Friday Sketchers Week #3!!!

Can I just tell you how excited I am at the response to the Friday Sketchers Challenges??? It's so amazing!!! I knew that I love sketches, but apparently you do too, because last week we had over 100 entries to sketch challenge #2!!! It's awesome!!!

This week's sketch is brought to us by Carole from England!!! I really liked playing with this sketch! I had so much fun with Swingin' Edwin last week that I played with him again as well as with those cool Cogsmo papers by Cosmo Cricket!




One of my favourite sentiments is the one I used on this card from Verve Visual....it's so inspiring, don't you think?? So I based my card around the sentiment and used some large star brads to decorate the 'sky' around Edwin. The card base is a 6x6 Blue Bayou with matching stitched grosgrain ribbon across the middle. I used my Creative Memories cutting system to make the circles for the middle and also the Photo Corner punch and Key Tag punch. I used my super-dee-duper Copic markers to colour Edwin in and popped him up. Then I added a couple of highlights on his cheeks and knee with white acrylic paint. It's a great sketch that I will use again!!




So head on over to the Friday Sketchers Blog and check out the designs made by those awesome Sassy Sketchers!!! Oh and there is a prize to be won this week.....and you just MAY have heard of our sponsor!!! *wink, wink*

I'm off to work all day again today, but I've got the whole weekend off!! Yeehoooo!!

Ipod Girl!!

Have you heard of Rakle stamps???? I just got a couple from Phebe at The Town Scrapper and I LOVE them!!! They are rather large and long stamps and they have a totally unique look. I'm not sure where they come from, but I know it's in Europe!

When I looked at them in the store I admired their very colourful and professional packaging and thought they were very different and that I might give them a try. Well when I got them home and took them out of the packaging I realized that they are a real quality product. They are made from thick, deeply etched rubber and mounted on EZmount. They cling to a thick plastic card with a colour picture of the image on the opposite side, so that you could store them in a little box or something and just flip through them easily to find the one you want! Very cool idea! Then I stamped with them and they stamped like a dream too!! Yay!



I made a long card with this girl, that I call Ipod girl. I used some coordinating Fancy Pants paper and some retired Rose Romance cardstock from SU. I coloured her using my Copic markers, added some Primas with silver brads and attached some yummy satin ribbon from Michael's. The sentiment is by Verve Visual and I used one of the new silver bookplates from SU. A very simple card but I really like it!



Well, it's a quick post this morning because we are off to shop in the US today. It's a holiday Monday here in Ontario so this is our chance to visit the stores in the US because they are open!!! I get to go to Hobby Lobby (my favourite craft store ever) and I'm going to try to find Mary Maxim too!! I'll let you know how I make out shoppin'!!! Have a great day!!

Verve Visual Guest Designer!!!

Okay, so this is one of the exciting things that I've been sitting on for more than a month! It's so difficult sometimes to work on things and love them and then not be able to share them!!



Back around the beginning of December, my friend Julee Tilman (Poetic Artistry) who is the creator and owner of Verve Visual, emailed me and asked me if I would be a Guest Designer for her January release!! Well, of course I said......um, YEAH!! The new set of stamps that I got to work with is Polka Stars! Well, when they arrived it was like perfect timing because Emileigh had just gone to her first semi-formal at school and the theme was 'Starry Nights'! How appropriate, right?? So I knew right away that I was going to do a little scrapbooking for this release!!



I did two 6x6 scrapbook pages, a card and a notepad using my Bind-It-All. If you head on over to the Verve Visual blog today, you can check out the information on these purdy projects and also take a look at the gorgeous designs that the other Guest Designers have created this week!!!



There's more fun and surprises coming at Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner, so stay tuned!! I'll be back later today with another post!!!

Mamma Mia Meltdown!!!

Last night was fantastic!!! However, it did NOT start out that way!! I can-NOT believe my stupidity.....and I'm completely embarassed about the whole darn thing but I will share this with you, my best friends, as a cautionary tale! You probably won't believe that someone could be such an idiot.....but I digress....

Yesterday I picked Emileigh up from school and we were excited and talking about the show we were going to be seeing in a few hours. So I went to pull out the tickets, which I had hidden the minute they came in the mail two months ago, without looking at them. I never even took them out of the envelope.....I just stuffed them in the drawer so that Emileigh wouldn't find them!! (I'm sure you can see where this is headed!) So I open them up and I'm showing them to Emileigh and she says....'Why do they say Tuesday??'.....(it's Thursday)....and you can just imagine my complete and total meltdown at this point. It was not a pretty sight. We were supposed to be going with friends out to dinner and then to this show....and our tickets were for two days ago!! I felt just sick!! We had missed the show!

So my wonderful husband, who had been sleeping (he works nights) but had woken up because of the awful caterwauling he heard coming from my stamping room, got right on the horn to the John Labatt Centre and they told us that it had happened to several others as well over the last few days. That made me feel a little better, because I KNOW I had booked them for Thursday, so that we could go with our friends. Anyhoo, Brian in the box office (I LOVE him), told us to come with our old tickets right when the doors open and if there were seats available, they would probably be able to get us in.

So we ate at home, left super early, drove through horrendous downtown London Christmas traffic, found a parking garage, waiting until the box office opened, hoping and praying that we could get in (me trying to hold back tears the whole time, while telling my pathetic tale about my own stupidity), and thank the good Lord, we got in!!! And not only did we get in, we got better seats than we originally had!! It was wonderful, the show was fabulous and Emileigh and I had an absolutely amazing time!!! So the moral of the story is ........ open the stinkin' envelope and check your tickets!!!!!! Don't be a moron and assume that you got what you ordered!!!!!!!! *sigh*

Anyhoo, on to the card!! I made this one a couple of days ago using Milton's Fresh Pine by High Hopes Rubber Stamps!! I knew that I wanted to use some stripey paper with a few different colours in it to use on this image and his awesome flannel shirt! I think this paper is from Scrapbook Walls. I stamped the upper portion of the card base using my cluster of snowflakes stamp and then added the dp on the bottom half and a strip of Pumpkin Pie attached with eyelets. Milton was coloured in using my SU markers and then I added some Stardust Stickles on the freshly fallen snow and his hat. For the sentiment layer I used several circle punches and the scalloped circle punch and I used the Wonderful Wishes set by Verve Visual.

Well I have this morning off and then I work this afternoon and this evening and then all day Saturday....blech. BUT then I have five days off over the Christmas holidays. I will still be posting here on Kraftin' Kimmie's Korner throughout the holidays but if you don't get a chance to stop in, may I take this opportunity to wish all my cyber friends a joyful Christmas season filled with peace and love!! And may you find lots of stampin' treats beneath your tree!! *wink*

You Better Watch Out........

Sorry I'm late this morning, but I decided to run out to Walmart after dropping Emileigh off at school. I had a few things to get....fake sugar (for my coffee), hair dye (for my greys) and a few last things for Emileigh. I got her some Betty Boop pyjama bottoms.....she practically lives in the things....and some makeup for her stocking. I was there about 8:30am, so it wasn't busy at all. Love that!!

Here is another one of my Magnolia creations and I just HAD to play with this Santa stamp to make a Christmas card right away!!! I pulled out my Figgy Pudding paper....which I'm ashamed to say has not been played with nearly enough this season, and got busy. I coloured him in with Prismacolour pencils and OMSpirits and I used the journal tip of my Sahara Sand marker to highlight any of the white areas like his beard and moustache. I used my Aquapainter to ground him on Sahara Sand and sponged around the edges using Old Olive and a cosmetic sponge. The hardware is from We R Memorykeepers and I stamped the tiny Winter Wonderland sentiment from my Verve Visual Winter Wonder set and pop dotted Santa!!

This evening is going to be a lot of fun!! Emileigh and I have a date! It was supposed to be a surprise but she figured it out, the little turkey!! We are going to the John Labatt Centre in London to see Mamma Mia!! We saw it in Toronto several years ago when she was about 9 years old, but we just LOVE musicals and since it is so close, we are going tonight! It is part of her Christmas present!!

Have a great day!!!

Twinkle Brightly Shining Star!!

I've been having SO much fun with my Tildas and Edwins!!! Here is Tilda with her Lantern again!! I wanted to use a sentiment that had something to do with the lantern or light or stars!! So I pulled out my new Verve Visual stamps called Starlight Starbright and they were perfect!!

I pulled out some Chatterbox plaid paper and used the colours from it and got busy colouring my Tilda with my SU markers. I matted her on Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip. Now I often like to use at least two coordinating designer papers on a card, but I didn't have one to go with the plaid, so I made my own using the little stars in the Starlight Starbright set. Then I added some pewter star brads.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the sketch is from Julee's Mojo challenge from last week ...... yes, I'm behind. So what's you're point?? heehee Also distressing was the JBWW challenge from Jeanne and Sherry. I often distress using browns but this time I wanted to do something different....still distressing but using a lighter colour, so I used Certainly Celery and a cosmetic sponge.

The sentiment layer is made using the oval star background stamp from the VV set and I stamped the sentiment in black overtop and punched out with my large oval punch. I pop dotted everything and voila!!! Isn't she cute????

It's Beginning to Look a LOT Like Christmas!!!

Well, it's been snowing steadily since about 3am this morning.....and it's STILL snowing!! I don't know how much we've gotten, but it's a LOT. Al has been shoveling out the driveway, running the cars to get the ice off of them, and digging out an area for poor little Daisy-doodle to go out in the backyard!! And the snow keeps on coming!!

Last night was the Christmas dinner for the Library staff and spouses and I'm certainly glad it was last night and not tonight!! We got all gussied up and went out for a fancy dinner!! We don't do that very often, so it was fun! The evening was very nice and we had a great time!! Here is a quick pic of Al and I that Emileigh took of us at home. Aren't we cute??



Oh and here is a card I made this morning using the little Elf Tilda from Magnolia!! The patterned papers I used were from SEI and I paper pieced her little dress. I used my SU markers to colour her in and added Stardust Stickles on her wings and Liquid Applique mixed with glitter on her hat!! I pulled out some of my discontinued wide organdy ribbon by SU and also added the sentiment using some Verve Visual stamps!! LOVE all their little sentiments!!

Hey listen.....you might want to check back here tomorrow for some exciting news about Magnolia stamps!!! *heeheehee* I'm so excited I'm just bouncin' in my chair telling you about it.....well, actually teasing you about it!!! See you tomorrow!!! *wink*

MOJO 14 - Young Shepherd

It seems like so long since I participated in one of Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenges, but here is one for last week's!

I used Young Shepherd by High Hopes Rubber Stamps and I stamped him in Archival Versafine Black Onyx ink on Fabriano watercolour paper and coloured him in using my SU markers. I took the colours from this gorgeous shiny paper by Sandylion which has such dark rich colours and some sparkles running through it. The card base is Baroque Burgundy with a layer of Not Quite Navy. I watercoloured some grass for him to stand on with his cute little lamb and then I stamped a star in So Saffron using one of the stamps in the Winter Wonder set by Verve Visual.

I have a bag full of the retired wide organdy ribbon by Stampin' Up so I don't use it that often, because I don't wanna run out!! But I pulled out some of the burgundy ribbon and added some silver cord to tie around the bottom. I pierced each scallop on the sentiment layer, stamped the border circle from Wonderful Wishes on white and stamped the Peace sentiment in the middle. I coloured in the border with my BB marker, made everything sparkle a little with my Sakura Stardust gel pen and pop dotted the sentiment layer!!

Busy, busy again today. I'm going to try to get a few things stamped this morning before I go to work again at 1pm. Have a great day!!!