Monday Montage Blog Hop – Week 2

Posted on September 8, 2013 by kate80132

Hello friends! Welcome back to Monday Montage! You should have arrived here from the amazing Bree Renwick’s blog, select the “next” button below and that will take you to the next stop on the hop, the fabulous Dani Dziama’s blog. I can’t wait to see what they have to share this week, you won’t want to miss it!

This week I am sharing a card that features some of my fave colors right now. I have been stamping EVERYTHING in Encore Silver or Gold! Just love the way this ink looks on lotsa cardstock! Yummy 🙂

My base is Whisper White with a smaller piece of Smokey Slate embossed with the Honeycomb Embossing Folder. I punched several patterns of Eastern Elegance DSP with my Hexagon Punch. Some of these are adhered to the card flat and a couple are popped up on dimensionals. I love the effect this gives to this simple and elegant card! I stamped the sentiment in Silver Encore ink on Crushed Curry cardstock and punched it out. Isn’t that beautiful? Final touches are a piece of Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon and some Rhinestones.

I hope you have enjoyed my card as much as I enjoyed making it! I felt the need for something simple, the last few weeks in my world have been anything but simple between work and home and this card was just what the doctor ordered: clean & elegant!

I’m so glad you are back for week 2 of our Monday Montage! I thought the last group of projects we shared were simply amazing! So don’t forget to come back every other Monday for another big dose of creative inspiration!

Make sure you go “Back” if you missed Bree Renwick or you can loop on around by hitting the “Next” button to get to Dani Dziama and the rest of the hop!

Monday Montage Blog Hop – Week 1

Posted on August 25, 2013 by kate80132

Hello friends! We had such a blast sharing our Artisan entries with everyone we have decided to continue sharing our creations with you every other Monday. So welcome to the launch of Monday Montage!

You should have arrived here from the amazing Bree Renwick’s blog, select the “next” button below and that will take you to the next stop on the hop, the fabulous Dani Dziama’s blog. I can’t wait to see what they have to share, you won’t want to miss it!

This week I am sharing a card that was inspired by the super talented Cathy Caines! I have really, really wanted to try this technique ever since I saw her amazing creations! The base of this card is Whisper White and I cut a second piece of Whisper White 5 1/4″ x 4″ to build my masterpiece on. I spritzed the smaller piece of cardstock with Tempting Turquoise re-inker mixed with alcohol. I love how this looks!!!! I built from there: I added some splats from Gorgeous Grunge in Tempting Turquoise and I added Off the Grid in White Craft Ink on top of that. Its really hard to see in the pics, but I added the larger splat from Gorgeous Grunge in Illuminate Ink randomly over the card. It adds some of that shimmer that is so near and dear to my heart 🙂

I hope you enjoyed our very first Monday Montage! Plan to come back every two weeks to see what we’re up to, I promise it will be fun and inspire you to make something pretty too!

Make sure you go “Back” if you missed Bree Renwick or you can loop on around by hitting the “Next” button to get to Dani Dziama and the rest of the hop!

2013 Artisan Finalists Blog Hop – Day 9

Posted on August 18, 2013 by kate80132

Welcome to Day 9 of the 2013 Artisan Design Team Finalists Blog Hop! So sad that our hop is almost over! All of the combined talent of these girls is just AH-mazing! I am in awe of the work submitted by the Top 20 finalists! You should have come from the fabulous Bree Renwick’s post to get here and from here you can click on “next” and get to Dani Dziama’s amazing work! If you missed Bree either select the “back” button to get there or go all the way around the hop to get back to her.

This is my last card entry. I actually had a couple more cards I sent in to Stampin’ Up but I’ll share those later.

This card features the Epic Day This and That DSP and Washi Tape. I also used the large image from Layered Labels on its side as a background image. I love how that looks! I inked up one of the images from From My Heart with a marker only inking the border and leaving off the sentiment. I stamped that on some Very Vanilla and used a framelit from the Labels Collection to cut it out. I highlighted the image with the Gold Smooch Ink…love that too! My favorite feature on the card is the tiny balloon from Collage Curios that I gold embossed on to Vellum Cardstock. After I punched it out, I added Gold Lame Smooch Pearlized Ink to the edges and attached it to one of the small Soda Pop Tops. Loved those little guys, so very sad they have retired! This time I painted my doily with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint. As soon as we got the doilies, I have added them to 8 out of 10 projects. Once I tried painting them with the shimmer paint, I couldn’t help but do it every time! Yummmm-O!

I hope you enjoy my card as much as I enjoyed making it! Happy Funday Sunday! Hopefully your Sunday included some creativity too 🙂

Here are the products I used:

Stamps: Label Love, Layered Labels, Collage Curios, From My Heart

Ink: Soft Suede, Early Espresso, VersaMark

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, White Vellum, Epic Day This and That DSP, Brushed Gold, Very Vanilla

Embellishments: Soda Pop Tops, Boutique Boxes Designer Kit, Calypso Coral Baker’s Twine, White Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, 5/8″ Crochet Trim, Very Vintage Designer Buttons, Gold Embossing Powder, Epic Day This and That Washi Tape, Gold Lame Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink, Rhinestone Basic Jewels

Tools: Big Shot, Labels Collection Framelits

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

Make sure you check out all the fabulous projects created by the finalists by going through the hop! Select “back” to see Bree Renwick’s fabulous work and select “next” to get to Dani Dziama’s amazing projects! You do not want to miss a thing!!!

2013 Artisan Finalists Blog Hop – Day 7

Posted on August 16, 2013 by kate80132

Welcome to Day 7 of the 2013 Artisan Design Team Finalists Blog Hop! I can’t believe it is Day 7 already! This has been so much fun! I sure hope you have been enjoying the finalist’s projects, I think they have all been AH-mazing! It is so different to get to enjoy them up close and personal and not be competing with 5000 other excited stampers to see the boards! I love convention but I am getting so much more out of these fabulous creations at home on my own computer screen!

You should have come from the fabulous Bree Renwick’s post to get here and from here you can click on “next” and get to Dani Dziama’s amazing work! If you missed Bree either select the “back” button to get there or go all the way around the hop to get back to her.

This is my fluffy, romantic confection of a card! It features lots of sewing and sponging and pretty 🙂 I used two of my absolute favorite stamp sets that retired with the new catalog: Established Elegance and French Foliage. I probably used the script from French Foliage on nearly every project I made while it was current! Well maybe not every project but lots and lots of them!

Highlights of this card: I lightly stamped some Very Vanilla Cardstock with the Netting Stamp and the script from French Foliage. Then I cut out it out with a framelit from Apothecary Accents. I took that piece of paper and cut it down the middle longwise and that created the top and bottom piece of the card. I stacked that with half of a doily and attached them both to the front of the card with machine stitching. I also stitched together two different patterns of the Two for Tea DSP for the front. I cut a piece of First Edition DSP (another sad, sad retirement loss) with an oval framelit. I colored a small butterfly image from Papillon Potpourri with markers and stamped it on the top center of the First Edition and again on a piece of Very Vanilla. I punched out the image on the Very Vanilla and popped it up over the image on the DSP. Then I punched another butterfly out of vellum and added that and a pearl on top of the stamped butterfly. Lots of pretty dimension! I added a button, pennants, flower trim and a big flower made from the cupcake papers in the Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit. One of the ribbons I used came from the Artisan Embellishments Kit in the Spring Mini….oh.my.word….I just loved that kit and could not get enough of it!!!!

All the vintage-y, flowery, lacy yumminess just makes me feel good! I hope it makes you feel good too and inspires you to make something pretty today!

Here are the products I used:

Stamps: Established Elements, French Foliage, Papillon Potpourri, Netting

Ink: Soft Suede, Island Indigo

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, White Vellum, Tea for Two DSP, First Edition DSP

Embellishments: Pearl Basics Jewels, 5/8″ Crochet Trim, Gold Lame Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink, 5/8″ Flower Trim, Pop-Up Posies Designer Kit, Whisper White Baker’s Twine, Artisan Embellishments Kit, Antique Brads, Subtles Designer Buttons, White Tea Lace Paper Doilies, 1/2″ Very Vanilla Seam Binding Ribbon, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

2013 Artisan Finalists Blog Hop – Day 5

Posted on August 14, 2013 by kate80132

Welcome to Day 5 of the 2013 Artisan Design Team Finalists Blog Hop! I sure hope you are inspired to create something beautiful after seeing all these ah-mazing projects! I know all I want to do every day when I get home from my day job is hole up in my craft room and make something pretty 🙂

Today is another card day….we had to submit 5 cards for our entry so of course we all have more cards to share than anything else! This card features the Mosaic Madness stamp set again but is way more my typical style than the last card I shared with this stamp set.

I started with a Smoky Slate base … have I mentioned how yummy this cardstock is? It was a perfect base for my design. During one of the main stage presentations at convention someone said silver is out and gold is in, well I have to say, I love them both equally and this card is all about silver! I sponged the edges of my doily with Soft Suede and then painted it with Frost White Shimmer Paint, full strength. My craft room is missing that luscious product big time! I tore a strip of the canvas creations and sponged it lightly with Soft Suede too. I stacked the canvas, crochet trim and a strip of Brushed Silver paper under my main panel of Crumb Cake cardstock. I stamped my Mosaic Madness images on Pool Party, Crisp Cantaloupe and Crumb Cake cardstock in Whisper White Craft Ink and punched them out. On top of each punched image I added a Vintage Faceted Button with Whisper White Baker’s Twine. Each one! One button was just not enough for this card in my opinion 🙂

To make the sentiment banner, I embossed “gratitude” Whisper White cardstock with silver embossing powder. I lightly sponged the edges in Soft Suede and then I painted the whole banner with Frost White Shimmer Paint, full strength. Hopefully the picture shows at least a little how gorgeous this is! The sponging becomes kind of muted and pretty and the whole look is just amazing.

I hope I have inspired you to make something pretty today!

Here are the products I used:

Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Soft Suede, Whisper White Craft Ink, VersaMark

Cardstock: Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Quatrefancy SpecialtyDSP

Embellishments: Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons, Canvas Creations, Whisper White Baker’s Twine, White Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Frost White Shimmer Paint, 5/8″ Crochet Trim, Pearl Basics Jewels, Silver Embossing Powder

Tools: Big Shot, Chevron Embossing Folder, Mosaic Punch

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

2013 Artisan Finalists Blog Hop – Day 3

Posted on August 12, 2013 by kate80132

Welcome to Day 3 of the 2013 Artisan Design Team Finalists Blog Hop! If you have been following the last two days you may have noticed the same thing I have! These projects are amazing! I hope you are enjoying seeing these fabulous projects as much as I have!

I have another card today that I submitted for the Artisan Design Team contest. This one is wayyyyy outside the box for me! I am more of a vintage, shabby chic girl and the bright colors I used here are not my usual color palette. I love how this turned out though, I think I need to work outside of my comfort zone more often 🙂

Highlights: I embossed Strawberry Slush with the Chevron Embossing Folder and then I smeared it a bit with Whisper White Craft Ink. I also heat embossed some of the Mosaic Madness stamp set images on Strawberry Slush Cardstock and on some of the Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Series Paper in White. After punching some of these images out with the Mosaic Punch, I adhered some of them flat and popped some up with dimensionals. The perfect finishing touch was the White Tea Paper Doily. I told you I can hardly create anything these days without adding one or two of those to the project!

I wish I had a better picture of this one…I guess I am happy that I have a picture at all!

Here are the products I used:

Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Friendly Phrases

Ink: Strawberry Slush, Whisper White Craft Ink,

Cardstock: Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Quatrefancy SpecialtyDSP

Embellishments: Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons, In Color Dahlias, Whisper White Baker’s Twine, White Tea Lace Paper Doilies

Tools: Big Shot, Chevron Embossing Folder, Mosaic Punch

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

2013 Artisan Finalists Blog Hop – Day 1

Posted on August 10, 2013 by kate80132

Welcome to the 2013 Artisan Design Team Finalists Blog Hop! We will be sharing all the projects that we submitted to Stampin’ Up for the contest over the next ten days. I can’t wait to share all the projects I poured my heart into for this! This is an AH-mazingly talented group of ladies and I know you will be inspired by all the gorgeous projects! You can choose the “next” and “back” buttons below to get to each designer’s post each day.

First off, I have to say that I was humbled and overjoyed to find myself in the company of all these creative souls! What an honor to make the Top 20 in this contest! I will be following all of the 2013 Artisan Design Team’s posts this year, I can’t wait to see what they come up with! I feel especially lucky to have become friends with these girls during the weeks prior to convention when we found ourselves as part of the Top 20! We still chat as we have time and I have truly won some wonderful new crafty friends 🙂

The first project I am sharing is a card featuring some of my favorite products old and new. I was so sad to see the Shimmer Paint retire in May! I just loved that stuff and used it in many ways! On this card, I “painted” full strength Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint on my White Tea Lace Paper Doily and on at least one of my banners…yummy! My button is made with the White Simply Pressed Clay dyed with Calypso Coral Re-Inker. I sponged the dry button with Soft Suede Ink to give it that vintage look. I used the Canvas Creations for the label shape, I cut it out with a framelit from the Labels Collection. Then I stamped it with the Ship’s Log image from “The Open Sea” stamp set and sponged the edges with Soft Suede. Thank goodness that stamp set is still around, I find myself reaching for it often!

Here are the products I used:

Stamps: The Open Sea, Loving Thoughts

Ink: Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar, VersaMark

Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Brushed Gold, Epic Day This and That DSP

Embellishments: Canvas Creations, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Simply Pressed Clay, Calypso Coral Baker’s Twine, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, White Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Gold Embossing Powder

Tools: Big Shot, Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Labels Collection Framelits, Buttons & Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Molds

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

the “Northern Lights”….

Posted on August 7, 2013 by kate80132

I thought it was fitting to share this card today since I vacationed in Alaska this summer, the land of the aurora borealis or northern lights! I haven’t seen the real northern lights but I think this card definitely gives an impression of this phenomenon and features my new favorite deer head stamp set! Funny how that stamp has captured my heart…

This technique looks fancy shmancy but it is actually very simple to do. You can Google the northern lights stamping technique and there are several YouTube videos on how to do it so I am not going to detail the technique here, just the colors and products I used. I do have two tips. I got the deer to be so nice and crisp by re-inking my pad right before we stamped him. And if you get a smudge of the black from the stamp edge or clumsy stamping (me!!!), you can use your finger to smudge the ink into the background. You have to do it right away before the ink dries completely but you won’t see your mistake at all!

There are a couple of things I love about this card. The technique comes out slightly differently every time you do it…fun! I am not a big fan of making the same thing over and over again…this becomes a problem for me every time I do swap cards, at some point in the process my ADD kicks in and I can barely stand to finish making them! I also love that it can be used to give to a man, rarely do we make cards that a man would like to receive. This is the perfect card for that guy in your life that needs a card from you for something! The last thing I love is that it is quick and easy to make and the result looks like it was “hard”. We made these in my stamp club last week and everyone’s came out a little bit differently and all were beautiful!

Stamps: Remembering Christmas

Ink: Summer Starfruit, Coastal Cabana, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Midnight Muse, Basic Black

Cardstock: Whisper White, Midnight Muse, Early Espresso

Embellishments: 1-1/4″ Burlap Ribbon, Linen Thread, Naturals Designer Buttons

Do something creative every day!

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

Time to bid farewell to some favorites!

Posted on April 24, 2013 by kate80132

Today is the day that the retiring product list is released! It’s time to say goodbye to some favorite colors, stamps & embellishments. As traumatic as this is every year it is also very exciting to say hello to new goodies! I have seen the new catalog and I am super excited about the fabulous new products coming soon!

If you need re-inkers or more paper in a retiring color or a stamp set you have been thinking about that is going away….don’t delay! The paper, embellishments and ink will go super fast and when its gone, its gone! Some things are on sale and can even be picked up at a discount. Nice!

See the detailed retiring list here.

Now for the eye candy. This card features the Hearts a Flutter Stamp Set and Framelits Dies. I also used Paper Doilies, 1-1/4″ Two Tone Ribbon in Pink Pirouette/Rose Red and Canvas Creations. This card is light and airy and romantic. Who wouldn’t love to receive this on a day they need a nice pick me up? Enjoy!

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!

more Artisan Embellishments Kit inspiration!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by kate80132

Good morning friends! This is the bonus card I designed for the Artisan Class. Again, using embellishments from the Artisan Embellishment Kit and Tea for Two Designer Series Paper. I also used Vellum Card Stock, the Papillon Potpourri Stamp Set and the Bitty Butterfly Punch. This card was quick, elegant and makes a nice thank you or Mother’s Day card.

I have been on vacation in Virginia at my bestie’s house and we have been creating up a storm! Stay tuned for some seriously gorgeous inspiration!

To purchase these products go to my online store!

Check here for upcoming events and classes!