A KISS of Inspiration Day 3: Hark the Herald!

Hi All! Welcome to Day 3 of the Kraft-y Hearts' KISS Blog Share. If you haven't been over to Lynn's Blog, From My Bungalow, yet, you'll want to make sure to stop by. She has a fantastic give away for you!

Meanwhile, here's a look at today's bit of inspiration:

Folks, if you haven't picked up a copy of Make It From Your Heart vol. 1 (or 2), I would so encourage you to do it. These books are full of inspirational sketches that make creating beautiful cards and layouts a snap.

Today's card is inspired by sketch 21 on page 43 in Make It From Your Heart, vol 1., and the Sing Glory hostess stamp set. The card base is a standard size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches in Colonial White cardstock. The pattern papers are from the Yuletide Carol paper pack and are layered on top of New England Ivy cardstock. I inked around all of the layers with Champagne Exclusive Ink to make the card feel a little more vintage. I then stamped the angel in VersaMark Ink and heat embossed her using gold embossing powder. I cut out part of her arm and trumpet to give her a more dimensional look, and popped the layers up using regular dimensional adhesive. The sentiment is stamped in Cranberry Exclusive Ink and popped up on thin dimensional adhesive so that it fits nicely under the angel.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And here's one more look at the card:

Now hop on over to see what the oh-so-talented Lynn Darda has in store for you, and leave a comment so that you can enter to win her awesome give-away.

We'll see you tomorrow as the KISS Blog Share continues....

12 Days of Christmas: Day 6

 Hello Everyone! Welcome to DAY 6 of the Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share. I hope you're enjoying the projects and getting inspired to make your own holiday goodies!

Today's project is the final card that I made using Close To My Heart's Pear & Partridge Card kit.

I changed this card up a little from the instructions in the kit. I'm not a big fan of covering the entire front of a card with single piece of paper. I like the layered look. So I cut the Cocoa cardstock to 5 1/4 x 4 inches to use as the base. I liked the Cranberry cardstock hanging over the edges of the Cocoa base a bit, so it is cut at 5 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches. The pattern paper is cut  at 4 x 2 inches, I believe. The stamp is my favorite part of this card. I love the graphics! (Confession: I initially bought the kit for this stamp!) It's stamped in Cocoa ink and given some extra sparkle with the red gems that are included in the kit. (In fact everything you seen on this card is included in the kit except the ink, acrylic blocks used in stamping and the adhesive. It's a fantastic kit!) I stamped the sentiment again in Cranberry ink and cut out the "A Merry Little" flag and popped it up using dimensional adhesive. Before putting it all together, I inked around the edges of all the paper with a little more Cocoa ink.

Here's a close-up:

So what do you think? Leave me a comment to be entered in my give away that I'll be conducting on 12/12/12. (The winner will receive a Capture the Date stamp set and a Chocolate Exclusive Ink dye ink pad!)

If you haven't been over there yet, you definitely want to go see what my hugely talented friend Lynn is up to at From My Bungalow! Prepare to be inspired!

12 Days Of Christmas: Day 3

Happy Monday! Are you ready for Day 3 of the Kraft-y Hearts 12 Days Blog Share? Be sure to visit the super talented Lynn Darda at From My Bungalow for more inspiration!
Today's project is a holiday card that I made using the Pear & Partridge Card Kit from Close To My Heart.




The stamps, pattern paper, cardstock, ribbon and bling are all included in the card kit. The background for the card was created using the second generation stamping technique. The background, holiday greeting and edges were all done in Cocoa Exculsive ink. The packages are in Cranberry and Olive Exclusive inks.

Here is a close-up:




I hope you enjoyed this little piece of Monday inspiration. Don't forget that we will be drawing a prize-winner for blog candy on 12-12-12! The winner will be chosen from among the commenters. What is the candy? (So glad you asked!)

The winner will receive a brand new Capture the Date Stamp Set along with a Chocolate Exclusive ink pad!





So please leave your comments! And don't forget to visit Lynn for more fun projects!

A Little Card Inspiration...

Okay, so I was planning to post weekly reviews of the cards I created for the Memory Works 30 Cards, 30 Days challenge, but then life intervened. What is it John Lenon is supposed to have said? "Life happens while you're making other plans." And so it goes.

I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites today, since it's the last day of the challenge. If you want to see all 30, feel free to visit me at The Feast.

So here's a little sampling:

The Colonial White tag was cut from the Artiste Cartridge and stamped in Cranberry Exclusive ink with the October Stamp Of The Month set. I added a little Cranberry and Colonial White grosgrain ribbon to each tag.

This card was made using the November Stamp Of The Month set. Using Cranberry Exclusive ink, I used a 2nd generation stamping (stamping on a separate piece of paper before stamping the project) for "december." I then stamped "25" at full strength. I added a bit of Cranberry grosgrain ribbon for fun.

This card utilizes the October Stamp Of The Month set again. I cut the mittens using the Artiste Cartridge. I cut four mittens and did a first generation stamp on two and a second generation on two using Cranberry Exclusive ink. I then cut the tops of the first generation and popped them up on the second. It's a nice little contrast using just one color. (Love that!)

For this card I cut the embellishments from Colonial White cardstock using the Artiste cartridge. The bottom layer is stamped in Cranberry Exclusive ink using a stamp from the October Stamp Of the Month set. The Olive layer was stamped with one of the Artiste collection sets, and "J," "O," and "Y" are stamped in Cranberry using the Vintage Type set. The first two layers are popped up with dimensional adhesive and the letter are then popped up on those.

For this card, I used stamps from the Pear & Partridge Card Kit. The ornaments are stamped in Cranberry, Bamboo, and Olive Exclusive inks. The sentiment is also stamped in Olive. I drew the strings and added a tiny gem. the little banner was made with Silver Shimmer Trim.

Hope you enjoyed the peek. Don't forget that tomorrow kicks off the first day of the Kraft-y Hearts' 12 Days of Christmas Blog Share. 

See you then!

Yuletide Week In Review

Hi All! Here's the week in review of my cards for the 30 Days, 30 Cards challenge. I thought I would highlight the Close To My Heart products that I used in each of them for you.

(November 4th)

This card uses the Bundled Buddies and Snow Flurries stamp sets (both retired) from Close To My Heart for the animals and trees (stamped in brown staz-on ink). I colored the animals with our alcohol ink markers (Autumn Terracotta, Olive, Indian Corn Blue, Twilight, and Blush) and a white opaque gel pen, and added a little glitter gel to the hats. I sponged the trees with New England Ivy Exclusive ink.

(November 5th)

This card uses the little ornament stamps from the Pear & Partridge Card Kit Workshop, stamped in Bamboo, Gray Flannel, and Cranberry Exclusive inks. (Gray Flannel Exclusive has retired, but Whisper Exclusive ink would work just as nicely.) {be merry} is stamped in Olive Exclusive ink using the Glamour Lower Case alphabet stamped set.

(November 6th)

The sentiment for this card is from the October Stamp Of The Month set and is stamped in Olive Exclusive ink.

(November 7th-front)

(November 7th-inside)

The sentiment on the front of the card is from the October Stamp Of the Month using Chocolate Exclusive ink. I masked off part of the sentiment and added ellipses. The inside sentiment is stamped using words from one of the Art Philosophy Cartridge Collection stamp sets. To tie it all together, I added ellipses, an ampersand, and an exclamation point using a brown marker.

(November 8th)

Here I once again used a sentiment from the October Stamp Of The Month (I hope you were able to get this little gem of a set!) and stamped it in Cranberry Exclusive ink, with a little off-set second generation stamping to give it a vintage 3D look.

(November 9th)

For the sentiment on this card, I used the Glory to God stamp set, stamped in Olive Exclusive ink.

(November 10th)

This card would look gorgeous in Pear & Partridge papers and Cranberry cardstock! The ribbon is Colonial White gros grain (currently on the While Supplies Last list). The sentiment is from the Pear & Partridge Card Kit workshop set and is stamped in Cocoa Exclusive ink. (This stamp set will be a go-to Christmas set for me for a long time. It's worth the kit alone!) I added some Opaque Pearl Gems for a little extra bling. It was such a fun and simple card to make, I'll probably use it to round out the last of my Christmas cards, using Pear & Partridge and probably Dakota papers. I'll post the results when I'm done.

I hope you enjoyed this bit of inspiration. For full details of the cards, visit me at The Feast. To order any of the above products, click on the links or feel free to browse here.