Halloween Medallion

Hi there folks! Hope you all have been having a great week. :)

I've got a Halloween card to share with you today featuring the Ornate Hinge from Dies by SCACD. I created an intricate medallion by cutting out twelve hinges. I trimmed the panel off the bottom of the die (where there are three little holes for brads) and glued them in place behind a black cardstock circle. The papers are from last year, but you can check out Susana's entire stock of paper HERE where you will also find lots of holiday themed paper pads. The image is from a Teresa Collins stamp set that is no longer in stock, but Susana has some fantastic new Halloween stamp sets that have great images! For example there is the amazing Tim Holtz Mini Halloween #3, Trick or Treat, or MME Lost and Found Halloween ...so many fantastically creepy stamps perfect for your Halloween themed projects!! See the little bits of gold around the edges of the papers?? That is the fantastic Viva Decor 3D Stamp Paint in Gold. I just used my finger to pick up a bit of product, apply it to the paper edges and lightly blend it out. I followed that with some black ink to "grunge" everything up a bit.

The Ornate Hinge Die is so versatile! You can of course, use it as an actual hinge, lol. But it can also be used as a medallion as seen here, as a border, or in any other way you can come up with! I love stretching the possibilities of dies. They are some of my favourite crafting tools. :) You can find the entire stock of Dies by SCACD HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie

Holiday Trinkets...Kicking off the October Kraftin' Kimmie Sneak Peeks!

Hi folks! We are kicking off the *New* OCTOBER Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps previews today and first off, we’d like to introduce you to a beautiful new set of Trinkets!!! We are very excited to share with you our….WINTER TRINKETS!!! 

These circular sentiment stamps have been created and designed by the totally talented Krafty Girl, Nicole Aspinall!! They are made especially to fit in your 1 3/8ths and 1 ¾ inch punches for quick and easy cutting!!! This month we are releasing the WINTER Trinkets set which includes eight trinkets in each set with four of each size and they come as both positive and negative images, so you can use your black or brown ink with the positive stamps and use your coloured inks with the negative ones!! You will get the set as a completely unmounted full sheet of deeply etched grey rubber.

All of the Krafty Girls are primarily cardmakers and we have found these to be such a quick and easy way to add a sentiment to our creations or to use as the focal point on our cards! They are also perfect for your Smashbook pages and your scrapbook pages, not to mention your altered items and tags!! No stamper's stash is complete without them. :)

Here's my card featuring one of the new Winter Trinkets. I used some Bo Bunny paper from last year. I stamped the Trinket in Memento Rich Cocoa and then coloured it with my B93 Copic marker followed by E42 to match the paper. The Trinket was mounted with foam dimensionals on a snowflake ornament that I picked up at the dollar store. The bow was centered with a Prima Flower Centre. I also added a few rhinestones for a bit of added sparkle. 

BLOG CANDY: Make sure to check out what the Krafty Girls have created and be sure to comment on each and every stop because one lucky stamper is going to WIN the new WINTER TRINKETS set!!!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Blessings, 

 Melanie

"What Big Eyes"

Hi crafty friends!!

I have a card to share with you featuring "What Big Eyes", one of the recently released Eyes of Fables collection at SCACD. The sentiment on my card comes with the stamp. I used some older MME paper, but make sure to check out the paper section at SCACD HERE...Susana has an incredible selection of papers in stock, and she is always adding new pads! That fabulous corner embellishment was created with one of the newest exclusive Dies by SCACD. This die is one of two sold as a set called Fancy Flower and Key Corners. I also added some pearls made with a Viva Decor Pearl Pen, a flourish made with the Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork die, a bit of crochet trim and a Petaloo flower.

What Big Eyes was stamped on Neenah with Memento Ink and coloured with Copics.

Skin: E000, E00, E11, RV95, R20  Hair: E50, E21, E25, E29, E59, BV29  Dress: BG000, BG11, BG70, BG72, BG75, C5, R81, R83, R85, YG02, G81, G85

Here's just a little taste of some of the newest products at SCACD:

• Art Anthology products
• New Poppy Stamp Dies
• New Luminarte Silks colours

Susana is always adding the latest and greatest products to the store, so make sure to check back frequently. You can also keep up to date with all the happenings at SCACD via the Store Blog.

Hope you all  have a great day, and thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

"Skulltastic Challenge", Anniversary Celebration and World Cardmaking Day Fun at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!

Hi folks! There's so much fun happening with Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps this weekend!! Just to give you all a bit of warning, this is going to be a lengthy post! But trust me, you will want to make sure to read the entire post thoroughly so you don't miss out on anything. ;)   So go grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and let's get this party started!

1. Happy Anniversary to Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!  Kimmie has been in the business of bringing us amazingly fun stamps to colour and create with for THREE years! To celebrate, she is running a HUGE sale this weekend. You can find all the stamps on sale HERE.

2. World Cardmaking Day!!  Kimmie is running some fun challenges at the KKS Blog and on the Facebook Fan Page. Make sure to stay tuned throughout the weekend for your chance to WIN! (psst...for those of you interested, there will be a chance to win a guest designer spot for the month of December!!) There are of course some krafty challenges that will require you to get into your studios and get busy...we can't wait to see what you create! There will also be some fun trivia challenges to join in as well. It's going to be a really fun weekend and I hope you can join us!

3. Our weekly challenge at the KKS Blog!! As always, Saturday is the day for us to post a new challenge for all you Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps fans to play along with! This week our lovely hostess is the very talented Cheryl whose challenge is called "Skulltastic!"...quite a fitting challenge for the month of October! It's pretty simple...just make sure there is at least one skull somewhere on your project. It could be part of your image, in your design paper or an embellishment. It's totally up to you!

For my card this week, I inked up an oldie but a goodie. This young swashbuckler is Billy Blyth. Isn't he awesome?! And of course, he fits in perfectly with the Skulltastic challenge thanks to his little footrest. The DCWV Once Upon A Time papers were distressed, inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and treated to a little machine stitching for a finishing touch. I FINALLY remembered to stop by the fabric store and pick up more thread. It was driving me nuts to not have it. I absolutely love to add stitching to my cards and often feel they look a bit naked without it. lol  I did sponge over the thread with a bit of brown ink, but I should have been a bit more generous with my application as the thread it a bit too stark for the earthy tones of this card. That decorative border was made with one of my awesome new Dies by SCACD...this one is called Ornate Hinge. I absolutely love the intricacy of this die. It has a little panel across the bottom with three holes for brads or pearls so it will look like a hinge, but I trimmed it off and overlapped three of the hinges to create a continuous border.

And here's your closeup of young Billy. He was stamped on Neenah with Memento Ink and coloured with Copics. Pirates are just awesome! I'm a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. How much fun would it have been to be involved in those movies?? And can I just say that Captain Jack Sparrow has got to be the best pirate ever! He's awesome...mostly due to the fact that he was played by one of my favourite actors, Johnny Depp. The man is absolutely brilliant...especially when playing eccentric characters. He truly shines in those roles. From the Mad Hatter to Sweeney Todd to Sam in Benny & Joon...each character was played to perfection. (incidentally, has anybody ever tried making grilled cheese with an iron??? I've always wanted to try...) It's a tough call as I really love so many of his movies, but I think my favourite  has got to be Edward Scissorhands. I LOVE that movie. I can't even remember how many times I've seen it. I adore the character of Edward, poor guy. Breaks my heart when his maker dies in front of him as his scissors slip through the hands that were meant to be his....so sad. :(  I haven't seen Dark Shadows yet, but I am definitely looking forward to rectifying that soon!

Lol...got off on a bit of tangent there!  But for those interested, here are the colours used for colouring Billy:

Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, RV95  Hair: E21, E25, E59  Coat: G20, G21, G24, G85, G99, C5, C7, C9  Shirt and head scarf: B91, B93, B95, B97, C5, C7  Pants: E11, E13, E17, E18, E59, W7  Treasure Chest: E50, E21, E25, E31, E29, E59, Y21, Y17  Skull: W1, W3, W5, W7, W9

Make sure to stop by the KKS Blog to check out what the rest of the Krafty Girls have created for the Skulltastic Challenge. If you play along, you could be the lucky winner of "Perfect Poison", the stamp used on Cheryl's awesome card! (Perfect Poison happens to be one of my favourite images!!) Just make sure to use a KKS to be eligible for the prize. :)

So there you have it folks! You've got so many opportunities to win with KKS!! So don't forget to check out the KKS Blog and FB page for all the challenges and trivia opportunities as well as our weekly challenge.  Hope you get a chance to hang out with us a bit this weekend!

Oh, one last thing...have you registered yet for Krafty Day 2012??!!  Spaces are limited, so register soon! This is a fantastic event that we always look forward to. Come on out and hang out with us for the day. We'll colour, create, eat and laugh together. Annie Rodrigue will also be there and you'll have the chance to watch her in action. You can find all the details HERE...I sure hop to see you there!

And HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my fellow Canadians!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Let the Celebration Begin with Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!

As you may have read on the Kraftin' Kimmie Facebook fan page, we are having a little online party to celebrate our THIRD Anniversary AND World Cardmaking Day, which both happen to be this weekend!

The first part of our celebration has already begun!! We've got over 140 of our most popular stamps on SALE 20-75% OFF, but only while supplies last! So hop on over to the Online Store and scoop up some inky savings!!
...

Next up, we will be posting TWO extra special Challenges today!!! We've got some prizes here to give away, so play along with as many of our Anniversary challenges as possible! Not only will you have a chance to WIN, but you may be asked to join the Krafty Girls as a Krafty Guest for the month of December!!!

Then we'll post TWO MORE extra Challenges tomorrow for more chances to WIN! AND we always have our regular weekly challenge on Saturday with lots of awesome samples from the Krafty Girls!

Also we'll be having some random trivia questions and games posted at the KKS Blog and on our Facebook page, so be sure to stop in often to join in the fun and even WIN some rubber goodness!!!

Have fun, and hope to see you back tomorrow! :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Brand new Susana Loves Stamps release at SCACD!!!

Hi crafty friends! There is a spectacular new Susana Loves Stamps release at SCACD today...just wait until you see The Eyes of Adventure and Fables . They are gorgeous! :)  There are four stamps in each collection and each stamp comes with a bonus accessory stamp.

To celebrate today's release, we are having a blog hop to showcase all the new images. You will find the entire blog hop list over at the Store Blog. If you've been following along, you should have arrived here after visiting with my very talented friend Amanda.

I have two cards to share with you today. The first features Oceanic Eyes, part of the Eyes of Fables collection. Isn't she stunning? I am such a sucker for mermaid images...absolutely LOVE them. :) For embellishments, I added a paper doily, some crocheted trim and some pearls made with a Viva Decor Pearl Pen. All paper edges and embellishments were sponged with brown ink. I also used one of the Classic Corner Dies by SCACD. You'll spy one up in the left hand corner used in the traditional way. I also cut out four Classic Corners and joined them together in pairs to create the embellishments on the end of the image panel. I love how versatile the corner dies by SCACD are...there are so many fabulous ways to use them!

Oceanic Eyes was stamped in Memento Ink and coloured with Copics. Her tail was given a coat of  Stardust Stickles. The little crab is an accessory stamp that comes with Oceanic Eyes. I pulled out one of the Graphic and Grunge Shells stamps to create a bit of subtle texture with brown ink on the teal paper panel...the seashells in this stamp collection are a perfect compliment to this pretty mermaid image. :)

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20, RV94 Hair: E50, E31, E33, E37, E59  Tail: YG00, YG11, BG01, BG05, BG09, C5, C7, C9  Shells: BG000, B91, B93, B97, B97, C5, C7

My second card features Courageous Eyes, part of the Eyes of Adventure collection. That gorgeous birdcage was created with the Uncaged Bird Die By SCACD. The sentiment is an accessory stamp that comes with Courageous Eyes. I just cut it up into smaller sections, matted it with cardstock and tucked it into the die cut cage. I also pulled out my Classic Corner Dies by SCACD for this card too...absolutely LOVE this die. :)

Courageous Eyes was stamped in Memento Ink and coloured with Copics.

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20, RV94 Hair: E50, E31, E33, E37, E59  Clothing: R46, R59, C7, C9, E21, E25, E29, E59, Y17

After you are done hopping, make sure to pop on over to SCACD where all the new Eyes of Adventure and Fables stamps are now available for purchase!

Our international crafty friends can find these new stamps at Quixotic Paperie. :)

It's now my pleasure to send you off to visit with the lovely Kathi who I know has something fabulous to share with you!

Happy hopping...and happy shopping!

Thanks for joining us today. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Have a Monster of a Good Day!

Hi folks! I wanted to share a card featuring one of the Oddly Sweet Curiosities Collection, part of the exclusive Susana Loves Stamps from SCACD. This little guy is called Monster Bash and he comes with the fun sentiment used on my card. The flourish was cut with the Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork Die. The corner embellishment was cut with a Classic Corners Die by SCACD.

Monster Bash was stamped in Memento Ink and coloured with Copics. I gave him a bit of a speckled look by dotting on various greens after colouring him in teal.

Monster: BG000, BG70, BG72, C5, C7, G24, YG11, YG63, YG95, G99, YR31, YR23, E17, E18

Here are a few items of note to check out at SCACD:

• New Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps
• Bazzill 6x6 Design Papers
• Tim Holtz Stamps (including some fantastic Halloween stamps!)
• Viva Decor 3D Stamp Paint
• Melissa Francis decorative hangers for projects or photos...these are absolutely gorgeous!
• New Spellbinders

If you haven't already, make sure to become a follower at the SCACD Store Blog to keep up to date on all the newest products in the store. This is also where you'll see all the latest projects by the SCACD design team using products available at SCACD...there's always tons of inspiration to be found there!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie