Life is Sweet

Another happy hour post! Paper Smooches SPARKS is having an "Anything Goes!" challenge. I decided to play with a Paper Smooches set I love, but just don't use as often as I hoped.

The adorable lollipops and sentiment are from the "Sugar Rush" set. I paper pieced the pops using Dear Lizzy "Neapolitan" papers. A little pink bow and some Liquid Pearls finished it off.

Play with your PS stamps and enter into Anything Goes!

<3 Rachel w k

You're so Brr-fect

It's a Friday happy hour post! I meant to get this up earlier, but the Paper Crafts Mag submission party got me side-tracked :)

I created two cards for the latest Paper Smooches Sparks challenge. The image itself is very springy but the colors will always just remind me of winter. So I busted out the Chilly Chums stamp set for one cute, one CAS card...

Ok here the cute one. This penguin is so squishable, especially with his little pom pom hat!

All the stamps used (polka dots, icicle, sentiment, penguin) are from the Paper Smooches Chilly Chums set. Pattern paper is from Echo Park "Springtime" and "Splash" pads. I used Versamagic chalk ink and Memento "tuxedo black".

This is my CAS style of the card...

Same stamps, same inks, just no penguin.

TGIF! Have a wonderful weekend :)

<3 Rachel w k

The Play Date Cafe #179

Hello happy people! It's the best day of the week! A new color story is over at the Play Date Cafe. Our colors are Grass, Rose Petal, and Hibiscus. Makes me yearn for spring (or at least spring-ish temperatures).

I made this card for my mama, and it has already been thrown in the post box. I think she really is pretty amazing!

The flowers were fussy cut from pattern paper in My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing - Tangerine" paper pad. I double or triple layered a few of the flowers to give dimension. The sentiment is stamped in Versamagic chalk ink "Aloe Vera", with Paper Smooches stamp from "word salad" set.

The winner this week will win a gift certificate from The Twinery! I loooove their new shimmer twines :)

Our Private Blend Designer, Ashley, is finishing up her term over in the cafe. She has brought so many beautiful projects to the team and we are so grateful for the time she had with us! Have fun creating ANY project you want with these inspiration colors. Just link over to the Play Date Cafe :)

<3 Rachel w k

Happy Everything

Happy Tuesday lovelies! Some of you may know my sweet guinea pig hasn't been in great health lately. He had a very positive week, but woke up this morning struggling to breathe and not eating. We are giving him endless hugs and kisses, and even our pup has been keeping him company.

Peanut is wrapped up in the towel, getting love from Pumpkin and Meeko

Changing gears.... the April challenge over at Avery Elle has a stunning inspiration photo. It was probably made just for me, and was my wedding colors :)

Avery Elle inspiration photo

Here is the card I created for this challenge

My amazing bloggy friend, Kari, sent me this Avery Elle stamp set "Fanfare". How awesome is she? I know everybody loves this stamp and now I know why!

I wish it wasn't so cloudy out today, the colors are much brighter than the photo shows :-\ I used Versamagic chalk inks in "Key Lime", "Persimmon", and "Pink Grapefruit". The little hearts are from the Avery Elle set "Picture It".

<3 Rachel w k

Peace on Earth Day

Happy Earth Day everyone :) Just like last year, I have to share my favorite "Welcome to Earf" 14 second gem...

Thank you Will Smith.

I'm still on my Distress-Ink-as-watercolors kick, so here are two ATCs in watercolor fashion. I am entering both of these ATCs to the Moxie Fab Wonder of Watercolor Challenge.

This Peace ATC uses My Cute Stamps set "Go Green" with Distress Inks "Tumbled Glass", "Picked Raspberry", "Mustard Seed", "Dusty Concord".

The Laughter ATC uses flower stamps from Recollections and a sentiment stamp from Fiskars. The Distress Inks turned watercolors are "Tumbled Glass", "Mustard Seed", "Dusty Concord", "Picked Raspberry", "Pine Needles", "Worn Lipstick". Silver Liquid Pearls were added for accents.

And I'm entering this ATC into the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge of COLOR!

You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.

<3 Rachel w k

Watercolor Inspiration

Happy weekend! Here in New England we are definitely feeling like we can breathe again after all of the events in Boston yesterday.

Time to let creative juices flow again with a Lawnscaping and Moxie Fab challenge. The Lawnscaping challenge is to create a card that shows something you're inspired by. Over at Moxie Fab there is a challenge to create a watercolor look.

I was inspired to use the techniques shared with this card by Jennifer McGuire

My inspiration!

So I really did just scrap-lift the idea because I wanted to try out the watercolor look that Jennifer used. In my card I used Lawn Fawn stamps from "Flutter By" set. I also used Distress Ink pads with water spritzed on the ink, since I do not own any distress markers.

My light blue shading around the flowers didn't turn out, so I dealt with it by just dragging the blue throughout the card rather than trying to make it a shadow.

I used the "you inspire me" sentiment because HOW FITTING is that in an "inspired by" challenge?! I also used the iron off technique that Jennifer shared. This removed all of the embossing powder after the inks were dried.

<3 Rachel w k

Play Date Cafe #178 with CAS-ual Friday Stamps!!

A few weeks ago I was writing about how giddy I was for the upcoming Play Date Cafe color stories. Well if I was lovin on the colors last week (which duh, I was), then I am in LLUUURRVVVEEE with these super fun colors...

Have fun with Hot Pink, Shadow, and Lightning Yellow!

You likey? To add to this beyond fun color story, we have an amazing sponsor and prize this week from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!!

I received this stamp set "Ka-Boom" to play with. It's pretty fitting because I'll blow up a fist bump any day of the week. I'll also be entering this tag into the current Casual Fridays Challenge to add glitter.

I used some partial die-cutting to make the tag shape, distressed it in yellow, and spray misted in hot pink. I added some washi tape, ribbon, then stamped, stickled, sequined and twined.

materials: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps "Ka-Boom", Distress Ink "Mustard Seed", Dylusions Spray Ink "Bubble Gum Pink", StazOn Ink "Jet Black", Prismacolor Pencil in grey, yellow chevron washi from Freckled Fawn, pink arrow washi from Recollections, Stickles "Silver", pink ribbon, sequins, The Twinery "Stone" and We R Memory Keepers twine "Pink".

And here are some of my favorite fist bumps for your viewing pleasure

Go play with these fun bright colors at the Play Date Cafe! The winner gets a prize from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps!!

<3 Rachel w k

Wake Up Call

It's been a long while since I've joined in the Tuesday Trigger over at the Moxie Fab World. This cool inspiration photo was begging to be made into a card!

I grabbed some papers from Fancy Pants "Park Bench" collection and a cute little coffee stamp from Paper Smooches "Warm Hearts" set.

The front of the card is a shorter width than the back, so the light blue pattern paper shows through. I double stamped the sentiment to get a blue/light blue shadow. The little coffees were colored with Copics.

Love will keep us warm!

<3 Rachel w k

Oceanside

I'm excited for the Paper Smooches Sparks color challenge this week. Some of my favorite colors are in this combo, and I really needed a reason to stop watching the news and play with my stamps...

This is a tag shaped card with one of my all time fave Paper Smooches stamps, that cute little monster. I owe my friend, JP, a card so this was made for him in mind.

I colored teal and blue shades with my Prismacolor Pencils and then blended it all with mineral spirits. The cutie monster was colored with Copics (BG15, YG05, YG07) and fussy cut. I cut the larger size tags to put together for a shape card, which has a fold at the top to open up as a card. The sentiment has been heat embossed.

A straight-on picture... it's blurry :(

Materials: Paper Smooches stamp "Falling for You", "Word Salad". Prismacolor Pencils, Copic markers. Versamark watermark ink, Memento ink "Tuxedo Black". Martha Stewart embossing powder "Evergreen". Spellbinders Nestabilities "Labels 1", washi tape from target, rhinestones.

JP sure is "one of a kind"! I hope he likes it :)

Much love for Boston

<3 Rachel w k

Play Date Cafe #177

The Play Date Cafe has an AMAZING color story this week. The combo can go so many directions for paper goods and home decor... and I think I need to paint my nails this combo as well :)

Say a yummy hello Midnight, Aqua, and Terracotta

And the winner for this challenge will win a gift certificate to the fantastic Simon Says Stamp store

I created this ATC using a lot of old stamps in my stash. It's great to play around with some of my 'originals' :)

I don't own a "terracotta" color ink pad, so I dabbed the stamp in orange ink, then very lightly tapped it in red ink. It created a great colored mix of terracotta. First I stamped the background argyle pattern, then I stamped and embossed the lotus image. The embossing powder stuck to some of the background image, but I liked the splatter look so it didn't need to be fixed. The butterflies are stamped and fussycut, then adhered to the ATC.

materials: stamps: Hero Arts "Lotus Leaves", Marketstreet Stamps "Argyle", Martha Stewart butterfly stamp, The Craft's Meow "Blessed Easter". Inks: Memento "Tangelo" and "Rhubarb", Hero Arts "Soft Pool", Versamark. Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Bazzill navy. Stickles "Orange Peel", Recollections navy emboss powder.

I'm so excited to see browse the gallery for this color story. Make sure to link up your project over at the Play Date Cafe!

<3 Rachel w k

Hot Air

Nothing looks more like springtime in the desert than a hot air balloon floating over the mountains. My card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks challenge combines my Phoenix flying hot air balloons with my New England skyscrapers.

Here is the sketch to follow this week...

My cityscape works as the horizontal strip on the bottom with the sentiment, and I tried to add my balloons in a semi circle direction to follow that part of the sketch.

Paper piecing with Paper Smooches stamps is my favorite thing to do! I used pattern paper from My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing - Tangerine" pack and the cloud pattern is vellum from Dear Lizzy "Neapolitan" collection. The ink used is StazOn in Jet Black. Paper Smooches stamps from "Metropolis" and "Chit Chat"

Happy hump day! "I'm gonna make you girls a hump day treat!" - Mean Girls

<3 Rachel w k