Wish I Was Here.....sigh.....

Today is my day off.....got the pesky running-around stuff done earlier and now Bob and I are just hanging out in the stamp room contemplating what class to take in the Fall.  I don't want to take anything too difficult with too much homework (and hopefully with NO dreaded presentations OR group projects), it would be nice if it fulfilled some sort of requirement but I wouldn't be crushed if it were only for "fun".  Only a couple of classes to go before the Final in my current class and then a couple of months of summer freedom before the homework grinds sets in again.

Heidi and I are seriously thinking of trying to do the craft fair at work this year....our card stash is pretty much non-existent so that means we've got to get hopping on the card-making NOW.  Hmmmm, that might be good for the ol' bloggeroony too...............  Oh, I've been busy, and some of it has been with stamping too....it's just that I can't unveil any of it just yet.........I know, I know it's all very mysterious!!

Well it's early enough to get SOMETHING done in the stamp room - Bob is curled up for his early-afternoon nap and The 2 B's are out and about for a few hours...........aaaaaahhhh - the kitters and I just love having the house all to ourselves for a bit.

Have a terrific weekend!

Balloon Spotlight

 

 

Am I becoming a lazy stamper or what?  Well of course not - I'm just utilizing the tools and materials that I have available to me (and Bob) in the ol' stamp room.  

 

But upon further reflection I realize that yes, I AM a lazy stamper - and I've lost some of the whole stamping inspiration...maybe it's just taking a break (at least that's what I HOPE is happening).  I notice that most of the blogs I follow now are about stitchy and hooky (crochet) things.  Just changing the crafty rotation a bit, that's all!

 

So this card is pretty simple, used some VERY inexpensive B&T paper (found in Target's $1 bins!), the stamp is a REALLY old Hero Art's stamp (came in a set and I'm thinking it has to be at least 15 years old!), did the handy-dandy spot-light technique since the B&T is so colorful and then made the two spot-lighted balloons all glossy with diamond glaze.  A bit of orange ribbon (A Muse) was all that was needed to finish up the card. 

 

Easy-peasy!

 



 

 

Even though it's only a couple of balloons, I did a bit of shading with Copics and I generally always use black CS when doing the stop-light technique.  I love the crispness of black against the stamped image on white CS. 

Candles Galore...

 

Remember when A Muse had those "Pretty Little Papers"??  Upon reflection - hugely expensive and nothing that we stampers couldn't have done on our own.  However, it IS fun to get the latest and greatest stuff for your ever-growing stash and about 7 years ago, this was one of the hot items at the LSS. 

 

My what 7 years does for one's level of maturity............my stamping expenditures have taken a very sharp decline and you know what - I don't miss getting the latest and greatest because I really do have a boatload of "stash" at my fingertips. 

 

When I go "shopping" in my huge selection of B&T paper, cardstock, inks, embellishments and yessssss, stamps - it's like treasure-hunting.  I love to re-discover stuff that I absolutely loved upon purchase only to promptly to forget about when the next new sparkly thing caught my eye. 

 

So hey, here's a card that uses some older stash stuff.......stamps & CS from CTMH and Hero Arts, ribbon & PLP from A Muse, candle B&T from ????, Memento Inks, Copics and Stickles. 

 



 

More details although the photo is awfully dark.......sorry about that!

I've been busy with some stitchy stuff - but I've still got a few more cards to post in the near future.  Hope your week goes well!

An Ocean of Thanks!

I was sooooo sad that this wasn't kept in the CTMH catty...........oh well, guess you've got to make room for new stuff, right?  Anyhow, this was a pretty quick and easy card.  I think putting on the Stickles was the most time-consuming part.  Love it when I can whip out a Martha border punch and of course I love the seashell motif. 

I seem to get on a Kraft CS trend and I was on one while making a few Thank You cards.  I think it works well with the whole beachy-thing (Kraft kind of looks like sand, right?).  B&T paper, stamps & Kraft and white CS all by CTMH, inks by Memento and Colorbox (Chalk inks).

Hanging OUT!

Sorry for being MIA (especially as I prattled on about being a better blogger - sheeesh).....all I can say is that I'm a bit dangerous with technology.  As I haven't been so regular with my blogging.....I kind of got lost with all of the Blogger updates and sooooooo, I've been slightly held hostage for the last couple of weeks with NOT knowing how to upload my friggin' photos.  And yikes - the potty-mouthing that was happening in the stamp room as I TRIED to get things to upload.......I about blew Bob's ears back.........

Ahem.......

Anyhow, here's my latest offering.........a little cutie and I do mean leeeeettle......this card measures just 3x3 (I really love square and circle cards.....I'm really drawn to symetry - none of that skewed modern stuff for me).  Love those darling 3D stickers from Doodlebug (but alas, once you use them then you no longer HAVE them.....sigh).  The B&T paper was something that I've had forever.  Sentiment is from Paper Smooches (their fonts are so fun!).  And hey, a monkey with GOOGLE eyes - how could that NOT be fun???

Wildly Wicked

 

Yep, another Christmas gift.....CHRISTMAS?  Why yes indeedy - for Carol who likes all things witchy AND Wicked.  This was actually my first finishing attempt and it gave me the courage to move on to last week's Zombies............little by little, inch my inch.

 

This pattern came from "Just Cross Stitch's 2012 Halloween Ornament" issue.....so see, I'm not the only one who totally digs on Halloweeny things..........hee, hee, hee..........

 



 

Hope you have some wicked good crafty time of your own......!!

That Crazy Karla!





 

 

Zombies?  Seriously?  Wow....really NOT my thing!!  But I've found having a relatively large collection of cross stitch patterns really comes in handy...at the weirdest times!  Wanted to make most of my Christmas gifts and soooooo what can I do?  Crochet, cross stitch, embroidery, stamping and paper crafting.  I decided to mix it up with a bit of crochet and bit of cross stitching. 

 

Why Zombies?  Well because Karla is a sick-O and LIKES the whole Zombie thing....reads books, watches movies and that T.V. show and well, ick..................  But hey, how cool is it that I actually HAVE a Zombie cross stitch pattern in my stash (a huge thank you to the gals at "Raise the Roof"!).  Switched out some of the DMC floss for some hand-dyed fibers (for the whole Zombie mottled-skin look), searched high and low for the perfect worn, distressed Zombie-looking button and found The Perfect fabric (doesn't it just scream ZOMBIES???) for the finishing................ahem........speaking of finishing..............

 

Here's my little secret....while I can stitch like nobody's business I absolutely SUCK at finishing......I have stuff that I've stitched from YEARS ago.  I stitched Creepella the cutest little strawberry house and found the cutest strawberry print fabric and folded it all up nice and neat and presented it to her in a large Ziploc bag.........three YEARS ago..........still haven't finished it into the pillow I promised......what a bad mom I am........ 

 

So THIS year is a year of finishing.........a LOT of things actually - say, do you think that all of those non-finished cross-stitched-completed items are a metaphor for a bunch of things in my life?  Stuff that I've been dragging around for years and years and years???

 

 

Nope, I think it's mostly because I'm lazy and a teeny-tiny bit fearful of actually DOING the finishing stuff - wish me luck in this new adventure in 2013!!

Neck-slinging or Wringing

 

 

 

Well, I guess I wouldn't be actually SLINGING or WRINGING any one's neck, just warming it up a bit!  Here's some of the craftiness that I've been busy with between Finals and Christmas.....oh, and I actually did TWO of the apple green scarves (one for Creepella and one for Heidi).  Used that chunky Homespun yarn and a K-sized hook (feels kind of like Kindergarten crochet).  

 

I edged the scarves with a weird 4-chain scallop stitch.  I like it and so did Gail - I made her the first scarf (very Autumn-y colored and of course I completely forgot to snap a photo) for her b-day in November.  She's a fellow-crocheter and she liked the edging so I took that as a good sign and RAN with it........

 

I'm happy that I've warmed up at least 7 necks (make that 8 including Gail's).......now they'll just need to watch out for those pesky vampires...............!!!

Fresh & New

Isn't the NEW year exciting?  All fresh and new?  Whether you partake in New Year's Resolutions or not, new beginnings (while sometimes terrifying) are pretty ding-dang exciting!  We've (Chef Bo-Bo Head, Creepella and moiself) all have new stuff happening - we're all pretty excited and just a wee bit nervous - but that definitely gets your heart pumping, right? 

While I don't do resolutions myself (why set myself up for failure?) - I do have ideas and goals that are I like to see accomplished within a set time-frame.  In 2012 (aside from getting blasted sideways by the dreaded Statsway class...) I was pretty pleased with the strides I made towards set goals.  There's always room for improvement but let's not get completely bogged down in that.....let's learn from it and move on and on and on. 

I've been a crafty gal since Finals (and I made an 88% on my Final AND earned a B in the class/torture event and am EVER-SO-GLAD the new semester is just around the corner AND I'll be taking a fun AND traditional-style class AND I'll have the best Study-Buddy ever......Creepella!).  I even managed to take a few photos of said crafty items that are fairly blog-worthy...surprise.....actual BLOGGING material!

Creepella has been on a Gilmore Girls marathon since Christmas, I've been fighting her for the remote (trying to catch up on the Burn Notice episodes that we've DVR'd....since LAST season - yikes!!!) and of course we're doing our traditional New Year's Eve/New Year's Day Hordy-Derves and LotR marathon.   In the last week we've seen "The Hobbit" twice and "Breaking Dawn 2" on the big screen for the last time so we're keeping busy with our entertainment outings. 

With that said, hoping 2013 brings everyone loads of healthy happiness -  Cheers!!

Pretty Pretties

 

 

Welllllll, I can't take credit for this cool craftiness......it comes from Creepella - at my request!  Needed some cool earrings for Princess Pamela and Debbie - Pam received the pink presents and Debbie received the cute Snowmen and Christmas trees (I, of course, have received all three pairs for my own collection......). 

 

They were the finishing touches for the Christmas gifties this year.............perfect!

Whew, it's been a while!

Zowwwweeeeeeee it's been quite a long time since I've posted - time flies when, well when you're living life, eh?  Thankfully school is wrapping up for the Holiday Break and I can take a bit of a breathier.  For the last week, I've been super busy with holiday cards and people are retiring left and right (frightfully we're down to one single Retirement card.....).  Heidi and I will be jumping on that next September so that we'll be prepared for the end of year retirements next year.  This year we're just hoping to keep our heads above water. 

 

LOTS of changes happening around here - all for the good but even good changes can cause some stress.........wish us luck!!

 

Now onto the CARD (finally!!)...............this was Creepella's main b-day card.  Another great book-loving gal from Kimmie's (just love these stamps!!).  This one was pretty darn perfect -  a ton o' books & skulls - what more could a girl want?

 

 

Aside from some fun coloring, I kept the card pretty simple - the BEST way to appreciate the skull-i-ness of the embossing folder, right?  Got a great set of sentiments specifically to use for Creepella and Gail - AND I just ordered a book mark set from Taylored Expressions......a book mark and a gift card to B&N, the perfect gifty for lots of people on my shopping list!

 

 

 

As I've said, it 's been ages since I've blogged.  And yikes, there have been a BUNCH of changes to Blogger (I've got to sit down and "re-learn" some of this stuff!!)  Aside from school & work keeping me in a frenzy, I've devoted most of my crafting time to cross-stitching and crochet.  They're both so much more portable than stamping and since I really haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time actually IN my stamp room I've found myself looking elsewhere for a crafting "fix'. 

 

Heidi and I have both been in a weird stamping funk for last few month - I guess we've both been on different paths and had lots of other things that needed our attention but now that winter is finally setting in, I think we're headed back to our cozy crafting hibernation of stamping!

 

Hope all of you have been happy and healthy and have found some crafty fun of your own.  I'll be done with Finals this week and I've got a few items that I think are blog-worthy.....

 

Toodles for now...

Kathy 

Oceans of Fun

Man, I just LOVE these cute little stamps and it seems like I'm ALWAYS forgetting about them!!  Another itty-bitty card for Creepella's b-day week. 

I guess you could call this a "cutesy card".......Doodlebug papers and that darling octopus.....oh well, it's not a crime to be cute (once in a while).

Stamps - Octopus (Snag'em Stamps by Imaginisce); sentiment (CTMH)
B&T paperes - Doodlebug
Ink - Memento
Copics
Stickles
Wave borders - Fiskars
Gemstone - A Muse
Paper flowers - Recollections/Michaels

Sparkle Tree

Yes, another cute & small card.......well, Creepella's b-day week was a WEEK long.

The most amazing thing about this card is the amount of gem-flowers I used....you know how difficult it is for me to share.......and for this card, I used TEN gem-flowers......whew, it just about did me in!!

Since I wasn't hampered with having to make the card fit into an envelope, I got kind of wild & crazy with the clouds............they're over-lapping all over the place and I LIKE it!!

CB and flower gemstones - Hero Arts
CS for grass & butterfly - sparkly scraps
Stamps - Paper Smooches (tree trunk); Cat's Pajamas (sentiment)
Inks - Memento
Martha Stewart Grass border & small butterfly
Cloud Die-cuts - A Muse

Happy 4th of July!



Happy Independence Day to all.  Here's to happy, safe and sane celebrations for everyone! 

Probably should have had a background other than blue but I didn't think of it while taking photos of my 4th of July paper crafting.  I think you can see it well enough though - it's a 3-D foldy sort of decoration...I punched out 10 of the blue stars, and SHOULD have edged them in blue chalk ink BEFORE putting them together but I always seem to forget that step and have to ink the edges AFTER putting it together!!  The red baker's twine is well-suited to the "feel" of the B&T design and finished product.

Here are some of those cool rosettes that you see all over the place now.  I made several small ones (2 strips of 12 inch paper that were 1.5 inches wide (the red one).  I pre-scored the strips using the half-inch guide on the original Scor-pal.  By keeping the width at 1.5 I was able to make 4 rosettes from one sheet of 12 x 12 B&T paper which was way cool as I handed out rosettes instead of a traditional card.  Again I used the red baker's twine for a loop to hang and some stardream CS and star brads for a little center decoration and ta-dah, I was done!

I had so much fun making them (and they were pretty darned quick too), I think I'll make some for Halloween this year.  Since I have a boatload of Halloween B&T, I won't be spending cash-o-la in the way of Halloween decorations this year - wahooooo!!!!

And finally, here's the card that was created from all those bits & bobs from an earlier post.  Very simple design (based on a card that was on the PTI blog) but I tweaked it to fit the supplies I had on hand and the amount of cards I needed to make (I ended up needing 27 to mail and 1 to keep).  Little to no stamping and NO coloring made this a pretty easy card to make.  There were several steps but luckily they were broken down into the easy and manageable steps.  The best thing?  I was able to finish the cards and get them in the mail several days before today (that's a MAJOR accomplishment for me, let me tell you...).

Here's a close up of the star & banner portion for more details and in better lighting:

Sparkly Celebrations to you all!!

Supplies for all items:
B&T paper - CTMH, various others
Cardbase - unknown, it's something I've had for years...it's a rustic white with "specks"
Stamps - CTMH
Inks - Memento, Colorbox chalks
Punches - Marvy (large & mini star); A Muse (smaller pointy stars)
Misc - buttons (sources unknown); Making Memories (star brads)
Embossing Folder - Cuddlebug
Red Baker's Twine - A Muse
Scor-Pal

2 Bad Girls - Cartoon Version

Yes, they're back - the 2 Bad Girls......Lily and Iris........helping to celebrate Creepella's b-day week.  Such a sweet card..........and aren't the stamps so darling?  How ironic that I used them to represent the 2 Bad Girls???

Iris is darker in color, shorter, waaaaaay meaner (can we say abscess-maker???) - she's also pretty stinkin' cute and has lovely amber eyes.

Lily is a love......she's lighter in color, taller, a bit more rotund, has the perfect head for kissing and the prettiest green eyes.

TOGETHER - they usually spell trouble.............just look at them, you know they're up to NO good!!
(Iris-left; Lily-right)

Oh well, they love their girl and they always come through with wonderfully thoughtful gifties (although I've yet to be reimbursed.....).  No matter how "bad" - they're keepers for sure!!

Stamps - Paper Smooches
CS - PTI
Inks - Memento & Colorbox Chalks
Copics
Gemstones & ribbon - A Muse
Heart Punches - Marvy
Embossing Folder - Sizzix