HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE # 33

Hello all;
Well it's time again for another fabulous High Hopes Challenge. This weeks challenge is brought to you by Niki and she has chosen "NO CORNERS".

I couldn't resist using Crissy's beautiful "Big Flower" image again. This time instead of painting it, I have done some Pergamano with it.



It is quite easy to use rubber stamps for Pergamano, all you have to do is stamp the image in black on a piece of photo copy paper and voila...you have a pattern to trace. I also used some pieces of different patterns I have to design the rest of the card. This card is done in 3 pieces. The card itself is made from a piece of brown velvet paper. The next layer is traced with copper ink and a mapping pen, the flowers are pierced with a 1 needle tool and the centers are embossed. I stippled the border between the outer 2 copper lines. The 3rd layer, the flower is traced with white Tinta ink and the center and dots is traced in copper. The flower is embossed with a medium embossing tool and both layers are cut out using a 2 split tool. The center of the flower is also stippled...its hard to see but stippling is piercing from the back and on the front areas that are stippled it is rough to the touch. I added some copper beads to the velvet card.

I hope you get a chance to play along with us this week, there are some fab High Hopes stamps just waiting to be won.


Before I go, I just have to share a pic with you. Yesterday was my birthday and as some of you know my daughter Chelle has quite a knack for making cakes. This is the cake she made for her Momma. How cute is this!! The lady bug is a cake in itself and all the icing is marshmallow fondant. The main cake was white with seedless raspberry jam in the middle.....I must tell you it was delicious!!



Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by. Your wonderful comments are truly appreciated....

KAREN x


* all products used in my card were purchased at The Rubber Room and on-line store.

One Stop Craft Challenge #31

Good morning everyone;

I played in the One Stop Craft Challenge a couple of weeks ago and was very lucky to win a 2 week DT spot...yay!!
This weeks challenge is brought to us by Donna and she has chosen "Let's Here it For the Boys".

The Rubber Room has just received some fab stamps from The Greeting Farm and of course I had to have some!! This adorable image is "Rescue Ian" and I thought it would fit right in with the OSCC this week.



I embossed the image and the flames with black and painted it with Tombows. The flames are a stubbie from Stamps by Judith. At first glance I thought the flame stamp was a leaf, but it is not, it really is a flame. I used my Inkssentials white pen for the highlights and doodling. The bg was embossed with a CB folder and I used my nesties scallop and labels dies. Ack!! I forgot to add some stickles....lol! Oh well, I think it's ok without them.
It was a fun little card to make, I am happy with the way it turned out.
I will be playing along with the fab design team again next week...so stay tuned.

Have a fabulous weekend and Thanks for popping in...

KAREN x

The Pink Elephant Challenge #16

Hello everyone;
I hope you are all having a great week so far. A little rainy and dismal here for the next few days, but great for the new front garden we just put in. I transplanted a ton of perennials from my back gardens and was worried they wouldn't take because of the heat. I think they will be ok now.

It's been fun playing the different challenges and last week my card was chosen as the winner in The Pink Elephant Challenge #15....yay!! Check out my fab little Ella banner on my side bar, too cute.

This weeks TPE challenge is a fab sketch by Robin Willis. I decided to use one of my new stamps from The Greeting Farm, adorable Grace.



I embossed the image with black and painted it with Tombows. I used my Inkssentials white pen for the highlights and the dots. The dp is from DCWV paper stack. I used a CB embossing folder and the trim on the dp is a sticker border and I colored it orange with my Identa-pen permanent marker. I put a dot of frosted lace stickles in each circle of the border and some stickles on the image. I stamped the sentiment onto the ribbon with Stazon black.

I hope you like it...and Thanks for stopping by

KAREN x

Exciting News!!!!

Hello everyone....
I am sooo excited to tell you that I am the newest member of the Motivet Design Team....yay!!! So fun to actually say it, keeping quiet is not my strong suit...LOL!!

For those of you who haven't been introduced to Motivet Rubber Stamps, let me give you the scoop. Motivet is a new Canadian rubber stamp company, right here in Southwestern Ontario. Doraline and Dexter are the main characters, the most adorable little squirrels....ever!! I have been fortunate to make my very first DT card using "Dexter with Christmas Gift", one of the new release stamps.



I embossed the image with black and painted it with Tombows. I used an Inkssentials white pen for the dots and highlights. The card base was stamped and embossed with a snowflake and Perfect Medium and clear embossing powder. I used frosted lace stickles for the fur on the hat and green and red stickles in other spots. The borders have been punched with MS punches. I also used a MS punch for the snowflakes. The DP is from Darcie's.
I am happy with the way it turned out, I hope you like it too!!

Be sure to drop by the Motivet Inspirational Blog and check out the amazing talent of the Design Team....you will love their gorgeous creations. You can also enter the May Blog candy, a chance to win all 7 new release stamps.
The Motivet website and shop can be seen here.

The Rubber Room Store will have these fabulous stamps as of Wednesday this week.

Have a great day...
Thanks so much for stopping by.

KAREN x

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE #32

Good morning everyone,
I hope you are all having a great weekend. The weather here in Ontario has been amazing, high 20's all weekend. We froze all winter and now have the AC on...go figure!!

This weeks High Hopes Challenge is brought to you by Tab and she has chosen a color challenge, "Pink and Brown".

This adorable image is "Tidy-up Tillie" from the new release.



I embossed the image with black and painted it with Tombows. The sentiment is also embossed with black. I used a MS punch for the white for the background behind the ribbon and my decorative scissors for the scallop edge on the brown cs. The DP are from DCWV paper stack. I also added some stickles and a few dew drops.

I hope you will be able to play along with us this week for a chance to win some fabulous High Hope stamps.

Have a great day...
Thanks for stopping by.....

KAREN x

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #49

Hi Everyone;
Sorry for not visiting your blogs much this week as I have been having some computer problems. I think they are cleared up now, so I hope to do some blog stalking tonight.

I made this card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge #49. The challenge this week is a recipe= 3 flowers, 2 papers and 1 brad/charm.

I am also able to use this card for the One Stop Craft Challenge, which is "Pink and Brown" and A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #52 which is "Celebration".....I'm getting pretty good at this, eh!!



The images are from Penny Black.
I embossed the images with black and painted them with Tombows. I used my nesties for the frame and EK Success border punches. The papers are from a DCWV paper stack. The flowers are punched and layered. I also used some stickles.

I hope you like it...

If you care to read on, I have some info on my computer issues.
I am going to try to explain what happened as I see that a few others are having problems too. My pc had been going slower and slower over the last few days. The other day when I clicked on a few of my favorite blogs it kept trying to load and then a sign would come up and say "operation aborted". So because I am soooo computer challenged I went off with my tower to my computer dude. I use microsoft windows and from what I understand when microsoft automatically updated to series 3
(I think that is what it is called) it confilcted with blogger and is having a hard time loading programs. So he downloaded Fire Fox and I could hardly believe how fast it is going now. It also seemed to clear up a multitude of problems. I am hoping this is what was wrong, as my computer crashed a year or so ago and I thought maybe it was happening again. I have my fingers crossed, I would hate to lose everything again!!

Have a great day and Thanks for stopping by...
KAREN x

Pergamano and The Pink Elephant Challenge #15

Hello everyone;
I have been working this past weekend on my Pergamano. I decided to take the time and dedicate it just to that. I started out with some brushstroke painting on parchment but I really don't like the look of colored images on the parchment. I am so partial to just the whitework. I love the lace look so I am sticking to just that!

The first card is for The Pink Elephant Challenge this week which is "Monograms". The only monograms I had were some pergamano patterns my friend Shirley had shared with me. So here is what I came up with.



To start I traced the patterns with a mapping pen and white Tinta ink and the stems and leaves with copper Tinta ink. I embossed some of the areas and the tips of the letters have been stippled with a 1 needle tool. The holes in the background piece are done on a grid. I used a 3 needle tool to go around the edges and then I snipped between the dots to make the edging with my fancy little perga cutters. I used a CB folder for the card. I don't usually use any cardstock with my Pergamano cards, just parchment, but I think it looks not too bad.



I want you to see the stippling on the tips of the letters,
that is done with a 1 needle tool lightly piercing rapidly on the area.







This card I made just because I love the pattern and have been wanting to make it for a while now. I changed some of the elements of the pattern but kept the basic card itself.



I traced some of the pattern with gold Tinta ink and a mapping pen and the white lines with my Pergamano white ink pen. I embossed the areas with different sizes of embossing tools and pierced the area behind the flowers with an arrow tool and a grid. The open areas behind the butterfly are pierced with a 2 split tool and the pieces removed. Sometimes you have to use scissors to snip a little but the pieces usally pop right out. I layered the finished image with turquoise parchment and pierced through all 4 thicknesses with the 2 split tool to created the finished edge. The butterfly was done in the same way, a little tricky piercing inside the wings....lots of paitience there...lol!!


I was really happy with the way it turned out.









I added this last pic to give you an idea what I use to make my Pergamano cards.


The black foam is an embossing pad. The tools on the left are piercing tools and the mapping pen. In the middle is a small piece of the parchment paper I start with, the bottle of ink and my fancy little Perga cutter scissors. They are specially made for parchment and they make cutting a breeze. The tools on the right are all different sizes of embossing tools. There are many more tools in my case, but this will give you an idea of what they all look like.

Sorry for such a long post...hope you like my cards,
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.....

KAREN x


*all products used in my cards were purchased from The Rubber Room and on-line stores.

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE #31

Good morning everyone;
I hope you are all having a great weekend. Here in Canada we are celebrating Victoria Day tomorrow, so we are having a long weekend. A new front garden is on our agenda, we are just waiting for the weather to clear up. It's supposed to be nice today, still cool but sunny.

The High Hopes Challenge this week is brought to you by....ME!! I have chosen "Can Ya Doodle". I love to doodle on just about anything, so I thought this would be fun.
When I saw the new release bees and butterfly, I knew there would be another step card in my future...lol!!

These adorable images from the new release are Sitting Bee, Bedilia Butterfly, Fanciful Flower, Fanciful Border, Rosey Posey Frame and the Honey Pot.



I embossed the images with black and painted them with Tombows. I stamped Bedilia's wing and the large flower in the border twice and layered them. The honey pot is covered with glossy accents. The antenna's were made with black wire. I used my MS border punch behind the sentiment. I used glossy accents on the water drops. The watering can was painted with Gelly Roll silver metallic. I also added lots of Stickles. It took quite a while to paint and cut out the images, but totally worth the time. I am really happy with the way it turned out, I hope you like it too.

Be sure to check out the other Diva's creations, they all did a fabulous job of doodling. I hope you be able to play along with us this week, there are some great High Hopes stamps up for grabs.

Have a great day....and Thanks for stopping by...
KAREN x



*all products used on my card are from The Rubber Room and on-line store.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #14

Hi everyone....
I can't believe it is Thursday already. Wow...were do the days go!!
It has been a busy week, but I did manage to get a few cards done.

This is my card for The Pink Elephant Challenge #14. The challenge this week is light blue, med. or dark blue, green and white.

This adorable image is "Hopeful Ant" from High Hopes.



I embossed the image with black and painted it with Tombows. I stamped the image twice and cut out the plant and layered it. The flower was cut from the dp and I stamped the sentiment onto white shrink film with Stazon black and shrunk it down.
I layered the flower with foam tape. The borders were punched with a MS and an EK Success punch. I added a few gems and of course some stickles.

I hope you like it...
Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Sunday for the High Hopes Challenge.

KAREN x

"A Heartfelt Thank You" and 1 card ...2 challenges

Hello everyone:
I hope you all had a great weekend.

I would like to give a "Heartfelt Thank You" to Marcea for featuring my cards and blog on Inspirational yesterday. I was so touched by her wonderful comments. Thanks again Marcea, you truly made my day!!


ONE CARD....TWO CHALLENGES
I am getting pretty good at making one card for more than one challenge. I guess some of you ladies are rubbing off on me...lol!!

Today I am sharing a card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge....which is black/white and 1 other color. I am also using it for the One Stop Craft Challenge #28 which is Cut It Out!

The flower image is from Penny Black...and one of my all time favorites.



The precious little butterfly is from High Hopes new release.
I embossed the images with black and painted them with Tombows. I added the white dots with my Inkssentials pen. I embossed and painted the butterfly 3 times and cut out and layered each section. The white background was cut with scallop scissors. Not having any pre-cut cards, I had to do it by measuring. I added some dew drops, a bow and of course some stickles.



Also a little tip for you all today.....I always thought that the dew drops were made of glass... No they are NOT....they are made of resin. (as my dear friend Cathy tells me...a little too late) I like to use the clear ones and I paint the backs of them with whatever color I need with permanent markers, glaze pens etc. Well they weren't drying fast enough for me so I picked one up with my metal tweezers and used my embossing gun to dry them....really bad idea. Melted it right to the tweezers, I shouldn't have tried to pick it off the tweezers until it has cooled either, it was really hot....LOL!! Anyway, a lesson learned.

I hope you like my card and my tip of the day...


Thanks for stopping by,

KAREN x

*all products used in my card are from The Rubber Room and on-line store.

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE #30...and Happy Mothers Day!!

Good morning everyone;
Happy Mothers Day!! I hope you all are having a great weekend so far.

High Hopes Challenge #30 is brought to you by Anna and she has chosen "One for the Boys". The Divas have come up with some fabulous cards this week, so go on over and be prepared to get inspired to make a card for the man or boy in your life.

I have chosen the "Garden Beetle" and "Best Dirt" image and sentiment for my card this week.



I embossed the image twice with black and painted it with Tombows. I cut the wings off both images and then layered one pair behind the beetle, to give it a little dimension. I used some wire for his antennas. I embossed and painted the mushrooms and glued them onto the ribbon. The tools have been painted with Gelly Roll metallic silver. I added glossy accents to the flower center and the silver part of the tools.
I also added some stickles. The DP is from Darcie's.


I hope you will be able to play along with us this week and you will have a chance to win some fabulous High Hopes stamps.

Thanks so much for stopping by.....

KAREN x

*all products used in my card are from The Rubber Room and online store.

Creative Crew Challenge

Hello everyone;
We have had three fabulous days of sunshine here....I think thats why my cards are so bright this week...LOL!!
This is my card for the Creative Crew Challenge. The challenge this week is embossing. Now if I had read the challenge properly I would have seen that we could use ANY type of embossing and I could have used yesterdays card for this challenge as well. But I didn't and therefore made another card. That will teach me to pay attention.....eh!!



I embossed the images twice with black and painted them with Tombows. The butterflies have been cut, shaped and layered. I used my MS border punch for the side and also my pinking scissors. I embossed the whole card and the orange piece of cardstock with a CB folder. I also added some stickles. The images I have used are from Magenta and they are a puzzle set. I love these sets as you can choose so many layouts or even just one image.
I am happy with the way it turned out.


I hope you all have a great day and Thanks for stopping by...

KAREN x

*all products used in my card were purchased at The Rubber Room and on-line store

Put your sunglasses on........

Good morning everyone;
Well I am still in challenge mode this week and my card today is going to work for 2 different challenges....yay!!
The first one is for The Pink Elephant Challenge #13 and the challenge is Circles and Scallops. It also happens to fit right in with the Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #50 and the challenge is "Touchy Feely".



This card came about with some color inspiration from my blog friend Cammie. The colors of her card yesterday were black, yellow and white and it looked awesome. I instantly thought how great that color combo would look with my High Hopes Bee. I must admit I have a lot more yellow showing...so it came out a lot brighter....hence the need for sunglasses. I think this card is the brightest and busiest card I have ever made!!!...LOL!!

I embossed the honeycomb image with gold. The sitting bee from High Hopes and the sentiment are embossed with black. I painted the images with Tombow markers. I used my new "atyou Spica glitter pen by Copic" for the wings. The yellow background was stamped with Perfect Medium and the images are the honey pot and the fanciful flower, also from High Hopes. I punched the fern and added the Prima flower. The sentiment is from designs unlimited. I also added some Stickles and dew drops.
I am happy with the way it turned out.....I hope you like it too!

Have a bright and sunny day...and Thanks so much for stopping by...

KAREN x


*all products used in my card are from The Rubber Room
and on-line store.

HIGH HOPES CHALLENGE #29

Good morning everyone;
I hope you are all having a great weekend. The weather has been beautiful here for a couple of days, a little rain here and there but fabulous none the less!!

Today's High Hopes Challenge is brought to you by Ying and she has chosen "Heat Embossing".

The images I have used are "Sweet Dreams" and the "Fanciful Flower Corner". I absolutley love this sentiment, "Kiss of the Sun". These are all from the High Hopes new release.



I embossed all the images, twice, with black and painted them with Tombows. The green background was stamped with the fanciful flower corner image and Perfect medium and clear embossing powder and heat set. I cut out the long leaves and the center of each flower and layered them. I also added some stickles. The Dp is from my stash and I'm not sure where it came from.



I bet you are surpised to see the inside finished....lol!! I also embossed the images for the inside. I used my nesties for the ovals and Versa magic Spanish Olive ink for the edges. I hope you like it.

I hope you will be able join us for this weeks challenge and be sure to check out the High Hopes blog for the POTM for May.


Have a great day and Thanks for stopping by....
KAREN x