Shaking Things Up

Happy hump day bloggers, have I got a treat for you! I've been having a bit of a creative block lately and I finally figured out why, I've been wanting to make a shaker card for forever and didn't have the supplies I needed so I'd been forcing myself to make other stuff. As you crafty folks probably know, creativity can't be forced so I've been bummed out and hating just about everything I make. I finally got a chance to make a shaker though, and a baby themed card using the baby fox from the new Cuddly Thanks clear set from The Greeting Farm seemed perfect, especially delicately waterecolored.

Cuddly Thanks

For my first shaker in years, it turned out pretty well, I may have gone overboard with the sequins so next time I'll just stick to two colors at most. I may even watercolor the baby fox in a cute color like  a soft pink or blue next time to match even more. Because the paper had all those different colors, I figured at least most of those colors should go into the shaker window...I was wrong lol! I plan to keep practicing my shaker cards cause this one gave me a really hard time putting it together as well as trying to get a good picture (the lighting in my craft room kinda sucks!) If I stand it up, all the shakies fall to the bottom, if I lay it down the colors aren't as true and you can't see the sparkle of the glitter as well either. Once again I heat embossed the image onto watercolor paper in white embossing powder and watercolored using my TH distress markers. I love this technique because I'm not the best at watercolor but the raised edges of the embossed image helps the water and ink stay in its own section without much work on my part. I highly recommend this technique for those just starting out with this medium. Well that's all for now my crafty friends, see you next time! Don't forget, there's still a little more time to join in on this week's Embossing challenge over at The Greeting Farm!

lots-o-love,
-Krys

Star Spangled Shaker

Hello!
As you guys know, I'm really in the 4th of July spirit and I'm feeling really inspired so coming at you today is another Independence Day themed cutie:

Double Cupcake Anya

Since I haven't done a shaker card in a while I thought the little stars would be fun along with some micro beads to go along with this adorable star spangled sweetie! Keeping with TGF's FFF theme Make Your Own Background, I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the Darice fireworks embossing folder and used a memory box stencil to ink stars over the raised texture in the paper. I colored up Double Cupcake Anya with my copics also using a wink of stella brush pen to add some shimmer. The stars are a die called precious stars by memory box and the DP is Bo Bunny Anthem. I also played along in the Retro Sketches Challenge this week. Any new Independence Day projects shakin' for you guys?

-Krys

What's Shakin'???

Good morning blogland! Remeber that feeling you experienced as a kid on Christmas Eve? You know the one, too excited to sleep so you keep waking up every hour on the hour hoping to catch a glimpse of sunlight. All to eager to rush to the tree and see what goodies you received from the big man in red? Did it get worse when you learned to tell time? Mine certainly did because even though there was no sign of light, the clock told you that there would be in 2 hours... 1 hour...30 minutes... you get the idea, I promise you this is going somewhere. That is EXACTLY how I've been feeling since last night when I made my first two shaker cards ever! I got an early start on the card and all that was left to do was assemble my newest creation but I had a setback. My little Minions were being bullies and would not go to sleep, stating repeatedly that they were not sleepy! Me being the boss and quite the smarty pants, I decided to call their bluff and let them stay up until they got sleepy...10pm passed and they were still up and very much active when my Hunny came home from work. One rush job, half a jar of spilled coffee grounds, and some missing heart shaped glitter later I had completed a sub par shaker card that, I suppose, was not bad for a first attempt. A word of advice, instant coffee grounds do NOT make good shaker card filling, a lesson I may or may not be speaking from personal experience on ^.^

Latte Anya



 Well after a very dissapointing photo shoot with my not so awesome card, I caved and put them to bed, determined to do better on my next card and not wanting to wait until tomorrow, (which is now today of course!). Remember the old saying, if at first you don't succeed, stop and have a cupcake! No, wait, that's what I wanted to do...anywho, you know how it really goes! It proved to be totally true and out of my long night came this awesomeness! Another word of advice, MS Iridescent Hearts and Stars Glitter should come with a warning label. While handling them you may or may not received multiple puncture wounds which may or may not draw blood, again, hypothetically speaking, of course ^.^

 

TGF Queen Bean

Queen Bean

I was very sleepy, even if my girls weren't so I took a few pics and tried to get some shut eye. Yeah, didn't really happen. I tossed, turned, and repeatedly checked the time until I could reasonably justify blogging so early in the morning. I'm very proud of how this card came out, so I couldn't be happier to enter her in this week's Splendid Stamping FFF Challenge, Make it Move!, the Creative Card Crew Challenge, Punches/Dies,  the Simon Says Stamp Challenge, Anything Goes, 7 Kids Challenge Blog, #74 Embellishments! and maybe last minute for the ABC Challenge N for Not Just One! Wish me luck!