A Word on Love, from Mother Teresa

Happy Saturday!! Today's challenge over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog is brought to us by the very lovely and very talented Michele Boyer...she wants to see "Scoopy Scallops" on your creations this week!

My card this week features one of the four quotes from the Krafty Quotes #1 Set. This one is from Mother Teresa. I thought it would be fun to pair it up with this "fruity" strawberry paper from October Afternoon. I tried to pull in several components with scallops: a scalloped oval, scallops on the background paper and a little bit of scalloped crocheted trim at the bottom edge. I also used Stella Strawberry's accessory berry stamp. (stamped twice and then nestled together. Copics: Y00, YR31, R02, R17, R32, R35, R59, YG00, YG03, YG67, G24, G99.) I added just a couple of pearls and some machine stitching to finish it up.

We'd love to see your Scoopy Scallops creations this week!! If you make sure to use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project, you could be the lucky winner of "Judy", the stamp Michele used on her very "nifty" card this week!! For some gorgeous inspiration, please check out the beautiful scalloped creations by my fellow Krafty Girls and our amazing Krafty Guests at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog!

If you've been playing along with Kimmie's contest to be a Guest Krafty Girl in the month of April, then don't forget to participate in our last challenge of February!! You folks are rockin' this contest, and I know it's going to be very difficult deciding who will be the lucky stamper!!

Have a wonderful weekend friends. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Krafty Quotes #1" and "Stella Strawberry's" accessory stamp

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, October Afternoon, the blue paper the quote is stamped on is a scrap...not sure which company

Embellishments: Pearls, stitching

Tools: Spellbinders Scalloped Oval, Ovals and Fancy Tags

It's All About Love

Good morning friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...we enjoyed a three day weekend here! Monday was Family Day...we attempted to sleep in, which was cut short by our neighbour deciding to start up his snowblower at just after 7:00 am. Hmpf...what's up with that??!! Then our dog wanted out. (normally he waits until around 8:00 or later to go outside) Then Ainsleigh woke up earlier than she does on a typical school morning, and decided it was a great time to put on some noisy music and start choreographing dances. Lovely. Our dog Kalev, (who incidentally is a pretty sorry excuse for a Siberian Husky, lol...he much prefers to be in a warm house than out enjoying all the snow that is supposed to be his natural habitat) wanted back in after only five minutes outside. He then promptly sat in the kitchen and started to howl for more water in his dish...which he NEVER does!! I had really only hoped to stay in bed until around 8:00 or 8:30, but I ended up getting up around 7:30 as I figured falling asleep again was pretty much a lost cause. In reality, this was pretty typical of "family life" though...we did end up having a great Family Day despite the less than desirable start to our day. :)

Today, it's my turn to share a card over at Sundays With Crissy. Our challenge this month has been All About Love. For my card, I chose to use Crissy's beautiful carousel horse digi "Dance of Love" available at Whimsy Stamps. I decided to try a technique for a pleated background that I saw over on Amazing Paper Grace...Becca Feeken is an incredibly talented papercrafter, and her blog is a favourite of mine. (It is a constant source of inspiration...her work is absolutely stunning, and I am always so grateful when she shares her expertise through tutorials.) I used my circle Spellbinders to cut a "window" out of my patterned paper. The pleating was done with two strips of paper that were scored at 1/4 inch intervals. (Each strip was about 1 3/4", so that when they were formed into a circle, the diameter would be slightly larger than the cut-out circle on the patterned paper, which was about 3") The pleated circle was adhered to the centre of my cardbase, and the patterned paper later was then attached with a double layer of foam squares...the extra height was required to accommodate the pleated layer. To frame the circular window, I used the same size of circle Spellbinders with the Lacey Circles set to create a border. Finally I added some machine stitching and dollar store pearls

"Dance of Love" was printed on Neenah smooth cardstock and coloured with a combination of Copics and Conte Crayons blended in with a paper stump. I really love the soft blending you can achieve with the Conte crayons...I found them very effective for helping to create the musculature and bone structure in the horse. They also helped to soften the dappled effect that I first loosely laid down with my Copics. If you chose to use Conte Crayons, Prismacolour Pencils, or some other medium in combination with your Copics, you must lay down your marker ink first. If you attempt to layer the Copics over these other mediums, it will ruin your marker nibs. If this should happen though, don't fret...remember that the nibs are replaceable should something happen to them. :) I used some additional foam squares to adhere "Dance of Love" to the pleated background.

(OOPS...noticing just now that I accidentally typed 2010 instead of 2011 into my watermark on the close-up. lol)

Copics: W00, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9, 100, C9, (I only skipped C7 here because it is completely dry...need to get a refill!!) C5, C3, C1, C00, B60, BG10, BG11, BG72, BG75, BG78, R32, R35, R46, R59, Y00, Y21, Y26, YR31, E33, E35, E37, E59, Black and Brown Conte Crayon

We would love to have you join in our "All About Love" challenge at Sundays With Crissy! Crissy is offering a prize of FIVE DIGI'S this month. You can read all the details on Sarah's post from February 1st. You can also link up your project on her post....just look for the little blue Inlinkz froggie at the bottom of her post. (The list of rules for entering the challenges at Sundays With Crissy may be found in the sidebar.)

Thank you so much for stopping by today friends...it means so much that you take the time out of your day to stop by for a visit. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps "Dance of Love" by Crissy Armstrong

Ink: Copics, additional shading with Conte Crayons

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, My Mind's Eye (Olivia)

Embellishments: Machine Stitching, pearls

Tools: Spellbinders, ScorPal

Look Ma...no Copics!! (A Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Sketch Challenge!)

Mornin' friends! This week's challenge over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog is a Sketch designed by our very talented Krafty Girl Elaine Hughes...Elaine's colouring never ceased to "WOW" me!!!

I decided to combine one of the brand new Krafty Quotes #1 with an older Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp for my card today. I have always love this sweet image called "Bench Friends"...just a quiet moment shared between two besties! I thought it went just perfectly with the Krafty quote "The best thing to hold on to in life is each other. by Mother Teresa" (this is one of four quotes in the set!). The brown paper is from MME and the blue butterfly paper is from Prima. When deciding on papers, I deliberated over two different colours of blue cardstock for matting...I realize now that I should have gone with the other shade. After inking the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, this blue took on a very "turquoise" hue...and now it just doesn't look quite "right". Sigh. Live and learn! That pretty little crocheted flower was a gift from one of the Krafty Day attendees, Angela Alway...she was so sweet and generous with these little handmade gems. Thanks so much Angela...I'm just sorry it took me so long to use it! I wanted to have a big brown bow behind the flower, but I could not find my wide ribbon anywhere. (I'm sure I'll find it sometime today or tomorrow since I don't need it now. lol) So, I reached for my thin ribbon and tied a triple loop bow with the aide of my Bow-Easy. The Krafty Quote was cut out with Spellbinders. (I took the artistic liberty of playing with the scale and position of the different components of Elaine's fantastic sketch...my sentiment panel is quite a bit larger than on the original sketch! As a result, I really had to shift the image panel over to accommodate it.) Usually I stress about my machine stitching being pretty straight and even...but not this time. :) Since I had already distressed all my edges, I felt having a slightly wonky stitching line would suit the feel of this card very well. I didn't go too crazy...but I let the paper wander a little under my machine's presser foot. I also made sure to touch the very white stitching with a little of the Walnut Stain Distress Ink to antique it a bit...otherwise the white thread would have been a bit too harsh and "clean" for this distressed card.


I stamped "Bench Friends" on some light brown cardstock in Memento Rich Cocoa. I began by laying down a very light layer of brown Prismacolour pencil, just to block out where I wanted the shadows to be. I then worked on building up the shading with my Conte Crayons and a paper blending stump. The shading is gradually faded out as the areas of the image get closer to my light source...which I chose to have coming from the upper right hand corner. Some of the lighter areas on the image have no shading...allowing the bare cardstock to show in these areas helps to develop your highlighted spots without the need to lay down more colour. Finally, to really make those highlights "pop", I used some white Conte Crayon and/or white Prismacolour pencil to play up those brightest edges. I opted to use this lightly textured cardstock rather than Kraft as it has some "tooth" for the Conte Crayons to grab on to. Now, you all know how much I LOVE my Copics...but I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to play around with my Conte Crayons again. When I was a teenager, they were one of my favourite mediums to use for drawing horses. I'm a little rusty with them though, so I'm hoping to find time to work with them more. It's always fun to try out a different or unfamiliar medium...so don't be afraid to experiment!!


Here's a closer look at the Audrey Hepburn quote I used from the Krafty Quotes #1 set:



We'd love to have you join in with Elaine's sketch challenge this week...if you use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp (you can buy them HERE!) on your project, you could be the lucky winner of the new Krafty Quotes #1 set...one of the four quotes from this new set is featured on Elaine's gorgeous card! You can link up your project at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog where you will also find some gorgeous projects by my fellow Krafty Girls and our Krafty Guests based on Elaine's sketch.

Don't forget about the Krafty Guest contest...you've got to complete each challenge in February to be eligible, so keep those submissions coming!!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Bench Friends" and "Krafty Quotes #1"
Paper: Bazzill, My Mind's Eye, Prima
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Embellishments: Ribbon, Crocheted flower (courtesy of Angela Alway!!), brown pearl, machine stitchingTools: Spellbinders, Bow Easy

Let's Go to the Hop...February Blog Hop Time at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!!!

Welcome to the official release day BLOG HOP at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!! Once again, Kimmie has assembled a fantastic release of new stamps...7 fabulous new 50's retro images by Annie Rodrigue, 5 adorable new spring-themed stamps by Steven Leary and an incredible brand new line of stamps called Krafty Quotes!! (There are 4 quotes included in this first set!)

The hop begins at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Challenge Blog where you will find a complete list of links to the blogs on today's hop...so, you should have arrived here from the very talented Lori's Blog! As you are hopping along today, make sure to leave comments at each blog as Kimmie will be drawing some lucky hop participants who will win packages of some of the new stamps!!

As always, I am completely in love with the new stamps by Annie Rodrigue!! For my card today, I combined two new stamps...Danny and Joanie! I'll let you know a little something about me...I LOVE musicals!! Grease just happens to be on my list of favourite musicals...it's so much fun to sing along with! I think super-cool Danny and sassy Joanie look all set to break into a rendition of "You're the One That I Want"!! "I got chills, they're multiplyin', and I'm losin' control. Cause the power you're supplyin'...it's electrifyin'!" hehe (Are you all groovin' in your seats and singing along with me??!!) Miss Joanie certainly is "electrifying" in that too-hot-for-words outfit!! The striped paper is from My Mind's Eye, the black and white swirly paper is from Karen Foster and the red paper is from Pink Paislee. I used Spellbinders Lacey Squares for the frame behind Danny and the sentiment (which comes with Joanie) was matted on a Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio.

The images were stamped on Neenah Smooth Cardstock with Memento Ink and coloured with Copics. I cut smokin' Joanie out and popped her up on foam squares outside of the main image panel just to add a bit of visual interest. I altered her eyes a bit, and gave her some pretty baby blues. :) Joanie comes with two sentiments..."I dig you!" and "You're the cat's pajamas!".


Copics: Skin: Eooo, E00, E11, E21, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y26, E33, E35, E37, E59, YR31 Clothes: R32, R35, R46, R59, 100, C9, C5, C3, C1, C00

Here's a closer look at Danny...he's so COOL! Danny comes with two sentiments as well...."You ain't nothin' but a hound dog!" and "Hey Daddy-O!"



Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, R20 Hair: 100, C9, C5, C3, C1, B60 Pants: B000, B91, B93, B95, B97, B99 Shirt: C00, C1, B60 Jacket: 100, C9, C5, C3, C1, B60 Bike: R32, R35, R46, R59, 100, C9, C5, C3, C1, C00, B60, YR31, Y21 Ground: W7, W5, W3, W1, W00 (Sky was done with Stormy Sky Distress Ink, a makeup sponge and a cloud template)

The new stamps are all available for purchase now at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store!! If you "need" the whole collection, you can purchase them as the "Gimmie Kimmies Kits"...there are two sets, one for each artist's images, and they are offered to you at a discounted price!

Ok...I've kept you long enough!! It's my pleasure to send you off to visit with the incredibly talented Krafty Girl Tracy Cornhill...just wait until you see what she has created for your viewing pleasure!! As you hop along today, don't forget to leave those comments for your chance to win some of the new stamps!

Have fun friends!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Joanie" and "Danny"
Ink: Memento, Copics,Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Karen Foster, My Mind's Eye, Pink Paislee
Embellishments: Ribbon
Tools: Spellbinders Lacey Squares and Ribbon Tag Trio

"What's Shakin'?" (Day 4 of the Kraftin' Kimmie February Previews!!)

What a busy week it's been at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!! We're gearing up for another release tomorrow, and the Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests have been busy bringing you sneak peaks featuring the February stamps over the last few days. We've got another round of previews today in conjunction with our weekly challenge! This week our lovely hostess is the wonderfully talented Donna Wardle and her challenge is a list: 3 colours, 2 design papers, 1 ribbon and 1 button.

My card today features the sensational "Fanny"!! How much fun is she?? Now, I have never been to a diner where the waitresses deliver your food on roller skates (it was a bit before my time, lol), but I imagine it must have been so much fun! I am loving these new retro images by Annie Rodrigue...I always enjoyed watching Happy Days reruns as a kid, and some of these new characters look like they stepped right out of an episode!! In keeping with Donna's recipe challenge this week, I predominantly used brown, yellow and teal. My two patterned papers are from October Afternoon. I used some pretty teal ribbon I picked up at The Paper Pickle in Chatham and added a cream button...which I realized after didn't really stick with the "3 colours" part of the challenge. Oops. Sorry Donna! (maybe white or cream won't count as one of the colours??? lol) The sentiment "What's Shakin'?" is one of two that comes with Fanny...the other sentiment says "You're Nifty!".

"Fanny" was stamped on Neenah Cardstock and coloured with Copics. What a cutie...she's totally rockin' that uniform!!

Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, R20 Hair: E50, Y21, Y26, YR31, E31, E35, E37, E59 Clothes: BG10, BG11, BG15, BG49, c9, Y00, Y11, Y15, Y17, E43, E47

If you play along with the fabulous challenge this week, you could be the lucky winner of the stamp Donna used on her GORGEOUS card!! Just make sure to use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project to be eligible for the prize. There's inspiration galore over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog where you can drool over the incredible creations by the Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests...you can link up your project for this week's challenge there!

Also, don't forget about Kimmie's current Krafty Guest contest...you MUST enter every challenge in February to be in the running for the Guest Spot so please make sure to find some time to get inky this week!!

I hope to see you all back tomorrow...why, you ask?? For the February Release Day Blog Hop of course!!! One more sleep, and you will be able to get your inky fingers on all the brand new February stamps including the brand new Krafty Quotes #1 as well as all of Steven Leary's and Annie Rodrigue's newest images!! J0in us tomorrow for the hop where you will see an incredible assortment of designs featuring Kraftin' Kimmie's newest stamps!!

See you tomorrow folks. ;)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Fanny" and

Ink: Memento, Copics

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, October Afternoon

Embellishments: Ribbon, Button, twine

Tools: Martha Stewart Punch

You're Nifty!!! (February Krafty Peeks...Day Three!!)

Welcome to round three of the February previews for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!! Today, we get to show you some of the soon-to-be released stamps by Krafty Artist Annie Rodrigue!! February brings us some groovy retro characters....think Happy Days and Grease!!! (lol...I may have even squealed a bit when I saw these ones!!)

For my card today, I combined two fabulous new characters...meet "Judy" and "Richie"!! I thought these two would be adorable paired together. Just picture them at the local diner...Richie spies gorgeous Judy in her teeny shorts and sipping Cherry Coke from across the room, and is thinking about heading over to introduce himself. He's a little shy though, in his letter jacket and carrying his school books...too cute! After stamping and masking Judy, I stamped Richie higher up on the paper. He is drawn on a slightly smaller scale, so stamping him in this position on the page makes him appear to be a further distance away than Judy. (This way, the images still work together even though Judy is a little bigger than him. You can effectively combine images of different sizes if you make the perspective work in your favour.) The ginham design paper is from Making Memories and the pinwheel papers are from Echo Park. The "You're Nifty!" sentiment actually comes with another new February stamp, "Fanny"...you'll see her on some of the other Krafty Girls' sneak peeks today!

The images were stamped on Neenah Smooth cardstock and coloured with Copic markers.

Copics: Judy: Skin: E000, E00, E21, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59, YR31 Shirt: R000, R00, R35, R37, R59, C9 Shorts: BG000, B32, B34, B37, B39, C9 Richie: Skin: E000, E00, E11, E21, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59, Jacket: YG00, YG23, YG25, G28, C9Pants: BG000, B90, B93, B95, B99, C9 Ground: W3, W1, W00

For a list of links to the Krafty Girls and Krafty Guests who have sneak peeks to share with you today, please stop by the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog...just wait until you see what they've created for today's previews!!

Just a reminder folks....did you see the POST about Kraftin' Kimmie's current contest for an April Krafty Guest Spot??? Well, one of the requirements for submission is to complete each challenge in February, so if you haven't finished your project for our Seeing Red challenge, you'd best get yourself into your craft room today, hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the knob and even lock the door for good measure so you can make sure to meet the deadline!! lol Time's a tickin' because a new challenge will be posted tomorrow...we're so excited to see all your submissions, so go get inky!!

We hope to see you back tomorrow for another round of previews and our weekly challenge...and don't forget to mark your calenders for our Release Day Blog Hop this Sunday!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a fabulous Friday!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Richie" and "Judy", "You're Nifty" sentiment that comes with "Fanny"

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Making Memories, Echo Park

Ink: Memento, Copics, Chalk Ink
Embellishments: Buttons, Embroidery Floss

Tools: Spellbinders Labels 8, Bow Easy

Day Two of the February Previews at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!

Today, we're bringing you another round of previews at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog featuring the soon-t0-be-released stamps by artist Steven Leary!

I used the adorable "Springtime Bunnies"...aren't they cute?? I decided to make a clean and simple little 4.5" square notecard. The nice thing about small notecards is that you can use up some of those little scraps of paper you have left over from other projects....and they are just perfect for tucking into little unexpected places for a special someone to find. :) I pulled out some scrap ribbon, a button and a bit of embroidery floss to finish it off. I used to do a ton of cross-stitching, so I have quite a selection of embroidery floss colours. No sense in letting them go to waste!!

Springtime Bunnies was stamped on Neenah Smooth Cardstock and coloured with my Copics. I was trying to give them a furry look, but I got a tad heavy-handed with my markers and ended up overblending...something you want to avoid when you're trying to create texture. The sky was created with a little hand-cut cloud template, a makeup sponge and Memento Summer Sky Ink. (I forgot to record my Copic colours this time, so I must apologize for not having a marker list today.)

To see the rest of the sneak peeks by the other Krafty Girls, please stop by the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog for the complete list of links. Make sure to join us tomorrow for another round of previews featuring some of the February stamps by another fabulous Krafty artist!! We will also have a final round of sneak peeks during our weekly challenge on Saturday, followed by our official release day blog hop on Sunday!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps: Springtime Bunnies

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill,

Ink: Memento, Copics

Embellishments: Ribbon, button and embroidery floss