My fellow stampers!

Happy Saturday! I thought I'd share a few creations made by some of my favorite stampers...my friends who share a love of fresh rubber (and acrylic!), juicy ink and a crisp clean image! Here are some of the 3x3's that we made for our last swap: Great job goes out to Becky, Wendy, Roxanne and Deby (mine's the purple one in back...click to see it!) Keep reading for the rest of them!

And in the next few photos, I've spotlighted my friend Kathy G. These cards include her 3x3's which are always meticulously cut out and carefully planned! One of the cards is from the last swap, but the bird theme made me want to post them together! Kathy is a talented seamstress and she helped us with my daugter's prom dress! She applies every bit of her craftsmanship to all her creations. You are also seeing the card she made me for my birthday...isn't it scrumptious!?(It's cuttlebugged, versamarked and embossed!)Whoa!

And finally, one of my favorite 3x3's designed by my friend Ann D! Isn't this JUST adorable?? I showed Ann how to paper piece awhile back....and she used her newfound talent on her swap card. I just love Snoopy and Woodstock! And isn't that car just the best "vehicle" for paper piecing!! LOL!! As I had two "slots" in the swap, I ended up with two cards. Lucky me!!

This one is the sentiment inside...cute clip, huh?!

If you think hanging out with all this amazing talent is easy....you'd be right!! Quite a blessing!

Americana and some music :)

HI! Thanks to those of you who checked out my picture gallery over at CHF! I don't think I've put all of them on my blog before, but many of them have appeared here once before. Here's a few more cards I've made for the Backgrounder challenges over at Cornish Heritage Farms....



This is my Americana kisses card! I have loved red, white and blue (and thus flags) since I was a kid...my mom's birthday is July 4th! And I LOVE fireworks! So anytime I can use red, white and blue for anything it's a good time!


This challenge was to use the "kissing" technique...that's where you ink up a backgrounder, then using a solid stamp like my houses, you press the two together so that you end up with ink on the solid stamp from the backgrounder!! Instant smooching!! Then you stamp your solid stamp onto paper and voila...a designer image!! The stars were almost solid images...they actually have vertical lines...when I inked up and kissed the Canvas BGer from CHF, it made a grid-like pattern...cool, huh? The wide strip behind the stars and houses is the actual BGer design. I used the Primitive Beginnings set again (love it!) for most of the card, although the flourish is from SU's Baroque Motif. What think ye? :)

Here's a card that required stamping a backgrounder on something other than paper....I used acetate to make a little 3x3. CHF is actually going to sell really GREAT, heavy duty acetate in 8.5x11" sheets for cardmaking, and let me tell you....this is GOOD! I use overhead projection sheets and they really aren't heavy enough to use. They work, but it will be nice to have it be a good quality "stock". I am excited to use the new stuff...it comes out on Friday with the BGers I think...I'll let you know!

Anyway with this card I used CHF's Music BGer and, although I'm trying to use only CHF stamps for their challenge, I HAD to use this little "note" for the card...it comes from an old SUtag set. I really like the look of it. Simple and kind of elegant.

Thanks again for taking a peek! More to post tomorrow, if I can carve the time out!

Blessings, all!!

And round and round we go......

Have any of you tried these Carousel notes from SU?? They are very addictive! And they are HUGE!! The envelope they fit in are 6 x 6" squares! With my vacation time, I have had more time to stamp and decided to give these carousels a whirl!! :)


I made this one for one of my favorite stampers in the WORLD, Gina K...in case you haven't seen her new stamps, Kindred spirits, you HAVE to get over there!! She is such a tremendous business woman and now with this stamp release...well, let's just say she will revolutionize rubber stamp images with these real to life stamps of woman of all shapes, sizes, ages and heritages....to follow the journey of introduction to this absolutely fabulous set on her blog, click >>here!<< and if you like recipes, plan to have your printer hooked up and going while you travel!!


By the way, the stamps on this first card are from one of my other favorite stamp companies, Papertreyink. The sentiment is from Mixed Messages; the pot and stems from Green Thumb and the ladybug from Little Lady. I LOVE PTI stamps....Nichole's PTI is my "Stamps of True Beauty" company!



This card was for my niece Jackie's birthday last week. I used SU rub ons for the sentiment and around the edges and an image SBS9 sister Jackie (hey, same name! Funny!) sent me in a swap of Penny Black images! I colored this adorable kitty and tulips IMMEDIATELY after I got the image...Copics are so BEAUTIFUL to color with!! Can't you just reach out and pet that kitty!?



And finally, this carousel card is for a faith-filled friend who has blessed my life recently...she has brought great joy to my heart! I love the color combinations! The flourishes and sentiment are SU Love and Happiness rub-ons, but the "Joy" image is from Papertreyink's Snowflake Serenade set...I am totally ga-ga over the font...as I am ga-ga over all words beautiful!! BTW, the green background easel is the only thing I could find to hold up these carousel notes! Doesn't the color of it match my card! LOL!

Are these carousels fun or what!? Whee!!! More pix to post tomorrow!! (darn camera!!)

More to share!

Happy new year, everyone!! We had a great time welcoming in the new year with some good friends in our town's church, playing games and watching a movie...we saw Secondhand Lions...if you haven't seen that movie, I suggest you rent it...I loved it! Great family movie!

And here I am again...to share some of my card making mania! I know Christmas is over, and you have all finished your cards and such, but it's never too late to get inspired for next year! On Splitcoaststampers, they have a Christmas card challenge...you make just 10 Christmas cards a month , same or different, and by Christmas next year, you are all set for cards! What a great idea! No, I probably won't do it, but I could!! And so, I hope these cards inspire you!

Most of you know that my DH (that's darling hubby!) is a letter carrier. He receives nice thank yous from his customers on his route. He has been very blessed this year, as many of his "people" love and appreciate his smile in all kinds of weather and how he will go out of his way to bless them. Of course, he wants cards to thank them and of course he wants HANDMADE cards!

Awww, forced to stamp! Poor me! Tee hee! Today's post highlights all the cards I made up for him....I actually had to keep making more as he was REALLY blessed on his route! The warm winter wishes card above used CHF's Prizm Ice Gold cardstock....BEAUTIFUL, addictive stuff!!! Hard to see well in the picture, it is white with a gold undertone. I actually ordered it by mistake, but I LOVE it! I used SU's Warm Winter Wishes stamp set and Frost Blue Kaleidoscope ink pad. I also used Encore's Metallic Gold ink as well as SU's gold cord. I think it came out pretty...warm and cold at the same time!


Now this card is my favorite I think! I GOT A
CUTTLEBUG for Christmas!!! It's a cool "press" machine to emboss paper in just seconds!! It was number ONE on my Christmas wish list, and my hubby got it for me!

So, you will be seeing LOTS of use of it in my cards! The background of this card is embossed with the D'vine swirl folder and I used Gina K's Got snow? and Let it snow stamp sets. I colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol mineral spirits. I used SU's retired Liquid Applique for the snow falling....isn't it adorable? Notice the boy wearing my two favorite colors...Kermit green and Syracuse orange :)


This next card was also "cuttlebugged" with D'vine
Swirl (I only have two embossing folders so far!) And this card also uses Gina K stamp set, Punchy words. The holly paper is from a Walmart DP pack my girl gave me for Christmas :) and SU's Real red paper is the card base and strip. I used Perfectly Clear stamps for the bric-a-brac strip inked with SU's craft white ink; I added a bit of glitz with SU's Dazzling Diamond glitter while the ink was wet. Love that sparkly stuff! I punched the scallop and edged it with the white ink. Simple, yet kind of elegant, don't you think?




Finally, I made this card using some DP I bought from Current, Inc. a million years ago! I added some gold snowflakes from SU's Warm Winter greetings set as I used the Ice Gold paper for the tag and inked the Make merry stamp in the metallic gold ink (stamp from SU's tag set). The beautiful ribbon is from Hallmark and the cardbase is Real Red. A gold brad for the tag and I was done!

Do you know that I made more cards for his Thank Yous than I made for us to send out? That's what happens when you make 10 at a time....hmmm....maybe that Christmas challenge is something I should do!!

Well that's it for today! I have some projects to show you later in the week, so stay tuned! I wouldn't want to overwhelm you! (Who me??) Isn't this so FUN!? (By contrast I must now work on my lecture notes for the grad class I am teaching this Spring semester...love augmentative communication and all, but it's not as FUN as stamping!)

Hey, feel free to leave me a comment! Lots of you send an encourageing email, but it's nice to know you've been here! I check in when I can!

Blessings to you all, for today and for all of 2008!

Kim

PS The "spots" on the pictures are not on the cards...my camera has ghost spots that turn up here and there...gotta figure that one out! :)

Home today!

Another day off for me although there's no leaping! Kelsey got slammed to the ground in soccer last night and is home recovering from a mild concussion! Ouch!! So, I must keep busy with my blogging, right? Can't spend time worrying when God tells us to "be anxious for nothing"! She is just waking up now and feeling well enough to call her 'person of interest' to check in :)

While I'm here, I may as well add a card! This is for my friend Lizzie's birthday! She has been having a tough year and has a new job to cheer about....so a new card will perk her up, too!!

I wished for this embossed butterfly image from SU's Wonderful Wings set and my wish was granted from Wish RAK on SU Only orange cardstock. You can't really tell in the photo, but I used a bleaching technique on the wings of the butterfly. I also used Certainly Celery CS and designer paper from K and Company. The primas were wishes granted too!

I love stamping!