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!!