Stretching Your Dies w/Kara

Hey Guys! Recently married friends of ours bought their first new home together. We're heading over there tonight for dinner and I wanted to bring them something special as a housewarming gift and of course a handmade card to go with it.

This card features almost no stamping! The design is created mostly with die cuts. I knew I wanted to use this cute house from Holiday Houses. However, since this is not a holiday card I didn't want the house to have wreaths on it. I decided to use the die alone and then the design was built around that. I colored the house with Fairy Dust Dye Ink using a sponge dauber. I die cut the words New Home using the Whimsy Alpha Die. I thought it would look cute to replace the letter "O" with the house die. The letters were colored in the same way using Shell Pink Dye Ink.

The scale of the house is a little larger than the letters, but I thought that worked perfectly to put the focus on the house and bring the scene to the foreground. I chose the other elements in the scene from the Sunshine Layers Die. Color was added to them using Lake House and Falling Star Dye Inks. I used the Big Top Background stamp to create the subtle sunrays in the background stamped in Fairy Dust Dye Ink. Finally, I stamped "Congratulations" at the bottom using a stamp from the Big Bold Greetings stamp set.

I'm looking forward to dinner tonight and seeing our friends' new home.

Thanks so much for coming by today! Hopefully this gives you some ideas for looking at your companion dies in a little different way.

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured Wplus9 supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	PURE COLOR Black Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	PURE COLOR Lake House Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Sunshine Layers Die Shop at: WP9
Big Top Background Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Whimsy Alpha Die Shop at: WP9	Holiday Houses Die Shop at: WP9	Fairy Dust PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Shell Pink PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Falling Star PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9

Holiday Thank You Cards With Kara

Hello! It's Kara and I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. As we approach the new year I like to send out my holiday thank you cards. I don't send out a ton of them, but I especially like to send a thank you to family and friends far away who have sent me a gift. I'm not able to give them a hug in person so a handmade card is the next best thing!

I couldn't resist making another window card scene with the adorable Holiday Houses stamp set. I started by die cutting two white panels with the same size rectangle die. In one panel ;I die cut a window using the large oval from Basic Labels Dies. I positioned the window panel on top of the second panel and traced the inside of the oval with a pencil very lightly. This way I knew exactly where to apply my distress inked evening sky.

Once my sky was compete, I die cut a few pieces of cardstock with the Landscape Border Die to create my snowy hills. I adhered them together with thin dimensional adhesive so as not to add too much bulk, but still create dimension. I was then able to tuck in all of the tiny houses and trees to create my village.

I used the Basic Greetings Die to die cut the word Thanks several times and adhered them together to create a chipboard-like embellishment. I used a few more bits from the Basic Labels stamp and die set to create the secondary sentiment.

Thanks you so much for stopping by today. Happy New Year! See you in 2018!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured Wplus9 supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Black Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Basic Greetings Die Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Holiday Houses Stamp Shop at: WP9
Wplus9 Holiday Houses Die Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Basic Labels Die Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Landscape Border Die Shop at: WP9

Watercolored Holiday Houses with Kelly

Hello Crafters!

First, let me apologize. I know Halloween is barely over and I'm hitting you with a Christmas card. However, just like the heart wants what it wants (if you sang that Selena Gomez style we're friends) - the crafty mojo wants what the crafty mojo wants. And mine wanted Holiday Houses.

Look at how cute those guys are. How could I say no?

I couldn't and so here we are with this adorable winter scene.

I actually used layers and die cuts. Like multiple layers. Christmas Miracle.

See what I did there?

Also, I used real watercolors. Serious adult ones. In fact, I used our own Yana Smakula's watercolor dot card.

It has gorgeous colors by the way.

You can watch the whole card come together in the video below.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

In real life those snowy dots look amazing. It's next to impossible to see them in the photos. But, I encourage you to try it, it's a super cool technique.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list contains affiliate links.

Wplus9 Landscape Borders Die Shop at: Wplus9	Wplus9 Shimmer Spray Mist Shop at: Wplus9	Wplus9 Holiday Trimmings Shop at: SSS | Wplus9
Wplus9 Holiday Houses Shop at: SSS | Wplus9	Wplus9 Holiday Houses Die Shop at: SSS | Wplus9	Wplus9 HOLIDAY HOUSES Clear Stamp And Die Combo Shop at: SSS

Sizzix BIG SHOT PLUS MACHINE Gray And White Shop at: SSS	Fiskars PREMIUM CUT LINE Paper Trimmer 12 Inches Shop at: SSS	Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Shop at: SSS
3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent Shop at: SSS	Canson MONTVAL WATERCOLOR 9x12 Pad Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp LARGE GRID PAPER Pack Pad Shop at: SSS
Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Shop at: SSS	Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: Wplus9	Wplus9 Black Dye Ink Shop at: Wplus9
MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit Shop at: SSS	MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit Shop at: SSS	Ranger Studio Paint ARTIST BRUSHES Shop at: SSS
Silver BLACK VELVET Brush Size 2 Round Shop at: SSS	Jillibean Soup WITTY WHITE Happy Hues Acrylic Paint Shop at: SSS	Silver BLACK VELVET Brush Size 8 Round Shop at: SSS
We R Memory Keepers TRIM AND SCORE Board Shop at: SSS	Tonic SIMPLY WHITE Grande Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Daniel Smith YANA'S SET Watercolor Palette Shop at: SSS