Lace and Pearls at Kenny K this week!

Hello, all! The weeks continue to breeze past me like I'm sitting still! I can't believe we have already started the third month of the year! That means that we'll be a quarter of the way through the year at the end of this month! Oh, my gosh! Can you believe it? At this rate, I think I had better start on my Halloween and Christmas cards around June to ensure they're finished on time! LOL

Anyway, today starts a new challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Krew and my team, Team A, is hosting this time. In case you missed it, I posted a card last week along with Team B too because Kenny released 3 new digis for the Steampunk Burlesque collection and I just HAD to make a card with one of them! I simply couldn't wait another week! You can find that post here.

Okay, this week our challenge theme is "Lace and Pearls" and those two words, especially when used together in the same sentence, always conjure up visions of weddings and bridal gowns for me! The traditional wedding month is June but I enjoy doing things in a non-traditional way most of the time so it bothers me not one iota to post a wedding card in March! LOL

Before I go any farther, I must inform you that our sponsors this week are:

with 5 digis of the winner's choice

AND

with a rubber stamp valued at up to $10 from their shop!! 

Awesome prizes, don't you agree?

And don't forget that we now have a Top 3 and a Spotlight for every challenge!

Now, about my card. I chose the image called "Wedding Garter" which is available to purchase in Kenny's online store. I said that I enjoy doing things in a non-traditional way which is very true but I still used traditional wedding colors of white and gold for my card. I like "dressing" my images in white because I only have to color the shadows and folds and the rest is already white... that's quite an ink-saver! Because I usually layer on the colors pretty heavily (I like rich, vibrant color), I use a LOT of ink so I embrace any opportunity I have to save a little bit!

I used the C1 and BG70 to create the shadows and folds on her sexy wedding gown.  

Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular WOW Embossing powder was used on the sentiment and the raised areas of the "Love" postage stamp. The sentiment was stamped onto a die cut made using one of the Spellbinders Labels Twenty Five die set.

The roses are from Wild Orchid crafts and the other flowers, from Recollections, were layered one on top of another with pearl centers added. The background was created using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The lacy ribbon as well as the white organza ribbon were from my stash. I also edged the background layer of card stock with gold gel pen.

Above is the inside of the card. The patterned paper is from DCWV's Modern Bouquet stack. 

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with optional Bingo (I used the 2 right hand columns- bling, green & ribbon and die cuts, digital or stamped image and free)

Challenges 4 Everybody - #15 Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenges - #51 Ribbon and Bling

No Matter Which Challenge - #7 Anything Goes

The Craft Place - Anything Goes

The Ribbon Girl - March Card Challenge (Use ribbon or twine)

That's about it for today, my friends. I hope you'll get a chance to visit the Krafty Krew blog to see the wonderful projects created by my extremely talented teammates. A few of them used the brand new images and they are really awesome! We'd love to have you enter your own project in the challenge as well. Until next time, have a wonderful week and...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

Layer It Up with Kenny K's Krafty Krew

Good day, everyone! It's Sunday again already and that means another new challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Krew. This week is Team B's turn to show you their stuff but since Kenny is releasing 3 new digi stamps to go with the Steampunk Burlesque collection, I decided to make a card with one of the new images too. Being an old rocker chick myself, I knew the moment I saw her that I had to color Madame Axe and put her on a card right away.

This week's theme is "Layer It Up" and our sponsors are:

with a $20 gift certificate

AND 

our own Donna's prize of a gift voucher to her store!

How're these for fabulous prizes? Awesome, right?

So without further delay, here's my contribution to this week's challenge inspiration:

This guitar-totin' bad a$$ is only 4 1/2 inches tall (though you can make her any size you like) and that's a LOT of detail for so small a space, which made coloring her a bit of a challenge. Worth every painstaking stroke of the marker though (LOL)... I love how she turned out!

It's hard to tell in the photos but all of the metal pieces on the guitar and amp as well as Madame Axe's goggles, are colored in silver metallic ink and shaded with gray Copic ink to add the appropriate amount of dimension. The background paper is from the Colorful Life stack from DCWV and the gears die cuts are from Want 2 Scrap. If you haven't checked them out yet, they have some fantastic products! I also used WOW Embossing Powder in Metallic Copper Regular on the chipboard gears.

Here's a closeup of Ms. Axe so you can see the level of detail Kenny puts into these bold ladies. The Steampunk Burlesque digis are probably my favorite collection of all of his awesome images for that reason among others.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

613 Avenue Create Challenge - #8 Anything Goes (with option to Pile It On)
Challenges for Everybody - #14- Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenge - #51 Ribbons and Bling
Glitter n Sparkle - #21 Bling It On
Joanna Sheen Challenge - Layer It Up
One Stitch At A Time - #152 Use a Digi
The Squirrel and The Fox - #38 Fairy Tale or Fantasy
Want 2 Scrap - Time2Create Challenge (using Shifting Gears Silhouette and Shifting Gears Small Chipboard Embellishments)

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today and that you'll take the time to visit the Krafty Krew blog to see all of the incredible art created by Team B. We'd love to have you join the challenge too!  Have a great week, my lovely crafter friends, and until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

A Little Break From Christmas Crafting

Hello, all of my wonderful readers! Christmas is upon us, being only a week away. It doesn't seem to matter how early I get started on my holiday crafting, I always manage to run right down to the wire every year! Maybe I subconsciously pace myself to finish up at the very last minute, or maybe I add to my to-do list without even realizing it. For whatever reason, I will probably finish up around midnight on Christmas Eve. LOL

I was commissioned to make Christmas cards for a friend's niece to give to her young children this year. She picked out a digi stamp from Saturated Canary for her daughter, who will celebrate her first Christmas this year, and a free Mickey Mouse coloring page for her son. I'll post them as soon as I know she has received them as I had to mail them to her in Michigan and I don't want to put them on my blog until after she has seen them. That just wouldn't feel right to me, even if she never saw them on here.

Well, I enjoyed coloring that SC image so much that I decided to do it a second time in a different color scheme for my December design team project for WOW Embossing Powders. The first one was done in traditional Christmas colors but for this one is, as you will see, I used soft baby colors. The digi is called Butterfly Baby and can be purchased in Krista's shop. Even though I used both pink and blue, I made pink the dominant color in the design, leaning more toward a baby girl than a boy.

As much as I enjoy crafting for the holidays, I was ready for a short reprieve from it. The funny thing about babies is that they arrive when they want to, regardless of what the doctors think (unless, of course, they are subject to scheduled C-section delivery). So the blessed event could just as well happen on Christmas Day as any other day, which means that this project is not really "out of season" as I see it.

I used only 2 WOW Powders on this card. The main one was Opaque Bright White Regular, that I used on the letters making up the word "BABY" and also on the sentiment on the inside of the card. I stamped BABY onto light pink cardstock, heat embossed it and then cut the letters apart so that I could mount them onto squares to resemble building blocks.

I used a RV02 (Sugared Almond Pink) Copic marker to color in the top half of each letter and that little bit of extra color really made the white outline pop and added some extra contrast. It doesn't show up very well in the photographs but I also used Neutral Ultra Shimmer powder on Butterfly Baby's cute little wings. It really makes them sparkle!

I think the paper is by K and Company but I don't recall the name of the stack. I love the pink/blue combination with just small pops of sparkly red here and there. I used a single blue rose and several baby pink Sweetheart Blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Below is a shot of the interior of the card, showing the sentiment embossed in the same Bright White powder. I attached the image, flowers and letter blocks to the right panel of the gate fold rather than the left because I wanted the flowers anchored securely instead of hanging off the edge as they would have been if I had attached to the opposite side.

I also traced around the left half of the image mat and letter blocks, then cut a shadow mat to go underneath them to give some extra support. This worked out quite well and is very stable.

Then I added 3 pink pearls to the upper right corner to balance the design.  That's it for today. Drop by the WOW Blog for more inspiration from my extremely gifted teammates. I have linked this card at the following sites:

Through the Craft Room Door - #49 Anything Goes

Artistic Insirations - #20 Anything Goes

Make It Monday - #120 Anything Goes (Linky Party)

I'll be back in a couple of days with some more Christmas-inspired goodies for your viewing pleasure. Until then...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

WOW Embossing Powders DT Post

Hi, everybody!

I know I haven't posted in a few days and there's good reason for it. I have been working on Christmas gifts and cards as I'm sure many of you are and I have also been working on come commissioned work. This is my favorite time of year but it sure gets hectic here toward the last couple of weeks before Christmas. I still have cards to mail out that haven't even been made yet! Yikes!

Well, this is the week that the 6 Girls and a Smoking Gun team get to present our team projects for WOW Embossing Powders! I really enjoy our team efforts as we're given fairly specific assignments or at least specific themes we must use in creating our projects and it's always fun for us to see what our teammates have done. This time, we were supposed to create some type of holiday themed ornament, treat cone or something along those lines and I chose to make a lovely Victorian-inspired treat cone.

I tried to use papers and embellishments that remind me of that period in history.  I think I may have mentioned before that I used to craft antique reproduction porcelain dolls from that era so I am fairly familiar with the types of decorations that were used.

I created the template for this cone myself as I couldn't find one I really loved online. The top of each panel is rounded (you can see it better in the next photo), though I made a second template with flat tops for the gents and to use with different types of trimming. The poinsettia/berry spray is by Petaloo and the red velvet ribbon is from my stash.

The various embellishments I used were from different manufacturers including K & Company, The Paper Studio, Studio 112 and Recollections.

The papers are from DCWV's Holiday Collection a couple of years ago. The little pearl strings are a by-the-yard trimming that I purchased at Jo-Ann some time ago as well.

I really love this ornate cross, which was created with a rubber stamp I got from Michael's. I used Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular, Sierra Sunrise, Tea Garden Green and Neutral Ultra Shimmer powders to create this one of a kind treat cone. The lace I used around the top is very expensive silk lace that has been in my stash for several years and was perfect for this little decoration so I decided that the time to use it had finally arrived.

If you're still making Christmas projects like I am, be sure and stop by the WOW blog to see the beautiful projects created by my talented teammates. I haven't seen them yet but I have no doubt that they are fabulous, as always.

Have a marvelous weekend. My son and I are going to see the first installment of "The Hobbit" tomorrow night and I can't wait! I have been a huge fan of Lord of the Rings since I was in high school and that's a very, very long time! LOL I think Peter Jackson has done a fabulous job of bringing the characters and tales of J.R.R. Tolkien to life on the big screen.

I am entering this project in the following challenges:

Really Reasonable Ribbons - Challenge #62 Anything Goes & Ribbon

Well, that's all I have for you today, folks. I'll be back soon with a few more holiday cards and possibly another cone or two (or more)! Thanks for visiting my blog. I value your comments so please feel free to tell me what you think. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A Krista Smith card using WOW Embossing Powders

Well, I finally got the photos taken and edited of all the cards I made over the past couple of weeks so after this holiday weekend, I'll be posting them (hopefully every day or two) until they are all here.

This first one is an adorable image drawn by my favorite, Krista Smith, and colored with Copics. I just love her big glasses! They make her look so studious, don't they?

I kept the design simple as I wanted this little cutie to be the center of attention. I used WOW Embossing Powders for the greeting (Primary Ebony) and the edge of the image die cut (Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular). I used Diamond Glaze on the lenses of the glasses to give them the semblance of glass.

I love this net ribbon in pale turquoise. I can't remember where I got it but I have used in on several projects that I'll be posting over the next week or so. I warn you though, I have been on a Krista Smith kick lately! I just love coloring her little Ragamuffins.  

If you aren't familiar with her work, you must check out her shop called Saturated Canary. She also has a challenge blog as well as a personal blog and she's very sweet to deal with.

And here's the inside of the card. In case you're having trouble reading it, the sentiment says "Life is nothing without friendship". Isn't that the truth? That's all I'm showing you today but check back on Tuesday for another new card. I'm also planning a giveaway for next month about which I'll be posting details next week as well.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Oozak - #2 Spring Colors
The Outlawz Copic/Promarkers Challenge - Anything Goes


Thanks for visiting my blog today. As always, your comments are encouraged and welcomed. I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and family this holiday weekend. Don't forget to pause for a moment of silence in honor of the men and women who have selflessly given their lives to help maintain our freedom. Happy Memorial Day, everybody! Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Beautiful Emerald Isle - a WOW Design Team Project

Hello friends!  I hope you're all doing well and that Springtime is quickly approaching wherever you are.  Again, it's been a little while since I posted something new on my blog.  I have been missing my crafting but the past 3 weeks have been very busy and very hectic at work and I have been putting in 10 hour days on a regular basis.  By the time I get home in the evening and feed the critters and myself and relax a few minutes, it's half past dark and not long before bedtime.  Hopefully things will smooth out a bit and with Daylight Savings Time starting this weekend, I'll be able to get more done in a day.

For my group feature on the WOW! Embossing Powder blog, I created a birthday gift for my co-worker, Emily, who traveled to Ireland with her sister a few years back. She had never done anything with her photos from that trip so she gave me some of them to use on my project for WOW! We were challenged by our team leader to create something to coincide with the theme of St. Patrick's Day, luck, or green.  My particular assignment was a layout using green with flowers and/or shamrocks. My co-workers enjoy seeing the things I make for my design teams and as gifts for family and friends and in passing, I divulged to Emily that I didn't have any really good photos to use for this project. That's when she told me I could use some of the ones she took in Ireland.  I jumped at the chance, not only because they were perfect for my assignment but also because her birthday is next month and I had already promised to make her something special for her special day.

Here it is!! I love how it turned out... and so did Emily! I just couldn't wait a whole month to give it to her! LOL!

The cardstock I used as the backdrop is from one of DCWV's newer stacks called Modern Bouquet. It's branded as Recollections and is available at Michael's. The background was all a creamy white with the green epoxy design over it. I used a grass green pigment ink pad to color the page from the outside edge of the circle and left the inner circle white. I intentionally swirled the ink pad in small circular movements to give the color a sort of marbled look.  

I think I may have mentioned before how much I like the look of corrugated cardboard with one of the outer paper sides stripped away.  Well, I took a 12" long strip of it and embossed it with WOW! Embossing powders in Rich Pale Gold and Tea Garden Green, which is an emerald shade of green with a translucent quality. I found the beautiful green shamrock doily you see in the upper left quadrant at Michael's as well and thought it would be perfect for this layout.

I started with a strip of Terrifically Tacky Tape 1/4" wide and about 11" long and adhered it to a strip of scrap cardstock to stabililize it while I was working. I adhered my ribbon to the strip, pleating it as I went. Then I attached the ribbon strip to the cardboard strip with Beacon 3-in-1 Glue and adhered the strip to the layout below where I wanted the photos to be. I embossed the outer edges of the photo mats that I cut from DCWV Shimmer cardstock with Tea Garden Green and mounted the photos on them using my ATG. I attached double-sided foam tape in varying thicknesses on the backs of the photos and arranged them in a waterfall pattern across the middle section of the layout.

Next, the flowers, which I embossed with Rich Pale Gold and Tea Garden Green WOW powders and highlighted by brushing on some diamond Stickles, and the felt shamrocks were arranged around the page and set in place using Beacon 3-in-1.  The title was created from dimensional alphabet stickers purchased from Michael's and the little purple butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch and the wings were embossed with Rich Pale Gold and a little stripe of purple Stickles was added for the thorax.  

Finally, the little layered journaling tag was attached in the lower left-hand corner and the small shamrock was added as the finishing touch.  I really like the tone-on-tone effect created by using the different shades of green and just the small pop of contrasting color created by the butterflies.  I'm quite envious that Emily got to visit the "Beautiful Emerald Isle" as my ancestors came from that region and it has been a life-long dream to travel there.  After seeing her pictures, it's definitely on my bucket list now!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this layout.  Please join me again on the 21st when I'll be posting another project for WOW!  They are the best embossing powders I have ever used and are so much fun I just want to put them on everything!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Blog Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #13