Author Archives: kth

Summer at Night

Posted on by

CAS-ual Friday’s latest challenge is: Back in Black.

I admit I was a little intimidated at first. Even a traipse through my digital index didn’t come up with anything immediately.

Then I found a cool fabric on Pinterest (first photo at this source).

I loved the bold waves of color and used that inspiration to create my card. I love how the black makes those bright colors pop even more!

The sentiment is stamped with white craft ink and embossed with glitter/clear embossing powder.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Birthday Bash Sentiments;
Colors: Black, Rapsberry Fizz, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise;
Other: Ric-Rac die; Hologram Highlights glitter/clear embossing powder (SU);

Life is Sweet – PTI Blog Hop

Posted on by

Today is PTI’s blog hop! Check it out.

I love these colors and of course – flowers! Since I just received my new rose set, I had to ink it up!

I stamped my rose first. I used Lemon Tart, then Melon Berry, and finished with Berry Sorbet. Well when I was done, it was very yellow/orange. I put together my card but kept to the yellow/orange scheme (figuring I would just save this card for a future post and create a new one for the hop). I originally used Summer Sunrise as the color that peeked out from under the white edger panel (because it matched what the lemon/melon combo turned into). I was happy with it – and set it aside.

After an hour or so I came back to the card and the ink had changed colors! Now the top Berry Sorbet inking looked more Melon and the middle Melon inking looked a lot LESS like Summer Sunrise. Instead of ripping the card up, I cut a small piece of Melon cardstock and tucked it under the white edger panel and voila – it worked! I was so happy. And to me, since I’m using more of the colors from the challenge, I felt I could use the card for the hop.

I did try a Berry Sorbet strip instead and I think it worked, but it turned the card much brighter, which was not what I was going for – so I stayed with Melon.

I love happy accidents!

Thanks for stopping by!

Life is Sweet
All supplies Paper Trey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Life is Sweet;
Colors: Lemon Tart, Melon Berry, Berry Sorbet, Simply Chartreuse, Dark Chocolate, White; Landscape ink (Palette);
Other: Cane Impression Plate, Edgers 2 die, Life is Sweet dies, Lemon Tart ribbon;

FYI – Pumpkin Patch

Posted on by

It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI34.

This photo is so cool! It makes me think I found where the faeries live! I love how the back is lit up as well as the front (well enough in the front so there aren’t silhouettes).

The large orange bush/tree from the inspiration photo is where my card started. Large orange “circle” made me think pumpkin. The rest of the card just worked with additional colors from the inspiration photo.

I kept the card base light in color because the inspiration photo is full of light in the background.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Debby
Michelle
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Sylvia
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Happy Halloween
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Jack of All Trades, Delightful Dozen;
Colors: So Saffron, Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Soft Suede;
Other: Garden button, Expresso Baker’s Twine, Woodgrain embossing folder;

Kindness Matters

Posted on by

I needed a “thank you” card to insert in a little package for a friend. She likes pink and butterflies, so that is what I used 🙂

I used a sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping blog (ftl197).

I, um, mis-read my ruler and cut my pattern paper panel a bit too short, so I improvised and added a bit of ribbon to help take up space.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Kindness Matters
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Kindness Matters;
Colors: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, So Saffron;
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, Black polka dot ribbon, pattern paper (old SU);

To My Core

Posted on by

I love playing the Paper Smooches Sparks challenges! This week’s trend watch challenge was “Food Fresh” (see it here).

I chose to use the apple image from Falling for You. My hubby will be on a business trip soon, so this will get tucked into his suitcase.

When creating this card, I loved the lines of the shopping cart (on the image that was used to introduce the challenge) – they reminded me of the little heart image in the same set. The lines also made me think to use the Picnic Plaid impression plate on the background.

I paper pieced the apple – and chose a cream colored natural-fiber paper for the core. I carried over that same paper for the sentiment die cut (because why can’t I use white and cream together??). I love that the naturals paper has fibers that remind me of a real apple (no apple core is a stark flat color).

I love this card so much, I’m going to enter it into the Paper Smooches guest designer search!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Love You to My Core
Stamps: Falling for You (Paper Smooches);
Colors: White, Rustic Cream, Poppy (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: Chartreuse Pattern Paper (PTI); Polka Dot Greetings die (MFT); Picnic Plaid impression plate (PTI); brown marker (Copic);

FYI – Celebration of Blue

Posted on by

It is time for another For Your Inspiration challenge. Check out the latest challenge -> FYI33.

This photo makes me smile – I think it is the beautiful sky and green grass. What catches my eye first are the tall, narrow trees. I definitely wanted those represented in my card.

Since the trees were my first requirement, I started there. I searched for a composition that utilized vertical strips. I ended up using a sketch I found at 2Peas (saturday sketch).

Next I looked for a label/frame that reminded me of the building in the inspiration photo. I tried many things, but finally settled on the Celebrations set from Papertrey.

My final touches were to emboss the background with stripes and add ribbon and buttons.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Make sure you check out the other design team members:
Debbie
Debby
Michelle
Rochelle
Rudlis
Sara
Steph
Sylvia
Vicki

I hope you join us at For Your Inspiration!

A Little About the Challenge: The For Your Inspiration challenge is posted the first and third Thursday of every month; each challenge is open for two weeks. To play, use the photo to inspire you and create a card – very simple! Make sure you tell us in your blog post how you were inspired!

Celebrate
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Celebrations;
Colors: Blueberry Sky, Kraft, White;
Other: New Leaf ribbon & buttons, Simple Stripes impression plate, Celebrations die; Minuet Pattern Paper (Memory Box);

Independence Day

Posted on by

With all the recent fires here in Colorado, we did some donating to help support the fire companies involved. I, of course, couldn’t just send a check – I needed a card.

I came up with this quick and easy design. And liked it so much I made extras.

The extras will be used by my kids to send to our troops. Today we’ll be thinking of all those things we can do because of our freedoms.

FYI – these card will be getting to the troops via Operation Write Home.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Thank You for Your Service
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Military Stars, Military Hero;
Colors: Enchanted Evening, White, Pure Poppy;
Other: Limitless Layers Circle die, Star die;

You’ve Been Wonderful

Posted on by

I had this stamped label in my scrap pile. I decided to use it. I thought it would fit with the current Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge (wmsc104).

The label was stamped with Blueberry Sky – not a color that I have in pattern paper…so it was a bit challenging to create the card base. Thankfully, after I dug into my pattern paper stash, I found this old check pattern that perfectly matched! Then I pulled out some other patterns that I thought would work as well – layered them up and stitched them down.

I think the final product is quite cute.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks
Stamps: Vintage Labels 18, Say it Loud (Waltzing Mouse Stamps);
Colors: Blueberry Sky, White, Black (PTI);
Other: Pattern Paper (blue/white – unknown, possibly CTMH; Melon & Moss – PTI); Moss ribbon (PTI); Labels 18 die (Spellbinders);

Beloved Pet

Posted on by

Unfortunately I needed another pet sympathy card. This time I pulled out the With Sympathy set from Papertrey Ink.

Once I figured out my layout, I decided to stamp on pattern paper (which is the current Make-it-Monday challenge mim73).

The flower images are from the With Sympathy set, but I die cut using the smallest die in the Lovely Layers set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Heartfelt Sympathy
All supplies Papertrey Ink unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: With Sympathy, With Sympathy – Loss of Pet;
Colors: Fine Linen, Dark Chocolate, White, Aqua Mist;
Other: Fine Linen Pattern Paper, Aqua Mist Ribbon, Lovely Layers die;

So Sorry

Posted on by

By a stroke of luck I was able to step in as a guest designer for the Clean And Simple (CAS) challenge on Splitcoast. This week’s challenge (cas177) is a color challenge: Navy, Olive, and White.

As I was perusing my stamp index, the new feather set by StampinUp caught my eye – and I thought worked well with the color challenge. My theme was chosen because I needed a card for a friend who recently lost an elderly dog.

I’m not sure peacock feather really says bereavement, but I do think the “feel” of this card works.

When inking the sentiment, I knew the “y” would hang down and you wouldn’t be able to read the rest (and I didn’t want to change the layout or color placement). So I stamped the second part of the sentiment first and masked it off. Then I stamped the So Sorry in full strength and removed the mask. Next, I reinked the So Sorry (actually just the “ry” at the end), but stamped off – and used a stamp positioner to stamp the sentiment again. Finally, I went back over the line between dark and light with a blender pen to help smooth it to a better gradient.

And one final note. The pattern paper I chose has a distinct pattern to it. I trimmed a bit to use on the card, but when I positioned it, the pattern felt to happy. I turned the paper in the opposite direction (hiding more of the “distinct pattern”) and it looked more random and didn’t detract from the card. I will definitely try turning patterns around if things don’t feel right again – just to see…you never know!

Thanks for stopping by!

So Sorry
All supplies StampinUp unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Fine Feathers, So Sorry;
Colors: Naturals White, Midnight Muse, Old Olive;
Other: Comfort Cafe DSP;