More Journal Cards

Journaling Cards are all the rage right now.  It is a way to make a layout in pieces, you know a bit at a time, and arrange them around your photos.  You can put some photos on cards, mat some photos, whatever really.  It's your book, your life.

This is a card I made for a swap that had a month theme.  I signed up for February because I love this paper!!

It's a retired paper and stamp (Cherish the Day S1111), but you could make something similar with other paper.  I stamped the lines using another retired stamp, Recipe Box D1364.  It's always handy to have stamps with just lines!!

Once again, I had fun sewing on paper.  I pierced the holes in all of the cards first using the Piercing Tool Kit.  I love it because it has it's own foam to put under the paper, so I don't have to go looking for something else - or be tempted to do something inappropriate like scar the kitchen table!!  ;)  Then I just sat in front of the TV and sewed the  buttons on one evening accompanied by my furry doggie-friend.
So snuggly!!

Clementine Paper Doll

When I saw the Paper Doll stamp set  D1547 I knew immediately that I wanted to dress her in the Clementine tiny floral patterned paper and it turned out just as I imagined!!  Paper piecing isn't for everyone because it requires a bit of detailed cutting (and I made 16 of these cards), but it was totally worth it.  She is such a cutie pie.  I ended up naming her Annie.

I stamped her shorts and purse on Daisy White Card Stock, so that the marker colors would show up true.   Her arms on Colonial White C.S., and her collar on Smoothie C.S.  Her hair is done with the two Crème Brûlée alcohol markers - just alternating them.  Her socks are the light color.  I used the darker Smoothie alcohol marker for her head band (Did you know that in England they call them Alice bands after Alice in Wonderland?) and the darker Smoothie on the flowers along with the darker Crème Brûlée.  Annie's shorts, purse and shoes are colored in with Light Indian Corn Blue and shaded in with the darker.  I love that each set of alcohol markers works together so beautifully for highlighting and shading.  It makes coloring SO MUCH FUN!!

For the card's background I was looking for minimal distraction from Annie.  I wanted a nice setting for her, but no competition, so I steered clear from the other Clementine paper - pretty as they are, and just looked at coordinating card stock colors.  I chose Smoothie and Crème Brûlée and cut them in long vertical pieces (since Annie is tall and has a strong vertical line) following the 1/3 rule so the card would be more interesting. Well, you can imagine how dull two pieces of plain card stock are, no matter how beautiful the colors.  It obviously needed some pattern.  I went to the Paper Doll stamp set  D1547 for inspiration and lo and behold, there is a round stamp that resembles a parasol (top-down-view) that was perfect!!

The "Hello" comes from A Garden stamp set  A1119

Lastly, I added three bitty sparkles: two for the buttons and one on the purse's flower.  They give just the right amount of glitz.

I LOVE PAPER DOLLS!!  When I was a little girl, my mom introduced me to Betsy McCall.  She was the paper doll in every issue of McCall's magazine.  Mom gave me a nylon's box to keep them in, and every month I would carefully cut out the clothes and, of course, save the story.

Good memories!!     Now I want to make Annie into a little girls's Birthday or Get Well card, with lots of clothes to color.  :)

Girls Rule

New cards with new paper!!  This paper has such beautiful colors that I really adore it. It's called Later Sk8r, and is thought of as "the boy paper."  OK, of course, it is perfect for the guys, but having worked for so many years with Girl Scouts, it happened to strike me as equally popular with girls, so I purposefully re-imagined it here, defying expectations:

You may recognize this card design from one of my last cards.  I especially like it for new paper packs because it shows off all of the different paper designs at one time. So pretty!!  I distressed all of the edges of each piece of paper with the roughest grit sandpaper on the sanding block. Here you can see the difference between the sanded "Girls Rock" versus the unsanded:

Originally I had planned to use more of the stamps from the Girls Rock C1538 stamp set, but ended up highlighting each of the paper designs and then went for a quote.  I think I will have to make a second card to explore the possibilities of this stamp set with this paper.  I love the idea of using "the boy's paper" for the girls!!

This new quote stamp set called Srapbook Statements - Women B1421  is amazing.  I love to collect quotes.

One of the first gifts that I made for my husband back at Purdue when we were dating was a plastic canvas needlepoint-covered blank book (remember blank books?) for him to collect his quotes.  (Yes, he still uses it!!)  This quote about Ginger Rogers is one that I have in my collection!!

Lastly, I had to add some of the new green and blue epoxy bubbles because they are so happy!!

(Aren't you proud of me?  I have relearned how to download images into my blog!!  Can't let myself get rusty ever again!!!!!)

 Hope that you are having some fun, creative time!!  (((((BIG HUG)))))  Karen

I'm Back & Will's Gone Adventuring

I'm back and I can't believe that it is already February.  I have been away from the blogosphere, but not away from paper crafting.  It has just been busy, busy, busy around here.  My oldest son, Will, is right now en route to S. Korea where he will be living for the next year, teaching English to elementary school children.  You may remember that my daughter, Lisa, did the same thing less than two years ago.  We are all so excited for him.

This is my advice for him:

Yep, we have new paper and I LOVE it!!  Of course, that means that I had to say, "Good-bye" to many of my favorites.  :(  I get really attached to paper and stickers and embellishments, etc.  When I was a kid and had all of those pen pals, I kept the last sheet of every stationery set that I owned, and a sheet of all of my stickers.  Some of it went into my scrapbook in high school and some of it is still in a box in my basement!! I'm trying not to keep my paper in a box these days, but to create with it and share it.

A new Idea Book means so many new goodies to play with!!  Chantilly paper is so bright and beautiful and I have a thing for paisley.  :)  I used this design for this card to show off every paper in the packet at one glance.  The Hollyhock Zipper Lace is unique and it really struck my fancy.  For the sentiment, I chose the Maya Angelou quote from the new stamp C1539  Scrapbook Statement - Poets.  I did add the Pear card stock because my daughter loves green.  :)  I kept everything pretty clean and simple to let the paper colors and patterns speak for themselves,  I did pop the paisley rectangle up with foam tape to help it compete with the zipper lace.

Here's a photos of us at the airport this morning:

I'm on my tip-toes trying not to look too short next to Will, and my husband, Andrew, is hunkered down next to me in support.  Lisa is actually taller than I am.  (Tommy was home in bed with a nasty headache.  Poor guy.)

Bon Voyage Will - Enjoy the Journey!!

Lots of Love from your crazy family!!

Why Did It Have to Be Pansies? continued

Enough with playing hooky, it's time to get back to the blog!!
I have been missing it a lot actually...

Update for those of you who only get your news through this blog.  My dad had a stroke on the last day of November.  Lisa, Tom and I flew to Fargo the middle of the next week to see what we could do to help, and stayed for two weeks.  Dad had a remarkably quick recovery!!  It was fun to visit with the folks and their friends, decorate for Christmas, bake cookies and have time with Mom.  We even got to see Dad sing with his choir.

Unfortunately, my husband, Andrew, ended up in the hospital (first time in 29 years of marriage, and I was so very far away), so we got in my parents' van and drove straight home.  Andrew ended up being fine, and we celebrated Christmas back in Michigan, quiet and relatively uneventful, but ever so nice.  Hope yours was wonder-filled as well!

In one of my last posts, November 18th, I was working on a card for one of my aunt's friends.  Finally, I can show you the finished project.

I painted the three pansies, as well as the background paper using CTMH ink. It was so much fun that I plan on experimenting with it a lot more.

It's a brand new year....2013!!  Can you believe it?
ENJOY
and be creative!!

My First Clear Card

I would like to welcome 'the little princess' to my blog family.  I met her through storylane.com where we have been enjoying each other's stories.  She has another blog that I think you will be especially interested in if you are looking for creative inspiration.  Check out a splash of colour to see her beautiful Rangoli (an Indian folk art) designs - you will be impressed!!

I made today's card to mark two special events.  The first was Dawn's birthday.  Dawn is a new friend that I have met through Close to My Heart.  She lives in my subdivision, so I am hoping that we will be seeing a lot more of each other.  She has already helped me out a couple of times when I was in desperate need of red sparkles and specific colors of card stock.  She made it on the birthday list!!  The birthday list guarantees that I will make you a card.  It turns out that it doesn't guarantee that it will be on time!!

Secondly, Dawn's artwork is currently in the spotlight on Jeanette Lynton's (CEO of Close to My Heart) blog.  This is a huge honor and Dawn really deserves it.  Everything that she makes is beautifully done.

To make my combination Birthday - Congratulations card, I wanted to use the Clementine paper because that was what Dawn used for her projects.  I have been shying away from making a clear card because I'm still trying to understand how best to take advantage of it's unique properties.  I give myself a B- on my use of the clear card, but I am happy with it, and I really enjoyed making it.

This design is based on Sketch #184 from The Sweet Spot Sketch Challenge Blog.  It's a fun sketch and it looks like this:

My blog was completely finished and something happened.  I am trying to reconstruct it, but I have no idea what I wrote here!!  I am sure it was extremely clever...  Oh, I think it was that I probably could have photographed this card better to show that it is see-through, but I was mostly concerned with keeping my reflection out of the photo. Darn.  Not so clever after all.

Now for the reveal.  I have to retake this photo because it is supposed to say 'Dawn' on the upper left-hand side.  I am very pleased with the sentiment.  It's perfect for both Birthday and Congratulations:  "May This Be Your Grandest Year Yet!'

I thought balloons were appropriately festive, so I printed them on the reverse of the seasonal circles.

CONGRATULATIONS DAWN & HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY!!

Enjoy.

Jerry's Wild Card

I love computers when they work and they do what I want them to!!!  Sorry, our computer gremlin is back and I have just about had enough!!  Fortunately, Lisa's gone to bed for the night thus freeing up her laptop.  So I am back in business, so to speak.

This card was an adventure in itself.  It is for Andrew's Uncle Jerry who I greedily claim as my uncle as well because he's a real sweetie!!  Jerry is a lot like my dad in the way that he's always smiling, and always fixing things!!  Today is Jerry's actual birthday, so right there you know that I was stressed a bit starting this project.  I am behind on my schedule and mentally beating myself up.  Why, oh why can't I make birthday cards ahead of time?

The good news is that all of the tags went out in the mail today.  I had Tommy do the Quality Control check on every single tag this morning and he did catch a few things.  I glued a couple of weak spots, glittered a missed bow and printed the back of a tag. How on Earth did that get missed??

Back to the saga.  I wrote Jerry an email this morning to say "Happy Birthday" so that he would still receive my greetings, and to let him know that a card is coming.  In my email I said something about a bear hug.  I thought maybe I could do something with that in my card, so I looked through my stamps and ended up with Wild Thing  C1284 (retired).  I really like the bear, but getting it to hug was going to take some work.  I decided to start with the front of the card and let the inside "simmer on the back burner."  I don't recommend designing cards this way.  This is just usually the way it happens for me.

I was toying with something like "which of these animals would you want to hug you?" when I set up this:

Tom was on the other side of the table and said, "Lions and Tigers and Bears, so the inside is going to say - Oh My!?"  I was stunned.  It really was a lion, tiger and bear. Huh.

At that point I only had the placement of the animals and their framing.  Next, I distressed all of the paper and it changed everything.  Suddenly it looked as though the animals had been nibbling and scratching at the paper and it took on a more organic feel.  The negative spaces looked really dead in comparison.  Burlap!!

I am really pretty allergic to burlap.  Not like I am to cats, but I probably shouldn't be working with the stuff, but art is a cruel master.  I'm just kidding.  Even though I knew that I would probably have an asthma attack, it needed burlap, so I just didn't have a choice.  (I did use my Advair a couple of hours early, and I kept my inhaler on stand-by!!)

After the burlap, the upper and lower right-hand corners still looked too empty.  Tommy vehemently opposed the buttons (which I still contend would have looked good), so I came up with these paws made out of the Durables Round Studs, which are little studs on foam stickers.

Tom stamped the paw prints on the inside of the card, and more on the back.

This was a little technique that I accidentally invented!!  I was testing ink colors for Leonidas (I mentally name all  of my little animal friends.)  I first tried Bamboo because that is the color that is used to distress the paper in the Elementals packet.  Bamboo was much too light to hold it's own against all that was going on in the card, even at that point, so I tried Cocoa.  This was just a test, so I stamped the Cocoa image over the Bamboo and it POPPED!!  I was off just a tiny bit and a 3-D effect happened, as in the photo above.

When I tried to do the same with Bamboo and Chocolate for the bear Gom (pronounced gome, but you have to say it fast - Korean for bear, but it also has the connotation of slow and kinda dumb) the effect worked, but not as well, maybe the lion's mane was the key.  Lastly, the tiger, Slugger.  He is printed in Brown Bag and Bamboo.  I tried this so many times that I made myself sick.  Seriously.  I was dizzy and sort of motion sick (This happens to me a lot!!).  I would either stamp the images too perfectly one on top of the other, or too far apart so that there was a horrible interference that made the cat look extremely nervous!! Tommy ended up printing the one that we used.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE JERRY!!  We hope that you had a wonderful celebration with your family, and we wish that we could have been there too!!!  

Love you!!  Andy, Karen, Lisa, Will and Tom

Guest Blog Party Time!!

Hello Y'all!!
This is Karen's daughter Lisa. Karen didn't have anything to post today, but I had made a card so she suggested I blog for her :)
I know she has mentioned in a different post that my friend is studying in the Bahamas. Her parents visited her recently (I dog sat for them) so they brought me some presents. I made this card as a thank you.

For the card I used footloose paper, which is my favorite paper from CMTH evah!!  I thought the beachy feel was good for the Bahamas. Megan got married last May and I was her maid of honor. Her wedding was all pink and orange with tons of sparkles, so I made sure to use some smoothie ink and lots of glitter glue.
Most of the stamps come from the footloose workshop on the go stamps, but the mosaic swirls and the boarder around the turtle are from an older stamp set, my mom recently bought called Bon Voyage D1316.
I don't know how well you can see it in the photo, but I was careful to put the glitter glue only on the green parts of the turtle shell and not the white lines, it was fun and looked great when I was done. 
If you look at the edges of the paper rectangles, you can see that I used scissors to distress the edges and then sponge distressed them with creme brulee ink. I like how it turned out with raggedy edges alongside the glitzy glitter.
On the inside I put Thanks from A Little Thanks D1444. I love this set because I made about a hundred thank you cards for Megan for her wedding. I use this set for every thank you card I make.

 

This is what I put on the back of the card. I always put something on the back of my cards as a reward for anyone who checks. I'm sure Megan and her mom will notice, the clam is in pink and the circle is green. Megan and I are complete opposites and compliments so we joke about our favorite colors being compliments as well :)

Here's the envelope that matches my card. The pic is of the front of the envelope with the back flap up.








Well, that's all from me. I hope you like my art as well as my mom's. She should be back tomorrow with something new. Thanks for visiting with my mom and me today.
~Lisa

Too Busy to Blog

I've been a bit busy today.

Also, something arrived that's kept us preoccupied...

...the Cricut E2.

Today, Tom has said, "I love this Cricut" so many times!!  This is actually a gift from my parents.  They are enjoying my blog, and the things I have been making for them, and I am REALLY LUCKY!!  (and they love me a lot too.)  THANKS Mom and Dad!! Christmas has truly come early this year!!

Since we started making the layouts for the NICU families, Tom has started saying, "I love Close to my Heart!!" at random times.  He loves the way everything coordinates. He really loves the different papers.  It makes me so happy to see him having fun creating.  He keeps asking if he can use a certain paper , and I keep saying YES.  Go for it - Have fun!!  :D

You want to hear something really crazy?  I started my other blog a week ago and I already have 218 followers.  How crazy is that?  
storylane.com/karenclark

I need some sleep now.  ;)

Happy Clusters Tree

Today was another one of those days where I spent a lot of time working on something that I don't have ready to show you!!  Really!!  OK, I did waste the entire morning-plus on the couch, moaning about my head.  I was a big baby until the coffee and ibuprofen kicked in.  I sure wish that cured my migraines, but once I got moving - things really got going.  Hopefully tomorrow you will get a report on the Christmas service projects!!

For today, I made a simple card using a stamp that I really, really like, but I don't think it gets the respect it deserves.  It's a really cool idea.

This stamp, Happy Clusters  C1471, looks a little weird.  Just stamping an image of a tree or a star filled with solid shapes is rather dull, but if you first stamp the image on a scrap paper, then again on your good paper, this gives you a lighter image that we call a second generation print.  On this card I actually used a third generation print so that it would be extra pale.  This stamp is a guide for placing the decorative stamps.  I wanted to have a lot of choices for decorative stamps, so I also bought Love Clusters C1781 (then I started making butterflies, and I couldn't stop!!)

Close to My Heart also makes buttons in all of these shapes and sizes (not the smallest size), so I added buttons here and there to some of my butterflies and hearts. Here is a heart that I made this summer that never made it on a card or layout.  The butterflies all flew away.

This is the Christmas card that I made for tonight's post.  When I made it, I didn't realize that the Happy Clusters stamp was retired.  I'm not sure why one of the stamps retired before the other.   I meant to work with current stamps tonight.  Oops!!

Negotiations continue with Will about my technique video.  He says that he can do it without any problem.  All we need to buy is a microphone, a video camera (as opposed to the video function on my camera), oh gosh, I can't even remember now!!  There were two more things and, honestly, he said it with a straight face!!  Tomorrow it's my turn to present my case!!

Over the Hill?

My parent's requested a birthday card for their friend, Daryl.  I couldn't believe that he is going to be 70!!  Seventy used to be pretty old, but maybe it's because I'm 51, or maybe it's because people are eating better and exercising more.  OK, we're not all eating better and exercising more, but we're thinking about it more!! Actually, I have been doing better on and off.  (What about the half-off, post-Halloween candy you bought today, Karen?  Are you going to tell them about that?  I think we just did, dummy!!)  We have been eating vegetarian a lot, and cutting down on the sweets (uh-hum!!).  OK, the sweets were a bit of a problem today.

Moving right along to my Over the Hill card.  I didn't want it to be too mean, so I made the hills subtle enough to confuse my little monkey!!

I'm finally wising up.  I started cutting multiples of pieces, so I am making extra cards as I go along.  Each one will be slightly different, but I'm saving a lot of time stamping the inside of the cards in a batch, etc.

Back to making tags for the swap!!  It's already November...
Stay warm and snugly,
Karen

Waterfall Card

I love interactive cards.  They really appeal to me, and my favorite thing is being able to master a new one!!  I was a little intimidated by the waterfall, but, it turns out - there is no reason to be.  It's easy!!

This card is for a distant cousin that I met through ancestry.com.

We send email occasionally, about genealogy, and everyday life.

Recently, I received an email from her, and she told me that her husband had passed away after 63 years of marriage.

 She has family nearby, but it's just not the same.  She said that "it sure is lonesome after living with someone for 63 years."  I'm sure that it must be terribly hard!!

 I thought I would like to send her a card to brighten up her day.  Bills and junk mail can be so very monotonous!!

So, how did I do it?  First, I watched this video:

Here are those measurements: (I wrote them down from the video.  I am still trying to locate her blog!!)
4 1/4" X 5 1/2" card
2' X 9" strip of card stock scored at 2", 2 3/4", 3 1/2", and 4 1/4
Cut 4 2" X 2" squares. or do what I did, and vary the size of your squares.
Cut 4 insets in a neutral color for the squares, probably 1 3/4" X 1 3/4", or do your own thing.
The bar that goes across the bottom of the cars to anchor the waterfall measures 3/4" X 4 1/4"
I think that's it.

I did make one other change, besides varying the size of my squares, which I did to help conceal the upcoming images, and to add interest.  It's a small thing, and you would probably think of it too, but I think it's worth pointing out.  If you watch the video, you will see that she puts the brads right through to the inside of the card.  I didn't do it this way.  I just worked on the paper front first, like so:

Then, once the brads are tight (squish them with an acrylic block from the back), attach the paper to the front of your card and continue.  Now, wasn't that easy?

Joanne, I hope this finds you well.  I wish you happy, and safe and warm!!

Take care!!  Much love, Karen

Annie Loves Halloween

Annie loves Halloween.  It might have something to do with the fact that it's her birthday!!  Of course, she also has a big personality, so dressing up and having everyone over for a big costume party would probably be happening anyway!!

Who's Annie?  Everyone knows Annie?!!  She teaches my parents' water aerobics class!!

Annie is a wonder, and this group is like a family now.  They range in age from (I'm guessing,)  35 to 87 (I happen to be sure of the 87 - I won't say why ;)  The core group goes out for coffee after every class, twice a week, and also celebrates everyone's birthday (either at coffee or at a restaurant, depending on the birthday person's availability!!)  I have gotten to know most of them, and wish I lived closer so that I could be a regular!!

Here's my Halloween/Birthday card for Annie:

This was my first time using tulle.  It turns out that it doesn't stick to Tombow adhesive at all!!  I decided to try Liquid Glass, but I didn't want to get my fingers stuck in it, so I used a bit of scrap paper (pretty scrap paper in this case) to secure it:

How would you have secured this tulle?

I wanted the black tulle curtain to come together a bit under my little Vaudeville sign. So when I placed the foam adhesive tape, I just left space in the center, like so:

"Best Witches" came from the zip strip that runs along the top of one of the sheets of paper in the Moonlight Pack that I was using.  It's just an extra little bonus!!

Front of envelope and back of card:

I have used the Moonlight paper for everything except Halloween, so I thought I should make a few more cards.  I don't know if it shows up in the photo, but the sign reads "Beware."  I added tiny red sparkles to the ghosts eyes, so that it would be just a tiny bit creepy.

Inside of ghost card:

Tom really liked this and felt it needed a watermark!!

For all of the characters, I stamped them on the light paper that came in the Moonlight Kit.  It is a sort of Colonial White softly sponged in Goldenrod, Smokey Plum, and Slate. I have a real thing for this paper!!  I am going to have to try to make it myself!!

Lastly, with the stamps that came from the Workshop on the Go kit, I made this one:

Ghost and Mummy received spiders on back; Vampire got a bat.

I decided to enter the Mummy card in the Heart 2 Heart challenge blog for the Halloween or Pumpkin Challenge.  It is a wonderful challenge blog with a truly amazing group of creative artists.  Bwaaahaaahaaa!