Hello All!

Today I want to share with you a birthday card I made for our Daughter's 21st birthday. I can't believe our youngest child is 21...but you know that doesn't mean I'm getting older, LOL, I wish!

Anywhoo...I had so much fun creating this card. I recently purchased the We R Memory Keepers Lucky 8 Punch 'Frilly Lace' and was playing around with it. I took a scrap 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock and  punched out the frilly circle. I thought, how else can I use this circle besides using it for a circle background? I started folding it and I stumbled onto the off-set folded half circle. Yes! This would be so pretty tri-folded into a card and of course, I had to make one in PINK, since that is my daughter's favorite color. I will now share some photos of the result...

This is the front of the card. I tri-folded the punched off-set half circle and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I added a pink ribbon between the folded circle so that I would be able to keep the card closed. I then decorated the card with some punched pattern paper, feathers, a flower I added Diamond Stickles to, some punched leaves, '21' stickers, gems and a handmade stick pin.

This is the back of the card. Again, I punched some pattern paper and sprayed it randomly with some handmade spray paint in pink. I used a stencil and inked through it with Vintage Photo Distress ink and then randomly used some gesso and spread it through the same stencil. Before  adding  the Tim Holtz die to either side of the back of the card and wrapping this to the front sides, I added some white Picket Fence Distress paint to the die cuts and then lightly sponged some Vintage Photo ink on top. I then added some jewels (everything needs a little sparkle!).

This is the inside of the card. I printed out a sentiment onto some white cardstock and cut it to fit inside, adding some extra length to the bottom so I could fold up that section, sort of like a pocket,  that way we could write our wishes to our daughter and it could be hidden for only her to read (it's also a great way to add a gift card or money). I punched out some leaves and inked them, as well, with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I added a few more jewels to finish off the inside.

Well, there you have it and our daughter LOVED her card! 

Please give this technique a try and I bet you will come up with other ways to use the circles/squares made with the We R Memory Keepers Luck 8 Punches!

Have a blessed & wonderful week!

      ~Karen~

Painted Tote

Painted Canvas Tote

Hello again...I wanted to share another project I made. I had this canvas tote, for years now, that the kids had used for school (they are now all in their 20's)! I use it to carry my coupons in when I hit the craft stores and thought...I need to be totin' my coupons in style...LOL! The tote had a few stains on it and two small rips in the side so I thought I would give it some new life.

This tote measures 12" high (not including the handles) x 13" wide. It is off white in color, so I painted the front with white acrylic paint with some Textile Medium mixed in. When I got to the edges I just feathered out the edges. Once the paint had dried I lightly drew my design on with a pencil. I added Textile Medium to all of my acrylic paint colors and then started filling in the design.

When I was finished painting the design I outlined everything with a black permanent fine tip pen. I let it dry over night and then turned the bag inside out so I could heat set the painted design from the 'inside' with a dry iron and a pressing cloth covering the painted design, pressing each section for about 20 seconds. You must wait 7 days for the curing to be complete before washing the item (these were the instructions for the Textile Medium I used...always check the manufactures instructions on the particular medium you may use).

  

This is the backside of the Painted Tote.

A close-up.

*My coupons now have a fun place to call home!*

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

~Karen

Card Share

Hello All!

Today was another warm one so I thought I would stay indoors and share with you a Thank You card I made. I saw a card on Pinterest that had vellum flowers on it and thought what a great technique...I have to try this!

I started with a card base measuring 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" made from Bazzil's Swiss Dot. I then stamped some flowers onto pink, blue and frosted shimmer vellum using Versa Mark ink and then coated the inked images with white embossing powder. Using my heat tool I melted the embossing powder, being very careful to let the heat tool warm up some before heating the vellum. The vellum will warp if too much heat is applied.

I fussy cut the flowers out and added a few stroked of coordinating markers to each petal, starting the stroke from the center of the flower outwards. I added a candy dot and stickles to the centers of the flowers. I then punched out some leaves and highlighted the larger ones with some distress inks. I cut a wide strip of pattern paper and adhered it to the front of the card. I cut a thinner strip of pattern paper and snipped a banner point on one end. I then adhered that to the front overlapping the wider strip just a little.

Using a paper doily as a base, I adhered the leaves and flowers, popping up the flowers as I went with dimensional adhesive squares. I then adhered the vellum flower doily to the front of the card and trimmed off the one side of the doily to be flush with the side of the card.

This vellum flower technique is addictive! I will be heading to the craft stores in search for more colors of vellum!!!

Hope you all had a terrific Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

~Karen

It's Thursday Folks!

Good morning to all and just a Father's Day card share. Right before Father's Day I was at my local Michael's store and was rummaging through their clearance bins. I came across a Tim Holtz stamp set, from his Visual Artistry Collection 'Curious Possibility', which contains the three gentlemen stamp and thought...Father's Day! 

I started out making the card base from Bazzil Dot cardstock in a light tan color. I stamped and embossed the image with black embossing powder and matted it onto some pattern paper from the Lost & Found 6 x 6 paper pad 'Rosy'. I then die cut some burlap paper and another pattern paper from the same paper pad. I  added letter stickers, from lilybee designs ABC stickers, to spell 'dad'. I took some washi tape with a mustache theme, from studio g, and placed three strips on the left side of the matted embossed image. All of this was mounted on a pattern paper from The best of Echo Park Paper pad. This was adhered to the front of the card.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Thanks for stopping by & enjoy YOUR Thursday!

~Karen

Another One of My Drawings

Hello, again, Wednesday!

Here I am again and I just wanted to share another one of my drawings. I was wanting to do a drawing of a little boy this time and got this vision of a boy on a hobby horse (at least that's what I'm calling it).

I outlined the entire drawing with a Micron black pen and colored it all in with Prisma colored pencils and used a blender pencil to smooth out the coloring.

This will be going into my mixed media journal.

Thanks for visiting and until next time...

~Karen

Anniversary Card

Hello Wednesday!
(This post is from May 2013)

     I've been spending most of my evening, today, scanning and saving some of my son's photos for an album I will be making him. My tech-side is not the greatest and I had a heck of a time trying to figure out my scanner settings, BUT I have succeeded and I was able to scan and save all of his photos...whew! 

     I would like to share an Anniversary card I made for my parents. They celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary...can you say AWESOME! 

     Here is the card...

I decided to do an all white card. I used lots of texture by using the Woodgrain and Swiss Dot embossing folders. I die-cut the flowers and curled the petals to give depth. I punched out the butterflies and leaves and embellished with some self-adhesive pearls, then mounted the whole frame onto some Bazzil dotted cardstock.

The card is an A2 size...4 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Thanks for stopping by!

~Karen

My Collection of 3" x 3" Cards from the Swap

Hello Saturday!

I went to my Crop Night, last night, and we exchanged our 3 x 3 cards & envelopes for the swap. First let me say...WOW!!!...these are some talented and creative ladies! Each card was unique and wonderful and it was so interesting to see how each lady incorporated her talents into her works of art. Our organizer, and one of the participants, made each of us a handmade box with a belly band to hold all ten of our tiny cards. How awesome and sweet is that?!!

So let me show you my collection...

This is the top of the handmade box our organizer, Jodie, made for us. Each box was decorated differently and we got to choose which one we wanted. This is the box I choose.

A close up of the decorated belly band. Do you see the darling little blue bird? All of the detail in each flower with the addition of gems and buttons...ADORABLE!

The 'Bee' card was done by Melissa. The bee has glittered wings and is popped off the card with dimensional adhesive. It sits on top of a honeycomb die-cut (she must let me know where she got that die!) and has a black & white twine buzz trail. Her envelope was air-brushed with a honeycomb pattern.

The beautiful 'Floral' card was done by our organizer Jodie. She stamped and embossed the design with gold embossing powder and filled in the stamped image with Twinkling H2O's, using a thin brush, then tied with a ribbon. She added a gold filigree image to her envelope.

The cute 'Crab' card was done by Elizabeth. The adorable lobster has tiny 'googlie' eyes and the water behind him is a blue shimmery paper. Her envelope is adorned with two sea plants.

The pretty 'Thank You' card was made by Brenda. She added ribbon and a cute daisy with a 3D little bee sitting on top. Her envelope was lined with matching paper.

The wonderful 'Just a  Note' card was made by Andrea. She used cream/black/white themed paper and added a matching silk flower made by layering three flowers held together with a brad. Her envelope was handmade with white textured paper.

The awesome 'Happy Birthday' card was made by Vanessa. She used a 'circus' themed paper and put three tiny tickets on the front popped off the card with dimensional adhesive. Her envelope was made with matching pattern paper.

The adorable 'Heaven Sent' baby card was made by Shannon. She added tiny buttons and flowers to the front along with a cute baby pin. Her envelope was stamped with a matching theme.

The cute 'Have a Wonderful Day' card was made by Ruth. She stamped the front and added a   sparkly daisy with gem center, then tied it with gray and white twine. Her envelope was stamped with a daisy.

The beautiful 'Dream' card was made by Susan. She used alcohol inks with a silver mixative for the base and then stamped a flourish when dry. Her envelope was lined with matching paper.

And this is my 'For You' card. I posted a picture of this card previously, but am giving you one more look along with the others. 

I added a crochet edge and satin bow. My envelope is a box envelope with a stamped plaid scallop circle and glitter heart popped off the front with dimensional adhesive.

I am so excited to receive these little pieces of art and don't know if I can part with any of them! Everyone did such an amazing job and I appreciate all of the time and work they put into them.

Hope you enjoyed taking a look at this swap from the Douglas County Scrapbooking Group.

Enjoy your weekend and until next time...

*Karen*

Happy Birthday Card

Hello Everyone!

OK, today is May 1st and guess what's happening outside? SNOW!!! I woke to it snowing like crazy and as I'm writing this it's still SNOWING! Well, we do need the moisture here and it has been warm the last couple of days so the snow isn't sticking to the streets or sidewalks...so I guess I will accept the moisture and I know that the coming days are warming up again, so the snow will be gone in no time.

On to the card I made the other day. It is a card for my father-in-law and yes, it's not very masculine, but he has been in the hospital going through some tough times for the past three weeks. So I thought a cheerful and colorful card might lift his spirits and hopefully make him smile. 

I visited a scrapbooking store called Simple Pleasures this past weekend and picked up this adorable tree die from Memory Box called 'Row of Trees'. I made the scene 3D and adhered it to the front of the card. This was so much fun to make and was my first attempt doing a dimensional scene with a frame...not too shabby, huh?

Sure hope this card brings a little joy into my father-in-laws day.

Thanks for dropping by and until next time~

*Karen*

Art Journal Pages

Happy Monday!

I picked up a Mixed Media journal,  some time ago,  and it's been sitting in my craft space waiting for me to create some pages. I have been drawing since I was little, so I thought I might try combining my drawings with some painted backgrounds. I have finished two, so let's take a look.......

For my first page...I saw this quote, 'A Girl without Freckles is like a Night Sky without Stars'  by an unknown author on Pinterest, and immediately had a vision of a redheaded little girl in the dusk of the evening with fireflies (lightening bugs is what I called them growing up) starting to fill the yards.

Here's a close-up of the freckled-face little girl.

And for my second page...I also saw this quote on Pinterest, 'Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun' by Albert Einstein,  and had a drawing I had done last year that I thought would be cute to go with it.

Here's a close-up of the creating girl with her scissors, paints, brushes, papers and glue.

Looks like she is going to have some fun!  LOL

Well, just two attempts of using some different mediums and I think the more I play the better I will get. 

Thank you for dropping by!

Until next time...

*Karen*

3" X 3" Card Swap

Howdy Everyone!

     Hope you're enjoying  Spring-like weather! I think, where I live, that Spring has finally Sprung! We really needed the moisture, but I just wish it wouldn't have been in the snow form. Anywhoo...the snow is gone and the temps have now reached into the mid 70's...perfect!

 I just wanted to share my entry of a swap I entered with the Douglas County Scrapbook Group, a scrapbook group I belong to. We were to make a handmade 3" x 3" note card with envelope and we needed to make 10 total, since there are 10 of us who joined in. The rules stated that there needed to be at least two embellishments on the card and had to include some sort of sentiment...Happy Birthday, For You, Welcome Baby, etc. The envelope also had to be handmade with an option to stamp or decorate the front of the envelope.

This is my 3" x 3" note card. 

I used a dotted embossed navy cardstock as the base of the card. I cut a piece of pattern paper a little shorter than the front of the card and punched small holes along the bottom with a hole punch. I then crocheted a simple chain edge with white crochet string. Then I punched a scalloped circle with a punch and cut out a circle from the middle. Next, I stamped 'for you' and a heart with red ink onto white cardstock and cut that into a circle, adding red stickles to the heart. I added that to the middle of the scalloped circle using pop-dots. I tied a red satin bow around the pattern paper and then added three circles to the bottom that I punched from pattern paper. That all was then glued to the front of the card using my ATG gun.

This is the matching envelope.

I stamped a blue plaid scallop circle onto the front. I then stamped a blue heart onto some scrap cardstock, cut it out, added blue stickles and attached it to the envelope with a pop-dot.

This is a side view of the envelope. I added a 1/4" gusset to accommodate the bow from the front of the card. I also lined the envelope with blue polka dot pattern paper.

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Thanks to Sheryl ( gemzisle on YT ) and gemzisle.blogspot.com for the tutorial on how to  make this type of envelope!   : D

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This was so much fun and I can't wait to see the cards made by the other swappers! 

Have an awesome rest of your day and get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Until next time...

~Karen~

Altered Cigar Box

Hello All!

I belong to a scrapbooking group, here where I live, and the organizer is such a great person! She gives her whole heart into this group and we appreciate her so much!  A while back she was able to get her hands on about 100 old cigar boxes and as a result, our group shared in her haul. So, I made a keepsake box for my sister to store things in from her little granddaughter.

I used Graphic 45's 'Little Darlings' paper collection, handmade paper flowers, laces, flat-back pearls, crackle medium and pink rose ceramic drawer pulls for the feet. This was such a fun project and I'm hoping to make some more altered cigar boxes ( I have about 4 left )!

So here are some pics...

This was how the cigar box looked before altering.

This is now the top of the cigar box. In the small frame and to the right of it it says

Grandma's Keepsakes

I added handmade paper flowers, punched leaves, handmade stickpin, loops of lace and some colored sprigs. Delicate lace trims the perimeter of the box top.

I used pink acrylic paint as the base coat and applied Weathered Wood Crackle Medium over it, when it was dry. I then applied white acrylic paint over the crackle medium. I added flat-backed pearls, paper strips from the collection and delicate white lace trim all around the sides of the cigar box.

I painted the inside of the box white and on the inside of the lid I Modge Podged printed paper from the collection and then added organza ribbon so a picture or keepsake could be pinned. I added a  paper flower, some leaves and stick pin & a grunge board oval with 'Baby' stamped into it to the center. A white chain with a pearl on the end was added to the intersection of the ribbon. Tiny white glittered clothespins help attach mementos or pictures and a small cut-out from the collection dressed it up.

Thanks for visiting!

~Karen~