First Challenge of the New Year at Kenny K

If you're looking for the Kenny K blog candy post, click here.

Hi and happy Sunday, everyone! Today marks the first challenge of the new year at Kenny K's Krafty Krew and it's a good one. This week the theme is "Anything Goes" and we know you all love it when we do that because you can choose any image, any color scheme and any kind of project your little heart desires! Well, we on the design team love it too! You will see a wider variety among the examples we have created to inspire you and we hope you'll join the fun and enter our challenge. Our sponsors this time are:

The Prize from Kenny is 5 digis of the winner's choice.

And the second sponsor is 

The prize from Laura is a stamp from her shop valued at up to $10. 

The card I made features one of my favorite digis from Kenny's shop. Her name is Brianna Blaster and she's from the Steampunk Burlesque collection.

I used papers from DCWV's Colorful Life stack as well as pieces I cut out from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante collection. The little gears are from Tim Holtz and the little mechanical bird sticker is from Jolee's.

Is she not the coolest chick ever??? I certainly wouldn't want to mess with her! Personally, I am completely opposed to owning firearms but since it's such a hot national topic right now, I thought this would be timely. She definitely looks like she's ready for the apocalypse to me.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

The Outlawz Saturday Paper a la Mode - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
Challenges 4 Everybody #11 - Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges - #48 Anything Goes
Glitter 'n' Sparkle - #14 Anything Goes
Make It Monday - #122 Anything Goes (Linky Party)
Sarah Hamer Designs - Link Up Tuesday (Linky Party)

I hope you'll take a few minutes and hop on over to the Krew's blog to see what my teammates, old and new have created for you. That's right... we have some new designers joining us this week as some of the former ones stepped down. Please welcome the newbies and give them some love. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. In case you weren't aware, everybody on the team is giving away blog candy on the 13th of the month!! To be eligible for my giveaway, which is 3 free Kenny K digis of your choice, you must leave a comment here. You can also enter for the other designers' candy by leaving comments on each of their blogs as well. There is a list with links on the Krafty Krew blog to make things super easy for you. Some of them are giving away awesome Kenny K rubber stamps! I'm envious as I don't even own one in rubber!

So welcome, 2013! I you're better to all of us than 2012 was. One of my goals is to start posting even more frequently now that I'm settled in to my new place and have my craft room pretty much organized so if you want to be notified of my posts, you can sign up on my blog for email updates. Have a fabulous week! Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

The Last of My Holiday Cards...

If you're looking for the Kenny K blog candy post, you can find it here.

Hello, and happy Friday, everyone! I know this is a little late but I thought I would post some pictures of the "official" Christmas cards that I sent out to my family and friends this year since I didn't have a chance to post them before Christmas. This will be a short post with lots of pictures.

In no particular order...

As you can see, I used the same pair of digis on all of the cards. I just used a different color scheme on each card so that no two are alike. These cute pixie characters are Little Elf Finn and Little Elf Mim by Mo Manning. They have been around a couple of years so you have probably already seen them. I just think they're adorable and had so much fun coloring them that I decided to make them my official design for this year's cards. I hope you have enjoyed seeing them. Everyone who received one really seemed to like it.

I am entering at least one of these cards into the following challenges:

CMC Holiday Bash - Challenge #58 Metallic Gleam

That's it for today but I'll be back Sunday with a new card for the new challenge starting at Kenny K's Krafty Krew. We'll be welcoming some new design team members as well as some new digis from Kenny so you won't want to miss it! Until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

A Hunky Kenny K Cowboy and a Candy Giveaway for the New Year!

If you're looking for the Kenny K blog candy post, this is it!

Hi, everybody! I hope you enjoyed your holidays as much as I have. This is the first year in many that I have been able to spend the entire holiday season with my grandkids and I have loved every minute of it. I was pretty busy part of the time making Christmas cards, gifts and Victorian treat cones for the tree in addition to my design team projects for the month. But that's all finished now and even though Christmas is my favorite holiday, I'm always glad when it's over.

Kenny K is releasing 3 new images this week and wait until you get a load of these guys!!! That's right, I said GUYS! These lads are total hunks and are they ever fun to color! We've been needing some sexy men to go with all the sexy ladies Kenny has given us and these really fit the bill. In addition to the new release, the design team is giving away some awesome candy! Details are at the bottom of this post.

I chose to color "Tex" because I have lived in the great state of Texas all my life. Several of my teammates seemed to take a likin' to him too as you'll see when you visit the Krafty Krew blog! Is he not one of the hottest cowboys you've ever seen? The other 2 gents in this release, titled Heartbreakers, are named "Romeo" and "Playboy" and they're just as sexy as Tex is. You can see and purchase them all from Kenny's online store.

So here he is, in all his leather and denim-clad glory!

 

 

Doesn't he go perfectly with Kenny's hot and sexy cowgirls, Mae Western, Cheyenne and Jessi Jane? I made a card using Mae Western and these same papers they look awesome side by side. I kept the design rather simple, despite the fact that it's a lady's card. I just didn't think flowers and lace would look all that great with this guy, if you know what I mean. LOL!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

The Outlawz Friday Copic/Promarker challenge - Anything Goes

Natalie and Amy - Your Favorite Things 

Challenges 4 Everybody #10 - Anything Goes

Eclectic Ellapu #10 - Anything Goes

So there you have it! Be sure to visit the Krafty Krew blog to see what my incredibly talented teammates have created. There's a new challenge starting and we're also having a fantastic candy giveaway on our individual blogs that you won't want to miss!! Some of us are giving away 3 free Kenny K digi stamps and others are giving away Kenny's designs in RUBBER!!! How cool is that? You'll need to leave a comment on this post between now and 11:59 PM on January 12th to be eligible for the drawing and on January 13th, I'll let Randy (Random Number Generator) choose a winner... easy peasy, right? The more designers' blogs you visit and comment on, the more chances you have to win some free Kenny K art! Now, for the challenge this week!

This weeks first sponsor is Kenny K's Downloads

The prize from Kenny is the winner's choice of 5 digi's.

And our second sponsor this week is

Leo at Flonz

The prize from Flonz this week is $20.00 gift voucher for Leo's store.

Our theme this week is:

Its Party Time!

Happy New Year Celebration cards or party Invites!

Until next time, have a safe and happy New Year! And 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 New Challenge at Kenny K's Krafy Krew

Gosh! It's Sunday again already? I just don't know where this week has gone, much less this year! It has really flown by that's for sure. Winter keeps coming and going around here and I understand it's supposed to be back some time Monday. I think it was about 85 degrees here today and my air conditioner kept cutting on and off. I have spent the entirity of the past 2 days in my craft room, working on a couple of design team projects, 2 commissioned cards and a birthday card.  I still have one more card and another design team project to work on today.  I'm trying to get them finished up so I can concentrate some time on Christmas gifts I need to make. Good thing I work well under pressure!

Sooo... today is the start of a brand new challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Krew and this time the theme is "Silver and White". This really was a big challenge for me as I usually use several colors in my projects and although I love this combination (if you can call it that), I had to reign in my desire to "color it up"! LOL I think I did pretty well but I'll let you decide for yourselves. But first, I need to get some challenge details out of the way.

This weeks first sponsor is Kenny K's Downloads

The prize from Kenny is the winner's choice of 5 digi's.

And our second sponsor is 

For more information on new releases from 
Marianne Design please follow them on

Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/mariannedesignbv

Twitter! https://twitter.com/#!/mariannedesign

Now, for my card.

This divine creature is called "Mae Western" and she is very fun to color. She is available for purchase here. I used a pearlized white embossed paper for the background and an EK Success border punch to make the snowflakes at the bottom.

I glittered Mae's hat, scarf and top with Diamond Dust glitter and used metallic silver gel pen to color the silver accents on her costume.

 The scalloped circle was made with a Nestie, outlined in silver gel pen and the rhinestones were glued on one at a time. 

The white poinsettias are from Petaloo and the silver ribbon came from Michael's dollar bin. The glittery snowflake is a sticker that I got from Hobby Lobby about 3 years ago. I don't know if they still carry them but I'd like to have several more packages of them.  I seem to use them on my cards every year and I don't have many left now.

 Above is a close up showing all of Mae's voluptuous details. What I'd give to have a body like this gal! LOL!

Don't you love her silver and white platform cowboy boots? I hope you'll take a few minutes to drop by the Krafty Krew site to see what my teammates have done to inspire you. We'd love to have you join us in this challenge as well.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Color Me Creative Classroom Copic Challenge #58 - Metallic Gleam

Here Come The Boys #42- Anything Goes 

That's all I have for you today but I'll be back soon with a bunch of new cards and a couple of other projects. I hope you're all getting ready for the holiday as it will be here before we know it. Have a wonderful day, a productive week and until next time...

Happy crafting!

Anniebee

WOW Embossing Powders meets Graphic 45

Hello, Wow fans! Anne here.  It's the last day of November and soon Christmas will be knocking on our doors. I'm sure a lot of you industrious people have already put up your trees, decorated them, adorned the exterior with lights and lawn ornaments and have all your shopping done and packages wrapped. Well, guess what... I haven't bought the first gift yet. Truth be known, all of my gifts will be hand made this year as money is awfully tight and there's no room in my budget for shopping. 

I have for you today a mini album I made featuring Graphic 45's A Ladies' Journal collection and lots of WOW! Embossing Powders and Clear Stamps. I'm going to cut right to the chase and show it to you as there are several pages in this little book.

This collection by Graphic 45 is absolutely gorgeous.  I have been wanting to do this for quite some time and when I was assigned to do a mini or scrapbook layout, guess which one I chose!

Below is a waterfall feature where the recipient can put photos, journaling or anything else she wants. There is a tab hidden under the layers of photo mats. When you pull the tab, the layers flip up one at a time to reveal the one underneath it. I don't know who came up with this idea but she/he is a genius! It's a very clever design.

As you can tell from the photo below, all of the envelopes, pockets and waterfall flips work... they aren't just for looks. 

Below is the back of the album.  The graphics in this G45 collection are so elegant and feminine and remind us of a simpler time with their Victorian and Elizabethan flavor. 

The embossing powders I used were: Metallic Gold Regular, Metallic Copper Regular, Neutral Ultra Shimmer, Opaque White and Primary Ebony. The stamp sets I used were With Love, Simply Amazing, Brocade and Make A Wish. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing this little book. I have a little more embellishing to do and a few tags to make before I can say this project is complete but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's going to a special person on my Christmas list. Mini albums are a lot of work but the results are usually so eye-catching it makes all the extra effort worthwhile. 

I am entering this project in the following challenges:

TBD

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I hope you'll pop over to the WOW blog too and check out some of the lovely projects made by my teammates. Until next time....

Happy crafting!

Anniebee