery) to the bottom before adding it to the card.

Thanks for stopping by! You're the Best!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Makin a List

Hello! Hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend!  We are still recovering from all the family fun!
Today I have a little notepad to share.  I created this using half of a Jr. legal pad and the adorable heart owl by Lori Whitlock that I cut using my Silhouette (you can find it in the Silhouette store):
 Here is a close up of the owl.  (He's my favorite!) 
I used some  Peapod and Blossom baker's twine (The Twinery) to add some fun texture to it.  
I made this for a friend's birthday.  I love little notepads like this because I am a list maker. You can put magnets on the back of it and use it as a grocery list or put it by your bed or on your desk to jot down important things you don't want to forget. So I think they make pretty practical gifts.

Speaking of lists---->  I am blogging today over at SRM Stickers and the Cardmaker Blog.
Click on the links if you want to take a peek! Thanks!!

Hope you have a great day! Off to tackle 37 loads of dirty laundry. Jealous?
Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Lori Whitlock Hop Winner

Hello! Happy Good Friday. I am just popping on here today to announce the winner of the $5 gift certificate to Lori Whitlock's store.    Random.Cara picked #11 as the winner. Congrats to Ashley Cook who said...
"Cute basket."
April 4, 2012 10:25 AM

Ashley, please email me (email on sidebar) for your redemption code!

Have a wonderful weekend.  I am off to spend Easter break with my family. 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Lori Whitlock Spring Blog Hop


Hello! Welcome to the Lori Whitlock Spring Blog Hop.  The team has prepared lots of Spring projects for you today using Lori's amazing files.  In addition, we each have a $5 gift card to give away to Lori's store so be sure to visit all the stops along the way for more chances to win.

Blog hop order:
Carolyn

And be sure to check out the free shape available on Lori's blog today:
Here is my Spring-themed project.  I used Lori's Easter Basket for this and added the little Easter bunny (3 Easter bunny rabbits available on Silhouette online store) to create a tag for the basket:
If you look at the picture of this basket on Lori's site, you will notice that the sides are folded down.  Instead of folding them down, I left the edges up and covered the sides with patterned paper. 

I made the bunny file a lot smaller and cut it out using white, pink and Kraft cardstock.  I used some twine (The Twinery) for the bunny's whiskers and added a sentiment sticker (SRM stickers) and a ruffled ribbon around the neck.
 

Want to win these files for FREE------?  If you would like to be entered to win the $5 gift card to Lori's store, just leave a comment on this post by Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern time.  I will post the winner on Friday. Good luck!


 
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Congrats!!!!!

Huge congratulations to the newest members of the Cardmaker Blog Team!  You can check out the announcement ----> HERE!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Happy Happy Joy Joy challenge

Hello there! Just popping in with my take on the Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Happy Happy Joy Joy!  Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my take on it:
 
This card came together in minutes.  I cut the Silhouette background (Rivka Wilkins) from yellow paper and then stamped the sentiment in pumpkin ink.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches: Sentiment Sampler. 

I added the multicolor strip of paper to get more colors in there and then used my Tiny attacher to add some mini staples to the side.
That's it. Easy mailer! :)

Thanks for taking a peek!

Nice tail :)

Since Easter is right around the corner, thought I would share this easy little stuffed animal bunny I made using some fabric, felt, ribbon and baker's twine scraps :) 
 .......and here is his tail :) Cute, ugh?
 Happy April 1st! Thanks for stopping by!