Friday, May 31, 2013

Happy 7th Birthday, Meeko!!

Today is a very exciting day in our family! Our first fur baby, Meeko, is turning 7 years old today. This officially makes him a "senior" in dog years, and we've enjoyed teasing him about all his grey hairs and old man grumpy attitude :)

(There's a Paper Smooches Sparks entry at the bottom!)

Warning: Meeko photo heavy post happening in 3... 2... 1...

Enjoying 32 inches of snow
buuuuuuuuuuuh
So proud of his paper shredding skills!
Meeko in Maine
He loves wearing mommy's clothes... Wildcats for Life
Meeko's most natural pose
 Ok moving on to my entry for the latest Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge...



I made a pretty rainbow background by dabbing Distress Inks onto my craft mat, spraying with water, and then placing my paper over the inks.

a ROY-G-BV of distress inks

The rainbow background ended up looking so pretty I didn't want to cover it up. The hollow sentiment was perfect (Paper Smooches "Chit Chat") to show off both the stamps and the background.


Have a great weekend :)

<3 Rachel w k
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Play Date Cafe #184

The Play Date Cafe has a super summery inspiration story this week. The photo itself is stunning! See for yourself!...
Smokey Plum, Cherry Blossom, and Lava

PDCC 184
The photo reminds me of a beautiful Phoenix sunset. I got some awesome pictures back in February when I visited home. We watched the sun set over Squaw Peak mountain and chased up and down the neighborhoods until we could get a good photos :)


How gorgeous is that view?!


Every one of these papers was sent to me from Kristen just because she likes me so much ;) Thank you for the Random Act of Kindness!!!


I die cut the letters with Papertrey Ink "Headline Alphabet" dies. The little triangle stamps are from Simon Says Stamp "Happy Every Day" set.

Our Cup of the Week winner will receive a nice prize from our PDCC vault! I'll give you a hint, the prize starts with SRM ;)


I always look forward to stopping by your projects that are linked up in the pdcc gallery. It's such a great way to find inspiration throughout this lovely bloggy community of ours!

<3 Rachel w k
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Hand Made Postcards

This is my first time ever joining in on the Make it Mondays challenge with Papertrey Ink. The challenge this week is to create your own stamped postcard. It was such a fabulous idea, so I printed up a couple photos and got to it.


This photo is an all time favorite of mine. It was taken a couple summers ago on a boat ride tour of the Thimble Islands in southern Connecticut. The idea of having your own "island" with nothing but a porch on stilts just seems dreamy to me!


This sentiment fits perfectly, doesn't it? Very simple living, I'd say!


I stamped a simple address label on the back. Nothin' fancy. The photo was adhered to a layer of Neenah white cardstock to give it more weight.


This card was a somewhat failed attempt. Since I used such a crappy quality photo paper, the stamp actually peeled off the top layer of paper as I was removing it. I had done a lot of test stamps, but this one just wasn't gonna go my way! So the sentiment got stamped on cardstock and adhered to the photo. (The photo above is a Meeko paw print in a sandy beach in Maine.)

materials:
- Low quality glossy photo paper (crap)
- Neenah solar white cardstock (not crap)
- Papertrey Ink stamps "Winter Hills" and "Sew Simple Borders Mini"
- Memento ink "Tuxedo Black"

<3 Rachel w k
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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Out of This World

Today was a fabulous mail day over here! My Unity Stamp collection just grew by about 1,000%.... happy dancing all day long!

In honor of the Memorial Day weekend, the ladies over at CAS-ual Fridays Challenge are hosting a red, white, and blue challenge. I inked up some newbies to play along.



3 1/2" x 5 1/2" cards are my new go-to size. Now whenever I make an A2 size card it just looks... fat.

I created a messy mask to place on the card before stamping the argyle background. Then I stamped the world in the empty space. The sentiment was embossed in red. So that makes this card ONE LAYER!


The sentiment is from the new Simon Says Stamp June card kit. It's by Kelly Purkey and is called "Dude!" which has a lot of great Father's Day themed sentiments.


This card can easily work for Father's Day, but is also great for an everyday card for both men and women.

Stamps: Unity Stamp Co "Out of This World", Kelly Purkey "Dude!", Market Street Stamps "Argyle"
Inks: Versamagic Chalk ink "Sea Breeze", Memento "Tuxedo Black", Versamark Watermark pad
Copic marker R29, BG23, B45, and red embossing powder

And now I cross my fingers for a thunder storm

<3 Rachel w k
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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Matchbook Gifts with Lawn Fawn

Hello! I have a special Saturday post with a bonus how-to video!! Lawnscaping Challenge is hosting a design team call! They always have such fun challenges and great inspiration by the team members. I created these matchbook gifts and a video to submit to the design team.


All of the matchbooks are made with stamps from Lawn Fawn "Love n' Breakfast" and papers from Lawn Fawn "Fa-La-La" 6x6 pad.


In the tutorial video I give the dimensions to create the matchbook folds. One 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock will make four books!


I tucked a fancy tea bag inside each of the matchbooks. I thought these could be great little "gift tags" with a teacher's gift or to give to a friend that's under the weather.

Tea is from Mighty Leaf (if you're interested in the tea)


These little teal ombre teacups are my favorite! I colored the stamps with Copics and fussy cut, then adhered to the pattern paper. Each book uses simple embellishments like washi tape and rhinestones. It is very very easy to create multiples of these guys!



And here is the video to make one of these matchbooks! (If you're on a mobile device and the video doesn't show on this page, just click the link HERE to watch through your YouTube app.)


Thank you to Lawnscaping for this opportunity! Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!


<3 Rachel w k

materials: Lawn Fawn "Love n' Breakfast", Lawn Fawn "Fa-La-La" paper pad, Memento ink "Tuxedo Black", washi tape from Recollections and K & Company, Copics in various colors, Neenah solar white cardstock, rhinestones, tea bags, staples.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Bee Happy

T. G. I. F.

Lawnscaping Challenge has a real challenge going on... CAS. I said it. The dirtiest three letter acronym in all of card-making. Clean and Simple.


Just picture me standing in front of a chalkboard repetitively writing 'embrace the white space. embrace the white space. embrace the white space. embrace the white space.'  It's enough to make you crazy.


Then the itty bitty pearls started finding their way to my card. I started adding more and more, cuz 'hey they're so small, what's the harm?!' But then I hear the ghosts of crafter's past whispering hauntingly: 'rachel... you must... embrace... the white space.'
And the extra pearls were removed.


Those three little bees will never have any idea how difficult they were.


materials: Lawn Fawn "Gnome Sweet Gnome", Memento ink "Tuxedo Black", Copic Y15 and 110, pearls, Neenah cardstock.

Happy Memorial weekend :) Stay safe

<3 Rachel w k
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Play Date Cafe #183

Welcome back to another amazing week with The Play Date Cafe! Let's get right to the color story today... we have Navy, School Bus, and grass




We are so excited to welcome a new sponsor and prize this week from Close To My Heart consultant Elizabeth Mindemann! She sent us these gorgeous pearl embellishments to play with this week. Thank you!


The pearl embellishments are white, which makes them so easy to color with my Copics. I just colored over them with a yellow copic, a navy copic, and a green copic. This allowed them to work perfectly with my card and the color story :)


materials: unity stamp co "Baubled Branches", Simon Says Stamp "Everyday Happy", Memento ink "Tuxedo Black", Dylusions spray ink "Cut Grass" and "Lemon Zest", Distress Ink "Mustard Seed", washi tape from Recollections, Copics Y15, G14, B39, pearl adhesive embellishments from Close to My Heart.


I'm also entering this card into the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger "Feather Weather". I was inspired by the colors, nature theme, and the pearls.



I know y'all are going to have a ton of fun with this combo! Link up ANY type of project to The Play Date Cafe gallery :)

<3 Rachel w k
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Monday, May 20, 2013

Come Sail Away With Meeee

Ooooh Mondays.

There's really nothing else to say about Mondays. They exist. And that's kinda unfortunate.

I've got a two-fer today! Two nautical cards using some new goodies from Paper Smooches and Studio Calico.

The first card was made for the Paper Smooches SPARKS Cool Shades challenge, The CAS-ual Fridays "Stamp on DP" challenge, and the Play Date Cafe #182 color story.


Stamp on pattern/designer paper
You have until Tuesday 11:59pm EST to enter this color story!!

I used the new Paper Smooches stamp "Wicked Nautical" for this little sailboat card. And the cool paper from Studio Calico "Atlantic" collection already had a pattern with little waves and sailboats on it. Per-fect.


To brighten up the sentiment I double stamped it (first with chalk ink, then Memento ink) and then traced along the bottom of the letters with a white gel pen. I also traced pieces of the stamped waves with white gel pen to give them some pop.


Sailboat card materials: Paper Smooches "Wicked Nautical", Neenah solar white cardstock, Studio Calico "Atlantic" paper pad, BasicGrey "Paper Cottage" paper pad, Memento "Tuxedo Black" ink, Versamagic chalk ink "Aegean Blue", red twine, white gel pen.


I am entering this second card only into the CAS-ual Fridays challenge to stamp on pattern paper. This card also uses Paper Smooches "Wicked Nautical" stamps and Studio Calico "Atlantic" paper pack. The helm is simply heat embossed with this metallic bronze powder to make it stand out from the paper.


Materials: Paper Smooches "Wicked Nautical" and "Surf and Turf", Studio Calico "Atlantic" paper pad, Memento Ink "Rich Cocoa", VersaMark watermark ink, Recollections bronze emboss powder, Neenah Solar White cardstock.

In need of a Monday Morning pick-me-up? Here's my little Pumpkin after his bath...

Squeeeee!
<3 Rachel w k
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