Happy Birthday Bling

     Blue skies and sunshine, what a wonderful way to start the day!  We had a great visit with Chris, Lindsey and the kids last night, dinner and conversation, always a joy to spend time with family. Michael, Kari, Mark and Logan are moving back to NY in June, and in July, Dale and I will welcome our newest grandson Carter James, we can't wait. We love being a grandparents. Well enough about my life, for now, lol.
     Today's card is one I threw together using my stash of pre-stamped and water colored flowers.
I've mentioned this before in a previous post, New Year Hello,  I really love having premade florals for quick cards. This one took about 10 minutes to make. Yes, I stamped directly onto the glitter gold washi tape, doesn't it look amazing, I love it!  I adhered the tape to a strip of white card and centered it on my card using 1 narrow strip of dimensional tape down the middle. I adhered the flowers behind the strip with glue, but only along the bottom edge of the flowers, to give them some movement and dimension. Then I did the same with the leaves.

Supplies used:
Altenew Adore you Stamp set
Altenew Glitter Gold Washi Tape
Altenew Antique Gold embossing powder
Ranger Distress ink (Peeled Paint, Picked Raspberry, Shaded Lilac, Mustard Seed)
Ranger Archival ink
Recollections mini sequins
Recollections 110# White cardstock
Canson watercolor paper
Stampabilites  Clear Stamps (Happy Birthday)
I will be entering these challenges:
Altenew March 2018 Inspiration Challenge
HLS-March Watercolor Challenge-Anything Goes
Time Out Challenge- 4th Birthday
Have a wonderfully, crafty day!
God Bless,
Karen
       

Watercolor Birthday

    So here we are, the first day of Spring in Rochester, NY. It's sunny with a few clouds, you know the white fluffy ones, and 30 degrees. Not very warm, but you can't have everything, I guess.  I can't wait to be able to open my windows and let the fresh air in, it's been way to long.
     My card today is one I made using a technique I saw in one of Jennifer McGuire's
 video's, I love this technique and have used it many times, with beautiful results.
     First I stamped my image on Canson watercolor paper. I inked up my stamp and spritzed it, quite a lot. and then stamped it. It came out even better than I expected and I set it aside to dry. I don't like to use my heat tool for drying as it might spread the ink where I don't want it, and sometimes warps the paper. Once dry I used my blue painters tape, (I stuck it to my arm to remove some of the stickiness first) and framed my stamped image with it. Then I took one of my background text stamps and inked it up, stamped it off on another piece of paper, then on my background. I repeated this several times using only a small section of the stamp. I used my blending tool and distress ink to color the background. When I took off my tape I had a center background with parts of the flower and branch outside of the inked area.
      I stamped my sentiment, trimmed down my card to 4" x 51/4"added some fun foam and adhered
it to a card.    
                                    
Supplies used:
Penny Black  #40-450 The Unfolding
Penny Black #30-413 Birthday Love
Distress Ink (Dusty Concord, Forest Moss, Shaded Lilac, Gathered Twiggs, Vintage Photo)
Ranger Archival ink (Black)
MISTI
Canson 140lb. watercolor paper
Recollections ivory 110lb. paper
Fun Foam
Blue Painters tape
I will be entering this card in these challenges:
CAS-Watercolor-March Challenge-Garden
Penny Black Saturday Challenge-Anything goes
Time Out Challenge- 4th Birthday
The Flower Challenge-#18 Anything goes

    
As always I hope you have a wonderfully, crafty day.
God Bless,
Karen

Just Because

Hello,
     I hope everyone had a safe and delicious Thanksgiving and are on your way to a wonderful Christmas. Mine was filled with friends and family, laughter, love and lots of pie. LOL
     It's a beautiful fall day here in Rochester, NY but I had to get in my craft room and get my cards done for some challenges. So here goes.
     My card today is really just a throw together card, meaning; I had some flowers in my stash that I  made quite a while ago and hadn't used yet. I do this with all my stamp sets when first get them. This gives me lots of pretty flowers when I need a card fast.
     I started with a plain piece of Neenah #110 card stock and my distress inks. Using a blender and Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo I added the colors to the top and left side of my card which was cut to 4 x 51/4" and stamped my sentiment, Altenew Sketchy Floral, 3/4 of the way down on the right. Then using dimensional tape I added the flowers and leaves from my Altenew set Garden Treasures, from my premade stash. Gems are from Pretty pink Posh.
     This card took me about 10minutes to make and I love it! hope you do too.

I will be entering this card in:

Altenew November 2017 Inspiration Challenge

Thanks for stopping by,

God Bless,

Karen



    

Remember this Lovely Day

Hi,


     It's been a very busy year so far and it's not slowing down, Baseball, Soccer, and Football with the grandkids was awesome; watching our oldest granddaughter graduate from middle school made us so proud and also sad, time passes way to swiftly. I have two grandsons in Florida who will be moving back to New York next summer and they also will be playing sports, along with their father. Free time, what's that, LOL.
      I do however make time to make my cards and scrapbook as much as possible. I love to look back on our lives and share memories with my boys and their families.

     Scrapbooks help keep our memories alive. My grandchildren never got the chance to meet their Uncle Mark, he was taken from us in 2004, but when they look through his scrapbook and ask about pictures of his life they feel closer to him, and get to know who he was. The little boy in my page below is my grandson, he is named for his Uncle Mark.

      I will be entering this page in the Altenew Sketch Challenge #6.

      Altenew-sketch-challenge-6

     My page today is of a photo shoot taken in May of 2015 when my Daughter in Law was very pregnant with their second child. They live in Florida near Fort Lauderdale Beach and had a lovely day taking pictures and enjoying the Sunshine and the Water. My Grandson had a great time playing in the waves and trying his hand at photography. There were so many beautiful picture of this Lovely day, that eventually, they too will make it into my scrapbook. 

     

     I used a sheet of Canson 140lb, 12x18 watercolor paper cut to 12x12. I then used 3 distress inks, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Mermaid Lagoon. I swiped the colors across a plastic bag from side to side in 3 lines, and spritzed with water, I also sprayed the paper, then I used the smushing technique all around the center and dabbed the remainder of the ink around the edges for splashes. When it was dry I stamped the Altenew Sketchy Floral in the corners using black Archival Ink and my Tonic studios stamping platform. Using Mermaid Lagoon, Picked Raspberry, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Gathered Twiggs distress inks, I water colored the flowers. I placed my pictures down and using an craft knife cut the flowers to lay over the pictures.

     For the words and phrases I used Altenew 365 and Sweet Friend and Sketchy Floral, 2 sticker numbers and a Family stamp I had in my stash. 

     That's it for now, I have to go meet up with friends. Have a wonderful day! 

      God Bless,

      Karen 



Balloons

Hello,
    I was so excited over getting back to scrapbooking that I went straight to work on the next page. I have so many pictures of my youngest grandson, Logan that it was difficult to choose.
    I settled on his birth announcement and the wheels started to turn.
    Starting with a 12x12 piece of  Canson watercolor paper and Ranger distress re-inkers, I wet the entire paper and dropped Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean onto the surface of the paper and using a spray bottle of water moved the ink where I wanted it . Then I dabbed off the excess with a paper towel and let it dry.
    While it was drying I got out my new Altenew set, Baby Balloon, and made nine balloons. I just love the way they turned out. Love this set. I scanned my original announcement and enlarged it for the page. After placing the pictures down I went to work placing the balloons. Wherever I placed a balloon I had to stamp on the page, very nerve racking, I cut out all the balloons only saving the balloon and basket. Then I placed the cut pieces over the stamped image on the page and voilà the ropes were back. I used dimensional tape to pop up the front balloons and then added the banners.
stamped stars in the sky using Pumice Stone distress ink and then added little sequin stars to the centers. At the bottom I added onesies for Mommy and Daddy from Altenew's Little One set and a sentiment from Baby Balloon set.



I will be entering this page in the:Altenew-sketch-challenge #3



Thanks for stopping by.
Have a crafty day!
God Bless,
Karen

Logan

Hi,
     WOW, long time no blog, LOL.
      It's been a busy summer so far and I just haven't found my way to my computer. I've been trying to make my way back to scrapbooking as I love it and haven't done it for about 5 years, I guess I just got lost in card making.
      My Grandkids were here just the other day and wanted to look at their albums, but were a little disappointed that there were no new pages. I realized that I had fallen down on my job as family historian and that I should remedy that. I started with my youngest Grandson Logan because at least the others have a scrapbook. He's 2 now and I haven't even started his. So I went to work using a picture of him when he was 17months and the result is below.

     This Picture is of Logan walking through a field of wildflowers with that awesome smile on his face it's so adorable and sweet I had to make a page for it.

     I started with Canson 140lb watercolor paper cut to 12 x12. I soaked the page in the center and dropped several drops of, ranger distress ink re-inkers onto the wet area and moving the paper let it over lap and spread. Then I dabbed up the excess and splashed some water on it with my fingers to lift some of the ink. I dabbed these areas with paper towel and then took the re-inkers and used it to splatter the page. I set it a side to let it dry.

     I then pulled out my Altenew stamp sets, Best Buds and Budding Thanks, and went to work on the flowers. Once they were all stamped I fussy cut them out.

      Now my background was dry so I could get to work on it. I used my large Prima stencil and some Dream Weavers matte black embossing paste for the word adorable. I also used Prima stencil to create the circles on the background.

      When the background was dry I popped Logan's picture up using foam and then arranged the flowers using dimensional tape. I added the stems for the flowers in front and water colored the shadows for the back flowers.

      I used my Sizzix fun serif dies for Logan's name and added the finishing touches with Altenew

sets, Painted Butterflies, Adore You, Floral Shadow and a Quote from Recollections. I also did a little journaling and added a few more flowers to balance to page.

      It's nice to know that after 5 years away I can still scrapbook.  

I will be entering this page in the:Altenew-sketch-challenge #3

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a very crafty day!
God Bless,
Karen



 

     

Birthday Wishes

Hello!


     I can't believe how long it's been since my last blog. I've been so busy! I've  made lots of cards for lots of  Birthday's, Anniversaries and Mother's day. My Daughter-in-Law Graduated from college and we went on vacation to visit my In-Laws they're 93 and 90 and have had a rough year but they came out on top and are in good health.
     I'm itching to get back in the swing of things and I'm starting with this card I made for the Altenew May Inspiration Challenge.

     I've been trying to work on and perfect my water coloring and shading so I've been practicing, a lot. I embossed my image first, for a little extra help keeping in the lines of the petal. For this card I used Remember This and Beautiful Day stamp sets and my Sentiment is from Floral Frame.

     Using my MISTI, I stamped the flowers and leaves on Canson watercolor paper using VersaMark ink and embossed in Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder. I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens to color the rose buds, leaves and small rose. For the larger flower I used Ranger distress inks to watercolor. Then I fussy cut all the pieces out.

     I used 110lb Core'dinations white card stock for my A2 card and a strip of  SU gold paper for the edge. After affixing the gold strip to the card I laid out all the leaves and the buds where I wanted them and adhered them to the front of the card, then I use dimensional tape to adhere the larger flowers. I stamped the birthday wishes with VersaMark and embossed it using Queen's Gold again.

     Using my Clairty brushes and Tumbled Glass distress ink I shaded around the flowers. I added some blue Queen and Comp. pearls and was done.  

     I really enjoyed making this card, and I think I'm going to have a hard time giving it away, LOL.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

       Well that's it for today have to go make dinner. Happy Crafting

     I will be entering this card in these challenges:



                                                                                Altenew May Inspiration Challenge

                                                                                Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by.

God Bless

Karen

I Love You More

Hi all,
      Well Valentines Day is just around the corner and I find that I don't have many valentine stamps.
I searched through my stash and found these cute little Owls and a sentiment stamp from Impression Obsession that did nicely. Hope You Like it.

     I stamped the owls in brown Archival ink, masked them, then stamped the branch. I used a piece of vellum over it to position the branch. I had to stamp and move it a couple of times to get it right. (The vellum was placed over the image and then stamped until I was able to get the branch in just the right place). Then I positioned the sentiment stamp and stamped it in Archival black. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the owls, and distress ink for the branch. Then a little edge of Tumbled Glass around the branch and Owls. Then using a Red Gelly Roll sparkle pen I wrote Happy-Valentines-Day-Be-Mine around the edge. I Matted in Red and attached to a white card.


Products used: Impression Obsession stamps- (Owls-E7760) and Sentiment (C14534-More Today)
                         Ranger Archival ink (black and brown)
                         Prismacolor soft core colored pencils
                         Canson watercolor paper
                         Gelly Roll sparkle pen (red)
                         Canson cardstock (red and White)
I will be entering this card in: Impression Obsession challenge(love is in the air)
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy crafting!
God Bless,
Karen

To a special Lady

     I made this card for a very special Lady. She turned 80 yesterday, and she is my Sister-in-law's Mom. Many years ago even before my brother met his wife, I was on a ladies bowling league and she was on one of the teams; coincidently with my other sister-in-law's Mom. Small world. So we've known each other for a time. She's a great Lady.
     I wanted to make her a special card to let her know how much she means to me. One of my very favorite stamp sets that I got for Christmas was The Altenew Beautiful Day set. I just love it and have been using it a lot.  So here is the card that I made for this very special Lady.

 





     I was so happy with the way these blue flowers came out that I had to do a little on the inside too.

 

     Just a little to pull it al together.

Supplies used:

     Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp set

     Ranger distress Inks(Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint,

Mustard Seed)

     Canson Card Watercolor paper

     Inkadinkado masking paper

     I used my favorite stamp set with My favorite inks to create this card for one of my favorite people. 

I will be entering this card in: The Flower Challenge Blue and Yellow

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting!

God Bless,

Karen

    

    

  

 

Happy Birthday

     My card today is for a very special young women. She is my son's wife and mother to my grandchildren. I've known her since she was a child of 12 and can tell you she is and amazing women. She takes care of a house, 3 kids, a husband, a cat and dog, she's a part time nanny and she somehow goes to college full time. I love her as if she were my own daughter and so I wanted to make her a very special card for her birthday.
     For Christmas my husband went all out and got me some amazing stamps by Penny Black, Zig clean color pens, and tons more. This card was made using some of them.
     Using Penny Black Slapstick/Cling #40-447 Poppy Gems I stamped with Versa Mark and embossed in black on watercolor paper. Then using my Zig pens I colored in the flowers in 2 colors using some black seed beads for the centers. I stamped the Happy Birthday from a  Stampabilites clear titles set. The butterfly is from Hampton Arts Cling,( Once upon a time springtime set). I added Light blue zig pen around the flowers, and fussy cut 3 butterflies for the front and inside the card.
     I hope she likes this card as much as I do.

I will be entering this card in these challenges:
My Favorite Things Color Challenge #61
Penny Black At Allsorts
Penny Black Saturday Challenge


Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Crafting!
God Bless,
Karen

A Winters Walk

Hello again,
     I made several cards for Christmas this year and was so busy I didn't have time to blog so here's
one of my favorites.
     I will be entering this card in the Make My Monday Challenge( A Winters Walk) and Simon Says
Monday Challenge (Chill Out)

 Make My Monday
                                                                                 Simon Says Monday Challenge


      I used Stampendous' #CRP169 Cling Snow Bird, Ranger Distress ink, Farber Castell glass bead glitter gel for the snow, the sentiment is IO B5462 Christmas Joy, the snow flakes are unknown.








Thanks for stopping by,
Happy Crafting!


God Bless,
Karen







Snowman Shaker card

Hi all,


     Made this card for Christmas and decided to enter it in the Addicted to Stamps Challenge-
( Frosty Friends) I loved how this little guy turned out and I hope you do too. By the way, this is my first shaker card.



Addicted To Stamps Challenge

     The Snowman is From AI and Hampton Arts the set comes with 2 snowmen, 2snowflakes a sentiment, a snowman and snowflake die #ASTM D4236. 

The trees are from Fiskars, snow globe mini set. The snow globe is just a spellbinders circle die and the base is a digi. I colored using Ranger distress inks. I used Recollections stars glitter shapes for snow.

     The card was a big hit with my family and friends I hope you like it too!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy crafting!

God Bless,

Karen

Seasons

      Today I want to celebrate the beauty and joy of the changing seasons. 

 

      Winter; cold and not so much fun for most people, shoveling, wearing boots and heavy winter coats. However, there are also times, when you look out the window after a snow storm and everything is pure white and laced with snow and ice and it's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Building a snowman with your kids, sledding, skiing, snowboarding, when you have snowball fights or make snow angels, Christmas. Then Winter becomes a wonderland full of fun and excitement.

      Spring; crocuses, daffodils, tulips, cherry blossoms, dogwoods in bloom,  trees waking from their winters nap with green buds, rain, birds singing, the sound geese flying overhead and spotting the first robin of the season. The promise of warmer, longer days, Easter bonnets, bright colors and baseball games. People coming outside after a lone winters hibernation to enjoy the beauty of a new season. What a glorious time of year.

      Summer; longer hotter days, lots of sunshine, cookouts, 4th of July, fireworks, family reunions, graduations, weddings, and of course vacations. It's a time to celebrate with friends and neighbors, a time for swimming, flip flops, shorts, hiking, tubing, camping, mowing the lawn and making s'mores around the fire pit. Hopping in the car and taking long rides in the country, carnivals, festivals, amusement parks, finding adventure around every corner. Summer is full of fun and enjoyment for everyone.

      Autumn; leaves changing from green to red, orange, yellow and brown; cooler days and nights, a crispness to the air. Sweatshirts, sneakers, long pants and jackets. Farmers markets, apples picking, carving pumpkins, Halloween, trick or treats, falling leaves and the World Series. Thanksgiving with family and friends, Football, pumpkin and apple pie   A time to take stock in all you have and to be thankful.

     My cards today reflect the beauty of the Fall season.

     Card #1 Celebrate

Products used:

Penny Black #40-357 Autumn Dance

Penny Black Die #51-028 Celebrations

Ranger Queens Gold embossing powder

VersaMark

Ranger Distress ink

Misti

Canson watercolor paper 130lb

      Using the Misti, I placed the watercolor paper in it and centered the stamp. Then I inked it with VersaMark and stamped it on the paper, I did this twice to make sure all the detail was stamped. I removed the paper from the Misti and covered it with the embossing powder, then tapped off the excess and embossed with my heat gum. When the embossing was set I let it cool then used my Ranger distress ink to shade and blend the background. I spritzed it with water and dried it. I did this twice to give the background movement and texture. I wiped any excess ink off  the embossing and added the celebrate die-cut.

Card #2

       I learned this technique from my friend Lynda, and she in turn learned it by watching 

 Watercolor with Brushstroke stamps and the Misti PB and J YouTube   



Products used:

Penny Black #40-492 Berry Kissed

Penny Black #30-229 Special Wishes

Canson watercolor paper 130lb

Canson card stock

Ranger distress ink markers 

Ranger Archival ink

Misti

     I started out with my stamp and watercolor paper in the Misti. I colored in just the leaves with Tea Die and then I added some Gathered Twigs to the bottoms of each leaf and just a touch to some of the edges. I spritzed the stamp with water and closed the Misti to stamp the leaves. Then I used a paint brush and blended just a few of the leaves at a time, and stamped again without adding any more ink. I did this with all the leaves until I was happy with the texture, color and definition in each leaf. I repeated this technique with the berries using Carved Pumpkin and Rusty Hinge. I did the stems in Ground Espresso. (see website above)

     I also used my Misti to stamp my sentiment so I would get a clear stamping and so that if it wasn't I could stamp it over again if needed.

 

     This technique is so awesome I have already used it on a bunch of my other stamps. Try it I'm sure you will love it too.

    

 I will be entering these cards in:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (Nature)

Color Q Challenge #361

Make My Monday( No Patterned Paper)     

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes)

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!

Karen

My Journey to Card making

      I have been crafting one thing or another most of my life. My grandmother started me off at 5yrs old doing cross stitch and needle point. My Mom was a seamstress and taught me to sew as soon as I could sit at the Singer and work the knee pedal. I taught myself to crochet when I was 18 to make a blanket for my first nephew.

    

      In 1998 I began scrapbooking. I loved creating something that was more than a photo album, something that brought the pictures to life. Something that my now grown children and grandchildren love to open up and relive the good times in there lives. I never dreamed at the time that I would someday have a room dedicated to just crafts, and that I'd have enough of that stuff to stock a store. LOL

 

      Card making came as a direct result of my love for stamping on my scrapbooking pages. I love to give gifts that I have created myself so I started making gift tags and cards for friends and family. Card making then became my favorite craft. Oh, I still scrapbook to keep up with the grandkids lives and I still crochet, but Card making seems to be my greatest love and I do it as much as possible.

       I love discovering new stamp companies and recently I stumbled onto the website of JustRite stamps. (http://justrite-papercraft.myshopify.com/) I love all these beautiful stamps and have used them on many of my cards. This company is affiliated with Spellbinders.

 

       My card today is made with a JustRite background stamp that I just fell in love with. I'm always inspired by cards with lots of colors and flowers. They make me happy so in turn, I believe they will make others happy.

Products used:

JustRite #CL-05089 Blooming Vines

Hampton Arts  (Smile)

Canson watercolor paper

Ranger distress inks

Ranger Archival ink

Misti

     I started by placing the stamp in the Misti, inking with archival ink and stamping it. The beauty of the Misti is that if the first impression isn't perfect you can re-stamp until it is. When I was happy with the outcome I started water coloring using my ranger inks and a paint brush. First the leaves, I used Peeled Paint distress ink, I painted a very lite watered down layer. When that was dry I went back to each leaf with the same color, with less water and added just a touch to the bottoms of each leaf for shadow and texture. I did the same with the flowers using Shaded Lilac distress ink.

    

     After I was done water coloring I placed my paper back into my Misti, making sure it was in the exact spot as when I stamped the first time, and stamped it again to define the out lines. Then I used Abandoned Coral distress ink and a blending brush and did the outside edges of the card.

      I cut it down to 41/8 x53/8 and wrapped a piece of purple nylon ribbon around it and tied a knot. Then I adhered it to a violet card.

      I stamped the word smile and the frame from the same set and fussy cut it out, popped it up with dimensional tape and I was done.

I will be entering this card in these challenges:

Color Throwdown Countdown #411

House of Cards Challenge (Add a Bird and/or Colors)

Love to Scrap Challenge Blog #86 (Anything Goes)

Muse Challenge #185

   

Thanks for stopping buy.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!

Karen