For Monica

My dear friend Monica is recovering from surgery right now. Right after Christmas she was taken to the hospital for what was first diagnosed as a kidney stone. What actually happened was that part of her intestine had collapsed. She had to have surgery to get rid of the collapsed portion of her intestine and sew the rest back together. She was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks and is finally home. She has a long recovery ahead of her (4-6 weeks). So I figured I could start sending her some cards. I am going to try 1 a week - only because I'm making them. Here is the first in my for Monica series.

The whole idea behind this card was from the ATCs I showed you yesterday. I had 10 to make but for some reason stamped and colored 12 images. I really can count - I swear:).

To make this card I started with my extra ATC images. I inked the edges and layered it on pink then again on yellow. Then I cut a piece of striped paper to 4"x5 1/4" and used my Martha Stewart punch on one side of it. Then I layered my pattern paper on yellow card stock. I then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp my sentiment on the pattern paper. Next, I glued down my pattern paper to my A2 card base. I then cut 3 strips of ribbon and folded them in half and glued them to the back of the layered image so the ends stuck out. Then I glued that piece down and I was done.

Supplies :

• stamps - image by Great Impressions (#G133), sentiment by Hero Arts Clear Designs Happy Everything
• paper - KI Memories (It's a Girl Paisley); card stock - Bazzill
• ink - VersaColor brown, VersaFine black
• ribbon - unknown
  

Hope your year is going well so far. Make sure you stop by Jen's blog tomorrow for Sketch Wednesdays - she has some great sketches I hope to play along more this year.

Happy Crafting,
Kimmy

Thank you ATCs

For those of you new to ATCs they are Artist Trading Cards. They measure 2 1/2"x3 1/2". On the back you are to put your information along with what swap it's for or the series name and number them 1 of (how every many you make). Then you trade them with friends or in a swap. They can be used for card fronts, decorating things, or just keep a collection of them. Some people think of them as mini pieces of art - which is really what they are.

I am fairly new to the ATC making. I have only made 3 so far. Of course one of the 3 designs I made 10 of for a swap so I made 12 so far :) This week I had to make some Thank you ATCs for a friend of mine, and here is what I came up with:

This was super easy to make. I stamped and colored in my image with Prismacolor pencils blended with Gamsol (my favorite coloring technique). Then I cut the image out and inked the edges with brown. I then glued the image to the top center of my ATC. Next I cut a strip of beige ribbon and stamped Thank You on it in brown ink. The full sentiment was "Thank you very much" so I had to ink only the "thank you " part. I then glued the ribbon to the lower left corner and that was it.

Supplies :

• stamp - image by Great Impressions (#G133); sentiment by Hero Arts (#c2633) Thank You Very Much
  
• card stock by Bazzill
• ribbon by Bobbie M. Designs

Have you made any ATCs? I would love to see them! Let me know what you think? Anything you want to see me try - just let me know.

Check in tomorrow to see what else I made with this stamp.

Happy Crafting,
Kimmy

Fun-Filled Friday Challenge Announcement

A New Year and many more new Fun-Filled Fridays ahead! I am very excited we decided to keep it going. I have some different ideas in mind - new techniques I have been too scared to try and some that I just never heard of. I hope you will decide to play along by participating or giving us some ideas you would like to see us try.

For any of you who may be new to my blog or Jen's blog (Ink n Scrap Habits) I'll get you up to speed on the whole Fun-Filled Friday thing. We are very good friends and started blogging about the same time - we both have been paper crafting for years. We decided to start Fun-Filled Fridays where we would take turns challenging each other ever week to a different technique, sketch, theme or what ever we could think of.

So here's how it works - every Sunday we post the challenge for the week and every Friday we post what we made for the challenge. We love seeing what you come up with and hearing your thoughts on our creations - so feel free to post critiques and comments or even a link to your own version of our challenge. We even have blog candy from time to time. Now on with this weeks Challenge:

This week Jen is challenging me to give Gate Folded cards a try. Can you believe I have been paper crafting for years now and haven't made a gate folded card yet! I even have a Scor Pal - Hello why haven't I done this yet? Make sure you check in Friday to see what we come up with. Since I got my camera all figured out now and my company is gone I should be posting on-time.

As you may have read one of my resolutions this year is to be a better blogger. I am not promising daily posts but I do promise to post much more frequently. I have also been playing with the idea of starting one of these 365 blogs. A bunch of Shackies have already started them. You take a picture everyday and post it on your blog with some thoughts or just tell everyone what your up to. (If you don't know what Shackies are they are members of The Stamp Shack. The Stamp Shack is an online community for rubber stampers) Like I said I haven't decided yet, what do you think? Of course it would be more about me then my creations. Any thoughts? Anyone else out there giving this a try?

Well, since it's Sunday and I don't have to work until 11pm, maybe I can get working on my card now. Oh to finally get ahead with my cards - that would be great!

Happy Crafting,
Kimmy

Get well wishes (finally)

This weeks fun-filled-Friday challenge was to make a get well card. This is what I came up with:



To make this card I colored in the image with Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits (I got this image from an image swap). Then I cut out the image and layered it on pink card stock. Next, I layered that on purple bling card stock but offset it a big. Next I punched out the wish using my Around the Block punch. I then used the circle nesties to cut out the punched wish and layer it. Then I cut my pattern paper to 4" x 5 1/4". Then I stamped part of my Get well sentiment on pink card stock and layered it on purple bling card stock a little offset to match my image. (The full sentiment was Get Well Soon, so I only inked up the Get Well part that I wanted) Finally I glued all my pieces on the A2 card base. Don't forget to check out Jen's Get Well card.

Supplies :

• stamps : image - House Mouse by Stampabilities; sentiment - All Night Media "get well soon"
• card stock : Bazzill, Bazzill Bling
• paper : KI Memories - Posh Tilted
  
• miscellaneous : punch - Around The Block Wish punch embosser; Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, Versafine black ink, All Night Media purple ink.
  

***I am so happy to finally post this card! The whole no camera thing has been making me crazy, I have so much to share. And I think I have this camera pretty figured out after playing around with it all day. It's not so bad after all - minus the fact that it's pretty big. ***

So I know it's a bit late, but have you made a get well card lately? I would love to see it. Got any challenges for us for the New Year? Let me know what you would like to see on my blog.

Happy Crafting,
Kimmy

3x3 Wishes!

This weeks Fun Filled Friday challenge was to make 3x3 cards. I have made inchies in the past so this was easier than that, but 3 inches isn't much of a work space. About a month ago I found this adorable clear stamp set at Walmart and thought I could put it to use for this challenge - so I came up with this Warm Wishes card :


To make this card I stamped my image on smooth white card stock with black in and colored it with Prismacolor pencils blended with Gamsol. Then I cut out the image and layered it on purple card stock then again on turquoise card stock. Next I cut my pattern paper to measure 2 5/8" x 2 5/8" and layered that on purple then on turquoise card stock leaving a 1/16" border each time. I then glued the layered pattern paper on my purple 3x3 card base. Next I used Pop Dots to adhere my layered image. Then I added the sentiment "warm wishes" on the inside of the card. Finally I added some stickles to the snowflake on the front and let it dry - I gotta have a little bling:)
Supplies :

• Stamps - Walmart
• paper - Reminisce Snowflake Harlequin
• card stock - Bazzill
• miscellaneous - black Versafine ink, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, Stickles

I had a lot of fun making this card - pretty quick and easy. Have you made a 3x3 card? I would love to see it!

Stay tuned for the next Fun-Filled Friday Challenge Announcement on Sunday. I have a whole day of crafting planned for Saturday so make sure you stop by to see what I have been up to. I have swaps to finish and challenges to fulfill.

Happy Crafting,
Kimmy

I almost have it together

Well I have my card for this week finished ahead of time -yay me! So I am working on pictures for last weeks card and this weeks card. We still haven't bought a new camera but my hubby brought our old camera home from work. I never really learned how to use this one so bare with me it's going to take some getting used to. I also have to re-install the printer so I can download the pics from the memory card which is going to take me a little while. For some reason this older camera didn't have a USB connector. And our printer was giving us some serious problems. If all else fails I'll go back to taking not so great pics with hubby's cell phone. Ugh!!! Sometimes technology doesn't seem to work in my favor.

On the bright side - I'm feeling better and even went to a card class with my girlfriend Kathy. We had fun and the class included a stamp. Today I am planning on finishing up some cards for a sympathy card swap - of course that is if my computer/camera issues don't take all day:) Kathy also reminded me of our challenge to each other this year - 5 Christmas cards a month. Since DH is working tonight and tomorrow night I am hoping to bury myself in my studio and get a little ahead.

Let's talk resolutions. Did you make any this year? If so what are they? Here's mine :
1. Stay with my diet - 30 lbs down and 30 more to go. I wavered a little through the holidays but didn't gain so now I have to get back on track.
2. Get physical! I need to get back into my gym routine. I was very consistently going at least 3 days a week and a day or two at home. I got a minor case of winter blues and can't seem to get motivated again.
3. Blog more frequently. I have a few ideas for weekly posts which should be showing up in the next few weeks - sorry for the delay with company, the holidays, overtime, and getting sick I just had no time - I'm finally moving forward :)
4. GET PUBLISHED!!! I actually have quite a few cards ready for submission but they have not yet made it to the mailbox but soon they will.

Stay tuned for pictures. And cross your fingers I get everything figured out with this camera.

Happy crafting,
Kimmy

I'm a baaaaad blogger

Well, I want to apologize for what a bad blogger I have been. My parents were staying with us for a couple weeks and left on New Years Day. I has switched some days at work so I could spend more time with them. I have been working everyday since New Years Day and I don't get a day off until Wednesday. I work 12 shifts on midnights so by the time I get home, I really don't have much energy to craft. I also am fighting a cold or something that is really wearing me out. I have pretty much been coming home and sleeping until it's time to get ready for work again. Not a very fun week trust me.

In all my business and not feeling well I still haven't completed my Get Well card so that will be posted as soon as it's finished.

Now for this week challenge - 3x3 cards. This challenge was given to us by our friend Kathy. Kathy doesn't have a blog yet, but is one of our Shackie buddies. She has promised to play along with this challenge too.

Do you have any challenges you would like to see? How about a 3x3 card you could share with us? If so post it in the comments. And I as soon as I am done with my really long week of work (and feeling better) I'll be posting some new stuff.

Happy Crafting
Kimmy