A bit of halloween...

This one is for you Pam!

I was working on these tags at one of our stamp clubs and I was asked what I was going to do with them. I told them that I was going to use them on the front of my Halloween cards. That was a few weeks ago and last night at another stamp club that I belong to with Pam, she asked when I was going to be posting the cards I had made with the tags. So in her anticipation I have decided to post them today. I hope you like them Pam.

I tried to keep the color pallet the same since the tags were all very similar. It also makes for a very nice photo shoot. I decided to set up my shoot with some props that adds a bit more color than just the blank white canvas. All but two of the snickers made it back into the bag. Not bad I say! I made my own canvas out of foam board and paper. You don't see the edge anymore where the back meets the bottom. I got the idea from Gina K Designs Stamp TV. She has an online magazine called Stamping lifestyle.

I think the "spooky" card is my favorite. It was a last minute decision to add the black pearls in the O's to look like eyes and I used the Martha Stewart- Drippy Doo boarder punch. The "Boo" card I used the spiderweb cuttlebug folder and then rubbed my Ranger "black soot" distressed ink pad over the top to make it pop. The letters were cut from my Sizzix script alphabet set. All of the tags were distressed with Ranger vintage photo distressed ink. I don't remember where I got the glitter foam sticker bats from- maybe Walmart. I have them all cut apart and stored in an embellishment container. There were three sizes on one sheet and I would say about 12 -15 of them per package.







Now everyone can run out and buy themselves a snicker bar or two (if they are the snack size) you deserve it. Don't forget to pick up a stamp or embellishment while you are out. I would hate to see anyone waste a trip to the store with out adding to our other addiction- hoarding. You know how it is. We may not use it- but we just have to have it.

My good friend Carol is back in Florida and she said it is so hot that they haven't been able to do much outside. For all us poor northerners, isn't it nice to know at least someone is warm. I expected to see snow flurries when I got up this morning but was happily pleased to see that the weatherman was wrong again. I'm sure it's not far off. Looks like a good day to just spend in my studio.

***Oh by the way, how do you like the NEW LOOK of my blog. I have been playing around editing the HTLM template. I was able to change the colors and the font of Dragonfly Dreams. I couldn't hold my breathe any longer waiting for Elliot. There is a designer that I have contacted that can custom design the look so it is a little fancier. You may see even a bigger change in the next month or so.


Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim



paper: SU- black, dusty durango, marigold morning (old color)
stamps: Inkadinkado-scary night, Sizzic clear stamps- happy halloween by Brenda Pinnick
ink: Ranger distressed- black soot & vintage photo, SU black
punches: Martha Stewart drippy doo boarder, SU- modern label & ticket punch, Sizzix- script
alphabet set, EK Success swirl fourish
tools: Spellbinders- label four nestabilities, Cuttlebug folders- spiderweb, skulls

Through the window, what do I see

I wanted to share with you today the card I made with my Sizzix Movers and Shapers. Not so sure I would spend the money on this product. I got it very cheap so I thought I would give it a try. I have the curly label punch from SU and I think I could make the same card with just that. Unless you want the window in the center of the card any punch around the edge would give you the same result. I did like the perforated line about the label that the Movers and Shapers creates. The window that gets punched out is slightly larger than the curly label punch so it makes a nice layer. Save those scraps.

For my sentiment I used the Word Window punch and the SU "short and sweet" stamp set. I layered it with the new punch from SU called Modern Label. I then added a small pearl at each end. The card stock that I used was SU Ballet Blue and Night of Navy for the accents. The navy flowers were just some satin flowers that I put a center in using the SU Trio Flower punch and a small pearl. The white flowers were punched from an old SU punch called Spring Flower Bouquet but you could easily use any small flower punch. Because the stark white flowers were so prominent I brushed a bit of blue chalk on them to tone them down. I tucked the sprig branches punched from a Martha Stewart punch in among the flowers for more texture. Although I want to show you the detail of the flowers in the closeup, the sticky glue of the embellishments tends to really get enhanced also. Oh well- in life we have to remember to take the bad with the good. The image that I stamped on the inside of the card that shows through the window is from the SU "pocket silhouettes" set.

I am still organizing in my studio. Once I got started I couldn't stop. Elliot was home for a dentist appointment and came into my studio while I was creating. He commented how much he liked the new look. He was really liking the cabinet I put on the wall that holds all of my flower embellishments. He thought it was very cool that you could just see some color through the frosted ribbed glass door. He told me that on his drive from school he was wondering how I manage to come up with so many ideas for cards. See, he does still think of me even when he is away at school. I guess he still loves his old mom. When I hugged him he seemed even taller and of course he said I seemed even shorter. He looked good for being on his own for six weeks. A lot of PB & J he said. I don't know what I was expecting. I guess every mom wants to know that their children still need them but to see he can make it on his own (not financially yet of course) is very gratifying. I guess we did a good job in raising him.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Simple but Elegant

It was a rainy dreary day here today. The sun had been trying it's hardest to warm up the afternoon but the clouds continued to roll in. There were a few times that the rain was pouring down in the sunshine. It actually looked beautiful as the raindrops hit the sunlit leaves. Looks like t will be the same all over again tomorrow. Now if we could have a little thunder with that, I would be all set. There is a full moon shining right now and not more than 5 minutes ago there was a downpour. Our weather certainly has been changing.

Today's card is all about the nesties. I used my new Classic Frame and Labels Four from Spellbinders. I call it simple but elegant. The designer paper is from My Mind's Eye- Laundry Line. I just love this embossed glitter paper. Again this card was going in the mail so I had to keep the embellishments to a minimum. The card stock is from Stampin' Up of course which I use 95% of the time for my cards. I love the weight and the selection of colors. I have all the inks to match and the two compliment each other for a beautiful end result.

I am still doing a bit of organizing in my stamping room. I am looking for DVD brackets that can be mounted to hold my Stampin' Up ink pads. They are strips that hold 16 each. I saw a picture on someones blog and she said she got them a few years ago at IKEA. I have sent them an email but haven't heard anything back yet. I am also waiting for a rolling storage cart with six shallow drawers to go on sale at Staples. I want to keep my scraps according to color in separate drawers and since it will only hold scraps, I don't want to spend a lot of $$ on it. I had all the scraps in a basket on my desk but I wanted to make room for some type of rotating ink storage. If I can't find the brackets to make my own, I may have to go with the one from Stampin' Up with the extender. The problem is you can't add more than one extender and I need it to hold a few more pads. We will have to see what I come up with.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Happy Birthday- Girls

Just a quick post tonight to show you something new. I have two very special friends that I have known since high school and we are all named Kim. Their birthday's are just a day apart and they don't know it but they both got the same card. They live miles apart and will never know unless they read my blog. Happy Birthday Girls! I am so glad they are older than me by a whooping 2 months.

I have been busy most of the weekend reorganizing things in my stamping studio. It was getting that cluttered look so it was time to do something about it. I painted two shelves earlier in the week so they were ready to be put up. I also had some smaller framed cubes that go on the wall and I mounted the four of them vertically. This way I can store things inside and on top of each one. I also found a great buy on a wall cabinet that has shelves and a frosted glass door- Just love it. I now store all of my flowers in it which made room in a different hutch for the new paper I had purchased and had a pile here and there. I also had six small silver metal pails that I had gotten from Target and I tied turquoise ribbon at the top. I put white alphabet stickers on the front to represent the chipboard letters that are in that pail. I divided the alphabet up into six so there are four to five letters on each pail. I think this will work great when I am looking for a letter I can just grab that pail and see which one matches best. I will post pictures in a later post.

For the card I used DCWV-La Creme and my spellbinders label four. I also used my new Latice borderabilities with a few pearls to dress it up. I had to keep it toned down a bit since it had to go in the mail. Really kills me to do that. The ribbon is a perfect match that I found in the dollar bin at "M" quite awhile ago.

Back to the birthday girls. I do have to tell you a funny story about all three of us being named Kim. When we were in high school we were walking down town one night (a very small town and at the time we didn't even have a stop light) a car full of boys from a neighboring town and different school pulled up along side us and asked which one of us was named Kim. Of course we just started laughing as we were looking at each other. We later found out that these boys knew exactly who we were and that we were all named Kim. Oh what memories and simple times of fun.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

A long awaited project

I wanted to share with you today a very special project that I just finished. This is a date book for birthdays and anniversaries. I took this class at The Owl and the Pussy Cat in Fort Myers, Florida when I was down visiting my friend Carol. It is fabric covered book and it does take a bit of time and some concentration when putting it together. Here are a few more pictures.


The Front Cover




This is the inside cover. You can see the title of the book and the tabs that indicate the months. I used VersaMagic - sugarcane on the image at the bottom. I wanted to keep it subtle. The paper I used to line the inside cover is a textured Japanese paper from the Owl and the Pussy Cat. It is very durable and will hold up better than ordinary card stock. It comes in many different colors that would match any material you might choose. After I had finished the book, I wished I had thought to put the ribbon under the Japanese paper for a cleaner look. Lesson learned for my next one. At the Owl and the Pussy Cat they also sell packages of the pre-printed inside pages that contain a full year. All you have to do is cut them in half and round the corners if that is the look you want.

Each month has two pages of regular card stock with the appropriate number of days. I just have to write the names next to the date for an easy quick glance at the special days. I used my Hero Arts -Fantastic Flourishes stamp set in SU mellow moss ink at the bottom to add a little flair. The tabs were created using a SU- Round Tab punch.

In between each of the months I added a blank page to write gift ideas that I might come up with long before the date, or hobbies of the receiver that might help me with ideas in my purchases when the time comes.

The back cover is the same material as the front. These are actually upholstery samples that is plenty large enough for the front and back cover. This book measures 5x11 and I did trim down the inside pages about a quarter of an inch so the edges were protected by the edges of the cover. I used red tacky tape to hold down the fabric onto pieces of sturdy mat board and also to adhere the Japanese paper. It is very important that you spend the money on a good product that will hold. After you put this much work into a book like this, you don't want it falling apart. Since I wanted rounded corners I had to spend a bit more time covering the corners with the fabric. I cut small slits and pinched and pleated the corners until they looked professional. Takes a bit of practice and patience. I used my Zutter on the covers once they were covered which brings about another little issue depending on the type of fabric you use. This one tended to fray quite a bit so once I cut the binding holes I had quite a bit of threads sticking out the holes. To clean this up, I took a very small pair of scissors and tediously trimmed inside each one. I then put a drop of Fray Check around each hole. At first I thought I may have ruined the fabric as it left a darker liquid mark, but the Fray check dried and you couldn't even tell I had used it.

I wanted to use the window plate that is in the bottom right corner but I didn't know what to put in it. I then decided on my initials but I didn't have a "k" and "m" in a lower case font that I liked so I just made the "C" in a different font. I had completely forgot about my Justright stamps until after the book was complete.

I hope you enjoyed my project. This book can be tailored to whatever type of book you want and the size and look are endless. These books make great gifts so in my mind it justifies the cost of the Zutter.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Celebrate what makes you happy!

This is a card that I did for a challenge with my stamp club. Each month we choose a theme . It usually isn't a layout challenge but a color or holiday. This challenge was to use the color red and ribbon (the ribbon could have been any color). For some reason I thought we had to also include a button and wouldn't you know it that was the part that gave me the most problems. I used my newest cuttlebug embossing plate- Fleur de lis and real red card stock. I layered a solid red ribbon on top of a plaid. The whole card was designed around the red and white plaid ribbon. I dressed up the button by going around the inside with a white pen and then put a pearl in the center. All of the punches are from Stamp'n Up as is the sentiment from the set Labelicious.

I just finished cleaning and organizing my stamp studio. I can't seem to find my creative side when I am surrounded by clutter. I guess I find it too distracting. So today I can celebrate organization. I had a lot of ribbon that needed to be rolled and put into my storage jars. I was at a garage sale yesterday and found 8 of the candy jars I use for my ribbon (you can find a picture on a previous post). They had $5 on each but I asked if they would take $3 each if I bought eight. They were happy for the sale and so was I. I must say, my wrists are a bit sore from all the rolling and it looks like I am going to have to put another shelf to hold the new jars.

Still trying to get used to the idea of not having any children in the house. Elliot is doing fine and enjoys his independence at school. He has decided to do his own cooking instead of getting the meal plan at school. Two of his days are so full that he wouldn't be able to grab a bite to eat and he isn't on campus every day. So he will pack a lunch and live on mac-n-cheese, yogurt and pb & j. He came home for Labor Day weekend and I sent him back home with enough food to keep him full for awhile till he comes home again.

On another note, my daughter and son-n-law just bought their first home and they are so excited. Becky just finished her Master's degree in special education and started her first teaching job this past January. They have decided to make their home in North Carolina and we can't wait to visit.

We have had some beautiful weather the past 2 weeks. I love getting up early with a cup of coffee and heading out on the deck with the Sunday paper. To me this is heaven. Enjoying the sun, my beautiful yard full of flowers and all the birds that visit it. The local wild turkey family (mama and her two babies) came in for breakfast at the neighbors bird feeder. They started to act a little funny and out from the woods came two red fox. What an amazing morning- at least for me and the turkeys. The foxes had to find something else to eat.

Celebrate, have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Just where have you been?

Where have I been you say. I know, I know-the earth is starting to shake as I post this blog. It has been so long since I last posted and I apologize for that. We just got the last little lamb off to college so for the past 2 weeks I have been very busy. He has only been gone one week and will be back home tomorrow for the long weekend. If I didn't know better it is just like he has been away at band camp. I am sure it will really start to sink in after next week. I must say though, I sure enjoy how neat and clean the house stays. Now if I could just get rid of that dog of ours. Hmmm... let me see how that could be arranged.

It is my son-n-law's birthday so this is his card. As you all know I have difficultly with the simplicity of the male gender cards. Foo-Foo is my middle name so I immediately reach for the bling and ribbon. I don't think he would appreciate that too much. I just received my new release cuttlebug folders. Here is the new Fleur de lis pattern. Very stunning isn't it? I often save the packaging of new items I receive and the kraft paper on this card is the back side of an insert. You would never know if I hadn't told you right? My motto is never throw anything away until you decide there is absolutely no use for it. The brown card stock is SU chocolate chip as is the ink. The embellishment in the bottom is a square copper brad turned on an angle and the fleur de lis is a leftover piece from my EK success border punch. Some branches from my MS punch added just a little something to the bottom of the card. I wasn't happy with the sentiment though. It is from the Nostalgia set of Inkadinkado. It looks a little too rustic for me with the lines that come off the B,R,H and Y. The rest of the set doesn't look like this so I am wondering if this is a defect.

Speaking of saving the packaging-I have to let you in on a little secret. I have been watching the shows about hoarders. I became a little uneasy when I heard them describe how they just don't seem to have enough stuff and they just keep buying more. Does that sound familiar. I bet most of us have more embellishments, paper and stamps than we could ever use in a lifetime. Although my stuff is neatly organized and put away, it starts to scare me. I always make a point of reading the definition at the beginning of the show just to make sure I don't fit the description and after the show I find myself cleaning and tossing things out like crazy. The best therapy I could ever get.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I am planning to get up into the "black hole" aka- my son's room and give it a good cleaning and scrub down. As much as I miss him, I hope he heads back to school at a decent time so I can get a few good hours in. If you don't see a recent post from me in the next week or so I may have never made it out of the mess.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim