This is a card that I made for a relative of my husband's who passed away. I always find sympathy card difficult to make but I am pleased with how this one turned out. I looked at this stamp and thought it could be the tree of life and thought that it was so appropriate.

This is a stamp that I bought marked down at Michael's. Not sure who manufactured it. The card stock is by paper craft and not nearly as nice as the thick card stock that Stampin Up make but I had none of these colors left.

The picture is not as clear as I would have liked because the coloring didn't come out as nice as it really is. I have been working on my shading on my cards lately and used a bit of a different technique for me on this one. I colored in the stamp with my SU markers and then huffed on it and then stamped on the cards stock. I then took my aquapainter and used my Watercolor Wonder Crayons by SU. I just love them. They are my favorite thing to use to color with. I like how the markers and crayons were a bit different so it make the shadding easy. You probably can't tell that by looking at this picture though.

Thanks for looking !

Have a great day :-)

I made this card for the Card Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. It has to be one of the nicest layouts that I have ever used. I did have trouble coming up with a stamp that I wanted in the middle but when I finally chose this one it all came together. I thought that the fish charms really went with the card. The only problem is that the glue that I used didn't dry clear. You know what I am going to have to do with the card eventually. Yes take it apart and do it again. I can't give someone a card that has glue showing through. It won't be a big deal to do but I will feel better when I get it done. I think I will go home again tonight and see what else I can come up with for this sketch challenge. There are so many other great cards on Splitcoast to look at for this challenge if you would like to take a look. Give the challenge a try and see what you can come up with.

I do find that doing these challenges has helped me alot with my creativity. I just find that I don't get at them enough. Maybe now that the summer is winding down and things are coming to an end that I will have more time to do them.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting :-)

This is the first time in awhile that I have been able to do any of the sketch challenges but this weekend was our Anniversary so I wanted to use my new set to make a card for my husband. I am not a real good picture as I had to use my daughters cell phone camera as I still don't have my digital camera fixed or should I say replaced yet. That is another story for another day.

Well this is not actually a new set but it is new to me. Someone was kind enough to sell it to me on the buy/sale/trade column on Splitcoast. I have bought alot of stamps on there. I find you get them at a good price and have never had a problem with a seller.

This card was done for this week's sketch challenge I am so glad to be able to post my cards on here again.

Recipe for this card:

Stamps: Coast To Coast
Ink: Black Stazon
Accessories: Primsacolor Pencils, Stumps, Taltine Odorless Mineral Spirits, Hemp
Paper: Sizzix Paper and Other unknown

Tell me what you think!!

Yesterday I was at my friend Kelly's (Kellybee) house to do some stamping. Kelly was so organized. She had a bunch of sketches done that we could choose from and we were hoping to do four but ended up doing only two. I guess we gabbed too much and never got as much done as we had hoped. That didn't matter to both of us as we had fun anyway. Had the chance to do what we both enjoy doing so much and of course it also gave us a chance to catch up. Tks Kelly for a wonderful afternoon. I really enjoyed myself. I hope that we can do it again real soon.

Recipe for the cards:

1st Card: Stamps Looks Like Spring
Ink Purely Pommegranate and Always Articoke
Paper So Safron and Basic Grey Stella Ruby


2nd Card: No stamps. Just the good old Cuttlebug
Paper Ruby Red and Basic Grey Stella Ruby

The basic grey paper is one of my favorites.

Today I decided that it has been way too long since I updated my blog. There are a few reasons for that. First of all I have no camera to take pictures of my cards so therefore I haven't been doing many. My camera is broken and has been in the shop for 5 weeks now. It doesn't pay to have only one camera repair store in town.

I love the summer so much but I do find that there is always so many things that need to be done that we spend all of our summer doing those and hardly any time enjoying the summer. This summer me and my hubby have put a deck on the front of our house so we can enjoy the weather both front and back now. Hopefully if I ever get my camera back I can post a picture of it. We also have a vegetable garden in a community plot that we are tending to. All of this is wonderful to be at but it sure doesn't give us alot of time to be enjoying the summer. Before we know it it will be over.

On another note ... this morning I was visiting my best friend Debby's Blog and she had something cute on there that I thought I would give it a try.

All you do is go to google and put your name in and then type "NEEDS" after it and see what comes up. Here are some of things that it says that I need and some of them are quite appropriate.

Karen needs to grow up! (I am having too much fun for that)

Karen needs a new job! (boy is that a true fact. Maybe this will bring me good luck)

Karen needs to compliment her workers! (too funny if you know what type of job and the situation that I am currently working under)

Karen needs a new blog! (and I thought this one was fine)

Karen needs some gin! (I do confess that there are times when I could use a stiff drink but don't think that I would ever pick gin)

Karen needs to stay! (stay where we are not sure)

Karen needs new batteries! (ok that can be arranged)

Karen needs a facial! (sounds like something that I might enjoy)

Karen needs to wear her school uniform! (I don't think that one will be happening. The last uniform that I wore was brown and blue and it was aweful) Yuck!

This was fun so why don't you give it a try. You can send me the link so I can look at yours.

Thanks so much for reading.

Have a great day