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Friday, February 25, 2011

A Little Something “Just For You”

Hello! Happy Friday to you all. After a busy, short week, it’s nice to be getting back into weekend mode. I came home from work tonight and made a card for Kraftin’ Kimmie’s Weekly Challenge. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for it, but I grabbed a new stack of Basic Grey paper (Hopscotch) for some inspiration, then chose this Maisie image because she’s so super cute and Springy. Lastly, I followed the sketch laid out by Elaine. This here is the fruit of my labour:

Just For You

Maisie is coloured with the following Copics: Maisie: E42, E43, G82, R83, R85, Flowers: R81, R83, Y23, G82, Grass: G82, G94, Sky: B0000, B00. Cardstock: Pear Pizzaz and So Saffron from Stampin’ Up. Patterned Paper: Basic Grey “Hopscotch” 6x6 pad. Brads are also Basic Grey. The ribbon I bought at Wal-Mart.

I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Friday, February 18, 2011

This One Was A Challenge!

This week’s Kraftin’ Kimmie challenge was a doozy!  The challenge was to use three main colours, two patterned papers, ribbon and a button.  Whew!  That’s a lot.  Now, let me backtrack a bit to how I ended up coming up with the idea for my response to this challenge…

I was on my way home from work tonight when I thought I’d stop by the mailbox to check if perhaps my new Kraftin’ Kimmie stamps had arrived… and low and behold they were there!  I came home and mounted them right away and as I was cutting them out, I had an idea!  I’ve made a few spinner cards before, using the truck from Stampin’ Up’s “Loads of Love” set. So… I thought that I could perhaps use the wheels of Miles’ bike in this stamp to create a pretty cool spinner card.  Well, here is what I came up with!

Checking In

Miles is off to check in on his good friend, Maisie who is under the weather.  I coloured him with Copics: E42, E43, E47, B63, B66, W5, W7.  The patterned paper is from a Cosmo Cricket stack.  I used my Martha Stewart grass punch for the grass.  The window for his wheel spinners was created with the Stampin’ Up “Word Window” punch.  The sentiment is one of KK’s “Everyday Sentiments”. 

If I get a chance this weekend, I’ll post a bit of a tutorial on how to create these cool spinner cards, although there are a lot of tutorials out there in blogland! 

Well, I’d like to thank you for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Thinking of You

Going through some more pictures taken a long time ago, I stumbled upon this one:

Thinking of You 2

I loved the colour combo that Michele Boyer used here, so I used the same colours on my image of Charlotte. I cut her out and mounted her to a circle cut out with a circle die. The background was created by simply cutting squares out of a piece of embossed cardstock and arranging them on white in a checkerboard pattern. The sentiment was one that I found at Michaels in the $1.50 bin.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment before you go!

Steph

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

One More Valentine

Hello! Happy Flag Day to my fellow Canadians! Today’s card is a sample of the cards I made with my students yesterday. I had pre-cut everything for them and had their pieces in individual baggies so I didn’t have to spend time handing out small pieces. Here is what the card looked like:

Kid's Valentines

I cannot take any credit for this cute card since it was case’d from Mary Jo, who’s blog I stumbled upon somehow. The red cardstock was embossed with a Sizzix folder, the clouds were cut with the Cloud Die from My Favorite Things. The legs were created from SU’s Word Window punch, which I folded over to bend them (this was the hardest part for the kids to do). The wings, nose and hearts on the antennae are from SU’s three heart punch. The circles were cut using a set of circle dies I have. I think the googlie eyes are the perfect touch! I hope my students’ families enjoyed their cards – the students had a great time making them.

Thank you for stopping by, and have a great day!

Steph

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you!  I had a great V-Day at school with my students.  It’s always so much fun to watch them hand out their Valentines, then sit back and read them all – they get so excited, I love it!  We also made a cute little “Love Bug” card, but I forgot to take a picture of some of them before I sent them home!  I will take a picture of my sample and post it here later this week.  Here is a sample of the Valentines I made for my family:

Valentines 2011

Here is a close-up:

Valentine's Day 2011 2

I created this Valentine using the letterpress plate from Stampin’ Up – I can’t remember the exact name of it.  I coated it with Versamark before running it through my cuttlebug with a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock.  The dark brown is Early Espresso.  The red hearts were cut out with a cuttlebug die cut, and I sponged around the edges with Early Espresso ink, then embossed them with my favourite embossing powder – Ultra Thick Embossing powder (UTE).  I glued them to a piece cut out with a nestabilities die, which I punched with SU’s slot punch and ran the ribbon through.  It was a super simple card to make, but I really love it’s simplicity.

I wish you all a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Sunday, February 13, 2011

It Pays to Check Your Pictures Folder

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been going through my pictures on my computer which is rewarding me greatly. I’ve found several pictures that I took of cards I made, but didn’t get a chance to post. This one here I made for my husband’s cousin who had graduated from University back in June (that’s how long it’s been on my computer for). Enjoy!

Congrats Lyndsey

The image is from My Favorite Thing’s Pure Innocence line, and she is so super cute – as are all of the little girls and boys in this line. The sentiment is from Kraftin’ Kimmie’s Everyday Sentiments.

I hope you have a great week, and thanks for stopping by!

Steph

Paper: Basic Grey, Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry (Stampin’ Up), the green is from a pack from Michaels, Ribbon: from Wal-Mart, Other: Stampin’ Up Modern Label Punch, Slot Punch

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Happy Retirement

Happy Saturday Everyone! I’ve spent some of my morning here catching up with my DVR – specifically, my episodes of Days of Our Lives (my little guilty pleasure). Soon though, I’ll have to get up and get moving. There’s rooms to clean, laundry to do, some marking for school, and a bit of organization to do in my craft room – all before Hockey Day In Canada begins! :)

Last summer my husband’s uncle retired from our school board and of course we had a big party for him. I created this card in honour of his retirement:

Canham's Retirement

Chester is a Kraftin’ Kimmie image, that I coloured up with my Copic markers. Since I coloured him so long ago, I don’t remember which colours I used, but I’m pretty sure the browns are the E70’s. The papers are from a stack I bought a while ago at Michaels – there was a whole sheet of clocks that I cut the clock from. I distressed the edges with Tea Stain and Walnut distress ink. I did want to write out “Happy Retirement, It’s About Time!”, however I decided to go with this:

Canham's Retirement Inside

I typed out the sentiment and printed it on cardstock. The font is a free one, called “Minya Nouvelle” and it’s found here. The clock on the inside is the accessory stamp that came with Chester.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy your Saturday – however you end up spending it!

Steph

Friday, February 11, 2011

Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge – Seeing Red

Hello all! Well I just finished off a rather busy week! I spent Thursday and Friday at a conference in Toronto called Reading For the Love of It. It was fantastic, and I went to so many workshops and picked up some fabulous ideas that I can’t wait to try out in my classroom. I was also fortunate to be offered 2 tickets to the Leafs game last night, so my hubby and I got a little hockey game date night – my favourite kind of date night! Unfortunately they lost, but what else is new??? I’m a die hard fan nonetheless, and will continue to support my team!

Now, onto other crafty things. This week’s Kraftin’ Kimmie Challange is “Seeing Red”. Here is my creation:

Seeing Red

I am using a stamp from January’s Kraftin’ Kimmie release, called Rebecca Raspberry. I coloured up Rebecca with my copics, and paper pieced her dress with a paper from Bo Bunny’s valentine stack – not sure of the proper name. All of the decorative paper is from this stack. I sparkled her raspberries up with some pink stickles. The hearts were punched with my SU three heart punch, and I sponged the edges with some Soft Suede ink. I clear embossed them to give them that super nice shine with some UTE – Ultimate Thick Embossing powder, which I believe is from Ranger (and is my favourite embossing powder).

I apologize for the bad lighting. With the busy week I’ve had, I didn’t get a chance to photograph this card until a little while ago and it was getting dark. I hope you like it anyway!

Until next time,
Steph

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday all! Today was a great day. I hosted my first ever Stampin’ Up Party and it was fantastic. A friend of mine from work is a demonstrator so she came over and we made 4 gorgeous cards. Now, we’re watching the Super Bowl, , but I’m exhausted from all the crafting I did.

I knew another friend of mine was expecting a little baby girl any day, and I just found out the bundle of joy arrived yesterday. I had prepared this card for when the little one came:

Baby Girl

My card is based on one I saw from Paula Williamson. I can’t find it on her blog right now, but you can see a picture of it here. I used Copics to colour the clothesline and clothes, and some pencil crayons to sketch in the grass. I loved the sentiment she wrote on her card, so I also used it on mine. The stamp is from Stamping Bella, and the cardstock is all Stampin’ Up – except the white paper, which is Neenah.

thanks for stopping by,

Steph

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Birthday Princesses

Lately we’ve had a couple of birthday parties for our friends’ daughters.  One was turning one, the other turning two.  I used MFT’s Birthday Princess stamp for both of the cards I made.

Birthday Princess

The original image had 3 candles on the birthday cake, but since it was for a first birthday, I used a q-tip to remove the ink from the other 2 candles before stamping.  I then filled in the lines with my copic multi-liner. Her dress is paper pieced (obviously :)), and her crown and the icing on the cake were covered with stickles. 

Here is princess card #2:

Birthday Princess 2

Here I used 2 candles on the cake – but I wasn’t thinking ahead.  I actually stamped the image untouched and had to cut the third candle off after I had coloured everything… silly me!  I tried to cover it the best I could with stickles.  The cardstock is all SU, and the paper is from Cosmo Cricket’s “Pixielicious” line. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a fabulous Saturday!

S.

Friday, February 4, 2011

A Krafty Challenge

It’s been a while since I’ve entered a Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge, but I felt a bit inspired this week.  The challenge was to use reuse or repurpose something on the project.  Here is what I came up with:

Antoinette

I used Kimmie’s Antoinette stamp and coloured her up with Copics.  I reused the packaging from a cuttlebug folder for the embossed layer in front of her.  I cut the plastic to the size of the image, and ran it through my cuttlebug in a Tim Holtz snowflake folder.  I then attached the plastic to the image layer with some Basic Grey brads.  The hole for the ribbon was punched with an SU slot punch.  The card base was actually repurposed too.  I had put it together last weekend for another card, but ended up changing my mind – which made this card super quick to put together.  The snowflake paper is from a pack of Christmas papers by American Crafts (from Christmas 2009).

Well, that’s about all for now.  Have a great weekend!

Steph

Copics used: Hair E31, 33, 35, 37, Dress: R22, 24, 27, 29, 59, W01, Scarf: E50, 53, 55, 57, Background: B0000, B01, blender pen

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler (all Stampin’ Up)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A Class-y Set of Valentine’s

Well yesterday’s snow day came as a pleasant surprise that allowed me to get some housework and crafting time in.  I figured I would take some time in the afternoon to make the Valentine cards I’ve been planning for the students in my class.  These cards came together pretty quickly – once I had all the pieces cut and ready to go.  Have a look:

Valentines - Class Set

Here is a closer look:

Valentine - Individual

Now, the idea is not mine.  I have seen this technique in several different places around blog-land, but Gretchen’s version was the one that really caught my eye. 

The card base is just white cardstock that I cut to 3 1/2” by 7 – so when I folded it in half I ended up with a 3 1/2” x 3 1/2” card.  The black cardstock is 3 1/4” x 3 1/4”.  I punched a whole lot of hearts from SU’s Three Heart Punch, and glued them randomly on the black cardstock with my two-way glue pen.  I then ran my black cardstock piece with the hearts glued on it through my cuttlebug in SU’s Square Lattice folder.  The hearts then become flush with the black cardstock and it looks really cool – as though they were all one piece to begin with.  The sentiment is a Kraftin’ Kimmie stamp, punched out with SU’s Modern Label punch and popped up with some pop dots.

Thanks for stopping by!

Steph