Clean and Simple...Sort Of

Are there certain types of cards or projects that no matter how hard you try you just can't seem to wrap your brain around them? With me, CAS cards are my worst nightmare because no matter what I do I can't make them look good without looking too plain or more often than not, clean and simple becomes cluttered and over the top. It feels like forever since I inked up any of my TGF stamps so I attempted to force myself out of my comfort zone and participate in this week's FFF Challenge Clean and Simple over at The Greeting Farm. Since I adore stamps that don't have a specific theme, I loved the idea of using Maria from the Roll Call kit (retired sorry!) to make this quick card

Maria (TGF Roll Call Kit) 

I colored up little Maria using my TH distress markers and added a bit of shimmer with my wink of stella brush pen. The sentiment I used is also from The Greeting Farm from the Cheeky X-mas set (also retired) stamped in the same distress marker I used to color Maria's little dress. I know I need to practice my CAS cards, but they're just soooo hard. I'm addicted to bling and embellishments, is there a meeting for that sort of thing???? What about you ladies out there, any specific type of card, project, or medium you struggle with? I'd love to know! By the way, there's a new release preview blog hop going on over at The Greeting Farm and I can't wait to see what the creative ladies on the DT have come up with so I'm headed over to hop around, come with me for a chance to win the new release and thanks for stopping by

-Krys

Fall into Fun

Hi guys. Coming at you again with more soggy foggy weather here but I don't dare despair 'cause crappy weather is crafty weather! I've really been getting into the season and what used to be a problem area for me (earth tones) I've been embracing lately. In fact I can't get enough of the warm rich colors of fall, or my latest SOG goodie, the Fall Friends clear set. As promised, another post it note holder, this time featuring Tobi and Tia having fun in Fall

SOG Fall Friends Clear Set

Don't you just love the browns, golds, oranges, and reds of fall? And who doesn't remember playing in leaves as a child? Growing up it was one of my favorite things to do...until it came time to rake them back into a pile and then bag them O.o That part I could have done without, but it sure as heck seemed worth it when you were making that big mess and listening to all the crunching and crackling of those leaves! I used SU! Chocolate Chip as the base, layering pieces of Bazzill heavyweight card shoppe cardstock in the color candy corn on top and finishing with some DP from the DCWV Fall/ Halloween stack. The small leaves and pumpkin as well as the sentiment are all included in the Fall Friends clear stamp set and the bigger leaf was printed from my computer. All images were colored with my copic markers and the leaves and pumkin got a quick shimmer added with my wink of stella clear glitter brush pen. A new "Warm Colors" challenge just perfect for fall colors just opened up over at the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge Blog  and I can't wait to head over there and share. Speaking of sharing, there's still time to enter the October Linky Party if you haven't already, and as you know, you can't win if you don't enter! There's also two more days of the Digi Me contest so if you have some ideas there's a bit more time to share so lets see that creativity, after all who wouldn't love to see their very own idea come to life as a digital stamp? Follow the link for more details. Have a great day all!

-Krys

Fall Friends Flair

Hi ladies, happy Monday and do I have a treat for you guys and I can't wait to show you! It's getting to be that time of year where we have more company in our homes for the holidays and who doesn't love a good excuse to decorate? Since there are so many wonderful Fall themed SOG images, and since fall is in full swing in upstate NY, it inspired me to make some adorable coasters with fall flair to add to the Some Odd Girl October Linky Party

Fall Friends Clear set and Woodsy Mae digi

I got the blank chipboard coasters from the $1 bin at my LCS (5 in a pack). I stamped all the images from the Fall friends clear set on separate coasters, with the exception of of the Woodsy Mae digi. That one I had to print out and transfer onto my coaster using a graphite pencil and one of those scoring tools with the ball on each end and then going over the transferred image in a copic multiliner, finally erasing the graphite left on the coaster. I do NOT recommend this technique very often, it's pretty time consuming. The pumpkin and leaves are all accent stamps included in the fall friends clear set, and using masking I made a stack of pumpkins and a pretty leaf border on one of the coasters to complete the set of coasters. Now for the fun part, COLORING! I used my copic markers to color all of my images and went over some of the leaves with a wink of stella clear brush pen. I finished off the coasters by inking around the edges with a bluish-gray pigment ink to give it the look of a cloudy fall day. All the sentiments were included in the Fall Friends clear set except the Take a Moment to enjoy happiness sentiment, which is from one of The Greeting Farm's 4x6 Sets. I think these would make a great gift for someone, what do you guys think?

Pretty Post-Its

TGIF people! I had a lovely birthday yesterday and even got a lovely and very loud version of happy birthday sang by my hubby and my little monsters when they brought out my cake! Unfortunately I never did get that moscatto I wished for, but that must mean I didn't really need it right? At least that's what I told myself anyway ^.^ Today I have a cute and simple project that will add dazzle to any desk, an easel type post it note holder featuring an SOG digi cutie, Winter Mae

Winter Mae Digi

The tutorial for this little post it note holder can be found here. Since I don't own the envelope die used in the tutorial, I created my own (after much trial and error because I'm horrible at measuring). Winter Mae was colored up using my copic markers and bit of wink of stella for some extra shimmer. The snowflakes were stickers from my stash, placed on white cardstock and cut out for extra stability, then adhered with pop dots. The DP is also from my stash, and since it was kind of a 'busy' pattern to me, I went with only a pearl flourish in the bottom corner for embellishment. The sentiment was printed from my computer. I ended up giving this as a gift to my daughter's teacher and she liked it so much I'm working on a set of them for a few more of the teachers and the school nurse. After all, who doesn't love a pretty post it? Now all that's left to do is pop on over to the Some Odd Girl blog and add my post it project to the October Linky Party and the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge, Pretty Woman.

-Krys

Happy Birthday to Me

Hi there fellow bloggers! The weather is yucky here (humid and soggy) so my birthday isn't looking quite so cheery on the outside but I couldn't be happier. I'm blessed to have lived to see another year, kiss my husband and hug and hold my children another year so soggy or not that's worth celebrating! Besides, it gives me a good excuse for my favorite indoor activities, reading and crafting! Add some white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies and what more could a girl want (other than a nice moscato later tonight ^.^) . In honor of my B day I made another adorable birthday card for the FFF Anything Goes challenge over at The Greeting Farm using their adorable Spooky Kit

TGF's Spooky Kit

I love these little cutie pies, and they are the absolute most un-spooky monsters I've ever seen. Its like putting a pair of plastic fangs on a bunny rabbit and calling him vicious, hilariously cute, but far from scary. Don't you just love their adorable little expressions, like they just can't wait to shout "BOO!" and go into a giggling fit. I seriously just want to tickle these little darlings! I colored up the monster bean using my awesome copic markers and added some eucalyptus stickles here and there. The little monster was not given a name in the set so I have nicknamed her/him 'Boo', after the little girl from one of my favorite Disney cartoons, Monsters Inc. cause its just so darn cute! (I just hate it when things don't have a name, drives me nuts!) I used my fave new fold, (we'll call it a zigzag fold) with some DP from the Bo Bunny Lil Monsters 6x6 pad. The dies are precious stars from memory box. Since I wanted this card to be pretty gender neutral, I dialed down the bling and embellies and just went with a few buttons and a baker's twine bow. The sentiment is from a happy birthday rubber set I got from my LCS but I have no idea what the set was called, I just love the fun font. Well guys I'm off to play around with my Tim Holtz distress markers and hoping to get some more watercolor paper to try out as well. I'm having a hard time finding the right paper for those markers so if anybody uses the distress markers and has a particular favorite that they could recommend, that would be awesome I would greatly appreciate the suggestions. Thanks bunches!

-Krys