New Stampin' Up! Blog

Hi all, Just letting you know that I am not going to be updating this blog anymore as I have set up my new blog on the Stampin' Up! website. I found that due to a name change to keep in touch through Facebook I am no longer going to be using Cards by Karen anymore. Here is a link to my new blog which I would be very happy to have my followers follow me through this avenue:- Hope you will pop over for a visit and leave me some nice comments too :) Thank you all so much for popping into this blog to check out my projects and although I will no longer be posting here I will definitely be updating the new one, hopefully on a regular basis.

Catching Up With New Cards

Hi all,

I have been busy making a few cards of late but haven't got around to putting them up here yet and as Blogger has changed I will see if I am doing this right.

I took this pic with my iPhone and am now having trouble adding my watermark to it so I think from now on I will revert back to my camera until I can work out what I am doing wrong.

So here is one of the recent cards I made using some new items that I have ordered for myself as a new Demonstrator:-

This one is out of my comfort zone as I do not normally work with yellows but when I teamed Daffodil Delight with Pool Party and Crumb Cake I think it worked very well.

Now I have used the Sale-a-Bration set "Pretty Petites" and the new Petite Curly Label which matches beautifully and no fiddly cutting out.  I have also layered them on the Curly Label punch as well which has also matched perfectly. 

Now the other stamp set I used is called "Petite Pairs" and I have stamped inside the card as well with ...begin with you!  I am also a huge fan of polka dots so have teamed it up with Daffodil Delight Polka Dot Parade DSP. 

This card was also made with an old Mojo Monday (#147) sketch and also where I go for inspiration.  I love these sketches a lot and have so many scribbled in a book with so many ideas, if only I can find the time to make them all!!!

That's it for now and hopefully I can get my issues sorted out and be back with heaps more.

Happy stamping,

I'm Back - And Some News To Share!!

Well, well, well - I have finally managed to get back into this blog and since it has been so long I forgot my username and password and spent the best bit of the morning trying to figure it out and get back in to update it.

I am also going to do a new look as well but that might take me a little longer as I seem to have forgotten everything that I used to be a whiz with before.

When I have this all sorted I promise I will be back, hopefully on a regular basis, and you can see that I have in fact still been crafting, although not too often.

Also as the title suggests I have some exciting news to share (drum roll, please!!!) - I am a brand new Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, yay!!!  I have only just signed up a couple of weeks ago but am taking it slow for now and being more of a hobbyist but I do have a couple of customers so that's good too.

So there we have it - now just to remember how to do my watermarks on my projects then I will be up and running again.

Thanks for your patience and also for putting up with my general slackness but this is the year for new beginnings.

Also along with the list of forgotten, things no surprises, but I have also forgotten how to add my signature so for now I will just sign off with my name.


Happy Stamping,


Karen.

A Comfy Couch

No, not my couch - although a new one would be nice, but willl just have to wait for that one!! I received a very lovely surprise in my mail box the other day from Tammy and enclosed was some very gorgeous paper samples from Stampin' Up! A big wave and a very big thank you Tammy :)

Anyway, when I saw this gorgeous paper I was immediately drawn to the comfy couch from the Papertrey Ink set called "On My Couch". So here is my card made with the said paper (so lovely I just may have to put in an order):-

Now it is very hard to get a nice pic of Vanilla and Peach Parfait so I'm not 100% happy with the editing process here. The card looks much prettier in real life :) See that gorgeous chair covering, the papers are very lovely. I ended up stamping the couch outline with Peach Parfait (which is a little hard to see) and have teamed it up with a Baja Breeze strip and the stamped sentiment. I think this card would be lovely for someone retiring perhaps.

I know I promised I would be back with some more button cards, but I was so distracted by the papers I just had to have a play!!! Although I do still have the buttons all over my desk for the next few projects so will get onto them soon :)

Happy stamping,

Playing with Buttons

Well it seems like quite a while since I actually made a card, let alone two cards, so today was the day for a play :)

As the title suggests I was playing with buttons using a lovely set from Papertrey Ink called "Everyday Button Bits". So here is what I came up with:-

This is the boy version using Old Olive and Baja Breeze.

And the girl version using Old Olive and Pink Pirouette. I am not 100% happy with how they turned out but I think they will pass. I know they don't look too straight but I swear they are - it's just my photography skills leave a little to be desired. I haven't got anything in mind for these two, just adding them to my stash of kid's cards.

Now I have several buttons on my desk that hopefully will make it onto some lovely cards soon so keep coming back to see what else I can come up with.

Happy stamping,

Another Altered Frame

Well as the title suggests I have been having another play with photo frames and after checking out my local reject shop I came across a lovely set of three white frames which I thought would be perfect for this new crafting craze I am going through. I can see so many possibilities with these frames :)

So here is my second frame:-

I went for something a bit girly and came up with this cute little number frame. I stamped and cut out small animals, fish, flowers and jelly beans for each number and attached them accordingly.

After I had it all together initially I found it was lacking something so I decided to add the strips in the middle to divide each number off which just set it all off very nicely.

Now I have two more frames to do but I just can't decide where to start. I'm thinking a nice bathroom type one using the very lovely Ocean Commotion so stay tuned to see what I come up with next.

Happy Stamping,

A Boy Card

As I haven't made any cards of late I thought I would keep this blog updated and add a pic of a card I had made some time ago when I was playing with my new PTI stamps last year.

I don't usually make many boy cards (even though I have three of my own!!!) I thought I would make use of this lovely set "Fly Away" and the co-ordinating die and also the cloud die as well.

So here is a birthday boy card to add to my stash:-

After running low on inspiration I made this card from a similar design in the current Stampin' Up Idea Book & Catalogue which is found on page 12 but I had to change the direction due to way my plane is facing. I have used Tempting Turquoise teamed up with Pumpkin Pie and also added a little green touch with the button and the colouring of the plane.

I could be feeling a litte creative today so maybe I just might have a play, that is after I attend to the covering of the school books!!! Not one of my favourite jobs in the world - I always fight with the contact and sometimes it wins.

Happy stamping,