{Krafty Hop} Demeter

Do YOU know what day it is??? It’s Krafty RELEASE Day and it’s our first release of the year!! Today Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps is kicking off 2012 by releasing their new JANUARY stamps and there’s SO much gorgeousness to SEE!!

Over the last few days in our Krafty Peeks, we have shared lots of FUN new stamps for you to get inky with! We’ve got something for everyone!! There is a fun new SET introducing a sweet little character by Cheryl Alger for the little ladies in your life!! It’s called LOVELY LULU! We also have TWO fantastic sets of purrrr-fect images from Emilie Goulet called KITTY KAPERS 1 and KITTY KAPERS!!! And of course we have an amazing new set of six GORGEOUS GODDESSES stamps from Annie Rodrigue! PLUS we are also releasing a sassy coordinating set of GODDESS SENTIMENTS!!

You will get to see most of the new images today as you sit back and enjoy our JANUARY Krafty Hop! If you want to start from the beginning, just head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge Blog! As you hop from blog to blog, be sure to leave a comment at each and every stop because some lucky stampers will win packages of these incredible stamps from the new release!! And when you’re done hoppin’, be sure to head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie shop, because ALL the new images are NOW available!

And of course, as always, we have our Gimme Kimmies Kits available for those of you who ‘need it all’!! (You’ve been buying presents for everyone else all month long….don’t you think it’s time to reward your krafty self a little bit??!! ) The stamps are grouped together by artist and are available at a discount, but only for a limited time!!

To start at the beginning of this fabulous hop, or to see a complete list of hoppers, go to the Krafty Blog. If you have been hopping along from the beginning, you should have arrived here from the lovely Cheryl's blog!

I'll be showing off Annie's Goddess, Demeter, the Goddess of the Harvest. Growing up on a grain farm and cattle ranch, harvest is the most important time of the year! So, as you can imagine, I LOVE this Goddess and am so excited to share my card with you!

This will be my farming mama's birthday card! She'll love it! Her birthday is late August and she usually spends her birthday in a truck or tractor:)
I used autumn colours (DP is We R Memory Keepers), gold brads to match the golden wheat (a coat of spica buttermilk gives the wheat some sparkle). Lots of sponging (distress ink) on the stamped panel, as well as the punched border lend to an earthy feel.
A big brown satin bow (SU), topped with a mustard button (OA) and threaded with a linen thread (SU) double bow finish it off!

Here is the inside, using one of the stamps from the Goddess Sentiments sets.

Next up on our krafty hop is Nicole! Thanks for stopping by, and remember that some lucky commenters will win prize bundles from this release!

Sketch: The Deconstructed Sketch #34

{Kraftin' Kimmie Release} Annie's Goddesses

Hi there!! Welcome to Day Three of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps January release.....Are you ready for Annie Rodrigue's newest Moonlight Whispers?? Hold onto your seats stampers! These are some powerful females...Goddesses!
As usual, we are combining our third day of the release with a krafty sketch challenge! I have chosen to work with Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt! Perfect for Valentine's Day....I don't know about the rest of you, but when I snagged my man, I was definitely on the 'hunt';) I might add that I'm a mighty good shot;) Twelve years of marriage and 3 beautiful sons later....I'm glad I was persistant:)

Oh, hi again, MME Love Me DP!! Can you say 'obsessed'??;) I coloured her with copics, adding buttermilk and chocolate spica pen to her head-piece, bow and arrow. The edges were sponged with chalk ink. The sentiment was added on the little side panel, which was cut out using an MFT label die. I didn't want this card to be overly girly, so I kept the ribbon treatment fairly simple, using black vintage seam binding from the Ribbon Carousel.

Here is a close up of Artemis....she has such a mischievious look on her face! Kinda a half-grin- she is on the prowl for sure;)

And the inside, left blank- loads of room for a love letter!

And here is your sketch! Play along for your chance to win one of our new Goddess stamps! Link up to the KKS challenge blog. And check out Kimmie's blog for more previews and amazing inspiration!

And don't forget to comment like crazy, because 2 lucky peeps are going to win a bundle of THREE Goddess images!!! Can you say Woot Woot!!! Nicely done Miss Kimmie! You are one generous woman! Good luck my friends:)

See you back here tomorrow for our Krafty Hop (and might I add that I am very excited about my hop card- tootin' my own horn...TOOT TOOT!)!

{Kraftin' Kimmie Release} Kitty Kapers

Day two of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps new release! Today we're showing off images by Emilie Goulet, and the focus this month is on our furry feline friends;)
I've used one of the sweet little kittens from the set Kitty Kapers 1 (there is also a second set, Kitty Kapers 2)....I love this sleepy little one!

There is alot less layering on this card than I am comfortable with, but I think it's a pretty masculine card, so I tend to go quite a bit simpler;) I did jazz up the fact that there is no CS matting by adding black zigzag stitching around the panels and a straight stitch around the edge. My kitty looks more like a cartoon tiger, but thats ok;) I am not the best at colouring animals, I've noticed;) I anchored the sentiment flag (actually from the 2nd Kitty Kapers set) with some stitching and an orange wood button and linen thread. A little bit of glaze pen was added to his wet nose;)

My paper is actually from a Halloween pack (maybe MME?), but it I wanted this colour scheme and the DP totally worked out!!

Kimmie is generously giving away TWO sets today, one Kitty Kapers 1 and one Kitty Kapers 2, so leave us Krafty Girls some love and you might be randomly chosen as today's winner:)

Check out Kimmie's blog for a list of deisgner links!

See you tomorrow with our Moonlight Whispers previews!!

{Kraftin' Kimmie Release} Lovely Lulu

Hey there! I am so excited to be sharing some new KKS sneak peeks with you today! Today, the Krafty Girls are showing off the new Lovely Lulu's by Cheryl Alger! These little knobby-knee'd cuties have stolen my heart:)

I used my favoritest MME paper, as of lately;) Lil Miss Lulu is coloured up with copics and her dress, bow and shoes are paper-pieced. I did loads of machine stitching on this one, as well as cut lots of various MFT banners! The sentiment was chopped up and added to the larger banner. A Jenni Bowlin vintage button was threaded with a double hemp twine bow. Liquid pearls were added to her pony-tail 'baubles' (does anyone else remember calling them that?? tee hee!)

This little cutie reminds me of my niece Gracie, who loves to dance and wear tutu's, and she will be having a birthday in the next couple of months, so I think this one is going out to her:)

Here is the inside, with another sentiment that comes with this set. I added a punched heart for fun:)

If you would like to win this new Lulu set, then leave comments on each Krafty Girl's peek! Kimmie is giving away a set to one lucky commenter!!

Check out the Krafty Blog for a list of all designers previewing today....

See you tomorrow with another peek!

{TSG138} Little Moments

***Scroll down for my YNS New Release post!!****

Hey there- 2nd post of the day....whooftah! I have been wanting to play along with the There She Goes challenges now for a few weeks (and I did one week, and with all the hooplah of the holiday season, I didn't get my photos taken or post done..and then they (the quick tags I made) were gone!!)
So here I am this week, sicker than a dog, but stamping some anyway. I have no energy for housework, so besides couch-time, which is terribly boring if you ask me, stamping seems not to taxing on me;) But even stamping isn't as fun when one is sick and my mojo is having a hard time finding it's way through a stuffy head:(
This weeks challenge is paper-piecing (TSG138) and is brought to us by Trensetter Jackie. Paper-piecing is one of my favorite ways to jazz up a card, and is great if you aren't a super-star in the ways of colouring, or if you don't have certain colours of markers/pencils.....just find some DP to tie into your card and you are set for matchy-matchy;)
I used the newly released set Little Moments and I love this set...it is so nostalgic of times gone by and is just one of those sets that tugs at your heart-strings:)

  Granny's dress, her armchair and the little knitted bit were paper-pieced with various SU papers. The rest of her was coloured with copics, as well as the side table and lamp base and the shade was pieced as well. The wallpaper was embossed with a sizzix EF and inked with distressed ink to show the pattern better. The bead board was made with textured CS that was scored every 1/2" and the inked as well, with a chair rail adhered at the top. The lamp is actually a floor lamp sized stamp, but I simply only inked the bit that I wanted to. The drawer handles are gold SU brads and brads were attached in the 4 corners as well. The sentiment was stamped along the bottom of the bead board piece (I didn't score all the way to the bottom) and a river rock saddle-stitched ribbon was wrapped around with a bow topped with a MFT die cut snowflake, PTI button and twine bow.
You can see the dimension a bit better in this next pic...Granny has dimensionals 3 high stacked under her, and the lamp is doubled up with 2 layers of dimensionals. See that shadow under the lampshade?

I used the colours for this weeks Color Throwdown challenge:

As well as the Ribbon Carousel's inspiration challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!!
See you tomorrow with Day One of Kraftin' Kimmie peeks:)

{YNS Blog Hop} Jenny Suchin Designs

Today is the release day over at YNS, featuring a great new line of rubber by YNS DT team member Jenny Suchin, and we are celebrating Jenny's first ever release with a fun blog hop!! You should have arrived here via the hilarious and talented Carole Burrage's blog. If you would like to start at the beginning, then head back to the creative mind behind all this stampy goodness, Miss Jenny Suchin's blog!
I previewed a card a few days back (remember the cute koala in a air balloon?), and I am back today with a completely different looking card using the same set, Up, Up & Away.
I made a sweet wedding card for a friend of mine that is getting married soon....

This is a long card, measuring 4 1/4 x 7 1/2. I paper-pieced the balloon again (I'll give you a little photo tut later on on the post;), and stamped 2 koala's instead of just the one, and cut them out and added them to the balloon basket with dimensionals. The balloon and basket are completely off the DP, essentially 'floating' through the sky:) For the balloon strings, I used the Ribbon Carousel's Coloured Wire String in white. The Wire String works so well because it holds it's form! I have done this look with string or twine and trust me, my new find has made it WAY easier!!!

Some TCP seam binding and a vintagey button threaded with TCP linen thread add some romance. I used an MFT border die under the black zigzag stitching on the lower portion of the card and the clouds above the balloon are die cut using TCP's cloud border cutup. The sentiment on the front, as well as the inside scripture, are by Verve. The DP is MME and the CS is SU.

Here are a few pics to show you how I paper-piece without worrying about trying to fit the pieces together like a puzzle. It is the easiest way to piece something like this (stripes or strips that are side by side). Plus it provides slight dimension by stacking the papers on eachother!

I first stamp my image on my base cream CS (that is, if you aren't planning to piece directly onto your stamped panel and are going to cut out your main image, as I did). You also stamp the full image onto your first DP (plaid). Stamp again onto your 2nd DP (pink doily), and don't worry if you don't get the outer stripes- you don't need them!  Now again onto the 3rd and 4th DP (red dot and cream flag)

The 1st DP is the DP that will be the outer stripes on my balloon. Both the cream CS and the plaid images are cut out and the DP is then glued to the CS balloon.

Next cut out the 2nd DP, cutting out one less outer 'strip' than on the first DP balloon. Adhere.

Finally add your inner sections (from the cream flag and red dot DP) and finish off with the little patches...Now you have a completed paper-pieced balloon that doesn't look as if each piece was shoved in, next to the other! A smooth and slightly dimensional paper-pieced balloon! You could also adhere with foam boosters to get ALOT of dimension!

I left the inside blank, as I am in this wedding and I'm sure I'll have a bog ol' message to write to the bride;)

And when I was busy making my card, my little Jake was busy making his own (of course he had to use the same stamp!! YNS is his favorite brand;) and he really wanted me to 'put it on the computer for all the ladies to see' (his words;). So here is his Up. Up & Away card! He did this all himself!! The only thing I did was give him my trimmed cloud scrap, tie the twine bow and help with the hot glue gun:) And he is only in kindergarten!! I think he is a pretty crafty little fella:):) And yeah- did I mention that he was rooting through my brand new PTI buttons!! Eek! Expensive taste too;)

Next up on the hop is the uber-talented Amy Rohl! She has the sweetest little project to show you:)

WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!
There is a fun prize hidden on one DT member's blog, so if you want to be the winner of a new Jenny Suchin stamp set of your choice, then you MUST comment! You won't know which one of us is the candy holder, so the more hoppers you post on, the better your chances at winning:) Winner will be posted on the YNS blog Jan 17th.

The hop will start Wed, Jan 11, 3am (est) and end on Mon, Jan 16, midnight (est), so you have until then to comment!

AND A SALE!?!?!
Karen is also offering a deal: 15% off your ENTIRE order!! Use online coupon code YNSJAN2012 at checkout:)
Sketch- The Deconstructed Sketch 33

{TCPTUES192} Love Stinks...especially when your present is trout.

Hi there! Welcome to The Cat's Pajamas January release blog hop/ TCP Tuesday challenge! Today, Julie is our hostess and she is challenging us to emboss..either wet or dry. Eek! I loathe wet embossing, so of course I took the easy way out and went with my embossing folders and Bigshot;)And since this ia also a blog hop, you should have arrived from sweet Miss Leigh's blog....if not, then you are lost my friend, and the best thing to do, would be to go back to the beginning and visit Julie's blog!

 
Unfortunately, this card got away from me in scale and you can see very little of the embossing that I actually did! According to Jen's SFYTT for this month (which TCP is coincidentally sponsoring;), the bingo card panel (from our new Build-A-Bingo set) was supposed to be tucked behind the red vertical dp, but of course I wanted the bingo biz to be seen, so I moved it to the front. Thereby covering up the pretty bingo themed EF pattern! Grrr! I also embossed the sentiment panel with large polka dots and the main kraft panel was embossed with another valentine-themey folder, although you can't see much of that either!
Don't cha love that new Build-A-Bingo set?? I stamped the 'free' in black in the free centre spot and accented the number 14 with a pink stamped heart. I also added the 'lovey' above the BINGO title. The penguins from the new set, Love Stinks, were stamped on white with versafine, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. The fish was paper-pieced and the stickles and a fine dusting of glitter were added to the fish scales and cheek and the heart. I added some spica buttermilk glitterpen to the beaks and feet.
The new Heart Rosette cutup was used as well, in place of the circle element on the sketch (and pushed out a fair bit as well...can you even tell I used the sketch here??;) Sorry Jen- I seemed to have butchered a perfectly lovely sketch:( I left the rosette flat and unfolded, showing you another way to use the it, in a non-rosette fashion;) hehe! Zigzag stiching and a red vintage button threaded with the new peppermint divine twine finishes it off! Ready to give to my special sweetie;)
And I should mention that I used a gorgeous new pack of 12x12 Pebbles paper that I got as a gift from my kitty-sister, Miss Susiestampalot! Thanks Susan! I love my new goodies;)

See my severley smudged sentiment?? This is what happens when you decide to stamp the sentiment onto an embossed panel on a completely finished card front:S

Up next on our swanky hop is Nancy Thomas- she has been blowing us away lately with her ingenious ideas and out-of-the-box thinking (we might have to have her looked at...thats the kind of thinking that gets one in trouble;)
Thanks for hopping in, and don't forget to link up your creation to Alma's blog for your chance at fame and fortune with weekly prizes and our monthly grandprize of Swanky Stamper...you too, could help us with our next release! Use keyword TCPTUES192 if uploading to SCS online gallery!