Awesome!!!

Awesome.  I got to thinking....it's the heat okay!!!   Actually its because a young man in a stationery shop said "awesome" when I paid for my stamping card.  I got to wondering, was that truly an awesome experience or is it a word we use for anything these days.   It's a word that rolls off the tongue to describe a cup of coffee, a slice of pizza,  a t-shirt hanging in a shop window or even gets used instead of thank you.

What it actually means according to the dictionary is something that inspires awe.  Awe is a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.  I'm pretty sure the young man was not inspired by awe at the sight of my white card or my eftpos card.  He just used it instead of saying thank you.  How the english language transforms???

Okay so all that said,  I was inspired to create a card using the "awesome" die from Frantic Stamper Inc.  A card I could give to any number of people that are awesome in the true sense of the word.

I also used the cute little puzzle piece die that when cut can interlock with itself.  Clever...or maybe awesome!!!  I die cut the word from my puzzle strip plus as additional four from card stock and stacked them up,  adding a coat of glossy accents for some dimension. To add some lift I die cut a scalloped border  in red.  Made a little tag to say "you are" and added a cute little owl and a few finishing sequins.  

Here are the Frantic Stamper Inc products I used 

Puzzle Piece Die 

Awesome Die

Scallop Border

Thanks for coming by today.

Karen

xo

4 colours

I have had some Paper Smooches stamps and dies sitting untouched on my desk for a bit now. 

When I went away to the beach I took the stamps with me and stamped and coloured up some flowers.  I didn't  have my cuttlebug with me as I do have the matching dies.    Its a little difficult to see how the flowers all fit together so I decided to cut them out by hand as I did have scissors with me.  When I got home I turned them into a card.  

The January challenge at Paper Smooches is to use only 4 colours plus a neutral, so technically 5 colours.  I used white, brown, green, yellow and watermelon.  The Paper Smooches stamp set is called Natural Beauties.

www.papersmooches.net

Its so humid and sticky here today.  Its been like this for several days now.  I will be very happy to see the rain as it looks like clouds are gathering.  A little bit of welcome relief that's for sure.

Hope you come back soon.

Karen

xo

Frantic little monsters

I am so excited to be Guest Designing for Frantic Stampers Inc.  They have such a wonderful range of dies and stamps for all occasions.  Frantic Stampers products are very good quality, the stamps are clear and detailed and the dies cut perfectly, my lining up is not always great but the dies and stamps sure are.

Quickly becoming a favourite is the lovely little set called Monster Mash.  There is a stamp set and co-ordinating dies.  They are so cute and I just love the sentiments that go with the set.  I also used a window die to cut the Frame for my monsters.

Here are the Frantic Stamper products I have used.

Monster Mash Clear Stamp set
Monster Mash Die Set
Double size Rectangle and 2 window Die Series #4

Told you they were cute.  Be sure to check them out at the above link and also  visit the Frantic Stamper blog where you will find another card I made using this same set and an "awesome" die.

Thanks for dropping in, hope to see you back soon.

Karen

xo

Jumbo Wishes

Elephants seem to be a poplular animal for stamps recently.   I've seen them around in all sorts of poses so I was pretty excited when Lili of the Valley added an elephant to their last release as part of the Faraway friends set.

I decided to do something a little different and stamped Jumbo and made it into my background paper.   I stamped the sentiment to form a strip and backed it in a bit of scrap grey I managed to find, as grey it seems,  is not a colour I have much of.  As I had coloured the flowers red I felt I needed to bring it in somewhere else. I ended up with some feet poking out so stamped and fussy cut another elephant to pop on top.   Finishing touch was to add the two flowers like Jumbo was carrying in his trunk.

This was a really fun card to make.  Thanks for dropping in.

Karen

xo

Hey Friend!!!

Its time for a new challenge at Southern Girls.  It's Anything Goes this time so come join in.    My image comes from one of the lovely sponsors for this challenge The Eastwind.

We have some new members to the team so drop on over to say hi.  For 2016 I am joining the talented group of lovelies in Team Lou, which reminds me to go and update my sidebar info....

So here is my card, I love these two girlies on their bicycle.  I fussy cut them out so I could pop them up,  took a bit of time to do, I might add.   Its such a great image I kept my background pretty simple making a kind of road and adding a few hearts and sequins.

Come on over and join us, we love to see all your creations.

Karen

xo

Popping this into the challenge at
The Ribbon Girl  January Any image

Patchwork Love Trio

Very soon, end of January,  Lili of the Valley will be launching 8 new trio sets.  These are going to be super popular as are all their wonderful trio sets.  I'm going to put it out there that these are the best yet!!!  The set that I am sneaking/showcasing is called Patchwork Love and love them I do.

I kind of went a bit "flower power" with my colour choice.  After fussy cutting and colouring I used some glossy accents and then worked the back to form a dome shape so they sit up off the background in almost a bubble rather than flat.....if you get what I mean. The sentiment is also included in this set along with a couple of others.

Pop over to the website as there are pictures of the other sets....I know you're going to love them.

Thanks for your visit today.

Karen

xo

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year,  I hope 2016 is a year full of sunshine and smiles for everyone.

Down here in the Southern hemisphere it is of course summer and being summer we are on school holidays. We were at the beach for new year.  The weather was wonderful leading up to new year but we woke to torrential rain new years day and it continued non stop for nearly 3 days.  Fortunately the sea is usually very calm where we go but with the bad weather comes waves and warm water.  Given I had four teenagers this year (my two and a friend each) it meant body surfing fun with board games in between.  We came home for a week to recover and catch up on laundry, and then were off again to a different beach.  This time me and 5 teenagers, quite the education,  I learnt a few things I don't think I needed to know,  but then again knowledge is power...right!!

I would like to give a warm welcome to the new followers that have joined me during my absence, it's great to have you here and I hope you pop back often.

My first card to share for 2016 features one of the recently released stamps from Lili of the Valley called Woodland Friends, this is the hedgehog from the set.  I did a little masking so one becomes three,  after all hedgehogs like friends too.  The background paper is from the now discontinued LOTV paper collection Country Meadow (bit sad about that).  I added a little die cut bow and a few enamel dots to finish it off.

Coming soon to LOTV are another 9 new sets of popular trio stamps and these will just fly out the door as, trust me when I say, they are gorgeous.  I will have a sneak later in the week of one of the sets so do pop back.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Karen xo