CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Another Challenge Card!

Here is the latest challenge card for Jacksonbelle's contest. It's so simple but I love it.
I took the quartet and eliminated the other two birds! I didn't harm them, just set them free! I wanted a different look. I used SU CS and Basic Grey Cupcake paper. The cute little flower is from Prima's Bucket of Blooms. They're all white and I colored it with a SU marker. The center is a SU button. The ribbon is from Michaels. The birds are colored with Prismacolors and blended with the colorless blender pencil.
This card is also going to be used for Cammie's Heart to Heart blog candy! I'll be sending it to the home where her mother stayed.

Cool Birds - Embellished challenge

Here is my challenge card for the Jacksonbelle Challenge for last week!
I decided to do something a little different this time since I only have this Inkie stamp and a corner one :{ . I'll be taking care of that soon! I've seen so many more that I want thanks to the awesome cards that other participants have made.
Anyway, I decided that these birdies disn't go anywhere in the winter and were stuck here in the frigid weather of Michigan. Soooo, I stamped them in SU white craft ink and embossed them with irridescent ice embossing powder. I also embossed the diamond shaped brads with the iiep. I really wish I had my camera so you could see the sparkle. I hate scanning cards! Anyway, the CS I picked up at my local staping store. It has the white flecks in it already, perfect for Christmas cards. I can't quite go there yet, so this is a winter Thinking of You card. The DP is retired SU. I layered a light blue narrow ribbon that I got at Michaels over the white ribbon from SU. The Thinking of You is SU.
Thanks for looking, and remember, you can subscribe in the little box on the right!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Halloween Card

I found this awesome stamp set at my local scrapbook store. It's Spellbound by Making Memories. Such cool images! I love the argyle bats and the polkadot witch!
I sponged the background with SU Eggplant Envy, then with SU Basic Black around the edges. I always knew it was more of a purple but you don't know how much until you sponge with it. It is PURPLE! Luckily it worked really well with this. The witch, the bat, and the greeting are stamped in eggplant envy. The moon is sponged in SU Summer Sun and More Mustard. I then sponged clouds with SU Craft White. I love the effect it gives IRL (in real life). The image is mounted on a black mat. The bat is covered in Black Diamond Stickles (Love Stickles) and is popped up on dimensionals. The Greeting is also popped up. The ribbon has white polkadots and it was too much of a contrast so I sponged Eggplant Envy on it so it goes great now! Love it! I'll be making many more cards with this set. I love it! I know I say that a lot, but I just do!
Edited to add: Don't forget that you can subscribe to this blog by entering your e-mail address in the subscription box on the right so you don't miss anything.

Major Blog Candy

A very special lady has some very special blog candy today HERE. It's not just any ordinary blog candy. It's huge, and it's for a great cause. Carolyn King is an amazing person. All of her proceeds from her latest release, Whimsical Autumn, at Gina K's store are going to the Alzheimer's Association. Her Grandmother died from this disease and she wanted to honor her. She decided to have this blog candy and asked some companies and friends for donations. WOW! It brought tears to my eyes when I saw how many people got on board with some major donations. You have to look. The blog candy ended up to be worth over $1000! Unbelievable.
My grandfather died of Alzheimer's disease and I know how hard it is for the families to watch their loved one slip away. Today is World Alzheimer's Day. Thank a caregiver.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

One More Thank You!

Here is the last of the thank you cards that I made for my friends.

I love this set, Little Tees, as you know if you've read past posts. I love bling too! You can't have too much bling. Ok, maybe you can, but not on this card. I wasn't really crazy about the "Smile" tag, but it was there so it stayed. The flowers are from the set. I hope you like it!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Embellished Challenge

Ok, so I had to scan this card. You know that the color will never be the same (heavy sigh). But here it is.

This is for the Jacksonbelle Embellishments challenge. The striped paper is supposed to be in 3 panels, and it is. It's hard to see with all of the stripes. The DP I used is Basic Grey Stella Ruby. The larger oval is from some old SU DP. The vanilla oval is from CTMH. The ovals were cut with the CM cutting system. I distressed the edges, then faux stitched. The vanilla oval is popped up on dimensionals. The green and red CS are from SU. The image was stamped with Versamark then heat embossed with dark brown embossing powder from SU. The image was colored with Prismacolor Pencils and blended with baby oil. The ribbon is from SU and I think from Basic Grey (Mellow). Button - unidentified.

I was really happy with this card. Hope you like it!

Toni

Broken Camera!

This has to be one of the worst things that can happen to a blogger! I think this is it for my poor abused camera this time. I let my daughter take it one too many times, then my grandson knocked it on the floor for good measure. I'll think of something, because I have an awesome card that I worked my behind off on yesterday for Jacksonbelle's challenge.
Take good care of your cameras!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Another Inky Card

I love, love, love this stamp. I don't even know why. I'm not a bird person by any means. I think it's the swirls. This is just so cute!

I got this set from Jacksonbelle Embellishments. It's no longer available : ( , but the stamp in the corner, "You're Cornered," is. I watercolored with ink on the lids of SU ink pads on watercolor paper from SU. The CS is textured from SU. The DP is from a pack I got a while back. It looks textured so it's nice that it looks like it goes even better with the CS. The flower was, I think, Making Memories. The buttom is Prima.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

More Thank You's for my Friends

Here is a card made with "Flowers for Daisy" by Asela Hopkins, available from Gina K Designs. I watercolored on SU watercolor paper. I used the canvas BG from SU also. I added a little bling that I picked up along the way. The image is popped up. I used this as a Thank You card but there's no greeting on the front so it can be used for almost anything.


Here's another card using this set. I love these stamps! First I stamped the larger daisy randomly for a background. I stamped the main image on watercolor paper and watercolored it. I added stickles to the flower centers and crystal efects to the vase. You can see that better in the second pic. The bling was from Gina K's store too. The image is popped up on this card too.

Thanks for looking!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Inkadinkado!

I saw this stamp on Broni's website and I had to have it! I got it at Jacksonbelle Embellishments. I've had lots of fun with it!
This card is for the Jacksonbelle Embellishments Sketch Contest. I used DP from the Basic Grey Cupcake pack. The swirls on this paper were perfect to go with the swirls on the stamp. The cardstock is textured cs from SU's In Colors. They go great with the cupcake paper. Then I had to pull some Prima flowers that I got from Jacksonbelle too. The green one has black swirls on it too. Love them! I grabbed some of the new SU buttons for the centers. I hope you enjoy the card!

Gina K Challenge

Here's my challenge card for the sketch challenge from the Gina K launch party.





I used one of my favorite sets of all time, Little Tees! I stamped the tee on DP from Basic Grey Cupcake paper. I used my 2-way glue pen on the lightening bolt then poured on the glitter! I love glitter and bling! I then popped up the tee on dimensionals. All of the card stock is the textured card stock of the SU new In Colors! Love all of the new colors. The DP for the background is also from the BG Cupcake 6x6 pack. The colors work really well with the In Colors. I cut my oval with the CM cutting system. I held the oval template on the white oval and used my paper piercer to pierce the holes. I know the second picture is pretty blurry but I wanted to show the glitter. Thanks for looking at my new blog!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

I love Gina K Designs!

Here are my first cards to post on my new blog! These are Thank you cards for my stamping buddies that made my birthday fantastic!

The first one is made using Summer Harvest from Gina K's August release. I love the strawberries! You can see in the second picture that I used Crystal Effects of the strawberries. I used Prismacolor pencils and the colorless blender pencil. That's not my favorite thing to blend with, that's for sure, but it did the job. The images are popped up, with the middle one popped up with a double layer of dimensionals.


For the next card I used "Whatever Floats Your Boat" by Gina K. The giraffe is adorable! I stamped the giraffe and window on white and cut it out so I could score it and prop it up with dimensionals to make it more 3D. I hate the top picture, but I love the effect. I applied Crystal Effects to the panes an pulled a pin through it along the lines while it was still wet. I used twill that I picked up somewhere along the way and CTMH brads. The paper (wallpaper) is some SU paper that's long been retired.


Those are it for now. I'll have to post more later. My computer is being a pain. Thanks for looking!

Here it is! My first blog dedicated to Paper Crafts!

I'm so excited! This is going to take some time to get it the way I want it, but it'll get there!
First I'll introduce myself. My name is Toni Kwaiser. I'm a married mother of 4, grandma to 1 gorgeous, fun, smart, adorable 9 month old baby boy named Brayden. You'll be hearing a lot about him too! My kids are 20, 17, 15, and 13. They're all gorgeous, fun, smart, and adorable too. Being teenagers they're not always like this, but they have their moments.
I am a retail merchandiser for Hallmark (ironic, I know). I'm going to school for a bachelors degree in accounting. That's pretty time consuming. It really cuts into my crafting time! I have always been interested in anything crafty! I remember my first attempt at stamping was when I went to Meijer, a local superstore, and bought a couple of stamps and some markers. I took them home and had no idea what to do with them. My first attempts were a joke. I found Stampin' Up! and my dreams came true. That was probably 5 years ago and I have been hooked ever since. I'm no longer a demo, but I still love SU. I just love lots more than them now!
This will be fun! I hope you enjoy!