Using Small Images w/Kara ft. GARDEN BUDDIES

Hello again. It's Kara. With Spring fast approaching, I decided to bring out another great set centered on gardening called Garden Buddies.

This is such a cute set. For me, the best feature of this set are all of the small details. The watering can, spade, bird... All these tiny images are so adorable and versatile.

I used them here to create an all-over background design as well as part of the focal point. For the background I added all of the stamps to an acrylic block and stamped them all at once. Then I just kept turning the stamp until that background was full. It looks random, but took no time at all to stamp.

I love this little girl with her arms outstretched. She appears to be juggling all of those little images. I colored them with Copic markers. The circle was cut with the large circle from Love Mom Layers and colored with a little yellow Distress Ink.

Super simple to create, but an adorable way to send some sunshine to a friend or loved one!

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 4 Bar Stitched Rectangles Die Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Love Mom Layers Die Shop at: WP9
Garden Buddies Shop at: WP9	Garden Buddies Die Shop at: WP9

Holiday Thank You Cards w/Kara ft. HOLIDAY PRESENTS DIE

Hi Guys! It's that time of year again. The holidays have wrapped up and I always like to take an opportunity to send an extra special "thank you" to a few people. Particularly those family and friends who live far away and took the time to send me a gift in the mail.

These took a little more time to mass produce, but the were still super simple to put together. I just put on a podcast and started cranking my die cut machine. I die cut the Holiday Presents Die from white cardstock six times, from black cardstock six times, and from red, from blue and from green. To save colored cardstock I used small pieces placed only under the present I needed in that color.

I adhered the white gift 'frames' to the white circles cut with the large circle die from the Love Mom Layers Die. That is such a staple die set. Once the 'frame' is in place all of the colored cardstock can be quickly inset in the perfect position.

I adhered the black 'frame' on top, but slightly off set so that some white peeks through. I gave everything a coat of shimmer with a clear Wink Of Stella pen.

The rest of the card comes together really quickly. A little bit of stamping on the card panel before adhering my circles. I chose the Hand Lettered Thanks stamp set to create a custom sentiment on the front as well as add a secondary sentiment to the inside of the card.

On the back of the cards I added the small presents stamp from All The Cheer to my personalized stamp. The image perfectly coordinates with the die and brings the whole design throughout the card. This is a great way to further customize those personal stamps for occasions and holidays. I'm sure you have several small images in your stash that would work.

Now it's time to get these in the mail! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and your new year is off to a great start!

Autumn Leaves w/Kara

Hello, and Happy World Cardmaking Day!

It's Kara and I'm back with a fun fall card design. This is the perfect season for curling up with a hot cup of tea. This teacup from the Hello & Thanks stamp set is perfect and so versatile!

The set comes with beautiful floral designs to sit inside the cup, but I encourage you to try images from your other sets. The single sunflower from the new Autumn Blessings set fits perfectly too.

For this card I wanted to fill the cup with some leaves for autumn. I stamped a few images from the Autumn Leaves stamp set using a mixture of two pure Color Dye Ink colors, Pumpkin Spice and Gala Red. While positioning the leaves inside the cup I was unable to come up with an arrangement that I liked. I decided to push it off my work surface, work on something new and then come back to it. When I did that, the leaves moved into this flowing arrangement and I loved it! I quickly snapped a picture with my phone so that I could recreate it on my card.

I decided I wanted a little more interest in the design, but wanted the focus to remain on those pretty leaves. I popped up a circle to ground the design and sponged on the same colors in the leaves into the negative space behind the circle. I sprinkled in a few acorns from Autumn Blessings stamped in Coconut Husk ink.

I used the same ink to stamp my sentiment from the So Very stamp set. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you like it!

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 4 Bar Stitched Rectangles Die Shop at: WP9	Pumpkin Spice PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Autumn Blessings Shop at: WP9
Autumn Blessings Die Shop at: WP9	Hello & Thanks Shop at: WP9	Hello & Thanks Die Shop at: WP9	So Very Shop at: WP9
Autumn Leaves Shop at: WP9	Autumn Leaves Die Shop at: WP9	Gala Red Pure Color Dye Ink Shop at: WP9

Happy Mail With Kara

Hello! It's Kara and I have been sending out a bit of happy mail to some of my friends. I needed to create a few more 'just because' cards to replenish my stash. I pulled out Happy Mail and as well as Friends For All Seasons: Fall for some seasonal accents.

Summer has been beautiful! While it is still warm here, I can definitely feel a shift happening as we move towards Autumn.

I know many people plan out their card designs before they begin. I am not one of them. I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants. I start by stamping, die cutting and coloring some images that I may want to use. As I start moving the pieces around I'll come up with an idea for placement.

After positioning all of the elements in the foreground scene I was really happy with how it looked. The bunny on the stump, the bunny in the pile of leaves and happy mail, but the upper portion looked empty.

I decided to add additional images in the background. In order to make them not appear to be floating in the air I cut out the circle window and popped it up on the card front. This created depth so when I tucked in the bear and butterfly they felt like they were in the background and not floating in space. I also left them uncolored to emphasize the fact that they are in the background and not the main focus of the design.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Don't forget to send out some Happy Mail!

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 Love Mom Layers Die Shop at: WP9	Happy Mail Shop at: WP9	Happy Mail Die Shop at: WP9
Friends For All Seasons: Fall Shop at: WP9	Friends For All Seasons: Fall Die Shop at: WP9

Big Tropical Birthday Wishes With Kara

Hey guys! I'm still on a birthday card making kick. It makes me so happy to see my birthday stash grow knowing I'll have the cards ready to go when I need them.

This new Birthday Wishes stamp set makes it so easy to turn any design into a birthday card. I love the gorgeous ;font and the variety of sentiment sizes included in this set. It's so easy to customize the perfect sentiment for your design. I don't know about you, but my sentiment usually comes last and has to fit into my design. I do occasionally start with the sentiment as the focus of the design, but not typically.

I started by die cutting this large stitched circle from Love Mom Layers, a classic WPlus9 die set. I then stamped the Hibiscus Bouquet around the circle in Copic friendly ink. If you wanted to create a custom bouquet, you could use the individual flower images from Tropic Fever as well. I colored the leaves with YG11, YG13 and YG17. I colored the flowers with Y13, Y15 and YR04. Then I decided a colored background would really make the colors pop! I used BG13 and BG23.

Finally, I added the sentiments from Birthday Wishes in black. One, I stamped on the large circle and inset it into the opening and another directly over the Copic coloring.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Hope your week is off to a great start!

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 PURE COLOR Black Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Love Mom Layers Die Shop at: WP9	Birthday Wishes Shop at: WP9
Hibiscus Bouquet Shop at: WP9