Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Flutterby Wednesday Challenge # 160 : OPEN

Hello!!!  I  have discovered a new challenge blog - and they love butterflies as much as I do - hench the blog's name - Flutterby Wednesday's.  This week's challenge is an OPEN challenge - you can do whatever kind of card you like as like as an angel, butterfly, or fairy is featured on your card.  Well, of course I am doing a butterfly.  Here is the card I made!!





I started out by taking one of my favorite background stamps - the flourish stamp by Hero Arts, and inking that up with Memento Tuxedo Black ink - and stamped my base card.  I took some purple patterned paper, and a piece of paper from the Naturals stack from DCWV, and cut out two butterflies from the Beautiful Butterflies die from SU!.  I, then cut a piece of vellum cardstock, and put that at the bottom base of my card, to give the Flourish stamp a softer look, and added my butterflies.  I, then added some purple corduroy ribbon and a flower dimensional sticker to the top of my card.  I finished off by adding some gems around the vellum cardstock and the butterfly, and my "Many Thanks" sentiment.


They have a great sponsor for this week! - Through the Craftroom Door.   I love discovered new challenges!!  :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

One Year Old Birthday

Hi all!  I'm back to share with you what I created for a special little girl who is turning a year old coming up in July.  One of my co-workers has a granddaughter who is turning a year old, and she saw the Butterfly Chipboard Banner I made a few weeks back, and wanted me to make her granddaughter Cara one.  I also made her a birthday card as well.  Both projects turned out better that I expected - especially the birthday card.  First here is the banner.  Again, her name is Cara.  She wanted it to be very "girly girl".  The best part about the banner is this can stay with her, and be displayed in her room for years to come - and not just for her "First" birthday.






Now here is the birthday card I made her.  I already had in mind that I had some butterfly shaped cards.  I added some pink patterned patter from K & Company from the Sweet Nectar  6x 6 pad. 





I, then took my 1 1/4" circle punch from SU!, and punched out 4 circles  in the middle of the butterfly's wings, and I added two rosettes with buttons, and then, I added two yellow buttons from American Crafts and added some hot pink baker's twine to them.  I attached all these embelly's with Glossy Accents from Ranger - it is my go to adhesive for when I want something to stick for the long haul. :)  Then, I took my word window punch also SU! and punched out two pieces of white card stock, and glued them together to created a longer strip, and I wrapped that same baker's twine around those punched pieces - I eventually created the number "1", to accent that this was for Cara's first birthday. I also added some ribbon for the "antenna".  I didn't take a picture of the inside, but I did some faux stitching with a bright pink gel pen, and really added to the inside of the card with the embellishments, and at the top of the two yellow buttons, I added a "Happy Birthday" sentiment.  There was enough room in the middle for Sandy ( grandma) to add her message if she wanted to.  I think her mom and dad will just love it - and it is something they can treasure for her, and keep in a keepsake book , or scrapbook even. 

I love being challenged with  my crafts!!  This is one of those times where I was so full of pride and joy of how it all turned out - and it makes it all worth it when the recipient loves it too!!!

~~Kari~~

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Tattered Florals

Hi all!  'Tis me again.  Can you believe the weekend is among us again!!  YEA!!! 

I don't believe I have shared this card with all of you.  I looked back at my previous posts and didn't see this one, and wanted to share it with all of you.  One of my favorite dies is the Tattered Florals Die by Tim Holtz.  It is a wonderful die.  Anything Tim Holtz is awesome though, don't you agree?? 





I also used one of the adorable banners from Lawn Fawn stamp set "Bannerific" .  I just {heart} Lawn Fawn Stamps.  They are so much fun, and so versatile.  I have only been a fan for just a few months, but once I discovered them, I grew into a fast fan of theirs.  :)  Well, tomorrow night I will be attending my first SU! workshop in a long while.  My Demo has gone through lots of things the last few months, and finally has had the chance to have a gathering.  Just in time too!  We get the new 2011-2012 Ideal Book and Catalog.  I have been looking forward to this for two weeks!!  I am tellin' ya, it doesn't take much to make me happy, REALLY!  :o)  I hope all of you have a nice weekend where ever you are in the world!!  Do something that makes you happy!!  That's what it is all about!!  :)



~~Kari~~



Monday, June 20, 2011

Clean and Simple Congrats

Hello bloggers and craft lovers.  I am back to share with you a simple 'Congrats' card I made for a friend/co worker.  I made this in the event of my dear friend Gena being promoted to a manager position "officially".  She had been filling in, but the sweet woman that had the job already was retiring, and Gena got to take her position officially, and I wanted to of course congratulate her.  She deserves this opportunity! 

Believe it or not, it is hard to make clean and simple cards.  We all want to "doll up" our cards, but sometimes the clean and simple ones are wonderful, too.  On this card, I wanted it to be very colorful.  There is nothing more eye catching than rows of color!! 



 All of the inks that I used are Memento Dye Inks.  I {heart} these inks so much.  Memento Ink and Distress Inks for me are the most used inks that I have.  They stamp well on all the stamps I own, whether it is rubber stamps, or my clear/cling stamps.  Distress Inks are good stamping inks as well.  Some forget to actually stamp with them, but they are awesome for embossing because they stay wet longer for you to apply your powder.  Just a friendly reminder tip!  :)  
I changed the look of my blog slightly.  How does everyone like it??  Anyone think I shouldn't have changed it??  Everyone once in a while, I want change, and that means in my blog too.  I think I drive people at work crazy, because I am always changing and rearranging things around my desk or what have you.  I digress!!!!

Enjoy the rest of your day/evening!!  


~~Kari~~


Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.  Probably not a lot of male reader's, but hoped you all had a wonderful day anyway.  I wanted to share with you the cards I made for my dad, and father in law.  My husband and I took them out on Sat. afternoon to eat at Ruby Tuesday restaurant.  I think they both enjoyed themselves.  It was nice for all of us to be together.  My mom couldn't make it, and we missed her, but understood. 

Now to my cards!  I wanted to make them similar, but different.  I hope I accomplished that. 







The one on the left was for my father in law, Mike, and the other was for my dad.  He loves trains, so I wanted to make it the focal point.  I added some eyelets, and also I added some silver glass glitter from SU! to make it look like the train was carrying " a load of diamonds".  Too bad I didn't have gold glass glitter - that would have been "sweet"!  teehee.  Anyway, I added some jumbo eyelets to the truck on my FIL's card.  I also added some glossy accents to the helicopter and truck on my dad's card for extra dimension and that extra "something".  I think they both liked them.  :o)  Till next time - see you on the creative flipside!  :o)


~~Kari~~




Friday, June 17, 2011

Thank you for everything.

Happy Friday!  WHEW!  Glad we made it to Friday!!  It has been a rough and long week, but another weekend has come around and I am happy about it.  I am back to share with you a card I made for my cousin who we stayed with when my hubby and I went to Chicago for vacation in May.  I wanted to make her a card, and thank her for the wonderful stay we had.  This card has some bright and cheerful colors to it.  I added glossy accents to the windows of the house, but don't know if you can tell from the photo.  This is one of the stamp sets from Fiskars called Outdoor Fun.  It was one of the many sets I bought on Ebay from one of my favorite sellers.  She always has great deals. 

Anyhoo, here is my card.....





In other news - I have been entering into different challenges, contests, and even showed my interest in becoming a member on a design team....so far...my projects haven't been chosen, nor did I make the DT this time, but it is all a learning experience, and I think of it this way - if nothing else, it is exposure, and one day, my day will come when my card will be chosen - or another opportunity will knock on my door.  I am hopeful anyway!!  Crafting is a passion, and it will remain so since I discovered it 2 years ago.  :) 

Everyone have a nice weekend, and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

~~Kari~~

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Lily Pad Cards : May Arts presents: Ribbon Challenge

Hi all!  Two cards in one day!!  The creative juices must be flowing!  This time I am back to share my card I made for the Ribbon Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards.  This is my first time entering into their monthly challenge, and I was up for the task.  Simply - you have to make a card using ribbon.  Instead of just wrapping ribbon around a card, and tying a pretty bow, I wanted to do something a little different.  I traced my butterfly die cut onto a piece of white card stock, and then cut that out so I would have a frame of sorts.  Then I had some very colorful self adhesive ribbon, and wanted to give my butterfly a rainbow effect.  After getting my ribbon all down the way I wanted it ( which took longer then what you may think), I took my frame and embossed it with one of my cuttlebug folders.  I then took some black soot Distress Ink, and gave my frame a "frame" and brought out some of the embossing.  I took a piece of twine and twisted it to give the butterfly more of a dimensional body, added some liquid pearls and stamped my "Thinking of you" sentiment.  I wanted my butterfly to be my focal point without using too much color to the rest of the card. 







I'm liking these challenges.  They are fun, and really caused my brain to stretch its creativity.  Wish me luck!!  



~Kari~

CAS-ual Friday Challenge: Tic Tac Toe

Hi all!!  I apologize that it has been a week since I posted last - been very busy.  Today, I wanted to post my next submission for the newest challenge over at the CAS-ual Friday Challenge blog.  This time we get to play Tic Tac Toe.  This is a fun one to partake in!  I decided to do emboss, felt, and twine.  So - I had some felt pieces I wanted to use by Maya Road.  I wrapped some hot pink/white twine for some pop, and heat embossed on some card stock vellum, my sentiment from Stampin' Up - "If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies".  I love the bright and bold colors of how it turned out - and hopefully the Girl Fridays over at the blog will think the same thing. 















My next challenge is entering into the Ribbon Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards.  Speaking of Lily Pad Cards, one of the designers, and co-owners -  Vicky Papaioannou, is following my blog!!  I am so stoked and happy that she decided to become a follower!!  Vicky, if you are reading this - I am honored - and thank you so much for following lil ole' me!!  You are wonderful!  

Ok ladies and gents - I'll be back with another card creation soon!!  

~Kari~


Saturday, June 4, 2011

Chipboard Album turned Butterfly Banner

Happy Saturday to you all!!  Well I did it - In one day no less!  When I saw in the new Creative Spaces Magazine, in the back of the magazine, there is a beautiful butterfly banner that was made by Jing - Jing Nickel - and she turned a plain butterfly chipboard album into a beautiful banner!!  I was immediately inspired to do my own!  My heart was happy because first it was a BUTTERFLY banner, and two - it gave me something new to try!  So - I found the album, and the pins that are the "antenna" both by Maya Road, and waited patiently till they were in my mailbox.  Then, this morning I was off to joy - filled creating my banner!  Our versions are totally different - but both our own.  So - here is mine! And if you have this awesome magazine - I hope you check out Jing Jing 's version!  Maybe it will inspire you as well.



























I can't tell you how proud of this I am!  I am going to have my husband help me put it up in my craft room - and everyone time I walk into I, it will be a sweet reminder to continue to "DREAM" - and I hope one day to be crafting full time in one way or another!!  Thanks for stopping by!!


Stay Inspired - and Dream!

Kari