Kimmie's Challenge #4!!!

I'm heading into a very busy week!! Two people are on holidays this week at the library, so I am working full time hours. Good for the bank account......bad for stampin' time!! Emileigh is also getting a school award for honours at a ceremony on Wednesday night......we are SO proud of her!!! AND I am up to my eyeballs in pink giraffes and D'vine Swirls, making the 25 baby shower invitations that were ordered and I should have those done early this week!!

Anyhoo, all this to tell ya that I may be a bit behind with my blog this week, but I'm going to do my best!! That's why I'm posting this on Sunday night.....trying to stay ahead of the game!! I'm so organized.........don't laugh Mom!! It could happen!!!

Speaking of baby cards........you all made some great ones for last week's challenge!! So adorable!! The randomly chosen winner is...........TRICIA!!! Yippee!! Send me your mailing address Tricia and I will send off a little goodie for you!!

Now to this week's challenge!!! I decided to pull out one of my favourite High Hopes stamps called Jolie's Little Friend!! It was one of the images that Tina said ladies were falling in love with and purchasing because of the card I made for her, which you can see here!! This stamp is just so sweet.....the little girl in her denim overalls taking time to visit with her little wormy friend!! Heehee!!

Anyway, I stamped her on Shimmery White in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and using the colours from my Cutie Pie patterned paper from SU, I coloured her in with my SU markers! I doodled a frame and matted her on Bashful Blue and So Saffron. The layout is one I totally winged!! I had a scrap piece of the dp and matted it on BB, then attached a scalloped piece of Certainly Celery on the side and wrapped some BB grosgrain ribbon around both pieces. I stamped the 'hello' sentiment by Papertrey on some white twill and attached it with some SU brads! And the ink didn't run on the twill!!! I love it when a plan comes together!!! To finish it off I just added a Magenta white flower with an SU button and linen thread in the center!!! You like???

SO, this week's challenge is to use the layout or sketch of this card as your inspiration!! Make sure it's a square card (you know how I love squares) and use the basic design to inspire your creation!!! If you upload it to your gallery at SCS, be sure to put KC4 in the keywords, so everyone can pull them up easily to look at!! And don't forget to post a link to your gallery or blog in this posting!!!

Hope you all have a stampin' good week!!!

Trick or Treat!!

A few weeks ago I picked up a couple of these bare wood gift bag type thingies at Michael's in the $1.50 section and had this fabulous idea to alter them but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. Well, yesterday's challenge on SCS was to do a card or item about/with/shaped like....food! Well, what better food is there than candy, I ask you??? So this gave me the perfect excuse to get to work!



Firstly I painted the edges and the tops of the insides of the bags with black craft paint, so when it was finished and filled with treats, you couldn't see any bare wood. Secondly, I picked out my Hallowe'enie patterned paper by K and Company (a different one for each bag) and traced the front and back covers on the back of the pp and cut them out. I also cut out coordinating cardstock for the sides and stamped on them with my new Spooked Lizzie Anne stamp set that I got from my Secret Pal! I adhered each piece of paper using mod podge and tried to get out all the air bubbles. After it was dry I mod podged all over the outside to give it a nice shiny finish and also that way none of the paper would accidently get torn or ripped off in all the candy induced excitement at Hallowe'en!!



I stamped the haunted house stamp in black on Pumpkin Pie cardstock and matted it on Basic Black and also Lovely Lilac, some spooky holiday colours and added these cute little felt bats that I got at the dollar store. I wrapped a piece of ribbon all around the bag and attached the focal piece over top of that. Then I grabbed all my black, purple, orange and green ribbons and tied them alternately all along the one side of the handle and then at the end, I added a tag and a Hallowe'en charm (that I got at the LSS). I figure the charms they can take off and put on a necklace, bracelet or keychain.


Anyway, it was a lot of work....took me all morning to do both of them but I think they turned out super cute!!

A Christmas Wreath!!

I love this beautiful holiday wreath stamp by Pink Cat Studio! This one I picked up unmounted individually at my local scrapbook store a couple of weeks ago and thought I would play with it yesterday (in between working on baby shower invites).

The sketch challenge (#143) that was posted on SCS yesterday was a perfect one to use with this image. So I pulled out some Dasher dp by Basic Grey and used the plaid design along with the dark red one. I stamped the image on shimmery white cardstock in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink (love that stuff)! And then I coloured in my image with my SU markers. You'll notice that I went back in an shaded some of the leaves darker to give the image a little more depth. Then I sponged all around the edge of the main image with River Rock ink and the patterned pieces I sponged with Walnut Stain distress ink by Ranger. I made little criss crosses on the two sides using my 1/16th hole punch and some linen thread. For a finishing touch I added some sparkle in the middle of the wreaths with my Stardust Sakura gel pen!!

Today is another yucky, rainy day in St. Thomas so I'm hoping to get a lot of stamping done!! Don't forget to enter your baby cards in this week's Kimmie's Challenge!!! There have been some super cute ones so far!!!

A Snowman's Best Friend!!

Well, it's a rainy yucky day here in SW Ontario.........and I'm off until this evening, so I'm gonna PLAY!! Yippee!! There are so many challenges to do, some many stamps to ink up and not nearly enough time. This workin' thing is really cramping my style!!! BUT, my Mojo was flowin' when I made this card, if I do say so myself!! heehee!!

As you have probably guessed, this is the other Whipper Snapper stamp that I was able to purchase this past weekend and I LOVE it!! It's called A Snowman's Best Friend and it took a while to colour! The challenge on Sherry and Jeanne's blogs this week was to play with a stamp that has never seen ink before, so this one was perfect!! Also it's a start on my Christmas cards, which is Jen's challenge this week!!!

The sketch over at Julee's blog for Mojo Monday #4 was specifically for a bigger image, so this stamp definitely fit that bill.....this is a 6x6 card and look how big that stamp is!!! Not room for much else on the card!!

So I started by stamping the image on watercolour paper using Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink. I used my craft inks and my Aquapainter and this is the first time I've ever used this particular technique. It was much more like painting I think, as the ink is much thicker. I also used my Prismacolour pencils and OMS to do the black parts. Then I added some sparkle on the hat buckle and the jingle bells with my Sakura Stardust gel pen. The cardstock is Bravo Burgundy and the patterned paper is Holly Argyle by Provocraft. One of my other treasures this weekend was a Precious Metal Hardware kit in Pewter by We R Memory Keepers. So I used a couple of pieces on this card. There's a funky photo turn at the top and the round bookplate fits the Riveting stamps which I used here and I attached it with some tan gingham!!

Now like I said, this is my first time using craft inks to colour a project, but I think it turned out okay........practice makes perfect, right???

You little Whipper Snapper!!!!!!

Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE Whipper Snapper stamps???? Yes?? And have I mentioned how hard it is to FIND Whipper Snapper stamps around here??? WELL!! When I was at the Sarnia Scrapbook Show on the weekend, I found a store that carries them!!! Woohooooo!! Happy, happy, happy!!!

The store is called The Town Scrapper in Petrolia, Ontario and the lovely lady that owns the store is Phebe! Well, she had a bit of a sale on, so I HAD to get TWO WS stamps!! The one I am sharing today is the image that I first saw on THIS card by Anna Wight, my stamping hero!!! Now mine pales in comparison to her lovely card but I have been wanting this stamp for a year and half now and I finally own it!! Heehee!!

I started out trying to decided what colours I wanted my cuddly friends to be! I thought that Groovy Guava and Soft Sky would be nice, so I grabbed some leftover dp from the Happy Me Simply Scrappin' Kit and used Beate's Weekend Sketch #20 and went to town. I had to adjust the sketch a little because my image was a tad larger but I love the layout! I used my Aquapainter and inks to colour them, doodled around the frame and matted all the papers. Then I added some Soft Sky double stitched ribbon and the sentiment is from Thoughtful Phrases by Verve Visual!! I used my Word Window Punch and then added two rhinestone flowers by Heidi Swapp!! The main image is popped up too, by the way!!

So I am entering this card in the Verve Visual card contest which closes this weekend!! There are some fabulous prizes so be sure to enter!!! Have a wonderful day!!!

Kimmie's Challenge #3!!!

Welcome back..........your dreams are your ticket out!!! Welcome back!! Sorry, I've had the theme song from Welcome Back Kotter stuck in my head for a while now and I had to share!!

Well, I am back!! So sorry that I haven't posted over the weekend but it's been a rather busy one for me!! I worked all week, Friday I got done at 5pm and I had a workshop at 6:30pm!! In between work and the class I had to race home, eat, load up my car, take my daughter to babysit, get to the Superstore and set up the stations for 5 cards! Whew!! I didn't get home until after 10pm. Sunday we had to take our pool down for the winter........I hate to even say that!! But that took up most of our day and then we had to run Emmy to her volunteer hours at the hockey game in town this evening.

But the BEST part of the weekend was going to the Sarnia Scrapbook Show on Saturday!! WOOHOO!! I had to get up at the crack of dawn....well, 7am is early to me on a Saturday....and drive an hour and a half to Sarnia and I met my Mommy.....she is the bestest!!! We got there for 10 am when the doors opened and let me tell you....there were some crazy women there!! I mean, I know I'm a little obssessed and ummmm...shall we say passionate about papercrafting but golly, some of these gals were nuts, yellin' and hootin'!! Anyway, it was at the Holiday Inn and they had one of those giant banquet rooms PACKED with vendors who had paper, stamps, ink, punches, sb albums, stickers, stickles, ribbon...you name it!!! It was all so overwhelming!!

The very first booth we came to as we went in the room, was the best one there and it was the WHOLE reason I went.........it was the High Hopes Rubber Stamps booth!!! And none other than the owner Tina Russell, was there!!!! It was so awesome to finally meet her after corresponding only by email until now!! It was actually quite funny though, because she was waiting on a customer when we got there, so Mom and I sort of hung around behind and I saw Tina's daughter whispering to her friend and when we finally got up there she said, "You're one of our Design Divas, aren't you??"! Hahahaha!!! I felt like a total celebrity!!!

I must say it really was so cool to see the cards I designed displayed at the Show and to watch people comment on them! Tina told me that even a couple of ladies purchased some of the new stamps specifically because they saw them used on cards that I had created!! How amazing is that feeling???

Anyway, before I left, Tina handed me a WHOLE SHEET of soon to be released High Hopes Stamps!!!!! Aaaaahhhh!! No one else has them yet and they aren't even on the website yet!! Woohoo........am I a lucky girl??! Yes, ma'am!! I can't wait to get busy inkin' them up! Maybe I'll have some sneak peeks for you soon!!!

Okay, there were some fantastic entries for last week's colour challenge!! I'm really glad to see you having fun with all the challenges being posted lately on everyone's blogs! I don't know about you, but they keep me inspired and motivated!! The random winner for Challenge #2 is........Scrapping Donna!!!! She is fairly new to blogging, so if you haven't been over there yet, go pay her a little visit and leave some blogging love!!



This week's challenge is going to be a Theme Challenge!!! Last week a friend of mine hired me to make some Baby Shower Invitations and Party Favours. I've posted both designs that I showed to her and she couldn't decided which one she liked better, so I am making them both!! My challenge to you is to create a baby card! It can be an invitation, a welcome to baby, a congratulations card and it can be for a boy or a girl!! Whatever, just make sure it's baby-themed!!

Don't forget to link it up here in this posting when you upload it to your gallery or blog and if you post it on SCS, be sure to use the keywords KC3, so everyone can check them out!!

Tag.........You're IT!!!

Yesterday Julee tagged me with this fun little game!!!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Sugar Corolla (Now that sounds more like an answer for #9!!)
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Mint Chocolate Chip Chocolate Chip......oh yeah, that's a tough gangsta name!! Can't ya just see me with my baggy pants and my shiny grills?? *snort*
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) K-Rei......not quite J-Lo, is it?? If it were my maiden name it would be even worse....K-Pic.....baaaahahaha!!
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Pink Hedgehog
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Diana Wallaceburg.....my hometown is just not snooty sounding enough
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Reiki......kinda cool!
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Purple Sling.........ever had a Singapore Sling???
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Richard Terry....that sounds about right!!
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Happy SweetTart........jinkies!!
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names) Elizabeth Raymond

Go ahead and try it, it's hilarious!! If you haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged and share your new names with me in the comments on this posting!! COME ON!!! I wanna hear 'em!!!

Autumn Watercolour

Today I am busy preparing for a Stamp Camp on Friday night and I thought I would share one of the projects I designed! (I think this one is my favourite!)

I used the new Autumn Harvest stamp set from the mini catalgoue and this is my first stamp set from SU that is a die cut set. This means ...... no trimming!! Woohoo! It was awesome to just pop them out, put them on the wood blocks and go to town! I really hope they keep this up and make EVERYTHING in the catalogue die cut!

Anyway, I decided to teach watercolouring on this card, so I stamped the small pumpkin on a piece of watercolour paper and then masked it and stamped the large one over top. I used my black Stazon ink of course, so that the image wouldn't run when I used the ink and water to paint it. Then I used my Aquapainter with SU inks and painted it using Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and So Saffron. I put that aside to dry while I stamped the leaves and acorns on the OO paper and did my sentiment on the middle strip and attached it to the card base which is Sahara Sand. I matted the main piece on Chocolate Chip and used my slot punch, punched two times end to end to create a slot wide enough for that delicious Chocolate Chip satin ribbon!!! A very elegant Thanksgiving card!! Hey, what do you think of the sketch??? Maybe I'll use it for a future sketch challenge!!

Don't forget to enter this week's Kimmie's Challenge!! It's a fantastic colour combo challenge and you have several days left to enter!!

Go Piggy Go!!

I just love this little piggy......he believes he can do anything!! And he inspires me!! So I knew that the Thoughtful Phrases sentiment from Verve Visual would go perfectly with him! Doesn't he look happy? Heehee!

For this card I started out using Colleen's Thursday Throwdown sketch and since I knew that my image would need pinks and browns, I pulled out my Basic Grey Blush patterned papers. I stamped the Magenta Piggy image in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink on shimmery white paper and coloured and shaded them with my SU markers. I took the colours from the paper and used Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Real Read, Pumpkin Pie and Mellow Moss for the grass and then I did a bit of shading with Sahara Sand. The image is matted on Real Red, then Chocolate Chip and dressed up with some ric rac, pink brads, Prima flowers and I used the Round Tab Punch to feature the sentiment 'you inspire me'!!

Now if you love this stamp as much as you loved my Horse stamp, you can order it in wood mounted or cling backed (which is cheaper to ship)from Nancy at Stamp Art. I got her to order some in for myself and my Mom, so I know she has some in the store, while they last!!! If you'd like to order one, I suggest you email her right away!!

Fall's My Favourite....

Fall is my absolute, hands-down favourite time of year! I love the crispness of the air, going for walks wearing my snuggly sweaters, the autumn decorations.....aaah! Last night I did one of my favourite things on a cool Fall evening....I lit a yummy smelling jar candle.....it's called Pumpkin Spice and I got at Michael's on sale yesterday...heehee!

Anyway, the new Mellow patterned papers by Basic Grey really have a Fall-ish feel to them, so I used them on this card!! I will be submitting it to the Verve Visual card contest as I featured my Thoughtful Phrases stamp set on it. I just LOVE those little sentiments....they fit so perfectly on a card without taking over the whole design. If you don't have a set yet......GO GET THEM!!

I started out with my papers, not knowing which ones I would use, but using them for colour inspiration. I also used Beate's Weekend Sketch #19 for this card (LOVE her sketches!). I stamped this cute little raggedy girl stamp called Annie's Bushel which is made by High Hopes. I coloured her in using my SU markers in Blush Blossom, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red and Old Olive. Then I used my Aquapainter and use the OO to make a floor for her to stand on and I went all around her body lightly with River Rock...not sure if you can tell in the photo. I used my ticket corner punch and then distressed the edges using my Ranger Distress ink in Walnut Stain, then matted it on Ruby Red cardstock. The card base is a 5 1/2 inch square of Chocolate Chip and then the striped patterned paper is distressed around the edges too. The second layer is another of the pp's, distressed, matted on CC and I punched two eyelets in the top corners. I added some fall coloured Prima Flowers and an orange button with linen thread and also two layers of grosgrain ribbon at the bottom!!!

Be sure to try Kimmie's Challenge #2 this week....it's a fab colour combo. I've already had a couple of entries and I'd love to see YOURS!!!

Kimmie's Challenge #2!!!

What a great response to my first challenge!!! I'm SO glad you liked it!! The random winner for this week is........ Pat - foodpartyfun!! Yaaaay, Pat! Just click on her name to see her card which is posted in her SCS gallery!! Just email me your mailing address Pat and I will get your little giftie out to you this week!!!

On to Kimmie's Challenge #2!! This week, I thought we'd try a Colour Combination Challenge!! This is a card I made for Julee's Mojo Monday challenge last week! She provided the sketch and part of the challenge was that I had to include some leftover stuff on my card! Well the only 'new' items on my card are the pretty Daisy Bucket Designs patterned papers and the image itself. All the other papers were cut from or punched out of leftover scraps of paper on my desk!!

So the card base is Wild Wasabi and the mat is Purely Pomegranate. The main image is the snowman from my Christmas in the City stamp set by Lizzie Anne Designs. (You can get this adorable set from Lindsey over at Jacksonbelle Embellishments!!) I stamped him in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink on Shimmery White paper. Then I used my Aquapainter and watercoloured him with my ink pads. I shaded him a bit with Bashful Blue and then used Stardust Stickles to make him sparkle!! The first mat is WWasabi and I used my distressing tool on that layer. Then I punched a Giga Scalloped Circle from PPomegranate and dotted each scallop with my Sakura Black Glaze gel pen. I also stamped the swirly stamp from Baroque Motifs on top of the green patterned paper and some snowflakes from the LAnne stamp set on the PP layer. I stamped the sentiment on whisper white, layered it in WW, punched a hole in the top to make it look like it's hanging from the PP double stitched ribbon, but it's really just stuck to the card.

SO.........the challenge is to use this colour combination in your card!! NOW, don't worry if you don't have Stampin' Up colours!!!! PLEASE play along with whatever you do have that is close to this colour combo!! Just use LIGHT PINK, ROSEY PINK AND GREEN!!! You can use ANY stamps and ANY sketch.....just be sure to use this yummy colour combo!!

So be sure to comment in THIS post and link up your creations, so everyone can see!! And if you upload yours to the Splitcoaststampers gallery, be sure to include the keyword - KC2!! Happy Stamping!!!

Autumn Resist!!

Here is the other card that got chosen as a VSN favourite!! The challenge was to use the resist technique on your card. Now the picture is a little crooked because my time was running out to get it uploaded to the gallery, my camera gave out and I hade to run downstairs to get the other camera, then my desktop computer was giving me trouble so I had to fire up the laptop and upload it there!! And I don't have PhotoShop on my laptop to make my picture all straight and cropped properly!! BUT I still won...heehee!!

Anyway, I love this new set by SU called Autumn Harvest. I love it's sketchy design and knew it would be perfect with the crayon resist technique. So I stamped the images on Glossy white cardstock. First I stamped them using my Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink, which you know is my favourite. BUT it didn't dry fast enough and started to smear when I used my white crayon on it. SO I did another piece using Black Stazon ink and it dried much quicker. I went in with my white crayon and highlighted a few spots on each of the images. Then I took the four ink colours that I had chosen ahead of time and using sponge daubers, I rubbed the ink straight onto the cardstock in a circular motion. The colours I used are Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa and Elegant Eggplant. I trimmed it down, matted it on Basic Black then I stamped a few of the leaves and acorns on the card base, added some ribbon, Prima flowers and the sentiment which is by Inkadinkado. The sketch is also one of Beate's weekly sketches!

Hope you are having a lovely fall weekend. If you have time to stamp today, you can still enter my Kimmie's Challenge #1 and tomorrow I will post the random winner and a new challenge!!

September's Kool Krafter!!!

One of the most exciting things to me about this little addiction....hehem..I mean, hobby of mine...is all the amazing friends that I have made!! I mean, we've never met or even talked on the phone, but I feel like I know you all!! Do you know what I mean??

I first met this Krafty lady over on Splitcoaststampers....you may know her as 'jacksonbelle'!! YES!! Her name is Lindsey Botkin and she is a FANTABULOUS stamper!!! If you haven't visited her blog yet....my goodness, you are missin' out!! She has such a unique style and all her creations have so much gorgeous texture, I just wanna reach out and touch 'em!!

She is also my 'dealer' for all my Lizzie Anne and Basic Grey fixes!! Heh, heh!! Her blog has a link straight to her online store called Jacksonbelle Embellishments. I know first hand that she is amazing to deal with. So without further ado, here is a little bit about Lindsey!!!



Hello! I am so super excited to be Kimmie's September Kool Krafter!! It means alot to me that she'd pick me! I just admire her work so much and am a faithful blog stalker of hers! ;) So thank you Kimmie!!! :)

I am a stamp at home mom with two adorable little boys, 4 and 16 months and have been married for 6 1/2 years! WOW how time flies! I was introduced to stamping about 4 years ago. It took me about 6 months to really get into it. But when I got into it I went crazy! I signed up to be a Stampin' Up! demo and saw my little hobby turning into a way of life! ;)



These days I am SO lucky and honored to be a Freelance Designer for Inkadinkado and Hampton Art, and am on the ever so talented Lizzie Anne Designs Design Team! This past year I've also added Store Owner to my title when I opened my Ebay store! Gosh...can you say OBSESSED! :) I feel like a lucky lady at this stage in life having met so many wonderful people and lifelong friends. Feel free to drop by and say hello anytime! :)



Well, I am working all day today (Saturday), so no crafting for me....booooo! But you all have a great day!! And don't forget to join in this week's Sketch Challenge...you have until Sunday at noon to share it and get in on the random drawing!!! Toodles!!

Baby It's Cold Outside!!

I know I said I was going to show you my other VSN winning card, but I'm so excited about this one....I changed my mind!! A girl's allowed to do that, right???

The sketch challenge this week on SCS is a great one, so if you haven't used it yet, give it a whirl. For this card I got to play with my new Christmas in the City stamp set that I won in the Lizzie Anne contest on Lindsey's blog!! I inked it up for the first time this week and stamped this cute little snowman on Shimmery White paper in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink. I watercoloured the image using my Aquapainter and my SU inks. Then I remembered that Jeanne posted a 'Just Because We Wanna' challenge to add glitter and sparkles to your card, so I decided to try out the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique. I had forgotten that I even had the supplies to do this.....can you believe that??? Hahaha!! So I pounced my Versamark pad all over the focal image, sprinkled my Iridescent Ice embossing powder all over it and heated it up with my heat tool. What a simple technique but what a gorgeous effect!! I'm totally doing that one again....soon!!

So I matted it on Pretty in Pink and then Bashful Blue which matches the patterned papers I used from the Winter Bright SU kit. I stamped the snowflakes on the Wild Wasabi card base and sponged everything. I added some pink Taffeta ribbon and stamped the sentiment on there by just inking up each word or set of words separately and then stamping them where I wanted them on the paper. I also got to use my new Martha Stewart snowflake punch (for which I used a 40% off coupon on at Michael's) and punched out two snowflakes from some white Sugarcoated cardstock and added a pink rhinestone in the middle of each one. I pop dotted the main image and there ya go.....a non-traditional Christmas card or just a winter notecard....you choose!!

Tomorrow I will be featuring another Kool Krafter....any guesses as to who she is???

And don't forget, you still have a couple of days to enter my Sketch Challenge #1!! Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Make Like a Tree......and Leave!!!

Yikes-a-bee!!!!! I am just floating on air this morning and I'll tell you why!!!

Have you been over to Splticoaststampers lately?? There are some AH-MAAAAAAAZING artists over there and although I join in some of the daily challenges for inspiration, I know I'm not really in their league.

Well, I had last weekend off from work and I had some time to craft in my studio so I joined in on some of the Virtual Stampin Night challenges.....4 of them to be exact. I've already shared two of them with you....the 2,4,6,8 box and the Lovey Hedgehog card. Well, last night they posted the list of the hostess favourites in each challenge..........and my name is up there TWICE!!! Mother of Pearl!!.....I prit' near had a heart attack!! I got all teary and sappy!! I just couldn't believe that two of my cards got chosen as faves!!

So anyway, I'm going to share one with you today!! This one was made for a challenge called 'Make Like a Tree.....and Leave!!' All the challenges had to do with 'Fall' so they all had cool names! The challenge was to create a card for someone leaving or a bon voyage card or a sympathy card. Well, my little 'Waddle I Do Without You?' stamps by High Hopes were perfect for this challenge!!! I chose soft colours for this one and used some lovely Tres Jolie papers by My Mind's Eye and chose my colours from there. I stamped my duckie in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink on shimmery white cardstock and coloured him in using my SU markers in Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal and Gable Green, then doodled the little frame. The card base is So Saffron and I matted using Gable Green on the top and bottom pieces and Apricot Appeal on the middle. The sketch is actually from the Card Positioning Systems website. I stamped the sentiment straight on the bottom, punched the edges with my slot punch and added some polka dot organdy ribbon. Then I added three prima flowers with white brads and pop dotted the focal image!!

I'll share the other card with you next time but if you'd like to see the list of all the challenges and favourites, just click here!!

2-4-6-8......here's a box that's really GREAT!!!

I had forgotten how quick and easy these little 2-4-6-8 boxes are to make. You can make them shorter, like mine or use a whole sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock and make them taller too. This was made for a VSN challenge last weekend on SCS, to make a little Trick or Treat container.

I started out with my piece of 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Lovely Lilac cardstock and scored it 2 inches from the bottom and then across the other way at 2, 4, 6, and 8 inches. I stamped a little Michael's bat stamp all over it in Basic Black, then I sponged all the folds, tops and bottoms and then cut up from the bottom to the fold crossways. I adhered the bottom and sides using Tacky Tape to be sure it stays together. (If you'd like to see a tutorial on this, Amy has a great one here.) I cut a piece of patterned paper to go around the middle of the box and added a watercoloured pumpkin stamped image, matted on LL and then BB, which I attached at a jaunty angle!! I used my slot punch to make the holes at the side to thread the black grosgrain ribbon through for a handle and attached them with brads. Then I added a little tag at the side with some linen thread and stamped it with another Michael's stamp that says Spooky Stuff! To finish it off I added a little green froggie button!! A quick and easy, festive little container for those yummy Hallowe'en treats......keep in mind I would only do this for the special Tricksters on my list!!!

How are you doing with Sketch Challenge #1?? I've already had several entries and I hope you can join in the fun!!!

Verve Contest Card!!

Have you been over to Julee's blog?? Actually the Verve Visual blog has all the details......there's a contest going on!!! And I KNOW how you all love contests!! There are several prizes too, so hop on over and check it out!!!

This is one of the cards I have entered into the contest, which is to make a card that features some of the Verve Visual stamps!! This was my first time playing with my new Fancy Florals set and I just wanna tell you that these are high quality unmounted rubber!! They were awesome to play with!!

Now you will notice that these are a little different than my regular style but every once in a while I like to veer away from the everyday and try something new!! I really like the way that these stamps go together and you can do lots of two-step stampin' with them! You get 28 stamps in all different sizes and it includes 4 sentiments in beautiful fonts!!

Anyway, I pulled out some Perhaps Basic Grey papers and decided to also use Julee's sketch from last week. I really like the colour combo and also used some Rose Red and River Rock SU cardstocks. I cuttlebugged the one layer, stamped over the second layer in River Rock and sponged everything! For my corner pieces, I just used my Scalloped Square punch and punched out the four corners of a piece of River Rock cardstock and attached them with some Rose Red eyelets! For the main image I stamped both the solid and the outlined largest images in River Rock in opposite directions, instead of how you would normally stamp them one on top of the other. Then I stamped each of the medium outlined and solid stamps on a separate piece of whisper white and cut them out, then layered them on top of the main piece. I then took the littlest outline stamp and stamped the corners in River Rock. I matted everything and added the lovely sentiment with more eyelets and added some stitched grosgrain ribbon! There are SO many layers to this card and Emileigh said that it's so heavy, she can't believe it can stand up!!

So here's another challenge for ya!!! Try something different today.....step outside your comfort zone and see what you can create!! And hey, Julee has another sketch for this week!! Check it out!!

Kimmie's Challenge #1!!

Okay, I've decided to be committed.........I mean, MAKE A COMMITMENT!! hahaha!! Since you all love challenges SO much (I do too....who am I kidding?), I've decided to post a weekly challenge!! Sometimes it will be a sketch challenge, sometimes a colour combo and others, a theme challenge!! I'll make them super easy so that EVERYONE can play along! I will post each challenge on Monday morning and when you have posted your card on your blog or in an online gallery, such as SCS, just post the link in the appropriate post! And each week I will send out a little RAK to a random winner.....it might be some ribbon, some embellishments, some designer paper or some stamps. You just never know!!! Sound like fun????

For this week's card I would like you to use this card that I made over the weekend as your sketch inspiration!! Sorry I don't have any fancy computer programs to make a plain sketch (I wouldn't be able to figure it out if I did anyway....hahaha), so you're just going to have to use the picture for inspiration!!! Hope that's okay!

This card was made for a Virtual Scrapbook Night challenge on SCS. The challenge was to make a card for someone you love using a stamp set that you love. Well, Emileigh happened to be hanging out with me in my stamp studio on Saturday and she thought this sounded like fun, so I let her pick out the stamp and the papers for me and I went from there!! She loves the cutsie Hedgehogs and she loves pink (how strange....not sure where she gets her taste....*snort*), so this is what I created!!

I stamped the image on shimmery white cardstock in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and coloured her in (Emileigh said she is a 'HER') using my SU markers and taking the colours from the patterned papers which are from the SEI Twitterpated line. I doodled a little frame and matted it on Rose Red, then Pretty in Pink and then Chocolate Chip. The card base is a Rose Red square matted with PIP. Then I took TWO coordinating patterned papers, one on each half of the card. Now you can use two patterned papers OR create your own background papers by stamping on them....but do try to use a different design on each half of your card. I tied some of the awesome wide Chocolate grosgrain ribbon in the middle to cover up the seam. OH!! Wait a minute....I actually used THREE coordinating dp's as that strip at the bottom that says 'I love you, I love you...' is another piece. I just cut off a strip and matted it on Rose Red. Then I pop dotted the focal image and added a cute chipboard flower and covered it in more dp (it's actually the flip side of the hearts paper) and put one of the little hearts in the center. I really like the way it turned out....and so did Emileigh and that's what counts!!!

One more thing about posting.........if you upload your card to SCS, please use KC1 in your keywords and that way everyone can go over to the gallery and look up all our challenge cards!!

Now go to it......get stampin'!!!

Edited to add: Since I will be posting a new challenge each Monday, the deadline for the week before will be Sunday at noon EST!!

Smiley Snowman!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It's rather rainy here today....PERFECT day to stay inside and STAMP!!! Heehee!

Here is the second card I made using last week's SCS sketch. I made this one for Julee's contest over at Verve Visual, featuring the Thoughtful Phrases stamp set. I began by choosing my favourite smiley snowman stamp from Penny Black that I picked up at Stampart a few weeks ago. He's just such a happy little guy! I chose some Basic Grey Fruitcake paper for this card and chose my colours from there. My snowman is stamped on Shimmery White in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and watercolouring him with my Aquapainter and SU inks in Real Red, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and Bashful Blue for shading. I added some sparkle using my Sakura Stardust gel pen and matted it on River Rock and Old Olive cardstock. I used my Sakura Black Glaze gel pen and dotted all around both frames and also added two strips of linen thread and pop dotted the main image. Then I used the sentiment 'you make me smile' from the Thoughtful Phrases stamp set. I LOVE the fonts with this set and they fit perfectly in my Word Window Punch! And they are such a good price too!! Then I used two red glittered brads on either side of the sentiment and that's it!!

Check back in tomorrow for a sketch challenge to celebrate 40,000 visitors!!!

You Quack Me Up!!!

This week's sketch challenge on SCS was a great one!! So great, that I made two cards with it!! I'll show you the first one today!!

I started with one of those crazy High Hopes ducks and stamped it on watercolour paper and then used my aquapainter with my SU markers to colour it in. I'm not that great with the watercolouring yet, but practice, right?? The card base is Marigold Morning and stamping Simply Said all over it (not sure if you can see it in the photo). The patterned paper is Imaginisce and has lots of bright colours to choose from! I matted it on Pumpkin Pie, matted the main image on Real Red and then brought the blue out of the paper with two pieces of blue grosgrain ribbon and 3 blue SU eyelets at the bottom. Then I pop dotted the sentiment at the bottom!

I'll share the other one with you tomorrow!! Have a SUPER DUPER Friday!!!

Colleen's Thursday Throwdown!!

My pal Colleen loves to 'throwdown' a challenge every Thursday and between Design Team stuff and preparing for workshops and work and ..... life....most times I don't get a chance to play!! But last week's challenge was a SKETCH.....so I HAD to play, no doubt about it!!

Well I bought this stamp set used ..... I mean, 'previously loved'..... from a friend a few weeks back and it didn't even look like it had met ink!! So sad!! It's a retired SU set called Merry Minstrels and the style is right up my alley!! I'm not sure when it retired, but I'm so glad I was able to get it!

The card base is a regular card size (wow....not a square this time!) in Pretty in Pink cardstock. The patterned papers are from the Winter Bright Simply Scrappin' kit, which I absolutely LOVE!! The colour combo is my new favourite for Winter!! I stamped the image on Shimmery White cardstock in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and coloured it in using my SU markers in coordinating colours. I added some silver Stickles on the snow and matted the image on Bashful Blue. I used my Mat Pack and pierced holes all around the bottom dp layer and used my white gel pen for the faux stitched look. I used my 3/4 inch circle punch for the half circles in BB and added some Real Red SU eyelets and then added a blue rhinestone flower in the bottom right corner!!!

If you like challenges too, head on over to Colleen's blog, for another Thursday Throwdown!!!

Fall Joy!!!

Today's card is one that I created with a sketch from Julee's blog last week. Ya know how I looooooove the sketches!!

I started out with this awesome stamp from High Hopes called Fall Joy! I just love this raccoons and the way they are having a blast playing in the leaves. That's the way I feel about Fall......it's my favourite season!!

So I stamped them on shimmery white cardstock in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink and used a bunch of my Earth Elements SU markers to colour in all the leaves and trees. That's what took the most time.....all those little leaves!! The cardstock I used is Cranberry Crisp and the dp is Mellow from Basic Grey. I stamped the sentiment on more BG dp and added some Prima flowers, sponged the edges of all the dp and added some orange brads. I think this image is so cute, the card doesn't need a whole lot of anything else!!

Beate's Weekend Sketch!!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Labour Day weekend but it's back to school today!!! Booooooo!! I hate this day.....most parents can't wait to send their little angels back to the teachers in September, but I'd prefer to have Emmy home with me all year long!!! I don't think she'd go for that, mind you!!

Anyway, here is a card I created for Beate's Weekend Sketch!! I haven't been able to participate in a while, but this weekend I actually got quite a bit done. Thank goodness for a holiday!!

I love sketches as that takes one portion out of the guessing game for me. It takes so long for me to create something from scratch, that when one part of the equation is decided for me, I think my 'mojo' moves more freely!!

So I started out by choosing my stamp, by Penny Black and my paper, which is Spring Showers, I believe by SU. So I coloured my image using my SU markers in the colours from the paper, then did little dots around the image. I used my CM cutting system to cut out all the circles and then used my corner rounder freehand to do the scalloped edge. The card is a 5 1/4 inch Bashful Blue square that I ran through my Cuttlebug using the D'vine Swirl embossing folder. I matted the strip of dp with Blush Blossom and used an A Muse sentiment, stamping it in Chocolate Chip ink, punching it out with my Large Oval punch and then sponging Blush Blossom ink around it and the scalloped piece too. I added three Prima Flowers in coordinating colours with a silver brad to match the hardware at the bottom and added some yummy tan gingham that I received from Lindsey in a prize pack. Then I pop dotted the main image and .... I'm done!

Hey!! I just noticed that I'm over 40,000 visitors!!! Wow!! Does that mean it's time for another challenge????? Hmmmmm. Whaddya think?

Fun with My Bind-It-All!!!

Well, nobody even tried to guess what my new tool is!! Are you all too busy enjoying your long weekend??? Well, okay then, that's fine!! I spent yesterday working on cards for my workshop on Friday, while everyone else in my family slept in. We had a nice barbecue for supper, watched Big Brother, then Emileigh and I watched a movie and did each other's nails!! How fun!

Anyway, I must blame Beate for the fact that I HAD to have this awesome new tool!! It was her tutorial that enabled me and made my imagination start flowing with all the cool ideas of things I can make!! So I placed my order for a Bind-It-All from Scrappin' Great Deals and as usual, Sheila had my package on my doorstep in two days!! The customer service there is fabulous and she has 12 hour specials every Wednesday, so if you haven't checked her out, you need to!

So I decided for my first attempt I would follow Beate's tutorial on how to make these cute little address books! I used some spare cardboard and some recipe cards from the dollar store. I decorated it up with the designer paper and cardstock stickers from the Happy Me Scrappin' Kit and also some Soft Sky designer paper. I just LOVE the colour combo from this kit, so I used SS, Groovy Guava and Purely Pomegranate inks and ribbons to go with it. I also used my Round Tab Punch for the tabs and stamped the alphabet on them with my Classic Alphabet.



The tool itself is small and compact, so light, only 3 pounds so you can take it anywhere. It's very easy to use and I was able to punch and bind the little book in just a matter of minutes. The coils come in long packages of 6 and they will last a long time, I think. For this one, I used 3/4 inch coils and it seems to be a good size for this project and would also hold a lot more. I've also got 1/2 inch coils on order for smaller stuff.

I'm so thrilled with the way it turned out and this one is going in my Secret Pal package which I will be mailing this week. Guess what all my friends and family will be getting for Christmas this year???? Address books, birthday books, journals, little handmade scrapbook albums.....the possibilities are endless!! Heehee! So if you already have one (or if I've enabled you at all...and you end up ordering one...) I'd love to see your creations and hear any tips or tricks you might have for this tool!!

Prismacolour Practice!!

Thursday's Ways to Use It Challenge on SCS was to use your pencils.....watercolour pencils, metallic pencils, Prismacolour pencils..... And since I've been using my markers so much lately, I decided to play with my Prismas and get some practice using them.

I grabbed the new SU stamp set, Jesus is Born, which hadn't even touched ink yet, and stamped it on shimmery white cardstock with Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink. The patterned paper I used is by Daisy D's, so I used that as my jumping off point. Now, I don't have a LOT of Prisma pencils as they are quite expensive, so I don't have a lot of colours to choose from, so I sort of have to make due. I coloured in the image using a variety of pencils and blending them with my Odorless Mineral Spirits and blending stumps. Then I sponged around the edges of the main piece using Creamy Caramel and a cosmetic sponge. I matted it on Soft Sky cardstock. The card base is River Rock with a layer of SS and then the patterned paper. I distressed the last two layers using my distressing tool, then added a photo turn and a ribbon slider from the Hodgepodge hardware kit along with some of the new SS double stitched grosgrain ribbon. The finishing touch was the sentiment from the set, Christmas Blessings, which fits in the Word Window Punch!!

Hey, guess what??? I ordered a new KOOL TOOL last week and I finally got to play with it last night!! I made a really awesome project with it and I can't wait to make more!! Check back tomorrow and I will post some pics of what I made!! Can YOU guess what tool I got??????