Monday, December 27, 2010

Kraftin' Kimmie Boxing Week Sale!!!

Good morning friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We has a busy few days with family dinners...but it was the good kind of busy. :) Lots of food, fellowship and fun! My cousins, my son Nathan and I sat down to play a game of Scribblish last night. Oh my goodness, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. You all know the game "Telephone" right? Well Scribblish is basically the same game, but it's done with sketches. You each start out with a caption that you write down and then draw a picture for...then you randomly pass it around, and the next person unrolls just the drawing and has to come up with a new caption...then you pass it to another player who views only the new caption and creates a new drawing to represent it...this process repeats several times. Finally, everybody lays their scrolls in the centre of the table with only the final drawing showing...then you need to guess which one belongs to your original caption. We had a blast, and we're planning a rematch soon!

Today, I have nothing on my agenda. I can't even remember the last time I was able to say that! Our fridge is full of leftover ham, roast beef, veggies, mashed potatoes, homemade bread and pumpkin pie. No cooking for me tonight! So...I am going to colour today. I have some brand new stamps to ink up, and I am craving some crafty time, as I've had next to none over the past month.

On that crafty note, I wanted to let you know about the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store Boxing Week Sale!!! Trust me, you do not want to miss out on this amazing event. Here's the details:

From Dec. 26th-31st most of our inventory is 20 to 50% off!!This is our BIGGEST sale of the year!!

The store will be closed from December 23rd to December 27th and again from December 30th to January 4th. You are free to place orders during these times and they will be shipped out as soon as we are back in the office!!


So, hop on over to the Online Store to take advantage of Kimmie's sale...time's a tickin'!! Oh, and you still have time to convince those Krafty Dudes in your life to help you participate in the current challenge on the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Challenge Blog! We will be back with the first challenge of the new year on January 8, 2011 so make sure to stay tuned

Enjoy your day folks!

Blessings,

Melanie

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Mistletoe Mischief!

Good morning friends! I cannot believe that it's already December 22...this time of year just flies by so quickly. I trust that all your holiday preparations are complete? On Christmas day, we'll be having dinner with my in-laws and we're hosting a boxing day dinner at our house for my side of the family. At my hubby's request, roast beef will be on the menu...and perhaps some spiral ham, which is more to my liking! My cousin always requests pumpkin pie...one of his own, and one for everybody else to share, lol. Following dinner, we'll be breaking out the games!! I LOVE playing games, and this year I was finally able to find Balderdash!! I've been looking for this game for years, and this was the first time I've been able to find it...although I think they've redone it, so I'm curious to see how it differs. We've also picked up Scribblish, which I'm looking forward to trying out.

Today is my turn to post over at Sundays With Crissy. This month, Crissy is giving us the choice of two challenge topics...Christmas is Coming or Winter is Here!! I thought I would sneak in one final Christmas Card this year. I chose to work with one of Crissy's images that she drew for Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps...this is "Steal a Kiss". I adore this cute image, and have been waiting for a chance to use it. It would obviously be perfect for Valentine's Day, but I thought it would also make a cute Christmas card with the addition of a little hand-drawn sprig of Mistletoe! You have to watch out for that stuff you know...people can be pretty sneaky hanging it throughout the house in order to sneak a little kiss! lol The design papers are from Bo Bunny. The "Meet Me Under The Mistletoe" tag is something I found in my stash while I was hunting for an embellishment to fill the upper corner of my layout...how perfect is it for this image?? I love it when that happens! I added some little jingle bells I recently picked up at the dollar store to the bow tied with my Bow-Easy. I thought the little snippets of red ribbon would be just right to tie in the red bow on the mistletoe I drew, as well as the lettering on the tag...now I'm second guessing that colour choice a bit. Red is not a colour I would normally put with purple. Hmmm. Probably won't put them together again. I'm now suffering a bit from that "hindsight is 20/20" syndrome. :) Anybody else ever afflicted with that?? lol



I printed the digital image "Steal a Kiss" on Neenah Smooth Cardstock and coloured it with Copic makers. I also did a little experimenting shading with some old Prismacolour pencils I've had kicking around since my high school years...and no, I'm not going to clarify how long that's been, lol. ;) I used some baby oil and a paper blending stump after I was finished using my markers...it's really important to colour with your markers first, as you will ruin the nibs if you try colouring over pencil crayon. (However, don't fret if you should happen to ruin a nib, as they are replaceable. It's just an extra expense that is nice to avoid if possible.) I sponged around the image with Bundled Sage and Walnut Stain Distress Inks. I also added some additional shading with a brown Prismacolour pencil, and blended it out with the baby oil.



We'd love to have you join in with our challenge this month! All projects can be submitted on Crissy' Post ...just look for the Blue Inlinkz frog at the bottom of her post. Crissy has changed a few things up this month in regards to prizes....here's what she had to say:

I'm going to do something a little different for blog candy with this month's challenge! In the spirit of Christmas and giving, I am going to give away one digital image to the first 12 players! AND I am opening up the contest to include EVERYONE (not just for those using one of my images)!! So if you are one of the first twelve players to link up your Christmas/winter card on here, you will get your choice of one of my digital images from either Whimsy or Squigglefly! How fun is that! Now to keep it fair, you must make a card specifically for this challenge. Any cards that are "back-linked" will not qualify. And, if you don't make it in the race for top twelve, you can still have a chance to win at the end of this month. I'll still draw a name (using Random.org) from the participants, and that lucky person will get to choose 2 images of their choice from my collection. So what are you waiting for!! Ready, set, get crafting!!

Being later in the month, we have of course far exceeded the first twelve entries, so the "earlybird" prize is no longer up for grabs. However, our lovely Crissy's Crew member Zoe, owner of Make It Crafty, has added an additional prize for the winner! She will be contributing her brand new digital image "Stairway to Heaven"...it is a gorgeous background digital stamp that would work beautifully with many of Crissy's images!
You can find Crissy's digital images at Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps, Squigglefly or Whimsy Stamps.

Well friends, this will likely be my last post before Christmas as I plan to spend the next several days with family and friends. (unless I can find a little pocket of crafty time!!) I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! May you enjoy this time with loved ones, and create memories to treasure in the years to come as we celebrate this wonderful season...the day that we remember the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. As we remember His humble arrival in that stable so many years ago, may you experience the peace, hope and love this season brings.

God Bless!

Melanie
Stamps: "Steal a Kiss" digital stamp by Crissy Armstrong for Wags 'n Whiskers
Ink: Copics, Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bo Bunny, Bazzill
Embellishments: Chipboard tag, ribbon, bells, machine stitching
Tools: Bow Easy

Saturday, December 18, 2010

My Hubby Made His First Card!!!

Yes folks, you read that right! Dean got krafty this week to participate in the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps challenge...introducing our "Krafty Dudes"! Our challenge this week??? Get a "dude" you know to make a card using a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp!!! (how much fun is that?? lol)

This week over on the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps blog, you will see cards by the newest members of our design team, hehe. We all enlisted a guy we know to make a card using one of Kimmie's stamps! Honestly, we've been kind of joking about this idea for quite some time, but with this month's release of "dude" stamps, we thought it would be the perfect time to let some guys in on the fun! These men are such good sports, and they've done a great job on their projects!

So, I am now turning the keyboard over to Dean so he can give you the details on his card!!





Well, I guess after a year or so, watching my wife make cards, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm actually not a terribly creative person visually, which is why I don't attempt visual ( other than photography ) art. I looked at some of Melanie's cards to get some ideas. So here I was with a few choices of stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie and I chose this guy ( Shovelling Miles...uh...almost an unintentional double entendre ) because of the attitude on his face. Really, he's the exact opposite of me. I LOVE winter, and I LOVE snow, including shovelling it...well from my driveway anyways. This is why, despite our recent winter storm, I have the cleanest driveway in town. Bone dry, down to the cement!

Back to the card. I don't know all the technical jargon, so pardon my ignorance. Melanie gave me a quick tutorial on shading, so I used two to three related colour shades, using Copic markers, to provide some depth to the image. I wanted Miles to be colourful, yet matching the colours on the paper I chose. Personally, I wasn't fond of most of the papers and found the card layout to be more intimidating than the colouring. I felt like his expression begged for a story, which could be accomplished with a picture. I looked through my own images, but wasn't satisfied with the composition of any of them to use with Miles. So to Google images I went and found this picture. I think, ironically, it was taken recently from the storm in London last week. I cropped the image to a more panoramic composition and calculated the proper size to fit on the card ( 4"x6" ). The use of a picture was intentional to incorporate my visual artistic passion, being photography. I also had no idea how to fill the card with out it looking stupid.

I originally selected a paper with candy canes on it, but discarded that, and only used this paper with snowflakes and Christmas Trees. I layered accent colours for both the main border paper and for the photo itself. I then thought it would be neat to raise the stamped image off the paper with these little cushion sticky thingies...they work pretty good. Given that it was a cartoonish coloured image on a photograph, it seemed fitting to physically separate it further. I was momentarily stuck on the sentiment, and wanted to make use of Miles apparent disdain for the situation at hand. And then this sentiment came to mind. I wanted a thought bubble, but due to time constraints, I used Mel's CuttleBug and cut out this oval and embossed it for the sentiment. I also raised it using the sticky thingies. Most people where we live would agree with the statement on this card. I, however, do not. So this card is really going out for all you anti-winter, summer lovers.

Really, I couldn't have done this without Mel's guidance. I wouldn't have even known where to start. Thanks babe!

Please enjoy!

I want to say a big thanks to Dean and all the other Krafty Dudes who played along this week! Dean is a pretty creative guy...both with photography and music, so it was fun to see him branch out into a new creative outlet. He cracked me right up when he told me what sentiment he had come up with for this Miles stamp...a little cheeky, but oh so funny!! I also giggled a bit when he asked me for those "cushion sticky thingies" (stampers, we know them as "pop dots", hehe) to pop Miles up from the background!

Ok...you and your dudes have lots of time to play along in this challenge because we are taking a short break for the Christmas holidays. Our first challenge of 2011 will be on January 8th, so that's plenty of time to convince your guys to get krafty! Just link up his creation at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog, and the two of you just may be the lucky winners of this week's prize...Clint The Cowboy!

While you are at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog, make sure to check out the krafty work by the rest of our Dudes...and please hop around to leave them some love!! These guys rock, and we want to express our appreciation for their willingness to participate in this hobby that we all love so much. Thanks guys!!!

Just a reminder that today is your last chance to take advantage of the Kustomer Appreciation Special over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Shop! Also, the store will be closed from December 23rd to December 27th and again from December 30th to January 4th.

Blessings,

Melanie (and Dean!)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Krista's Got Candy!!!

Hey folks! Just popping in quickly this morning to let you all know that my very good friend and fellow Kraftin' Kimmie Krafty Girl Krista (aka Crafty Little Pigtails) has got some amazing blog candy!! Take a look:




The details for entering are on her post. It is open until January 2, 2011. Krista is super sweet and super talented, so make sure to grab a cup of tea or coffee and spend some time checking out her gorgeous work!!


That's it for me today. I have to apologize for being a little (or a lot, lol) MIA here on my blog. December is such a busy month....parties, company, dinners, shopping, recitals, plays...the list goes on and on! Unfortunately, I've had very little crafty time these last couple of weeks. I have been sneaking in a bit of time to work on my upcoming project for Sundays With Crissy, so I can promise you that I will be back on December 22 with a card. I will try to have another post or two before the end of the year, but I will be back to my regular blogging schedule come January!! (I've got some new January stamps to play with, and you are going to LOVE them!!)

Blessings,


Melanie

Monday, December 13, 2010

December News at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!

Wow...it's a VERY snowy morning here today!! Last week, I was complaining that all the snow storms completely missed us. Well, I have nothing to complain about now, lol. Snow, snow and more snow is what's in the forecast today!

Did you all know that the brand new December stamps were released yesterday at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps?? Several of us Krafty Girls have taken the month of December off, and Kimmie has some amazing Krafty Guests to fill in for us...they have done an outstanding job showcasing these new stamps!! You can find all the new stamps at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store. For those of you wishing to get your inky paws on the entire release, just click on the "Gimmie Kimmies Kits" option...you can purchase the release as sets and at a discounted price!

HOLIDAY SPECIAL ALERT!! For the next week, Kimmie is having a little special to thank all of her loyal customers who shop with at her store throughout the year!!! It's called Kimmie's Kustomer Appreciation!!! All orders of $50 or more before shipping and taxes, will receive a FREE STAMP of our choosing!!! That's right!! It will be a surprise gift, so no requests, please. This special runs from Sunday, December 12th to Saturday Decemer 18th!!!

Have a wonderful day friends...and stay warm!

Blessings,

Melanie

Friday, December 10, 2010

The Town Scrapper's Prima Ballerina (and an encouraging word on colouring mishaps!)

Good afternoon friends! Time for the weekly Town Scrapper Challenge...this week we're calling for you to use Spellbinders Nestabilities on your project! I've also got a little surprise for you today...my project features a sneak peek of a soon to be released exclusive Town Scrapper Victoria Case Stamp! (Fair warning...this is a long post today!! So feel free to grab a cup of coffee or tea and get comfy!! lol)

There are a few new stamps on their way to the Town Scrapper shelves...this one is my absolute favourite! I have a soft spot for ballerina stamps as one of my daughter Ainsleigh's passions is dance. She started ballet at the tender age of four, and she will be turning eleven in January. Over all those years, her love of ballet has only grown. I love watching her dance...we recently had observation week at her studio and the Christmas Open House is fast approaching. This ballerina stamp by Victoria Case is so beautiful, and I just had to colour her the moment I got my hands on her. :)

I decided to make a shaped card this week...Nestabilities are perfect for this! For the card base, I used the largest die in the Labels 8 set. The ballerina was stamped on Neenah Smooth cardstock with Memento Ink and coloured with Copic markers. The design paper is all from My Mind's Eye (Holly Jolly). She was pop-dotted on layers created with Spellbinders Petite Ovals Small and Labels 10. I topped it all off with bow...tied of course with my Bow Easy. For finishing touches, I added some Stardust Stickles, a few rhinestones and a sentiment from Whimsy Stamps. (I used Spellbinders Petite Ovals Small and Fancy Tags for the sentiment.)



Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E31, E33, E37, E59 Crown: YR31, Y17, E35 Tutu: R20, R22, R27, R46, E59, G82, G85, G99

I absolutely LOVE this stamp, and this ballerina will definitely be making an encore appearance on my blog! She is so versatile and I cannot wait to ink her up again soon. :)


Ok...here's where I'm going to share about my colouring conundrums. (LOVE that word!! lol) Sometimes, I run into problems while colouring but I'm usually too stubborn to start over. I tend to keep working at something until it is "passable" in my eyes. This little ballerina was giving me quite the difficult time! First of all, my paper seemed to act a little funny...it does that once in a while. There are spots on her tutu where the ink behaved badly and refused to blend or lay down smoothly. I also didn't achieve the highlights and depth of shadow that I was attempting to create. Stardust Stickles to the rescue there...I coated her tutu with them!! I had planned to do that anyways, but I hoped it would help conceal some of those troublesome areas too. I also had MAJOR issues colouring up the ballerina's tights...they ended up being my greatest point of frustration. I just couldn't get the right combo for the "ballet pink" shade I was going for...my daughter Ainsleigh only wears those tights like three times a week, so you'd think I'd be able to nail it. NOPE. I just kept layering colour upon colour upon colour...with no success. It kind of turned into a big mess. So, in the end I just decided to give her red tights (went over everything with my R27)...not at all what I wanted, but I didn't have time to start over. I also ended up loosing all of the shading I had been working on. Then I figured her pink pointe shoes looked silly with the red tights, so I made them green. Again, this was not what I had pictured but sometimes you have to change plans to salvage a project. SIGH.

I am sharing this with you friends, because we ALL have difficulties and frustrations with projects sometimes. We have grand visions of how our project will turn out, and sometimes the end product just doesn't measure up to our expectations. We usually just post our "best" stuff...but I think sharing some of our pieces that presented us with difficulties is beneficial too. Making mistakes is all part of the learning process...and I make a TON of them!! Don't be discouraged though...it is just colouring after all. You can always start fresh again tomorrow, armed with the new knowledge you have acquired through trial and error. My best advice when you're frustrated??? Walk away! lol Have a cup of tea and forget about your colouring for little bit. Return when you are refreshed, calm and ready to tackle it again. Also, make sure that you have the free time to sit and colour for a while...if you are rushed and feel pressure to "get it done", then chances are you may not be colouring at your best. My project today is a prime example of this...my time was tight, and so I rushed it a little. In the end, I made errors that ended up costing me more time in the long run. Had I tried out my colour combos on a scrap piece of paper first, perhaps I would have ended up with the results I had first envisioned. Remember...this is ultimately supposed to be fun and relaxing!! For me, it is also typically a stress-reliever...a way to unwind at the end of the day. If you're not smiling while colouring, just take a break. Be encouraged...and never craft angry. hehe

We'd love to have you play along with our Nestabilities Challenge this week...you just may be the lucky winner of a brand new Town Scrapper Victoria Case stamp! If you are in need of some new Nestabilities, Phebe has a wonderful selection of Spellbinders at The Town Scrapper and right now, ALL NESTABILITES ARE CURRENTLY 35% OFF. You can contact her by telephone at 519-882-0623 or via email at info@townscrapper.com to arrange a visit or to place an order. She also has many other wonderful stamp companies and product lines in stock...just perfect for all those crafty loved ones on your Christmas list. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by today friends, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Friday!!

Blessings (and happy crafting!!),

Melanie

Stamps: Town Scrapper exclusive Victoria Case "Ballerina", Whimsy Stamps sentiment
Ink: Memento, Copics, Black Soot Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, My Mind's Eye (Holly Jolly)
Embellishments: Rhinestones, Ribbon, Stardust Stickles
Tools: Spellbinders Petite Ovals Small, Labels 8, Labels 10, Fancy Tags, Bow Easy

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Kraftin' Kimmie News!!!

Good morning friends!! Miss Kraftin' Kimmie very sweetly offered to let her Krafty Girls take the month of December off, but it's still business as usual over at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps! It's release time again, and this month Kimmie has a great lineup of Krafty Guests (along with a couple of the Krafty Girls) to help showcase the new December stamps!!

Previews begin today, and will continue through to the official release day this Sunday...and of course there will also be a blog hop on Sunday to celebrate!!

So make sure to hop on over the the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog each day for a list of who has previews to share with you...the stamps this month are AWESOME as always!! You'll of course see Miles up to some snowy antics, and Annie has brought us a whole crew of "Dudes" for all those guy cards that are often hard to make. I know you're going to love the new December stamps!

Blessings,

Melanie

Friday, December 3, 2010

Let it Snow!

Confession time...I really love the snow! So, I was thrilled with the challenge topic at Wags 'n Whiskers this week...the lovely, sweet and oh so talented Sharon Caudle is challenging all of us to use Snowflakes on our projects this week!


I used the beautiful fairy "Angelica" for my card today. Now, when you stamp Angelica, she is normally sprinkling pretty little fairy stars from her fingers. However, after inking my stamp I used a damp Q-Tip to remove the ink from that part of the rubber. I stamped her on Neenah smooth cardstock and then drew in some little snowflakes with my Copic multiliner. I coloured her to match the fun snowflake patterned paper from Fancy Pants. The blue polka dotted paper is a scrap I had laying around. I also added in some plastic snowflakes that I picked up at the dollar store. (I glammed them up with some additional glitter!) The sentiment is from Motivet stamps. The snowflake pattern on the tag was created with an accessory stamp from High Hopes. (I used Stormy Sky Distress Ink.)


I used plenty of Stardust Stickles on Angelica and sponged around my image with Stormy Sky Distress Ink.



Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y23, Y26, E31, E33, E37, E59 Dress: B91, B95, B97, B99, G20, G21, G28, G99, BG000 Wings: BG0000, BG000, RV000, G20, G21, blender

We would love to have you play along this week! Remember, the WnW prize challenges are now open to projects featuring any stamp! However, if you use a WnW image on your project, you will also be entered into a bonus draw! Hop on over the Wags 'n Whiskers Blog to see the gorgeous snowy projects by the rest of the Divas this week...they are just beautiful! If you are in need of some retail therapy, you can find Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps HERE.

This post is a little sad for me today...this will be my last weekly post for Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps. Lacey and Nikki asked me to join the team as a guest designer back in May. My term was only supposed to be for May and June, but they very kindly offered to have me stay on a while longer. The ladies on the Wags 'n Whiskers design team have been absolutely fabulous to work with...they are all so sweet, and have made me feel so welcome. I am very grateful for the friendships made while on this team. Thank you all so much for having me on board for these last several months...I truly appreciate it!

Thanks for stopping by today friends!

Blessings,
Melanie
Stamps: Wags 'n Whiskers "Angelica", Motivet sentiment, High Hopes snowflake
Ink: Memento, Copics, Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Fancy Pants
Tools: Bow Easy
Embellishments: Plastic dollar store snowflakes, glitter, Stardust Stickles, rhinestones, pearls, ribbon

Thursday, December 2, 2010

!!!SALE ALERT!!! at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

You saw it right...Miss Kraftin' Kimmie is having a great big sale just in time for all your Christmas Krafty shopping!! Here's all the details:

From December 1 to December 5 ONLY, everything in the ONLINE STORE is 20% off!!! Just use the coupon code KK20 when checking out! This even includes the newest November release stamps!

So make sure to hop on over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store...this is a sale you don't want to miss!!

Oh...and if you have a moment today, please hop on over to my good friend Krista's blog to wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Blessings,

Melanie