Party like a rock star

I just love this saying & when my best friend's hubby turned 50  & the theme for his party was to wear glasses I decided I was going to use Stampin' Up!'s Marquee Messages for the card, as when I bought the stamp set I bought it to make masculine cards & I hate making masculine cards (don't we all) but this was a great set to whip up a card but I did a bit of fussy cutting & popped some of the images up with dimensionals.

I can't believe it I didn't take a picture inside the card but it used the saying from the set "Party Like a Rock Star" and a few stamped images of sunglasses from the Day At The Beach stamp set (also SU!)

I must admit I made the card not that masculine but thought it had to be sparkly as a BIG 50 party & it's not every day you turn 50

All supplies are SU! apart from the glitter paper which is American Crafts which is called Powder but it matches the Soft Sky card stock really nicely.

I really like to dress up so decided we'd go a bit silly with our sun glasses. I found these fab daisy sunglasses at Look Sharp & if you're going to wear silly sunglasses you might as well find a matching costume to go with the glasses & I loved my boho hippy gal outfit & then I had a yellow wig in my dress up box at home. So not sure if I looked like a rock star but I partied like I was one. Happy big 50 Paul! I had a blast & hope you did too.

Well I have 6 birthdays in one week so I am into mass production of birthday cards at the moment which are all using the same design but different DSPs. Times like this I just want to hug my MISTI! So will be back to share them later in the week.

Thanks for popping in.
✿ Karen ✿

Southern Girls Challenge - Let's Go Retro - Smash that Stash!

I'm really proud & excited to announce that I am on the Design Team for Southern Girls for 2017. This challenge was started by a couple of kiwis Louise & Tracy way back in August 2010.

Today's challenge is a  RETRO challenge, designed to have you digging into your stash and getting rid of some of those older supplies that might be hanging around unloved. So for this fortnights challenge we would love to see you use some Buttons and or Brads on your projects.  Remember we are not just a card blog, we love to see scrapbook layouts, art journal pages and all types of papercraft.

The rules are pretty simple so do click on the Southern Girls pic above or on the LHS of my blog to take you to the challenge site & check out all the design team's cards, tags & even a scrapbook page using buttons or brads.

I'vs used one of the sponsor's digital images & I know exactly who is getting this card my delightful great niece Tyla-Marie who has been reminding me via Messenger for weeks she is turning 13 this coming weekend.

So this is Little Star by ppinky dolls:

I had a wee problem with a new Wink of Stella pen adding a huge drop of sparkle to my right cloud, so I mopped it up & added more outside the left  one too. At the time I was like OMG as it was the day before I had to submit my card, but I have to be honest I really like the look now. Maybe I'll start a new trend!! I added some glossy accents to make her boots all shiny as well.

Well this challenge was a challenge as I've never coloured such a complicated face or hair before & I know I have a long way to go with my colouring but I'm really happy how she has turned out. The digital image actually has a lot of shading which makes it easy to colour up. I've added some wee dots to that adorable wee bunny to add a bit of texture & again I love how s/he turned out too.

So I hope you can join in on the Retro challenge (see the SG Challenge site for the rules) and as always we have  2 amazing sponsors for this challenge, so there's goodies to be won too .....

✿ Karen ✿

So, so in love with Beautiful You

I went to a  launch party at my friend Debbie Lamb's place last Sunday & got to play with the new stamp set Beautiful You which I think is the most pinned stamp set on Pinterest from the new Occasions Catalogue from Stampin' Up!

 I also got to play with the new watercolour pencils from SU! I was going to resist buying them as I thought I could colour the girl with my Copics when I got my own stamp set. That was a great theory until I tried them, thanks Debbie!!

 I am no expert at watercolouring pencils but was blown away by how creamy they were & so easy to use. We just scribbled on a bit of colour & then using an aqua painter pulled the colour out I went back in when it dried & added a bit more depth of colour at the sides & folds.

The skirt is just a splodgey stamp in the set, so a really quick & easy card to whip up which was just as well as the ladies in attendance were so busy chatting about Christmas & New Year we nearly forgot to make our free make n' take but I think we all whipped one out in 15 mins easily.

The DSP used is also one of the freebies from the Sale-a-bration (SAB) catalogue. I do love SAB as for every $110 I spend I get something free, and who doesn't love free ;)

Recipe (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamp set: Beautiful You
Ink: Stazon Black, Calypso Coral pad & watercolour pencil
Paper: Whisper White, Carried Away DSP (SAB)
Other: Aquapainter, dimensionals

Thanks Debbie for a fun & happy afternoon chatting with a wee bit of crafting thrown in.

✿ Karen ✿

My happy Christmas mail

Just sharing today the hand created cards I received for Christmas 2016. I'm not sure where you all live but in New Zealand NZ Post has reduced our mail deliveries to every 2nd day. We all get too much mail delivered to our computers in this modern age. I still love receiving mail & especially if it's hand-made so a BIG thank you to my friends who sent me a card but a BIGGER thank you to those who MADE me a card for Christmas.

I'm just going to post these in the order I snapped them. If they have a blog their name will be bolded & hyper-linked.

From my friend Debbie Lamb, lots of gold embossing, foil & a fab Santa bringing me gifts & he did as he also had a few wee catalogues as a surprise with the card, which made me real happy to see.

From my friend & work colleague Frances Murray who brightens the end of my working day as she arrives at 5am at the start of her working day. It's always nice to have a natter & a drink with a fellow crafter. I'm pretty sure this is my Memory Box Grand Madison window box which she borrowed, teamed with Stampin' Up!'s falling snow EF & sleigh ride edgelits & matching words. I know she wanted to create a snow-scene looking out the window.

From my friend Donna Griffiths, who printed off this image & then coloured it all up with pencils beautifully, what a lot of work but so adorable:

From my friend Rachael Knight a stunning card using a stamp set I din't even like when I saw it in the last mini catalogue from SU! called Frosted Medallion I really like their new in-colour sugarplum something (you can tell I'm no longer a demo). I also really like that the panel is not square it really adds something to the card.

From my friend Sally Williams, Stampin' Up!'s cookie cutter punch & deer.

Each of these cards bought a smile to my face so thank you all for taking the time to make & send me a card.
✿ Karen ✿

Last Christmas Elf

LOL that title sounds a bit like the last bugle post call but nothing so complicated. This is the  card I created for my Pete for Christmas and I used the 3rd elf in the MFT Santa's Elves set. I had always wanted to use one of the sentiments that come in the set for his card & had all the elements coloured up & hidden somewhere in my craft room, knowing he'd never find it. As it turned out I ended up making the card on Christmas Eve when I had a few minutes to spare & I wasn't at all happy with my stenciled star background, as the stars were bigger than I wanted but I didn't have more time to do it again.

The colours I coloured in this wee elf are really the same colour combos I used in my original Christmas elf post. The hat is the dark blue colour combo.

I've used my white Signo gel pen to make the jacket spotted. And the fab stitched dotted circle is an old MFT one that is now retired but I found one for sale on e-bay & snaffled it up awhile ago. I really like it as it makes a nice change from the usual stitched look that is very prevalent. I made the banner myself using my square punch again, one day I will buy myself some banner dies (or not).

The base card stock is Pacific Point from Stampin' Up!

Recipe:
Stamp: BB Santa's Elves (MFT)
Ink: Memento Black, various Copics, Tumbled Glass distress ink
Paper: XpressIt blending card, Pacific Point(SU!)
Other: Stitchable Dot Circle STAX (MFT), Wink of Stella glitter pen, Signo white gel pens, Lots of Stars stencil (Create A Smile), Clarity stencil brush, dimensionals

I'll blog the fab homemade cards I received in the next day or 2. I'm going to try & make a few Christmas cards every month this year to ease the pressure at the silly season & also use some of those other stamp sets that I bought to make Christmas cards last year & didn't use. This certainly will not be the "last post" for the Santa's Elves from MFT as they are so adorable.

Thanks for popping by.
✿ Karen ✿

More Christmas Elves

This was my card design this year & I just loved colouring up the My Favorite Things BB Santa's Elves, (apparently BB = Birdie Brown).

I tried to colour up every elf in a different colour combo so every recipient got their own unique elf from me but then it was OMG when I went to die cut them out, being an older set the die was a solid image & even though I thought I had lined the image up properly I'd lose a bit of his ear or bell :(

I was just about in tears as I had spent days colouring them up. I wish I had asked on the MFT page in Facebook before cutting them all out as the answer was so easy. With the older style solid dies you actually cut out on a spare piece of thick card stock the shape, then you place that over your coloured up image then put the die in & run all through the die cutting machine. It wasn't hard when you knew how but a few of the elves that were too wonky ended up on Christmas tags. Catherine Pooler has done a YouTube video if you want to see what I'm talking about.

It was an easy design once you knew how to die-cut out your elves, I just used up corresponding bits of left over DSP for the background circle. I made banners using again scraps of card stock. The sentiment is from an Avery Elle stamp Retro Ornaments.

I'll list the Copic Combos starting at the top LHS for the elves' hats & jackets.
Yellow: Y11, Y15, Y19
Orange: YR21, YR15, YR68
Teal Blue: BG10, BG11, BG13, BG49
Blue: B00, B04, B06
Violet: V12, V15, V17
Green: YG03, YG17, YG67
Red: R24, R46, R39
Darker blue: B32, B24, B28

I used my gold Wink of Stella for the wee bell and a clear one for the hat fur.

It's making me feel all Christmasy-again looking at my wee elves they are just so adorable. I'll share another design I created with the set in the next day or two.

Thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿

Surprise Christmas Elf

Hi everyone & happy 2017 - where does the time go pre-Christmas, as I can see it's been a while since I last blogged. I'm sure you all know the answer to that question! I hope you all had a very happy festive season. I was able to share Christmas day with members of my family, Pete's family & even friends who would have been alone on the day, so I felt truly blessed to be surrounded by those I love.

Santa AKA me was very kind & shouted myself a new laptop, so I'm getting to grips with it & transferring and loading stuff I use & I hate to say the older I get the less confidence I have with technology but think we're all up & running now for 2017.

So over the next few days I'll share the cards I made plus received for Christmas 2016. Now as I want to ease myself back into blogging I'll take it easy today & share this really cute Christmas elf I found in a friend's stash which I loved colouring up. I've now added her to my ever growing wishlist as I think a few more friends deserve to get in her in their letterboxes next year.

Recipe:
Stamp: Little Elf  (Penny Black)
Ink: Memento Black, various Copics
Paper: XpressIt blending card, Real Red (SU!)
Other: Wonky Stitched Rectangles (MFT), Wink of Stella glitter pen

Copics Used:
Red: R24, R46, R39
Green: YG21, YG25, YG17
Fur: C00, C1, C2
Skin: E000, E53, BV00
Cheeks: R20

Even now she makes me smile just looking at her, she is a real cutie elf.
✿ Karen ✿