Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge

When I looked for paper and card stock to make this card for the July Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink, I realized I do not have any light blue paper!  If you could see my paper collection, you would be surprised, too.  Blue paper is now on my shopping list.

So...I found a set of pretty note cards that someone gave me years ago and used the Papertrey Cutaway die to cut the circle from the front of a note card.  And then I cut the blue envelope for the background.  I added lovely white filmy flower petals, raffia, bling and strip of the same note card on the bottom.  You can't see it, but the circle is on several dimensions to give it a little boost.  A simple, but pretty card. 

Love this die and stamp set.  I've used it for a couple birthdays, Mother's Day, and for a get well card.    

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop

    

Have a great day!
Kathy

Blue Crab For You

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic, you know the Maryland Blue Crab.  Excellent.  Delicious. Perfect.  We picked a few crabs just last weekend.  Sunday night the weather was absolutely beautiful -- perfect weather to sit on the deck and pound some crab legs!  Love summer.

So with those crabs in mind, here is a card in neutral colors for Memory Box Challenge #26 Noteworthy Neutrals. I used the Crusty Crab die from Memory Box.

And I'll be linking up to Cardz 4 Guys: Challenge # 173 Beside The Sea 
and Let's Craft and Create #127 Just Beachy

Have a great weekend,
Kathy

Celebrate

Well, our 4th of July is over, but birthdays can be celebrated any time.   Actually, we have a nephew whose birthday is on the 4th, so I'll keep this card for next year!  And I'll be posting this card to three challenges.

Love these squiggles.  I sewed a zig zag stitch and added a chevron/zig zag paper background to match. I really thought some bling would be better than the little stars, but I'm not sure how our nephew feels about bling so I went with the stars.

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Use a Die Cut


Simon Says:  Red, White and Blue 
and
Cards in Envy:  Patriotic Please (Red White and Blue)


Take care,
Kathy

Butterfly Happy Birthday

Well, the outside temperature is above 90 degrees so I am staying in!  Staying in my cave, too!  After making coffee related cards for the 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, I am definitely in the mood to make more cards. 

CAS-ual Fridays had an interesting challenge:  TIC TAC TOE



I decided on the diagonal - butterflies, add a tag and add texture.  What a great challenge!

Here is my card.  I love blue and green together. 

Happy 4th of July!!
Kathy

Sending more latte your way

AAAchchchch!!  I can't find the new coffee mug stamp I just picked up at the Expo last week.  I'm sure it will show up, but when and where??

So instead of using a new stamp, I pulled out the Tim Holtz set and pretty colorful paper for a summer coffee card.  Just looking at the colors brightens my day.

Another post for 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers Blog.

Happy Thursday,
Kathy

Take a Break

One of the stamp sets I picked up at the Stamp & Scrapbook Expo this past weekend was this set from The Stamps of Life:

This booth was the last one I visited and I saw a card on display with the coffee cup.  What perfect timing for the 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Challenge! 

Have a great day -- take a break!!
Kathy

Sending a Whole Latte Love Your Way

Coffee, coffee, coffee -  here's another card for the 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Challenge:

Love the sentiment.  I saw a similar card on Pinterest and loved it.

Take care,
Kathy

Sunflower - Gold Emboss Resist

Here is a fun little card.  I haven't made a black and white card for some time and I love the gold emboss resist sunflower.  This technique is so easy and so pretty.  Wish I used it more often.

The first card is not really the embossed resist technique as I did not add ink or color to the image. 

 

This second image has the embossed area covered in orange ink.  I like them both. 

No sentiment.  I thought this card could be a 'just because' or birthday card. 

Posting this cute card to:

Simply Irresistible Challenge    (embossed resist technique)
4 Crafty Chicks   (sunflower)
Tuesday Morning Sketches


Time to get the grill going while the sun shines!
Kathy

For my librarian friends

Here's a coffee and book card for my librarian friends:

Any book lover or reader will sooooo agree with this sentiment.  Now that summer is here, hopefully many will have time to read.  I love reading at the beach - the two just seem to go together. I also love to see so many people reading while sitting in a beach chair with a cold drink.  Not only women, but lots of men and children of all ages with books and/or tablets.

Post to the 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Challenge

The sun is shining here.  Yay!!
Kathy

Another Coffee Card

Actually, I have two cards with coffee themes for the 2017 Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Challenge.  Making them is sort of addictive.  I am enjoying the card making even more as I drink my iced mocha coffee.

The first is gift card holder in the shape of a large coffee cup.  The gift card slips behind the black insert on the inside.

I'll post the second card in a little bit.

Hope you are having a great weekend!
Kathy

Just a Note!

Yesterday I found this music paper in my stash and thought I might use it for the Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge.    After staring at the sketch for a loonnng time, things just sort of fell in place.  I knew I wanted to use the paper and the stamp, Just a Note! and I thought I would add a few flowers, twine and doily.   It's sort of Shabby Chic, too.

 

Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge #405 

I'm off to the beach.  Can't wait!  Have a great weekend,

Kathy

Thanks Dad

Here is a plain and simple card for Father's Day, but the message is clear:  Thanks Dad for all you do.

Sometimes simple is best.  I made the card with orange card stock for the base, a solid tannish card stock and green dotted pattern paper.  The stamp is from a inexpensive set I found at one of the local craft stores.  I die cut the orange and white squares and rounded the corners of the larger pieces.  The ribbon adds a little dimension, but not too feminine.

 I'll be posting this card to Tuesday Morning Sketches #404

 

Thanks and have a great week!

Kathy

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is coming up this next weekend so I thought I would make a card a few days early.  Also, I wanted to experiment with watercolor paints.  This is a new technique for me and I found I need to work at it a bit! 

The idea came from the Make It Monday #283:  Watercolor Wash Backgrounds challenge at Papertrey Ink.    The background is okay, but....  After drying the watercolor paper with my hand dryer, I ran the piece through my Big Shot using a stitched frame die.  Then I tried embossing "Mother's Day" on the the watercolor background, but realized too late that I had used a Pearl embossing powder instead of white.  Though I'm not sure white would have shown up very well either.  So I stamped in black ink Papertrey Ink's "Mother's Day" on a scrap of the watercolor background and attached it to the card. 

Overall, I'm satisfied with my experiment and plan to play around more with watercolors.  I think I will try to copy one of the examples on the Papertrey Ink page.  If you would like to see a great video on watercolor wash backgrounds, Laurie's is great, click here.

Have a great week!
Kathy

Congrats

As part of an unfinished card swap I received a red, black and orange hot air balloon,  stamped sentiment 'Congratulations' and a piece of designer paper with blue clouds.   I also wanted to make a card for the Tuesday Morning Challenge.   I thought and thought and thought.  no ideas.... 

Then   💡   I came up with the following card -   a graduation card in black, red and white!  The base card is black with a white card stock background and a layer of diplomas and hats paper.  I attached the hot air balloon on vellum with a different 'congrats' under the vellum.

I attached the vellum to the graduation paper with small dots of glue, yet those dots were visible.  So I added some bling to cover these spots. 

In case you are wondering, the unfinished card swap requires us to send another player 3-4 card elements.  Then we are to make a card using any of the elements we received from a player.  Sometimes I use all 3 or 4 pieces or, as in this case, I used just one.

I'll be posting this card to the Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge #400:




Happy Weekend!
Kathy

Woof!

Woof!  Love this dog stamp.  He looks kind of old and pitiful and full of love.  I made this tag for the Tag You're It! Challenge.  

All the samples on the blog are terrific and very inspiring.  The dog in the featured artist's tag stood out looking so friendly and the others so cheerful and my forlorn doggie stamp said to me, "Please use me."   aahhhh, how sweet!  Really, I took one look at it and said, "that's the one."

Then I remembered a crocheted dog rug in the shape of a bone - do you know that Milkbone dog treats were first created as a cookie for humans, but it tasted so bad the creator gave it to his dog and the dog loved it!  Anyhow, I don't know if that story is true, but it is what someone told me just the other day.

So I cut out a couple bone shapes, stamped the dog and sentiment and added Washi tape and a ribbon.

 

Have a great day!
Kathy

Reading & Coffee

One more card for the 2017 Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop - this is getting addicting!

I was going through my stamps looking for ideas.   A friend's birthday is coming up and we usually exchange small gift items.  She is also a retired librarian so I was looking for something bookish and found this stamp with a woman reading and holding a cup of steaming coffee.  Perfect!  A great gift card for my friend and I could add another card to the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. 

A pretty ribbon is needed on the top of this gift card to finish it.  Off to the craft store!

Happy Monday!
Kathy

Coffee and Hugs

 I spent a little time in my cave this afternoon working on cards.  Working is not an accurate description.  I had fun playing with paper and ink while I listened to a book on CD.    Had I made my cards in the morning I would have had my three favorite things at one time:  nice cup of coffee, a great story to follow and and time in my cave!

This card has several layers:  base card, green dotted background, notebook paper, coffee cup and sentiment.  I stamped the coffee cup on the notebook paper and again on another piece of paper.  Then I fuzzy cut the coffee cup, added dimensions to the back and placed over the stamped cup.  The 'hugs' sentiment is from Winnie & Walter.   I was fortunate to win one of the prizes offered by Winnie & Walter in the Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and purchased a set of dies.  And, finally, I added some bling!


I'll be posting this card to:
2017 Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop 



Dare 2B Artzy - Lots of Layer

 

House of Cards March Challenge - Make a Scene and/or Colors  ---   GREEN








Hope you had a great weekend.  I did!

Take Care,
Kathy

Best Wishes

Best wishes in blue and yellow.  The Simon Says Monday Challenge - Use Your Favorite Tool seemed like a good time to make a card with an embossing folder and watercolors.  Not sure how others do this, but I stamped one side of the embossing folder (covered with various shapes of gears) with dark blue ink around the outer edges and yellow ink in the center area.  Then I spritzed water on the inked folder.  I had too much water in a couple spots so I dabbed these spots with a tissue to pick up some of the water.  Then I placed a piece of white card stock in the folder and ran it through my Big Shot.

Then I repeated the process so I could cut the smaller panel.  I edged the yellow panel and smaller gear panel with yellow ink before I wrapped them with blue twine and added the 'best wishes' tag. 

I really enjoy using embossing folders with my Big Shot. The Big Shot is my favorite tool as I can emboss plus make die cuts. 

 

I like how this card turned out and will make a couple more in other colors.  We have a few birthdays coming up in March and I think the men will enjoy these cards.

Have a great weekend,

Kathy

Relax. Drink coffee....

Sometimes when I get a new stamp set, I place it in a cute little box with the other new stamps that I have not used yet - I think they are called NUBS (not used before stamps).  (I need a larger box, too.)  But this time, I used the stamp almost right away cause I love coffee and reading!

 

So, this card is for Coffee Loving Cardmakers CASE-ing DT Link Up Party #10
and Stamplorations  Never-ending Anything Goes Challenge

The stamp is from Stamplorations and the paper is My Mind's Eye.



Have a great week,
Kathy

Watercolor Tag

This week I wanted to make cards for a couple challenges so I thought I would play around with watercolors - which I'd like to more often.

Here is a tag I made with purple, green and blue and a tad of yellow.  I swished the colors all around on paper and then cut out hearts.  Then I dotted another piece of white card stock with the same colors for the background using the top of the water brush.    I die cut the two little tags from the watercolor paper, stamped the little tags with 'friend' and 'love' and tied them to the white bow and purple string at the top of the tag.   The final step was placing little dots of glue on the backs of the hearts and attaching them to the larger tag.

I may attach this tag to a gift for a friend who feeling a little low right now.  

Made with:
Sentiments - 'love' from Technique Tuesday Hello set and 'friend' from a retired SU set
Small tags from Sizzix Framelits Tags & Words
Hearts from Tim Holtz Scribble & Splat die set

Challenges:
Time Out - Challenge #76 Inspired by Words
Stamplorations TAGplorations
Simon Says Young at Heart

  

Happy Sunday!
Kathy