featured cupcake sampler

YES! Can you believe it? I'm the Featured Cupcake Sampler over at Taylor's blog this week!! My jaw hit the floor when she emailed me the good news and I went right to work on making my sample. I have had my Dashing designer paper on my desk all week so it seemed like a good choice to run with and went with a Christmas theme - sorry, no cupcakes this week. You can see more fantastic samples of this sketch over at Taylor's blog too.

I apologize for the photo - I took about 40 pictures and all of them were blury somewhere and it the sun didn't want to peek out of the clouds, so it's a bit dark. Anyway, one of these days I'll get a better camera - mine is a cheap point and shoot and I'm about ready to throw it out the window, ha!

Now how many of you are hitting the sales today and have been up since 5 AM to do so?? Yeah, not me, but I really have admiration for all of you that hit the stores and battle the crowds to get those amazing deals. Me? I sleep in (or as much as I can with 3 little ones anyway) and stay in my jammies until lunch. Pure laziness for me, that's how I roll!

Edited: The card dimensions are 4-1/4 square and I usually will mail this size in a regular A2 envelope (fits a standard 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 card) to avoid paying extra postage for a square envelope.

Have a fantastic Friday!
Karen

recipe -

stamps: season of joy, short & sweet

ink: real red, old olive

paper: very vanilla, real red, river rock, old olive cardstock, dashing dsp

accessories: old olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, mini twinkle dots (a.muse), fire circle rhinestone brads, circle nestibilities die templates, stampin dimensionals

color inspiration 32

Hello everyone! Kristina is back with a very warm, yummy color inspiration. This week's colors are Riding Hood Red, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla and Whisper White. Since I don't have the new In-Colors, I opted to use Real Red instead of Riding Hood Red. The red background is embossed with clear embossing powder to give it some dimension and shine - I love that look. I guess this would be a retro card since I'm using retired paper and hardware, eh? The striped paper is from Dashing, which retired last January. Love that paper!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and I'll be back Friday with a fun new card to share.

Karen

recipe -

stamps: season of joy, best yet (hostess)

ink: versamark. real red

paper: very vanilla, real red, sahara sand, and whisper white cardstock, dashing dsp

accessories: real red 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder, curly label punch, oval punch, aged copper hodgepodge hardware, stampin dimensionals

a cupcake with a challenge

Yes! I finally have a cupcake stamp to use with Taylor's cupcake challenge AND I finished the card this time - double good Friday, yes indeed. I was looking through some old supplies and I found this fun paper in my Party Pieces Simply Scrappin' kit from a couple catalogs ago. I had completely forgotten about it and I have a ton of die cuts left in it. I was going to place the cupcake directly to the patterned paper, but it got lost in all those circles, so I added a little plain background for it. Much better! I also added a little dab of diamond Stickles on the candle flame to make it stand out a bit more and add some fun sparkle.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Karen

recipe -

stamps: party hearty

ink: pumpkin pie, tempting turquiose, old olive, apricot appeal

paper: tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie, apricot appeal cardstock, party pieces simply scrappin' kit

accessories: ice circle rhinestone brads, apricot grosgrain ribbon, 1" and 3/4" circle punches, circle nestibilities die template, stampin' dimensionals

it's beginning to look alot like...

Christmas! Except it is almost 70 degrees here today - love that! I was surfing radio channels this morning and found Christmas music already. As much as I love Christmas music, it's just too early yet; let me get past Thanksgiving first people!

I've had this sketch from Verve earmarked for a while now and I'm finally getting to it. It's so simple yet has the pop I like too. Do you recognize the tree? No? It's a party hat from the Party Hearty set and I just added my own tree trunk at the bottom - add some micro twinkle dots, and voila - a sparkly tree! I really do need to get some better Christmas sets, I have very few. Too bad Stampin' Up! doesn't have the same 80% off sales the department stores do after Christmas...

Edited: A few of you have asked how I got the layered curly label. When you purchase the curly label punch kit it comes with a stamp set. If you trim around the stamped image it will be small enough to layer over the regular curly label punch, giving you that finished look.

Thanks for hopping by today -

Karen

recipe -

stamps: party hearty, cute & curly, all holidays

ink: old olive, close to cocoa, real red

paper: very vanilla, real red cardstock, dashing dsp (retired)

accessories: curly label punch, micro twinkle dots (a.muse), old olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

autumn flowers

Well, I don't have mums, but we'll just pretend that these are - ha! Kristina is back with another color challenge inspired from a wreath she has. This week's colors are Close to Cocoa, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and Whisper White. Love the fall feel of these colors. The card size is weird - it's 3-1/4 x 5-1/2, but the 3-1/4 x 6-1/2 size looked a bit odd, so I trimmed it down. I also was able to use a new Nestibilities die template that I picked up from Hobby Lobby a little while ago - Tags! Sweet!

Have a great day!

Karen

recipe -

stamps: pocket silhouettes

ink: so saffron, elegant eggplant

paper: elegant eggplant, so saffron, whisper white cardstock, pumpkin pie patterns dsp

accessories: vintage brads, close to cocoa grosgrain ribbon, scallop edge punch,

another monday

Happy Monday everyone - is anyone else easing into your week? Seems to be how I am every Monday, but maybe that's just because it's laundry day. blech... So here's something cute and crafty from Beate's weekend sketch challenge to get you out of the Monday blahs - hehe! Last Thursday we had a family picture taken and I can't believe how smoothly it went -who would have ever thought that a 1 and 2-year-old would sit still long enough to get some great pictures? Now we have a fantastic picture to display in our home - sweet success! Anyway - I still have the light blue/navy blue color combo in my head, so I went with it for my card today. Also, WAY back in the very beginning of my blog I used Katie's dress as an inspiration challenge and here she is wearing it - love that dress! The card is 4-1/4 square and I had clear embossed the background a long time ago, but never used it and tucked it away to use later - makes for a quick card today.

See you back soon!
Karen

recipe -
stamps: nursery necessities, nursery letters jumbo wheel
ink: so saffron, bashful blue, versamark
paper: night of navy, bashful blue, wild wasabi, whisper white cardstock, jersey shore dsp
accessories: clear embossing powder, star brads, stampin dimensionals

color inspiration 30

Hello!  I hope you all have been doing well - it's been forever since I've last posted!!  Today I have a card for Kristina's color inspiration and this week's colors are Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White.  I love the monochromatic feel of these colors - the Olive and Celery together are very soothing.  I went with a 6-1/2" x 3-1/4" card today to shake it up a bit.  I love this card size! 

I hope you are all have a great week and I'll see you back soon.  We have family pictures tomorrow, so I'm off to hunt down those last minute items, like shoes for my 6-year-old that aren't all scuffed up!  Have a great day.

Karen

recipe -
stamps: short & sweet, cute & curly
ink:  old olive
paper:  certainly celery, sahara sand, whisper white cardstock, olive dsp (retired)
accessories:  filigree brads, curly label punch, scallop edge punch, old olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon

say what???

Alright, this color inspiration was soooo difficult for me!  I can't figure out what it is, but I had a hard time putting these colors together.  Kristina's challenge was to use Pacific Point, Taken With Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie, and Whisper White.  Huh?  Ok, so I don't have Pacific Point, so that may be some of the problem - I used Brilliant Blue instead, yowza! 

Ok, well better get to some housework - oh the joys!  See you back soon.

Karen

recipe -
stamps: live like you mean it (hostess)
ink: briliant blue, elegant eggplant, taken with teal
paper: pumpkin pie, elegant eggplant, whisper white cardstock, pumpkin pie patterns dsp
accessories: pumpkin pie striped grosgrain ribbon, rectangle/scallop nestibilities, clementine bling (heidi swapp)

another christmas card possibility

Hello! I hope you all had a great weekend - we enjoyed a very warm weekend and a lazy Sunday full of football watching. Although I can't say the Broncos actually played football this week - can they stink it up any more?? Any annoyed fans out there? Steph? Anyway...

Today's card is Beate's weekend sketch challenge, Christmas style. It's another sample I made for a family member who I'm making cards for this year. I figure the rejects will be used by me, ha! The background is stamped in Bashful Blue with the Bold Snowflakes jumbo wheel and the patterned paper is from a mini 2 Holiday Minis ago.

This second card is a CASE of one of Natasha's cards I saw on the Clean & Simple blog this morning - it was so cute, I had to copy it!! Just sweet and simple - so jump on in and use this layout to mass produce your cards this season. It's a quick one!

Thanks for stopping by! See you back soon.
Karen

recipe card #1

stamps: season of joy, short & sweet
ink: cranberry crisp (in color '07), old olive, bashful blue
paper: bashful blue, cranberry crisp cardstock, holiday mini '06 dsp

accessories: old olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, rectangle scallop nestibilities, circle/scallop nestibilities, diamond stickles, stampin' dimensionals

recipe card #2
stamps: city of david, best yet
ink: cranberry crisp (in color '07), chocolate chip
paper: kraft, old olive, cranberry crisp, confetti cream cardstock