Thanks So Much

I had time to do another card for the KS Crew Challenge #15:


I'm a big swirl lover, so this image from the Thanks With Style set is one of my faves from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

[You can see the sketch in the post right before this one.]

I turned the sketch on its side and enlarged the focal panel a lot to accomodate this large image. I added some micro half pearls and did a bunch of distressing to all the edges. Hmmm... looking a bit more closely at the sketch, I can see that I kind of messed it up a bit! If I have more time before the deadline, I'll have to try another entry! Anyway, I hope you like it and TFL!

Make A Wish Cupcake

This card was made for only 1 challenge - the KS Crew Challenge #15. We were given this sketch:

And here's my take on it:


I used the Happy Birthday Cupcake set from Kitchen Sink Stamps for both the cupcake and sentiment. The papers are all Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday and the little heart pearls are from an Etsy seller. I hope you like it and TFL!

Recycled KS Crew Challenge

The latest Kitchen Sink Crew Challenge is to "take some previously used non-stamping item that is headed for the trash can and turn it into a component in your Kitchen Sink project either as a layer or embellishment of some sort!"

I've seen a lot of people using corrugated cardboard in their projects so I decided to give it a try. My card didn't come out at all like I had wanted, but I'm posting it anyway because there are some elements that I like.


I used 3 Step Daisy (definitely one of my fave KS sets) and a sentiment from Never a Loss 4 Words.

I traced a Nestabilities Labels 4 shape onto a piece of cardboard, cut it out, and then stripped most of the top layer of paper off one side. I then inked the edges with white ink, covered with glue and glittered it.

For the daisy, I stamped on kraft cardstock first in Papertrey Fresh Snow, then SU! Mauve Mist, Rose Romance, and Rose Red. I also added a little glitter to the flower and a button tied with tulle. The leaves were done with Certainly Celery and Old Olive.

Here's a close shot of the glitter-fied flower and cardboard:


I like how the sewn strip of tulle came out - much softer than using ribbon. But I don't like how thick this card is! This sucker is definitely not going through the mail without special packaging! TFL!

Happy Day Daisy

The current Kitchen Sink challenge is called Running with Scissors and requires that you have at least 1 cut image on your card. It's been a while since I played in a KS contest and I just couldn't pass this one up since I *love* cutting out images! Here's my card:


I used the 3 Step Daisy set and a sentiment from Never a Loss 4 Words.

I stamped the daisy on white cardstock then cut it out and added foam tape to the back for dimension. I stamped just the first step of the daisy onto the blue paper so I would know where to place the leaves. They were then stamped directly onto the blue paper and I added the cut-out daisy on top.

Here are the inks I used, lightest to darkest: daisy (all Stampin' Up!) - Barely Banana, Yoyo Yellow, Summer Sun, More Mustard; leaves (both Papertrey Ink) - Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado; sentiment - Papertrey's Dark Chocolate.

My little tip on stamping some of the KSS images: Because the first step ink color is usually very light, it can be a little difficult to see exactly where to stamp the second step. So I just stamp the second step first, and it's easy to see where to stamp the first step over it (hope that makes sense). Then I stamp the rest in order.

Card size - 4.25" square. TFL and have a happy day!

Cupcake Challenges - Part 3

Even more cards to play along with Taylor's anniversary celebration.

Both of today's cards used the Basic Grey Cupcake 6x6 paper pad.

The first card used Jackie Pedro's sketch. I was kind of stumped at first with the partial circle, but once I tried this cupcake from Kitchen Sink Stamps' Happy Birthday Cupcake set, it made sense! Luckily the sentiment from the same set also fit very nicely into the sketch!

Little notes: the cupcake was paper pieced onto 2 different Cupcake patterns, and then I used 2 more for the background strips. The scalloped circle even uses a piece from the same pad. I love that there are even solid papers in the pad - makes coordinating so easy! I did a little bit of airbrushing on the circle, the sentiment oval, and the base card to sort of match the distressed coloring on the sprinkle paper.

The little dots on the top are from Stamping Bella and I used the Stampin' Up! small oval punch for the sentiment.

This second card used Vicki Chrisman's sketch. Another fun sketch! Both the super cute main image and the sentiment are from the Smells Like Cake set from The Cat's Pajamas.

To make sure the sentiment stood out on the busy background paper, I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to stamp the sentiment a few times (to make sure it was really nice and dark) and then went over all the lines with the same blue Copic that I used for the main image.

A little Copic tip: I like to match my Copics to the colors in the papers I'm using. Since I'll use a paper pad for a number of projects, I'll write down all the Copics I matched on a sticky note and stick it to the paper pad. That way, the next time I use the paper pad, I don't have to get out my color chart and re-match all my colors.

Thanks for visiting today. That's 7 cards down, 2 to go for the challenge!!

Cupcake Favor Box

I have to admit that today's project wasn't totally my idea. It's based on a couple of stamps I bought ages ago from Darcie's that are meant to be stamped multiple times, cut out, and made into a box. I decided to try and enter the Kitchen Sink Stamps' monthly contest again at the very last minute, and this idea just popped into my head for the Anything But A Card category.
This cupcake from the Happy Birthday Cupcake set wasn't made specifically to be a box, so I was lucky that it worked out perfectly! I stamped the cupcake 5 times onto the pink dotted paper, and 5 times onto the striped paper. I cut out the entire image from the dotted paper (leaving a strip at the bottoms to be folded under and attached to the box bottoms), and only the liner portion from the striped paper, then layered the liners onto the dotted cupcakes.

Next, I punched holes into both sides of each liner and set a tiny red flower eyelet into each hole. I cut 2 big pentagon shapes from the same dotted paper and glued all the extra strips to one, centering each cupcake on each side. Then I glued the other big pentagon over all that to hide the strips. There were some funny points sticking out between the cupcakes so I cut those off and it looked way better. {Hopefully all that makes sense!}

Lastly, I threaded some organdy ribbon through all the eyelets and tied it into a bow, first inserting the flag stamped with "it's party time" from the Never a Loss 4 Words set.

Here's a shot from the top so you can see the construction a little better.

Now I know that this project is incredibly labor intensive so it's not something you'd want to mass produce, but for just a couple friends, I think it would make an adorable little gift! I hope you like it!

Other materials used: patterned paper - Fancy Pants Designs (Celebrate line); Ruby Red ink and light pink organdy ribbon - Stampin' Up!; ribbon tag die - Spellbinders {I dove-tailed one end}.

Box of Roses Card

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while and tonight I finally executed it! I'm very happy that it pretty much came out how I imagined it!

In case you don't get it, it's supposed to be a box of long-stemmed roses! I know most people give bud roses, but I prefer the open roses so that's what I used. The roses and sentiment are all from the 3 Step Hearts & Roses set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. The design of the stamps is just brilliant!! They are so easy to layer perfectly and look so real! Not only are the flower heads done in 4 different ink colors, but the leaves are done in 3 so they are also very realistic looking. And I love that they're separate so I can place the leaves anywhere along the stem.

Here's a close-up shot of the roses so you can see all the detail built into the images. I stamped each rose with stem and leaves separately and then cut them all out before placing them in the "box." The top three are mounted with foam tape for dimension. I was originally planning on making more roses, but the "box" filled up really quickly and I stopped at 4.

In case you're wondering, here are the Stampin' Up! ink colors I used (from light to dark):
flowers - Mauve Mist, Rose Romance, Rose Red, Baroque Burgundy
sentiment - Rose Romance
stem/leaves - Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Garden Green

Just a note - the green colors didn't seem to really go together when I stamped them side by side, however they layered very nicely. I suggest if you're not sure about a color combo, try it out and it may work!

I hope you like my idea!!

Other materials used: white cardstock - Georgia Pacific; Nestabilities; ribbon - May Arts.

Another Bella card - BSC18

I am having so much fun playing with my new Bellas that I'm actually giddy!! The paper piecing and coloring are making me feel like a kid and I can't remember when was the last time I had such a great time stamping!! *Mwah* to Stamping Bella for these wonderful images!!

Today's card uses Flowahbella:

Just like Cosmobella, she was stamped with Black Brilliance ink onto Georgia Pacific white cardstock. Then I followed this tutorial by Michelle Wooderson to stamp just her dress onto a scrap of some REALLY old K&Company patterned paper I got from QVC years ago, and also the pot onto a scrap of the same GP white cardstock.

After the ink dried, I colored her hair, skin, shoes, and the extra flower pot with my Copic markers. After cutting out the dress, I glued it onto her body and colored all the flowers with my Copics, adding in some green for stems and leaves. Lastly, I cut out and then glued on the extra flower pot, and followed this tutorial by Amy Rysavy to stamp the little shadow around her feet.

Here's a close-up of the paper pieced dress and the flowers and pot:

The sketch I used is from Jamie's Bella Sketch Challenge #18 posted on Splitcoast. I used more of the same GP cardstock for the base, and also the same K&Co paper for the background scalloped square. The sentiment is from Kitchen Sink Stamps and the ribbon is May Arts. I also sponged ink around the focal image and the sentiment strip. Thanks for looking!

Other materials used: pale plum ink and cardstock and perfect plum ink from Stampin' Up!; scalloped square Nestabilities from Spellbinders; brads unknown.

The trend continues...

Yes, another Kitchen Sink Stamps card! This one used Beate Johns' Weekend Sketch #31 and the coolest cupcake stamp ever from the Happy Birthday Cupcake set.



As you can see, I paper pieced it again. The one used both sides of one sheet of KI Memories paper. I also used two different stamps from Papertrey Ink's Rectangle Borders and Corners set. I used the darker Purple Hydrangea VersaMagic ink from Tsukineko for the cupcake so it would show up against the patterned paper, but then the lighter Spring Pansy ink for the rectangles because it coordinated with the color of the paper better.

I will try to use some other stamps soon before you all think I'm secretly working for Kitchen Sink! I got a big shipment of Papertrey stamps this weekend and also have my gi-normous stockpile of Stampin' Up! stamps from when I was a demo. I'll also have a lot more ribbon projects as my May Arts order came today!

Other materials used: white cardstock and punch-Stampin' Up!; purple CS-Bazzill; Prima flowers; brads and ribbon from unknown sources. I also went over the top of the cupcake with my purple Spica glitter pen, but you can't see it in the picture. I'm trying to work on how to photograph stuff like that.

I'm in the mood for love!

Today's card uses a genious idea by Leslie Miller, which is using a photo turn to keep a gate-fold card shut. I've always loved cards with interesting folds, but it bugged me that my gate cards wouldn't stay shut unless I tied some ribbon around them, which made it difficult for the recipient to re-close. So, thanks a bunch for the idea Leslie!

You've probably noticed a trend of me using Kitchen Sink Stamps lately, and today's card will not deviate from that trend!



I used another image from their "Thanks with Style" set that I adore because of my deep love for hearts and swirls. It took me a while to figure out which Nestabilities I wanted to use with the image. It didn't quite match any shape until I paired it with the new hearts set, and amazingly, it actually fits really well!

A couple more notes about this card: I did some machine stitching along the edges of the grosgrain ribbon to make it look a little fancier and sponged the edges of the patterned paper (which is Loveland from Scenic Route that I *adore*), the plain heart and the sentiment which was punched using Stampin' Up!'s word window punch.

Other materials used: white cardstock from Wausau; red cardstock and grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' Up!; red Brilliance ink from Tsukineko; photo turn and heart brad from unknown sources.

Another Amy R. sketch card

Today's card is based on Amy Rysavy's Friday Sketch #3.



As you can see, I turned the sketch on it's side because of the orientation of my focal image. At first when I picked the image from Kitchen Sink Stamps (the "Thanks with Style" set), I thought it might be too big for the sketch, but I think it worked out fine. I did some machine sewing, distressing, and as promised in my last post, I added a few extra bits of ribbon to the knot.

I am so loving Amy's sketches and know I'll be using this one again! Keep a watch out for it!

Other materials used: white cardstock for focal point from Wausau; white cardstock for card base from Stampin' Up! [and I can see that they are different whites so I will definitely not combine them again in the future]; ribbon also from SU!; patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket; red Brilliance ink from Tsukineko.

Really Orange Card

During my blog surfing this week, I stumbled upon a blog that I hadn't seen before, but that blew me away in an instant! It's Indigo Studio by Pam Bassett and it's *amazing*!! I was immediately inspired by her layering and sponging color on her layers, her use of such vibrant colors, all of her intricate cutting for paper tole effects, and probably most of all, her use of all that luscious ribbon!

I was especially drawn to the layout of this card with it's multiple layers and ribbon tied between the focal image and sentiment. Although I said before that I really love Pam's use of lots of ribbon, I kept it really simple on this card because I knew I wanted to use this fatter Chatterbox ribbon from my stash and didn't think it would work quite right with a bunch of other ribbons. I'm planning on incorporating more ribbons into my projects in the future though (especially once my May Arts order arrives!), and I'm definitely going to try Pam's ribbon blossom soon.

Now for my card:

I used what I call the coolest cupcake stamp ever from Kitchen Sink Stamps to do a little paper piecing. The top and bottom (as well as the back layer) are alternate sides from one piece of Scenic Route paper. You can't tell from the picture, but I traced over the lines on the top of the cupcake with my orange Spica glitter pen. I also did some accordian folding of the bottom to look a little like a real cupcake liner. Then I finished off with the sentiment, also from Kitchen Sink Stamps, and also gone over with the orange glitter pen.

The photo corner was done similar to this one by Nichole Heady, except I used two sizes of Nestability squares instead of punches. The neat thing about using the Nestabilities is that the smaller square's edge embossed a line around the frame which gives the corner a little added texture.

Lastly, I tied the ribbon on and added three Prima flowers with orange brad centers. Still a pretty simple card, but it's fancier than some of the really easy stuff I've been doing lately. Thanks a bunch to Pam Bassett for the inspiration!

Other materials used: white cardstock and orange ink from Stampin' Up!