You Warm My Heart

Well the snow kept coming this weekend and I stayed indoors and worked on cards. I was able to complete 5 this weekend. That may not sound like a lot however with colouring, planning and other everyday family things this was a successful crafty weekend.

My first card to showcase was made using a stamp from Your Next Stamp called Ellie Love Cocoa. I paired the image up with some older papers in my stash from a Michaels Recollections set called "Blue Christmas".

This card was perfect for this weekend as the girls and I enjoyed a few cups. Them after playing in the snow and me......well..... just because!

The layout for the card is inspired by the current challenge at Your Next Stamp. The image and colour was inspired by the current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge.

Of course the sketch appears a bit more CAS, however if you know my style, I will add layers wherever I can. The image is coloured with Copic markers.

  Inside the card I added a bit of left over pattern paper. The sentiment and cute little mugs are from another Your Next Stamp set called Hot Stuff Mugs.

Inside

Thanks for taking a peek at my card. Please come back soon. Happy crafting.

Challenges:
Your Next Stamp: Fun Friday Challenge 8 YNSFFC08 Sketch
Curtain Call: Cuppa Cocoa Inspiration Challenge

Tracy

Sending Happy Mail

Well it is snowing again, however it's been nice not to walk out of the house to -30 degrees temperatures. Today I have been enjoying a relatively quiet day of crafting. I have no errands to run, and no chauffeur services to provide to my kids. So other than a few household chores, it's me and my paper today!

I haven't made a lot of Valentine's cards outside of the 50 or so I make each year for the kids classmates. I Still need to figure those out for the year and time is running out. I wanted to use this adorable Sassy Cheryl Digital image called "A Letter Sent With Love" so a Valentine's card seemed the most appropriate. Another thing I haven't made a lot of is round card....actually now that I think about it, I have never made one. I bought these round scalloped cards from a Michael's $1.50 bin a year (or more ago) and this is my first time using them.

To go along with my Sassy Cheryl image of Sally (A Letter Sent With Love) I added the mailbox image and sentiment from a My Favorite Things set called "Happy Mail". The paper I used is from a My Minds Eye 6x6 paper pad called "Love Me".

The hearts are cut from my Cricut using the Accent Essentials cartridge. I backed them with a blue paper from my scrap stash, then covered them with glossy accents.

The layout for my card was inspired by an older Mojo Monday sketch from 2010 # 141.

The image of Sally is coloured with Copic markers. For a bit of texture, I added some glitter to the envelope and the heart on the mailbox. I added a larger heart to the envelope and added glossy accents.

Challenges:
Sassy Cheryl: #201 Don't be a Square
Simon Says: Work it Wednesday
Cute Card Thursday: #306 Something New - Something New (this is a new image to use and a new thing of making a circle card).
4 Crafty Chicks: #179 Anything Goes
Allsorts Challenge Blog: Week 244 Love is in the Air
One Crazy Stamper: February "Anything Goes"

Thanks for having a look at my latest card. I hope that you are all enjoying your Saturday. Stay warm and happy crafting.

Please come back soon.

Tracy

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