Happy Hearts

In getting back to my Valentine's Day theme, I decided to use a stamp that I've had for a while but have never had a chance to use, Sweetheart Marci, by La La land Crafts making her debut today!

Sweetheart Marci

I like these stamps because they have large faces and are generally overall a really good size to color up for cards journals or any other project you like. This is actually the only Marci stamp I own but may consider expanding if I can find them for a good price. I often compare these stamps to The Greeting Farm because they are my two absolute favorites for red rubber cling stamps. Both brands offer plenty to color, many different themes, and images that are just adorable. However on price and versatility, TGF simply can't be beat and that is why they will remain a favorite of mine! At just $9 a stamp The Greeting Farm is my number one favorite, while the La La Land Crafts stamps start at a whopping $13 each! As gorgeous as this little darling is... I'm on a budget (o_O) so in the meantime, I will enjoy using this cutie pie throughout my Valentine's day personal challenge! The image was colored with my trusty copics and the background was embossed with a candy hearts embossing folder (not sure what brand) and inked with SU! real red. The sentiment comes from TGF's 4x6 OA Lovey Dovey set. I plan to enter her in the "Love" challenge over at The Pink Elephant, pop on over and see what the DT has cooked up and as always, thanks for stopping by!
-Krys

Red White and Blue Through and Through

Hi guys! Not a lot going on the last few days, still working on more V Day cards and gifts with occasional breaks to change it up a bit. This helps so that I don't get burned out before I finish, and what better way to do that than practicing my CAS card technique? I have a confession...Sometimes I can be a bit of an over embellisher and there have been a few times where making a card has taken several hours just for one card because I simply could not decide on what papers to use. By the time I'm done, I'm mentally exhausted so I end up not making a card for several days or worse, forcing a card that ends up taking ANOTHER several hours and repeating the cycle lol! Well to prevent this from happening I started making simple but elegant cards that only take about 10 minutes to assemble, using only a few embellishments and an image I already had colored up ( I have TONS). They come out great and look like they've taken hours. Today I have one of my finished 'stress relief cards' using another awesome TGF image:

C.C. Dante



Over at Splendid Stamping, the Farm Fresh Friday Challenge was Red White and Blue and since I already had this little guy colored up in those colors he was perfect for a quickie card. I ran a piece of cardstock through a Tim Holtz brick wall embossing folder and since my Stampin Up Real Red ink pad will be permanently stuck to my craft table until after V Day, I inked the top corner red, left the center white and used a memento tear drop ink on the bottom corner to give me a nice and simple red white and blue background. A few buttons, some Bakers Twine, and a sentiment from TGF's Creepin Kit (retired sorry!) and this card was a done deal! I plan to enter this card in the above mentioned challenge, Red, White and Blue over at Splendid Stamping, if you have the time, pop over and see the gorgeous projects the DT has come up with. Until next time!

-Krys

A Couple of Cuties

Hi guys! As I mentioned before, I'm in LOVE with Valentines Day it is my all time favorite day of the year, it even trumps my birthday! Maybe it's because I'm a hopeless romantic and everybody seems to be twitterpated starting around the end of January. So in honor of  this most awesome day I decided to go all out for my daughter's class Valentines Day party doing not only 23 goodie bags with Tags as well as a handmade card for each of the 22 classmates, but cupcakes from our local Cupcake specialty shop in decorated Chinese takeout boxes and altered notebooks for her two teachers as well! Boy do I have my work cut out for me but I am so excited. Today I have for you the cards for the girls and boys using TGF OA Lovey Dovey

  

OA Lovey Dovey

Inside Card

I finished these over a 2 day period to give myself a little breather to keep from getting burned out on this project and also a few of my copic markers were drying out so I had to wait until the refills arrived. They started off as CAS but I've never been able to leave well enough alone ^.^ this is the closest to CAS you'll get with me! I raided the $1 bin at Michael's and got 4 awesome V day stamps (after having paid an absurd amount for one wood mounted "Happy Valentines Day" stamp at Hobby Lobby...lesson learned o.O ). I stamped them on kraft cardstock using stampin up Real Red and accented with a white opaque gel pen. A few rhinestones and some Candy Cane red Stickles added that last bit of sparkle and a bit of red ribbon finished the look. Hope you guys love them as much as I loved creating them thanks for stopping by!

-Krys 

Bag 'em and Tag 'em

OMG I'm so sorry you guys I've been absent for a while and I hope I didn't lose any of my awesome followers because of this! A few posts back I mentioned that my husband left for basic training and I've been trying to adjust to essentially becoming a single parent over night. I already had much respect for all the single mothers out there but I have a whole new understanding and level of respect for the women who do everything and still manage to find time for themselves. I'm blessed to at least have finances taken care of so I can focus all my attention on business matters and raising my two beautiful girls, but what about those women who maintain the household, raise children, tend to business matters AND are the sole source of income??? All that being said I just wanted to give praise to all those strong women who do this every day not just for a few months! Now on to the actual cause of my blog; cards and craft projects.


For the last week I've been working on one huge project (it was HUGE to me at least). As we all know, Valentine's Day is right around the corner, partly because you cant go anywhere without seeing hearts and candy, the other part because you can't turn on the tv without seeing an advertisement for Jared's, and guess what? I LOVE IT!!!! Lol call me crazy but I look forward to this day more than I do Christmas so I start counting down every year, poor poor hubby ^.^ Well TGF did it again, just in time for my favorite holiday they release a stamp, Sweetie Bean,  that was simply perfect for my project! For my oldest daughter's class I made gift bags with tags using sweetie bean and they turned out wonderfully!

Sweetie Bean

I ended up making 23 in all, 22 for my oldest daughter and her class plus one extra for my youngest so she wouldn't feel left out! Man are my markers up for refills after all that coloring! I plan on entering these sweet treats in TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Challenge Love is in the Air! 

I'm trying to keep the ball rolling with the V day theme until after V day has passed because as I said before, I FREAKIN LOVE IT!!!!! lol bear with me you guys it'll all be over soon...maybe ^.^

See you next time,

-Krys