Can you help a fellow stamper and her family??

Simply Betty is a designer of digital stamps and her 17 year old son, Christian was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. Please go to her site here and read about how you can help. I also have a blog badge displayed on the side which links to her site. This blog badge was created by my good friends Sara and Michael of Paper Creations Ink as their way of helping to spread the word.

The best way to help is to either donate and create a card with the stamp you will receive (Zander above) and send to Christian to cheer him; or to purchase any stamp(s) you like from the site to help the family financially. I have chosen to do both and to share the cards here today with you.

The card above has been sent to Christian. I printed the digital stamp named Zander and cut him out with an oval nestie.The oval was also embossed and distressed with blue ink. I paper pieced his clothes and shoes and colored the rest with my copics. The background was created with burlap material embossed on paper using my new No More Shims thick embossing rubber. I rubbed Distress Ink over the raised edges. I added a piece of red burlap and a sentiment from Cornish Heritage Farms to complete the card. I hope he likes it!

This card features the Fall Frolic digital stamp from Simply Betty. I started with a round card and scalloped layer from Paper Cuts. I printed the fun digital stamp and cut her out and embossed with my circle nesties. As usual, I paper pieced and colored the rest with copics. There were leaves flying in the digital stamp image, but I punched my own with an ek success leaf punch in several fall colors. I ended up with a cute fall card I will be donating to my kids at Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Donating our cards is what the challenge is all about at Card Cupids (another great charity blog!) and both of these cards are being donated. I am also entering these cards in the challenges at Paper Take Weekly (Anything Goes and/or Punches) and Jen's Digis (Let's Hear it for the Girls.)

Stamping smiles, Karen

Class Cards Being Taught in Central Wisconsin

Here are two of three cards I am going to be teaching on November 2nd from 1-3 pm and November 17th from 6-8 pm at our local Wausau WI JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts. The class is called Winter Cards with Embossing and features some fun folds as well as embossing.
The second card is a tri-fold with the snowflake border popping up on each layer. I am reserving the third card as a surprise but you can see it if you stop in the Wausau JoAnn's store anytime between now and the classes in November.

I am blogging this today to let my blog readers and friends in central Wisconsin know that this Saturday October 8th and also on November 5th, you can stop in at JoAnns or call at 715-355-1007 to sign up for these or other classes at HALF PRICE! JoAnn's corporate office sets the price at $30 normally, so half price is the way to go. These are the only two days you can get this deal, so please call or stop in either of these Saturdays.

I hope you will join me at these fun classes - I would love to spend some time sharing stamping ideas with you!

Stamping smiles, Karen

What If? Wed. Sketch Challenge

It's Wednesday so it is time for another fun challenge at The House that Stamps Built! This week we are challenging you to design a card using the sketch below. Please visit our blog to get all the details on what you can win and to see the other Rock Stars' interpretation of this sketch. As always, you can also click on their names on the side of my blog to visit their blogs for inspiration.

I used the beautiful Snowflake Prism stamp for the focal point of my card. I stamped it on the white oval and stamped it again on red, green and gold sparkly paper. I cut out each layer and raised each with mounting tape. I added gems on the ends of the snowflake, in the corners and on the punched snowflakes (Martha Stewart) to complete this card.

I am entering this card in the Go Green challenge at There's Magic in the Air.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Paper Creations Ink Orange and/or Black Challenge

The challenge this time at Paper Creations Ink is to use orange and/or black in our cards. Our generous sponsor, Stamp Insanity is offering a prize of 3 digis of your choice if you are the lucky winner and also supplied the dt with some fun digis to play with. I picked Lilith and printed her in a circle cut and embossed with my nesties. I paper pieced her dress and colored the rest with my copic. I sponged a little orange while she was still in the die. The background was created with some orange and black pieces on white and then embossed together with a SU embossing folder.

I am entering this card in the challenge at Totally Papercrafts to use Autumn colors.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Stamp of the Week at Repeat Impressions

The stamp of the week this week at Repeat Impressions is this cute scarecrow, and it is available this week only for 50% off with the discount code found at Repeat Impressions blog. What a deal! Please visit the blog for all the details and to see the other Rock Star's cards using this stamp.

For my card, I stamped the scarecrow twice on white cardstock and punched out the part I wanted to highlight. I colored that part with my copics and layered it on a slightly larger black square before attaching over the uncolored image. I used some fall leaf dp as a background, punched a couple leaves (ek success), and added a fun sentiment from Repeat Impressions to complete this fall card.

I am entering this card in the challenge at Stampin’ with the Dragon for Fall Colors.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Rainbow Lady's, Crafty Ribbon's and C4C Challenges

The challenge this week at Rainbow Lady's is Autumn Colors, at Crafty Ribbon's it is Halloween and at C4C it is to donate your card to a worthy charity. Of course I am choosing to donate to Send a Smile 4 Kids as we try to make sure all our kids in Children's Hospitals get a Halloween or fall card. I had a fun time making this card. I started with some cute Halloween dp and an orange card. I covered it with some gauze material, and added a bat and a stick pin all of which I got from a friend. The cute mummy and sentiment is from Endless Creations and I just couldn't resist them at my local stamp shoppe while shopping recently.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Fall Colors Anything Goes for Kids at SAS4Kids

It's time for a new challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids and this week we are challenging you to use fall colors and make any kind of card for a child. Halloween cards are fine as long as they are not scary, but the cards don't even have to have fall or Halloween as a theme- just use your oranges, reds, yellows, greens etc. on the cards. We have two great sponsors this time: Bee Crafty is giving 3 digital stamps to the random winner, and Prairie Fairy is giving a $15 gift certificate to their lucky winner!

I had so much fun playing with our sponsor's images and of course, I had to make a card with each one! The card above is made with Prairie Fairy's Furever Friends digital stamp. Isn't he cute? I paperpieced his clothes, hat, boots and pooch and colored the rest with my copics. I layered the finished piece on gold and rounded the corners before attaching. I stamped the sentiment (TP Studios) and then dashed a border around the rest. I added a few punched leaves (ek success) to finish that card.

My second card features Ballooning Mouse from Bee Crafty- another really cute digital image for a child's card. I paperpieced him and his balloon. The card base is a 4 1/4" square and so when the sentiment pennant sticks out, it still fits in an A2 envelope. The sentiment is an old favorite from TAC and I added a balloon brad to complete this CAS card.

Please visit our blog to get all the details and to see the rest of TEAM SAS's fantastic fall colored cards. We have two guest dt members too for this challenge, who each made two awesome cards to inspire you. One of them is Shelley, our newest Canadian partner at SAS4Kids- check out this blogpost where we announced our expansion to Canada! We are growing and would love to have you enter our challenge, and/or send in your cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids, and now you have two addresses to choose from.

I am entering these cards in the Fall Colors challenge at Crafting for all Seasons and Anything Goes at Penny's Paper Crafty.

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen