Dino-Mite Birthday

Hello again.
Today I want to share a card I made for a birthday party my boys attended over the weekend.

I have had this set for a while now, but had not inked it up. I just adore these little Dino's they are really fun to color.
I started with the panel on the base. I tried Laura Bassen's famous plaid stamping. I used Hawaiian shores, limeade ice and orange popsicle.  I am in LOVE with this technique, you will be seeing more of it here for sure! (thanks Laura ;) )
(I would have preferred to not cover up so much of it, but I was in a hurry and did not have time to make another panel for the front. I still think it looks awesome though ;)  )
I colored this little guy in with copic markers and added some wink of stella shimmer to it.  I added a few enamel dots and it all came together quite nicely.

Thanks for stopping by.
Tasha

Woodland wreath

Hi all.
I found some time to play with the Wplus9 woodland wreath set.  I am in LOVE!  I started with this simple creation:

 I plan to use this a LOT in the next few days/weeks. So stay tuned.
I stamped the wreath with various shades of green ink. For the base, I added 2 strips of score tape to either side of a white card base and added Glitter Ritz in Bronze to it.  I used a strip of SSS woodgrain card stock and adhered to that the wreath with foam tape.

Tasha:)

Gold leaf feathers

Hi!
I am popping in today to share a card.

As I said in my previous post, I was so inspired by the pins from Caths pintrest boards, I had a bunch of cards going at the same time.  With this one, I stamped the background with a Hero Arts stamp (swiss dots) using a glue pad and then rubbed the sheet of gold leaf over it. I don't think the glue pad is sticky enough in places so, some of it rubbed off, thus creating a more vintage, rusty look.  (I liked it anyway). I die cut the Wplus9 feathers from wood veneer paper. For the back one I pressed the end into the glue pad and rubbed the gold leaf on to it, and for the front one I stamped it using the same technique I described above. 
The sentiment strip was made using a coral scalloped base, and onto that I glued a strip of double sided tape that I attached rows of twine to. On top of that I added a strip of rustic cream card stock that I stamped my sentiment on to and added some distressing with vintage photo :) I finished it all of with some twine and a button.

Anyway... that's all from me folks. I will try and post a few more cards in the coming days :)

Later maters
Tasha :)

Moxie Fab Thanks! Blog Hop

Happy Saturday People :) You should be thoroughly inspired by now... You've hopped a LOOONG way to get here. I sure do wish I could offer you a beverage and some cookies, but I'm sure you've taken care of that already ;))
If you are hopping in order, you should have arrived here from THE one and only Betsy Veldman.

By now you know the purpose of this hop, and how bitter sweet it is.  I am so happy to be apart of this momentous blog hop, and to be able to let Cath know just how much she she means to all of us and how dearly we will miss her.  We have all appreciated all inspiration she has provided us over the years. 
I am not really good with this sort of thing, farewells and such,  but I would like to share a favorite quote of mine that I have already shared with Cath, on her blog. It really says so much in so few words. It's from the Movie Hope floats: 

“Beginnings are usually scary, endings are usually sad, but it's what's in the middle that counts. So when you find yourself at the beginning, just give hope a chance to float up. And it will.”

Cath, I wish you well, I wish you sunshine and rainbows. May this be the beginning of something even better for you. May you look  back on this and know that it was always meant to lead you to your "next big thing". 

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to make and I decided it would be a really cool idea to look through Cath's Pintrest boards and pick an image to inspire my card.  At first I thought I was so smart.... but since there are so many amazing pins, I was so overwhelmed!  I have about 6 unfinished cards on my desk and about 100 other ideas, it was inspiration overload, lol! 

In the end I went with this pin:

 Image source

It was pinned to the "all that glitters is gold" board, and let me just tell you how in LOVE I am with gold at the moment, he,he ;)
Here's my card:

I started by water coloring the background. Next, I stamped the polka dots using a glue pad.  I then rubbed gold leaf onto the dots. Can I just say... it looks  AMAZING! in real life. I have tried to find an embossing powder that would give me that "real gold" look, but have yet to find one.  So this is perfect. I love that it looks like a patterned paper and not like I made it, ha,ha!

Well, friends, the time has come for you to move on, and so without further ado, I will send you on over to the lovely Wanda Cullen.

Have fun :)  


 

Runnway inspired entry

Hello there :)
It's been a while. It seems I either have had no mojo when I have had time to make something, and no time or energy when I have the mojo going, lol!
BUT I finally got all the stars to align and as soon as I saw the inspiration photo for this weeks Runway inspired challenge, I was in LOVE!  I knew exactly what I wanted to make. It took a few tries but I LOVE the way it turned out. I just realllly wish I could get my photography situation sorted out so that I could take better pics.  Anyway....  Let's move on shall we?
Here is this weeks photo:

And here is my card:

I started by creating the striped panel with copic markers, I just varied the colors and widths according to the inspiration photo. Next I die cut the white panel with the Lil inkers stitched mats, and stamped my sentiment.  I stamped some flowers from an old hero arts set (Asian frames)  colored them in with copics and cut them out. I then applied some Zig, Wink of stella clear glitter brush pen over both the flowers and striped panel. I applied a thin layer of glossy accents to the flowers and added some Preciosa crystals.  I put everything together, and that was it!
Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back tomorrow.. I will be participating an a very, very large blog hop that I am sure is going to be loads of fun. 
Tasha :)

A Birthday card

Hello, there.
Today I have a quick and simple Birthday card, that is going to a little girl who just turned 9. I hope she likes it :)

 The cake and sentiment are from Jane's Doodles. I stamped the cake onto a stitched die cut panel from Lil inkers. I then colored the cake in with copic markers and  layered on the frosting. I used the wink of Stella zig  brush pen to add some shimmer and some glossy accents.  I stamped the background with the Hero arts envelope background using angel pink Momento Luxe ink.
Everything, except the the stamp and matt die are available from Simon says stamp. So I am also entering this into the Wednesday challenge.
Thanks for stopping by.
I hope ou are having a great day, wherever in the world you are.
Tasha :))

An Indian wedding.

Hello lovely people.
I have a wedding card to share with you today. A work colleague of my Husbands is getting married so they are doing something for him at work and I was asked if I would make the card.  I struggled with this one. The girl he is marrying is Indian and I thought it would be nice to do an Indian inspired card. I kind of had an idea on what I wanted the final card to look like, but I either don't own the stamps I needed or just couldn't get it to look the way it did in my head. So Finally I headed out to Michaels and picked up some gold tinsel embossing powder and some gold mirror paper. And THAT'S when the magic happened and it all came together.....

Now, I am the worlds WORST photographer.  This card looks so luxurious and elegant in real life, but with my cheesy camera on an overcast Friday morning... This was the best I could do.  And believe me.... it does NOT do it justice.
Well.... the card is gone so I can't even try again.  I'll have to make do with this one ;)

Anyway... on to the important stuff.....
I started with a 4 x 5.25 panel of PTI, pure poppy red card stock and heat embossed it with gold tinsel EP, using the HA dots and flowers background.  I then used some distress inks to darken the outer edges to create some depth.  I mounted the panel with foam tape to some gold mirror card stock.  Next I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from PTI's congrats all the way set onto a strip of cream shimmer card stock and mounted it on to another strip of the gold mirror paper and mounted that onto the front.

I am super excited that I am using this to participate in the Moxie Fab Worlds All that glitters is gold challenge :)


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying your day :)
Tasha :))))

MIM #128 - Stamping Random Backrounds

Hi!
Just popping in quickly to share a card I made for this weeks Make-it-Monday challenge. I managed to make a card earlier this week, (YAY!!)  but I didn't get time to photograph it, so here I am...Last minute Lucy! LOL! (I actually made 2 cards, but the other one has lots of glitter and I can't seem take a decent picture of it, so I might not get to enter it into this challenge in time ;( )
I am thrilled to be also entering this into the Birthday Card Challenge over on  the Moxie Fab World Blog :)
Anyway... Here's my card:

I used the 'Irresistibly Ikat' set for this one. I repeatedly stamped the single circle image with different colors and added some Gold and Silver ink too.  I also broke out my Lil'inkers Stitched mats and cut the sentiment strip on an angle.  The sentiment is from the 'Embroidered blooms' set.

My source of inspiration for this card came from this image I pinned on Pinterest a while ago.

Image source

Isn't it lovely?

Well, that's it from me, for now. If I manage to take a decent pic of the other card I'll be back to share it, if not....I'll post it tomorrow ;)


Peace and Love.
Tasha :)

Papercrafts Publish share and a winner! :)

Hello Lovely people :)
I am just dropping by real quick to share a card I have that was published in the current Paper Crafts mag, and the winner of my blog candy.
Here's the card:

To see how it was made, grab a copy of the magazine here:
Online Store.
Or check it out online, Here

Here's a sneak peek for you too :)

Now for the winner of my Stamping Royalty blog hop prize...... Drum roll please...

Katie Ann Brooks
Yay!!!!
E-mail me your mailing address and I'll mail your prize off to you pronto :)

Well that all from me folks... I'm off to the science center for the day with some of my favorite short people :)
Hope you are having a great day 
Tasha :)

Stamping Royalty 2013 Blog Hop

Hello, and a happy Friday to you :)

Welcome to the stamping Royalty 2013 blog hop.  Today I am hopping along with the other 14 winners of the 2013 stamping royalty competition.  I'd really like to thank the Paper Crafts team once more for picking my  lil'ole'card. :)

Since I am the first stop on the hop, you should have arrived here from the Paper Carfts Connection blog. I will post a full hop list on the bottom just in-case you need it ;)

For this hop, we all picked one of the 5 competion categories. ( Birthday, Christmas/seasons greetings, Hello/Thinking of you, Love and Thank you).

I have a birthday card to share.

When I saw this photograph on Pintrest a while back,

Image Source

I was immediately inspired to make a card with my PTI Ikat stamp set.  I just knew it would be bold and beautiful.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out.

I created the background by stamping on kraft card stock with black versafine ink.  I added some shimmer with a starglaze pen and embossed it with the linen and canvas impression plate by PTI, added some gems and mounted it onto a black background. The sentiment is heat embossed with Brown sugar zing powder.
I hope you liked my card for today, and thank you so much for visiting me :)

Now I cannot let you leave without doing a little giveaway, can I? Sooo....

I will be giving away  this prize to one lucky person who leaves a comment below.
You ave until 11:59 pm EST on Tues, July 23rd to leave a comment. I will announce the winner on my blog, on Wednesday July 24th. GOOD LUCK! :)

Now I am sure you are eager to move on, so I will send you onward to the lovely LALO

And last but not least. Here is a full list of the hop:

Natasha Kara  (ME!)

Lalo Ik

Courtney Kelley

Katie Gehring

Jennifer Rzasa

Jean Martin

Alicia Thelin

Sarah J. Moerman

Joni Andaya

Nina Yang

Emily Leiphart

Pamela Ho

Amy Kolling

Ilina Crouse

Shelly Kurth

So, go on...get outta here. Go see what the others have in store  for you. :)))
Natasha



 

Textured Fun Blog Hop & Giveaway

Hi everyone and welcome to the Textured Fun blog hop. Today we are showcasing the Textured tiles stamp set.

You should have arrived here from the lovely Wida Miller.
I am so, so honored to be hopping with these AWESOME card makers. These are some seriously talented ladies and I am humbled to be in such company :)

Without further ado I give you my card:

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE color!  I have been told I have a "colorful" personality, (which I take as a compliment) he,he!
For this card I drew heavy inspiration from the African Ndebele prints.

Image source

Don't you just love the color and geometric prints?
I used the single outline triangle along with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig to create the pattern. I also used the strip of tiny triangles to create a border and the tiny little ones to fill in and add something extra.
I colored the triangles in with copics and then used a clear, ZIG wink of stella brush to add some shimmer. I then used glossy accents to add some dimension.  I mounted the strip to a piece of wood paper. I die cut the bottom edge with a pinking border die. The sentiment is from the Avery Elle Blooming banner set. For the background I used the striped rectangle in the textured tiles set that I heat embossed with clear embossing power.

Now what is a hop without a giveaway?  ;)

Nina will be drawing three random winners from the hop to receive some yummy items, so leave a comment on this post, and check Nina's blog on the 22nd to see if you are one of the lucky winners. Good luck!
These are such fun sets to play with. If you have them please go HERE, and link your projects up, I know Nina would love to see how you used her stamps. 

Well,next up on the hop is the talented Amanda Coleman. 

Here's the full hop list order:
Nina YangDanielle Walls
Taheerah Atchia
Suzanne Dhalberg
Wida Miller
Natasha Kara (me!)
Amanda Coleman
Pamela Ho
Joni Andaya
Laurie Willison

Just before I let you go.... The winners or the Stamping Royalty contest are participating in a blog hop this Friday ( July 19th) so be sure to join us, I can guarantee some inspiration :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day
Natasha :)

Filled with Gratitude.

Hello beautiful people :)
So, I entered a contest a few weeks back called Stamping Royalty.  I only managed to enter three cards, since I ran out of time, (as usual! ;)) and did not hold out much hope.  I knew there were going to be a LOT of entries and shrugged it off, figuring, I'll try harder next year.

Well!  You can imagine my surprise and delight to see an e-mail in my mailbox on Friday, informing me that I, ( YES, ME, Natasha Kara!!!) had WON!  I screeched, hugged my son, who I was picking up from school, and did a very geeky happy dance.  I have been so filled with joy and gratitude that I have not stopped smiling.

I was asked to keep it a secret until the big reveal today.  Here's the post on the Paper Crafts blog.  

I cannot thank the Paper crafts team enough for selecting my little ole card. :)
And I can't thank all the wonderful crafty friends out there, for all the well wishes, and screams of joy for me.
So without further ado... I give you a card I made especially for the occasion.

Thank you all, once again.
I can't wait to see the winners of the other four categories. So exciting! :)
Tasha

Celebrate today.

Hello there. :)
I am back today to share another card I made to enter into the PTI anniversary contest.
For this one I used THIS beauty from Jess Witty as my inspiration.
Aren't those colors divine? I did not have the patience to make a piece of jewelry so went with a card inspired by the colors instead.
Here it is:

I started by die cutting the frame and using the negative as a mask. I inked the background with distress inks and stamped over it with a text background stamp fro Hero Arts. I stamped the flower and sentiment into the window before removing the mask. I stamped the flower several times onto plain white card stock and colored them in with copics. I then added some shimmer with a star dust gelly roll pen and covered it in a layer of glossy accents.  Once it was dry. I cut out the layers of the flower and assembled it with foam dots. I then adhered it to the card base over the stamped image.

Thanks for visiting:)
Tasha
 

Papertrey Anniversary cards.

This is my second post for today. I decided it would be easier to split them up.  So first up I have a card to share for today's challenge. I used sketch NO.5

And here's my card:

I kept it very simple. I stamped the bursts from the funky florals set in different colors and then went over each one with a gelly roll stardust pen to add some shimmer.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in black before I ran the panel through my bigshot with my linen/canvas impression plate.  I foam mounted it onto a plain white card base and that is it. :)

 Next up I have 2 submissions for the day one inspiration contest. This time I used THIS card by Cristina Kowalczyk.
Here's my cards:

What I LOVED about Christinas card was the repeatative stamping of the squares.  For the first one I stamped the medalions using Royal velvet and Simply chartreuse.  I stamped the greeting with smokey shadow and added a strip of score tape with black glitter ritz to the bottom. Lastly I rounded the two top corners.

AND....

 For this one I stamped half of the medallion on the bottom of the piece of card stock in Simply Chartreuse.  Next I stamped the whole medallion with Summer sunrise.  Then I masked off the card and stamped half of the medallion on the top with Melon berry. I added two strips of score tape to the top and bottom  in 1/4 and 1/2 inch widths and  burnished it with grasshopper green Glitter ritz. I stamped the greeting with Smokey shadow.

And that's it for today folks. I'm hoping to keep this streak going so don't fall over if you hear from me in the next few days ;)
Have a great day!
Tasha :)))

Clean and simple class cards.

I hope you all had a great Sunday. I have 2 cards to share that I made for the clean and simple class.
First up I have a card for  Day 2.

For this one I used one of Jennifer's cards as inspiration except I executed it a little differently.  I used a multicolor ink pad to stamp and clear emboss the sentiment, and I then made a mask from one of the my favorite things fishtail flag dies.  I sponged on some tumbled glass distress ink and gave the whole card a spray of Studio Calico shimmer spray. (you can't really tell in the photo, but it looks real pretty in real life.)  Lastly I added some Studio Calico stars that I colored by pressing into the ink pad I used for the sentiment :)


Next up:

I am submitting this one for the day 9 assignment. I used a textured watercolor paper and water color pint to make the background. I then stamped the image and sentiment and filled in any spots with a fine liner pen.  I then added a layer of Fairy mist paint that I inherited from a cousin of mine that has the most amazing glittery shimmer.  Again this is hard to see in the photo, but trust me it is there.  For more impact I added some clear gems to mimic stars. I matted the panel onto a navy piece of card stock the I die cut the edges with the pinking shears die from PTI and foam mounted it onto some plain white card stock.

This is going to be the first of two posts for today. so I'll see you later:)
Tasha

Inspired by Jess Witty

So, I have TWO posts in ONE day now? Wow!  Talk about being on a roll ;)) I am so  happy to be getting ( by that I mean...TAKING) time to stamp.  I feel energized. 
I have another card to share for the Papertrey ink Anniversary challenge (can you tell how badly I want to win that AWESOME prize. ;)))

So for this card I used  THIS  card  of Jess Witty's that I went GAGA for when Lovely layers was released.
Here's my take:

Not that different I know. But I think that's cause you really can''t improve upon perfection ;)
I experimented with the funky florals set. I don't have the die so I stamped the flowers on to Raspberry fizz, summer sunrise and spring moss card stock. I  cut slits into the flowers and distressed the edges. I then spread a layer of glossy accents onto the flowers and let them dry. Once dry, I stacked them with pop dots.  I added some bling and leaves.  Oh, and on Jess's card the hexagon frame was adhered to a black base. I had the white frame on a white base and I filled the hexagon shapes in with black card stock so it is more of an even finish to the base. I stamped a Hero Arts greeting onto a banner and adhered it to the front. :)

Hope you guys are having as much fun as I am today. I'm hoping to get a tag made for today's challenge.
Have a great evening :)
Tasha

Fly butterfly.

Happy Saturday!
I finally managed to get some crafting time in this week.  I have been wanting to make a few cards for the Papertrey ink 6th anniversary celebration as well as the clean and simple card class that I am taking. Now since time is of the essence, it helps to kill two birds with one stone ;) So for the Clean and simple day 2 assignment, the homewark was to create a one layer card. And for the PTI challenge,  the design team each selected 6 of their favorite cards from last year and our challenge was to use one of them as inspiration for our cards. (Well.....  That is not hard to do).

So my first card was created using this cards from Maile Belles.  I have LOVED this card from the first time I saw it, and was a BIG reason I got the beautiful butterflies set.  I just adore it.  It is one of my all time favorite sets.
Here's my card:

What I loved about Maile's card was the butterflies appeared to be flying off the page. So I used a half  die cut idea that I learned from Amber a while back. I stamped the butterflies and then used prisma color pencils to shade the butterflies and give them depth and dimension. I added a bit of shimmer to them with a clear star jelly roll pen. I then outlined each one with a light grey copic marker. 

Thanks for stopping by :))
Tasha

Online card class day 1 on day 4

Hi ;)
I signed up for the Clean and simple 2 online card class that started on Monday and although I have been very inspired with tons of ideas. I have not had any time to do any of the "homework". My youngest son is sick so it was off to the Doctor, and my older 2 are at school with different schedules so lots of time dropping and fetching = no time to play.  Soooo, my homework is late. I am hoping to do all the assignments but I'll probably be behind on all of them.

So for my first assignment I chose Kristina's first sketch.  and used my new PTI with all my heart stamp set and heart dies.  Here's my card:

I used the Hero Arts woodgrain background stamp with soft stone on the panel and smokey shadow for the banner.
Thanks for visiting :)
Natasha

Sharing and smiling.

Hello there:)
So, as I said in my post yesterday, I am hoping to spend more time this year creating and sharing. Today I thought I would share a card I made for the July/August Paper Crafts Magazine submission call that  was not accepted. I did get one card picked up that I LOVED ( I don't usually LOVE many of my cards.). So I am very excited to see it in print. 

Moving along then... This card was based on the second sketch. 

I heat embossed the dots and flowers background stamp onto white watercolor paper with silver embossing powder. I then colored it in with distress stains and sprayed it with pearl water. Once it was dry, I chopped it into quarters and mounted each piece onto terracotta tile matte. I adhered the pieces to a cream card base with foam tape and added some silver brads to the corners.  I die cut the sentiment frame and heat embossed it with clear powder.  I also heat embossed the sentiment with silver powder. 

Thanks for stopping by :)
Natasha

PTI January Blog Hop

Wow! It's been a while.  Things have been crazy and I have been VERY neglectful of my little blog :(  I promised myself I would spend more time crafting and sharing this year, so hopefully I will share more often.

Today I have a card to share that I made for the Papertrey ink blog hop.  The challenge was to create a card with a black background.  

When I started this was NOT what I was going for, but it is what I ended up with so I'm going with it, lol! :)  Hopefully I'll find some time to finish the first one. 

I covered a two pieces of black card stock with a Nesties die, and created a card base. I covered the front with score tape (before I die cut it), and covered the surface with black glitter ritz . I heat embossed another piece of black card stock with stitches and swirls using clear embossing powder and die cut it using the smaller die.  I attached it to the base with foam tape. The flowers were die cut using PTI felt in Raspberry fizz and true black. I layered the flowers and added a clear Swarovski crystal to the center. I die cut a banner with the photo finishers die and stamped the sentiment from damask designs with smokey shadow ink. 

Thanks for stopping by :) 
Natasha