Sweet birthday shaker card

Hello everyone!

I have another challenge that I’m entering and this time it’s the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: We Can See Clearly (Monday Challenge) The idea is to use acetate, vellum, or anything else we can think of that’s transparent in our project

I recently stumbled upon these weekly Monday challenges and I’m really loving how you can apply them to any project you’d like - be it a card, scrapbook layout, mixed media, altered art or any other medium you can think of. I can see myself not only joining these challenges frequently but also to gain some inspiration when I’ve hit a wall on which technique/theme I want to use or try.

To be honest, I also used this same card on the Lawnscaping Challenge recently and have already posted it to my Instagram Account. The theme for that one was “Sweets”. It’s a happy coincidence that I happened to utilized both challenge themes in one card! So I thought, “what the heck, why not enter it again?”

I decided to keep the colors soft on this card and incorporated pinks and blues. I also had some fun using an ink resist technique for the stamped greeting — although this technique is not new to me, I forget sometimes how much versatility there is in stamping and every now and then I get giddy “rediscovering” techniques that I’ve either a)forgotten about or b)haven’t utilized in a long time. 

I knew I wanted to make this into a shaker card because seriously, who doesn’t love a shaker card paired with images like these from Lawn Fawn? They are hands-down one of my favorite stamp designers/manufacturers. I cannot get enough of them! 

Till next time my friends…thank you for visiting me! 

Hugs,

Karen

YNS Color Challenge

Hello!

I have decided to enter the Your Next Stamp Color Challenge #35 and although technically, this is my 2nd entry (I already entered the sketch challenge), I couldn’t resist also entering the color challenge. Especially given the colors they chose. The pallet is a gorgeous spring theme and is so festive for the spring season! Check it out http://yournextstamp.com/blog/category/challenge/: 

Here’s my interpretation of the colors utilized in a “Special Day” card:

Some details:

I’ve been wanting to play with this dress form die for quite some time but never had just the perfect use for it until now. When I look at these colors, I think spring time tea party and I’m loving the feminine look of it all. I can see myself giving this to one of the special gals in my life for a birthday card. I also decided to emboss the stamped greeting with a copper colored embossing powder and loved how that turned out: 

Thanks for letting me share! I’ve got a few more projects to share and work on which includes another challenge and card drive. More to follow on those :-)


Till next time my friends!

Hugs,
Karen

Back in the Saddle

Hello everyone! 

Boy oh boy has it been a hot minute since I’ve logged onto my blog, much less updated it! However, I figured this was going to be “my year” since I have found myself in a situation where I can actually dedicate some time with regularity to my hobby/craft. That of course, means some time to also focus on updating my blog. My aim is to try to do at least one post a month. I don’t want to get overly ambitious and say weekly so I’m trying to set a manageable goal for myself. Of course, this will be played by ear as I gain some traction with said goals :-) 

So what have I been up to these last several years? Well let’s see…besides raising my daughter who is now nearly 10 yrs old (cue uncontrollable sobbing here), remaining in love with my best friend for nearly 11 yrs (we just celebrated our 10 yr anniversary last fall in Europe! *Note to self: must scrapbook all those pictures), and generally keeping busy with my career there truly hasn’t been a lot of time dedicated to my craft - aside from having the occasional time for a handmade card here and there, and let’s not forget the continuous hoarding of scrapbooking and card making goodies, life truly has just passed my hobby by. 

The biggest news lately is that we’re expecting our 2nd (and surprise!) baby in June. We’re all pretty excited but the jury is still out with my daughter. However, I have faith she’ll change her mind once her baby brother has arrived. Beyond that, I have once again decided to put my Human Resources career on hold due to some changes in our family’s needs. Namely since my husband’s job demands have increased and he’s traveling a significant amount resulting in the decision for me to now stay home and be more available to not only my daughter, but our family as a whole. 

As far as what I’m up to with regards to crafting — I’ve been doing a lot of card making lately and managed to complete a couple projects including a layout and mini album. All of which I’ve posted to my Instagram Account (please follow me if you’re inclined!). I’ve also been entering a lot of my challenges as posted by my varying favorite stamp manufacturers. I have plans to do another challenge and I will begin my first official “scrapbooking/card making” post with that completed project, which I’m hoping to do by 3/30. *2 posts this week…what?!*

Anyhow, I think I’ve rambled on enough for today. Although, my 4 yr hiatus probably warranted a longer post! Would love to hear from you all again — what’s been new with you? What sorts of projects have you been working on? Let’s stay in touch! Until then my friends….

Hugs,
Karen