Quick and Easy Christmas Card

Just sharing today a quick and easy card I made at a class with Kristine McKnickle aka Creative Stamping. I made it a free event she hosted to celebrate the mid-winter Sale-a-bration that SU! held this year!

I have to be honest that the dies we used were something I had overlooked in the SAB brochure but were probably the best item everyone should have chosen. They were a 24 set of dies called Tree Lot dies and coordinated with Trees For Sale stamp set. As well as the tree there were lots of other cute dies including the caravan and wee wreath. I must admit I don't really like fiddly but this was surprisingly easy to put together and oh so cute!! It was also created on a notecard that SU! sell, so smaller card.

I have posted this away to some good friends that go camping in their motor home all the time but blogging to keep a record as this is actually one of my favourite SU! cards I made at class this year.

I have to be honest I can't remember the colours we used but my best guess is Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler (or Real Red) looking at the snap.
✿ Karen ✿

KRafterific Sunday

Hi everyone just sharing the fun Sunday afternoon I spent just trying things out with my stamping buddy Sarah.

First up was lunch, I re-KReated a fun tomato tart I got in my meal box from My Food Bag this week, which is so easy and so tasty. 

• Slice a red onion finely and fry on a medium heat for approx. 6 mins until lightly brown. Then add 1 Tbsp of brown sugar and 1Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Allow the onions to caramelise (1-2 minutes). Turn off the heat.
• Bake blind some ready made puff pastry, remove the end of the roll to make a square and use the offcuts to add a small edge to all 4 sides. Use the back of a fork to press down lightly.
• Bake for approx. 10 minutes at 220oC.
• Whilst pastry cooking slice tomatoes (enough to cover pastry).
• When the pastry is raised remove from oven and sprinkle over the caramelised red onion followed by the tomato slices, crumble over the top some feta cheese and cook another 10 minutes. Serve with a salad.

After lunch it was play time. I had recently made a cool box at a class with Kristine McNickle which she called an all-angles no-adhesive gift box, you can see Kristine's box HERE.

Now I wanted something bright and cheery for Christmas not dark and grungy, so with my template in hand we tried reKReating it. It has some folds on the outer edge and it took awhile for my poor old brain to remember we made the "W folds" using an old fashioned embossing stylus, a pencil to make a mark and a ruler. Then we had problems with my Copics splurting ink when we were colouring the cute wee beach Santa from Lawn Fawn's Beachy Christmas. But even so it looks really cute and I am very comfortable I can whip this up no problem. If you would like to know how to create the box you could contact Kristine directly (I don't like sharing other people's templates) or you could check out this fab box Sandra Pedersen created which has step by step instructions but she uses glue but it looks the same and great pics of how you fold it which is actually one of the more difficult aspects of "how to do it". You can see Sandra's box HERE. She calls it s trapeze box.

We then made a tag and I finally got to use my jingle bells I bought sometime ago from SU. The tag is a die from CTMH and the stamp set is Christmas sELFies from MFT Stamps. I wanted to have a go at colouring with pencils especially the white on Kraft card stock. I loved it so going to visit Gordon harris and buy some more colours. I have a few Polychromos and Prismacolours I use to enhance my Copic colouring in my classes. I liked the Prismacolours best they were creamier and easier to apply. As I didn't have a very light brown I used a ZIG real colour brush marker (Flesh colour) and applied a very light cover. I could see that it was making the ink bleed a bit so tried not to be too heavy as had used Early Espresso ink from SU! to stamp our selfie image as we assumed we were just using pencils to colour.

✿ Karen ✿

Easter treats for me :)

Firstly Happy Easter everyone. I'm really looking forward to my 4 days of work & catching up with family & friends & a bit of KReating! I was rapt to find a special delivery for me just before the break & even more overjoyed when I saw what was inside the box - a beautiful thank you card & an Easter bonnet from Kristine McNickle for me - thanks Kristine they really made  my day.

Kristine has been very clever & has converted our containers that our buttons & brads come in,  into Easter bonnets filled with wee candy eggs. She's embellished them with Primrose Petals satin stitched ribbons & a few flowers from the Flower Trim strip.

And the beautiful chalkboard card she's created using Blooming With Kindness. Absolutely perfect timing as my next class is "chalkboard technique".