Tuesday, January 31, 2012

You're Snow Fabulous!

This was a busy work day, and then agility after that, so no time for cardmaking today.  So I am sharing a card I made awhile back.

 
This is an easel card and I used border punches and nestabilities for the cutouts.  The flower is Prima.  The stamps are from Pink Cat Studio.  The pearls on the snowflakes are what keep the card open.  Sorry the photo is not very good.  I was new at taking card photos at the time, but my skills are improving!!!

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Stamping!!!

kathy b


Monday, January 30, 2012

Dog days?

Hi, it's Margaret.  Long time no see. :)  Having a new job prevents me from stamping as much as I'd like to, and quite frankly, I've grown a bit "rusty" too.  Everytime I go to make a card, I spill the glitter, I cut the wrong thing ruining my precious paper, and anything else you can imagine.  Recently my faux pas has consisted of opening up my Copics to color and a blob of ink falls right smack onto my stamped image.    Sigh.  The beauty of a major move.  So, I'm feeling bad over here that Kathy's been holding up the fort,  and tonight I decided to go through some of my old files to see if there was something decent to post.  I found some dog cards I made a really long time ago.  I vaguely remember CASEing this one from a scrapbook page ad.  I can't even remember who made the paper.  LOL!  The stamp is a retired SU Stamp (I think!). The photo job is just a deluxe.  Can you tell what a massive state of confusion I'm still in? Anyone out there has old old cards they want to pull out?  Hope you're enjoying this dog theme that Kathy started....I have a couple of cards to share later this week but one of them is Kathy's birthday card so we will have to wait on that one so she can see it first!  Bye for now, Margaret

Baking Dog

Here is a birthday card for a template over at Critter Sketch Challenge.  I needed a birthday card for my friend Kathy, who runs a dog rescue and loves to bake.  So what better choice than a baking dog???  I used a Nestabilities flourish, lots of jewels from doodlebug design inc., Creative Imaginations paper and DCWV green cardstock and the purple is from my scrap pile.  Of course, I colored the image with my Copics.  The text stamp is from a set by kanban crafts and I punched it out and mounted it on an SU scallop circle.  The baking dog comes from a trip last year to the Viva Las Vegas Stamps store!

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!!

Cayenne

Though yesterday I was dreading it's arrival, it has been a good Monday for me!  Now that the day is nearing it's end, I am happy to be in my studio.  But before I start creating, I want to share a card that I created for the City Crafter Challenge.  I also entered in the Basicgrey challenge. On Friday, I am going to a dog agility trial with my dog Geena Bea and my friend Kathy and her dog Cayenne.  This stamp reminds me so much of Cayenne, and Kathy loves purple, so I stamped the dog using Versafine Imperial Purple.  I used 3M tape to mount her on a nestabilities diecut.  The patterned papers are all from the Basic Grey Kioshi pad.  I added some light purple ribbon from Papertrey, as well as a brad attaching the banner sentiment to the card.  I am going to give this to Kathy before the trial to wish her and Cayenne luck in getting a "Q" (or qualifying leg).


Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time, Happy Stamping!!!

Kathy B

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Arigato


Hello Everyone! Happy Sunday!

I have a pretty Magnolia card to share with you today.  I love purple and green, and those are the colors Tilda is wearing today.  I paper pieced her clothing and umbrella using Basic Grey Kioshi.  I also punched hearts and mounted her on Kioshi, attaching her and the hearts with 3M foam tape.  I used a Michaels rhinestone flourish.  The frame is a Cheery Lynn Doily die which is very intricate and a little tricky to get punched out well, but worth the effort.  It took me 2 tries, but I am sure I will get better at it over time. 



I am entering this in the BasicGrey Challenge and the Crazy 4 Challenges (layers).

Happy Stamping until next time!

Kathy B


Saturday, January 28, 2012

I Come in Peace

Happy Saturday to you!  We have been busy with our Saturday projects, but I am stopping to take a short break and post my new card.  This is for the MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge.


I colored the image with Copics and added stickles for some sparkle.  Paper is from K&Co, cardstock is DCWV.  I used my trusty Nestabilities to cutout and frame the image.  I hand cut the banners and added 3 Robins Nest to finish it off.   Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!!!
Kathy B


Friday, January 27, 2012

Let the Sun Shine!

Yea!  The sun came out today and it warmed up really nice.  A beautiful day to play outside and to wash the car, inside and out.  In honor of the sunshine today, I have this card to share with you.

Papers are from WeRMemoryKeepers Fiesta.  I really like the designs and the colors.  Flower is from Prima.  Label die is from PaperTrey and the stamp is from Verve, colored with Copics.  These colors make me happy!

This is a photo of Geena Bea.  In yesterday's post I was telling you that we were going to agility class last night.  Well, it was in the 40s, but we dressed warmly and there was a fire burning.  It was pretty cold until we started running courses, then we warmed up pretty quickly.  I just wanted to share a photo of my little agility dog.  She is 4, we rescued her a year ago this fall.


Until next time,
Happy Stamping!

Kathy B

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Same song, second verse

Haven't seen the sun in a while.  It's yet another dreary day up here on the mountaintop.  It has been drizzling all day. Geena Bea (one of my Schnauzers) and I are supposed to go to agility class tonight, but it might be cancelled.  We have a trial in a week, so I hope we have class inspite of the weather!




I have another card to share with you today.  This is a Penny Black stamp called Royal Greetings and this card is for Claudia.  You see, Claudia, age 10, is Julia's younger sister [see 1-20-12 post] and we are both disappointed that it will be May until we see each other again.  We have not seen each other since early June so she was lamenting that it would be a year before we would be together again.  When she put it  that way, it made me very sad.  So I took that sadness and brushed it away by making this cute little girly card.  The snow (Claudia lives in Colorado) is made with a Pearl Pen and I used stickles for the flfuff of her cap.  Copics were used for coloring and I added some stickles to her clothing, though it is hard to see in the photo.  I used nestabilities dies and the Miss You stamp is from PaperTrey.

And YES, Claudia, I will send you this card!!!

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Forever in our hearts

It's a dreary day in and near the Ouachita National Forest...very rainy and gray.  The finches and chickadees with an occasional cardinal are still hitting the feeders out back.  It's a great day to stay in pajamas, curl up on a couch and watch a movie.  Unfortunately, there was work to be done.  Hopefully I will make it to the studio before the night is through.  I did make a card on Sunday for the Mojo225 challenge and I will share that with you here.

I always have such a hard time making sympathy cards.  Somehow, when I add a butterfly, it always makes it a lot better.  The butterfly is a Quikcutz die that I absolutely adore.  It also comes with a solid version so you can layer colors.  The stamp is in the Forever in our Hearts set from Verve.  The patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye Ooh La La and Blue Ridge Paisley from Polar Bear Press.  Cardstock is from my stash.  I added 3 rhinestones for a little sparkle.
Until next time, Happy Stamping!
Kathy B

Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday, Monday

Monday has come and gone.  How fast the days are flying by, but I am so happy to see the daylight lasting longer each evening.  It is depressing to come home from work in the dark!

Today's card was created for the Mojo Monday challenge LAST week.  Somehow I managed to omit putting it out there for the world to see.  It's a great card for Valentine's Day, or just to give to your sweetie whenever.  I used Echo Park Yours Truly papers (4 different ones, and they really work well together, don't you think?  The heart is popped up with 3m tape.  The heart border punch is from Martha Stweart and the the circles are Spellbinders.  I added 6 Memory Box pearls and a little satin ribbon from my scrap box.  I'd love to know what you think!


Until next time,
Happy Stamping!
Kathy B

Saturday, January 21, 2012

It's been a long day...

Well, it's Saturday night and I spent the entire day organizing the garage with my husband.  As Margaret mentioned a couple of days ago, we both sold our homes and moved - she to Colorado, my family from the city to the country.  You know what is really weird?  We both closed on the sale of our respective homes on the very same day!!!  I digress...back to the garage.  With cold weather coming our way, we needed to make room for our vehicles, so let the sorting, trashing, giveaways, etc. begin.  I am pooped, but not too tired to crank out one card for the Verve challenge that ends tomorrow evening.
I love this sweet little bird from Verve.  I chose to go with greens, pinks and a little blue bird.  Colored with Copics and sparkled with Spicas, you can't really see the sparkle from the photo.  I added a little bling by the Happy Birthday.  I used nestabilities for mounting the images and used a scallop die in place of ribbon.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Until next time, happy stamping!!!

Kathy B.

Friday, January 20, 2012

What's The Story?

My co-blogger, Margaret, is my inspiration for today's card.  I was struggling with what to do for the MFT Wednesday Challenge and then it hit me...What's the Story? fit perfectly since she gave you the background of how we got here, many years later.

I originally bought this set because Margaret's oldest child is a voracious reader, so I thought it would be a perfect set to use to make a card or two for her.  Since I have never done it, Julia, this card is for YOU!  Best intentions, not enough time.  This is a simple card using all cardstock (2 colors of pink + white) with only 1 die-cut patterned paper.  All papers came from my scrap bin, which I managed to clean out and organize the other night while watching TV.  Now I have cardstock scraps in 2 IRIS bins sorted by color families.  Patterned papers are in a third bin, which I did go through and toss stuff I will NEVER use again but have been holding on to for some insane reason.  So when I went to put this together tonight, what an amazing experience.  There were all my pinks ready for me to match up with the patterned paper (which I found in the other bin, already die-cut).  So this card was really a quicky.  I put seed beads in the little flower charms and added a beautiful Prima flower, and presto, it was done.  Thanks for stopping by.  Let me know if you have any great organizing strategies for all the stuff we crafters collect!!!!

Happy Stamping!  

Kathy B

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I guess it's my turn :)

Hi there,
This is Margaret.  So let me give you a bit of background information.  Kathy and I used to both live in Arkansas...we met through work and thanks to us both being dog people, it was a friendship made in heaven.  Or hell.  No you didn't hear me say that (She's reading this you know).  Anyway, I say that because she's the one who got me into stamping.  When I moved to Arkansas from Arizona (Actually I did a brief stay in Baltimore--it was a rough year), I had just gone through a divorce.  I had been an avid scrapbooker and tried to get Kathy into it (even though the passion of it was lost on me still--a little numb from the divorce experience and having two in diapers.)  Anyway, she started doing the scrapbooking until she went to a stamping party.  Then she got excited and wanted to get me into it.  I said, 'Uh uh.  No way.  NO INTEREST" 

RIGHT---you know where this is headed.  So she just kept going on and on about this and sooner or later, I went to my first party...and I was HOOKED.  I mean hookline and sinker.  No more woes over the divorce.  My therapist arrived!  It really helped me get through it I think, come to think of it now.  We ate, we breathed, we dreamt about stamping.  We've even taken trips---vacations--to places where there are good stamping stores.  ALL the way to New York City even to visit the famous Ink Pad!  We even got my children doing it--they're part of the team now and they each have their own "stuff" which they're very protective over and their own stamping space.  They consider themselves card artists--I love it!  And to this day, we still live stamping, except now there's a lot less time for me as I'm settling into a new job. :(  My poor stamps are sitting in their room all lonesome, waiting to be used. 

So we talked about a blog for a few years--a dual thing so we could share posting since we both work.  But work always got in the way.  Darn it that thing we need to do to support our stamping habit!  So recently, I moved to Colorado and Kathy is in Arkansas, though she also moved to a new house during the same time.  We were both a mess, packing and moving, can't believe we won't be within a few mile of each other,  and making sure our stamps were very well secured.  That, of course, was the most important part of the moves.  [The movers really thought I was nuts..."What is that", they asked?  "40 plus bins of stamps," I replied innocently, "And whatever you do, don't lose or mess up any stamps.  I don't care about the furniture, the crystal...just don't touch the stamps."  LOL  When we arrived in Colorado, at one point, one of the stacks of bins crashed to the floor of the truck and the stamps spilled out all over the place and the guys all stopped and looked at me horrified, worried I was going to yell at them.  I was like, "OK Nobody move...girls...go make sure the stamps are OK."  haha.  I think we found them all.  Life can go on.  Can you see it?]

We talked about starting a blog NOW so that we could be forced to send each other friend and missing you cards.  Cool idea-- except no one acted on it.  So the other day I log into my email and nearly dropped my computer on the floor when I saw she started this blog.   She did it...it feels sort of like someone pushed me on a roller coaster and I can't get off, and about to free fall.  Why is this so scary, for the entire world of faceless people to read?  I don't know, but 2012 is as good a year as any to do something new and great.  Last year I was recovering from a knee and head injury (now you understand why I'm loony over my stamps--the knock over the head did it), and contemplated over applying to this job I'm in now.  Today I'm in another state, posting on a BLOG.  YIKES! 

So to christen this blog, I'm posting a photo of a mandala.  It's one of our favorite things to do (Guess who got me into the mandala stuff too!)  It's actually a mandala I made for my daughter a few years ago in the summer.  My children stay with their dad all summer and their wishes (my commands) are to get a card or mandala every week.  That year they wanted mandalas of every color.  This was one I made for my sunshine youngest child who loves yellow.  I think of the sun, like her joyful sunny disposition when I see it (of course you will notice some black in there--that's because my sunshine child also has a dark cloud...so when she's happy everyone smiles with her, but when those murky cloudy moody days come out...everyone runs away as thunder is about to hit). 

This is one stamp, stamped several times and embossed in gold on different colored paper and just cut out multitudes of times, glued together with 3m tape (the raised kind) to provide depth.  Looks complicated but even my girls (tweens) can do these.  Quite well too!  They're perfect as decorations or ornaments, or even mounted in a shadow box, where they really give off their sparkle.  'Til next time!  (I promise to be less of a windbag too!)


Stamp: Outlines (Blossom series)
Ribbon, tassel, jewels, cardstock: all Hobby Lobby brand and Svarovski crystals (small ones)
 

I'm Back Again

I am back again with my 2nd post.  It's a little strange writing stuff when you don't have any followers yet, but that's okay for now.  I am going to stick with it.  My BFF Margaret is going to start posting to this blog, as well.  Sometimes we will take turns, sometimes we will have a dialogue.  We are just going to go with the flow and see where it takes us...

Here is today's card.


I used an MFT stamp set called Fiesta.  The paper is from a pad I got at Hobby Lobby called Magic of the Season.  I don't have a small label die so I used a portion of a Nestabilities die and it worked just great.  I colored the design with Copics, added rhinestones and a Prima flower from my stash.  I really love all the red.  I am of Spanish heritage, so I just had to have this stamp set.  I made the card for a friend of mine from Argentina. 

Until next time...happy stamping!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Very First Post

Hi!  This is my very first post and I am a bit nervous.  I have never done anything like this before.  But since I started participating in some recent challenges, I decided that perhaps this is the best way for me to get my feet wet and to inspire me to post my creations.  I have been married for 21 years and my husband and I just bought a home on acreage in the county.  I have just cut back  my work hours in December to 2/3 time, giving me a bit more time to play in my new art room.  I am excited to be part of the world of stamping and hope to make more friends through this venture.  Bear with me as I learn the ropes because I am certain there is going to be a learning curve here!!!

Don't you just love this little girl and her pup from MFT?  I paper pieced her hat, coat and dress, adding pearls to the hat.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for the zigzag edging and tied ribbon from Michaels between it and the matting.  I cut this little charmer out using a Nestabilities die.  The star is from Sizzix and I used shiny silver paper to emboss it.  I stamped I Woof You and punched it and a mat out with, poked a hole and threaded silver cord and tied it to the edging.  I created this for MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #52.

I hope you will stop by again.  I will be posting other sketch challenge creations in the future.