The Squirrel and the Fox and Brown Sugar Challenges

Valentines is the theme at Brown Sugar this week, and at The Squirrel and the Fox, they want to see something new on our cards. This is a new Clear Views transparency from The Mark-It Place I had not used before and the side punch is new as well. Isn't the puppy sweet? I cut him out with a wonky rectangle from Nestabilities and layered him on another one cut out of red. Both the front and the inside of the white card was punched with the edger punch (the card itself is white, just photographed on black so you can see it.)

Stamping smiles, Karen

Card Makin' Mamas and Delicious Doodles Challenges

CAS is the theme at Card Makin' Mamas and "All you need is Love" is the theme at Delicious Doodles this week. I am sharing a card I made with a Clear View acetate picture from The Mark-it Place. I love the picture with the romantic couple and the splash of color. It was framed with a red piece embossed with some  butterflies. Then I added a few more punched butterflies with gems.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Happy Mail for Grayson and Aydan- Can you help too?

I found out about another way to use our cards to help cheer some little ones and am sharing the information that I copied from Virginia Lu's blog with you. 

Just before Thanksgiving, Danielle from Neat and Tangled, heard news that a girl she went to high school with and her family had embarked on an incredibly difficult journey. They had discovered that their sweet little 2 year old boy, Grayson, had a tumor on his brain stem. Since then they have been on a roller coaster ride, and this is only part of the journey. Grayson will begin chemotherapy this month as the next stage of treatment. Through all of this, the family has stayed strong, hopeful, faithful and positive. And Grayson is a strong and spunky fighter :) Grayson's mom, Jackie, has a blog she keeps updated regularly, so you can get to know more about Grayson HERE.

Grayson is super lucky to have a big brother, Aydan, who is 4 so make sure to send some awesome cards to him too! These boys love all things boy :) Rescue Bots, Geotracks, Angry Birds, Thomas the Train. Send these little men funny, happy, cards! We all know how much love goes into a handmade card, and even better how personalized they can be!" 
Here is the important info:

The drive will run from January 21 - February 28 
(If they arrive late because they are International that's okay too!)

 please send them here:

Grayson Savery and/or Aydan Savery
c/o Danielle Walls
P.O. Box 5808

Wilmington, DE 19808

These are the two cards I made for the boys. The first one I had made previously for my grandson who also loves Angry Birds. If the boys are anything like my grandson, they probably also love super heroes, so I made a Batman card using a punched bat I learned how to make here. 

I am entering these cards in the Anything Goes challenge at Digi Stamps 4 Joy.

Stamping smiles, Karen 

Simon Says Stamp and The Paper Shelter Challenges

Anything Goes at The Paper Shelter this week and at Simon Says Stamp they want to see paper piecing on our card. A little earlier this winter, Elizabeth Dulemba had this sweet winter image with the smiling mittens as a freebie on her webpage, so I snagged it to make a cute winter card for one of my kids. Of course I paper pieced the scarf, hat and mittens with fun dp and attached it to a card front embossed with some snowflakes. The perfect sentiment was also a freebie, this time from Desert Diva.

Stamping smiles, Karen

Blog Candy Thursday from Crackerbox Palace

It’s another Crackerbox Palace Thursday and I am sharing two lovely cards created by Vicky Briggs, the owner of Crackerbox Palace.  Aren’t they fun?  For all the details on how she made them, some more pictures and what CBP stamps she used, please visit her blog here.

Mr. Random has chosen and the winner of last Thursday’s blog candy is                                             Grandmalee!  Here is her winning comment from the CBP blog:  "I'm so happy that I found you through Trenna. I stopped at your store, and I'm definately in love with your stamps! I love all of the inspiration on this blog. Your layouts are great, and you always have the perfect sentiment. Both of these cards are wonderful, but I'm partial to the Cool Beans card. I have many friends that are coffee fiends, so I could get lots of use out of this stamp. It's great how you created the focal point by folding the DP over. The addition of the bean stamp to the flap adds so much more to this awesome card. I'm looking forward to seeing more."

Grandmalee, please send me or Vicky your address and your choice of which stamps you want (see your options above), so we can get you the stamps you have won.

So would you like to win the stamps featured on today’s card or your choice of another CBP stamp? Here is how to win our weekly blog candy: 

Vicky or Karen will post a card or two every Thursday on both blogs. All you need to do is to leave a comment on either blog and if you leave a comment on both blogs you will have a double chance to win. We hope you also want to 'follow' the blogs. The following Wednesday a name will be picked at random and the winner will receive:

The featured stamps that we used in one of the cards that were posted,
OR you can pick out a stamp that is worth up to $10.00 and email us your choice
OR Vicky will email you a coupon code so you can go shopping at Crackerbox Palace store for your choice of the stamp(s) you would like with a $10.00 coupon.

For a Bonus: if you use the blog candy stamps and post it on your blog, Splitcoast or somewhere else you will be able to choose another free stamp. So make sure you check out one of our blogs on Thursday! The winner will have 2 weeks to contact Karen or Vicky.

So leave us a comment for a chance to win and come back and see us again next week!

Crackerbox Palace smiles, Karen

What if? Wed. Sketch Challenge

It's time for another fun sketch challenge at The House that Stamps Built and we are challenging you to make a card using the sketch below and link it up for a chance at some great Repeat Impressions rubber! For all the details on what you can win and to see the other Rock Stars cards using this sketch, please visit our blog.

For my card, I embossed RI’s beautiful Winter Tree with silver embossing powder on a blue piece that I cut out with a Nestabilities fancy circle die. I cut the pennant shapes out of silver tape and attached to the white card before embossing the whole card with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Lovely card to warm a cold winter day hopefully- it has not been above 0 degrees here in central Wisconsin for several days. I have not gone outside at all, but have had fun playing and designing in my craft room.

Here is the sketch for you to follow when you create a card for our challenge. You do not need to use Repeat Impressions stamps to enter our challenges, but you get an extra chance to win if you do!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Created with Love.

Stamping smiles, Karen

ColorInk Digital Stamps New Collections

Today I have the pleasure of showing you some CAS cards I designed with the new collections from ColorInk Digital Stamps. Marian has drawn so many fun sweet images for her "Love is in the Air" and "I Robot" collections and I chose three sweet pre-colored images to make some cards that could be used by my kids at SAS4Kids for their mothers for Valentines or Mothers Day. If you know me or follow my blog, you should know two things about me: I am a doting Grandma to a wonderful boy and I do not like to color- so these images are perfect for me to play with. The cards are simple so I won't go into details on each. But they show with a sweet digital image, a little embossing or a fun sketch, you can easily make great cards that  anyone would love to receive. Here are the other two cards I designed with this great collection:

I am entering these cards in the KISS (Keep it Simple Silly) at Totally Gorguss.

Stamping smiles, Karen