Seeing Spots

Good morning friends! We've got another new challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps today...and our hostess is none other than the fantabulous Miss Kraftin' Kimmie herself!! Her challenge this week is "Seeing Spots".

I have a confession to make...I am at NO shortage of polka-dotted paper, lol. I love polka dots, so I tend to pick up a lot of sheets of paper with this pattern! Since the festive mood is in full swing, I decided to use some My Mind's Eye paper from the Holly Jolly collection. I decided to ink up "Miles on Ice"...how cute is he??!! Poor little guy set himself adrift...apparently he didn't use the best judgement on where to stand while using his ice pick, lol. I didn't want this card to be fussy, as I need to add more masculine cards to my collection. The Miles stamps are just perfect for guy cards. I used Kraft cardstock as my base and adhered a couple of dollar store snowflakes that I added a bit of glitter to...guy cards can have glitter, right? Hope so!

Miles was stamped on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured with Copic markers. I added some Perfect Puff to the trim on his coat...this stuff is entirely too much fun!!! Just apply heat, and watch it puff right up! I had also applied some Glossy Accents to his little block of ice. Well apparently, Glossy Accents does NOT take to heat very well!! You'll notice that it crystallized, and ended up with a really bumpy, bubbly texture. Now, typically I would have FREAKED. (yes, I've been known to have the odd temper tantrum when I experience a card disaster, lol) However, I think this look kind of works for ice...right??? (please just go with me on this one, k?? lol) Let's pretend that I totally planned for this to happen. :) Funny thing...sometimes your blunders can turn into great discoveries! If you want crystally ice, then just heat up those Glossy Accents! :) Oh, and another lesson learned on this card...the Perfect Puff will tint pink when used beside deep red...look close, and you'll see what I mean. So use with caution next to anything red!


Copics: Miles: E50, E31, E33, E37, E59 Coat: R20, R22, R27, R46, R59 Boots: C10, C9, C7, C5, C3, C1, B60 Ice: a lot of B's, BG's and the colourless blender...sorry, I forgot to write those down

We'd love to have you play along this week...if you make sure to use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project, then you could be the winner of the stamps Kimmie used on her amazing card today!! Just link up your project on the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog...oh, and take a few minutes to have a look at the incredible projects by the rest of the Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests...wow, these ladies are awesome!! Thanks so much to our November Krafty Guests...it has been such fun working alongside all of you, and we really have enjoyed seeing your creations with Kimmie's Stamps! You ladies rock!

In need of some new Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps?? Visit the Kraftin' Kimmie Online Store, and do a little Christmas shopping...for your friends and for yourself. You'll be saving your hubby the work!! (He'll appreciate it...really! lol)

I hope you have a wonderful week friends, and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Miles on Ice", High Hopes sentiment

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, MME

Ink: Memento, Copics

Embellishments: Glossy Accents, Perfect Puff, dollar store snowflakes, glitter

Wrap It Up!!

This week at Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps the fabulous Nikki (co-owner of WnW) has come up with a challenge just perfect for this time of year...Make a gift box, bag or tag!

I am one of those people who loves to wrap gifts. I love picking out pretty papers, cutting, folding and taping it all up so nicely. However, more and more I find we are buying gift cards for people, so my gift wrapping is not quite as labour intensive as before. I used to think gift cards were a lazy gift...but I've since changed my mind. I think my opinion on that changed when my son became a teenager, and started getting picky about his clothing. So, I began to suggest gift cards so that he could just choose for himself. Of course, they ship pretty cheap too for those who need to mail their gifts. I always love receiving gift cards towards my favourite stores too...whether it be a crafty or clothing store. Last year at Christmas, my in-laws gave me a very generous gift card for one of my favourite local crafty stores...I went on quite the spree picking out Spellbinders, Copic markers, papers and other items I had been wishing for!

With this in mind, I thought I would try my hand at making a gift card holder for Nikki's challenge. (It's kind of a box, right??!! Ok...so I stretched on this one!! Lol...I asked permission though, and got the "OK" from the bosses!!)

Back in September, I was at a stamping event where my wonderfully talented and absolutely hilarious friend Andrea Murdock did a make and take with this gift card holder template...I love it!! It's quite easy to make and the possibilities are endless. Thanks Andrea...you rock girlfriend!! I'm sure you could easily whip up a whole bunch of these to have on hand for any occasion...as you can see, mine would suit any occasion. Guess I'll have to pull out the Christmas papers and get going on some for the upcoming holiday season!



Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Dress: RV000, R83, R85, R89, BG96, BG93, G20, G000, YG11 Wings: Booo, BGoooo, BG93, BG96, Gooo, RV000, R83 Flower: RV000, R83, R85, R89

I stamped "Rosalie" on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured her with Copic markers. She was cut out with Spellbinders Labels 2 and popped up with foam squares. The foam squares are necessary on this project because the closure flap tucks in underneath your image panel (see picture below). The cardstock base is a 4 1/4" x 10 3/4" strip scored at 4 1/4" and 8 3/4". So you will end up with 3 sections in your cardstock measuring 4 1/4", 4 1/2" and 2". You will also need to punch a slot in the cardstock for the gift card (see picture of interior), and make sure to only apply adhesive around the perimeter of your patterned paper...or else you will not be able to slip your gift card inside the pocket! All paper edges were sponged with Distress Ink...Antique Linen, Bundled Sage and Walnut Stain. I added in a little tag, jewelry spacer, dollar store pearls and a bow tied with my Bow Easy. Oh, and every fairy needs a healthy dose of Stardust Stickles on her wings...well, I think they do!!

From this angle, you can see how the small flap tucks in under your image panel...it takes a little fiddling to get it just right. I actually doubled up on the foam squares to give more height for the flap to tuck under.


Here's the inside....this is the reverse side of the patterned paper on the front of the card holder. You can see the slot at the top in which I've inserted a gift card. You will want to ensure that your slot is far enough down from the top that you still have room to adhere your paper on the outside. Again, make sure that you only apply your adhesive around the perimeter of your patterned paper on the exterior of the gift card holder...this creates the pocket for your gift card. I used plain white cardstock cut with a smaller sized die of the Labels 2 to give an area to write a little message.


I know you all have gifts to give this year...so get creative with your wrapping and join us for Nikki's challenge at Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps!! Need some inspiration? Hop on over the the WnW Blog to see what the other very talented Divas have been whipping up in their craft rooms! Remember that the WnW challenge prizes are now open to projects featuring any stamp line...but if you use a WnW image on your project, then your name will also be put into a bonus draw!! (You can find them HERE)

Thanks for dropping by today!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps:Wags 'n Whiskers "Rosalie"
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Fancy Pants (Little Sprouts "Baby's Breath")
Ink: Memento, Distress Inks, Copics
Embellishments: Ribbon, die cut tag, dollar store pearls, jewelry spacer, Stardust Stickles
Tools: Spellbinders Labels 2, Bow Easy

Little Christmas Angel

Good morning friends! Have you been keeping up with the posts at Sundays With Crissy this month? Each very talented member of Crissy's Crew has a designated day to post, so there is inspiration and gorgeous eye candy to be seen throughout the entire month! This month, Crissy has set a wonderful festive colour challenge of "Red, Green and Gold".

I chose to work with one of Crissy's newest digital images from Whimsy Stamps...this is "Little Christmas Angel". I always adore Crissy's illustrations of children...they are so precious! After measuring the Spellbinders Labels 8 die that I planned to use, I resized "Little Christmas Angel" to fit, printed her off on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured her with Copic markers. I chose some design paper from My Mind's Eye and used accents of red and gold for the matting and punched border. To pull in some green to fit with Crissy's colour challenge, I sponged around the image and sentiment (from CC Designs) with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The little flourish in the sentiment is something I drew in myself...mostly to fill the huge gap left when I misjudged the placement of the word "Christmas", lol. I added in some gold flourishes that were made with Spellbinders Doodleparts. The snowflakes were also made with Spellbinders.

In hindsight, I wish I would have coloured her gown with ivory or cream shades just to provide more contrast between the clothing and the wings. I coated both with Stardust Stickles after colouring.

Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Bird: R22, R27, R46, R59, C10 Gown: B60, C5, C3, C1, C00, blender Wings: B000, BG0000, BG000, B60, blender

We would love to have you join in our challenge this month...you have until midnight on November 30th (EST) to submit your project on Crissy's post HERE. (Just look for the little blue Inlinkz frog at the bottom of her post) If you use one of Crissy's digital images on your project, you will be eligible to win this month's fantastic prize from our wonderful sponsor LSL Diversified. Take a look:

Crissy will also be giving the winner 3 of her digital images from either Squigglefly or Whimsy Stamps! You can purchase Crissy's digital stamps from Wags 'n Whiskers, Whimsy Stamps or Squigglefly.

Make sure to become a follower over at Sundays With Crissy so that you never miss a post by one of the lovely members of Crissy's Crew...we still have a few more post to come this month!

Have a wonderful day friends...and thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps "Little Christmas Angel" by Crissy Armstrong, CC Designs sentiment Paper: Neenah, Bazzill,

Ink: Copics, Distress Ink

Embellishments: Kaisercraft brads, dollar store pearls, Stardust Stickles

Tools: Spellbinders Labels 8 and Snowflakes, Martha Stewart border punch

Gettin' "Krafty" with the Krafty Girls!!

Happy weekend!!! Today marks the start of another new challenge at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog, and this time it's my turn to play hostess. :) My challenge is called "Gettin' Krafty with the Krafty Girls"...I want to see you using Kraft cardstock on your projects this week! (clever, no??? lol)

This is "Christmas Clara"...I love this stamp, and wanted to have another chance to use her this holiday season. I used Kraft cardstock as my card base and pulled out some gorgeous vintage style papers from My Mind's Eye (Holly Jolly)...oh and a little strip of holly patterned paper from Basic Grey (Wassail). The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is actually from Whimsy Stamps, and the little tag is from the Holly Jolly paper pack...there were a bunch of patterned die cuts in the paper pack. (Picked that up at Scrappin' Great Deals back in September!) The glitter snowflake is from the ornament section at the Dollar Store, and I adhered a Christmas brad that I've had kicking around since last year. The little red pearls were not quite the right colour, so I coloured them with my R59 Copic marker. I also used a Martha Stewart border punch on the black cardstock.


"Christmas Clara" was stamped on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured with Copic markers. Last time I coloured her I made her a brunette, so I thought it would be a nice change to give her blonde hair this time. :) I gave the Nutcracker and her hair bows a nice coat of Stardust Stickles, and then popped her up on foam squares.


Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y23, Y26, E31, E33, E37, E59 Dress and bows: R22, R27, R46, R59 Nutcracker: E51, E53, E57, R22, R27, R46, R59, YG00, G20, G94, G99, C9, C5, C3

I hope you plan to play along with the challenge this week...if you use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project, then you could be the lucky winner of "Christmas Clara", the stamp I used on my card today!! Just link up your projects at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog...and while you're there, make sure to check out all the amazing Krafty Kreations by the incredibly talented Krafty Girls!

In need of some new Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps?? Check out the online store HERE...and remember, that the "Gimmie Kimmie Kits" from the November release are still available for a limited time!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Christmas Clara", sentiment from "Jingle Bell Ride" from Whimsy Stamps

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, MME, Basic Grey

Ink: Memento, Copics, Black Soot Distress Ink

Embellishments: Pearls, Stickles, die cut tag, material brad, dollar store snowflake ornament

Tools: Martha Stewart border punch

Lavender and Lace

Oh, I am soooo late with this post! I must thank Lacey (and Nikki too!) for her patience with me...I've had some unexpected things come up that required my attention, and so my post had to take a back seat today. Better late than never though...right??

Welcome to another challenge at Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps!! Our challenge this week is "Lavender and Lace".

I decided to pull out one of my favourite Wags 'n Whiskers Stamps, "Say a Prayer" for this challenge. I have to admit that "lavender" is not a colour I have an abundance of in my paper collection. I searched through my papers several times for anything lavender, or even purple, and found this pretty polka-dotted paper from My Mind's Eye (Wild Asparagus). I also found a little scrap of polka-dotted paper from KaiserCraft that I used to paper peice the dress on this beautiful stamp. I chose to use some crocheted "lace"...this is one of my personal favourite embellishments. For finishing touches I distress the edges of the paper with my scissors and Milled Lavender Distress Ink, pulled out a Martha Stewart paper punch, added a few pearls, Prima Hydrangeas, Stardust Stickles, ribbon and a metal sentiment tag from the dollar store. I really wanted to add some machine stitching...another favourite embellishment of mine, but I've run out of white thread! (It's on my shopping list for this weekend, lol)


"Say a Prayer" was stamped with Memento Ink on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured with Copic markers. The paper-pieced dress was shaded with Copic markers. When paper-piecing, always remember to add some shading to your patterned paper. Otherwise, those areas of your image will just look flat.

Copics: Skin E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y23, Y26, E31, E33, E37, E59 Ribbon: C00, C01, C03, C05 Wings: BG0000, V000, RV000, blender Shading on dress: V000, V01, V12, V15, V09

We'd love to have you join in the "Lavender and Lace" challenge this week! You can link up your submission on the Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge Blog...you can also check out all the beautiful cards that the WnW Divas created this week. They are just stunning!

Remember, that the Wags 'n Whiskers Challenges are now open to submission featuring any stamps line. However, if you do use a WnW stamp on your project, then your name will also be entered into a bonus draw for a WnW digital stamp!

Thank you so much for stopping by today friends. It means so much to me that you all continue to keep looking in on my little blog...and your sweet words are so encouraging. :)

Have a wonderful Friday evening, and I hope to see you back tomorrow!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Wags 'n Whiskers "Say a Prayer"

Ink: Memento, Milled Lavender Distress Ink, Copic markers

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, MME, KaiserCraft

Embellishments: Prima flowers, pearls, Stickles, ribbon, metal sentiment tag

Tools: Martha Stewart border punch

Running a little late...

Good morning folks!

I'm running a bit behind schedule today due to some unexpected things that came up last night, and will be late getting my card posted for the Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge.

I will be back later this afternoon with my card, but in the meantime please hop on over the Wags 'n Whiskers Blog to check out the gorgeous projects by the rest of the DT for our "Lavender and Lace" challenge this week.

Hope to see you back later today!

Blessings,

Melanie

A SugarPlum Christmas

Welcome to another Showcase Monday at The Town Scrapper! I was going through my stamps, wondering what I should work with for today's Showcase when I came across this adorable CC Designs SugarPlum stamp called "Ornament Trevor " and he had yet to be inked up... gasp!!! I think I acquired him last year, just after Christmas, so little Trevor has been waiting patiently in his package for a chance to come out and play! It was a bit of a treat for me too, as I completely forgot that I had him...kind of like finding some money in a coat pocket that's been put away since last season. Gotta love finding "treasure"! :)

The pretty paper on my card today is from Imaginesce. The ribbon and jingle bells are dollar store finds. I decided to use some X-Press It Blending Cardstock in place of my beloved Neenah Smooth Cardstock. Everybody in "blogland" seems to LOVE this new paper...including my 10 year old daughter Ainsleigh! (she has actually requested that I keep buying this paper for her, even if I choose to stick with my Neenah, lol) I've had a few sample sheets kicking around for a while now, but personally I've not been thrilled with my previous attempts at colouring on it...I found that I just was not achieving the same depth that I did with the Neenah paper. However, I'm determined to give this paper a fair chance...I usually take a while to adjust to change. So, I think I'll keep playing around with the X-Press It on occasion before I make any final decisions...as of right now, I'm not ready to make the big switch. I'm still a "Neenah girl". :) Paper really is a personal preference...I have friends who love Beckett, Bristol, Canson, Wassau and X-Press It. You really have to try out different papers to find out which works the best for you. I did find that it was easier to create texture in the hair on this paper...since it is not as soft and absorbent as Neenah, the marker strokes tend to remain a bit crisper or more defined. Sometimes, it's easy to over-blend on the Neenah, which is something you want to avoid when you are looking to create texture with your marker strokes.

I used some Distress Ink in Bundled Sage to sponge around the edges of the paper. Phebe has a great selection of Distress Inks at The Town Scrapper...I love these inks, and I rarely make a card without reaching for them. Stardust Stickles were applied to Trevor's ornaments.

Copics: Skin: E0000, E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Clothes: G20, G82, G85, G99, B91, B95, B97, B99, E40, E41, E42, E43, E47 Shoes: E50, E5, E21, E25, E47 Ornaments: Y00, Y11, Y21, Y23, YG00, YG11, G14, G05, BG0000, BG10, BG11, BG72, BG75, R20, R22, R27, R46, R59

Make sure to check out what the other Scrapettes have created for today's Showcase on The Town Scrapper Blog...these ladies always make such gorgeous projects with the product lines available at The Town Scrapper.

To arrange a visit to The Town Scrapper or to place an order, you can contact Phebe via telephone at 519-882-0623 or by email at info@townscrapper.com.

Have a wonderful Monday...and thanks for stopping by!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamp: CC Designs "Ornament Trevor"

Ink: Memento, Copics, Bundled Sage Distress Ink

Paper: X-Press It, Bazzill, Imaginesce

Embellishments: Ribbon, bells, Stardust Stickles