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

This is my contribution to Sketch Challenge SC129 on Splitcoast. This is a retired set called Cattitude. I saw a card on Splitcoast that I thought was so cute that it made me just want to have this set. I checked out the Buy/Sell/Trade forum on Splitcoast and there was someone who was nice enough to part with this set for me. I was so pleased. My only problem is the mail and how long it takes for shipments to make it to Canada from the US. I think it took over three weeks for me to get this set. It was well worth the wait though. I was so pleased with how this one turned out. I have been trying to work on my watercoloring and do a better job on my shading. I was very pleased with how this one turned out. The background paper I bought for $6.50 at Wal-Mart. It is cat/dog paper and seeing I am such a lover of them I just had to have it. It is so nice to get a bargain.

Pinwheel

Another one we did at stamp camp. I love the effect of it. We used the tag punch for this one. It is all in the way that you fold it. I love how it turned out. This is SU designer paper.

When I first saw this before we attempted it I thought that it would be difficult but it is far from it. There are so many designer papers that you could use this with.

This is a tote and a notebook that I made with my friend Kelly. We had alot of fun making them. We used her tac stamps for the fake stitching and she also had the rubicoil. Tks Kelly for a great afternoon. Hope to do more things with you soon.

This is an older set called Tulips. I originally thought that I was getting the set Terrific Tulips and was pretty disappointed when I got this set by mistake. I really like Tulips as they are one of my favorite flowers. I used Rose Red and so Safron for this one. Love those two colors together.

This is the like it a latte set. I like this layout. I never ever thought that I would like pink and brown together. I made the background paper myself using small stamps that I got from Michael's. This is not one of my favorite sets. I find it hard to work with and can't seem to come up with much at all.

Happy Harmony

Another card made at Stamp Camp. We used the Happy Harmony set from Saleabration. It was so easy to do. We used the markers to color the stamp for a change.

We made this card at Stamp Camp. I think that it is so cute. The background around the fish is done with thick scotch tape dazzling diamonds. All you do it cut your tape bit enough to cover the punch out and then put the thick scotch tape sticky side out and then put the dazzling diamonds on the sticky part and VOILA. It adds so much to the card I think. The paper is long notes from SU.

I bought this background paper at Walmart and I knew right away that I just had to go home and use this image. It was for a challenge to use stamps that would retire in June.

It is now a retired set but I think that it is so cute. I have so many animal lovers in my life.

Another card using my Long Time Friend set. I made this for a swap that I did on SCS. It is an apron and on the back of it I put a pack of seeds. I found the template on SCS as well. Cute!

Long Time Friend

Even though you can't see it by the picture the front of this card is actually raised up on dimensionals and the jug is actually behind on another page. I cased this from Stamper Sharon on Splitcoast Stampers because I liked it so much and I really enjoy Sharon's work. You can view Sharon's here!

Just had to try out my new Basic Grey paper. The stamps are Doodle This. They blend together so well. I also used my TAC ribbon stamps to make fake ribbon. Great idea for a stamp indeed.

I had to try out my new cuttlebug embossing folder. I think this one is so cute. The paper is from Rob & Bob studio.

The images on this card are all done with my handy dandy Cuttlebug. The card sketch that I used can be found here! The designer paper is from Rob & Bob studio. The cardstock is gable green.

Oops

This is my favorite stamp and it is called Oops. From the first time that I saw it I just had to have it. Having cats all my life I can see how this would happen and it just made me smile when I saw it. This image I colored with my Watercolor Crayons and my aquapainter. It took many hours but I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It now looks alot like my cat Smokey. When my husband Ev saw it he said that I should frame it so I took his advice.

Another Stampscapes image. This one is called Lakeside Cabin. It never took alot of work but I really like the simplicity of it. Just stamped it with brown ink and colored in the windows in the cabin.