Merry Saturday!

Hi All,
I am still finishing some final touches for my day at Its My Heart Keep the Beat walk tomorrow at Endicott Park!! In addition to my vintage stamp a stack that people can sign up for I thought I would start to offer my Christmas in July stamp a stack! Summer is a great time to get a heads start on your Christmas cards! Once Fall rolls around there is always to much to do! So I want have a few examples of what we will make on hand. A while ago I had stumbled across a great site that challenges you to make a Christmas card a week. Its called Always Playing with Paper and they have a "Merry Monday" every week! How fun right!!?? Here is the sketch for this week:

Here is what I came up with:

I "mixed" up using some of the old and the new. I used the new "Happy Hour" set for the sentiment and the now retired set "Pines and Poinsettias  Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you all tomorrow morning!

Karin

Stamp a Stack "mojo"

Hi All,
My crafting spree continues! Course as I need it all on Sunday its really a necessity! Anyway I wanted to offer a sign up for a vintage themed stamp a stack and had given out one of the cards to a friend!! Oops! So I needed another option and layout. As usual I was stumped so I went on over to Mojo Monday Blogspot and they had a great challenge:
                                
I chose the "square" option but kept mine at the traditional 4 1/4 x 11" layout as I don't have enough of the square envelopes on hand for the stamp a stack. Here is my interpretation:

I used Very Vanilla as the base with pieces of the Everyday Enchantment DP (SO sad its retired!!) as well as the organza ribbon that was available during Sale-a-bration. Of course, had to use my favorite all time set "Short and Sweet"!! I will never part with that set!! Here is a picture of all three cards I will be offering for my stamp a stack. 

Thanks for stopping by!
Karin

Card Bouquet

Hi All,
I must be on a roll!! Two posts in a day, two days straight!! Anyway I wanted to share the card bouquet that I will have at the "Its My Heart" event Sunday.

People can enter to win it by signing up for a free in home workshop or class at the event. I will draw a name at the end of the day. I will also be donating $10 per workshop/class to the the Its My Heart New England Chapter! Hope you can make it!!!
Karin :)

Freshly Made Dinosaurs!

Morning All,
As promised I am sharing the box of cards that I am including in my raffle basket for this Sunday's "Keep the Beat" benefit for the "Its My Heart" New England Chapter. I was crafting like crazy last night, but was a little "stuck" for the last layout. So this morning I went on over to Freshly Made Sketches and they had an inspiring sketch:

Great layout!! Here is what I came up with for my last two cards:

I used the last of my Mellow Moss (sadly retired) as the base and layered pieces of Concord Crush DP (also retired). I am really in love with the Bitty Banner Framelits! So easy to use and love the look! Here are the rest of the cards that will be in the box:

I really had a lot of fun making the cards and hope they are a hit. Now off to work on my sign up sheet prize! Have a great day!

Karin

ROAR!!

Evening All,
I thought I would share one of the items that I am placing in my raffle basket this Sunday. I am
donating the adorable "Dinoroar" stamp set:

I am adding a box of crayons so that the lucky kiddo who wins this can color this coloring book I made using this stamp set. Here is the cover:

And here are all the pages separated:

I heat embossed the images in Wild Wasabi. Off to finish the box of cards I am adding to the basket!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

Come and Keep the Beat!!

Hi All,
I wanted to share a fun and important activity that I will be participating in this coming Sunday July 1st! I will be a sponsor at the Local "Its My Heart" 2nd Annual "Keep the Beat" for CDH Awareness. CDH stands for Congenital Heart Defects and affects one in one hundred babies! Click here for their on line flyer. This is a 1 or 2 mile non competitive walk around the beautiful Endicott Park in Danvers. Its going to be a beautiful day so please come join in, as there will be wonderful kids activities and raffles (I will post a picture of my raffle item later) and the weather is supposed to be great!!! Be grateful for the healthy kids in your life and give a little time to those that are not. 
Thanks so much!
Karin :)

Cheers!

Hi All,
I am very excited, I had a chance to play with a new stamp set from the new catalog. I had been eyeing the "Happy Hour" set once the catalog was released and knew it was for me! I was just at a little bit of a loss as to the layout for my card. So I went on over to The Paper Players Blog and they did not disappoint. This is their sketch for the week:

 

And here is what I came up with:

I really wanted some bold colors and I had wanted to tie in some of the Flirtatious Designer Fabric into the card as I had given some to each of my stamp club members. I wanted to show them how to use it in a non-traditional way. To top it off I then ran a strip of the Floral District DP down the center with a Rich Razzleberry button under the circle. I loved all the straight lines so of course I had to run the back panel of Melon Mambo through the Big Shot with the Stripes Embossing Folder. I hope they love the card!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Karin

Triple Stamping

Hi All,
Took a few minutes from my cleaning time and attempted a cool technique that I had seen on Dawn Olchefske's blog that I have fallen in love with. It is called "Triple Stamping". You basically layer three pieces of cardstock, stamp them and then mat them individually lining them up at the end to look like this:

I am thrilled with my first "try"! Its so much easier with the new ink pads!! They are super easy to get good coverage with! I used Elements of Style, Pursuit of Happiness and am giving you a "sneak peek" of a Reason to Smile!!! Love love LOVE the daisy from that set! Can't wait to tell you all about it on July 1st!! I am now planning on making this card for my stamp club in July. Hope they love the technique as much as I do!!
Later Karin

Try Stamping in this HEAT!

Morning All,
Now that I am on "Summer Vacation" I have been flat out with projects but none of the crafting kind!! I am pleased with the progress I have made not to mention the little bit of extra cash selling unused horse equipment and toys! So this morning I decided that I needed to switch my focus for a little bit and complete my final card for my vintage Stamp a Stack coming up. I had gone on over to Try Stamping on Tuesday and they had another great sketch:

Here is what I came up with:

I love the Everyday Enchantment DP even though it is sadly retired!! Well off to work!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

June Thank You's

Hi All!
Well I am excited to say that I am officially out of school!! Thank goodness! I so need the break. After a bunch of appointments I was able to finish up my stamp club "Thank You's" for this month. Which is a good thing as I need them Thursday! Without further adieu here they are:

I have been in a major clean up mode and had some scraps of the Floral District paper that I knew I wanted to use and thought this fit the bill perfectly! Thanks for stopping by!
Karin

A new Camera!!

Hi All,
Been fighting the camera issue again but finally, after a little research, I went out and bought a new camera!!! I was itchy to try it out tonight so I went on over to Freshly Made Blogspot and they had another awesome sketch:

And here is what I came up with:

I LOVE my new camera! It is Wifi capable so I could email the picture to myself. Very cool for the "non" techy like myself! Anyhow, I needed a vintage themed card for an upcoming stamp a stack and loved my Everyday Enchantment paper so I pulled it out, combined it with Simply Soft (also retired) and ran my Pool Party paper through the Vintage wall paper folder. Very easy, but I thought it was very pretty :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

Father's Day

Evening All,
I had to try and make a card for my father for Father's Day with this silly brace. Thankfully its not to painful at all. So I went on over to A la card monkey blogspot and they had a great sketch and challenge:

I liked the clean layout. Here is what I came up with:

I used Lovely as a Tree and Well Scripted (sadly retired) and heat embossed them in pewter. Love the look! Then I layered it on my favorite DP, First Edition. Using the mat pack I easily lined up my brads and voila I was done! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

Need some "Mojo" today

Evening All,
Had a little extra energy after a bit of caffeine this evening at a good bye dinner for a wonderful co-worker and friend! I am excited for her to return home to California, as there really isn't any place like home, but she will be sorely missed!
So in trying to turn around the day I had gone on over to Mojo Monday Blogspot and they had another awesome sketch:

I was initially a little leery given the layers and my wrist being so restricted in my new brace but I gave it a whirl and here is what I came up with:

I took a few liberties and rotated the sketch. I needed a "Thank You" card and wanted some Summer colors so I used the Beyond the Garden DP (retired) and brights buttons with the sentiment coming from the Kindness Matters set. I ran the Daffodil Delight paper through the lattice embossing folder. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

Finally a "break"

Hi All,
Well it has been an interesting few days. Had an equine accident and fractured my wrist, ugh what a week! Anyway felt like making a card and wanted to see what I could do in a brace. I can tell you typing is TOUGH! Anyhow I had gone on over to stamping 411 and they had another great challenge:

Here is what I came up with:

I saw the three shapes and immediately thought of the cute owls. I decided to just run a ribbon across versus tie a bow. Overall the little owls made me laugh, hope it made you laugh to!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

On a roll!

Hi All!
With (hopefully) the last rainy day here in New England I couldn't ride in my arena so I made another card for my card bouquet. I had gone on over to Try Stamping on Tuesday and they had another awesome sketch

So here is what I came up with:

I used some of my left over Beyond the Garden and Pear Pizazz DP. I know its a little hard to tell but it has small "dots" all over it. I ran the center strip through the Polka Dots Embossing Folder and tied the new, beautiful Daffodil Delight stitched ribbon on top. Love the sentiments in the Pursuit of Happiness set! Very cheerful! Have a great day!

Karin

:

Mojo Monday

Hi All,
I had a short amount of time to "kill" yesterday before running over to the parents to continue the "cleaning" marathon! Boy you would think taking out a 22 foot full dumpster of "stuff" would make a "dent" but its truly just a start! Anyway I needed a little, more pleasant distraction, so I had gone on over to Mojo Monday Blogspot and they had a great sketch that I was very motivated by:

I am hoping to try a few new ideas with some of my extra "time" this Summer and one of them is to make a "card bouquet". I have been seeing them pop up on a few blogs and wanted to try my hand at it so I decided that this card will be my "jumping off" point:

I was really moved by the black portion of the sketch and decided to use that to add some extra "pop" to the card. I just love adding black as an accent color and it worked very nicely with the Wild Wasabi, at least I think so! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

My debut as a guest designer!

Hi All!
I wanted to share the card I made for my debut as a guest designer at A la Card Monkey blogspot! Here is the awesome sketch and challenge:

The choice was to use the sketch or use the sketch and make it a graduation theme. So here is what I came up with:

I decided to use the themes provided but thought I could be flexible if I used this greeting. Perfect for graduation or any of "Life's Moments"! 

Check out the Sunflower! WOW I used the new style of ink pad available at Stampin Up and am blown away at the coverage! No "pounding" away to get the detail I want, just a few lite taps and its perfect!! Not sure if you can see by the picture but I ran the Very Vanilla base through the Lattice Embossing Folder on my Big Shot. 

So I hope your inspired! Make sure you check out all the great entries!

Thanks for stopping by!

Karin

We Love Hostesses!

Morning All, 

Stampin Up keeps adding to the fun!! During June and July, hostesses who hold a minimum $450 workshop will receive an additional $50 in hostess FREE merchandise dollars--that's in addition to the $65 you already receive for a $450 workshop!

**One very important detail is that online order do not qualify so contact me directly to place your order.**

Contact me to set up your next "Girls Night In!".

Have a great day!

Karin

2 Posts in 1 day!!

Morning All (again!),
As much as I prefer the sunny days this rain gives me a reason to spend some "guilt free" time in my craft room. I had gone on over to Stampin Queens Blog and was really motivated by their sketch challenge:

I needed a third card for my stamp club next week and had a "block" for a design until I saw this sketch. This is what I came up with:

I am super happy with the result! I used the new set "Betsy's Blooms" for the bird, the Floral District DP and the new Daffodil Delight stitched ribbon (it is SO easy to work with!). Finally I used the two step Bird Punch for the leaves under the bird. 

Off to work on more household chores!

Karin

Even MORE reasons to join the SU family!

Morning All, 
Well it has been very busy lately with the release of the new 2012-2013 catalog! If that wasn't enough Stampin Up has announced another FANTASTIC reason to sign up as a demonstrator!
* The $99 kit continues to be completely customizable and includes $125 worth of product!
* The kit continues to ship for FREE!
* During June, new demonstrators not only get to choose the products for their fully customizable Starter Kit, you also get products from the brand-new Patio Party Suite for FREE, including the Make a Cake Set, Patio Party Designer Series Paper, and the Patio Party Digital Collection DVD! That's up to $48 in additional FREE products!

Page	Item	Description	Retail Value
44	126740	Make a Cake Set (wood-mount)*	$14.95
44	126742	Make a Cake Set (clear-mount)*	$11.95
165	126916	Patio Party Designer Series Paper	$10.95
199	127215	Patio Party Digital Collection DVD	$22.95

*Choose wood- or clear-mount; clear-mount set does not include clear blocks

What an amazing deal! Feel free to contact me if you have questions about being a demonstrator or click here to sign up!

Have a great day!

Karin

The New Catalog is here!!

Wow! I wanted to share the new catalog as it is released today!! Make sure you click here to check it out! If you would like your own copy and want to host a fantastic girls night "in" click here.

Remember Stampin Up is now offering a great sign up offer of $99 for your kit!
Have a GREAT day!!
Karin