Masculine Birthday Card

Hello-

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving :-)  I celebrated mine by running a 5k in the morning, and filling up on sweet potatoes in the afternoon! PERFECT!

Today's card is a masculine card I made for my cousin, Jeff.

I stamped the Ocean Tides panel with a background from Market Street Stamps. I used Ocean Tides Ink for the argyle.  

I used Birthday Tags 2012 for the circular element, stamped in Kraft.

The front sentiment and the inside sentiment are both from the Think Big Favorites collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kristen 

Snowflake Thank You Cards

If it ain't broke... don't fix it, right?  I always seem to keep going back to the layout that works so well for me... Circular element + Sentiment.  Clean and Simple - but with a lot of impact.

Today I am sharing a few Thank You cards I made - its not even Halloween yet, so thinking about snow might seem crazy, but in Chicago, it could be 70 one day and snowing the next!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Halloween! HA!

-Kristen

Papertrey August Blog Hop!

Well it certainly has been a LONG time since I have participated in the monthly hop...but I finally found some free time!

This month's inspiration colors really spoke to me, I love neutral, masculine colors. You can see the original inspiration pieces here.

For my card, I chose to focus on the Argyle pattern, and the colors.  I noticed just a hint of orange in the inspiration photos, and chose to bring that in using the little flower center.

I used the new Think Big favorites (from August) and Lovely Layers (love this set!).  I used Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado, Kraft, Canyon Clay and Dark Chocolate as my colors.

Don't forget about the Team Nicholas fundraiser! See this post for details.

Thanks for hopping by!
-Kristen

Supplies (PTI):
Paper: Kraft, Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado, Vintage Cream
Stamps: Think Big Favorites, Lovely Layers
Inks: Dark Chocolate, Canyon Clay, Ocean Tides

Other Supplies:
Stamps: Argyle Background (Market Street Stamps)
Inks: Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz)
Adhesives: Foam Tape, Foam Squares, Dodz, EZ Runner (Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L)

Thank you!

I wanted to say thank you to those of you that have taken the time to leave comments on my posts - especially the one before this one. Your kind words are always encouraging!  So today, I am sharing a card just for YOU!

a BIG THANK YOU!

I used Peaceful Garden (always did love that set!) and the dragonfly from Places Please (both sets are PTI).  its probably hard to tell, but I stamped the seed pods in light purple across the background, and used one as a focal point in darker purple.

Have a great weekend! Hope to see some of you at CHA next week!

-Kristen

Merci Gift Cards - part 2

Ok as promised... the second half of the gift set I made :-)  Have a great weekend!

-Kristen

Merci Gift Cards, part 1

This has been a very busy week for me in my "real life" (i.e. the life I have to live when I am NOT stamping or being crafty!)  I work for a global company, and this week we had some very important 'higher ups' visiting.  One such person has become a good friend to me - and I wanted to thank her in a special way.

As it turns out - she is from France and I just HAPPEN to have a "Merci" stamp in my arsenal...funny how that works out right?

So I made a set of thank you cards for her - and these are the first four that I made.  (stay tuned for the second half!)

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kristen

Beautiful Butterflies --- take 2!

Ok, I have to admit... I REALLY like this set! So easy to make a simple statement with just the image...so I couldn't stop where I left off yesterday :-) I kept going... and this time made some thank you cards using my FAVORITE TBF set of all time (as evidenced by the fact that it shows up on this blog a few times a month!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Kristen

Supplies
Stamps: Beautiful Butterflies, Think Big Favorites
Inks: Berry Sorbet, Summer Sunrise, Aqua Mist, Simply Chartreuse

Peaceful Thank You

Whew! You think you are busy - and then before you know it, its been weeks since you updated your blog! YIKES!

I finally got some time set aside to play with my stamps... and I decided to "drag" out an older set - that hasn't seen much ink time lately...Peaceful Garden.

I love it so much - but often find I am stumped for ideas on how to use it... today's card is a simple use of the main image of the set.

Hope you all have a great week!

-Kristen

Supplies (all PTI)
Stamps: Think Big Favorites #5, Peaceful Garden
Paper: Vintage Cream
Ink: Spring Moss, Classic Kraft

Papertrey Ink January Blog Hop!

For this month's blog hop, we were challenged to pick a favorite project of ours from 2011, and revisit it.

I chose this card:

This time, I added a few medallions, colors and varied the position of the sentiment:

As you can also tell, I have a new camera since that original card - so everything doesn't look like I photographed it in a dungeon! :-)

Enjoy the hop!

-Kristen

Supplies
Stamps: Mehndi Medallion, Think Big Favorites
Paper: Stampers Select White

Valentine's Day - take 2 :-)

So it turns out, I really liked that color combo and layout - so I CASed myself - and added tree tops this time :-)

-Kristen

Valentine's Day Cards

Ok, Ok I KNOW we JUST finished with Christmas, but it's time to switch gears and start working on the next holiday!

I have to admit, I am LOVING the combination of Red, Blue and black together... I can see myself using this a lot!

Happy Weekend!
-Kristen

Supplies
Stamps: Love Birds, Think Big Favorites #11
Ink: Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist (PTI), Tuxedo Black (Memento, Tea Dye (Ranger)
Paper: White (Neenah Solar White)

Make it Monday #49 - Ghost Masking - take 2

Ok, I decided after the first try, I wanted to try the ghost masking again - this time with a full-bleed stamp :-)

For this one I used Flower Fusion #6 - and the little hearts from Bundle of Love.

I really like this technique - it makes a really neat effect - without a lot of fuss. 

-Kristen

Supplies
Paper: Vintage Cream (PTI)
Stamps: Flower Fusion #6, Bundle of Love, Label Basics, Think Big Favorites #3
Ink: Pumice Stone (Ranger), Grass, Papaya, Eucalyptus (A*muse)
Other: Angled Label Die (PTI)

Hello Friend...just Cruisin' by...

Hello and Happy Weekend!

I am enjoying a rare Saturday where I DON'T have to work :-)

Today's cards are a mash-up between 2 of my favorite stamp companies...

The sentiment and border strip are from PTI while that adorable bicycle is from Lawn Fawn.

I am hoping to be "uber" productive this weekend... we will see how that pans out!

-Kristen

Merci! Take 2

Hello and TGIF!

Today's card is a re-visit of the one I did here.

I wanted to revisit that card, and change it up just slightly.  I didn't change much - moved the die cut up a bit, raised the sentiment, swapped out a center stamp for the jewel... you get the idea. :-)

Happy Weekend!

-Kristen

Hello Friend!

Happy New Years to EVERYONE :-)

Its New Year's Eve, and today I was busy stamping...what better way to ring in the new year?  I couldn't wait to ink up this awesome set from PTI - Tree Tops. As soon as I saw it, I knew I would love it... and it has not disappointed!

If you are interested, they are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Have a GREAT new years!
-Kristen

Mums! Mums! Mums!

I work in a lab during the week, but on the weekends I enjoy working at the plant nursery.  My favorite thing about working there in the fall is the pumpkins... and the MUMS! Such beautiful colors and varieties!  Today's card is inspired by those very mums!

I just LOVE the Bloom Builder die from PTI.  Not only do I love being able to make embellishments to match my projects (can you say budget saver??) but I also love the way it adds dimension without a TON of bulk -

I also love PTI's Think Big Favorites line... sometimes you really do want the sentiment to be the whole focus!