S'now Place Like Home

Hi guys I'm blogging from the comfort of my own couch for the first time in a long time and boy does it feel good, especially since the weather here is terrible! I woke up to my 3 and 4 year old firmly snuggled on either side of me in my bed, sound asleep as thunder so loud it sounded like my front yard was being bombed by kamikaze pilots! I'm not exaggerating either, it was so bad my floors were vibrating and I could hear my windows rattling! Sheesh! No wonder my girls were in my bed! As if the thunder wasn't bad enough there was a flash flood torrent of a storm along with guess what....SLEET! seriously I wanted to stay under the covers in my warm, toasty, at maximum capacity, bed. Well I decided to brave the freezing house to turn on the heat and while I was at it I swung by Splendid Stamping to see who the challenge winner was as well as get the new challenge for this week's FFF and whaddaya know, it was ME!!!!! I am so very excited especially since I rarely ever win challenges but to win one at Splendid Stamping was a major deal for me! Sorry for gushing it was just really good news when I really needed a pick me up so this felt awesome. Now for my card for this week's challenge:

Latte Anya

 

This was a winter treat for me, the theme of this week's FFF was Snow! How fun right? not that we ever actually get much snow here in Texas, and believe me I am NOT complaining! The fluffy wet white stuff is best on Christmas specials on ABC Family in my opinion, I disdain being cold or wet and I especially loathe being cold AND wet, yucky!!! Not my cup o tea but it is so beautiful to watch, and it makes everything look so serene, which is why I shall admire it from indoors, swaddled like a baby in a huge comforter sipping on salted caramel hot chocolate (found the recipe here!). The paper was from my stash, the Sentiment is from the DCWV Rub on sentiments cards stack, and the snowflakes are from a Sizzix Die This little lady will be my entry for the FFF challenge over at Splendid Stamping, so if crafting is your thing and you've got a passion for stamping, please join in I promise it'll be fun! See you guys next time,

 

-Krys

 

Beach Boy

Have you ever colored up an image just because and didn't really have a specific purpose or project to use it on? I do that A LOT and they seem to pile up before I know it because coloring is a great stress reliever for me. I found this little guy and couldn't help but make a card out of him, even though his beachy look is a little warm for this time of year, everyone can always use a splash of color and warmth!

C.C. Noah

 

This was a simple and fun masculine card using C.C. Noah from the retired TGF Creepin Crew Set colored up with my copics. I found this set online and ordered the company's last one in stock! So exciting right? The sentiment is also part of the Creepin Kit set. Honestly if you were to ask me which of the darlings in that set were my fave I'd have a hard if not impossible time choosing! The Papers are from Echo Park, one of the DP packs I just HAD to have this past summer. However once I got them, the summer was ending and so I didn't get much of a chance to use them. This card was just for fun but the fussy cut C.C. Noah is perfect for this week's FFF challenge over at Splendid Stamping "Cut it Out". I have literally an entire stack of unused colored up images just begging to become part of a card or project so you'll definitely see more of my lovelies soon!

 

-Krys

I've Got the Blues...and a Little Green too!

As you know I don't mean the sad kind of 'blues' or the music either, I mean the colors! Have you ever thought about how many shades of blue are out there? Hundreds? Who knows, who cares? All I know is that just about all the blues can be paired together with beautiful results, and when you add a splash of green as an accent? GORGEOUS! Today I bring you a good example of this (I hope) in a gift that I created for a friend of mine, who has always been there for me, in the form of a picture frame (the gift is the frame of course, not the friend ^.^).

Cheeky Geeky

 

 

I started with an unfinished balsa wood frame from my LCS (one of the things I mentioned a few posts back) and painted it with a really light green almost seafoam acrylic paint. once that was dry I got out my homemade mod podge and cutter and pieced a few different scrap pieces with similar color schemes to get this patchwork kind of look. Since I didn't have much DP in the shades I needed, I created the leopard print by running it through an embossing folder and inking it with pigment ink a few shades lighter. I did the same with the swirl pattern, embossing and inking in shades of blue to get the effect I was going for. I colored Ms Cheeky Geeky from The Greeting Farm with my copics and gave her a blue leopard print skirt with matching tie and headband and fussy cut her out. The sentiment is from Close To My Heart (CTMH) 'Friendship' set and the other embellishments are from my stash. I wish I could take credit for this lovely idea but I am actually CASEing this project from one of my personal favorite blogs, Rosemary's Creations, ( you can go and see her project here!). I plan to enter this in the following challenges; Splendid Stamping FFF, 'Cut it Out', Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, 'It's a Mystery', and 7 Kids Challenge, 'Anything Goes'. Thanks for stopping by,

 

-Krys

What's Black and White and Read all over???

The answer is... A NEWSPAPER!!! Hmm that was funnier when I was six... Not as funny now, and especially not since you can see the spelling of 'read' rather than hearing it and assuming I mean the color RED. Ah well it was still clever of me at the time especially since it gave me a backstory to ramble about for this post lol! Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can get to the relevance of that story to my post! My Hubby left for Army BCT yesterday and so I got the brilliant idea to keep a journal while he's gone so he won't miss a thing while he's gone. During my last trip to my LCS, I grabbed a few things to alter/decorate, mainly made of balsa wood, (you'll see projects with those things soon so stay tuned!!!) and I found the ugliest little monogramed journals for $2. I knew they would be perfect for this journal/ scrapbook I was planning on creating so I grabbed one and immediately headed home to start beautifying my awesome find. In about an hour (not including fussy cutting the image with an X-Acto knife) this masterpiece came together:

(Head: C.C. Friday Night/ Body: Anya Strolls)



 

 

 

Ok I know I say this a lot but seriously, I am IN LOVE with this alteration combo of C.C. Friday Night with Anya Strolls! Saturday I showed you guys a door hanger that I created with this same concept. It turned out so fabulous I just had to have it on something else and what better than a once ugly journal that was sitting on the shelf screaming "Take me home, Make me PRETTY!" I swear I heard it, I'm not crazy! Also it gave me a chance to use some of the washi tape I made out of a few stamps, some twinkling H2Os and a roll of inexpensive masking tape. This is so simple to do, I plan to go back and get a few more journals to alter and give as gifts. It comes together quickly and looks amazing and there are plenty of ways to personalize and customize to suit the crafter's taste. The hardest part was trying to fussy cut the image with an X-Acto knife to make sure I didn't have any empty white spaces. Its not really a necessary step but to me it looks more professional. I plan to enter this in the 7 kids challenge blog, Anything goes, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, It's a Mystery, and the FFF Challenge over at Splendid Stamping,  "Cut it Out" since this definitely took some time to cut out! Such a fun blog challenge, if you're feeling crafty you should definitely stop by and play along. Hope to see you there TTYL!

 

-Krys

Hanging Around

Back again and today we'll be bumming wifi from Mc Donalds, while my kids run themselves silly at the Play Place ^.^ ! I swear its starting to feel like a fun game, you never know where I'll blog from next hee hee! Anywho, the other day I was looking over on one of my favorite blogs,  Paper Drama and remembered a wonderful tutorial on rendering leopard print with copic markers. I've been meaning to try it out myself it really is a gorgeous technique requires only about 3 or 4 markers and is so easy to do. I've also been obsessed with how great the Anya Strolls body looks with  C.C. Friday Night's head so I keep playing around with the paper piecing long after the Alter Ego challenge over at Splendid Stamping has ended. I also noticed I've been doing a lot of cards so I decided to give a few other projects a chance, that being said, whipped out my Homemade Mod Podge and got to work. This is what I came up with:

Head: c.c. Friday Night Body: Anya Strolls

I started with a plain ol' balsa wood door hanger from my local CSS and covered it in black cardstock. I then cut out rectangles in various sizes from several different scraps from a DCWV stack and glued them down. Next came my Anya/ Friday combo with more Mod Podge and the sentiment from the Anya Strolls set stamped in no particular pattern, with red and black ink. A little candy cane stickles swirled here and there, a bow from my stash, and TA-DAAAA! Isn't it awesome? And you can bet this wont be the last project you see spots on, or my Anya/Friday combo! I plan to enter her in the latest awesome challenge over at Splendid Stamping, where the FFF challenge is "Cut it Out". So excited, wish me luck and thanks for stopping by!

-Krys