Lecker! Something delicious for KIS! #36

It's been a while since I played with Keep It Simple!

The current challenge is "Lecker!" which translates to "delicious."

My sister, who lives in Amsterdam, uses that word, too, and it DOES sound delicious when spoken. There are already cards submitted with fruit, cake, coffee and so on, so I thought I'd go the CHOCOLATE route.

This card features a Stamp of the Month from Close to my Heart. I heat-embossed the brownie with Cocoa powder (yum!), and traced the frosting with a white gel pen.  The lacy border is a Paper Wishes die and the ribbon was a Verve purchase. Everything is mounted on a Chocolate card base with some pink enamel dots thrown in for good measure.

Are you thinking of your favorite treat?

Why not head over to the Keep It Simple blog and link up your creation. The challenge runs through Wednesday, April 3rd.

Happy crafting,

(AND cooking and munching!)

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in Chocolate, Cocoa and White Daisy

Ink: Versamark + Cocoa embossing powder and White Detail embossing powder

Stamp sets: both retired Close to My Heart; A Chocolate Affair & Mad About You

Distress Markers and Copics; Wink of Stella

Ribbon: Verve Stamps

Dies: Paper Wishes "2 Lacy Borders;"Spellbinders' circles and scalloped circles

Enamel dots: Flamingo, CTMH

Going Green with "Thanks" ...for Dynamic Duos #96

Good morning, everyone.

Woke up to rain, here in Canada's capital.  Messy, but a welcome change in the weather!

Maybe it'll help things GREEN up around here.

Dynamic Duos' challenge this week will do just that:

It's the FIFTH Saturday of the month, so YOU get to choose the second colour.

For my card, I stuck with yellow-based colours, and chose a warm gold to compliment the green.

The card design was inspired by this card, found on Pinterest.

I've been loving all the water-colouring going on out there, and inked up my leaves and flowers stamps (from Paper Smooches--see links below) with Distress Markers adding a little spritz of water before stamping.

I felt the focal image needed a little more visual weight against that strong dotty background, so added the buttons to "stage" the vase. It also qualifies it for Simon Says Stamps' Wednesday challenge, Anything Goes with Buttons. And for House of Cards' challenge "add a button" (thanks, Cornelia!). I'm also linking to Paper Smooches' Anything Goes Sparks Challenge.

Time to check out what my fellow Design Team members have chosen to pair with their Gumball Green:

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Caroline Bredeson

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming

Tenia Nelson

Hope you'll be inspired to play along with us this week at the Dynamic Duos. We LOVE seeing your creations!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock: Close to My Heart--New England Ivy, Goldrush; 

                 Stampin' Up--Old Olive; 

                 Paper Wishes--Rosemary & Thyme 6x6 paper pack.

Buttons:   Close to My Heart and Paper Wishes
Ink:          Versamark with White Detail embossing powder
                Wink of Stella glitter pen
Ribbon:    green mesh from the bargain bin at Michael's

Crystal Clear 3 Dies	Crystal Clear	Many Thanks	*Tim Holtz Distress Markers RIPE PERSIMMON Ranger TDM38252
*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS SPICED MARMALADE Ranger TDM32663	*Tim Holtz Distress Markers MOWED LAWN Ranger TDM38221	*Tim Holtz Distress MARKERS PEELED PAINT Ranger TDM32601

InLinkz.com

Card for a Crafty Friend...Dynamic Duos #95

Hey there, crafty friends.

Guess what its doing outside, this fine Spring morning in Ontario?

Snowing fit to beat the band. 

PERFECT day to stay inside and CRAFT.

And we have the perfect recipe for you, here at the Dynamic Duos:

Yep, its Triple Threat week! THREE delicious colours to play with.

This week, I wanted to experiment with some water-colouring effects. LOTS of that out and about on the internet. Did I mention my penance this year for Lent? NO purchasing of craft supplies for the whole 40 days... So, making use of what I have on hand, I first heat-embossed this great subway-art design from Fresh-Squeezed Stamps:

Then I played around with some distress markers and water-colour pencils. 

As I didn't have anything close, my SU friend Hayley gave me some Rich Razzleberry cardstock (WHAT a delicious colour!). It seemed to deserve centre-stage on this card. So I rummaged through my button and bling collection to come up with this final product:

 Further note the cross-stitching along the bottom (more, sadly retired Fresh-squeezed stamps) and the über-cute scissors charm! (Close to my Heart jewelry supplies).

I just love how this turned out, and some crafty friend will be the lucky recipient!

Check out the awesome creations by the Dynamic Duos design team:

 Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

Now get your craft on, and meet us at the Dynamic Duos blog-link.We love to see what you create!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Card-stock: Rich Razzleberry (SU); white Daisy (CTMH); watercolour paper (Ranger)

Ink: Versamark, and Clear Detail embossing powder (SU)

Stamps: Fresh-Squeezed Stamps--Crafty Friend and Friendly Folk

Colour: Ranger Distress markers in Picked Preserves, Evergreen Bough and Victorian Velvet; water-brush

Buttons and bling: Close to my Heart green and pink button collections (retired); purple gems; Craft Queen charms.

Ribbon from the stash

Glam-rock card for Simon Says Stamp

Wow-I just realized these colours look very St. Patrick's...

But the reason for this card is all about the glitter!

The Simon Says Stamp blog has a (relatively) new feature--a Wednesday challenge.

This week, Simon says "Glitter It!"

Here's my card, featuring some glitter paper from Close to My Heart, a great word-die from Paper Smooches and some Wink of Stella, of course.

I glued the black scalloped circle to the white panel before die-cutting "celebrate," then mounted it with foam tape over the green glitter paper.

The birthday candles are a stamp from The Stamps of Life, coloured with Copics and glitzed up with Wink of Stella. Not sure if they need some glitter glue, too?

I forgot to photograph the inside of the card--come back tomorrow to see that.
Here's the inside. So as to maximize use of the glitter paper, I die-cut the letters from the panel of glitter paper before gluing it to my card base. The cut-outs are hidden by the white panel on top.

 I also went back and added just a titch more glitter with some gold Stickles on top of the candle flames and some Smooch ink on the green candles.

Signing off now to link up the card.

Check out Simon says Stamp!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:
Cardstock in White Daisy, Black, green glitter (CTMH)
Stamp set: The Stamps of Life "cake2build"
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copic Markers

Birthday Words Dies

*s4-124 Spellbinders SCALLOPED CIRCLE LARGE Scallop 5 Dies Nestabilities

*ZIG Wink of Stella GLITTER CLEAR Brush Tip Marker 025320

InLinkz.com

Guest...at Crafting by Designs!

Hey there, crafty friends!

Today I have the pleasure of being a Guest Designer over at Crafting by Designs.

 The challenge this week is to USE A RIBBON on a project. 

There is a sponsor and prizes for this challenge plus you might be recognized in the Saturday Spotlight. Hope you'll play along!

I don't know about you, but I am SOOOO tired of winter. We are apparently getting 5-10 more cm of that white stuff tomorrow. It's half-past March, for Pete's sake!

One of the first signs of spring around here is bulbs starting to poke through the soil. That was the inspiration for my card: tulips made with ribbon.

To create this bunch of flowers, I first sketched the design in pencil onto  cardstock. Then I poked holes for the ribbon stitches using a paper-piercer. One at each end of the leaves and stems, and four each for the flowers, as shown below.

To make the flower buds or tulips, thread a wide-eyed needle with your ribbon. Using the needle, bring the ribbon up at the lower hole, then in at the top centre hole. Repeat this for the other two petals, as shown. 

 By using wide, light-weight ribbon for the petals and stems, you can create a nice leafy shape. I used thinner ribbon for the flower stems and also twisted it a bit, to make the stems appear thinner. I used tape to hold the raw ends of ribbon to the back of the work, instead of trying to tie knots. The stitched panel was mounted to the card base with foam tape, to give some room for the extra bulk.

 Further supplies for this card are listed at the bottom of the post.

So, off you go to Crafting by Designs to see some more original ways to use ribbon. I'll be checking the site this week--can't wait to see what YOU create!

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock: Kraft, Saddle, Colonial White (Close to My Heart)

Embossing folder: Close to My Heart lattice

Ink: Saddle (CTMH)

Ribbon: seam binding ribbon, Verve Stamps; green chevron ribbon, CTMH.

Large-eye embroidery needle: American Crafts

"Thanks" word die: Paper Smooches

On the road....to Dynamic Duos #94

Happy Saturday!

Day of errands, including shopping...

And day for the new Dynamic Duos colour challenge:

 Isn't that a delicious colour combo? It reminded me of this cute image which was floating around Facebook a couple of weeks ago:

Which reminded me of my little VW Bug stamp-n-die from The Stamps of Life;

 And thus was born this card:

 I typed up and printed out the "craftaholic" statement in a bunch of different fonts, chose one and coloured it with a sponge dauber in Honey ink, then cut it into a speech bubble.

 The funky black & white and grey papers are from the new "Paper Fundamentals Basics Assortment" from Close to My Heart.

Assorted dies: Lil'Inker's stitched sun; Paper Smooches Border die 1 and Clouds dies. Check the links below.

Also check out the awesome creations by the Dynamic Duos Design Team this week! That mustard colour really got everyone's blood boiling! 

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

What will our black-tie challenge you to create? Don't forget the featured dessert option... 

Link up with us this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline 

Supplies:

Cardstock: CTMH--Slate, Whisper, Honey,  Paper Fundamentals Basic assortment; vellum.

Ink:  CTMH's Honey, Archival Black

Wheels: metal-rimmed enamel badge buttons from CTMH ProPlayer assortment.

washi tape 

Other supplies linked below:

Borders 1 Dies	Clouds Dies	*Sakura SILVER Pen-Touch Extra Fine Point Marker 41182	Sunshine Die Small
*Ranger Stickles CHAMPAGNE Glitter Glue SGG38436

InLinkz.com

Say "Hello" to Dynamic Duos #93

Good morning, crafty friends.

This week, it is soft & subtle time, over at the Dynamic Duos:

While I find this one of the harder themes in DD's monthly line-up, this time I had a bunch of ideas in mind and they came together beautifully (I think!).

First off is the card design, which I CASE'd from The Stamps of Life website. They recently launched a die set of cute little flowers and I wanted to try the idea of little blossoms cut from vellum. I found some pink vellum at Michael's and hand-coloured plain vellum to get a sandy shade.

Second is the dimensional greeting. I am a big fan of Jennifer McGuire, and love her tutorials. Cutting the sentiment multiple times from card-stock and layering them really was "quick and easy to do," as she likes to say. While I used a die, my blogging friend Hansi has had success doing the same thing with images from an electronic cutter (which gives INFINITE possibilities!).

Third idea was to use PEARLS somehow, a recent theme from Simon Says Stamp blog. Here I used opalescent pigment ink to colour my "hello" and also tinted some pearls with alcohol markers.

Okay, enough about me and my card; time to check out the projects by my talented team-mates at the Dynamic Duos.

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

Hope you'll be inspired to join us and play along this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in Champagne, Blush and White Daisy (CTMH)

Vellum: pink, plain (Michael's); dotted (Paper Wishes)

Pearlescent ink: Dew Drop Brilliance by Tsukineko in Pearl Beige

Dies: Ornate label framelits (The Stamps of Life); "hello" (The Crafter's Workshop.com); assorted flower dies by Sizzix and Cuttlebug/Provocraft.

Corner-rounder

Copic Markers

Pearls

Seize the Birthday Card

 "Anything goes" this week at Seize the Birthday.

I just received this big beautiful die from the monthly die-club at Paper Wishes.

Isn't it awesome?  I cut it out using white card stock, and backed the open areas with dotted paper. 

The candles are dies included with the set. The vellum banner is a Simon Says Stamp item, heat-embossed with a Stamps of life sentiment stamp. Love to mix the ingredients!

Then I cut out just the base from silver paper, and layered it on top. Adding a bow reminded me of my mother-in-law's cake stand, where you could lace a coordinating coloured ribbon to match the cake. She was a classy lady.

Feels good to build up the stash of birthday cards. Although this one will be sent off this week.
There's still another week to play with the Seize the Birthday challenge. I dare you!
 

Happy crafting,

Caroline