Krafty Kards

This was a very fun weekend. I was able to relax with my family and helped make 125 thank you cards (yes you read that right) for my friend Michelle's sister Jen, who is having a baby in July. There were 4 of us, but Susi and I were the only "experienced" crafters. See this post for examples of some of the cards we made. We did of course, make different cards and incorporated some papers Jen had from her Teaching Assistant. It was a very fun and productive Sunday.

So tonight I wanted to make cards that were not baby-like. I used my new Basic Grey stamps (Enabler Alert: All three of the image stamps were in the new $1.99 stamp sets from Basic Grey. There are 3-6 stamps per pack, although some of them are tiny. But they are fun...and they are at Archiver's. Just sayin')

I also continued my love affair with Kraft cardstock. I seriously have an L-O-V-E of any card that is put on Kraft. It is becoming the first paper I reach for after I color an image. The first card I used Primacolor pencils right on the Kraft. I used a blending pencil to burnish the pencil into the card, and a white pencil to add some highlights. The card with the leaves I used my Copics to play with the retro- feel of the leaves. And below is the retro birdy. He is colored with Copics as well. The sentiment stamps are all from Hero Arts, although not from the same sets.
Have a great week everyone!

Supplies:

Stamps: Images (Basic Grey), Sentiments (Hero Arts)

Cardstock: Kraft, Ocean Tides (Papertrey Ink), White (Neenah), Green (SU)

Ribbon: Orange (American Crafts), Ocean Tides Twill (Papertrey Ink), Twine (Walmart)

Ink: Memento

Colored Pencils: Prismacolor

Markers: Copics

SFYTT- Argus and His Teddy

This card is a bit more complicated then the simple thank you notes I made for my friends yesterday. This is Argus and his Teddy from Paper Makeup Stamps, and I like him colored Blue. I was playing with my Copics, and did a few variations of him. I like him blue. I didn't know how to incorporate him into a card until I saw this weeks SFYTT. I did shift the placement of the oval, but I think it helps balance the button and the patterned paper. Hope you like him!

Here are the Copics:

Supplies:

Stamps: Argus and his Teddy (Paper Makeup Stamps), Sentiment (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Memento

Patterned Paper: KI Memories

Brads: Queen and Co

Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Twine: Walmart

Cardstock: Neenah

Markers: Copic

Button: Fancy Pants

Owl be thinking of you

This was a good weekend. It was a crazy crazy week last week and I needed to decompress. I spent a lot of time playing in my room on Friday night and was practicing coloring with my Copics. I feel like I am getting better! I won't point out the flaws on this card, because I think the overall feeling is a good one. On Saturday I went to a different Archiver's then I usually do and it was a lot of fun. My best deal was some white grograin for $0.04/yd (I took 20 yards for a bank breaking $0.80, remember, you can color ribbon with copics to coordinate with your projects). I also got the ribbon on the card above for $0.25/yd. The deals were terrific! For this card I busted out the Cuttlebug. I had resisted getting a bug because I had the silhouette, but the embossing folders were too fun to resist. The swiss dot is just my favorite. I have a couple other folders that I will play with later this week. I have to get my paper challenge cards done; I am very behind.

Here are the Copics:

Have a good Monday!

Supplies:
Stamps: Owl (Whipper Snapper), Sentiment (PTI)

Paper: Stampin Up, White (Neenah)

Ribbon: Fancy Pants

Markers: Copics
Ink: Memento

With Sympathy

I picked up this stamp at my LSS a couple weeks ago and didn't have the right colors of Copics to do it justice. So I had to treat myself to a new batch *grin*. Admitedly, i need to practice my blending a bit more. I thought that coneflowers were a bit more blueish, but they really are purple. And the cone is supposed to be redder, but it didn't look right. This image could lend itself to many things, but it said "Sympathy card" to me.

The Copics (I forgot to add W1 to the pile I photographed)

Supplies:
Stamp: Cornish Farms
Cardstock: Neenah (White), Stampin Up
Ribbon: May Arts
Markers: Copics

Happy Birthday Cupcake

Don't you love Michael's dollar stamps? I know I do. My friend Tiffany was at Michaels last week and called me to tell me they had very cute cupcake stamps and did I want some. Did I? Of course! I made this card using one of the 3 stamps she bought for me. I colored each cupcake and then cut out the image. I used dimensionals to pop them off the page. A frame of pink cardstock and simple ribbon treatment was all this card needed. Oh, and don't you love the crystal effects on the cherry?

Supplies:

Stamp: Studio G, Hero Arts

Cardstock: Neenah (white), Stampin Up (Pink)

Ribbon: Chatterbox

Linen Thread: Stampin Up

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Another Flower

I am really really loving the Blossom and Blooms set from Whipper Snapper. Maybe it's because the images are so much fun to color with Copics!

I am also way addicted to using Kraft Cardstock. There is just something about the contrast of the image on the kraft color. And I am really loving the ribbon from Papertrey Ink. It is by far the best ribbon that I have ever used. This is another very simple card. I really into making clean and simple cards right now.

Supplies:
Stamps: Blossoms and Blooms, Hero Arts

Cardstock: Kraft (PTI), Red and Brown (Archiver's), White (Neenah)

Ink: Memento Black, Staz On Timber Brown

Twine (Stampin Up), Ribbon (Papertrey Ink), and Copics

Baby Card for Friends

Hi Everyone! I want to give a special shout out to my new blog followers Tiffany and Gogizmo; thanks for following me ladies!

I was disappointed with how my KWerner card came out this week, so I had to go into my stamp room and make a card I did like!
Some friends (Karlie and Angelo) just had a baby boy, so I made a card to go with the package I am sending to them. I am so much happier with this card!


The stamp is from Imaginisce ($1.99 bin at Archiver's). I stamped it in Ranger distress ink and colored it with my Copics. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. Can you tell that the white background actually has an embossed alphabet? So cute for a baby card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Elephant (Imaginisce), Sentiment (PTI); Cardstock: Blue (Stampin Up), Yellow (Bazzil), White (K and Co); Ribbon: Making Memories; Twine: Stampin Up; Copics: W1, Y21

KWerner Color Challenge #46

These colors messed with my brain! The blue and pink together kept telling me to go "baby", but I couldn't do it with the red and black there.


Finally I decided to bust out my Technique Tuesday flower petals and pair it with a stamp from an Ali Edwards Kit that Creating Keepsakes sold eons ago. I colored the petals with copics. I like how that looked versus just using the cardstock. I popped the petals off the page with some pop dots (check your dollar store people - they have a large sheet of them and they work terrific!). I thought about distressing the background, but again, less was more here as I wanted to let the flower take center stage. Hope you like it! The heart is a quickutz die that I punched and then colored with Copics. A big departure from my usual style.

edited: Ok, I couldn't take the floating card. I grounded it on a red and black base....ah much better.

Supplies:
Stamps: Technique Tuesday (flower petals), Creating Keepsakes (live life everyday)Cardstock: Stampin UpInk: Memento Tuxedo BlackCopics: R10, RV81, R85, R27

I appreciate you!

First, is this not a better picture then yesterday's? Man, I was not loving the yellow cast from yesterday. Here is the trick, change your color setting on your camera to tungsten and make you ISO at least 800. That is what I did here. This card came about because I was playing with my new Blooms and Butterflies set by Whipper Snapper (designed by Anna Wight). I wanted this set since it came out and I just had to get it when i was at Creative Pals in Brookfield, WI this weekend. I colored it with Copics, but stopped short of getting out my pencils to shade. That will be the weekend. This card is an interesting size 5.5 x 3, and is one of those designs that you could make a set of cards with different images but the same layout...in fact I may try just that this weekend. Happy Thursday!
Supplies
Stamps: Image (Whipper Snapper), Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Stampin Up
Ribbon: May Arts, Twine (Stampin Up)
Ink: Memento Black Ink, Ranger Distress Ink Tea Dye
Button: From the stash

SFYTT and Caardvarks - Monach Butterfly

I had a fun day yesterday with some of my stampin friends Sady, Tiffany, Marisa, and Jeanne! Sandy has this great stamping store near her mom in Brookfield, WI - Creative Pals. We took a combination Copics/ Colored Pencil class from a woman who has been using Copics for 8 years (way longer then they have been the "it" marker for stampers). I couldn't believe all of the tips she gave us, and you won't believe how cool some of the cards come out! (I have to practice a bit more on the colored pencils). Anyway, I picked up a few goodies (some rubbah as Jen would say), and was so excited to see that I could use one of them on the SFYTT! I also classify the butterfly as a critter, so I am going to post it on the caardvarks critter challenge as well!

Of course, the entire time I was thinking about all the tricks I learned, and how much fun I had! You can't see it in the photo, but the yellow paper is actually Bazzil's new Swiss dot. I like that I don't have to get another die cut machine to get the fabulous embossed look! I also used twine to tie my ribbon as some of MSG's (my swap girls) have done. I was going to add a button, but there is a lot of hardware going on with this card, so I opted not to. And Papertrey's Retro Basics set added just enough contrast to qualify as another layer below the ribbon. Hope you enjoy!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Kraft and Black (SU), White (Neenah Solar White), Yellow Swiss Dot (Bazzil)

Stamps: Butterfly (Impression Obsession), Background and Sentiment (Papertrey Ink)

Hardware: SU

Ink: Memento Black

Copics: Y15, Y21, YR15, YR68

Tools: Silhouette (Oval and Scalloped Oval), Notch Punch (SU)

Ribbon (May Arts) and Twine (SU)

Silly Monkey

I got this Stampendous stamp at Archiver's last week. It's one of their new rubber cling stamps. I completely fell in love with the image. I was going to use it for a Father's Day card, but that was just too long to wait! I was just playing coloring with my COPICs on some new cardstock (finding the name of it), and the image colored so well I had to make a card!
Supplies
Cardstock: Wausau Paper, Bazzil
Patterned paper: Bo Bunny
Stamps: Stampendous, Hero Arts
Eyelets: Stampin Up
Ribbon: Michaels
Markers: Copics

Cute Little Monkey

I am still trying to learn how to use Copics properly. I have gotten the purchasing of the Copics down; I am busily accumulating my stash. I just have to start practicing more. This card started with the palm tree; I thought it would be easy enough to color and shade. Then I stamped the monkey, then the bird. Of course they were on little bits of paper that in no way resembled a card, but tossed on my desk I thought- Hey I could put those together. So I cut them out (no easy task, I am not an expert in cutting intricate details), and then popped them up a bit. I didn't mess with the whole adding shadows thing, perhaps on the next card. I did use black Memento ink and I could see a difference, Memento is definately the way to go. I kept looking at the card thinging what else I could add- a button, ribbon? I may add some twine at the top, but for right now I think this is cute just the way it is.
Supplies
Stamps: Susie's Zoo Autumn Leaves, Hero Arts (sentiment)
Cardstock: Wausau Paper (white), KI memories (blue)
Copics
Ink: Memento

Blue Birdy

I almost didn't get this card finished tonight. I know it looks simple, but I just kept coloring that bird and learning how to shade. The blues do really match much better in real life. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with the bird...cut him out, punch him, put him on patterned paper. So finally I decided that simple was better. I hope you agree! Oh and a couple tips, I purchase my white paper in bulk from Staples...250 sheets for $10. The brand is Wausau Paper 110 lb cardstock. It is smooth and thick enough to be the base of a card.

Supplies

Stamps: Bird (Autumn Leaves), Sentiment (Papertrey Ink)

Ribbon: American Crafts

Paper: KI Memories (Thanks Mom!)

Bling: Crystal Stickers

Katie Loves Copics

So I got my birthday present a little early (My birthday is February 22 if anyone is wondering *grin*). This happens a lot. My husband bought me a selection of Copic Markers for my birthday and when they arrived he told me I should go "try them out". I don't have many images that lend themselves to coloring, but I really liked this flower stamp. Copics are so much fun! I had tried them once before and wasn't sold on them, but I think that is because I didn't have the color options. There are a lot of ways to use copics and I am just learning. The think I like the most is that when you color with them they don't leave marker lines on the project. My only problem now is that I want more colors...and more stamps!

Supplies

Stamps: Stampin' Up (Happiness), Flower (unknown, but I remember it was from the $1.99 bin at Archiver's)

Paper: Stampin' Up

Ink: Black Soot Distress Ink

Glitter: Stampin Up