Just for being my friend card

Recently (and by that I mean like March lol) I was getting together a small package of a few crafty items that I wanted to share with Robin.  Robin is my very first and oldest online friend. and by oldest I mean she's been my online friend the longest.  I wouldn't dare hint as to her age. no,no, no. That would be bad, bad, bad for me lol. Any way I love her and we enjoy speaking to one another on the phone a few times a week and thru our crafty surprise mail.  I think in this package I had a few duplicates that I loved so much I accidentally bought them twice.  So I don't like to send a package without a card inside so this is the little card that I came up with to send along in this package.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure about the background paper.  I believe its from Hobby Lobby and then I distressed the edges and added gesso to better define the distressed edges. I used a spellbinders die for the cut at the top left with the two friends. It's called Labels 22, for the sentiment cut I  used a punch from Hobby Lobby by the Paper Studio for that.  The stamps that I used was a pair that come together, they are by Dawn Houser for Inkadinkado. After die cutting the image I left it in the die and sponged around the inside of the die but not around the image because I wanted to color it.  For the sentiment I just sponged around the punched piece.  For the image I just got out my Prisma color pencils and colored up the image. I thought it worked out great and I was glad I used the pencils.  I felt like the image was just too small for my coloring to use copics and do any shading. I used some flowers that I received in a gift package that I won from Lavish Laces over on the Little Scrap of Heaven ning site.  I also won some of her fabulous laces and bloomers trims.   I didn't use her ribbon for this card but I did use this fabulous one that I got from Hobby Lobby on a roll.  I Just loved this card and I sure hope that Robin did too.

That's all I've got for now so until tomorrow, have a great day and a blessed day.  May you be a special blessing to someone in need today. ttys, hugs, amy k 

Got an Anniversary card for you today, for a young and in love couple who I love

I love this card and I LOVE this cute little couple I made it for. I won't keep you waiting any longer, its for Jeff and Nicole Cochran, she's my first cousin so you can BELIEVE me when I say we grew up together. It's good. I love their love and I'm so happy to help celebrate it with them if only via the post. lol. 

So, I got my game tight today and went and found out all the names of the papers so that I could share with you.  You ready? Here we go... The animal print on the back is from the Heidi Swap paper pad called Sugar Chic (and in case I forgot to mention and I did lol) all most all of the elements from this card are from Heidi Swap.  I used a  page of the Color Magic pack and sprayed it with her mustard color shine. To get the stripes back you just wipe the paper down with a paper towel after you get done spraying. The pink piece is also from that Color Magic line, they are called notes.  I also used some color shine on it and then the piece that says happy anniversary is a punch from ek success and I stamped it with (I think) a GCD studio stamp and some Hero Arts neon blue ink. to finish it all off I added some Prima flowers and some of those button bling centers with the backs removed, of course. I hope you enjoyed today's card. and you know I will be back tomorrow with another card for you.

Also. I have some news to share and to me its huge! I'm so excited i'm doing the pee pee dance lol.  The Pastor, Mr. Art, gave me a call a few weeks ago and he has asked me to make all the cards for the churches correspondence such as get well cards and sympathy cards, and maybe some post cards that say thank you for visiting our church.  I've made a few demos for them and they loved them, don't worry, I will be sharing them here with you just as soon as I get caught up some.  We are still working out the details on what they want each card to look like. So this is a work in progress but I'm so excited that I'm about to burst at the seams. lol. I can't believe someone took notice of my work and wanted more. That Rocks! 

I'm back and with a few cards to show you!

I've heard many bloggers say  that you should never apologize for lack of posting or not posting more frequently but I thought you deserved an explanation as to why I was gone for so long.  It's simple really and I'll tell you and then we can get on with the showing of the cards. OK? okay. So back towards the end of the year last year round Oct. I had gotten behind on making my blog post. Then all of a sudden, My computer (mind you I was running windows xp and loving it), asked me to do an update for FireFox. so when I did that update in it was a patch for xp.  Long story short, the patch was bad and it totally fried my hard drive loading system.  I think all the information is still there it just cant start up.  All my pictures are there too.  I'm in panic mode and if anyone out there has a really good idea for a back up system that will support alot of large files please let me know.  So now I've just got a new computer and it's taken some getting used to but I'm learning it slowly. Any ho, I'm back to blogging and hopefully back to making you tube videos real soon too.
So on with the cards.

This first card is one that I made for my mother's birthday back in Jan.  You'll have to forgive me that I don't remember all the names of what products that I used.  I know this is some Prima paper and that flower is made by me, it's a Prima dooop. lol.I see some spellbinders labels dies and dies from My Favorite Things, and the circular kinda odd shape is from the cricut and one of the Close to My Heart cartridges because I see that it's stamped with a coordinating stamp of theirs. Same thing with the ticket that says Jan. it's a cricut cut for close to my heart and stamped with one of their stamps that go with the cuts.  The bling is from a flourish beaded spray thing that I got from Micheal's back when they were having their big after Christmas sale. I got two of those things and they are huge. got them puppies for cheap too. I just used some rosette trim around the bottom and I put it all on one of the 5.5 sq. card bases from Micheal's;  love those card bases

This next picture is from Valentines day this year.  I made it for my Husband.  I know that the paper line is from K & Co. and I used a few cricut cuts on it.  The card base is one of the corrugated cardboard bases I love from Micheal's. I used some flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and one from Recollections.  The leave was also from Recollections.  On the two red toned roses I kinda made my own version of Snow Tex by just mixing some gesso and some of this really chunky glittery stuff I had together. The gesso covers up to color of the glittery stuff. I don't even know if I would call it glitter. It is more like ground up plastic that kinda has a sheen to it. Maybe it's children's glitter. It is definitely on the chunkier side and no fine particles and it looks like some kind of plastic. I know alot of people use sand for this technique and I was all out of sand so I figured I already had the stuff on hand, wasn't going to cost me anything to mix the gesso with it and just see how it worked.  It worked great!  It gave just the chunky texture I was looking for. So that is what I added to the red colored WOC flowers. Loved the way it came out looking.  I made that hanging sign with one of the Close to My Heart cricut cartridges and that stamp set was a coordinating one that I had.  I used my new collection of Hero Arts inks for the stamping.. OH, yeah, sense I've been away for so long I haven't had a chance to tell you that over the winter months I've really been adding to my ink pad collection,  I picked Hero Arts Shadow inks to start with and Color box fluid chalk ink for the other ink I wanted to collect.  Now I've got a solid collection of both. I wanted the chalk in to stamp on my cheaper clear stamps that are made out of acrylic sense it seems to give better coverage and the Hero arts for all other stamping.  I'm loving both, definitely made the right choice in going with those two brands. Now I think I have all the shadow inks from Hero arts or at least all the mid tones.  I have all the neon colors and the new colors they just added. To have the entire collection of their reg. dye based ink pads I still need to get the soft colors and all the older regular colors.  As for the color box chalk inks I've got a great base of colors started and I don't really know of any I need to round out my collection with but will definitely be keeping an eye out for any new colors that I love.  Both companies have been around for along time and you can get re-inkers for all their ink pads so I feel pretty safe in my investment.  These are all the cards I'm going to add for now. I'll definitely do some research and try to come up with a better product list for the next posting. If you saw anything today that you just have to have the name of because you love it so much or something. you know what I mean, then just leave me a comment and I promise I will leave no crafty stone unturned to find you that info. Till next time , Keep crafting and I'll be seeing you soon. Hugs, amyk

Tutorial, how I decorate my buttons.

Masculine Handmade birthday card for my Uncle

 My Uncle, Tim is an original cowboy.  He grew up with his father being President of the Saddle Club here in the small country town of Summerville.  If you're ever down here in North west Ga. make sure to ride thru there but don't blink or you might miss it. lol.  Speaking of his dad, my Granddad, I can remember my child hood was full of horses.  I was riding a horse by myself from the time I was able to sit up on it by myself seems like.  Granddad had me training at the Saddle club to barrel race around the age of 7 or 8.  It was around that time that I turned severely allergic to the horses and could not only no longer ride but I couldn't even stand to be near a saddle that had been on a horse.  Alto dreams were dashed of being able to ride the rodeo and I had to send back the horse I had been given to ride at my home and when ever they would bring the horses into the yard at Granny's house I would have to run and hide inside, I still have fond memories of the family spending time with horses and the Saddle Club.  I can still remember Granddad and Tim working to break in the new horses.  Can you believe my mom used to help break the horses too when she was growing up? Isn't that great!  How's that for empowering women?  You go Mom!

Tim is the youngest of all my aunts and uncles from that side of the family and he's only 13 years older than me so he and I kinda grew up together in a way being that I am the oldest grandchild.  I love him dearly and at one time I felt like he was kinda my big brother that I never had. So... like I started out saying, he is like the original cowboy to me and when I saw this designer paper by one of the Lost and Found collections from My Minds Eye, I thought it was perfect all on its on and that it didn't need a lot of extra embellishment. The sentiment was stamped from an Inkadinkado stamp set and the only other thing I did to this layered card was outline it with Martha Stewart glitter glues, kinda like stickles,  I know this is a simple one layered card but sometimes that's all that's called for when it comes to masculine cards especially. I hope you enjoyed today's card. and I will be back later with a video on how I decorate my buttons. Talk to you all again soon, hugs, amy k.

Feminine birthday card for my Aunt, Naomi

 I made this shabby chic card for my wonderful Aunt, Naomi.  She is my aunt by marriage but you would never know it.  She treats me like one of her own and I try and treat her the same.  I regret that I don't get down to see that part of my family more and I miss them all but they are always in my heart and prayers. 

To make this card I used designer paper from Prima called the Botanicals collections.  I used it for the base layer of my card front then used another sheet for a die cut that's layered in the back and you can't really see it from this picture, but I used a Spellbinders die for it. The little journaling card used for the sentiment is a cut apart from the designer paper.  I like to use the 6x6 paper pads for my card making so the cut aparts are also smaller and more scaled to fit the fronts of cards.  That's why I prefer that size paper pad for my cards, all the images that would be much too big for cards in the full 12x12 size paper pad is scaled down for the 6x6 pads and the images are thus smaller and a much better fit for cards.  The mulberry flower on the right is also from Prima. Remember they were known for their flowers long before they were known for their papers, which are gorgeous, and their embellishments which are equally gorgeous. For the floral image in the center I used a cricut cartridge called Botanicals as well, no connection to the paper pad.  To get that beautiful dark outline around the floral image I used my cricut markers to draw around the outline of the image before I cut it out.  It's been a long time sense I've gotten out my cricut markers and I was glad that I did because I just love the outcome for this card.  The red lace is vintage lace from my stash. I just love it too!

This is a shot of the inside of the card, I used another sheet of the designer paper for the base layer, then another sheet that was border punched I believe with a fiskars punch. The sentiment was stamped with a stamp set from Hot off the Press.  I'm not sure of the color I used in the ink pad but I know I used a colorbox fluid chalk ink pad.  I also used that stamp pad to distress around the edges of the papers.

That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed it.  I'll be back tomorrow morning with another card.  I am beginning to get caught up in my blog posting but I also just finished another four cards that have to go out in the mail today so look for them in the upcoming weeks. Till then, I hope you all are blessed in your daily life. Hugs to you all, Amy k

Welcome baby "New Addition" card

 

Baby Phoebe Lou Parker was born on Aug, 12, 3013 to parents, Jennifer Kittle and Andrew Parker. We were all there for the birth and I can tell you the room was absolutely full of excitement and anticipation.  We were there at the hospital all day as we waited for them to induce her labor and finally sometime around midnight we all got to come in and see the baby.  She's so beautiful and absolutely perfect.  I would show you a picture but I haven't gotten permission from the parents and that's something I firmly believe in doing.  I do not show a child online at all without first getting the parents permission.  So I made this card to congratulate the parents, by the way, Jennifer is my sis in law, on their new bundle of joy. 

For the front of the card I used designer paper from My Minds Eye called "In Bloom" and I got the sentiment from the Graphically Speaking cartridge for the cricut. I also used a scalloped circle punch from Recollections and the smaller scalloped circle was part of the sentiment from the cartridge. The pink flower is from Prima and I colored it with my homemade color sprays, and I used two velvet finished flowers from imaginese and a brad from Memory Makers, The little elephant stamp is from Hero Arts and I also used Hero arts shadow ink to stamp it and the sentiment that went along with it. I used my Viva Decor pen to make the pearl drops across the bottom and I used my copic markers to do a little coloring on the elephant stamp.  The grey chevron paper is also from the collection.  I believe this was a  5x7 card and I used a 6x6 paper pad so the paper was a tad too short so I had to add that piece to make it long enough.  It turned out to be one of those happy accidents that I think made the card cuter. 

 This is a shot of the inside of the card.  As you can see I used a couple different washi tapes  to the bottom left, and another stamp from that same Hero Arts stamp set.  I also used my copic markers to color the image.  The color has been enhanced to be brighter so I didn't want you to think it really looked this bright. lol.  I used a yellow chevron paper from the collection to back the sentiment on the inside and I have several books which contain sentiments, poems and quotes for the inside of cards and I can use them as long as the card is not for sale.  no worries, I don''t sell any of my cards anymore they are all made for family and friends. So, I distressed around the edge of the sentiment with a couple of colors of distress ink from Ranger.  I used the Ali Edwards font for the main part of the sentiment after I had cut it down to size and then added it to the inside of the card.  I also distressed the edges of the yellow chevron paper with Gathered twigs distress ink.  Well, that's all for this card, hope you enjoyed it.  I'll be back soon with yet anothr card. lol.  Till then, great big Hugs, amy k

Happy Birthday card for Father inlaw

This is the card that I made for my Father inlaw, Dale this year for his birthday.  Sorry that this isn't the best picture but I was in a rush to get it into the mail (anyone who gets cards from me will tell you they are always late.lol) so I didn't have time to get out my big camera and set up a back drop so I just grabbed the camera on my phone and snapped a quick pic.  For the background I used a burgundy coordination's card stock and distressed the edges with my Prima distressing tool. I cut the designer paper just a bit smaller and then did the same thing to the edges.  I can't recall what brand of designer paper that I used tho. Sorry.  If someone really wants to know they can just email me or leave a comment letting me know and I will try my very best to find out for you.  The Polaroid frame with the arrow cut out is a die cut that I designed on my gypsy  handheld device using a couple of cricut cartridges.  I just used green patterned washi tape on a strip of white card stock and layered it behind the cut out of the arrow. For the #1 Dad die cut I used the Phrases cartridge for the cricut and used some of the same Coordination's paper on it.  I distressed all the edges with Gathered Twigs distress ink from Tim Holtz for Ranger. I think that is becoming my go to color for distress ink lately. lol.  I stamped the sentiment using a Close to my Heart stamp in onyx black versa fine ink.  Then, finally, I added the thin rick rack trim.  It's from my vintage stash so I have no man. for you.  Well, that's it for this post, hope you liked my card. Next time I will try and do better with the picture taking. hehe. I hope you all are having a great Columbus Day. And those of you with the day off are enjoying it.  I'll be back soon with another card as I am still behind on my post and have plenty to share. Talk to you all soon. Hugs, amy k

Happy Birthday card for an old friend

I made this birthday card for my long time friend, Sara.  She lives in another town and seems like she is always on the move so needless to say, we don't get to see one another very much, but we do talk on the phone and text pretty regularly.  

To make this card I first used one of the 5.5 x 5.5 inch corrugated card bases by Recollections.  I used the 6x6 pad of the Gabrielle collection by BoBunny for the designer paper.  I cut the paper down to fit the card base, then used some flourish stamps by Autumn Leaves and some Color Box chalk ink and stamped the flourishes around the page.  The chipboard piece at the top is by Close to my Heart and the sentiment stamped there is made by them as well to fit their chipboard shapes. I used the same chalk ink to stamp that. I also used that same chalk ink to highlight the white flowers(Prima).  I added a stick pin made by me behind a Spare Parts flower. The sentiment in the middle of the card was stamped on a piece of the paper collections journaling pages. I believe that stamp is also from Close to my Heart.  I distressed the edges of the designer paper with Gathered Twigs distress ink by Tim Holtz for Ranger.  I then added the mixed color lace to the bottom of the card and you can just see a bit of the washi tape I used peaking out from underneath.

 

This is a shot of the inside of the card.  I've just layered a couple of the designer papers and another journaling page along with another strip of that same pink washi tape from the front of the card.

That's it for this post, I hope you liked it and I'm choosing to go ahead and post it eventho I know Sara hasn't seen the card yet in person.  She's having issues with her mail.  (I told you she moves alot lol).  I hope she enjoys it too. I'll be back soon with another post as I am still behind on my post, so if you haven't seen your card here or on google+ or on face book, just know it's because I'm running behind and I will get it up as soon as possible.. Thank you for being patient with me. Much love to you all. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday. AmyK

A Handmade birthday card for our Nannie (Mrs.. Kinsey)

 

This is the card that I made for Nannie Kinsey.  She's actually my hubby's grandmother but she is so warm and welcomes all extended members of the family with open arms, so I honestly feel like she's my adopted grandmother.  I love her so much and I believe she turned 88 this year.  Such an amazing woman.  I love that she's still around for all the up and coming young ladies to learn from her.  She could definitely teach the younger generation (and I'm not speaking about members of her own family, they are great smart and beautiful young ladies) a thing or two about how to be a lady.  I've spend many a night with her in the past playing games into the night just talking and enjoying each others company.  I do love her so.

On to the card, for this card I tried something new, I got these digital papers from a lady I met thru You Tube, I can't remember her first name right at the moment but her shop is called Kittylicious11.blogspot.com..  Here's the link http://kittylicious11.blogspot.com/p/printable-kits.html. You are going to love her store, It's called Kittys scrap post.  She has some beautiful kits and I've recently bought at least four kits from her and a couple of single cut apart sheets of ephemera.  You are also going to love her prices.  She makes the files, usually, in two different sizes, one in a size just right for a mini album and the other may be either 8x8 or 81/2 x11 but you get your downloads just as soon as you place your order and pay thru pay pal. So there's no waiting for the mail to bring you anything, you have every thing you need right there in that one download.  I believe I paid $12 for this kit and it includes like 20 something printable sheets plus about 3 sheets, (I've not counted them) of just cutout ephemera and envelopes and tags. Everything that I've used here on this card was from that one digital kit that I got from her.  I did do a little additional  stamping on the front sheet but you can do that.  It's just like the store bought paper pads only you get to choose which pages you want to print and you can even open the image in a Word document and change the size there. and you can print it as many times as you need, so if there is just one page you really love you don't have to hoard it any longer cause you can print more. I really love the site and check it regularly to see what's new.  I think you should head over there once you get thru with this post and just see for yourself what she has to offer. You may find yourself happily surprised.

So I used two pieces of the designer paper to layer on the front of this card. I did some flourish stamping with my Colorbox chalk inks on the front of the pink layer.  The focal image in white was cut from the ephemera page along with all the butterflies. The image of the little girl is also from one of the ephemera pages and  I shrunk it down by telling my printer to print in 4x6 and to fit to page. I also used one of her tags from the set and it came with the butterfly on it already. But I fussy cut out the larger butterfly from an ephemera sheet. I then colored some seam binding with one of my shimmer sprays and tied it onto the top of the tag, other than that I just added some crochet trim from Recollections .   I also did a little distressing with distress ink from Tim Holtz.

For the inside I cut a darker blue piece of designer paper and layered the white on top to give a place to sign the card.  I added the sentiment with my computer and printer and fussy cut out that butterfly too. and added some washi tape to the bottom corner.  I also want to mention that the kit I used was called "Spring Collection" if you want to look for it in her shop. Hope you all enjoyed today's card, and I do hope you will check out Kitty's scrap post.  It's a wonderful way to get beautiful papers at a great price and her images are always right on trend and she gives great customer service. See you all tomorrow with another card. Till then, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Lots of hugs, amy k