Birds and Birthdays

Hi Everyone,

My sister in law and her husband have birthdays a few days apart, so I made them matching cards for the celebration.  Tony is a bird lover, so I'm always on the hunt for a bird stamp I haven't used for him before, and it's a good thing too; he said he's saved all of them throughout the years! I'm not 100% convinced that's true, but both of these bird stamps were new to both of them :)

I took inspiration from last weeks card for these, using an embossing folder with flourishes and birds on it, and the original sentiment ends with the word, "sweet".  I just swapped it out for "tweet", to match the bird theme.

Here are the stamps used:
Bird Feeder
Sweet Birthday Greeting
Extra Tweet Birthday Greeting

And here is the inside and the stamps used:

Popped Up Birthday Greeting (end portion)

Snowy Birdhouse

My sister in law's card is virtually the same; except I made it a little girly using glitter on the snow and a ribbon.  

Here are the stamps used:

Snowy Birdhouse

Extra Tweet Birthday Greeting

And the inside stamps:

Bird Feeder

Back Nine Birthday Greeting (end portion)

At the last minute, I realized I didn't have a birthday gift bag (just lots of those Christmas ones!), so I took a plain navy bag with white trim and jazzed it up with a row of gems, some die cuts and the big Brush Happy Birthday Greeting.  Hurray! DRS Designs to the rescue!

I literally took the photo after putting it together before running out the door to the party, but I think everyone was more impressed by the bag, than what was in it...lol :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

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Warm Wishes

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope your year is filled with health, wealth and most importantly, lots of stamping time :)

I chose to use the All in 1 Christmas Village for today's card and in doing so, it reminded me that I skipped watching It's a Wonderful Life in December.  Doesn't this look like it could be Bedford Falls from the movie? 

 I chose to do the opposite of my Christmas day post here, and completely color up the scene, adding my requisite glitter glue for the snow.

Even though it's hard to see, I stamped the card base using the Tree Line Border and completed it with the friendly Warm Wishes Greeting.  See?  The Village is not just a stamp for the holidays, you can use it all winter long.  

Wishing you a warm January ahead!
Karin

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Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone,

Merry Christmas!  I hope you're enjoying a happy holiday :)

If you're thinking, there is no way I would be able to stamp this little scene, there are way too many elements, you are in luck.  This is one single stamp! How cool is that?  I stamped the
 All in 1 Christmas Village and made it super easy, by simply highlighting the buildings and road with  grey and blue markers and coloring in the doors in red.

I stamped the red background in white using the Snow Background stamp.  I added a punched snowflake border along with a gem embellished snowflake.  For a greeting, I chose the

 Christmas From Our House sentiment to finish it off.

Here's wishing you all the best!

Merry Christmas!
Karin

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Christmas Holiday

Hi Everyone,

I'm really cutting it close when it comes to getting my cards made and mailed out this year...Please, tell me I'm not alone...lol!  I think if I get to the post office today or tomorrow, I'll still be able to make the deadline.  If you're in the same boat with me, here's a little last minute inspiration.

I have a friend that inherited his family home, and he's in the process of remodeling it.  HIMSELF.  I'm in awe. Home improvement is one of my nightmares.  So, this card that features the
Tool Christmas Stocking, is a stamp that was tailor made for his holiday card. I colored it up, die cut and matted it, adding a silver, metal like snowflake for embellishment.



I used an embossing folder that had gears on it and embellished that with some metal brads, to keep with the theme of the masculine card, finishing it by adding the Fixin' Merry Christmas Greeting.

I realized I needed to make a card at the last minute, so that always means clean and simple.  This one couldn't have been easier.

I die cut a tree and embossed it with some snowflakes, adding a few touches of glitter glue.  I grabbed my watercolor brush and painted the background in a tree shape, and once it was dry, I attached it with some dimensional foam tape.

I grabbed my punches and the Small Happy Holidays sentiment and called it done.  I know it's plain, but it really makes my heart sing.  I've already decided this will be my Christmas party invites for next year.  

The big day is one week away...I'm wishing you peace and joy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Karin

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Seas and Greetings

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I really got my sparkle on, so I thought what better time than the holidays to glitter up some cards :)  

Blue and white are always a nautical color combo, so I began by stamping my navy background with the Splatter Background stamp. After stamping with white ink, I took a sponge and just smeared and softened the spots so that they wouldn't look so defined.  I placed an embossed seashell strip along the bottom and lined the sides with double sided tape and glitter.  

I then stamped and heat embossed the Seashell Christmas Tree and the new Seas and Greetings sentiment, fussy cutting the tree and die cutting the greeting.  

I die cut and added some glitter embellished mats for my greeting and then assembled the card, finishing it off with a gemstone flourish from my stash.

While we don't have any glittery sand where I live, we do have lots of the glittery white stuff...(I'd take the sand and shells any day!) 

Here's hoping your season is shaping up to be swell!
Karin

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Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone,

My card today features the beautiful new Christmas Door Knocker stamp.  I can just see it on an open house invitation, or a welcome to the neighborhood card, or just a friendly holiday card like mine here:

I chose to heat emboss the image on Kraft cardstock and color it in with some water based markers.  I die cut and matted it, adding it with pop dots to a dry embossed background.  The strip of patterned paper was made using the Snow Background and the Splatter Background stamps.  I finished the card by added a matching ribbon and rounding off one corner.

Here's look at the heat embossing:

I did a simple inside using the Christmas From Our house Greeting, 
the Christmas Village Slope Roof Cottage, along with the same Snow Background stamp from the front.

How's your holiday cardmaking coming along?  If you need some more inspiration, DRS Designs has got you covered.

Thanks for stopping by...Have a great day!

Karin

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Apples and Ornaments

Hi Everyone,

Because Thanksgiving fell so early in November, as I type this, I still feel like I'm celebrating two seasons and holidays.  I'm eating turkey soup, made from my leftovers, and I'm also decorating for Christmas.  Hence my cards for the blog today :)

I couldn't let the season pass by with out coloring up the gorgeous Bountiful Basket stamp. It screams harvest time and thankfulness, and lets me use all of my favorite colored markers to bring it to life.  I die cut and added a mat to the image, along with a second pumpkin.  I stamped it a second time, colored and fussy cut it, adding it to that corner pumpkin using some dimensional foam tape.  

An embossed fall word background, along with a strip of paper made using the Splatter Background stamp, made up the background for this card.  I finished it off with the Thanks be to God Greeting and a crochet button embellishment from my stash.  

I took a break from decorating to make a card that was filled with some decorations :) Using some Spellbinders ornament dies to create these, I decorated them using the following stamps:

Medium Filigree Snowflake

Scroll Corner Tile

Ornate Corner Tile

The card needed a bit of embellishment, so I stamped and fussy cut the flower from the 

Poinsettia Vine Corner stamp, and added some punched greens, and gems to the centers.  The Small Happy Holidays Greeting was added using my square punches, to contrast the round ornaments.  

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Thanks for visiting today!

Karin

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Thanksgiving Cards

Hi Everyone,

With it being Thanksgiving week, I have two cards that are holiday related, but on the simpler side.  If you're in a time crunch, these are for you ;)

An embossing folder, circle punches, and a die are what I used to highlight the darling little leaf image from the 4 in 1 Harvest Designs stamp.

I colored up the leaves and used a 1 3/4"circle punch to cut them out.  After embossing my background, I used the 1 1/4" punch to create the openings and glued the leaves behind them.  I then used the same size punches to create the little frames for each one, and added a simple die cut greeting to finish the card.  

For my second card, I stamped, colored and die cut the Pumpkin Thanksgiving Wishes greeting. I wasn't in the mood to do any lengthy coloring project, so I grabbed some washi tape and masked off a few strips on my background cardstock.  I then used some orange and yellow ink, and sponged the exposed areas.  After removing the tape, I stamped the Pumpkin Pile in brown ink and added a strip of glitter. 

I finished it off by adding the sentiment using some dimensional tape and a row of matching gems.  

Here's wishing you a happy holiday this week...I sure am grateful you took the time to visit the blog today!

Karin

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Pumpkin Piles

Hi Everyone,

I really like the new Pumpkin Pile stamp that was recently released, it's definitely been the stamp I've used the most this fall season!  I love the different sizes in the grouping and they work as part of a scene or as a stand alone stamp too.

Here I began by stamping the pumpkins, masking them off and adding the Hanging Sign Post next.  I kept the mask in place, and then stamped using the Winter Trees stamp, making sure I stamped below the sign. 

All that was left to do was color up the scene using my Copic markers, and add the 

Small Autumn Greetings sentiment to the sign.  

For this card, I stamped the card base using the Woven Plaid in green and orange ink.  .  It's probably my favorite background stamp for the cooler months, because it's so versatile and easy to use!

For a change, I stamped the Pumpkin Pile on Kraft using Versamark and heat embossed them using white embossing powder, coloring them in after.

I added a strip of orange glitter to the top, matted the image attaching it to the stamped base with dimensional foam tape.  I stamped and used my circle punches for the Thanks be to God Greeting and attached that with the same tape, finishing it off with a few gems.  

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week???! I'm so not ready...Well, my spirit is, but my house and pantry are not!  

Have a great week!

Karin

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Pumpkin Cards

Hi Everyone,

I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, but as luck would have it, the cold bug followed us home from vacation.  We're hoping things are on the up swing this new week, and thankfully it didn't stop me from stamping!

I love this gorgeous new Give Thanks Pumpkin Stack stamp.  It's an image and greeting all in one and it was a dream to color up.  After die cutting it and adding a mat, I set it aside to work on my backgrounds.  The base paper was made using the following stamps:

Silhouette Branch Background (green ink)
Easy Dot Background (yellow ink)
Splatter Background (orange ink) 

Lastly, I used the Woven Plaid to make my middle piece of patterned paper, stamping it using the same colors of ink.  I added a punched border and a gauzy green ribbon to finish it off.

Is there anything better than coffee and pie? Not much if you ask me, so I was thrilled to be inking up the new Pie and Coffee stamp. After coloring and die cutting it, I stamped and die cut the

 Pumpkin Spice Everything Nice greeting and tried to work out the placement of them on my card.  

I chose a brown background paper because it matched the color of the crust and then added a piece of orange and green to match the pie and dishes.  Then I dry embossed the whole thing with a leaf embossing folder. (Darice)  Looking at the card, I thought it needed some embellishment, so I added a bit of glitter glue to the whipped cream.  What's better than whipped cream, but more whipped cream...So I stamped and paper pieced a second cream on my coffee :)  

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!

Karin

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Halloween and Autumn

Hi Everyone,

Remember when buttons on cards were all the rage?  I acquired them in almost every color, but as that trend past, as trends tend to do, they are now gathering dust in my collection of craft supplies.  Until I was looking to make one more Halloween card, that had to be quick and easy.  

I was going for clean and simple, stamping the Empty Spider Web on the corner of my orange background paper.  I added a strip of white paper to the bottom that was stamped with the 

Expect the Unexpected Greeting, and I was going to add a few die cut spiders to the web.  The only problem was, nothing about that was unexpected.  So out came my black button collection and glue.  

Button spiders seemed cute and more in line with the greeting too.  The only thing left to do was draw on some legs, and add a bit of gingham ribbon.

When I came back from my vacation this past weekend, the new fall stamps were waiting for me, and inspired by my visit to Maine, I couldn't wait to ink them up.  Here is a photo from Acadia National Park:

And here's my card celebrating some of those fall colors:

To make the background, I dropped some alcohol inks onto a piece of acetate and then smooshed it onto my card stock, making sure to leave some open white spaces too.  Once it was dry, I used the Open Leaf and some brown ink to create the patterned paper.  If there are falling leaves there must be acorns too, so I used the acorn from the new 4 in 1 Harvest Designs stamp to create the strip and the new Autumn is in the Air for the greeting.  To finish it off, I added a few fall colored sequins for some shine.

Halloween is almost here...Wishing you few tricks and many treats!

Have a great day!

Karin

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Boo!

Hi Everyone,

While I know the greeting on the card says, "Boo!," the ghosts are more in line with Casper the friendly ghost, so I kept the theme of the card cheerful.

I stamped, colored and die cut the Ghost Boo image, using various orange Copic markers on the image. I then used the colorless blender to make the designs some of the letters.  It simply moves/removes some of the ink when you use it to draw stripes or dots.

The orange background was dry embossed using a pumpkin embossing folder (Provocraft) and the yellow paper was embossed using a spider web folder (Darice).  I wanted to add some matching embellishment, so I kept with the color theme of the card and stamped the Candy Corn Border a couple times.  I colored and fussy cut it and attached it, along with the image using dimensional tape.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Karin

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Happy Halloween

Hi Everyone,

I have another Halloween card to share with you today and it's one for those folks that don't do scary or gory for Halloween.  Just cheerful fun!

I stamped and colored up the Fancy Pumpkin, embellishing the buckle with some glitter glue.  After fussy cutting it, I attached it to a couple of die cut circles, embossing one using a spider web embossing folder.

I created the backgrounds using the Spooky Eyes and Starry Background stamps and attached those to an orange card base.  

I stamped and die cut the Deco Happy Halloween, sponging on some yellow and orange ink to coordinate with the other card elements.  

Thanks for visiting today!
Karin

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Halloween

Hi Everyone,

I decided to pull out my glitter and embossing powders last weekend and get to work on some more Halloween cards.

After making the Scary Skull into a Day of the Dead sugar skull here, I decided to stamp and heat emboss it for my first card,  I colored up the eyes, fussy cut it and set it aside as I worked on the rest of the card.

I dry embossed the background and made a border strip using the Scroll Corner Tile stamp to match, attaching it to the background.  Using red ink, I stamped the Bump Into Me Halloween Greeting, and I matted it to match the card base.  I added a strip of double sided tape to the bottom of the greeting and burnished it with some glittery flock.  It needed an embellishment, so I stamped, colored and fussy cut one Eyeball.  

After attaching the sentiment and image with dimensional tape, I added 3 square gems to finish it off.

I tried to do something different for my second card, and I chose a neutral color theme.  I stamped and embossed the Iron Fence and Gate on a piece of Kraft card stock.  Again, I added a piece of double sided tape and burnished it with some black and gold glitter.  I made my own Boo greeting using dies and square punches, and attached it all to a card base that was stamped using the
 Empty Spiderweb stamp.



Are you ready for Halloween? Be sure to visit the DRS Designs store for tons of stamps and inspiration!

Have a great day!
Karin

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Unexpected

Hi Everyone,

As soon as I saw the new Scary Skull stamp that was recently released at DRS Designs, my thoughts turned to a photo I took on vacation in San Diego.  I think it was somewhere in Temecula/the southern California wine country, that I snapped this:

I knew I wanted to take inspiration from it for my card...My teammate Nancy had the same thought, and made a fantastic Day of the Dead card in this post here.  I decide to go the colorful route, and stamped, fussy cut and decorated my skulls using these stamps and my own doodles:

Scroll Corner Tile

Flower Scroll

Ornate Corner Tile

I wrapped my embossed background with some printed ribbon and added the new 

Expect the Unexpected Greeting to the front.  

I had originally made three skulls for the front, but what I had in mind didn't work out, (Plan A never works out for me!), so I brought the extra skull to the inside.

I finished it off using the new Deco Happy Halloween stamp and the Scroll Corner Tile stamp again. 

Spooky greetings to you and yours...

Have a great day!

Karin

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Halloween

Hi Everyone,

Our weather has finally taken a turn...Why does 65 degrees in the fall, feel so much cooler than 65 degrees in the spring?  It must be the inevitability of winter, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  After all, this is a post about Halloween cards!

This first card is on the spooky side, featuring a scene made with the new Iron Fence and Gate stamp.
I sponged the background using my ink pads, and then stamped the images on top. I left the sky area kind of blank, and added some more sponging after I stamped the Raven.  I colored it in with Copic markers and then filled the sky using the Accent Bats stamp.   I die cut the background scene using a Sizzix die and finished off the card using the new It's a Scream Halloween Greeting.

Here's a friendly Halloween card for my second share today.  I embossed the background with a spider web embossing folder, embellishing the raised web with some glitter glue. I stamped, colored and fussy cut the new Ghost Boo, cutting out one extra ghost. 

Once my background was dry, I attached a die cut banner that had my extra ghost attached, and attached my greeting up top.

Be sure to stop by the DRS Designs store to see all of these new stamps and many more, all celebrating the fun of Halloween!

Have a great day!
Karin

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Drink Up Witches

Hi Everyone,

I've got a sneak peek for you today!  DRS Designs has some super fun new Halloween stamps coming your way this week, and for today's card share,  I've paired one of them up with a few stamps from the current catalog.

The Drink Up Witches (721G) stamp is one of the newbies, and I stamped, colored and die cut it out, adding a black mat. I did the same thing using the Witch Feet stamp and set them aside while I embossed the background using a grapes embossing folder (Darice).  Since DRS Designs also has a 

Bunch of Grapes stamp, I stamped and colored up a strip that I bordered with some drippy green goo.  

I assembled the card and added some glitter to the drink and embellished the buckle on the witch hat using a gold gel pen. 

I carried the beverage theme to the inside of the card simply by using these two stamps:

Brewing Halloween Greeting 

Magic Potion Shelf

Be sure to stop by the store for all the new releases on September 19th!  The Halloween season is upon us, so feel free to bust open that candy and start stamping :)

Have a great day!
Karin

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Fall is in the Air

Hi Everyone,

Boy did we experience a soaker of weekend. I didn't love the buckets of rain, but the cooler temperatures put me in a fall mood for sure.  

This first card was made in with my friend in mind.  She's moving to Minnesota for her job next month, so I thought the Barn Door would make a perfect fall new home card.  I stamped and fussy cut the door on Kraft cardstock, adding some color using Copic marker.  I also cut a sliver of black paper, to create a rail for the door to "slide" on. (It doesn't really slide... I did think about trying to make it do that, but couldn't really figure that out...lol!)

I attached it to and embossed leaf background embellishing the door with a sunflower spray, which was cut from the Sunflower Hurricane Candle stamp. 

I added the strip of sunflower ribbon to anchor the One Line Welcome Greeting that was die cut and sponged with green ink.

Did you know that DRS Designs has birthday greetings for every month of the year?  My cousin has a birthday this month, so I thought making a fall themed card using the September Birthday Greeting was the way to go.  I've mentioned in the past that I'm notoriously bad about cleaning up between my card making, so I had the negative portion of a die cut leaf sitting out on my table from last week.  I chose to use it as a stencil and made the leaf by sponging on red, orange and yellow ink.  I added the same ink to my greeting, along with a couple of smaller die cut leaves. 

To finish it off, I rounded all of the corners of my card and added a few matching half pearls.  

Thanks for visiting today!
Karin

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The Evolution of a Card

Hi Everyone,

Once the calendar changes to September, and there being back to school, football and the ubiquitous pumpkin spice, I quickly fall into line and want all things to be autumnal.  Including my cards.  I pulled out my fall stamps and tried to get creative.  This is how it began:

I die cut a leaf out of a die cut square, replacing that big leaf with a leaf that was stamped using the Medium Silhouette Leaf in various fall colors.  I added the Small Autumn Greetings to the leaf and set it aside as I worked on the background. Using the same stamp pads, I made a splatter background using a wet paint brush, and added a die cut vine and pumpkin.  I wrapped that background with a gauzy orange ribbon and assembled it, attaching the leaf panel I made using some dimensional foam tape.

I thought it was too hard to read the greeting among the busy leaves and I wasn't sure about the gold, so I die cut another square.  I stamped that, keeping more white space and made sure I stamped the most pale leaf in the center, leaving a spot to put my greeting there.  

It was still too hard to read the greeting, so out came my square punches, and this is what I finally ended on:

It's not the super creative, out of the box masterpiece that I had visions of in my head, but then rarely do my cards end up that way anyhow...lol!   I keep looking at that first card, trying to figure out if I could have maybe changed the frame color, or placement of the greeting, or...?  Oh well, that's the creative process and frankly part of fun of card making.

Thanks for stopping by the blog...

Wishing you all things inky and stamp-y!

Karin

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You've been on my mind...

Hi Everyone,

I've really been into using speech bubbles on my last few cards.  With my dies and punches still out on my crafting table, I decided to try and transform one, from a speech bubble, into a thought bubble, and make a thinking of you type card.  

I began by stamping the Cowgirl Line Dancer, masking her off and stamping the Barn Door slightly on top, making her look like she's in front or leaning against it.  I colored it up and die cut it and went to work on the rest of the card.  

Taking the colors from my image, I dry embossed a teal background and stamped the pink panel using the Western Word Square.  Once I assembled it, I only had room for a small bubble, so I colored up the head of the Cowboy Line Dancer and punched it out, attaching it along with a few circles, placing them above her head.   

That left me with a spot on the top corner for the On my Mind Greeting, which I stamped and cut in half to fit.  

Inside I stamped the Western Dancing Couple in teal ink along with the 

One Line Happy Thoughts Greeting.  

I just want you to know that I stamped the sentiment at an angle on purpose. 

#1. I thought it would add to the fun and happiness the card was trying to convey, and...

#2. (real reason) I was too impatient to make sure I lined it up straight ;-)

Sending you many happy thoughts this Tuesday!

Karin

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