Happy Holidays

Hello!!

Guess what?!  I have another Christmas card to share.  hahaha!  I hope I haven't bored you with all of my Christmas cards, I'm just happy that I'm making stuff and actually sharing it.  ^.^  Today's card features Snow Bun from Kitty Bee Designs and is the third card I made using this layout, color scheme and patterned paper.  This color scheme is really growing on me. :)

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I had so much fun with these cards.  The colors, the pretty patterned paper, the gorgeous embossing folder and that adorable image all came together effortlessly.

I was thinking about using these tags for a couple bags, and if I need to I can always pop it off from the card base.  I only used 1 piece of foam tape at the top to adhere it.  I don't have the heart to do it now because I love how the snowflakes from the patterned paper and the embossing folder look together.  I just realized that there are snowflakes on the ribbon too, see no way I should separate them now. (hahaha)

If you'd like to pick up this cutie for your holiday projects head on over to the Kitty Bee Designs Etsy store.  Feel free to browse around and add more to your cart, there are a ton of new Christmas images to choose from.  Before I sign off, I wanted to remind you that tomorrow is your last chance to join in our current/last challenge of 2014.  Go HERE to link up.  Alrighty, now it's time to sign off, have a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge #38 Reminder

Hello and Happy Aloha Friday!

I'm popping in today to not only share my latest Christmas card but to remind you that you have another week left to link up your creation(s) for our current challenge over at the Aloha Friday Challenges at Kitty Bee Designs:

CHALLENGE #38

UNUSUAL COLORED CHRISTMAS

**Create a Christmas card or project using non-traditional Christmas colors (Red & Green)

Challenge closes Friday, Dec. 19th and winners will be posted on Sunday, Dec 21st.

Our amazing sponsor for this challenge is:

Make sure to stop by the blog to see the details and leave some love for my teammies, they really have outdone themselves again.  Here is the card I am sharing today...

If you saw my spotlight last Monday you'll recognize this layout and these colors.  Here's a little secret, I turned out three cards using the same layout, paper pad and dies all in the same evening.  It was actually a lot of fun and so easy to complete 3 cards all at the same time.  I picked which Kitty Bee image to use, in this case, Pup with bone (retired), used minimal coloring and in no time at all I had 3 cards to add to my completed list.  I love this layout so much I might use it for all my Christmas cards, just gonna change up the image, patterned papers and colors.

I guess the trick is to pick your layout, papers, image (optional), colors and then make an assembly line and you too can have some quick cards done up in a few hours.  The cool thing about this card is that I can take off the tag and add it to a gift bag if I wanted to and still be able to add something to the card base.  I think I'll keep it as is.  No need to ruin a good thing.  :)

Alrighty then, if you haven't had a chance to link up, go HERE so that we can come over to ohhh and ahhh.  Remember you have until next week Friday to participate in our last challenge for 2014.  I want to thank those of you who have been our loyal challengers for 2014.  You are all so awesome and we appreciate you!!   We'll see you back in 2015.

Mahalo for stopping by today.  Have a terrific Aloha Friday!

Hugs,
Leanne for Kitty Bee Designs
Team Bees - Aloha Friday Challenges

Secret Sister Swaps - Catching up!

Hello!!

I'm back to share some swaps & RAKS that a couple of friends made for me for our Secret Sister Swap.  So glad that Kathy resurrected it, it's a small group, but because we know each other it's all the more fun to not only give but receive.  If you're interested in joining the group leave me a comment with your email address and I'll ask her to add you to the one for January.

This post is gonna be choke full of pictures.  First up is my swap from Colleen Kwan.

The theme was Fall and boy did she nail it or what?!!  Loved her bright adorable card and the extras she included.  You can read all the details on her blog post here.  Thank you so much Colleen for the perfect Fall swap!!  I'm so glad we're reconnecting after not seeing each other for so long.  I see you're still busy, but glad you are still cranking out some amazing crafts.

This next one is going to be full of pictures with some commentation.  Karen Inouye was my secret swap partner for November and OMG she went totally nuts!!  hahaha!  She spoiled me rotten with all the beautiful handmade RAKs she sent.  It was like opening a Christmas gift that was never ending.  The pictures are of course in the order that I opened the box, which incidentally was a sweatshirt sized box from Pacsun!!  She recently posted HERE, so please go over and leave her some love.

PACSUN sweatshirt box

Inside what do I see, but an Island Scrapbooking canvas tote, sqweeeeee!!

Underneath the newspaper was another handmade canvas tote from a familiar site!!

First I opened the IS mini tote to see what was inside....

Inside was an adorable RAK, some gems, ribbon, a zipper pull die and some handmade HK items Karen purchased from Jenny Sakamoto from Sister Stamps.  Jenny was selling these handmade altered HK compacts and I believe the clothes pins, although they might have been made by someone else.  I honestly don't remember if Jenny made them or not.  But WOW right?!  And noooo it doesn't stop there...  Check out this amazingly altered mini canvas bag which Karen bought at one of Jenny's craft fairs.  It's gorgeous!!  I know Jenny posted a video of it, so please go check out Jenny's YT channel here if you're not a subscriber then your missing out.  You can also drop by her blog or Sister Stamps blog which is also where she's been posting her vids.

Handmade/Altered canvas bag by Jenny (OMG!!)

Close up of the bag, Look at that gorgeous flower she made and that lace trim!!

Always a professional touch, the lace goes all the way around. Beautiful

Inside the bag was an altered notebook and some pens.  This is the perfect gift for anyone, I'm so lucky that it came to me!! :) 

Next up was the Macy's box.  I honestly didn't think there was anything more, but I was wrong!

As soon as I opened the package I saw Karen's adorable card featuring a LMM stamped image.  It is sooo super cute and I loved her message.

Inside the Macy's box...

Here is the card up close.

Adorable Thanksgiving card featuring a LMM image. Love it!

Isn't it gorgeous?!  She is probably one of the only ones I know who has a ton of dies, definitely I think more than me.  We've joked that between the two of us we could open our own store! hahaha... Loved her card and all the details.  And look she added frantage!!  hehehe, sorry I am easily excited to see that. hehehe..

Close-up of LMM Image and the frantage!! 

Just underneath, packaged oh so carefully, was this beautiful calendar that I recognized.

I opened it to find this beautiful 2015 calendar.  Another creation by Jenny which was sold at one of her craft fairs.  Wow, it's beautiful!!  She has taken shabby chic to another level.  Glad I get to enjoy it. :)  And I know exactly where I will put it up at work.  She really outdid herself here.

2015 Shabby Chic calendar by Jenny

And so did Karen!  Wow, I am beyond overwhelmed with happiness!!  Karen is not only a very talented crafter, she's also a wonderful person, and I'm not just saying that because of this amazing swap.  She is truly a gem.  I was fortunate enough to meet her via blogland and then had the pleasure of meeting her in person last year on my trip to the Big Island.  She's so funny and sweet and super super generous.  You should definitely visit her blog daily, she's always posting something fun that she created or sharing yummy pictures of food.  So happy to call her friend.
 
Thank you soooo much Karen for the wonderful goodies!!  The fact that they are all mostly handmade/altered make them even more special.  When you give handmade items, even though you didn't make them, you give them from the heart, and for that I am very thankful.  Thanks again my fun-cutting & sale swap sister!!  (hahaha)

Okie dokes, better get going, I have to get to work, but I wanted to share this awesome post with beautiful gifts from Colleen, Karen and indirectly Jenny.  Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

MIC Secret Santa Swap Share

Hello!

It's been raining the past couple of days, so happy to see the sun out, but we truly needed the rain. Hopefully we'll get more of it soon.  Today I wanted to share the card & mini calendar I made for my Make It Crafty Secret Santa swap partner on FB.  Whew!  (hahaha)  First up is the card featuring adorable Tinkles the elf.

I'm so digging the WOW with a touch of color.  In this case it was a little bit of blue, silver with some golden highlights.  Used a Darice die, Crafter's Companion embossing folder, TGF snowflake die, some MIC chippies, CC Designs "jingle" bell cutters,  MFT Grosgrain texture board, more of those white floral sequins and some white floss. For the color I used Copics and Tumbled Glass & Salty Ocean Distress inks.  I made it into a gate fold card that measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2.  A few more pics of the inside...

I did some selective embossing on the inside panel using the same embossing folder and used an AmyR stamp for the sentiment inside...

I ended up covering the back of the card with some pretty MS lace paper because the card base had warped from the glue on the inside panel.  I thought it was a pretty touch to add as a cover up.

 Next up is the mini calendar featuring 3 MIC stamps: Fifi from the Mini Sprites set, Daffodil Dell background and the sentiment from Just wanted to say.

There is also a mini chippie butterfly fluttering in the corner.  The card base is from American Crafts, and the mini calendar is from Taylored Expressions.  Thought it would be nice to gift my partner with something fun, functional and bright for 2015.

Well better get back to the craft table.  I have a couple projects for work that I need to prep for and it's probably going to take me all day/night.  Wish me luck!!  Happy Saturday!!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge #38

Happy Aloha Friday!!

Today starts a new challenge over at the Aloha Friday Challenges at Kitty Bee Designs.  This will be the LAST challenge of 2014 so hopefully we'll have a ton of you joining.  The theme is pretty easy...

CHALLENGE #38

UNUSUAL COLORED CHRISTMAS

**Create a Christmas card or project using non-traditional Christmas colors (Red & Green)

Challenge closes Friday, Dec. 19th and winners will be posted on Sunday, Dec 21st.

Our amazing sponsor for this challenge is:

Handmade Harbour

Stop by the blog for all the details on the challenge and the prize up for grabs.  While you're there make sure to check out what the rest of the Bees created and leave them some love.  Oh my they outdid themselves for this challenge!!  Yep, they sure did! :)  Here is my project:

Kitty Bee Christmas tags

They are Christmas tags colored using non-traditional colors.  Featuring some of the adorable Kitty Bee Design images, including some of the new images, you can find in the Etsy store.  I got these as digital images and shrunk them all down to fit on to a sheet of cardstock.  I colored each one with Copics, some you'll see with traditional colors, but then I added a non-traditional color to match the challenge guidelines.

Here are a couple close-ups:

Tags set #1

FYI, I used 2 Copic markers and a white gel pen to create the Santa hat on the panda above.

Tags set #2

You'll probably see a few non-Christmassy images, thought I would add them for fun.  I learned that if you have the right sentiment, it doesn't matter if your image does not match, it's all in the presentation.  That also includes the color scheme.  hahaha!

These already have a home as I sent them as part of our 1st annual KBD DT swap to my swap partner, Michelle Nutter from Just a Nutter Stamper.

I hope you'll play with us for our last challenge of 2014.  If not for the prize then definitely for fun. :D  Well time to sign off.  Have a great Aloha Friday and a wonderful weekend!!  Mahalo for stopping by!

Leanne for Kitty Bee Designs
Team Bees - Aloha Friday Challenge

My KBD DT Swap card

Hello!!

Today I'm back to share the card I sent to my swap partner, Michelle Nutter.  I decided to turn it in to a tutorial so this post will be choke full of pictures with some details.  So first I should share the card right?!  Okie dokes, here it is...

I wanted to create a card that was different than my usual.  I remembered a conversation Zoe, Make It Crafty owner, started in the MIC FB group regarding selective embossing.  Meaning emboss around the image without embossing it.   Does that make sense?  Well that's what I did with this card.  Yes, that white panel on the front is all one layer!!   I found this great video tutorial HERE which gives you the run down on how it all comes together along with some options on diffusers.  You can either purchase the TH diffusers or make your own.  Check out the video if my pictures below don't inspire you. (haha, don't worry I won't be offended, hahaha!)  I decided to make my own diffuser since I already had the chipboard and wanted to keep this as cost effective as possible. (Yes I was being cheap!! hahaha!!)

Here goes the tutorial:

Print/stamp your image(s).  Give yourself enough room to die cut and emboss around the image(s)

Santa Christmas Penguin & Hollie Christmas Penguin

Trim chipboard to same size as your printed image and use die to cut out your desired shape, thus creating a window.  You want to either make the diffuser bigger than the paper or else you'll emboss something that you might not have wanted to. 

Grab your embossing folder and put the stamped image inside.  Using washi tape adhere the chipboard over the image, keep the image as close to the center of the "window" as possible.

Create your sandwich for your embossing, die-cutting machine.  Here I used A & C and a few shims.  It worked out pretty well.  You'll have to experiment on this part, it varies on how deep you want the embossed part to look.

The end result... So cool!

Here's what I did for the rest of the sheet.  Used DI Spun Sugar, Milled Lavendar and Tumbled Glass. I also grabbed the cut out chipboard and placed it over my image to make sure I did not get any color on it.

Subtlety adding color using the sponge tool and circular strokes I went around the embossed area with each color making sure to space each color out.  With 1 color (Tumbled glass)

Here it is with two different colors (Tumbled Glass & Spun Sugar)

Here it is with all three colors...  Once you are satisfied with the inking you can remove the chipboard mask.

Here is the end result...   I forgot to take a picture of the die cut panel, but you get the gist of it right? Just check out the card at the top of this post to see what I mean.

I added that Season's Greetings laser cut sentiment from Island Scrapbooking which matched this card perfectly.  I also cut up some snowflakes using the CC Cutters from CC Designs.

Using a pink based card I matted a purple patterned paper and added some faux stitches with a white gel pen.  Oh and I also added some of those floral looking sequins.  I absolutely love how this turned out and I am so happy that Michelle did as well.  (Whew! Yay! hahaha)

Well if you made it to the end with out falling asleep cool!!  I hope you learned something new and will give this technique a go.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!!  Hope you have a fabulous day!

Challenge:
Doodle Pantry #35

Stamp camp card swap

Hello everyone!

Today I wanted to catch up on some swaps with the stamp camp ladies.  We got together on a Saturday and spent part of the day shopping and a good chunk of it crafting.  The last time we got together we decided to have a craft session.  We were given the task of creating a project related to Christmas and then we were supposed to prepare all the pieces so that everyone could create their own that day, thus giving us all some Christmas cards or other projects for our stash.  We tried to keep the project to a 5 minute limit.  We all succeeded.  Here are my finished cards.

First up is the adorable card Kathy created:

Next was this cute & creative card Linda created:

Here's the gorgeous card Angie created and my take on it:

Jennifer came up with this fun gift card holder:

front

back

Here's what I made, an ornament using the Ornament & Tags #1 dies from Top Dog dies and CC Designs Cutters bubble number dies.

Man, I totally missed the boat on my project!  I wish I had thought to make a card instead.  It would have been so much easier and less stressful.  Luckily I came with another project for the ladies to do if they finished with this one.  I will be posting it on Friday.

Unfortunately there were no pictures of us to share, we were having so much fun we forgot to do that.  Next time for sure!  Sending out a big THANKS to Kathy for driving and organizing, Linda for hosting us at her house and for everyone's adorable cards, but most of all for sharing a day of crafts and tons of fun and laughter.  Until our next get-together...

Hope you enjoyed the showcase today.  It was a lot of fun and we got 4 cards added to our Christmas lot.  Woo Hoo!!  I think it would be fun to create these in bulk and maybe use different colors.  Hmmm... something to think about.  Well time to sign-off.  Thanks a lot for stopping by!  Have a great day!!