Butterflies

Hello,

Another quick post. I've been having fun shopping for everyone. I love giving gifts. I've also been getting my house back in order. Lol just in time to get the Christmas decorations out. :D

I'm happy to report I'm a finalist in two categories for Karen's blog awards. Your welcome to vote to do so click here.

Anywho ages ago.. well it feels like ages ago... I sent off a card to a publisher. I wasn't chosen, I wasn't expecting to be, it was my first time.. that and they have 1000+ people sending in pic's. It was just fun to push myself. The theme I choose to go with was butterfly's.

I really like how it turned out. Those butterflies are amazing in person. Here is a complete (for once) list of everything I used:

Cardstock: Neenah solor white, Echo park delightful doilies (from the Victoria garden series)

Other paper: Staedtler vellum

Stamps: Flower dot pattern by Hero Arts, Antique Engravings Butterflies by Hero arts, and Find joy also by Hero arts

Copic's used:

Red Butterfly: R20, R22, R24, R27, C0, C1, C2

Blue Butterfly: B04, B02, B00, Y08, Y00, Y02, Y04

Purple Butterfly: V12, V15, V17, RV00, RV02, RV04

Bodies colored with N1, N3, N5

Antenna hand drawn with .5 multiliner

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black by Tsukineko, Tumbled Glass distress by Ranger, Broken China distress by Ranger

Ribbon: Essentials

Gems: Sparkle Gems by Hero arts (Flower)

Center Stone by Zva Creative

I am very pleased with the results. I'll definitely submit in the future, once things calm down of course. First I have to get a few other things done.

Time to get back to life.

Katie

Travels

Yeah I have a card for you :D

But first I am happy to report I have been nominated in two category's in the.. "Your favorite blogs of 2011" being hosted by my friend Karen. Feel free to check out the voting here. What a surprise.. who knew this blog thing would be such a big hit. Wow thanks to whom ever nominated me and to all those who vote.

My card is a birthday card for one of the coolest people I've ever met, my sister in law Kellee. She lives on the other side of the country so we don't get to see her to often. :( Although this year we've seen her 3 or 4 times... and she'll be flying in less than a month. Woo Hoo!

Seriously Kellee is amazing. A few months ago she said "I expect to get an amazing birthday card". Oh my how to live up to that statement. Of course I want to give her the coolest card ever. I don't know if this is that card however it fits her personally perfectly. You see Kellee is a cartographer. She makes maps for a non profit group. Maps of sea turtle migrations, deforestation that sort of thing. Plus she has traveled the world and I mean the world. She's been just about every where except for South America. With that in mind this is what I created:

I hope she likes it and it lives up to her expectations. Here is some what I used:

InLinkz.com

The Happy Birthday stamp is from a set I won from Simon Says Stamp. I'll see if I can find which set it came from.

Happy Birthday Kellee! Your gift will be in the mail shortly.

Katie

Diced up

A super quick post for you. This life stuff has really sucked all my time up this week... quite disagreeable.

The good news is tomorrow I'll be participating in a blog hop :D My very first hop. I think I have decided on a give away as well. What timing eh? (check back tomorrow for more details)

As it is a fun day I thought I would show you a card I made a week or so ago. It was based off last month's Hero Art's sketch. I adapted it slightly and created this:

I used the large leaf from the real leaves stamped it with Memento ink and colored it with colored pencils. I then blended them with baby oil... no joke baby oil. It turned out amazing. I got the idea from Lynette over at Stamp Fever. I've seen this technique done with gamsol but that stuff it hard to get your hands on. Baby oil can be found anywhere plus it's super cheap. :D

Katie

Pushing the limits

Sorry guys I've been busy. I ended up creating invitations for our work party.. we than had a change in the schedule so I'm having to recreate them. Thankfully I get paid to do it. :D We also had to clean up the chaos from the construction. Since we were doing it already we may as well organize at the same time. It looks good.. for now. :D

The Fantastic news is my amazing husband was hired to work at Whole Foods...raise the roof! You see his ultimate goal is to create and sell condiments. His Worcestershire sauce is amazing as is everything else he makes. Ideally we would like to sell it on the shelves of markets like Whole Foods. With him working there his foot is already in the door. :D Very exciting. Plus 20% discount! woot woot!

More exciting news I was asked to be a guest designer for a blog... :D that will be next month, closer to Thanksgiving. Very excited about that. Anywho.. enough about that stuff.

I found some time to craft yesterday :D I was afraid since I hadn't done it in a few days would I still love it? (I'm notorious for starting a new hobby and then ending it quickly) Yeap still loving it. phew.

The other day I mentioned how sketch challenges are difficult for me. I'm not to sure what or how to do them.. there's no real rules. I'm an exact person and not fond of gray. What can I change? How can I change it? blah blah blah..forget it move on to something more exact. I've decided I need to push myself and not skip over them any longer. I took Hero Arts sketch challenge and created this:

That scallop border is the bottom of the Flourish ornament. I embossed it with this powder that has glitter in it so it really sparkles. (It is kinda hard to find online so I didn't add it to the tool manager. I can get it for you easy as it's at my local store) The picture doesn't do it justice.

InLinkz.com

The ribbon is from our local store and the pearls were a free gift from Simon Says Stamp. Time to get back to those invitations. I hope your having a good week!

Katie

Mmmm Stripes

Simon Says Stamp and Show is having a strips challenge. That awesome paper is from a pack I never wanted. It was given to me to make some card samples from since it wasn't selling at our local store. It's funny I never wanted to touch it but once I started playing with it I can't seem to put it down. As a matter of fact the packet is almost gone.

Anywho, I decided to try a sketch challenge. I will admit this is my weakness. I'm an exact person so when I see a picture I lean towards matching it instead of being creative with it. I follow a number of blogs. One that I frequent is Jennifer McGuire's blog. She is amazing.. that goes with out saying. She took this months Hero Arts sketch.. worked her magic.. ta da an amazing card.

I decided to give it a try using her card as inspiration.

I love that paper! I punched out a couple of circles, inked them up. The green was then stamped with a wet back ground stamp for that cool effect.

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

Er I don't recall which punches I have.. sorry I can look it up if your interested. The buttons are from Hero Arts. I tried to put them in the cool tool manager however it was being disagreeable. That and work is needing me to put out a fire.

I'm glad it's Friday.

Katie

Church Sample #4

I have a busy day here making invitations for our annual meeting here at work. I'm thankful I get to get paid to craft. :D Here's another I made for the Church crafting day that's coming up:

Here's my "fab" version:

I had a hard time fabbing this one up. I did more of goof up lol. Well I goofed off. Isn't that how we learn though? Trial and error. Not that there are any errors per say I was just playing around. I love how the font is filled in and I tried my hand at making my own bakers twine. That was pain for the price i'll just buy it.

I believe the paper is Echo Park, the blue is from Hero arts.. it was an envelope I cut up.

Short and sweet today, have a good one.

Merry & Bright

Oh the joys of construction. There was a water leak sometime back and they finally came to fix the drywall, only to find one of the showers was leaking to... it's fixed and thankfully I don't have to pay for it.. the benefits of being a renter.

Because the first construction "dude" (he was a total surfer so the term fits) said the issue looked "abnormal" meaning there was mold. Which forced them to set up a negative air environment to fix the problem. (I told the owner our dining area looked like a scene from the X-files) Thankfully the jet engine fan is no longer required. That was awful. It really made watching the telle no fun. The bonus was I found time to craft. :D I decided to try my hand at the Hero arts make holiday cards without holiday stuff again. Here's what I created:

I'm not sold on the envelope pattern back ground. Those 2 pieces looked great together and made the kraft really plain looking so I added that pattern. I should have used a lighter color. But that's just me.

I love how that red square came out. It was done with 3 distress inks. I use the inks like I do Copic's... in pairs or in 3's. Personally I think it gives it a little bit more of a dimensional color. The text was created by spraying a stamp with water, stamping the paper then drying it quickly with the heat gun.

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

I say most only cuz I'm sure I forgot something. I usually do. If I have time I will redo this card if I do I'll show you the results, well see.

Finesse the Dress

This is a new contest for me. This weeks challenge was to design a project using this dress as inspiration:

It is a cute dress, not something I would ever ware for a number of reasons. Here is my card:

I took a second photo so you could get a better idea:

I adore the turquoise/gray combo however I don't own turquoise ink so I went with blue. Trying to capture the embroidery in the dress I did a clear emboss over pumice stone ink. Than I inked over it. Keeping the idea of fabric in mind I pleated white (I don't own gray.. note to self get some) ribbon down the inside of the front panel. As it needed a bit more I added that great black ribbon. I curved the top corners in order to give it more feminine feel

I'm very happy with the results.. It's busy yet simple. This was the first card I did were I sketched out something and then created it. It didn't come out like the sketch but I like it. :D

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

The sentiment is from my favoritest stamp set ever! Oh my do I love this set. There's some serious love going on. It's from Close to my Heart, unfortunately you can't just look at it on their website.. disagreeable. You can find it in the catalog but who has time to flip through 100+ pages? (It's towards the end) I did find it on ebay though. Here is the set on ebay. The other negative Close to my heart has are their prices. I don't like that I have to pay full price.

It was worth the money I will say that. I use all the time.

I hope your having a great weekend.

Katie