I Chews You

Early in January the fabulous Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps held a challenge at their blog for a chance to be a guest designer for the month of March. From the participants they selected their top 10, of which I am super excited to be in. There were so many fabulous entries, I am sure it was a tough decision for the team at Kraftin' Kimmie.

You can view my initial entry for the challenge here.

The top 10 now has a round two challenge and our theme is KIM LOVES PINK!

This is my second submission for round two of the Krafty Guest Challenge. I was very excited about using the Kraftin' Kimmie Moonlight Whispers stamp called "Bambi Bubblegum". Isn't she just fabulous. This was such a fun image to colour. The paper for my card was Carta Bella "True Friends", the pink background paper is from an Amy Tangerine collection from my stash. I really loved the brick print. All the paper is distressed with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink.

Bambi is coloured with Copic markers. To add a bit of bling (tied in from our first challenge), I used my Zig two-way glue pen to cover the hat with glue. I then sprinkled my favourite Glitter Ritz white micro fine glitter. I really do love the look this glitter gives to my images. I also added a bit of glitter to the buckle of her belt.

Inside the card I added more of the brick pattered paper and stamped a fun sentiment from Your Next Stamp's "Whatnot Sentiments One".

Inside

I wish all of my fellow top 10 participants in the Kraftin' Kimmie "Krafty Guest" contest all the best. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest card. Happy crafting.

Challenge:
Kraftin' Kimmie: 10 Ten Round two "KIM LOVES PINK" challenge.
Two Scrapbook Friends: January Crafty Challenge "Distressing" (all of my paper is distressed)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes with Twine or String
4 Crafty Chicks: Anything Goes

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 222 - Child's Play

Yeah it's Wednesday and that means another fun challenge over at Little Red Wagon.

This is a very exciting moment for me, as this is my first time hosting a challenge with Little Red Wagon.  I'm glad you can't tell how nervous I am. My first challenge is called "CHILD'S PLAY" and I would like to see projects that are for a child. Birthday card, Valentine's, Easter, or just because, any occasion is fine! New baby, toddler or even teenager, they all work! This week is all about the kids!

January has been a very busy month for my girls and birthday parties. I have spent nearly every weekend running one or the other, and sometimes both of them to parties for their friends (usually on opposite ends of the city, with overlapping times). So of course my card for this week is a birthday card.

Since I am quite tired of what seems like a mountain of snow outside of my house, I wanted to have a card that really had me dreaming of warmer weather. For that I turned to one of my new Kraftin' Kimmie stamps called Summer Swingin! The paper is Little Yellow Bicycle "Hello Spring!"

Of course this isn't just any card.  I decided to have a bit of fun and made an easel card.

Card base is 11" x 4.25 (scored at 2.75" and 5.5"). The card front is 4.25" x 5.5"

The image is coloured with Copic markers. I also re-stamped the image on the pink background paper so when I fussy cut the Copic image, you can still see some of the detailed swirls underneath.

The inside sentiment is from Stampendous "Birthday Wish". The bottom portion of the card is raised up to support the card front. I die cut the flowers from pattern paper using My Favourite Things Layers Rose. I ran the pink flower through my Xyron and sprinkled it with Glitter Ritz fine white glitter. The Sweetest Wishes sentiment is from Tiddly inks set "Sweets for My Sweet".

Inside

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will play along with this week's "Child's Play" challenge. Just pop over to Little Red Wagon to link up your creations and remember to check out what "childish" projects the other Girlfriends have created this week.

Kraftin' Kimmie

Top Ten Finalist - Krafty Guest Contest

I am super exited to have been selected as a top 10 finalist over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Challenge blog for a chance to be a Krafty Guest. The top 10 are now entering round two and our challenge for the next week is KIM LOVES PINK!!! Well guess what, I love pink too. This is my first card for the round two challenge.

Challenges
Shopping Our Stash: # 136 Cabin Fever (Spring papers and summer themed image)
Cute Card Thursday: # 305 So Sweet! (I think the image is super Sweet!)
Through The Craft Room Door: Jan 27 - Feb 4 Anything Goes

Have a crafty day!

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 221 - Keep It Clean and Simple

Hey everyone, it's Wednesday and that means another fun challenge over at Little Red Wagon.

For this week's challenge Joanne is asking for us to keep it Clean & Simple (CAS)! What exactly does that mean? Well to those of us that tend to be a bit "CAS challenged", it means we panic a little........okay a lot! What it really means is cutting back on the layers (a few layers anyway). It's a card that is not busy or cluttered and has more "white" space. 

For my card I wanted to play around with the chalkboard look. I recently used this technique on a sign for my daughter's upcoming "Art" party and I really loved how it turned out. So, although my card is "clean" with lots of open space (black in my case), it was not so clean in the literal sense. I did have quite the mess of embossing powder covering my workspace.

Using one of the clear stamps from Tiddly Inks called "Sweets for my Sweet" I stamped the image and sentiment on black card stock using Versa Mark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

My initial card, was just the black and white layered with the pink card stock and the twine (American Crafts), however the card seemed too plain. I decided more colour would really finish this card, so the experimenting began. I tried a few different ways to bring colour to my card which included: heat embossing coloured powders on the black and on white card stock, on coloured paper, colouring the image with Copics, and finally using ink.

I guess with all of my experimentation, the "simple" of the CAS may have gone out the window. Oh well, it was fun (messy) and I now know which technique I like best.

I heat embossed white powder onto white cards stock and then applied Distress Ink (squeezed lemonade, picked raspberry, salty ocean, shaded lilac and spiced marmalade) directly to the embossed image (no applicator tool). The embossing resists the inks. I cut out the newly coloured lollipop and letters and paper pieced them to my chalkboard image. Just a few layers, but still CAS.

To finish the inside of my card, I added my sentiment; this one is from Hero Arts (CL351 Friends) and I re-stamped the cute image of Wryn and her lollipop.

Inside

Please stop on over to Little Red Wagon and check out what the super talented Girlfriends have created for this weeks challenge. We would love for your to show us your clean and simple style and play along with this weeks challenge. Thank you for stopping by to check out my creation. I hope you will come back soon!

Challenges:

CAS-Friday: CFC126 Colour Blocks
Papertake Weekly Challenge: Bow and/or Dies
Through The Craft Room Door: January 21-27 Anything goes
Cute Card Thursday: #304 Warm it up (the pop of colour reminds me of spring/summer)

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 220 - Inspired by Orchid

It's Wednesday and that means a new challenge at:

This week Rosanne is dishing out the challenge at Little Red Wagon and she would like us to draw our inspiration from Pantone's Colour of the year, which is Radiant Orchid.

Here is a photo to help inspire you:

I was excited about this challenge. I mean it's purple. I love purple, I have two little girls and purple definitely makes their top 3 favourite colours. So easy challenge to complete right? Right?

Well let see. I dug deep into my pattern papers and went through a lot of my stash which is apparently lacking severely in the colour purple. What is a girl to do? I had to rethink my approach a bit. I have been challenging myself to try more clean and simple. Maybe make a few cards without a stamped and coloured image on them (not sure that will happen often). Okay so now I am ready for the CAS, no stamped/coloured image, orchid card challenge!

I dug into my card stock stash for my purples and found a few lovely shades that work well together. They could pass for orchid right? I also had a very small bit of purple pattern paper from an older Echo Park Winter line called Winter Wishes, which I recently used on a layout (here).

I used one of the My Favorite Things "Happy Hellos" die-namic to create my simple sentiment on the front of the card. Below I placed my pattern paper.

I ran a bit of American Crafts twine around my top layer, which is attached to the card with dimensional adhesive.

A closer look at the hello.

No inside shots for today's card. Sorry. My camera was acting a bit finicky and I was having trouble getting decent picture of this card (I'm still learning).

I hope you are inspired by Radiant Orchid or any shade of purple you have in your stash and play along with us for this week's challenge. Link up your project over at Little Red Wagon and be sure to check out what the other Girlfriends created using this fabulous colour!

Have  a crafty day!

Tracy

Create My Amazing Moment

I am very excited about what this year is going to hold with respect to my world of crafting. I love to create. To colour, design, getting crafty and get messy. I love to challenge myself and most of all have fun. My card making is a great release, especially after a long, busy and stressful day at work (of which there seems a lot). My crafting time is my stress break and it's done most of the time in the few hours I have after the kids are settled and my own bedtime.

This year I have made a commitment to myself to have more me time. I also would like to try and participate in some card and/or scrapbook crops/classes and take the opportunity to connect and learn from others with similar interests .  I look forward to the new connections that I will make this year.

CAS-ual Fridays has a great challenge on right now that was a great opportunity to sum up my personal crafty goal!

The challenge is to choose a word that describes what you hope for the new year. Mine is more than a word, but I think it sums up my goals well. "Create My Amazing Moment"! This is a card that I am giving to myself! I don't often get handmade cards, so this is one I am going to keep on display for the year.

To help with my personal declaration I used a new stamp I picked up from Tiddly Inks called "For the Birds". This is the clear stamp set, which I coloured with my Copics, then stamped the letters to spell "create".

The sentiment is from a stamp that came in one of my previously received Studio Calico card kits (I don't remember which one). I added the "My" to make it personal.

Inside I added the other sentiment from that same Studio Calico set and added additional Tiddly Ink "For the Birds" images. They are so cute. I may add a sentiment to that sign, if I ever decide to pass this card along, or I will record a message or list to myself of important things to remember for the year.

I haven't done a lot of CAS type cards. However I must say the last few that I have done, I am loving a lot.

Challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC 125 In a Word

Tiddly Inks Challenge: #124 Clean and Simple

I wish all the best to every as they face their resolutions or crafty challenges. Thanks for taking a peek my crafty creation.

Have a great day!

Tracy

HB2U

This is only January and I have already completed 4 birthday cards for upcoming parties my kids have been invited to attend. I can only imagine what the rest of the year will bring for my social little girls.

For this birthday card, I am using another cute digital image from Sassy Cheryl called "Let's Party". This image worked so well with the super fun and bright paper from the We R Memory Keepers Hip Hip Hooray collection. I just bought this collection and it has quickly become a birthday card go to.

For the tiny present, I simple folded a smaller bit of pattern paper and wrapped the "gift" with twine. The tiny HB2U is from MFT "It's a Sign".

The image is coloured with Copic markers. I also applied a bit of Glitter Ritz fine white glitter to her party hat and the trim of her dress. I think most of my cards recently have had glitter applied somewhere. What can I say I love it. I really like that you can still see the colour through the white glitter, so I don't have to worry about trying to match up my colours. Just colour and add glitter.

Of course my card it not complete without a decorated inside. The inside sentiment is from Stampendous "Birthday Wishes" and the cupcake which was coloured with Gelatos (applied with my finger) is The Paper Company "Cupcakes".

The layout was based on this fabulous sketch by Karen Giron from The Sweetest Thing. I would also like to give a shout out to Karen as the creator of my super cute watermark. She has a fabulous selection at her blog for purchase. You can find a link to her watermark gallery in the side bar of her blog.

Challenges:

• Sassy Cheryl: #199 Winter Blues (there is no winter on my card, but plenty of blue! Besides who doesn't love a party to chase away the thought of snow and cold.
• The Sweetest Thing: # 202 Sketch
• 4 Crafty Chicks: #176 bows (the little bow around my tiny present)
• Through The Craft Room Door: January 14 - 20 Anything goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: New Year, New Stash (my new is the image. It was a recent purchase - a gift to myself as most of my craft stuff is. This is the first time I have used this digi).

Have a crafty day and thanks for taking a peek at my latest birthday card!

Tracy

Picture Perfect Birthday

For the past week I have been in creative mode - with a focus on birthdays. Specifically kids birthdays. In addition to my own daughter who has a birthday fast approaching next week (for which I still have a HUGE to do list). My kids have a rather active social schedule over the next few weekends that includes a number of birthday parties to attend.

For the first birthday card, I have I dipped into my stash of My Favorite Things stamps. I decided on a stamp that I wouldn't think is generally used for birthdays. I have had the "Picture Perfect" stamp for a while and haven't used it, so I decided to see what I could do to make it more birthday suitable.

For this card I used the latest sketch from My Favorite Things. I stuck pretty close to the sketch for my card.

I paired the MFT's image with paper and albums made easy cards from We R Memory Keepers Hip Hip Hooray collection. I love the bright colours. I used my Spellbinders Nestabilities circles and scalloped circles and the My Favorite Things "Cute Camera" to which I added the HB2U message (heat embossed with white embossing powder).

The image is coloured with Copic markers. I also added a bit of Glitter Ritz micro fine white glitter around the frame for a bit if shimmer. The image was cut out and added to the card with dimensional adhesive.

Inside the card I added the "Little Shutterbug" image from  My Favorite Things image and included a  sentiment from this set, which I altered. I covered up the word "day" from the sentiment and then added "birthday".

I think I could say this was a successful repurpose of a non-birthday stamp!

Challenges
My Favorite Things: Stamp and Win with Sketch 158
Simon Says Monday Challenge: Anything Goes

Happy Monday everyone!

Tracy

Artist Party Invitations

This year for my youngest daughter wants to paint for her birthday. She is definitely a crafty girl in the making. For her party invitations, I dug into my Cricut cartridge stash to see what I had that was art themed.

Using the Cricut Lite cartridge called "Recess", I was able to cut out an the image of the paint brush and paper.

The paint palettes I hand made. The one on the cartridge didn't work for us. I found a simple clip art image of a paint palette and cut it out, then traced it onto card stock. I used a regular hole punch and backed with different coloured paper for our paint look.

The "party" was cut from the Cricut Calendar cartridge.

My daughter created the background by flicking different paints onto watercolour paper. She was very particular about keeping to the colours showing in the paint palette. She was covered with paint in the end, but had a lot of fun helping with the invitations.

Some of the images on the Critcut Lite Recess cartridge.

Thanks for taking a look!

Tracy

Love Potion # 9

I was very excited to see that Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps is currently hosting a challenge for Krafty Guests. I adore Kraftin' Kimmie's stamps and my collection of their fabulous stamps continues to grow. Check out the challenge blog for details on the Krafty Guest Contest.

For my challenge submission I used one of the Moonlight Whispers stamps called Josephine. I decided this image would make a fun Valentine's card.

I was able to use a number of scraps to create a patchwork look on my card. I tried to stick to colours I used in her dress, however I did miss adding a bit of green (oops).

One of the requests for the challenge was to add sparkle. Just like the Krafty Girls, I love bling. I added a few small gems to the scalloped paper and there is glitter added to my image.

My close up came out a bit dark (I'm still working on my photography). I added Glitter Ritz Micro fine glitter to her dress and to parts the "love" fumes coming out of the bottle. It's hard to see in the picture.

Inside the card I added a sentiment from the Lawn Fawn "Future is Bright" stamp set. I repeated the love potion image and added some paper that I used on the front of the card.

The inspiration for the layout came from this fun sketch from Seize the Sketch. 

Challenges:
Kraftin' Kimmie: Krafty Guest Contest
Seize The Sketch: #11 with Kraftin' Kimmie

Thanks for having a look at my newest card. Have a crafty day!

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 219 - All Purpose Cards

Hello everyone, it's time for another fun challenge over at Little Red Wagon.

This week Jan has set the challenge and she is looking for an "All Purpose" card. That would be a card which is not for any specific occasion or reason...... you know a just because type of card.

Since we are currently facing a mountain of snow, ice and more snow, I am still inspired (just a bit) to create winter themed cards. My card is a to let someone special know I am thinking of them!

I used a Sassy Cheryl digital image from the "It Takes One to Know One" set. The set comes with 3 fun images, including this one "Lucy Lou Princess on Ice". The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set (Everyday Sayings CL342) and it works perfectly on this card. I am sure many of us would love some warm wishes coming our way. Anything to take our minds off the snow, cold, ice, shovelling, snow days..........etc.

I inked the edges of the patterned paper with white pigment ink. The Maya Road chipboard snowflake was painted with Brushed Pewter Distress paint. Once it was dry I ran it through my Xyron machine adding adhesive to the painted side. I then sprinkled the snowflake with Glitter Ritz fine white glitter.

The paper used on this card includes: Pink Paislee "Hello Kid", Echo Park "Bundle of Joy" Dots & Stripes and Amy Tangerine (not sure on the collection - the orange paper).

I coloured the image with Copics. On her muff I added Our Craft Lounge "Sugar" Sparkly Fluff. I also added more glitter to the bottom of the image to give it a snowy/icy feel. More sparkle and dimension to the card......I love glitter.

The inside sentiment is from Hero Arts Friends (CL351) set. The layout for the card is based on a sketch from I {heart} Sketches 001.

It's always great to have those "Just Because" cards in your stash, just in case! So head on over to Little Red Wagon and have a peek at the inspirational projects the other Girlfriends have created. I hope you will join us for this fabulous challenge and be sure to link up your project over at Little Red Wagon!

Happy creating!



Challenges:

• Sassy Cheryl: # 198 Anything Goes
• Shopping Our Sash: # 133 Use Something new (the image is one I haven't used before, the Pink Paislee "Hello Kid", Echo Park "Bundle of Joy" Dots & Stripes and Maya road chipboard are also new)
• Through the Craft Room Door: Jan 7. to 13 Anything Goes
• Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes
• One Crazy Stamper: January Anything Goes
• Curtain Call: Smitten (my inspiration from the photo came from the colours which I love. As for what I am smitten with at this time of year, it would warm fleecy sweater, ice skating with the family and a nice warm hot chocolate after........and right now I am not so smitten with the recent dumping of snow we have received!)

Tracy

Perk Me Up!

The snow is really coming down and a great excuse to grab a coffee and do a bit of crafting.  I managed to get a number of cards finished, including some that are a bit more clean and simple. If you look through my cards you will see CAS is not my general style and these cards tend to take me longer than ones with layers.

I really don't know what it is about the CAS that stumps me most of the time. I always feel the need to fill all that white space with something. I figure with a bit of practice I will get better, so that is going to be my challenge to myself for this year, more CAS!

For this card I used a fun stamp set called "Latte Love" by Fiskars. The images are small and good for a simple card. 

I added simple layers to the background and on my cup with paper piecing. The sentiment is from Your Next Stamps "Hot Stuff Mugs".

Inside the card the I re-stamped the coffee cup and added a sentiment from the Latte Love set.

Supplies
Stamps: Fiskars "Latte Love", Your Next Stamp "Hot Stuff Mugs"
Paper: Kaiser Craft "Utopia Collection", kraft card stock
Card: DCWV card base (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)

Challenges:

Allsorts Challenge: # 240 Free & Easy (free of clutter and relatively quick and easy to make)
Cute Card Thursday: #302 Banish the Blue (a little coffee/latte/hot chocolate perk to kick away those holiday blues......although I am a bit blue that my Starbuck Gingerbread latte is now gone for the season)
Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
One Crazy Stamper: Anything goes
Shopping Our Stash: #132 Use the Last of something (my supply of Kraft card stock and the blue card base I made 2 coffee themed cards and this beautiful blue base is now use up from the set DCWV "brights" set.

Stay warm with your favourite beverage and happy crafting.

Tracy

Little Red Wagon # 218 - New Beginnings

Happy New Year! Wow what a year we just had. It seem to fly by me in a flash. 

This week over at Little Red Wagon Jayne's first challenge of 2014 is all about New Beginnings. For this challenge Jayne is looking for anything related to New! Be it related to New Year, a new baby, job, house or even consider new tools, paper, embellishments, stamps etc. just make it about something NEW!

This is a very appropriate challenge for me, as I am starting a new adventure with my crafting and blogging. I am excited to be joining the very talented Girlfriends at Little Red Wagon as part of the design team.

For my card I have a lot of NEW elements. The card is for a new job and I made it using mostly new products.

The digital image from Whimsie Doodles (newly acquired) is called "Cafe Lizzie". The sentiment I created on the computer. The paper is from Simple Stories Daily Grind 6x6 paper pad (new to my stash).

The image is coloured with Copic markers (no new ones) and I used my 1/2" circle punch for the tiny label on the coffee cup. I thought it was quite appropriate!

Head over to Little Red Wagon and join the new challenge. Be sure to also check out all the new projects the Girlfriends on the DT created.

Have a crafty 2014.

Tracy