Hanging Lanterns

Have you enjoyed The Craf festivities so far? Today is the last day of the May release and we are celebrating with a blog hop! You should have arrived from the talented Julie Ranae's  blog. Did you know that you have the chance to win the entire release by visiting and leaving a comment on each blog on the hop?

Thank you for your lovely comments yesterday regarding the two sets I designed for The Craft's Meow. I really hope that you will love working with them as much as I have! The card I'm featuring today showcases images from Retro Foundations. I masked and stamped repeatedly the circle image in the set (which could be considered a disco ball....) in a few purple hues and finished with a sentiment and hand drew in the strings/cords for the lanterns. I also added a bit of sparkle with a pen, but unfortunately, my camera didn't pick that up as well as some rhinestones where the string met the lantern for additional sparkle.

A few details before I send you to the next stop: yhere's a full list of participants and the order on The Craft's Meow Blog and, the deadline to comment is 9:00 PDT, Wednesday, May 23rd. Typically Teen is May's Gift with a $50 purchase from The Craft's Meow! 

Ok, prepare to be inspired as I send you over to Lindsay Amrhein's blog! She's the next stop! 

Filling Voids

(Featuring Retro Foundations, a stamp set designed by me for The Craft's Meow.)

 I'm terrible at sending out cards that I make. It's not for lack of having cards on hand (because I have them coming out of my ears!), it's not for lack of wanting to send them out. I just don't seem to send them. Is this a common occurrence for other card makers as well?

 (Featuring Typically Teen, a stamp set designed by me for The Craft's Meow.)

One of my goals as a stamp illustrator for The Craft's Meow is to fill some of the voids out there as far as stamps go in this industry. I am truly blessed to be able to design for such a fabulous company! Today The Craft's Meow is releasing two sets I designed, the first is called Retro Foundations and it has some cool, funky background builders and really great belated birthday sentiments! I made the background on my card today using one of the background builders from the set. The other is called Typically Teen, again, this set has some really fun teen inspired background building elements and some trendy sentiments (which are also great for graduation and encouragement too!). I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do!

Once again, there's a full list of sneaks on The Craft's Meow Blog an links to the wonderful design team, including illustrators and our guests, the talented Annette Allen and Sharri Seffens. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for more details too on how to win the sets being showcased today!

And guess what?! Typically Teen is May’s Gift with a $50 purchase from The Craft's Meow!

The Tablecloth

When we were first married, my husband and I had a hand-me-down kitchen table and I always thought that I was a bit of high class as it was usually covered with a linen tablecloth. Of course, the reality was that the table top itself was in really rough shape and the cloth hid all the marks!

I truly hope you are enjoying the projects created with this month's The Craft's Meow release! Nina B.'s has hit it on the mark again with a fabulous sewing set, Sew Happy. I used the beautifully textured antique sewing machine included in the set, and a partial sentiment as well. I added some stitching to ground the machine and then inked and folded a doily to represent fabric and or tablecloth, hanging over the edge of the machine after it's been stitched. (Trying my hand at Moxie Fab World's Doilies and Lace Challenge...)

Once again, there's a full list of sneaks on The Craft's Meow Blog and links to the wonderful design team, including illustrators and our guests, the talented Annette Allen and Sharri Seffens. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for more details too on how to win the set being showcased today!

Tomorrow is the reveal of projects created with two stamps sets that I designed for The Craft's Meow, please be sure to stop by!

Season Finales

***Please scroll down for my Skipping Stones Design Feature Friday post!***

(Simple stamping featuring Dads and Grads by Kaitlyn Ord for The Craft's Meow)

This week has been a fun week of season finales of my favorite TV shows (i.e. Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy) for me and I'm ending it in a fun way as well with more cards featuring the June Release from The Craft's Meow.

(Tag featuring For My Dad by Jiroken (Michelle Bertuzzi) for The Craft's Meow)

There are two perfect stamp sets being released this month for the upcoming Father's Day, and perfect for creating masculine cards as well! I thought it would be fun to show that these sets could also be used in a general format as well, by creating a congratulations card (perhaps for a teen that has passed a major test?) and a teacher or book lover tag.

There's a full list of sneaks on The Craft's Meow Blog and links to the wonderful design team, including illustrators and our guests, the talented Annette Allen and Sharri Seffens. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for more details too on how to win the sets being showcased today!

Both projects feature some easy go-to uses of May Arts ribbon as well. (Did you see that they are having a design team call?) I used a scrap of 3/4" wide trendy chevron striped twill on my card in a tab format-one of my favorite ways to add a punch of color, pattern AND texture without bringing too much bulk to a card. And the tag is tied onto a book in a big bow format with the fun, 1.5" wide moss green linen ribbon available at May Arts. This ribbon keeps its shape yet is flexible and makes a big impact which is perfect for dressing up a simple gift and tag.

Mustard

Sometimes there is just something about a stamp set that makes you *have* to have it, and then that one opens your eyes to many others made by the manufacturer... and then you are hopelessly lost...

For me it was the many awesome texture and background stamps available at Skipping Stones Design! Yep, I'm talking about Grunge. It is not just a masculine stamp set, there are a lot of possibilities to dress the set up, such as tone on tone heat embossing for a lacy effect. Ooh, pretty!

The colors of my card were inspired by the latest Play Date Cafe Color Challenge, black and white with a splash of mustard. (Perhaps my mustard might squirted out a bit too much, oops!)

 

I encourage you to bring out those stamps sets that you *had* to have and use them again if they've fallen to the wayside. Something gorgeous could happen and I'd love to see it!

Sailor's Delight

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Red sky at morning, sailor's warning."

Ooh, it's going to be so much fun here for the next couple of days as The Craft's Meow designers showcase sets from the May release!

I'm in love with silhouettes at the moment, I think they are so classy and elegant. I just about squealed when I saw Nina B.'s set, Flower Garden, love the large scale and silhouette possibilities included in this set and new right away which direction I was going to take. I stamped a few of the stems and blooms in a rich black onto some distressed paper and added a sentiment from last month's released set, Inspired by Audrey. 

I kept repeating the old tale "Red sky at nigh, sailor's delight..." while creating this card. Whenever I see a pink or red sky driving home from a tough day at work, I remember that tomorrow is another day and will be better.  (You got it, I'm entering this into Paper Craft's Gallery Idol Challenge!)

There's a full list of sneaks on The Craft's Meow Blog and links to the wonderful design team, including illustrators and our guests, the talented Annette Allen and Sharri Seffens. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for more details too on how to win the set being showcased today!

Fluffy Black Cat

My husband said to me one fine spring evening: We have a smart cat.
To which I replied: We do, do we? He's smart because he sleeps all day and is fluffy and fat?
My husband said: No, I was being sarcastic. He thinks that no birds can see him. Look outside the window.
And I looked outside our picture window to see our big, fluffy, black cat sitting patiently under the bird feeder, looking up, as if his big, fluffy, black body was camouflaged in the newly cut grass.
Oh, there's always entertainment of some sort to be found at my house.

Today I have the pleasure of doing a Carbon Copied post (same stamp set, same challenge, same day) with the talented owner of an Australian on-line retailer Jay Gee's Nook, Judith. We are both featuring Heartsong 2 by Skipping Stones Design and participating in the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge: Feathered Friends. (Waving hi to the Girl Fridays!)

I love bird images, and was delighted when Judith chose Heartsong 2 to work with. I stamped one of the bird images and colored him in with pencils, after masking and performing a bit of splatter work for the Moxie Fab World's Splatter Technique Challenge. The panel was added to a splattered cardstock base, a sentiment stamped and then it was wrapped with May Arts natural burlap string, and I had to throw in a itty bitty yellow feather as well.

I invite you to visit Judith's Blog to see her take on the Carbon Copied post, as I know you won't be disappointed. Her cards range from beautiful and elegant, to quirky and clean and simple. Let me not forget to mention that Judith is one super nice and amazing person as well!

(Please add your name to the link list if you would like to participate in a Carbon Copied post with me!)

 ****

In other news, May Arts has teamed up with Paper Crafter's Library to feature paper crafted ribbon projects.
I have a mini-tutorial up on Paper Crafter's Library. 

 Comment on both my Paper Crafter's Library Post and over at May Arts for your chance to win

four spools of ribbon. 

Fitted Sheets

This past weekend I was helping my grandparents out with a bit of cleaning at their house. My father's sister also came and it was there at their dining room table I saw some magic. She folded a fitted sheet so prim and proper, crisp and square that I was amazed. Then she began telling me of the Homemaker class she took shortly after she was married where they were taught the secrets to folding fitted sheets, how to polish silverware among many others. Where is a class like that now? Do they offer them? Sign me up! (Perhaps not the polishing silverware, but I sure could use a lesson in folding fitted sheets!)

Time for another fun Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge! Details about the challenge and prize, along with amazing samples from the guest designers and design team, can be found at the Skipping Stones Design Blog! I started by stamping one of the butterflies from Healing Wings twice onto patterned paper and after trimming them, adhered them just at the base to a stamped panel with flowers from Beautiful Botanicals. I used some patterned paper from the cute Picadilly collection from Basic Grey (inspired by the Basic Grey Challenge Blog), and the colored strands from Lemondrop Twine from the Twinery to finish my design.

(Good news! There is a currently a PMS (Purchase More Stamps) Sale going on over at Skipping Stones Designs from Monday, May 14th through Tuesday, May 22nd: 5% off 1 set, 10% off 2 sets, etc. Codes can be found on the blog!)

Oh, and my mother is a master at the folding of fitted sheets as well, but she lives so far away that I might have forgotten how she does it!

While the Big Boys are Away

While the big boys are away, the little one and I get to play. When asked what he wanted to do while my husband and the oldest were out fishing, he responded "Let's make some cards for Grandma!" When he makes cards he gets free rein of the typing paper and a bag of wooden stamps that I no longer use. He is so careful now to wipe off the stamps with a baby wipe before inking with another color. He ended up with thirteen cards, I think, which he was so proud to present to my Grandmother who is recuperating from a recent surgery. He stood their with his chest out and eyes wide as she looked at each and every one and had a few nice words for each as well.

Moxie Fab World has a pretty fun challenge called Spectacular Spectacles. I drew out some old style glasses and for the lenses filled one side with plain acetate and the other I used the cracked glass technique over another piece of acetate. Since I had the broken lenses situation, I knew I wanted to make the card into some sort of encouragement card (for Gallery Idol)...things will be better soon, you've got to just get past the bad bout first... My husband helped with the sentiments-he's good like that sometimes, and was close by to make sure I executed them in the way he had imagined.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful seasoned mothers, new mothers and expectant mothers today!

(Sue Speck if you are reading today: To answer your question on my post the other day, the three window die is from Papertrey Ink, you can find it here.)

Supplies:
Cardstock: (Teal) Bazzill, (Basic Black) Stampin' Up!, (White) Office Max
Stamps: (Alphadots) Paper Smooches
Ink: (Onyx Black) Versafine
Other: (Acetate), (Pen) Pilot

Dear Blog,

Can I just mention quickly how much I adore the May Artful Delight Monthly Card Kit? I was like a kid in a candy store when I opened the package to find all the goodies inside. From the wonderful solid paper, to the patterned paper, cute embellishments and fun stamp set. There is A LOT of goodies included in kit and it will probably take me until next May to use it all up! I still can't believe I'm on this team and get to experience and showcase all the goodies included in the monthly kits.

Today I made a fun and cute, along with clean and simple card, that pretty much features all items from the kit. The pretty, pink Bazzill textured cardstock, the fun butterfly from Paper Smooches Pretty Momma stamp set, the really cool patterned paper from Crate Paper and Echo Park, along with a button from Crate Paper. Love that I can throw in items from my own stash too to help the card along, as in the banner die and trio window die.

The May Kits are all sold out, but you do have a chance to win by entering either the monthly scrapbook layout or card sketch challenge hosted by Artful Delight! Details are here! Also, Artful Delight is the proud sponsor of Lessology as well, there is a $40 gift certificate to the store up for grabs! Additionally, Artful Delight is the sponsor of Frosted Designs, details are here! So many chances to win and experience these kits for yourself!

I wrote this the other day and decided it was time to share it with you, my wonderful and dear readers (that I've never met in person but am so thankful to call friends). If you read my last post, you might have know I've been struggling lately with time management, and writing the following down has really put a perspective on things.

Dear Blog,
Today I witnessed something that I wish I took the time to see more of... Today I saw my little guy wiggle his little bottom in the cutest of cutest ways and yell at the top of his lungs that he was ready. I wondered what he was ready for, what made him dance with joy? And at that particular moment his eyes got big with anticipation as the ball my oldest threw up and across the roof of our house came down towards him. And then I heard him shout with joy to his brother that he caught it. Dear Blog, why oh why have I missed so many triumphs such as this? Dear Blog, somehow I've taken for granted some of the good years in my dog. I could have been throwing him a ball instead of spending time with you. Now, he can hardly walk and you, well, you are still here and as chipper as can be. I love you dearly but I think it is time for us to spend less time together. I have two little loves that I love even more than you, I have a puppy at heart that needs some love instead of you. Don't fret, my dear Blog-we will still see much of each other I'm sure, on the weekends or late evenings, perhaps...
Sincerely,
Kb