Pretty Patriotic

Hi guys! It's been a long time since I've had a reason to be excited about Independence Day, it's always seemed like a holiday more for the kids but this year I'm super excited! I think it may have something to do with being station on an army base where you can feel the excitement crackling in the air as stores stock their shelves with red white and blue decor and cupcakes. Well I guess I caught the bug or something cause I've had an explosion of ideas ( not to mention a box of red white and blue bomb pops in the freezer ^.^) one of which is this adorable paper rosette door wreath featuring a SOG Digi for their June Linky party:

SOG  Pink Ribbon Mae

Mae was printed out on x press it blending cardstock and colored with my copic markers. Being a proud army spouse I decided to color her 'pink ribbon' in the 'support our troops' style to match my patriotic theme, love how it turned out by the way! For the base, I started off building the first layer of the rosette out of bazzill cardstock and layered a second smaller rosette made from the Bo Bunny 'Anthem' collection DP. I used the lacy circles and standard circles nestabilities dies embossed with a fireworks embossing folder and inked with Red and blue on the raised areas for a customized background for Ms Mae. The stars I used are both memory box precious stars as well as paper smooche stars dies embellished with stickles and small rhinestones. I've never made a rosette before but it was fun and I think I'll be trying another project with them again soon, give it a try and be on the lookout, I've created a monster! See you guys again soon 

-Krys

Siren Song

Hey! Sorry I've been MIA lately, my hubby had some dental work done last week so I've had a busy week taking care of him! Also, as much as I LOVE stamping, nothing beats a day out with the family, so we enjoyed a day out at Riverfest in Alexandria Bay. Got some great pictures, the weather was amazing and the girls really enjoyed it. I didn't get a chance to take the boat tour because we don't carry cash on us but I was promised a boat ride another day by a certain husband and I plan to hold him to it ^.~ I got home early enough to get a little crafting in and my newest stamp from farmer's market seemed like the perfect end to an awesome day

C.C. Siren

Along with my newest stamp I decided to try a new technique with a waves stencil from memory box, one of my favorite die companies that arrived the same day as C.C. Siren. To create the ombre wave I made a glimmer mist type spray out of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of metallic acrylic paint sprayed over the waves die. I then stamped a few bubbles in a light blue pigment ink. A few pearls and a scrap of ribbon and I had myself one sassy siren! The gals over at TGF gave us the fun FFF challenge, Make Your Own Background and I can't wait to submit this cutie! Well it's bath time for my little munchkins so I will see you guys around again soon!

-Krys

Happy Birthday

Just thought I'd do a quick post and share this card for my little sister's birthday

Up Up Bean

25 years may not be little but she will always be the baby of the family. We may not always get along, but she's never far from my thoughts and she's always in my heart so I just wanted to tell her have a Happy Birthday and I love her. I made this card using TGF's Up Up Bean, colored with prisma colored pencils and OMS to blend the colors, per The Greeting Farm's FFF challenge, Use Pencils to Color. The DP is from Bo Bunny Enchanted Garden and the ribbon and flower are from my stash. The layout of the card was for the Retro Sketches Challenge #119

Getting Krafty

Ha! You like the title? Gives a little too much away? Kinda vague? Good! At least I know it caught your attention even if it wasn't the most clever ^.~  As I mentioned yesterday, TGF's Farm Fresh Challenge this week is Use Pencils to Color, so today I have another cutie from their super secret stamp club collection colored up on kraft for you guys

SSSC Fairest

Today's prisma on craft card is another simple and clean layout with a border drawn by yours truly, impressive huh? I kid, in the past I've had a problem doodling on my cards because well to be honest I'm just not that great at it. I'm also not the best at the whole clean and simple card layout so this week has been a major out-of-my-comfort-zone week for me. While I'm at it I'll also admit that prismas are not my favorite medium to work with unless its adding fine detail on images I already colored with copics, there I said it! Whew, do I feel better ^.^  In keeping with the princesses and prismas, I decided to ink up Fairest, who was the first stamp released in the super secret stamp club. I actually did not take part and so I had to buy this exclusive stamp later at the exclusive release price of $12, holy cow right? Problem was, I'm very particular about my stamps and I don't often like surprises on something I already paid for, I like to know what I'm getting before I spend money. I thought I was a smart cookie till I saw the cuties being released and fell in love! I ended up buying 3 of them anyway, several months later and at a much higher cost. Better believe I signed up this time around! Now I can't wait to get my first SSSC stamp from this subscription, I'm so excited and since I already paid for them, I don't have to worry about not having the money to spare to buy them later! What have you stepped out of your comfort zone for lately?

Princesses, Pencils, and Kraft, Oh My!

Hi guys! Hope you had an awesome father's day weekend and all got a chance to do something special for the men-folk in your lives, be they Father, Son, Brother, Grandfather, Uncle, or just a good friend! My hubby defanitly got more than a little appreciation shown. In fact it was downright good ol' fashioned spoilery! Our living room now hosts a 60" flatscreen tv which he is quite proud to say, may be too heavy for the floating shelf it sits on... Men. I just hope it doesn't fall. I won't complain though, a complete surprise to me, he was kind enough to replenish my cardstock supply out of the kindness of his heart, lucky me, don't I have a sweetie?! Anyway I digress, what better activity is there than bonding with the kiddos on Father's Day right? Well he thought so and I didn't argue so off to the park they went and up to the craft room I went, where I came up with my card for this week's FFF Challenge over at The Greeting Farm, Use Pencils to Color.

SSSC Tress

I colored up the lovely Tress from TGF's Super Secret Stamp Club with my Prisma Color pencils on kraft cardstock. Whenever I use Prismas, I usually opt for kraft over white cardstock because there's no need to use an OMS (odorless mineral spirit) to blend the colors. With kraft its all about layering and patience. After all the hard work it took to get this image just the way I wanted, I decided to go with a CAS layout and let the image shine without any embellishments (which was incredibly tough for me!) I doodled a border around the edge and used a few of my small stamps to add a little umph but other than that I left Ms Tress as the focal point. I was so pleased with my restraint that I'm considering making another one using another one of the SSSC exclusives tomorrow! How do you guys prefer to use your pencils? What type of paper works best?

-Krys