Some Foxy Love

I haven't had too much crafty time, but I have certainly been up at night browsing some Etsy art! Last year for Valentine's Day I bought my hubs a lovely little art print of a guinea pig flying over Paris. We absolutely adore it, and it's time to add a new piece of art to the fam!

So what's the latest animal trend on Etsy? Red foxes. Clearly. I'm totally ok with this because our little papillon is our little fox, and let's be honest: they're way cuter than owls.

Here are some amazing little art pieces I've found while on Etsy fox patrol....

fox paper cutting by RuralPearl

If you have some browsing time, you must go through the ruralpearl shop which has beautiful and intricate paper cut artwork. I wish I could buy a framed original!

the delivery by emmaklingbeil

How fantastic is this print by emmaklingbeil? Funky meets weird meets adorably sweet. It would go great with our other prints! It has such a personality, I love it.

fox flowers by ChipmunkCheeks

This little fox is ready for some hippie love. He really just makes me smile... or is it a 'she'?? ChipmunkCheeks also has a little squirrel print I'm keeping my eye on.

tea time by yayforfidgetart

This foxy man has some serious attitude, and according to yayforfidgetart, he likes his morning tea with a pinch of gin. I think this guy and I would get along juuuuuuust fine ;)

origami fox by PaperoniPress

Of course I have to finish with some stationary. This little fox by PaperoniPress reminds me of my little pup, so it has found a special place in my heart!

So what do you think of my foxy finds? Which one should I buy for our Valentine's Day addition?! It's so hard to pick :)

<3 Rachel w k

Punching out some Joy

I have done yet another card for all those Moxie Fab challenges going on! This one is for the Punches Challenge. Use those paper punches and use them I did. I only own 3 paper punches, so I kept it easy.

My favorite DCWV paper stack ever, the Colorful Life stack, was great for the circle punch. With just 3 different sheets off my mat stack I got tons of different colors and patterns. I randomly glued on each circle piece and trimmed the edges. The square punch was sent to me by Donna from a give away. I chalked the edge with purple, stamped the Paper Smooches 'joy' in purple and filled it with a teal gel pen. Some matching teeny tiny gems finish it off.

<3 Rachel w k

Wine Tags

Earlier I posted about how much I am loving the Cool Tools challenges at Moxie Fab. I have really enjoyed the 'around the house' challenge, where we need to use everyday items in our card making.

While working on my sunshine card I was sipping on my glass of red wine. Do you know where this is going?? The perfect color dye to use on some gift tags! I grabbed watercolor paper scraps and just dipped them right into my glass.

Isn't that ribbon a perfect match? The lovely Bethan sent them to me from her fun give away :)

This tag was dipped into my wine glass and I let the wine run through the paper as it wished. All stamps on this one are from an old Fiskars set called Terrific Tags. The black ink soaked into the wine and got a little 'blurry' but I really like the look it made.

The splatters on this tag were made by dipping my little paintbrush into my wine glass and just flicking the wine on the paper. I wanted to keep the splatters and not cover them up, so this hollow 'thanks' stamp from Paper Smooches Chit Chat set was perfect. I double stamped it, first in a purple wine color and then on top with black.

There are always so many good things that wine can do :)

<3 Rachel w k

Recycled Sunshine

There are some great great challenges going on right now in the Moxie Fab World. They will really get your craft brain runnin. My favorite one is the "around the house" challenge. Use everyday items around your home to make your card.

I grabbed the bottle cap off the milk gallon we just finished (we aren't that healthy, milk usually just goes into our espresso) and used it as a stamp. It made perfectly imperfect circles, and stamped pretty well. I used distress inks Word Lipstick and Broken Glass

I also have a sunshine stamp set from the Crafts Meow that I realized was the exact same size as my bottle cap. I stamped a polka dot sunshine in orange (martha stewart ink) and the 'You are my Sunshine' sentiment fit neatly inside the bottlecap circle in black.

Aren't the little red pearls fun? I found them on the Oriental Trading site for cheapy cheap!

What items do you use around the house to work into your craft inspiration??

<3 Rachel w k

You're the Man!

Did everyone enjoy their snow day yesterday?? We got one foot of snow, and they only expected about 5 inches... it was a great day for eating a huge breakfast and getting some crafty time in!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to show off your Penguin Suit, or... only use black and white. I broke out some stamps I won at Moxie Fab, the Craft's Meow mustache set

There aren't many steps involved in this one. I used black watercolor paint to splatter all over the card, and used black stamp ink for the mustaches and the sentiment. I did add Black Diamond Stickles to the top stache... I hadn't used stickles all day, so this was necessary.

Happy Penguin Awareness Day! I can't wait for all the big football games on today... I'm hoping for a Patriots win and a 49ers win. How fun would a complete east coast vs west coast Superbowl be?

<3 Rachel w k

It Must be Love

I finally got some craft time in today! It felt great to unwind after work and stamp up some lil' cuties. Hopefully I'll have the time for this to be my nightly routine :)

and I was so happy to see a new Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge! Yall know they're my favorite... sink into this bold photo...

SPARKS inspiration

I focused on the light green and red polka dot patterns, and did my best to not lean into the Christmasy side of things. I also did paper piecing! It's been a while :)

A little (fat) puppy just in love with the neighborhood fire hydrant. Ahhh siiigh... new love. The Paper Smooches stamp sets I used are: "Smoocheroos" for the sentiment and the heart, "Chubby Chums" for the pup, and "Promenade" for the fire hydrant. All papers are various scrap pieces in my stash, mainly DCWV 'dots, stripes, and plaid' stack, and my misc Colorbok stack.

And can you believe it, there are NO stickles on this card! I know.

<3 Rachel w k

Happy Mailbox: Christmas Edition

I am so lucky to have met some amaaaazing women through this little blog world of mine. As the holidays went on, I would consistently be surprised with a little happiness in my mailbox. It's great to see all this crafty talent in person, and to own a piece of it for myself!

Here are some lovely and thoughtful items I received over the month:

from Kari

Kari was the first person I ever traded cards with through this blog adventure. Her fun stamps were so thoughtful, and I just adore this card! It is so Kari's style, and it definitely put a big ol' smile on my face! {kari's blog}

from Amie

The lovely (and VERY pregnant!!!) Amie made me this holiday plate. It's decoupaged on the back and even has little gold glitter specs throughout. This was the only holiday decor I had in my entire kitchen, so it was definitely the star of the room. Plus it kept my little squirrel salt shaker company :) {amie's blog}

from Donna

How fantastic is this card from Donna?? It's so colorful and happy and cute, it was a pleasure to take it out of the envelope! Donna's cards always blow me away, and they always look a million times better in person. Plus I got an adorable picture of her puppies, so that wins :) {donna's blog}

from Linda

This gorgeous piece of paper art is from Linda over in the Hero Arts flickr group. We all participated in a holiday card swap, and this was the lovely card I was lucky to receive! She also sent me some paper pieced goodies and this gorgeous cling stamp... which I have been using a lot lately, I just love it! {linda's flickr}

from Isha

This card from Isha was a complete surprise to me. If you remember, Isha was the winner of my 25th birthday bash gift card give away. I hadn't heard back from her since September, so I was pretty thrilled to get a note from her in the mail! Her card is so traditional and beautiful, and I think I recognize the white flocking on Santa's hat (did she win that with simonsaysstamp?? lol). She even sent me this adorable mini stamp as a thank you, and I can't wait to play with it!{isha's blog}

from Beth... Bumblebee!

A while back I actually won a little give away she was hosting, and my prize was this amaaazing set of ribbons, which came all the way from England! Her clean and simple card is just gorgeous. I loved opening up this fun package of pretty ribbon, and not to mention the 'brochure' that came with it is fabulously chic and vintage feeling. {beth's blog}

Thank you everyone for your lovely mailbox surprises! They all put so many smiles on my face. And so yall know, every one of these cards was displayed on our table throughout the holiday. Thank you thank you, I have such amazing bloggy friends!

<3 Rachel w k

Stackaholic January Layout

I have a list taped up to my desk shelf that has 5 "crafty goals" I have for 2012. I ordered them in order from easiest to hardest.  What's the hardest thing on my crafty list? Keeping my scrapbook up to date. I think you could agree with me on this.

The DCWV monthy scrapbook challenge is a top favorite of mine! I love using new layouts, and I find I create the pages much much more quickly when I have the sketch to follow.

I made two pages using the same sketch, just reversing the order on one of them. This way they look great sitting side by side in my scrapbook :)

I now only have ONE MORE vacation left to scrapbook and then I am up to date! (at least to this list I have looking at me, recent holidays don't count yet). These pages are from the summer when my mom and dad came to visit me in Connecticut. We also took a drive to Albany and Saratoga to visit all the family on my mom's side.

materials: DCWV "Lemon Flower" stack. K & Company adhesive borders. Alphabet stickers and stamps.

<3 Rachel w k

Chip Chip: I heart You

I've been told I'll start figuring out this work/craft/blog schedule eventually... so here I am, 30 minutes before I leave for work to share a card!

The challenge at CAS-ual Friday's this week is "Chip off the Ol' Block", or, use a piece of chipboard in your clean and simple design. A long time ago I bought a box of DCWV chipboard pieces because they were on clearance for 2 bucks. I found great pieces to match with these little birdies!

I love how the chipboard brackets keep these two lil love birds in their own lil love bubble. All stamps are from Paper Smooches 'Smoocharoos' set (it is so effing cute) and colored with my Prismacolor pencils. Chip Chip!

How do you guys manage your work/blog schedule? How do you keep up?! Have a great Monday, only 5 days left til Friday :)

<3 Rachel w k

Tryin to Find my MOJO

Wow, it has been a loooong time since I've done a mojo monday challenge! I was feeling stuck, so a sketch was just what I needed.

I tried to get some Valentine's Day 'mojo' flowin. This is not my favorite, but I had fun playing around with all my shiny and patterned papers.

My favorite piece is the die cut flower, which I stamped over with my Hero Arts 'Small Solid Flower' stamp. I stamped it pink, red, and orange to match the papers.  The metallic card base is DCWV 'Safari Kids' stack, the pink banner is DCWV 'Glitter' stack, the black and pink paper is from DCWV 'Streetlace' stack, and... finally... the 'Love' is a piece of patterned paper from Colorbok.

Enjoy your Sunday and watch a lot of football! :)

<3 Rachel w k

Monster Mash

Lawnscaping challenge is celebrating their one year birthday this week! They are challenging everyone to make a fun birthday card, using Lawn Fawn stamps, oooorrr... an amazing digi set made by Melania Deasy, which is available for FREE right here.

I used the cute monster with his party hat, and the banner images. You simply resize them how you wish, print, color, and cut. These were great digi stamps for coloring, and super easy to cut.

I colored everything using my yummy, buttery, Prismacolor pencils. I cut the images, adhered with a good ol' glue stick, and added some twine  to the banner. I stamped "woohoo!" from Paper Smooches 'Chubby Chums' stamp set.

I think this is a perfect card for a Friday! TGIF

<3 Rachel w k

Let's Party!

I'm trying so hard to keep up with everybody's blogs and also find time to make my own projects. ah! I am doing the overnight shift at work tonight, and then tomorrow I'm doing the morning shift.... hmmm something doesn't add up. Must survive!

The Tuesday Trigger and the Paper Smooches Sparks challenges this week match perfectly together. I made a birthday card for my hubs, who will be turning 25 next week! Here are the inspiration photos:

Here is my card...

I found a no-name alphabet and numbers stamp set (think I found it in the dollar section at Michael's) and used Martha Stewart bright inks to stamp all over the page. I stamped "let's party" from Paper Smooches "Word Salad" set, in various ink colors. I adhered that on candy striped paper from Colorbok, and stickled the red 25. Woohoo!

Make sure to join in the fun with Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger, and Paper Smooches Sparks challenge!

<3 Rachel w k

Live Colorfully

ahhhh the 2011 campaign of my favorite brand, kate spade. Doing my best to live colorfully, I dived into this photo inspiration challenge. This card was made at 10pm on New Years Eve, with music booming and my sparkly shoes on, while waiting for the party to start!

How fun is this photo for the current Paper Smooches Sparks challenge?! And for Christmas I got 6 new Paper Smooches stamp sets, so ya, I was eager to play along with all my new toys!

The stamp sets I used were 'Promenade' and 'Word Salad'. I stamped with black Stazon ink and colored it in full rainbow with my new Prismacolor pencils. I gave this card to my hubs right before we took off for the night, thanking him for a fabulous 2011 full of love and support :)

Make sure to check out the challenge and play along! I hope everyone had a fun New Years and bring it on, 2012!

<3 Rachel w k