happy birthday cupcake

Hello!  I've been a very bad stamper this week - this is the first card I've made since Sunday!  I have a sneaky suspicion next week will be the same since my daughter is on spring break - oh dear.

I used Clean & Simple's fall to layout 79 for this card, although I flipped the sketch so the image is on the left instead of the right.  It seemed to balance better that way.  I stamped the cupcake from Sprinkled with Love in Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored it with Copics.  The sentiment is from For the Love of Cupcakes - seemed to fit perfectly and added a little piece of patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket - Material Girl.

Thanks for stopping by -
Karen

recipe -

Stamps: Sprinkled with Love, For the Love of Cupcakes

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Read Red, Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Material Girl (Cosmo Cricket

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Nestabilities, Copic markers

super simple

Hi! I'm trying to organize ALL of my paper, what a task that is turning out to be. I'm so overwhelmed with it all and am not entirely sure how to organize it - by paper packet, by color, by retired/not retired??? Any suggestions? What works best for you? Right now, mine is all in those little paper holders SU sells and it's a jumbled mess, even with the dividers, lol!

edited: I guess I should have said it is my designer paper that is a disaster, lol! My card stock is organized in hanging files - the scraps are in a file folder and the whole sheets are behind it, all inside a hanging file. My designer paper is in the paper holders and all over the place - so I'm all ears in hearing what you have done to organize your designer paper :) I've heard that it is easier to organize your designer paper by color, not DSP packs and I'm wondering if this is the direction I need to go in? When I need a piece of Old Olive patterned paper, it would be easier to go to my Green bin instead of sorting through all the paper packs, right? Sigh... I don't know what to do... Like I said, I'm all ears.

So I took a little break from the chaos and whipped up a really super simple card. This card took me about 5 minutes, seriously! It's taking way more time to photograph it and post it than it did to make it and clean up - that never happens to me.

I started off by running my card stock through the Cuttlebug with the biggest square Nestabilities and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to postition the tree and sentiment. I stamped the tree in Close To Cocoa and then colored the leaves in Old Olive. D-O-N-E!

Have a fabulous day! I'll be back tonight with the winner of this week's sketch challenge - you still have 10 hours to finish yours, *wink*.

Karen


recipe -
stamps: thoughts & prayers
ink: close to cocoa, old olive
paper: kraft card stock
accessories: square nestabilities

Christmas in July blog hop

Happy Wednesday! I'm having a little "Christmas in July" today and showing you a little peek at a new product over at Taylored Expressions - Perfect Packages. These amazing little boxes come in different sizes, and now they come in the perfect size to hold the standard A2 size cards! I love putting card sets together, and this incredibly sturdy box really gives the set a professional & classy look. The best part is you don't need any adhesive to assemble it! AND it stays closed by a single magnet clasp in the front - how cool is that? Hop on over to Taylor's blog to find out how you can win your very own set of Perfect Packages! Taylor is also running a special on all Christmas stamps - get them for 20% off from July 15-25!

I thought it would be fun to decorate my box to look like a Christmas gift, all wrapped up, waiting for someone to pull the ribbon. I made quick and easy cards to fit inside - I have 10 cards and 10 envelopes sitting in this box and look how cute they look in there - you could even decorate a set of 10 cards with more layers and embellishments and they would still fit nicely inside!

I used Season of Joy to make my little poinsettia flowers and then added a few drops of Christmas Red Stickles to give the centers just a little pop. This is an excellent way to cut down your cost when mass producing cards. One little bottle of Stickles lasts a LONG time. Love that stuff.

The Baker's Dozen have created more examples for you to peek at today - go check them out.

Jodi Collins
Charmaine Ikach
Ana Wohlfahrt
Karen Motz
Sankari Wegman
Laura Fredrickson
Jami Sibley
Taylor Van Bruggen
Donna Baker
Dawn Easton
and special guest, Rachel Sztonyk


recipe -
stamps: season of joy (stampin' up!)
ink: cranberry crisp
paper: kraft, old olive, cranberry crisp, whisper white cardstock, retired holiday paper
accessories: christmas red stickles, old olive 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, cranberry crisp stitched grosgrain ribbon, rectangle/scallop nestabilities (spellbinders), perfect packages (taylored expressions), stampin' dimensionals

simple trees

I think it has been a week, at least, since I've used Trendy Trees and they were yelling at me, begging me to pull them out of the box. Poor things. I'm using Fall To Layout 46 from Clean & Simple Stamping for my sketch this week. Talk about a fun and easy AND fast card to make. No layers, no Nestabilities, {GASP}, only ink. I love this look -the drawn frame really adds a lot to the card. So if you are ever in a mojo slump, this is a great layout to work with. Ooooh, you could tweak this and make an awesome Father's Day card - I'll have to do that!

Have a great day!
Karen


recipe -
stamps: trendy trees
ink: garden green, chocolate chip, garden green stampin' write marker
paper: kraft cardstock
accessories: straight edge, haha!

so punny

I finally got to ink up the hostess set, Comfort Food, today - don't you love these little puns? I think they are so cute! I made quick little set of 4 to sell in my Etsy shop - no layers, no brads, no stampin' dimensionals... I know, it's weird! I just used one of my scallop rectangle Nestabilities dies to emboss the card front and then stamped the image inside the frame it created. Very simple, but I love the look. Tie a ribbon down the side and you're done! These cards are 3x3, so you really can't put a whole lot on them (or can you? I feel a challenge coming on... lol).

On another note - I have new goodies I just ordered sitting in my mailbox, stranded out there! It's snowing SO hard here and I just can't bring myself to fight the sideways-snow to walk up the street to get them. I considered driving the car up there, but my hubby got stuck in the driveway coming home from work, so it's a tad slippery out there! Yes, it's torture sitting here KNOWING I have new things to ink up and play with, just sitting in the mailbox. Sigh... I'll fish them out soon...

Have a great Friday everyone -
Karen




recipe -
stamps: comfort food
ink: memento rich cocoa, copic markers
paper: stampers select white (papertrey ink)
accessories: rose silk ribbon (ellen hutson's store), so saffron 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, rectangle scallop nestabilities (spellbinders)

cheep talk

I am absolutely in love with this new set, Cheep Talk - isn't the little bird cute? I really like the sentiments that come with it - they all curl under or over the branch, very fun. I used this week's Fall To Layout from Clean & Simple Stamping for this card and added some felt ribbon, tied together around a Latte button. This is the first time I've inked up this new set, so I'm very excited to try out different things with it. Just warning you, you might see this set a few times in the near future, hehe.

Have a wonderful day!
Karen

recipe -
stamps: cheep talk
ink: chocolate chip, sage shadow, really rust
paper: chocolate chip, sage shadow, whisper white, autumn vine dsp
accessories: rectangle/scallop nestabilities, alpine ribbon originals, latte buttons, stampin dimensionals

more candy lane

Yes, it's more Candy Lane paper for you to feast your eyes on, haha! I am in LOVE with this paper and can't get enough of it. I may just use it all up before Valentine's Day - that would be amazing! I took inspiration from Fall To Layout #26 over at Clean & Simple Stamping - I just loved the sketch. Go on over and check out all of their Fall To Layouts, they are amazing and so quick to assemble. Seriously, like 10 minute cards!

Have a wonderful Monday!
Karen


recipe -

stamps: a happy heart

ink: chocolate chip

paper: close to cocoa cardstock, candy lane dsp

accessories: hearts set sizzlits, neutrals buttons, stampin' dimensionals

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

simple silhouettes

It's no secret that I {heart} Clean & Simple stamping and the newest 'fall-to' layout is seriously, a 10 minute card at the most. Mine was 10 minutes because I used my stamp-a-ma-jig and added little cuts to my ribbon, heh! The striped ribbon is a preview of what is to come in the Holiday Mini, so watch for it - sooo many fun things in there.

Ok, off to get things in order - I'm going to Texas for the MOPS convention and I'm very much looking forward to some time with just the girls!

Karen

recipe -

stamps: best yet, pocket silhouettes

paper: very vanilla

ink: ruby red

accessories: ribbon originals alpine

clean & simple baby

Hello! It's Monday and that means laundry day here - fun stuff! So what better way to procrastinate than stamping? Seriously, I can't stand doing laundry - or vacuuming for that matter. ugh. I'm so not the domestic goddess. OK, anyway, here's a little baby card using Clean & Simple's fall to layout #12, but I flipped it over on it's side to accommodate my stamped image. I paper pieced the 'cute' instead of coloring in the letters this time. That's what took the longest to complete, but other than that, this is a super fast card to make.

Have a fantastic day!
Karen

recipe -

stamps: big on spring

paper: bashful blue, close to cocoa, whisper white cardstock, banbury dsp

ink: black staz-on

accessories: scallop edge punch, retired SU ribbon (can't remember the name), stampin dimensionals

christmas blessings

Yes, it's time to start thinking Christmas - trying not to procrastinate too much this year and when I saw this sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping I immediately thought of the City of David stamp set. I stamped the city in chocolate chip craft ink and then clear embossed it. To shade the oval, I cut out an oval template and then just used a sponge to fill it in with creamy caramel classic ink. One Christmas card done, 59 more to go! ha!

Have a wonderful day - thanks for stopping by.

Details -

paper: confetti cream

ink: chocolate chip craft & classic, creamy caramel

stamps: city of david

accesories: chocolate grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder

clean & simple

I found this fantastic blog, Clean & Simple Stamping, and I'm already addicted to it - it's very much my style these days. Today's card comes from this sketch, which was soooo easy to whip up in no time. I hope you all like it. I'm using Perennial Favorites, which is another retiring set this summer. Booo.

I'm potty training my 2-year-old this week, so if I'm quiet and out of sight, that is why. Today was our first day and only one accident! Crazy. After dinner we braved the outdoors and went to the park and played outside for a couple hours and he stayed dry - woohoo! We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but I'm definitely coming back here to post Kristina's color challenge because I just can't miss those.

Thanks for stopping by!


Details -
stamps: perennial favorites, absolutely fabulous
paper: marigold morning, old olive, whisper white cardstock, four seasons dsp
ink: marigold morning, pumpkin pie, old olive
accessories: flower fusion accents & elements, fire rhinestone brads, stampin dimensionals