A Christmas Card Wrapped in a Cable Knit Sweater

So. I have been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to even think, let alone post on my blog. It is so frustrating being so tired that I can barely care for my family, let alone craft a card or write a blog post. But here I am today. I have a small stash of cards to show you, so I will do the best I can to share with you for a few days coming up.

Here is my first offering. A Christmas card! I love the set "Suite Seasons". It is full of fun greetings that cover many of the holidays that occur at this time of year, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and...Christmas! It even includes a greeting for cards that you might need for sending comfort. Here is my card:

 All supplies used are from Stampin' Up!:

Stamp Sets: Suite Seasons, Warmth and Cheer

Inks: Archival Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler

Card Stock: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Accessories: Big Shot, Cable Knit Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, 1" Circle Punch, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Warmth & Cheer Designer Series Paper Stack, Gold Glimmer Paper, Tomboy Multi Liquid Glue, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals

In the close-up, you can see that the little circle heart punch is composed of a few punched layers that I glued together and stacked up on top of each other. I believe I used four layers. I have heard it called "Faux Chipboard". Sounds good to me, so that is what I will call it too! I also love the "Cable Knit" Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder,. It gives so much texture to the background piece! I can't wait to see what other kinds of Dynamic Embossing Folders Stampin' Up! comes out with in the future!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Kathryn

A Paper Pumpkin Cookie Cutter Fall Card

A Happy Hello to You today! What a beautiful Autumn day it is. I hope you are having some nice weather where you are, also.

I'm not quite ready to retire my "Cookie Cutter Halloween" stamp set quite yet. I think this little scarecrow is quite acceptable to use for a fun Fall card, so I whipped up this little offering for your enjoyment. I also used the September 2016 Paper Pumpkin kit for the pumpkin background and the greeting.

Here is my card today:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise specified:

Stamp sets: Cookie Cutter Halloween, 

Something Good to Eat (Sept. 2016 Paper Pumpkin kit stamp set)

Inks: StazOn Jet Black, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Garden Green, Crumb Cake

Card stock: Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Cookie Cutter Builder Punch, Banner Triple Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Vellum Cardstock,  Delicate White Doilies, Linen Thread, Blender Pens, Dimensionals, Garden Green Stampin' Write marker

I hand-stamped all those pumpkins on the background, but it wasn't hard. Because the stamps in the Paper Pumpkin kits are the clear photopolymer, it was easy enough to see through it to place it where I wanted the image to show up. (I also hand-drew little curlicues on the pumpkins.) In order to soften the bright colors of it though, I placed a piece of the vellum card stock over it. I also extended the Decorative Label Punch (underneath the scarecrow image). It wasn't quite long enough to show out the other side of the image, so I punched another image, trimmed it up to fit just right, and mounted the scarecrow so that the "joining" lines were covered. 

Anyway, I hope you are having a great day. I am home from work today, struggling with some back pain and muscle spasms. Hoping to feel much better really soon.

Thanks for visiting,

Kathryn

Flourishing Phrases Thank You Card #tgifc80 Color

I got a new stamp set and some die sets the other day, and I was just itching to play with them, so I looked around on the web and found a color challenge that looked interesting. ( #tgifc80 )

Over at tgifchallengesblog.blogspot.com, the color challenge this week is inspired by the color palette from the Specialty Designer Series Paper called "Petals & Paisleys". It is a beautiful palette that includes the Stampin' Up! colors Rich Razzleberry, Delightful Dijon, and Mint Macaron. Such beautiful paper! But alas, I don't have any...YET!

Anyway, here is my card:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Stamp set: Flourishing Phrases

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Card stock: Whisper White Thick, Rich Razzleberry, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron

Accessories: Big Shot, Magnetic Platform, Precision Base Plate, Flourishes Thinlits Dies, Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies,  Rhinestones Basic Jewels

Here is the TGIF Challenge Graphic:

The Flourishing Phrases stamp set has so many versatile greetings in it, I just had to get it! I choose to use the "Thank You so very much" greeting because I have so many opportunities to tell someone thanks, plus it is coming up on that time of year when we should be extra thankful for those people in our lives that are so good to us. So even though I can't give each one of you a thank you card, I just want to let you know that I am thankful for all of you!

Thanks for stopping by,

Kathryn

Basket of Wishes Thankful Card #GDP060

My husband needed a couple of thank you cards this week, so I gladly obliged him by making some for him with one of my newest stamp sets, Basket of Wishes, by Stampin' Up! I love this cute stamp set, full of fun, different types of baskets, and the fun stuff you could put in them. I love the different kinds of greetings you could add to them as well: birthday, thankful for you, and a couple of friendship-type greetings as well.

As you can see, I made these cards out to be thankful-for-you-type cards. I love coloring the images in this set. With it being Autumn, I decided to use the big sunflowers floral basket. I colored the image in using my Stampin' Up! blender pens, then cut out the basket image and popped it up with dimensionals. Love it!

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Stamp Set: Basket of Wishes

Card Stock: Whisper White Thick, Crumb Cake

Inks: Jet Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Delightful Dijon, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Smoky Slate

Accessories: Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack, Blender Pens, Paper Snips, Dimensionals

As you can see, it was a pretty clean and layered card, which is what I was going for. Because this card was inspired by the amazing designer over on global-design-project.com , Brian King. Here is the challenge graphic:

I hope you go over and check out the other designer's cards, as well as those playing along in the challenge. Oh...and leave some comment love! We all love it, and hope you enjoy our efforts, as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathryn

Merry Everything Card #tgifc79

Over on the TGIF Challenge Blog this past week, they have been trying out a new challenge. It is called the Designer Spotlight Challenge, and the designer this week is Krista Frattin. Krista is a member of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team, and she is A-MA-ZING!

Here is my card, inspired by Krista, for the #tgifc79 challenge!

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted:

Stamp Set: Suite Seasons

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Accessories: Warmth and Cheer Designer Series Paper Stack, Big Shot, Layering Circles Framelits Dies, Garden Green Stampin' Write Marker, Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Write Marker, 

Circle Punches: 1-3/4", 3/4", 1/2", Gold Metallic Thread, Dimensionals

I created the holly leaves by punching a 1-3/4" circle. Then, using the same punch, I punched two leaf shapes from that one circle. Then I took the 3/4" circle and reverse-scallop punched the edges so that they looked like holly leaves. The berry was a 1/2" circle punch.

When trying to decide what to use as inspiration, I went over to Pinterest to find some of Krista's boards to be inspired for my card. And boy did I find some! She has some very amazing boards, and they are linked to her wonderful blog. Here is the card that inspired my creation.

I hope you like my card, and that you check out the other cards and designers over at tgifchallengesblog.blogspot.com . 

Thanks for stopping by,

Kathryn

Happy Halloween! (Cookie Cutter Halloween)

Happy Halloween everyone!

I love the Cookie Cutter Halloween stamp set from Stampin' Up! Such cute images for Halloween and Fall.

Here is my card for this fun-filled day. I used my Aqua Painter brush to color in the majority of the background using my Sweet Sugarplum ink pad, after I had stamped all the skeleton images using Jet Black StazOn ink. I felt the color was too flat, but I didn't want to add any more water to the paper because I didn't use watercolor paper, so I picked out some ink daubers and some other colors of ink, and carefully added some color on top of the watercolor portions of the background. I used Marina Mist, Pear Pizzaz, and Daffodil Delight. It came out just the way I wanted! Take a look:

 All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise specified:

Stamp Sets: Cookie Cutter Halloween, Suite Seasons

Inks: Jet Black StazOn, Sweet Sugarplum, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzaz, Daffodil Delight

Card Stock: Marina Mist, Sweet Sugarplum, Whisper White

Accessories: Silver Glimmer Paper, Big Shot, Layering Circles Framelits Dies, Aqua Painters, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals

I love the tiny, little scallop border that you get when you layer two of the dies from the Layering Circles Framelits Dies set. Such a sweet, little detail!

I hope you have a fun Halloween today! See you soon!

Thanks for stopping by,
Kathryn

Merry Mice Christmas Card

When I first saw the Merry Mice stamp set in the Holiday Catalog, I just knew that I had to get it. Not only are the mice adorable, but this set lends itself so well to coloring in one form or another. So here is my first offering for you to see.

I watercolored this little cutie using my Classic Ink Pads and an Aqua Painter.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise specified:

Stamp Set: Merry Mice

Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White Thick

Inks: StazOn Jet Black, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Daffodil Delight, Dapper Denim, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine, Aqua Painter, Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Dimensionals

I have more to show you, and I just hope that life doesn't get so busy again that it takes 2 weeks to get around to it! (What?!!! That never happens to you, does it?!)

Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Kathryn